| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09870517B2 |
Image object retrieval
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to image object recognition or retrieval. |
| US09870516B2 |
Hand-drawn sketch recognition
Some examples of a sketch-based image recognition system may generate a model for identifying a subject of a sketch. The model is formed from a plurality of images having visual features similar to the visual features of the sketch. The model may include object topics representative of categories which may correspond to the subject of the sketch and shape topics representative of the visual features of the sketch. |
| US09870515B2 |
Identification system and method
A system to identity at least a property of a substance located in an object, or located on a surface of the object, is generally described. The system may include an electromagnetic radiation (EMR) source arranged to selectively emit EMR at more than one wavelength to illuminate the surface of the object. The system may include an EMR sensor arranged to sense EMR returned from the surface and to use the returned EMR to provide an output signal that represents an image taken of the surface, the image including a plurality of pixels. The system may include a processor system arranged to compare information that is indicative of the output signal of the EMR sensor with reference information indicative of the property of the substance. The processor system may be arranged to select a first wavelength to illuminate the surface by the EMR source, and subsequently select at least one further wavelength based on whether the information concerning the property is obtained as a result of use of a preceding wavelength. The processor system may be arranged to compensate fur an influence of ambient light on the at least one surface, and may be arranged to compensate for motion of the object relative to the EMR sensor. |
| US09870514B2 |
Hypotheses line mapping and verification for 3D maps
Disclosed are a device, apparatus, and method for performing line mapping. A three-dimensional (3D) map that includes at least a first and a second 3D line corresponding to an aspect of a real world environment may be obtained. One or more images of the aspect may also be obtained and hypotheses 3D lines may be determined. The hypothesis 3D lines may be verified with the one or more images and the 3D map may be updated. The determination and verification of the hypothesis 3D lines may include creating a plane in 3D space and using co-planarity or orthogonality assumptions. |
| US09870513B2 |
Method and device for detecting objects from depth-resolved image data
An object-recognition method for a vehicle's driver assistance system involves obtaining a 2D image and a 3D image, forming a 3D apparent object from the 3D image, detecting one or more detected objects in a portion of the 2D image corresponding to the apparent object from the 3D image, classifying the one or more detected objects into at least one pre-defined object class, and dividing the apparent object into at least two 3D objects when the apparent object does not correspond with at least one class-specific property of the determined at least one object class. |
| US09870509B2 |
Image storage method and apparatus thereof
The present invention relates to the field of data storage, and discloses an image storage method and apparatus thereof. In the present invention, the method comprises the following steps: judging if a storage time of a current image reaches a predetermined duration; if the judgment result is yes, then determining a target region containing at least one region of interest in the current image according to the predetermined duration; generating a target region image containing the target region according to the target region, wherein the data size of the target region image is smaller than the data size of the current image; storing the target region image; deleting the current image. With the growth of storage time, redundant information in the image is gradually removed by setting different durations, so that the storage space occupied by the image can be reduced while the information of a region of interest required in various practical applications can be retained, which achieves the purpose of storing critical information in the limited storage space as long as possible. |
| US09870507B2 |
Image extraction device, image extraction method, program, and recording medium
In the image extraction device, an instruction acquisition unit acquires an instruction input by a user, and an image group selection unit selects a second image group, which has a smaller number of images than a first image group, from the first image group in response to the instruction. Then, an extraction reference determination unit determines an image extraction reference when extracting an image from the second image group based on images included in the first image group, and an image extraction unit extracts one or more images, the number of which is smaller than the number of images in the second image group, from the second image group according to the image extraction reference. |
| US09870505B2 |
Hyperspectral imaging system for monitoring agricultural products during processing and manufacturing
Provided is a method for monitoring a manufacturing process of an agricultural product. The method utilizes hyperspectral imaging and comprises scanning at least one region along a sample of agricultural product using at least one light source of a single or different wavelengths; generating hyperspectral images from the at least one region; determining a spectral fingerprint for the sample of agricultural product from the hyperspectral images; and comparing the spectral fingerprint so obtained to a spectral fingerprint database containing a plurality of fingerprints obtained at various points of the manufacturing process, using a computer processor, to determine which point in the manufacturing process the sample has progressed to. |
| US09870504B1 |
Stitched image
Various embodiments associated with a composite image are described. In one embodiment, a handheld device comprises a launch component configured to cause a launch of a projectile. The projectile is configured to capture a plurality of images. Individual images of the plurality of images are of different segments of an area. The system also comprises an image stitch component configured to stitch the plurality of images into a composite image. The composite image is of a higher resolution than a resolution of individual images of the plurality of images. |
| US09870494B2 |
Mount device utilizing patterned features for rack orientation detection
An embodiment of the invention relates to systems and methods for detecting the orientation of sample carriers using two or more RFID tags. One or two dimensional matrix of equally spaced RFID reader antennas may be positioned beneath or within an area on which racks are placed. The first RFID tag defines the origin of the sample carrier and its geometry. The second and additional RFID tags define the orientations of the sample carrier relative to the matrix of the RFID reader antennas. At least two of the tag antennas on the rack align uniquely with two antennas on the reader matrix. The system energizes each reader antenna and associates the RFID tags aligned with them to the RFID reader antenna's physical position. |
| US09870493B2 |
Antenna loop configuration for more efficiently surrounding the high intensity area of the magnetic field produced by an IC card
A communication device including a device-side antenna 30 for wireless communication with an IC card 10 including a card-side antenna 11 wound in a rectangular form. The antenna 30 is formed in one or multiple loops. During the wireless communication with the IC card 10 having an inner perimeter with a long dimension of 69 mm and a short dimension of 38 mm at a distance of 25 mm, an inner perimeter of the antenna 30 is formed at a position at which intensity H of a magnetic field produced by the card-side antenna 11 in a direction perpendicular to a surface on which the antenna 30 is disposed is in a range expressed by inequation (1): 0.037I/4Π |
| US09870491B1 |
Multiple battery management
Approaches provide for managing a multiple battery system in an electronic device. In particular, various examples enable a component, or combination or components, such as an electronic switching component to detect a state of a power source to manage switching between at least two power sources. For example, battery protection circuitry can be configured to detect that a voltage of a rechargeable battery has dropped to a threshold voltage, and upon such determination, activate a battery protection state which can result in a non-linear drop off in voltage coming from the rechargeable battery. An electronic switch can detect the non-linear drop off in voltage and can disconnect the rechargeable battery from at least one device component and connect a non-rechargeable battery to the at least one device component to provide backup power to at one component. |
| US09870480B2 |
Automatic removal of global user security groups
A system for automatically replacing a user security group-based computer security policy by a computer security policy based at least partially on actual access, including a learned access permissions subsystem operative to learn current access permissions of users to network objects in an enterprise computer environment and to provide an indication of which users are members of which user security groups having access permissions to which network objects, a learned actual access subsystem operative to learn actual access history of users in the enterprise to the network objects and to provide indications of which users have had actual access to which network objects, and a computer security policy administration subsystem, receiving indications from the learned access permission subsystem and the learned actual access subsystem and being operative to automatically replace pre-selected user-security group-based access permissions with at least partially actual access-based access permissions without disrupting access to network objects. |
| US09870479B2 |
Method of handling a document stored in a cloud storage system and associated user credentials for processing by an authenticated printing system and system for performing the method
Due to different formats for documents, in particular different means of identifying users, it is a problem how to handle a document in a cloud storage system, in which a user is identified by first user credentials, for processing by an authenticated printing system for which the user is identified by second user credentials. This problem is solved by a method comprising the steps of: i. obtaining the document from the cloud storage system, the document comprising document metadata comprising the first user credentials, ii. obtaining the second user credentials based on the first user credentials, iii, obtaining a print job corresponding to the document, the print job comprising print job metadata comprising the second user credentials, and iv. forwarding at least the print job metadata comprising the second user credentials, to the authenticated printing system for the processing. A system and a computer program product for performing the method are also provided. |
| US09870476B2 |
Industrial security agent platform
Systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for facilitating secure communication. A system for facilitating secure communication includes an enterprise network, one or more operational technology networks, and a management server. Each of the operational technology networks can include one or more controller devices operable to control one or more operational devices, and can include a respective site security server and a respective security relay server. The security relay server can be operable to facilitate secure communication between controller devices of the operational technology network and its corresponding site security server. The management server can be a node on the enterprise network and can be operable to communicate with each site security server. |
| US09870475B2 |
Hardware configuration reporting systems
Embodiments related to hardware configuration reporting and arbitration are disclosed herein. For example, an apparatus for hardware configuration reporting may include: a processing device having a trusted execution environment (TEE) and a non-trusted execution environment (non-TEE); request service logic, stored in the memory, to operate within the TEE to receive an indication of a request from arbiter logic, wherein the request represents a hardware configuration register; and reporting logic, stored in the memory, to operate within the TEE and to report an indicator of a value of the hardware configuration register represented by the request to the arbiter logic. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed. |
| US09870470B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting a multi-stage event
A multi-stage event detector for monitoring a system to detect the occurrence of multistage events in the monitored system, the multi-stage event detector includes: one or more event detecting detector units (142, 144) for detecting observable events occurring on the monitored system; one or more parameter generating detector units (152, 154) for generating parameter values which vary over time dependent on the behavior of the monitored system; a hidden state determiner (120) for determining a likely sequence of states of interest of the system based on the outputs of the one or more event detecting detector units; and a transition determiner (130) for determining a likely transition occurrence based on a comparison of a set of values of a parameter or set of parameters generated by one or more of the one or more parameter generating detector units with a plurality of pre-specified functions or sets of values of a corresponding parameter or set of parameters associated with different transition occurrences. |
| US09870469B2 |
Mitigation of stack corruption exploits
In an example, a stack protection engine is disclosed for preventing or ameliorating stack corruption attacks. The stack protection engine may operate transparently to user-space processes. After a call to a subroutine from a parent routine, the stack protection engine encodes the return address on the stack, such as with an exclusive or cipher and a key selected from a key array. After the subroutine returns control to the main routine, the stack protection engine decodes the address, and returns control. If a stack corruption attack occurs, the malicious return address is not properly encoded, so that when decoding occurs, the program may simply crash rather than returning control to the malicious code. |
| US09870464B1 |
Compromised authentication information clearing house
Techniques for maintaining potentially compromised authentication information for a plurality of accounts may be provided. An individual piece of authentication information may be associated with one or more tags that indicate access rights with respect to requestors that also provide and maintain other potentially compromised authentication information. A subset of the potentially compromised authentication information may be determined based on the one or more tags in response to a request from a requestor for the potentially compromised authentication information. In an embodiment, the subset of the potentially compromised authentication information may be provided to the requestor. |
| US09870463B2 |
Permission management method, apparatus, and terminal
A permission management method, apparatus, and terminal. The permission management method includes obtaining an installation package of a first application program, where the installation package carries a first certificate and permission request information of the first application program, determining, according to the permission request information, a first permission that the first application program requires during running, where the first permission is a system administrator permission of a system, and granting the first permission to the first application program according to the first certificate of the first application program. In this way, the first permission that the first application program requires during running is granted to the first application program. |
| US09870460B2 |
Systems and methods for a credential including multiple access privileges
A credential for use in an access control system may include a first sector including first data of a first database type, and a second sector including second data of a second database type. The credential may further include a third sector including third data related to the second data. The first database type and the second database type may he different types. |
| US09870457B2 |
HERMA—heartbeat microwave authentication
Systems and methods for identifying and/or authenticating individuals utilizing microwave sensing modules are disclosed. A HEaRtbeat Microwave Authentication (HERMA) system can enable the active identification and/or authentication of a user by analyzing reflected RF signals that contain a person's unique characteristics related to their heartbeats. An illumination signal is transmitted towards a person where a reflected signal captures the motion of the skin and tissue (i.e. displacement) due to the person's heartbeats. The HERMA system can utilize existing transmitters in a mobile device (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellphone signals) as the illumination source with at least one external receive antenna. The received reflected signals can be pre-processed and analyzed to identify and/or authenticate a user. |
| US09870456B2 |
Systems and methods for biometric authentication
Systems and methods for authentication are disclosed. A method for biometric authentication, includes: receiving a first attempt to validate an identity using biometric information; determining if the first attempt satisfies a first authentication criterion for authentication, wherein the first authentication criterion corresponds to the first attempt; if the first attempt does not satisfy the first authentication criterion, subsequent to determining that the first attempt does not satisfy the first authentication criterion, receiving a subsequent attempt to validate the identity using biometric information, wherein a second authentication criterion corresponds to the subsequent attempt, and wherein the second authentication criterion has a lower false acceptance rate than the first authentication criterion; determining if the subsequent attempt satisfies the second authentication criterion; and if the subsequent attempt does satisfy the second authentication criterion, validating the identity in response to determining that the subsequent attempt does satisfy the second authentication criterion. |
| US09870455B2 |
System level user behavior biometrics using feature extraction and modeling
The interaction of a plurality of users with a computer system is monitored and measurements are made of different features of this interaction such as process creation, registry key changes, and file system actions. These measurements are then analyzed to identify those features that are more discriminatory. The set of features is then used to develop for each user a model of his/her interaction with the computer system that can then be used to authenticate that user when interacting with the computer system at a later time. Advantageously, these steps are performed automatically and may be performed periodically or even continuously to verify that each user of the computer system is indeed the individual he/she purports to be. Illustratively, the feature extraction is performed using Fisher's criteria; and the user model is developed using a Gaussian mixture model. A method for updating the user model is also disclosed. |
| US09870454B2 |
Determine security access level based on user behavior
Examples of techniques for determining security access based on user behavioral measurements are disclosed. In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method is provided. The method may comprise performing a trust evaluation to calculate a trust penalty value for a user based on a plurality of measured user attributes. The method may further comprise determining, by a processing device, a security access level based on a predefined trust threshold and the trust penalty value for the user. The method may also comprise applying the security access level to the user. |
| US09870453B2 |
Direct authentication system and method via trusted authenticators
Systems and methods are provided for enabling online entities to determine whether a user is truly the person who he says using a “two-factor” authentication technique and authenticating customer's identity utilizing a trusted authenticator. |
| US09870450B2 |
Drug delivery regulator
An apparatus for receiving, dispensing, and regulating controlled substances is provided. Furthermore the apparatus may comprise a portable, handheld container which is tamper-resistant and can withstand severe physical manipulation. The apparatus may only permit the dispensing of medication according to a prescribed schedule and dosage. |
| US09870449B2 |
Methods and systems for predicting health condition of human subjects
Disclosed are methods and systems for classifying one or more human subjects in one or more categories indicative of a health condition of the one or more human subjects. The method includes categorizing one or more parameters of each of the one or more human subjects in one or more data views based on a data type of each of the one or more parameters. A data view corresponds to a first data structure storing a set of parameters categorized in the data view, associated with each of the one or more human subjects. The one or more data views are transformed to a second data structure representative of the set of parameters across the one or more data views. Thereafter, a classifier is trained based on the second data structure, wherein the classifier classifies the one or more human subjects in the one or more categories. |
| US09870448B1 |
Systems and methods for analyzing insurance claims associated with long-term care insurance
Systems and methods for processing insurance claims associated with a long-term care insurance policy are provided. According to certain aspects, an insurance claim that lists a set of services purportedly administered by a caregiver within a property of a policyholder may be received. Operation data may be collected from a set of devices that are populated within the property, where the operation data may be indicate a set of services that were actually performed. The set of purported services may be compared to the set of actual services, and the insurance claim may be processed accordingly. |
| US09870444B2 |
Shop order status visualization system
A method and apparatus for processing shop order instances for an aircraft. A model of the aircraft is identified. The shop order instances for the aircraft are identified. A status of the shop order instances is identified. Graphical representations of parts for a group of shop order instances in a graphical user interface are displayed on a display device. A set of graphical indicators in association with the graphical representations of the parts displayed in the graphical user interface is displayed. The set of graphical indicators indicates the status of the shop order instances. |
| US09870443B2 |
Method and apparatus for integrated circuit mask patterning
Provided is an integrated circuit (IC) design method. The method includes receiving a design layout of the IC, the design layout having a first main feature, and adding a negative assist feature to the design layout, wherein the negative assist feature has a first width, the negative assist feature divides the first main feature into a second main feature and a third main feature by the first width, and the first width is sub-resolution in a photolithography process. |
| US09870439B2 |
Methods and systems for borehole image forward modeling of formation properties
A method and system for improving borehole image forward modeling of formation properties is disclosed. An imaginary circle (106) having a plurality of bins (202) is centered at a location of interest at an axial position along the target wellbore (102). The imaginary circle is perpendicular to an axis (110) of the target wellbore and represents a region of the formation to be analyzed. A pseudo log relating to the parameter of interest at the axial position along the target wellbore is then determined. The pseudo log comprises at least a value for the parameter of interest at a desired point corresponding to one of the plurality of bins. The determined pseudo log is then visualized. |
| US09870438B2 |
Computerized method for producing a production plant model
The invention concerns a computerized method for producing a two-dimensional plant model of a modular production plant for producing a chemical product, the production plant comprising at least two processing modules, which can be connected to one another for production purposes, and at least one processing container in which the processing modules can be accommodated at least partially, as required, wherein, for each processing container, a common two-dimensional container model (2) of its the base area (3) and of the base area (3) of a container environment at least partially surrounding the processing container and of predefinable size being generated, wherein, for each processing module, a two-dimensional module model (5) of its base area is generated, wherein the container model (2) and the module model (5) are divided into fields (1, 4) which are of equal size and preferably square, there being assigned to each field (4) of a module model (5) a module property concerning the occupancy of the particular field (4) by a functional device, of the particular processing module, disposed above the base area portion, of the particular processing module, corresponding to this field (4), by an operations room which is disposed above the base area portion, of the particular processing module, corresponding to this field (4) and assigned to the processing module, or by a material outlet of the processing module which is disposed above the base area portion, of the particular processing module, corresponding to this field (4), there being assigned to each field (1) of the container model (2) an occupancy property concerning the (im)possibility of the particular field (1) being occupied by a module property, the module model (5) being disposed in the container model (2) taking account of the module properties and occupancy properties. |
| US09870435B1 |
Use of physical deformation during scanning of an object to generate views of the object
Disclosed are methods and systems for determining and displaying a simulated deformation of a 3D object data model. In one aspect, a method is disclosed that includes causing a force to be applied to an object to cause a deformation of the object and causing a plurality of reference scans of the object to be captured. The method further includes, based on the plurality of reference scans, generating a 3D object data model representing the object and, further based on the plurality of reference scans, identifying a constraint point of the 3D object data model, where the constraint point represents a point of minimum deformation of the object. The method still further includes selecting a predefined deformation model, where the predefined deformation model defines a simulated deformation, and where the simulated deformation simulates at least a portion of the deformation of the object proximate to the point of minimum deformation. |
| US09870430B2 |
Location-independent links to content at online content management systems
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates access to content. During operation, the system tracks a content item at an online content management system using an identifier for the content item. Next, the system uses the identifier to provide a link to the content item, wherein the link enables access to the content item from an electronic device independently of a location of the content item within the online content management system. |
| US09870429B2 |
Method and apparatus for web-based augmented reality application viewer
An approach is provided for generating web-based augmented reality application viewer. A web-based server application receives a request from a web client for visualization information associated with a web application that renders a perspective-based display. The web-based server application facilitates a processing of the request to execute the web application. One or more web-based server applications at one or more web-based servers cause a generation of one or more images, one or more sequences of the one or more images, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on the execution of the web application, wherein the one or more images, the one or more sequences, or a combination thereof depict a rendering of a user interface of the web application. The one or more applications transmit the one or more images, the one or more sequences, or a combination thereof as the visualization information for presentation. |
| US09870428B2 |
Configuring an origin server content delivery using a pulled data list
An exemplary system and method for generating a data list of websites and configuring at least one server computer coupled to a communications network for an origin server website content delivery may comprise a network storage device communicatively coupled to a network and storing a routing table for a CDN, the routing table map one or more edge server IP addresses for one or more edge servers to each of one or more geographic regions. The network storage device may be configured to transmit the routing table to one or more DNS servers communicatively coupled to the network. |
| US09870427B1 |
Systems and methods for publishing profiled content
Systems and methods are provided for publishing profiled content, where such profiled content can be personalized to individual members. Policies for displaying such content can be set by business personnel obviating the need to hard-code such policies by information technology personnel. These polices may stipulate that personalized content covering geographic information, products owned, products available, etc., may be arranged in various ways and at various times to enhance a member's experience with such content. Personalization may be initiated by member login information, where such login information allows for the matching up of a member's profile against stored data corresponding to such a profile. Once this matching up is accomplished, member personalized content can be displayed across various web pages. |
| US09870420B2 |
Classification and storage of documents
A method includes defining a plurality of known document types, obtaining a collection of previously classified documents that are each associated with one of the known document types, and extracting features from each document from the collection of previously classified documents to define feature information. The method also includes obtaining a subject document that is associated with a user, extracting one or more features from the subject document, comparing the one or more features from the subject document to the feature information, associating the subject document with one of the known document types based on the comparison, and transmitting the document to a cloud storage system for storage in a dedicated storage location that is associated with the user and contains only documents of the respective known document type that is associated with the subject document. |
| US09870418B2 |
Application cache profiler
In an embodiment of the invention, a method for data profiling incorporating an enterprise service bus (ESB) coupling the target and source systems following an extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) process for a target system and a source system is provided. The method includes receiving baseline data profiling results obtained during ETL from a source application to a target application, caching the updates, determining current data profiling results within the ESB for cached updates, and triggering an action if a threshold disparity is detected upon the current data profiling results and the baseline data profiling results. |
| US09870416B2 |
Method for rebalancing data partitions
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and system for rebalancing partitioned data based, at least in part, on one or more characteristics of the plurality of database partitions. The computer updating characteristics, wherein the one or more characteristics include one or both of a) an average number of records per partition, and b) an average number of unique limit key values per partition.Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and system for limit key extrapolation in a database. Responsive to a determination that the upper limit key value of the last loaded record is greater than the first upper limit key value of the first empty partition, the computer redefines the first upper limit key value of the first empty partition by an extrapolated upper limit key value based, at least in part, on the range of limit key values. |
| US09870411B2 |
Managing data ingestion
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for managing data ingestion. Aspects of the invention include a pluggable architecture channel service (e.g., a push/pull channel service) to ingest raw data. Aspects of the invention also include a pluggable architecture formatter to convert ingested raw data into a common format, such as, for example, key value pairs. Aspects of the invention also include an EAV storage with functionality allowing consumers to define multiple entities on (and spanning) ingested data sets. Accordingly, data can be ingested without data loss, without having to define extraction logic, and without having to define a storage schema. |
| US09870405B2 |
System and method for evaluating results of a search query in a network environment
A method is provided in one example and includes receiving results of a search query initiated by a user and evaluating the received results in relation to a personal profile of the user. The personal profile includes a plurality of characteristics associated with the user and the evaluating includes comparing the plurality of characteristics to the results. The plurality of characteristics include at least one characteristic derived from observing the user's behavioral patterns over a period of time. The method further includes evaluating the results based on attributes of the user; ranking the results to generate a resultant that reflects a ranking of the results in order of likely meaningfulness to the user based on the evaluation; and communicating the resultant to the user. |
| US09870404B2 |
Computer system, data management method, and recording medium storing program
When plural processing programs for generating post-processing data which is a source of services to be provided are present, a relationship between post-processing data and a data group which is a source of the post-processing data is managed. The processing units acquire pre-processing data, execute given processing, and generate post-processing data as a result of the processing. At an opportunity to acquire the pre-processing data, a process ID indicative of ordering of the acquisition, and not updated before and after the given processing is allocated to acquired pre-processing data. The generated post-processing data is stored, and in extracting the post-processing data satisfying the given data search condition, the post-processing data having a process ID equal to or before the process ID that is latest in the post-processing data and oldest among the respective processing units is extracted from the post-processing data that satisfies the data search condition. |
| US09870403B1 |
Estimating social content interactions
Techniques for estimating social content interactions are provided. An example method includes determining counts of one or more user interactions with one or more content items created by an author, each user interaction of the one or more user interactions having an associated time, classifying, based on respective associated times of the user interactions, the determined counts of the user interactions with the content items into predetermined time intervals spanning a first duration, computing an engagement model for the author based on the classified counts corresponding to the predetermined time intervals and a number of the content items created by the author and estimating, at a particular time for a second duration, a number of interactions with a particular content item created by the author based on the engagement model and a determined actual number of interactions with the particular content item. |
| US09870399B1 |
Processing column-partitioned data for row-based operations in a database system
A database system may include a storage device to store a plurality of database tables. At least a portion of the database tables may be column-partitioned. The database system may also include a processor in communication with the storage device and a row-column subsystem executable by the processor to receive a request to locate a row of a column-partitioned database table. The row in the request may be used to provide a response to a query. The row-column subsystem may be further executable to determine if referenced column values of the requested row are stored in a cache associated with the row-column subsystem. The row-column subsystem may be further executable to retrieve the referenced column values of the row in the request from the cache in response to the determination that the column values are in the cache. The row-column subsystem may be further executable to provide the referenced column values for evaluation with respect to query conditions of the query. A method and computer-readable medium may also implement the row-column subsystem. |
| US09870397B2 |
Processing multi-way theta join queries involving arithmetic operators on MapReduce
Methods, systems, and computer program products for processing multi-way theta join queries involving arithmetic operators on MapReduce are provided herein. A method includes converting (i) a multi-way theta join query into a multi-way interval join query, and (ii) one or more items of data associated with the multi-way theta join query to one or more items of interval data; executing the multi-way interval join query on the one or more items of interval data via MapReduce to generate an output, wherein the output comprises a set of multiple responses to the multi-way interval join query; and processing the output to generate a solution to the multi-way theta join query, wherein said processing comprises discarding each response from the set that does not satisfy the multi-way theta join query. |
| US09870395B2 |
Conditioned transmission of query responses and connection assessments
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for electronically conditioning transmission of communications based on results of a connection assessment. An electronic file is executed at an electronic device, which causes a first query and a second query to be presented. A first query response and a second query response are identified. The first query response is stored in a locked configuration that inhibits the ability to modify the first query response to the first query. The second query response is stored but is not stored in the locked configuration. Query response data is generated that includes an identifier of the second query, an identifier of the second query response and an identifier of the electronic device. A connection variable is determined by assessing one or more network connections available to the electronic device. When a transmission condition is satisfied, the query response data is transmitted to another device. |
| US09870387B2 |
Method, server and computer-readable recording media for setting transactions of multiple data objects
A method for setting transactions of multiple data objects is provided. The method includes steps of: (a) a server acquiring information on multiple data objects used for a service object, and obtaining information on data sources which are set to correspond respectively to the data objects by referring to a setting file; and (b) the server determining the multiple data objects to be used by local transactions or distributed transactions by referring to the information on the data source. |
| US09870385B2 |
Computer system, data management method, and computer
A computer system comprising a plurality of computers and a storage system, further comprising: a first data processing module configured to process data transmitted from an apparatus; a memory store; a database; a memory store control module; a second data processing module configured to execute predetermined processing using processed data included in a first data range; and a third data processing module configured to execute predetermined processing using the processed data included in a second data range, the memory store control module being configured to: specify a third data range, which is a time range of the processed data to be written to the database; and specify deletable processed data based on the first data range and the third data range. |
| US09870383B1 |
Fast efficient vocabulary computation with hashed vocabularies
The disclosed embodiments describe a method, an apparatus, an application specific integrated circuit, and a server that provides a fast and efficient look up for data analysis. The apparatus and server may be configured to obtain data segments from a plurality of input devices. The data segments may be individual unique subsets of the entire data set obtained by a plurality input devices. A hash function may be applied to an aggregated set of the data segments. A result of the hash function may be stored in a data structure. A codebook may be generated from the hash function results. |
| US09870382B2 |
Data encoding and corresponding data structure
A data structure and method of accessing, modifying, and adding data in the data structure are provided. The data structure includes an encoding dictionary, a decoding dictionary, and an attribute vector. The attribute vector includes information for cross-referencing characteristics associated with the same entry. Responsive to an instruction to add data, the method adds data to the encoding and decoding dictionaries as an entry and assigns a valueID for the added entries. The method then adds the valueID to attribute vector(s) associated with the dictionaries. Responsive to a query for data associated with a value, the method searches for the value in an encoding dictionary, determines a valueID corresponding to the data based on a match in the encoding dictionary, uses the attribute vector to find all relevant data across all dictionaries and attribute vectors, assembles the retrieved information in a tuple, then outputs all data associated with the value. |
| US09870375B2 |
Image analysis of display content for dynamic adjustment of a continuous scan display
Various embodiments relating to reducing memory bandwidth consumed by a continuous scan display screen are provided. In one embodiment, scoring criteria are applied to a reference image of a first image format having a first bit depth to generate an image conversion score. The scoring criteria are based on a histogram of one or more characteristics of the reference image. If the image conversion score is greater than a threshold value, then the reference image is converted to a modified image of a second image format having a second bit depth less than the first bit depth, and the modified image is scanned onto the continuous scan display screen. If the image conversion score is less than the threshold value, then the reference image is scanned onto the continuous scan display screen. |
| US09870374B2 |
Replicating data across data centers
The present techniques prioritize transmission of feature information associated with data copies in data transmission, and selectively transmit the data copies when necessary. As the size of the feature information is small compared with the data copies, and as feature information is transmitted using prioritized messages, delays caused by congestion in the network are reduced. Based on the use of prioritized messages, the present techniques provide solutions for replicating data across data centers when conducting various data operations including reading, writing, and modifying data. The present techniques also replicate data across data centers while providing consistency, access locality, and disaster tolerance. |
| US09870370B2 |
Enterprise level data collection systems and methodologies
An enterprise data collection system including at least one database for receiving over a network and storing data collected from data resources at a plurality of physical sites located at disparate locations, a plurality of remotely synchronizable probes (RSPs) located at the plurality of physical sites, the remotely synchronizable probes (RSPs) performing at least one of the following data collection functions: real time event collection, file system crawling for data structure and permissions, data content analysis, data indexing, data tagging and event triggered alerts, and at least one RSP manager located remotely from at least one of the plurality of remotely synchronizable probes and being operative to govern the operation of and orchestrate data collection and transmission by the plurality of remotely synchronizable probes (RSPs). |
| US09870366B1 |
Processing storage capacity events in connection with file systems
Described are techniques for processing capacity-related event occurrence. A first occurrence is determined for of any of a low threshold event and an out of space event for a first storage pool. A set of one or more virtually provisioned logical devices has physical storage provisioned from the first storage pool and physical storage for a file system is provisioned from the set of one or more virtually provisioned logical devices. First processing is performed responsive to determining the first occurrence of any of the low threshold event and the out of space event for the first storage pool. The first processing includes performing processing to that protects the file system. |
| US09870365B2 |
Managing filesystem inodes
A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for managing filesystem inodes. The mechanism monitors inode consumption in a filesystem. The mechanism periodically determines a number of inodes to add to the filesystem based on the inode consumption and adds the number of inodes to the filesystem. |
| US09870361B2 |
Geo-locate system and technique
A system and method directed to geo-located audio, image, text and/or video content which may be characterized as content (audio, image, text, and/or video) that is accessed by one or more content consumers when such content consumers (or the associated content consumer devices) are physically located at a given geographic location and/or within a given vicinity (which may be fixed, predefined and/or programmable before or after uploading the content for access by content consumers) of the geographic location. |
| US09870358B2 |
Augmented reading systems
An augmented reading system distributes electronic content related to paper documents. A user reading a paper document captures an image of a page of the paper document via a computing device communicatively coupled to the augmented reading system. The augmented reading system receives the image and correlates the image to electronic documents to identify the paper document. The augmented reading system may perform an image-based comparison or a character-based comparison to correlate the image with electronic documents. Additional electronic content related to the identified document is retrieved and delivered to the computing device of the user. Accordingly, the augmented reading system provides a bridge between paper documents and digital content and services. |
| US09870355B2 |
Correction of user input
In various example embodiments, a system and method for correction of user input are presented. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a plurality of user strings, selecting one or more string pairs from the plurality of user strings based on a character operator difference between the first string and the second string being below a threshold number, filtering the one or more string pairs to generate a filtered set of strings pairs representing corrections, and correcting user input in a different session by replacing input that matches a first string in a filtered string pair with a second string in the filtered string pair. |
| US09870353B2 |
Pre-populating a form
Pre-populating a form can include receiving a first input that describes a problem from a first user. Pre-populating a form can include associating a category with the first input. Pre-populating a form can include selecting a first form based on the category. Pre-populating a form can include pre-populate the first form based on a second input provided by a second user to a second form belonging to the category. |
| US09870352B2 |
Creating a dashboard for tracking a workflow process involving handwritten forms
An electronic writing solution server includes a workflow dashboard application that comprises a dashboard generator. The dashboard generator receives a collection of forms, each form in the collection being of a same type and having been created from a dashboard template, the dashboard template including an association of fields, steps and indicators in each form, identifies which fields have been filled in by at least one user for each form, determines a current step of a multistep workflow based on the fields that have been filled out for each form and generates a dashboard for displaying a number of forms that correspond to each step. |
| US09870348B1 |
Mapping behavior to data
Disclosed are various embodiments for the mapping of behavior to data. Multiple behavior elements from a code library that are compatible with one or more data elements of a document are determined according to a data contract associated with each one of the behavior elements. Each of the behavior elements is configured to consume one or more data elements and produce a user interface feature. One or more of the behavior elements are selected according to one or more rules. A mapping of the selected behavior elements to the data elements is generated. |
| US09870347B1 |
Network site conversion with respect to a development toolkit
Conversion of a network site from a particular network site development platform to a different network site development platform may be facilitated by a network site conversion service. The merchant may provide the network site conversion service with a uniform resource locator that references a home document of the network site. The network site conversion service may traverse the source network site to determine the source network site's internal structure. The collected data may be analyzed. For example, aspects of the source network site may be mapped to components of the destination network site development platform. A converted network site may be generated based on the analysis. For example, the aspects of the source network site having mappings to the components of the destination network site development platform may be implemented with those components in the converted network site. The converted network site may then be published. |
| US09870345B2 |
Textual message ordering based on message content
A technique for ordering textual messages in a graphical user interface (GUI) of a communication application based on text content can include receiving a textual message, and determining an insertion point in the GUI based on the text content of the received textual message. In some implementations, determining the insertion point can include utilizing a language model to determine a probability that the text content of the textual message is associated with each preceding textual message. Additionally or alternatively, determining an insertion point can include utilizing a timestamp corresponding to a time that the received textual message was initiated by a sender user. The technique can further include displaying the textual message at the determined insertion point of the GUI. In some implementations, the displaying of the textual message can include providing an active indication of the received textual message being inserted at the determined insertion point. |
| US09870342B2 |
Approach for more efficient use of computing resources while calculating cross product or its approximation for logistic regression on big data sets
According to one technique, a modeling computer computes a Hessian matrix by determining whether an input matrix contains more than a threshold number of dense columns. If so, the modeling computer computes a sparsified version of the input matrix and uses the sparsified matrix to compute the Hessian. Otherwise, the modeling computer identifies which columns are dense and which columns are sparse. The modeling computer then partitions the input matrix by column density and uses sparse matrix format to store the sparse columns and dense matrix format to store the dense columns. The modeling computer then computes component parts which combine to form the Hessian, wherein component parts that rely on dense columns are computed using dense matrix multiplication and component parts that rely on sparse columns are computed using sparse matrix multiplication. |
| US09870337B2 |
Method and apparatus for the processor independent embedded platform
A method comprises identifying resource needs of a plurality of peripherals and resource requirements of a plurality microcontrollers. The method includes comparing the resource needs of the plurality of peripherals with the resource requirements of the plurality of microcontrollers to identify generic resources common to the plurality of microcontrollers, wherein a first microcontroller and a second microcontroller of the plurality of microcontrollers provide the generic resources to processor pin locations according to differing architectures. The method includes assigning each resource of the generic resources to a fixed motherboard location, the assigning including assigning the fixed location to an interface pin. The method includes identifying for each resource of the generic resources a processor pin location of the first microcontroller providing the resource, routing the processor pin location providing the resource to the assigned interface pin, wherein the interface pin provides the resource to the fixed motherboard location. |
| US09870335B2 |
Implementing sideband control structure for PCIE cable cards and IO expansion enclosures
A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing sideband control structure for Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE) add-in cards, or cable cards, that utilize cables to connect to input/output (IO) expansion enclosures in a computer system. System firmware uniquely identifies a cable card present in a PCIE slot in a system unit. Enclosure management functions utilize sideband control paths integrated within at least cable providing sideband control signaling, and providing PCIE signaling lanes between the cable card and the IO enclosure. |
| US09870331B2 |
Interface circuit
Devices and methods are provided where a first signal and a second signal are received. The second signal may be a single-ended signal and may be selectively converted to a differential signal based on a type of the first signal. |
| US09870330B2 |
Methods and systems for filtering collected QOS data for predicting an expected range for future QOS data
Methods and systems for monitoring quality of service (QOS) data for a plurality of storage volumes from a storage operating system of a storage system are provided. A performance manager collects QOS data for a storage volume from among the plurality of storage volumes and the QOS data includes a response time in which the storage volume responds to an input/output (I/O) request; determines that the collected QOS data is noisy by comparing an average number of I/O requests processed within a time duration for the storage volume with a first threshold value; uses comparable QOS data of another storage volume for generating an expected range for future QOS data; and monitors QOS data for the storage volume for determining whether a current QOS data for the storage volume is within the expected range. |
| US09870324B2 |
Isolating guest code and data using multiple nested page tables
A hypervisor provides a guest operating system with a plurality of protection domains, including a root protection domain and one or more secure protection domains, and mechanisms for controlling the transitions between the protection domains. The guest physical memory region of a secure protection domain, which is mapped to host physical memory by secure nested page tables, stores secure guest code and data, and guest page tables for the secure guest code. When executing secure guest code, the guest page tables stored in the secure protection domain region are used for guest virtual to guest physical address translations, and the secure nested page tables are used for guest physical to host physical address translations. |
| US09870322B2 |
Memory mapping for object-based storage devices
In an approach for determining a physical address for object access in an object-based storage device (OSD) system, a processor divides a first data object into one or more partitions, including at least a first partition, and providing each partition for storage as individual stored objects in an OSD system. A processor adds a first entry in a page table, the first entry representing the first partition without an indication of a physical address. A memory management unit (MMU) of the OSD system receives a first request of the first partition. Responsive to receiving the first request of the first partition, a MMU identifies that the first entry of the page table represents the first partition. A MMU obtains a physical address of the first partition from one of a hardware component and a firmware component. |
| US09870318B2 |
Technique to improve performance of memory copies and stores
A system and method for efficiently relocating and initializing a block of memory of the computer system. For data initialization and data relocation, multiple registers in a processor are used for intermediate storage of data to be written into the memory. Regardless of whether the amount of data to initialize or relocate is aligned with the register data size, the processor writes the data into the destination buffer with write operations that only utilize the register data size. The write operations utilize the register data size when each of the start and the end of the destination buffer is aligned with the register width, when the start of the destination buffer is unaligned with the register width, when a source buffer and the destination buffer are unaligned with one another for a copy operation, and when the source buffer and the destination buffer overlap. |
| US09870317B2 |
Incremental class unloading in a region-based garbage collector
A technique for incrementally unloading classes using a region-based garbage collector is described. One aspect of such a technique includes maintaining a remembered set for a class set. The remembered set indicates whether instances of the class set are contained in one or more regions in memory, and in which regions the instances are contained. Upon performing an incremental garbage collection process for a subset of the regions in memory, the technique examines the remembered set to determine whether the class set includes instances in regions outside of the subset. If the remembered set indicates that the class set includes instances outside of the subset of regions, the technique identifies the class set as “live.” This will preclude unloading the class set from the subset of regions. |
| US09870311B2 |
Mock object generation
The disclosure is generally directed towards automatically generating a mock object from a description of a real object, such as for use in testing. Mock object generation logic parses the description to determine interface(s) of the real object, which are replicated in the mock object, and to determine method(s) of the real object, which are simulated in the mock object. The mock object generation logic may generate a description of the mock object that is then compiled into the mock object for execution. Data types may be validated so that the arguments and/or return values from the mock object meet the expectations of a calling object. |
| US09870309B2 |
Variable tracking in program debugging
A method and system for structuring program code to implement program debugging of the program code using tracking of variables. A first variable to be tracked and a first expression associated with the first variable are determined. The program code includes the first variable and the first expression. A reverse scanning of the program code is performed to search for a first assignment expression within a first assignment statement that assigns a value of the first assignment expression to the first variable. In response to finding the first assignment expression via the reverse scanning, a first watch point for determining a true/false value of the first expression is inserted into the program code after the first assignment statement. |
| US09870306B2 |
Exception prediction before an actual exception during debugging
An approach is provided for predicting an exception during debugging of software code before the debugging encounters the exception. A number of lines X is received. A line number L of the code is debugged. In a new thread, upcoming lines consisting of line numbers L+1 through L+X are executed. Based on the execution of the upcoming lines, a prediction is determined that the exception will be encountered at line number M, which is within a range of line numbers L+1 and L+X. Based on the prediction and the line number being within the range, a warning is displayed that the exception is likely to be encountered at line number M. Responsive to the displayed warning, an indication that a corrective action was taken to avoid the exception is received. |
| US09870305B2 |
Debugging of prefixed code
A debugging capability that enables the efficient debugging of code that has prefixes, referred to herein as prefixed code. To debug application code, in which the application code includes a prefixed instruction to be modified by a prefix, a trap is provided. The trap is configured to report a presence of the prefix, but to otherwise perform the trap functions absent the prefix; i.e., the prefix is otherwise ignored in the processing of the trap. |
| US09870301B2 |
High-speed debug port using standard platform connectivity
A processing device comprises a debug port controller to monitor operations of the processing device to determine whether the processing device is operating in a first mode or a second mode and to collect trace information comprising operating characteristics of the processing device. The processing device further comprises a display engine logic to process display data for output to a display device. In addition, the processing device comprises a display engine interface to provide, to a plurality of existing platform connectors, the display data from the display engine logic when the processing device is operating in the first primary mode and the trace information from the debug port controller when the processing device is operating in the second mode as determined by the debug port controller. |
| US09870290B1 |
System and method for hybrid kernel and user-space checkpointing using a character device
A system, method, and computer readable medium for hybrid kernel-mode and user-mode checkpointing of multi-process applications. The computer readable medium includes computer-executable instructions for execution by a processing system. A multi-process application runs on primary hosts and is checkpointed by a checkpointer comprised of a kernel-mode checkpointer module and one or more user-space interceptors providing barrier synchronization, checkpointing thread, resource flushing, and an application virtualization space. Checkpoints may be written to storage and the application restored from said stored checkpoint at a later time. Checkpointing is transparent to the application and requires no modification to the application, operating system, networking stack or libraries. In an alternate embodiment the kernel-mode checkpointer is built into the kernel. |
| US09870277B2 |
Systems and methods for error correction in quantum computation
The effects of decoherence and/or noise in adiabatic quantum computation and quantum annealing are reduced by implementing replica coding schemes. Multiple instances of the same problem are mapped to respective subsets of the qubits and coupling devices of a quantum processor. The multiple instances are evolved simultaneously in the presence of coupling between the qubits of different instances. Quantum processor architectures that are adapted to facilitate replica coding are also described. |
| US09870272B2 |
Collecting streaming event data from applications deployed in a distributed computing environment
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for distributed data management. One of the methods includes receiving a plurality of feeds of streaming event data and routing feed data from each of the feeds to a respective channel of a plurality of channels, each of the channels being configured to store feed data until the feed data is consumed by a data sink, including routing feed data from a first feed to a first channel. A load metric for the first channel is determined to exceed a threshold. In response, a second channel is allocated for the first feed and feed data is redirected from the first feed to the second channel instead of the first channel. |
| US09870265B2 |
Prioritizing cloud-based computing tasks according to global company and job type priority levels
Systems and methods for prioritizing cloud-based computing tasks are provided. An example method includes, identifying a first plurality of service requests submitted by a plurality of users including a first user; selecting a first service request, in the plurality of service requests, in accordance with a first priority, where the first service request is submitted by the first user; selecting a second service request submitted by the first user, in a second plurality of service requests submitted by the first user, in accordance with a second priority, where the second service request is associated with a first job type; and selecting a third service request submitted by the first user, in a third plurality of service requests submitted the first user, in accordance with a third priority, where the third plurality of service requests submitted the first user are associate with a same job type. |
| US09870263B2 |
System virtualization instance management for terminal sessions
Terminal sessions providing remote access to functionality may be isolated from each other, as well as from the server system space, by being placed in system virtualization instances. Applications associated with terminal sessions may be allocated to system virtualization instances. In particular, system virtualization instances may be pre-instantiated, and applications may be dynamically allocated to the system virtualization instances, for example, according to a virtualization instance policy. The system virtualization instances may provide, in particular, an ability for terminal session components and associated applications to create, read, update and delete resources in a global name space of a host server without conflict, collision or other interference with each other or other server components. |
| US09870261B2 |
Managing a set of assets for a user in a shared pool of configurable computing resources
Disclosed aspects include managing a set of assets for a user in a shared pool of configurable computing resources. The shared pool of configurable computing resources has a set of virtual machines. A set of usage data for the user is established. The set of usage data corresponds to usage of an asset by the user. Based on the set of usage data for the user, an asset action for the asset for the user on a virtual machine is determined. In response to determining the asset action for the asset, the asset action for the asset for the user on the virtual machine is selected. |
| US09870258B1 |
Systems and methods for performing scheduling for a cluster
Multiple scheduler verticals can allocate tasks to resources that are shared by the scheduler verticals. Information regarding a state of each resource may be stored in memory accessible by the multiple scheduler verticals, and a processor updates the information. The scheduler verticals schedule events to be performed by any of the resources, and submit updates to reflect the scheduled events in the information. In the event of conflicting events, an update corresponding to only one of the conflicting events is committed. Moreover, disruptions may be preplanned and scheduled so as to minimize impact on scheduled tasks. |
| US09870256B2 |
Hardware acceleration wait time awareness in central processing units with multi-thread architectures
Provided is a hardware accelerator and method, central processing unit, and computing device. A hardware accelerating method includes, in response to a request for a new task issued by a hardware thread, accelerating processing of the new task and producing a processing result for the task. A predicting step predicts total waiting time of the new task for returning to a specified address associated with the hardware thread. |
| US09870253B2 |
Enabling end of transaction detection using speculative look ahead
A transaction within a computer program or computer application comprises program instructions performing multiple store operations that appear to run and complete as a single, atomic operation. The program instructions forming a current transaction comprise a transaction begin indicator, a plurality of instructions (e.g., store operations), and a transaction end indicator. A near-end of transaction indicator is triggered based on a speculative look ahead operation such that an interfering transaction requiring a halt operation may be delayed to allow the current transaction to end. A halt operation, also referred to as an abort operation, as used herein refers to an operation responsive to a condition where two transactions have been detected to interfere where at least one transaction must be aborted and the state of the processor is reset to the state at the beginning of the aborted transaction by performing a rollback. |
| US09870251B2 |
Semantic-aware and user-aware admission control for performance management in data analytics and data storage systems
In one embodiment, a computer program product includes a computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith. The embodied program instructions are executable by a processor to cause the processor to receive, by the processor, a first job request, and analyze, by the processor, the first job request to determine: an estimated complexity of the first job request based on one or more attributes of the first job request and a user skill level of a user that submitted the first job request. Moreover, the embodied program instructions are executable by the processor to admit, by the processor, the first job request to a data analytics system and/or a data storage system in a specified order with respect to other received job requests based on at least: the estimated complexity of the first job request, and the user skill level of the user that submitted the first job request. |
| US09870250B2 |
Automated exploitation of virtual machine resource modifications
At least one application in a distributed computing environment is deployed. At least one resource of a virtual machine is provided to the at least one application in the distributed computing environment. The at least one resource of the virtual machine provided is recorded in metadata and the at least one application receives the metadata and using the metadata the at least one application determines how much of the at least one resource of the virtual machine to utilize. A change to the at least one resource of the virtual machine is determined. Responsive to determining the change to the at least one resource of the virtual machine, the metadata is modified. The at least one application uses the modified metadata to determine how much of the changed at least one resource of the virtual machine to use. |
| US09870249B2 |
Virtual computer system, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium
A virtual computer system includes an external event acquisition controller, an external event storing unit, and a snap shot creating unit. The external event acquisition controller performs control for acquiring an event regarding an external device provided outside a virtual computer which mounts a guest operating system in which an application program is installed. The external event storing unit stores the external event acquired by the external event acquisition controller. The snap shot creating unit creates a snap shot of the guest operating system including the application program after the external event is stored in the external event storing unit. |
| US09870247B2 |
System and method for dynamic provisioning of applications
Disclosed is a system and method for the automatic, dynamic provisioning of applications configured to provide users with applications and network communications specifically designed to support their particular task. The provisioning of such capabilities is based on the type of event the user is responding to, such that every time a particular event occurs, a specific set of applications and other toolsets will be provisioned to that user (e.g., onto their individual mobile communication devices, such as tablets, smartphones, or the like) on an ad-hoc basis tailored to that particular event. An inference engine and policy system are provided to intelligently and automatically predict and securely deploy resources to end users. Such inference engine and policy system automate some facets of the assessment process accounting for the manager's, supervisor's, commander's, etc. intent and proposed courses of action—greatly reducing the amount of time required to make good decisions about which applications and services should be employed for any particular operation. |
| US09870246B2 |
Systems and methods for defining virtual machine dependency mapping
In accordance with these and other embodiments of the present disclosure, a system may include a processor and a hypervisor comprising a program of executable instructions embodied in non-transitory computer-readable media accessible to the processor. The hypervisor may be configured to, when read and executed by the processor: instantiate one or more virtual machines to execute on the hypervisor; maintain a virtual machine dependency map having one or more entries, each entry setting forth a target virtual machine and one or more virtual machines to which the target virtual machine is dependent; and determine whether to power on a target virtual machine based on information set forth in the virtual machine dependency map. |
| US09870243B2 |
Virtual machine placement with automatic deployment error recovery
Embodiments perform automatic selection of hosts and/or datastores for deployment of a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) while monitoring and recovering from errors during deployment. Resource constraints associated with the VMs are compared against resources or characteristics of available hosts and datastores. A VM placement engine selects an optimal set of hosts/datastores and initiates VM creation automatically or in response to administrator authorization. During deployment, available resources are monitored enabling dynamic improvement of the set of recommended hosts/datastores and automatic recovery from errors occurring during deployment. |
| US09870241B2 |
Data transfer guide
Techniques to create and use a data transfer guide are disclosed. In various embodiments, at least a portion of application code comprising an application is executed in a virtual machine execution environment. An interaction between the application code executing in the virtual machine execution environment with a data entity included in a set of production data is observed programmatically. A data that represents the data entity is included in a data transfer guide at least in part programmatically. |
| US09870240B2 |
Dynamic code injection
Embodiments of the present invention disclose an approach for inserting code into a running thread of execution. A computer sets a first set of bits to a first value, wherein the first value indicates that a first set of instructions should be inserted onto a stack. The computer executes a second set of instructions associated with a first safepoint, wherein the second set of instructions comprises one or more instructions to determine if the first set of bits is set to the first value. The computer determines that the first set of bits is set to the first value, and the computer inserts the first set of instructions onto the stack. |
| US09870234B2 |
Automatic identification of returned merchandise in a data center
A method and system for determining a device identifier assigned to a device within an installation of devices connected via a network is provided. A system determines the device identifier of a device that has been repaired and reinstalled so that the device can be placed in service. Upon receiving an indication that a repaired device has been reinstalled, the system requests and receives a possible device identifier of the repaired device from an interconnect device that connects the repaired device to the network. To verify that the possible device identifier is the actual device identifier, the system directs the repaired device to reboot so that it broadcasts its device identifier. When the repaired device reboots, it broadcasts its device identifier. Upon receiving the broadcast device identifier, the system verifies that the possible device identifier is the same as the broadcast device identifier. |
| US09870230B2 |
Method and apparatus for tuning a processor to improve its performance
A data processing apparatus comprising a processor for executing a data processing process and a processor for executing a tuning process is disclosed. The data processing apparatus is arranged such that the tuning process which is a different process to the data processing process can access the parameters of speculative mechanisms of the data processing process and tune the parameters so that the mechanisms speculate differently and in this way the performance of this data processing process can be improved. |
| US09870228B2 |
Prioritising of instruction fetching in microprocessor systems
A method and a system are provided for prioritising the fetching of instructions for each of a plurality of executing instruction threads in a multi-threaded processor. Instructions come from at least one source of instructions. Each thread has a number of threads buffered for execution in an instruction buffer. A first metric for each thread is determined based on the number of instructions currently buffered. A second metric is then determined for each thread, this being an execution based metric. A priority order for the threads is determined from the first and second metrics, and an instruction is fetched from the source for the thread with the highest determined priority which is requesting an instruction. |
| US09870226B2 |
Control of switching between executed mechanisms
A data processing apparatus includes a first execution mechanism, such as an out-of-order processing circuitry, and a second execution mechanism 6 such as an in-order processing circuitry. Switching control circuitry controls switching between which of the first execution circuitry and the second execution circuitry is active at a given time. Latency indicating signals indicative of the latency associated with a candidate switching operation to be performed are supplied to the switching control circuitry and used to control the switching operation. The control of the switching operation may be to accelerate the switching operation, prevent the switching operation, perform early architectural state data transfer or other possibilities. |
| US09870221B2 |
Providing code change job sets of different sizes to validators
Examples disclosed herein relate to providing code change job sets of different sizes to validators. Examples include placing a plurality of jobs in a queue, each job including at least one code change requested to be committed to shared code. Examples further include providing job sets of different sizes to a plurality of validators, each of the job sets comprising a consecutive group of one or more of the jobs in the queue at a given time and beginning with the job at the front of the queue at the given time. |
| US09870218B2 |
Methods and systems for upgrading and installing application packages to an application platform
Systems and methods for installing and upgrading application packages to an application platform. Application packages may be uploaded to a directory by developing users (developers) for installation by subscribing users (subscribers). Alternatively, a developer may send identification information to a subscribing user to allow that user to access and install that application package created by the developer. Application packages may also be upgraded. If a developer changes the original source package, a subscriber can choose to pull into their organization the change(s) made by the publisher while preserving any data rows the subscriber had created since first importing the package. |
| US09870214B2 |
Method for downloading a program
A method for downloading a program having at least one file from at least one service terminal to a user terminal is disclosed. The method includes the following steps of segmenting the at least one file into a plurality of blocks, and arranging the plurality of blocks according to a particular read order of the program, wherein the plurality of blocks include a first block and a second block; transmitting the first block to the user terminal; and executing the first block at the user terminal before the second block is transmitted to the user terminal. |
| US09870211B2 |
High-level language for specifying configurations of cloud-based deployments
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for high-level language for specifying configurations of cloud-based deployments. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a configuration specification for configuring a cloud-based deployment, the configuration specification being written in a specification language and requiring instantiation of respective class definitions of one or more classes, each class modeling a respective data or functional component of the cloud-based deployment using a group of configurable class parameters, and the respective class definition of each class representing a requested state of the data or functional component modeled by the class; deriving a plurality of application programming interface (API) calls for configuring the cloud-based deployment based on the class definitions of the one or more classes; causing the plurality of API calls to be executed to configure the cloud-based deployment. |
| US09870210B2 |
Partition mobility for partitions with extended code
A partition mobility facility in which a partition that is executing one or more applications that have optimized code with one or more extended features is to be moved from a source system to a target system. If the target system does not support the extended mode features, then action is taken to remove the code having those features to facilitate migration. |
| US09870209B2 |
Instruction and logic for reducing data cache evictions in an out-of-order processor
A processor includes a resource scheduler, a dispatcher, and a memory execution unit. The memory execution unit includes logic to identify an executed, unretired store operation in a memory ordered buffer, determine that the store operation is speculative, determine whether an associated cache line in a data cache is non-speculative, and determine whether to block a write of the store operation results to the data cache based upon the determination that the store operation is speculative and a determination that the associated cache line is non-speculative. |
| US09870207B2 |
Software development using re-usable software components
A component selector may select a first software component stored in a software component library in conjunction with a first annotation, the first annotation being linked to a second annotation of a second software component via a link. An evaluation engine may evaluate a property expressed by the first annotation relative to a requirement expressed by the second annotation, and thereby verify compliance of the first software component and the second software component for inclusion within a software application being developed. A component update monitor may re-verify the compliance, based on an update to at least one of the first software component and the second software component. |
| US09870202B2 |
Business object model layer interface
A method includes identifying a plurality of consumption layer objects, at least two of the plurality of consumption layer objects being associated with a different framework and each of the plurality of consumption layer objects include a plurality of business objects, generating a plurality of interface objects each corresponding to a framework, each of the plurality of interface objects being configured to translate each of the business objects to a common intermediate representation, associating metadata with the plurality of interface objects, and associating a runtime interface with the plurality of interface objects. |
| US09870201B1 |
Method and apparatus for modulo arithmetic
The procedure of finding the remainder of a division is referred to as modulo operation. Modulo arithmetic is used in many applications. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable faster and less complex implementation of modulo arithmetic for a certain class of numbers. |
| US09870199B2 |
Generating compact representations of high-dimensional data
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for augmenting neural networks with an external memory. One of the methods includes receiving a plurality of high-dimensional data items; generating a circulant embedding matrix for the high-dimensional data items, wherein the circulant embedding matrix is a matrix that is fully specified by a single vector; for each high-dimensional data item, generating a compact representation of the high-dimensional data item, comprising computing a product of the circulant embedding matrix and the high dimensional data item by performing a circular convolution of the single vector that fully specifies the circulant embedding matrix and the high dimensional data item using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT); and generating a compact representation of the high dimensional data item by computing a binary map of the computed product. |
| US09870198B2 |
Method and system of illustrating audio signal strength
A method of illustrating audio signal strength includes at a portable computer device having one or more processors and memory storing programs executed by the one or more processors, collecting audio signal using the portable computer device; determining strength of the collected audio signal; computing an illustrative scale that corresponds to the audio signal strength using a mapping function; and superimposing the audio signal strength with the illustrative scale on a graphic area, wherein the graphic area includes an initial sub-area. |
| US09870196B2 |
Selective aborting of online processing of voice inputs in a voice-enabled electronic device
Online processing of a voice input directed to a voice-enabled electronic device is selectively aborted whenever it is determined that a voice input directed to the voice-enabled electronic device can be successfully processed locally by the device. Doing so may in some instances reduce the latency of responding to a voice input. |
| US09870195B2 |
Portable presentation system and methods for use therewith
A system and method for establishing a conference session between a plurality of presentation devices including at least first and second presentation devices, the method comprising the steps of creating a conference session involving the first presentation device and at least one other presentation device, the first presentation device comprising at least one first display device on which content to be shared is displayed, for at least the second presentation device that includes at least one second display device, upon successful joining to the conference session, automatically sharing content displayed on the first display device with the second presentation device for display on the second display device and displaying a representation on the first display device identifying the other presentation devices that are successfully joined to the conference session. |
| US09870192B2 |
Systems and methods for providing adapted multi-monitor topology support in a virtualization environment
A server is provided for providing adaptive displaying on a plurality of display devices in a virtualization environment. The server includes a communication device configured to receive capabilities data associated with a plurality of graphics processing units (GPUs) of a client device. The plurality of GPUs include at least one GPU that has at least one different capability from the other GPUs. The server also includes a display driver configured to generate a plurality of display adapters based on the capabilities data. Each of the display adapters corresponds to one of the plurality of GPUs. The server further includes a window compositor configured to generate command data using the plurality of display adapters. The communication device is further configured to provide the command data to the client device. The command data are adapted to the capabilities of one or more of the plurality of GPUs. |
| US09870184B2 |
Information processing apparatus combining multiple filters, recording medium, and control method
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a first filter configured to merge first print setting information of a first hierarchical level and second print setting information of a second hierarchical level to generate and store third print setting information, wherein the second hierarchical level is lower than the first hierarchical level; and a second filter subsequent to the first filter configured to acquire the third print setting information stored in the first filter. |
| US09870182B2 |
Information processing apparatus, printing system, and information processing method, configured to present acquired setting values as candidate setting values in print setting interface
An information processing apparatus includes circuitry. The circuitry is configured to provide a print setting interface for setting print setting values for various print setting items, acquire, as specific print setting data, a specific print setting item having many print setting values to be set, among the print setting items, and a specific print setting value set for the specific print setting item, acquire a relevant print setting value set for a relevant print setting item associated with the specific print setting item, acquire the specific print setting value associated with the relevant print setting value among print setting values registered in both the specific print setting data and history print setting data that is the print setting values set for the print setting items, and present the acquired specific print setting value in the print setting interface as a candidate for the specific print setting value. |
| US09870181B2 |
Method of causing a printer to carry out a printing operation with decolorable material
A printer driver that is executable in a computer causes the computer to carry out a process including the steps of reading a first number of copies of a document to be printed with a decolorable material and a second number of copies of the document to be printed with a non-decolorable material, and generating a print command for a printer that causes the printer to print the first number of copies with the decolorable material and the second number of copies with the non-decolorable material. |
| US09870178B2 |
Communication device, and method and computer readable medium for the same
A communication device including a processor configured to, when executing processor-executable instructions stored in a storage unit, perform determining a first configurable range including setting values stored in the storage unit, acquiring, from an image processing apparatus via a communication unit, a second configurable range including setting values for image processing executable by the image processing apparatus, determining whether the first configurable range is equal to the second configurable range, when determining that the first configurable range is equal to the second configurable range, transmitting an image processing instruction to perform an image processing operation according to the setting values of the first configurable range stored in the storage unit, to the image processing apparatus via the communication unit, and when determining that the first configurable range is different from the second configurable range, restricting transmission of the image processing instruction to the image processing apparatus. |
| US09870170B2 |
Memory controller, memory system and memory control method
According to one embodiment, a memory controller includes a first volatile memory, a second volatile memory, and a controller. The first volatile memory temporarily stores therein data acquired from outside. The controller controls the temporarily stored data to be transferred from the first volatile memory to a non-volatile memory, stores correspondence information of the transferred data to the non-volatile memory in the second volatile memory, and updates correspondence information stored in the non-volatile memory based on the correspondence information stored in the second volatile memory by using the first volatile memory after the data transfer as a work area. The correspondence information represents association between a logical address and a physical address of the data. |
| US09870167B2 |
Systems and methods of storing data
A device includes a memory and a controller coupled to the memory. The controller is configured to process data to form codewords and to send the codewords to the memory to be stored at locations of the memory that are restricted based on a non-adjacency pattern. |
| US09870166B2 |
Securely sharing cached data
Various embodiments of a system and method for securely caching and sharing image data. A process can generate image data and store the image data into the protected cache using a UUID that is cryptographically derived from the image data. Any process with access to the UUID may retrieve the image data. Because the UUID is uniquely derived from the actual data of the generated file, a process will only be able to retrieve image data that could have been generated by a process associated with the user account, or from a process associated with a user account that could have generated the image data, or that otherwise has a record of the image data. |
| US09870165B2 |
Back-up and restoration of data between volatile and flash memory
A method and system are provided for back-up and restoration of data between volatile and flash memory. The method for controlling back-up of data to flash memory includes: organizing back-up data into stripes, wherein a stripe is a set of pages across all available flash memory devices, dies and planes which have the same block and page address; maintaining metadata indicating locations of known bad planes and grown bad planes; using the metadata when writing back-up data to determine which planes to send cache program commands to; and sending cache program commands to three or more stripes of data simultaneously including providing an indication in the stripe that the stripe is handling a cache program command. If a grown bad block is encountered whilst saving a stripe of data, the stripe of data is re-written to the next available page address avoiding the grown bad block. |
| US09870161B2 |
Computation processing device and control method thereof
In order to ensure that a normally-off computer connected to a volatile component operates normally and rapidly after operation of turning-on/off of a power supply is executed, a computation processing device which has nonvolatile registers and which is able to continue processing of data retained in the device after the power supply is turned off/on without retracting the data to an external device includes at least: a central processing unit including the nonvolatile registers; a connection unit for a volatile component which saves internal information in a volatile storage element thereof; a nonvolatile storage unit for saving a return program from a power-off state of the volatile component; and an inspection unit notifying that a potential of the power supply in the computation processing device has reached an operation potential at a time of return. The central processing unit loads the return program from the nonvolatile storage unit in response to a notification signal from the inspection unit and executes it. |
| US09870155B2 |
Information processing device including host device and semiconductor memory device having a block rearrangement to secure free blocks
A device includes a host including a main memory, and semiconductor memory including a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, memory unit, and controller. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory stores first address information. The memory unit stores second address information as part of the first address information. The controller accesses the nonvolatile semiconductor memory based on the second address information. Third address information is stored in the main memory, and is part or all of the first address information. The controller uses the third address information when accessing the nonvolatile semiconductor memory if address information to be referred is not stored in the second address information. |
| US09870152B2 |
Management system and management method for managing data units constituting schemas of a database
A management system manages a plurality of data units constituting schemas of a database in a storage device, which includes a plurality of first storage device sets having a plurality of storage areas. An ordered schema constituted of the plurality of data units having order properties defining respective orders is included in the schemas. When a second storage device set, which is a set of one or more second storage devices and in which each of the storage areas is a free storage area, is added to the first storage device set, the management system migrates two or more data units not consecutive in the order among a plurality of data units stored in the plurality of storage areas in the first storage device set respectively from at least the one first storage device set to the free storage areas of the second storage device set. |
| US09870151B1 |
Backup time deduplication of common virtual disks from virtual machine backup images
Various techniques deduplicate common virtual disks during backups of virtual machines. For example, one method involves receiving a request to perform a backup operation to backup one or more virtual machine and then performing the backup operation in response to receiving the request. Performing the backup operation involves detecting whether a virtual disk associated with a virtual machine is already identified in a backup catalog for the backup operation, based upon a globally unique identifier associated with the virtual disk, and selecting to create a reference to a backup copy of the virtual disk instead of creating another copy of the virtual disk, if the backup catalog already identifies the virtual disk. Performing the backup operation can also involve accessing information identifying a hierarchy of virtual disks. |
| US09870141B2 |
Gesture recognition
Gesture recognition is described. In one example, gestures performed by a user of an input device having a touch-sensitive portion are detected using a definition of a number of regions corresponding to zones on the touch-sensitive portion, each region being associated with a distinct set of gestures. Data describing movement of the user's digits on the touch-sensitive portion is received, and an associated region for the data determined. The data is compared to the associated region's set of gestures, and a gesture applicable to the data selected. A command associated with the selected gesture can then be executed. In an example, comparing the data to the set of gestures comprises positioning a threshold for each gesture relative to the start of the digit's movement. The digit's location is compared to each threshold to determine whether a threshold has been crossed, and, if so, selecting the gesture associated with that threshold. |
| US09870139B2 |
Portable apparatus and method for sharing content with remote device thereof
A method for sharing content in a portable apparatus with a remote device includes receiving user interaction with a document targeted for photographing through a camera of the portable apparatus; and transmitting information of a content corresponding to the document with at least one remote device so as to correspond to the user interaction with the document. The user interaction with the contents of the portable apparatus input through the camera is shared with the remote device. |
| US09870125B2 |
Auto scanning input method and apparatus
Some embodiments provide a novel auto-scanning method for navigating elements within a user interface (UI) of a computing device. This method associates the UI elements into several overlapping groups, with each group having more than one element and having at least one element in common with at least one other group. The method successively identifies a different group of elements as a selectable group for a different duration of time. While a group is selectable, a user can select the group through an input device or mechanism. If a user does not select a first group of elements that is selectable during a first time period, the method identifies a second group of elements as being selectable during a second time period. While identifying the second group as selectable during the second time period, the method identifies the first as not being selectable during this time period. When a user selects a group of elements while the group is identified as being selectable, the method successively identifies as selectable different elements within the selected group. Upon receiving selection of a particular element within the selected group, the method performs an action associated with the particular element. |
| US09870124B2 |
Communications grouped as conversations
Described are embodiments for displaying groups of communications, such as messages, as a conversation. Conversations are groups of communications that can be traced back as related to an original communication. The embodiments allow a user to select a conversation mode for displaying communications, e.g., messages, as conversations. In response to the user's selection, embodiments provide for displaying a graphical element associated with a conversation. The graphical element can be selected to display the messages associated with the conversation. Additionally, embodiments provide for selecting a conversation and applying actions to the conversation, resulting in the application of the action to the messages that are associated with the conversation. |
| US09870123B1 |
Selecting a picture of a device to identify an associated codeset
A home entertainment device eliminates the need to use multiple remotes. The device is connected (by wired and/or wireless links) to electronic consumer devices (ECDs) to be controlled. A user uses a portable display device to view pages served by the device, and thereby to communicate with the device and indirectly control the ECDs. In a first aspect, a HDMI-CEC communication is used to identify a codeset from a codeset database. In a second aspect, the codeset of a remote is identified by serving pictures of remotes to the user. The user selects a picture and the system looks up its codeset. In a third aspect, keys on an illustration of a remote are dragged and dropped to create a new custom remote. In a fourth aspect, the user supplies a digital photograph of a remote. The system performs optical recognition and identifies the type of remote and its codeset. |
| US09870117B2 |
Processing apparatus and method for controlling the same
Disclosed is a processing apparatus, which makes it possible to make a cursor automatically move by employing a pointing device. The processing apparatus includes a control section and a processing section that implements processing under the controlling operations conducted by the control section. The control section is provided with: a display controlling function that controls the displaying operations on the screen; a processing implementation controlling function that implements the processing corresponding to the object designated by the cursor; a status change detecting function that detects a status change against which it is necessary to implement a processing operation; and an automatic cursor moving function that conducts the controlling operations so as to automatically move the cursor to the object corresponding to the processing operation being necessary for the status change concerned, or a processing implementation position display, at which the necessary processing operation should be implemented against the status change. |
| US09870111B2 |
Touchscreen panel with driving electrodes connected to a plurality of lead lines extending in parallel to sensing electrodes
A touchscreen panel according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a transparent substrate (101); a first electrically conductive layer (12) supported on the transparent substrate, the first electrically conductive layer including a plurality of sensing electrodes (12S) extending along a first direction; and a second electrically conductive layer (14) including a plurality of driving electrodes (14D) extending along a second direction intersecting the first direction, the plurality of driving electrodes being electrically insulated from the plurality of sensing electrodes. The plurality of sensing electrodes and the plurality of driving electrodes define a sensor array region (10A), the sensor array region including a plurality of sensor portions (10S) arranged in a matrix array. The first electrically conductive layer further includes a plurality of lead lines (12Dt) extending essentially in parallel to the first direction within the sensor array region. Each of the plurality of driving electrodes is connected to at least one of the plurality of lead lines, and terminals of the plurality of sensing electrodes and terminals of the plurality of lead lines are both provided in the neighborhood of the same edge of the transparent substrate that extends essentially in parallel to the second direction. |
| US09870109B2 |
Device and method for localized force and proximity sensing
Methods, systems and devices are described for operating an electronic system which includes a first plurality of sensor electrodes disposed in a first layer and configured to detect input objects at an input surface of the input device, the first plurality of sensor electrodes including a first subset of transmitter electrodes; a second plurality of sensor electrodes configured to detect a force imparted to the input surface and configured for capacitive coupling with the first subset of transmitter electrodes; and a compressible dielectric configured to compress in response to force applied to the input surface. The capacitive coupling between the transmitter electrodes and the second plurality of sensor electrodes is configured to vary in response to the applied force. |
| US09870106B2 |
Matrix of sensor units each comprising a first sensing element and a second sensing element
A novel input device that is highly convenient or reliable or a novel input/output device that is highly convenient or reliable. The following structure is contemplated. The input device includes sensor units that are arranged in a matrix and each include a window portion which transmits visible light, a light-transmitting first sensing element which includes an insulating layer and a pair of electrodes between which the insulating layer is interposed and overlaps with the window portion, a second sensing element which includes a photoelectric conversion element and does not overlap with the window portion, and a sensing circuit which supplies a sensing signal on the basis of a change in the parasitic capacitance of the first sensing element or on the basis of the current flowing through the second sensing element; and a base layer supporting the sensor units. |
| US09870105B2 |
Far-field sensing with a display device having an integrated sensing device
Embodiments of the present invention generally provide an input device comprising a display device integrated with a capacitive sensing device. The input device includes a plurality of transmitter electrodes, each transmitter electrode comprising one or more common electrodes configured to be driven for display updating and capacitive sensing, a plurality of near-field receiver electrodes configured to perform capacitive sensing in a near-field sensing region, and a plurality of far-field receiver electrodes configured to perform capacitive sensing in a far-field sensing region. The input device further includes a processing system coupled to the plurality of transmitter electrodes, the plurality of near-field receiver electrodes, and the plurality of far-field receiver electrodes. The processing system is configured to determine a near-field capacitive image based on the first resulting signals received from the near-field receiver electrodes and determine a far-field capacitive image based on the second resulting signals received from the far-field receiver electrodes. |
| US09870101B2 |
Operating device for vehicle having a screen with an operating surface and a projecting unit configured to project an image on the screen
An operating device for a vehicle includes a screen having an operating surface, the screen being configured such that a region of the screen including a portion of the screen to which an operating force is applied is deformed in a direction in which the operating force is applied, in accordance with the operating force applied to the operating surface; a projecting unit configured to project an image onto the screen; a detecting unit configured to detect, as an operating position, the portion of the screen to which the operating force is applied and which is deformed due to the applied operating force; and a processing unit configured to perform predetermined processing associated with a portion of the image projected onto the screen, based on a result of detection performed by the detecting unit, the portion of the image corresponding to the operating position. |
| US09870099B2 |
Pressure sensing display
A device includes an electronic display supported in a display chassis, a digitizer sensor overlaid on the electronic display, a circuit configured to detected touch interaction with the digitizer sensor based on output sampled and a display controller configured to control output on the electronic display. The electronic display includes an electrostatic discharge (ESD) shield layer. The ESD shield layer is electrically connected to device ground and the impedance to the device ground of the ESD shield layer is configured to be sensitive to pressure applied on the digitizer sensor during user interaction. The digitizer sensor output is sensitive to the change in the impedance of ESD shield layer to the device ground. |
| US09870094B2 |
Touch sensitive device
A method of calibrating a touch sensitive device comprising a touch-sensitive screen; a plurality of transducers mounted to the screen and a processor, the method comprising inputting a signal into the screen at a test position on the screen whereby the screen is excited into vibration; detecting vibration in the screen using the plurality of transducers; and processing, in the processor of the touch-sensitive device, the detected vibration to generate an output signal for each of the plurality of transducers whereby when the transducers are driven by the output signals the screen is excited to generate a desired haptics sensation at the test position. |
| US09870093B2 |
System and method for improving touch screen display use under vibration and turbulence
A method and system for improving touch screen display use during vibration and turbulence conditions is provided. The system includes a sensor configured to transmit a first input signal relative to a measured parameter of the vehicle, a touch screen input and display system configured to transmit a second input signal relative to a manual input by a user. The touch screen input and display system includes a planar input and viewing surface having a plurality of edges and a bezel at least partially surrounding the surface proximate at least some of the plurality of edges. The bezel includes a surface configured to engage one or more digits of one or more hands of a user and is formed of an elastomeric material. The system also includes an input unit configured to receive the transmitted first and second input signals. |
| US09870090B2 |
Array substrate, touch display device and driving method thereof
The disclosure provides an array substrate, a touch display device and a driving method thereof. The array substrate includes a display region and a peripheral region. The display region includes a plurality of scan lines and the peripheral region comprises a gate electrode driving circuit and a touch driving circuit, the gate electrode driving circuit includes a plurality of stages of shift registers. Each of the plurality of stages of shift registers corresponds to and is electrically connected to one of the plurality of scan lines. The plurality of stages of shift registers are disposed at one side or two sides of the peripheral region. The shift registers disposed at at least one side of the peripheral region are divided into N groups of shift registers. The touch driving circuit includes N groups of touch selection outputting units corresponding to the N groups of shift registers. |
| US09870085B2 |
Pointer control method and electronic device thereof
A pointer control method and an apparatus in an electronic device are provided. The pointer control method in the electronic device includes detecting a multi touch, determining a coordinate of a pointer based on the multi-touched points, and displaying the pointer at the determined coordinate. |
| US09870084B2 |
Touch panel apparatus and electronic apparatus providing tactile feedback to an operator
A touch panel apparatus is provided with a strain gauge sensor (16), a piezoelectric element (17), and a control unit (1). The strain gauge sensor (16) detects the pressing force to be applied to a touch panel (12) when a select-execute function key (18) is operated. The piezoelectric element (17) makes the touch panel (12) vibrate. The control unit (1) changes the function to be selected with the operation of the select-execute function key (18), in accordance with the pressing force detected by a pressing force detection unit (20), and when an arbitrary function is continued to be selected for a prescribed period of time (T0), the function that is continued to be selected is executed. The control unit also makes, each time the function is changed, the touch panel (12) vibrate with a first vibration pattern by controlling the piezoelectric element (17), and makes, when a function is to be executed, the touch panel (12) vibrate with a second vibration pattern that is different from the first vibration pattern by controlling the piezoelectric element (17). |
| US09870078B2 |
Touch panel device controlling method and touch panel device
A touch panel device controlling method for controlling a first touch panel device which comprises: establishing a touch communications connection sequence, wherein the touch communications connection sequence comprises a plurality of touch communications connections between the first touch panel device and at least one second touch panel device; and performing a predetermined operation of the first touch panel device based on the touch communications connection sequence. |
| US09870073B2 |
Position detection device, projector, and position detection method
A position detection device capable of preventing an operation that is not intended by an operator from being detected as an input is provided. The position detection device includes: a detecting section that detects an indicator that performs an operation with respect to a screen, and an indicator different from the indicator; an imaging section that forms a captured image obtained by imaging a range including the screen; and a control section that detects a motion of the indicator with respect to the screen and a position of the indicator with respect to the screen based on data on the captured image of the imaging section to determine whether or not to detect an operation based on the indicator as an input. |
| US09870072B2 |
Touch device structure having through holes
A digitizer includes a first substrate, a first electrode on the first substrate, a first insulating layer on the first electrode, and a second electrode on the first insulating layer. The first insulating layer is formed therein with a through hole to expose the first electrode, and the first and second electrodes make contact with each other through the through hole. |
| US09870067B2 |
Input device for arabic letters
The invention is an input device for Arabic letters installed on key pads of the electrical devices. Arabic letters are divided into the main letters which are the common letter parts or bases of each Arabic letters and the subscripts to be added on the main letters, and inputting operation is implemented in a way that the main letters is inputted first, and the subscripts is inputted later, so the consistency of the input method is maintained, and the number of key operating could be minimized without increasing the number of key. |
| US09870062B2 |
Methods and systems for defining gestures for a user interface
A method performed at an electronic device with a utility for prototyping a user interface having one or more layers includes, in the utility: for each image of one or more images in the user interface, selecting an image patch, selecting a layer patch, and coupling an image output of the image patch to an image input of the layer patch; selecting a gesture patch and specifying a gesture for the gesture patch; coupling an output of the gesture patch to an input of a first layer patch; generating the user interface for display in accordance with the couplings; receiving user-interaction data for manipulating the user interface, the user-interaction data corresponding to the gesture; and in response to the user-interaction data, updating display of the user interface in accordance with the user-interaction data and the gesture patch as coupled to the first layer patch. |
| US09870056B1 |
Hand and hand pose detection
Techniques for detecting a hand of a user and a pose of the hand are described herein. In some instances, as a user interacts with a computing system through various hand signals, the hand of the user and pose of the hand (e.g., position and orientation) may be detected. To detect a hand, a point set may be analyzed to identify local extremum points (e.g., peaks and valleys) along an outer boundary of the point set. The local extremum points may then be used to identify a potential hand segment including one or more potential finger segments and/or a potential palm segment. When the potential hand segment satisfies one or more criteria, a hand may be detected. To detect a hand pose, an observed pose of the hand segment may be compared to one or more hand pose models. |
| US09870053B2 |
Systems and methods for haptic feedback using laterally driven piezoelectric actuators
Systems and methods for haptic feedback using laterally driven piezoelectric actuators are disclosed. For example, one described apparatus for haptic feedback using laterally driven piezoelectric actuators includes: a base; a touch-sensitive interface comprising an interface surface, the touch-sensitive interface affixed to the base and configured to move in a direction lateral to the interface surface; and a piezoelectric actuator mounted to the base and to the touch-sensitive interface and configured to receive a haptic signal and output a force in a direction lateral to the interface surface. |
| US09870051B2 |
Gaze direction mapping
A method for determining correspondence between a gaze direction and an environment around a wearable device is disclosed. The wearable device may include an eye tracking device and an outward facing image sensor. The method may include receiving an input parameter and at least one scene image from the outward facing image sensor. The method may further include determining, with at least the eye tracking device, at least one gaze direction of a wearer of the wearable device at a point in time corresponding to when the scene image was captured by the outward facing image sensor. The method may additionally include determining, based at least in part on the input parameter, that a particular scene image includes at least a portion of a predefined image. The method may moreover include determining, based on the at least one gaze direction, at least one gaze point on the particular scene image. |
| US09870049B2 |
Reflective lenses to auto-calibrate a wearable system
Example embodiments include a lens having an IR-reflective coating that is selectively applied to form a variable infrared (IR) interaction pattern on the lens. The variable IR interaction pattern may vary in the manner it interacts with IR wavelengths, so as to provide a machine-readable code when the lens is illuminated by IR light. Accordingly, variable IR interaction patterns may be used to identify particular lenses. Accordingly, a glasses-style, modular, head-mountable device (HMD) may identify which of a number of different possible lenses are currently attached to the HMD, and update certain processes according to the lens or lenses is or are attached. For example, an HMD may calibrate an eye-tracking process according to the particular lens that is attached. |
| US09870047B2 |
Power efficient processor architecture
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for receiving an interrupt from an accelerator, sending a resume signal directly to a small core responsive to the interrupt and providing a subset of an execution state of the large core to the first small core, and determining whether the small core can handle a request associated with the interrupt, and performing an operation corresponding to the request in the small core if the determination is in the affirmative, and otherwise providing the large core execution state and the resume signal to the large core. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09870045B2 |
Reducing power consumption in a multi-slice computer processor
Reducing power consumption in a multi-slice computer processor that includes a re-order buffer and an architected register file, including: designating an entry in the re-order buffer as being invalid and unwritten; assigning a pending instruction to the entry in the re-order buffer; responsive to assigning the pending instruction to the entry in the re-order buffer, designating the entry as being valid; writing data generated by executing the pending instruction into the re-order buffer; and responsive to writing data generated by executing the pending instruction into the re-order buffer, designating the entry as being written. |
| US09870042B2 |
Apparatus and method managing power based on data
A processing apparatus for managing power based on data is provided. The processing apparatus may obtain, in response to an access request from a processor for particular data stored in a memory, existing power information having a predefined correspondence to the particular data, and control a power mode of the processor based on the existing power information. |
| US09870041B2 |
Integrated multi-touch surface having varying sensor granularity
This relates to an event sensing device that includes an event sensing panel and is able to dynamically change the granularity of the panel according to present needs. Thus, the granularity of the panel can differ at different times of operation. Furthermore, the granularity of specific areas of the panel can also be dynamically changed, so that different areas feature different granularities at a given time. This also relates to panels that feature different inherent granularities in different portions thereof. These panels can be designed, for example, by placing more stimulus and/or data lines in different portions of the panel, thus ensuring different densities of pixels in the different portions. Optionally, these embodiments can also include the dynamic granularity changing features noted above. |
| US09870039B2 |
Reducing power consumption in a multi-slice computer processor
Reducing power consumption in a multi-slice computer processor that includes a re-order buffer and an architected register file, including: designating an entry in the re-order buffer as being invalid and unwritten; assigning a pending instruction to the entry in the re-order buffer; responsive to assigning the pending instruction to the entry in the re-order buffer, designating the entry as being valid; writing data generated by executing the pending instruction into the re-order buffer; and responsive to writing data generated by executing the pending instruction into the re-order buffer, designating the entry as being written. |
| US09870037B2 |
Method and apparatus for collaborative power and thermal control of fan run time average power limiting
A method for allocating power within an information handling system (IHS) includes: monitoring power consumed by components within the IHS; monitoring thermal state of the components; evaluating power demand and cooling demand for each of the components; and adjusting power allocated to at least one of a computing resource and system cooling according to results of the evaluating. An information handling system (IHS) and a controller that both perform similar processes are disclosed. |
| US09870036B2 |
Affinity-aware parallel zeroing of memory for initialization of large pages in non-uniform memory access (NUMA) servers
A method for zeroing memory in computing systems where access to memory is non-uniform includes receiving, via a system call, a request for a pool of memory. The method also includes determining a size of the requested pool of memory, and creating a dummy memory segment. The size of the dummy memory segment is larger than the size of the requested pool of memory. The method further includes filling the dummy memory segment with one or more pages, based on the determined size of the requested pool of memory, and deleting the dummy memory segment. |
| US09870035B2 |
Device for high density connections
A device is described. The device includes a daughterboard having a first distinct side and a second distinct side. A first connector on the first distinct side is attached to a first baseboard. A second connector on the second distinct side is attached to a second baseboard. A method for attaching a daughterboard to a second device is described. Connectors are included on opposing distinct sides of the daughterboard. The second device includes baseboards mechanically secured in parallel by lead screw actuators. As part of the method, the lead screw actuators are actuated so as to move the baseboards away from each other. A first connector is attached to one of the baseboards. The lead screw actuators are again actuated so as to move the baseboards toward each other until a second connector is brought into attachment with the other of the baseboards. |
| US09870033B1 |
Sensor assemblies for electronic devices
Sensor assemblies for electronic devices are described. According to some embodiments, the sensor assemblies include solid-state sensors, such as capacitive sensors, piezoelectric sensors or piezoresistive sensors. The sensor assemblies can include a number of features that provide a compact profile, making them well suited for integration into small spaces of electronic device enclosures. The sensor assemblies can also include features that isolate movement of various parts of the sensor assemblies, allowing for accurate detection of a sensing event. According to some embodiments, the sensor assemblies are coupled to haptic actuators, speaker, or both, which mimic the feel of a mechanical button and enhance a user's experience. |
| US09870032B2 |
Electronic device and hinge unit
The electrical device includes a coupling member, a supporting member, a rotation section, a moving member, and a biasing member. The coupling member is provided at a first casing, and is formed with the rotation shaft. The supporting member is provided at a second casing, and is formed with a shaft hole into which the rotation shaft is inserted. The rotation section is provided at the rotation shaft, and is formed with a recessed portion open toward the outside in the radial direction of the rotation shaft. The moving member includes a protruding portion to engage with the recessed portion, and moves in the radial direction at the outside of the shaft hole. The biasing member biases the moving member toward the rotation center of the rotation shaft. |
| US09870030B2 |
Detachable keyboard structure
A detachable keyboard structure includes a keyboard assembly selectively mounted to a notebook computer, a movable cover movably mounted to one side of the keyboard assembly, at least one flexible bendable section connecting the keyboard assembly and the movable cover to each other, and a positioning member rotatably mounted to one side of the movable cover that is distant from the flexible bendable section to fix the movable cover to one side of the keyboard assembly. With such a structure, a user is provided, on a detachable keyboard assembly of a notebook computer, with a movable cover that offers functions of protection and is fixable by a positioning member to prevent undesired detachment during movement of the keyboard assembly. In addition, in use, the movable cover may be folded in a reversed direction through the flexible bendable section to serve as a wrist support for the keyboard assembly. |
| US09870028B2 |
Universal dock for context sensitive computing device
A dock for interacting with a computing device. The computing device configures itself for operations based on its context, which may be determined form the dock by reading a value from a tag on the dock. The computing device may use low power transmissions such that receiving a value from the tag provides an indication of proximity to the dock. The value read provides an indication of a desired operation, and, in response to reading a value of the tag, the computing device may launch an application, pair with devices in the vicinity of the dock, or take other actions that configure the computing device. A universal dock, usable with computing devices of a plurality of form factors, may be implemented by providing an array of tags and, in some cases, a non-contact power supply. |
| US09870026B2 |
Ergonomic holder and method for handheld support of a tablet computer
An ergonomic holder and method of supporting a tablet computer by hand includes a base and a handle. The base is configured to operatively connect to the tablet computer for supporting the tablet computer thereon. The handle projects from the base. The handle also at least partially defines a forefinger sleeve and at least partially defines a thumb sleeve for receiving a forefinger and a thumb of the hand. The forefinger sleeve projects relative to the thumb sleeve such that the forefinger sleeve and the thumb sleeve intersect at a predetermined gripping angle for supporting the tablet computer in a plurality of hand positions. |
| US09870025B1 |
Display case
A display case includes a transparent LCD panel for viewing display case contents therethrough. |
| US09870024B2 |
Camera integrated into a display
Certain aspects of the technology disclosed herein integrate a camera with an electronic display. An electronic display includes several layers, such as a cover layer, a color filter layer, a display layer including light emitting diodes or organic light emitting diodes, a thin film transistor layer, etc. In one embodiment, the layers include a substantially transparent region disposed above the camera. The substantially transparent region allows light from outside to reach the camera, enabling the camera to record an image. In another embodiment, the color filter layer does not include a substantially transparent region, and the camera records the light from the outside colored by the color filter layer. According to another embodiment, while none of the layers include a substantially transparent region, the layers are all substantially transparent, and the camera disposed beneath the layers records light reaching the camera from outside. |
| US09870020B2 |
Accelerator pedal unit
An accelerator pedal unit is known comprising an accelerator pedal, an actuator, and a control shaft via which the actuator can transmit a restoring torque to the accelerator pedal. The accelerator pedal unit can generate an additional restoring force which acts on the accelerator pedal, for example in order to regulate or limit the speed of a vehicle or to function as a warning device in the event of speeding. In the accelerator pedal unit according to the invention, the actuator is mechanically decoupled from the accelerator pedal. According to the invention, the torque of the control shaft (3) is transmitted to the accelerator pedal (1) via a damping element (10). |
| US09870018B2 |
Manoeuvring element with integrated locking means
A maneuvering element consisting of a crank provided at one end with a protruding handle and at the other end with a hollow bush which actuates a rotation transmission shaft and furthermore providedwith a safety system, consisting of a button housed within a cavity obtained in the crank for the actuation of a locking pin, and with the buton there is associated a retaining feature of the locking pin axially controlled by the button and apt to rotate between a fastening position and an unlocking position. |
| US09870013B2 |
Energy storage method and system to power functional safety diagnostic subsystem
Disclosed is an industrial automation control system, method and apparatus and method of operation including a diagnostic domain subsystem powered by an energy storage subsystem. According to an exemplary embodiment, a diagnostic domain subsystem is configured to perform diagnostics of one or more conditions associated with a functional domain subsystem, where the energy storage subsystem powers the diagnostic subsystem during a normal mode of operation and the energy storage subsystem powers the diagnostic domain and functional domain during a power failure mode and/or power cycling mode. |
| US09870009B2 |
HVAC system with improved control switching
An HVAC switching circuit may comprise a current source circuit charging a capacitor used to power an HVAC DC power relay coil. The power relay coil terminal is connected to an activation control circuit which comprises at least one of (1) each of (a) a threshold circuit which activates a first transistor to energize the power relay coil when the voltage across the threshold circuit reaches a first threshold value and (b) a regenerative feedback circuit configured to lower the first threshold value to a second threshold voltage, and (2) a voltage divider connected between a first terminal on the power relay coil and the negative DC supply, and a programmable shunt regulator, configured as a level triggered switch, programmed by the voltage divider and connected between the second power relay coil terminal and the negative DC supply. |
| US09870008B2 |
Systems and methods for limiting DC voltage
Disclosed are exemplary embodiments of systems and methods for limiting DC voltage. In an exemplary embodiment, a DC voltage limiting circuit generally includes a current supply portion configured to receive a voltage input signal and provide a voltage output signal. A protective portion of the circuit is configured to limit or halt, at least temporarily, operation of the current supply portion based on a magnitude of the voltage input signal. A voltage level control portion is configured to limit the voltage output signal to a predetermined voltage level. In some embodiments, the DC voltage limiting circuit is provided in a climate control system controller. |
| US09870007B2 |
Method of, and apparatus for, providing a gas mixture
There is provided a gas mixer arrangement comprising a first gas source for supplying a first gas; a second gas source for supplying a second gas different from said first gas; first and second flow regulation devices for regulating the respective flow of the first gas and second gases from the first and second gas sources; a mixer; and an outlet. The mixer is located downstream of the first and second flow regulation devices and arranged, in use, to mix the first and second gases to provide a mixed gas to the outlet. The gas mixer arrangement further comprises a meter comprising a first sensor assembly operable to determine the average molecular weight of the mixed gas and including a high-frequency planar piezoelectric crystal oscillator in contact with the mixed gas, a second sensor assembly operable to determine the pressure of the gas downstream of one of the first or second flow regulation devices, and a controller operable, in response to the average molecular weight of the mixed gas and said gas pressure, to control automatically said first and second flow regulation devices to control the relative proportion of the first and second gases in said mixed gas and the pressure or mass flow rate of the mixed gas from the outlet. |
| US09870006B2 |
Pressure type flow control system with flow monitoring
A pressure type flow control system with flow monitoring includes an inlet side passage, a control valve comprising a pressure-type flow control unit connected downstream of the inlet side passage, a thermal-type flow sensor connected downstream of the control valve, an orifice installed on a fluid passage connected downstream of the thermal-type flow sensor, a temperature sensor provided near the fluid passage between the control valve and orifice, a pressure sensor provided for the fluid passage between the control valve and orifice, an outlet side passage connected to the orifice, and a control unit comprising a pressure-type flow rate arithmetic and control unit to which a pressure signal from the pressure sensor and a temperature signal from the temperature sensor are input, and which computes a flow rate value of fluid flowing through the orifice, and outputs a control signal to a valve drive unit of the control valve. |
| US09870005B2 |
Apparatus for close formation flight
Embodiments of methods and apparatus for close formation flight are provided herein. In some embodiments, an apparatus for close formation flight, comprises a plurality of sensors for collecting measurements characterizing airflow near an aircraft. The plurality of sensors are attachable to at least one of a wing, fuselage, or tail of the aircraft, and the measurements provide information about airflow velocity in a direction transverse to a direction of the aircraft flight. |
| US09870003B2 |
Driverless vehicle
A processor-based electronic system for use in a vehicle may be used to automatically control the vehicle's velocity and position to cause the vehicle to automatically merge into a lane on a roadway or to maneuver around a road hazard or obstacle. A message can be transmitted to other vehicles indicating the vehicle is to occupy a future lane position at a future point in time. The vehicle electronic system may receive a message from one or more of the other vehicles in response thereto. One or more of the other vehicles may adjust their position based on the indicated future lane position. The vehicle electronic system may transmit a further message to the one or more of the other vehicles before merging into the lane. |
| US09870002B1 |
Velocity control of position-controlled motor controllers
An example system may include a motor, a position-controlled motor controller configured to drive the motor to a commanded position with a characteristic acceleration profile, and a control system. The control system may be configured to determine a target velocity for the motor. The control system may be additionally configured to determine a target position that, when commanded to the motor controller, is predicted to cause the motor controller to drive the motor with the target velocity at a target time point by driving the motor with the characteristic acceleration profile. Further, the control system may be configured to provide an instruction for execution by the position-controlled motor controller, the instruction may be configured to cause the motor controller to drive the motor to the target position. |
| US09870001B1 |
Automated vehicle operator skill evaluation system
An operator-evaluation system for an automated vehicle includes a traffic-detector and a controller. The traffic-detector is used to determine a complexity-ranking of a traffic-scenario approached by a host-vehicle. The controller is in communication with the traffic-detector and is configured to operate the host-vehicle in: an automated-mode where the controller steers the host-vehicle toward a desired-position of a travel-lane; a monitored-mode where an operator steers the host-vehicle and the controller assists the operator to steer the host-vehicle toward the desired-position when the host-vehicle is farther than a lateral-threshold from the desired-position; and a manual-mode where the operator steers the host-vehicle without assistance from the controller. The controller transitions from the automated-mode to the monitored-mode prior to arrival at the traffic-scenario to determine a skill-ranking of the operator relative to the complexity-ranking, and transitions from the automated-mode to the manual-mode when the complexity-ranking is less than the skill-ranking of the operator. |
| US09870000B2 |
Methods and systems for translating an emergency system alert signal to an automated flight system maneuver
Systems, methods and apparatus are provided for translating an alert signal into an auto flight system (AFS) maneuver. The system comprises a first module. The first module is configured to receive an alert signal and to construct one or more AFS mode commands associated with the alert signal. The system also comprises a second module. The second module is configured to read and to execute the one or more AFS mode commands that when executed manipulate two or more standard AFS modes that implement the AFS maneuver. The system further comprises a state machine, which couples the first module to the second module and is configured to coordinate the construction of the one or more AFS mode commands by the first module with an execution of the one or more AFS mode commands by the second module. |
| US09869994B2 |
Simulation apparatus for manual operation of machine tool
A simulation apparatus 1 includes a touch panel 20, a display controller 11, a display screen data storage unit 12, an input control unit 13, an operation information storage unit 14, a model data storage 16, a simulation executor 15 and an NC program generator 17. The simulation executor 15 displays an image of a movable structure 12 to be operated on the touch panel 20, moves the image in accordance with a manual operation and checks occurrence of interference, and, in the case where interference occurs, stops the movement of the image and displays the occurrence of interference on the touch panel 20. Further, in the case where it is confirmed that no interference occurs, the NC program generator 17 generates an NC program based on manual operation information. |
| US09869991B2 |
Control device and control method for blocking a control signal to a target device
Provided is a control device that includes a plurality of communication units that receive data from measurement control devices; a control unit that calculates an operation signal for controlling a controlled device on the basis of the data from the communication units and that outputs the operation signal to the controlled device; a storage unit that stores the data; a first monitoring unit and a second monitoring unit that perform a calculation on the basis of the data to calculate a calculation value, that determine whether the calculation value satisfies a blocking condition, and that output a blocking signal when the calculation value satisfies the blocking condition; and a first blocking unit and a second blocking unit that block the operation signal to the controlled device upon receiving the blocking signal output from at least either one of the first monitoring unit and the second monitoring unit. |
| US09869990B1 |
Automatic positioning movement calculator
Methods, systems, and devices for determining a positioning movement of a cutting tool based on a received virtual model, a determined start position and a determined end position, and a set of objects of a machining setup, where the set of objects may represent a current state of the set of objects. Optionally, the determining of the positioning movement may be based on user input parameters. |
| US09869984B2 |
Process controller and updating method thereof
A process controller includes a first virtualizer to run in a first process controller and a first operating system to run on the first virtualizer, the first operating system transiting from a first state to a second state when control of an industrial process is started. The first operating system transits from the second state to the first state when control of the industrial process for one period ends, the first state being waiting for starting the control of the industrial process, and the second state being when the industrial process is performed. An application runs on the first operating system and performs control of the industrial process at a constant period. A saving unit saves information representing an inner state of the application when the first operating system is in the first state, the information restoring the application in a second process controller different from the first process controller. |
| US09869983B2 |
Cooling system leak detection
A cooling system cools one or more electrical components on a printed circuit board. A piece of bilayer tubing made of an electrically conductive outer layer and an insulating inner layer. The insulating inner layer separates an electrically conductive coolant fluid from the electrically conductive outer layer. A signal generator is configured to inject an electrical signal into the electrically conductive coolant fluid. A sensor circuit electrically connected to the conductive outer layer is configured to detect the signal in the electrically conductive outer layer. |
| US09869982B1 |
Data center scale utility pool and control platform
A system for providing cooled air to electronic equipment includes a cooling system arranged to provide cooling for computer systems in a data center that generate heat from electrical usage; one or more sensors for sensing an environmental condition near the data center; and a central control system programmed to allocate future compute demand for the data center as a function of the sensed environmental condition. |
| US09869977B2 |
Radio-controlled timepiece
A radio-controlled timepiece is shown including the following. A timekeeping unit keeps date and time. A date/time obtaining unit obtains date/time information from outside to correct the date and time of the timekeeping unit. A preliminary notice information obtaining unit obtains from outside preliminary notice information regarding whether leap second adjustment in which a leap second is inserted or deleted is executed. A date/time obtaining necessity setting unit sets whether the date/time information needs to be obtained based on history of obtaining the date/time information. The date/time obtaining necessity setting unit sets that the date/time information needs to be obtained when the preliminary notice information is not obtained by the adjustment possible date/time or the leap second adjustment is executed at the adjustment possible date/time, and does not change setting when the preliminary notice information is obtained and the leap second adjustment is not executed. |
| US09869972B2 |
Pedometer incorporated in a mechanical watch
A watch includes a pedometer mechanism for estimating a physical activity level. The watch includes at least one moving or pivoting weight arranged to drive a ratchet, an elastic or friction holder for holding the ratchet in position between two movements of the moving or pivoting weight, the ratchet driving a gear train displaying, on a display, a value corresponding, to within a multiplicative factor, to the number of pivoting motions of the ratchet, and/or to the value of the cumulative angular rotation of the ratchet, and the pedometer mechanism includes a limiter only allowing the pivoting of the ratchet from a minimum threshold corresponding to a minimum travel of the weight if the weight is movable or to a minimum angular rotation value of the weight if the weight pivots. |
| US09869971B2 |
Hologram generation method and apparatus
Provided is a hologram generation method including receiving three-dimensional (3D) data information, determining a first projection position onto which the 3D data information is projected on a hologram plane corresponding to a first spatial light modulator (SLM), and a second projection position onto which the 3D data information is projected on a hologram plane corresponding to a second SLM, generating a first Fresnel zone plate (FZP) pattern corresponding to the first projection position, and determining the first FZP pattern to be an FZP pattern corresponding to the second projection position. |
| US09869968B2 |
Blowing tube, blowing device, and image forming apparatus
There is provided blowing tube. A plurality of flow control members are provided in portions of a passage space of a passage portion which are positioned at different positions in an airflow direction, and control a flow of air. One of the flow control members is provided as a downstream-most flow control member such that the outlet port is blocked by a multi-hole member having a plurality of air holes. Each of the air holes of the downstream-most flow control member is configured as a through hole such that the opening area of the through hole decreases continuously or in a stepwisely toward the downstream side in an air passing direction. |
| US09869964B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes an LED unit capable of being in an exposing position or a retracted position, and a cartridge capable of being inserted into or pulled out with the LED unit in the retracted position. |
| US09869963B2 |
Image forming apparatus with opening and closing member and reaction force generating mechanism
An image forming apparatus includes an opening and closing member that is movably supported between an opening position at which an inner portion of a main body of the apparatus is opened and a closing position at which the inner portion of the main body of the apparatus is closed, an engaged portion that is provided in the main body of the apparatus, an engaging member that is provided in the opening and closing member and is engaged to the engaged portion, and a reaction force generating mechanism that is provided in the opening and closing member, and urges the opening and closing member toward the opening position when the opening and closing member moves from the opening position to the closing position. |
| US09869959B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus body, a sheet container, an image forming part to form an image, a sheet feeding rotary body to feed the recording medium, a sheet separating rotary body to contact the sheet feeding rotary body and rotate with the sheet feeding rotary body with a sheet separation nip region formed therebetween, a rotation adjusting unit to adjust rotation of the sheet separating rotary body, a sheet containing unit to contain the recording media therein, a sheet separating body storing unit disposed at one end of the sheet containing unit to store the sheet separating body therein, and a load resistance applying mechanism to apply a rotational load resistance different from a contact force generated by contacting of the sheet separating rotary body with the sheet feeding rotary body, to the sheet feeding rotary body with no rotation driving force applied thereto. |
| US09869957B2 |
Image forming apparatus with cleaning function for intermediary transfer member
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion for forming a toner image; an intermediary transfer belt for receiving the toner image; a blade for cleaning the belt by removing residual toner therefrom; an ambient condition sensor for detecting an ambient condition; a memory for storing information relating to a use amount of the belt; and a controller for executing an operation in a mode in which a toner is deposited on the belt in an area corresponding to between a preceding sheet and a succeeding sheet during execution of a continuous image forming job for continuously forming the images on the sheets to supply the toner to the blade. The controller controls a frequency of the operations in the mode, on the basis of an output of the sensor during an image formation job and the information stored in the memory. |
| US09869956B2 |
Image forming apparatus connected to a plurality of image forming apparatuses, image forming system including a plurality of image forming apparatuses, and image forming method
Provided is an image forming system in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected through a network, the image forming system including a control unit that controls the image forming apparatuses, wherein when a plurality of image forming apparatuses output a job requested in an arbitrary image forming apparatus, the control unit compares image quality parameters, such as a tone, a density balance, and a line width, in the image forming apparatuses, selects image forming apparatuses that have image quality parameters similar to each other and that can output the job, and causes the selected image forming apparatuses to output the job. |
| US09869955B2 |
Fixing device provided with nip member capable of preventing outflow of lubricant
A fixing device includes: an endless fusing belt; a heater; a nip member; and a backup member. The endless fusing belt has a width in a widthwise direction. The nip member is disposed spaced apart from the heater. The nip member has a contact surface. The contact surface has widthwise end portions in the widthwise direction. The backup member is configured to nip the fusing belt in cooperation with the nip member. The fusing belt is configured to move in a moving direction at a position where the fusing belt is nipped between the nip member and the backup member. The contact surface has at least two grooves one formed in corresponding one of the widthwise end portions and another formed in the other of the widthwise end portions and extending at an angle equal to or smaller than 10 degrees with respect to the moving direction. |
| US09869952B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus including a friction reducer including a lubricant
A fixing device includes a fixing rotator that is endless and rotatable in a rotation direction and a heater to heat the fixing rotator. A pressure rotator contacts an outer circumferential surface of the fixing rotator. A nip formation pad presses against the pressure rotator via the fixing rotator to form a fixing nip between the fixing rotator and the pressure rotator. The nip formation pad includes an upstream portion disposed upstream from the fixing nip in the rotation direction of the fixing rotator. A recess is disposed in the upstream portion of the nip formation pad. A friction reducer is sandwiched between the nip formation pad and the fixing rotator and bears a lubricant. |
| US09869951B2 |
Belt rotating device, transfer device, and image forming apparatus
A belt rotating device includes: a meandering correction roller that is rotatably supported within a support frame and is one of a plurality of rollers that stretch an endless belt; a supporting portion that is provided at the support frame and supports a rotating shaft of the meandering correction roller so as to be able to incline the rotating shaft of the meandering correction roller in a one direction; a collar member that is provided on the rotating shaft of the meandering correction roller, contacts the side end of the endless belt in which meandering has occurred, and moves in an axial direction; and an inclination guide portion that is supported by the support frame and has an inclined surface downward and inclined with respect to the shaft of the meandering correction roller, in a position in which the contact portion of the collar member contacts the inclination guide portion. |
| US09869950B1 |
Toner agitator assembly
A toner container according to one example embodiment includes a housing having a reservoir for storing toner and a drive shaft positioned in the reservoir. The drive shaft is rotatable about a rotational axis in an operative rotational direction. A toner agitator extends from the drive shaft in the reservoir. The toner agitator is rotatable around the rotational axis of the drive shaft as the drive shaft rotates. The toner agitator folds relative to the drive shaft counter to the operative rotational direction if resistance to rotation of the toner agitator provided by toner in the reservoir exceeds a threshold amount. The toner agitator is biased relative to the drive shaft in the operative rotational direction. A radial length of the toner agitator decreases when the toner agitator folds relative to the drive shaft counter to the operative rotational direction. |
| US09869946B1 |
Exposure device and image forming apparatus
An exposure device includes: a substrate that includes a plate-shaped main body that extends in one direction, a plurality of light emitting elements that are mounted on one surface of the main body, and a heating element that is mounted on the other surface of the main body and generates heat in accordance with light emission of the light emitting element; a housing that extends in the one direction, has a frame shape in which a through hole is formed, and to an inside of the through hole of which the substrate is fixed so that a thickness direction of the main body is a penetrating direction of the through hole; and a first contact member that extends in the one direction, and is in contact with at least a portion of the heating element and the main body at a different position in the one direction. |
| US09869943B2 |
Method of producing toner and method of producing resin particle
A method of producing a toner containing a toner particle, including the steps of: a) preparing a resin solution by mixing a resin A and an organic solvent, b) mixing the resin solution, a resin fine particle containing a resin B, and a dispersion medium to form a droplet of the resin solution whose surface has been covered with the resin fine particle, and c) removing the organic solvent in the droplet, in which the resin B is a polymer of a monomer composition containing a monomer X having polymerizable unsaturated groups at the both ends; the monomer X has a peak molecular weight of 5,000 to 50,000; the content of the monomer X is 0.10% to 3.00% by mol; and the following formula (1) is satisfied, |SPX−SPA|≦2.0 (1) where SPA and SPX represent solubility parameters of the resin A and the monomer X, respectively. |
| US09869934B2 |
Collector in an extreme ultraviolet lithography system with optimal air curtain protection
The present disclosure provides an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system. The EUV lithography system includes a collector having a coating surface designed to collect and reflect EUV radiation; a gas supply module; and a gas pipeline integrated with the collector and connected to the gas supply module. The gas pipeline includes inward and outward entrances into the collector. The inward and outward entrances are configured and operable to form a gas curtain on the coating surface of the collector. |
| US09869932B2 |
Conductive pattern fabrication method
A method of producing a conductive pattern includes a light-exposing step of exposing a layer or pattern including conductive particles A, an organic compound B having an unsaturated double bond and a photopolymerization initiator C, and positioned over a substrate to light rays having a broad spectrum, to thereby produce a conductive layer or a conductive pattern. |
| US09869931B2 |
Resist composition and patterning process
To a resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units having an acid labile group and an acid generator is added a metal-acid complex. The metal is Ce, Cu, Zn, Fe, In, Y, Yb, Sn, Tm, Sc, Ni, Nd, Hf, Zr, Ti, La, Ag, Ba, Ho, Tb, Lu, Eu, Dy, Gd, Rb, Sr or Cs. The acid is a fluoroalkylsulfonic acid, fluorinated arylsulfonic acid, fluorinated tetraphenylboric acid, fluoroalkylsulfonimidic acid or fluoroalkylsulfonemethide acid. Due to a high contrast of alkaline dissolution rate before and after exposure, high resolution, high sensitivity, and controlled acid diffusion rate, the composition forms a pattern with satisfactory profile and minimal line edge roughness. |
| US09869929B2 |
Resin, resist composition and method for producing resist pattern
A resist composition include (A1) a resin which includes a structural unit represented by formula (a4), and which resin has neither an acid-labile group nor an aromatic ring, (A2) a resin having an acid-labile group, and an acid generator, wherein R3 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, R4 represents a C1 to C24 saturated hydrocarbon group having a fluorine atom, and a methylene group contained in the saturated hydrocarbon group may be replaced by an oxygen atom or a carbonyl group; and a structural unit having a ketone group. |
| US09869927B2 |
Wavelength converting module and semiconductor light-emitting apparatus using the same
A wavelength converting module and a semiconductor light-emitting apparatus using the wavelength converting module can emit various color lights. The light-emitting apparatus can include a semiconductor light source emitting an exciting light and an optical reflector, which reflects the exciting light toward the wavelength converting module. The wavelength converting module can include a base board and a cavity formed by a divider located on the base board. The exciting light can enter into the cavity including a phosphor layer contained in the wavelength converting module and can emit a mixture light using the phosphor layer in only one cavity. Thus, the semiconductor light-emitting apparatus using the wavelength converting module can emit various color lights having a high light-intensity and a substantially uniform color tone in order to be able to be used for vehicle lamp such as a headlight, general lighting, a stage light, a street light, a projector, etc. |
| US09869923B2 |
Lens apparatus and image pickup apparatus including the same
A lens apparatus includes an image pickup optical system; a holding frame to hold the image pickup optical system; and an illumination device that is mounted on outer peripheral portion of an object side of holding frame, and is configured to radiate light, in which the illumination device includes: a light guide member that has a circular optical path in which light is subjected to internal reflection to propagate, and a light emitting surface for emitting light to object side; and a light source that is arranged such that a normal direction of a light emitting surface of the light source faces a tangential direction of a circle of light guide member, and is configured to emit light entering the light guide member. The arrangements and shapes of holding frame, light guide member, and lens closest to object side of image pickup optical system are each appropriately set. |
| US09869921B2 |
Drive apparatus, drive method, and optical device
Noise produced during phase-difference changes is minimized without decreasing the responsiveness of a vibration-wave motor. A lens-side MCU for a lens barrel controls a drive apparatus that applies a drive voltage to the vibration-wave motor by outputting an A-phase drive signal and a B-phase drive signal thereto. The lens-side MCU uses, for example, a drive-voltage setting unit and a duty-cycle change unit to change the drive voltage. Also, the lens-side MCU is provided with a phase-difference change unit that changes the phase difference between the A-phase drive signal and the B-phase drive signal. When driving the vibration-wave motor, the lens-side MCU changes the drive voltage to Vreg, and when the phase-difference change unit is changing the aforementioned phase difference, the drive voltage is changed to V1, V1 being greater than zero and less than Vreg. |
| US09869916B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A display device includes a first gate signal line and a second gate signal line, and a first drain signal line, a second drain signal line, and a third drain signal line. A first pixel and a second pixel are surrounded by the first gate signal line, the second gate signal line, the first drain signal line, and the second drain signal line, and a third pixel and a fourth pixel are surrounded by the first gate signal line, the second gate signal line, the second drain signal line, and the third drain signal line. A first storage line and a second storage line are disposed between the first gate signal line and the second gate signal line, and the first pixel includes a first thin film transistor connected to the first gate signal line, the first drain signal line, and a first pixel electrode of the first pixel. |
| US09869915B2 |
Array substrate and liquid crystal display panel including the same
An array substrate according to the present invention is an array substrate including a display region that displays an image and a frame region. The array substrate includes: a plurality of scanning lines; a plurality of signal lines; a thin film transistor disposed at an intersection of each of the plurality of scanning lines and each of the plurality of signal lines; a plurality of in-frame wires formed in the frame region; and a plurality of connection converters that electrically connect the scanning lines or the signal lines to the in-frame wires and are provided in the frame region. A single contact hole that penetrates an insulating layer is formed in each of the connection converters, and each of the scanning lines or each of the signal lines is electrically connected with each of the in-frame wires through a conductive film in the single contact hole. |
| US09869913B2 |
Active matrix substrate and display device
Inside of a region for inspection set outside a display region of an active matrix substrate, lead-out lines (27a to 27f) connected to data lines pass through in a column direction, and a control line for inspection (31) and six signal lines for inspection (32a to 32f) extend in a row direction. TFTs for inspection (51a to 51f) control a conduction state between the lead-out line and the corresponding signal line for inspection in accordance with a signal on the control line for inspection. Inside the region for inspection, three of the six signal lines for inspection are arranged on one side of the control line for inspection, and the remaining three are arranged on other side of the control line for inspection. One of the two adjacent lead-out lines is connected to one of the former signal lines for inspection via the TFT for inspection (51a, 51c, 51e), and the other is connected to one of the latter signal lines for inspection via the TFT for inspection (51b, 51d, 51f). This suppresses a disconnection, a leakage current, and a luminance unevenness of a screen for inspection. |
| US09869904B2 |
Liquid crystal display apparatus
A liquid crystal display apparatus is disclosed. The liquid crystal display apparatus includes: a plurality of sub-pixels, a first substrate on which at least one first thin film is disposed, a second substrate facing the first substrate and on which at least one second thin film is disposed, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, and a spacer unit disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate to maintain a space where the liquid crystal layer is disposed, and continuously formed across at least two sub-pixels from among the plurality of sub-pixels, where the spacer unit includes a contact unit and an isolation unit including a plurality isolation sub-units, where the contact unit is formed to contact the first thin film closest to the liquid crystal layer and the second thin film closest to the liquid crystal layer, where the isolation unit is formed to be spaced apart from the first thin film closest to the liquid crystal layer and to contact the second thin film closest to the liquid crystal layer, and where a distance between the plurality of isolation sub-units and the first thin film closest to the liquid crystal layer is not uniform. |
| US09869903B2 |
Polarized light irradiating apparatus and method of irradiating polarized light for photo alignment
An irradiating method includes a first mounting step of mounting a substrate onto a first stage at a first position and a second mounting step of mounting a substrate onto a second stage at a second position, a first movement step of moving the first stage to the irradiation area for irradiating polarized light onto the substrate and returning the first stage to the first position, a second movement step of moving the second stage to the irradiation area and returning the second stage to the second position, a first collecting step of collecting the substrate and a second collecting step of collecting the substrate. A time zone of the first collecting step and first mounting step and a time zone of the second movement step overlap. A time zone of the second collecting step and second mounting step and a time zone of the first movement step overlap. |
| US09869902B2 |
Array substrate and method of manufacturing the same, and display device
An array substrate, a method of manufacturing the array substrate, and a display device are disclosed, for eliminating white Mura defects generated during the Cell process. The method comprises steps of: forming a display area and a non-display area on a substrate, a circuit bonding area being arranged within the non-display area; forming an alignment film within the display area through a patterning process; forming, through a patterning process, a transparent protection layer at least in a portion of the non-display area other than the circuit bonding area; and forming, through a rubbing-imprinting process, a plurality of lines having the same orientation on a surface of the alignment film, for an ordered arrangement of liquid crystal molecules, wherein a surface height of the transparent protection layer is lower than or equal to a surface height of the alignment film. |
| US09869899B2 |
Display device having improved control force over directers of liquid crystals
A display device includes pixels connected to gate lines and first and second data lines, dummy members extending in a first direction and disposed between adjacent pixels in a second direction crossing the first direction, and color filters extending in the second direction and overlapping pixels arranged in the second direction and disposed on the dummy members. A height of the color filters in step difference areas is larger than a height of the color filters in peripheral areas near the step difference areas. The step difference areas correspond to areas of the color filters in which the dummy members are disposed. |
| US09869898B2 |
Wire grid polarizer with dual absorptive regions
A selectively-absorptive wire grid polarizer comprising an array of parallel, elongated rods disposed over a surface of a transparent substrate with gaps between adjacent rods, each of the rods including a reflective wire sandwiched between two absorptive ribs. A method of making this wire grid polarizer. A use of this wire grid polarizer in an image projection system. |
| US09869894B2 |
Embedded touch display panel and touch display device
A touch display panel comprises a color film substrate, which comprises a conducting layer arranged on a transparent substrate. The conducting layer comprises a plurality of first and second wires, and a color resistance insulating layer lying flat on the conducting layer, where the color resistance insulating layer includes first color resistances with via holes and second color resistances without via holes. The color film substrate also includes a plurality of bridges formed on the color resistance insulating layer, where at least one second color resistance has an extension portion extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the second color resistances, where the extension portion isolates the conducting layer from the bridges between adjacent second color resistances. |
| US09869892B2 |
Display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same
A display apparatus includes a display panel and a mold frame. The display panel includes a display area, a peripheral area surrounding the display area, an alignment mark on the peripheral area, and a cover element overlapping the alignment mark to cover the alignment mark. The mold frame has a frame shape configured to receive the display panel. The mold frame includes a panel guide protrusion protruding from an inner surface of the mold frame, and the panel guide protrusion is adjacent to the alignment mark. |
| US09869890B2 |
Polarization independent optical isolator
[Object] To provide a polarization independent optical isolator enabling downsizing of a Faraday element and a magnet. [Solving means] The polarization independent optical isolator comprises: a pair of wedge-shaped birefringent crystal plates (1, 2) provided in an optical path; and a Faraday element (30) made of a paramagnetic body and provided in the optical path between the wedge-shaped birefringent crystal plates. The pair of wedge-shaped birefringent crystal plates have inclined light-transmitting surfaces parallel to each other and non-inclined light-transmitting surfaces parallel to each other. The non-inclined light-transmitting surfaces are disposed to face the Faraday element. The polarization independent optical isolator is characterized in that: the paramagnetic body constituting the Faraday element has such a parallelogrammic cross section that light incident-emitting surfaces of the paramagnetic body are not parallel to the non-inclined light-transmitting surfaces of the pair of wedge-shaped birefringent crystal plates; and a right-angled portion (100) of each of the wedge-shaped birefringent crystal plates and a corresponding obtuse-angled portion (31) of the Faraday element are disposed on the same side with respect to an optical path central axis. |
| US09869885B2 |
Method and apparatus for ophthalmic devices including gradient-indexed liquid crystal layers and shaped dielectric layers
This invention discloses methods and apparatus for providing a variable optic insert into an ophthalmic lens. A liquid crystal layer may be used to provide a variable optic function and in some embodiments, an alignment layer for the liquid crystal layer may be patterned in a radially dependent manner. The patterning may allow for the index of refraction of the optic device to vary in a gradient indexed or GRIN manner. At least a first layer of dielectric material that may vary in thickness at least across the optic zone of the device may aid in defining an electric field across the liquid crystal layer. An energy source is capable of powering the variable optic insert included within the ophthalmic lens. In some embodiments, an ophthalmic lens is cast-molded from a silicone hydrogel. The various ophthalmic lens entities may include electroactive liquid crystal layers to electrically control optical characteristics. |
| US09869883B2 |
Tear shaping for refractive correction
A lens for refractive tear shaping, having a curved lens body with a peripheral edge and a central opening therein. The central opening is shaped and sized and has a tear shaping edge structured to form a tear meniscus within the central opening. The tear meniscus being formed by interaction of a tear film of the eye and the tear shaping edge and having a posterior curvature conforming to an anterior corneal curvature and an anterior curvature. The anterior curvature is dependent on the size and shape of the central opening and structure of the tear shaping edge. |
| US09869882B1 |
Tensioning kit for spectacles
The tensioning kit for spectacles comprises an elastic pad and a blocking post. The elastic pad and the blocking post are attached to the temple of the eyeglasses. The tensioning kit for spectacles is a device that inhibits the rotation of the temple of eyeglasses such that the temple is pressed against the head of the user in a manner that places a strain on the temple that deforms the temple. As the temple attempts to return to its relaxed shape, a force is exerted against the head of the user thus holding the eyeglasses in position. The tension applied is a function of the span of the arc that is inhibited by the tensioning kit for spectacles. |
| US09869881B2 |
Passive damping solution to optical image stabilization for voice control motors
Passive dampers (e.g., a viscoelastic material such as a silicon gel) may be applied at one or more locations within an actuator module along wires suspending a moving component (an optics assembly) from a fixed component (e.g., a base of an actuator module). The passive dampers act to passively dampen the motion of the optics assembly on the XY plane within the actuator module during optical image stabilization (OIS) of the optics assembly when subjected to external excitation or disturbance, and may also provide Z (optical) axis damping and impact protection. Process control and automation manufacturing and assembly methods for an OIS voice coil motor (VCM) actuator module including passive dampers are described, as well as design elements that provide for the integrity and reliability of the passive dampers over the life cycle of the actuator module. |
| US09869877B2 |
Switchable lens device and 2- and 3-dimensional image display device using the same
Disclosed is a display device that may include a display panel; and a switchable lens device on the display panel, wherein the switchable lens device comprises, a first substrate, a first lens layer having a first refractive index in a first direction and a second refractive index lower than the first refractive index in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction, and having a plurality of convex surfaces, and a second lens layer between the first substrate and the first lens layer, the second lens layer having substantially the same refractive index as the first refractive index. |
| US09869875B2 |
3D display device and selective image display method thereof
An image providing apparatus, a display unit; a controller configured to receive a first image and a second image different from the first image. In addition, the first and second images are different from pair of stereoscopic images, to display the received first and second images on the same display region of the display unit; a first glasses configured to pass only the displayed first image; and a second glasses configured to pass only the displayed second image. Furthermore, the first glasses is different from the second glasses. |
| US09869874B2 |
Portable virtual reality glasses
A portable virtual reality glasses for accommodating an electronic device is provided. The portable virtual reality glasses includes a frame and a spectacle frame assembly assembled with optical lens. The frame includes a first cover, a second cover, a first side plate body, and a second side plate body. The first cover, the second cover, the first side plate body, and the second side plate body are connected with each other to define an accommodation space. By relatively moving the first side plate body and the second side plate body with respect to the first cover and the second cover, the frame can be transformed to either an extended state or a folded state, to change a volume of the accommodation space. The spectacle frame assembly is connected with the frame, for moving relative to the accommodation space of the frame. |
| US09869868B2 |
Light splitting module for obtaining spectrums and dual-mode multiplexing optical device
A light splitting module for obtaining spectrums of an object to be tested is disclosed, which sequentially includes a light entrance window, a diffuser and a filter array along a light entrance direction, wherein the filter array is an angle modulated filter array which has multiple subareas and includes multiple filters with different center wavelengths respectively corresponding to the subareas. Also, a dual-mode multiplexing optical device is disclosed, which includes the light splitting module, an illumination module and a light field imaging module, can realize the integration of spectral detection and light field imaging, so it can be applied to material spectral detection, digital image detection and digital focusing for obtaining high-resolution imaging results; and simultaneously, the modules of the device are detachable, so that users can use the device as required. |
| US09869867B2 |
Light source device and display device
There is provided a light source device including a first light source configured to emit light in a first wavelength region, a second light source configured to emit light in a second wavelength region different from the first wavelength region, a wavelength conversion unit including a fluorescent material and configured to emit fluorescent emission light in a different wavelength region upon irradiation with the light in the first wavelength region, and a combining unit that has wavelength selectivity to a specific wavelength region corresponding to the second wavelength region and combines the light in the first wavelength region from the first light source, the light in the second wavelength region from the second light source, and the fluorescent emission light which are incident on the combining unit with one another. |
| US09869864B2 |
Viewing window assembly for single-sided installation
An assembly and method for installing a viewing window into a single hole in a panel of an enclosure from a single side. A viewing window assembly comprises actuators and attachment members configurable to allow the attachment members to pass through a hole in a panel from a front side. Upon actuation of the actuators, the attachment members may engage one or both of the back surface of the panel and the inner edge of the hole therein in order to secure the window assembly to the panel. |
| US09869856B2 |
Illumination device and projector
An illumination device including a light source device, a rotary diffusion plate, which includes a first surface, a second surface, a diffusion section disposed on the first surface, and a detection section disposed on at least one of the first surface and the second surface, and to which light from the light source device is input, a light collecting optical system to which light from the diffusion section is input, a detector adapted to detect light from the detection section, and a control device adapted to control the light source device in accordance with a signal output from the detector. The detection section is disposed at a position different from a position where the light from the light source device enters the diffusion section. |
| US09869852B2 |
Microscopy system with auto-focus adjustment by low-coherence interferometry
Disclosed are several technical approaches of using low coherence interferometry techniques to create an autofocus apparatus for optical microscopy. These approaches allow automatic focusing on thin structures that are positioned closely to reflective surfaces and behind refractive material like a cover slip, and automated adjustment of focus position into the sample region without disturbance from reflection off adjacent surfaces. The measurement offset induced by refraction of material that covers the sample is compensated for. Proposed are techniques of an instrument that allows the automatic interchange of imaging objectives in a low coherence interferometry autofocus system, which is of major interest in combination with TDI (time delay integration) imaging, confocal and two-photon fluorescence microscopy. |
| US09869846B1 |
Optical imaging lens
An optical imaging lens includes a front lens group, a reflective element and a rear lens group arranged in sequence from an object side to an image side along an optical axis. The optical axis includes a first optical axis and a second optical axis different from the first optical axis, and the first optical axis and the second optical axis have an intersection point located at the reflective element. The front lens group includes a first lens element and a second lens element arranged along the first optical axis, and the rear lens group includes a third lens element and a fourth lens element arranged along the second optical axis. The optical imaging lens satisfies: D1M≦3.6 mm, wherein D1M is a distance from an object-side surface of the first lens element to the intersection point along the first optical axis. |
| US09869839B2 |
Optical element holding structure, camera filter frame, camera filter unit, and imaging lens
A camera filter unit (1) includes an optical filter (2), a filter holding ring (3), and a filter frame (4) that are coaxially disposed in this order from the inside to the outside. The optical filter (2) has a tapered annular chamfered surface (13) on an outer peripheral edge of a rear filter surface (12). The filter holding ring (3) includes a front stopper (21) that is abuttable on the optical filter (2) from a front (X1) and a rear stopper (22) that extends along the annular chamfered surface (13). The filter frame (4) includes a second rear stopper (32) that prevents the optical filter (2) from moving to a rear (X2). The optical filter (2) is held by the filter holding ring (3) in a rotatable manner about an axis L. The optical filter (2) is fixed in a relatively unrotatable manner by the second rear stopper (32) abutting on the rear filter surface (12). |
| US09869832B2 |
Optical fiber cable-equipped connector
An optical fiber cable-equipped connector that is electrically connectable to a mating electrical connector; the optical fiber cable-equipped connector comprises a conversion element, to which a cable-side optical fiber core exposed from the end of an optical fiber cable is connected and which converts optical signals and electrical signals, and a circuit board that is electrically connected to the conversion element; the conversion element comprises a conversion element-side optical fiber core, to which the cable-side optical fiber core is connected; the opto-electrical conversion connector comprises the conversion element-side optical fiber core disposed on the mounting face of the circuit board, and an optical fiber connection support that supports the connected portion with the conversion element-side optical fiber core and the cable-side optical fiber core; and the optical fiber connection support comprises the alignment support that supports and aligns the conversion element-side optical fiber core and the cable-side optical fiber core. |
| US09869827B2 |
Communication module
A communication module includes a metal housing, a module connector provided at a front surface of the housing, and a light guide which guides light that has gone out from a LED lamp provided on a host board of a communication device and entered interior of a cage through a through hole provided in a bottom surface of the cage. The light guide includes a light incoming portion, a light outgoing portion, and a light guiding portion. The light incoming portion is disposed at a bottom surface of the housing opposed to the bottom surface of the cage, the light outgoing portion is disposed at aback surface of the housing opposed to the front surface, and the light guiding portion extends between the light incoming portion and the light outgoing portion along the bottom surface of the housing. |
| US09869826B1 |
Magnetic optical fiber coupling device
The present application relates to a magnetic optical fiber coupling device. The magnetic optical fiber coupling device comprises a plug and a socket pluggable for each other, wherein the plug comprises a first pluggable part and a first connecting part, and the socket comprises a second pluggable part and a second connecting part. Both of the first pluggable part and the second pluggable part are magnetic and have opposite magnetic properties. The first pluggable part comprises a first optical fiber complex and a tube wall disposed outside of the first optical fiber complex. The second pluggable part comprises a second optical fiber complex and a casing disposed outside of the second optical fiber complex. The coupling device of the present application has a fast speed of plugging, a long durability, a good optical fiber alignability, and a high light conductivity. Further, it can be rotated in any axial direction after connecting with each other without affecting the light conductivity. In addition, the connection by the pluggable manner or concave-convex connecting improves the stability and reliability of the coupling. Accordingly, the conductivity efficiency of the light increases greatly. |
| US09869825B2 |
Lucent connector typed duplex connector
A LC-typed duplex connector includes a connecting head assembly, a boot assembly and a handle. The handle includes a first elastic structure portion, a second elastic structure portion and a hand shank portion. When the second elastic structure portion is detached from the boot assembly, the first elastic structure portion is detached from the connecting head assembly under the action of the hand shank portion, achieving the detachment and alternate side operation of the LC-typed duplex connector. The detachable handle can efficiently fasten the connecting head assembly with the boot assembly together. The first and second elastic structure portions are easier to detach from the connecting head assembly and the boot assembly respectively under the action of the hand shank portion. Moreover, the hand shank portion is matched with the tail end of the boot assembly, thereby improving efficiently the space utilization of the panel. |
| US09869824B2 |
Optical adapter
An optical adapter includes: a housing having a plurality of openings on each of opposite end surfaces thereof; a plurality of ports formed in parallel with each other inside the housing and each extending to form one of the openings on each of the opposite ends surfaces, an optical connector being inserted into each of the openings; and a shutter part installed at each of the ports such that when the optical connector is inserted into an opening of one end of the port, the shutter part leans back to a retreat position that passes light emitted from the optical connector inserted into an opening of another end of the port, when the optical connector is pulled out of the opening of the one end of the port, the shutter part is raised up from the retreat position to a blocking position that blocks the emitted light. |
| US09869823B1 |
Self-sealing hybrid power/fiber connector
A connector interface includes: a first connector having an outer body with a first bearing surface facing in a first axial direction; a second connector having an outer body with a second bearing surface facing in a second axial direction opposite the first axial direction; a resilient sealing element disposed between the first and second bearing surfaces; and a coupling nut associated with the first connector and configured to engage a feature on the second connector. Rotation of the coupling nut relative to the first and second connectors draws the first and second bearing surfaces toward each other to compress the sealing element such that the sealing element bulges radially outwardly to engage an inner surface of the coupling nut. |
| US09869815B2 |
Optical device having a stepwise or tapered light input/output part and manufacturing method therefor
An optical device includes an optical waveguide provided on a principal surface of a substrate. The optical waveguide includes a core and a cladding provided around the core. The cladding is configured by a substance having a refractive index smaller than 71.4% of the refractive index of the core. The core has constituent atoms substantially forming a diamond lattice structure. The optical waveguide has a light input/output part through which a light beam is input and/or output. The light input/output part decreases stepwise in thickness towards an output end while tapering down in its width. The core is provided in the light input/output part to have a (111) plane or an equivalent plane to the (111) plane exposed on a face of a riser of the stepwise thickness of the light input/output part. |
| US09869811B2 |
Method for manufacturing large-size light-guide sheet by using mask
This disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a large-version light guide sheet using a mask plate. The method includes adopting a mask plate containing a plurality of regions, performing selective polymerization on a photopolymerizable material mixture which is coated on a large-version light guide substrate (401) by means of the mask plate, and forming a raised or depressed microstructure (402) on the large-version light guide substrate (401), so as to constitute a large-version light guide sheet. The large-version light guide sheet comprises a plurality of units (U11, U12, U13, U14). By dividing the large-version light guide sheet, a plurality of discrete unit light guide sheets that are used for an LCD backlight source and an LED lighting assembly are obtained. The method overcomes the limitations of ink jet printing, injection molding, laser etching and other technologies, and improves the production rate of high-performance thinned light guide sheets. |
| US09869803B2 |
Composition for light diffusion film, and light diffusion film
Provided are a composition for light diffusion film which has satisfactory incident angle dependency in transmission and diffusion of light, does not easily undergo yellowing even if exposed to ultraviolet radiation for a long time, and has excellent weather resistance, and a light diffusion film formed by curing the composition. Disclosed is a composition for light diffusion film, which includes a (meth)acrylic acid ester containing plural aromatic rings as component (A), a urethane (meth)acrylate as component (B), a photopolymerization initiator as component (C), and a hindered amine-based photostabilizer as component (D), and in which the content of the component (A) has a value within a predetermined range relative to 100 parts by weight of the component (B), the content of the component (C) has a value within a predetermined range relative to the total amount (100 parts by weight) of the component (A) and the component (B), and the content of the component (D) has a value within a predetermined range relative to the total amount (100 parts by weight) of the component (A) and the component (B). |
| US09869802B2 |
Optical device with focal length variation
An optical device with focal length variation including a first deformable membrane, a second deformable membrane, and a support to which a respective peripheral anchoring area of each of said membranes is connected. A constant volume of fluid is enclosed between the first and the second membrane, said fluid producing mechanical coupling of said first and second membranes. An actuation device of a region of the first membrane located between the anchoring area and a central part of the first membrane, configured to deform by application of electrical actuation voltage in a single direction of deflection to displace at least a portion of the fluid volume, said displacement of fluid being likely to cause deformation of the central part of the first membrane based on application of an electrical actuation voltage to the actuation device. |
| US09869801B2 |
Photochromic polyurethane laminate
A photochromic polyurethane laminate wherein the photochromic polyurethane layer of the laminate has been crosslinked with a isocyanate-active prepolymer using a crosslinking agent. The crosslinking agent is formulated to have at least three functional groups that are reactive with functional groups of the polyurethane or of the isocyanate-active prepolymer. A method of making the photochromic polyurethane laminate includes steps of causing the crosslinking. |
| US09869799B2 |
Object-based well correlation
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media geologic modeling are disclosed. For example, the method includes receiving an identification of a type of architectural element in association with a first well in a subterranean domain, based at least partially on data collected from the first well, and determining one or more characteristics of the type of architectural element. The method may also include defining, using a processor, an architectural element of the type of architectural element, in a representation of the subterranean domain and in association with the first well, based on the one or more characteristics, and displaying, using the processor and a display device in communication therewith, the architectural element intersecting the first well in a model. |
| US09869798B2 |
Method for estimating a logging tool response in a layered formation
A logging method and a logging tool for approximating a logging tool response in a layered formation are provided. The method includes obtaining a first layered profile of at least one first measurement log provided by a logging tool using a squaring process, obtaining a filtered measurement log from the first layered profile using a forward physical model for the logging tool, and estimating an approximation of the forward physical model using a parameterized function so as to provide a first logging tool response. |
| US09869794B2 |
Multiple-optical-axis photoelectric sensor system, multiple-optical-axis photoelectric sensor system control method, program, and recording medium
A start-up time of a production facility is shortened while generation of a muting error is suppressed, whereby productivity is improved. A multiple-optical-axis photoelectric sensor system includes a projector, an optical receiver, a light blocking determination unit configured to make a light blocking determination whether each of optical axes formed between the projector and the optical receiver is in a light blocking state, and a muting processor configured to temporarily disable the light blocking determination on condition that a detection signal input from an external muting instrument changes according to a predetermined sequence. The muting processor determines the sequence of the detection signal from the muting instrument during the muting by dividing the sequence into a plurality stages. The muting processor accumulates and analyzes measurement information acquired in each stage, and decides an optimum setting value for a muting operation condition based on an analysis result. |
| US09869792B2 |
Inversion-based workflow for processing nuclear density images in high-angle and horizontal wells
Methods and apparatus for characterizing a subterranean formation traversed by a wellbore including collecting data from the formation using a tool wherein the tool collects data to form an azimuthal image, characterizing a section of the formation comprising data and images acquired in a high angle wellbore section or horizontal wellbore section using a parametric model, and performing an inversion using apparent densities and volumetric photoelectric factor images to build a formation model wherein the inversion is tailored for high angle wellbore sections and/or horizontal wellbore sections. |
| US09869791B2 |
Measurement of downhole radiation
Systems, methods and devices for evaluating an earth formation intersected by a borehole. Method embodiments may include using a downhole tool in the borehole to generate a plurality of signal pulses responsive to detected radiation; using at least one signal quality characteristic of each pulse of the plurality of pulses to classify each pulse as belonging to at least one subset of a plurality of pulse subsets; and using one of more of the plurality of pulse subsets to estimate a value of a parameter of interest. The signal quality characteristic may be indicative of a pulse pile-up condition being associated with the respective pulse. The signal quality characteristic may include at least one of: i) rising time (slope) of the respective pulse; ii) time between a peak of the respective pulse and a peak of a closest following pulse; iii) pulse width; and iv) skewness of the pulse. |
| US09869787B2 |
Methods and systems for efficiently acquiring towed streamer seismic surveys
Methods and systems for efficiently acquiring towed streamer marine seismic data are described. One method and system comprises positioning a plurality of source-only tow vessels and one or more source-streamer tow vessels to acquire a wide- and/or full-azimuth seismic survey without need for the spread to repeat a path once traversed. Another method and system allows surveying a sub-sea geologic feature using a marine seismic spread, the spread smartly negotiating at least one turn during the surveying, and shooting and recording during the turn. This abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract, allowing 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. |
| US09869785B2 |
Systems and methods for speed-adjustable model navigation
Systems and methods for speed-adjustable model navigation are provided. In aspects, a model platform includes a model engine and a speed tool that operates with the model engine to generate a graphical view of a geological model. Various features of the geological object may be encoded or reflected in the geological model, including the composition, pressure, temperate, structure, fracture lines, and other aspects of a hydrocarbon deposit, cavity, or other geological structure. The user may operate the speed tool to examine the histogram of color or intensity of the pixels or voxels of regions of the model view, and set a speed curve to control how quickly or slowly a cursor or other control may move through or traverse a region, based on the color, intensity, or other value. Regions of interest may be explored more efficiently and accurately. |
| US09869783B2 |
Structure tensor constrained tomographic velocity analysis
An example method for tomographic migration velocity analysis may include collecting seismographic traces from a subterranean formation and using an initial velocity model to generate common image gathers and a depth image volume based, at least in part, on the seismographic traces. A structure tensor may be computed with the depth image volume for automated structural dip and azimuth estimation. A semblance may be generated using said plurality of common image gathers and said structure tensor. Image depth residuals may be automatically picked from said semblance. A ray tracing computation may be performed on said initial velocity models using said structure tensor. An updated velocity model may be generated with a tomographic inversion computation, wherein said tomographic inversion computation uses said plurality of image depth residuals and said ray tracing computation. |
| US09869782B2 |
Method and apparatus for coating thin foil with a boron coating
An apparatus and a process is disclosed for applying a boron coating to a thin foil. Preferably, the process is a continuous, in-line process for applying a coating to a thin foil comprising wrapping the foil around a rotating and translating mandrel, cleaning the foil with glow discharge in an etching chamber as the mandrel with the foil moves through the chamber, sputtering the foil with boron carbide in a sputtering chamber as the mandrel moves through the sputtering chamber, and unwinding the foil off the mandrel after it has been coated. The apparatus for applying a coating to a thin foil comprises an elongated mandrel. Foil preferably passes from a reel to the mandrel by passing through a seal near the initial portion of an etching chamber. The mandrel has a translation drive system for moving the mandrel forward and a rotational drive system for rotating mandrel as it moves forward. The etching chamber utilizes glow discharge on a surface of the foil as the mandrel moves through said etching chamber. A sputtering chamber, downstream of the etching chamber, applies a thin layer comprising boron onto the surface of the foil as said mandrel moves through said sputtering chamber. Preferably, the coated foil passes from the mandrel to a second reel by passing through a seal near the terminal portion of the sputtering chamber. |
| US09869780B2 |
Organic-inorganic composite films and methods of manufacturing the same
A method of manufacturing an organic-inorganic composite thin film may include: forming a thin film from a paste that includes an inorganic powder and an organic compound binder by using a screen printing process; and/or performing a pressing process and a heating process with respect to the thin film. The heating process may be performed at a glass transition temperature of the organic compound binder or in a temperature range higher than the glass transition temperature of the organic compound binder. An X-ray detector configured to detect X-rays irradiated from an outside of the X-ray detector may include: a photoconductive material layer in which electron-hole pairs are formed due to absorption of the X-rays. The photoconductive material layer may be formed of an organic-inorganic composite thin film that includes an inorganic powder and an organic compound binder. |
| US09869776B2 |
Ray detector
Embodiments of the disclosure provide a ray detector, which comprises a ray conversion layer for converting a ray incident on the ray detector into visible light, a photoelectric conversion layer for receiving the visible light and converting it into a charge signal, a pixel array having a plurality of pixels for detecting the charge signal, and a substrate below the photoelectric conversion layer, at least for directly or indirectly carrying the photoelectric conversion layer. The photoelectric conversion layer is made from a two-dimensional semiconductor material. Due to the high carrier mobility of the two-dimensional semiconductor material, it is possible to enable the external signal processing system to detect the charge signal more easily, so that a ray source with low energy can be used for ray detection. Therefore, a ray detector with high sensitivity can be provided, which may reduce the usage cost and be advantageous to saving energy. |
| US09869769B2 |
GPS positioning method for mobile terminal, and mobile terminal
A GPS positioning method for a mobile terminal, and a mobile terminal are provided. The method includes: after GPS positioning is started, acquiring a first cell identifier of a first cell in which the mobile terminal is located; acquiring, according to the first cell identifier, first latitude and longitude information corresponding to the first cell identifier from a correspondence table stored on the mobile terminal, where the correspondence table includes a cell identifier and latitude and longitude information corresponding to the cell identifier; and with reference to the first latitude and longitude information, and time information and ephemeris information that are acquired in advance, performing GPS positioning on the mobile terminal by using a GPS receiver of the mobile terminal. |
| US09869767B2 |
Laser radar device
A laser radar device includes a searchable distance calculation device 2 to calculate an amount of attenuation at a time of propagation of a light wave from a temporal change in scattered light intensity measured by a marine snow measurement device 1, and calculate a searchable distance in a target search device 4 from the amount of attenuation. |
| US09869764B2 |
Multiple-swath stripmap SAR imaging
A SAR imaging method is provided that performs N SAR acquisitions in stripmap mode of areas of the earth's surface by means of a synthetic aperture radar transported by an aerial or satellite platform and which includes a single, non-partitioned antenna and a single receiver coupled to the single, non-partitioned antenna, N being an integer greater than one. Each SAR acquisition in stripmap mode is performed using a respective squint angle with respect to the flight direction of the synthetic aperture radar and a respective elevation angle with respect to the nadir of the synthetic aperture radar. The method may further generate SAR images of areas of the respective swath observed via the SAR acquisition in stripmap mode. All SAR images have the same azimuth resolution that is equal to half the physical or equivalent length along the azimuth direction of the single, non-partitioned antenna of the synthetic aperture radar. |
| US09869763B2 |
High-resolution stripmap SAR imaging
A SAR imaging method performs N SAR acquisitions in stripmap mode of the earth's surface using a synthetic aperture radar transported by an aerial or satellite platform and including a single, non-partitioned antenna and a single receiver coupled thereto. All N SAR acquisitions are performed using the same predetermined elevation angle relative to the nadir of the synthetic aperture radar and using a respective squint angle relative to the flight direction of the synthetic aperture radar. Radar transmission and reception operations are time interleaved with other N-1 SAR acquisitions, resulting in the respective acquisition directions being parallel to each other and not parallel to acquisition directions of other N-1 SAR acquisitions. Radar beams in two immediately successive time instants and related to two different SAR acquisitions are contiguous along the azimuth. SAR images may be generated using all the N SAR acquisitions having an enhanced azimuth resolution. |
| US09869762B1 |
Virtual radar configuration for 2D array
A radar sensing system for a vehicle includes a plurality of transmitters, a plurality of receivers, and a plurality of receive and transmit antennas. The plurality of transmitters are configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and operable to transmit radio signals. The plurality of receivers are configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and operable to receive radio signals which include transmitted radio signals reflected from objects in the environment. The plurality of receive antennas and the plurality of transmit antennas are arranged in a selected MIMO configuration to provide a quantity of receive antennas and transmit antennas for a desired level of two-dimensional angle capability for a given board size. |
| US09869761B2 |
Radar apparatus
A radar apparatus includes a signal processor configured to: (i) in a case where a first angle peak signal closest to a prediction position in an up period and a second angle peak signal closest to the prediction position in a down period satisfy a pairing condition, finalize a combination of the first angle peak signal and the second angle peak signal as a pair data set; and (ii) in a case where the combination of the first angle peak signal and the second angle peak signal does not satisfy the pairing condition, where the plurality of angle peak signals exist in the prediction region in at least one of the up period and the down period and where a different combination from the combination of the first angle peak signal and the second angle peak signal satisfies a re-pairing condition, finalize the different combination as the pair data set. |
| US09869759B2 |
Motion detector device
The present invention relates to a motion detector device comprising a receiver arranged for reception of at least one electromagnetic signal constituted by a corresponding transmitted electromagnetic signal being transmitted by a corresponding source and influenced by a corresponding channel. The motion detector device comprises predetermined information regarding each transmitted electromagnetic signal. The motion detector device further comprises analyzing means arranged to analyze all components of the received signal to determine how certain parameters of each transmitted electromagnetic signal are influenced by each corresponding channel by means of the predetermined information. The analyzing means is also arranged to analyze the temporal variation of said certain parameters during a certain time. It is determined if said temporal variation exceeds a predetermined threshold.The present invention also relates to a corresponding method. |
| US09869758B2 |
Mitigating disturbance in sensing
A signal processing module for use with a receiver for receiving echoes of an emitted signal. The signal processing module comprises sensing logic for sensing presence of a being or object in a space using echoes of the signal as reflected from the being or object, wherein the echoes are received with an associated frequency band. The signal processing module further comprises control logic for detecting disturbance having potential to compromise said sensing, wherein the signal processing module is configured to detect this disturbance by listening for an unwanted signal in a region of the spectrum outside the frequency band of the echoes, and to adapt the sensing in dependence on the detected disturbance. |
| US09869756B2 |
Low power laser sensing
The presently disclosed subject matter includes a laser system and a respective method of detecting a signal reflected from a target illuminated by a modulated CW light source configured to generate a modulated laser signal at a predefined modulation frequency. A signal comprising true laser signal portions reflected from said target, and noise is received; the signal is filtered for selecting laser signal portions at a modulation frequency band; and the true signal portions in the signal are detected, if the energy at the modulation frequency band is greater than a given threshold. |
| US09869755B2 |
Laser scanner and method of registering a scene
A laser scanner and method of operation to determine the consistency of a registration is provided. The method includes generating with the laser scanner at least a first scan of the scene with first measuring points. The laser scanner generates at least one second scan of the scene with second measuring points. At least one measured distance is determined from at least one of the second measuring points to the center of the second scan. The second scan is provisionally registered subjected to a consistency check. The consistency check is performed. At least one virtual distance is determined from at least one of the first measuring points to the center of the second scan. The consistency check is based at least in part on comparing the at least one virtual distance with the at least one measured distance. |
| US09869754B1 |
Scan patterns for lidar systems
In one embodiment, a system includes a first lidar sensor, which includes a first scanner configured to scan first pulses of light along a first scan pattern and a first receiver configured to detect scattered light from the first pulses of light. The system also includes a second lidar sensor, which includes a second scanner configured to scan second pulses of light along a second scan pattern and a second receiver configured to detect scattered light from the second pulses of light. The first scan pattern and the second scan pattern are at least partially overlapped. The system further includes an enclosure, where the first lidar sensor and the second lidar sensor are contained within the enclosure. The enclosure includes a window configured to transmit the first pulses of light and the second pulses of light. |
| US09869753B2 |
Three-dimensional-mapping two-dimensional-scanning lidar based on one-dimensional-steering optical phased arrays and method of using same
A plurality of one-dimensional planar beam forming and steering optical phased array chips form a two-dimensional-scanning solid-state lidar, enabling manufacturing of three-dimensional mapping time-of-flight lidars at high yield and low cost resulting from the simplicity of said one-dimensional optical phased array chips. |
| US09869751B2 |
Two way time of flight positioning and security using eavesdropping
Disclosed in some examples, are methods, systems, devices, and machine-readable mediums which provide for improved location of mobile devices using TOF measurements by using information from the reception of location messages at locator nodes that are not the intended recipient of those messages. |
| US09869750B2 |
OTDOA in unlicensed band for enhancements of horizontal and vertical positioning
A user equipment measures a time difference of arrival of a plurality of signals received at the user equipment, wherein at least one of the plurality of signals is received at the user equipment on at least one unlicensed band. The user equipment then reports the time difference of arrival measurements for the plurality of signals to a location computation center along with a time stamp for each of the measurements. The location computation center then determines the location of the user equipment based on the reported time difference of arrival measurements. |
| US09869747B2 |
Indoor position information providing apparatus, position notifier apparatus and program
A position information providing apparatus for providing present position information to a position notifier apparatus is provided. The position information providing apparatus includes an ultrasonic wave output device for outputting ultrasonic wave and a controller for controlling the ultrasonic wave output device. In accordance with contents of the present position information, the controller sequentially selects a modulation frequency from among multiple detectable frequencies which are detectable by the position notifier apparatus and which are lower than an ultrasonic wave frequency. The controller controls the ultrasonic wave output device so that a maximum value or a minimum value of amplitude of the ultrasonic wave varies with to the selected modulation frequency. |
| US09869745B1 |
Systems and methods for improving bearing reception on a TCAS or other surveillance system
Various avionics systems may be enhanced by methods and systems for bearing reception. For example, a traffic alert and collision avoidance system, or other surveillance system, can be provided with a system or configured for a method of improved bearing reception. For example, a method can include performing traffic alert and collision avoidance surveillance of a target aircraft using an interrogation over a bottom antenna of an own aircraft. The method can also include enhancing determination of a bearing of the surveillance by obtaining a bearing of the target aircraft using an alternative to making a bearing determination based on signal characteristics of a reply to the interrogation. |
| US09869743B2 |
Calibration module with integrated power detector
A calibration module with a substrate provides at least one high-frequency terminal integrated on the substrate which can be connected in each case with an allocated switching element integrated on the substrate to one of several allocated calibration standards or to an allocated power detector. The calibration standards and the power detector are integrated on the substrate. |
| US09869742B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and frequency shift measuring method
According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a phase image generating unit, an image value acquisition unit and a frequency shift calculation unit. The phase image generating unit executes a sequence including an application of a bipolar gradient pulse and thereby generates a first phase image. The image value acquisition unit acquires an image value of the first phase image. The frequency shift calculation unit determines an amount of frequency shift per unit amount of gradient magnetic field based on magnetic field strength of the bipolar gradient pulse and on the image value of the first phase image. |
| US09869729B1 |
Magnetic field sensor circuit in package with means to add a signal from a coil
Sensor devices, systems and methods are provided, including a sensor package, a first magnetic sensor, disposed within the sensor package, and configured to measure a first magnetic field in a first frequency range and output a first sensor signal based on the measured first magnetic field, a second magnetic sensor, disposed external to the sensor package, and configured to measure a second magnetic field in a second frequency range comprising frequencies higher than frequencies of the first frequency range and output a second sensor signal based on the measured second magnetic field, and a sensor circuit, disposed within the sensor package, and configured to receive the first and the second sensor signals, combine the first and the second sensor signals, and output a combined sensor signal. The first magnetic sensor and the second magnetic sensor are configured to share a cross-over frequency. |
| US09869725B2 |
Battery system and method with capacity estimator
An electrochemical battery system in one embodiment includes at least one electrochemical cell, a current sensor configured to generate a current signal, a voltage sensor configured to generate a voltage signal, a memory in which command instructions are stored, and a processor configured to execute the command instructions to obtain the current signal and the voltage signal, and to generate an estimated cell nominal capacity (Cnom) of the at least one electrochemical cell by estimating a first leg Cnom during a first charging sequence using a first charging current, estimating a second leg Cnom during a second charging sequence using a second charging current, wherein the second charging current is at a current amplitude different from the current amplitude of the first charging current, and generating the cell Cnom based upon the first leg Cnom and the second leg Cnom. |
| US09869718B1 |
Scan test architecture and method for scan testing
A circuit and a method for testing for faults in a circuit path. The circuit comprises a memory, a collar flop connected in parallel with the memory, and a feedback path in communication with the output of the memory and the input of the collar flop. The method comprises applying a fault test vector to logic in the circuit path to produce a fault test vector response, propagating the vector or the response through a memory in the circuit path, and capturing the response in a collar flop. |
| US09869716B2 |
Device comprising programmable logic element
Provided is a device capable of generating test patterns even after the design stage. The area of a circuit which is included in the device and unnecessary during normal operation can be reduced. The device includes a first circuit and a second circuit. The second circuit includes a plurality of third circuits, a plurality of fourth circuits, and a fifth circuit and has a function of generating a signal for testing operation of the first circuit and a function of operating as part of the first circuit. The fourth circuit has a function of storing a first data and a function of storing a second data. The fifth circuit has a function of writing the first data to the plurality of fourth circuits, a function of writing the second data to the plurality of fourth circuits, and a function of reading the second data from the plurality of fourth circuits. |
| US09869715B2 |
Semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus and semiconductor wafer inspection method
The present invention provides a semiconductor wafer inspection apparatus and a semiconductor wafer inspection method that can suppress warpage in a semiconductor wafer due to a temperature difference between the mounting surface of a table and the semiconductor wafer. In a prober of the present invention, a semiconductor wafer is heated to have a second temperature which is equal to or lower than a first temperature in a preheating step using an oven, and then the semiconductor wafer is placed on a mounting surface of a table which is heated to the first temperature. Thus, because a temperature difference between the mounting surface of the table and the semiconductor wafer is reduced in the prober, it is possible to suppress warpage in the semiconductor wafer that occurs right after the semiconductor wafer is placed on the mounting surface. |
| US09869711B2 |
Method for evaluating performance of plasma wave transistor
A method for evaluating the performance of a plasma transistor comprises: setting a plasma wave velocity, which is adjusted by a gate overdrive voltage, as a first axis; setting an electronic drift velocity, which is adjusted by a drain-to-source voltage, as a second axis; setting a channel length as a third axis; and checking whether the plasma wave transistor is operated as a terahertz emitter according to a change in the performance parameter value of the plasma wave transistor on the basis of a relational expression among the first axis, the second axis, and the third axis. |
| US09869709B2 |
Electric arc detection method and device
An electric arc detection device samples first, second and third filterings of a signal in a current window and in another window. A correlation is determined between first filtering samples of the current and the other window, a correlation is determined between second filtering samples of the current and the other window, and a correlation is determined between third filtering samples of the current window and the other window. An arc is then detected as a function of the correlations. |
| US09869706B2 |
Capacitive sensor electrode
A capacitive electrode has a flat electrode with a geometric shape, wherein at least one central portion of the electrode is removed to provide for a frame-like form of the electrode. |
| US09869704B2 |
Power measurement device, determination method, and recording medium for identification of current detection element disposed in an incorrect direction
A power measurer measures, for each current transformer CT, electric energy supplied to equipment or electric energy supplied from the equipment based on a current measured by a current measurer and a voltage measured by a voltage measurer. A sign memory stores, for each current transformer CT, information indicating whether the electric energy measured by the power measurer when the current transformer CT is disposed in a correct direction on a power line shows a positive sign or a negative sign. A determiner determines that, when the sign stored in the sign memory differs from the sign of the electric energy measured by the power measurer, the current transformer CT is disposed in an incorrect direction on the power line. |
| US09869701B2 |
Theft detection and prevention in a power generation system
A system for generation of electrical power including an inverter connected to a photovoltaic source including a theft prevention and detection feature. A first memory is permanently attached to the photovoltaic source. The first memory is configured to store a first code. A second memory is attached to the inverter. The second memory configured to store a second code. During manufacture or installation of the system, the first code is stored in the first memory attached to the photovoltaic source. The second code based on the first code is stored in the second memory. Prior to operation of the inverter, the first code is compared to the second code and based on the comparison; the generation of the electrical power is enabled or disabled. |
| US09869698B2 |
Oscillator circuit with RF suppression
An oscillator circuit includes a phase-locked loop, a crystal resonator, first and second capacitors, and first and second impedance elements. The phase-locked loop is coupled between a first node and a second node. The crystal resonator is also coupled between the first node and the second node. The first capacitor is coupled between the first node and ground, and the second capacitor is coupled between the second node and ground. The first impedance element is coupled in a first circuit path from the first node to ground through the first capacitor. The second impedance element is coupled in a second circuit path from the second node to ground through the second capacitor. |
| US09869695B1 |
Atomic-force microscope system with integrated fabry-perot resonator
An atomic-force microscope system is provided including: an electrically conducting cantilever support; an electrically insulating element; and an electrically conducting cantilever anchored at a first end to the cantilever support via the insulating element, the cantilever including a probe tip at a second end opposite to the first end and the cantilever support is configured as a backside electrode of the cantilever for backside actuation thereof; a Fabry-Perot interferometer including: a resonator with a first mirror defined on the cantilever; and a second mirror defined on the cantilever support having a first side and a second side configured to allow light injection, opposite to the first side, the latter extending at least partly vis-à-vis the first mirror. The interferometer includes a light-emitting device, and a detector configured for detecting a property of the system impacted by interferences of light emitted by the light-emitting device. Methods of operations are also provided. |
| US09869679B2 |
Methods and devices for photometrically determining sample application on test elements
Methods are provided for photometrically determining/detecting sample application to an analytical test element for use with a blood glucose measuring device, where the method includes obtaining a sequence of reflectance readings from the test element with the measuring device, including a blank value prior to sample application, and then monitoring changes of the reflectance readings from the test element with respect to a sample application condition defined by a limit for a reflectance decrease or a reflectance threshold. The methods also can include adjusting the sample application condition in accordance with a drift correction and can include determining an analyte concentration in the body fluid sample. In addition, photometric blood glucose measuring devices are provided that incorporate the methods disclosed herein. |
| US09869677B2 |
Methods of developing a prognosis for pancreatic cancer and predicting responsiveness to cancer therapeutics
Methods of predicting responsiveness of a cancer in a subject to a cancer therapy including a VEGF targeting agent are provided herein. The methods include detecting the expression level of at least one biomarker selected from ANG-2, SDF-1 and VEGF-D in a sample from the subject and using the expression levels to determine whether the VEGF targeting agent will be effective to treat the cancer in the subject. The predictions may be used to develop treatment plans for the subjects. Methods of developing a prognosis for a subject with pancreatic cancer are also provided. These methods include determining the expression level of IGFBP-1, PDGF-AA and at least one of IL-6 or CRP in a sample from a subject with pancreatic cancer. |
| US09869674B2 |
Method for determining the presence of an analyte by means of small magnetic particles, and corresponding device
The invention relates to a method for determining the presence of an analyte by means of a distribution of small magnetic particles. According to said method, the magnetizations of the small particles are oriented in relation to each other by means of an outer magnetic focusing field; once the focussing field has been terminated, the magnetizations of the small particles are rotated asynchronously to the magnetic field by means of an outer magnetic field of suitable field intensity and rotational frequency, which rotates about a longitudinal axis (z); the temporal course of the superpositioned transverse magnetization of the set of particles is detected; and the presence of the analyte is deduced from the detected temporal course. The invention also relates to a corresponding device (1). |
| US09869669B2 |
Biomarker sensing based on nanofluidic amplification and resonant optical detection
Provided is a sensor platform that includes a substrate, a plurality of nanochannels disposed on the substrate, and a plurality of electrodes, a waveguide disposed on the substrate and an analysis chamber and a reference chamber disposed on the substrate. Each electrode extends substantially across a width of the plurality of nanochannels. At least one analysis optical resonator is disposed in the analysis chamber and is optically coupled to at least a portion of the waveguide. The at least one analysis optical resonator is in fluid communication with at least one of the plurality of nanochannels. At least one reference optical resonator is disposed in the reference chamber and is optically coupled to at least a portion of the waveguide. The at least one reference optical resonator is in fluid communication with at least one other of the plurality of nanochannels. |
| US09869668B2 |
PDGF as a biomarker for predicting resistance or effect of c-Met targeting drugs
Provided is a method for evaluating efficacy of, or resistance to, a c-Met targeting agent including measuring a level of a PDGF protein and/or a PDGF coding gene. |
| US09869665B2 |
Generator predictive engine oil life algorithm
A system including one or more generators predicts engine oil life. Generator data is received or generated by a controller. The generator data describes the operation of the generator including a load placed on the generator. Engine data may also be received or generated by the controller describing an engine coupled to the generator. The controller calculates an estimated oil life based at least on the generator data and/or the engine data. |
| US09869657B2 |
Ion sensitive device and method of fabrication
A sol-gel deposition technique that forms ion sensitive layers is compatible with CMOS fabrication methods and is applied to build sensors of concentrations of solutions of selected target ions. The ion sensitive sensor may be formed on an exposed portion of a signal trace of a printed circuit board. Additionally, the ion sensitive layer may be formed within an ion sensitive field effect transistor. |
| US09869656B2 |
Impedance detector for oxygen concentration sensor element
In an impedance detector, a current application portion applies a first current and a second current, directions of which are opposite to each other, to an element of an oxygen concentration sensor. A detection portion detects a difference between a current application prior voltage and a current application subsequent voltage. The current application prior voltage is a voltage between both of ends of the element before being applied with the first current, and the current application subsequent voltage is a voltage between both of the ends of the element when being applied with the first current. An impedance calculation portion calculates an impedance of the element based on the difference detected by the detection portion and a value of the first current. The current application portion is configured to change a current application time to apply the first current and the second current according to a command provided thereto. |
| US09869655B2 |
System for detecting electrical properties of a molecular complex
A system for detecting electrical properties of a molecular complex is disclosed. The system includes an electrode electrically coupled to a molecular complex that outputs an electrical signal affected by an electrical property of the molecular complex, wherein the effect of the electrical property of the molecular complex on the electrical signal is characterized by an expected bandwidth. The system further includes an integrating amplifier circuit configured to: receive the electrical signal from the electrode. The integrating amplifier circuit is further configured to selectively amplify and integrate a portion of the electrical signal over time within a predetermined bandwidth, wherein the predetermined bandwidth is selected at least in part based on the expected bandwidth. |
| US09869652B2 |
Biosensor for point-of-care diagnostic and on-site measurements
Disclosed herein is a biosensor for detection of a target substance in a sample with impedance spectroscopy, the biosensor comprising 1) a first non-conducting substrate comprising a primary substrate surface; 2) a conducting polymer electrode layer comprising one or more conducting polymers layers, the conducting polymer electrode layer comprising a primary electrode surface and a secondary electrode surface, wherein the secondary electrode surface covers part of the primary substrate surface; 3) a probe layer bonded to part of the primary electrode surface; and 4) a second non-conducting substrate comprising a secondary substrate surface, wherein the secondary substrate surface of the second substrate and the primary substrate surface of the first substrate are interconnected such that the electrode layer and the probe layer are confined within an area defined by the first substrate and the second substrate; wherein the electrode layer comprises at least a first electrode pair, the first electrode pair comprising a primary electrode and a secondary electrode, where the probe layer is bonded to the primary electrode and the secondary electrode of the at least first electrode pair, the probe layer being adapted for selectively binding of the target substance. |
| US09869649B2 |
Nano-level evaluation of kerogen-rich reservoir rock
Examples of nano-level evaluation of kerogen-rich reservoir rock are described. A micro-scale beam is formed from kerogen-rich reservoir rock. The beam has reservoir rock and kerogen, which has polymeric properties. A maximum dimension of the micro-scale beam is at most 1000 micrometers. A mechanical experiment that includes a tension test or a compression test is performed on the micro-scale beam. The mechanical experiment is imaged using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). A material parameter of the kerogen in the micro-scale beam is determined based on results of the mechanical experiment and images obtained responsive to the imaging. The material parameter includes a behavior of the kerogen in response to the mechanical experiment. The behavior of the kerogen can be used to determine, among other things, the energy required to break kerogen in a kerogen-rich shale to improve hydraulic fracturing efficiency. |
| US09869646B2 |
View triggering for radiation imaging system
Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are described for triggering a radiation imaging system to perform data acquisition. A radiation imaging system may comprise a rotating gantry configured to rotate a radiation source and a detector array about an object to generate an image(s) of the object. A data acquisition system is configure to integrate charge that has accumulated during a period of time. A temporal length between integrations (e.g., an integration period) is adjusted based upon a desired number of total integrations to be performed during the revolution, changes in the rotational speed of the rotating gantry during the revolution, and/or a collective integration time for integrations already performed during the revolution. |
| US09869645B2 |
System for non-destructive testing and method for processing data generated therein
Systems and methods are described that reduce the amount of data that is transferred among the components of the system. In one embodiment, the testing system comprises a scanner device such as a computed-tomography (CT) scanner that generates a volumetric representation of a part-under-inspection. The testing system is further configured to identify a region of interest in the volumetric representation, wherein the region of interest may correspond to an area of the part-under-inspection where a defect or flaw may form. The testing system may further format the data of the volumetric representation so the resulting formatted volumetric representation comprises less data than the original volumetric representation. |
| US09869637B2 |
Radioactive anomaly detector
A detector apparatus is provided and includes a collector having access to a sample of a gaseous fluid and a tester coupled to and disposed remotely from the collector. The tester includes a test chamber into which a sample is directed from the collector, an excitation element to excite the sample in the test chamber and a spectrum analyzing device coupled to the test chamber to analyze the excited sample for evidence of a concentration of particles of interest in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration. The threshold concentration is defined in accordance with a type of the particles of interest and a residence time of the sample. |
| US09869636B2 |
Device for evaluation of fluids using electromagnetic energy
A portable, tabletop fluid sampling device simplifies spectral analysis to produce an accurate but inexpensive chromatic fingerprint for fluid samples. In one embodiment, the sampling device uses an array of variable wavelength LED emitters and photodiode detectors to measure Rayleigh scattering of electromagnetic energy from the fluid sample contained in a cuvette. Either the fluid itself, or particles suspended in the fluid can then be identified by performing spectral pattern matching to compare results of a spectral scan against a library of known spectra. A wide range of applications include substance identification, security screening, authentication, quality control, and medical diagnostics. |
| US09869635B2 |
Measuring device for measuring particulate matter concentrations using scattered light and method for monitoring the measuring device
A measuring unit for measuring a particulate concentration in exhaust gases using scattered light includes a measuring chamber, at least one light source and at least one light sensor, the measuring chamber being situated in the optical path of the light source; and the light sensor records the light scattered by the particulates in the measuring chamber. To detect the intensity of light beam that is relevant for a precise particulate measurement, a monitoring device is provided to detect the intensity of the light beam with the aid of a scattered radiation. The intensity of the light beam is recorded using a monitoring measurement, by ascertaining a scattered radiation and comparing it to a specified reference value for the scattered radiation. With the aid of the comparison, the intensity of the light source is regulated correspondingly and/or the measuring result of the particulate measurement is correspondingly corrected. |
| US09869629B1 |
Innovative and safe method to conduct high temperature halogenation of metallic alloys
The present invention discloses a method and system for conducting high temperature corrosion tests on metallic alloys without the need for extensive laboratory equipment and attendant safety measures through the use of a two-compartment ampoule where a vestibule connects these two compartments. A pre-selected mixture of salts is placed in one compartment in order to generate a specific partial pressure of halogen gas; and a metallic alloy is placed in the other compartment. The ampoule is then heated to a pre-determined temperature and held at this temperature for a pre-determined time period. A halogen gas of a specific partial pressure is thereby generated from the mixture of salts which comes into contact with the metallic alloy. Because the ampoule creates a sealed environment, the metallic alloy is under constant halogenation during the pre-determined time period. The metallic alloy is removed for examination when the pre-determined time period expires. |
| US09869627B2 |
Device for measuring impermeability of the sealing means of a filter cartridge and process thereof
A device for measuring permeability of a filter cartridge seal includes a blocking member for blocking an input to the filter cartridge and a housing for tightening the seal. A removable chamber wall is configured to form a sealed chamber with the housing and the blocking member. Pressure in the sealed chamber is varied to test the seal and to detect leaks. |
| US09869624B2 |
Method and apparatus for characterizing interfacial tension between two immiscible or partially miscible fluids
An apparatus (and method) for characterizing interfacial tension between a non-wetting phase fluid and a wetting phase fluid of a slug flow employs a capillary structure that is configured to contain a slug of the non-wetting phase fluid of the slug flow. The slug has a leading edge meniscus and a trailing edge meniscus, and the capillary structure has a venturi-like section. A pressure sensor is configured to measure differential pressure between first and second locations of the capillary structure. The first location is disposed upstream of the leading edge meniscus of the slug with the leading edge meniscus of the slug contained within the venturi-like section. The second location is disposed downstream of the trailing edge meniscus of the slug. Data processing means is configured to derive a measure of interfacial tension based upon the differential pressure measured by the pressure sensor and, optionally, geometry of the capillary structure. |
| US09869622B2 |
Automated profiling of the hardness of wood
The present invention pertains to a device, system, and method for evaluating the condition of a wooden structure by automated profiling of the hardness of the structure. More particularly, the present invention is directed towards a probing device comprising a blade coupled to a resistance mechanism and a mechanical sensor for measuring the hardness of wood in a structure; a system comprising such a device, and a computing device coupled to the device that outputs the hardness measurements of the device; and a method for operating such a device and determining the condition of wood by identifying changes in hardness in a wooden structure. |
| US09869620B2 |
Measurement device for measuring dynamometric features of elongated textile samples of the yarns, threads, tapes type and the like
A measurement device for measuring dynamometric features of elongated textile samples of the yarns, threads, tapes type and the like, such a device comprises a first clamp and a second clamp that is substantially aligned and relatively movable with respect to the first clamp along a first translation direction, each of the first clamp and the second clamp including a fixed jaw and a movable jaw in relation to the respective fixed jaw along a second translation direction substantially orthogonal to the first translation direction and the movable jaw is movable between a resting position and an operating position. |
| US09869617B2 |
Automated methods, kits, and systems for clarifying obfuscating pigments in histology samples
Methods, kits, and systems for clarifying obfuscating pigments in histology samples such as an automated method of treating a histology sample with a clarifying reagent so that the clarifying reagent, contacts the sample and the pigments within the sample are decolorized , thus alleviating staining obfuscations associated with pigments. Decolorizing the pigments within the sample enables the histology sample to be interpretable by a qualified reader. An antigen retrieval step is performed after the clarification step. |
| US09869614B2 |
Sampling apparatus and sampling method
A sampling apparatus includes a pressure-reducing safety unit, which includes a device accommodation chamber that accommodates safety devices and a cylinder connection chamber, and a cylinder unit. The cylinder unit removably accommodates a cylinder, excluding an exposed portion where a front end portion of the cylinder, a mouthpiece, and a cylinder on-off valve are exposed, in an openable/closable casing. The exposed portion of the cylinder is formed so as to be insertable from the open surface portion of the cylinder connection chamber into the cylinder connection chamber, the mouthpiece of the cylinder and a hydrogen outlet of a supply pipe of the device accommodation chamber are connected by using a flexible hose, and thereby a sample of hydrogen gas is taken into the cylinder. |
| US09869610B2 |
Method for detecting vibration in a rail vehicle
A method for detecting a vibration of a driven axle system of a rail vehicle includes a sensor system detecting a parameter indicating the vibration of an element of the axle system and an evaluating unit evaluating a signal of the sensor system. In order to reliably detect the vibration of the driven axle system of the rail vehicle, the sensor system includes a motion sensor which detects a motion of the element as the parameter. |
| US09869607B2 |
Systems and methods for distributed measurement
A measurement system includes a cable having a length, a light source, at least one detector, and at least one processor. The light source is operably coupled to the cable and is configured to transmit an optical signal to the cable. The at least one processor is operably coupled to the cable and configured to: receive a scattered signal from the cable responsive to the optical signal transmitted to the cable; map the scattered signal to the length of the cable; and de-convolve a spatial averaging effect of the scattered signal using a weighting profile corresponding to the light source and the cable to generate a distributed property profile defined along the length of the cable. |
| US09869602B2 |
Pipeline leak detection device and method
A pipeline leak detection device for detecting leaks in a pipe includes a sensor assembly guided into a pipe to detect evidence of a leak, and a position assessing device provides an indication of a location of the sensor assembly. The sensor assembly may be a hydrophone, and the position assessing device may be a guide wire with markings for measuring lengths of the guide wire, or a transmitter. An injector plug can be inserted in an access port of the pipe to create a liquid tight seal for insertion of the sensor assembly. A pressurizing device may also be connected to the access port to pressurize the pipe. |
| US09869598B1 |
Low cost small force sensor
Disclosed herein are force sensors which include a sense die assembly and methods for manufacturing the sense die assembly and the force sensor. The disclosed sense die assembly, force sensor, and methods utilize wafer-level retention to hold an actuation element in a cavity of the sense die. |
| US09869596B2 |
Non-contact method for measurement of strain profile at a location interposed within a soft deformable object with dynamic evolution of the strain under dynamic loading or fracture of the object
A non-invasive method for estimation of strain profile and dynamic evolution of the strain at a location interposed inside a block of soft material, includes forming a tracer grid consisting of microscopic lines or regularly spaced microscopic dots on a single plane buried inside the soft block; preparation of a deformable object embedded with the tracer grid in three primary steps: i. preparing a block of crosslinked material by crosslinking a first predetermined quantity of a pre-polymer solution containing a monomer, a crosslinking agent, and an initiator and promoter all mixed in a solvent at a known stoichiometric weight ratio; ii. transferring a grid comprising of lines or dots onto the face by direct writing or transferring from an easy release surface; and iii. crosslinking a second predetermined quantity of the same pre-polymer solution on the gel surface, such that this second crosslinked material gets welded to the first one. |
| US09869593B2 |
Detection device with suspended bolometric membranes having a high absorption efficiency and signal-to-noise ratio
A bolometric detection device includes a substrate having a read-out circuit. The device also includes an array of elementary detectors each including a membrane suspended above the substrate and connected to the read-out circuit by at least two electric conductors. The membrane has two electrically-conductive electrodes respectively connected to the two electric conductors, and a volume of transducer material electrically connecting the two electrodes. The read-out circuit is configured to apply an electrical stimulus between the two electrodes of the membrane and to form an electric signal as a response to said application. The volume includes a volume of a first transducer material electrically connecting the two electrodes of the membrane and forming walls of a closed enclosure having each of the electrodes at least partially housed therein; and a volume of a second transducer material, electrically connecting the two electrodes and housed in the enclosure, the electric resistivity of the second material being smaller than the electric resistivity of the first material; and the two transducer materials having a negative thermal coefficient of resistivity TCR. |
| US09869591B2 |
Cars microscope
To measure homodyne interference with a CARS microscope, a supercontinuum beam is used as a light source. A supercontinuum beam is generated using a nonlinear optical fiber that has normal dispersion in which the coherence between pulses is maintained. As the phases of the interference components of detected beams are the same between pulses, it is possible to integrate the interference components and thus improve the signal-noise ratio. |
| US09869589B2 |
Electronic device and information processing method
The present disclosure discloses an electronic device and an information processing method. The electronic device comprises a light detection unit, including a photonic crystal layer configured to reflect and transmit light with a first wavelength in a first incident light according to a voltage applied to the photonic crystal layer; and a photosensitive layer arranged at a light transmission side of the photonic crystal layer and configured to detect a first parameter of a first transmission light transmitted through the photonic crystal layer when the light with the first wavelength is reflected by the photonic crystal layer, and detect a second parameter of a second transmission light transmitted through the photonic crystal layer when the light with the first wavelength is transmitted through the photonic crystal layer; and a processing unit configured to form a spectrum of the first waveform according to the first parameter and the second parameter. |
| US09869588B2 |
Fiber grating demodulation system for enhancing spectral resolution by finely shifting slit
A fiber grating demodulation system for enhancing spectral resolution by finely adjusting a slit, includes a laser pump source, a wavelength division multiplexer, a fiber Bragg grating, a diaphragm, a slit, a collimating mirror, a light splitting grating, an imaging focus mirror, and a linear array detector. The laser pump source, the wavelength division multiplexer, the fiber Bragg grating are connected in sequence, and the wavelength division multiplexer is connected to the diaphragm. Light emitted from the laser pump source is multiplexed by the wavelength division multiplexer and then enters the fiber Bragg grating, a reflection spectrum of the fiber Bragg grating enters the slit of the fiber grating demodulation system as injected light. After passing through the slit, the injected light is reflected by the collimating mirror, the light splitting grating, and the imaging focus mirror in sequence, and is finally converged to the linear array detector. |
| US09869582B2 |
Method and device for control of avalanche photo-diode characteristics for high speed and high gain applications
A device that may include a DC power supply coupled to a fixed current source; an APD; a DC voltage regulator that comprises a regulating transistor, arranged to maintain a regulated voltage at a fixed value over different APD currents; a temperature control module that is arranged to maintain a portion of the temperature control module at a fixed temperature; and compensation circuit that comprises a compensation component that is thermally coupled to the APD. A voltage drop over the compensation component is smaller than a voltage drop over the APD. A sum of (a) a current that pass through the APD and (b) a current that passes through the compensation component is fixed. The portion of the temperature control module is thermally coupled to the compensation component and to the APD. |
| US09869579B2 |
Device and method for measuring vibrations of a rotor
The present disclosure relates to a measuring device for measuring vibrations of a rotor and to a method for measuring the vibrations of a rotor. Disclosed is a measuring device for measuring vibrations of a rotor of an electric machine having a guiding rod with a plate at one end of the guiding rod, the plate to abut at the rotor in operation, an actuator for inducing a shock to the rotor via the guiding rod and via the plate, and a monitor device for measuring the vibrations at the rotor caused by the induced shock. |
| US09869578B2 |
Magnetic stirrer with mounting feet
A magnetic stirrer (1) has a housing (2) for accommodating a drive (3) and a holder or mounting plate (5) for a stirred vessel and a stirring magnet. A plurality of mounting feet (6) are provided for mounting the magnetic stirrer (1) on the base, which mounting feet are mounted in a movable or flexible manner and are connected to a weight measuring device or sensors belonging to a weight measuring device, with the result that the weight of the stirred material or a change in weight can be determined at any time without complicated additional weighing operations. |
| US09869577B2 |
Weighing device for a plot combine harvester
The invention relates to a weighing device for a plot combine harvester, comprising a weighing container guided vertically adjustably on a frame in the manner of a parallel linkage, said weighing container being supported relative to a frame by way of a weighing cell assembly having a weighing cell articulated in the vertical direction between the frame and the weighing container. In order to provide advantageous design conditions, it is proposed that the weighing container is mounted on the frame in the manner of a parallel linkage via leaf springs clamped at both ends. |
| US09869575B2 |
Constructible utensils
A system and method for a constructible scoop that overcomes the disadvantages of conventional preformed scoops that are shipped in association with a scoopable product. A constructible scoop may be protected and provided outside of the product-containing-volume where it is easily located and sealed to be sanitary prior to first use. |
| US09869574B2 |
System and method of allocating objects within storage bins
A method of allocating objects within a plurality of storage bins including monitoring motion within the plurality of storage bins, wherein each storage bin of the plurality of storage bins includes a profile sensor coupled therein, and activating the profile sensor coupled within a first storage bin. The profile sensor activated based on detection of motion within the first storage bin. The method also includes determining, with the profile sensor, an available capacity within the first storage bin, and transmitting an indication of the available capacity within the first storage bin. |
| US09869573B2 |
Physical amount measurement apparatus mounted integrally with flow rate measurement apparatus, and physical amount measurement method
Provided is an intake air temperature detection apparatus mounted integrally with a flow rate measurement apparatus, the intake air temperature detection apparatus having temperature measurement precision improved by increasing thermal responsiveness of an intake air temperature detection part that is arranged in a measurement passage of the flow rate measurement apparatus and detects a temperature of intake air, which is a fluid to be measured. The intake air temperature measurement apparatus includes: the intake air temperature detection part for detecting a temperature of the intake air in the measurement passage of the flow rate measurement apparatus; and an intake air temperature detection circuit part arranged in a circuit accommodating part of the flow rate measurement apparatus, for generating a signal obtained by carrying out phase lead correction on a signal representing a result of detection by the intake air temperature detection part. |
| US09869571B2 |
Device for detecting mass particles and method for control
A device for detecting mass particles in air flows guided in a pipe, in particular of seeds to be distributed in a seed drill. A sensor element is disposed on the pipe. The sensor element is a piezoelectric element. An impact surface is disposed on the side of the piezoelectric element facing the interior of the pipe. A damping body is arranged on the side of the piezoelectric element facing away from the interior of the pipe. A rigid base body is disposed on the side of the piezoelectric element facing away from the interior of the pipe. |
| US09869570B1 |
Directional dynamic absolute pressure sensor shroud and arrangement
A pressure sensor assembly for simultaneously providing a time-resolved total pressure measurement and steady state flow angles of an airflow. The assembly includes an outer shroud having a front face, a rear face and a central bore having a wall. A dynamic absolute pressure sensor is positioned within the bore and provides a time-resolved total airflow pressure measurement. First and second spaced apart static pressure ports extend from the front face of the shroud to the rear face of the shroud and adjacent to the bore. The pressure ports provide a pressure that can be measured by pressure probes, where a combination of the time-resolved total pressure measurement and pressure measurements from the probes provides a steady state flow angle of the airflow. |
| US09869569B2 |
Method and device for remotely sensing and monitoring physical quantities with low power ad hoc network
A device for remotely sensing and monitoring physical quantities with a low power ad hoc network is used for monitoring and remotely transmitting environment parameters of a locale where the device is located. The device includes a physical quantity acquisition and processing unit, a Z-Wave core unit, an audible and visual alarm unit, a direct-current (DC) power supply, a memory unit, a programmer port, and a radio frequency (RF) antenna and matching circuit. The Z-Wave core unit is bidirectionally connected to the physical quantity acquisition and processing unit, the RF antenna and matching circuit, the memory unit, and the programmer port through general input output (I/O) ports. An output terminal of the Z-Wave core unit is connected to an input terminal of the audible and visual alarm unit. The DC power supply provides stability power with suitable voltage to the Z-Wave core unit. |
| US09869568B2 |
Sensing method and system for correcting an input waveform from a coded wheel
A sensing system and method for correcting an input waveform from a coded wheel. The coded wheel is configured to generate a signal that varies with rotation of the coded wheel relative to a sensor. The sensor is configured to sense the varying signal and output a corresponding input waveform. A correction module is configured to receive the input waveform and compare the input waveform to at least one stored waveform and to correct the input waveform if a defect is detected in the coded wheel in response to the comparison. |
| US09869567B2 |
Portable computer sleep mode system sensors
A sleep mode system for an electronic device can include a light source, a sensor, and a light altering component. The light altering component can rotate with one device component, such as a laptop lid, while the light source and/or sensor remain stationary with another device component, such as a laptop base. A controller can determine the orientation angle of the light altering component based on the detected light, and can put the device into or remove the device from a sleep mode based on the angle, which can reflect an open state or closed state for the electronic device. |
| US09869566B2 |
Angle sensing using differential magnetic measurement and a back bias magnet
A magnetic field sensor includes a back bias magnet to generate a DC magnetic field. First and second magnetic field sensing elements of the magnetic field sensor are disposed proximate to at least one ferromagnetic surface of a ferromagnetic target object. The first and second magnetic field sensing elements generate first and second electronic signals, respectively, in response to first and second sensed magnetic fields corresponding to the DC magnetic field but influenced by the at least one ferromagnetic surface. The magnetic field sensor generates a difference signal that is a difference of amplitudes of the first and second electronic signals. The difference signal is indicative of a rotation measurement of an absolute relative rotation of the ferromagnetic target object and the magnetic field sensor about a rotation axis. |
| US09869562B2 |
Method and system for contextually recommending a place of interest to a user and smart check-in
The disclosure is directed to improving driving experience. For example, using one or more computing devices, a current location of a user may be determined and a place of interest, located at a distance from the current location, may be identified. The one or more computing devices may determine that the place of interest meets one or more requirements, and designate the place of interest as a candidate place of interest. The candidate place of interest may be recommended to the user based on a defined criteria. The one or more computing devices may also determine that the user has arrived at a parking location corresponding to the candidate place of interest, and associate the parking location and the candidate place of interest based on one or more inputs by the user. |
| US09869555B2 |
Construction machine control system, construction machine, construction machine management system, and construction machine control method and program
A construction machine control system for a construction machine that travels along a travel route, includes: a position detection unit that detects a position of the construction machine; a determination unit that determines whether an error in the position detected by the position detection unit is equal to or smaller than a predetermined error; a non-contact sensor that detects a position of an object around the construction machine; and a map information storage unit that extracts a detection result related to a vertical projection that protrudes vertically from a detection result of the non-contact sensor and stores the extracted detection result related to the vertical projection as map information when the determination unit determines that the error in the position detected by the position detection unit is equal to or smaller than the predetermined error. |
| US09869551B2 |
Inertial angular sensor of balanced MEMS type and method for balancing such a sensor
An inertial angular sensor of MEMS type has a support of at least two masses which are mounted movably with respect to the support, at least one electrostatic actuator and at least one electrostatic detector. The masses are suspended in a frame itself connected by suspension means to the support. The actuator and the detector are designed to respectively produce and detect a vibration of the masses, and a method for balancing such a sensor provided with at least one load detector mounted between the frame and the support and with at least one electrostatic spring placed between the frame and one of the masses and slaved so as to ensure dynamic balancing of the sensor as a function of a measurement signal of the load sensor. |
| US09869549B2 |
Robotic laser pointer apparatus and methods
A robotic laser-pointing apparatus has an instrument center, a first rotation axis, a second rotation axis, and a pointing axis, with the first rotation axis, the second rotation axis and the pointing axis in a known relationship to the instrument center. A laser source provides a pointing-laser beam along the pointing axis. A pointing drive system aims the laser beam by rotating the pointing axis about the instrument center in response to a pointing-direction control. Focusing optics having a focusing-optics drive serve to focus the pointing-laser beam in response to a focusing-optics control. A processor, responsive to target-position information, generates the pointing-direction control and the focusing-optics control. Some embodiments include an electronic-distance-measurement system having a measurement beam. Some embodiments provide for compensation of aiming errors of the pointing-laser beam and the measurement beam. |
| US09869542B2 |
System and method for resampling optical coherence tomography signals in segments
A system and method for resampling interference datasets of samples in segments, in a swept-source based Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system. The resampling is preferably performed within a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) of the OCT system, the FPGA preferably having Fourier-transform based signal processing capabilities such as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) cores. Resampling the interference datasets in segments provides a flexible approach to resampling that makes efficient use of system resources such as FFT cores. By resampling the interference datasets in segments, the system adjusts to an increased number of resampling points as the imaging depth upon the sample increases. The OCT system then combines the segments using overlapping values of the resampling points between adjacent resampling regions of the resampled segments, and performs Fourier Transform based post-processing on the combined segments to obtain axial profiles of the sample at desired imaging depths. |
| US09869538B2 |
Measuring device and related methods
A measuring device and related methods include, in at least one aspect, a method for controlling a measuring device: including processing data providing information on a shape of the part to determine a set of suitable surface touch positions, the set of suitable surface touch positions being used to generate a first queue; instructing the measuring device to move at least one of one or more probes to each position listed in the first queue, and to take a surface touch measurement at each position; calculating a set of suitable edge touch positions based on the surface touch measurements, the set of suitable edge touch positions being used to generate a second queue of measurements; and instructing the measuring device to move the at least one of the one or more probes to each position listed in the second queue, and to take an edge measurement at each position. |
| US09869535B2 |
System and method for ballistic protection for a vehicle door
The invention is a method for applying ballistic protection to a vehicle door to protect against ballistic impact comprising: obtaining a plurality of ballistic-resistant panels, inserting each of said plurality of ballistic-resistant panels into an interior cavity of the vehicle door; and attaching each said plurality of ballistic-resistant panels to an interior surface of an exterior door panel of the vehicle door so as to form said contiguous ballistic-resistant panel assembly inside said interior cavity. |
| US09869534B2 |
Ballistic resistant article and process to manufacture said article
A ballistic resistant article is provided along with a process to manufacture the article. The ballistic resistant articles includes at least one consolidated composite, wherein the at least one consolidated composite includes at least two layers, each layer includes a network of fibers, the fibers have a strength of at least 800 mN/tex (1100 MPa) according to ASTM D 7269-07, the fibers in each layer are impregnated with a matrix material, and each consolidated composite has a front surface and a rear surface. In the ballistic article, at least the front surface of each consolidated composite is powder coated with partly molten and solidified powder particles to form a powder coated surface. |
| US09869533B2 |
Blast and ballistic improvement in helmets
A composite article having blast and ballistic resistance suitable for helmets, personal protection and hard armor applications comprises a high-strain hardening elastomeric layer and a layer of continuous yarns having a tenacity of 15 grams per dtex and a modulus of at least 500 grams per dtex or an oriented polyethylene sheet layer having a modulus ten times greater in one direction than in another direction. |
| US09869532B2 |
Maritime ballistic safety carrier
A floatation member for ballistic carrier vest includes a first outer layer and an intermediate layer overlying the first outer layer. A peripheral edge of the intermediate layer is secured to a peripheral edge of the first outer layer to define a first cavity therebetween. A panel selected from a non-ballistic panel and a ballistic panel is received within the first cavity. A second outer layer overlies the intermediate layer and a peripheral edge of the second outer layer secured to the peripheral edge of the intermediate layer to define a second cavity therebetween. A valve configured to deliver an inflation gas into the second cavity. In a further aspect, a ballistic safety article for providing ballistic protection for a person is provided. |
| US09869531B1 |
Integrated optical sight mount
Implementations of an integrated optical sight mount are provided. In some implementations, the optical sight mount may be integrated into the frame of a handgun via a locking block and used to position an optical sight over the slide thereof. In some implementations, the integrated optical sight mount may comprise a mounting platform that is supported by a first side wall and a second side wall, each of which extend from a locking block seated in the frame of the handgun. In some implementations, the mounting platform is configured for an optical gun sight to be secured thereon. In some implementations, the mounting platform and the side walls define an opening therebetween configured (e.g., dimensioned) so that the slide assembly of the handgun is able to pass therethrough without interference. |
| US09869529B2 |
Firearm sight adjustment and installation tool
A firearm sight adjustment and installation tool is described. The tool serves to facilitate and expedite the accurate adjustment and/or installation of sights on the slides of a firearm, whenever the sights allow this adjustment. The tool includes a plate, a plate with nuts, tightening screws, a spacer block, at least one adapter, a drift screw, an interchangeable pushing element and quick reference featured on one of the plates. With the tool and little expertise, an individual may manually adjust both the front and rear sights of a firearm to increase the accuracy of the firearm without additional tools. |
| US09869528B2 |
Micro-pointer system for archery sights
A micro-pointer system coupled to a primary pointer system on a target or hunting sight. The primary pointer system includes a primary pointer attached to the micro-pointer system to provide an indication of an elevation setting. The micro-pointer system employs a micro-adjust mechanism that simultaneously displaces a micro-pointer and a primary pointer in an accurate and repeatable manner in relation to respective scales on the body of the sight. |
| US09869527B2 |
Supplementary sight aid adaptable to existing and new sight aid
A sight aid including a supplementary sight alignment indicator having a projection plane and a projection device adapted to project a supplementary sight alignment indicator and at least one reference point on the projection plane, the supplementary sight alignment indicator is axially-centered with respect to the sight alignment indicator and spaced apart therefrom on the optical axis for forming a composite image with the image of the sight alignment indicator, the target image being viewable together by the user by means of the ocular lens and the projection plane is disposed at a distance from the sight alignment indicator. An adaptor secures the supplementary sight alignment indicator to a portion of the projectile device or the housing. |
| US09869524B2 |
Support for the arm of a pistol shooter
A support for the arm of a shooter includes an elongated body having a first support surface for a shoulder region, and a handle for a hand at the front end. The handle forms a second support surface open to the front, for absorbing the recoil when shooting. The handle has a recess open to the front, into which fits the contour of the rear part of the grip of a portable firearm. The hand grasps both the handle and the grip of the portable firearm at the same time. The support optionally contains a wide variety of overmolded metal parts, such as a metal pin or knife blade. |
| US09869519B2 |
Thermosiphon systems for electronic devices
A thermosiphon system includes a condenser, an evaporator, and a condensate line fluidically coupling the condenser to the evaporator. The condensate line can be a tube with parallel passages can be used to carry the liquid condensate from the condenser to the evaporator and to carry the vapor from the evaporator to the condenser. The evaporator can be integrated into the tube. The condenser can be constructed with an angled core. The entire assembly can be constructed using a single material, e.g., aluminum, and can be brazed together in a single brazing operation. |
| US09869518B2 |
Chemical heat storage device
A chemical heat storage device includes a reaction vessel accommodating a heat storage material, a heat exchange flow path provided so that a heat-exchange fluid flows along an outer surface of the reaction vessel, and the chemical heat storage device being configured in such a manner that the reaction vessel is rotated and the heat storage material is agitated, by a flow force of the heat-exchange fluid. |
| US09869514B2 |
Sludge drying method and installation
This sludge drying device is characterised in that a gas entraining a mix of sludge and sand is recycled after drying (6) and separation (8) to be compressed (10) and circulate again through the dryer (6) acting as a heat exchange fluid. Compression has been performed to increase the dew point temperature of the gas containing the evaporated moisture, such that the latent heat of evaporation can be recovered by the drying gas. The required operating power can then be much lower than the required power for evaporating the moisture contained in the sludge, because most of this power is recovered. |
| US09869507B2 |
Domestic cooling appliance having at least one light source and a receiving means for a shelf
A domestic cooling appliance includes an internal container with four walls delimiting an interior space for receiving food. Receiving devices or receivers are disposed on the inner surfaces of at least the lateral vertical walls of the internal container. At least one shelf can be mounted the receiving devices. At least one light source, which is disposed on at least one receiving device, is configured to illuminate the internal space. |
| US09869497B2 |
Discharge manifold for use with multiple compressors
A discharge gas manifold having a main conduit, an end feeder conduit, and at least one intermediate feeder conduit, wherein the at least one intermediate feeder conduit contains a portion, adjacent to the main conduit, that forms an angle between 0°-60° with the axis of the main conduit. |
| US09869492B2 |
Air conditioning and refrigeration system
A system includes a high side heat exchanger, a modulating valve, a flash tank, and a refrigeration unit. The high side heat exchanger is configured to remove heat from refrigerant. The modulating valve is configured to control the flow of refrigerant from the high side heat exchanger to both a heat exchanger and a flash tank. The flash tank is configured to store refrigerant from the heat exchanger and from the high side heat exchanger. The refrigeration unit is configured to receive refrigerant from the flash tank. |
| US09869490B2 |
Boiler having increased indoor heating efficiency and enabling simultaneous use of indoor heating and hot water
The boiler of the present invention which enables the simultaneous use of heating and hot water includes: an internal heating-water discharge line for heating water, which has a circulation path for heating water forcibly fed by an internal circulation pump between a tank and a main heat exchanger; a supply water discharge line for heating water, which has a circulation path for heating water forcibly fed by an external circulation pump and supplied and returned from/to the tank and an indoor heating mechanism; and a three-way valve provided on a second indoor heating water connecting pipe of the internal heating-water discharge line for heating water, which adjusts the degree to which it is opened according to the indoor heating load and the hot water load in order to supply hot water passing through the main heat exchanger to the tank and a hot-water heat exchanger. The internal heating-water discharge line of the boiler and the supply water discharge line for heating water are connected to the internal space of the tank disposed therebetween. |
| US09869489B2 |
Fan assembly and water heater
A fan assembly includes a fan and an emission connection portion. The fan includes a fan case having a first internal space, an impeller, and a rotation shaft. The emission connection portion includes a connection portion case having a second internal space and provided with an emission port for emitting gas sent from the fan to the outside of the fan assembly through the second internal space. In a plan view from a direction of axis of the rotation shaft, a tongue portion extending from one end toward the other end is located at a boundary between the first internal space and the second internal space, and the tongue portion is provided to extend to a position at least reaching a straight line connecting a center point of the emission port and a center of rotation of the rotation shaft to each other, from one end toward the other end. |
| US09869485B2 |
System and method for controlling an HVAC unit based on thermostat signals
A method is provided for controlling an HVAC unit, including: receiving input signals from a thermostat; setting a mode of the HVAC unit to a heating mode when a heating signal is enabled, or to a cooling mode when a cooling signal is enabled; setting a capacity of the HVAC unit to a set capacity based on the input signals; calculating a heating/cooling change rate based on temperature data received from the HVAC unit; comparing the heating/cooling change rate with a threshold; maintaining the HVAC unit at the set capacity percentage if the heating/cooling change rate is equal to the threshold; lowering the current capacity by a first cooling increment, to a minimum of 0%, if the heating/cooling change rate is above the threshold; and raising the current capacity by a second cooling increment, to a maximum of 100%, if the heating/cooling change rate is below the threshold. |
| US09869482B2 |
Ventilation system, ventilation method, ventilation control device, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium
The ventilation system is a system for ventilating a building and comprises an air supplier/exhauster comprising air supply function and exhaust function and a ventilation control device controlling the operation of the air supplier/exhauster. Upon operating the air supplier/exhauster, the ventilation control device determines which the air supplier/exhauster conducts, air supply operation or exhaust operation, based on wind information regarding the outdoor wind. The ventilation through the ventilation passage from the air supplier/exhauster to a vent provided in the building is conducted when the air supplier/exhauster conducts air supply operation. Alternatively, the ventilation through the ventilation passage from the vent to the air supplier/exhauster is conducted when the air supplier/exhauster conducts exhaust operation. |
| US09869479B2 |
Method for producing a near-surface cooling passage in a thermally highly stressed component, and component having such a passage
The invention refers to a method for producing a near-surface cooling passage in a thermally highly stressed component, which includes: a) providing a component which has a surface on a hot side in a region which is to be cooled; b) letting a channel into the surface; c) inserting a cooling tube into the channel; d) filling the channel, with the cooling tube inserted, with a temperature-resistant filling material in such a way that the inserted cooling tube is embedded into the filling material, leaving free an inlet and an outlet; and e) covering the channel, with the cooling tube embedded, with an anti-oxidation, temperature-stable cover layer. The method is inexpensive and can be used in a flexible manner in the most diverse situations in order to save cooling medium or to reduce the thermal load. |
| US09869477B2 |
Mixer assembly and method for operating a mixer assembly
A mixer assembly for an air-conditioning system comprising a recirculation air line, connectable to a vehicle region to be air-conditioned, to remove recirculation air from the region, and an air-conditioning air line, connectable to an air-conditioning unit to remove conditioned air from the air-conditioning unit. A first mixing region, for mixing the recirculation air with the conditioned air, is connected to the two air lines. A second mixing region, for mixing the first mixing region air with recirculation air, is connected to the recirculation air line and the first mixing region. Also, a first supply line is connected to the first mixing region to supply air from the first mixing region to a first partial region of the vehicle region, and a second supply line is connected to the second mixing region to supply air from the second mixing region to a second partial region of the vehicle region. |
| US09869474B2 |
Tabletop cooking assembly
A tabletop cooking assembly for preparing foods thereon comprises a cooking element having a cooking area and a vent disposed peripherally to one side of the cooking element defining an aperture for receiving smoke from the cooking element. The assembly includes a first exhaust duct, a filter assembly, an electrostatic precipitator, and a high velocity blower. The first exhaust duct is substantially unobstructed and in fluid communication with the vent for directing smoke away from the cooking element. The high velocity blower is in fluid communication with the first exhaust duct and the filter assembly for drawing smoke from the cooking element through the vent. The heating system includes a retaining plate, a plurality of heating strips, and an insulating material. The heating strips are disposed between the retaining plate and the heating surface to heat the cooking area for preparing foods thereon. |
| US09869468B2 |
Burner device for high-temperature air combustion
The burner device for high-temperature air combustion according to the present invention is equipped with a thermal insulation portion (5) that is provided facing a furnace (1) and has a throat (6); a burner nozzle (9) that is provided at the axial center of this throat and that injects a pulverized coal mixed flow (38) into the furnace through the throat; a windbox (8) that is provided so as to house this burner nozzle; an air register (16) that is provided at the distal end of the burner nozzle and that injects low-temperature secondary air from the windbox to the throat; a high-temperature air nozzle (23), one end of which opens into the furnace through the heat insulation portion; and a combustion air switching means (16, 24) that switches between injecting low-temperature secondary air to the throat through the air register and injecting high-temperature secondary air to the furnace interior through the high-temperature air nozzle, in which in steady combustion, low-temperature secondary air is injected to the throat through the air register by the combustion air switching means and a pulverized coal mixed flow is injected from the burner nozzle, and in high-temperature air combustion, high-temperature secondary air is injected to the furnace interior through the high-temperature air nozzle by the combustion air switching means and a pulverized coal mixed flow is injected from the burner nozzle. |
| US09869466B2 |
Heat recovery
A heat recovery system arranged to heat water includes at least one heat exchanger (9) arranged to heat water by heat exchange with waste heat. A storage reservoir (11) is arranged to store water heated by the heat exchanger (9). The heat exchanger (9) is switchable between a first mode of operation in which water is circulated by a pump (12) in a circuit that includes the storage reservoir (11) and the heat exchanger (9), and a second mode of operation in which water is circulated by the pump (12) in a circuit that by-passes the heat exchanger (9). Heated water of at least a desired minimum temperature can be supplied to at least one outlet during both the first and second modes of operation. |
| US09869464B2 |
Hermetically-sealed light fixture for hazardous environments
A light fixture is disclosed herein. The light fixture can include a base having at least one wall that forms a cavity, where the at least one wall includes at least one lens mating surface. The light fixture can also include a lens having at least one base mating surface that forms a hermetic seal with the at least one lens mating surface, where the hermetic seal encapsulates the cavity. The light fixture can further include at least one solid state light source disposed within the cavity. |
| US09869461B2 |
Light-emitting apparatus and lighting apparatus including the same
Embodiments provide a light-emitting apparatus including a light source, a carrier spaced apart from the light source in an optical-axis direction, a wavelength converter disposed in a first area of the carrier and configured to convert a wavelength of light emitted from the light source, and at least one coil and at least one magnet disposed in a second area of the carrier and configured to generate electromagnetic force so as to vibrate the carrier in at least one vibration direction, the vibration direction being different from the optical-axis direction. |
| US09869450B2 |
Lighting systems having a truncated parabolic- or hyperbolic-conical light reflector, or a total internal reflection lens; and having another light reflector
Lighting system including light source having semiconductor light-emitting device configured for emitting light having first spectral power distribution along central axis. System includes volumetric lumiphor located along central axis configured for converting some light emissions having first spectral power distribution into light emissions having second spectral power distribution. System may include visible light reflector having reflective surface and being spaced apart along central axis with volumetric lumiphor between semiconductor light-emitting device and visible light reflector. Reflective surface may be configured for causing portion of light emissions to be reflected by visible light reflector. Exterior surface of volumetric lumiphor may include concave exterior surface configured for receiving a mound-shaped reflective surface of visible light reflector. Volumetric lumiphor may have exterior surface that includes: concave exterior surface forming gap between semiconductor light-emitting device and volumetric lumiphor; or convex or concave exterior surface located away from and surrounding central axis. Related lighting processes. |
| US09869449B2 |
Lighting device
Provided is a lighting device, including: a light source module comprising at least one light source on a printed circuit board, and a resin layer in which the light source is embedded; a light reflection member which is adjacent to at least any one of one side surface and the other side surface of the resin layer; and an optical plate comprising a side wall which is closely adhered to the light reflection member, and an upper surface which covers an upper part of the light source module, wherein a haze of the optical plate is less than 30%. |
| US09869447B2 |
Light module with LED and OLED diodes
A light module, notably for a motor vehicle, comprising a first light source of light-emitting diode type and a second surface light source of the organic light-emitting diode type suitable for reflecting the light rays emitted by the first light source in order to form a light beam along an optical axis of the module. The module further comprises a collimator suitable for deflecting the light rays emitted by the first source in a main direction and meeting the second light source with a non-zero angle of incidence β. |
| US09869441B2 |
Hybrid optics LED headlamp
This invention provides an optical system that collects 100% of the light emitted from the light source and effectively directs it into the desired beam pattern. This is achieved by a combination of different optical control methods including reflector and lens optics. The cost is controlled by a design that reduces the optical part count to 2 main components, which reduces manufacturing and assembling time and maintains proper alignment to the light source and system. |
| US09869436B2 |
Candle-powered lighting apparatus
The present invention relates to a candle-powered lighting apparatus including: a housing which accommodates a candle; a heat absorbing plate which absorbs heat generated by the candle; a heat radiating plate which radiates the absorbed heat; a thermoelectric element which is positioned between the heat absorbing plate and the heat radiating plate, and generates thermoelectromotive force using a temperature difference between a contact surface with the heat absorbing plate and a contact surface with the heat radiating plate; a lighting unit which emits light using the generated thermoelectromotive force; and a control unit which controls an operational state of the lighting unit to an on or off state. |
| US09869435B2 |
Modular light fixtures
A modular light fixture is described herein. The light fixture can include a frame having at least one light module coupling device, where the at least one light module coupling device includes at least one light module coupling feature. The light fixture can also include at least one light module coupled to the frame, where the at least one light module includes at least one frame coupling feature that couples to the at least one light module coupling feature of the at least one light module coupling device. |
| US09869427B2 |
Collapsible containment berm
Containment berms (40) for the collection of hazardous materials are provided which include a floor (42) with an upstanding, continuous, foldable sidewall (44) to define and internal zone (46) for receiving and holding hazardous materials. The sidewall (44) may be supported by means of external support structure (48) and/or internal support structure (50). The support structures (48, 50) each include a plurality of support leg assemblies (52, 52a) which are secured to sidewall (44) and are pivotal about respective upright axes (66, 66a, 150) and are pivotal from retracted positions close to the sidewall (44) to deployed positions extending from the sidewall (44) and substantially perpendicular thereto. |
| US09869425B2 |
Suspension device
A suspension device for suspending a display unit comprises a fixation element for securing the suspension device to a support surface, and a plurality of suspension members for removably receiving the display unit and suspending the display unit from the fixation element. |
| US09869424B1 |
Back plate assemblies for home hardware
A back plate assembly for home hardware is provided with a base and an attachment. The base includes at least one mount aperture and is adapted to be mounted to a support surface. The base defines a receptacle, a through-hole, a pair of grooves disposed at an outer edge of the through-hole, and a pair of ledges offset from an inner edge of the through-hole. The attachment includes a lock member with a pair of lock features and a connector member sized for insertion between the pair of ledges when the attachment is oriented in a first radial position. Each of the pair of lock features is positioned on the attachment for insertion within one of the grooves and the connector member is sized to rest upon the ledges when the connector member extends through the through-hole and the attachment is rotated to a second radial position. |
| US09869418B1 |
Punch tool
An improved punch tool and a method for relocating a section of pipeline using the improved tool are presented. The improvement includes an interior channel running through the center of the shaft of the punch tool and a connector that is attached to one end of the shaft and to a pressure gauge and pressure bleed valve, thereby allowing the operator to use the same tool to cut, gauge, and purge the section of pipeline to be abandoned. |
| US09869414B2 |
Tubular connection and associated threadform
A tubular connection is formed by a box member and a pin member, each of which has a tapered constant pitch thread. A profile defined by the thread of at least one of the pin member and the box member results in a pitch line that is a stepped pitch line. The stepped pitch line configuration may produce a wide radial band of substantive contact between the stab flanks of the pin member and box member upon full make-up of the connection. |
| US09869412B2 |
Anisotropic pipe liner
A pipe including an inner layer, an outer layer, a jacket layer, and an anisotropic layer positioned between the jacket and outer layers is provided. The anisotropic layer is formed from weaving a number of more rigid, monofilament fill strands and a number of less rigid multifilament warp strands. The fill strands may be formed from single, six hundred-ten (610) denier polyester filament while the warp strands may be formed from a series of two hundred-twenty (220) denier polyester threads. The anisotropic layer permits limited rotation of the inner and outer pipe layers without inserting into the gaps formed by the jacket layer when exposed to intense heat and pressure and is not subjected to significant creep during use. |
| US09869411B2 |
Composite pipe
A pipe comprises a pipe wall formed of a composite material of a matrix and a plurality of reinforcing fibres embedded within the matrix, wherein the composite material in at least one region of the pipe wall is pre-stressed. The composite material in at least one region of the pipe wall comprises or defines at least one of a level of pre-tension and pre-compression. |
| US09869410B2 |
Buckling pattern steel pipe
A buckling pattern steel pipe for being buried in ground in which flexure occurs includes: a steel pipe straight portion; and a buckling pattern portion. The buckling pattern portion is in a shape expressed by a sine wave determined based on: a buckling wavelength which is 2.05 to 4.32 times a compression local buckling half wavelength expressed by 1.72√(r·T); and a crest height expressed by a value 8.00 to 16.25 times a pipe thickness of the steel pipe straight pipe portion, and the buckling pattern portion absorbs bending compression deformation caused by faulting of the ground and axial compression deformation caused by the flexure so as to avoid deformation of the steel pipe straight pipe portion, where r is a pipe thickness center radius of the steel pipe straight pipe portion and T is the pipe thickness of the steel pipe straight pipe portion. |
| US09869409B2 |
Gasket retainer for surface mount fluid component
A gasket retainer that is absent sharp corners, has apertures of reasonable dimensional tolerance, and may be conveniently made by a variety of manufacturing processes. The retainer is made from thin flat springy material that readily returns to form after slight bending. Representative gasket capturing apertures are of smoothly non-convex outline with major dimension sufficiently large to allow passage of a ring shaped gasket turned on edge and minor dimension sufficiently small to engage, on approximately opposite circular segments that each engage along less than one third of a gasket circumference, a cavity or groove on the outside diameter periphery of the gasket turned flat parallel to the retainer material sheet. Fasteners may be retained by similar apertures. |
| US09869408B2 |
Single-use wall pass-through system
A single use wall pass-through system having a fixed wall part attached through an opening in a wall and connected by at least one mounting flange. The fixed wall part includes clamping flanges used to provide a sealed connection between the fixed wall part and the hose or tube which carries the material from an outside area into another area defined on the inside of the wall. A gasket is used along with a clamp plate for connection to the clamping flange via a clamping ring. The clamp plate can be two pieces separated by a dividing line and the clamp plate hose opening intersects the dividing line. The transfer hose and the gasket are disposable. The clamp ring and clamp plate can be re-used. |
| US09869406B1 |
Securing tool
A securing tool and methods for its use are described herein. In various embodiments, the securing tool may include a handle and a prying member positioned at a first end of the securing tool opposite the handle. The prying member may be shaped to engage a release of a self-tensioned hose clamp to cause the handle to be manipulable to spring the self-tensioned hose clamp. The securing tool may include first and second sensors configured to provide first and second signals, respectively, that are indicative of sensed occurrence of first and second events after the handle is manipulated to spring the self-tensioned hose clamp. In various embodiments, if the first and second signals satisfy a criterion, the hose clamp may be deemed to have been properly installed. |
| US09869405B2 |
Fluid control apparatus
Provided is a fluid control apparatus in which a pipe heating member may be mounted or removed with flexibility (i.e., without affecting other components) while one line, composed of the plurality of fluid control devices arranged in series, as a unit may be added or modified readily. The apparatus includes: a plate-shaped support member 5 to which a plurality of passage blocks 22 are detachably mounted; a hollow metal mounting member 6 having an upper surface to which the support member 5 is secured and being detachably mounted to a base member; and a pipe heating member 7 fitted into the mounting member 6. The pipe heating member 7, including a bottom wall 29 and a pair of side walls 30, accommodates a pipe 24 between the side walls 30 and is fitted into the mounting member 6 with the pipe heating member 7 abutting the mounting member 6. |
| US09869404B2 |
Systems and methods for monitoring blowout preventer equipment
A system for a blowout preventer (BOP) stack assembly includes one or more pairs of ultrasonic transducers coupled to a body that is configured to support a movable component of the BOP stack assembly, wherein each pair of ultrasonic transducers comprises a first ultrasonic transducer disposed on a first side of the body and a second ultrasonic transducer disposed on a second side of the body, opposite the first side. The system also includes a controller configured to receive a first signal indicative of a position of the movable component from the one or more pairs of ultrasonic transducers, to determine the position of the movable component based on the first signal, and to provide a first output indicative of the position of the movable component. |
| US09869391B2 |
Carbon seal O-ring cavity sizing
A carbon seal assembly includes a carbon seal element disposed about a central axis and that extends between a first end and a second end. The carbon seal element includes an inner step surface at an axial distance H1 with regard to the first end. An o-ring is adjacent to the inner step surface. The o-ring includes a cross-section diameter D2 such that a ratio H1/D2 is between 1.60-1.73. |
| US09869378B2 |
Load application device
A load-applying device is provided that includes a spiral spring that is formed from a thin strip that is wound multiple times in a spiral shape; a movable body; and a fixing member. The spiral spring is disposed between the movable body and the fixing member, in a manner capable of performing a diameter reduction operation and a diameter expansion operation, and an outer-circumference part of the spiral spring contacting the movable body and the fixing member directly, or indirectly. |
| US09869377B1 |
Multi-speed planetary transmission
A multi-speed transmission including a plurality of planetary gearsets and a plurality of selective couplers to achieve at least nine forward speed ratios is disclosed. The plurality of planetary gearsets may include a first planetary gearset, a second planetary gearset, a third planetary gearset, and a fourth planetary gearset. The plurality of selective couplers may include a number of clutches and a number of brakes. The multi-speed transmission may have four planetary gearsets and six selective couplers. The six selective couplers may include three clutches and three brakes. |
| US09869376B2 |
Planetary gear train of automatic transmission for vehicle
A planetary gear train of an automatic transmission for a vehicle may include an input shaft receiving torque of an engine, an output shaft outputting changed torque of the engine, a first planetary gear set including a first rotation element, a second rotation element, and a third rotation element, a second planetary gear set including a fourth rotation element, a fifth rotation element, and a sixth rotation element, a third planetary gear set including a seventh rotation element, an eighth rotation element, and a ninth rotation element, a fourth planetary gear set including a tenth rotation element, an eleventh rotation element, and a twelfth rotation element, and first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rotation shafts, each connected to at least one of the first to twelfth rotation elements. |
| US09869374B2 |
Planetary gear train of automatic transmission for vehicle
The present disclosure provides a planetary gear train of an automatic transmission for a vehicle. The planetary gear train may include: an input shaft receiving torque of an engine; an output shaft outputting changed torque; a first planetary gear set including first, second, and third rotation elements; a second planetary gear set including fourth, fifth, and sixth rotation elements; a third planetary gear set including seventh, eighth, and ninth rotation elements; a fourth planetary gear set including tenth, eleventh, and twelfth rotation elements. |
| US09869373B2 |
Transmission for vehicle
A transmission for a vehicle may include a first planetary gear set, a second planetary gear set, a third, planetary gear set, and a fourth planetary gear set each including three rotary elements, and a plurality of friction members, wherein the friction members are connected to at least one of the rotary elements of the planetary gear sets and control rotation of the rotary elements. |
| US09869372B2 |
Multi-speed transmission
A family of transmission gearing arrangements produces ten forward and one reverse speed ratios by selective engagement of various combinations of four shift elements. Each disclosed transmission includes four planetary gearsets and six shift elements. |
| US09869370B2 |
Gearbox for a vehicle and vehicle, comprising such a gearbox
A gearbox comprising a planetary gearbox with a ring gear, a sun wheel and a planetary wheel carrier, on which at least one planetary wheel is rotatably mounted, which ring gear and sun wheel engage with the at least one planetary wheel; and a first axially shiftable coupling sleeve, which in a first gear position disconnects an input shaft from the planetary wheel carrier, and in a second gear position disconnects the input shaft with the planetary wheel carrier. A second axially shiftable coupling sleeve arranged to connect a gearbox house with the ring gear in the first gear position, and to disconnect the gearbox house from the ring gear in the second gear position. A third axially shiftable coupling sleeve arranged to connect the ring gear with an output shaft in a third gear position, wherein the second axially shiftable coupling sleeve arranged to connect the planetary wheel carrier with the gearbox house in the third gear position. |
| US09869367B2 |
Balancing element for balancing a friction clutch, method for balancing a friction clutch, and the use of a part of a friction clutch
A balancing element for balancing a friction clutch, including a balancing head for providing a balancing mass, and a shaft that is connected to the balancing head, is to be inserted into an opening in the friction clutch, and has a shaft end which points away from the balancing head and which includes a face pointing away from the balancing head substantially in the axial direction of the shaft. The shaft end has a weakening in the material in a subsection between the face and the balancing head in order for the shaft end to plastically deform radially outward in relation to the longitudinal axis of the shaft when a compressive force is applied to the balancing head in the axial direction. This especially allows the face of the shaft end to about a part of the friction clutch once the shaft has been introduced into a receiving opening in the friction clutch, and makes it possible to apply a compressive force to the balancing head in the direction of insertion, said compressive force being so great that the shaft end is plastically deformed in a particularly easy manner in the region of the weakening in the material such that a secure form-fitting connection is established, thereby preventing the balancing element from coming loose again even when the assembly space is tight and keeping the risk of the friction clutch becoming unbalanced low during the entire service life of the friction clutch. |
| US09869366B2 |
Apparatus for reducing vibration for vehicles
An apparatus for reducing vibration for vehicles may include discs rotated in connection with an engine rotating shaft, a plurality of masses provided at the circumferential parts of the discs, and a plurality of connection elements provided between the masses, a first end of each of the connection elements being hinged to the disc and both sides of a second end of each of the connection elements being connected to different adjacent masses. |
| US09869363B2 |
Apparatus and method for vibration mitigation through sequential impedance optimization
Method and apparatus for mitigating vibrations in a device towed in water. The apparatus includes one or more tuned elastic sections having a complex spring rate and adapted to attenuate vibrations in a specified frequency range; and a head end coupler adapted to couple the apparatus for vibration mitigation to a component of an electro-mechanical cable or a tow assembly. One of the one or more tuned elastic sections is coupled to the head end coupler with a high impedance material interface. |
| US09869359B2 |
Hydraulic system with an unloading valve
A relief valve in a hydraulic system in a machine selectively sends pressurized oil to both a brake cooling apparatus and a cylinder used to hoist a load. A relief valve lowers pressure spikes in a brake cooling line by dumping fluid in a brake cooling line to tank responsive to a pressure spikes at the head end of the cylinder during hoisting or other transitions in the hydraulic system. Reducing the pressure spikes in the brake cooling line improves reliability of the brake cooling apparatus by protecting seals from undue stresses. |
| US09869356B2 |
Concealed dual moving disc brake
The present invention discloses a concealed dual moving disc brake, comprising left and light calipers, static discs, moving discs, and a drawing arm and brake cable. The calipers are fixed together via a caliper-fastening screw. The static discs are riveted within the calipers. In rolling paths of the static discs, a left and a right steel ball are provided. The drawing arm is mounted inside the static discs. The brake pads are moved toward each other during braking, such that the disc is located centrally without deformation to prolong service life. Simple and easy mounting adjustment is performed, only if the brake lever is held to lock the disc brake. The drawing arm is concealed within the head cover to form a succinct and aesthetic appearance. This product is the connection between the high-end mechanical disc brake and the low-end oil pressure disc brake with significant market prospect and potential. |
| US09869354B2 |
Clutch control method of hybrid vehicle
The present disclosure provides a clutch control method of a hybrid vehicle of the including an entering condition determining step in which a controller determines whether shifting is being performed during regenerative braking; an error calculating step in which the controller calculates a torque error by subtracting observer torque, which is clutch transfer torque calculated by a clutch torque estimator receiving transmission input torque and motor speed, from map torque, which is clutch transfer torque calculated based on a clutch transfer torque map for clutch actuator strokes learned in advance, when shifting is being performed during regenerative braking; a correcting step in which the controller corrects the clutch transfer torque map for the clutch actuator strokes using the torque error calculated in the error calculating step; and a clutch control step in which the controller controls a clutch using the map corrected in the correcting step. |
| US09869352B2 |
Clutch unit and wind power generation device
A one-way clutch includes: a plurality of engaging elements which restrict relative rotation toward the other side of a circumferential direction by engagement with an inner ring outer circumferential surface and an outer ring inner circumferential surface and which allows the relative rotation along the other side of the circumferential direction by releasing the engagement; and a ring-shaped cage which holds the engaging elements. In a clutch unit, a positioning member which is capable of contact a side surface of the cage in an axial direction and which positions the cage along the axial direction is provided between the one-way clutch and a rolling bearing. |
| US09869351B2 |
Spring strut bearing
A spring strut bearing with a cap and with a guide ring which is mounted in a rotatable manner relative to the cap about a rotational axis (D), an axial bearing being arranged between the cap and the guide ring. The cap has a seal, and the cap is connected to the guide ring at an inner diameter of the cap by a snap-in connection. The cap has a first element of the snap-in connection, and the guide ring has a second element of the snap-in connection, said elements engaging into each other in a formfitting manner. The first element is designed as a two-component part, the soft component of which engages into the second element in a formfitting manner and the hard component of which forms a reinforcement of the soft component. |
| US09869350B2 |
Positioning device
A device and approach to ensure acceptable alignment of internal mechanical components requiring bushings. Over wide ranges of temperature, some bushings experience sufficient thermal dimensional change as to misalign or to interfere with other mechanical components. Such bushings may be reduced in size or include a plurality of outer surfaces to avoid interference, and employ ball nose assemblies to maintain acceptable alignment. At full thermal expansion of such a bushing, the ball nose assembly inter-relates with the bushing so as to maintain alignment without interference. |
| US09869344B2 |
Operating device, in particular for a vehicle component, and method for the production thereof
The operating device, in particular for a vehicle component, is provided with a rotary operating element (18), which can be rotated about a rotation axis (20) and is formed as a plastic injection-molded part, which is produced in a molding die (48) having a die separation plane (46), and with a bearing unit (12), on which the rotary operating element (18) is mounted such that it can rotate about the rotation axis (20). The bearing unit (12) has a first bearing element (14), which is formed as a plastic injection-molded part, which is produced in a molding die (28) having a die separation plane (34). The first bearing element (14) has a bearing surface (26), which extends in a radial plane to the rotation axis (20) and concentrically to same, and the rotary operating element (18) has a contact surface (36), which bears against the bearing surface (26) and likewise extends in a radial plane to the rotation axis (20) and concentrically to same. Either the bearing surface (26) of the first bearing element (14) or the contact surface (36) of the rotary operating element (18) is arranged outside the die separation plane (34; 46) of the injection-molding die (28; 48) for said relevant element (14; 18), and the other of the two surfaces (26; 36) is arranged in the die separation plane (34; 46) of the injection-molding die (28; 48) of said relevant element (14; 18). |
| US09869343B2 |
Rotatable connection with limited rotational angle
A rotatable connection for a mount device for placement in an operating room includes an adjustable stopping mechanism that can be disposed between a first connection component and a second connection component that is mounted rotatably relative to the first connection component about an axis of rotation. The adjustable stopping mechanism may be adapted to establish at least two different relative rotational angles of the connection components relative to one another or at least two different rotation ranges. The adjustable stopping mechanism includes a rotation lock that can be disposed non-rotatingly at the first connection component and a coupling part that can be disposed non-rotatingly at the second connection component and that has a form-locking contour for establishing individual rotational angle positions, and may include a stopping device with an integral stop.The stopping device may be non-rotatingly positionable. A support system or mount device are also provided. |
| US09869342B2 |
Pivot bearing for two connecting rods
A pivot bearing suitable for two connecting rods in at least one piston of an internal combustion engine having two crankshafts, includes radial bearing regions that are provided with bolt boreholes and are disposed on either side of a center longitudinal plane of the piston and delimit connecting rod ends, forming an intermediate space. The bearing regions are designed as cylinder bodies having a crucible-like cross-section, of which each cylinder body has a base wall and a bearing ring jacket. The base walls of the two cylinder bodies extend at a distance from each other, and the bearing ring jackets surrounding the base walls are guided away from the base walls in opposite directions. One or more connecting supports run between the base walls. The bearing ring jackets cooperate with the piston boreholes in a rotatably movable manner. The base walls are connected to bearing bushings which are oriented in the axial direction of the pivot bearing and into which the bolt boreholes are incorporated. The pivot bearing is made of a material that brings about a targeted low-weight construction of the pivot bearing, while offering high strength and low wear. |
| US09869332B2 |
Tactical-gear interconnection system apparatus and method
A tactical-gear interconnection system apparatus and method allowing connection of a variety of tactical gear such as gun stocks, camera supports, sights, rangefinders, grips, and clamps, in field-interchangeable configurations responsive to changes in field conditions, by providing same-sized threaded plug units on all gear and same-sized interchangeable unions for removable connection of various pieces of gear. |
| US09869326B2 |
Centrifugal pump in particular for waste water or polluted water
The invention relates to a centrifugal pump, in particular a waste water submersible pump having an impeller (1), of which the end face facing the pump intake opening is open and only the end face of the impeller facing away from the intake opening (8) is covered by a circular coaxial impeller hub (2), on which the curved vanes (3, 4) are fastened, and in particular molded on, wherein the base plate (7) having the intake opening (8) facing the impeller (1) or at least one segment (7a) of the base plate is mounted so as to be movable against spring pressure (20) in such a way that the distance thereof from the impeller (1) and thus from the impeller vanes (3, 4) changes. |
| US09869321B2 |
Waterproof axial flow fan
A waterproof axial flow fan includes: a rotor having a rotating shaft pivotally supported by a bearing in a rotatable manner, an impeller provided to a tip of the rotating shaft and a rotor cover; a stator having a winding and a circuit board, a surface of which is coated with an electrically insulating synthetic resin; and at least one ring collection groove part formed in a resin surface opposing to the rotor cover at an apex of the stator so as to surround a tip of a bearing holding part for holding the bearing. |
| US09869320B2 |
Propulsion unit
A propulsion unit is disclosed, which can include a casing, a shaft, a propeller, an annular housing and a rim drive electric motor. The casing can be rotatably supported at a hull of a vessel. The shaft can be rotatably supported with bearings within a lower portion of the casing. A propeller can be attached to an outer end of the shaft protruding from the lower portion of the casing. The annular housing can surround an outer perimeter of the propeller and can form a duct for water flowing through the interior of the annular housing. The rim drive electric motor can include a rotor rim provided on an outer perimeter of the propeller and a stator provided within the annular housing. Oil lubricated roller bearings can be used on the shaft within the casing. The axial length of the propulsion unit can be short. |
| US09869317B2 |
Pump
The present invention relates to a multi-stage vacuum pump having a plurality of compression stages 12, 14, 16, 18 20 and a booster stage 22. The pump 10 is arranged to pump a chamber 24. The pumping stages include respective rotors supported for rotation on one or more common drive shafts 26. A recirculation valve 28 is associated with the booster stage 22 for selective recirculation of pumped fluid from an outlet 32 to an inlet 30 of the booster stage above a predetermined pressure. |
| US09869314B2 |
Screw pump
A screw spindle pump for the delivery of fluid media with a pump housing having an inlet channel with a first longitudinal axis, an outlet channel with a second longitudinal axis, a first drive spindle with a third longitudinal axis, and a second driven spindle. The spindles each include a profiled section between the inlet channel and the outlet channel, wherein the profiled sections of the spindles are engaged at least partially with one another and form, with the pump housing between the inlet channel and the outlet channel, a delivery section parallel to the longitudinal axis of the drive spindle with delivery chambers for the fluid medium. The second longitudinal axis of the outlet channel is disposed at an obtuse angle to the delivery section in the pump housing. The invention also relates to a method for operating a screw spindle pump. |
| US09869309B2 |
Centerless pump
The present disclosure may relate to a pump including a centerless rim, a first roller guide shaped to roll along the centerless rim such that as the first roller guide is rotated, friction between the first roller guide and the centerless rim causes a corresponding rotation of the centerless rim. The pump may also include a second roller guide shaped to roll along the centerless rim, and a plurality of peristaltic rollers coupled to the centerless rim. The pump may additionally include a tube housing disposed proximate the plurality of peristaltic rollers, and a tube disposed between the tube housing and the peristaltic rollers such that as the centerless rim is rotated, the peristaltic rollers compress the tube against the tube housing to create negative pressure within the tube. |
| US09869308B2 |
Centerless pump
The present disclosure may relate to a pump including a centerless rim, a first roller guide shaped to roll along the centerless rim such that as the first roller guide is rotated, friction between the first roller guide and the centerless rim causes a corresponding rotation of the centerless rim. The pump may also include a second roller guide shaped to roll along the centerless rim, and a plurality of peristaltic rollers coupled to the centerless rim. The pump may additionally include a tube housing disposed proximate the plurality of peristaltic rollers, and a tube disposed between the tube housing and the peristaltic rollers such that as the centerless rim is rotated, the peristaltic rollers compress the tube against the tube housing to create negative pressure within the tube. |
| US09869306B2 |
Multistage air pump
A multistage air pump has a cylinder assembly, a second piston assembly slidably mounted through the cylinder assembly, and a first piston assembly protruding in the second piston assembly. Multiple chambers are defined in the multistage air pump, and communicate with each other via multiple one-way mechanisms. Air drawn into the multistage air pump is compressed in multiple stages within a single push, such that a large amount of high pressure air is provided. |
| US09869303B2 |
Heat/acoustic wave conversion component and heat/acoustic wave conversion unit
A heat/acoustic wave conversion component having a first end face and a second end face, includes a partition wall that defines a plurality of cells extending from the first end face to the second end face, inside of the cells being filled with working fluid that oscillates to transmit acoustic waves, the heat/acoustic wave conversion component mutually converting heat exchanged between the partition wall and the working fluid and energy of acoustic waves resulting from oscillations of the working fluid. Hydraulic diameter HD of the heat/acoustic wave conversion component is 0.4 mm or less, where the hydraulic diameter HD is defined as HD=4×S/C, where S denotes a cross-sectional area of each cell perpendicular to the cell extending direction and C denotes a perimeter of the cross section, and the heat/acoustic wave conversion component has three-point bending strength of 5 MPa or more. |
| US09869302B2 |
Solar receiver
A solar receiver (100) having a radiation capturing element (3) about which is formed a channel (8) through which a working fluid flows such that thermal energy of the radiation capturing element (8) is absorbed by the working fluid, the channel (8) being shaped to provide a uniform cross sectional area along a length thereof between an inlet thereto and an outlet therefrom. |
| US09869295B2 |
Attachment method to install components, such as tip extensions and winglets, to a wind turbine blade, as well as the wind turbine blade and component
A method is provided for installing an add-on component to a surface of a wind turbine blade, as well as the blade with attached add-on component, and the add-on component as a stand-alone device. A slot is defined in one or both of the pressure side or suction side surfaces of the add-on component. The adhesive side of strips of a double-sided adhesive tape are attached onto either the surface of the wind turbine blade or an interior surface of the add-on component, the tape strips having a release liner on an opposite exposed side thereof. The tape strips are arranged longitudinally along one or both sides of the slot, and each strip has an extension tail that extends beyond an edge of the add-on component when component is held at a desired position against the surface of the wind turbine blade. The extension tails are pulled along the slot at an angle such that that release liner is removed through the slot along the length of the tape strip while maintaining the desired position of the add-on component against the surface of the wind turbine blade. |
| US09869290B2 |
Method and device for detecting auto-ignitions on the basis of measured and estimated internal cylinder pressure values of an internal combustion engine
A method is disclosed for detecting an auto-ignition in a spark-ignited internal combustion engine having at least one cylinder, wherein values for the combustion chamber pressure are measured during a compression stroke of the internal combustion engine at defined crankshaft angles within an evaluation window, a filtered pressure value is determined from the measured values for the combustion chamber pressure, theoretical pressure values in the combustion chamber that would arise if no combustion took place in the combustion chamber are determined for the defined crankshaft angles, the value of the pressure difference between the filtered pressure value and the theoretical pressure values is calculated, the value of the pressure difference is compared with a specified threshold value, and, if the threshold value is exceeded, an auto-ignition in the combustion chamber is inferred. |
| US09869287B2 |
System and method for controlling fuel injection timing based on spark ignition timing while heating a catalyst to the light-off temperature
A system according to the principles of the present disclosure includes an ignition timing determination module, an injection timing determination module, a spark control module, and a fuel control module. The ignition timing determination module determines a first crank angle. The injection timing determination module selectively determines a second crank angle based on the first crank angle. The spark control module controls a spark plug to generate spark in a cylinder of an engine at the first crank angle. The fuel control module controls a fuel injector to deliver fuel to the cylinder at the second crank angle. |
| US09869286B1 |
Vehicle rollover safety device
A vehicle safety rollover device, that upon detection of a vehicle rollover, automatically shuts-off power to an ignition system of said vehicle and shuts down an electrical system of said vehicle. Power flows through a first latching relay switch to an ignition starter, and a second latching relay switch disconnects the electrical shutoff signal from the power input. When a sensor is activated, power flows from the power input to the set pins of the latching relay switches, causing the relay switches to switch positions from the first output position to the second output position. This causes power to the ignition starter to be disconnected, and power to flow to the electrical shutoff signal via the second latching relay switch, thereby causing the electrical system of the vehicle to shut down. |
| US09869285B2 |
Circuit configuration for starting an internal combustion engine and method of a starter control
A circuit configuration is described, for starting an internal combustion engine, using at least one starter, which includes a starter motor, an engaging relay, a switching relay and a control relay, the control relay being able to be controlled by an ignition switch, the engaging relay being able to be controlled by the control relay and a current path of the starter motor being able to be switched using the switching relay. In order for the starter, for starting an internal combustion engine, to operate more accurately, and thus to achieve a longer service life, the switching relay is able to be controlled as a function of the occurrence of a specified event, at least in the switching-off process. This has the advantage that the switching relay is able to interrupt a current path from the starter motor earlier in time, especially a main current path, so that energizing in the reverse direction is avoided. Consequently, the switching relay is able to release the current path of the starter motor specified in such a way that in the switching-off process, during the disengaging of a starter pinion, pinion bounce is clearly reduced, or even eliminated. In the switching-off process of the starter, a motion of the starter pinion back in the direction towards the ring gear, after the disengagement, is avoided. |
| US09869284B2 |
Protection of vehicle engine intake components
Vehicle engine systems and inserts for such systems are presented. The insert can be positioned between an air intake system and a cylinder bank of an engine. In some arrangements, the insert can be positioned such that a first abutment surface directly contacts portions of a surge tank and a second abutment surface directly contacts portions of a cylinder head cover. The insert can be constructed, positioned, and/or oriented to absorb or transfer forces acting upon the engine system during impacts. For instance, the insert can be arranged such that it extends between the surge tank and the cylinder head cover along an axis that is substantially parallel to a predetermined force direction of a predetermined impact force. |
| US09869281B2 |
Bi-fuel vehicle
A bi-fuel vehicle includes an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to power the vehicle by combustion of liquid and gas-phase fuels. The vehicle has a dual fuel tank including a pressurizable gas-phase fuel compartment defined by a wall that is permeable by a gas-phase fuel. The gas-phase fuel compartment receives and contains the gas-phase fuel, and supplies the gas-phase fuel for combustion in the ICE. The dual fuel tank includes a liquid fuel compartment to receive and contain liquid fuel, and supply the liquid fuel for combustion in the ICE. A shell envelops the gas-phase fuel compartment, and defines the liquid fuel compartment. An interstitial space between the wall and the shell is in one-way fluid communication with the liquid fuel compartment. The interstitial space receives the permeated gas-phase fuel and channels the permeated gas-phase fuel to the liquid fuel compartment. The dual fuel tank has a vapor recovery system. |
| US09869274B2 |
Two-stage thermal hydraulic engine for smooth energy conversion
A two-stage thermal hydraulic engine utilizes the expansion and contraction of a working fluid to convert heat energy to mechanical or electrical energy. The transfer of heat to and from the working fluid occurs in at least two process heat exchangers and may be aided by thin twisted strips of a thermally conductive material that are in contact with the working fluid. The engine does not require the working fluid to undergo a phase change to operate. The subsequent expansion of the working fluid is used to drive pistons contained within at least two triplex hydraulic cylinders. The pistons may be alternately and sequentially driven to pump a fluid with a laminar flow and at a constant pressure. The cylinders may include a self-lubrication system. |
| US09869261B2 |
Position based air/fuel ratio calculation in an internal combustion engine
Some embodiments relate to an internal combustion engine that includes a combustion chamber and a rotating component. The internal combustion engine further includes a sensing system that detects an angular position of the rotating component. A controller calculates a ratio between air and fuel in the combustion chamber based on the detected position of the rotating component. As an example, the rotating component may be a crankshaft where the controller calculates a speed of the crankshaft and an acceleration of the crankshaft based on the detected position of the crankshaft. |
| US09869260B2 |
Control device of multi-cylinder internal combustion engine
The control device executes a first control for controlling a throttle valve opening degree to a first opening degree when a particular condition is satisfied. The particular condition is a condition that it is predicted upon a satisfaction of an engine stop condition that a level of one of noise and vibration generated in an interior of a vehicle from a source other than an engine is equal to or larger than a predetermined level when an engine rotation stops. The control device executes a second control for controlling the throttle valve opening degree to a second opening degree larger than the first opening degree without executing the first control when the particular condition is not satisfied upon the satisfaction of the engine stop condition. |
| US09869258B2 |
EGR for a two-stroke cycle engine without a supercharger
A two-stroke cycle, turbo-driven, opposed-piston engine with one or more ported cylinders and uniflow scavenging has no supercharger. The engine includes a high pressure EGR loop and a pump in the EGR loop to boost the pressure of the recirculated exhaust products. |
| US09869257B2 |
System and method for predicting peak pressure values using knock sensor
A system includes at least one sensor for sensing at least one of vibration, pressure, acceleration, deflection, or movement within a reciprocating engine and a controller. The controller is configured to receive a raw signal from the at least one sensor, derive a filtered knock signal using predictive frequency bands by applying a filter, derive an absolute filtered knock signal from the filtered signal, identify a maximum of the absolute filtered knock signal for each engine cycle, predict a peak pressure value of each of one or more engine cycles using the identified maximums of the absolute filtered signal and a predictive model, and adjust operation of the reciprocating engine based on the predicted peak pressure values. |
| US09869255B2 |
Feedback controlled system for charged ignition promoter droplet distribution
An engine system is disclosed. The engine system may have an engine including at least one cylinder. The engine system may also have a first source configured to supply fuel for combustion in the engine and a second source configured to supply an ignition promoter material for combustion in the engine. The engine system may have a droplet injector configured to generate at least one droplet of the ignition promoter material, apply an amount of charge on the at least one droplet, and deliver the at least one droplet to the at least one cylinder. The engine system may also have a controller. The controller may be configured to determine an engine parameter, and to determine the amount of charge based on the engine parameter. In addition, the controller may be configured to adjust the droplet injector to apply the determined amount of charge to the at least one droplet. |
| US09869250B2 |
Particle tolerant turboshaft engine
A gas turbine engine includes a core engine section which includes a compressor section and a core turbine section. The core engine is configured to rotate about a core axis. A drive turbine is configured to rotate about a drive turbine axis. A bypass passage connects an intake to the gas turbine engine directly with an exhaust of the drive turbine. |
| US09869246B2 |
Gas turbine power plant with exhaust gas recirculation
A method for operating a gas turbine power plant, and a gas turbine power plant in which fresh air is delivered to a compressor inlet and is accelerated in the compressor inlet and a recirculated first exhaust gas substream is delivered into a region of the compressor inlet in which the fresh air is accelerated to an extent such that the difference between total pressure and static pressure in the fresh air is greater than or equal to a pressure difference which is required in order to suck a target mass flow of the recirculated first exhaust gas substream into the compressor inlet. |
| US09869244B2 |
Ignition source adapted for positioning within a combustion chamber
An ignition source for initiating combustion is provided. The ignition source includes an electrical delivery conductor mounted in a delivery conductor mounting structure. An electrical ground conductor is mounted in a ground conductor mounting structure and extends from the ground conductor mounting structure to a point proximate the delivery conductor to define an ignition spark gap between the delivery conductor and the ground conductor. At least one of the delivery conductor and the ground conductor is mounted so as to be positionable with respect to the other one of the delivery conductor and the ground conductor to selectively adjust a width of the ignition spark gap. |
| US09869242B2 |
Engine control for catalyst regeneration
Methods and systems are provided for injecting water during an engine cylinder deactivation event so as to reduce an exhaust catalyst regeneration requirement following the cylinder deactivation. In one example, water is injected at one or more deactivated engine cylinders to reduce oxidation of the exhaust catalyst. Then, during engine cylinder reactivation, a degree of richness of a combustion air-to-fuel ratio may be reduced to decrease fuel penalty to the engine while reducing NOx emission. |
| US09869239B2 |
Wastegate valve control device
A wastegate valve is arranged in a communication passage that bypasses the exhaust turbine of a turbocharger arranged in the exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine. When the opening degree of the wastegate valve is controlled to the fully closed opening degree, a determination value is calculated based on the operation state of the internal combustion engine, and the turbo rotation speed is detected. When the turbo rotation speed is less than the determination value, a drive force is increased in the direction for closing the wastegate valve. |
| US09869238B2 |
Exhaust-gas turbocharger
An exhaust-gas turbocharger (1), with: a turbine housing (2) which has a turbine housing inlet (8) and a turbine housing outlet (9) for exhaust gas, and which has a wastegate duct between the turbine housing inlet (8) and the turbine housing outlet (9), and a flap arrangement (10) comprising a pivotable flap lever (12), a flap plate (11), which is connected to the flap lever (12), for opening and closing the wastegate duct, and having a spring element (17) which is arranged between the flap lever (12) and a disc (18) fastened to the flap plate (11). The spring element (17) has an outer circumferential region (23) which is supported on a sliding contact surface (20), which is of curved form, of the flap lever (12). |
| US09869235B2 |
Stratified scavenging two-stroke engine
A stratified scavenging two-stroke engine includes a first scavenging passage that extends from a first scavenging intake that opens to the inside of the crankcase to a scavenging port that opens to the inside of a cylinder, and a second scavenging passage that branches from the first scavenging passage and extends to a second scavenging intake that opens to the inside of the crankcase. An air passage is provided to supply air for pre-scavenging into the first scavenging passage at a position closer to the first scavenging intake than a position at which the second scavenging passage branches from the first scavenging passage. A first check valve inhibits a flow of air from the first scavenging passage during an upward stroke of the piston, and a second check valve inhibits a flow of air and a gaseous mixture from the first scavenging passage during a downward stroke of the piston. |
| US09869233B2 |
Fault diagnosis method of thermostat
Disclosed herein is a fault diagnosis method of a thermostat including: confirming, by a controller, whether a flow stop valve is equipped in a vehicle; if it is determined that the flow stop valve is equipped in the vehicle, diagnosing the flow stop valve; and if it is determined that the diagnosis on the flow stop valve ends, diagnosing the thermostat to determine whether the thermostat is faulty. |
| US09869229B2 |
Horizontal muffler mounting assembly for an off-road vehicle
A system includes a mounting assembly for a muffler of an off-road vehicle including a first mounting pad rotatably coupled to a first support. The first mounting pad is configured to rotate in a first direction and in a second direction, opposite the first direction, about a first rotation axis. The mounting assembly also includes a second mounting pad rotatably coupled to a second support. The second mounting pad is configured to rotate in the first direction and in the second direction about a second rotation axis. Moreover, the first and second mounting pads are laterally offset from one another relative to a longitudinal axis of the muffler, the first and second mounting pads are configured to support the muffler, and the first and second mounting pads are configured to independently rotate relative to the respective supports about the respective rotation axes. |
| US09869226B2 |
System and method for sequential injection of reagent to reduce NOx from combustion sources
In a large exhaust duct from a lean burn combustion source, such as a boiler, diesel engine or gas turbine, multiple injectors can be used to inject a reagent, such as an aqueous solution of urea or ammonia, into the exhaust for use in the catalytic reduction of NOx in a process known in the art as selective catalytic reduction (SCR). When operating at low injection rates, such as during low combustor loads, the injectors are operated individually for short periods of time in a sequential manner. |
| US09869225B2 |
Doser mounting system, components and methods
A system and method for providing a selective catalytic reduction system with a doser mounting system. A mounting plate includes an aperture in a surface with a plurality of fastener brackets coupled to the surface. The fastener brackets are positioned about a peripheral portion of the aperture. The fastener brackets each include an opening for inserting a fastener. The opening is elevated from the surface of the mounting plate. The fasteners each have a fastener head and a fastener shaft positioned in the opening of the fastener brackets. The fastener shaft extends from the opening in a direction having an orthogonal component with respect to the surface of the mounting plate. A doser is coupled to the doser mounting system. The fastener shafts extend through openings in legs of the doser. An injector port of the doser is aligned with the aperture in the mounting plate. |
| US09869223B2 |
Flexible engine metal warming system and method for an internal combustion engine
A method is disclosed for optimizing fuel economy during an engine warm up phase of operation of an internal combustion engine. An exhaust manifold may have a coolant jacket through which a coolant may flow. A temperature of the coolant in the exhaust manifold may be determined to detect when it is at a predetermined maximum threshold, which represents a temperature threshold just below a temperature at which the coolant will begin to boil. When this threshold is reached, then a determination may be made as to a minimum rate of flow of the coolant through the exhaust manifold which maintains the coolant at about the predetermined maximum threshold, and the coolant may be flowed through the exhaust manifold at the determined minimum rate of flow. |
| US09869220B2 |
Apparatus and method for removal of gas phase artifacts from engine exhaust during testing
An apparatus and method for removal of gas phase artifacts from engine exhaust undergoing evaluation for the presence of particulate matter as collected on a particulate matter filter. More specifically, the disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for removal of gas phase artifacts from engine exhaust being tested and prior to the exhaust reaching a particulate matter (PM) filter. Such removal provides that the PM filter indicates relatively more accurate evaluation of the particulate matter present. |
| US09869219B2 |
Apparatus and method
A fluid reservoir system for a vehicle engine, which engine comprises a fluid circulation system, the reservoir system comprising a container for fluid, in which the container comprises at least one fluid inlet port, at least one fluid outlet port and at least one vent port and in which, each of said ports comprises a self-sealing coupling adapted to connect to a corresponding coupling on the vehicle engine to thereby connect said container in fluidic communication with the fluid circulation system of the engine and in which the reservoir system comprises at least one latch which is adapted to retain said container in fluidic communication with said vehicle engine fluid circulation system and is remotely operable to disconnect said container from said vehicle engine fluid circulation system and in which the system comprises at least one actuator which is connected to one or more of said latches and is adapted to operate said one or more latches and said container is elongate; said inlet, outlet and vent ports are located at a common first end of said container; and said at least one actuator is operable at a second end of said container, distal from said ports. Also provided is a method of supplying fluid to a vehicle engine using said fluid reservoir system. |
| US09869214B2 |
Multi-positional camshaft phaser with two one-way wedge clutches and spring actuator
A camshaft phaser including a gear arranged to receive torque from an engine, a housing non-rotatably connected to the gear and arranged to connect to a camshaft and a phase adjustment assembly including first gear teeth, second gear teeth and a hub arranged to non-rotatably connect to the camshaft and including third gear teeth and a displacement assembly arranged to for an advance mode, displace the hub in a first axial direction so that the third gear teeth non-rotatably connect to the second gear teeth and the hub is rotatable with respect to the housing in a first circumferential direction and for a retard mode, displace the hub in a second axial direction, opposite the first axial direction, so that the third gear teeth non-rotatably connect to the first gear teeth and the hub is rotatable with respect to the housing in a second circumferential direction. |
| US09869205B2 |
Bearing outer race retention during high load events
A housing for retention of the outer race of a bearing of a gas turbine engine includes an arrangement of spring fingers that yields a lightweight housing capable of withstanding very high radial loads combined with very high torsional windup and axial thrust load. Controlled circumferential gaps on both sides of each spring finger limit the deflection and self-arrest the distortion of the housing. An axial gap is created on the aft end by a portion of the spring finger beam structure that opposes an axial face of the housing and limits the axial distortion. A radial gap created between interface hardware of the housing and the inner retention housing also acts to retain the spring finger housing under load in a radial direction. |
| US09869203B2 |
Axial turbomachine blade with platforms having an angular profile
The present application relates to a splitter nose of an axial turbomachine designed to separate an annular flow into the turbomachine into a primary flow and a secondary flow for undergoing a thermodynamic cycle. The nose includes a de-icing device with a wall defining, at least partially, an annular channel. A hot oil stream created by the turbomachine circulates in this latter. The oil runs through the circular nose and de-ices it while itself getting cooled. The wall is located so as to form the leading edge of the said splitter nose. The wall is an open or closed strip such as a tube which can be fixed by bonding, welding or recessing. The present application also relates to a multi-flow turbomachine with splitter noses fitted with de-icing devices. |
| US09869200B2 |
Turbine vane hollow inner rail
A guide vane device for a turbine has an inner platform with a through hole forming a fluid channel for a cooling fluid, wherein the inner platform extends in a circumferential direction around a shaft of the turbine. The guide vane device further includes a hollow aerofoil with a cooling opening for exchanging the cooling fluid passing the through hole into or from the hollow aerofoil, wherein the hollow aerofoil is fixed to a first surface of the inner platform, and a rail with a recess with a cooling fluid passage forming a passage for the cooling fluid to the through hole, wherein the rail is fixed to a second surface of the inner platform and the rail extends along the second surface in the circumferential direction around the shaft. The cooling fluid passage has in the circumferential direction at least the dimension of the through hole. |
| US09869199B2 |
Method for retrofitting a turbomachine
A method for retrofitting a turbomachine is provided wherein a first trip cup of the turbomachine is replaced with a second trip cup and by replacing a mechanical flyweight governor with a mechanical-hydraulic governor. The second trip cup includes a plunger disposed in a hole defined by the second trip cup. The first trip cup is removed from the turbomachine and the second trip cup installed such that, when a speed of the turbomachine exceeds a predetermined value, the plunger actuates a trip paddle located adjacent the second trip cup. The mechanical flyweight governor is removed from the turbomachine and a first set of governor linkages coupling the mechanical flyweight governor to a steam source. The mechanical-hydraulic governor is installed in the turbomachine, the mechanical-hydraulic governor being coupled to a shaft of the turbomachine and being coupled to the steam source via a second set of governor linkages. |
| US09869194B2 |
Seal assembly to seal corner leaks in gas turbine
Various embodiments include gas turbine seals and methods of forming such seals. In some cases, a turbine includes: a first arcuate component adjacent to a second arcuate component, each arcuate component including one or more slots located in an end face, each of the one or more slots having a plurality of axial surfaces and radially facing surfaces extending from opposite ends of the axial surfaces and a seal assembly disposed in the slot. The seal assembly including an intersegment seal including a plurality of seal segments defining one or more corner regions. The intersegment seal disposed in a slot defining a high-pressure slot side and a low-pressure slot side, wherein the slot includes a plurality of slot segments. Each of the plurality of seal segments including at least one extended portion to either seal the one or more corner regions on a low-pressure slot side, form a recess in the intersegment seal, or both. |
| US09869190B2 |
Variable-pitch rotor with remote counterweights
A pitch control mechanism includes: a rotor structure configured for rotation about a longitudinal axis; a row of blades carried by the rotor structure, each blade having an airfoil and a trunnion mounted for pivoting movement relative to the rotor structure, about a trunnion axis which is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis; a unison ring interconnecting the blades; an actuator connected to the unison ring and the rotor structure, operable to move the unison ring relative to the rotor structure; at least one moveable counterweight carried by the rotor structure, remote from the blades; and an interconnection between the blades and the counterweight, such that movement of the counterweight causes a change in the pitch angle of the blades. |
| US09869188B2 |
Articles for high temperature service and method for making
Articles having coatings that are resistant to high temperature degradation are described, along with methods for making such articles. The article comprises a coating disposed on a substrate. The coating comprises a plurality of elongated surface-connected voids. The article further includes a protective agent disposed within at least some of the voids of the coating; the protective agent comprises a substance capable of chemically reacting with liquid nominal CMAS to form a solid crystalline product outside the crystallization field of said nominal CMAS. This solid crystalline product has a melting temperature greater than about 1200 degrees Celsius. The method generally includes disposing the protective agent noted above within the surface connected voids of the coating at an effective concentration to substantially prevent incursion of CMAS materials into the voids in which the protective agent is disposed. |
| US09869187B2 |
Turbomachine turbine blade comprising a cooling circuit with improved homogeneity
The internal cooling of moving blades of turbines in aircraft turbomachines is limited in effectiveness because of inhomogeneities of this cooling on each of the pressure-side and suction-side walls. To address this problem, there is proposed a blade including a circuit for cooling the airfoil part thereof, in which circuit the cavities interconnected in series are such that the stream of air flows radially toward the outside along the pressure-side wall in pressure-side cavities, and radially toward the inside along the suction-side wall in a suction-side cavity that is separated from the pressure-side cavities by an internal wall of the airfoil part. In this way, the force of the Coriolis effect deflects the stream of air toward each of the pressure-side and suction-side walls thereby limiting the inhomogeneity. |
| US09869186B2 |
Gas turbine engine component with compound cusp cooling configuration
A component for a gas turbine engine including a gas path wall having a first surface and a second surface. A cooling hole extends through the gas path wall from an inlet in the first surface through a transition to an outlet in the second surface. Cusps are formed on the transition. |
| US09869185B2 |
Rotating turbine component with preferential hole alignment
A turbine airfoil includes: a concave pressure sidewall and a convex suction sidewall joined together at a leading edge and a trailing edge, and extending between a root and a tip; an internal rib extending between the pressure sidewall and the suction sidewall; and a crossover hole formed in the rib, the crossover hole having a noncircular cross-sectional shape with a major axis defining a maximum dimension of the cross-sectional shape; wherein the major axis of the crossover hole lies in plane with the rib and is non-parallel to an imaginary curvilinear lateral centerline which defines a locus of points lying halfway between the pressure and suction sidewalls. The orientation of the crossover holes minimizes stress concentration caused by the presence of the crossover holes. |
| US09869183B2 |
Thermal barrier coating inside cooling channels
A rotor for a gas turbine engine according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a rotor disk rotatable about an axis and a gas path wall coupled to and radially outward of the rotor disk. The gas path wall bounds a radially inward portion of a gas path. A plurality of rotor spokes are radially intermediate the rotor disk and the gas path wall. The plurality of rotor spokes is circumferentially spaced to define a plurality of cooling channels intermediate the rotor disk and the gas path wall. A thermal barrier coating is disposed on a surface of at least one of the plurality of cooling channels. A method of cooling a rotor assembly is also disclosed. |
| US09869180B2 |
Energy harvesting heat engine and actuator
A rotary heat engine including a central crankshaft and a plurality of cylinder assemblies and a heat exchanger assembly. At least one of the plurality of cylinders, and preferably all of the plurality of cylinders includes a cylinder member, a piston member slidably positionable within the cylinder member, a connecting rod and a rolling diaphragm. The rolling diaphragm is positioned between the piston and the cylinder assembly to define a working volume which is in fluid communication with an opening that is in communication with the heat exchanger body. |
| US09869178B2 |
Method for efficiently treating spontaneous ignition of remaining coal in large area goaf of shallow-buried coal bed
A method for efficiently treating spontaneous ignition of the remaining coal in a large area goaf of a shallow-buried coal bed, which method integrates leaking stoppage, airflow control and fast inerting and cooling so as to efficiently prevent and treat the spontaneous ignition of the remaining coal in the large area goaf of the shallow-buried coal bed. |
| US09869172B2 |
Downhole multi-pipe scale and corrosion detection using conformable sensors
An example method for making downhole measurements may include positioning a tool with a conformable sensor within a pipe in a borehole in a subterranean formation, and generating a first electromagnetic signal using at least one of a plurality of transmitters of the conformable sensor. A first response to the first electromagnetic signal may be measured using at least one of a plurality of receivers of the conformable sensor. At least one of a scale parameter, a pipe parameter, and a stand-off distance between the conformable sensor and the pipe may be determined using the first response. |
| US09869168B2 |
Method for thermal-displacement-type strengthened extraction in drill hole
A method for thermal-displacement-type strengthened extraction in a drill hole, suitable for efficient gas extraction in a coal mine, the method comprising the following steps: arranging an extraction drill hole and a thermal displacement drill hole at intervals in a coal seam; continuously heating coal in the drill hole to form a stable temperature field by using a heat pipe; and significantly reducing gas adsorption potential by utilizing a heat effect, prompting gas desorption, and strengthening gas extraction. The method enlarges a range of effective pressure relief influence of a single hole, increases an extraction efficiency of gas in a coal seam by more than 40%, is safe, reliable and low-cost, and is easy to operate, saving both time and labor. |
| US09869162B2 |
Ball valve having dual pistons each individually actuable
Ball valve assembly (100) including a truncated sphere (140) anchored in a two cylindrical retaining members (48, 50) of the ball valve assembly (100), the truncated sphere (140) having a spherical cap sealing face (142). The ball valve assembly (100) also includes a pair of concentrically oriented, tubular sealing pistons (120, 130), each piston (120, 130) exclusively actuable, one relative to the other, into fluid pressured sealing engagement with the spherical cap sealing face (142) in dependence upon whether an experienced fluid pressure at the ball valve assembly (100) is from a top side (102) or an opposite bottom side (104) of the ball valve assembly (100). |
| US09869160B2 |
Dissolvable sieve, particulate tolerant system and method of protecting a tool from particulate
A dissolvable sieve includes a body that is permeable to fluid flow therethrough constructed of a material configured to dissolve in a target environment. |
| US09869159B2 |
Double valve block and actuator assembly including same
A valve comprises a housing including a first chamber, a second chamber, and a neutral chamber. In addition, the valve comprises a stem disposed within the housing. Further, the valve comprises a first valve member at least partially disposed in the first chamber and connected to the stem and a second valve member at least partially disposed in the second chamber and connected to the stem. The first valve member has a closed position seated in a first annular valve seat and an open position spaced apart from the first valve seat. The second valve member has a closed position seated in a second annular valve seat and an open position spaced apart from the second valve seat. Moreover, the valve comprises a biasing member configured to bias the second valve member to the closed position and the first valve member to the open position. |
| US09869157B2 |
Reverse circulation cementing system for cementing a liner
Reverse circulation cementing of a liner in a wellbore extending through a subterranean formation is presented. A running tool with expansion cone, release assembly, annular isolation device, and reverse circulation assembly is run-in with a liner. The annular isolation device is set against the casing. A valve, such as a dropped-ball operated sliding sleeve valve, opens reverse circulation ports for the cementing operation. The liner annulus is cemented using reverse circulation. The expandable liner hanger is expanded into engagement with the casing. Conventional circulation is restored. The running tool is released and pulled from the hole. |
| US09869154B2 |
Apparatus and methods for closing flow paths in wellbores
A method of closing a fluid flow path in a wellbore is disclosed that in one non-limiting embodiment includes: supplying a flexible structure having a selected shape sufficient to seat on an opening of the fluid flow path, the flexible structure including pores of selected dimensions; determining seating of the flexible structure on the opening of the fluid flow path from a sensor measurement; and supplying a slurry containing a sealant to the flexible structure seated on the opening of the fluid flow path to plug the pores with the sealant to close the fluid flow path. |
| US09869151B2 |
Controlled aperture ball drop
A controlled aperture ball drop includes a ball cartridge that is mounted to a frac head or a high pressure fluid conduit. The ball cartridge houses a ball rail having a bottom end that forms an aperture with an inner periphery of the ball cartridge through which frac balls of a frac ball stack supported by the ball rail are sequentially dropped from the frac ball stack as a size of the aperture is increased by an aperture controller operatively connected to the ball rail. |
| US09869149B2 |
Scissor-mechanism closing rams of blow out preventors
A ram closing assembly for a blowout preventor has a main central bore and a radial bore normal to the main central bore and includes a ram body having a rotational pin proximate to an inner end. A pair of ram arm assemblies are located on opposite sides of the ram body. The ram arm assemblies have a shaped end and an elbow end. A rotating ram is pivotally connected to the rotational pin and to the elbow end of one of the ram arm assemblies. A ram actuator is movable relative to the ram body, to move the pair of ram arm assemblies to pivot the rotating rams about the rotational pin to a closed position. |
| US09869148B2 |
Wellsite connector with floating seal member and method of using same
A wellsite connector for connecting components of a wellsite is provided. The wellsite has a wellbore extending into a subsurface formation. The wellsite connector includes a connector body and a floatable seal. The connector body has an end adapted for coupling to a first of the components, a pocket along an inner surface thereof, and a cavity adapted to receive a second of the components. The floatable seal member includes a seal ring having a hole therethrough to sealingly receive the second of the components. The seal member is slidably movable in the pocket of the connector body transversely to an axis of the connector body whereby the second of the components is alignable to the first of the components for connection therebetween. |
| US09869146B2 |
Methods and apparatus for coring
Described herein is an inner tube for a core barrel which has a structure adapted to retain lubricant for lubricating a sampled core. The internal surface of the inner tube includes a plurality of structures to retain lubricant adjacent a core received in the inner tube. An example structure is multiple alveoli in which lubricant is retained. |
| US09869143B2 |
Tool for gripping tubular items
A tool for gripping a tubular workpiece comprises: a land element for reacting compressive load against an end face of the workpiece; grip elements and grip element carrier means; a main body with means for converting axial motion of the tool relative to the workpiece into radial movement of the grip elements from a retracted position to an engaged position exerting radial load on the workpiece; and retractor means for retracting the grip elements from the workpiece the tool is displaced axially away from the workpiece. The grip element carrier means may comprise a cylindrical cage with the grip elements being radially slidable within circumferentially-spaced windows in the cage. The means for converting axial movement and load into radial movement and load may comprise a cone or ramp surface that bears against the grip elements such that radial loads from the grip surfaces are carried through the main body. |
| US09869139B2 |
Tubular connection with helically extending torque shoulder
A tubular connection includes a pin member and a box member. The pin member has a first thread structure and a helical torque shoulder spaced axially along the pin member from the first thread structure. The box member has a second thread structure and a second helical torque shoulder spaced axially along the box member from the second thread structure. The first thread structure and the second thread structure are sized and located to control a stab position of the tubular connection, and in the stab position the first helical torque shoulder does not engage or axially overlap with the second helical torque shoulder. A method of joining tubular members utilizing a helical torque shoulder is also provided. |
| US09869135B1 |
Sucker rod apparatus and methods for manufacture and use
A sucker rod string improved by the use of wear resistant, high temperature resistant, fiber-reinforced phenolic composite materials as centralizing guides on sucker rods and couplings, both molded on the rod and prepared as snap-on couplings for in-the-field use, and on magnet rod inserts, both rod box and pin magnet rod inserts, in which the thermosetting composites are used as sleeves, encapsulating housings, and centralizing guides. The magnet rod inserts and couplings are designed to be machined so that worn phenolic composite can be removed and replaced with fresh composite without removing or damaging the magnet. Processes are disclosed for integrating composite thermoset molding into sucker rod, coupling, and magnet rod insert manufacture and for refurbishing used components of a sucker rod string. |
| US09869132B2 |
Wellsite hardfacing with particle distribution and method of using same
A chromium-free, distributed hardfacing disposable on a surface of a wellsite component is disclosed. The hardfacing includes a metal filler (e.g., nickel) and particles distributed about the filler. The particles include pellets made of tungsten carbide and pieces made of angular molybdenum carbide. The pieces are smaller than the pellets for distribution in the filler between the pellets whereby a uniform distribution of particles is provided about the filler. |
| US09869130B2 |
Ultra-high ROP blade enhancement
A drill bit for drilling a hole in an earth formation includes a bit body and a blade extending from the bit body. The blade has a leading section, a top section, and a plurality of transition sections extending between the leading section and the top section. The drill bit further includes a plurality of cutters. Each cutter is positioned in a respective cutter pocket formed in the blade. Each cutter extends beyond the top section of the blade, and each transition section of the blade is between adjacent cutter pockets. The drill bit further includes a plurality of abrasion resistant inserts. Each abrasion resistant insert is positioned in a respective insert pocket formed in the blade. The plurality of abrasion resistant inserts are designed to cut into an earth formation. At least a portion of each abrasion resistant insert is disposed at a respective transition section of the blade. |
| US09869122B2 |
Cornerlock having a self configurable first body member
A cornerlock is used with a frame assembly. The frame assembly includes first and second frame members each having walls defining interior voids. The cornerlock extends into the interior void of each of the first and second frame members. The cornerlock comprises first and second body members mating with the interior voids of the first and second frame members, respectively. Each body member has proximal and distal ends and are rigidly fixed to one another. The first body member has a leg and an arm both extending from the proximal end to the distal end. The leg is resistant to deflection. The arm is deflectable about the proximal end and immediately deflects upon engagement with the first frame member for engaging the leg with one of the plurality of walls and biasing the arm into engagement with another one of the plurality of walls of the first frame member. |
| US09869116B2 |
Pneumatic operated hinge and latch system
A pneumatic operated hinge and latch system for agriculture seed box lids preventing loss of the lid during adverse weather conditions, wherein the system provides a more reliable and secure locked engagement and an easy transition to an unlocked engagement. |
| US09869115B2 |
Sliding door
A sliding door for use with a rail system, having a rail, which guides a sliding motion of the door, and an attenuation and retraction device, which brakes the sliding motion of the door at a brake position in the vicinity of a door end position and retracts the door to the end position. The sliding door includes a pin, which is slideably attached to the door, slideable between a pin retracted position and a pin extended position, a tip of the pin interacting with the attenuation and retraction device. The door further includes a wheel carried by a wheel holder, which is arranged to move the wheel between a wheel retracted position and a wheel extended position. A transmission mechanism interconnects the wheel holder and the pin such that a movement of the wheel, towards the wheel extended position, urges the pin towards the pin extended position. |
| US09869114B1 |
Hinge assembly for electronic device
A hinge assembly for an electronic device includes a joint assembly including joint components hinged one by one. Each joint component includes a first plate, a second plate, and a link component disposed between the first and second plates. Each of the first and second plates has two first slots diametrically extending in a first direction. The first plate has a second slot disposed between the two first slots and diametrically extending in a second direction different from the first direction. The second plate has a third slot disposed between the two first slots and diametrically extending in a third direction mirror-symmetrical to the second direction with respect to the first direction. The link component has an engaging hole and a guide portion. The engaging hole is corresponding to one of the first slots of each of the first and second plates, and the guide portion is formed on a surface of the link component and movable within the second or third slot. Movement of the guide portion causes the link component to move, and the engaging hole moves corresponding to the one of the first slots of each of the first and second plates along the first direction, thus changing an axial distance between the shafts. |
| US09869104B2 |
Method and system for making a pool appear cleaner through the use of camouflage patterns, and portable camouflage pool
A new swimming, wading and bathing pool that uses a camouflage pattern of layers to conceal debris, while helping the pool blend in to its environment. The camouflage pool is also used to conceal a person and or other objects wearing or covered in a similar camouflage pattern. |
| US09869099B2 |
Outdoor flooring and manufacturing method thereof
An outdoor flooring and a manufacturing method thereof, the outdoor flooring includes a metal core and a basal layer, and the metal core is disposed within the basal layer. The outdoor flooring is mainly used as a building material in outdoor public places, such as gardens, pavilions, lakes, seas and holiday villages. |
| US09869097B2 |
Ventilated facade
A ventilated facade comprising horizontal rails (4) and covering pieces (3-3′) mounted on the horizontal rails by means of anchoring elements (5), either wires or plates, which hang from the rails through openings (13) that said rails have on a horizontal section (6) of the same. |
| US09869095B2 |
Exhaust gas panel vent assembly for roof-mounted photovoltaic systems
A roof-mounted venting device or assembly adapted for use with roof mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels is provided. Venting devices and assemblies can include a replacement flashing that fits over a cut-down roof pipe vent as well as venting assemblies that redirect airflow from a roof pipe vent. Such replacement flashing can include a substantially planar flashing portion from which protrudes a hood portion with one or more vent openings to allow airflow into and out from the interior of the hood portion. The vent openings can be configured as a series of louvered openings that open in a down-roof direction to prevent flow of run-off and debris into the hood portion. Venting assemblies can include a coupling portion for mating with a vent-pipe, a section of hose or piping to redirect airflow, and a venting portion disposed outside or between roof-mounted solar panels. |
| US09869094B2 |
Corrugated mesh gutter leaf preclusion system
Corrugated fine mesh material is configured to be located overlying a gutter. The fine mesh material has an upper edge opposite a lower edge with the upper edge configured to fit beneath shingles on a roof adjacent the gutter. The lower edge is configured to be held to a lip at a forward edge of the gutter. The corrugations add strength to the material and collect water at troughs thereof where the collected water more readily forms droplets that fall down into the gutter. A lower strip is preferably provided to hold the lower edge of the mesh to a lip of the gutter. An upper strip is optionally provided which includes a tab which can fit beneath shingles to the roof. A barrier such as a bead of caulk can optionally be coupled to an underside of the corrugated mesh to further encourage water droplets to fall. |
| US09869090B2 |
Corrugated metal plate and overhead structure incorporating same
A corrugated metal plate comprises a plate configured to define a series of crests and troughs, where the plate has longitudinal edges extending parallel to longitudinal axes of the crests and the troughs and transverse edges extending orthogonally to the longitudinal axes of the crests and the troughs. The corrugated metal plate further comprises at least one of: at least one longitudinal flange extending from each longitudinal edge, and at least one transverse flange extending from each transverse edge. |
| US09869088B1 |
Cover for C-shaped stud
A cover for a C-shaped stud comprising a semi-rigid plate having a first face with a first end and a second end, the distance between the first and second end sufficient to cover the space between the L-shaped legs of the C-shaped stud. A pair of U-shaped clips each positioned proximal to opposite ends of the plate and configured to engage each L-shaped flange of the stud enabling the cover to be applied to the C-shaped stud by bending the plate sufficiently to permit the leg of each L-shaped flange to fit within the U-shaped clip. A further embodiment incorporating a spring means configured to be biased so as to be positioned within the C-shaped stud to engage one of the L-shaped flanges to provide a biasing force on the cover to secure the cover to the C-shaped stud. |
| US09869083B2 |
System and methods for the preservation of mechanical assets
A system and methods for the storage, and preservation of mechanical assets, including collectable automobiles, small airplanes and watercraft in a storage unit. The storage unit includes a plurality of asset modules. The volume of each asset module is variable. The atmosphere of each asset module may be controlled by a control system. Control of the atmosphere of each asset module includes control of parameters including the type of gas each atmosphere is composed of and the temperature, the pressure and relative humidity of each atmosphere. These parameters may be monitored and controlled from a remote location. |
| US09869081B1 |
Toilet flange cover system
A toilet flange cover system for temporarily covering a toilet flange and opening during periods of construction and remodeling when the toilet is not installed. A cover is fabricated of a rigid plastic material and formed with a generally circular shape. Diametrically opposed locking posts are integrated into the bottom of the cover having enlarged heads and can be removably received in the bolt slots for coupling the cover to a toilet flange when covering the opening and uncoupling from the toilet flange to facilitate accessing the opening. A handle aids in the coupling and uncoupling of the cover and a gasket is placed between the cover and flange to seal the opening when the cover is coupled to the toilet flange. |
| US09869080B2 |
Cleaning liquid dispenser
A liquid dispenser is provided including a housing having an inlet port connectable to a liquid container, an outlet port configured to be in fluid communication with toilet tank, and a piston slidably mounted in the housing and selectively displaceable between a suction position in which the piston is displaced away from the inlet port thereby allowing suction of cleaning liquid through the inlet port and an injection position in which the piston is urged towards the outlet port thereby allowing cleaning liquid to be injected through the outlet port, and a float coupled to the piston and configured for displacement thereof to the suction position in response to a rising water level in the toilet tank. |
| US09869079B2 |
Accumulator for water management
Embodiments of disclosure provide an intermediate accumulator that can receive and hold water prior to its delivery to a vacuum toilet or other water-using source. The pump required to move water from the reservoir to the intermediate accumulator can be much lighter and smaller than pumps previously required in systems that do not use an intermediate accumulator. Providing an intermediate accumulator can provide a more constant flush by holding the pressure inside the accumulator more constant, by equalizing the pressure, and by lowering the total volume required per flush. The accumulator can store energy in the water and deliver it to a water-using source using less energy and requiring less volume. |
| US09869070B2 |
Soil reinforcement system including angled soil reinforcement elements to resist seismic shear forces and methods of making same
A soil reinforcement system including angled soil reinforcement elements to resist seismic shear forces and methods of making same are disclosed. For example, the soil reinforcement system includes an array or grid of angled soil reinforcement elements installed within the ground, wherein the angled reinforcement elements are designed to absorb and/or resist earthquake-induced seismic shear forces by transferring the applied shear forces into axial compressive and tensile forces within each of the angled reinforcement elements. |
| US09869067B2 |
Snow plow and mount assembly
A snow plow and mount assembly has a mount frame, an A-frame, a lift frame, a plow blade, an actuator, arms, receivers, recesses, hitch pins, a latch mechanism, and a latch lever. The elements are arranged such that the vehicle is driven toward the snow plow so that the arms are received in the receivers, the actuator is energized to pivot the lift frame relative to the A-frame so that the hitch pins are received in the recesses, and the lever is moved to move the latch mechanism to the latched position. The snow plow frame is thereby removably secured to the mount frame. |
| US09869065B2 |
Ballast mats and methods of forming the same
A method and apparatus for coating transportation components such as a bridge deck with a coating. The coating includes a sealant and rubber mixed with a resin and a foaming agent. The apparatus includes a hopper for the rubber, a impingement gun for the resin and a gun assembly that combined the rubber and resin together at a combined nozzle for spraying. |
| US09869063B1 |
Stringless paving train method and apparatus
A method for paving a surface includes identifying the location of a first paving machine in a stringless paving train relative to a reference point and sending instructions to the first paving machine according to a road profile. The method further includes identifying the location of a second paving machine in a stringless paving train relative to the reference point and sending instructions to the second paving machine according to the road profile. |
| US09869061B2 |
Hinge/taper clamp rod holder insert
A metering rod assembly including a body for accommodating a metering rod insert and configured to clamp the metering rod and/or metering rod insert without the use of an auxiliary clamping device, such as a pressure tube or the like. A rod bed insert is supported in a tapered channel of a body whereby a clamping action is created during use. In another embodiment, the body includes a hinge portion that facilitates relative rotation between upper and lower jaws to create a clamping action during use. |
| US09869059B2 |
Fluff pulp and high sap loaded core
A fluff pulp is provided, which comprises softwood fibers; and 3 to 35% by weight of hardwood fibers. A fluff is also provided, which comprises the fiberized or shredded fluff pulp. A core is also provided, which comprises the fluff and at least an SAP. Processes for making and using the fluff pulp, fluff, and core are provided, and products made thereby. |
| US09869056B2 |
Rope end-fastening method, rope with end fastener, and end fitting for use in rope end-fastening method
A rope terminal fixing method is provided, which may be used easily at a construction site, causes less shearing load, and may reliably prevent the falling-off of the rope.The rope terminal fixing method comprises the following steps. A tubular terminal metal fitting which comprises a proximal opening, a distal opening, and a through hole communicating the proximal and distal openings is prepared. A terminal of a rope is inserted through the proximal opening into the through hole, a portion of the terminal of the rope extended from the distal opening is loosened, and a diameter-enlarging member is fixed to a core wire of the rope. Then, the terminal of the rope is brought back into the through hole. A fixed width portion extending in an axial direction of the terminal metal fitting is pressed from the outside in a circumferential direction by swaging, such that a protrusion constraining the rope so as to reduce its diameter is formed in the through hole. The diameter-enlarging member cooperates with an end of the protrusion located on the distal opening side to constrain surrounding wires other than the core wire in a sandwiching manner. A rope with terminal fixing tools, which comprises the terminal fixing tools attached thereto by this method, is also provided. |
| US09869052B2 |
Heat exchanger for condensation in clothes drying and clothes drying system and clothes dryer and drying method thereof
An external air-cooled heat exchanger includes two air channels going towards different directions and not connecting with each other, a condensing wind channel and an external air channel. Each air channel has a plurality of air chambers that are alternately arranged so that between each two neighboring air chambers of the same air channel is an air chamber of the other air channel change to a period; A clothes dryer includes an air outlet connected to the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is connected to a water collection box, the water collection box is connected to an air inlet, a filter is arranged between the air outlet and the heat exchanger, and a drying fan and the heating unit are arranged between the water collection box and the air inlet. |
| US09869051B2 |
Dryer for wall-mounted washing machine
A dryer for a wall-mounted washing machine is disclosed. The dryer provides a duct passage that is curved in multiple ways, and that has a heater and a fan. Therefore, the dryer may be installed in a wall-mounted washing machine having a relatively small or narrow accommodating space. The dryer may have a relatively high gas flow rate and/or flow velocity. That is, the dryer may implement a function for drying laundry. |
| US09869050B2 |
Driving apparatus for washing machine
A driving apparatus for a washing machine including: a housing; a brake drum rotatably disposed inside the housing; a dewatering shaft coupled to the brake drum; a washing shaft rotatably disposed inside the dewatering shaft; a rotor to which the washing shaft is coupled; a stator disposed inside the rotor; a brake lever disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the housing and adapted to operate a brake pad connected to one end thereof to control the rotation of the brake drum; a coupling clutch moved upwardly and downwardly along a lower end portion of the dewatering shaft; a clutch lever mounted on the housing and rotating upon the rotation of the brake lever to move the coupling clutch upwardly and downwardly; and a pressurizing lever coupled to the brake lever to rotate together with the brake lever and to push and rotate the clutch lever. |
| US09869048B2 |
Laundry treating appliance with laundry deflector
A laundry treating appliance may include a front panel with an opening, a door selectively opening and closing the front panel opening, a tub with an opening at least partially aligned with the front panel opening, and a bellows extending between the front panel and the tub at their respective openings. A deflector mounted to the tub extends towards the door and overlies at least a portion of the bellows. |
| US09869045B2 |
Quilt design support
A quilt support formed of a rigid plate. The rigid plate includes a front surface and a rear surface. A gripping layer is attached to the front surface of the rigid plate. A foldable stand is pivotally attached to the rear surface of the rigid plate. The foldable stand includes a folded position and a deployed position. The folded position includes the foldable stand pivoted towards and resting against the rear surface. The deployed position includes the foldable stand pivoted away from the rear surface. The foldable stand is operable to support the rigid plate in an upright position when resting on a surface such that the rigid plate is disposed at an angle relative to the surface when in the deployed position. |
| US09869044B2 |
Apparatus and methods for stitching vehicle interior components and components formed from the methods
A method of applying stitching to an interior component is provided herein. The interior component having only a single layer of a substrate layer. The method including the steps of: a) penetrating substrate layer with an awl of a sewing head to form a piercing therethrough; b) retracting the awl from the substrate layer; c) inserting a needle of the same sewing head through the piercing through the substrate layer to grasp a thread positioned on a show surface of the outer skin layer; d) pulling the thread through the substrate layer; e) looping the thread with a previous stitch passed through the substrate layer; f) advancing the sewing head to another position with respect to the interior component, wherein a backside of the substrate layer is free of obstructions; and g) repeating steps a-f until a predetermined amount of stitches are applied to the interior component. |
| US09869043B2 |
Quilting device
A quilting device (1) comprises a processing unit (5) which is mounted on a frame (3) so as to be manually displaceable in two movement directions (M1, M2) by an operator. A detection device (29) having sensors (27) detects the guiding force which is exerted in these movement directions (M1, M2) by the operator. A controller device (35) controls or regulates, respectively, auxiliary motors (33a, 33b) which support the guiding force, so as to depend on the detected guiding force. |
| US09869041B2 |
Apparatus for stretching acrylic fibers in a pressurized steam environment and automatic fiber drawing-in device for said apparatus
A stretching apparatus of fibre tows in a pressurized steam environment includes an elongated stretching chamber having a generally rectangular section of a low height, within which the tows are treated with saturated or overheated steam at high temperature and pressure and simultaneously undergo a mechanical stretching operation. The stretching chamber has a width sufficient to house multiple tows mutually flanked in a running plane and is formed within a stretching chest made of aluminum. The stretching chest is housed in a supporting structure, having a higher structural rigidity than the stretching chest, which includes a plurality of contact elements apt to determine a predefined position of the stretching chest with respect to a direction perpendicular to the tow running plane and to allow a limited mobility of the stretching chest in the other two mutually perpendicular directions which lie in the plane, length and width respectively. |
| US09869037B2 |
Method of producing a swellable polymer fibre
A swellable polymer based fiber and a method of preparing the same optionally comprising glycol, lecithin and optionally an antimicrobial metal species suitable, for example, for medical applications including wound dressings. A method of manufacture may comprise fiber extrusion or spinning involving one or a plurality of in-series coagulation baths to add single or multiple antimicrobial metal species to the as-formed fiber. |
| US09869034B2 |
Silicon single crystal pulling apparatus comprising a vertically movable supporting member holding the heater and shield
The present invention is a silicon single crystal pulling apparatus based on Czochralski method, including a crucible for receiving a raw material, a heater for heating the raw material into a raw material melt, a main chamber accommodating the crucible and the heater, a shield disposed between the heater and the main chamber for shielding a radiant heat from the heater, and a supporting member holding the heater and the shield from below, the supporting member being movable vertically whereby the heater and the shield can move vertically together. As a result, there is provided a silicon single crystal pulling apparatus that facilitates the adjustment of thermal history, the improvement of pulling rate of a silicon single crystal, and the reduction in oxygen concentration. |