| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09710839B2 |
System for embedding maps within retail store search results and method of using same
A system and method includes receiving a search query for a product to be located in a retail store, performing a search on a plurality of products records corresponding to a plurality of products located in the retail store, identifying one or more of the product records relevant to the product in the search query, obtaining a store map, the store map being indicative of a layout of the retail store, transmitting a representation of the store map and the one or more product records identified as one or more search results, and providing the one or more search results as a list to a mobile device, each of the one or more search results being associated with a physical location of the product in the retail store, and present the store map overlaid with an icon on a graphical display of the mobile device, wherein the store map represents the retail store and the icon is positioned overlaid on the map to designate a physical location of a corresponding one or more of the list of search results for the retail store. |
| US09710838B2 |
Building of computing system in accordance with predictive build based on marginal cost acceptablity
Features to include within a predictive build of a computing system are selected. The predictive build is an anticipated final build of the computing system prior to receiving a firm customer order for the computing system in accordance with which an actual final build of the computing system is then built. A marginal cost of first building the predictive build and then modifying the predictive build to realize the actual final build, as compared to building the actual final build without first building the predictive build and then modifying predictive build to realize the actual final build, is estimated based on the features selected. Responsive to determining that the marginal cost is less than a predetermined acceptable marginal cost limit, the predictive build is built prior to receiving the firm customer order, and then is modified to realize the actual final build upon receiving the firm customer order. |
| US09710831B2 |
Carried-forward service units and commoditization thereof
Methods, systems, and products roll over unused credits. An available number of service units is provided during a billing cycle. The number of service units consumed during the billing cycle is compared to the available number of service units. When service units remain at an end of the billing cycle, then unused service units are rolled over to another billing cycle. |
| US09710829B1 |
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for analyzing social media with trained intelligent systems to enhance direct marketing opportunities
Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufactures for analyzing user generated content items in social media networks with trained intelligent systems to create or enhance direct marketing opportunities. The method or the system monitors user generated content items in social media networks and identifies a relevant user generated content item that may be materialized into a direct marketing opportunity. The method or system further performs language processing on the relevant user generated content item and uses the processing results to prepare a response which is subsequently transmitted to the user to materialize the direct marketing opportunity. The method or system uses various intelligent logic processes or modules that may be further enhanced by machine learning techniques with human expert reviews and intervention to improve their respective accuracy, reliability, or confidence level. |
| US09710826B1 |
System and method of advertising a plurality of varied multimedia content
The present invention relates generally to a system and method of providing for the displaying of third-party multimedia advertising content and controlling the review of at least one multimedia content file using an interactive advertising application program configured for use on a mobile device. The application program is configured for scanning an encoded image framed by an interactive frame with at least one embedded hyperlink or icon within, which activates the at least one embedded hyperlink or icon, and upon activation, the at least one encoded image with an icon may be used for accessing and controlling the review of the at least one multimedia content file. However, prior to the displaying of the at least one multimedia content file, the third-party multimedia advertising content may be displayed, thereby allowing for a revenue generating for all third-party multimedia advertising content displayed. |
| US09710824B1 |
Method to introduce purchase opportunities into digital media and/or streams
A method for using metadata in digital media or streams to offer goods and/or services for sale including defining and promoting a specification for embedding goods and/or services offerings in programming digital media or digital streams and providing an application programming interface (API) to facilitate building a custom checkout user interface on a digital media playing device. The method also includes receiving, at a server or service via the custom checkout user interface, at least one of consumer orders for offered goods and/or services and requests to place offered goods and/or services on a consumers' list. |
| US09710820B1 |
Systems and modules for improving patient satisfaction
Systems, modules, and methods set forth herein may allow patient satisfaction to be improved. One system for improving patient satisfaction includes computer readable media, an output device, a processor in data communication with the computer readable media and the output device, and electronic instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform steps for: (a) automatically storing event data from a plurality of electronic devices in the computer readable media; (b) storing perception data obtained from a plurality of patients in the computer readable media; (c) accessing the event data; (d) accessing the perception data; (e) determining at least one correlation between the event data and the perception data; (f) determining at least one proposal to improve patient satisfaction based on the at least one correlation; and (g) actuating the output device to convey the at least one proposal to improve patient satisfaction. |
| US09710816B2 |
Method and system of measuring customer satisfaction with purchased vehicle
A method of measuring customer satisfaction with a product. The method may assess customer satisfaction from information collected after purchasing the product. This post-purchase information may be collected, for example, by monitoring customer expressions made while interacting with the product. Optionally, the settings and operating conditions of the product may be separately monitored and cross-referenced with the customer expressions to tie the expressions with specific characteristics of the product. |
| US09710814B2 |
Customer management system
A system and method are disclosed for scoring an interaction over one or more channels by an end user and an entity by monitoring the communications over the channels and assigning penalties and scores based on topics associated with the communications. |
| US09710810B2 |
Systems and methods for performing funds freeze and/or funds seizure with respect to prepaid payment cards
Systems, mechanisms and processes are provided to allow law-enforcement officials, when encountering the potential use of prepaid payment cards in the furtherance of a crime or in relation to criminal activities, to (1) attempt to check the balances on such prepaid payment cards, including the ability to perform aggregate balance checks on a group of such prepaid cards, (2) attempt to freeze the funds on such prepaid payment cards, and/or (3) attempt to seize the funds on such prepaid payment cards. |
| US09710809B2 |
Method and system for license server synchronization
A method and system for license server synchronization are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving a first capability request from a licensing server, transmitting a first capability response to the licensing server. The licensing server provides a second capability response to a device, and the second capability response is in response to a second capability request sent by the device to the licensing server. The second capability response includes one or more capabilities included in the first capability response. A server synchronization message is received from the licensing server and a request for payment is transmitted to a service provider, wherein the request for payment is generated based on the server synchronization message. |
| US09710807B2 |
Third-party value added wallet features and interfaces apparatuses, methods and systems
The THIRD-PARTY VALUE ADDED WALLET FEATURES AND INTERFACES APPARATUSES, METHODS, AND SYSTEMS (“VAW”) facilitates allowing a third party service provider to integrate with an electronic wallet to provide a value-added service to a wallet consumer. The VAW may also be configured to facilitate the creation and funding of pre-paid accounts in a consumer's virtual wallet. |
| US09710806B2 |
Systems and methods for electronic payment instrument repository
Systems and methods that receive one or more images and based at least in part on the received images, identify information associated with a payment instrument. The information associated with the payment instrument may be stored in a payment instrument repository, such as an electronic wallet (eWallet), associated with a user. The eWallet may be accessed by the user to add, delete, or modify payment instruments and associated information in the eWallet. The eWallet may further be used by the use to initiate a financial transaction using one or more of the payment instruments associated with the eWallet. |
| US09710805B2 |
Prepaid wallet for merchants
A system including a memory storing user account information with a payment provider associated with specific merchants, and a method for use of the system are provided. The system includes one or more processors in communication with the memory and adapted to: receive login information from a user from a merchant website; access an account of the user with the payment provider; cause information for the account of the user to be displayed on the merchant website; and process a payment to the merchant from the account of the user. |
| US09710803B2 |
Mobile terminal, security server and payment method thereof
A mobile terminal is provided. The mobile terminal includes a short-range communicator, a security server and a payment method thereof, the mobile terminal including a short-range communicator which exchanges data by a predetermined short-range technology, a payment processor which performs a payment process corresponding to a preset standard in response to a user's request for payment, and a secure world which communicates with the payment processor, extracts secure information from data and stores the data therein and masks the secure information from the outside. Thus, the secure data may be masked at the time of communication with the outside. |
| US09710802B2 |
Merchant competition alert
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and method for determining the products involved in a transaction, and transmitting messages containing product specific data. Systems may be implemented to product identifiers during payment processing. The messages may be sent including product identifiers, and further information regarding the products associated with the product identifiers. |
| US09710799B2 |
Redemption network with transaction sequencer
A transaction sequencer that comprises a processor, a non-transitory memory, and an application stored in the non-transitory memory. The application receives a message comprising information about a first purchase item, wherein the message was created by a point-of-sale after a filtering step that assured that the first purchase item is associated with a master approved item list, searches a plurality of different approved product lists using the information about the first item, wherein the plurality of different approved product lists comprise a first approved product list and a second approved product list, creates a first transaction based on finding the first item in the first approved product list, transmits the first transaction to a first transaction processing system, receives a first response from the first transaction processing system, bundles the first response in a unified response, and transmits the unified response. |
| US09710797B2 |
Email-based e-commerce
An email payment gateway having electronic commerce (e-commerce) system may send advertisement emails to customers that are registered with the e-commerce system. The advertisement emails may include mailto hyperlinks. Each mailto hyperlink may be associated with a product that is being offered for sale, and each mailto hyperlink describes an email message that may be generated when that hyperlink is selected. When a mailto hyperlink is selected, the generated email message may include one or more parameters related to the product associated with the hyperlink, such as an identifier of the product. The generated email message may then be transmitted to the e-commerce system. The e-commerce system may receive the message and, based on the parameters in the received message, execute a transaction to purchase the identified product on behalf of the customer. |
| US09710794B2 |
Application of dynamic tokens
A method assigns token requirements to service subscriptions in a service platform, such as a service platform containing entities or a database containing a plurality of said entities. The operator of the service platform establishes customization factors and maintains records reserving data services associated with token requirements for delivery to entities. In addition, customization factors are determined from values representing information associated with objects in a database. Token requirements associated with data services are calculated from one or more formulas utilizing customization factors. Sponsorships associated with the entities can be accepted by the service platform. The service platform can apply credit toward the fulfillment of token requirements. An entity can be provided a data service based on a relationship with a sponsorship such that an entity assigned a subscription having a token requirement fulfilled as a result of applying credit from a sponsorship will receive services related to the subscription. |
| US09710793B2 |
Associating a meeting room with a meeting
Arrangements described relate to associating a meeting room with a meeting. A meeting invitation being accessed by a first recipient can be identified, wherein the meeting invitation is sent to a plurality of recipients. A location associated with the first recipient of the meeting invitation can be identified, and whether the location associated with the first recipient is similar to a location associated with a sender of the meeting invitation can be determined. Responsive to determining that the location associated with the first recipient is not similar to the location associated with a sender of the meeting invitation, the first recipient can be prompted to reserve a meeting room at the location associated with the first recipient. Responsive to receiving from the first recipient an indication of the meeting room being reserved, an association between the meeting and the meeting room can be created. |
| US09710790B2 |
Model-assisted evaluation and intelligent interview feedback
A method for facilitating the evaluation of candidates in an evaluation process is provided. The method includes operations of selecting a first data set including ratings of recorded responses of a set of evaluated persons and of selecting a second data set including additional recorded responses of a person under evaluation. The recorded responses are responsive to multiple prompts presented to each of the set evaluated persons in a recording sequence. The first data set further includes an evaluation result of each evaluated person in the evaluation. The additional recorded responses are responsive to the plurality of prompts and ordered in a first order corresponding to a recording sequence. The method includes analyzing the first data set to calculate a reviewing sequence and presenting the additional recorded responses in a second order corresponding to the reviewing sequence. Associated systems and other methods are also provided. |
| US09710789B2 |
Multi-dimension analyzer for organizational personnel
An organizational chart view can include a plurality of icons each representing a person in an organization that are arranged to reflect a hierarchical organizational structure of the organization. A received first user input can include designation of two or more of the plurality of icons as part of a selected population, and a received second user input can include a selection of an analytical view to be applied to the selected population. The organizational chart view can be morphed to the selected analytical view, for example by generating animation effects to translate the plurality of icons in the selected population to form the selected analytical view. |
| US09710787B2 |
Systems and methods for representing, diagnosing, and recommending interaction sequences
Systems and methods for representing and diagnosing interaction sequences in accordance embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In one embodiment of the invention, a group interaction diagnosis and recommendation server system includes a processor and a memory configured to store a set of reference interaction data, where the reference interaction data includes a set of reference interaction sequences, wherein a group interaction diagnosis application configures the processor to obtain a set of group interaction data, generate an interaction model based on the group interaction data and an interaction dynamics language, determine at least one interaction sequence within the set of group interaction data based on the generated interaction model, identify at least one matching interaction sequence within the determined at least one interaction sequence, and recommend at least one improved interaction sequence based on the identified at least one matching interaction sequence and the set of reference interaction data. |
| US09710786B2 |
Systems and methods for managing documents for law firms
The present inventors devised unique systems, methods, interfaces, and software for managing and leveraging knowledge in law firms and potentially other enterprises. For example, one system provides a single user interface for researching case law for online legal research service and identifying and accessing law-firm documents. |
| US09710785B2 |
Trusted sources with personal sustainability for an organization
A system and method for developing trust in an organization supported tracking system by ensuring that resources in a resource library are collected from trusted sources, and encouraging and tracking participation in organization supported activities designed to achieve a long term goal of the organization. Resources may be submitted by organization members and ranked according to multiple factors including the trustworthiness of the source, the relevance of the resource to the long term goal, or the response of the organization members to the resource. Participation may be encouraged through friendly competition, awards granted for participation, and publication of member accomplishments. Tracking may be facilitated by allowing members to create initiatives and actions related to the long term goal which members may follow and join and then tracking and verifying member participation in those initiatives and actions. |
| US09710783B1 |
System for tire storage, retrieval, and inventory management
A storage array includes one or more tiers including a plurality of roller pairs and at least one motor for spinning each roller pair. Plates are positioned between each roller pair. A horizontal nudge is positioned above each plate moves tires horizontally within the storage array. A tire is moved longitudinally within the storage array by causing a roller pair bearing the tire to spin followed by lifting the plate below the tire, thereby causing the tire to roll forward or backward within the storage array. The storage array may be coupled to a distribution system including a plurality of channels including a planar or concave bottom surface over which tires roll and vertical sidewalls extending upwardly from the bottom surface. Accelerators, brakes, junctions, and elevators may be positioned in channels in order to control movement of tires through the distribution system. |
| US09710777B1 |
Systems and methods involving features of terminal operation including user interface and/or other features
Systems and methods are disclosed for processing information related to a terminal operating system. In one exemplary implantation, there is provided a method for providing information of terminal operating system management. The method may include processing information related to an input to manage the terminal operating system management. Other exemplary implementations may include processing to generate a result such that an output of a result of the managed terminal operating system management functionality is produced. |
| US09710776B1 |
Overlay bag tag
An overlay bag tag is configured to cover an old bag tag that is attached to a bag of a passenger, with the overlay bag tag including an original bag tag number of the old bag tag and an updated bag route. The overlay bag tag is used to reroute the bag according to the updated bag route when there is a change in a passenger route of the passenger after the bag is checked in with the airlines so that the bag travels with the passenger. If the bag cannot travel with the passenger, the system reroutes the bags to the final destination of the passenger. |
| US09710775B2 |
System and method for optimizing risk during a software release
This disclosure relates generally to software release management, and more particularly to a system and method for optimizing risk during a software release. In one embodiment, a method is provided for determining a risk associated with a release of a software product. The method comprises gathering a plurality of parameters related to the software product, determining a plurality of complexity levels based on the plurality of parameters, determining a stability of the software product based on a stability of a baseline software product, determining an overall complexity level of the release of the software product based on the plurality of complexity levels and the stability of the software product, and determining the risk associated with the release of the software product based on the overall complexity level. |
| US09710774B2 |
Configuration of embedded intelligence
A system for configuration of embedded intelligence comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to associate a prompt of an embedded intelligence applet with an exposed field of a process. The memory is coupled to the processor and is configured to provide the processor with instructions. The memory is configured to store the process definition. |
| US09710771B2 |
Real-time crop processing management
A real-time crop processing management system is disclosed. In one embodiment, a yield description of a load of harvested crop and a location of the load of harvested crop is received at a computer system. An indication of the capacity to process the load of harvested crop by a receiving facility is also received by the computer system. A message conveying a delivery assignment for the load of harvested crop is then generated by the computer system. |
| US09710766B2 |
Identifying field development opportunities for increasing recovery efficiency of petroleum reservoirs
Performing a Recovery Design Assessment™ (RDA™) for a petroleum producing field provides a novel indicator and metric that is designed to assess how to improve recovery efficiency of a petroleum producing field. A combination of global benchmark analysis and reservoir management assessment is utilized to identify areas of reservoir management that can be improved to increase recovery efficiency. Global benchmark analysis can include comparing a recovery efficiency for a petroleum reservoir to that of other benchmark petroleum reservoirs to indicate if alterations to recovery design or developments plans or reservoir management optimizations are to be pursued. Management of the petroleum reservoir is assessed to identify recovery obstacles potentially reducing recovery efficiency. Development opportunities for overcoming recover obstacles can be implemented to increase recovery efficiency. |
| US09710764B1 |
Data mining technique with position labeling
Roughly described, individuals in both a training system and in a production system include a label field in their rule outputs. Positions entered by an individual are maintained in a status record for the individual, including the label output by the rule which triggered entry of that position. Rules that assert exiting or partial exiting of a position also output the label from the rule which triggered the assertion, and are effective only so far as matching positions exist or remain in the individual's status record, including a matching label. Labels present in the status record also can be referenced in conditions of a rule. During evolution, a rule's output label is subject to crossover and/or mutation just like the conditions and output assertions. |
| US09710762B2 |
Dynamic logging
In general, techniques are described for dynamically modifying the extent of logging performed by logging information generators in response to events detected in logging information received by the collector. In some examples, a network device includes one or more processors and a collector executed by the processors to receive a log message that includes logging information from a generator. The network device also includes a rules engine to apply one or more rules that each specify a condition and a corresponding action to the logging information to identify a matching rule, wherein the rules engine, upon identifying a matching rule, executes the action of the matching rule to generate and send a logging modification message to increase an extent to which the generator generates logging information. |
| US09710759B2 |
Apparatus and methods for classifying senders of unsolicited bulk emails
In accordance with one aspect, methods and apparatus facilitate the filtering of unsolicited bulk electronic mail (email) sent from spammers. A plurality of recipient patterns for a plurality of emails from known spammers is logged. A plurality of recipient patterns for a plurality of emails from known non-spammers is also logged. A probabilistic model for predicting whether an unknown sender identity is a spammer is generated or modified based on the logged recipient patterns for the emails from known spammers and known non-spammers. |
| US09710757B2 |
Methods and systems for dynamically generating real-time recommendations
Systems and methods are provided herein for generating personalized timeline-based feeds to a user. A computer-implemented method for generating feeds to a user may be provided. The method may include generating a timeline comprising a plurality of milestones and needs associated with an event, and providing the feeds based on community wisdom. The feeds may be provided for each milestone on the time-line specific to the user, and may be configured to address the user's needs at each milestone. |
| US09710755B2 |
System and method for calculating search term probability
A system and method for predicting search term popularity is disclosed herein. A database system may comprise a first database cluster H and a second database cluster L. A machine learning algorithm is trained to create a predictive model. Thereafter, for each record in a database system, the predictive model is used to calculate a probability of the record being accessed. If the calculated probability of the record being accessed is greater than a threshold value, then the record in the first database cluster H; otherwise, the record is placed in the second database cluster L. Training the machine learning algorithm comprises inputting a training feature vector associated with the record into the machine learning algorithm, inputting a cost vector into the machine learning algorithm, and iteratively operating the machine learning algorithm on each record in the set of records to create a predictive model. Other embodiments are also disclosed herein. |
| US09710752B2 |
Methods and systems for aggregated multi-application behavioral analysis of mobile device behaviors
A computing device processor may be configured with processor-executable instructions to implement methods of using behavioral analysis and machine learning techniques to evaluate the collective behavior of two or more software applications operating on the device. The processor may be configured to monitor the activities of a plurality of software applications operating on the device, collect behavior information for each monitored activity, generate a behavior vector based on the collected behavior information, apply the generated behavior vector to a classifier model to generate analysis information, and use the analysis information to classify a collective behavior of the plurality of software applications. |
| US09710750B1 |
Proving latency associated with references to a data store
In an embodiment, a technique for analyzing a model, either statically or dynamically, to check the model for one or more specified patterns with respect to accessing a data store associated with the model. The patterns may include, for example, writing to a data store prior to reading the data store, reading the data store prior to writing the data store, writing to the data store multiple times prior to reading the data store, reading the data store multiple times before writing the data store, etc. The model may be an executable graphical model that is generated in a graphical modeling environment. A result may be generated based on the analyzing. The result may be output. |
| US09710749B2 |
Methods and apparatus for implementing a breakpoint determination unit in an artificial nervous system
Methods and apparatus are provided for using a breakpoint determination unit to examine an artificial nervous system. One example method generally includes operating at least a portion of the artificial nervous system; using the breakpoint determination unit to detect that a condition exists based at least in part on monitoring one or more components in the artificial nervous system; and at least one of suspending, examining, modifying, or flagging the operation of the at least the portion of the artificial nervous system, based at least in part on the detection. |
| US09710748B2 |
Neural network processor
A circuit for performing neural network computations for a neural network comprising a plurality of neural network layers, the circuit comprising: a matrix computation unit configured to, for each of the plurality of neural network layers: receive a plurality of weight inputs and a plurality of activation inputs for the neural network layer, and generate a plurality of accumulated values based on the plurality of weight inputs and the plurality of activation inputs; and a vector computation unit communicatively coupled to the matrix computation unit and configured to, for each of the plurality of neural network layers: apply an activation function to each accumulated value generated by the matrix computation unit to generate a plurality of activated values for the neural network layer. |
| US09710746B2 |
Radio frequency identification antenna apparatus
Embodiments of an RFID tag antenna apparatus can include a ground plane, a first patch, and a second patch. The first and second patches can be positioned to define a radiating slot that is located between the first and second patches. The radiating slot can be configured to receive an RFID chip for attachment of the RFID chip to the antenna apparatus such that the chip is positioned in the slot between the first and second patches and the ground plane. Embodiments of the RFID tag apparatus may be included in a communication system that utilizes one or more RFID antenna apparatuses and/or a RFID device utilizing one or more RFID antenna apparatuses. |
| US09710745B1 |
Systems and methods for automated assembly of dynamic magnetic stripe communications devices
An automated conveyor system extends a continuous layer of plastic onto a moving conveyor. A pair of damming strips may be applied to the continuous layer of plastic as the conveyor advances. A liquid material may be sprayed between the damming strips and electronic assemblies may be robotically picked and placed onto the continuous layer of plastic between the damming strips and on top of the liquid material. Additional liquid material may be sprayed on top of the electronic assemblies as the conveyor moves. A continuous top plastic layer may be extended on top of the electronic assemblies, while a roller compresses the electronic assemblies between the top plastic layer and bottom plastic layer. A transparent clamp holds a portion of the compressed sub-assembly in place while the sub-assembly is cured. A sheering station sheers the sub-assembly as the conveyor indexes. |
| US09710741B2 |
Information code generation method, information code, and information code use system
An information code generation method producing information code by an information code generation apparatus is provided. Cells are arranged inside a predetermined code area of the information code. The cells function as a unit of information. The information code generation method includes providing a specific pattern region and a data recording region inside the code area, the specific pattern region being disposed with a specific pattern having a predetermined shape, the data recording region storing a data using multiple kinds of cells; and showing at least a part of the code area using a shape, a pattern, a color, or a combination of the shape, the pattern, and the color. The shape, the pattern, the color, or the combination of them identifies a classification regarding a code content of at least either a record content stored in the code area or a display content shown in the code area. |
| US09710740B2 |
System and method for arranging shipment and insurance for an item
A system and method for arranging shipment and insurance for items being shipped in containers with memory devices. An intelligent shipping agent may receive a request to ship an item. The intelligent shipping agent may search a database or solicit quotations to obtain shipping and insurance services for an item to be shipped from an origination to a final destination. The intelligent agent may find an entry in the database or may select a vendor based on received quotations. The selection may maximize value of a product or service at the lowest cost. The memory device may store shipping and insurance information related to the item being shipped in a data file. The memory device may include input devices and sensors to gather and store information before, during and after shipment. |
| US09710739B2 |
Paper feed system and method
A pharmaceutical filling system for a high volume pharmacy is described. The system can include a paper feed device and method. The system may include a paper collator with at one selectively openable shelf. A control device may monitor the capacity of the selectively openable shelf, and instruct a printer to hold printing additional print jobs. The selectively openable shelf may then be opened to allow the printed literature resting thereon to fall to a lower shelf, and the printer can then be restarted. Sheets of printed literature may be drawn from the paper collator, collected with any other sheets of printed literature associated with a prescription order, and mated with the prescription order for shipment. |
| US09710737B2 |
Printing images with varied gloss levels using pretreatment fluid
In one example of the disclosure, a first area of an image to be printed at a first gloss level is identified. A second area of the image to be printed at a lesser second gloss level is identified. Printing of the image is caused in a gloss-varying printmode that applies a pretreatment fluid to a media where the second area is to be printed, and not where the first area is to be printed, and applies a colorant or colorants to the media where the first and second areas are to be printed. |
| US09710735B2 |
Printer, print control device, print system, printing method, and computer-readable medium for providing specific print setting information
A printer includes a first receiver, a second receiver, a specifying unit, and a printing unit. The first receiver receives, from any of at least one print instruction information holding device that holds print instruction information giving instructions to print, specific print instruction information associated with a first identifier and instructing the printer to print. The second receiver receives, from a print settings information holding device that holds print settings information indicating settings for printing, specific print settings information associated with a second identifier and indicating settings for printing by the printer. The specifying unit, on the basis of the first identifier and the second identifier, specifies the specific print settings information as print settings information corresponding to the specific print instruction information. The printing unit uses the specific print settings information to conduct printing based on the specific print instruction information. |
| US09710733B2 |
Field programmable gate array and corresponding method for dynamic print technologies
Example embodiments presented herein are directed towards the implementation of a FPGA where a printing core may be dynamically reconfigured with respect to a currently used printing type. Example embodiments are also directed towards print handling, direct memory access printing, and the use of an internal FPGA timer. |
| US09710729B2 |
Domain adaptation for image classification with class priors
In camera-based object labeling, boost classifier ƒT(x)=Σr=1Mβrhr(x) is trained to classify an image represented by feature vector x using a target domain training set DT of labeled feature vectors representing images acquired by the same camera and a plurality of source domain training sets DS1, . . . , DSN acquired by other cameras. The training applies an adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) algorithm to generate base classifiers hr(x) and weights βr. The rth iteration of the AdaBoost algorithm trains candidate base classifiers hrk(x) each trained on a training set DT∪DSk, and selects hr(x) from previously trained candidate base classifiers. The target domain training set DT may be expanded based on a prior estimate of the labels distribution for the target domain. The object labeling system may be a vehicle identification system, a machine vision article inspection system, or so forth. |
| US09710726B2 |
Correlation using overlayed patches
Disclosed is a computer implemented method for identifying a component tile within a target image. The method receives a plurality of distinct component tiles and overlays the plurality of component tiles to form an overlaid image. The overlaying is based on an embedded parameter value for each component tile. The method compares the target image with the overlayed image to determine a matching parameter value, and identifies a component tile within the target image by determining that the embedded parameter value of the component tile is the closest of the embedded parameter values to the matching parameter value. |
| US09710724B2 |
Multi-camera device
Apparatuses, methods and storage medium associated with multi-camera devices are disclosed herein. In embodiments, a multi-camera device may include 3 or more camera sensors disposed on a world facing side of the multi-camera device. Further, the multi-camera device may be configured to provide a soft shutter button at a location on an opposite side to the world facing side, coordinated with locations of the 3 or more camera sensors that reduces likelihood of blocking of one or more of the 3 or more camera sensors. Other embodiments may be disclosed or claimed. |
| US09710723B2 |
Context-based image recognition for consumer market research
Example methods, apparatus, systems to perform context-based image recognition are disclosed. Disclosed example methods include comparing a first and second reference region of a reference image with a first and second region of a first captured image to determine a first and second match value. In response to determining the first and second match values satisfy a first and second threshold: associating the first captured image with a product associated with the first reference image, the product being associated with a plurality of second reference images stored in the database. Decrementing index values associated with ones of the second reference images. Removing a reference record associated with one of the second reference images from the database based on a corresponding one of the second index values satisfying a first condition, the removal of the reference record reducing the storage space required to store reference records in the database. |
| US09710722B1 |
System and method for adaptive pixel filtering
Various embodiments provide an optimized image filter. The optimized image and video obtains an input image and selects a target pixel for modification. Difference values are then determined between the selected target pixel and each reference pixel of a search area. Subsequently, a weighting function is used to determine weight values for each of the reference pixels of the search area based on their respective difference value. The selected target pixel is then modified by the optimized image filter using the determined weight values. A new target pixel in an apply patch is then selected for modification. The new target pixel is modified using the previously determined weight values reassigned to a new set of reference pixels. The previously determined weight values are reassigned to the new set of reference pixels based on each of the new set of reference pixels' position relative to the new target pixel. |
| US09710719B2 |
Apparatus and method for image recognition
Disclosed are image recognition apparatuses and methods which detect subject objects by configuring effective candidate regions for the subject objects in a target image. The apparatus includes an image inputting part receiving at least one image; an effective candidate region configuring part configured to receive a user input including information on reference positions of effective candidate regions and an upper limit and a lower limit of the effective candidate regions, and to configure the effective candidate regions based on the user input; and an effective region determining part configured to select an effective region meeting a preconfigured threshold among the effective candidate regions configured based on the user input. Therefore, since a complex conventional camera calibration procedure is not necessary, time and cost can be saved. |
| US09710713B2 |
Methods and apparatus to perform image masking based on relative motion of objects
A method for processing a plurality of images associated with a motor vehicle is provided. The method identifies an object in the plurality of images; determines whether the object is located in the background of the plurality of images; and when the object is located in the background of the plurality of images, filters the object from a presentation of the plurality of images. |
| US09710709B1 |
Cascade recognition for personal tracking via unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
Systems and methods for tracking a subject using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are disclosed. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes an onboard camera to capture/stream multiple images. An onboard visual recognition module isolates image elements by analyzing the captured images, and determines whether the image elements correspond or do not correspond to the subject. Current image elements corresponding to a subject are stored in a positive database, and non-corresponding current image elements are stored in a negative database. An onboard subject tracking module defines the chosen subject, determines attributes of the subject based on comparisons of image elements, and follows the subject by directing the attitude control system to adjust the velocity and orientation of the UAV based on the determined attributes. |
| US09710700B2 |
Systems and method for activity monitoring
A system for activity monitoring includes a tracking component, an activity identification component, a procedural component, and a notification component. The tracking component tracks an individual and one or more objects in a work area using a three-dimensional tracking system. The activity identification component identifies an activity of the individual and any of the one or more objects that are affected by the activity. The procedural component determines whether the activity violates one or more procedural rules pertaining to one or more of the individual, the work area, and the one or more objects. The notification component provides a notification of a violation. |
| US09710694B2 |
Image quality for diagnostic resolution digital slide images
An improved diagnostic resolution of digital slide images is obtained by scanning a first digital slide image at diagnostic resolution that is then deconvolved into separate images with one stain per image. The single stain images are then enhanced with image adjustments and/or processed with image analysis algorithms. The resulting single image data sets from the image analysis algorithms can then be stored. Additionally, the resulting enhanced single images can be recombined into a second digital slide image at diagnostic resolution that is also enhanced. |
| US09710692B2 |
Imaging device, and controlling method of imaging device
An imaging device includes: an illumination portion which includes a light-transmitting transmission region and a light-shielding non-transmission region, has a plurality of simultaneous light-emitting elements that have a light-transmitting property, include a plurality of first light-emitting elements in which turning-on and turning-off are simultaneously controlled and a plurality of second light-emitting elements in which turning-on and turning-off are simultaneously controlled, and are provided in the transmission region, and has a plurality of individual light-emitting elements in which turning-on and turning-off are individually controlled and which are provided in the non-transmission region; an imaging portion which receives light that is reflected from a subject illuminated by the illumination portion and is transmitted through the transmission region; and a switching portion which selectively turns on the plurality of first light-emitting elements and the plurality of second light-emitting elements in a first period in which the plurality of individual light-emitting elements are turned off, and turns off the plurality of simultaneous light-emitting elements in a second period in which the plurality of individual light-emitting elements are turned on. |
| US09710691B1 |
Touchless fingerprint matching systems and methods
In order to authenticate a user of an electronic device, an image of the user's fingerprint is captured. Before feature information is extracted, the fingerprint image is enhanced via localized normalization thereby increasing contrast within the fingerprint image. Thereafter, feature information, such as key point data, is extracted from the image and compared to a predefined template to determine whether the feature information matches the template. If so, the user is authenticated. By enhancing the quality of the fingerprint image through localized normalization and other techniques, the reliability of the matching operation is significantly enhanced. In addition, using key point comparisons for assessing similarity between the feature information and the template helps to address inconsistencies relating to finger rotation, scale, and translation during capture. |
| US09710687B2 |
Method and device for identifying two-dimensional barcodes
A method and device for identifying 2-dimensional (2-D) barcodes contained within a retrieved webpage are disclosed. The method includes the operations of: launching a browser to retrieve at least one webpage; receiving an instruction input by a user for identifying at least one 2-D barcode contained within the at least one retrieved webpage; determining according to the input instruction, whether the at least one 2-D barcode may be available within the at least one retrieved webpage; if the at least one 2-D barcode may be available within the at least one retrieved webpage, obtaining at least one 2-D barcode image; and identifying the least one 2-D barcode image, and obtaining 2-D barcode information associated with the identified least one 2-D barcode image. The disclosed method and device simplifies operations of 2-D barcodes identification within the retrieved webpage. |
| US09710686B2 |
Data collection system and method that detect electronic device displays via fresnel patterns
A control subsystem determines based on the characteristics of light from a secondary illumination source reflected off optics of a data collection device whether a display screen of an electronic device (e.g., smartphone, smartwatch, tablet computer) are in a field of view of the data collection device, and switches operational modes accordingly. Thus, the control subsystem can employ a Fresnel pattern for such determination. The data collection device can operate in a diffuse reading mode, characterized by active illumination and/or relatively fast exposure times. The data collection device can operate in a reflective reading mode, characterized by a lack of active illumination and/or relatively slow exposure times. Characteristics can include the number of reflections versus a number of air-substrate interfaces and/or a relative intensity of the reflections produced by successive air-substrate interfaces in a path of the light. |
| US09710680B2 |
Creating mechanical stamps to produce machine-readable optical labels
A tool for creating mechanical stamps that produce machine-readable optical labels. The tool selects an initial element of a list of two-dimensional labels. The tool selects a pixel difference to apply to a two-dimensional label for the initial element. The tool selects a cardinality for bits in one or more bytes to encode. The tool determines whether a cardinality of a bit difference for each element compared to the initial element equals the selected bit difference cardinality. The tool determines whether a pixel difference between a two-dimensional label for each element and the two-dimensional label for the initial element equals the selected pixel difference. The tool selects one or more elements from the list of two-dimensional labels to create one or more mechanical stamps. |
| US09710678B2 |
Techniques for recovering missing devices
Techniques are provided for assisting owners to recover missing devices. The missing device automatically performs certain actions proactively in response to detecting conditions that indicate that the device has been lost or stolen. Conditions that indicate the device has been lost or stolen (“triggering conditions”) may include that a password failure has occurred more than a predetermined number of times. Any number and type of recovery-assisting actions may be taken, in response to triggering conditions, to assist owners in recovering a missing device. For example, a device may generate a record that indicates the current location of the device, and synchronize the record with an online service or some other device. The generation and synchronization of such records may be repeated on a periodic basis until either (a) the device becomes disabled, or (b) a user enters an appropriate password. |
| US09710677B1 |
Tamper evident port protector
A port protector is provided by a base member that engages the port and a slidably mounted slide member. Locking members are provided on the base member and the slide member such that when the locking members are engage the slide member does not slide relative to the base member. Unlocking of the port protector is achieved by removing or perforating a tongue of the base. Removal of the tongue provides evidence that access to the port was achieved. |
| US09710673B2 |
Conflict resolution for keychain syncing
Some embodiments provide a program that synchronizes a keychain stored on a device with a set of other devices. The keychain includes a set of keychain items. The program receives (1) a list of keychain items for updating the keychain stored on the device and (2) data representing the keychain items specified in the list of keychain items. For each keychain item in the list of keychain items, the program updates the keychain stored on the device with the data that represents the keychain item. |
| US09710672B2 |
System for and method of controllably disclosing sensitive data
System and method of producing a collection of possibilities that agree on information that must be disclosed (disclosable information) and disagree with a sufficient degree of diversity as defined by a policy to protect the sensitive information. A policy defines: what information is possible, what information the recipient would believe, what information is sensitive (to protect), what information is disclosable (to share) and sufficiency conditions that specify the degree of ambiguity required to consider the sensitive information protected. A formalism is utilized that provably achieves these goals for a variety of structured datasets including tabular data such as spreadsheets or databases as well as annotated graphs. The formalism includes the ability to generate a certificate that proves a disclosure adheres to a policy. This certificate is produced either as part of the protection process or separately using an altered process. |
| US09710670B2 |
Publication and removal of attributes in a multi-user computing system
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward publication and/or removal of attributes in a multi-user computing environment. In some embodiments, a consumer information manager (CIM) associated with a user of a multi-user computing system may receive a notification, from a dimension authority (DA), of a decrease in a population count of users of the computing system who have published an attribute within the computing system, and may determine whether the user has published the attribute. In response to receiving the notification of the decrease and determining that the user has published the attribute, the CIM may determine a likelihood that continued publication of the attribute will enable identification of the user, compare the likelihood to a threshold, and, when the likelihood exceeds the threshold, remove the attribute from publication. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed. |
| US09710669B2 |
Secure personal content server
A local content server system (LCS) for creating a secure environment for digital content is disclosed, which system comprises: a communications port in communication for connecting the LCS via a network to at least one Secure Electronic Content Distributor (SECD), which SECD is capable of storing a plurality of data sets, is capable of receiving a request to transfer at least one content data set, and is capable of transmitting the at least one content data set in a secured transmission; a rewritable storage medium whereby content received from outside the LCS may be stored and retrieved; a domain processor that imposes rules and procedures for content being transferred between the LCS and devices outside the LCS; and a programmable address module which can be programmed with an identification code uniquely associated with the LCS. The LCS is provided with rules and procedures for accepting and transmitting content data. |
| US09710664B2 |
Security layer and methods for protecting tenant data in a cloud-mediated computing network
A system for protecting data managed in a cloud-computing network from malicious data operations includes an Internet-connected server and software executing on the server from a non-transitory physical medium, the software providing a first function for generating one or more security tokens that validate one or more computing operations to be performed on the data, a second function for generating a hash for each token generated, the hash detailing, in a secure fashion, the operation type or types permitted by the one or more tokens, a third function for brokering two-party signature of the one or more tokens, and a fourth function for dynamically activating the one or more signed tokens for a specific time window required to perform the operations permitted by the token. |
| US09710659B2 |
Methods and systems for enforcing, by a kernel driver, a usage restriction associated with encrypted data
A method of providing a restricted set of application programming interfaces includes decrypting, by a secure object information reader executing on a computing device, an encrypted data object using information associated with the encrypted data object to generate a decrypted data object, the information received from an access control management system. The method includes intercepting, by a kernel driver executing on the computing device, from a process executing on the computing device, a request to access the decrypted data object. The method includes identifying, by the kernel driver, using the information associated with the encrypted data object, a usage requirement restricting a set of operations available to the process in accessing the decrypted data object. The method includes providing, by the kernel driver, to the process, a restricted set of application programming interfaces with which to interact with the decrypted data object, as permitted by the restricted set of operations. |
| US09710651B2 |
Secure processor for SoC initialization
An embedded system includes an interface to an external peripheral device storing secure boot code and a secure boot controller. The secure boot controller includes a secure central processing unit (CPU) having a processor core, a random access memory (RAM) coupled to the processor core, and a read only memory (ROM) coupled to the processor core. The ROM stores initialization firmware configured to manipulate the processor core to initiate transfer of a copy of the secure boot code from the external peripheral device to the RAM and to authenticate the secure boot code. The processor core further is to execute the secure boot code from the RAM to initialize the embedded system. After initialization of the embedded system is completed, the secure CPU can be repurposed to execute application code that has been stored to the RAM after initialization, the application code representing an independent software function. |
| US09710649B2 |
Techniques for presenting and collecting end user license agreement acceptance
Techniques are disclosed for presenting and collecting end user license agreement acceptance for software applications or firmware components executed on a computing appliance. A sentry component allows only certain commands to be executed before the relevant end user license agreements are accepted, e.g., commands to configure a network interface and web server on the appliance executed on a shell over a serial interface. Once configured the web server is used to provide a rich interface for presenting end user license agreements and obtaining acceptance thereof. Once the user accepts the terms of the relevant license agreements, then the appliance is made active and all configuration commands become operational, including commands needed to configure the device and start services which would otherwise be prohibited by the sentry component prior to license acceptance. |
| US09710648B2 |
Method of malware detection and system thereof
There is provided a system and a computer-implemented method of detecting malware in real time in a live environment. The method comprises: monitoring one or more operations of at least one program concurrently running in the live environment, building at least one stateful model in accordance with the one or more operations, analyzing the at least one stateful model to identify one or more behaviors, and determining the presence of malware based on the identified one or more behaviors. |
| US09710639B1 |
Single input unlock for computing devices
A device is described that, while operating in a lock-sensitive display. Responsive to detecting, and while receiving the first portion, the device displays a plurality of input nodes including a first node at the initial location and a second node at a subsequent location. Responsive to detecting the first portion of the continuous-gesture input at the subsequent location, the device receives a second portion of the gesture beginning at the subsequent location and ending at a final location where a third node is displayed. Based on the second portion of the gesture, the device determines an ordered-selection of input nodes beginning with the second node and ending with the third node. Responsive to determining that the ordered-selection satisfies an unlock sequence, the device transitions to operating an unlocked-state where the device displays a graphical user interface. |
| US09710635B2 |
Field programmable smart card terminal and token device
A digital programmable smart card terminal device and token collectively known as the token device is disclosed. The token device comprises a field programmable token device which accepts a user's smart card. The combination of token device and smart card may then be used for a variety of applications that include user authentication, secure access, encryption. One specific application is that of an electronic wallet. In one embodiment, an electronic smart card terminal includes a smart card reader adapted to receive and communicate with a smart card having smart card data stored thereon; token personality logic programmed based on the smart card data as a token personality subsequent to insertion of the smart card in the smart card reader; and a communications mechanism for communicating authentication data derived from the token personality. Since the smart card terminal only gains its token personality when a smart card is inserted, manufacture and distribution of the terminal on a wide scale is possible. |
| US09710626B2 |
Security model for network information service
Systems and methods for providing information security in a network environment are disclosed. The method includes initiating processing, invoked by a user, of at least one of a plurality of objects in a processing unit of a hardware layer, wherein the plurality of objects is hosted for a tenant. The method further includes determining that the processing of the at least one of the plurality of objects by the processing unit is authorized by the tenant based on a security map provided by the tenant and accessible by the processing unit within the hardware layer. The method further includes allowing the processing of the object based on a result of the determining. |
| US09710622B2 |
Instructions and logic to fork processes of secure enclaves and establish child enclaves in a secure enclave page cache
Instructions and logic fork processes and establish child enclaves in a secure enclave page cache (EPC). Instructions specify addresses for secure storage allocated to enclaves of a parent and a child process to store secure enclave control structure (SECS) data, application data, code, etc. The processor includes an EPC to store enclave data of the parent and child processes. Embodiments of the parent may execute, or a system may execute an instruction to copy parent SECS to secure storage for the child, initialize a unique child ID and link to the parent's SECS/ID. Embodiments of the child may execute, or the system may execute an instruction to copy pages from the parent enclave to the enclave of the child where both have the same key, set an entry for EPC mapping to partial completion, and record a page state in the child enclave, if interrupted. Thus copying can be resumed. |
| US09710616B2 |
DRM plugins
Presented is a system and methods for receiving metadata, a decryption module and encrypted content from a cable headend, decrypting the encrypted content with the decryption module and presenting the decrypted content to a user. The client device can receive, load and execute any decryption module compatible with the system framework allowing flexibility in the choice or changing of client device manufacturer and/or Digital Rights Management system vendor. |
| US09710615B1 |
Systems and methods for secure online repositories
Mechanisms are disclosed herein for storing various records. Numerous keys and parties can access online repositories. These repositories contain a plurality of lockboxes, structured hierarchically and otherwise, providing public and private areas with varying levels of access. Some content of such lockboxes can be sharable. These lockboxes can be used not only to store diverse content, ranging from birth certificates to deeds and social security numbers, but they can also be accessed in a variety of ways. For example, keys to lockboxes can be made available by such events as the issuing of death certificates or birth certificates. Alternatively, keys can be issued according to various rules and heuristics stipulated by lockbox users. In either case, the plurality of lockboxes residing in repositories can be configured to provide centralized storage facilities that are secure and readily accessible from various computing devices. |
| US09710610B2 |
Enteral feeding pump with flow adjustment
An enteral fluid delivery system includes a pump having a motor coupled to a rotor configured to accept a portion of a tubing of a feeding set. The motor drives the rotor, which compresses the tubing to deliver to a patient enteral fluid during a feeding cycle. The system includes a user interface that is operatively connected to a memory that stores a plurality of types of enteral fluids. The user interface enables a user to select at least one type of enteral fluid. The system also includes a processor that is operatively connected to the pump. The processor adjusts the flow rate of the pump to deliver the selected enteral fluid for delivery based on one or more characteristics of the feeding fluid such as the viscosity or the caloric content. |
| US09710609B2 |
System of enhanced distribution of pharmaceuticals in long-term care facilities
A system of enhanced distribution of pharmaceuticals in long-term care facilities are provided. An embodiment of a system includes one or more pharmaceutical storage and electronic dispensing machines each positioned in a long-term care facility remote from a long-term care facility pharmacy group management server and in communication therewith, and long-term care facility pharmacy management computer programs associated with the long-term care facility pharmacy group management server to enhance use of the one or more of pharmaceutical storage and electronic dispensing machines. The long-term care facility management computer programs include a patient prescription receiver and a medication dispensing apparatus administrator and are configured and operable to transmit dispensing instructions to the one or more pharmaceutical storage and electronic dispensing machines when no drug conflicts exist to thereby initiate packaging and dispensing of one or more disposable patient dosing packages. |
| US09710607B2 |
Portable electronic therapy device and the method thereof
The present disclosure relates to an electronic therapy device including automatic controlled application of energies along with feedback control using sensors for improved synergistic effects and further the device is configured to be used for longer periods of time for improved and optimal therapeutic results without causing any adverse effects, the device can be used for pain management, healing, fitness, cosmetic and topical delivery related applications and a method for performing electronic therapy using the said portable electronic device. |
| US09710606B2 |
Method and system for microbiome-derived diagnostics and therapeutics for neurological health issues
A method for at least one of characterizing, diagnosing and treating a neurological health issue in at least a subject, the method comprising: receiving an aggregate set of biological samples from a population of subjects; generating at least one of a microbiome composition dataset and a microbiome functional diversity dataset for the population of subjects; generating a characterization of the neurological health issue based upon features extracted from at least one of the microbiome composition dataset and the microbiome functional diversity dataset; based upon the characterization, generating a therapy model configured to correct the neurological health issue; and at an output device associated with the subject, promoting a therapy to the subject based upon the characterization and the therapy model. |
| US09710605B2 |
Medical equipment information management system and control method for medical equipment information management system
A medical equipment information management system includes a medical equipment information storage medium capable of storing and transmitting medical equipment information and disposed in a packing unit configured to package medical equipment, a medical equipment information reception block configured to receive the medical equipment information transmitted from the medical equipment information storage medium, and a display unit configured to display the medical equipment information received by the medical equipment information reception block, wherein the medical equipment information storage medium cannot transmit the medical equipment information when the packing unit is in a non-opened state, but is placed into a state in which it can transmit the medical equipment information if the packing unit is opened. |
| US09710601B1 |
Visual display of room information
An embodiment provides a method of graphically displaying room information, including: displaying, on an electronic device, a matrix having a plurality of cells therein, at least one cell displaying hospital room information regarding room availability and patient occupancy in the room; said matrix displaying the plurality of cells in column form; and displaying, responsive to a user interaction with a cell in the matrix of a patient occupied hospital room, an overlay window having secondary room status information therein comprising patient specific information regarding the status of the hospital room. |
| US09710599B1 |
System, method and computer program product for facilitating cloud-based radiology dicom receipt, storage and management
A cloud-based system, method and computer program product for obtaining and transferring diagnostic images to a secure data repository for archiving, accessing and future retrieval by patients, medical care providers and medical insurance providers. A variety of subsystems are provided for providing the aforementioned cloud-based radiology DICOM receipt, storage and management system wherein a web-based portal is communicatively coupled to a centralized repository thereby enabling a user to archive, retrieve and transfer diagnostic images between insurance companies and the medical community. |
| US09710596B2 |
Methods for quantifying nucleic acid variations
Provided herein is technology relating to evaluating the state of nucleic acids and particularly, but not exclusively, to methods for measuring variations between DNAs, including differences in methylation and mutation. |
| US09710593B1 |
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for enhancing timing analyses with reduced timing libraries for electronic designs
Disclosed are techniques for enhancing timing analyses with reduced timing libraries for electronic designs. These techniques determine dominance relations for multiple timing models for timing analyses and generate a dominance adjacency data structure based at least in part upon the dominance relations. The dominance adjacency data structure may be stored at a first location of a non-transitory computer accessible storage medium. The plurality of timing models may be reduced into a reduced set of timing models at least by providing the dominance adjacency data structure as an input to a transformation and further by transforming the dominance adjacency data structure with the transformation into the reduced set of timing models that are used in timing analyses for an electronic design or a portion thereof. |
| US09710592B2 |
Multiple-depth trench interconnect technology at advanced semiconductor nodes
A metal interconnect structure, a system and method of manufacture, wherein a design layout includes results in forming at least two trenches of different trench depths. The method uses a slightly modified BEOL processing stack to prevent metal interconnect structures from encroaching upon an underlying hard mask dielectric or metallic hard mask layer. Thus two trench depths are obtained by tuning parameters of the system and allowing areas exposed by two masks to have deeper trenches. Here, the BEOL Stack processing is modified to enable two trench depths by using a hardmask that defines the lowest etch depth. The design may be optimized by software which optimizes a design for electromigration (or setup timing violations) by utilizing secondary trench depths, checking space opportunity around wires, pushing wires out to generate space and converting a wire to deep trench wire. |
| US09710591B1 |
Method and apparatus for performing register retiming in the presence of timing analysis exceptions
A method for designing a system on a target device includes identifying a timing exception for a portion of a signal path. An area on the target device that includes components affected by the timing exception. Constraints are generated that prevent registers residing in the area from being used for register retiming. |
| US09710590B2 |
Estimation of chip floorplan activity distribution
Simulation or calculation to estimate activity per unit in a chip design, combined with estimation of the specific location or region in which the unit logic will be finally placed, provides for calculation of an estimation of the activity distribution within the floorplan. Activity distribution estimation can be performed with fine granularity (at a gate level), at coarse granularity (at a macro level), or at an intermediate granularity (at a network-on-chip unit level). The estimation is displayed, visually, to a user of a design tool. Furthermore, the estimation is used to make manual or automatic optimizations of the floorplan and the location and configuration of units within the floorplan. |
| US09710589B2 |
Using a cut mask to form spaces representing spacing violations in a semiconductor structure
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for reducing the area of a semiconductor structure. A spacing violation may be detected for a gap width used to separate first and second regions of a layer of semiconductor material. In response to detecting the violation, the first and second regions are merged into a combined region, and then a cut mask layer is formed above the combined region. Next, an etch process is performed through the cut mask layer to remove an exposed third region within the combined region, wherein the exposed third region is interposed between first and second region portions of the combined region. |
| US09710587B2 |
Electric-substrate electrical design apparatus using three-dimensional space, electrical design method, program and computer-readable recording medium
The electronic-substrate electrical design apparatus has: a user interface for setting a first position coordinate and a first direction coordinate with respect to a predetermined layer constituting a multilayer electronic substrate, the first position coordinate indicating a viewpoint position when viewing the layer, the first direction coordinate indicating a visual line direction; a controller for controlling the generation of a three dimensional display image of the electronic substrate obtained when viewing the layer on the basis of the first position coordinate and the first direction coordinate set by the user interface; a display for displaying the three-dimensional display image generated by the control of the controller; and an editor for performing an electrical design of the electronic substrate on the three-dimensional display image displayed by the display. This electronic-substrate electrical design apparatus can easily verify a complicated electrical design of an electronic substrate and can also reduce design errors. |
| US09710586B2 |
Automated state machine extraction for rapid-single flux-quantum circuits
The invention provides a method and system for extracting a state machine representation of a digital logic superconductive circuit from an alphanumeric representation of the circuit. The alphanumeric representation typically specifies circuit components including inductive elements, their interconnectivity and input and output nodes. The method according to the invention comprising the steps of simulating the circuit in a suitable software environment utilizing the alphanumeric representation; identifying inductive loops in the circuit; identifying inductive loops in the circuit capable of storing one or more magnetic fluxons and discarding all others; and extracting the state machine representation, using only the inductive loops in the circuit capable of storing magnetic fluxons. |
| US09710585B2 |
Physical aware technology mapping in synthesis
A method of performing physical aware technology mapping in a logic synthesis phase of design of an integrated circuit and a system to perform physical aware technology mapping are described. The method includes subdividing a core area representing a sub-block of the integrated circuit into equal-sized grids. The method also includes determining a location of each of one or more latches in the logic design based on an algorithm, determining a location of each of one or more combinational logic gates in the logic design based on the locations of the one or more latches, and obtaining the technology mapping based on the locations of the one or more latches, one or more input ports, or one or more output ports, the locations of the one or more combinational logic gates, and associated path delays. |
| US09710584B1 |
Performance of circuitry generated using high-level synthesis
Implementing circuitry from an application may include partitioning an array of the application into a plurality of virtual blocks according to a streaming dimension of the array and determining that a first function and a second function of the application that access the array have same access patterns for the virtual blocks of the array. A first-in-first out (FIFO) memory may be included in a circuit design implementing the application. The FIFO memory couples a first circuit block implementing the first function with a second circuit block implementing the second function. Control circuitry is included within the circuit design. The control circuitry may be configured to implement concurrent operation of the first circuit block and the second circuit block by controlling accesses of the first circuit block and the second circuit block to a plurality of buffers in the FIFO memory. |
| US09710583B2 |
Information processing apparatus, state machine dividing method, and computer-readable recording medium
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium stores a state machine dividing program that causes a computer to execute a process including: determining whether a design value based on circuit information that indicates a circuit that controls a computation process by using a state machine is greater than a predetermined reference value; and dividing, when the design value is greater than the reference value, the state machine into a plurality of state machines. |
| US09710581B1 |
VIP assisted method and apparatus to enable SOC integration and software development
Using verification IP (VIP), the related design IP (DIP) can be integrated into a system on a chip (SOC) without requiring the IP component. Using a normalized framework, a software module can be integrated into the VIP software stack enabling the customized management of the VIP beyond the standard specification defined behaviors. Then, the modified software stack can be used to manage both behaviors defined by the specification and the design specific behaviors. The VIP can then be used in place of the DIP for SOC development. |
| US09710580B2 |
Timing analysis method for digital circuit design and system thereof
A timing analysis method for a digital circuit design, a system and a computer readable storage media thereof are provided. The timing analysis method includes following steps. An integrated circuit (IC) design is obtained, wherein the IC is operated in a plurality of operating modes. A plurality of extracted timing models (ETMs) are respectively generated according to the operating modes of the IC design, wherein each of the ETMs includes a none on-chip variation (NOCV) part and an on-chip variation (OCV) part. The ETMs corresponding to the operating modes are integrated into a NOCV ETM and an OCV ETM, wherein the OCV part of the operating modes is not considered when the NOCV ETM is generated. And, a timing checking of the IC design is analyzed according to the NOCV ETM and the OCV ETM. |
| US09710579B1 |
Using smart timing models for gate level timing simulation
A system and method for simulating the timing of an integrated circuit design using abstract timing models. An abstract or smart timing model is created as a model of a design component or block having partial timing that includes the timing for the boundary or interface logic but removes timing for internal registers. The smart timing model may additionally preserve the timing for asynchronous or multi-cycle paths, or add interconnect delays for certain internal elements, to ensure accurate timing. |
| US09710574B2 |
System and method for generating three-dimensional models in a product management application
The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for generating a three-dimensional (3D) assembly on-demand in a product management system, such as a product lifecycle management (PLM) system. The method includes electronically creating and storing one or more instance objects in the product management system. Another step includes electronically mapping the one or more instance objects to function information in the product management system. The method also includes electronically receiving, via a network portal, user input regarding a selection of one or more functions representing product information from the product management system. Still another step includes electronically generating the 3D assembly based on one or more of the mapped instance objects and the user input. |
| US09710570B2 |
Computing the relevance of a document to concepts not specified in the document
According to an aspect, conceptual analysis of a document includes accessing a concept graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges. Each node represents a concept and each edge represents a known relation between two concepts. Conceptual analysis of the document further includes computing a relevance of the document to concepts in the concept graph. The computing includes receiving a priori information about the document including concepts extracted from the document. The concepts extracted from the document include a subset of the concepts in the concept graph. The computing also includes combining the a priori information and the concept graph to generate a posteriori information that indicates a likelihood that the document is related to each of the concepts in the concept graph. |
| US09710568B2 |
Publishing RDF quads as relational views
A method, system, and computer program product for transforming RDF quads to relational views. The method commences by receiving a named graph, the named graph comprising at least one RDF quad, and analyzing the named graph to produce analysis metadata. The method uses the analysis metadata to generate relational views. The method further comprises publishing a relational view in the form of a SPARQL query. The quality of the results can be quantitatively measured and reported by calculating a goodness score based at least in part on aspects of the relational view definitions. Several variants for transformation include generating relational view definitions formed using a named-graph strict variant, or a named-graph relaxed variant, or a named-graph agnostic variant. The transformations can form outputs responsive to characteristics or properties such as a number of classes, a number of single-valued properties, a number of nullability properties, or a number of type-uniformed ranges. |
| US09710567B1 |
Automated content publication on a social media management platform
Automated publication recommendation includes: obtaining, from a social networking site, social networking activity information pertaining to a set of social networking activities performed by a plurality of contacts on the social networking site; determining, at the social media management platform, a recommended time for the user to publish content on the social networking site such that the content is viewable by the plurality of contacts associated with the user, the determination being based at least in part on the social networking activity information that is obtained, and the recommended time being a time during which the plurality of contacts are deemed to be active on the social networking site; presenting the recommended time to the user; receiving an indication from the user to publish the content at the recommended time; and sending the content to the social networking site to be published at the recommended time. |
| US09710566B2 |
User interface for webpage permission requests
Systems and methods for presenting information in a header region of an application are provided. In some aspects, a URL is received in an omnibox of an application window of a computer. A page corresponding to the URL is presented in a page display region of the application window. The URL is presented in the omnibox. A collapsed form of the URL and connection information associated with the page are presented in a button of the application window adjacent to the omnibox. The collapsed form of the URL includes a representation of a top-level domain and a hierarchy of the URL. The collapsed form of the URL includes different text from the URL. |
| US09710565B2 |
Interoperable social services
In a method for utilizing multiple social computing services of a user, a processor accesses a first networking service of a user and a second networking service of the user, wherein the first networking service includes a first group of contacts connected with the user and the second networking service includes a second group of contacts connected with the user. A processor retrieves the first group from the first networking service and the second group from the second networking service. A processor creates a set of contacts, wherein the set of contacts includes each contact of the first group of contacts with a corresponding link to information about that contact, and each contact of the second group of contacts with a corresponding link to information about that contact, and wherein a contact of the set of contacts has an associated relationship, established externally from either networking service, with the user. |
| US09710558B2 |
Method and apparatus for navigational searching of a website
Methods may display an interactive searching display window on a webpage. Methods may display a search box located on the interactive searching display window, which may enable a user to type in a query. Methods may display an answer box located on the interactive searching display window, which may display an answer to a user's query. Methods may display a minimize button, a maximize button and a pin button, which may allow the user to pin the interactive searching display window to one side of the webpage. Methods may redirect the user to a second webpage in response to the determination that greater than a threshold probability exists that the answer to the user's question may be found on the second webpage. Methods may display the interactive searching display window about a central location on the second webpage for a time period between 1.5 and 3.5 seconds. |
| US09710557B2 |
Partitioning a search space for distributed crawling
An illustrative embodiment of a computer-implemented process for partitioning a crawling space computes an event identifier for each event in the set of events to form an identified set of events, segments the identified set of events into a number of partitions, assigns a partition to each node in a set of nodes and executes each event in each assigned partition by a respective node. In response to a determination that a new state is discovered, other nodes are notified of the new state, in which information associated with the new state is added to a respective assigned set of event IDs at each node. In response to a determination that no more notifications exist, the computer-implemented process determines whether more events to process exist and terminates in response to a determination that no more events to process exist. |
| US09710547B2 |
Natural language semantic search system and method using weighted global semantic representations
Semantic Search Engine using Lexical Functions and Meaning-Text Criteria, that outputs a response (R) as the result of a semantic matching process consisting in comparing a natural language query (Q) with a plurality of contents (C), formed of phrases or expressions obtained from a contents' database (6), and selecting the response (R) as being the contents corresponding to the comparison having a best semantic matching degree. It involves the transformation of the contents (C) and the query in individual words or groups of tokenized words (W1, W2), which are transformed in its turn into semantic representations (LSC1, LSC2) thereof, by applying the rules of Meaning Text Theory and through Lexical Functions, the said semantic representations (LSC1, LSC2) consisting each of a couple formed of a lemma (L) plus a semantic category (SC). |
| US09710538B2 |
Processing device, processing method, program, and recording medium
An acquirer acquires, for the on-the path categories situated on the path from the topmost category of a hierarchical structure comprising categories into which products or serves are classified to each of a category of interest and the categories immediately below the category of interest, the frequencies of the names of the on-the-path categories and a keyword co-occurring in a search query given to a search device. An identifier identifies the category of interest as a category candidate immediately above a category of which the name is given by the keyword when the frequencies acquired for the on-the-path categories satisfy a candidate condition associated by the search device. |
| US09710532B2 |
Method for avoiding conflicts in database cluster
A method for avoiding conflicts in a multi-master database cluster is provided. A set of hot spots is identified in the database cluster. When a given node receives a given transaction, the given node selects one or more hot-spot servicing nodes for one or more hot-spot sub-transactions, namely one or more sub-transactions of the given transaction that correspond to one or more hot spots of the set of hot spots. Subsequently, the given node redirects the hot-spot sub-transactions to their respective hot-spot servicing nodes. The hot-spot sub-transactions are then executed at their respective hot-spot servicing nodes. |
| US09710531B2 |
Integrated application server and data server processes with matching data formats
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a computer-implemented method comprising storing data in an application using an application custom data type and application custom data structure. The data is stored in a database using the application custom data type and the application custom data structure. In one embodiment, a request is sent to access the data from the application to the database. The data is retrieved from the database in response to the request in the application custom data type and the application custom data structure. In one embodiment, the data is sent from the database to a shared memory in the application custom data type and the application custom data structure and the data is retrieved by the application from the shared memory in the application custom data type and the application custom data structure. |
| US09710530B2 |
Performance checking component for an ETL job
Generation of a performance determination report for an Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) job includes decomposing the ETL job into two or more stage instances, and identifying one or more conditions for each of the stage instances. A set of tests for each of the identified conditions are generated. A first set of test results are generated by performing the set of tests. It is determined whether a test result from the first set of test results is outside of a first range. Conditions that can be identified include a non-volatile free memory condition, a network reliability condition, a network configuration condition, an application availability condition, a database availability condition, a database performance condition, a schema validity condition, an installed libraries condition, a configuration parameter condition, a volatile free memory condition, and a third party tool condition. |
| US09710528B2 |
System and method for business intelligence data testing
Apparatuses, methods, and non-transitory computer readable medium for testing business intelligence data over a communication network include receiving a data mapping file, applicable to a source data repository and a target data repository, and generating data mapping file based on the same. Test cases are generated, based on the data mapping file, and SQL scripts, for execution of the test cases, and executing the SQL scripts on the source data repository and the target data. An online analytical processing (OLAP) cube report for the target data repository is received and the OLAP cube report and a report, which is to be tested, are compared to generate a comparison report. The comparison report is indicative of the fields of the OLAP cube report and the report, which is to be tested, which generated at least one error. |
| US09710526B2 |
Data set preview technology
A mechanism for providing a preview of a data set. The search system finds a data set relevant to the search query. For any given data set, the search system extracts only a sample of elements from the data set. The sample of elements provided to the requestor includes elements for which there is a match on the search query, and elements that have no hit, but are proximate to an element that has a hit. The user obtains a view constructed of the sample of elements provided by the search system. The user is also provided with navigation controls that correspond to the most search-relevant portions of the view. Controls associated with those portion(s) may then be selected to thereby move the preview of the data set so that the portion or corresponding hit for that portion is in view. |
| US09710516B2 |
Ghost table joins in remote systems
A system includes reception of a client query including a JOIN between a local database table of a first computing system and a remote table of a second computing system, transmission of an instruction to the second computing system to define a new table in the second computing system, the new table associated with a storage handler for retrieving data of the local database table, generation of a remote query of the second computing system, the remote query including a second JOIN between the new table and the remote table, transmission of the remote query to the second computing system, and reception of results of the remote query from the second computing system. |
| US09710504B2 |
Data processing and writing method and related apparatus
A data processing method includes acquiring to-be-stored data in a data table in a columnar database; dividing and/or combining the to-be-stored data according to space of an allocated disk cylinder; and storing same-row data of the to-be-stored data in a same disk cylinder, and in the disk cylinder, successively storing data in each section of columns. Correspondingly, the present disclosure further discloses a data writing method and a related apparatus and device. A technical problem in the prior art that a write speed is slow when a columnar database is running is resolved using the present disclosure, which greatly improves write efficiency of a columnar database. In addition, direct parallel reading or writing may also be implemented by means of hardware marking. |
| US09710503B2 |
Tunable hardware sort engine for performing composite sorting algorithms
Embodiments include methods, systems and computer program products for performing a composite sort on a tunable hardware sort engine includes determining desired sort performance parameters, configuring a composite sort engine based on the desired sort performance parameters, and receiving a plurality of keys having a payload associated with each of the plurality of keys. The method also includes reserving DRAM storage for each of the payloads, generating a tag for each of the plurality of keys, the tag identifying the DRAM storage reserved for each of the payloads, and storing the payloads in the portions of the DRAM storage. The method further includes generating a composite key for each of the plurality of keys, sorting the composite keys by the composite sort engine, and retrieving the payloads associated with the sorted composite keys from the DRAM storage. The method also includes outputting the payloads associated the sorted composite keys. |
| US09710498B2 |
Method and system for constructing database for product demand/supply connection network
The present invention relates to a method and system for constructing a database for a product demand/supply connection network of a technology market connection and analysis apparatus comprising a microprocessor for controlling the construction of a database for implementing a product demand/supply connection network, and further comprising the database for a product demand/supply connection network, in which information relating to the database generated in accordance with the control of the microprocessor is stored. |
| US09710491B2 |
Content-based image search
Image descriptor identifiers are used for content-based search. A plurality of descriptors is determined for an image. The descriptors represent the content of the image at respective interest points identified in the image. The descriptors are mapped to respective descriptor identifiers. The image can thus be represented as a set of descriptor identifiers. A search is performed on an index using the descriptor identifiers as search elements. A method for efficiently searching the inverted index is also provided. Candidate images that include at least a predetermined number of descriptor identifiers that match those of the image are identified. The candidate images are ranked and at least a portion thereof are presented as content-based search results. |
| US09710490B2 |
System, apparatus, method, program and recording medium for processing image
An image processing system may include an imaging device for capturing an image and an image processing apparatus for processing the image. The imaging device may include an imaging unit for capturing the image, a first recording unit for recording information relating to the image, the information being associated with the image, and a first transmission control unit for controlling transmission of the image to the image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus may include a reception control unit for controlling reception of the image transmitted from the imaging device, a feature extracting unit for extracting a feature of the received image, a second recording unit for recording the feature, extracted from the image, the feature being associated with the image, and a second transmission control unit for controlling transmission of the feature to the imaging device. |
| US09710488B2 |
Location estimation using image analysis
An implementation of location estimation using image analysis is described. In this implementation, an image of a place is obtained and matched with previously stored images. The matching may be achieved by employing methods based on key feature extraction algorithm, color histogram analysis, pattern matching or other image comparison techniques. Upon determining a match, the location information associated with the image provides the location. The location information may be in the form of location tags or location keywords and the location information may be used by the user or other applications for the purposes of location determination. The technique allows for the user to enter location information. The location information may be assigned to the previously stored images residing in local and remote databases for users and applications to assign information or keywords to images. |
| US09710485B2 |
Density-based dynamic geohash
A method and system for maintaining a density-based geocode tree for a geographic area, including obtaining a geocode tree including multiple leaf nodes each having a geohash value corresponding to a subdivision of the geographic area, obtaining multiple positions within the geographic area, generating, using the multiple positions, multiple geohashes, mapping a first subset of the multiple geohashes to a first leaf node of the multiple leaf nodes based on the geohash value of the first leaf node, incrementing, by a cardinality of the first subset, a first counter value for the first leaf node, and grafting, in response to the first counter value exceeding a first density threshold, at least one child node onto the first leaf node. |
| US09710479B2 |
Providing record-level alternate-index upgrade locking
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request to perform an update on a base data set in a record-oriented file system, wherein one or more affected records within the base data set are modified by the update. Affected alternate index (AIX) records corresponding to the affected records are located, and individual record-level locks are acquired on each affected AIX record. Each of the affected AIX records is updated according to the update after acquiring the individual record-level locks on each of the affected AIX records. |
| US09710478B2 |
System and method for adaptive data placement within a distributed file system
A system and method for adaptive data placement in a distributed file system is provided. Upon creation of a new subdirectory, a first heuristic procedure is formed to determine whether the newly created subdirectory should be created locally or on a remote flexible volume. Should it be determination be made to create or store the subdirectory on a remote flexible volume, a second heuristic procedure determines which of a plurality of flexible volumes should store the newly created subdirectory. |
| US09710475B1 |
Synchronization of data
Synchronizing data is disclosed, including: generating a snapshot index associated with a first set of data; generating a set of difference data between a snapshot index associated with a second set of data and the snapshot index associated with the first set of data; and applying the set of difference data to a set of metadata associated with the first set of data, wherein the set of metadata reflects a current state of the first set of data. |
| US09710474B2 |
Method and system for file relocation
A method and system for file relocation is provided. A file relocation system is connected to multiple storage devices. The system obtains a number of times that each of a number of files stored on the multiple storage devices is requested simultaneously with a concerned file. The relocation system then classifies multiple files into multiple groups, such that groups of files simultaneously are put together into one group. Multiple files classified in to the same group are then relocated to a single storage device. The relocation system then switches a storage device not accessed for a certain period of time into a power-saving mode. |
| US09710472B2 |
Customized content consumption interface
A content processing device may be operable to analyze activity information associated with particular content identified in a content library associated with a user account. One or more entities associated with the particular content may be identified by the content processing device. The content processing device may collect, from various sources, information related to each of the identified one or more entities. The content processing device may determine, based on one or both of a result of the analysis and the collected information, update information for the particular content. The content processing device may then add, based on one or more ranking factors, item information comprising the particular content along with the determined update information to a list of items associated with the user account. Upon receiving an indication from a data processing device, the content processing device may communicate the list of items to the data processing device. |
| US09710458B2 |
System for natural language understanding
A general-purpose apparatus for analyzing natural language text that allows for the implementation of a broad range of natural language understanding applications. The apparatus for natural language understanding analyzes a source text and transforms the source text into a semantically-interpretable syntactic representation (SISR), comprising a syntax template and semantic clause annotations. The general-purpose apparatus for natural language understanding is adaptable to various source text natural languages and is adaptable to various natural language understanding applications, such as query answering, translation, summarization, information extraction, disambiguation, and parsing. A natural language query answering apparatus for answering questions about a source text, whereby the query answering apparatus utilizes the general-purpose apparatus for transforming the natural language query into SISR format. |
| US09710452B2 |
Input method editor having a secondary language mode
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which an input method editor receives a mode control input and determines a language mode based on the mode control input. Upon receiving composition inputs, the input method editor interprets the composition input based on the determined language mode. |
| US09710449B2 |
Targeted social campaigning based on user sentiment on competitors' webpages
Automatic social campaigning is provided based on the user sentiment in user posts on competitor webpages. User posts on competitor webpages are analyzed to determine the user sentiment of the posts. Promotional messages promoting a product or service of a company are generated and provided to the users based on the user sentiment. In some instances, promotional messages may only be generated and provided for user posts with negative sentiment. The content of the promotional messages may also be selected based on the user sentiment. |
| US09710446B2 |
Enhanced internally linked electronic paper format report generation system and process
The present invention is directed to a system and process for electronic paper file generation from a report format and metafile such that a user may readily navigate the report objects within an enhanced electronic paper file. An electronic paper file is created based on a selected data source and report format. The initial electronic paper file is parsed and a metafile including identifier and position information for report objects contained therein is created. The metafile is parsed to generate the relationships between the report objects and a data tree representing the relationships is created. The relationship information is parsed and internal links to related report objects are created, facilitating navigation among the report objects. |
| US09710445B2 |
Webpage display method, device, browser and user terminal
The present invention provides a webpage display method, device, browser and user terminal. The method comprises: after a zooming operation performed by the user on a webpage currently being browsed, recording a mapping relationship between a webpage identifier of the webpage and a zoom ratio of the zooming operation; upon detecting that a webpage requested by the user for browsing matches the webpage identifier, retrieving the recorded zoom ratio corresponding to the webpage identifier; and zooming a size of the webpage requested by the user and displaying the webpage. The technical solution achieves the objective of automatically zooming the webpage to a size suitable for the user's browsing, avoiding the extra zooming operation by the user and improving the user experience of webpage browsing. |
| US09710443B2 |
Simplifying access to documents accessed recently in a remote system
Simplifying access to documents accessed recently on a remote system. In one embodiment, the list of documents accessed by a user using a first instance of an application in a first/remote system is maintained. The list of documents is provided/displayed to the same user when using a second instance of the same application on a second/local system, thereby facilitating the user to access the documents accessed recently on the remote system. |
| US09710442B1 |
Calculating and visualizing the age of content
Age data is calculated and stored that describes the age of one or more elements in a Web page, such as images or hyperlinks. The age data may be utilized to modify the Web page such that the age of each Web page element is visually presented when the Web page is rendered. For example, the Web page may be configured such that a region is overlaid upon each element that is colored or shaded based upon the age of the element. Colored or shaded borders might also be applied to the Web page elements that indicate the age of each Web page element. The age data might also be utilized to modify the Web page such that the frequency at which each page element has been changed will be visually presented when the Web page is rendered. The age data might also be correlated to other Web page statistics. |
| US09710440B2 |
Presenting fixed format documents in reflowed format
A reader application presents fixed format documents in reflowed format. A selection control is presented to display a reflow view after identifying text-based sections within a displayed content. The reflow view is generated using the sections upon an action on the selection control to display the reflow view. The reflow view is displayed in a location associated with the section within the displayed content or in place of the displayed content The reflow view is adjusted based on a screen size of the reader application. |
| US09710437B2 |
Group tagging of documents
Assigning a new set of tags to a document is provided. A document with a set of existing tags created by an author of the document is received via a network. A set of new tags created by a group of tag editors corresponding to the document is received via the network. The set of existing tags created by the author of the document is processed with the set of new tags created by the group of tag editors. A new set of tags is assigned to the document based on processing the set of existing tags created by the author of the document with the set of new tags created by the group of tag editors. |
| US09710436B1 |
Method and system for generating a modified website
A method including receiving a website text item of the website, where the website text item is categorized by a text category and a website element category, identifying, multiple text items of multiple websites relating to multiple businesses in an industry, searching the multiple text items using the website element category to identify multiple comparable text items, parsing the website text item to generate multiple keywords, searching the multiple comparable text items using the multiple keywords to identify a comparable text item, where the comparable text item includes a conversion rate corresponding to a percentage of transactions completed by multiple website visitors accessing the comparable text item, identifying, a modified conversion text item from the multiple comparable text items, where the modified conversion text item has a modified conversion rate that exceeds the conversion rate, generating, a conversion improved website including the modified conversion text item. |
| US09710434B2 |
Skim preview
Techniques for identifying and viewing information items within an organization comprising a plurality of users each having one or more roles within the organization is disclosed. The disclosed techniques provide systems and methods for implementing and using a “skim preview” technique for previewing information items. This technique can be applied to a wide variety of information, such as presentations, documents, video, images, and so on and can be used for a variety of applications, including browsing, searching, discovery, and so on. The system can compute sequences that represent interesting visual aspects of the item being viewed. This can be applied to items that do not have a natural set of preview images, or it might be used as an alternative to the natural previews. The preview images may be sequenced chronologically, by importance, or based on any other metric. |
| US09710433B2 |
Dynamic content mapping
Briefly, embodiments disclosed herein may relate to dynamic display of representations of digital content for user interaction on computing devices, for example, including displaying a collection of content items on a display of a computing device, wherein a two-or-more-dimensional spatial arrangement of individual content items of the displayed collection comprises individual content items being positioned relative to other individual content items based, at least in part, on analytic characterizations of one or more attributes of the individual content items. |
| US09710432B2 |
System, information processing apparatus, and method of controlling display
A disclosed system includes an information accumulating apparatus; and an application, wherein the apparatus includes a storing part that stores at least one electronic data and electronic data information corresponding to the electronic data and including a data form and a convertible data form to which the data form can be converted, a request receiving part receiving an acquisition request from the application for acquiring the data form and the convertible data form, and a data sending part sending the electronic data information to the application upon receipt of the request, wherein the application includes a request sending part sending the acquisition request, a data receiving part receiving the electronic data information, a determining part determining a processable electronic data among the electronic data, and a display controlling part causing to display information related to the determined processable electronic data on the application side. |
| US09710427B2 |
Verification of distributed symmetric multi-processing systems
A method, apparatus and product useful for verifying Distributed Symmetric Multi-Processing systems (DSMPs). The method comprising: determining one or more sub-systems of a DSMP, wherein each sub-system is a Symmetric Multi-Processing System (SMP) which comprises a shared memory and a set of processing entities that have the same access permissions to the shared memory; and verifying the DSMP using a verification tool designed to verify an SMP, wherein said verifying is performed by verifying each sub-system. |
| US09710426B2 |
Computer system and method for sharing computer memory
A computer system has a plurality of computer servers, each including at least one central processing unit (CPU). A memory appliance is spaced remotely from the plurality of computer servers. The memory appliance includes random access memory (RAM). A photonic CPU link is operatively attached to the at least one CPU. A photonic circuit switch is operatively attached to the photonic CPU link. An allocated portion of the RAM is addressable by a predetermined CPU selected from the plurality of computer servers. |
| US09710423B2 |
Methods to send extra information in-band on inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus
System, methods and apparatus are described that offer improved performance of an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) bus. Primary data may be encoded in first signaling in accordance with I2C bus protocols, and the first signaling may be combined with second signaling to obtain combined signaling for transmission on an I2C bus. Secondary data may be encoded in the second signaling with the combined signaling remaining compatible with the I2C bus protocols. The second signaling may modulate a voltage level of at least one signal in the first signaling. The second signaling may pulse-width modulate a clock signal transmitted on the I2C bus. The second signaling may modify a start condition between bytes transmitted on the I2C bus. The second signaling may add a plurality of short pulses to a clock signal transmitted in the first signaling. |
| US09710421B2 |
Peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) card having multiple PCIe connectors
Some embodiments include apparatus and methods having a circuit board, a device located on the circuit board, a first Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) connector located on the circuit board and coupled to the device, and a second PCIe connector located on the circuit board and coupled to the device. The first PCIe connector is arranged to couple to a first connector of an additional circuit board. The second PCIe connector is arranged to couple to a second connector of the additional circuit board. |
| US09710419B2 |
System and method for master-slave data transmission based on a flexible serial bus for use in hearing devices
A data transmission system for use in hearing devices includes a master unit with a first local bit clock and a slave unit with a second local bit clock. The master unit and the slave unit are connected to each other via a bus line, and are configured to communicate over the bus line according to a communication protocol based on a frame-wise serial transmission of bits. Each frame includes a clock reference, a master signalling interval, a slave signalling interval and a data payload. The slave unit further includes a clock recovery device for synchronizing the second local bit clock with the first local bit clock based on the clock reference transmitted once per frame by the master unit. A corresponding method for data transmission is also provided. Moreover, hearing devices including such a data transmission system as well as uses of such a method for data transmission are proposed. |
| US09710416B2 |
Peripheral device access using synchronous input/output
Aspects include accessing data located on peripheral devices using synchronous input/output (I/O). A unit of work is received by an operating system (OS) executing on a processor. The unit of work includes an I/O request to access data located on a persistent storage control unit (SCU) that is external to the processor. It is determined that the I/O request should be serviced by a synchronous I/O. A synchronous I/O is initiated to the persistent SCU to service the I/O request based on determining that the I/O request should be serviced by a synchronous I/O. The unit of work is kept active while waiting for the synchronous I/O to complete. A notification that the I/O has completed is received and the unit of work is completed in response to receiving the notification. |
| US09710411B2 |
Signal conditioner
A signal conditioner can include a state machine configured to detect a predetermined protocol level mode of a data signal on a bi-directional serial bus. The signal conditioner can also include a re-driver configured to inject current into at least one of a rising edge and a falling edge of the data signal on the bi-directional serial bus in response to the detection of the predetermined protocol level mode. |
| US09710410B2 |
Camera control slave devices with multiple slave device identifiers
System, methods and apparatus are described that facilitate transmission of data, particularly between two devices within an electronic apparatus. An address list may associate each of a plurality of slave devices coupled to a control data bus with a plurality of slave device identifiers. Access to the control data bus may be controlled based on the address list such that, in a first mode of operation information may be broadcast to multiple slave devices using a first group slave device identifier and, in a second mode of operation, information may be exchanged with a single slave device using an individualized slave device identifier. |
| US09710409B2 |
Interrupt control apparatus and interrupt control method
PCI devices write an MSI message in a memory and polling routines, which are executed by CPU cores respectively, poll the memory. The polling routines poll a cause of interrupt during an interval between tasks, during an interval between threads, and during idle and cause a CPU core with the lowest load to perform interrupt processing. An IO task performs inter-task communication with another IO task by using a command queue. |
| US09710407B2 |
Congestion control in storage systems
An I/O request directed to a portion of a storage object managed at a distributed storage service is received. A congestion control parameter value to be used to schedule a storage operation corresponding to the I/O request is determined. The congestion control parameter is based at least in part on an offset within the storage object to which the I/O request is directed. The storage operation is scheduled in accordance with the congestion control parameter at a selected physical storage device to which the portion of the storage object is mapped. |
| US09710406B2 |
Data transmission using PCIe protocol via USB port
Techniques for transmitted data through a USB port using a PCIe protocol are described herein. In one example, a method includes detecting a coupling of an apparatus and a PCIe compatible device via a Type-C connector and sending at least one vendor defined message to the PCIe compatible device. The method can also include receiving an alternate mode indicator corresponding to a data transfer via a PCIe protocol and sending an enter mode command to the PCIe compatible device to enable the data transfer between the apparatus and the PCIe compatible device via the PCIe protocol. Furthermore, the method can include transferring data between the apparatus and the PCIe compatible device via the Type-C connector with the PCIe protocol. |
| US09710403B2 |
Power saving method and apparatus for first in first out (FIFO) memories
In various embodiments, apparatuses and methods are disclosed to keep a memory clock gated when the data for a current memory address is the same as the data in the immediate previous memory address. For a write function, new data will only be written into the current memory address if it is different from the data in the immediate previous memory address. Similarly, for a read function, the data will only be read out of the current memory address if it is different from the data in the immediate previous memory address. Each row in the memory may have one associated status bit outside the memory. Data may only be written to or read from the current memory address when the status bit is set. Clock gating the memory ports may reduce the overall power consumption of the memory. |
| US09710397B2 |
Data migration for composite non-volatile storage device
Approaches to managing a composite, non-volatile data storage device are described. In one embodiment, a method for managing a composite storage device made up of fast non-volatile storage, such as a solid state device, and slower non-volatile storage, such as a traditional magnetic hard drive, can include maintaining a first data structure, which stores instances of recent access to each unit in a set of units in the fast non-volatile storage device, such as the SSD device and also maintaining a second data structure that indicates whether or not units in the slower storage device, such as the HDD, have been accessed at least a predetermined number of times. In one embodiment, the second data structure can be a queue of Bloom filters. |
| US09710393B2 |
Dynamic page table edit control
Generally, this disclosure provides systems, methods and computer readable media for a page table edit controller configured to control access to guest page tables by virtual machine (VM) guest software through the manipulation of extended page tables. The system may include a translation look-aside buffer (TLB) to maintain a policy to lock one or more guest linear addresses (GLAs) to one or more allowable guest physical addresses (GPAs); a page walk processor to update the TLB based on the guest page tables; and a page table edit control (PTEC) module to: identify entries of the guest page tables that map GLAs associated with the policy to a first GPA; verify that the mapping conforms to the policy; and place the guest page table into one of a plurality of restricted accessibility states based on the verification, the restricted accessibility applied to the VM guests and to the page walk processor. |
| US09710388B2 |
Hardware acceleration for inline caches in dynamic languages
Aspects include a computing devices, systems, and methods for hardware acceleration for inline caches in dynamic languages. An inline cache may be initialized for an instance of a dynamic software operation. A call of an initialized instance of the dynamic software operation may be executed by an inline cache hardware accelerator. The inline cache may be checked to determine that its data is current. When the data is current, the initialized instance of the dynamic software operation may be executed using the related inline cache data. When the data is not current, a new inline cache may be initialized for the instance of the dynamic software operation, including the not current data of a previously initialized instance of the dynamic software operation. The inline cache hardware accelerator may include an inline cache memory, a coprocessor, and/or a functional until one an inline cache pipeline connected to a processor pipeline. |
| US09710385B2 |
Method and apparatus for accessing physical memory from a CPU or processing element in a high performance manner
A method and apparatus is described herein for accessing a physical memory location referenced by a physical address with a processor. The processor fetches/receives instructions with references to virtual memory addresses and/or references to physical addresses. Translation logic translates the virtual memory addresses to physical addresses and provides the physical addresses to a common interface. Physical addressing logic decodes references to physical addresses and provides the physical addresses to a common interface based on a memory type stored by the physical addressing logic. |
| US09710384B2 |
Microprocessor architecture having alternative memory access paths
The present invention is directed to a system and method which employ two memory access paths: 1) a cache-access path in which block data is fetched from main memory for loading to a cache, and 2) a direct-access path in which individually-addressed data is fetched from main memory. The system may comprise one or more processor cores that utilize the cache-access path for accessing data. The system may further comprise at least one heterogeneous functional unit that is operable to utilize the direct-access path for accessing data. In certain embodiments, the one or more processor cores, cache, and the at least one heterogeneous functional unit may be included on a common semiconductor die (e.g., as part of an integrated circuit). Embodiments of the present invention enable improved system performance by selectively employing the cache-access path for certain instructions while selectively employing the direct-access path for other instructions. |
| US09710383B1 |
Caching techniques
Described are techniques for cache management that may include determining whether to flush dirty cached data included in a flash disk cache. Caching layer may include the flash disk cache as a secondary cache and another cache as a primary cache. Responsive to determining to flush dirty cache data from the flash disk cache, first processing may be performed that includes flushing dirty cached pages from the flash disk cache to one or more physical storage devices. The dirty cached pages may include data from a plurality of logical addresses of a first device. The logical address may be sorted and included in a sorted list. Flushing may include writing the plurality of dirty cached pages in an ordering in accordance with the sorted list. |
| US09710380B2 |
Managing shared cache by multi-core processor
Systems and methods for managing shared cache by multi-core processor. An example processing system comprises: a plurality of processing cores, each processing core communicatively coupled to a last level cache (LLC) slice; and a cache control logic coupled to the plurality of processing cores, the cache control logic configured to perform one of: making an LLC slice of an inactive processing core available to an active processing core or power gating the LLC slice, based on estimating cache requirements by active processing cores. |
| US09710376B2 |
Wear leveling for a memory device
Methods of operating a memory device are useful in managing wear leveling operations. Such methods include receiving an instruction from a host device in communication with the memory device, wherein the instruction comprises a command portion indicating a desire to identify portions of the memory device to be excluded from wear leveling operations and an argument portion comprising information identifying a particular group of one or more blocks of the plurality of blocks; storing the information identifying the particular group of one or more blocks to a non-volatile memory of the memory device as a portion of information identifying blocks to be excluded from wear leveling operations; and performing one or more wear leveling operations only on a subset of the plurality of blocks responsive to the information identifying blocks to be excluded from wear leveling operation. |
| US09710374B2 |
Data writing method, memory controller and memory storage device
A data writing method, a memory controller, and a memory storage device are provided. The method is applied to control a rewritable non-volatile memory module that includes two memory units. The method includes: configuring a plurality of logical addresses and mapping the logical addresses to at least parts of physical erasing units in the two memory units; receiving a writing command from a host system to instruct to write data into one of the logical addresses; writing the data into a physical erasing unit in the two memory units; determining one of the memory units where the physical erasing unit belongs to; if the physical erasing unit belongs to one of the memory units, erasing another physical erasing unit in the other memory unit while writing the data into the physical erasing unit. Accordingly, a speed of writing data into the memory storage device by the host system is accelerated. |
| US09710373B2 |
Universal protocol for power tools
A system and method for communicating with power tools using a universal protocol. The universal protocol may be implemented using a universal core module that is installed across a variety of power tools and other devices to enable communications therewith. Communications to and from the power tools are translated to a universal protocol once received. The translated communications are handled by the universal core module of a particular tool according to a set of rules. In response, the universal core module outputs communications according to the universal protocol and the set of rules, which may be translated to another protocol for receipt by components of the tool or an external device. The communications may be used, for example, to obtain tool performance data from the tools and to provide firmware updates. |
| US09710372B2 |
Virtual machine based huge page balloon support
Systems and methods for virtual machine based huge page balloon support are provided. A guest operating system (OS) receives a request from a hypervisor for guest memory to be made available to a host operating system (OS). The guest OS further receives a huge page size of a host page and a quantity of requested guest memory. The guest OS then allocates unused guest memory and transmits at least one address of the allocated guest memory to the hypervisor, where the allocated guest memory is a contiguous block of memory that is at least the size of the huge page size and aligned to the size of the huge page size. |
| US09710369B2 |
System and method for entity generation
A system and method for inspecting a testing state includes determining one or more entities to be manipulated during execution of a test of the system, generating an instance of each of the entities using a plurality of entity templates and a plurality of value generators, and executing the test using the generated instances. At least one of the generated instances includes a first value generated randomly. The test is being executed by one or more processors of the system. In some examples, generating an instance of a first one of the entities includes identifying a first one of the entity templates corresponding to a type of the first entity, determining one or more attributes for the first entity based on the first entity template, and generating an instance of each of the attributes using the entity templates and the value generators. |
| US09710365B2 |
System and method for generating synthetic data for software testing purposes
According to one aspect, it is appreciated that it may be useful and particularly advantageous to provide a data generator that creates more realistic data for testing purposes, especially in data systems where large volumes of data are necessary. In one implementation, a data generator is provided that produces relationally consistent data for testing purposes. For instance, a synthetic data generation process may be performed that produces any number of relationally consistent data table structures. Further, in another implementation, generation of the data can be statistically influenced so that the data generated can take on the “look and feel” of production data. Also, data may be produced as needed, and its generation may be performed in parallel, depending on interdependencies in the data. |
| US09710364B2 |
Method of detecting false test alarms using test step failure analysis
Identifying false test alarms to a developer. A code build is executed in a test system that includes computing functionality and computing infrastructure that is able to execute the build. Executing the code build includes running a plurality of system and integration tests on the code build. As a result of executing the code build, a system and integration test failure is identified. One or more characteristics of the system and integration test failure are identified. The characteristics of the system and integration test failure are compared to characteristics of a set of historical previous known false test alarms. False test alarms are failures caused by a factor other than a factor for which a test is being run. Based on the act of comparing, information is provided to a developer with respect to if the system and integration test failure is potentially a false test alarm. |
| US09710357B2 |
Function evaluation using lightweight process snapshots
A debugger creates a lightweight process snapshot of a debuggee target process and performs in-process or function evaluation (func-eval) inspection against the copy. This allows most state in the debuggee process to stay intact because changes made by the func-eval are local to the process snapshot. Debugger operations that are too destructive to the original debuggee process can be performed on the process snapshot without threatening the real process. Process snapshots allow the debugger to perform a func-eval while isolating the debuggee process and not losing the actual state of the original debuggee process. A new process snapshot of the debuggee process is created when the current snapshot is corrupt due to a func-eval side effect. The debugger may also use a lightweight machine snapshot of the host debuggee machine and perform func-evals against that machine snapshot to further isolate kernel and other side effects. |
| US09710353B2 |
Creating composite baselines based on a plurality of different baselines
Techniques that improve manageability of systems. Techniques are provided for creating different types of baselines that are more flexible and dynamic in nature. A future-based baseline may be created defining a period of time, wherein at least a portion of the period of time is in the future. A baseline may be created that is a composite of multiple baselines. In general, baselines may be specified having one or more periods of time that are either contiguous or non-contiguous. A template for creating a set of baselines based on a set of time periods may also be created, where the template can be used to create a baseline for each of the set of time periods. A moving window baseline may be created having an associated time window that changes with passage of time, where accordingly the data associated with the baseline may also dynamically change with passage of time. |
| US09710352B2 |
Microcontroller with integrated monitoring capabilities for network applications
A microcontroller has integrated monitoring capabilities for network applications. The disclosed techniques can take advantage, for example, of an unused, duplicate network controller that is present in some microcontrollers by providing selection circuitry and configuration capabilities that allow the unused, duplicate network controller to be used for the purpose of monitoring frames that are transferred between network media and another network controller residing on the microcontroller. The monitored frames can then be used, for example, for debugging or other purposes, such as statistical analyzes or security enhancements. |
| US09710351B2 |
Analysis system, analysis method and program
Analysis system, analysis method and program. The system includes: trace means for acquiring a command issued by software executed in an information processing system and a physical address of a memory used by the command as trace data, and recording the trace data to storage means; event detecting means for detecting an event caused to occur by the software and acquiring event information; conversion means for converting the event information to a memory access pattern configured with a plurality of commands for accessing the memory and a plurality of physical addresses; and memory accessing means for accessing the memory using the converted memory access pattern, causing the trace means to acquire trace data and record the trace data to the storage means. |
| US09710349B2 |
Storing first computer trace information in memory of second computer
A system having a plurality of application computer circuits is disclosed. A first application computer circuit is arranged to process a first application. A trace collection circuit collects trace information from the first application computer circuit. A second application computer circuit is arranged to receive and store the collected trace information in a first mode and to process a second application in a second mode. |
| US09710347B2 |
Handling defective non-volatile memory
A non-volatile memory (NVM) system has a main NVM sector with multiple memory segments, a redundant NVM sector for storing recovery records, an address-matching circuit having multiple memory sections, each adapted to store a pair of main and substitute addresses, and an NVM controller. The NVM controller is configured to determine if a first memory segment of the main NVM sector is no longer usable and, consequently (i) create a recovery record for storage in the redundant NVM sector that includes the address of the first memory segment and the data associated with the first memory segment, and (ii) add a pair of main and substitute addresses to the address-matching circuit, where the main address is the address of the first memory segment and the substitute address identifies a substitute location for the data associated with the first memory segment. |
| US09710346B2 |
Decoupled reliability groups
Methods and apparatuses for updating members of a data storage reliability group are provided. In one exemplary method, a reliability group includes a data zone in a first storage node and a checksum zone in a second data storage node. The method includes updating a version counter associated with the data zone in response to destaging a data object from a staging area of the data zone to a store area of the data zone without synchronizing the destaging with the state of the checksum zone. The method further includes transmitting, from the data zone to the checksum zone, an update message indicating completion of the destaging of the data object, wherein the update message includes a current value of the version counter. |
| US09710342B1 |
Fault-tolerant mastership arbitration in a multi-master system
A system and method are provided for controlling mastership among multiple devices in a fault tolerant manner. The devices may be configured to transmit and receive redundant heartbeat signals to indicate the mastership state of the device. The signals may operate in a plurality of configurations including active-master, ready and not-ready. By detecting the signal configuration sent from the other devices, each device is capable of managing its own transitions into and out of mastership in order to ensure that there is one and only one device functioning as master. |
| US09710340B2 |
Replacement of a corrupt driver variable record
A BIOS storage device including driver variable records, a corruption detection engine and a corruption remediation engine, wherein the corruption detection engine is to evaluate a plurality of driver variable records stored in an area of a BIOS storage device for corruption, and a corruption remediation engine is to replace a corrupt driver variable record with a last known good version of the driver variable record. |
| US09710332B1 |
Data provenance in computing infrastructure
Techniques are disclosed for generating data provenance associated with a computing system. For example, a method comprises the following steps. Information associated with the execution of a given process in a given computing environment in accordance with a given process data set is captured. A provenance data set is generated based on the captured information. The generated provenance data set comprises one or more states associated with one or more execution components of the given computing environment that existed during execution of the given process, the one or more execution components comprising one or more virtual machines and one or more storage units. At least a portion of the generated provenance data set may be utilized to revert the computing environment back to the one or more states associated with the one or more execution components of the given computing environment that existed during the execution of the given process. |
| US09710328B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and operating method thereof
An operation method of a semiconductor memory system includes performing a first error correction code (ECC) decoding on a first data stored in the semiconductor memory system, wherein the first data includes user data, an ECC data for the user data and a status data for the user data; and performing a second ECC decoding on the user data by changing a read voltage based on the status data of the first data when the first ECC decoding on the user data fails. |
| US09710323B2 |
Delay-compensated error indication signal
A memory subsystem has multiple memory devices coupled to a command/address line and an error alert line, the error alert line delay-compensated to provide deterministic alert signal timing. The command/address line and the error alert line are connected between the memory devices and a memory controller that manages the memory devices. The command/address line is driven by the memory controller, and the error alert line is driven by the memory devices. |
| US09710320B2 |
Data processing validation
A data processing stage is described which has a communications interface arranged to receive a plurality of input data chunks. Each input data chunk has a pointer to a validation record, where the validation records are stored at a memory accessible to the data processing stage. A processor of the data processing stage is configured to create an output validation record at the memory, and to link the output validation record to the validation records of the input chunks. The processor is configured to compute an output chunk from the input chunks in a manner which ignores data of the input chunks identified as invalid through inspection of the output validation record. |
| US09710315B2 |
Notification of blocking tasks
A computing device may be configured to generate and execute a task that includes one or more blocking constructs that each encapsulate a blocking activity and a notification handler corresponding to each blocking activity. The computing device may launch the task, execute one or more of the blocking constructs, register the corresponding notification handler for the blocking activity that will be executed next with the runtime system, perform the blocking activity encapsulated by the blocking construct to request information from an external resource, cause the task to enter a blocked state while it waits for a response from the external resource, receive an unblocking notification from an external entity, and invoke the registered notification handler to cause the task to exit the blocked state and/or perform clean up operations to exit/terminate the task gracefully. |
| US09710314B2 |
Dynamic throttling of remote controller components based on media application requirements
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for enabling efficient control of a media application at a media electronic device by a user electronic device are provided. For example, a user control data request may be generated by a device application of the media electronic device based on a media control data request received from the media application, where the user control data request may be utilized by a controller application of the user electronic device to update the status of one or more components of the user electronic device and/or to communicate user control data back to the device application, whereby such user control data may be utilized by the device application to generate corresponding media control data for use by the media application (e.g., to control game play of a video game). |
| US09710310B2 |
Dynamically configurable hardware queues for dispatching jobs to a plurality of hardware acceleration engines
A computer system having a plurality of processing resources, including a sub-system for scheduling and dispatching processing jobs to a plurality of hardware accelerators, the subsystem further comprising a job requestor, for requesting jobs having bounded and varying latencies to be executed on the hardware accelerators; a queue controller to manage processing job requests directed to a plurality of hardware accelerators; and multiple hardware queues for dispatching jobs to the plurality of hardware acceleration engines, each queue having a dedicated head of queue entry, dynamically sharing a pool of queue entries, having configurable queue depth limits, and means for removing one or more jobs across all queues. |
| US09710304B2 |
Methods and apparatus to select virtualization environments for migration
Methods and apparatus to select virtualization environments are disclosed. An example method includes determining, via a processor, characteristics of a virtualized application that is deployed in an existing virtualization environment. analyzing, via the processor, the characteristics of the virtualized application to select a subset of virtualization environments that are capable of executing the virtualized application, the subset of virtualization environments selected from a set of virtualization environments of different virtualization environment types used in the datacenter, comparing, via the processor, the characteristics of the virtualized application to the virtualization environments of the subset of virtualization environments to determine scores for the virtualization environments, and migrate the virtualized application from the existing virtualization environment to a new virtualization environment based on the scores. |
| US09710303B2 |
Shared cache data movement in thread migration
Technologies are generally described for methods, systems, and processors effective to migrate a thread. The thread may be migrated from the first core to the second core. The first and the second core may be configured in communication with a first cache. The first core may generate a request for a first data block from the first cache. In response to a cache miss in the first cache for the first data block, the first core may generate a request for the first data block from a memory. The first core may coordinate with a second cache to store the first data block in the second cache. The thread may be migrated from the second core to a third core. The second core and third core may be configured in communication with the second cache. |
| US09710299B2 |
Method and a computer program product for controlling the execution of at least one application on or for a mobile electronic device, and a computer
A method for controlling the execution of an application with a mobile electronic device (202) in a building (100) having a number of rooms (101), the application usable on the mobile electronic device (202) or usable via the mobile electronic device (202) comprises the steps of: experimentally generating at least one rule; measuring with the mobile electronic device (202) a plurality of location-specific short-range signals, and forming a set ({S(ti)}) of signal vectors (S(ti)) representing short-range signals (s) received from known signal transmitters (201, 202) at each time instant; using said set (C) of sequence classifiers of said at-least-one rule on said set ({S(ti)}) of signal vectors (S(ti)) to determine which sequence classifiers in the set (C) of sequence classifiers match; and controlling the execution of the application according to the at-least-one rule. The patent application also contains independent claims for a computer and a computer program product. |
| US09710297B2 |
Dynamic allocation and assignment of virtual environment
A mechanism for enabling enterprise data centers to allocate portions of their infrastructure and assign them to specific line of business unit IT organizations. The mechanism allows the business unit to dynamically and rapidly provision virtual infrastructure as needed to run line of business applications. This can also enable the business unit to focus more on the development and management of the applications rather than invest significant resources in managing the infrastructure layer. In various embodiments, data center administrators may be enabled to allocate and assign a portion of their physical infrastructure (Storage, Network and Compute) and expose them as a virtualized environment to different business unit organizations. |
| US09710292B2 |
Allowing management of a virtual machine by multiple cloud providers
Embodiments of the present invention provide approaches for allowing management of a virtual machine (VM) by multiple cloud providers in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). Specifically, in a typical embodiment, a system identifies a set of provisioned resources of a VM managed by a first cloud provider, generates a set of artifacts containing information for a second cloud provider to allow co-management of the VM by the first cloud provider and the second cloud provider, and provides access to the set of provisioned resources of the VM to the second cloud provider. As such, a single virtual machine may be managed by multiple (e.g., geographically distinct) cloud providers to cooperatively and selectively execute VM operations because the end product (i.e., VM) from the first and second cloud providers is the same. |
| US09710290B2 |
Device for the reliable integration of a software component into a motor vehicle
A coupling device for coupling a software component, which transmits a setting command for setting an actuator on a control system of a motor vehicle, to the control system, the coupling device including a monitoring unit, which is designed to carry out an assessment for each setting command as to whether its implementation will transfer the motor vehicle into a dangerous state, the coupling device being further designed to transmit, as a function of this assessment, a monitored setting command corresponding to the setting command to an implementation unit, the implementation unit being designed to control the actuator. |
| US09710288B2 |
Method and device for loading application program
Disclosed in the present disclosure is an application loading method, including: an M2M terminal module starts up an application manager after being powered up and initialized; the application manager receives a load application instruction and creates a load thread; and the load thread loads an application according to a load application instruction and ends the load thread after the execution of the application is completed. Also disclosed in the present disclosure is an application loading device. By way of the method and device in the present disclosure, the compile efficiency is improved, and it is advantageous for terminal maintenance, and the service function is realized when executing an independent application. |
| US09710278B2 |
Optimizing grouping of instructions
Embodiments include optimizing the grouping of instructions in a microprocessor. Aspects include receiving a first clump of instructions from a streaming buffer, pre-decoding each of instructions for select information and sending the instructions to an instruction queue. Aspects further include storing initial grouping information for the instructions in a local register, wherein the initial grouping information is based on the select information. Aspects further include updating the initial group information stored in the local register when additional pre-decode information becomes available and grouping the instructions that are ready to be dispatched into a dispatch group based on the grouping information stored in the local register. Aspects further include dispatching the dispatch group to an issue unit. |
| US09710276B2 |
Execution of instruction loops using an instruction buffer
In a normal, non-loop mode a uOp buffer receives and stores for dispatch the uOps generated by a decode stage based on a received instruction sequence. In response to detecting a loop in the instruction sequence, the uOp buffer is placed into a loop mode whereby, after the uOps associated with the loop have been stored at the uOp buffer, storage of further uOps at the buffer is suspended. To execute the loop, the uOp buffer repeatedly dispatches the uOps associated with the loop's instructions until the end condition of the loop is met and the uOp buffer exits the loop mode. |
| US09710274B2 |
Extensible execution unit interface architecture with multiple decode logic and multiple execution units
Various methods tightly couple together decode logic associated with multiple types of execution units and having varying priorities to enable instructions that are decoded as valid instructions for multiple types of execution units to be forwarded to a highest priority type of execution unit among the multiple types of execution units. Among other benefits, when an auxiliary execution unit is coupled to a general purpose processing core with the decode logic for the auxiliary execution unit tightly coupled with the decode logic for the general purpose processing core, the auxiliary execution unit may be used to effectively overlay new functionality for an existing instruction that is normally executed by the general purpose processing core, e.g., to patch a design flaw in the general purpose processing core or to provide improved performance for specialized applications. |
| US09710272B2 |
Computer processor with generation renaming
A processor including a register file having a plurality of registers, and configured for out-of-order instruction execution, further includes a renamer unit that produces generation numbers that are associated with register file addresses to provide a renamed version of a register that is temporally offset from an existing version of that register rather than assigning a non-programmer-visible physical register as the renamed register. The processor includes a small reset DHL Gshare branch prediction unit coupled to an instruction cache and configured to provide speculative addresses to the instruction cache. |
| US09710269B2 |
Early conditional selection of an operand
Delays due to waiting for operands that will not be used by a select operand instruction, are alleviated based on an early recognition that such operand data is not required in order to complete the processing of the select operand instruction. At appropriate points prior to execution, determinations are made regarding a selection criterion or criteria specified by the select operand instruction, conditions that affect the selection criteria, and the availability of operands. A hold circuit uses the determinations to control the activation and release of a hold signal that controls processor pipeline stalls. A stall required to wait for operand data is skipped or a stall is terminated early, if the selected operand is available even though the other operand, that will not be used, is not available. A stall due to waiting for operands is maintained until the selection criteria is met and the selected operand is fetched and made available. |
| US09710266B2 |
Instruction to compute the distance to a specified memory boundary
A Load Count to Block Boundary instruction is provided that provides a distance from a specified memory address to a specified memory boundary. The memory boundary is a boundary that is not to be crossed in loading data. The boundary may be specified a number of ways, including, but not limited to, a variable value in the instruction text, a fixed instruction text value encoded in the opcode, or a register based boundary; or it may be dynamically determined. |
| US09710264B2 |
Screen oriented data flow analysis
A method for performing data flow analysis of computer code, comprising: providing computer code of a computer program having a plurality of user interface screens; dividing the computer code to a plurality of portions such that each one of the portions includes code for inducing at least one of loading and using one of the user interface screens; performing a variable usage analysis to detect which variables are at least one of calculated and used in each one of the portions; constructing a data dependence model defining dependencies among the portions based on the variable usage analysis; and identifying, for at least one of the portions and using the data dependence model, at least one unnecessary variable loaded in one of the user interface screens and not used in a respective portion and in a group of portions depending on the respective portion. |
| US09710263B2 |
Understanding computer code with human language assistance
Methods and arrangements for providing human-language descriptors for computer code. An interface is used to input computer code, and a human-language descriptor is automatically associated with at least one code identifier in the computer program code, wherein the human-language descriptor is obtained to assist a user in determining a meaning of the at least one code identifier. The human-language descriptor is visually displayed along with the at least one code identifier. Other variants and embodiments are broadly contemplated herein. |
| US09710261B2 |
Techniques to enhance software production
Techniques to enhance software production are described. An apparatus may include a processor and a memory unit to couple to the processor. The memory unit may store a software build service that when executed by the processor is operative to receive a request to subscribe to the software build service from a software development client, create a virtual software build platform to build a software application, and assign multiple build resources from a resource pool to the virtual software build platform to build the software application, with each of the multiple build resources having one or more assigned affinity relationships for build execution tasks to build the software application. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09710260B2 |
Increasing proficiency status of developers
The present disclosure relates to a tool for increasing efficiency of development and upskilling of developers of software. The system may be configured to identify minimum skills for development of a software tool, identify elements of the software tool to be provided, establish a maximum timeline for completion of the elements of the software tool, based on the elements identified, and determine a proficiency status level appropriate to complete the development of the software tool based on both the identified skills and the elements. |
| US09710257B2 |
System and method to map defect reduction data to organizational maturity profiles for defect projection modeling
A method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions. The programming instructions are operable to receive a maturity level for an organization and select at least one defect analysis starter/defect reduction method (DAS/DRM) defect profile based on the maturity level. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to determine a projection analysis for one or more stages of the life cycle of a software code project of the organization based on the at least one DAS/DRM defect profile. |
| US09710249B2 |
Dynamic configuration of virtual appliances
A solution is proposed for deploying a virtual appliance onto a data processing system. A corresponding, method comprises instantiating the virtual appliance with a basic configuration onto the data processing system, determining a value of each one of a set of environmental features at a virtual data processing environment associated with the virtual appliance, and downloading a set of local software programs corresponding to the values of at least part of the environmental features onto the virtual appliance. |
| US09710248B2 |
Application install and layout syncing
Embodiments described herein relate to synchronizing configuration information between devices associated with a user. The synchronized configuration information can relate to application installations and uninstallations as well as to user modifications to user interfaces for managing and invoking the applications. For example, layouts of application representations provided by respective application launchers on a user's respective devices are kept automatically synchronized when the user modifies any of the layouts. Installations and uninstallations are similarly synchronized between the user's devices. Installations and uninstallations that might stem from synchronization may be circumscribed in various ways, such as by allowing the user to specify whether specific applications are to be installed/uninstalled only on specific devices or globally, by filtering propagation of synchronization updates according to hardware or software features and incompatibilities, or others. |
| US09710244B2 |
System and/or method for computing interprocedural dominators
According to an aspect of some embodiments of the present invention there is provided a computerized method of analyzing code of a software program for dominance relationships between a plurality of functions of the software program, the method comprising: receiving source code of a software program, the source code having a plurality of functions; identifying a plurality of intraprocedural dominator graphs each for another of the plurality of functions; combining the plurality of intraprocedural dominator graphs to create an interprocedural dominance graph with edges that logically connect between nodes of the plurality of functions; identifying a plurality of interprocedural dominance relations between nodes in different functions of the plurality of functions using the interprocedural dominance graph; and analyzing the software program according to the plurality of interprocedural dominance relations. |
| US09710240B2 |
Method and apparatus for filtering object-related features
A method and apparatus for filtering the set of object features of a user interface and presenting the filtered set of object features for display on a display device associated with a computer system. In one example, the system generates transition timeline data for state transitions in the user interface and filters the transition timeline data as a function of a state of the user interface to generate a filtered list of transitions for display of a transition timeline. The filtering is a function of a state of the user interface. |
| US09710238B2 |
Automatically optimizing analytics database server
A system and method for automatically optimized statistical analysis by computer is disclosed. Given a programmatic definition of the data model, the system generates, manages, and interfaces optimized computer code for use by higher level client applications. The method by which the computer generated code is transparently compiled and linked for remote access by clients provides near peak numerical efficiency without any human optimization in the client space. The configuration of model subsystems is designed to allow flexible general purpose analytics as well as specialized machine learning through optimizing feedback mechanisms. |
| US09710235B2 |
Generating software code
A technique for generating code includes detecting, via a processor, a selected model element. The technique also includes detecting, via the processor, a copy operation corresponding to the selected model element. The technique further includes detecting, via the processor, a selected copy option associated with the copy operation, and generating software code based on the copy option. |
| US09710234B2 |
Generating software code
A technique for generating code includes detecting, via a processor, a selected model element. The technique also includes detecting, via the processor, a copy operation corresponding to the selected model element. The technique further includes detecting, via the processor, a selected copy option associated with the copy operation, and generating software code based on the copy option. |
| US09710227B2 |
Formatting floating point numbers
Flexible high-speed generation and formatting of application-specified strings in floating point and related formats is available through table-based base conversion which may be integrated with custom formatting, and through printf-style functionality based on separate control string parsing and specialized format command sequence execution. |
| US09710221B2 |
Intelligent safer music system for an operating room
An integrated and reactive music control system designed for silencing music in an operating room during critical events. The preferred system contains a music input, a hardware interface to integrate real-time patient physiologic data, a software application to process the data, a user interface, and a music output, any portion or all of which may be hardwired or wireless. Through the user interface, medical personnel may adjust pre-set limits on physiologic parameters that indicate abnormality or risk to a particular patient. To reduce ambient noise pollution and permit communication and concentration of the surgical team, volume is reduced as a patient's condition deteriorates. Resulting in additional safety to patients in the operating room, the cessation of music may capture the attention of health care professionals who suffer from alarm desensitization. The system's integration includes an anesthesia monitor, but may extend to include a hospital data server and EMR systems. |
| US09710217B2 |
Identifying the positioning in a multiple display grid
In an approach for determining relative positioning in a multiple display grid, a processor receives positioning information from sensors operably affixed to at least a first display and a second display. A processor analyzes the positioning information to determine a relative positioning between at least the first display and the second display. A processor generates an extended display on the at least the first display and the second display, based on the analyzed positioning information. |
| US09710213B2 |
Portable device and method for controlling the same
A method for controlling a portable device including first and second display units at opposing surfaces of the portable device. The method includes detecting one of a first unlock command for switching a state of the first display unit to an active state and maintaining a state of the second display unit in a locked state or a second unlock command for switching the state of the first display unit to the active state and switching the state of the second display unit to a ready-to-activate state; switching the state of the first display unit to the active state and switching the state of the second display unit to the ready-to-activate state when the second unlock command is detected; detecting an unlock trigger for switching the second display unit, which is in the ready-to-activate state, to the active state; and switching the second display unit, which is in the ready-to-activate state, to the active state according to the detected unlock trigger. |
| US09710212B2 |
Methods for assessing potentially compromising situations of a utility company
Methods are provided for assessing potentially compromising situations of a utility company. One or more source displays of a site are accessed. A fly-out or data lensing is used to bring forward a portion of the source displays. The fly-out or data lensing is used to draw attention to a potentially compromising situation and direct the operator's attention without loosing perspective of a whole power system of the utility company. |
| US09710211B2 |
Printing system, information processing apparatus, control method, and storage medium
An information processing apparatus on which a non-contact IC tag can be mounted transmits information to a terminal apparatus when a state of the information processing apparatus changes. The information is the changed information which should be written to the non-contact IC tag. |
| US09710208B2 |
System and method for visualizing relationships between a source view and a target view
A method for visualizing relationships between a source and target view includes displaying in the source view a source widget representing a source object; detecting a user interaction event for the source widget; sharing a message including a reference to or at least part of the source object; displaying in the target view a target widget representing a target object; reading by a target device that displays the target view the shared message; determining the existence of a relationship between the source and target object by looking-up in a storage the referenced or the at least part of the source object from the shared message; and updating the target view by changing the visual appearance if a relationship has been determined. The source and target object each are one of a printable object, a reprographic device or component thereof, and a property or status of any of the these. |
| US09710207B2 |
Information processing system in which a printer associated with a web browser can be deleted
If printing from an external print service is disabled in a print relay service, the external print service is instructed to disable the status of a printer associated with the print relay service, and disables the status of the instructed printer. Hence, the user of the external print service can easily recognize the unavailable disabled printer. |
| US09710202B2 |
Image forming apparatus having first sheet holding unit for which sheet type is registered and second sheet holding unit for which sheet type is not registered, method for controlling image forming apparatus, and storage medium
An image forming apparatus includes a search unit that, in a case where job data in which a sheet type in sheet feeding setting information is specified is received, searches for a sheet cassette of which a sheet type in sheet setting information of the sheet cassette is unregistered, and an execution unit that, in a case where, as a result of the search, there is a sheet cassette of which a sheet type in the sheet setting information is unregistered, executes processing of sheet type detection for detecting a type of a sheet set in the sheet cassette. |
| US09710200B2 |
Adaptive job execution apparatus for executing a job with a plurality of alternative sets of executing conditions, job execution method, and computer-readable storage medium for computer program
An image forming apparatus is provided with the following functional portions: a printable/unprintable determination portion that determines whether or not a print job can be executed based on any of a plurality of conditions specified by a user; and a first printing process portion that executes, if it has been determined that the print job can be executed based on any of the plurality of conditions, the print job based on any of executable conditions among the plurality of conditions, the executable conditions being conditions based on which the print job can be executed. |
| US09710197B2 |
Storage device, controller, and method
According to one embodiment, A storage device includes a magnetic disk, a head, and a control unit. The magnetic disk includes a plurality of physical sectors having a first length. A logical block having a second length shorter than the first length, and a redundant area having a length of the difference between the first length and the second length are assigned for the physical sectors. The head reads the data from the physical sector of the magnetic disk. The control unit controls to change the second length of the logical block while maintaining the first length of the physical sector in response to reception of a change request for changing the second length of the logical block from a host. |
| US09710192B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for providing data from a buffer
Apparatuses and methods for providing data from a buffer are disclosed herein. An example apparatus may include an array, a buffer, and a memory control unit. The buffer may be coupled to the array and configured to store data. The memory control unit may be coupled to the array and the buffer. The memory control unit may be configured to cause the buffer to store the data responsive, at least in part, to a first write command and may further be configured to cause the buffer to store the data in the array responsive, at least in part, to a flush command. The memory control unit may further be configured to interrupt the flush command to prepare for a read command or a second write command and resume the flush command once the read command or the second write command is performed. |
| US09710187B1 |
Managing data relocation in storage systems
A method is used in managing data relocation in storage systems. A request is received to write to a slice of storage tier in a data storage system where the slice is being relocated. The relocation of the slice includes copying data of the slice to another slice in the data storage system. Location within the slice at which the request to write to the slice has been received is determined. Based on the determination, relocation of the slice of the storage tier is effected. |
| US09710185B2 |
Computing system with partial data computing and method of operation thereof
A computing system includes: a memory computing block configured to: identify a partial data computing (PDC) command, a data mask, a partial data, or a combination thereof based on decoding a data packet, compute a computation result for identifying a portion of a read data to be modified according to the PDC command, the data mask, the partial data, or a combination thereof, generate a merge result based on modifying the portion of the read data according to the computation result, and a memory interface, coupled to the memory computing block, configured to transmit the merge result. |
| US09710182B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for a memory die architecture including an interface memory
Apparatuses and methods for reducing capacitance on a data bus are disclosed herein. In accordance with one or more described embodiments, an apparatus may comprise a plurality of memories coupled to an internal data bus and a command and address bus, each of the memories configured to receive a command on the command and address bus. One of the plurality of memories may be coupled to an external data bus. The one of the plurality of memories may be configured to provide program data to the internal data bus when the command comprises a program command and another of the plurality of memories is a target memory of the program command and may be configured to provide read data to the external data bus when the command comprises a read command and the another of the plurality of memories is a target memory of the read command. |
| US09710176B1 |
Maintaining wear spread by dynamically adjusting wear-leveling frequency
A wear statistic associated with a wear metric distribution is determined, wherein the wear metric distribution is a distribution of a wear metric associated with a group of solid state storage cells. A wear-leveling period is determined, wherein the wear-leveling period is based at least in part on the wear statistic, wherein the wear-leveling period is a measure of time or operations between two wear-leveling operations performed on the group of solid state storage cells. |
| US09710174B2 |
Semiconductor device
In semiconductor devices with nonvolatile memory modules embedded therein, a technology is provided which facilitates evaluation of the nonvolatile memory characteristics. An MCU includes a CPU, a flash memory, and an FPCC that controls write or erase operations to the flash memory. The FPCC executes a program used to perform write or other operations to the flash memory, thereby performing write or other operations to the flash memory in accordance with a command issued by the CPU. In the MCU, the FCU is configured to execute test firmware to evaluate the flash memory. In addition, a RAM can be used by both the CPU and FCU. |
| US09710171B2 |
Synchronous input/output commands writing to multiple targets
Aspects include communicating synchronous input/output (I/O) commands between an operating system and a recipient. Communicating synchronous I/O commands includes issuing a first synchronous I/O command with a first initiation bit set, where the first synchronous I/O command cause a first mailbox command to be initiated by the recipient with respect to a first storage control unit. Further, communicating synchronous I/O commands issuing a second synchronous I/O command with a second initiation bit set, where the second synchronous I/O command causes a second mailbox command to be initiated by the recipient with respect to at least one subsequent storage control unit. Communicating synchronous I/O commands also includes issuing a third synchronous I/O command with a first completion bit set in response to the first mailbox command being initiated and issuing a fourth synchronous I/O command with a second completion bit set in response to the first mailbox command being initiated. |
| US09710170B2 |
Processing data storage commands for enclosure services
Systems and method are disclosed for processing data storage commands for enclosure services. In one embodiment, a data storage device may include a virtual ATA packet interface (VATAPI). The VATAPI may identify itself as a SCSI enclosure services (SES) device. The VATAPI may allow the data storage device to use SES operations/commands to perform operations/commands for enclosure services. |
| US09710166B2 |
Systems and methods for predicting compressibility of data
Systems and methods for predicting the compressibility of data in a flash storage device are provided. One such method involves extracting byte intervals from the block of data, each of the byte intervals consisting of a preselected number of bytes, performing a hash function to map the byte intervals into a plurality of bins, the plurality of bins comprising one bin for each possible value of the byte intervals, incrementing a hit count each time more than one of the byte intervals is mapped into a single bin of the plurality of bins, and determining whether to compress the block of data based on a comparison of a ratio of the hit count to a total number of the byte intervals and a preselected threshold. This method may be implemented in hardware to ensure fast and efficient execution. |
| US09710165B1 |
Identifying volume candidates for space reclamation
Systems, methods, and computer readable storage mediums for discovering volumes which are good candidates for space reclamation. A storage subsystem identifies the file system storage capacity for a given volume from the file system metadata of the given volume. Then, the storage subsystem compares the file system capacity of the given volume to the allocated capacity on the storage subsystem. If the allocated capacity is greater than the file system capacity by a given threshold, the storage subsystem marks the given volume as a candidate for space reclamation and generates an alert to the user to reclaim the space of the given volume. |
| US09710163B2 |
Method and apparatus for inputting characters
A method and apparatus for inputting characters in a terminal are provided. The method includes receiving a first key input through a key input unit; storing at least one character corresponding to the first key input; displaying the stored at least one character in a first display area; removing the displayed at least one character from the first display area in response to a second key input received through the key input unit; displaying the removed at least one character in a second display area; receiving input of a selection of at least one character that is displayed in the second display area; and displaying the selected at least one character in the first display area. |
| US09710157B2 |
Removing connective strokes
For removing connective strokes, code identifies two connective points in a contiguous written input from a written input device. Each connective point is identified in response to a connective score for the connective point exceeding a connective threshold. The code further removes a connective stroke between the two connective points from the contiguous written input. |
| US09710155B2 |
User interface
User input data and movement data relating to movement of a device to which the user input is made is monitored. The input data may be modified according to the movement data so that inadvertent inputs based on an unwanted tremors, bumps, or similar are accounted for. Data from an accelerometer may indicate sudden movement or bumps. The input data, such as handwriting for example, may then be modified based on the data from the accelerometer. Therefore, the device may determine the input as intended by the user. |
| US09710154B2 |
Dynamic gesture parameters
Techniques involving gestures and other functionality are described. In one or more implementations, an input is recognized by a computing device as corresponding to a gesture, the gesture defined using a plurality of parameters, at least one of which having a threshold that varies with respect to another one of the parameters. An operation is caused to be performed by the computing device that corresponds to the gesture. |
| US09710151B2 |
Evaluation of digital content using non-intentional user feedback obtained through haptic interface
Systems and methods are provided for evaluating the quality of automatically composed digital content based on non-intentional user feedback obtained through a haptic interface. For example, a method includes accessing non-intentional user feedback collected by a haptic interface executing on a computing device, wherein the non-intentional user feedback comprises information regarding user interaction with elements of digital content rendered by the computing device. The digital content is content that is automatically generated using content generation rules. The method further includes evaluating a quality of the digital content based on the non-intentional user feedback, and generating an evaluation report that includes information regarding the quality of the digital content. |
| US09710148B2 |
Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof
A mobile terminal including a memory including at least first and second OSs (Operating Systems) and applications dedicated to each of the first and second OSs; a display unit configured to display a first OS (Operating System) dedicated screen including the applications dedicated to the first OS among the first and second OSs; and a controller configured to control the display unit to switch the displaying of the first OS dedicated screen to a displaying of a second OS dedicated screen if a switching command for switching the first OS dedicated screen to the second OS dedicated screen is input. |
| US09710147B2 |
Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof
A mobile terminal including a wireless communication unit configured to provide wireless communication; a touchscreen; a memory; and a controller configured to display a clipboard including copied content on the touchscreen, receive a paste selection signal indicating a pasting of the copied content from the clipboard to another location on the touchscreen, determine a property of the other location of the touchscreen, and modify a type of the copied content to correspond to the determined property of the other location when the content is pasted to the other location. |
| US09710142B1 |
System and method for dynamic user interface gamification in conference calls
A computer-implemented method for dynamically changing a conference graphical user interface is provided. The method includes providing a graphical user interface representative of a conference in an online environment to a plurality of participants in the conference, wherein the graphical user interface includes representations of the plurality of participants, and the representations are based on scores associated with the plurality of participants. The method further includes acquiring data from one or more of the plurality of participants representative of a participation level of a participant of the plurality of participants and updating the score associated with the participant using the acquired data. Moreover, the method includes determining changes to the graphical user interface based on a comparison of the scores associated with the plurality of participants and providing the changes to the graphical user interface to the plurality of participants. |
| US09710137B2 |
Handedness detection
A method can include receiving information via a touch-sensitive user interface; analyzing at least a portion of the information to determine a hand preference; and controlling a graphical user interface based at least in part on the determined hand preference. |
| US09710136B2 |
Mobile terminal having video playback and method for controlling of the same
A mobile terminal is disclosed. The mobile terminal recognizes at least one object from video contents including at least one object and displays an object progress bar capable of independently controlling frames including a recognized object. Also, by manipulating the object progress bar according to a predetermined pattern, frames including an object corresponding to the object progress bar from among the whole frames of the video contents can be edited and stored more easily. |
| US09710135B2 |
Application switching in a graphical operating system
A method for application switching in an operating system may be provided. The method may comprise providing at least two active applications on the operating system, and providing a first list of actions related to the first active application, via a first interface, to an application switching manager, and providing a second list of actions related to the second active application, via a second interface, to the application switching manager. Additionally, the method may further comprise selecting an active application out of the at least two active applications together with selecting an action selected from the first list of actions for a first application or a second action for the second list for a second application using a graphical user interface. |
| US09710131B2 |
Computer-implemented method for manipulating three-dimensional modeled objects of an assembly in a three-dimensional scene
A computer-implemented method for manipulating three-dimensional modeled objects of an assembly in a three-dimensional scene comprising the steps of: displaying a three-dimensional bounding box (BB) encompassing at least one three-dimensional object, a face of the surface of the bounding box (BB) comprising a plurality of interactive surfaces which are parts of the face; hovering pointing means (PM) on the bounding box (BB); and if at least one face of the surface of the bounding box (BB) is displayed such that its interactive surfaces are not accessible for the pointing means (PM), displaying a wider surface (WS) that allows accessibility of said interactive surfaces. |
| US09710130B2 |
User focus controlled directional user input
A user input for a near-eye, see-through display device is disclosed. Hands-free user input in an augmented reality environment is provided for. A user can provide input by moving the orientation of their head. For example, the user could rotate their head. In one aspect, a user can provide input by moving their eye gaze along a direction. In one aspect, when the user directs their attention at a user interface symbol, a handle extends away from the user interface symbol. The handle may serve as a type of selection device such that if the user directs their attention along the handle, away from the user interface symbol, a selection can be made. “As one example, the selection causes a spoke menu to appear which the user can select by rotating their head such that the system determines the user is looking along the spoke away from a central hub. |
| US09710126B2 |
Method and apparatus for displaying a preview of an application to a user
A method in a portable electronic device for providing a user with an improved user interface is described. The electronic device includes one or more processors and memory including instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the electronic device to perform the method. While content in a user interface of a first application is displayed, a first user input is detected. In response to the first user input, at least a preview for a second application is displayed. In some instances, the second application is selected automatically at least partly in dependence on the content displayed in the user interface of the first application. |
| US09710125B2 |
Method for generating multiple windows frames, electronic device thereof, and computer program product using the method
A method for generating multiple windows frames, an electronic device thereof, and a computer program product using the method are provided. In the present method, first, a touch trajectory generated by continuously touching a touch panel of the electronic device is detected, wherein the center of the touch panel is a display area, and a non-display area surrounds the display area. Then, whether the touch trajectory is started from one side of the non-display area and passed through the display area to be extended to another side of the non-display area is determined. If so, the display area is split according to the touch trajectory to display at least two windows frames. As a result, an intuitional and convenient method for generating multiple windows frames in the display area is provided, and the operation of the electronic device is made very convenient. |
| US09710122B1 |
Customer support interface
Disclosed are various embodiments for an error support application. Error reports are received and correlated with aggregated known errors. Support is initiated as a function of whether the error is caused by a provided infrastructure service or developer functionality. |
| US09710120B2 |
Sensing apparatus
In one embodiment, a sensing apparatus having a first region with light transmittance less than a second region is provided. The sensing apparatus includes a first conductive layer, a color filter layer and a second conductive layer disposed on a substrate. The first conductive layer is located in the first region and includes first electrode patterns. The color filter layer covers the first conductive layer. The second conductive layer is disposed on the color filter layer and includes second electrode patterns. At least one of the second electrode patterns has a connection portion passing through the color filter layer to electrically connect to one of the first electrode patterns. The first electrode patterns and the second electrode patterns form first electrode series and second electrode series intersecting with the first electrode series. The connection portion is located at the intersection of one first electrode series and one second electrode series. |
| US09710119B2 |
Touch detection device, touch detection method and touch screen panel, using driving back phenomenon, and display device with built-in touch screen panel
Provided is a touch detection device, touch detection method, and touch screen panel, which detects a touch signal by detecting a driving back phenomenon occurring in a touch pad by a driving voltage applied to a driving capacitor, and a display device with a built-in touch screen panel. The touch detection device that is added on top of a display device and detects occurrence of a touch capacitance (Ct) by an approach of a bodily finger (25) or a touch input instrument such as a conductor similar to the bodily finger, the touch detection device comprising: a touch pad (10) that forms the touch capacitance (Ct) between the touch input instrument and the touch pad; a driving capacitor (Cdrv) whose one side is connected to the touch pad (10) and to the other side of which a driving voltage for detection of a touch input is applied; a common voltage detector that detects a common voltage generated from the display device; a driving voltage generator that generates the driving voltage in synchronization with the common voltage; and a touch detector that is connected to the touch pad (10), and that detects a touch signal by using a driving back phenomenon when the touch capacitance (Ct) is added to the driving capacitor (Cdrv) according to occurrence or non-occurrence of a touch in the touch input instrument. A touch signal is detected while avoiding a point in time of a change of a common voltage state, and a driving voltage is applied through a driving capacitor connected to a touch detector, to thus detect whether or not a driving back phenomenon occurs in the touch detector and to thereby acquire a touch signal. Accordingly, an influence due to parasitic capacitance generated by noise, coupling phenomenon or other factors is minimized, to thus acquire a touch signal stably. |
| US09710112B2 |
Apparatus and method of identifying touch area
Methods and apparatus are provided for identifying coordinates of a touch area on a touch screen panel based on a capacitive scheme. The touch screen panel has a first electrode layer having first electrode lines aligned in a first direction and a second electrode layer having second electrode lines aligned in a second direction. A signal generation unit generates a spread spectrum signal and supplies the spread spectrum signal to the first electrode layer. A signal restoration unit processes a band restoration for a signal input from the second electrode layer. A touch area coordinate identification unit identifies the coordinates of the touch area on the touch screen panel from a signal input from the signal restoration unit. |
| US09710106B2 |
Touch screen display device and driving method thereof
According to aspects of embodiments of the present invention a touch screen display device includes: a touch sensor; a touch controller configured to detect a position touched on the touch sensor; and a touch correcting unit configured to correct an initial touch position detected by the touch controller to a final touch position, wherein the touch correcting unit comprises: a first computing unit configured to convert the initial touch position to a temporary touch position; a second computing unit configured to compute a touch movement amount between the initial touch position and the temporary touch position; and a third computing unit configured to compute the final touch position by subtracting the touch movement amount from the initial touch position. |
| US09710103B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting lift off of a touchscreen
A composite touchscreen incorporates acoustic pulse recognition sensing and capacitive sensing technology. The hybrid screen incorporates the advantages of each technology while minimizing the drawbacks. When such a screen is incorporated in a gaming device specialized gestures and functions can be implemented that enhance the interface, the range of games, and the gaming experience. |
| US09710102B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method of manufacturing information processing apparatus
There is provided an information processing apparatus, including: a display unit including a display area, the display area being configured to display an image; and a touchscreen unit including a facing area and an outer area, the facing area facing the display area, the outer area being outside of the facing area. An area of the touchscreen unit is attached to the display unit, the area including the facing area and the outer area. |
| US09710099B2 |
Mobile terminal and method for controlling the same
A mobile terminal and a method of controlling the same are disclosed. The mobile terminal may include a touch screen and a controller configured to control output on the touch screen based on touch inputs detected while the touch screen is in an inactive state. A first touch input may be detected at a point on the touch screen while the touch screen is inactive and a second touch input may be detected on the inactive touch screen while the first touch input is maintained on the touch screen. An entire area or a partial area of the touch screen is activated according to the detected second touch input while the first touch input is maintained on the touch screen. Moreover, an execution screen of a prescribed application may be output on the activated area of the touch screen while the first touch input is maintained on the touch screen. |
| US09710096B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method, and program for removing displayed objects based on a covered region of a screen
An information processing apparatus is provided which includes a display unit 110 for displaying an image on a screen based on image data, a contact and proximity detection unit 161 for detecting contact or proximity between a subject of operation and the surface of the display unit, a covered time measurement unit 165 for measuring covered time when the screen is covered by the contact or proximity of the subject of operation, and an object display control unit 166 for removing an object displayed in a covered region on the screen covered by the subject of operation from the covered region when the covered time is longer than a predetermined time. |
| US09710089B2 |
Touch display panel having a plurality of spacers connected to a thin film transistor and manufacturing method thereof
A touch display panel, a manufacturing method thereof, a driving method and a touch display device are disclosed. The touch display panel comprises an array substrate and a color film substrate, wherein the array substrate comprises a first thin film transistor and a first detection line formed on a first substrate, and the color film substrate comprises a main spacer, an auxiliary spacer, a reference signal line and a second detection line formed on a second substrate. The bottom of the main spacer is connected to the reference signal line, the top of the main spacer is connected to a first source, the bottom of the auxiliary spacer is connected to the second detection line, and a projection of the top of the auxiliary spacer on the array substrate connects a first drain with the first detection line. |
| US09710087B1 |
Display stack with compressible capacitive sensors
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for ambient light sensing for electronic displays. In one embodiment, a device may include a cover layer, a display, and a capacitive sensor stack positioned in between the cover layer and the display. The capacitive sensor stack may include a first sensor optically coupled to the cover layer, a light guide optically coupled to the first sensor, where the light guide is translucent and compressible, and a second sensor optically coupled to the display and to the light guide. The capacitive sensor stack may be configured to detect a force received at the cover film and to compress in response to the force. |
| US09710086B2 |
Display device integrated with touch screen panel and method of fabricating the same
A fabrication method is described which reduces processes of fabricating display devices such as an in-cell type display device. The display device includes: a gate line over a substrate; a data line over the substrate; a thin-film-transistor (TFT) including a drain electrode and a source electrode, the TFT located at a pixel defined by an intersection between the gate line and the data line; a first electrode layer located to be spaced apart from one of the source electrode and the drain electrode of the TFT; and a second electrode and a connection pattern over the first electrode, both the second electrode and the connection pattern of a same material, the connection pattern connecting one of the source electrode or the drain electrode of the TFT to the first electrode. |
| US09710085B2 |
Pointer display device, pointer display/detection method, pointer display/detection program and information apparatus
Disclosed herein is a pointer display device, including, a touch panel provided on a display screen of a display section a pointer display section configured to detect a contact point in a touch operation on the touch panel and to display a pointer in an area containing the contact point, and a hotspot detection section configured to detect as a hotspot a position corresponding to one part of the pointer exclusive of the contact point. |
| US09710084B2 |
Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is disclosed. In one aspect, the OLED display includes a display substrate including a display area and a peripheral area surrounding the display area, a thin film display layer formed in the display area, and a touch sensor formed in the peripheral area on the display substrate. The OLED display further includes an encapsulation substrate formed over the thin film display layer, a touch sensing layer formed over the encapsulation substrate, and a window formed over the touch sensing layer. |
| US09710079B2 |
Mobile terminal using flexible display and method of controlling the mobile terminal
A mobile terminal including a flexible display unit and a control method thereof are provided. The mobile terminal includes a flexible display unit bendable in response to force applied to the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal includes a sensing unit configured to sense bending of the flexible display unit and a controller configured to generate a control signal for performing a function associated with information output to the flexible display unit in response to the bending. |
| US09710078B2 |
Touch panel and method for fabricating the same
A touch panel and a method for fabricating the touch panel are presented. The touch panel includes a panel and a conductive border. A touch circuit is formed on a first side of the panel. A conductive border is formed on a circumference of the first side along the touch circuit. A method for fabricating the touch panel is further presented. The touch circuit of the touch panel is integrated onto the panel, so as to reduce the number of substrates that need to be bonded, thereby avoiding problems caused by substrate bonding and effectively decreasing the overall thickness of the touch panel. |
| US09710072B1 |
Interchangeable input mechanisms for control devices
Various embodiments described herein are directed toward input mechanisms, for input devices, configured to receive and removably couple to interchangeable elements. Handheld input devices applicable to some embodiments may include, without limitation, computer controllers, video game console controllers, and handheld video gaming devices. Input mechanisms applicable to various embodiments may include, for control sticks (e.g., joysticks or analog sticks operable by a user's finger, such as a thumbstick), buttons, switches, and directional pads. According to some embodiments, an input mechanism is provided comprising a base component, and an interchangeable element configured to removably couple to the base component. Depending on the embodiment, coupling different interchangeable elements to the base component may cause the input mechanism to vary in size, appearance, contour, material, or features provided by the input mechanism. |
| US09710067B2 |
Method and apparatus for manipulating content in an interface
A machine implemented method includes sensing entities in first and second domains. If a first stimulus is present and an entity is in the first domain, the entity is transferred from first to second domain via a bridge. If a second stimulus is present and an entity is in the second domain, the entity is transferred from second first domain via the bridge. At least some of the first domain is outputted. An apparatus includes a processor that defines first and second domains and a bridge that enables transfer of entities between domains, an entity identifier that identifies entities in the domains, a stimulus identifier that identifies stimuli, and a display that outputs at least some of the first domain. The processor transfers entities from first to second domain responsive to a first stimulus, and transfers entities from second to first domain responsive to a second stimulus. |
| US09710065B2 |
Eccentric rotating mass actuator optimization for haptic effects
A system that generates a haptic effect on a device using an Eccentric Rotating Mass (“ERM”) actuator determines an acceleration of the device during operation of the device and receives a haptic effect signal including one or more parameters, where one of the parameters is a voltage output level. The system varies the voltage output level parameter based at least on determined acceleration, and applies the varied haptic effect signal to the ERM actuator. |
| US09710064B2 |
Systems and methods for providing a haptic effect associated with a pgraphical simulation or virtual tag
A system includes a display configured to display a graphical simulation, a computer configured to run a software program designed to display the graphical simulation on the display, and a stylus constructed and arranged to be manipulated by a user of the system in at least two dimensions to affect the graphical simulation. The stylus includes an actuator configured to output a haptic effect to the user upon receiving a control signal from the computer. |
| US09710063B2 |
Systems and methods for determining haptic effects for multi-touch input
A system of the present disclosure may include a haptic output device configured to output a haptic effect to a touch surface; a touch sensitive input device configured to detect a first user interaction and transmit a first sensor signal, the touch sensitive input device further configured to detect a second user interaction and transmit a second sensor signal, wherein at least part of the first user interaction occurs at the same time as the second user interaction; a processor in communication with the sensor, the processor configured to: receive the first sensor signal and the second sensor signal; determine a haptic effect based in part on the first user interaction and the second user interaction; transmit a haptic signal associated with the haptic effect to the haptic output device. |
| US09710062B2 |
Electronic apparatus and method for controlling electronic apparatus to provide tactile sensation feedback
A setting item for specifying a setting detail to be set is displayed on a setting screen for making a setting about contents. A content item representing the content is displayed on a content screen for displaying the content. An object touching the setting item on the setting screen is given a tactile sensation according to the touched setting item. The object touching the content item on the content screen is given the same tactile sensation as that given when the setting item for specifying the setting detail set for the touched contents is touched. |
| US09710059B2 |
Transparent display system and apparatus provided with the same
The embodiment of the present disclosure provides transparent display system and vehicle equipment provided with the same. The transparent display system may comprise: a transparent display unit positioned between user's eyes and an external light source; a position determination unit for the user's eyes configured to determine a position of user's eyes; a position determination unit for the light source configured to determine a position of the external light source; a projective coordinate calculation unit configured to calculate coordinate distribution of a projective area based on the position of the user's eyes and the position of the external light source, the projective area being a region through which the user watches and suffers from blaring so as to be shielded; and a control unit configured to generate a display control signal based on the coordinate distribution information of the projective area; the shielding is along the viewing direction of the user so as to display based on the display control signal to implement appropriate shielding in the projective area. |
| US09710055B1 |
Method and system for abstracting external devices via a high level communications protocol
A system and method for abstracting an external device from a host includes the external device in communication with the host device. The host device includes an abstraction driver communicating with the plurality of different external devices. The host device communicates a control command to the abstraction driver. The abstraction driver communicates abstraction control commands from the abstraction driver to the external device in response to the control command. The external device determines executable code corresponding to the abstraction control commands, performs executable code at the external device and communicates data from the external device to the receiving device. |
| US09710047B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for varying a clock frequency or voltage during a memory page transfer
An information processing apparatus connected to another information processing apparatus includes an arithmetic processing device, and one or more processors configured to detect an exception event of a self main memory when the arithmetic processing device requests an access to data on a main memory possessed by the another information processing apparatus and vary a clock frequency or a voltage of the arithmetic processing device on the basis of the detection of the exception event. |
| US09710043B2 |
Controlling a guaranteed frequency of a processor
In one embodiment, a processor includes one or more cores to execute instructions and a power controller coupled to the one or more cores. In turn, the power controller includes a control logic to receive an indication, from one or more sources, of a dynamic change to a guaranteed frequency at which at least one of the one or more cores are to operate, and to determine a final guaranteed frequency at which the processor is to operate for a next window, and to communicate the final guaranteed frequency to at least one entity. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09710037B1 |
USB voltage regulation and switching
A merchant terminal has two USB interfaces. Each USB interface includes a voltage pin and an ID pin. The merchant terminal also has two power supply switches, each of which selectively couples a respective one of the voltage pins to a merchant terminal power supply. Each power supply switch is responsive to either a power supply voltage received at an associated voltage pin or an oscillating signal received at an associated ID pin. |
| US09710035B2 |
IC chip
An IC chip includes at least two power supply domains, and an isolator configured to have a bridge function and a trace function. (a) The bridge function passes a signal on a bus in one of the two power supply domains to a bus in the other of the two power supply domains when turning on power supply in both of the two power supply domains; and (b) the two power supply domains are a first power supply domain and a second power supply domain, and the trace function traces actions of a circuit in the second power supply domain when turning off power supply in the first power supply domain and turning on power supply in the second power supply domain. |
| US09710026B2 |
Computing device heat management
The description relates to computing devices, such as mobile computing devices. One example can include a housing containing a processor. This example can also include a transition component configured to automatically change a distance between the processor and a proximate region of the housing based upon a state of the processor. |
| US09710023B2 |
Treatment of substrate sub-surface
Perforated structures and methods for forming perforated structures are disclosed. The perforated structures include partial holes or blind-holes that pass partially through the substrate. The partial holes can be positioned proximate to through-holes that pass entirely through the substrate. The partial holes add mechanical strength to the perforated substrate. Described are methods for modifying the optical appearance of the partial holes such that the partial holes appear indistinguishable from the through-holes, which allows for flexibility in designing cosmetically appealing patterns within the perforated structures. |
| US09710021B2 |
Apparatus and method of providing an apparatus comprising a bendable portion
An apparatus and method wherein the apparatus includes a bendable display; a substrate configured to support the bendable display wherein the substrate includes at least one bendable portion configured to enable the bendable display to be moved between an open configuration and a closed configuration; and a support structure provided adjacent to the bendable portion of the substrate configured to provide a rigid support for the bendable portion of the substrate, at least, when the display is in the closed configuration. |
| US09710015B2 |
Wearable computer system
A wearable computer system that provides for convenient and efficient use of all fingers while the user is standing, reclining or using hands intermittently for other tasks. The central unit hangs from a neck strap and communicates with a head mounted display. The central unit's front surface has keys, accessible from opposite edges by each hand. Typing is similar to the traditional, but rotated 90 degrees on each side. Keys are individually assignable to any letter, symbol, musical note, color, action, or macro. Back panels have thumb keys and controls, and can be modified to accept alternate thumb controls and additional hardware, such as sensors, circuits, cameras, and auxiliary connectors for specific tasks such as musical instrument performance or augmented reality game play. Smartphones, can be incorporated within or connected to the central unit. Desktop use can be accomplished by unfolding the panels of one embodiment. |
| US09710007B2 |
Integrated circuit capable of providing a stable reference current and an electronic device with the same
An electronic device and an integrated circuit thereof are provided. The integrated circuit includes a voltage generator and a current generator with a negative temperature coefficient. The voltage generator generates a reference voltage proportional to an absolute temperature based on a predetermined value. The current generator with the negative temperature coefficient receives the reference voltage and generates a reference current based on the reference voltage. |
| US09710006B2 |
Power up body bias circuits and methods
An integrated circuit device can include at least a first body bias circuit configured to generate a first body bias voltage different from power supply voltages of the IC device; at least a first bias control circuit configured to set a first body bias node to a first power supply voltage, and subsequently enabling the first body bias node to be set to the first body bias voltage; and a plurality of first transistors having bodies connected to the first body bias node. |
| US09710003B2 |
LDO and load switch supporting a wide range of load capacitance
An architecture and method to maintain stability of a low drop-out (LDO)/load switch linear voltage regulator (LVR). The architecture method support optionally determining during a power-up phase and by using a load detection circuit, the estimated load parameters that represents at least one selected from a group consisting of: the load time constant and the load resistor at an output node of the LDO/load switch LVR, and adjusting, based on the estimated output load parameters, an adaptive RC network in the LDO/load switch LVR, wherein the adaptive RC network produces an adaptive zero in a feedback network transfer function of the LDO/load switch LVR, wherein the adaptive zero reduces an effect of a non-dominant pole in the open loop transfer function of the LDO/load switch LVR, and wherein a frequency of the adaptive zero is adjusted based on the estimated load parameters. |
| US09709999B2 |
Thermostatic element
An element with a cup containing a thermally expanding material, a piston capable of translational movement along its axis, a rigid guide for guiding the piston, a seal for sealing in the thermally expanding material having an annular overall shape, centered on the axis and through which the piston passes axially, and which includes first and second opposite axial parts against which the guide and cup press respectively in an antagonistic manner to compress the seal around the piston, and an anti-extrusion washer mounted coaxially around the piston and axially interposed between the guide and first part of the seal. The first part of the seal around the piston can be supercompressed to make the degree of compression equal to a value strictly higher than that associated with an operational thermostatic element formed by the cup, piston, guide, seal and anti-extrusion washer assembled with one another without the supercompression. |
| US09709994B2 |
Device for providing a fluid having regulated output pressure
A device for providing an output fluid at a regulated output pressure includes a pressure control unit controlled via a pilot control pressure and a pilot control unit that provides the pilot control pressure. The pressure control unit includes an inlet chamber for an input fluid having an input pressure, an outlet chamber for the output fluid having the regulated output pressure and a first valve unit that acts between the inlet chamber and the outlet chamber. A first diaphragm of the pressure control unit is acted upon by the pilot control pressure. A second diaphragm, which is mechanically coupled to the first diaphragm is acted upon by the output fluid having the output pressure acts. At least the second diaphragm mechanically acts on the first valve unit. |
| US09709992B2 |
Upgraded flight management system for autopilot control and method of providing the same
A preexisting FMS system may be upgraded to increase its functionality by optimizing the control of autopilot and auto-throttle functions and replacing other preexisting components with different components for enhancing the functionality of the FMS system. The preexisting IRU, CADC, DME receiver and DFGC in the upgraded FMS system are in communication with the legacy AFMC but, instead of employing the legacy EFIS, the EFIS is replaced by a data concentrator unit as well as the display control panel and integrated flat panel display, and a GPS receiver. The upgraded FMS system is capable of iteratively controlling the autopilot and auto-throttle during all phases of flight and of such increased functionality as increased navigation database storage capacity, RNP, VNAV, LPV and RNAV capability utilizing a GPS based navigation solution, and RTA capability, while still enabling the legacy AFMC to exploit its aircraft performance capabilities throughout the flight. |
| US09709989B2 |
Laser automatically guided vehicle (AGV) without reflecting panel and navigation method thereof
The present invention relates to the technical field of transportation devices. Provided is a laser automatically guided vehicle (AGV) without a reflecting panel, comprising: a laser scanner (1), a vehicle (2), an upper computer system, a lower computer system, an execution mechanism (3) and an input/output device; the upper computer system receives electric signals from the laser scanner (1) and processes the electric signals to make an original map and an effective map, and plans a route to obtain the shortest route, and then sends a control instruction to the execution mechanism (3); a turning encoder and an angle sensor transmit data such as turning speed and angle to the upper computer system to realize feedback control, thereby conducting autonomous navigation of the vehicle. The laser automatically guided vehicle (AGV) without a reflecting panel can achieve positioning and obstacle avoidance for the laser automatically guided vehicle (AGV) without the installation of a reflecting panel, thus improving environmental adaptability. |
| US09709988B2 |
Identification of acceptable vehicle charge stations
A vehicle may require an electric recharge. A request may be sent to obtain identification of charge locations along a route. Along with the request, data may be sent identifying vehicle location, route, and desired safety rating. A response may be obtained from a remote server, and the results may be displayed, which include the user rating of the charge station. The desired user rating may be adjusted based on the battery's state of charge (SOC). The desired user rating may be decreased as the battery state of charge decreases. The user may further set the desired user rating. The desired user rating may further depend on other ratings of the charging station. |
| US09709987B2 |
Systems and methods for deactivating plant material outside of a growing region
A system for deactivating plant material outside of a growing region includes an emitter device configured to deactivate plant material, a sensor configured to remotely detect plant material outside of the growing region, and a controller configured to aim and activate the emitter device to deactivate the plant material in response to the plant material being detected by the sensor. |
| US09709985B1 |
Stop sign detection and response
Aspects of the disclosure relate to detecting and responding to stop signs. An object detected in a vehicle's environment having location coordinates may be identified as a stop sign and, it may be determined whether the location coordinates of the identified stop sign correspond to a location of a stop sign in detailed map information. Then, whether the identified stop sign applies to the vehicle may be determined based on the detailed map information or on a number of factors. Then, if the identified stop sign is determined to apply to the vehicle, responses of the vehicle to the stop sign may be determined, and, the vehicle may be controlled based on the determined responses. |
| US09709984B2 |
Administering a recall by an autonomous vehicle
Administering a recall by an autonomous vehicle, including: receiving, by a vehicle management module, a recall message identifying a component of the autonomous vehicle that is subject to the recall; adjusting, by the vehicle management module, a vehicle capability in dependence upon the component of the autonomous vehicle that is subject to the recall; determining, by the vehicle management module, a recall response plan in dependence upon the adjusted vehicle capability; and executing, by the vehicle management module, the recall response plan. |
| US09709983B2 |
Long-range drone remote-control equipment
This unit implements a remote-control console (20) supporting a tablet (18). The console comprises a TX/RX module (48) interfaced with a TX/RX module (50) of the tablet to form a first Wi-Fi local network, which is a short-range standard network. The console comprises another specific TX/RX module (54), interfaced with an TX/RX module (58) of the drone (10) to form a second Wi-Fi local network, which is an optimized long-range network, both being networks operating on non-shared channels. A bidirectional routing module (78) ensures the interfacing between the two Wi-Fi networks, to allow the transparent exchange of data between the drone (10) and the tablet (18), as well as with levers and buttons of the console (64, 66) or with a peripheral (80) connected thereto. |
| US09709982B2 |
Flight management system of an aircraft
A flight management system with core and supplementary modules is proposed. The core module may include generic applications that implement generic functionalities related to a flight management of the aircraft. The supplementary module may include supplementary applications that implement supplementary functionalities specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs. The supplementary module may be divided into principal and auxiliary partitions (or entities), and the supplementary applications, also referred to as principal applications, may be implemented in the principal partition. One or more auxiliary applications may be implemented in the auxiliary partition. Each auxiliary application may be associated with one or more principal applications such that the execution of the principal application requires the associated auxiliary application to be executed. |
| US09709980B2 |
Method and system for diagnosing compressors
Method, system and computer software for diagnosing a compressor. The method includes generating a feature vector of the compressor, the feature vector of the compressor including components describing states of various parts of the compressor; determining, based on fuzzy constraints, an aggregated anomaly vector corresponding to the feature vector; defining rules for a preset list of possible faults/failure modes of the compressor; calculating a corroborating measure between the aggregated anomaly vector and the rules; and identifying a fault/failure mode of the compressor based on a result of the corroborating measure. |
| US09709978B2 |
Using cloud-based data for virtualization of an industrial automation environment with information overlays
A cloud-based virtualization generation service collects industrial data from multiple industrial automation systems of multiple industrial customers for storage and analysis on a cloud platform. A virtualization management component (VMC) generates a virtualized industrial automation system of an industrial automation system based on data analysis results. The VMC facilitates remotely controlling the industrial automation system based on user interactions with the virtualized industrial automation system, and updates the virtualized industrial automation system based on collected data relating to the industrial automation system. The VMC customizes a user's view of the virtualized industrial automation system based on a user's role, authorization, location, or preferences, wherein different views of the virtualized industrial automation system with different data overlays are presented on different communication devices of different users. The VMC enables a user to filter data of a virtualized view and share information, including virtual notes, with other users. |
| US09709977B2 |
Conveyor system for conveying objects and control process for such a system
A control process for a conveyor system for conveying pallets or other objects comprises at least two mutually separate free-moving, i.e. not rail-mounted, conveyor units. Of the at least two conveyor units, a first conveyor unit is assigned a superordinate status and a second conveyor unit is assigned a subordinate status. The second conveyor unit therefore follows the first conveyor unit. To this end, the second conveyor unit detects a shift in the mutual relative position of the two conveyor units with the aid of a sensor and modifies its driving parameters depending on the shift in position detected by the sensor. |
| US09709975B2 |
Control system of servo motors improving processing precision of plurality of axes
A control system of servo motors in a machine tool, comprising a host control device which generates position command values for processing a workpiece, servo control devices which drive servo motors to operate a tool for processing using the position command values, and position detectors which detect positions of the servo motors or a tool position and further a position error computing part computes position error between the position command values and detected positions of the servo motors, a reference angle generating part calculates a reference point on a closed figure and a reference angle which varies monotonously from a current processing point under the condition that any position inside of the closed figure which the position command value forms as the center, and learning control parts use the reference angle and the position error as the basis to perform angle synchronization type learning control to control the servo motors. |
| US09709969B2 |
Methods and apparatus to control machine configurations
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for controlling machine configurations. An example method disclosed herein includes identifying a machine configuration, the machine configuration comprising a host machine connected to an auxiliary machine; determining a desired trajectory based on at least one of the host machine turning, a desired work path, or an alignment of the host machine and the auxiliary machine; and controlling steering of the auxiliary machine based on a desired trajectory of the host machine. |
| US09709968B2 |
Pass-through connection systems and methods for process control field devices
Systems and methods are provided to connect wireless adapters and field devices for process control systems, such systems and methods include a process control system having a field device, a wireless adapter, a first wire and a second wire. The field device includes a first terminal, a second terminal, a first conduit and a second conduit. The wireless adapter includes a first terminal, a second terminal, a first port and a second port. The first conduit of the field device couples to the second port of the wireless adapter. The first wire passes between the field device and the wireless adapter connecting the first terminal of the field device to the first terminal of the wireless adapter. The second wire passes between the field device and the wireless adapter connecting the second terminal of the field device to the second terminal of the wireless adapter. Other systems and methods are also provided. |
| US09709967B2 |
Method and device for creating a data-based function model
A method for generating a data-based function model includes: providing a first data-based partial model ascertained from a first training data record; providing at least one additional training data record; and performing the following steps for the at least one additional training data record: ascertaining a difference training data record having training data which correspond to the differences between the output values of the relevant additional training data record and the function value of the sum of the partial function values (ffirst_partial_model(x) fsecond_partial_model(x)) of the first data-based partial model and previously ascertained data-based partial model(s) at each of the measuring points of the relevant training data record; ascertaining an additional data-based partial model from the difference training data record; and forming a sum (f(x)) from the first and the additional data-based partial models. |
| US09709965B2 |
Data center intelligent control and optimization
Systems and methods of monitoring, analyzing, optimizing and controlling data centers and data center operations are disclosed. The system includes data collection and storage hardware and software for harvesting operational data from data center assets and operations. Intelligent analysis and optimization software enables identification of optimization and/or control actions. Control software and hardware enables enacting a change in the operational state of data centers. |
| US09709961B2 |
Radio controlled timepiece and method for controlling radio controlled timepiece
The fixed-time reception control section carries out the reception process at first time to acquire first reception time data and compares the acquired first reception time data with the internal time. When a difference in time between the first reception time data and the internal time is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the fixed-time reception control section carries out the reception process at second time different from the first time to acquire second reception time data. The time correction section compares the acquired second reception time data with the internal time and corrects the internal time based on the second reception time data when a difference in time between the second reception time data and the internal time is smaller than a second threshold. |
| US09709956B1 |
Tactile switch for an electronic device
Embodiments are directed to a watch having a touch-sensitive display and a switch assembly positioned along or within an enclosure. The switch assembly includes a shaft extending into an opening of the enclosure and is configured to receive rotational and translational input. A switch, positioned within the enclosure, is configured to detect the translational input. An optical sensor, positioned within the enclosure, is configured to detect the rotational input. The watch also includes a processor positioned within the enclosure and configured to modify a graphical output of the display. The graphical output may be responsive to various inputs, including a touch input provided at the display, the translational input provided at the switch assembly, and the rotational input provided at the switch assembly. |
| US09709953B2 |
Despeckling a computer generated hologram
A method for despeckling the image reproduced by a Computer Generated Hologram (CGH) including reproducing a CGH, and jittering a location of an exit pupil of an optical system through which the CGH is imaged, relative to an observer's input pupil, so as to shift at least some speckles out of the exit pupil. A method for despeckling a Computer Generated Holographic image including computing a first modulation for a first holographic image, and computing a second modulation for a second holographic image of a same holographic image using an initial phase distribution used for calculating the first holographic image as an initial phase distribution used for calculating the second modulation. Related apparatus and methods are also described. |
| US09709950B2 |
Image forming apparatus with detachable fixing device
An image forming apparatus with a detachable fixing device that is capable of printing with high quality without printing wastefully. A storage unit stores identification information about a fixing device in association with an attribute of a sheet that is printable with the fixing device concerned. A control unit executes printing when the storage unit does not store an attribute of a sheet corresponding to a fixing device that is currently attached to the image forming apparatus. The control unit determines whether to execute printing according to an attribute of a sheet used in printing and an attribute of a sheet stored in the storage unit when the storage unit stores the attribute of the sheet corresponding to the fixing device that is currently attached to the image forming apparatus. |
| US09709949B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming cartridge supporter, and image forming unit
An image forming apparatus has a body frame and a slide frame. The slide frame is configured to be pulled out from the body frame along a sliding direction. A plurality of image forming cartridges is detachably mounted on the slide frame. A plurality of electrode members is mounted on the slide frame and aligned along the sliding direction so as to correspond to the image forming cartridges. A body-side contact portion of each of the electrode members is electrically connected to the body frame. A cartridge-side contact portion of the electrode member is electrically connected to the image forming cartridge. The image forming cartridge is connected to the body via the corresponding electrode member when the slide frame mounting the image forming cartridges is inserted to the body frame. |
| US09709948B2 |
Cover opening/closing mechanism and image forming apparatus therewith
A cover opening/closing mechanism includes an opening/closing cover, a moving member, a first biasing member, a gear, and a damper. The opening/closing cover is pivotable about a rotary shaft. The moving member, as the opening/closing cover is opened and closed, reciprocates, while in contact with the opening/closing cover, in a first positive direction and a first negative direction. The first biasing member biases in the first positive direction the moving member that moves in the first negative direction as the opening/closing cover is rotated in the closing direction. The gear is coupled with the opening/closing cover. The damper generates a load according to the rotation speed of the gear. |
| US09709945B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image forming system
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit that forms an image by transferring toner onto a paper sheet; a fixing unit that fixes the image onto the paper sheet having the image formed thereon by the image forming unit; a charging unit that electrically charges the paper sheet having the image fixed thereonto by the fixing unit; and an adhesion preventing unit that prevents adhesion of wax to the charging unit, the wax being contained in the toner transferred onto the paper sheet, the adhesion preventing unit being located on an upstream side of the charging unit in a direction of conveyance of the paper sheet. |
| US09709943B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum, a light exposure device, a developing device, a fixing unit disposed opposite to the light exposure device relative to the developing device, a sheet supply tray disposed below the developing device, an ejection tray disposed above the developing device and having a sheet receiving surface inclined downward, relative to a horizontal direction, toward the charger, and a sheet conveying path through which a sheet is conveyed from the sheet supply tray to the ejection tray. A lowest end portion of the sheet receiving surface is disposed below an upper end of the charger in the vertical direction. The charger is disposed opposite to the developing device relative to the lowest end portion of the sheet receiving surface. |
| US09709940B2 |
Image forming apparatus
A fixing member has a fixing body, which slidably moves in a straight line direction, and a first engaging part. The first engaging part projects downward from a lower surface of the fixing body to pass through an operation panel. The first engaging part is engaged with a part to be engaged formed on a lower surface of the operation panel, thereby restricting the fixing body so as not to move in the straight line direction. A space is formed in a height direction between one side end portion in the straight line direction of the fixing body and the upper surface of the operation panel. When the one side end portion in the straight line direction of the fixing body is pressed downward and is subjected to bending deformation, engagement of the first engaging part and the part to be engaged is released. |
| US09709937B2 |
Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus
The disclosed fixing apparatus includes: a magnetic field generation apparatus for generating a magnetic field; a fixing belt for emitting heat generated due to the magnetic field; and first and second thermally sensitive magnetic alloys arranged inside the fixing belt. A first Curie point of the first thermally sensitive magnetic alloy and a second Curie point of the second thermally sensitive magnetic alloy are different from each other. |
| US09709934B2 |
Image forming apparatus that determines abnormality in signal wire
An image forming apparatus includes a heating roller, a temperature sensor, a controller, a signal wire, and a first resistor. The temperature sensor detects the temperature of a heating roller. The controller has a processor. The signal wire transmits a signal of the temperature sensor to the controller (input terminal). The first resistor is disposed between an output terminal of the controller and the signal wire. The controller includes a voltage application unit, a voltage detection unit, and a determination unit. The voltage application unit applies a voltage to the output terminal. The voltage detection unit detects a voltage value of the input terminal. The determination unit determines whether or not an abnormality occurs in the signal wire, on the basis of the voltage value detected by the voltage detection unit. |
| US09709933B2 |
Heating device and image forming apparatus
A heating device includes: a heater; and a power distribution controller. The heater heats a predetermined heating target. The power distribution controller controls supply of AC power to the heater. The power distribution controller performs power distribution to the heater in units of AC half wave, and controls the power supply to the heater in accordance with power distribution control patterns respectively corresponding to a first time period as a power distribution start period, a third time period as a power distribution stop period, and a second time period between the first time period and the third time period. |
| US09709928B2 |
Drive mechanism for an intermediate transfer member module of an electrophotographic imaging device
An intermediate transfer member (ITM) module including a frame; a backup roll and a drive roll rotatably disposed along a first end portion of the frame. A tension roll is rotatably disposed along a second end portion of the frame. An ITM belt forms an endless loop around the backup roll, the drive roll and the tension roll such that rotation of the drive roll causes the ITM belt to translate and the tension roll and the backup roll to rotate. The drive roll and the backup roll form a transfer nip with a transfer roll. A drive mechanism is coupled between the drive roll and the backup roll and includes a plurality of gears. The drive mechanism overdrives the backup roll relative to the drive roll while limiting an amount of tension of the ITM belt in the second transfer nip. |
| US09709919B2 |
Developing device, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge
A developing device includes a casing containing a two-component developer including toner and carrier, a developer bearer to transfer the developer on the developer bearer to a developing area, a toner density sensor to output an output value based on toner density of the developer, a toner density detection module to detect the toner density based on the output value of the toner density sensor and output characteristics relating the toner density and the output value, an acquisition module to acquire the output characteristics based on the output value of the toner density sensor relating a new developer and a predetermined toner density of the new developer, a bulk density fluctuation estimating module to estimate bulk density fluctuation for bulk density of the new developer, and a correction module to correct the output value based on the estimated bulk density fluctuation. |
| US09709918B1 |
Image forming apparatus using brilliant toner having metal pigment
An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier; a charging device; an electrostatic image forming device that forms an electrostatic image; a developing device including a container that stores an electrostatic image developer containing a brilliant toner containing a substantially flake shape metal pigment, a developing member that is disposed so as to face, with a gap width, the image carrier and that develops the electrostatic image to form a toner image, and a voltage application unit, the apparatus satisfying 0.6×10−13C/particle≦Q≦3.0×10−13 C/particle Formula (1): 150 g/m2 g/m2≦M≦300 g/m2 Formula (2): 0.8≦M/L≦1.4 Formula (3): where Q represents a charge amount per particle [C/particle] of the brilliant toner, M represents an amount [g/m2] of the electrostatic image developer carried by the developing member, and L represents the gap width [μm]. |
| US09709916B2 |
Optical scanning device and image forming apparatus
An optical scanning device (11) in the image forming apparatus (1) of the present invention includes a deflector (35, 37) deflecting a laser light scanning an image carrier (13) outputted from a light source (32Y, 32C, 32M, 32K); a first reflection mirror part (43Y, 43C, 43M, 43K) adjusting scanning curve of the laser light deflected by the deflector (35, 37); and a second reflection mirror part (44Y, 44C, 44M, 44K) arranged at a downstream side from the first reflection mirror part (43Y, 43C, 43M, 43K) in an optical path of the laser light to adjust scanning inclination of the laser light. |
| US09709914B2 |
Liquid developer, developer cartridge, and image forming apparatus
A liquid developer includes a carrier liquid and a toner particle whose surface is treated by a polyamine, wherein an amount of sodium ion to be eluted in 1 g of the toner particles is 0.04 mg or less. |
| US09709912B2 |
Toner, and image forming method, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus using the toner
A toner is provided. The toner includes a crystalline resin and a non-crystalline resin, and has a thermal property such that when the toner is heated after being firstly heated to 60° C. followed by cooling in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the toner has a clear peak specific to melting of the crystalline resin at a temperature T1, and when the toner is heated after being firstly heated to 80° C. followed by cooling in the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the toner does not have a clear peak specific to melting of the crystalline resin at a temperature not higher than the temperature T1. |
| US09709911B2 |
Toner, image forming apparatus, and process cartridge
A toner including a binder resin and a release agent, wherein the toner has a component soluble in a 50% by mass aqueous methanol solution in an amount of 0.10% by mass to 0.60% by mass, and wherein the toner has a flowing-out beginning temperature (Tfb) of 55.0° C. to 100.0° C. as determined by a flowtester method. |
| US09709906B2 |
Charge transport substance, electrophotographic photoreceptor, electrophotographic photoreceptor cartridge, and image-forming apparatus
The present invention is to provide a charge transport substance having high resistance to stress within electrophotographic processes, an electrophotographic photoreceptor which has excellent high-speed responsiveness, shows a sufficient residual potential, and has high resistance to stress within electrophotographic processes, an electrophotographic cartridge, and an image-forming apparatus. The invention provides a charge transport substance having a specific structure. The invention further provides an electrophotographic photoreceptor including a photosensitive layer which contains the charge transport substance having a specific structure, an electrophotographic cartridge, and an image-forming apparatus, equipped with this electrophotographic photoreceptor. |
| US09709901B2 |
Lithographic apparatus and a method of operating the apparatus
A lithographic apparatus comprising a projection system, and a liquid confinement structure configured to at least partly confine immersion liquid to an immersion space defined by the projection system, the liquid confinement structure and a substrate and/or substrate table is disclosed wherein a measure is taken to reduce the effect of droplets and/or a liquid film on the last element of the projection system. |
| US09709896B2 |
Illumination system for lithographic projection exposure step-and-scan apparatus
Illumination system for a lithographic projection exposure step-and-scan apparatus comprising a light source, a pupil shaping unit, a field defining unit, a first lens array, a first slit array, a second lens array, a third lens array, a second slit array, a fourth lens array, a condenser lens, and a scanning drive unit sequentially arranged along the light beam propagation direction. The illumination system reduces requirements on lens processing, slit scanning speed, and slit scanning precision, therefore may be implemented more easily. |
| US09709893B2 |
Exposure method using electron beam and substrate manufacturing method using the same
An exposure method includes designing a target pattern to be formed on a substrate, producing a first dose map having first dose values of beams of energy, e.g., electron beams, creating from the first dose map a second dose map having second dose values different from the first dose values, and irradiating regions of a layer of photoresist on the substrate with overlapping beams to expose the regions to doses of energy having values based on the second dose values. The photoresist layer may then be developed and used an etch mask. The etch mask may be used to etch a mask layer on a transparent substrate to form a reticle. |
| US09709892B2 |
Actinic-ray- or radiation-sensitive resin composition and method of forming pattern using the same
Provided is an actinic-ray- or radiation-sensitive resin composition and a method of forming a pattern using the same, ensuring excellent the etching resistivity and the stability during a post-exposure delay (PED) period. The composition contains a resin containing a repeating unit containing a group that is decomposed when acted on by an acid to thereby produce an alcoholic hydroxyl group, and a compound that generates an acid of pKa≧−1.5 when exposed to actinic rays or radiation. |
| US09709890B2 |
Resist composition and patterning process
A negative pattern is formed by coating a resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units having a carboxyl and/or hydroxyl group optionally substituted with an acid labile group, an oxirane or oxetane compound having a hydrophilic group, and an acid generator onto a substrate, prebaking, exposing, baking, and developing in an organic solvent so that the unexposed region of resist film is dissolved away and the exposed region of resist film is not dissolved. The resist composition exhibits a high sensitivity and high dissolution contrast during organic solvent development and forms a fine hole or trench pattern via positive/negative reversal. |
| US09709882B2 |
Light source apparatus and projector having light source apparatus
There is provided a light source apparatus and projector having the light source apparatus, said light source apparatus comprising: a laser module where first semiconductor laser(s) and second semiconductor laser(s) which emits a light of the wavelength different from that of said first semiconductor laser(s) are placed such that the emitting direction of each semiconductor laser is approximately the same and a short axis direction of a far field pattern of each semiconductor laser is approximately the same, and an optical multiplexing component which a light which exits from said laser module enters without being converged, wherein said first semiconductor laser(s) and said second semiconductor laser(s) are placed in linear symmetry in said short axis direction at the exit surface of said laser module. |
| US09709881B2 |
Discharge lamp lighting device, discharge lamp lighting method, and projector
A discharge lamp lighting device according to an aspect of the invention includes a resonance circuit unit connected to a discharge lamp, a power converting unit configured to convert direct-current power into alternating-current power and supply the alternating-current power to the discharge lamp via the resonance circuit unit, and a control unit configured to supply the alternating-current power having a first frequency for causing resonance of the resonance circuit unit and a second frequency different from the first frequency, to the discharge lamp in a lighting start period from a start of lighting of the discharge lamp to a steady lighting state of the discharge. The second frequency is equal to or higher than 100 kHz. |
| US09709876B2 |
Optical device
An optical device that includes first and second members that is rotatable relative to the first member is provided that includes a coupling unit that is provided for the second member; and a position detecting unit that has a detecting part disposed at the first member and a detected part disposed at the second member, and is configured to detect a position of the second member relative to the first member. When viewed from a direction along a rotation central axis of the second member, an angle between a first axis and a second axis at a position within a rotational range of the second member is 90 degrees. The first axis is an axis that is perpendicular to the rotation central axis and passes through the detecting part and the second axis is an axis that is perpendicular to the rotation central axis and passes through the coupling unit. |
| US09709872B2 |
Dual-tap electro-optic modulator auto-bias control
A method and apparatus for controlling operation of an electro-optic modulator is disclosed. A first intensity of light is obtained at an input to the electro-optic modulator. A second intensity of light is obtained at an output of the electro-optic modulator. A difference between the obtained first intensity and the obtained second intensity is used to control a biasing of a modulator transfer function of the electro-optic modulator to control the electro-optic modulator. |
| US09709871B2 |
Optical module and transmitting device
An optical module includes an optical modulator that modulates light by using an electrical signal input from a first surface to a plurality of electrodes; and a flexible substrate that has a plurality of wiring patterns electrically connected to the plurality of electrodes, respectively, on the first surface. The optical modulator has a bulging part that bulges out from the first surface opposed to the flexible substrate toward the flexible substrate and is in contact with the flexible substrate. |
| US09709869B2 |
Electro-optic system configured to reduce a perceived color change
An electro-optic system is provided that includes a front element having first and second surfaces, a rear element including third and fourth surfaces, wherein the front and rear elements are sealably bonded together in a spaced-apart relationship to define a chamber, and an electro-optic medium contained in the chamber, and the electro-optic medium is adapted to be in at least a high transmittance state and a low transmittance state. The electro-optic system further includes a display device in optical communication with the electro-optic element, the display device including at least one light source and is configured to emit at least a first primary and a second primary, the first and second primaries each having a first hue (hab) when viewed through the electro-optic element in approximately the high transmittance state and a second hue (hab′) when viewed through the electro-optic element in approximately the low transmittance state, wherein a change in the first and second hues (Δhab) for both first and second primaries is less than approximately 31 degrees. |
| US09709865B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel and method for manufacturing the same
A liquid crystal display panel includes a base substrate, a first step difference compensating pattern, a gate metal pattern, a semiconductor pattern, a source electrode, a drain electrode, a pixel electrode and a color filter. The first step difference compensating pattern is disposed on the base substrate and includes an inorganic material. The gate metal pattern is disposed on the first step difference compensating pattern and includes a gate electrode and a gate line electrically connected to the gate electrode. The semiconductor pattern is overlapped with the gate electrode. The source electrode is electrically connected to the semiconductor pattern. The drain electrode is electrically connected to the semiconductor pattern and is spaced apart from the source electrode. The pixel electrode is electrically connected to the drain electrode. The color filter is overlapped with the pixel electrode. |
| US09709864B2 |
Array substrate and its manufacturing method and display device
An array substrate and its manufacturing method, and a display device are disclosed, and the array substrate includes a black matrix (200) disposed on a base substrate (100) and has a plurality of pixel units arranged in an array, the orthographic projection of the pattern of the black matrix (200) on the base substrate at least partially covers the gap between adjacent pixel units, and the surface of at least a portion of the black matrix (200) has a first concave-convex structure (A) capable of reflecting the light irradiated to the surface of the black matrix (200) in diffuse reflection. Because the first concave-convex structure (A) of the surface of the black matrix (200) has a diffuse reflection effect, the external light will be subjected to diffuse reflection when irradiated to the surface of the black matrix (200), thereby reducing the light intensity of the reflected light, enhancing the visibility of the area of each of the pixel units of the array substrate, and improving the display effect of picture. |
| US09709862B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal between a TFT substrate including pixels formed in a matrix, and a counter substrate. A pixel electrode is formed in an area surrounded by scanning lines and video signal lines. A common electrode is formed in a lower layer of the pixel electrode through an interlayer insulating film. A long side of the pixel electrode of a first pixel is inclined at a first angle clockwise at a right angle to the extending direction of the scanning line. A long side of the pixel electrode of a second pixel is inclined at the first angle counterclockwise at a right angle to the extending direction of the scanning line. The liquid crystal is a negative type liquid crystal. Further, a protrusion formed in the long side of the pixel electrode has a side parallel to the extending direction of the scanning line. |
| US09709861B2 |
Liquid crystal display device and semiconductor device
By increasing an interval between electrodes which drives liquid crystals, a gradient of an electric field applied between the electrodes can be controlled and an optimal electric field can be applied between the electrodes. The invention includes a first electrode formed over a substrate, an insulating film formed over the substrate and the first electrode, a thin film transistor including a semiconductor film in which a source, a channel region, and a drain are formed over the insulating film, a second electrode located over the semiconductor film and the first electrode and including first opening patterns, and liquid crystals provided over the second electrode. |
| US09709860B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A liquid crystal display device includes a gate line, a source line, a first common electrode opposed to the gate line and the source line, an interlayer insulating film covering the first common electrode, a pixel electrode including a main pixel electrode and a sub-pixel electrode, the pixel electrode formed on the interlayer insulating film, a second common electrode formed on the interlayer insulating film. The second common electrode includes a second main common electrode which has intermittence at a position adjacent to the sub-pixel electrode, and a second sub-common electrode which has intermittence at a position adjacent to the main pixel electrode. |
| US09709858B2 |
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display (LCD) including: a first substrate; a first subpixel electrode applied with a voltage; a second subpixel electrode applied with another voltage; an insulating layer between the first and second subpixel electrodes; a second substrate; and a common electrode positioned on the second substrate. The first subpixel electrode includes a first subregion under the insulating layer and a second subregion thereon, the first and second subregions are coupled to each other through a contact bole formed in the insulating layer, the second subpixel electrode is positioned on the insulating layer, the first subregion of the first subpixel electrode and a third subregion of the second subpixel electrode overlap, and the first subregion of the first subpixel electrode is formed with concave portions at edges of left and right lateral sides of a planar shape including a cross-shaped connecting portion at its center and four trapezoids enclosing the cross-shaped connecting portion. |
| US09709856B2 |
Display device and related manufacturing method
A display device may include a substrate, a common electrode, a first subpixel electrode, a second subpixel electrode, a first liquid crystal layer, a second liquid crystal layer, and a wall member. The common electrode overlaps the substrate. The first subpixel electrode and the second subpixel electrode are positioned between the substrate and the common electrode and are insulated from each other. The first liquid crystal layer is positioned between the first subpixel electrode and the common electrode. The second liquid crystal layer is positioned between the second subpixel electrode and the common electrode. The wall member is formed of an organic material, is positioned between the first liquid crystal layer and the second liquid crystal layer, partially overlaps the first subpixel electrode, and is as wide as or wider than the first subpixel electrode in a plan view of the display device. |
| US09709854B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A reliability of seal portion of a liquid crystal display device can be improved by the following structure. A liquid crystal display device includes: a TFT substrate which includes a display region and a terminal part, and has an inorganic insulating film formed on an organic passivation film and an alignment film formed over the inorganic insulating film; a counter substrate, the TFT substrate and the counter substrate bonded together by a sealing material formed at a seal part surrounding the display region; and a liquid crystal sealed inside. At the seal part, a transparent conductive oxide film is formed between the inorganic insulating film and the alignment film. The transparent conductive oxide film exists inside an edge of the TFT substrate and hence, the edge of the TFT substrate is free of the transparent conductive oxide film. |
| US09709849B2 |
Reflective sheet with movable vane structure
A reflective sheet, a backlight module and a display device are disclosed. The reflective sheet includes a reflective sheet body provided with a plurality of opening areas and an open-closed structure located in each of the opening areas. The open-closed structure comprises at least a movable type vane, and one side of the movable type vane is connected with an edge of the opening area of the reflective sheet body. The movable type vane has a reflective surface, and the reflective surface of the movable type vane is disposed on the same side as a reflective surface of the reflective sheet body. The reflective sheet body is able to alleviate the interference in reflection effect of light ray due to the positioning posts, thus, a good display quality can be achieved. |
| US09709846B2 |
Liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, LCD and manufacturing method thereof
A liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, an LCD and a manufacturing method thereof. The LCD panel comprises a first substrate (1) and a second substrate (2) arranged opposite to each other; a liquid crystal layer (3) is disposed between the first substrate (1) and the second substrate (2); the first substrate (1) comprises a plurality of pixel regions; each pixel region comprises a transmission section (4) and a reflection section (5); the first substrate is provided with a reflective layer (6) disposed in the reflection section (5); polymers (30) formed by polymerization of ultraviolet curable monomers are uniformly distributed in the liquid crystal layer (3) of the reflection section (5). The LCD panel adopts a single cell gap and controls the phase retardation amount of reflected light emitted out from the reflection section (5) through the polymers (30), so that phase of the reflected light can match with the phase of transmitted light emitted out from the transmission section (6). |
| US09709843B2 |
Display apparatus
A buffer member (13) which abuts on a front surface side of a panel periphery of a display panel is made of a material having a light shielding property and has a portion, which extends over substantially the whole length of a side, along at least one of the respective sides of a rectangular display region. A buffer member (14) which abuts on a back surface side thereof has a portion, which extends over a range of a side except both the end portions thereof, along at least one of the respective sides of the rectangular shape. Accordingly, deformation of the display panel is reduced and it is possible to prevent light leakage in a peripheral portion of the display screen. |
| US09709842B2 |
Mask of display device and display device fabricated with the mask
A mask of a display device for forming a light shielding unit, which includes a first column spacer, a second column spacer, a light shielding layer, and a first groove, is capable of reducing the number of tones therein, the mask including: a first portion corresponding to the first column spacer; a second portion having substantially a same light transmittance as that of the first portion and corresponding to the second column spacer; a third portion corresponding to the light shielding layer; a fourth portion corresponding to a pixel region; and a fifth portion disposed between the first portion and the third portion to correspond to the first groove and having a light transmittance substantially the same as that of the fourth portion. |
| US09709841B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
Provided is a liquid crystal display device in which grayscale inversion when viewing a liquid crystal panel in an oblique direction is suppressed, thereby being excellent in viewing angle characteristics. The liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel that includes a pair of substrates, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the pair of substrates, and a pair of polarization plates respectively arranged in the liquid crystal layer on a light incident side and a light emission side, an illumination device that is arranged on the light incident side of the liquid crystal panel and emits light toward the liquid crystal panel, and a light diffusion member that is arranged on the light emission side of the liquid crystal panel and causes light emitted from the liquid crystal panel to be diffused in an azimuthal direction viewed from a normal direction of the liquid crystal panel. When the total width of a polar angle when luminance is reduced to ⅓ of the maximum luminance in characteristics of polar angle luminance of the illumination device is referred to as a ⅓-total width, the ⅓-total width of the illumination device is equal to or greater than 60° in the azimuthal direction in which variations in luminance of the illumination device in a polar angle direction are the greatest. |
| US09709840B2 |
Method for producing liquid crystal panel and heating device
The present disclosure provides a method for producing a liquid crystal panel and a heating device. The liquid crystal panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate and liquid crystals between the first and second substrates. The method includes: heating the liquid crystal panel placed onto the heating device; during the heating process adjusting a position of the liquid crystal panel in the heating device through at least one angle adjusting process, which includes adjusting an angle of the liquid crystal panel with respect to a plane in which the heating device is placed at least twice, the angle of the liquid crystal panel after each adjustment with respect to the plane has an absolute value larger than 0, and a sum of the angles of the liquid crystal panel which are obtained for all of at least two adjustments respectively, with respect to the plane is equal to 0. |
| US09709839B2 |
Liquid crystal electronic curtain and driving method thereof
A liquid crystal electronic curtain is disclosed. The liquid crystal electronic curtain includes a liquid crystal layer between first and second substrates. The curtain also includes a polarizer on one of a side of the first substrate away from the second substrate, and a side of the second substrate away from the first substrate. The curtain also includes a first electrode layer on a side of the first substrate facing the second substrate. The first electrode layer includes touch display units, and first electrode leads, each connected with one of the touch display units. The touch display units are connected with detection circuits via the first electrode leads. The curtain also includes a second electrode layer disposed on a side of the second substrate facing the first substrate, a driving circuit, and a second electrode lead, where the driving circuit is connected with the second electrode lead. |
| US09709836B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus including a cabinet, a display panel disposed on a rear side of the cabinet to display an image toward a front side of the cabinet, a backlight unit disposed on a rear side of the display panel to provide light onto the display panel, a bottom cover disposed on a rear side of the backlight unit, the bottom cover being coupled to the cabinet to package the display panel and the backlight unit, a main board disposed on a rear side of the bottom cover, the main board being disposed away from a center of a back surface of the bottom cover, and a back cover covering the main board, the back cover being coupled to the bottom cover to partially cover the bottom cover. |
| US09709835B2 |
Liquid crystal module and electronic device
A liquid crystal module (1) of the present invention includes: a backlight (2) (a lighting device) that emits a light; a liquid crystal panel (3) that is struck by a light emitted from the lighting device; and a power transmitting coil (4) that receives a voltage from an AC power supply, generates a magnetic field, and transfers an electrical power to a device to be charged. |
| US09709832B2 |
Electro-optical single crystal element, method for the preparation thereof, and systems employing the same
The present invention relates to an Electro-Optical (E-O) crystal elements, their applications and the processes for the preparation thereof. More specifically, the present invention relates to the E-O crystal elements (which can be made from doped or un-doped PMN-PT, PIN-PMN-PT or PZN-PT ferroelectric crystals) showing super-high linear E-O coefficient γc, e.g., transverse effective linear E-O coefficient γTc more than 1100 pm/V and longitudinal effective linear E-O coefficient γlc up to 527 pm/V, which results in a very low half-wavelength voltage Vlπ below 200V and VTπ below about 87V in a wide number of modulation, communication, laser, and industrial uses. |
| US09709831B2 |
Electronic window and the control method of the same
An electronic window is disclosed. The electronic window comprises: base substrate, first polarizing device, and second polarizing device disposed on the same side or on different sides of the base substrate; in an OFF state, first polarizing device configured to convert an incident light into a first polarized light and emitting the first polarized light, a polarization direction of the first polarized light is perpendicular to a polarization direction of the second polarizing device, and the second polarizing device configured to prevent the first polarized light from emitting; and in an ON state, first polarizing device configured to transmit the incident light, the second polarizing device configured to transmit the incident light or to convert the incident light into a third polarized light and emit the third polarized light, a polarization direction of the third polarized light is the same as a polarization direction of the second polarizing device. |
| US09709829B2 |
Beam steering device
An electrically variable lens comprising a variable Fresnel lens and a variable phase corrector plate. A liquid crystal variable Fresnel lens and liquid crystal phase corrector plate are varied in concert to compensate for wavefront discontinuities that would otherwise be produced by the Fresnel lens. The same principle is also used to provide a device capable of imposing an arbitrary spatial and temporal phase modulation on a wavefront. |
| US09709815B2 |
3D display assembly and 3D display apparatus with spacing layer
The present disclosure provides a 3D display assembly and a 3D display apparatus including the 3D display assembly. The 3D display assembly comprises a display panel, a 3D device and a spacing layer between the display panel and the 3D device, the display panel, the 3D device and the spacing layer overlapping with each other, wherein a first protrusion which extends beyond edges of the display panel and the 3D device is formed on at least one side of the spacing layer other than its side facing towards the display panel and its side facing towards the 3D device. The protrusion is used to support the entire display assembly to avoid misalignment between the display panel and the 3D device due to undue weight of the spacing layer. |
| US09709813B2 |
Image display device
An image display device includes a first substrate on which first aperture areas are formed, a second substrate on which second aperture areas are formed, an optical element, a plurality of unit pixels each including a first-viewpoint pixel for displaying an image for a first viewpoint and a second-viewpoint pixel for displaying an image for a second viewpoint, an optical path distribution unit, and a plurality of light-shielding areas including edge sections facing each other in a first direction, one of the edge sections being defined by one of the first aperture areas, the other of the edge sections being defined by one of the second aperture areas, and the one of the edge sections and the other of the edge sections being parallel, under a condition that the first substrate and the second substrate are joined together with positions thereof in the first direction being aligned. |
| US09709805B2 |
Adjusting a head-up display (HUD) based on light sensing
A system for adjusting a heads-up display (HUD) is disclosed herein. The system includes a forward looking light sensor receiver to logarithmically receive a first light information from a forward looking light sensor; and an adjuster to adjust a luminance of the HUD based on the first light information. A method or process may be employed in a similar fashion. The adjuster may be implemented by employing a lookup table, or by employing analog values to perform a transformation relied upon for the adjustment. |
| US09709796B2 |
Objective lens for endoscopes and endoscope
An objective lens for endoscopes includes, in order from the object side: a front group; an aperture stop; and a positive rear group. The front group includes, in order from the object side, a negative first lens, in which the absolute value of the radius of curvature of the surface toward the image side is less than that of the surface toward the object side, and at least one plane parallel plate. The rear group includes, in order from the object side, a positive second lens, and a cemented lens formed by a positive third lens and a negative fourth lens. The coupling surface of the cemented lens is convex toward the image side. Conditional Formulae (1) through (3) concerning the plane parallel plates within the front group, the focal length of the first lens, the radius of curvature of the coupling surface of the cemented lens, etc., are satisfied. |
| US09709795B2 |
Optical coupler for optical imaging visualization device
An optical coupler for mounting at a distal end of an optical imaging device includes a visualization section and an attachment section. At least one surface of the visualization section has a roughness that does not interfere with a video capture system of an optical imaging device. |
| US09709794B2 |
Endoscope with adjustable viewing angle
An endoscope with adjustable viewing angle, in which the viewing angle can pivot around a pivot axis, includes a fixed reflecting surface for reflecting illuminating light from a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the endoscope to a direction parallel to the pivot axis of the viewing angle and a pivotable reflecting surface for reflecting illuminating light from a direction parallel to the pivot axis of the viewing angle to the viewing angle for illuminating an object observed by the endoscope, such that at least either the fixed reflecting surface or the pivotable reflecting surface is curved. |
| US09709792B2 |
Helmet mount with integral binocular bridge
A helmet mount for attaching a viewing device to a helmet includes a helmet interface assembly removably attachable to the helmet. A pivot arm is attached to the helmet interface assembly and is pivotal about a horizontal, transverse axis. A carriage member is carried on the pivot arm and slidable between the distal end and the proximal end of the pivot arm. The carriage member includes a bridge member integral therewith, the bridge member including a first fastener configured to removably attach a first viewing device and a second fastener configured to attach a second viewing device. |
| US09709780B2 |
Variable magnification observation optical system
These variable-magnification observation optical systems are provided with an objective system, an erecting system, and an eyepiece system. In order from the object side, the objective system has a positive first lens group, a positive second lens group, and a negative third lens group. In order from the object side, the eyepiece system has a positive fourth lens group and a positive fifth lens group. The erecting system is located between the first and second lens groups. In order from the object side, the fifth lens group has the following, with air gaps in between: a negative meniscus lens element, the concave surface of which faces the object side; a negative meniscus lens element, the convex surface of which faces the object side; and a biconvex positive lens element. |
| US09709773B2 |
Optical image capturing system
An optical image capturing system, from an object side to an image side, comprises a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fifth lens, and a sixth lens elements. The first lens element with refractive power has a convex object-side surface. The second through fifth lens elements have refractive power and both of an object-side surface and an image-side surface of the four lens elements are aspheric. The sixth lens with refractive power has a concave image-side surface. Both of the image-side and object-side surfaces of the six lens elements are aspheric and at least one of the two surfaces has inflection points. Each of the six lens elements may have refractive power. When satisfying specific conditions, the optical image capturing system can have a larger incoming light quantity and a better optical path adjusting ability to acquire better imaging quality. |
| US09709757B2 |
Systems and methods for port mapping
Systems and methods for detecting component rotation within a communication assembly are provided. In certain embodiments, a system includes a plurality of modules; and a plurality of ports installed in each module in the plurality of modules, each port being associated with a port identification number, wherein port identification numbers for the plurality of ports are independently numbered from the port identification numbers for at least one other module in the plurality of modules. The system also includes a management entity configured to identify the ports on the plurality of modules, wherein the management entity uses remapped port identification numbers to identify the ports, wherein each remapped port identification number associated with each port in the plurality of modules is unique. |
| US09709752B2 |
Optical connector plug, optical probe, and optical system
Provided is an optical connector plug of which housing is provided with: a first member that has at least a lower surface section that covers the lower side of a providing space in which an optical fiber and a ferrule are provided, a half of a back surface section from which the optical fiber is led out, and a half of a front surface section from which the ferrule is led out, and is composite-molded out of a thermoplastic resin; and a second member that has at least an upper surface section that covers the upper side of the providing space, the remaining half of the back surface section and the remaining half of the front surface section, and is composite-molded out of a thermoplastic resin into the same shape as the first member. |
| US09709746B2 |
Micro-filter structures for wavelength division multiplexing in polymer waveguides
A wavelength division multiplexing filter and methods of forming the same include an optical dielectric filter formed on a substrate and having a plurality of dielectric layers. The optical dielectric filter has a high reflectivity at a first wavelength and a high transmissivity at one or more additional wavelengths. The substrate has a high thermal tolerance, such that the substrate is not damaged by temperatures at which the plurality of dielectric layers are formed. |
| US09709742B2 |
Multicore fiber connection method and multicore fiber connector using same
A method of connecting multicore fibers 2 includes a shaping step S2 and a fusing step S3. The multicore fibers 2 satisfy Y≧20, where a distance from a center of a core 11 located on the outer periphery side of a clad 20 to a side surface of the clad 20 is defined as Y μm. The shaping step S2 includes heating a end surfaces 50 to satisfy 0 |
| US09709740B2 |
Method and structure providing optical isolation of a waveguide on a silicon-on-insulator substrate
Disclosed are a method and structure providing a silicon-on-insulator substrate on which photonic devices are formed and in which a core material of a waveguide is optically decoupled from a support substrate by a shallow trench isolation region. |
| US09709737B2 |
Embedded ring resonator-based photonic devices
Photonic devices may include a first ring resonator and a second ring resonator located within the first ring resonator, the second ring resonator separated from and optically coupled to the first ring resonator. A waveguide structure is optically coupled to the first ring resonator and may be parallel bus waveguides optically coupled on opposite ends of the first ring resonator or a u-shaped waveguide wrapped substantially around the first ring resonator. A third ring resonator may located within the second ring resonator and may be separated from and optically coupled to the first ring resonator and the second ring resonator. A sensing medium may be disposed within the interior of the third ring resonator and optically coupled to the third ring resonator. The sensing medium is configured to undergo a change in refractive index responsive to one or more analytes bound to the sensing medium. |
| US09709730B2 |
Hollow-core photonic crystal fiber gas cell and method for preparing the same
A hollow-core photonic crystal fiber gas cell and method for preparing the same. The hollow-core photonic crystal fiber gas cell comprises a single-mode fiber, a fiber splicing protection sleeve, a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, and a photoelectric detector. One end of the single-mode fiber is fusion spliced with one end of the hollow-core photonic crystal fiber to form a fusion splice and seal one end of the hollow-core photonic crystal fiber gas cell. The fiber splicing protection sleeve covers and protects the fusion splice. The other end of the hollow-core photonic crystal fiber is processed into an output end by fusion sealing, and the surface of the output end faces, but is not parallel to, a detection surface of the photoelectric detector. |
| US09709729B2 |
Multicore fiber with different-mode interaction section
A multicore fiber 1 includes: a small diameter portion 33 in which a propagation constant of light of an x1-th order LP mode of the first core 11 (here, x1 is an integer of “2” or more and x or less, x is an integer of “2” or more) and a propagation constant of light of a y1-th order LP mode of the second core 12 (here, y1 is an integer of “1” or more and y or less other than x1, y is an integer of “1” or more) coincide with each other and a large diameter portion in which a propagation constant of light of each LP mode of the first core 11 and a propagation constant of light of each LP mode of the second core 12 are configured not to coincide with each other are arranged. |
| US09709726B2 |
Display apparatus and method of manufacturing the display apparatus
An example display apparatus, comprising a display panel with one surface on which an image is displayed, a light guide plate disposed to face the other surface of the display panel, an optical sheet interposed between the display panel and the light guide plate, and a spacer which is sandwiched between the display panel and the light guide plate to secure a space for the optical sheet, wherein the spacer is adhered to the light guide plate and the display panel. |
| US09709724B1 |
Edge-lit waveguide and macro optic hybrid
An edge-lit waveguide and macro optic hybrid structure includes a waveguide segment having a light receiving surface and a light emitting surface. The light receiving surface and the light emitting surface are on opposite sides of the waveguide segment. The edge-lit waveguide and macro optic hybrid structure also includes a macro optic segment integrally formed with the waveguide segment. A light emitting surface of the macro optic segment extends out beyond the waveguide segment on a side of the waveguide segment. |
| US09709722B2 |
Backlight module having a prism structure
A backlight module for illuminating a display or keypad is described. The backlight module may be provided in an electronic device along with a light source. In one embodiment, the backlight module comprises: a light diffuser; a light guide located directly below the light diffuser; a prism structure located directly below the light guide, the prism structure having a plurality of prisms extending towards the light guide, wherein an air gap is defined between the prism structure and the light guide; and a reflector located directly below the prism structure. |
| US09709720B2 |
Bianisotropic metamaterial
The topology of the elements of a metamaterial can be engineered from its desired electromagnetic constitutive tensor using an inverse group theory method. Therefore, given a desired electromagnetic response and a generic metamaterial elemental design, group theory is applied to predict the various ways that the element can be arranged in three dimensions to produce the desired functionality. An optimizer can then be applied to an electromagnetic modeling tool to fine tune the values of the electromagnetic properties of the resulting metamaterial topology. |
| US09709719B2 |
Polarizer and polarizing plate including same
Provided are a polarizer that resists red discoloration in a heat resistance test even when it has a small thickness, and a polarizing plate including the polarizer. The polarizer includes a polyvinyl alcohol-based resin layer and iodine adsorbed and oriented in the polyvinyl alcohol-based resin layer, and has a thickness less than or equal to 10 μm and a ratio of a retardation of iodine to a retardation of polyvinyl alcohol greater than or equal to 0.38. |
| US09709718B2 |
Systems and methods for producing narrowband images
A system may produce images including narrow-bandwidth colors. One or more sets of the narrow-bandwidth colors may be selected to be interpreted as substantially a same color by a user. The system may include a light source configured to produce the narrow-bandwidth colors, and/or narrow-passband filters may create narrow-bandwidth colors from light emitted by broad-spectrum light sources or color sources. Spatial and/or time multiplexing may be used to create separate narrow-bandwidth colors interpreted as substantially a same color by the user. For example, the light source and/or the narrow-passband filter elements may be adjustable and may alternate between emission of two or more narrow-bandwidth colors. A viewing device may include filters allowing the user to selectively filter the narrow-bandwidth colors. The user may filter the narrow-bandwidth colors to separate a stereoscopic image pair, to view a user-specific image, to view desired content obfuscated by an obfuscating image, and/or the like. |
| US09709710B2 |
Device including light blocking layer and method of patterning the light blocking layer
A device includes a substrate; a light blocking layer on the substrate; a passivation film covering the light blocking layer on the substrate; a thin film transistor on the passivation film; another passivation film covering the thin film transistor; a color filter on the another passivation film; and an insulation layer on the another passivation film and covering the color filter, wherein the light blocking layer is patterned using a composition including a heat resistance polymer, a cross-linking agent, a black colorant, and a solvent. A method of patterning the light blocking layer is also provided. |
| US09709707B2 |
Optical article containing self-healing and abrasion-resistant coatings
The present invention is drawn to an optical article comprising: (a) a transparent optical polymer substrate, (b) a transparent intermediate abrasion-resistant coating obtained from at least one epoxysilane by a sol-gel process, and (c) a transparent outer coating comprising a polythiolene matrix obtained by curing a liquid monomer mixture comprising at least one polyfunctional thiol and at least one polyfunctional allyl monomer, said cured polythiol-ene matrix having a glass transition temperature comprised in the range from 40° C. to 70° C. and a thickness from 3.5 μm to less than 10 μm. It is also drawn to a method for preparing such an optical article and to a method for repairing scratches in such an optical article by heating. |
| US09709706B2 |
Optical unit, imaging device, electronic apparatus, and master
An optical unit having an antireflection function includes a wave surface having a wavelength equal to or shorter than a wavelength of visible light. The wave surface has a curved plane which curves in a recessed shape between an apex portion and a bottom portion of the wave surface. An inflection point of an area of a cross section obtained by cutting through the wave surface in a plane perpendicular to a direction of vibration of the wave surface is positioned toward the bottom portion of the wave surface from a center of the vibration. |
| US09709705B2 |
Anti-reflection film and optical element having the same
An anti-reflection film includes first through ninth layers. Regarding light having a wavelength of 550 nm, where the refractive indexes of the first through ninth layers are n1 through n9 respectively, the optical film thicknesses d1 through d9 (nm) respectively, and the maximum value of the difference in the refractive index between adjoining layers for layers 1 through 8 is Δn, the following conditions are satisfied. 1.60≦n1≦1.70, 15 nm≦d1≦140 nm, 2.00≦n2≦2.40, 20 nm≦d2≦120 nm, 1.60≦n3≦1.70, 11 nm≦d3≦70 nm, 2.00≦n4≦2.40, 20 nm≦d4≦165 nm, 1.60≦n5≦1.70, 15 nm≦d5≦45 nm, 2.00≦n6≦2.40, 90 nm≦d6≦175 nm, 1.60≦n7≦1.70, 50 nm≦d7≦110 nm, 2.00≦n8≦2.40, 20 nm≦d8≦50 nm, 1.20≦n9≦1.28, 140 nm≦d9≦160 nm, and 0.40≦Δn≦0.67. |
| US09709704B2 |
Anti-reflection film and method for manufacturing anti-reflection film
An object of the present invention is to provide an anti-reflection film excellent in high-temperature and high-humidity environment resistance and scratch resistance in addition to improved anti-reflection performance of a concave-convex nanostructure. To achieve the object, an anti-reflection film 10 comprises: a base layer 11 as a first optical thin film that is provided on an optical surface 21a of an optical element 21; a concave-convex nanostructure layer that is provided on a surface of the base layer 11 and is composed of a concave-convex nanostructure 12 formed so as to have a pitch width p between the convex parts 12b of shorter than an incident light wavelength; and a cover layer 13 as a second optical thin film that covers peaks of the convex part 12b with a void 14 being provided between the cover layer 13 and concave part 12a constituting the concave-convex nanostructure 12. |
| US09709701B2 |
Polycarbonate resin film, and transparent film and process for producing the same
A polycarbonate resin film of the present invention is formed from a polycarbonate resin which contains at least a constitutional unit derived from a dihydroxy compound having a bonded structure represented by the following structural formula (1) and satisfies the following expression (2) when subjected to a tensile test at a standard stretching temperature for the polycarbonate resin and at a pulling speed (strain rate) of 1,000%/min. [Chem. 1] CH2—O (1) (No hydrogen atom is bonded to the oxygen atom contained in the structural formula (1).) 0.9≦[(lower yield stress in tension)/(upper yield stress in tension)]≦1 (2). |
| US09709700B2 |
Optical bodies including rough strippable boundary layers
Optical bodies are disclosed that include a first optical film, a second optical film and at least one rough strippable boundary layer disposed between the first and second optical films. Also disclosed are optical bodies including a strippable boundary layer disposed between the first and second optical films and including a first polymer and a second polymer that is substantially immiscible in the first polymer. The present disclosure also provides methods of processing optical bodies that include stretching the optical bodies. |
| US09709689B2 |
Geophysical cable preparation for antifouling paint
Embodiments relate generally to marine geophysical surveying. More particularly, embodiments relate to a streamer-preparation apparatus that cleans a geophysical cable to prepare it for application of an antifouling paint. An embodiment discloses a method comprising: moving a streamer into position for cleaning; directing a cleaning fluid onto the streamer as the streamer is being moved; and directing a gaseous fluid onto the streamer as the streamer is being moved. An embodiment discloses: applying an antifouling paint to the streamer with the streamer-preparation apparatus; and applying a curing agent to the streamer with the streamer-preparation apparatus. |
| US09709687B2 |
Sensor assembly
A multiple axis sensor assembly includes an enclosure and encapsulated microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors. The encapsulated sensors are disposed inside the enclosure and are mounted in different orientations, which correspond to different axes of the sensor assembly. A controller of the sensor assembly is disposed in the enclosure and electrically coupled to the MEMS sensors. |
| US09709684B2 |
Systems and methods for scintillators having micro-crack surfaces
A scintillator crystal array that is configured to receive rays emitted by an object to be imaged and to emit light energy responsive to the received rays includes plural crystals. At least one of the crystals includes an upper surface, a lower surface disposed opposite the upper surface, plural sides extending between the upper surface and the lower surface, and a micro-crack surface extending at least partially along at least one of the sides. The micro-crack surface includes micro-cracks formed in the crystal configured for controlling distribution of light through the crystal. |
| US09709680B2 |
Quality of precision time sources
Systems and methods for detecting the failure of a precision time source using an independent time source are disclosed. Additionally, detecting the failure of a GNSS based precision time source based on a calculated location of a GNSS receiver is disclosed. Moreover, the system may be further configured to distribute a time derived from the precision time source as a precision time reference to time dependent devices. In the event of a failure of the precision time source, the system may be configured to distribute a time derived from a second precision time source as the precision time signal during a holdover period. |
| US09709679B1 |
Building elevation maps from laser data
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to generating elevation maps. More specifically, data points may be collected by a laser moving along a roadway and used to generate an elevation map of the roadway. The collected data points may be projected onto a two dimensional or “2D” grid. The grid may include a plurality of cells, each cell of the grid representing a geolocated second of the roadway. The data points of each cell may be evaluated to identify an elevation for the particular cell. For example, the data points in a particular cell may be filtered in various ways including occlusion, interpolation from neighboring cells, etc. The minimum value of the remaining data points within each cell may then be used as the elevation for the particular cell, and the elevation of a plurality of cells may be used to generate an elevation map of the roadway. |
| US09709672B2 |
Method and system for identifying and finding a range of an object
A method for identifying and ranging a wireless device, comprising: transmitting an original radar signal from a detecting system; in response to the original radar signal, receiving a modulated radar signal at the detecting system, the modulated radar signal being backscattered from an antenna of the wireless device and containing information pertaining to the wireless device, and the modulated radar signal being a frequency offset version of the original radar signal; and, using a processor at the detecting system, determining an identity and a range of the wireless device from the modulated radar signal. |
| US09709670B1 |
System and method for a directable countermeasure with divergent laser
A system includes a threat warning system and a countermeasure system. The threat warning system generates threat data that includes at least a threat coordinate value. The countermeasure system includes a wide-angle laser beam director and the infrared counter measure system that is configured to receive the threat data including the threat coordinate value from the threat warning system and causes the beam director to direct a divergent laser beam based on the threat coordinate value and cause the beam director to vary an angle of the cone based on an aircraft signature perceived by a threat. |
| US09709668B1 |
Reconfigurable photonic integrated circuit focal plane array
A reconfigurable photonic integrated circuit focal plane array (RPIC-FPA) includes detectors and photonic integrated circuit coupled to the detectors that are configured to mix a return signal beam with local oscillator (LO) beams to produce a combined beam and direct the combined beam to the detectors. The LO beams have reconfigurable optical properties enabled by the RTIC-FPA. The LO beams are individually addressed to switch the detectors between a direct detection mode and various coherent detection modes based on adjustments to the optical properties of the LO beams. In the coherent detection mode, the controller is configured to mix the return signal beam with the LO beam having adjusted optical properties to produce the combined beam, and, in the direct detection mode, the controller is configured to disable the LO beams based on adjustments to the optical properties and to direct the return signal beam to the detectors without mixing. |
| US09709666B2 |
Beam information generating device, radar receiver, and radar receiving method
According to one embodiment, there is provided a beam information generating device including: a distance calculator that calculates distances, from a receiver, along a plurality of reception beams formed by the receiver to a transmission beam, based on transmission beam information; and a beam width calculator that calculates beam widths of the reception beams based on the distances calculated by the distance calculator so as to restrain variations in volume enclosed by the transmission beam and the reception beams. |
| US09709665B2 |
Radar apparatus and signal processing method
There is provided a radar apparatus. A predicting unit predicts a current peak signal based on a pervious determined peak signal. An extracting unit extracts a current peak signal corresponding to the predicted peak signal, from among peak signals existing within a predetermined range of the frequency. A filtering unit performs a filtering process on the predicted peak signal and the current peak signal, and output a result of the filtering process as a current determined peak signal. If the target derived based on the current peak signal is a preceding vehicle existing in front of an own vehicle equipped with the radar apparatus, the filtering unit changes whether to perform the filtering process according to a state of the preceding vehicle. |
| US09709664B2 |
Apparatus, systems and methods for mobile network positioning of MTC devices using partial power boosting
The invention is directed to systems, methods and computer program products for modifying Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) transmissions from base stations to User Equipment (UE) by providing for partial power boosting at the base stations with the purpose of improving UE positioning accuracy and, specifically positioning accuracy of Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices. |
| US09709662B2 |
Systems and methods for determining a position of a transmitter of a bistatic radar system
A bistatic radar system may include a transmitter, a target at a first known position, a receiver at a second known position, and a transmitter position determination unit. The receiver is configured to receive one or more reflected radar signals transmitted from the transmitter and reflected off the target. The receiver is configured to receive one or more direct radar signals transmitted from the transmitter. The transmitter position determination unit is configured to determine a position of the transmitter based on a determination of a distance between the first and second known positions and a determination of a first angular difference between the reflected radar signal(s) and the direct radar signal(s) that are received by the receiver. |
| US09709660B1 |
Crowdsourced user density applications
A method of using user density includes: producing a first map portion corresponding to a first region and a second map portion corresponding to a second region, the first map portion having a first resolution and the second map portion having a second resolution, the first resolution being lower than the second resolution, at least one of the first resolution being dependent on a user density of the first region or the second resolution being dependent on a user density of the second region; and sending the first map portion and the second map portion to a destination mobile device. |
| US09709659B2 |
Object tracking
The disclosure describes examples of systems, methods, program storage devices, and computer program products for tracking an object, where a reference image of the tracked object is outputted to an operator. |
| US09709654B2 |
Signal measurement systems and methods
A measurement system and method for conducting measurements on a device-under-test (DUT). The system includes, in one embodiment, a passive impedance controlling tuner, and a signal transmission line, the tuner including a signal transmission line segment as at least part of the signal transmission line. A signal coupling device is coupled in a non-contacting relationship to the signal transmission line between a signal port of the DUT and the tuner for sampling signals propagating between the passive impedance controlling tuner and the DUT to allow measurement of an actual impedance presented to the DUT with the DUT in place in the measurement system during measurement of DUT characteristics. Measurement system equipment receives response signals from the signal coupler. The measurement system is configured to conduct measurement of DUT characteristics without pre-characterizing the impedance controlling tuner. |
| US09709652B2 |
MRI system with means to eliminate object movement whilst acquiring its image
A method of reducing the effect of object movements along MRI imaging. The method includes: acquiring a sequence of MRI consecutive images of an object; storing on a computer readable medium, for each of the images, at least one parameter p indicating spatial image orientation at which the image was taken; analyzing the sequence of the images for detection of the object movement; and tagging images of at least one movement of the object. |
| US09709651B2 |
Compensated magnetic resonance imaging system and method for improved magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion imaging
There is disclosed a novel system and method for improving MRI and DWI image quality and tissue detail and contrast is introduced and referred to in this disclosure as “compensated magnetic resonance imaging” or CMRI in which a compensation function and noise scale factor are determined during a calibration process by acquiring one or more test signals on the MRI system to determine a compensation function and noise scale factor, and signal acquisitions are conducted from a subject, and the signals are then used to reconstruct MRI images by maximizing a quality metric that takes the acquired signals, compensation function, and noise scale factor as part of the input parameters. Advantageously, by taking into a compensation function and a noise scale factor, CMRI can provide significantly improved MRI image quality and tissue detail and contrast. |
| US09709649B2 |
System and method for assessing adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis rate using double saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy
A system and method for acquiring and using inversion-recovery data and spectral data. In particular, the inversion-recovery data and spectral data can be used to determine adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis rate of a subject without a quantification of inorganic phosphate. |
| US09709644B2 |
Black blood MRI using a stimulated echo pulse sequence with flow sensitization gradients
A black blood magnetic resonance imaging sequence is performed using a magnetic resonance scanner. The sequence includes: applying a first flow sensitization gradient; applying a spoiler gradient after applying the first flow sensitization gradient; applying a second flow sensitization gradient after applying the spoiler gradient wherein the second flow sensitization gradient has area equal to the first flow sensitization gradient but of opposite polarity; applying a slice-selective radio frequency excitation pulse after applying the spoiler gradient; and performing a magnetic resonance readout after applying the second flow sensitization gradient and after applying the slice selective radio frequency excitation. The readout acquires magnetic resonance imaging data having blood signal suppression in the region excited by the slice-selective radio frequency excitation pulse. The magnetic resonance imaging data is suitably reconstructed to generate a black blood image that may be displayed. |
| US09709641B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, image processing apparatus, and susceptibility map calculation method
Disclosed is a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus that calculates a susceptibility map using a weighting image that reflects a phase variation with high accuracy. The weighting image is calculated from a phase image obtained from a complex image obtained by MRI. First, a region used in calculation of the phase variation is set as a calculation region, and then, a standard deviation or a variance of pixel values of the phase image in the calculation region is set as the phase variation. Further, the phase variation is converted into a weight that monotonically decreases in a broad sense as the phase variation increases to obtain the weighting image. |
| US09709640B2 |
Single bridge magnetic field sensor
A single bridge magnetic field sensor includes a fluxguide mounted to a surface of a substrate. A bridge unit includes first, second, third, and fourth magnetoresistive elements mounted around the fluxguide and mounted on the surface of the substrate. A switching circuit is electrically connected to two voltage inputs, two grounding terminals, two voltage output terminals, and the four magnetoresistive elements. The switching circuit can proceed with circuit switching according to a magnetic field in each axis direction to be measured, thereby changing electrical connection between the voltage inputs, the grounding terminals, the voltage output terminals, and the four magnetoresistive elements. A measuring unit is electrically connected to the two voltage output terminals and the four magnetoresistive elements. The magnetoresistances of the four magnetoresistive elements measured by the measuring unit and output voltages of the voltage output terminals can be used to obtain a magnetic field measurement result. |
| US09709637B2 |
Light-emitting element failure detector and method for detecting light-emitting element failure
A light emitting element circuit includes a light emitting element (1), a current supply path to the light emitting element (1), a constant current circuit (2) that supplies a current to the light emitting element (1) via the current supply path, and an electric discharge path that discharges an electric charge accumulated at the light emitting element (1) and at a region connected between the both electrodes when the constant current circuit (2) stops a current supply to the light emitting element (1). A light emitting element failure detector (4) that detects a short-circuit of the light emitting element (1) in a light emitting element circuit includes a current instantaneous interruption circuit (5), a voltage detector (60), and a determiner (62). The current instantaneous interruption circuit (5) is arranged on the current supply path different from the electric discharge path and instantaneously interrupts an electric current that the constant current circuit (2) supplies to the light emitting element (1). The voltage detector (60) obtains an output of a voltage Vf between the anode and cathode of the light emitting element (1) during a period of the instantaneous interruption as a measuring object. The determiner (62) determines the existence of a short-circuit from the output. |
| US09709636B2 |
System and methods for managing emergency power supply system operational information
Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to systems and methods for managing and monitoring a plurality of emergency power supply systems (EPSS's) at a facility via an emergency power management system (EPMS). The EPMS generally comprises EPSS equipment, a management computer system for managing, monitoring, and testing the operational characteristics of the EPSS equipment, and a plurality of interface modules for providing unified communication capabilities between the management computer system and the EPSS equipment. Additional aspects relate to methods for easily and efficiently creating and installing an EPMS at a facility. Further aspects are directed to providing predictive analyzes related to the EPSS equipment. Also, aspects of the present disclosure relate to normalizing EPSS equipment information across varying vendors, makes, and models of equipment so as to provide a unified view of all equipment across a given facility. |
| US09709633B2 |
Battery capacity display apparatus and battery capacity display method
A battery capacity display method to display a full charge capacity of a battery and a residual capacity of the battery, respectively, as a full charge capacity display value and a residual capacity display value, the battery capacity display method includes: correcting the full charge capacity display value and/or the residual capacity display value so as to decrease a difference between the full charge capacity display value and the residual capacity display value when the battery is in the full charge state and the full charge capacity and the residual capacity in the full charge state are different from each other, and displaying a corrected full charge capacity display value and/or a corrected residual capacity display value. |
| US09709628B2 |
Selectable separate scan paths with hold state multiplexer and adapter
A Scan-BIST architecture is adapted into a low power Scan-BIST architecture. A generator 102, compactor 106, and controller 110 remain the same as in the known art. The changes between the known art Scan-BIST architecture and the low power Scan-BIST architecture involve modification of the known scan path into scan path 502, to insert scan paths A 506, B 508 and C 510, and the insertion of an adaptor circuit 504 in the control path 114 between controller 110 and scan path 502. |
| US09709626B2 |
Self testing fault circuit apparatus and method
A process for self testing a fault circuit includes disabling an actuator, performing a self test by creating a simulated fault signal across at least a portion of a half cycle of a first polarity and across at least a portion of a hall cycle of a second polarity, and determining whether the self test was successful. |
| US09709625B2 |
Measuring power consumption in an integrated circuit
A method for determining power consumption of a power domain within an integrated circuit is presented. In a first step, a local power supply impedance profile (Z(f)) of this power domain is determined. Subsequently, a local time-resolved power supply voltage (U(t)) is measured while a well-defined periodic activity is executed in power domain. A set of time-domain measured voltage data (U(t)) is thus accumulated and transformed into the frequency domain to yield a voltage spectrum (U(f)). A current spectrum I(t) is calculated from this voltage profile (U(f)) by using the power supply impedance profile Z(f) of this power domain as I(t)=Ff−1{U(f)/Z(f)}. Finally, a time-resolved power consumption spectrum P(t) is determined from measured voltage spectrum U(t)) and calculated current spectrum (I(t)). This power consumption (P(t)) may be compared with a reference (Pref(t)) to verify whether power consumption within power domain matches expectations. |
| US09709622B2 |
Direct injection phase change temperature control system
A thermal control unit (TCU) for controlling temperature of a device under test (DUT) includes a sealed evaporation chamber disposed therein, the evaporation chamber configured with a refrigerant inlet and a refrigerant outlet; and at least one surface for thermal engagement of the device under test and configured to conduct heat to the evaporation chamber. A test system and a computer program product are disclosed. |
| US09709617B2 |
Load drive apparatus
A load drive apparatus includes a switching element, a current detection circuit, a short circuit detection resistor, and a reflux diode. The switching element is placed to a high side of the inductive load, is interposed between the voltage source and the inductive load, and controls a current supplied to the inductive load. The current detection circuit is placed to a low side of the inductive load, and detects a current value of a current flowing through the low side of the inductive load. The short circuit detection resistor is interposed between the current detection circuit and a ground. The reflux diode is placed in a forward direction of the reflux diode and connects a middle point between the short circuit detection resistor and the current detection circuit with a different middle point between the switching element and the inductive load. |
| US09709614B2 |
Parasitic capacitance cancellation in capacitive measurement
An integrated circuit compensates for parasitic capacitance in a capacitive measuring apparatus wherein a capacitance measurement is done by repeatedly transferring charge from a capacitor to be measured to a reference capacitor. |
| US09709613B2 |
Signal capture method and apparatus for the detection of low frequency electric signals in liquids and biological matter
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus intended for the detection of low frequency electric waves that can be extracted from water, organic liquids and biological matter. This field phenomenon, that we here refer to here as a “bioharmonic”, is an active frequency, or harmonically related series of frequencies, that are a result of a dynamic interplay of natural processes including physical, chemical and electromagnetic interactions. We have discovered that these interactions influence the organization of signal waveform characteristics at very low frequencies. The apparatus produces a low frequency electrical wave that is coupled to a liquid or solid sample by way of a coupling electrode having a very high impedance. As the detected signal also displays field properties, the electrode does not need to be in contact with the sample in order to extract a unique signal. The resultant signal is rectified and passed through a logic gate where it is conditioned using a low pass filter on the gate output stage before amplification. A darlington type transistor is used to amplify the signal by a minimum factor of twenty thousand. |
| US09709609B2 |
Systems and methods for improving the range of sensor systems
The systems and methods of the present disclosure use measurement circuitry that includes first and second circuits, a selecting circuit, a determination circuit, and a setting circuit. Each of the first and second circuits measures voltage or current sensed by a sensor. The selecting circuit selects the first circuit to provide the measured voltage or current values. The determination circuit determines whether the measured voltage or current values reach a predetermined level. The setting circuit changes a setting of the second circuit from a first setting to a second setting if the measured voltage or current values reach the predetermined level. The selecting circuit selects the second circuit to provide the measured voltage or current values when a first predetermined time elapses after changing the setting of the second circuit. The selecting circuit also changes a setting of the first circuit from the first setting to the second setting after selecting the second circuit. |
| US09709607B2 |
Adaptive low-battery warnings for battery-powered electronic devices
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates the use of an electronic device. The electronic device may be a keyboard, a mouse, a trackpad, a remote control, a mobile phone, a wireless phone, a toy, a portable media player, a game controller, and/or a camera. During operation, the system monitors a state-of-charge of a battery used to power the electronic device. Next, the system calculates a charge threshold associated with a low-battery warning for the battery based on the monitored state-of-charge. If the state-of-charge of the battery reaches the charge threshold, the system generates the low-battery warning. |
| US09709605B2 |
Scrolling measurement display ticker for test and measurement instruments
A test and measurement instrument configured to receive at least one input signal is disclosed. The test and measurement instrument includes a processor configured to sample the input signal and generate a plurality of measurements. The processor is configured to generate a measurement ticker having a plurality of ticker elements configured for presentation on a display in a serial, scrolling fashion. Each ticker element has a measurement value associated with the input signal. The processor may be configured to sample a plurality of input signals and each ticker element may include a measurement value associated with at least one of the plurality of input signals. Each ticker element may further comprise a source ID and a measurement type. |
| US09709601B2 |
Conducted type current probe
A conducted type current probe is provided herein and comprises a plurality of first resistors, at least one second resistor, a first connective port, and a second connective port. The first resistors are connected in parallel to form a resistor with 1Ω resistance value, and the resistance value of the second resistor is 49Ω. The first resistors and the second resistor are connected. The first connective port is connected with a test end of a test Integrated Circuit (IC), and the second connective port is connected with a test receiver by a coaxial cable. |
| US09709600B2 |
Circuit probe for charged particle beam system
A probe assembly can be connected and disconnected from its electrical harness within a vacuum chamber so that the probe assembly with the work piece mounted can be rotated and tilted without interference from a cable, and can then be reconnected without opening the vacuum chamber. Also described is a means of grounding a sample and probes when the probe assembly is disconnected from its electrical harness and a means of preventing damage to the probe mechanism and the probe itself by ensuring that the probes are not sticking up too far during operations. |
| US09709599B2 |
Membrane probe card
An apparatus includes a membrane film and a plurality of needle tips with cylinder shapes. The membrane film includes a plurality of signal traces. The needle tips are disposed on the membrane film and are electrically connected to the signal traces. The needle tips are configured to probe a device-under-test (DUT). |
| US09709598B2 |
Scanning ion conductance microscopy using surface roughness for probe movement
A method for interrogating a surface using scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM), comprising the steps of: a) repeatedly bringing a SICM probe into proximity with the surface at discrete, spaced locations in a region of the surface and measuring surface height at each location; b) estimating surface roughness or other characteristic for the region based upon the surface height measurements; and c) repeatedly bringing the probe into proximity with the surface at discrete, spaced locations in the region, the number and location of which is based upon the estimated surface roughness or other characteristic in the region, and obtaining an image of the region with a resolution adapted to the surface roughness or other characteristic. |
| US09709593B1 |
Apparatus for measuring velocities of projectiles launched from firearms
A muzzle-mounted chronograph for measuring velocities of projectiles launched from firearms. The chronograph includes a sensor module and a controller. The sensor module includes a first and second coils and a device for applying a stable magnetic field to the first and second coils. The controller determines a velocity of a projectile passing by the first and second coils based on detected variations in magnetic fields at the first and second coils. |
| US09709590B2 |
Automated fluid handling system
Automated fluid handling system comprising a housing and two or more fluid handling units arranged as interchangeable modular components with an external fluidics section and an internal non fluidics section, and wherein the housing comprises a liquid handling panel with two or more of component positions for receiving said interchangeable modular components such that the external fluidics section is separated from the non fluidics section by the liquid handling panel. |
| US09709589B2 |
Automated fluid handling system
Automated fluid handling system comprising a housing and two or more fluid handling units arranged as interchangeable modular components with an external fluidics section and an internal non fluidics section, and wherein the housing comprises a liquid handling panel with two or more of component positions for receiving said interchangeable modular components such that the external fluidics section is separated from the non fluidics section by the liquid handling panel. |
| US09709587B2 |
Automatic analyzer and reagent processing method in automatic analyzer
An automatic analyzer is capable of performing a preparation process on a reagent used to measure a highly urgent test item even during analysis operation, and is configured as follows. If there is no parameter for the analysis item regarding a new reagent, the parameters are downloaded. If the priority of reagent preparation is “high,” a sample pipetting scheduling process is temporarily stopped. If the priority of reagent preparation is not “high,” it is determined whether a waiting time limit has been exceeded, and if it has, the sample pipetting scheduling process is stopped temporarily, reagent preparation scheduling is performed, and the sample pipetting scheduling process is resumed. If it is determined that the waiting time limit has not been exceeded, if the priority of reagent preparation is “medium,” and if the reagent preparation mechanism is found available, then reagent preparation scheduling is performed. |
| US09709584B2 |
System for PCR sample preparation and for PCR set-up
A method of setting up a polymerase chain reaction (“PCR”) includes providing a loading device configured to receive sample tubes for setting up a PCR; providing a tube holding device comprising at least a first receiving opening; attaching the tube holding device to the loading device; and aligning at least one receiving opening of the tube holding device with one of the first and second receiving openings of the loading device and simultaneously covering the other of the first and the second receiving openings of the loading device. |
| US09709583B2 |
MALDI/SELDI analysis of complex mixtures comprising hydrophilic and hydrophobic analytes
The present disclosure relates to the identification of components in a sample based on the chemical nature of the component. In particular, although not exclusively, the present disclosure relates to the identification of hydrophobic and hydrophilic components using a mass spectrometric technique. The present invention also relates to kits and products used in the identification of the components, as well as other subject matter. |
| US09709582B1 |
Method for target substance detection and measurement
Various embodiments for a hand-held device to determine a level of one or more cannabinoid compounds in exhaled human breath are provided; some embodiments may also determine a level of alcohol in the exhaled breath. The device may perform any of the following steps: capture, concentrate, separate, identify, and quantify the level of cannabinoids in the exhaled human breath. The device may use solvent extraction and liquid chromatography to concentrate and separate cannabinoids from breath contaminants, followed by selective chemical modification of the cannabinoids with a fluorescent indicator for quantification. The measurement methodology may also include real time calibration of the device and detection protocol using known cannabinoid standards, which are simultaneously analyzed along with an unknown, to quantify the level of cannabinoids captured from the breath sample. The capture and separation components, along with cannabinoid analysis standards, may be configured as part of a single-use, field-replaceable testing cartridge. |
| US09709581B1 |
Devices for target substance detection and measurement
Various embodiments for a hand-held device to determine a level of one or more cannabinoid compounds in exhaled human breath are provided; some embodiments may also determine a level of alcohol in the exhaled breath. The device may perform any of the following steps: capture, concentrate, separate, identify, and quantify the level of cannabinoids in the exhaled human breath. The device may use solvent extraction and liquid chromatography to concentrate and separate cannabinoids from breath contaminants, followed by selective chemical modification of the cannabinoids with a fluorescent indicator for quantification. The measurement methodology may also include real time calibration of the device and detection protocol using known cannabinoid standards, which are simultaneously analyzed along with an unknown, to quantify the level of cannabinoids captured from the breath sample. The capture and separation components, along with cannabinoid analysis standards, may be configured as part of a single-use, field-replaceable testing cartridge. |
| US09709578B2 |
Assay reagents for a neurogranin diagnostic kit
The present invention relates to the field of biomarkers. More specifically, the present invention relates to assay reagents useful in detecting neurogranin. In a specific embodiment, the present invention provides an isolated antibody or fragment thereof that specifically binds to neurogranin. In another embodiment, the present invention provides a polynucleotide aptamer that specifically binds neurogranin. |
| US09709577B2 |
Method for monitoring HIV specific T cell responses
The invention relates to a method and a diagnostic kit for monitoring HIV specific T cell responses and identifying subjects capable of controlling HIV progression or preventing HIV infection altogether. The method is based on the combined use of boosted flow cytometry and toggle peptides and can cover a large set of effector functions. The method is also suitable to detect T cell responses of any desirable cytokine or combination of cytokines to any pathogen. |
| US09709569B2 |
Method for detecting nucleosome adducts
The invention relates to a method for detecting and measuring the presence of nucleosome-protein adducts and the use of such measurements for the detection and diagnosis of disease. The invention also relates to a method of identifying nucleosome adduct biomarkers for the detection and diagnosis of disease and to biomarkers identified by said method. |
| US09709568B2 |
Antibodies that bind to human programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)
The present disclosure provides isolated antibodies that specifically bind to human PD-L1, as well as antigen binding fragments of such antibodies, and kits comprising the anti-PD-L1 antibodies or binding fragments and a set of reagents for detecting a complex of the antibody, or antigen binding fragment thereof, bound to human PD-L1. The antibodies and antigen binding fragments of this disclosure are useful for immunohistochemical detection of human PD-L1 expression in tissue samples. Nucleic acid molecules encoding the antibodies and antigen binding fragments of this disclosure, as well as expression vectors and host cells for expression thereof, are also provided. |
| US09709566B2 |
Chromatography method, and chromatography kit
The chromatography method of the present invention includes (a) developing a complex of a test substance and a labeling substance modified with a first binding substance bindable to the test substance, onto an insoluble carrier, (b) causing the complex to be trapped in a reaction site on the insoluble carrier which contains a second binding substance bindable to the test substance or a substance exhibiting binding properties to the first binding substance, (c) washing the insoluble carrier with a washing solution containing at least one of the potassium iodide, urea, and guanidine after the step (b), (d) washing off the washing solution of the step (c) remaining in the insoluble carrier from the insoluble carrier, and (e) amplifying the labeling substance of the complex trapped in the reaction site. |
| US09709562B2 |
Lateral flow assay devices for use in clinical diagnostic apparatus and configuration of clinical diagnostic apparatus for same
A lateral flow device for use in a mainframe or point-of-care clinical analyzer, in which the lateral flow device includes a planar support having at least one sample addition area and at least one reaction area disposed thereon. The sample addition area and reaction area are fluidly interconnected to one another and form at least one lateral fluid flow path. The lateral flow device is sized for retention within a storage cartridge of the analyzer defined by a hollow interior and having a plurality of lateral flow assay devices retained in stacked relation therein. |
| US09709558B2 |
Compound arrays for sample profiling
The invention provides arrays of compound for use in profiling samples. The arrays include compounds bind to components of the samples at relatively low affinities. The avidity of compounds binding to components of the samples can be increased by forming arrays such that multivalent components of the samples (e.g., antibodies or cells) can bind to more than one molecule of a compound at the same time. When a sample is applied to an array under such conditions, the compounds of the array bind to component(s) of the sample with significantly different avidities generating a profile characteristic of the sample. |
| US09709555B2 |
Compound for generating second harmonic of light, dye composition for generating second harmonic of light, and cell examination method
Provided are a compound that generates an SHG signal but has suppressed generation of a TPF signal. Also provided is a cell examination method using the same. A compound for generating a second harmonic of light, the compound being an azobenzene derivative of formula (1), or a salt thereof. (R1 and R2 independently represent alkyl groups having 6-12 carbon atoms, and R3 to R18 independently represent substituents selected from hydrogen, halogens, alkyl groups, alkoxy groups, aryl groups, amino groups, hydroxyl groups, nitro groups, and cyano groups, but R5 and R6, R9 and R10, R13 and R14, and R17 and R18 may combine together and form a ring structure having 5-7 carbon atoms. X represents —N+R19R20R21, a sulfonyl group, a carboxyl group, or an —OR group. Here, R19, R20, and R21 independently represent straight-chain or branched alkyl groups having 1-5 carbon atoms, and —OR represents a monovalent polyalkylene oxide group terminated by an alkoxy group. a is 0 or 1, b is 0 or 1, and n is an integer of 1-10.) |
| US09709549B2 |
Systems and methods for processing complex biological materials
Method and systems, for processing biological material, that contain a biological material in a vessel; add an aggregating agent to the material in the vessel and allow the material to separate into two or more distinct submaterials; extract one or more of the submaterials from the vessel; automatically transport one or more of the submaterials remaining in the vessel to a filtration device; and collect a resulting target retentate into a target retentate receptacle. |
| US09709547B2 |
Sensor unit for determining properties of a lubricant and machine element and machine assembly
A sensor unit is disclosed for determining properties of a lubricant; for example, a lubricating grease in a rolling bearing. A machine element may include the sensor unit and a machine assembly may include the machine element. The sensor unit includes a sensor housing having a window which can be aligned to the lubricant. A transmitter for emitting electromagnetic radiation through the window and a receiver for receiving electromagnetic radiation which passes through the window are located in the sensor housing. Evaluating electronics arranged in the sensor housing are electrically connected at least to the receiver. The evaluating unit is designed to generate at least one digital sensor signal. The sensor unit further includes an electrical connection, which is led through the sensor housing and electrically connected to the evaluating electronics in the sensor housing. |
| US09709546B2 |
Pressure-rated crystal holding device for use in a high temperature crude corrosivity test
Disclosed is a device for use in a test to measure the corrosivity of a high temperature hydrocarbon based fluid by determining areal mass density change from a metal layer deposited on a surface of a gallium orthophosphate (GaPO4) crystal. The device includes a blind flange according to ASME B 16.5 having a peripheral bolt portion and a central portion. Bolt holes are present in the peripheral bolt portion of the blind flange for attaching the blind flange to a vessel. A hole through the central portion of the blind flange is provided to which a tube is securely attached at a first end. A second end of the tube is capable of holding the GaPO4 crystal. |
| US09709545B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for spectral qualification of fuel properties
A method for determining property values of fuels may include using spectral data collected from one or more other fuels or fuel components. The method may include construction of spectral data representative of a fuel by weighting spectral data for another fuel and spectral data for one or more fuel components. |
| US09709544B2 |
Solid state gas detection sensor diagnostic
A metal oxide semiconductor-based toxic gas detector is provided. The metal oxide semiconductor-based detector includes a metal oxide semiconductor-based gas sensor that has an electrical characteristic that varies with concentration of a toxic gas. Measurement circuitry is coupled to the metal oxide semiconductor-based gas sensor and is configured to measure the electrical characteristic and provide a digital indication of the measured electrical characteristic. A controller is coupled to the measurement circuitry and is configured to provide a toxic gas output based on the digital indication. The controller is also configured to provide a diagnostic output relative to the metal oxide semiconductor-based sensor based on fluctuations of the measured electrical characteristic over time. |
| US09709541B2 |
Gas processing device with noise dampening
A gas processing device includes a sample inlet defining a gas flow path into a housing, and a pump and a noise dampening device disposed in the housing. The noise dampening device includes an inlet chamber, an outlet chamber, and an elastomeric membrane interposed between and fluidly isolating the inlet chamber and the outlet chamber. The inlet chamber is interposed between the sample inlet and the pump inlet, and the outlet chamber communicates with the pump outlet. |
| US09709538B2 |
Devices to detect a substance and methods of producing such a device
Devices to detect a substance and methods of producing such a device are disclosed. An example device to detect a substance includes a housing defining an externally accessible chamber and a seal to enclose at least a portion of the chamber. The example device also includes a substrate includes nanoparticles positioned within the chamber. The nanoparticles to react to the substance when exposed thereto. The example device also includes a non-analytic solution within the chamber to protect the nanoparticles from premature exposure. |
| US09709536B2 |
Thermal flow sensor, gas sensor comprising at least one such sensor and Pirani gauge comprising at least one such sensor
A thermal flow sensor comprising at least one first element (2) suspended with respect to a support, said first suspended element (2) being of an electrically conductive material, first means (6) for biasing said suspended element (2) and first means (8) for measuring the variation of the electric voltage at the terminals of the suspended element (2), said first suspended element (2) being formed by a nanowire and said first biasing means (6) are formed by an alternating current source the intensity of which provides heating of the first suspended element (2) by Joule effect. |
| US09709532B2 |
Pipeline inspection device and pipeline inspection system
There is provided a pipeline inspection device including: a body part contacting a pipeline and accommodating the pipeline; a coupling part coupled to the body part to enclose the pipeline; and a sensor part including a sensor on at least one of one side of the body part and one side of the coupling part which are in contact with the pipeline to inspect an internal state of the pipeline. The pipeline inspection device according to exemplary embodiments is capable of inspecting pipelines without increasing a gap between the pipelines even in a case in which the gap therebetween is relatively narrow, and is capable of readily and rapidly inspecting a large area of pipelines. |
| US09709528B2 |
Electro-blotting devices, systems, and kits and methods for their use
The invention provides a dry electroblotting system for dry blotting gels, in which the system includes an electroblotting transfer stack that comprises an analysis gel and a blotting membrane, an anode, a body of anodic gel matrix juxtaposed with the anode between the anode and the transfer stack, a cathode, and a body of cathodic gel matrix juxtaposed with the cathode between the cathode and the transfer stack, in which the anodic gel matrix and the cathodic gel matrix each comprise an ion source for electrophoretic transfer. The dry electroblotting system does not use any liquid buffers that are added to the system just before electroblotting (such as when the transfer stack is being assembled). The anode, the cathode, or both can be separate from a power supply and provided as part of a disposable electrode assembly that also includes a body of gel matrix that includes ions for electrophoretic transfer. |
| US09709527B2 |
Electrophoretic matrix staining composition and method
Staining compositions and methods for use with a matrix, such as an electrophoretic gel, containing separated biopolymers. The compositions including an acid, an organic solvent, and a generally planar, fluid-permeable gel contact sheet consisting primarily of a non-cellulosic material. The acid and organic solvent may be sorbed to the fluid-permeable gel contact sheet, or may be sorbed to a layers contactable with a non-gel contact side of the gel contact sheet. In one embodiment, the composition is a source electrophoretic stain composition including a staining reagent. In one embodiment, the composition is a sink electrophoretic stain composition including a sorbent. |
| US09709526B2 |
Native protein electrophoresis and methods of use
A method of characterizing proteins has been developed that includes providing a sample that contains a plurality of proteins to be characterized, wherein at least a first protein of the plurality of proteins is in its native form. Additionally, the method includes contacting the sample containing the plurality of proteins with a solution to form a sample solution, and then contacting the sample solution with a gel. The plurality of proteins is subsequently separated via electrophoresis within the gel, which includes an electrophoresis solution. |
| US09709525B2 |
Backside CMOS compatible BioFET with no plasma induced damage
The present disclosure provides a bio-field effect transistor (BioFET) device and methods of fabricating a BioFET and a BioFET device. The method includes forming a BioFET using one or more process steps compatible with or typical to a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process. The BioFET device includes a gate structure disposed on a first surface of a substrate and an interface layer formed on a second surface of the substrate. The substrate is thinned from the second surface to expose a channel region before forming the interface layer. |
| US09709517B2 |
Gas detector
A gas detector includes a detecting element, a circuit board, a housing case having a gas introduction hole, and a metal member which covers the gas introduction hole. The detecting element is disposed under the metal member. The gas detector further includes a detecting element wiring fusing prevention member which is electrically conductive and is electrically connected to a grounding line of the circuit board. The detecting element wiring fusing prevention member is disposed at a position such that the shortest distance between the metal member and the detecting element wiring fusing prevention member is smaller than that between the metal member and the detecting element. |
| US09709516B2 |
Impedance-based bacterial detection system
A method and apparatus for determining the presence or absence of microorganisms in a liquid sample. A vessel with an electrode disposed therein receives a volume of liquid to be tested. A second electrode is also provided, both electrodes in physical contact with the liquid sample. A time varying signal is applied to one electrode, and the other electrode is coupled to a phase sensitive signal detector. The phase sensitive signal detector determines a frequency at which an out of phase signal amplitude is zero. This zero-crossing frequency is used as a baseline, and changes in the zero-crossing frequency are an indication of microbial growth. |
| US09709507B2 |
Apparatus and method for measuring contamination of filter
Provided are an apparatus and method for measuring contamination of a filter. The filter contamination measuring apparatus includes a light-emitting unit which provides light having, a predetermined wavelength to a filter adsorbs foreign materials, a light-receiving unit which receives light reflected by the filter and convert reflected light information into a digital code to output, and a contamination calculating unit which processes the digital code provided by the light-receiving unit and calculates a degree of contamination of the filter, wherein the contamination calculating unit calculates a degree, in which a wavelength of the light reflected by the filter is shifted from the predetermined wavelength, compares intensity of light provided by the light-emitting unit with intensity of the light reflected by the filter, and calculates the degree of contamination of the filter. |
| US09709504B2 |
Optical sensor unit for evanescence wave spectroscopy
Optical sensor unit for infra red evanescence wave spectroscopy (IR-EWS) analysis of chemical and biological substances in an analyte, comprising a waveguide with a sensor surface to be put into contact with the analyte, wherein the sensor surface is provided with an affinity enhancing layer. There is further provided a method of producing an optical sensor unit. |
| US09709503B2 |
Apparatus and method for performing nucleic acid analysis
The present invention relates to optical confinements, methods of preparing and methods of using them for analyzing molecules and/or monitoring chemical reactions. The apparatus and methods embodied in the present invention are particularly useful for high-throughput and low-cost single-molecular analysis. |
| US09709501B2 |
Cytological method using the auto fluorescence of white corpuscles for the early diagnosis and the monitoring of infections
The present invention relates to an in vitro method for diagnosing the infectious state of an individual on the basis of a sample of white corpuscles arising from a biological specimen taken from an organ potentially infected by a pathogenic microorganism of said individual, comprising at least the following two steps: i) measuring the mean cellular intensity of the autofluorescence of said sample, and ii) comparing the intensity measured in step i) with a control value, so as to determine the infectious state of said individual. The diagnostic method of the invention uses a routine optical material making it possible to work in wavelength regions which are compatible with the cellular autofluorescence, and thus constitutes a rapid, reliable and inexpensive aid for the diagnosis or monitoring of an infection in an individual. |
| US09709498B2 |
Gas-sensor arrangement for detecting target-gas concentration
A gas-sensor arrangement for measuring a target-gas concentration has first and second NDIR emitters to one side of a space containing the target gas and projecting respective first and second beams of infrared light through the space. An it receiver on the other side of the space and irradiated by the first and second beams for emitting first and second outputs respectively corresponding to the first and second beams and together forming a receiver signal corresponding to radiation received from the first and second beams. One of the emitters is optically farther from the receiver than the other of the emitters. A filter between the receiver and the space is traversed by the first and second beams and permeable only to radiation of a wavelength range corresponding to the target gas. A controller connected to the radiation receiver calculates the target-gas concentration on the basis of the receiver signal. |
| US09709494B2 |
Measuring arrangement for measuring optical properties of a reflective optical element, in particular for microlithography
A measuring arrangement for measuring optical properties of a reflective optical element, in particular for microlithography, with an EUV light source (5), a detector (20) configured to detect EUV radiation reflected at the reflective optical element (10), and an imaging system (30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90), which images object points on the reflective optical element onto respective image points on the detector, wherein the imaging system is configured to reflect the EUV radiation, a first optical component (31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91), and at least one second optical component (32, 42, 52, 62, 72, 82, 92). Both at the first optical component and at the second optical component, reflection angles with respect to respective surface normals that respectively occur during reflection of the EUV radiation are at least 70°. |
| US09709493B2 |
Sensor device for detecting moisture on a pane
In a sensor device for detecting moisture on a pane comprising at least one transmitter which emits light which is reflected at the pane and received by at least one receiver, an optical system is provided between the transmitter and the receiver, which brings about a multiple reflection between the pane and the optical system. A particularly good measurement is thereby made possible. |
| US09709487B2 |
Method for measuring the concentration of a gas component in a measuring gas
A method for measuring the concentration of a gas component in a measuring gas. An absorption line of the gas component is varied as a function of the wavelength of the light of a wavelength-tunable light source within a periodically sequential scanning interval. The absorption line of the gas component is modulated with a frequency (f0). Modulated light is guided through the measuring gas onto a detector. A measurement signal generated by the detector is demodulated upon determining a harmonic (nf0) of the frequency (f0). A measurement result is produced by fitting a setpoint curve to the profile of the demodulated measurement signal. Both demodulated measurement signal and setpoint cure are filtered with the aid of the same filter function. The filter function is operative to suppress noise signal components of the demodulated measurement signal that disturb both signal components of the demodulated measurement signal and the setpoint curve. |
| US09709483B2 |
Electronic imaging flow-microscope for environmental remote sensing, bioreactor process monitoring, and optical microscopic tomography
An electronic imaging flow-microscope for remote environmental sensing, bioreactor process monitoring, and optical microscopic tomography applications is described. A fluid conduit has a port on each end of a thin flat transparent fluid transport region. A planar illumination surface contacts one flat side of the transparent fluid transport region and a planar image sensing surface contacts the other flat side. Light from the illumination surface travels through the transparent fluid transport region to the planar image sensing surface, producing a light field affected by the fluid and objects present. The planar image sensing surface creates electrical image signals responsive to the light field. The planar illumination surface can be light emitting elements such as LEDs, OLEDs, or OLET whose illumination can be sequenced in an image formation process. The flow microscope can further comprise flow-restricting valves, pumps, energy harvesting arrangements, and power management. |
| US09709482B2 |
Methods and systems for humidity determination via an oxygen sensor
Methods are provided for determining ambient humidity based on outputs from an intake air or exhaust gas sensor. In one example, an oxygen sensor may be operated as a variable voltage sensor, between a lower first voltage and a higher second voltage, to determine a dry air oxygen reading. Ambient humidity may then be determined based on the dry air oxygen reading and a third output of the oxygen sensor when operated at the lower first voltage and not in variable voltage mode. |
| US09709475B2 |
Method for determining and/or monitoring viscosity and corresponding apparatus
A method for determining and/or monitoring the viscosity of a medium, wherein a mechanically oscillatable unit is excited to execute oscillations based on an exciter signal, and wherein oscillations are received from the mechanically oscillatable unit and transduced into a received signal. The eigenfrequency and/or resonance frequency of the mechanically oscillatable unit and/or phase relationship between the exciter signal and the received signal are/is ascertained and/or monitored, and from changes in the eigenfrequency and/or resonance frequency and/or phase relationship, a change in viscosity is deduced and/or, based on dependencies of the oscillations on the viscosity of the medium, from the eigenfrequency and/or resonance frequency and/or phase relationship, viscosity is ascertained. In a second variant of the method, decay behavior of the mechanically oscillatable unit is evaluated. An apparatus for determining and/or monitoring viscosity is also presented. |
| US09709474B2 |
Automatic measuring instrument and measuring method for unconventional natural gas content
An automatic measuring instrument for an unconventional natural gas content includes a parsing tank, a thermostatic water bath box, a gas collection measuring cylinder, a balance measuring cylinder, a liquid storage tank, a data acquisition and control system, an upper computer, and a lifting device for driving the gas collection measuring cylinder and the balance measuring cylinder to move relative to the liquid storage tank, wherein both the lower ports of the gas collection measuring cylinder and the balance measuring cylinder are placed below the liquid level of the liquid storage tank. The parsing tank is placed in the thermostatic water bath box. A gas guide tube A is connected to the parsing tank and the gas collection measuring cylinder. A gas guide tube B is connected to the balance measuring cylinder and the outside atmosphere is fed therein. By the adoption of the measuring instrument, the constant-pressure isasteric automatic continuous measurement of the content of natural gas contained in an unconventional natural gas reservoir sample is achieved. Moreover, the measuring instrument is simple in structure, reliable in measurement and analysis results, convenient in operation and high in measurement accuracy. |
| US09709469B2 |
Valveless microfluidic device
Provided are methods, devices and systems for analyte detection using a microfluidic device. |
| US09709466B2 |
Systems and methods for ignition source testing with flammable foam
Systems and methods for ignition source testing with a flammable foam are disclosed. Flammable foam systems and methods for testing use a flammable foam that includes fuel and oxidant. Flammable foam is applied to a test article and an energy discharge is applied to the test article. Methods include determining whether the flammable foam ignited in response to the energy discharge. |
| US09709461B2 |
Method of integrating a temperature sensing element
A multi-function sensor includes a body that includes a sensing circuit disposed on a substrate, the sensing circuit including a pressure sensor and a temperature sensor, the temperature sensor being disposed on a flexible portion of the substrate. A method of fabrication and additional embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09709458B1 |
Sensor for detecting hydrocarbon in a static drain line
A hydrocarbon leak detection sensor having a hydrocarbon indicator paint applied to a surface exposed to a flow in which the presence of a hydrocarbon is detected. The sensor is located at a low point in a static drain line that is connected to a main fuel line of a liquid propellant rocket engine between a main fuel valve and a fuel injector of a combustion chamber. The sensor includes a housing with a flow inlet port and a flow outlet port with an optical device opposed to a removable plug that secures a target disk with a hydrocarbon indicator paint applied to an exposed surface. A light source is used to illuminate the hydrocarbon indicator that changes color from white to red in the presence of a hydrocarbon. |
| US09709454B2 |
Non-resonant knock sensor
A non-resonant knock sensor includes: a sensor body having a metal shell provided with a shell-side cylindrical portion and a shell-side flange portion, a piezoelectric element, a weight arranged to hold the piezoelectric element between the shell-side flange portion and the weight and a fixing member having a third through hole through which the shell-side cylindrical portion is inserted and being arranged to press the weight toward the shell-side flange portion and thereby fix the weight in position; and a resin molded part. The fixing member has formed therein flow paths for introducing a resin into an inner space between the shell-side cylindrical portion and the piezoelectric element. The flow paths are provided in the form of at least one of being connected to the third through hole and being separated from the third through hole and are formed intermittently in a circumferential direction of the fixing member. |
| US09709448B2 |
Active measurement of gas flow temperature, including in gas turbine combustors
Active acoustic pyrometry-based gas flow temperature measurement, such as for monitoring of gas turbine combustors, including industrial gas turbine (IGT) combustors is incorporated into the combustion monitoring and control system by addition of an acoustic transmitter or acoustic transceiver that transmits a sound wave in a line-of-sight with a plurality of acoustic sensors, such as dynamic pressure sensors. For temperature measurement, in some embodiments sound transmission time-of-flight that is directed generally transverse the gas flow path is measured by the controller and correlated with gas flow temperature along the line-of-sight. In other embodiments line-of-sight correlated gas flow temperatures in up and down stream planar paths are interpolated. In an integrated thermoacoustic pressure-based sensor and monitoring/control system embodiment, the controller determines absolute active path temperatures with acoustic transmission and time-of-flight analysis techniques. |
| US09709444B2 |
Motor controller, electric vehicle, and heat stress estimation method for switching element
The specification is related to a motor controller, a vehicle including the motor controller and a heat stress estimating method for a switching element. The motor controller includes a switching element, a temperature sensor, and a computer. The switching element is configured to convert output electric power of an electric power supply into motor-driving electric power. The temperature sensor is configured to measure a temperature of the switching element. The computer is configured to extract a maximum point and a minimum point in a time-dependent change in the temperature of the switching element, the computer is configured to calculate a temperature difference between the maximum point and the minimum point adjacent to each other and configured to calculate an estimated value of a heat stress to which the switching element is subjected based on each calculated temperature difference. |
| US09709434B1 |
Level indicator system
A plug for a level indicator system and a level indicator system. The level indicator system includes an elongated level indicator tube sealed by one or more of the plugs, and a magnetically operated visual indicator secured within the elongated level indicator tube. The plug includes an elongated body having a first end, a second end; and port. The plug is configured to form a seal with the level indicator tube. |
| US09709430B2 |
Coaxial probe comprising terminating resistor
A coaxial probe is for a TDR fill-level measuring instrument, in which probe the inner conductor is connected to the outer conductor via a terminating resistor. The terminating resistor is mounted in a cylindrical recess in the inner conductor and sealed with respect to the measuring environment. In this way, the measurement of the fill level in the region of the probe end can be improved. |
| US09709428B2 |
Thermal flow meter with a protrusion having an orifice surface and recovery surface provided on a wall surface of a bypass passage
To improve measurement accuracy of a thermal flow meter. The present invention provides a thermal flow meter, in which a protrusion 356 having an orifice surface 503 and a recovery surface 505 is provided on a wall surface 501 of a bypass passage, an intersection line 506 between the orifice surface 503 and the wall surface 501 is arranged in an upstream side from an upstream side end 401 of a circuit package 400, an intersection line 507 between the recovery surface 505 and the wall surface 501 is arranged in a downstream side from a downstream side end 402 of the circuit package 400, and an apex 504 of the protrusion 356 is arranged in a downstream side from a heat transfer surface of an air flow sensing portion 602 and in an upstream side from the downstream side end 402 of the circuit package 400. |
| US09709426B2 |
Magnetic-inductive flowmeter
A magnetic-inductive flowmeter for measuring flow of a flowing medium, having a measuring tube, a magnetic field generator, at least one measuring electrode and a measuring section that is flat on one side having a planar measuring tube portion. Furthermore, the magnetic field generator has at least one coil core and a pole shoe. The magnetic-inductive flowmeter is improved compared to the prior art by several support lugs being present between the planar measuring tube portion and the pole shoe. |
| US09709421B2 |
Method and system for providing web-enabled cellular access to meter reading data
A method and a system for collection of meter readings from meter reading and transmitting devices (12, 14) and for viewing on a web-enabled wireless communication device (28) comprises addressing at least one receiver (15) through the Internet (21) and obtaining a data file of meter data for a plurality of meter reading devices (12, 14) that have previously communicated with the receiver (15). The receiver (15) can then re-transmit the meter data through a wide area network such as the Internet (21) to a web site (10) operated by an organization marketing AMR systems. The meter data is then accessed and displayed at a customer demonstration site using a handheld wireless smart phone (28) which receives a web page (22) that is reduced in size for transmission through the cellular network to the smart phone (28). |
| US09709419B2 |
Information processing device and information processing method
To make it possible to accurately inform a user of a road that has become usable. A navigation device 1 includes a storing unit 10 that stores information concerning a map including unopened roads, a processing unit 12 that performs display of the map or a search for a route or the display of the map and the search for a route on the basis of the information concerning the map stored by the storing unit 10, and an acquiring unit 11 that acquires an opening situation of a road. The storing unit 10 stores, separately from the information concerning the map, the opening situation of the road acquired by the acquiring unit 11. The processing unit 12 performs the display of the map or the search for a route or the display of the map and the search for a route on the basis of the information stored by the storing unit. |
| US09709416B2 |
Destination proposal system, destination proposal method, and storage medium for program product
In a living area data generation section, a road link having the number of times of traveling not less than a predetermined number of times is acquired based on travel history data, and a predetermined area including the road link is determined as a living area. In a user model generation section, based on the travel history data, the number of outings is acquired by necessary time for outing, according to whether the destination is in a living area or non-living area, and model data of user's outing pattern is generated. In a search condition determination section, based on the model data, a facility search range is determined, and a ratio between the numbers of facilities to be searched for from the living area and non-living area is determined as a search condition. In a facility search section, search is conducted for facilities conforming to the condition and to be presented. |
| US09709415B2 |
Transportation routing
A computer-implemented method of providing personalized route information involves gathering a plurality of past location indicators over time for a wireless client device, determining a future driving objective using the plurality of previously-gathered location indicators, obtaining real-time traffic data for an area proximate to the determined driving objective, and generating a suggested route for the driving objective using the near real-time traffic data. |
| US09709410B2 |
Method and apparatus for vehicle-based data gathering
A computer implemented method includes accessing a list containing one or more items for purchase. The method further includes receiving a vehicle location. The method also includes searching for one or more stores within a predefined distance of the vehicle location, which sell at least one item from the list, and the prices those stores offer. Additionally, the method includes recommending a stop at at least one of the one or more stores, and providing directions to a store for which a stop was recommended. |
| US09709407B2 |
Method and apparatus for use in navigational applications
A method comprising providing or receiving updated information, the previous and said updated information associated with a geographic region, said previous information comprising information about one or more links usable for connecting to one or more links in a different geographic region, and said updated information comprising at least said previous information and new information about one or more links for connecting to one or more links in said different geographic region. |
| US09709401B2 |
MEMS sensors
A MEMS sensor comprises a vibrating sensing structure formed from a semiconductor substrate layer (50). The semiconductor substrate layer (50) is mounted on a pedestal comprising an electrically insulating substrate layer (52) bonded to the semiconductor substrate (50) to form a rectangular sensor chip. The pedestal further comprises an electrically insulating spacer layer (54) for mounting the sensor chip to a housing. The electrically insulating spacer layer (54) is octagonal. When the vibrating sensing structure is excited into a cos 2θ vibration mode pair, the quadrature bias arising from any mode frequency split is not affected by changes in temperature as a result of the octagonal spacer layer (54). |
| US09709397B2 |
Laser level track attachment device
In combination with a track assembly having a lower track defining a lower channel spanning a length of the lower track and defining a center plane, wherein an improvement is disclosed that includes having a laser level operably configured to emit a laser in a direction away from an laser output of the laser level in a laser emission plane and having a laser level track attachment device coupled thereto. Further, the improvement includes the laser level track attachment device having a body with a cantilever member that projects in a direction opposite to the direction in which the laser is operably configured to be emitted from the laser level and is sized and shaped to be complementarily received within the lower channel of the lower track such that the laser emission plane is substantially coplanar with the center plane of the lower channel. |
| US09709396B2 |
Air deployable ocean drifter buoy
An air deployable drifter buoy assembly is provided. The air deployable drifter buoy assembly includes an air deployment tube in compliance with NATO A-Size packaging specifications and a foldable drifter buoy. In a first mode of operation the foldable drifter buoy is accommodated in the air deployment tube in a folded manner and in a second mode of operation the foldable drifter buoy is deployed in an unfolded manner with the foldable drifter buoy being in compliance with Davis CODE Drifter specifications. |
| US09709392B2 |
Aero engine rotor assembling method and device based on concentricity and verticality measurement
An aero engine rotor assembling method and device based on concentricity and verticality measurement belongs to mechanical assembly technology. The present invention effectively solves the problem of poor coaxality after the aero engine rotor is assembled and has the characteristics of high coaxality after the rotor is assembled, reduced vibration, mounting easiness, high flexibility and improved engine performance. The measurement and device is: determining rotary reference; determining the angular positioning of a rotary table; extracting the radial error of the radial mounting plane and the inclination error of the axial mounting plane of the rotor based on the four-probe measuring device to obtain the influencing weight of this rotor to the assembled rotor on coaxality; measuring respectively all the rotors to obtain the influencing weight of each rotor to the assembled rotor on coaxality; vector optimizing the weight of each rotor to obtain the assembling angle of each rotor. |
| US09709391B2 |
Position calculating system and haulage vehicle
A position calculating system for a haulage vehicle including wheels and a body frame mounted on the wheels. The system includes an attitude detection sensor fixed on the body frame, a wheel rotational speed sensor, a loading status information acquiring unit, a correction amount setting unit, a velocity vector calculating unit, and a position calculating unit. The loading status information acquiring unit acquires loading status information indicating whether the body frame is in a loaded state or in an unloaded state. The correction amount setting unit calculates, based on the attitude information, a correction amount required for bringing detection axes in the loaded state into coincidence with corresponding detection axes in the unloaded state. The velocity vector calculating unit calculates the velocity vector of the haulage vehicle. The position calculating unit calculates a position of the haulage vehicle by using the velocity vector. |
| US09709382B2 |
Light source apparatus and information acquisition apparatus including the same
One or more light source apparatuses, one or more information acquisition apparatuses and related method(s) are discussed herein. At least one embodiment of a light source apparatus includes a light source that generates first pulsed light and a nonlinear optical medium that generates second pulsed light having a wavelength different from that of the first pulsed light due to incidence of the first pulsed light. The light source may be configured so that the center wavelength of the first pulsed light is variable across the zero dispersion wavelength of the nonlinear optical medium. |
| US09709378B2 |
Resolver
A resolver includes a first assembly having transmitter windings and a first winding of a first transformer. The resolver also includes a second assembly having receiver windings, a first winding of a second transformer, and a first winding of a third transformer. A third assembly of the resolver includes a second winding of the first transformer, a second winding of the second transformer, and a second winding of the third transformer. The three assemblies are rotatable relative to each other about an axis. The windings of the first transformer, the windings of the second transformer, the windings of the third transformer, the transmitter windings, and the receiver windings are arranged opposite each other in each case, separated by a radial gap. |
| US09709376B2 |
High sensitivity inductive sensor for measuring blade tip clearance
A high sensitivity inductive sensor for measuring clearance of a rotating blade tip includes a one or more of sensing coils. The sensing coils are formed of magnet wire, which is wound to form planar spiral coils. Each of the coils are coupled in series with a function generator, which applies an excitation signal thereto. Accordingly, based on the change in impedance of the coils, a clearance measurement, which identifies the distance between the coil and the tip of the rotating blade can be obtained using predetermined calibration curve values. |
| US09709370B1 |
Transporting and disposing of recalled airbag inflators
Embodiments described herein include systems and methods for safely transporting and disposing of airbag inflators. For example, a container is provided that can hold multiple airbag inflators and withstand inflator explosion resulting in failure of the metal inflator housing. The container can contain the inflator and any shrapnel associated with the explosion while also venting gases expelled as a result of the explosion. Various container designs are provided, along with methods for using these containers. |
| US09709368B2 |
Projectile with enhanced ballistics
The present invention provides a projectile device and a method of manufacture of a projectile device and in particular, to a pistol bullet and a rifle bullet and method of manufacture of same. In one embodiment, the projectile apparatus has a cylindrical body portion having a diameter, a front nose section tapering from a most proximal point of the projectile to the cylindrical body portion, and a rear tail section connected to the body portion and extending to the most distal point of the projectile, in which the front nose portion comprises a plurality of twisting depressions forming troughs. |
| US09709367B2 |
Cartridge casing and method of manufacturing a cartridge casing
The present invention relates to a cartridge casing for firearm ammunition and to a method of manufacturing such casing. The casing (1) comprises an elongate interior cavity (4) and extends along a longitudinal axis (5). The cavity (4) is open at the top end of the casing (1) and is defined radially by a circumferentially extending sidewall (3) formed by an elongate tubular portion and at the bottom by a bottom wall (2) which is connected to an axial end of the tubular portion and comprises a bore (7). The casing (1) further comprises in a lateral outer surface an annular projection (18) located proximate the bottom end of the casing (1) and extending circumferentially in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis (5) of the casing (1). The casing (1) comprises an elongate tubular sleeve component (10) open at both axial ends and a separate bottom component (11) fixedly secured to the sleeve component (10). The tubular portion is formed by the sleeve component (10), and the bottom wall (2) is formed at least in part by the bottom component (11). The bottom component (11) comprises a lower axial end surface (8), an opposite upper axial end surface (15) and a circumferentially extending lateral outer surface on which the annular projection (18) is arranged. The casing (1) may be manufactured by providing the bottom component (11) and the sleeve component (10) and fixedly securing the sleeve component (10) to the bottom component (11). |
| US09709366B1 |
Layered energetic material having multiple ignition points
An energetic material having thin, alternating layers of metal oxide and reducing metal is provided. The energetic material may be provided in the form of a sheet, foil, cylinder, or other convenient structure. A method of making the energetic material resists the formation of oxide on the surface of the reducing metal, allowing the use of multiple thin layers of metal oxide and reducing metal for maximum contact between the reactants, without significant lost volume due to oxide formation. An ignition system for the energetic material includes multiple ignition points, as well as a means for controlling the timing and sequence of activation of the individual ignition points. The combination of the energetic material and ignition system provides a means of charge and blast shaping, ignition timing, pressure curve control and maximization, and safe neutralization of the energetic material. |
| US09709365B2 |
Edible skeet
A frangible flying target for use in inanimate bird shooting. The target may include a body substantially formed from matter edible to animals. The body may include at least one of protein meal; urea; condensed distillers solubles; and cement. The protein meal may be encased in an edible binder. Making the target may be carried out by mixing the ingredients and curing in a desired target shape. This may be carried out by molding. In other examples, the target may be made by making a blank using molding or extrusion, and then trimming or machining the blank to the desired target shape. The mixture may comprise, by total weight of the mixture, 5-20 percent cement, 0.5-25 percent molasses, 0-10 percent salt, and 0.5-10 percent urea; and water. |
| US09709363B2 |
Armor system
An armor system pellet is provided. The pellet includes a pellet body attached to four projections for interlocking adjacent pellets when arranged in an array. The pellet is configured such that the width of a first pair of co-linear projections is less than a width of a second pair of co-linear projections. |
| US09709362B2 |
Adaptive camouflage
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for retaining camouflage material. A frame includes a front surface and a back surface. The frame may be configured to distribute pressure across the back surface from camouflage material retained against the front surface. At least one retention device may be coupled to the frame. The retention device(s) may be configured to retain camouflage material against the front surface of the frame. At least one vent opening may be formed in the frame. A vent opening may include a channel extending between the front surface and the back surface of the frame. |
| US09709361B2 |
Seeker head for a guided missile and method of depicting an object
A seeker head for a guided missile has an outer casing, a detector unit with a matrix detector, and an optical system for depicting an object from an object scene surrounding the guided missile on the matrix detector. The optical system contains entrance optics and an optical link. The seek head further has a rolling-pitching system with a rolling frame and a pitching frame for aligning at least the entrance optics with the object. In order to be able to detect even objects that are far away and radiating weakly when the guided missile is rolling, it is proposed that the detector unit is arranged on the rolling frame for conjoint rolling. |
| US09709358B2 |
Coupling various firearm accessories to a firearm
A system for coupling various firearm accessories to a firearm may include an anchor that couples to a firearm accessory rail of the firearm and a coupling member that couples a firearm accessory to the anchor. A method of coupling various firearm accessories to a firearm may involve positioning an anchor within the body of a firearm accessory to be coupled to the firearm and bringing the anchor into contact with a firearm accessory rail of the firearm. The method may involve bringing the anchor into tension with the firearm accessory rail such that the anchor is securely engaged with the rail (e.g., through the use of a coupling member, integrated anchor shaft, and/or nut or other component). The systems and methods may couple a wide variety of firearm accessories to a wide variety of firearm accessory rails. |
| US09709357B1 |
Forward rail guard for rifles
A rifle assembly includes a rifle and a forward rail guard. The rifle includes a receiver, a barrel extending forwardly of the receiver, and forward rails arranged around a portion of the barrel. The forward rail guard mounted to the forward rails and extending from a rear end proximate the receiver and a forward end extending forwardly of a forward end of the forward rails. The forward rail guard can include left and right guard sections configured to separately connect to left and right side forward rails of the rifle and extend below a barrel thereof. |
| US09709353B1 |
Firing pin spring retaining clip assembly
A firing pin spring retaining clip assembly that displaces water and/or debris to enable a firing pin to move to discharge a firearm. The firing pin spring retaining clip assembly has at least one retaining clip with an exterior face and an interior face that extend between a first front edge and a rear edge. The at least one retaining clip further has at least one protrusion with a second front edge. The second front edge has a first width. The length is longer than the first width is wide. The at least one retaining clip mounts onto the firing pin having a retaining wall and a spring. In another embodiment, the at least one retaining clip also has at least one full protrusion having a third front edge and the length of the first front edge is also longer than width of the third front edge. |
| US09709352B1 |
Ammunition clip
In one embodiment, an ammunition clip comprises an elongated channel comprising a first floor, and a first wall and a second wall, the walls extending upwardly from the first floor on opposite longitudinal sides of the floor; a first inwardly facing elongated pawl integrally formed with an inside face of the first wall, and a second inwardly facing elongated pawl integrally formed with an inside face of the second wall; at a first end of the channel, an upwardly protruding stop member on the first floor; at a second end of the channel, in the first floor, an upwardly protruding flexible stop lever, and a longitudinally extending guide tab. |
| US09709343B2 |
Heat exchanger
A coolant cooler has a cooling block formed by tubes arranged parallel to one another. The tubes form multiple first flow ducts through which a first fluid can flow. In regions between the tubes multiple second flow ducts are formed through which a second fluid can flow. The coolant cooler includes a first collecting box on which a first fluid inlet is arranged and a second collecting box on which a first fluid outlet is arranged. The first flow ducts are in fluid communication with a first cooling circuit via the first fluid inlet, the first fluid outlet, and the collecting boxes. The first or second collecting box has a second fluid inlet and a second fluid outlet such that the second fluid inlet, the respective collecting box, and the second fluid outlet are in fluid communication with a second cooling circuit. |
| US09709341B2 |
Heat exchanger
Provided are a heat exchanger that does not impede downsizing and removes water in the heat absorbing pipe adequately with a simple configuration even when the reduction in diameter of the heat absorbing pipe is made. A heat exchanger 5 in which heat absorbing pipes 51 are disposed in a multi-tier arrangement within a casing 50 which is the passage of combustion exhaust gas, both pipe ends 511,512 of each of the heat absorbing pipes 51 are connected respectively to two headers 54, 55 provided on a side plate 52 of the casing 50, and water introduced from an external pipe 63 to each of the heat absorbing pipes 51 through the header 54 is heat-exchanged and heated by combustion exhaust gas. The pipe ends 511, 512 of the heat absorbing pipes 51 are arranged at a predetermined vertical interval. A drainage plate 56 for forming a drainage passage through which the water that has reached the pipe end openings 51A of respective heat absorbing pipes 51 is removed during drainage operation for the heat absorbing pipes 51, is disposed in the header 54 disposed on a lower side of the heat absorbing pipes 51 so as to face a number of the pipe end openings 51A vertically arranged in a state of continuous. |