| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09474192B2 |
Housing for electronic equipment and manufacturing method thereof
A method for manufacturing a housing for an electronic equipment containing metal housing configured to house an electronic equipment therein and a resin film with which the metal housing is coated includes the steps of heating a resin film so as to soften the resin film, coating a metal housing with the heated resin film, and adhering the coated resin film to the metal housing. The preferred housing is one in which an adhesive layer, a print layer, or both thereof is disposed between a resin layer contained in the resin film and the metal housing, and in which the resin film contains at least one thermoplastic resin selected from the group consisting of polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and polylactic acid (PLA). |
| US09474191B2 |
Power semiconductor module
Each of a plurality of power semiconductor module includes a can-type cooling case that is formed with a plate spring portion that generates compressive stress in the semiconductor circuit unit, an adjustment portion that is deformed to adjust elastic deformation of the plate spring portion, and a sidewall portion to which the plate spring portion and the adjustment portion are joined. |
| US09474190B1 |
Computer system with side plenum cooling
A rack-mountable computer system directs separate portions of a cooling airflow from an inlet air plenum in the computer system interior through separate air passages to remove heat from separate portions of a set of heat-producing components. The air passages can preclude a portion of cooling airflow removing heat from a component from being preheated by another component. Plenums and air passages can be established through the arrangement of components in the interior. Components can be arranged in progressive offsets throughout the depth of the interior to vary plenum flow area throughout the depth, which can progressively impede and redirect airflow through the inlet plenum into the air passages. Arrangements can include an angled row, a staggered configuration, etc. The computer system can include a chassis which can translate, while maintaining operation of hot-pluggable electronic components coupled throughout the depth, to enable swapping of hot-pluggable electronic components throughout the interior. |
| US09474189B2 |
Inverter device
An inverter device includes a heat dissipation casing having a principal surface, heat dissipation fins arranged on an opposite side to the principal surface, a first concave portion provided adjacent to a region corresponding to the heat dissipation fins on the principal surface, and a second concave portion provided adjacent to the region corresponding to the heat dissipation fins on the principal surface, a semiconductor module arranged in the region corresponding to the heat dissipation fins on the principal surface and including a diode module and an inverter module, an inrush-current suppression resistor sealed by a sealing material in the first concave portion and electrically connected between the diode module and the inverter module, and a regenerative resistor sealed by the sealing material in the second concave portion and electrically connected between the diode module and the inverter module. |
| US09474188B2 |
Sliding thermal contact for pluggable optic modules
Present thermal solutions to conduct heat from pluggable optical modules into heat sinks use a metal heat sink attached with a spring clip. The interface between the pluggable module and the heat sink is simple metal-on-metal contact, which is inherently a poor thermal interface and limits heat dissipation from the optical module. Heat dissipation from pluggable optical modules is enhanced by the application of thermally conductive fibers, such as an advanced carbon nanotube velvet. The solution improves heat dissipation while preserving the removable nature of the optical modules. |
| US09474187B2 |
Systems and methods for thermal management for telecommunications enclosures using heat pipes
Systems and methods for thermal management for telecommunications enclosures are provided. In one embodiment, a method for thermal management for modular radio frequency (RF) electronics housed within an electronics enclosure comprises: distributing heat generated from an RF electronics component installed on a first thermal region of an electronics module base plate across the first thermal region using at least one primary heat pipe that laterally traverses the first thermal region; distributing heat generated from the RF electronics component to a second thermal region using at least one secondary heat pipe not parallel with the at least one primary heat pipe; conductively transferring heat across a thermal interface between the electronics module back-plate and a backplane of an electronics enclosure that houses the electronics module, wherein the backplane comprises a plurality heat sink fins aligned with the at least one primary heat pipe and the at least one secondary heat pipe. |
| US09474186B2 |
Direct facility coolant cooling of a rack-mounted heat exchanger
A method is provided for dissipating heat from a rack. The method includes: disposing a coolant-cooled heat exchanger within the rack, and providing a coolant control apparatus. The coolant control apparatus includes at least one coolant recirculation conduit coupled in fluid communication between a facility coolant supply and return, wherein the facility coolant supply and return facilitate providing facility coolant to the heat exchanger. The control apparatus further includes a coolant pump(s) associated with the recirculation conduit(s) and a controller which monitors a temperature of facility coolant supplied to the heat exchanger, and redirects facility coolant, via the coolant recirculation conduit(s) and coolant pump(s), from the facility coolant return to the facility coolant supply to, at least in part, ensure that facility coolant supplied to the heat exchanger remains above a dew point temperature. |
| US09474185B2 |
Air flow methods and systems for a welder-generator
Configurations of internal components of a welder-generator are provided to improve efficiency of the cooling of the internal components. configurations are provided in which a single fan, such as an engine fan, drives a single airflow path through the welder-generator. Configurations are provided in which a primary engine fan drives a first airflow path and a secondary generator fan drives a second airflow path through the welder-generator. Internal components are thermally aligned such that air circulates first through components with low critical operating temperatures and last through components with higher critical operating temperatures. |
| US09474184B2 |
Chassis with distributed jet cooling
A chassis with distributed jet cooling is provided. The chassis includes one or more sidewalls defining a volume configured to substantially surround one or more heat generating components positioned within the volume. The chassis further includes at least one array of fins thermally coupled to a respective one of the one or more sidewalls and at least one synthetic jet assembly comprising a multi-orifice synthetic jet or a number of single orifice synthetic jets disposed on a side of a respective one of the array(s) of fins. The chassis further includes at least one attachment means for attaching a respective one of the at least one synthetic jet assemblies to a respective one of the one or more sidewalls. |
| US09474182B1 |
Slide rail assembly
A slide rail assembly includes a first rail, a first connection base, a second rail and a second connection base. The first rail includes two first sidewalls and a first lateral wall connected between the two first sidewalls. A first passage is defined by the two first sidewalls and the first lateral wall along a first direction. The first connection base is movably connected to the first rail and is movable relative to the first rail between a first position and a second position in the first passage, and configured to connect to a first arm of a cable management device. The second rail is capable of moving relative to the first rail along the first direction. The second connection base is connected to the second rail, and configured to connect to a second arm of the cable management device movably connected to the first arm. |
| US09474178B2 |
Electronics device housing
The invention describes an electronics device housing having two side wall elements, which are spaced apart from one another, for forming a housing having a housing interior for accommodating at least one printed circuit board, wherein at least one fitting location for conductor connection plug connectors is provided on at least one of the end faces in the intermediate space between the side wall elements. The electronics device housing has receiving devices in the region of the at least one fitting location, the receiving devices being designed to selectively receive—an ejector element, which can be pivotably mounted on the electronics device housing by the receiving devices, for ejecting a conductor connection plug connector from a fitting location, or—a locking element, which can be fixedly latched to the electronics device housing by of the receiving devices, for locking a conductor connection plug connector at a fitting location. |
| US09474175B2 |
Fixing device and electronic apparatus with the fixing device
An electronic apparatus includes a rack, a chassis slidably moved into the rack, and a fixing assembly. A positioning hole is defined near a front edge of the rack. The fixing assembly includes a fixing device fixed on a front wall of the chassis, a pushing member rotatably coupled with a lower portion of the front wall, and a threaded member. The pushing member includes a pushing tip capable of extending into the positioning hole. A rotary member and a sliding member are assembled in the fixing device; an elastic member is disposed between the fixing device and the sliding member. The rotary member defines a threaded hole; the threaded member extends through the pushing member to engage in the threaded hole. A number of teeth extend from a periphery of the rotary member, a bulge of the sliding member and is capable of insetting between two adjacent teeth. |
| US09474174B2 |
Electronic apparatus
A cover panel is located on a surface of an electronic apparatus, and includes at least one through-hole and is made of sapphire. A panel support member includes a plate part, support parts, and a reinforcing part. The plate part is opposed to the cover panel. The support parts are vertically arranged on both sides of the plate part and support the cover panel. The reinforcing part is located in the plate part and reinforces the plate part. An operation button passes through the through-hole. |
| US09474171B2 |
Battery wrap
The invention described herein generally pertains to batteries for a welding operation having insulating structure thereabout. Particularly, various welding batteries can be provided one one or more battery wraps that can be opened or closed to increase or decrease the insulating effect thereof. In some embodiments, battery wraps can be integrated with batteries used in hybrid welders. |
| US09474169B2 |
Display device
A display device may include a display module and a back cover positioned in a rear of the display module. The display module may include a display panel that includes a front substrate and a back substrate positioned opposite the front substrate, a film attached to a front surface of the front substrate, and a frame positioned in the rear of the back substrate. The film may include a first part that covers the front surface of the front substrate and a second part that extends from the first part and covers the side of the display module. At least a portion of each of the first part and the second part of the film is exposed. |
| US09474165B2 |
Substrate delivery device and strong acid or strong base etching adequate for wet process
The present invention provides a substrate delivery device and a strong acid or strong base etching adequate for a wet process. The substrate delivery device comprises: a plurality of first delivery rollers (2) parallel to one another in an etching chamber (1), a plurality of second delivery rollers (4) parallel to one another in a cleaning chamber (3) and a carrier (5) employed for carrying a substrate (100); the carrier (5) comprises two first side frames (51) located along a direction of delivering the substrate (100), two second side frames (53) connected to ends of the two first side frames (51), a plurality of first and second connection parts (55, 57) which are intercrossing and orthogonal in an area surrounded by the two first side frames (51) and the two second side frames (53) and a plurality of supports (59) at joins of the plurality of first and second connection parts (55, 57); the plurality of first and second connection parts (55, 57) are intercrossing and orthogonal with one another to form a plurality of hollow parts (52); the substrate (100) is located on the carrier (5). |
| US09474164B2 |
Module, electronic apparatus, moving object, and method of manufacturing module
A module includes an insulating substrate having an upper surface as a principal surface, a lid member having an internal space with the insulating substrate, and bonded to the upper surface in a first surface, a device element housed in the internal space, a semiconductor element connected to a top surface, which forms the both sides of the lid member together with the first surface, using a resin adhesive, electrodes electrically connected to the device element, and disposed on an upper surface of the insulating substrate in an area other than the connection area with the lid member, and a projection section formed of the same member as the lid member on the upper surface in an area between the electrodes and the lid member in a plan view. |
| US09474161B2 |
Circuit substrate having a circuit pattern and method for making the same
A circuit substrate includes: an insulative substrate formed with a pattern of a recess, the recess being defined by a recess-defining wall that has a bottom wall surface and a surrounding wall surface extending upwardly from the bottom wall surface; a patterned metallic layer structure including at least a patterned active metal layer disposed within the recess, formed on the bottom wall surface of the recess-defining wall, and spaced apart from the surrounding wall surface of the recess-defining wall, the patterned active metal layer containing an active metal capable of initiating electroless plating; and a primary metal layer plated on the patterned metallic layer structure. |
| US09474159B2 |
Component-embedded board and method of manufacturing same
Provided is a component-embedded board. The board includes: a first base including first substrate incorporating a first electric component and first electrode provided on a first face of the substrate and electrically connected to the electric component; a second electronic component fixed on the first face with a first adhesion portion therebetween; a second base including second substrate in which the second electronic component is embedded and second electrode exposed at a first face of the second substrate; a second adhesion portion arranged between the first and second bases; a third base including third substrate and third electrode exposed at a first face of the third substrate; and a third adhesion portion arranged between the second and third bases. The first, second and third electrodes are electrically connected to the second electronic component, and the second electronic component is surrounded, at least, by the first and third adhesion portions. |
| US09474155B2 |
Submount, assembly including submount, method of assembling and assembling device
The present invention pertains to a submount for mechanically and electrically coupling an electronic component to a carrier. The submount has a mounting portion for mounting the submount to the carrier and has attachment portions for holding the electronic component. The submount further has primary electric contacts for cooperation with respective electrical conductors in the carrier, and secondary electric contacts for cooperation with respective electric contacts of the electronic component. The secondary electric contacts are electrically connected to primary electric contacts. The attachment portions are coupled to the mounting portion by respective extension portions that are laterally stretchable in a plane defined by the mounting portion to allow a displacement of the attachment portions in a direction away from the mounting portion. |
| US09474153B2 |
Multi-stacked electronic device with defect-free solder connection
A method includes forming a multi-stacked electronic device having two or more electronic components, each of the electronic components includes a leadframe, the leadframes of each electronic component are physically joined together using a non-solder metal joining process to form a joint, and the joint is located outside a solder connection region. |
| US09474149B2 |
Angle-adjustable and/or angled printed circuit board structure having at least two printed circuit board sections and method for producing the same
The invention relates to an angle-adjustable and/or printed circuit board structure having at least two printed circuit board sections arrangeable or arranged angularly with respect to one another, wherein the printed circuit board structure contains at least one conduction element which is embedded at least predominantly in the printed circuit board structure and which extends between two contact pads and is electrically conductively connected to said contact pads, wherein the two contact pads are situated on different printed circuit board sections, wherein the printed circuit board sections are angle-adjustable and/or angled relative to one another with maintenance of the connections between the contact pads and the at least one conduction element and with bending of the at least one conduction element via a bending edge between the printed circuit board sections. In order to improve the electrical and mechanical connection between the printed circuit board sections, the invention provides for the conduction element to have a larger extent along the bending edge than perpendicularly thereto, as viewed in cross section. A corresponding method for producing this printed circuit board structure is like wise claimed. |
| US09474146B2 |
Manufacturing method of radiator-integrated substrate and radiator-integrated substrate
A metal circuit board and a metal base plate are bonded to a ceramic substrate to form a metal-ceramic bonded substrate, then the metal base plate is arranged on one surface of the radiator via a brazing material with the metal base plate overlapping with the one surface of the radiator, a jig having a concave R surface is arranged on another surface of the radiator with the jig butting against the another surface of the radiator, a jig having a convex R surface protruding toward the metal-ceramic bonded substrate is brought into contact with another surface of the metal circuit board, and the metal-ceramic bonded substrate and the radiator are heat-bonded while they are pressurized by the radiator side jig and the metal-ceramic bonded substrate side jig, wherein a curvature radius R (mm) of the convex R surface and the concave R surface is 6500≦R≦surface pressure (N/mm2)×2000+12000. |
| US09474144B2 |
Linear accelerator
A linear accelerator is disclosed, having a series of interconnected cavities through at least some of which an rf signal and an electron beam are sent, comprising at least one variable coupler projecting into the a cavity of the series, a control apparatus adapted to interpret an electrical signal from the coupler and derive diagnostic information as to the electron beam therefrom, wherein the control apparatus is further adapted to vary the interaction of the at least one coupler with the rf signal in dependence on the diagnostic information. Thus, the accelerator properties can be adjusted by encouraging or inciting an Higher-Order Mode (“HOM”) having a desired effect such as bunching and/or deflecting. The coupler could be rotateable, and partially or fully retractable, to allow its influence to be adjusted and/or for it to be removed from service when not needed. Several such probes could be available, approaching the cavity from different directions or at different locations, or approaching different cavities. The coupler can be asymmetric, in order to exert an appropriate influence on the cavity and provoke a useful HOM. For example, it can be elongate with at least one directional deviation, such as a hockey stick. Generally, however, the appropriate shape for the coupler will be dependent on the shape of the cavity with which it is working and the specific HOMs that are to be excited. |
| US09474141B1 |
Arc atmospheric pressure plasma device
An arc atmospheric pressure plasma device is described. The arc atmospheric pressure plasma device includes a first electrode, a second electrode and a nozzle. The first electrode is configured to connect to a power supply. The second electrode has a chamber and is grounded. The first electrode is located within the chamber. The nozzle is connected to a bottom of the second electrode, and has at least two nozzle channels. The nozzle channels communicate with the chamber. |
| US09474140B2 |
Electrochemical treatment of hydrocarbons
Disclosed are methods and systems of producing plasma from a polar liquid under relatively benign conditions of temperature and pressure, by providing at least one dielectric medium in contact with the polar liquid, such that an interface forms between the liquid and the medium; and creating an electric potential across the interface to produce plasma from the polar liquid inside the dielectric medium. The plasma may be used to convert hydrocarbons into useful products or intermediates. |
| US09474138B2 |
Failure detection in lighting system
The present invention relates to a method of detecting a failed luminaire and/or light sensor in a lighting system comprising M luminaires and N light sensors. The elements Dsl of an N×M transfer matrix D expresses how each luminaire l affect a light sensor s with respect to sensed light intensity, wherein s=1, 2, . . . N, and l=1, 2, . . . , M. The method comprises the steps of: setting the intensity of light emitted by the respective luminaires in the lighting system to a first intensity setting according to the respective elements of a first intensity vector I(1)(102), determining a first sensor intensity vector E(1) (104), setting the intensity of light emitted by the respective luminaires to at least a second intensity setting according to the respective elements of a second intensity vector I(2) (106), wherein at least one element of I(2) differs from a corresponding element or elements in determining a second sensor intensity vector E(2) (108), determining fault detection vectors from a difference between E(1) and D·I(1) and between E(2) and D·I(2), respectively (110), and identifying a failed luminaire and/or light sensor on basis of a difference between corresponding elements of the respective fault detection vectors (112). The present invention further relates to a failure detection system for detecting a failed luminaire and/or light sensor. |
| US09474137B1 |
Substrate with lighting effect
A networked collaborative lighting effect system for an event at a venue, having a plurality of portable collaborative lighting devices in communication with the network. Each portable collaborative lighting device can be configured to be attached to at least one of: a member of the audience an object, a fixture or combinations thereof. Each portable collaborative lighting devices comprising an active or passive RFID chip for encoding wearer information including financial information. Each collaborative lighting effect system having a plurality of lights connected to a power supply and the collaborative lighting effect system further having a processor connected to the network to receive commands from the network, which can include commands from a DJ connected to the network at the venue. |
| US09474136B2 |
Individual lighting control apparatus and method
An individual lighting control apparatus and method are disclosed herein. The individual lighting control apparatus includes a reception unit, a terminal connection unit, a sensor unit, and a lighting environment sensing and terminal state determination unit. The reception unit receives the location information of a corresponding individual illumination light. The terminal connection unit acquires the state information of a terminal corresponding to the location information of the illumination light. The sensor unit acquires the sensor information of the set surrounding area of the terminal. The lighting environment sensing and terminal state determination unit sets operation mode based on the state of the connection with the terminal, and then monitors the state of the terminal or the state of the set surrounding area of the terminal in accordance with the set operation mode. The individual illumination light is controlled by providing state change information to a lighting control scheduler. |
| US09474127B2 |
Lighting system and luminaire
A lighting system for controlling a plurality of light sources includes at least a first and a second light source, the second light source having a color temperature and relative luminous efficiency higher than those of the first light source. Further, the system includes: a driving unit configured to turn on and off each of the light sources; and a control unit configured to transmit a control signal to the driving unit in response to an input signal. In addition, the control unit transmits the control signal to the driving unit, to perform at least one of a fade-in control in which the first light source is turned on prior to the second light source when turning on the light sources and a fade-out control in which the second light source is turned off or is dimmed, prior to the first light source when turning off the light sources. |
| US09474126B2 |
Operating device for light-emitting means for determining an energy or power consumption and method for detecting same
Exemplary embodiments represent an operating device (100) for a light-emitting means (12) with an interface (15) for the bidirectional data interchange with a control device (20), wherein the operating device (10) has an energy or power measuring device (25) for determining an energy or power consumption of the light-emitting means. In this case, the operating device (10) is designed to send information relating to the energy or power consumption to the control device (20) or is designed such that the information relating to the energy or power consumption is accessible to the control device (20). |
| US09474120B2 |
Accurate mains time-base for LED light driver
A controller for a driver circuit of a solid state lighting (SSL) device is described. The driver circuit comprises a power converter to transfer energy from AC mains voltage to the SSL device. The controller determines a dim level for the SSL device. The controller also determines a synchronization signal by comparing a voltage derived from the input voltage with a pre-determined threshold. The controller determines a sequence of PWM pulses based on the synchronization signal. The controller operates the power converter in a first operation mode for supplying energy to the SSL device at a first energy level within the sequence of PWM pulses, and operates the power converter in a second operation mode in between the PWM pulses. The second energy level is lower than the first energy level and the first energy level and/or a width of the PWM pulses depend on the dim level. |
| US09474119B1 |
Display device and driving method of backlight module
A display device and driving method of a backlight module are disclosed. The display device includes a display panel and a backlight module. The backlight module includes a first light source, a second light source and a control module. The first light source emits a first spectrum with a first stimulus and the second light source emits a second spectrum with a second stimulus. The second stimulus is substantially bigger than the first stimulus. The control module enables the second light source during a first period and enables the first light source during a second period. |
| US09474116B2 |
Minimized color shift lighting arrangement during dimming
An illumination device, system, and method are disclosed. The illumination system includes a first set of light sources and a second set of light sources, driven by a first driver and second driver, respectively. The system further includes a dimming control system that implemented dimming control logic. The dimming control logic coordinates the operation of the first and second drivers such that the first and second sets of light sources are activated and deactivated so as to achieve substantially constant color temperature during dimming operations. |
| US09474113B2 |
Dimmable universal voltage LED power supply with regenerating power source circuitry and non-isolated load
A light-emitting diode (LED) lighting device has an LED and a power supply including an inductor coupled to the LED. A cathode of the LED is coupled to the inductor opposite an anode of the LED. The inductor is coupled for receiving a first power signal. A transistor includes a conduction terminal coupled to the inductor to enable current through the inductor. A current from the first power signal is switched to generate a second power signal. A first diode includes an anode coupled to the inductor opposite the cathode of the LED. A controller includes a first terminal coupled to a cathode of the first diode and a second terminal coupled to a control terminal of the transistor. A zener diode is coupled to the first terminal of the controller. A capacitor is coupled between the first diode and inductor. A second diode is coupled to the first diode. |
| US09474107B2 |
Heating system for outdoor conveyors in a carwash
A system for heating conveyors which extend outside a wash tunnel of a carwash utilizes concrete structural slabs with heating apparatus embedded in the slab near a top surface and supported adjacent the conveyor. The heating apparatus can be a hydronic system or an electric heating mat embedded in the slabs which prevents water on the slabs or the conveyor from freezing in low ambient temperature conditions. |
| US09474106B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling heating element of electric range
Provided are an apparatus and method of controlling a heating element of an electric range. The apparatus for controlling a heating element of an electric range includes: a plurality of heating elements; an input unit to which an output adjustment value for each of the plurality of heating elements is input from a user; a calculation unit that calculates the sum of output power of each heating element corresponding to the output adjustment value input by the input unit; and a controller that compares the sum of output power calculated by the calculation unit with a predetermined power limit and linearly controls output of each heating element based on a result of comparison. |
| US09474103B2 |
Portable information terminal, a control method for a portable information terminal, a program of a method of controlling a personal information terminal and a recording medium having recorded therein a program of a method of controlling a personal information terminal
The present invention is applied to a portable personal computer or the like having a plurality of wireless communication means, for example, so as to provide a user with appropriate wireless communication means in a situation where a plurality of wireless communication means are available. According to the present invention, the wireless communication means is selectively used in accordance with an application program with reference to a communication management table in which at least wireless communication means allowed to be used is described with regard to respective application programs. |
| US09474099B2 |
Smart connectors and associated communications links
“Smart” connectors with embedded processors, measurement circuits and control circuits are disclosed for establishing a “contactless” radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic (EM) Extremely High Frequency (EHF) communications link between two electronic devices having host systems. The connectors are capable of monitoring, controlling, and directing (managing) link operation to dynamically adapt to conditions, as well as monitoring and altering (or modifying) data passing through the connector, and selecting a protocol suitable for a communications session. The connectors are capable of identifying the type of content being transferred, providing authentication and security services, and enabling application support for the host systems based on the type of connection or the type of content. The connectors may operate independently of the host systems, and may perform at least one of sensing proximity of a nearby object; detecting a shape of a nearby object; and detecting vibrations. |
| US09474098B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for processing radio link failure
Disclosed are a method, an apparatus, and a system for processing a radio link failure (RLF), to provide an RLF processing solution in a scenario where a user equipment (UE) aggregates cell resources of multiple evolved Node Bs (eNBs). The method for processing an RLF provided in the present application comprises: in a scenario where a UE aggregates cell resources of multiple eNBs, a local eNB (LeNB) determining that an RLF occurs on the UE; and the LeNB stopping data transmission of a radio bearer (RB) related to the RLF, and notifying a Macro eNB of related information of the RLF. |
| US09474096B2 |
Short range communication in a wireless communications system
There is provided mechanisms for wireless devices to initiate direct-mode or device-to-device communications by exploiting the availability of the existing network coverage. Short range communications in a wireless communications system between a first wireless device and a second wireless device involves exchanging messages between the first wireless device and the second wireless device, first on a first communications link via a network node and then on a second communications link A corresponding method is provided. Also a computer program, a computer program product and a wireless device are provided. |
| US09474095B2 |
Systems, methods, and devices for distributed setup for a device-to-device session
Systems, methods, and devices for distributed device-to-device (D2D) setup are disclosed herein. User equipment (UE) includes a parameter component, a standardization component, an identifier component, and a D2D session component. The parameter component is configured to determine input parameters corresponding to the UE or a user of the UE based on one or more D2D communication rules. The input parameters include a first set of input parameters having non-standardized data and a second set of input parameters having pre-standardized data. The standardization component is configured to standardize the non-standardized data of the first set of parameters to create UE standardized data. The identifier component is configured to generate a session identifier using the UE standardized data and the pre-standardized data as input in a predefined algorithm. The D2D session component is configured to cause the UE to communicate in a D2D cluster corresponding to the session identifier. |
| US09474094B2 |
Methods and arrangements to establish peer-to-peer link
Logic may enable a number of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) enabled mobile devices to establish Peer-to-Peer connectivity to allow users to connect their devices in an easy and convenient manner to share, show, print, and synchronize content. Logic may enable interoperability between services/applications from multiple vendors. Users may experience consistency due to services interoperability. Logic provide a procedure to enable multiple vendor's applications and services interoperability via methods and arrangements to enable Peer-to-Peer (P2P) connection limited to allow traffic from user-invoked services on, e.g., a Wi-Fi Direct connection. |
| US09474090B2 |
Method and apparatus for improved resource allocation in ad hoc group calls
A method and apparatus for improved resource allocation in ad hoc group calls includes receiving a request for an ad hoc group call with another push-to-talk (PTT) system between a plurality of subscriber units comprising a plurality of Project 25 (P25) subscriber units; allocating resources with the another PTT system using an Inter Radio Frequency Subsystem Interface (ISSI) network to network interface (NNI); and identifying the ad hoc group call as a single logical call for the plurality of P25 subscriber units on the ISSI NNI. This can also include allocating a single channel for the plurality of P25 subscriber units identified as the single logical call. |
| US09474074B2 |
Wireless communication system, wireless communication setting method, base station, mobile station, and program
A base station includes a transmitter configured to transmit a downlink control information to a user equipment, the downlink control information being generated based on one of a first uplink allocation information and a second uplink allocation information, and a receiver configured to receive a first reference signal in a case where the transmitted downlink control information is generated based on the first uplink allocation information, and a second reference signal in a case where the transmitted downlink control information is generated based on the second uplink allocation information. |
| US09474072B2 |
Advanced technology frame structure with backward compatibility
An advanced technology frame structure is described herein. The advanced technology frame structure can enhance a first technology frame structure in dimensions of time, frequency, or a combination of time and frequency. A second technology frame structure time division multiplexes second technology subframes with the first technology downlink and uplink subframes. The first technology downlink subframe can be divided into a first technology downlink subframe and one or more second technology downlink subframes. Similarly, the first technology uplink subframe can be divided into a first uplink subframe and one or more second technology uplink subframes. These principles can be expanded upon and can be applied in many communication systems. |
| US09474069B2 |
Enabling a communication feasibility determination time to complete communication exchanges between an M2M server and one or more M2M devices
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for machine-to-machine communication are provided. A device receives a request from a requestor. The request requests the device to transmit information to the requestor according to a primary time duration. The device determines at least one secondary time duration within the primary time duration for transmitting the information to the requestor and schedules a transmission time within the at least one secondary time duration to transmit the information to the requestor in response to the request. The scheduling is based on additional information known to the device. A requestor determines a time duration for communicating with at least one device, transmits a request to the at least one device to transmit information to the requestor according to the time duration, and receives in response to the request the information from the at least one device within the time duration. |
| US09474068B2 |
Storytelling simulator and device communication
Embodiments provide techniques for facilitating radio frequency (RF) communication between devices using guaranteed time slots (GTSs). Embodiments include designating, at a personal area network (PAN) coordinator, a contention access period (CAP) during which a plurality of devices on a network can transmit unsolicited media access control (MAC) commands to the PAN coordinator via RF communications. Embodiments further include facilitating direct RF communication between the plurality of devices, by broadcasting a beacon, at the PAN coordinator, designating GTSs for the plurality of devices, wherein each GTS specifies a time period during which one of the plurality of devices on the network is authorized to send or receive data. |
| US09474062B2 |
Method for transmitting and receiving downlink control information in a wireless communication system and apparatus for the same
A method for receiving downlink channels from a base station (BS) at a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system. Control information is detected by monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH). A broadcast channel or a downlink shared channel is received based on the control information. The PDCCH is monitored on subframes configured for the broadcast channel. The EPDCCH is not monitored on the subframes configured for the broadcast channel. |
| US09474052B2 |
Paging control in communication networks
A method is provided that includes receiving, at a serving gateway, an uplink data packet from a UE and caching information regarding the uplink packet on a per UE basis. The method also includes receiving a downlink packet destined for the UE when the serving gateway is unaware of any bearer connection being established for sending the packet to the UE. The method further includes determining whether the downlink packet is in response to an uplink data packet recently sent by the UE prior to receiving from an MME a notification at the serving gateway that a bearer connection is established for the UE to receive the downlink packet. The method also includes buffering the downlink packet until a bearer connection is established when the downlink packet is determined to be in response to an uplink packet. |
| US09474049B2 |
Uplink transmission
A method of controlling uplink transmission on an acquired common channel by user equipment in a wireless communications network. User equipment and a computer program product operable to perform that method. The method comprises: determining a predetermined acquired common channel retention period; requesting allocation of common network resource for an uplink transmission; receiving an indication of an allocated acquired common channel; assessing whether said uplink transmission meets uplink criteria for said allocated acquired common channel and, if said uplink criteria are met, transmitting said uplink transmission on said allocated acquired common channel within said common channel retention period. Aspects allow common channels in a network to be used by user equipment if it is determined that a pending uplink transmission is suitable for transmission on an allocated common channel. |
| US09474048B2 |
Device, method, mobile communication terminal, computer program and storage medium for frequency control
The present invention relates to devices, methods, mobile communication terminals, computer programs and storage mediums for frequency control. The frequency control device for a mobile communication terminal only uses one crystal oscillator, but can access different access networks at the same time. The frequency control device may control the output of the crystal oscillator based on a plurality of frequency offset estimation results and the service performance of access network corresponding to the frequency offset estimation results. Therefore, the flexibility of frequency offset control may be improved and better service may be provided to users. |
| US09474043B1 |
Third party action triggers
Methods, systems, and apparatus, for providing notifications based on third party data. In an aspect, a method includes receiving data responsive to a selection of an action trigger prompt at a user device, wherein: the action trigger prompt is rendered at the user device with a resource and displayed with the resource in an initial state, and upon selection of the action trigger prompt the user device displays an action trigger menu that facilitates the input of a plurality of parameter values for an event; and the received data specifies a user defined event and an action associated with the user defined event and to be taken in response to the occurrence of the user defined event; and storing the data specifying the user defined event and the action to be take in response to the occurrence of the user defined event in an action trigger data store. |
| US09474041B1 |
Method and apparatus for determining a location of a network device in a wireless network
A first access point including a receiver, a transmitter, a feedback module, and a location determining module. The receiver receives a first frame from a client station. The transmitter transmits a second frame to the client station. The first and second frames are also received by second and third devices, which are located at predetermined locations. The feedback module receives a first feedback from the client station including times of departure and arrival of the first and second frames at the client station, and a second feedback from the second and third devices including times of arrival of the first and second frames at the second device and the third device. The location determining module determines a location of the client station based on the times of arrival and departure of the first and second frames at the first access point, the first and second feedbacks, and the predetermined locations. |
| US09474034B1 |
Power reduction in a parallel data communications interface using clock resynchronization
A digital data communications mechanism includes multiple parallel lines, in which components of one or more lines are temporarily powered down to save power. Preferably, both the transmitter and receiver contain respective generators generating identical pre-determined pseudo-random bit streams, which are initially synchronized and which remain powered up when the line is temporarily powered down. Upon re-powering the line, the transmitter transmits the locally generated bit stream, and the receiver compares the received bit stream with its internally generated bit stream to determine an amount of shift required for re-synchronization. |
| US09474032B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling transmit power of user equipment
The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for controlling transmit power of a user equipment, the method includes reducing a gain factor of a first-type channel of the UE when total uplink transmit power of the UE exceeds maximum allowed transmit power. The method further includes determining total uplink transmit power of the UE and if the total uplink transmit power of the UE exceeds the maximum allowed transmit power and the gain factor of the first-type channel is reduced to a preset gain factor threshold, reducing a gain factor of a second-type channel of the UE so that total uplink transmit power of the UE does not exceed the maximum allowed transmit power. |
| US09474030B2 |
Conditional range expansion in a heterogeneous telecommunications system
A method is disclosed for use in a heterogeneous telecommunications system of the kind comprising a macro base station and a low-power base station, the low-power base station having a coverage which is extendible by range expansion, RE, to serve a user equipment which would otherwise have been served by the macro base station. According to the method, which is performed in either of the macro base station or the low-power base station, information about radio conditions of the user equipment at least with respect to the macro base station is obtained (310). Based on the obtained information, it is determined (320) whether a criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, said criterion being related to the uplink transmission power of the user equipment to the macro base station. Accordingly, range expansion is applied (330) for the user equipment only when the criterion is satisfied. A corresponding base station, telecommunications system and computer readable storage medium are also disclosed. |
| US09474026B2 |
Communications device and a method thereby, a base station and a method thereby, a system, and a non-transitory computer readable medium
A system is disclosed in which a communications device communicates via a cell operated by a base station of a communications network. The communications device identifies that transmission of data to a communications node coupled to the communications network has been triggered; determines whether an indication of radio quality in the cell meets a required radio quality criteria responsive to the transmission being triggered. The transmitting element transmits the data to the communications network after a delay if the quality of radio signals does not meet the required radio quality criteria, and without the delay if the quality of radio signals meets the required radio quality criteria. |
| US09474024B2 |
Mobile communication apparatus switching on and off state with distance from communicating external apparatus
According to a mobile communication apparatus, an external apparatus location storage processor stores an external apparatus location acquired by an external apparatus location acquisition processor. A wireless communication switching processor switches a wireless communication function from OFF state to ON state if the distance between a mobile communication apparatus location acquired by a mobile communication apparatus location acquisition processor and the external apparatus location stored by the external apparatus location storage processor is shorter than a predetermined distance, and switches the wireless communication function from ON state to OFF state if the distance is longer than the predetermined distance. |
| US09474021B2 |
Display clipping on a multiscreen device
Embodiments are described for handling situations when a window or application is repositioned and clipped in a multi-screen device. In embodiments, if the window is repositioned such that it cannot be displayed entirely on one display, but would otherwise spillover or spill onto another display, the window or application is clipped. Such clipping is performed based on the size and location of the window and the size and location of the display. |
| US09474020B2 |
Network-based intelligent radio access control
Concepts and technologies are described herein for a network-based radio access control. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a radio access technology selection system enables an intelligent multi-radio access control that can select one or more radio access technologies that is best-suited for one or more target mobile devices based upon network conditions, policies, user profiles, and/or other information. The radio access technology selection system also informs the target mobile device(s) of one or more networks that utilize the selected radio access technology. In this manner, the radio access technology selection system can steer traffic to various networks operating in accordance with different radio access technologies to improve user experience, especially in network traffic congested areas, and to efficiently leverage network resources for mobile telecommunications and WI-FI networks. |
| US09474018B2 |
Smart radio area network for wireless distributed cloud computing
A smart RAN for wireless distributed cloud computing with a UE, the RAN in communication with a Wi-Fi network, an LTE network and a 3G network. The RAN includes a network interface unit that communicates with the Wi-Fi, LTE in 3G networks. The RAN includes a processing unit which chooses which of the Wi-Fi, LTE and 3G networks to use to send and receive data at a given time based on loading condition of each radio access network technology, user's application/service requirements and user's policy. A method for sending and receiving data of a smart RAN for wireless distributed cloud computing with an UE and the RAN that is simultaneously in communication with a Wi-Fi network, an LTE network and a 3G network. |
| US09474017B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling network selection
Disclosed are methods and systems for controlling network selection between a current wireless network and a higher-priority wireless network. A subscriber station determines, while connected to a current wireless network, whether it is within a coverage area of a higher-priority wireless network and whether a current traffic data load is indicative of lower-priority background traffic or higher-priority foreground traffic. Responsive to determining that it is within the coverage area of the higher-priority wireless network and that the current traffic data load is indicative of lower-priority background traffic, the subscriber station halts at least the lower-priority background traffic for a predetermined amount of time sufficient to effect a release of a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the current wireless network and searches for and connects to the higher-priority wireless network. |
| US09474012B2 |
Focused assistance data for WiFi access points and femtocells
Systems, apparatus and methods for reducing a long list of access points (APs) to a short list of access points are presented. Advantageously, a mobile device only need to search for access points on the short list thereby more quickly discovering access points, saving battery power, determining a position fix based on the discovered access points, and reducing a time to fix. Embodiments enable a mobile device to determine which access points should be detectable at a new location of the mobile device. Various embodiments comprise: (1) a linked database; (2) a grouped database; (3) an associated database; and (4) database feedback. |
| US09474011B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing access controls for a resource
An approach is provided for enabling a subscriber to establish rules for controlling user interaction with a resource based on the activity of the user. A reactive control platform monitors a current activity of a user of a device, one or more services, or a combination thereof associated with a subscriber during access by the user to a network of a subscriber. The status of the user is determined based on the monitoring, profile information associated with the user, or a combination thereof. A request for input from the subscriber for specifying one or more rules to be enforced for affecting a use of the device, the one or more services, the network of the subscriber, or a combination thereof by the user is then generated based on the determination. |
| US09474008B2 |
Method and apparatus for indicating handover in wireless communication system including mobile relay node
A method and apparatus for indicating a handover in a wireless communication system is provided. A mobile relay node (RN) receives an indication which indicates that there is no eNB supporting relay within neighbor cells from a donor eNodeB (eNB) serving the mobile relay node, and transmits a handover command message to user equipments (UEs). |
| US09474007B2 |
Interested service-based cell reselection method in wireless communication system, and apparatus for supporting same
Provided is an interested service-based cell reselection method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The method comprises checking that access to the current cell is blocked, determining whether the condition for receiving an interested service is satisfied, and selecting, if the condition for receiving an interested service is satisfied, the cell on the same frequency as the frequency of the current cell. |
| US09474005B2 |
Multi-cell communication method and system of a mobile terminal, a micro base station, and a macro base station
Communication methods of a macro base station which collects position information about a mobile micro base station and that is served by the macro base station, predicts a channel between the macro base station and the micro base station, and performs a handover between the macro base station and the micro base station based on a state of the predicted channel is provided. |
| US09474003B2 |
Transmission method and reception method for uplink signal, user equipment, and base station
The method and device proposed by the present invention, in a carrier situation having a UE consisting of a plurality serving cells, change a serving cell used in transmitting uplink control information from a specific serving cell to a different serving cell under the control of a BS or the control of a UE. The present invention enables a faster and more flexible transmission/reception of the UL control information. |
| US09474001B2 |
Communication system, access control apparatus, access apparatus, and communication path control method therefor
In an access apparatus which has an offloading function, resources of the access apparatus are excessively consumed when handover occurs between access apparatuses. A communication system (1) according to the present invention includes an access apparatus (access functions (11, 12)) including means for terminating a communication path with a communication terminal (50), and an access control apparatus (access GW function (C-plane) (20)) that controls the access apparatus. The communication system (1) according to the present invention includes determination means (communication terminal management function (20a)) for determining whether or not to prompt a switching process of the communication path in accordance with a movement history of the communication terminal (50) based on an operation state of the communication terminal (50). |
| US09473999B2 |
Intelligent heterogeneous wireless handoff
Provided are methods and systems of managing vertical handoffs in a wireless communication network. Embodiments include analyzing wireless device usage to determine usage patterns, which may include locations and times at which the wireless device is typically accessing the network. The network may recognize points in the usage patterns at which signal quality parameters are typically reduced. Such reductions in signal quality parameters may lead to inefficient vertical handoffs. The network may decrease adverse effects of inefficient vertical handoffs by reducing ping ponging, selecting links between wireless devices and network nodes, or indicating to a user of the wireless device that delays and/or data loss may occur. |
| US09473998B2 |
Method and apparatus to postpone UE from handover to an overloaded radio network from another radio network
A node of a secondary RAT that is in communication with a primary node of a primary RAT and UEs that are able to communicate by way of the primary and secondary RATs. The node includes a network interface unit of the node which receives a message from the primary node that indicates that the primary RAT is in an overload condition. The node includes a processing unit of the node which forms UE messages for the UEs not to try to communicate with the primary RAT, the network interface unit of the node sending the messages to the UEs. A method of a node of a secondary RAT that is in communication with a primary node of a primary RAT and UEs that are able to communicate by way of the primary and secondary RATs. |
| US09473993B2 |
Access network selection in a multi-access network environment
Novel techniques of access network selection in multi-access network environment are provided, which allow for avoiding access selection loops for independent access selection processes. The multi-access network environment provides a first access selection function, e.g. a 3GPP access selection function, and a second access selection function, e.g. an ANDSF based access selection function. At least a portion of the first access selection function may be implemented by a network component. At least a portion of the second access selection function may be implemented by a user equipment, e.g. a mobile terminal. According to the proposed concepts, a selection priority information of the first access selection function is made available to the second access selection function. |
| US09473988B2 |
Multiplexing method for signals related to a plurality of terminals in a wireless communication system applying carrier aggregation techniques and apparatus therefor
The present description discloses a method for transmitting an uplink signal through a non-licensed band from a terminal in a wireless communication system by applying carrier aggregation techniques. More specifically, the method is characterized by comprising the steps of: receiving an uplink scheduling grant from a base station; determining the availability of a non-licensed band; transmitting a signal for reserving resources if a non-licensed band is available; and transmitting an uplink signal to the base station via the non-licensed band on the basis of the uplink scheduling grant. |
| US09473987B1 |
Combining bandwidth from multiple cellular connections into a single WLAN network
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving an instruction to aggregate cellular bandwidth of a user device with the cellular bandwidth of one or more participating user devices; appending a shared character string to a network name of the user device based on receiving the instruction; scanning for wireless local area networks (WLANs) after appending the shared character string; identifying one or more WLAN networks with the network names having the shared character string, where the one or more WLAN networks are hosted by the one or more participating user devices; connecting to a particular WLAN network, of the one or more WLAN networks via a WLAN interface of the user device; combining bandwidth from the cellular interface of the user device with the bandwidth from the WLAN interface of the user device; and hosting a WLAN network providing a sum of the bandwidth from the WLAN interface and the cellular interface. |
| US09473986B2 |
Methods, systems and apparatus for managing and/or enforcing policies for managing internet protocol (“IP”) traffic among multiple accesses of a network
Methods, systems and apparatus for managing and/or enforcing one or more policies for managing internet protocol (“IP”) traffic among multiple accesses of a network in accordance with a policy for managing bandwidth among the multiple accesses are disclosed. Among the methods, systems and apparatus is a method that may include obtaining performance metrics associated with the multiple accesses. The method may also include adapting one or more rules of one or more the policies for managing IP traffic among the plurality of accesses based, at least in part, on the performance metrics and the policy for managing bandwidth among the plurality of accesses. The method may further include managing IP traffic associated with at least one wireless transmit and/or receive unit (“WTRU”) among the plurality of accesses responsive to the adapted rules. |
| US09473982B2 |
Utilization of the uplink FDD channel
A method for communication, includes communicating over the air with user equipment (UE) (304, 305) in a frequency domain duplexing (FDD) mode, which defines a downlink channel comprising a first set of time frequency resources in a first frequency range and an uplink channel comprising a second set of time-frequency resources, comprising multiple physical resource blocks (PRBs) in multiple time periods, in a second frequency range, which has two channel edges and is disjoint from the first frequency range. An excess capacity is identified in the uplink channel, and at a least a portion of the excess capacity is allocated for downlink communication by assigning a subset of the time-frequency resources in the second frequency range to the downlink communication, wherein the subset does not comprise at least the PRBs at both of the channel edges in at least one of the time periods. The method includes communicating over the air with at least one UE by transmitting downlink information using the assigned subset of the time-frequency resources in the second frequency range. |
| US09473973B1 |
Reducing transmission rates in data slots subject to bundled acknowledgments
It may be determined that a HARQ transmission schedule from a RAN to a WCD includes HARQ acknowledgment bundling. An indication of signal quality as measured by the WCD may be received by the RAN. The indicated signal quality may be associated with a first transmission rate. The RAN may determine a first set of one or more data slots of the HARQ transmission schedule for which the WCD bundles HARQ acknowledgments. In response to this determination, one or more HARQ subpackets may be transmitted to the WCD in the first set of one or more data slots. The one or more HARQ subpackets may be transmitted at a second transmission rate that is less than the first transmission rate. |
| US09473968B2 |
Method and apparatus for configuring cooperative cell in wireless communication system
A method for configuring a cooperative cell by a master Base Station (BS) in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes instructing a Mobile Station (MS) and adjacent BSs to measure channels, receiving channel measurement results from the MS and the adjacent BSs, and determining at least one BS constituting a cooperative cell according to the channel measurement results. The at least one BS constituting the cooperative cell provides one of an UpLink (UL) service and a DownLink (DL) service to a same MS. |
| US09473962B2 |
Wireless transmission rate adjustment method
The present invention discloses a wireless transmission rate adjustment method for adjusting the wireless transmission rate of a wireless transmission device. The method comprises: having the wireless transmission device enter a try state from a normal state; under the try state, transmitting a plurality of test packets according to a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and determining whether the transmission is successful in accordance with a predetermined condition; if the transmission is successful with the first MCS, returning to the normal state and transmitting data with the first MCS; if the transmission is unsuccessful with the first MCS, staying in the try state and transmitting a plurality of test packets according to a second MCS, and then determining whether the transmission is successful in accordance with the predetermined condition; if the transmission is successful with the second MCS, returning to the normal state and transmitting data with the second MCS; and if the transmission is failed with the second MCS, returning to the normal state and transmitting data at an original transmission rate or with the first MCS. |
| US09473960B2 |
Method and device for processing transport configuration data
Provided are a method and device for processing transport configuration data. In the method, each object of transport configuration data is abstracted from an LMT network management configuration system; each object is layered and encapsulated according to a hierarchical structure of an Iub interface protocol stack; and association relationship among layered objects is acquired according to a predetermined transport bearer manner. The technical solution provided in the disclosure can intuitively display the transport configuration data of the network management LMT based on the hierarchical structure of the Iub interface protocol stack, and save operational and maintenance costs. |
| US09473957B2 |
Antenna tilt optimization in a wireless communications network
Optimization of a wireless communications network may be accomplished by evaluating relationships between a source cell and a plurality of target cells, determining an optimization value based on the evaluated relationships, and adjusting an antenna parameter of the source cell based on the optimization value. |
| US09473955B2 |
Method and base station for power determination
The present invention provides a method and a base station for power determination. The method comprises obtaining an optimal number of sub-carriers occupied by each user equipment, an optimal number of radio frequency links enabled by a base station and an optimal transmitting power of the base station by optimizing the number of the sub-carriers occupied by each user equipment, the number of the radio frequency links enabled by the base station and the transmitting power of the base station with an optimization condition that throughput of each user equipment is not smaller than a throughput threshold and an optimization goal of minimizing total power consumption of the base station; and determining the total power consumption of the base station according to the optimal number of the sub-carriers occupied by each user equipment, the optimal number of the radio frequency links enabled by the base station. |
| US09473951B2 |
Mobile communication apparatuses, method for performing signal reception quality measurements and method for ascertaining a movement by a mobile communication apparatus
A mobile communication apparatus is provided, which may have a receiver, and may ascertain whether a movement of the apparatus is below a prescribed limit and on that basis may prompt the receiver of the mobile communication apparatus to perform a signal reception quality measurement. A mobile communication apparatus is also provided, which may have a transmission/reception device, and may ascertain whether a movement of the apparatus is below a prescribed limit based on a set of radio cells in a mobile radio communication that is active, a radio cell that serves the mobile communication apparatus, or a set of adjacent radio cells that is configured for the mobile communication apparatus. |
| US09473950B2 |
Method for the prediction of coverage areas of a cellular network
A method predicting coverage area of a radiocommunications network including plural network cells distributed over a geographic area. The method includes calculating by simulation an irradiated electromagnetic field irradiated by a radio base station of the network in plural measure locations within the geographic area corresponding to respective expected positions of a user terminal. The calculating includes, for each measure location, calculating a basic transmission curve indicative of a basic attenuation of a radioelectric signal strength in the measure location, and associating to the basic transmission curve at least one correction factor for refining the radioelectric signal strength basic attenuation by taking account of shielding effects on the radioelectric signal strength due to obstacles to the propagation of the radioelectric signal. |
| US09473949B2 |
Architecture for radio access network virtualization
Multiple access wireless communication networks/infrastructures are virtualized in telecommunications environments. A system replicates a cell identifier associated with a macro base station device to create a virtual base station device presence for a set of network devices included in the multiple access wireless communication network and thereafter facilitates communication with the multiple access wireless communication network, the set of network devices, and a mobile device through the created virtual base station presence. |
| US09473948B2 |
Method and apparatus for analyzing pilot pollution
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for analyzing pilot pollution, and further disclose an apparatus for analyzing pilot pollution. The method includes: generating a preprocessed map according to an actual engineering parameter table and drive test data that are in pre-imported information, where the preprocessed map includes a cell distribution map and a pilot pollution distribution map, the actual engineering parameter table includes actual longitude information, actual latitude information, and actual azimuth information; obtaining selection information of a target area to determine the target area; and generating, for the target area, a map of abnormal cells of the target area according to the cell pilot identifiers and the signal strength corresponding to the pilot identifier of each test-marked cell. With the present invention, it is unnecessary to review test data and view the review connection, and the analysis efficiency is high. |
| US09473942B2 |
System and method for authentication for wireless emergency services
A method of authenticating a user device includes transmitting a request, the request including a query for information, and receiving an identifier, the identifier being associated with one or more authentication mechanisms for obtaining access to emergency services. |
| US09473940B2 |
Authenticating a browser-less data streaming device to a network with an external browser
A system, method and computer program product for authenticating a data streaming device to a network using a browser of another computing device, such that the data streaming device is able to retrieve and/or transmit streaming content over the Internet subsequent to the authentication. |
| US09473939B2 |
Service mobility via a femtocell infrastructure
Aspects of a method and system for service mobility via a femtocell infrastructure are provided. In this regard, a mobile cellular enabled communication device may detect a femtocell operable to deliver content for one or more services to the mobile cellular enabled communication device, where the one or more services may be provided via a set-top-box communicatively coupled to the femtocell. The mobile cellular enabled communication device may communicate a user profile to the femtocell, wherein information in the profile may be utilized by the set-top-box to authenticate and/or authorize access to the services by the mobile cellular enabled communication device and thus the mobile cellular enabled communication device may receive the content from the set-top-box based on the authentication and/or authorization. The content may comprise voice, video, data, text and/or still images. The mobile cellular enabled communication device may detect the femtocell by receiving one or broadcast messages from the femtocell. |
| US09473938B2 |
Content sharing method, apparatus, and system
The present invention discloses a server receives an access request sent by an information requesting terminal, where the access request carries information about a shared resource that the information requesting terminal requests to access; the server periodically sends a first authentication identifier to the information requesting terminal; the information requesting terminal sends the first authentication identifier to an information management terminal according to the received first authentication identifier; the information management terminal sends a second authentication identifier to the server; the server determines, whether the first authentication identifier sent to the information requesting terminal matches the second authentication identifier; if the first authentication identifier sent to the information requesting terminal matches the second authentication identifier, the server determines access permission of the information requesting terminal. According to the technical solutions provided in the present invention, access by an information requesting terminal is confirmed periodically, thereby implementing secure privacy protection. |
| US09473933B2 |
Key isolation method and device
According to an embodiment of the present invention, after a macro base station judges to switch a user plane bearer of user equipment, according to a differentiating parameter of a target base station and a temporary key shared by the macro base station and the user equipment, the macro base station generates a key used for the communication between the target base station and the user equipment; and the macro base station sends the differentiating parameter to the user equipment so as to enable the user equipment to generate a key used for the communication between the user equipment and the target base station according to the differentiating parameter and the temporary key shared by the macro base station and the user equipment. |
| US09473932B2 |
Local trusted service manager
A method for managing a secure element which is embedded into a host unit. The described method comprises (a) transmitting a request for a management script from the host unit to a program element of the secure element, (b) at the program element, generating a management script in accordance with the request and encrypting the generated management script, (c) transmitting the encrypted management script from the program element to the host unit, (d) transmitting the encrypted management script from the host unit to a secure domain of the secure element, and (e) at the secure domain, decrypting and executing the management script. |
| US09473930B2 |
Contact management
Contact management using a callsheet record, including: enabling a user to make entries and selections to the callsheet record, wherein the entries and selections to the callsheet record creates call scripts and tracks results and status of calls made by the user; and storing the entries and selections made to the callsheet record for future reference and modification. |
| US09473928B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for policy-based local breakout (LBO)
According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a system for controlling local breakout using a policy infrastructure. The system includes a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) configured to receive an admission request associated with a subscriber from an evolved node B (eNode B) and, in response to the admission request, to install a subscriber-specific policy on the eNode B for implementing local breakout at the eNode B for the subscriber. |
| US09473924B2 |
Smart searching of wireless devices using device location information
Particular embodiments described herein provide for an apparatus, such as a wireless electronic device, that includes a memory element configured to store electronic code, a processor operable to execute instructions associated with the electronic code, and at least one module. The at least one module is configured to receive first location information identifying a first location associated with an electronic device. The at least one module is further configured to receive first connection location information indicative of a second location of the electronic device at a time of connection with a first wireless device. The at least one module is further configured to evaluate for a presence of the first wireless device when the first location is within a predetermined distance of the second location. |
| US09473919B2 |
System and method for anti texting in cell phones during vehicle driving
The embodiments herein provide a system and method for enabling anti-texting feature in a cell phone when the cell phone is operated by a driver in a dangerous manner such as text messaging or holding the cell phone to the driver's ear while driving a vehicle. The system creates a green zone or life zone around a driver's seat that controls the driver not to participate in distracting activities while driving a vehicle. The system comprises a sensor module, Bluetooth transmitter, and a Bluetooth receiver installed in driver's cell phone. The Bluetooth transmitters are placed at different locations in vehicle and analyzes the driver behavior while driving the vehicle. The sensor in vehicle monitors the driver behavior and transmits appropriate signals. The Bluetooth receiver receives the signals from the transmitter and disables keypad interface of the driver cell phone through an anti-texting application. |
| US09473918B2 |
Wildfire resource tracking apparatus and method of use thereof
The invention comprises an integrated and distributed wildfire fighting system used in gathering information related to firefighting resources, developing a strategic plan, and/or communicating directions to and/or between resources. Communicators linked to positions of natural resources, personnel, and/or equipment are used to communicate identification, position, capability, and/or status of individual resources to a main controller via satellite and/or aircraft. The communicators additionally facilitate communication between personnel, teams of personnel, levels in a firefighting hierarchy, and/or with automated equipment. Further, drop ball communicators are used to transmit localized information, such as weather, a fire-retardant drop request, and/or a call for emergency aid to nearby resources, an aircraft, and/or to a main controller. |
| US09473914B2 |
System and method for providing a network service in a distributed fashion to a mobile device
A system for providing mobile network services is disclosed. A first server is communicatively coupled to a mobile device over a mobile network and configured to receive a unique authentication token from the mobile device over the mobile network and provide a service to the mobile device via the mobile network, the service associated with the unique authentication token and branded by an entity other than an operator of the mobile network. A second server is communicatively coupled to the mobile network and configured to monitor usage of the mobile network by the mobile device. A computing device is communicatively coupled to the mobile device over the mobile network and configured to receive the unique authentication token from the mobile device over the mobile network, access digital content over a network, and transfer a representation of the digital content to the mobile device over the mobile network. |
| US09473913B2 |
System and method for small cell based augmented reality
Information such as navigation information is delivered to a mobile device user in a cellular communications network via a device other than the mobile device. A small cell telecommunications base station receives from the mobile device an identification of the mobile device, and determines a location of the user within the small cell. Based on the identification of the mobile device and the location of the user of the mobile device, the information is delivered to the user via a device other than the mobile device. |
| US09473909B2 |
Methods and systems for transmitting video messages to mobile communication devices
Methods and systems for managing messaging are described. An illustrative messaging system includes a processor and a content database storing video content and/or other content, and a user database that stores an identifier corresponding to a telecommunications carrier associated with a user mobile phone, and an indicator indicating the messaging capability of the mobile phone of the user. Code is stored in memory that is configured to provide for display on a terminal a faun via which a user can view a plurality of videos from the content database, select a video to be sent as a message, and specify a recipient for the video message. The system is optionally configured to initiate the transmission of an approval request message to a terminal, such as a mobile phone associated with the user, wherein the user can approve the sending of the video message to the recipient by taking an action in response to the approval request. |
| US09473904B2 |
Method and system for determining and triggering targeted marketing content
A mobile device in, or at, a vehicle sends a vehicle status message to a remote host upon occurrence of a trigger event, such as turning off the vehicle's engine. The remote host processes the vehicle status message and determines whether it can access, or find, content that is associated with location information contained in the vehicle status message. If so, the remote host forwards the content in a content message to a user device, which may or may not be the device that transmitted the vehicle status message. The remote host typically associates the user device with the vehicle, or mobile device therein, from which the vehicle status message emanated. Thus, the user device receives content corresponding to the location of the vehicle when the trigger event occurred. The content may include advertising, product promotion, tourist information, weather, traffic, or other information relevant to the trigger event occurrence location. |
| US09473903B1 |
WiFi-fingerprint based indoor localization map
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to making a localization map for a network. A fixed location for a plurality of wireless devices is received and a bisecting line is determined in a plane for each straight line that joins a pair of the plurality of wireless devices. An initial wireless device access sequence is assigned to each of a plurality of regions created on the localization map by the bisecting lines based on the Euclidean distance of the wireless device to the each of the plurality of regions, wherein the wireless device access sequence is the sequence of the wireless devices that provide the strongest to weakest signal to the region. Receiving from a user computing device a received signal strength (RSS) value for each signal received by the user computing device from each of the plurality of wireless devices and updating the localization map based on RSS values. |
| US09473901B1 |
Precise location and projection by radio beacon signals
Various embodiments herein each include at least one of systems, methods, software, and devices for precise location and projection by radio beacon signals. One such embodiment, in the form of a method that may be performed in whole on a mobile device or on a mobile device in communication with a server based system. The method includes iteratively determining an unfiltered location. The unfiltered location is determined based on at least three received beacon signals and beacon location data retrieved from a database for the beacons from which the beacon signals were received. The method then applies a triangulation algorithm to the beacon location data. The method may continue in some embodiments by then determining a filtered location based on recent unfiltered locations while disregarding unfiltered locations determined to be bad signals. A path may then be projected based on filtered and unfiltered locations. |
| US09473900B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for use in providing navigation assistance data to mobile stations
Methods and apparatuses are provided which may be implemented in various devices to provide navigation assistance data and/or the like to a mobile station with regard to at least one of a plurality of different indoor regions. For example, a computing platform of a map inference device may establish encoded metadata for at least a portion of an indoor region based, at least in part, on an electronic map, an access point locator, or some combination thereof, and provide such encoded metadata to a repository device that may provide at least a portion of the encoded metadata to a mobile station. |
| US09473894B2 |
Obscuring true location for location-based services
A location of a client device may be obscured by using generated random offsets and/or a set of regions. In one implementation, the location of a client device may be obscured using a first random offset and a second random offset. A pseudo-location may be determined based on the location of the client device, the first random offset, and the second random offset. The pseudo-location may be transmitted to a third-party for a location-based service. In another implementation, the location of a client device may be obscured using a first random offset and a set of regions. An intermediate location may be determined based on the location of the client device and the first random offset. A region of the set of regions may be determined based on the intermediate location. A pseudo-location may be transmitted to a third-party for a location-based service based on the determined region. |
| US09473890B1 |
Enhanced system and method for mobile device-based geo-fencing solutions
A method, wireless device and computer program product provides geo-fence based services in a wireless communications network. The wireless device (i) determines a current location; (ii) retrieves first settings of a first geo-fence; (iii) implements a geo-fencing policy in response to determining that the current location is within the first geo-fence; and (iv) in response to determining that the current location is not within the first geo-fence: (a) accesses data associated with one of an activity at past locations inside and outside of the first geo-fence; (b) associates with the first geo-fence at least one past location that is outside of the first geo-fence; (c) expands the first settings of the first geo-fence to second settings to include the at least one past location; and (d) implements the geo-fencing policy in response to determining that the current location is within the first geo-fence based on the second settings. |
| US09473882B2 |
Enhanced location data throughput on a windowed data channel in a radio communication system
A method for enhanced data throughput on a windowed revert repeater channel in a radio communication system includes requesting, by a subscriber unit and via a control channel of the radio communication system, a window in which to transmit data updates on the windowed revert repeater channel of the radio communication system; receiving, by the subscriber unit and via the control channel, an assigned window on the windowed revert repeater channel for the data updates; monitoring, by the subscriber unit, the control channel repeater and determining a timing of the windowed revert repeater channel based on the monitoring; and reverting to the windowed revert repeater channel based on the timing and the assigned window, and transmitting the data updates during the assigned window. A subscriber unit and radio communication system are also disclosed. |
| US09473876B2 |
Method and system for tunneling messages between two or more devices using different communication protocols
Various embodiments are described herein for a multiformat communication protocol that may be used to tunnel messages suitable for a second communication protocol. The multiformat communication protocol may be used by an intermediate device to couple a bus that communicates according to the multiformat communication protocol with a bus that communicates according to the second communication protocol. |
| US09473874B2 |
Distribution apparatus and distribution method
A distribution apparatus includes: a processor; and a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute: storing information of at least one of a device that is available in a predetermined location and an application for controlling the device in a storage unit; distributing the application to a mobile terminal when the mobile terminal is detected in the predetermined location. |
| US09473873B2 |
Instant activation and provisioning for telecommunication services on a mobile device
Methods and systems for instant activation of virtual PBX services on a mobile device are disclosed. In one aspect, a user request for activating virtual PBX services is received on a mobile device. An available primary identification number for the virtual PBX services is retrieved from a telecommunication service provider (TSP). A user interface is presented on the mobile device including a first interface portion presenting the available primary identification number and a second interface portion configured to receive a user identifier. Upon receiving the user input specifying the user identifier and while the user interface is still presented on the mobile device, a user instruction for activating the virtual PBX services is received. Upon receiving the user instruction, the user identifier is sent to the TSP. Then, a confirmation is received from the TSP. |
| US09473872B2 |
Supplementary services management setting control
A method of configuring a mobile terminal within a Long Term Evolution (LTE) compliant mobile wireless communications network. The method comprises controlling a first mobile terminal setting and communication the first mobile terminal setting from a network node to the mobile terminal. The first mobile terminal setting indicates whether supplementary services management setting controls originating from a mobile terminal are to be transmitted between the mobile terminal and an application server through an Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network. The first mobile terminal setting instructs the mobile terminal to modify a first configuration parameter within a first Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Managed Object (MO) stored at the mobile terminal to indicate whether supplementary services management setting controls originating from the mobile terminal are to be transmitted through an IMS network. |
| US09473871B1 |
Systems and methods for audio management
System and methods are provided for audio management. Initial head-related transfer function (HRTF) parameters indicating an initial virtual configuration of a plurality of audio sources are determined. A first user operation is detected through a user interface. Target HRTF parameters are generated in response to the first user operation. A target virtual configuration of the plurality of audio sources is determined based at least in part on the target HRTF parameters. |
| US09473870B2 |
Loudspeaker position compensation with 3D-audio hierarchical coding
In general, techniques are described for compensating for loudspeaker positions using hierarchical three-dimensional (3D) audio coding. An apparatus comprising or more processors may perform the techniques. The processors may be configured to perform a first transform that is based on a spherical wave model on a first set of audio channel information for a first geometry of speakers to generate a first hierarchical set of elements that describes a sound field. The processors may further be configured to perform a second transform in a frequency domain on the first hierarchical set of elements to generate a second set of audio channel information for a second geometry of speakers. |
| US09473867B2 |
Notification control device, notification control method and storage medium
There is provided a notification control device including a determination unit configured to determine whether a sound collection unit configured to collect voice in a microphone is blocked, and a notification controller configured to cause, when it is determined that the sound collection unit of the microphone is blocked, a determination result to be reported to a user. When a voice signal indicating the voice collected by the microphone is recorded, the notification controller causes the determination result to be reported to the user in one or more notification ways not including an auditory notification way. When the voice signal is not recorded, the notification controller causes the determination result to be reported to the user in one or more notification ways from among one or more notification ways including the auditory notification way. |
| US09473866B2 |
System and method for tracking sound pitch across an audio signal using harmonic envelope
A system and method may be configured to analyze audio information derived from an audio signal. The system and method may track sound pitch across the audio signal. The tracking of pitch across the audio signal may take into account change in pitch by determining at individual time sample windows in the signal duration an estimated pitch and a representation of harmonic envelope at the estimated pitch. The estimated pitch and the representation of harmonic envelope may then be implemented to determine an estimated pitch for another time sample window in the signal duration with an enhanced accuracy and/or precision. |
| US09473864B2 |
Internet protocol addressable public address devices and systems
Devices, methods, and systems are described herein. One device includes a speaker component to broadcast a message, a microphone component to detect a sound, an IP component to receive the message using a communication path, and a computing component to determine a source of the detected sound. |
| US09473862B2 |
Method and system for providing a hearing aid
A method for providing a hearing aid, which is adapted to the individual needs of a hearing aid user, wherein hearing loss data is measured on an individual. In order to allow time and cost savings during the fitting procedure of said hearing aid and to provide a ready-to-wear hearing aid the method comprises the steps of—assessing the admissibility of the measured hearing loss by determining if said measured hearing loss data is located within a predetermined admissibility range; attributing said measured hearing loss data to one of a set of standardized profiles, wherein each standardized profile corresponds to a certain type of hearing loss generally located within said admissibility range and is associated with a set of standardized programming parameters of a hearing aid; providing a hearing aid (104, 114) which is programmed according to the set of standardized programming parameters that is associated with said attributed standardized profile. |
| US09473860B2 |
Method and hearing aid system for logic-based binaural beam-forming system
A method for beam-forming for a hearing aid system is disclosed. The hearing aid system has a left and a right hearing aid device for disposal on a head of a wearer. The hearing aid devices each have microphones for converting the sound into a left and a right input signal and also a signal processing device which receives the two input signals. In the method a number of different linear combinations of the left and the right input signal are provided, are assessed according to a predetermined signal criterion and, in dependence thereof, one of the linear combinations is selected as a beam signal. |
| US09473859B2 |
Systems and methods of telecommunication for bilateral hearing instruments
Disclosed herein, among other things, are systems and methods for improved telecommunication for hearing instruments. One aspect of the present subject matter includes a hearing assistance method. The method includes receiving a first signal from a first hearing assistance device, receiving a second signal from a second hearing assistance device, and processing the first signal and the second signal to produce an output signal for use in telecommunication. In various embodiments, processing the first signal and the second signal includes comparing the first signal and the second signal, and selecting one or more of the first hearing assistance device and the second hearing assistance device for use in telecommunication based on the comparison. According to various embodiments, processing the first signal and the second signal includes combining the first signal and the second signal algorithmically to produce the output signal. |
| US09473858B2 |
Hearing device
A hearing device comprising a first and a second input sound transducers, a processing unit, and an output sound transducer. The first transducer is configured to be arranged in an ear canal or in the ear of the user, to receive acoustical sound signals from the environment and to generate first electrical acoustic signals from the received acoustical sound signals. The second transducer is configured to be arranged behind a pinna or on, behind or at the ear of the user, to receive acoustical sound signals from the environment and to generate second electrical acoustic signals from the received acoustical sound signals. The processing unit is configured to process the first and second electrical acoustic signals. The output sound transducer is configured to be arranged in the ear canal of the user and to generate acoustical output sound signals from electrical acoustic signals. |
| US09473855B2 |
Moving armature receiver assemblies with vibration suppression
Moving armature receiver assemblies wherein a first U-shaped armature and a second U-shaped armature are configured for suppression of vibration of a housing structure along a longitudinal housing plane. The first and second U-shaped armatures may be shifted away from each other along a longitudinal housing plane to render the first and second U-shaped armatures partially overlapping in the orthogonal plane with a predetermined overlap distance. |
| US09473853B2 |
Acoustic unit, loudspeaker and acoustic module having the same, and manufacturing method thereof
An acoustic unit, which is arranged for coupling with a vibration system to produce an audio sound, includes a frame, a vibration member for being reciprocatingly moved in response to the vibration system; and a resilient suspension which is provided around the vibration member and is located between the vibration member and the frame, wherein the suspension has a stretching section integrally extended from the vibration member and a cushioning section integrally extended from the stretching section to the frame. The cushioning section only allows the stretching section to displace along a direction the same as a vibration direction of the vibration member to restrict a vibrating movement of the vibration member. The acoustic unit is incorporated with an acoustic module, wherein when a loudspeaker of the acoustic module operates, the acoustic unit synchronously vibrates to provide an enhanced low frequency audio effect. |
| US09473851B2 |
Speaker protection circuit with improved accuracy
In one embodiment, a method for speaker operation comprises sensing an input common mode signal of a driver, wherein the driver drives a speaker, and adjusting the input common mode signal of the driver based on a difference between the sensed input common mode signal and a reference signal. The method also comprises sensing a current of a coil of the speaker, and control an output volume of the speaker based at least in part on the sensed current. |
| US09473849B2 |
Sound source direction estimation apparatus, sound source direction estimation method and computer program product
According to an embodiment, a sound source direction estimation apparatus includes an acquisition unit, a generator, a comparator, and an estimator. The acquisition unit is configured to acquire acoustic signals of a plurality of channels from a plurality of microphones. The generator is configured to calculate a phase difference of the acoustic signals of the plurality of channels for each predetermined frequency bin to generate a phase difference distribution. The comparator is configured to compare the phase difference distribution with a template generated in advance for each direction, and calculate a score in accordance with similarity between the phase difference distribution and the template for each direction. The estimator is configured to estimate a direction of a sound source based on the scores calculated. |
| US09473848B2 |
Transmission line loudspeaker
An electro-acoustic driver including an acoustic waveguide includes an enclosure, an acoustic transmission line formed within the enclosure, and a plurality of acoustic transducers contained within the enclosure and disposed along a length of the acoustic transmission line. Each acoustic transducer is configured to emit acoustic energy directly into the acoustic transmission line at two separated locations along the length of the acoustic transmission line. |
| US09473847B2 |
Acoustic apparatus
An acoustic apparatus includes a vibration part configured to generate an acoustic vibration, a tube having a cavity that faces the vibration part, and at least one open tube connected to the tube via a first open end and a second open end. A length of the at least one open tube is an integer-fold of substantially a half of a wavelength of a standing wave produced in the tube. The first open end is positioned substantially at an anti-node of the standing wave produced in the tube. |
| US09473846B2 |
Ear defender with concha simulator
A hearing protection system with talk-through having a pair of rigid earcups enclosing a microphone, amplifier and speaker. A concha simulator, having a volume simulating that of the concha of a human ear, is acoustically coupled to the microphone, and also to the outside through an opening in the earcup. By coupling the microphone to the concha simulator, instead of directly to the outside, the acoustic response of the talk-through more accurately represents the hearing of a user. |
| US09473844B2 |
Headphones and ear pad
[Problem] To prevent sound leakage through gaps between the wearing surface side of ear pads and areas around the ears when headphones are worn and used by a user. [Solution] For headphones that have ear pads which are attached to the surfaces of housing sections, each having a built-in speaker driver for outputting an audio signal as sound, which come in contact with the ears of a listener, convex sections in the form of gradually curved surfaces are provided in the wearing surface regions of the ear pads that come in contact with an upper anterior side of the head of the listener and a lower posterior side of the head of the listener, whereby the ear pads are shaped to fit well to the areas around the ears of the user without forming any gaps when the ear pads are worn. |
| US09473837B2 |
Sound transducer with ventilation structure
The present invention discloses a sound transducer with a ventilation structure capable of securing a flow path of air introduced from within and outside of the sound transducer to the maximum. The sound transducer with a ventilation structure includes a frame, a magnetic circuit installed within the frame, a voice coil vibrating according to mutual electromagnetic force with the magnetic circuit upon receiving an electrical signal, a vibration plate vibrating according to vibrations of the voice coil to generate a sound, and a drain hole formed to be adjacent to the corner of the frame and allowing air to flow between the interior and exterior of the frame. |
| US09473835B2 |
Optical module and optical device applicable to optical module
An optical module and an optical device applicable to the optical module, wherein the optical module includes a laser emission unit, a laser reception unit, a video detector and an optical assembly, the optical assembly including: a band-pass device F1 with a small-angle incidence filter sheet, wherein among optical signals transmitted to F1 via a common port of F1, the optical signal in a first optical wavelength band is passed by the small-angle incidence filter sheet and output to the video detector via the passing port thereof; and the optical signals in other bands are reflected by the small-angle incidence filter sheet and output via the reflection port thereof; a filter sheet F2 configured to pass the optical signal emitted by the laser emission unit to the reflection port of F1 and to reflect the optical signal, received by the laser reception unit, output via the reflection port of F1. |
| US09473834B2 |
Routing for super channel for bandwidth variable wavelength switched optical network
In an optical communications network using bandwidth variable wavelength switching, routing and spectrum assignment for a traffic request for x sub-carriers of a super-channel, involves checking for an existing super-channel having sufficient potential sub-carriers not currently active. If not found, then possible paths for a new super-channel are identified and a path is selected and sub-carriers assigned. By trying first to use inactive potential sub-carriers of an existing super-channel, fewer super channels overall are needed, and thus fewer super transponders are needed. This can reduce blocking probabilities and can reduce capital costs. The search for possible paths can try to avoid or reduce overlap with spectrum of existing super channels, or compare possible paths by weighting according to amounts of overlap. |
| US09473832B2 |
GCC0 tunneling over an OTN transport network
Systems and methods for tunneling GCC0 bytes over an OTN transport network are disclosed. The method includes receiving, at a first network element, a first data frame comprising a set of management bytes and a set of data bytes, determining whether the set of management bytes should be tunneled, and, in response to determining that the management bytes should be tunneled, sending, to a second network element, a second data frame comprising the set of management bytes and the set of data bytes. |
| US09473830B2 |
Smart metering system using white space band and smart metering method using the same
A smart metering system using a white space band includes a band search sensor installed in a predefined area which scans a digital public broadcast channel band; a band management server which manages area specific broadcast channel status information based on a scanning result obtained by the band search sensor and which searches a white space band that is an idle channel band of a corresponding area based on the broadcast channel status information to allocate the white space band as a smart metering data transmission channel; and a base station which allocates the smart metering data transmission channel from the band management server and which forms a wireless communication channel between a smart meter and a grid central server via the allocated smart metering data transmission channel. |
| US09473823B2 |
Techniques for collecting and providing viewer information
The present invention provides an improved method and apparatus to collect and provide viewer feedback to broadcasts. According to one aspect of the present invention, a rating is generated for a broadcast by a server system. The rating is based at least in part on viewer feedback to the broadcast, and the rating indicates a likelihood of interest in the broadcast for potential subsequent viewers. Access to the rating is then provided so that predications can be made as to whether or not the broadcast will be of interest to potential subsequent viewers. According to another aspect of the present invention, the rating is provided from the server system to an entertainment system, and the broadcast can be selected for viewing at an entertainment system based on the rating generated by the server system. In one embodiment, the viewer feedback is received at the entertainment system in response to a feedback questionnaire. |
| US09473820B2 |
Media fingerprinting for content determination and retrieval
Audio fingerprinting and other media matching technologies can be used to identify broadcast media, such as television shows and radio broadcasts. A user device can record image, audio, and/or video information and upload information to a matching service that is able to use matching technology to identify the media and provide supplemental content or information to the user. The user might receive information identifying a product in an advertisement, identifying an actor on screen in a movie at a particular time, or other such information. In some embodiments, the user can receive access to a digital copy of the captured media, such as the ability to download a copy of a program in which a user expressed interest. Since a user might capture media information after the point of interest, a device can buffer a window of recently captured media in order to attempt to identify the intended media. |
| US09473816B2 |
Media content rating management with pattern matching
A method according to one embodiment includes the operations of determining a requested playback media content rating; selecting a pattern matching database associated with the requested playback media content rating; scanning one or more frames of media content; and comparing the scanned frames of media content to the pattern matching database to determine matched frames for omission from playback based on the requested playback media content rating. |
| US09473815B1 |
Content redistribution protection
Aspects of the disclosure are directed to a novel approach for content protection. Specifically, various embodiments employ data feeds to continuously or periodically inform placeshifting devices of protected content. The placeshifting devices then filter or otherwise block the protected content from being re-transmitted over a network based on this information. In some embodiments, the data feeds take the form of Really Simple Syndicating (RSS) or Atom feeds. These data feeds may carry information about the protected content, such as the time, the title, and the channel of specific audio/video protected content. Based on this information, the placeshifting device can determine which content is protected and not eligible for re-transmission. |
| US09473814B1 |
Profiling and identification of television viewers
Profiling a television viewer by monitoring and processing, locally at a television viewing environment, the viewer's interactivity (e.g., via a remote control unit) with the television viewing environment. Generating one or more profiles for each viewer based on one or more of the multitude of interactions of each viewer and on, in general, the viewing habits and preferences of the viewer. Automatically and reliably, detecting or inferring at a particular time, which specific individual or individuals, are actually interacting with the TV in household comprising more than one individual. Such viewer identification and profile generation can be used to facilitate the delivery of targeted content, including targeted advertising. |
| US09473810B2 |
System and method for enhancing live performances with digital content
Enhancing a live performance of one or more actors with digital content by tracking a movement of the one or more actors and augmenting the live performance with the digital content based on the tracked movement in real time is described. |
| US09473799B1 |
Resource data query processing
A distributed execution environment provides resources such as computing resources, hardware resources, and software resources. One or more resource data providers might also operate in conjunction with the distributed execution environment to provide resource data describing various aspects of the resources in the distributed execution environment. A query service may obtain resource data provided by the resource data providers in order to generate responses to queries. In order to obtain the resource data from the resource data providers, the query service may utilize various “pull” and “push” mechanisms. Using a push mechanism, the resource data providers push resource data to the query service. Utilizing a pull mechanism, the query service pulls the resource data from the resource data providers. The query service might also store resource data received from the resource data providers in a cache and utilize the cached resource data when responding to queries for resource data. |
| US09473793B2 |
Image processing apparatus, method, and program
There is provided an image processing apparatus including a tone mapper that losslessly tone maps image data in a floating-point representation, a base layer generator that generates base layer image data by reducing a bit depth of the image data tone mapped by the tone mapper, and an enhancement layer generator that generates enhancement layer data by using the image data tone mapped by the tone mapper and the base layer image data generated by the base layer generator. |
| US09473790B2 |
Inter-prediction method and video encoding/decoding method using the inter-prediction method
A video decoding method using inter-prediction, includes: identifying, based on information included in a bitstream, whether a first picture is a picture which allows a second picture preceding the first picture in a display order to refer to at least one picture decoded before the first picture, the first picture serving as a random access picture; decoding the first picture without referring to a reference picture which has already decoded; and when the first picture is a picture which allows the second picture to refer to the at least one picture decoded before the first picture, inter-prediction decoding, after decoding the first picture, the second picture by using at least one reference picture which is decoded before the first picture depending on reference picture information of the second picture. |
| US09473789B2 |
Apparatus for decoding a moving picture
Provided is an apparatus for decoding a moving picture. An entropy decoding unit restores a quantization coefficient sequence from a bitstream. An inverse quantization/transform unit generates a residual block. An inter prediction unit generates a prediction block of a current block based on motion vector information. When the prediction block is encoded in skip mode, motion information of the current block is restored using an available spatial or temporal skip candidate and the prediction block of the current block is generated using the motion information. The temporal skip candidate includes a reference picture index and a motion vector, the reference picture index of the temporal skip candidate is set to 0, and a motion vector of the temporal skip candidate is a motion vector of the temporal skip candidate in a temporal skip candidate picture. A scan pattern for inversely scanning the plurality of subsets is the same as a scan pattern for inversely scanning coefficients of each subset. The quantization step size is generated by adding a quantization step size predictor and a remaining quantization step size predictor. |
| US09473787B2 |
Video coding apparatus and video coding method
In an exemplary embodiment, in order to avoid enlargement of a circuit scale to perform coding processing in real time, a block size of a PU (evaluation PU (Prediction Unit)) used to evaluate a merge mode is restricted and the number of evaluation target merge candidates is restricted. In the case where the evaluation PU has the block size in which a CU (Cording Unit) is divided, at least one merge candidate common to a merge candidate list of a PU (inclusion PU) having the block size including the evaluation PU and a merge candidate list of each of a plurality of evaluation PUs is selected as the evaluation target merge candidate from the merge candidate lists of the evaluation PUs. In performing cost evaluation processing for the evaluation PU, cost evaluation processing is simultaneously performed on the inclusion PU using a calculated prediction residual. |
| US09473785B2 |
Limited error raster compression
Embodiments of the invention relate to an image or raster compression method that includes receiving pixel data for a raster comprising a two dimensional (2D) array of pixels where each pixel is associated with a data value. The method further includes receiving a user defined parameter defining a maximum error allowable per pixel for a compression algorithm. The raster can be divided into a number of pixel blocks where each pixel can be quantized and bit stuffed based on a number of block statistics including the maximum error allowable. The method further includes executing the compression algorithm wherein for each pixel, where an error caused by the compression algorithm is equal to or less than the maximum error allowable, and encoding the pixel data based on the compression algorithm. In certain embodiments, the compression algorithm is a non-transform compression algorithm. |
| US09473784B2 |
Sample adaptive offset (SAO) filtering in video coding
A method for sample adaptive offset (SAO) filtering of largest coding units (LCUs) of a video frame in an SAO component is provided that includes receiving, by the SAO component, an indication that deblocked pixel blocks of an LCU are available, and applying SAO filtering, by the SAO component, to each pixel block of pixel blocks of an SAO processing area corresponding to the LCU responsive to the indication, wherein pixels of each pixel block of the SAO processing area are filtered in parallel. |
| US09473780B2 |
Video transmission using content-based frame search
A system, method and computer-readable medium are disclosed that uses previously transmitted video frames and associated video frame content information to reduce the amount of information to be transmitted from a sending device to a receiving device during a video transmission. |
| US09473771B2 |
Coding video data for an output layer set
Systems, methods, and devices for coding multilayer video data are disclosed that may include encoding, decoding, transmitting, or receiving multilayer video data. The systems, methods, and devices may receive or transmit a first output layer set for a layer set and receive or transmit a second output layer set for the layer set. The systems, methods, and devices may code (encode or decode) video data for at least one of the first output layer set and the second output layer set. |
| US09473770B2 |
Methods and apparatus for integrating external applications into an MPEG-4 scene
A method of decoding, composing and rendering a scene. First information is obtained, the first information including a part of a MPEG-4 BIFS scene description stream and at least one coded MPEG-4 media stream. The first information is decoded by invoking a BIFS scene decoder and one or more specific media decoders that are required by the scene. Second information is obtained, the second information including a second part of a BIFS scene description stream that contains a reference to an external application. The second information is decoded by invoking the BIFS scene decoder and an external application decoder. An integrated scene is composed, the integrated scene including one or more decoded MPEG-4 media objects and one or more external application objects specified in the decoded scene descriptions streams. The composed integrated scene is rendered on a display. |
| US09473769B2 |
Method and system for reducing slice header parsing overhead in video coding
A method for encoding a picture of a video sequence in a bit stream that reduces slice header parsing overhead is provided. The method includes determining weighting factors that may be used for weighted prediction in encoding at least one slice of the picture, wherein a total number of the weighting factors is constrained to not exceed a predetermined threshold number of weighting factors, wherein the threshold number is less than a maximum possible number of weighting factors, and signaling weighted prediction parameters including the weighting factors in a slice header in the bit stream. |
| US09473767B1 |
Multifactor eye position identification in a display system
A display system comprising a display screen for displaying a stream of images, a viewer positioning module and an image generator module. The viewer positioning module is for determining a viewer's sightline by defining a first factor of the sightline as a lateral position of a viewer's body part located between the viewer's chin and the viewer's waistline, defining a second factor of the sightline as a depth position of the body part and computing the sightline based at least on the first factor and the second factor. The image generator module is for generating the stream of images considering the determined sightline. A method comprising defining the first factor, defining the second factor, computing the sightline based at least on the first factor and the second factor, generating the stream of images considering the determined sightline and displaying the stream of images on a first display screen. |
| US09473765B2 |
Three-dimensional shutter glasses and grayscale driving method thereof
A grayscale driving method for three-dimensional (3D) shutter glasses is provided herein and comprises steps of: for every two frames as a cycle, sequentially inputting a first signal and a second signal into a first glass and a second glass, and the polarities of the first signal and the second signal in the cycle are the same; changing the polarities of the first signal and the second signal when the cycle transits into a next cycle; and respectively inputting a third signal and a fourth signal into the first glass and the second glass during the cycle to adjust the gamma voltages of the first signal and the second signal in the first glass and the second glass. |
| US09473764B2 |
Stereoscopic image display
Embodiments that relate to displaying a computer generated image to a viewer via a stereoscopic display system are disclosed. One disclosed embodiment comprises establishing a predetermined threshold distance from an eye of a viewer to a threshold displayed position of a computer generated image. The method includes determining that a vergence distance from the eye of the viewer to a current displayed position of the image is at or below the predetermined threshold distance. Based on the vergence distance being at or below the predetermined threshold distance, a size of the image is increased while maintaining the vergence distance at the predetermined threshold distance as the eye of the viewer moves toward the image. |
| US09473761B2 |
System and method of acquiring three-dimensional coordinates using multiple coordinate measurment devices
A method is provided of determining three-dimensional coordinates of an object surface with a laser tracker and structured light scanner. The method includes providing the scanner having a body, a pair of cameras, a projector, and a processor. The projector and cameras are positioned in a non-collinear arrangement. The projector is configured to project a first pattern onto the surface. The method also includes providing the tracker which emits a beam of light onto the retroreflector. The tracker receives a reflected beam of light. The first location is measured with the tracker. The first orientation is measured with the tracker. The first surface pattern is projected onto the surface. A pair of images of the surface pattern is acquired with cameras. The processor determines the 3D coordinates of a first plurality of points in the tracker frame of reference based in part on epipolar constraints of the cameras and projector. |
| US09473759B2 |
Transmission device, reception and playback device, transmission method, and reception and playback method
To provide a transmission device that enables playback with respect to the same program in accordance with a viewer's viewing environment. The transmission device stores therein 3D access information and 2D access information respectively relating to access to a 3D stream and a 2D stream that are simulcast, and generates and transmits a data stream including the 3D access information and the 2D access information. |
| US09473745B2 |
System and method for providing live imagery associated with map locations
Near real-time imagery of a given location may be provided to user upon request. Most popularly viewed geographic locations are determined, and a 360 degree image capture device is positioned at one or more of the determined locations. The image capture device may continually provide image information, which is processed, for example, to remove personal information and filter spam. Such image information may then be provided to users upon request. The image capture device continually captures multiple views of the given location, and the requesting user can select which perspective to view. |
| US09473743B2 |
Device and method for optimizing access to contents by users
A control device belongs to a network equipment connected to a communication network to which are coupled communication equipments of users capable of storing contents. This control device comprises i) a first analyzing means arranged for determining respective popularities of contents of a collection from at least user information, and for determining a number of replicas for each content of this collection from at least its determined content popularity, and/or ii) a second analyzing means arranged for determining content preference(s) of users from content ratings, and iii) a computation means arranged for determining location(s) for storing the replica(s) of each content, from the determined content replica numbers and/or the determined user's content preferences, in order to optimize the access to these contents by the users. |
| US09473741B2 |
Teleconference system and teleconference terminal
A teleconference terminal includes a positional relationship determining unit, a video switching unit, a first video output unit, and a second video output unit. The positional relationship determining unit sets relationship information indicating a displaying position relationship between a location video received from another teleconference terminal and shared information shared among a plurality of locations on the local teleconference terminal based on relationship information indicating a displaying position relationship between the location video and the shared information set on the other teleconference terminal. The video switching unit displays the location video received from the other teleconference terminal and shared information on a first display unit and a second display unit in the displaying position relationship specified in the relationship information set by the positional relationship determining unit. |
| US09473740B2 |
Automatic positioning of videoconference camera to presenter at presentation device
In a system and method of conducting a videoconference, a videoconferencing unit detects an activation related to a presentation device at a near-end of the videoconference. The unit stores a current orientation of at least one camera and directs the at least one camera at the presentation device. At this point, the unit begins outputting to a far-end at least one of (i) video captured of the presentation device with the at least one directed camera and (ii) content displayed with the presentation device. At some point, the unit detects a deactivation related to the presentation device at the near-end and then redirects the at least one camera to the stored orientation so the videoconference can proceed as before. |
| US09473728B2 |
Home audio video display device (AVDD) as sensor monitor
Method, computer storage device, and system that establish communication with at least first and second sensors, receive information from the sensors, and determine whether the information from the first sensor satisfies a first alert threshold. It is also determined whether the information from the second sensor satisfies a second alert threshold. Responsive to a determination that the information from the first sensor satisfies the first alert threshold and that the information from the second sensor does not satisfy the second alert threshold, an alert signal is not generated. On the other hand, responsive to a determination that the information from the first sensor satisfies the first alert threshold and that the information from the second sensor satisfies the second alert threshold, the alert signal is generated for output thereof to a display device. |
| US09473727B2 |
Methods and systems for remotely controlling electronic devices
An apparatus for controlling electronic devices has a camera and a transmitter. The camera acquires a first image of an electronic device. The device is configured for remote control. The apparatus identifies a probable identity of the device by comparing the first image to a plurality of stored images of known electronic devices. Test instructions are selected based on the probable identity of the device and sent to the device. A confirmation image of the device is acquired after the test instructions are sent. The apparatus determines from the confirmation image that the state of the device is consistent with execution of the test instructions. The apparatus receives user input specifying a command for the device. Based on the first image, the device is not in a state corresponding to the command, so the apparatus transmits an instruction corresponding to the command to the device. |
| US09473726B2 |
Ultra high definition display device and video signal converting method
An ultra high definition display device and a video signal converting method are provided. The ultra high definition display device comprises a first input port configured to receive a first signal; a control module configured to generate a first enabling signal; a first receiver module configured to receive the first signal from the first input port according to the first enabling signal, and generate a second signal by a format conversion, both the first signal and the second signal being full high definition signals; a resolution transformation module configured to transform the second signal in resolution to generate a third signal, the third signal being an ultra high definition signal; and a transmission module configured to convert the third signal into an ultra high definition display signal and output the display signal. The device and method according to embodiments of the present invention may receive a full high definition signal, and achieve conversion from a full high definition signal to an ultra high definition signal display signal for output under the control of the control module. |
| US09473725B2 |
Image-processing and encoded aperture pattern setting device and method, and image pickup device comprising same
An image-processing device includes an image acquiring device, an encoded aperture pattern setting device configured to set encoded aperture patterns for multiple pupil images of the main lens, respectively, a calculation device configured to perform a weighted product-sum calculation between the pupil image for each lens of the lens array in the image acquired from the image sensor and the encoded aperture pattern set by the encoded aperture pattern setting device, and an image generating device configured to generate an image based on a calculation result by the calculation device. |
| US09473724B2 |
Imaging device and imaging system
There is provided an imaging device. In the imaging device, when a range of the signal amplitude available for a signal output from a pixel cell is small, a period, in which a signal in a buffer unit is output, is set shorter than that when the range is large. |
| US09473723B2 |
Solid-state image sensing device that performs an A/D conversion operation at high speed
Provided is a solid-state image sensing device that performs an A/D conversion operation at high speed. A sample-and-hold section 12 included in an A/D converter in a CMOS image sensor includes switches S1a and S1b and capacitor C1 that sample and hold a dark signal during each cycle period, switches S2a and S2b and capacitor C2 that sample and hold a bright signal during an odd-numbered cycle period, and switches S3a and S3b and capacitor C3 that sample and hold a bright signal during an even-numbered cycle period. While a bright signal is held with switch S2b placed in a conducting state, the next bright signal can be sampled by placing switch S3a in a conducting state. |
| US09473720B2 |
Solid-state image-capturing device and image-capturing device
A solid-state image-capturing device has a plurality of pixels and first and second substrates in which circuit elements constituting the pixels are arranged and which are electrically connected through a connection unit. The solid-state image-capturing device includes: a photoelectric conversion element included in the pixel of the first substrate; a first current source; a first amplification transistor having a source or a drain connected to the first current source and a gate to which a signal generated by the photoelectric conversion element is input; a second current source; a switch configured to switch ON and OFF of a connection between a vertical signal line and the second current source and to be turned off when the gate of the first amplification transistor is reset; a voltage output circuit configured to output a power supply voltage to the vertical signal line when the gate of the first amplification transistor is reset. |
| US09473711B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method for the same
A infrared camera includes: a camera module photographing a subject; a lighting module outputting light to the subject; a control module controlling the camera module to photograph the subject and outputting a lighting driving signal synchronized with an operation of the camera module; and a lighting driving module driving the lighting module based on the lighting driving signal output from the control module. |
| US09473707B2 |
Systems and methods for producing visual representations of objects
A system for producing a visual representation of an object includes a structure for at least partially circumscribing the object, a plurality of still cameras mounted in fixed relation to each other, and at least one computer processor. The one or more computer processors trigger the plurality of still cameras to capture a plurality of still images of the object, create the visual representation of the object by, at least in part, arranging at least some of the plurality of still images in an order, and transmit a digital file that includes the visual representation of the object to a storage medium accessible by a user device. The visual representation of the object is user manipulable to permit presenting the visual representation in more than one way. |
| US09473705B2 |
Camera device and method for determining field of view of the camera device
In a method for determining a field of view of a camera device, a location device sends position information to establish anchor points. The camera device captures images of the anchor points, and obtains vertical angles of the anchor points, horizontal angles of the anchor points, and distances between the camera device and the anchor points. Each anchor point corresponds to one or more speakers. The method calculates rotation angles of speakers according to the vertical angles, the horizontal angles, the distances and anthropometric values of the speakers. The method further determines the field of view of the camera device according to the rotation angles. |
| US09473704B2 |
Camera apparatus, and method of generating view finder image signal
A camera apparatus includes: a display signal generation section configured to generate an indicator display signal for displaying an indicator at a position in accordance with an inclination of a camera body in a predetermined direction; and a combination section configured to combine a captured image signal with the indicator display signal in order to obtain a view finder image signal, wherein the display signal generation section generates the indicator display signal such that a display of the indicator is masked using a mask area having a predetermined width and with a position corresponding to a predetermined inclination of the indicator in a movement direction as center. |
| US09473703B2 |
Blur correction apparatus
A blur correction apparatus includes a first fixing member, a moveable member and a second fixing member. A coil for generating a magnetic flux is arranged on the first fixing member. The movable member includes (1) an optical element, (2) a first magnet facing the coil, and (3) a second magnet arranged along a line parallel with an optical axis of the optical element and facing the first magnet, such that the first magnet is arranged between the second magnet and the coil. The movable member can move in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis. The second fixing member includes a hall element that is arranged adjacent to the second magnet. The second magnet is arranged between the first magnet and the hall element. The coil, the first magnet, the second magnet and the hall element are sequentially disposed in a line parallel with the optical axis, in this order. |
| US09473700B2 |
Camera systems and methods for gigapixel computational imaging
Camera systems and methods for gigapixel computational imaging are provided. In some embodiments, the camera system comprises: a ball lens, an array of image sensors disposed at a distance from the ball lens, the array of image sensors configured to acquire images from light that passes through the ball lens; and a processor configured to deblur and stitch the images captured by the array of image sensors to generate a gigapixel image. |
| US09473697B2 |
Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof
A mobile terminal including a camera; a display unit configured to display a preview image input through the camera; and a controller configured to select an object in the preview image in response to a user input for touching the object or setting a specific region comprising the object; and output an alarm when the object moves out from the preview image. |
| US09473696B2 |
Gaze detection apparatus, gaze detection computer program, and display apparatus
A gaze detection apparatus includes a light source which illuminates a user's eye, an imaging unit which generates an image by capturing the image of a user's face, and a processor adapted to: estimate a distance between the imaging unit and the user's face; calculate the ratio of the distance between the imaging unit and the user's face to a separation distance between the imaging unit and the light source and determine, based on the ratio, whether a bright pupil phenomenon occurs; detect from the captured image a corneal reflection image of the light source and a center of the user's pupil when determining that the bright pupil phenomenon does not occur; and detect the user's gaze direction or gaze position based on a positional relationship between the center of the user's pupil and the corneal reflection image when determining that the bright pupil phenomenon does not occur. |
| US09473694B2 |
Image processing device, imaging device, image processing method and computer readable medium
An image processing device comprising: a determination section that, based on a factor defining a depth representing a permissible range for acceptable state of focus and on parallax computed by a parallax computation section, determines an operation movement ratio for converting an operation amount, that instructs movement of a focusing lens, into a movement amount of the focusing lens by using a function including the operation movement ratio as a dependent variable and an independent variable determined according to the factor and the parallax; and a control section that controls a movement section to move the focusing lens by an amount equivalent to a movement amount determined based on an operation movement ratio determined by the determination section and the operation amount. |
| US09473678B2 |
Method, apparatus and machine-readable medium for apportioning video processing between a video source device and a video sink device
To apportion desired video processing between a video source device and a video sink device, at one of the devices, and based upon an indication of video processing algorithms of which the other device is capable and an indication of video processing algorithms of which the one device is capable, a set of video processing algorithms for achieving desired video processing is identified. The identified set of video processing algorithms is classified into a first subset of algorithms for performance by the other device and a second subset of algorithms for performance by the one device. At least one command for causing the other device to effect the first subset of video processing algorithms is sent. The one device may be configured to effect the second subset of algorithms. |
| US09473665B1 |
Photo imaging system including carriage and automatic image detection
This disclosure provides a self-contained imaging device that takes digital photographs of portions of documents (such as photos or photoalbums) instead of scanning those images. The imaging device uses a lens to zoom in on specific portions of the document that represent images that are to be digitized. Generally speaking, disclosed embodiments utilize a physical device having a housing, a location for retaining or holding an image to be imaged, such as a platen or image conveyance mechanism, a light source and the imaging system (which can be a digital camera). The disclosed device camera provides a low-cost mechanism that can at-once capture a high resolution image without the delays associated with most scanners. |
| US09473664B2 |
Image scanner with dividing member
An image scanner includes a transparent plate, a scanning device, a driving device, a positioning member, a light absorbing portion and a white reference portion. The transparent plate has an original placing surface. The scanning device irradiates an original with light by means of a light source and scans reflected light from the original. The driving device reciprocates the scanning device along the transparent plate. The positioning member positions the original placed on the original placing surface of the transparent plate. The light absorbing portion, which is disposed on the original placing surface side of the positioning member and at substantially a central portion of the positioning member in moving directions of the scanning device, absorbs ambient light entering to the original placing surface side of the positioning member through the transparent plate. The white reference portion is provided to the original placing surface side of the positioning member. |
| US09473660B2 |
Information processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable medium
An information processing apparatus includes a determination unit and an adjustment unit. The determination unit determines a rating item for which a degree of interest of a user is high among plural rating items set for an image to be formed. The adjustment unit sets a standard for the rating item determined by the determination unit among the plural rating items and performs an adjustment process such that the standard is satisfied, the rating item being the rating item for which the degree of interest of the user is high. |
| US09473659B2 |
Blank skip action in an image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus divides image data into a plurality of image regions in a sub-scanning direction and performs predetermined processing on the image data of each divided image region so as to form an image on a recording medium. The image forming apparatus includes: a detection unit that detects whether the image data of the image region is blank data; a storage unit that stores the image data of the image region that has been subjected to detection; and a control unit that controls whether to cause the detection unit to perform the detection depending on a predetermined printing mode. |
| US09473656B2 |
Image processing apparatus, and method and computer-readable medium for the same including registration and document presence features
An image processing apparatus including a sensor detecting a document set on the image processing apparatus, an image processing device performing an image processing operation for the document, a reader reading registration information from a recording medium, the registration information including at least one of identification information and setting information, and a controller configured to, in response to the recording medium being brought in proximity to or in contact with the reader, control the reader to read the registration information from the recording medium, acquire the setting information based on the registration information, determine whether the document is set on the image processing apparatus, based on a detection signal from the sensor, and in response to determining that the document is set on the image processing apparatus, control the image processing device to perform the image processing operation in accordance with the setting information. |
| US09473653B2 |
Image reading apparatus
An image reading apparatus comprises a housing to block ambient light and including a rectangular opening on a bottom, an image capturing unit to capture an image of a medium in the opening, and a plurality of light sources disposed in the housing and emitting light to irradiate different areas of the opening. The housing includes four cover portions corresponding to sides of the rectangular opening. The four cover portions include a pair of inclined-cover portions which are switched between an open state and a folded state and a pair of connecting-cover portions which connect the two inclined-cover portions. The two connecting-cover portions are connected to the inclined-cover portions in a transformable manner, and when the two inclined-cover portions are in the folded state, the connecting-cover portions enter gap between the inclined-cover portions by being transformed with respect to the inclined-cover portions. |
| US09473651B2 |
Parallel metadata entry and physical scanning
A scanning system provides for scanning documents and generating respective electronic copies with associated metadata. A scanner scans one or more documents to produce respective electronic copies. A user interface captures metadata entered by a user regarding the documents. A controller is communicatively coupled to the scanner and the user interface, and enables the user interface to capture the metadata concurrently with the scanner's scanning the documents. The electronic copy and the metadata can be associated with one another or incorporated into a common file. Parallel metadata entry and physical scanning reduces time a user spends to perform the overall process, resulting in increased user satisfaction. |
| US09473646B1 |
Robust acoustic echo cancellation
An acoustic echo canceller (AEC) system may be configured to reset the coefficients of a transform equation when an estimated echo diverges from actual acoustic echo. Features are disclosed for determining when to reset the coefficients, and for enabling the reset operation to be performed reliably. Additional features are disclosed for detecting other signal conditions besides AEC divergence, for adjusting the rate at which the coefficients are adapted in response to such conditions, and for prioritizing between potentially incompatible adjustments. |
| US09473642B2 |
Methods and systems for providing location sensitive conference calling
Systems and methods for providing location based conference calling services on communications networks. Location information relating to a device is passed to a location sensitive conference calling system. The location sensitive conference calling system uses the location information to identify a conference calling system, or a conference bridge associated with a conference calling system, to which to connect the device. The device is connected with the conference calling system, or a conference bridge associated with the conference calling system. |
| US09473639B2 |
System and method for agent selection in an enterprise
A resource selection management computer system and method for selecting at least one agent for at least one communication session includes a monitoring module for monitoring one or more parameters of the at least one communication session involving the at least one agent; a database for storing the one or more monitored parameters; a computing module for computing at least one data value based on the one or more monitored parameters by using at least one fuzzy logic; a determination module for determining at least one attribute of the agent based on the at least one computed data value; and an agent selection module for selecting at least one agent based on the at least one determined attribute. |
| US09473638B1 |
Systems and methods for providing access to available agent
The availability of one or more agents of an institution to communicate with a user may be determined and reported to the user. An application on a user computing device may provide an indication as to how many agents are currently available to speak with the user and/or a wait time until an agent becomes available. The user computing device may display a call icon that the user may select to place a call to an available agent. The user computing device may display a call icon that the user may select to receive a callback from an available agent. Call volume statistics may be provided to the user and may be used to determine when an agent is most likely unavailable and/or most likely available. |
| US09473637B1 |
Learning generation templates from dialog transcripts
Agent utterances are generated for implementing dialog acts recommended by a dialog manager of a call center. To this end, a set of word lattices, each represented as a weighted finite state automaton (WFSA), is constructed from training dialogs between call center agents and second parties (e.g. customers). The word lattices are assigned conditional probabilities over dialog act type. For each dialog act received from the dialog manager, the word lattices are ranked by the conditional probabilities for the dialog act type. At least one word lattice is chosen from the ranking, and is instantiated to generate a recommended agent utterance for implementing the recommended dialog act. The word lattices may be constructed by clustering agent utterances of training dialogs using context features from preceding second party utterances and grammatical dependency link features between words within agent utterances. Path variations of the word lattices may define slots or paraphrases. |
| US09473636B2 |
Method for optimizing customer support in the activation of access control devices or payment devices
A method for optimizing customer support during the activation of an access control device or payment device of an access control system includes starting a pre-set timer when the access control or payment device is activated, and automatically establishing a communication between the customer and the staff support personnel over an intercom system or a video intercom system and activating a video connection whenever the pre-set timer expires and (1) the customer is still standing in front of the access control or payment device, (2) the customer's vehicle is still located in front of the access control or payment device, (3) the customer is still operating the device before completion of the transaction or interaction that was initiated when the timer was started, or (4) an n-times repetition of operator errors occurs in the operation of the access control or payment device where n is a pre-specified natural number ≧2. The video connection and a display device indicates to the staff personnel whether and how the customer is operating the access control device or payment device. |
| US09473627B2 |
Video endpoints and related methods for transmitting stored text to other video endpoints
A video endpoint and related methods are disclosed. A video endpoint includes a control circuit configured to provide a user interface configured to enable a user to communicate with another user of another video endpoint with text during video communications with the other user. The user interface is also configured to enable the user to select from text strings stored in a database. A method of operating the video endpoint includes transmitting data corresponding to a selected one of the text strings stored in the database to the other video endpoint during the video communications responsive to the user selecting the selected one of the text strings. A method of transforming a computing device into a video endpoint includes storing computer-readable instructions directed to performing the functions of the control circuit on one or more servers, and transmitting the computer-readable instructions to the computing device. |
| US09473624B2 |
Telephone communication method and system
The invention concerns telecommunications methods and systems, and more particularly methods and systems for enabling respondents, who may be potential customers, to respond to advertisements for items (goods or services) advertised by or on behalf of advertisers. Telecommunications methods and systems of the invention provide selective communication routing or forwarding to advertisers of communications made to anonymous contact identifiers selected from a pool of anonymous contact identifiers, each anonymous contact identifier able to be allocated to an item to be advertised by or on behalf of the advertiser. The anonymous contact identifier is a public telephone number or an email address, for example. The service is provided by way of hosted system for use by a plurality of advertisers. The invention has particular application in the area of classified or personal advertising in printed or online publications, such as for real estate, automotive, travel or job advertising, for sale or auction item advertising, or for dating agency advertising. |
| US09473623B1 |
Method and apparatus of providing data service mobility
A method and apparatus of accessing a data service in a wireless communications network is disclosed. An example may include receiving a call identifying an application accessed by a mobile station, and verifying whether the accessed application is installed on the mobile station. The example may further include transferring a notification message to the mobile station based on the accessed application. |
| US09473620B2 |
Potential call drop indicator
Mobile device user notifications of highly likely call drops or service losses are provided. A wireless network can determine from the location history of a mobile device if that mobile device is likely to lose connectivity to the wireless network or to a particular wireless service and issue an alert to the user. The form of the alert can be through one of various types of mobile device messages, or through an application on the mobile device. The mobile device's location can be determined using the global positioning system. Alternative directions can be provided to the user so that the user can travel without losing connectivity. The user may provide a destination before beginning travel, and receive a suggested course of travel that keeps the user within a higher quality coverage area. |
| US09473618B2 |
Method and apparatus for producing a prompt on a mobile device
Various aspects disclosed herein are directed to different types of personal assistant techniques for facilitating call event notation, tagging, calendaring, and etc., particularly those implemented on mobile communication devices. Users of mobile devices are provided with a relatively easy way to record and organize personal notes relating to one or more selected telephone conversations conducted by the user. Users can also manage notes, tasks, and schedule items related to the user's contacts and social network(s). In at least one embodiment, a Mobile Application running on a user's mobile device may be configured or designed to automatically detect an end of phone call event at the mobile device, and to automatically display a “pop-up” dialog GUI prompting the user to record a personalized note or other content (if desired), to be associated with the phone call which just ended. |
| US09473610B2 |
Information processing program, information processing apparatus and information processing method
The information processing apparatus includes: a search unit configured to search an application, which satisfies a condition; a data share unit configured to output location information; and a computer controlled to function as: a first request control unit that requests with a first condition; a first reception unit that receives first application information, satisfying the first condition; a second request control unit that requests with a second condition; a second reception unit that receives second application information satisfying the second condition; a display control unit that displays options to receive an operation of selecting any one of the application indicated by the first application information and the second application information; and an output unit that designates a selected application corresponding to the selected options and outputs location information. |
| US09473606B1 |
Pole with smartphone support and shutter release
An assembly is provided including a pole and a smartphone support. The pole is preferably adjustable in length and removably attachable to the smartphone support. The smartphone support is preferably configured as a clamp with an upper arm biased toward a base and with fingers therebetween which can engage edges of a smartphone to hold the smartphone therebetween. A trigger is provided on a handle of the pole which interfaces with the smartphone, such as by a cable removably connectable to an accessory port on the smartphone or wireless transmitter to a receiver in the smartphone, so that the trigger on the handle can operate a camera within the smartphone. A vent coupling is also provided on the support for attachment to a louver of an air conditioning vent or similar structure, typically with the pole removed from the support. |
| US09473604B2 |
Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal is disclosed, by which a display and a case can be uniformly attached to each other with a reinforced adhesive strength. The present invention includes a case, a display unit installed on the case, a seating part provided to the case, the seating part configured to support the display unit, and a channel provided to the seating part, the channel configured to receive an adhesive for coupling the display unit and the case together. The channel includes a bottom portion, a first wall surface extending from the bottom portion and a second wall surface extending from the bottom portion. The second wall surface is disposed closer to a center of the case than the first wall surface. And, the second wall surface tilts at a prescribed angle toward the center of the case. |
| US09473603B2 |
Memory system for portable telephone
A memory system is constituted of a file storage flash memory storing a control program required for a control portion and a large amount of data, and a random access memory storing a program used by the control portion and functioning as a buffer memory for received data. Thus, a memory system for a portable telephone capable of storing a large amount of received data at high-speed and allowing reading of the stored data at high-speed is provided. |
| US09473599B2 |
High payload data packet transmission system and relay to lower latency
The invention provides a method of forming s custom data packet for a point-to-point trunk network, the method comprising the steps of providing a First-In First-Out (FIFO) register to capture data packets transmitted via a packet-switched computer network at speeds equal to or greater than 1 Gbps, the packet switched data packets having a packet switched header and a packet switched frame check sequence (FCS), providing selectors connected to the FIFO outputs, each selector receiving a packet-switched data packet and stripping out the packet-switched header and replacing if with a mini-header and filling each stripped data packet with 1 to 1,500 bytes of customer data to transform each data packet to a high payload data packet, replacing the packet-switched FCS with a mini-FCS. Sending each high payload data packet across the point-to-point trunk network having a reduced latency of less-than 1 microsecond for roundtrip transmission and recreating the standard packet-switched data packet based on the mini-header and mini-FCS. |
| US09473597B2 |
Implementing multiple MAC protocols using a single wireless communication unit
There is provided a wireless communication apparatus capable of using a first MAC protocol and a second MAC protocol including one wireless communication unit. The wireless communication unit includes: a MAC protocol control unit carrying out state transitions and processing in a present state according to the first MAC protocol and the second MAC protocol; and a frame communication unit carrying out communication of frames according to the first MAC protocol and communication of frames according to the second MAC protocol whose frame format is the same as the frames according to the first MAC protocol. |
| US09473594B1 |
Projection of interactive map data
Methods and systems for robot cloud computing are described. Within examples, cloud-based computing generally refers to networked computer architectures in which application execution and storage may be divided, to some extent, between client and server devices. A robot may be any device that has a computing ability and interacts with its surroundings with an actuation capability (e.g., electromechanical capabilities). A client device may be configured as a robot including various sensors and devices in the forms of modules, and different modules may be added or removed from robot depending on requirements. In some example, a robot may be configured to receive a second device, such as mobile phone, that may be configured to function as an accessory or a “brain” of the robot. A robot may interact with the cloud to perform any number of actions, such as to share information with other cloud computing devices. |
| US09473590B1 |
Client connection establishment over fibre channel using a block device access model
A system and method executed by a client for connecting with a server over a Fiber Channel (FC) network. The method including creating a first Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) request to establish a virtual connection, sending the first SCSI request to the server over the FC network, receiving, from the server over the FC network, a first SCSI response responsive to the first SCSI request, wherein the first SCSI response includes an identifier for the virtual connection, creating a second SCSI request, including the virtual connection identifier and a descriptor for a server process at the server, and sending the second SCSI request to the server over the FC network. |
| US09473589B1 |
Server communication over fibre channel using a block device access model
A system and method executed by a server for communicating between the server and a client over a Fiber Channel (FC) network. The method includes receiving, from the client over the FC network, a first Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) request including a client call message and a virtual connection identifier. A server process is identified that is associated with the virtual connection identifier. The client call message is extracted from first SCSI request and provides the client call message to the identified server process. |
| US09473585B2 |
Real life to digital life event correlation
A method and system for correlating events with social media is provided. The method includes retrieving from a social network, social network data associated with users of the social network. The social network data is associated with event data associated with a user of the users. Temporary actions associated with a social network account of the user are enabled and a notification is transmitted to a group of users. In response, confirmation data associated with enabling the temporary actions is received from the group of users and permanent actions associated with the temporary actions are enabled. |
| US09473574B2 |
Synchronization of devices in a peer-to-peer network environment
A system, apparatus and method for synchronizing devices in a peer-to-peer communication environment. Devices select a master to facilitate their synchronization, and rendezvous according to a schedule of availability windows broadcast by the master. Devices may attend some or all of the availability windows, during which they may send and receive unicast and/or multicast messages. Individual devices conserve power by being automatically synchronized instead of having to individually discover other devices and services, and can power off their radios without sacrificing discoverability. Synchronization and peer-to-peer communication as provided herein coexists with other device demands, such as Bluetooth® operations, infrastructure-based communications and so on. |
| US09473568B2 |
Detecting code injections through cryptographic methods
A method disclosed herein can include receiving content for communication to one or more network clients from a content provider, where the content includes at least a web page. A content request is received from a selected client of the one or more network clients. In response to receiving the content request, the web page is prepared for communication to the selected client. A web page identifier associated with the prepared web page is generated. The web page and the web page identifier are forwarded to the selected client. A plurality of web page identifiers associated with respective web pages within the received content can be stored. The web page identifier can be obtained from among the stored web page identifiers. |
| US09473566B2 |
Delivering services using different delivery methods
Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments enable objects associated with a service available in a MBMS network to be delivered through more than one delivery method or context. In various embodiments, an application service document may map objects of a service to their respective delivery methods or contexts. In an embodiment, an application service document may also identify service area restrictions applicable to an object. In an embodiment, an application service document may further identify group restrictions applicable to an object. In a further embodiment, the application service document may identify identical and alternative objects that are available. |
| US09473564B2 |
Information processing system, information processing method, and non-transitory computer readable medium for specifying installed software application
An information processing system includes a packet receiving unit, a registration unit, and a software specification unit. The packet receiving unit receives a packet flowing in a communication network. The registration unit registers one or more devices connected to the communication network. The software specification unit specifies a software application installed in a registered device among the one or more registered devices, on the basis of information regarding a file contained in the packet, the packet being transmitted or received by the registered device. |
| US09473563B2 |
Methods and systems for loading data into terminal devices
A method and system for loading data into a terminal device are disclosed. The method includes the steps of displaying icons in a user interface of the terminal device and determining whether data correspond to an icon in a defined display area. The method further includes loading the data into the terminal device if the data correspond to an icon in the defined display area and deleting the data from the terminal device if the data do not correspond to an icon in the defined display area. The method and system consistent with the present disclosure may improve the user experience for browsing and reading online storybooks. |
| US09473562B2 |
Mediated data exchange for sandboxed applications
The described embodiments include a computing device that executes a broker application. The broker application performs a mediated data exchange to exchange data between a first sandboxed application and a second application. For example, the broker application can import data from the second application into the first sandboxed application. As another example, the broker application can export data from the first sandboxed application into the second application. |
| US09473561B2 |
Data transmission for transaction processing in a networked environment
Techniques are disclosed to transmit arbitrarily large data units for transaction processing in a networked environment. A request is received to store a data unit of a size exceeding an allocated memory address space of a transaction gateway component of the networked environment. A predefined store function, provided by a repository interface component, is invoked to store the data unit to a data repository component of the networked environment and without segmenting the data unit. A repository handle of the stored data unit is identified. A predefined load function, provided by the repository interface component, is invoked to load a portion of the stored data unit, based on the identified repository handle, where the portion is smaller than the stored data unit. |
| US09473560B1 |
Presentation of non-interrupting content items
A method for enabling a user of a computing device to designate a content item for subsequent review is provided. The computing device is coupled to a memory device and a display. The method is implemented using the computing device. The method includes displaying, by the computing device, a first publication. The method further includes the steps of displaying, by the computing device, a content item at a first time, wherein the content item is displayed in conjunction with the first publication. The method further includes receiving, by the computing device, a first input from the user to designate the content item for subsequent review, generating an indicator that the content item has been designated for subsequent review, causing the memory device to store the indicator, determining a second time to display the content item, and displaying the content item at the second time. |
| US09473559B2 |
Virtual representation systems and methods
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. |
| US09473557B2 |
Server device, output system, server method, and non-transitory computer readable medium
A server device includes a first accepting unit, a converting unit, a notifying unit, and a providing unit. The first accepting unit accepts a specification from a specifying device that specifies first content. In a case where a data format of the first content indicated by the specification is not a certain data format in which data is capable of being output by an output device, the converting unit converts the data format of the first content to the certain data format, thereby generating second content having the certain data format, and stores the second content. The notifying unit notifies the specifying device of a storage site of the second content. In a case where the output device requests to get content from the storage site of the second content by using information acquired from the specifying device, the providing unit provides the second content to the output device. |
| US09473556B1 |
Content discovery using description sequences
Disclosed are various embodiments for a content discovery application. Content items can be selected by first selecting a sequence of descriptors. The descriptors are selected from a subset of descriptors regenerated based on previously selected descriptors and other factors. The content item is selected from a pool of content items responsive to the sequence of descriptors. Users may explore data derived from sequences of descriptors and selected content items from other users to discover content relevant to their interests. |
| US09473552B2 |
Preventing omission of data in a remote conference
A non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, perform processes including a first generation operation generating first sound data, a storage operation storing the first sound data in a storage device, an acquisition operation acquiring a first value defined based on a storage amount, a determination operation determining whether the first value is larger than a threshold value, a setting operation setting a total time to a first total time in response to the determination operation determining that the first value is larger than the threshold value and to a second total time, which is shorter than the first total time, in response to the determination operation determining that the first value is not larger than the threshold value, and a second generation operation generating the second sound data from a specified number of pieces of the first sound data. |
| US09473548B1 |
Latency reduction in streamed content consumption
Described herein are systems and methods for determining and distributing pre-fetch data associated with streaming of content to a media device. Transport control data associated with user navigation within the content during consumption of the content is acquired. The transport control data is processed to determine one or more points of interest in the content. Pre-fetch content associated with these one or more points of interest may be delivered to the media device. Presentation is expedited with low or no latency during navigation to one of the points of interest having the pre-fetched content, which may be presented while the content is being made available. |
| US09473542B2 |
Method, server and user equipment for accessing an HTTP server
Method for accessing a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server from a user equipment. The method comprises the steps of transmitting, by the user equipment, an HTTP message destined for that HTTP server to an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server with which the user equipment is in a connection, determining, by the IMS server, on the basis of the HTTP message whether a trust relation exists between the IMS server and the HTTP server, and if a trust relation exists transmitting the HTTP message from the IMS server to the HTTP server. |
| US09473541B2 |
Communication device and non-transitory computer-readable medium
A non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-readable instructions performing processes including a determination, a setting, a first generation, a second generation and a transmission operations. The determination operation determines whether a communication state is a first or second state based on at least one of transmission data transmitted by the communication device to a conference server and reception data received by the communication device from the conference server. The setting operation sets a combined time to a first or second period of time in response to the determination operation. The first generation operation generates sound data corresponding to the combined time, by sequentially compressing sampling data corresponding to the combined time in an order of storage in a first storage portion. The second generation operation generates a packet including the sound data. The transmission operation transmits the packet to the conference server at a cycle corresponding to the combined time. |
| US09473534B2 |
System and method for switching between messaging security policies
A system and method are provided for switching between messaging security policies. The method includes determining that a messaging security policy for the electronic device has been downgraded from a higher security level to a lower security level; and removing protected content on the electronic device that has been subjected to the higher security level. Removing protected content can include any one or more of removing access to at least one protected instant messaging group, removing at least one multiparticipant instant messaging conversation, and removing at least a portion of protected content from within a one-to-one conversation with an instant messaging contact. |
| US09473533B2 |
Secure mobile framework
Systems and methods for a secure mobile framework to securely connect applications running on mobile devices to services within an enterprise are provided. Various embodiments provide mechanisms of securitizing data and communication between mobile devices and end point services accessed from a gateway of responsible authorization, authentication, anomaly detection, fraud detection, and policy management. Some embodiments provide for the integration of server and client side security mechanisms, binding of a user/application/device to an endpoint service along with multiple encryption mechanisms. For example, the secure mobile framework provides a secure container on the mobile device, secure files, a virtual file system partition, a multiple level authentication approach (e.g., to access a secure container on the mobile device and to access enterprise services), and a server side fraud detection system. |
| US09473532B2 |
Data loss prevention (DLP) methods by a cloud service including third party integration architectures
Embodiments of the present disclosure include data loss prevention methods by a cloud-based service including third party integration architectures. The disclosed techniques of the cloud-based platform (e.g., collaboration platform in an enterprise environment) can detect (and may optionally prevent) violations to, e.g., corporate policies, which can be configurable by a corporate administrator, for example, regarding the use, storage, and/or transmission of sensitive information. The types of sensitive information can include, for example, financial information—credit card and bank account numbers, Personally Identifiable Information (PII)—Social Security Number (SSN), health/healthcare information, Intellectual Property—earnings forecasts, sales pipeline, trade secrets, source code, etc. |
| US09473531B2 |
Endpoint traffic profiling for early detection of malware spread
According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for detecting malware in a network stream to at least one host computer is provided. The method may include initializing a browser profile corresponding with a first website having a first website source and a first plurality of content features. The method may include recording the first plurality of content features and a trusted source based on the first website source. The method may include scanning the network stream for a second content feature within a second plurality of content features associated with a second website. The method may include determining if the second content feature matches a first content feature. The method may include determining if the second plurality of content features is consistent with the first plurality of content features. The method may include determining if a second website source matches the trusted source. The method may include generating an alert. |
| US09473530B2 |
Client-side active validation for mitigating DDOS attacks
Methods and systems for mitigating denial-of-service attacks include a proxy server that monitors a set of application servers configured to receive and service requests from clients. The proxy server intercepts the requests, and in response, provides the clients with customized client-side scripts embedded in markup language. The client-side scripts may include random strings to generate follow-through random uniform resource identifier redirection requests expected by the proxy server. The client-side scripts, upon execution, may challenge the clients by demanding user interaction within a specified period of time, requesting a delay before responding, and/or attempting to set a challenge cookie multiple times. If a client provides the demanded user interaction within the specified time, honors the delay, and/or sets the challenge cookie with the correct value, then the client-side scripts may generate a redirection request expected by the proxy server for that client and the proxy servers may whitelist that client for a configurable duration and forward that client's subsequent requests to the application servers without challenge. |
| US09473527B1 |
Automatically generated and shared white list
Each time a version of a virus pattern is downloaded to a local computer a scanned file cache is generated including all files scanned by that version. A modified file cache is also generated including all files modified while that version is present. After a minimum time interval or after a minimum number of virus pattern versions, a white list is generated by combining the existing white list, versions of the scanned file cache and the modified file cache. The white list (and the other caches) is represented by a single binary digit per file that is indexed by the i-node number of the file's i-node. A bundle of files (or their unique identifiers) on the white list is created and uploaded to a cloud storage service. A local computer sends a request to the storage service for the white list for a particular bundle which is then downloaded to the local computer. |
| US09473524B2 |
Computer system for distributed discovery of vulnerabilities in applications
In one aspect, the disclosure provides: A method comprising: inviting a distributed plurality of researchers to participate in one or more computer vulnerability research projects directed to identifying computer vulnerabilities of one or more networks and/or computers that are owned or operated by a third party; assessing reputation and skills of one or more of the researchers, and accepting a subset of the researchers who have a positive reputation and sufficient skills to perform the investigations of the computer vulnerabilities; assigning a particular computer vulnerability research project, relating to a particular network under test, to a particular researcher from among the subset of the researchers; using a computer that is logically interposed between the particular researcher and the particular network under test, monitoring communications between the particular researcher and the particular network under test, wherein the communications relate to attempting to identify a candidate security vulnerability of the particular network under test; validating a report of the candidate security vulnerability of the particular network under test that is received from the particular researcher; determining and providing an award to the particular researcher in response to successfully validating the report of the candidate security vulnerability of the particular network under test that is received from the particular researcher. |
| US09473521B2 |
Method and system for information leak prevention
A method for mitigating false positive type errors while applying an information leak prevention policy to identify important information and to prevent outward leakage. A positive criterion is defined for a positive set, and a negative criterion for a negative set of benign traffic. An ambiguity set contains items showing indications for both positive and negative sets. An ambiguity resolution criterion allows ambiguous items to be placed in/removed from the positive set or negative set. Each information item is searched for matches with the positive set. Each item in the positive set is checked for membership in the ambiguity set. The ambiguity resolution criteria are used for each member of the ambiguity set and to remove items from the positive set accordingly. The leak prevention policy is applied for all items remaining in the positive set thus protecting the important information. |
| US09473520B2 |
Systems and methods for incubating malware in a virtual organization
Systems and methods for tracking malware operator behavior patterns in a network environment simulated for an extended period of time include a processor that causes the system to receive organizational data that describes a virtual organization, obtain additional data related to the organizational data, and provide a simulated computer network of the virtual organization based on the organizational data. The process can further cause the system to install at least one malware on the simulated computer network, monitor one or more interactions between the simulated computer network and an operator of the malware, and build a malware operator profile that characterizes the operator of the malware based on the one or more interactions, with which the operator of the malware can be identified in subsequent interactions. |
| US09473519B2 |
System, method, and computer program product for identifying unwanted data communicated via session initiation protocol
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for identifying unwanted data communicated via a session initiation protocol. In use, packets associated with an electronic message communicated over a network utilizing a session initiation protocol are identified. Additionally, it is determined whether the packets include unwanted data. Furthermore, a reaction is performed, based on the determination. |
| US09473515B2 |
Method, device and system for securely downloading data
A method for data downloading is provided, including: sending a download request, and sending a security check request according to the download request; receiving network data returned according to the download request, and receiving a check result returned according to the security check request; and determining whether the check result indicates that the network data is secure; if yes, then continue receiving the returned network data, and if no, interrupt receiving the returned network data. In addition, a device and a system for data downloading are provided, which improve the security of data download. |
| US09473513B2 |
Authentication based on proximate devices
In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes, in response to an attempt by a user to perform a transaction using a computing device, accessing a communication device connected to the computing device. A presence of one or more nearby devices, with respect to the computing device, is detected through use of the communication device connected to the computing device. A mapping of nearby devices to trust levels may be applied to the one or more nearby devices. In the mapping, each group of one or more nearby devices maps to a trust level of two or more trust levels. An assigned trust level for the transaction is determined, by a computer processor, based on applying the mapping of nearby devices to trust levels. The mapping of nearby devices to trust levels is modified based on the one or more nearby devices detected. The modified mapping is used for future transactions. |
| US09473500B1 |
Compliance validator for restricted network access control
A method, system, and computer program product for detecting and enforcing compliance with access requirements for a computer system in a restricted computer network. A compliance validation configuration file is created for the computer system. A maintenance service utility is configured to launch a compliance validation executable file at a specified time during operation of the computer system. A digital hash is generated for the compliance validation executable file and for the compliance validation configuration file. A determination is made if the computer system or a computer system user is a member of a configured restricted group. If the computer system or the computer system user is a member of a configured restricted group, a determination is made if a directory site code for a subnet of the restricted computer network to which the computer system is connected corresponds to a configured and allowed site. If the directory site code does not correspond to a configured and allowed site, compliance with access requirements are enforced. Enforcement actions can include a forced logoff of the computer system user, and/or a forced shutdown of the computer system. |
| US09473496B2 |
Dynamically mapping network trust relationships
In an embodiment, the method is comprising, receiving an access request, from an authenticator device, to grant a supplicant device access to a data network; transmitting the access request to an authentication server; after sending a response that the access request was granted, updating a trust topology map by including in the trust topology map information that has been obtained from the response and that indicates a secure link between the authenticator device and the supplicant device, and causing displaying the updated trust topology map as a logical map depicting one or more network devices and roles assigned to the one or more network devices; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing device. |
| US09473495B2 |
User authentication for proxy-configured clients in captive portal environments
Methods, systems and computer readable media for user authentication for proxy-configured clients in captive portal deployments are described. In some implementations, the method can include receiving, at a captive portal, a request from a client device to resolve a proxy IP address, and determining whether the client device has been authenticated. The method can also include, when the client device has not been authenticated, causing the captive portal to act as an intermediate domain name system (DNS) server and forwarding the DNS request to one or more other DNS servers, and evaluating any received responses from the one or more other DNS servers. The method can include, when received responses contain an IP address, replying to the client with the received IP address, and when the received responses do not contain an IP address, replying to the client with an IP address of the captive portal. |
| US09473494B2 |
Access credentials using biometrically generated public/private key pairs
A method and system for access credential functionality using biometrically generated public/private key pairs may involve generating an asymmetric encryption key pair using a biometric scan of a human user and a server identifier of a network server. The public key of the key pair may be sent to the network server from a client device operated by the human user. The network server may use the public key to authenticate that the client device is in possession of the private key, thereby authenticating the human user. |
| US09473493B2 |
Secure data communication
A system and a method for secure data communication over a network are described. In one embodiment, a method comprises generating a visual flashing code containing encrypted data, wherein the visual flashing code is transmitted to a user on a user device. Further, the method comprises obtaining real time biometric data of the user from at least one biometric device connected to the user device. Furthermore, the method comprises authenticating the user based on the real time biometric data. Upon authentication, the encrypted data is decrypted at the user device based on electroencephalogram (EEG) data obtained from an EEG device, wherein the EEG data comprises brain signals indicative of brain activity of the user corresponding to the visual flashing code. |
| US09473490B2 |
Bidirectional authentication
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with bidirectional authentication are described herein. According to one embodiment, a method includes a user receiving a communication from an entity. In response to receiving the communication from the entity, the method further includes generating a token. The token may be a one-time passcode, personal identification number (PIN), alphanumeric value, code word, pass phrase, or security question. The token is received by a device of the user. Additionally, the token is transmitted to the entity. The user may then receive evidence of the token from the entity. |
| US09473485B2 |
Secure single sign-on for a group of wrapped applications on a computing device and runtime credential sharing
A mobile device user is able to execute an app in a federation of wrapped apps without having to login to that app provided that the user has already logged into another app in that federation. The federation of apps on the device uses multi-app authentication to enable the user to start subsequent apps after explicitly entering login credentials for another app in that federation. This feature is loosely referred to as single sign-on for apps in the federation. The multi-app authentication is implemented by giving the second app a chance to prove two facts. One that it knows where in the operating system keychain a login ticket is stored and two, what the hash value of a random byte array is. By showing these facts, the logged-into app can safely provide login credentials to subsequent app without the user having to enter a login name or password. |
| US09473483B2 |
Facilitated information exchange to a service provider for a requested service
A method, a computer program product and a computer system, for exchanging information to provide services, is provided. A computer processor creates an information repository associated with a service requestor, in response to receiving a request for service from the service requestor. The computer processor notifies a service provider of the request for service from the service requestor. The computer processor receives a request for information from the service provider, regarding information about the service requestor. The computer processor forwards the request for information to one or more information providers. The computer processor stores information in the information repository, in response to receiving the information from the one or more information providers, and notifies the service provider to retrieve the information from the information repository. |
| US09473481B2 |
Method and system for providing a virtual asset perimeter
A system and method provides a virtual perimeter by maintaining a data structure for identifying a first plurality of assets, according to one embodiment. The system and method provides services to a second of the first plurality of assets, at least partially based on identifiers for the first plurality of assets and at least partially based on a first role assigned to a first of the first plurality of assets, according to one embodiment. The system and method include admitting one of a second plurality of assets into the virtual perimeter if characteristics of the one of the second plurality of assets satisfy criteria for admission to the virtual perimeter, according to on embodiment. |
| US09473478B2 |
Residential gateway based policy
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method performed by a policy server in a communication network. The method includes receiving an access request message including a residential gateway identifier and a subscriber identifier; evaluating a policy rule based on the residential gateway identifier, the policy rule including a condition referencing the residential gateway identifier; and responding to the access request message based on evaluation of the policy rule and the subscriber identifier. The method may further include: receiving an IP address of the residential gateway; storing the IP address in association with the residential gateway identifier; receiving, from a service portal, a request for identification of a residential gateway associated with an IP address; sending the stored residential gateway identifier to the portal; receiving new subscriber information; and changing the authorization of the residential gateway based on the new subscriber information. |
| US09473476B2 |
Program guide data management for media content access systems and methods
An exemplary system includes a data loader and a data slicer. The data loader is configured to receive and process raw program guide data, and to store the processed program guide data in a data store, the processing including generating a unique program identifier for each program represented in the raw program guide data. The data slicer is configured to generate a program guide data configuration from the processed program guide data, the program guide data configuration including program guide data organized into a plurality of data structures based on categories of the program guide data. The plurality of data structures includes at least one channel data structure, at least one schedule data structure, at least one detailed program information data structure, and indices for use as references between different ones of the data structures. |
| US09473472B1 |
Enterprise cloud security gateway
A security virtual machine is provided in a network including a resource shared among two or more virtual machines. All data traffic from each virtual machine to or from the shared resource is transmitted over an encrypted channel to the security virtual machine. Each connection between a virtual machine and the security virtual machine is maintained as a separate encrypted channel, preventing one virtual machine from accessing data sent to or from another virtual machine, even though the virtual machines are all sharing the same resource. |
| US09473468B2 |
Methods and systems of data security in browser storage
Mechanisms and methods are provided for managing OAuth access in a database network system, and extending the OAuth flow of authentication to securely store the OAuth encrypted refresh token in the storage available with current browsers or any other non-secure storage on user system. |
| US09473467B2 |
Customer controlled data privacy protection in public cloud
Techniques to protect selected data in a cloud computing environment are disclosed. In various embodiments, an indication is received that a data value to be submitted, using a browser, to a remote node is to be protected. The data value is selectively encrypted. The encrypted data is provided value to the browser to be submitted to the remote node. |
| US09473461B2 |
Transparent tunneling architecture for a secured database
A method and associated systems for a transparent tunneling architecture for a secured database. A tunneling driver captures a user's database-access request before it can be blocked by a security gateway. The driver translates the request into a Web-service request, where the requested Web service is implemented by means of classes or objects that correspond to database operations. The request is formatted into a standard database-independent form that the security gateway allows to pass to the database server intact. A Web-service runtime environment interprets the requested Web service, thereby instructing the server-side database-management application to respond to the user's access request. In a reverse procedure, the database's response is translated into a Web-service response to the requested Web service that may similarly tunnel through the security gateway, and that is then translated back into a form that may be properly interpreted by the requesting user's client application. |
| US09473456B2 |
Incremental application of resources to network traffic flows based on heuristics and business policies
Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for increasingly applying network resources to traffic flows based on heuristics and policy conditions. A network determines that a traffic flow satisfies a first condition and transmits a first portion of the traffic flow to a network service. A network service then inspects the first portion of the traffic flow at a first level of detail and determines that the traffic flow satisfies a second condition. The network can then transmit a second portion of the traffic flow to the network service based on the determining the traffic flow satisfies the second condition. The network service can inspect the second portion of the traffic flow at a second level of detail, wherein the inspecting at the second level of detail requires a different amount of computing resources than the inspecting at the first level of detail. |
| US09473454B2 |
Security gateway communication
A gateway device and methods performed therein to prevent unauthorized client devices from connecting to the host network of the gateway device is described. The gateway device does not respond right away to an individual client message sent to the gateway device. Instead, the gateway device only responds to a predetermined sequence of the client messages, which is only known to the gateway device and authorized client devices. Because the gateway device will not respond to random client messages and the likelihood that an unauthorized client device can correctly guess the predetermined sequence of the client messages is low, the risk of a malicious party being able to hack into the host network, for example, by using port scanning techniques, can be mitigated. |
| US09473450B2 |
Wireless chat automatic status tracking
A technique and apparatus to provide status tracking of presence and/or location of wireless devices to requesting entities inside and/or outside a particular wireless system. Presence and/or location information is provided to entities outside a particular servicing wireless network via mechanisms of call processing components of a mobile network and standard mechanisms available to any appropriately conforming MSC element. In one embodiment, a wireless chat automatic status tracking system utilizes a change in mobile registration status to automatically forward or copy a registration notification (REGNOT) message to an external IP application, to notify a chat group system outside the wireless network of current status information activity regarding a relevant device. Change in mobile registration is communicated via a suitable signaling link between a HLR and the chat group system. REGNOT messages are pushed over TCP/IP connections to external applications to automatically notify the external system of a particular user's location. |
| US09473442B2 |
On demand email response
An improvement to an electronic mail program is disclosed. In particular, the improved electronic mail program enables a user to mark individual action items within a message and set attributes for each action item. In the preferred embodiment, attributes include priority, deadline, abstract, and responsibility. The electronic mail program stores the action items and associated attributes in a database and sends the message to one or more recipients. The electronic mail program then displays the message and action items to the recipients. Message recipients then navigate through the list of action items to read descriptions and to determine the priority and nature of the actions necessary. The responsibility attribute further indicates which recipient should respond to the action item. The improved electronic mail program updates the status of each action item in the database as recipients respond. |
| US09473438B1 |
System for analyzing email for compliance with rules
A system for analyzing email for compliance with a set of rules, including enhanced email devices configured to determine whether an email message probably conforms or does not conform to the rules. If the email message is determined to probably not conform to the rules, designate the email message to be a probable non-conforming email (NCE), and electronically transmit a reporting message to a server containing a copy of the probable NCE, user-identifying information, and reasons for probable non-conformance. The server is configured to receive the reporting messages and, for each probable NCE, calculate a digital signature of the probable NCE. If the probable NCE is not stored in the NCE database, the server stores the probable NCE and the signature in the NCE database along with the user-identifying information and the reasons for non-conformance. Otherwise, it adds the user-identifying information and the non-conformance reasons record in the NCE database. |
| US09473436B2 |
Method and system for creating messages including image information
Storing image data and related information for sharing via a URL includes receiving image data uploaded from a client computer via a user interface and receiving, separate from the receiving of the image data, related information uploaded via the user interface. The uploaded image data and related information are stored. A uniform resource locator (URL) configured for retrieving a display that includes the stored image data and the related information is generated. The URL is provided in a message. |
| US09473423B2 |
Inter domain link for fibre channel
A method includes establishing a communication link between a first Fiber Channel Forwarder (FCF) and a Fiber Channel (FC) fabric. The first FCF provides a first domain. The method includes establishing a communication link between a second FCF and the FC fabric. The second FCF provides a second domain. The method includes establishing a first intra-domain link between the first FCF and a first device. The first device including one of a Fiber channel over Ethernet Data Forwarder (FDF) and a Fiber Channel Data Forwarder (FCDF). The method includes establishing an inter domain link between the first device and the second domain. |
| US09473422B1 |
Multi-stage switching topology
A multi-stage switching fabric provides a plurality switching boxes. Each switching box includes a plurality of switches and a plurality of interconnects, and each interconnect is coupled to each switch. The switching boxes may be arranged in a first stage and a second stage. In this example, each switching box in the first stage may be coupled to each switching box in the second stage via a single high capacity cable. In this regard, each switch in the first stage may be coupled to each switch in the second stage using a reduced amount of cabling. |
| US09473419B2 |
Multi-tenant cloud storage system
A multi-tenant cloud storage system is provided. The cloud storage system a plurality of tenants, each tenant is configured to utilize an isolated logical partition of the cloud storage system accessible to a respective tenant portal, wherein the plurality of tenants includes at least a first type tenant and a second type tenant, each of the first type tenant and the second type tenant are configured to provision its respective set of members with a different storage policy. |
| US09473418B2 |
Resource over-subscription
Embodiments include a method, system, and computer program product for managing workloads in a network. A switch receives data associated with a workload. The received data is tagged with an identifier that associates the data with the workload. The received data is compressed based on determining that second data stored in a buffer of the switch exceeds a threshold. The switch stores the compressed data in the buffer. The compressed data is transmitted to a second network based on a determination that the switch is over-subscribed. |
| US09473416B2 |
Enhanced techniques of TCP ACK transmission in uplink
Techniques of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet transmission for wireless communication are provided for a user equipment (UE). The UE receives a plurality of TCP packets on a downlink channel from a network. In response, the UE generates a plurality of TCP Acknowledgment (ACK) packets corresponding to the plurality of received TCP packets. The plurality of TCP ACK packets is prioritized based on certain criteria. A TCK ACK packet with a highest priority among the plurality of TCP ACK packets is selected. The selected highest priority TCP ACK packet is then sent to the network on an uplink channel. |
| US09473413B1 |
Dynamic throttle of network traffic
Techniques for dynamically throttling network traffic may be provided. For example, a first threshold specific to a first client may be determined and may be dynamically adjusted over time. A volume of network traffic of the first client may be compared to the first threshold and, if is in excess, a throttling operation may be performed. The throttling operation may include throttling the network traffic of the first client, throttling the traffic of a second client, or comparing the volume of network traffic to a second threshold. If the second threshold is exceeded, a connection with the first client or the second client may be terminated. |
| US09473412B2 |
Dynamic traffic shaping based on path self-interference
In one embodiment, a method is disclosed in which a device in a network receives self-interference information from one or more nodes in the network. A degree of self-interference along a communication path in the network is determined based on the received self-interference information. A packet to be sent along the communication path is also identified and traffic shaping is performed on the communication path based on the degree of self-interference along the path. |
| US09473411B2 |
Scalable network apparatus for content based switching or validation acceleration
A network apparatus is provided that may include one or more security accelerators. The network apparatus also includes a plurality of network units cascaded together. According to one embodiment, the plurality of network units comprise a plurality of content based message directors, each to route or direct received messages to one of a plurality of application servers based upon the application data in the message. According to another embodiment, the plurality of network units comprise a plurality of validation accelerators, each validation accelerator to validate at least a portion of a message before outputting the message. |
| US09473407B2 |
Traffic controlling method and device based on remote application
The present disclosure provides a traffic controlling method based on remote applications, comprising the following steps: evaluating a current network bandwidth; detecting a bitmap updating frequency of each area in a current screen, identifying a multimedia area, and judging whether the multimedia area is valid or not to obtain a judging result; and controlling data traffic according to the current network bandwidth and the judging result. By evaluating the current network bandwidth, detecting the updating frequency of each area in the current screen and identifying whether the multimedia area is valid, and dynamically controlling the data traffic according to the current network bandwidth and according to whether the multimedia area is valid, the present disclosure is capable of ensuring the unblocked transmission of the critical business and preventing the display quality of the multimedia area from being affected to improve the system performance and the user experience. |
| US09473403B2 |
Function mode routing
Methods and entities of routing messages to or from a network entity in an IP network is disclosed. A function mode is indicated in a message routed to or from the network entity. |
| US09473402B2 |
Methods and systems for receiving and transmitting internet protocol (IP) data packets
Methods and systems which receive and transmit an IP data packet at a network device via a first network interface if the IP data packet satisfies an interception policy, and via a second network interface if the IP data packet does not satisfy the interception policy. The decision to use the first network interface or the second network interface depends on whether the IP data packet satisfies the interception policy. The IP data packet is either received by the network device or created by the network device. If the IP data packet is created by the network device, the source address of the IP data packet is reachable via the first network interface. When the IP data packet is received by the network device and also satisfies the interception policy, another IP data packet is transmitted via the first network interface as a response and its source address is an IP address reachable via the first network interface. Its destination address is source address of the IP data packet received by the network device. |
| US09473398B2 |
Devolved routing in software-defined networks
A set of routing rules is receiving at a networking device in a data communication network from a controller in the data communication network implemented using the software-defined network architecture. A condition is detected at the networking device. A subset of the set of routing rules is selected in the networking device. The selecting is responsive to the condition. The subset of routing rules is applied in the networking device at a first time such that the networking device uses a first routing rule to route data traffic in the data communication network, and omits using a second routing rule received from the controller to route data traffic in the data communication network. A second subset of routing rules from the set of routing rules responsive to a second condition is applied autonomously at a second time at the networking device. |
| US09473393B2 |
Routing messages over a network of interconnected devices of a networked control system
The invention relates to routing messages over a network of interconnected devices of a networked control system, particularly to routing messages for individually controlling devices of a networked control system such as light sources of a lighting system. A basic idea of the invention is to determine a routing path for a message from a sender device to a destination device through the grid of interconnected devices of a networked control system, and to change the routing path, when a faulty device is contained in the routing path, in order to route the message around the faulty device, instead of determining an entirely new routing path. Thus, an efficient routing of a message over a network of interconnected device may be provided. An embodiment of the invention provides a method for routing messages over a network of interconnected devices of a networked control system, wherein the devices are arranged in an approximately rectangular grid and each device is adapted for routing messages, which were received from directly neighbored devices in the grid, to directly neighbored devices in the grid, wherein the routing comprises the acts of determining a routing path for a message from a sender device to a destination device through the grid (S10), routing the message from the sender device to the destination device along the determined routing path through the grid (S12), and changing the routing path according to a predetermined routing rule for routing the message around a faulty device contained in the determined routing path (S14). |
| US09473390B2 |
Systems and methods for performing layer one link aggregation over wireless links
A layer one link aggregation master comprises a port coupled to receive customer traffic; a first switch configured to communicate the customer traffic from the port over a first channel to an aggregation engine, the aggregation engine including a splitter configured to use layer one information to segment a portion of the customer traffic into a first virtual container and a second virtual container, the aggregation engine further including an encapsulation circuit configured to encapsulate the second virtual container for transport over the second channel; a radio access card configured to generate an air frame based on the first virtual container for transmission over a first wireless link of a link aggregation group to a receiver; and a second switch configured to communicate the encapsulated second virtual container over a cable to a slave for transmission over a second wireless link of the link aggregation group to the receiver. |
| US09473386B1 |
Selective distribution of routing information
A distributed system for collecting and processing packet routing information is provided. A service provider, such as a content delivery network service provider, can maintain multiple Points of Presence (“POPs”). Routing computing devices associated with each POP can forward information about the packet routing information to a packet routing management component. The packet routing component can process the information provided by the various POPs. The packet routing component can then update, or otherwise modify, packet routing information used by one or more of the POPs. Accordingly, the packet routing management component can then selectively distribute the updated or modified packet routing information, including the distribution to all POPs, the targeted distribution to specific POPs and the creation of centrally accessible routing information. |
| US09473382B2 |
Method and system for link aggregation
A method for providing Link Aggregation Control between a plurality of systems adapted for Link Aggregation is provided. The plurality of systems includes a primary system, a first secondary system, and a second secondary system. The primary system comprises first primary ports being linked to first ports of the first secondary system by first links. Further, the primary system comprises second primary ports being linked to second ports of the second secondary system by second links. The method comprises forming a link aggregation group, wherein the link aggregation group includes at least one first link and at least one second link. A preferred system among the secondary systems having links within the link aggregation group is selected and further, the method comprises setting the status of the primary ports according to the selection of the preferred system. |
| US09473381B2 |
Systems and methods for network testing
A apparatus for network testing includes a network port adapted to receive data from the test network and one or more network interfaces of a wireless access point in operative communication with the network port. The one or more network interfaces generates a wireless local area network (WLAN) that communicates diagnostic information of the test network to a client device and causes the client device to display the diagnostic information. |
| US09473380B1 |
Automatic parsing of binary-based application protocols using network traffic
A method for analyzing a binary-based application protocol of a network. The method includes obtaining conversations from the network, extracting content of a candidate field from a message in each conversation, calculating a randomness measure of the content to represent a level of randomness of the content across all conversation, calculating a correlation measure of the content to represent a level of correlation, across all of conversations, between the content and an attribute of a corresponding conversation where the message containing the candidate field is located, and selecting, based on the randomness measure and the correlation measure, and using a pre-determined field selection criterion, the candidate offset from a set of candidate offsets as the offset defined by the protocol. |
| US09473379B2 |
Client in distributed computing system that monitors service time reported by server in order to detect performance problems and automatically issue alerts
A client device in a distributed system sends a request to a server via a network and receives a service time duration from the server. The service time duration corresponds to time that the server spent servicing the request. A processor of the client device compares the service time duration with a dynamically generated service time threshold, and automatically issues one or more alert messages to a network operation center (NOC) when the service time duration is greater than the service time threshold. The service time threshold is dynamically calculated according to historic service time durations received from the server for a plurality of previous requests sent by the client device. The service time threshold is dynamically calculated according to historic service time durations of only previous requests of a same type as the request, where the previous requests sent by the client device are of a plurality of types. |
| US09473378B1 |
Method for transmitting packet-based media data having header in which overhead is minimized
Provided is a method for transmitting packet-based media data having a header in which an overhead is minimized. A method for media data transmission may comprise the steps of: encapsulating media data to allow a media fragment unit (MFU) header and an M-unit header to share one format; allowing an MMT payload format to include a header field for an operation which is not supported by an RTP header, and transferring the encapsulated media data from a specific entity to another entity; and controlling the transfer of the media data. Therefore, a transmission overhead is minimized, so that it is possible to efficiently transmit media data. |
| US09473376B2 |
Method and server for determining home network quality
Method for determining from a remote server a user quality of service (QoS) class of a home network, comprising the following steps performed at the remote server which is connected through the internet with the home network: obtaining home network measurement data of at least one home network parameter associated with a capacity of the home network, using an application layer protocol for remote management, said capacity being a measure for an amount of traffic that the home network can handle at one time; processing said home network measurement data to estimate the capacity of the home network or a parameter related thereto; based on the estimated capacity or parameter related thereto classifying said home network in a user QoS class. |
| US09473366B2 |
Techniques for measuring above-the-fold page rendering
Techniques for measuring above-the-fold (ATF) page rendering are provided. Visible objects for an ATF portion of a browser page are identified. A start and end time for each visible object is recorded. Furthermore, a total elapsed time to finish loading each of the visible objects to the ATF portion of a browser is determined. |
| US09473360B2 |
System and method for primary switch election in peer groups
A system and method for primary switch election in peer groups includes a switch. The switch includes a control unit, first ports coupling the switch to a peer switch via first network links forming an inter-chassis link (ICL), and second ports coupling the switch to a plurality of first switches using a plurality of second network links. The second network links are part of a plurality of virtual link trunking (VLT) link aggregation groups (LAGs) wherein each of the VLT LAGs is associated with a respective one of the first switches. The control unit is configured to exchange dynamic election criteria with the peer switch, determine whether the switch is a primary or a secondary switch based on the exchanged dynamic election criteria, determine whether the ICL is down, and shut down the second network links when the ICL is down and the switch is the secondary switch. |
| US09473358B2 |
Expandable distributed core architectures having reserved interconnect bandwidths
A network system for an expandable distributed core architecture (“DCA”) includes multiple spine switches, multiple leaf switches coupled thereto, and a plurality of interconnections coupling each of the spine switches to each of the leaf switches. Servers, storage, and other system items and resources can be coupled to the leafs via downlinks and uplinks. Each of the plurality of spine switches includes at least one unused spine port that is reserved for a future expansion of the DCA in order to accommodate the addition of at least one other separate leaf switch to the at least one unused spine port. Additional ports can be unused and reserved for future expansion additions of more leafs and/or more spines. Also, a computing system assists in the design of the specific number and configuration of spines, leafs and interconnections based upon user inputs regarding current and future system needs. |
| US09473356B2 |
Automatic configuration of applications based on host metadata using application-specific templates
In accordance with an embodiment, a metadata generator tool can automate the configuration of applications in a domain. The metadata generator tool can automatically capture metadata for the deployment and update one or more application specific property files using application specific templates. In some embodiments, the data generation tool can use introspection to identify metadata for a deployment. Depending on the deployment environment different introspection methods may be used (e.g., in a WebLogic domain one set of introspection methods may be used while in a WebSphere or Tomcat domain different methods may be used). Once the metadata is captured, property files associated with the applications can be updated using application-specific templates. Each template can define how the metadata is referenced in the property files, allowing the tool to automatically configure the property files by substituting the captured metadata where appropriate. |
| US09473346B2 |
System and method for network path validation
In a server device, a method for validating a network path in a network includes receiving a listing of ports from a client device, each port in the listing of ports associated with the server device and receiving a request message from the client device via a first identified port in the listing of ports. The method includes, in response to receiving the request message, opening a subsequent identified port in the listing of ports for communication with the client device and, following opening of the subsequent identified port in the listing of ports, transmitting a response message to the client device via the first identified port. |
| US09473344B2 |
Circuit and method for setting data and their application to integrated circuit
An integrated circuit is disclosed, including at least one configuration pin, an interface circuit, a detecting circuit, a determining circuit and a storage unit. A physical layer circuit of the invention not only increases the flexibility of setting PHY addresses, but also reduces the number of configuration pins. |
| US09473341B2 |
Sounding and tone block allocation for orthogonal frequency multiple access (OFDMA) in wireless local area networks
A first communication device obtains, for each second communication device of a plurality of second communication devices, one or more quality indicators corresponding to one or more sub-channel blocks of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication channel associated with the second communication device. The first communication device selects, based on the quality indicators obtained for each of at least some of the second communication devices, a group of second communication devices for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication. The first communication device transmits, to the group of second communication devices, at least one OFDMA data unit that includes respective OFDM data units directed to the two or more second communication devices of the group. The respective OFDM data units are transmitted in respective sub-channel blocks allocated to the two or more second communication devices of the group. |
| US09473336B2 |
Radio frequency (RF) front end having multiple low noise amplifier modules
A radio frequency (RF) front end having multiple low noise amplifiers modules is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes at least one first stage amplifier configured to amplify received carrier signals to generate at least one first stage carrier group. Each first stage carrier group includes a respective portion of the carrier signals. The apparatus also includes second stage amplifiers configured to amplify the first stage carrier groups. Each second stage amplifier configured to amplify a respective first stage carrier group to generate two second stage output signals that may be output to different demodulation stages where each demodulation stage demodulates a selected carrier signal. |
| US09473335B2 |
Overlay modulation technique for COFDM signals based on amplitude offsets
Systems and methods are presented for transmitting additional data over preexisting differential COFDM signals by changing the amplitude of the legacy data symbols. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, additional data capacity can be achieved for a COFDM signal which is completely backwards compatible with existing legacy satellite broadcast communications systems. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, additional information can be overlaid on a legacy COFDM signal by applying an amplitude offset to the legacy symbols. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, special receiver processing can be implemented to extract this additional information, which can include performing channel equalization across frequency bins to isolate the amplitude modulated overlay signal. For example, at each FFT symbol time, average power across neighboring active data bins can be used to determine the localized power at the corresponding FFT bins, and a channel inversion can then, for example, be performed on the data bins to restore, as best as possible, the original transmitted symbol amplitude. |
| US09473334B2 |
Wireless transmission device
A wireless transmission device includes an amplifier that amplifies power of a wireless transmission signal, a table that stores a plurality of distortion compensation coefficients used for compensating non-linear distortion of the amplifier, and a control unit that alternately performs reading of one distortion compensation coefficient and writing of one distortion compensation coefficient adjusted based on a feedback signal from the amplifier, by using any one port of the table at the time of update of any distortion compensation coefficient out of the plurality of distortion compensation coefficients stored in the table. |
| US09473331B2 |
Efficient tracking of decision-feedback equaliser coefficients
Efficient methods and apparatus for tracking decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) coefficients are described. In an embodiment, updated coefficients for a feed-forward equalizer (FFE) are generated using conventional methods and then these are used, along with an averaged updated value of channel impulse response (CIR) estimate to generate updated DFE coefficients. In an embodiment, the updated DFE coefficients are generated by multiplying the updated CIR estimate (in the frequency domain) and the updated FFE coefficients (also in the frequency domain). The resultant updated DFE coefficients in the frequency domain may then be converted into the time domain before outputting to the DFE. |
| US09473328B2 |
Wideband signal generation for channel estimation in time-division-duplexing communication systems
A coax network unit (CNU) is coupled to a coax line terminal (CLT). In first and second modes of operation, the CNU transmits data during an upstream window and receives data during a downstream window. In the first mode of operation, a duration of data transmission for the upstream window or a duration of data reception for the downstream window is reduced by a specified amount with respect to the second mode. A sounding signal is transmitted in the first mode in a probing slot that has a duration corresponding to the specified amount. |
| US09473327B2 |
Radio communication device, radio communication method, and radio communication system
A radio communication device includes: a processor configured to execute a program; and a memory configured to store the program, wherein the processor performs, based on the program, operations to: detect communication quality of each of a plurality of channels; and lower a first set modulation level of a first channel with the communication quality which is equal to or lower than a level and a second set modulation level of a first adjacent channel as at least one of two adjacent channels adjacent to the first channel in a frequency axis direction. |
| US09473326B2 |
Multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication system and method for signal compensation
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for signal compensation. The method includes: receiving, by a receiver via N receiving antennas, a plurality of channel estimation preamble signals sent by M transmitting antennas of a remote transmitter, wherein the plurality of channel estimation preamble signals contain measurement signals of the M transmitting antennas; determining, by the receiver, channel estimation parameters and channel phase shift parameters according to the measurement signals of the M transmitting antennas of the remote transmitter; and determining, by the receiver, signal compensation according to the channel estimation parameters and the channel phase shift parameters. According to the method for signal compensation and the multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication system provided by the embodiments of the present invention, accuracy of an estimated value of transmitted data is improved. |
| US09473325B2 |
Channel estimation method and associated device for estimating data channel of data resource element of physical resource block for OFDM system
A channel estimation method estimates a data channel of a data resource element of a physical resource block in a time-frequency domain. The method includes: utilizing a detection circuit to perform a first physical resource block bundling detection in a first direction of the time-frequency domain to detect if at least one neighboring physical resource block is allowed to be bundled with the physical resource block, and accordingly generating a first physical resource block bundling detection result; determining a physical resource block processing range according to at least the first physical resource block bundling detection result, wherein at least the physical resource block is included in the physical resource block processing range; obtaining a plurality of pilot channels for pilot resource elements in the physical resource block processing range; and estimating the data channel of the data resource element according to the pilot channels. |
| US09473323B2 |
Global text gateway for text messages
Disclosed are a system and method for selective delivery of text messages using a global text gateway in communication with a database of delivery criteria for text messages in which a user can program delivery criteria for text messages directed to a telephone number, wherein the global text gateway is associated with the telephone number so that text messages addressed to the telephone number are routed to the global text gateway and wherein the global text gateway is adapted to forward text messages to a communication network for delivery based on the delivery criteria. |
| US09473321B1 |
Dynamic control of smart home using wearable device
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for dynamically controlling an appliance based on information received from a wearable device, to regulate the user's health. A wearable device is identified and configured to monitor at least one physiological aspect of the user. A controllable appliance with at least one sensor and at least one controllable setting is also identified. Health information of the user is received and utilized in generating, a user profile which comprises parameters related to the health of the user. Data from the wearable device and data from the controllable appliance is analyzed and it is determined whether the data matches the parameters related to the health of the user. If the data does not match the parameters related to the health of the user, then at least one controllable setting of the at least one controllable appliance is adjusted. |
| US09473320B2 |
Household appliance and communication control method
A household appliance comprises a high speed communication interface, a large volume data processing device linking up with a household appliance control device, and a low speed communication switching device. When the communication target of the household appliance control device is switched to the large volume data processing device, the large volume data processing device converts data entered via the high speed communication interface to a low speed communication format and outputs the data to the household appliance control device via the low speed communication switching device, and converts data entered from the household appliance control device via the low speed communication switching device to a high speed communication format and enters the data into the high speed communication interface. |
| US09473316B2 |
Resource consumption reduction via meeting affinity
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to resource consumption in a clustered environment hosting an e-meeting and provide a method, system and computer program product for resource consumption reduction for an e-meeting via meeting affinity. In one embodiment of the invention, an e-meeting affinity method can be provided. In a clustered environment, the e-meeting affinity method can include identifying a clone supporting an e-meeting and having session affinity with a moderator to the e-meeting. The method further can include establishing session affinity between the clone and other participants to the e-meeting for requests relating to the e-meeting while permitting parallel session affinity to other clones for requests from the other participants not relating to the e-meeting. |
| US09473313B2 |
System and method for dynamic provisioning
A system and method for dynamic provisioning is provided. In an embodiment, a provisioning engine receives data representing a device profile, a device state and a network state, and to the extent that the device profile, device state and network state are not consistent, the engine can dynamically re-provision the device to achieve an alternative provisioning. |
| US09473312B2 |
Wake on application
Systems and methods for “Wake on Application” (WOA). An Information Handling System (IHS) may include a logic circuit and a memory having instructions that, upon execution, cause the IHS to: receive a WOA packet while the IHS is in a first power state, where the WOA packet identifies at least one of a software application or virtual server residing within the IHS; and, in response to having received the WOA packet, operate in a second power state and launch the software application or wake up the virtual server. A method may include originating, via a first IHS, a single WOA packet; and transmitting the single WOA packet over a network, where the single WOA packet is configured to cause a second IHS to switch operation from a first power state to a second power state, and to launch a software application or wake up a virtual server. |
| US09473311B2 |
Method and device for managing certificates
A certificate management method and a certificate management device are disclosed. The certificate management device includes a key collection computing unit, a certificate revocation unit, and a certificate revocation list broadcast unit. The certificate management method includes determining to at least revoke a first certificate in certificates that are recorded in a key tree and related to an entity, and determining whether a first root node only covers the first certificate and other revoked certificate in the key tree. When the first root node only covers the first certificate and the other revoked certificate, information about the first root node is added to a certificate revocation list. The certificate revocation list is sent to another entity at least. |
| US09473308B2 |
Method and system for implementing digital signature in mobile operating system
A method and a system for implementing a digital signature in a mobile operating system. The method comprises: an application program coding to-be-signed data to obtain a first data packet; calling a preset system function by using an address character string of a service program, an address character string of an application program and the first data packet as parameters; when the service program is called by the preset system function, parsing function parameters, and storing the address character string of the service program; decoding the first data packet; if the decoding succeeds, sending the to-be-signed data and a preset signature type to an intelligent key device; otherwise, using decoding failure information as a returned value, and calling the preset system function by using the address character string of the application program and the returned value as parameters; receiving information returned by the intelligent key device; calling the preset system function by using the information returned by the intelligent key device, the address character string of the application program and the returned value as parameters; and the application program parsing the parameters of the preset system function to obtain a signature result and a returned value, and the operations end. |
| US09473306B2 |
Document verification with ID augmentation
At least one node in a distributed hash tree document verification infrastructure is augmented with an identifier of an entity in a registration path. A data signature, which includes parameters for recomputation of a verifying value, and which is associated with a digital input record, will therefore also include data that identifies at least one entity in the hash tree path used for its initial registration in the infrastructure. |
| US09473305B2 |
Computer program and method for biometrically secured, transparent encryption and decryption
A computer program for enabling secured, transparent encryption and decryption provides a user interface that allows a user to drag and drop files into and out of a secure repository and automatically encrypts files transferred into the repository and automatically decrypts files transferred out of the repository. The user can transfer file folders into the repository, wherein the program encrypts all of the files within the folder and retains the original file/folder structure, such that individual files can be moved within the repository, moved out of the repository, and opened or executed directly from the repository. The program requires the user to submit biometric data and grants access to the secure repository only if the biometric data is authenticated. The program generates an encryption key based at least in part on biometric data received from the user. Additionally, the program destroys the key after termination of each encryption/decryption session. |
| US09473293B2 |
Systems and methods for operating radio transceivers
A phase lock loop monitor circuit is disclosed. The phase lock loop monitor circuit may include a coarse tuning circuit operable to generate a coarse tune failure indicator, a frequency target lock detector circuit operable to generate a frequency target failure indicator, a cycle slip monitor circuit operable to generate a cycle slip lock failure indicator, and an abort logic circuit communicatively coupled to the coarse tuning circuit, the frequency target lock detector circuit, and the cycle slip monitor circuit, the abort logic circuit operable to generate a radio operation abort indicator based at least on the coarse tune failure indicator, the frequency target failure indicator, or the cycle slip lock failure indicator. |
| US09473292B2 |
Device and method for NRZ CDR calibration
The disclosure is a device and a method for Non Return to Zero (NRZ) Clock Data Recovery (CDR) calibration, which includes a CDR unit and a weight calculator unit. The CDR unit receives a compensative signal of an equalization filter to generate an error signal, a sampling clock signal, a transition sampling signal and a data signal. The weight calculator unit receives the error signal, the transition sampling signal and the data signal, and then uses a run length technique to generate weight data. The weight data controls a voltage control oscillator (VCO) which calibrates the phase and the frequency of the sampling clock signal. |
| US09473291B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for reducing switching jitter
Described are apparatuses and methods for reducing channel physical layer (C-PHY) switching jitter. An apparatus may include a pattern dependent delay circuit to detect a switching pattern of at least three data signals on respective wires and adaptively change delays of the at least three data signals based on the switching pattern. The apparatus may further include a transmitter, coupled to the pattern dependent delay circuit, to transmit the at least three data signals. |
| US09473290B2 |
System and methods for generating variable frequency clock signals from common clock signal and usage thereof
A method and an apparatus for clocking data processing modules, with different average clock frequencies and for transferring data between the modules are provided. The apparatus includes a device for providing a common clock signal to the modules. Clock pulses are deleted from the common clock signal to individual modules in dependence on the clocking frequency required by each module. The clock pulses are applied to the modules between which the data is to be transferred at times consistent with the data transfer. |
| US09473284B2 |
Contention for channel access in wireless network
A method, apparatus, and computer program for configuring channel sensing parameters of an apparatus are disclosed in this document. The method comprises providing a mapping between reception sensitivity thresholds for determining whether a radio channel is busy or available for channel access and time values affecting a back-off time representing a time interval the apparatus refrains from channel access upon determining that the radio channel is busy, wherein a first time value is mapped to a first reception sensitivity threshold and a second time value is mapped to a second reception sensitivity threshold such that when the first reception sensitivity threshold provides a higher probability for the apparatus to determine that the channel is busy than the second reception sensitivity threshold, the first time value provides the apparatus with a lower back-off time than the second time value; and selecting a combination of a reception sensitivity threshold and a time value mapped to each other. |
| US09473281B2 |
Methods, apparatuses and computer program products for providing dynamic uplink-downlink reconfiguration information to user equipments
A method provides information to a UE specifying a UL-DL configuration to be applied to the UE. The information is indicative of: (a) a signaling time at which a UL-DL configuration signaling for a new UL-DL configuration is to take place, and (b) an application time at which the new UL-DL configuration is to be applied. This method complements UL-DL configuration signaling by providing more reliable reception of UL-DL configuration information. This indication is performed with smaller signaling overhead compared to conventional schemes and with reasonable complexity on both the UE side and an eNB side. |
| US09473279B2 |
Inter-cell interference coordination for E-PDCCH
A method is provided for communication in a wireless telecommunication system. The method comprises transmitting, by a first access node, an indicator to a second access node over an interface between the first access node and the second access node, wherein the indicator provides information on a transmission of a control channel by the first access node. |
| US09473267B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting uplink control information
A method for transmitting uplink control information and a wireless device are provided. The wireless device masks the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of a first piece of uplink control information with a masking sequence related to a second piece uplink control information and transmits the masked first piece of uplink control information to an uplink channel. |
| US09473265B2 |
Methods and apparatus for communicating information utilizing a plurality of dictionaries
Methods and apparatus for communicating information using a plurality of report dictionaries are described. A plurality of request dictionaries are implemented for a wireless terminal to use for multi-bit uplink transmission backlog request reports communicated via the dedicated control channel. Each dictionary defines a different bit mapping interpretation for a set of multi-bit uplink transmission backlog request reports, e.g. a 3 bit uplink request report and a 4 bit uplink request report. The plurality of request dictionaries includes a default dictionary and additional dictionaries. The implementation of a plurality of alternative request dictionaries expands the reporting possibilities allowing a wireless terminal to use a reporting format well-suited to its current needs. The default dictionary is mandated to be used under certain predefined conditions, e.g., upon entry into the active state. Rules for transitioning between different dictionaries and continuing to use a selected dictionary are described. |
| US09473264B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving packet in communication system
A packet transmission/reception method for use in a communication system is provided. The method includes generating control information corresponding to Forward Error Correction (FEC), acquiring at least one source packet to be protected using the FEC, generating at least one repair symbol with at least one repair FEC payload ID and at least one source FEC payload ID according to the at least one source packet and the control information, and transmitting the at least one source packet, the at least one repair symbol with the at least one repair FEC payload ID, and the at least one source FEC payload ID. |
| US09473260B2 |
Method for performing announcements in a means of transport
Method for performing announcements in a means of transport that has an announcement device having at least one loudspeaker and an entertainment device, having the following steps: an announcement start signal is sent from the announcement device to the entertainment device at the beginning of an announcement; an interruption to the reproduction of the reproduction appliance is prompted by the entertainment device when the announcement start signal is received; the announcement is reproduced as an audible announcement signal via the announcement loudspeaker; continuation of the reproduction of the reproduction appliance is prompted by the entertainment device when an announcement end signal is received or at the end of reception of the announcement start signal, characterized by detection of an audio signal that is output by the announcement loudspeaker by the entertainment device, wherein the reproduction of the reproduction appliance is automatically interrupted after the audio signal is detected. |
| US09473258B2 |
RF signal alignment calibration
A method is provided for aligning RF signals of a first channel bank and additional channel banks in a test platform. A plurality of correlators is used to correlate a reference code signal carrying a particular code at a particular chip rate with a received code signal carrying the particular code at the particular chip rate from the first channel bank to establish a first timing offset. The plurality of correlators is used to correlate a continuation of the reference code signal with additional received code signals carrying the particular code at the particular chip rate from the additional channel banks to establish additional timing offsets. The first timing offset and additional timing offsets are applied to the first and additional channel banks. The plurality of correlators includes 72 correlators, and a timing offset established in a correlation interval having a shorter duration than a length of the particular code. |
| US09473257B1 |
Radio communication system utilizing a radio signal classifier
A system suitable for use in classifying radio signals includes a plurality of feature extractors configured to extract a plurality of features from an object and a plurality of classification layers. Each of the plurality of classification layers includes one or more reduced enhanced Gaussian classifiers selected from a plurality of Gaussian classifiers based on a classification error rate of each of the plurality of Gaussian classifiers and configured to classify the object as belonging to an object class in a subgroup of correctly classified object classes or in a disjoint error subgroup that needs further classification, using at least one of the extracted plurality of features. If the object is classified as belonging to an object class in a disjoint error subgroup at a layer, the object is passed on to a different reduced enhanced Gaussian classifier in a next layer for further classification. |
| US09473252B2 |
Modulation apparatus, demodulation apparatus, audio transmission system, program, and demodulation method
A problem is to increase possibility of extracting data from sound in a system which transmits data using the sound as a transmission medium. Frames are transmitted while shifting the transmission timing among a plurality of frequency bands, whereby tolerance for multipath fading, noise mixing, or the like is obtained and improvement of a substantial transmission rate can be expected compared to a case where one frame is transmitted using only one frequency band. When selecting blocks forming a frame, since a block is selected under a condition that a time period necessary for collecting sound, on which the blocks to be selected are superimposed, becomes shorter, even if a phenomenon, in which a substantial rate of data transmission decreases, occurs, it becomes possible to suppress a decrease in rate. |
| US09473250B2 |
System and method for recovering carrier phase in optical communications
The embodiments of the invention provide methods to deal with problems of cycle slips, angular skew, and residual phase noise for high-speed optical communications employing any arbitrary high-order multi-dimensional modulation formats. The embodiments use a slip process analyzer, a skew angle estimator, and a phase noise variance estimator to provide feedforward soft-decision information of a carrier phase recovery (CPE) for more accurate likelihood calculation based on a high-order hidden Markov model (HMM). The log-likelihood calculation can be done jointly in dual polarization with joint Markov state transition. Some embodiments use a kernel filter or a particle filter for log-likelihood calculation. |
| US09473247B2 |
Optical signal conversion device and method thereof
The present invention relates to a device and a method for conversion from optical double-sideband modulation signals to optical single-sideband modulation signals. Period-one nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers is utilized to achieve such optical signal conversion. Only a typical semiconductor laser is required as the key conversion unit. The microwave and data quality are maintained or even improved after conversion, increasing detection sensitivity, transmission distance, and link gain of the communication networks. The device is relatively less sensitive to ambient variations, can be self-adapted to changes in operating conditions, and can be applied for a broad range of operating microwave frequency up to at least 80 GHz and a high data rate up to at least 2.5 Gbits/s. The device can therefore be dynamically reconfigured for different communication networks adopting different operating microwave frequencies and different data rates. |
| US09473242B2 |
Establishing connection across a connection-oriented first telecommunications network in response to a connection request from a second telecommunications network
A first Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Internet Protocol (IP) data network transmits data to a second MPLS IP network via a legacy network, which would not otherwise be able to handle the required user network interface (UNI) protocol by configuring the legacy network and its connection computing apparatus (CCA) so that they emulate an MPLS network. When a firt network element (NE) receives a connection (UNI) request from the MPLS network under a UNI protocol, the UNI request is passed to the CCA, which then sets the required connection across the legacy network via a second network element (NE) to an NE of the second network. Once the connection has been set, the CCA instructs the NE to send a return signal to the requesting network indicating that the connection has been successfully set. Data packets may then be transmitted across the network. |
| US09473241B1 |
Systems and methods for controlling the connectivity of a drop connection
A combination of algorithms and circuits can control the connectivity of a drop connection to either a telephone service or a high-speed data service at a distribution point. The algorithms and circuits can operate in the absence of a conventional power supply at the distribution point. The circuits can connect the drop connection to the high-speed data service in response to the receipt of an activation signal sent by equipment at the customer premises. After the connection to the high-speed data service is complete, the customer premises equipment can be used to apply back power to the components of the distribution point. If the customer premises equipment stops providing back power to the components of the distribution point, the circuits can connect the drop connection to the telephone service. |
| US09473234B2 |
Array processing for satellite communications
A satellite communications system includes a plurality of satellites that generate communications data over a plurality of channels. A plurality of antennas receives the communications data over the plurality of channels generated by the plurality of satellites. Each of the antennas receives a separate signal from each of the plurality of satellites over the channels. A converter digitizes each of the separate signals from each of the plurality of satellites received at the plurality of antennas. A processor forms separate digital beams from each of the separate signals digitized by the converter. |
| US09473231B2 |
Inspection system with wireless data transmission
Inspection system for inspection or cleaning of pipes (5), wherein the inspection system comprises an inspection or cleaning means (15) and a control means (10), and wherein the inspection system comprises a first transmission/receiver means (20; 40) assigned to the control means (10) and a second transmission/receiver means (30) assigned to the inspection or cleaning means (15) for wireless transmission of control or measurement data between the inspection or cleaning means (15) and the control means (10). |
| US09473226B2 |
Sharing resources between wireless networks
A node in a first wireless network requests a radio communication channel from a second wireless network. Upon receiving a channel assignment, nodes in the first network employ the assigned channel for communicating in a manner that is transparent to the second network. Communications via the second wireless network may initiate communications in the first wireless network, keep the assigned channel reserved, communicate network control messages for the first wireless network, transmit a decoy signal, and/or communicate a reference signal. Antenna array processing can prevent the first and second wireless networks from interfering with each other. |
| US09473224B2 |
Method and apparatus for hierarchical codebook design in wireless communication
Methods and apparatuses for wireless communication are provided. In an aspect, the method includes receiving a plurality of channel quality reports based on a multiple description coding schedule and determining a transmission parameter based on the plurality of channel quality reports. In another aspect, the method includes receiving a family of codebooks organized based on a transmission rank, and reporting, using a multiple description coding scheme, a channel quality parameter using a codebook entry from the family of codebooks. |
| US09473223B2 |
Methods for optimal collaborative MIMO-SDMA
A system and method for collaboratively designing optimized beamforming vectors is disclosed for a wireless multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) space division multiple access (SDMA) communication system to optimize an aggregate SNR performance metric across the different users, thereby permitting the flexibility to trade off computational requirements and size of control information exchanged with performance. Using adaptive vector space search methods, the space of all receive beamformers is searched to find the set which maximizes either the sum or product of SNRs of the users. |
| US09473221B2 |
Subnetworks and multiple networks
A Next Generation Data Network is described. It leverages the “cloud” for data management, frequency data computation and analytics. Nodes in the network are arranged into subnets with at least one node per subnet connected to a physical high-speed computer communication link. The wireless network using packet switched beams, the beams are formed and switched electronically. It utilizes advanced signal processing to compensate for low transmit signal power and multipath reflections that can be frequency or flat fades. |
| US09473220B2 |
Device, system and method of controlling wireless communication based on an orientation-related attribute of a wireless communication device
Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of controlling wireless communication based on an orientation-related attribute of a wireless communication device. For example, a wireless communication device may include a controller to receive from a sensor orientation-related information indicating an orientation-related attribute of the wireless communication device, and to control an antenna scheme of one or more antennas of the wireless communication device based on said orientation-related information. |
| US09473213B2 |
Wireless charging method and system, and mobile terminal
The embodiments of the present application provide a wireless charging method and system, and a mobile terminal. The wireless charging method includes: activating a wireless charging function by a first mobile terminal and a second mobile terminal; determining that the first mobile terminal is a wireless charging sender, and the second mobile terminal is a wireless charging receiver; and performing a wireless charging on the second mobile terminal by the first mobile terminal. The embodiments of the present application solve the problem that the power is insufficient in emergency situations. In addition, the operation is simple and the usage limitations are reduced. |
| US09473207B2 |
Contactless EHF data communication
An electronic device may include an auxiliary circuit providing an operative function, a data signal circuit, and an extremely high frequency (EHF) wireless transmitter. The auxiliary circuit may produce a first low frequency data signal. The data signal circuit may be coupled to the auxiliary circuit for encoding a first composite data signal including the first low frequency data signal and the first base high frequency data signal. The EHF wireless transmitter may transmit the first encoded composite data signal to an external device over a wireless EHF communication link. The transmitted encoded composite data signal may have a predefined rate of carrier modulation. |
| US09473205B2 |
Coaxial data communication with reduced EMI
Data communication having improved electromagnetic interference (EMI) rejection when communicating through a coaxial cable is provided by using differential transmission and/or reception through a common-mode choke and a dissipative element resulting in extremely low radiated emissions and high immunity to external radiation interference in a low-cost way. |
| US09473201B2 |
Frequency conversion system with improved spurious response and frequency agility
A frequency conversion system with improved performance. In one embodiment an image reject mixer is used to perform frequency conversion providing an initial degree of suppression of the image and local oscillator leakage signals, and a signal to noise enhancer (SNE) is used to further suppress the image and local oscillator signals, the signal to noise enhancer being a nonlinear passive device that attenuates low-power signals while transmitting high power signals with little loss. The signal to noise enhancer may be fabricated as a thin film of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) epitaxially grown on a gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrate, the GGG substrate secured to a microwave transmission line from the input to the output of the signal to noise enhancer, such that the thin film of yttrium iron garnet is close to the transmission line. |
| US09473200B2 |
Digital suppression of transmitter intermodulation in receiver
Systems and methods for suppressing transmitter noise in a receive band of a co-located receiver that are suitable for wideband applications are disclosed. In one embodiment, a transmitter is configured to upconvert and amplify a digital transmit signal to provide an analog radio frequency transmit signal at an output of the transmitter that includes a desired signal in a transmit band of the transmitter and transmitter noise in a receive band of a main receiver. The main receiver is configured to amplify, downconvert, and digitize an analog radio frequency receive signal to provide a digital receive signal. The digital feedforward transmit noise cancellation subsystem is configured to process the digital transmit signal to generate a digital transmitter noise cancellation signal that is representative of the transmitter noise in the receive band and is subtracted from the digital receive signal to thereby provide a compensated digital receive signal. |
| US09473197B2 |
Reversible TDD transceiver
A radio transceiver, particularly for use in a time division duplex system, has two reversible transceiver chains, each containing a respective radio frequency mixer; and an intermediate frequency generator, for receiving a baseband signal containing data for transmission, and for generating signals at two different intermediate frequencies modulated with said data. In a receive mode, each transceiver chain receives a respective signal at a respective radio frequency, and the respective radio frequency mixer downconverts the respective signal to a respective intermediate frequency. In transmit mode, one of said signals at the two different intermediate frequencies modulated with said data is passed to the respective radio frequency mixer for upconversion to the respective RF frequency. An AIS transponder includes such a radio transceiver. Miniaturization is helped by reusing certain circuit areas for both transmit and receive. |
| US09473187B2 |
Wireless radio extension using up- and down-conversion
A system may include a base station and a remote radio head (“RRH”). The base station may receive digital data streams destined for a user device, and generate a first set of modulated signals. The modulated signals may each be based on a different one of the digital data streams. The generated first set of modulated signals may be modulated within a first carrier frequency band. The base station may output the first set of modulated signals to the RRH. The RRH may generate a second set of modulated signals based on the first set of modulated signals. The second set of modulated signals being modulated within a second carrier frequency band, and may output the second set of modulated signals to the user device. |
| US09473185B2 |
Impedance matching for variable impedance antennas
An impedance matching circuit for a wireless communication device includes: a first node that receives a first impedance; a second node that is connected to an antenna having a second impedance; a first variable capacitor that is connected between the first node and a third node; a second variable capacitor that is connected between the third node and a reference potential; a first inductive element that is connected in parallel with the second variable capacitor between the third node and the reference potential; and a third variable capacitor and a second inductive element that are connected in series between the third node and the second node. |
| US09473180B2 |
Apparatus for converting frequency and RF transmitter comprising same
Disclosed is an apparatus for converting a frequency. The apparatus includes: an oscillator configured to generate a first oscillation signal having a first oscillation frequency which is obtained by subtracting an input frequency from a carrier frequency of any one carrier signal among a first to a n-th carrier signals (n is a natural number), and generate a second oscillation signal having a second oscillation frequency which is obtained by adding the input frequency to a carrier frequency of any one carrier signal among a (n+1)-th to a 2n-th carrier signals; and a mixer configured to mix and output the first oscillation signal or the second oscillation signal with an input signal having the input frequency. |
| US09473177B2 |
Turbo decoder with a low-power input format and associated method
A turbo decoder stores received data in words in systematic memory and parity memory in a way that is known that it will be used for later iterations by turbo decoder engines arranged to operate in parallel. A loader receives and separates LLRs into systematic and parity data and stores them into a portion of a word per cycle until a word is full in a corresponding one of the systematic memory and parity memory. The turbo decoder engines read the LLRs from one word of the systematic memory and one word of the parity memory in a single cycle. The data can be rearranged within the words in an order format for the turbo decoder engines to later read them by providing sub-words corresponding to respective ones of the plurality of turbo decoder engines. |
| US09473172B2 |
Receiver deserializer latency trim
A system and method for receiving includes an input multiplexer configured to select between one or more input data streams and a pseudo random bit sequence (PRBS) to provide a serial stream. A plurality of storage devices is configured to sample the serial stream. An output demultiplexer is configured to demultiplex the sampled serial stream into a plurality of output streams. A PRBS checker is configured to compare a PRBS pattern on the plurality of output streams with a predicted PRBS pattern. A phase rotator is configured to adjust a data control clock based upon the comparison of the PRBS checker to reduce latency in the receiver. |
| US09473171B2 |
Data encoding method for compressing data to be stored, data storage device with data encoder, and operating method of data storage device
Provided is a data encoding method such that memory cells storing the data form a biased threshold voltage distribution. The data encoding method may include receiving N bits of first data, and converting the first data into M bits of second data, wherein the proportion of a first value in the second data is higher than the proportion of a second value. |
| US09473170B2 |
Entropy coding of motion vector differences
An entropy decoder is configured to, for horizontal and vertical components of motion vector differences, derive a truncated unary code from the data stream using context-adaptive binary entropy decoding with exactly one context per bin position of the truncated unary code, which is common for horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector differences, and an Exp-Golomb code using a constant equi-probability bypass mode to obtain the binarizations of the motion vector differences. A desymbolizer is configured to debinarize the binarizations of the motion vector difference syntax elements to obtain integer values of the horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector differences; A reconstructor is configured to reconstruct a video based on the integer values of the horizontal and vertical components of the motion vector differences. |
| US09473164B1 |
Method for testing analog-to-digital converter and system therefor
A data processing system having an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and method for testing the ADC are provided. The data processing system also comprises a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and test logic. The DAC has a first voltage range, an input for receiving a test code, and an output. The ADC has a second voltage range larger than the first voltage range, an input coupled to the output of the DAC, and an output for providing a series of output codes over the second voltage range. The test logic is coupled to the ADC and is for controlling testing of the ADC using the DAC. A plurality of series of test codes are provided to the DAC for testing portions of the second voltage range output from the ADC. A beginning series of test codes is for testing a beginning portion of the second voltage range and subsequent series of test codes are for testing subsequent portions of the second voltage range. Subsequent portions of the second voltage range are tested until a maximum voltage of the second voltage range of the ADC is reached. |
| US09473163B1 |
Preamplifier circuit and SAR ADC using the same
A preamplifier circuit comprising six transistors is provided. The first transistor is coupled to a power supply line and the second transistor is coupled to a ground line. The first and second transistors are controlled by an enable signal. The third and fourth transistors are connected between the first and second transistors, for generating a first amplifier output signal in response to a first input signal. The fifth and sixth transistors are connected between the first and second transistors, for generating a second amplifier output signal in response to a second input signal. The first, third, and fifth transistors are of a first conductivity type, and the second, fourth, and sixth transistors are of a second conductivity type. The preamplifier circuit can be applied to any type of ADC that utilizes a comparator. |
| US09473160B2 |
Method and device for analog/digital conversion of an analog signal
A method includes a first analog/digital conversion of an analog signal over m bits, with m less than n, associated with a first full-scale value, and a second analog/digital conversion of the analog signal over m bits associated with a second full-scale value 2n-m times bigger than the first. The two analog/digital conversions are carried out simultaneously and respectively delivering a first intermediate digital word of m bits and a second intermediate digital word of m bits. The method also includes a digital post-processing carried out after the two analog/digital conversions and generating an n-bit digital word starting from at least one of the two intermediate digital words extended to n bits and from at least one threshold digital indication representative of at least one threshold lower than or equal to the first full-scale value. |
| US09473158B1 |
Radio frequency receiver with overlapped analog to digital converter (ADC) architecture
A radio frequency receiver includes a first and second analog to digital converter (ADC) connected in parallel. Each ADC is coupled to a corresponding mixer that receives a local oscillator (LO) frequency signal and an analog input signal. Each LO down-converts the analog input signal to a band of frequencies falling within the band of operation of the LO's corresponding ADC. The frequency is selected such that each LO down-converts the input signal such that a portion of the operating band of each LO overlaps. For frequencies falling within the overlapped region, each ADC samples the overlapped frequency band and the corresponding outputs of the parallel ADCs are coherently summed to provide an output having up to about 3 dB improvement in SNR. For sampled frequencies outside the overlapped frequency range, a single corresponding ADC samples the signal which is down coverted and equalized to generate a direct output to expand the instantaneous bandwidth of the receiver. |
| US09473157B2 |
Frequency synthesizer with injection pulling/pushing suppression/mitigation and related frequency synthesizing method thereof
A frequency synthesizer includes a phase-locked loop (PLL) and a loop bandwidth controller. The PLL generates an output clock according to a reference clock. The loop bandwidth controller checks at least one indicator indicative of injection pulling/pushing of the PLL to configure a loop bandwidth of the PLL. In one exemplary design, the loop bandwidth controller sets the loop bandwidth of the PLL by controlling a configuration of a loop filter included in the PLL. For example, the PLL is an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL), and the loop filter is a digital loop filter of the ADPLL. |
| US09473155B2 |
Software reconfigurable digital phase lock loop architecture
A novel and useful apparatus for and method of software based phase locked loop (PLL). The software based PLL incorporates a reconfigurable calculation unit (RCU) that is optimized and programmed to sequentially perform all the atomic operations of a PLL or any other desired task in a time sharing manner. An application specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) incorporating the RCU includes an instruction set whose instructions are optimized to perform the atomic operations of a PLL. The RCU is clocked at a fast enough processor clock rate to insure that all PLL atomic operations are performed within a single PLL reference clock cycle. |
| US09473154B2 |
Semiconductor device and phase locked loop including the same
Provided are a semiconductor device and a phase-locked loop (PLL) including the same. The semiconductor device including an output node from which an output signal is output, a first transistor which has a drain connected to the output node and is gated by a first signal to increase a voltage level of the output node, a second transistor which has a drain connected to the output node, is gated by a second signal which is a complementary signal of the first signal, and reduces the voltage level of the output node, a pull-up circuit which provides a first compensation current varying according to the voltage level of the output node to a source of the first transistor, and a pull-down circuit which provides a second compensation current varying according to the voltage level of the output node to a source of the second transistor. |
| US09473148B2 |
Method for compensating local oscillator frequency
An oscillator circuit includes a voltage-controlled oscillator configured to output an AC output signal having a predetermined frequency, which changes due to temperature and fabrication process variations and a control voltage generating circuit configured to provide a voltage signal to the voltage-controlled oscillator to maintain the predetermined frequency by compensating for the temperature and fabrication process variations. |
| US09473147B2 |
Frequency dividing apparatus and related method
A frequency dividing apparatus includes: a plurality of latching devices arranged to selectively generate an output signal having a first oscillating frequency or a second oscillating frequency different from the first oscillating frequency according to an input clock signal and a first reset signal; and a controlling device arranged to generate the first reset signal at least according to a programming input signal; wherein the first reset signal is arranged to reset a first latching device in the plurality of latching devices to make the plurality of latching devices to generate the output signal having the second oscillating frequency. |
| US09473145B2 |
Programmable high-speed I/O interface
Methods and apparatus for providing either high-speed, or lower-speed, flexible inputs and outputs. An input and output structure having a high-speed input, a high-speed output, a low or moderate speed input, and an low or moderate speed output is provided. One of the input and output circuits are selected and the others are deselected. The high-speed input and output circuits are comparatively simple, in one example having only a clear signal for a control line input, and are able to interface to lower speed circuitry inside the core of an integrated circuit. The low or moderate speed input and output circuits are more flexible, for example, having preset, enable, and clear as control line inputs, and are able to support JTAG boundary testing. These parallel high and lower speed circuits are user selectable such that the input output structure is optimized between speed and functionality depending on the requirements of the application. |
| US09473143B2 |
Driving circuit for generating voltage control signals
A driving circuit includes an activating end, an operation switch, a voltage control end, and an output switch. The activating end selectively outputs a first voltage control signal and a second voltage control signal. The operation switch is turned off according to the first voltage control signal to generate a low voltage control signal or is turned on according to the second voltage control signal to generate a high voltage control signal. The voltage control end generates a low voltage according to the low voltage control signal or generates a bias voltage according to the high voltage control signal. The output switch is turned off according to the low voltage to determine that an output voltage is the same as the low voltage, or is turned on according to the bias voltage to determine that the output voltage is the same as the high voltage. |
| US09473142B2 |
Method for performing signal driving control in an electronic device with aid of driving control signals, and associated apparatus
A method for performing signal driving control in an electronic device and an associated apparatus are provided. The method includes: generating a first driving control signal and a second driving control signal according to a data signal, wherein the second driving control signal transits in response to a transition of the data signal, and the first driving control signal includes a pulse corresponding to the transition of the data signal; and utilizing a first switching unit to control a first signal path between a first voltage level and an output terminal of an output stage according to the first driving control signal, and utilizing a second switching unit to control a second signal path between the first voltage level and the output terminal according to the second driving control signal, wherein a first impedance of the first signal path is less than a second impedance of the second signal path. |
| US09473140B2 |
Series arranged multiplexers specification support enablement circuit and method
Several circuits and methods that may be implemented to enable specification support of a plurality of interface components in an IC are disclosed. In an embodiment, a circuit includes a plurality of multiplexer circuits and a control circuit. The plurality of multiplexer circuits are configured to provide a plurality of data paths and a plurality of outputs according to a set of selection signals. The plurality of data paths is configurable for at least a first mode of operation or a second mode of operation based on the set of selection signals. The first mode of operation and the second mode of operation are associated with complimentary specifications. The control circuit is coupled with the plurality of multiplexer circuits in order to control the set of selection signals of the plurality of multiplexer circuits to thereby select one of the first mode and the second mode of operation. |
| US09473133B2 |
Control device
Aspects of the present invention provides a device that is capable of accurately measuring an output current of a transistor, controls the drive of a switching element, by using an existing IC tester without any evaluation board improvement. The control device according to one aspect of the present invention has: a drive circuit, a plurality of transistors for controlling the drive of a switching element and a transistor operation controller. A transistor for turning the switching element OFF is configured by a plurality of transistors. The transistor operation controller, in a normal operation, performs ON/OFF control on the two transistors simultaneously or collectively by means of the same drive signal output from the drive circuit. In a test operation, the transistor operation controller sequentially selects one of the transistors and supplies the same drive signal to the selected transistor, to drive the transistors individually. |
| US09473130B2 |
Sawtooth oscillator and apparatuses
Various aspects of the disclosure are directed to methods and apparatuses involving providing a clock signal. As consistent with one or more embodiments herein, a sawtooth waveform signal is generated in a manner that facilitates low power operation. In some implementations, the sawtooth waveform signal is generated using an oscillator that operates without necessarily employing R-C circuits and/or without rail-to-rail voltage supply, such as via a nonlinear oscillator. The sawtooth waveform signal is used to generate a trapezoidal waveform signal, and a clock signal is generated using the trapeziodal waveform signal. |
| US09473129B2 |
Method for performing phase shift control in an electronic device, and associated apparatus
A method for performing phase shift control in an electronic device and an associated apparatus are provided, where the method includes: obtaining a set of clock signals corresponding to a set of phases; and controlling a phase shift of an output signal of an oscillator by selectively mixing the set of clock signals into the oscillator according to a set of digital control signals, wherein the phase shift corresponds to the set of digital control signals, and the set of digital control signals carries a set of digital weightings for selectively mixing the set of clock signals. More particularly, the method may include: selectively mixing the set of clock signals into a specific stage of a plurality of stages of the oscillator according to the set of digital control signals. |
| US09473128B2 |
DC voltage generation circuit and pulse generation circuit thereof
A pulse generation circuit for outputting a pulse signal at an output terminal, including: a PMOS, an NMOS, and a logic circuit. The PMOS has a source coupled to a first reference voltage level, a drain coupled to the output terminal, and a gate that receives a first gate control signal. The NMOS has a source coupled to a second reference voltage level, a drain coupled to the output terminal, and a gate that receives a second gate control signal. The logic circuit generates the first gate control signal according to a control signal and a first delay signal and generates the second gate control signal according to the control signal and a second delay signal. The first delay signal is relevant to the second gate control signal and the control signal. The second delay signal is relevant to the first gate control signal and the control signal. |
| US09473127B1 |
Input/output (I/O) driver
An I/O driver and related method are provided herein. The I/O driver includes circuitry for expediting the configuring of the corresponding output FET to operate in the linear region to reduce delay between the transition of the input signal and the corresponding transition of the output signal. Additionally, the I/O driver includes circuitry for controlling the slew rate at which the output signal transitions from a low logic state to a high logic state, or vice-versa. Further, the I.O driver includes circuitry for turning off the turned-on output FET before turning on the other output FET. This prevents “shoot-thru” current from flowing through the output FETs to reduce power consumption associated with the I/O driver. |
| US09473126B2 |
Latch and frequency divider
A latch and a frequency divider are provided. The latch includes: a first logic unit coupled between a power supply and a ground wire, wherein the first logic unit comprises a first control terminal, a first input terminal and a first output terminal; a second logic unit having a structure symmetrical to that of the first logic unit, wherein the second logic unit comprises a second control terminal, a second input terminal and a second output terminal; and a feedforward control unit adapted for cutting off a current path in the first logic unit or the second logic unit based on signals inputted into the first input terminal and the second input terminal. Power consumption of the latch can be reduced in both static working condition and dynamic working condition. |
| US09473125B2 |
Comparator, analog-to-digital converting apparatus including the same, and analog-to-digital converting method
A comparator includes a common mode voltage sampling unit suitable for sampling a common mode voltage based on a sampling control signal; a coarse ramping voltage sampling unit suitable for sampling a coarse ramping voltage based on the sampling control signal; a preamplifier suitable for amplifying a difference between an input voltage and the sampled coarse ramping voltage to output a coarse conversion result, and amplifying a difference between a fine ramping voltage and the sampled common mode voltage to output a fine conversion result; and a signal processing unit suitable for generating the sampling control signal based on the coarse conversion result, and generating a comparison signal based on the coarse conversion result and the fine conversion result. |
| US09473123B2 |
Semiconductor circuit and method of operating the circuit
Provided is a semiconductor circuit which includes a first circuit configured to determine a voltage level of a feedback node based on a voltage level of input data, a voltage level of a latch input node, and a voltage level of a clock signal, a second circuit configured to pre-charge the latch input node based on the voltage level of the clock signal, a third circuit configured to pull down the latch input node based on the voltage level of the feedback node and the voltage level of the clock signal, a latch configured to output output data based on the voltage level of the clock signal and the voltage level of the latch input node, and a control circuit included in at least one of the first to third circuits and the latch and configured to receive the control signal. |
| US09473122B1 |
Rail-to-rail input stage circuit with constant transconductance
Embodiments described herein relate to an improved circuit technique in a rail-to-rail input stage circuit utilizing non-complementary differential pairs with bias control designed to maintain a constant transconductance “gm” throughout an input common mode voltage range. The rail-to-rail input stage circuit comprises a first differential pair circuit, a level-shifted differential pair circuit coupled with the first differential pair circuit, and a constant transconductance generation circuit coupled with the level-shifted differential pair circuit. The constant transconductance generation circuit is configured to control the bias current conducting in the level-shifted differential pair circuit based on current conducting in the first differential pair circuit to maintain a constant transconductance in the rail-to-rail input stage circuit. |
| US09473117B2 |
Multi-bit flip-flops and scan chain circuits
A multi-bit flip-flop includes a plurality of multi-bit flip-flop blocks that share a clock signal. Each of the multi-bit flip-flop blocks includes a single inverter and a plurality of flip-flops. The single inverter generates an inverted clock signal by inverting the clock signal. Each of the flip-flops includes a master latch part and a slave latch part and operates the master latch part and the slave latch part based on the clock signal and the inverted clock signal. Here, the flip-flops are triggered at rising edges of the clock signal. Thus, the multi-bit flip-flop operating as a master-slave flip-flop may minimize (or, reduce) power consumption occurring in a clock path through which the clock signal is transmitted. |
| US09473111B2 |
Sensor device
A sensor device for monitoring the environment of a vehicle includes at least two sensors, each with a signal generator, a transmitting antenna, and at least two receiving antennas, characterized in that at least one reference clock pulse generator for generating a common reference clock pulse for the signal generators of the at least two sensors is provided. |
| US09473110B2 |
Antenna resonance frequency control using an active rectifier or a driver stage
An antenna control circuit including: an H-bridge circuit including three half-bridge circuits; and a controller configured to control the H-bridge circuit; wherein a first half-bridge circuit and a second half-bridge circuit of the three half-bridge circuits are configured to electrically connect across a resonant antenna with a first resonant frequency and a second resonant frequency; wherein a third half-bridge circuit is configured to electrically connect to a first capacitance connected to the resonant antenna, wherein the controller is configured to control the third half-bridge circuit to switch the connection of the first capacitance to the resonant antenna to a first position that changes the resonant frequency of the resonant antenna to the first resonant frequency. |
| US09473109B2 |
Apparatus and methods for digital step attenuators with small output glitch
Apparatus and methods for digital step attenuators are provided herein. In certain configurations, a DSA includes a plurality of DSA stages that can be set in an attenuation mode or in a bypass mode using a plurality of switching circuits. A first switching circuit of the plurality of switching circuits includes a field effect transistor (FET) switch, a gate resistor, one or more gate resistor bypass switches, and a pulse generation circuit. The gate resistor is electrically connected between a switch control input and a gate of the FET switch, and a switch control signal can be provided to the switch control input to turn on or off the FET switch. In response to detecting a rising and/or falling edge of the switch control signal, the pulse generation circuit can control the one or more gate resistor bypass switches to bypass the gate resistor. |
| US09473107B2 |
Multimode elastic wave device
A multimode elastic wave device includes a pair of reflectors, and a first interdigital transducer (IDT) electrode through a fifth IDT electrode arranged between the pair of reflectors. In this configuration, each of the average of electrode-finger pitches in the first IDT electrode and the average of electrode-finger pitches in the fifth IDT electrode is smaller than both of the average of electrode-finger pitches in the second IDT electrode and the average of electrode-finger pitches in the fourth IDT electrode. |
| US09473103B2 |
High frequency component
A high frequency component includes transverse inductors each including a first end and a second end and capacitors including planar conductors connected to the first ends of the transverse inductors, planar conductors connected to the second ends of the transverse inductors, and insulating layers disposed between the planar conductors. Each of the transverse inductors is helical and wound at least more than one turn. |
| US09473102B2 |
Level adjusting circuit, digital sound processor, audio AMP integrated circuit, electronic apparatus and method of automatically adjusting level of audio signal
Level adjusting circuit for adjusting level of input audio signal, includes: N filters, N being integer of two or more; N dynamic range compression (DRC) circuits corresponding to N filters; adder; (N−1) band pass filters corresponding to crossover frequencies of N filters; and (N−1) gain correcting units corresponding to (N−1) band pass filters. Each filter receives and passes input audio signal through its respective set band. ith (1≦i≦N) DRC circuit amplifies signal from ith filter and adjust its gain to prevent level of its output signal from exceeding threshold level. Adder adds each of output signals of DRC circuits. jth (1≦j≦N−1) band pass filter passes band including crossover frequencies of jth and (j+1)th filters from output signal of adder. jth gain correcting unit adjusts at least one of gains of jth and (j+1)th DRC circuits based on level of output signal of jth band pass filter. |
| US09473097B2 |
Resistive ladder
A resistive ladder has first, second and third resistors coupled in series between first and second voltage terminals. A first node of the first resistor is coupled to the first voltage terminal and a first node of the third resistor is coupled to the second voltage terminal. A voltage selection unit has a first input coupled to a first node of the second resistor and a second input coupled to a second node of the second resistor and is adapted to selectively couple one of the first and second inputs to an output node of said resistive ladder. The resistive ladder also includes a first switch coupled between a second node of the third resistor and the second voltage terminal. |
| US09473096B2 |
Method and apparatus for adaptive transmit power control
Systems and methods for dynamically adjusting transmit gain in a transceiver. The gain is adjusted in order to provide the maximum gain. The amount of distortion is measured. The gain is increased until the distortion reaches a predetermined limit. The gain of several components can be adjusted independently. |
| US09473094B2 |
Automatically controlling the loudness of voice prompts
A system and method of regulating automatic speech recognition (ASR) playback of audible prompts includes: generating an audible prompt via a speaker; detecting ambient sound during the audible prompt via a microphone; obtaining a speech recognition confidence value for speech recognition performed on the ambient sound; and reducing a volume level of the audible prompt based on the speech recognition confidence value while continuing to generate the audible prompt. |
| US09473092B2 |
Reconfigurable amplifier
An amplifier receives a differential signal and, in response, generates a first negative input current and a first positive input current. In a first operating mode, the amplifier receives a second differential signal, and, in response, generates a second negative input current and a second positive input current. In a second operating mode, the amplifier receives the second differential signal, and, in response, generates a third negative input current and a third positive input current. When the device is operating in the first operating mode, the first negative input current is summed with the second negative input current and the first positive input current is summed with the second positive input current. When the device is operating in the second operating mode, the first negative input current is summed with the third negative input current and the first positive input current is summed with the third positive input current. |
| US09473088B2 |
Signal processing circuit, resolver digital converter, and multipath nested mirror amplifier
A signal processing circuit includes a chopper amplifier that has a differential amplifier circuit that amplifies differential input signals Vsp(t) and Vsm(t), and an adder circuit that generates an addition signal Vfil(t) by addition of the chopper output signal Vsub(t) that the chopper amplifier generates. Differential signals inputted into the differential amplifier circuit are interchanged for every first phase period and second phase period, and the adder circuit generates the addition signal by addition of the chopper output signal in the first phase period and in the second phase period. |
| US09473087B2 |
Class-D amplifier circuits
Methods and apparatus for Class-D amplifier circuits with improved power efficiency. The circuit has an output stage with at least first and second switches and a modulator that receives an input signal to be amplified, SIN, and a first clock signal fSW. The modulator controls the duty cycles of the first and second switches, within a switching cycle based on the input signal, wherein the switching cycle has a switching frequency based on the first clock signal. A frequency controller controls the frequency of the first clock signal in response to an indication of the amplitude of the input signal so as to provide a first switching frequency at a first input signal amplitude and a second, lower, switching frequency at a second, lower, input signal amplitude. A lower switching frequency can be tolerated at low signal amplitudes and varying the switching frequency in this way thus maintains stability whilst reducing switching power losses. |
| US09473082B2 |
Dynamic bias control
Systems and methods for controlling a power amplifier includes combining a digital modulated data signal with a digital bias signal to generate a combined digital signal, the digital bias signal generated based on an envelope for the modulated data signal; converting, by a digital-to-analog converter, the combined digital signal into a combined analog signal, the combined analog signal comprising an analog modulated data signal and an analog envelope bias signal; and separating the analog modulated data signal and the analog bias signal onto separate signal paths, wherein the converting is performed using a single digital-to-analog converter. |
| US09473078B2 |
Tunable power amplifier with wide frequency range
A circuit includes an amplifier configured to amplify an input signal and generate an output signal. The circuit also includes a tuning network configured to tune frequency response of the amplifier. The tuning network includes at least one tunable capacitor, where the at least one tunable capacitor includes at least one micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) capacitor. The amplifier could include a first die, the at least one MEMS capacitor could include a second die, and the first die and the second die could be integrated in a single package. The at least one MEMS capacitor could include a MEMS superstructure disposed over a control structure, where the control structure is configured to control the MEMS superstructure and tune the capacitance of the at least one MEMS capacitor. |
| US09473076B2 |
Linearity performance for multi-mode power amplifiers
Improved linearity performance for multi-mode power amplifiers. A power amplifier (PA) assembly can include a radio-frequency (RF) amplification path having a first stage and a second stage, with each stage including a transistor. The PA assembly can further include a biasing circuit having a first bias path between a supply node and the base of a corresponding transistor. The PA assembly can further include a linearizing circuit implemented as either or both of a second bias path and a coupling path relative to the first bias path. The second bias path can be configured to provide an additional base bias current to the base under a selected condition. The coupling path can be configured to improve linearity of the corresponding transistor operating in a first mode while allowing a ballast resistance to be sufficiently robust for the corresponding transistor operating in a second mode. |
| US09473072B2 |
Amplification device and amplification method
An amplification device includes: a first circuit configured to: split an input signal into a first signal and a second signal, and adjust the first signal so that an amplitude of the first signal is less than an amplitude of the second signal by a reduced value, a first amplifier configured to amplify the adjusted first signal, a second amplifier configured to amplify the second signal, and a second circuit configured to: determine a reflection coefficient in case where the amplified second signal is a travelling wave and the amplified first signal is a reflected wave, and determine the reduced value based on the reflection coefficient. |
| US09473069B1 |
Apparatus and methods for phase linearization and interpolation in rotary traveling wave oscillators
Apparatus and methods for phase linearization and interpolation in rotary traveling wave oscillators (RTWOs) are provided. In certain configurations, an RTWO system includes a first elongated RTWO and a second elongated RTWO that are phase-locked to one another with a non-zero phase shift. The first and second elongated RTWOs each include two elongated sections of differential transmission line of high phase linearity. For example, such long and straight sections of the differential transmission lines can have uniform capacitance loading and avoid non-uniformities in length and/or thickness associated with poor phase linearity. The RTWO system further includes tap circuitry that receives clock signal phases from the elongated sections of the RTWOs. In certain implementations, the tap circuitry includes one or more interpolation circuits that interpolate received clock signal phases to increase the number of available phases. The RTWO system can include a large number of taps of high phase linearity. |
| US09473067B2 |
Reducing mismatch caused by power/ground routing in multi-core VCO structure
Reducing coupling and mismatch in multi-core VCOs, including: arranging a plurality of inductors in a plurality of VCO cores in a parallel differential inductor configuration with shared leads to form a single node, wherein the plurality of inductors includes at least a first inductor and a second inductor; connecting power/ground traces to the first inductor from a first side only; and connecting the power/ground traces to the second inductor from another side different from the first side only to avoid making a current loop. |
| US09473065B2 |
Solar photovoltaic module clamping system
A clamping system for securing the corners of four photovoltaic modules to a carport purlin, the clamping system having upper and lower body portions with a size adjustable gap to receive the purlin therein, and a pair of rotating connectors at opposite ends of the clamp assembly, each rotating connector having arms extending from opposite sides, the arms being rotated to lock into side grooves in the photovoltaic modules. |
| US09473057B2 |
System and method for wind power dispatch in a wind farm
A system for wind power dispatch that includes a wind farm controller for controlling operation of wind turbines in a wind farm and regulating real time power output of the wind farm. The system also includes a wind power dispatch management system for computing a difference between a predefined power output and the real time power output and dispatching a transient wind farm reserve to reduce the difference or, if the transient wind farm reserve is insufficient to reduce the difference, additionally or alternatively dispatching a storage reserve to reduce the difference. |
| US09473054B2 |
Angle detection apparatus, motor driving control apparatus and angle detection method
Determining an amount of rotating a vector according to a result of comparing the rotated vector with a predetermined phase and rotating the vector according to the determined amount of rotating the vector are repeated to acquire the determined amount of rotating the vector as a rotation angle of a rotation shaft. Based on the thus acquired amount of rotating the vector, a rotation angle change signal is generated for acquiring a state of a change of the rotation angle of the rotation shaft. A signal indicating to increase or decrease a fixed amount is generated for increasing or decreasing the amount of rotating the vector according to the result of the comparison. |
| US09473053B2 |
Control system for a fastening power tool
A fastening power tool such as a nailer is provided including a tool housing, an input unit actuated in response to an operator input, and a motor assembly including a motor housed within the tool housing. A control unit is provided including a controller programmable to control an operation of the motor and a decoder circuit configured to control a supply of power from a power source to the controller based on a status of the power source and a status of the input unit. The decoder circuit is configured to connect supply of power from the power source to the controller when the power tool is coupled to the power source prior to an engagement of the input unit, but disconnect the supply of power when the power tool is coupled to the power source after the engagement of the input unit. |
| US09473043B2 |
System on chip with power switches
According to an exemplary implementation, an integrated circuit (IC) includes a logic circuit monolithically formed on the IC. The logic circuit is configured to generate modulation signals for controlling power switches of a power inverter. The logic circuit generates the modulation signals based on at least one input value. The IC further includes a voltage level shifter monolithically formed on the IC. The voltage level shifter is configured to shift the modulation signals to a voltage level suitable for driving the power switches of the power inverter. The logic circuit can be a digital logic circuit and the input value can be a digital input value. The IC can also include a sense circuit monolithically formed on the IC. The sense circuit is configured to generate the input value. |
| US09473040B2 |
Systems and methods for controlling active rectifiers
A method of controlling a rectifier includes receiving a gain factor, receiving a ramp interval, and generating a rectifier switch control voltage. The rectifier switch control voltage is an over-modulated rectifier switch control voltage generated by a pulse width modulator using the gain factor. The amount of over-modulation in the rectifier switch control voltage is decreased during the ramp interval for reducing transient voltage overshoot events at the start of active rectification. |
| US09473035B2 |
Power conversion device
A power conversion device includes a full-bridge switch circuit, a converter circuit, and a control circuit. The full-bridge switch circuit is operable to convert a direct current input voltage to a converted voltage. The converter circuit converts the converted voltage into a direct current output voltage. The converter circuit includes a resonant inductor, a transformer, a first converter switch, a second converter switch, an output inductor, and an output capacitor. The direct current output voltage is provided across the output capacitor. The control circuit controls the full-bridge switch circuit, the first converter switch and the second converter switch based on the direct current output voltage and a reference voltage. |
| US09473031B2 |
Variable feedback signal based on conduction time
A controller for a power converter includes conduction detection circuitry and a variable reference generator. The conduction detection circuitry is coupled to generate a conduction signal representative of conduction times that an input signal is above a threshold value. The variable reference generator is coupled to receive the conduction signal and configured to generate a count value in response to a first conduction time of the conduction signal. The variable reference generator is coupled to output a reference signal in response to the count value and in response to prior count values stored in the variable reference generator. |
| US09473027B2 |
Voltage regulator with hybrid adaptive voltage position and control method thereof
A voltage regulator with hybrid adaptive voltage position includes a resistor, a controllable current source, a current DAC and an error amplifier. The resistor has a first terminal coupled to the output voltage of the voltage regulator and a second terminal. The controllable current source is coupled to the second terminal of the resistor to provide a main current proportional to the output current of the voltage regulator. The current DAC is configured to receive a digital signal and the output current, and provide a tuning current to the second terminal of the resistor based on the digital signal and the output current. The error amplifier generates a compensation signal based on a reference voltage and the voltage at the second terminal of the resistor, so as to adjust the output voltage of the voltage regulator. |
| US09473021B2 |
Parallel-connected power conversion system of multi-phase generator and method of operating the same
A parallel-connected power conversion system of a multi-phase generator configured to provide a power factor correction for a multi-phase generator. The parallel-connected power conversion system includes a parallel-connected power conversion apparatus and a control unit. The parallel-connected power conversion apparatus has a plurality of power conversion units connected in parallel to each other. The parallel-connected power conversion apparatus receives a plurality of generator currents and a plurality of generator voltages generated from the multi-phase generator, and outputs a DC voltage. The control unit generates a plurality of control signals to correspondingly control the power conversion units so that the generator currents linearly follow the generator voltages, therefore the power factor correction of the multi-phase generator is achieved. |
| US09473017B2 |
Control circuit, control method used in PFC circuit and power source system thereof
A control circuit, control method used in a PFC circuit and the power source system thereof are disclosed herein. The control circuit comprises: a zero current detection circuit having a polarity detection circuit for outputting a first and a second digital signals and a signal conversion circuit for generating an analog signal; a feedback circuit for generating a driving pulse signal; and a pulse distribution circuit for distributing the driving pulse signal to a first and a second switches according to the first and the second digital signal. After a switch cycle, one of the first and the second switch performs an ON operation for the next switch cycle when the current flowing through the inductor decreases to a predetermined threshold value, wherein an ON time of the first switch is equal in each switch cycle, and an ON time of the second switch is equal in each switch cycle. |
| US09473016B2 |
Semiconductor device and power source control method
There is provided a semiconductor device including: a power source section that steps down a power source voltage to generate a step-down voltage, and that stops generation of the step-down voltage when input with a stop signal; a control section that is driven by the step-down voltage generated by the power source section, and that outputs to the power source section a stop signal to stop generation of the step-down voltage; and a power source controller that prohibits input of the stop signal to the power source section until the step-down voltage has become a predetermined value or greater. |
| US09473014B2 |
Mechanical bypass switch device, converter arm and power converter
It is provided a mechanical bypass switch device arranged to bypass a converter cell in a power converter. The mechanical bypass switch device includes: a mechanical switch; a mechanical switch actuator arranged to make the mechanical switch conduct when supplied with an electric signal; a first control input; and a second control input. The mechanical bypass switch device is arranged such that a control signal, provided on either one of the first control input and the second control input or on both of the first control input and the second control input, causes the mechanical switch to conduct. A corresponding converter arm and bypass converter are also presented. |
| US09473013B2 |
Controlling a modular converter with a plurality of converter modules
A method for controlling a modular converter with a plurality of converter modules includes: selecting possible future switching sequences of the converter based on an actual converter switching state; predicting a future current trajectory for each switching sequence based on actual internal currents and on actual internal voltages; and determining candidate sequences from the switching sequences, wherein a candidate sequence is a switching sequence with a current trajectory that respects predefined bounds with respect to a reference current or, when a predefined bound is violated, moves the current closer to such a predefined bound. The method includes predicting future module voltages for each candidate sequence; evaluating a cost function for each candidate sequence; and selecting the next converter switching state as a first converter switching state of a candidate sequence with minimal costs. |
| US09473012B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling low voltage DC/DC converter by using input current information on low voltage DC/DC converter
A low voltage DC/DC converter (LDC) control apparatus for controlling an LDC including a transformer and a PWM controller is provided. The low voltage DC/DC converter (LDC) control apparatus includes an input current calculating unit calculating an input current of the LDC by using magnetization inductance information on the transformer and effective duty information on the PWM controller; an output current calculating unit calculating the instantaneous value and average value of an output current based on the input current calculated by the input current calculating unit; and an LDC control unit generating a control signal for over current protection (OCP) or power limit based on the instantaneous value and average value of the output current calculated by the output current calculating unit, wherein the LDC control unit outputs the generated control signal to the PWM controller. |
| US09473010B2 |
Voice coil motor array module
A voice coil motor array module includes a carrier, and a plurality of voice coil motors disposed on the carrier and arranged side by side in at least one row along an arrangement direction. Each voice coil motor includes a lens holder having a holder body and a coil wound around the holder body, and two magnetic components respectively disposed on two opposite sides of the holder body and having the same magnetic poles facing each other. When the coil is energized, the coil interacts with the magnetic components to drive displacement of the holder body along a direction parallel to a normal direction of a plane of the arrangement direction. |
| US09473008B2 |
Linear vibration motor with protrusion blocking solder attaching printed circuit board to case
A linear vibration motor includes a stator part including a case having an internal space formed in the case, a bracket coupled to the case to close the internal space, and at least a magnet provided in the internal space, a vibrator part provided in the internal space, including a coil positioned so as to face the magnet and a printed circuit board having one end coupled to the bracket and the other end coupled to the coil, and an elastic member connecting the stator part and the vibrator part to each other. |
| US09473005B2 |
Stator core with a strucuture to improve assembly characteristics
Disclosed stator core for motor is comprising: more than one stator core body; a fixing unit, which is arranged at both ends of the stator core body and fixes the stator core body to be a cylindrical shape; a first insulator, which is integrally formed by mold in order to wrap a part of the stator core body and a side surface of plural teeth simultaneously; and a second insulator, which is arranged to have a form corresponding to the first insulator, and which is integrally formed by mold in order to wrap a part of the stator core body and a side surface of plural teeth simultaneously through the assembly with the first insulator, wherein the first simulator and the second simulator are separated from each other by the section wrapping the teeth during the bending process of the stator core body. |
| US09473003B2 |
Rotary electric machine for vehicle
A rotary electric machine for a vehicle is obtained in which cooling performance between phases of a coil can be improved. The rotary electric machine for a vehicle includes: a stator that is placed opposite the outer periphery face of a rotor and has a plurality of split cores; coil ends formed protruded toward the edge face in the axis direction of the cores on each of which a coil is wound; a power distribution part placed on the radial outer periphery side of the cores; and a cover for protecting the power distribution part, wherein the inner periphery of the cover is located more inside than the outermost periphery of the coil ends in the radial direction and has inclined parts inclined toward the coil ends. |
| US09472997B2 |
Resilient rotor assembly for interior permanent magnet motor
An electric motor comprises a shaft, an interior magnet rotor core comprising a central bore and a pair of opposing ends faces, and at least one resilient structure inserted within the central bore between the pair of opposing end faces. The at least one resilient component is inserted within the central bore between the pair of opposing end faces such that the at least one resilient component does not extend beyond one of the opposing end faces. The resilient component comprises an outer rigid structure inserted within the central bore, a resilient component inserted within the outer rigid structure, and an inner rigid structure inserted within the resilient component, wherein the shaft is inserted through the inner rigid structure. |
| US09472992B2 |
Electric motor support structure and power equipment unit incorporating same
An outdoor power equipment unit such as a string trimmer, and an electric motor support structure for use with the same. The structure may form a cage that surrounds the motor and secures the motor in place relative to an outermost shell of a motor housing of the string trimmer. The cage may electrically and/or thermally insulate the outermost shell from the motor. |
| US09472990B2 |
Systems and methods for insulating Y-points of three phase electric motors
Systems and methods for insulating the Y-points of three-phase electric motors commonly used in ESP systems, in which the Y-points are not grounded or tied to a reference voltage, and may consequently experience high voltages. One embodiment is an apparatus for insulating the Y-point of the motor using an electrically insulating enclosure. The enclosure has apertures that extend from a cavity therewithin the to the exterior of the enclosure. The cavity accommodates the Y-point of the motor. The conductors which are connected at the Y-point junction extend from the cavity to the coils of the three-phase motor, and possibly to an instrument package. Seals are formed at the apertures to provide an electrically insulating barrier between the Y-point and the exterior of the enclosure. The cavity may be filled with an insulating material such as potting compound or oil. |
| US09472987B1 |
Induction motor stator windings
Induction motor stator windings are described. An electric submersible pump apparatus comprises an induction motor rotatably coupled to a multi-stage centrifugal pump, the induction motor comprising a stator frame, the stator frame comprising a plurality of slots, and a squircle-shaped magnet wire windingly inserted into the plurality of slots, the magnet wire comprising a conductor comprising a squircular-shaped cross-sectional area, and an insulation layer coating an outer surface of the squircular-shaped conductor. |
| US09472985B2 |
Rotor yoke with circumferential recess portions and motor applying rotor yoke
A rotor yoke includes plural rotor cores having a disk shape laminated to be formed in a cylindrical shape, plural magnet inserting holes each including a longitudinal side and a transverse side, penetrated in a laminating direction of the rotor yoke, a bridge portion arranged between the magnet inserting holes adjacent to one another in a circumferential direction of the rotor cores and connecting an inner area to an outer area, a recessed portion arranged at the bridge portion and formed from the outer circumferential surface of the rotor cores toward radially inward and a protruding edge protruding toward an inside of the magnet inserting hole. |
| US09472984B2 |
Rotor for rotating electric machine
A rotor includes a rotation shaft having a rotation axis; a rotator core fixed to the rotation shaft and having an axial end face and an outer circumference face; an end plate covering the axial end face of the rotator core; and a magnet cover covering the outer circumference face of the rotator core. The magnet cover has a first end portion adjacent to the end plate and a second end portion which is opposite to the first end portion in an axial direction. The first end portion of the magnet cover covers entire outer periphery edge of the end plate. The first end portion of the magnet cover is bent toward the rotation axis in entire outer periphery edge of the magnet cover. |
| US09472979B2 |
Power tool having multiple battery packs
A power tool operable to receive a first battery pack and a second battery pack. The power tool including a motor; a first switch; a second switch; and a controller. The controller operable to monitor a first voltage of the first battery pack and a second voltage of the second battery pack, close the first switch and the second switch when the first voltage and the second voltage are within a predetermined range, open the first switch when the first voltage is outside of the predetermined range of the second voltage and the second voltage is greater than the first voltage, and open the second switch when the second voltage is outside of the predetermined range of the first voltage and the first voltage is greater than the second voltage. |
| US09472976B2 |
Storage battery device and charging control method
Provided is a storage battery device whose battery life can be prolonged further. Storage battery device having a plurality of storage battery cells connected in series includes monitoring unit that measures voltages via the terminals of the respective storage battery cells, and obtains degradation information indicating the degraded states of the plurality of storage battery cells based on the voltages, selection unit that selects at least one of the plurality of storage battery cells, power supply unit that supplies power to the storage battery cell selected by selection unit to charge the storage battery cell, and control unit that switches, based on the degradation information obtained by monitoring unit, a storage battery cell to be selected by selection unit, and adjusts the power supplied from power supply unit. |
| US09472974B2 |
Wireless power feeding system and wireless power feeding method
An object is to provide a power feeding system and a power feeding method which are more convenient for a power feeding user at the power receiving end. An object is to provide a power feeding system and a power feeding method which also allow a power feeding provider (a company) which feeds power (at the power transmitting end) to supply power without waste. A power feeding device which wirelessly supplies power to a power receiver detects the position and the resonant frequency of the power receiver to be supplied with power, and controls the frequency of a power signal to be transmitted to the power receiver on the basis of the information. An efficient power feeding service can be offered by transmitting a power signal to the power receiver at an optimum frequency for high power transmission efficiency. |
| US09472970B2 |
Battery life time management
A method for managing the lifetime of a battery is disclosed herein. An ambient temperature is measured near a battery. A discharge of the battery is triggered when the ambient temperature exceeds a first temperature threshold. The battery can then be charged when the ambient temperature decreases below a second temperature threshold. |
| US09472965B2 |
Battery cycle life through smart overnight charging
A rechargeable mobile terminal is provided that provides a maximum charge rate of a rechargeable battery during active user hours of the day and provides the potential for applying a decreased charge rate of the rechargeable battery when the mobile terminal determines that the user has set the alarm clock function of the mobile terminal and that the time between the present time and the set alarm time (the delta time) is greater than an amount of time required to charge the rechargeable battery at a maximum charge rate. |
| US09472963B2 |
Device for wireless charging having a plurality of wireless charging protocols
A receiver device configured to connect to a chargeable device, including an inductive region including at least one receiver coil for receiving magnetic flux from an inductive charging system. Additionally the receiver device includes a conductive region having contacts for receiving wireless electric power from a conductive charging system. In addition, the receiver device includes a connector for transferring wireless power received from the inductive or conductive charging system to the chargeable device in order to charge the chargeable device. |
| US09472962B2 |
Method for battery management and diagnosis
Method for managing a battery comprising several accumulators that can be linked in series or in parallel, comprising a charging or discharging phase during which the accumulators are disposed in series, characterized in that it thereafter comprises a balancing phase comprising the placing of the accumulators in parallel, during which an electrical quantity Gmin representing the balancing of the accumulator that has attained the maximum voltage during the charging phase or minimum voltage during the discharging phase is measured or estimated, and during which an electrical quantity Gi representing the balancing of another accumulator i of the battery is also measured or estimated, and in that the state of health SOHi of this other accumulator i is computed on the basis of the two electrical quantities Gmin and Gi and on the basis of the knowledge of the performance of the accumulator i at the start of life. |
| US09472961B2 |
Method of forming a balancing circuit for a plurality of battery cells and structure therefor
In one embodiment, a method of forming a balancing circuit for a plurality of battery cells includes configuring the balancing circuit to selectively pre-charge a transfer element from a power source, and to subsequently selectively couple the transfer element to one battery cell of the plurality of battery cells to transfer energy from the transfer element to the one battery cell. |
| US09472960B2 |
Regulating device, battery assembly device and regulating method
A regulating device includes: a generating means for generating an output voltage from an input voltage; a plurality of first switches, respectively corresponding to the plural storage battery units connected in parallel, with each of said first switches interposed between the corresponding storage battery unit and the input side of the generating means; a plurality of second switches, respectively corresponding to the plural storage battery units, with each of said second switches interposed between the corresponding storage battery unit and the output side of the generating means; a detecting means for detecting the voltage of each of the plural storage battery units; and, a control means that, referring to the result of detection from the detecting means, identifies first storage battery units whose voltages are higher than the average value of voltage of the plural storage battery units and second storage battery units whose voltages are lower than the average value, from the plural storage battery units, and turns on the first control switches corresponding to the first storage battery units from among the plural first switches and the second control switches corresponding to the second storage battery units from among the second switches. |
| US09472947B2 |
Protecting circuit and integrated circuit
A protecting circuit includes: a discharge switch configured to connect to a first terminal and a second terminal; a trigger circuit comprising load devices configured to be connected in series between the first terminal and the second terminal, each of the load devices being configured to consume power; and a shunt circuit comprising, between the trigger circuit and the first terminal or the second terminal, at least one shunt pathway configured to be capable of bypassing at least one of the load devices. The trigger circuit is configured to turn on the discharge switch when a voltage between the first terminal and the second terminal is higher than a first voltage value, and the shunt circuit is configured to electrically connect the shunt pathway when the voltage is higher than a second voltage value that is greater than the first voltage value. |
| US09472943B2 |
Offline power converter and the method thereof
An offline power converter provides low EMI and quick reaction by slowly turning off a power switch at normal operation, and fast turning off the power switch when surge event happens. |
| US09472942B2 |
Current sensor, and power conversion apparatus
A current sensor and so forth are provided capable of detecting an overcurrent of a wiring line and disconnecting the wiring line while reducing layout space and cost. A current detection part detecting a current flowing through the wiring line, a disconnection mechanism disconnecting the wiring line, and a drive circuit driving the disconnection mechanism are included in the same housing. A current detection circuit included in the current detection part and the drive circuit are placed on the same substrate. |
| US09472939B1 |
Remote display
A remote display system including a portable display that wirelessly receives data and power from a primary station. The primary station, which is remote from and without a tangible connection with the portable display, includes a data transmitting element and a power transmitting element. The portable display includes a power receiving element that receives power wirelessly from the power transmitting element and a data receiving element operable to receive data from the data transmitting element. |
| US09472932B2 |
Electrical enclosure cord stowage system
An electrical enclosure cord stowage system for effectively stowing a cable within an electrical enclosure. The electrical enclosure cord stowage system generally includes a base adapted to support at least one electrical component, a cover adapted to selectively enclose the at least one electrical component with respect to the base, and a receiver opening within the base, wherein the receiver opening is adapted to receive at least a portion of a power cable and/or power connector. |
| US09472931B2 |
Seal structure for wire harness
Sealing ability with respect to a shield pipe is ensured. A wire harness is inserted in the inside of a shield pipe and a braid portion, and furthermore, a corrugated tube is disposed on the outer side of the braid portion. A sealing grommet is disposed to extend across a connecting portion between the shield pipe and the braid portion. A seal member made of rubber is pushed into an end portion of the shield pipe. A wire insertion hole in which a conductive wire of the wire harness is inserted penetrates the seal member, and a wire insertion path is formed in an outer circumferential surface of the seal member toward the wire insertion hole. Thus, the conductive wire can be inserted into the wire insertion hole from a radial direction. |
| US09472924B2 |
Integrated power delivery system for printed circuit boards
An integrated DC power delivery system for PCBs is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a compliant mechanical coupling assembly. The system further includes a power distribution interface having power planes configured to receive the DC power via the complaint mechanical coupling assembly upon securing the compliant mechanical coupling to the power distribution interface to provide the needed mechanical support. |
| US09472921B2 |
Split voltage supply configuration with matched input load for single ended drivers
An optical transmitter driver is disclosed to drive a load with a drive signal responsive to a first and second input signal. The differential pair includes a first path having a first resistor connected to a first voltage supply and to a first transistor that receives the first input signal. A second path includes a second resistor connected to a second voltage supply and a second transistor. The first voltage supply is less than the second voltage supply. The second transistor has an input configured to receive the second input signal and the first and second input signals define a differential signal. Also part of this embodiment is a load connection node that presents the drive signal to the load. The first voltage supply is less than the second voltage supply. In one configuration cross coupled capacitor are connect between each input and the first path and second path. |
| US09472920B2 |
Generating two synchronized trains of laser pulses
A method and system generates two synchronized trains of laser pulses at different wavelengths, wherein the two pulse trains are temporally synchronized and have a stable phase relation, and wherein the wavelength of one of the pulse trains is de-tunable. The method includes the steps of: generating a train of ultra-short seed laser pulses; splitting the train of seed laser pulses into a first pulse train and a second pulse train; and frequency-shifting the first pulse train by soliton self-frequency shift in an optically pumped waveguide having anomalous dispersion, wherein the spectrum of the frequency-shifted first pulse train is de-tunable by varying the pump power. |
| US09472916B2 |
Distal connector assemblies for medical lead extensions
Distal connector assemblies that are on the distal end of medical lead extensions provide increased rigidity by including a rigid holder that contains the electrical connectors. The electrical connectors are separated within the rigid holder by insulative spacers that may be individual items or may be formed from a compliant carrier that the electrical connectors may reside within where the carrier is positioned within the rigid holder. The rigid holder may also contain a set screw block defining set screw bore or the rigid holder may include an integral portion that defines a set screw bore. The integral portion may include a slot to allow a molding pin loaded with the electrical connectors and other components to be dropped into a cavity of the rigid holder. An overmold may be present to surround the rigid body containing the electrical connectors and insulative spacers. |
| US09472911B2 |
Flippable electrical connector with concentric inner and outer mating ports
A plug connector is mateable with the receptacle connector wherein each of the plug connector and the receptacle connector includes an inner mating port surrounded by an outer mating port in a concentric manner. The inner mating port is equipped with two rows of contacts arranged in a diagonally symmetrical manner. The outer mating port is equipped with larger power contacts symmetrically arranged with a center of the inner mating port. |
| US09472910B2 |
Flippable electrical connector
An electrical connector assembly includes a receptacle connector and a flippable pug connector for connecting with a cable. The receptacle connector includes a terminal module assembly defining a mating tongue loading with two rows of contacts on opposing surface of the mating tongue and a metallic shell retained on the terminal module assembly and enclosing the mating tongue, thereby defining a mating cavity between the metallic shell and the mating tongue. The plug connector includes an insulating housing defining a center slot with side walls and two rows of contacts on the side walls and a metallic shell attached to an outer periphery of the insulating housing. The mating cavity of the receptacle connector is configured to be symmetrical to a horizontal center line without orientation limits so as to allow the plug connector to be mated in two opposite orientations, and the center slot receives the mating tongue. |
| US09472908B2 |
Electrical plug and receptacle assembly with interlock mechanism
A plug and receptacle assembly including a housing, an actuating mechanism for manipulating a switch to ON and OFF positions, a plug receptacle adapted to receive a plug, a link driving member attached to the actuating mechanism, a link member adapted to move laterally when the switch is moved to the ON position, a link blocking member movable from a position where lateral movement of the link member is blocked to a position where lateral movement of the link member is allowed, wherein upon insertion of the plug into the plug receptacle, a notch on the plug causes the link blocking member to move into the unblocked position where the actuating mechanism is movable to have the link driving member laterally move the link member and to turn the switch from the OFF position to the ON position. |
| US09472906B2 |
Control device for a vehicle heater
A control device for a vehicle heater includes a circuit assembly unit (12) with a plurality of external contacts (24), an external receptacle (30) for receiving an external plug (42) for establishing an electrical contact with the external contacts (24) for connecting the control device (10) to a vehicle wiring system, as well as a circuit assembly unit housing (18) surrounding the circuit assembly unit (12) with an external receptacle tunnel (52) surrounding at least partially the external receptacle (30). |
| US09472905B2 |
Electric connector and cable connector assembly
The present invention discloses an electric connector and a cable connector assembly. The electric connector comprises: an insulative housing, a front end of the insulative housing being provided with a first terminal groove and a second terminal groove, a top portion and a bottom portion at a rear end of the insulative housing being respectively provided with a first barrier and a second barrier, a first receiving groove being formed between the first barrier and the second barrier; and a printed circuit board received in a clamping space. According to the present invention, the printed circuit board may be clamped on a rear end of the insulative housing. |
| US09472903B2 |
Grip member
A grip member in one aspect of the present invention comprises a base portion and one or more pairs of grip portions. Of one and the other of the pair of grip portions, the one grip portion comprises a first spring portion and a second spring portion. The other grip portion comprises a third spring portion and a fourth spring portion. The second and fourth spring portions can grip the shield case by holding the shield case therebetween. The second and fourth spring portions are in contact with the shield case at different positions in regard to at least a direction orthogonal to the joint surface when the second and fourth spring portions grip the shield case. |
| US09472900B1 |
Electrical connector having resonance control
An electrical connector includes a housing having a first end and a second end. The housing has a mating slot formed between the first and second ends configured to receive a mating connector having contact pads. A contact array is received in the housing. The contact array includes ground contacts and signal contacts interspersed between corresponding ground contacts. The ground contacts include attachment portions thereon. At least one lossy ground absorber is received in the housing and is coupled to at least one corresponding ground contact. Each lossy ground absorber includes at least one opening. The at least one opening receives the attachment portion of the corresponding ground contact. |
| US09472893B1 |
Connector
A connector including a housing which formed with a work opening in an outer surface on a side of an outer corner of the L-like bent shape of the housing, further includes a lid attached to the work opening, a fixed terminal configured to be inserted through the external-wire leading portion and accommodated in the housing, and a flexible conductor connecting the terminal to one end of the fixed terminal and including an external-force absorbing portion sagging between both ends of the flexible conductor. The other end of the fixed terminal is connected to a conductor of the external wire, and an intermediate portion of the fixed terminal is fixed to the housing and elongates along the axis of the external wire. |
| US09472881B2 |
Hermaphroditic interconnect system
An electrical interconnect system employs electrical connectors in which the contacts are identical for both the male and the female side of the connection. Contacts are arranged in a linear header and multiple header pairs are arranged in a dielectric matrix or grid. The grid is an external dielectric frame capable of providing load bearing and geometry requirements. This arrangement results in a cost-effective construction that features very high electrical bandwidth capabilities and an extremely rugged product. |
| US09472875B2 |
Wire-to-board connector
Provided is a wire-to-board connector including a plug attached to a wire, and a receptacle mounted on a circuit board. The plug and the receptacle are formed of metal. The plug is fitted into the receptacle to electrically connect the wire to the circuit board. The receptacle has an accommodating portion formed in a tubular shape. The plug has an inserted portion to be inserted into the accommodating portion of the receptacle. The inserted portion includes a body plate and an elastic piece elastically supported in a cantilevered manner by the body plate. The elastic piece of the inserted portion has a free end. The accommodating portion has an engaged portion. When the inserted portion is inserted into the accommodating portion, the free end engages with the engaged portion along with an elastic deformation of the elastic piece, thereby allowing the plug to be fitted into the receptacle. |
| US09472872B2 |
Electrical harness
An electrical harness is formed from a flexible printed circuit board which provides a plurality of conductive tracks. The harness has one or more harness connectors at respective terminating regions of the flexible printed circuit board for joining the harness to complementary connectors. The or each harness connector includes a back-shell and one or more elongate terminals which are supported at a position within the back-shell such that, in use, when the harness connector joins with a complementary connector, the elongate terminals are presented for electrical connect at first ends thereof with mating terminals of the complementary connector. The or each terminating region of the harness has one or more receiving holes extending to respective conductive tracks of the harness. |
| US09472868B2 |
Permanent ground point for splicing connectors
A permanent ground point for a splicing connector is provided. The ground point is comprised of a ground rod that is permanently attached to a port on the splicing connector. A grounding clamp may then be attached to the ground point after the system is de-energized in order to provide a safe connection to system ground. |
| US09472867B2 |
Electric contact and electric component socket
Provided is an electric contact with a stable electric resistance value. An insertion rod portion passing through a coil spring is provided on a first contact member, and a cylindrical portion in which a part of the insertion rod portion passing through the coil spring is provided on a second contact member. A tilt mechanism tilts the second contact member to bring the insertion rod portion into contact with the cylindrical portion. This can stabilize the electric resistance value. A reduced diameter portion in which the diameter decreases with an increase in the distance from the cylindrical portion is formed at least near a tip of the insertion rod portion. This can suppress changes in the contact pressure of the cylindrical portion and the insertion rod portion to make expansion and contraction operation smooth. |
| US09472865B2 |
Screw connecting electrical conductors with a shearable screw
A shearable screw (20) of device (1) screw-connects electrical connectors (2, 4). The device has a thread section (22) for screwing the shearable screw (20) into a terminal body (10). The thread section (22) has a thread with an asymmetrical thread profile at least in certain sections, in particular, in that the thread section (22) has a saw thread at least in certain sections. A system (40) has such shearable screw (20) and a thrust element (30). |
| US09472860B1 |
Antenna array and method for fabrication of antenna array
A method for fabricating a radar array assembly comprises providing a mounting plate including first mounting holes and second mounting holes, at least some of the second mounting holes being between at least some of the first mounting holes. Grooved posts having longitudinal grooves are installed within the first mounting holes, and panel sections of antenna elements are disposed within the longitudinal grooves of adjacent installed grooved posts. Each of the antenna elements further includes a connector section that is disposed within the second mounting holes. |
| US09472856B2 |
Antenna
A compact antenna that includes a power feeding waveguide, a sub reflection mirror, and a main reflection mirror. Radio waves comprised of a vertical polarized wave and a horizontal polarized wave are transmitted to the power feeding waveguide. The sub reflection mirror is disposed to face an opening of the power feeding waveguide and reflects the radio wave radiated from the opening. The main reflection mirror is disposed to face the sub reflection mirror and outwardly radiates the radio wave reflected by the sub reflection mirror. A front surface of the main reflection mirror has a shape formed by rotating a line reaching one side and the other side of a predetermined parabola curve at least once, around a rotational axis. A front surface of the sub reflection mirror has a shape formed by rotating either one of a stepped line and a wavy line around the rotational axis. |
| US09472854B2 |
Antenna having planar conducting elements, one of which has a plurality of electromagnetic radiators and an open slot
An antenna includes a dielectric material having i) a first side opposite a second side, and ii) a conductive via therein. A first planar conducting element is on the first side of the dielectric material and has an electrical connection to the conductive via. A second planar conducting element is also on the first side of the dielectric material. A gap electrically isolates the first and second planar conducting elements from each other. An electrical microstrip feed line on the second side of the dielectric material electrically connects to the conductive via and has a route that extends from the conductive via, to across the gap, to under the second planar conducting element. The first planar conducting element has a plurality of electromagnetic radiators, each having dimensions that cause it to resonate over a range of frequencies that differs from a range of frequencies over which an adjacent radiator resonates. At least first and second of the radiators bound an open slot in the first planar conducting element. The open slot has an orientation perpendicular to the gap. |
| US09472852B2 |
Integrated MIMO antenna system
An integrated MIMO antenna system is described wherein multiple antennas are fabricated on a single substrate. Antenna spacing and alignment is enhanced and controlled to a finer degree than with conventional discrete antenna fabrication techniques. Rotation of one or multiple antennas in relation to the other antennas in the system can be performed to within the accuracy of current photo-etching techniques. Metalized traces can be designed and etched on the single substrate and positioned between antenna elements to enhance inter-element isolation. The integrated MIMO antenna system can be fabricated on flexible printed circuit (FPC) material, or can be fabricated on rigid metallized substrate such as common FR4 materials. Portions of one or multiple antenna elements can be photo-etched on opposite sides of the substrate to provide an additional degree of freedom in terms of antenna placement, spacing, and rotation angle. |
| US09472850B2 |
Antenna apparatus
An antenna apparatus is provided. A control unit adjusts an adjustment voltage outputted to a parasitic ground antenna unit according to a first voltage generated by a sensing unit and a second voltage generated by a frequency detecting unit. |
| US09472842B2 |
Low-profile, antenna structure for an RFID reader and method of making the antenna structure
An antenna structure, especially for use with a radio frequency identification reader, includes an array of bifilar antennas mounted on a ground support. Each bifilar antenna includes a pair of bifilar helical elements wound at least partially about a helix axis. Each bifilar element has a ground terminal and a transceiver terminal. Independent radio frequency connectors are connected to the transceiver terminals of each bifilar antenna, and transmit and receive radio frequency signals of arbitrary amplitude and phase to and from the transceiver terminals of each bifilar antenna to obtain and steer an antenna beam, both in azimuth around a boresight of the antenna structure and in elevation angularly away from the boresight. |
| US09472840B2 |
Dielectric waveguide comprised of a core, a cladding surrounding the core and cylindrical shape conductive rings surrounding the cladding
A dielectric waveguide (DWG) has a dielectric core member that has a length L and an oblong cross section. The core member has a first dielectric constant value. A dielectric cladding surrounds the dielectric core member; the cladding has a second dielectric constant value that is lower than the first dielectric constant. A conductive shield layer surrounds a portion of the dielectric cladding. |
| US09472839B2 |
High-frequency transmission line and electronic device
A high-frequency transmission line includes a laminate including dielectric layers, a first signal line provided on one of the dielectric layers, a second signal line crossing the first signal line when viewed in a plan view in a direction of lamination, the second signal line being positioned on the same dielectric layer as the first signal line except for a crossing portion that crosses with the first signal line, and an intermediate ground conductor provided between the first and second signal lines in the direction of lamination, so as to overlap with crossing portions of the first and second signal lines when viewed in a plan view in the direction of lamination. |
| US09472838B2 |
Absorptive electromagnetic slow wave structures
Electromagnetic slow wave structures (SWS) comprised of arrays of conductive obstacles are formed inside conductive parallel-plate waveguides These SWS may be formed using, for example, MEMS manufacturing processes at the wafer level on substrates including ceramic and silicon. An effective relative permittivity in the range of 15 to 40 may be obtained at millimeterwave frequencies. The SWS can be made absorptive by incorporating resistive losses in a plate of the PPW. Applications of these slow wave structures include delay lines and bootlace lens beamformers for microwave and millimeterwave antenna systems. |
| US09472836B2 |
Waveguide E-plane filter structure
A waveguide E-plane filter component comprising a first main part and a second main part which in turn comprise a corresponding first and second waveguide section part. The main parts are arranged to be mounted to each other, each waveguide section part comprising a bottom wall, corresponding side walls and an open side, where the open sides are arranged to face each other. The waveguide E-plane filter component further comprises at least one electrically conducting foil that is arranged to be placed between the main parts, said foil comprising a filter part that is arranged to run between the waveguide section parts, the filter part comprising apertures, in said foil. |
| US09472831B2 |
Lithium-2-methoxy-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro-ethanesulfonate and use thereof as conductive salt in lithium-based energy accumulators
The invention relates to lithium-2-methoxy-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro-ethanesulfonate, to the use thereof as conductive salt in lithium-based energy accumulators, and ionic liquids comprising 2-methoxy-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro-ethanesulfonate as an anion. |
| US09472830B2 |
Lithium secondary battery having improved lifespan characteristics
Disclosed is a lithium secondary battery having improved lifespan characteristics. More particularly, a lithium secondary battery comprising a cathode, an anode, a separator interposed between the cathode and anode, and an electrolyte, wherein the anode comprises lithium titanium oxide (LTO) as an anode active material, the electrolyte comprises a lithium salt; a non-aqueous-based solvent; and (a) a phosphate compound which can prevent gas generation during high-temperature storage, (b) a sulfonate compound which can reduce discharge resistance by forming a low-resistance SEI layer, or a mixture of the compound (a) and the compound (b), is disclosed. |
| US09472826B2 |
Thin film battery structure and manufacturing method thereof
A thin film battery structure includes a substrate, a first current collector layer, a first electrode layer array, an electrolyte layer, a second electrode layer, and a second current collector layer. The first current collector layer is disposed on the substrate and has at least one first current collector bump. The first electrode layer array has at least one first electrode layer, where each first electrode layer is disposed on the first current collector layer, and at least one first current collector bump is embedded inside each first electrode layer. Each first electrode layer is embedded inside the electrolyte layer. The second electrode layer is disposed on the electrolyte layer. The second current collector layer is disposed on the second electrode layer. |
| US09472815B2 |
Separator for fuel cell and method for manufacturing the same
A separator for a fuel cell and a method for manufacturing the same comprise two sheets of metal plates integrally formed to minimize contact resistance between an upper metal plate and a lower metal plate. The method for manufacturing the separator includes steps of preparing an upper metal plate and a lower metal plate, each plate having opposing main sides, and applying a coating liquid containing a polymer composite material on both sides of the upper and lower metal plates, to form first and second composite material layers on both sides of the upper plates and third and fourth composite material layers on both sides of the lower plates. The method further includes stacking the upper metal plate on the lower metal plate, before drying the respective composite material layers, and integrally bonding the second composite material layer and the third composite material layer to form a single intermediate composite material layer. |
| US09472812B2 |
Electric energy cell
An electrical cell and method for generating electrical power are disclosed for producing electrical energy from a gas such as hydrogen and isotopes thereof. The electrical cell comprises an ionizing material located within an interior volume of a housing for absorbing the gas and separating ions and electrons. An electron collector receives electrons generated by the ionizing material. An insulator material within the housing inhibits electrons from entering into an ion collector while allowing the gas and the ions to pass to the ion collector for generating electrical voltage between the electron collector and the ion collector. |
| US09472808B2 |
Method for manufacturing a functional layer for a lithium cell
In a method for manufacturing a functional layer for a lithium cell, e.g., a protective layer for a lithium metal anode, the functional layer being lithium-ion conductive and including particles of at least one ceramic material, the particles of the at least one ceramic material being applied to a carrier by deposition. |
| US09472806B2 |
Polymer, electrode for lithium batteries including the polymer, and lithium battery including the electrode
A polymer including a first repeating unit represented by Formula 1 and a second repeating unit including a substituted or unsubstituted C2-C30 alkenyl group: wherein, in Formula 1, groups R, R′, A, A′, Y, and Y′ are defined in the specification. |
| US09472801B2 |
Battery overcharge protection device
A battery overcharge protection device includes a pouch having a battery cell packaged therein. An electrode tab extends from an end of the battery cell for allowing flow of electricity therethrough and is composed of first and second electrode tab parts. A breaker is provided in the pouch and connected to the first and second electrode tab parts to separate the first and second electrode tab parts from each other upon expansion of the battery cell. |
| US09472796B2 |
Stacked secondary battery with separator between electrodes
The present invention relates to a stacked secondary battery that includes a laminated body, the laminated body including: a first electrode (10) in which a first electrode active material (12) is applied to both surfaces of a sheet-shaped collector (11), the first electrode having a first region (11a) to which the first electrode active material has been applied and a second region (11b) to which the first electrode active material has not been applied; a second electrode (20) in which a second electrode active material (22) different in polarity from the first electrode active material is applied to both surfaces (21) of a sheet-shaped collector; and a porous separator (30), the first and second electrodes being stacked via the porous separator, the first and second electrodes being stacked via the porous separator. In the stacked secondary battery, there were problems that the active material is shed from the first electrode or the second electrode and passes through the separator, and thus a short circuit between the electrodes occurs during use. The present invention solves the above problems by folding a portion (31) of the porous separator of the stacked secondary battery that faces the second region (11b) of the first electrode and the region (22) of the second electrode, to which the second electrode active material has been applied, into a plurality of layers. |
| US09472795B2 |
Cylindrical lithium-ion cell
A cylindrical lithium ion battery in which an electrode group formed by winding a positive electrode and a negative electrode is housed in a battery case is disclosed. A sealing plate seals an opening of the battery case. An insulating plate having a plurality of openings is provided on a side of the electrode group closer to the sealing plate. The plurality of openings include a first hole with a largest opening area, and a plurality of second holes with opening areas smaller than the opening area of the first hole. An opening ratio of the first hole is 12% or more and 40% or less; a sum of opening ratios of the second holes is 0.3% or more and 10% or less; and a total opening ratio of all the openings is 20% or more and 50% or less. |
| US09472794B1 |
Battery module housing assembly
A battery module housing assembly including an interior housing wall having a tapered housing interior edge acutely angled relative to the vertical, a frame having a tapered frame edge also acutely angled relative to the vertical and aligned and positioned for longitudinal contact with the tapered housing interior edge. During assembly, the tapered frame edge longitudinally contacts and slides against the tapered housing interior edge and guides the frame and battery cell therein to a fixed position against the interior housing wall. |
| US09472793B2 |
Battery pack
Provided is a battery pack having easily attachable and detachable battery modules, in which a plurality of battery modules are inserted, respectively, into receiving parts formed in a sub pack case, such that electrode terminals of the battery modules are coupled to a terminal stand formed at one side of the sub pack case to thereby be electrically connected to each other, and a sub pack case cover formed at the other side of the sub pack case is closed to fix the battery modules. |
| US09472787B2 |
Fabrication apparatus for fabricating a patterned layer
The invention relates to a fabrication apparatus for fabricating a patterned layer (18) on a substrate (14). Protective material (17) is applied in second regions on the substrate (14) and liquid layer material (18) is then printed in first regions being different to the second regions on the substrate (14). The layer material (18) is dried by heating the layer material (18) to a drying temperature being smaller than a melting temperature of the protective material (17), before removing the protective material (17) from the substrate (14) by using a removing temperature being larger than the melting temperature of the protective material (17). A patterned layer (18) can therefore be produced, without using, for example, a costly photolithography process, and because of the use of the protective material (17) the layer material (18) is present in the desired first regions only and not in the second regions. This improves the quality of the patterned layer, which may be used for producing an OLED. |
| US09472785B2 |
Organic light-emitting diode
An organic light-emitting device includes a first electrode; a second electrode; an organic layer between the first electrode and the second electrode; and a light efficiency-improvement layer disposed on the first electrode or the second electrode. The light efficiency-improvement layer includes a heterocyclic compound represented by Formula 1, which is described in more detail in the detailed description section of the present application. |
| US09472784B2 |
Packaging structure for OLED having inorganic and organic films with moisture absorbent layers
The present invention provides a film packaging structure for an OLED, an OLED device, and a display apparatus. The film packaging structure for an OLED is an OLED film packaging structure, which includes a flexible film for packaging an OLED unit. The flexible film includes at least one layer of inorganic film, and at least one layer of organic film which is alternately stacked with the at least one layer of inorganic film. Each layer of organic film in the at least one layer of organic film is an integral film, and each layer of inorganic film in the at least one layer of inorganic film includes a plurality of non-connected inorganic film segments. The display apparatus includes the OLED device. The OLED film packaging structure, the OLED device and the display apparatus utilize inorganic films and organic films which are alternately stacked with the inorganic films. |
| US09472782B2 |
Display device and method of driving a display device
Write in of lower significant bits of a digital video signal to a memory is eliminated by a memory controller of a signal control circuit in a display device during a second display mode in which the number of gray scales is reduced, as compared to a first display mode. Further, read out of the lower significant bits of the digital video signal from the memory is also eliminated. The amount of information of digital image signals input to a source signal line driver circuit is reduced. Corresponding to this operation, a display controller functions to make start pulses and clock pulses input to each driver circuit have a lower frequency, and write in periods and display periods of sub-frame periods participating in display are set longer. |
| US09472781B2 |
Organic optoelectronic element including diffusion channels
Various embodiments may relate to a method for producing an optoelectronic component. The method may include providing an optoelectronic component comprising a dielectric layer on or above an electrically conductive layer, wherein the dielectric layer is designed for sealing the electrically conductive layer substantially hermetically impermeably with regard to water, wherein the dielectric layer has diffusion channels, and closely closing the dielectric layer, wherein at least some of the diffusion channels in the dielectric layer are closed. |
| US09472779B2 |
Flexible display having a crack suppressing layer
A flexible display may suppress a generation of cracks in an inorganic layer and suppress the spread of cracks. A flexible display includes a flexible substrate and an inorganic layer formed on the flexible substrate. A display unit is formed on the inorganic layer. The display unit includes a plurality of pixels. Each pixel includes an organic light emitting diode. A thin film encapsulation layer covers the display unit. A crack suppressing layer is formed along the edge of the flexible substrate. The crack suppressing layer is disposed on the inorganic layer at an exterior side of the thin film encapsulation layer. |
| US09472778B2 |
Display apparatus and the sealing method thereof
This disclosure provides a display apparatus and the sealing method thereof. The display apparatus includes: a substrate having a displaying region and a non-displaying region surrounding the displaying region; and a frit disposed on the non-displaying region to form a closed loop which surrounds the displaying region and has both a start portion and an end portion not overlapping each other; wherein a first light beam is applied to the frit to sinter it along the loop in a first direction, and a second light beam is applied to the frit to sinter it along the loop in a second direction, starting at the start portion and ending up at the end portion; wherein, the second direction is different from the first direction. |
| US09472773B1 |
Stacked carbon nanotube multiple threshold device
A device structure including a gate structure containing a first layer of carbon nanotubes and a second layer of carbon nanotubes. The first and the second layers are stacked vertically. The first and the second layers have carbon nanotubes which have substantially homogeneous electric characteristics within each layer. The carbon nanotubes in the first layer have different electric characteristics than the carbon nanotubes in the second layer, so that the device structure exhibits a multiple threshold behavior when coupled to a voltage source. The disclosure also includes a method for fabricating a multithreshold device structure. |
| US09472772B2 |
Display device
An active device substrate includes a flexible substrate, an inorganic de-bonding layer, and at least one active device. The flexible substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, wherein the first surface is a flat surface. The inorganic de-bonding layer covers the first surface of the flexible substrate, and the material of the inorganic de-bonding layer is metal, metal oxide or combination thereof. The active device is disposed on or above the second surface of the flexible substrate. |
| US09472771B2 |
Method of making axially fluorinated-phthalocyanines with an aprotic fluoride compound
Disclosed is a method of making axially fluorinated metal phthalocyanines and their use in photovoltaic applications. |
| US09472770B2 |
Compound for hole-transport and organic light-emitting device using the same
A compound for preparing a hole transport layer, an organic light-emitting device, and a flat display apparatus, the compound including a —N3 moiety. |
| US09472767B2 |
Organic light-emitting device and method of manufacturing the same
An organic light-emitting device and a method of manufacturing the same. The organic light-emitting device includes a substrate, a first electrode formed on the substrate, a second electrode, an emission layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, a hole transport layer between the first electrode and the emission layer, and an electron transport layer between the second electrode and the emission layer. The hole transport layer includes a first hole transport unit comprising: a first hole transport layer comprising a hole transporting material, a third hole transport layer formed on the first hole transport layer and comprising a charge generating material; and a fifth hole transport layer formed on the third hole transport layer and comprising the hole transporting material. |
| US09472766B2 |
Fused polycyclic compound and organic light emitting element including the same
The present invention provides a novel fused polycyclic compound suitably used for a blue light emitting element and an organic light emitting element including the fused polycyclic compound.A fused polycyclic compound is represented by at least one of the general formulas [1] and [2] according to claim 1. In the general formulas [1] and [2], R1 to R20 each represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent. |
| US09472765B2 |
Organic photovoltaic devices comprising fullerenes and derivatives thereof
Photovoltaic cells comprising an active layer comprising, as p-type material, conjugated polymers such as polythiophene and regioregular polythiophene, and as n-type material at least one fullerene derivative. The fullerene derivative can be C60, C70, or C84. The fullerene also can be functionalized with indene groups. Improved efficiency can be achieved. |
| US09472758B2 |
High endurance non-volatile storage
The manufacturing of the non-volatile storage system includes depositing one or more layers of reversible resistance-switching material for a non-volatile storage element. Prior to operation, either during manufacturing or afterwards, a forming operation is performed. In one embodiment, the forming operation includes applying a forming voltage to the one or more layers of reversible resistance-switching material to form a first region that includes a resistor and a second region that can reversibly change resistance at a low current, the resistor is formed in response to the forming condition and is not deposited on the device. In some embodiments, programming the non-volatile storage element includes applying a programming voltage that increases in voltage over time at low current but does not exceed the final forming voltage. |
| US09472757B2 |
Method of making a resistive random access memory device
The disclosed technology generally relates to the field of semiconductor processing and more particularly to resistive random access memory and methods for manufacturing such memory. In one aspect, a method of fabricating a memory cell includes providing a substrate and providing a first electrode on the substrate. The method additionally includes depositing, via atomic layer deposition, a resistive switching material on the first electrode, wherein the resistive switching material comprises an oxide comprising a pnictogen chosen from the group consisting of As, Bi, Sb, and P. The resistive switching material may be doped, e.g., with Sb or an antimony-metal alloy. A second electrode may be formed over and in contact with the resistive switching material. |
| US09472756B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device
According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile memory device includes a first electrode, a second electrode, a variable resistance layer. The variable resistance layer is provided between the first electrode and the second electrode. The variable resistance layer contains impurity of a nonmetallic element. The impurity is at least one selected from the group consisting of S, Se, Te, F, Cl, Br, and I. |
| US09472754B2 |
In-situ annealing to improve the tunneling magneto-resistance of magnetic tunnel junctions
Embodiments are directed to a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) memory cell that includes a reference layer formed from a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) reference layer and an interfacial reference layer. The MTJ further includes a free layer and a tunnel barrier positioned between the interfacial reference layer and the free layer. The tunnel barrier is configured to enable electrons to tunnel through the tunnel barrier between the interfacial reference layer and the free layer. A first in-situ alignment is provided between a tunnel barrier lattice structure of the tunnel barrier and an interfacial reference layer lattice structure of the interfacial reference layer. A second in-situ alignment is provided between the tunnel barrier lattice structure of the tunnel barrier and a free layer lattice structure of the free layer. The PMA reference layer lattice structure is not aligned with the interfacial reference layer lattice structure. |
| US09472753B1 |
Method for fabricating MRAM bits on a tight pitch
A method for fabricating magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) devices on a tight pitch is provided. The method generally includes etching a pattern of columns into a hardmask layer disposed on a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) disposed on a substrate having electrically conductive contacts, the MTJ comprising a tunnel barrier layer between first and second ferromagnetic layers, the pattern of columns aligned to the electrically conductive contacts; etching the first ferromagnetic layer to expose the tunnel barrier layer and to form columns comprising the hardmask layer and the first ferromagnetic layer; forming a passivation layer on the exposed tunnel barrier layer and on top side surfaces of the columns; and etching the passivation layer on the exposed tunnel barrier layer, the exposed tunnel barrier layer, and the second ferromagnetic layer to form columns comprising the hardmask layer, the first ferromagnetic layer, the tunnel barrier layer, and the second ferromagnetic layer. |
| US09472747B2 |
Ultrasonic transducer driving circuit and ultrasonic image display apparatus
An ultrasonic transducer driving circuit configured to supply an output current and/or an output voltage to an output line for driving an ultrasonic transducer is provided. The ultrasonic transducer driving circuit includes a first current discharge circuit configured to allow a current arising from electric charges accumulated in the ultrasonic transducer to flow from the output line to ground when the output line is at a positive voltage, and a second current discharge circuit configured to allow the current arising from the electric charges accumulated in the ultrasonic transducer to flow from ground to the output line when the output line is at a negative voltage. The first current discharge circuit and the second current discharge circuit are controlled based on the output current and/or the output voltage. |
| US09472745B2 |
CVD nanocrystalline silicon as thermoelectric material
A process for forming a doped nc-Si thin film thermoelectric material. A nc-Si thin film is slowly deposited on a substrate, either by hot-wire CVD (HWCVD) with a controlled H2:SiH4 ratio R=6-10 or by plasma-enhanced (PECVD) with a controlled R=80-100, followed by ion implantation of an n- or p-type dopant and a final annealing step to activate the implanted dopants and to remove amorphous regions. A doped nc-Si thin film thermoelectric material so formed has both a controllable grain size of from a few tens of nm to 3 nm and a controllable dopant distribution and thus can be configured to provide a thermoelectric material having predetermined desired thermal and/or electrical properties. A final annealing step is used to activate the dopants and remove any residual amorphous regions. |
| US09472744B2 |
System for thermoelectric energy generation
A system includes a first plate and a second plate. The first plate is arranged to be thermally coupled to a first surface and the second plate is arranged to be thermally coupled to an environment. The environment has a temperature that is different than the first surface. The system also includes a thermoelectric device that includes a plurality of thermoelectric elements. The thermoelectric device includes a third plate coupled to the plurality of thermoelectric elements and thermally coupled to the first plate. The thermoelectric device also includes a fourth plate coupled to the plurality of thermoelectric elements and thermally coupled to the second plate. The system also includes a dielectric fluid arranged between the first plate and the second plate. The thermoelectric elements are submersed in the dielectric fluid. |
| US09472741B2 |
Semiconductor light-emitting device
A semiconductor light-emitting device includes a substrate; a first cladding layer formed on the substrate; a first guide layer formed on the first cladding layer; an active layer formed on the first guide layer; a second guide layer formed on the active layer; a contact layer formed on the second guide layer; a cladding electrode formed on the contact layer, and made of conductive metal oxide; and a pad electrode electrically coupled to the cladding electrode. The semiconductor light-emitting device includes a mesa structure including the contact layer. The cladding electrode has a greater width than the mesa structure. The cladding electrode covers an upper surface and side surfaces of the mesa structure, and is electrically coupled to the contact layer. |
| US09472738B2 |
Light emitting member having a wiring board with through hole exposing a light emitting semiconductor element with a light reflecting member covering a peripheral wall portion of the through hole
A light emitting device includes a heat dissipation board, a wiring board that is bonded and fixed to the heat dissipation board and formed with a through-hole, a semiconductor light emitting element that is mounted on a face of the heat dissipation board, the face being exposed through the through-hole of the wiring board, and a light reflecting member that covers a portion of an inner peripheral wall surface of the through-hole of the wiring board, the portion being squarely opposed to a side surface of the semiconductor light emitting element. |
| US09472737B2 |
Light emitting device and method of manufacturing same
A light-emitting device includes a substrate; a light-emitting element mounted on the substrate; a first light-transmissive member bonded to an upper surface of the light-emitting element via an adhesive; and a second light-transmissive member placed on an upper surface of the first light-transmissive member. In a plan view of the light-emitting device, a peripheral edge of a lower surface of the first light-transmissive member is positioned more inward than a peripheral edge of the upper surface of the light-emitting element. The adhesive extends from the upper surface of the light-emitting element to a lower surface of the second light-transmissive member, the adhesive covers a side surface of the first light-transmissive member, and the adhesive is separated from the substrate. |
| US09472735B2 |
Light-emitting device
A light-emitting device includes a package and at least one light-emitting element. The package includes a concave portion which has a bottom surface. The bottom surface includes sides, package distances between opposite sides among the sides, a longest package distance among the package distances, a lower side among the sides, and an upper side among the sides opposite to the lower side. The at least one light-emitting element is arranged on the bottom surface of the concave portion and has a polygonal shape viewed along a front direction. The polygonal shape has light-emitting element distances between vertexes of the polygonal shape and has a longest light-emitting element distance among the light-emitting element distances. The at least one light-emitting element is arranged such that a light-emitting element lateral line along the longest light-emitting element distance is substantially parallel to a package lateral line along the longest package distance. |
| US09472731B2 |
Phosphor-containing resin molded body, light emitting device, and resin pellet
A phosphor-containing resin molded body and a wavelength conversion member, in each of which one or more kinds of spherical phosphors represented by (AxByCz)3C5O12 (wherein A represents one or more rare earth elements selected from among Y, Gd and Lu; B represents one or more rare earth elements selected from among Ce, Nd and Tb; C represents Al and/or Ga; and x, y and z respectively represent positive numbers satisfying 0.002≦y≦0.2, 0 |
| US09472730B2 |
Light emitting device
A light emitting device includes a light emitting element and a luminescent color conversion layer covering a light emitting surface of the light emitting element. The luminescent color conversion layer includes a transparent synthetic resin material and integrated particles provided inside the transparent synthetic resin material, each of the integrated particles being a mixture of phosphors and a dispersively binding material that are bonded to each other. The dispersively binding material has transparency and bondability to the phosphors. The luminescent color conversion layer is arranged such that primary light and secondary light are mixed to generate a mixed color light and such that the mixed-color light is emitted outside from the luminescent color conversion layer, the primary light being excitation light emitted by the light emitting element, and the secondary light being a portion of the primary light that has been is color-converted by an excitation of the phosphors. |
| US09472728B2 |
Light emitting device package and lighting apparatus including the package
A light emitting device package includes a package body, and a light emitting device chip provided on a chip mount area of the package body. A molding member is provided on the package body. The package body includes a central area having the chip mount area and a chip non-mount area adjacent to the chip mount area. An upper surface of the light emitting device chip is higher than an upper surface of the package body in the chip non-mount area and an upper surface of the package body in the peripheral area. |
| US09472726B2 |
Integrated LED light-emitting device and fabrication method thereof
An integrated LED light-emitting device includes: at least two mutually-isolated LED light-emitting epitaxial units having an upper and a lower surface, in which, the upper surface is a light-emitting surface; an electrode pad layer over the lower surface of the LED light-emitting epitaxial unit, with sufficient thickness for supporting the LED epitaxial unit and connecting to each LED light-emitting epitaxial unit to form a connection circuit plane with no height difference; and the electrode pad layer is divided into a P electrode region and an N electrode region. The LED light-emitting epitaxial units constitute a series, parallel or series-parallel circuit. Embodiments disclosed herein can effectively improve the problems of package welding, electrode shading and poor wiring stability. |
| US09472722B1 |
Light emitting device package and manufacturing method thereof
A light emitting device (LED) package and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The LED package includes an LED including a first electrode pad and a second electrode pad disposed on one surface thereof; a bonding insulating pattern layer configured to expose the first electrode pad and the second electrode pad; a substrate including a via hole bored from a first surface to a second surface and a wiring metal layer formed on an inner surface of the via hole to extend to a part of the second surface; and a bonding metal pattern layer bonded to the wiring metal layer exposed through the via hole at the first surface of the substrate and also bonded to the first electrode pad and the second electrode pad. |
| US09472718B2 |
Semiconductor light-emitting element comprising an insulating reflection layer including plural opening portions
A semiconductor light-emitting element includes: a laminated semiconductor layer in which an n-type semiconductor layer, a light-emitting layer and a p-type semiconductor layer are laminated; a transparent conductive layer laminated on the p-type semiconductor layer of the laminated semiconductor layer and composed of a metal oxide having optical transparency to light emitted from the light-emitting layer; an insulating reflation layer laminated on the transparent conductive layer in which plural opening portions are provided to expose part of the transparent conductive layer; a metal reflection layer formed on the insulating reflection layer and inside the opening portions and composed of a metal containing aluminum; and a metal contact layer provided between the part of the transparent conductive layer exposed at the opening portion and the part of the metal reflection layer formed inside the opening portion, which contains an element selected from Group VIA and Group VIII of a periodic table. |
| US09472717B2 |
Methods for making water soluble quantum dots
A novel quantum dot containing two different metals at non-toxic levels which is capable of narrow bandwidth near infrared emissions at wavelengths of 600-1100 nm. The quantum dot is fabricated via an aqueous method which forms a structure having an inner region of one composition and an outer region of a different composition, wherein the inner region contains at least a first metal and the outer region contains at least a second metal. The quantum dots may be enabled for bioconjugation and may be used in a method for tissue imaging and analyte detection. |
| US09472713B2 |
Semiconductor light-emitting device
An embodiment has an emission layer, a first electrode having a reflective metal layer, an insulating layer, first and second conductivity type layers, and a second electrode. The insulating layer is provided on the first electrode and has an opening where a portion of the first electrode is provided. The first conductivity type layer is provided between the insulating layer and the emission layer and has bandgap energy larger than that of the emission layer. The second conductivity type layer is provided on the emission layer and has a current diffusion layer and a second contact layer. The second contact layer is not superimposed on the opening of the insulating layer, and a thickness of the current diffusion layer is larger than that of the first contact layer. The second electrode has a pad portion and a thin portion extends from the pad portion onto the second contact layer. |
| US09472704B2 |
Radiation detector and medical diagnostic system
A radiation detector is disclosed, including a plurality of detector elements arranged adjacent to one another in a planar manner. In an embodiment, for the purpose of radiation detection, a semiconductor layer with an upper side and a lower side is present, the semiconductor layer on one of the sides including an electrode embodied so as to extend across a number of detector elements and electrodes subdivided into individual electrodes being arranged on the other side of the semiconductor layer so that by applying voltage between the electrodes of the two sides, an electrical field is generatable and each individual electrode is assigned an effective volume so as to collect charge in the semiconductor layer. In an embodiment, the individual electrodes are alternately connected to at least two different voltage potentials. Furthermore, a medical diagnostic system is disclosed, including at least one such radiation detector. |
| US09472703B2 |
Monolithic integration of heterojunction solar cells
A method for fabricating a device with integrated photovoltaic cells includes supporting a semiconductor substrate on a first handle substrate and doping the semiconductor substrate to form doped alternating regions with opposite conductivity. A doped layer is formed over a first side the semiconductor substrate. A conductive material is patterned over the doped layer to form conductive islands such that the conductive islands are aligned with the alternating regions to define a plurality of photovoltaic cells connected in series on a monolithic structure. |
| US09472702B1 |
Photovoltaic cell with nano-patterned substrate
A photovoltaic solar cell comprises a nano-patterned substrate layer. A plurality of nano-windows are etched into an intermediate substrate layer to form the nano-patterned substrate layer. The nano-patterned substrate layer is positioned between an n-type semiconductor layer composed of an n-type semiconductor material and a p-type semiconductor layer composed of a p-type semiconductor material. Semiconductor material accumulates in the plurality of nano-windows, causing a plurality of heterojunctions to form between the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer. |
| US09472701B2 |
Systems and methods for wiring solar panel arrays
A solar power system may include a combiner module, one or more rows of solar panels connected to the combiner module, and one or more wiring circuits connecting the one or more rows of solar panels to the combiner module. Each circuit may include an inter-module wiring arrangement that connects individual solar panels to each other in series, and a return wiring arrangement that connects the inter-module wiring arrangement to the combiner module. Each inter-module wiring arrangement may be arranged such that at least some solar panels are wired to other solar panels in the same row in a substantially alternating manner, such that non-adjacent solar panels in the same row are wired directly in series to each other. This arrangement may reduce the total length of harness wires needed to connect the one or more panel rows to the combiner box, as compared with conventional wiring schemes. |
| US09472697B2 |
Photodetector with surface plasmon resonance
Methods and structures for providing single-color or multi-color photo-detectors leveraging plasmon resonance for performance benefits. In one example, a radiation detector includes a semiconductor absorber layer having a first electrical conductivity type and an energy bandgap responsive to radiation in a first spectral region, a semiconductor collector layer coupled to the absorber layer and having a second electrical conductivity type, and a plasmonic resonator coupled to the collector layer and having a periodic structure including a plurality of features arranged in a regularly repeating pattern. |
| US09472692B2 |
Process of fabrication of electronic devices and electronic device with a double encapsulation ring
An integrated circuit chip is mounted on top of a base wafer, and a protection wafer is mounted on top of the integrated circuit chip. An encapsulation block is formed around the integrated circuit chip and the protection wafer and on a peripheral part of the front face of the base wafer. The encapsulation block includes a first encapsulation ring arranged around the integrated circuit chip and the protection wafer, having an annular beading protruding with respect to the front face of the protection wafer and forming a peripheral groove (24) recessed with respect to this protruding annular beading. A second encapsulation ring of the encapsulation block fills the peripheral groove of the first encapsulation ring. |
| US09472691B2 |
Device for shunting current from photovoltaic circuit near the open circuit voltage and/or disconnecting solar module of a solar system
Devices for reducing the open circuit voltages of solar systems are described. In one embodiment, a solar system includes a string of a plurality of solar modules having an open circuit voltage. The solar system also includes a device for reducing the open circuit voltage of the string of the plurality of solar modules during an open circuit configuration. |
| US09472688B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device according to the present invention includes a semiconductor layer, a trench formed selectively in an obverse surface portion of the semiconductor layer and defining a unit cell of predetermined shape in the obverse surface portion, a second conductivity type layer formed to conform to a portion or an entirety of an inner surface of the trench, an obverse surface layer of a first conductivity type formed so as to be exposed from an obverse surface of the semiconductor layer in the unit cell, a reverse surface layer of the first conductivity type formed so as to be exposed from a reverse surface of the semiconductor layer, a drift layer of the first conductivity type formed between the obverse surface layer and the reverse surface layer of the semiconductor layer and being of lower concentration than the obverse surface layer and the reverse surface layer, a first electrode contacting the obverse surface layer and forming an ohmic contact with the obverse surface layer, and a second electrode contacting the reverse surface layer and forming an ohmic contact with the reverse surface layer. |