最新美国发明专利第2015-10-13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
US09159946B2	Organic light emitting diode display having auxiliary electrode In an aspect, an organic light emitting diode display including: a substrate; a first electrode and an auxiliary electrode positioned on the substrate and separated from each other; an absorption electrode positioned on the auxiliary electrode; an organic emission layer positioned on the first electrode and having a contact hole exposing the auxiliary electrode and the absorption electrode; and a second electrode positioned on the organic emission layer and connected to the auxiliary electrode and the absorption electrode through the contact hole is provided. In an aspect, the organic light emitting diode (OLED) display may minimize the voltage drop of the driving power passing through the large-sized electrode of the thin film for driving the organic emission layer, and may simplify the removal process of the organic emission layer on the auxiliary electrode by adding the absorption electrode on the auxiliary electrode.
US09159943B2	Light-emitting electrochemical device, a system comprising such a device and use of such a device A light-emitting device is provided having an anode, a cathode, and a light-emitting material contacting and separating the cathode and anode. Wherein the cathode includes a graphene and/or graphene oxide.
US09159941B2	Organic electroluminescence device An organic electroluminescence device includes a pair of electrodes and an organic compound layer between the pair of electrodes. The organic compound layer includes an emitting layer including a host material and a phosphorescent dopant material. The host material is selected from a compound satisfying the following formula (1) with respect to a difference ΔST between singlet energy EgS and an energy gap Eg77K at 77K and satisfying the following formula (2) with respect to the singlet energy EgS ΔST=EgS−Eg77K<0.4 (eV) (1) EgS≧2.90 (eV) (2)
US09159940B2	Conductive adhesive composition, electronic device, positive electrode laminate, and method for manufacturing electronic device An electronic device having, arranged in the following order, a cathodic layer, a conductive layer, a photoelectric conversion layer, and an anodic layer. The conductive layer contains a conductive adhesive composition which contains: (A) a water-soluble polyvinyl polymer, (B) an organic additive, and (C) a conductive organic polymer compound.
US09159938B2	Thin film transistor A thin film transistor is provided. The thin film transistor includes a source electrode, a drain electrode, a semiconducting layer, a transition layer, an insulating layer and a gate electrode. The drain electrode is spaced apart from the source electrode. The gate electrode is insulated from the source electrode, the drain electrode, and the semiconductor layer by the insulating layer. The transition layer is sandwiched between the insulating layer and the semiconductor layer. The transition layer is a silicon-oxide cross-linked polymer layer including a plurality of Si atoms. The plurality of Si atoms is bonded with atoms of the insulating layer and atoms of the semiconductor layer.
US09159937B2	Heteroleptic light-emitting complexes Heteroleptic light emitting complexes having the general formula M(L1)n(L2)m, wherein a) L1 has the formula E1-E2, wherein E1 is a 6-membered heteroaryl ring bound to the metal atom M by a dative bond and containing at least one donor hetero atom and E2 is bound to the metal atom by covalent or dative bonds and is selected from the group consisting of substituted or unsubstituted C5-C30 aryl and substituted or un-substituted C2-C30 heteroaryl groups, b) ligand L2 is selected from the group consisting of 1-(2,6 disubstituted phenyl)-2-phenyl-1 H-imidazole ligands or 5-(2,6 disubstituted phenyl)-1-phenyl-1 H-pyrazole ligands, and c) M is a non-radioactive transition metal with an atomic number of at least 40 and the sum of m and n is equal to half of the bond valency of metal M.
US09159934B2	Organic material, light-emitting element, light-emitting device, electronic appliance, and lighting device A novel organic material with fewer impurities, a light-emitting element including the organic material, and a light-emitting device, an electronic appliance, and a lighting device each of which includes the light-emitting element are provided. The organic material is obtained by coupling an aryl halide and an aryl boronic acid or an aryl boronic acid ester. The aryl boronic acid or the aryl boronic acid ester includes at least one of a first impurity in which a boryl group of the aryl boronic acid or the aryl boronic acid ester is substituted by hydrogen and a second impurity in which a molecular mass of 16 or 17 is added to the molecular mass of the first impurity. The concentration of an impurity other than the first impurity and the second impurity is 1% or lower.
US09159932B2	Light emitting element, light emitting device, and electronic device A light emitting element including an anode, a cathode, a visible light emitting layer which emits visible light and an infrared light emitting layer which emits infrared light installed between the anode and the cathode is provided. Also, it is preferable that the infrared light emitting layer contain a thiadiazole-based compound as a light emitting material.
US09159926B2	Low contact resistance organic thin film transistors The invention provides the use of a solvent selected from the group consisting of alkoxybenzenes and alkyl substituted alkoxybenzenes in reducing the contact resistance in an organic thin film transistor comprising a semiconductor layer comprising a blend of a small molecule semiconductor material and a polymer material that is deposited from a solution of said small molecule semiconductor material and said polymer material in said solvent and novel semiconductor blend formulations that are of particular use in preparing organic thin film transistors. Said solvents yield devices with lower absolute contact resistance, lower absolute channel resistance, and lower proportion of contact resistance to the total channel resistance.
US09159922B2	Method for manufacturing organic electroluminescent element A method for manufacturing an organic electroluminescent element that includes an anode (32), a cathode (34), a layered structure placed between the anode and the cathode and formed by stacking a plurality of organic layers including an electron injection layer (44) provided in contact with the cathode, the method including the steps of: preparing a first component (12) in which either the anode alone is or both the anode and at least a part of the organic layers to make up the layered structure are provided on a first substrate (22); preparing a second component (14) in which either the cathode alone is or both the cathode and the rest part to make up the layered structure excluding the part provided in the first component is provided on a second substrate (24); and laminating the first component and the second component to form the layered structure placed between the anode and the cathode, in which the electron injection layer that contains an ionic polymer is formed in the step of preparing the first component or in the step of preparing the second component.
US09159920B2	Phase change material cell with piezoelectric or ferroelectric stress inducer liner An example embodiment disclosed is a process for fabricating a phase change memory cell. The method includes forming a bottom electrode, creating a pore in an insulating layer above the bottom electrode, depositing piezoelectric material in the pore, depositing phase change material in the pore proximate the piezoelectric material, and forming a top electrode over the phase change material. Depositing the piezoelectric material in the pore may include conforming the piezoelectric material to at least one wall defining the pore such that the piezoelectric material is deposited between the phase change material and the wall. The conformal deposition may be achieved by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or by atomic layer deposition (ALD).
US09159912B2	Electronic device comprising semiconductor memory using metal electrode and metal compound layer surrounding sidewall of the metal electrode This technology provides an electronic device and a method of fabricating the same. An electronic device in accordance with an implementation of this document includes semiconductor memory, and the semiconductor memory includes a lower electrode, a variable resistance element over the lower electrode, an upper electrode disposed over the variable resistance element and including metal, and a metal compound layer configured to surround a side of the upper electrode. The metal compound layer includes a compound of the metal of the upper electrode.
US09159908B2	Composite free layer within magnetic tunnel junction for MRAM applications A magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) in an MRAM array is disclosed with a composite free layer having a FL1/FL2/FL3 configuration where FL1 and FL2 are crystalline magnetic layers and FL3 is an amorphous NiFeX layer for improved bit switching performance. FL1 layer is CoFe which affords a high magnetoresistive (MR) ratio when forming an interface with a MgO tunnel barrier. FL2 is Fe to improve switching performance. NiFeX thickness where X is Hf is preferably between 20 to 40 Angstroms to substantially reduce bit line switching current and number of shorted bits. Annealing at 330° C. to 360° C. provides a high MR ratio of 190%. Furthermore, low Hc and Hk are simultaneously achieved with improved bit switching performance and fewer shorts without compromising other MTJ properties such as MR ratio. As a result of high MR ratio and lower bit-to-bit resistance variation, higher reading margin is realized.
US09159906B2	Spin-torque magnetoresistive memory element and method of fabricating same A spin-torque magnetoresistive memory element has a high magnetoresistance and low current density. A free magnetic layer is positioned between first and second spin polarizers. A first tunnel barrier is positioned between the first spin polarizer and the free magnetic layer and a second tunnel barrier is positioned between the second spin polarizer and the free magnetic layer. The magnetoresistance ratio of the second tunnel barrier has a value greater than double the magnetoresistance ratio of the first tunnel barrier.
US09159903B2	Piezoelectric material, piezoelectric element, and electronic equipment A piezoelectric material contains a main component containing a perovskite-type metal oxide having the formula (1); a first auxiliary component composed of Mn; and a second auxiliary component composed of Bi or Bi and Li, wherein the Mn content is 0.04 parts by weight or more and 0.400 parts by weight or less on a metal basis per 100 parts by weight of the metal oxide, the Bi content is 0.042 parts by weight or more and 0.850 parts by weight or less on a metal basis per 100 parts by weight of the metal oxide, and the Li content is 0.028 parts by weight or less (including 0 parts by weight) on a metal basis per 100 parts by weight of the metal oxide. (Ba1-xCax)a(Ti1-y-zSnyZrz)O3 (1) (wherein 0≦x≦0.080, 0.013≦y≦0.060, 0≦z≦0.040, and 0.986≦a≦1.020.)
US09159900B2	Surface acoustic wave device A surface acoustic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate, an IDT electrode provided on the piezoelectric substrate, a first dielectric layer, and a second dielectric layer. The first dielectric layer is provided on the piezoelectric substrate and made of silicon oxide. The second dielectric layer is provided on the first dielectric layer and has an acoustic velocity greater than that of the first dielectric layer. A third dielectric layer is provided between the first dielectric layer and the piezoelectric substrate, and arranged to cover a surface of the piezoelectric substrate and an upper surface and side surfaces of the IDT electrode.
US09159899B2	Forming a membrane having curved features Processes for making a membrane having a curved feature are disclosed. Recesses each in the shape of a reversed, truncated pyramid are formed in a planar substrate surface by KOH etching through a mask. An oxide layer is formed over the substrate surface. The oxide layer can be stripped leaving rounded corners between different facets of the recesses in the substrate surface, and the substrate surface can be used as a profile-transferring substrate surface for making a membrane having concave curved features. Alternatively, a handle layer is attached to the oxide layer and the substrate is removed until the backside of the oxide layer becomes exposed. The exposed backside of the oxide layer includes curved portions protruding away from the handle layer, and can provide a profile-transferring substrate surface for making a membrane having convex curved features.
US09159895B2	Vertical light emitting device and manufacturing method thereof A vertical high-voltage light emitting device and a manufacturing method thereof. Polarities of two adjacent light emitting diodes (LEDs) are reversed by means of area laser stripping and die bonding, and the two diodes whose polarities are reversed are disposed on an insulating substrate comprising a bonding metal layer (320). A conductive wire (140) is distributed on a surface of the light emitting device, so that a single LED unit (330) has a vertical structure, and multiple LEDs are connected in series to form a high-voltage LED, thereby solving the problems of low light emitting efficiency and large thermal resistance of a horizontal structure.
US09159893B2	Light emitting device including lead having terminal part and exposed part, and method for manufacturing the same A light emitting device includes a substantially cuboid package made up of a molded article and a lead that is embedded in the molded article, and a light emitting element that is installed in the package. The lead has a connector where the light emitting element is installed, and a terminal part and an exposed part that are linked to the connector. The package has a bottom face, a front face that is a light emission face contiguous with the bottom face, and a rear face that is contiguous with the bottom face and is opposite the front face. The first terminal part and the exposed part are linked to the rear face side of the connector are exposed from the molded article and contiguous with the bottom face and the rear face, and are isolated at the bottom face.
US09159891B2	Light emitting device package and lighting system including the same Provided are a light emitting device package and a lighting system including the light emitting device package. The light emitting device package includes a package body, at least one electrode on the package body, a light emitting device on the package body, a reflective structure around the light emitting device on the package body and a lens on the light emitting device and the electrode.
US09159889B2	Radiation-emitting component and method for producing radiation-emitting components A radiation-emitting component includes a semiconductor chip which has a first main surface, a second main surface on an opposite side from the first main surface and an active region that generates radiation; a carrier on which the semiconductor chip is fixed on the side of the second main surface; an output layer arranged on the first main surface of the semiconductor chip and forming a lateral output surface spaced apart from the semiconductor chip in a lateral direction, a recess tapering in a direction of the semiconductor chip being, formed in the output layer and deflecting radiation emerging from the first main surface during operation into the direction of the lateral output surface.
US09159886B2	Lighting apparatus with a carrier layer A lighting apparatus having wavelength-converting materials formed in a carrier layer is disclosed. In one embodiment, the lighting apparatus has a light source attached to a substrate that is assembled in a housing. The light source is configured to emit a substantially narrow band light that is transformed into broad-spectrum white light by the wavelength-converting materials positioned on the carrier layer. The wavelength-converting materials and the carrier layer are distanced away from the light source, such that the carrier layer is thermally isolated from the light source.
US09159884B2	Light emitting device having cavity side surfaces with recesses Provided are a light emitting device and a light unit including the same. The light emitting device includes a body, a first cavity disposed at a center of the body, the first cavity having an opened upper side, a second cavity disposed around an upper portion of the body, the second cavity being spaced from the first cavity, first and second lead electrodes disposed within the first cavity, a light emitting chip disposed on at least one of the first and second lead electrodes, and a first molding member in the first cavity. The second cavity has an upper width grater than a lower width thereof and a side surface of the second cavity is formed of a vertical side surface with respect to a top surface of the body.
US09159883B2	Array substrate and liquid crystal display having the same An array substrate includes a gate line, a data line insulated from and crossing the gate line, and a pixel connected to the gate line and the data line. The pixel includes at least one thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line, and a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor. The pixel electrode includes a trunk portion having a cross shape and a plurality of branch portions inclined to the trunk portion and spaced apart from each other. Each branch portion includes a first area extended from the trunk portion and a second area extended from the first area, and the second area has a width greater than a width of the first area.
US09159876B2	Surface treatment of a semiconductor light emitting device A method according to embodiments of the invention includes roughening (FIG. 6) a surface (58) of a semiconductor structure (46-48, FIG. 5). The semiconductor structure includes a light emitting layer (47). The surface (58) is a surface from which light is extracted from the semiconductor structure. After roughening, the roughened surface is treated (FIG. 7) to increase total internal reflection, or absorption at the surface, or to reduce an amount of light extracted from the semiconductor structure through the surface (58).
US09159873B2	High speed optical tilted charge devices and methods A method for producing optical signals with improved efficiency, including the following steps: providing a layered semiconductor structure that includes a substrate, a semiconductor collector region of a first conductivity type, a semiconductor base region of a second conductivity type disposed on the collector region, and a semiconductor emitter region of the first semiconductor type disposed as a mesa over a portion of a surface of the base region; providing, in the base region, at least one region exhibiting quantum size effects; providing collector, base, and emitter electrodes, respectively coupled with the collector, base and emitter regions; providing a tunnel barrier layer over at least the exposed portion of the surface of the base region; and applying signals with respect to the collector, base, and emitter electrodes to produce optical signals from the base region.
US09159871B2	Light-emitting device having a reflective structure and a metal mesa and the manufacturing method thereof A manufacturing method of a light-emitting device is disclosed. The method provides for patterning a semiconductor stack on a first substrate in order to form multiple light-emitting mesas. A second substrate is then bonded to the multiple light-emitting mesas and a reflective structure is formed on the first substrate. A metal layer is then applied on the reflective structure and the metal layer is patterned to form multiple metal mesas corresponding to the multiple light-emitting mesas, with a portion of the reflective structure being exposed.
US09159870B2	Method of fabricating gallium nitride based semiconductor device Exemplary embodiments of the present invention disclose a method of fabricating a gallium nitride (GaN) based semiconductor device. The method includes growing GaN based semiconductor layers on a first surface of a GaN substrate to form a semiconductor stack, and separating at least a first portion of the GaN substrate from the semiconductor stack using a wire cutting technique.
US09159868B2	Method for manufacturing semiconductor light emitting device A semiconductor light emitting device having high reliability and excellent light distribution characteristics can be provided with an n-electrode arranged on a light extraction surface on the side opposite to the surface whereupon a semiconductor stack is mounted on a substrate. A plurality of convexes are arranged on a first convex region and a second convex region on the light extraction surface. The second convex region adjoins the interface between the n-electrode and the semiconductor stack, between the first convex region and the n-electrode. The base end of the first convex arranged in the first convex region is positioned closer to a light emitting layer than the interface between the n-electrode and the semiconductor stack, and the base end of the second convex arranged in the second convex region is positioned closer to the interface between the n-electrode and the semiconductor stack than the base end of the first convex.
US09159861B2	Method for singulating hybrid integrated photonic chips During a fabrication technique, trenches are defined partially through the thickness of a substrate. Then, photonic integrated circuits are coupled to the substrate. These photonic integrated circuits may be in a diving-board configuration, so that they at least partially overlap the trenches. While this may preclude the use of existing dicing techniques, individual hybrid integrated photonic chips (which each include a portion of the substrate and at least one of the photonic integrated circuits) may be singulated from the substrate by: coupling a carrier to a front surface of the substrate; thinning the substrate from a back surface until the partial trenches are reached (for example, by grinding the substrate); attaching a support mechanism (such as tape) to the back surface of the substrate; removing the carrier; and then removing the support mechanism.
US09159858B2	Three-dimensional total internal reflection solar cell A solar cell system may maximize solar cell efficiency and minimize energy loss by collecting as much light as possible, using refraction and total internal reflection. The solar cell system includes a solar cell, a layer of a first transparent material placed on the top end of the solar cell, a layer of a second transparent material filling the interior cavity of the solar cell, a plurality of photo-voltaic surface cells incorporated in the solar cell, and the side walls and bottom end of the solar cell are coated with a reflective material.
US09159856B2	Laminated solar battery A laminated solar battery (200) wherein four solar cell modules are incorporated and integrally laminated is provided with four types of solar cell modules (90, 100, 70 and 60) which have different sensitivity wavelength bands and are so laminated that the shorter the center wavelength in the sensitivity wavelength band is, the more near the module is located to the incidental side of sunlight, wherein each of the three types solar cell modules (90, 100 and 70) is constituted with cell group modules having plural nearly spherical solar cells (30, 40 and 10) aligned in plural columns and plural rows and the lowest solar cell module (60) is constituted with a planar light receiving module.
US09159853B2	Group III-V compound semiconductor photo detector, method of fabricating group III-V compound semiconductor photo detector, photo detector, and epitaxial wafer An object of the present invention is to provide a group III-V compound semiconductor photo detector comprising an absorption layer having a group III-V compound semiconductor layer containing Sb as a group V constituent element, and an n-type InP window layer, resulting in reduced dark current. The InP layer 23 grown on the absorption layer 23 contains antimony as impurity, due to the memory effect with antimony which is supplied during the growth of a GaAsSb layer of the absorption layer 21. In the group III-V compound semiconductor photo detector 11, the InP layer 23 contains antimony as impurity and is doped with silicon as n-type dopant. Although antimony impurities in the InP layer 23 generate holes, the silicon contained in the InP layer 23 compensates for the generated carriers. As a result, the second portion 23d of the InP layer 23 has sufficient n-type conductivity.
US09159847B2	Schottky barrier diode and method of manufacturing the same A schottky barrier diode includes: an n− type epitaxial layer that is disposed at a first surface of an n+ type silicon carbide substrate; a plurality of n type pillar areas that are disposed at the inside of the n− type epitaxial layer and that are disposed at a first portion of the first surface of the n+ type silicon carbide substrate; a p type area that is disposed at the inside of the n− type epitaxial layer and that is extended in a direction perpendicular to the n type pillar areas; a plurality of p+ areas in which the n− type epitaxial layer is disposed at a surface thereof and that are separated from the n type pillar areas and the p type area; a schottky electrode that is disposed on the n− type epitaxial layer and the p+ areas; and an ohmic electrode that is disposed at a second surface of the n+ type silicon carbide substrate.
US09159844B2	Nonvolatile memory device and fabricating method thereof A nonvolatile memory device comprises a substrate, a gate electrode, a single charge trapping sidewall and a source/drain region. The gate electrode is disposed on and electrically isolated from the substrate. The single charge trapping sidewall is disposed adjacent to a sidewall of the gate electrode and electrically isolated from the substrate and the gate electrode, so as to form a non-straight angle between the substrate and the single charge trapping sidewall. The source/drain region is disposed in the substrate and adjacent to the gate electrode.
US09159840B2	Semiconductor device Provided is a semiconductor device including a transistor with large on-state current even when it is miniaturized. The transistor includes a pair of first conductive films over an insulating surface; a semiconductor film over the pair of first conductive films; a pair of second conductive films, with one of the pair of second conductive films and the other of the pair of second conductive films being connected to one of the pair of first conductive films and the other of the pair of first conductive films, respectively; an insulating film over the semiconductor film; and a third conductive film provided in a position overlapping with the semiconductor film over the insulating film. Further, over the semiconductor film, the third conductive film is interposed between the pair of second conductive films and away from the pair of second conductive films.
US09159838B2	Semiconductor device A highly reliable semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a gate electrode, a gate insulating film over the gate electrode, a semiconductor film overlapping with the gate electrode with the gate insulating film positioned therebetween, a source electrode and a drain electrode that are in contact with the semiconductor film, and an oxide film over the semiconductor film, the source electrode, and the drain electrode. An end portion of the semiconductor film is spaced from an end portion of the source electrode or the drain electrode in a region overlapping with the semiconductor film in a channel width direction. The semiconductor film and the oxide film each include a metal oxide including In, Ga, and Zn. The oxide film has an atomic ratio where the atomic percent of In is lower than the atomic percent of In in the atomic ratio of the semiconductor film.
US09159837B2	Semiconductor device A highly reliable semiconductor device the yield of which can be prevented from decreasing due to electrostatic discharge damage is provided. A semiconductor device is provided which includes a gate electrode layer, a gate insulating layer over the gate electrode layer, an oxide insulating layer over the gate insulating layer, an oxide semiconductor layer being above and in contact with the oxide insulating layer and overlapping with the gate electrode layer, and a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer electrically connected to the oxide semiconductor layer. The gate insulating layer includes a silicon film containing nitrogen. The oxide insulating layer contains one or more metal elements selected from the constituent elements of the oxide semiconductor layer. The thickness of the gate insulating layer is larger than that of the oxide insulating layer.
US09159834B2	Faceted semiconductor nanowire Selective epitaxy of a semiconductor material is performed on a semiconductor fin to form a semiconductor nanowire. Surfaces of the semiconductor nanowire include facets that are non-horizontal and non-vertical. A gate electrode can be formed over the semiconductor nanowire such that the faceted surfaces can be employed as channel surfaces. The epitaxially deposited portions of the faceted semiconductor nanowire can apply stress to the channels. Further, an additional semiconductor material may be added to form an outer shell of the faceted semiconductor nanowire prior to forming a gate electrode thereupon. The faceted surfaces of the semiconductor nanowire provide well-defined charge carrier transport properties, which can be advantageously employed to provide a semiconductor device with well-controlled device characteristics.
US09159829B1	Recessed transistors containing ferroelectric material Some embodiments include transistor constructions having a first insulative structure lining a recess within a base. A first conductive structure lines an interior of the first insulative structure, and a ferroelectric structure lines an interior of the first conductive structure. A second conductive structure is within a lower region of the ferroelectric structure, and the second conductive structure has an uppermost surface beneath an uppermost surface of the first conductive structure. A second insulative structure is over the second conductive structure and within the ferroelectric structure. A pair of source/drain regions are adjacent an upper region of the first insulative structure and are on opposing sides of the first insulative structure from one another.
US09159828B2	Top drain LDMOS In an embodiment, this invention discloses a top-drain lateral diffusion metal oxide field effect semiconductor (TD-LDMOS) device supported on a semiconductor substrate. The TD-LDMOS includes a source electrode disposed on a bottom surface of the semiconductor substrate. The TD-LDMOS further includes a source region and a drain region disposed on two opposite sides of a planar gate disposed on a top surface of the semiconductor substrate wherein the source region is encompassed in a body region constituting a drift region as a lateral current channel between the source region and drain region under the planar gate. The TD-LDMOS further includes at least a trench filled with a conductive material and extending vertically from the body region near the top surface downwardly to electrically contact the source electrode disposed on the bottom surface of the semiconductor substrate.
US09159827B2	Transistor and method of manufacturing the same A method of forming a manufacture includes forming a trench in a doped layer. The trench has an upper portion and a lower portion, and a width of the upper portion is greater than that of the lower portion. A first insulating layer is formed along sidewalls of the lower portion of the trench and a bottom surface of the trench. A gate dielectric layer is formed along sidewalls of the upper portion of the trench. A first conductive feature is formed along sidewalls of the gate dielectric layer. A second insulating layer covering the first conductive feature and the first insulating layer is formed, and a second conductive feature is formed along sidewalls of the second insulating layer and a bottom surface of the second insulating layer.
US09159825B2	Double-sided vertical semiconductor device with thinned substrate A vertical semiconductor device is formed in a semiconductor layer having a first surface, a second surface and background doping. A first doped region, doped to a conductivity type opposite that of the background, is formed at the second surface of the semiconductor layer. A second doped region of the same conductivity type as the background is formed at the second surface of the semiconductor layer, inside the first doped region. A portion of the semiconductor layer is removed at the first surface, exposing a new third surface. A third doped region is formed inside the semiconductor layer at the third surface. Electrical contact is made at least to the second doped region (via the second surface) and the third doped region (via the new third surface). In this way, vertical DMOS, IGBT, bipolar transistors, thyristors, and other types of devices can be fabricated in thinned semiconductor, or SOI layers.
US09159823B2	Strain compensation in transistors Transistor structures having channel regions comprising alternating layers of compressively and tensilely strained epitaxial materials are provided. The alternating epitaxial layers can form channel regions in single and multigate transistor structures. In alternate embodiments, one of the two alternating layers is selectively etched away to form nanoribbons or nanowires of the remaining material. The resulting strained nanoribbons or nanowires form the channel regions of transistor structures. Also provided are computing devices comprising transistors comprising channel regions comprised of alternating compressively and tensilely strained epitaxial layers and computing devices comprising transistors comprising channel regions comprised of strained nanoribbons or nanowires.
US09159822B2	III-V semiconductor device having self-aligned contacts A method including forming a pair of inner spacers along a vertical sidewall of a gate trench, gate trench extending into a III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure, forming a gate conductor within the gate trench, removing a portion of a first dielectric layer selective to the gate conductor and the pair of inner spacers, forming a pair of outer spacers adjacent to the pair of inner spacers, the outer spacers are in direct contact with and self-aligned to the inner spacers, and forming a pair of source-drain contacts within an uppermost layer of the III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure, the pair of source-drain contacts are self-aligned to the pair of outer spacers such that an edge of each individual source-drain contact is aligned with an outside edge of each individual outer spacer.
US09159819B2	Semiconductor device and RC-IGBT with zones directly adjoining a rear side electrode A semiconductor device includes a drift zone of a first conductivity type in a semiconductor body. Controllable cells are configured to form a conductive channel connected with the drift zone in a first state. First zones of the first conductivity type as well as second zones and a third zone of a complementary second conductivity type are between the drift zone and a rear side electrode, respectively. The first, second and third zones directly adjoin the rear side electrode. The third zone is larger and has a lower mean emitter efficiency than the second zones.
US09159813B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory transistor and method for manufacturing nonvolatile semiconductor memory A nonvolatile semiconductor memory transistor includes an island-shaped semiconductor having a source region, a channel region, and a drain region formed in this order from the silicon substrate side, a floating gate arranged so as to surround the outer periphery of the channel region with a tunnel insulating film interposed between the floating gate and the channel region, a control gate arranged so as to surround the outer periphery of the floating gate with an inter-polysilicon insulating film interposed between the control gate and the floating gate, and a control gate line electrically connected to the control gate and extending in a predetermined direction. The inter-polysilicon insulating film is arranged so as to be interposed between the floating gate and the lower and inner side surfaces of the control gate and between the floating gate and the lower surface of the control gate line.
US09159811B2	Growing buffer layers in bulk finFET structures A semiconductor structure may be formed by forming a fin on a substrate, forming a gate over a portion of the fin, removing a portion of the fin not below the gate to expose a sidewall of the fin beneath the gate and a top surface of the substrate, forming a first protective layer on the top surface of the substrate but not on the sidewall of the fin, forming a second protective layer on the sidewall of the fin prevented from forming on the top surface of the substrate by the first protective layer, removing the first protective layer to expose the top surface of the substrate, forming a buffer layer on the top surface of the substrate; the buffer layer prevented from forming on the sidewall of the fin by the second protective layer, and forming a source-drain region on the buffer layer electrically connected to the fin.
US09159807B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof The reliability of a semiconductor device including a MOSFET formed over an SOI substrate is improved. A manufacturing method of the semiconductor device is simplified. A semiconductor device with n-channel MOSFETsQn formed over an SOI substrate SB includes an n+-type semiconductor region formed as a diffusion layer over an upper surface of a support substrate under a BOX film, and a contact plug CT2 electrically coupled to the n+-type semiconductor region and penetrating an element isolation region, which can control the potential of the support substrate. At a plane of the SOI substrate SB, the n-channel MOSFETsQn each extend in a first direction, and are arranged between the contact plugs CT2 formed adjacent to each other in the first direction.
US09159801B2	Bipolar junction transistor with multiple emitter fingers Bipolar junction transistors and design structures for a bipolar junction transistor. The bipolar junction transistor may include a plurality of emitters that are arranged in distinct emitter fingers. A silicide layer is formed that covers an extrinsic base layer of the bipolar junction transistor and that fills the gaps between adjacent emitters. Non-conductive spacers on the emitter sidewalls electrically insulate the emitters from the silicide layer. The emitters extend through the extrinsic base layer and the silicide layer to contact the intrinsic base layer. The emitters may be formed using sacrificial emitter pedestals in a replacement-type process.
US09159800B2	AlN single crystal Schottky barrier diode and method of producing the same An AlN single crystal Schottky barrier diode including: an AlN single crystal substrate having a defect density of 106 cm−2 or less and a thickness of 300 μm or more; a first electrode formed on one surface of the AlN single crystal substrate; and a second electrode formed on one surface of the AlN single crystal substrate while being spaced apart from the first electrode, the AlN single crystal Schottky barrier diode being provided with: a rectifying property such that an on-off ratio at the time of applying 10 V and −40 V is at least 103 even at a high temperature of 573 K; a high voltage resistance such that a voltage can be applied at least within a range of −40 V to 10 V; and a low on-resistance characteristic such that a current begins to flow at no greater than 5 V.
US09159797B2	Electronic device comprising conductive structures and an insulating layer between the conductive structures and within a trench An electronic device can include a substrate including an underlying doped region and a semiconductor layer overlying the substrate. A trench can have a sidewall and extend at least partly through the semiconductor layer. The electronic device can further include a first conductive structure adjacent to the underlying doped region, an insulating layer, and a second conductive structure within the trench. The insulating layer can be disposed between the first and second conductive structures, and the first conductive structure can be disposed between the insulating layer and the underlying doped region. Processes of forming the electronic device may be performed such that the first conductive structure includes a conductive fill material or a doped region within the semiconductor layer. The first conductive structure can allow the underlying doped region to be farther from the channel region and allow RDSON to be lower for a given BVDSS.
US09159792B2	SiC semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same In a method which heats a layer including nickel and titanium on a SiC substrate (1) to form a nickel silicide layer (4) including titanium carbide, the layer including nickel and titanium is formed by vapor deposition or sputtering. The nickel silicide layer (4) is heated at a temperature that is equal to or higher than 1100° C. and equal to or less than 1350° C. to generate the layer including nickel and titanium. At that time, the rate of temperature increase is equal to greater than 10° C./minute and equal to or less than 1350° C./minute and a heating duration is equal to or more than 0 minute and equal to or less than 120 minutes. These heating conditions make it possible to obtain a homogeneous rear surface electrode (8) for a SiC semiconductor device which has sufficiently low rear surface contact resistance.
US09159781B2	Method for manufacturing semiconductor device and plasma oxidation treatment method Provided is a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, in which a degradation of characteristics of a thin film transistor can be suppressed by performing plasma oxidation treatment on a gate insulating film containing nitrogen. An embodiment of the present invention is a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising a thin film transistor including a gate electrode, a gate insulating film containing nitrogen, and a channel region in microcrystalline semiconductor films. The method includes the steps of performing plasma treatment on the gate insulating film in an oxidizing gas atmosphere containing hydrogen and an oxidizing gas containing an oxygen atom, and forming the microcrystalline semiconductor film over the gate insulating film. Formula (1), a/b≧2, and Formula (2), b>0, are satisfied, where the amount of hydrogen and the amount of the oxidizing gas in the oxidizing gas atmosphere are a and b, respectively.
US09159771B2	Organic EL panel and manufacturing method thereof The present invention is to provide an organic EL panel that is able to prevent the problems resulting from the unnecessary bank residues at a relatively low cost and has excellent light-emitting characteristics and a long life, and manufacturing method of the organic EL panel. Specifically, an organic EL element is obtained by forming organic EL elements by sequentially laminating an anode, a transparent conductive film, a hole-injection layer, a buffer layer, an organic light-emitting layer, a cathode, and a passivation layer on one surface of a substrate. Each bank residue positioned on the surface of the hole-injection layer has a diameter not greater than 0.2 μm in one direction when the substrate is seen in plan view. Preferably, when the substrate is seen in plan view, the area of each bank residue is set to be not greater than 0.4 μm2, or more preferably not greater than 0.04 μm2.
US09159769B2	Semiconductor device, semiconductor device manufacturing method, and semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device comprises a first electrode; a second electrode containing a metal element; and a variable resistance element formed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The variable resistance element comprises an insulating first film disposed on a side of the first electrode and containing oxygen; and a second film disposed on the side of the second electrode and containing an element having a diffusion coefficient larger than the diffusion coefficient of the metal element in the first film and an electronegativity higher than the electronegativity of the metal element.
US09159765B2	Apparatus for detecting soft X-ray radiation and X-ray detection system including such apparatus A soft X-ray detection apparatus includes a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate has a plurality of detection units disposed thereon, each including a conversion unit and a circuit unit. The conversion unit is formed from, for example, a photodiode. The conversion unit collects electric charge generated upon incidence of soft X-ray radiation. A first conductive type (e.g., N-channel type) amplifier transistor is disposed in the circuit unit. The amplifier transistor serves as an amplifier unit that amplifies and outputs a signal supplied from the conversion unit. A first conductive type transistor is not disposed between the conversion units that are immediately adjacent to each other. Alternatively, transistors included in the detection units that are immediately adjacent to each other are disposed so as to be in close proximity to each other.
US09159762B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof A semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof are provided which can suppress corrosion by chemicals in processes, while preventing generation of thermal stress on a mark. A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer with a front-side main surface and a back-side main surface opposed to the front-side main surface, a plurality of light receiving elements formed in the semiconductor layer for performing photoelectric conversion, a light receiving lens disposed above the back-side main surface for supp_ying light to the light receiving element, and a mark formed inside the semiconductor layer. The mark extends from the front-side main surface to the back-side main surface. The mark has a deeply located surface recessed toward the front-side main surface rather than the back-side main surface. The deeply located surface is formed of silicon.
US09159761B2	Optical device and solid-state image sensing device According to one embodiment, an optical device includes a plurality of optical elements arrange in array. At least of the optical elements includes an optical layer constituted by a plurality of patterns. The plurality of patterns are formed by a layered body including metal layers and a dielectric layer interlayered between the metal layers, and formed as a plurality of regularly-arranged loop-like patterns with a density decreasing from the center toward the periphery of the loop.
US09159759B2	Solid-state image pickup device A solid-state image pickup device 1 includes a semiconductor substrate 10, light receiving unit 14 and light shielding film 20. The solid-state image pickup device 1 is back surface incident type and photoelectrically converts light indent on the back surface S2 of the semiconductor substrate 10 from an object into electrical charges and receives electrical charges produced by photoelectric conversion at the light receiving unit 14 to image the object. The light receiving unit 14 forms a PN junction diode with the semiconductor substrate 10. The light shielding film 20 is provided over a front surface S1 of the semiconductor substrate 10 so as to cover the light receiving unit 14. The light shielding film 20 serves to shield light incident on the front surface S1 from the outside of the solid-state image pickup device 1.
US09159758B2	Color imaging element and imaging device A color filter array is configured with a 3×3 basic array pattern repeatedly disposed in a horizontal and a vertical direction. The basic array pattern is configured with a G filter array formed by disposing a G filter in the horizontal direction, and first and the second RGB filter arrays formed by disposing RGB filters in the horizontal direction. The ratio of the pixel number of the G color is made larger than the ratio of the pixel number of each color of RB. The G filter is disposed in each filter line in the horizontal, vertical and oblique directions of the color filter array. The RB filters are each disposed in one filter line in the vertical direction of the basic array pattern, and any of the RB filters is disposed in other filter lines.
US09159753B2	Image sensor pixels with self-aligned lateral anti-blooming structures Pixels for solid-state CMOS image sensor arrays may be provided that have a lateral blooming control structure incorporated in them. The lateral blooming control structure is built as a separate structure from the charge transfer gate and it is fabricated in a self-aligned manner, which is particularly suitable for incorporating into small size pixels. The blooming control structure can be used for backside or for front side illuminated image sensors. When the lateral blooming control structure is provided with a separate bias means, it may also be used for the complete or partial charge removal from the photodiode and thus used in pixels that are designed for global shutter operation.
US09159748B2	Substrate for display device and method of fabricating the same A substrate for a display device including a base substrate; a thin film transistor on the base substrate; a passivation layer of a photosensitive organic material on the thin film transistor, the passivation layer having a contact hole exposing the thin film transistor, the photosensitive organic material including an ultraviolet absorber; and a pixel electrode on the passivation layer, the pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor through the contact hole.
US09159746B2	Thin film transistor, manufacturing method thereof, array substrate and display device A thin film transistor and a manufacturing method for the same, an array substrate, and a display device are disclosed. The thin film transistor comprises: a substrate (1) and a gate (2), a first gate insulating layer (3) and an active layer (4) which are disposed in order on the substrate, the first gate insulating layer (3) covers the gate (2), the active layer (4) covers the first gate insulating layer (3), and a material for the first gate insulating layer comprises aluminum oxide.
US09159744B2	Active array substrate and manufacturing method thereof An active array substrate includes a flexible substrate, an inorganic barrier layer, and at least one active component. The inorganic barrier layer covers the flexible substrate. The inorganic barrier layer has a through hole therein. The through hole of the inorganic barrier layer exposes the flexible substrate. The active component is disposed on the inorganic barrier layer.
US09159741B2	Structure and method for single gate non-volatile memory device having a capacitor well doping design with improved coupling efficiency The NVM device includes a semiconductor substrate having a first region and a second region. The NVM device includes a data-storing structure formed in the first region and designed operable to retain charges. The NVM device includes a capacitor formed in the second region and coupled with the data-storing structure for data operations. The data-storing structure includes a first doped well of a first-type in the semiconductor substrate. The data-storing structure includes a first gate dielectric feature on the first doped well. The data-storing structure includes a first gate electrode disposed on the first gate dielectric feature and configured to be floating. The capacitor includes a second doped well of the first-type. The capacitor includes a second gate dielectric feature on the second doped well. The capacitor also includes a second gate electrode disposed on the second gate dielectric feature and connected to the first gate electrode.
US09159736B2	Data line arrangement and pillar arrangement in apparatuses Some embodiments include an apparatus having semiconductor pillars in a substantially hexagonally closest packed arrangement. The hexagonally closest packed arrangement includes a repeating pillar pattern which has at least portions of 7 different pillars. Each of the different pillars in a respective one of the repeating pillar patterns is capable of being electrically coupled to a different data line of a plurality of data lines. Some embodiments include an apparatus having semiconductor pillars in a substantially hexagonally closest packed arrangement. The hexagonally closest packed arrangement includes a repeating pillar pattern having at least portions of 7 different pillars. All 7 different pillars of a repeating pillar pattern are encompassed by a single drain-side select gate (SGD).
US09159732B2	Semiconductor device with buried gate and method for fabricating the same A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming landing plugs over a substrate, forming a trench by etching the substrate between the landing plugs, forming a buried gate to partially fill the trench, forming a gap-fill layer to gap-fill an upper side of the buried gate, forming protruding portions of the landing plugs, and trimming the protruding portions of the landing plugs.
US09159724B2	Cross-coupling-based design using diffusion contact structures An approach for providing cross-coupling-based designs using diffusion contact structures is disclosed. Embodiments include providing first and second gate structures over a substrate; providing a gate cut region across the first gate structure, the second gate structure, or a combination thereof; providing a first gate contact over the first gate structure; providing a second gate contact over the second gate structure; and providing a diffusion contact structure coupling the first gate contact to the second gate contact, the diffusion contact structure having vertices within the gate cut region.
US09159721B2	Semiconductor device comprising an diode region and an IGBT region A technology for inhibiting gate interference in an RC-IGBT employing a diode structure having Schottky connections is provided. A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate including a diode region and an IGBT region. In this semiconductor device, the diode region includes: a p-type anode region connected to an anode electrode by an Ohmic contact; a plurality of n-type pillar regions connected to the anode electrode by Schottky contacts; an n-type barrier region; an n-type diode drift region; and an n-type cathode region. An on-resistance of a first pillar region with respect to the anode electrode is higher than an on-resistance of a second pillar region with respect to the anode electrode. The second pillar region is located at a position close to the IGBT region.
US09159719B2	ESD protection A two-stage protection device for an electronic component protects against transient disturbances. The electronic component may be a semiconductor component, and may include one or multiple transistors and/or an integrated circuit. The protection device is connected to at least a first contact and a second contact of the electronic component, and is disposed essentially in parallel to the component that is to be protected, between the first contact and the second contact. The protection device includes a first stage with at least one diode and a second stage separated from the first stage by a resistor. The second stage includes at least one diode arrangement having two back-to-back disposed diodes which are disposed cathode-to-cathode.
US09159718B2	Switched capacitor structure A capacitor structure comprising semiconductor substrate and a matrix of capacitor units formed over the semiconductor substrate each capacitor unit. The matrix includes an interior structure comprised of one or more vertical plates, each vertical plate of the interior structure formed from a plurality of conductive portions connected vertically to each other, an exterior structure comprised of one or more vertical plates, each vertical plate of the exterior structure formed from a plurality of conductive portions connected vertically to each other, the exterior structure substantially encompassing the interior structure, and insulative material separating the interior and exterior structures. The structure also comprises a switching mechanism included in the capacitor structure to switch between ones of the plural capacitor units.
US09159714B2	Package on wide I/O silicon An apparatus including a die including a device side and an opposite backside, first contacts on the backside and a through vias from the device side to the first contacts and second contacts on the backside of the die or on at least two opposing sidewalls of the die; a secondary die coupled to the first plurality of contacts; and a carrier including carrier contact points operable for mounting the carrier to a substrate. A method including forming a first portion of a carrier adjacent a device side of a die and including carrier contact points operable for mounting the carrier to a substrate; and forming a second portion including second carrier contact points connected to contacts on the backside of the die or on at least two opposing sidewalls of the die; and coupling a secondary die to the second carrier contact points.
US09159713B1	Opto-electronic circuit board and method for assembling the same An opto-electronic circuit board includes a substrate, a cavity, blind vias, metal layers, a first chip, a second chip, and the optical component. The substrate includes a first circuit layer, a second circuit layer, and a dielectric layer disposed between the first circuit layer and the second circuit layer. The cavity is disposed on the dielectric layer, in which the cavity extends from the first circuit layer to the second circuit layer. The blind vias are disposed at opposite sides of the cavity. The first chip is disposed on the second circuit layer with corresponding to one of the blind vias. The second chip is disposed on the second circuit layer with corresponding to the other one of the blind vias. The optical component is disposed in the cavity, in which the second surface of the optical component is connected to the first circuit layer.
US09159705B2	Semiconductor chip connecting semiconductor package A semiconductor package includes a package substrate including a substrate connection pad. At least one semiconductor chip includes at least one redistribution layer. The at least one redistribution layer covers at least a portion of a chip connection pad and extends along an upper surface of the at least one semiconductor chip in a first direction in which the chip connection pad faces toward an edge of the at least one semiconductor chip. At least one interconnection line disposed on a side of the at least one semiconductor chip electrically connects the substrate connection pad to the at least one redistribution layer. The at least one redistribution layer includes a protruding portion protruding from the edge of the at least one semiconductor chip to contact the at least one interconnection line.
US09159703B2	Power converter package including vertically stacked driver IC In one implementation, a semiconductor package includes a control conductive carrier having a die side and an opposite input/output (I/O) side connecting the semiconductor package to a mounting surface. The semiconductor package also includes a control FET of a power converter switching stage attached to the die side of the control conductive carrier, and a driver integrated circuit (IC) for driving the control FET. The driver IC is situated above the control FET and is electrically coupled to the control FET by at least one conductive buildup layer formed over the control conductive carrier.
US09159700B2	Active matrix emissive micro LED display A display panel and a method of forming a display panel are described. The display panel may include a thin film transistor substrate including a pixel area and a non-pixel area. The pixel area includes an array of bank openings and an array of bottom electrodes within the array of bank openings. An array of micro LED devices are bonded to the corresponding array of bottom electrodes within the array of bank openings. An array of top electrode layers are formed electrically connecting the array of micro LED devices to a ground line in the non-pixel area.
US09159697B2	Method for forming voids of structure A method for forming voids corresponding to pads of SMT components is provided. The method comprises following steps: One or more condition parameters are inputted into a searching unit. The searching unit searches all of the pads with reference to the condition parameters to obtain a pre-selected group of pads. A judgment unit is provided to determine whether each pad of the pre-selected group of pads meets a pre-determined processing requirement to generate a to-be-processed group of pads. An execution unit executes a void formation step with reference to corner coordinates of each of the to-be-processed group of pads, so as to form at least a void at the portion of a contact surface corresponding to a corner of the pad. In an embodiment, four voids which are related to respective corners of each pad of the to-be-processed group are formed at the contact surface accordingly.
US09159692B2	Millimeter wave wafer level chip scale packaging (WLCSP) device and related method Various embodiments include wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) structures and methods of tuning such structures. In some embodiments, the WLCSP structure includes: a printed circuit board (PCB) trace connection including at least one PCB ground connection connected with a PCB ground plane; a set of ground solder balls each contacting the printed circuit board trace connection; a set of chip pads contacting each of the ground solder balls in the set of ground solder balls; a chip ground plane connecting the set of chip pads; and a signal interconnect interposed between two of the set of ground solder balls, the signal interconnect including: a signal trace connection electrically isolated from the PCB ground plane; a signal ball contacting the signal PCB trace connection; a chip pad contacting the signal ball, and a signal trace connection on a chip contacting the chip pad.
US09159691B2	Window ball grid array (BGA) semiconductor packages A semiconductor package includes a substrate having a first surface, a second surface that is opposite to the first surface, and an opening formed between the first surface of the substrate and the second surface of the substrate. One or more bonding wires electrically couple a first surface of a semiconductor die included in the semiconductor package to the first surface of the substrate through an opening of the substrate. A first electrically insulative structure is disposed to substantially fill an area between the first surface of the semiconductor die, the second surface of the substrate, and one or more interconnect bumps that electrically couple the semiconductor die to the substrate. The first electrically insulative structure substantially encapsulates the one or more bonding wires and substantially fills the opening of the substrate.
US09159689B1	Semiconductor devices having through electrodes, methods of manufacturing the same, and semiconductor packages including the same A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer having a first surface and a second surface, a through electrode penetrating the semiconductor layer and having a protruding portion that protrudes over the second surface of the semiconductor layer, a front-side bump disposed on the first surface of the semiconductor layer and electrically coupled to the through electrode, a passivation pattern including a first insulation pattern that surrounds a sidewall of the protruding portion of the through electrode and extends onto the second surface of the semiconductor layer and a second insulation pattern that covers the first insulation pattern and has an etch selectivity with respect to the first insulation pattern, and a back-side bump covering an end surface of the protruding portion of the through electrode and extending onto the passivation pattern.
US09159686B2	Crack stopper on under-bump metallization layer A semiconductor die includes a crack stopper on an under-bump metallization (UBM) layer. The crack stopper is in the shape of hollow cylinder with at least two openings.
US09159678B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof A semiconductor device includes a die, a conductive post disposed adjacent to the die, and a molding surrounding the conductive post and the die, the molding includes a protruded portion protruded from a sidewall of the conductive post and disposed on a top surface of the conductive post. Further, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes disposing a die, disposing a conductive post adjacent to the die, disposing a molding over the conductive post and the die, removing some portions of the molding from a top of the molding, and forming a recess of the molding above a top surface of the conductive post.
US09159675B2	Integrated circuit and display device including the same An integrated circuit that includes a substrate, a semiconductor layer arranged on the substrate and an insulating layer arranged on an upper portion of the semiconductor layer and including a bump provided on an upper surface thereof, wherein the semiconductor layer includes a main semiconductor area and an including an internal alignment mark including a p-type semiconductor that is overlapped by a metallic external alignment mark arranged on the upper surface of the insulating layer. The p-type semiconductor internal alignment mark can be viewed by an infrared camera during a mounting process of the integrated circuit.
US09159674B2	Bonded structure with enhanced adhesion strength A first bonding material layer is formed on a first substrate and a second bonding material layer is formed on a second substrate. The first and second bonding material layers include a metal. Ions are implanted into the first and second bonding material layers to induce structural damages in the in the first and second bonding material layers. The first and second substrates are bonded by forming a physical contact between the first and second bonding material layers. The structural damages in the first and second bonding material layers enhance diffusion of materials across the interface between the first and second bonding material layers to form a bonded material layer in which metal grains are present across the bonding interface, thereby providing a high adhesion strength across the first and second substrates.
US09159672B1	Through via connected backside embedded circuit features structure and method A method includes forming through vias in a substrate of an array. Nubs of the through vias are exposed from a backside surface of the substrate. A backside passivation layer is applied to enclose the nubs. Laser-ablated artifacts are formed in the backside passivation layer to expose the nubs. Circuit features are formed within the laser-ablated artifacts. By forming the circuit features within the laser-ablated artifacts in the backside passivation layer, the cost of fabricating the array is minimized. More particularly, the number of operations to form the embedded circuit features is minimized thus minimizing fabrication cost of the array.
US09159665B2	Flip chip interconnection having narrow interconnection sites on the substrate A flip chip interconnect of a die on a substrate is made by mating the interconnect bump onto a narrow interconnect pad on a lead or trace, rather than onto a capture pad. The width of the narrow interconnect pad is less than a base diameter of bumps on the die to be attached. Also, a flip chip package includes a die having solder bumps attached to interconnect pads in an active surface, and a substrate having narrow interconnect pads on electrically conductive traces in a die attach surface, in which the bumps are mated onto the narrow pads on the traces.
US09159664B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device may include, but is not limited to: a wiring hoard; and first and second chips stacked over the wiring board. The wiring board includes a plurality of first data terminals and a plurality of second data terminals. One of the first and second chips is sandwiched between the wiring board and the other of the first and second chips. The first chip includes a plurality of first data pads. The second chip includes a plurality of second data pads and a plurality of third data pads. The first data terminals of the wiring board are electrically connected respectively to the first data pads of the first chip and further respectively to the second data pads of the second chip. The second data terminals are electrically connected respectively to the third data pads of the second chip and electrically disconnected from the first chip.
US09159659B2	Semiconductor package and method of manufacturing the semiconductor package A semiconductor package includes a first semiconductor chip, a second semiconductor chip and a sealing member. The first semiconductor chip includes a substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface and having an opening that extends in a predetermined depth from the second surface, and a plurality of through electrodes extending in a thickness direction from the first surface, end portions of the through electrodes being exposed through a bottom surface of the opening. The second semiconductor chip is received in the opening and mounted on the bottom surface of the opening. The sealing member covers the second semiconductor chip in the opening.
US09159658B2	Connection carrier for semiconductor chips and semiconductor component A connection carrier for at least one semiconductor chip is disclosed. The connection carrier has a carrier body having a main surface. A first connection area and a second connection area at a distance from the first connection area are formed on the main surface. The connection carrier has a mechanical decoupling device which is intended to reduce transmission of mechanical forces from the carrier body to at least one region of the first connection area. A semiconductor component having such a connection carrier is also stated.
US09159652B2	Electronic device comprising at least a chip enclosed in a package and a corresponding assembly process An electronic device is described comprising at least one chip enclosed in a package, in turn provided with a metallic structure or leadframe having a plurality of connection pins, this chip having at least one first contact realized on a first face and at least one second contact realized on a second and opposite face of this chip. The chip comprises at least one through via crossing the whole section of the chip as well as a metallic layer extending from the second contact arranged on the first face, along walls of the at least one through via up to the second and opposite face in correspondence with an additional pad. The electronic device comprises at least one interconnection layer for the electrical and mechanical connection between the chip and the metallic structure having at least one portion realized in correspondence with the at least one through via so as to bring the second contact placed on the second face of the chip back on its first face. An assembly process of such an electronic device is also described.
US09159650B2	Semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same A semiconductor device manufacturing technique which allows reduction of semiconductor chip size. First, a pad and other wires are formed over an insulating film. A surface protective film is formed over the insulating film including the pad and wires, and an opening is made in the surface protective film. The opening lies over the pad and exposes a surface of the pad. A bump electrode is formed over the surface protective film including the opening. Here, the pad is smaller than the bump electrode. Consequently, the wires are arranged just beneath the bump electrode in the same layer as the pad 10. In other words, the wires are arranged in space which becomes available because the pad is small enough.
US09159648B2	Wiring substrate and manufacturing method thereof A wiring substrate includes: a core substrate made of glass and having: a first surface; a second surface opposite to the first surface; and a side surface between the first surface and the second surface; and an insulating layer and a wiring layer, which are formed on at least one of the first surface and the second surface of the core substrate. A plurality of concave portions are formed in the side surface of the core substrate to extend from the first surface to the second surface, and a resin is filled in the respective concave portions.
US09159646B2	Apparatus and method to monitor die edge defects Described is an apparatus comprising: an input pad; an output pad; a wire, coupled to the input pad and the output pad, the wire positioned at a periphery of a semiconductor die, the wire extending substantially along a perimeter of the semiconductor die; and one or more diodes, coupled at various sections of the wire, and positioned along the perimeter of the semiconductor die and surrounding the semiconductor die.
US09159645B2	Liquid-cooled-type cooling device A liquid-cooled-type cooling device includes a casing having a cooling-liquid inlet and a cooling-liquid outlet. A fin for forming flow channels is disposed within the casing between the inlet and the outlet. A portion of the interior of the casing located rearward of the fin is an inlet header section, and a portion of the interior of the casing located frontward of the fin is an outlet header section. A rear side surface within the inlet header section is skewed toward the fin in a direction from the right side toward the left side. A positioning vertical surface extending straight along the left-right direction and positioning a rear end portion of the fin is provided on a lower portion of a left end portion of the rear side surface within the inlet header section. The rear end portion of the fin is in contact with the positioning vertical surface.
US09159644B2	Manufacturing of DSC type electronic devices by means of spacer insert A DSC type device manufacturing process includes placing a circuit assembly in a mold. The circuit assembly includes a first heat sink, a semiconductor chip mounted on the first heat sink, a second heat sink mounted on the semiconductor chip and a pin block electrically connected to the semiconductor chip. An outer surface of the first heat sink and an outer surface of the pin block are placed in contact with a first inner surface of the mold. A spacer insert is placed in contact with, and positioned between, a second inner surface of the mold and an outer surface of the second heat sink. The mold is filled with an insulating material that is subsequently hardened. After hardening, a resulting device is extracted from the mold with the outer surfaces of the first heat sink, the pin block and the second heat sink exposed.
US09159640B2	Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the semiconductor device At least a part of a heat radiation member (9) connected to a DRAM (11) for radiating heat of the DRAM (11) is exposed from a protection member (4) arranged to surround the DRAM and the heat radiation member (9) so as to protect the DRAM (11). Thus, it is possible to provide a semiconductor device having a preferable heat radiation performance.
US09159637B2	Electronic device with an interlocking mold package An electronic device includes a mold package which encapsulates a portion of the electronic device and does not encapsulate another portion of the electronic device to enable a sensing portion of the electronic device to be exposed to a condition to be sensed. In an electronic sensing device having a sensor formed by a substrate such as silicon, a sensor area is not encapsulated, but areas surrounding the sensor area are encapsulated. The area surrounding the sensor area includes one or more trenches or interlock structures formed in the surrounding substrate which receives the mold material to provide an interlock feature. The interlock feature reduces or substantially prevents the mold from delaminating at an interface of the mold and the substrate.
US09159630B1	Fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) device formed using a single spacer, double hardmask scheme Approaches for providing a single spacer, double hardmask dual-epi FinFET are disclosed. Specifically, at least one approach for providing the FinFET includes: forming a set of spacers along each sidewall of a plurality of fins of the FinFET device; forming a first ultra-thin hardmask over the plurality of fins; implanting the first ultra-thin hardmask over a first set of fins from the plurality of fins; removing the first ultra-thin hardmask over a second set of fins from the plurality of fins untreated by the implant; forming an epitaxial (epi) layer over the second set of fins; forming a second ultra-thin hardmask over the FinFET device; implanting the second ultra-thin hardmask; removing the second ultra-thin hardmask over the first set of fins; and growing an epi layer over the first set of fins.
US09159629B2	High performance CMOS device design A semiconductor device includes a gate, which comprises a gate electrode and a gate dielectric underlying the gate electrode, a spacer formed on a sidewall of the gate electrode and the gate dielectric, a buffer layer having a first portion underlying the gate dielectric and the spacer and a second portion adjacent the spacer wherein the top surface of the second portion of the buffer layer is recessed below the top surface of the first portion of the buffer layer, and a source/drain region substantially aligned with the spacer. The buffer layer preferably has a greater lattice constant than an underlying semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device may further include a semiconductor-capping layer between the buffer layer and the gate dielectric, wherein the semiconductor-capping layer has a smaller lattice constant then the buffer layer.
US09159627B2	Methods for linewidth modification and apparatus implementing the same A linear-shaped core structure of a first material is formed on an underlying material. A layer of a second material is conformally deposited over the linear-shaped core structure and exposed portions of the underlying material. The layer of the second material is etched so as to leave a filament of the second material on each sidewall of the linear-shaped core structure, and so as to remove the second material from the underlying material. The linear-shaped core structure of the first material is removed so as to leave each filament of the second material on the underlying material. Each filament of the second material provides a mask for etching the underlying material. Each filament of the second material can be selectively etched further to adjust its size, and to correspondingly adjust a size of a feature to be formed in the underlying material.
US09159625B1	Semiconductor device Disclosed is a semiconductor device. For instance, the semiconductor device includes a main via formed on a dielectric and a ground via formed in a circular arc shape and spaced apart from the main via. The semiconductor device is superior in electric characteristics such as insertion loss or reflection loss and allows efficient use of space.
US09159622B2	Dividing method for wafer A dividing method for a wafer includes a step of irradiating a laser beam along streets to form modified regions in an inside of a wafer, a step of dividing the wafer into individual chips beginning with starting points given by the modified regions, a step of placing a processing chamber in which the wafer is charged to a vacuum state and fill the processing chamber with inert gas, and a step of introducing etching gas into the processing chamber filled with the inert gas to etch side faces of the chips.
US09159613B2	Non-volatile memory device, method for fabricating pattern on wafer and method for manufacturing non-volatile memory device using same According to an embodiment, a method for fabricating a pattern includes forming a mask covering a first layer, and a second layer selectively provided on the first layer, and forming a groove dividing the first layer and the second layer using the mask. The mask includes a first portion formed on a region of the first layer on a first side of the second layer, a second portion formed on a region of the first layer on a second side of the second layer opposite to the first side, first extending parts extending over the second layer from the first portion toward the second portion, and second extending parts extending over the second layer from the second portion toward the first portion. Each of the second extending parts is located between the first extending parts adjacent to each other.
US09159605B2	Controlled process and resulting device A method for forming a multi-material thin film includes providing a multi-material donor substrate comprising single crystal silicon and an overlying film comprising GaN. Energetic particles are introduced through a surface of the multi-material donor substrate to a selected depth within the single crystal silicon. The method includes providing energy to a selected region of the donor substrate to initiate a controlled cleaving action in the donor substrate. Then, a cleaving action is made using a propagating cleave front to free a multi-material film from a remaining portion of the donor substrate, the multi-material film comprising single crystal silicon and the overlying film.
US09159604B2	Semiconductor device and method for forming the same A method includes forming a recess in a substrate and filling a dielectric layer in the recess. The method further includes forming a capping layer over the substrate and the dielectric layer. A top portion of the capping layer is then removed, while leaving a bottom portion of the capping layer over the dielectric layer. A gate structure is then formed over the remaining capping layer.
US09159598B2	Semiconductor wafer mounting method and semiconductor wafer mounting apparatus A workpiece is unloaded from a wafer-receiving container. A first discriminating sensor detects a front surface of the workpiece, and determines either a semiconductor wafer or a spacer is the workpiece. Where the workpiece is a wafer, the first discriminating sensor also determines whether or not a protective tape is on the front surface of the workpiece. Where it is determined that a protective tape is not on the front surface, a second discriminating sensor detects a back surface of the wafer for discriminating the presence or absence of the protective tape.
US09159597B2	Real-time calibration for wafer processing chamber lamp modules An apparatus, a system and a method are disclosed. An exemplary apparatus includes a wafer processing chamber. The apparatus further includes radiant heating elements disposed in different zones and operable to heat different portions of a wafer located within the wafer processing chamber. The apparatus further includes sensors disposed outside the wafer processing chamber and operable to monitor energy from the radiant heating elements disposed in the different zones. The apparatus further includes a computer configured to utilize the sensors to characterize the radiant heating elements disposed in the different zones and to provide a calibration for the radiant heating elements disposed in the different zones such that a substantially uniform temperature profile is maintained across a surface of the wafer.
US09159593B2	Method of particle contaminant removal Apparatus and methods for removing particle contaminants from a solid surface includes providing a layer of a viscoelastic material on the solid surface. The viscoelastic material is applied as a thin film and exhibits substantial liquid-like characteristics. The viscoelastic material at least partially binds with the particle contaminants. A high velocity liquid is applied to the viscoelastic material, such that the viscoelastic material exhibits solid-like behavior. The viscoelastic material is thus dislodged from the solid surface along with the particle contaminants, thereby cleaning the solid surface of the particle contaminants.
US09159591B2	Batch type apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor devices A batch type apparatus may include a tube; a boat configured to receive a plurality of semiconductor substrates, the boat vertically moved into the tube; a gas nozzle vertically arranged in the tube, the tube having a first portion and a second portion upwardly extended from the first portion; a gas pipe for supplying reaction gases to the gas nozzle, the gas pipe having a horizontal extension and a vertical extension, and the vertical extension extended in the gas nozzle; a fixing member for fixing the first portion of the gas nozzle to the gas pipe, the fixing member having strength higher than that of the gas nozzle; and a clamping member for clamping the gas pipe to the tube. Therefore, breakage of the gas nozzle may be suppressed.
US09159590B2	Encapsulated nanoparticles The present invention relates to a method for producing encapsulated nanoparticles by dispersing said nanoparticles and an encapsulating medium in a common solvent to form a first solution system and treating said first solution system with a stimulus suitable to induce simultaneous aggregation of the nanoparticles and the encapsulating medium.
US09159586B1	Method of forming solderable side-surface terminals of quad no-lead frame (QFN) integrated circuit packages A method of forming an integrated circuit (IC) package is disclosed comprising: (a) removing oxides from side surfaces of terminals of the IC package; (b) substantially covering an underside of the terminals of the IC package; and (c) forming a solder coating on the side surfaces of terminals of the IC packages while covering the underside of the terminals of the IC package. The solder coating on the side surfaces of the terminals protects the terminals from oxidation due to aging and subsequent processes. Additionally, the solder coating on the side surfaces of the terminals substantially improves the solderability of the IC package to printed circuit boards (PCBs) or other mountings. This further facilitates the inspection of the solder attachment using less expensive and complicated methods.
US09159585B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the present invention includes the steps of (b) forming, on a back face of a dummy substrate and back faces of a plurality of semiconductor substrates, inorganic films having such thicknesses as to be resistant to a temperature of a thermal oxidizing treatment or a heat treatment and to sufficiently decrease an amount of oxidation or reducing gaseous species to reach the back faces of the dummy substrate and the plurality of semiconductor substrates, (c) disposing the dummy substrate and the plurality of semiconductor substrates in a lamination with surfaces turned in the same direction at an interval from each other, and (d) carrying out a thermal oxidizing treatment or post annealing over the surfaces of the semiconductor substrates in an oxidation gas atmosphere or a reducing gas atmosphere after the steps (b) and (c).
US09159582B2	Methods of forming a semiconductor device The present disclosure relates to methods for forming a high-k gate dielectric, the methods comprising the steps of providing a semiconductor substrate, cleaning the substrate, performing a thermal treatment, and performing a high-k dielectric material deposition, wherein said thermal treatment step is performed in a non-oxidizing ambient, leading to the formation of a thin interfacial layer between said semiconductor substrate and said high-k dielectric material and wherein the thickness of said thin interfacial layer is less than 10 Å.
US09159579B2	Lithography using multilayer spacer for reduced spacer footing A method embodiment for patterning a semiconductor device includes forming a plurality of mandrels over a substrate, and forming a multilayer spacer layer over the plurality of mandrels. The multilayer spacer layer is formed by conformably depositing a spacer layer over the plurality of mandrels and treating the spacer layer with plasma. The plurality of mandrels is exposed by etching a top portion of the multilayer spacer layer, thereby forming a multilayer spacer.
US09159578B2	Self-aligned devices and methods of manufacture A method includes forming patterned lines on a substrate having a predetermined pitch. The method further includes forming spacer sidewalls on sidewalls of the patterned lines. The method further includes forming material in a space between the spacer sidewalls of adjacent patterned lines. The method further includes forming another patterned line from the material by protecting the material in the space between the spacer sidewalls of adjacent patterned lines while removing the spacer sidewalls. The method further includes transferring a pattern of the patterned lines and the patterned line to the substrate.
US09159570B2	Non-volatile memory device and method for fabricating the same A non-volatile memory device includes a channel layer vertically extending from a substrate, a plurality of inter-layer dielectric layers and a plurality of gate electrodes that are alternately stacked along the channel layer, and an air gap interposed between the channel layer and each of the plurality of gate electrodes. The non-volatile memory device may improve erase operation characteristics by suppressing back tunneling of electrons by substituting a charge blocking layer interposed between a gate electrode and a charge storage layer with an air gap, and a method for fabricating the non-volatile memory device.
US09159567B1	Replacement low-K spacer A method includes providing a gate structure having a dummy gate, a first spacer along a side of the gate. The dummy gate and the spacer are removed to expose a gate dielectric. A second spacer is deposited on at least one side of a gate structure cavity and a top of the gate dielectric. A bottom portion of the second spacer is removed to expose the gate dielectric and the gate structure is wet cleaned.
US09159565B2	Integrated circuit system with band to band tunneling and method of manufacture thereof A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit system includes: providing a semiconductor substrate; implanting a well region, having a first conductivity, on the semiconductor substrate; patterning a gate oxide layer on the well region; implanting a source, having a second conductivity, at an angle for implanting under the gate oxide layer; selectively implanting a dopant pocket, having a third conductivity that is opposite the second conductivity, at the angle for forming the dopant pocket under the gate oxide layer; and implanting a drain, having the third conductivity, for forming a transistor channel asymmetrically positioned under the gate oxide layer.
US09159564B2	Method of shielding through silicon vias in a passive interposer A method of shielding through silicon vias (TSVs) in a passive interposer includes doping a substrate with positive ions, and implanting positive ions in an upper portion of the substrate, such that the substrate has at least a p-doped portion and a heavily p-doped upper portion. The method further includes forming an interlayer dielectric (ILD) above the heavily p-doped upper portion. The method further includes forming a plurality of through silicon vias (TSVs) through the ILD and the substrate, such that the passive interposer is configured to electrically couple at least one structure above and below the passive interposer. The method further includes forming, between pairs of TSVs of the plurality of TSVs, a plurality of shielding lines through the interlayer dielectric, the shielding lines configured to electrically couple the heavily p-doped upper portion of the substrate and at least one interconnect structure above the ILD.
US09159560B2	Methods of forming hole patterns of semiconductor devices A double patterning method of forming a plurality of hole patterns having a small pitch using etch selectivities includes forming a patterning mask pattern defining a preliminary hole exposing an upper surface of a buffer mask layer, an inner spacer exposing the upper surface of the buffer mask layer on an inner wall of the preliminary hole, a buffer mask pattern having a first hole, and a core insulating pattern filling the preliminary hole and the first hole, an outer spacer to expose a first portion of the patterning mask pattern on the exposed portion of the outer side of the inner spacer, and an empty space exposing a first portion of the buffer mask pattern. A second portion of the patterning mask pattern and a second portion of the buffer mask pattern are exposed. A second hole is formed by removing the second portion of the buffer mask pattern.
US09159559B2	Lithography layer with quenchers to prevent pattern collapse The present disclosure provides a method for forming resist patterns. The method includes providing a substrate; forming a material layer including a plurality of quenchers on the substrate; forming a resist layer on the material layer; exposing the resist layer; and developing the resist layer to form a structure featuring resist remaining layer on an upper surface of the material layer, and a plurality of resist features on the resist remaining layer to improve the yield of lithography process.
US09159555B2	Multi charged particle beam writing apparatus and multi charged particle beam writing method A multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a unit to calculate a predetermined function expression by a correction coefficient that corrects an open area of each opening for forming a beam group, wherein the predetermined function expression minimizes a sum of squared values of all the beam groups, where each of the squared values is calculated by squaring a difference between a current value measured of the beam group and a sum of products for the beam group, where each of the products is obtained by multiplying a corrected open area by the predetermined function expression; a unit to calculate the correction coefficient that corrects the open area by using the predetermined function expression and the current value of the beam, for each beam; and a unit to calculate a current density of each of the multiple beams by the predetermined function expression.
US09159550B2	Method for producing a graphene sheet on a platinum silicide, structures obtained using said method and uses thereof The invention relates to a method for producing a graphene sheet on a platinum silicide, wherein the platinum silicide is in the form of a layer or a plurality of pins.This method comprises: a) producing a stack by (i) depositing a layer C1 of a diffusion barrier material on a substrate; (ii) depositing, on the layer C1, a layer C2 of a carbon-containing material, wherein said carbon-containing material optionally comprises silicon; (iii) depositing, on the layer C2, a layer C3 of platinum; (iv) depositing a layer C4 of a material of formula SiaCbHc on the layer C3 if the carbon-containing material of the layer C2 is free from silicon; and b) heat-treating the stack obtained at step a). It also relates to structures obtained using this method and the uses of these structures.Applications: manufacture of micro- and nanoelectronic devices, micro- and nanoelectromechanical devices, etc.
US09159549B2	Glass composition for protecting semiconductor junction, method of manufacturing semiconductor device and semiconductor device Provided is a glass composition for protecting a semiconductor junction which contains at least SiO2, Al2O3, ZnO, CaO and 3 mol % to 10 mol % of B2O3, and substantially contains none of Pb, P, As, Sb, Li, Na and K. It is preferable that a content of SiO2 falls within a range of 32 mol % to 48 mol %, a content of Al2O3 falls within a range of 9 mol % to 13 mol %, a content of ZnO falls within a range of 18 mol % to 28 mol %, a content of CaO falls within a range of 15 mol % to 23 mol %, and a content of B2O3 falls within a range of 3 mol % to 10 mol %.
US09159546B2	High-pressure gas discharge lamp A high-pressure gas discharge lamp unit 10 is described including a burner 14 with a discharge vessel 18. The burner 14 comprises electrical contact leads 22,24 and protrudes from and is fixed to a lamp cap housing 12, so that at least a first of the contact leads 22, 24 extends into the housing 12. A lamp operating circuit 50 is arranged within the housing 12, electrically connected to the electrical contact leads 22, 24. In order to allow a particularly compact lamp unit, the housing comprises a bottom plate 44 made out of a metal material to dissipate heat, which comprises an opening 68 into which a cap element 60 made out of an electrically insulating material is inserted to enclose a first electrical contact lead 22.
US09159545B2	Excimer lamp A first excimer lamp includes: a quartz glass-made light-emitting tube containing an excimer emission gas sealed therein; and a pair of electrodes for generating dielectric barrier discharge. One of the pair of electrodes is disposed in the inner space of the light-emitting tube so as to extend in the direction of a tube axis of the light-emitting tube, and the other one of the pair of electrodes is embedded in the tube wall of the light-emitting tube so as to extend in the direction of the tube axis of the light-emitting tube. The one electrode is electrically connected to a conductive foil hermetically embedded in an end portion of the light-emitting tube.
US09159535B2	Multi charged particle beam writing method, and multi charged particle beam writing apparatus A multi charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a beam forming member, where first openings for writing and second openings not for writing around the first openings are formed, to form multiple beams for writing and to form multiple beams for measurement, plural mark members on a blanking aperture member arranged close to the height position where crossover is formed, a measurement unit to measure positions of the multiple beams for measurement by the plural mark members, and a correction unit to correct a voltage for making a “beam on” state applied to one of the plural blankers, in order to correct a position deviation amount of a measured position.
US09159526B1	Plasma arc chamber The plasma arc chamber is made in part of a one piece base fabricated from 95.95% pure tungsten having four rigid walls defining a rectangular central opening. A bottom plate closes the bottom of the base and a cover with a slit for the passage of an ion beam closes the top of the base. Liners are fitted into the bottom plate, the top of base and against the four walls of the base.
US09159525B2	Radiation generating tube The present invention provides a radiation generating tube which suppresses electrical charging of an inner wall of an insulating tube attributable to electron emission from a junction between the insulating tube and a cathode and which has improved voltage withstand capability. The radiation generating tube comprising: a hollow insulating tube; a cathode and an anode respectively bonded to both ends of the insulating tube; and an electron emission source provided on the cathode, the radiation generating tube having a vacuum interior space. The electron emission source includes an electron emitting portion in the interior space, and the insulating tube includes a protrusion that protrudes into the interior space.
US09159523B2	Tungsten oxide coated X-ray tube frame and anode assembly An x-ray tube having a coated x-ray tube frame inner surface and a coated anode assembly is provided. The x-ray tube includes an x-ray tube frame in which an anode assembly is disposed therein. A cathode assembly is also disposed within the x-ray tube frame that emits an electron beam to strike a target surface of the anode assembly and form x-rays. A plasma-sprayed tungsten oxide coating is formed on an inner surface of the x-ray tube frame and on the anode assembly to dissipate heat created by the electron beam.
US09159522B2	Method for assembling an electron exit window and an electron exit window assembly The present invention refers to a method for assembling an electron exit window of an electron beam generating device, comprising the steps of: arranging a foil support plate on a housing of the electron beam generating device, bonding a window foil to a frame along at least one continuous bonding line, thus creating an exit window sub-assembly, and attaching the exit window sub-assembly onto the housing. The invention also relates to an electron exit window assembly.
US09159518B2	Radiation entry window for a radiation detector The invention concerns a radiation entry window (10) for a radiation detector (2), in particular for a semiconductor drift detector (2), with a flat window element (11), which is at least partially permeable for the radiation to be detected by the radiation detector (2), as well as with a window frame (12), which laterally frames the window element (11), wherein the window frame (12) consists of a semiconductor material and is considerably thicker than the window element (11). (FIG. 1)
US09159516B2	Actuation signal for microactuator bounce and ring suppression The present disclosure provides a system and method for controlling positioning of a movable member of a MEMS microactuator to reduce bouncing and ringing. The system includes control circuitry in communication with the MEMS microactuator. The control circuitry is adapted to linearly increase an actuation signal from a first state to a second state to urge the movable member from a first position to a second position and hold the movable member in the second position. The control circuitry is further adapted to linearly decrease the actuation signal from the second state to the first state to release the movable member to the first position. A transition time is not less than the inverse of one quarter of a natural frequency of the movable member as the movable member moves to the first position.
US09159514B2	Relay connector assembly for a relay system A relay connector assembly configured to electrically connect a power supply and a load includes a housing having a bottom configured to be mounted to a circuit board, the housing having contact cavities. Power contacts are received in corresponding contact cavities and held by the housing. The power contacts have relay tab ends and terminating ends having interfaces configured to be terminated to high current power conductors of either the power supply or the load. A relay is coupled to the housing. The relay has coil contacts configured to be electrically connected to a coil circuit of the circuit board used to energize the relay. The relay has relay tabs being terminated to the relay tab ends of corresponding power contacts. The relay electrically connects corresponding power contacts when the relay is energized.
US09159513B2	Electromagnetic relay An electromagnetic relay includes a contact including a movable spring having a base end fixed to a bottom of a housing and a tip end provided with a movable contact, and a fixed spring having a base end fixed to the bottom of the housing and a tip end provided with a fixed contact. The movable contact is provided opposite to the fixed contact so as to come in contact with the fixed contact or move away therefrom. The housing has a protrusion protruding toward a side of the fixed contact opposite to a side facing the movable contact.
US09159507B2	Bicycle handle system A bicycle handle system comprises a handle element to be fastened on a handlebar. Further, a control element is arranged laterally next to the handle element. The control element serves to control an electric auxiliary motor. The control element has a bearing element on which an actuation element can be turned. The bearing element has switching tabs connected thereto. By turning the actuation element, the switching tabs actuate electric switching elements.
US09159506B2	Capacitor module and power conversion device A power conversion device for a vehicle includes: a power module that includes a switching device and, upon operation of the switching device, converts DC power into AC power to be supplied to an electric machine for driving a vehicle; a capacitor module that includes a smoothing capacitor element, an input-side power source terminal for receiving DC power, and an output-side power source terminal for supplying DC power to the power module; and a noise removal capacitor for removing noise, wherein: the noise removal capacitor is built in the capacitor module, and the noise removal capacitor is electrically connected to the input-side power source terminal in a position where a distance between a connection position of the noise removal capacitor and the input-side power source terminal is less than a distance between a connection position of the noise removal capacitor and the output-side power source terminal of the capacitor module.
US09159496B2	Method of manufacturing electrode group unit for lithium ion capacitor and lithium ion capacitor A method of manufacturing an electrode group unit for lithium ion capacitor that allows reliable welding between a current collecting member and an electrode and that provides a welded portion with a low resistance is provided. A lithium ion capacitor is also provided. An unapplied portion 25 of a positive electrode 9 and an unapplied portion 33 of a negative electrode 11 are disposed to project outside of separators 13, 15 in directions opposite to each other. The resulting assembly is wound into a swirling shape in cross section about an axial core 7 to form an electrode group 5. A lithium metal support member 17 is disposed on the negative electrode 11 such that a layer in which the lithium metal support member 17 is wound is located in a radially middle region of the electrode group 5. A negative current collecting member 45 is placed on the unapplied portion 33, and welding is performed using a direct-collecting semiconductor laser device that continuously generates laser light to manufacture an electrode group unit 2 for lithium ion capacitor. The electrode group unit 2 for lithium ion capacitor is housed in a container 3 to obtain a lithium ion capacitor 1.
US09159493B2	Dielectrics A dielectric material (14) for a capacitor comprising a first material and a second material, the first material being a polymer and the second material comprising particles. The particles are dispersed within the polymer, and are selected to have a relative permittivity higher than that of the polymer, characterized in that the diameter of the particles is in the nanometer range and the particles are geometrically controlled to a predetermined shape.
US09159492B2	Laminated ceramic capacitor having a covering layer A laminated ceramic capacitor that includes dielectric layers stacked adjacent one another to form a laminated body; internal electrodes arranged between the dielectric layers; external electrodes along surfaces of the laminated body and connected to the internal electrodes; and a covering layer covering at least portions of sections of the laminated body between the laminated body and edges of the external electrodes. The external electrodes include a silver-containing layer containing at least Ag as its main constituent. The dielectric layers and the covering layer 30 contain, as their main constituent, a perovskite compound represented by a chemical formula ABO3, wherein A is at least one of Ba, Sr, and Ca, and B is at least one of Ti, Zr, and Hf. V is added to only the dielectric layers among the dielectric layers and the covering layer.
US09159484B2	Integrated circuit based transformer An integrated circuit based transformer, comprising: a primary winding located in a winding layer, the primary winding having two primary terminals at a first side of the transformer; a secondary winding located in a winding layer, the secondary winding having two secondary terminals at a second side of the transformer, the first and second sides located at different sides of the transformer; and a reference bar located in a reference bar layer, the reference bar having a primary reference bar terminal at the first side of the transformer, and having a secondary reference bar terminal at the second side of the transformer. The reference bar is configured to provide a direct electrical connection between the first reference bar terminal and the second reference bar terminal.
US09159479B2	Magnetic enclosure and method A magnetic enclosure providing a uniform magnetic field in a test chamber and comprising substantially identical first north magnetic structure and second south magnetic structures that are disposed in geometric mirroring symmetry opposite to each other and separated by an air gap forming the test chamber. Each magnetic structure includes a cap-like permanent magnet assembly covering a convex ferromagnetic pole piece, a ferromagnetic cap-like shield covering the magnet assembly, and a ferromagnetic ring. The ring is in contact with and intermediate the shield of the first and of the second magnetic structure, and has at least one aperture allowing access to the test chamber.
US09159478B2	Rotary resistance device A rotary resistance device providing resistance to rotary object includes a magnetic field generating assembly having a magnetizable main body, an even number of magnetizable extended bodies, magnetizable coils and separators, two first caps, and two shaft sections; a magnetizable outer cylinder enclosing the magnetic field generating assembly therein and rotatably connected to the shaft sections; and a magnetorheological fluid filled in a space formed between the magnetic field generating assembly and the magnetizable outer cylinder. The magnetizable extended bodies have the magnetizable coils wound thereon and are radially equally spaced on the magnetizable main body; the separators are respectively connected to between two adjacent magnetizable extended bodies; the first caps are closed onto two ends of the assembled magnetizable main body, magnetizable extended bodies and separators to seal the magnetizable coils in the magnetic field generating assembly; and the shaft sections are fixedly connected to the first caps.
US09159476B2	Negative differential resistance device Apparatus and methods related to negative differential resistance (NDR) are provided. An NDR device includes a spaced pair of electrodes and at least two different materials disposed there between. One of the two materials is characterized by negative thermal expansion, while the other material is characterized by positive thermal expansion. The two materials are further characterized by distinct electrical resistivities. The NDR device is characterized by a non-linear electrical resistance curve that includes a negative differential resistance range. The NDR device operates along the curve in accordance with an applied voltage across the pair of electrodes.
US09159475B2	High pressure bushing of rotating electrical machine and rotating electrical machine According to one embodiment, there is provided a high pressure bushing arranged through by penetrating a stator frame of a rotating electrical machine in which a cooling gas is sealed. At least a communicating hole is provided in the hollow connecting conductor and at least a reflux hole is provided in the gas circulation pipe, such that the cooling gas flows in both of the first gap and the second gap, passes through an inner side of the gas circulation pipe, and is discharged to the machine inner side.
US09159470B2	Dual axial cable A dual axial cable that may include two substantially parallel and substantially adjacent wires, wherein each wire is formed from an electrical conductor surrounded throughout its length by a bifurcated electrical insulator. Each bifurcated electrical insulator may include a first portion of electrically insulative material and a second portion of electrically insulative material having a dielectric constant substantially higher than a dielectric constant of the first portion, such that a cross-section of each wire includes its respective first portion and respective second portion. The cable may be configured such that throughout the length of the cable, the second portions of each of the two wires are substantially adjacent to each other.
US09159468B2	High-voltage electrical transmission cable An electrical cable (10) includes at least one central reinforcing element (1, 2) extending along the cable, said reinforcing element being encircled by at least one electrically conductive element (3) extending along the cable, where the central reinforcing element (1, 2) is a tubular body.
US09159464B2	Thermally and electrically conductive structure comprising a carbon nanotube, a graphite sheet and a metal layer; and method of reducing a contact resistance of same A thermally and electrically conductive structure comprises a carbon nanotube (110) having an outer surface (111) and a carbon coating (120) covering at least a portion of the outer surface of the carbon nanotube. The carbon coating may be applied to the carbon nanotube by providing a nitrile-containing polymer, coating the carbon nanotube with the nitrile-containing polymer, and pyrolyzing the nitrile-containing polymer in order to form the carbon coating on the carbon nanotube. The carbon nanotube may further be coated with a low contact resistance layer (130) exterior to the carbon coating and a metal layer (140) exterior to the low contact resistance layer.
US09159461B2	Nuclear fission reactor fuel assembly and system configured for controlled removal of a volatile fission product A nuclear fission reactor fuel assembly and system configured for controlled removal of a volatile fission product and heat released by a burn wave in a traveling wave nuclear fission reactor and method for same. The fuel assembly comprises an enclosure adapted to enclose a porous nuclear fuel body having the volatile fission product therein. A fluid control subassembly is coupled to the enclosure and adapted to control removal of at least a portion of the volatile fission product from the porous nuclear fuel body. In addition, the fluid control subassembly is capable of circulating a heat removal fluid through the porous nuclear fuel body in order to remove heat generated by the nuclear fuel body.
US09159460B2	Bundle retention clip, fuel assembly including the same, and method of assembling fuel assembly A fuel assembly may include a channel nosepiece; a lower tie plate positioned above the channel nosepiece; and at least one bundle retention clip connected to the channel nosepiece and the lower tie plate and configured to resist movement of the lower tie plate away from the channel nosepiece.
US09159454B2	Failure detection apparatus for solid state drive tester A failure detection apparatus for a solid state driver tester is provided. The failure detection apparatus includes a host terminal for receiving a test condition for testing a storage from a user and a test control unit for creating a test pattern according to the test condition or creating a test pattern at random, and adaptively selects an interface according to a type of the storage to be tested to test the storage with the test pattern. The test control unit includes a plurality of buffer memories for storing readout data of the storage, stores the readout data in the buffer memories in an interleaving manner, and endows comparison of the created test pattern and the readout data stored in the buffer memories with continuity to test the storage in real time.
US09159449B2	Shift register A shift register includes a plurality of stages each for outputting k composite pulses each including an A-scan pulse and a B-scan pulse. At least one stage includes k A-sub-stages each for controlling a voltage at an A-set node and a voltage at least one A-reset node in response to an external A-control signal and generating an A-carry pulse based on the voltage at the A-set node, the voltage at the at least one A-reset node and any one A-clock pulse, a B-sub-stage for controlling a voltage at a B-set node and a voltage at least one B-reset node in response to an external B-control signal and generating a B-carry pulse, and a scan output controller for generating k A-scan pulses and k B-scan pulses and outputting one of the A-scan pulses and one of the B-scan pulses corresponding to each other as one composite pulse.
US09159445B2	Semiconductor device with fuse array and operating method thereof A semiconductor device includes a fuse array for storing normal fuse data and pattern data through a programming operation, a boot-up control unit suitable for generating an enable signal for enabling an output of the pattern data, and a pattern detection unit suitable for detecting a pattern of the pattern data in response to the enable signal, and generating a detection signal. The fuse array outputs the normal fuse data in response to the detection signal.
US09159443B2	Nonvolatile memory device, operating method thereof and memory system including the same A method of operating a non-volatile memory device includes performing an erasing operation to memory cells associated with a plurality of string selection lines (SSLs), the memory cells associated with the plurality of SSLs constituting a memory block, and verifying the erasing operation to second memory cells associated with a second SSL after verifying the erasing operation to first memory cells associated with a first SSL.
US09159442B2	Serial memory with fast read with look-ahead A serial memory may have memory arranged in a plurality of memory blocks, a serial interface for receiving a read instruction and associated memory address; and a controller configured to only store a plurality of most significant bits from each memory block which are accessed in parallel before an entire address has been received through the serial interface. The controller is further configured to stream out one of the plurality of most significant bits upon full reception of the memory address while retrieving the remaining bits from memory using the entire address and stream out the remaining bits after the most significant bits have been streamed out.
US09159440B2	Read method for nonvolatile memory device, and data storage system using the same Provided is a method for reading data from a nonvolatile memory device. In the method, a read method includes a first read step including reading a first memory cell of the nonvolatile memory device by applying a first set of read voltages to the first memory cell. The read method further includes a second read step including reading the first memory cell by applying a second set of read voltages and none of the voltages in the first set to the first memory cell when it is determined that the first read step results in an error and cannot be corrected with error correction. The second read step is performed by using data resulting from the first read step.
US09159438B2	NAND flash memory having C/A pin and flash memory system including the same A NAND flash memory in which a command/address pin is separated from a data input/output pin. The NAND flash memory includes a memory cell array used for storing data, a command/address pin through which a command and an address are received for transmitting data in the memory cell array, and a data input/output pin through which data are transmitted in the memory cell array. The command/address pin is separated from the data input/output pin in the NAND flash memory. Data input/output speed is increased. Furthermore, the NAND flash memory can perform a bank interleaving operation with a minimal delay time.
US09159436B2	Reading method of non-volatile memory device A non-volatile memory device includes a first selection transistor, a second selection transistor, and a plurality of memory cells serially coupled between the first selection transistor and the second selection transistor. A reading method of the non-volatile memory device includes applying a read voltage to a gate of a selected memory cell; applying a first pass voltage to a gate of a memory cell adjacent to the selected memory cell, and applying a second pass voltage to gates of the other memory cells, wherein the selected memory cell is in one program state among first to Tth program states in a direction that threshold voltage is increased, where T is a natural number greater than 2, and the first pass voltage is decreased as the selected memory cell goes toward the Tth program state.
US09159435B2	Semiconductor memory device having bouncing detection circuit and method of operating the same The semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array that includes a plurality of cell strings coupled between a common source line and a plurality of bit lines, a peripheral circuit that reads data stored in a selected memory cell, a bouncing detection circuit that compares a voltage supplied to the common source line and a reference voltage to thereby output a detection signal while performing a reading operation, and a control circuit that controls the peripheral circuit in order to perform the reading operation by adjusting the number of sensing operation times in accordance with the detection signal.
US09159418B1	High density stacked CNT memory cube arrays with memory selectors A three-dimensional (3-D) memory stack and a method of formation thereof are described. The 3-D memory stack includes a number of vertically stacked memory devices. Each memory device includes one or more memory cells. Each of the memory cells can be formed on a conductive material. Each memory device further includes one or more selector elements each configured to couple a memory cell of the one or more memory cells to a respective bit line. None of the selector elements is configured as a diode or a transistor element.
US09159416B2	Silicon based nanoscale crossbar memory The present application describes a crossbar memory array. The memory array includes a first array of parallel nanowires of a first material and a second array of parallel nanowires of a second material. The first and the second array are oriented at an angle with each other. The array further includes a plurality of nanostructures of non-crystalline silicon disposed between a nanowire of the first material and a nanowire of the second material at each intersection of the two arrays. The nanostructures form a resistive memory cell together with the nanowires of the first and second materials.
US09159412B1	Staggered write and verify for phase change memory A method for storing a data value in a memory cell is provided. The data value includes one of a first data value and a second data value respectively represented by a first and a second programmable resistance ranges. The method includes, within a write cycle, storing the first data value in the memory cell by applying a first verify operation having a first verify period and a first write operation having a first write period, or storing the second data value in the memory cell by applying a second verify operation having a second verify period longer than the first verify period and a second write operation having a second write period shorter than the first write period. The write cycle is shorter than a sum of the first write period and the second verify period.
US09159411B2	Multi-level memory apparatus and data sensing method thereof A multi-level memory apparatus includes two or more current paths configured to pass currents having different levels, a memory cell selectively coupled to the two or more current paths, and a cell current copy unit configured to copy a cell current flowing through the memory cell.
US09159409B2	Method and apparatus for providing complimentary state retention A method, integrated circuit and apparatus are operative to control a plurality of passive variable resistance memory cells to store complimentary state information from at least one active memory circuit, such as a flop, latch, or any other suitable state generation circuit. The method, apparatus and integrated circuit may be operative to control the plurality of passive variable resistance memory cells to also restore the stored complimentary state information for the at least one active memory.
US09159406B2	Single-level cell endurance improvement with pre-defined blocks Techniques are disclosed for SLC blocks having different characteristics than MLC blocks such that SLC blocks will have high endurance and MLC blocks will have high reliability. A thinner tunnel oxide may be used for memory cells in SLC blocks than for memory cells in MLC blocks. A thinner tunnel oxide in SLC blocks may allow a lower program voltage to be used, which may improve endurance. A thicker tunnel oxide in MLC blocks may improve data retention. A thinner IPD may be used for memory cells in SLC blocks than for memory cells in MLC blocks. A thinner IPD may provide a higher coupling ratio, which may allow a lower program voltage. A lower program voltage in SLC blocks can improve endurance. A thicker IPD in MLC blocks can prevent or reduce read disturb. SLC blocks may have a different number of data word lines than MLC blocks.
US09159405B2	Method and apparatus for surface mounting a non-volatile memory device A method and an apparatus for programming data, and a method and an apparatus for setting a data programming mode used for the same are provided. The method for programming data in a non-volatile memory device includes determining a programming mode to be used for data programming among at least two programming modes prescribing different verify voltages for cells to be programmed, based on set mode information, and programming data according to the determined programming mode. Consequently, the loss of programmed data is prevented through an SMD reflow process.
US09159402B2	SRAM bitcell implemented in double gate technology An SRAM bitcell includes first and second CMOS inverters connected as a latch defining a true node and a complement node. The bitcell further includes true and complement bitline nodes. A first direct connection is provided between the true bitline node and a back gate of at least a p-channel transistor, and perhaps also an n-channel transistor, in the second CMOS inverter. A second direct connection is provided between the complement bitline node and a back gate of at least a p-channel transistor, and perhaps also an n-channel transistor, in the first CMOS inverter. A first pass transistor is coupled between the true bitline node and the true node, and a second pass transistor is coupled between the complement bitline node and the complement node. Direct connections are also provided between a wordline and the back gates of each of the first and second pass transistors.
US09159396B2	Mechanism for facilitating fine-grained self-refresh control for dynamic memory devices A mechanism for facilitating improved refresh schemes for memory devices is described. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a memory device having refresh logic and memory cells, the memory cells including data cells and supplemental cells, the supplemental cells to be observed. The supplemental cells emulate a decay characteristic of the data cells performing regular refresh operations according to an existing refresh policy. The apparatus may further include the refresh logic to receive, from the supplemental cells, observation data relating to decaying of the supplemental cells, and correlate the observation data to data cell performance. The refresh logic to generate a policy recommendation based on the observation data collected by the supplemental cells.
US09159392B2	Memory device word line drivers and methods Memory subsystems and methods, such as those involving a memory cell array formed over a semiconductor material of a first type, such as p-type substrate. In at least one such subsystem, all of the transistors used to selectively access cells within the array are transistors of a second type, such as n-type transistors. Local word line drivers are coupled to respective word lines extending through the array. Each local word line drivers includes at least one transistor. However, all of the transistors in the local word line drivers are of the second type. A well of semiconductor material of the second type, is also formed in the material of the first type, and a plurality of global word line drivers are formed using the well. Other subsystems and methods are disclosed.
US09159391B1	Systems and methods of double/quad data rate memory involving input latching, self-timing and/or other features Systems and methods relating to memory and/or memory latching are disclosed. In one exemplary implementation, an illustrative memory device may include self-timed pulse generator circuitry, first input latch circuitry, read/write control circuitry, and second input latch circuitry. According to further implementations herein, fast address access for read and write may be provided in the same cycle via a self-timed pulse in the input latch circuit and/or via associated control/scheme from the control circuit.
US09159388B2	Methods and apparatus for synchronizing communication with a memory controller A memory controller receives data and phase-providing signals from a memory device. The phase-providing signal is not a clock signal, but is used by the memory controller to phase align a local data-sampling signal with the incoming data. The memory controller samples the data signal with the data-sampling signal. The memory controller can perform maintenance operations to update the phase relationship between the phase-providing and data-sampling signals.
US09159387B2	Memory chip and semiconductor package including the same A memory chip includes a data processing block suitable for serial-parallel converting data inputted and for parallel-serial converting data to be outputted, a write data transmitting unit suitable for transmitting the data serial-parallel converted by the data processing block to a write data interlayer channel, a write data receiving unit suitable for receiving data from the write data interlayer channel, the data to be written to a core area, a read data receiving unit suitable for receiving data from a read data interlayer channel, the data to be parallel-serial converted by the data processing block, and a read data transmitting unit suitable for transmitting data read from the core area to the read data interlayer channel.
US09159384B2	Data sensing circuit and memory device including the same An memory device includes a bit line, an NMOS transistor configured to supply a voltage of a pull-up voltage terminal to the bit line in response to a voltage level of the bit line and a PMOS transistor configured to supply a voltage of a pull-down voltage terminal to the bit line in response to the voltage level of the bit line.
US09159378B2	Performance monitor with memory ring oscillator Disclosed is a monitoring system that includes at least one performance monitor integrated into a semiconductor die. The performance monitor comprises at least one ring oscillator that includes a plurality of stages. Each stage comprises at least one memory device. In one embodiment, the performance monitor may also include a setting circuit that has a burn-in input and an enable input. The setting circuit is capable of setting an input signal of the at least one ring oscillator to a reference voltage level. The performance monitor is configured to produce a ring delay that is characterized by a performance of the at least one memory device. The ring delay may be utilized to scale an operating voltage of the at least one memory device on the semiconductor die.
US09159376B2	Content addressable memory device A content addressable memory device capable of making simultaneous pursuit of low power consumption and speeding up is provided. A match amplifier A determines coincidence or non-coincidence of search data and data stored in a content addressable memory in an entry of a memory array A, according to a voltage of a match line MLA. A match amplifier B determines coincidence or non-coincidence of search data and data stored in a content addressable memory in an entry of a memory array B, according to a voltage of a match line MLB. A block-B control circuit directs to start searching in the memory array B after two cycles after searching has been started in the memory array A. A block-B activation control circuit directs to stop searching in the memory array B according to a voltage of the match line MLA after searching in the memory array A.
US09159367B2	Automatic playback of one or more excerpt(s) of a video sequence on a data processing device A method includes initiating, through an interface of a data processing device, generation of one or more excerpt(s) of a video sequence associated with a video file stored in a memory of the data processing device. The method also includes automatically reading, through a processor of the data processing device communicatively coupled to the memory, video frames of the video file corresponding to the one or more excerpt(s) and reference video frames thereof in accordance with the initiation through the interface. Further, the method includes decoding, through the processor, the video frames of the video file corresponding to the one or more excerpt(s) and the reference video frames thereof following the automatic reading for rendering thereof on the data processing device.
US09159366B2	Device for playback in a motor vehicle and method for synchronization A device and method for synchronization of data for audio and/or video between a memory of a device in a motor vehicle and an external device is provided. The method comprises synchronizing the data between the memory and the external device through a radio connection through a synchronization unit. The method further comprises outputting a status signal (St) based on a charge state (C) of the first power source by a monitoring unit to the synchronization unit and signaling from the synchronization unit to the external device an interruption of the synchronization due to low charge level. The method further comprises terminating the synchronization of the data based on the status signal (St) indicating that the charge state (C) of the first power source is below a threshold (th) and/or that a second power source for charging of the first power source is disconnected from the first power source.
US09159362B2	Method and system for detecting and recognizing social interactions in a video A system and method for providing a plurality of frames from a video, the video having been taken from a first person's perspective, identifying patterns of attention depicted by living beings appearing in the plurality of frames, identifying social interactions associated with the plurality of frames using the identified patterns of attention over a period of time and using the identified social interactions to affect the subsequent use, storage, presentation, or processing of the plurality of frames.
US09159357B2	Efficient moves via repository A storage library is described that includes a shelf system adapted to support a number of tape cartridges. The storage library further includes a tape drive adapted to read and write data to and from tape cartridges. The storage library further possesses a temporary repository near the tape drive that is adapted to facilitate an exchange of a first tape cartridge intended to be loaded in the tape drive with a second tape cartridge ready to be removed from the tape drive with a single tape picker device.
US09159356B2	Non-resonant two-photon absorption recording material, non-resonant polymer two-photon absorption optical information recording medium, and recording/reproducing method The present invention provides a non-resonant two-photon absorption recording material containing a non-resonant polymer two-photon absorption compound, and the non-resonant two-photon absorption recording material wherein the main chain of the non-resonant polymer two-photon absorption compound contains at least one member selected from polystyrene, polyacrylate, polymethacrylate-polyester, polyurethane, polyether and polyimide, and also provides an optical information recording medium having a recording layer containing the recording material.
US09159355B1	DVD-RAM header or land/groove detection The present disclosure describes techniques for DVD-RAM header or land/groove detection. In some aspects, a wobble signal is integrated, an offset is removed from the integrated wobble signal, and a header is detected in the non-offset integrated wobble signal. In some aspects, a threshold value is adjusted based on a comparison of the received wobble signal and the threshold value, and a header is detected based on the adjusted threshold value.
US09159354B2	Magnetic recording medium fabrication method A method of fabricating a magnetic recording medium by sequentially forming a magnetic recording layer, a protection layer, and a lubricant layer on a stacked body, includes forming the lubricant by depositing a first lubricant on the stacked body after forming the protection layer, by vapor-phase lubrication deposition, without exposing the stacked body to atmosphere, and depositing a second lubricant that is dissolved in an organic solvent onto the stacked body after depositing the first lubricant.
US09159352B2	Polishing liquid composition for magnetic disk substrate The present invention provides a polishing liquid composition for a magnetic disk substrate that can reduce residual inorganic particles and scratches without loss of productivity and a method of producing a magnetic disk substrate using the polishing liquid composition. The polishing liquid composition contains inorganic particles, a diallylamine polymer, an acid and water, the diallylamine polymer includes one or more constitutional units selected from those represented by the following general formulas (I-a), (I-b), (I-c) and (I-d), and the content of the diallylamine polymer in the polishing liquid composition is 0.008 to 0.100 wt %
US09159350B1	High damping cap layer for magnetic recording media A recording medium having improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) capabilities includes a cap layer over the recording layer, where the cap layer has a magnetic damping constant greater than 0.03, such as by using a FeHo cap layer. One mechanism for increasing the SNR is by reducing the switching field distribution. Such a medium is particularly useful in the context of heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR).
US09159348B2	Systems and methods for clearance monitoring in storage media A method for measuring the head-disk clearance between a slider and a disk includes measuring a first resistance with a first bias applied to an embedded contact sensor of the slider, measuring a second resistance with a second bias applied to the embedded contact sensor of the slider, and determining the head-disk clearance based at least in part on a difference between the first resistance and the second resistance. A system includes a disk drive, a slider comprising an embedded contact sensor, and circuitry to apply at least two bias voltages to the embedded contact sensor, measure at least two resistances of the embedded contact sensor based on the application of the at least two bias voltages, and to determine the head-disk clearance based at least in part on a difference between the at least two resistances.
US09159346B1	Near field transducer using dielectric waveguide core with fine ridge feature An apparatus for energy assisted magnetic recording of a storage disk includes a plurality of dielectric waveguide cores disposed near an air bearing surface of a magnetic recording device. Each waveguide core has a fine ridge feature on a first surface of the waveguide core and configured to receive incident light energy from an energy source. A near field transducer (NFT) is formed at the air bearing surface for focusing light energy received from the waveguide core and transmitting the focused light energy onto the storage disk surface to generate a heating spot. The NFT includes at least one plasmonic metal element disposed above the fine ridge features of the waveguide cores to form an interface for delivering propagating surface plasmon polaritons (PSPPs) to the air bearing surface. Each fine ridge feature is configured with a width approximately equivalent to a width of the heating spot.
US09159344B2	Disk drive read circuit comprising an AC coupled sense amplifier for amplifying a read signal A disk drive read circuit is disclosed comprising a read element for generating a read signal, and a sense amplifier comprising an input terminal coupled through a first capacitor to the read element and an output terminal coupled through a second capacitor to a transmission line, wherein the sense amplifier is for amplifying the read signal.
US09159337B2	Apparatus and method for generating a high frequency audio signal using adaptive oversampling An apparatus for generating a high frequency audio signal that includes an analyzer for analyzing an input signal to determine a transient information adaptively. Additionally a spectral converter is provided for converting the input signal into an input spectral representation. A spectral processor processes the input spectral representation to generate a processed spectral representation including values for higher frequencies than the input spectral representation. A time converter is configured for converting the processed spectral representation to a time representation, wherein the spectral converter or the time converter are controllable to perform a frequency domain oversampling for the first portion of the input signal having the transient information associated and to not perform the frequency domain oversampling for the second portion of the input signal not having the associated transient information.
US09159336B1	Cross-domain filtering for audio noise reduction An audio-based system may perform automatic noise reduction to enhance speech intelligibility in an audio signal. Described techniques include initially analyzing audio frames in the time domain to identify frames having relatively low power levels. Those frames are then further analyzed in the frequency domain to estimate noise. For example, the initially identified frames may be analyzed at each of multiple frequencies to detect the lowest exhibited power at each of those frequencies. The lowest power values are used as an estimation of noise across the frequency spectrum, and as the basis for calculating a spectral gain for filtering the audio signal in the frequency domain.
US09159335B2	Apparatus and method for noise estimation, and noise reduction apparatus employing the same Provided are an apparatus and method for estimating noise and a noise reduction apparatus employing the same. The noise estimation apparatus estimates noise by blocking audio signals from a direction of a target sound source from received audio signals, and compensating for distortions from directivity gains of a target sound blocker blocking the audio signals from the target sound source.
US09159333B2	Method and apparatus for adaptively encoding and decoding high frequency band Provided are a method and apparatus for encoding and decoding an audio signal. According to the present application, a signal of a high frequency band above a preset frequency band is adaptively encoded or decoded in the time domain or in the frequency domain by using a signal of a low frequency band below the preset frequency band. As such, the sound quality of a high frequency signal is not deteriorate even when an audio signal is encoded or decoded by using a small number of bits and thus coding efficiency may be maximized.
US09159332B2	Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding noise signal Provided is a method and apparatus for encoding/decoding an audio signal. Sections which are not used to output noise components near important spectral components and sub-bands which are not used to output noise components, are determined to be encoded or decoded, so that the efficiency of encoding and decoding an audio signal increases, and sound quality can be improved using less bits.
US09159330B2	Rate controller, rate control method, and rate control program In an audio encoding system that divides frames generated from input signals into multiple scale factor bands and that encodes each of the scale factor bands by using a scale factor, the invention provides a rate control apparatus that performs rate control based on an NMR, the rate control apparatus comprising an NMR determination unit that determines an NMR that does not exceed a target rate by a binary search; and a scale factor determination unit that determines, by a binary search, the largest scale factor corresponding to the NMR determined by the NMR determination unit and a rate. Each time the NMR determination unit selects an NMR candidate value that acts as a candidate when the NMR determination unit searches for an NMR by a binary search, the scale factor determination unit determines the scale factor corresponding to the NMR candidate value.
US09159328B1	Audio fingerprinting for advertisement detection A device may receive an audio sample, and may separate the audio sample into multiple sub-band signals in multiple frequency bands. The device may modify an upper boundary and a lower boundary of at least one of the frequency bands to form modified frequency bands. The device may modify the sub-band signals to form banded signals associated with the modified frequency bands. The device may smooth the banded signals to form smoothed signal values. The device may identify peak values included in the smoothed signal values, and may generate an audio fingerprint for the audio sample based on the smoothed signal values and the peak values.
US09159323B2	Deriving geographic distribution of physiological or psychological conditions of human speakers while preserving personal privacy A method including: obtaining, via a plurality of communication devices, a plurality of speech signals respectively associated with human speakers, the speech signals including verbal components and non-verbal components; identifying a plurality of geographical locations, each geographic location associated with a respective one of the plurality of the communication devices; extracting the non-verbal components from the obtained speech signals; deducing physiological or psychological conditions of the human speakers by analyzing, over a specified period, the extracted non-verbal components, using predefined relations between characteristics of the non-verbal components and physiological or psychological conditions of the human speakers; and providing a geographical distribution of the deduced physiological or psychological conditions of the human speakers by associating the deduced physiological or psychological conditions of the human speakers with geographical locations thereof.
US09159322B2	Services identification and initiation for a speech-based interface to a mobile device A method of providing hands-free services using a mobile device having wireless access to computer-based services includes establishing a short range wireless connection between a mobile device and one or more audio devices that include at least a microphone and speaker; receiving at the mobile device speech inputted via the microphone from a user and sent via the short range wireless connection; wirelessly transmitting the speech input from the mobile device to a speech recognition server that provides automated speech recognition (ASR); receiving at the mobile device a speech recognition result representing the content of the speech input; determining a desired service by processing the speech recognition result using a first, service-identifying grammar; determining a user service request by processing at least some of the speech recognition result using a second, service-specific grammar associated with the desired service; initiating the user service request and receiving a service response; generating an audio message from the service response; and presenting the audio message to the user via the speaker.
US09159318B2	Unsupervised and active learning in automatic speech recognition for call classification Utterance data that includes at least a small amount of manually transcribed data is provided. Automatic speech recognition is performed on ones of the utterance data not having a corresponding manual transcription to produce automatically transcribed utterances. A model is trained using all of the manually transcribed data and the automatically transcribed utterances. A predetermined number of utterances not having a corresponding manual transcription are intelligently selected and manually transcribed. Ones of the automatically transcribed data as well as ones having a corresponding manual transcription are labeled. In another aspect of the invention, audio data is mined from at least one source, and a language model is trained for call classification from the mined audio data to produce a language model.
US09159317B2	System and method for recognizing speech A system and a method recognize speech including a sequence of words. A set of interpretations of the speech is generated using an acoustic model and a language model, and, for each interpretation, a score representing correctness of an interpretation in representing the sequence of words is determined to produce a set of scores. Next, the set of scores is updated based on a consistency of each interpretation with a constraint determined in response to receiving a word sequence constraint.
US09159314B2	Distributed speech unit inventory for TTS systems In a text-to-speech (TTS) system, a database including sample speech units for unit selection may be configured for use by a local device. The local unit database may be created from a more comprehensive unit database. The local unit database may include units which provide sufficient TTS results for frequently input text. Speech synthesis may then be performed by concatenating locally available units with units from a remote device including the comprehensive unit database. Aspects of the speech synthesis may be performed by the remote device and/or the local device.
US09159310B2	Musical modification effects Systems, including methods and apparatus, for applying audio effects to a non-ambient signal, based at least in part on information received in an ambient audio signal. Exemplary effects that can be applied using the present teachings include generation of harmony notes, pitch-correction of melody notes, and tempo-based effects that rely on beat detection.
US09159309B2	Handheld singing apparatus A handheld singing apparatus, capable of being cooperated with a handheld electronic device having a screen for operation, includes a holding member, a supporting seat and a connecting portion. The holding member is approximately formed as rod shaped and has a first end and a second end opposite to the first end. The supporting seat is capable of receiving and fastening with the handheld electronic device, so that the screen is faced to a direction far from the holding member. The connecting portion is connected between the first end of the holding member and the supporting seat, so that the supporting seat is rotatable relative to the holding member.
US09159308B1	Electronic musical instruments Methods and a system for providing electronic musical instruments are disclosed. Through novel combinations of sensor inputs and processing, they allow simulation of acoustic instruments including but not limited to a Trombone, Trumpet, and Saxophone. Sensor inputs are configured to trigger playback and transitioning of sound and control its various attributes alone, or in combination.
US09159307B1	MIDI controller keyboard, system, and method of using the same A musical instrument including a housing, a keypad having a plurality of push buttons arranged in a three-dimensional array of horizontal rows and vertical columns disposed within the housing and a CPU with MIDI and USB processing coupled to the keypad to manipulate and control a sound generated with signals from the plurality of push buttons, wherein the horizontal rows of push buttons are arranged in tiers.
US09159306B2	Music teaching device and method A novel music tablature corresponding to Janko-type keyboard with touch plates having coloring different from traditional keyboards is provided.
US09159305B1	Pitch and tone altering drum cover A pitch altering cover for a drumhead is provided. The pitch altering cover includes a circular drumhead cover having an upper surface and a lower surface. The lower surface is formed to rest on a drumhead. A gasket is attached at least a portion of a parameter of the upper surface of the circular drumhead cover.
US09159304B1	Bore-variable leadpipe for brass instruments A bore-variable leadpipe includes a mouthpiece receiver integrally formed on a tube body of a brass instrument and a mouthpiece adaptor detachably assembled to the mouthpiece receiver. The mouthpiece receiver internally defines a first bore, in which an assembling section, a tapered section and an air-guiding section are sequentially formed. The mouthpiece adaptor has a receiving end for receiving a mouthpiece therein and an assembling end for engaging with the assembling section, and internally defines a second bore between the two ends. When the mouthpiece adaptor is assembled to the mouthpiece receiver, the second and the first bore are aligned and communicable with each other to form a conical passage and a cylindrical passage. The leadpipe can be changed in its bore size by assembling a mouthpiece adaptor of a different bore size to the mouthpiece receiver, so that the same brass instrument can be used with differently sized mouthpieces.
US09159299B2	Compensated method of displaying based on a visual adjustment factor A method and a device for displaying images on a display based on a visual adjustment factor related to a user's prescription eyewear are provided. The display includes a front display plane and a back display plane and for each of a plurality of image elements of an image, a respective version of the image element is displayed on each of the front display plane and the back display plane based on the visual adjustment factor such that the respective versions of the image element differ in at least one of line weight and transparency.
US09159297B2	Image-displaying device and display timing control circuit An image-displaying device includes an image data generation section, a progress information acquisition section and a display control section. The image data generation section is configured to perform processing for generating image data indicative of an image of a subject based on output data from an image-capturing section that captures the image of the subject, the image data being composed of a plurality of predetermined data units. The progress information acquisition section is configured to acquire progress information indicative of a status of progress of the processing for generating the image data with respect to each of the predetermined data units of the image data. The display control section is configured to control the display section to display at least one of the predetermined data units of the image data for which the processing for generating the image data is ended based on the progress information.
US09159291B2	Liquid crystal display device, method for driving thereof and electronic apparatus The liquid crystal display device performs display by changing the number of gray scales depending on external light intensity, and switches the display mode in accordance with a content to be displayed on a display. By controlling a display mode-specific video signal generation circuit depending on external light intensity, an inputted video signal is outputted as an analog value, is outputted with a digital value of a binary, or is outputted with a multiple digital value. As a result, display gradation of a pixel changes timely. Accordingly, a clear image can be displayed. For example, a display device which secures visibility can be obtained in a wide range from under fluorescent light in a dark place or indoor to under outdoor sunlight.
US09159290B2	Display apparatus A scan driving circuit of a display apparatus is electrically connected to the display panel through a plurality of scan lines and includes a plurality of stages of driving unit. The driving unit comprises a shift control device outputting a control signal according to a starting signal and a driving device. The driving device outputs an output signal to the corresponding scan line according to the control signal, a first trigger signal and a second trigger signal. The output signal is used as the starting signal of the next stage of driving unit, and the rising transition time of the second trigger signal and the falling transition time of the first trigger signal have an overlap.
US09159288B2	Gate line driver circuit for display element array Gate line driver circuitry applies an output pulse to each of several gate lines for a display element array. The circuitry has a number of gate drivers each being coupled to drive a respective one of the gate lines. Each of the gate drivers has an output stage in which a high side transistor and a low side transistor are coupled to drive the respective gate line, responsive to at least one clock signal. A pull down transistor is coupled to discharge a control electrode of the output stage. A control circuit having a cascode amplifier is coupled to drive the pull down transistor as a function of a) at least one clock signal and b) feedback from the control electrode. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09159287B2	Image display apparatus and image display method When the degree of reliability of a motion vector is equal to or higher than a threshold, an interpolated image is generated, and the image of a frame of interest and the interpolated image are output to a panel in the order named. Every time the image is output, a backlight is turned on. When the degree of reliability is lower than the threshold, the image of the frame of interest is output twice to the panel. Every time the image is output, the backlight is controlled to alternately set its light amount to the first light amount and the second light amount smaller than the first light amount.
US09159281B2	Display and driving method thereof A driving method applied in a display is provided. The display includes M scan lines, N data lines, M control lines and M×N pixels. M and N are natural numbers greater than 1. The driving method includes the following steps of: driving M scan lines in M scan periods respectively; providing a data voltage to each of the N data lines in each of the M scan periods; driving the first to the (M−K)th control lines in the (K+1)th to the Mth scan periods respectively to turn on the discharge switch in each of the pixels on the first to the (M−K)th control lines; and driving the second to the Kth control lines to trigger level shifting events in the first to the (K−1)th scan periods respectively, so that level shifting events are triggered on a scan and control lines in the first to the (K−1)th scan periods.
US09159277B2	Circuits for controlling an array of light modulators of a display apparatus to generate display images A display includes an array of light modulators each having a first actuator and a second actuator. A control matrix includes a circuit having a first state inverter having an output coupled to an input of a second state inverter. A data store capacitor is coupled to an input of the first inverter and configured to store a data voltage corresponding to a future pixel state of the pixel. A first update interconnect is coupled to the first state inverter and configured such that altering a voltage applied to the first update interconnect causes the first actuator to respond to the stored data voltage. A second update interconnect is coupled to the second state inverter and configured such that altering a voltage applied to the second update interconnect causes the second actuator to respond to a voltage state of the first inverter.
US09159272B2	Light emitting device for image display, image display apparatus, and LED driver Specifically provided is a light emitting device for image display, wherein each of light emitting elements, a PWM control unit which PWM-controls a current to be supplied to the light emitting element, a control condition setting unit which, according to the APL of image data, determines and updatably sets the PWM limiting condition for limiting the PWM value that is the duty ratio of the PWM control, and the reference current value that is the value of the current flowing to the light emitting element in response to turn-on of the PWM control, and a PWM value calculation unit which on the basis of the image data, the PWM limit condition, and the reference current value, calculates the PWM value of each area, and the PWM control unit performs the PWM control on the basis of the reference current value and the calculated PWM value.
US09159267B2	Liquid crystal display device Disclosed herein is a liquid crystal display device having first and second substrates disposed to face each other so as to hold a liquid crystal layer therebetween, and a gate potential creating circuit for outputting a selection potential and a non-selection potential, scanning lines, signal lines, thin film transistors formed so as to correspond to intersection portions between the scanning lines and the signal lines, respectively, pixel electrodes electrically connected to the thin film transistors, respectively, and a gate control circuit for switching the selection potential and the non-selection potential supplied from the gate potential creating circuit over to each other, thereby supplying one of the selection potential and the non-selection potential to corresponding ones of the thin film transistors through corresponding one of the scanning lines being formed on the first substrate, and a common electrode being formed either on the first substrate or the second substrate.
US09159260B2	Mobile terminal A mobile terminal includes a terminal body including a display unit formed on one surface thereof, a cover coupled to the terminal body such that it can be converted into a closed state in which the display is covered and an opened state in which the display unit is exposed, a signal generating unit configured to generate a state signal according to the closed state and the opened state, and a controller configured to control the display unit such that the display unit is activated in the opened state on the basis of the state signal.
US09159259B2	Testing circuits of liquid crystal display and the testing method thereof A device and method for testing a display panel are disclosed. The display panel includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix. Each of the pixels is controlled by a charging gate line and a sharing gate line. The testing circuit includes a first, second, third data testing pad electrically coupling a plurality of red, green, and blue sub-pixels respectively, and k gate testing pad. The sharing gate line of m-th sub-pixel row electrically connects to the charging gate line of (m+2n)-th sub-pixel row, wherein m is a positive integer, and n is the positive integer not less than 2. A row number of the sub-pixel row is divided by k to obtain a remainder q. The q-th gate testing pad electrically connects to the charging gate lines coupled with the sub-pixel row, and k and q are positive integers. And 2n is not divisible by k.
US09159258B2	Display device, and optical compensation system and optical compensation method thereof A display device, and an optical compensation system and an optical compensation method thereof. A display device including a display panel including pixels; and a display driving circuit for driving the display panel and including: a storage unit for storing defect pixel information indicating which of the pixels are detected as defect pixels based on a brightness trend line of the pixels, and for storing compensation parameters regarding the defect pixels; and a brightness compensation unit for converting image data corresponding to the defect pixels according to the defect pixel information and the compensation parameters.
US09159257B2	Organic light emitting display and method of driving the same The organic light emitting display includes a plurality of pixels positioned at intersections of scan lines, emission control lines, and data lines, a scan driver for sequentially supplying scan signals to the scan lines at a first driving frequency in order to select the pixels in units of horizontal lines, and an emission driver for sequentially supplying emission control signals to the emission control lines at a second driving frequency different from the first driving frequency in order to control emission of the pixels.
US09159250B2	Label sheet assembly and method of making the same A label sheet assembly including a liner sheet, a carrier sheet, and a facestock sheet. The facestock sheet includes cut lines defining labels and cut lines defining at least a portion of a carrier strip. The carrier sheet can include cut lines defining at least a portion of the carrier strip. The carrier strip can be removed from the label sheet assembly to expose at least a portion of a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive on the labels. The label sheet assembly has a uniform thickness in an area that includes the carrier strip and the labels.
US09159249B2	System for facilitating preparation of medication doses A system for facilitating preparation of medication doses comprising a container of for receiving a quantity of medication, the container having color bands extending circumferentially therearound to facilitate preparing medication doses, each color band corresponding to a predetermined dosage of medication.
US09159239B2	Method for dynamically determining the position of the stop point of an aircraft on a terrain, and associated system The method according to the invention comprise the following steps, dynamic measurement of the current geographical position of the aircraft, and its current ground speed, calculation of a first length representative of a flight phase of the aircraft, and calculation of a second length representative of a ground phase of the aircraft, calculation of the position of the stop point based on the first length, the second length and the current geographical position. The calculation of the first length comprises a phase for dynamically estimating a distance traveled by the aircraft during at least part of a flare phase of the aircraft.
US09159235B2	Method of operating a driver assistance system of a motor vehicle A driver assistance system includes a sensor that detects objects and/or characteristics of objects in the surroundings of a motor vehicle, and an object recognition unit that evaluates data from the sensor to produce object information, and determines a confidence value indicating the probability of accuracy thereof. If the confidence value is greater than a minimum threshold but less than a predefined threshold, then the system displays the object information to the driver, who confirms or rejects it, e.g. by actuating or not actuating an operating element. Upon confirmation by the driver, the system begins or continues to perform a driver assistance function based on the object information. Upon rejection by the driver, the system does not perform or discontinues the driver assistance function based on the object information. If the confidence value exceeds the predefined threshold, then the system autonomously performs the driver assistance function.
US09159234B2	Method for emulating an environmental sensor in a motor vehicle and for testing an anticipatory safety system, and an emulation system In a method for emulating an environmental sensor in a motor vehicle in a specified collision situation at a first predetermined speed of the motor vehicle, raw data are recorded in a collision situation at a second speed, which is lower than the first speed, with the environmental sensor to be emulated using the motor vehicle and/or a structurally substantially identical motor vehicle and stored. The stored raw data and/or raw data extrapolated therefrom are used downsampled for emulating the environmental sensor at the first speed.
US09159233B2	System including vehicle location alert based communication with a vehicle audio entertainment system and related methods A system for a vehicle having a data communications bus extending throughout the vehicle, and an audio entertainment system coupled to the data communications bus may include a vehicle wireless transceiver and a vehicle controller to be coupled to the data communications bus. The vehicle controller may be configured to determine and send a vehicle location alert via the vehicle wireless transceiver, and selectively set the audio entertainment system to link with the vehicle wireless transceiver in a hands-free mode. The system may also include a mobile device to be carried by a user remote from the vehicle that may include a remote wireless transceiver configured to link wirelessly with the vehicle wireless transceiver. The mobile device may also include a remote controller cooperating to command, based upon receiving the vehicle location alert, the vehicle controller to set the audio entertainment system into the hands-free mode.
US09159232B2	Vehicle climate control Systems and methods of vehicle climate control are provided. Specifically, a vehicle with climate control includes a number of sensors for sensing climate control information, such as human bodily conditions, e.g., temperature or heart rate, of the human occupants of the vehicle, a processing unit, and a climate control. The processing unit uses the sensed human bodily conditions data from the sensors to activate the climate control the adjust the climate conditions for the human occupants. In another aspect of the disclosure, stress level of the human operator of a vehicle can be detected by sensing the bodily conditions of the human operator, determining the stress level of the human operator based on the sensed bodily conditions, and displaying a warning if the stress level is over a certain limit.
US09159228B2	System and method for estimation of available parking space through intersection traffic counting A method and structure for estimating parking occupancy within an area of interest can include the use of at least two image capture devices and a processor (e.g., a computer) which form at least part of a network. A method for estimating the parking occupancy within the area of interest can include the use of vehicle entry and exit data from the area of interest, as well as an estimated transit time for vehicles transiting through the area of interest without parking.
US09159220B2	Lighting apparatus having an audio device and method of controlling the same Provided is a lighting apparatus which may include an audio system, a light emitting device including a plurality of LEDs, a communication module to receive data for the audio system or the light emitting device, a switch provided between the communication module and the audio system to control a connection between the communication module and the audio system, and a controller to control the audio system and the light emitting device. The controller may be configured to determine whether the received data is associated with the lighting emitting device or the audio system, and controls the switch to connect to the audio system when the received data is associated with the audio system.
US09159219B2	Control system for power-assisted door A control system for a power assisted door, the electronic door control system includes an intelligent control, a plurality of sensor inputs operatively connected to the intelligent control, the plurality of sensor inputs associated with state of a plurality of mechanical components of the power assisted door, and a power drive operatively connected to the intelligent control for providing opening and closing of the power assisted door. The intelligent control is configured to monitor status of the plurality of sensor inputs and control the power drive at least partially based on the status of the plurality of sensor inputs. The intelligent control may be adapted to determine when state of the plurality of sensor inputs is indicative of one or more conditions which would preclude safe door movement. A power distribution module may also be present to assist in limiting current draw and to allow for charging.
US09159218B2	Initiation of carbon monoxide and/or smoke detector alarm test using image recognition and/or facial gesturing An apparatus for smoke detection having an image sensor may be tested using image or pattern recognition, or facial gesturing without having to climb a ladder or chair to initiate the test, or be uncomfortably close to the smoke detector apparatus during initiation of the testing thereof. Carbon monoxide (CO) and/or carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring and alarm may also be incorporated into this apparatus. Other control functions may also be initiated with image or pattern recognition, or facial gesturing such as audio features associated with the smoke detector apparatus such as networked speakers for distribution of music, intercom, telephone, and/or doorbell annunciation.
US09159217B1	Methods and apparatus notifying a remotely located user of the operating condition of a household appliance Sounds, alarms or other indications of conditions of potential interest that are produced by appliances and other household devices are detected by one or more sensors to trigger a notification signal that is sent to a remotely located user. The signals produced by the sensors are advantageously compared with a database of signals representing conditions of potential interest produced by known appliances and devices, producing the appropriate notification signal when a match is found. Notifications may be relayed to one or more selected users only when predetermined conditions are satisfied.
US09159215B1	Method for determining whether an individual leaves a prescribed virtual perimeter A method and system that allows healthcare providers, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other persons to monitor disabled, elderly or other high-risk individuals to prevent or reduce falls and/or mitigate the impact of a fall by delivering automated notification of “at risk” behavior and falls by such an individual being monitored where assistance is required.
US09159212B1	Tracking passengers on cruise ships Systems and procedures for tracking the locations of passengers on a vessel are provided. Example systems may include a portable tag configured to be assigned to a passenger, the tag encoded with a tag identifier; a plurality of tag readers configured to be positioned at predetermined locations on a vessel, each tag reader configured to read the tag identifier of the tag when the tag reader receives a signal from the tag; a tracking component configured to communicate with the tag readers, the tracking component configured to receive, from a detecting tag reader, an indication that the signal has been received from the tag, the tracking component configured to determine a detected location of the tag based at least in part on the predetermined location of the detecting tag reader; and a notification component configured to send towards a user device, a notification including the detected location.
US09159208B2	Energy efficient cascade of sensors for automatic presence detection The present invention relates to a method and a system for detecting presence in a predefined space. The system comprises cascade connected sensors (s1, s2, . . . , sn), an output device (1), a control unit (2) and a processing unit (3). The method comprises the steps of activating a first sensor (s1) in the cascade and waiting until the first sensor detects presence. When presence is detected, a successive sensor (s2, . . . , sn) in the cascade is activated, and when the successive sensor (s2, . . . , sn) also detects presence the step of activating the successive sensor is repeated until all sensors in the cascade have been activated. If the successive sensor (s2, . . . , sn) does not detect presence the method returns to the waiting step of the first sensor. When the ultimate sensor in the cascade (sn) detects presence, a confirmation message is sent to the output device (1).
US09159207B2	Haptic device A method of generating a haptic sensation comprising: determining an initial estimate of a filter to be applied to a respective signal input to each transducer; defining a model of the system; calculating the vibration of the member as an output of the model of the system; calculating a reference error value for the output of the model; determining changed parameter values of the parameters of the model; recalculating the error value for the output of the model; comparing the recalculated error value with the reference error value; setting the recalculated error value as the reference error value, setting the changed parameter values as the model parameters, and repeating the above steps, or outputting the model parameters; generating a new filter using the output model parameters; and applying the new filters to respective input signals applied to each transducer to generate vibration within the member to provide the haptic sensation.
US09159206B2	Method and apparatus for locating a person during a man-down situation A method and apparatus for more-quickly locating an individual during a man-down situation is provided herein. During operation a light source on an officer's vehicle will be directed towards the downed officer when a man-down situation has been identified. Since a light source will be pointed at the downed individual, respondents responding to the man-down situation may more-quickly locate any downed individual.
US09159205B1	Tamper-evident seals having adhesive-free areas to minimize rework time Various aspects of the present disclosure provide tamper-evident seals and methods for indicating tampering with an apparatus using the tamper-evident seals. One such tamper-evident seal includes a base layer and a pattern-release layer on a periphery area of the base layer. In such case, the pattern-release layer includes a first adhesive configured to leave a residue on the printed circuit board assembly, and the base layer has a central area that is surrounded by the periphery area and free of the first adhesive.
US09159199B2	Wagering game with altered probablilities based on reel strip configurations A gaming system for playing a wagering game includes a display configured to displaying a wagering game outcome on a plurality of video reels and a controller in communication with the display. The controller is operative to randomly determine an outcome of the wagering game and to display the wagering game outcome on the plurality of reels. The wagering game outcome includes a plurality of symbols disposed on a first subset of the plurality of reels and further includes at least one meta-symbol disposed on a second subset of the plurality of reels. The controller is further operative to award an award if the displayed wagering game defines a winning wagering game outcome.
US09159196B2	Server based gaming system having multiple progressive awards A gaming system including a central server linked to a plurality of gaming machines. The central server includes a plurality of progressive modules. Each progressive module maintains one or more progressive awards and is associated with zero, one or more of the gaming machines in the gaming system. Upon a determination that a designated one of the progressive awards will be provided, one of the gaming machines associated with the progressive module which maintains the designated progressive award provides the designated progressive award to the player of such gaming machine.
US09159194B2	Method and apparatus for attractive bonusing A method for a game includes providing a plurality of individual gaming machines for playing a base game, where an outcome of each gaming machine is determined at least in part by chance, and communicatively coupling a progressive bonus apparatus to said plurality of individual gaming machines. The method includes creating value elements and inserting them onto individual gaming machines in a bank of gaming machines. The value elements can be seen visually by players so that the players can monitor the status of the bonus game while playing the base game. Also disclosed is an apparatus capable of carrying out the above method as well as a media carrying an instruction set for carrying out the above method.
US09159192B2	Gaming device having resultant wild symbols A gaming device including a plurality of reels or cards having several symbols. The symbols include at least two complimentary symbols that form resultant symbols on related reels or cards. In one embodiment, the resultant symbol is similar to a symbol and acts as a substitute for other symbols on the reels or cards. In another embodiment, the resultant symbol transforms adjacent symbols into symbols or other symbols on the reels or cards. In a further embodiment, the resultant symbol transforms a predetermined or random number of symbols on the reels or cards into symbols or other symbols.
US09159190B2	Adaptive environmental effects An establishment can coordinate devices (e.g., lights, speakers, displays) to enhance a game playing environment based on events detected in a network of wagering game machines. A system can be implemented that determines an environmental effect based on an event of a wagering game (e.g., a near win event), regardless of the particular wagering game developer/manufacturer. The system can then determine that the environmental effect should be modified based on current circumstances of the area to be impacted and/or the player, for example. The system modifies the environment effect as indicated for the current circumstances and causes the modified environmental effect to be produced.
US09159187B2	System and method for verifying user identity in a virtual environment Systems and methods for verifying user identity in a virtual environment are provided that may include periodic transmitting/monitoring of biometric data and geographic location data. Integrated systems may include anti-tamper devices that automatically delete biometric data in the event if tampering and/or power loss. Thus, the present invention helps to prevent tampering with player identity information, as well as helping to prevent access by a player to the software, graphics or other content associated with selected online activities. Such systems and methods may find particular applicability in fields related to online gambling by verifying the identity and location of an on-line player.
US09159185B2	Physical playing card gaming systems and related methods A physical playing card gaming system includes a gaming table including at least one dealer position and at least one player position. The system includes a physical playing card handling device that is configured to read at least one of a card rank and card suit of physical playing cards. The system also includes at least one processor in communication with the physical playing card handling device and a video monitor. The at least one processor is programmed to determine the composition of at least one dealer hand and at least one player hand based on the at least one of card rank and card suit read. The at least one processor is programmed to cause game information based on the determined hands to be displayed in response to dealer input. Methods of operating such a physical playing card gaming system include displaying the game information upon dealer request.
US09159183B2	Vending device A machine having a machine housing and a machine base defining a housing axis. The machine housing has a top cover and a bottom cover including a hub with a shaped hole. A removable carousel is disposed within the machine housing along the machine axis with a plurality of tubes oriented parallel to the housing axis. The machine base has an interior and an exterior, and is operatively connected to the machine housing proximate the bottom cover. A mechanical mechanism is disposed partially in the interior of the machine base having an internal actuator cam, and a cam follower assembly, wherein the internal actuator cam and the cam follower are operatively connected to one another. The machine includes an ejector arm operatively interfaced with the mechanical mechanism, and a discharge chute disposed within the machine base including a first end and a second end.
US09159182B2	Vending approval systems, methods, and apparatus using card readers Methods, systems, and apparatus for obtaining application data using a card reader having a pass-through mode and an automatic polling mode are disclosed. Application data may be obtained by enabling the pass-through mode of the card reader, instructing the card reader to poll for an exchange event, identifying the exchange event, identifying a subject of the exchange event, and obtaining application data from the subject when the subject of the exchange event is a predefined application. The pass-through mode may be disabled and the automatic polling mode may be enabled after the application data is obtained. An account number from the subject of the exchange event may also be obtained for use in authorizing a vending transaction.
US09159181B2	Method and system for automatically depositing objects for the purpose of their transportation A method for automatically depositing objects for transport, including a phase of user storing transport data in a storage element, the data relating to: the user associated with the object; the total number of objects declared by the user; the destination, the route and the time of the transport; a depositing phase, including: a user applying a first electromagnetic identification tag onto an object to be transported; placing, by the user, the object to be transported on a conveyance device; reading an identification data, by first reading device, from the first electromagnetic identification tag, storing identification data read in the storage element in association with previously stored transport data; a phase of conveying the object for transport; the depositing phase including a measurement of the weight and/or dimensions of the object and/or storing, in the storage element, of the weight and/or the dimensions in association with the transport data.
US09159179B2	Common access card security and document security enhancement Techniques and systems for maintaining a secure document replication environment based on information contained in CACs are disclosed. In one embodiment of the invention, a device such as an MFP, a printer, a scanner, a copier, or a fax machine comprises or is connected to a card reader. The device prevents users from using the device until the users have been authenticated. In order to authenticate himself to the device, a user inserts his CAC into the card reader. The device reads the user's digital certificate off of the user's CAC. The device determines whether the digital certificate is valid. If the digital certificate is not valid, then, in one embodiment of the invention, the device prevents the user from using any of the device's functions (e.g., printing, scanning, copying, faxing, etc.).
US09159175B2	Method for data communication between a vehicle and fuel pump A method for data communication between a vehicle and fuel pump includes storing vehicle operating data on an onboard recorder in the vehicle, and transmitting the vehicle operating data from the onboard recorder to the fuel pump. The vehicle operating data includes vehicle identification information.
US09159164B2	Statistical point pattern matching technique A statistical point pattern matching technique is used to match corresponding points selected from two or more views of a roof of a building. The technique entails statistically selecting points from each of orthogonal and oblique aerial views of a roof, generating radial point patterns for each aerial view, calculating the origin of each point pattern, representing the shape of the point pattern as a radial function, and Fourier-transforming the radial function to produce a feature space plot. A feature profile correlation function can then be computed to relate the point match sets. From the correlation results, a vote occupancy table can be generated to help evaluate the variance of the point match sets, indicating, with high probability, which sets of points are most likely to match one another.
US09159160B1	Texture sharing between application modules Texture sharing in a graphics memory is disclosed. A primary application establishes a virtual device for interaction with a graphics module. The virtual device includes a texture reference that refers to a render target texture in a graphics memory of the graphics module, and multiple render states, the render states having corresponding render state values. The plurality of render state values is saved in a memory in association with the corresponding render states. An external application module is invoked and provided a virtual device reference to the virtual device. Upon a return of the external application module, the plurality of render states are restored to the corresponding render state values. The graphics module is directed to generate a final scene in a final scene buffer in the memory in the graphics module using the render target texture.
US09159159B2	Systems and methods for visualizing elongated structures and detecting branches therein The present disclosure is directed to using patients' imaging of a tubular structure to generate a series of maximum intensity projection views of segments of the tubular structure and assembling the views to provide a complete circumferential visualization of the tubular structure. Such views may be used to generate patient-specific models of flow within the tubular structure, predict medical events (e.g. cardiac, pulmonary, respiratory), including plaque rupture and/or myocardial infarction.
US09159158B2	Surface classification for point-based rendering within graphics display system A method including casting a ray from a point toward a point-based three dimensional scene. The scene includes memory resident objects with object surfaces and a first splat and a second splat associated with the object surfaces. The first splat and the second splat have a position and a normal vector. The method also includes forming an event line through the first splat and the second splat. The event line intersects the first splat and the second splat. The method further includes determining whether a visibility conflict exists between the first splat and the second splat. The method also includes separating the first splat and the second splat to different object surfaces if the visibility conflict exists, otherwise merging the first splat and the second splat to a single object surface.
US09159154B2	Image processing method and apparatus for generating disparity value A method and apparatus for processing an image is provided. The image processing apparatus may adjust or generate a disparity of a pixel, by assigning similar disparities to two pixels that are adjacent to each other and have similar pixels. The image processing apparatus may generate a final disparity map that may minimize energy, based on an image and an initial disparity map, under a predetermined constraint. A soft constraint or a hard constraint may be used as the constraint.
US09159151B2	Bringing a visual representation to life via learned input from the user Data captured with respect to a human may be analyzed and applied to a visual representation of a user such that the visual representation begins to reflect the behavioral characteristics of the user. For example, a system may have a capture device that captures data about the user in the physical space. The system may identify the user's characteristics, tendencies, voice patterns, behaviors, gestures, etc. Over time, the system may learn a user's tendencies and intelligently apply animations to the user's avatar such that the avatar behaves and responds in accordance with the identified behaviors of the user. The animations applied to the avatar may be animations selected from a library of pre-packaged animations, or the animations may be entered and recorded by the user into the avatar's avatar library.
US09159148B2	System, method, and software for displaying parameter values with historical ranges A method for patient monitoring includes receiving one or more first patient parameters from at least one medical device. The method further includes transforming the one or more first patient parameters into one or more gauge display parameters. The method further includes generating data operable to display the one or more gauge display parameters individually in a particular portion of a display device. The one or more gauge display parameters include at least a historical range and a current value within the historical range. The method further includes analyzing one or more second patient parameters to adjust the one or more gauge display parameters.
US09159142B2	Image coding method, image decoding method, image coding apparatus, image decoding apparatus, and image coding and decoding apparatus An image decoding device includes a processor and storage configured to receive a bitstream from a server based on an instruction sent from an apparatus, decode an image on a block-by-block basis, from the bitstream and send the image to a display apparatus. The decoding includes obtaining first, second, third and fourth data, where context adaptive binary arithmetic decoding is performed on the first data, bypass decoding is performed on the second data, context adaptive binary arithmetic decoding is performed on the third data, and bypass decoding is separately performed on the fourth data. Four luma intra prediction modes are derived from a respective one of four luma context-dependent segments and a corresponding one of four luma context-independent segments for four subblocks in an image block, and one chroma intra prediction mode is derived from one chroma context-dependent segment and one chroma context-independent segment for the image block.
US09159141B2	Method for reconstructing a current block of an image and corresponding encoding method, corresponding devices as well as storage medium carrying an images encoded in a bit stream The invention is made in the field of image block encoding and reconstruction. A method for reconstructing a current block of an image is described, the current block being encoded using predictive encoding of segments resulting from geometry adaptive block partitioning of said current block. After decoding encoded data comprising at least one flag and motion vectors, wherein blocks referenced by the motion vectors are used for prediction of segments of the current block, the at least one flag and an encoding order of the motion vectors in the encoded data is used for determining which of the referenced blocks exhibits a geometry that matches the geometry of the current block and for determining a segment of the determined block, wherein prior to determining the segment, the determined block is geometry adaptive block partitioned into segments from which the segment is determined for predicting one of the segments of the current block.
US09159139B2	Method and device for processing pixels contained in a video sequence Processing the pixel value of at least one image pixel contained in a current frame of a video sequence includes constructing an individual motion trajectory including motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel over a plurality of preceding and/or subsequent frames, and processing the pixel value based on the individual motion trajectory. Constructing the individual motion trajectory includes choosing the at least one image pixel of the current frame as a start pixel of the individual motion trajectory, and adding motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel of preceding and/or subsequent frames to the individual motion trajectory. For each of the plurality of preceding and/or subsequent frames, at least two motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel are determined, and one of the at least two motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel is selected and added to the individual motion trajectory.
US09159137B2	Probabilistic neural network based moving object detection method and an apparatus using the same The present disclosure proposes a method of moving object detection in variable bit-rate video steams based on probabilistic neural networks, and the method features a background generation module and a moving object detection module. The background generation module produces a model of background images which express properties of variable bit-rate video streams. The moving object detection module distinguishes a moving object in both low and high bit-rate video steams in an efficient manner. The detection result is generated by calculating the output value of the probabilistic neural networks.
US09159135B2	Systems, methods, and computer program products for low-latency warping of a depth map Methods, systems, and computer program products to warp a depth map into alignment with an image, where the image sensor (e.g., camera) responsible for the image and depth sensor responsible for an original depth map are separated in space. In an embodiment, the warping of the depth map may be started before the original depth map has been completely read. Moreover, data from the warped depth map may be made available to an application before the entire warped depth map has been completely generated. Such a method and system may improve the speed of the overall process and/or reduce memory requirements.
US09159134B2	Method and apparatus for estimating a pose The invention relates to a real time-capable analysis of a sequence of electronic images for estimating the pose of a movable object captured by means of the images. The invention further relates to implementing the invention in software and, in this connection, to a computer-readable medium that stores commands, the execution of which causes the method according to the invention to be carried out. The invention proceeds from a skeleton model, which is described by a small number of nodes in 3D space and permits a good data compression of the image information when the co-ordinates of the nodes describe at any time the position of predetermined parts of the moving object. The skeleton model simultaneously represents previous knowledge of the object, by defining e.g. node pairs and optionally also node triplets in the skeleton model that describe cohesive object parts or optionally object surfaces, which are contained in the measured 2½-D image information, i.e. are visible to the camera. The skeleton model is to be fitted quickly and accurately into the image information. The fitting is effected between two images of an image sequence by the continuous displacement of the nodes and the continuous updating of the skeleton model.
US09159132B1	Process and system for identifying damage A process and system to provide damage identification and assessment of damage to a geographic area may include acquiring imagery data of a geographic area, processing the imagery data using wavelet transformation to identify damage to the geographic area and outputting a map showing damage condition of the geographic area. Processing the imagery data may use wavelet transformation that outputs wavelet transformation images. Damage categories for at least one location in the imagery data may be provided using discriminant analysis applied to the wavelet transformation images. The outputted maps and damage categories may be used to assess damage to areas affected by catastrophic-like events such as, e.g., hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and the like. This process is faster and may be more accurate than current assessment techniques thereby permitting quick responses to catastrophic-like events.
US09159131B2	Data matching method and data matching apparatus for matching data groups according to alignment parameters Data matching includes receiving a piece of first relational data and a piece of second relational data. The piece of first relational data is associated with a plurality of pieces of first data, and the piece of second relational data is associated with a plurality of pieces of second data. An approximate value of the piece of second relational data is calculated. A similarity is calculated based on the piece of first relational data and the approximate value of the piece of second relational data. A correspondence between a piece of the first data and a piece of the second data is determined based on the calculated similarity. An alignment parameter is calculated based on the determined correspondence, and a first data group including the piece of the first data is matched with a second data group including the piece of the second data based on the alignment parameter.
US09159128B2	Enhanced multi-protocol analysis via intelligent supervised embedding (empravise) for multimodal data fusion The present invention provides a system and method for analysis of multimodal imaging and non-imaging biomedical data, using a multi-parametric data representation and integration framework. The present invention makes use of (1) dimensionality reduction to account for differing dimensionalities and scale in multimodal biomedical data, and (2) a supervised ensemble of embeddings to accurately capture maximum available class information from the data.
US09159123B2	Image prior as a shared basis mixture model An image prior as a shared basis mixture model is described. In one or more implementations, a plurality of image patches are generated from one or more images. A shared basis mixture model is learned to model an image patch distribution of the plurality of image patches from the one or more images as part of a Gaussian mixture model. An image may then be reconstructed using the shared basis mixture model as an image prior.
US09159121B2	Method for image denoising A method for removing noise from a noisy image includes a few important steps. The noise level of the noisy image is first estimated based on the smooth blocks of the image. The original image is divided into many small blocks. Each of these blocks is then converted from a two dimensional matrix to vector, which is a one dimensional array. The converted vectors are next grouped and then a matrix recovery process based on a principal component analysis (PCA) has been performed in order to remove the noise, wherein the key is to determine the number of principal components to retain during the denoising process. Next, the denoised vectors are converted back to the denoised blocks, and the denoised blocks are used to reconstruct a denoised image with a better image quality.
US09159119B2	Method and system for super-resolution signal reconstruction A method and system are presented for reconstructing an input field where the latter is sensed by a measurement system. The method comprises: providing measured data corresponding to output field of said measurement system; providing data about sparsity of the input field, and data about effective response function of the measurement system; and processing the measured data based on said known data, the processing comprising: determining a sparse vector as a function of said measured data, said data about the sparsity of the input field, and said data about the effective response function; and using the sparse vector for reconstructing the input information. The invention allows for sub-wavelength resolution in imaging applications, and allows for detection of very short pulses by slow detectors in some other applications.
US09159114B2	Texture decompression for graphics processors Various apparatuses and methods are disclosed for processing texture data compressed with a first compression algorithm and texture data compressed with a second compression algorithm. A processing system may be used to determine whether the compressed texture data is compressed with the first or second compression algorithm, and process the compressed texture data using a decompression algorithm corresponding to the compression algorithm used to compress the texture date.
US09159113B2	Apparatus and method for embedding searchable information, encryption, transmission, storage and retrieval A cell phone is disclosed for acquiring information to be transmitted to a receiving facility and for transmitting such thereto. A capture device captures information from an external source. A processor is provided for associating with the captured information a representation of the date and time of the capture of the information, such that the representation of the date and time information in association with the captured information forms augmented captured information. The processor also places the augmented captured information in association with subscriber information in a transmission of the augmented captured information to a receiving facility requiring such subscriber information. A transmitter transmits the transmission including the augmented captured information and the subscriber information to the receiving facility. An encryptor encrypts the augmented captured information with a symmetrical encryption algorithm to provide encrypted augmented captured information in the transmission with the subscriber information.
US09159112B2	Digital watermarking using saturation patterns An example method includes dividing the image into blocks of pixels of a predefined size; for each block, selecting one of a plurality of saturation patterns representing a binary value of one or more bits of digital watermark data corresponding to the block; and for each block, embedding the binary value of the one or more bits of corresponding digital watermark data into the block by adjusting the saturation of pixels within the block in accordance with the selected pattern.
US09159109B2	Method and apparatus for detecting statuses of energy source consumption devices Embodiments of the invention disclose a method and apparatus for detecting the statuses of energy source consumption devices, relate to the field of energy source auditing and are intended to improve the efficiency and accuracy of detecting the statuses of the energy source consumption devices. In an inventive solution, mapping relationships between status combinations of respective energy source consumption devices measured by an energy meter and total energy consumption values of the respective energy source consumption devices in the status combinations are generated and stored in advance, and when the statuses of the respective energy source consumption devices are detected, the mapping relationships are directly searched for in each of which the difference between the included total energy consumption value and a total energy consumption value measured by the energy meter is below a predetermined threshold, and the current statuses of the respective energy source consumption devices are determined in the status combination in one of the found mapping relationships. With the invention, the efficiency and accuracy of detecting the statuses of the energy source consumption devices can be improved significantly.
US09159107B2	Methods, apparatus and systems for generating location-corrected searchable electronic records of underground facility locate and/or marking operations Generating a corrected electronic record of a locate and/or marking operation. The operation comprises locating and/or identifying, using a physical locate mark, presence or absence of an underground facility within a dig area. At least a portion of the dig area may be excavated or disturbed. First information relating to a location of the facility and/or the mark is received. Based at least in part on the first information, the location of the facility and/or the mark is represented to generate an electronic visual representation of the operation. Second information relating to a corrected location of the facility and/or the mark is received. Based at least in part on the second information, the corrected location is represented to generate a corrected electronic visual representation of the operation. Third information relating to the corrected representation of the operation is transmitted and/or stored to generate the corrected electronic record of the operation.
US09159105B2	Reducing the carbon emissions intensity of a fuel Techniques for reducing a carbon emissions intensity of a fuel includes injecting a carbon dioxide fluid into a first wellbore; producing a hydrocarbon fluid from a second wellbore to a terranean surface; and producing a fuel from the produced hydrocarbon fluid, the fuel including a low-carbon fuel and assigned an emissions credit based on a source of the carbon dioxide fluid.
US09159102B2	Client deposit tracking Apparatus and methods for client deposit tracking are provided. The deposit may be tracked from a time the deposit is retrieved from a client location until a value of the deposit is credited to a client. A deposit may be tracked by affixing a bar-code to a cartridge storing containing the deposit. The bar-code may be printed on the cartridge. The bar-code may be electronically transmitted to the cartridge. The bar-code may include deposit information. The deposit information may include deposit weights. The bar-code may be captured an armored courier. Information captured from the bar-code may be transmitted to a financial institution. The financial institution may derive performance metrics based on the information captured from the bar-code. Deposit status determination may be provided based on the information capture from the bar-code. Deposits status information may be transmitted to a client of the financial institution.
US09159101B1	Image processing An image of a check may be presented for payment in a banking system in place of the physical paper check. The check to be deposited can be collected from a depositor using a scanner. A web site, accessed through a depositor's web browser, can be used to drive the process of collecting the check, but in some contexts (e.g., in less popular computing environments, such as those that do not run the most popular operating systems), it is economically infeasible to obtain the certificates that would be used to allow a program executing in the web browser to control the scanner. Thus, a depositor can be instructed to capture and upload images of the check in the form of files, where the image files are then presented for payment through a banking system.
US09159094B2	Methods and apparatus for facilitation of orders of food items Embodiments of the invention provide techniques which aid in correctly capturing what a restaurant customer intends to order, and may enhance the customer's satisfaction with the ordering and dining process overall. For example, an interface may be provided through which a customer may specify an order, and the interface may clearly convey such information as each ordered item's ingredients and nutritional content. The interface may enable the customer to customize ordered items, and may clearly convey any changes that the customer has made, allowing the customer to make informed choices about the items included in an order. The interface may embody a design which enables the customer to quickly and easily customize items, and/or to re-order previously customized items.
US09159093B1	Method and computer readable medium for facilitating asynchronous communication between a server and client computer A request for information relating to a commodity is sent to a server using a client computer. The requested commodity information is received at the client computer and rendered on a display. A client action with respect to the commodity information is detected, and, using the client computer, a determination is made whether communication with the server is required to respond to the client action and, if the communication is not necessary, responding to the client action without communicating with the server regarding the response.
US09159092B2	Method for selecting a shoe fitted to a foot and assemblies therefor A method for selecting a shoe fitted to a foot from a plurality of shoes. For each shoe from the plurality of shoes, a dimensionally accurate outline of the footbed of the shoe is provided in electronic form. Further, for each shoe from the plurality of shoes, a dimensionally accurate outline of a section through the shoe, wherein the sectional plane runs perpendicularly to the footbed and along the way of largest foot length of a foot positioned in the shoe, is provided in electronic form. Further, an assembly for selecting a shoe fitted to a foot from a plurality of shoes including a data processing system with a database and an output unit, as well as an assembly for simultaneous representation of the footbed outline and the sectional outline to scale for a shoe corresponding to the method with two flat screens perpendicular to each other are provided.
US09159090B2	Building a standardized web form One embodiment is a method that builds a standardized web form that includes information extracted from multiple web forms retrieved over a web from different service providers. The standardized web form is used to retrieve price quotes from the different service providers.
US09159089B2	Point of sale system with item image capture and deferred invoicing capability A novel and useful mechanism and method for processing transactions on a point of sale system comprising of a conveyor system which continuously moves when one ore more items or items are resting on the conveyor system, and a sensing system to capture the information necessary to identify the items on the conveyor. When all items are correctly recognized by the sensing devices, the customer is charged for the items and an invoice is printed. In the event all the items are not correctly recognized the captured information is forwarded to a remote location for automated recognition processing and manual identification, if necessary. Once all the items are successfully identified, the customer is charged for the purchase and an invoice is processed and sent to the customer.
US09159088B2	Generating a location-aware preference and restriction-based customized menu Location-aware preference and restriction based customized menu may be generated, for example, by obtaining a list of preferences and restrictions, tracking a dietary intake, determining a list of foods available at current location, and generating a list of recommended foods from the current location based on the list of preferences and restrictions, and the tracked dietary intake.
US09159085B2	Application performance improvements in radio networks A method includes sending a request to a user indicating options to modify a quality of experience for one or more application flows between a radio network and a mobile node used by the user. The request indicates the user should select one of the following: declining an option to upgrade an existing service to a new service able to support the one or more application flows with a higher quality of experience than supported by the existing service; or accepting an option to upgrade the existing service to the new service. In response to receiving an indication the user selected the option to upgrade the existing service, performing one or more actions to upgrade the existing service to the new service. The option to upgrade the existing service can include an option of receiving advertisements for the new service or paying extra for the new service.
US09159077B2	Method and apparatus for deriving composite tie metric for edge between nodes of a telecommunication call graph A method for deriving a composite tie metric for an edge between nodes of a telecommunication call graph includes receiving descriptive data with original values for descriptive attributes associated with a telecommunication call graph formed by edges between nodes. Each edge relates to two nodes. Each original value relates to an edge and a descriptive attribute forming an edge-attribute pair for the corresponding original value. The descriptive data is stored in a local storage device. Scaling factors for each descriptive attribute are determined taking into account a distribution of the original values for the corresponding descriptive attribute and a common base for the descriptive attributes. Weighting factors are determined for each descriptive attribute. The composite tie metric is computed for an edge based on the original value, scaling factor, and weighting factor for the descriptive attributes.
US09159076B2	User answer collection server, user answer collection system, broadcast reception apparatus and control method A server (113) receives broadcast schedule from a broadcast station (12) and stores it (S170). A reception terminal (114) receives a broadcast program through a broadcast wave and outputs it (S171). An answer input by a user on a survey target broadcast program is included in answer information, together with an input time and information on the broadcast station (12), and is sent to a server (113) (S172 and S173). The server (113) references a program schedule based on the input time and the information on the broadcast station (12) of the answer information, specifies the survey target broadcast program and collects answers from the reception terminals (114) on the survey target broadcast program.
US09159071B2	Information based indicia discount coupon A method and article for increasing the opening/reading rate of mail and thus adding value to advertising by mail. A coupon value is embedded within a machine readable code of an information based indicia used as postage evidence on each piece of a mailing. The amount of the coupon and type of coupon can be determined by the customer creating the mailing. The information based indicia is digitally signed prior to printing, allowing a redeeming vendor to verify the authenticity of a coupon, preventing fraud and changing of data within the information based indicia. In addition, the customer originating the mailing may obtain marketing information such as mailing date, type of products purchased, after the coupon is redeemed.
US09159070B2	System and method for registration of an electronic device A method for registering an electronic device includes receiving purchaser information including at least one of a name and an address associated with a purchaser. A transaction code associated with a purchase of an electronic device is received, wherein the transaction code does not uniquely identify the electronic device. Information identifying the electronic device is retrieved based on the transaction code. The electronic device is registered by associating the purchaser information with the information identifying the electronic device.
US09159067B1	Providing content Systems and methods of providing information via a computer network are provided. A request for subject matter to display with a web page can be received via a computer network at a data processing system. The data processing system can identify the web page as being ineligible for ad placement based on content of the web page. The data processing system can determine a keyword based at least in part on the content of the web page, and can format the keyword for display with the web page as a link to a second web page. The data processing system can provide the link for display with the web page. The data processing system can receive a request to access the second web page based on an activation of the link. The data processing system can provide the advertisement for display with the second web page.
US09159065B2	Method and apparatus for object security session validation According to one embodiment, an apparatus may store a plurality of token-based rules. A token-based rule may facilitate access to a resource. The apparatus may further store a plurality of tokens. The plurality of tokens may include a session token associated with access to the resource by a device. The apparatus may receive a first token indicating that an alarm associated with the device has been triggered. The apparatus may determine, based at least in part upon at least one token-based rule from the plurality of token-based rules, that access to the resource should be terminated in response to receiving the first token and terminate the session token in response to the determination that access to the resource should be terminated.
US09159064B1	Systems and methods for an issuer certified card The present solution is directed to an architecture and a process for registering cards for use, such as bank cards, credit cards, loyalty cards, club cards, or any other card that is configured to carry data or monetary value. The solution provides safe and fast means for registering the card in a mobile computing environment. The system enables a card issuer to unambiguously identify an end user—for example, by one or two factor authentication. Responsive to the identification of the end user by the system, a 2D code that encodes the data needed for registration of the card is presented to the user. The data can be encrypted and the method of delivery to the user can be selected by user or the card issuer. With a mobile application, the user scans the presented 2D code. The mobile application transmits the data of the 2D code to the server, which decrypts and verifies the data. Responsive to decrypting and verifying the data, the card of the card holder is registered. In some implementations, the user may also wish to register the card with an e-wallet application on their mobile devices, such that the user may use the card from the mobile device at a later date.
US09159059B2	Method of operating a terminal A method of operating a terminal at an airport beyond security screening, the terminal having a housing, a display, a reader configured to read data from an information bearing medium comprising the steps of: reading a personal identification; performing at least one of the following functions: gate check-in; employee access terminal to a jetway; changing seats; ordering meals; accessing frequent flier programs; processing boarding passes; reading passports and displaying flight information. A method of operating a terminal at a restaurant, the terminal being hand held and having a housing, a display, a reader configured to read data from an information bearing medium comprising the steps of: reading personal identification; performing at least one of the following functions: ordering meals; bill payment; displaying menu items; viewing meal order status; and verbal communications.
US09159057B2	Sender-based ranking of person profiles and multi-person automatic suggestions Systems and methods for searching of information regarding persons or to provide assistance for completion during address input. In one embodiment, a method includes automatically generating profiles for persons identified in messages, such as outgoing emails. Based on how the addresses of the persons are used in outgoing messages, the relevancy scores of the addresses are determined. When a user is searching for information or typing an address, the profiles and the relevancy scores are used to identify and sort search results or suggestions for the completion of the address input.
US09159054B2	System and method for providing guidance to persuade a caller A system and method for providing guidance to persuade a caller is provided. A call is received from a caller into a call center and an offer is provided to the caller. A likelihood of the caller to accept the offer is measured by analyzing voice input of the caller during the call. One or more paralinguistic voice characteristics in the voice input are determined. A stage of persuasion is assigned to the caller based on the paralinguistic voice characteristics and a recommendation is made for guidance to persuade the caller to accept the offer.
US09159053B2	System and method for abstract communication Systems and methods for providing communication between a user and at least one entity are disclosed. In one example, the method comprises receiving an entity selection input of the at least one entity, and a message from the user to the at least one entity, analyzing the selection input and the message to determine entity information and inquiry information associated with the message and the selection input, determining least one communication channel based on the entity information and the inquiry information, obtaining a response to the message via the at least one communication channel from the at least one entity, and transmitting the response to the user.
US09159047B2	Projected image planogram system A method of generating a planogram for a retail display. The method includes selecting a merchandise item having a merchandise identifier; selecting a fixture associated with the merchandise item, the fixture having a fixture identifier; determining a display location for the fixture or for the merchandise item, the display location being one of a plurality of display locations of a merchandise display structure, the merchandise display structure being configured to receive the fixture and to display the merchandise item; generating a marker code based on the merchandise identifier and the fixture identifier, the marker code identifying the merchandise item and the fixture; and generating a planogram data file, the planogram data file including data corresponding to the marker code and the display location, the marker code identifying the merchandise and fixture.
US09159043B2	Enterprise product management system and method A comprehensive enterprise product management system to effectuate efficient product time to market. The system includes a process model and a data model. The process model consists of entities that represent typical concepts in a trade setting and relationships among these entities. The data model represents the complexity of a product, including defining the entities that comprise the product and the relationship among these entities. The process model and the data model accommodate the dynamic characteristics associated with both product definition and channels of trade.
US09159042B2	Facilitating revenue generation from data shifting by data centers The disclosure facilitates management data center utilization for generating energy-related revenue from energy markets. Operating schedules are generated, over a time period T, for operation of an energy management system of energy assets of data center sites. Since CPU utilization (or computing load) can be correlated to energy consumption, the operating schedules can cause the energy management system to modulate the CPU utilization (or computing load) of energy assets within a data center, or to indicate shifting of CPU utilization (or computing load) from one data center site in a certain energy market price region to another data center site in a different energy market price region. When implemented, the generated operating schedules facilitates derivation of the energy-related revenue, over a time period T, associated with operation of the energy assets according to the generated operating schedule.
US09159041B1	System and method of fulfilling trade requests corresponding to airline flight sequences by generating optimization network A system and method according to which data associated with a plurality of trade requests is received, and an optimization network is generated, the optimization network including a plurality of nodes corresponding to the trade requests. The nodes are ranked in accordance with at least one business objective, and one or more of the requests are fulfilled in an order based on the ranking of the nodes. To fulfill the one or more requests, a solution is generated, the solution complying with one or more predetermined rules. In an exemplary embodiment, each of the trade requests corresponds to a request to trade a work assignment. In an exemplary embodiment, each trade request is a request by an airline crew member to trade an airline flight sequence, and the at least one business objective is based on airline crew member seniority.
US09159040B2	Accessing a ERP application over the internet using strongly typed declarative language files A method of converting ERP data in a database managed by an ERP application and accessed through an ERP API and ERP Message Agent API (MAAPI) to strongly typed data in Java objects includes steps of reading, parsing, creating, and populating. A XML file containing the definition of the Java objects and their attributes of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) statements which specifies presentation format is read. Each of the declarations and HTML statements are parsed to identify definitions of objects and their attributes. The respective objects are created with their attributes. The objects are populated with data from the ERP data.
US09159036B2	Embedded gamer card across multiple devices and networks A gamercard associated with an integrated gamer profile to identify a gamer is provided to the gamer and other PC/console users who also participate in other online gaming community activities such as game-related web sites. The gamercard is also provided to the user in a modular fashion formatted in a way suitable for the user to display it directly within other applications of the user (such as their personal web sites and mobile device applications for display on their cell phone) without the user having to update the information within the other applications when the information changes in the central database.
US09159033B2	Frequency separation between qubit and chip mode to reduce purcell loss A system, method, and chip to control Purcell loss are described. The chip includes qubits formed on a first surface of a substrate. The method includes determining frequencies of the qubits, and controlling a separation between the frequencies of the qubits and chip mode frequencies of the chip.
US09159029B1	Inferring the presence of an entity within an identifier space based on the behaviors of unrelated entities Embodiments of the invention build models to predict the likelihood of entities that operate in a given identifier space also operating in a disjoined identifier space based on a source panel of entities that operate in one or both of the identifier spaces. In operation, a model building engine builds a model based on features associated with the source panel and features associated with standard populations in the given identifier space. The model used to determine whether the target entity is more similar to those entities in the source panel that operate only in the given identifier space or those entities in the source panel that operate in both identifier spaces.
US09159025B2	Prioritizing repair of bridges and bridge sections Embodiments of the invention are generally directed toward methods, systems, and computer-readable media for prioritizing bridge repairs. A bridge score is generated that represents various factors such as conditions, load issues, risk of failure, and importance. Repairs to bridges or bridge segments that pose a greater risk may be prioritized before repairs made to bridges posing a lower risk.
US09159016B2	System and method for providing tangible medium with electromagnetic security marker Mediums that include features that work together to create a medium that can be tracked, identified and authenticated efficiently and accurately. In addition, these features may be concealed to prevent or hinder potential copiers from copying or passing off a copy as an original. Further, these features may allow organizations to determine the origin of a copy.
US09159015B2	Flexible tag A flexible Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag comprises a flexible substrate layer on which is fixed an antenna connected to a RFID chip, and a second flexible layer placed directly over the said chip and antenna but without any direct mechanical connection to them, such that the substrate layer and the second layer form a protective inlay for the chip and the antenna. The said inlay is embedded in a flexible housing.
US09159010B2	Coded information systems A code is applied to a part of the retail item or its packaging/label. The code is applied in a repeat pattern. The code is presented in an optical machine-readable format. Code markers are arranged at pre-defined positions within a matrix. An optical machine-readable orientation device indicates the correct orientation of the matrix, so that the position of the code markers within the correctly orientated matrix corresponds to a pre-defined sequence of code integers. The code corresponds to an existing barcode number for the retail item. The code is presented in a manner discreet enough to be part of the printed design of a label or packaging for the retail item, without changing the overall appearance of the printed design.
US09159009B2	Image forming apparatus and image output apparatus The invented image forming apparatus includes an image data production condition production section for producing an image data production condition, an image data output condition production section for producing an image data output condition, and an image data management section for obtaining the image data production condition and the image data output condition in response to an output demand of the image data, for outputting the image data in a case where the image data production condition coincides to the image data output condition, for obtaining a password of the image data in a case where the image data production condition does not coincide to the image data output condition, for outputting the image data in a case where the designated password is entered at a time of image production, and for not outputting the image data in a case where anything other than the designated password is entered at the time of image production. With the invented image forming apparatus, the user's manipulability is much improved as ensuring the security.
US09159008B1	Method and apparatus for estimating usage of print substance in a printer Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for estimating usage of a print substance. The method comprises receiving a plurality of pixels of a page to be printed, and generating, for one of the plurality of pixels, a look-up address based on (i) pixel bits of the one of the plurality of pixels, and (ii) pixel bits of one or more other pixels proximal to the one of the plurality of pixels. The method further comprises estimating an amount of print substance deposited on the page at a location associated with the one of the plurality of pixels based on reference to a print substance amount in a table of print substance amounts, wherein the reference to the print substance amount in the table is made using the look-up address.
US09159000B1	Device and method for producing a security mark on a sheet of paper A device for making security marks by means of a plurality of simultaneously backing and printing dies, each with a pre-designed image. The device makes it possible to subject a sheet of paper to a novelty simultaneous abrasion and printing method of a security mark using the dies previously and smoothly inked by means of inking rollers with either one or more inks not visible to the naked eye, but revealable by one or more temporarily applicable revealing stimuli, wherein the security mark shows as authentication evidence a pre-designed image invisible to the naked eye, but which becomes visible in many different ways, and at least one second form of verification under a revealing stimulus, wherein all forms in which the images are revealed on the paper have an absolute matching location because they are produced simultaneously and by the same backing and printing die.
US09158997B2	Method for displaying mammography images In a method for displaying mammography images, an identification of the mammography images is first inputted via a user interface of a computer system. A host is employed to receive the identification for activating the mammography images and reading a header of the mammography images. The host reads a plurality of displaying rules previously configured for comparing with the header of the mammography images. The host then automatically selects one of the plurality of displaying rules that is best conformed to the header of the mammography images. The host automatically classifies the mammography images according to the selected one displaying rule. Finally, a monitor displays the classified mammography images.
US09158996B2	Learning image collection apparatus, learning apparatus, and target object detection apparatus A disclosure describes a learning image collection apparatus includes an acquisition unit, an extraction unit, a calculation unit, and a selection unit. The acquisition unit acquires an image including a target object. The extraction unit extracts, from the image, a plurality of candidate areas being candidates for the target object. The calculation unit calculates one of a first degree of similarity, a second degree of similarity, and a third degree of similarity, the first degree of similarity being a degree of similarity between one of the candidate areas and a predetermined area, the second degree of similarity being a degree of similarity between a size of the target object and a predetermined size, the third degree of similarity being a degree of similarity between the plurality of candidate areas. The selection unit selects one of the candidate areas as a target object area including the target object.
US09158992B2	Acceleration of linear classifiers In one embodiment, image detection is improved or accelerated using an approximate range query to classify images. A controller is trained on a set of training feature vectors. The training feature vectors represent an image. The feature vectors are normalized to a uniform length. The controller defines a matching space that includes the set of training feature vectors. The controller is configured to identify whether an input vector for a tested image falls within the matching space based on a range query. When the input vector falls within the matching space, the tested image substantially matches the portion of the image used to train the controller.
US09158990B2	System, method and computer program product for motion detection using sets of trinary bits A system, computer readable medium and a method for motion detection, the method includes: receiving multiple frames; generating a set of digits for each pixel of multiple pixels of each frame of the multiple frames; wherein each set of digits represents a pixel that belongs to a patch of a frame and represents relationships between (a) first similarities between the patch and a set of patches of a next frame that are located in locations that differ from each other and differ from a location of the patch; and (b) second similarities between the patch and a set of patches of a previous frame that are located in locations that differ from each other and differ from a location of the patch; and processing the sets of digits to detect motion.
US09158988B2	Method for detecting a plurality of instances of an object An improved object recognition method is provided that enables the recognition of many objects in a single image. Multiple instances of an object in an image can now be detected with high accuracy. The method receives a plurality of matches of feature points between a database image and a query image and determines a kernel bandwidth based on statistics of the database image. The kernel bandwidth is used in clustering the matches. The clustered matches are then analyzed to determine the number of instances of the object within each cluster. A recursive geometric fitting can be applied to each cluster to further improve accuracy.
US09158984B2	Computer-readable recording medium recording program for image processing, information processing apparatus, information processing system, and image processing method A computer is caused to execute: acquisition of a captured image captured by an imaging device; display of an image including the captured image on a display device; and detection from the captured image, of a feature in a real space captured in the captured image, using an image for detection of the feature. In a case where the captured image acquired in the acquisition of the image captured is a reversed image, the feature is detected by performing a reverse comparison process involving: comparing the captured image with a reversed image of the image for detection; or comparing an image obtained by further reversing the captured image, with the image for detection.
US09158982B2	System and method for imaging an object A system for imaging an object, the system including: a detection zone; a first unit adapted to selectively emit radiation of at least one first wavelength and radiation of at least one second, different wavelength for at least partly illuminating the object in the detection zone; a second unit adapted to capture at least partial images of the illuminated object; and an aperture placed in an optical path between the detection zone and the second unit. The aperture includes: a first, central area adapted to transmit radiation of at least the first wavelength(s) and the second wavelength(s); and a second area surrounding said first area, which second area is adapted to block radiation of the second wavelength(s), but transmit radiation of the first wavelength(s). Also, an imaging method, and use of a diaphragm in a reverse vending machine.
US09158975B2	Video analytics for retail business process monitoring A system for video monitoring a retail business process includes a video analytics engine to process video obtained by a video camera and generate video primitives regarding the video, A user interface is used to define at least one activity of interest regarding an area being viewed, each activity of interest identifying at least one of a rule or a query regarding the area being viewed. An activity inference engine processes the generated video primitives based on each defined activity of interest to determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video.
US09158974B1	Method and system for motion vector-based video monitoring and event categorization A computer system processes a video stream to detect a start of a first motion event candidate in the video stream, and in response to detecting the start of the first motion event candidate in the video stream, initiates event recognition processing on a first video segment associated with the start of the first motion event candidate. Initiating the event recognition processing further includes: determining a motion track of a first object identified in the first video segment; generating a representative motion vector for the first motion event candidate based on the motion track of the first object; and sending the representative motion vector for the first motion event candidate to an event categorizer, where the event categorizer assigns a respective motion event category to the first motion event candidate based on the representative motion vector of the first motion event candidate.
US09158972B2	Estimation of object properties in 3D world Objects within two-dimensional video data are modeled by three-dimensional models as a function of object type and motion through manually calibrating a two-dimensional image to the three spatial dimensions of a three-dimensional modeling cube. Calibrated three-dimensional locations of an object in motion in the two-dimensional image field of view of a video data input are determined and used to determine a heading direction of the object as a function of the camera calibration and determined movement between the determined three-dimensional locations. The two-dimensional object image is replaced in the video data input with an object-type three-dimensional polygonal model having a projected bounding box that best matches a bounding box of an image blob, the model oriented in the determined heading direction. The bounding box of the replacing model is then scaled to fit the object image blob bounding box, and rendered with extracted image features.
US09158962B1	Passive driver identification A system for passive driver identification comprises an input interface and a processor. The input interface is configured to receive a collection of face data from a vehicle event recorder. The processor is configured to 1) determine a set of face data of the collection of face data that is associated with a trip; 2) determine a first album associated with the trip, wherein the set of face data associated with the trip is similar to face data of other trips in the first album, and wherein the set of face data associated with the trip is dissimilar to face data of a set of trips in a second album; and 3) assign an identifier that associates the trip to the first album.
US09158961B2	Method for generating, transmitting and receiving stereoscopic images, and related devices A method for generating a composite image of a stereoscopic video stream includes a pair of a right image and a left image of a scene, the right image and the left image being such that, when viewed by a spectator's right eye and left eye, respectively, they cause the spectator to perceive the scene as being three-dimensional, the method includes the steps of: generating a composite image including all the pixels of the pair of right and left images, defining a grid of macroblocks of the composite image, each macroblock of the grid including a plurality of adjacent pixels, decomposing one image of the pair of right and left images into a plurality of component regions including a plurality of contiguous pixels, processing the component regions in a manner such as to generate corresponding derived regions, the derived regions including at least all the pixels of a corresponding component region and being such that they can be decomposed into an integer number of macroblocks, arranging the non-decomposed image of the pair and the plurality of derived regions in the composite image in a manner such that all the edges of the non-decomposed image and of the derived regions coincide with edges of macroblocks of the grid.
US09158959B2	Palm identification and in-place personalized interactive display A user is identified and an in-place personalized interactive display provided by detecting, via a first imaging system, one or more unique characteristics of a user's palm, identifying the user via the one or more unique characteristics and a database containing mappings between detectable unique characteristics and user identities, retrieving user-specific interactive content as a function of the identity of the user, projecting, via a second imaging system, the user-specific interactive content onto the user's palm, and detecting, via a third imaging system, a user's interaction with the projected user-specific interactive content. The user may be identified by transmitting the one or more unique characteristics to a remote authentication server and receiving, in response, an identity of the user. User-specific content as a function of the identity of the user may be retrieved from a remote interactive content server.
US09158957B2	Finger sensing apparatus using hybrid matching and associated methods A finger sensing apparatus may include a finger sensor including an integrated circuit (IC) substrate, an array of finger sensing elements on the IC substrate, and match circuitry on the IC substrate for performing final finger matching. The finger sensing apparatus may also include a host platform cooperating with the array of finger sensing elements for performing at least one finger prematch function. In addition, the finger sensor and the host platform may implement at least one security function therebetween. The at least one security function may include a watermarking function, and/or an encryption/decryption function.
US09158953B2	Method and apparatus for scanning with controlled spherical aberration A reader obtains image data corresponding to an image of optically encoded information that is received via a lens unit that causes controlled spherical aberration blurring that is precisely known. The reader may perform deconvolution processing on the image data to render it decodable. The deconvolution processing may implement a Weiner filter that uses data corresponding to a near-field point spread function of the lens unit. The depth of field of the reader is greater than that of conventional reader in all lighting conditions.
US09158950B2	Method and apparatus pertaining to use of multiple sessions with RFID tags At a facility having a first area and a second area that is at least substantially non-overlapping with the first area, these teachings provide for using at least a first RFID-tag reader to read RFID tags in a first inventory state in the first area using a first session protocol while also contemporaneously using a second session protocol to cause the RFID-tag reader to cause RFID tags in the first area to switch to that first inventory state. In a similar manner these teachings also provide for using a second RFID-tag reader to read RFID tags in the first inventory state in the second area using the second session protocol while also contemporaneously using the first session protocol to cause RFID tags in the second area to switch to the first inventory state.
US09158949B2	Low power radio frequency communication A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication is described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: an access point comprising: a first antenna; a first radio coupled to the first antenna; a central processing unit coupled to the first radio; a backscatter adapter coupled to the access point via a wired communication interface, the backscatter adapter comprising a backscatter radio and a second antenna coupled to the backscatter radio for use in communicating with an RF tag in the network via backscatter.
US09158948B2	RFID protocols with non-interacting variants In an RFID system having at least one tag and at least one reader, a tag and a reader can, in one embodiment, use a pair of keys, known to both the tag and the reader, to restrict the interaction of the tag and the reader so that tags having the pair of keys interact only with readers that use the pair of keys.
US09158944B2	Systems, methods, and apparatuses for associating flexible internet based information with physical objects Systems, apparatuses and methods for associating flexible Internet based information with physical objects is described. An example system includes a database server configured to generate a tag responsive to receiving a request from a requesting device. The tag is encoded with a uniform resource locator. The database server is further configured to associate a tag type of a plurality of tag types with the tag. The tag type indicates an intended use of the tag. The system further includes a memory configured to store data corresponding to the tag. The data may include the uniform resource locator and the tag type.
US09158940B1	Dynamic virtual storage creation and provisioning of virtual machine resources A method and apparatus are disclosed of identifying a virtual machine usage of enterprise network resources, such as memory storage usage. One example method of operation may include transmitting a storage request to a database to determine an amount of physical memory storage available in the enterprise network. The method may also include receiving an alert message indicating a virtual machine currently operating has exceeded a predetermined memory storage threshold value. The method may also include creating a new virtual hard disk (VHD) to accommodate the exceeded predetermined memory storage threshold value.
US09158939B2	Security chip, program, information processing apparatus, and information processing system There is provided a security chip having a tamper-resistant feature, including an acquisition part configured to acquire specific information transmitted by a device performing challenge-response authentication, the specific information being specific to the device, a storage configured to store second key information that enables generation of first key information from the specific information, the first key information being used by the device for challenge-response authentication, and a generation part configured to generate, using the second key information, the first key information from the specific information. A response to be transmitted to the device is generated, using the first key information, from a challenge transmitted by the device. In the device, the first key information is not stored in a tamper-resistant security chip.
US09158935B2	Automatic mediation of resource access in mobile applications The subject disclosure is directed towards automated, static analysis-based program code processing that detects unprotected resource accesses by applications, that is, those that do not provide proper opt-in consent dialogs (prompts). In one aspect, consent prompt code is automatically inserted into the program code to protect such unprotected access points. Also described are program representation graph construction and processing, a dominator node-based approach to determine placement points for inserting consent prompt code, and a backward search-based approach for inserting consent prompt code.
US09158932B2	Modeled authorization check implemented with UI framework Access by a user to a database layer, is governed by modeled authorization checking implemented with authorization objects present in an overlying application layer. At design time, the authorization checking is modeled as part of an existing user interface (UI) model, which may conform to a Model, View, and Control (MVC) design pattern. Authorization objects created during design time, are stored in a meta data repository. At runtime, an authorization engine references the authorization objects and the operations supported by those authorization objects. The authorization check is thus implemented centrally in the UI framework itself using this modeled information. Embodiments avoid complexity, potential lack of internal consistency, and low visibility of conventional de-centralized authorization checking schemes that rely upon a plurality of enforcement points hard-coded at multiple locations within application logic.
US09158931B2	Block encryption method and block decryption method having integrity verification An encryption method and decryption method are provided. The encryption method divides an electronic file into a plurality of message blocks, wherein the message blocks have a sequence. The encryption method sets a checking vector as the last message block. The encryption method performs the following steps on each message block according to the sequence: generating an input block, deriving an output block by encrypting the input block by an encryption key, and deriving an encrypted block by applying XOR operation to the output block and the previous message block, wherein the input block is equivalent to applying XOR operation to the message block, the output block corresponding to the previous message block, and the message block before the previous one. The encryption method generates an electronic encrypted file by concatenating the encrypted blocks. The decryption method performs a series of operations corresponding to the above operations.
US09158930B2	Facilitating secure file creation An operating system identifies a request of a process to create, in a file system of the computing device, a new object. The operating system creates an object label for the new object, identifies one or more security policy rules applicable to the process, and verifies whether the process is authorized to create the new object with the object label in the file system of the computing device using the applicable security policy rules. When the process is authorized to create the new object with the object label, the operating system creates the new object with the object label in the file system of the computing device. When the process is not authorized to create the new object with the object label, an error message is generated.
US09158927B1	Cross-region recovery of encrypted, erasure-encoded data Reliable and efficient storage and reconstruction of secure data files is provided. Encrypted fragments are generated by exclusive-OR (XOR) based erasure-encoding and XOR encryption of data files. At least some of the encrypted fragments, and preferably at least two copies of such encrypted fragments, are stored at two or more locations, such as but not limited to two or more servers in two or more regional storage systems. Fragments are retrieved from one or more of the multiple locations and the original data file is reconstructed, even if different encryption techniques have been used. If not enough valid fragments from that original data file can be identified then hash values, checksums, seeds, and other techniques may be used to distinguish files and to identify related or identical files which may be used to reconstruct the data file.
US09158925B2	Server-aided private set intersection (PSI) with data transfer Existing private set intersection (PSI) protocol allows two parties to find intersection of their sets, but restricts learning any other information about each other's set except for its size. In general, the server-aided private set intersection with data transfer technique described herein provides a server-aided private set intersection (PSI) protocol that supports data transfers. The technique pertains to a method for providing a server-aided private set intersection protocol which allows two parties to transfer some of the information about their elements via an untrusted third party. The protocol involves (a) parties applying a shared pseudo-random permutation to each of their sets to create labels of the elements of the set, (b) sending the labels to the third party and (c) the third party performing data transfer between the two parties along with computation of intersection of sets received using a multi-share key.
US09158921B1	Secure boot on deep sleep wake-up A processing system has a stored, encrypted data structure that is decrypted to provide verification data values. System data values are retrieved from locations distributed about a memory storing system data. The verification data values are compared with corresponding system data values to determine if a predetermined threshold of verification data values matches the system data values. The system resumes operation if the predetermined threshold is met.
US09158920B2	System and method for out-of-band assisted biometric secure boot In some embodiments, the invention involves using a dedicated service processor with out-of-band capabilities to enable a secure boot using biometric data to authenticate the user. In some embodiments, at least a secondary token is used enhance the secure boot. An off-line database may be accessed by the service processor during boot to store or retrieve biometric templates to compare with scanned, live, biometric data. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09158919B2	Threat level assessment of applications An application safety system is described herein that provides a scoring system of how dangerous an application is based on behavioral inspection of the application. Upon detecting installation of an application or first execution of the application, the application safety system performs static analysis before the new application is executed by the operating system. The system allows the user to approve running the application after displaying information about what the application does. Next, the system performs dynamic analysis as the application runs and alerts the user to any potentially harmful behavior. Over time, the system determines when the application may be acting in a manner that is out of character and informs the user. The system also allows users to restrict behavior that a particular application can perform.
US09158916B2	Unauthorized access and/or instruction prevention, detection, and/or remediation, at least in part, by storage processor An embodiment may include a storage processor that may be comprised, at least in part, in a host. The host may include at least one host central processing unit (CPU) to execute at least one host operating system (OS). The storage processor may execute at least one operation in isolation from interference from and control by the at least one host CPU and the at least one host OS. The at least one operation may facilitate, at least in part: (1) prevention, at least in part, of unauthorized access to storage, (2) prevention, at least in part, of execution by the at least one host CPU of at least one unauthorized instruction, (3) detection, at least in part, of the at least one unauthorized instruction, and/or (4) remediation, at least in part, of at least one condition associated, at least in part, with the at least unauthorized instruction.
US09158915B1	Systems and methods for analyzing zero-day attacks A computer-implemented method for analyzing zero-day attacks may include 1) identifying, within a database of known security vulnerabilities, disclosure timing information that indicates when a security vulnerability was publicly disclosed, 2) correlating a file with the security vulnerability by searching a database of file activity for at least one file that is associated with an attack that exploits the security vulnerability, 3) identifying, within the database of file activity, activity timing information indicating timing of one or more activities that involve the file and that occurred on endpoint computing devices before the security vulnerability was publicly disclosed, and 4) comparing the disclosure timing information with the activity timing information to investigate a potential zero-day attack that exploits the security vulnerability. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09158911B2	Password management system and method for electronic device A computerized method manages passwords to unlock an electronic device from a standby mode by taking changed GPS coordinates of a location of the electronic device and utilizing the changed coordinates in preset formulas to establish and require a new password in substitution for a current password, to allow unlocking of the electronic device.
US09158910B2	Password resetting method and electronic device having password resetting function A computerized method for resetting a password of a user, the user uses an electronic device to access to an information system provided by a server according to a user ID of the user and the password. An index code and device information of the electronic device are stored in the server corresponding to the user ID. When the password is to be reset, the user ID and the index code are inputted by the user and the device information of the electronic device is acquired. A verification string is generated using the index code and the user ID inputted by the user and the acquired device information, and is sent to the server for verification, thereby requesting to reset the password.
US09158909B2	Authentication of virtual machine images using digital certificates A vendor of virtual machine images accesses a virtual computer system service to upload a digitally signed virtual machine image to a data store usable by customers of the virtual computer system service to select an image for creating a virtual machine instance. If a digital certificate is uploaded along with the virtual machine image, the virtual computer system service may determine whether the digital certificate has been trusted for use. If the digital certificate has been trusted for use, the virtual computer system service may use a public cryptographic key to decrypt a hash signature included with the image to obtain a first hash value. The service may additionally apply a hash function to the image itself to obtain a second hash value. If the two hash values match, then the virtual machine image may be deemed to be authentic.
US09158903B2	Identity verification systems and methods Systems and methods for authenticating the identity of a user prior to giving access to confidential data at a user interface via a network are described. In an exemplary implementation in an Internet environment, a server hosts an application providing selective access by the user to confidential data related to the user. The user provides initial data to the application as part of a request to access the confidential data. At least one database having the confidential data stored therein is accessed by the server to retrieve confidential data relating to the user located in the database based on the initial data received from the client interface. An authentication function causes the server to transmit to the client interface and present to the user an incomplete portion of the confidential data relating to the user, which is not identical to the initial data, along with at least one other portion of data having a substantially identical format to the incomplete portion of the confidential data. The authentication function requests the user to provide additional data to complete the incomplete portion of the confidential data. The user is granted access to the confidential data subsequent to determination by the application that the user correctly completed the incomplete portion of the confidential data.
US09158902B2	Software modification for partial secure memory processing This disclosure is directed to software modification that may be used to prevent software piracy and prevent unauthorized modification of applications. In some embodiments, a software vendor may modify software prior to distribution to a user. The software vendor may extract cutouts from an application to create a modified application. The modified application and the cutouts may be downloaded by a user device. The user device may run the application using the modified application and by executing the cutouts in a secure execution environment that conceals the underlying code in the cutouts.
US09158900B2	Dynamic selection of authorization processes Systems, methods, and software are disclosed herein for licensing applications using a preferred authorization process dynamically identified based on conditions associated with an initiation of an application. Authorization is then attempted using the preferred authorization process. In some examples, the preferred authorization process is selected from at least a keyless authorization process and a key-based authorization process.
US09158897B2	Methods and systems for distributing right-protected asset A method includes allowing a right-protected asset to be shared by a first device with a second device while they are within a determinable proximity of one another. Subsequent to the sharing, an option to acquire the right-protected asset is presented to the second device when the first device and the second device are not within the determinable proximity of one another.
US09158889B2	Electronic dental charting Systems, methods, electronic devices and computer-readable media for charting dental information are described. The method includes generating or retrieving a dental data set including separately-modifiable parameters defining dental information relative to a base parametric model, the parameters providing information for generating signals for displaying a three-dimensional (3D) representation of at least a portion of a dentition represented by the dental data set; receiving an input via the 3D representation; and based on the received input, adjusting at least one of the parameters.
US09158879B2	Color-insensitive rules for routing structures Methodologies and an apparatus enabling a generation of color undeterminable polygons in IC designs are disclosed. Embodiments include: determining a plurality of first routes extending horizontally in an IC design, each of the plurality of first routes being placed on one of a plurality of equally spaced vertical positions of the IC design; determining whether a second route overlaps one of the vertical positions of the plurality of equally spaced vertical positions; and selecting a design rule for the second route based on the determination of whether the second route overlaps.
US09158875B2	Package definition system A package definition system enables a user to dynamically modify a package design by altering a dimension of less than all of the package's faces. The system uses a functional representation of a package having links and nodes that represent faces or functional elements and connecting relationships between them.
US09158871B2	Graph modeling systems and methods An apparatus and a method for vulnerability and reliability modeling are provided. The method generally includes constructing a graph model of a physical network using a computer, the graph model including a plurality of terminating vertices to represent nodes in the physical network, a plurality of edges to represent transmission paths in the physical network, and a non-terminating vertex to represent a non-nodal vulnerability along a transmission path in the physical network. The method additionally includes evaluating the vulnerability and reliability of the physical network using the constructed graph model, wherein the vulnerability and reliability evaluation includes a determination of whether each terminating and non-terminating vertex represents a critical point of failure. The method can be utilized to evaluate wide variety of networks, including power grid infrastructures, communication network topologies, and fluid distribution systems.
US09158869B2	Method and system for property damage analysis A system and method for intelligently combining CAD, inspection, and building guideline data for intelligently setting roof facet directionality, analyzing repair and replacement decisions and estimating material, material waste and recyclables, material recycling requirements, and repair or replacement costs for building facets is described. One embodiment includes receiving digital inspection data of a building facet of a property; receiving a first layer of geographic-based guideline data; receiving a second layer of geographic-based guideline data; reconciling a conflict between guideline data of the first and second layers of guideline data to reach a resulting guideline data item; determining a repair indicator for the building facet based at least in part on the resulting guideline data item and the digital inspection data; and sending an electronic message, wherein the electronic message includes at least a portion of the digital inspection data and the repair indicator.
US09158867B2	2D/3D analysis for abnormal tools and stages diagnosis A method for analyzing abnormalities in a semiconductor processing system provides performing an analysis of variance on a production history associated with each of a plurality of tools at each of a plurality of process steps for each of a plurality of processed wafers, and key process steps are identified. A regression analysis on a plurality of measurements of the plurality of wafers at each process step is performed and key measurement parameters are identified. An analysis of covariance on the key measurement parameters and key process steps, and the key process steps are ranked based on an f-ratio, therein ranking an abnormality of the key process steps. Further, the plurality of tools associated with each of the key process steps are ranked based on an orthogonal t-ratio associated with an analysis of covariance, therein ranking an abnormality each tool associated with the key process steps.
US09158864B2	Systems, methods, and devices for documenting a location of installed equipment A system, and related methods and devices, is disclosed for documenting a location of installed equipment. The system includes a mobile reader and a memory. The mobile reader is configured to read a unique identification of an equipment unit and to determine a location of the equipment unit while proximate the equipment unit. The location and the unique identification of the equipment unit is associated and stored in the memory. The memory may be located in the mobile reader or in a remotely located database. The mobile reader may be an optical reader configured to read the unique identification from an optical barcode associated with the equipment unit, or the mobile reader may be an RFID reader configured to read the unique identification from an RFID tag associated with the equipment unit.
US09158851B2	Location aware commenting widget for creation and consumption of relevant comments Methods and computer readable medium for allowing a user to participate in an online conversation for a head content includes receiving a response from a user for the head content. The response from the user is geo-tagged with a location of the user. A counter indicative of number of responses received for the head content at the location is updated for the head content to include the response from the user. The responses received for the head content from the plurality of users is filtered to generate a subset of the responses related to the location of the user. The subset of responses and an interactive tag cloud for the head content is presented to the user. The subset of responses is presented in a ranked order. The tag cloud identifies one or more locations that have received greatest number of responses from the plurality of users.
US09158846B2	Entity detection and extraction for entity cards A system and method are provided for detecting entity information contained within search results. The detected entity information can be used to determine a category of entity as well as a specific entity within the search results. Entity information can be extracted from the documents associated with the search results. This information can be used as part of the information for an entity card, which can be displayed to a user in conjunction with and/or in place of the search results.
US09158844B1	System and method of managing internet browser navigation The present invention provides a system and method of managing Internet browser navigation. Software code designed to interact with and control the user's Internet browser is embedded into web pages made available to remote users by a web server. Embedded software code is read by the user's Internet browser upon loading a requested web page. Embedded software code directs the browser to store one or more attributes upon the remote user's computer system. Stored attributes may then be compared to attributes embedded within subsequently requested web pages to determine if the requested web page, or a corrected web page, should be displayed.
US09158843B1	Addressing mechanism for data at world wide scale A method, system, and apparatus for sending a request for data to a worldwide name node; wherein the worldwide name node is communicatively coupled to worldwide data nodes, sending from the worldwide name node to the worldwide data nodes the request for data; wherein each of the worldwide data nodes serves as an index for a cluster of data, processing at each of the worldwide data nodes the request for information; and returning the result to the world wide name node.
US09158841B2	Methods of evaluating semantic differences, methods of identifying related sets of items in semantic spaces, and systems and computer program products for implementing the same One aspect of the invention provides a method of evaluating semantic differences between a first item in a first semantic space and a second item in a second semantic space. The method includes: calculating a first ordered list of N nearest neighbors of the first item within the first semantic space; calculating a second ordered list of N nearest neighbors of the second item within the second semantic space; and computing a plurality of similarity measures between the first n nearest neighbors of the first item and the first n nearest neighbors of the second item, wherein n and N are positive integers and 1≦n≦N.
US09158838B2	Determining query return referents for concept types in conceptual graphs In one embodiment, a method for determining query return referent data for concept types in a conceptual graph includes generating a conceptual graph for a document query, the conceptual graph comprising a plurality of graph terms, identifying one of more of the plurality of graph terms needing referent data, identifying conceptually similar terms for each of the graph terms, for the graph terms needing referents, identifying referent data by searching for instances where conceptually similar terms for graph terms needing referent data are associated by conceptually similar terms for the linking concept term, and associating identified referent data with the graph terms needing referent data.
US09158837B2	Methods and apparatus for adaptive source filtering and load shedding for data stream processing Techniques are disclosed for adaptive source filtering and load shedding in such data stream processing systems. For example, in one aspect of the invention, a method for use in filtering data in a distributed data stream processing system, wherein a server receives and processes one or more data streams from one or more data sources, comprises the steps of the server periodically re-configuring one or more filters and sending the one or more periodically re-configured filters to the one or more data sources, and the one or more data sources performing data filtering based on the one or more periodically re-configured filters received from the server.
US09158835B2	Method and system for offline indexing of content and classifying stored data A method and system for creating an index of content without interfering with the source of the content includes an offline content indexing system that creates an index of content from an offline copy of data. The system may associate additional properties or tags with data that are not part of traditional indexing of content, such as the time the content was last available or user attributes associated with the content. Users can search the created index to locate content that is no longer available or based on the associate attributes.
US09158833B2	System and method for obtaining document information A method and system for determining at least one target value of at least one target in at least one document, comprising: determining, utilizing at least one scoring application; at least one possible target value, wherein the at least one scoring application utilizes information from at least one training document, and applying the information, utilizing the at least one scoring application, on the at least one new document to determine at least one value of the at least one target on the at least one new document.
US09158826B2	Data rendering with specified constraints System and method for rendering data with specified constraints. A request for data from a data set may be received. The data set may include time-stamped historical data, including multiple reduced data sets, each having a respective resolution. The request may specify a time frame. A first reduced data set of the reduced data sets may be determined based on the specified time frame. First data from the first reduced data set corresponding to the specified time frame may be retrieved, and are usable for display on a display device. The data set may be generated from received raw data, where the raw data includes time-stamped historical data at a first resolution. The raw data may be reduced via multiple stages, thereby generating the reduced data sets at their respective resolutions. The reduced data are generated and represented in a way that is visually pleasing and technically accurate.
US09158825B1	Search validity in data backup systems A computer-implemented method for performing a search on a data backup system is disclosed, where at least a portion of the method is performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor. The method includes receiving a search query, performing a search of indexed information stored in the data backup system based on the search query, determining non-indexed information stored in the data backup system related to the search query, and returning results of the performing and the determining.
US09158823B2	User interface monitoring in a multimedia content distribution network A method for controlling a displayed user interface for accessing content provided by a multimedia content delivery network is disclosed. A plurality of user interface events, representing user actions during operation of the user interface, are recorded for one or more end users. The recorded user interface events include user actions that do not result in a command or transaction received by the service provider of the network. The recorded user interface events may be stored in a data warehouse and mined for business purposes.
US09158821B1	System and method for optimizing interactions between users in a network environment A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes establishing a pool of potential matches for a user in a computer-implemented matching system, in which each of the potential matches meet at least one criteria of the user; determining a messaging score for each of the potential matches of the pool, the messaging score indicating a messaging aptitude of the potential match; and ranking the potential matches, where each of the potential matches is ranked based on a similarity of the messaging score of the potential match to a messaging score of the user. In one embodiment, the method may further include presenting to the user results of the ranking.
US09158817B2	Enhancing online querying service using client memorization Provided are techniques for transmitting a first query from a query agent in a client computing device to an answering agent in a server computing device; receiving, at the query agent from the answering agent, a first response to the first query; saving the first query in conjunction with the first response in a computer readable storage medium; intercepting, by a query service agent, a second query from the query agent to the answering agent; correlating the second query to the first query; and transmitting to the query agent from the query service agent the first response in response to the second query.
US09158816B2	Event processing with XML query based on reusable XML query template Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed for event processing with a query based on a reusable XML query template. A particular method includes receiving a plurality of events from a source and generating a plurality of event objects based on the plurality of events. A query represented by an XML file based on a reusable XML query template is executed with respect to the plurality of event objects to produce a plurality of result objects. Each result object is produced based on an application of at least one operator of the query. A plurality of results is generated based on the plurality of result objects, and the plurality of results is transmitted to a sink.
US09158814B2	Obtaining partial results from a database query A database query governor determines when a query cannot be executed within a defined time threshold, but still executes the query or some variant of the query so partial results for the query may be returned to the user after executing for less than the defined time threshold, instead of an error message indicating the query was not executed at all. The partial results provide information to the user that may be sufficient for some applications, or may indicate to the user how the query could be modified to run in less time.
US09158811B1	Incident review interface A computing machine performs a correlation search associated with a service provided by one or more entities that each have corresponding machine data, the service having one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) that each indicate a state of the service at a point in time or during a period of time and that each derive from the corresponding machine data for the one or more entities. The correlation search associated with the service comprises search criteria pertaining to the one or more KPIs, and a triggering condition to be applied to data identified by a search query using the search criteria. The computing machine stores a notable event in response to the data identified by the search query satisfying the triggering condition and causes display of a graphical user interface presenting information pertaining to the stored notable event, the information comprising an identifier of the correlation search that triggered the storing of the notable event and an identifier of the service associated with the correlation search.
US09158810B2	Hardware message queues for intra-cluster communication A method and apparatus for sending and receiving messages between nodes on a compute cluster is provided. Communication between nodes on a compute cluster, which do not share physical memory, is performed by passing messages over an I/O subsystem. Typically, each node includes a synchronization mechanism, a thread ready to receive connections, and other threads to process and reassemble messages. Frequently, a separate queue is maintained in memory for each node on the I/O subsystem sending messages to the receiving node. Such overhead increases latency and limits message throughput. Due to a specialized coprocessor running on each node, messages on an I/O subsystem are sent, received, authenticated, synchronized, and reassembled at a faster rate and with lower latency. Additionally, the memory structure used may reduce memory consumption by storing messages from multiple sources in the same memory structure, eliminating the need for per-source queues.
US09158808B2	Object arrangement apparatus for determining object destination, object arranging method, and computer program thereof Disclosed is an object arrangement apparatus which arranges a plurality of objects approximately uniformly to a plurality of arrangement destinations by a comparatively easy processing configuration. This object arrangement apparatus includes an arrangement destination determination means. The arrangement destination determination means refers to sequence information generated based on unique information for objects and refers to corresponding information between arrangement destination identifiers identifying arrangement destinations of the objects and second numbers associated with the arrangement destination identifiers. The arrangement destination determination means generates first numbers by using the sequence information, the first numbers not having a correlation therebetween when the first numbers are generated with different sequence information, and repeats generating a new first number until the first number matches the second number contained in the corresponding information. The arrangement destination determination means determines, when the first number matches any of the second numbers, to arrange the object to an arrangement destination corresponding to the arrangement destination identifier related to the matched second number.
US09158805B1	Statistical data quality determination for storage systems Techniques are described for enabling or suspending access to one or more datastores based on a determined quality of the stored data. The datastores may use relational or non-relational formats. User-specified rules may be applied to statistically determine the data quality of at least a portion of the data in the datastore. The rules may perform statistical tests on the data, such as determining whether an amount of stored data is within a margin of a historical average, whether a number of records storing particular data is within a historical average, and so forth. Based on the rules, a flag may be set to indicate the determined data quality. Access to the data may be based on the value of the flag.
US09158803B2	Incremental schema consistency validation on geographic features Aspects of the invention relate generally to updating interconnected feature data stored in a repository while maintaining highly consistent views of the data. More specifically, aspects relate to updating some features in bulk while providing for incremental updates for others which are not completely independent of the bulk edits. Features which may be updated incrementally may contain references to other features and may be validated on an as-needed basis. These “incremental” features may also be associated with “backreferences,” which link two features together and are used in the validation process. For example, where feature A contains a link to feature B and feature B does not also include a link to feature A, if any edits are performed on feature B, a backreference may direct the server to determine whether the references in A are still consistent with the edits to B before the edit goes into a live state.
US09158802B2	Database partition management Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to receive a request to move at least a portion of a database table stored on a tangible medium from a current partition to a history partition, wherein the database table is partitioned into physical partitions according to a selected mapping update frequency. In response to receiving the request, activities may include modifying a logical partitioning of the database table by updating a mapping of the physical partitions to logical partitions. Other apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US09158801B2	Indexing based on object type In one embodiment, a method includes maintaining data stores for objects of a social-networking system, each data store being configured to store objects of a particular one of multiple object types indexed by a search index; receiving an object; identifying an object type of the received object; storing the received object in at least one data store being configured to store objects of the identified object type; and updating the search index of the at least one data store based on the received object.
US09158797B2	Managing metadata for graph-based computations Determining metadata associated with a graph-based computation includes functionally transforming metadata associated with a first portion of a graph to generate transformed metadata associated with a second portion of the graph; determining a third portion of the graph related to the second portion of the graph; and propagating the transformed metadata from the second portion of the graph to the third portion of the graph.
US09158793B2	System and technique for editing and classifying documents Embodiments of a computer system which determines information associated with documents are described. During operation, this computer system receives documents (such as images). Then, the computer system determines a first set of editing instructions and classification information associated with the documents using data-processing software. Next, the computer system receives a second set of editing instructions and classification information associated with the documents. Note that the second set of editing instructions and classification information are generated by a group of individuals and include modifications and additions to the first set of editing instructions and classification information.
US09158792B2	Apparatus and method for automatically composing album and managing cover image of album An apparatus for automatically configuring an album includes an album-creating unit to create an album by using a folder name when at least one folder having the folder name is moved to a selected area, a cover-image-registering unit to register a cover image of the album created by the album-creating unit, and a content-registering unit to register content included in the folder to the album.
US09158786B1	Database selection system and method to automatically adjust a database schema based on an input data Disclosed are a database selection system and/or a method to automatically adjust a database schema based on an input data. The method of the database selection system includes identifying an attribute of the input data. An optimal database type is determined in which the input data is to be stored based on a match between the optimal database type and the attribute. The method selects an ideal database based on the optimal database type from a set of distributed heterogeneous databases. The method determines if an existing database schema of the ideal database is optimally structured based on the input data. An ideal database schema is automatically adjusted based on the input data using a processor and a memory.
US09158784B2	Compressing tuples in a streaming application A method, system, and computer program product to process data in a streaming application are disclosed. The method, system, and computer program product may include receiving a stream of tuples to be processed by a plurality of processing elements operating on a plurality of compute nodes. The method, system, and computer program product may determine whether a first processing element has additional processing capacity. In some embodiments, the method, system, and computer program product determine whether a second processing element, which receives its input from the first processing element, also has additional processing capacity. The method, system, and computer program product may employ compression at the first processing element if one of the first and the second processing element has additional processing capacity.
US09158782B2	Cloud based master data management system with configuration advisor and method therefore A system includes a data store, a data registry, an interface process module, a suggestion database, and a configuration module. The data registry establishes storage of a data record at the data store and maintains links identifying relationships between the data record and a source record at a first source enterprise and between the data record and a source record at a second source enterprise. The interface process module determines that a value at the data record has been updated, and provides the updated value to a corresponding source enterprise using an Internet protocol. The suggestion database includes configuration information associated with multiple users of the system. The configuration module provides Internet access to facilitate configuration of the system by a user and to provide configuration guidance to the user based on the configuration information.
US09158779B2	Multi-node replication systems, devices and methods Replication techniques are presented. According to an embodiment of a method, a node of a replicated storage network is assigned to be an owner of a data block to issue write memory block commands. The network includes at least two nodes including the node assigned to be the owner. If a read memory block command is received to read the data block, a read_lock is issued for the data block, the data block is read, and the read_lock for the data block is released. If a write memory block command is received to write new data to the data block, a write_lock is issued for the data block, the data block is written and a version associated with the data block is incremented, and the write_lock for the data block is released.
US09158773B2	Partial and parallel pipeline processing in a deep question answering system System, method, and computer program product to reduce an amount of processing required to generate a response to a first case by a deep question answering system, by, determining that a similarity score, of the first case relative to a second case, exceeds a similarity threshold, identifying a first feature of the second case having a first relevance score exceeding a relevance threshold, identifying a first candidate answer for the first case that does not have the first feature, and refraining from analyzing the first candidate answer in generating the response to the first case, thereby reducing the amount of processing of the deep question answering system.
US09158764B2	Method and apparatus for utilizing user feedback to improve signifier mapping Embodiments disclosed herein may relate to processing a user input comprising a resource identity signifier for a target resource with reference to a heuristic knowledge base utilizing a processor of a computing platform to determine a possible target resource. Embodiments may further relate to learning a social usage of the resource identity signifier from feedback gathered from a plurality of users based at least in part on previous social usage of the resource identity signifier, and may also relate to transmitting a resource locator corresponding to the determined possible target resource to a user computing platform at least in part in response to a determination of the possible target resource having a degree of confidence exceeding a selected threshold.
US09158763B1	Cataloging storage arrays This disclosure relates to a method and a system for cataloging storage arrays and devices. Exemplary systems create, update, and store indexes, and also provide a search facility to search indexed information. Cataloging creates, stores and updates indexes of all the configuration of a storage array or device, as well as snapshots of applications. Exemplary methods comprise identifying a storage array, conducting a storage discovery, obtaining a complete storage array information, and creating an index.
US09158760B2	Audio decoding with supplemental semantic audio recognition and report generation System, apparatus and method for determining semantic information from audio, where incoming audio is sampled and processed to extract audio features, including temporal, spectral, harmonic and rhythmic features. The extracted audio features are compared to stored audio templates that include ranges and/or values for certain features and are tagged for specific ranges and/or values. The semantic information may be associated with audio codes to determine changing characteristics of identified media during a time period.
US09158759B2	Engine for human language comprehension of intent and command execution The invention provides a computer system for interacting with a user. A set of concepts initially forms a target set of concepts. An input module receives a language input from the user. An analysis system executes a plurality of narrowing cycles until a concept packet having at least one concept has been identified. Each narrowing cycle includes identifying at least one portion of the language and determining a subset of concepts from the target set of concepts to form a new target subset. An action item identifier identifies an action item from the action items based on the concept packet. An action executer that executes an action based on the action item that has been identified.
US09158754B2	Named entity extraction from a block of text A data processing method, program, and apparatus for identifying a document within a block of text. A block of text is tokenized into a plurality of text tokens according to at least one rule parser. Each of the plurality of text tokens is sequentially compared to a plurality of document tokens to determine if the text token matches one of the plurality of document tokens. The plurality of document tokens correspond to a plurality of documents which have been tokenized according to the one or more rule parsers. Each matched text token is filtered according to predetermined filtering criteria to generate one or more candidate text tokens. It is then determined whether sequence of candidate text tokens that occur in sequential order within the block of text match sequence of document tokens. If so, then it is determined that the document has been identified within the block of text. The document can correspond to an artist, a song names, and misspellings and aliases thereof.
US09158753B2	Data processing method, presentation method, and corresponding apparatuses A data processing method includes obtaining text information corresponding to a presented content, the presented content comprising a plurality of areas; performing text analysis on the text information to obtain a first keyword sequence, the first keyword sequence including area keywords associated with at least one area of the plurality of areas; obtaining speech information related to the presented content, the speech information at least comprising a current speech segment; and using a first model network to perform analysis on the current speech segment to determine the area corresponding to the current speech segment, wherein the first model network comprises the first keyword sequence.
US09158752B2	Data processing method, presentation method, and corresponding apparatuses A data processing method includes obtaining text information corresponding to a presented content, the presented content comprising a plurality of areas; performing text analysis on the text information to obtain a first keyword sequence, the first keyword sequence including area keywords associated with at least one area of the plurality of areas; obtaining speech information related to the presented content, the speech information at least comprising a current speech segment; and using a first model network to perform analysis on the current speech segment to determine the area corresponding to the current speech segment, wherein the first model network comprises the first keyword sequence.
US09158751B2	Persistently self-replicating multiple ranges of cells through a table The present invention includes a method and system for persistently self-replicating multiple ranges of cells through a copy-paste operation, in a multi dimensional spreadsheet. A set of ranges of cells is defined, wherein each range of cells has the same size. Each time the content of a range of cells belonging to this set is changed, a self-replication operation is performed automatically. The self-replication operation includes the steps of copying the changed range of cells onto a buffer; determining the set of ranges of cells to which the changed range of cells belongs; identifying the ranges of cells belonging to the set; and pasting the content of the buffer in each of the identified range of cells belonging to the set.
US09158749B2	Smart form completion of form values Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to form value processing and provide a method, system and computer program product for smart completion of form values in a form. In a first embodiment of the invention, a data processing system for completing form data can include smart complete logic configured for coupling to a content server in a content distribution platform. The smart complete logic can include program code enabled to dispose a smart complete control element and a save control element in a form where the smart complete control element can include one or more selectable form value sets.
US09158748B2	Correction of quotations copied from electronic documents A method of annotating an electronic document includes generating a first annotation in a first electronic document using an annotation service, where the first annotation makes a first correction to a portion of text based on the context of the portion of text within the first electronic document. The method further includes storing the first annotation in the metadata of the first electronic document, detecting electronic copying of the portion of text to a copy buffer, and correcting the portion of text in the copy buffer according to the first annotation.
US09158744B2	System and method for automatically extracting multi-format data from documents and converting into XML A system, a computer-implemented method and a computer program product for extracting insurance data from one or more documents having one or more file formats and converting into Extensible Markup Language (XML) format is provided. The system comprises a user interface configured to facilitate one or more users to submit one or more documents related to insurance. The system further comprises a business type classification module configured to identify the one or more submitted documents based on a business type. Further, the system comprises a format classification module configured to identify file format of the one or more submitted documents. Furthermore, the system comprises an extraction and conversion module configured to match one or more headers in the one or more submitted documents with one or more pre-stored headers, extract insurance data corresponding to the one or more matched headers and convert the extracted insurance data into XML format.
US09158743B1	Grid layout control for network site design Disclosed are various embodiments for designing a network site. A grid layout component is provided in conjunction with a network page. The network page has at least one text element and at least one image element. The grid layout component has a plurality of cell configurations. Each cell configuration includes at least one text cell and at least one image cell. An indication is received from a user, indicating that one of the cell configurations is to be an initial cell configuration. In response to the user indication, the at least one text element and the at least one image element are displayed in a grid having the initial cell configuration. Layout code is generated which renders the grid, including the at least one text element and the at least one image element, within the network page for display by the browser.
US09158742B2	Automatically detecting layout of bidirectional (BIDI) text Automatically detecting the layout of a bidirectional (BIDI) text. In one embodiment, this comprises: determining a shaping attribute of the text based on scanning the text to detect at least one character of a specific shape, while preferably ignoring initial, final, and stand-alone shaped characters; determining a text type attribute of the text from the shaping attribute; and determining an orientation attribute of the text from the determined text type. A numeric shaping attribute and a symmetric swapping attribute may also be determined. Embodiments of the invention may be used, by way of illustration but not of limitation, for bidirectional layout transformation to allow conversion of a BIDI text received from a source computer system in a source BIDI layout format into a layout format of a target computer system.
US09158741B1	Indicators for navigating digital works This disclosure describes, in part, a progress gauge used to indicate a user's location in a digital work and to associate locations within the digital work with corresponding locations on the progress gauge. For instance, a progress gauge as described herein may comprise a progress bar having numerous segments corresponding to different sections (e.g., chapters, acts, scenes, etc.) within a digital work. Each segment of the progress bar may include a unique visual indicator, while each page within the corresponding section of the digital work may also include the same unique visual indicator or another type of indicator that maps to the visual indicator on the progress bar.
US09158740B2	Systems and methods for speed estimation based on stride data using predictive modeling Systems and methods for speed estimation based on stride data using predictive modeling relate to portable wireless devices (202) that contain GPS or other location resources to generate position and speed data. The device (202) also incorporates an accelerometer (212) or other motion sensor. When GPS signals are interrupted, an estimation module (216) and associated logic generates a speed estimate based solely on stride frequency data from the accelerometer (212). Unlike conventional estimators, the estimation module (216) operates on a non-deterministic basis, generating an estimated speed using a joint probability distribution derived from previous speed and stride data captured while positioning signals are available. The estimation module (216) can continue to operate when GPS signals are available, and either filter the GPS speed measures for spurious signals, or further train the estimation module (216) with new position data. The estimation module (216) can also incorporate altitude measurements when estimating speed.
US09158739B2	Motion stabilizer for tractor In a pendular motion determination unit of a motion stabilizer for a tractor, a parameter computation unit computes a determination parameter PA indicative of a quantity of change in an actual yaw rate Y, a threshold value setting unit computes a threshold value PAth for the parameter PA, and a determination unit determines that a pendular motion caused by swaying motion of a trailer is imparted, if the parameter PA is greater than the threshold value PAth. Based upon at least one of a value related to the actual yaw rate Y and a value related to the standard yaw rate Ys, an evaluation value computation unit computes a steering-back maneuver evaluation value TS (indicative of a possibility of making periodical steering-back maneuvers), based upon which at least one of the threshold value PAth and the parameter PA is changed.
US09158738B2	Apparatus for monitoring vicinity of a vehicle Category determination is performed on an object candidate extracted from a captured image after an exclusion process is performed in advance. In the exclusion process, a distance from a vehicle to the object candidate is calculated based on a size of the object candidate in a current image, a moved distance of the vehicle occurring in a time interval from a time a previous image was captured to a time the current image is captured is calculated, the size of the object candidate in the current image is decreased at a change ratio based on the distance to the object candidate and the moved distance, and a size of the object candidate in the previous image and a size of the object candidate decreased at the change ratio are compared. The object candidate with difference between them being determined to be larger than a predetermined value is removed.
US09158732B2	Distributed cache system for delivering contents to display apparatus A disclosed system includes a first computer that stores data, a display apparatus that is capable of reading a user identifier, a second computer, and plural third computers. The second computer includes a data storage unit storing first correlation data to correlate a user identifier with at least one third computer, and a controller that refers to the first correlation data upon detecting an event data, identifies a third computer correlated with a first user identifier included in the event data, and transmits the first user identifier to the identified third computer. Each third computer includes a receiver that receives the first user identifier, a storing unit that obtains from the first computer, and stores data identified based on the received first user identifier, and a controller to transmit data corresponding to a second user identifier, which was received from the display apparatus, based on the second user identifier.
US09158731B2	Multiprocessor arrangement having shared memory, and a method of communication between processors in a multiprocessor arrangement A multiprocessor arrangement is disclosed, in which a plurality of processors are able to communicate with each other by means of a plurality of time-sliced memory blocks. At least one, and up to all, of the processors may be able to access more than one time-sliced memories. A mesh arrangement of such processors and memories is disclosed, which may be a partial or complete mesh. The mesh may to two-dimensional, or higher dimensional.A method of communication between processors in a multiprocessor arrangement is also disclosed, in which one or more processors are able to each access a plurality of memories, in each case by time-slicing.
US09158730B2	Method for controlling information processing system, server device, and client device A method for controlling an information processing system that includes a client device including a plurality of sensors that acquire positional information of the client device and a server device that transmits data to the client device includes causing the server device to specify a positioning requirement corresponding to positional information of the client device based on association information associating a distance between the client device and a location in which the server device transmits the data to the client device located with each of the sensors, and causing the client device to select a sensor based on the positioning requirement specified by the server device among the sensors.
US09158716B2	Memory controller supporting concurrent volatile and nonvolatile memory modules in a memory bus architecture A memory/storage module is provided that implements a solid state drive compatible with Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) signaling on a double-data-rate compatible socket. A detachable daughter card may be coupled to the memory module for converting a memory bus voltage to a second voltage for memory devices on the memory module. Additionally, a hybrid memory bus on a host system is provided that supports either DDR-compatible memory modules and/or SATA/SAS-compatible memory modules. In one example, the memory/storage module couples to a first bus (DDR3 compatible socket) to obtain voltage and/or other signals, but uses a second bus for data transfers. In another example, the memory module may repurpose/reuse electrical paths that typically carry non-data signals for data traffic to/from the memory/storage module. Such data traffic for the memory/storage module permits concurrent data traffic for other memory modules on the same memory bus.
US09158715B1	Multi-input memory command prioritization Described herein are memory apparatuses, and methods of operating the same, that have a memory array module configured, in a given clock cycle, to either receive a first command to write to a first memory location having a first address, or receive a second command to read from a second memory location having a second address. A comparison circuit of the memory apparatus is configured to compare the first address to the second address. The memory apparatus also includes an output circuit configured to output data stored in the memory array module at the second memory location based at least on the first address and second address being different. The output circuit is also configured to output data received from a write data input, bypassing the memory array module, when the first address and the second address are the same.
US09158714B2	Method and system for multi-layer differential load balancing in tightly coupled clusters A method and system for load balancing. The method includes discovering each of a plurality of hosts in a cluster, wherein the plurality of hosts is configured for accessing a LUN of a storage system through a storage network fabric. Global input/output (I/O) load characteristics are collected for each of the plurality of hosts at the device and/or volume level. A selected host is determined for processing an I/O originating at the local host, wherein the host is selected based on a current set of the global I/O load characteristics.
US09158713B1	Packet processing with dynamic load balancing A system and method are provided for evenly distributing central processing unit (CPU) packet processing workloads. The method accepts packets for processing at a port hardware module port interface. The port hardware module supplies the packets to a direct memory access (DMA) engine for storage in system memory. The port hardware module also supplies descriptors to a mailbox. Each descriptor identifies a corresponding packet. The mailbox has a plurality of slots, and loads the descriptors into empty slots. There is a plurality of CPUs, and each CPU fetches descriptors from assigned slots in the mailbox. Then, each CPU processes packets in the system memory in the order in which the associated descriptors are fetched. A load balancing module estimates each CPU workload and reassigns mailbox slots to CPUs in response to unequal CPU workloads.
US09158710B2	Page coloring with color inheritance for memory pages Apparatuses, methods, and media for page coloring with color inheritance for memory pages are disclosed. Some embodiments may include an interface to access a memory and a paging unit including translation logic, inheritance logic, and comparison logic. The translation logic translates a first address to a second address based on an entry in a data structure, wherein the first address is provided by an instruction stored in a first page in the memory and the entry includes a base address of a second page in the memory including the second address and a color of the second page. The inheritance logic may determine an effective current page color of the first page based on a color of the first page. The comparison logic may compare the effective current page color of the first page to the color of the second page. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US09158699B2	Memory management techniques Memory management techniques that permit an executing process to store content in memory and later retrieve that content from the memory, but that also permit a memory manager to discard that content to address memory pressure. A process executing on a computing device may notify a memory manager of the computing device that first memory space allocated to the process contains first content that is available for discard. If the memory manager detects the computing device is experiencing memory pressure, the memory manager may address the memory pressure by selecting memory space available for discard and discarding the content of the memory space. Before a process reuses content made available for discard, the process may notify the memory manager of the intent to reuse and, in response, receive empty memory and an indication that the content was discarded or receive an indication that the content is still available for use.
US09158698B2	Dynamically removing entries from an executing queue According to an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for control block management is provided. The computer-implemented method includes placing one or more control blocks in a queue for execution by a computer hardware device. The computer-implemented method also includes allocating a purge flag in each of the control blocks. The purge flag instructs the computer hardware device to skip execution of the corresponding control block.
US09158688B1	Method for optimizing memory controller placement in multi-core processors by determining a fitness metric based on a bottleneck link in a multiprocessor array The location of the memory controllers within the on-chip fabric of multiprocessor architectures plays a central role in latency bandwidth characteristics of the processor-to-memory traffic. Intelligent placement substantially reduces the maximum channel load depending on the specific memory controller configuration selected. A variety of simulation techniques are used along and in combination to determine optimal memory controller arrangements. Diamond-type and diagonal X-type memory controller configurations that spread network traffic across all rows and columns in a multiprocessor array substantially improve over other arrangements. Such placements reduce interconnect latency by an average of 10% for real workloads, and the small number of memory controllers relative to the number of on-chip cores opens up a rich design space to optimize latency and bandwidth characteristics of the on-chip network.
US09158683B2	Multiport memory emulation using single-port memory devices A multiport memory emulator receives first and a second memory commands for concurrent processing of memory commands in one operation clock cycle. Data operands are stored in a memory array of bitcells that is arranged as rows and memory banks. An auxiliary memory bank provides a bitcell for physically storing an additional word for each row. The bank address portion of each of the first and second memory commands is respectively translated into a first and second physical bank address. The second physical bank address is assigned a bank address of a bank that is currently unused in response to a determination that the bank address portions are equal and the bank associated with the first bank address is designated as a currently unused bank for subsequently received memory commands in response to the determination that the bank address portions are equal. Simultaneous read and write operations are possible.
US09158677B2	Flash storage controller execute loop A storage controller is provided that contains multiple processors. In some embodiments, the storage controller is coupled to a flash memory module having multiple flash memory groups, each flash memory group corresponding to a distinct flash port in the storage controller, each flash port comprising an associated processor. Each processor handles a portion of one or more host commands, including reads and writes, allowing multiple parallel pipelines to handle one or more host commands simultaneously.
US09158676B2	Nonvolatile memory controller and a nonvolatile memory system A nonvolatile memory (NVM) controller that includes a command decoder that receives a command from a host and outputs an index in response to the command, a program memory that stores a command mapping table including address information for accessing a program corresponding to the command and a processor that receives an index from the command decoder and controls the address information to be output in response to the index.
US09158674B2	Storage device with health status check feature A storage device with a health status check feature is disclosed. In one embodiment, the storage device keeps track of the number of erase cycles performed on the memory of the storage device. The storage device also stores a value of the predicted limit on the number of times that erase cycles can be performed on the memory. In response to a request from a host device for the health status of the memory, the storage device can provide the host device with information about how many erase cycles have been performed on the memory as compared to the predicted limit.
US09158671B2	Nonvolatile memory system with migration manager Disclosed is a memory system that includes a nonvolatile memory having a main region and a cache region; and a memory controller having migration manager managing a migration operation that moves data from cache region to the main region by referencing a Most Recently Used/Least Recently Used (MRU/LRU) list.
US09158669B2	Presenting enclosure cache as local cache in an enclosure attached server Presenting enclosure cache as local cache in an enclosure attached server, including: determining, by the enclosure, a cache hit rate for local server cache in each of a plurality of enclosure attached servers; determining, by the enclosure, an amount of available enclosure cache for use by one or more of the enclosure attached servers; and offering, by the enclosure, some portion of the available enclosure cache to an enclosure attached server in dependence upon the cache hit rate and the amount of available enclosure cache.
US09158664B1	Coverage analysis for variable size signals An embodiment can include one or more computer-readable media storing executable instructions that when executed on processing logic process variable signals. The media can store one or more instructions for receiving executable code that includes constructs with variable signals for processing the variable signals, and for performing a coverage measurement on the executable code based on information about one or more of the variable signals processed by the executable code. The media can store one or more instructions for producing a coverage result based on the coverage measurement, the coverage result identifying a degree of coverage for the executable code when the executable code processes the variable signals.
US09158662B1	Automated operating system installation on multiple drives Technologies are provided herein for automated operating system installation on multiple drives. A device switch connects a mass storage device to a test control system (“TCS”) or a system under test (“SUT”). When connected to the TCS, the mass storage device is mounted with a disk image containing an installer program for an operating system. When the mass storage device is connected to the SUT, the installer program is executed to install the operating system onto an activated drive connected to the SUT. Multiple operating systems can be installed in a similar fashion by mounting a corresponding disk image for an operating system onto the mass storage device and by installing from the mass storage device the operating system onto a corresponding drive connected to the SUT. Errors generated during the automated installation process can be analyzed and utilized to identify and correct errors in a computing system firmware.
US09158658B2	Detecting merge conflicts and compilation errors in a collaborative integrated development environment A method, system, and computer program product for detecting merge conflicts and compilation errors in a collaborative integrated development environment are provided in the illustrative embodiments. Prior to at least one user committing a set of uncommitted changes associated with a source code to a repository, the computer receives the set of uncommitted changes associated with the source code. The computer creates at least one temporary branch corresponding to the set of uncommitted changes associated with the source code. The computer device merges the at least one temporary branch to corresponding portions of the source code. The computer determines whether a merge conflict has occurred. If the merge conflict occurred, the computer communicates a first notification to the at least one user, the first notification indicating the merge conflict.
US09158657B2	Architecture for remote access to content state Features are disclosed for facilitating remote access to the state of an application or content item currently executing or rendered on a user computing device. A connection between the user computing device and another computing device (or connections between the user computing device and an intermediary system, and between another computing device and the same intermediary system) may be established according to a bidirectional communication protocol. The user computing device may receive and act on communications from the other computing device, including requests for data regarding the current state of an application or content page on the user computing device, instructions to execute some function in the application or content page, etc. In addition, user computing devices may be grouped such that an application or content may be monitored/tested/debugged among a variety of user computing devices.
US09158656B1	Systems and methods for progressively launching websites A method for progressively launching a website is disclosed. A production phase website may be launched or made available to a limited number of consumers. In addition, the performance of the production phase website may be evaluated based upon a comparison of the performance of the production phase website to a performance of the predecessor website. Further, the predecessor website may be replaced with the production phase website.
US09158654B1	Verification of computer-executable code generated from a model A code verification tool verifies that code generated from a model represents all of the functionality of the model and does not contain any unintended functionality. The code verification tool may receive for examination a model or an intermediate representation (IR) of the model and the generated code or an intermediate representation of the generated code. The code verification tool may create further intermediate representations of the model and/or the generated code in order to compare the functionality presented in both.
US09158653B2	Determining impact of virtual storage backup jobs Systems and methods for determining impact of a backup job on virtual storage resources are disclosed. An exemplary method includes determining an estimated performance and logical/physical capacity for the backup job on a virtual library storage (VLS). The method also includes determining an actual performance and logical/physical capacity without the backup job. The method also includes determining a simulated performance and logical/physical capacity based on the estimated and actual performance and logical/physical capacity. The method also includes comparing the simulated performance and logical/physical capacity to a threshold.
US09158652B2	Intelligent modules in a particle counter An airborne, gas, or liquid particle sensor with one or more intelligent modules either within the instrument or attached to the instrument. These modules comprising sub-systems with local controllers or memory.
US09158651B2	Monitoring thread starvation using stack trace sampling and based on a total elapsed time The present disclosure includes methods and systems for monitoring thread starvation. A number of embodiments include determining an amount of time a thread is not runnable, determining an amount of CPU consumption time for the thread, and determining an amount of thread starvation time based on the amount of time the thread is not runnable and the amount of CPU consumption time for the thread.
US09158642B2	Method of testing multiple data packet signal transceivers concurrently A method of testing, such as for a bit error rate (BER), of multiple data packet signal transceivers during which a tester and the data packet signal transceivers exchange sequences of test data packets and summary data packets. The tester provides the test data packets which contain respective pluralities of data bits with respective predetermined bit patterns. Responsive thereto, the data packet signal transceivers provide the summary data packets which contain respective summary data indicative of the number of data bits with the respective predetermined bit patterns that are correctly received by corresponding ones of the data packet signal transceivers.
US09158637B2	Storage control grid and method of operating thereof There is provided a storage control grid capable of controlling at least one service provided in the storage system and a method of operating thereof. The storage control grid comprises at least one service dispatcher operatively coupled to at least one service requestor and to a plurality of service providers. The method comprises requesting by service requester a service, thus giving rise to at least one service request; enabling, using said at least one service dispatcher, delivery of the service request to at least one service provider among said plurality of service providers, said service provider configured to provide said at least one service, wherein the delivery is enabled in accordance with data comprised in a service data structure handled by said at least one service dispatcher and indicative, at least, of association between said at least one service and service providers among said plurality of service providers.
US09158633B2	File corruption recovery in concurrent data protection An incremental backup system that performs the following (not necessarily in the following order): (i) making a plurality of time-ordered journal entries; (ii) determining that a corruption condition exists; (iii) responsive to a corruption condition, constructing a first incremental mirror data set that reflects a backup data set and all journal entries up to a first corrupted journal entry which is the earliest in time journal entry, of the plurality of journal entries, that is a corrupted journal entry; (iv) responsive to a corruption condition, constructing a second incremental mirror data set that reflects the backup data set and all journal entries up to the first corrupted journal entry; and (v) checking for corruption in the first and second incremental mirror data sets to determine the latest uncorrupted version of the data set.
US09158622B2	Storage device including non-volatile memory device and repair method Disclosed is a storage device which includes a nonvolatile memory device including a memory block a program order of which is adjusted regardless of an arrangement of memory cells, and a memory controller that performs address mapping to replace a bad page of the memory block with a normal page of the memory block.
US09158620B2	Systems and methods for testing pages of data stored in a memory module A memory module including a first memory, a second memory, a test module, and a control module. The first memory is configured to store pages of data to be tested for errors. The second memory is configured to store addresses for the pages of data and store copies of the pages of data. The test module is configured to perform testing on the pages of data stored in the first memory. The control module is configured to, prior to the testing being performed by the test module on the pages of data stored in the first memory, cause the second memory to store the addresses and the copies of the pages of data stored in the first memory and, subsequent to the testing being performed by the test module, store the copies of the pages of data to the first memory based on the addresses stored in the second memory.
US09158619B2	On chip redundancy repair for memory devices An apparatus, system, and method provide for on chip redundancy repair for stacked memory devices. A memory device may include a memory stack including one or more layers of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and a system element coupled with the memory stack, the system element including a memory controller for control of the memory stack, and repair logic that is coupled with the memory controller. The repair logic is to hold repair addresses that are identified as failing addresses for defective areas of the memory stack, with the repair logic to receive a memory operation request and implement redundancy repair for an operation address for the request using a repair logic memory to store the repair addresses and data for the repair addresses.
US09158618B2	Memory diagnostic method, device, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for diagnosing a memory used by a process during execution of the process In a memory diagnostic method, a fixed domain stores data that are not changed during process execution. A variable domain stores data that are subject to writing during process execution. A fixed domain diagnostic part adds an error-detecting code to data to be stored in the fixed domain. The fixed domain diagnostic part compares an error-detecting code calculated from data read from the fixed domain with the added error-detecting code to determine whether there is any data error. A variable domain diagnostic part temporarily stores data stored in the variable domain in a memory region different from the memory storing the data, and writes known data in the variable domain where the temporarily stored data were stored. The variable domain diagnostic part reads data from the region where the known data were written and determines whether the data is the same as the written known data.
US09158616B2	Method and system for error management in a memory device A method and system for error management in a memory device. In one embodiment of the invention, the memory device can handle commands and address parity errors and cyclic redundancy check errors. In one embodiment of the invention, the memory can detect whether a received command has any parity errors by determining whether the command bits or the address bits of the received command has any parity errors. If a parity error or cyclic redundancy check error in the received command is detected, an error handling mechanism is triggered to recover from the errant command.
US09158613B2	Word line defect detection and handling for a data storage device A data storage device includes a non-volatile memory that includes a three-dimensional (3D) memory and circuitry associated with operation of memory cells of the 3D memory. The non-volatile memory includes a word line coupled to a plurality of storage elements. A method includes detecting a condition associated with a defect in the word line. A first subset of the plurality of storage elements and a second subset of the plurality of storage elements are determined based on an estimated location of the defect. The method further includes determining a first read threshold for the first subset and a second read threshold for the second subset.
US09158604B1	Lightweight data-flow tracker for realtime behavioral analysis using control flow Methods and devices for detecting performance-degrading behaviors include identifying a data source component that inputs data into an application executing on a mobile device, and identifying a data sink component that consumes data output from the application. Using a measured runtime control-flow parameter, a likelihood that the data source component is a critical data resource may be determined. Using the probability value, a behavior model that identifies a mobile device feature associated with the critical data resource may be updated and used to determine whether the software application is malicious. Measured runtime control-flow parameters may include a program execution distance between data source and sink components based on heuristics. Determining program execution distances between data sources and sinks may include computing call graph distances by comparing a source call stack length and a sink call stack length, or by counting method invocations or functional calls between data sources and sinks.
US09158600B2	System and method for automating the transfer of a data from a web interface to a database or another web interface Access information is received for a data sender interface accessible over a network and a data receiver interface accessible over the network. A set of navigation steps necessary to access data fields on the sender interface are determined. The data fields on the data sender interface are automatically mapped to data fields on the data receiver interface using at least one data mapping rule, such that a set of data field mappings is created. A data transfer scenario is generated using the set of navigation steps and the set of data field mappings, such that the data transfer scenario specifies a set of operations for transferring data from the sender interface to the receiver interface. The data transfer scenario is stored to computer readable media and can be executed any number of times to transfer data from the sending interface to the receiving interface.
US09158598B2	Apparatus, method, program and system for processing information utilizing a multi-platform capable of managing a plurality of applications There is provided an information processing apparatus, including a multi-platform capable of managing a plurality of applications, and an operating system which operates on the multi-platform, and is capable of being activated by a command of the multi-platform.
US09158597B2	Controlling access to shared resource by issuing tickets to plurality of execution units Access to a shared resource by a plurality of execution units is organized and controlled by issuing tickets to each execution unit as they request access to the resource. The tickets are issued by a hardware atomic unit so that each execution unit receives a unique ticket number. A current owner field indicates the ticket number of the execution unit that currently has access to the shared resource. When an execution unit has completed its access, it releases the shared resource and increments the owner field. Execution units awaiting access to the shared resource periodically check the current value of the owner field and take control of the shared resource when their respective ticket values match the owner field.
US09158595B2	Hardware scheduling of ordered critical code sections One embodiment sets forth a technique for scheduling the execution of ordered critical code sections by multiple threads. A multithreaded processor includes an instruction scheduling unit that is configured to schedule threads to process ordered critical code sections. A ordered critical code section is preceded by a barrier instruction and when all of the threads have reached the barrier instruction, the instruction scheduling unit controls the thread execution order by selecting each thread for execution based on logical identifiers associated with the threads. The logical identifiers are mapped to physical identifiers that are referenced by the multithreaded processor during execution of the threads. The logical identifiers are used by the instruction scheduling unit to control the order in which the threads execute the ordered critical code section.
US09158592B2	System and method for time variant scheduling of affinity groups comprising processor core and address spaces on a synchronized multicore processor Methods and systems for scheduling applications on a multi-core processor are disclosed, which may be based on association of processor cores, application execution environments, and authorizations that permits efficient and practical means to utilize the simultaneous execution capabilities provided by multi-core processors. The algorithm may support definition and scheduling of variable associations between cores and applications (i.e., multiple associations can be defined so that the cores an application is scheduled on can vary over time as well as what other applications are also assigned to the same cores as part of an association). The algorithm may include specification and control of scheduling activities, permitting preservation of some execution capabilities of a multi-core processor for future growth, and permitting further evaluation of application requirements against the allocated execution capabilities.
US09158591B2	System and method for controlled sharing of consumable resources in a computer cluster In one embodiment, a method includes empirically analyzing a set of active reservations and a current set of consumable resources belonging to a class of consumable resources. Each active reservation is of a managed task type and includes a group of one or more tasks requiring access to a consumable resource of the class. The method further includes, based on the empirically analyzing, clocking the set of active reservations each clocking cycle. In addition, the method includes, responsive to the clocking, sorting a priority queue of the set of active reservations.
US09158580B2	Data flows and their interaction with control flows A method and apparatus for processing data by a computer and a method of determining data storage requirements of a computer for earning out a data processing task.
US09158574B2	Handling interrupts in data processing A method and apparatus for processing data when an interrupt is received during processing of a function at a point during the processing at which a portion of the function has been processed then a control parameter is accessed. In response to a control parameter having a value indicting that the function has idempotence, processing of the function is stopped, and information on progress of the function is discarded such that following completion of the interrupt the portion of the function that has already been processed is processed again. In response to the control parameter having a value indicating that the function does not have idempotence, processing of the function is suspended without discarding information on progress of the function that has already been processed such that following completion of the interrupt the processing is resumed from a point that it reached when it was suspended.
US09158572B1	Method to automatically redirect SRB routines to a zIIP eligible enclave A method to redirect SRB routines from otherwise non-zIIP eligible processes on an IBM z/OS series mainframe to a zIIP eligible enclave is disclosed. This redirection is achieved by intercepting otherwise blocked operations and allowing them to complete processing without errors imposed by the zIIP processor configuration. After appropriately intercepting and redirecting these blocked operations more processing may be performed on the more financially cost effective zIIP processor by users of mainframe computing environments.
US09158567B2	System and method for reconfigurable network services using modified network configuration with modified bandwith capacity in dynamic virtualization environments A method includes configuring a host system to instantiate a virtual machine using server configuration information from a virtual machine monitor (VMM) and configuring a switch network to provide the virtual machine with access to resources on the switch network using network configuration information from the VMM. A VMM includes a workload with a server configuration module that configures a host system to include a virtual machine, and a network configuration module that configures a switch network coupled to the host system, such that the virtual machine obtains access to resources on the switch network.
US09158563B2	Dynamic plugin(s) for cloud application(s) Techniques are described herein that are capable of dynamically installing plugin(s) for application(s). An agent plugin is caused to run in a deployment of a specified application (e.g., across multiple machines in a cloud environment or “on premises”). The specified application is packaged to include the agent plugin. The agent plugin is used to install designated plugin(s) dynamically based on configuration information regarding the specified application. The configuration information indicates that the designated plugin(s) are to be installed in response to the specified application being deployed.
US09158560B2	Dynamic application arranger A device may determine an application shortcut and a set of specified conditions, where the application shortcut is to be presented on a home screen of a user device when the set of specified conditions is satisfied. The device may determine a set of current conditions associated with the user device, and may present the application shortcut on the home screen of the user device based on the set of current conditions satisfying the set of specified conditions.
US09158559B2	Roaming of note-taking application features Methods are disclosed for managing configuration variables and settings within a note-taking application such that application features are adjusted globally across an entire note-taking application regardless of the particular device from which application content is accessed. The configuration variables and settings may pertain to any or all of a variety of application features such as but not limited to adjustment of client, user and content-specific configuration options.
US09158555B2	Efficient serialization of mutable objects A data processing system includes a processor and data storage coupled to the processor. The data storage includes program code, that when executed by the processor, causes the data processing system to serialize a mutable object utilizing a full serialization process and to cache primitive data and metadata regarding the mutable object in binary format in cache. Thereafter, the mutable object is again serialized utilizing an abbreviated serialization process by reference to the cached primitive data and metadata, and the serialized mutable object is communicated to a distributed code element.
US09158553B2	System and method for expediting virtual I/O server (VIOS) boot time in a virtual computing environment An approach for management of boot time of a virtual machine is provided. In one aspect, a system boot time application identifies assigned resources of a virtual I/O server (VIOS) of a computing system. In addition, the system boot time application allocates additional resources from client logical partitions (LPARs) of the computing system to the assigned resources of VIOS during boot time of VIOS. The system boot time application further identifies cores of the computing system during the boot time of VIOS. The system boot time application also sets the cores in turbo core mode until boot time of VIOS is completed. In one aspect, the system boot time application reallocates the allocated additional resources from VIOS to the client LPARs once boot time of VIOS is completed.
US09158550B2	Caching based operating system installation An image of system software is installed by loading an executable image of the system software using a boot loader, where the executable image includes a kernel and a plurality of files used by the kernel. The kernel of the system software is executed to generate the image of the system software that includes a copy of the kernel. Generating the image of the system software involves the steps of generating a plurality of pointers that each point to a different one of the files, retrieving the files using the pointers, and storing a copy of the kernel and the files in a storage device from which the system software is to be booted as the image of the system software.
US09158549B2	Method, apparatus and system for binding MTC device and UICC A method for binding a Machine Type Communication (MTC) device and a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) is disclosed. The method includes: during a process of establishment of a shared key, a Network Application Function (NAF) acquires identity information of the MTC device and identity information of the UICC (101); the NAF establishes a binding relationship between the MTC device and the UICC based on the identity information of the MTC device and the identity information of the UICC, and stores the binding relationship into a binding relationship table stored by the NAF (102). An apparatus and system for binding an MTC device and a UICC and a method and system for establishing a shared key between an MTC device and a UICC are further disclosed, such that the binding relationship between the MTC device and the UICC will not be limited by the life cycle of the shared key when the binding between the MTC device and the UICC is implemented in the manner of Generic Bootstrapping Architecture (GBA) with UICC-based enhancements (GBA-U), thus ensuring the security in use of the MTC device and the UICC.
US09158548B2	System and method for program and resource allocation within a data-intensive computer A system and method for operating a data-intensive computer is provided. The data-intensive computer includes a processing sub-system formed by a plurality of processing node servers and a database sub-system formed by a plurality of database servers configured to form a collective database in excess of a petabyte of storage. The data-intensive computer also includes an operating system sub-system formed by a plurality of operating system servers that extend a unifying operating system environment across the processing sub-system, the database sub-system, and the operating system sub-system to act as components in a single data-intensive computer. The operating system sub-system is configured to coordinate execution of a single application as distributed processes having at least one of the distributed processes executed on the processing sub-system and at least one of the distributed processes executed on the database sub-system.
US09158544B2	System and method for performing a branch object conversion to program configurable logic circuitry A method and system are provided for deriving a resultant software code from an originating ordered list of instructions that does not include overlapping branch logic. The method may include deriving a plurality of unordered software constructs from a sequence of processor instructions; associating software constructs in accordance with an original logic of the sequence of processor instructions; determining and resolving memory precedence conflicts within the associated plurality of software constructs; resolving forward branch logic structures into conditional logic constructs; resolving back branch logic structures into loop logic constructs; and/or applying the plurality of unordered software constructs in a programming operation by a parallel execution logic circuitry. The resultant plurality of unordered software constructs may be converted into programming reconfigurable logic, computers or processors, and also by means of a computer network or an electronics communications network.
US09158543B2	Query sampling information instruction A measurement sampling facility takes snapshots of the central processing unit (CPU) on which it is executing at specified sampling intervals to collect data relating to tasks executing on the CPU. The collected data is stored in a buffer, and at selected times, an interrupt is provided to remove data from the buffer to enable reuse thereof. The interrupt is not taken after each sample, but in sufficient time to remove the data and minimize data loss.
US09158538B2	User-extensible rule-based source code modification Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to parsing for source code porting and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for a user-extensible rule-based source code modification tool. According to an aspect of the present invention, an automated parsing tool for parsing and modifying source code is provided which supports the addition of user-defined rules, and which parses and either modifies source code or suggests modifications to source code based upon the user-defined rules. Users can also associate a user-defined or predefined modification with each rule so that upon detection of a condition satisfying the rule, the user can be presented with the modification as an option. Compound rules built by using one or more rules as preconditions to a rule are also supported.
US09158533B2	Manipulating source code patches A computerized apparatus, a computer-implemented method and a computer program product for manipulating source code patches. The apparatus comprising a processor that is configured to: obtain a source code patch comprising plurality of source code modification instructions with respect to a source code and to automatically split the source code patch into plurality of sub-patches, wherein applying the plurality of sub-patches on the source code in an order is equivalent to applying the source code patch.
US09158532B2	Methods for managing applications using semantic modeling and tagging and devices thereof The present disclosure provides a system and method for managing data using semantic tags. The method may include providing a data model corresponding to a first set of tangible objects where the data model includes a first template class having both properties describing the set of tangible object and a set of semantic tags corresponding to the properties. The method may include receiving a class definition for a second template class for a second set of tangible objects where the second template class inherits, by the class definition, the properties and the semantic tags for the second set of tangible objects.
US09158530B2	Assigning severity to a software update Assigning severity to a software update, including: receiving, by an update manager, version information for a software application from a computing system, the version information describing a version of the software application installed on the computing system; determining, by the update manager, a severity level of one or more available updates for the software application in dependence upon the version information and update version information; and providing, by the update manager to the computing system, the severity level for each of the one or more available updates.
US09158529B2	Method for maintaining firmware of digital protective relay and digital protective relay performing the same A firmware updating method for a digital protective relay having a plurality of modules includes receiving firmware update related information from a master device, notifying necessity of firmware update to a target module having a firmware to be updated based on the firmware update related information, receiving a firmware update ready message from the target module, and downloading a firmware from the master device into the target module and installing the downloaded firmware. According to the method, without opening a distributing board or removing an enclosure of a digital protective relay for updating a firmware of the digital protective relay, reduction of time and costs for on-site engineering and maintenance can be expected.
US09158528B2	Forcibly completing upgrade of distributed software in presence of failures One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating an upgrade of a cluster of servers in the presence of one or more inaccessible nodes in the cluster. During operation, the system receives an instruction to upgrade an older version of a distributed software program installed on each of a plurality of nodes forming the cluster. The system installs and activates a newer version of software on a subset of the plurality of nodes, the subset having fewer nodes than the entire cluster. The system receives an instruction to forcibly upgrade the cluster. Subsequently, the system upgrades the cluster so that the subset of nodes operate with the newer version of software, in which each node remains a member of the cluster during the upgrade.
US09158527B2	Upgrade system and method having adaptive changeable upgrade process An upgrade system, an upgrade type of which may be adaptively changed, and an upgrade method includes a server, an upgrade type of which may be adaptively changed, a client, an upgrade type of which may be adaptively changed, and a ticket controlling apparatus. The server includes: a server interface unit receiving information relating to an upgrade from a ticket controlling apparatus comprising a ticket; a pushing unit in which at least one client to be upgraded is registered; and a pushing scheduling unit connecting to the ticket controlling apparatus, receiving the information relating to the upgrade from the server interface unit, and scheduling an upgrade of the at least one client by using the pushing unit based on the received information relating to the upgrade. The ticket comprises information about a distribution strategy, information about the upgrade type, and information about a module to be distributed.
US09158523B2	System for broadcasting software applications and portable data communications device for use in such a system A communications system consisting of a server system that stores software applications, a broadcast system that broadcasts the software applications, and a multiplicity of portable clients that each include a receiver having a tuner that is selectively tunable to receive a selected one of the software applications broadcasted by the broadcast system. The portable clients can be any type of portable data communications device, such as a hand-held, palm-top, or notebook computing device, a PDA, an intelligent cellular phone, or any other personal multimedia appliance or Network Computer (NC). The broadcast system can be any suitable satellite or terrestrial air or cable broadcast system. For example, a CATV broadcast network, a DBS broadcast network, an HDTV broadcast network, or other appropriate broadcast network could be utilized. The software applications can consist of a broad spectrum of different software applications, such as word processing, video games, spreadsheets, address books, calendars, and the like. Each of the portable data communications devices includes a receiver that has a tuner that is selectively tunable to receive a selected one of a plurality of software applications broadcasted by a broadcast system, a user-interface that enables a user to select one of the broadcasted software applications for downloading, a processor for executing the downloaded software applications, and a modem for establishing a two-way communications link with a network control system. The two-way communications link includes a forward channel over which the portable data communications device can transmit client data to the network control system, and a return channel over which the network control system can transmit system data to the portable data communications device. The client data can include requests for unrecoverable software application data and client software download request data. The system data can include instructions for supervising the downloading of software applications, unrecoverable software application data, and download control data issued in response to the client software download request data. In one embodiment, the broadcast system broadcasts the software applications over different channels each occupying a different respective frequency band, and the tuner is selectively tunable to any selected one of the plurality of different frequency bands in order to receive the selected one of the broadcasted software applications.
US09158517B2	Strength reduction compiler optimizations for operations with unknown strides An optimizing compiler includes a strength reduction mechanism that optimizes a computer program that includes operations that have an unknown stride by analyzing the instructions in the computer program in a single pass, determining whether instruction substitution is profitable for original instructions in the code, and performing instruction substitution for one or more original instructions for which instruction substitution is deemed profitable, including operations with unknown strides. The substituted instructions result in strength reduction in the computer program.
US09158515B2	Control flow graph application configuration An operating system may be configured using a control flow graph that defines relationships between each executable module. The operating system may be configured by analyzing an application and identifying the operating system modules called from the application, then building a control flow graph for the configuration. The operating system may be deployed to a server or other computer containing only those components identified in the control flow graph. Such a lightweight deployment may be used on a large scale for datacenter servers as well as for small scale deployments on sensors and other devices with little processing power.
US09158514B2	Method and apparatus for providing change-related information Providing change information includes obtaining information of a change track that changes software source code, wherein the change track includes a change item, identifying at least one preliminary candidate change item from the change item, wherein the preliminary candidate change item is a change item causing execution of the source code to change, and inserting an instrument in the source code at a location corresponding to the at least one preliminary candidate change item so information of at least one candidate change item is outputted in testing the source code using a test case. The at least one candidate change item is a change item related to the test case from the at least one preliminary candidate change item. The information of a change track is combined with the information of a candidate change item. The change-related information is provided based on the result of the combination.
US09158508B2	Strategy editor for process control supporting drag and drop connections to declarations Enhancements to a strategy object editor for creating and modifying control strategies for process control systems (both distributed and discrete) is described. The improvements include: supporting a set of graphical depictions for individual control object (modified by an appearance object editor), drag and drop connections for declarations that connect control strategies to other control strategies, GUI-based designation of object execution order, automatically applied line styles based upon connection data type, and automatic modification of elements within an appearance object to accommodate a moved attribute.
US09158507B2	Domain transformation languages A method and system for transforming documents from different domains into a common representation for viewing and editing is provided. The system prepares the domain-specific document for visual representation by performing a series of transformations in a pipeline that convert the document from its domain-specific input state to a series of intermediate languages. The intermediate languages share the same syntax regardless of the domain of the document being transformed.
US09158505B2	Specifying compiled language code in line with markup language code Compiled language code is specified in line with markup language code. A parsing component parses the code to extract the compiled language code and a compiler compiles it into binary form. The compiled code and the markup language code are provided to a runtime system.
US09158502B2	System and method for communicating between viewers of a hierarchical software design A system and method for tagging objects in a software design space includes a visual representation generator that presents a visual representation of a software design to a user, and a tag manager that is operable to allow the user to create and manage tags of each object within the software design space. Certain tags are only visible to users having specific access rights to the tag.
US09158494B2	Minimizing and maximizing between portrait dual display and portrait single display Methods and devices for minimizing and maximizing displayed output associated with applications are provided. More particularly, an application presented as two or more pages in a portrait mode can be minimized to present one of the two or more pages following a minimization operation. The page that continues to be displayed can comprise a primary or preferred page, while the page that is dismissed can comprise a secondary or ancillary page. With respect to a maximization operation received with respect to a page of an application results in the display of an additional page associated with that application. Maximization can include controlling the respective screens on which first and second pages of the maximized application are displayed.
US09158493B2	Page description language package file preview Various embodiments described herein provide systems, methods, and software to preview files packaged, or otherwise embedded, within page description language documents. Such previews may be viewed without opening a larger application typically used to view such files. Some embodiments include presenting, in a page description language document reader application, a representation of a file packaged within a page description language document and receiving a selection of the packaged file to preview the file within the page description language document reader application. Some embodiments further include selecting a utility to open the packaged file as a function of a file type of the packaged file and calling the selected utility to open the packaged file with a reference to a location where packaged file is located.
US09158492B2	Non-transitory computer-readable medium storing image processing program for N-in-1 printing, image processing apparatus, and image processing method for N-in-1 printing There is provided a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing an image processing program causing a controller to execute: obtaining a plurality of image data; allowing the display section to display at least one print preview image; judging whether two points move away from each other or approach toward each other; and changing the value of N, in a case that it is judged that the two points move away from each other or approach toward each other. In a case that the at least one print preview image has been displayed on the display section and that the value of N is changed, the display section is allowed to display a print preview image in the particular area depending on the value of N changed by the controller.
US09158485B2	Image processing device that performs image processing for variable printing and host data generating device An image processing device includes an image data generator generating static part data, image data of static part common to plural pages, and variable part data for each page, image data of variable part varying for each page, at specified resolution based on variable printing data, a static part data storage unit storing static part data, and a data merge unit combining static part data stored in the static part data storage unit and variable part data, and the image data generator generates, when the amount of the static part data at specified resolution exceeds the capacity of the static part data storage unit, static part data having at least part of resolution changed from the specified resolution so that the data amount does not exceed the capacity of the static part data storage unit and causes the static part data storage unit to store the generated static part data.
US09158482B2	Recommending and installing scheduled delivery print applications A system and method for recommending and installing scheduled delivery (SD) print applications is disclosed. In one example, one or more SD print applications are determined based on prior usage of SD print applications in a printer application store by a user of a web connected computing device. Further, the determined one or more SD print applications are recommended by sending a notification to the web connected computing device and then to a web connected printer via an electronic messaging service.
US09158481B2	Status monitor for casino print system and corresponding methods for status monitoring Systems and methods for monitoring printer status in a networked environment are provided. For each of a plurality of printers, a respective server port device is connected to a communication port of a corresponding printer. Each server port device is adapted to receive real-time printer status information from the corresponding printer. A status monitor is provided for receiving the printer status information from one or more of the server port devices. The printer status information is wirelessly broadcast from the respective server port devices to an IP address of the status monitor. The server port device may comprise a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) status processor for converting the printer status information received from the printer in a first format into a second format for broadcast using a UDP protocol.
US09158474B2	Dynamic storage device libraries Tape device paths, library slots and drive information are automatically collected by agents at nodes in a library cluster. The information is reported to a central server database. The central server accesses the information and maps tape devices to path information so an administrator may easily have access to configuration information for the tape device cluster. When a tape device cluster is updated, for example through changes to a device, an added device, device failure or some other reason, the change is detected and the cluster configuration is automatically updated.
US09158470B2	Managing CPU resources for high availability micro-partitions A partition manager relocates a logical partition from a primary shared processor pool to a secondary shared processor pool in response to a predetermined condition, such as a hardware failure. The relocated logical partition is allocated a smaller quantity of processing units from the secondary pool than it was allocated from the primary pool. A quantity of processing units reserved for a second logical partition is identified in the secondary shared processor pool, and a portion of those reserved processing units are allocated to the relocated logical partition. The reserved processing units may be redistributed among multiple relocated logical partitions.
US09158469B2	Flash based memory comprising a Flash translation layer and method for storing a file therein A Flash based memory comprising a Flash translation layer which comprises first translation information associating a first logical address of a logical file system emulating a sectored storage medium, the logical address being a logical sector start address with a first physical address of said flash based memory. The logical file system comprises a number of logical stuffing bits expanding a logical size of data of a file stored in said Flash based memory such that the expanded logical size corresponds to an integer number of logical sectors and the Flash translation layer comprises second translation information associating a second logical address with a second physical address and depending on said number of logical stuffing bits, the file being stored in a contiguous physical address sequence starting at the first physical address and ending at the second physical address.
US09158467B2	Optional data encryption by partition for a partitionable data storage library Disclosed are a method and apparatus for a data storage library comprising a first and second drive, a first and second mobile medium, a first and second partition wherein the first partition comprises the first drive and the first mobile medium and the second partition comprises the second drive and the second mobile medium, and a combination bridge controller device. The combination bridge controller device is configurable to control first communication traffic between at least a first client and the first partition wherein the first communication traffic can comprise a first data package. The combination bridge controller device is further configurable to optionally encrypt the first data package for storage on the first mobile medium when the first mobile medium is in cooperation with the first drive.
US09158465B2	Performing authorization control in a cloud storage system A method, apparatus and computer program product for performing authorization control in a cloud storage system. The method comprises: receiving an access request to a file block, wherein the file block is embedded with tag data comprising at least file block authorization information; retrieving the file block; extracting the file block authorization information from the tag data; determining whether the access request matches the file block authorization information; and performing the access request if the access request matches the file block authorization information. Effective authorization control may be performed in a cloud storage system.
US09158462B2	Tape volume access block having data set information stored therein In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to write one or more data sets to a magnetic tape volume, the magnetic tape volume being configured to store data thereon, determine metadata corresponding to the one or more written data sets, and write the metadata corresponding to the one or more written data sets to a tape volume access block (TVAB) stored to the magnetic tape volume after a last written data set. In yet another embodiment, a method for managing a magnetic tape volume includes auditing a magnetic tape volume to determine a plurality of data sets stored thereto, determining metadata corresponding to the plurality of data sets, storing the metadata corresponding to the plurality of data sets to a TVAB, and writing the TVAB to the magnetic tape volume after a last written data set.
US09158460B2	Selecting data nodes using multiple storage policies in cloud storage system Provided are a method and a server for selecting data nodes for storing an object and replicas thereof in a cloud storage system having a plurality of data nodes grouped in a plurality of storage areas. The method may include selecting at least one storage area for storing the object and the replicas thereof sequentially with a locality policy, a low-cost policy, a load-balancing policy, and a space-balancing policy and selecting at least one data node from the selected at least one storage area sequentially using a load-balancing policy and a space-balancing policy.
US09158459B2	Managing a storage device using a hybrid controller Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for managing a storage device using a hybrid controller are provided where the storage device comprises an internal peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) interface to control solid state memory within the storage device. In particular embodiments, the storage device includes a first external interface configured to establish an external PCIe link and a second external interface configured to establish at least one of an external serial attached small computer system interface (SAS) link and an external serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) link. Embodiments include receiving from an external source, by the hybrid controller, a first command at the first external interface and a second command at the second external interface; and concurrently implementing, by the hybrid controller, the first command using a PCIe protocol and the second command using one of a SAS protocol and a SATA protocol.
US09158458B2	Global management of tiered storage resources Systems, methods, and apparatus for provisioning storage resources for customers from a distributed grid of disparate storage systems are presented herein. A storage tier component can sort, based on attributes of heterogeneous computer-readable storage media, the heterogeneous computer-readable storage media into tiers of storage to facilitate provisioning a portion of storage space of a tier of the tiers for a computing resource. Further, the storage tier component can receive an input from a device for provisioning of the portion of the storage space of the tier, and configure, based on the input, a storage resource to facilitate access between the portion of the storage space of the tier and the computing resource. Furthermore, a tracking component can create an account associated with a customer that is associated with the device to facilitate tracking and/or limiting of utilization of the portion of the storage space of the tier by the customer.
US09158457B2	Adjustment of multiple user input parameters A system includes a display control module, a cursor control device, a graphical user interface comprising a plurality of graphical control elements such as sliders, and a human interface device with keys. A mapping of individual keys or simultaneously selected combinations of keys to sliders is stored by the display control module. A slider is adjustable by the cursor control device while the key mapped to the slider is activated and is disassociated from the cursor control device when the mapped key is deactivated. A computer program product embodiment includes a computer readable medium having computer usable program code for mapping a slider to a corresponding key, activating the slider for adjustment, adjusting the slider with a cursor control device while maintaining a key or combination of keys in the active state, and terminating adjustment of the slider by placing the key in an inactive state.
US09158456B2	Display input apparatus and image forming apparatus having the same A display input apparatus comprises a display portion and a touch panel portion. When the touch panel portion accepts a first operation, the display portion sets a screen in current display as a shift start screen, sets a one-more downward layer screen than the shift start screen as a shift target screen, and gradually shifts the display screen from the shift start screen to the shift target screen. Besides, when the first operation is continued on the touch panel portion, if there are a plurality of downward layer screens that are screens on a one-more downward layer than the shift target screen, the display portion displays a list screen that represents the plurality of downward layer screens in the same screen.
US09158455B2	Multifunctional environment for image cropping Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, are described for combining the crop function with zoom, pan and straighten functions as part of a single cropping environment, such that a user can select a portion of an image for cropping, apply zoom, pan and straighten transformations to the selected image portion and then crop the transformed image portion in a single utility. In one aspect, the methods include the actions of receiving user input defining a crop region within a displayed image. The methods also include the actions of displaying a user interface including a cropping panel that is configured to display a subset of the image corresponding to the defined crop region. Further, the methods include the actions of receiving user input requesting to perform at least one of a zoom, rotate or translate operation on the crop region displayed in the cropping panel.
US09158453B2	Human-machine interface having multiple touch trend manipulation capabilities A Human-Machine Interface (HMI) system comprises a machine interface, a processing system, and a user interface. The machine interface receives operational data associated with an operation of a machine. The processing system processes the operational data associated with the operation of the machine to determine a trend in the operational data. The user interface displays a graphical representation of the trend, and receives a first user input and a second user input simultaneously on a surface of the user interface. The processing system processes the first user input and the second user input to determine a change in the trend. The user interface displays a graphical representation of the change in the trend.
US09158451B2	Terminal having touch screen and method for displaying data thereof A method for displaying data in a terminal having a touch screen, the method comprises: displaying data in a data display area and determining whether a touch event is sensed in a data display mode; checking an area where the touch event is sensed, and checking whether the touch event was moving if the touch event is sensed; checking a direction of motion of the touch event if the touch event was moving; rotating the data display area according to the direction of motion of the touch event; and displaying data of the order according to the rotating direction in an area where the rotated data is being displayed.
US09158449B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing system, and program Provided is an information processing apparatus including a transmission processing unit (106) that performs near-field one-to-one communication with a first communication counterpart device, a reception processing unit (108), a reception data processing section (116) that acquires content information retained by the first communication counterpart device, a display processing unit (118) that performs a display process for displaying the content information acquired by the reception data processing section (116), and a display unit (302) that displays the content information.
US09158448B2	Portable terminal, control method and program There is provided a portable terminal including a display panel having a display surface with a touch pad, an area management unit which defines a plurality of display areas formed by dividing the display surface, and a display control unit which performs control on an image display in each display area. In a state where two display areas are defined with a first boundary line, in response to a touch operation on the touch pad, the area management unit determines, based on a touch position of the touch operation, a second boundary line passing one point on the first boundary line and one point within a predetermined range from the touch position and defines two areas which are formed by dividing an object area of the two display areas with the second boundary line, as first and second display areas in place of the object area.
US09158447B2	Portable communication terminal and display method A portable communication terminal equipped with a first touch panel and a second touch panel that are switchable between a side-by-side configuration and a non-side-by-side configuration, and when (i) a contact point is detected on each of the first touch panel and the second touch panel in a same detection cycle and (ii) a distance between the contact points is within a predetermined range, the portable communication terminal displays an object on at least one of the first touch panel and the second touch panel based on one pair of position coordinates obtained based on two pairs of coordinates of the contact points.
US09158445B2	Managing an immersive interface in a multi-application immersive environment This document describes techniques and apparatuses for managing an immersive interface in a multi-application immersive environment. In some embodiments, these techniques and apparatuses enable a user to alter sizes and/or a layout of multiple immersive interfaces with as little as one selection.

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