| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09326959B2 |
Opioid dosage forms having dose proportional steady state Cave and AUC and less than dose proportional single dose Cmax
The present invention relates to, among other things, a kit comprising a plurality of dosage forms comprising a first dosage form and second dosage form each comprising a therapeutic agent, such as an opioid; wherein the dosage strength of the second dosage form is greater than that of the first dosage form; and wherein the steady state Cave and the steady state AUC of the first and second dosage forms are dose proportional and the single dose Cmax of the second dosage form is less than the minimum level for dose proportionality with respect to the first dosage form. The present invention also relates to methods of administering such plurality of dosage forms to a patient, comprising administering the first dosage form and thereafter administering the second dosage form. |
| US09326957B2 |
Methods for the treatment or prevention of diabetes mellitus and other metabolic imbalances
The invention relates to methods for treatment and prevention of a metabolic imbalance, including diabetes mellitus and other related diseases or disorders, using an extract from a fruit of genus Elaeis. |
| US09326955B2 |
Combination pharmaceuticals and methods thereof using proteinacious channels as treatments for medical conditions
Methods and combination pharmaceuticals for treating bronchospastic medical conditions by utilizing the electrophysiology of proteinacious channels in lipid membranes of mammalian cells. The combination pharmaceuticals include at least one β-adrenergic receptor agonist, and at least one composition adapted to effect the electrophysiology of Kv7 potassium channels of a lipid membrane of an airway smooth muscle cell. The pharmaceutical may be administered to a living body in a therapeutic amount sufficient to activate the Kv7 potassium channels of an airway smooth muscle cell. |
| US09326951B2 |
Cell-free tissue engineered vascular grafts
A composition containing a macrophage inhibitor may be administered in an effective amount to prevent, inhibit or reduce restenosis, thrombus or aneurysm formation in implanted polymeric vascular grafts. The composition may be administered prior to vascular graft implantation, at the same time as vascular graft implantation, following vascular graft implantation, or any combination thereof. Exemplary macrophage inhibitors include bisphosphonates, anti-folate drugs and antibodies, preferably in a controlled release or liposomal formulation. |
| US09326948B2 |
Implants for “load bearing” bone substitutions having hierarchical organized architecture deriving from transformation of vegetal structures
The present invention relates to a bone substitute comprising a core based on hydroxyapatite (HA), obtained from at least one porous wood, or based on collagen fibers and hydroxyapatite, and a shell, based on hydroxyapatite (HA) or silicon carbide (SiC), obtained from at least one wood having a lower porosity than the at least one wood of the core. The porous wood has a total porosity of between 60% and 95%, preferably between 65% and 85%, and it is selected from amongst the choices of rattan, pine, abachi and balsa wood. The wood of the shell has a porosity of between 20% and 60%, preferably between 30% and 50%. The bone substitute is utilized for the substitution and regeneration of bone, preferably for bones subjected to mechanical loads, such as long bones of the leg and arm, preferably the tibia, metatarsus, femur, humerus or radius. |
| US09326943B1 |
Biodegradable prosthesis
A body compatible and resorbable prosthesis has a tubular body incorporating denatured gelatin sponge material, either as a unitary gelatin sponge or as fragmented or powdered sponge material dispersed throughout a structurally self supporting medium. One version of the prosthesis uses the fragmented or powdered form of the gelatin sponge and is substantially homogeneous. An alternative prosthesis employs an inner tubular layer of gelatin film. The gelatin film layer is surrounded by an outer tubular layer, formed either of the gelatin sponge or the fragmented medium incorporating the gelatin sponge dispersion. |
| US09326941B2 |
High-efficiency nanoparticle-type double-helical oligo-RNA structure and method for preparing same
Provided are a double-stranded oligo RNA structure and a method of preparing the same, and more specifically, a double-stranded oligo RNA structure in which a polymer compound is covalently bound to a double-stranded oligo RNA in order to improve stability in vivo and a cell delivery efficiency of the double-stranded oligo RNA, and a method of preparing the same.The double-stranded oligo RNA structure having the optimized structure according to the present invention may not inhibit functions of the double-stranded oligo RNA, but effectively improve stability and cell membrane permeability of the double-stranded oligo RNA, such that the double-stranded oligo RNA may be delivered into the cell even at a low concentration dosage thereof to be significantly used as a tool for treatment of cancer, infectious diseases, and the like, as well as a new delivery system of the double-stranded oligo RNA. |
| US09326940B2 |
Asymmetric liposomes for the highly efficient encapsulation of nucleic acids and hydrophilic anionic compounds, and method for preparing same
The present invention relates to asymmetric liposomes for high encapsulation efficiency of nucleic acids and hydrophilic anionic compounds, and to a method for preparing same, and specifically, to asymmetric liposomes consisting of a cationic lipid having a small head group as an internal lipid and a neutral or PEGylated lipid having a big head group as an external lipid, wherein nucleic acids and/or anionic compounds are encapsulated in the internal lipid. According to the present invention, asymmetric liposomes, in which nucleic acids and hydrophilic anionic compounds are encapsulated with high efficiency, may be prepared, and thus the same may be used for various purposes, such as gene therapy, and the delivery of hydrophilic anionic drugs which are difficult to prepare as prodrugs, and drug delivery, imaging, etc. can be carried out by encapsulating a fluorescent contrast agent in the liposome. |
| US09326935B2 |
Atomoxetine solution
The present invention provides a novel palatable pharmaceutical composition in the form of aqueous solution of atomoxetine. The oral aqueous solution of this invention will significantly reduce the potently bitter taste of atomoxetine, and further avoid swallow issue for young and elderly patients. |
| US09326933B2 |
Oral care compositions
In accordance with this invention, there is provided an oral care composition comprising a multimodal blend of copolymers of maleic acid or maleic anhydride and an alkyl vinyl ether and a non-cationic antibacterial agent. The compositions feature improved retention of the antibacterial agent on teeth. |
| US09326931B2 |
Use of porphyrin-type catalytic oxidation compounds as an anti-dandruff agent
The present invention relates to the cosmetic use, as an antidandruff agent, of catalytic oxidation compounds chosen from porphyrins, or of a cosmetic composition comprising the same. |
| US09326930B2 |
Calcium sequestration compositions and methods of treating skin pigmentation disorders and conditions
The present invention provides compositions containing one or more calcium sequestration agents and methods for topical application of such compositions to the skin to treat skin pigmentation disorders, such as melasma, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, pigmentation changes due to skin aging, or any other skin conditions related with normal such as skin of color or abnormal pigmentation such as hypo- or hyper-pigmentation in humans. |
| US09326926B2 |
Keratin treatment formulations and methods
Formulations, kits, and methods for rebuilding the disulfide bonds in keratin found in hair, skin, or nails. Hair that is damaged due to a hair coloring treatment and/or other reducing treatment, such as during a permanent wave, can be treated with the formulations containing one or more active agents. The formulations may be applied subsequent to a hair coloring treatment or simultaneously with a hair coloring treatment. Use of the active agent formulations during a permanent wave treatment prevents the reversion of the hair to its previous state, for at least one week, preferably at least three months, more preferably at least one year, most preferably greater than one year, after one or more than one application of the formulation. Application of the active agent formulation to skin or nails can help repair damaged disulfide bonds due to natural wear and tear or natural aging. |
| US09326923B2 |
Water-in-oil-type skin-whitening cosmetic
Disclosed is a water-in-oil-type skin-whitening cosmetic, which has a moist feel without stickiness when used and has good emulsion stability over time even when accommodated in a glass container or a metal container. The water-in-oil-type skin-whitening cosmetic is characterized in that it contains an alkoxysalicylic acid or a salt thereof, an organic modified clay mineral, and a liquid fatty acid. It is preferable that the liquid fatty acid is selected from higher fatty acids having 12 to 22 carbon atoms and having a linear or branched alkyl chain, such as oleic acid, linolic acid, linolenic acid, and isostearic acid. |
| US09326920B2 |
Ultraviolet-shielding agent, method for producing the same, ultraviolet-shielding agent-containing dispersion liquid, and cosmetic preparation
The invention provides an ultraviolet-shielding agent including resin particles formed by coating a core portion with a coating layer, wherein the core portion is made of any one resin of an organic ultraviolet absorbent-containing resin and an inorganic particle-containing resin, and the coating layer is made of the other resin or both resins, a method for producing the same, an ultraviolet-shielding agent-containing dispersion liquid, and a cosmetic preparation. |
| US09326919B2 |
Enamel bond for application in dental practice
This patent application is for Enamel Bond, a chemical solution for creating tooth enamel that successfully bonds to the dentin layer and provides both structure and composition of true, natural enamel. |
| US09326918B2 |
Polymerizable dental components with improved usage properties, methods for adjusting the usage properties of polymerizable dental composites, and dental composites optimized according to said methods
Method for adjusting or improving or optimizing the usage properties of filler(s)-containing, flowable dental material, which involves relating to at least one measuring value representing the tackiness to at least one measuring value representing the texturing or plasticity or consistency. Flowable, usage-optimized, usually non-polymerized dental composites contain, as fillers, at least one glass filler and at least one filler from the group of chipped polymers or pre-polymer fillers based on ground polymer that is pre-polymerized together with inorganic particles,and, as additive(s),at least one compound represented through formula H—Y—Z (I),where: Y=—O—, —S—, —CO—, —OSi(OR1)2—, —OE Z=H, OH, SH, NH2, COOH, COOR2 E=—CnHmOp- R1=H, C1-C4-Alkyl R2=C1-C15-Alkyl, interrupted by one or more O atoms. C2-C14-Alkyl, n=2 bis 5 m=4 bis 11 p=n. |
| US09326913B2 |
Child-resistant and senior-friendly eco-friendly pill dispenser blister package
A blister and package system made of a blister card and an outer package with unique interacting locking mechanisms. The blister card or strip is inserted into the outer package or sleeve and locks immediately without having to further process the outer package or the blister card or strip. The user is able to expose the blisters from the outer package by disengaging the lock. The blister card or strip includes a formable, pliable sheet material, into which one or more individual cavities or blisters are formed. The separated cavities are loaded with product and sealed with one or more layers of puncturable or tearable sheet material, such as aluminum foil. The blister card or strip contains a plastic rivet assembly that forms an interference mechanism. The rivet is trapped by an internally formed panel and stopped by a catch flap included in the outer package. |
| US09326908B2 |
Body stretching assembly
A body stretching assembly is provided. The assembly comprises a pulley, a plurality of body attachment straps, and a rope. The pulley comprises a securing end and a wheeled end, wherein the securing end includes a frame having a proximal aperture, a protrusion, and a pair of distal legs with fastening apertures. The proximal aperture is configured for connection with a pulley assembly supporting structure, such as a door jam or an exposed support such as a pole. A user threads a rope over the pulley wheel to begin treatment. One end of the rope comprises a hand attachment, whereas the opposing rope end includes one of a head, hand, or ankle attachment. The user pulls one end of the rope, thereby causing the opposing end to pull on the body of a user. Gradual actuation of the rope end provides a stretching exercise to a user. |
| US09326907B2 |
Patient positioning and support systems
A patient positioning system employs an arm having a first portion and a second portion which is telescopic relative to the first portion. A first positioning device may be coupled to the first portion of the arm providing support for the arm. The first positioning device is rotatable on a first axis, allowing the arm to rotate with the first positioning device. The second positioning device is coupled to the second portion of the arm and movable with the second portion of the arm relative to the first portion of the arm. The second positioning device is operable to rotate a patient support at least on a second axis. |
| US09326896B2 |
Process for making an absorbent core with strain resistant core cover
The present disclosure relates to a process for making an absorbent core comprising a nonwoven core cover that offers improved performance on holding back fine particulate material after having been exposed to external strain. |
| US09326895B1 |
Protective napkin
A method of protecting an article of clothing with a napkin. The method includes the steps of (a) obtaining a napkin having (i) an area coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive on a first major surface of the napkin proximate the periphery of the napkin, (ii) a release liner overlaying the pressure sensitive adhesive, and (iii) an aperture through at least the pressure sensitive adhesive and the release liner configured and arranged to accommodate passage of a button therethrough, and (b) selectively securing the napkin to an article of clothing worn by a person by either (i) inserting a button affixed to the article of clothing through the aperture in the tab and through that area of the napkin overlying the aperture, or (ii) removing the release liner and adhesively securing the napkin to the article of clothing. |
| US09326893B2 |
Goggle structure
A goggle structure includes a protective soft pad, a frame, and a subsidiary lens frame. Convex portions are formed on upper and lower sides of the subsidiary lens frame and inserted into slots disposed at the frame, respectively. Hook portions are formed on upper and lower sides of the frame and extend backward. By inserting the frame into a receiving space disposed at the protective soft pad, the hook portions press against the periphery of the receiving space. Pressing portions and carrying portions are formed on upper and lower portions at the middle segment of the frame and adapted to hold the protective soft pad. The bottom of the subsidiary lens frame straddles the pressing portions and carrying portions. Branch portions extend from two outer sides of the frame to press against a concave portion of the protective soft pad. Hence, related components are engaged with each other. |
| US09326892B2 |
Steerable laser probe
A steerable laser probe may include a handle having a handle distal end and a handle proximal end, a housing sleeve disposed in an inner bore of the handle configured to project a distance from the handle distal end, an optic fiber disposed in the housing sleeve, a shape memory sleeve disposed over a distal end of the optic fiber, and a light source configured to connect to a proximal end of the optic fiber. The shape memory sleeve may be configured to curve the distal end of the optic fiber at an angle, e.g., 90 degrees, when the shape memory sleeve is not contained within the housing sleeve. |
| US09326891B2 |
Methods for deploying intraocular shunts
The present invention generally relates to methods for deploying intraocular shunts without the use of an optical apparatus that contacts an eye, such as a goniolens. In certain embodiments, methods of the invention involve inserting into an eye a deployment device configured to hold an intraocular shunt, determining that a distal portion of the device is properly positioned within the eye without use of an optical apparatus that contacts the eye, and deploying the shunt from the device. |
| US09326888B2 |
System and method to regulate temperature
A system and method for thermal regulation, the system comprising a bedding element that is configured to enclose at least a part of a living being or other object. The system further comprising a temperature regulation element that is included in the bedding element and that includes a phase change material which changes between a liquid phase and a solid phase within the desired temperature range. |
| US09326886B2 |
Fluid filled implants for treating obstructive sleep apnea
An implant for treating obstructive sleep apnea includes a flexible chamber, a fluid reservoir in fluid communication with the flexible chamber, and a fluid transfer assembly in communication with the fluid reservoir and the flexible chamber for transferring fluid therebetween for selectively modifying the rigidity of the flexible chamber. The flexible chamber is implantable within the soft tissue of an oropharyngeal airway of a patient, such as within the tongue, the soft palate, or the pharyngeal wall. The fluid reservoir and the fluid transfer assembly are implantable within the inframandibular region of the patient. The fluid transfer assembly is selectively engageable by the patient for transferring fluid between the two chambers for modifying the rigidity, flexibility, and/or shape of the flexible chamber with minimal or no change to the volume of the implant. |
| US09326882B2 |
Retaining fabric having pockets
A support fabric with pockets for accommodating stiffener comprises two woven layers which are joined by stitch bonding and, during production, are separated from one another in areas so that they are not joined in these areas, thereby directly defining one or more profiled pockets to accommodate stiffener inserted in the pockets after production. The pockets are incorporated inside the body of the support fabric. Each pocket has an opening for inserting one of the stiffener. |
| US09326877B2 |
Apparatus and method for intragastric balloon with in situ adjustment means
An intragastric balloon and method of adding and/or removing fluid therefrom are disclosed. The intragastric balloon includes a shell, a grasping tab, and a self-sealing portion. A gastroscopic instrument which includes a grasping tool is inserted into the stomach of a patient and used to grasp the grasping tab located on the surface of the shell. Using the grasping tool, the intragastric balloon is securely fastened to the gastroscopic instrument. A filling instrument, such as a needle, is advanced through the self-sealing portion of the shell for the filling or deflating of the intragastric balloon. After inflation or deflation is complete, the filling instrument is then withdrawn from the balloon and the gastroscopic instrument withdrawn from the stomach. |
| US09326875B2 |
Catheter having a movable tubular structure and method of making
Catheter including an inner tubular member having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and an exterior surface. The inner tubular member further has a guidewire lumen defined therein. An outer tubular member is movable relative to the inner tubular member, the outer tubular member has a proximal end, a distal end and an interior surface directed toward the exterior surface of the inner tubular member. A movable tubular structure is disposed between the outer tubular member and the inner tubular member. The movable tubular structure includes a body member having an outer surface with a recess defined therein. The outer tubular member is received within the recess to form a trough along a portion of an exterior surface of the outer tubular member. The trough has a filler disposed therein to couple the outer tubular member to the body member of the movable tubular structure. |
| US09326874B2 |
Introducer apparatus
A stent introducer apparatus comprises a sheath for surrounding a stent member, with the sheath having a longitudinal slit extending from one end along at least a substantial part of the length thereof, and a sheath withdrawal device comprising a reel for winding up the sheath. A second sheath may surround the slit portion of the sheath. An intermediate guide member can smooth the withdrawal procedure and flatten the sheath before it is wound on the reel. The intermediate guide member may include at least one of a second reel or a slot-defining member. The reel may be operated by means of a gear system. A method of deploying a stent member is also provided. |
| US09326872B2 |
Forced deployment sequence handle assembly with independent actuating mechanism
A handle assembly for use in the deployment of a medical device via a plurality of deployment lines that extend through a catheter. The handle assembly includes a plurality of removable members for deployment or actuation of the medical device. The handle assembly also includes an actuating mechanism for displacing a wire extending through the catheter for actuating the medical device independently of the plurality of removable members. |
| US09326870B2 |
Biodegradable stent having non-biodegradable end portions and mechanisms for increased stent hoop strength
A hybrid stent prosthesis including a biodegradable tubular body, a first non-biodegradable self-expanding ring coupled to a proximal end of the biodegradable body, and a second non-biodegradable self-expanding ring coupled to a distal end of the biodegradable body. The hybrid stent includes a mechanism for longitudinally compressing the tubular body to increase the radial or hoop strength thereof. The longitudinally compressing mechanism may be protruding elements coupled to and extending radially outward from the hybrid stent or elastomeric compression bands or tethers extending between the non-biodegradable rings. The compression bands may be pre-connected to both non-biodegradable rings prior to stent delivery, or may be connected to one non-biodegradable ring prior to insertion and connected to the other non-biodegradable ring in situ. |
| US09326869B2 |
Method for expansion and development of polymeric structures including stents
The invention is to methods of deploying polymeric biodegradable or non biodegradable stents by use of stepwise creases in the pressure placed upon the inner diameter of the stent to slowly increase the stent diameter. In one embodiment, the pressure on the interior stent diameter is slowly increased. The stent is allowed to acclimate to this diameter for a set period of time, and then the pressure is again increased. This series of steps continues until the stent reaches its final diameter and a final period of acclimatization is maintained prior to the removal of the deployment/delivery device. |
| US09326856B2 |
Cuff configurations for prosthetic heart valve
A prosthetic heart valve includes a collapsible and expandable stent having a proximal end, a distal end, an annulus section adjacent the proximal end and an aortic section adjacent the distal end. The stent is formed of a plurality of struts. A cuff is coupled to the stent. The cuff has one or more features configured to reduce abrasion and/or perivalvular leakage. |
| US09326851B2 |
Automatic suture fixation apparatus for minimally invasive surgery
An apparatus for automatically fixing sutures used in the surgical replacement of a heart valve, including a first cylinder having a first end and a second end and an interior surface and an exterior surface, and first means for securing fixing suture formed on the exterior surface adjacent to the second end of the first cylinder. The apparatus also includes a second cylinder having second means for securing fixing suture formed on an interior surface of the second cylinder, such that the second means corresponds to and fixedly engages the first means for securing fixing suture, and the first means and the second means secure fixing sutures therebetween. |
| US09326850B2 |
Sutureless prosthetic device
A prosthetic device for use in an anatomical orifice or lumen of a patient includes an expandable first stent structure coupled to a valve support structure having at least one leaflet. The stent structure includes a collar provided with at least one groove or opening adapted to engage a tab extending from the valve support structure. Rotation of the stent structure and valve support structure relative to one another assembles the prosthetic valve device. The prosthetic valve device may be used for sutureless treatment of various valvular conditions such as aorta stenosis and mitral valve replacement. |
| US09326849B2 |
Middle ear prosthesis having discrete projections for purposes of ossicular attachment
A middle ear ossicle prosthesis in which the component for ossicular attachment comprises a surface bearing a plurality of discrete projections facing the ossicle to which it is attached which minimize total contact between the prosthesis and the ossicle. The prosthesis may comprise a loop forming a partial circle for encircling an ossicle, a piston for transmitting vibrations from the loop to the inner ear, and a rod solidly connecting the loop to the piston. The loop may have an upwardly turned end to facilitate placement of the loop over the ossicle. The projections may be provided in one row, two rows, or may be otherwise arrayed, and may be dissimilar from one another in configuration and dimensions. |
| US09326846B2 |
Accommodating intraocular lens
An accommodating intraocular lens includes an optic and four haptics. the optic includes an outer wall, a solid posterior optic, an anterior fluid chamber, an anterior membrane and a fluid reservoir within the outer wall surrounding the anterior fluid chamber and the solid posterior optics. The four haptics are attached to the outer wall at four attachment points. Each of the four haptics includes an arc member extending between successive attachment points and contacting the outer wall only at the attachment points. Each of the arc members is configured to compress laterally under accommodative forces. |
| US09326840B2 |
Prosthetic device and method of manufacturing the same
A biocompatible surgical silk mesh prosthetic device employs a knit pattern that substantially prevents unraveling and preserves the stability of the mesh device, especially when the mesh device is cut. An example prosthetic device employs a knitted mesh including at least two yarns laid in a knit direction and engaging each other to define a plurality of nodes. The at least two yarns include a first yarn and a second yarn extending between and forming loops about two nodes. The second yarn has a higher tension at the two nodes than the first yarn. the second yarn substantially prevents the first yarn from moving at the two nodes and substantially prevents the knitted mesh from unraveling at the nodes. |
| US09326837B2 |
Article and method for controlling oral-originated systemic disease
Methods for treating systemic disease in oral biofilms having a facultative anaerobic bacteria pathogen present including providing a periodontal medicament delivery tray having a seal against a patient's adjacent gums containing the oral biofilms with the systemic disease, said seal formed so as to have no contact with teeth, applying to the gingival tissue (sulcus or periodontal pocket) a biofilm penetrating antimicrobial agent, removing the imbedded anaerobic bacteria from the gingival tissue following at least one applying of the antimicrobial agent to the gingival tissue; repeatedly administering colloidal hydrogen peroxide gel to the gingival tissue following the removing of imbedded anaerobic bacteria; and following each administering cleaning the gingival tissue with a cleaning agent directly following the administering of the colloidal hydrogen peroxide gel for modifying the environment from anaerobic to aerobic. |
| US09326833B2 |
Method and a system in the preparation of a dental restoration, a measuring element and use thereof
A method in the preparation of a dental restoration, in which the dental restoration has an implant unit and a head structure interconnectible with one another, comprises the steps of providing an auxiliary material, providing a computerized head receiving surface representation (A′), manufacturing from the auxiliary material a measuring element having a measuring surface (M) and an implant unit coupling surface (X). The measuring surface (M) is adapted such that it can be captured by an optical measuring device, and the measuring element coupling surface (X) is adapted for mating with the head receiving surface (A). The method may help making the preparation of a dental restoration more time and cost efficient. |
| US09326832B2 |
Device for mounting an impression cap on a tooth implant
Secondary part for securing an impression cap (72) releasably on a tooth implant (10). The secondary part (40) is secured on the latter by means of a screw connection. The secondary part (40) has elastically deformable spring fingers (44) that cooperate with a wall (76) of the impression cap (72). The wall (76) is dimensionally stable. With a good fit of the impression cap, the device can thus have a slender configuration, such that it is also suitable in particular for use in the front area of the lower jaw. |
| US09326828B2 |
Dental device
A holder for dental workpieces that are associated in a one to one relationship with the canals of a tooth has receptacles for temporarily storing the workpieces while the workpieces are not in the tooth. The receptacles are sufficient in number to store the workpieces with a single workpiece in each receptacle. The receptacles are arranged in a pattern that corresponds to the canal pattern in the tooth. |
| US09326824B2 |
Surgical support device
A surgical support device includes: a driving member which is moved to transmit a driving force to a target; a first position detection unit and a second position detection unit configured to detect a first and a second moving amounts of the driving member; a difference calculation portion configured to detect a difference in length between the first moving amount and the second moving amount, an operating force computing portion configured to compute a magnitude of a force transmitted to the target from the driving member based on the difference in length; and a breakdown detection portion configured to detect at least one of the first position detection unit and the second position detection unit which has broken down, by use of the first moving amount and the second moving amount. |
| US09326823B2 |
Real-time tracking and navigation system and method for minimally invasive surgical procedures
Telemetrical control of a robotic interventional device for minimally invasive surgical procedure is based on an operative interaction between a tracking sub-system, MRI sub-system, navigation sub-system and the robotic interventional device. The tracking sensor sub-system is integrated with the interventional device to produce tracking information corresponding to the robotic interventional device location in the operative site. The navigation sub-system integrates the tracking information with the real-time images of the operative site produced by the MRI sub-system, and displays the integrated information to a user, to enable the telemetrical control of the interventional device for performing an intended procedure (biopsy, tissue resection, etc.). The navigation sub-system, based on the integrated real-time tracking information and real-time images, calculates and dynamically updates coordinates of subsequent imaging slices. |
| US09326822B2 |
Active drives for robotic catheter manipulators
An instrument driver comprises a base and a jaw assembly coupled to the base. The jaw assembly includes a first jaw having a gripping surface and a second jaw having a gripping surface. The instrument driver further comprises a driver assembly operably coupled to the jaw assembly to advance an elongated member relative to the base by translating the first and second jaws toward each other, thereby closing the jaw assembly and gripping the member between the respective gripping surfaces of the first and second jaws, translating the jaw assembly in a first axial direction when the jaw assembly is closed, translating the first and second jaws away from each other, thereby opening the jaw assembly and releasing the member from between the respective gripping surfaces of the first and second jaws, and translating the jaw assembly in a second axial direction when the jaw assembly is opened. |
| US09326817B2 |
Methods for treating heart arrhythmia
Methods and apparatus are provided for treatment of heart arrhythmia via renal neuromodulation. Such neuromodulation may effectuate irreversible electroporation or electrofusion, ablation, necrosis and/or inducement of apoptosis, alteration of gene expression, action potential attenuation or blockade, changes in cytokine up-regulation and other conditions in target neural fibers. In some embodiments, such neuromodulation is achieved through application of an electric field. In some embodiments, such neuromodulation is achieved through application of neuromodulatory agents, of thermal energy and/or of high intensity focused ultrasound. In some embodiments, such neuromodulation is performed in a bilateral fashion. |
| US09326814B2 |
System and method for predicting lesion size shortly after onset of RF energy delivery
Lesion size or volume prediction shortly after the onset of an ablation procedure can inform or control the ablation procedure. The prediction and/or control is made without regard to an actual detected temperature in the vicinity of the ablation electrodes. As a consequence, the system has utility with irrigated catheter constructions and other situations in which local irrigation in the vicinity of an ablation site would otherwise interfere with a prediction or control scheme that solely relies upon temperature measurements. |
| US09326813B2 |
Method for ablating with needle electrode
A method for ablating tissue in or around the heart to create an enhanced lesion is provided. The distal end of a catheter including a needle electrode at its distal end is introduced into the heart. The distal end of the needle electrode is introduced into the tissue. An electrically-conductive fluid is infused through the needle electrode and into the tissue. The tissue is ablated after and/or during introduction of the fluid into the tissue. The fluid conducts ablation energy within the tissue to create a larger lesion than would be created without the introduction of the fluid. |
| US09326810B2 |
Multi-button electrosurgical apparatus
A multi-button electrosurgical apparatus includes a housing having a passage extending therethough, a distal end configured to support an electrode; at least four switches disposed on a surface of the housing configured to be selectively activated by a user; and three wires connected between the housing and a connector, the connector configured to be operatively coupled to an electrosurgical generator, a first wire being coupled to the electrode and configured to receive electrosurgical energy from the electrosurgical generator, a second wire being coupled to a first switch and configured to generate a first activation signal and a third wire being coupled to a second switch and configured to generate a second activation signal, wherein a third and fourth switch are coupled to the first wire and the second or third wire via a respective reactive switching element configured to generate third and fourth activation signals. |
| US09326807B2 |
Peri-prosthetic fixation implant and method
An apparatus for leading a cerclage member along a desired path through a portion of bone, comprises a guide strip extending from a proximal end to a sharpened distal end, at least a portion of the guide strip being biased to assume a shape corresponding to a portion of a desired path along which the cerclage member is to pass through a portion of bone and a delivery cannula including a lumen sized to slidably receive the guide strip therein, the cannula maintaining the guide strip in a substantially straight configuration until the guide strip is extended distally out of the lumen. |
| US09326804B2 |
Bone anchoring element
A bone anchoring element comprising a shaft (2) for anchoring in a bone, with a plurality of barb elements (7) arranged in at least one helical line around the shaft axis (M) is described, wherein said barb elements are elastically movable relative to the shaft. The bone anchoring element (1) is easy to press into a core hole bore in a bone. The barb elements (7) act in a similar manner as do the threads on a conventional bone screw and thus provide for depth positioning. Moreover, the barb elements at the same time secure the bone anchoring element and prevent it from sliding-out. |
| US09326801B2 |
Fenestrated bone screw and method of injecting bone cement into bone structure
A fenestrated bone screw and method of use is disclosed in which a bone cement injection tube may be readily and sealably connected to the head of the bone screw by means of a bayonet connector so that bone cement from a cement pump may be forced into a cannula of the bone screw and into the bone structure proximate the fenestrations of the bone screw. Upon completion of the injection of the bone cement, the cement tube may be readily disconnected from the bone screw in such manner that leakage of bone cement is minimized. A surgical method of injecting bone cement into bone structure using such a cannulated, fenestrated bone screw is also disclosed. |
| US09326793B2 |
Needle for physically separating and penetrating the pericardium
A pericardial needle that punctures a pericardial membrane to attain access into a pericardial space of a heart by advancing a sharp tip until the sharp tip is adjacent to or in contact with a parietal pericardium of the heart such that the puncturing does not damage the heart muscle. The pericardial needle punctures the parietal pericardium when the heart muscle moves towards the pericardial needle, away from the pericardial needle, is at rest and/or is in synchronization with the systolic contraction period of the cardiac cycle of the heart. The synchronization may be provided based on a surface electrocardiogram, an arterial pressure, or a sensing pressure at the tip of the pericardial needle when the pericardial needle is adjacent into the parietal pericardium of the heart. |
| US09326791B2 |
Tissue repair with space-seeking spirals of filament
The distal portion of a shape-memory filament extends from a needle containing at least one filament gripping element. To implant the shape-memory filament in tissue, the needle is inserted into a cannula with a flexible and removable hook. During partial withdrawal of the needle, the hook holds the distal portion of the filament stationary to deposit a section of filament in the distal portion of the cannula. The needle is re-advanced, pushing the section of the shape-memory filament to coil or fold within the tissue. Rotation of the needle with the filament gripping element further tightens the coiled or folded filament. Partial withdrawal, re-advancement, rotation and pushing of the needle are repeated to fill, pack, strengthen, enlarge or augment the tissue with the shape-memory filament. |
| US09326785B2 |
Connector for a laparoscopic surgical system
A connector for connecting an instrument tip with a laparoscopic tube end, the connector including a base forming a body of the connector, the base having a lumen configured to accommodate an instrument tip actuator therein, and a seal permanently bonded to an inner surface of a proximal end of the base and configured to deform upon connection of the connector with the tube end. |
| US09326779B2 |
Soft tissue protector and drill guide for an implantation kit
A drill guide for guiding elements, especially drill bits and implants of an implantation kit during a surgical intervention, has a main body having a gripping portion. The drill guide has an upper and a lower central opening along its longitudinal axis with a through going cavity for receiving the element to be guided. A lower contact surface is positioned on an object, such as a bone, on or into which the element is to be guided. The diameter of the through going cavity can be varied by a.) radial positioning of three or four jaws inside the cavity through a groove-slide block system and/or b.) against the force of a spring at the lower free end of guiding extensions. The spring is provided on the back side of the extensions which bear against the inner wall of the drill guide sleeve. |
| US09326778B2 |
Autografting osteotome
A fluted osteotome is rotated in one direction to enlarge an osteotomy by burnishing, and by cutting/drilling when turned in an opposite direction. A conically tapered body has an apical end with lips. The lips are set to grind bone when rotated in the burnishing direction and cut bone when turned in the cutting/drilling direction. Helical flutes and interposed lands are disposed about the body. The flutes each have a working edge that burnishes bone when rotated in the burnishing direction and cuts bone when turned in the cutting/drilling direction. The lips and lands generate an opposing axial reaction force that improves surgical control. The osteotome auto-grafts bone by reapplying ground particles in a compacted manner along the entire depth of the osteotomy, particularly at the bottom. |
| US09326776B2 |
Manually actuated surgical clip applier
A surgical clip applier is provided having a cartridge carrying multiple surgical clips with a manual graspable actuator configured to sequentially deliver clips to the jaws of the clip applier. Both the cartridge and the jaws are connectable to a scissors-like handle assembly arranged to translate motion from finger loops to the jaws to open and close the jaws and thus close or crimp a delivered clip between the jaws. |
| US09326772B2 |
Non-invasive surgical ligation clip system and method of using
A surgical ligation clip capable of remote deployment through a cannula to engage an anatomical structure. |
| US09326769B2 |
Surgical instrument
A surgical stapling system is disclosed. The surgical stapling system comprises a housing comprising a motor and a battery configured to supply power to the motor. The surgical stapling system further comprises a firing actuator operably coupled with the motor and a stapling assembly comprising a plurality of staples and a distal end. The surgical stapling system further comprises a shaft configured to support the stapling assembly, a firing member configured to transmit a firing motion from the motor to the stapling assembly, and a firing member sensor system configured to detect the position of the firing member within a detectable range of positions relative to the end of the stapling assembly. |
| US09326755B2 |
Biopsy device tissue sample holder with bulk chamber and pathology chamber
A biopsy device includes a probe, a holster, and a tissue sample holder for collecting tissue samples. The probe includes a needle and a hollow cutter. The tissue sample holder includes a housing having one or more chambers that are configured to receive a removable tray including one or more prongs and a bulk chamber of a different volume than the one or more chambers. The housing is releasably engageable with the probe. Each tray prong is configured to receive a tissue sample communicated through the cutter lumen. The tray is removable from the housing, such as along an axial direction. The tissue sample holder is rotatable to successively index each chamber to the cutter lumen. The trays may be flexible, resilient, or rigid. |
| US09326751B2 |
Catheter guidance of external energy for renal denervation
An in vivo apparatus includes a flexible shaft having a proximal end, a distal end, and a length sufficient to access a patient's renal artery relative to a percutaneous access location. An energy guide apparatus is provided at the distal end of the shaft and dimensioned for deployment within the renal artery. An ex vivo apparatus includes an arrangement configured to localize the energy guide apparatus within the renal artery, and an energy source configured to direct ablative energy to target tissue located a predetermined distance from the localized energy guide apparatus. The target tissue includes perivascular renal nerve tissue adjacent the renal artery. |
| US09326749B2 |
Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus and controlling method
An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes: a scan controlling unit that exercises control to perform a first scanning process by transmitting an ultrasound wave in a first direction and a second scanning process by transmitting an ultrasound wave in each of a plurality of directions; an image generating unit that generates a first ultrasound image and second ultrasound images from the first and the second scanning processes, respectively; an image generation controlling unit that has a needle image generated, based on an analysis result on the brightness distribution of each member of a group of images based on the first ultrasound image and the second ultrasound images or an analysis result on the brightness distribution of each of the second ultrasound images; an image synthesizing unit that generates a synthesized image from the first ultrasound image and the needle image; and a display controlling unit that displays the synthesized image. |
| US09326746B2 |
X-ray CT apparatus
An X-ray CT apparatus includes a specifying unit, a setting unit, a controller, and a reconstruction unit. The specifying unit refers to exposure dose information to specify a high exposure area in an imaging area in a subject. The setting unit sets a scan condition under which a cross section of the imaging area can be imaged and under which X-rays are not directly applied to the high exposure area or another scan condition under which a cross section of the imaging area can be imaged and under which an X-ray radiation dose directly applied to the high exposure area is reduced relative to an area other than the high exposure area. The controller collects data of X-rays applied from an X-ray tube and detected by an X-ray detector under the set scan condition. The reconstruction unit reconstructs a tomographic image using the collected data of X-rays. |
| US09326745B2 |
Dynamic diagnosis support information generation system
A dynamic diagnosis support information generation system includes: a radiation generator capable of irradiating a pulsed radiation; a radiation detector which is provided with a plurality of detecting elements arranged in two-dimension, detects the pulsed radiation irradiated from the radiation generator at each of the plurality of detecting elements and generates frame images successively; and an analysis section which calculates and outputs a feature value relating to a dynamic image of a subject based on a plurality of frame images generated by radiographing the subject by using the radiation generator and the radiation detector, wherein the analysis section calculates the feature value relating to the dynamic image of the subject by corresponding pixels to each others representing outputs of a detecting element at a same position in the radiation detector among the plurality of the frame images. |
| US09326740B2 |
Radiographic system
A radiographic system is provided that can shorten the work time required for adjusting the initial values. The radiographic system comprises: an X-ray tube controller; an initial value calculator; and a storage. The X-ray tube controller is configured to control a filament current flowing through a filament of the X-ray tube for stabilizing the tube current at a desired value, the tube current otherwise tending to fluctuate at activation. The initial value calculator is configured to calculate an initial value for the filament current that is to be applied at next activation, based both on a stable value of the filament current while the tube current has been stable and on the image-capturing conditions at the time. The storage configured to store the calculated initial value, the image-capturing conditions, and a radiographic history that includes radiographed dates. |
| US09326739B2 |
Mammogram table
A mammogram table for supporting a patient during a breast examination. The mammogram table includes a platform configured to support a patient while lying in a prone position during a breast examination and a pedestal configured to bear the platform and the patient during the breast examination. The mammogram table also includes a breast template configured to position the breasts of the patient during a breast examination and a mounting bracket configured to allow imaging equipment to be attached to the mammogram table. The mammogram table further includes a breast support configured to receive the breasts of the patient. |
| US09326736B2 |
Method and system for visualizing mechanical ventilation information
Methods and systems for visualizing mechanical ventilation information are provided. One system includes a user interface for a medical system having a ventilator is provided. The user interface includes a memory storing one or more sensor measurements for a patient and a processor. The processor is programmed to display a visualization of a tidal volume determined from one of the sensor measurements of the patient and display a visualization of lung compliance for the patient, wherein the tidal volume visualization and the lung compliance visualization are displayed concurrently. |
| US09326733B2 |
System and method for acquisition of biopotential signals with motion artifact reduction in real time operation
A biopotential signal acquisition system comprising an analog readout unit configured to receive an analog biopotential signal and to extract an analog measured biopotential signal and an analog reference signal, and an ADC unit configured to provide a digital version of the analog measured biopotential signal and the analog reference signal. The system also includes a first digital filter unit comprising a cascaded integrator-comb filter configured to provide a first digital filtered version of the digital measured biopotential signal and the reference signal, and a second digital filter unit configured to calculate a digital motion artifact estimate based on the first digital filtered version signals. |
| US09326732B2 |
Electrocardiogram sensor and method of processing signals using the same
An electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor includes an analog front end device configured to remove a DC offset in a first ECG signal received from a measuring electrode, and adjust a gain amplification value based on the first ECG signal. The analog front end device is configured to output an adjusted first ECG signal, the adjusted first ECG signal being based on the adjusted gain amplification value and the removed DC offset in the first ECG signal. The ECG sensor includes a digital signal processor configured to analyze and process the adjusted first ECG signal based on an algorithm and to output information. The analog front end device is configured to remove the DC offset in the first ECG signal during a first period, and remove a DC offset in a second ECG signal and simultaneously adjust a gain amplification value for the second ECG signal during a second period. |
| US09326727B2 |
On-body medical device securement
Devices and methods for maintaining a medical device on-body are provided. Embodiments include medical device securement systems having first and second on-body securement elements. Also provided are systems and kits for use maintaining a medical device on-body. |
| US09326724B2 |
Devices and methods for monitoring physiological information relating to sleep with an implantable device
Described here are implantable devices and methods for monitoring physiological information relating to sleep. The implantable devices are generally designed to include at least one sensor for sensing physiological information, a processor for processing the physiological information using low computational power to detect a sleep stage, and a battery. The detected sleep stage information may then be used to indicate sleep quality, identify or monitor a medical condition, or guide treatment thereof. |
| US09326723B2 |
Method and apparatus of monitoring foot inflammation
A method and apparatus for evaluating foot inflammation each uses at least one temperature detection modality to form a first thermogram and a second thermogram of the sole of at least one foot. Each thermogram forms a substantially continuous set of two-dimensional temperature values across the sole of the (at least one) foot. The thermograms have features; namely, the first thermogram has first features and the second thermogram has second features. The method and apparatus thus control a device to apply at least one transformation to the first and second thermograms to align the first features with corresponding second features, and determine, at any thermogram location, if at least one of the thermograms presents one of a plurality of patterns indicative of inflammation. Finally, the method and apparatus each produce output information indicating the result of the determination of whether the thermograms present one of the plurality of patterns. |
| US09326721B2 |
Labor management devices for pelvic floor support
The present disclosure provides devices for decreasing the incidence of Cesarean childbirth by managing the labor process. In one aspect, a tactile feedback device is positioned adjacent the perianal tissues. A perianal support device includes a perianal support member having a pressure surface configured for engagement with tissue adjacent an anal orifice and a pressure detecting system associated with the perianal support member to detect pressure indicative of pressure on the perianal tissue of a patient. |
| US09326717B2 |
Adjustable connector and dead space reduction
Methods and systems for determining the concentration of one or more analytes from a sample such as blood or plasma are described. The systems described herein can be configured to withdraw a certain volume of sample from a source of bodily fluid, direct a first portion of the withdrawn sample to an analyte monitoring system and return a second portion of the sample to the patient. The analyte monitoring system can be connected to the source of bodily fluid via a connector that is configured to maintain uniform velocity across the connector and reduce the dead space volume. |
| US09326716B2 |
Analyte monitoring device and methods of use
In aspects of the present disclosure, a no coding blood glucose monitoring unit including a calibration unit is integrated with one or more components of an analyte monitoring system to provide compatibility with in vitro test strip that do not require a calibration code is provided. Also disclosed are methods, systems, devices and kits for providing the same. |
| US09326715B1 |
OxyVu-1 hyperspectral tissue oxygenation (HTO) measurement system
The invention is directed to a hyperspectral/multispectral system referred to as the OxyVu-1 system. The hyperspectral imaging technology performs spectral analysis at each point in a two-dimensional scanned a producing an image displaying information derived from the analysis. For the OxyVu-1 system, the spectral analytical methods determined in superficial tissues approximate values of oxygen saturation (HT-Sat), oxyhemoglobin levels (HT-oxy), and deoxyhemoglobin levels (HT-deoxy). The OxyVu-1 system displays the tissue oxygenation in a two-dimensional, color-coded image. The system contains a system console, a cart, system electronics, CPU, monitor, keyboard, pointing device and printer. The hyperspectral instrument head with support arm contains broadband illuminator, camera and spectral filter for collecting hyperspectral imaging cube. The single use OxyVu Check Pads and Targets are used to perform an instrument check prior to patient measurements. The OxyVu Target is placed within the intended field of view and is used as a fiduciary mark for image registration and for focusing. |
| US09326708B2 |
Ambient temperature sensor systems and methods
A first sensor may be configured to measure a sensed amount of a physiological parameter and to generate a first signal based on the sensed amount of the physiological parameter measured by the first sensor. A second sensor may be configured to measure a temperature and to generate a second signal based on the temperate measured by the second sensor. A housing may have heat-generating electronics including a processor that may be configured to determine an overall amount of the physiological parameter based on the first signal generated from the first sensor and the second signal generated from the second sensor. The second sensor may be thermally insulated from the heat-generating electronics. |
| US09326705B2 |
Method and system for monitoring physiological and athletic performance characteristics of a subject
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for monitoring characteristics of a subject. A system according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention includes a sensor subsystem including at least one respiratory sensor disposed proximate to the subject and configured to detect a respiratory characteristic of the subject, wherein the sensor subsystem is configured to generate and transmit at least one respiratory signal representing the respiratory characteristic, and at least one physiological sensor disposed proximate to the subject and configured to detect a physiological characteristic of the subject, wherein the sensor subsystem is configured to generate and transmit at least one physiological signal representing the physiological characteristic, and a processor subsystem in communication with the sensor subsystem, the processor subsystem being configured to receive at least one of the at least one respiratory signal and the at least one physiological signal. |
| US09326701B2 |
Method and magnetic resonance system to automatically determine imaging planes
In a method and imaging apparatus to automatically determine imaging planes for an imaging procedure to visualize a percutaneous intervention of a patient along a trajectory to a target point, data are obtained that represent a reference coordinate system with three orthogonal reference planes, and data also are acquired that represent the trajectory. One of the reference planes is determined as a selected reference plane based on the arrangement thereof relative to the trajectory. A first imaging plane is defined such that the trajectory lies therein, and such that it has a defined arrangement in relation to the selected reference plane. A second imaging plane is defined such that the trajectory lies therein, and such that it is orthogonal to the first imaging plane. A third imaging plane is defined such that it is orthogonal to the first imaging plane and second imaging plane, and includes the target point. |
| US09326699B2 |
Methods for using electrical impedance tomography
Methods for use of EIT. Disclosed are: (1) EIT used to obtain a final solution to an EIT inverse problem for localizing tissues undergoing changes in impedance, which is used as a constraint on solving an EEG source localization inverse problem; (2) EIT used with MREIT, where the MREIT is used to constrain the solutions to the EIT inverse problem for the distribution of static tissue impedance; (3) EIT used with MREIT, where the MREIT is used to constrain the solutions to the EIT inverse problem for localizing tissues undergoing changes in impedance; and (4) EIT according to any of (1)-(3) as feedback for modifying at least one of the location, magnitude, and timing of currents injected for the purpose of neurostimulation. |
| US09326697B2 |
Long-term monitoring for discrimination of different heart rhythms
A method, system, and device for detection of an arrhythmia, and discrimination between different types of arrhythmia, for example to determine whether to administer an electric shock to the heart, the device comprising a wearable monitor with electrodes that detect the electrical activity of a beating heart, attached to an embedded monitoring system having an amplifier, a microprocessor, a data storage device, and a power supply, all disposed on a substrate having large distal end portions that attach to the electrodes and a narrow intermediate portion that attaches to the monitoring system. |
| US09326695B1 |
Electrode harness and method of taking biopotential measurements
The present invention relates to an electrode harness and more particularly to an electrode harness with various features, which enhance the use and performance of the electrode harness. The present invention further relates to a method of taking biopotential measurements. The electrode harness and methods of the present invention allow for use with most applications where biopotential measurements are taken. The electrode harness can be used in ECG (or EKG), EEG, EMG, and other such biopotential measurement applications. Because of the versatility of various embodiments of the present invention, preferably the electrode harness can be adjusted for different applications or for application to various sized and shaped subjects. The electrode harness is further preferably part of a system, which includes either wireless or tethered bridges between the electrode harness and a monitor, and preferably includes various forms of processors for analyzing the biopotential signal. |
| US09326691B1 |
Dispensable single-use protective film for a sphygmomanometer
A pad of disposable protective barrier films for adhesive attached to a blood pressure cuff prior to its placement on a limb of a subject. The barrier film is a thin, non-permeable polymer, typically having a thickness of between approximately 1.0 and 3.0 mil. A portion of the side of the barrier adapted for attachment of the blood pressure cuff is coated with a low tack adhesive. The low tack adhesive holds the barrier in place during installation and use of the blood pressure but allows easy removal and disposal thereof upon completion of the blood pressure measurement. A unique packaging system is provided whereby no adhesive backing strips are required, successive barrier sheets are merely peeled from a stack. In still other embodiments, the barrier or the adhesive may include a germicidal material to further help protect the blood pressure cuff to from germs or other contamination. |
| US09326685B2 |
Device for evaluating condition of skin or hair
The present invention relates to a device for evaluating condition on skin or hair. The device provides one extension supporting a hydration meter suitable for measuring hydration values in areas difficult to measure (e.g., skin in scalp area) and; a separate extension supporting a camera for capturing images of an area of skin or hair and transferring said image to computer. Data from these sources are evaluated and scored. The multiple data points are used to provide a highly targeted product best suited for each individual consumer. |
| US09326681B2 |
Non-contact tonometer, control method of the same, and program
An excessive amount of pressurized air is inhibited from being blown to an eye of a patient during measurement of a corneal shape deformation amount. In a non-contact tonometer having a piston, a driving unit to drive the piston, a fluid ejection unit to blow air pressurized by driving the piston toward a cornea of an eye to be inspected, and an intraocular pressure measuring unit to detect a deformed state of the cornea and measure an intraocular pressure, there are provided a piston displacement restricting unit that restricts a displacement amount when the piston pressurizes the air, and a changing unit to change the displacement amount to be restricted by the piston displacement restricting unit. |
| US09326679B2 |
Medical system
A medical system includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire a tomographic image of an object to be examined based on a combined beam generated by combining a return beam returning from the object to be examined illuminated with a measuring beam and a reference beam corresponding to the measuring beam, a focus position changing unit configured to change a focus position on the object to be examined;an optical-path-length difference changing unit configured to change a difference in optical path lengths between the measuring beam and the reference beam, and a control unit configured to control the optical-path-length difference changing unit so that the difference in the optical path length is within a predetermined range and then receive an instruction to the focus position changing unit to make a change. |
| US09326673B2 |
Diagnostic device for detecting a layer boundary in an eye and ring element for the diagnostic device
A diagnostic device detects a layer boundary which facilitates the determination of layer thicknesses in the human eye. The device has a light source with a beam path which is designed to guide at least one measuring beam of the light source from the object plane of the light source into an intersecting region of the measuring beam with an optical axis in the eye, and an actuator designed to move the intersecting region along the optical axis. The beam path guides the measuring beam from a layer boundary into the sensor unit. An evaluation unit is designed to estimate and/or determine a layer thickness between a first and a second layer boundary. |
| US09326671B2 |
Advanced speculum
It is described a surgical instrument such as a speculum comprising longitudinally extending cups-shaped pivotably mounted blades manufactured from a moldable material, such as plastic or metal. Each blade has an inwardly curved circumferential edge with an edge face which is provided with a parting line resulting from molding the blades. Negative effects such as possible injuries associated with parting lines or steps can be mitigated by inwardly relocating these lines on an edge face of the inwardly curved circumferential edge. |
| US09326666B2 |
Multi-channel medical imaging system
A medical imaging system provides simultaneous rendering of visible light and fluorescent images. The system may employ dyes in a small-molecule form that remain in a subject's blood stream for several minutes, allowing real-time imaging of the subject's circulatory system superimposed upon a conventional, visible light image of the subject. The system may provide an excitation light source to excite the fluorescent substance and a visible light source for general illumination within the same optical guide used to capture images. The system may be configured for use in open surgical procedures by providing an operating area that is closed to ambient light. The systems described herein provide two or more diagnostic imaging channels for capture of multiple, concurrent diagnostic images and may be used where a visible light image may be usefully supplemented by two or more images that are independently marked for functional interest. |
| US09326664B2 |
Endoscope apparatus
An endoscope apparatus includes an illuminating section capable of irradiating a subject with a light in a first wavelength band and light in a second wavelength band, an image processing section including a color filter configured by a plurality of filters, the image processing section generating, from two image pickup signals respectively generated in a first pixel and a second pixel that respectively receive light in a predetermined wavelength band and light in a wavelength band different from the predetermined wavelength band among return lights from the subject, first and second image signals, a control section that determines whether the two image pickup signals can be separated into the first and second image signals, and an illumination control section that performs irradiation in a time division manner or simultaneous irradiation according to a determination result whether the separation is possible or not. |
| US09326662B2 |
Probe and endoscope
A probe is a probe insertable through a channel provided in an endoscope insertion portion. The probe is provided with a plurality of accommodation portions for accommodating a plurality of coil units having a predetermined length and a predetermined height, and a plurality of axial portions. Each accommodation portion includes a base portion having a length substantially equal to the predetermined length in a longitudinal direction of the probe, and two wall portions provided to stand upright at both ends of the base portion in the longitudinal direction at a height substantially equal to the predetermined height from the base portion, and the base portion and the wall portions are integrally formed. The plurality of axial portions extend from the wall portions in the longitudinal direction and connect between the plurality of accommodation portions. |
| US09326659B2 |
Low-capacity apparatus for washing objects
An appliance such as a dishwasher comprises an upper region and a lower region forming an appliance footprint. Positioned in the upper region is a spray arm assembly and a wash tub forming a wash zone. The wash zone has a low or reduced capacity, thereby holding fewer objects than conventional dishwashers but maintaining the appliance footprint so that the dishwasher fits an appliance opening, e.g., in kitchen cabinetry, that has a standard width dimension and a standard height dimension. In one embodiment, the wash zone has an opening through is received a rack, which supports the objects in the wash zone. The rack is moveable between a first position and a second position, and in one example, the rack is configured to move between the first position and the second position relative to the wash zone and independent of the spray arm assembly. |
| US09326652B2 |
Surface cleaning apparatus
A surface cleaning apparatus is provided wherein a uniflow cyclone comprises a cyclone chamber defined by a longitudinal axis, the cyclone chamber having a dirt outlet that has a variable length in the direction of the longitudinal axis. A cyclone chamber having a barrier wall facing the dirt outlet of the cyclone chamber is also provided. |
| US09326651B2 |
Vacuum cleaner with blower and flexible head for improved particulate removal
A vacuum cleaner with a flexible head portion and combined suction and blowing mechanism to agitate debris. An external pressured air source is used to provide a source of pressured air for the blowing mechanism. The head portion has blowing and suction nozzles arranged such that the suction nozzles surround the blowing nozzles or vice versa. The blowing and suction nozzles may be in parallel rows and may have almost perpendicular trajectories. The blowing mechanism may be operated according to an alternating pulsing pattern corresponding to different blowing nozzle groups to create a repeating and bidirectional agitation effect onto stubborn debris in the area between the nozzle groups. The flexible head portion is formed by a grid of head portion units attached to each other by a joining mechanism. The flexible head portion has a concave shape in its relaxed state and can at least partially conform to irregular surfaces. |
| US09326641B2 |
Gated bath ring
An assistive bath ring for use by a child or adult to provide support for the user to sit in a bathtub. The bath ring comprises an essentially cylindrically shaped framework comprising a circular solid base, a circularly shaped ring attached to the base by height adjusting telescoping leg components; wherein the ring has a front and a rear; and further comprising a hinge in the circular shaped arm rail creating a gate to allow the circularly shaped ring arm rail to open and close. |
| US09326639B2 |
Oven having a rotating door
An oven comprising a housing, a cavity located within the housing, and a rotator having a first food loading section and a second food loading section is disclosed. The cavity includes a single opening for loading a food item into the cavity. If one of the first food loading section and the second food loading section is located outside of said cavity, then the other of the first food loading section and the second food loading section is located within said cavity. A first cook setting of the oven when the first food loading section is within the cavity and a second cook setting of the oven when the second food loading section is within the cavity are independently controllable. The first food loading section and the second food loading section may be separated by a divider, which prevents heat from escaping from the cavity through the opening. |
| US09326633B2 |
Steamer
An improved steamer for heating food includes a base with a heating unit and a controlling switch, a plurality of pot units, a plurality of racks, and a lid. The pot units seat on top of the base, and the racks are placed on a bottom of each pot unit. Several steam ducts are arranged on ends of the pot units, and an opening is defined in the steam ducts. A cover is put on the opening. The lid is placed onto the upper pot unit. When the steamer with food is heated, the steam from the heating unit is introduced into the pot units from the openings of the steam ducts to heat the food. Each pot unit is isolated, and the steam introduced will not mix, and odors from the pot units will not interfere with other pot units. |
| US09326632B2 |
Valve arrangement of a commercial cooking device and commercial cooking device
A valve structure includes a housing having an interior chamber, a first conduit connecting the interior chamber with a cooking chamber of a cooking device and having a first discharge cross-section, a second conduit connecting the interior chamber with the outside environment and having a second discharge cross-section, and at least one valve seat within the interior chamber having at least one valve seat opening which cooperates with at least one valve disc. The at least one valve disc moves between a closed position on the valve seat opening, and an open position spaced apart from the valve seat opening by changes in pressure in the cooking chamber. The valve operates to allow bidirectional flow of fluid to relieve over pressure and underpressure conditions, and enables automatic balancing of low pressure or vacuum in the cooking chamber. |
| US09326623B2 |
Computer tablet mounting device and attachment to posts of a display apparatus
A mounting device for housing a smart device having a user interface comprises a horizontal armature, a screen housing, and a mounting bracket. The mounting device is configured for attachment to a display unit having a plurality of posts. The horizontal armature includes coupling mechanisms disposed at each end thereof, wherein each coupling mechanism is configured to be removably coupled to one of the posts. The screen housing has a hollow interior configured to receive the smart device therein, wherein the screen housing includes at least one aperture for providing visual and tactile access to desired portions of the smart device. The mounting bracket is securely coupled to the screen housing and includes at least one projection extending therefrom and configured to be received in a corresponding opening formed in the horizontal armature to couple the screen housing to the horizontal armature. |
| US09326620B1 |
Modular display system and methods
Disclosed are embodiments of display modules, assemblies of display modules, and systems of display modules. Display modules have a plurality of light emitting elements arranged in a predetermined pattern and providing a highly uniform visual effect. Alignment and complementary alignment features enable the alignment of adjacent display modules and the creation of large displays from a plurality of aligned display modules. Features to grip and retain a support frame are provided. Modules and systems have features that permit installation and removal from the front side of the display. A system of modular support frames works cooperatively with the display modules, adapting to different mounting environments, and thereby providing large modular displays with desirable properties. |
| US09326619B2 |
Multifunction baby carrier, portable swing and exercise device
A multi-function baby carrier is disclosed. Embodiments include a lightweight, portable baby carrier capable of supporting a baby safely and securely. Embodiments also include a lightweight, portable baby carrier capable of being held with a single hand and function as a portable baby swing. Embodiments further include a lightweight, portable baby carrier capable of being used, together with the weight of the baby, for resistance-training. |
| US09326617B2 |
Spring mattress structure
A spring mattress structure comprises a mattress body with a top bed surface and a bottom bed surface which consists of a plurality of shaft levers separated by a regular spacing between any two adjacent shaft levers and prepared for placement of a plurality of springs; each of the springs allows the bottom's both ends to be placed on surfaces of two adjacent shaft levers and develops a hollow space which correspond to a spacing developed by the two adjacent shaft levers; the bottom of each spring is fixed on one of the shaft levers with a spring-loaded locating piece so that the spring is securely connected to the shaft lever. |
| US09326614B2 |
Lumbar support apparatus
A lumbar support apparatus includes a curved plate which is provided to a seat-back frame so that the upper part of the curved plate is rotatable in the vertical direction, and which is deformable in the direction in which a seated person's lumbar spine is pressed; a curved-plate deformation-amount adjustment unit including a threaded rod having an external thread formed on the peripheral surface thereof, and a nut member that is threadedly engaged with the external thread of the threaded rod and is attached to the lower part of the curved plate so as to be prohibited from rotating about a center axis and so as to be movable in the vertical direction; and a drive unit for rotatingly driving the threaded rod. |
| US09326610B2 |
Telescopic seating systems, and foldable chairs and related components for use within telescopic seating systems
The telescopic seating systems, and foldable chairs and related components for use within telescopic seating systems, of the present disclosure may incorporate occupant support elements within a space between a top surface of a seat frame structure and a bottom surface of the seat frame structure. Springs may be attached to the top surface of the chair frame structure and configured to extend into the space. Alternatively, or additionally, a chair cushion may extend into the space. |
| US09326608B1 |
Multi-configurable seating device
A seating device such as a chair or sofa. The seating device includes a frame, a seat platform supported by the frame, and a backrest attached to the seat platform. The seat platform has opposite front and rear ends. The backrest has a first backrest portion extending upwardly from proximate the rear end of the seat platform. A lower end of the first backrest portion is positioned adjacent to an upper surface of the seat platform. The first backrest portion is capable of being moved forwardly and rearwardly along the upper surface of the seat platform while the lower end remains proximate the upper surface of the seat platform. A backrest-adjustment powered actuator operates the backrest for moving at least the first backrest portion forwardly and rearwardly partially along the upper surface of the seat platform to adjust an effective depth of the seat platform. |
| US09326603B2 |
Slide rail and equipment mounting rack
A slide rail includes: a rail assembly 2; an inner rail 4 mounted on the rail assembly 2, and slidable in a longitudinal direction of the rail assembly 2; and a locking arm 5 a rear end portion of which is secured to a surface of the inner rail 4 facing the rail assembly 2, and a front end portion of which is a free end, wherein the locking arm 5 has a lock protrusion portion 5a that, when pulling out the inner rail 4 from the rail assembly 2, locks slide at a predetermined position, and wherein the rail assembly 2 has a lock hole 2a for catching the lock protrusion portion 5a. |
| US09326602B2 |
Modular storage and display system
A modular system for at least one of displaying and storing at least one article includes at least one pair of elongated cross members and at least one pair of support brackets being sized and shaped so as to position the at least one pair of the plurality of elongated cross members in a spaced apart parallel relationship with each other and further position a length of the at least one article in a generally normal orientation to lengths of the at least one pair of elongated cross members, whereby one end of the at least one article is supported on one of the at least one pair of elongated cross members and another end of the at least one article is supported on another one of the at least one pair of elongated cross members. |
| US09326596B2 |
Deployable table for a spare tire assembly
A deployable table for an external spare tire assembly is an apparatus that provides a user with a fold-out shelf while the apparatus is attached to the spare tire assembly or provides the user with a table while the apparatus is detached from the spare tire assembly. The apparatus includes an adapter mount, a dual compression clamp, a central hub, a table frame, a table top, and foldable legs. The adapter mount allows the apparatus to detachably attach to the external spare tire assembly. The central hub is connected normal to the table frame, which is used to support the table top. The table top has a stationary portion and a fold-out portion that is used as the shelf. The foldable legs collapse within the table frame or can extend when the apparatus is used as a table. The dual compression clamp connects the central hub to the adapter mount. |
| US09326592B2 |
Toothbrush having interdental brush
Disclosed is a toothbrush and a toothbrush having interdental brush. There is provided the configuration of the toothbrush in which toothbrush bristles are aligned in two lines without the bristles in the middle of toothbrush head, and interdental brush bristles are also provided, so that toothbrush bristles can be deeply fit into and touched to every teeth and interdental portions without needs of applying excessive power or pressure during toothbrushing, thereby to prevent damages on teeth and gums, easily remove food particles and plagues remained on the toothbrush, and prevent the secondary bacteria diseases due to fast dry of the toothbrush. |
| US09326588B2 |
Carrying aid
A carrying aid for t-shirt bags (aka plastic grocery bags) and other similar bags is disclosed. When carried without the use of some assistive device, the weight of the bags can cause an unpleasant cutting sensation across the user's fingers. This device wraps around the bags' handle loops and reversibly attached to itself forming a flattened tube containing the handles. The carrying aid cushions the finger stress caused by the bags and keeps the bags linked together when placed down. A strip of a rigid material may be included to further distribute the bags' weight. Further, the carrying aid may be imprinted with advertising or loyalty program insignias, and may also be linked by a carabineer or similar. The device can be removed and reused as needed. |
| US09326587B2 |
Spring loaded holster for electronic device
A holster for an electronic device may have a pair of flexible hollow cushions that may hold the device in the holster. The cushions may be flexible enough to allow the device to be held in the holster both with and without a protective cover over the device. The cushions may have a hollow portion that collapses when compressed during insertion of the device. The cushion material may be a molded silicone that may have a nonslip surface finish. In some embodiments, the cushion may protrude through a bottom surface of the holster to provide a nonslip foot when the holster is used as a stand support for the device. |
| US09326581B1 |
Nail abrading implement
An implement for abrading or filing a nail of a person, such as a fingernail or a toenail, includes a body that has a first side, a second side, and a peripheral edge. The peripheral edge has a peripheral groove formed therearound that has a floor that continuously varies in depth based on a radial position. A perimeter abrading surface is applied to the floor of the groove. A first abrading surface is applied to the first side of the body, preferably via a removable disk that adheres with an adhesive to the first side of the body. A second abrading surface, preferably via a second removable disk that adheres with the adhesive to the second side of the body, is preferably applied to the second side of the body, the second abrading surface having a different abrasiveness or grit than the first abrading surface. |
| US09326578B2 |
Hair care device
A hair care device includes main body having a fan and a heater, a removable cover member configured to cover an opening of the main body, and a power supply cut-off part configured to cut off a power supply when the cover member is detached from the main body. As a result, safety is improved during attachment and detachment of components in the hair care device that require maintenance and replacement. |
| US09326576B2 |
Cover for an electronic device
A cover is described that is magnetically attached to a tablet device. The cover includes at least as flap. In the described embodiment, the flap includes a plurality of segments where the first segment includes a first plurality of edge attach magnets arrayed along a first edge of the flap and where a second segment includes a second plurality of edge attach magnets arrayed along a second edge of the flap opposite the first edge. |
| US09326574B2 |
Suitcase
A suitcase with a hollow container body defining an internal compartment and having: a supporting wall; an upper wall opposite to the supporting wall; a first opening, closable, for accessing the compartment. The upper wall has two edges adjacent each other and delimiting a second opening closable and central to said top wall. The suitcase further comprises a support having two flaps folded one over the other to form a U-shaped pocket which divides the compartment in two half-compartments. Each of the flaps is associated with a corresponding edge of the top wall and at least a first flap is slidable with respect to its corresponding first edge to reduce or extend the depth of the pocket for the extraction/housing of a product in the latter. |
| US09326572B2 |
Crutch assembly
An improved crutch assembly and walking aid is provided. The crutch assembly can be retrofitted to an existing walking aid and provides spring assisted motion. The assembly includes a ball-in-socket joint and a spring operably connecting the joint to a walking aid shaft. |
| US09326569B1 |
Jewelry clasp
A clasp for releasably holding opposed ends of an elongated filament element. The clasp includes a housing having opposed sides each having a receiving port for accommodating respective opposed ends of the elongated filament element, and an open center chamber, a slide member received in the open center chamber of the housing, including opposed walls that each have a locking aperture, having an open center passage, and an end actuation button having locked and released positions, a locking disc engaged between the slide member and housing, and a spring disposed within the open center passage of the slide member and positioned between the locking disc and the end actuation button. |
| US09326566B2 |
Footwear having coverable motorized adjustment system
An article of footwear may include a motorized tensioning system including a tensile member and a motorized tightening device attached to an outer surface of the article of footwear, the tightening device configured to apply tension in the tensile member to adjust the size of an internal void defined by the article of footwear. The article of footwear may also include a tightening device cover configured to be removably attached to the article of footwear over the tightening device. |
| US09326563B2 |
Base for a ski boot and ski boot incorporating such a base
A base (1) is provided for a ski boot (2) and comprises a one-piece sole (4) defining heel and toe portions (6, 7) that is adapted to be secured to one or more outsole elements (8, 9, 10). Preferably, toe and heel outsole elements (8, 9) are bonded to the toe and heel portions (6, 7) respectively to form a base (1) with a unitary construction. The sole (4) also has a fiber-reinforced composite structure wherein a majority of the fibers in at least a mid-section (7) of the sole (4) between the heel and toe portions (6, 7) are angled at an acute angle with respect to a longitudinal axis (L) of the sole (4). Preferably, the mid-section (7) of the sole covers a position anatomically beneath the location of the metatarsal bones and the plantar arch of a person wearing the ski boot and a majority of the fibers in this mid-section (7) of the sole are angled at substantially ±45°±10° to the longitudinal axis (L) of the sole (4) and between 5% and 10% of the fibers in the mid-section (7) of the sole (4) are substantially aligned with the longitudinal axis of the sole at angles within ±20° of being parallel to the longitudinal axis (L) of the sole (4). A ski boot (2) incorporating such a sole (4) is also provided. |
| US09326561B2 |
Helmet
A football helmet with shell, faceguard, padding and comfort liner system, has replaceable nose bumpers for connecting a top center of the faceguard to the shell, button and keyhole connectors connecting the liner to an inner surface of the padding and T-nut connectors for connecting the padding to an inner surface of the shell. Front portions of the comfort liner have harder foam cushions than other portions of the liner to improve impact absorption. Selected areas of the padding system contain pads with inner and outer molded thermoplastic urethane parts of different durometer, each including a sheet with plural alternating hollow protrusions. The faceguard has an upper bar with raised ends above a lower edge of the front portion of the shell that form a face opening and on either side of the nose bumper. |
| US09326560B2 |
Safety helmet with improved liner and chinstrap
A safety helmet has a protective shell, an inner liner with several attachment branches, and at least a first securing clip to fit an accessory on the outer surface of the shell. Each attachment branch of the liner comprises a fixing part inserted and blocked in a slide of the shell by said first securing clip which acts both as latch to attach the liner to the shell and as female loop for clipping of a second securing clip connected to a chinstrap. |
| US09326542B2 |
Process for producing food and beverage products from malt sprouts
Technology for utilizing, as a raw material for food or beverage products, malt sprouts having been removed as the cause of odd taste, despite containing nitrogen sources and various active substances in high proportion, in the production of beer or whiskey is provided by a process for producing a food or beverage product wherein a malt sprout of controlled particle size are used as a raw material. In particular, a process for producing a food or beverage from malt sprouts wherein the ratio of particles of less than 150 μm size is 60 wt. % or less. This process for producing a food or beverage products preferably comprises the steps of immersing malt sprouts in a liquid so as to leach malt sprout components with the liquid and, after the leaching, removing the residual malt sprouts. |
| US09326540B2 |
Method and apparatus for vitamin D enhancement in mushrooms
An apparatus and method for increasing Vitamin D content in mushrooms is disclosed. A mushroom slurry of comminuted or pulverized mushrooms or mushroom parts and liquid, such as water, is passed under a UV light source and subjected to one or more pulses of UV light. The slurry may be conveyed to the UV light source by a vibrating conveyor. After UV light exposure, the treated slurry may be dried and ground into a powder, or the treated slurry may be filtered and the insoluble portion may be dried and ground into a powder. The irradiated mushroom powder has a mass fraction of Vitamin D2 of at least 2500 IU/gram of powder, and more preferably at least 20,000 IU/gram of powder. Irradiated mushroom powder may be incorporated into consumable food product for humans or animals, and/or may be incorporated into topical preparations for cosmetic use. |
| US09326536B2 |
Production of microwaveable coated food products
A method of producing a frozen, microwaveable, coated food product, said method comprising the steps of: providing a portion of a solid or solidified substrate; coating the portion with an aqueous precoating liquid to form a precoated portion; applying a coating of bonding crumb to the precoated portion to form a crumb coated portion; applying a batter to the crumb coated portion to form a batter coated portion; applying a coating of coating crumb to the batter coated portion to form a breaded portion; frying the breaded portion by contacting said breaded portion for at least 100 seconds with hot oil having a temperature of at least 150° C., thereby producing a fried coated portion having a core temperature in excess of 70° C.; and freezing the fried coated portion by introducing said fried portion into a freezer; wherein the core temperature of the fried coated portion is not less than 50° C., preferably not less than 60° C. when said fried portion is introduced into the freezer and wherein said core temperature is reduced to less than −15° C., using cryogenic freezing. |
| US09326534B2 |
Beet processing process and unit
A beet processing process including the step of washing of the beets and the step of partial pressing of the beets for the production, on the one hand, of a press cake containing more than 20% sugar relative to the dry matter content and, on the other hand, of a sugar juice at a concentration greater than 15% dry matter content. The process further includes the step of separation of the press cake and of the sugar juice. |
| US09326532B2 |
Preformed ice cream
A preformed serving of a frozen confection configured to be received in a substantially hollow edible container is provided including a body of a frozen confection. A first portion of the body has a shape generally complementary to the edible container. When the body is received within the container, the first portion extends substantially below a surface of the container such that the body of the frozen confection is substantially wedged therein. |
| US09326530B2 |
Machine for producing and dispensing products such as ice creams, granita or frozen beverages
A machine for producing products such as ice cream, frozen beverages or granita comprises a product container which is provided with a tap for dispensing the product. A cylinder with a substantially horizontal axis, which forms the evaporator of a refrigerating circuit of the machine for cooling the product in the container, projects from a rear wall into the container. A mixer element is present around the cylinder and rotates coaxially with the axis of the cylinder by means of a motor unit connected to the mixer element by means of a drive shaft which passes along the axis of the cylinder and which is connected to the mixer element at one end of the cylinder which is opposite to the said rear wall. The motor unit is at least partially housed inside the cylinder through the said rear wall, so as to reduce the overall dimensions of the machine. |
| US09326518B2 |
Synergistic combination of a chlorotoluron compound and OIT for dry film protection
A synergistic antimicrobial composition containing chlorotoluron and 2-n-octyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one is provided. Also provided is a method of inhibiting the growth of or controlling the growth of microorganisms in a building material by adding such a synergistic antimicrobial composition. Also provided is a coating composition containing such a synergistic antimicrobial composition, and a dry film made from such a coating composition. |
| US09326517B2 |
Synergistic combination of a chlorotoluron compound and IPBC for dry film protection
A synergistic antimicrobial composition containing chlorotoluron and 3-Iodo-2-propynyl butylcarbamate is provided. Also provided is a method of inhibiting the growth of or controlling the growth of microorganisms in a building material by adding such a synergistic antimicrobial composition. Also provided is a coating composition containing such a synergistic antimicrobial composition, and a dry film made from such a coating composition. |
| US09326515B2 |
Fungicidal 3-[(1,3-thiazol-4-ylmethoxyimino)(phenyl)methyl]-2-substituted-1,2,4-oxadiazol-5(2H)-one derivatives
The present invention relates to 3-[(1,3-thiazol-4-ylmethoxyimino)(phenyl)methyl]-2-substituted-1,2,4-oxadiazol-5(2H)-one derivatives of formula (I), their process of preparation, their use as fungicide active agents, particularly in the form of fungicide compositions, and methods for the control of phytopathogenic fungi, notably of plants, using these compounds or compositions. |
| US09326514B2 |
Fungicidal active substance combinations containing trifloxystrobin
What are described are novel active compound combinations comprising a known oxime ether derivative (trifloxystrobin) and imidacloprid, which combinations are highly suitable for controlling phytopathogenic fungi and insects. |
| US09326513B2 |
Fungicidal compositions
The present invention provides a composition comprising a combination of components A) and B), wherein component A) is a compound of formula (I) and the component (B) is a further fungicide, insecticide or herbicide. |
| US09326512B2 |
Synergistic combination of a flurochloridone compound and zinc pyrithione for dry film protection
A synergistic antimicrobial composition containing flurochloridone and zinc pyrithione is provided. Also provided is a method of inhibiting the growth of or controlling the growth of microorganisms in a building material by adding such a synergistic antimicrobial composition. Also provided is a coating composition containing such a synergistic antimicrobial composition, and a dry film made from such a coating composition. |
| US09326511B2 |
Methods of inhibiting microbial biofilms
The invention provides the use of a compound of formula (I), or metallated derivative thereof, for killing, inhibiting or preventing the growth of a microbial biofilm: wherein X1, X2, X3, X4, Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4 and Z have meanings given in the description. The biofilm may be on a living or inert support. Preferably, the microorganisms are selected from the group consisting of bacteria and fungi. |
| US09326510B2 |
Strigolactone analogues and their use
Novel compounds of formula (I) their use as germination trap for parasitic weeds, for the regulation of branching, tillering and root development, for enhancement of cambium growth, for the regulation of hyphal growth of mycorrhizal fungi and compositions comprising compounds of formula (I) and insecticides and/or fungicides. |
| US09326509B2 |
Composition and method for improving plant health
The present invention relates to plant-protecting active ingredient mixtures comprising, as active components, a neonicotinoid and one or two fungicides selected from pyraclostrobin and boscalid, in synergistically effective amounts and to a method of improving the health of plants by to the plants or the locus thereof by applying said mixtures. |
| US09326503B2 |
Biocide compositions comprising branched alkyl polyglycosides
Agrochemical compositions comprising (a) one or more branched alkyl polyglycosides, and (b) one or more biocides are disclosed. The compositions display improved solubility in water, and reduced foam generation. |
| US09326501B2 |
Oxygen uptake compositions and preservation of oxygen perishable goods
The preservation or extension of the life of oxygen perishable products such as fresh or cooked meats; fresh vegetables and fruits; dried vegetables, fruits and meats; packaged pharmaceuticals or biologicals; open and enclosed marketing display cases of meats, fruits and vegetables; and packaging, warehousing and transportation of meats, fruits, and vegetables is obtained by subjecting such products to an atmosphere obtained from gas permeable packets of an oxygen scavenging composition comprising a sodium carbonate mineral and one or more carboxylic acids. When the environment surrounding the oxygen perishable product is subjected to the packets of gaseous permeable oxygen scavenging compositions, oxygen is taken in by the scavenging composition and also the presence of carbon dioxide in the surrounding environment is enhanced thereby minimizing or eliminating the effect the oxygen on the oxygen perishable products. |
| US09326494B2 |
Fish tank
An apparatus includes a housing having a first surface having a first contour and arranged to contain a quantity of water. The apparatus further includes a base structure positioned adjacent the housing and including a second surface having a second contour that closely matches the first contour. The housing is positioned such that the first surface and the second surface are disposed immediately adjacent one another. The apparatus further includes a lighting element supported by the base and positioned to selectively illuminate the housing. The apparatus further includes a storage compartment having an open cavity for receiving and holding an object and a third surface having a third contour that closely matches the first contour, the storage compartment supported by the base structure such that the first surface and the third surface are disposed immediately adjacent one another. |
| US09326488B2 |
Toy tether
The present invention is a tether for a toy with a safety feature to prevent entanglement of an animate object, such as a pet or a child, the feature comprising a stiff proximal element. Innovative features provide both for interactive play and containment of the play area by coupling an elastic cord with a rope of selected length. |
| US09326481B2 |
Method and apparatus for milking animals
Methods and apparatus for milking animals wherein a negative pressure is periodically built up in a teat cup gap in an evacuation phase (a), maintained over a predetermined suction phase (b), and relieved in a ventilation phase (c), and a ventilation is maintained over a predetermined rest phase (d). The ratio between the suction phase (b) and the rest phase (d) changes at least once during the milking operation. |
| US09326477B2 |
Soybean cultivar S130056
A soybean cultivar designated S130056 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar S130056, to the plants of soybean cultivar S130056, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar S130056, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar S130056. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S130056. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S130056, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar S130056 with another soybean cultivar. |
| US09326476B1 |
Maize hybrid X08D421
A novel maize variety designated X08D421 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X08D421 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X08D421 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X08D421, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X08D421. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X08D421. |
| US09326472B1 |
Maize hybrid X13D088
A novel maize variety designated X13D088 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X13D088 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X13D088 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X13D088, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X13D088. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X13D088. |
| US09326471B1 |
Maize hybrid X08D384
A novel maize variety designated X08D384 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X08D384 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X08D384 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X08D384, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X08D384. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X08D384. |
| US09326470B1 |
Maize hybrid X08D357
A novel maize variety designated X08D357 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X08D357 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X08D357 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X08D357, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X08D357. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X08D357. |
| US09326453B2 |
Core harvester storage apparatus and method
A core harvester storage rack assembly includes a frame including a first end and a second end, a plurality of wheels operatively coupled about a lower portion of the frame, a jack operatively coupled to an upper portion of the frame, the jack including a seat adapted to engage with an elevator assembly of the core harvester at a first point, a brace operatively coupled to the first end of the frame, the brace adapted to engage the elevator assembly of the core harvester at two spaced-apart points proximate a forward portion of the core harvester elevator assembly, so as to provide three points of support for the core harvester elevator assembly; and the second end of the frame is adapted to removably hold a conveyor assembly of the core harvester. |
| US09326452B2 |
Plant growth mixture enhancing deep plant root growth and signaling for drought tolerance
A plant growth enhancing mixture and method of application applied exogenously very early in crop establishment, as a seed treatment, or in the seed furrow or into the soil for the roots of crop plants, in the right proportions, result in a root pattern that has very deep and strong rooting with a distinct minimal of profuse proliferation of lateral roots close to the soil surface, having numerous benefits as well as preferred, in situ, plant auxin transport and heightened drought tolerance. |
| US09326451B1 |
Seed pillow for overcoming the limiting factors controlling rangeland reseeding success
The disclosure provides compositions and methods to improve seeding success. In an exemplary embodiment the compositions and methods disclosed herein are used to improve seeding success in rangeland areas. However, the compositions and methods are useful to improve seeding success in any environment where seeding is difficult. In an exemplary embodiment, the invention provides a “seed pillow”, a multifunctional seed treatment that mitigates the limiting factors controlling seedling establishment. In one embodiment, the seed pillow comprises a pillow-shaped agglomeration of absorbent earth materials and other additives, with seeds attached within a concave well on the underneath side of the pillow. To increase the probability that the seeds will be covered by the pillow, soil and tackifier are placed with the seeds for increased weight on the seed side of the pillow, and to glue the pillow to the soil. The shape of the pillow is also designed to improve coverage by having a flat bottom and convex top. Upon wetting, the pillow material melts over the seeds, thus providing seed coverage and enhanced conditions for seed germination and growth. |
| US09326447B2 |
Air intake system for cooling air
An air intake system supplies cooling air to at least one heat exchanger and includes a sieve through which the cooling air flows. The air intake system is equipped on the inlet side with a device for removing and shredding components of the cooling air adhering on the inlet-side surface of the sieve. The device is formed with a suction device and a cutting device. The cutting device is formed of comb-like elements on a surface of the sieve and on a surface section of the suction device facing the surface of the sieve. The comb-like elements disposed on the surface of the sieve are designed as knives disposed on support or knife strips oriented transversely thereto. These support or knife strips extend with separations therebetween. At least one of the support strips is equipped with first knives, the knife-edges of which implement a pulling cut, while the comb-like elements on both end faces of the suction device or of the front element attached thereto are designed as second knives, knife-edges of which implement a pulling cut. |
| US09326446B2 |
Clutch assembly for a lawn maintenance vehicle
A clutch assembly attachable to a rotational output shaft of the engine, wherein the clutch assembly is configured to drive at least one implement of a lawn maintenance vehicle is provided. The clutch assembly includes a first pulley fixedly attached to the output shaft, a second pulley independently rotatable relative to the first pulley, and a belt extending between the first and second pulleys and an idler pulley that is movable between an engaged position and a disengaged position. The clutch assembly further includes a third pulley directly connected with the second pulley, wherein rotation of the second pulley is directly transferred to the third pulley, and rotation of the third pulley provides an output rotation of the clutch assembly. |
| US09326445B1 |
Composite harvester spout
A composite discharge spout portion for a discharge spout for a forage harvester defines at least a portion of a path for crop materials. The spout portion may include a proximal end, a distal end, an upper wall and a pair of side walls extending between the proximal end and distal end. The side walls depend from the upper wall, and the top and side walls have opposite major faces and edges. A spine may be integrated into each of the side walls and extends between the proximal and distal ends, with each of the spines forming a tubular structure on either side of the spout portion. The upper wall, the side walls and the spines may be integrally formed of a composite material. |
| US09326440B2 |
Forward flotation dual action ground penetrating device
An apparatus for maintaining a tillage implement such as a plow at a consistent working depth utilizes a spring biased quadrilateral linkage to maintain the tillage implement in a position having to float forwardly and upwardly from the working depth thereby preventing unwanted flotation of the tillage implement from the working depth until the tillage implement encounters a substantially vertical load. |
| US09326439B2 |
Agricultural implement with a scraper internal to a rolling basket
An agricultural implement having a rolling basket is disclosed. A stationary blade is disposed inside an inner chamber of the rolling basket and attached at ends of the rolling basket near the bearings that are connected to the rolling basket. The rolling basket rotates around its major axis via the bearings, while the blade is held stationary. The stationary blade has sleeves at the ends, and each of the sleeves is connected to a post of a support arm and locked into the posts via a pin. |
| US09332686B2 |
Lower supporting pin layout determination apparatus and lower supporting pin layout determination method
A lower supporting pin module 22 is given a shape having a contact surface 26a. On the occasion of position recognition for determining a position of a pin on the lower supporting pin module 22, an image of the lower supporting pin module 22 is captured, and the image is subjected to recognition processing, to thus detect an outer shape of an upper shaft 24B. Even when an extraneous matter on a downside surface of a substrate adheres to the contact surface 26a, the position of the lower supporting pin module 22 can be stably recognized with superior recognition precision. |
| US09332685B2 |
Electronic component mounting apparatus
An electronic component mounting apparatus includes a loading unit which loads a printed circuit board. This apparatus includes a first substrate moving unit which moves the printed circuit board, loaded by the loading unit, in the Y-direction. This apparatus includes a substrate holding unit which temporarily holds the printed circuit board moved by the first substrate moving unit. This apparatus includes a component mounting unit which mounts an electronic component on the printed circuit board. This apparatus includes a second substrate moving unit which moves the printed circuit board with the electronic component mounted thereon in the Y-direction. This apparatus includes an unloading unit which moves the printed circuit board, moved by the second substrate moving unit, in the X-direction to unload it. This invention can provide an electronic component mounting apparatus which is compact in its conveyance direction for conveying a printed circuit board. |
| US09332679B2 |
Fan assembly for rack optimized server computers
A fan assembly for an electrical device which comprises a number of heat generating electrical components mounted in an enclosure that includes a front wall, a rear wall and two generally parallel sidewalls. The fan assembly comprises a plurality of fans which are arranged in a row that extends generally perpendicularly between the sidewalls. Each fan comprises an axis of rotation which is oriented at an angle relative to the sidewalls, and the fan assembly further includes a plurality of inlet plenums which each communicate with an inlet end of a corresponding fan and a plurality of exhaust plenums which each communicate with an outlet end of a corresponding fan. In operation, the fans generate an airflow which is distributed through the enclosure by the inlet and exhaust plenums to thereby cool the electrical components. |
| US09332676B2 |
Sealed battery charger housing
A housing or other enclosure used to facilitate fluid cooling of a circuitry of a battery charger, such as but not limited to a battery charger of the type used to facilitate charging a high voltage vehicle battery with AC energy provided from a utility power grid. The housing may include a groove and seal arrangement operable to seal a fluid coolant chamber used to cool the circuitry from leaking fluid during use. |
| US09332675B2 |
Heat dissipating assembly and electronic device using the same
A heat dissipating assembly suited for an electronic device is provided. The electronic device has at least one heat source. The heat dissipating assembly includes a first tube, a second tube, and a fluid. The first tube has an inlet and an outlet, wherein a bore size of the inlet is smaller than a bore size of the outlet. Heat generated from the heat source is transferred to the first tube. Two opposite ends of the second tube are connected to the inlet and the outlet such that the first and the second tubes are formed into a closed loop. The fluid is filled in the closed loop. The fluid in the first tube transferred from the inlet toward the outlet absorbs the heat and is transferred to the second tube for heat dissipating. An electronic device is also provided. |
| US09332672B2 |
Electronic product including a heat dissipating device
An electronic product including a heat dissipating device is disclosed. The electronic product includes a casing, a heat conducting board, at least one fan unit and a plurality of electronic elements. The casing includes a compartment. The heat conducting board divides the compartment into first and second chambers. The first chamber includes a plurality of openings. The fan unit(s) includes an air inlet aligned with an opening of the openings, as well as an air outlet aligned with another opening of the openings. The first chamber defines at least one air channel each being in the form of a single air channel including two ends respectively in communication with the opening and the other opening. In one embodiment, the at least one fan unit includes first and second fan units. In another embodiment, the at least one air channel includes first and second air channels in communication with each other. |
| US09332671B2 |
Heat dissipation of power electronics of a cooling unit
A cooling unit in a transport unit includes power electronics; a heat exchanger for thermally coupling a cooling agent of a central cooling system of the transport unit with air of the cooling unit to cool one or more generating devices; and a heat pipe for heat dissipation of the power electronics. At a first portion of the heat pipe, at least some of a working agent is in the liquid phase and, at a second portion of the heat pipe, at least some of the working agent is in the gas phase. In the first portion of the heat pipe, heat from the power electronics is absorbed by evaporating the working agent in the liquid phase. In the second portion of the heat pipe, heat is released to the cooling agent by condensing the working agent in the gas phase. |
| US09332665B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus includes a display panel including lower and upper substrates confronting each other, and a film member combined with the upper substrate; and a panel support member to support the display panel to expose the front and lateral sides of the display panel to the outside. |
| US09332664B2 |
Wiring device with integrated direct current output
The present disclosure provides a wiring device with integrated DC output interfaces alongside AC output interfaces. The wiring device converts AC power received from the grid into DC power that can be used directly by DC loads. In certain example embodiments, the wiring device includes USB receptacles as the DC output interfaces. The wiring device also includes various power management enhancement features. Some such features include crimping and soldering electrical wires directly to the AC output contacts and a midframe for insulating certain components inside the wiring device from heat generated by other components. |
| US09332663B2 |
Electronic device opened by magnetic force
An electronic device opened by magnetic force includes a bottom cover, a top cover, at least one engaging module, a conductive logo, and at least one electromagnet. The top cover is capable of being opened and closed relative to the bottom cover. The top cover has a first engaging portion. The engaging module is disposed at the bottom cover and has a magnetic attraction portion, an elastic element and a second engaging portion. When the conductive logo is electrified, the electromagnet generates magnetism for attracting the magnetic attraction portion to drive the second engaging portion to be separated from the first engaging portion thus deforming the elastic element to allow the top cover to be opened. When the conductive logo is stopped from being electrified, the elastic element is restored to allow the second engaging portion to return to the original position. |
| US09332659B2 |
Electronic component case and electronic component device
An electronic component case includes a lower case including a bottom plate, a aide wall having a protruding portion, an engaging projection formed on an outer face of the side wall, and a screw hole formed in the side wall in a region where the protruding portion is provided, and an upper case including a top plate, a side wall in which an engaging hole is formed, and a notched hole forced in the side wall on the top plate side. The protruding portion of the lower case is engaged to the notched hole of the upper case, and the screw hole is exposed in the notched hole. The engaging projection of the lower case is engaged in the engaging hole of the upper case. |
| US09332657B2 |
Multilayer printed wiring board and method for manufacturing multilayer printed wiring board
A method for manufacturing a multilayer printed wiring board includes preparing a metal layer having metal member portions and connector portions connecting the metal member portions, forming laminated multilayer structures having electronic components and the metal member portions, respectively, forming cut penetrating holes in the connector portions of the metal layer, respectively, such that the connector portions of the metal layer are cut, and forming interlayer insulation layers on the laminated multilayer structures such that the laminated multilayer structures are interposed between the interlayer insulation layers. The forming of the interlayer insulation layers includes filling the cut penetrating holes with a resin derived from one or more interlayer insulation layers on the laminated multilayer structures. |
| US09332641B2 |
Connection structure of circuit board
A connection structure of a circuit board is disclosed. In one aspect, the connection structure includes a first circuit board, a second circuit board and an adhesive member. A first connection pad and a second connection pad are disposed on the first circuit board. The second circuit board has a first surface facing the first circuit board. A plurality of third connection pads and fourth connection pads are disposed on the first surface of the second circuit board in a staggered pattern. The adhesive member is disposed between the first and second circuit boards. At least one of the third and fourth connection pads is electrically connected to a wire which is disposed on a second surface of the second circuit board opposite to the first surface of the second circuit board. |
| US09332640B2 |
Contact surface arranged on a carrier for connecting to a counter contact surface arranged on a further carrier, and device comprising a contact surface and a counter contact surface connected thereto
A contact area is provided on a carrier for connection to a mating contact area on a further carrier using an adhesive containing conductive particles. The contact area includes at least one recess forming a drain channel for the adhesive, extending from one edge of the contact area to an opposing edge and having a width being less than an average diameter of the particles. Alternatively, the contact area includes boreholes extending from a main surface to an opposing main surface and having diameters being approximately equal to or smaller than the average diameter of the particles in at least one direction and a cavity is formed in the carrier beneath the contact area. Alternatively, integral moldings forming a turf structure are provided on the contact area and distances between the moldings are equal to or smaller than the average diameter of the particles in at least one direction. |
| US09332639B2 |
Ball grid array rework
Embodiments of the invention relates to a method for rework of a BGA package. Memory shape material is placed adjacent to a plurality of solder joints of the package. Stimulation is applied to the material, with the stimulation causing the material to change from a non-stimulated shape to a stimulated shape. This stimulation causes an expansion of the material. As the material expands, it exerts a tensile force on the BGA package and an adjacently positioned carrier, causing a separation of the two components, while mitigating collateral heat of adjacently positioned components. |
| US09332637B2 |
Ultra low loss dielectric thermosetting resin compositions and high performance laminates manufactured therefrom
A ultra low loss dielectric thermosetting resin composition has at least one cyanate ester component (A) and at least one reactive intermediate component (B) that is capable of copolymerization with said component (A). The invention is a cyanate ester resin of the form: Tn-[W-(Z)f/(H)1−f-W]n−1-[W-(Z)f/(H)1−f-(OCN)f/(R)1−f]n+2, wherein T is a 1,3,5-substituted-triazine moiety (C3N3); W is a linking atom between triazine and either component A or component B; Z is component (A); H is component (B); OCN is a cyanate ester end group; R is a reactive end group of component B; n is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and f is a weight or mole fraction of component A. The composition exhibits excellent dielectric properties and yields a high performance laminate for use in high layer count, multilayer printed circuit board (PCB), prepregs, resin coated copper (RCC), film adhesives, high frequency radomes, radio frequency (RF) laminates and various composites. |
| US09332636B2 |
Sandwich of impact resistant material
A sandwich of impact resistant material comprising: a first tile comprising a plurality of nano-particles bonded together, wherein the nano-structure of the nano-particles is present in the first tile and the first tile comprises a hardness value; a second tile comprising a plurality of nano-particles bonded together, wherein the nano-structure of the nano-particles is present in the second tile and the second tile comprises a hardness value; and a third tile comprising a plurality of nano-particles bonded together, wherein the nano-structure of the nano-particles is present in the third tile and the third tile comprises a hardness value, wherein the second tile is coupled in between the first tile and the third tile, and the second tile comprises a hardness value greater than the first tile and the third tile. |
| US09332633B2 |
Transparent conductive film
There is provided a transparent conductive film which comprises: a film substrate; a plurality of transparent conductor patterns formed on the film substrate; and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer wherein the transparent conductor patterns are embedded. The plurality of transparent conductor patterns respectively have a two-layer structure wherein a first indium tin oxide layer and a second indium tin oxide layer are laminated on the film substrate in this order, and the first indium tin oxide layer has a greater tin oxide content than the second indium tin oxide layer does. The first indium tin oxide layer has a smaller thickness than the second indium tin oxide layer does. |
| US09332630B2 |
Insulation circuit and communication equipment
Disclosed is an insulation circuit comprising: a first pattern formed on a first layer of a substrate, that receives high-frequency signals; a second pattern formed on this first layer next to the first pattern and that outputs the high-frequency signals received by the first pattern; a third pattern formed on a second layer different from the first layer of the substrate and connected with a signal ground, in such a way that the first and second patterns respectively overlap in plan view; and a fourth pattern formed on the second layer next to the third pattern and connected with a frame ground, in such a way that the first and second patterns respectively overlap in plan view. |
| US09332629B2 |
Flip chip bump array with superior signal performance
An integrated circuit (342) that is electrically connected to a printed circuit board (246) with a package substrate (344) includes a circuit body (352), and a bump array (354) that electrically connects the circuit body (352) to the package substrate (244). The bump array (354) includes a first bump set (356) having a plurality of signal bumps (364) and a plurality of non-signal bumps (366) alternatingly interspersed and aligned along an axis. With the present design, the bump array (354) allows each signal bump (364) to be surrounded by a power bump (370) and a ground bump (368). The package substrate (344) includes (i) a package body (372); and (ii) a pin array (374) that includes a first pin set (376) that includes a plurality of signal pins (384) and a plurality of non-signal pins (386) alternatingly interspersed and aligned along an axis. |
| US09332626B1 |
EUV light source and exposure apparatus
An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source is provided. The EUV light source comprises a spray nozzle array having a plurality of spray nozzles configured to spray a plurality of rows of droplets to an irradiating position. The EUV light source also includes a laser source having a first reflective mirror and a second reflective mirror configured to generate a first laser beam and a second laser beam, and to cause the first laser beam and the second laser beam to sequentially bombard the plurality of droplets arriving at the irritating position to generate EUV light with increased output power. Further, the EUV light source includes a light focusing device a light focusing device comprising a first partial focusing mirror and a second partial focusing mirror configured to perform a rotating scanning to collect EUV light and focus the collected EUV light at a central focusing point. |
| US09332622B1 |
Lighting control system
A lighting system for emulating at a first location the lighting conditions of a remote location includes a lighting control circuit that controls the brightness and color of each of a plurality of lamps at the first location. The lighting control circuit further includes a power source, a networking module that is adapted to receive lighting scene information, via a network, a non-transitory storage medium, and optionally at least one mirror. A remote command module is accessible by the networking module of the control circuit and is adapted to provide the lighting scene information to the lighting control circuit. The remote command module is preferably resident at least in part in a portable electronic device of a user. Alternately, the remote command module may be resident on the remote network server that is in communication with the networking module of the lighting control circuit through the network. |
| US09332620B2 |
Lighting device, lighting system including the same, and method of operating the same
Disclosed are a lighting device, a lighting system including the same, and a method of operating the same. The lighting device includes a communication unit receiving contents through communication with an outside, a content analyzing unit detecting an output state of the contents by analyzing the contents received through the communication unit, a storage unit storing information of a driving condition of a lighting unit corresponding to the output state of the contents, a controller extracting the information of the driving condition of the lighting unit corresponding to the detected output state of the contents from the storage unit and allowing the lighting unit to operate according to the contents based on the information of the driving condition of the lighting unit, and a lighting unit driver outputting a driving signal used to drive the lighting unit according to a control signal of the controller. |
| US09332618B2 |
Illuminator controlled with touchless sensor
An LED lamp includes LED chips, a translucent cover housing the LED chips, a motion sensor unit, a condensing lens, and a power unit. The motion sensor unit includes a light receiving element for light of a predetermined wavelength. The lens condenses light of the predetermined wavelength onto the light receiving element. The power unit controls the state of operation of the LED chips based on an output from the motion sensor unit. The motion sensor unit includes a light shielding member disposed to overlap the light receiving element in an optical axis direction of the condensing lens and also to surround the light receiving element as viewed in the optical axis direction. The light shielding member is made of a material having a lower light transmissivity than that of the condensing lens for a range of wavelengths including the predetermined wavelength. |
| US09332613B2 |
Current limiter with active damping
This relates to a current limiter circuit that can be used in a power conversion system having a triac dimmer. In one example, the power conversion system may be used in an off-line LED driver. The current limiter circuit may be coupled to a power converter of the power conversion system and may operate to reduce the current that the power converter receives from an input line in the event of a power line surge. The current limiter circuit may also be coupled to the triac dimmer and may also operate as a damper for a portion of the half line cycle. The current limiter circuit may dampen the ringing in the triac current for a portion of the half line cycle and may cease dampening for the remaining portion of the half line cycle. |
| US09332611B2 |
Method for controlling a multi-color signal assembly, and multi-color signal assembly
A method for controlling a multi-color signal assembly with a multi-color LED, a connection for voltage supply, and a control input. The control input is connected to a control output of a first control unit for controlling the signal assembly by pulse-width modulation signals (PWM signals) or to a signal assembly control output by the bus communication. After a supply voltage UB is connected, voltage UDI/BUS at the control input is measured within a predetermined time span Δt, wherein the first and second control units have respective first and second voltages at the control input within the time span Δt, wherein the first and second voltage are different. The signal assembly is placed in a BUS mode or in a PWM mode depending on the measured voltage UDI/BUS, can be controlled by bus communication in the BUS mode, and can be controlled by PWM signals in the PWM mode. |
| US09332610B2 |
Light fixture capable of automatically controlling illuminance in an active smart manner
A light fixture includes a light emitting module for radiating and illuminating a preset illumination area with a fixed illuminance; a light sensor unit mounted on and in electrical communication with the light emitting module, including a light guiding pipe having a first end for guiding reflection light beam from the preset illumination area into the guiding pipe and a light sensor component mounted on a second end of the guiding pipe for measuring an illuminance of the reflection light beam guided into the guiding pipe in order to modulate the light emitting module based on the measured illuminance in such a manner that the light emitting module is capable of actively automatically controlling and maintaining the preset illumination area with the fixed illuminance. |
| US09332609B1 |
Phase cut dimming LED driver
A phase cut dimming LED driver includes a rectifier, a phase cut hold, a local regulator, controller, a power switch, a transformer, and a load detector. The phase cut hold is connected to the rectifier, one terminal of the primary winding of the transformer, and the local regulator. The controller includes pins connected to the local regulator, the power switch, and the aux winding of the transformer. The power switch is connected to the other terminal of the primary winding. The load detector is connected between the secondary winding of the transformer and a LED. The load detector sends the voltage or current signal of the LED to the controller, and the controller controls the power switch in an uninterrupted mode to keep the current or voltage in a condition to obtain higher PF and lower THD. |
| US09332608B2 |
Dual-mode dimming of a light
A lighting apparatus includes at least one light emitting device, such as one or more LEDs, detection circuitry coupled to a power input of the lighting apparatus and arranged to detect a characteristic of a modulation of the power input, supervisory circuitry, such as a processor, coupled to the detection circuitry, and a network interface, coupled to the supervisory circuitry, to communicate over a network. The supervisory circuitry is adapted to receive a message that includes brightness information over the network, receive information regarding the characteristic of the modulation of the power input from the detection circuitry, and control a brightness of the at least one light emitting device based on the brightness information and the information regarding the characteristic modulation of the power input. |
| US09332606B2 |
LED lighting control system
A light-emitting diode (LED) lighting control system including: a central control device configured to transmit a lighting control signal, which is based on a unidirectional or bidirectional communication protocol, to a plurality of channels; a converter configured to be connected to one of the channels and determine whether the lighting control signal is based on the unidirectional communication protocol or the bidirectional communication protocol in response to the lighting control signal including channel information of the converter; and a driver configured to be connected to the converter and control the operation of a plurality of LED modules in accordance with a control data signal transmitted by the converter. |
| US09332601B2 |
Two-stage AC-DC power converter with selectable dual output current
A two-stage AC-DC power converter for powering a load at a substantially constant current, and related methods and systems. The first stage of the AC-DC power converter includes a conventional power factor correction (PFC) circuit that outputs a direct current (DC) voltage and a DC current. The second stage of the AC-DC power converter includes a low voltage flyback circuit that receives the DC voltage and the DC current. The low voltage flyback circuit includes a flyback transformer and a switch circuit that selectably toggles the substantially constant output current provided by the low voltage flyback circuit to the load between a first and a second, preset constant current. The secondary windings of the flyback transformer are split into two sections, and the switch circuit toggles the two sections of the secondary windings between a series and a parallel configuration to provide the first and second, preset constant currents. |
| US09332600B2 |
Driving circuit for light emitting element, and light emitting device
A driving circuit that switches a light emitting element between an ON state and an OFF state in synchronization with an input signal is provided. The circuit includes a driving current supply unit that has a control terminal and supplies the light emitting element with a driving current whose value changes with dependency on the potential of the control terminal; a control unit that changes the potential of the control terminal in synchronization with the input signal; and a supplementary current supply unit that supplies the control terminal with a supplementary current that promotes change in the potential of the control terminal. The supplementary current supply unit has a capacitor, a voltage that is applied to the capacitor changes in synchronization with the input signal, and the supplementary current is generated by change in the voltage of the capacitor. |
| US09332594B2 |
Electric induction melting assembly
A dry-break electrical disconnect is provided between an induction melting furnace and a component of the electric induction melting assembly in which the furnace is removably installed for melting in a vacuum or otherwise controlled environmental chamber. Electric power connections are made to the induction melting furnace in a sealed interior volume of the assembly component that can be pressurized and of a different environment than that in the controlled environmental chamber. The assembly component may be a tilting cradle installed in the controlled environment chamber. |
| US09332592B2 |
Seat heater and capacitive occupancy sensor combination
In a combined seat heater and capacitive occupancy sensor, the present invention proposes to perform two measurements with two different frequencies. In a first step, the carrier frequency is set to a first known carrier frequency, the complex current through inductance and unknown capacitance and complex drive voltage are measured. In a second step, the carrier frequency is set to a second known carrier frequency, the complex current through inductance and unknown capacitance and complex drive voltage are measured. The measured complex values are used in a formula which yields the unknown capacitance. |
| US09332591B2 |
RF heating at selected power supply protocols
An apparatus is provided for applying electromagnetic energy to an object in an energy application zone via one or more antennas at a plurality of modulation space elements (MSEs), in which each MSE may affect a field pattern excited in the energy application zone and is controllable by the apparatus. The apparatus includes a processor that determines an amount of energy to be supplied to one or more of the antennas at each of the plurality of MSEs, select at least one power supply protocol for each of the plurality of MSEs, in which at least two of the power supply protocols selected for different MSEs differ, and cause electromagnetic power supply to one or more of the antennas in at least a subset of the plurality of MSEs, based on the determined amount of energy and based on the selected power supply protocol. |
| US09332590B2 |
Wireless communication apparatus and method for selecting a group of coordinated communication nodes based on signal intensities and delay times of source signals
Disclosed is a base station that performs coordinated communication with a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs), including: a communication unit receiving source signals from the plurality of remote radio heads; a measurement unit measuring signal intensities and delay times of the respective source signals; a selection unit selecting remote radio heads that will perform the coordinated communication among the plurality of remote radio heads based on the signal intensities and the delay times; and a demodulation unit demodulating source signals received from the selected remote radio heads. |
| US09332587B2 |
Smart proximity priority pairing
A method for overriding a pairing priority for a slave device connected to a master device, or for connecting a new slave device to the master device and setting a new pairing priority relative to an existing paired slave device over a short-range wireless connection such as Bluetooth®. The method includes executing an application and setting a connection priority override on either the slave device or the master device. When a connection between the slave device and master device is requested and negotiated, a priority override is communicated to the master device or queried on the master device, and if the priority override is higher than an existing priority, a connection for that device is completed with the master device, and additional slave devices in a list of last paired devices is adjusted by the master device. |
| US09332586B1 |
Slot-by-slot preamble acquisition control to increase network capacity in mobile ad hoc networks
A method and system is disclosed for a local approach within a distributed multi-hop radio environment that switches between a stronger and weaker preamble acquisition. The robustness of the preamble acquisition plays a large part in the performance of a given Signal-in-Space (SiS) modulation scheme. A more robust preamble acquisition can result in a higher packet completion rate at a receiver free of interfering signals. A less robust preamble acquisition can result in less chance that an interfering signal will be acquired, thereby allowing increased spatial reuse and network throughput. To maximize network capacity, the disclosed method leverages both cases by dynamically switching between the less and more robust preamble acquisitions depending on the topology of the distributed multi-hop radio environment and desired quality of service. |
| US09332585B2 |
Non-synchronized ADPCM with discontinuous transmission
A method for coordinating an encoder and a decoder in a wireless communication system employing discontinuous transmission, the method comprising performing a syncless reset command on the encoder and the decoder, in order to bring the encoder and decoder into stable and compatible states. The syncless reset command can be implemented by setting the variables of the encoder and decoder into predetermined values, or by performing a normal reset command followed by encoding or decoding a predetermined number of predetermined sample values. |
| US09332583B2 |
Multipoint communication device and method of performing switching from multipoint communication to point-to-point communication
There is provided a method of switching from multipoint communication to point-to-point communication while a device performs the multipoint communication with a plurality of participant devices. The method comprises: sharing, by the device, peer-to-peer (P2P) connection information of the device and P2P connection information of each of the plurality of participant devices, with the plurality of participant devices; and switching by the device, from the multipoint communication to the point-to-point communication using the P2P connection information of remaining participant devices of the plurality of participant devices in the multipoint communication when a total number of the remaining participant devices of the multipoint communication decreases to two. |
| US09332581B2 |
Bluetooth wearable interface and brokerage system
The Bluetooth wearable device can include a single ring which fits over the user's thumb or other finger. The wearable device interfaces with specialized software to provide two primary functions. First, the ring in combination with specialized software maps the rest of the user's hand in order to take input from fingers that are not currently wearing a device. Two contact points touch the screen of a device and conduct the electric current along the user's skin to interact with a capacitive screen. Second, the ring acts as a broker to connect a paired device with a touchscreen device. Between the twin contacts is a color sensor. The software on the touchscreen device displays a color to indicate how the devices should establish their connection. Using this information, the ring initiates the connection. |
| US09332579B2 |
Method and system for efficient use of a telecommunication network and the connection between the telecommunications network and a customer premises equipment
A method for efficient establishing or configuring a connection between a telecommunications network and a customer premises equipment (CPE) via an access node includes: establishing a physical communication channel between the access; node of the telecommunications network and the CPE; providing a public or private Internet Protocol (IP) address to the CPE for use by the CPE to communicate with an IP Edge node of the telecommunications network; initially assigning a first functionality level to the public or private IP address; and assigning a second functionality level to the public or private IP address, when the telecommunications network is able to federate a network access related identification information to a contract related identification information. |
| US09332575B2 |
Method and apparatus for enabling connectivity in a communication network
A method and apparatus for providing connectivity with a public communication services network (204) for a mobile terminal (200). A temporary connectivity identity and associated security parameters are obtained from the network (2:1) and loaded into the mobile terminal from a connectivity providing unit (202) over a local communication link (2:2). When the mobile terminal (2:3) later sends an access request to the network including the temporary connectivity identity, the mobile terminal is registered with the network based on the temporary connectivity identity and associated security parameters. If the network can validate the temporary connectivity identity by means of the associated security parameters (2:5), a connection can be set up with the mobile terminal (2:6) for communication services in the network. |
| US09332574B2 |
Pseudo hold mode to simulate continuous connectivity to a mobile device
A method of establishing a persistent emergency call and positional indication of the call is provided. Upon a call center receiving a call by a user equipment (UE) device, a request for a the UE device to perform a function, such as provide its current location, is issued and a pseudo hold mode initiated by temporarily severing the voice call. The user of the UE device is aware of the pseudo hold mode but unaware of the call termination. While on the pseudo hold mode, the current location is determined, the call is subsequently reestablished and the pseudo hold mode terminated. |
| US09332569B2 |
Method and system for providing channel assignment information used to support uplink and downlink channels
A method and wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for utilizing channel control information associated with enhanced uplink (EU) transmission is disclosed. The WTRU receives information via radio resource control (RRC) signaling and receives downlink (DL) control information for at least EU transmission. The WTRU determines whether the DL control information is intended for the WTRU based at least upon a first forty bit specific code sequence and a second forty bit specific code sequence received in at least one time slot and determines whether the DL control information is the first type or the second type. The WTRU utilizes the DL control information of the first type or the second type for at least EU transmission on a condition that the DL control information is intended for the WTRU. |
| US09332566B2 |
Method and arrangements for scheduling wireless resources in a wireless network
The invention relates to a method for service aware scheduling of wireless resources in a wireless network. According to the inventive method, a service request for service delivery of a service type is received (51). A performance to value relationship for the service type is determined (52) and approximated (53) with a scheduling weight function associated with the service type. Previous performance for service delivery related to this service request is evaluated and approximated with a performance estimate (54). A scheduling weight is determined (55) by introducing the performance estimate in the scheduling weight function. Resource scheduling is performed (58) following a step of comparing (56) scheduling weights for on-going service requests. The invention also includes a network node and a system for service aware scheduling of wireless resources in a wireless network. |
| US09332565B2 |
Transmission gap creation and communications apparatus utilizing the same
A communications apparatus includes a first radio frequency (RF) signal processing device, a first baseband signal processing device and a processor. The first RF signal processing device transceives a plurality of RF signals to and from a peer communications apparatus to communicate with the peer communications apparatus in compliance with a first Radio Access Technology (RAT) and processing the RF signals. The first baseband signal processing device processes a plurality of baseband signals corresponding to the RF signals. The processor obtains an uplink scheduling indicating a predetermined time assigned by the peer communications apparatus to transmit uplink data from the baseband signals, determines whether to transmit the uplink data at the predetermined time according to a gap-creation criterion, and transmits padding instead of the uplink data to the peer communications apparatus at the predetermined time when the gap-creation criterion is satisfied. |
| US09332558B2 |
Method for allocating radio resources in relay cell, base station, and system
A method for allocating radio resources, a base station, and a system are provided. The method includes: acquiring statistical average user satisfaction of each access point in a relay cell, where the access point includes the base station and a relay node in the relay cell, the average user satisfaction is an average ratio of a total user rate obtained by an access point to a total user rate required by the access point, where the average ratio is in a statistical period; and when a difference between the statistical average user satisfaction of the base station and the statistical average user satisfaction of each relay node approaches a preset value, determining a resource partitioning weight of each access point; and calculating radio resources of each access point according to the resource partitioning weight of each access point, and allocating the radio resources to each access point. |
| US09332556B2 |
White space access in mobile communication networks
A method of operating a mobile telecommunications device including cellular communication means operable to communicate with a cellular telecommunications network base station and white space communication means operable to communicate with a non-cellular white space access point, the method including determining the availability of white space and selectively enabling white space communication in dependence upon the determination. Controlling transmission of user data in the white space may be by exchanging control data with the cellular telecommunications network base station such that the control data controls the transmission of user data in the white space. White space communication need not be implemented in uplink and may be used in the downlink alone. |
| US09332555B2 |
System and method for direct mobile communication
Embodiments are provided reducing interference between cellular and direct mobile communication (DMC) links in wireless systems. In embodiment, a method performed by a network controller includes sending, to a second network controller, information of resources for a first set of DMC links between DMC user equipments (UEs). The first set of DMC links is associated with the network controller. The method further includes receiving second information of resources for a second set of DMC links associated with the second network controller. The network controller coordinates with the second network controller the allocation of network resources for the first set of DMC links between the DMC UEs. The network resources comprise cellular and DMC resources. |
| US09332553B2 |
Use of licensed shared spectrum in a radio access network where signal propagation is unknown
For controlling a wireless transmission of a network element of a radio access network where signal propagation is unknown, wherein the network element is configured to inhibit use of a licensed shared access spectrum, interference levels in predefined reservation zones are determined, which are introduced by the network element when using the licensed shared access spectrum. It is checked whether or not the interference levels violate agreed interference levels in the predefined reservation zones of the licensed shared access spectrum, and the network element is configured to allow use of the licensed shared access spectrum in case the interference levels do not violate the agreed interference levels in the predefined reservation zones. |
| US09332552B2 |
Frequency agility for wireless embedded systems
A method for frequency agility in a wireless embedded system, the wireless embedded system comprising a WAP and a WEP communicating on a current channel, includes determining a first channel table comprising an order of available channels for the WAP; determining a second channel table for WEP, wherein the first channel table and the second channel table list the available channels in the same order; in the event interference is detected by the WAP on the current channel, determining a new current channel by testing the available channels for interference in the order listed in the first channel table; and in the event the WEP does not receive an acknowledgement from the WAP of a message sent by the WEP to the WAP, resending the message on each of the available channels in the order listed in the second channel table until an acknowledgement is received from the WAP. |
| US09332549B2 |
Service layer resource propagation across domains
Techniques are disclosed for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Announce procedures that allow advertisement machine-to-machine service capabilities layer resources and subresources. Resource structures and signal flows of the various disclosed embodiments are defined. |
| US09332545B2 |
Method and system for optimizing the efficiency of SIGINT collection systems on mobile platforms with limited bandwidth connections
A Method and System For Optimizing The Efficiency of SIGINT Collection Systems on Mobile Platforms with Limited Bandwidth Connections that is implementable in legacy signal collection systems. The resultant system first reduces potential upload bandwidth by eliminating whitespace in collected signals. Next, the system ignores collectable signals based on signals frequency or angle of arrival so as to identify energy of interest. Next, the system score and attributes a priority to each energy of interest, now known as signals of interest. The system then increases collection bandwidth on all signals of interest based on the score, priority and availability of resources. Finally, in real time, and based on SOI score and priority and the availability of downlink resources, the collected signal data is downlinked to the SIGINTcontrol center. |
| US09332543B2 |
Mobile radio device and determining method
A mobile radio device capable of receiving a radio signal whose frequency band switches, includes a setting unit that when the frequency band of the radio signal is a first frequency band, sets a first threshold corresponding to the first frequency band, and that when the frequency band switches from the first frequency band to a second frequency band different from the first frequency band, sets for a given period, a third threshold that is between the first threshold and a second threshold corresponding to the second frequency band and subsequently sets the second threshold; and a determining unit that determines a travel speed of the mobile radio device, based on a comparison of a moving average obtained by temporally accumulating variations of estimates of propagation characteristics of the radio signal and averaging the accumulated variations by a moving average method using a threshold set by the setting unit. |
| US09332542B2 |
Apparatus and method for allocating resources in a single carrier-frequency division multiple access system
An apparatus and a method are provided for transmitting data by a UE in a communication system using SC-FDMA. The method includes receiving resource information from a Node B; determining a hopping parameter; determining a mirroring parameter using a random sequence for a cell; determining a resource for data transmission based on the received resource information; and transmitting the data using the resource for data transmission. Hopping and mirroring are performed at a slot. |
| US09332540B2 |
Method and device for transmitting and receiving downlink control channel for controlling inter-cell interference in wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method and device for transmitting and receiving a downlink control channel for controlling inter-cell interference in a wireless communication system. An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting a downlink control channel from a base station to a terminal, and the method may comprise: a step of determining whether a downlink subframe is of a first type or a second type; and a step in which if the downlink subframe is of the first type, the number of OFDM symbols for transmitting the downlink control channel is set to a preset value (N), and the downlink control channel is transmitted using N OFDM symbols. |
| US09332539B2 |
Method for preventing packet channel timing out and system
A communication system, cache, computer readable medium and method for preventing a packet channel in the communication network to time out. The method includes sending data from a cache (18) to a user terminal (16d), wherein the cache (18) is located at an interface device (12a-c); determining that the data is sent to the user terminal (16d) from the cache (18) without passing a core network (14); and generating and sending a dummy message (20) through the core network (14) to a device (22) having an internet protocol, IP, address. |
| US09332538B2 |
Method of allocating resources in a wireless network
A device for allocating a channel resource in a wireless network includes a Media Access Control (MAC)/MAC Layer Management Entity (MLME) sublayer and the MAC/MLME sublayer receives a primitive requesting to transmit a message for requesting the channel resource from an upper layer; transmits the message for requesting the channel resource to a coordinator, wherein the message for requesting the channel resource includes information about a duration of the channel resource; and receives channel resource allocation information for allocating the channel resource from a MAC/MLME sublayer of the coordinator, the channel resource allocation information including information about a duration of the allocated channel resource, wherein the device transmits a first message to a second device during the channel resource allocated based upon the channel resource allocation information, and receives a second message from the second device in response to the first message during the allocated channel resource. |
| US09332534B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing uplink data by DRX-mode terminal in mobile telecommunication system
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for transmitting data by a terminal in a mobile telecommunication system, the method including transmitting a scheduling request for requesting resources for transmitting the data, monitoring a control channel to receive resource allocation information, continuously monitoring the control channel during a first period if the resources are allocated, transmitting the data based on the allocated resources, and monitoring the control channel to receive feedback information corresponding to the data during a second period following the transmission of the data. |
| US09332527B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) counting message
The disclosure provides a method for processing a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) counting message. The method includes: a network side configures counting message for performing feedback counting on an MBMS service; and the network side determines a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area to which the counted MBMS belongs and a Multimedia Control Channel (MCCH) which corresponds to the MBSFN area, and transmits the counting message to user equipment (UE) through the MCCH which corresponds to the MBSFN area, or transmits the counting message to the UE through a Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH). The disclosure also discloses an apparatus for processing an MBMS counting message. By using the method and the apparatus provided by the disclosure, the network side can know the reception situation of the MBMS service in the MBSFN area. |
| US09332526B2 |
Discovering an evolved multicast broadcast multimedia service in single or dual band LTE
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus monitors a page during a current paging cycle on a first frequency. In addition, the apparatus switches to a second frequency after the current paging cycle to receive multicast/broadcast information on the second frequency. Furthermore, the apparatus attempts to receive the multicast/broadcast information on the second frequency before a predetermined time. |
| US09332524B2 |
Halt continuation determination method and halt continuation determination device
A location of a mobile unit is intermittently measured based on a GPS satellite signal. A halt start time zone (first halt determination region) is set based on the measured location of the mobile unit when the determination is started. An each time zone (second halt determination region) is updated and set by accumulated averaging processing (statistical processing) of results of location measurements in the past. Whether or not the halt state of the mobile unit is continued is determined using whether or not the newly measured location of the mobile unit is contained in any one of the set halt determination regions. |
| US09332523B2 |
Systems and methods of offloaded positioning for determining location of WLAN nodes
This disclosure includes systems and methods for determining the location of each of a plurality of STAs of a WLAN where an AP measures the round-trip time (RTT) and the angle of arrival (AOA) to each STA from implicit packet exchange, such as data frame and ACK frame. The AP may then report the RTT and AOA measurements to each STA using a dedicated beacon information element (IE) which multicasts RTT and AOA measurements to the STAs. By employing an additional parameter, namely, angle of arrival AOA, a single AP may compute the two-dimensional location of each associated STA. Further, another beacon IE may multicast mapping of the AIDs to MAC addresses so that the associated STAs can understand such mapping for STAs in a network so that one STA may know the location of other STAs. Encryption may be employed to achieve privacy. |
| US09332520B2 |
Method and system for tracking and determining a location of a wireless transmission
An apparatus for detecting and timing a transmitting device is disclosed. The device includes a receiving system receiving a signal containing at least a preamble code of a known length and at least one pulse within a receive window after the preamble code, a circuit receiving the at least one pulse comprising a zero-crossing circuit for indicting a zero-voltage crossing of the at least one pulse and a trigger device for latching the indication of zero-voltage crossing, and a ripple circuit counter, receiving the latched indication of said zero-voltage crossing and associating a time to the receipt of the latched indication. A system for detecting and locating a transmitting device is further disclosed. The system includes a plurality of sensor apparatus each determining a reception time of a signal and a processor for determining a location based on groups of the reception times. |
| US09332518B2 |
Selection of a network element
A method for delivering information on a serving mobile switching center server for an user equipment between a first communication network and a second communication network. The method includes a step of requesting an attachment of the user equipment to the second communication network by signaling between the user equipment and a network node of the second communication network, the signaling including at least part of information on the mobile switching center server serving the user equipment in the first communication network. Additionally, an user equipment and a network node implementing the aspects of the method are described. |
| US09332514B2 |
Method and system for initial signal acquisition in multipath fading channel conditions
An apparatus and method for performing initial signal acquisition in a receiver of a millimeter wave wireless communication system. The apparatus comprises receiving a millimeter-wave signal including complementary sequences at the receiver; cross-correlating the received signal related to the received complementary sequences with respective predefined complementary sequences, wherein the received complementary sequences include a first type of complementary sequences and a second type of complementary sequences; performing a signal sequence detection by auto-correlating the cross-correlated first type of complementary sequences and comparing the auto-correlated results to an energy dependent threshold; and upon detection of the signal sequence, performing a timing synchronization to synchronize a start frame delimiter (SFD), wherein the timing synchronization includes in part a search for a peak in the cross-correlated first type of complementary sequences using a SFD search threshold. |
| US09332513B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing synchronization in device-to-device network
A method and an apparatus for performing synchronization by a first device in a Device-to-Device (D2D) network are provided. The method includes detecting a synchronization signal from at least one second device during one period, determining a phase adjustment value depending on a number of synchronization signals, which have been detected from the at least one second device during the one period, adjusting a phase value of a first device using the phase adjustment value, and transmitting a synchronization signal if the phase value of the first device reaches a predetermined specific value. |
| US09332512B2 |
Multiple timing advance and carrier aggregation
At least one of transmissions and receptions over allocated radio resources within a first timing advance group are synchronized using a first timer; and similar for allocated radio resources within a second timing advance group that are synchronized using a second timer. In response to determining that the first timer remains synchronized while the second timer is not synchronized with a radio network which has allocated the respective radio resources, a first procedure is followed for the case in which there is a primary component carrier within the second timing advance group and a different second procedure for the case in which there is no primary component carrier within the second timing advance group. In an exemplary embodiment, a message is sent to the radio network indicating that the second timer has expired. Various distinctions between the two procedures, and how the message is sent, are detailed for different embodiments. |
| US09332511B2 |
Timing advance enhancements for cellular communications
A disclosed example method involves, when a device is operating in a stationary mode and before a need of the device to communicate data, determining whether a stored timing advance is valid. When the stored timing advance is not valid, a valid timing advance is determined before the need of the device to communicate the data. |
| US09332510B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling inter-cell interference between femtocells and macrocells
A method for controlling inter-cell interference may include receiving a measured uplink interference level through a first backhaul link; determining a transmit power level based on the measured uplink interference level; and sending through a second backhaul link the transmit power level for reconfiguring either a user equipment or a femtocell eNodeB. From the downlink perspective, it may include measuring a downlink interference; and reporting the level of the downlink interference to an ICIC server using a backhaul link. In one example, it may include receiving a measured downlink interference through a first backhaul link; determining a transmit power level based on the measured downlink interference; and sending a message comprising the transmit power level to a femtocell eNodeB using a second backhaul link. |
| US09332508B2 |
Uplink power control for wireless communication
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide closed loop and open loop power control techniques for each antenna of the user equipment (UE). The access point may measure the received signals from each antenna of the user equipment, calculate a power adjustment parameter for each antenna of the UE, and transmit the parameters to the UE. The UE may use the adjustment parameters to determine the transmit power value for each antenna. In addition, the UE may measure the path loss for each antenna and update the transmit power per antenna based on the path loss and other parameters. |
| US09332501B2 |
System and method for antenna-receiver communication
An antenna-receiver communication system comprises an antenna conductor, antenna, and intelligent antenna controller. The intelligent antenna controller and antenna are connected via a conductor for providing power to the antenna from the intelligent antenna controller, and a received signal from the antenna to the intelligent antenna controller. The intelligent antenna controller is configured to provide voltage to the antenna for its operation, and to systematically alter the provided voltage level to communicate information to the antenna. The antenna is configured to communicate messages to the intelligent antenna controller by systematically altering the current consumed by the antenna. Both the intelligent antenna controller and antenna are configured to decode received messages and act on them. A method for communication between an intelligent antenna controller and antenna utilizing patterns of voltage and current fluctuation over the conductor providing power from the intelligent antenna controller to the antenna is also provided. |
| US09332500B2 |
Method for controlling electronic equipment, associated electronic equipment and communication system
A method can control electronic equipment. The electronic equipment includes a wireless transceiver and is able to communicate with an electronic station. The wireless transceiver is able to receive wireless signals from the station with a variable receiving power level. The receiving power level depends on the transmission power level of the station, and the wireless transceiver is able to transmit wireless signals to the station. The method includes measuring the receiving power level of the wireless signals, comparing the receiving power level with a first threshold and a second threshold, and transmitting wireless signals with a first power level or a second power level based on the comparison results obtained. |
| US09332498B2 |
Energy efficient base station entering sleep mode
The basic idea of the present invention is to let the base station enter a low-power, low-radiation cycle, the so called “sleep mode”, when there are no UEs using it and to introduce methods to “wake up” the base station from this state when there is a UE in the vicinity which is allowed to access the base station and which may need it on short notice. |
| US09332496B2 |
Enhanced IEEE power save in ad hoc wireless mode
In accordance with the invention, a method, system and apparatus for saving power consumed by a station in an ad hoc wireless network are presented. The method comprises transmitting or receiving a signal by a station in the ad hoc wireless network during a beacon interval. The station enters a power saving doze state immediately following the transmission or reception of the signal and prior to the end of the beacon interval. Additionally or alternatively, the station may enter power saving doze state following a timed period, according to a counter, or according to a periodic pattern. |
| US09332494B1 |
Static schedule frequency adjusting techniques for wireless MIMO networks
A technique includes communicating with a base station via a transmitter and a receiver of a first client device based on a static schedule. The static schedule indicates an uplink time and a downlink time allocated to the first client device and associated with each of multiple frames of the base station. Communication time between the base station and multiple client devices linked to the base station including the first client device is divided into multiple frames. A mode request signal is transmitted or received and performs one of: (i) requesting operation in a sleep mode for a selected number S of the frames, and (ii) indicating operation in a standby mode. An initiate signal is transmitted from the first client device to the base station via the transmitter and indicates when to begin operating in the one of the sleep mode and the standby mode. |
| US09332493B2 |
Communication method and communication apparatus by station that operates in power safe mode in wireless LAN system
A method for communication performed by a station in a wireless local area network system is provided. The method includes receiving a first change sequence from an access point, transmitting a probe request frame to an access point in order to request updated system information, the probe request frame including the first change sequence, and receiving a probe response frame from the access point in response to the probe request frame. The probe response frame includes a second change sequence. The first change sequence and the second change sequence indicate a change of system information within a basic service set (BSS). |
| US09332490B2 |
Method and apparatus for automatically connecting short range wireless network in portable terminal
A method and an apparatus for automatically connecting a short range wireless network in a portable terminal. The method for automatically connecting a short range wireless network in the portable terminal includes, when registering to an Access Point (AP), storing location information of the AP. The method also includes obtaining location information of the terminal. The method further includes controlling an activation cycle of a communication module by comparing the location information of the terminal and the location information of the AP. The method still further includes, when the communication module is activated, searching for the AP. |
| US09332487B2 |
Network assisted access network selection enhancements for a machine-to-machine wireless network environment
A method provided in one embodiment includes determining a first resource indicator indicative of a first resource capability of a first network element, determining a second resource indicator indicative of a second resource capability of the first network element, determining a third resource indicator indicative of a third resource capability of the first network element, and sending the first resource indicator, the second resource indicator, and the third resource indicator to a second network element. The second network element is configured to determine a first metric value for the first network element based upon the first resource indicator, the second resource indicator, and the third resource indicator. The second network element is further configured to utilize the first metric value to determine a list of one or more acceptable network elements for a wireless device to establish a connection therewith. |
| US09332486B2 |
Method and system for selecting a wireless network
A method and system for selecting alternative wireless networks to establish a connection to, based on pattern information concerning determined relationships between the wireless user and the wireless network location. By monitoring location information and available wireless networks with range of a wireless user terminal, patterns of frequent and recurring locations and available wireless access points can be used to identify the wireless access points for alternative wireless networks that provide the best opportunity for offloading. Because people tend to be creatures of habit and frequently return to certain locations during their daily lives, such as their home and their place of employ, as well as the homes of relatives and friends and other favorite places like restaurants, coffee shops, shopping and sporting venues. Assumptions can be derived by monitoring available wireless networks to identify those wireless networks that provide a beneficial opportunity to offload primary (e.g., cellular) network services onto other local networks. |
| US09332480B2 |
Decoupling service and network provider identification in wireless communications
Aspects described herein relate to detecting wireless network services. A network identifier can be determined in a broadcast message received from a network entity, and a connection with a network related to the network entity can be established based at least in part on the network identifier. Using the connection, the network entity can be queried for information related to services available at the network, where the information may indicate one or more subscription providers related to the services. |
| US09332475B2 |
Handover mechanism that exploits uplink channel quality of a target cell
System(s) and method(s) are provided for handover of a mobile terminal in a wireless communication system. Handoff resolution relies on both a downlink channel quality indication between a serving base station and the mobile terminal, and uplink channel quality indications amongst the terminal and a measurement set of target base stations. To generate UL channel quality indicators, the mobile station conveys a narrowband or broadband sounding reference signal, and serving and target base stations measure UL and DL performance metrics (e.g., RSRP, RSSI, or RSOT). In backward handover, UL channel state information from target cells is received at the serving base station through backhaul communication, and handoff is resolved based on both UL and DL quality reports. In forward handover, the set of UL quality reports are conveyed to the mobile station to determine a target cell for handoff. |
| US09332473B2 |
Systems and methods for re-establishing a connection
A method for re-establishing a connection by a user equipment (UE) is described. The method includes establishing a first connection between the UE and an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). The method also includes establishing a second connection between the UE and the E-UTRAN. The method also includes informing the E-UTRAN of a failure of the second connection when a failure of the second connection is detected. |
| US09332470B2 |
Method and device for distributing idle user equipment in multi-carrier based mobile communication system
The present invention relates to a method and device for distributing idle UE by a carrier in eNB of a multi-carrier based mobile communication system. The method of distributing idle UE in a multi-carrier based mobile communication system according to the present invention includes a process of determining a search rate by a carrier on the basis of information representing load on the carrier, a step of determining a cell reselection priority on the idle UE on the basis of the determined search rate, and a process of transmitting the determined cell reselection priority to the idle UE. |
| US09332469B2 |
Frequency offset measurement enhancements for long term evolution (LTE)
Embodiments for providing frequency offset measurement enhancements are generally described herein. In some embodiments, user equipment is informed of a configuration of a first reference signal and a configuration of a second reference signal. The first reference signal is provided to user equipment for performing channel estimation. A second reference signal for estimating carrier frequency offset is provided, wherein the second reference signal is co-located with the first reference signal. A carrier frequency offset estimation is calculated based on the co-located first and second reference signals. |
| US09332464B2 |
Method and apparatus that facilitates measurement procedures in multicarrier operation
Aspects directed towards measurement procedures in multicarrier operation are disclosed. In a particular aspect, a wireless terminal selects a subset of cells, which include at least one serving cell and at least one non-serving cell. The subset of cells are then evaluated by obtaining a first measurement associated with the at least one serving cell and a second measurement associated with the at least one non-serving cell. A measurement event occurrence, which is based on a comparison between the first measurement and the second measurement, is then monitored. An occurrence of the measurement event triggers a measurement report transmission, which the network then uses to perform handovers. Other disclosed embodiments are directed towards placing a reception band, which include identifying a set of assigned component carriers and placing a reception band within the system bandwidth so that the placement overlaps with at least a portion of the assigned component carriers. |
| US09332463B2 |
Sensing RF environment to determine geographic location of cellular base station
Determining a geographic location of a cellular base station is disclosed. In some embodiments, a set of measurement data that includes for each of a plurality of signals received at the base station a corresponding measurement data is determined. The set of measurement data is used to determine the geographic location of the base station. In some embodiments, a set of measurement data is received. The received measurement data includes for each of a plurality of location measurement units at which a signal transmitted by the base station is received a corresponding measurement data associated with the signal. The set of measurement data is used to determine the geographic location of the base station. |
| US09332461B2 |
Packet-switched network return
Systems and methods for generating a Long Term Evolution network return procedure. A mobile terminal may generate, in absence of redirection instruction from a circuit-switched network, a Long Term Evolution network return procedure that, when instantiated by the mobile terminal, implements connection of the mobile terminal to a Long Term Evolution network based on measured signal strength of at least one Long Term Evolution network access point. |
| US09332460B2 |
Apparatus and method for circuit switched fallback
The method and apparatus for CSFB are provided. The method includes transmitting a MO CS request to a LTE network or receiving a MT CS call notification from a LTE network; triggering or accepting a CSFB procedure by the UE; receiving redirection information from the LTE network; judging whether system information corresponding to candidate cells is provided in the redirection information; acquiring system information corresponding to candidate cells, wherein the system information includes location area identifications (LAI) corresponding to candidate cells in the redirection information to determine whether the candidate cells belong to a registered LA; setting the candidate cell belonging to the registered LA to a higher priority; selecting the candidate cell with the higher priority as a target cell; and connecting to the target cell first. |
| US09332459B1 |
Method and system for setting a hold-timer duration
A method and system for setting a hold-timer duration is disclosed. The method involves a first network initially serving a user equipment device (UE), wherein serving the UE comprises allocating at least one resource to the UE and using the at least one resource to serve the UE. The method also involves detecting transition of the UE from being served by the first network to being served by a second network. The method further involves, after the UE transitions to the second network, applying a hold-timer having a hold-timer duration for release of the at least one resource. Further, the method involves, before setting the hold-timer duration, the first network receiving from the UE a report including an indication of radio frequency (RF) quality of the second network. The method also involves using the reported indication of RF quality as a basis to set the hold-timer duration. |
| US09332456B2 |
Discontinuous reception (DRX) enhancements in LTE systems
Embodiments of a system and method for providing DRX enhancements in LTE systems are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a system control module is provided for controlling communications via a communications interface. A processor is coupled to the system control module and is arranged to implement an inactivity timer and an on-duration timer for determining an active time for monitoring subframes on the physical downlink control channel for control signals, the processor further monitoring subframes after the active time. |
| US09332455B2 |
Scheduling a user equipment transmission mode to assist uplink interference characterization
Systems, methods, and apparatuses for scheduling a user equipment transmission mode to assist uplink interference characterization are provided. One method includes a first base station (BS) wirelessly communicating with a first plurality of user equipment (UE), selecting a second BS associated with the first BS, the second BS wirelessly communicating with a second plurality of UE, selecting a UE from the second plurality of UE, scheduling the selected UE to transmit according to a transmission mode during a scheduled transmission, and characterizing, by the first BS, interference of the selected UE at the first BS during the scheduled transmission. |
| US09332452B2 |
Radio communication devices and methods for controlling a radio communication device
A radio communication device may be provided. The radio communication device may include: a measurement circuit configured to measure a first reception quality of a first signal from another radio communication device and configured to measure a second reception quality of a second signal from the other radio communication device; a transmitter configured to transmit information related to the measured first reception quality to the other radio communication device; a memory configured to store information related to the transmitted information; a comparison circuit configured to compare information related to the measured second reception quality with the stored information; a determiner configured to determine a quality of the previously transmitted information based on the comparison by the comparison circuit; and the transmitter further configured to transmit to the other radio communication device information indicating the determined quality of the previously transmitted information. |
| US09332450B2 |
Unit testing and analysis of multiple UUTs
Method and system for a test process. The method may include performing tests on one or more units under test (UUTs). At least one test on one or more UUTs may be performed. A signal may be acquired from the UUT. A reference signal may be retrieved. The reference signal may be derived from a transmitted signal characteristic of the UUT. The signal may be analyzed with respect to the reference signal. Results, useable to characterize the one or more UUTs, from performing the at least one test on the one or more UUTs may be stored. The reference signal may be derived from an initial test and may be stored for subsequent retrieval. A respective reference signal may be retrieved for all UUTs of the one or more UUTs for a respective test. The signal may be a radio frequency signal. The UUT may be a wireless mobile device. |
| US09332447B2 |
Base station and method of operating the same
The present invention is directed to a base station including a transceiver configured to communicate with another base station using a radio resource, wherein the radio resource is allocated to the base station to serve communication devices located in a radio cell operated by the base station. A method of operating a base station is also disclosed. |
| US09332445B2 |
Coordinated processing method and system for northbound data configuration and self-organized network configuration
A coordinated processing method and system for northbound data configuration and self-organized network configuration, the method includes: a northbound configuration module sending a data configuration request and an SON function management module sending a parameter optimization request to a conflict resolution module; the conflict resolution module receiving the requests, and if judging that the parameter requested by the northbound configuration module to be configured conflicts with the parameter requested by the SON function management module to be configured, then sending a conflict judgment message indicating conflict to the northbound configuration module and the SON function management module; after receiving the message, the northbound configuration module performing data configuration in the data configuration request and reporting conflict information to a superior network management; after receiving the message, the SON function management module notifying the SON function module to perform parameter rollback and/or end a current self-optimization procedure. |
| US09332438B2 |
Method for updating group temporal key, related apparatus and system
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for updating a group temporal key, a related apparatus and system. A method includes: An access point AP sets an updating period of a group temporal key GTK; the access point updates the GTK whenever the updating period of the GTK arrives; the access point receives a GTK request that is sent by a mobile station STA in an association list within a preset delay time period after arrival of the updating period of the GTK, where the association list records all mobile stations communicating with the access point, and the preset delay time period is shorter than the updating period of the GTK; and when the preset delay time period after the arrival of the updating period of the GTK arrives, the access point sends the updated GTK to the mobile station in the association list according to the GTK request. |
| US09332428B2 |
Method and device for managing encrypted group rekeying in a radio network link layer encryption system
Disclosed is a radio system, method, and device for a mobile station to indicate to an authentication controller, in an authentication response message, which of a plurality of group key link layer encryption keys (GKEK)s it currently has in its possession, and to work with the authentication controller to more intelligently manage multiple GKEKs. The authentication controller can use the information obtained from the authentication response message to determine which of a plurality of GKEKs to advertise in a key announcement broadcast. Furthermore, individual requests for a future LLE key (LEK) to be used for link layer encryption (LLE) encrypting and decrypting inbound and outbound group communications between base station(s) and mobile station(s) are responded to with a broadcast GKEK-encrypted transmission including the future LEK. Only the requesting mobile station transmits an acknowledgment packet in response to the broadcast. |
| US09332424B2 |
Centrally managed solution for all device management activities
A centrally managed solution for all device management activities. This includes a set of device and subscriber registries, which are being constantly updated as new terminals, and subscribers are added to the system. It also includes support for legacy CDMA specific device management standards such as OTASP and OTAPA and support for remote handset configuration via SMS, using the latest standards from the Open Mobile Alliance Client Provisioning. In one embodiment, it includes support for remote handset configuration over IP, using the latest Open Mobile Alliance Client Provisioning and IOTA device management standards. |
| US09332423B2 |
Methods and systems for system updating of mobile devices operating in privacy or other informationally restricted modes
A method (600) of providing device updates or personalization to a mobile communication device (706) operating in an informationally restrictive mode is provided. The method can include querying 707 a plurality of mobile communication devices 701,702,703,704,705,706 operating in a distributed system 700. Information from mobile communication devices operating in a less informationally restrictive mode is clustered 708. Each cluster 718 includes a representation of device usage, device configuration, or combinations thereof. Indicia 709,710 are transmitted 711 to mobile communication devices operating in the more informationally restrictive mode. Matching cluster 713 from at least one mobile communication device 706 is received 714, optionally with operational information 715. Operations 717 can be executed 716 in response to the operational information 715. |
| US09332422B2 |
Method of file transmission based upon distributed storage in wireless communication system
The invention proposes a method of file transmission based on distributed storage in a wireless communication network in order to meet the requirement of a user for a new service. In an embodiment of the invention, a method of file uploading includes the steps of: S11. a user equipment transmitting slice metadata information of a file to the control node to request for uploading the file to a destination; S12. the user prediction system predicating a movement of the user equipment and determining a plurality of storage wireless access nodes of the user equipment according to the movement; S13. the control node confirming the request regarding the uploading; S14. the user equipment transmitting slices of the file to the storage wireless access nodes; and S15. the storage wireless access nodes receiving and storing the slices of the file from the user equipment. With the technical solution of the invention, a file can be transmitted over a wireless communication network at a higher speed. |
| US09332419B2 |
Community-based request fulfillment
A coordinator device receives registration data regarding user devices and determines a group that includes two or more of the user devices based on registration data. The coordinator device receives a request, related to receiving a good or service, from a first user device included in the group. The registration data may include financial data for a user of the first user device, and the coordinator device uses the financial data to verify that the user has sufficient funds to pay a fee for the request. Based on verifying the sufficient funds, the coordinator device determines status data for other user devices included in the group and selects a second user device from the group based on the status data. The status data identifies, for example, locations associated with the group. The coordinator device then causes data associated with the request to be forwarded to the selected second user device. |
| US09332415B2 |
Method and apparatus for delivery of data-based/voice services over piconets and wireless LANs (WLANs) coupled to 3GPP devices including protocol architecture and information elements relating to short message service (SMS) over WLANs
Method and apparatus delivering voice/data services within a piconet operating over a limited range or over a WLAN communicating with 3GPP devices by reformatting data into IP format before delivering to the WLAN. The service is short message service (SMS). Upon receipt of an SMS message, relevant routing information is retrieved. A PDGW address for the SMS message is identified and is sent to the PDGW address which identifies the WLAN user equipment (UE) for receiving the SMS and reformats the SMS message into IP format (text or encapsulation) for delivery to the UE. A protocol architecture is provided for SMS delivery over WLANs, in particular, for UMTS/CDMA based SMS over WLAN through two alternative mechanisms, i.e., SMS tunneling and SMS proxy, for protocols for the delivery of SMS across the WLAN. The invention enhances standard 802.11 in the context of UMTS and CDMA 2000; as well as other scenarios. |
| US09332414B2 |
Service models for roaming mobile device
A method for providing cellular access to a mobile device when the device is out of a home network operated by a home wireless service provider. The method includes presenting an option to initiate a process to establish a temporary roaming agreement between the home wireless service provider and a foreign wireless service provider operating a foreign network in a location of the mobile device outside of the home network. The method also includes receiving a selection of the option, accessing a web application associated with a negotiation server in response to the selection, providing subscriber credentials to the negotiation server for use by the negotiation server to negotiate the temporary roaming agreement, and allowing the mobile device to access a foreign network operated by the foreign wireless service provider in accordance with the temporary roaming agreement. |
| US09332410B2 |
Method, apparatus, and terminal for answering call
The present invention discloses a method, an apparatus, and a terminal for answering a call and relates to the field of terminal technologies. The method includes, after a call is received from a calling party, answering the call by using an automatic call answering function of a terminal, and talking with the calling party. If an instruction is received from an owner in the process of talking with the calling party, an operation is performed according to the instruction of the owner. If no instruction is received from an owner in the process of talking with the calling party, an emergency level of the call according to call content is determined, and an operation is performed according to the determined emergency level. |
| US09332407B2 |
Method and system for transmission and display of rich-media messages
There is provided a method of processing a rich-media message by a mobile device having a display, a mobile device operating system and a software application. The method includes receiving the rich-media message over a network by the mobile device, depacketizing the rich-media message by the mobile device operating system to retrieve an encoded rich-media message and address data in the rich-media message, and activating the software application on the mobile device by the mobile device operating system based on the address data in the rich-media message. The method also includes decoding the encoded rich-media message by the software application to generate rich-media content information, determining, using the rich-media content information, whether a rich-media element identified by the rich-media content information is resident on the mobile device, and if the determining determines that the rich-media element is resident on the mobile device, displaying the rich-media element on the display. |
| US09332399B2 |
Just in time link transmission for a multi-frequency multi-rate multi-transceiver communication device
An apparatus includes a network node configured to communicate with other network nodes via a communication network. The network node includes a plurality of transceivers and a controller. The controller includes a packet management module that identifies a link profile solution set that includes a set of link profiles corresponding to communication links for multicasting the message packet. The link profile solution set maximizes coverage of network target nodes of the multicast message packet. The packet management module places a first message clone of the message packet in a transceiver queue for transmission to one or more of the network target nodes, updates the link profile solution set when the first message clone reaches the end of the transceiver queue, and initiates transmission of the first message clone or drop the first message clone according to the updated link profile solution set. |
| US09332396B2 |
Systems and methods to provide location-dependent information during an optimal time period
Systems and methods to track locations of a mobile device as a function of time and extract routes traversed by the mobile device, frequencies of the routes, and travel time periods of the routes. The route information is organized as a route dictionary. In response to an indication of a recently completed route, the information of the recently completed route is used in the route dictionary to look up a most likely route for the next trip and the predicted time of the next trip. Location-based data items are selected based on the predicted route for the next trip, sorted based on closeness to the route and affinity to the user of the mobile device for transmission to the mobile device. Top selected data items are scheduled to be transmitted to the mobile device in a time window before the predicted time of the next trip to avoid distracting the user (e.g., from driving) while the user is on the trip. |
| US09332394B2 |
Distributed method and system for calibrating the position of a mobile device
A method and system is described where a plurality of position reference devices use short-range wireless communication protocols to transmit positioning assistance data to nearby mobile devices, and the mobile devices use the assistance data to re-calibrate their positioning systems. In some embodiments, mobile device includes an accelerometer and the accelerometer measurements are used to calculate an updated velocity of the mobile device and an updated position of the mobile device based on the accelerometer measurements and previous velocity and position of the mobile device. The short-range communication methods include NFC, RFID, Bluetooth®, short-range 802.11, Wi-Fi Direct, and high frequency focused beams such as 60 GHz. The position reference devices are passive or active NFC tags, passive or active RFID tags, other devices that include such tags as their components, Bluetooth®-enabled devices, 60 GHz-enabled devices, and 802.11 access points that can lower their transmit power. |
| US09332388B1 |
Hand held device with an integral access control component
A composite device includes an RFID device and a controller. The controller allows the RFID to respond to a query from an external source only when the composite device is at a predetermined location. In this manner, a code associated with the RFID is not released by the RFID anywhere in the world except at the location of the query requester. |
| US09332387B2 |
Prefetching and caching map data based on mobile network coverage
When a mobile device is positioned in a first coverage area with first service parameters, it is determined that the mobile device is likely to enter a second coverage area with second service parameters. The mobile device has access to map data while in the first coverage area and the second coverage area. If it is determined that the first coverage area is more favorable to data transfer than the second coverage area using the service parameters, a request for map data for rendering a map of the second coverage area is generated when the mobile device is within the first coverage area, and prior to receiving a request to view the map of the second coverage area on the mobile device. The map data is received and stored on the mobile device for subsequent rendering. |
| US09332381B2 |
Location-based application recommendation
Described herein are techniques related to location-aware application recommendations in wireless devices. For example, an application recommendation alert may be displayed at the wireless device based on a current location, time, and data of the wireless device. Further, relevant applications to user location based on where the wireless device that are placed for sale at the market may be displayed at the wireless device. |
| US09332379B2 |
Method and system for obtaining location information regarding a device in a wireless network
A method for execution by at least one entity in a wireless communication environment, comprising: receiving a request for location information pertaining to a subscriber device; obtaining contextual information regarding the request; and formulating a positioning request for transmission to the device, wherein depending on the contextual information, the positioning request is formulated to instruct the device to retrieve location information from a first or a second type of location establishment entity. Also, a method for execution by at least one entity in a wireless communication environment, the method comprising: receiving a request for location information pertaining to a device; determining that the device is equipped with both a built-in location establishment entity and a removable location establishment entity; consulting an information database to select one of the location establishment entities; instructing the device to retrieve location information from the selected location establishment entity. |
| US09332376B2 |
Method and technical equipment for short range data transmission
The invention relates to a method and a technical equipment for short range data transmission, e.g. Bluetooth low energy. The method comprises receiving, as a response to a transmitted advertisement packet, a scan request from a scanning device; reporting the scan request from a link layer to an application layer; determining a following action according to the scan request and performing the determined action. |
| US09332374B2 |
Communication interface method for SE equipped on mobile terminal and SE using the same
A communication interface method for an SE equipped on a mobile terminal and an SE using the same are provided. The communication interface method includes: connecting, by a communication manager installed in an SE equipped on a mobile terminal, to a server via the mobile terminal; and executing, by the communication manager, communication processes between an applet which is installed in the SE separately from the communication manager, and the server. Accordingly, since the communication processes between the applet and the server are executed by the separate communication manager other than the applet, the processing function is omitted from the applets so that the applets can be simplified. |
| US09332372B2 |
Virtual spatial sound scape
An apparatus, method and computer program product relating to spatialized audio. There is a set of headphones having an accelerometer and a tilt sensor for tracking the location and orientation of the set of headphones and a computer apparatus which includes a headphone position processor to receive headphone location and orientation information from the set of headphones, virtual speaker location processors (VSLPs) which receive a digital signal containing audio information from a digital audio stream and a digital signal containing headphone location and orientation information from the headphone position processor and output a digital signal containing audio information, a summing processor to receive the digital output signals from the VSLPs, sum them and output them to a digital to analog (D/A) converter. The D/A converter converts the summed digital output signals received from the VSLPs to an analog signal and outputs the analog signal to the set of headphones. |
| US09332367B1 |
Headset test device
A headset test device includes a supporting frame, a drive adjusting system, a head model mechanism and a sensing system. The supporting frame includes a transverse adjusting supporter assembly and a vertical adjusting supporter assembly. The drive adjusting system includes a first motor and a second motor. The transverse adjusting supporter assembly and the vertical adjusting supporter assembly are connected with and are driven by the first motor and the second motor, respectively. The head model mechanism includes a parietal region driven by the second motor to vertically move, and two aural regions driven by the first motor to move close to or away from each other for increasing or reducing a distance between the two aural regions. Each of the two aural regions is equipped with an artificial ear. The sensing system includes a force sensing unit, a pressure sensing unit and a temperature sensing unit. |
| US09332365B2 |
Stereo device testing method and stereo device testing system
A stereo device testing method includes the following steps. Firstly, a stereo device is fixed, and a gas is continuously inputted into an inner space of the stereo device. After a predetermined time period, an internal pressure value of the inner space of the stereo device is detected. By judging whether the internal pressure value is higher than or equal to a default pressure value, the tester may determine whether the stereo device is qualified or not. After the stereo device is tested, the manufacturer of the stereo device may repair the gas leakage position. Since the influence of the gas leakage condition on the resonant effect is minimized, the sound quality of the stereo device is enhanced. |
| US09332349B2 |
Sound image localization apparatus
The present disclosure relates to a sound image localization apparatus that includes head related transfer function (HRTF) filters that receive a monaural audio signal and generate a first channel output signal using a first head related transfer function describing a change in sound at right/left eardrum caused when a sound occurs from a first direction; low-pass filters that cut high frequency components of the monaural audio signal and pass low frequency components of the monaural signal; delay circuits that delay an output of the low-pass filters by first/second delay amount; and mixers that mix an output of the HRTF filters and an output of the delay circuits and output an audio signal. |
| US09332342B2 |
Microphone amplifier circuit
The invention provides a microphone amplifier circuit which enhances the SNR (signal noise ratio) and expands the dynamic range by reducing the noise level. A microphone amplifier circuit includes a preamplifier which amplifies an audio signal from a capacitor microphone, a level detection circuit which outputs a level detection signal when the level of the audio signal is in the vicinity of the noise level of the microphone amplifier circuit, and an attenuator which attenuates the level of the audio signal outputted from the preamplifier in response to the level detection signal. The preamplifier includes an operational amplifier, a feedback capacitor and a feedback resistor. |
| US09332338B2 |
Bluetooth communication bracelet
A Bluetooth communication bracelet includes a main body and a Bluetooth earphone. The main body includes a wearing member, a charging plate, an USB interface, and an audio jack. The wearing member defines a receiving groove, a positioning portion and a charging electrode. The receiving groove is located on the outer peripheral of the wearing member, the positioning portion. The charging electrode is located on sidewalls of the receiving groove. The charging plate is located in the wearing member. The USB interface is electrically coupled to the charging plate for charging the charging plate. The Bluetooth earphone, which is received in the receiving groove, includes a carrier, an earplug, and a microphone. The carrier sets a matching portion and a contact electrode. The matching portion matches the positioning portion to make the Bluetooth earphone releasably mounted to the wearing member. The contact electrode is in contact with the charging plate. |
| US09332334B2 |
Mobile communications device case
A case for a mobile communications device is provided that is configurable to take on at least two audio/audible configurations. The first audio/audible configuration is a handset configuration and the second audio configuration is a headphone/earphone/earbud configuration. The case has a housing and a headphone male connector. The headphone male connector forms part of a headphone male connector assembly. The headphone male connector assembly is capable of moving the headphone male connector to selectively and/or mechanically engage a mobile communications device headphone port to actuate the first audio/audible configuration in a first position, and to actuate the second audio/audible configuration in a second position. A method of switching between different modes of operation of a mobile communications device, such as an iPhone™ smartphone, using the functionality of a removable, protective case for the device is also provided herein. |
| US09332329B2 |
Electronic apparatus
An electronic apparatus includes the following elements. A housing has at least an opening and an accommodating space. A first circuit board is disposed in the accommodating space. A battery module disposed in the accommodating space is stacked over the first circuit board. A display module disposed in the accommodating space is stacked over the battery module. The display module is visible through the opening. A second circuit board is disposed in the accommodating space and beside the battery module. At least a part of the second circuit board is not disposed below the display module. A first speaker is disposed in the accommodating space and below the part of the second circuit board. The first speaker has a top side with a first sound hole aligned to a slot of the part of the second circuit board. |
| US09332328B2 |
Magnetic yoke used for a moving-iron microphone/transducer
The invention provides a magnetic yoke used for a moving-iron microphone/transducer, which comprises an inner through hole, an enclosed soft magnet and two end surfaces orthogonal to the enclosed soft magnet. The magnetic yoke is one-piece configured, the outer peripheral surface of the soft magnet and the inner through hole respectively is used for connecting with an armature and a magnetic piece of the microphone/transducer, and one of the two end surfaces is used for connecting with an induction coil of the microphone/transducer, to form a vibrating/transducing drive mechanism. The manufacturing process of the magnetic yoke comprises forming a tube by drawing process and cutting the tube. |
| US09332323B2 |
Method and apparatus for implementing a multi-dimensional optical circuit switching fabric
An optical switching system is described. The system includes a plurality of interconnected wavelength selective switching units. Each of the wavelength selective switching units is associated with one or more server racks. The interconnected wavelength selective switching units are arranged into a fixed structure high-dimensional interconnect architecture comprising a plurality of fixed and structured optical links. The optical links are arranged in a k-ary n-cube, ring, mesh, torus, direct binary n-cube, indirect binary n-cube, Omega network or hypercube architecture. |
| US09332322B2 |
Multimodal climate sensor network
Techniques and systems are disclosed for monitoring multiple indoor and outdoor climate parameters and wirelessly transmitting the monitored data to a network for on-line analysis and dissemination. In one aspect, a monitoring device includes multiple sensors to monitor air quality modalities and generate corresponding monitored air quality data. The monitoring device includes a processor in communication with the multiple sensors to receive and process the monitored air quality data generated from the multiple sensors. Additionally, the monitoring device includes a display unit in communication with the processor to display the processed air quality data. The monitoring device includes a data communication unit to transmit the processed air quality data to a server. The server stores and optimizes the data through cross-calibration and makes the data available to persons who have purchased the monitoring devices and who wish to share the data in a social network. |
| US09332320B2 |
PC secure video path
A system and method are disclosed for creating a secure video content path, or a protected media content bus, within an unsecure personal computer. A portable security module, or electronic key safe, may be inserted into a personal computer that has different internal components for processing secure and unsecured content. The security module may establish a secure encrypted link with a secure video processor of the personal computer, and may use the personal computer's network interface to request authority to receive secured content. The security module may provide content keys to the secure video processor to access secured content received over an external network. |
| US09332317B1 |
Method and apparatus to search for program content via a remote control interface
Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for searching available programs in a broadcast system. A system in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention comprises a transmitter, transmitting a plurality of video programs and a program guide, the program guide comprising information related to the plurality of video programs, a receiver for receiving the plurality of programs and the program guide from the transmitter, a monitor, coupled to the receiver, for displaying at least a selected one of the plurality of video programs and for selectively displaying the program guide, and a remote control, coupled to the receiver, wherein the receiver accepts at least one input from the remote control, compares the information in the program to the at least one input, and presents a search result of programs from the plurality of programs having a matching characteristic with the at least one input. |
| US09332316B2 |
Electronic program guide data encoding method and system
A method for composing an electronic program guide (EPG) metadata file, comprising receiving program metadata and converting the program metadata into a file using a Fast Infoset coding standard. The method is applied in a Metadata search server (MSS) for providing services relating to an electronic program guide (EPG), the MSS (1) in operation being in communication with a plurality of set top boxes (3), and one or more metadata providers (11, 12) which provide program metadata. The MSS (1) comprises an encoder (15) arranged to encode program metadata received from the one or more metadata provides (11, 12) into an EPG file to be broadcast using fast infoset (FI) standard. |
| US09332315B2 |
Timestamped commentary system for video content
A video commentary system receives video content items from users in a community. Such video content items are presented to viewers in the community. The system presents submission controls through which the viewers can submit feedback related to specific time points within that presentation. The controls can be used to submit textual, video, or audio comments. The controls can include labeled buttons that viewers can activate to submit categorized comments. Each submission is associated with a timestamp corresponding to the current video frame. The user interface includes regions that display, in real-time, the submissions received from the viewers. Submissions can indicate their timestamps. A bar graph indicates, by category and by time interval, quantities of categorized comments that have been received relating to various time intervals in the presentation. |
| US09332314B2 |
Method and apparatus for automated bidding and advertisement placement on a set-top box
Methods and apparatuses for presenting targeted advertisements to DVR users are described. After a DVR has finished playing a recorded television program, or in response to other specified events, the DVR presents a screen which comprises a “save or delete” menu. In addition to the “save” and “delete” options, the menu additionally comprises one or more other options. Each of these other options may correspond to a separate promotional item. For example, a user's selection of such an option may cause the DVR to display or play an advertisement on the user's television set. Additionally or alternatively, these other options, when selected by a user, may cause the DVR to display a user interface through which the user can actually purchase a product or service. The product or service advertised or offered may be one that was featured or referenced in the television program that the user was just watching. |
| US09332313B2 |
Personalized augmented A/V stream creation
A personalized audio and/or video (AV) stream is created for a user. A first stream of AV data is selected by reference to predetermined user preferences. One or more further data streams having a predetermined relation to the first stream are selected. Portions of the first stream are identified and captured by reference to identifying predetermined indicia in a group of streams consisting of the first stream and the one or more further data streams, where the capturing comprises capturing one or more time stamps from the group of streams. The personalized AV stream, comprising a captured portion of the first stream and data selected by reference to the predetermined indicia from at least one of the further data streams is generated, where the data selected is based on each captured timestamp. |
| US09332311B2 |
Open API digital video recorder and method of making and using same
A digital video recorder is disclosed. The digital video recorder includes at least one memory device, a plurality of communication access points for receiving at least one program play, an open application programming interface associated with the at least one memory device, and at least one correlation engine in communication with the open application programming interface. The plurality of applications correspondent to the open application programming interface allow a user to manipulate metadata associated with ones of the programs plays and the metadata relates to interframe interactivity with detailed aspects of the ones of the program plays. The at least one correlation engine provides for correlation among at least for the interframes of the program play to ones of the interframes of other ones of the program plays, and among the interframe interactivity to the interframes of the program play to interframe interactivity with the other ones of the interframes of the other ones of the program plays. |
| US09332308B2 |
Image communication apparatus and control method therefor
An image communication apparatus has a function of outputting a shot image obtained by imaging an object, a function of displaying at least the shot image, a function of generating a captured image by capturing a displayed image, a function of encoding an image and decoding an encoded image, a function of writing the encoded shot image in a memory and reading out a recorded image stored in the memory, and a function of communicating with another apparatus through a network. The image communication apparatus switches the mode of video to be transmitted to the other apparatus by controlling these functions based on a control event. |
| US09332307B2 |
Data insertion apparatus and methods for use with compressed audio/video data
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for performing data insertion in compressed audio/video data streams are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein include receiving an input multi-program data stream including a first compressed media data stream associated with a media program and a second data stream containing descriptive information describing the media program, rearranging data in frames of the first compressed media data stream to form contiguous sequences of skip bytes at respective locations in the frames of the first compressed media data stream, extracting the descriptive information from the second data stream, inserting payload data prepared from the descriptive information at the locations of the contiguous sequences of skip bytes in the frames of the compressed media data stream, and recombining the second data stream with the compressed media stream after inserting the payload data to form an output multi-program data stream. |
| US09332300B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling display of information on a television
An apparatus for a television includes an on-screen display (OSD) generator, a first interface to receive signals for controlling a television, a first storage area to store information relating to a plurality of channels, a second interface to receive data from a social network service (SNS), and a second storage area to store the SNS data. A controller of the apparatus controls the OSD generator to simultaneously output for display program information of the plurality of channels. The program information is output based on the stored SNS data, and the stored SNS data is based on a plurality of members of the social network service. |
| US09332299B2 |
System for configuring soft keys in a media communication system
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, set top box (STB) having a controller to record one or more soft key preferences associated with a user of the STB for each of a plurality of media presentation states of a media communication system, receive a request for presentation of a graphical user interface (GUI) associated with one of the media presentation states, select one or more soft keys according to the one or more soft key preferences assigned to the requested media presentation state, and present the selected one or more soft keys in the GUI. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09332297B2 |
Security processor and recording method and medium for configuring the behaviour of this processor
Security processor (42) for a decoder able to receive a scrambled multimedia signal, this processor comprising: —at least one first rewritable lock (FIELDKEY, FIELDPIEMM, FIELDPIEMMC, FIELDPIECM, FIELDFCT) whose value can be toggled between a first and a second predetermined value in response to an EMM or ECM message, —a restriction function able to authorize and, alternately, prohibit, as a function of the value of the first lock, only one particular operation of the security processor, this particular operation being chosen from the group composed of: the use of a cryptographic key, the processing of a parameter contained in an EMM or ECM message received, and the execution of an elementary conditional access function of the code of the application. |
| US09332295B2 |
Wireless transmission and video integrated apparatus
A wireless transmission and video integrated apparatus includes a video module and a wireless module. The video module includes a hub unit, an image processing unit, an image acquisition unit, a microphone unit, an expansion interface and a transmission interface. The wireless module includes a connection interface, a wireless communication unit and an antenna unit. The wireless module is electrically connected to the expansion interface of the video module through the connection interface. The video module and the wireless module are integrated as a whole, and then are electrically connected to an external electronic apparatus through the transmission interface of the video module, so that assembling the wireless transmission and video integrated apparatus into the electronic apparatus is quick. |
| US09332293B2 |
Method and apparatus for secure transfer and playback of multimedia content
A method and apparatus for secure transfer and playback of multimedia content enables the secure transfer of multimedia content from a digital video recorder (DVR) to a personal computer (PC) and further to a handheld device. A DVR determines which devices on a Local Area Network (LAN) are authorized to share and/or retrieve content from the DVR. The DVR receives a connection request from a PC on the LAN, authorizes the connection request and establishes a secure connection between the DVR and the PC. Once the secure connection is established, the DVR receives a request for multimedia content from the PC, prepares the multimedia content for transfer and transfers the multimedia content to the PC. |
| US09332292B2 |
Media playlists with selective media expiration
A media server may receive a request for a playlist from a client computing device, the playlist being associated with expiration information indicative of when the playlist becomes obsolete. The media server may provide the requested playlist to the client computing device. The media server may revise the playlist to generate a refreshed version of the playlist and the client computing device may request the refreshed version of the playlist according to the expiration information. |
| US09332291B1 |
Enforcing publisher content item block requests
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for enforcing publisher content item block requests. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a set of declared network locations for a content item and rendering the content item. A request is initiated for a resource that is referenced by the content item, and network locations fetched in response to the request are logged. A composite set of network locations that includes the fetched network locations and declared network locations is generated. The composite set of network locations is used to enforce publisher block requests. |
| US09332290B2 |
Methods, systems, and media for certifying a playback device
Methods, systems, and media for certifying a playback device are provided. In some embodiments, methods for certifying a playback device are provided, the methods comprising: identifying a plurality of playback capabilities associated with the playback device; identifying at least one certification test based on the plurality of playback capabilities; receiving a plurality of media streams corresponding to the certification test from a server; causing a first media stream to be presented by the playback device; changing a streaming condition experienced by the playback device; causing a second media stream to be presented by the playback device based on the streaming condition; capturing, using a camera, a video signal representing video content presented by the playback device; and determining, using a hardware processor, whether the playback device has passed the certification test based at least in part on the video signal. |
| US09332286B2 |
Constructing a transport stream
There is disclosed a head-end system in which differently processed copies of content portions are reordered such that copies from different content portions are not interleaved in the final transport stream. |
| US09332285B1 |
Switching modes of a media content item
Systems and techniques are provided for switching between different modes of a media content item. A media content item may include a movie that has different modes, such as a cinematic mode and an interactive mode. For example, a movie may be presented in a cinematic mode that does not allow certain user interactions with the movie. The movie may be switched to an interactive mode during any point of the movie, allowing a viewer to interact with various aspects of the movie. The movie may be displayed using different formats and resolutions depending on which mode the movie is being presented. |
| US09332281B2 |
Image encoder and decoder using undirectional prediction
The present invention relates to an image encoding and decoding technique, and more particularly, to an image encoder and decoder using unidirectional prediction. The image encoder includes a dividing unit to divide a macro block into a plurality of sub-blocks, a unidirectional application determining unit to determine whether an identical prediction mode is applied to each of the plurality of sub-blocks, and a prediction mode determining unit to determine a prediction mode with respect to each of the plurality of sub-blocks based on a determined result of the unidirectional application determining unit. |
| US09332280B2 |
Image processing method and apparatus for improving detail of image
Exemplary embodiments disclose an image processing method which includes obtaining a binary value by quantizing a value obtained by summing at least one pixel value of an input image and a quantization error value of a neighboring pixel; determining a pixel in which a detail intensity is to be inserted according to the binary value of each pixel; determining the detail intensity to be inserted in the determined pixel; and inserting the determined detail intensity in the determined pixel, wherein the quantization error value of the neighboring pixel is a difference value between an original pixel value of the neighboring pixel and a pixel value quantized with respect to a predetermined constant value. |
| US09332275B2 |
Methods, apparatuses, and programs for encoding and decoding picture
Compared to conventional intra divided-picture encoding, deterioration in the coding efficiency is suppressed and the encoding computational complexity and the decoding computational complexity are reduced. A divided picture generating unit divides an input encoding target picture into blocks of the same size and generates divided pictures having the same size by collecting pixels having the same relative position within each block. An intra divided-picture encoding processing unit performs intra divided-picture encoding on part of the divided pictures. An inter divided-picture encoding processing unit performs inter divided-picture encoding using another encoded divided picture as a reference picture. When there are a plurality of candidates for the reference picture, a correlation direction calculating unit obtains a combination in which a correlation of a pixel on an original picture is high among combinations of encoded divided pictures and their reference pictures. A reference picture selecting unit selects an encoded divided picture in a direction in which a correlation with an encoding target divided picture is high as the reference picture to be used in the inter divided-picture encoding processing unit. |
| US09332272B2 |
Encoding apparatus, encoding method, and computer product
An encoding apparatus includes a processor that calculates and stores, an evaluation value for each candidate vector, based on a given block to be encoded among blocks formed by dividing an image, and a reference block on a reference image represented by each candidate vector that is a candidate motion vector of the given block; identifies an evaluation value of a first candidate motion vector of the given block, based on the stored evaluation values; calculates an evaluation value of a second candidate motion vector, based on the evaluation value of each candidate vector and the second candidate motion vector selected for the given block from among motion vectors of blocks adjacent to the given block; and determines the first or the second candidate motion vector to be the motion vector of the given block, based on the respective evaluation values of the first and the second candidate motion vectors. |
| US09332271B2 |
Utilizing a search scheme for screen content video coding
A method, a device and computer readable storage media facilitate providing screen content including a plurality of video frames that are displayed by a computing device. During coding of the screen content, a suitable predictor is found that is used to code pixel blocks from one or more frames. The suitable predictor is found by selecting a pixel block of a current frame, conducting a direction based search by comparing pixel blocks within a search window of a reference frame with the selected pixel block of the current frame to determine whether a match exists, and, in response to a determination that no sufficient match has been found, conducting a feature oriented search by comparing pixel blocks of the reference frame with the selected pixel block of the current frame to find a suitable match based upon a common feature. |
| US09332269B2 |
Slice overhead coding
An example video coding system may include a processor and memory. The processor may determine sets of parameters for slices that correspond to a picture of a video sequence, and determine, and store in overhead information, the set of parameters that has the highest commonality. The processor may determine for each slice whether the set of parameters determined for the slice is equivalent to the set of parameters stored in overhead information. If the set of parameters for the slice is equivalent to the set of parameters stored in overhead information, the processor may store an indication in a slice header of the slice that indicates that the set of parameters stored in overhead information applies to the slice, otherwise the processor may store in the slice header of the slice the determined set of parameters for the slice. The processor may transmit the overhead information and the slices. |
| US09332268B2 |
Electronic device for encoding a buffer parameter
An electronic device for sending a message is described. The electronic device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory that is in electronic communication with the processor. The electronic device determines whether a picture is allowed to be decoded on a sub-picture level. If the picture is allowed to be decoded on a sub-picture level, the electronic device generates at least one of a buffer size parameter and a buffer scale parameter. The electronic device sends at least one of the buffer size parameter and the buffer scale parameter. |
| US09332265B2 |
Moving picture coding/decoding method and apparatus
An image decoding method is provided. The image decoding method includes obtaining information about a color representation from a bitstream, entropy decoding a residue, which corresponds to a difference between a current image and a predicted image of the current image, and reconstructing the current image by using the entropy decoded residue and the predicted image, based on the information about the color representation. |
| US09332264B2 |
Configurable performance motion estimation for video encoding
A motion estimation engine may be implemented to include a skip checking module, an integer search module, a macroblock partitioning module, a fractional search module, a bidirectional motion estimation refinement module, and an intra search module. The motion estimation engine may perform fractional search/bidirectional motion estimation refinement and intra search in parallel. Additionally, modules in the motion estimation engine may be partially or fully turned on or off to accommodate different motion estimation requirements. Furthermore, the motion estimation engine may implement early exit strategy to further save computation. |
| US09332261B2 |
Network management module for a vehicle communication network
A network management module includes a network interface module, memory, and a processing module. The network interface module is operable for coupling the network management module to a vehicle communication network. The processing module is operable to manage a global vehicle network communication protocol that includes instituting a content-based network packet processing protocol and managing the vehicle communication network to support the network packet processing protocol. The content-based network packet processing protocol includes determining content type of a packet, determining a processing requirement of the packet, and prioritizing execution of the processing requirement based on the content type. |
| US09332260B2 |
Coding device, decoding device, coding/decoding system, coding method, and decoding method
A coding device and method, a decoding device and method, and a coding/decoding system including the coding device and the decoding device are provided. The coding device includes a predictive value data generator, a predictive error data generator, a variable-length coded data generator that codes the predictive error data to sequentially generate variable-length coded data, in which a code length is variable and equal to or shorter than a set maximum length, and a coding controller. The coding controller sequentially calculates an accumulated value by accumulating a difference between the code length of the variable-length coded data and a target code length, and sequentially sets the maximum code length based on the accumulated value and the number coding time performed by the coder such that the accumulated value is zero or lower. |
| US09332259B2 |
Indication of use of wavefront parallel processing in video coding
A video encoder generates a bitstream that includes a syntax element that indicates whether a picture is encoded according either a first coding mode or a second coding mode. In the first coding mode, the picture is entirely encoded using wavefront parallel processing (WPP). In the second coding mode, each tile of the picture is encoded without using WPP and the picture may have one or more tiles. A video decoder may parse the syntax element from the bitstream. In response to determining that the syntax element has a particular value, the video decoder decodes the picture entirely using WPP. In response to determining that the syntax element does not have the particular value, the video decoder decodes each tile of the picture without using WPP. |
| US09332256B2 |
Methods of coding binary values
Disclosed are systems and methods used in motion estimation and particularly for data compression. Embodiments of the invention may store and operate on an n-bit value in less than n bits. In one embodiment, if the multi-bit value is less than a threshold, then the multi-bit value is stored in the reduced-bit storage directly, with no loss of precision. If the multi-bit value is greater than the threshold, then the Most Significant Bits (MSBs) of the multi-bit value are shifted onto the reduced-bit storage, and a compression flag set. To decompress, if the compression flag was not set, the bits stored in the reduced-bit storage are merely copied back into the multi-bit value directly. If the compression flag was set, then the bits stored in the reduced-bit storage are shifted (left) by the same amount they were shifted (right) during compression, and an error-minimizing value is added. |
| US09332255B2 |
Signaling long-term reference pictures for video coding
A video decoder may be configured to decode a first value representative of a difference between a base most significant bits (MSBs) value of a picture order count (POC) value of a current picture of video data and a first MSBs value of a first POC value of a first long-term reference picture of the video data, decode a second value representative of a difference between a second MSBs value of a second POC value of a second long-term reference picture of the video data and the first MSBs value, wherein the first POC value and the second POC value have different least significant bits values, and decode at least a portion of a current picture of the video data relative to at least one of the first long-term reference picture and the second long-term reference picture. |
| US09332250B2 |
Display device
In order to provide a display device capable of improving the display quality at the time of 2D display and 3D display, the present invention provides a display device that includes: a display panel that displays an image; and a liquid crystal lens panel that is arranged on the display surface side of the display panel, controls a refractive index in a cylindrical lens manner to form parallax barriers, and switches 2D display and 3D display, and the liquid crystal lens panel includes: a first transparent substrate that is arranged on the display panel side; a second transparent substrate that is arranged to face the first substrate through a liquid crystal layer; and a first polarizing plate that is formed on the display surface side of the second transparent substrate to control a polarization direction of light transmitting through the liquid crystal lens panel. |
| US09332249B2 |
Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal is disclosed, which enables a user to change and view a 2D image and/or a 3D image on a display unit by changing a view angle without manipulation of an input unit. The present invention includes a display panel configured to display a plurality of output images, a multi-view angle panel provided in front of the display panel to provide a user with a prescribed one of a plurality of the output images in accordance with a plurality of preset view angles, and a controller partitioning the display panel into a plurality of display regions, the controller partitioning a plurality of the output images into a plurality of partitioned images to correspond to the number of a plurality of the display regions, the controller controlling the display panel to display a plurality of the partitioned images on a plurality of the display regions. |
| US09332248B1 |
Spherical television system
A spherical television system for displaying imagery on a sphere. The spherical television includes layered displays or a rotating disc display along with a coordinate system to allow the spherical television system to measure ambient light through light tubes and playback spherical imagery. |
| US09332247B2 |
Image processing device, non-transitory computer readable recording medium, and image processing method
Provided is a technique that can reduce the fatigue of the eyes of an observer who observes a stereoscopic image. To attains this object, an image processing apparatus includes: a first acquisition section that obtains a base image; a second acquisition section that obtains pieces of base distance information an identification section that performs an identification process for, classifying an image space into a gaze area and a non-gaze area; a first generation section that performs a generation process for generating a derived image and pieces of derived distance information, the derived image and the pieces of derived distance information being obtained as a result of a blurring process being performed on an image in an area corresponding to the non-gaze area; and a second generation section that generates a pseudo image of the object based on the derived image and the pieces of derived distance information. |
| US09332238B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
The distance between projection coordinates to which the center of an image are projected and the center coordinates are added to the projection coordinates to obtain projection center coordinates. The distance is added to the coordinates to which the four corners of the image are projected to obtain projection four-corner coordinates. A distance shorter than the minimum of the distances between the projection four-corner coordinates and the projection center coordinates is decided as an output margin distance. Projection source coordinates to be projected to coordinates apart from the projection center coordinates by the output margin distance are obtained. A maximum of the distances between the projection source coordinates and the projection center coordinates is decided as an input margin distance. Divided images decided based on ½ of horizontal size of the image and the input margin distance are deformed and outputted. |
| US09332236B2 |
Image projection apparatus and method of controlling light source
To control a laser used as a light source according to an input image, while satisfying a safety standard, a projector includes lasers provided for each of a plurality of colors, a dichroic mirror that synthesizes laser beams emitted by the lasers, an LCOS panel that modulates synthesized light by the dichroic mirror, and a projection lens that projects the light modulated by the LCOS panel. A processor determines rate of power of the laser beams according to the image signal, determines, according to the rate of the power, an upper limit value of the power of the projected laser beam in each color to the extent that the upper limit value satisfies a safety standard, and adjusts the laser beam in each color emitted by the corresponding laser so as to prevent the projected light beam in each color from exceeding the upper limit value. |
| US09332235B2 |
Imaging capture apparatus having plurality of image sensors generating respective image signals based on emitted light areas
An imaging apparatus includes a filter, a first image sensor and a second image sensor. The filter transmits a first light in a range of wavelengths and reflects a reflected light out of the range of wavelengths. An incident light is split to the first light and the reflected light. The first image sensor receives the first light to generate a first image signal. The second image sensor receives the reflected light to generate a second image signal. |
| US09332227B2 |
Dynamic facial feature substitution for video conferencing
In an approach to determine facial feature substitution in a video conference, a computer receives one or more pre-recorded videos of an attendee of a video conference. The one or more pre-recorded videos include at least one pre-recorded video of an attendee speaking. The computer determines an avatar for use in place of a video of the attendee in the video conference. Furthermore, the computer determines one or more portions of the one or more pre-recorded videos of the attendee corresponding to at least one targeted facial feature of the attendee in the video of the attendee in the video conference. The computer substitutes the one or more portions of the one or more pre-recorded videos into the avatar, the substitution corresponding to the at least one targeted facial feature of the attendee in the video conference. |
| US09332225B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for controlling conference including telepresence conferencing site
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, an apparatus, and a system for controlling a conference including a telepresence conference site, and relate to the field of network communications technologies. An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for controlling a conference site in a telepresence conference, including: receiving attribute information of a telepresence conference site sent by the telepresence conference site, where the telepresence conference site includes at least two video areas; and performing conference control according to the received attribute information of the telepresence conference site. Through application of the present invention, the conference control process of the telepresence conference site may be simplified. |
| US09332224B2 |
Adaptive video streaming for communication sessions
A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computing system is provided for managing quality of experience for video conferences. In an implementation, a method may include determining a capacity of a participant associated with a video conference. The method may also include determining a number of remote participants of the video conference. The method may further include implementing a video distribution architecture for the participant based upon, at least in part, the capacity of the participant and the number of remote participants. Implementing the video distribution architecture for the participant may include implementing a distributed architecture session for the participant if the capacity of the participant is greater than or equal to the number of remote participants of the video conference. Implementing the video distribution architecture for the participant may also include implementing a centralized architecture session for the participant if the capacity of the participant is less than the number of remote participants of the video conference. |
| US09332223B2 |
Dynamic character substitution for web conferencing based on sentiment
In an approach to determine a pre-recorded video for use in place of a video feed of a user in a video conference, a computer receives one or more pre-recorded videos of a user in which the pre-recorded videos include at least one visual representation of an emotional state. The computer determines a meeting tone of at least one meeting discussion in the video conference and determines a first video of the one or more pre-recorded videos of the user that corresponds to the meeting tone. The computer substitutes the first video into the video conference in place of a video feed in the video conference. |
| US09332219B2 |
Telepresence device
The present invention relates to a telepresence device that is capable of enabling various types of verbal or non-verbal interaction between a remote user and a local user. In accordance with an embodiment, the telepresence device may include a camera combined with direction control means; a projector provided on a top of the camera, and configured such that a direction of the projector is controlled by the direction control means along with a direction of the camera; and a control unit configured to control the direction of the camera by operating the direction control means, to extract an object, at which a remote user gazes, from an image acquired by the camera whose direction has been controlled, to generate a projection image related to the object, and to project the projection image around the object by controlling the projector. |
| US09332218B2 |
Perspective-correct communication window with motion parallax
A perspective-correct communication window system and method for communicating between participants in an online meeting, where the participants are not in the same physical locations. Embodiments of the system and method provide an in-person communications experience by changing virtual viewpoint for the participants when they are viewing the online meeting. The participant sees a different perspective displayed on a monitor based on the location of the participant's eyes. Embodiments of the system and method include a capture and creation component that is used to capture visual data about each participant and create a realistic geometric proxy from the data. A scene geometry component is used to create a virtual scene geometry that mimics the arrangement of an in-person meeting. A virtual viewpoint component displays the changing virtual viewpoint to the viewer and can add perceived depth using motion parallax. |
| US09332214B2 |
Video signal adjustment system and method for controlling the same
A video signal adjustment system that is capable of being connected between a server and a console includes: a server unit that is connected to the server; a main unit that is connected to the server unit, and includes a first adjustment portion that adjusts gain and frequency characteristic of a video signal output from the server; and a console unit that is connected between the main unit and the console, and includes a second adjustment portion that adjusts gain, frequency characteristic, and delay of the video signal output from the main unit. |
| US09332213B2 |
Recording device and imaging apparatus
A recording device that improves the stability of an operation of recording data in a recording medium is provided. Recording device includes mounting unit, protective cover, open/close detecting unit, buffer, and recording controller. The recording controller performs a control of storing data into the buffer, reading, from the buffer, the data stored in the buffer, and recording the data into the recording medium. When the open/close detecting unit detects that the protective cover is opened, the recording controller performs a control of continuing the operation of storing data into the buffer, and yet stopping the operation of reading, from the buffer, the data stored in the buffer and recording the data into the recording medium. |
| US09332205B2 |
Image pickup element, image pickup apparatus, and image processing method
An image pickup element includes a pixel matrix, a pupil dividing portion, and a shielding portion. Pixels in the pixel matrix include a photoelectric conversion portion, and are arranged in units of a matrix of a predetermined number of the pixels. The pupil dividing portion is arranged on a side of a light receiving surface of the photoelectric conversion portion of each pixel to divide a pupil region. The shielding portion arranged between the pupil dividing portion and the photoelectric conversion portion shields a predetermined region of the light receiving surface of the photoelectric conversion portion. The predetermined region of each pixel corresponds to any one of the divided pupil regions obtained when the pupil region is divided by the pupil dividing portion. A proportion of the predetermined region is smaller than a proportion of a region not-shielded by the shielding portion in the light receiving surface. |
| US09332198B2 |
A/D converter, solid-state image pickup device and driving method of the same, and electronic apparatus
The present technology relates to an A/D converter, a solid-state image pickup device and a method of driving the same, and an electronic apparatus which are capable of reducing power consumption while reducing a circuit size. A comparator compares a reference voltage with an input voltage, the reference voltage having a ramp waveform whose voltage value varies with time, a lower-bit storage element holds a count value in a predetermined count pattern, based on an output signal from the comparator, a Gray code binary conversion circuit converts the count value in the count pattern held by the lower-bit storage element into binary data, and a storing operation control circuit supplies a pulse signal corresponding to the binary data obtained by conversion in the Gray code binary conversion circuit to a lower-bit U/D CNT. The present technology is applicable to, for example, an image sensor storing a count value in a storage element with use of a Gray code or a phase shift code as a clock signal. |
| US09332196B2 |
Image processing device, method and program
An image processing device includes a recording control unit that controls recording of an image of a predetermined frame among images of a plurality of consecutive frames, a trim box setting unit that sets a plurality of trim boxes containing a subject area which is an area of a subject of interest in the image of the predetermined frame recorded by the recording control unit, and a generation control unit that controls generation of the plurality of trim images from the image of the predetermined frame recorded by the recording control unit, based on the plurality of trim boxes set by the trim box setting unit. |
| US09332195B2 |
Image processing apparatus, imaging apparatus, and image processing method
An image processing apparatus for adding a blur to an image in use of depth information corresponding to the image, comprising: a conversion unit configured to convert the depth information into blur size information; a division unit configured to divide the image into a plurality image areas having a same blur size; an image generation unit configured to perform blur processing on each of the plurality of image areas with the blur size to generate blurred images; and a synthesizing unit configured to synthesize the plurality of blurred images generated by the image generation unit. |
| US09332191B2 |
Method and system for determining shutter fluttering sequence
A method, system and computer-usable medium for determining shutter fluttering sequence. The disclosed approach is based on the use of shutter flutter technology, which means that an image can be acquired in such a manner as to encode all information about the moving subject. The disclosed approach involves determining a shutter's fluttering pattern that optimally encodes information at all frequencies. The disclosed approach involves an optimization method for finding a shutter fluttering pattern that has several desired properties. These properties can be expressed in the context of a fitness function: given a fluttering pattern and the target subject's velocity, it produces the equivalent Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), measures three attributes, and produces a fitness score. These attributes are the minimum contrast, the variance in contrast across spatial frequencies, and the mean contrast. The objective of the disclosed approach is to determine the fluttering pattern that maximizes the fitness score. |
| US09332183B2 |
Imaging device and method of controlling imaging device
An imaging device that captures an image using an imaging section includes a control section that controls a signal modulation process that decreases or increases a signal level of an image signal acquired by the imaging section during an exposure period from a start of exposure to an end of exposure when the imaging section captures an image, and a blur correction section that performs a blur correction process on the image signal subjected to the signal modulation process. |
| US09332176B2 |
Display apparatus with a camera and control method thereof
A display apparatus and a control method thereof include an image communication camera including an image sensor is installed to be movable up and down at an upper portion of the display apparatus, and protrudes from the display apparatus when in use; an image processor processing an image signal sensed by the image sensor; a display displaying the processed image signal; a sensor sensing the position of the image communication camera; a power supply supplying components of the display apparatus; and a controller controlling the power supply to supply electric power to the image communication camera if the image communication camera is moved up, and cut off the electric power to the image communication camera if the image communication camera is moved down. Thus, it is possible to determine whether the image communication camera and the microphone operate or not based on the position of the image communication camera. |
| US09332175B2 |
Image photographing apparatus and photographing method thereof
An image photographing apparatus and a photographing method thereof are provided. The image photographing method includes displaying a photographing mode selection user interface (UI), in response to a plurality of photographing modes being selected through the photographing mode selection UI, calculating a final setting value based on a photographing setting value of the plurality of selected photographing modes, and in response to a photographing command being input, photographing an image according to the calculated final setting value. |
| US09332174B2 |
Focus detection apparatus, imaging apparatus, and control method of focus detection apparatus
A focus detection apparatus comprises a pair of line sensors that generate a pair of image signals by photo-electrically converting an object image, calculation unit configured to calculate a defocus amount using the image signals, and control unit configured to control the line sensors to execute a charge accumulation operation until output levels of the line sensors reach a first voltage level based on a saturated voltage, wherein the control unit switches the saturated voltage based on luminance information. |
| US09332172B1 |
Terminal device, information display system and method of controlling therefor
A terminal device, an information display system and a method of controlling the terminal device are disclosed. The terminal device includes a camera unit configured to capture a picture in which an external device connected with a network is included, a control unit configured to detect the external device from the captured picture, a communication unit configured to transmit and receive data and a display unit configured to display the captured picture. If the detected external device in the captured picture is selected, the control unit controls the communication unit to receive information on the external device based on a sensing history of the external device and can control the display unit to display the received information on the external device on the display unit. |
| US09332169B2 |
Estimating control feature from remote control with camera
An apparatus (1) estimates control features of remote controls (10) comprising cameras (11) for detecting light points (51, 52) from beacons (31, 32) located at or near devices (20) that are to be controlled via the remote controls (10) by letting the cameras (11) further detect light points (61, 62) from non-beacons (41, 42). Processors (2) estimate the control features in response to information from the detections of the light points (51, 52, 61, 62). The non-beacons (41, 42) comprise noise sources or any other sources different from the beacons (31, 32). Memories (3) store per time-interval the information per detection. The light coming from the beacons (31, 32) may be modulated light and the light coming from the non-beacons (41, 42) may be other light. The information may comprise coordinates, sizes and intensities of light points (51, 52, 61, 62) per detection and per time-interval. The control feature may comprise a pointing position, a distance, a rotation, a tilt, a location, a speed, an acceleration, a movement and/or a zoom of the remote control (10). |
| US09332165B1 |
Electronic device including camera module unthreaded ends that sealingly engage prior to threaded ends engaging and related methods
A camera assembly may include a printed circuit board (PCB), an image sensor carried by the PCB, and a lens assembly carried by the PCB and having an external, enlarged diameter, threaded upper end, and an external, unthreaded lower end. The camera assembly may further include a camera body having a lens assembly opening aligned between the image sensor and the lens assembly. The lens assembly opening may have an internal, enlarged diameter, threaded upper end, and an internal unthreaded lower end. The external unthreaded lower end of the lens assembly may sealingly engage the internal, unthreaded lower end of the camera body prior to the external, enlarged diameter, threaded upper end of the lens assembly threadingly engaging the internal, enlarged diameter, threaded upper end of the camera body. |
| US09332163B2 |
Indoor bubble adapter
A bubble adapter for installed security cameras, such as Pan/Tilt/Zoom (“PTZ”) security cameras fits over the head of the PTZ camera, and attaches to a mounting region of a base of the security camera via a field-deployable attachment mechanism. The bubble of the bubble adapter protects and conceals the head of the PTZ camera and its components. Using the bubble adapter, service personnel add bubbles to existing PTZ camera installations that are lacking bubbles in the field. This avoids the expense and downtime associated with the current method for adding bubbles to PTZ camera installations lacking bubbles. The current method requires removing the installed PTZ cameras, and replacing them with PTZ cameras having factory-installed bubbles. In addition, the bubble adapter provides an integrated airflow system that allows the security camera to maintain thermal control when the bubble adapter is attached to the security cameras. |
| US09332158B2 |
Color processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable recording medium performing color conversion, adjustment and matching process between input color data and reproducible color data of image output device
Provided is a color processing apparatus including an associated information obtaining section that obtains first associated information in which first color information in a first color space is associated with first output color information that is a target to be output in a second color space, and second associated information in which the first color information is associated with second output color information in the second color space of an image output, an output section that outputs second color information in the first color space to the color adjustment target unit, an output color information obtaining section that obtains third output color information in the second color space output by the color adjustment target unit, and a conversion relation creating section that creates the conversion relation. |
| US09332155B2 |
Digital image halftone conversion with selective enhancement
A method is disclosed. The method includes receiving a first image as a continuous tone image, screening the image to render a second image as a (Halftone Image) HTI, selecting an area of the first image for enhancement, and iteratively processing the selected area of the first image to render a third image as a multibit HTI. |
| US09332153B2 |
Image reading device, image forming apparatus, and image processing method
In an image reading device, a reading control portion reads image data for one line in a main scanning direction from a first reference member having a reference color. A storage portion stores initial reference data for one line generated based on image data for a plurality of lines read from a second reference member by using an image reading portion while a surface of the second reference member having the reference color is moving in a sub scanning direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction. A reference data generation portion generates reference data based on the image data read by the reading control portion and a high-frequency component of the initial reference data stored in the storage portion. A shading correction portion performs shading correction for image data read from a document by the image reading portion, based on the reference data generated by the reference data generation portion. |
| US09332152B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and non-transitory computer readable medium
An image processing apparatus includes an input unit that receives data of an image, an encoding unit that encodes multiple data blocks respectively representing multiple partial images forming the image to generate multiple pieces of encoded information, a determining unit that determines a reading sequence of the data blocks with respect to each of multiple image rotation angles, and a memory that stores, in an associated form, multiple pieces of sequence information representing the determined sequences with respect to the image rotation angles, and the multiple pieces of generated encoded information. |
| US09332150B2 |
Text scanning system, image processing apparatus, and text scanning method
A text scanning system includes a processor configured to extract character information from image data of an image, generate a two-dimensional code representing the extracted character information, and output the two-dimensional code, and a display unit configured to receive and display the two-dimensional code. |
| US09332145B2 |
Prevention of empty media trays in a print system
System and methods for prevention of empty media trays in a print system. In one embodiment, a system includes a print controller configured to receive a print job, and to initiate collection of media from a media tray based on information in the print job. The system also includes a supply detection module configured to detect a low supply of the media in the media tray, and to generate an error responsive to detection of the low supply before the media tray is empty. The print controller is configured to stop the collection of the media based on the error signal so that at least one sheet of the media remains in the media tray. |
| US09332144B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus including an automatic document feeder (ADF) that transports a document is provided. The ADF unit includes a subtray that is openable and closable. When transporting a document, the subtray is opened and a document to be transported is fed into a space below a guide member. At this time, surfaces of the subtray and a main tray are used as a feed tray. The document that has been transported is discharged onto a guide member and is further transported onto the surface of the second tray. At this time, the surface of the second tray and the surface of the guide member are used as a discharge tray. |
| US09332143B2 |
Image reading apparatus
An image reading apparatus includes an image reading unit that is reciprocally movable in a predetermined direction; a guide member that supports the image reading unit and guides the image reading unit in the predetermined direction; a first cable that is fixed to the image reading unit at one end of the first cable and is deformable in accordance with a movement of the image reading unit; and a second cable that is fixed to the image reading unit at one end of the second cable and is deformable in accordance with the movement of the image reading unit, wherein the first cable and the second cable are provided such that a rotation moment of the image reading unit generated by a reaction force of the first cable and a rotation moment of the image reading unit generated by a reaction force of the second cable cancel each other out. |
| US09332140B2 |
Multi-purpose document equipment management system and method of use
Provided herein are systems for management and control of document production devices, as well as methods and software for their use. These systems can include a server configured to host a document management service. The server can have a plurality of local user interfaces adapted for electronic and/or optical data communication with one or more remote user interfaces and one or more document production devices. The server can have a plurality of purpose-specific application interfaces which further communicate over a communications network with a plurality of purpose-specific applications. |
| US09332138B2 |
Guest-activated image capture system for venues and associated methods
An image capture system for a venue includes fixed image capture areas spaced throughout the venue. Each fixed image capture area includes at least one camera, and a kiosk coupled to the at least one camera. The kiosk includes an identification (ID) reader to read a guest ID presented by a guest, and a processor to activate the at least one camera to take a photo of the guest based on the ID reader reading the guest ID. The processor also links the guest ID with the photo. A server is coupled to the fixed image capture areas to store each photo with the linked guest ID. |
| US09332135B1 |
System, method, and computer program for managing a shared quota for a plurality of network subscribers in a consumer telecommunications network
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for managing a shared quota for a plurality of network subscribers in a consumer telecommunications network. In use, an Sy interface session is established for a subscriber of a consumer telecommunications network, the Sy interface session being between a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node and an Online Charging System (OCS) node of the consumer telecommunications network. Further, it is determined whether the subscriber is associated with any multi-subscriber shared usage counters on the consumer telecommunications network. Responsive to determining that the subscriber is associated with at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter on the consumer telecommunications network, a reference to the at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter is provided to the PCRF node by the OCS node. Additionally, the OCS node monitors the at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter. Responsive to determining that a status of the at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter has changed, a single Spending Status Notification Request (SNR) message is sent to the PCRF node, the single SNR message notifying the PCRF node that the status of the at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter has changed. Responsive to the PCRF node receiving the single SNR message notifying the PCRF node that the status of the at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter has changed, the PCRF node determines which open sessions on the consumer telecommunications network are associated with the at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter. Furthermore, one or more policy changes to the open sessions are executed in accordance with the change to the at least one multi-subscriber shared usage counter. |
| US09332134B2 |
Charging of battery-operated devices over wireless connections
The technology described herein provides wireless charging for battery-operated electronic devices (14) including both mobile and fixed battery-operated devices. A wireless charging system, based on any suitable wireless charging technology(ies), allows easy access/discovery, registration, authorization, monitoring, and/or compensation for charging services. The technology uses donor mobile radio nodes (12) that register as potential charging stations for requesting radio nodes (14). The donor and requesting nodes negotiate the charging event, and in a preferred example embodiment, payment by the requester for the charging service to donor is arranged. |
| US09332126B2 |
Method and system for controlling mobile device functions via a service or background process
This provides for controlling mobile device functions and features, along with systems incorporating these devices and methods. For example, it limits or disables the use of some of mobile device features which could cause distraction to the user, when the user is engaged in another activity. In an example, it enables other mobile device features based on occurrence of events related to the user or environment. Another example addresses controlling the mobile device features, such as SMS, while the user is in a vehicle or driving. Another example restricts the ability of the driver of a vehicle to text, while the vehicle is in motion, by automatically disabling the texting ability of mobile device within and around the perimeter of the driver's seat. Other variations, examples, improvements, detection mechanisms, models, techniques, calculations, verification mechanisms, and features are also described in details. |
| US09332125B2 |
Method and system for using multiple transceivers for controlling mobile communication device functions
This provides for controlling mobile device functions and features. For example, it limits or disables the use of some of mobile device features which could cause distraction to the user, when the user is engaged in another activity. In an example, it enables other mobile device features based on occurrence of events related to the user or environment. Another example addresses controlling the mobile device features, such as SMS, while the user is in a vehicle or driving. Another example restricts the ability of the driver of a vehicle to text, while the vehicle is in motion, by automatically disabling the texting ability of mobile device within and around the perimeter of the driver's seat. Other variations, examples, improvements, detection mechanisms, models, techniques, calculations, verification mechanisms, and features are also described in details. |
| US09332123B1 |
Real-time feedback of survey results
A system, method, and computer readable medium for feedback of survey results comprises a data center, a call center, and a survey platform communicably coupled to the data center and to the call center, wherein the data center receives a communication initiated by an individual, wherein the communication is routed to the survey platform after an event, wherein data related to at least one of: the individual and the communication is collected, wherein the individual is prompted for participation in a survey, if the individual agrees to participate in the survey, the data is routed to the call center, based on the data and information related to the individual, the individual is routed to an agent within a call center, wherein the agent conducts a survey, and wherein results of the survey are dynamically provided to quality control database. |
| US09332120B1 |
Dialing rule determining and application in a communication system
A call processing system for processing calls in a communications network comprising an interface configured to receive a message to register a device with a communications network, wherein the message indicates a device code associated with the device and a processing system configured to process the message to determine a directory code associated with the device based on the device code, process the directory code to determine an override dialing rule based on the directory code, and apply the override dialing rule to calls placed from the device. |
| US09332119B1 |
Systems and methods for call destination authenticaiton and call forwarding detection
Caller ID authentication methodology is used to authenticate call destination and detect call forwarding in a telecommunication system. Call forwarding detection is performed by the called party authentication device transmitting an authentication request message to the authentication server. The authentication request containing the source telephone number of the call and the called party telephone number. The authentication server matches the authentication request message to a calling status message transmitted by the caller party authentication device. The calling status message containing the caller telephone number and the destination telephone number. If the two messages match, the server informs the caller authentication device that the call has reached the intended party and the call destination is authentic. If the two messages do not match or a valid authentication request message has not been received, the authentication server determines the call has not reached the intended destination and the call has been forwarded. Authentication device reputation scores are used to mitigate certain attacks against caller ID and call destination authentication. |
| US09332113B2 |
Mobile electronic device with an adaptively responsive flexible display
A mobile electronic device having a flexible display device is disclosed. A request to retrieve information from a server over a wireless network is triggered based on flexing the flexible display device and other gestures. |
| US09332112B2 |
Communications system and method in connection with vehicle
A communications system for use in connection with a vehicle (1): a mobile handheld communication device (2); a handheld vehicle activation device (4); a communication module (6) arranged on the vehicle and able to establish wireless communication to the communication device (2). The communication device (2) includes a tracking device (8) for wireless vehicle identifying information (10) from the vehicle activation device (4), where the vehicle identifying information (10) identifies a specific vehicle. The system identifies a vehicle based on the information, and establishes a wireless communications link (12) between the communication device (2) and the communication module (6) in the identified vehicle (1). |
| US09332110B2 |
Operation method and system of mobile terminal
An operation method and mobile terminal connected to an electronic device are provided. An extracted piece of content among multiple pieces of content displayed on a screen of the electronic device and a command of a functional application are received. The functional application is executed according to the command using the extracted piece of content. |
| US09332109B2 |
Software routine and methods for implementing routine to extend time to trace a phone call
Phone call tracing is a law enforcement tool best known for its use by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in trying to catch kidnappers. Tracing a call is useful for law enforcement and intelligence agencies in order to capture potentially dangerous people. Although useful, tracing a phone call has one drawback: time. It takes time to trace a call. Because of the time it takes to trace a call, the phone is usually hung up or turned off before a trace can be completed. Since there is no way for the trace to be hurried, I propose a phone app that when uploaded to a phone will prevent the phone from disconnecting from the network. This app would upload on the electrical signal carrying the audio and/or video signal. The app will upload into the phone and interfere with the phones ability to terminate the call without indicating that the phone is still connected to the network. With the app downloaded, the app will keep the phone call active so that the trace can then be completed. |
| US09332106B2 |
System and method for access control in a portable electronic device
A method of access control in an electronic device includes monitoring for input at the electronic device, for each input determined to be one of a plurality of predefined gestures including gestures from a touch-sensitive input device or from a movement sensor, mapping the input to a respective Unicode character and adding the respective Unicode character to a passcode to provide an entered passcode, comparing the entered passcode to a stored passcode, and changing an access state at the electronic device if the entered passcode matches the stored passcode. |
| US09332105B2 |
Communication connecting apparatus and method
A communication connecting apparatus, a mobile terminal, and a method of communicating among the apparatus and the terminal are discussed. According to an embodiment, the apparatus includes a communication unit configured to receive key information relating to at least one key disposed on the mobile terminal, when the communication connecting apparatus is coupled with the mobile terminal; a display unit; and a controller configured to generate at least one key image corresponding to the at least one key based upon the received key information, and to display, on the display unit, at least one soft key having the generated at least one key image thereon. |
| US09332104B2 |
Speakerphone control for mobile device
A speakerphone system integrated in a mobile device is automatically controlled based on the current state of the mobile device. In one implementation, the mobile device is controlled based on an orientation or position of the mobile device. In another implementation, the control of the speakerphone includes automatically controlling one or more graphical user interfaces associated with the speakerphone system. |
| US09332101B1 |
Contact cropping from images
The present disclosure provides methods and systems for storing image data in a mobile device. In some embodiments, the method includes generating an image on the mobile device, identifying automatically at least one person in the image, creating a cropped image of the at least one person and storing the cropped image to memory upon request of a user of the mobile device. |
| US09332100B2 |
Portable communications device
Improvements to enhance electronic books, particularly improvements having both a viewing and audio enunciation capability are disclosed. A exemplary user control is provided enabling a reader to receive a “recap” up to a point designated by the reader or, alternatively, allow the reader to “finish the book” by being provided with a summary, covering the material from a given point to the end. In another example, a pointing device (e.g., a touch pad) is provided along with curser on the display, enabling a reader to click on words for additional information. In still another example, when material of any kind is “read” to a user, the device may be used to automatically display images on the display screen associated with the material being read. In another example, an electronic book may be provided with a communications link or a short-range radio transmitter, such as a low-power FM transmitter. |
| US09332097B2 |
Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal is disclosed. The mobile terminal may include a front case, a rear case installed to a rear of the front case, an antenna module provided to the rear of the front case, the antenna module including a first region provided at a first edge portion of the front case and a second region provided at a second edge portion of the front case and a speaker provided between the first region of the antenna module and the front case to output sound to a space between the antenna module and the front case. |
| US09332096B2 |
Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal includes: a display module formed to output image information to one surface thereof; a window covering one surface of the display module; and a bonding member formed on an upper surface of the display module to bond the window to the display module, wherein the bonding member extends from the upper surface of the display module to one point of a rear surface the display module through a lateral surface of the display module to integrally fix a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel and a backlight module installed in the display module, and the display module is disposed between a rear surface of the window and a case forming the exterior of a terminal body. |
| US09332089B2 |
Data communication coordination with sequence numbers
Described are sequence numbers for client-server communication, to control a client's use of server resources. A server grants the client credits, and the client consumes a credit for sending each command to the server. Each credit corresponds to a sequence number, with the set of sequence numbers forming a valid command window. The server enforces that for each received command, the command includes a sequence number that is within the valid command window and that the sequence number has not been used with another command. The server may also maintain a maximum window size, such that clients with credits cannot send a command with a sequence number that beyond a maximum sequence number. When incorporated into a data communication protocol, quality of service, combating denial of service, detection of message loss, division of server resources, secure message signing, and other numerous benefits result. |
| US09332087B2 |
Dynamic buffer
Buffering an interactive digital content item includes downloading the interactive digital content item, and beginning execution of the interactive digital content item with a buffer after enough of the interactive digital content item is downloaded to fill the buffer and before the interactive digital content item is completely downloaded. The size of the buffer is dynamically set as a function of one or more experience parameters. |
| US09332083B2 |
High performance, distributed, shared, data grid for distributed Java virtual machine runtime artifacts
A server and/or a client stores a metadata hash map that includes one or more entries associated with keys for data records stored in a cache on a server, wherein the data records comprise Java Virtual Machine (JVM) artifacts or monitoring information. Each of the entries stores metadata for a corresponding data record, wherein the metadata comprises a server-side remote pointer that references the corresponding data record stored in the cache, as well as a version identifier for the key. A selected data record is accessed using a provided key by: (1) identifying potentially matching entries in the metadata hash map using the provided key; (2) accessing data records stored in the cache using the server-side remote pointers from the potentially matching entries; and (3) determining whether the accessed data records match the selected data record using the provided key and the version identifiers from the potentially matching entries. |
| US09332082B2 |
System and method for instantaneously deploying packetized alert data
One or more embodiments of the invention are directed to a system and method for instantaneously deploying packetized alert data in a one to many configuration or a many to many configuration where the data to be received by each recipient can be customized in a way that leaves a publisher with optimum control over the content or revenue generated from each deployment. |
| US09332080B1 |
Systems and methods for indicating a user state in a social network
Methods and Systems for determining a user state for a member of a social network are described. According to one embodiment, a method comprising receiving in a network of associated users user state information for a first user, wherein the network of associated users comprises user established relationships between users, determining a current user state for the first user; and outputting to a second user the user state information based at least in part on the current user state and a relationship based permission status is set forth. |
| US09332079B2 |
Generic activation and registration framework for wireless devices
A system and a method are provided for managing network activation with a carrier and registration with a service provider. In one example, the method determines a network activation status. If the network is not activated, a utility is used to perform the activation. Further, the status of registration with a provider is determined. If not registered, a request is sent to a server of the service provider for a registration file configured to gather user registration information. The registration file is then received from the server. The registration file is executed on the personal computer. Data gathered by the registration file is then returned to the service provider's server to complete the registration procedures. |
| US09332074B2 |
Memory to memory communication and storage for hybrid systems
The present invention relates to memory to memory communication and storage for hybrid systems. Under the present invention, a data stream is received on a first computing device of a hybrid system. An attempt is made to store the data stream on the first computing device up to a per stream limit and a total storage limit of the first computing device. It is then determined whether to store at least a portion of the data stream on a second computing device of the hybrid system that is in communication with the first computing device. This decision is based on the per stream limit and the total storage limit of the first computing device as well as a per stream limit and a total storage limit of the second computing device. Thereafter, the at least a portion of the data stream and a control signal are communicated to the second computing device for storage. |
| US09332073B2 |
Method and system for maintaining contact information
The present disclosure relates to communication technologies, and particularly, to a method, apparatus and system for maintaining contact information. The embodiment of the present invention provides a method for maintaining contact information, including: acquiring address book information of a user and authorization settings of the address book information of the user and saving the acquired in an address book server, receiving a subscription request from a subscriber device, and establishing, according to confirmation information from the subscribed-for user regarding the subscription request from the subscriber device, a subscription relation list for a subscribed-for user and subscriber device and updating, by the address book server, address book information of the subscriber device according to a subscription relation and authorization in the subscription relation list when the subscribed-for user modifies the address book information of the subscribed-for user in the address book server. |
| US09332068B2 |
Mechanisms for transparently converting client-server software agents to peer-to-peer software agents
A method of converting client-server software agents to peer-to-peer software agents coupling a client to an adaptor software module is provided. The method includes directly coupling a client in software to an adaptor software module, wherein said adaptor software services underlying traffic from an unmodified agent and relays it on behalf of said unmodified agent, wherein all traffic generated by said unmodified agent is relayed directly to said adaptor software module. |
| US09332067B2 |
Load sharing method and apparatus
Provided is a load sharing method, including that public network addresses are configured in a form of address pools; after traffic transmitted by user devices is received, the user devices are grouped according to traffic models transmitted by the user devices; CPU allocate the public network addresses to the user devices and translate private network addresses of the user devices into the public network addresses, wherein each of the address pools includes a plurality of address blocks, each of the plurality of address blocks corresponds to one CPU, each user group includes a plurality of user blocks, and each of the plurality of user blocks corresponds to one CPU. A load sharing apparatus is also provided. Thus, uneven sharing of public network address resources among a plurality of CPUs and loads of user devices can be avoided, thereby not only improving the processing speed of the CPUs for address translation, but also obtaining an excellent load sharing effect. |
| US09332066B2 |
Connection rate limiting for server load balancing and transparent cache switching
Each service in a computer network may have a connection rate limit. The number of new connections per time period may be limited by using a series of rules. In a specific embodiment of the present invention, a counter is increased each time a server is selected to handle a connection request. For each service, connections coming in are tracked. Therefore, the source of connection-request packets need not be examined. Only the destination service is important. This saves significant time in the examination of the incoming requests. Each service may have its own set of rules to best handle the new traffic for its particular situation. For server load balancing, a reset may be sent to the source address of the new connection request. For transparent cache switching, the connection request may be forwarded to the Internet. |
| US09332064B2 |
Computer system and remote control method thereof
A computer system and a remote control method thereof are provided. The method is adapted for the computer system having a network and a processor. In the method, the network card is used to receive a management interface request sent by a remote device thorough a network and send a system management interrupt to the processor, so as to wake up the processor and control the processor to enter a system management mode. Then, the processor loads a management monitoring program into a memory so as to execute the management monitor program. Finally, the processor processes the management interface request by using the management monitoring program in the system management mode, and replies a processing result to the remote device through the network by using the network card. |
| US09332057B2 |
Node having functionality that is inoperable unless the node is registered to a user account at a remote site
Systems and methods for providing registration at a remote site that may include, for example, a monitoring module that may communicate with a remote site. A registration protocol may be used by the monitoring module and the remote site in generating the messages communicated during the registration process. The monitoring module may gather and generate various identification information to be included in the registration protocol messages. The registration information provided by the monitoring module maybe stored at the remote site in a database server having a database. A confirmation message may be communicated from the remote site to the monitoring module that may either acknowledge successful registration or report that an error occurred during the registration process. |
| US09332055B2 |
Method and apparatus for routing XCAP requests
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for finding out which XDM server a specific user is allocated to in a network with several XDM servers. An HTTP proxy (120) receives an XCAP request (610) from an XDM client (100), including information related to a user associated with the XDM client. The HTTP proxy checks if the user exists in its storage (330), based on the received user information, and if not, the HTTP proxy creates a SIP request (630) including the user information, and passes it over to a SIP Proxy (130, 230). The SIP Proxy finds out which XDM server the user is allocated to by enquiring a subscriber database (140), and then the SIP proxy passes the XDM server address information back to the HTTP Proxy (640), which is then able to route the XCAP request (650) to the correct XDM server (150, 250). |
| US09332050B2 |
Media streaming with adaptation
A method and apparatus for receiving a media stream provided in a plurality of different, alternative encoded representations. Each representation comprises a series of discrete fragments and each fragment comprises a contiguous temporal segment of the stream. The method comprises: obtaining (240, 310) at least a part of a first fragment from a first one of the representations; obtaining (210, 320) at least a part of a second fragment from a second one of the representations, wherein the first and second fragments comprise temporal segments that overlap at least partially; decoding (250, 330) a first temporal segment of the media stream from the first fragment; and decoding (260, 350) a second, later temporal segment of the media stream from the second fragment. In this way, the method switches from receiving the stream in the first representation to receiving it in the second representation. |
| US09332047B2 |
Dynamic chunk manipulation for streaming mixed live and on-demand media: dynamic permutation layer
Timestamps for streams of media that transition from one media source to another (such as from live content to on-demand content, and vice versa) can be rewritten by a server to help ensure error-free streaming by the client. Embodiments can coordinate the creation of a client manifest with the dynamic creation of a requested segment of media (i.e., “chunk”) to determine how to rewrite timestamps of requested chunks such that they are continuous through the transition. |
| US09332044B2 |
System and method for automatically suggesting or inviting a party to join a multimedia communications session
The present disclosure includes a system and method for automatically suggesting or inviting a party to join a multimedia communications session. In some embodiments, a first party, which is not currently participating in an existing multimedia communications session, attempts to contact a second party, which is currently participating in the multimedia communications session. In these embodiments, the first party automatically receives a suggestion or invitation to join the multimedia communications session when the first party has permission to join. In some instances, the multimedia communications session is a video conference including audio and video communications. |
| US09332043B1 |
System and method for facilitating user interaction with a virtual space through a graphical chat interface
A system and method for facilitating user interactions with a virtual space through a graphical chat interface is disclosed. One or more potential inputs to the virtual space and/or virtual space status information may be determined dynamically for a user participating in a chat session through a graphical chat interface. An activity notification may be generated for the user based one the determined potential inputs and/or the virtual space status information. The generated activity notification may comprise graphical representation for the notification and as well as representation information for one or more controls facilitating the user to provide inputs requested by the activity notification through the graphical chat interface. User acceptance to the activity notification via the graphical chat interface may be received. One or more activity commands may be generated based on the received user acceptance and executed in the virtual space. |
| US09332022B1 |
Systems and methods for detecting suspicious internet addresses
The disclosed computer-implemented method for detecting suspicious Internet addresses may include (1) monitoring Internet communications of an entity (e.g., an organization or individual), (2) compiling an Internet-address history for the entity that includes one or more Internet addresses involved in the Internet communications of the entity, (3) detecting, after compiling the Internet-address history for the entity, an additional Internet address that may be used in future Internet communications involving the entity, (4) computing a similarity metric between the additional Internet address and at least one Internet-address in the Internet-address history, (5) determining that the similarity metric indicates that the additional Internet address is suspicious, and (6) performing a security action in response to determining that the similarity metric indicates that the additional Internet address is suspicious. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US09332021B2 |
Methods and systems for preventing security breaches
A security payload is attached to a received binary executable file. The security payload is adapted to intercept application programming interface (API) calls to system resources from the binary executable file via export address redirection back to the security payload. Upon execution of the binary executable file, the security payload replaces system library export addresses within a process address space for the binary executable file with security monitoring stub addresses to the security payload. Upon the binary executable computer file issuing a call to a given API, the process address space directs the call to the given API back to the security payload via one of the security monitoring stub addresses that is associated with the given API. The security payload then can assess whether the call to the given API is a security breach. |
| US09332016B2 |
Web server, information providing method, and information providing system
A server device includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor executes generating a list in which a privilege of which the number of accesses in a specified time period is larger than a predetermined reference value is associated with an attribute of a member who accessed the privilege more times than the predetermined reference value by reference to the memory. The processor executes estimating, when the server device has accepted access to a membership site from a user, an attribute of the user from a time of the access to the membership site or a site that the user accessed before the access to the membership site. The processor executes extracting a privilege associated with the attribute, and notifying the user of the extracted privilege. |
| US09332014B2 |
Distribution of broadcast content to controlled-environment facilities
A system for receiving satellite radio signals and/or internet content and extracting a plurality of channels from the satellite radio signals and/or internet content is disclosed. The content of the channels is converted to IP packets and streamed across an Ethernet network. In one embodiment, each of the channels is associated with an IP address or port. Users receive the content of the channels by selecting the IP address or port associated with the desired content. An administrator may control the channels that are available to the users. In one embodiment, the users each have a subscription to access the content, and the subscription may control the channels that the user access. |
| US09332013B2 |
Neural authentication system
In certain embodiments, a system receives a first request from a user to perform a function with an enterprise. The system communicates a second request for the user to provide a thought to facilitate authenticating the user with the enterprise. The system receives a string of characters corresponding to the thought. The string may be generated based at least in part upon electromagnetic signals, which the user generates by developing the thought. The system compares the received string to a stored string that corresponds to a thought of the user to authenticate the user. Based at least in part upon the comparison, the system determines whether the user is authenticated to perform the function. |
| US09332011B2 |
Secure authentication system with automatic cancellation of fraudulent operations
The present invention relates to a method and system to securely authenticate an operation request using a secure device. Automatic rejections are initiated on the basis of detection of mismatch of information by the secure device received from a server computer and an insecure terminal. The system and method further enables the user to manually confirm/reject operation requests by providing user inputs on an insecure terminal. |
| US09332009B2 |
Use, provision, customization and billing of services for mobile users through distinct electronic apparatuses
An office electronic apparatus is associated to an apparatus card and is able to use or provide a service by means of identification information; the identification information allows billing of the use or provision of the service. A mobile telephone terminal is associated to a subscriber card storing subscriber identification information. According to the method of the present invention, at least the subscriber identification information and preferably also subscriber authentication information are transferred from the mobile telephone terminal to an office electronic apparatus when the said mobile telephone terminal is in proximity of the office electronic apparatus, the transferred information is stored into the apparatus card of the office electronic apparatus, and the service is autonomously used or provided by the office electronic apparatus by means of the transferred information. |
| US09332008B2 |
Time-based one time password (TOTP) for network authentication
A Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) validator is interposed between a principal and a network service. The validator interacts with a mobile application (app) on the mobile device associated with the principal to dynamically supply a validator secret. The secret and, perhaps, other information are processed by the app to generate a TOTP when the principal attempts to access a protected resource of the network service. The validator independently generates the TOTP and compares the app generated TOTP, and on a successful match, a principal's access device is redirected for access to the protected resource. |
| US09332007B2 |
Method for secure, entryless login using internet connected device
A system, method, and computer-readable medium are disclosed for using an entryless One-Time Password (OTP) in an active tag environment. Authentication credentials associated with a user and an active tag device are submitted with an access request to an authentication server, where they are processed to generate an OTP credential, which is then stored in a directory service. Encryption operations are then performed on the OTP credential to generate an encrypted OTP credential, which is then provided to the active tag device, which in turn provides it to an active tag terminal. The active tag terminal then submits a request to the authentication server to verify the validity of the encrypted OTP credential. In response, the authentication server verifies its validity and then destroys the OTP credential stored in the directory service. The OTP credential is then decrypted by the active tag terminal and subsequently used to login the user. |
| US09332003B2 |
Systems and methods for discovering website certificate information
The disclosed computer-implemented method for discovering website certificate information may include (1) receiving, from a plurality of computing devices within a community of users, information that identifies the certificate statuses of websites visited by the computing devices, (2) identifying, by analyzing the information, at least one issue with the certificate status of at least one website visited by at least one of the computing devices, and (3) performing at least one remedial action in an attempt to correct the issue with the certificate status of the website. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US09332002B1 |
Authenticating and authorizing a user by way of a digital certificate
An administrator may issue a credential to a user and may define a policy that authorizes its use based on a predefined location. The policy and the credential may be bound in a digital certificate signed by a trusted party. When the user operates a computing device to access a resource, the computing device may present the digital certificate to the resource. In turn, the resource may use the digital certificate to authenticate the user and to verify that the policy authorizes his or her access. |
| US09332001B2 |
Customizable sign-on service
Techniques are described for providing customizable sign-on functionality, such as via an access manager system that provides single sign-on functionality and other functionality to other services for use with those services' users. The access manager system may maintain various sign-on and other account information for various users, and provide single sign-on functionality for those users using that maintained information on behalf of multiple unrelated services with which those users interact. The access manager may allow a variety of types of customizations to single sign-on functionality and/or other functionality available from the access manager, such as on a per-service basis via configuration by an operator of the service, such as co-branding customizations, customizations of information to be gathered from users, customizations of authority that may be delegated to other services to act on behalf of users, etc., and with the customizations that are available being determined specifically for that service. |
| US09332000B2 |
One-pass authentication mechanism and system for heterogeneous networks
A one-pass authentication mechanism and system for heterogeneous networks are provided. The mechanism comprises authenticating a user based on an authentication key and an authentication algorithm in response to a request of the user to register a first network, wherein the authentication key and the authentication algorithm are associated with a first user identity for the first network and a second user identity for a second network; and if the authentication is successful, then comparing the first user identity retrieved from an authentication database through the second user identity provided by the user to the first user identity provided by the user in the authentication, in response to a request of the user to register the second network, and setting up security associations between the user and the second network if the retrieved first user identity matches the first user identity provided by the user. |
| US09331999B2 |
Information processing system and authentication method
An information processing system includes a first authentication function unit that issues first authentication information which is necessary to perform an authentication collaboration function between the information processing system and an external service and indicates that an authentication is completed by a first authentication function; an administration unit that issues second authentication information which is necessary to use an internal service and indicates that the authentication is completed by a second authentication function and performs, when a collaboration authentication request using the second authentication information is received from an external apparatus and if the received second authentication information is authorized, the collaboration authentication request for the first authentication function and sends the collaboration authentication response from the first authentication function to the external apparatus; and an authentication function using unit that acquires the first authentication information by performing the authentication using the first authentication function. |
| US09331998B2 |
Dynamic secured network in a cloud environment
The disclosure presents systems, methods and computer program products relating to an overlay network in a cloud environment. A management machine may manage an overlay network. Machine(s), which may be provided by cloud provider(s), may be added to or removed from the overlay network. Data relating to a machine may be gathered and configuration data may be determined, for example when the machine is being added to the overlay network. A device associated with a user authorized for the overlay network may connect to the overlay network. The overlay network may include one or more secure tunnels wherein a private IP address or public IP address may encapsulate an overlay IP address. |
| US09331997B2 |
Systems and methods for managing disclosure of protectable information
A server and one or more portals cooperate with a first registered agency, an administrator of the first registered agency, a second agency, and an administrator of the second registered agency to determine whether access to protectable information should be granted to a registered requester. |
| US09331995B2 |
Secure configuration of mobile application
Secure configuration of a mobile application (“app”) includes sending the required configuration data for the app to the user's mobile computing device in a communication, for example an email with an attachment. A verification value is included in the attachment to protect the authenticity and integrity of the configuration data. A challenge code is issued to the user (or group of users). The challenge code is used to verify the configuration data. |
| US09331993B2 |
Authentication server and communication device
A communication device comprising a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory device is disclosed. The CPU is configured to send a first attach request including a first subscription identity (FSI) to the network apparatus, receive an authentication request including a random number and an authentication token from the network apparatus as a response to the first attach request. Further, the CPU is configured to authenticate the authentication token using the random number and a first key associated with the FSI, obtain a second key and a second subscription identity (SSI) in response to authentication of the authentication token failing, where SSI is obtained from the authentication request. The CPU is further configured to send an authentication failure to the network apparatus. The second key and SSI are stored in the memory device such that the second key is associated with SSI. |
| US09331979B2 |
Facilitating content accessibility via different communication formats
Methods and systems for facilitating content accessibility via different communication formats are provided. According to one embodiment, a method is provided for directing content requests to an appropriate content delivery network. A content request is received from a client. The content request relates to web page content published by a content publisher in an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) format or an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) format that is obtained by the content delivery network from the content publisher and is translated to the other format by the content delivery network prior to receiving any content requests for the web page content. A communication format through which the client is capable of communicating is determined. The content request is directed to a content delivery network that supports the communication format through which the client is capable of communicating. |
| US09331974B2 |
Connecting layer-2 domains over layer-3 networks
In one embodiment, a method includes building an address resolution cache for a layer-3 router in a first layer-2 datacenter, where the address resolution cache includes a plurality of entries, each of the entries containing a host network address, a host hardware address, and a switch identifier for a switch serving a host, intercepting an address resolution flood within the first layer-2 datacenter that seeks address resolution for a host in a second layer-2 datacenter, and generating a response to the address resolution flood that indicates a source in the second layer-2 datacenter, where data indicating the source in the second layer-2 datacenter is accessed from the address resolution cache. |
| US09331973B1 |
Aggregating content associated with topics in a social network
In order to facilitate access to relevant information, a system may determine topics that are of interest based on skills of users in a social network of users and annotations associated with content in the social network. Then, the system may identify experts knowledgeable about the topics among the users in the social network. These experts may be invited to aggregate and edit the topic content. For a given topic, the system may provide, to a subset of the experts, documents with suggested topic content and presentation formats for the topics. Based on feedback from the subset of the experts (such as modifications to one or more of the documents and/or the presentation formats), the system may modify or revise the documents. |
| US09331967B2 |
Browser/HTML friendly protocol for real-time communication signaling
In accordance with an embodiment, described herein is a system for real-time communication signaling protocol for use in a telecommunication network and communication in web-only Internet. The protocol facilitates adapting complex signaling on the server-side into simple operations towards the Web. In an embodiment the protocol is used to communicate between a server-side web signaling engine and a client-side communication controller. The client-side communication controller provides a JavaScript API to encapsulate the signaling layer. The web signaling engine includes a controller which terminates communications using the protocol, and normalizes communications into an internal protocol suitable for communication with telecommunications network systems. In an embodiment, the protocol utilizes JSON and a WebSocket connection and can be defined as a WebSocket subprotocol. |
| US09331961B2 |
Heterogeneous media packet bridging
Methods and systems for bridging network packets transmitted over heterogeneous media channels are provided. According to one embodiment, a network switching/routing blade server comprises network interfaces, including a first and second set operable to receive packets encapsulated within a first and second set of media transmissions, respectively, and each having a first and second framing media format, respectively. A single bridging domain is provided by a shared bridging application. A memory stores data structures for translating between the first and second framing media formats via an intermediate format. The netmods pass a received packet, through a switching fabric, to the bridging application, which determines a relay location for the packet and whether the relay location is among the other set of netmods. Responsive to an affirmative determination, the bridging application uses the translation data structures to translate the packet before relaying the packet to the relay location. |
| US09331957B2 |
Cache control for web application resources
Cache control for Web application resources can include receiving a cache manifest for a Web application, wherein the cache manifest specifies a Web page of the Web application, and determining, using a processor, a resource that is required by the Web page. A closure collection can be built that includes the resource required by the Web page. A reference to the resource can be written to the cache manifest. |
| US09331954B2 |
Functional device, access system, and communication establishing method
A functional device can communicate with an access apparatus through wireless communication. At least one additional device can be connected to the functional device. The functional device includes an access controller that performs an initialization process of the additional device to obtain characteristic information of the additional device from the additional device, before establishing communication between the access apparatus and the functional device, a memory that stores the obtained characteristic information, a communication unit that performs transmission and reception of data with the access apparatus, and a communication controller that transmits the characteristic information stored in the memory to the access apparatus without performing an initialization process of the additional device, upon establishment of communication with the access apparatus by the communication unit. |
| US09331951B2 |
Path discovery in data transport networks based on statistical inference
A method and network management node for determining the managed nodes on a path from a given source node to a given destination node based on a statistical inference of traffic volume reports available from the nodes. Traffic counts from Performance Management (PM) counters are collected from all managed transport nodes including the source and destination nodes. Based on the observed pattern of traffic volume received from the PM counters, the most likely matching path from a given source to a given destination is selected. If the traffic counts are insufficient to establish a path with adequate certainty, the method may optionally generate additional traffic from the source node to the destination node to increase the reliability of the path determination. |
| US09331947B1 |
Packet-rate policing and admission control with optional stress throttling
Systems and methods can provide for packet-rate policing and admission control with optional stress throttling. In some implementations, a broadband device can monitor bandwidth usage and respond after exceeding a maximum packet-rate threshold based on a per-channel basis. In other implementations, a broadband device can monitor bandwidth usage and respond after exceeding a maximum packet-rate threshold based on a per-service-flow basis. In additional implementations, a broadband device processor can feedback data to the packet-rate policer to throttle the packet rate based on processor utilization. Policing data traffic based on packet-rate instead of bandwidth can increase flexibility to service providers as an increasing number of services are deployed to users. |
| US09331946B2 |
Method and apparatus to distribute data center network traffic
Exemplary embodiments provide a technique to improve the system availability of the systems that have multiple links and are connected to a network fabric. In one embodiment, a switch comprises: a memory storing a first logical group which has a first plurality of IP addresses of a first plurality of ports and is assigned to a first ID (identifier), and a second logical group which has a second plurality of IP addresses of a second plurality of ports and is assigned to a second ID; and a controller controlling to cause a logical path of the first logical group to use a first physical path which is different from a second physical path to be used by a logical path of the second logical group, based on the first ID and the second ID. |
| US09331945B2 |
Method and network device for transmitting data stream
A method and a network device for transmitting a data stream are provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure. The present disclosure relates to the field of communications, can ensure the effective transmission of the data stream, and enhances the quality of service of the network. The method for transmitting a data stream includes: determining, according to a forwarding table, candidate forwarding ports for transmitting the data stream; determining, according to a priority level of the data stream and priority levels of the candidate forwarding ports, forwarding ports for transmitting the data stream; transmitting the data stream through a first forwarding port of the forwarding ports; when the first forwarding port is congested, transmitting the data stream through a second forwarding port of the forwarding ports. The embodiments of the present disclosure can be adopted to transmit the data stream. |
| US09331931B2 |
Path selection based on hop metric distributions
In one embodiment, a network device determines, for each particular path of a plurality of paths in a computer network, a hop metric distribution that indicates, for each interval of the hop metric distribution, a number of hops along the particular path that have a hop metric value within a corresponding interval. As such, the device may then select a path from the plurality of paths that minimizes the number of hops with correspondingly poor hop metric values along the selected path based on the hop metric distribution, and may forward traffic on the selected path, accordingly. |
| US09331926B2 |
System and method for presence notification based on presence attribute
Methods and apparatuses are provided for providing a presence notification. A presence server receives a request including a filtering rule from a watcher client. The filtering rule is defined based on presence attributes of the watcher client. The presence server stores a notification blocking filter corresponding to the filtering rule, when the request has been authorized using authorization related information. |
| US09331922B2 |
Automatic recover after loss of signal event in a network device
A switch device can identify when a loss of signal event occurs on a communication link connecting a local link partner and a remote link partner. The switch device may automatically perform a link restart process to restore communication with the remote link partner without performing a speed negotiation with the remote link partner. The link restart process may include disabling a transmitter for a recovery duration and configuring a transmitter and a receiver to an initial configuration state. The link restart process may also synchronize the start of a training protocol communication between the local link partner and remote link partner. The switch device may also perform the link restart process when traffic received from the remote link partner fails a link criteria. |
| US09331921B2 |
Internet connected household identification for online measurement and dynamic content delivery
A method, apparatus, system, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to identify an internet connected household (ICH). An Internet Protocol (IP) address is received at an Internet entity. Determinations are made regarding whether the IP address belongs to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides residential internet service, whether device activity from the IP address does not exceed a defined activity threshold, and whether an IP assignment age for the IP address is greater than a defined threshold age. Based on the determinations, the IP address can be identified as belonging to an ICH or not. |
| US09331920B2 |
Media path monitoring over a secure network
Techniques are provided for obtaining header information from a packet configured for real-time communications transport over a network. The header information is used to monitor network performance of one or more secure portions of the network. The packet is encrypted using a security protocol and encapsulated using a transport protocol to produce a transport packet for transmission over the network. The transport packet header information is inserted into the transport packet prior to transmission over the network. The header information is used by a downstream network device or network analyzer to determine performance metrics for the network without decrypting the encrypted packet. |
| US09331914B2 |
Service specific bandwidth policy configuration in data networks
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for service specific bandwidth policy configuration in a data network (100) comprising a service management server (150), an access node (120) and an intermediate node (130, 140). The methods of the present invention comprise the steps of receiving a message comprising a service configuration for a client device connected to the data network and information regarding the bandwidth policy of the service configuration from the service management server (150). A service according to the information regarding the bandwidth policy of the service configuration is configured in the access node (120) and the intermediate node (130, 140), respectively. |
| US09331910B2 |
Methods and systems for automatic generation of routing configuration files
Described herein are methods and systems for automatically generating routing configuration files based on a network topology and a collection of routing configuration templates. Such automatically generated routing configuration files may be suitable for a network running one or more of the RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS and BGP routing protocols. The network topology may be specified in a graph description language, such as DOT, and/or a graph modeling language, such as GraphML. The routing configuration templates include certain routing protocol commands or sequence of commands that are frequently repeated in the configuration of a network device. Based on the network topology, the routing configuration templates are instantiated in a certain fashion, and any placeholders therein are replaced with information specific to the network topology. |
| US09331909B2 |
System and method for handling a configuration request
The invention relates to a system, device and method for handling a configuration request. The system comprises a plurality of auto-configuration servers and an auto-configuration server management device communicatively coupled to the plurality of auto-configuration servers. The auto-configuration server management device is arranged for communication over the network with a manageable electronic device, and is arranged for receiving the configuration request from the manageable electronic device. One or more auto-configuration servers that can handle the configuration request are identified based on the identification of the manageable electronic device. The load of the one or more identified auto-configuration servers is analyzed, and based on the load analysis, an auto-configuration server is selected as destination address for the configuration request. The invention improves the configuration of customer premises devices. |
| US09331908B2 |
Specifying priority on a virtual station interface discovery and configuration protocol response
A method implemented by a network component is provided. The method includes receiving a Virtual Station Interface (VSI) Discovery Protocol (VDP) request from an Edge Virtual Bridging (EVB) station and transmitting, to the EVB station, a VDP Response in response to the request. The VDP Response includes a VDP Type-Length-Value (TLV) having a Filter Information field. The Filter Information field is configured to specify a Priority Code Point (PCP) value associated with one or more Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Identifier (VID) values carried by the VDP Response. The PCP value is carried in a PCP field and adopted by the EVB station as a default PCP value associated with the VSI and at least one VID. The Filter Information field further contains a PCP Significant (PS) field associated with each PCP field, and wherein the PS field indicates whether the PCP field carries the PCP value. |
| US09331907B1 |
Network traffic monitoring
A first set of bandwidth utilization data comprising a bandwidth utilization for one or more links in a network is determined. Also, a second set of bandwidth utilization data comprising a bandwidth utilization for one or more media paths in the network is determined. At least some of the first set of bandwidth utilization data is compared to at least some of the second set of bandwidth utilization data, thereby providing information useful for monitoring the network. |
| US09331906B1 |
Compartmentalization of the user network interface to a device
A device has physical network interface port through which a user can monitor and configure the device. A backend process and a virtual machine (VM) execute on a host operating system (OS). A front end user interface process executes on the VM, and is therefore compartmentalized in the VM. There is no front end user interface executing on the host OS outside the VM. The only management access channel into the device is via a first communication path through the physical network interface port, to the VM, up the VM's stack, and to the front end process. If the backend process is to be instructed to take an action, then the front end process forwards an application layer instruction to the backend process via a second communication path. The instruction passes down the VM stack, across a virtual secure network link, up the host stack, and to the backend process. |
| US09331905B1 |
Configuring ethernet elements via ethernet local management interface
Examples disclosed herein provide systems, methods, and software to establish service configurations via Ethernet Local Management Interface. In one example, a method of operating a communication system to configure Ethernet elements includes, in a request Ethernet element, determining identification data based on a media access control (MAC) address and a virtual local area network (VLAN) for the requesting Ethernet element. The method further provides, in the requesting Ethernet element, transferring, via Ethernet Local Management Interface (E-LMI), the identification data to a receiving Ethernet element. The method also includes, in the receiving Ethernet element, receiving the identification information, transferring a service configuration request based on the identification information to a configuration management system, and receiving a service configuration from the configuration management system. |
| US09331904B2 |
Formation and rearrangement of lender devices that perform multiplexing functions
A method includes establishing an ad-hoc network between a borrower and at least two lenders of bandwidth and establishing one lender of the at least two lenders as a multiplexer to manage data flow over the ad-hoc network between the borrower and lenders of the at least two lenders of bandwidth. The method may include providing a computer infrastructure to perform the steps of the invention. A system is also provided which includes a server having a database containing data associated with one or more lenders and a borrower in an ad-hoc network and at least one hardware and/or software component. The system may further include computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium to perform processes of the invention. |
| US09331900B2 |
Centralized management of access points
Systems and methods are provided for centralized access, control, and management of access points (AP) in a network architecture to facilitate easy and efficient maintenance and monitoring of access points, for example. Systems and methods are also provided for assigning unique identifiers to one or more access points, and use the identifiers through an interface, such as a command line interface (CLI) of an access controller (AC), to manage and monitor the one or more access points through their respective interfaces. System of the present disclosure further enables transitioning from CLI of a first access point to CLI of a second access point without going through AC. |
| US09331898B2 |
Alarm method for multi-mode base station, multi-mode base station, and communication system
The present invention provides an alarm method for a multi-mode base station. The method includes generating, by the multi-mode base station, alarm information in a first operation mode in a first multi-mode operation mode. The multi-mode base station determines that the alarm information is applicable to all operation modes in the first multi-mode operation mode. The multi-mode base station sends the alarm information as public alarm information of the first multi-mode operation mode to a network management system. The present invention further provides a multi-mode base station and a communication system. The present invention is capable of determining a scope of operation modes related to alarm information generated in the multi-mode base station, which is used to manage the alarm information. |
| US09331896B2 |
Server information handling system NFC ticket management and fault storage
Server information handling system deployment and maintenance is enhanced with automated trouble ticket generation at a mobile telephone through an NFC transaction with a management controller. NFC transactions coordinate authorization for replacement component installation and server information handling system replacement. In one embodiment, a bezel includes an NFC device that interfaces with a management controller and stores configuration information to aid installation of replacement server information handling systems in the event of a system failure. A back-up battery provides power to an NFC support circuit that stores fault codes detected by the management controller so that fault codes are available during management controller failures. |
| US09331894B2 |
Information exchange in data center systems
System information may be retrieved by an element manager on a device in a data center system where the element manager detects an application programming interface (API) call to the element manager from a centralized manager. The element manager establishes a two-way communication channel between the first element manager and the centralized manager according to a communications protocol. The element manager queries the centralized manager for data center system information through the two-way communication channel. The centralized manager manages a storage area network containing the device of the element manager. |
| US09331892B2 |
System and method for automatic sub-panel creation and management
Systems, apparatuses and methods are disclosed for creating and managing sub-panels. Device data may be received in the system from each of a plurality of user devices, wherein the device data includes device usage data, device configuration data, demographic data and the like. Data collection rules are created or loaded into a central processing apparatus, where the device data is processed in the central processing apparatus to determine if device data related to one or more user devices complies to the data collection rules. Sub-panels may be defined in accordance with the processing, wherein the sub-panel may include one or more devices determined to be compliant with the data collection rules. Modification instructions may be generated in the central processing apparatus for the sub-panel, wherein the modification instructions are configured to be transmitted to at least some of the devices in the sub-panel, and wherein the modification instructions include data enabling each device in the sub panel to modify or enable at least one of (i) data collection operations and (ii) data reporting relating to future device data. |
| US09331890B1 |
Extending websocket protocol
Receiving a WebSocket frame is disclosed. The WebSocket frame is received. It is determined whether the WebSocket frame includes a control byte sequence in a payload data portion of the WebSocket frame. In the event the WebSocket frame includes in the payload data portion, the control byte sequence and other data, the WebSocket frame interpreted as including a control message. In the event the WebSocket frame does not include in the payload data portion, the control byte sequence, the WebSocket frame interpreted as not including the control message. |
| US09331887B2 |
Peer-aware ranking of voice streams
A peer-aware voice stream ranking method that makes decisions based on information about participants of a voice conference over a network. Whether to send a participant's own audio packet out on the network is based both on information about the participant's own voice packet and voice packets that the participant receives from other clients. A Voice Activity Score (VAS) is computed for each frame of a particular voice stream. The VAS includes a voiceness component, indicating the likelihood that the audio frame contains speech or voice, and an energy level component that indicating the ratio of current frame energy to the long-term average of energy for a current speaker. Using the VAS from the participants, the method also ranks the client's voice stream as compared to other clients' voice streams in the voice conference. If there are participants higher ranking, the client's voice stream is not sent. |
| US09331884B2 |
Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding for frequency and quadrature-amplitude modulation in wireless communication system
An apparatus and a method for operating a transmission end in a wireless communication system that supports Frequency and Quadrature-Amplitude Modulation (FQAM) are provided. The method includes dividing an information bit stream into a plurality of portions, encoding each of the plurality of portions using different encoding schemes, and generating an FQAM symbol by combining result values of the encoding of each of the plurality of portions, wherein the encoding schemes are different according to at least one of an encoding order, an encoding rate, an input size, and an encoding technique. |
| US09331883B1 |
Wireless home network supporting concurrent links to legacy devices
A wireless access point (WAP) including: a station grouping module, a transmit selector, a spatial mapper, an output injector, and an input injector. The station grouping module selects a group of station nodes for concurrent MIMO communications. The transmit selector determines whether all station nodes in the group support a multi-user (MU) protocol. The spatial mapper precodes concurrent transmissions to the group using a precode matrix “Q” which spatially separates the concurrent MIMO transmissions to each station node in the group. The output injector injects preambles for synchronizing timing of the MIMO transmissions at the output of the spatial mapper, responsive to an affirmative determination by the transmit selector. The input injector injects preambles before precoding in the spatial mapper, responsive to a negative determination by the transmit selector; whereby transmission preambles are precoded when at least one station node in the group doesn't support the MU protocol. |
| US09331882B2 |
Crest factor reduction of carrier aggregated signals
The present disclosure advantageously provides methods and systems for crest factor reduction of multi-standard carrier aggregated signals. In one embodiment, a method of providing crest factor reduction for a carrier aggregated signal is provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises estimating a peak of a carrier aggregated signal based on a summation of instantaneous amplitudes of baseband representations of a number of component carriers of the carrier aggregated signal. The number of component carriers of the carrier aggregated signal is greater than or equal to 2. The method further comprises clipping the baseband representations of the component carriers if the estimated peak of the carrier aggregated signal is greater than a predefined clipping threshold. |
| US09331881B2 |
Methods and systems for embedding supplementary data channel in OFDM-based communication systems
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for embedding a supplementary data channel in OFDM-based communication systems. One embodiment takes the form of a process that includes obtaining a primary data signal that includes a given symbol, where the given symbol includes primary payload data prepended with a given cyclic prefix. The process also includes obtaining supplementary payload data. The process also includes identifying an available portion of the given symbol. The process also includes generating a modified primary data signal at least in part by replacing the available portion of the given symbol with a subset of the supplementary payload data. The process also includes outputting the generated modified primary data signal for transmission via an air interface. |
| US09331879B2 |
Multi-channel through-wall communication system using crosstalk suppression
A system for communicating through a solid wall uses piezoelectric transducers in a multiple-input multiple-output configuration and applies crosstalk suppression. Methods of suppressing or avoiding crosstalk between parallel communication channels includes zero-forcing, eigenmode transmission, and least mean squared error processing. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing can be used to increase transmission rates using many subchannels. Bit-loading can be used to maximize system performance. |
| US09331875B2 |
System and method for communication using orbital angular momentum with multiple layer overlay modulation
A communications system includes a transmitter for transmitting an optical signal including a plurality of data streams over an optical communications link. The transmitter includes first signal processing circuitry for processing each of the plurality of input data streams to generate a parallel pair of data streams including an in-phase stream (I) and a quadrature-phase stream (Q) for each of the plurality of input data streams. The first signal processing circuitry modulates a first and second parallel pair of data streams with a selected one of at least three mutually orthogonal functions at a first and second signal widths, respectively, to generate a plurality of first data sub-layers and a plurality of second data sub-layers and generates a plurality of composite data stream by overlaying the first data subs-layers with the second data sub-layers at a preconfigured overlay offset. Second signal processing circuitry places the plurality of composite data streams on a wavelength of the optical communications link. Each of the plurality of composite data streams having a different orbital angular momentum associated therewith to enable transmission of each of the plurality of composite data streams on the wavelength at a same time. |
| US09331873B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling data interface
Disclosed is an apparatus and a method for controlling data interface. The apparatus for controlling data interface comprises: a transmitting terminal outputting signal including a CDR (Clock Data Recovery) training signal, an align training signal and display data sequentially; a receiving terminal inputting the signals from the transmitting terminal; and a Rx monitoring device detecting an abnormal status of the receiving terminal by monitoring an input timing signal and an operating status of the receiving terminal, and resetting the receiving terminal when the receiving terminal operates abnormally. |
| US09331870B2 |
Switch, information processing apparatus, and information processing system
A switch receives a state change notice from a server via a port, the state change notice indicating that the state is changed. When a port receives a state change notice, the switch shifts the state of the port to a waiting-for-driver-start-up state to prevent execution of a process that corresponds to a signal that is received from the server. When the port receives, after it is shifted to the waiting-for-driver-start-up state, a signal that satisfies a predetermined condition from the server, the switch releases the port from the waiting-for-driver-start-up state. |
| US09331869B2 |
Input/output request packet handling techniques by a device specific kernel mode driver
The input/output request packet (IRP) handling technique includes determining if a received input/output request packet should receive a given handling. If the input/output request packet should receive the given handling, the input/output request packet is dispatched to a device specific dispatch input/output request packet handler. Otherwise, the input/output request packet is redirected to an operating system dispatch input/output request packet handler. |
| US09331862B2 |
Methods for determining proximity of a mobile device and an appliance and for operating the same
A method for determining proximity of a mobile device to an appliance and for operating the appliance and the mobile device is provided. The method includes identifying the mobile device and/or the appliance with a Media Access Control or MAC header and establishing a proximity of the mobile device to the appliance based at least in part on a Received Signal Strength Indicator or RSSI. A service of the appliance can be executed if the RSSI is greater than a threshold value. |
| US09331856B1 |
Systems and methods for validating digital signatures
A computer-implemented method for validating digital signatures may include (1) receiving, through a camera of smart glasses, an image of an object, (2) decrypting, using a processor of the smart glasses, a digital signature on the object to obtain a decrypted digital signature, (3) attempting, using the processor of the smart glasses, to validate the object by comparing content of the object with the decrypted digital signature, and (4) outputting a result of the attempt to validate the object from an output component of the smart glasses. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US09331854B2 |
Message authentication method in communication system and communication system
Each of ECUs counts the number of messages transmitted for each of CAN IDs. A transmission node that has transmitted a main message produces an MAC from a data field and the CAN ID in the main message and a counter value corresponding to the CAN ID, and transmits the MAC as an MAC message. A reception node that has received the main message produces an MAC from the data field and the CAN ID contained in the main message and the counter value corresponding to the CAN ID, and determines whether the MAC matches the MAC contained in the MAC message. By so doing, verification whether the main message is valid or not can be made. According to this configuration, message authentication by the MAC can be made without changing a CAN protocol. |
| US09331848B1 |
Differential power analysis resistant encryption and decryption functions
Circuits, methods, and systems are provided for securing an integrated circuit device against Differential Power Analysis (DPA) attacks. Plaintext (e.g., configuration data for a programmable device) may be encrypted in an encryption system using a cryptographic algorithm. Ciphertext may be decrypted in a decryption system using the cryptographic algorithm. The encryption and/or decryption systems may obfuscate the plaintext, the ciphertext, and/or the substitution tables used by the cryptographic algorithm. The encryption and/or decryption systems may also generate cryptographic key schedules by using different keys for encrypting/decrypting different blocks and/or by expanding round keys between encryption/decryption blocks. These techniques may help mitigate or altogether eliminate the vulnerability of cryptographic elements revealing power consumption information to learn the value of secret information, e.g., through DPA. |
| US09331847B2 |
Countermeasure method and device for protecting data circulating in an electronic component
The disclosure relates to a countermeasure method in an electronic component, wherein binary data are transmitted between binary data storage units, binary data being transmitted in several transmission cycles comprising a first cycle comprising: randomly selecting bits of the data, transmitting the selected bits and transmitting bits, each having a randomly chosen value, instead of transmitting non-selected bits of the data. A last transmission cycle comprises transmitting bits of the data that have not been transmitted during a previous cycle. |
| US09331846B2 |
Communication method and reception apparatus
An electronic device that digitizes a baseband signal obtained from a received high-frequency signal; specifies a position of a preamble included in the digitalized signal; calculates a square of the preamble; specifies a peak from a value obtained by the square of the preamble; performs a fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the baseband signal using a position of the peak as a start of an FFT window; extracts phases of a plurality of frequency components for phase measurement from the baseband signal which has been subjected to the FFT; obtains a phase difference of the plurality of phases; and obtains a phase correction value of a reception signal using the phase difference and a phase reference. |
| US09331844B2 |
System and method for network synchronization and frequency dissemination
Distribution of reference frequency and timing information in a network involves determining latency between a first and second node from time delay between transmission of a reference frequency and timing signal and reception of an optical return timing signal in response. In a network with pairs of first and second optical fibers in optical fiber connections between network nodes, for transmission of optical data signals separately in mutually opposite directions between the network nodes respectively, provisions are made to transmit the reference frequency and timing signal and the resulting optical return signal via the same fiber, one in the same direction as the unidirectional data signal over that fiber and the other upstream. Repeaters between the nodes may be modified to pass such signals upstream and downstream. In an embodiment wherein the network provides for an optical supervisory channel, the optical filters for combining the optical supervisory channel signal with the unidirectional data signal and separating the optical supervisory channel signal from the unidirectional data signal are used to combine and separate the reference frequency and timing signal and to pass the optical return timing signal. For this purpose, further optical filters may be added outside the main optical data channel to combine and separate the reference frequency and timing signal and the optical supervisory channel and to pass the optical return signal back to the filter that separates the optical supervisory channel signal from the data signal. |
| US09331843B2 |
Quantum synchronization for classical distributed systems
A quantum mechanical synchronization system for a classical distributed computing system. Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen links are established providing entangled photons to provide the quantum synchronization. In one embodiment, the system includes a laser oscillator pump, a spontaneous parametric down-conversion element coupled to the laser oscillator pump, the spontaneous parametric down-conversion element having a first optical output and a second optical output, a first photodetector coupled to the first optical output, a first clock coupled to the first photodetector, a second photodetector coupled to the second optical output by an optical link, and a second clock coupled to the second photodetector. |
| US09331835B1 |
Radio frequency (RF) front-end circuitry for wireless local area network (WLAN), wide area network (WAN) and global positioning system (GPS) communications
Radio frequency (RF) front-end circuitry and methods of operating the same are described. One apparatus includes multiple antennas and a RF front-end circuitry. The RF front-end circuitry includes: a selection switch coupled to a second antenna, a first RF transceiver coupled to a first antenna and selectively coupled to the second antenna via the selection switch; a second RF receiver coupled to the first antenna; and a third RF transceiver selectively coupled to the second antenna via the selection switch. The first antenna receives signals for the first RF transceiver and the second RF receiver. The selection switch selectively couples the second antenna to the first RF transceiver in a first mode of the RF front-end circuitry and selectively couples the second antenna to the third RF transceiver in a second mode of the RF front-end circuitry. |
| US09331834B2 |
Channel bandwidth detection
A method for detecting a channel bandwidth for a signal, comprises the steps of: determining a differential operator between carriers of the signal; determining a signal power for the signal; and detecting the channel bandwidth as a function of the determined differential operator and the determined signal power, wherein the signal is processed as a function of the detected channel bandwidth. |
| US09331830B2 |
Precoder structure for MIMO precoding
The teachings herein present a method and apparatus that implement and use a factorized precoder structure that is advantageous in terms of performance and efficiency. In particular, the teachings presented herein disclose an underlying precoder structure that allows for full PA utilization. According to this structure, an overall precoder is constructed from a conversion precoder and a tuning precoder. The conversion precoder comprises a block diagonal matrix and has 2┌k/2┐ columns, where k is a non-negative integer. Each tuning precoder has the following properties: all non-zero elements are constant modulus; every column has exactly two non-zero elements; and every row has exactly two non-zero elements; two columns either have non-zero elements in the same two rows or do not have any non-zero elements in the same rows; and two columns having non-zero elements in the same two rows are orthogonal to each other. If row m in a tuning precoder column has a non-zero element, so does row m+┌k/2┐. |
| US09331827B2 |
Enhanced receiver configuration adaptive to cyclic prefix configuration
A method in a first radio node is described for adapting a receiver type in the first radio node. The first radio node includes a first and a second receiver types. The first radio node is included in a wireless communications network, which further includes a second radio node and at least one third radio node. The method includes determining a Cyclic Prefix, CP, length of at least one radio signal transmitted by the second radio node, and a CP length of at least one radio signal transmitted by the at least one third radio node. The first node then adapts, the receiver type to be one of the first type and the second types. This is done based on a relation between the CP length of the radio signal transmitted by the second radio node, and the CP length of the radio signal transmitted by the third radio node. |
| US09331822B1 |
Clock and data recovery circuit and method for estimating jitter tolerance thereof
A clock and data recovery circuit and a method for estimating jitter tolerance thereof are provided. A first phase signal is generated by a phase detector, and a second phase signal is used to generate a clock signal. The second phase signal is set to be identical to the first phase signal during an operation mode. A counting is started and the first phase signal is inversed to generate the second phase signal during a test mode. Whether a data signal has an error is determined. The counting is stopped to generate a count value when determining that the data signal has the error during the test mode. A tracing speed is computed according to the count value and a predetermined unit interval. |
| US09331820B2 |
Method and apparatus of uplink scheduling and HARQ timing
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling an uplink (UL) scheduling and Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) timing supported in a TDD-FDD CA environment. The method includes receiving, on a first serving cell, at least one of a first UL grant and a first Physical HARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) about a second serving cell through a cross-carrier scheduling, and receiving, on the second serving cell, at least one of a second UL grant and a second PHICH about the second serving cell through a self scheduling. According to aspects of the present invention, in a TDD-FDD carrier aggregation deployment environment, an efficient UL scheduling/HARQ operation may be performed for a UE in which a cross-carrier scheduling is configured. Further, in order to satisfy high data rate required by a UE, data transmission efficiency may be enhanced in accordance with the purpose of carrier aggregation. |
| US09331819B2 |
Method for implementing HARQ feedback, and method and device for allocating uplink subframe
Disclosed are a method for implementing HARQ feedback, and a method and device for allocating an uplink subframe. The method is: determining a TDD uplink/downlink reference configuration used for FDD PDSCH HARQ feedback, and allocating, according to the number of uplink subframes indicated by the TDD uplink/downlink reference configuration in a radio frame, an FDD downlink subframe corresponding to ACK/NACK information borne by an uplink subframe indicated by the TDD uplink/downlink reference configuration to the uplink subframe, so that numbers of FDD downlink subframes corresponding to ACK/NACK information borne by the uplink subframes indicated by the TDD uplink/downlink reference configuration are approximately equal. In this way, ACK/NACK information corresponding to downlink data can be timely and accurately fed back, so as to perform accurate data retransmission, thereby effectively ensuring the system performance. |
| US09331818B2 |
Method and apparatus for optimized HARQ feedback with configured measurement gap
A method and apparatus for improved downlink data transport with hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and a measurement gap are provided. A user equipment (UE) receives from a network a transmission grant for downlink data on a first control channel. The UE receives the data from the network via a transport channel. In response to the received data, the UE determines whether transmission of an acknowledgement message falls in a measurement gap. Upon determining that the transmission of the acknowledgement message by the UE falls in the measurement gap, and prior to receiving from the network a retransmission grant for the data on the first control channel, the UE sends the acknowledgement message on a second control channel in a sub-frame following the measurement gap. The first control channel is associated with the second control channel. |
| US09331816B2 |
Method for receiving ACK/NACK signal in mobile communications system
A method for transmitting information of resources for use in transmission of ACK/NACK signals in a mobile communication system is disclosed. An example method for receiving ACK/NACK signals in a mobile communication system is also disclosed. When resources for transmission of data and resources for transmission of control information of the data are scheduled through virtual unit resources, the method identifies information of resources for receiving an ACK/NACK signal for transmission data mapped to information of at least one of a virtual unit resource allocated to the transmission data and a virtual unit resource allocated to control information of the transmission data, and receives the ACK/NACK signal for the transmission data through the information of resources for receiving the ACK/NACK signal. |
| US09331815B2 |
Transmission device, reception device, transmission method, and reception method
A transmission device for rigorously protecting important information when information is transferred via a best-effort network. In this transmission device, a quality control information retention unit holds quality control information set by a user. A delay amount instruction unit determines the retransmission upper limit frequency of packets for each real-time streaming on the basis of transmission quality information from a reception device and the quality control information held by means of the quality control information retention unit. Retransmission control units accumulate packets during a fixed period in accordance with the retransmission upper limit frequency determined by means of the delay amount instruction unit, and generate retransmission packets in accordance with a retransmission request from the reception device. |
| US09331811B2 |
Optical communications networks, optical line terminations and related methods
Wireless communication systems are provided including a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is configured to transmit a first polarized signal and a second polarized signal to the receiver, and in accordance with an instruction from the receiver, halt transmission of the second polarized signal. The receiver is configured to receive the polarized signals from the transmitter, determine whether or not the reception quality of the second polarized signal is below a threshold, and if so, instruct the transmitter to halt transmission of the second polarized signal. |
| US09331810B2 |
Method and system for providing dedicated service on a passive optical network
An approach for providing dedicated service in a passive optical network (PON) is described. A dedicated service generates a multi-wavelength optical signal comprising a plurality of sub-signals corresponding to carrier wavelengths, modulate the plurality of sub-signals simultaneously with a content signal and transmit the plurality of sub-signals to one or more respective subscribers over an optical distribution network. |
| US09331806B2 |
System and method for searching for Zadoff-Chu sequences during a physical random access channel search
A system that includes an interface, a processor; and a hardware accelerator. The hardware accelerator is arranged to perform, for each Zadoff-Chu sequence of at least a first sub-set of the set of Zadoff-Chu sequences, a first hardware accelerator set of operations that includes frequency to time domain conversion to provide third intermediate vector that is associated with the Zadoff-Chu sequence. The processor is arranged to complete the Zadoff-Chu sequence search in response to the third intermediate vector—whereas the hardware accelerator and the processor are arranged to partially search the same Zadoff-Chu sequence at different periods of time. |
| US09331799B2 |
Synchronous audio playback
A method and device for synchronously playing audio data over a number of audio playback devices that are connected to a network. The distribution of particular audio data to a plurality of audio playback devices that are adapted to play audio, where the audio playback devices are all connected to a network over which audio data is delivered from a digital audio source to the audio playback devices, can be accomplished by determining when more than one of the audio playback devices has been directed to play the particular audio data, and in response to the determination directing that two or more of the audio playback devices synchronously play the particular audio data. |
| US09331794B1 |
Measuring impairments of digitized signals in data and timing recovery circuits
A method of measuring signal impairments is disclosed for use in an asynchronous Digital Signal Processing (DSP) based data and timing recovery circuit including an interpolator circuit. The method includes: calculating amplitude values for data and timing recovery; calculating an interpolation index for the interpolator circuit; and overriding the interpolation index. In another implementation, a method of measuring signal impairments in an asynchronous DSP-based data and timing recovery circuit including an interpolator circuit includes: calculating amplitude values for data and timing recovery; calculating a timing control signal; and overriding the timing control signal. |
| US09331792B2 |
Acoustic wave communication system and receiver
A receiver of the present invention includes a microphone, an unnecessary signal remover, and an FM detector. The microphone receives a transmission signal generated by frequency modulating a signal in a frequency band that is receivable by the microphone, on the basis of transmission data. The unnecessary signal remover removes unnecessary signal components by processing the received signal from the microphone. The FM detector restores transmission data by performing FM detection of the received signal from which unnecessary signal components were removed by the unnecessary signal remover. |
| US09331787B2 |
Optical communication device
An optical communication device includes a printed circuit board (PCB), a light emitting element, a light receiving element, and a light waveguide. The PCB includes a substrate. The substrate includes a first end surface and a second end surface opposite to the first end surface. The light emitting element is electrically connected to the first end surface. The light receiving element is electrically connected to the second end surface. The light waveguide includes a light incident end and a light emergent end. The light waveguide is embedded in the substrate. The light incident end is exposed to the first end surface and optically aligned with the light emitting element along a transmitting direction of the light waveguide. The light emergent end is exposed to the second end surface and optically aligned with the light receiving element along the transmitting direction of the light waveguide. |
| US09331786B2 |
Managing downstream non-broadcast transmission in an ethernet passive optical network (EPON) protocol over coax (EPoC) network
An OLT comprising an optical port configured to couple to an optical distribution network, a processor coupled to the optical port and configured to generate a DL-MAP based on non-broadcast downstream bandwidth allocations for a plurality of network units, wherein each of the downstream bandwidth allocations is not assigned to all of the network units, generate an EPON MPCP downstream gate message comprising the DL-MAP, and embed the DL-MAP in the EPON MPCP downstream gate message, and a transmitter coupled to the processor and the optical port, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the EPON MPCP downstream gate message to the network units via the PON. |
| US09331784B2 |
Dynamic tunable low latency chromatic dispersion compensator
A dynamic tunable chromatic dispersion compensator with low latency is provided that includes a chirped fiber Bragg grating in a compensating optical fiber core. The chirped fiber Bragg grating includes wavelength gratings spaced at distances varying with respect to the length of the compensating optical fiber core to compensate for differential delay in a synchronous time protocol for a bidirectional computer data communication link. The dynamic tunable chromatic dispersion compensator also includes one or more controllable elements to modify the length of the compensating optical fiber core in response to one or more commands, and an optical junction to optically couple the chirped fiber Bragg grating to an optical fiber of the bidirectional computer data communication link. |
| US09331775B2 |
Method and system for detecting broadcast signals transmitted by terrestrial sources and received by a satellite
A method (50) for detecting broadcast signals, transmitted by terrestrial sources (40) and received by a satellite (20), in individual signals obtained respectively from different individual antennas (24) of an antenna array (22) of the satellite, includes a first detection iteration (51a) and a second detection iteration (51b), each of the first and second detection iterations including a step (52) of forming, from the individual signals, virtual beams of different respective main radiation directions, and a step of searching for the presence of broadcast signals in the virtual beams. Furthermore, for at least one broadcast signal detected during the first detection iteration, the respective contributions of the at least one detected broadcast signal to the different individual signals are attenuated, relative to the first detection iteration, for all or part of the virtual beams formed during the second detection iteration. A system (10) for detecting broadcast signals is also described. |
| US09331773B2 |
Instantaneous wireless network established by simultaneously descending parafoils
A method is described that involves establishing a wireless network between a wireless access node of an existing network and a remote location by wirelessly linking a plurality of electronic processing circuits each transported by a respective parafoil. The wirelessly linked processing circuits are to route packets from the wireless access node to the remote location. |
| US09331767B1 |
Translation of basis functions for feedback in a wireless network
An example technique may include transmitting, by a base station to a mobile station, sounding signals via a first set of basis function beams, and receiving, by the base station from the mobile station in response to the transmitting, feedback signals indicating a translated basis-function weighting for one or more basis function beams of the second set of basis function beams, the translated basis-function weighting for one or more basis function beams being based on the first set of basis function beams, wherein the second set of basis function beams is different than the first set of basis function beams. |
| US09331766B2 |
Terminal apparatus, feedback control method, base station, pairing control method, program, and wireless communication system
Provided is a terminal apparatus including an estimation unit that estimates a channel to a base station by using a reference signal transmitted from the base station, a selection unit that selects a transmission weight desirable for down-link transmission on the channel from a plurality of transmission weight candidates in accordance with an estimation result by the estimation unit, and a feedback controller that controls feedback of the transmission weight selected by the selection unit to the base station. When the selection unit selects two transmission weights or more, the feedback controller feeds back the selected two transmission weights or more to the base station. |
| US09331764B2 |
Method and apparatus for aligning interference using a feed forward index in a hierarchical cell communication system
Provided is an interference aligning method and apparatus that does not perform full feed-forwarding in a hierarchical cell communication. A macro base station may generate respective transmission beamforming vectors of macro terminals to null interference channels to pico terminals and to remove interference among the macro terminals. The effective interference channels are based on reception beamforming vectors of the pico terminals. The macro base station may transmit, to a macro terminal, a feed-forward indicator (FFI) indicating a method of transmitting information associated with a reception beamforming vector of the macro terminal. The macro terminal may obtain information associated with the reception beamforming vector based on the FFI. |
| US09331763B2 |
Communication system, communication method, base station apparatus, and mobile station apparatus
In a communication system in which a plurality base station apparatuses are arranged such that the entirety or part of cells of the plurality of base station apparatuses overlaps with one another, a master base station apparatus calculates transmission weighting coefficients of the base station apparatuses and reception weighting coefficients of mobile station apparatuses such that directions of equivalent channels of interference signals received by the mobile station apparatuses connected to the base station apparatuses become orthogonal to the reception weighting coefficients by which the mobile station apparatuses multiply their respective reception signals. The base station apparatuses transmit the reception weighting coefficients to the mobile station apparatuses connected thereto, and the mobile station apparatuses perform a reception process by multiplying their respective reception signals including the interference signals by the reception weighting coefficients. |
| US09331762B2 |
Wireless communication system, wireless communication apparatus, and wireless communication method
A wireless communication system is disclosed. The wireless communication system performs data transmission using spatially multiplexed streams from a first terminal including N antennas to a second terminal including M antennas (N and M are integers larger than or equal to 2 and N>M). |
| US09331761B2 |
Method and apparatus for coding and interleaving for very high throughput wireless communications
A wireless transmitter can include a plurality of bandwidth modules, each bandwidth module processing data based on a predetermined frequency band. In one embodiment, such a wireless transmitter can include encoding components for receiving transmit data and generating encoded data. A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) stream parser can receive the encoded data and generate a plurality of MIMO streams. A first module parser coupled to a first MIMO stream can generate a first plurality of partial MIMO streams. A first bandwidth module can include a first interleaver that interleaves bits of the first partial MIMO stream and generates first interleaved data. A second bandwidth module can include a second interleaver that interleaves bits of the second partial MIMO stream and generates second interleaved data. A first inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) unit can combine and process the first and second interleaved data and generate a first transmission MIMO stream. |
| US09331754B2 |
Communication device and method for generating beamforming link
A communication device which generates a beamforming link between the communication device and an external device is provided. The communication device includes: a beamforming link generating unit which generates a first beamforming link between a first antenna of a plurality of antennas of the communication device and the external device, and which generates a second beamforming link between a second antenna of the plurality of antennas of the communication device and the external device; and a transmission unit which transmits data to the external device via each of the first beamforming link and the second beamforming link. |
| US09331752B2 |
Memory including wireless communication capability
A memory includes a control layer that includes a first radio communication unit that performs radio communication and a control unit that controls the radio communication; and a memory layer that includes a second radio communication unit that performs the radio communication with the first radio communication unit and a first storage unit that stores information, the memory layer being provided on the control layer. |
| US09331749B2 |
Communication system, communication apparatus, communication method, communication program and electric device
A first communication unit transmits, to an electrical home appliance, request information that requests electrical home appliance specifying information for specifying the electrical home appliance after an approach instructing screen is displayed on a display unit, and receives response information including at least the electrical home appliance specifying information from the electrical home appliance after the first communication unit and the electrical home appliance have approached each other within a communicable range, and a display control unit switches a display screen to a menu screen that is unique to the electrical home appliance on the basis of the response information received by the first communication unit. |
| US09331745B2 |
Electronic device and communication system for mediating establishment of communication between plurality of communication devices
An electronic device includes a communication unit configured to communicate with a first communication device or a second communication device, and a controller configured to control the communication through the communication unit. When the electronic device is brought close to the first communication device, the controller obtains identification information indicating the first communication device from the first communication device, and when the electronic device is brought close to the second communication device, the controller transmits the identification information and predetermined additional information to the second communication device. The second communication device activates an operation for establishing communication with the first communication device indicated by the identification information, when receiving the identification information and the predetermined additional information. |
| US09331742B2 |
Feedback impedance control for driving a signal
A system for driving a first signal onto a wireline includes a driver and feedback circuitry. The driver drives a deterministic signal onto the wireline with an unknown impedance load. The feedback circuitry measures a quality of the output signal from the wireline and modifies a gain of the first signal based on the quality of the output signal. The driver then drives the first signal onto the wireline with the modified gain. |
| US09331739B1 |
System and method for transmitting ancillary data
A method and system for encoding ancillary information at a transmitter in a high-speed communications network, the method comprising: generating an electromagnetic interference (EMI) reduction signal; receiving an ancillary data symbol; generating an EMI reduction signal variation based on the ancillary data symbol; and varying a characteristic of the EMI reduction signal based on the generated EMI reduction signal variation to encode the ancillary data symbol in the varied EMI reduction signal. |
| US09331738B2 |
Method, system, and apparatus for RF switching amplifier
Embodiments of RF switching amplifiers are described generally herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US09331737B2 |
Systems and methods for cancelling interference using multiple attenuation delays
A wireless communication device includes, in part, at least one antenna for receiving or transmitting a signal, and a cancelation circuit adapted to cancel or reduce the self-interference signal. The cancelation circuit includes, in part, a control block, N delay and attenuation paths, a combiner, and a subtractor. Each path includes a delay element and a variable attenuator whose attenuation level varies in response to a control signal generated by the control block. Each path receives a sample of the transmit signal and generates a delayed and attenuated (weighted) version of the sample signal. The combiner combines the N delayed and weighted versions of the sample signal to construct a signal representative of the self-interference signal. The subtractor subtracts the constructed signal from the received signal thereby the cancel or reduce the self-interference signal therefrom. |
| US09331732B2 |
Protective structure and electronic device having the same and method for manufacturing the same
A protective structure and an electronic device using the same are disclosed. The electronic device includes a first housing member, a second housing member, a blocking unit, and an operating module. The second housing member faces the first housing member, wherein a slit is located at the periphery of an enclosure disposed between the first and second housing members. The blocking unit, having a shape compatible with the shape of the slit, is disposed therein and includes a sealing member and a first foamable material. The sealing member is compressed by the first and second housing members, and the first foamable material is formed in the slit along an extending direction of the sealing member. |
| US09331729B2 |
Mobile terminal test device and mobile terminal test method
A frequency variation provider gives a predetermined frequency variation when a situation in which a mobile terminal approaches or is separated from a base station is simulated to a downlink (DL) signal which is transmitted to a mobile terminal by a transmitting unit. A receiving unit receives an uplink (UL) signal output from the mobile terminal which has received the DL signal and converts the UL signal into a baseband signal. A frequency variation detector detects a frequency variation of the UL signal from the baseband signal. A frequency corrector corrects the frequency of a local signal which is used by the receiving unit to obtain the baseband signal, on the basis of the detected frequency variation. A variation characteristic display displays the characteristics of the frequency variation of the UL signal transmitted from the mobile terminal on a display unit. |
| US09331727B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing signal interference
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and an apparatus for processing signal interference, including: splitting a first self-interference signal into at least two same sub self-interference signals, adjusting amplitudes and phases of the sub self-interference signals to obtain adjusted sub-signals, superposing the adjusted sub-signals and received signals, to obtain superposed sub-signals, filtering the superposed sub-signals by using filters of corresponding channels, to obtain wanted sub-signals, and merging each of the wanted sub-signals to obtain a complete wanted signal. Because received signals are separately filtered by using n different channels, it can be implemented that a self-interference signal can be effectively filtered out on each frequency band. |
| US09331726B2 |
Method for locating defective points in a high frequency (HF) signal transmission path
A method for locating defects in a signal transmission path by generating an HF signal having a frequency f1 and a signal modulated by a predetermined type of modulation; generating a HF signal 2 having a frequency f2; generating an intermodulation product in the form of an intermodulation product signal having frequency fIM-GENERATED from HF signals 1 and 2; introducing the HF signals 1 and 2 into the signal transmission path at an introduction point; receiving an intermodulation product from the HF signals 1 and 2 at a defective point and reflected back and corresponding to the generated intermodulation product, in the form of an intermodulation product signal; determining a time lag tx between the generated intermodulation product signal and the received intermodulation product signal by a cross-correlation and calculation of a length L between the introduction point and the place of signal reflection, from the time lag tx. |
| US09331725B2 |
Method and system for crest factor reduction
Methods and systems for crest factor reduction may comprise generating an original waveform, generating a distortion signal by reducing a crest factor of the original waveform, generating an error signal by subtracting out the original waveform from the distortion signal, generating a conditioned waveform by adding the error signal to the original waveform, and amplifying the conditioned waveform. The crest factor of the original waveform may be reduced based on spectral mask requirements. The crest factor of the original waveform may be reduced using a limiter. The power amplifier may comprise a programmable gain amplifier (PGA). The distortion signal may be generated based on a PGA model and/or a predistortion model. A signal from an output of the PA may be fed back to the PGA model. The PGA model may be dynamically configured. The crest factor of the original waveform may be reduced in an analog domain and/or a digital domain. The error signal may be filtered utilizing a distortion shaping filter. |
| US09331722B2 |
Feedback calibration of digital to time converter
This document discusses apparatus and methods for compensating non-linearity of digital-to-time converters (DTCs). In an example, a wireless device can include a digital-to-time converter (DTC) configured to receive a phase data information from a baseband processor and to provide a first modulation signal for generating a wireless signal, a detector configure to receive the first modulation signal and provide an indication of nonlinearities of the DTC, and a pre-distortion module configured to provide pre-distortion information to the DTC using the indication of nonlinearities. |
| US09331720B2 |
Combined directional coupler and impedance matching circuit
An output circuit with an integrated directional coupler and impedance matching circuit is disclosed. In an exemplary design, an apparatus includes a switchplexer and an output circuit. The switchplexer is coupled to at least one power amplifier. The output circuit is coupled to the switchplexer and a load (e.g., an antenna) and includes a directional coupler and an impedance matching circuit sharing at least one inductor. The output circuit performs impedance matching for the load. The output circuit also acts as a directional coupler and provides an input radio frequency (RF) signal as an output RF signal and further couples a portion of the input RF signal as a coupled RF signal. Reusing the at least one inductor for both the directional coupler and the impedance matching circuit may reduce circuitry, size, and cost of the wireless device and may also improve performance. |
| US09331717B2 |
Forward error correction decoding avoidance based on predicted code block reliability
A method and device for performing forward error (FEC) correction avoidance based upon predicted block code reliability in a communications device is provided. An avoidance unit comprising a metric computation unit and a decision unit generates a reliability metric based upon a received code block. The reliability metric is compared to a reliability threshold, and the forward error correction decoder in the communications device is disabled if the metric is below or equal to the threshold. |