| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09741033B2 |
System and method for point of sale payment data credentials management using out-of-band authentication
The invention provides an easy to use credential management mechanism for multi-factor out-of-band multi-channel authentication process to protect payment credentials without the risk of malware and skimming attacks. When opened, the secure payment application generates a multi-dimensional transitory key. The user authenticates the multi-dimensional transitory key and validates the secure payment application, triggering an out-of-band outbound mechanism. The portable mobile device invokes the authentication server and the authentication server authenticates the user based on the authenticated transitory key. After authentication, the merchant is allowed access to the payment credentials to complete the transaction. The process of the invention includes an authentication server, a secure payment application to generate an authentication vehicle or an embodiment (i.e. multi-dimensional transitory key) and handle incoming requests, and a portable communication device with a smartphone application. |
| US09741032B2 |
Security broker
An attempted transaction is identified involving a customer device and the first customer device is redirected to a security broker. A security report for the first customer device is received from the security broker. The security report is based on security data transmitted from the customer device to the security broker. An action can be performed in association with the attempted transaction based at least in part on the received security report. In some aspects, the security broker receives security data describing security conditions on the customer device in connection with the transaction between the customer device and a transaction partner. A risk tolerance policy is identified that corresponds to the transaction partner, such as an ecommerce provider. A security report is generated based on a comparison of the risk tolerance policy and the security data and the security report. |
| US09741029B2 |
Mobile computing device network of multi-vendor, multi-interface computers
An apparatus 10, and system 70 may be embodied as an article 70 or method implementing transactions between a central or “core” application 72, a fulfillment application 96 at a venue, and a wireless communication application 84, 86 hosted on a computing device 10, such as a cell phone, of an attendee at an event at that venue. Customers may sign up online, through various types of web applications 88 or dedicated applications 92, to receive information, such as menus, catalogs, or the like of available products to be at the event. The core application 72 may manage a database 74 of records of customers, products, and fulfilment locations, and may send to fulfilment locations instructions to dispatch “runners” to deliver products to seat locations of customers ordering through wireless computer devices 12 at a venue. |
| US09741027B2 |
Memory card based contactless devices
A memory card compatible token includes a host interface, radio circuits to transmit signals and a controller to determine if the memory card access commands are for contactless devices attached to the memory card slot or general memory. User payment account information is stored in the contactless chip as part of the contactless devices. The radio circuits can be activated and deactivated by the user for signal transmission using the controller through a mobile computing device. |
| US09741024B2 |
Systems and methods of bank transfer
A financial institution and a payment initiator may exchange public keys to enable the secure exchange of data. A business wishing to collect payment can provide its account information to the payment initiator. A customer wishing to pay can instruct the payment initiator to encrypt the business's account information along with details for a particular invoice and transmit the information to the financial institution. The financial institution can decrypt the information and initiate a transfer of money from the customer to the business. The financial institution may present the information about the transaction to the customer for modification or confirmation before initiating the transfer. The information may be sent from the payment initiator to the financial institution via the customer. After the payment has been initiated by the financial institution, a confirmation may be sent to the customer, the payment initiator, the business, or any suitable combination thereof. |
| US09741023B2 |
HVAC system remote monitoring and diagnosis
A method of operating a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) monitoring service is described. The method includes: providing a local device for installation in an HVAC system of a residential or commercial building; periodically receiving data from the local device across a wide area network, wherein the received data includes electrical sensor data including at least one of current or power; and storing the received data. The method further includes: analyzing the stored data to selectively identify problems and selectively predict faults of the HVAC system; receiving a subscription fee corresponding to the building, the subscription fee applying to a calendar period; and during the calendar period, providing information on the identified problems and the predicted faults to a customer corresponding to the building. |
| US09741022B2 |
Parental controls
A web service platform to improve end-user engagement in a captive audience environment. Mobile and web-based clients allow application users to authorize and approve usage of entitlements of other users, including their children, based upon preconfigured rules and the proximity between the user requesting and the user approving authorization to use the entitlement. |
| US09741019B2 |
Restoring deleted items with context
Deleted property information relating to deleting an item, such as an electronic message, is used for restoring the deleted item. The deleted property information is stored in response to deleting the item. The stored deleted property information identifies a location of where the item was deleted from and may include other information. The location information may be a specific location such as a folder (e.g. inbox, sent, folder 1, . . . ), a calendar, a network location, and the like. In response to a request to restore a deleted item, the deleted property information is used to restore the deleted item to the location where the item was when deleted. A graphical user interface may be used to assist a user in restoring deleted items. The user interface may display a user friendly name (e.g. “Inbox”, “Folder 1”, . . . ) of where the deleted item(s) will be/have been restored. |
| US09741016B2 |
Business model data management
A business model data management method can include identifying a business object within a business object structure document for a business application, locating data management rules for the identified business object in a business object descriptor document, and executing the located data management rules to represent the identified business object in a database for the business application. |
| US09741015B2 |
Map based routing from bill of materials
A method and system includes a bill of materials stored on a computer readable storage device, listing multiple components to be assembled. A mapping table is stored on a computer readable storage device having rows listing attributes of components of the bill of materials and a routing operation attribute identifying work centers or another unique attribute. A plurality of routing templates stored on a computer readable storage device, the routing templates identifying work centers and routing operations between work centers. A route generator utilizes the mapping table to map components from the bill of materials to a routing template and its operations. |
| US09741014B2 |
Automated asset management system with multiple sensing technologies
An automated asset management system includes a plurality of storage locations for storing objects, and first and second sensing subsystems each configured to sense presence or absence of the objects in the plurality of storage locations. The first and second sensing subsystems are used to sense the presence or absence of a same particular object using different respective sensing modalities. In operation, a first scan of the storage locations is performed using the first sensing subsystem, and the presence or absence of the particular object is determined using the first sensing modality. In turn, a second scan of the storage locations is performed using the second sensing subsystem, and the presence or absence of the particular object is confirmed using both the result of the determination made using the first sensing modality and a determination of the presence or absence of the particular object using the second sensing modality. |
| US09741010B1 |
System and method for securely delivering packages to different delivery recipients with a single vehicle
A delivery system and method for delivering packages to multiple recipients uses a mobile robot having a delivery package space suitable for accommodating at least two packages, at least one package sensor configured to output first data reflective of the presence or absence of packages within with package space, at least one processing component configured to receive and process the package sensor's first data and at least one communication component configured to at least send and receive second data. The mobile robot travels to a first delivery location, permits a first recipient to access the package space, and identifies the first recipient's package to the first recipient. The system and method use data from the package sensor to verify that the first recipient removed only his or her package, if other package(s) are also present. The mobile robot then travels to a second delivery location associated with a second recipient. |
| US09741007B1 |
Position-based item identification in a materials handling facility
Positional placement guidelines for storing items in an inventory area may allow determination and tracking of the position of the items in the inventory area. Position information may be associated with each item in a materials handling facility to assist in locating an item in an inventory area. The position information may represent a position relative to the inventory area and/or to the other items therein. Position information may be determined based on a count of items in the inventory area or based on a time stamp corresponding to the time the item was stored in the inventory area. Position information may be presented to an agent to facilitate picking the item with or without descriptive information. Feedback may provide an indication that the position information is incorrect and may trigger a review or a reset of position information for one or more items in the inventory area. |
| US09741003B2 |
Method and system for providing centralized notifications to an administrator
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a user interface that enables an administrator to monitor the status of one or more long-running processes executing on a system. According to one or more embodiments, information about the long-running processes is received, analyzed and converted into a single format. This information is then stored in a storage device in the single format. In response to a command request periodically received from a user interface, summary information about the one or more long-running processes is provided to, and displayed on, the user interface. Upon receipt of a user selection of at least a portion of the summary information, the user interface issues a second command request that is similar to the first command request, but includes additional parameters, to retrieve additional information about the selected summary information. Once the additional information is received, the additional information is presented on the user interface. |
| US09740995B2 |
Coordinate-based document processing and data entry system and method
Embodiments of the presently disclosed invention are directed to a document processing system and method that facilitates the processing and extraction of data from the documents. The system and method receive at least one document, where the document may contain data for extraction. The document may then be converted into a preferred document format and outputted to a user interface. The system and method may then receive a selection of at least a portion of the document, wherein the selection contains data for extraction. Based on the selection, at least one coordinate set corresponding to the selection and associated with at least one data field of interest is generated. Then the data from the selection of the document is extracted using the at least one coordinate set. Finally, a structured data set that includes the extracted data is generating, and storing in a computer memory. |
| US09740990B2 |
Method and system for reserving and controlling access to products and services at a remote location via a communications network
This invention is a method and system for reserving and controlling access to products and services at a remote location via a communications network. In one or more embodiment, a user uses a client computer to select desired products and services. The system returns a price offer for the packaged products and services. Upon acceptance of the price offer, the selection of products and services is forwarded to an operations center for the building of an event regarding the redemption of the products and services. The system allocates a time frame for the redemption of each of the products and services as well as determining the order of redemption, based on polling a plurality of users desiring the same products and services in an event. The information generated by the operation center is then forwarded to a location for the redemption of the products and services. Access to the goods and services is then controlled by using machine readable labels coupled with interrogation devices for the relating of users to information regarding the user's reservation. |
| US09740988B1 |
System and method for using unique device indentifiers to enhance security
A method for detection and use of device identifiers to enhance the security of data transfers between electronic devices. A first electronic device can transmit access data to a second electronic device. The access data can be associated with a first access code that can be generated based at least in part on data representing a device identifier of the first electronic device. A device identifier can uniquely identify the first electronic device from a plurality of electronic devices. Transferring the access data can involve transforming the first access code into a second access code that can include data representing a device identifier associated with the second electronic device. Transforming the first access code into the second access code can facilitate access to a resource associated with the access data for a second user, but not for a first user. |
| US09740981B2 |
Performing sub-system attribute modification
A tool and technique are employed to distill and prioritize multiple organizational (sub-system) capabilities based on ranked customer requirements or desires. A translational matrix is employed to organize preferences of the sub-system with respect to the customer requirements or desires. Relative importance scores are input into the matrix to reflect prioritized input versus prioritized capabilities. An adjusted relative importance score of the sub-system is automatically calculated and a resultant re-prioritization of sub-system attributes is created for application to new designs, services, or processes. |
| US09740977B1 |
Method and system for recognizing the intentions of shoppers in retail aisles based on their trajectories
The present invention is a method and system for automatically recognizing which products a shopper intends to find or purchase based on the shopper's trajectory in a retail aisle. First, the system detects and tracks the person to generate the trajectory of the shopper. Then some of the dynamic features are extracted from the shopper trajectory. The shopper trajectory features of a given trajectory are typically the positions, the motion orientations, and speeds at each point of the trajectory. A shopper behavior model is designed based on some of the primitive actions of shoppers. The last step of the method is to analyze a given shopper trajectory to estimate the shopper's intention. The step either utilizes decision rules based on the extracted shopper trajectory features, or utilizes a trained Hidden Markov Model, to estimate the progression of the primitive actions from the trajectory. The decoded progression of the shopper behavior states is then interpreted to finally determine the shopper's intention. |
| US09740972B2 |
Preventing loss of print job information in a restart operation of a print engine
A control apparatus includes an execution controller, a stop controller, a connection processing unit, a print job information holding unit, a resumption controller, and a power supply controller. The execution controller causes an image forming unit to execute a print job. When the restart of the image forming unit is detected, the stop controller causes the image forming unit to stop the print job currently in process. When the completion of restart of the image forming unit is detected, the connection processing unit connects the control apparatus and the image forming unit. After the connection, the resumption controller resumes execution of the print job being stopped by the stop controller based on the print job information held by the print job information holding unit. The power supply controller supplies power to the print job information holding unit even if a failure requiring a restart of the image forming unit occurs. |
| US09740969B2 |
Printer device
The present invention is to provide a printer device capable of obtaining a print result having a good balance between characters in a predetermined print area and thus having good appearance. When the print length of an input character string is to be corrected, a comparison is first made in terms of the length of blank in each character and/or clearance between characters. In a case where minus correction is performed to reduce the print length, the blank or clearance is deleted by one column at a time preferentially from the area where the length of the blank and/or clearance is larger; while in a case where plus correction is performed to increase the print length, the clearance is added by one column at a time preferentially to the area where the length of the blank and/or clearance is smaller. |
| US09740968B2 |
Method and device for automatic insertion of proof sheets in running printing applications in digital printing systems
In a method or controller to execute a proof job of a copy print job, the proof job including a printing of a proof sheet, at a first point in time first raster data for the print sheet of the copy print job is provided. After expiration of a first provisioning time period at least one first job is inserted for printing a plurality of copies of the print sheet into a print buffer. A second point in time is determined at which the print buffer includes a first number of copies of the print sheet that are to be printed, the first number being such that a time period for printing of the first number of copies is greater than or equal to a second provisioning time period for providing of second raster data for the proof sheet of the proof job. After expiration of the second provisioning time period a second job is inserted to print the proof sheet into the print buffer so that copies of the print sheet and the proof sheet are printed according to an order of the first and the second jobs in the print buffer. |
| US09740966B1 |
Tagging similar images using neural network
An approach is provided in which a knowledge manager selects an extraction layer from a convolutional neural network that was trained on an initial set of images. The knowledge manager processes subsequent images obtained from crawling a computer network that includes extracting image feature sets of the subsequent images from the selected extraction layer and generating tags from metadata associated with the subsequent images. In turn, the knowledge manager receives a new image, extracts a new image feature set from the selected extraction layer, and assigns one or more of the tags to the new image based upon evaluating the new image feature set to the image features sets of the subsequent images. |
| US09740963B2 |
Multi-dimensional realization of visual content of an image collection
A computing system for realizing visual content of an image collection executes feature detection algorithms and semantic reasoning techniques on the images in the collection to elicit a number of different types of visual features of the images. The computing system indexes the visual features and provides technologies for multi-dimensional content-based clustering, searching, and iterative exploration of the image collection using the visual features and/or the visual feature indices. |
| US09740962B2 |
Apparatus and method for spatially referencing images
Provided is a method of spatially referencing a plurality of images captured from a plurality of different locations within an indoor space by determining the location from which the plurality of images were captured. The method may include obtaining a plurality of distance-referenced panoramas of an indoor space. The distance-referenced panoramas may each include a plurality of distance-referenced images each captured from one position in the indoor space and at a different azimuth from the other distance-referenced images, a plurality of distance measurements, and orientation indicators each indicative of the azimuth of the corresponding one of the distance-referenced images. The method may further include determining the location of each of the distance-referenced panoramas based on the plurality of distance measurements and the orientation indicators and associating in memory the determined locations with the plurality of distance-referenced images captured from the determined location. |
| US09740959B2 |
Acceleration of exposure fusion with pixel shaders
A method of fusing images includes encoding first image data of a pixel in a first image and second image data of a like pixel in a second image. The first image and the second image have different exposures and are captured by an image capture device of the same scene from the same location, and the pixel and the like pixel map to an identical coordinate location within their respective images. The method also includes determining, by a graphics processing unit (GPU), a first quality measure for the first image data and a second quality measure for the second image data. A weighted blending of the first image data with the second image data is performed to achieve fused image data for a third pixel at the identical coordinate location in a fused image. |
| US09740956B2 |
Method for object segmentation in videos tagged with semantic labels
The present invention provides a method for object segmentation in videos tagged with semantic labels, including: detecting each frame of a video sequence with an object bounding box detector from a given semantic category and an object contour detector, and obtaining a candidate object bounding box set and a candidate object contour set for each frame of the input video; building a joint assignment model for the candidate object bounding box set and the candidate object contour set and solving the model to obtain the initial object segment sequence; processing the initial object segment, to estimate a probability distribution of the object shapes; and optimizing the initial object segment sequence with a variant of graph cut algorithm that integrates the shape probability distribution, to obtain an optimal segment sequence. |
| US09740950B1 |
Method and system for automatic registration of images
A computer-implemented method and system register plural images using a computer processor and computer memory, where computer code stored in the computer memory causes the computer processor to perform the registration. The registration includes receiving a reference image; receiving a sensed image; computing an approximate image transformation between the reference image and the sensed image; finding plural candidate tie points by utilizing template matching; applying radiometric filtering to at least a portion of the plural candidate tie points; applying geometric filtering to at least a portion of the plural candidate tie points; computing a calculated image transformation using candidate points of the plural candidate points that were not filtered out by the radiometric and geometric filtering; transforming the sensed image using the calculated image transformation; and registering the sensed image with the reference image. |
| US09740948B2 |
Information input/output device, and medium, using dot patterns with at least two kinds of inks with different reaction characteristic
To achieve an information output device in which information of a medium disposed on a stage surface can be surely and efficiently read out, and a stage effect and a security are high. In the information output device, media are disposed on a stage surface in a state where the media are opposite to the stage surface, the media where dot patterns are printed on medium surfaces on the basis of a predetermined rule, the dot patterns are read by imaging units disposed in a space below the stage and converted into code values or coordinate values indicating the dot patterns from photographed images obtained by the imaging units, and information corresponding to the code values or the coordinate values is outputted. Further, light transmitting reading holes are respectively provided at a plurality of medium disposing locations on the stage surface, and the imaging units are disposed in the space below the stage corresponding the respective reading holes such that the imaging units photograph the medium surfaces of the media disposed on the reading holes. |
| US09740947B2 |
Hardware architecture for linear-time extraction of maximally stable extremal regions (MSERs)
An architecture for linear-time extraction of maximally stable extremal regions (MSERs) having an image memory, heap memory, a pointer array and processing hardware is disclosed. The processing hardware is configured to in real-time analyze image pixels in the image memory using a linear-time algorithm to identify a plurality of components of the image. The processing hardware is also configured to place the image pixels in the heap memory for each of the plurality of components of the image, generate a pointer that points to a location in the heap memory that is associated with a start of flooding for another component and store the pointer in the array of pointers. The processing hardware is also configured to access the plurality of components using the array of pointers and determine MSER ellipses based on the components and MSER criteria. |
| US09740941B2 |
Apparatus and method for visualizing loitering objects
A method for visualizing loitering objects includes: detecting at least one object determined to have been in a selected area of an input image for a preset time period; obtaining representative still images of each of the detected at least one object in respective time periods during the preset time period; and displaying the representative still images in a time order, or generating a video summary in which images of each of the detected at least one object, respectively included in the representative still images, are displayed together on a single image with indication of the time order. |
| US09740939B2 |
Image processing device, information storage device, and image processing method
An image processing device includes an image sequence acquisition section that acquires an image sequence that includes a plurality of images, and a processing section that performs an image summarization process that deletes some of the plurality of images included in the image sequence acquired by the image sequence acquisition section to acquire a summary image sequence, the processing section selecting a reference image and a determination target image from the plurality of images, and determining whether or not the determination target image can be deleted based on the results of a process that utilizes deformation information about the reference image and the determination target image, and a process that utilizes a structural element that corresponds to an attention area. |
| US09740938B2 |
Eye gaze correction
A user's eye gaze is corrected in a video of the user's face. A facial tracking module is configured, in an active tracking mode, to track at least one angular coordinate of the user's face and to output a current value of the at least one angular coordinated that is within a range of possible values. Frames of the video are modified to correct the eye gaze of the user, whereby the user is perceived to be looking directly at the camera in the modified frames, only when the tracking module is in the active tracking mode and the current value is within a restricted subrange of the range of possible values for which the user's face is oriented towards the camera. |
| US09740937B2 |
System and method for monitoring a retail environment using video content analysis with depth sensing
A method and system for monitoring a retail environment by performing video content analysis based on two-dimensional image data and depth data are disclosed. Accuracy in customer actions to provide assistance, change marketing behavior, safety and theft, for example, is increase by analyzing video containing two-dimensional image data and associated depth data. Height data may be obtained from depth data to assist in object detection, object classification (e.g., detection a customer or inventory) and/or event detection. |
| US09740931B2 |
Image processing device, electronic apparatus, and glasses characteristic determination method
An image processing device includes a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, configured to determine a characteristic of glasses based on a first contour position and a second contour position, the first contour position indicating a contour position of a face that appears without the glasses and being detected from an obtained face image data of a user, and the second contour position indicating a contour position of the face that appears through the glasses and being detected from the obtained face image data of the user. |
| US09740930B2 |
Read determining device and method
A read determining device includes: a similar portion identifying unit configured to identify a similar portion in a document which is similar to a portion in the document or a similar portion in a document which is similar to a portion in another document which is already read; and a determination unit that lowers a threshold value with which a document is determined to be read with respect to the document which includes more similar portions than those in another document which includes less similar portions and thereby determines whether or not the document is read, so that the determination accuracy is improved. |
| US09740927B2 |
Identifying screenshots within document images
Systems and methods for identifying screenshots within document images. An example method comprises: receiving an image of at least a part of a document; identifying, within the image, a polygonal object having a visually distinct border comprising a plurality of edges of one or more intersecting rectangles; asserting a screenshot image hypothesis with respect to the identified polygonal object; and responsive to evaluating at least one condition associated with one or more attributes of the identified polygonal object, classifying the identified polygonal object as a screenshot image. |
| US09740918B1 |
Detecting objects in multiple images using integral images
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to arrangements and techniques that provide for identifying objects within an image such as the face position of a user of a portable electronic device. An application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is configured to locate objects within images. The ASIC includes an image node configured to process an image and a search node configured to search the image for an object in the image. The ASIC also includes an ensemble node configured to confirm the presence of the object in the image. The ensemble node progressively compares, using computational engines that include accumulators, the pixel values of a template with pixel values of a region of interest in the image to create comparison result values. |
| US09740917B2 |
Biometric identification systems and methods
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a method of verifying an identity of a person-to-be-identified using biometric signature data. The method comprises creating a sample database based on biometric signature data from a plurality of individuals, calculating a feature database by extracting selected features from entries in the sample database, calculating positive samples and negative sampled based on entries in the feature database, calculating a key bin feature using an adaptive boosting learning algorithm, the key bin feature distinguishing each of the positive samples and negative samples, and calculating a classifier from the key bin feature for use in identifying and authenticating a person-to-be-identified. |
| US09740915B2 |
System and method for link analysis based on image processing
Methods and systems to identify relationships between individuals by analyzing digital images and automatically detecting individuals who appear together in the images. A link analysis system accepts one or more digital images, and automatically recognizes individuals who appear together in the images. The system may recognize the individuals, for example, by applying a suitable face recognition process to the images. Upon identifying individuals who appear together, the system defines a relationship between them and acts upon the relationship. |
| US09740910B2 |
Array substrate, driving method and display device
There are disclosed in the present disclosure an array substrate, a driving method of a fingerprint recognition circuit and a display device. The array substrate comprises a substrate. There are formed on the substrate a fingerprint recognition circuit, a fingerprint signal read line, an initialization signal line, a common voltage input terminal and an output control signal line. As such, on one hand, since it is not needed a separate film layer or panel to carry the fingerprint recognition circuit, thickness of a corresponding display device can be reduced; on the other hand, the fingerprint recognition circuit and related signal lines can be formed simultaneously in the process of manufacturing the array substrate, thereby decreasing difficulty in manufacturing the corresponding display device. |
| US09740908B2 |
Capacitive fingerprint sensor and package method thereof
A capacitive fingerprint sensor includes a plate, a frame, a capacitive fingerprint sensor chip and a package body. The plate comprises a first surface, an opposite second surface and a plurality of first conductive pads arranged on the first surface. A plurality of second conductive pads and third conductive pads are respectively arranged on opposite surfaces of the frame, wherein the second conductive pads are electrically connected with the corresponding first conductive pads and third conductive pads. The capacitive fingerprint sensor chip is disposed at the central area of the frame by a flip chip manner and electrically connected with the first conductive pads. The package body is filled in the central area of the frame to cover the chip. The above-mentioned sensor has a flat sensing surface with wear resistance and better ESD toleration. A package method of the above-mentioned sensor is also disclosed. |
| US09740907B1 |
Systems and methods for a self-identifying barcode
The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and software for encoding self-identifying barcode data. Selection criteria can be received from a user to encode the self-identifying barcode data. The selection criteria can comprise one or more of a barcode version, a product code, a location, a date, a serial number, and a checksum version. A checksum of the self-identifying barcode data can be calculated and determined whether the checksum is valid. If the checksum is valid, the checksum can be appended to the self-identifying barcode data. The self-identifying barcode data can be sent to an external device to generate a self-identifying barcode. |
| US09740904B2 |
Method of using camera sensor interface to transfer multiple channels of scan data using an image format
A computer system for decoding a signal of decodable indicia is disclosed. The computer system includes a laser scanner configured that outputs a signal of decodable indicia and a microprocessor that include a camera sensor interface that is configured to receive the signal from the laser scanner. |
| US09740902B2 |
Apparatus for and method of triggering electro-optical reading only when a target to be read is in a selected zone in a point-of-transaction workstation
Products associated with targets to be read by image capture are processed in a workstation having a window, a solid-state imager looking at a field of view extending through the window to a target to be imaged, and an illumination system for illuminating the field of view. A proximity system detects a product associated with the target in a selected zone outside the window. The proximity system has an infrared (IR) emitter for emitting IR light into an IR emission field, and an IR sensor for sensing return IR light within an IR detection field that intersects the IR emission field in the selected zone. A controller energizes the illumination system in response to the detection of the product in the selected zone, and processes return illumination light captured in the field of view by the imager. |
| US09740901B2 |
Graphical menu builder for encoding applications in an image
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for encoding applications in an image. One embodiment of the method includes forming a first image that encodes information indicative of a map relating one or more pixel patterns to functionality implemented by a processor-based device. The first image is formed so that the processor-based device can decode the information to generate the map. The method also includes forming a second image that includes the pixel pattern(s). The second image is formed so that the processor-based device can detect the pixel pattern(s) and implement the functionality using the map. |
| US09740898B1 |
Person-monitoring system
The person monitoring system is a proximity surveillance system. The person monitoring system comprises an interrogator, a tag, and an accessory. A communication link is established between the interrogator and the tag at predetermined, but not necessarily regular, intervals to ensure that the tag is in the proximity of the interrogator. The tag is attached to an accessory. The person monitoring system is adapted for use with a first person and a second person. The first person carries the interrogator. The second person wears the accessory with the tag. Should the communication link fail to be established, the interrogator initiates an alarm informing the first person that the second person is no longer nearby. |
| US09740896B1 |
Method and system for managing an efficient production floor, via the internet of things
The invention discloses a computerized method for planning and monitoring an efficient production floor. A production site is provided with communication access to a central server configured to:receive input data comprising details a planned job run of the production floor;receive status and location parameters pertaining to tagged central key assets of a production floor, from tracking readers located in the production site;compare the parameters to preconfigured rules using a context analyzing component;output decisions based on the comparison; the decisions resulting in generating alerts and/or recommendations pertaining to the parameters of the key assets,communicate the alerts, and/or recommendations, digitally to specified personnel; these alerts and/or recommendations related to flow of the production floor.A system of the invention is also disclosed. |
| US09740889B2 |
Determining a computer's position and system for manufacturing a tag
A method for accurately positioning a computer position, and identifying a specific rack position where the computer is without manual intervention. A camera is installed on the computer to read the contents of a tag on the rack, so as to identify the position information of the computer. Specifically, the computer is provided with a self-positioning function, wherein: a camera is installed on the computer, and the camera is configured to read the contents of a tag attached on a side of a rack to house the computer to identify the rack position where the computer is. |
| US09740888B1 |
Tamper evident detection
Systems or methods can be used to detect evidence of tampering. The tampering can be physical tampering, such as the turning of a screw, or removal or modification of an electronic component. In some examples, a tamper detection value can be determined from a tamper detection device and compared to a predetermined tamper detection value to determine if tampering is indicated. The system can, upon detection of the tampering, halt an operation, disable device or circuit functionality, disable future operations, physically disable a device, or any combination thereof. |
| US09740887B2 |
Methods and systems to restrict usage of a DMA channel
In at least some embodiments, a system comprises a processor and a direct memory access (DMA) subsystem coupled to the processor. The system further comprises a component coupled to the DMA subsystem via an interconnect employing security rules, wherein, if the component requests a DMA channel, the DMA subsystem restricts usage of the DMA channel based on the security rules. |
| US09740886B2 |
Enhanced security for hardware decoder accelerator
A software security layer may be used to protect a system against exploitation of a hardware encoder accelerator by malicious data embedded in the one or more frames of encoded digital streaming data. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. |
| US09740882B2 |
Sensor privacy mode
Technologies for sensor privacy on a computing device include receiving, by a sensor controller of the computing device, sensor data from a sensor of the computing device; determining a sensor mode for the sensor; and sending privacy data in place of the sensor data in response to a determination that the sensor mode for the sensor is set to a private mode. The technologies may also include receiving, by a security engine of the computing device, a sensor mode change command from a user of the computing device via a trusted input/output path of the computing device; and sending a mode command to the sensor controller to set the sensor mode of the sensor based on the sensor mode change command, wherein the sending the mode command comprises sending the mode command over a private bus established between the security engine and the sensor controller. Other embodiments are described herein. |
| US09740881B2 |
Defense against search engine tracking
Techniques for enhancing electronic privacy utilize noise to prevent third parties from determining certain information based on search queries. Users submit search queries as part of their normal activities. For a user, the search queries submitted and information regarding search results used to generate additional search queries on different, but related topics. The generated additional search queries are submitted automatically on behalf of the user at a sufficient frequency to prevent high accuracy data analysis on search queries. |
| US09740877B2 |
Systems and methods for data loss prevention while preserving privacy
Systems and methods for data loss prevention while preserving privacy are described, including receiving a data communication originating from an online account of a user device associated with the enterprise; performing an analysis to determine that the data communication is a candidate data leakage, based on a context of the data communication; encrypting the data communication, and providing the host-encrypted data communication to a software agent at the enterprise; receiving a software agent-encrypted database of enterprise communication and the host-encrypted data communication, re-encrypted by the software agent; decrypting a host-encrypted aspect of the re-encrypted data communication to generate a software agent-encrypted data communication; performing a matching operation to determine whether a match exists between the encrypted database of information and the software agent-encrypted data communication; if the match exists, reporting the match to the software agent; and if the match does not exist, the host taking an action. |
| US09740875B2 |
Mobile device sharing facilitation methods and systems featuring exclusive data presentation
Structures and protocols are presented for using or otherwise relating to a first mobile device (a smartphone or tablet computer or wearable device, e.g.) configured to be shared by two or more parties such that a subset of the parties may be addressed selectively (in content directed to such parties, e.g.) in a cost-effective manner. |
| US09740874B2 |
Content preview including sharable information
A user of a content management system can store one or more content items at the user's account with the system. In some instances, the system can generate and present a preview of a content item of interest (e.g., a content item selected by the user). In addition to the preview of the content item, the system can generate and present a web address or other machine-readable code referring to (or otherwise associated with) the preview of the content item. Various embodiments of the present disclosure can enable the web address or other machine-readable code to be sharable and to provide access to the content item (or a copy thereof). For example, the user who is previewing the content item can share the web address of the preview with one or more other users. The one or more users can then access the content item via the web address. |
| US09740872B2 |
Data access control systems and methods
Various hardware and software configurations are described herein which provide improved security and control over protected data. In some embodiments, a computer includes a main motherboard card coupled to all input/output devices connected to the computer, and a trusted operating system operates on the main motherboard which includes an access control module for controlling access to the protected data in accordance with rules. The trusted operating system stores the protected data in an unprotected form only on the memory devices on the main motherboard. The computer may also have a computer card coupled to the main motherboard via a PCI bus, on which is operating a guest operating system session for handling requests for data from software applications on the computer. A tamper detection mechanism is provided in the computer for protecting against attempts to copy the unprotected form of the protected data onto memory devices other than the one or more memory devices used by the motherboard or computer card. |
| US09740868B2 |
Customizing a security report using static analysis
Respective edge weights are assigned to edges of a plurality of paths in a control flow graph representing a model of data flow of a computer program. Edge weights assigned to each edge are processed to determine a total edge weight for the respective paths, the total edge weight for a respective path being a sum of the edge weights assigned to the respective edges of the path. At least one path in the control flow graph whose total edge weight satisfies a particular total edge weight criteria can be identified, and the control flow graph can be updated to indicate to the user the at least one path in the control flow graph whose total edge weight satisfies the particular total edge weight criteria. The updated control flow graph can be presented to the user. |
| US09740861B2 |
Method for detecting eavesdropping activity and terminal device
A method for detecting an eavesdropping activity and a terminal device. The method includes determining whether a terminal device is in a conversation; when the terminal device is in a conversation, determining whether the terminal device has an application that starts a recording function; and when the terminal device has an application that starts a recording function, sending out an eavesdropping alarm prompt. By adopting the technical solutions of the present invention, an eavesdropping activity in a manner of recording may be detected. |
| US09740856B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing gaming engine file in a mobile platform
The present invention relates to managing a UNITY file in a mobile platform in order to forestall a UNITY library executable in a mobile platform from being analyzed by reverse engineering and decompiling and provides an apparatus for managing a UNITY file in a mobile platform comprising a file extracting section that extracts a UNITY library file from a UNITY application; an encrypting section that encrypts a programming library file in the UNITY library file thus extracted and creates an encrypted programming library file; a file creating section that creates a decrypting library to decrypt the encrypted programming library file and creates a secured UNITY application using the decrypting library and the encrypted programming library file; and a file executing section that, upon request to execute the secured UNITY application, executes the secured application by decrypting the encrypted programming library file using the decrypting library. |
| US09740850B2 |
Controlling which users from an organization are to be part of a community space in an easy and error-free manner
A method, system and computer program product for controlling which users from an organization are to be part of a community space. A community collaboration mechanism provides a list of organizations authorized to collaborate with the organization of the user. The mechanism then receives from the user a selection of organizations from this list of organizations. Upon receiving indication(s) (e.g., e-mail addresses) of users to be added to the community space, the mechanism provides a list of users who are members of the user selected organizations to engage in a collaborative activity with the user based on these indication(s). The mechanism then receives a selection of users from this list of users and adds those users to the community space. In this manner, the user can control which users from an organization are to be part of a community space in an easy and error-free manner. |
| US09740849B2 |
Registration and authentication of computing devices using a digital skeleton key
A method for registering a computing device to a user account using at least one user-selected fingerprintable device externally accessible to the computing device including transmitting a registration information request to the computing device, receiving at least one device fingerprint of the at least one user-selected fingerprintable device accessible by the computing device, and primary identification data of the computing device, generating a skeleton key, recording the primary identification data, and associating the skeleton key and the primary identification data with the user account. A method for authenticating the computing device including transmitting an authentication information request to the computing device, receiving an encrypted identification data from the computing device, decrypting the encrypted identification data using a skeleton key associated with the user account, comparing the decrypted identification data with a primary identification data associated with the user account, and authenticating the computing device. |
| US09740843B2 |
Method, system, license server for providing a license to a user for accessing a protected content on a user device and software module
A method for providing a license to a user for accessing a protected content on a user device is provided, the method comprising: transmitting user authentication data from the user device to a user account server; transmitting user identification data from the user account server to a license server if the user authentication data corresponds to a valid user account on the user account server; checking in the license server, whether the user is entitled to the license; and transmitting the license from the license server to the user device, if the user identification data is validated and if the user is deemed entitled to the license. A corresponding system, a license server and a software module are provided as well. |
| US09740841B2 |
Using biometric user-specific attributes
Techniques are provided for determining two or more user-specific parameters that can be measured or obtained using various methods, and using values of the two or more user-specific parameters to uniquely identify or authenticate an individual. Examples of the user-specific parameters may include biometric parameters, textual-based parameters, a combination of biometric parameters and textual-based parameters, and the like. |
| US09740840B2 |
User authentication using voice and image data
Techniques are generally described for user authentication. Example techniques may include providing a data set including audio data and image data, wherein the audio data includes voice recordings of multiple people, wherein the image data includes at least a facial image of at least one of the multiple people, receiving a response to the data set from a user device, and determining whether the received response corresponds to at least a part of content of the voice recording of the one of the multiple people whose facial image is included in the image data. |
| US09740839B2 |
Computing device chording authentication and control
Chording techniques are described that may be utilized in a variety of ways to provide inputs to a computing device. The computing device, for instance, may include sensors disposed on a housing of the computing device such that the sensors are configured to detect fingers of a user when grasping the device. Detection of a likely indexed relative position of the fingers of the user's hand in relation to each other, and even an amount of pressure used by respective ones of the fingers, may be used to define and input chords that may be used to initiate operations of the computing device. |
| US09740823B2 |
Healthcare tracking
A computer-implemented method is disclosed. The method includes obtaining location-time data automatically generated by a mobile electronic device associated with a healthcare provider, correlating the location-time data with a location of a healthcare patient, and using the location-time data to bill for care of the healthcare patient by the healthcare provider. |
| US09740822B2 |
Tags for automated location and monitoring of moveable objects and related systems
An example embodiment provides a method, including: communicating, using a plurality of receivers placed throughout a hospital, with a tag affixed to a moveable object; receiving, via one or more of the plurality of receivers, location data of the tag affixed to the movable object; identifying, using data received from the tag, the movable object; determining, based on the one or more of the plurality of receivers transmitting the location data, a location within the hospital of the movable object; associating, using location information of a database, a use state for the movable object based on the location of the movable object within the hospital, the database storing the location information associated with placements of the plurality of receivers and a use state for a movable object associated with the placements; and updating, using a processor, a use state for the movable object. Related methods and products are also described and/or claimed herein. |
| US09740819B2 |
Method for determining risk of diabetes
A method of determining risk of diabetes is provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises: a) measuring the levels of a plurality of biomarkers in a blood samples obtained from a patient, wherein the plurality of biomarkers comprises at least five of the following biomarkers: glucose, adiponectin, CRP, IL2RA, ferritin, insulin and HbAIc; b) calculating a diabetes risk score for the patients using the levels and, optionally, patient age and/or gender. Results obtained from performing the assay on a reference population are similar or identical to those obtained using Formula I. |
| US09740816B2 |
Method and apparatus for network traffic simulation
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for network traffic simulation. The method includes: obtaining traffic information and user requirement information of a to-be-simulated IP network; analyzing the traffic information to generate a traffic characteristic; according to correspondence between user requirement information and traffic models, obtaining a traffic model corresponding to the user requirement information; and generating, through simulation, traffic of the to-be-simulated IP network according to the traffic characteristic and the traffic model. The embodiments of the present invention can improve flexibility and an emulation degree of traffic simulation. |
| US09740814B1 |
Method and system for triple patterning technology (TPT) violation detection and visualization
A method, system, and computer program product for triple patterning technology (TPT) violation detection and visualization within an integrated circuit design layout are disclosed. In a first aspect, the method comprises mapping a plurality of violations of the integrated circuit design layout to a graph, generating a color graph corresponding to the graph, detecting at least one TPT violation from the color graph; and visualizing the at least one TPT violation on a layout canvas. In a second aspect, the system comprises a graph generator module for mapping a plurality of violations of the integrated circuit design layout to a graph and to generate a color graph corresponding to the graph, a detector module for detecting at least one TPT violation from the color graph, and a visualizer module for visualizing the at least one TPT violation on a layout canvas. |
| US09740813B1 |
Layout effect characterization for integrated circuits
An aspect includes forming a layout effect characterization circuit by incorporating a plurality of inverting device chains including a reference chain and one or more chains having a different inverting device arrangement and a same number of inverting devices per chain in an integrated circuit layout. A low pass filter is coupled to an output of the inverting device chains to produce a filtered output. An output capture circuit is coupled to the filtered output to enable a comparison of a captured filtered output of the one or more chains having the different inverting device arrangement to a captured filtered output of the reference chain. |
| US09740811B2 |
Virtual hierarchical layer patterning
Identifying the interactions of a selected cell across a hierarchical diagram of an integrated circuit and mapping the ways in which the cell can interact with other structures in the hierarchy reduces the computational load for design rule checking (DRC) and design rules for manufacturing (DRM). To this end, a cell and multiple instances of the cell are identified within hierarchical design levels of the chip. The interactions between the cell and other cells within the hierarchy are subtracted from the cell boundary, and the results of the subtracting are merged in the cell boundary. By subtracting the results of the merging, identical interactions are identified across the multiple instances of the cell. The results of the subtracting are used to generate a virtual hierarchical layer identical (VHLi) which aids in the simulation and verification of the chip. |
| US09740808B2 |
Method and apparatus for implementing a system-level design tool for design planning and architecture exploration
A method for designing a system on a target device includes mapping a high-level description of the system onto a model of a target device prior to generating a register transfer level description of the system. A visual representation of the mapping is generated. |
| US09740805B1 |
Method and system for detecting hotspots for photolithographically-defined devices
A method detects hot spots from overlay error data for photolithography defined device(s). The overlay error data corresponds to data for sites on a substrate for the photolithography defined device(s). The overlay error data is converted to residual overlay data, which indicates a residual overlay error for each of the sites. The residual overlay error is based on an expected overlay error for each of the sites. It is determined whether group(s) of overlay error sites are present. Each group includes at least two nearest neighbor sites that have the residual overlay error greater than a threshold. For each group of overlay error sites, it is determined whether the group fits a physical model, such as the derivative of a Gaussian, for a hotspot. Each group fitting the physical model is categorized as a hotspot. Hotspot parameters are determined for each group that fits the physical model. |
| US09740800B2 |
Systems and methods for intelligent power tool access
Systems and methods are provided for designing a composite tool to manipulate a specific set of known fasteners in a product, the fastener(s) having a constrained access and specific torque requirements. The system comprises a display screen, a database, a means for scanning and a computing device executing at least an operating system configured to operate the display screen, the database and the means for scanning. The computing device is further configured to electronically select a virtual socket that is configured to properly engage the fastener at its driving end, virtually position at the fastener in a pre-secure and a post-secure position within a virtual constrained access, and electronically determine the existence of an interference condition at either or both of the pre-secure or post-secure position. When an interference condition exists, computing device electronically selects another socket with a different dimension and repeating the virtual positioning and electronically determine steps. |
| US09740799B2 |
Cut-fold shape technology for engineered molded fiber boards
A three-dimensional engineered shaped fiber configuration is formed using determined structural requirements for a three-dimensional engineered shaped fiber configuration and ascertained properties of an engineered molded fiber fiberboard material. A first cut on a top surface and a second cut on a bottom surface of the fiberboard material are calculated. These calculations are based, at least in part, on the structural requirements properties of the fiberboard material. The first cut and the second cut each have a depth, a width, and a position. The first cut and the second cut have a spacing between them such that the flat piece of fiberboard material can be folded at a point located in the spacing between the first cut and second cut to position a first portion of the fiberboard material at a particular angle with respect to a second portion of the fiberboard material. |
| US09740797B2 |
Counting bloom filter
Technologies are generally described for a scheme for computing a counting number of a keyword. In some examples, a method performed under control of a computing device may include obtaining a result of a j-th set of hash functions with regard to a key; marking a head marker into a bit array of a bloom filter based at least in part on the result of the j-th set of hash functions, if the j is zero; and marking a tail marker into the bit array of the bloom filter based at least in part on the result of the j-th set of hash functions, if the j is the same as or larger than 1. |
| US09740792B2 |
Connection paths for application topology
A user may create a blueprint that specifies an application's architecture, including virtual machines (VM) nodes, software services and application components within the VM nodes. To do so, the user manipulates a graphical user interface (GUI) rendered by a graph layout manager and a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) layout engine. The SVG layout engine parses declarative layout configurations and translates the declarative layout into SVG elements that visually represent the blueprint. The graph layout manager renders topology connections representing deployment dependencies in the GUI using a street-block-and-roads design pattern. |
| US09740789B2 |
Search engine analytics and optimization for media content in social networks
Embodiments include method, systems and computer program products for searching a social network for media content. Aspects include receiving a query for media content related to a topic from a user, identifying a plurality of content items associated with the topic and determining a quality score for each of the plurality of content items. Aspects also include providing a subset of the plurality of content items to the user, wherein the subset is selected based on the quality score and updating the quality score of one or more content items in the subset based on a behavior of the user in viewing the subset of the plurality of content items. |
| US09740788B2 |
Interactive selection and display of a raw data parsing rule
Embodiments are directed towards previewing results generated from indexing data raw data before the corresponding index data is added to an index store. Raw data may be received from a preview data source. After an initial set of configuration information may be established, the preview data may be submitted to an index processing pipeline. A previewing application may generate preview results based on the preview index data and the configuration information. The preview results may enable previewing how the data is being processed by the indexing application. If the preview results are not acceptable, the configuration information may be modified. The preview application enables modification of the configuration information until the generated preview results may be acceptable. If the configuration information is acceptable, the preview data may be processed and indexed in one or more index stores. |
| US09740787B2 |
Application search results based on a current search query and a previous search query
A search server that receives a search request from a mobile computing device, the search request comprising a first search query that comprises one or more search terms; utilizes stored search queries to determine a second search query received from the mobile computing device, the second search query being received within a threshold time period prior to the first search query; determines search results by identifying applications based on the stored information regarding the applications and the search terms in the first search query; for at least one application in the search results, determines a state of the application that corresponds with the second search query; and transmits a search result object comprising information regarding the applications determined based on the first search query and the states determined based on the second search query. |
| US09740785B1 |
Ranking discussion forum threads
Discussion threads may be ranked based a factor other than a time since a most recent post of the discussion thread. Discussion threads may be ranked based on a likelihood of each discussion thread being helpful to a broad range of users and/or based on how likely each discussion thread is to draw users to participate in the respective discussion thread. |
| US09740784B2 |
System and method for presenting information about an object on a portable electronic device
Systems and methods are provided for enabling a portable electronic device to retrieve information about an object when the object's symbology, e.g., a barcode, is detected. According to one embodiment a method is providing in which symbology associated with an object is detected and decoded to obtain a decode string. The decode string is sent to one or more visual detection applications for processing, wherein the one or more visual detection applications reside on the portable electronic device, and receiving a first amount of information about the object from the one or more visual detection applications. The method also includes sending the decode string to a remote server for processing and receiving a second amount of information about the object from the remote server. The first amount of information is combined with the second amount of information to obtain cumulative information which is displayed on the portable electronic device. |
| US09740781B2 |
Secure DNS query
A secure DNS query may be made by establishing a secure connection with a specific DNS server to determine an address for a hostname. A client device may have a database that may contain a record of a secure DNS server for one or more hostnames. When a DNS request contains one of the specified hostnames, an authenticated session may be created with the designated secure DNS server and a network address for the hostname is returned using the session. The authenticated session may authenticate a client device to the server as well as authenticate the server to the client. In some embodiments, the secure DNS server may accept connections from authenticated clients and may disregard connection requests from non authenticated clients. |
| US09740778B2 |
Ranking domains using domain maturity
Ranking domains for search engines is provided herein. To rank a domain, contributing domains associated with the domain are identified. Additionally, the maturity of each of the contributing domains is determined. A rank for the domain is then determined based at least in part on the maturity of each of the contributing domains. The domain rankings may then be used to order results for search queries. |
| US09740777B2 |
Systems and methods for saving and presenting a state of a communication session
A system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for saving and presenting a state of a communication session are presented. The communication session may be established between a client device and an application server of a content publisher, and may include the presentation of content on the client device. In some embodiments, the method may include receiving user input to save a state of the communication session, and in response, temporarily storing session data representative of the state of the communication session for a predetermined duration of the communication session. The method may further include generating and presenting an interface that includes a visual representation of the session data, and allows a user to return to the saved state of the communication session. |
| US09740776B2 |
Method for extracting residual videos and deleted videos in a DVR hard disk
A method for extracting residual videos in a DVR hard disk and deleted videos, including: 1) connecting and recognizing devices; 2) judging whether a file system can be recognized; 3) if so, parsing disk partitions and matching the file system; 4) scanning sectors one by one; 5) parsing video data, capturing and recording same; 6) enumerating a video list and displaying same; and 7) extracting videos. Parsing and data extraction can be conducted on all DVR hard disks of various types of various manufacturers, and files in the hard disks can be reorganized into valid, single-channel and continuously played video files; and useful video data can be parsed and screened out, thereby reducing human and material resources. |
| US09740766B2 |
Methods and systems of playing multi-source media content
Methods and systems described herein play multi-source media content. A multi-source media content includes digital assets from multiple media sources. The digital assets may include a video digital asset, an audio digital asset, or a textual digital asset. The digital assets may be provided by different media content providers. The digital assets from multiple media sources may be played such that various components (e.g., a video component, an audio component, or a textual component) of a media content are synchronized. When a digital asset or a digital asset segment for a media content is retrieved from a media content provider into the domain, an index is created to associate the digital asset with the media source from which the digital asset or the digital asset segment may be retrieved. As such, a media content may be played without retrieving, from a media content provider, those digital assets or digital asset segments already existing in the domain. |
| US09740764B2 |
Systems and methods for probabilistic data classification
A system for performing data classification operations. In one embodiment, the system comprises a file system configured to store a plurality of computer files and a scanning agent configured to traverse the file system and compile data regarding the attributes and content of the plurality of computer files. The system also comprises an index configured to store the data regarding attributes and content of the plurality of computer files and a file classifier configured to analyze the data regarding the attributes and content of the plurality of computer files and to classify the plurality of computer files into one or more categories based on the data regarding the attributes and content of the plurality of computer files. Results of the file classification operations can be used to set appropriate security permissions on files which include sensitive information or to control the way that a file is backed up or the schedule according to which it is archived. |
| US09740762B2 |
System and method for optimizing data migration in a partitioned database
According to one aspect, provided is a horizontally scaled database architecture. Partition a database enables efficient distribution of data across a number of systems reducing processing costs associated with multiple machines. According to some aspects, the partitioned database can be manages as a single source interface to handle client requests. Further, it is realized that by identifying and testing key properties, horizontal scaling architectures can be implemented and operated with minimal overhead. In one embodiment, databases can be partitioned in an order preserving manner such that the overhead associated with moving the data for a given partition can be minimized during management of the data and/or database. In one embodiment, splits and migrations operations prioritize zero cost partitions, thereby, reducing computational burden associated with managing a partitioned database. |
| US09740761B2 |
Management of application state data
Disclosed are various embodiments for synchronizing application state information across devices. More specifically, embodiments of the disclosure are related to generating and storing of application state information. Key-value pairs are stored on a client device and synchronized with an application synchronization service. |
| US09740760B2 |
Method for tracking differences between production and development databases to perform an automatic synchronization
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for updating a development database. In some embodiments, the system and method compare a development database and an associated production database to determine a drift score. The development database is then updated when the drift score exceeds a predetermined threshold. In some situations, the system extracts a schema from the development database and the associated production database in order to identify differences between the two databases. The system then calculates a drift score based on the differences and compares the drift score to a predetermined threshold value. If the drift score exceeds the threshold value, the system alerts the user to update the development database or automatically updates the development database. |
| US09740759B1 |
Cloud migrator
A computer implemented method, system, and program product comprising migrating data from a first cloud to a second cloud via a cloud router and a cloud migrator, wherein read write access to data in the first cloud and the second cloud are enabled during migration. |
| US09740753B2 |
Using spheres-of-influence to characterize network relationships
Techniques are disclosed for using spheres-of-influence to characterize network relationships, where a graph depicts stronger relationships as being closer to an entity than more tenuous relationships. That is, while an entity may have many first-degree relationships, some relationships are closer than others. Thus, relationships where one entity may have a greater degree of influence over another are characterized as being closer to an entity in a graph. Similarly, a tenuous first-degree relationship may be characterized as being at a greater “depth” from the entity in the graph. |
| US09740749B2 |
Contextualization of entity relationships
Methods and arrangements for identifying related data in different data sets to assist in searching the data sets. A first data asset and a second data asset are accessed. Common entities are identified between the first and second data assets. A score is determined for the relationship between the first and second data assets, based on the identified common entities. One or more relationship contexts are determined for the relationship between the first and second data assets, and the relationship score and one or more relationship contexts are used to join at least a portion of each of the first and second data assets as a basis for subsequent searching. Other variants and embodiments are broadly contemplated herein. |
| US09740746B2 |
Question answer system using physical distance data
A question relating to an individual is received and context from the question is extracted. Subject matter criteria can be identified from the context of the question. A database containing history data that includes recorded positional data for physical objects relative to the location of the individual at the time of recording can be accessed and relevant physical objects from the history data can be identified based upon the subject matter criteria. A set of answers can be generated for the question from a corpus of data and ranked based upon the identified physical objects and physical distance between the individual and the relevant physical objects. |
| US09740741B2 |
Aggregate query-caching in databases architectures with a differential buffer and a main store
The invention relates to a computer system for both online transaction processing and online analytical processing, comprising: a processor coupled to a database, the database comprising the database comprising: a main store (116) for storing records, a differential buffer (114) for receiving and buffering added or deleted or modified records, the differential buffer being coupled to the main store, a schema comprising records stored in the main store and records stored in the differential buffer, and a cache store (112) for caching a result of a query against the schema; and a cache controller (106) executable by the processor and communicatively coupled to the database, the cache controller being configured for: storing the result of the query in the cache store; receiving an analytical request; and determining, in response to the received request, an up-to-date result of the query by (216): accessing the cache store to obtain the cached result; determining the records of the schema that have been added or deleted or modified since the step of storing the cached result in the cache store on the basis of the records stored in the differential buffer; and incrementally deriving the up-to-date result from the cached result and from the records determined in the previous step. |
| US09740738B1 |
Data retrieval from datastores with different data storage formats
A request that includes a syntax tree is received. A query plan that comprising one or more queries using storage metadata and one or more data attributes obtained from the syntax tree is generated. Individual ones of the one or more queries are used to retrieve at least one of the one or more data attributes from the at least two datastores. The generating of the query plan is generated by modifying individual ones of the one or more queries to access a datastore of the at least two datastores having a lower data retrieval latency. The one or more queries of the query plan are executed to generate the report, the report including data resulting from the executing of the one or more queries. |
| US09740737B2 |
Computer-implemented method and system for content creation
A computer-implemented method for content creation, the method having the steps of: receiving at least one keyword related to said content; creating a first query associated with said at least one keyword; providing said first query to at least one resource to discover information related to said at least one keyword to automatically provide at least one suggestion based on said discovered information to aid said user create content; and whereby said steps are executed in a recursive manner as said content is created. |
| US09740735B2 |
Programming language extensions in structured queries
The insertion and processing of programming language code (e.g., C#) in SQL statements, and the dynamic compiling of the code to detect errors prior to statement execution. The SQL statement with arbitrary programming language code can then be executed concurrently as a query on a computer cluster. External libraries can be imported and the associated functionality leveraged from within a SQL statement. The programming language compiler performs checking at build time, rather than retuning an error during the statement execution against the cluster, a potentially costly proposition in both computing time and human resources. |
| US09740734B2 |
Group-by processing for data containing singleton groups
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system performs a grouping operation for a database query. The system assigns data elements to groups and aggregates information for a group in response to assigning the group two or more data elements. The system passes the aggregated information for a group of two or more data elements for processing in accordance with the query, and passes information for a data element of a single-member group in a received form for processing in accordance with the query. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for grouping data elements in substantially the same manners described above. |
| US09740731B2 |
Event based document sorter and method
Events and/or topics are studied and classified according to their temporal qualities to determine their relative state. The content of a document relating to such event/topic is analyzed to identify temporal components. These components can be compared with corresponding counterparts in other documents to identify a relative temporal order. The invention can be used in environments such as automated news aggregators, search engines, and other electronic systems which compile information having temporal qualities. |
| US09740729B2 |
Technique for global deduplication across datacenters with minimal coordination
A system and method for global data de-duplication in a cloud storage environment utilizing a plurality of data centers is provided. Each cloud storage gateway appliance divides a data stream into a plurality of data objects and generates a content-based hash value as a key for each data object. An IMMUTABLE PUT operation is utilized to store the data object at the associated key within the cloud. |
| US09740718B2 |
Aggregating dimensional data using dense containers
Methods, computer systems, and stored instructions are described herein for densely grouping dimensional data and/or aggregating data using a data structure, such as one that is constructed based on dimensional data. When smaller tables are joined with a larger table, a server may analyze the smaller tables first to determine actual value combinations that occur in the smaller tables, and these actual value combinations are used to more efficiently process the larger table. A dense data structure may be generated by processing dimensional data before processing data from fact table. The dense data structure may be generated by compressing ranges of values that are possible in dimensions into a range of values that actually occurs in the dimensions. The compressed range of values may be represented by dense set identifiers rather than the actual compressed range of values. |
| US09740716B2 |
System and method for dynamically selecting a garbage collection algorithm based on the contents of heap regions
A system and method for dynamically selecting a garbage collection algorithm based on the contents of heap regions. In accordance with an embodiment, a software application can be instrumented so that the system can place software objects allocated by the application, or by different parts of the application, into different regions of the heap. When garbage collection is invoked, the system can scan the heap, examine object statistics to determine if particular objects are, e.g., short-lived, long-lived, or some other type of object, and then use this information to determine which garbage collection algorithm to use with particular heap regions. In accordance with an embodiment, the system can identify regions as containing particular object types, for example, movable or non-movable object types, or object liveness, and use different garbage collection algorithms accordingly. Different garbage collection algorithms can be used with different regions, based on their content at a particular time. |
| US09740715B2 |
Deleting records in a multi-level storage architecture
Deleting a data record from the second level storage or main store is disclosed. A look-up is performed for the data record in the first level storage, where the data record is defined by a row identifier. If the row identifier is found in the first level storage, a look-up is performed for an updated row identifier representing an update of the data record in the second level storage and the main store, the update of the data record being defined by an updated row identifier. If the updated row identifier is found in the second level storage, an undo log is generated from the first level storage to invalidate a row identifier of the row identifier. A flag is generated representing an invalid updated row identifier, and a redo log is generated to restore the data record in the first level storage. |
| US09740710B2 |
Systems and methods for segmenting medical images based on anatomical landmark-based features
The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for segmenting medical images. Embodiments of the present disclosure may relate to a method for segmenting medical images. The method may be implemented by a processor device executing a plurality of computer executable instructions. The method may comprise receiving an image from a memory, and identifying at least one landmark point within the image. The method may further comprise selecting an image point in the image, and determining at least one feature for the image point relative to the at least one landmark point. The method may also comprise associating the image point with an anatomical structure by using a classification model based on the at least one determined feature. |
| US09740708B2 |
Systems and methods for distance and performance based load balancing
Systems and methods for a DNS management system utilize a distance-based and/or a performance-based A record. A DNS management system of embodiments receives a request from a client for an IP address associated with a domain name. A database of IP address location records is queried to determine a geographic location of the client in operation according to embodiments. An A record corresponding to the geographically closest available server node may thereafter be delivered to the client. A system operable according to embodiments may additionally or alternatively monitor the performance of available servers and deliver an A record corresponding to the best performing local server. |
| US09740707B2 |
Peer-to-peer redundant file server system and methods
Peer-to-peer redundant file server system and methods include clients that determine a target storage provider to contact for a particular storage transaction based on a pathname provided by the filesystem and a predetermined scheme such as a hash function applied to a portion of the pathname. Servers use the same scheme to determine where to store relevant file information so that the clients can locate the file information. The target storage provider may store the file itself and/or may store metadata that identifies one or more other storage providers where the file is stored. A file may be replicated in multiple storage providers, and the metadata may include a list of storage providers from which the clients can select (e.g., randomly) in order to access the file. |
| US09740705B2 |
Storlet workflow optimization leveraging clustered file system roles
A method for adjusting roles of nodes in a distributed clustered file system can include receiving a first computation operation. The method can also include profiling the first computation operation according to one or more metrics, including identifying and categorizing a first process performed by the first computation operation. The method can also include determining a first file system attribute of the first computation operation. The method can also include performing a lookup operation based on a first computation operation template and identifying that the first computation operation serves a first file system role. The method can also include receiving an identification, in response to the performing the lookup, that a first node of a plurality of nodes can utilize additional computation of the first file system role. The method can also include executing the first computation operation on the first node. |
| US09740701B1 |
Snapshot cauterization
Implementations disclosed herein provide for cauterizing portions of a snapshot. A file and/or directory or a set of files and directories of a snapshot can be identified via a user request or an automated process for cauterization. When cauterized, if a previous snapshot does not contain a ditto entry to the portion of the current snapshot that is requested to be cauterized, the BADDR associated with the cauterized portion of the snapshot can be freed for other storage use. In some implementations, metadata associated with the data that is cauterized can be retained for other uses. |
| US09740697B2 |
Subscriber driven media agnostic content delivery across networks
A system and method is provided to facilitate subscriber driven media agnostic content delivery across same or different networks. The method includes receiving preferences from a sending client and a receiving client and receiving content of a first media type over a network. The method further includes sending the content or a reference to the content to the receiving client in a preferred media type and to a preferred device in accordance with at least one preference of the receiving client. The method also includes notifying at least the receiving client that the content is to be received by the preferred device. |
| US09740695B2 |
Method for enriching a multimedia content, and corresponding device
According to the invention, the method comprises the following steps of: clustering said plurality of creators to deliver clusters comprising at least two creators, called relevant creators; assigning, to at least some relevant creators of the cluster comprising the first creator, called first cluster, a score of relevance determined from at least one criterion of similarity between said relevant creators and said first creator; ranking relevant creators of said first cluster according to their scores of relevance; selecting, among a plurality of multimedia contents, at least one second multimedia content related to said first multimedia content and delivered by a ranked relevant creator of said first cluster; enriching said first multimedia content based on said second multimedia content. |
| US09740691B2 |
Interspecies language with enabling technology and training protocols
The Interspecies Language (ISL) is a method for communicating that includes a visual language, as tonal language, a training protocol that integrates them, and an enabling apparatus. The ISL visual language communicates through a display that creates a “picture” of a sentence on a touchscreen. This visual display embodies the ISL's syntax and structures how the user employs it to build sentences. Sentences are constructed by dragging icons, which are pictures or abstract images representing objects or concepts, into the structured areas of the visual array. The ISL tonal language communicates through a structured series of tones that are grouped so that tones within a grouping are members of a class of objects or concepts. The tones are sounded when an icon is placed into the visual array in the course of building a sentence. The ISL is deployed through an apparatus that includes a touchscreen, computer, chute, and industrial controls. With its clear structure for the animal's response, the ISL provides a method for meaningful, two-way communication between animals and humans or between humans. |
| US09740689B1 |
System and method for Farsi language temporal tagger
Described is a system for automatic date detection in digital texts written in Farsi. The system includes a unique date tagger that reviews the string of texts and detect dates either compatible with the Farsi grammar or some popular yet unofficial ways of writing dates in Farsi. |
| US09740687B2 |
Classifying languages for objects and entities
Technology for media item and user language classification is disclosed. Media item classification may use models for associating language identifiers or probability distributions for multiple languages with linguistic content. User language classification may define user language models for attributing to users indications of languages they speak read, and/or write. The text classifications and user classifications may interact because the probability that given text is in a particular language may depend on a determined likelihood the user who produced the text speaks that language, or conversely, a user interacting with text in a particular language may increase the likelihood they understand that language. Some embodiments use language-tagged social media content to train n-gram classifiers for use with other social media content. |
| US09740684B2 |
Determining homonyms of logogram input
For determining homonyms of logogram input, code may recognize a logogram from at least part of a written logogram drawn by a user or a typed logogram. In addition, the code may determine whether homonyms of the logogram are to be made available to the user. The code also may determine multiple logograms having a pronunciation that matches the pronunciation of the logogram if the homonyms of the logogram are to be made available to the user. The code may provide a hint list to the user that contains the multiple logograms to enable selection of a logogram from the hint list. The code may also rank the multiple logograms based on context. |
| US09740682B2 |
Semantic disambiguation using a statistical analysis
A text containing a word is received by a computing device. The word is compared to inventory words in a sense inventory. The sense inventory comprises at least one inventory word and at least one concept corresponding to the at least one inventory word. Upon matching the word to an inventory word in the sense inventory, a concept for the word is identified by comparing each concept related to the inventory word to the word. The concept is assigned the word. |
| US09740679B2 |
Generation of textual documents with reduced de Bruijn graphs
A method for generating an output sequence includes receiving an input sequence of symbols. An output sequence is generated from a reduced directed graph derived from n-gram statistics for a corpus sequence of symbols. The graph includes nodes connected by edges that are labeled with a sequence of symbols and associated with a multiplicity representing a number of occurrences of the sequence of symbols in the corpus sequence. Each path through the graph where each edge is traversed its multiplicity of times reconstructs the corpus sequence. The sequences of symbols in the reduced graph vary in number of symbols. The output sequence from the first iteration, and optionally also an output sequence from at least one subsequent iteration, is/are output. The output sequence may be proposed to an author to assist in generating a document. |
| US09740673B2 |
Presentation of hierarchical data in multiple consistent views
Hierarchical data can be consistently presented in multiple different views. One method involves extracting object information describing at least one object from a database. The object information includes hierarchical information indicating a position of the object within a hierarchy of objects and list information usable to sort of list of objects that includes the object. The method also generates a tree view and a list view for display within a hierarchical data presentation window. The tree view identifies the object, and generation of the tree view is based upon the hierarchical information. The list view identifies the at least one object, and generation of the list view is based upon the list information. The method provides the tree and list views to a display device for display within the hierarchical data presentation window. |
| US09740668B1 |
Plotting webpage loading speeds and altering webpages and a service based on latency and pixel density
Techniques for managing performance information associated with rendering electronic content may be provided. For example, electronic content may be rendered and pixel density information may be plotted on a graph for comparison and/or perceived latency detection. In some examples, electronic content may be monitored during an amount of time. Based at least in part on the monitoring, pixel density information may be collected. The pixel density information may be associated with rendering the electronic content during the amount of time. Further, in some examples, perceived latency information may be determined. The perceived latency information may correspond to the rendering of the electronic content based at least in part on the collected pixel density information. |
| US09740667B2 |
Method and system for generating portable electronic documents
The present disclosure relates to a method for generating portable electronic documents. The method comprises retrieving key character positions of each syllable, repositioned character and syllable chunks of each syllable of pre-processed electronic document. Then, probable data loss resulting from usage of each syllable chunk of the syllable chunks is determined using corresponding characteristic information associated with each syllable chunk. Each character of each syllable chunk is translated into glyph stream using predetermined glyph mapping based on probable data loss. The glyph stream is restructured using invisible glyphs and composite glyphs. Font data of at least one of invisible and composite glyphs is modified upon restructuring. Then, glyph stream is mapped with predetermined Unicode value of invisible glyphs, composite glyphs, repositioned character and each syllable chunk upon modification. A portable electronic document is generated using modified font data, mapping of the Unicode value and glyph stream of each syllable chunk. |
| US09740666B1 |
Systems and methods for merging table cells via expansion based on states of cells
Systems and methods are disclosed herein for resolving a change to a table. A processing circuitry receives, from a user in a collaborative document editing environment, the change to the table, wherein the change comprises an expansion of a first cell in the table. A first state of the first cell is identified, wherein the state is indicative of a number of columns and a number of rows over which the first cell spans, and at least one of the number of columns and the number of rows is greater than one. A second state of a second cell that is adjacent to the first cell is identified, and the processing circuitry selects whether to allow the expansion of the first cell based on the second state of the second cell. |
| US09740664B2 |
Method for determining parameter values of an induction machine by means of polynominal calculations
A method for determining parameter values of an induction machine. The method may be executed by a dedicated computer system. The method includes sampling a voltage signal, a current signal and a rotational speed signal of the induction machine at the time the induction machine is started, calculating a resistance and a reactance of the induction machine at each of a plurality of slip rates according to the voltage signal and the current signal, calculating a plurality of coefficients of a polynomial fraction based on the resistances and the reactances, calculating the parameter values of an equivalent circuit according to the plurality of coefficients of the polynomial fraction, calculating a moment of inertia and a friction coefficient of the induction machine according to the calculated parameter values and the rotational speed signal of the equivalent circuit, and outputting the moment of inertia and the friction coefficient of the induction machine. |
| US09740662B2 |
Fractional scaling digital filters and the generation of standardized noise and synthetic data series
Generation of standardized noise signals that provide mathematically correct noise with no errors and no loss of data, and can generate the noise of specific environments based on the transfer function of that environment are discussed. Various embodiments can generate synthetic data sets based on natural data sets that have similar scaling behavior. Fractional scaling digital filters, containing the fractional scaling characteristics of one or more of the eleven fundamental forms of basic building block transfer functions which incorporate the scaling exponent, can be encoded on FPGA devices or DSP chips for use in digital signal processing. Fractional Scaling Digital Filters allow fractional calculus, and thus fractional filtering (e.g., fractional scaling, fractional phase shifting, fractional integration, or fractional differentiation), to be performed on any signal, represent exact filtering solutions rather than approximations, and demonstrably are extremely accurate, highly efficient, and exhibit a higher level of performance than traditional DSP filters. |
| US09740653B2 |
Dynamically assigning lanes over which signals are transmitted to mitigate electromagnetic interference (EMI)
Dynamic lane management for interference mitigation is disclosed. In one aspect, an integrated circuit (IC) is provided that employs a control system configured to mitigate electromagnetic interference (EMI) caused by an aggressor communications bus. The control system is configured to receive information related to EMI conditions and adjust which lanes of the aggressor communications bus are employed for signal transmission. The IC includes an interface configured to couple to the aggressor communications bus. The interface is configured to transmit signals to and receive signals from the aggressor communications bus. The control system is configured to use the information related to the EMI conditions to assign signals to be transmitted via particular lanes of the aggressor communications bus to mitigate the EMI experienced by a victim receiver. The control system provides designers with an additional tool that may reduce the performance degradation of the victim receiver attributable to EMI. |
| US09740652B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling transparent tunnel mode operation in communication system supporting wireless docking protocol
A method for controlling a transparent tunnel mode operation in a Wireless Dockee (WD) in a communication system supporting a wireless docking protocol is provided. The method includes performing a group join process and a provisioning process for security keys with a Wireless Docking Center (WDC); accessing services of a Wireless Docking Environment (WDN); selecting an operating mode between the WD and the WDC as a transparent tunnel mode; performing a process of getting information related to a peripheral with the WDC; requesting the WDC to enable a monitor mode and a promiscuous mode; and transmitting/receiving a data packet using the information related to the peripheral with the peripheral if a Miracast connection and a docking session are established between the WD and the peripheral. |
| US09740651B2 |
Motherboard
An electronic device includes a motherboard that includes a south bridge, a universal serial bus (USB) 3.0 connector, and a ground module. The south bridge is connected to the USB3.0 connector for transporting USB3.0 signals and USB2.0 signals. The grounded module is connected to the south bridge and the USB3.0 connector. The south bridge is used for controlling the ground module to work. The USB2.0 signals transmit between the south bridge and the USB3.0 connector flow into the ground, while the ground module is working. |
| US09740649B2 |
Systems, devices, apparatus, and methods for identifying stored data by a device located in a path between virtual Fibre channel switches and performing a data management service
A first port of a device is connected to a first switch port of a first virtual switch defined within a switch device and a second port of the device is connected to a second switch port of a second virtual switch defined within the switch device. A target world wide port name of a target port of a storage system connected to the second virtual switch is identified by the device. The first port of the device is registered, in a first registration procedure, with the first virtual switch based on the target world wide port name. Registration information relating to an initiator port of a server that is associated with the target port is received in a second registration procedure. An initiator world wide port name of the initiator port of the server is determined based on the registration information. A storage volume in the storage system that is associated with the initiator port is identified based on the initiator world wide port name of the initiator port. |
| US09740648B2 |
Substrate treatment apparatus that controls respective units by master-slave method
A valve control unit includes a data reading/selecting unit, which reads each of signals transmitted onto a serial bus, and selects a flow rate data signal from among the read signals. Therefore, the valve control unit can acquire the flow rate data signal from the serial bus without allowing the flow rate data signal to pass via the master IC. As a result, it is made possible to ensure real time properties of feedback control, which adjusts a needle valve based on a measurement result of a flowmeter, while reducing a load applied to a CPU that controls the master IC. Moreover, it is not necessary to provide an additional instrument for transferring analog signals between slave devices, and accordingly, a size increase and cost increase of an apparatus can be suppressed. |
| US09740643B2 |
Systems and methods for recovering higher speed communication between devices
A method of operating a device is disclosed. The method includes attempting communication between the device and a separate connecting device. The attempt utilizes a first resistance and determines whether communication is able to occur at a higher speed mode or lower speed mode. If communication is able to occur at the higher speed mode, using the first resistance, communication continues at the higher speed mode. If communication is not able to occur at the higher speed mode, another attempt through a second resistance is tried. The method again includes determining whether communication is able to occur at the higher speed mode through the second resistance. If communication is able to occur at the higher speed mode through the second resistance, communication continues at the higher speed mode. If communication is not able to occur at the higher speed mode, communication stays at the lower speed mode. |
| US09740641B2 |
Information processing device, I/O system, and I/O control method
An information processing device that are capable of continuing access to an I/O device by operational computers even when a failure has occurred in a management computer is provided.A virtualization bridge (300) includes a monitoring unit (307) and a backup control unit (308). The virtualization bridge (300) provides operational computers (200) with virtual functions of an I/O device (400). The monitoring unit (307) detects failures in a management computer (100). The backup control unit (308) generates backup management information (341) on the basis of packets transmitted and received between the management computer (100) and the I/O device (400), and, when a failure in the management computer (100) is detected by the monitoring unit (307), controls the I/O device 400 on the basis of the backup management information (341) in place of the management computer (100). |
| US09740640B2 |
System integrated teaming
A network teaming system includes one or more subsystems to provide a hardware system integrated teaming assistant (SITA hardware), provide a software system integrated teaming assistant (SITA software) operable with the SITA hardware and provide a feature checking and enablement system (FCE), wherein the FCE determines one or more networking features for members of a team coupled together on a network, and wherein the SITA hardware in combination with the SITA software perform a networking feature for a member of the team which does not have the capability to perform the networking feature. |
| US09740634B2 |
Establishing a point-in-time copy relationship between source logical addresses and target logical addresses
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for establishing a point-in-time copy relationship between source logical addresses and target logical addresses. A point-in-time (PiT) copy establish command specifies a source set comprising a subset of source logical addresses in at least one storage and a target set comprising a subset of target logical addresses in the at least one storage. The source set of source logical addresses are copied to the target set of target logical addresses. The source logical addresses map to source tracks and wherein the target logical addresses map to target tracks. Copy information is generated indicating whether the source logical addresses in the source set have been copied to the target set. Complete is returned to the PiT copy establish command after generating the copy information and before copying all the source logical addresses to the target logical addresses. |
| US09740633B2 |
Updatable address lookup application program interface
Embodiments relate to a new application program interface (API) and supporting tools to introduce efficiency associated with a transaction. An in-memory translation table maintains accurate address locations of key-value pair locations. The new API employs the translation table to obtain both the requested data and any updated address associated with the requested data. Any subsequent API may be communicated with the updated address. |
| US09740631B2 |
Hardware-assisted memory compression management using page filter and system MMU
Provided are methods and systems for managing memory using a hardware-based page filter designed to distinguish between active and inactive pages (“hot” and “cold” pages, respectively) so that inactive pages can be compressed prior to the occurrence of a page fault. The methods and systems are designed to achieve, among other things, lower cost, longer battery life, and faster user response. Whereas existing approaches for memory management are based on pixel or frame buffer compression, the methods and systems provided focus on the CPU's program (e.g., generic data structure). Focusing on hardware-accelerated memory compression to offload CPU translates higher power efficiency (e.g., ASIC is approximately 100× lower power than CPU) and higher performance (e.g., ASIC is approximately 10× faster than CPU), and also allows for hardware-assisted memory management to offload OS/kernel, which significantly increases response time. |
| US09740630B2 |
Method of mapping address in storage device, method of reading data from storage devices and method of writing data into storage devices
In a method of mapping an address in a storage device, first address mapping information including a first physical address and a first logical address is registered in an address mapping table. The first physical address corresponds to a first storage area in the storage device. The first storage area includes a first type of memory. The first logical address corresponds to the first physical address. Second address mapping information including a second physical address and a second logical address is registered in the address mapping table. The second physical address corresponds to a second storage area in the storage device. The second storage area includes a second type of memory that is different from the first type of memory. The second logical address corresponds to the second physical address. |
| US09740629B2 |
Tracking memory accesses when invalidating effective address to real address translations
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for invalidating an address translation entry in an effective address to real address translation table (ERAT) for a computer memory can include receiving a first invalidation request. According to some embodiments, the method may also include determining that a first entry in the ERAT corresponds with the first invalidation request, wherein the ERAT has a plurality of entries, each entry in the plurality of entries having an indicator. In particular embodiments, the method may then determine that a first indicator associated with the first entry indicates that the first entry is not being used by any of a plurality of memory access entities (MAE), wherein a first MAE can concurrently use a same entry as a second MAE. The first entry may then be invalidated in response to determining that the first entry is not being used. |
| US09740628B2 |
Page table entry consolidation
A method includes identifying, by a processor, a first page table entry (PTE) of a page table for translating virtual addresses to main storage addresses, the page table comprising a second page table entry contiguous with the second page table entry, determining with the processor whether the first PTE may be joined with the second PTE, the determining based on the respective pages of main storage being contiguous, and setting a marker in the page table for indicating that the main storage pages of identified by the first PTE and second PTEs are contiguous. |
| US09740626B2 |
Sharing data structures between processes by semi-invasive hybrid approach
Techniques herein are for sharing data structures between processes. A method involves obtaining a current memory segment that begins at a current base address within a current address space. The current memory segment comprises a directed object graph and a base pointer. The graph comprises object pointers and objects. For each particular object, determine whether a different memory segment contains an equivalent object that is equivalent to the particular object. If the equivalent object exists, for each object pointer having the particular object as its target object, replace the memory address of the object pointer with a memory address of the equivalent object that does not reside in the current memory segment. Otherwise, for each object pointer having the particular object as its target object, increment the memory address of the object pointer by an amount that is a difference between the current base address and the original base address. |
| US09740619B2 |
Methods and systems for caching data using behavioral event correlations
A method is disclosed including a client accessing a cache for a value of an object based on an object identification (ID), initiating a request to a cache loader if the cache does not include a value for the object, the cache loader performing a lookup in an object table for the object ID corresponding to the object, the cache loader retrieving a vector of execution context IDs, from an execution context table that correspond to the object IDs looked up in the object table and the cache loader performing an execution context lookup in an execution context table for every retrieved execution context ID in the vector to retrieve object IDs from an object vector. |
| US09740618B2 |
Memory nest efficiency with cache demand generation
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to optimizing a memory nest for a workload. Aspects include an operating system determining the cache/memory footprint of each work unit of the workload and assigning a time slice to each work unit of the workload based on the cache/memory footprint of each work unit. Aspects further include executing the workload on a processor by providing each work unit access to the processor for the time slice assigned to each work unit. |
| US09740617B2 |
Hardware apparatuses and methods to control cache line coherence
Methods and apparatuses to control cache line coherence are described. A hardware processor may include a first processor core with a cache to store a cache line, a second set of processor cores that each include a cache to store a copy of the cache line, and cache coherence logic to aggregate in a tag directory an acknowledgment message from each of the second set of processor cores in response to a request from the first processor core to modify the copy of the cache line in each of the second set of processor cores and send a consolidated acknowledgment message to the first processor core. |
| US09740616B2 |
Multi-granular cache management in multi-processor computing environments
Cache lines in a multi-processor computing environment are configurable with a coherency mode. Cache lines in full-line coherency mode are operated or managed with full-line granularity. Cache lines in sub-line coherency mode are operated or managed as sub-cache line portions of a full cache line. Each cache is associated with a directory having a number of directory entries and with a side table having a smaller number of entries. The directory entry for a cache line associates the cache line with a tag and a set of full-line descriptive bits. Creating a side table entry for the cache line places the cache line in sub-line coherency mode. The side table entry associates each of the sub-cache line portions of the cache line with a set of sub-line descriptive bits. Removing the side table entry may return the cache line to full-line coherency mode. |
| US09740612B2 |
Systems and methods for maintaining the coherency of a store coalescing cache and a load cache
A method for maintaining the coherency of a store coalescing cache and a load cache is disclosed. As a part of the method, responsive to a write-back of an entry from a level one store coalescing cache to a level two cache, the entry is written into the level two cache and into the level one load cache. The writing of the entry into the level two cache and into the level one load cache is executed at the speed of access of the level two cache. |
| US09740609B1 |
Garbage collection techniques for a data storage system
A technique for garbage collection in a data storage system includes determining a dirty physical byte count for each of a plurality of candidate garbage collection units. The dirty physical byte count provides a total amount of dirty bytes. At least one of a dirty physical codeword container count and a dirty physical page count is determined for each of the candidate garbage collection units. The dirty physical codeword container count provides an amount of physical codeword containers that are completely dirty and the dirty physical page count provides an amount of physical pages that are completely dirty. A garbage collection unit, included in the candidate garbage collection units, is selected for garbage collection based on the dirty physical byte count and at least one of the dirty physical codeword container count and the dirty physical page count. |
| US09740608B2 |
Garbage collection and other management of memory heaps
A memory heap management facility is provided that is able to perform various management tasks, including, but not limited to, garbage collection, compaction, and/or re-ordering of objects within a heap. One or more of these management tasks improve system performance by limiting movement of pages in and out of virtual memory. The garbage collection technique selectively performs garbage collection such that certain objects, such as old but live, infrequently referenced objects, are not garbage collected each time garbage collection is performed. |
| US09740605B2 |
Reducing page invalidation broadcasts in virtual storage management
Technical solutions for reducing page invalidation broadcasts in virtual storage management are described. One general aspect includes a method including allocating, by a storage manager, a virtual memory page to a memory buffer that is used by an application being executed by a multiprocessor system, the virtual memory page being allocated from an address space of the application. The method also includes recording, by a memory management unit, a mapping between the virtual memory page and a physical location in a memory. The method also includes in response to a request, from the application, to deallocate the memory buffer, delaying invalidation of the mapping between the virtual memory page and the physical location in a memory, based on a count of free frames in the address space of the application. |
| US09740594B2 |
Automated debug trace specification
Debugging a debug target software by: (i) generating a first log file set, including at least one log file, based upon how the computer hardware set executes the instructions of the computer software set; (ii) responsive to a first error in the execution of the computer software set, examining at least a portion of the first log file set; and (iii) creating, based at least in part upon the examination of the first log file set, augmented logging instructions for generating augmented logging information, which is helpful for debugging. |
| US09740588B2 |
Performance enhancement mode selection tool
A computer-implemented method of reducing impact of performance data gathering on execution of instrumented code comprises gathering respective performance data for each of a plurality of routines in the instrumented code over a plurality of execution instances of the instrumented code. The method also comprises determining that the gathered performance data for the at least one selected routine follows an identified pattern for at least one selected routine from the plurality of routines and, in response to determining that the at least one selected routine follows an identified pattern, removing instrumentation associated with the at least one selected routine. |
| US09740587B2 |
Distributing power usage data for low-level components of a computing device to subscribing programs
Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to distributing information. A set of information about components of a computing device is retrieved from a low-level system of the computing device. Programs are determined to be sent data based on the set of information. |
| US09740586B2 |
Flexible configuration and control of a testing system
A method is provided to get a high test coverage through a large number of test cases with a minimum number of test programs. Tests are performed flexibly in various environments, using parameters in multiple dimensions. The parameters can be dynamically extracted from the machine or simulator either by controlling scripts or by the test program itself. Multiple ways are offered to execute subsets of the test combinations. |
| US09740583B1 |
Layered keys for storage volumes
Techniques are described for managing data storage. Users may create data storage volumes that may each be stored by a data storage service. In an embodiment, chunks that differ between related volumes may be encrypted with different encryption keys. One or more of the encryption keys may be deleted in response to a request to delete a volume or a data chunk, rendering the volume and/or the data chunk unusable. Other techniques are described in the drawings, claims, and text of the disclosure. |
| US09740579B2 |
Application performance using package and catalog cache prefetching during database recovery
An approach for improving application performance after database recovery is provided, the approach involving tracking one or more applications connecting to a database, tracking metadata in memory on a server computer, wherein the metadata is accessed by the one or more applications, recovering the metadata during a database recovery occurring after a database crash and repopulating the metadata in memory on the server computer during the database recovery, wherein the repopulating occurs prior to the metadata being requested by the one or more applications. |
| US09740575B2 |
System design method, system design apparatus, and storage medium storing system design program, for analyzing failure restoration procedure
Provided are a system design method, a system design system, and a system design reform assistance program. A system design apparatus includes a unit for receiving an analysis model which represents a system failure restoration sequence, a unit for identifying, from the received analysis model, a minimum combination of component failure which does not satisfy either a restoration time requisite or a necessary cost requisite and a unit for outputting the identified minimum combination of component failure. The unit for identifying the minimum combination of component failure further includes a unit for estimating the restoration time of a system, and a unit for estimating the cost required for restoration of the system. |
| US09740573B1 |
Dynamic LUN resizing in a replication environment
A method, system and program product for dynamically changing the size of a LUN in a replication based environment, the replication environment having a splitter, a production site and a replication site, the production site having a production LUN, the replication site having a journal and a replication LUN, comprising changing the LUN size on the production site based on a request to change the size of the LUN on the production site, determining on the replication site that the LUN on the production site has changed size, determining whether it is possible to change the size of the replication LUN, based on a negative determination and in response to a request for the replication LUN, pausing replication, and based on a positive determination, changing or faking the size of the replication LUN. |
| US09740571B1 |
Intelligent continuous data protection snapshot based backups
A system and method is illustrated for utilizing an agent in intelligent Continuous Data Protection (CDP) snapshot based backups. The system and method utilizing the agent receiving a previous backup bookmark, obtaining a data change rate by calculating a number of bookmarks since the previous backup bookmark, comparing the data change rate with a threshold, initiating a backup when the data change rate exceeds the threshold, and labeling the backup with a bookmark. |
| US09740565B1 |
System and method for maintaining consistent points in file systems
A request is received to determine a consistent point of data stored in a file system of a storage system having storage units. In response to the request, a prime dependency list is retrieved from a first prime segment stored in a first storage unit, the prime dependency list including information identifying at least a second prime segment stored in a second storage unit. The first and second prime segments are identified by a first prime segment identifier (ID) and a second prime segment ID, respectively, which collectively identify a prime representing a first consistent view of the file system. The consistent point of data is determined based the prime segments listed in the prime dependency list, where the consistent point of data represents a file system state at a point in time for restoration of the file system back to a prior known state. |
| US09740563B2 |
Controlling software processes that are subject to communications restrictions by freezing and thawing a computational process in a virtual machine from writing data
Controlling a software process by causing the execution of a first software process on a computer, where the first software process is configured to exclusively access a resource on the computer, causing the execution of a second software process on the computer when the first software process has exclusive access to the resource, where the second software process is configured to perform a first predefined action that is independent of the second software process accessing the resource, attempt to access the resource, and perform a second predefined action that is dependent on the second software process accessing resource, and causing the first software process to terminate its exclusive access to the resource, thereby causing the second software process to access the resource and perform the second predefined action. |
| US09740562B2 |
Method for checkpointing and restoring program state
Techniques are described that enable restoring interrupted program execution from a checkpoint without the need for cooperation from the computer's operating system. These techniques can be implemented by modifying existing code using an automated tool that adds instructions for enabling restoring interrupted program execution. |
| US09740559B2 |
Systems and methods for compaction based flash memory data recovery
Embodiments are related to systems and methods for data storage, and more particularly to systems and methods for storing data to and accessing data from a flash memory. |
| US09740558B2 |
On-die ECC with error counter and internal address generation
A memory subsystem enables managing error correction information. A memory device internally performs error detection for a range of memory locations, and increments an internal count for each error detected. The memory device includes ECC logic to generate an error result indicating a difference between the internal count and a baseline number of errors preset for the memory device. The memory device can provide the error result to an associated host of the system to expose only a number of errors accumulated without exposing internal errors from prior to incorporation into a system. The memory device can be made capable to generate internal addresses to execute commands received from the memory controller. The memory device can be made capable to reset the counter after a first pass through the memory area in which errors are counted. |
| US09740551B2 |
Enhanced restart of a core dumping application
A method for enhanced restart of a core dumping application is provided. The method includes stopping a plurality of threads in an address space, except for the thread performing the core dump. Computational segments are remapped to client segments. Each open file descriptor in the address space is closed. The application is terminated and the client segments are flushed to external storage. |
| US09740547B2 |
Storing data using a dual path storage approach
A method begins by a processing module of a dispersed storage network (DSN) receiving a data object for storage in DSN memory and determining dispersed storage error encoding parameters for encoding the data object to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices. The method continues with the processing module determining to use a dual storage path approach for storing the plurality of sets of encoded data slices in first memory type of the DSN memory and in second memory type of the DSN memory. The method continues with the processing module dispersed storage error encoding the data object to produce the plurality of sets of encoded data slices and outputting the plurality of sets of encoded data slices to the first and second memory types of the DSN memory in accordance with the dispersed storage error encoding parameters. |
| US09740546B2 |
Coordinating fault recovery in a distributed system
In various embodiments, methods and systems for coordinating, between a host and a tenant, fault recovery of tenant infrastructure in a distributed system is provided. A fault occurrence is determined for a tenant infrastructure in the distributed system. The fault occurrence may be a software failure or hardware failure of the tenant infrastructure supporting a service application of the tenant. A fault recovery plan is communicated to the tenant to notify the tenant of the fault occurrence and actions taken to restore the tenant infrastructure. It is determined whether a fault recovery plan response is received from the tenant; the fault recovery plan response is an acknowledgement from the tenant of the fault recovery plan. Upon receiving the fault recovery plan response or at the expiration of a predefined time limit, the fault recovery plan is executed to restore the tenant infrastructure. |
| US09740544B2 |
Live snapshotting of multiple virtual disks in networked systems
A system and method are disclosed for servicing requests to create live snapshots of a plurality of virtual disks in a virtualized environment. In accordance with one example, a first computer system detects that a second computer system has issued one or more commands to create a first snapshot of a first virtual disk of a virtual machine and a second snapshot of a second virtual disk of the virtual machine while the virtual machine is running on the second computer system. In response to a determination that the creating of the second snapshot failed, the first computer system issues one or more commands to destroy the first snapshot and deallocate an area of a storage device that stores the first snapshot. |
| US09740541B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method of collecting performance analysis data
An information processing apparatus includes a packet preprocessing unit configured to generate a packet process request when a packet is received; a CPU core configured to process the packet in response to the packet process request; a hardware element configured to generate a message including information identifying a predetermined event, in response to the predetermined event occurring in accordance with the processing of the packet, the hardware element being provided in the CPU core; and a message recording unit configured to record the message generated by the hardware element together with a count value of a timer. |
| US09740540B2 |
Method of process context-awareness
A process context-awareness method analyzes events arising from a process according to context concepts, compare and analyze entity contents of the events, event types, applicable contextual situations and rules, so as to subsequently trigger the other activities or yield result. The method applies to enterprise information systems, project scheme execution or meets any other operation requirement, suits different enterprise operational context, gains insight into dynamic circumstances of the enterprise context. |
| US09740534B2 |
System for controlling resources, control pattern generation apparatus, control apparatus, method for controlling resources and program
A system for controlling the resources includes a control pattern generation unit for generating a plurality of control patterns from a virtual system model, produced by modeling the behaviors of a network element and a server of a virtual system operating on a virtual datacenter, and from a resource allocation change policy stipulating a policy or policies of change of allocation of resources to the virtual systems. The control patterns prove candidates for control commands to network resources and server resources of the virtual systems. The system for controlling the resources also includes a control unit for carrying out prediction of a service level, using the control patterns, selecting such control pattern that satisfies the service level of the virtual systems and that also satisfies a preset standard or reference for selection, from among the control patterns, with the use of the result of prediction, and putting the control pattern selected to use. |
| US09740532B2 |
Multi-dimension scheduling among multiple consumers
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for allocating multiple resources. In one embodiment, a configured resource plan is used to construct a hierarchical tree. The system then identifies a set of unowned resources from the configured resource plan and sends the set of unowned resource to a share pool. The share pool is either a global or local pool and can be accessed by one or more consumers. In response to changes in workload demands, a set of unused resources are lent to a global or local pool. |
| US09740531B2 |
Coordinating multiple components
A system and method including: determining, by a manager module, a need to determine a primary software component of a client device; identifying a first software component and a second software component of the client device; identifying a set of characteristics of the first software component and the second software component; determining that the first software component is the primary software component based on the set of characteristics of each software component, where determining the primary software component further includes comparing the set of characteristics of each software component and selecting the primary software component based on the set of characteristics with a highest priority; and instructing, by the manager module, the one or more processors to cause functionality associated with the second software component to be at least partially suspended. |
| US09740524B2 |
Method and terminal device for executing application chain
The present disclosure relates to a method and a terminal device for executing an application chain. The method includes: acquiring a current application to be executed from an application chain; and executing the current application by determining an execution action according to an executable content type of the current application and an execution result of a preceding application executed before the current application. When executing an application chain comprised of multiple applications, the method provides executing the current application by determining the execution action according to the executable content type of the current application and the execution result of the preceding application, such that the resources of execution the application may be used mutually among all the applications in the application chain, thus providing fast and intelligent operation. |
| US09740517B2 |
Dynamic virtual machine memory management
Techniques for adjusting memory in virtual machines are disclosed. According to aspects, memory status is obtained for a guest operating system. Based on the obtained memory status, an amount of guest physical addresses is reported to a memory manager of the guest operating system. Moreover, the amount memory assigned to the guest operating system may be adjusted during the runtime operation of the guest operating system. |
| US09740514B1 |
Method and system to share data with snapshots in a virtualization environment
Disclosed is an improved approach to optimize link-based cloning in a virtualization architecture. In some approaches, each of the remote nodes is allowed to maintain its own snapshot of the linked/shared image. In this way, the processing power of each remote node can be used in a decentralized manner to administratively handle access to the shared data, rather than requiring the CPU resources of only the host node to centrally handle administrative access to the data. In addition, each of nodes can maintain copies of the shared image in a local cache. This allows the caching resources to also be decentralized, as each of the nodes can use its own caching resources to hold the shared data. |
| US09740506B2 |
Automating interactions with software user interfaces
A method and apparatus applies an action to a software application by determining a target object for the input action. The determination of the target object is performed by identifying the target object through socially identifying object information relative to a reference object. Then, the input action is applied to the target object. |
| US09740501B2 |
Generating and automatically loading reduced operating system based on usage pattern of applications
Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to monitor operations of at least one processor to define a set of executed applications executed under a first operating system over a selected time period; and to generate an image of a second operating system having sufficient resources to service a subset of the set of executed applications, the subset determined according to a usage pattern defined by at least a portion of the selected time period, the number of resources provided by the second operating system being less than or equal to the number of resources provided by the first operating system. The images may be loaded based on receipt of a menu selection. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed. |
| US09740498B2 |
Opportunistic multi-thread method and processor
Disclosed are an opportunistic multi-thread method and processor, the method comprising the following steps: if a zeroth thread, a first thread, a second thread and a third thread all have instructions ready to be executed, then a zeroth clock period, a first clock period, a second clock period and a third clock period are respectively allocated to the zeroth thread, the first thread, the second thread and the third thread; if one of the threads cannot issue an instruction within a specified clock period because the instruction is not ready, and the previous thread still has an instruction ready to be executed after issuing certain instructions in the previous specified clock period, then the previous thread will take the specified clock period. The processor comprises an instruction cache, an instruction decoder, an instruction pipeline controller and an arithmetic logic unit; the opportunistic multi-thread processor adds for each stage of production line a prediction circuit for an effective thread instruction and a set of two-dimensional thread identity registers. |
| US09740491B2 |
Instruction group formation techniques for decode-time instruction optimization based on feedback
A technique of processing instructions for execution by a processor includes determining whether a first property of a first instruction and a second property of a second instruction are compatible. The first instruction and the second instruction are grouped in an instruction group in response to the first and second properties being compatible and a feedback value generated by a feedback function indicating the instruction group has been historically beneficial with respect to a benefit metric of the processor. Group formation for the first and second instructions is performed according to another criteria, in response to the first and second properties being incompatible or the feedback value indicating the grouping of the first and second instructions has not been historically beneficial. |
| US09740489B2 |
Instruction and logic for processing text strings
Method, apparatus, and program for performing a comparison operation. The apparatus includes execution resources to execute a first instruction. In response to the first instruction, the execution resources store a result of a comparison between valid data element of a first and second operand. |
| US09740488B2 |
Processors operable to allow flexible instruction alignment
Methods and apparatus are provided for optimizing a processor core. Common processor subcircuitry is used to perform calculations for various types of instructions, including branch and non-branch instructions. Increasing the commonality of calculations across different instruction types allows branch instructions to jump to byte aligned memory address even if supported instructions are multi-byte or word aligned. |
| US09740487B2 |
Method and apparatus for asynchronous processor removal of meta-stability
A clock-less asynchronous processing circuit or system having a plurality of pipelined processing stages utilizes self-clocked generators to tune the delay needed in each of the processing stages to complete the processing cycle. Because different processing stages may require different amounts of time to complete processing or may require different delays depending on the processing required in a particular stage, the self-clocked generators may be tuned to each stage's necessary delay(s) or may be programmably configured. |
| US09740483B2 |
Vector checksum instruction
A Vector Checksum instruction. Elements from a second operand are added together one-by-one to obtain a first result. The adding includes performing one or more end around carry add operations. The first result is placed in an element of a first operand of the instruction. After each addition of an element, a carry out of a chosen position of the sum, if any, is added to a selected position in an element of the first operand. |
| US09740477B2 |
Entity wide software tracking and maintenance reporting tool
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a system, method, or computer program product for providing an entity wide software tracking and maintenance tool for monitoring maintenance and software updates across an entity. As such, the invention provides a uniform and stable method of monitoring software updates and software installation across an entity's information technology infrastructure. The invention receives software updates or new programs for installation across the entity. The invention then creates a tracking module to link to the maintenance update. The tracking module is a self-contained, self-describing module that contains static information related to the maintenance. Subsequently, the tracking module allows users to monitor the progress of maintenance levels. In some embodiments, the user may query the system to determine the progress of a specific maintenance. In some embodiments, the system may automatically notify a user of the success or failure of maintenance at one or more stages. |
| US09740471B2 |
Information processing apparatus, and information processing method
An apparatus in which at least two pieces of software capable of controlling a device may be installed, each of the pieces of software capable of controlling a device, the apparatus including a setting unit provided by a first piece of software, the setting unit being capable of controlling the device, and a determining unit configured to determine whether the device is to be controlled by a second piece of software that is different from the first piece of software. In this case, if the determining unit determines that the device is to be controlled by the second piece of software, at least partial control of the device is suppressed on a setting screen of the setting unit. |
| US09740468B2 |
Cloud-based application resource files
A cloud computing system can be used to transparently reduce the storage space of an application on a client device. An application can be installed with a minimal set of application resource files. The remaining application resource files can be replaced with application resource file placeholders, which can have the appearance of application resource files but are in fact empty files. When an application requests an application resource file, an application resource file retrieval process installed on the client device can detect the difference between an application resource file and an application resource file placeholder. The application resource file retrieval process can trigger a fault in response to detecting an application resource file placeholder, which causes the client device to obtain the requested application resource file from a remote storage location, such as cloud-based storage. Additionally, installed application resource files can be replaced with application resource file placeholders. |
| US09740467B2 |
Context sensitive framework for providing data from relevant applications
Functionality is disclosed herein for using a context sensitive framework to identify relevant applications to a current context and to provide data received from the relevant applications to a user. Instead of a user having to manually locate and launch an application, relevant applications determined by a contextual service may provide data in response to receiving the context data. The applications that are identified as relevant to the context determine the application data to provide to the contextual service. The contextual service selects at least a portion of the application data to provide for display within a user interface. In some configurations, the selected application data is displayed within a user interface that maintains a same look and feel regardless of the application data that is displayed. |
| US09740463B2 |
Mechanism for increasing the performance of multiple language programs by inserting called language IR into the calling language
A method and system of cross-language inlining that includes receiving source code of a multiple language program, the source code including a main language and a first access of a first foreign object in a first additional language; translating the main language to obtain a main language intermediate representation (IR); translating the first additional language to obtain a first IR snippet; composing, before performing a compilation, the main language IR and the first IR snippet to obtain a cross-language IR; and performing the compilation of the cross-language IR to obtain machine code corresponding to the multiple language program. |
| US09740457B1 |
Method and apparatus for displaying timeline of software development data
According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method is disclosed. From a plurality of data sources, software development data is obtained that relates to development of a software application and includes a time and description of multiple types of events that occurred during a predefined time period during development of the software application. A view selection of one of a plurality of views is received, wherein each view has a respective predefined timeline display template. The software development data is formatted according to the predefined timeline display template of the view selection to obtain a timeline of the software development data. The timeline of the software development data is displayed on an electronic display. |
| US09740456B2 |
Circuitry and methods for implementing Galois-field reduction
Galois-field reduction circuitry for reducing a Galois-field expansion value, using an irreducible polynomial, includes a plurality of memories, each for storing a respective value derived from the irreducible polynomial and a respective combination of expansion bit values, wherein expansion bits of the expansion value address the plurality of memories to output one or more of the respective values. The Galois-field reduction circuitry also includes exclusive-OR circuitry for combining output of the plurality of memories with in-field bits of said expansion value. There are also a method of operating such Galois-field reduction circuitry to reduce a Galois-field expansion value, a programmable integrated circuit device incorporating the circuitry, a method of performing a Galois-field multiplication operation on such a programmable integrated circuit device, and a method of configuring a programmable integrated circuit device to perform such a Galois-field multiplication operation. |
| US09740455B2 |
Apparatus and method for adjusting a rate at which data is transferred from a media access controller to a memory in a physical-layer circuit
A physical-layer circuit including a memory, a physical-layer device and a control circuit. The memory receives data from a media access controller (MAC) at a first rate. The MAC is separate from the physical-layer circuit. The physical-layer device receives the data from the memory and transmits the data from the physical-layer circuit to a peer device. The physical-layer device transfers the data from the memory to the peer device at a second rate. An amount of data stored in the memory is based on a difference between the first and second rates. The second rate is less than the first rate. The control circuit is connected between the memory and the physical layer device. The control circuit monitors the amount of the data stored in the memory and, based on the amount of the data stored in the memory, transmits a frame to the MAC to decrease the first rate. |
| US09740449B2 |
Onboard display system
An onboard display system includes two display groups; each display group includes a display apparatus and a control apparatus. The first control apparatus of the first display group includes the following: a first state acquisition section that acquires a first operating state of the first control apparatus itself; a second state acquisition section that acquires a second operating state of the second control apparatus of the second display group; a state determination section that determines whether a display prioritization state takes place based on the first operating state and the second operating state; and an image update section that updates, in chronological order, images in a video displayed in the first display apparatus of the first display group when the display prioritization state takes place or that suspends the updating when the display prioritization state does not take place. |
| US09740448B2 |
EHF enabled display systems
Display systems that use contactless connectors for transmitting data are provided. The contactless connectors are electromagnetic connectors that form an electromagnetic communications link. The electromagnetic communications link can be established within different locations of the same device, or between two different devices. The communications link can be established using at least two transceivers. The transceivers can be incorporated in different enclosures that are hinged together, or the transceivers can be incorporated within a hinge that enables two enclosures to move with respect to each other. A transceiver can be incorporated into a display device that can receive data from an active surface that has a transceiver. When the display device is placed on the active surface, the display device may serve as an access point to content contained within the active surface. |
| US09740446B2 |
Ranking print jobs based on transfer media healthy area
In an embodiment, a processor-readable medium stores code representing instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to access a list of print jobs for printing. The processor further determines a healthy area of a transfer media. For each job in the list, the processor calculates an image risk area (IRA) based on the healthy area, and ranks each job in a print order according to its IRA. |
| US09740445B2 |
Information processing system
An electronic apparatus includes a memory that stores an information processing program and a processor that executes the information processing program. When the processor executes the information processing program, the processor acquires setting information generated by one or more terminal apparatuses with respect to the electronic apparatus, periodically acquires position information of the one or more terminal apparatuses with respect to the electronic apparatus, determines a terminal apparatus closest to the electronic apparatus out of the one or more terminal apparatuses, and sets, in the electronic apparatus, the setting information acquired from the terminal apparatus closest to the electronic apparatus. |
| US09740444B2 |
Information processing device that generates report for setting values after an import
An information processing device, comprises: an import unit that sets setting items of the information processing device all at once using import data designating a plurality of setting values; a generation unit that generates a report file regarding a result of an import performed by the import unit; and an output unit that outputs information of a setting item that is included in the report file generated by the generation unit and that has been determined as meeting predetermined conditions, wherein the predetermined conditions are that there is no change in setting value before and after the import performed by the import unit, and there is a difference between a setting value designated by the import data and a corresponding setting value after the import. |
| US09740443B2 |
Printing apparatus capable of performing near field wireless communication, method for controlling printing apparatus, and storage medium
When a print processing apparatus is not connected to a printing apparatus, the printing apparatus generates communication information using an IP address of the printing apparatus and writes the generated communication information into a memory of an NFC communication unit. When the print processing apparatus is connected to the printing apparatus, the printing apparatus generates communication information using an IP address of the print processing apparatus and writes the generated communication information into the memory of the NFC communication unit. |
| US09740436B2 |
Elastic file system management in storage cloud environments
A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for elastic data storage management in a storage network. A data storage system manager in the data processing system monitors remaining free space of a plurality of data storage systems. The data storage system manager determines a rate of change of remaining free space of each data storage system. Responsive to determining that the remaining free space or rate of change of remaining free space of at least one data storage exceeds a threshold, the data storage system manager determines an amount to expand or shrink a given data storage system in the storage network. The data storage system manager configures data storage allocation to expand or shrink the given data storage system by the determined amount. |
| US09740435B2 |
Methods for managing content stored in cloud-based storages
A server receives over a network from a client a request for accessing files stored in a plurality of heterogeneous storage devices hosted by a plurality of storage providers over the network, including a first storage device of a first storage provider and a second storage device of a second storage provider. In response, the server accesses, on behalf of a user of the client, the first storage device and the second storage device to retrieve information concerning the files. The server transmits data to the client over the network, the data representing a logical file system view of the files without exposing actual storage locations of the files stored in the first and second storage devices. |
| US09740434B2 |
Storage device and control method
A storage device includes a first storage and a processor. The processor is configured to emulate an access to a physical tape with an access to a second storage. The processor is configured to store, in the first storage, first position information in which a first position in a first physical tape is associated with a storage position in the second storage. The processor is configured to receive an instruction to move data stored at the first position in the first physical tape to a second physical tape. The processor is configured to store, in the first storage, second position information in which a second position in the second physical tape is associated with the storage position. |
| US09740431B2 |
Memory controller and method for interleaving DRAM and MRAM accesses
A memory system and memory controller for interleaving volatile and non-volatile memory accesses are described. In the memory system, the memory controller is coupled to the volatile and non-volatile memories using a shared address bus. Activate latencies for the volatile and non-volatile memories are different, and registers are included on the memory controller for storing latency values. Additional registers on the memory controller store precharge latencies for the memories as well as page size for the non-volatile memory. A memory access sequencer on the memory controller asserts appropriate chip select signals to the memories to initiate operations therein. |
| US09740430B2 |
Optimizing parallel build of application
Optimizing a parallel build of an application includes, in parallel execution of commands, recording command sequence numbers and access information of the commands and detecting an execution conflict based on the command sequence numbers and the access information of the commands using a processor. Commands involved in the execution conflict are re-executed serially. |
| US09740429B2 |
Relay interface module for a distributed control system
A relay interface module that is commutatively connectable to at least one I/O device and a controller, wherein the relay interface module is configured to provide data from the I/O device to at least one controller in a distributed control system (DCS) via a communication interface. An application related to a particular I/O device may then be executed freely on any controller present in a DCS without losing real time connection with the associated I/O device. Data can be transferred from an I/O device to an associated application executed on a controller such that the real time connection between the I/O device and the application being executed is maintained. |
| US09740424B2 |
Zero copy support by the virtual memory manager
A computer program product for copying a source file to a destination file using a virtual memory manager of a computer operating system is provided. The computer program product includes receiving, by the virtual memory manager, a request to copy the source file to a destination file. The computer program product further provides that based on the status of the virtual page, performing at least one moving the virtual page to the destination file, copying the virtual page to the destination file, reading the virtual page into memory, and ignoring the virtual page. |
| US09740423B2 |
Computer system
In a computer system having a storage controller that receives a read request or a write request, a processor is configured to send to an interface device either a read-support indication, which is an indication to execute either all or a portion of read processing for read-data of the read request, or a write-support indication, which is an indication for either all or a portion of write processing for write-data of the write request. Then, the interface device, in accordance with either the read-support indication or the write-support indication, is configured to execute either all or a portion of the read processing for the read-data, or all or a portion of the write processing for the write-data, and to send to a host computer either a first response to the effect that the read processing has been completed, or a second response that the write processing has been completed. |
| US09740418B2 |
Storage unit, memory, and method for controlling storage unit
A storage unit includes a U-shaped magnetic track, a first drive circuit, a second drive circuit, a first drive port, and a second drive port. The U-shaped magnetic track includes a first port, a second port, a first storage area, and a second storage area. By controlling input voltages of the first port, the second port, the first drive port, and the second drive port and driving the first drive circuit, a current pulse is generated in the first storage area, and a magnetic domain wall in the first storage area is driven to move. By controlling the input voltages of the first port, the second port, the first drive port, and the second drive port and driving the second drive circuit, a current pulse is generated in the second storage area, and a magnetic domain in the second storage area is driven to move. |
| US09740417B2 |
Secondary storage operation instruction tags in information management systems
According to certain aspects, a system can include a client computing device configured to: in response to user interaction, store an identifier associated with a first tag in association with a first file; and in response to instructions to perform a secondary copy operation, forward the first file, a second file, and the identifier associated with the first tag. The system may also include a secondary storage controller computer(s) configured to: based on a review of the identifier associated with the first tag, identify the first file as having been tagged with the first tag; electronically obtain rules associated with the first tag; perform on the first file at least a first secondary storage operation specified by the rules associated with the first tag; and perform on the second file at least a second secondary storage operation, wherein the first and second secondary storage operations are different. |
| US09740416B2 |
Essential metadata replication
Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include defining, in a storage system including receiving, by a storage system, a storage request, and identifying, based on the storage request, one or more storage management units. For each of the storage management units, a master partition table having multiple master entries and one or more backup partition tables is identified, each of the backup partition tables having backup entries in a one-to-one-correspondence with the master entries. Upon detecting a failure in master partition table, one of the backup partition tables is configured as a replacement master partition table, essential metadata is used to calculate non-essential metadata in the replacement master partition table, and the calculated non-essential metadata is stored to the replacement master partition table. |
| US09740408B1 |
Using information specifying an organization of a data structure associated with a storage device
A storage device associated with a storage array may be identified. Information specifying an organization of data included in a data structure may be retrieved from the storage device. The data may be associated with characteristics of a plurality of data blocks of the storage device. A read operation or a write operation may be performed for the storage device based on the information specifying the organization of the data included in the data structure that is associated with the characteristics of the plurality of data blocks of the storage device. |
| US09740407B2 |
Clock mode determination in a memory system
A clock mode configuration circuit for a memory device is described. A memory system includes any number of memory devices serially connected to each other, where each memory device receives a clock signal. The clock signal can be provided either in parallel to all the memory devices or serially from memory device to memory device through a common clock input. The clock mode configuration circuit in each memory device is set to a parallel mode for receiving the parallel clock signal, and to a serial mode for receiving a source synchronous clock signal from a prior memory device. Depending on the set operating mode, the data input circuits will be configured for the corresponding data signal format, and the corresponding clock input circuits will be either enabled or disabled. The parallel mode and the serial mode is set by sensing a voltage level of a reference voltage provided to each memory device. |
| US09740406B2 |
Dynamic granule-based intermediate storage
A data storage system includes data storage and random access memory. A sorting module is communicatively coupled to the random access memory and sorts data blocks of write data received in the random access memory of the data storage. A storage controller is communicatively coupled to the random access memory and the data storage and being configured to write the sorted data blocks into one or more individually-sorted granules in a granule storage area of the data storage, wherein each granule is dynamically constrained to a subset of logical block addresses. A method and processor-implemented process provide for sorting data blocks of write data received in random access memory of data storage. The method and processor-implemented process write the sorted data blocks into one or more individually-sorted granules in a granule storage area of the data storage, wherein each granule is dynamically constrained to a subset of logical block addresses. |
| US09740405B2 |
Information processing device and information processing system
An information processing device includes a processor. The processor is configured to transmit to a tape drive a write request in one of a first mode and a second mode for accompanying data. The write request in the first mode requests to store the accompanying data in a buffer memory included in the tape drive without writing the accompanying data to a magnetic tape. The write request in the second mode requests to write data stored in the buffer memory and the accompanying data to the magnetic tape. The processor is configured to transmit a write request for one of multiple pieces of data in the first mode if a remaining amount of the buffer memory is larger than a predetermined threshold value, and in the second mode if the remaining amount is equal to or smaller than the predetermined threshold value. |
| US09740396B1 |
Adaptive gesture recognition
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for receiving sensor data indicative of one or more vibrational and/or environmental characteristics associated with a user device, a user of the user device, and/or an environment that includes the user device; determining a value for a metric representative of the one or more characteristics; determining a value of a gesture detection parameter based at least in part on the value of the metric; receiving input corresponding to a touch event detected at a touch-sensitive display of the device; and analyzing the input based at least in part on the value of the gesture detection parameter to determine whether the touch event corresponds to a particular type of gesture. |
| US09740395B2 |
Electronic apparatus with sensor-integrated display device and method of controlling the same
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a sensor-integrated display device integrally including a display surface and a sensor surface, a data transfer device, an image data generation module, and a processing module. The data transfer device is configured to generate and output three-dimensional information. The image data generation module is configured to generate three-dimensional image data at a plurality of sensing points on the sensor surface based on the three-dimensional information. The processing module is configured to analyze an operation content of a conductor above the sensor surface based on the image data. |
| US09740394B2 |
Display/input device with swipe functionality, image forming apparatus therewith, and method of controlling a display/input device with swipe functionality
A display/input device has a display portion and a touch panel portion. The display portion displays selection keys and displays a setting screen of a selected setting item. The touch panel portion is provided for the display portion to detect a touch position of user input and a tap-and-drag operation in which while a touch is maintained the touched position is moved. When a tap-and-drag operation is detected within the display position of a selection key, the display portion displays a setting item explanation screen that explains the setting item corresponding to the selection key at the position where the tap-and-drag operation has been made. |
| US09740392B2 |
Moving an object displayed on a display screen
A method, system, and/or computer program product moves a movable object displayed on a display screen using an electronic device. The method comprises the electronic device displaying a first frame around a first area on a display screen, and displaying a second frame around a second area on the display screen. The second frame displayed is larger than the first frame, and adjusts in size until it intersects a movable object. Once the second frame intersects the movable object, a half line is displayed from the first frame to the movable object, and in response to receiving a movement signal, a display of the movable object is then displayed in the first area. |
| US09740390B2 |
Dynamic clip analysis
A dynamic clip analysis system for use in a networked server-client system includes: a client including a client-side remote application module configured to analyze content from one or more of a client-side clipboard and a client-side drag and drop utility; and a remote application interactively connected with the client over a network via the client-side remote application module, the remote application including: one or more of a remote clipboard and a remote drag and drop utility; and a client-side remote application module configured to analyze content from one or more of the remote clipboard and the remote drag and drop utility, so as to perform dynamic clip analysis in the server-client system. |
| US09740386B2 |
Speed/positional mode translations
Gestures for converting from a position control mode to a motion continuation mode are disclosed. A position control mode can be invoked when the user simultaneously places two or more fingers upon a sensor panel. The fingers can then be moved around to effect position control. A motion continuation mode can be invoked when one or more fingers are lifted off (but at least one finger remains in contact with the sensor panel). If the motion continuation mode is invoked, a virtual control ring can be generated, and scrolling of the viewable area or dragging of the cursor or object can continue in a particular direction specified by a velocity vector pointed in the direction of finger movement at the time the motion continuation mode is invoked, and having a magnitude proportional to the velocity of the finger at the time the motion continuation mode was invoked. |
| US09740385B2 |
User-friendly, network-connected, smart-home controller and related systems and methods
A thermostat for controlling an HVAC system in an enclosure may include a passive infrared sensor, an active infrared sensor, and an electronic display having a first mode and a second mode. The thermostat may also include one or more processors programmed to change a setpoint temperature of the thermostat to an energy-saving temperature upon detection of a non-occupancy condition for the enclosure. The processor(s) may detect the non-occupancy condition based at least in part on readings received from the passive infrared sensor. The processor(s) may also be programmed to change the electronic display from the first mode to the second mode upon detection of a person approaching the thermostat. The processor(s) may detect a person approaching the thermostat based at least in part on readings received from the active infrared sensor. |
| US09740381B1 |
Devices, methods, and graphical user interfaces for providing feedback during interaction with an intensity-sensitive button
An electronic device: while displaying a first user interface, detects a first input that is consistent with a request to display a second user interface and a request to display a third user interface. In response, the device starts to display a first animated transition from the first to the second user interface. While the first animated transition is being displayed, the device detects a second input. In response, the device determines that the second input is consistent with the request to display the third user interface and whether the second input is received at a first or at a later, second time. If at the first time, the device: interrupts the first animated transition at a first point and displays a second animated transition from the first point to the third user interface. If at the second, later time, the device interrupts the first animated transition at a second point (after the first point), and displays a third animated transition from the second point to the third user interface. |
| US09740380B1 |
Method for interception and blocking of mouse move and resize events on mobile device
A processing device receives, from a remote access client executing on a mobile device, user input provided in a portion of an application window being displayed on the mobile device. The application window on the mobile device corresponds to an application executing on a remote host. The user input requests an operation to be performed on the application window and specifies a location of the portion of the application window in which the user input was provided. The processing device determines whether the portion of the application window is a restricted portion with respect to the requested operation to be performed on the application window, and prevents the remote access client on the mobile device from performing the requested operation responsive to a determination that the portion of the application window is the restricted portion. |
| US09740379B2 |
Methods and systems for creating and using electronic coloring pages
Generating an electronic coloring page image in the disclosed technology is accomplished by (a) obtaining an image to be converted into a the electronic coloring image; (b) converting the image into a corresponding outline image; (c) converting the corresponding outline image into an electronic coloring page image; (d) displaying the electronic coloring page image to a user; and (e) responsive to input provided by the user, manipulating the electronic coloring page image. |
| US09740377B1 |
Auxiliary information data exchange within a video environment
A composite video including a plurality of videos in a single stream is sent from a video streamer server to a client, where it is presented on an electronic display. A user may make a selection in the composite video that is translated to an absolute media reference that may include information identifying which video of the composite video was selected, an absolute media time identifying an elapsed time from the beginning of the video to the selection, and/or an absolute media spatial coordinate identifying a spatial location of the video that was selected. Auxiliary information related to the composite video may be obtained based on the selection and the absolute media reference and displayed to the user. |
| US09740374B2 |
Systems and methods for implementing multi-application tabs and tab sets
A sharing model enables users to easily and conveniently create and share standard and custom database objects, and applications, among users or groups of users. The sharing model includes systems and methods that allow users to conveniently create and customize tabs and tab sets that define relationships between custom objects and fields, standard objects and fields, and applications. A tab visually represents a user interface into an element of an application or into a database object. Selection of a tab provides a user access to the object or element of the application represented by the tab. A tab set is a group of related tabs that work as a unit to provide application functionality. New tabs and tab sets may be defined and tab set views may be customized so that an end user can easily and conveniently switch between the various objects and application elements represented by the displayed tabs and tab set views. |
| US09740371B2 |
Panoramic experience system and method
In one general sense, a user may be presented with a multimedia experience corresponding to an entertainment event or venue by managing a sensor array having at least two sensors that are made configured to provide a stream of data units, associating location information with sensors in the sensor array, enabling the user to perceive a map related to an entertainment event or venue, relating the perceived map to one or more sensors within the sensor array, receiving a user request identifying a selected position within the map, identifying one or more sensors within the sensor array corresponding to the selection, and presenting to the user a multimedia experience based on one or more streams of data units associated with the selected sensors. |
| US09740365B2 |
Visualization-centric performance-based volume allocation in a data storage system
A method, system, and computer program product for visualization-centric performance-based volume allocation in a data storage system using a processor in communication with a memory device is provided. A unified resource graph representative of a global hierarchy of storage components in the data storage system, including each of a plurality of storage controllers, is generated. The unified resource graph includes a common root node and a plurality of subtree nodes corresponding to each of a plurality of nodes internal to the plurality of storage controllers. The common root node and the plurality of subtree nodes are ordered in a top-down orientation. Scalable volume provisioning of an existing or new workload amount by graphical manipulation of at least one of the storage components represented by the unified resource graph is performed based on an input. |
| US09740357B2 |
Capacitive touch panel with multi-layer electrode including a silver-inclusive transparent conducting layer(s)
A projected capacitive touch panel, including a substrate, a silver-inclusive transparent conductive coating which forms a plurality of row electrodes, a plurality of column electrodes, and a plurality of conductive traces, and a signal processor which sequentially measures a capacitance between each of row electrodes and an adjacent column electrode. The row electrodes, the plurality of column electrodes, and the plurality of traces are on a plane substantially parallel to the substrate. Each of the row electrodes is electrically connected to the signal processor by one of the plurality of conductive traces. The plurality of traces are at least partially substantially parallel to the column electrodes. |
| US09740356B1 |
Capacitive touch system using differential sensing and operating method thereof
A capacitive touch system including a drive end, a capacitive sensing matrix and a detection end is provided. The drive end concurrently inputs encoded and modulated drive signals into a plurality of channels of the capacitive sensing matrix within each drive time slot of a frame. The detection end detects a detection matrix of the channels in the frame and decodes the detection matrix to respectively generate a two-dimensional detection vector corresponding to each of the channels. The detection end further calculates a subtraction between components of the two-dimensional detection vectors associated with two receiving electrodes of the capacitive sensing matrix to eliminate interference from noises. |
| US09740352B2 |
Supporting multiple users on a large scale projected capacitive touchscreen
System, method, and computer program products are provided that can support touch interaction from multiple users on a large scale projective capacitive (PCAP) display system, such as a gaming table. According to an embodiment, a system includes a touchscreen coupled to a controller. The controller adjusts performance of the touchscreen through dynamically setting a controller parameter to support altered touch reporting in a first area of the touchscreen compared to a second area of the touchscreen. The controller enables touch detection for the first area according to performance characteristics needed for an application operating in the second area. An altered touch reporting area may be a fast scan area or a slow scan area. In addition, enrichment data areas may include at least one of a fast scan area, a slow scan area, or an area of a touchscreen during a full scan. |
| US09740347B2 |
Active pen sensing for a display device having an integrated sensing device
A processing system (and associated input device and method) is disclosed that includes a display module configured to drive a display signal onto a plurality of sensor electrodes for updating a display, and a sensor module configured to communicate with the plurality of sensor electrodes. The sensor module is configured to, in a first mode of operation, operate the plurality of sensor electrodes to receive an active input from an active input device, and in a second mode of operation, operate the plurality of sensor electrodes to receive capacitive sensing data from a passive input device. The processing system further includes a determination module configured to determine a position of the active input device based on a harmonic of the active input signal. |
| US09740344B2 |
Touch screen and manufacturing method thereof, display device
A touch screen includes a plurality of first transparent electrodes extending in a first direction and a plurality of second transparent electrodes extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction disposed on the substrate; first conductive layers located on at least one side of the first transparent electrodes and connected in parallel with the first transparent electrodes; and/or second conductive layers located on at least one side of the second transparent electrodes and connected in parallel with the second transparent electrodes; the first conductive layers and the second conductive layers are metal layers or alloy layers. A manufacturing method of the touch screen and a display device having the touch screen are further disclosed. |
| US09740342B2 |
Method for preventing interference of contactless card reader and touch functions when they are physically and logically bound together for improved authentication security
A system for physically and logically integrating near field communication technology, touch sensor technology and display technology by using a more powerful near field communication antenna disposed under the touch sensor and display screen for transmitting, and a smaller near field communication antenna on top of the touch sensor for receiving near field communication signals. |
| US09740337B2 |
Projector
This projector includes a laser beam generation portion emitting a laser beam on the basis of an input image signal, a projection portion scanning the laser beam, a light detection portion detecting the laser beam reflected by a detection object, and a control portion controlling the laser beam generation portion to project a detection guide beam, different from the laser beam corresponding to the input image signal, for detection by the light detection portion when determining that detection of the laser beam corresponding to the input image signal by the light detection portion is unexpectable on the basis of color information of the input image signal. |
| US09740333B2 |
Detecting method and manufacturing method of embedded type touch panel
A detecting method and a manufacturing method of an embedded type touch panel are provided. The detecting method includes steps of: supplying first touch electrodes and second touch electrodes alternately arranged at least on a first direction with different voltages via corresponding touch-control wires to make display areas where the first touch electrodes are located and display areas where the second touch electrodes are located have different luminances, and at least determining neighboring first touch electrode and second touch electrode on the first direction whether are short-circuited or not according to the luminances of the display areas where the first touch electrodes are located and the luminances of the display areas where the second touch electrodes are located. By the above solution, the invention can simply and effectively realize a detection of touch panel. |
| US09740329B2 |
Display device
A display device is configured in a display state to allow the common electrode to function as an electrode for display and a scanning electrode for a touch panel, to which a common voltage and a first scanning pulse voltage are supplied, and to allow a detection circuit to detect a touched position based on the voltage detected by the first and the second detection electrodes. In a display stop state, the first detection electrode is configured to function as a temporary scanning electrode, and the detection circuit is configured to supply a second scanning pulse voltage to the first detection electrode so as to detect existence of a swipe based on the voltage detected by the second detection electrode. |
| US09740328B2 |
Display device with touch detecting function and electronic apparatus
A display device with a touch detecting function is disclosed herein. In an embodiment, the display device includes a substrate, a display area in which pixels each composed of a plurality of color areas are arranged in a matrix on a plane parallel to a surface of the substrate, a touch detection electrode including a first conductive thin wire extending in a first direction on a plane parallel to the surface of the substrate, a dummy electrode provided to an area in which the first conductive thin wire is not arranged in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the substrate and including a plurality of second conductive thin wires, a drive electrode made of a translucent material to which a display drive signal is applied, the drive electrode being arranged on the substrate, and a display functional layer having a function to display an image on the display area. |
| US09740325B2 |
Touch display circuit and display device
A touch display circuit and a display device are provided. The touch display circuit comprises a photosensitive touch unit (11), a driving unit (12), a threshold compensating unit (13) and a display unit (14). The photosensitive touch unit (11) generates a second detection signal under a control of a second scanning signal terminal (S2) when a first scanning signal terminal (S1) inputs a first detection signal. The threshold compensating unit (13) outputs a control voltage to a control terminal (d1) of the driving unit (12), outputs an operating voltage to an input terminal (d2) of the driving unit (12), and compensates a threshold voltage of the driving unit (12) by using the control voltage under control of a third scanning line signal terminal (S3), a fourth scanning line signal terminal (S4) and a data line (Data). The driving unit (12) outputs a driving current to the display unit (14) via an output terminal (d3) under control of the control voltage and the operating voltage. The display unit (14) is driven to emit light by the driving current under control of the fifth scanning signal terminal (S5). By using the touch display circuit, photosensitive in cell touch technology can be integrated into an AMOLED display. |
| US09740324B2 |
Vehicle accessory control interface having capacitive touch switches
A system including a control interface including a display panel and a processor, the display panel including a touch surface, an electronically non-conductive touch surface, and a plurality of touch areas having an array of electrically conductive rows and columns, which capacitivily couples to a conductive object, moving into close proximity to one of the conductive rows and columns, while being driven with an electrical charge, and the processor detecting the capacitive coupling of the conductive row to the conductive object, generating a signal and providing the signal wirelessly to one of an accessory and remote device, based on a first movement, followed by a second movement when a pattern or sequence has been detected, remotely communicating to a wireless device using a transceiver associated with the processor, and controlling at least one of the remote accessories in accordance with an output command from the wireless device. |
| US09740320B2 |
Pixel circuit and display apparatus
Disclosed are a pixel circuit and a display apparatus. The pixel circuit comprises a pixel compensation module, a light emitting module and a touch detection module; the pixel compensation module is connected to a first to a fourth scan signal lines (Scan[1], Scan[2], Scan[3], Em), a first operation voltage (Vdd), a data voltage (Vdata) and the light emitting module respectively, and is configured to control the light emitting module to emit light for display in accordance with inputs from the scan signal lines; the touch detection module comprises a detection sub module and an output sub module. The pixel compensation module and the touch detection module are integrated into the pixel circuit, and the pixel compensation module and the touch detection module share the data voltage (Vdata) and the scan signal line in common. |
| US09740315B2 |
Touch panel and method of manufacturing the same
The present disclosure provides a touch panel, including: a substrate having a visible region and a non-visible region adjacent to at least one side of the visible region; a composite layer disposed over the non-visible region, wherein the composite layer includes a color layer and a light-shielding layer, and the color layer is disposed between the substrate and the light-shielding layer, wherein a side of the color layer adjacent to the visible region has a first inclined surface, and a side of the light-shielding layer adjacent to the visible region has a second inclined surface, wherein the first inclined surface and the second inclined surface are form a continuous surface; a sensing layer disposed over the visible region and extending to a portion of the non-visible region, wherein the sensing layer directly contacts the visible region of the substrate; and a signal wire disposed over the composite layer. |
| US09740314B2 |
Display apparatus for vehicle
A display apparatus for a vehicle includes a screen on which an image is displayed. A projector projects the image to the screen, and a knob is rotatably disposed at one side of the screen. A vibration sensor senses a vibration and outputs a vibration signal. A controller determines a rotational direction and a rotational amount of the knob based on the vibration signal output from the vibration sensor. |
| US09740312B2 |
Pressure sensitive stylus
A stylus includes a housing that extends along a longitudinal direction and includes an opening on one end, a tip that extends along the longitudinal direction and through the opening and a sensor configured to detect displacement of the tip in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. |
| US09740303B2 |
Pointing system, control device, and control method
A pointing system including: a pointing device including an operation portion and a light-emitting portion that emits light according to an operation to the operation portion; and a control device including an image pickup portion that picks up light from the light-emitting portion when the light-emitting portion emits light and outputs an image including information on a light spot of the light, a display portion that includes a screen and displays a pointer on the screen, and a control portion that judges, as well as judge a movement of the light spot based on the information on the light spot in the image and move the pointer on the screen based on the movement of the light spot, whether the light spot is turned off based on the information on the light spot in the image and executes processing related to a click when the light spot is turned off. |
| US09740302B2 |
Ambidextrous chord keying device for use with hand-held computer
An ambidextrous, hand held data management device that has been ergonomically optimized to facilitate multiple key per character input, chording while holding a hand-held computer. The device has an arrangement of multiple keys which are so situated that the device can be operated in either the left or the right hand and data can be quickly and conveniently input, that is, any combination of keys can be quickly and conveniently indicated without a hand strap and without dropping the device. The ergonomic arrangement of keys and the shape of the frame allows for the device to remain comfortably stationary relative to the palm of the hand while in use. The device is primarily a mobile data input device, enabling keying of characters with the hand concurrently holding the device around the periphery, maximizing the hand-held screen availability dowards displaying content. |
| US09740298B2 |
Adaptive projector for projecting content into a three-dimensional virtual space
Embodiments of the invention provide apparatus and methods for interactive reality augmentation, including a 2-dimensional camera and a 3-dimensional camera, associated depth projector and content projector, and a processor linked to the 3-dimensional camera and the 2-dimensional camera. A depth map of the scene is produced using an output of the 3-dimensional camera, and coordinated with a 2-dimensional image captured by the 2-dimensional camera to identify a 3-dimensional object in the scene that meets predetermined criteria for projection of images thereon. The content projector projects a content image onto the 3-dimensional object responsively to instructions of the processor, which can be mediated by automatic recognition of user gestures. |
| US09740297B2 |
Motion-based character selection
Various interfaces and control schemes are provided that enable a user to enter text or select specific elements of an interface based at least in part upon relative motion. In some embodiments, a user can enter text by tilting a device to locate a specific character, and press on a button or specified area of a device to select that character. In other embodiments, a user can select a character by looking at a character and performing a selection action, a user device able to determine the character by tracking a gaze direction of the user. Any relative movement of a device and/or a user can be used as input, allowing for one-handed or even hands-free entrance of text or other selection of elements of a graphical user interface. |
| US09740295B2 |
Detection of user gestures
In one example, a system may include a display including a display screen; a display controller configured to display visual information on the display screen of the display screen, control at least portions of one or more pixels corresponding to the display screen to render the display screen transparent; and a depth camera, positioned behind the display screen, that is configured to obtain depth image information of one or more objects in front of the display screen when at least portions of the one or more pixels are rendered transparent. |
| US09740293B2 |
Operating environment with gestural control and multiple client devices, displays, and users
Embodiments described herein includes a system comprising a processor coupled to display devices, sensors, remote client devices, and computer applications. The computer applications orchestrate content of the remote client devices simultaneously across the display devices and the remote client devices, and allow simultaneous control of the display devices. The simultaneous control includes automatically detecting a gesture of at least one object from gesture data received via the sensors. The detecting comprises identifying the gesture using only the gesture data. The computer applications translate the gesture to a gesture signal, and control the display devices in response to the gesture signal. |
| US09740288B2 |
Electronic device
The electronic device 1 is provided with a touch panel 3, vibration units 15 and 16 that vibrate the touch panel 3, and a display unit 18 disposed adjacent to the backside of the touch panel 3. The display unit 18 is held suspended from the touch panel 3 via a flexible member 24 disposed along the entire periphery of the display unit 18, improves dust resistance and water resistance, as an electronic device that includes and vibrates a panel forming the external appearance of the electronic device, while making it difficult to inhibit vibration of the panel. |
| US09740287B2 |
Force feedback system including multi-tasking graphical host environment and interface device
A force feedback system provides components for use in a force feedback system including a host computer and a force feedback interface device. An architecture for a host computer allows multi-tasking application programs to interface with the force feedback device without conflicts, where a single active application may output forces. A background application also provides force effects to be output and allows a user to assign force effects to graphical objects in a graphical user interface. Force feedback effects and structures are further described, such as events and enclosures. |
| US09740286B2 |
Character string retrieval apparatus
In order to enable an operator to unfailingly recognize a retrieved character string displayed on a display unit as a result of retrieval from a target such as text, a character string retrieval apparatus 1 for retrieving the character string from the target includes a display unit 20 for displaying a retrieval result of the character string, an operation unit 30 for detecting an input operation, a tactile sensation providing unit 40 for vibrating the operation unit 30, and a control unit 10 for shifting an area of the retrieval result of the character string displayed on the display unit 20, based on the input operation detected by the operation unit 30, and, when displaying the retrieved character string on the display unit 20, for controlling the tactile sensation providing unit 40 such that a tactile sensation is provided to an object pressing the operation unit 30. |
| US09740276B2 |
Electronic device and method for controlling electronic device
There are provided n (n is an integer greater than or equal to 2) physical layer control units which communicate with another apparatus connected to a device itself and control a physical layer, a logical layer control unit which controls a logical layer in communication with the other apparatus, and a control unit which controls the logical layer control unit from a power-supply ON state to a standby state in accordance with a standby instruction for the device itself, wherein one physical layer control unit of the n physical layer control units generates a clock using a connected resonator and the other physical layer control units receive the clock generated by the physical layer control unit to which the resonator is connected. |
| US09740269B1 |
Apparatuses and methods for arbitrating a shared terminal for calibration of an impedance termination
An arbitration system and method is disclosed. The apparatus includes first and second memory devices, and a resistor coupled in common to the first and second memory devices, the first memory device including a first calibration circuit configured to perform, when activated, a first calibration operation based on the resistor and a first arbiter configured to activate the first calibration circuit responsive, at least in part, to an assertion of a first command or keep the first calibration circuit inactive irrespective of the assertion of the first command. |
| US09740268B2 |
Intelligent management for an electronic device
An electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device includes a first input device; a second input device capable of operating in a first operating mode; and a system management module in communication with the first input device and the second input device. The system management module is configured for switching the second input device to a second operating mode in response to detecting, by the first input device, a presence of a user without receiving any operation-specific input from the user. |
| US09740266B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling multi-core of electronic device
An electronic device includes a plurality of processor cores, a core controller, and a core setting module. The processor cores are for executing an application program. The core controller monitors a degree of parallelism of the application program; determining, according to utilization of the processor cores, whether frequencies of the processor cores or power-on number of the processor cores should be changed; and selects, according to the degree of parallelism of the application program, at least one of the frequencies of the processor cores and the power-on number of the processor cores to provide a selection result when determining that the frequencies of the processor cores or the power-on number of the processor cores should be changed. The core setting module changes at least one of the frequencies of the processor cores and the power-on number of the processor cores based on the selection result. |
| US09740265B2 |
Electronic device for extending battery life in mobile applications
In one embodiment, an electronic device comprises an oscillator configured to generate an oscillator signal, and a timing circuit configured to generate a count value based on the oscillator signal, to compare the count value with a first compare value, to determine a first expiry event upon the count value matching the first compare value, and to generate a first wakeup signal in response to the first expiry event. The electronic device also comprises a battery pass circuit configured to receive the first wakeup signal, and to couple a power source to a main device in response to the first wakeup signal to power on the main device. The electronic device further comprises a state sequencing circuit configured to store a state of the main device, and an interface circuit configured to communicate the stored state to the main device. |
| US09740264B2 |
Electronic apparatus having battery charge circuit and charge control method therefor
On embodiment provides an electronic apparatus including: a controller configured to perform a power management of the electronic apparatus; a battery capable of counting cycles of a charging; and a charge circuit configured to perform the charging to the battery by using DC power supplied from an AC power supply device, wherein the controller is configured to cause the charge circuit to step down a charge voltage of the battery every predetermined number of the counts. |
| US09740263B2 |
Power supply unit for a computer system and arrangement having a corresponding power supply unit and a computer system
A power supply unit for a computer system including a first converter circuit with a first control circuit that converts an input-side electrical supply voltage into at least one first output voltage, a second converter circuit with a second control circuit that converts the input-side supply voltage into at least one second output voltage, wherein an output of the first converter circuit directly electrically connects to an output of the second converter circuit, a nominal level of the at least one first output voltage is higher by a predetermined voltage difference than a corresponding nominal level of the at least one second output voltage, the power supply unit includes an additional circuit on the input side of the second converter circuit, which additional circuit controls the second control circuit such that the second converter circuit operates with a minimum output power when the first converter circuit provides the at least one first output voltage. |
| US09740254B2 |
Electronic control unit
An electronic control unit includes a microcomputer and a power circuit that supplies an electric power to the microcomputer. The microcomputer and the power circuit respectively operate in a normal operation mode and in a low power operation mode that consumes less power than the normal operation mode. The electronic control unit further includes a mode switcher for switching the operation modes of the microcomputer and the power circuit according to an input signal from an external device. When a mode switch signal for switching the operation mode of both devices to the normal operation mode, the mode switcher first switches the power circuit to the normal operation mode and subsequently switches the microcomputer to the normal operation mode, which prevents a reset operation of the microcomputer without using a large capacity capacitor. |
| US09740239B2 |
Spring-loaded supports for head set computer
In one embodiment, a head worn computer comprising a housing, wherein the housing includes at least one spring applying inward force to a user's head, a plurality of regions, the regions being able to be flexible regions or stiff regions, and two end regions, configured to wrap around a portion of the user's head, such that the two end regions are located at the front of the user's head, and each of the two end regions are on opposite sides of the user's head. In another embodiment, a method of configuring a head worn computer to a user, using the above mentioned head worn computer. |
| US09740235B1 |
Circuits and methods of TAF-DPS based interface adapter for heterogeneously clocked Network-on-Chip system
An interface adapter for facilitating the data communication among computation modules in a Network-on-Chip SoC comprises 1) a FIFO block having certain number of storage cells for temporarily storing the data to be transported between two communicating modules; 2) a TAF-DPS clock generator and a multi-phase generator attached at the FIFO write side for generating the write clock for FIFO and the driving clock for the transmitter, a TAF-DPS clock generator and a multi-phase generator attached at the FIFO read side for generating the read clock for FIFO and the driving clock for the receiver; 3) a write pointer controller and a read pointer controller for reading the FIFO status and controlling the TAF-DPS clock generators at the write side and at the read side, respectively. A design scheme of using said interface adapters in Network-on-Chip SoC design includes a plurality of computation modules, routing modules, said interface adapters, a network of communication link, a network of global clock distribution. Methods of creating the interface adapter and using it in the Network-on-Chip SoC design are also disclosed. |
| US09740230B1 |
Voltage-adjusting device and related voltage-adjusting method
A voltage-adjusting device is provided for adjusting voltages of one or more power domains in a chip. The device includes a distributing system, and a voltage-adjusting system. The distributing system obtains task information for the one or more power domains, obtains a forecasted voltage and a detected voltage for a power domain, and obtains a control system for the power domain for controlling a voltage applied on the power domain based on the forecasted voltage and the detected voltage. The forecasted voltage is a voltage required for the power domain to execute a task. Further, the voltage-adjusting system is connected to the distributing system and the one or more power domains, adjusts the voltage applied on the power domain based on the control signal such that the detected voltage reaches the forecasted voltage when the power domain executes a task. |
| US09740229B2 |
Curvature-corrected bandgap reference
A curvature-corrected bandgap reference comprising a first BJT device operating at a first current density that is substantially proportional to absolute temperature, the first BJT device having a first base-emitter voltage and a first base terminal and a second BJT device operating at a second current density that is substantially independent of temperature, the second BJT device having a second base-emitter voltage and a second base terminal. The first and second base terminals operate at a reference voltage. The reference voltage comprises a linear combination of the first and second base-emitter voltages and is thereby made substantially independent of temperature and curvature-corrected. The linear combination is provided by summing the first base-emitter voltage, a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) voltage proportional to a first current density, and a curvature-correction voltage proportional to a difference between the first and second base-emitter voltages. |
| US09740228B2 |
System, method and computer program product for energy allocation
An energy allocation system includes an air conditioning unit with a VDC compressor and a fan configured for variable speed output. The air conditioning unit further includes a built-in power generator. A blending module is configured to split the generator-produced power into AC and DC allocations and combine the DC power allocation with DC power received from a DC energy device. |
| US09740224B2 |
Dynamic biasing for regulator circuits
The disclosed invention provides apparatus and methods for dynamic biasing in electronic systems and circuits. The apparatus and methods disclosed provide non-linear biasing responsive to monitored load conditions. |
| US09740223B1 |
Regulator
A regulator includes a driver circuit, an amplifier circuit, a first current source circuit and a second current source circuit. The driver circuit is configured to receive an input voltage and provide an output voltage. The first current source circuit is configured to provide a first current to the amplifier circuit. The second current source circuit is configured to provide a second current to the amplifier circuit according to the output voltage if the output voltage deviates from a predetermined voltage. The amplifier circuit is configured to control the driver circuit according to the output voltage and a third current, in which the third current is a sum of the first current and the second current. |
| US09740222B2 |
Overcurrent protection circuit for controlling a gate of an output transistor based on an output current
To provide an overcurrent protection circuit which prevents an excessive current from flowing to an output terminal for a long time, and a semiconductor device and a voltage regulator each equipped with the overcurrent protection circuit. An overcurrent protection circuit is configured to include a first transistor which allows a current proportional to an output current flowing through an output transistor to flow, a constant current circuit which allows a reference current to flow, a comparison circuit which compares the current flowing through the first transistor and the reference current, and a control circuit which controls a gate of the output transistor by a signal outputted from the comparison circuit. |
| US09740221B2 |
Method to limit the inrush current in large output capacitance LDO's
The present document relates to a pre-charge circuit of electronic circuits having Miller compensation and significant output capacitance such as LDOs or multistage amplifiers. The pre-charge circuit limits an inrush current right after enabling of the electronic circuit. The pre-charge circuit limits and clamps the fast charging of the Miller capacitor. A delay circuit disables the pre-charge circuit when the bias conditions of the Miller capacitor are close to normal bias conditions. |
| US09740219B2 |
Semiconductor device and power source supply method description
A semiconductor device including an input terminal to which a power source, for which the time until a voltage equal or greater than a predetermined voltage value is output fluctuates according to an external environment, is connected, a power source section to which the input terminal supplies power from the power source, a power source supply terminal that supplies power to a driven semiconductor device, a switch that controls a connection between the power source section and the power source supply terminal, and a voltage regulator to which the input terminal supplies power from the power source, and that supplies a voltage to the power source supply terminal is provided. |
| US09740218B2 |
Limiting a current
In an embodiment, a power-supply controller includes a switching regulator and a current limiter. The switching regulator is configured to generate an input current such that an output voltage is generated in response to the input current and an input voltage, and the current limiter is configured to limit the input current in response to a quantity that is related to a ratio of the output voltage divided by the input voltage. For example, an embodiment of such a power-supply controller may be able to limit the output or load current from a power supply to a set level by limiting the input current in response to a quantity that is related to the ratio (e.g., the boost ratio) of the output voltage to the input voltage. |
| US09740215B2 |
Thermostatic mixing valve with integrated flow diverter
The invention relates to a thermostatic mixing valve with integrated flow diverter provided with a first coupling for a control lever for the flow rate adjustment and the flow diversion through a valve group that is housed between a base and a cylindrical body, and with a second coupling for a knob for the temperature adjustment through a thermostatic device, said valve including a member for the transmission of the flow rate adjustment and flow diversion control that directly connects the control lever to the valve group passing through the cylindrical body without moving it, the latter being also enclosed within an external casing secured to the base and achieving a watertight sealing with the base. |
| US09740213B2 |
Vehicle combination and method for forming and operating a vehicle combination
A vehicle combination and a method for forming and operating a vehicle combination that includes at least first and second autonomous vehicles. Each of the autonomous vehicles is configured to automatically control its motions in a state wherein the first and second autonomous vehicles do not form the vehicle combination. When the vehicle combination is formed, the two autonomous vehicles are connected via a communications connection and the first autonomous vehicle automatically controls the motion of the second autonomous vehicle via the communication connection. |
| US09740206B2 |
Driving test system for a moving object
One form of a driving test system for a moving object includes: an unmanned aircraft configured to fly at a set distance from the moving object that is configured to drive along a set route in a set zone and has a vision sensor disposed on one side that is configured to detect the moving object's motion; and a controller configured to control the flight of the unmanned aircraft to follow the moving object and to transmit to the vision sensor and to receive from the vision censor, detected motion characteristics of the moving object. |
| US09740205B2 |
Autonomous vehicle communication configuration system
An autonomous vehicle (AV) can include a communication system to communicate with a backend system, a sensor system to collect sensor data representing an operational environment of the AV, and a control system that can processes the sensor data to (i) perform a localization operation to determine a location and an orientation of the AV within a given region, and (ii) autonomously operate the AV's acceleration, braking, and steering system throughout the given region. Based on the localization operation, the AV can implement a set of configuration commands to configure the communication system to transmit and receive data with the backend system using a number of specified network nodes. |
| US09740202B2 |
Fall back trajectory systems for autonomous vehicles
Aspects of the disclosure provide systems and methods for providing suggested locations for pick up and destination locations. Pick up locations may include locations where an autonomous vehicle can pick up a passenger, while destination locations may include locations where the vehicle can wait for an additional passenger, stop and wait for a passenger to perform some task and return to the vehicle, or for the vehicle to drop off a passenger. As such, a request for a vehicle may be received from a client computing device. The request may identify a first location. A set of one or more suggested locations may be selected by comparing the predetermined locations to the first location. The set may be provided to the client computing device. |
| US09740200B2 |
Unmanned aerial vehicle inspection system
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for an unmanned aerial system inspection system. One of the methods is performed by a UAV and includes obtaining, from a user device, flight operation information describing an inspection of a vertical structure to be performed, the flight operation information including locations of one or more safe locations for vertical inspection. A location of the UAV is determined to correspond to a first safe location for vertical inspection. A first inspection of the structure is performed is performed at the first safe location, the first inspection including activating cameras. A second safe location is traveled to, and a second inspection of the structure is performed. Information associated with the inspection is provided to the user device. |
| US09740199B2 |
Device for the remote control of a motorized underwater surface cleaning apparatus and apparatus thus controlled
The invention concerns a device and a method of remotely controlling a motorized submerged surface cleaning apparatus (1) comprising a body and a drive device, said remote control device comprising a control terminal (15) having a housing, a device (16) for transmitting control signals for the drive device, characterized in that the housing comprises an orientation detector furnishing at least one orientation parameter of the housing, and in that said device comprises a unit for processing orientation parameters, producing a first command for the drive device for an orientation parameter that is within a first interval of values, and a second command for the drive device for an orientation parameter that is within a second predetermined interval of values. |
| US09740197B2 |
Motor control apparatus generating command limited by motor torque
A motor control apparatus includes a detection unit detecting a motor rotational frequency, a storage unit storing an allowable torque at the motor rotational frequency detected by detection unit, a first torque offset generated in a direction opposite to a moving direction of a movable body, a second torque offset generated in one direction regardless of the moving direction of the movable body, a rotor inertia moment, a load inertia moment, and a conversion factor for converting a motor rotation angle in rotary motion of the motor to a moving distance in linear motion of the movable body, and an acceleration calculation unit calculating an acceleration command of the motor for each moving direction of the movable body and each acceleration operation and deceleration operation using the allowable torque, the first torque offset, the second torque offset, the rotor inertia moment, the load inertia moment, and the conversion factor. |
| US09740193B2 |
Sensor-based safety features for robotic equipment
Technologies are generally described for sensor-based safety features for robotic equipment, and the implementation thereof. One or more sensors may be positioned relative to the robotic equipment such that the sensors may capture light from at least a portion of an environment surrounding the robotic equipment. In some examples, the sensors may be integrated with the robotic equipment and/or may be configured to rotate. An analysis module coupled to the sensors may build a model image of the environment based on the light captured by the sensors. The analysis module may detect that an unintended object is approaching the robotic equipment in response to detecting a change in the model image, and based on a proximity and/or a speed of approach of the object to the robotic equipment, the analysis module may instruct the robotic equipment to reduce an operating speed and/or stop motion of the robotic equipment. |
| US09740186B2 |
Monitoring control system and control device
A monitoring control system includes a control device that performs a device control process, and a high-order system that monitors the device control process. The control device includes a control CPU that performs the device control process, and an information CPU that is connected to the control CPU via an internal bus. The control CPU includes a device memory that stores therein device data to be used for the device control process, the device data being related to the device. The information CPU includes a built-in database and a data collection unit. The data collection unit performs a data collection process of reading the device data from the device memory via the internal bus, and storing the read device data in the built-in database. |
| US09740185B2 |
Peripheral device for programmable controller and debug support program
A peripheral device for a programmable controller includes a display unit; a program storage unit; a history information storage unit storing history information that is arithmetic processing information during execution of the user program in the programmable controller and recorded under a predetermined condition; a program display processing unit displaying a designated user program in a user program display area; a trend graph display processing unit displaying a first trend graph obtained by graphing first history information corresponding to the designated user program and a cursor indicating a position on the first trend graph, in a trend graph display area; and a cursor information acquisition unit acquiring a cursor position and acquiring arithmetic processing information corresponding to the cursor position from the first history information, wherein the program display processing unit displays the arithmetic processing information over the user program in the user program display area. |
| US09740184B2 |
Controls interface solution for energy savings
Methods and apparatus for enhanced control over electronic device manufacturing systems are provided herein. In some embodiments, the integrated sub-fab system may employ Ethernet and/or RS232 Serial communications through an open platform of apparatus to achieve a reduced carbon footprint during electronic device manufacturing. For this example, the system could include a process tool set and controller linked by sensors or software interconnect with one or more sub-fab or local factory auxiliary systems that can be operated in one or more states of energy consumption. These one or more auxiliary systems can be switched between different levels of energy consumption, as required by the process, via the controller. For many auxiliary components or systems the integrated sub-fab system utilizes existing signal outputs, for others they may employ secondary sensors or monitors. |
| US09740170B2 |
Oscillator for a clock movement
An oscillator (10) includes a spiral spring (11) made from a paramagnetic or diamagnetic material and an assembled balance wheel (12) having a shaft (13) on which the following elements are fitted: a balance wheel (14), a plate (15) and a collet (16) rigidly connected with the spiral spring (11). The maximum diameter (Dmax) of the shaft is less than 3.5, or even 2.5, or even 2 times the minimum diameter (D1) of the shaft on which one of the elements is fitted, or the maximum diameter (Dmax) of the shaft is less than 1.6, or even 1.3 times the maximum diameter (D2) of the shaft on which one of the elements is fitted. |
| US09740168B2 |
Complex spatial light modulator and 3D image display including the same
A complex spatial light modulator and a three-dimensional (3D) image display apparatus including the complex spatial light modulator are provided. The complex spatial light modulator includes: a spatial light modulator that modulates a phase of light; a prism array including a plurality of prism units, each of the plurality of prism units including a first prism surface and second prism surface, where light from the spatial light modulator is incident on the prism array; and a polarization-independent diffracting element that diffracts light that has passed through the prism array. |
| US09740166B2 |
Fluorescence receiving apparatus and fluorescence receiving method
A fluorescence receiving apparatus comprises an excitation light source, a spatial light modulator of a phase modulation type for phase-modulating excitation light to obtain phase-modulated light, a focusing optical system configured to focus the phase-modulated light to a specimen, a specimen stage for supporting the specimen, a fluorescence receiver for receiving fluorescence generated by focus of the phase-modulated light to the specimen, a control unit for displaying a first CGH on the spatial light modulator, and a correction unit for correcting the first CGH. The correction unit comprises a receiver-specific sensitivity information storage preliminarily acquiring and storing sensitivity information per reception position specific to the fluorescence receiver, and a second hologram generator for correcting the first CGH, based on intensities of the fluorescence and the sensitivity information, to generate a second CGH. The control unit displays the second CGH on the spatial light modulator. |
| US09740165B2 |
Dust collecting filter
A filter frame includes a first frame portion that includes a filter installation surface for installing a filter, a second frame portion that retains the filter by holding the filter between the first frame portion, and a hinge portion that connects the first frame portion and the second frame portion. The first frame portion has a plurality of fitting projections and an arm provided on a filter installation surface of the first frame portion so as to extend between a plurality of fitting projections. The second frame portion has a plurality of fitting portions for receiving the plurality of fitting projections, and a cutout provided in a side of the frame facing the side in which the second frame portion is connected to the first frame portion by the hinge portion. |
| US09740163B2 |
Rotational force driving assembly process cartridge
The present invention relates to a rotational force driving assembly and a process cartridge used for being engaged with a rotational force driving head inside an electrophotographic image forming device. The rotational force driving assembly can comprise a hub, a rotational force receiving component, a side plate, and an axis offset adjusting mechanism. When the axis offset adjusting mechanism is not subjected to external force, the axis offset adjusting mechanism enables the axis of the rotational force receiving component to be parallel and offset to the axis of the hub. When the axis offset adjusting mechanism is subjected to external force, the rotational force receiving component extends out to be engaged with the rotational force driving head. |
| US09740160B2 |
Image formation device and method for starting image formation device
An image formation device includes a power controller that controls transition to an energy-saving mode to reduce power consumption in a standby state and starts up out of the energy-saving mode and a timer in which a timing schedule that starts up the device out of the energy-saving mode is set. The power controller controls the surface temperature of the fixing roller of the image generator to be a temperature lower than the fixing temperature that enables image formation when the image formation device is started up out of the energy-saving mode according to the timing schedule set in the timer. |
| US09740159B2 |
Power supply device, image forming apparatus and method of controlling power supply device
A power supply device includes: a DC-DC converter that includes a switching element, a coil, a capacitor and a controller which controls the turning on and off of the switching element; a detection circuit to which an output voltage of the DC-DC converter is input and which outputs a detection signal whose level is changed depending on whether or not the output voltage is less than a reference voltage; and a power supply control circuit which stops the DC-DC converter when the number of times the level of the detection signal is changed within a predetermined detection period is equal to or more than a specified number of times. |
| US09740157B1 |
Axially shifting a photoconductive drum using a wear surface
A photoconductor unit for an electrophotographic image forming device according to one example embodiment includes a housing and a photoconductive drum rotatably mounted on the housing. The photoconductive drum includes a drive coupler that is positioned to mate with a corresponding drive coupler of the image forming device to receive rotational and axial force therefrom for rotating and axially biasing the photoconductive drum when the photoconductor unit is installed in the image forming device. A wear member is positioned to receive frictional contact from a portion of the photoconductive drum in a direction of the axial bias on the photoconductive drum such that as the photoconductive drum rotates, the frictional contact on the wear member gradually wears away the wear member in the direction of the axial bias on the photoconductive drum thereby gradually shifting the photoconductive drum axially in the direction of the axial bias. |
| US09740151B1 |
Print control apparatus and method, print system, and non-transitory computer readable medium
A print control apparatus includes an analyzing unit, an obtaining unit, and a controller. The analyzing unit analyzes a total number of pages of received print data. The obtaining unit obtains number-of-printable-pages information, which is information on a number of pages printable on a bundle of continuous form paper set in a printer that performs printing on continuous form paper. When reference to the number-of-printable-pages information obtained by the obtaining unit and the total number of pages analyzed by the analyzing unit indicates that a print result based on the print data is to be printed on multiple bundles of continuous form paper, the controller controls the printer to print, on at least last two pages of the currently set bundle of continuous form paper, information indicating an order of output of the bundle of continuous form paper. |
| US09740150B2 |
Fixing device having fixing nip formed by elastic roller and a back-up unit with cylindrical film and film guide including a plurality of ribs extending circumferentially along the inner periphery of the film
An image fixing device includes an elastic roller; a back-up unit forming a fixing nip with the roller therebetween, the back-up unit including a cylindrical film, a film guide, extending inside the film, for guiding the film, and an end portion guiding member including a guiding portion for guiding an inner surface of an end portion of the film. The film guide includes plural ribs contacting the film and arranged in a generatrix direction at positions upstream of the fixing nip with respect to a feeding direction of a sheet. The ribs have free end portions retracted more toward a downstream side with respect to the feeding direction of the recording material than the guiding portion of the end portion guiding member. An inside rib has a free end portion which is retracted more toward the downstream side than free end portions of the opposite end ribs. |
| US09740149B2 |
Fixing device having endless belt and nip member slidably contacting inner surface of endless belt
A fixing device includes an endless belt, a heat source, a nip member, and a backup member. The endless belt has an inner surface. The nip member has a contact surface slidably contacting the inner surface. The nip member is configured to be heated by the heat source. The backup member is configured to pinch the endless belt in cooperation with the nip member while the backup member rotates together with endless belt. The contact surface includes a first portion receiving urging force from the backup member and a second portion other than the first portion. At least a part of the first portion is coated by a first material providing a slidability higher than that of the nip member. The second portion includes a region uncoated with the first material. |
| US09740144B2 |
Cleaning device and image forming apparatus
A cleaning device includes a cleaning device body including a cleaning member, the cleaning member being in contact with a surface of an image carrier so as to remove developer retained on the surface of the image carrier; and a fixing member that fixes an end of the cleaning device body in a longitudinal direction to a side surface of a frame that supports the image carrier and corresponds to the end of the cleaning device body in the longitudinal direction. |
| US09740143B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a transfer unit that transfers a toner image on an image bearer onto a transfer medium. The image forming apparatus includes a control unit that controls a transfer voltage to be output to the transfer unit in accordance with a certain condition. The control unit applies currents having at least two different values while paper is not being fed. The two current values are lower than a current value during paper feeding. The control unit estimates an output voltage on a basis of a voltage detected through the application of the currents. When the estimated output voltage falls below a certain limiter voltage, the control unit controls to bring the output voltage to a value calculated through the certain condition. When the estimated output voltage exceeds the certain limiter voltage, the control unit controls to bring the output voltage to the limiter voltage. |
| US09740137B2 |
Image forming apparatus having alternating current bias control
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member and a developing device having a first developer bearing member and a second developer bearing member, disposed with a gap therebetween. A controller executes a mode in which a first difference between an amplitude of an alternating current bias of a first developing bias applied to the first developer bearing member and an amplitude of an alternating current bias of a second developing bias applied to the second developer bearing member at a time of non-image formation is set to be large compared to a second difference between an amplitude of the alternating current bias of the first developing bias applied to the first developer bearing member and an amplitude of the alternating current bias of the second developing bias applied the second developer bearing member at a time of image formation. |
| US09740135B2 |
Optical scanning device
In one embodiment, an optical scanning device includes a board and a light receiving member, the positional accuracy of which is improved. When a length in a scanning direction and a length in an intersection direction of a body portion of the light receiving member are denoted by Lx0 and Ly0, respectively, and a length in the scanning direction and a length in the intersection direction of a through-hole formed in the board are denoted by Lx1 and Ly1, respectively, the lengths Lx0, Ly0, Lx1, and Ly1 satisfy the following formula: (Lx1−Lx0)>(Ly1−Ly0). |
| US09740134B2 |
Image forming apparatus that sets surface potential of photoreceptor drum to target electric potential with simple configuration
An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body, a photoreceptor drum, a charging apparatus, an exposure apparatus, a developing device, a charging bias applying unit, a developing bias applying unit, an image condition adjusting unit, and a print density measurement unit. The image condition adjusting unit forms a second electric potential region by applying the charging bias where a first differential electric potential is subtracted from a first tentative charging bias on a circumference surface of a photoreceptor drum, and forms a second toner image by an electric potential difference between the second electric potential region and a developing roller by applying the target electric potential. The image condition adjusting unit decides value of the charging bias corresponding to the target electric potential from measurement results of print densities of a first toner image and the second toner image measured by the print density measurement unit. |
| US09740126B2 |
Electrostatic charge image developing toner, electrostatic charge image developer, and toner cartridge
An electrostatic charge image developing toner includes a binder resin, C.I. Pigment Yellow 155, and toner particles containing at least one selected from dimethyl 2-aminoterephthalate and 1,4-bis(acetoacetylamino)benzene, wherein a total content of dimethyl 2-aminoterephthalate and 1,4-bis(acetoacetylamino)benzene in the toner particles is from 1 ppm to 500 ppm. |
| US09740125B2 |
Toner for developing electrostatic charge image and method for preparing the same
A toner for developing an electrostatic charge image, the toner including: elemental iron, wherein a content of the elemental iron is in a range of 1.0×103 to 1.0×104 ppm, based on a total weight of the toner; elemental silicon, wherein a content of the elemental silicon is in a range of 1.0×103 to 5.0×103 ppm, based on a total weight of the toner; elemental sulfur, wherein a content of the elemental sulfur is in a range of 500 to 3,000 ppm, based on a total weight of the toner; optionally elemental fluorine, wherein a content of the elemental fluorine, if present, is in a range of 1.0×103 to 1.0×104 ppm; and a binder resin. |
| US09740124B2 |
Toner compositions and processes
Disclosed are toner compositions that contain an amorphous polyester resin, a crystalline polyester resin, a colorant and a wax, and where the crystalline polyester resin is subjected to nucleation with a rosin acid or the salt of a rosin acid. |
| US09740123B2 |
Toner for developing electrostatic latent images
A toner for developing electrostatic latent images contains a particulate toner which at least includes a colorant, a binder resin, a mold release agent, and a crystalline polyester resin. The binder resin contains a styrene-acrylic resin. The toner has a storage modulus G′, a difference (X) between the maximum value and the minimum value of the storage modulus G′, and a difference (Y) between the maximum value and the minimum value of a loss modulus G″ within the range of 140 to 180° C. satisfying relationships expressed by Conditional expressions (1) 1.0×102≦G′≦1.0×103, (2) 0≦X≦3.0×102, and (3) 0≦Y≦6.0×102. |
| US09740116B2 |
Photoconductor, and image forming method and image forming apparatus using the photoconductor
A photoconductor includes an electroconductive substrate; an intermediate layer overlying the electroconductive substrate; and a photosensitive layer overlying the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer includes a metal oxide particle and a binder resin, and satisfies the following relations (1) and (2): Smr=Scut/Sk (1) 0.4≦Smr≦0.6 (2) where Smr represents an areal ratio of concave parts; Sk represents a reference area; and a Scut represents a cross-sectional area obtained by cutting a three-dimensional curved surface obtained from the reference area with an average height surface, the average height surface being a surface constituted of averaged height of all measured height data. |
| US09740109B2 |
Holding device, lithography apparatus, and method for manufacturing item
A holding device includes a holding member having holes for evacuating air in a space between a substrate and the holding member and an annular seal member on a lower surface of a stepped portion of the holding member for defining the space. A first region is the area of a figure having the same center as that of a plane figure of a surface of the holding member and obtained by reducing the plane figure's size by ⅔ or more and ⅘ or less. A second region is between the first region and the seal member. The holes are formed to satisfy a relationship of (total hole area in second region/area of second region)>(total hole area in sum region of first and second regions/area of sum region of first and second regions) and communicate with a pipe at a position corresponding to the first region of the holding member. |
| US09740107B2 |
Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
A lithographic projection apparatus includes a support structure to hold a patterning device, the patterning device configured to pattern a beam of radiation according to a desired pattern; a projection system to project the patterned beam onto a target portion of a substrate; a substrate table configured to hold the substrate, the substrate table including a support surface to support an intermediary plate between the projection system and at least one of the substrate and an object positioned on the substrate table and not in contact with the at least one of the substrate and the object; and a liquid supply system to provide a liquid, through which the beam is to be projected, in a space between the projection system and the at least one of the substrate and the object. |
| US09740104B2 |
Plasma dry strip pretreatment to enhance ion implanted resist removal
Systems and methods for processing a substrate include exposing a substrate to UV light from a UV light source having a predetermined wavelength range. The substrate includes a photoresist layer that has been bombarded with ions. The method includes controlling a temperature of the substrate, while exposing the substrate to the UV light, to a temperature less than or equal to a first temperature. The method includes removing the photoresist layer using plasma while maintaining a temperature of the substrate to less than or equal to a strip process temperature after exposing the substrate to the UV light. |
| US09740098B2 |
Chemically amplified negative resist composition using novel onium salt and resist pattern forming process
A chemically amplified negative resist composition is defined as comprising (A) an onium salt having an anion moiety which is a nitrogen-containing carboxylate of fused ring structure, (B) a base resin, and (C) a crosslinker. The resist composition is effective for controlling acid diffusion during the exposure step, exhibits a very high resolution during pattern formation, and forms a pattern with minimal LER. |
| US09740096B2 |
Positive-tone, chemically amplified, aqueous-developable, permanent dielectric
In microelectronic applications, it is often desired to deposit and pattern a permanent dielectric film in order to electrically and mechanically isolate components. Photo-patternable dielectrics are attractive for these uses because of their reduced time and cost requirements. These permanent dielectrics should be high-speed, positive-tone, and aqueous-developable. This type of patternability may be achieved by using a chemically amplified deprotection reaction of tert-butoxycarbonate or tert-butyl acrylate catalyzed by a photo-inducible acid. Provided herein are: a composition for preparing a dielectric film comprising a polymer mixture, wherein the polymer mixture comprises a base polymer comprising a pendent protected organic functionality, a photocatalyst for deprotecting the protected organic functionality and a chemical cross-linker for cross-linking the dielectric film after a photo-patterning has taken place in an aqueous solution; a dielectric film prepared from said composition; and method of preparing a dielectric film. |
| US09740092B2 |
Model-based generation of dummy features
Approaches herein provide model-based generation of dummy features used during processing of a semiconductor device (e.g., during a self-aligned via process). Specifically, at least one approach includes: generating a set of dummy features in proximity to a set of target features in a mask layout, evaluating a proximity of the set of dummy features to a metal layer of the semiconductor device, and removing a portion of the set of dummy features that is present within an established critical distance between the set of dummy features and the metal layer. Target design printability is further enhanced during photolithography by performing one or more of the following: merging two or more dummy features of the set of dummy features, and increasing a distance between adjacent dummy features of the set of dummy features by modifying a geometry of one or more of the set of dummy features. |
| US09740090B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes: a communication unit that is engaged in communication with an external device; a control unit that adds image information into transmission data to be transmitted to the communication unit; and a decision-making unit that makes a decision in correspondence to information indicating a recipient of the transmission data as to whether or not to allow photographing location information included in the image information to be included in the transmission data. |
| US09740087B2 |
Light source device unit, light source cartridge, and projector
A light source device unit includes a light source device including a light source and an outflow port constituting part having a plurality of first outflow ports for making a cooling air flow out, a flow channel constituting part including an inlet port constituting part having a plurality of first inlet ports communicated with the first outflow ports and adapted to introduce the cooling air, and an opening and closing part adapted to selectively open and close the first inlet ports, the first inlet ports are arranged in a periphery of a central axis (a stationary shaft), and the opening and closing part includes a rotary member rotates around the stationary shaft in accordance with a posture of the light source device to thereby selectively open and close the first inlet ports. |
| US09740086B2 |
Wide field angle projection system and projection-type image display apparatus
A projection system includes a first lens group to an n-th lens group with n being 6 or 7 sequentially arranged from a enlargement side. The first lens group includes a first-first lens group and a first-second lens group sequentially arranged from the enlargement side. The two lens groups are separated from each other by a variable distance for image plane correction. The first lens group and the n-th lens group are fixed and the second lens group to the (n−1)-th group are moved when the magnification is changed. The following conditional expression is satisfied: 2 |
| US09740083B1 |
Mobile device photography apparatus for even illumination
A system for evenly-scattered adaptable subject lighting for mobile device photography, comprising a case configured to enclose and securely fasten a mobile device and an illuminating portion, the illuminating portion configured to produce light based on input received from a plurality of sensors. The system further comprising a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of a network-connected computing device, and configured to direct the operation of the illuminating portion comprising at least a sensor processor and an image capture device, wherein the sensor processor adjusts the illuminating portion based on preconfigured thresholds to provide evenly-scatter lighting for capturing images of subjects via the image capture device. |
| US09740082B1 |
Enhanced organic electro-optic poling through nanoparticle doping
A method of poling an organic polymeric electro-optic material. The method includes doping the organic polymeric electro-optic material with nanoparticles. The method also includes heating the organic polymeric electro-optic material to a poling temperature. The method also includes poling the organic polymeric electro-optic material by applying an electric field across the organic polymeric electro-optic material. |
| US09740077B2 |
Optical modulator module that includes a plurality of optical modulators
An optical modulator module includes: a substrate in which a plurality of optical modulators are formed; a connector configured to include a plurality of terminals to which a plurality of signals for driving the plurality of optical modulators are input; and a relay board provided between the substrate and the connector. Each of the optical modulators includes an optical waveguide, a modulation electrode formed near the optical waveguide, and a feeder electrode electrically connected to one end of the modulation electrode. The terminals are arranged in parallel to a longitudinal direction of the substrate. Positions of respective ends of the modulation electrodes at which the respective feeder electrodes are electrically connected are the same as positions at which the respective terminals are provided in the longitudinal direction. Wiring patterns are formed on the relay board so as to electrically connect the terminals to the respective feeder electrodes. |
| US09740073B2 |
Complex display device
Provided is a complex display device Including a first substrate and an opposed second substrate, a first electrode, an electrochromic layer, a common electrode, an emission part and a second electrode, laminated between the first substrate and the second substrate one by one, and an organic layer disposed between the first electrode and the electrochromic layer, or between the electrochromic layer and the common electrode. The organic layer of the complex display device may include at least one of a hole injection material, a hole transport material and a mixture thereof, or at least one of an electron injection material, an electron transport material or a mixture thereof. |
| US09740071B2 |
Display device
A display device includes a display panel, a light shielding plate having an opening, a protective plate, and a coordinate input device having a transparent substrate, and a first flexible interconnect substrate. The coordinate input device is disposed on the display panel at the side of a display screen, and each of the light shielding plate and the protective plate is arranged on the coordinate input device on the opposite side of the display panel. The coordinate input device has first signal interconnects and a second signal interconnect disposed outside the first signal interconnects but near a peripheral edge of the transparent substrate. The second signal interconnect is formed of a thin conductive film disposed along a peripheral edge portion of the transparent substrate, and is disposed along the peripheral edge of three sides of the transparent substrate. |
| US09740069B2 |
Liquid crystal display for eliminating movable mura
An array substrate is disclosed. A gate line group, common electrode line and two adjacent data lines together defining a pixel unit which has: a thin film transistor; a first and second pixel electrode disposed between the gate line group and the common electrode line; a sharing capacitor disposed between the gate line group and the pixel electrodes. The pixel units are arranged in a plurality of rows along the extending direction of data line, two adjacent pixel units are arranged sequentially in opposite direction. By using each of the sharing capacitors of the adjacent pixel units, the light leakage regions will be away from the openings of the pixel electrodes, therefore the movable mura can be eliminated without increasing the width of the black matrix and the aperture ratio loss can be solved. |
| US09740057B2 |
Thin film transistor-liquid crystal display device and its driving method
The invention discloses a TFT-LCD and its driving method, TFT-LCD comprises an array substrate and a color filter substrate, a common electrode on said color filter substrate being divided into multiple columns, each of which corresponding to one column of pixels; on color filter substrate, odd number columns are first common electrodes, even number columns are second common electrodes; difference between voltages input to said first common electrodes and said second common electrodes is larger than zero and less than dynamic range of driving voltage of liquid crystal driving voltage-transmittance curve. By setting two common electrode voltages, TFT-LCD and its driving method provided by the invention can make dynamic range of input voltage required for driving liquid crystal display device be smaller than dynamic range of driving voltage of liquid crystal driving voltage-transmittance curve, thus reducing power consumption during driving the liquid crystal. |
| US09740055B2 |
Pixel structure, pixel array, and display panel
A pixel structure is provided. The pixel structure includes an active device, a first pixel electrode, a second pixel electrode, and a conductive line. The first pixel electrode is electrically connected to the active device. The second pixel electrode and the first pixel electrode are electrically insulated. The conductive line is located below the first pixel electrode and the second pixel electrode. The active device is electrically connected to the first pixel electrode through the conductive line. The conductive line is coupled to the second pixel electrode to form a coupling capacitance. |
| US09740054B2 |
Liquid crystal display device and mother substrate
In a liquid crystal display device including a TFT substrate and a counter substrate, when an organic passivation film is not formed in the TFT substrate, the distance between the TFT substrate and the counter substrate in the display area of a liquid crystal display panel is provided by a cylindrical spacer. Also, the distance in the area where pixels, scan lines, and image signal lines are not formed within the liquid crystal display panel is provided by the cylindrical spacer. In this case, it is necessary to form a mount. The layer structure of the mount is the same as that of the TFT substrate with which the cylindrical spacer in the display area comes into contact. This makes it possible to equalize the distance of the liquid crystal layer of the liquid crystal display panel without an increase in production cost, and to prevent uneven brightness or color. |
| US09740045B2 |
Liquid crystal panel, method of manufacturing liquid crystal panel, transflective display device, and a method of controlling displaying of transflective display device
The embodiment of the present invention discloses a transflective liquid crystal panel, a method of manufacturing the transflective liquid crystal panel, a transflective display device, and a method of controlling displaying of the transflective display device to solve the technical problems that the process for fabricating the reflection layer is complicated, the metal film of the reflection layer will cause electrostatic charges to be accumulated, and the surface of the reflection layer has an uneven concavo-convex shape so that the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules in the reflection region is adversely affected. The transflective liquid crystal panel comprises pixel units arranged in a matrix, a transmission region and a reflection region disposed in each pixel unit, and a reflection layer disposed in the reflection region. The reflection layer includes an electronic ink layer. |
| US09740041B2 |
Liquid crystal display comprising a unidirectional light guide thin film located above a color light emitting layer comprising a plurality of quantum dots
The present invention provides a liquid crystal display. By locating a color light emitting layer which is mainly manufactured with quantum dot material in the liquid crystal display panel, the color gamut performance of the liquid crystal display is promoted. Meanwhile, by locating the unidirectional light guide thin film at the illuminating side of the liquid crystal display panel, the lights emitted from the color light emitting layer can propagate outward through the unidirectional light guide thin film, and exterior light is blocked and reflected by the unidirectional light guide thin film and cannot propagate to the color light emitting layer to excite the quantum dots to emit light. Thus, the issue that the contrast drops or even color shift happens because the traditional quantum dot display can be easily excited by the exterior light can be prevented to promote the display quality of the liquid crystal display. |
| US09740038B2 |
Curved liquid crystal display device
A curved liquid crystal display includes: a first region including a first color pixel area, a second color pixel area, a third color pixel area, and a white pixel area; and a second region excluding the first region, the second region including the first color pixel area, the second color pixel area, and the third color pixel area. The curved liquid crystal display includes: a first substrate and a second substrate that are bent, and a liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. |
| US09740037B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A liquid crystal display, including a display panel including an upper panel, a lower panel, and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween, the display panel being defined by a display area and a peripheral area, the display panel including a sealing member enclosing the display area and in the peripheral area, the upper panel including a light blocking member in the peripheral area, the light blocking member including a well. |
| US09740034B2 |
Control of directional display
Disclosed is a light guiding valve apparatus including an imaging directional backlight, an illuminator array and an observer tracking system arranged to achieve control of an array of illuminators which may provide a directional display to an observer over a wide lateral and longitudinal viewing range, wherein the luminous intensity of optical windows presented to the observer as viewing windows is controlled dependent on the lateral and longitudinal position or speed of an observer. Further an optical window control system may comprise detection of an observer's hand. An image control system may comprise a method to provide an image that can be switched from a first mode with a first brightness into a second mode with a high brightness region and low brightness region, where the brightness of the second low brightness region is matched to the first brightness. |
| US09740031B2 |
Incoherently-induced coherent perfect absorption (CPA) apparatus, method, and applications thereof
A thin film photonic structure that enables segregation of the effective absorption of the thin film and its intrinsic absorption while substantially eliminating bandwidth restrictions. In the form of an optical resonator, the structure includes two, multi-layer, aperiodic dielectric mirrors and a lossy, dielectric thin film and characterized by an intrinsic optical absorption over at least a one octave bandwidth. The two, multi-layer, aperiodic dielectric mirrors are characterized by a reflectivity amplitude that increases in-step with increasing wavelength over the at least one octave bandwidth. Upon a single incoherent beam of optical radiation having a spectrum over the at least one octave bandwidth incident on one side of the resonator structure, the lossy, dielectric thin film is characterized by an effective optical absorption over the at least one octave bandwidth that is greater than the intrinsic optical absorption over the at least one octave bandwidth. |
| US09740030B2 |
Near-eye display systems, devices and methods
A near-eye display device includes (a) a display unit having a liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) display and a first polarizing beam splitter interface for (i) reflecting illumination light from an illumination module towards the liquid-crystal-on-silicon display and (ii) transmitting display light from the LCOS display based on the illumination light, and (b) a viewing unit having an imaging objective that forms an image of the LCOS display for the pupil based on the display light, and a second polarizing beam splitter interface for (i) reflecting reflected display light from the imaging objective towards the pupil and (ii) transmitting ambient light from an ambient scene towards a pupil, the second polarizing beam splitter interface and the first polarizing beam splitter interface being orthogonal to a common plane. |
| US09740025B2 |
Eye covering and refractive correction methods and apparatus having improved tear flow, comfort, and/or applicability
An eye covering such as a contact lens may comprise one or more structures to pump tear liquid under the covering such that the covering can remain in the eye and correct vision for an extended amount of time. In many embodiments, the covering comprises a material having fenestrations to draw tear liquid under the covering and an outer portion shaped to contact the conjunctiva over the sclera, such that when the eye closes pressure of one or more eyelids urges tear liquid through one or more fenestrations and under the outer portion shaped to contact the conjunctiva. When the eye blinks, the pressure of the one or more eyelids can urge the covering toward the cornea such that tear liquid can pass through the fenestrations. |
| US09740022B1 |
Glasses
Provided is a pair of glasses, including a frame, two temples and two fasteners. The frame includes two lens-holding portions and two end portions. Each of two end portions has an adjusting gap, and two holes are provided on both sides of the adjusting gap. Two temples are respectively pivoted on both end portions of the frame. Each of two fasteners connects with two holes to fix the adjusting gap. |
| US09740019B2 |
Integrated structured-light projector
Optoelectronic apparatus includes a semiconductor die and a monolithic array of light-emitting elements formed on the semiconductor die in a grid pattern comprising multiple columns. Conductors formed on the die define a respective common contact for driving each column of the light-emitting elements. A diffractive optical element (DOE) is configured to project multiple replicas of a pattern of stripes generated by the light-emitting elements, each stripe corresponding to a respective one of the columns. |
| US09740018B1 |
Light control film with varied viewing angle
A light control film includes a plurality of spaced apart substantially parallel first light absorbing regions arranged along a first direction, each first light absorbing region having a width and a height, the plurality of first light absorbing regions including nonoverlapping first and second sub-pluralities of the plurality of first light absorbing regions, the first sub-plurality of the plurality of first light absorbing regions having a first viewing angle, the second sub-plurality of the plurality of first light absorbing regions having a different second viewing angle. |
| US09740012B2 |
See-through computer display systems
Aspects of the present invention relate to methods and systems for the see-through computer display systems with a wide field of view. |
| US09740007B2 |
Display device, image processing device and image processing method, and computer program
There is provided a display device including a display unit that displays an image thereon, an eyepiece optical unit that projects a display image of the display unit on the eyes of a user, a correction information retaining unit that retains correction information created in advance according to a state of the user, and a distortion correction unit that corrects distortion of the display image based on correction information according to a current state of the user. |
| US09740003B2 |
Compact, low dispersion, and low aberration adaptive optics scanning system and method
An adaptive optics scanning system and method using a beam projection module with four or more axes of motion that can project and control the position and angle of a beam of light to or from an adaptive optics element. The adaptive optics scanning system is compact in size, overcoming the challenges of a traditional lens and mirror based pupil relay design. The adaptive optics scanning system has little to no dispersion, chromatic aberration, and off-axis aberration for improved optical performance. The system and methods for calibrating and optimizing the system are described. A modular adaptive optics unit that scans and interfaces an adaptive optics element is described. |
| US09739996B2 |
Automatic astronomical observation system and observation method
An automatic astronomical observation system includes an astronomical telescope (1), a star finding servo motor (2) for driving the astronomical telescope (1), and a control system (4). A focusing servo motor (3) is connected to a lens regulation mechanism of the astronomical telescope (1); a CMOS sensor (5) used for obtaining a starry sky image is disposed on the astronomical telescope (1); the control system (4) includes a control chip, a gyroscope, a memory, and a WIFI communication interface; the control chip is electrically connected to the CMOS sensor (5), the gyroscope, the memory, and the WIFI communication interface; a handheld device provided with a WIFI communication interface is disposed by being fitted to the control system (4); and a GPS module is disposed in the control system (4) or the handheld device. Also provided is an automatic astronomical observation method. |
| US09739994B1 |
Methods and apparatus for reacquiring a target on a microscope slide
Methods and apparatus for reacquiring a target on a slide in the field of view of a microscope are provided. The methods and apparatus include a housing, a linear potentiometer positioned in the housing, a contact slidably mounted in the housing and adapted to selectively contact the linear potentiometer, wherein a position of the contact on the linear potentiometer determines the signal output by the linear potentiometer; a linkage having a first end operatively connected to the contact and a second end operatively connected to the slide having the target, wherein the slide is translatable in a first direction; and a receiver adapted to receive a signal output by the linear potentiometer and, using the signal, determine a position of the slide. The linear potentiometer may be a membrane-type linear potentiometer. Aspects also include methods and devices for re-positioning a slide on a stage in a predetermined position. |
| US09739993B2 |
Optical measurement method and device
The invention relates to an optical measurement method and to an optical measurement device for determining the spatial or spatiotemporal distribution of a sample, the sample comprising at least one retransmission source, said at least one retransmission source retransmitting light depending on the projected light, according to a predetermined law, onto the sample, the method comprising: the projection onto the sample of at least two compact light distributions belonging to different topological families, which propagate along the same optical path, the detection of the light retransmitted by said at least one retransmission source of the sample; the generation of at least one optical image from the detected light; and the algorithmic analysis of the optical images for obtaining location data on said at least one retransmission source. |
| US09739991B2 |
Light-concentrating lens assembly for a solar energy recovery system
A light-concentrating lens assembly for a solar energy system, the assembly comprising a plurality of concentrically arranged paraboloid mirror reflectors, a conical light guide extending below the plurality of paraboloid mirror reflectors, an inner central cone disposed along a central axis of the concentrically arranged paraboloid mirror reflectors, and a compound paraboloid concentrator disposed beneath the inner central cone. |
| US09739990B2 |
Blind region mirror structure and vehicle using the same
A mirror structure permitting an undistorted view of the blind spots of a vehicle include a first lens module and a second lens module. The first lens module is mounted on an A-pillar of a vehicle and located outside of the vehicle; the second lens module is opposite the first lens module and mounted inside of the vehicle on the A-pillar. The first lens module focuses light beams which would otherwise be blocked by the A-pillar of the vehicle and transmits the light beams to a front windshield of the vehicle, the light beam passing through the front windshield to reach the second lens module, the second lens module diffusing the light beams into the vision of a driver. |
| US09739984B2 |
F-theta lens and laser processing device for far-infrared laser processing
An Fθ lens and a laser processing device for far-infrared laser processing are provided. The Fθ lens for far-infrared laser processing comprises a first lens (L1), a second lens (L2) and a third lens (L3) which are coaxially arranged successively along a transmission direction of incident light beams, wherein the first lens is a negative meniscus lens, and the second lens and the third lens are positive meniscus lenses; and all the middle parts of the first lens, the second lens and the third lens protrude towards the transmission direction of incident light beams. The Fθ lens can improve the imaging quality and the resolution distance, effectively calibrate the astigmatism and distortion of the lens, reduce the influence of high-order aberrations, and has a high degree of energy concentration of laser focus points and high processing accuracy, thereby meeting the requirements for cutting or drilling. The Fθ lens is miniaturized, so that the volume of the lens is effectively controlled, and costs are reduced. |
| US09739983B2 |
Imaging optical system, imaging device and imaging system
An imaging device includes two imaging optical systems each of the imaging optical systems including a wide-angle lens having an angle of view wider than 180 degrees, and an imaging sensor configured to image an image by the wide-angle lens, so as to obtain an image in a solid angle of 4π radian by synthesizing the images by the respective imaging optical systems, wherein the wide-angle lens of each of the imaging optical systems includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a front group having a negative power, a reflection surface and a back group having a positive power, and is configured to bend an optical axis of the front group by the reflection surface at 90 degrees toward the back group. |
| US09739979B2 |
Imaging lens and electronic apparatus having the same
An optical imaging lens includes, first, second, third, fourth and fifth lens elements arranged sequentially from an object side to an image side along an optical axis. The first lens element has a positive refractive power and the object-side surface of the first lens element comprises a convex portion in a vicinity of its periphery. The image-side surface of the second lens element comprises a concave portion in a vicinity of the optical axis. The object-side surface of the third lens element comprises a concave portion in a vicinity of its periphery. The image-side surface of the fourth lens element comprises a convex portion in a vicinity of the optical axis. The image-side surface of the fifth lens element comprises a concave portion in a vicinity of the optical axis and for the optical imaging lens as a whole, only the five lens elements have refractive power. |
| US09739977B2 |
Lens assembly for portable devices
A lens assembly for portable devices comprises: an aperture stop, a plastic first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface; a plastic second lens element with negative refractive power having a concave image-side surface and an object-side surface being concave in a peripheral region; a plastic third lens element with negative refractive power having a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; a plastic fourth lens element with positive refractive power having an image-side surface being concave in a paraxial region and convex in a peripheral region; and an IR-cut filter (infrared-cut filter); wherein the RImin represents the minimum RI (relative illumination) of effective field and it satisfies the following relation: 0.36 |
| US09739974B2 |
Lens barrel
An interchangeable lens has a lens frame holding a movable lens group, another lens frame holding another movable lens group, one actuator that drives one lens frame, and the other actuator that drives the other lens frame. A first yoke forming a magnetic circuit of the one actuator and a second yoke forming a magnetic circuit of the other actuator are disposed away from each other in an optical axis direction, and a nonmagnetic member is interposed between the first yoke and the second yoke. |
| US09739963B2 |
Manufacturing method of optical component
An optical component including a multi-layer substrate, an optical waveguide element, and two optical-electro assemblies is provided. The multi-layer substrate includes a dielectric layer, two circuit layers, and two through holes passing through the dielectric layer. The optical waveguide element is located on the multi-layer substrate and between the through holes. The optical-electro assemblies are respectively inserted into the corresponding through holes and correspondingly located at two opposite ends of the optical waveguide element. One of the optical-electro assemblies transforms an electrical signal into a light beam and provides the light beam to the optical waveguide element, and the other one of the optical-electro assemblies receives the light beam transmitted from the optical waveguide element and transforms the light beam into another electrical signal. A manufacturing method of the optical component and an optical-electro circuit board having the optical component are also provided. |
| US09739962B2 |
Plastic optical fiber data communication links
Plastic optical fiber data communication links. Particularly, plastic optical fiber data communication links for embedded applications. More particularly, unique packaging approaches to constructing a very small, low cost, but high performance optical link, which may operate at 1 gigabits per second (Gbps) or faster. |
| US09739960B2 |
Optical module heat dissipation structure and electronic product
An optical module heat dissipation structure, disposed inside an enclosure, where the optical module heat dissipation structure includes an optical module, an elastic component, a fixed wall, and a heat dissipation wall, where the fixed wall and the heat dissipation wall are both connected to the enclosure, the optical module is disposed between the fixed wall and the heat dissipation wall, the elastic component elastically abuts between the fixed wall and the optical module, and elasticity of the elastic component makes the optical module tightly cling to the heat dissipation wall, to improve the heat dissipation efficiency of the optical module heat dissipation structure. An electronic product is further provided where the electronic product includes the optical module heat dissipation structure. |
| US09739955B2 |
Push-pull type fiber optic connector assembly
A push-pull type fiber optic connector assembly includes a fiber optic connector connectable to fiber optic adapter and including connector housing, latch having elastic arm extended from top of connector housing for locking connector housing to fiber optic adapter, recessed portion located at bottom side relative to latch, pressure rod extended from recessed portion, fiber ferrule mounted in cable passage inside connector housing, connector sub assembly mounted in connector housing to hold fiber ferrule and fiber optic cable having fiber core inserted through fiber ferrule, and operating handle including sliding cap movably capped on connector housing, push member having push arm forwardly extended from sliding cap, cam located at one side of push arm and inserted into recessed portion of fiber optic connector, and handle shaft extended from sliding cap to pull sliding cap backwards in forcing down wedge-shaped pressure rod for disengaging fiber optic connector from fiber optic adapter. |
| US09739953B2 |
Optical connector
An optical connector includes a ferrule, an optical waveguide attached to the ferrule, and a boot attached to the ferrule to protect the optical waveguide, wherein the boot includes a cover part that covers the ferrule. |
| US09739951B2 |
Fiber-optic connection arrangement and adapter sleeve
The invention relates to a fiber-optic connection arrangement, with the connection arrangement (21) comprising a fiber-optic adapter (2), with the fiber-optic adapter (2) having a first connecting device (38) for a first connecting plug (11) and a second connecting device (6) for a second connecting plug (17), with the first and the second connecting devices (38, 6) being different, with the fiber-optic adapter (2) having at least one first adapter-side attachment means, with the first adapter-side attachment means being in the form of an external thread (8) with a first adapter-side nominal diameter, wherein the connection arrangement (21) furthermore comprises an adapter sleeve (26), with the adapter sleeve (26) having a first end section (27) with a first opening (28), and a second end section (29) with a second opening (30), with the first end section (27) having a first sleeve-side attachment means, with the first sleeve-side attachment means being in the form of a first internal thread (36), with the first internal thread (36) having a first sleeve-side nominal diameter,with the first sleeve-side nominal diameter corresponding to the first adapter-side nominal diameter, with the adapter sleeve (26) being screwed onto the adapter-side external thread (8) such that at least the second connecting device (6) is arranged in an internal volume (47) in the adapter sleeve (26). The invention also relates to an adapter sleeve (26). |
| US09739950B2 |
Method to optimize a light coupling waveguide
The present invention concerns a method for constructing a light coupling system wherein a grating is manufactured on the surface of a multimode waveguide and defines the entrance of the waveguide for an incident light beam, said grating comprising a repetition of patterns. The grating is defined by a set of parameters comprising: •grating period (P), separating two adjacent patterns, •grating depth (d) between the highest and the lowest point of the pattern, •incident angle mean value (θ) of the incident light with respect to the waveguide. The method comprises a step of optimization of the set of parameters to obtain an optimized second set of parameters, in order to obtain a transmission efficiency (Ce) of the incident light into said waveguide for the first or the second diffractive order exceeding 35% for unpolarized light, or exceeding 50% for polarized light, at a given wavelength of the incident light. |
| US09739947B2 |
Multi-mode interference coupler
A multimode interference (MMI) coupler with an MMI region of curved edges, and a method of design and manufacturing by using a computerized optimization algorithm to determine a favorable set of segment widths for the MMI region for a predefined set of coupler design parameters. |
| US09739944B1 |
Reconfigurable pluggable transceiver
A pluggable transceiver is provided that may receive an electrical signal from a host device, convert the optical signal into an optical signal, and transmit the converted optical signal to one or more external cables. In one aspect, a pluggable transceiver may include a first transceiver connector for connecting to a host device, an optical module for converting an electrical signal to an optical signal and vice versa, and a second transceiver connector for transmitting the optical signal to external cables or devices. |
| US09739941B2 |
Optical printed circuit boards
Disclosed herein are apparatuses that include a first layer that includes glass and a plurality of waveguides disposed in the glass; a second layer that includes a second layer polymer and a plurality of waveguides disposed in the second layer polymer; and a third layer that includes a third layer polymer and a plurality of waveguides disposed in the third layer polymer. |
| US09739936B2 |
Low-loss few-mode fiber
A low-loss few-mode fiber relates to the technical field of optical communications and related sensing devices, and includes, from inside to outside, a core layer (1), a fluorine-doped quartz inner cladding (2), a fluorine-doped quartz second core layer (3), a fluorine-doped quartz depressed cladding (4) and a fluorine-doped quartz outer cladding (5); germanium element is not doped within the core layer (1), the refractive index of the core layer (1) is in gradient distribution, and the distribution is a power-exponent distribution; the maximum value of difference in relative refractive index between the core layer (1) and the fluorine-doped quartz inner cladding (2) is 0.3% to 0.9%; the relative refractive index difference of the fluorine-doped quartz inner cladding (2) with respect to synthetic quartz is −0.3% to −0.5%; the difference in relative refractive index between the fluorine-doped quartz second core layer (3) and the fluorine-doped quartz inner cladding (2) is 0.05% to 0.2%; the difference in relative refractive index between the fluorine-doped quartz depressed cladding (4) and the fluorine-doped quartz inner cladding (2) is −0.1% to −0.5%; the relative refractive index difference of the fluorine-doped quartz outer cladding (5) with respect to synthetic quartz is −0.3% to −0.5%. The transmission loss of optical signals of the linear polarization modes that are supported by the few-mode fiber and the relay cost are reduced. |
| US09739934B2 |
Method for producing fibers having optical effect-producing nanostructures
The present technology provides an illustrative method for preparing fibers with desirable optical characteristics. The method includes providing a fiber that comprises a core layer and a cladding layer located around the core layer. The method further includes applying a nanostructure template to the cladding layer to form one or more photonic nanostructures having nanostructure scales and compressing the core layer to cause the core layer to bulge and form air gaps between the core layer and the one or more photonic nanostructures. |
| US09739928B2 |
Light input for directional backlight
A directional backlight may include a light guiding apparatus including at least one transparent optical waveguide for providing large area collimated illumination from localized light sources. The waveguide is arranged in a first part and a second part with a light injection aperture between the respective parts. Such controlled illumination may provide for efficient, multi-user autostereoscopic displays as well as improved 2D display functionality including high brightness displays and high display efficiency. |
| US09739918B2 |
Simultaneous polarization and wavefront control using a planar device
Methods and device for controlling optical scattering are disclosed. An array of 4-fold asymmetric cylinders can act as optical elements scattering electromagnetic waves, where the orientation and dimension of each optical element is determined according to the desired polarization and phase shift response of the device. A Jones matrix can be calculated to determine the fabrication parameters of the optical elements. |
| US09739916B2 |
Circadian rhythm optical film
An optical film includes a polymeric bandstop filter reflecting a band of blue light in a range from 440 nm to 480 nm a polymeric bandstop filter reflecting a band of blue light in a range from 440 nm to 480 nm and transmitting greater than 50% of blue light at a wavelength of 10 nm longer than a long wavelength band edge and at a wavelength of 10 nm shorter than a short wavelength band edge. |
| US09739910B2 |
Polarizing plate and liquid crystal display device
A polarizing plate includes: a polyvinyl alcohol-based polarizer; and transparent protective films provided on both surfaces of the polyvinyl alcohol-based polarizer with an adhesive layer interposed between each of the transparent protective films and the polyvinyl alcohol-based polarizer. A first transparent protective film contains a (meth)acrylic resin and an ultraviolet absorber, the (meth)acrylic resin having an unsaturated carboxylic acid alkyl ester unit and a glutarimide unit represented by the general formula (1), having an imidization ratio of 2.5 to 5.0% and an acid value of 0.10 to 0.50 mmol/g, and having an acrylic ester unit of less than 1% by weight. A second transparent protective film contains a cycloolefin-based resin. R1 and R2 each independently represent hydrogen or an alkyl group; and R3 represents an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, or an aryl group. |
| US09739907B2 |
Optimizing a grid for finite element solutions for subterranean region simulations
In some aspects, a flow model represents a flow path for well system fluid in a subterranean region. A first system of equations from a finite element (FE) discretization of a flow model is accessed by a computer system. A second system of equations that imposes a constraint on errors between an exact solution and an FE solution to the flow model is accessed by the computer system. The FE solution includes nodes representing locations along the flow path for well system fluid in the subterranean region. Locations of the nodes can be computed by operations of the computer system in an iterative manner by computing locations of new nodes based on locations of existing nodes and refining the locations of the new nodes and the locations of the existing nodes based on the first and second systems of equations. |
| US09739904B2 |
Three-phase flow identification and rate detection
An apparatus for estimating a fraction of each component of a fluid of interest flowing in a cased borehole and a property of the fluid includes an acoustic waveguide sensor having a waveguide configured to guide an acoustic signal along a waveguide path and an array of acoustic transducers coupled to the waveguide for transmitting and receiving an acoustic signal, the acoustic waveguide sensor being configured to transmit and receive a compression-wave acoustic signal that is reflected off of the casing and transmit and receive a shear-wave acoustic signal that propagates along the path. A controller is coupled to the waveguide sensor and configured to perform a compression-wave acoustic measurement on the fluid using the acoustic waveguide sensor in order to estimate the fraction of each component of the fluid and to perform a shear-wave acoustic measurement in order to estimate the property of the fluid. |
| US09739903B2 |
Active damping control of a wellbore logging tool
Systems and methods for actively controlling the damping of a wellbore logging tool are disclosed herein. A wellbore logging tool system comprises a processor, a memory, a wellbore logging tool comprising an acoustic transmitter, and a logging tool control module. The logging tool control module is operable to receive sensor signals from one or more sensors coupled to the wellbore logging tool after an actuation control signal has been transmitted to the acoustic transmitter and determine, using the received sensor signals, one or more current dynamic states of the acoustic transmitter. The logging tool control module is also operable to determine a damping control signal based on the one or more current dynamic states of the acoustic transmitter and transmit the damping control signal to the acoustic transmitter of the wellbore logging tool. |
| US09739902B2 |
System and method for remaining resource mapping
A method for mapping remaining hydrocarbon resources in a subsurface reservoir, includes obtaining a map of seismic amplitude difference over a time period based on a survey of the subsurface reservoir, generating an expected trend dataset for the reservoir based on one or more non-water saturation effects detected over the time period by one or more wellbore surveillance techniques at one or more locations in the reservoir, correcting the map of seismic amplitude difference, at least in part, on the expected trend dataset to generate a corrected seismic amplitude map, and using the corrected seismic amplitude difference map to generate a map representative of remaining hydrocarbon resources in the reservoir. Embodiments include a system for performing the method and a medium containing computer executable software instructions for performing the method. |
| US09739900B2 |
Method and system for augmenting frequency range of conventional marine seismic source with low-frequency
A resonant source element is configured to generate seismic waves in water. The resonant source element includes a housing having two openings covered by first and second pistons, wherein the first and second pistons are configured to freely translate relative to the housing to generate the seismic waves; and a high-pressure system configured to discharge inside the housing and to actuate the first and second pistons. The first and second pistons are configured to oscillate after the high-pressure system is fired to generate low-frequency seismic waves. |
| US09739897B2 |
Lanthanum-yttrium oxide scintillators and use thereof
The disclosure relates to lanthanum-yttrium oxide scintillators used for detecting radiation, such as X-rays, gamma rays and thermal neutron radiation and charged particles, in security, medical imaging, particle physics and other applications. |
| US09739891B2 |
System and method of using measurements of opportunity with vector tracking filters for improved navigation
A system and method to opportunistically use measurements on a priori unknown radio signals, not intended for radio navigation or geolocation, to improve navigation/geolocation position estimation yield accuracy and efficiency. |
| US09739884B2 |
Systems and associated methods for producing a 3D sonar image
Provided are a sonar system and transducer assembly for producing a 3D image of an underwater environment. The sonar system may include a housing mountable to a watercraft having a transmit transducer that may transmit sonar pulses into the water. The system may include at least one sidescan transducer array in the housing that receives first and second sonar returns with first and second transducer elements and converts the first and second returns into first and second sonar return data. A sonar signal processor may then generate a 3D mesh data using the first and second sonar return data and at least a predetermined distance between the transducer elements. An associated method of using the sonar system is also provided. |
| US09739882B2 |
System and method for determining wave characteristics from a moving platform
A system and a method for determining one or more wave characteristics from a moving platform are disclosed. A sonar system, such as an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, can profile the water motion relative to the platform, and an earth reference can determine a measure of the platform motion relative to a fixed earth reference. Both water profile and earth reference measurements can be synergistically employed to compensate for motion of the platform. Directional wave spectra and non-directional wave spectrum can be computed and translated via linear wave theory to surface height spectra and used to calculate characteristics, such as significant wave height, peak period, and peak direction. |
| US09739880B2 |
Hand-held radar device with direct printing based on radar input
The disclosed technology includes a device and method of use for direct printing and ink or other marking, in conjunction with GPR techniques. In a most basic embodiment of the disclosed technology, a relevant date, time, filename, and other parameters are printed or otherwise physically exhibited on the measurement surface, so that RADAR files can be later attributed to a specific data collection site. In a more advanced embodiment of the disclosed technology, actual RADAR target information is printed, or otherwise physically exhibited, on the measurement surface, such as while measuring, or substantially while measuring, the surface and substrate beneath with GPR. |
| US09739877B2 |
Topology determination for bulk materials
For determining the topology of a bulk material surface, a series of echo curves are detected in different primary radiation directions of the antenna. Subsequently, for each distance cell of the echo curves, the maximum of all of the echo curves is determined and the distance thereof is plotted as a function of the coordinates thereof so as to obtain an image of the topology of the bulk material surface in two or three dimensions. |
| US09739870B1 |
Tracking unmanned aerial vehicles using reflected light
This disclosure describes systems and methods for visually tracking a position of an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) using reflected light. A light source at an origin location, such as the location of an operator of the UAV, is aligned and emitted toward the position of the UAV. The emitted light source reflects off a reflector coupled to the UAV toward a location of the operator or a visual observer working with the operator. The reflected light increases the visibility of the UAV, thereby extending the distance from an operator at which the UAV can be operated while maintaining visible contact between the operator and/or a visual observer working with the operator and the UAV. |
| US09739869B2 |
Method and system for user equipment location determination on a wireless transmission system
Neighbor cell hearability can be improved by including an additional reference signal that can be detected at a low sensitivity and a low signal-to-noise ratio, by introducing non-unity frequency reuse for the signals used for a time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement, e.g., orthogonality of signals transmitted from the serving cell sites and the various neighbor cell sites. The new reference signal, called the TDOA-RS, is proposed to improve the hearability of neighbor cells in a cellular network that deploys 3GPP EUTRAN (LTE) system, and the TDOA-RS can be transmitted in any resource blocks (RB) for PDSCH and/or MBSFN subframe, regardless of whether the latter is on a carrier supporting both PMCH and PDSCH or not. Besides the additional TDOA-RS reference signal, an additional synchronization signal (TDOA-sync) may also be included to improve the hearability of neighbor cells. |
| US09739867B2 |
Methods and apparatus for determining relationships in heterogeneous networks
A method enables automatic determination that an area covered by an Access Point (AP) of a Wi-Fi Radio Access Network (RAN) overlaps with a cell of a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) RAN. The method comprises, at an entity of the Wi-Fi RAN, obtaining a 3GPP identifier related to a user terminal that is attached to the Wi-Fi RAN and an identifier for an AP of the Wi-Fi RAN to which the terminal is attached. The method further comprises, at the entity, generating and sending a Location Service Request including the 3GPP identifier to a Location Services (LCS) Server associated with the 3GPP RAN, receiving a Location Service Response from the LCS Server that includes information identifying a cell of the 3GPP RAN in which the user terminal is located, and causing storage of an association between the identified Wi-Fi AP and the identified 3GPP cell. |
| US09739863B2 |
Sensing device and method of calibration
A sensing device comprises a microwave sensor (1) configured to emit microwave radiation and to receive microwave radiation reflected by a moving body in the field of detection of the microwave sensor and a wireless data transmitter (4) configured to transmit data to a remote receiver. A main power supply provides electrical power at a first voltage to the sensing device. A first regulator 6 provided between the main power supply and the microwave sensor (1) provides a sensor power supply to the microwave sensor (1) at a voltage below the voltage of the main power supply. The wireless data transmitter (4) is powered from the main power supply via a transmitter power supply connection arranged in parallel with the first regulator (6). The microwave sensor (1) is provided on a first circuit board and the wireless data transmitter (4) is provided on a second circuit board, with the second circuit board overlying the first circuit board and spaced therefrom. A signal processing device is configured to receive an output signal from the microwave sensor and to generate an occupancy signal indicative of the presence of a moving body in the field of detection of the microwave sensor (1) when the output signal of the microwave (1) sensor (1) exceeds a threshold level. The signal processing device is configured to increase the threshold level temporarily during data transmission by the wireless data transmitter (4), in order to compensate for RF interference due to the data transmission. |
| US09739862B2 |
DNP apparatus
A DNP apparatus includes a cryostat (7) having an opening (8) and a loading path for a sample (1), the loading path extending from the opening to a sample receptacle (29), with a cryomagnet and a microwave source (2) as well as a configuration for supplying microwave radiation from the microwave source to the sample, which comprises a microwave path extending directly to the sample. The microwave path extends spatially separately from the loading path and the configuration for supplying microwave radiation has at least one microwave feed-through passing through one or more walls of the cryostat. The microwave path is incident on the sample from a direction opposite to the loading path or from a sideward direction at right angles to or at an inclination with respect to the axis of the loading path. This leads to simple and efficient polarization of the electron spins in the sample. |
| US09739861B2 |
Method for reduced field of view MRI in an inhomogeneous field with rapid outer volume suppression
An MRI scanner may include one or more gradient waveform generators, gradient amplifiers, gradient coils, an RF waveform generator, an RF amplifier, an RF coil, a superconducting magnet, an RF detector; a digitizer, and a computer system that controls the one or more gradient waveform generators and the RF waveform generator so as to generate a magnetization saturation preparation pulse sequence that includes a tip-down pulse that is insensitive to RF field inhomogeneity followed by a tip-back pulse that employs a conjugate symmetry constraint in its energy spectrum. |
| US09739860B2 |
Systems and methods for landmarking for subject imaging
An imaging system includes an imager adapted to obtain an image of a desired region of interest of a subject and a coil positioned on the desired region of interest of the subject. The coil includes a plurality of markings disposed at a plurality of locations on the coil. The imaging system also includes a position indication device having a user interface adapted to receive input from a user indicating which of the plurality of markings corresponds to a desired scan plane of the subject. |
| US09739859B2 |
Method and control device to control a magnetic resonance system
A method and control device operate a magnetic resonance system in order to execute a first pulse sequence that includes an excitation phase and an acquisition phase. In the excitation phase, a first gradient is applied in a gradient direction to generate a spatially dependent basic magnetic field. A selective radio-frequency excitation pulse is executed, wherein the selective radio-frequency excitation pulse excites a first material and does not excite a second material in a first partial region of an examination volume, and wherein the selective radio-frequency excitation pulse does not excite the first material and excites the second material in a second partial region of the examination volume. In the acquisition phase, non-selective refocusing pulses are executed in order to acquire raw data of the first and second partial region of the examination volume, which acquisition is spatially coded along the gradient direction. |
| US09739856B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging method and apparatus with interleaved resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging sequences and morphological magnetic resonance imaging sequences
In a method and apparatus for acquiring magnetic resonance data, a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence is executed in alternation with a morphological data acquisition sequence. The alternating sequences are executed with no time interruptions therebetween, with at least one repetition of the alternating sequences. The resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence can be a BOLD-EPI sequence, and the morphological imaging sequence can be an MPRAGE sequence. |
| US09739854B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and output pattern determining method
In order to obtain high-quality images easily with high flexibility for imaging conditions and apparatus configuration changes in an MRI apparatus using a multi-element coil, an output pattern identifying a synthesizing mode of the respective reception signals received by the respective elements comprising a reception coil is determined according to imaging conditions in the present invention. The determination is performed so that, for example, at least one of a covering rate of an imaging range, an S/N ratio of the final image, and element utilization efficiency becomes the best. The output pattern is comprised of information identifying one or more elements that use reception signals and a synthetic pattern synthesizing the reception signals among the elements to be used. The synthetic pattern, for example, is selected in advance from among a plurality of synthetic pattern candidates to be stored according to a synthesizing method. |
| US09739853B2 |
Patient support table top filler
When imaging a patient using a magnetic resonance (MR) imager, it is desirable to locate an radio frequency (RF) head coil at a position lower than the flat table top patient surface in order to optimize the geometry of the patient anatomy and the RF coil. A flat table top is provided for an MR patient support table (10) that includes a pocket or recessed portion (50) that accepts an RF head coil (14), thereby optimizing imaging geometry. When the RF coil is not mated to the recessed portion of the table (10) a filler insert (20) is mated therewith. This allows an operator to use the table top without the filler insert to position a neurovascular coil at an optimized location below the table top surface for brain imaging, as well as to convert the patient support table back to a completely flat top by removing the coil and installing the flat surface filler insert for additional positioning requirements. The filler insert feature allows for therapy planning using magnetic resonance with optimized image quality in a radiation therapy treatment environment. |
| US09739850B2 |
Push-pull flipped-die half-bridge magnetoresistive switch
Push-pull half-bridge magnetoresistive switch, comprising two magnetic sensor chips, each magnetic sensor chip having a magnetic induction resistor and a magnetic induction resistor electrical connection pad. The two magnetic sensor chips are electrically interconnected and have opposite and parallel directions of induction, thus forming the push-pull half-bridge circuit. The magnetic induction resistor comprises one or a plurality of magnetoresistive elements connected in series. The magnetic induction resistor pads are located at adjacent edges of the magnetic sensor chips, and each pad may accommodate the welding of at least two bonding wires. The magnetoresistive switch may improve the sensitivity of a sensor, and decrease output voltage deviation and output voltage temperature drift, which is beneficial for decreasing the volume and increasing the performance of the switch sensor. |
| US09739847B1 |
Circular vertical hall (CVH) sensing element with signal processing
A magnetic field sensor comprises a circular vertical Hall (CVH) sensing element having a plurality of vertical Hall elements. A CVH output stage is included comprising one or more of drive circuits to drive the plurality of vertical Hall elements and produce an analog signal representing a strength of an external magnetic field as detected by the plurality of vertical Hall elements. An analog-to-digital converter is coupled to receive the analog signal and produce a digital signal. A quadrature modulator circuit is coupled to the digital signal and operable to generate a plurality of quadrature modulated signals. A processor stage receives signals representative of the plurality of quadrature modulated signals and computes an estimated angle of the external magnetic field. |
| US09739846B2 |
Magnetic field sensors with self test
A system includes a magnetic target and a magnetic field sensor. The magnetic field sensor comprises an output node; a circuit to detect a magnetic field produced by the magnetic target; and a processor. The processor may be configured to transmit a signal onto the output node representing the detected magnetic field; detect whether the transmitted signal is interrupted by an external source; and, if the signal is interrupted, initiate a self-test of the apparatus. Corresponding methods and apparatuses are also disclosed. |
| US09739844B2 |
Guidance and alignment system and methods for electric vehicle wireless charging systems
Guidance and alignment systems are disclosed for wireless charging systems to assist in aligning the transmitter and receiver inductive power transfer (IPT) couplers. These systems guide positioning and alignment to provide sufficient coupling between the transmitter and receiver IPT couplers. Exemplary systems provide a magnetic field sensor, magnetic field generator, and magnetic vectoring to determine a position of an electric vehicle or a wireless charging base. In a magnetic vectoring system, an alignment system comprising at least three coils (or similar circuits) on a magnetically permeable substrate receives a positioning magnetic field including modulated information signals and processes the received signal to generate an output for determining a position of the positioning magnetic field source relative to the magnetic field sensor position. The alignment system may further comprise a similar structure that generates the positioning magnetic field, that may include modulated information signals, based on input signals. |
| US09739841B2 |
Automated method and apparatus for testing a power converter
A method and apparatus for testing operability of a power converter with an existing power conversion assembly of a renewable energy system is disclosed. The method includes transferring a first pulse of energy from an existing power conversion assembly to a power filter of the power converter through first cells within a bridge circuit of the power converter. Another step includes determining a first current-voltage feedback associated with the first pulse. A next step includes transferring a second pulse of energy from the power filter to the existing power conversion assembly through second cells within the bridge circuit such that a portion of the first pulse moves back to the existing power conversion assembly. Another step includes determining a second current-voltage feedback associated with the second pulse. The first and second current-voltage feedbacks are compared with nominal tolerances of the power converter to ensure the power converter is operating properly. |
| US09739839B2 |
Method of operating a stationary electrical power plant connected to a power supply network
In a method of operating a stationary power plant connected to a power supply network, wherein upon the occurrence of a dynamic network fault in the power supply network, (in particular an electric short-circuit), at least one fault value is ascertained depending on a state value of at least one operating parameter of the power plant. The at least one fault value is associated with at least one component of the power plant, and a maintenance signal for the at least one component of the power plant is output depending on the at least one fault value. |
| US09739832B2 |
Test messaging demodulate and modulate on separate power pads
The present disclosure describes a novel method and apparatus for using a device's power and ground terminals as a test and/or debug interface for the device. According to the present disclosure, messages are modulated over DC voltages applied to the power terminals of a device to input test/debug messages to the device and output test/debug messages from the device. The present disclosure advantageously allows a device to be tested and/or debugged without the device having any shared or dedicated test or debug interface terminals. |
| US09739828B2 |
Probe device
A probe device, for performing an electrical test of a semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor wafer, includes a mounting table on which the semiconductor wafer is mounted, a driving mechanism configured to bring a probe into contact with an electrode of the semiconductor device mounted on the mounting table, and a temperature control mechanism configured to control a temperature of the mounting table. The mounting table includes a disk-shaped first electrode, a disk-shaped second electrode, and a disk-shaped insulating plate interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The first electrode, the second electrode and the insulating plate are fixed to each other at a fixing part provided at their respective centers, and are locked to be movable in a diametric direction at a locking part provided at an outer side of the fixing part in the diametric direction. |
| US09739827B1 |
Automated waveform analysis using a parallel automated development system
A mixed signal testing system capable of testing differently configured units under test (UUT) includes a controller, a test station and an interface system that support multiple UUTs. The test station includes independent sets of channels configured to send signals to and receive signals from each UUT being tested and signal processing subsystems that direct stimulus signals to a respective set of channels and receive signals in response thereto. The signal processing subsystems enable simultaneous and independent directing of stimulus signals through the sets of channels to each UUT and reception of signals from each UUT in response to the stimulus signals. Received signals responsive to stimulus signals provided to a fully functional UUT (with and without induced faults) are used to assess presence or absence of faults in the UUT being tested which may be determined to include one or more faults or be fault-free, i.e., fully functional. |
| US09739824B2 |
Optimization of integrated circuit reliability
A per-chip equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) circuit sensor resides in an integrated circuit. The per-chip EOT circuit sensor determines electrical characteristics of the integrated circuit. The measured electrical characteristics include leakage current. The determined electrical characteristics are used to determine physical attributes of the integrated circuit. The physical attributes, including EOT, are used in a reliability model to predict per-chip failure rate. |
| US09739822B2 |
Input circuit
An input circuit has a plurality of input terminals connected to a plurality of input lines transmitting input signals outputted from a plurality of input signal sources. The input circuit includes a controller which outputs a control signal when performing self-diagnosis of a short-circuit fault between the input lines a pulse circuit which generates pulsed self-diagnosis voltage once, twice or more times based on a control signal of the controller a switch which, when performing the self-diagnosis, applies the pulsed self-diagnosis voltage to any one of the input lines based on the control signal of the controller and a comparing/determining section which, when the self-diagnosis voltage is applied to the any one of the input lines, determines whether the short-circuit fault between the input lines has occurred based on voltage variation in the input line different from the input line to which the self-diagnosis voltage is applied. |
| US09739820B2 |
Conductor assembly
A conductor assembly for a power network includes an inner conductor, an insulating layer arranged concentrically around the inner conductor, and a sensing electrode, arranged radially outward of the insulating layer, and operable as a first electrode of a sensing capacitor of a voltage sensor. The conductor assembly further includes a voltage pickup element having electrically conductive major surfaces, the first major surface being in a surface contact with the sensing electrode. The conductor assembly further includes an electrode wire, in electrical and mechanical contact with the voltage pickup element, for electrically connecting the voltage pickup element with an electric or electronic component disposed remote from the sensing electrode. |
| US09739818B2 |
Electromagnetic effect testing
A device comprises a circuit board, a Rogowski coil on the circuit board, persistent data storage on the circuit board, and a control circuit on the circuit board for collecting values representing current sensed by the coil, and storing the values in the persistent memory. |
| US09739814B2 |
System and method for electrosurgical generator power management
A system and method that improves and automates the measurement of power generated by an electrosurgical generator. An active load device is coupled to the generator output and is configured to simulate the change in tissue characteristics, such as an impedance change, that occurs when such tissue undergoes electrosurgical treatment. The active load faithfully simulates the change in tissue characteristics caused by a particular mode of electrosurgical energy delivery, such as without limitation, changes caused in response to a cutting mode, a coagulation mode, a blending mode, a sealing mode, and the like. Tests are conducted in accordance with test profiles containing target impedance and power values of the test scenario. A plurality of profiles may be stored for testing under various simulated operating conditions. |
| US09739813B2 |
Determining information about devices in a building using different sets of features
Electrical usage of devices in a building may be monitored to provide information about the operation of the devices to a user. The information communicated to a user may include historical information and real-time information. In determining the real-time information, it may be desired to provide the information quickly and use a smaller set of features that are available more quickly. In determining the historical information, it may be desired to provide more accurate information and use a larger set of features. A device may compute real-time information and historical information using different sets of features. |
| US09739809B2 |
Compliance voltage detector circuit
A system, method, and circuit to monitor a compliance voltage in an implantable stimulator device. An implantable medical device with a compliance voltage detector to monitor the voltage used by an output current source/sink circuit to ensure proper circuit performance while limiting power use. |
| US09739808B2 |
Devices, methods, and systems for sensing current
Devices, methods, and systems for sensing current are described herein. One device includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a tunneling magnetoresistance material between the first and second electrodes. |
| US09739805B2 |
Conductor assembly
A conductor assembly for a power network includes an inner conductor defining radial and axial directions, an insulating layer arranged around at least an axial section of the inner conductor, and a sensing electrode arranged radially outward of the insulating layer. The sensing electrode is operable as a first electrode of a sensing capacitor of a capacitive voltage sensor, in which sensing capacitor the inner conductor is operable as a second electrode. The conductor assembly further includes an electrically insulating spacer element arranged radially between the insulating layer and the sensing electrode. |
| US09739801B2 |
Analytical gateway device for measurement devices
An analytical gateway device receives measurement data comprising one or more measurement values from one or more measurement devices. The gateway device selects a measurement application from a plurality of measurement applications available for execution (e.g., on the gateway device or some other computing device) based at least in part on the measurement data. For example, the measurement application can be selected based on measurement type information. The measurement type information may include one or more measurement units associated with the measurement values. The gateway device may cause a user interface (or some other information) associated with the measurement application to be presented on a display (e.g., a display of the gateway device or some other computing device in communication with the gateway device). |
| US09739798B2 |
Multiple probe detection and actuation
A method of detecting the positions of a plurality of probes. An input beam is directed into an optical device and transformed into a plurality of output beamlets which are not parallel with each other. Each output beamlet is split into a sensing beamlet and an associated reference beamlet. Each of the sensing beamlets is directed onto an associated one of the probes with an objective lens to generate a reflected beamlet which is combined with its associated reference beamlet to generate an interferogram. Each interferogram is measured to determine the position of an associated one of the probes. A similar method is used to actuate a plurality of probes. A scanning motion is generated between the probes and the sample. An input beam is directed into an optical device and transformed into a plurality of actuation beamlets which are not parallel with each other. |
| US09739797B2 |
Sensor device
A sensor device includes a semiconductor substrate and multiple sensing portions that are placed on one side of the semiconductor substrate and convert a physical quantity into an electrical signal. The one side is parallel to a reference plane defined by an X-direction and a Y-direction perpendicular to each other. The semiconductor substrate has a center point that is both a geometric center and a center of mass. The semiconductor substrate is axisymmetric with respect to each of a first reference line passing through the center point and parallel to the X-direction and a second reference line passing through the center point and parallel to the Y-direction. Each of the sensing portions is axisymmetric with respect to each of the first reference line and the second reference line. |
| US09739794B2 |
Sample injector with disconnectable injection needle
A sample injector for injecting a fluid into a fluidic path, wherein the sample injector comprises a robot arm configured for moving an injection needle, when being connected to the robot arm, between a fluid container containing the fluid and a seat in fluid communication with the fluidic path, the needle configured for aspirating the fluid from the fluid container, when the needle has been moved to the fluid container, and for injecting aspirated fluid into the fluidic path, when the needle is accommodated in the seat, and the seat configured for accommodating the needle and providing fluid communication with the fluidic path, wherein the robot arm is configured for selectively disconnecting the needle from the robot arm when the needle is accommodated in the seat, and wherein the robot arm is configured for performing a further task while the needle is disconnected from the robot arm. |
| US09739792B2 |
Device for pipe inspection and method of using same
A device is described that includes a sensor portion and a chassis portion. The sensor portion includes a plurality of sensing devices. The chassis portion is connected to the sensor portion and includes a first track and a second track. The second track is positioned adjacent the first track. The first and second tracks cooperate to substantially cover an entire width of the chassis portion. |
| US09739782B2 |
Methods and compositions for single chain variable region ENOX2 antibodies for cancer detection and diagnosis
Cancers of different cellular or tissue origins express different ENOX2 cancer isoforms or combinations of isoforms and shed these proteins into the circulation. Herein are disclosed methods both for cancer detection and diagnosis of particular origin, based on the patterns and molecular weights of the isoforms which allow the identification of the cell type and or tissue of origin of the neoplasm. Relative ENOX2 amounts are proportional to tumor burden and provide a reliable measure of response to therapy and disease progression. Also provided is the amino acid sequence to which the scFv antibodies bind as the molecular basis for the specificity of the test. |
| US09739777B1 |
Rapid analysis for cyanobacterial toxins
Method and compositions using transition metal salts and/or ammonium chloride to liberate toxins and other molecules from cyanobacteria, useful for assaying for total cyanobacterial toxins in lakes, reservoirs and other waters. |
| US09739775B2 |
Methods of using chimeric receptors to identify autoimmune disease
The present invention provides methods and compositions useful in the diagnosis and management of autoimmune diseases. In particular, the present invention provides improved methods and compositions for the diagnosis and management of Graves' disease. The methods of the present invention not only avoids the need for radioactivity and are much simpler, economical, and rapid than methods traditionally used for the diagnosis of Graves' disease, but also improve upon the sensitivity and detection abilities of previous luciferase-based autoantibody detection assays. |
| US09739765B2 |
Metal-based covalent viability reagent for single cell analysis
The present invention provides a robust viability stain for methods utilizing elemental analysis. A population of cells is contacted with an effective dose of a non-chelated biomacromolecule-reactive metal derivative, which selectively crosses the plasma membrane of non-viable cells, and which covalently modifies a biological macromolecule within the cell, for a period of time sufficient to permit entry into non-viable cells. The population of cells is then washed free of unbound viability reagent; and the presence of the metal within the cells is detected, wherein non-viable cells are selectively labeled with the viability reagent. |
| US09739761B2 |
Particulate matter filter diagnostic techniques based on exhaust gas analysis
A diagnostic system and method for diagnosing the performance of a particulate matter (PM) filter of an exhaust system each involve receiving, by a controller from at least one sensor, a gas component measurement of exhaust gas flowing through the exhaust system and the PM filter. The controller calculates a conversion efficiency of the gas component by the PM filter and compares the calculated conversion efficiency to a predetermined conversion efficiency threshold indicative of an expected conversion efficiency of a flow-through catalyst. The controller then determines whether the PM filter is cracked or damaged based on the comparison between the calculated conversion efficiency and the predetermined conversion efficiency threshold. |
| US09739751B2 |
Devices for trapping and controlling microparticles with radiation
A particle manipulation device includes a substrate and a microchannel included in the substrate and configured to receive a fluid including particles therein. A biasing structure is formed on the substrate adjacent to, but outside the microchannel. The biasing structure is configured to dispense radiation at a frequency to bias movement of the particles within the microchannel from outside the microchannel. |
| US09739746B1 |
Analyte sensor incorporating negatively charged moieties
An analyte sensor and a method for making the analyte sensor are disclosed. The analyte sensor includes a crosslinked, hydrophilic copolymer having a methacrylate-derived backbone and a side chain having a negatively charged group. The copolymer can include an embedded analyte sensing component, and can be adjacent to a surface of an electrode, or be adjacent to a sensing membrane that that has an embedded analyte sensing component and is adjacent to a surface of an electrode. The sensing membrane can have a crosslinked network of crosslinked proteins. |
| US09739745B2 |
System and method for measuring an analyte in a sample
Methods for calculating an analyte concentration of a sample are provided. In one exemplary embodiment the method includes steps that are directed toward accounting for inaccuracies that occur as a result of temperature variations in a sample, a meter, or the surrounding environment. In another exemplary embodiment the method includes steps that are directed toward determining whether an adequate sample is provided in a meter because insufficient samples can result in inaccuracies. The methods that are provided can be incorporated into a variety of mechanisms, but they are primarily directed toward glucose meters for blood samples and toward meters for controls solutions. |
| US09739739B2 |
Gas sensor and method for determining a concentration of gas in a two-component mixture
The described sensor allows determination of the concentration of a gas in a two-component mixture at variable pressure by measuring the diffusivity and the thermal conductivity. The sensor is provided to alternately heat the membrane of a thermally conductive cell and allow it to cool such that the temperature TM of the membrane passes from a first stable value to a second stable value and vice versa via a transient mode. The cell produces a signal representative of the temperature TM of the membrane and the sensor extracts from the signal a first and a second parameter that respectively relate to said first stable value and said transient mode of the signal. A value of the concentration of said gas and of the pressure of said two-mixture is calculated from these two parameters. |
| US09739738B2 |
Gas sensor element
Described herein are sensor elements for detecting the presence of organic materials comprising a boron doped n-type semiconductor material with decrease in resistivity upon organic materials exposure with increase in resistivity upon organic materials exposure. |
| US09739737B2 |
Ethylene sensor
A sensor device can include a transition metal complex capable of interacting with a carbon-carbon multiple bond moiety. The sensor can detect the fruit-ripening hormone ethylene with high sensitivity. |
| US09739736B2 |
HF alkylation process
An HF olefin/isoparaffin alkylation process is carried out in an alkylation unit with a settling vessel in which the alkylate product is separated from the HF acid catalyst containing water and acid soluble oil (ASO). The density of the liquids in the settling vessel is measured at different levels by means of a nuclear density profile analyzer. The acid strength of the acid phase is determined from the density measurement and an optional temperature measurement. The proportion of water in the acid phase may also be measured separately by measurement of its electrical conductivity to determine the respective contributions of the water and the ASO to the density of the HF acid phase. |
| US09739734B2 |
Methods and systems of detecting exocytosis of a target molecule from a population of cells
A method of detecting exocytosis of a target molecule from a population of cells derived from a human subject, includes applying first and second electrical signals, each having a respective frequency, across the population of cells. Each of the first and second electrical signals being either an alternating current or an alternating voltage. The method includes measuring a first voltage change if the first electrical signal is an alternating current or measuring a first current change if the first electrical signal is an alternating voltage, and measuring a second voltage change if the second electrical signal is an alternating current or measuring a second current change if the second electrical signal is an alternating voltage. The method includes determining an electrical impedance of the population of cells, a change in that impedance indicating an amount of the target molecule released from the population of cells. |
| US09739733B2 |
Methods for monitoring tight clot formation
The invention features a method of monitoring a clotting process by measuring a signal characteristic of the NMR relaxation of water in a sample undergoing clotting to produce NMR relaxation data and determining from the NMR relaxation data a magnetic resonance parameter of water in the sample characteristic of the clots being formed. |
| US09739732B2 |
Stable isotope-labeled aliphatic amino acid and NMR structural analysis of protein using same
Provided is a stable isotope-labeled aliphatic amino acid enabling the assignment of the signal of an amino acid residue side chain by increasing to the maximum the observation sensitivity to an NMR signal of the same amino acid residue side chain, and allowing NOE (nuclear Overhauser effect) between protons in the amino acid residue to be observed. The stable isotope-labeled aliphatic amino acid is for constituting a protein and satisfies all of the following conditions (1) to (3): (1) two or more carbon atoms are labeled with 13C; (2) of two or more carbon atoms labeled with 13C, a carbon atom other than a carbon atom of a methyl group, which is capable of bonding to a hydrogen atom, has one 1H directly bonded thereto, while the carbon atom of the methyl group has at least one 1H directly bonded thereto; and (3) other carbon atoms adjacent to all the 13C are all 12C. |
| US09739729B2 |
Combined confocal X-ray fluorescence and X-ray computerised tomographic system and method
A correlative evaluation of a sample (104) using a combined x-ray computed tomography (CT) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) system and the method for analyzing a sample (104) using x-ray CT and XRF is disclosed. The CT/XRF system (10) includes an x-ray CT subsystem (100) for acquisition of volume information and a confocal XRF subsystem (102) for characterization of elemental composition information. Geometrical calibration is carried out between the XRF subsystem (102) and the X-ray CT subsystem (100) such that a region of interest defined during X-ray CT acquisition can be retrieved by the XRF subsystem (102) for a subsequent XRF acquisition. The system (10) combines the sub-micrometer spatial resolution 3-D imaging capability of x-ray CT with the elemental composition analysis of confocal XRF to provide 3-D elemental composition analysis of a sample (104) with ppm level sensitivity. This is applicable to many scientific research and industrial applications, a prime example of which is the elemental identification of precious metal grains in crushed and ground ores and floatation tailings in the mining industry. |
| US09739728B1 |
Automatic defect detection and classification for high throughput electron channeling contrast imaging
Imaging and processing techniques are employed to identify crystalline defects obtained by ECCI from surrounding topography and is combined with defect counting and automatic classification. |
| US09739727B2 |
Systems and methods for aligning an aperture
An alignment system for aligning apertures in an X-ray backscatter system is provided. Additionally, a method for aligning apertures in an X-ray backscatter system is provided. Further, a computer-readable storage device including computer-executable instructions for aligning apertures in an X-ray backscatter system is provided. |
| US09739724B2 |
CT scanning systems and methods using multi-pixel x-ray sources
A CT scanning system may include a multi-pixel x-ray source, and a detector array. The multi-pixel x-ray source may have a plurality of pixels that are disposed along a z-axis, and that are sequentially activated so as to controllably emit x-rays in response to incident electrons. The detector array may have one or more rows of x-ray detectors that detect the x-rays that are emitted from the pixels and have traversed an object, and generate data for CT image reconstruction system. In third generation CT scanning systems, the number of detector rows may be reduced. Multi-pixel x-ray source implementation of saddle curve geometry may render a single rotation single organ scan feasible. Using a multi-pixel x-ray source in stationary CT scanning systems may allow x-ray beam design with a minimal coverage to satisfy mathematical requirements for reconstruction. |
| US09739723B1 |
Methods of defect inspection for photomasks
A method of defect inspection for a photomask is provided. According to the method, a light transmittance correction is performed to reduce a light transmittance of a calibration key pattern region of a photomask including a field region and the calibration key pattern region to the light transmittance of the field region. Light calibration is performed using the calibration key pattern region having corrected light transmittance. Defect inspection for the field region is performed by applying a result of the light calibration. |
| US09739721B2 |
Apparatus for inspection of external corrosion of pipes
An apparatus for measuring external corrosion in pipes is disclosed. |
| US09739720B2 |
Method, computer system and apparatus for recipe generation for automated inspection of semiconductor devices
A method, a computer system and an apparatus are disclosed for inspection recipe generation for the automated inspection of semiconductor devices. In order to generate the inspection recipe a reference data set is used. Automatic inspection is carried out with an initial recipe on images of dies of the reference data set (reference wafermap). The detected inspection results from the automatic inspection are classified and the classified inspection results are compared with an expert classification of defects in dies. Overkill and underkill numbers are automatically generated. According to the overkill and underkill numbers the inspection recipe parameters are modified. Automatic inspection is repeated if the detection and/or the classification are below a predefined threshold. |
| US09739716B2 |
Method for regulating the relative position of an analyte in relation to a light beam
A method for regulating the relative position of an analyte of a sample (16) in relation to a light beam (F) includes the illumination of the analyte of the sample (16) with the light beam (F), capturing by an imaging device (38) a transmission image of the beams scattered by the analyte of the sample (16) in order to establish a diffraction pattern, and modifying the relative position of the analyte of the sample (16) in relation to the light beam (F) according to at least one property of the diffraction pattern. |
| US09739714B2 |
Particle identification system, cartridge and associated methods
A particle identification system includes: a cartridge for containing a sample with fluorescently labeled particles; illumination for illuminating a region within the cartridge to stimulate emission from particles; imager for generating wavelength-filtered electronic images of the emission within at least one measurement field of the region; and particle identifier for processing the electronic images to determine a superset of particles of interest, and fluorescently labeled particles within the superset based on properties of the particles in the at least one measurement field. A method determines fluorescently labeled particles within a sample, by: processing at least one electronic image from at least one focal position within the sample; determining dimmest separation lines between brighter areas in the electronic image; and, for each of the brighter areas, determining local background level based on pixel values of the separation lines forming a perimeter therearound, to determine each of the fluorescently labeled particles. |
| US09739713B2 |
Microstructured chip comprising convex surfaces for surface plasmon resonance analysis, analysis device containing said microstructured chip and use of said device
A microstructured chip (3; 33; 43; 53; 63) for surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis, taking the form of a solid formed by: a base (5; 77); an upper surface (4; 44), at least part of which is covered with a metal layer (2; 22; 42; 52; 62); and at least one side surface (55; 66). The chip is characterized in that the aforementioned upper surface is provided with micrometric zones intended to receive species to be analyzed and selected from among n protrusions and m cavities, and in that when n+m≧2 the zones are separated from one another by planar surfaces, with n varying between 1 and j, m varying between 0 and i, and j and i being integers. |
| US09739708B2 |
Systems and methods for pressure differential molecular spectroscopy of compressible fluids
Described herein is a spectroscopic system and method for measuring and monitoring the chemical composition and/or impurity content of a sample or sample stream using absorption light spectroscopy. Specifically, in certain embodiments, this invention relates to the use of sample pressure variation to alter the magnitude of the absorption spectrum (e.g., wavelength-dependent signal) received for the sample, thereby obviating the need for a reference or ‘zero’ sample. Rather than use a reference or ‘zero’ sample, embodiments described herein obtain a spectrum/signal from a sample-containing cell at both a first pressure and a second (different) pressure. |
| US09739705B2 |
Gas cell assembly and applications in absorption spectroscopy
A gas cell assembly and applications of the gas cell assembly in absorption spectroscopy. An example gas cell assembly includes a gas cell body with an inlet for receiving a gas sample from a gas source; a first and a second end portions that allow optical transmission into and out of the body, the second end portion being substantially opposite from the first end portion; and a channel providing a path for the gas sample and optical beam(s) between the first end portion and the second end portion. The gas cell assembly also includes reflective surfaces outside the body to receive versions of the optical beams from the body and to reflect each version of the incident beam towards the body. A detector, then, receives a last reflected beam and transmits a corresponding data signal to a processing unit for analyzing the gas sample based on the data signal. |
| US09739699B2 |
Device for the study of living cells
A device for performing a cell study. The device comprises a plate having a plurality of wells, each configured for containing aqueous solution and having a well bottom with a plurality of picowells and a plurality of biosensors each configured for measuring at least one cell characteristic while being in contact with the aqueous solution in a respective the well. The position of each the biosensor in a respective the well is limited by at least one pin. |
| US09739694B2 |
Method and apparatus for testing gel-based lost circulation materials
A compression test rig apparatus for determining a mechanical characterization of a gel-based LCM test sample comprising an LCM test cell configured to contain the gel-based LCM test sample, the LCM test cell comprising a cylinder wall defining a cell space volume configured to hold the gel-based LCM test sample, and a floor defining an extrusion hole configured to extrude the gel-based LCM test sample to create an extruded gel; an extruded gel collector configured to receive the extruded gel from the extrusion hole as an extruded gel volume; a perforated disc comprising perforations, wherein the perforated disc is configured to allow the gel-based LCM test sample to pass through the perforations; and a flat foot disc piston in flush contact with the cylinder wall, the flat foot disc piston configured to compress the gel-based LCM test sample at a displacement speed to produce compression data. |
| US09739692B2 |
Pump-less method and apparatus for solvent extraction from a sample
Apparatus for extracting organic analytes from a sample comprising a first compressed gas source connected to valving and a sample extraction cell connected to the valving. A pressure regulator is connected to the extraction cell outlet to the pressure regulator. The pressure regulator blocks fluid flow when the pressure at the pressure regulator inlet is below a predetermined pressure and permits fluid flow when above said predetermined pressure. The apparatus is free of operative association with a mechanical pump or with a compressed gas source other than the compressed gas source. An extraction method for using the above apparatus is described. |
| US09739685B2 |
Integrated, predictive vibration analysis of rotational machine within electronics rack
Predictive monitoring of a rotational machine of a cooling apparatus is provided by integrating a predictive vibration analyzer into an electronics rack being cooled by the cooling apparatus. The integrating includes associating at least one sensor of the predictive vibration analyzer with the rotational machine of the cooling apparatus. The analyzer includes a predetermined harmonics table of one or more base operational frequencies and associated rotational speed harmonics for the rotational machine indicative of one or more rotational faults, and the predictive vibration analyzer automatically evaluates vibration of the rotational machine during operation of the machine by analyzing vibration data therefor, and automatically ascertains, based on the vibration data, and the predetermined harmonics table, whether the rotational machine is predicted to possess a rotational fault of the one or more rotational faults. |
| US09739684B2 |
Leak-detection device, program, and control method
A signal acquisition unit (2020) acquires a signal. From the signal acquired by the signal acquisition unit (2020), a detection signal extraction unit (2060) extracts, as a detection signal, a signal of any frequency band among a plurality of partial detection frequency bands into which the frequency band that is the subject of detection has been divided. A determination unit (2070) determines, in order, for each detection signal corresponding to each of the different partial detection frequency bands, whether the detection signal shows any leakage, and if at least a prescribed number of the detection signals are not showing any leakage, determines that leakage is not taking place. |
| US09739683B2 |
Device for inspecting canister for vehicle
The present invention relates to a device for inspecting a canister for a vehicle, the device including: an inspection unit fixing a canister and inspecting airtightness of the canister using pressure of air supplied from an external supply source; a control unit controlling the pressure of the air and showing inspection process and result by the canister; and an alarm unit providing least any one of a voice and light warning in cooperation with the control unit in an inspection process when a defect of canister is detected. |
| US09739681B2 |
Systems and methods for electrically identifying and compensating individual pressure transducers
Certain implementations of the disclosed technology may include systems, methods, and apparatus for assigning a distinct identifier (ID) to a pressure transducer based on resistor values. Embodiments include electrically identifying the distinct ID, and compensating the pressure transducer based on the distinct ID. According to an example implementation, a method is provided that can include coupling a transducer ID measurement assembly with a transducer assembly; measuring, by the transducer ID measurement assembly, a plurality of divided voltages between a plurality of configurable ID switches and a reference resistor; determining, with a processor, a distinct ID associated with the transducer assembly based on the plurality of measured divided voltages; retrieving one or more compensation parameters based on the distinct ID; and compensating, with the one or more compensation parameters, a measurement signal of the transducer assembly. |
| US09739678B2 |
Pressure measurement device with automatic position correction
The invention describes a pressure transducer having a pressure measuring cell, a position sensor, and an analysis device which has at least one signal processing device and a position correction device for the purpose of determining a position error, wherein the at least one position sensor is arranged in a stationary position relative to the pressure measuring cell, and the position sensor is electrically connected to the position correction device, wherein a first signal is provided by the signal processing device, said signal being determined from a signal provided by the pressure measuring cell, wherein a second signal is provided by the position sensor, and wherein an output signal is provided by the position correction device, determined from the first and the second signals. |
| US09739677B2 |
Matching back pressures on differential oil-filled diaphragms
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a differential pressure transducer that comprises first and second diaphragms of different configurations, i.e., different diameters and/or thicknesses. The pressure transducer provides more versatility over prior art designs as the diaphragms can be of different configurations yet still maintain substantially similar back pressures. Therefore, the errors commonly associated with back pressures are eliminated because the back pressures from the diaphragms ultimately cancel out in the sensor's differential pressure measurement. |
| US09739675B2 |
Surface acoustic wave sensor
A surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor includes a surface acoustic wave material and a comb-teeth electrode. The surface acoustic wave material is to be arranged at a place where the surface acoustic wave material is distorted by physical quantity such as stress. The comb-teeth electrode is arranged on the surface of the surface acoustic wave material to excite a surface acoustic wave to the surface acoustic wave material. The surface acoustic wave material has a sapphire board and a ScAlN film arranged on a surface of the sapphire board. |
| US09739673B2 |
Sensor substrate
In an embodiment, a sensor substrate includes a first end, a second end, and a body. The body contains provisions for accommodating one or more sense elements. The first end and the second end contain attachment points for attaching the sensor substrate to a shaft. In addition, the first end and the second end include curved portions. For a particular end, a spacing of the attachment points and/or a depth of the curved portion may define, in part, a flexibility of the end. This flexibility may be used to control a sensitivity of the sense elements. |
| US09739670B2 |
Adaptive heat flow calorimeter
Apparatus and methods are provided for providing flexible and repairable testing capabilities for systems that generate or absorb heat such as energy storage systems. One embodiment can include a temperature bath structure adapted to contain and maintain a fluid bath at a predetermined temperature, an outer containment structure adapted to insert into the temperature bath structure, heat sinks, thermal sensor assemblies, and an internal containment structure where the thermal sensor assemblies and heat sinks removeably attach to different sections of the inner containment structure so as to measure heat flow into or out of the inner containment structure's different sections. Embodiments of the invention enable rapid insertion/removal of samples as well as replacement of sections of the system including embodiments or parts of thermal sensor assemblies as well as enabling separate thermal measurements associated with different sections of a sample under test within the inner containment structure. |
| US09739667B2 |
Passive detectors for imaging systems
Passive detector structures for imaging systems are provided, which are based on a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) framework. With such framework, a CTE-based passive detector structure includes a detector member that is configured to expand or contract in response to thermal heating resulting from photon exposure. The expanding/contracting CTE detector structure is configured to exert mechanical forces on resistor and/or capacitor circuit elements, which are part of an oscillator circuit, to vary the resistance and capacitance of such circuit elements and change a frequency or period of oscillation of an output signal of the oscillator circuit. The change in the frequency or period of oscillation of the output signal of the oscillator circuit is utilized to determine an amount of photon exposure of the CTE-based detector. |
| US09739665B2 |
Covering cap and measuring device
A covering cap, in particular for placing on a skin analyzer, contains an end wall bounded by a circumferential edge, and a circumferential wall adjoining the circumferential edge of the end wall. At least one part of the covering cap has a thickness that is less than a thickness of the circumferential wall in a portion of the circumferential wall that lies in the region or end of the circumferential wall remote from the end wall. The end wall is of a gas-permeable configuration. |
| US09739659B2 |
Optical sensor arrangement and method for light sensing
An optical sensor arrangement (10) comprises a photodiode (11) for providing a sensor current (IPD) and an analog-to-digital converter arrangement (12) which is coupled to the photodiode (11) and determines a digital value of the sensor current (IPD) in a charge balancing operation in a first phase (A) and in another conversion operation in a second phase (B). |
| US09739652B2 |
Sensor and flow measuring device
A sensor of a thermal flow measuring device, as well as the flow measuring device itself. The sensor comprises a sensor platform, which bears at least one measuring sensor element and a heated sensor element. Each of the at least two sensor elements is surrounded by a metal sleeve, which protrudes from the sensor platform. The sensor has a plate-shaped element, which defines a plane, whose axis extends parallel to the axis of at least one of the metal sleeves, wherein the plane is spaced from the sensor platform in the axial direction of the metal sleeve. The metal sleeve with the heated sensor element has a terminal end face and the plate-shaped element is provided along the end face of the metal sleeve with the heated sensor element for flow guidance. |
| US09739650B2 |
Automatic analog selection circuit for reading external sensors
A system configured to convert an output of a sensor for an application includes an analog input circuit and a processor. The analog input circuit is configured to receive the sensor output. The processor is configured to determine an analog input of the analog input circuit to read the sensor output, and based on one or more received sensor characteristics, and convert the read sensor output to a signal compatible with the application. |
| US09739646B2 |
Display device
A display instrument for a motor vehicle has a display area visible from a viewing direction. A light source illuminates the display area. A reflector reflects light emitted by the light source. A majority of the light emitted by the light source or reflected being emitted onto the display area or substantially parallel to a main plane of the display area. |
| US09739645B2 |
Fibre optic distributed sensing
A method of distributed fiber optic sensing is described in which an optical fiber (104) is interrogated with electromagnetic radiation; back-scattered radiation is detected; and the returns are processed to provide a measurement signal (310) for each of a plurality of longitudinal sensing portions of the optical fiber. The method comprises analyzing the measurement signals of a first subset of longitudinal sensing portions to provide a first zone (306a) having a first sensing function and analyzing the measurement signals of at least a second subset of longitudinal sensing portions to provide at least a second zone (306b) having a second, different, sensing function. The different sensing functions may include detecting different events of interest. In some embodiments the geometry of the fiber may provide different sensing zones (406a, 406b). |
| US09739644B2 |
Interferometric rotary encoder
A precision optical encoder that utilizes interferometric measurements of displacement to provide angle measurements using a laser which is injection locked to a reference laser having a secondary optical frequency which has been verified with respect to a primary optical frequency standard. The encoder shape encodes distance to rotation angle. By utilizing a laser source locked to a reference laser having a standardized (i.e., verified) secondary optical frequency for fundamental measurements of the encoder surface and real-time interferometer measurements, the encoder reports rotation angle measurements that are directly traceable to a primary optical frequency standard through the injected secondary optical frequency. |
| US09739642B2 |
Encoder scale and manufacturing and attaching method thereof
An encoder scale, displaced relative to a detector head, includes: an insulating substrate; a conductive adhesive layer that is formed on the insulating substrate; and conductive pattern layers that are formed on the adhesive layer in a shape enabling the detector head to detect a position, wherein: the adhesive layer electrically connects all the pattern layers and includes an out-of-detection-range pattern that extends outward from a position detection range of the detector head; and the out-of-detection-range pattern is grounded via a conductive member. |
| US09739638B2 |
Position sensing apparatus
Each of a first yoke and a second yoke has an intermediate portion between one end portion and the other end portion of the yoke. When the first and second yokes are viewed in an opposing direction, a width of the intermediate portion of each yoke, which is measured in a direction perpendicular to a rotational direction, is smaller than a width of the one end portion and a width of the other end portion of the yoke and is constant along an entire extent of the intermediate portion in the rotational direction. |
| US09739636B2 |
Calibration device and calibration method
A calibration device to calibrate precise horizontality of a light emitting element includes a retaining rack, a microprocessor, a regulating member, two driven members, and two photo sensing members. The regulating member drives the light emitting element, the two driven members are on the retaining rack, and the microprocessor controls the driven members to move linearly. The photo sensing members detect light transmitted and data as to the vertical distance between two driven members, and vertical distance between the photo sensing member and the two driven members, is stored. The microprocessor calculates the moving distance of the photo sensing members carried by the driven members based on the signals of light detected, and further calculates declination of the light emitting element. The microprocessor can adjust the orientation of light emitting element. |
| US09739634B2 |
Multicomputer data transferring for transferring data between multiple computers that use the data after the transfer
A system for providing multicomputer data transfer for transferring data between multiple devices that use the data after the multicomputer data transfer, includes a user profiles repository to store user profiles associated with users of client devices, and a content repository to store communication information. The system includes a platform device communicating with the client devices, the user profiles repository, and the content repository via networks. The platform device is configured to: receive the user profiles from the user profile repository; receive the communication information from the content repository; receive real-time positional information corresponding to a particular client device, of the client devices; determine a particular user profile, of the user profiles, based on the particular client device; determine particular communication information, of the communication information, based the positional information and the particular user profile; and provide the particular communication information to the particular client device, via the networks. |
| US09739633B2 |
Navigation device and method
This invention relates to a navigation device (200) comprising: a processor (210) that is configured to generate a navigation map of a local environment (497); and a display (240) controllable by said processor (200) to display said navigation map and any markers (489) that relate to marked locations within said local environment (497); characterized in that the navigation device (200) further comprises: an indicator generation module (490) for generating an indicator (491) for each of any marked locations outside of said local environment, said processor (210) being responsive to said indicator generation module (490) to control said display (240) to display any generated indicators (491) in said navigation map (497).A method of generating a navigation map and a computer program are also disclosed. |
| US09739626B2 |
Journey planning method and system
Methods, systems, and computer program products for generating journey options in response to a journey request from an origin to a destination. Routes from the origin to the destination are selected as candidates to fulfill the journey request. Delay-related statistical information is derived from delay-related data for past journeys. A minimum connecting time at a connection between first and second segments of each route is estimated based on the statistical information. Journey combinations are determined from the routes based on origin departure time, destination arrival time, and schedule information for the first and second segments of each route. For each route in each journey combination, a determination is made whether the schedule information for the first and second segments satisfies a condition related to the minimum connecting time. Each journey combination for which the condition is satisfied by each route comprising the journey combination is selected as a journey option. |
| US09739618B2 |
Multiple location electronic device communication
An in-vehicle control system for communicating data between at least one of an office control system and a residential control system including a transceiver configured to be in communication with the office control system and the residential control system. The in-vehicle control system further including a memory device in communication with the transceiver. The memory device is configured to store a data file transmitted and/or received from the office control system and the residential control system. |
| US09739617B2 |
Navigation system with prompt mechanism and method of operation thereof
A method of operation of a navigation system includes: determining a navigation distance based on comparing a current location and a guidance point; determining a connection mode based on comparing a mode threshold distance and the navigation distance; detecting a communication initiation information for initiating a communication session; and generating a guidance notification with a control unit based on detecting the communication initiation information during the connection mode representing the mode threshold distance meeting or exceeding the navigation distance for presenting on a device. |
| US09739608B2 |
Rotation sensor for an electrical bike pedal
A device for detecting rotation of a bicycle pedal mechanism and communicating that information to an electronic bicycle wheel motor controller. |
| US09739606B2 |
Method and apparatus for inspecting workpieces
A series of nominally identical production workpieces is measured on a measuring apparatus. To correct for temperature variations, one of the workpieces forms a master artifact, the dimensions of which are known. The artifact is measured on the measuring apparatus at two or more temperatures, producing two or more corresponding sets of measured dimensional values of the master artifact at the respective temperatures. One or more error maps, look-up tables, or functions are generated which relate the measured dimensional values of the artifact to the known dimensions of the artifact. The error map(s), look-up table(s) or function(s) are dependent on the respective temperatures at which the artifact was measured. Correction values derived from the error map(s), look-up table(s) or function(s) are used to correct the measurements of production workpieces in the series. These correction values are determined in dependence upon the temperature at which the workpiece measurements were obtained. |
| US09739604B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and storage medium
To measure a three-dimensional shape of a measurement target object at high speed, an information processing method includes acquiring a captured image captured by an imaging apparatus in a state where a pattern is projected onto the measurement target object, the pattern including a plurality of lines, identification information arranged on or between the lines to identify the lines, and a feature arranged between a plurality of the lines, identifying each line included in the captured image by acquiring a correspondence between each line included in the projected pattern and each line included in the captured image, determining a second region in the pattern corresponding to a first region between the lines in the captured image, and deriving a distance of the measurement target object by acquiring a correspondence between the first region and the determined second region. |
| US09739602B2 |
Method for measuring three-dimensional profile of specular object by fringe projection
A method using fringe projection to describe the three-dimensional profile of a specular object is presented and has steps of: providing a diffraction grating formed by exposing and developing a hologram and having at least two sets of interference fringes; guiding a conjugate of the reference light generated from a conjugate light source to pass through the diffraction grating, in order to generate a real image with a long depth of field, a wide convergent angle, and a sinusoidal distribution light intensity; projecting this real image onto an inspected specular object; using an image capture device to capture the intensity distribution of the real image on the inspected specular object so as to obtain an image signal; and using an image processor to analyze the image signal so as to identify the profile of the inspected specular object. |
| US09739590B2 |
Device for measuring flatness of plate
A plate flatness measurement device, including a support frame including a center area, the center area including a through-hole in a center of the center area, and a peripheral area surrounding the center area, the peripheral area having a plate with protrusions on a bottom surface of the plate mounted to the peripheral area; and a sensor module in the support frame, the sensor module at least partially protruding above the support frame to contact the protrusions. |
| US09739587B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit and position detector
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a regulator configured to stabilize a power supply voltage from a solar cell and to output the same, a voltage detection circuit configured to detect the power supply voltage from the solar cell or an output voltage from the regulator, a power-on-reset circuit configured to output a reset signal to an external digital circuit by a voltage detection signal output from the voltage detection circuit, a memory main body configured to write and read data by the power supply voltage from the solar cell or the output voltage from the regulator. |
| US09739585B2 |
Retro reflective tracer ammunition, and related systems and methods
A projectile includes a component that is highly reflective and configured to reveal the projectile's trajectory when the projectile is fired from a gun and electromagnetic radiation is directed toward the projectile. With the reflective component, one can more easily limit the visibility of the projectile to areas from where the projectile was fired because the reflective component is passive, not active. As the projectile moves down range, the areas behind the projectile are typically where a shooter and/or spotter for the shooter are located, not where an enemy combatant is located. Thus, the trajectory of the projectile is revealed to the people who can use the information to adjust their fire, and remains hidden from the people who could use the information to locate the shooter. |
| US09739584B2 |
Projectile tracer
Tracer ammunition is disclosed and includes a projectile having a body; a chamber in the body having a front end and a rear end, the rear end of the chamber being open; an aperture at a rear end of the body providing an opening to the open end of the chamber; and a tracer material disposed within the chamber, wherein the tracer material is configured to combust when ignited and emit optical energy through the aperture as a result of the combustion process. The tracer material may be configured to include a rear-facing surface having a concave contour to aid in directivity of light output from the tracer material. |
| US09739576B1 |
Portable target game with collecting unit
A portable target game that can be set up and played anywhere. The game consists of moving targets within a concave backstop, the moving targets being attached to flexible rods such that hits on target fall into the base of the concave backstop. The game is meant to be played with existing, lightweight projectiles such as NERF guns and plastic balls. The concave backstop is foldable such that the game can be folded up with all of the projectiles inside, and disassembled for convenient storage. |
| US09739575B2 |
Dart game system
The present disclosure relates to a dart game system. The dart game system includes a dart game device, multiple external facilities, and a control unit configured to control the dart game device and the multiple external facilities. The dart game device includes a dart target having a plurality of point regions, a sensing unit configured to sense a hit to the dart target by a dart, a light source unit configured to output light, and a sound source unit configured to output sound. The multiple external facilities includes additional light source units configured to output additional light, and additional sound source units configured to output additional sound. The control unit is configured to control the light source units and the sound source units to output light or sound according to patterns, which depend on an occurrence of an event. |
| US09739572B2 |
Structurally reinforced optically transparent bulletproof panel
A structurally reinforced optically transparent panel that may be utilized as a bulletproof window or shield. The panel includes a plurality of angled reinforcement members having a reflective top and bottom surfaces. Optical lenses are disposed between the reinforcement members directing a light ray in a predetermined direction. The geometry and spacing of the reinforcement members is such that the light rays enter and exit the bulletproof panel at substantially the same angle allowing an observer to view optical images of objects behind the bulletproof panel, thus creating optical transparency. The reinforcement members are of a high strength material capable of being impenetrable by a projectile fired from a ballistic weapon or an explosion debris. |
| US09739568B2 |
Methods of connecting testing equipment to a missile system
A missile system includes a plurality of components, and a testing instrumentation platform secured within at least one of the plurality of components. The testing instrumentation platform is secured within the component(s) through at least one platform supporting adapter assembly. The platform supporting adapter assembly may include an adapter having a planar panel that supports one or more fasteners. The fastener(s) are configured to securely connect to a portion of a base of the testing instrumentation platform. At least one through-hole may be formed through a portion of the adapter. At least one tapered bolt is configured to be securely retained within the through-hole(s). The tapered bolt(s) securely connects the adapter to the component(s). |
| US09739566B2 |
Recoil buffer system
A recoil buffer system having a buffer element with a buffer element body portion, a buffer element knob, and a buffer element cavity; a collar; a sleeve, wherein a sleeve recess is formed so as to accept at least a portion of the buffer element body portion therein; a buffer element recoil spring, wherein the buffer element recoil spring is positioned about at least a portion of the elongate buffer element body portion, between the collar and the sleeve; and a bumper, wherein a bumper extension portion extends from a first end of the bumper to a bumper shoulder, wherein the bumper extension portion is such that at least a portion of the bumper extension portion can be fitted at least partially within the sleeve aperture. |
| US09739565B2 |
Folding stock
A stock and related methods for a firearm are disclosed. An exemplary stock includes a distal portion for interfacing with a firearm, the distal portion having one of a lock catch or a lock and one of a detent or a detent notch distinct from the one of a lock catch or a lock. The exemplary stock further includes a proximal portion, the proximal portion having the other one of a lock catch or a lock and the other one of a detent or a detent notch. The exemplary stock has a folded configuration and an unfolded configuration. The exemplary lock is shaped to engage the lock catch to selectively maintain the stock in the unfolded configuration. The exemplary detent is shaped to engage the detent notch to selectively maintain the stock in the folded configuration. |
| US09739564B2 |
Efficient high-velocity compressed gas-powered gun
An efficient high-velocity compressed gas-powered gun includes a lower receiver having a trigger assembly. The efficient high-velocity compressed gas-powered gun includes an upper receiver having a gas distribution assembly and a bolt assembly configured to operate in response to actuation of the trigger assembly and configured to be operated by the gas distribution system. The bolt assembly has a first part and a second part that are separated by a small gap just prior to actuation of the trigger assembly, and become separated by a large gap, larger than the small gap, over a projectile-firing period of time immediately after the trigger assembly is actuated. The increase in the gap size is caused by movement of the second part in response to gas entering the small gap from the gas distribution assembly. The first part and the second part move together to cock the gun once they are separated by the large gap. |
| US09739563B1 |
Bullpup stock assembly with break barrel gun
A special stock assembly for break barrel air guns includes a bullpup stock assembly which allows a break barrel air gun to normally break without requiring any modification to the cylinder, or cocking mechanism. The invention can include the mechanical components of a break barrel air rifle as part of an original manufacture with the gun by moving the trigger assembly forward, or as an after market retrofit to an existing gun, in which case a cable linkage is provided between the in situ OEM trigger assembly and an additional trigger pull provided with the bullpup stock assembly. The cable linkage connects a forward trigger assembly to the OEM trigger and can have a 1:1 ratio of trigger movement between the forward trigger pull and the OEM trigger, or another ratio as determined by the linkage elements. The forward trigger assembly can be purely mechanical, or incorporate a servo and/or solenoid with a power source such as a battery to augment trigger pull by a trigger finger. |
| US09739561B1 |
Mounting assembly for a firearm
The present disclosure provides a mounting assembly for a primary firearm, which may include a non-recoil reducing cradle pivotably coupled to a carriage configured to mount a selectively removable shield assembly. The mounting assembly includes a quick release pintle adaptor locking mechanism, which aids in the rapid mounting and dismounting of a secondary firearm to the mounting assembly. |
| US09739554B2 |
Dual ejection port firearm
Firearms with improved systems and methods of controlling which side of the firearm shell casings are ejected from, with ejection port covers on both sides of the firearm that open to provide cross ventilation, or both. In some embodiments, the bolt can be installed in one of two different orientations to select whether shell casings are ejected from the left or the right ejection port without a need to replace any parts. In a number of embodiments, spring loaded ejection port covers on both sides open when the firearm is fired or when the bolt or carrier of the firearm moves to provide cross ventilation through a passageway through the firearm to cool the firearm. The covers can be manually closed by the operator when the weapon is not being fired to keep dirt and debris out of the firearm. |
| US09739553B1 |
Muzzle loading conversion system for a rifle
A muzzle loading conversion system for a rifle having an upper and lower receiver. A barrel is slidingly secured to the upper receiver. A stationary bolt member is positioned within the upper receiver with a firing pin slidably received within a bolt opening. A breech plug mechanism is threadedly secured to the barrel within a barrel end section and the breech plug mechanism is adapted to receive a primer within a breech plug mechanism chamber which is in fluid communication with the bolt through opening. The breech plug mechanism is engaged with the bolt member within a breech plug member receiving chamber. |
| US09739548B1 |
Hydro-blasting anti-withdrawal device support
The hydro-blasting anti-withdrawal device support is used for mounting an anti-withdrawal device (AWD) utilized when cleaning heat exchanger tubes in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger where the tube sheet is recessed within the shell. The support includes a shell flange attachment plate, an AWD attachment plate, and a pipe spacing the two plates apart. Each plate is substantially rectangular and has a pipe attachment tab extending therefrom, the pipe attachment tabs extending in opposite directions. In use, the shell flange attachment plate is secured to the shell flange, the anti-withdrawal device is secured to the AWD attachment plate, and the pipe is dimensioned to support the AWD in close proximity to the heat exchanger tube sheet. |
| US09739547B2 |
Arrangement in a thermal process, and a method for measuring the thickness of a contamination layer
An arrangement of a thermal device and a surface reflecting and/or scattering electromagnetic radiation in the inner part of the thermal device. A source of electromagnetic radiation is arranged at a first distance (L1) from the surface, and a detector of electromagnetic radiation is arranged at a second distance (L2) from the surface. The source is configured to emit radiation to the surface, which is reflected and/or scattered from the surface as reflected radiation. The detector receives reflected radiation; and the processing unit determines data dependent on the first and/or second distance by the emitted and reflected radiation. A wall of the thermal device has a window or aperture for emitting an optical signal from the light source to the surface. An electromagnetic distance measurement device measures the thickness or the increase in the thickness of a contamination layer from a thermal device. |
| US09739544B2 |
Surface treatment method for aluminum heat exchangers
A surface treatment method for aluminum heat exchangers including (a) a step wherein a chemical conversion coating film is formed on the surface of an aluminum heat exchanger by subjecting the aluminum heat exchanger to chemical conversion using a chemical conversion agent; (b) a step wherein the aluminum heat exchanger, the surface of which has been provided with a chemical conversion coating film in step (a), is brought into contact with a hydrophilizing agent that contains a hydrophilic resin; and (c) a step wherein a hydrophilized coating film is formed on the surface of the aluminum heat exchanger by baking the aluminum heat exchanger, which has been subjected to a contact treatment in step (b). The chemical conversion agent used in step (a) contains zirconium and/or titanium in an amount of 5-5,000 ppm by mass in total, vanadium in an amount of 10-1,000 ppm by mass and a metal stabilizer in an amount of 5-5,000 ppm by mass. In addition, the chemical conversion agent used in step (a) has a pH of 2-6. |
| US09739543B2 |
Heat sink
A heat sink includes a frame having a non-metallic body that includes a window. The non-metallic body includes at least one peripheral wall that defines a boundary of the window. The non-metallic body includes a non-metallic material. The heat sink also includes a heat exchanger having a base and cooling fins. The base has a structure side and an opposite environmental side. The structure side of the base is configured to thermally communicate with a structure for absorbing heat from the structure. The cooling fins extend from the environmental side of the base. The heat exchanger is held by the frame such that the cooling fins extend within the window of the frame. |
| US09739536B2 |
Method for cooling a solid and system for carrying out the method
The present disclosure relates to a method and a device for cooling a solid, in particular a hygroscopic bulk material, in a more energy-efficient manner. For this purpose, an air flow is, if needed, cooled and/or dehumidified and/or subsequently heated in order to reduce the relative humidity of the air flow. The cooling air flow conditioned in this manner is then used in a contact device for cooling the solid, and a heated exhaust air flow is drawn from the contact device. According to the invention, a part of the exhaust air flow is mixed with the air flow in order to pre-heat the air flow and thus reduce the relative humidity of the air flow. In addition, a second part of the exhaust air flow can be mixed with feed air and used in a separate second contact device in order to pre-cool the solid. |
| US09739535B2 |
Method for smelting non-ferrous metal sulfides in a suspension smelting furnace and suspension smelting furnace
The invention relates to a method for smelting non-ferrous metal sulfides (13) in a suspension smelting furnace and to a suspension smelting furnace. The suspension smelting furnace comprises at least one injection means (18) for injecting at least one of fluid (19) and pulverous matter (20) into a settler (2) of the suspension smelting furnace from at least one of a first side wall structure (8) and a second side wall structure (9) of the settler (2) so that fluid (19) and/or pulverous matter (20) is injected into the settler (2) above a top surface (16) of a layer of melt (15) in the settler (2). |
| US09739530B2 |
Microwave drying of seed cotton and other crops
A microwave dryer includes a vertical chamber having sensors determining the level of agricultural products in the chamber and a series of wave generators delivering wave energy into the chamber. If the level sensors detect an air/product interface in the chamber, wave generators above the interface are deactivated. Temperature sensors in the chamber are used to limit power input through the wave generators and to determine the presence of water rich areas in the chamber. In the event water rich areas are detected, additional power is delivered to wave generators downstream of the water rich areas. The wave generators are mounted on a wall spaced from the chamber through which product flows. |
| US09739525B2 |
Chamber switch for refrigerator
A door switch system is provided for energy saving in a refrigerator. The door switch system comprises a light detector, a first switch, and a second switch. The light detector is disposed in the storage space. The first switch is configured for switching the cooling fan according to an output from the light detector detecting external light. The second switch is configured for switching the storage-space light according to an output from the light detector detecting external light. When a door to the storage space is opened and the output is a first output indicating an open state of the door, the first switch is off to stop the cooling fan and the second switch is on to turn on the storage-space light. The light detector may detect the external light outside the storage space and provide the first or second output to the first and second switches. |
| US09739524B2 |
Horizontal flipper mullion incorporated within a false mullion of an appliance
An appliance includes a cabinet having outer walls that define a portion of a contact surface. Operable panels are engaged with the cabinet and operate between closed and open positions. A lateral mullion is pivotally attached to a mullion panel of the plurality of operable panels and is operable between contact and tucked positions. When the mullion panel is in the closed position, an outer surface of the lateral mullion is in the vertically pointed contact position and defines a portion of the contact surface to receive a seal of the mullion panel and selectively receive a seal of a vertically adjacent panel. Movement of the mullion panel to the open position rotates the lateral mullion about a horizontal axis to define the tucked position such that the mullion panel can move to the open position free of operation of the vertically adjacent panel. |
| US09739521B2 |
Air conditioning apparatus
When the temperatures of outdoor heat exchangers 23a and 23b detected by outdoor heat exchanger temperature sensors 57a and 57b become equal to or higher than 5 degrees C. and the sucking superheating degrees of compressors 21a and 21b become equal to or lower than 0 degrees C. while an air conditioning apparatus 1 is performing the reverse defrosting operation, the reverse defrosting operation is stopped and the heating dominant operation is resumed. At this time, the total operating times of the compressors 21a and 21b are reset. The sucking superheating degrees of the compressors 21a and 21b are obtained by subtracting the low pressure saturation temperatures calculated from the sucking pressures of the compressors 21a and 21b, from the temperatures of the refrigerants sucked into the compressors 21a and 21b which temperatures are detected by the sucking temperature sensors 54a and 54b. |
| US09739520B2 |
Combined impingement/plate freezer
A contact freezer (10) combining the techniques of plate freezing and impingement freezing. One or more cooling modules (11) are disposed sequentially with a continuous conveyor (14) for carrying a food product. Each cooling module (11) includes a refrigerated plate (16) disposed underneath and supporting the conveyor (14). The food product is simultaneously cooled using the impingement freezing technique. A cooling coil (19) is disposed above the conveyor (14). One or more fans (22) disposed below the cooling coil (19) circulate air downwardly through the cooling coil (19) and through an array of diverters (23) so that high speed cooled air is directed onto the food product. The contact freezer (10) may also include a pre-chilling section (12) with a refrigerated plate (24) but without impingement freezing elements. |
| US09739519B2 |
Startup logic for refrigeration system
A refrigeration system includes a compressor having a first stage and a second stage; a heat rejecting heat exchanger including an inter-cooler and a gas cooler, the intercooler coupled to an outlet of the first stage and the gas cooler coupled to an outlet of the second stage; an unload valve coupled to an outlet of the intercooler and a suction port of the first stage; a flash tank coupled to an outlet of the gas cooler; a primary expansion device coupled to an outlet of the flash tank; a heat absorbing heat exchanger coupled to an outlet of the primary expansion device, an outlet of the heat absorbing heat exchanger coupled to the suction port of the first stage; and a controller for executing a startup process including controlling the unload valve to direct refrigerant from the intercooler to the suction port of the first stage. |
| US09739515B2 |
Heat pump device, air conditioner, and freezer that efficiently heats refrigerant on standby
A heat pump device includes a compressor including a compression mechanism that compresses a refrigerant and a motor that drives the compression mechanism, an inverter that applies a voltage for driving the motor, a converter that applies a voltage to the inverter, an inverter control unit that generates a driving signal for driving the inverter, and a converter control unit that generates a driving signal for driving the converter. The inverter control unit includes a heating-operation-mode control unit that controls a driving-signal generating unit such that the driving-signal generating unit outputs, as inverter driving signals, PWM signals for heating the compressor without rotationally driving the motor by feeding a high-frequency current that the motor cannot follow in a heating operation mode. |
| US09739510B2 |
Flow-synchronous field motion refrigeration
An improved method to manage the flow of heat in an active regenerator in a magnetocaloric or an electrocaloric heat-pump refrigeration system, in which heat exchange fluid moves synchronously with the motion of a magnetic or electric field. Only a portion of the length of the active regenerator bed is introduced to or removed from the field at one time, and the heat exchange fluid flows from the cold side toward the hot side while the magnetic or electric field moves along the active regenerator bed. |
| US09739505B1 |
Solar tracking and solar energy collection apparatus and method of using
The invention is directed to a solar tracking apparatus that with permanent adjustment for latitude and pre-operation seasonal adjustment, when aimed at the Sun, will with rotation alone, track the Sun. The apparatus defines a permanently polar axis aligned shaft which rotates by the force of a weighted hydraulic timed drive continuously or intermittently at a rate simulating the apparent approximate fifteen degree per hour movement of the Sun across the sky. A two-ended carriage is fitted with a Fresnel lens or other solar concentrating or collecting element on one end and a targeted receiver is fitted to the other end. The carriage is adjustably mounted to about twenty three degrees either side of perpendicular to the polar aligned shaft thus focusing and concentrating the solar radiation on a receiving device, which stores the solar energy in the form of heat. |
| US09739504B2 |
Steam generator and energy supply system using the same
The present invention provides a steam generator capable of greatly improving energy efficiency, and an energy supply system that uses the steam generator. The steam generator of the present invention includes a high-temperature chamber to which heat of 250° C. to 800° C. is supplied; a low-temperature chamber arranged adjacent to the high-temperature chamber and configured to produce low-temperature steam of 50° C. to 185° C. from water using the heat of the high-temperature chamber; and at least one thermoelectric element arranged between the high-temperature chamber and the low-temperature chamber. |
| US09739502B2 |
Method for manufacturing an electrical heating device and heating device
What is described is a method for manufacturing an electrical heating device, wherein electrical heating resistors are disposed in tubes of an extruded profile, and openings are cut into a plate of the extruded profile connecting the tubes. According to this disclosure, fastening sections of the extruded profile are plastically deformed and, by means thereof, heat sinks are fastened on the extruded profile. A corresponding electrical heating device is also described. |
| US09739496B2 |
Systems and methods for estimating a return time
Systems and methods for estimating a time to cool down or warm up a building zone from a temperature setback condition are provided. A described method includes determining, by a controller for the building zone, at least one of a cooling demand for the building zone and a heating demand for the building zone for a time period corresponding to the temperature setback condition. The method further includes estimating a return time using at least one of the cooling demand and the heating demand. The return time is the time to cool down or warm up the building zone from the temperature setback condition. |
| US09739492B2 |
Conduit module coupled with heating or cooling module
A heating and cooling system for use with hot, cold and source fluid circuits. A conduit module couples a heating/cooling module with the fluid circuits. The conduit module includes four three-way valves to communicated fluid from and to the fluid circuits to first and second heat exchangers in the heating/cooling module. The first heat exchanger is used to heat a fluid flow and the second one chills a second fluid flow. The conduit module simultaneously supplies a hot fluid flow to a hot fluid circuit and a cold fluid to a cold fluid circuit. The source fluid is routed by the conduit module. A method of circulating fluid is also disclosed. |