| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09923430B2 |
Actuator of engraving machine
The proposed actuator of engraving machine relates to decorative machining of hard materials, and can be used in arrangement of facades and monuments. A permanent magnet and a core with a pivot are concentrically fixed in an upper part of a housing. An electric coil is placed on a cylindrical frame of nonmagnetic material and can move in the axial direction in a ring gap between the core and the permanent magnet together with a pusher fixed in two circular elastic membranes, spaced in the axial direction and fixed in the housing along an external contour. A shank is fixed on the pusher under the membranes, having a central part extending through a bottom cover of the housing. It has a hollow axial opening, wherein a removable impact tool is mounted. The design is simple and reliable. Durability, accuracy and speed of engraving of the actuator are improved. |
| US09923428B2 |
Motor device having transmission member that is movable relative to motor side coupling part and worm gear side coupling part
A motor device may include a motor comprising a motor shaft protruded from a motor main body; a worm gear connected with the motor shaft through a coupling; a worm wheel engaged with the worm gear; and a frame on which the motor, the worm gear and the worm wheel are mounted. The coupling may include a motor side coupling part; a transmission member; and a worm gear side coupling part. The motor side coupling part and the transmission member may be relatively movable in a first direction perpendicular to the axial line direction. The transmission member and the worm gear side coupling part may be relatively movable in a second direction perpendicular to the axial line direction and intersecting the first direction. A compression coil spring may be disposed between the transmission member and an end part of the worm gear. |
| US09923422B2 |
Rotor assembly
A rotor assembly comprises a number of rotor segments forming a rotor structure and a central structure connected to the rotor structure and at least partially arranged between at least two of the rotor segments, for example surrounded by the rotor structure. A wind turbine generator comprising a stator assembly and said rotor assembly and a wind turbine comprising such a generator are also provided. |
| US09923420B2 |
Claw pole stator motor and blower
A motor includes a stator and a rotor. The stator includes an inner circumference stator section and an outer circumference stator section. The inner circumference stator section and the outer circumference stator section each include two stator cores and a coil. The two stator cores each include claw poles and are coupled to each other. The coil is arranged between the two stator cores. The rotor includes an inner circumference magnet and an outer circumference magnet. The inner circumference magnet, which is arranged at an inner circumferential side of the inner circumference stator section, opposes the claw poles in the radial direction. The outer circumference magnet, which is arranged at an outer circumferential side of the outer circumference stator section, opposes the claw poles in the radial direction. The inner circumference stator section and the inner circumference magnet form an inner circumference motor unit. The outer circumference stator section and the outer circumference magnet form an outer circumference motor unit. |
| US09923419B2 |
Electric power transmitter, electric power transmission method and semiconductor device
According to an embodiment, an electric power transmitter has a first electric power transmitting unit, a second electric power transmitting unit, a first detecting unit configured to detect a first placed object on the first electric power transmitting unit, a second detecting unit configured to detect a second placed object on the second electric power transmitting unit, a timer unit configured to, when the first placed object on the first electric power transmitting unit is detected, start driving, and a judging unit configured to, when the second placed object on the second electric power transmitting unit is detected within a predetermined time period from driving of the timer unit, judge that the first placed object and the second placed object are one common placed object. |
| US09923416B2 |
Configuring, optimizing, and managing micro-grids
Methods and systems for controlling electrical distribution grids. The method includes determining premises in an electrical distribution grid that include an energy resource. The method further includes determining a configuration of the electrical distribution grid including a micro-grid, the micro-grid including the one or more premises. The method further includes electrically isolating, monitoring and controlling the micro-grid from the electrical distribution grid through the use of a micro-grid manager. |
| US09923414B2 |
System for redundant power supply to a data center
There is described a circuit to supply electric power to N electrical panels. The circuit comprises N+1 blockbars, each one of the blockbars being for connection to an automatic transfer switch (ATS) of a power source, each one of the blockbars being connected to at least two other ones of the N+1 blockbars via a segregating switchgear. The circuit further comprises N+1 UPS units, each one of the UPS units being for connection to a dedicated one of the blockbars via a dedicated switchgear. The circuit further comprises 2N power outputs, each one of the N electrical panels being connected to 2 of the 2N power outputs, each one of the 2N power outputs being connected to 2 of the N+1 UPS units. This configuration allows for N+1 redundancy at the generator and UPS levels to feed the electrical distribution with 2N redundancy. |
| US09923411B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes: a light detection circuit having a first light sensor and a second light sensor each generating a photocurrent by photoelectric conversion, a resistive element which allows a difference between the photocurrents generated by the first light sensor and the second light sensor to flow, and a voltage detection circuit which detects a voltage generated by the flow of the differential photocurrent through the resistive element, said electronic device being controlled in operation by an output signal of the light detection circuit; a storing unit charged each time the electronic device is operated; and a rectifying element provided between the storing unit and the resistive element. A current with which the storing unit is charged is made to flow to the resistive element through the rectifying element. |
| US09923410B2 |
Precharging circuit for charging an intermediate circuit capacitor
A pre-charging circuit for charging an intermediate circuit capacitor is provided having a first electronic component, a second electronic component and a diagnostic circuit. The diagnostic circuit is designed for functional testing of the first electronic component and/or of the second electronic component and comprises an energy source with a terminal voltage. A voltage drop can be induced on the first electronic component by the energy source, as a result of which the functional performance of the first electronic component and/or of the second electronic component can be tested. The diagnostic circuit has a diagnosis switch via which the energy source can be connected to the first electronic component in such a manner that the dropping voltage on the first electronic component corresponds to the terminal voltage. |
| US09923405B2 |
Method and apparatus for wireless power in-band signaling by load generation
Exemplary implementations are directed to wireless power in-band signaling by load generation. An apparatus for communicating with a wireless power transmitter is provided. The apparatus comprises a receiver configured to generate a voltage based on wirelessly received charging power from the transmitter. The apparatus comprises a load configurable to be coupled to and decoupled from the receiver. The apparatus comprises a switching circuit configured to encode a communication to the transmitter by adjusting an average power dissipated by the load detectable by the transmitter. The average power is based on a duty cycle with which the switching circuit couples and decouples the load from the receiver under control of a control signal. |
| US09923403B2 |
Low-heat wireless power receiving device and method
The present invention relates to low-heat wireless power receiving device and method for charging a battery with low heat by receiving a wireless power signal from a wireless power transmitting device. When a power receiving coil receives a wireless power signal, a control unit matches impedance by controlling an impedance matching/controlling unit, determines a charging load state of a power receiving unit in accordance with a time-lapse of charging the power receiving unit and a current level detected by a current detecting unit, and selectively turns on a low-heat transforming unit and a high-heat transforming unit in accordance with the selected charging load state, thereby charging the power receiving unit with minimum heat generation. |
| US09923402B2 |
Inductive charging device
An inductive charging device is provided, in particular a hand-held power tool inductive charging device, which includes an inductive charging unit which is provided for transferring energy in a coupled state with an induction battery. It is provided that the inductive charging device includes a fastening unit which is provided, at least in part, for coupling the inductive charging unit to the at least one induction battery and/or to at least one external unit in at least one state. |
| US09923399B2 |
Battery stack with distributed control of cells driving events
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a battery stack controller system. The system may include a plurality of battery cell stages with cell controller systems (as described above with respect to the first embodiment). The system may also include a stack controller to send charge/discharge commands to the battery stack via a communication network. The stack controller may send the commands to the battery stack based on the requirements of a load or the state of the battery cell stages. The battery cell stages may either comply with the commands or send the commands to neighboring cells via the communication network. |
| US09923390B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing charging port detection control
A method and an apparatus for performing charging port detection control are provided, where the method is applied to an electronic device, and a communication port of the electronic device has a functionality of obtaining power from an external power source for the electronic device. The method may include the steps of: detecting whether an output voltage level of a battery of the electronic device reaches a predetermined threshold value; and control operation(s) according to whether the output voltage level reaches the predetermined threshold value. For example, the method may include: when it is detected that the output voltage level is less than the predetermined threshold value, pre-charging the battery with a predetermined pre-charging current level to make the output voltage level reach the predetermined threshold value, and then controlling a detection path switching unit to electrically connect data terminal(s) of the communication port to a charging port detection circuit. |
| US09923387B2 |
Multi-mode wireless receiver apparatus and resonator circuit design
A resonator circuit includes: a first inductive element and a second inductive element that is connected to the first inductive element in series; a first capacitive element, connected to a first end of the first inductive element and a first output end of the resonator circuit; and a set of second capacitive elements connected in series, the set of second capacitive elements having one end connected between the first and second inductive elements and having another end connected between the second inductive element and a second output end of the resonator circuit. The intermediate end of the set of second capacitive elements is used as a third output end of the resonator circuit. |
| US09923385B2 |
Excitation and use of guided surface waves
Disclosed are various embodiments for transmitting and receiving energy conveyed in the form of a guided surface-waveguide mode along the surface of a lossy medium such as, e.g., a terrestrial medium excited by a guided surface waveguide probe. |
| US09923383B2 |
Adjusting filter in a coupled coil system
A receiver device in a coupled coil system for wireless energy transfer includes a receiver coil and a load device operatively connected to the receiver coil and configured to receive a signal from the receiver coil. As one example, the load device is a rechargeable battery. An adjusting filter is included in the receiver device and is operatively connected between the receiver coil and the load device. The adjusting filter can be used to transform the effective resistance or impedance of the load as presented to the transformer during energy transfer so that the effective resistant or impedance of the load is maintained at a substantially constant level, and the signal received by the load device is maintained at a substantially constant level. |
| US09923382B2 |
Active rectifier for efficient wireless power transfer
Methods, devices, and integrated circuits are disclosed for efficiently receiving a wireless power transfer. In one example, a device configured for receiving a wireless power transfer includes an active rectifier, rectifier input nodes, and a controller. The controller is operatively coupled to the active rectifier and configured to control the active rectifier to modify the impedance at the rectifier input nodes. |
| US09923379B2 |
Hybrid inverter power control system for PV string, battery, grid and back-up loads
A string inverter for use with a photovoltaic array includes at least one string-level DC input channel for receiving DC power from the photovoltaic array, and at least one input-output channel for connecting the string inverter to a battery pack. The string inverter also includes a DC to AC inverter having an AC output, and a switch configured to control a flow of power through the string inverter. When the switch is in a first state, AC power can flow from the string inverter to a load side of a customer utility meter and one or more back-up loads, in a second state, power can flow from the load side of a customer utility meter to the one or more back-up loads bypassing the string inverter, and in a third state, all circuits coupled to the output of the string inverter are electrically disconnected from the string inverter. |
| US09923377B2 |
Electrical tester
An electrical equipment cabinet has a standby battery to supply current when a mains connection is not available. In normal operation the battery is maintained charged by the mains supply. In order to test the condition of the battery, a measuring system is arranged to operation in co-operation with a test of a residual current detection device, which temporarily disconnects the mains supply, thus measuring the condition of the battery, when under load. |
| US09923375B2 |
Method and a system for a fast bus transfer in an electrical power system
A method for synchronizing and connecting a first sub power system with a second sub power system with an intelligent electronic device (IED) by use of at least one switching device between the first sub power system and the second sub power system in an electrical power system is provided. The IED monitors power supply parameters such as voltage magnitude, phase and other derived parameters such as voltage and phase differences in the first sub power system and the second sub power system to identify at least one instance for fast bus transfer where the two sub systems have acceptable differences in magnitude and phase. The IED performs phase shifting and voltage magnitude correction in anticipation for synchronizing power supplies on connection at the identified instance. |
| US09923373B2 |
Multiply-connected power processing
Various power processing systems are described that employ a multiply-connected velocity inhibiting circuit. At least one delay active circuit and at least one variable capacitance are configured to cause an alternating current (AC) power signal to propagate in a single direction in the multiply-connected velocity inhibiting circuit. |
| US09923365B2 |
Short-circuit protection circuit for voltage sampling resistor of primary side converter
Disclosed is a short-circuit protection circuit for a voltage sampling resistor of a primary side converter, comprising a high voltage power transistor, a high voltage starting resistor, a first voltage dividing resistor of a port VDD, a second voltage dividing resistor of the port VDD, an NMOS transistor, a diode, a first comparator, a second comparator, a third comparator, a time delay circuit, a filter, a first logic circuit, a second logic circuit, a current supply, a first AND gate and a first inverter. The chip of the present disclosure is capable of correctly and effectively detecting whether the sampling resistor is shorted or not before the chip works normally, thereby avoiding the risk of damaging the chip by large current from the voltage feedback port FB due to turn-on of the switching transistor when the upper voltage sampling resistor is shorted, and greatly reducing the input power. |
| US09923361B2 |
3 phase electric leakage current circuit breaker with electric shock protection
The present invention relates to a 3 phase electric leakage current circuit breaker with electric shock protection having a first function of detecting a leakage current and operating a circuit breaker to break an electric path if a leakage current exceeds a tolerance and a second function of detecting a leakage current every half cycle intervals of a power source, subtracting two leakage currents detected before and after a half cycle interval from each other as a vector calculus to compute a leakage current change, and operating a circuit breaker to break an electric path if the leakage current change exceeds a tolerance. The former case corresponds to protection against a normal leakage current which gradually increases, and an allowable leakage current is several hundreds of mA. The latter case is for protection against electric shock to a human body when a leakage current abruptly changes due to electric shock to a human body or the like, and an allowable leakage current is several tens of mA. Therefore, along the 3 phase electric path, the electric leakage current circuit breaker of the present invention may operate without any malfunction with respect to the normal leakage current change while protecting the human body from the electric shock. |
| US09923360B2 |
Electronic apparatus, power supply device, and power supply monitoring method
An electronic apparatus includes: a power supply circuit that supplies power supply voltage to a load; an overcurrent detection circuit that performs output of detection information indicating the direction of current at a power supply path for the load in the power supply circuit when overcurrent occurs in the power supply path; and a determination circuit that performs output of notification information indicating whether or not a location at which a failure occurs exists within the power supply circuit or outside the power supply circuit, based on the detection information. |
| US09923359B2 |
Safety switching device with a safe power supply unit
A safety switching device for an automated installation includes a power supply unit for providing at least one operating voltage for the device. The power supply unit receives an input voltage via a feed line and provides a defined output voltage on an output side. Electrical supply to the power supply unit is interrupted if an instantaneous output voltage is higher than the defined output voltage. The interruption is achieved by first and second switching elements arranged in series and connecting the input of the power supply unit to ground, and by an interrupter element in the feed line. The interrupter element triggers when both the first and the second switching elements are in a closed, low-impedance state. A reference point between the first and the second switching elements has a voltage value that corresponds to a first expectation value when the first switching element is in the closed, low-impedance state and the second switching element is in an open state, and corresponds to a second expectation value when the first switching element is in the open state and the second switching element is in the closed, low-impedance state. |
| US09923355B2 |
Termination of strength members of deep water cables
A method for terminating a cable (6) having at least one strength member (7). The method includes the steps of providing a cable termination comprising at least one termination chamber (2) for accommodating an end section of the strength member (7) and arranging and fastening an anchoring sleeve (12) around at least parts of the end section. The method further includes introducing the end section into the termination chamber (2) and fastening the end section by curing a polymer resin in the termination chamber (2) as well as a termination suitable for the method. |
| US09923354B2 |
Integrated piping conduit with adaptor device and method
Embodiments of an integrated piping conduit in accordance with aspects of the present invention include a push-to-connect fitting integrated with an adaptor device and associated methods. Embodiments include an adaptor having a body portion, and an ear member extending at least partially radially outwardly and at least partially axially outwardly from the outer surface of the body portion. |
| US09923353B2 |
Cable suspension
A cable suspension may allow a cable to be pivoted about a pivot axis that passes through a thickness of a cable. A bend radius of the cable entering and exiting the cable suspension may be increased and/or the degree of bend by a cable entering and exiting the cable support may be decreased. The cable may comprise insulated electrical cables, non-insulated electrical cables (e.g., conductors), shielded cables, non-electrical signal cables (e.g., optical cables), and/or assemblies thereof. |
| US09923350B1 |
System and apparatus for providing functional and decorative electrical cover plates
A decorative and functional electrical wall box plate cover assembly consisting of a back plate, center plate and front plate held together with a connecting and aligning mechanism. The center and front plate can be configured with decorative designs. The electrical plate cover assembly is designed to interconnect with auxiliary plate system to form a predetermined configuration on a wall surrounding the electrical box on the wall. The electrical wall box plate cover assembly can be used with electrical switch boxes, electrical outlet boxes or a combination of both. |
| US09923349B2 |
Arrangement for guiding a cable between a wing and an aerodynamic body movably supported relative thereto; wing of an aircraft having such an arrangement and aircraft having such a wing
An assembly for guiding a cable between a structural part of an aircraft and a movable aerodynamic body includes a chain of pivotally connected links, a first coil device arranged between each pair of the links for guiding the cable between two angular positions, and a second coil device arranged at the first end of the chain for passing the cable from the chain to the aerodynamic body. The support of the assembly is statically determinate through the use of a bracket pivotally connected to one of the links at the structural part, which bracket does not permit a translative motion relative to the structural part. This is further supported by a bearing located at one of the links which is connected to the second coil device, which bearing permits angular rotation at least in two orthogonal directions, but no translative motion relative to the aerodynamic body. |
| US09923347B2 |
Adjustable wire stripper
This invention relates to a wire stripper device which may be hand held or placed on a bench vice to remove insulation from copper wires. The rectangular device has various sized holes within the body. Each of these holes has a perpendicular hole within it which houses and aligns a cutter. The cutter comes through the perpendicular hole far enough so that the sharp edge of the cutter cuts a slit in the insulation when the wire is being pulled through the various sized hole in the body. The cutters are held in place by adjustable screws which are housed in parallel holes above the various sized holes. Each cutter cuts a slit in the insulation of the wire so that the copper may be easily removed from the insulation once pulled through the hole. |
| US09923345B2 |
Wire pulling head apparatus with crimp zone indicators and method of using same
An enhanced apparatus and method for securing a wire to a pulling cable for pulling wire. Specifically, the pulling cable and wire are attached via a pulling head body. The wire is inserted into an end of the pulling head body and secured by crimping the pulling head body against the wire. Further, crimp zone indicators positioned on the outer surface of the pulling head body indicate the optimal zone of crimping to achieve substantial contact between the pulling head body and the wire. A pulling cable is secured to the pulling head body via a ball swage that comprises a tapped surface. |
| US09923344B2 |
System for operating and monitoring power cables
The present invention refers to a system for remotely operating and monitoring the integrity of HV/MV/LV (High Voltage/Medium Voltage/Low Voltage), mono phasic or three-phase, power cables, regardless of the cable being under tension, wherein the protection against theft of power cables is one of several advantageous uses. The present invention is based on the principle of two-way communication between two modules, installed one on each end of the cable being operated and/or monitored, using the cable itself to communicate and is characterized by a communication Master module installed upstream to the infrastructure, Slave modules, installed at each end located downstream, and bypass modules to pass through circuit breakers. The system is based on determining the cable cutout (alarm condition sent via GSM/GPRS) when the communication between Master and Slave modules is interrupted. The present invention is applicable in the power cable industry and every other industry depending on power cable's integrity. |
| US09923341B1 |
Track power supply system
A track power supply system (1) that extends and provides power to various electronic devices or components in a display areas of a retail setting wherein 110 volt hardwired electrical components would be difficult and/or uneconomical to install. Components may include lights, LEDs, USB ports and so forth as well as various supplies for powering the track. Each component attaches via a pressure fit into channels of the track. |
| US09923340B2 |
Method of producing threaded member, method of producing spark plug, and apparatus for producing threaded member
A workpiece having a first portion and a second portion is held. The first portion extends in the direction of a center axis of the workpiece, and a male thread is to be rolled on the first portion. The length of the second portion in a direction perpendicular to the center axis is longer than that of the first portion. The male thread is formed on the outer circumference of the first portion using two rolling dies through rolling. At least a first portion center axis that is a part of the center axis and corresponds to the first portion is separated in a prescribed direction from a first virtual plane containing the center axes of the two rolling dies. In the workpiece held, the first portion center axis is inclined such that its distance from the first virtual plane increases with distance from the second portion. |
| US09923339B2 |
Tunable amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) laser
This invention relates to a tunable amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) laser source comprising at least two laser sources excited by a single pump laser. More particularly, the present invention relates to a tunable amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) laser source comprising at least two laser sources excited by a single pump laser wherein said at least two laser sources each comprise an organic laser or a cascaded organic laser. The invention is used for providing a tunable amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) laser source comprising at least two laser sources excited by a single pump laser. |
| US09923338B2 |
Interband cascade lasers with low-fill-factor top contact for reduced loss
A DFB laser having a reduced fill factor and reduced loss. A plurality of spaced-apart contact openings are etched into a dielectric layer situated on top of a laser ridge having a DFB grating layer so that electrical contact between the metal top contact layer and the DFB gratings is made only in the etched openings, since all other areas of the top surface of the DFB-grated laser ridge are insulated from the metal contact layer by the dielectric. The size and shape of contact openings and their spacing are configured so that the ratio of the total area of the openings to the total area of the laser ridge provides a fill factor of less than 100%. |
| US09923333B2 |
Control method, control device, and light source device
A control method of the present invention is a control method of controlling a fiber laser including a plurality of LD modules constituting a plurality of groups. The control method includes the steps of: (a) detecting an intensity of laser light outputted from the fiber laser; and (b) controlling a driving current so that, in a case where the intensity of the laser light which intensity has been detected in the step (a) is lower than a predetermined lower limit threshold, a driving current for LD modules in a specific group among the plurality of groups is increased. |
| US09923332B2 |
Array type wavelength converting laser device
A device includes: at least one laser element with light emitting points to output fundamental waves in a one-dimensional array; a wavelength converting element to carry out wavelength conversion of the incident fundamental waves, and to output wavelength converted light rays; and an output mirror to reflect the fundamental waves, and to transmit the wavelength converted light rays resulting from the wavelength conversion by the wavelength converting element. The wavelength converting element is disposed between the laser element and the output mirror, and the distance between the position of a waist of the fundamental waves output from the laser element and the output mirror is set in accordance with a Talbot condition under which the adjacent light emitting points cause phase synchronization with each other. |
| US09923331B2 |
Solid-state laser system
A method of operating a q-switch RE,XAB laser includes: providing a pump bias current to a pump source, the pump source directed to an RE:XAB gain medium, the RE:XAB gain medium within a resonator cavity, where X is selected from Ca, Lu, Yb, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Ga, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, and where RE is selected from Lu, Y, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Pr, Tm, Cr, Ho, with a bias current level below a lasing threshold of the RE:XAB gain medium; providing a pump pulse to the gain medium, the pump pulse of the lasing threshold of the RE:XAB gain medium, the pump pulse causing the RE:XAB gain medium to emit a laser pulse; and reducing the pump bias current to at least below the gain medium lasing threshold, the combination of the pump bias, the pump pulse, and the pump reduction having a current profile. |
| US09923329B2 |
Q-switched oscillator seed-source for MOPA laser illuminator apparatus and method
An apparatus, method and system that uses a Q-switched laser or a Q-seed source for a seed pulse signal having a controlled high-dynamic-range amplitude that avoids and/or compensates for pulse steepening in high-gain optical-fiber and/or optical-rod amplification of optical pulses. Optionally, the optical output is used for LIDAR or illumination purposes (e.g., for image acquisition). In some embodiments, well-controlled pulse shapes are obtained having a wide dynamic range, long duration, and not-too-narrow linewidth. In some embodiments, upon the opening of a Q-switch in an optical cavity having a gain medium, the amplification builds relatively slowly, wherein each round trip through the gain medium increases the amplitude of the optical pulse. Other embodiments use quasi-Q-switch devices or a plurality of amplitude modulators to obtain Q-seed pulses. These configurations provide optical pulses having wide dynamic ranges that ameliorate problems of pulse steepening, non-linear spectral broadening and the like in very-high-power MOPA devices. |
| US09923328B2 |
Optical fiber cooling device and laser oscillator
A cooling device that enables the tip position of optical fiber to be adjusted and is able to efficiently cool an entirely of the optical fiber. This cooling device is provided with a cooling base plate, a fiber holder and an adjustment member. The cooling base plate has a recessed accommodating part. The fiber holder is disposed in the recessed accommodating part so as to be freely movable in a first direction. The adjustment member is disposed in a gap between the fiber holder and an end face of the recessed accommodating part and is movable in the first direction by moving in a second direction that intersects the first direction. The adjustment member abuts against both the end face of the recessed accommodating part and an end face of the fiber holder. |
| US09923327B2 |
Exchangeable crimping die insert for a crimping die
The present invention refers to an exchangeable crimping die insert for a crimping die for crimping electrical contact terminals to electrical cables. The exchangeable crimping die insert includes a first and second crimp profile integrated in one part, the first crimp profile having an essentially identical profiles with the second crimp profile. Furthermore, the exchangeable crimping die insert includes an indicator to differentiate the first crimp profile from the second crimp profile. |
| US09923325B2 |
End cap for a tubular light source
The present invention relates to an end cap (104) for a tubular light source the tubular light source configured to be arranged in a lighting fixture comprising a socket, wherein the end cap (104) comprises a housing portion having a connection end, two connector pins (116) at least partly arranged on an outside of the housing portion at the connection end, wherein the connector pins (116) are configured to fit in the sockets of the lighting fixture, a first spring loaded switching element (110) configured to be alternately positioned in an actuated state and a non-actuated state, wherein the first spring loaded switching element (110) protrudes at the connection end of the housing portion in the vicinity of the connector pins (116) when positioned in its non-actuated state, and a second spring loaded switching element (112) configured to be positioned in an actuated state and a non-actuated state, wherein the switching elements (110, 112) are configured to be individually positioned in their respective actuated states to form an electrical connection between the socket and the tubular light source when the end cap (104) is mounted into the socket of the fixture. |
| US09923321B2 |
Composite connection socket
A composite connection socket includes a metal housing, an insulative main body, a first row conductive terminal and a second row conductive terminal. The metal housing includes an accommodating space formed therein, and the insulative main body is received inside the accommodating space. The insulative main body includes a first side plate, a second side plate and a base; the first side plate and the second side plate are arranged corresponding to each other and protrude from the base. The first row conductive terminal is arranged on the first side plate and complies with a micro USB communication protocol interface. The second row conductive terminal is arranged on the second side plate and complies with a lightning standard interface. The composite connection socket is able to commonly accommodate two cable connectors of different standards of a micro USB connector or a lightning connector inserted therein. |
| US09923320B1 |
Electrical interconnection system for connecting multiple electrical modules to an electrical device
An electrical interconnection system is disclosed. An electrically conductive material is embedded into a membrane providing both an electrical pathway to connect multiple electrical modules and a connection system to connect the modules to the membrane. Electrical modules are connected to the membrane by removing a protective backing material from an adhesive area covering electrical contacts on a bottom side of an electrical module, and adhering to an adhesive area on the membrane, connecting the contacts to the electrically conductive material in the membrane. No external wiring, connectors or devices are required to make the electrical connection between the modules and the membrane. Contacts are integral and embedded into the surface of each individual module. The modules have adhesive on the back to allow them to be adhesively attached to the membrane without any additional mounting hardware. |
| US09923318B2 |
Electronic device, and ground structure of cable connector connected to electronic device
An electronic device includes: a grounded shield plate; and a female-type interface connector, wherein a conductive member electrically connected to the shield plate is included, and when a male-type cable connector including a metal shell part and a holding part to hold the metal shell part is inserted into and connected to the interface connector, the conductive member is biased in such a manner as to come into contact with an exposed part that is on a side surface of the metal shell part and is between the holding part and the shield plate. |
| US09923313B1 |
Electrical connector
An electrical connector includes a male insertion piece and a female insertion piece. The male insertion piece has an insulation base, an insulation tube being hollow and formed on one end of the insulation base, an outer electrode securely mounted around the insulation tube, and a conductive needle mounted in the insulation tube. The female insertion piece has an insulation sleeve having a guiding slot for the insulation tube to be inserted therein, an outer connection electrode mounted inside the insulation sleeve and mounted around the outer electrode, and an inner connection electrode having a first conductive part abutting against a top portion of the conductive needle and at least two second conductive parts holding two lateral portions of the conductive needle. When the male insertion piece engages the female insertion piece, there are at least three contact positions forming a firm and stable triangular connection. |
| US09923311B2 |
Safety system for high current applications
A safety system for high current applications, having a high current circuit breaker and a housing enclosing the high current circuit breaker. The housing forms a plug connector for electrical contact and mechanical connection to a mating plug connector, and the high current circuit breaker can also be accommodated in a permanently closed manner. |
| US09923308B2 |
Coaxial connector with plunger
An electrical connector for use with coaxial cables includes a plunger urged to protrude from a case by a spring. |
| US09923305B2 |
Connector
An operating member (11) is displaceable to an assembled position, an initial position and a connection position with respect to a housing (10). The operating member (11) is rotated from the assembled position to the initial position with support shafts (18) inserted into end portions (41) of long grooves (39) serving as a center of rotation and includes a rotating mechanism configured to increase a laterally projecting amount of the housing (10) as the operating member moves from the assembled position toward the initial position and a sliding mechanism configured to move the operating member in a direction to reduce the laterally projecting amount from the initial position to the connection position while the support shafts (18) are displaced relative to the long grooves (39) and proceed with a connecting operation of the both housings (10, 12) by cam engagement with a mating housing (12) during a movement. |
| US09923303B2 |
Electrical connector with terminal centering system
An electrical connector configured to be mated with a corresponding counter connector to establish an electrical connection is presented. The connector includes a connector housing having at least one terminal cavity for receiving at least one female contact terminal. The cavity defines a first cavity portion and a second cavity portion. A step is arranged between the first and the second cavity portion. A female contact terminal likewise comprises a step arranged between first and second terminal portions such that, in a mounted condition, the respective steps of terminal cavity and female contact terminal engage each other. |
| US09923302B2 |
Plug connector having a plugging positioning means
A plug connector has a cylindrical housing body having at least one step, which forms two different regions each having different housing diameters, wherein the region having the smaller diameter is designed as a plug-in region and the region having the larger diameter is designed as a socket region, wherein the plug connector has a lock, which is captively connected to the housing body, wherein the plug connector has an actuator, which is operatively connected to the lock, wherein the plug connector has a plugging positioner, which at least partially surrounds the plug-in region. An attachment flange fits the plug connector and has an insertion region designed as a hollow cylinder, wherein the inner region of the hollow cylinder has at least one step, which forms two different regions each having different inside diameters, wherein the inner region of the insertion region is unthreaded. |
| US09923299B2 |
Connector withstanding partial discharges
This connector for connecting electrical conductors comprising a contact end fitting at their end to be connected, comprises two conjugate parts (31, 32), respectively male and female, each comprising a body (33) made of insulating material provided with housings (36) into which respectively male and female contacts (41) capable of receiving the contact end fittings of the conductors come to be mounted. At least one of the male and female parts comprises, internally, zones (46) forming partitions placed between said housings and produced from a material capable of withstanding electrical discharges. |
| US09923296B2 |
Electric connector terminal secured in a connector housing and electric connector
An electrical connector is provided and includes a housing and a terminal. The housing includes a terminal receiving passageway and a lance extending into the terminal receiving passageway. The terminal is inserted into the terminal receiving passageway and includes a top surface facing the lance and a holding portion extending from and above the top surface. |
| US09923293B2 |
Radially compliant, axially free-running connector
A connectable assembly is provided and includes a body defining a recess, a male conductive element supportively disposed proximate to the body and a conductive compliant (CC) plug disposed within the recess for establishing a radially compliant, axially free running electrical connection with the male conductive element. |
| US09923292B2 |
Connector having a housing with closed loop terminals
A connector includes terminals. The terminals can have a contact that has a loop configuration. In an embodiment the contacts are positioned in a vertical connector similar to an edge card connector but with a differential pair aligned in a vertical direction. Thus the connector can provide edge-coupled differential pair in a high density configuration. |
| US09923290B2 |
Robust magnetic connector
Connector inserts and receptacles that are robust, easily manufactured, and provide an improved connector performance. One example may provide a connector receptacle having a power contact located in a ground surface. An insulating layer may be placed between the power contact and the ground surface. The ground surface may be curved or flat, or it may have other shapes. Another example may provide a robust connector insert. This connector insert may include a crimping piece that fits over a cable braiding and is crimped. The crimping piece may then be attached to an attraction plate. A cover or shell may be attached to provide further reinforcement. Another example may provide a connector system having a ground contact and a power contact, where the ground contact is a make-first-break-last contact. |
| US09923287B1 |
Electrical distribution apparatus including barrier and methods of assembling same
An electrical device includes a power connector coupleable to a cable. The power connector includes a body defining a first opening and an interior space. The power connector is arranged to receive the cable into the interior space through the first opening. The electrical device also includes a barrier coupled to the power connector to at least partially cover the first opening. The barrier includes a wall defining a second opening. The wall contacts the body. The second opening is arranged to receive the cable therein when the cable is coupled to the power connector. |
| US09923283B2 |
Method and apparatus for forming beam in antenna array
A method and an apparatus for forming a beam in an antenna array are disclosed. The method for forming a beam in an antenna array comprises the steps of: forming a first beam pattern in a first band on the basis of a single-band antenna aggregation and a multi-band antenna aggregation; and forming other beam patterns in bands other than the first band on the basis of the multi-band antenna aggregation, wherein the single-band antenna aggregation includes a plurality of single-band antennas which operate only in the first band, the multi-band antenna aggregation includes multi-band antennas which operate in a plurality of bands including the first band, and the antenna array may be arranged in a two-dimensional plane such that distances between the plurality of single-band antennas and the plurality of multi-band antennas are constant. |
| US09923282B2 |
System and method for a mobile antenna with adjustable resonant frequencies and radiation pattern
Embodiments are provided for an efficient antenna design and operation method to adjust or add frequency bands at mobile devices using the available limited antenna size. The embodiments include electrically coupling to the antenna elements at a mobile or radio device a tuning stub or element through a printed circuit board (PCB) or a metal chassis. The PCB is placed between the antenna elements and the tuning stub and is connected to the antenna elements. The tuning stub, e.g., at a corner of the PCB, is connected or disconnected via a switch from the PCB, and hence the antenna elements, to shift the radiation of the antenna at different frequencies and also provide an additional mode of radiation. The tuning stub can also be switched to vary the radiation pattern of the antenna. |
| US09923280B2 |
Dual polarized dipole antenna
The present invention relates to a dual polarized dipole antenna (10) comprising a first dipole (21) and a second dipole (22); said first (21) and second (22) dipoles being substantially planar and being joined to each other to form a dual polarized dipole antenna (10); said dual polarized dipole antenna (10) including a separate parasitic cap element (50) attached to said first (21) and second (22) dipoles so as to secure said first (21) and second (22) dipoles to each other. The invention also includes an antenna system including a plurality of the dual polarized dipole antennas. |
| US09923275B2 |
Tilted antenna bobbins and methods of manufacture
An antenna assembly includes a bobbin that provides a cylindrical body that defines an outer radial surface, an inner radial surface, and a central axis. One or more channels are defined on the outer radial surface, and each channel provides a first sidewall, a second sidewall opposite the first sidewall, a floor, and a pocket jointly defined by the first sidewall and the floor. A coil including one or more wires is wrapped about the bobbin and received within the one or more channels. |
| US09923264B2 |
Antenna and electronic device comprising thereof
An antenna is provided. The antenna includes a carrier having a via hole penetrating an outer surface and an inner surface thereof, a first antenna radiator formed on the outer surface of the carrier and at least a part of a surface of the carrier that defines the via hole, a second antenna radiator formed on an inner surface of the carrier and electrically contacting the first antenna radiator through the via hole, and a coupling member configured to electrically connect the second antenna radiator with a circuit board provided in the electronic device. |
| US09923261B2 |
Mounting module and antenna apparatus
Disclosed is a mounting module, an antenna apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a mounting module. The mounting module includes a board; an antenna mounted on a first surface of the board, an RF circuit unit mounted on a second surface of the board, and a feeding line to electrically connect the RF circuit unit and the antenna through the board, thereby reducing a loss of signal power. |
| US09923259B2 |
Device for radio-frequency power coupling and method of using the device
A device and a method for utilizing the device for radio-frequency (RF) power coupling, particularly a power combiner and/or divider, includes a box shaped casing forming the outside conductor, and connectors for inputting and outputting RF-power, which are electrically connected to at least one center conductor, where the electrical connection between the connectors and the at least one center conductor is a direct electrical and mechanical connection. |
| US09923258B2 |
Waveguide combiner apparatus and method
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to wave guide couplers as well as 3-way, 6-way, and 9-way combiners. The waveguide coupler comprises: a housing having a first outer waveguide branch, a second outer waveguide branch, and an inner waveguide branch; first, second, and third input ports in communication with the first outer, second outer, and the inner waveguide branches respectively; an output port in communication with the inner waveguide branch; a first wall separating the first outer waveguide branch and the inner waveguide branch, the first wall having a first iris; a second wall separating the second outer waveguide branch and the inner waveguide branch, the second wall having a second iris; a first tapered section in the first outer waveguide branch; and a second tapered section the second outer waveguide branch. Various embodiments of the 3-way, 6-way, and 9-way combiners are implemented using the wave guide coupler. |
| US09923253B2 |
Non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery
A non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a heat-resistant layer disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode. The positive electrode of this secondary battery contains a positive electrode active substance having a hollow structure, which has a shell portion and a hollow portion formed inside the shell portion. In addition, the heat-resistant layer contains plate-shaped inorganic filler particles as the main component. |
| US09923250B2 |
Heat quantity control device
A heat quantity control device has a heat flux sensor arranged between first and second heating elements arranged adjacently to each other, and a control section for controlling a heat quantity of the first and second heating elements. The heat flux sensor has an insulation board made of thermoplastic resin, first and second via holes formed in the insulation board penetrating in a thickness direction thereof. First and second layer connection members are embedded in the first and second via holes, respectively. The first and second layer connection members are made of different metals and alternately connected in series. The control section controls a heat quantity generated in the first and second heating elements based on the electromotive force generated in the heat flux sensors so that a heat flux flowing between the first and second heating elements becomes not more than a predetermined value. |
| US09923249B2 |
Rechargeable battery pack for a handheld power tool
A rechargeable battery pack for a handheld power tool, encompasses a housing and at least one interface unit for establishing a mechanical and electrical connection between the rechargeable battery pack and the handheld power tool and/or a charging device. The interface unit has at least one locking element for locking the rechargeable battery pack onto the handheld power tool, and an actuation element for actuating the locking element. The actuation element encompasses at least one light-emitting element for outputting an optical signal and/or for illumination. |
| US09923248B2 |
Rechargeable battery unit and charging method
A rechargeable battery unit and method for charging a battery is provided. The battery unit can be connected to a constant current charging device for charging the battery unit. The constant current charging device has a plurality of poles and a cut-off voltage. The battery unit has an internal resistance, a lithium battery cell having a predetermined end-of-charge voltage, and a switch unit. The switch unit is configured to enable alteration of the internal resistance when the predetermined end-of-charge voltage has been reached, such that the voltage at the poles of the constant current charging device is greater than the cut-off voltage of the constant current charging device to terminate the charging process. |
| US09923243B2 |
Silicone epoxy ether compositions, methods for making same and uses therefor
The present invention relates to silicone epoxy compositions, methods for making same and uses therefore. In one embodiment, the silicone epoxy ether compositions of the present invention are silane epoxy polyethers that contain at least one epoxy functionality. In another embodiment, the silicone epoxy ether compositions of the present invention are siloxane epoxy polyethers that contain at least one epoxy functionality. In still another embodiment, the present invention relates to silicone epoxy polyether compositions that are suitable for use as an electrolyte solvent in a lithium-based battery, an electrochemical super-capacitors or any other electrochemical device. |
| US09923240B2 |
Electrolyte solution, electrochemical device, lithium battery, and module
An object of the present invention is to provide a lithium cell exhibiting a high remaining capacity after high-temperature storage even if used at high voltages, and an electrolytic solution used for the cell. The present invention relates to an electrolytic solution containing a nonaqueous solvent; an electrolyte salt; and 10 vol % or more of a compound represented by the following formula (1) based on 100 vol % of the nonaqueous solvent, wherein R1, R2 and R3 may be the same as or different from one another, each representing a hydrogen atom, a fluorine atom, a C1-C20 alkyl group, or a C1-C20 fluorinated alkyl group, excluding cases where all of R1, R2, and R3 are hydrogen atoms or fluorine atoms. |
| US09923239B2 |
Lithium ion battery
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a lithium-ion battery that exhibits excellent long-term life properties, does not suffer from rapid capacity degradation, and exhibits excellent charging/discharging characteristics in low-temperature environments. The present invention is directed to a lithium ion battery comprising: a negative electrode which comprises a negative electrode active material containing at least one of a graphite and an amorphous carbon, conductive additives containing a graphite, and a binder; a nonaqueous electrolyte solution; and a positive electrode containing a positive electrode active material capable of occluding and releasing lithium. The negative electrode active material has a spherical or massive shape, the conductive additives have a platy shape, and a part of an edge surface of the conductive additives contacts a surface of the negative electrode active material. The nonaqueous electrolyte solution contains a solvent, and an additive which reductively decomposes at a voltage lower than a reduction voltage of the solvent. |
| US09923234B2 |
Long cycle life lithium sulfur electrochemical cells
A sulfur-based cathode for use in an electrochemical cell is disclosed. The sulfur is sequestered to the cathode to enhance cycle lifetime for the cathode and the cell. An exemplary sulfur-based cathode is coupled with a solid polymer electrolyte instead of a conventional liquid electrolyte. The dry, solid polymer electrolyte further acts as a diffusion barrier for the sulfur. Together with a sequestering matrix in the cathode, the solid polymer electrolyte prevents sulfur capacity fade that occurs in conventional liquid electrolyte based sulfur systems. The sequestering polymer in the cathode further binds the sulfur-containing active particles, preventing sulfur agglomerates from forming, while still allowing lithium ions to be transported between the anode and cathode. |
| US09923232B2 |
Production of high-purity lithium fluoride
The present invention relates to a process for preparing high-purity lithium fluoride proceeding from lithium carbonate, and to lithium fluoride having a preferred morphology. |
| US09923231B2 |
High energy lithium battery with separate anolyte and catholyte layers
An optimal architecture for a polymer electrolyte battery, wherein one or more layers of electrolyte (e.g., solid block-copolymer) are situated between two electrodes, is disclosed. An anolyte layer, adjacent the anode, is chosen to be chemically and electrochemically stable against the anode active material. A catholyte layer, adjacent the cathode, is chosen to be chemically and electrochemically stable against the cathode active material. |
| US09923230B2 |
Electrode assembly
An electrode assembly includes a cell stack part having (a) a structure in which one kind of radical unit having a same number of electrodes and separators alternately disposed and integrally combined is repeatedly disposed, or (b) a structure in which at least two kinds of radical units having a same number of electrodes and separators alternately disposed and integrally combined are disposed in a predetermined order, and a fixing part extending from a top surface along a side to a bottom surface thereof for fixing the cell stack part. The one kind of radical unit has a four-layered structure in which first electrode, first separator, second electrode and second separator are sequentially stacked or a repeating structure in which the four-layered structure is repeatedly stacked, and each of the at least two kinds of radical units are stacked by ones to form the four-layered structure or the repeating structure. |
| US09923228B2 |
Fuel cell
A fuel cell is formed by laminating a plurality of power generating units. The power generating unit includes: a membrane electrode gas diffusion layer assembly; a sealing portion disposed along its outer circumference; a porous body flow path in which oxidant gas supplied to a cathode-side catalytic layer flows; a shielding plate provided between the sealing portion and the porous body flow path; and first, second separator plates configured to sandwich the membrane electrode gas diffusion layer assembly and the porous body flow path therebetween. The shielding plate, the porous body flow path, and the first separator plate making contact with the porous body flow path project into the oxidant exhaust gas discharge manifold determined by the sealing portion. |
| US09923227B2 |
Fuel cell end plate, method of manufacturing same, and fuel cell
A fuel cell end plate that is provided at an end portion of a fuel cell includes a through-hole which penetrates the end plate and through which at least one of a fuel gas, an oxygen containing gas and cooling water fed to the fuel cell is distributed and a seal which covers an inner circumferential surface of the through-hole and a circumferential edge surface around the through-hole. The cutting processing mark of a corner portion connected from the inner circumferential surface of the through-hole to the circumferential edge surface is a processing mark in which a curved surface processing mark that is formed with a curved surface from any one of the inner circumferential surface and the circumferential edge surface toward the side of the other surface and a linear processing mark that is formed from the curved surface processing mark to the other surface and that is a straight line in a cross section in an axial direction of the through-hole are continuous. |
| US09923225B2 |
Ion transport material, electrolyte membrane comprising same, and method for producing same
The present application relates to an ion transport material, an electrolyte membrane including the same, and a method for manufacturing the same, and more specifically, provides an ion transport material in which inorganic particles are dispersed in a peripheral portion of a sulfonic acid group of a partially fluorinated polymer containing sulfonic acid, an electrolyte membrane including the same, and a method for manufacturing the same. |
| US09923222B2 |
Fuel cell with enhanced mass transfer characteristics
Disclosed is a fuel cell with enhanced mass transfer characteristics in which a highly hydrophobic porous medium, which is prepared by forming a micro-nano dual structure in which nanometer-scale protrusions with a high aspect ratio are formed on the surface of a porous medium with a micrometer-scale roughness by plasma etching and then by depositing a hydrophobic thin film thereon, is used as a gas diffusion layer, thereby increasing hydrophobicity due to the micro-nano dual structure and the hydrophobic thin film. When this highly hydrophobic porous medium is used as a gas diffusion layer for a fuel cell, it is possible to reduce water flooding by efficiently discharging water produced by an electrochemical reaction of the fuel cell and to improve the performance of the fuel cell by facilitating the supply of reactant gases such as hydrogen and air (oxygen) to a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA). |
| US09923221B2 |
Method of decontaminating a fuel reactant stream for a fuel cell
An example method of decontaminating a fuel reactant stream for a fuel cell flows the fuel reactant stream through a fluidized ammonia dissolving media, while simultaneously flowing water through the fluidized ammonia dissolving media to separate contaminants from the fuel reactant stream into a separated contaminant and water stream. The separated contaminant and water stream from the fluidized bed is accumulated within an accumulator, circulated through a water-control loop, and decontaminated by flowing the stream through an ion exchange bed secured in fluid communication with the water-control loop. A decontaminated water stream from the ion exchange bed is circulated back through the ammonia dissolving media. A temperature of the fuel reactant stream is controlled upstream of the fuel reactant stream entering the separator scrubber to produce a predetermined temperature of the fuel reactant stream passing through the separator scrubber. |
| US09923220B2 |
Electricity generation
An electricity generation apparatus is disclosed. An exemplary apparatus includes a plasma container for containing a plasma sustained by radioactive decay. The plasma container has an inlet through which, in use of the apparatus, water can be introduced to the plasma container, and an outlet through which, in use of the apparatus, material can be expelled from the container. The exhausted material can include hydrogen and oxygen resulting from the dissociation of water molecules caused by interactions within the plasma. A separator can separate hydrogen from the material exhausted from the plasma container, which separator is coupled to the outlet, and a generator can generate electricity using the hydrogen as a fuel. |
| US09923215B2 |
Passive recirculation device
The present disclosure provides a recirculation device comprising a body comprising at least one first passage configured to receive an exhaust, at least one second passage configured to receive a fuel, at least one third passage configured to receive a mixture of the exhaust and the fuel, and a longitudinal axis extending from the second passage to the third passage. The device can also comprise a nozzle comprising an inner cavity for directing fuel towards an orifice, located at the smallest cross-sectional area of the inner cavity and a piston slideably located within the body comprising a first end configured to receive the fuel and a second end configured to fuel to the nozzle cavity, whereby the piston can be actuated along the longitudinal axis of the body by the exhaust controlling the flow of fuel passing through the orifice. A mixing chamber located within the body can be configured to receive an exhaust and configured to receive fuel from the orifice. |
| US09923211B2 |
Fuel cell interconnect with reduced voltage degradation over time
A method of making an interconnect for a solid oxide fuel cell stack includes providing a chromium alloy interconnect and providing a nickel mesh in contact with a fuel side of the interconnect. Formation of a chromium oxide layer is reduced or avoided in locations between the nickel mesh and the fuel side of the interconnect. A Cr—Ni alloy or a Cr—Fe—Ni alloy is located at least in the fuel side of the interconnect under the nickel mesh. |
| US09923210B2 |
Ternary platinum alloy catalyst
A platinum alloy catalyst PtXY, wherein X is nickel, cobalt, chromium, copper, titanium or manganese and Y is tantalum or niobium, characterised in that in the alloy the atomic percentage of platinum is 46-75 at %, of X is 1-49 at % and of Y is 1-35 at %; provided that the alloy is not 66 at % Pt20 at % Cr14 at % Ta or 50 at % Pt, 25 at % Co, 25 at % Ta is disclosed. The catalyst has particular use as an oxygen reduction catalyst in fuel cells, and in particular in phosphoric acid fuel cells. |
| US09923207B2 |
Electrode material, electrode and lithium ion battery
An electrode material which can improve the mobility of electrons and the mobility of ions at the same time, and, furthermore, does not have a problem of the impairment of the diffusion of lithium ions in a thin layer containing a carbonaceous electron-conductive substance so as to be excellent in terms of load characteristics and energy density, and an electrode and a lithium ion battery are provided. The electrode material of the invention is produced by forming a thin layer made of a carbonaceous electron-conductive substance on surfaces of primary particles made of an electrode active material, in which the carbonaceous electron-conductive substance contains nitrogen atoms. |
| US09923204B2 |
Method for making cathode active material of lithium ion battery
A method for making a cathode active material of a lithium ion battery is disclosed. In the method, LiMPO4 particles and LiNPO4 particles are provided. The LiMPO4 particles and LiNPO4 particles both are olivine type crystals belonged to a pnma space group of an orthorhombic crystal system, wherein M represents Fe, Mn, Co, or Ni, N represents a metal element having a +2 valence, and N is different from M. The LiMPO4 particles and the LiNPO4 particles are mixed together to form a precursor. The precursor is calcined to form LiMxN1-xPO4 particles, wherein 0 |
| US09923203B2 |
Positive electrode active material, nonaqueous electrolyte battery, and battery pack
A positive electrode active material includes LiMn1-xMxPO4 (wherein M represents at least one element selected from Mg, Fe, Ni, Co, Ti, and Zr; and 0≤x<0.5) and has an average pore diameter of 8 nm or more and not more than 25 nm and a total pore volume of 0.05 cm3/g or more and not more than 0.3 cm3/g. |
| US09923201B2 |
Structurally controlled deposition of silicon onto nanowires
Provided herein are nanostructures for lithium ion battery electrodes and methods of fabrication. In some embodiments, a nanostructure template coated with a silicon coating is provided. The silicon coating may include a non-conformal, more porous layer and a conformal, denser layer on the non-conformal, more porous layer. In some embodiments, two different deposition processes, e.g., a PECVD layer to deposit the non-conformal layer and a thermal CVD process to deposit the conformal layer, are used. Anodes including the nanostructures have longer cycle lifetimes than anodes made using either a PECVD or thermal CVD method alone. |
| US09923200B2 |
Method for making sulfur-graphene composite material
A method for making a sulfur-graphene composite material is provided. In the method, an elemental sulfur solution and a graphene dispersion are provided. The elemental sulfur solution includes a first solvent and an elemental sulfur dissolved in the first solvent. The graphene dispersion includes a second solvent and graphene sheets dispersed in the second solvent. The elemental sulfur solution is added to the graphene dispersion, a number of elemental sulfur particles are precipitated and attracted to a surface of the graphene sheets to form the sulfur-graphene composite material. The sulfur-graphene composite material is separated from the mixture. |
| US09923199B2 |
Method for preparing carbon-coated lithium titanate
The present disclosure discloses a method for preparing carbon-coated lithium titanate, and provides a method for preparing a carbon-coated lithium titanate anode material for a lithium battery. The method prepares a lithium titanate precursor first, then coats a polymer on the surface of the precursor through emulsion polymerization, and finally performs sintering, and obtaining a carbon-coated lithium titanate material. The present disclosure obtains a carbon source of the polymer through the emulsion polymerization. The carbon source is coated on the surface of lithium titanate uniformly and compactly with a better coating effect than a common mechanical mixing method. The polymer is coated while agglomeration of a lithium titanate crystal is prevented during the emulsion polymerization process, and an obtained product has a small particle size and a uniform size. The carbon-coated lithium titanate prepared by the present disclosure has excellent cycling performance during charging and discharging at a high rate. |
| US09923197B2 |
Composite negative active material and method of preparing the same, negative electrode including composite negative active material, and lithium secondary battery including negative electrode
A composite negative active material including a piezoelectric material; and a negative active material. Also a negative electrode including the composite negative active material, and a lithium secondary battery including the negative electrode. |
| US09923193B2 |
Cathode of lithium-ion battery
A cathode of lithium-ion battery includes a carbon fiber film. The carbon fiber film includes at least one carbon nanotube film including a number of carbon nanotubes joined end to end and extending along a same direction. Each of the number of carbon nanotubes is joined with a number of graphene sheets, and an angle is between each of the number of graphene sheets and the number of carbon nanotubes. |
| US09923189B2 |
Electrophoretic deposition of an electrode for a lithium-based battery
A method for manufacturing an electrode for a lithium-based battery by electrophoretic deposition is provided. The method includes: mixing particles with graphene oxide and a binder in a solution, the particles including a material selected from silicon, silicon oxide, silicon alloys, tin, tin oxide, sulfur, lithium manganese oxide, lithium cobalt oxide, lithium nickel oxide, lithium nickel manganese oxide, and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide. The method further includes applying a potential between a current collector and a counter electrode immersed in the solution to deposit a coating of a combination of the particles, at least partially reduced graphene oxide, and binder onto the current collector. The method still further includes drying the coated current collector. |
| US09923187B2 |
Sensor fuse for an electric battery array
A vehicle power system may include a battery array having at least one battery with a bus bar connected to an electrical bus. The power system may also include a conductive lead of a sensor welded to the bus bar to form a joint defined by a plurality of stitches, a net cross-sectional area of the plurality being less than a cross-sectional area of the lead such that short-circuit current from the battery array melts the joint to protect the sensor. |
| US09923186B2 |
Rectangular secondary battery
A square secondary battery includes a can housing a power generation element, a lid sealing an opening of the can, an external terminal arranged on the lid, a current collector connected to each of the electrodes of the power generation element, and a connection terminal connecting the current collector and the external terminal by passing through the lid. The external terminal has a flat plate shape arranged along the lid and is made of a clad material in which two flat plate portions made of mutually dissimilar metals are clad-joined on wide-width surfaces and the connection terminal is joined by welding with, of the two flat plate portions of the external terminal, the flat plate portion arranged on a side of the lid. |
| US09923182B2 |
Secondary cell, solar secondary cell, and methods of making those cells
An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a structure that contributes to increasing the capacity density. A secondary cell according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a plurality of periodic unit structures that are arranged on a first surface. Each of those periodic unit structures includes a positive electrode layer and a negative electrode layer, each of which projects away from the first surface, and a solid electrolyte interposed between the positive electrode and negative electrode layers. |
| US09923179B2 |
Battery assembly with biased component profiles to promote battery cell to heat exchanger contact
A battery assembly according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a cell stack and an array structure. At least one of the cell stack and the array structure includes a biased profile configured to bias the cell stack and a portion of the array structure together. |
| US09923177B2 |
Biocompatibility of biomedical energization elements
Designs, strategies and methods to improve biocompatibility of energization elements are described. In some examples, the biocompatible energization elements may be used in a biomedical device. In some further examples, the biocompatible energization elements may be used in a contact lens. |
| US09923174B2 |
Method for manufacturing light-emitting device
A method for exposing an electrode terminal covered with an organic film in a light-emitting device without damaging the electrode terminal is provided. In a region of the electrode terminal to which electric power from an external power supply or an external signal is input, an island-shaped organic compound-containing layer is formed and the organic film is formed thereover. The organic film is removed by utilizing low adhesion of an interface between the organic compound-containing layer and the electrode terminal, whereby the electrode terminal can be exposed without damage to the electrode terminal. |
| US09923173B2 |
Optoelectronic component and method for producing an optoelectronic component
In various embodiments, an optoelectronic component is provided. The optoelectronic component includes a metal substrate having a surface, an electrically conductive planarization layer on the surface of the metal substrate, wherein the planarization layer comprises a surface, an organically functional layer structure on or above the surface of the planarization layer, and an electrode layer formed in a transparent fashion on or above the organically functional layer structure. The roughness of the surface of the planarization layer is lower than the roughness of the surface of the metal substrate. The surface of at least one of the metal substrate or the planarization layer is formed in a light-scattering fashion. |
| US09923167B2 |
Organic light-emitting display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a substrate, a display on the substrate, a dam outside the display and spaced from the display, the dam having a stacked multi-layer structure and having a first side surface that faces the display, a second side surface opposite to the display, and a top, a groove in a separation area between the display and the dam, and an encapsulation layer that includes a first inorganic layer and an organic layer on the first inorganic layer, the first inorganic layer covering the display and extending along an inner surface of the groove, and an end of the organic layer being contained in the groove. |
| US09923165B2 |
Transparent electrode, method for producing transparent electrode and electronic device
Provided are: a transparent electrode which exhibits excellent resistance to high temperature and high humidity, while having surface smoothness; a method for producing this transparent electrode; and an electronic device which has improved reliability by using this transparent electrode. A transparent electrode is configured to comprise a metal thin wire pattern that is formed on one main surface of a transparent substrate using metal nanoparticles and a metal oxide layer that has a surface roughness of 5 nm or less and is formed on the main surface of the transparent substrate so as to cover the surface of the metal thin wire pattern. |
| US09923164B2 |
Method for manufacturing transparent electrode, transparent electrode, and organic electroluminescence device provided with the same
A transparent electrode includes a transparent substrate, a thin wire structure partially covering a surface of the transparent substrate and formed of a conductive material, and a transparent conductive layer formed on the transparent substrate to cover the thin wire structure. The transparent conductive layer is formed of two or more separately prepared layers. |
| US09923163B2 |
Current distribution in an organic light emitting diode device
The invention relates to an organic light emitting diode device having an electrode sheet of a light emitting area and an electrode contact in contact with the electrode sheet, to a method for forming such OLED device and to method of operating such OLED device. In order to provide such OLED device having a reduced tendency for the occurrence of hot spots, the present invention provides for reducing a local and/or average regional current density of a current flowing in operation of the lighting device through an interface between the electrode sheet and the electrode contact in a corner area of the interface. |
| US09923161B1 |
High-efficiency solar energy device
A high-efficiency solar cell including an Indium, Gallium, Aluminum and Nitrogen (in a combination comprising InGaN, or InAlN, or InGaAlN) alloy which may be blended with a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) material, and which may include an absorption-enhancing layer including one of more of carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, and undulating or uneven surface topography. |
| US09923159B2 |
Thin film transistor, method of manufacturing same, and electronic device including thin same
A thin film transistor includes a gate electrode, a semiconductor overlapping the gate electrode, a gate insulator between the gate electrode and the semiconductor, and a source electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the semiconductor, wherein the gate insulator includes an inorganic insulation layer facing the gate electrode and an organic insulation layer facing the semiconductor. A method of manufacturing the thin film transistor and an electronic device including the thin film transistor are provided. |
| US09923157B2 |
Method of manufacturing flexible display
A method of manufacturing a flexible display is disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes preparing a carrier comprising a first region and a second region surrounding the first region, forming a first substrate forming layer over at least the first region of the carrier, removing a top surface of the carrier from the second region of the carrier and forming an adhesive layer over the first substrate forming layer throughout the first and second regions of the carrier. The method also includes forming a second substrate forming layer over the adhesive layer throughout the first and second regions of the carrier, and separating the first substrate forming layer from the carrier. |
| US09923155B2 |
Tetradentate platinum (II) complexes cyclometalated with functionalized phenyl carbene ligands and their analogues
Tetradentate platinum complexes of Formulas I and II suitable for phosphorescent or delayed fluorescent and phosphorescent emitters in display and lighting applications. |
| US09923149B2 |
Heterocyclic compound, light-emitting element, light-emitting device, electronic device, and lighting device
Provided is a novel heterocyclic compound, a novel heterocyclic compound that can be used in a light-emitting element, or a highly reliable light-emitting device, electronic device, and lighting device in each of which the light-emitting element using the novel heterocyclic compound is used. One embodiment of the present invention is a heterocyclic compound represented by General Formula (G1). In General Formula (G1), each of A1 and A2 independently represents nitrogen or carbon bonded to hydrogen, and at least one of A1 and A2 represents nitrogen; Ar represents a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group having 6 to 18 carbon atoms; B represents a substituted or unsubstituted fluorenyl group; and R1 represents hydrogen, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, or an aryl group having 6 to 13 carbon atoms. |
| US09923148B2 |
Electroluminescent device
Disclosed are electroluminescent devices that comprise organic layers that contain certain organic compounds containing one or more pyrimidine moieties. The organic compounds containing one or more pyrimidine moieties are suitable components of blue-emitting, durable, organo-electroluminescent layers. The electroluminescent devices may be employed for full color display panels in for example mobile phones, televisions and personal computer screens. |
| US09923145B2 |
3,5-bis(10-naphthalenyl-anthracen-9-yl)pyridine compounds as hosts for light-emitting devices
Optionally substituted 3-(10-(aryl)anthracen-9-yl)-5-(10-(aryl)anthracen-9-yl)pyridine compounds may be used as host compounds for devices such as organic light-emitting devices. |
| US09923144B2 |
Photoactive layer, organic solar cell comprising same, and manufacturing method therefor
The present specification relates to a photoactive layer comprising an electron acceptor, an electron donor, and a compound comprising a functional group decreasing surface energy, an organic photovoltaic cell comprising the same, and a manufacturing method thereof. |
| US09923134B2 |
Method of manufacturing light emitting device with exposed wire end portions
A light emitting device is constituted with a semiconductor light emitting element on which a support member is disposed on one surface provided with a p-side electrode and an n-side electrode and a fluorescent material layer is disposed on the other surface which is an opposite side of the one surface. The support member includes a resin layer, an electrode for p-side external connection and an electrode for n-side external connection disposed exposed at a surface opposite side of a surface where the resin layer is in touch with a light emitting element, and internal wirings disposed in the resin layer and electrically connecting between a p-side electrode and the electrode for p-side external connection respectively. The internal wirings include a metal wire and a metal plated layer, and a metal wire and a metal plated layer respectively connected in series. |
| US09923126B2 |
Light emitting device having high color rendering using three phosphor types
The light emitting device includes at least one light emitting element that emits light having a peak emission wavelength in a wavelength range from 380 nm to 480 nm inclusive; a first green phosphor that is excited by the primary light emitted by the light emitting element and emits light having the peak emission wavelength in the green region; a second green phosphor that is excited by the primary light and emits light having the peak emission wavelength in the green region; and a red phosphor that is excited by the primary light and emits light having the peak emission wavelength in the red region. The peak emission wavelength of the light emitted by the second green phosphor is shorter than the peak emission wavelength of the light emitted by the first green phosphor. |
| US09923124B2 |
Display device
A display device (utilizing quantum dots, photonic crystals, microlight emitting diodes/vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and electrically switchable light valves) is disclosed. Furthermore, a quantum dot(s) can be electromagnetically coupled with a three-dimensional (3-D) structure(s). Additionally, the electrically switchable light valve can include a phase change material/phase transition material. |
| US09923123B2 |
Printed circuit board and light-emitting device including same
A printed circuit board having an improved heat radiation performance, and a light-emitting device including the same are provided. The printed circuit board includes a first electrode layer, a first insulation layer disposed on one surface of the first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer disposed on the first insulation layer. The first insulation layer includes a cavity formed through a part thereof. At least a portion of the one surface of the first electrode layer may be exposed to the outside through the cavity. |
| US09923120B2 |
Semiconductor light emitting element and method of producing the same
A method of producing a semiconductor light emitting element includes providing a semiconductor stack including a first semiconductor layer, an active layer, a second semiconductor layer, and a first insulating layer. An upper surface of the first insulating layer is partially covered with a mask. The semiconductor stack is etched to expose the first semiconductor layer in a region not covered by the mask. The mask is removed. A second insulating layer covering from the upper surface of the first insulating layer to an exposed region of the first semiconductor layer is provided. The second insulating layer is etched without masking to remove at least a portion of the second insulating layer covering the exposed region to expose the exposed region. A first conducting layer covering from the exposed region of the first semiconductor layer to a region above the upper surface of the first insulating layer is provided. |
| US09923119B2 |
White LED chip and white LED packaging device
A white LED chip includes a P-type layer, a tunneling structure, an N-type layer, an N-type electrode, and a P-type electrode. The tunneling structure is disposed over the P-type layer. The tunneling structure includes a first barrier layer, an active layer and a second barrier layer. The first barrier layer includes a first material layer, the active layer includes a second material layer, and the second barrier layer includes a third material layer. The N-type layer is disposed over the tunneling structure. An energy gap of the second material layer is lower than an energy gap of the first material layer and an energy gap of the third material layer. Each of the first material layer, the second material layer and the third material layer is a metal oxide layer, a metal nitride layer or a metal oxynitride layer. |
| US09923116B2 |
Method for producing solar cells having simultaneously etched-back doped regions
A method for producing a solar cell is described, in which a plurality of doped regions are to be etched-back selectively or over their entire surface. Once a semiconductor substrate (1) has been provided, various doped regions (3, 5) are formed in partial regions of a surface of the semiconductor substrate, the various doped regions (3, 5) differing as regards their doping concentration and/or their doping polarity. The various doped regions (3, 5) are then purposively etched-back in order to achieve desired doping profiles, and finally electrical contacts (21) are formed at least at some of the doped regions (3, 5). The etching-back of the various doped regions takes place in a common etching operation in an etching medium. In order that such common etching-back of various doped regions (3, 5) is possible, it is proposed purposively to adjust both properties of the initially unetched doped regions (3, 5) and parameters that influence the etching operation with regard to properties of the desired doping profiles within the etched doped regions. |
| US09923114B2 |
Infrared detector and method of detecting one or more bands of infrared radiation
An infrared detector is provided. The infrared detector includes an absorption layer sensitive to radiation in only a short wavelength infrared spectral band, and a barrier layer coupled to the absorption layer. The barrier layer is fabricated from an alloy including aluminum and antimony, and at least one of gallium or arsenic, and the composition of the alloy is selected such that valence bands of the absorption layer and the barrier layer substantially align. |
| US09923113B2 |
Luminescent solar concentrator comprising tetra-substituted benzoheterodiazole compounds
A luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) comprising at least one tetra-substituted benzoheterodiazole compound having general formula (I): wherein: R1 and R2, equal to or different from each other, are selected from: C6-C40, preferably C6-C20 aryl groups, optionally substituted; C4-C40, preferably C5-C20, heteroaryl groups, optionally substituted; R3 and R4, equal to or different from each other, are selected from: halogen atoms such as, for example, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, preferably fluorine; linear or branched C1-C30, preferably C1-C20, trihalogenated alkyl groups; C6-C40, preferably C6-C20, aryloxyl groups optionally substituted; linear or branched C1-C30, preferably C1-C20, alkoxyl groups optionally substituted; C4-C40, preferably C5-C20, heteroaryloxyl groups optionally substituted; Z represents a sulfur atom, an oxygen atom or a selenium atom; a NR5 group wherein R5 represents a hydrogen atom, or it is selected from linear or branched C1-C24, preferably C6-C24, alkyl groups, optionally containing heteroatoms; a CR6R7 group wherein R6 and R7, equal to or different from each other, represent a hydrogen atom, or they are selected from linear or branched C1-C30, preferably C6-C24, alkyl groups, optionally containing heteroatoms, linear or branched C1-C30, preferably C6-C24, alkoxyl groups, optionally substituted, C3-C30, preferably C4-C24, cycloalkyl groups, optionally substituted, or, R6 and R7 can be optionally bound to each other to form, together with the other atoms to which they are bound, a cycle containing from 3 to 6 carbon atoms, saturated, unsaturated, or aromatic, optionally substituted with linear or branched C1-C30, preferably C1-C15, alkyl groups, said cycle optionally containing heteroatoms such as, for example, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, silicon, phosphorous, selenium. |
| US09923107B2 |
Photovoltaic module, photovoltaic apparatus, and method for producing photovoltaic module
A photovoltaic module includes: a flexible printed circuit; and a plurality of power generating elements mounted on the flexible printed circuit, wherein the flexible printed circuit includes a turning portion, and strip-shaped portions of the flexible printed circuit which are located on opposite sides of the turning portion are aligned so as to oppose each other. |
| US09923104B2 |
Photosensor including multiple detection mode and method of operating the same
Provided are a photosensor and a method of operating the same. The photosensor includes a lower electrode, a semiconductor layer, a 2-dimensional material layer, and an upper electrode. Photocurrent generated due to externally radiated light may be operated in a multiple detection mode including a lateral detection mode and a vertical detection mode. The upper electrode may include a plurality of electrode elements, which may be formed of the same conductive material or different conductive materials. |
| US09923101B2 |
Semiconductor structure
A semiconductor structure is provided. The semiconductor structure includes a floating substrate; and a capacitor grounded and connected to the floating substrate. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor structure is also provided. |
| US09923096B2 |
Gate-all-around fin device
A gate-all around fin double diffused metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS) devices and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The method includes forming a plurality of fin structures from a substrate. The method further includes forming a well of a first conductivity type and a second conductivity type within the substrate and corresponding fin structures of the plurality of fin structures. The method further includes forming a source contact on an exposed portion of a first fin structure. The method further comprises forming drain contacts on exposed portions of adjacent fin structures to the first fin structure. The method further includes forming a gate structure in a dielectric fill material about the first fin structure and extending over the well of the first conductivity type. |
| US09923093B2 |
Field effect transistors and methods of forming same
Semiconductor devices and methods of forming the same are provided. A first source/drain layer is formed over a substrate. A channel layer is formed over the first source/drain layer. A second source/drain layer is formed over the channel layer. The first source/drain layer, the channel layer, and the second source/drain layer are patterned to form a fin-shaped structure. A gate stack is formed on a sidewall of the fin-shaped structure. The fin-shaped structure is patterned to expose a top surface of the first source/drain layer. |
| US09923092B2 |
Method of forming a semiconductor device
In one embodiment, a method of forming a semiconductor device may include forming a buried region within a semiconductor region, including forming an opening in the buried region. The method may also include forming a drift region of a second conductivity type in the semiconductor region with at least a portion of the drift region overlying a first portion of the buried region. Another portion of the method may include forming a first drain region of the second conductivity type in the drift region wherein the first drain region does not overlie the buried region. |
| US09923087B2 |
Self-aligned structures and methods for asymmetric GaN transistors and enhancement mode operation
Embodiments include high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). In embodiments, a gate electrode is spaced apart by different distances from a source and drain semiconductor region to provide high breakdown voltage and low on-state resistance. In embodiments, self-alignment techniques are applied to form a dielectric liner in trenches and over an intervening mandrel to independently define a gate length, gate-source length, and gate-drain length with a single masking operation. In embodiments, III-N HEMTs include fluorine doped semiconductor barrier layers for threshold voltage tuning and/or enhancement mode operation. |
| US09923084B2 |
Forming a fin using double trench epitaxy
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices and more particularly, to a structure and method of forming a fin using double trench epitaxy. The fin may be composed of a III-V semiconductor material and may be grown on a silicon, silicon germanium, or germanium substrate. A double trench aspect ratio trapping (ART) epitaxy method may trap crystalline defects within a first trench (i.e. a defective region) and may permit formation of a fin free of patterning defects in an upper trench (i.e. a fin mold). Crystalline defects within the defective region may be trapped via conventional aspect ratio trapping or three-sided aspect ratio trapping. Fin patterning defects may be avoided by utilizing a fin mold to grow an epitaxial fin and selectively removing dielectric material adjacent to a fin region. |
| US09923082B2 |
Junction butting structure using nonuniform trench shape
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices and more particularly, to a structure and method of forming a partially depleted semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) junction isolation structure using a nonuniform trench shape formed by reactive ion etching (RIE) and crystallographic wet etching. The nonuniform trench shape may reduce back channel leakage by providing an effective channel directly below a gate stack having a width that is less than a width of an effective back channel directly above the isolation layer. |
| US09923079B2 |
Composite dummy gate with conformal polysilicon layer for FinFET device
A method includes providing a fin structure containing a semiconductor material. The method includes forming a gate dielectric layer over the fin structure, the gate dielectric layer being at least partially wrapped around the fin structure. The method includes forming a gate layer over the gate dielectric layer, wherein the gate layer is formed in a conformal manner. The method includes forming a dummy gate layer over the gate layer. |
| US09923076B2 |
Gate patterning for AC and DC performance boost
A method to reduce parasitic capacitance in a high-k dielectric metal gate (HKMG) transistor with raised source and drain regions (RSD) is provided including forming a multilayer stack for an HKMG gate on a substrate, the multilayer stack including a gate electrode layer of amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon, forming a patterned hard mask above the gate electrode layer, etching partially into the gate electrode layer through the patterned hard mask to define multiple partially etched gate stacks and a partially etching gate electrode layer, forming a conformal protective layer wrapping over the partially etched gate electrode layer and the patterned hard mask, and etching through a remainder of the partially etched gate electrode layer with the conformal protective layer wrapped over the partially etched gate stacks and the patterned hard mask, as well as an HKMG transistor resulting therefrom. |
| US09923075B2 |
Low temperature poly-silicon thin film transistor and manufacturing method thereof
A low temperature poly-silicon thin film transistor and a manufacturing method thereof are disclosed. The method includes forming an active layer on a base substrate, forming an ohmic contact layer on the active layer through an atomic layer deposition process, and forming a source electrode and a drain electrode on the ohmic contact layer. The ohmic contact layer includes a plurality of conductive ionic layers and a plurality of monocrystalline silicon layers/poly-silicon layers. The source electrode and the drain electrode are in contact with the active layer through the ohmic contact layer. |
| US09923073B2 |
Semiconductor device with surface insulating film
A semiconductor device of the present invention includes a semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type having a cell portion and an outer peripheral portion disposed around the cell portion, and a surface insulating film disposed in a manner extending across the cell portion and the outer peripheral portion, and in the cell portion, formed to be thinner than a part in the outer peripheral portion. |
| US09923069B1 |
Nitride semiconductor device
A nitride semiconductor device includes: a stacked structure portion having an active region; first and second main electrodes extending in a first direction; and a lead-out line (second lead-out line) electrically connected to the second main electrode and extends to one side in the first direction. The first main electrode has a first tip at an end which is on the side to which the lead-out line extends. The second main electrode has a second tip at an end which is on the side to which the lead-out line extends, and has, at a second tip-side in the first direction, a tapered portion having a width in a second direction which decreases with decreasing distance to the second tip. The lead-out line has a region projecting in the second direction from the tapered portion, and the first tip does not project further in the first direction than the second tip. |
| US09923067B2 |
Thin-film transistor and method for fabricating the same, array substrate and method for fabricating the same, and display device
A thin-film transistor (TFT) includes a gate electrode, a gate insulation layer, a source electrode, a drain electrode and an active layer arranged on a base substrate. The active layer includes an un-doped a-Si layer, a first doped a-Si layer and a second doped a-Si layer. One of the source electrode and the drain electrode is in contact with the first doped a-Si layer, and the other of the source electrode and the drain electrode is in contact with the second doped a-Si layer. The source electrode and the drain electrode are on different horizontal planes and spaced apart from each other, and the un-doped a-Si layer is positioned between the source electrode and the drain electrode. |
| US09923063B2 |
Group III nitride composite substrate and method for manufacturing the same, laminated group III nitride composite substrate, and group III nitride semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same
A group III nitride composite substrate with a diameter of 75 mm or more includes a support substrate and a group III nitride film with a thickness of 50 nm or more and less than 10 μm that are bonded to each other. A ratio st/mt of a standard deviation st of the thickness of the group III nitride film to a mean value mt of the thickness thereof is 0.01 or more and 0.5 or less, and a ratio so/mo of a standard deviation so of an absolute value of an off angle between a main surface of the group III nitride film and a plane of a predetermined plane orientation to a mean value mo of the absolute value of the off angle is 0.005 or more and 0.6 or less. |
| US09923062B2 |
Silicon carbide semiconductor device and method of manufacturing a silicon carbide semiconductor device
An infrared ray absorbing film is selectively formed on a surface of a silicon carbide semiconductor substrate in a predetermined area. The infrared ray absorbing film is composed of one of a multi-layered film of titanium nitride and titanium, a multi-layered film of molybdenum nitride and molybdenum, a multi-layered film of tungsten nitride and tungsten, or a multi-layered film of chromium nitride and chromium. An aluminum film and a nickel film are sequentially formed in this order on the silicon carbide semiconductor substrate in an area excluding the predetermined area in which the infrared ray absorbing film is formed. The silicon carbide semiconductor substrate is thereafter heated using a rapid annealing process with a predetermined heating rate to form an electrode. The rapid annealing process converts the nickel film into a silicide and, with the aluminum film, provides an electrode having ohmic contact. |
| US09923060B2 |
Gallium nitride apparatus with a trap rich region
A method cold-melts a high conductivity region between a high-resistivity silicon substrate and a gallium-nitride layer to form a trap rich region that substantially immobilizes charge carriers in that region. Such a process should substantially mitigate the parasitic impact of that region on circuits formed at least in part by the gallium-nitride layer. |
| US09923057B2 |
Semiconductor structures employing strained material layers with defined impurity gradients and methods for fabricating same
Semiconductor structures and devices including strained material layers having impurity-free zones, and methods for fabricating same. Certain regions of the strained material layers are kept free of impurities that can interdiffuse from adjacent portions of the semiconductor. When impurities are present in certain regions of the strained material layers, there is degradation in device performance. By employing semiconductor structures and devices (e.g., field effect transistors or “FETs”) that have the features described, or are fabricated in accordance with the steps described, device operation is enhanced. |
| US09923056B2 |
Method of fabricating a MOSFET with an undoped channel
A method of fabricating a MOSFET with an undoped channel is disclosed. The method comprises fabricating on a substrate a semiconductor structure having a dummy poly gate, dummy interlayer (IL) oxide, and a doped channel. The method further comprises removing the dummy poly gate and the dummy IL oxide to expose the doped channel, removing the doped channel from an area on the substrate, forming an undoped channel for the semiconductor structure at the area on the substrate, and forming a metal gate for the semiconductor structure. Removing the dummy poly gate may comprise dry and wet etch operations. Removing the dummy IL oxide may comprise dry etch operations. Removing the doped channel may comprise anisotropic etch operations on the substrate. Forming an undoped channel may comprise applying an epitaxial process to grow the undoped channel. The method may further comprise growing IL oxide above the undoped channel. |
| US09923055B1 |
Inner spacer for nanosheet transistors
Embodiments are directed to a method of fabricating inner spacers of a nanosheet FET. The method includes forming sacrificial and channel nanosheets over a substrate, removing sidewall portions of the sacrificial nanosheet, and forming a dielectric that extends over the channel nanosheet and within a space that was occupied by the removed sidewall portions of the sacrificial nanosheet. The method further includes forming a top protective spacer over the channel nanosheet and the dielectric, as well as applying a directional etch to the top protective spacer, the channel nanosheet, and the dielectric, wherein the directional etch is configured to be selective to the channel nanosheet and the dielectric, wherein the directional etch is configured to not be selective to the top protective spacer, and wherein applying the directional etch etches portions of the channel nanosheet and portions of the flowable dielectric that are not under the top dielectric. |
| US09923047B2 |
Method for manufacturing a capacitor for semiconductor devices
The inventive concepts provide semiconductor devices and methods for manufacturing the same in which the method includes forming a capacitor including a bottom electrode, a dielectric layer and a top electrode sequentially stacked on a substrate, and also where formation of the top electrode includes forming a first metal nitride layer on the dielectric layer, and forming a second metal nitride layer on the first metal nitride layer, in which the first metal nitride layer is disposed between the dielectric layer and the second metal nitride layer, and the first metal nitride layer is formed at a temperature lower than a temperature at which the second metal nitride layer is formed. |
| US09923040B2 |
Array substrate and display device
The present invention relates to an array substrate and a display device. The array substrate comprises a first thin film transistor arranged on a non-display area of the array substrate and a second thin film transistor arranged on a display area of the array substrate, a part of a first active layer corresponding to a region between a first source and a first drain in the first thin film transistor forms a first trench, and a part of a second active layer corresponding to a region between a second source and a second drain in the second thin film transistor forms a second trench, the first trench has at least one first bent portion, the second trench has a second bent portion, and bending angles of the first bent portion and the second bent portion are the same or explementary angles. |
| US09923039B2 |
Display panels, methods of manufacturing the same and organic light emitting display devices having the same
A display device includes a substrate and first, second and third thin film transistor. The first thin film transistor is disposed over the substrate, and includes a first gate electrode which has a first transmittance. The second thin film transistor is disposed over the substrate, and includes a second gate electrode which has a second transmittance substantially different from the first transmittance. The third thin film transistor is disposed over the substrate, and includes a third gate electrode which has a third transmittance substantially different from the first transmittance. |
| US09923038B2 |
Organic EL display device
Provided is a display device including a pixel. The pixel has: a conductive film; an interlayer insulating film over the conductive film; a first electrode over the interlayer insulating film; an insulating film over the first electrode; an organic layer over the first electrode and the insulating film; and a second electrode over the organic layer. The interlayer insulating film has a first opening portion overlapping with the conductive film. The insulating film covers the first opening portion. A first region of the organic layer in contact with the first electrode surrounds the insulating film. An area defined by a periphery of the first region has at least two symmetry axes in a direction parallel to a surface of the substrate. |
| US09923036B2 |
Thin film transistor array substrate and method of fabricating the same
Disclosed is a display device that may include a thin film transistor array substrate that includes a plurality of first sub-pixels and a plurality of second sub-pixels, wherein one of the plurality of first sub-pixels includes a first emission region and a first non-emission region, and one of the plurality of second sub-pixels includes a second emission region and a second non-emission region; a first bank pattern in the first and second non-emission regions, the first bank pattern including a hydrophilic material; and a second bank pattern on an upper surface of the first bank pattern, the second bank pattern includes a hydrophobic material. |
| US09923034B2 |
Display panel and display device
The present invention provides a display panel and a display device including the display panel. The display panel comprises a plurality of pixels each comprising at least a first sub-pixel, a second sub-pixel and a third sub-pixel, and each of the first sub-pixel, the second sub-pixel and the third sub-pixel comprises a light-emitting element emitting green light having a first wavelength. The first sub-pixel comprises a first conversion layer at a first light outgoing side of the light-emitting element thereof and emits light having a first color at the first light outgoing side of the light-emitting element thereof, and the second sub-pixel comprises a second conversion layer at a first light outgoing side of the light-emitting element thereof and emits light having a second color different from the first color at the first light outgoing side of the light-emitting element thereof. |
| US09923033B2 |
Display device
According to an aspect, a display device includes a display unit in which a plurality of pixels are arranged in a matrix along two directions intersecting with each other. Each of the pixels includes three sub-pixels corresponding to three of four colors including a first color, a second color, a third color, and a fourth color. An area of one sub-pixel among the three sub-pixels is larger than the area of each of the other two sub-pixels. A sub-pixel of the fourth color is one of the other two sub-pixels. Pixels each including the sub-pixel of the fourth color are not adjacent to each other in at least one of the two directions in the display unit. |
| US09923031B2 |
Organic light-emitting diode array substrate and display apparatus
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) array substrate and a display apparatus are provided. The OLED array substrate includes a plurality of OLEDs; the OLED includes an anode, a light-emitting layer and a cathode which are provided sequentially; the light-emitting layers are divided into a plurality of types by color (that is, the light-emitting layers are configured for emitting light of a plurality of colors), and are made of a host material and a guest material doped in the host material; and the OLED further includes an exciton blocking layer provided between the cathode and the light-emitting layer and in contact with the light-emitting layer, which is made of a host material of one light-emitting layer, and the host material of the one light-emitting layer has the biggest highest occupied molecular orbital energy level and the biggest triplet state energy level in the host materials of all light-emitting layers. |
| US09923030B2 |
Organic light-emitting device
An organic light-emitting device includes a red emission layer formed by mixing a first host made of a carbazole-based material, a second host made of a metal complex and a dopant. Accordingly, the driving voltage of the organic light-emitting device can be reduced, and thus power consumption of the organic light-emitting device can be improved. In addition, by mixing the first host and the second host having differences in energy level in the red emission layer, the luminous efficiency of the red emission layer of the organic light-emitting device can be improved. Thus, the lifetime of the organic light-emitting device can be elongated. |
| US09923029B2 |
Semiconductor constructions, electronic systems, and methods of forming cross-point memory arrays
Some embodiments include selectively conducting devices having a first electrode, a second electrode, and dielectric material between the first and second electrodes. The dielectric material may be configured to conduct current from the first electrode to the second electrode when a first voltage is applied across the first electrode and the second electrode. Furthermore, the dielectric material may be configured to inhibit current from flowing from the second electrode to the first electrode when a second voltage having a polarity opposite that of a polarity of the first voltage is applied across the first electrode and the second electrode. The diode material may comprise a plurality of layers of different dielectric materials arranged in order of increasing barrier height. Quantum wells may form at junctions of layers of the plurality responsive to the first voltage. Some embodiments include diode forming methods. |
| US09923028B1 |
Resistive memory and method for manufacturing the same
A semiconductor structure includes a memory unit structure. The memory unit structure includes a transistor, a first electrode, two second electrode, and two resistive random access memory (RRAM) elements. The first electrode and the two second electrodes are disposed in a horizontal plane. The first electrode is disposed between the two second electrodes. The first electrode and the two second electrodes are disposed in parallel. The first electrode is coupled to a source region of the transistor. One of the two RRAM elements is disposed between the first electrode and one of the two second electrodes. The other one of the two RRAM elements is disposed between the first electrode and the other one of the two second electrodes. |
| US09923022B2 |
Array of optoelectronic structures and fabrication thereof
A method of fabrication of an array of optoelectronic structures. The method first provides a crystalline substrate having cells corresponding to individual optoelectronic structures to be obtained. Each of the cells comprises an opening to the substrate. Then, several first layer portions of a first compound semiconductor material are grown in each the opening to at least partly fill a respective one of the cells and form an essentially planar film portion therein. Next, several second layer portions of a second compound semiconductor material are grown over the first layer portionsthat coalesce to form a coalescent film extending over the first layer portions. Finally, excess portions of materials are removed, to obtain the array of optoelectronic structures. Each optoelectronic structure comprises a stack protruding from the substrate of: a residual portion of one of the second layer portions; and a residual portion of one of the first layer portions. |
| US09923009B1 |
Image sensor with hybrid deep trench isolation
An image sensor includes a plurality of photodiodes disposed in a semiconductor material between a first side and a second side of the semiconductor material. The image sensor also includes a plurality of hybrid deep trench isolation (DTI) structures disposed in the semiconductor material, where individual photodiodes in the plurality of photodiodes are separated by individual hybrid DTI structures. The individual hybrid DTI structures include a shallow portion that extends from the first side towards the second side of the semiconductor material, and the shallow portion includes a dielectric region and a metal region such that at least part of the dielectric region is disposed between the semiconductor material and the metal region. The hybrid DTI structures also include a deep portion that extends from the shallow portion and is disposed between the shallow portion and the second side of the semiconductor material. |
| US09923005B2 |
Solid-state imaging device, method of manufacturing solid-state imaging device, and electronic apparatus
A solid-state imaging device including an imaging area where a plurality of unit pixels are disposed to capture a color image, wherein each of the unit pixels includes: a plurality of photoelectric conversion portions; a plurality of transfer gates, each of which is disposed in each of the photoelectric conversion portions to transfer signal charges from the photoelectric conversion portion; and a floating diffusion to which the signal charges are transferred from the plurality of the photoelectric conversion portions by the plurality of the transfer gates, wherein the plurality of the photoelectric conversion portions receive light of the same color to generate the signal charges, and wherein the signal charges transferred from the plurality of the photoelectric conversion portions to the floating diffusion are added to be output as an electrical signal. |
| US09923003B2 |
CMOS image sensor with a reduced likelihood of an induced electric field in the epitaxial layer
A CMOS time-of-flight image sensor must be robust to interface traps and fixed charges which may be present due to fabrication and which may cause an undesired induced electric field in the silicon substrate. This undesired induced electrical field is reduced by introducing a hydrogen-enriched dielectric material. Further remedial techniques can include applying ultraviolet light and/or performing a plasma treatment. Another possible approach adds a passivation doping layer at a top of the detector as a shield against the undesired induced electric field. One or more of the above techniques can be used to prevent any unstable behavior of the time-of-flight sensor. |
| US09923002B2 |
Method for manufacturing TFT substrate and structure thereof
A TFT substrate includes a base plate on which first and second gate electrodes respectively corresponding to first and second TFTs are formed. A gate insulation layer, a semiconductor layer, and an etch stop layer are sequentially formed on the base plate and the first and second electrodes. A single photolithographic process is conducted simultaneously on the gate insulation layer, the semiconductor layer, and the etch stop layer with the same gray tone mask to form separate semiconductor portions for the two TFTs and also form contact holes in the etch stop layer and the gate insulation layer to receive sources and drains of the two TFTs to be deposited therein and in contact with the two semiconductor portions. |
| US09922997B2 |
GOA circuit
Disclosed is a GOA circuit. By locating the thirteenth thin film transistor (T13) coupled with the tenth thin film transistor (T10) in series and controlled by the Mth clock signal (CK(M)) in the output module (400) of the nth stage GOA unit, as entering signal interrupt and performing touch scan, the output competition of the output ends (G(n)) can be prevented; by locating the twelfth thin film transistor (T12) controlled by the global control signal (Gas) in the output end pull-down module (600), and by setting the composite signal (CS) to be the pulse signal consistent with the touch scan signal as entering signal interrupt and performing touch scan, the twelfth thin film transistors (T12) of the GOA units of all stages can be activated, and the output ends of the GOA units of all stages outputs the composite signal (CS) consistent with the touch scan signal (TP). |
| US09922996B2 |
Array substrate, manufacturing method therefor and display device
An array substrate is provided. The array substrate includes a base substrate, and a buffer layer, a semiconductor layer, a gate insulation layer, a gate metal layer, an interlayer dielectric layer, a source/drain metal layer and a pixel electrode layer that are subsequently formed on the base substrate, and a common electrode layer formed between the base substrate and the buffer layer. The array substrate has an increased storage capacitance and an improved maintenance ratio of pixel voltage, suppresses the unfavorable phenomenon like flicker of the display device. A method for manufacturing an array substrate and a display device including such an array substrate are also provided. |
| US09922993B2 |
Transistor with self-aligned source and drain contacts and method of making same
A transistor includes an active region supported by a substrate and having a source region, a channel region and a drain region. A gate stack extends over the channel region and a first sidewall surrounds the gate stack. A raised source region and a raised drain region are provided over the source and drain regions, respectively, of the active region adjacent the first sidewall. A second sidewall peripherally surrounds each of the raised source region and raised drain region. The second sidewall extends above a top surface of the raised source region and raised drain region to define regions laterally delimited by the first and second sidewalls. A conductive material fills the regions to form a source contact and a drain contact to the raised source region and raised drain region, respectively. |
| US09922991B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing same
A semiconductor memory device includes a stacked body including a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer stacked on the first electrode layer, and first and second interconnections on a first surface of the stacked body. The first and second electrode layers have first and second end surfaces respectively in the first surface. The first interconnection is electrically connected to the first electrode layer through a first region of the first end surface; and the second interconnection is electrically connected to the second electrode layer through a second region of the second end surface. The first and second interconnections extend in a first direction on the first surface. The first and second regions are arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction with a crossing angle smaller than 90 degrees. The first region and the second region each have a boundary along the second direction. |
| US09922990B2 |
Three dimensional flash memory using electrode layers and/or interlayer insulation layers having different properties, and preparation method therefor
Embodiments of the present invention enable threshold voltage distribution of a plurality of electrode layers to be improved by configuring each of the plurality of electrode layer maintains to have different physical structures or materials, etc., thereby enhancing credibility during a process of maintaining stores data and a reading process. |
| US09922989B2 |
Memory device having interchangeable gate/channel transistor and manufacturing method of the same
A memory device is provided. The memory device includes a bottom conductive line, a stacked structure, a side oxide layer, a dielectric layer and a side semiconductor layer. The stacked structure is disposed on the bottom conductive line, and includes a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer disposed above the first semiconductor layer, and a plurality of oxide layers alternately stacked with the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer. The side oxide layer is disposed on both side walls of the first conductive layer. The dielectric layer is disposed on the stacked structure. The side semiconductor layer is disposed on the dielectric layer. |
| US09922985B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and fabrication method thereof
A method is provided for fabricating a semiconductor memory device. The method includes providing a substrate and forming a stacked layer on the substrate, where the stacked layer includes a tunneling dielectric layer and a floating gate layer sequentially formed on the substrate. The method also includes forming a plurality of stacked structures by etching the stacked layer and the substrate, where the spacing between the adjacent stacked structures forms a plurality of parallel first trenches. In addition, the method includes forming a plurality of second trenches and forming a plurality of third trenches. Moreover, the method includes forming a second dielectric layer on the floating gate layer and the side wall and bottom of the third trenches and forming a control gate layer on the second dielectric layer. Further, the method includes forming a plurality of fourth trenches and removing the sacrificial layer along the fourth trenches. |
| US09922984B1 |
Threshold voltage modulation through channel length adjustment
A method of forming an arrangement of long and short fins on a substrate, including forming a plurality of finFET devices having long fins on the substrate, where the long fins have a fin length in the range of about 180 nm to about 350 nm, and forming a plurality of finFET devices having short fins on the substrate, where the short fins have a fin length in the range of about 60 nm to about 140 nm, wherein at least one of the plurality of finFET devices having a long fin is adjacent to at least one of the plurality of finFET devices having a short fin. |
| US09922981B2 |
Compact semiconductor memory device having reduced number of contacts, methods of operating and methods of making
An integrated circuit including a link or string of semiconductor memory cells, wherein each memory cell includes a floating body region for storing data. The link or string includes at least one contact configured to electrically connect the memory cells to at least one control line, and the number of contacts in the string or link is the same as or less than the number of memory cells in the string or link. |
| US09922970B2 |
Interposer having stacked devices
An apparatus includes a substrate and an interposer associated with the substrate. The apparatus further includes a first device disposed within the substrate or within the interposer and a second device disposed within the interposer. The first device and the second device are arranged in a stacked configuration. |
| US09922969B1 |
Integrated circuits having transistors with high holding voltage and methods of producing the same
Integrated circuits and methods of producing the same are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, an integrated circuit includes a substrate and a source in electrical communication with the substrate. A drain is also in electrical communication with the substrate. A gate overlies the substrate between the source and the drain, wherein a channel is defined within the substrate directly underlying the gate, and where a Schottky portion of the substrate is positioned between the channel and the source. |
| US09922967B2 |
Multilevel template assisted wafer bonding
Fabricating a multilevel composite semiconductor structure includes providing a first substrate comprising a first material; dicing a second substrate to provide a plurality of dies; mounting the plurality of dies on a third substrate; joining the first substrate and the third substrate to form a composite structure; and joining a fourth substrate and the composite structure. |
| US09922964B1 |
Package structure with dummy die
A package structure and method for forming the same are provided. The package structure includes a substrate, and a device die formed over the substrate. The device die has a first height. The package structure includes a dummy die formed over the substrate and adjacent to the device die, and the dummy die has a second height. The second height is smaller than the first height. The package structure also includes a package layer formed between the device die and the dummy die. |
| US09922961B2 |
Semiconductor device, manufacturing method for semiconductor device, and electronic device
There is provided a semiconductor device and an electronic apparatus that comprises a semiconductor device, the semiconductor device including a first chip, a second chip that is bonded onto a first surface side of the first chip, a through electrode that is formed to penetrate from a second surface side of the first chip to a second wiring layer on the second semiconductor base substrate, and an insulation layer that is disposed between the through electrode and a semiconductor base substrate in the first chip. |
| US09922952B2 |
Method for producing semiconductor device, and wire-bonding apparatus
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided. A bonding tool with a wire tail extending out of the tip thereof is lowered to bring the tip of the wire tail into contact with a bonding surface of the semiconductor device. Next, the bonding tool in a direction intersecting with the axial direction of the bonding tool (Z direction) is moved to bend the wire tail with the tip of the wire tail in contact with the bonding surface. Then the bonding tool is lowered to form the wire tail into a predetermined shape such that the tip of the wire tail points upward. And then, a wire looping step, a second bonding step and a wire cutting step are performed. This allows the wire tail to be formed easily and efficiently into a predetermined shape. |
| US09922951B1 |
Integrated circuit wafer integration with catalytic laminate or adhesive
A catalytic laminate is formed from a resin, a fiber reinforced layer, and catalytic particles such that the catalytic particles are disposed throughout the catalytic laminate but excluded from the outer surface of the catalytic laminate. The catalytic laminate has trace channels and vias formed to make a single or multi-layer catalytic laminate printed circuit board. Apertures with locations which match the locations of integrated circuit pads are formed in the laminate PCB. The integrated circuit is bonded to the catalytic laminate PCB, and the integrated circuit and laminate are both subjected to electroless plating, thereby electrically connecting the integrated circuit to the single or multi-layer catalytic laminate PCB. |
| US09922943B2 |
Chip-on-substrate packaging on carrier
A method includes mounting a wafer-level package substrate over a carrier, and pre-cutting the wafer-level package substrate to form trenches extending from a top surface of the wafer-level package substrate into the wafer-level package substrate. A plurality of dies is bonded over the wafer-level package substrate. The plurality of dies is molded in a molding material to form a wafer-level package, with the wafer-level package including the wafer-level package substrate, the plurality of dies, and the molding material. The carrier is detached from the wafer-level package. The wafer-level package is sawed into a plurality of packages, with each of the plurality of packages including a portion of the wafer-level package substrate and one of the plurality of dies. |
| US09922942B2 |
Support for long channel length nanowire transistors
A nanowire device includes a first component formed on a substrate and a second component disposed apart from the first component on the substrate. A nanowire is configured to connect the first component to the second component. An anchor pad is formed along a span of the nanowire and configured to support the nanowire along the span to prevent sagging. |
| US09922940B2 |
Semiconductor device including air gaps between interconnects and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, and interconnects provided above the substrate. The device further includes a first insulator that is provided on the interconnects and on air gaps provided between the interconnects, surrounds the interconnects from lateral sides of the interconnects, and is formed of a first insulating material. The device further includes a second insulator that surrounds an interconnect region including the interconnects and the air gaps from the lateral sides of the interconnects through the first insulator, includes no portion provided between the interconnects, and is formed of a second insulating material different from the first insulating material. |
| US09922939B2 |
Wafer level shielding in multi-stacked fan out packages and methods of forming same
An embodiment device package includes a device die, a molding compound surrounding the device die, a conductive through inter-via (TIV) extending through the molding compound, and an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield disposed over and extending along sidewalls of the molding compound. The EMI shield contacts the conductive TIV, and the conductive TIV electrically connects the EMI shield to an external connector. The external connector and the EMI shield are disposed on opposing sides of the device die. |
| US09922938B2 |
Semiconductor device package integrated with coil for wireless charging and electromagnetic interference shielding, and method of manufacturing the same
The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor device package which includes a carrier, an electronic component disposed on the carrier, and a package body disposed on the carrier and encapsulating the electronic component. A shield is disposed on the package body. The shield includes multiple non-magnetic conductive layers, multiple insulating layers and multiple magnetic conductive layers. At least one of the insulating layers is located between each non-magnetic conductive layer and a neighboring magnetic conductive layer. |
| US09922934B2 |
Semiconductor manufacturing process and package carrier
A package carrier includes a carrier and a light absorption layer. The light absorption layer is disposed on the carrier. The light absorption layer includes a notch at the periphery of the carrier, and the notch is light transmissive so as to expose the carrier to light in a normal direction of the carrier. A semiconductor manufacturing process is also provided. |
| US09922933B2 |
Method of positioning elements, particularly optical elements, on the back side of a hybridized-type infrared detector
A method of positioning elements or additional technological levels on the incident surface of an infrared detector of hybridized type, said detector being formed of a detection circuit comprising an array network of photosensitive sites for the wavelength ranges of interest, hybridized on a read circuit, said detection circuit resulting from the epitaxial growth of a detection material on a substrate, comprising forming within the detection circuit indexing patterns by marking of the growth substrate. |
| US09922932B2 |
Resin structure having electronic component embedded therein, and method for manufacturing said structure
In a resin structure including a resin molded body and a plurality of electronic components embedded in the resin molded body, (i) the resin molded body has a plurality of exposed surfaces on which electrodes of the plurality of electronic components are exposed, (ii) the resin molded body has a recess formed therein, and (iii) the recess has a bottom surface which is at least one of the plurality of exposed surfaces. |
| US09922929B1 |
Self aligned interconnect structures
The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to self aligned interconnect structures and methods of manufacture. The structure includes an interconnect structure which is self-aligned with an upper level via metallization, and both the interconnect structure and the upper level via metallization are composed of a Pt group material. |
| US09922920B1 |
Semiconductor package and method for fabricating the same
A method of fabricating semiconductor packages includes providing an interposer layer having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, in which the interposer layer includes through interposer vias embedded inside, and the through interposer vias extended from the first surface toward the second surface, in which through interposer vias are patterned to form repetitive polygonal-packing units, and part of the through interposer vias can be grouped within at least two distinct said polygonal-packing units; subsequently, forming at least one redistribution layer on the first surface to form terminals on a surface of the redistribution layer away from the interposer layer, in which the terminals are selectively connected to the through interposer vias respectively; and then disposing at least one semiconductor chip on the redistribution layer, wherein the semiconductor chip includes active surfaces electrically connected to the terminals respectively. |
| US09922912B1 |
Package for die-bridge capacitor
In some examples, a device comprises a first leadframe segment, a second leadframe segment, and a first transistor, wherein the first transistor is electrically connected to the first leadframe segment. The device further comprises a second transistor, wherein the second transistor is electrically connected to the second leadframe segment. The device further comprises a conductive element, wherein the conductive element is electrically connected to the first transistor and the second transistor. The device further comprises a capacitor, wherein a first end of the capacitor is electrically connected to the first leadframe segment and a second end of the capacitor is electrically connected to the second leadframe segment. |
| US09922907B2 |
Electronic component, leadframe, and method for producing an electronic component
An electronic component, a leadframe, and a method for producing an electronic component are disclosed. In an embodiment, the electronic component includes a housing and a leadframe section partly embedded in the housing, wherein the leadframe section includes a first quadrant, a second quadrant, a third quadrant and a fourth quadrant, wherein each of the quadrants has a first leadframe part and a second leadframe part, wherein each first leadframe part includes a chip landing area, wherein the chip landing areas of all four quadrants are arranged adjacently to a common central region of the leadframe section, and wherein the four quadrants are configured symmetrically with respect to one another. |
| US09922905B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device according to an embodiment is a semiconductor device in which a semiconductor chip mounted on a chip mounting part is sealed by resin and a first member is fixed to a chip mounting surface side between a peripheral portion of the semiconductor chip and a peripheral portion of the chip mounting part. Also, the first member is sealed by the resin. Also, a length of the first part of the chip mounting part in the first direction is larger than a length of the semiconductor chip in the first direction, in a plan view. |
| US09922904B2 |
Semiconductor device including lead frames with downset
A semiconductor device includes a planar first lead frame including a die pad, a semiconductor chip coupled to the die pad, and a second lead frame coupled to the first lead frame. The second lead frame includes leads arranged such that the die pad is downset with respect to the leads. |
| US09922903B2 |
Interconnect structure for package-on-package devices and a method of fabricating
An interconnect structure and a method of forming an interconnect structure are provided. The interconnect structure is formed over a carrier substrate, upon which a die may also be attached. Upon removal of the carrier substrate and singulation, a first package is formed. A second package may be attached to the first package, wherein the second package may be electrically coupled to through vias formed in the first package. |
| US09922897B1 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor package
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor package includes forming a preliminary package, on a supporting substrate, which includes a connection substrate, a semiconductor chip and a molding pattern on the connection substrate and the semiconductor chip, forming a buffer pattern on the molding pattern, and forming a carrier substrate, on the buffer pattern, which includes a first portion contacting the buffer pattern and a second portion contacting the molding pattern. |
| US09922890B1 |
Integrated circuit including NCEM-enabled, snake-configured fill cells, with NCEM pads formed from at least three conductive stripes positioned between adjacent gates
An integrated circuit, in the form of a wafer, die, or chip, includes multiple standard cell-compatible fill cells, configured to enable non-contact electrical measurements. Such fill cells include mesh pads that contain at least three conductive stripes disposed between adjacent gate stripes. Such fill cells further include geometry to enable non-contact evaluation of snake opens and/or resistances. |
| US09922886B2 |
Silicon-germanium FinFET device with controlled junction
Embodiments of the invention include a method for forming a FinFET device and the resulting structure. A semiconductor device including a substrate, a silicon-germanium fin formed on the substrate, a dummy gate formed on the fin, and a first set of spacers formed on the exposed sidewalls of the dummy gate is provided. Xenon is implanted into the exposed portions of the fin. A second set of spacers are formed on the exposed sidewalls of the first set of spacer. A dopant is implanted into the exposed portions of the fin. The semiconductor device is thermally annealed, such that the dopants diffuse into the adjacent portions of the fin. The dummy gate is replaced with a gate structure. |
| US09922883B2 |
Method for making strained semiconductor device and related methods
A method for making a semiconductor device is provided. Raised source and drain regions are formed with a tensile strain-inducing material, after thermal treatment to form source drain extension regions, to thereby preserve the strain-inducing material in desired substitutional states. |
| US09922878B2 |
Hybrid integrated semiconductor tri-gate and split dual-gate FinFET devices and method for manufacturing
A method for making a tri-gate FinFET and a dual-gate FinFET includes providing a semiconductor on insulator (SOI) wafer having a semiconductor layer over an insulator layer. The method further includes forming a hard mask on the semiconductor layer and patterning the hard mask to form first and second cap portions. The method also includes etching the semiconductor layer to form first and second fins using the first and second cap portions as an etch mask. The method also includes removing the second cap portion to expose the top surface of the second fin and forming a gate dielectric layer on the first and second fins. The method further includes forming a conductive layer over the gate dielectric layer, selectively etching the conductive layer to form first and second gate structures, forming an interlayer dielectric layer over the gate structures, and planarizing the interlayer dielectric layer using the first cap portion as a polish stop. |
| US09922875B2 |
Conductive interconnect structures incorporating negative thermal expansion materials and associated systems, devices, and methods
Semiconductor devices having interconnects incorporating negative expansion (NTE) materials are disclosed herein. In one embodiment a semiconductor device includes a substrate having an opening that extends at least partially through the substrate. A conductive material having a positive coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) partially fills the opening. A negative thermal expansion (NTE) having a negative CTE also partially fills the opening. In one embodiment, the conductive material includes copper and the NTE material includes zirconium tungstate. |
| US09922870B2 |
Method for applying an image of an electrically conductive material onto a recording medium and device for ejecting droplets of an electrically conductive fluid
The invention relates to a method for applying an image of an electrically conductive material onto a recording medium. In the method, the recording medium is heated and the electrically conductive material is jetted onto the recording medium. The invention further relates to a device for ejecting droplets of an electrically conductive fluid onto a recording medium. |
| US09922866B2 |
Enhancing robustness of SOI substrate containing a buried N+ silicon layer for CMOS processing
A silicon buffer layer selected from undoped silicon, p-doped silicon or a multilayered stack of, in any order, undoped silicon and p-doped silicon is provided between an n+ silicon layer and an oxide layer of an SOI substrate. The presence of the silicon buffer layer reduces electron injection into the oxide layer during device processing which requires an electric field. |
| US09922860B2 |
Apparatus and methods for wafer chucking on a susceptor for ALD
Described are apparatus and methods for processing a semiconductor wafer so that the wafer remains in place during processing. The wafer is subjected to a pressure differential between the top surface and bottom surface so that sufficient force prevents the wafer from moving during processing, the pressure differential generated by applying a decreased pressure to the back side of the wafer. |
| US09922855B2 |
Method for reducing temperature transition in an electrostatic chuck
A method for controlling a substrate temperature in a substrate processing system includes determining a temperature difference between the substrate temperature before the substrate is loaded onto a substrate support device and a desired temperature for the substrate support device and, during a first period, controlling a thermal control element to adjust the temperature of the substrate support device to a temperature value based on the temperature difference. The temperature value is not equal to the desired temperature for the substrate support device. The method further includes loading the substrate onto the substrate support device after the first period begins and before the temperature of the substrate support device returns to the desired temperature and, during a second period that follows the first period, controlling the temperature of the substrate support device to the desired temperature for the substrate support device. |
| US09922847B2 |
Microelectronics package with inductive element and magnetically enhanced mold compound component
The present disclosure relates to a microelectronics package with an inductive element and a magnetically enhanced mold compound component, and a process for making the same. The disclosed microelectronics package includes a module substrate, a thinned flip-chip die with an upper surface that includes a first surface portion and a second surface portion surrounding the first surface portion, the magnetically enhanced mold compound component, and a mold compound component. The thinned flip-chip die is attached to the module substrate and includes a device layer with an inductive element embedded therein. Herein, the inductive element is underlying the first surface portion and not underlying the second surface portion. The magnetically enhanced mold compound component is formed over the first surface portion. The mold compound component is formed over the second surface portion, not over the first surface portion, and surrounding the magnetically enhanced mold compound component. |
| US09922846B2 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor package
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor package includes preparing a package substrate including a semiconductor chip mounting region. A semiconductor chip is mounted in the semiconductor chip mounting region. A dam surrounding the semiconductor chip is formed. The formation of the dam includes depositing a first solution having a temperature below a set first temperature. A region under the semiconductor chip and a region defined by the dam are filled with an underfill by depositing the first solution having a temperature equal to or higher than the set first temperature. |
| US09922845B1 |
Semiconductor package and fabrication method thereof
A method for fabricating a semiconductor package is disclosed. A substrate is provided and a first passivation layer is formed on the substrate. Trenches are formed partially through the substrate. Metal via structures are formed in the trenches. An RDL structure is formed on the first passivation layer. A second passivation layer is formed on the RDL structure. Openings are formed in the second passivation layer to expose bump pads. First metal pillars are formed on the bump pads. Semiconductor dies are mounted onto the metal pillars. A molding compound is formed to cover the semiconductor dies. The substrate is removed, thereby exposing the first passivation layer and protrudent portions (second metal pillars) of the metal via structures. C4 bumps are formed directly on the second metal pillars, respectively. |
| US09922842B2 |
Heat treatment method
A method for heat treatment of a plurality of semiconductor wafers horizontally placed on a supporting member coated with SiC in a vertical heat treatment furnace includes performing heat treatments while switching the supporting member and a heat treatment condition such that the supporting member is continuously used in a heat treatment under either one of a first condition and a second condition for a certain period of time and then continuously used in a heat treatment under the other condition for a certain period of time, wherein the heat treatment under the first condition is performed at 1000° C. or higher in an atmosphere containing a rare gas and not containing oxygen, and the heat treatment under the second condition is performed at 1000° C. or higher in an atmosphere containing oxygen and not containing a rare gas. As a result, slip dislocation can be inhibited. |
| US09922840B2 |
Adjustable remote dissociation
Methods of selectively etching an exposed portion of a patterned substrate relative to a second exposed portion are described. The etching process is a gas phase etch which uses an oxidizing precursor unexcited in any plasma prior to combination with plasma effluents formed in a remote plasma from an inert precursor. The plasma effluents may be combined with the oxidizing precursor in a plasma-free remote chamber region and/or in a plasma-free substrate processing region. The combination of the plasma effluents excites the oxidizing precursor and removes material from the exposed portion of the patterned substrate. The etch rate is controllable and selectable by adjusting the flow rate of the oxidizing precursor or the unexcited/plasma-excited flow rate ratio. |
| US09922837B2 |
Asymmetric application of pressure to a wafer during a CMP process
A method includes measuring a topography of a wafer, determining that a first portion of the wafer has a greater thickness than a specified thickness. The method further includes, after measuring the wafer, performing a Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process to a first side of the wafer, and during application of the CMP process, applying additional pressure to a region of the wafer, the region comprising an asymmetric part of the wafer, the region including at least a part of the first portion of the wafer. |
| US09922832B1 |
Manufacturing method of semiconductor structure
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure is provided. The manufacturing method of the semiconductor structure includes the following steps: providing a semiconductor substrate, wherein the semiconductor substrate has a first region and a second region surrounding the first region; forming a gate stack and a dummy gate stack in the first region, wherein the dummy gate stack surrounds the gate stack; forming an oxide layer on an exterior wall and a top surface of the dummy gate stack; forming a dummy conductive layer on the gate stack, the dummy gate stack and the oxide layer, wherein the dummy conductive layer has a concave bowl-shaped top surface in the first region; and performing a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process on the dummy conductive layer. |
| US09922829B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
In a silicon carbide semiconductor device having a trench type MOS gate structure, the present invention makes it possible to inhibit the operating characteristic from varying. A p-type channel layer having an impurity concentration distribution homogeneous in the depth direction at the sidewall part of a trench is formed by applying angled ion implantation of p-type impurities to a p−type body layer formed by implanting ions having implantation energies different from each other two or more times after the trench is formed. Further, although the p-type impurities are introduced also into an n−-type drift layer at the bottom part of the trench when the p-type channel layer is formed by the angled ion implantation, a channel length is stipulated by forming an n-type layer having an impurity concentration higher than those of the p-type channel layer, the p−-type body layer, and the n−-type drift layer between the p−-type body layer and the n−-type drift layer. By those measures, it is possible to inhibit the operating characteristic from varying. |
| US09922826B2 |
Integrated circuit die having reduced defect group III-nitride layer and methods associated therewith
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards an integrated circuit (IC) die. In embodiments, an IC die may include a semiconductor substrate, a group III-Nitride or II-VI wurtzite layer disposed over the semiconductor substrate, and a plurality of buffer structures at least partially embedded in the group III-Nitride or II-VI wurtzite layer. In some embodiments, each of the plurality of buffer structures may include a central member disposed over the semiconductor substrate, a lower lateral member disposed over the semiconductor substrate and extending laterally away from the central member, and an upper lateral member disposed over the central member and extending laterally from the central member in an opposite direction from the lower lateral member. The plurality of buffer structures may be positioned in a staggered arrangement to terminate defects of the group III-Nitride or II-VI wurtzite layer. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed. |
| US09922824B2 |
Method of forming silicon film
A method of forming a silicon film on a target surface of a target object, including: performing a gas process on the target surface of the target object using an oxygen gas and a hydrogen gas; forming the silicon film on the target surface to which the gas process has been performed, wherein the performing a gas process and the forming the silicon film are performed within a single processing chamber. |
| US09922820B2 |
Film forming method and film forming apparatus
A method of forming a silicon nitride film on a substrate in a vacuum vessel, includes forming the silicon nitride film by depositing a layer of reaction product by repeating a cycle a plurality of times. The cycle includes a first process of supplying a gas of a silicon raw material to the substrate to adsorb the silicon raw material to the substrate, subsequently, a second process of supplying a gas of ammonia in a non-plasma state to the substrate to physically adsorb the gas of the ammonia to the substrate, and subsequently, a third process of supplying active species obtained by converting a plasma forming gas containing a hydrogen gas for forming plasma into plasma to the substrate and causing the ammonia physically adsorbed to the substrate to react with the silicon raw material to form the layer of reaction product. |
| US09922817B2 |
Deposition of boron and carbon containing materials
Methods of depositing boron and carbon containing films are provided. In some embodiments, methods of depositing B,C films with desirable properties, such as conformality and etch rate, are provided. One or more boron and/or carbon containing precursors can be decomposed on a substrate at a temperature of less than about 400° C. In some embodiments methods of depositing silicon nitride films comprising B and C are provided. A silicon nitride film can be deposited by a deposition process including an ALD cycle that forms SiN and a CVD cycle that contributes B and C to the growing film. |
| US09922816B2 |
Source and drain process for FinFET
A FinFET includes a fin structure on a substrate; a dielectric layer provided on the fin structure; a metal gate crossing over the dielectric layer; two spacers respectively crossing over the dielectric layer abutting two opposite sidewalls of the metal gate, each of the two spacers having a length along a direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of the fin structure; and a source and a drain. Each of the source and the drain having a first portion peripherally enclosed by the dielectric layer, and a second portion peripherally enclosed by the two spacers, in which the length of each of the two spacers is greater than a length of the second portion, and a length of a combination of the first portion and the second portion is greater than the length of each of the two spacers. |
| US09922803B2 |
Plasma processing device
The invention provides a plasma processing device, wherein the upper electrode and the lower electrode are in the vacuum chamber. The chip is placed in the lower electrode. The first plate is placed between the upper electrode and the lower electrode, and the first plate includes a plurality of first voids. The second plate is placed between the first plate and the lower electrode, and the second plate includes a plurality of second voids. The high frequency power is provided by the upper electrode and the lower electrode in the vacuum chamber, and the plasma is generated between the third plate and the upper electrode. The plasma is filtered by the third void, the first void, and the second void. |
| US09922799B2 |
Apparatus of plural charged-particle beams
A multi-beam apparatus for observing a sample with high resolution and high throughput and in flexibly varying observing conditions is proposed. The apparatus uses a movable collimating lens to flexibly vary the currents of the plural probe spots without influencing the intervals thereof, a new source-conversion unit to form the plural images of the single electron source and compensate off-axis aberrations of the plural probe spots with respect to observing conditions, and a pre-beamlet-forming means to reduce the strong Coulomb effect due to the primary-electron beam. |
| US09922795B2 |
High brightness ion beam extraction using bias electrodes and magnets proximate the extraction aperture
An apparatus for the creation of high current ion beams is disclosed. The apparatus includes an ion source, such as a RF ion source or an indirectly heated cathode (IHC) ion source, having an extraction aperture. Disposed proximate the extraction aperture is a bias electrode, which has a hollow center portion that is aligned with the extraction aperture. A magnetic field is created along the perimeter of the hollow center portion, which serves to contain electrons within a confinement region. Electrons in the confinement region energetically collide with neutral particles, increasing the number of ions that are created near the extraction aperture. The magnetic field may be created using two magnets that are embedded in the bias electrode. Alternatively, a single magnet or magnetic coils may be used to create this magnetic field. |
| US09922794B2 |
Rotating anode X-ray tube
According to one embodiment, a rotating anode X-ray tube includes a fixed shaft, a rotor, a lubricant, target, and a supporting member. The fixed shaft includes a small-diameter portion provided with a first radial bearing surface including first grooved surfaces, and a large-diameter portion provided with a second radial bearing surface including second grooved surfaces. The rotor includes a third radial bearing surface. The lubricant is filled in a gap between the fixed shaft and the rotor, and drawn by the first and second grooved surfaces. |
| US09922792B2 |
Ion generation apparatus and electric equipment including the same
A housing, a substrate accommodated in the housing, a needle electrode for generating ions through discharging, which is held by the substrate such that a tip end portion protrudes outside the housing, an insulating sealing portion insulating and sealing the substrate in the housing, and an electrode protection portion for protecting the needle electrode outside the housing are included. The housing is provided with an opening portion through which a side of the tip end portion of the needle electrode is inserted and which is sealed with the insulating sealing portion. The electrode protection portion has a first protection portion and a second protection portion which are provided to protrude from the housing relative to the tip end portion of the needle electrode and opposed to each other at a distance from each other on opposing sides of the needle electrode. |
| US09922787B2 |
Method for closing an electrical power supply circuit of an electric apparatus located in a chamber at a controlled variable pressure and related device
A method for closing an electrical power supply circuit of an electric apparatus located in a chamber at a controlled variable pressure. The method includes heating which provides energy to an element made of electrically conductive material located in the enclosure which is open to the chamber pressure; sublimation of the element made of electrically conductive material once the latter reaches a given temperature, if the pressure conditions in the chamber correspond to the conditions required for an operation of the electric apparatus under vacuum; ejection of vapor particles of the electrically conductive material which result from the sublimation; and formation of a deposit of electrically conductive material between the two electrically conductive terminals as a consequence of the ejection of the vapor particles. |
| US09922783B2 |
Method for making a three-dimensional liquid crystal polymer multilayer circuit board including membrane switch
A method is for making an electronic device including forming a multilayer circuit board having a non-planar three-dimensional shape defining a membrane switch recess therein, the multilayer circuit board including at least one liquid crystal polymer (LCP) layer, and at least one electrically conductive pattern layer thereon defining at least one membrane switch electrode adjacent the membrane switch recess to define a membrane switch. The method also includes filling the membrane switch recess with a compressible dielectric material, and positioning at least one biasing member in the membrane switch recess. |
| US09922782B2 |
Switching device for a radio pushbutton, radio pushbutton, and method for producing a switching signal of a switching device
The current embodiments provide a switch device for a wireless pushbutton, wherein the switch device comprising an energy conversion mechanism, a signal output mechanism, an actuation device, and a plurality of encoding contacts. The actuation device may be configured to establish contact with at least one of the plurality of encoding contacts when a first quantity of an actuation force is applied for generating an encoded signal. The actuation device may be configured to activate the energy conversion mechanism to generate energy when a second quantity of an actuation force greater than the first quantity is applied to the activation device. The signal output mechanism may be configured to transmit a wireless output signal using the encoded signal when the energy conversion mechanism is activated. |
| US09922779B2 |
Electrical enclosure, and switching assembly and transfer assembly therefor
A transfer assembly is for a switching assembly of an electrical enclosure. The switching assembly includes an electrical switching apparatus having an operating handle structured to move from an OFF position to an ON position. The transfer assembly includes a driving handle; a first shaft member coupled to the driving handle; a second shaft member structured to be coupled to the operating handle; and a transmission assembly having a first component and a second component, the first component being coupled to the first shaft member, the second component being coupled to the second shaft member. The transfer assembly is structured to move from a FIRST position to a SECOND position. When the transfer assembly moves from the FIRST position to the SECOND position, the first component drives the second component, thereby causing the second shaft member to move the operating handle from the OFF position to the ON position. |
| US09922778B2 |
Switch wire connection device
A switch wire connection device has a simplified structure and is easy to operate with enhanced stability of operation. The switch wire connection device includes a conductive component mounted in an insulation case, a switch pushbutton assembled with the conductive component and an electrical contact. The electrical contact has a restriction unit and a contact plate connected with the restriction unit. By means of operating the pushbutton, the conductive component is driven to selectively electrically contact or separate from the contact plate. The restriction unit is divided into a first space and a second space, in which a first leg section and a second leg section of a metal leaf spring are respectively assembled. The wiring circuits or conductive wires can be easily directly plugged into the first and second spaces of the restriction unit and held by the first and second leg sections. |
| US09922776B2 |
Polymer supercapacitor and method of manufacture
The present invention is a polymer supercapacitor and method for making such a supercapacitor. The supercapacitor is formed by loading a flexible electrode plate of a high surface area material with metal oxide particles, then encasing the electrode plate in a coating of a polymer electrolyte. The electrode plate is then folded in half and flexible plates attached to the upper and lower surfaces to form the supercapacitor. |
| US09922773B2 |
Ionic polymer membrane comprising radiation-crosslinkable poly(vinyl alcohol) and method of preparation thereof
The present invention provides an ionic polymer membrane prepared by irradiating the compound represented by formula 1 and an ionic polymer. The ionic polymer membrane of the present invention has the advantage of excellent processability, low production costs, high ion exchange capacity and high durability. Also, the method for preparing the ionic polymer membrane of the invention not only facilitates the production of the ionic polymer membrane in a 3-dimensional network structure which has high ion exchange capacity and high dimensional stability but also makes it easy to produce membranes in various forms and sizes by using the composition itself as a coating solution with using the commercialized inexpensive ionic polymer without additional high-risk multi-step introduction process of ionic exchange group. In the aspect of preparation process, the simplicity of the process and suitable for the mass-production, and the production cost is reduced by saving the processing time as much as minimum 1/15 (56 min.) in comparison to the processing time of the conventional thermal-crosslinking (1 hour). |
| US09922772B2 |
Solid electrolytic capacitor element
A solid electrolytic capacitor element which comprises an anode body, a dielectric layer placed so as to cover the anode body, a semiconductor layer placed on the dielectric layer, an insulator layer placed on the semiconductor layer, a carbon layer placed on the insulator layer, and a silver layer placed on the carbon layer, wherein the insulator layer has a part having a thickness of 10 to 100 nm accounting for not less than ⅔ of the whole insulator layer. |
| US09922768B2 |
Multilayer ceramic capacitor
A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a multilayer unit, thickness-direction first and second outer layer sections, and length-direction first and second outer layer sections. A dimension of the thickness-direction second outer layer section is greater than a dimension of the thickness-direction first outer layer section. The thickness-direction second outer layer section includes an inner portion and an outer portion. A composition ratio of Si to Ti in a ceramic dielectric layer included in the outer portion is higher than that in the inner portion. A Si content ratio is higher in a boundary portion between the outer portion and the inner portion. The inner portion has a higher composition ratio of Mn to Ti than the outer portion. Both of minimum dimensions in the length direction of the length-direction first and second outer layer sections are greater than a dimension in the thickness direction of the thickness-direction first outer layer section. |
| US09922759B2 |
Additive manufacturing of magnets
A unibody magnetic structure having layers of variably magnetized material is disclosed. The unibody magnetic structure can be formed by way of additive manufacturing, such as by a stereolithographic (SLA) process or a selective laser sintering (SLS) process. The SLA process can involve forming the structure from a molten pool of polymer material, with the material having a magnetic component dissolved therein. The SLS process can involve sintering the structure from a powder having a magnetic component. As each layer is formed, the layer can be selectively magnetized with a given polarity and strength. The magnetization of each formed layer can vary, such that the final structure comprises numerous layers having different shapes and sizes, as well as different levels and polarities of magnetization. |
| US09922758B2 |
Powder for powder magnetic core, and powder magnetic core
A powder for a powder magnetic core, being composed of iron-base soft magnetic powder particles which each have a phosphoric acid-based chemical conversion coating on the surface. In this powder, the maximum thickness of the phosphoric acid-based chemical conversion coating is 20 to 200 nm, and recessed portions are formed on the surface of the chemical conversion coating with the total area of openings of the recessed portions being 0.5 to 50% by area relative to the total area of the observation visual fields, as determined by observing ten or more parts of the surface of the phosphoric acid-based chemical conversion coating through a scanning electron microscope with a magnification of 10000× or more. |
| US09922756B1 |
Electrical cables with non-metallic jackets and methods of fabricating the same
An electrical cable having a plurality of conductors including a grounding conductor and at least one power-carrying conductor. The plurality of conductors disposed approximately in parallel within an outer jacket such that the electrical cable has a substantially elongated horizontal cross-section. |
| US09922755B2 |
Joint connector
In the process of mounting a joint terminal (5) into a first terminal accommodating portion (16) of a housing (15), tab terminals (6) of the joint terminal (5) move forward along tab entrance paths (26) formed in the housing (15). The tab entrance path (26) is formed with a cam portion (27) spiral about an axis thereof. As the tab terminal (6) moves forward in the tab entrance path (26), a follower portion (8) formed at an intermediate position of the tab terminal (6) is guided by the cam portion (27). Thus, the tab terminal (6) is twisted about an axis. In this way, resilient contact pieces (14) of female terminals (9A, 9B) face the tab terminals (6) in a plate surface direction of the tab terminals (6) and are connected to the tab terminals (6). |
| US09922753B1 |
Communication cables with separators having bristles
A cable may include a plurality of twisted pairs of individually insulated conductors and a separator positioned between the twisted pairs. The separator may include a longitudinally extending spine positioned between the plurality of twisted pairs, and a plurality of bristles may radially extend from the spine. A first portion of the bristles may extend between one or more sets of adjacent twisted pairs, and a second portion of the bristles may be compressed towards the spine by one or more of the plurality of twisted pairs. Additionally, a jacket may be formed around the twisted pairs and the separator. |
| US09922752B2 |
Hydrophobic film coated cable for medical device
Disclosed herein is a hydrophobic cable, particularly a cable for medical devices having a hydrophobic surface. The hydrophobic cable includes a conductive unit arranged in a longitudinal direction of the cable, an insulating sheath coated onto an outer portion of the conductive unit and made of a PVC material, and a coating film formed outside the insulating sheath. Here, the coating film may be formed by curing a coating solution including at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of a silane compound and a siloxane compound. |
| US09922750B2 |
Electrical insulating paper
An electrical insulating paper having 40-80 wt % of aramid fibrid, 10-50 wt % of aramid pulp, and 10-50 wt % of aramid short-cut. The aramid pulp is para-aramid pulp with a length of 0.5-6 mm and has a Schopper Riegler value of 15-85; the aramid fibrid is para-aramid fibrid; and the aramid short-cut is para-aramid short-cut. The paper shows a high dielectric strength and tensile index. A method for manufacturing the paper and an insulated conductor that includes the paper. |
| US09922748B2 |
Electroconductive polyethylene resin composition, and molded article and laminate using the same
An electroconductive polyethylene resin composition comprises: a resin component comprising a polar-group-containing polyethylene resin (A) and a polyethylene resin (B); and an electroconductive filler (E) incorporated into the resin component, wherein each of the proportions of the polar-group-containing polyethylene resin (A) and the polyethylene resin (B) in the resin component is the polar-group-containing polyethylene resin (A): 0.5 wt %-80 wt % and the polyethylene resin (B): 99.5 wt %-20 wt %, and the electroconductive polyethylene resin composition satisfies the following requirement (1): (1) surface resistivity: 10Ω/□-1010Ω/□. |
| US09922740B2 |
Nuclear power generation system
A nuclear power generation system and related power cycle are disclosed, in one embodiment, the system includes primary coolant circulation through a hydraulically interconnected reactor containing nuclear fuel and a steam generating vessel collectively defining a steam supply system. Liquid secondary coolant for the power cycle flows through the steam generating vessel and is converted to steam by the primary coolant to drive a low pressure turbine of a turbine-generator set. Steam exiting the turbine is condensed and heated prior to return to the steam supply system, thereby completing a secondary coolant flow loop. In one embodiment, a majority of the secondary coolant heating occurs within the steam generating vessel via heat exchange with the primary coolant rather than externally in the secondary coolant flow loop. This creates a temperature differential between the primary and secondary coolant sufficient to create natural thermally induced convective circulation of the primary coolant. |
| US09922739B2 |
Method for shielded relocation of a nuclear component
A nuclear component transfer device that incorporates a shielded canister into the mast design of a conventional nuclear refueling machine. A moveable mast telescopes within a stationary mast which is attached to a bridge for lateral positioning. The canister allows for the addition of shielding that is positioned with the movement of the moveable mast without additional motorized components to deploy the shielding during nuclear component movement. The nuclear component is drawn up into the shielded canister as the moveable mast lifts the nuclear component. The nuclear component is then placed into a transfer cart that is also fitted with a shielded canister. The transfer is made without exposing the nuclear components resulting in completely shield movement. |
| US09922737B1 |
Reactor internals sensor inserts
A reactor internals component having a sensor insert for monitoring reactor internals components, supported within the reactor internals. The sensor insert has a hollow internal cavity that houses a number of compartmentalized, self-contained, passive environmental sensors. The sensor inserts are provided with a tracking code that can be employed to identify their location and orientation. |
| US09922733B2 |
Methods and systems for migrating fuel assemblies in a nuclear fission reactor
Illustrative embodiments provide methods and systems for migrating fuel assemblies in a nuclear fission reactor, methods of operating a nuclear fission traveling wave reactor, methods of controlling a nuclear fission traveling wave reactor, systems for controlling a nuclear fission traveling wave reactor, computer software program products for controlling a nuclear fission traveling wave reactor, and nuclear fission traveling wave reactors with systems for migrating fuel assemblies. |
| US09922731B2 |
Resistance welding of an end cap for nuclear fuel rods
An open end of a cladding tube of a nuclear fuel rod is plugged with an end plug having a main body and a cylindrical bond portion extending from the main body and terminating in a cladding seat with reduced diameter compared with the cylindrical bond portion. The plugging includes clamping the open end of the cladding tube against the cladding seat of the end plug and, while clamping, applying electrical current between the end plug and the open end of the cladding tube so as to force the open end of the cladding tube over the cladding seat and slide over the cylindrical bond portion of the end plug and to generate a resistance weld between a cylindrical bonding surface of the cylindrical bond portion of the end plug and the inside surface of the open end of the cladding tube. |
| US09922730B2 |
Assessing the effectiveness of psychiatric medication in physicians' practices
Disclosed is a method of efficiently assessing the effectiveness of psychiatric medications as administered by physicians and more specifically to a methodology that compares the effectiveness of different medications across groups of patients based on changes in mental health scores using electronic systems. Additionally, the invention delineates when changes in medications are made during the course of medical visits for a single patient. |
| US09922729B2 |
Soft post package repair of memory devices
Apparatus and methods for soft post package repair are disclosed. One such apparatus can include memory cells in a package, volatile memory configured to store defective address data responsive to entering a soft post-package repair mode, a match logic circuit and a decoder. The match logic circuit can generate a match signal indicating whether address data corresponding to an address to be accessed matches the defective address data stored in the volatile memory. The decoder can select a first group of the memory cells to be accessed instead of a second group of the memory cells responsive to the match signal indicating that the address data corresponding to the address to be accessed matches the defective address data stored in the volatile memory. The second group of the memory cells can correspond to a replacement address associated with other defective address data stored in non-volatile memory of the apparatus. |
| US09922728B2 |
Memory device
A memory device may include a plurality of memory cells; and an error detection unit suitable for latching first read data of one or more memory cells selected from the plurality of memory cells after refreshing the selected memory cells, in a first phase, and suitable for detecting errors of the selected memory cells before refreshing the selected memory cells, in a second phase. |
| US09922727B2 |
Protection against state transition errors in solid-state data storage systems
A data storage device includes a solid-state memory including memory cells and a controller configured to implement a data protection programming scheme by programming a first subset of the cells to a first voltage state using a first target voltage, programs a second subset to a second voltage state using a second target voltage higher than the first target voltage, programs a third subset to a third voltage state using a third target voltage higher than the second target voltage, and programs a fourth subset to a fourth voltage state using a fourth target voltage higher than the third target voltage. A difference in voltage between the fourth target voltage and the third target voltage may be greater or less than a difference in voltage between the third target voltage and the second target voltage and/or a difference in voltage between the second target voltage and the first target voltage. |
| US09922722B2 |
Antifuse cell with capacitor and transistors
An antifuse cell includes an antifuse capacitor that is activatable with a breakdown voltage to provide an electrically conductive path through the capacitor. A pull-up transistor is coupled to the antifuse capacitor. A current path of the pull-up transistor is arranged in parallel with the antifuse capacitor. A shooting transistor is coupled to the pull-up transistor with the current paths of the pull-up transistor and a current path of the shooting transistor cascaded to each other. |
| US09922715B2 |
Non-volatile split gate memory device and a method of operating same
A non-volatile memory device that a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type. An array of non-volatile memory cells is in the semiconductor substrate arranged in a plurality of rows and columns. Each memory cell comprises a first region on a surface of the semiconductor substrate of a second conductivity type, and a second region on the surface of the semiconductor substrate of the second conductivity type. A channel region is between the first region and the second region. A word line overlies a first portion of the channel region and is insulated therefrom, and adjacent to the first region and having little or no overlap with the first region. A floating gate overlies a second portion of the channel region, is adjacent to the first portion, and is insulated therefrom and is adjacent to the second region. A coupling gate overlies the floating gate. A bit line is connected to the first region. A negative charge pump circuit generates a first negative voltage. A control circuit receives a command signal and generates a plurality of control signals, in response thereto and applies the first negative voltage to the word line of the unselected memory cells. During the operations of program, read or erase, a negative voltage can be applied to the word lines of the unselected memory cells. |
| US09922714B1 |
Temperature dependent erase in non-volatile storage
Apparatuses and techniques are described for temperature dependent erase in non-volatile storage. In one aspect, select gate voltage magnitude depends on temperature. This temperature dependent select gate voltage may be applied to a control gate of a select transistor while applying an erase voltage to a bit line and/or source line coupled to the select transistor. This can help assure that there is sufficient GIDL current for efficient erase at lower temperatures. In one aspect, a control circuit increases the duration of the erase voltage that is applied to the source line and/or the bit line at lower temperatures. In one aspect, the magnitude of the first erase voltage in a sequence depends on the present temperature. |
| US09922713B2 |
Memory device
Provided is an electronic device, such as a flash memory device and/or a write-once-read-once memory device, where the device has a polyoxometallate that is capable of providing and/or accepting one or more electrons. The polyoxometallate may have a Wells-Dawson structure and the polyoxometallate may comprise a cage and optionally one or more guests. Also provided is a method of using the memory device, the method comprising the step of providing to or accepting from the polyoxometalate one or more electrons to provide a polyoxometalate in a reduced or oxidized state. |
| US09922711B2 |
Semiconductor memory having both volatile and non-volatile functionality comprising resistive change material and method of operating
A semiconductor memory cell including a capacitorless transistor having a floating body configured to store data as charge therein when power is applied to the cell, and a non-volatile memory comprising a bipolar resistive change element, and methods of operating. |
| US09922708B1 |
Voltage controlling circuit
A voltage controlling circuit may include a first voltage terminal, a second voltage terminal and a plurality of Ovonic threshold switch (OTS) units. The second voltage terminal may have a voltage different from that of the first voltage terminal. The OTS devices may be connected between the first voltage terminal and the second voltage terminal. The OTS units may be serially connected with each other. |
| US09922702B1 |
Apparatus for improving read stability
Described is an apparatus which comprises: a pass-gate; a sleep transistor configured as a diode-connected device controllable by the pass-gate; and a word-line driver coupled to the sleep transistor and the pass-gate. |
| US09922695B2 |
Apparatus and method for page copying within sections of a memory
An apparatus comprises: a source array of memory cells with associated source sense amplifiers; a destination array of memory cells with associated destination sense amplifiers; and logic to activate a source word-line (WL) to select a row of memory cells within the source array such that data in the selected row of memory cells is latched by the associated source sense amplifiers, wherein the logic to activate a destination WL to select a row of memory cells within the destination array such that data in the selected row of memory cells is latched by the associated destination sense amplifiers, and wherein the source and destination arrays of memory cells are within a same bank of a memory. |
| US09922693B2 |
Adaptive refresh scheduling for memory
The present disclosure provides for adaptive scheduling of memory refreshes. One embodiment relates to a method of adapting an initial refresh sequence. In this method, flow and blockage scores for each refresh sequence of a plurality of refresh sequences are obtained and stored in an array of scores. An initial refresh sequence is selected in a way that favors a high flow score and a low blockage score. Another embodiment relates to a method of adapting a current refresh sequence. Current flow and blockage scores are obtained and stored for the current refresh sequence. The current flow and blockage scores are used to update (by averaging, for example) the existing flow and blockage scores for the current refresh sequence. The next refresh sequence is then chosen from amongst a plurality of refresh sequences in a way that favors a high flow score and a low blockage score. |
| US09922691B2 |
Resistive memory write circuitry with bit line drive strength based on storage cell line resistance
An apparatus is described that includes a bit line. The apparatus also includes first and second storage cells coupled to the bit line. The first storage cell has a first access transistor. The first access transistor is coupled to a first line resistance. The second storage cell has a second access transistor. The second access transistor is coupled to a second line resistance. The second line resistance is greater than the first line resistance. The apparatus also includes first and second drivers that are coupled to the bit line. The second driver is a stronger driver than the first driver. The apparatus also includes circuitry to select the first driver to write information into the first storage cell and select the second driver to write information into the second storage cell. |
| US09922688B2 |
Bitline sensing latch
A bit line sensing latch circuit is disclosed. In one embodiment, a latch circuit includes a keeper and a precharge circuit. The keeper may be implemented using a single pair of transistors that are cross-coupled between first and second differential signal nodes. A gate terminal of a first one of the pair of transistors is coupled to the first differential signal node, while the drain terminal of the same transistor is coupled to the second differential signal node. The gate terminal of a second one of the pair of transistors is coupled to the second differential signal node, while its drain terminal is coupled to the first differential signal node. The bitline sensing latch also includes a precharge circuit, and may operates in two phases, a precharge phase and an enable phase. |
| US09922687B2 |
Memory system, semiconductor device and methods of operating the same
A memory system, a semiconductor memory device and methods of operating the same may perform a read operation on the basis of flag data stored in a flag register, without reading the flag data stored in a memory array, when performing the read operation, so that a time taken for the read operation may be reduced. |
| US09922686B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for performing intra-module databus inversion operations
Apparatuses, memory modules, and methods for performing intra-module data bus inversion operations are described. An example apparatus include a memory module comprising a data bus inversion (DBI) and buffer circuit and a plurality of memories. The DBI and buffer circuit configured to encode a block of data received by the memory module and to provide DBI data and a corresponding DBI bit to a respective memory of the plurality of memories. |
| US09922685B2 |
Semiconductor device and driving method thereof
A semiconductor device includes: a source line; a bit line; a word line; a memory cell connected to the bit line and the word line; a driver circuit which drives a plurality of second signal lines and a plurality of word lines so as to select the memory cell specified by an address signal; a potential generating circuit which generates a writing potential and a plurality of reading potentials to supply to a writing circuit and a reading circuit; and a control circuit which selects one of a plurality of voltages for correction on a basis of results of the reading circuit comparing a potential of the bit line with the plurality of reading potentials. |
| US09922683B2 |
Power delivery circuitry
A memory device includes a memory system and an energy storage device including a capacitor. Additionally, the memory storage device includes power delivery circuitry that delivers to the memory system a first power from the energy storage device and a second power from an external power supply coupled to the memory device. |
| US09922681B2 |
Techniques for adding interactive features to videos
Techniques are disclosed for adding interactive features to videos to enable users to create new media using a dynamic blend of motion and still imagery. The interactive techniques can include allowing a user to change the starting time of one or more subjects in a given video frame, or only animate/play a portion of a given frame scene. The techniques may include segmenting each frame of a video to identify one or more subjects within each frame, selecting (or receiving selections of) one or more subjects within the given frame scene, tracking the selected subject(s) from frame to frame, and alpha-matting to play/animate only the selected subject(s). In some instances, segmentation, selection, and/or tracking may be improved and/or enhanced using pixel depth information (e.g., using a depth map). |
| US09922679B2 |
Slow motion video playback method for computing devices with touch interfaces
Disclosed is a system and method for controlling the playback speed, and user experience, of watching slow motion video content on a touch sensitive computing device such as a mobile phone, tablet or laptop with a touch sensitive screen. Key features of the disclosure are the simplicity of the user interface and the instant visual feedback given to the user. |
| US09922678B2 |
Error correction for storage devices
Systems and techniques include a method including: receiving a data request for first data stored at a storage device; reading second data from discrete units of storage of the storage device, the second data comprising the first data read from two or more of the discrete units of storage, error correction code redundancies read from the two or more of the discrete units of storage, and parity data read from at least one of the discrete units of storage; detecting, based on the error correction code redundancies, an error in a first portion of the first data stored in one of the two or more of the discrete units of storage; and recovering the first portion of the first data using the parity data and a second portion of the first data read from one or more remaining ones of the two or more of the discrete units of storage. |
| US09922677B2 |
Library device, cartridge jump-out preventing mechanism and method
A library device includes: a housing for accommodating a magazine to be able to be put in and out, wherein the magazine has slots for accommodating recording medium cartridges to be able to be put in and out; an accessor for conveying the recording medium cartridge ejected from the slot to the magnetic tape drive; and a cartridge jump-out preventing mechanism for preventing the recording medium cartridge from jumping out to a moving path of the accessor. The cartridge jump-out preventing mechanism includes: an elastic pushing mechanism which can push the recording medium cartridge into the slot by using an elastic force when the magazine is inserted into the housing; and a latch mechanism which can hold the recording medium cartridge so that the recording medium cartridge does not jump out of the slot when the recording medium cartridge is completely accommodated in the slot. |
| US09922673B2 |
Magnetoresistance element with improved response to magnetic fields
A magnetoresistance element has a pinning arrangement with two antiferromagnetic pinning layers, two pinned layers, and a free layer. A spacer layer between one of the two antiferromagnetic pinning layers and the free layer has a material selected to allow a controllable partial pinning by the one of the two antiferromagnetic pinning layers. |
| US09922672B1 |
Dual free layer magnetic reader having a rear bias structure having a high aspect ratio
A magnetic read apparatus has an air-bearing surface (ABS) and includes a read sensor and a rear magnetic bias structure. The read sensor includes first and second free layers, a spacer layer and a rear surface opposite to the ABS. The spacer layer is nonmagnetic and between the first and second free layers. The read sensor has a track width in a cross track direction parallel to the ABS. The rear magnetic bias structure magnetically biases the read sensor a stripe height direction perpendicular to the ABS. The read sensor is between the ABS and the rear magnetic bias structure. The rear magnetic bias structure has a width in the cross track direction and a length in the stripe height direction. The length is greater than the width. The width of the rear magnetic bias structure is substantially equal to the track width of the read sensor. |
| US09922668B2 |
Estimating fractional chirp rate with multiple frequency representations
An estimate of a fractional chirp rate of a signal may be computed by using multiple frequency representations of the signal. A first frequency representation may be computed using a first fractional chirp rate and a first score may be computed using the first frequency representation that indicates a match between the first fractional chirp rate and a fractional chirp rate of the signal. A second frequency representation may be computed using a second fractional chirp rate and a second score may be computed using the second frequency representation that indicates a match between the second fractional chirp rate and the fractional chirp rate of the signal. The fractional chirp rate of the signal may be estimated using the first score and the second score, for example, by selecting a fractional chirp rate corresponding to a highest score. |
| US09922666B2 |
Conversational analytics
A computer-implemented method includes determining a meeting has initialized between a first user and a second user, wherein vocal and video recordings are produced for at least the first user. The method receives the vocal and video recordings for the first user. The method analyzes the vocal and video recordings for the first user according to one or more parameters for speech and one or more parameters for gestures. The method determines one or more emotions and a role in the meeting for the first user based at least on the analyzed vocal and video recordings. The method sends an output of analysis to at least one of the first user and the second user, wherein the output of analysis includes at least the determined one or more emotions and the role in the meeting for the first user. |
| US09922664B2 |
Characterizing, selecting and adapting audio and acoustic training data for automatic speech recognition systems
A system for and method of characterizing a target application acoustic domain analyzes one or more speech data samples from the target application acoustic domain to determine one or more target acoustic characteristics, including a CODEC type and bit-rate associated with the speech data samples. The determined target acoustic characteristics may also include other aspects of the target speech data samples such as sampling frequency, active bandwidth, noise level, reverberation level, clipping level, and speaking rate. The determined target acoustic characteristics are stored in a memory as a target acoustic data profile. The data profile may be used to select and/or modify one or more out of domain speech samples based on the one or more target acoustic characteristics. |
| US09922663B2 |
Voice signal processing method and apparatus
A voice signal processing method and apparatus, which are used to process a voice signal collected by a microphone of a terminal in order to meet requirements of the terminal in different application modes for the voice signal generated after the processing. The method includes collecting at least two voice signals, determining a current application mode of a terminal, determining, according to the current application mode from the voice signals, voice signals corresponding to the current application mode, and performing, in a preset voice signal processing manner that matches the current application mode, beamforming processing on the corresponding voice signals. |
| US09922662B2 |
Coherently-modified speech signal generation by time-dependent scaling of intensity of a pitch-modified utterance
A method comprising: receiving an utterance, an original pitch contour of the utterance, and a target pitch contour for the utterance, wherein the utterance comprises a plurality of consecutive frames, and wherein at least one of said frames is a voiced frame; calculating an original intensity contour of said utterance; generating a pitch modified utterance based on the target pitch contour; calculating an intensity modification factor for each of said frames, based on said original pitch contour and on said target pitch contour, to produce a sequence of intensity modification factors corresponding to said plurality of consecutive frames; calculating a final intensity contour for said utterance by applying said intensity modification factors to said original intensity contour; and generating a coherently modified speech signal by time dependent scaling of the intensity of said pitch modified utterance according to said final intensity contour. |
| US09922657B2 |
Method for determining for the compression of an HOA data frame representation a lowest integer number of bits required for representing non-differential gain values
When compressing an HOA data frame representation, a gain control (15, 151) is applied for each channel signal before it is perceptually encoded (16). The gain values are transferred in a differential manner as side information. However, for starting decoding of such streamed compressed HOA data frame representation absolute gain values are required, which should be coded with a minimum number of bits. For determining such lowest integer number (βe) of bits the HOA data frame representation (C(k)) is rendered in spatial domain to virtual loudspeaker signals lying on a unit sphere, followed by normalization of the HOA data frame representation (C(k)). Then the lowest integer number of bits is set to (AA). |
| US09922655B2 |
System, method, and recording medium for controlling dialogue interruptions by a speech output device
A computer speech output control method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium, include a computer speech output control system, including a computer speech output unit configured to output a computer speech, a human speech monitoring circuit configured to determine whether a human conversation is occurring, an interruption priority setting circuit configured to set a priority setting for when the human conversation can be interrupted by the computer speech, and an interruption determining circuit configured to determine whether to cause the computer speech output unit to output the computer speech based on the priority setting and a status of the human conversation. |
| US09922653B2 |
System and method for validating natural language content using crowdsourced validation jobs
Systems and methods of validating transcriptions of natural language content using crowdsourced validation jobs are provided herein. In various implementations, a transcription pair comprising natural language content and text corresponding to a transcription of the natural language content may be gathered. A group of validation devices may be selected for reviewing the transcription pair. A crowdsourced validation job may be created for the group of validation devices. The crowdsourced validation job may be provided to the group of validation devices. One or more votes representing whether or not the text accurately represents the natural language content may be received from the group of validation devices. Based on the one or more votes received, the transcription pair may be stored in a validated transcription library, which may be used to process end-user voice data. |
| US09922651B1 |
Avionics text entry, cursor control, and display format selection via voice recognition
A method includes detecting an initiation command to begin outputting text data received from a voice recognition system to a text buffer of an aircraft. The method includes recognizing user speech as the text data and outputting the text data to the text buffer for presentation to a user. The method further includes detecting an end command to end outputting the text data received from the voice recognition system to the text buffer. The method also includes receiving a confirmation input from the user, the confirmation input indicating that the user has confirmed accuracy of the text data of the text buffer. The method additionally includes receiving a destination selection from the user, the destination selection indicating a destination selected by the user for the text data of the text buffer. The method further includes outputting the text data of the text buffer to the destination selected by the user. |
| US09922647B2 |
Approach to reducing the response time of a speech interface
A method for reducing response time in a speech interface including constructing a partially completed word sequence from a partially received utterance from a speaker received by an audio sensor, modeling a remainder portion using a processor based on a rich predictive model to predict the remainder portion, and responding to the partially completed word sequence and the predicted remainder portion using a natural language vocalization generator with a vocalization, wherein the vocalization is prepared before a complete utterance is received from the speaker and conveyed to the speaker by an audio transducer. |
| US09922645B2 |
Recognizing speech in the presence of additional audio
The technology described in this document can be embodied in a computer-implemented method that includes receiving, at a processing system, a first signal including an output of a speaker device and an additional audio signal. The method also includes determining, by the processing system, based at least in part on a model trained to identify the output of the speaker device, that the additional audio signal corresponds to an utterance of a user. The method further includes initiating a reduction in an audio output level of the speaker device based on determining that the additional audio signal corresponds to the utterance of the user. |
| US09922640B2 |
System and method for multimodal utterance detection
The disclosure describe a system and method for detecting one or more segments of desired speech utterances from an audio stream using timings of events from other modes that are correlated to the timings of the desired segments of speech. The redundant information from other modes results in a highly accurate and robust utterance detection. |
| US09922639B1 |
User feedback for speech interactions
An interactive system may be implemented in part by an audio device located within a user environment, which may accept speech commands from a user and may also interact with the user by means of generated speech. In order to improve performance of the interactive system, a user may use a separate device, such as a personal computer or mobile device, to access a graphical user interface that lists details of historical speech interactions. The graphical user interface may be configured to allow the user to provide feedback and/or corrections regarding the details of specific interactions. |
| US09922638B2 |
Acoustic fresnel zone plate lens for aqueous environments and methods of using same
An apparatus in a surrounding liquid and methods of using same. The apparatus includes an acoustic Fresnel zone plate comprising a compliant frame, a substrate connected to the frame, and an acoustic diffraction grating connected to the substrate. The acoustic diffraction grating includes a plurality of concentric rings or a plurality of concentric islands. The substrate is acoustic-impedance-mismatched with the acoustic diffraction grating. The acoustic Fresnel zone plate includes at least one acoustic focal spot. The substrate is acoustic-impedance-mismatched with the surrounding liquid and the acoustic diffraction grating is acoustic-impedance-matched with the surrounding liquid, or the substrate is acoustic-impedance-matched with the surrounding liquid and the acoustic diffraction grating is acoustic-impedance-mismatched with the surrounding liquid. |
| US09922637B2 |
Microphone noise suppression for computing device
A computing device with a microphone system is disclosed. The computing device includes a microphone system with an environment microphone and a noise microphone. The environment microphone picks up an environment microphone signal which includes (1) a desired signal component based on desired sound and (2) a noise component based on noise from a noise source. The noise microphone picks up a noise microphone signal based on the noise, and is configured such that contributions to the noise microphone signal from the desired sound, if present, are attenuated relative to the environment microphone. A controller receives and processes time samples from the noise microphone signal to yield a noise estimation of the noise component. The estimation is subtracted from the environment microphone signal to yield and end-user output. |
| US09922633B2 |
Waveform writing device, method of writing waveforms, electronic musical instrument, and storage medium
A device for reading waveform data of a musical tone from a primary storage device and transferring the read waveform data to a secondary storage device for tone reproduction includes a processor configured to perform: retrieving, for each waveform of a plurality of waveforms that represent a musical tone stored in the primary storage device, segment group information from the primary storage device; retrieving the plurality of waveforms that represent the musical tone from the primary storage device, the waveform group retrieval process retrieving a waveform or waveforms, among the plurality of waveforms, that have the same segment group information as a group; and writing, as a single group, the waveform or waveforms, among the plurality of waveforms, that have the same segment group information onto one of prescribed storage segments that are storage regions of prescribed sizes in the secondary storage device. |
| US09922631B2 |
Car karaoke
A motor vehicle includes a loudspeaker, a voice recognition module, and a microphone producing a microphone signal based upon words uttered by a human passenger within a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle. An electronic processor is communicatively coupled to the microphone, the loudspeaker, and the voice recognition module. The electronic processor receives the microphone signal and communicates with the voice recognition module to thereby ascertain the words uttered by the human passenger. The electronic processor retrieves Karaoke music corresponding to the ascertained words uttered by the human passenger, and plays the Karaoke music on the loudspeaker. |
| US09922628B1 |
Vibraphone fan drive mechanism
A vibrato assembly for a keyboard percussion instrument comprises a motor and a vibrato fan or disc assembly. A motor (510) is responsive to a controller (1000), a run/stop switch (1035), and a potentiometer (1020). Pulleys (100A, 100B′, 515) and a timing belt (520) couple rotation of the motor to an assembly of resonator or vibrato fans (720) via one or more magnets (120) or magnetically susceptible members to isolate vibrations. A sensor is activated by one of the magnets to sense the rotational position of a pulley when the fans are oriented vertically. When a run/stop switch 1035 is in a “stop” condition, sensor 525 signals controller 1000 to stop the motor, thereby leaving the fans vertical so that resonant tubes (725) are in an open condition when the vibrato function is stopped. |
| US09922623B2 |
Emboldening of outline fonts
Methods, apparatuses, and computer readable storage media for increasing the weight of a character are described. In one aspect, the method includes receiving a vector character description and an emboldening parameter of an initial character. Vertices of an emboldened representation of the initial character are calculated by moving each vertex of the initial character based on a combination of the emboldening parameter and a stroke width for each vertex associated with the vertex, such that each stroke of the emboldened representation of the initial character is thickened based on the width of the stroke. The emboldened representation of the initial character are formed using the calculated vertices to increase the weight of the initial character. |
| US09922617B2 |
Electronic device, control method, and storage medium storing control program
According to an aspect, an electronic device includes a first face, a second face, a display unit arranged on the first surface, a notification unit arranged on the second surface, an attitude detecting unit, and a control unit. The attitude detecting unit detects whether attitude of the electronic device is a first attitude, in which the first surface faces upward in the vertical direction, or a second attitude, in which the first surface faces downward in the vertical direction. When the attitude detecting unit detects the second attitude, the control unit prevents displaying on the display unit and enables the notification unit to give a notification. |
| US09922616B2 |
Display controller for enhancing visibility and reducing power consumption and display system including the same
A display controller includes a local contrast enhancement circuit that includes a plurality of scale circuits. Each scale circuit includes a block separation circuit configured to divide input display data into sub blocks, a calculation circuit configured to calculate a feature value that characterizes each of the sub blocks, and a storage device configured to store the feature value. The number and size of the sub blocks differ among the scale circuits. |
| US09922614B2 |
Source driver circuit and display device for reducing power consumed by non-display area of display panel
A source driver circuit includes a receiver, a plurality of amplifying buffers, and a control logic circuit. The receiver receives a data signal and a control signal through an input terminal. Each of the amplifying buffers outputs a driving signal generated based on the image data signal through an output terminal. The control logic circuit controls the receiver and the plurality of amplifying buffers based on the control signal. When a power-down signal is provided to the receiver, the control logic circuit is to turn off at least one of the receiver and the plurality of amplifying buffers. |
| US09922610B2 |
Display device
A display device including a controller configured to control the source driver and the gate driver based on a control mode for displaying the frame image on the display portion, wherein: in the basic control mode, the controller is configured to display the frame image on the display portion by causing the gate driver to progressively scan all of the N gate signal lines within a predetermined time period, in the low-power control mode, the controller is configured to display a sub-frame image on the display portion by causing the gate driver to scan W gate signal lines within the predetermined time period, and to perform interlaced scanning of the plurality of gate signal lines every K lines, the control mode is configured to shift from the basic control mode to the low-power control mode by way of the first shift control mode. |
| US09922607B2 |
Liquid crystal display device and driving method thereof
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes a liquid crystal display panel having a matrix of liquid crystal cells defined by crossings of the data lines and the gate lines. The LCD device includes a data driving circuit for inverting a polarity of a data voltage in response to a polarity control signal, and supplying the polarity-inverted data voltage to an associated one of the data lines in response to a source output enable signal; a gate driving circuit for sequentially supplying a scan voltage to each of the gate lines in response to a gate output enable signal; and a controller for modulating the polarity control signal such that data voltages having the same polarity are respectively supplied to liquid crystal cells along one gate line in consecutive frame periods and generating the source output enable signal and the gate output enable signal. |
| US09922606B2 |
Display driving circuit and display device
The present invention provides a display driving circuit and a display device. The display driving circuit comprises a timing controller and a driving chip, and the timing controller comprises a first generation module and a first timing module. The first generation module is connected with the first timing module and the driving chip respectively, and configured to generate a row starting signal for triggering the first timing module to start timing and the driving chip which is idle to turn on. The first timing module is connected with the driving chip, and configured to trigger the driving chip which is idle in a non-effective pixel display duration to turn off, in case a current timing duration equals to an effective pixel display duration. The display driving circuit can prevent an idle driving chip from staying in the on-state and consuming power, so that current requirements for energy saving against a display device can be satisfied, and the quality of display device can be improved.(FIG. 1) |
| US09922605B2 |
Display device and driving method thereof
A display device includes a display unit, a common voltage measuring unit, and a signal controller. The display unit include a plurality of pixels, each including a liquid crystal capacitor including a terminal coupled to a common electrode to receive a common voltage and a pixel electrode to receive a gray scale voltage. The common voltage measuring unit measures a change in the common voltage resulting from a coupling between the common electrode and the pixel electrode when a test image including a specific pattern is output to the display unit. The signal controller detects a level of a residual DC voltage of a liquid crystal layer between the common electrode and pixel electrode based on a measured value of the common voltage. |
| US09922597B2 |
EL display apparatus
An electroluminescent (EL) display apparatus and corresponding method of control are provided. A display screen includes pixels arranged in a matrix. A pixel circuit of each of the pixels includes, in part: a second switch transistor to supply, to a driving transistor, an image signal; and a third switch transistor for initially resetting the pixel circuit before the second switch transistor supplies the image signal. A gate terminal of the second switch transistor and a gate terminal of the third switch transistor are connected to a second gate driver circuit. The second gate driver circuit includes a first gate driver circuit and a second gate driver circuit. The second gate driver circuit includes a second gate signal line connected to both the gate terminal of the second switch transistor of a Nth row and the gate terminal of the third switch transistor of a (N+1)th row. |
| US09922596B2 |
Pixel circuits for AMOLED displays
The OLED voltage of a selected pixel is extracted from the pixel produced when the pixel is programmed so that the pixel current is a function of the OLED voltage. One method for extracting the OLED voltage is to first program the pixel in a way that the current is not a function of OLED voltage, and then in a way that the current is a function of OLED voltage. During the latter stage, the programming voltage is changed so that the pixel current is the same as the pixel current when the pixel was programmed in a way that the current was not a function of OLED voltage. The difference in the two programming voltages is then used to extract the OLED voltage. |
| US09922592B2 |
Display control based on a digital signal
In one example, a method for controlling a display with a digital signal includes detecting a binary value from a timing controller, the binary value corresponding to a portion of an image to be displayed. The method can also include determining a previous binary value from the timing controller and calculating a difference between the binary value from the timing controller and the previous binary value from the timing controller. Furthermore, the method can include generating an encoded signal based on the difference and transmitting the encoded signal to a display panel. |
| US09922591B2 |
Display driving method and mobile apparatus thereof
A display driving method includes: performing a display scan function and a display stop function during a plurality of frame periods; during one frame period, outputting, alternately and sequentially along a scan direction, N scan signals according to K clock signals when performing the display scan function, wherein each of the scan signals has an enable period of a scan line, the clock signals sequentially have a delay, and each of the clock signals is a periodic signal with K delays as one period; providing a driving control signal and disabling the clock signals when performing the display stop function during a display stop period, wherein an initiation time position of the display stop period is changed based on an offset between two neighboring frame periods, and the neighboring frame periods have no overlapping or interlacing interval. |
| US09922588B2 |
Image display device
A liquid crystal display device (100) according to the present invention comprises: a transparent-display-area extraction circuit (15) for extracting an area to be used as a transparent display area from an input image signal (Sin); a subfield generation circuit (21) which divides the input image signal (Sin) into a plurality of subfields to generate a subfield image signal (Ssf) and reads, from a resister (22), transparency setting data (Dts) for forcibly changing the transparent display area to a state of transparent display in all the subfields; and a display panel drive unit (23,30) which displays an image on a crystal liquid panel (60) for each subfield on the basis of the subfield image signal (Ssf) and changes the transparent display area into a state of transparent display on the liquid crystal panel (60) on the basis of the transparency setting data (Dts). |
| US09922587B2 |
Pixel structure and driving method thereof, display panel and display device
This disclosure provides a pixel structure and a driving method thereof, a display panel and a display device. The pixel structure comprises: a plurality of repeating groups; each repeating group comprising three sub-pixels of different colors arranged in row direction; positions of repeating groups of adjacent rows being staggered for one and a half sub-pixels in column direction. In the above pixel structure, three sub-pixels constitute two pixels, which can, under a relatively low physical resolution, realize a relatively high resolution through sharing sub-pixels by a plurality of pixel units. |
| US09922586B2 |
Loading effect control device and organic light emitting display device having the same
A loading effect control device includes a detecting line, a detector, a load controller, and a gamma reference voltage generator. The detecting line is coupled to a first power supply line in a display panel, and the first power supply line provides a first power voltage. The detector measures the first power voltage in the display panel through the detecting line, detects an amount of load of the display panel, and outputs a first voltage corresponding to the detected amount of the load. The load controller determines a control amount of the load based on the detected load amount and a loading effect setting. The gamma reference voltage generator controls a gamma reference voltage based on the control amount of the load. |
| US09922585B2 |
Display device and method of testing the same
A display device includes a display panel with signal wire pads connected to data lines; an integrated circuit (IC) that feeds a data voltage to the data lines; a multiplexer disposed on a substrate of the display panel, between the data lines and the integrated circuit; a flexible circuit board bonded onto the substrate of the display panel and connected to the signal wire pads; and a test circuit on the substrate of the display panel. |
| US09922579B2 |
Gallbladder model
An anatomical model for surgical training is provided. The model includes a first layer simulating a liver and a second layer including a simulated gallbladder. A third layer having an inner surface and an outer surface is provided between the first and second layer. The outer surface of the third layer is adhered to the first layer at location around the simulated gallbladder and the simulated gallbladder is adhered to the inner surface of the third layer. A fourth layer is provided that overlays both the second layer and the simulated gallbladder. A frame is embedded within the first layer and is connectable to a support. The model provides a substantially upright projection of a simulated gallbladder and liver in a retracted orientation ideally suited for practicing laparoscopic cholecystectomy when inserted inside a simulated insufflated cavity of laparoscopic trainer. |
| US09922569B2 |
System and method for monitoring a communication channel and displaying information
A system and method for monitoring a communication channel and displaying information. A signal is received via the communication channel and signal information is extracted from the signal. The signal information is monitored for a predetermined indicator. Selected information is extracted from the signal information when the predetermined indicator is detected in the signal information and then displayed. |
| US09922563B2 |
Dynamic cross-lane travel path determination by self-driving vehicles
A method, system, and/or computer program product creates an unimpeded pathway on a roadway for a first self-driving vehicle (SDV). One or more processor(s) determine a first vehicle priority level of the first SDV. The processor(s) determine other vehicle priority levels for other SDVs that are traveling on different lanes on a roadway, and then determine that the first vehicle priority level is higher than any of the other vehicle priority levels. Based on this determination, the processor(s) direct SDV on-board computers on the other SDVs to adjust spacing distances between the other SDVs, such that adjusted spacing distances between the other SDVs provide a pathway on the roadway for the first SDV that includes unobstructed lane changes, thus permitting the first SDV to maneuver around the other SDVs on the roadway in an unimpeded manner. |
| US09922561B2 |
Intelligent parking system
The present invention is a system for intelligently managing parking spaces and facilities. A preferred embodiment of the present invention would include a system comprising one or more parking barrier devices, connected over a network to a system back-end that manages parking space utilization, barrier operation and status, and inputs from one or multiple user applications. |
| US09922553B2 |
Vehicle assistance systems and methods utilizing vehicle to vehicle communications
Methods, systems, and storage media are described for assisting the operation of a first vehicle. In embodiments, a computing device of the first vehicle may obtain first sensor data from a first sensor of the first vehicle. The first sensor data may be representative of a second vehicle proximate to the first vehicle. The computing device may determine a first position of the second vehicle relative to the first vehicle; initiate a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications session with the second vehicle; receive second sensor data from the second vehicle during the V2V communications session; and determine a second position based on the second sensor data. The second position may be a position of the second vehicle relative to a third vehicle. The computing device may display an image of the third vehicle on a display device. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed. |
| US09922550B2 |
Remote control framework
A remote control framework enables a plurality of target devices to be controlled by a plurality of remote control devices irrespective of bearer types. In a preferred embodiment any target device may also act as a control device and any control device may also act as a target device. The framework also enables any application running on any target device to be controlled by any controller device. |
| US09922549B2 |
Vehicle integration with security and/or automation systems
A system and method for controlling a security and/or automation system using a aspects of a vehicle. The method may include receiving confirmation of a user's presence in the vehicle, receiving confirmation of vehicle operation, displaying on a display of the vehicle at least one control option for a security and/or automation system of a property monitored by the security and/or automation system, receiving at least one user input on the display related to the at least one control option, and transmitting instructions to control the security and/or automation system based on the at least one user input. |
| US09922548B2 |
Trainable transceiver and camera systems and methods
A system for installation in a vehicle and for controlling a remote device including a trainable transceiver, a camera, an output device, and a control circuit coupled to the trainable transceiver and the camera. The control circuit is configured to use data received from the camera to determine if the vehicle is well positioned within a garage, and the control circuit is configured to provide an indication that the vehicle is well positioned using the output device in response to determining that the vehicle is well positioned within a garage. |
| US09922547B2 |
Remote control unit for activating and deactivating means for payment and for displaying payment status
The invention relates to a remote control unit for intelligent digital audiovisual reproduction systems, comprising storage means, payment means, a sound control circuit, display means and a metal chassis wherein said remote control unit comprises a distant radio frequency transmitter that is associated with a radio frequency receiver connected to the sound control circuit of the audiovisual reproduction system. |
| US09922546B2 |
Remote control system and method for portable terminals
Provided are a remote control system and method for controlling portable terminals. The remote control system includes a control terminal which is a portable terminal that performs a remote control operation, a target terminal which is a portable terminal that is subject to the remote control operation performed by the control terminal, and a remote control management server which determines whether the control terminal and the target terminal are heterogeneous, and if the two terminals are heterogeneous, converts messages respectively transmitted from the control terminal and the target terminal to a format conforming to corresponding receiving terminals. |
| US09922544B2 |
Glass breakage detection system
A glass breakage detection method, constituted of: receiving a plurality of audio samples; estimating low frequency power values of the received plurality of audio samples; estimating wide band power values of the received plurality of audio samples; responsive to the estimated wide band power values, determining an amplification value; responsive to the estimated low frequency power being greater than a predetermined threshold, amplifying a function of the received plurality of audio samples by the determined amplification value; comparing the amplified function with a predetermined function of sound of breaking glass; and outputting an indication of the comparison. |
| US09922539B1 |
System and method of telecommunication network infrastructure alarms queuing and multi-threading
A telecommunications network infrastructure alarms processing system. The system comprises a processor, a non-transitory memory, an alarm collection application and an alarm processing application stored in the non-transitory memory. The alarm collection application pulls alarms from a data store and stores each alarm on a process pending queue. The alarm processing application takes alarms from the process pending queue, determines an identity of network equipment inventory corresponding to each alarm, determines an alarm signature of each alarm, builds enriched alarms comprising corresponding alarm signatures and a management identity of network equipment inventory, places the enriched alarms on a network operations center (NOC) queue, and launches alarm transmission threads for each different cell site, where threads retrieve enriched alarms from the NOC queue and sends enriched alarms to a network operations center (NOC) tool in time order by cell site. |
| US09922537B2 |
Wearable multi-sensory personal safety and tracking device
The present invention is a wearable, multi-sensory, personal safety and tracking device which predicts danger by sensing changes in voice, pulse, emotions, impact, motion of the wearer and the device state. In emergency situations, the device triggers SOS, alarm, electro shock, pepper spray and starts capturing images and audio recording for the safety of the wearer. For keeping a track of the wearer, the device connects to the internet using GPRS and sends the images clicked, the sound recorded and the GPS and GSM coordinates to the rescue team for gaining help for the wearer if needed. In the present invention, various technologies are integrated into one single wearable device thereby eliminating the need for purchasing and carrying multiple devices like pulse monitor, motion monitor, phone, camera, GPS module, self-defense tools, etc. thus saving money and providing comfort to the user. |
| US09922536B2 |
Helmet and method of use for emergency notification
A wearable emergency alert apparatus includes a communication device configured to communicate an alert to a node on a communications network external to the wearable emergency alert apparatus, a shock sensor in communication with the communication device, where the shock sensor is pre-configured to send a message to the communication device based on experiencing pressure from a source external to the wearable emergency alert apparatus exceeding a pre-determined threshold, and where the communication device is configured to communicate the alert based on receiving the message. The apparatus also includes a microcontroller communicatively coupled to one or more of: the communication device, or the shock sensor and a heat sensor communicatively coupled to the microcontroller. Based on the heat sensor obtaining a heat value exceeding a given threshold, the microcontroller activates one or more of: the communication device, or the shock sensor. A power source is also electronically coupled to the communication device and the microcontroller. |
| US09922534B2 |
Automatic hygiene compliance assistance
A system for monitoring and improving hygiene compliance in a caregiver setting is provided. The system includes a plurality of hand cleansing dispensers with sensors coupled thereto to detect usage of the dispenser and the identity of the personnel using the dispenser. Usage of the dispenser affects the personnel's hygiene compliance. Indicators are coupled to or integral with the dispensers to output a real-time indication of the hygiene compliance of the personnel. As time progresses since the last detected handwashing event, the indicators can reflect the real-time degradation of hygiene compliance to keep the personnel well-informed of their compliance. |
| US09922533B2 |
System and method of managing the cleaning of a medical apparatus
A surface cleaning assistance system includes a surface and a sensor mounted relative to the surface. The sensor is configured to detect pressure applied to the surface and generates sensor signals based on the detected pressure. The system also includes a controller in communication with the sensor and has stored therein a cleaning target value. The controller is configured to receive the sensor signals from the sensor, to compare the sensor signals to the cleaning target value, and to generate an output signal associated with the sensor signals, the output signal indicating whether the sensor signals indicate a pressure below, at, or above the cleaning target value. |
| US09922532B2 |
Wearable computing system with temporal feedback during a presentation
Aspects include a system for providing feedback to a user with a wearable device. The system including a wearable device and a feedback mechanism disposed within the wearable device. The feedback mechanism the feedback mechanism including at least on vibrational motor operably coupled to vibrate a housing. A memory is provided having computer readable instructions. One or more processors are provided for executing the computer readable instructions, the one or more processors being coupled to communicate with the feedback mechanism. The computer readable instructions include defining at least one prompt point that is associated with a first time parameter. The instructions further include determining when the current time is equal to the first time parameter. The instructions provide for actuating the feedback mechanism in response to the current time being equal to the first time period. |
| US09922531B1 |
Safe zones in tracking device environments
A tracking system determines if a tracking device is located within a safe zone based on whether a set of safe conditions are satisfied. The set of safe conditions includes a geographic boundary or a geographic location and corresponding threshold distance. The set of safe conditions can also include a time window during which a safe zone is active. When a tracking device is within a safe zone (e.g., geographically and temporally), the tracking device is determined to be safe, and notifications associated with the tracking device can be minimized. The safe zones may be user-selected, user-defined, or determined based on data analytics. If a set of safe conditions are not satisfied, the tracking system generates and sends a notification to the user of the tracking device indicating that the tracking device may be lost. |
| US09922529B2 |
Remote management of electronic and electrical devices
Embodiments are directed to methods and apparatuses for remotely managing electrical devices. In one scenario, a computer system performs a method for remotely managing electrical devices. The method includes determining that an electrical device has been left turned on for a threshold minimum period of time. The method next includes determining that a first device management criteria has been met indicating that the electrical device is no longer being actively managed. The method then includes notifying a user that the electrical device is still turned on, receiving an indication that the electrical device is to be turned off, and turning the electrical device off. Other scenarios include an electronic device that allows remote management of electrical devices. |
| US09922527B2 |
Multi-condition sensor systems
A multi-condition sensor, comprising a housing defining a component cavity, a pressure input tube disposed through the housing, a fault actuator disposed within the component cavity of the housing and in pressure communication with the pressure input tube through the housing, wherein the fault actuator is configured to extend and contract as a function of pressure from the pressure input tube, an alarm actuator disposed within the component cavity of the housing opposite the fault actuator and configured to be actuated by the fault actuator and to extend to a maximum fault position, and an adjustable alarm contact disposed on an opposite side of the alarm actuator within the component cavity and configured to be adjusted to a predetermined extension length from the housing to provide a predetermined alarm contact position. |
| US09922525B2 |
Monitoring system for use with mobile communication device
A monitoring system for monitoring an environment and generating data in response to the presence of at least one chemical hazardous to human health in the environment. The monitoring system is configured to communicate the data to an associated personal communication device or the like for processing. The monitoring system can be in the form a selectively attachable component. |
| US09922524B2 |
Methods for detecting and handling fall and perimeter breach events for residents of an assisted living facility
One variation of a method for detecting and handling falls by residents of a facility includes: receiving a notification for a fall event from a resident wearable device associated with a resident; determining a location of the resident within a facility at a time of the fall; in response to the notification, distributing a fall response prompt to a set of computing devices, each computing device associated with a care provider; in response to receipt of a fall response confirmation from a first computing device, deescalating the fall response prompt at a second computing device; and, in response to proximity of the first computing device to the resident wearable device, authorizing edit permissions for an electronic incident report by a first care provider exclusive of a second care provider. |
| US09922522B2 |
Device and method for containing a subject using satellite positioning data
A device disposed on a subject to maintain the subject within a containment zone and track the subject if the subject exits the containment zone. The device includes a positioning unit for generating position data including satellite positioning data. There is a processor unit to determine from the position data if the subject is inside or outside of the containment zone. The processor unit operates in a containment mode when the subject is inside the containment zone and in a tracking mode when the subject exits the containment zone. A correction unit issues a stimulus when the subject exits the containment zone and terminates the stimulus when the processor unit enters the tracking mode from the containment mode. There is a communication unit which transmits an alert to an electronic device of an operator when the processor unit transitions from the containment to tracking mode. |
| US09922506B2 |
Detection of unauthorized devices on ATMs
The disclosed embodiments include methods and systems for detecting ATM skimmers, other unauthorized devices, such as hidden video cameras or keypad overlays, and/or possible damage to the ATM based upon radio frequency (RF) signal emitted from the ATM and/or 3D image analysis. |
| US09922503B2 |
Cooperating reels
Certain embodiments provide systems, methods, and apparatus for game play, including cooperative reel and/or symbol game play. A method includes initiating a game for play by a player at a gaming system. The method also includes determining a player combination of one or more symbols. The method further includes determining a dealer combination of one or more symbols. Additionally, the method includes comparing the player combination and the dealer combination to determine a result. The method includes outputting the result to the gaming system for player view. |
| US09922500B2 |
Method and system for side wagering
A side wagering system for table games includes a table controller, a dealer interface and at least one player interface, the at least one player interface including a first wager area and at least one second wager area that permits a player to place first, second or one or more third supplemental wagers for the opportunity to win corresponding first, second or one or more third awards, such as a first, a second or a third progressive jackpot. The table controllers or multiple tables may be linked to a common award server. |
| US09922496B2 |
System and method for gaming
A method of gaming comprises providing a jackpot game in addition to a main game, the jackpot game being displayed independently of the main game. Play of the jackpot game affects at least one of the awarding of a jackpot prize and value of a jackpot prize pool from which the jackpot prize is awarded. |
| US09922488B2 |
Wireless communication for consumer-operated kiosks
Systems, apparatus, and methods for kiosk accessibility via a mobile device. In some embodiments, a wireless mobile device has input features such as voice-control and GUI-based buttons that assist visually impaired people to send wireless messages for accessing features of a kiosk. The kiosk is equipped with wireless communication hardware and or software to receive messages from the mobile device for performing various kiosk-related operations, such a renting, vending, and or returning a product. |
| US09922484B2 |
Coin processing apparatus
In a coin processing apparatus including a plurality of coin containers, each of the coin containers includes a housing guide and a screw-type conveyance member. The housing guide has both side sections paired in a left-right direction. The housing guide has lateral protrusions formed on inner surfaces of the paired side sections and protruding to extend close to each other. The screw-type conveyance member has a shaft having a cylindrical shape and a blade member spirally provided on an outer periphery of the shaft such that the blade member protrudes outward from the outer periphery, and is provided to the housing guide such that a part of the shaft and a part of the blade protrude upward in a space between the lateral protrusions and may rotate about a central axis of the shaft. The screw-type conveyance member is provided at an off-center position of the housing guide. |
| US09922481B2 |
Intelligent door lock system with third party secured access to a dwelling
A system allows dwelling access to third parties. An intelligent door lock system at the dwelling includes a device configured to be coupled to a drive shaft of a lock device, with the device sensing movement of the drive shaft to assist in locking and unlocking a lock of a lock device. The intelligent door lock system is configured to be in communication with a server. An occupant/or owner, or end-dwelling user of the dwelling communicates with the server to grant a third party secured access to a dwelling, which can by programmatic. |
| US09922480B2 |
Method, system, and computer program product for establishing a temporary remote control association between a mobile device and a peripheral device
The method can include the steps of: providing a local coordinator device having at least a first peripheral association data pertaining to the at least one peripheral device; seamlessly receiving the mobile credential from the at least one mobile device with the local coordinator device; validating the received mobile device credential; and subsequently to said validating, establishing the remote control association between the at least one mobile device and the at least one peripheral device using the first peripheral association data. |
| US09922477B2 |
Security and public safety application for a mobile device with audio/video analytics and access control authentication
An access control system utilizes authorized users' mobile electronic devices for transmitting biometric identifiers in combination with using an access card, for authenticating the user's access privileges for unlocking a secure door. The system may further verify proximity of the user's device to the access control reader, which verifies correspondence of the access card with the transmitted biometric characteristics. The system may further require entry of a PIN into the user's device, for its transmission to the access control system for access confirmation. A scanner scans the area around its geographic location for signals emitted by mobile electronic devices, and identifies a position, a type, and an address of each device, using characteristics of the signals. Audio analytics detect/identify a position of sudden sound fluctuations indicating a gunshot/fight incident, and correlates the incident location to a device location. Video analytics correlate imaged people with detected electronic devices. |
| US09922476B2 |
Local access control system management using domain information updates
Systems and methods are presented for managing physical access to an access-controlled area using a local access control system. In certain embodiments, information that may be used in access control determinations managed by a remote domain controller may be communicated to a local access control system for use in connection with local access control determinations performed by the access control system independent of the domain controller. In some embodiments, such a configuration may allow for access control determinations to be performed when communication with the domain controller is interrupted and/or otherwise limited. |
| US09922475B2 |
Consensus based authentication and authorization process
In accordance with one or more embodiments, authorization and/or authentication protects against unauthorized use of devices and/or features. Devices managing authorization and/or authentication may be connected to communications services, such as the internet or a social network. A user using the communication services may configure a system to authenticate and/or authorize a future action. An authorizer may authorize and/or authenticate by responding via one or more devices and/or social networks to allow an individual to perform an action on a device, as a way of controlling what actions can be taken and who they can be taken by. |
| US09922474B1 |
Systems and methods for authenticating a cartridge
System and methods for authenticating a cartridge comprising reading a unique identifier (UID) and a unique authentication string (UAS) stored on a data storage medium associated with a cartridge; generating, based on the UID or the UAS read from the data storage medium, a test unique authentication string (TUAS) or a test unique identifier (TUID), respectively, according to a methodology used to generate the UAS stored on the data storage medium; and comparing the TUAS or the TUID to the UAS or the UID read from the data storage medium, respectively, to determine if the cartridge is authentic. A method in which the UAS is generated and stored on the data storage medium at a first location, and subsequently authenticated at a second location. |
| US09922465B2 |
Systems and methods for changing a perceived speed of motion associated with a user
A perceived speed of motion associated with a user may be changed by determining a speed and a direction of the motion associated with the user within a reference frame. Augmented reality content may be determined for presentation on a display. A direction and a speed of motion associated with the augmented reality content within the reference frame may be determined. The direction of motion associated with the augmented reality content may oppose the direction of motion associated with the user. The speed of motion associated with the augmented reality content may increase as the speed of motion associated with the user increases. The augmented reality content may be presented such that the augmented reality content appears to move toward and past a position associated with the user at the perceived speed that is faster than the speed of motion associated with the user. |
| US09922464B2 |
Occluded virtual image display
Embodiments described herein include an augmented reality (AR) optical system, and associated method and computer program product, defining a field of view relative to an optical reference point. The optical system comprises an imagery display configured to display images using a received first display signal, and a beam-splitter disposed within the field of view and configured to cause the displayed images to appear in a first focal plane within the field of view. The optical system further comprises an occluding display disposed within the field of view and configured to display, based on the first display signal, occluding images in a second focal plane nearer to the beam-splitter than the first focal plane, thereby reducing environmental light at the optical reference point for at least a portion of the displayed images. |
| US09922461B2 |
Reality augmenting method, client device and server
A reality augmenting method, a client device and a server are provided. The reality augmenting method includes: obtaining information related to an object to be identified, in which the information includes image information of the object; sending the information to a server, receiving augmented information of the object and display position information of the augmented information returned from the server according to the information; and displaying the augmented information and the image information simultaneously according to the display position information. |
| US09922457B2 |
Computing tessellation coordinates using dedicated hardware
A system and method for performing tessellation of three-dimensional surface patches performs some tessellation operations using programmable processing units and other tessellation operations using fixed function units with limited precision. (u,v) parameter coordinates for each vertex are computed using fixed function units to offload programmable processing engines. The (u,v) computation is a symmetric operation and is based on integer coordinates of the vertex, tessellation level of detail values, and a spacing mode. |
| US09922455B2 |
Room planning system and method
A room planning system, generally at 10, comprises a host site 12 and a local site 14, two-way communication between which is represented by arrows A. On the host site is a host processor 16, which is connected to a database 18. On the local site is a local processor 20 that is connected to user input apparatus, in the form of a keyboard 24 and mouse 26, and to a graphical user interface, in the form of a display 28. The database 18 contains data of a plurality of types of product that are available for the design of a room space. In the example of a kitchen room space, the database contains product details of items such as room fixtures, floor units, wall units, worktops, handles, cornices, plinths, pelmets, sinks, taps, appliances and accessories. The host processor 16 is in communication with one or more local processors 20 via a communications network represented by arrows A, which could be a wide area network, such as the Internet. The local processor 20, which may comprise a personal computer, has stored thereon a computer program for causing the processor 20 carry out a room space design method, and for displaying a design template, and an image of the design, on the display 28, as will be described below. A 3-D engine, located within the local processor 20, is able to create and display a virtual room space on the display 28. |
| US09922452B2 |
Apparatus and method for adjusting brightness of image
A method of adjusting a brightness of an image includes matching an object model to an object based on one or more feature points of the object extracted from an input image including the object; mapping a surface normal map in a two-dimensional (2D) image form to the input image based on the matched object model; and generating shadow information for the input image based on the mapped surface normal map and a virtual light source. |
| US09922446B2 |
Method for representing virtual information in a real environment
A method for representing virtual information in a view of a real environment is provided that includes: providing a system setup including at least one display device, wherein the system setup is adapted for blending in virtual information on the display device in at least part of the view, determining a position and orientation of a viewing point relative to at least one component of the real environment, providing a geometry model of the real environment, providing at least one item of virtual information and a position of the at least one item of virtual information, determining whether the position of the item of virtual information is inside a 2D or 3D geometrical shape, determining a criterion which is indicative of whether the built-in real object is at least partially visible or non-visible in the view of the real environment, and blending in the at least one item of virtual information on the display device in at least part of the view of the real environment. |
| US09922441B2 |
Image processing device, image processing method, and program
An image processing device with a configuration enabling generating of images from a new viewpoint by simple signal processing is provided. Input image signals for the right eye, and input image signals for the left eye to be applied to image display are input, and a right image converting unit generates a converted image where the input image signals for the right eye have been subjected to phase change in the right direction or the left direction, in accordance with features of the image. In the same way, a left image converting unit generates a converted image where the input image signals for the left eye have been subjected to phase change in the left direction or the right direction, in accordance with features of the image. The generated image of the right image converting unit and the generated image of the left image converting unit are output as multiple new viewpoint images. A converted image is generated by processing where a luminance differential signal of an input image, or a nonlinear conversion signal of the luminance differential signal is added or subtracted, to or from the input image signal, for example. |
| US09922439B2 |
Displaying method, animation image generating method, and electronic device configured to execute the same
A method for of playing an animation image, the method including: obtaining a plurality of images; displaying a first image of the plurality of images; detecting a first event as a trigger to play the animation image for a first object of the first image; and playing the animation image for the first object using the plurality of images. |
| US09922432B1 |
Systems and methods for providing convolutional neural network based image synthesis using stable and controllable parametric models, a multiscale synthesis framework and novel network architectures
Systems and methods for providing convolutional neural network based image synthesis using localized loss functions is disclosed. A first image including desired content and a second image including a desired style are received. The images are analyzed to determine a local loss function. The first and second images are merged using the local loss function to generate an image that includes the desired content presented in the desired style. Similar processes can also be utilized to generate image hybrids and to perform on-model texture synthesis. In a number of embodiments, Condensed Feature Extraction Networks are also generated using a convolutional neural network previously trained to perform image classification, where the Condensed Feature Extraction Networks approximates intermediate neural activations of the convolutional neural network utilized during training. |
| US09922427B2 |
Time-of-flight camera with location sensor system
A time-of-flight (TOF) camera system includes a radiation source, a radiation detector, a location sensor system and a processor. The radiation source is configured to generate and emit a radiation that strikes a target object. The radiation detector is configured to detect the radiation reflected from the target object and generate a sample set comprising at least two raw samples detected in succession at different times based on the reflected radiation. The location sensor system is configured to detect movements of the TOF camera during the detection and generate a movement signal having portions thereof uniquely corresponding to each of the raw samples of the sample set based on the movements of the TOF camera, wherein a portion of the movement signal is detected at a same time of generating the corresponding raw sample. The processor is configured to receive the raw samples and the corresponding movement signal portions and generate an object information based on the raw samples and the corresponding movement signal portion. |
| US09922425B2 |
Video segmentation method
Disclosed is a method of classifying visual elements in a region of a video as either foreground or background. The method classifies each visual element in the region as either foreground or background using a first classifier, and expands spatially at least one of the visual elements classified as foreground to form a spatially expanded area. The method then classifies the visual elements in the spatially expanded area as either foreground or background using a second classifier that is more sensitive to foreground than the first classifier. |
| US09922423B2 |
Image angle variation detection device, image angle variation detection method and image angle variation detection program
An image angle variation detection means 81 detects an image angle variation of a imaging device from videos shot by the imaging device based on fixed point information including the position of a fixed point specified by an image angle of the imaging device and the features indicating the characteristics of the fixed point, and a situation determination means 82 determines that the image angle of the imaging device is varied when a change in the image angle variation is stable for a certain period of time. |
| US09922422B2 |
Mobile imaging platform calibration
Mobile platforms are used to capture an area using a variety of sensors (e.g., cameras and laser scanners) while traveling through the area, in order to create a representation (e.g., a navigable set of panoramic images, or a three-dimensional reconstruction). However, such sensors are often precisely calibrated in a controlled setting, and miscalibration during travel (e.g., due to a physical jolt) may result in a corruption of data and/or a recalibration that leaves the platform out of service for an extended duration. Presented herein are techniques for verifying sensor calibration during travel. Such techniques involve the identification of a sensor path for each sensor over time (e.g., a laser scanner path, a camera path, and a location sensor path) and a comparison of the paths, optionally after registration with a static coordinate system, to verify that the continued calibration of the sensors during the mobile operation of the platform. |
| US09922419B2 |
Drug information acquisition device and method
A row of V-shaped grooves is formed in the bottom of each of imaging trays which temporarily hold a dose of drug. After drugs are inserted into the imaging tray, the imaging tray is vibrated to remove the overlap between the drugs corresponding to a dose and to correct the posture of the drugs using a first inclined surface and a second inclined surface of the V-shaped groove. Two cameras are provided so as to face the first inclined surface and the second inclined surface of the V-shaped groove, respectively, and capture the images of the drugs which have stable postures that have been corrected on the V-shaped grooves, in two directions. The first and second images of the drugs captured in two directions are processed to accurately acquire drug information including at least outward appearance information of the drugs. |
| US09922416B2 |
Noncontact measuring device
A solution including a noncontact electronic measurement device is provided. The measurement device includes one or more imaging devices configured to acquire image data of a surface of an object located in a measurement region relative to the measurement device and one or more projected pattern generators configured to generate divergent pattern(s) of structured light, which impact the surface of the object within a field of view of the imaging device when the object is located in the measurement region. Using image data acquired by the imaging device(s), a computer system can measure a set of attributes of the surface of the object and/or automatically determine whether the measurement device is within the measurement region. An embodiment is configured to be held by a human user during operation. |
| US09922413B2 |
Image-based inventory control system using advanced image recognition
Systems for monitoring an inventory condition of objects based on captured images are described. An exemplary system includes at least one storage drawer, each storage drawer including a plurality of storage locations for storing objects; and a data storage device storing reference data for each storage drawer. The reference data includes, for each region of interest corresponding to each respective storage drawer, at least one of a reference image signature representing attributes of the region of interest when a stored object is present, and a reference image signature representing attributes of the region of interest when the stored object is not present. A data processor of the system is configured to derive an image signature representing attributes of a region of interest corresponding to a drawer using a captured image of the drawer; and determine an inventory condition of the drawer according to the stored reference data corresponding to the region of interest and the derived image signature representing attributes of the captured image of the region of interest. |
| US09922411B2 |
Saliency-weighted video quality assessment
Systems and methods are disclosed for weighting the image quality prediction of any visual-attention-agnostic quality metric with a saliency map. By accounting for the salient regions of an image or video frame, the disclosed systems and methods may dramatically improve the precision of the visual-attention-agnostic quality metric during image or video quality assessment. In one implementation, a method of saliency-weighted video quality assessment includes: determining a per-pixel image quality vector of an encoded video frame; determining per-pixel saliency values of the encoded video frame or a reference video frame corresponding to the encoded video frame; and computing a saliency-weighted image quality metric of the encoded video frame by weighting the per-pixel image quality vector using the per-pixel saliency values. |
| US09922410B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An image processing apparatus includes a saturation judgment section adapted to judge whether or not saturation of individual pixels making up image data of plural images falls within a high saturation area, the image data being acquired by picking up images of an object in time sequence; and an image combining section adapted to perform high-saturation comparative bright combination processing on the image data of plural images, where the high-saturation comparative bright combination processing involves replacing only pixels judged to fall within the high saturation area with a pixel value of a pixel which has a larger index including a luminance component. |
| US09922407B2 |
Analysis of a multispectral image
The invention relates to a method for analyzing a multispectral image (10), which includes designing a detection image from signal-to-noise ratio values. The signal-to-noise ratio values relate to the content of the multispectral image inside a window which is determined around each pixel, when the contrast in the window is maximized by a Fischer projection. The signal-to-noise ratio values at calculated from integral images of order one and two, which in turn are calculated only once initially, so that the total amount of calculations is reduced. The analysis method is compatible with a real-time implementation during a capture of consecutive multispectral images which form a video stream, in particular for an environment-monitoring task. |
| US09922402B2 |
Information presentation device
A character attribute determination section 1 determines a attribute of a character on the basis of a character attribute database 2. A blur intensity decision section 5 acquires a blur intensity for each character attribute on the basis of legibility control knowledge 3, and decides the blur intensity for the target character corresponding to the character attribute determined by the character attribute determination section 1. A blurring process execution section 6 performs a blurring process to the character with the blur intensity decided by the blur intensity decision section 5. |
| US09922396B2 |
Reduction of BVH-node bandwidth with incremental traversal
Incremental encoding of Bounding Volume Hierarchies (BVH) enables coarse quantization of bounding volumes, significantly reducing their memory footprint. However, reducing the size of the BVH alone does not yield a comparable reduction in memory bandwidth in some embodiments. While the bounding volumes of the BVH nodes can be aggressively quantized, the size of the child node pointers remains a significant overhead. A two-level clustering method introduces a memory layout and node addressing scheme, which allows the reordering of BVH nodes to reduce their memory footprint in hardware ray tracing systems using reduced precision ray traversal. |
| US09922395B2 |
Multi-thread graphics processing system
A graphics processing system comprises at least one memory device storing a plurality of pixel command threads and a plurality of vertex command threads. An arbiter coupled to the at least one memory device is provided that selects a pixel command thread from the plurality of pixel command threads and a vertex command thread from the plurality of vertex command threads. The arbiter further selects a command thread from the previously selected pixel command thread and the vertex command thread, which command thread is provided to a command processing engine capable of processing pixel command threads and vertex command threads. |
| US09922392B2 |
Method for watermarking a three-dimensional object
A method for watermarking a three-dimensional object is disclosed. The three-dimensional object is represented by a mesh. A mesh comprises a plurality of vertices. The method further comprises computing an original thickness signature for said mesh from a plurality of thickness values, wherein a thickness value is computed for a vertex of the mesh; determining a target thickness signature, wherein the target thickness signature is a function of a watermark payload and of the original thickness signature; and modifying a position of at least one vertex of the mesh wherein a thickness signature computed for the modified mesh reaches the target thickness signature and wherein a distortion constraint between the mesh and the modified mesh is satisfied.A method for detecting a watermark in a three-dimensional object, a three-dimensional object carrying a watermark and, devices for implementing the methods are further disclosed. |
| US09922390B2 |
Watermarking system
A method of watermarking includes determining a first substantially uniform color pixel space in a first frame of a video, determining a first offset color based on the first substantially uniform color pixel space, and compositing a first watermark trace of a watermark key having the first offset color into the substantially uniform color pixel space so that a modified video frame is creating having the first watermark trace of the watermark key having the first offset color. |
| US09922389B2 |
Rich feature mining to combat anti-forensics and detect JPEG down-recompression and inpainting forgery on the same quantization
A method of detecting tampering in a compressed digital image includes extracting one or more neighboring joint density features from a digital image under scrutiny and extracting one or more neighboring joint density features from an original digital image. The digital image under scrutiny and the original digital image are decompressed into a spatial domain. Tampering in the digital image under scrutiny is detected based on at least one difference in a neighboring joint density feature of the digital image under scrutiny and a neighboring joint density feature of the original image. In some embodiments, detecting tampering in the digital image under scrutiny includes detecting down-recompression of at least a portion of the digital image. In some embodiments, detecting tampering in the digital image includes detecting inpainting forgery in the same quantization. |
| US09922388B2 |
Systems and methods for multimedia processing
Systems and methods are provided for multimedia processing. For example, an encoded file is acquired; the encoded file is parsed to obtain application-indication information and watermark-indication information associated with the encoded file; a multimedia-recording application associated with the application-indication information is called; watermark information is generated based on at least the watermark-indication information; the watermark information displayed on a recording interface of the multimedia-recording application; and in response to multimedia information being generated on the recording interface of the multimedia-recording application, the watermark information and the multimedia information is integrated. |
| US09922384B2 |
Pharmaceutical will call system and method
A wireless computerized will call system is provided for filling prescriptions and then locating specific prescriptions that have been filled when the customer arrives to pick up the prescription. The system includes a computer workstation or network, a wireless transmitter, and hanger bags for temporarily storing prescriptions awaiting customer pick up. The hanger bags are equipped with wireless receivers and transducers. When a pharmacy worker commands the computer system to locate a specific prescription, the specific hanger bag containing that prescription receives a wireless signal from the computer system and activates the transducer on the hanger bag to alert the pharmacy worker to the location of the prescription. |
| US09922383B2 |
Patent claims analysis system and method
A system and method for facilitating examination of technology content related to patent grant claims; including the functions of importing of patent claims, parsing of the claims into their elements and sub-elements, semantically analyzing the claims sub-elements to determine the technology; semantically analyzing the database records to find matching technology content, displaying the matching technology content, and visually linking the matching technology content to relevant hierarchically-displayed elements and sub-elements. |
| US09922382B2 |
Travel reservations using a common model
A travel reservation system having a common object model for representing disparate travel products and services. In general, the system may provide efficient integration relationships between the travel reservation system and various third-party travel providers by using a single common model and interface structure, regardless of the type of product or service being offered. The system may include translators for converting travel products and services conforming to the common object model into a corresponding provider-specific model, and vice versa. In some implementations, the use of the common object model may allow the system to provide a set of query results covering multiple different product types in response to a single query input. |
| US09922378B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing intent-based monitoring using sensory information
An approach is provided for providing intent-based monitoring using sensory information. The monitoring platform determines to detect, at a device, sensory information from an environment, the environment relating to a user of the device, one or more other users, or a combination thereof. Next, the monitoring platform processes and/or facilitates a processing of the sensory information to determine intent information associated with the user, the one or more other users, or a combination thereof. |
| US09922374B1 |
Systems and methods for alerting a driver to vehicle collision risks
Methods and systems for displaying a user interface that warns a driver that a vehicle is located within or is near a geographical area (and/or intersection) associated with a higher than average risk of animal-vehicle and/or vehicle-vehicle collisions are provided. According to certain aspects, an electronic device may access a database that identifies a plurality of high risk areas, including areas associated with prior vehicle accidents. The electronic device may display a virtual road map, as well as an icon indicating the vehicle's current location and a plurality of visual indications of high-risk areas. When the electronic device detects that the current location of the vehicle is within and/or approaching a high-risk area, the electronic device may then warn the driver about the higher than average risk of experiencing a vehicle collision. |
| US09922373B2 |
System and method for buy-side order matching
Techniques for buy-side order matching in the trading of financial instruments using a centralized matching engine having one or more storage devices including rules and order parameters for a plurality of buy-side parties. The centralized matching engine includes one or more transmitters and receivers communicatively coupled to a network and one or more processors operatively coupled to the one or more storage devices and the one or more transmitters and receivers. At least one message sent over the network by a plurality of buy-side parties and is received by the central matching engine to set the rules or order parameters. At least one order of at least two of the plurality of buy-side parties is matched based on the rules and the order parameters. A message is transmitted over the network to a sell-side party indicating that trade negotiation can commence. |
| US09922365B1 |
Systems and methods for product ordering and delivery for inmates
Disclosed herein is a system that includes a profile subsystem that stores inmate profiles, and an order processing subsystem that receives data regarding an order of the inmate, retrieves an inmate profile for the inmate from the profile subsystem, applies restrictions to the order of the inmate based on the inmate profile, generates an order number for the order of the inmate, assigns an RFID tag to the order number by encoding data into the RFID tag, and generates one or more labels comprising the RFID tag to be affixed to a package so as to conceal an identity of the inmate, in which the package with the order is packaged and shipped to the correctional facility with the one or more labels comprising the RFID tag. The system also includes a delivery processing subsystem that receives data regarding the package based on scanning the RFID tag of the package. |
| US09922364B1 |
Voice initiated purchase request
Methods are described herein related to enabling users to purchase a product or service by providing a voice request and/or an image. An example method may involve: (a) receiving, by a hybrid response system (“HRS”), a first speech-segment message that comprises a speech segment and is associated with a user-account, (b) the HRS determining that the speech segment indicates a purchase request, (c) the HRS determining a target product/service based on at least the purchase request, (d) the HRS determining a confidence level associated with a purchase of the target product/service, (e) if the confidence level is greater than or equal to a threshold level, then the HRS sending a purchase order, via the associated user-account, for the target product or service, otherwise, the HRS sending the purchase request and the target product/service to at least one guide computing system to facilitate a response to the purchase request. |
| US09922361B2 |
Content suggestions
Users may create and/or interact with content that may reference various businesses. For example, a user may submit a search query “Akron Hardware Store” to a search interface that may provide relevant search results for the search query. As provided herein, content suggestions may be provided to the user based upon an occurrence of a business reference of a business. For example, search keywords that resulted in user engagement with the business may be evaluated to identify a set of search keywords (e.g., search queries that led users to an Akron Hardware Store website). A set of content suggestions (e.g., coupons, maps, search queries, website links, images, descriptions, etc.) may be generated based upon the set of search keywords, and may be provided to the user. |
| US09922358B2 |
Augmented reality for assisting consumer transactions
A portable device which assists shoppers. The device identifies items of merchandise, and retrieves information about the items from a remote location. The items can be identified based on their labels, by image recognition, by their location, by the shopper, or by other approaches. This additional or enhanced information about the items can then be overlaid on the real-time display of the portable device, such that the shopper has access to said information and can associate it easily to the relevant items. |
| US09922344B1 |
Serving advertisements based on partial queries
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for serving advertisements based on partial queries. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request for advertisements that specifies a set of query suggestions. The query suggestions are ranked based, at least in part on a probability of each query suggestion being selected by a user that input the partial query. A proper subset of the query suggestions is selected and includes a highest ranked query suggestion based on the ranking and one or more query suggestions of the set of query suggestions that is at least one of a revision of the highest ranked query suggestion or refers to a same topic as the highest ranked query suggestion. One or more advertisements are identified for each query suggestion of the proper subset. Data specifying the identified advertisements are provided. |
| US09922342B2 |
Evaluating user activity in social environments
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, are described for providing content. A method includes: receiving a request for an advertisement to be displayed in a slot associated with a third-party content site; identifying a relevant advertisement to be provided in the slot; determining information to be included in an annotation associated with the advertisement, the annotation including customized information related to a user or a group associated with the user that is to be presented along with the advertisement; providing the advertisement responsive to the request including providing the annotation along with a control for re-publishing the advertisement along with the relevant advertisement; receiving user input selecting the control and designating the advertisement for re-publishing; and targeting additional content to the user or a group associated with the user based on the received user input. |
| US09922341B2 |
Programming optimization utilizing a framework for audience rating estimation
The television program scheduling system receives from one or more published data sources, historical audience data for previous telecasts of the shows on one or more television networks, and calibrates a model for audience rating estimation based on the historical audience data. The calibrated model for audience rating estimation may be utilized to generate estimates or projections of audience in the future. The television program scheduling system may generate an optimal schedule assignment of the shows to time periods that maximizes total resulting estimated audience based on the calibrated model for audience rating estimation. The generation utilizes a time expanded network in which each node represents an assignment of a show to a specific time period, with a specific stacking, and preceded by a lead-in show, and a feasible transition between two nodes represents a valid transition between two shows. |
| US09922340B1 |
Evaluating attribution models based on simulated activity streams
Methods, systems, and apparatus including computer programs encoded on computer-readable storage media are provided for evaluating an attribution model, based on simulated activity streams. Parameters are specified that describe how users behave in the absence and presence of advertising, and parameters that regulate advertising in a simulation. A first set of simulated activity streams is generated with advertising turned on, observational metrics associated with the first set of streams are determined, and an attribution model is applied to determine a first fraction of incremental conversions associated with one or more advertising channels. Further sets of simulated activity streams are generated, each with a single advertising channel turned off, observational metrics associated with the further sets of streams are determined, and a second fraction of incremental conversions is determined for each advertising channel. The first and second fractions of incremental conversions are compared to evaluate the attribution model. |
| US09922336B2 |
Method and system for managing itinerary
A method and a system for easily managing an itinerary are provided. The method includes generating, by an electronic device, a trip route, selecting a trip item for recommendation information searching, searching for recommendation information of the selected trip item based on the generated trip route, displaying the searched recommendation information at a corresponding location on the generated trip route, modifying the generated trip route based on selected recommendation information from the displayed recommendation information, and storing the modified trip route. |
| US09922335B2 |
Selecting organic content and advertisements for presentation to social networking system users based on user engagement
A social networking system dynamically adjusts a number of advertisements presented to a user along with organic content items by modifying a ranking including organic content items and advertisements. Partial engagement scores are generated for organic content items based on an expected amount of user interaction with each organic content item, and scores are generated for advertisements based on expected user interaction and bid amounts associated with each organic content item. An engagement score measuring the user's estimated interaction with a content feed including organic content items without advertisements and an additional engagement score measuring the user's estimated interaction with a content feed including organic content items and advertisements are determined from the partial engagement scores and the scores. A difference between the additional engagement score and the engagement score modifies a conversion factor used to combine expected user interaction and bid amounts to generate advertisement scores. |
| US09922334B1 |
Providing an advertisement based on a minimum number of exposures
Methods and systems for providing an advertisement based on a minimum number of exposures may include receiving selection criteria to specify a device identifier that meets the selection criteria, receiving a minimum number of exposures to the advertisement and an interval of time for the minimum number of exposures to occur, and a maximum aggregate bid value for each device identifier that is exposed to the advertisement for the minimum number of exposures, determining a probability that the device identifier reaches the number of exposures within the interval of time and within the maximum aggregate bid value, selecting a bid for each exposure for the device identifier based on the determined probability and the maximum aggregate bid value; and based on the selection of the bid, providing display data indicative of the advertisement. |
| US09922309B2 |
Enhanced electronic communication draft management
Draft management for new electronic communication messages in a mailbox folder is provided. When a user selects to create a new email message, a draft of the new message may appear in a list view of one or more of the user's mailbox folders. The list view may display aggregated contents from both a mailbox folder and the drafts folder. Drafts may be identified as draft messages so that it may be easy for the user to distinguish between draft messages and other email messages. When a draft is deleted or when a draft is sent, it may be removed from the list view. Additionally, selection controls may be provided in the user interface to sort email items by groupings. Selection of a drafts selection control may cause a display of the draft items in the user's email account. |
| US09922307B2 |
Quantified-self machines, circuits and interfaces reflexively related to food
A semiconductor-transistor-based system and device that are designed to, but are not limited to: electronically outputting electronic-semiconductor-transistor-voltage-level-based-state-machine-assisted-user-menu-selection display associated with electronic-semiconductor-transistor-voltage-level-based-state-machine-assisted collection of user-physiological information, associated with electronic-semiconductor-transistor-voltage-level-based-state-machine-assisted collection of user-conduct information, and associated with electronic-semiconductor-transistor-voltage-level-based-state-machine-assisted obtaining of food-based information. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. |
| US09922301B2 |
Information display method for store work relating to lighting control system, and lighting control method
An information display method is disclosed in a control system in which a lighting mode is selected from among a plurality of lighting modes, and lighting equipment is controlled at a lighting target area in accordance with the selected lighting mode. The method comprising: generating each of the merchandising values representing an index for evaluating a performance of at least one store; classifying each of the merchandising values in according with each of time periods; obtaining lighting mode information from the control system, the lighting mode information indicating the lighting mode selected in each of the time periods; and transmitting to the terminal device, each of the classified merchandising values and each pieces of the obtained lighting mode information corresponding to each of the classified merchandising values, in each of the time periods. |
| US09922297B2 |
Queue techniques
Queue techniques which use a beacon to detect customers. An example queue method includes receiving a message containing an identifier and contact information from a mobile communication device carried by a customer within communication range of a beacon, establishing a position of the customer in a queue, and sending a reply message to the mobile communication device at the contact information containing queue information. |
| US09922296B2 |
Distribution apparatus, distribution method, and recording medium
A distribution apparatus includes a reception part that receives first data and a request for execution of a process according to a process definition formed of one or more units of processing with respect to the first data, and one or more processing parts that execute the corresponding one or more units of processing. At least one processing part is a distribution part that distributes, to a distribution destination specified in the process definition, the first data or second data output as a result of execution of a unit of processing executed before a unit of processing corresponding to the at least one processing part. The distribution part distributes the first or second data based on information indicating a distribution method for the specified distribution destination defined in the process definition, when the specified distribution destination is included in multiple distribution destinations to which a communications protocol is common. |
| US09922293B2 |
Systems and methods for maximizing expected utility of signal injection test patterns in utility grids
Methods and systems for implementing experimental trials on utility grids. Variations in grid parameters are selected to introduce into utility grids to improve the value of learning from each experimental trial and promoting improved utility grid performance by computing expected values for both learning and grid performance. Those trials are used to manage the opportunity costs and constraints that affect the introduction of variations into utility grid parameters and the generation of valid data that can be attributed to particular variations in utility grid parameters. |
| US09922291B2 |
Intelligent apparatus for providing personalized configuration of wheelchair tilt and recline
A method and apparatus for providing personalized configuration of physical supports for the human body, comprising accepting input including an individual's demographic information, neurological attributes, physical history, operational environment, and outcome or use objectives, processing user input employing an artificial intelligence engine, and then returning guidance and/or control parameters directed to seating adjustment and positioning, including incline angles for wheelchair tilt and recline. |
| US09922289B2 |
Quantum nondemolition microwave photon counter based on the cross-Kerr nonlinearity of a Josephson junction embedded in a superconducting circuit
A technique relates to a microwave device. A pump resonator, at a first pump resonator end, is connected to both a dispersive nonlinear element and a first stub. The pump resonator, at a second pump resonator end, is capacitively coupled to a pump port, where the first stub is terminated in an open circuit. A quantum signal resonator, at a first quantum signal resonator end, is connected to both the dispersive nonlinear element and a second stub. The quantum signal resonator, at a second signal resonator end, is capacitively coupled to a signal port, where the second stub is connected to ground. |
| US09922287B2 |
Identification and classification of web traffic inside encrypted network tunnels
The present principles are directed to identifying and classifying web traffic inside encrypted network tunnels. A method includes analyzing network traffic of unencrypted data packets to detect packet traffic, timing, and size patterns. The detected packet, timing, and size traffic patterns are correlated to at least a packet destination and a packet source of the unencrypted data packets to create at least one of a training corpus and a model built from the training corpus. The at least one of the corpus and model is stored in a memory device. Packet traffic, timing, and size patterns of encrypted data packets are observed. The observed packet traffic, timing, and size patterns of the encrypted data packets are compared to at least one of the training corpus and the model to classify the encrypted data packets with respect to at least one of a predicted network host and predicted path information. |
| US09922283B2 |
RFID tag and high frequency circuit
An RFID tag includes: a base portion in a plate shape made of dielectric material; a loop antenna formed by etching and including a first antenna element and a second antenna element disposed in a loop shape along an outer periphery of the base portion; and an IC chip inserted to the loop antenna in series and including a first electrode and a second electrode. |
| US09922281B2 |
Tag assembly with multiple antennas, ICs, and/or sensing elements
At least some aspects of the present disclosure feature a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag adapted to wirelessly communicate with a remote transceiver. The RFID tag includes a substrate; and first and second circuits disposed on the substrate and comprising respective first and second antennas magnetically coupled to one another. At least some aspects of the present disclosure feature a RFID tag having a plurality of RF circuits, where each RF circuit is electronically coupled to a sensing element. |
| US09922279B2 |
Copy and paste with scannable code
A scannable code is used to facilitate copy and paste of content, wherein context information associated with the content is serialized and encoded directly into the scannable code. When the scannable code is decoded, the content is pasted into a desired location in a manner that is consistent with the context information. |
| US09922274B2 |
Printer colour reference system
A test apparatus comprising a portable reference element having color and spectrophotometrically neutral gray elements of predetermined hues and saturations, and a digital software file provides identical color and spectrophotometrically neutral grayscale data which, when printed or otherwise reproduced accurately, may be compared with the test colors and grayscale provided by the portable reference element, enabling appropriate adjustments to be made to the printer as required. |
| US09922273B2 |
Apparatus and method for establishing a network connection in a portable terminal
An apparatus and method for establishing a network connection in a portable terminal. The apparatus includes a controller, an image acquisition unit, and a code image analyzer. The controller establishes a network connection with a peripheral terminal using network information acquired through a code image. The image acquisition unit captures the code image generated by the peripheral terminal. The code image analyzer analyzes the code image acquired by the image acquisition unit and acquires the network information of the peripheral terminal. The code image includes at least any one of network information of the peripheral terminal, code image generation information, and information on an automatic execution program to be automatically executed after code image recognition. |
| US09922270B2 |
Global visual vocabulary, systems and methods
Systems and methods of generating a compact visual vocabulary are provided. Descriptor sets related to digital representations of objects are obtained, clustered and partitioned into cells of a descriptor space, and a representative descriptor and index are associated with each cell. Generated visual vocabularies could be stored in client-side devices and used to obtain content information related to objects of interest that are captured. |
| US09922264B2 |
Path compression of a network graph
In an approach to analyzing a path on a graph, a computer receives a graph comprising a plurality of vertices and edges, each edge linking two vertices. The computer, for each one of said plurality of vertices, analyzes edges linked to said one of plurality of vertices to determine a number of outbound links from said one of plurality of vertices, orders said edges, and assigns a value to each ordered edge. The computer, for the graph, receives a path comprising a plurality of edges linking two of said plurality of vertices through at least one other of said plurality of vertices, encodes said path, the encoding using said number of outbound links and said assigned values of each of said one or more edges linking said two of said plurality of vertices, compresses the encoded path, and analyzes said path on said graph using said compressed, encoded path. |
| US09922262B2 |
Method and apparatus for tracking target object
A method by which a tracking apparatus tracks a target object includes: acquiring a first tree structure indicating a tracking processing order of frames, each frame including a tracking area in which the target object is located; acquiring a plurality of frame groups, each frame group consisting of two frames, and acquiring distance evaluation values of the respective frame groups; acquiring a second tree structure based on the first tree structure and the distance evaluation values; and tracking the target object based on the acquired second tree structure, wherein the distance evaluation value is determined based on at least one of locations of tracking areas included in two frames belonging to the frame group and pixel values included in the tracking areas. |
| US09922261B2 |
Robotic surveying of fruit plants
A method of machine vision includes identifying contours of fruits in a first image and a second image and performing two-way matching of contours to identify pairs of matched contours, each pair comprising a respective first contour in the first image that matches a respective second contour in the second image. For each pair of matched contours, a respective affine transformation that transforms points in the respective second contour to points in the respective first contour is identified. The second image is mapped to the first image using the affine transformations to form a composite image and the number of fruits in the composite image is counted. |
| US09922253B2 |
Gaze-driven augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) systems, methods, and instrumentalities are disclosed. A user's gaze point may be estimated and may be used to search for and present information, e.g., information relating to areas on which the user is focusing. The user's gaze point may be used to facilitate or enable modes of interactivity and/or user interfaces that may be controlled by the direction of view of the user. Biometric techniques may be used to estimate an emotional state of the user. This estimated emotional state may be used to be the information that is presented to the user. |
| US09922250B2 |
Method of capturing iris image, computer-readable recording medium storing the method, and iris image capturing apparatus
Methods and apparatuses are provided for capturing an image in a portable terminal. An image is received at the portable terminal. An eye region is detected in the image. An eye center of the eye region is determined. It is determined whether a reflection region is detected in the eye region. When the reflection region is detected, a shape of the reflection region is determined, and guide information for preventing the reflection region is output based on the shape of the reflection region. |
| US09922239B2 |
System, method, and program for identifying person in portrait
The present invention is to provide a system, a method, and a program for identifying a person depicted in a portrait. The system for identifying a person depicted in a portrait 1 receives input of portrait data of the portrait, stores different individual data depending on a plurality of persons, extracts a feature point of the received portrait by image analysis, checks the extracted feature point against the individual data, identifies a person depicted in the portrait from the check result, and displays the identification result together with a probability corresponding to an identical level. |
| US09922235B2 |
Authenticating a user through fingerprint recognition
Provided is a method for authenticating a user in an electronic device. In illustrative embodiments, a fingerprint input from the user is be detected by receiving detection signals for respective sample points across an area of the fingerprint input. A determination value may be computed, which represents a degree of distribution of the detection signals according to signal strengths. It is then determined whether the determination value falls outside a preset reference range. If the determination value falls outside the preset reference range, the method determines that the fingerprint input from the user is invalid. |
| US09922228B2 |
Method and apparatus for fingerprint recognition and mobile terminal
A method for fingerprint recognition may include: acquiring a current charging state of the mobile terminal; updating setting of a fingerprint recognition threshold value according to the current charging state of the mobile terminal; acquiring a fingerprint image, and extracting feature information of the fingerprint image; and conducting a fingerprint recognition according to the extracted feature information and the fingerprint recognition threshold value. In embodiments of the present disclosure, the current charging state of the mobile terminal is acquired and setting of the fingerprint recognition threshold value is thus updated according to the current charging state of the mobile terminal, such that the mobile terminal can acquire the same fingerprint recognition rate regardless of different charging states. |
| US09922227B2 |
Apparatus and method for implementing touch control and fingerprint identification
An apparatus for implementing touch control and fingerprint identification includes: a fingerprint identification sensor including a plurality of sub-sensors and configured to transmit a signal generated by detection of a plurality of sub-sensors to a fingerprint identification circuit when a combination switch is open circuited, and to combine the signal generated by the detection of the plurality of sub-sensors into a touch signal and transmit the touch signal to a touch control circuit when the combination switch is closed. The fingerprint identification circuit is configured to process the signal generated by the detection of the plurality of sub-sensors; and the touch control circuit is configured to determine presence of a touch operation according to the combined touch signal. Accordingly, the functions of fingerprint identification and touch control can be implemented by sharing a fingerprint identification sensor, so that integration level of an electronic device is improved. |
| US09922224B1 |
Method and system for identifying and authenticating an object
A system for identifying and authenticating an object includes an indicium having randomly applied fluorophores that emit light when excited. The fluorophores produce a unique, random pattern that uniquely identifies any object to which the indicium is attached. The indicium may also include an identification code. An imaging unit with a flash excites and captures the photo-luminescence of the indicium in the form of a random image. The identification and authentication of the object is done by sending the image captured via a mobile phone or other device such as a laptop or notepad to a server of an authentication unit via the Internet or other communication media to correlate with a reference image of the indicium captured at the time of manufacture. This assures the authenticity of the product with a high degree of confidence. |
| US09922221B2 |
Barcode-reading attachment for focusing a camera of a mobile device
A barcode reading enhancement system includes an attachment for a mobile device, such as a smartphone, tablet, or a hybrid combination thereof, with a camera. The attachment may include an optics system that cooperates with the mobile device camera to facilitate the capture of decodable barcodes. The optics system may increase the camera's depth of field, increase ratio of focal length to entrance pupil diameter, and/or decrease the angular size of the field of view of the camera. The system includes a mobile barcode reading application for setting a camera lens of the camera to one of a plurality of predetermined focus positions or enabling autofocus of the camera within a limited range of focus positions less than a full range of focus positions of the camera. The application may cause the camera to capture an image of a barcode and decode the image of the barcode. |
| US09922220B2 |
Image block selection for efficient time-limited decoding
Object recognition by point-of-sale camera systems is aided by first removing perspective distortion. Yet pose of the object—relative to the system—depends on actions of the operator, and is usually unknown. Multiple trial counter-distortions to remove perspective distortion can be attempted, but the number of such trials is limited by the frame rate of the camera system—which limits the available processing interval. One embodiment of the present technology examines historical image data to determine counter-distortions that statistically yield best object recognition results. Similarly, the system can analyze historical data to learn what sub-parts of captured imagery most likely enable object recognition. A set-cover strategy is desirably used. In some arrangements, the system identifies different counter-distortions, and image sub-parts, that work best with different clerk- and customer-operators of the system, and processes captured imagery accordingly. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed. |
| US09922212B2 |
Compact high linearity MMIC based FET resistive mixer
A MMIC (microwave monolithic integrated circuit) based FET mixer and method for the same is provided. In particular, adjacent transistors, such as FETs (field effect transistors) share terminals reducing physical layout separation and interconnections. A smaller die size is realized with the improved system geometry herein provided. |
| US09922210B2 |
Componentized provisioning
A provisioning system can separately and independently provision different components for different purposes on a computing platform, and enforce component-specific purposes associated with the use of the individual provisioned components during operation of the platform. Some versions of the provisioning subsystem may operate on a virtualized mobile computing device and networked devices under control of the computing device. In some embodiments, the provisioning subsystem can enforce a desired “purpose” of a provisioned component while simultaneously denying a corresponding “anti-purpose.” |
| US09922201B2 |
Nested namespaces for selective content sharing
Nested namespaces for selective content sharing are provided. In a content management system, content is stored for a plurality of users. The content includes a plurality of content items and a plurality of folders arranged in a plurality of hierarchies. A plurality of root namespaces is established. Each root namespace is rooted to a root folder of an account. A first namespace rooted to a first folder selected from the plurality of folders is established. First permissions are maintained for the first namespace, granting access to a first set of users. A request to share a second folder is received. The second folder is a child of the first folder in a particular hierarchy. A second namespace rooted to the second folder is established. Second permissions are maintained for the second namespace, granting access to a second set of users. |
| US09922198B2 |
Methods, apparatus and computer systems that enable hardware module use rights owned by one server to be claimed for use by another server in a common share group
In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method groups two or more servers in a share group. The method then tracks how many rights to use a particular hardware module type are owned and in use by each of the servers. If a first one of the servers needs to activate an inactive one of the particular hardware module type, but does not own an unused right to use the particular hardware module type, the method then i) requests a second one of the servers to inactivate one of its hardware modules, thereby freeing a right to use the particular hardware module type, and ii) claims the freed right of the second server for use by the first server. Other embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US09922193B2 |
Identifying an evasive malicious object based on a behavior delta
A security device may receive actual behavior information associated with an object. The actual behavior information may identify a first set of behaviors associated with executing the object in a live environment. The security device may determine test behavior information associated with the object. The test behavior information may identify a second set of behaviors associated with testing the object in a test environment. The security device may compare the first set of behaviors and the second set of behaviors to determine a difference between the first set of behaviors and the second set of behaviors. The security device may identify whether the object is an evasive malicious object based on the difference between the first set of behaviors and the second set of behaviors. The security device may provide an indication of whether the object is an evasive malicious object. |
| US09922187B2 |
System and method for accessing a touch enabled device
A system for accessing a system with a touch sensitive interface is provided. The system may be configured for determining a first location and first touch pressure of the first input, determining a second location and a second touch pressure of the second input, and a first time between the first input and the second input. The system may also comprise determining a third location and a third touch pressure of the third input, and a second time between the second input and the third input. The system may further comprise determining a total time for the inputs and comparing the inputs to a unique touch pattern. |
| US09922185B2 |
Linking token detection at a single computing platform with a user identification to effectuate modifications in virtual space instances presented via multiple computing platforms
Token detection at a single computing platform may be linked with a user identification to unlock content and/or effectuate modifications in virtual space instances presented via multiple computing platforms, in accordance with one or more implementations. Exemplary implementations may enhance consistency in a user's experiences of a virtual space across multiple computing platforms. |
| US09922184B2 |
Information processing apparatus
A taken-image display unit displays a taken image on a display. By use of face identification data held in a registered user information holding section, a face authentication unit detects a face image of a registered user existing in a taken image. A face frame processing unit displays a face frame on the display for the detected registered user. If, when the face frame is being displayed, the face authentication unit detects by use of the face identification data held in the user information holding section that the face image of the registered user is included in the face frame, a login processing unit lets this user log in. |
| US09922181B2 |
Security model for network information service
Systems and methods for providing information security in a network environment are disclosed. The method includes initiating processing, invoked by a user, of at least one of a plurality of objects in a processing unit of a hardware layer, wherein the plurality of objects is hosted for a tenant. The method further includes determining that the processing of the at least one of the plurality of objects by the processing unit is authorized by the tenant based on a security map provided by the tenant and accessible by the processing unit within the hardware layer. The method further includes allowing the processing of the object based on a result of the determining. |
| US09922177B2 |
Enabling enforcement of licensing terms in distributing content in containers by including a key in the container containing the pertinent licensing terms
A method, system and computer program product for enforcing licensing terms when distributing content via a container image running in a container. Upon receiving a request for a service from the container by the isolation code, where the isolation code limits, accounts and isolates resource usage of process groups, the commerce code application programming interfaces (APIs) of the isolation code read a key of the container. The key contains licensing terms applied to the component(s) (e.g., applications) of the container. The commerce code APIs will then confirm that the container is in compliance with those licensing terms. If the container is in compliance with the licensing terms, the container will be allowed to execute. Otherwise, the container will be prevented from executing. In this manner, the commerce code APIs can enforce the licensing terms, including restrictions and enforcement of payment to the licensor upon distributing content in the container. |
| US09922176B2 |
Borrowing software licenses in a license management system for time based usage
According to one embodiment, a method for borrowing licenses. The method may include retrieving a license file associated with a software program from a data storage device, whereby the license file includes a plurality of borrowing information. The method may also include recording a plurality of usage information to the data storage device based on a plurality of user interactions with the software program. The method may further include updating the plurality of borrowing information within the retrieved license file using the recorded plurality of usage information. The method may also include revoking the retrieved license file based on the updated plurality of borrowing information expiring. |
| US09922171B2 |
Pharmaceutical order verification for an automated pharmacy system
A pharmaceutical order verification system and method for an automated pharmacy system is disclosed. A computerized line control application controls a dispensing line, facilitates automated dispensing of drugs into vials, and collects and records data for dispensed drug as well as each verification step performed by a pharmacist. In an example embodiment, pharmacist verification occurs in connection with replenishing the drugs in automated tablet counters and in connection with verifying a specified percentage of orders for each automated tablet counter. During the replenishment process, the pharmacist verifies that a replenishment canister has been loaded with the correct drug in the appropriate dosage and strength. During the order verification step, a pharmacist verifies the contents of vial matches the prescription order data. The line control application tracks the number of orders that are identified for pharmacist verification to ensure verification requirements are met for each automated tablet counter. |
| US09922168B2 |
Patient device for advanced patient communication
A patient communication device for advanced patient communication and methods for making and using same. According to one embodiment, a patient communication device comprises a selection input mechanism for generating a message on a display, the message reflecting a patient request and an urgency level associated with the patient request. The selection input mechanism includes one or more of a button, keyboard and a touch screen. Further, the patient communication device includes a transmitter for transmitting the message to a central processing server and a status indicator on the display, the status indicator representing a transmission status associated with the message. |
| US09922163B2 |
Physically aware test patterns in semiconductor fabrication
A method for fabricating a circuit comprises identifying a target on the circuit with a transitional sensitivity, determining a test pattern that stresses the target, generating a verification model at the hierarchy of the target, creating a pattern and translating the pattern into a verification assertion, running the verification with the translated pattern, determining whether the verification assertion is a possible verification assertion following the running of the verification, obtaining a state of source latches and pin inputs responsive to determining that the formal verification assertion is a possible verification assertion following the running of the formal verification, translating the formal verification assertion into a coverage event, running a simulation with the coverage event, determining whether the coverage event occurred, and creating a manufacturing test responsive to determining that the coverage event occurred. |
| US09922162B2 |
Resistive capacitance determination method for multiple-patterning-multiple spacer integrated circuit layout
A method includes generating a plurality of multiple patterning decompositions associated with a layout of an integrated circuit. Each of the plurality of multiple patterning decompositions includes a first pattern associated with a first mask, a second pattern associated with a second mask, the first mask and the second mask being two masks of a multiple patterning mask set, a width value associated with at least one of the first pattern or the second pattern, and a first spacing value between the first pattern and the second pattern. A file is generated comprising a plurality of dielectric constant values associated with the plurality of multiple patterning decompositions that are based on the width values and the first spacing values. |
| US09922153B2 |
Scalable logic verification by identifying unate primary inputs
Embodiments herein describe a verification process that identifies unate primary inputs in input paths of a property gate. A property gate is logic inserted in a hardware design represented by a netlist which is used to verify the design. Before performing the verification process, a computing system evaluates the netlist to identify the primary inputs in the input paths of the property gate and whether these primary inputs are unate or binate. To do so, in one embodiment, the computing system sets the output of the property gate in an error state and then traverses the input paths of the property gate to identify the values of the logic in the inputs paths that would result in the property gate being in the error state. Based on these polarities, the system can identify the unate and binate primary inputs. |
| US09922148B2 |
Dynamically selecting master clock to manage non-linear simulation clocks
Systems and methods that efficiently simulate controlled systems are presented. A simulation management component (SMC) controls simulation of a controlled system by controlling a desired number of nodes, each comprising a controller (e.g., soft controller) and a simulated component or process, which are part of the controlled system. The simulation can be performed in a step-wise manner, wherein the simulation can comprise a desired number of steps of respectively desired lengths of time. For each step, the SMC dynamically selects a desired clock (e.g., currently identified slowest clock) as a master clock for the next step. The SMC predicts a length of time of the next step to facilitate setting a desired length of time for the next step based in part on the predicted length of time. As part of each step, components can synchronously exchange data via intra-node or inter-node connections to facilitate simulation. |
| US09922147B2 |
Exponentially fitted approximation for anisotropic semiconductor equations
Roughly described, a method for determining characteristics of a body by simulation, useful in analyzing semiconductor devices, includes imposing a Delaunay mesh on a simulated body to be modeled, determining a system of node equations describing generation and flux of a set of at least a first physical quantity at each node in the mesh, and numerically solving the system of node equations to identify the physical quantities in the set at each node in the mesh, where the flux of the first physical quantity in the body, as represented in the node equations, is anisotropic. The method does not impose any limitation on the geometry of the device, on mesh elements, or on the orientation of the anisotropy. |
| US09922143B2 |
Method and control for carrying out a calculation of a data-based function model
A method for carrying out a calculation of a data-based function model, in particular a Gaussian process model, the data-based function model being defined by predefined hyperparameters and node data, multiple input variables being assigned to one output variable and having a sum of terms, each of which depend on one of the input variables, including the following: determining at least one input variable to be varied, for which multiple output values of a corresponding output variable are to be determined; calculating the sum of the terms, which depend on the input variables not to be varied; providing multiple input values for each of the determined at least one input variable to be varied; and ascertaining multiple output values of the output variable for the provided multiple input values, each based on the calculated sum of the terms, which depend on the input variables not to be varied. |
| US09922141B2 |
Systems and methods for fast simulation and visualization of sparse fluids
Example embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for simulating sparse fluids and visualizing the results. An example embodiment involves simulating sparse fluids on a two-dimensional surface and using that simulation to visualize the results on a three dimensional surface. The fluid computation operates in a two-dimensional (2D) plane although the visualization of the fluid simulation is three-dimensional (3D). The simulation uses surface shape and properties, local gravity vectors, and various other criteria to simulate realistic behavior of sparse fluids, e.g., sweat, tears, blood, and drops of liquid. The systems and methods of the present invention may be implemented, for example, on a highly parallel architecture, such as a graphics processing unit (GPU), and on non-parallel architectures. |
| US09922140B1 |
Named intelligent connectors for creating assemblies of computer aided design (CAD) objects
In one embodiment, a technique is provided for creating assemblies of model objects in a modeling space of a computer aided design (CAD) application utilizing virtual connectors (i.e. “named intelligent connectors” (NICs)). Model objects may be associated with one or more NICs that represent possible points of connection to other model objects. In response to instructions in the user interface of the CAD application, a connection may be formed by recording invariant information in the NICs. Further, a connected position and orientation of a model object in a global coordinate system of the modeling space may be calculated using the invariant information in the NICs. |
| US09922139B2 |
Method and device for data screening
The described technology provides a method and device for data screening, and solves the technical problem that the user needs to return to the check box interface to reset the screen element and thus the operation steps are cumbersome. The method for data screening comprises: screening raw data according to a first screen element to obtain a first result subset, the first result subset belonging to the raw data and being corresponding to the first screen element; displaying the first result subset and an element list and receiving a second screen element selected by a user according to the element list; screening the first result subset according to the second screen element to obtain a second result subset, the second result subset belonging to the raw data and being corresponding to the second screen element; displaying the second result subset. The described technology is mainly applied during the process of data statistics and screening. |
| US09922135B1 |
Distributed storage and retrieval of directed acyclic graphs
Technologies are described herein for distributed storage and retrieval of directed acyclic graphs, such as version control graphs maintained by a version control system. In order to store data contained in a directed acyclic graph, objects stored in the graph may be grouped into chunks utilizing a relatedness heuristic. The chunks may then be stored in a distributed object store. An index to the objects stored in the chunks may also be created that includes an index entry for each object. The index entry for each object includes a unique identifier for the object and data identifying the location of the object in the distributed object store. The index may be utilized to traverse the directed acyclic graph and to obtain all or a portion of the objects in the directed acyclic graph from the distributed object store. |
| US09922134B2 |
Assessing and scoring people, businesses, places, things, and brands
Systems and methods for social graph data analytics and node traversal are described herein. A social graph may comprise two or more nodes that each represents an individual, group, or entity, and links may connect the two or more nodes. A distributed graph storage/computation system may be configured to store node and link elements of one or more network communities in a distributed fashion. For example, the distributed graph storage/computation system may include a cluster registry, one or more node storage clusters, and one or more edge storage clusters. The cluster registry, node storage clusters, and edge storage clusters may each provide functions for providing node and link information and for traversing the social graph. |
| US09922132B2 |
Method and apparatus for speeding up web page access
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and apparatus for speeding up Web page access, pertaining to the network field. The method includes: acquiring a URL address initiated by a user; judging whether the URL address is stored in a preset cache database, where the cache database stores a plurality of mapping relationships between URL addresses and cache data; and when it is judged that the URL address is stored in the preset cache database, acquiring cache data corresponding to the URL address from the cache database, processing the cache data, and rendering the Web page. According to the embodiments of present invention, logic for implementing the cache database is added at the browser end. In this way, no matter a Web server or a proxy server complies with the HTTP. |
| US09922129B2 |
Systems and methods for cluster augmentation of search results
Systems and associated methods for clustering a plurality of nodes based on connectivity among the plurality of nodes, determining relevant content of the clusters, and applying knowledge regarding the relevant content are described. The nodes can include for example web-based documents such as web pages. The clusters can include for example groups of web pages that are linked together, as via hyperlinks. The relevant content can include one or more topics associated with the web page, as for example determined via text mining. Applying the knowledge regarding the relevant content can include for example using the one or more topics associated with the web pages to augment search results and/or conduct contextual advertising. |
| US09922127B2 |
Footprint tracking of contacts
A footprints device includes an input module and an output module. The input module receives a request for footprint data. The footprint data relates to names of users. The output module sends the footprint data to an address book. The footprint data is marked to indicate when at least one of the names of the users is a contact of the address book. |
| US09922126B2 |
System and method for information technology infrastructure transformation
This disclosure relates generally to information technology (IT), and more particularly to a system and method for IT infrastructure transformation. In some embodiments, information related to an IT infrastructure is gathered, a current maturity level of the IT infrastructure is assessed using an analytical maturity model, and a transformation roadmap is derived to achieve a desired maturity level of the IT infrastructure based on the current maturity level and the information gathered. In some embodiments, the analytical maturity model is configured to provide maturity ratings based on the information gathered and industry standard. |
| US09922125B1 |
Selecting content using entity properties
Systems and methods of the disclosure relate to selecting content via a computer network. A search query provided by a user device can be received. An entity of a search query, a corresponding confidence score, and a property can be identified via a data structure having information about entities. A match between a property of an entity of content selection criteria and the property of the entity of the search query can be determined. The content item can be selected as a candidate for display on the user device based on the match and the confidence score. |
| US09922123B2 |
Policy performance ordering
Technology for optimizing policy evaluation is disclosed. A policy may include an ordered rule set. When evaluated, the highest priority rule in the order that does not skip may control the outcome of the policy. Rules within a policy may have associated costs and an associated probability of not skipping. The rules of a policy may not need to be executed in a particular order for a system to determine the correct evaluation of the policy and groups of rules, or “batches,” may be run simultaneously. Technology is disclosed to optimize policy evaluation by creating batches and orderings of those batches which have a lower expected cost than other ordered sets of batches. The expected cost for each ordered set of batches may be calculated based on: rule costs, probabilities associated with one or more rules, the organization of the rules into batches, and the ordering of batches within sets. |
| US09922122B2 |
Providing remedial search operation based on analysis of user interaction with search results
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for assisting users in performing searches. In one aspect, a query for a search session is received from a user device. A first set of search results responsive to the query is provided to the user device. Search results interaction data are received from the user device that identifies actions that are in response to the search results and taken at the user device. The search results interaction data are analyzed to determine that a remedial search operation should be performed, the remedial search operation determining a second set of search results responsive to the query and providing the second set of search results to the user device for presentation to the user. |
| US09922117B2 |
Contextual search input from advisors
This invention provides a contextual search tool to a user. The contextual search tool receives a search from the user and provides search results, content, and dynamic contextual information (e.g., dynamic contextual questions, user information, and account information) to the user. The contextual search tool then receives contextual information input from the user with an indication that the user would like to communicate with an advisor, and a communication channel is opened between the user and the advisor. The advisor has access the user's search and provides contextual information input, which allows the contextual search tool to update the search results and the dynamic contextual information. As such, the invention of the present invention improves the ability of the contextual search tool to provide tailored, customized, and relevant search results to the user based in part on advisor input. |
| US09922115B1 |
Composite storage
The present application relates in general to information retrieval and repository management system and in particular to composite storage that efficiently and compactly stores all grammatical information, including text and non-text information, about a document or a set of documents, as well as various measures based on the language used within such documents to allow any size device to manage the information that it requires to perform its functions. |
| US09922114B2 |
Systems and methods for distributing indexer configurations
Provided are systems and methods for causing display of an index management graphical user interface (GUI). In one embodiment, a method can be provided. The method can include causing display of an index management GUI including one or more user editable fields for specifying one or more index settings; receiving, via the one or more user editable fields of the index management GUI, one or more user specified index settings; generating an index definition corresponding to the one or more user specified index settings; and distributing the index definition to one or more indexers of a data processing system. The one or more indexers are able to manage storage of data in one or more indexes based at least in part on the index definition. |
| US09922110B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a link feature amount selecting unit that selects a link feature amount that is a feature amount for linking a first item with another item, an item selecting unit that selects one or more candidates of a second item to be linked with the first item, on the basis of the selected link feature amount, a provision control unit that controls provision, to a user, of the first item, the link feature amount, and the one or more candidates of the second item, and a link creating unit that selects the second item and creates a link of the first item and the second item. |
| US09922106B2 |
Reallocating jobs for checking data quality
The invention provides for checking data quality of data of an application program by a data quality management system. At least one of a plurality of jobs are executed for evaluating the data for compliance with one or more quality criteria. The runtime behavior of the at least one executed job is monitored to determine a current runtime behavior of the executed job. The monitored job is reclassified by reallocating the job to a job set representing the determined current runtime behavior. |
| US09922105B2 |
Method and apparatus of maintaining data for online analytical processing in a database system
A method and an apparatus of maintaining data for online analytical processing in a database system. The method includes: tracking a changed page in a main process; and synchronizing the changed page to a child process for online analytical processing. In the method and apparatus of maintaining data for online analytical processing, the changed pages are tracked and then the child process is synchronized with the changed pages. Therefore, periodic forking is avoided, fork overhead due to periodic forking in the prior art is removed, the synchronization is faster since only the changed pages are synchronized, and the performance of online data processing is enhanced. |
| US09922104B1 |
Metadata driven code-generated external data feeds
Approaches for providing a customizable external data feed to a recipient. Metadata that identifies a plurality of configuration parameters that define characteristics of the external data feed are stored. A plurality of executable jobs using the configuration parameters defined in the metadata are programmatically generated. At least a first portion of executable jobs are executed to extract a data set identified by the configuration parameters from a persistent data store. At least a second portion of executable jobs are executed to format and transform the data set according to the configuration parameters. The external data feed, which comprises the formatted and transformed data set, is provided to the recipient. |
| US09922095B2 |
Automated closed captioning using temporal data
One or more systems and/or techniques are provided for automatic closed captioning for media content. In an example, real-time content, occurring within a threshold timespan of a broadcast of media content (e.g., social network posts occurring during and an hour before a live broadcast of an interview), may be accessed. A list of named entities, occurring within the social network data, may be generated (e.g., Interviewer Jon, Interviewee Kathy, Husband Dave, Son Jack, etc.). A ranked list of named entities may be created based upon trending named entities within the list of named entities (e.g., a named entity may be ranked higher based upon a more frequent occurrence within the social network posts). A dynamic grammar (e.g., library, etc.) may be built based upon the ranked list of named entities. Speech recognition may be performed upon the broadcast of media content utilizing the dynamic grammar to create closed caption text. |
| US09922088B2 |
Cardinality estimation using spanning trees
A system, computer-implemented method, and computer-program product embodiments for determining a cardinality estimate for a query. A cardinality estimator identifies a predicate in a query, where the predicate is split into a plurality of equivalence classes. The cardinality estimator then generates a plurality of equivalence graphs from the plurality of equivalence classes, one equivalence graph for an equivalence class. Spanning trees are identified from the plurality of equivalence graphs, and the cardinality estimator then determines the cardinality estimate for the query from the spanning trees. |
| US09922086B1 |
Consistent query of local indexes
A distributed database management system may comprise a plurality of computing nodes. A request to update an item maintained by the system may be acknowledged as durable and committed once an entry corresponding to the request has been written to a log file and quorum among the computing nodes has been achieved. Improved consistency may be achieved by maintaining snapshots of committed item states within queryable in-memory snapshot data structures. Range queries may be performed by merging a secondary index with the snapshots and applying filters. Projections may be completed by retrieving additional data from an item collection maintain on one or more storage devices. |
| US09922085B2 |
Template based generation of cross views
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for generating a virtual data model of data from one or more source systems, where the exact number of each type of source system is not known. Templates for each source system type may be defined and then explicit views may be generated for each source system based on configuration data provided by a customer. |
| US09922079B2 |
Information processing apparatus, for assisting user in setting an appropriate search condition
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a device state detection unit configured to detect a device state of an electronic device, and a search condition setting unit configured to reference a database that stores information regarding the device state in association with a search condition used for a search for operation related information for the electronic device, and to extract the search condition corresponding to the device state. |
| US09922077B2 |
Reducing the cost of update, delete, and append-only insert operations in a database
A first request may be received to update a first set of values. The first set of values may be stored at a first location within a first data page of a database. The first location may be read-only. In response to the receiving of the first request, a first set of records may be inserted into a second data page. The first set of records may include the update of the first set of values. In response to the inserting, a forward pointer may be stored in the first data page that points to the first set of records on the second data page. One or more committed values may be identified on the second data page. In response to the identifying, the one or more committed values may be merged from the second data page to a third data page. |
| US09922076B2 |
Database schema upgrade as a service
A method for upgrading a database schema in real time, wherein the database schema is associated with a plurality of databases is provided. The method may include installing a first plugin on a database upgrade process associated with a database. The method may include installing a second plugin on each database instance within the plurality of databases. The method may include determining a delta associated with a final target version of the database schema. Additionally, the method may include outlining an existence of an incongruence, an existence of an override or an existence of a customization removal based on the determined delta. The method may include performing a peer-to-peer broadcasting analysis between each database. The method may include defining a migration strategy for each database instance within the plurality of databases based on the peer-to-peer broadcasting analysis. The method may further include creating a script for upgrading the database schema. |
| US09922073B2 |
Generation of service specification of a solution
A method and associated system for generating a service specification of a solution. Each process of at least one process is decomposed into at least one atomic service process. The service specification of the solution to be compatible with both a process model framework that includes the at least one process and a data model framework that includes at least one data element that is indirectly matched to the at least one process. The service specification represents a respective process interface of each atomic service process that performs a respective atomic service in the solution. The customized service specification is stored in a database. |
| US09922071B2 |
Isolation anomaly quantification through heuristical pattern detection
In an approach for calculating a probability of a consistency violation of a transaction in a database management system, a processor receives a plurality of transactions within a predetermined time period. A processor identifies a first pattern in a first transaction of the plurality of transactions based on at least an isolation level of the transaction. A processor identifies a second pattern, wherein the second pattern is the cooperation between the first transaction and the second transaction. A processor determines that the first pattern of the first transaction substantially matches a preexisting pattern, wherein the preexisting pattern corresponds to values for a mathematical model for estimating a percentage of transactions in violation of consistency criteria. A processor extracts values from the first transaction based on the determined preexisting pattern. A processor calculates the mathematical model using the values from the first transaction and the values from the preexisting pattern. |
| US09922061B2 |
Methods and systems for backing up a search index
An index to be backed up in a computing environment is identified. A staged copy of the index to be backed up is created. The staged copy of the index is segmented. The segments are uploaded to a pre-selected location. |
| US09922058B2 |
Fast PCA method for big discrete data
This disclosure is related to further approximating multiple data vectors of a dataset. The multiple data vectors are initially approximated by one or more stored principle components. A processor performs multiple iterations of determining an updated estimate of a further principle component based on the multiple data vectors that are initially approximated by the one or more stored principle components. The processor performs this step such that the updated estimate of the further principal component further approximates the dataset. In each iteration the processor constrains the updated estimate of the further principal component to be orthogonal to each of the one or more stored principal components. The data vectors of the dataset are not manipulated but remain the same data vectors that are approximated by the stored principal components. |
| US09922055B2 |
Managing and classifying assets in an information technology environment using tags
Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for managing and classifying assets in an information technology (“IT”) environment using a tag-based approach. The disclosed tag-based classification techniques can be implemented through a graphical user interface. Embodiments of the disclosed tag-based classification techniques can be used to allow a user to easily and quickly select and perform actions on groups of one or more assets (e.g., monitor policies, perform upgrades, etc.). For example, the tag-based classification techniques can automatically classify assets into “tag sets” (or “tagged sets”) based on node properties or user-selected criteria or conditions (e.g., criteria or conditions that are established in a user-created tagging profile or rule). The tagged assets can then be further filtered to identify even deeper relationships between the assets. |
| US09922047B2 |
Dynamic location search suggestions based on travel itineraries
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for retrieving local information on a user device include detecting itinerary information stored by a first application on a user device, and identifying a travel destination based on the detected itinerary information. The travel destination is communicated to a second application executable on a user device, and the travel destination is stored in association with the second application. The second application is adapted to retrieve local information based on an identified geographic location, and local information for the travel destination is provided through the second application in response to a user interaction with the second application and based on a triggering threshold associated with the itinerary information. |
| US09922046B2 |
Scalable distributed metadata file-system using key-value stores
A computer-implemented distributed file-system in a distributed data network in which metadata related to the files and directories of the file-system is distributed. A unique and non-reusable inode number is assigned to each file/directory of the file-system. A key-value store built up in rows is created for the distributed metadata. Each of the rows has a composite row key and a row value (key-value pair) where the composite row key for each file/directory includes the inode number of the parent directory, and a name of the file/directory. For files below the maximum file size, the entire file or portion thereof is encoded in the corresponding row value of the key-value pair. In this case, the corresponding composite row key holds the inode number of the file itself and an offset information of the data of the file in the row value. Files above maximum file size are stored in a large-scale storage. |
| US09922045B2 |
Data management in a multi-tenant distributive environment
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for data management in multi-tenant distributive environment. According to the embodiments of the present invention, a tenant-specific virtual metadata server may be created and registered with a task manager in a job processing system. The virtual metadata server provides a tenant-specific logical file system namespace. Any access to tenant data will be performed via the virtual metadata server. In other words, such virtual metadata server acts as an interface between a tenant terminal and an entity file system. In this way, it may effectively realize isolation of tenant data and enhance data security. Moreover, by using a virtual metadata server rather than physically isolating user data, the embodiments of the present invention may guarantee the efficiency of data sharing while improving the data security. |
| US09922041B2 |
Storing data files in a file system
A mechanism is provided for storing data files in a file system. The file system provides a plurality of reference data files, where each reference data file in the plurality of data files represents a group of similar data files. The mechanism creates a new data file and associated the new data file with one reference data file in the plurality of data files thus defining an associated reference data file of the plurality of reference data files. The mechanism informs the file system about the association of the new data file with the associated reference data file. The mechanism compresses the new data file using the associated reference data file thereby forming a compressed data file. The mechanism stores the compressed data file together with information about the association of the new data file with the associated reference data file. |
| US09922039B1 |
Techniques for mitigating effects of small unaligned writes
Embodiments are directed to techniques for allowing write operations to proceed on units smaller than a block. Merely decreasing the block size is not desirable, however, since many files are written in large chunks at once, and larger block sizes can increase speed and decrease the amount of overhead metadata required. Therefore, in order to maintain large block sizes while still obtaining the benefit of being able to make small writes when necessary, blocks may be divided into sub-blocks. Unaligned writes that do not fill up an entire block may be segregated and stored separately from aligned writes, the unaligned writes having finer granularity. These techniques may result in faster operation for unaligned writes. They also especially benefit systems using compression because they allow efficiently partially overwriting compressed blocks. |
| US09922038B2 |
Management of file storage locations
The embodiments described may be directed toward a file management system for managing a file folder location, a method for managing one or more data clusters, and a method of recommending a file storage location. The method of recommending a file storage location may also include plotting one or more data points onto one or more vectors. A received data point may be obtained from a file save request. The method may also include creating one or more data clusters from the vector data points using a clustering mechanism. |
| US09922037B2 |
Index time, delimiter based extractions and previewing for use in indexing
A graphical user interface allows a customer to specify delimiters and/or patterns that occur in event data and indicate the presence of a particular field. The graphical user interface applies a customer's delimiter specifications directly to event data and displays the resulting event data in real time. Delimiter specifications may be saved as configuration settings and systems in a distributed setting may use the delimiter specifications to extract field values as the systems process raw data into event data. Extracted field values are used to accelerate search queries that a system receives. |
| US09922036B2 |
System and method for duplicating files on client device for cloud storage
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for duplicating files on client device for storage in a cloud storage server. An example method includes: receiving, by a user device, a request to upload a file stored locally on the user device into the cloud storage server; determine time required to generate a unique file identifier for said file and time required to upload said file to the cloud storage server; responsive to the time required to generate the unique file identifier for said file exceeding the time required to upload said file to the cloud storage server, initiating the uploading of the file to the cloud storage server; and responsive to the time required to upload said file to the cloud storage server exceeding the time required to generate the unique file identifier, generating said unique file identifier and transmitting the unique file identifier to the cloud storage server. |
| US09922033B1 |
Systems and methods for efficiently extracting contents of container files
The disclosed computer-implemented method for efficiently extracting contents of container files may include (1) receiving a container file that includes (a) an additional container file that includes (i) a constituent file and (ii) metadata of the constituent file and (b) metadata of the additional container file, (2) creating, before the constituent file is extracted from the additional container file, a content hierarchy for the container file that includes (a) the metadata of the constituent file, (b) hierarchical metadata that indicates that the container file includes the additional container file, and (c) additional hierarchical metadata that indicates that the additional container file includes the constituent file, (3) querying, after the content hierarchy is created, the content hierarchy to locate the constituent file within the additional container file, (4) extracting the constituent file, and (5) performing an action on the constituent file. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US09922031B2 |
System and method for efficient directory performance using non-persistent storage
A system and method are provided for processing directory service operations. The system includes a client device communicatively coupled to one or more directory servers. Each directory server includes a communications interface, a storage mechanism, and an evaluation module. According to an exemplary embodiment, the storage mechanism is a non-persistent storage mechanism which increases read and write performance. When a directory server receives a directory service operation, it determines whether it is capable of processing the operation, and if so, processes it with respect to its non-persistent storage mechanism. |
| US09922030B2 |
Information-system-construction support tool and information-system-construction support program
An information-system-construction support tool that generates screen data for displaying data of a PLC on a display unit, and setting data for a database that stores therein the data of the PLC, the tool including a storage unit capable of being read by a screen-display edit tool that displays and edits a screen using the screen data and a setting tool for the database, a setting input unit to receive a datatype of the data of the PLC, a screen-type input unit to receive a screen type of the screen data, a database setting unit to receive setting data for the database, and a data generation unit to generate, in the storage unit, data associating the screen data by the screen type and the setting data for the database on a datatype-by-datatype basis. |
| US09922029B1 |
User feedback for low-confidence translations
A machine translation system can improve results of machine translations by employing preferred translations, such as human translated phrases. In some implementations, the machine translation system can use the preferred translations as heavily weighted training data when building a machine translation engine. In some implementations, the machine translation system can use the preferred translations as an alternate to a result that would have otherwise been produced by a machine translation engine. While it is infeasible to obtain human translations for all translation phrases, preferred translations can be used for problem phrases for which machine translation engines often produce poor translations. The machine translation system can identify problem phrases by assigning a quality score to each translation in a set of translations. The machine translation system can identify, as the problem phrases, n-grams that appear with a frequency above a frequency threshold in translations with quality scores below a threshold. |
| US09922024B2 |
Ontology driven dictionary generation and ambiguity resolution for natural language processing
Natural language processing ambiguity resolution includes storing an ontological library specifying a set of grammatical rules associated with ontological classes and sub-classes. A dictionary for each class and sub-class is generated by compiling all word instances belonging to the class or sub-class. A phrase is received having at least one ambiguous word that is associated with at least one class and at least two sub-classes. The ambiguous word is annotated with the ontological classes and sub-classes to which the ambiguous word belongs and the grammatical rules associated with the ontological classes and sub-classes to which the ambiguous word belongs are retrieved from the ontological library. One or more ontological classes or sub-classes are eliminated based on the retrieved grammatical rules and a surviving ontological class and sub-class are determined to be an accurate ontological class and sub-class for the ambiguous word to resolve the natural language processing ambiguity. |
| US09922023B2 |
Parallel parsing of file partitions storing a single XML document
An XML document is stored in a file that is divided into file partitions. Each file partition is assigned to a process of a set processes to search for one or more separate target elements. The target elements are identified by a target element name. Each process scans an assigned file partition for the beginning of a target element. When a target element is found, an XML parser is invoked to parse the target element. |
| US09922022B2 |
Automatic template generation based on previous documents
Automatic generation of a document template based on recognized composition element patterns in documents associated with a user is provided. Composition elements used in documents are typically unique to a particular user or to a group of users. An automated template generation system detects composition element patterns in documents associated with the user, and generates and provides one or more useful and relevant templates comprising composition elements consistent with subsets of composition elements used in previously created documents. Generating a document template based on composition element patterns in documents associated with the user improves the user experience, reduces the use of bandwidth, memory, and processing power to reuse composition elements between documents. Additionally, providing user-relevant templates helps to ensure consistency across documents created by the user. |
| US09922018B2 |
Scrollbar for zooming on rows and columns of a spreadsheet and interpreting cells
A user interface control is presented for assisting the computer user in viewing cells with a data table. In particular, a vector viewing control is presented which enables the computer user to view cells within a data table. The vector viewing control comprises a plurality of cell elements, each cell element corresponding to one or more cells in the data table. The cell elements correspond to a vector of cells in the data table that is represented by the vector viewing control. Upon user interaction with the vector viewing control, an expanded view is presented showing the contents of the data cell corresponding to the location of the interaction point on the control. The computer user can move the expanded view up and down the vector to view the contents of the data table. |
| US09922013B2 |
System, method and computer program product for editing web pages in-context of a production view
Systems and methods for in-context editing of web pages in which the production format of a web page is visible while the web page is being edited, and the editable image is not distorted by the editing tools. In one embodiment, a system includes a server computer, a client computer and a transmission channel coupled between them. The server computer receives a request for a web page from the client computer and responsively transmits a web page containing in-context editing tools to the client computer. The client computer operate alternately in a first mode in which the in-context editing tools are superimposed on a web page image, or a second mode in which the web page image is displayed, but the in-context editing tools are hidden. The tools overlay in the first mode does not alter the production format of the web page image as displayed in the second mode. |
| US09922011B2 |
Masking an object in hypertext markup language
A computer system may identify a first and second predefined color that are found in a Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) style sheet for a webpage. The computer system may receive an object to be embedded in the webpage. The computer system may calculate a color similarity score for each of the predefined colors. The computer system may compare the color similarity scores for the predefined color and determine, based on the comparison, which predefined color is the mask color. The computer system may then mask the object using the mask color. |
| US09922009B2 |
Network media information display system, method, apparatus and server
The present application discloses a network media information display system, method, apparatus and server. The method includes: setting network media information data in a display server, the network media information data including a model type corresponding to a network media information template, template data, and element content, and the template data including an element identification and model data; setting the model type and a creation script of a corresponding basic element in a display apparatus; acquiring, by the display apparatus, corresponding network media information from the display server, automatically creating a basic element corresponding to the model type of the network media information according to a preset basic element creation script, matching a structural element of the current network media information according to an element identification in the template data, and assembling, according to the model data, the structural element into the network media information that needs to be displayed. |
| US09922004B2 |
Dynamic highlighting of repetitions in electronic documents
In a method for dynamically highlighting repetitive text in electronic documents, obtaining one or more user preferences related to a user reading an electronic document. The method further includes determining whether the electronic document contains one or more repetitive text associations, wherein a repetitive text association is data that provides one or more indications of repetitive text segments interspersed within a document. In response to determining that the electronic document contains one or more repetitive text associations, the method further includes identifying one or more repetitive text segments in the electronic document corresponding to the one or more repetitive text associations and determining a time duration expended by the user reading an instance of the identified one or more repetitive text segments within the electronic document. The method further includes highlighting the identified one or more repetitive text segments within the electronic document based one or more obtained user preferences. |
| US09922000B2 |
Packet buffer with dynamic bypass
A write queue, for queuing a packet in a traffic manager coupled to a memory device, is selected from among a preemptable write queue configured to queue packets that are candidates for being retrieved from the traffic manager before the packets are written to the memory device and a non-preemptable write queue configured to queue packets that are not candidates for being retrieved from the traffic manager before the packets are written to the memory device. The packet is written to the selected write queue. A read request is generated for retrieving the packet from the memory device, and it is determined whether the packet is queued in the preemptable write queue. If the packet is queued in the preemptable write queue, the packet is extracted from the preemptable write queue for retrieving the packet from the traffic manager before the packet is written to the memory device. |
| US09921999B2 |
Electronic device, display method at time of execution of verification with electronic device, and storage medium
An electronic device includes a display unit and a processor. The processor performs an input process to receive an input of a first mathematical expression including a left side member, an equality sign or inequality sign, and a right side member expressed in this order; a first mathematical expression display process to display, on the display unit, the input first mathematical expression; a verification process to verify whether the input first mathematical expression is true or false; and a second mathematical expression display process to display, on the display unit, the right side member of the verified first mathematical expression as a left side member of a second mathematical expression to be newly verified, if the first mathematical expression is determined to be true as a result of verification by the verification process. |
| US09921994B1 |
Dynamic credit control in multi-traffic class communication system
Apparatuses and techniques for dynamic credit control in the context of a multi-traffic class communication system are described. Dynamic credit control is provided through the use of central-controlled, traffic class receiver buffers for multiple traffic classes. The size of the traffic class receiver buffers can be modified on-the-fly, during operation of the system. This provides a high degree of flexibility, particularly in the context of heavy traffic class packet traffic which, in turn, greatly facilitates operation of today's advanced applications. |
| US09921992B2 |
Asynchronous data link
A two-phase asynchronous transmission circuit for transmitting data over a wired interface according to a two-phase asynchronous protocol, the transmission circuit including: N data output lines, where N is an integer equal to 3 or more, wherein the transmission circuit is capable of transmitting N unique data symbols, each of the output lines being associated with a corresponding one of the N data symbols, and the transmission circuit is adapted to transmit each data symbol by applying a voltage transition to the corresponding output line independently of the voltage state of the other output lines. |
| US09921989B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for modular on-die coherent interconnect for packetized communication
In an embodiment, an apparatus comprises: a first component to perform coherent operations; and a coherent fabric logic coupled to the first component via a first component interface. The coherent fabric logic may be configured to perform full coherent fabric functionality for coherent communications between the first component and a second component coupled to the coherent fabric logic. The first component may include a packetization logic to communicate packets with the coherent fabric logic, but not include coherent interconnect interface logic to perform coherent fabric functionality. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09921988B2 |
Device and method to assign device pin functionality for multi-processor core devices
An embedded device has a plurality of processor cores, each with a plurality of peripheral devices, wherein each peripheral device may have an output, a housing with a plurality of assignable external pins, and a plurality of peripheral pin selection modules for each processing core, wherein each peripheral pin selection module is configured to be programmable to assign an assignable external pin to one of the plurality of peripheral devices of one of the processor cores. |
| US09921977B2 |
Privilege based memory pinning mechanism
A method for privilege based memory pinning is provided. The method includes receiving a request to pin an amount of address space memory from a process executing on an operating system. The operating system includes a configurable mode of operation. In mandatory mode, the operating system executes the request to pin address space memory based on the role hierarchy-based privilege level of the requestor process. When the requested amount is greater than the operating system's amount of memory that can be used to pin memory, the operating system fails the request. However, when the operating can satisfy the request from processes having a lower privilege level relative to the requestor process, memory is unpinned from one or more of these processes. |
| US09921968B2 |
Multi-core shared page miss handler
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for using a shared page miss handler device to satisfy page miss requests of a plurality of devices in a multi-core system. One embodiment of such a method comprises receiving one or more page miss requests from one or more respective requesting devices of the plurality of devices in the multi-core system, and arbitrating to identify a first page miss requests of the one or more requesting devices A page table walk is performed to generate a physical address responsive to the first page miss request. Then the physical address is sent to the corresponding requesting device, or a fault is signaled to an operating system for the corresponding requesting device responsive to the first page miss request. |
| US09921965B2 |
Demote instruction for relinquishing cache line ownership
A computer system processor of a multi-processor computer system having cache subsystem, executes a demote instruction to cause a cache line exclusively owned by the computer system processor to become shared or read-only in the cache subsystem. |
| US09921963B1 |
Method to decrease computation for cache eviction using deferred calculations
A data processing system and methods for performing cache eviction are disclosed. An exemplary method includes maintaining a metadata set for each cache unit of a cache device, wherein the cache device comprises a plurality of cache units, each cache unit having a plurality of segments, calculating a score for each metadata set, and arranging the metadata sets in a list in ascending order from lowest score to highest score. The exemplary method further includes in response to determining that a cache eviction is to be performed, selecting a cache unit corresponding to the metadata set in the list having the lowest score, without recalculating a score for any of the metadata set, and evicting the selected cache unit. The metadata nay include, for example, segment count metadata, validity metadata, last access time (LAT) metadata, and hotness metadata. |
| US09921962B2 |
Maintaining cache coherency using conditional intervention among multiple master devices
Maintaining cache coherency using conditional intervention among multiple master devices is disclosed. In one aspect, a conditional intervention circuit is configured to receive intervention responses from multiple snooping master devices. To select a snooping master device to provide intervention data, the conditional intervention circuit determines how many snooping master devices have a cache line granule size the same as or larger than a requesting master device. If one snooping master device has a same or larger cache line granule size, that snooping master device is selected. If more than one snooping master device has a same or larger cache line granule size, a snooping master device is selected based on an alternate criteria. The intervention responses provided by the unselected snooping master devices are canceled by the conditional intervention circuit, and intervention data from the selected snooping master device is provided to the requesting master device. |
| US09921959B2 |
Efficient reference classification and quick memory reuse in a system that supports concurrent garbage collection
The disclosed embodiments facilitate reusing both the physical and virtual memory in a garbage-collected computing environment immediately after a relocated memory area has been emptied, without using special hardware or operating system extensions. This system uses load barrier to perform fast checks to determine if a reference might point into a relocated memory area. If so, the load barrier performs further actions to remap pointers that actually point into the relocated memory area, without the need to read that memory. Because the system neither follows pointers into relocated memory areas nor protects relocated memory areas, the system can immediately reuse the virtual memory areas. The load barrier ensures that references pointing into a relocated memory area will be caught and handled, and references pointing into the newly allocated memory will pass through the barrier without further actions. |
| US09921957B2 |
Methods and systems for managing memory allocation
A method is performed at an electronic device with a display, one or more processors, volatile memory, and non-volatile memory that stores one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors. The method includes periodically comparing an amount of free volatile memory to a threshold level. The amount of free volatile memory is compared to the threshold level with a first periodicity when the display is off and with a second periodicity that is shorter than the first periodicity when the display is on. The method also includes, in response to a determination that the amount of free volatile memory does not satisfy the threshold level, deallocating volatile memory by terminating one or more processes based on priority levels of the one or more processes. |
| US09921954B1 |
Method and system for split flash memory management between host and storage controller
A computer readable medium, a system and a method for flash memory device that my store instructions for receiving from a host computer a first command that is a write command of a first data unit to a flash memory device, receiving, from the host computer, a second command that is indicative of a manner in which at least one entity out of (a) memory management metadata, (b) the first data unit and (c) at least one other data unit, should be stored in the flash memory device, and programming the at least one entity in the flash memory device in response to the second command. |
| US09921952B2 |
Early risk identification in DevOps environments
A computer executes a first version of a code module in a first test environment, collects a first set of execution measurements, and creates a first profile based on the first set of execution measurements. The computer executes the first version of the code module in a second test environment, collects a second set of execution measurements, and creates a second profile based on the second set of execution measurements. In response to a difference between the first profile and the second profile exceeding a threshold, the computer provides diagnostic data characterizing the difference, analyzes an impact of the difference on the execution of the code module, calculates a risk of code module failure value based on analyzing the impact of the difference, and provides a recommended action based on analyzing the impact of the difference and the calculated risk of code module failure value. |
| US09921951B2 |
Optimizations for regression tracking and triaging in software testing
An example system configured to perform regression tracking and triaging includes a processor and memory coupled with the processor. The memory is configured to provide the processor with instructions to schedule the testing of a first list of equidistant revisions associated with a software application. The memory is configured to provide the processor with instructions to schedule the testing of a second list of equidistant revisions associated with the software application. The memory is further configured to provide the processor with instructions to, for a first revision selected from the first list of equidistant revisions and a second revision selected from the second list of equidistant revisions, upon a determination that an equidistance between the first revision and the second revision is below a predetermined threshold, test the second revision using a first build generated based on the first revision, wherein the first build is executable by the processor. |
| US09921941B2 |
Verification and validation of third party PLC code
A method for performing verification and validation of third party PLC code includes a marketplace computer receiving a program from a technology developer and identifying variables and operations included in the program. The marketplace computer performs (i) error handling testing on the program to yield error test results; (ii) vulnerability testing on the program to yield vulnerability test results; and (iii) performance testing of the program on target platforms to yield performance test results. Next, the marketplace computer generates a report based on the variables and operations included in the program, the error test results, the vulnerability test results, and the performance test results. This report may be sent by the marketplace computer to the technology developer. |
| US09921940B2 |
Creating a software performance testing environment on a virtual machine system
A method for creating a software performance testing environment based on a virtual machine, wherein the method comprises: in response to obtaining a hard disk read/write request triggered by a virtual CPU of the virtual machine, notifying a virtual CPU scheduler to record a CPU time quota t1 already consumed by the virtual CPU in a current CPU schedule period; in response to detecting completion of hard disk read/write processing corresponding to the hard disk read/write request, predicting a hard disk read/write latency t corresponding to the hard disk read/write request in a target environment; notifying the virtual CPU scheduler to determine a CPU time quota already consumed by the virtual CPU in the current CPU schedule period based on the recorded CPU time quota t1 and the hard disk read/write latency t; and adjusting a system clock of the virtual machine based on the determined CPU time quota already consumed by the virtual CPU in the current CPU schedule period. The method may obtain, in the created software performance testing environment, a software performance testing result consistent with the result obtained under a highly configured server in the target environment. |
| US09921939B2 |
Creating a software performance testing environment on a virtual machine system
The present invention relates to a virtual machine, and specifically discloses a method and apparatus for creating a software performance testing environment based on a virtual machine, wherein the method comprises: in response to obtaining a hard disk read/write request triggered by a virtual CPU of the virtual machine, notifying a virtual CPU scheduler to record a CPU time quota t1 already consumed by the virtual CPU in a current CPU schedule period; in response to detecting completion of hard disk read/write processing corresponding to the hard disk read/write request, predicting a hard disk read/write latency t corresponding to the hard disk read/write request in a target environment; notifying the virtual CPU scheduler to determine a CPU time quota already consumed by the virtual CPU in the current CPU schedule period based on the recorded CPU time quota t1 and the hard disk read/write latency t; and adjusting a system clock of the virtual machine based on the determined CPU time quota already consumed by the virtual CPU in the current CPU schedule period. The method according to the embodiments of the present invention may obtain, in the created software performance testing environment, a software performance testing result consistent with the result obtained under a highly configured server in the target environment. |
| US09921935B2 |
System-on-chip and load imbalance detecting method thereof
A system-on-Chip (SoC) and a load imbalance detecting method of the same are provided. The SoC includes at least one master, a plurality of slaves, an interconnect, a measurement block, a central controller. The interconnect is configured to connect the at least one master and each of the plurality of slaves. The measurement block is configured to connect each of the plurality of slaves and the interconnect using a channel and to measure a load of each of the plurality of slaves. The central controller is configured to measure a load imbalance among the plurality of channels using the measured load information. |
| US09921933B2 |
System and method for indicator light control of storage devices
Embodiments generally relate to status indicator control of a computing system. The present technology discloses techniques that enable sufficient and complex display patterns of indicators such as LEDs to interoperate states of storage devices including SSDs. Aspects of the present technology also relate to storage devices connected by a system bus such as peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe). |
| US09921932B2 |
System for security conscious energy drain
A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for detecting unanticipated consumption of power by a device. A first set of power consumption data is selected, followed by the collection of a second set of power consumption data, which respectively correspond to the consumption of a first and second amount of power by a device when it performs an authorized operation. The first and second sets of power consumption data are then compared to detect whether the second amount of power consumed is greater than the first amount of power consumed. If so, then a notification is generated, stating that the device has consumed an unanticipated greater amount of power as a result of performing the authorized operation. |