| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09918759B2 |
Bone treatment implants, and springs therefore
Springs for use in bone implant assemblies where the spring is assembled to a bone implant body. The spring comprises first and second bands, biased against each other, by a spring leaf which extends between the bands, and resists compression of the bands toward each other. Securement of the spring to the implant body can provide for initial transverse movement of the entire length of the spring leaf, when one of the bands is urged toward the other. When assembled to an implant body, the bands extend into fastener receiving apertures in the implant body. A stud is installed in the implant body and extends into an aperture in the spring. A stud-receiving aperture in the spring is optionally elongate, with the length of such aperture extending along the width of the spring, thereby enabling distributing an external compressive force through substantially the entire body of the spring leaf. |
| US09918757B2 |
Bone fixation system
An implant for fixation of a bone includes a shaft having a proximal end and a distal end, and a longitudinal axis defined between the proximal end and the distal end. A plurality of blades are disposed on the shaft, and are helically twisted about the longitudinal axis. At least one of the blades has a variable blade width that increases in a direction along the longitudinal axis. A mechanism for coupling the implant to a second fracture fixation implant may be provided separately or in combination. |
| US09918756B2 |
Reducing implant stress zones
An orthopaedic implant includes a body being elongated in a longitudinal direction and having an outer wall, one or more openings through the outer wall, and a cannulation disposed along a length of the body and defined by the outer wall, the cannulation being non-uniform along the longitudinal direction, wherein the cannulation is configured such that a moment of inertia of the implant is substantially uniform along the longitudinal direction. |
| US09918755B2 |
Implant dispenser
An apparatus for dispensing a plurality of implants including a barrel, a magazine, and a driver. The barrel has a longitudinal passage and a lateral passage intersecting the longitudinal passage adjacent a distal end of the barrel. The magazine has a housing defining a chamber for holding a plurality of implants. The housing is slidably connected to the barrel and movable between a retracted position and an extended position wherein a slot of the housing is aligned with the lateral passage of the barrel. A pusher member connected to the housing is caused to push one of the implants through the slot and the lateral passage and into the longitudinal passage. The driver is disposed in the longitudinal passage to be axially and rotatably movable to apply a rotational force to the implant. |
| US09918754B2 |
Instruments and methods for stabilization of bony structures
The present invention relates to a brace installation instrument placement that is mounted to anchors secured in an animal subject. The installation instrument includes anchor extensions coupled to the anchors. The instrument is movable with respect to the anchors to position a brace in a position more proximate the anchors. The brace can be indexed for insertion at a predetermined orientation with respect to the installation instrument. Methods and techniques for using the installation instrument are also provided. |
| US09918753B2 |
Spinal implant system and method
An implant support comprises a first portion defining a longitudinal axis and a second portion including at least one arm extending from the first portion. The at least one arm includes a part. An extension is engageable with the at least one arm to move the at least one arm between a first position and a second position such that the part is disposed to releasably engage an implant. A lock is disposed with the first portion and connected with the extension. The lock is biased from a first configuration to a second configuration to engage the first portion and resist disengagement of the at least one arm from the second position. Systems and methods of use are disclosed. |
| US09918749B2 |
Anterior cervical plate
An anterior cervical plate system is provided. The cervical plate includes a retention ring with a deflectable flange that is upwardly spaced from the top surface of the ring and configured to prevent an inserted bone fastener from backing out of the plate. The plate includes a locking pin having a camming surface and a blocking surface. When the camming surface is moved into position adjacent to the flange, the flange is free to flex out of the way of a bone screw being inserted into or removed from the plate. When the blocking surface is positioned adjacent to the flange, outward deflection of the flange is prevented to retain the bone screw inside the plate. The locking pin is rotated through a camming surface to bring a blocking surface against the flange deflecting the flange onto the head of the bone screw. |
| US09918744B2 |
Dynamic fixation device and method of use
A dynamic fixation device is provided that allows the vertebrae to which it is attached to move in flexion within the normal physiological limits of motion, while also providing structural support that limits the amount of translation motion beyond normal physiological limits. The present invention includes a flexible portion and two ends that are adapted for connection to pedicle screws. In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the normal axis of rotation of the vertebrae is substantially duplicated by the dynamic fixation device. The flexible portion of the dynamic fixation device can include a geometric shape and/or a hinge portion. |
| US09918739B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for fluoro-less or near fluoro-less percutaneous surgery access
A needle access assembly and method for obtaining percutaneous needle access with little or no fluoroscopy. The method can include selecting a target for percutaneous access, directing a laser guide at a desired needle-insertion angle and in line with the selected target, aligning the needle access assembly with the laser, and inserting the needle into the target. |
| US09918730B2 |
Methods and devices for controlling motorized surgical devices
Methods and devices for controlling motorized surgical devices are provided. In general, the methods and devices can allow a surgical device to grasp and cut tissue. In some embodiments, the device can include at least one sensor and a motor, and an output of the motor can be configured to be adjusted based at least in part on an output from the at least one sensor. The output of the motor can be configured to provide power for translation of a cutting element along an end effector of the device. Adjusting the motor's output can cause the cutting element to translate through the end effector at different speeds, thereby allowing the cutting element to cut through tissue being grasped by the end effector at different speeds. |
| US09918729B2 |
Snaring systems and methods
Snaring systems and methods involve engaging objects such as pacemaker pacing leads within a patient. Physicians can use snaring systems having loops, tags, and roller mechanisms to remove a pacing leads from a patient. For example, snaring systems can be inserted through a jugular access site, engaged with a pacemaker pacing lead, and withdrawn through the jugular access site so as to remove a portion of the pacing lead. Lead extraction techniques can be employed to further dislodge the pacing lead from the patient. |
| US09918721B2 |
Microfracture apparatuses and methods
Microfracture apparatuses with a cannula and a penetrator. The cannula has a first end, a second end, and a channel extending between the first end and the second end through which a penetrator can move between a retracted and an extended position substantially without rotation of the penetrator. The cannula has a primary portion and a distal portion between the primary portion and the second end, with the distal portion configured such that the distal portion and/or the second end of the channel is disposed at a nonparallel angle relative to the primary portion, for example, with a curve between the primary portion and the distal portion. The penetrator is configured to flex around such a curve and/or to flex to align with the angle of the send end of the channel and/or the distal portion of the cannula. |
| US09918720B2 |
Multiple layer filamentary devices for treatment of vascular defects
Devices and methods for treatment of a patient's vasculature with some embodiments configured for delivery with a microcatheter for treatment of the cerebral vasculature of a patient. Some embodiments may include a permeable shell and inner structure configured to occlude blood flow therethrough. |
| US09918715B2 |
Articulating steerable clip applier for laparoscopic procedures
A long articulating steerable clip applier affixed to a user-operated handle. A surgical jaw assembly is attached to the other end of the clip applier. The clip applier is composed of articulating phalanges that are connected end to end by pivoting links and capable of angulations relative to one another when subjected to a tensile force. Each phalange has opposing s-shaped exterior grooves that form two continuous spiral-shaped channels for holding tension wires once the phalanges are assembled. Multiple tension wires are attached to opposite ends of adjacent phalanges. When each wire is pulled, this tensile force causes the phalanges to pivot at equivalent angles with each other. As each individual phalange pivots by an equivalent angle, the sum of these angles causes the free end of the clip applier to pivot by a large angle or a cascading actuation effect. |
| US09918714B2 |
Stapling device and method
Medical devices and related methods for closing a perforation in a bodily wall are provided. The medical device generally includes an introducer device having a base defining a plurality of recesses formed therein. Visceral staples are disposed within the recesses in a delivery state and are biased toward a deployed state. A holding mechanism retains the staples in the delivery state, and the holding mechanism is moveable relative to the base to allow the staples to extend out of the recesses. The biased nature of the staples will cause them to transition into the deployed state after the staples have been released, such that the staples will thereby pierce adjacent tissue and remain closed. The holding mechanism can be retractable or pivotable out of engagement with the staples. The introducer device can include upper and lower jaws or a slidable cover relative to the base. |
| US09918713B2 |
Adapter assembly for interconnecting electromechanical surgical devices and surgical loading units, and surgical systems thereof
The present disclosure relates to adapter assemblies for use with and to electrically and mechanically interconnect electromechanical surgical devices and surgical loading units, and to surgical systems including hand held electromechanical surgical devices and adapter assemblies for connecting surgical loading units to the hand held electromechanical surgical devices. |
| US09918712B2 |
Devices, systems, and methods for providing surgical access and facilitating closure of surgical access openings
A method of surgery includes positioning a cannula within an opening in tissue and inserting a guide member into the cannula. The cannula includes an elongated portion having a base and an elongated tubular member extending distally from the base. The elongated tubular member includes an annular wall defining a longitudinal passageway. At least one slot extends through the annular wall and is disposed in communication with the longitudinal passageway. The guide member includes a guide housing and an elongated guide shaft. The guide member defines at least one lumen extending therethrough. The method further includes releasably engaging the guide housing with the base. Upon engagement of the guide housing with the base, the at least one lumen is aligned with the at least one slot to define a guide passageway through the guide member and cannula. |
| US09918708B2 |
Tissue retractor
A tissue retractor device is provided. The tissue retractor device includes a handle attached to an inflatable rake-shaped tissue retractor head. |
| US09918704B2 |
Surgical instrument
An end effector for stapling and cutting tissue is disclosed. The end effector comprises a housing, staples removably stored in the housing, a cutting portion configured to cut the tissue, and a collapsible ring. The ring is deployable between a first configuration and a second configuration to engage the tissue. The end effector further comprises an actuator configured to deploy the ring between the first configuration and the second configuration and pull the tissue within the cutting portion after the ring has been engaged with the tissue. |
| US09918701B2 |
Methods and systems for automatic control of subjective image quality in imaging of objects
The present invention relates to method and system for automatic control of image quality in imaging of an object using, for example, an ultrasound system. The method comprises transmitting image generating signals into the object using selected system parameter sets of the imaging system. The imaging system has a number of different system parameter sets based on an image ranking measure reflecting a subjective expert opinion of a pre-defined set of images. The captured images are analyzed with respect to at least one image quality feature to determine an image quality metric for each image. The respective image quality metric for each image are analyzed to identify an image associated with a highest image quality metric and the system parameter set used for generating the image associated with the highest image quality metric can be selected as system parameter set for imaging of the object. |
| US09918698B2 |
System and method for gradient-based k-space search for shear wave velocity dispersion estimation
Described here are systems and methods for ultrasound processes using shear wave attenuation and velocity derived from k-space analysis by analyzing spatial frequency domain data. |
| US09918694B2 |
Acoustic treatment vessel and method for acoustic treatmet
Methods and systems for acoustically treating material using a continuous process in which material may be caused to flow in a continuous or intermittent fashion into/out of an acoustic treatment chamber where the material is exposed to focused acoustic energy. The methods and systems may be arranged to permit continuous processing for extended periods while an acoustic energy source operates at a relatively high power output. Treatment chambers may include features such as an acoustic window and/or a chamber wall which may comprise an acoustically reflective material or a gas/wall interface that serves to reflect acoustic energy to form one or more secondary focal zones. Treatment system configurations relating to arrangements of a treatment chamber relative to an acoustic source and coupling medium, material flow paths, and others are provided. |
| US09918687B2 |
X-ray CT system, chemical liquid injector, and CT scanner
An X-ray CT system (1000) includes a CT scanner (300) which obtains diagnostic images of a patient, a chemical liquid injector (100) which injects a chemical liquid into a patient whose images are obtained, an operation device (400), I/Fs (320, 421) for transmitting and receiving data between the CT scanner (300) and the operation device (400) and I/Fs (120, 420) for transmitting and receiving data between the chemical liquid injector (100) and the operation device (400). The operation device includes an input section used to set an injection condition for the chemical liquid by the chemical liquid injector (100) and an imaging condition by the CT scanner (300), a control section for controlling operation of the chemical liquid injector (100) and operation of the CT scanner (300) in accordance with the setting and a display section (450) for displaying information relating to the setting of the injection condition and the imaging condition and an obtained image. |
| US09918686B2 |
Automated fibro-glandular (FG) tissue segmentation in digital mammography using fuzzy logic
Embodiments of the present invention provide automated systems and methods for segmentation of fibro-glandular (FG) tissue in digital mammography. A classifier is trained for breast density without the prior knowledge for FG tissue. The classifier is then used for feature selection, where the selected features are fed into a fuzzy logic module, and an adaptive threshold is obtained. Post-processing is performed on the image in order to reduce regions which may have been misclassified during the FG segmentation. |
| US09918682B2 |
Catheter tip-end rotation angle measurement apparatus, catheter tip-end rotation angle measurement method, and catheter tip-end rotation angle measurement program
A catheter tip-end rotation angle calculation apparatus includes a movement restriction unit, of a tube shape, that is configured to be penetrated from a first hole to a second hole of a catheter on tip end and opposite sides, and restricts movement of the catheter to an insertion direction by causing the catheter to pass through from the first hole to the second hole, first and second rotation angle measurement units that measure first and second rotation angles of the catheter at the first and second holes, a catheter insertion length measurement unit that measures a catheter insertion length, and a catheter tip-end rotation angle calculation unit that calculates a rotation angle of the catheter tip end by using an angle difference between the first and second rotation angles, the catheter insertion length, and a distance between the first and second holes. |
| US09918680B2 |
Automated analysis of the optic nerve head via optical coherence tomography measurements, methods and representations
The present invention relates to structural analysis of the optic nerve head (ONH). In one approach, a 3D volume of intensity data which includes the optic nerve head is acquired using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. The vitreoretinal interface (VRI) and the optic disc margin are identified from the 3D data. The minimum area of a surface from the optic disc margin to the VRI is determined. This minimum area can be displayed as an image or in the alternative, a value corresponding to this minimum area can be displayed. The minimum area measurement provides relevant clinical information to determine the health of the eye. |
| US09918675B2 |
Endotracheal tube apparatus
An apparatus for monitoring EMG signals of a patient's laryngeal muscles includes an endotracheal tube having an exterior surface. Conductive electrodes are formed on the endotracheal tube. The conductive electrodes are configured to receive the EMG signals from the laryngeal muscles when the endotracheal tube is placed in a trachea of the patient. At least wireless sensor is formed on the endotracheal tube, and is configured to wirelessly transmit information to a processing apparatus. |
| US09918674B2 |
Garment system with electronic components and associated methods
The disclosure provides a wireless biometric monitoring system that may be capable of acquiring, compiling, analyzing, and transmitting biometric data in near real time/real time. The system may utilize either the most up-to-date Bluetooth protocol (currently Bluetooth Smart) or a similar wireless protocol. The system may further integrate through this wireless protocol with peripheral devices to expand the measurement capacity of the system.In embodiments, the system may be capable of monitoring multiple biometric responses including, but not limited to: skin temperature, core temperature, respirations, heart rate, predicted tidal volume, chest wall movement, abdominal movement in conjunction with inspiration, abdominal movement in conjunction with expiration, HRR (heart rate reserve), HRV (heart rate variability), body position relevant to perpendicular, shoulder position relevant to hip position, general body posture, up time, down time, and malfunctions. |
| US09918672B2 |
Systems and methods for assessing sweat gland output
Various methods may apply iodine on a test area of a subject and allow the applied iodine to dry. Sweating may be triggered in the test area. Triggering sweating may include introducing acetylcholine (ACh) using iontophoresis into dermis within an iontophoresis area. An indirect response to introduction of the ACh may be monitored. Monitoring the indirect response may include applying starch tape over the iodine-painted test area to monitor sweat production from individual sweat glands (SGs) outside of the iontophoresis area, wherein sweat production for each functional SG results in a sweat spot on the starch tape, and taking a series of digital images, using a digital camera, of the starch tape when the individual SGs are producing sweat and causing sweat spots on the starch tape. The digital images of sweat spots may be analyzed to analyze sweat production from the individual SGs. |
| US09918671B2 |
Sweat measurement device
A sweat measuring device (1) comprising a sweat impermeable panel (40) and an adhesive skirt on one side thereof extending about its periphery to enable the panel to be secured to a user's skin is provided. The device covers a known area of a user's skin and traps sweat (42) produced by the skin under the panel. The panel (40) defines a reservoir in which sweat can accumulate and calibrations which may be associated with the reservoir to express the total sweat produced by the user as a function of the volume of sweat in the reservoir. The panel may be relatively stiff; formed by a plastics member and the skirt may extend integrally from the panel or be provided by an adhesive patch which covers the panel. |
| US09918670B2 |
Detecting seizures based on heartbeat data
A method includes receiving heartbeat data of a patient and receiving activity data of the patient. The activity data includes one or more activity values that are related to an activity level of the patient and that are measured independently of the heartbeat data. The method further includes determining a value of a weighting factor based on the activity data. The method also includes determining modified heartbeat data by applying the weighting factor to at least a portion of the heartbeat data. The method also includes detecting a seizure event based on the modified heartbeat data. |
| US09918669B2 |
Wireless nerve integrity monitoring systems and devices
A nerve integrity monitoring device includes a control module and a physical layer module. The control module is configured to generate a payload request. The payload request (i) requests a data payload from a sensor in a wireless nerve integrity monitoring network, and (ii) indicates whether a stimulation probe device is to generate a stimulation pulse. The physical layer module is configured to (i) wirelessly transmit the payload request to the sensor and the stimulation probe device, or (ii) transmit the payload request to a console interface module. The physical layer module is also configured to, in response to the payload request, (i) receive the data payload from the sensor, and (ii) receive stimulation pulse information from the stimulation probe device. The data payload includes data corresponding to an evoked response of a patient. The evoked response is generated based on the stimulation pulse. |
| US09918666B2 |
Systems and methods for physiological signal enhancement and biometric extraction using non-invasive optical sensors
A system and method for signal processing to remove unwanted noise components including: (i) wavelength-independent motion artifacts such as tissue, bone and skin effects, and (ii) wavelength-dependent motion artifact/noise components such as venous blood pulsation and movement due to various sources including muscle pump, respiratory pump and physical perturbation. Disclosed are methods, analytics, and their uses for reliable perfusion monitoring, arterial oxygen saturation monitoring, heart rate monitoring during daily activities and in hospital settings and for extraction of physiological parameters such as respiration information, hemodynamic parameters, venous capacity, and fluid responsiveness. The system and methods disclosed are extendable to include monitoring platforms for perfusion, hypoxia, arrhythmia detection, airway obstruction detection and sleep disorders including apnea. |
| US09918665B2 |
Transdermal porator and patch system and method for using same
A transdermal permeant delivery of at least one permeant composition into a tissue membrane of a subject including a disposable substrate having at least a portion of a bottom surface of a first release liner connected to an upper surface of the substrate and a patch having a backing layer and a reservoir that is selectively removable from the top surface of the first release liner. In a connected position, a first portion of the backing layer of the patch is releaseably mounted to a top surface of the first release liner in spaced registration with a poration area of the substrate. |
| US09918661B2 |
Alveolar breath collection apparatus
An apparatus for collecting volatile compounds in human breath. The apparatus includes a device for discriminating between alveolar and non-alveolar portions of exhaled breath, a device for measuring volume of exhaled breath, a chamber with a piston or similar compressible device with clean internal services designed to collect a precise volume of alveolar breath, a pump to draw the exhaled breath from the chamber through at least one sorbent tube, a subsystem for introducing a clean gas into the chamber to expand it and for purging the tubing of the system, and a subsystem for selectively collecting a room air sample. A manifold is provided in the apparatus for receiving sorbent tubes and comprises an input block and output block, and a locking lever for actuating the input and output blocks linearly towards and away from each other and selectively locking them in a fully closed position. |
| US09918660B2 |
Method for correcting respiratory influences on magnetic resonance recordings of an examination object
In a method for correcting respiratory influences on recordings of an examination object by operation of a magnetic resonance apparatus, an external respiratory signal is determined, an internal respiratory signal is determined, a correlation signal is determined, at least one reliability range of the correlation signal is determined, a fit function in at least one reliability range of the correlation signal is determined, and the recordings subject to respiratory influences of the examination object are corrected based on the determined fit function. |
| US09918656B2 |
Implantable magnetic relaxation sensors and methods of measuring a sensor's cumulative exposure to a biomarker
An implantable magnetic relaxation sensor is provided that comprises superparamagnetic nanoparticies functionalized with one or more agents that bond with a biomarker of interest. The sensor is configured for minimally-invasive implantation into a human or animal, and is configured to indicate the implanted sensor's cumulative exposure to the biomarker of interest by analysis using magnetic resonance relaxometry. |
| US09918655B2 |
Apparatus and method for measuring the internal pressure of an examination object
The present invention relates to an apparatus (100) for measuring the internal pressure of an examination object, in particular the internal pressure of a blood vessel, by use of a magnetic pressure measurement device (60, 70) introduced into the examination object, which apparatus comprises: —magnetic field generating means comprising magnetic field signal generator units (130) and magnetic field coils (136a, 136b, 136c) for generating a magnetic field for influencing the magnetization of the magnetic pressure measurement device (60, 70), receiving means comprising at least one signal receiving unit (140) and at least one receiving coil (148) for acquiring detection signals, which detection signals depend on the changes in magnetization of the magnetic pressure measurement device (60, 70) caused by the magnetic field and on the changes of the physical properties of the magnetic pressure measurement device caused by the internal pressure of the examination object, and evaluation means (153) for evaluating the detection signals of the magnetic pressure measurement device (60, 70) for determining the internal pressure of the examination object. |
| US09918654B2 |
Methods for assessing and optimizing muscular performance including a frequency based, amplitude adjusted root mean square protocol
A muscle assessment protocol can include: attaching one or more surface electromyometry (sEMG) sensors to the skin of a subject to be operably coupled with one or more muscles; operably coupling the one or more sEMG sensors to a computing system; performing the predetermined muscle activity of a muscle assessment protocol that includes a frequency-based, amplitude-adjusted root mean square protocol; monitoring/recording sEMG data of the one or more muscles during the predetermined muscle activity; and providing the sEMG data to the subject such that the subject can improve muscle performance for the predetermined muscle activity by using the sEMG data. The muscle activity includes static or dynamic muscle use. The predetermined muscle activity can be provided to the subject by the computing system. |
| US09918653B2 |
Electrophysiology catheter
The invention relates to electrophysiology catheter systems and their use, such as in an MRI environment, and in particular to analysis of electric signals from such. An electrophysiology (EP) catheter with a plurality of electrically isolated electrode segments arranged in longitudinally spaced bands around the catheter is used to detect electric signals. A workstation receives the electrical signals which are then processed by a processing unit. Electric signals from electrode segments can be used to determine roll angle information of the catheter in relation to patient anatomy by determining signals from electrode segments in contact with tissue. Also, electric signals can be used to extract a reference signal that can be used to correct for gradient induced artifacts. |
| US09918650B2 |
EEG monitor with capacitive electrodes and a method of monitoring brain waves
A wearable EEG monitor for continuously monitoring the EEG of a user through capacitive coupling to an ear canal of a user comprises an ear insert (1) for positioning within the human ear canal, comprising at least two capacitive electrodes (16) for recording a signal. The electrodes are coated with a dielectricum for electrical insulation. The electrodes are connected to an amplifier (17). The amplifier has an input impedance matched to the impedance of the electrodes. The invention further provides a method of monitoring brain waves. |
| US09918649B2 |
Representation and identification of activity patterns during electro-physiology mapping using vector fields
A method and system for mapping an anatomical structure includes sensing activation signals of intrinsic physiological activity with a plurality of mapping electrodes disposed in or near the anatomical structure, each of the plurality of mapping electrodes having an electrode location. A vector field map which represents a direction of propagation of the activation signals at each electrode location is generated to identify a signature pattern and a location in the vector field map according to at least one vector field template. A target location of the identified signature pattern is identified according to a corresponding electrode location. |
| US09918647B2 |
Apparatus for detecting information of living body
A biometric information detecting apparatus is provided. The biometric information detecting apparatus includes a fixing unit disposed on a lower structure, and a pressure pulse wave measuring unit that is supported by the fixing unit and separate from the lower structure. An optical pulse wave measuring unit is disposed on the pressure pulse wave measuring unit. The optical pulse wave measuring unit may contact a surface of a subject's body. A pressure pulse wave of the subject's body may be measured by the pressure pulse wave measuring unit and an optical pulse wave of the subject's body may be measured by the optical pulse wave measuring unit, at the same time. |
| US09918645B2 |
Method and apparatus for measuring change in blood pressure by respiration control
A method and an apparatus are provided for measuring a change in blood pressure caused by respiration control. A number of respirations per minute is measured based on a heart rate when a respiration exercise begins. Respiration of a subject is induced until the number of respirations per minute reaches a predetermined number of respirations per minute. A pulse transit time is calculated during the respiration exercise, a blood pressure value associated with the pulse transit time is calculated, and the blood pressure value is outputted. |
| US09918644B2 |
Method for examining the surface temperature of a body part
The blood circulation in a body part may be affected by various factors such as burns, vibration, smoking, drugs, physical activity, adhesion, medical treatment, acupuncture, light therapy, ambient temperature, injuries such as sprains and broken bones, diseases and various foodstuffs. The invention relates to a method for examining the surface temperature of a body part due to such factors. The method according to the invention comprises an initial period in which the body part is positioned in a background screen and photographed with a thermographic camera, an exposure period in which body part is exposed to a refrigerant for a predetermined exposure time, a recovery period in which body part is repositioned in the background screen and photographed or filmed with a thermographic camera. The invention also relates a system for examination of the surface temperature of a body part according to the method. The device includes a thermographic camera connected to a computer and a background screen that makes it possible to find and scan body parts. The blood circulation in a body part may be affected by various factors such as burns, vibration, smoking, drugs, physical activity, adhesion, medical treatment, acupuncture, light therapy, ambient temperature, injuries such as sprains and broken bones, diseases and various foodstuffs. The invention relates to a method for examining the surface temperature of a body part due to such factors. The method according to the invention comprises an initial period in which the body part is positioned in a background screen and photographed with a thermographic camera, an exposure period in which body part is exposed to a refrigerant for a predetermined exposure time, a recovery period in which body part is repositioned in the background screen and photographed or filmed with a thermographic camera. The invention also relates a system for examination of the surface temperature of a body part according to the method. The device includes a thermographic camera connected to a computer and a background screen that makes it possible to find and scan body parts. |
| US09918642B2 |
Pressure gauge
The invention relates to a pressure measuring device (1) for measuring pressure in a biological system, comprising a flexibly or resiliently designed measuring cell holder (3), wherein, in the measuring cell holder (3), there are at least two FBG sensors (4) which are arranged at a distance from one another. The measuring cell holder (3) can comprise a plurality of layers (5, 6) into which the FBG sensors (4) can be integrated. |
| US09918640B2 |
Method and device for multi-spectral photonic imaging
An imaging device for medical imaging includes a light source device arranged to illuminate a sample under investigation with illumination light, a detector device arranged to collect a plurality of images including at least two sample light images backscattered by the sample in different spectral ranges, and at least one marker light image originating from at least one marker substance in the sample, and a processor device adapted to process the at least two sample light images and create at least one correction component, the processor device further adapted to correct the marker light image using the at least one correction component. |
| US09918639B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging with asymmetric radial sampling and compressed-sensing reconstruction
A method for acquiring cine images using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system includes selecting an asymmetric radial sampling scheme providing an asymmetric view of k-space corresponding to a desired image resolution. Radial k-space data is acquired using the asymmetric radial sampling scheme, wherein slice-orientation of the radial k-space data is continuously modified while acquiring the radial k-space data. A plurality of cine images are reconstructed from the radial k-space data using a compressed-sensing method. |
| US09918635B2 |
Systems and methods for optimizing insulin dosage
Embodiments of a testing method suitable for diabetic persons to optimize their administered insulin dosage comprise collecting one or more sampling sets of biomarker data, wherein each sampling set comprises a sufficient plurality of non-adverse sampling instances and wherein each sampling instance comprises an acceptable biomarker reading at a single point in time recorded upon compliance with adherence criteria, determining a biomarker sampling parameter from each sampling set, comparing the biomarker sampling parameter to a target biomarker range, calculating an insulin adjustment parameter associated with the biomarker sampling parameter if the biomarker sampling parameter falls outside the target biomarker range, adjusting the insulin dosage by the insulin adjustment parameter if the biomarker sampling parameter falls outside the target biomarker range and if the insulin dosage does not exceed maximum dosage, and exiting the testing method if the adjusted insulin dosage is optimized. The insulin dosage is optimized when one or more biomarker sampling parameters fall within a target biomarker range. |
| US09918633B2 |
Apparatus and method for determining the orientation of anatomical cornea structures
An apparatus for determining an orientation of anatomical cornea structures includes: a lighting device, configured to direct a first luminous radiation, polarized with an orientable polarization direction, towards a cornea, when the cornea is in an observation seat; a control device, configured to modify an orientation of the polarization direction; an image acquisition device, arranged so as to receive a second luminous radiation, transmitted through the cornea arranged in the observation seat and illuminated by the first luminous radiation; and an acquisition polarizing filter, arranged so as to intercept the second luminous radiation directed towards the image acquisition device. |
| US09918632B2 |
Ophthalmologic apparatus and control method thereof
The present invention reduces a positional displacement of an acquired image attributable to a delay from the issuance of a drive instruction to a scanner to the scanner actually reaching an instructed drive position. An ophthalmologic apparatus has a light scanning unit which scans measuring light on an eye to be examined, an acquisition unit which receives light reflected from the eye to be examined and acquires a light receiving signal, and an instruction unit which instructs the drive position of the light scanning unit. The apparatus further includes a position detection unit which detects the current position of the light scanning unit and a measurement unit which measures the drive time delay from the issuance of an instruction by the instruction until the current position reaches the instructed drive position. The acquisition unit starts acquiring the light receiving signal at timing based on the drive time delay. |
| US09918631B2 |
Adaptive optical apparatus and ophthalmic apparatus
An adaptive optical apparatus includes a wavefront correction unit configured to correct a wavefront aberration, a first scanning unit configured to be arranged to be optically almost conjugate to the wavefront correction unit, and scan light on an object in a first direction, a second scanning unit configured to be arranged to be optically almost conjugate to the wavefront correction unit, and scan light on the object in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and an optical element arranged in an optical path between the wavefront correction unit and the first scanning unit and arranged in an optical path between the first scanning unit and the second scanning unit. |
| US09918630B2 |
Systems and methods of glaucoma diagnosis based on frequency analysis of inner retinal surface profile measured by optical coherence tomography
A method for detecting glaucoma in a subject based on spatial frequency analysis of the inner limiting membrane (ILM) as obtained from optical coherence tomography (OCT) image data is disclosed. Based on the spatial frequency content of the analyzed ILM profile, a quantity called the Retinal surface contour variability (RSCV) is calculated and the presence or absence of a glaucoma condition is determined based on the RSCV magnitude. |
| US09918629B2 |
Fundus imaging system
A fundus imaging system includes: an image sensor array, where the image sensor array includes monochrome photodiodes and global shutter control, an illumination unit with one or more light-emitting diodes that have one or more dies, a computing system including a processor and memory, one or more lenses, one or more reflective mirrors, and a display. In an example method of use, a clinician positions a patient, initiates a focal adjustment, initiates a retinal imaging process, and the same or a different clinician views the image. In some embodiments, the imaging system is configured to analyze the image and identify detected physical attributes in the image relating to the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy. |
| US09918624B2 |
Ophthalmic apparatus, photoreceptor cell detection method and program
An ophthalmic apparatus includes an image acquiring unit configured to acquire an eye fundus image of an eye to be examined, a candidate acquiring unit configured to acquire a plurality of candidate points for a photoreceptor cell in the eye fundus image based on brightness values of the eye fundus image, a first acquiring unit configured to acquire a first feature value of a first candidate point included in the plurality of candidate points based on a distance between the first candidate point and a second candidate point included in the plurality of candidate points, and a determining unit configured to determine whether the first candidate point is a point representing the photoreceptor cell or not based on the first feature value. |
| US09918621B2 |
System for storing and applying flush solutions
The system for storing and applying flush solutions, preferably in the medical field such as for general and endoscopic operations, with a flush solution bag that is arranged in a rigid container, is characterized in that the rigid container has a swiveling lid with a connector receptacle, through which a bag connector is stuck, that can be mounted to the bag connector by means of a movable connector locking device and a holding slot arrangement, in that running through the bag connector is a filling line that is provided with a link connector that can be connected to a link connector of the mixing unit, in that the link connector of the mixing unit is covered by a swiveling concentrate flap in its closed state in such a manner that a tight flushing area is formed around the link connector, and in that a flush fluid line discharges into the link connector of the mixing unit in such a way that flushing fluid that can completely clean the link connector on the inside and outside can be conveyed into the flushing area. |
| US09918620B2 |
Optical transmission element and method for manufacturing the same
According to an embodiment, there is provided an optical transmission element comprising: a fiber including a core made of a first glass and a cladding made of a second glass and covering an outer periphery of the core; and a covering layer covering an outer periphery of the cladding and including a plurality of nonionic surfactant molecules wherein each of the nonionic surfactant molecules is hydrogen-bonded to the cladding. |
| US09918619B2 |
Highly corrected relay system
A highly corrected relay system for medical endoscopes or the like is provided. The system includes a plurality of bonded lenses that are selected to provide color correction from the blue region of the spectrum through to the near infrared region of the spectrum. The system allows co-located visible and near infrared images to be resolved on a single detector. |
| US09918618B2 |
Medical devices and methods of placement
The present invention provides improved medical devices equipped with a visualization device for intubation, ventilation, drug delivery, feeding and continuous remote monitoring of a patient. The present invention also provides methods for rapid and accurate placement of a medical device in a patient and continuous real time monitoring, including a remote monitoring, of the patient after the placement. |
| US09918617B2 |
Mountable camera for laparoscopic surgery
A laparoscopic surgical system comprising a camera and a base supporting the camera, and a camera insertion tool for inserting the camera into the body cavity. The camera is mountable to a surgical instrument inside the body cavity and releasable from the insertion tool after mounting to the surgical instrument. |
| US09918616B2 |
Medical device
A medical device includes a long shaft member, a curved portion configured to be curved, a support member that is configured to be deformed along a curved shape of the curved portion, a guide member that extends from a distal end of the curved portion, and a linear member that includes a connection portion connected to the guide member, the linear member being inserted into the support member, and that pulls the guide member in accordance with a change of the curved shape. A central axis of the guide member is positioned apart from the central axis of the support member. The linear member which protrudes from the support member is inclined with respect to a longitudinal axis of the guide member and is connected to the connection portion. |
| US09918615B2 |
Endoscope button unit and endoscope
An endoscope button unit includes a housing having two housing portions, a claw portion that is capable of being locked to a cylinder, and is provided at the housing portion, a connection portion that connects the two housing portions, a ring-shaped portion that is placed at an upper portion of the housing portion and is capable of being pulled with use of a finger or a jig, and a connection portion that connects the housing portion and the ring-shaped portion. |
| US09918611B2 |
Dishwasher system with a reuse tank
A method of operating a dishwasher having a wash tub and a reuse tank for storing liquid for subsequent reuse, wherein the condition of the water in the reuse tank may be monitored and/or acted upon to limit the likelihood of undesired effects associated with the growth of micro-organisms in the liquid. |
| US09918610B2 |
Fluid circulation assembly for a dishwasher appliance
A fluid circulation assembly for a dishwasher appliance includes a collection chamber positioned below a sump. A first outlet conduit extends from a valve and is configured for receiving liquid from a pump when the valve is in a recirculation configuration, and a second outlet conduit extends from the valve and is configured for directing liquid from the pump to the collection chamber when the valve is in a drain configuration. A check valve is configured for obstructing liquid flow from the collection chamber to an unfiltered volume of the sump when the valve is in the drain configuration. |
| US09918609B2 |
Rotating drum filter for a dishwashing machine
A dishwasher with a tub and a recirculation pump, which includes a housing defining a chamber and having an inlet fluidly coupled to the tub and an outlet fluidly coupled to the tub, an impeller rotatably mounted within the chamber and expelling liquid from the chamber through the outlet, and a filter fluidly disposed between the inlet and the outlet and operably coupled to the impeller for co-rotation. |
| US09918608B2 |
Dish washer
A dish washer is provided to improve washing efficiency by washing dishware having severe degree of contamination in a concentrated manner through an auxiliary spraying nozzle, and which is also easily setting a concentrated wash zone as a user varies a position of the auxiliary spraying nozzle. The dish washer may include a main spraying nozzle which sprays wash water to dishware baskets, a connecting path to connect a sump unit to the main spraying nozzle, an auxiliary spraying nozzle to receive wash water from the sump unit and spray wash water to dishware baskets, and an auxiliary path to connect the sump unit to the auxiliary spraying nozzle. A spraying position of wash water supplied from the auxiliary spraying nozzle is varied by rotation of the auxiliary path, thereby washing dishware having severe degree of contamination in a concentrated manner. |
| US09918607B1 |
Continuously adjustable mop frame
A mop frame with a base, a first extension that is slidably coupled to the base, a second extension that is slidably coupled to the base, a first lock that is mounted to the base, and a second lock that is mounted to the base. The first extension and second extension are each operable to slide with respect to the base between a retracted position and an extended position. The first lock and second lock are operable to releasably lock the first extension and second extension, respectively, to the base in any position between the retracted position and the extended position. |
| US09918603B2 |
Sensor module and robot cleaner having the same
A sensor module and a robot cleaner including the sensor module may provide accurate sensing of an obstacle and prevent an erroneous sensing of an obstacle. The robot cleaner may include a body including a cleaning unit to remove foreign substances from a surface of a floor, a cover to cover an upper portion of the body, a sensor module including an obstacle sensor mounted to sense an obstacle, and a sensor window provided at one side of the sensor module. The sensor module may include a light emitting device to emit light through the sensor window, a light receiving reflector on which light reflected from the obstacle is incident, and a light shielding portion interposed between the light emitting device and the light receiving reflector to block the light emitted from the light emitting device from being incident upon the light receiving reflector. |
| US09918602B2 |
Cyclonic separator
A cyclonic separator comprising a cyclone chamber defined between an outer wall and a shroud. The shroud comprises an inlet opening through which fluid enters the cyclone chamber, and a plurality of perforations through which fluid exits the cyclone chamber. Fluid within the cyclone chamber is then free to spiral about the shroud and over the inlet opening. |
| US09918600B2 |
Self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner
A self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner includes: a vacuum cleaner main body; a running section for causing the vacuum cleaner main body to run on a floor; a suction section for suctioning dust; a side brush for sweeping the dust on the floor, to the suction section; a floor detection sensor for detecting whether or not there is the floor; and a control section for controlling and driving the running section, the suction section and the side brush in response to an output of the floor detection sensor, in which the side brush includes a rotating shaft coaxially having a through-hole, and a plurality of brush bundles radially spread from one end of the rotating shaft, wherein the floor detection sensor includes an optical sensor provided adjacent to the other end of the rotating shaft to detect whether or not there is an object, through the through-hole. |
| US09918597B2 |
Hygienic sheet material dispenser
A hygienic sheet material dispenser includes a housing with a dispensing opening, a compartment for a sheet material product, a first sensor arranged to assume an active mode in which it scans for the presence of a user, a dispensing motor arranged to drive a driving mechanism, a second sensor for sensing when a piece of said product has been removed, and a microcontroller connected to the first sensor, the second sensor and the dispensing motor, said dispenser also being configured to be switched to a passive mode. The dispenser is arranged to switch to the passive mode after a first predetermined period of time has elapsed in the active mode without detection of a user; wherein, upon entering the passive mode, a length of said product is fed from the dispenser out of the dispensing opening and the first sensor and the microcontroller are substantially deactivated; and wherein the dispenser is arranged to switch back to the active mode when the second sensor senses that said product has been removed. |
| US09918592B2 |
Expandable and collapsible container
An expandable and collapsible container includes a lower fixed chamber, a movable chamber configured to rotate outward from a central body of the container in an expansible position and to rotate inward in a collapsible position, and an upper fixed chamber. The container also includes a first lid configured to cover the lower fixed chamber and rotate outward from the central body of the container, a second lid configured to cover the movable chamber and to rotate outward from the central body of the container, and a third lid configured to cover the upper fixed chamber and to rotate outward from the central body of the container. The container also includes a covering on an outer surface of one or more of the lower fixed chamber, the movable chamber, and the upper fixed chamber, wherein the covering is configured to receive and hold one or more articles. |
| US09918590B2 |
Food preparation device
A food preparation device or system which includes the following: (i) a base dimensioned to hold food containers and includes a first opening to receive the food containers and a second opening; (ii) an extraction mechanism to extract food items from each container in the base, through the second opening and to a preparation receptacle; (iii) a heating mechanism in the preparation receptacle; and (iv) one or more processors and memory containing instructions that, when executed cause the food preparation device or system to prepare the food items for consumption. |
| US09918586B2 |
Beverage forming apparatus with cartridge detectors
A method and apparatus for controlling operation of a beverage forming machine arranged for use with cartridges of different types, or receiving an upwardly flowing beverage from a cartridge. A beverage outlet may be movable to receive beverage from a cartridge of a first type, and to not receive beverage from a cartridge of a second type. Different cartridge characteristics may be detected by multiple detectors, e.g., for detecting a presence/absence of a cartridge, a cartridge type and/or an authorization feature. |
| US09918585B2 |
Filtering apparatus for filtering a beverage in a beverage producing apparatus
A filtering apparatus for filtering a beverage in a beverage producing apparatus, includes a base plate, a plurality of piercing components connected to a front side of the base plate, and a plurality of filtering holes extending through the base plate from the front side of the base plate to the rear side of the base plate. Each piercing component includes a piercing base extending away from the front side of the base plate, and a piercing point, integrated with the piercing base, having a pointed tip. During use of the beverage producing apparatus, the filtering apparatus mates with a sealing cover of a beverage cartridge by coupling the plurality of filtering holes and the plurality of piercing components with the sealing cover to form a filtering screen. |
| US09918579B2 |
Juice extraction module for juicer
A juice extraction module for a juicer is provided, which includes a container formed with a juice discharge port, a sieve positioned inside of the container, a screw positioned inside of the sieve to extract juice from a material, and a lid coupled to a top end of the container and formed with a input port through which the material is input. The juice extraction module includes a crushing portion formed on a top end of the screw to be narrowed upward, the crushing portion having a crushing blade formed thereon; and a crushing processing portion connected to the input port and formed in a bottom of the lid to be concave for accommodating the crushing portion. |
| US09918577B1 |
Mail notification system
A mail notification system includes an alert unit that is positioned in a mailbox thereby facilitating the alert unit to sense when mail is placed in the mailbox. The alert unit transmits a first alert signal when the mail is placed in the mailbox. A display unit is provided and the display unit is in electrical communication with the alert unit. The display unit transmits a second alert signal when the display unit receives the first alert signal. An electronic device is provided and the electronic device is in wireless electrical communication with the display unit. The electronic device generates an alert when the display unit transmits the second alert signal. In this way the electronic device notifies the user of the mail in the mailbox. |
| US09918576B1 |
Eyeglass holder and associated use thereof
An eyeglass holder is removably affixed to vertical and horizontal support surfaces. Such an eyeglass holder includes a rigid container suitably sized and shaped for removably receiving an existing eyeglass therein. The container has an exterior surface provided with a curvilinear outer region and a linear outer region contiguously mated with the curvilinear outer region. Notably, a portable fastener is removably affixed to the linear outer region of the exterior surface of the container. |
| US09918572B1 |
System for securing bedclothes to a mattress and method
A system for securing bedclothes to a mattress includes a bottom sheet which is shaped and dimensioned to fit over the top surface of the mattress. The bottom sheet has four corners which include a first corner and a diagonally opposite second corner, and a third corner and a diagonally opposite fourth corner. The second corner has a second corner aperture, and the fourth corner has a fourth corner aperture. A first strap is shaped and dimensioned to connect the first corner to the second corner. The first strap has a first end which is permanently connected to the first corner, and a second end which is configured to pass through the second corner aperture and fold back and connect to itself. A second strap is shaped and dimensioned to connect the third corner to the fourth corner. The second strap has a first end which is permanently connected to the third corner, and a second end which is configured to pass through the fourth corner aperture and fold back and connect to itself. In an embodiment, a top sheet is also connectable to the second corner and the fourth corner. |
| US09918569B1 |
Four side shoppable quick assembling display hutch
A display hutch is provided that can be made from three components adhered together to form a flat compact structure suitable for shipping. The compact structure can be positioned upright and converted into the display hutch by pushing down on support halves and by rotating inwardly shelf panels. |
| US09918568B1 |
Position adjustable support assembly
A position adjustable support assembly provides a support extension that is detachably attachable to a support member. The support extension is attached by an extension attachment that has a support coupler that extends along the length of the support member and has a gap opening to allow the support coupler to be snapped onto the support member. The support coupler may be cylindrical in shape and snap over the rod-shaped support member in a concentric coupling arrangement. The support member has a fin slot for retaining a plurality of fins that extend up from the outside surface of the support member. The fins are slid into a retaining slot along the inside surface of the support coupler to retain the support coupler and support extension in a rotational position with respect to the support member. The support extension can be slid along the length of the support member. |
| US09918567B2 |
Display rack system
The disclosure provides for a display rack system. The display rack system includes a support mechanism having first and second ends. The support mechanism may be configured to be attached to a surface at the first and second ends. The display rack system may also include a track mounted onto the support mechanism. The display rack system may also include a plurality of cardholders attached to the track. Each of the first plurality of cardholders may be configured to independently slide laterally relative to the track. |
| US09918564B2 |
Infant bed frame assembly and child bed assembly
The invention relates to a child bed assembly (1) comprising an infant bed frame assembly (10); an inlay (40) for an infant bed; and a toddler bed frame (82). The infant bed frame assembly (10) comprises an upper frame section (12), a base frame portion (14) and at least one connecting member (16) connecting said base frame portion (14) to said upper frame section (12). The upper frame section (12) comprises a first sidebar (18), a second sidebar (20) spaced apart from the first sidebar (18), and a first crossbar (22) coupled to the first and second sidebars (18, 20) proximate a first end of each of said first and second sidebars (18, 20). The upper frame section (12) is pivotally coupled to the at least one connecting member (16) such that the first crossbar (22) is movable between a first position wherein the first crossbar (22) is at a first distance from the base frame portion (14) and a second position wherein the first crossbar (22) is at a second distance from the base frame portion (14). |
| US09918559B2 |
Three-dimensional net-like structure
By taking into account the difficulty in smoothly bending along the shape of, for example, a care bed, there is provided a three-dimensional net-like structure made from polyethylene having a swelling ratio dependent on a shear rate such as to be 0.93 to 1.16 at a shear rate of 24.3 sec−1 and 1.15 to 1.34 at a shear rate of 608 sec−1 and having an MFR of 3 to 35 g/10 min and a density of 0.82 to 0.95 g/cm3 and configured to have a spring structure of filaments randomly brought into contact with and tangled with one another, have a three-dimensional striped sparse-dense configuration in a lateral direction relative to an extrusion direction. The swelling ratio is shown as D2/D1 against shear rate when a molten thermoplastic resin is extruded to filaments from a capillary having a tube inner diameter D1 of 1.0 mm and a length of 10 mm and D2 denotes a diameter of cross section of the filaments extruded and cooled down. |
| US09918556B2 |
Adjustable bed foundation
The disclosure generally relates to an adjustable bed foundation. The adjustable foundation includes lateral and/or longitudinal support members as part of an adjustable base frame positioned below a mattress support. The lateral and longitudinal support members, along with a fixed base frame portion of the foundation are preferably formed from a lightweight material such as wood. The lateral and longitudinal support members provide sufficient vertical support structure to accommodate a mattress and bed occupants on the adjustable platform, as well as electrical and mechanical components of the adjustable foundation below a mattress support deck. |
| US09918548B2 |
Multitier collapsible stand
A multitier collapsible stand provides enhanced lateral stability while supporting an object, such as a television, on multiple tiers, and also presents an aesthetic décor that enhances the appearance of the object. The stand utilizes a collapsible support frame that supports multiple tiers of support panels in a tiered relationship. The support frame also collapses for enhanced portability and stowage. The support frame comprises three arms that are traversed by a pair of cross bars for enhanced structural integrity. A rear panel positions coplanar to the arms. Left and right lateral members hingedly join the arms to the rear panel. The lateral members carry multiple support panels. A hinge enables hinged articulation between arms, lateral members, and the rear panel for collapsing the stand. A buckle hinge allows for hinged articulation and separation between arms, lateral members, and the rear panel for collapsibility. An attachable vertical stand supports a television. |
| US09918546B2 |
Portable table system
A portable table system includes an article of luggage that has a handle and the handle has a pair of uprights. A table is removably coupled to the handle such that the table may support an object. The table is collapsible such that the table is stored in the luggage. A pair of supports is provided and each of the supports is coupled to the table. Each of the supports is removably coupled to the handle such that the table is retained in a horizontal orientation. |
| US09918545B2 |
Stand for a portable device with a graphic user interface display
A stand for a portable device such as a laptop computer or a tablet computer has a first panel, a second panel hinged to the first panel for supporting the first panel and an angle setting tongue hinged to the first panel or the second panel and connectable to the other one of these panels for setting an angle between these panels. First and second panel members of a first layer define the first and second panels and are attached to a relatively flexible second layer. Portions of the angle setting tongue opposite parts of the first layer when the stand is in a flat folded transport position, are free from material of the first layer. A method for manufacturing such a stand is also disclosed. |
| US09918543B2 |
Toothbrush with curved neck
A toothbrush including a handle portion, a head portion, a plurality of bristles coupled to the head portion, and a neck portion. The neck portion is curved such that the neck portion is angled in a direction away from an axis the handle portion extends upon and is then angled in a direction towards the axis. |
| US09918540B2 |
Support vest
A support vest configured to conform to a wearer's natural movements, allowing forces to be applied to selected areas, and permitting varying attachment points for a supported load. The support vest has a waistband, ventral and dorsal spar systems extending upward therefrom, the ventral and dorsal spar systems attached to a ventral and dorsal plate, respectively and connected to one another via should straps. Pivot systems are provided at the superior and inferior ends of the spar systems. |
| US09918538B2 |
Apparatus and method to realize personalized cosmetic compositions
An apparatus to realize a personalized cosmetic composition including a feeder to expose a base stored in a chamber, a dispenser to dispense a selected treatment mixture onto the base and form a treated base, a collector to collect the treated base from the chamber and depose the treated base onto a collection container, and a compacter to compact an accumulation of the treated base inside the collection container. The dispenser includes a plurality of reservoirs containing a plurality of additives to be selectively incorporated into the selected treatment mixture, wherein the plurality of additives includes a plurality of pigments to produce the selected treatment mixture in a selected of color. |
| US09918534B2 |
Cover for an electronic device
A cover for an electronic device comprises a back sheet portion comprising a first section and a second section and a front sheet portion comprising a first section and a second section. The second end of the front sheet portion is connected to the second section of the back sheet portion, and the first end of the front sheet portion is connected to the first section of the back sheet portion at a distance of the first end of the back sheet portion, the cover having an end section. The cover is foldable between a cover position and a support position. In the cover position, the back sheet portion and the front sheet portion are substantially planar and resting against each other. In the support position, at least a part of the end section rests against at least a part of the first section of the front sheet portion. |
| US09918531B2 |
Travel case luggage with compartments
A hard travel case is described comprising a main body with a main compartment, two sub-compartments, each hinging on a first side of the main body between a closed position and open position, whereby in the closed position together the sub-compartments close the main compartment, and in the open position access is provided to the main compartment, wherein each sub-compartment comprises an access door hinging on a first side of the sub-compartment between a closed position whereby the access door closes the sub-compartment and an open position allowing access to the sub-compartment. |
| US09918526B2 |
Mold-in touch fastening product
A male touch fastener strip includes an elongated base and a field of male fastener elements each having a stem extending from a broad face of the base and a head for engaging fibers. The fastener element stems and broad face of the base together form a unitary mass of resin, such as a resin containing a magnetically attractable substance. Wings extend from respective longitudinal edges of the base and define discrete corrugations extending in a series along the fastener strip and forming corresponding undulations in the rear face of the strip along its longitudinal edges. The corrugated wings can also support a foam gasket. |
| US09918525B2 |
Touch fastener structures
Touch fastener products, as well as apparatus and methods for manufacturing such products, are described. The methods and apparatus feature certain mold cavity shapes that are designed to facilitate demolding of hammer hook touch fastener elements exhibiting desirable fastening properties. Such mold cavity shapes can be combined with particularly soft molding resins to produce useful fastening products. |
| US09918523B2 |
Buckle assembly
A buckle assembly includes a first buckle member, a second buckle member and a locking arrangement. The first buckle member includes a first buckle body and an insertion member. The second buckle member includes a second buckle body having a receiving slot, a first buckle latch and a second buckle latch pivotally connected to the second buckle body to move between a locked position and an unlocked position, and a plurality of resilient elements mounted in the second buckle body. The locking arrangement includes a first locking member extended from one of the first buckle member and the second buckle member to retain one of the first buckle latch and the second buckle latch at a locked position. |
| US09918520B2 |
System and method for printing a pattern on footwear
The invention provides a method for applying a pattern onto the upper of a shoe or other footwear. The footwear is preferably made by injection molding where raw materials are injected into a mold to form the shape of a footwear. |
| US09918517B2 |
Footwear articles with extension apparatuses and methods of using the same
The present invention relates to a footwear article, such as a boot, having a knob, hook, platform or other extension protruding on an upper portion thereof. The knob, hook, platform or other extension may be utilized for engaging with a cart, dolly or other movable object for moving the same by moving the wearer's foot. Methods of using the same are further provided. |
| US09918515B2 |
Footwear with dynamic arch system
The present invention is footwear having a convex shaped outsole with opposing wedge shaped configurations in the bottom of the front sole section and the back sole section which provide rotation of the front sole section and the back sole section in opposite directions when weight is applied. The present invention is also footwear convex shaped in the longitudinal direction with a split sole having opposing wedge shaped configurations in the bottom of the front sole section and the back sole section that provide rotation of the front sole section and the back sole section in opposite directions when weight is applied. The invention further includes footwear having at least one pair of wedges on the outsole which provide footwear having improved arch support. The invention is also footwear with a flexible, elastic, member between the front sole section and the back sole section of the sole. |
| US09918513B2 |
Reversible protective footwear
This disclosure relates in certain embodiments to protective footwear comprising a flexible strap that can be wrapped around a bare foot in order to provide protection and traction to the ball and heel of the foot. The footwear can provide protection from rough or hot surfaces, for example swimming pool decks or hot sand at the beach. The footwear can also provide traction for the user on wet or slippery surfaces. The footwear is designed to minimally cover the foot, giving the user a “barefoot” feeling, while still providing protection and traction to the pressure points (e.g., ball and heel) of the foot. The footwear can be securely fastened to the user's foot such that it does not fall off during routine physical activity (e.g., swimming, walking, etc.). |
| US09918506B2 |
Helmet safety system
A helmet safety system for enhancing visibility of a helmet in a hazardous area includes a helmet that may be worn in a hazardous area. A lighting unit is removably coupled to the helmet. The lighting unit may emit light thereby enhancing visibility of the helmet in the hazardous area. |
| US09918504B1 |
Sensitivity enhancement glove
A sensitivity enhancement glove having at least one sleeve with a unique aperture to enhance performance by capitalizing on neuroanatomy and create hyper sensitivity and thereby enhance effects on proprioception and simultaneous musculoskeletal functions. |
| US09918499B2 |
Brassiere providing continuous adjustability between different lift positions and/or convertibility between minimizer and maximizer support
An adjustable support brassiere comprises traditional bra elements—a bra band with closure; left and right breast cups; and respective shoulder straps. Adjustability may comprise left and right inner support cups having inner ends pivotally attached, respectively, to the left and right breast cups, and a respective support strap having a bottom end attached at a distal (outer) end of each inner support cup, with a top end of each support strap fixedly secured to a clamp member. Each of the left and right clamp members may be releasably secured to a infinite number of positions of the shoulder strap, to cause individual lifting and reconfiguring of the left and right inner support cups to produce a desired amount of lifting to each of the woman's breasts. Adjustments may be made by a woman throughout the day to alter her appearance as desired. |
| US09918491B2 |
Flue-curing apparatus and associated method
A flue-curing apparatus and a related method are provided. The flue-curing apparatus includes a circulation chamber and a curing chamber that are separated by a divider wall. An air circulation system includes a blower positioned in the circulation chamber that directs air to a heater device and a lower passage into the curing chamber. The air may be received from one or both of an inlet and an upper passage extending from the curing chamber to the circulation chamber. A humidity control system humidifies the air directed into the curing chamber. A controller may receive signals from wet and dry bulb thermometers to determine the conditions in the curing chamber and the condition of tobacco leaves being cured therein. The controller may adjust various operational parameters to cause the tobacco leaves in the curing chamber to cure at a desired rate. |
| US09918489B2 |
Food-based supplement delivery system
A cookie or other food product which is designed to deliver a larger dose of cinnamon to a human user without significant introduction of food items detrimental to cinnamon's expected medicinal action and without an unpleasant taste sensation. The cookie is designed to be chewed as opposed to swallowed and the flavoring of the cinnamon is intended to enhance the cookie as opposed to the flavoring of the cinnamon being covered up or concealed by other flavorings. |
| US09918486B2 |
Food compositions having a realistic meat-like appearance, feel, and texture
The invention provides novel food compositions having a realistic meat-like appearance, feel, and texture. The compositions comprise from about 40 to about 90% functional proteins, from about 0.05 to about 2% of one or more cross-linking agents, and from about 60 to about 10% of a meat slurry, wherein the meat slurry comprises meat and one or more humectants plasticizers in a meat:humectant plasticizer ratio of from about 20:80 to about 80:20. The compositions are produced by heating a preconditioned mixture of the food components under pressure and then expanding the heated composition to form the food composition. |
| US09918485B2 |
Soy protein products having altered characteristics
Soy protein products obtained from high oleic soybeans, wherein such products, have improved whiteness, reduced viscosity and reduced gel-strength, are described. Use of such products in food, beverage and animal feed are also disclosed. |
| US09918483B2 |
Sheet for packaging edible meat, and casing for packaging edible meat
A sheet for packaging edible meat is provided that includes a layer A and a layer B thermally adhered to each other. In the sheet, the layer A is a wet-laid nonwoven fabric produced by mixing a first core-in-sheath fiber (a) having a core made of polyester and a sheath made of polyethylene, a second core-sheath fiber (b) having a core made of polyester and a sheath made of a low-melting-point polyester, and an ultrafine polyester fiber (c). The layer B is a spunbonded nonwoven fabric produced from a third core-sheath fiber having a core made of polyester and a sheath made of polyethylene. Also a casing for packaging edible meat is provided that is formed from the sheet for packaging edible meat. |
| US09918481B1 |
Flexible multiple piece mold assembly with interlocking seals for producing a comestible baked product in complex shapes
A flexible multiple piece mold assembly with interlocking seals suitable for baking to produce a comestible baked product in complex shapes. The mold assembly includes three or more pieces, wherein each of the at least three pieces is configured to be joined by an interlocking seal to the other pieces such that when each of the at least three pieces are joined they form the mold assembly. The mold assembly defines an interior cavity for receiving a substance to be baked into a comestible product and this interior cavity defines a shape for the baked comestible. This mold assembly can be peeled away from the comestible one piece at a time. The mold assembly can have an aperture or one of the seams between the pieces of the mold assembly can be opened to receive the substance. The mold assembly may have one or more vent holes for heat release. |
| US09918479B2 |
Control of phytopathogenic microorganisms with Pseudomonas sp. and substances and compositions derived therefrom
Provided are compounds and compositions derived from Pseudomonas sp., particularly, Pseudomonas fluorescens or Pseudomonas protegens and more particularly strain having the identifying characteristics of Pseudomonas ATCC 55799 having antimicrobial properties and particularly, antibacterial properties. |
| US09918478B2 |
Water soluble antimicrobial polyacrylate silver salt
This invention is about a water soluble antimicrobial polyacrylate silver salt. The molecular chain of the polyacrylate silver salt comprises sodium carboxylic group (—COONa) and silver carboxylic group (—COOAg). It is synthesized by dissolving an polyacrylate polymer comprising sodium carboxylic group (—COONa) in water and then exchanging the sodium carboxylic group of the polyacrylate polymer to silver carboxylic group (—COOAg) using silver salt in aqueous solution. Ultrafiltration membrane is used to remove the sodium salt generated from the metal ion exchanging procedure. An aqueous solution of water soluble antimicrobial polyacrylate silver salt with very few impurity is obtained. The water soluble antimicrobial polyacrylate silver salt is then obtain-ned from the aqueous solution. The molar ratio of —COOAg to —COONa of thus obtained water soluble antimicrobial polyacrylate silver salt can be as high as 66/34. |
| US09918473B2 |
Use of aryl carbamates in agriculture and other plant-related areas
Disclosure is provided for methods of preventing, removing or inhibiting microbial biofilm formation or microbial infection in a plant or plant part thereof, including applying thereto a treatment effective amount of an aryl carbamate as described herein, or an agriculturally acceptable salt thereof. Methods of enhancing a microbicide (e.g., including a copper, antibiotic, bacteriophage, etc.) and/or plant defense activator are also provided, including applying an active compound as described herein. Compositions comprising an aryl carbamate compound as described herein in an agriculturally acceptable carrier are also provided, and in some embodiments the compositions further include a microbicide (e.g., including copper, antibiotic, bacteriophage, etc.) and/or a plant defense activator. |
| US09918472B2 |
Animal repellent
The invention provides an animal repellent containing, as an active ingredient, a compound having an odor innately inducing fear in animals, which is free from acclimation of animals to the aforementioned odor. The active ingredient is at least one kind selected from a heterocyclic compound represented by the formula (1): wherein ring A is a 3- to 7-membered heterocycle containing at least one hetero atom selected from a nitrogen atom, a sulfur atom and an oxygen atom, and R1 and R2 are each independently hydrogen, a halogen atom, an optionally substituted alkyl group, an optionally substituted alkoxy group, an acyl group, an optionally esterified carboxyl group, an optionally substituted thiol group, an optionally substituted amino group or an oxo group, or a salt thereof, a chain sulfide compound and alkyl isothiocyanate. |
| US09918471B2 |
Synergistic fungicidal mixtures for fungal control in cereals
A fungicidal composition containing a fungicidally effective amount of a compound of Formula I: (3S,6S,7R,8R)-8-benzyl-3-(3-((isobutyryloxy)methoxy)-4-methoxypicolinamido)-6-methyl-4,9-dioxo-1,5-dioxonan-7-yl isobutyrate, and at least one fungicide selected from the group consisting of fluoxastrobin, trifloxystrobin, and picoxystrobin, provides synergistic control of selected fungi. |
| US09918468B2 |
Compositions and methods for controlling weeds in crops
Compositions and methods for controlling volunteer crop weeds in a crop by applying to weeds a herbicidally effective amount of a synergistic herbicidal composition that includes bromoxynil and a protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) inhibitor are disclosed. |
| US09918467B2 |
Anti-microbial disinfectant wipe and method of use
A wipe for anti-microbial disinfecting includes a flexible substrate and an anti-microbial ion source integrated on the substrate. The flexible substrate is made entirely or in part of woven fiber cloth, non-woven fiber cloth, woven synthetic cloth, non-woven synthetic cloth, or natural fiber cloth. The anti-microbial ion source is configured to dissolve in an aqueous solution to form an anti-microbial solution. The flexible substrate is configured to absorb the anti-microbial solution for use in cleaning. |
| US09918466B2 |
Antimicrobial polymers and methods for their production
Antimicrobial or antiseptic polymers may be produced by incorporation of an antimicrobial ingredient into the polymer by grafting, copolymerization, or via a combined antimicrobial/plasticizer ingredient. The polymer may be produced as a masterbatch, or a ready to process polymer for producing antimicrobial products. The reactions may be conducted in a reactive extruder to provide a single-step synthesis. |
| US09918463B2 |
Bioreactor
The invention relates to a bioreactor for charging the outside and the interior of a hollow element (1) or hollow element framework with a liquid, having a housing (2) accommodating the liquid, forming a liquid surface, and a rotation device (3) arranged within the housing (2) and receiving the hollow element (1), which rotation device (3) is for rotating the hollow element (1) about the longitudinal axis (4) thereof in the region of the liquid surface. In known bioreactors of this type, the interior of the hollow element must be flushed with a special device, and so here also a liquid exchange takes place. The object of forming a bioreactor for charging the interior and the outside of hollow elements in such a manner that simplest and cheapest flushing of the interior of the hollow element is ensured is achieved in that the rotation device (3) comprises a scooping chamber (5) running at least in part tangentially to the longitudinal axis, and which is connected via a flow channel (6) to the interior of the hollow element (1). |
| US09918459B2 |
Fishing pole heating assembly
A fishing pole heating assembly includes a fishing pole that has a handle portion and a rod portion. The fishing pole includes a reel coupled to the handle portion and a plurality of eyelets coupled to the rod portion. The eyelets are spaced apart from each other and extend along the rod portion. A heating apparatus is coupled to the fishing rod and the heating apparatus heats the eyelets. |
| US09918458B2 |
Double bearing reel
One object is to provide a double bearing reel that provides a comfortable grip feeling in fishing and prevents the cover plates from making a malfunction. A double bearing reel of the present invention includes: a reel body including left and right side plates, each of the left and right side plates including a frame and a cover plate; a spool rotatably supported between the left and right side plates; a handle provided on one of the left and right side plates and configured to rotationally drive the spool; and an opening/closing mechanism configured to enable the cover plate on an opposite side to the handle to be opened and closed on the associated frame. An opening is formed in a side surface of the cover plate on the opposite side to the handle, and an operation member of the opening/closing mechanism is disposed within the opening. |
| US09918456B2 |
Reduced weight live poultry hauling system
A reduced-weight poultry cage is used in conjunction with a reduced-weight trailer to transport live poultry for maximizing the poundage of poultry being transported while reducing the number of trips and fuel expenses. The poultry cage includes a combination of aluminum and plastic elements that reduce cage weight, provide for nesting of cages in stacks as well as easy replacement of failed parts. Furthermore, a drop-deck aluminum trailer with a reduced floor and guide rail alignment stops allows for a durable yet lightweight trailer that can haul a plurality of stacks of these poultry cages, thereby maximizing cubic feet availability while being compliant with various road and bridge laws. |
| US09918453B2 |
Tracking system
An exemplary tracking device or system comprises: a radio frequency identification (RFID) circuit disposed on a substrate; an encapsulation cap encapsulating the RFID circuit and substrate; and, an information bearing indicia (IBI) disposed on the encapsulation cap, wherein the RFID circuit and IBI provide at least some similar information when read with a respective reading device. |
| US09918452B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling herbivore fowl populations
A method and apparatus is provided for controlling the location in which herbivore fowl populations congregate by altering the behavior of the fowl through the combination of providing a strong disincentive to populate areas where the presence of the fowl is not desired and a strong incentive to populate a proximate area where the presence of fowl can be tolerated. For herbivore waterfowl, and in particular Canada geese, the adjacent area also provides the waterfowl with a means of egress to water as an escape from predators and other perceived threats. The method uses a deterrent in the form of adulterated feed to dissuade the herbivore fowl from congregating in areas in which their presence is not desired and the use of an attractant in the form of non-adulterated feed to encourage the herbivore fowl to congregate in a proximate area in which their presence can be tolerated. |
| US09918451B2 |
Livestock feeder
Livestock feeders can include a one-piece or multi-piece designs. A livestock feeder can include a pan, a hood, and a base. The livestock feeder is suitable for providing feedstuffs such as nutritional supplements to a livestock animal on a free-choice basis. The livestock feeder can be durable, portable, non-corrosive and is designed to minimize spillage of feedstuffs and resist tipping over. The livestock feeder can be constructed from a molded polyethylene material. |
| US09918450B2 |
Space divider of a milking parlor arrangement, and milking parlor arrangement
A space divider of a milking parlor arrangement for at least one milking parlor for milking milk-producing animals, wherein the space divider is arranged approximately parallel to a longitudinal axis of the animal to be milked, has an arm device having a milking cluster, which can be adjusted from a parking position to a working position and back. The arm device is arranged with the milking cluster in the parking position in the space divider and can be adjusted into the working position laterally to the animal to be milked between the front and rear legs thereof. The space divider is designed in such a way that no additional space is required between adjacent animals, so that many animals can be milked in a milking parlor arrangement while the smallest possible amount of space is required. |
| US09918446B1 |
Maize inbred PH2TC9
A novel maize variety designated PH2TC9 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant comprise crossing maize variety PH2TC9 with another maize plant are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH2TC9 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby are provided. Hybrid maize seed, plants or plant parts are produced by crossing the variety PH2TC9 or a locus conversion of PH2TC9 with another maize variety. |
| US09918444B2 |
Plants and seeds of hybrid corn variety CH704888
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH704888. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH704888, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH704888 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH704888. |
| US09918434B2 |
Boundary wall with reinforcement device
A boundary wall for framing beds, hotbeds, boundaries in gardens and green areas that includes construction elements configured for connection to each other. Each construction element includes a base body with projecting end sections having connection elements configured to support coupling elements. The connection elements also receive by form-fit at least one reinforcing coupling element which thereby connect the construction elements to each other and/or with other construction elements. |
| US09918433B2 |
Continuous harvester and mobile wrapping systems and methods of using the same
A crop harvesting system for continuous round baling includes a first and second bale chamber, a conveyor system and optionally a wrapping system. At least one conveyor system can facilitate movement of a bale from a first bale chamber to a second bale chamber. The crop harvesting system can be integrated into an agricultural harvester such as a baler or combine. |
| US09918431B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for moving windrow ends inward
Apparatuses for and methods of moving the ends of windrows inward are disclosed. The apparatuses of the present invention include a front end, a rear end and two opposing sides, the front end configured to be wider than the rear end, two skids attached to the two opposing sides, a gate rotatably attached to the rear end and configured to cover an opening in the rear end, a gate cylinder operably attached to the gate and configured to close the gate to collect fruit and/or nuts within the apparatus, and open the gate to distribute the fruit and/or nuts outside of the apparatus, thus eliminating the need to hand rake the ends of the windrows inward or to blow the ends of the windrow inward with a hand blower. |
| US09918429B1 |
Ergonomic weed trimmer
An ergonomic trimmer handle that is attachable along the main shaft housing of a grass trimmer The trimmer handle includes a lateral bar that provides ease of handling and operational support that reduces the pain and fatigue associated with long term usage of a grass trimmer The trimmer handle includes an ergonomic hand grip and universal clamping plates for attaching the trimmer handle to a trimmer |
| US09918427B2 |
Depth control system for front pivot and rear pivot gauge wheel assemblies
A depth control system for an agricultural implement includes a single pivot lever. Additionally, the depth control system is mounted to the single pivot lever. Further, the depth control system includes a gauge wheel pivotally coupled to a frame of the agricultural implement. The control system controls a height of the gauge wheel relative to the frame via movement of the single pivot lever while the gauge wheel is coupled to a front pivot gauge wheel assembly. Furthermore, the depth control system is configured to control the height of the gauge wheel relative to the frame via movement of the single pivot lever while the gauge wheel is coupled to a rear pivot gauge wheel assembly. |
| US09918426B2 |
System and method for spraying seeds dispensed from a twin row planter
A system includes a planter row unit, at least one nozzle assembly, and a controller. The planter row unit includes a first seed meter configured to dispense seeds into a first furrow at a seed frequency and a second seed meter configured to dispense seeds into a second furrow at the seed frequency. The nozzle assembly is configured to spray the seeds dispensed into the first and second furrows, and includes a valve. The controller is communicatively coupled to the valve, and is configured to determine the seed frequency of the first and second seed meters based on a speed-related parameter of the planter. The controller is further configured to control operation of the valve based on the seed frequency such that fluid is sprayed at least one of on or adjacent to each seed. |
| US09918422B2 |
Device and system for providing an agricultural ground working implement with down pressure and protective hydraulic cushion for obstacle impact
A pair of inner plates which are mounted to a coulter wheel by a hub bolted to the two inner plates in one end, and a bearing on an opposing end. A pair of outer plates retains the inner plates and coulter wheel while provide attachment means for a hydraulic cylinder. A hydraulic cylinder is mounted between two tabs located on outer plates and between the inner plates adjacent to the pivot bearing and opposite the coulter wheel. The hydraulic cylinder is connected to a accumulator which provides for a static down pressure. Upon impact with an obstacle, the force pushing up on the coulter wheel overcomes that of the downward static pressure and the hydraulic cylinder retracts allowing the coulter wheel to move in response to the impact force. Trash wheels are bolted to the outer plates parallel to the coulter wheel or at any desired angle. |
| US09924619B2 |
Passive layer for attenuation of near-field electromagnetic waves and heatdissipation including graphene, and electromagnetic device including the same
The present invention relates to a passive layer including graphene for the attenuation of near-field electromagnetic waves and heat dissipation. The passive layer blocks electromagnetic waves radiated from an external electronic device or prevents electromagnetic waves generated in an electronic device from emitting to the outside. The passive layer is designed to reduce interference between transmission circuits of a device in the near-field region or influence such as malfunction caused by external electromagnetic waves. The present invention also relates to an electromagnetic device and a circuit board, each including the passive layer. |
| US09924618B2 |
Conductive film and display apparatus provided with same
The present invention discloses a conductive film and a display apparatus provided with the conductive film. A conductive film is disposed on a display panel of a display apparatus, and has a base body, and a conductive section formed on one of the main surfaces of the base body. The conductive section has a mesh pattern composed of fine metal lines, and the fine metal lines have a tilt of 30-44° with respect to the alignment direction of pixels of the display apparatus. |
| US09924617B2 |
Information processing device and server
An information processing device includes: a device main body including a cooling plate; and a heat generating unit including a heat generating element and a contact plate thermally coupled to the heat generating element, the heat generating unit being detachable from the device main body, wherein the cooling plate includes a heat transfer spring configured to come into contact with the contact plate, the heat transfer spring includes a spring portion configured to come into elastic contact with the contact plate, and a thermally conductive portion disposed between a surface of the spring portion on an opposite side from a contact surface of the spring portion that comes into contact with the contact plate, and the cooling plate. |
| US09924607B2 |
Electronic component unit
An electronic component unit includes a housing. The housing includes a housing space that houses an electronic component. The housing space is divided into a plurality of divided spaces by a central wall-shaped part protruding from a bottom of the housing space. The bottom defines a lower side of the housing space in the vertical direction. The central wall-shaped part has a connecting portion-fitting part to which a connecting part of an electric wire is fitted. For each of the divided spaces, the bottom has a short side direction tilted surface that is tilted from the central wall-shaped part toward the lower side in the vertical direction in a state where the housing is installed at an installation position, and a drain hole formed at a lower end of the short side direction tilted surface in the vertical direction. |
| US09924606B2 |
Electrical connection box and wire harness
Included are a housing that includes a housing chamber of an electronic component and from which electrical wires are drawn out to the outside when the electrical wires are electrically connected to the electronic component, and at least one retaining mechanism that is provided between a retaining wall out of a plurality of walls composing the housing chamber and the electronic component or a retaining member of the electronic component, and makes the housing chamber retain the electronic component or the retaining member. The housing includes a main component in which at least one housing chamber communicating with respective openings at both ends is formed. The retaining wall is made to warp toward the housing chamber side as compared with when the electronic component is in an accommodated state. |
| US09924602B1 |
Enabling subsequent reuse of modular display/camera components of a mobile computing device
A modular display or modular camera that is an integrated portion of a mobile phone hardware of a mobile phone can be selected. The modular display/camera component includes a connector having pin-outs that permit data transfer. Traces electronically connect the pin-outs to other electronics of modular display/camera. The modular display/camera when integrated to the logic board is coupled to the logic board by coupling the connector to a matching socket of the logic board. The modular display/camera can be manually removing from the logic board and can be physically mated to a different matching socket within a different device. Thus, the modular display/camera of the mobile phone can be repurposed/reused/recycled for the different device. |
| US09924601B2 |
Method for the metallation of a workpiece and a layer structure made up of a workpiece and a metal layer
A method for the at least portion-wise and adhesive metallization of a non-conductive workpiece includes introducing periodic microstructures into the workpiece in regions to be metallized, within an area to be metallized that is enclosed by one or more limiting lines, by molding a tool that is microstructured in accordance with the regions to be metallized within a molding area. |
| US09924600B2 |
Process for manufacturing a printed circuit board
A process for manufacturing a printed circuit board, comprising a first main circuit board having a first structure, comprises steps suitable for inserting one or more secondary printed circuit boards having a different structure from that of the main printed circuit board, comprising: defining one or more cavities suitable for receiving the one or more inserts; preparing the one or more inserts comprising, on at least one side intended to make contact with a wall of the cavity, etched features and a metallization, and one or more vias; inserting the one or more inserts into the one or more cavities in the main circuit board; placing a resin in the one or more cavities to ensure cohesion of the assembly formed by the main circuit board and the one or more secondary circuit boards; laminating the assembly formed by the one or more inserts placed in the main circuit board. |
| US09924598B2 |
Electronic control device and production method thereof
An electronic control device includes a wiring unit made from a resin material and an integrated circuit placed on the wiring unit. The wiring unit has a conductive member partially buried therein and including a bus bar terminal and a wiring part extending along a basal plane. The bus bar terminal is bent to extend in a first direction intersecting the basal plane. The integrated circuit includes a lead directed away from the basal plane and connected to the bus bar terminal. |
| US09924595B2 |
Cable for alternative interconnect attachement
In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises: a substrate having a first side and a second side, the second side being on an opposite side of the substrate from the first side, where the substrate has a first location on the first side at which an semiconductor package is to be coupled; and a cable coupled to the substrate on the second side of the substrate at a second location on the second side, the second location being at least partially below the first location. |
| US09924594B2 |
Power semiconductor module and method for producing a power semiconductor module
A printed circuit board (PCB) has a first, structured metalization arranged on its top side and at least one second metalization arranged below the first metalization in a vertical direction, parallel to the first metalization and insulated therefrom. Also on the PCB top side is a bare semiconductor chip having contact electrodes connected by bonding wires to corresponding contact pads of the first metalization on the PCB top side. A first portion of the contact electrodes and corresponding contact pads carry high voltage during operation. All high-voltage-carrying contact pads are conductively connected to the second metalization via plated-through holes. An insulation layer completely covers the chip and a delimited region of the PCB around the chip, and all high-voltage-carrying contact pads and the plated-through holes are completely covered by the insulation layer. A second portion of the contact electrodes and corresponding contact pads are under low voltages during operation. |
| US09924593B2 |
Graphene wiring structure and method for manufacturing graphene wiring structure
A graphene wiring structure of an embodiment has a substrate, a metal part on the substrate, multilayered graphene connected to the metal part, a first insulative film on the substrate, and a second insulative film on the substrate. The metal part is present between the first insulative film and the second insulative film. Edges of the multilayered graphene are connected to the metal part. A side face of the first insulative film vertical to the substrate opposes a side face of the second insulative film vertical to the substrate. A first outer face of the multilayered graphene is in physical contact with a first side face of the first insulative film vertical to the substrate. A second outer face of the multilayered graphene is in physical contact with a second side face of the second insulative film vertical to the substrate. |
| US09924574B1 |
Method and apparatus for controlling light output from a LED lamp
An LED lamp is powered by an external current regulated (constant current) power supply. The LED lamp provides a signal to the power supply to adjust the output current of the power supply to achieve and maintain a desired light output level. The signal is adjusted as the temperature of the LED lamp changes in order to ensure consistent light output of the LED lamp as the LED lamp changes temperature during operation. |
| US09924570B2 |
Isolated active circuit for measuring the current of an illuminant on the secondary side
The invention relates to a drive circuit for operating an illuminant, preferably at least one LED, comprising an isolated converter which is clocked on the primary side by a control unit by means of at least one controlled switch unit, said converter supplying a rectifier starting from which the illuminant can be fed, a measurement circuit for indirectly measuring the current on the secondary side of the converter having a transformer with at least one winding on the primary side. |
| US09924566B2 |
Device for evaporating a volatile material
An assembly for evaporating a volatile material is described, the assembly comprising a device and a refill which are detachable from one another: wherein the device comprises a magnetic induction coil configured to operate with an alternating current passed therethrough at a frequency of between substantially 20 KHz to substantially 500 KHz; and wherein the refill comprises at least one magnetic susceptor having a coercivity of substantially 50 ampere/meter (HC) to substantially 1500 ampere/meter (HC) and a substantially liquid-tight sealed reservoir containing the volatile material; wherein, in use, the magnetic susceptor(s) is arranged to heat the material predominately by magnetic hysteresis when the magnetic susceptor(s) is at least partially positioned in the induced magnetic field generated, in use, when said alternating current is passed through the induction coil. Refills, devices and methods of use are also described. |
| US09924565B2 |
Modular induction fluid heater
A device for electrically heating a fluid, in particular for use in an electrically operated motor vehicle, comprising an induction coil, which is integrated in an oscillating circuit and produces an alternating magnetic field, and at least one first inductor, which is positioned within the alternating magnetic field. The inductor can be arranged inside a module, through which a fluid to be heated can flow, and the induction coil is arranged outside the module. |
| US09924562B2 |
Communications path selection in user equipment
Architecture that allows a user to control the way a connection is made to a destination. A destination can be tagged with an attribute that defines how the connection to that destination should be routed. For example, a phone address book allows the user not only to enter the usual call recipient information such as name and telephone number, but also to add an attribute in the form of a network identifier associated with a network that should be used when connecting to the destination. Where multiple networks are associated with the destination, the phone subsystem, recognizing that the destination now has multiple network IDs for connecting the call, can prompt the user to select the desired network pathway. The user can also tag the destination with a protocol that should be employed. Thus, not only will the phone be connected according to the network, but according to the protocol. |
| US09924557B2 |
Connecting a circuit-switched wireless access network to an IP multimedia subsystem
A network device performs a delayed registration in connection with phone call setup, if the network device does not know a phone number of a user in question at the time of updating the location updating. In addition, the network device performs user authentication and creates and maintains an encrypted and secure network connection between the network device and an IP multimedia subsystem by using data security mechanisms of a terminal of the IP multimedia subsystem and the authentication and data security parameters of the terminal received from the IP multimedia subsystem. |
| US09924554B2 |
Communication apparatus, control method for the communication apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium
A communication apparatus in which a service can more efficiently used is provided. The communication apparatus searches for an apparatus that provides a particular service and establishes a wireless connection to the other searched communication apparatus. Subsequently, an address of the other connected communication apparatus is obtained from the other communication apparatus, and the service provided by the other communication apparatus is used using the obtained address. |
| US09924548B2 |
Vehicle connectivity using a desired access point name
A communication system and method of using the communication system to determine whether to maintain a connection between a wireless carrier system and a telematics unit in a vehicle. The method includes the steps of: providing a connection request between the vehicle and the wireless carrier system (WCS), wherein the connection request includes a first connectivity identifier; receiving a connection response from the WCS indicating a vehicle-WCS connection, wherein the connection response includes a second connectivity identifier; based on receiving the connection response, determining at the telematics unit whether to maintain the vehicle-WCS connection using the first and second connectivity identifiers; and when the telematics unit determines to not maintain the vehicle-WCS connection, then carrying out one or more actions to terminate the vehicle-WCS connection. |
| US09924538B2 |
Method, apparatus, device and network system for adding secondary serving cell
The present invention provides a method for adding a secondary serving cell, an apparatus, a device, and a network system. The method includes: communicating, with each other to acquire a unified serial number of a random access preamble code, a unified serial number of a PRACH mask code, and a unified cell radio network temporary identifier of a terminal; scrambling the serial number of the random access preamble code and the serial number of the PRACH mask code, and then sending the serial number of the random access preamble code and the serial number of the PRACH mask code to the terminal; and determining, a time advance command TAC according to a random access request message that carries the random access preamble code, and sending the TAC to the terminal. |
| US09924537B2 |
Control information indication method and apparatus
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a control information indication method and apparatus, and relate to the field of communications technologies. The method includes: sending at least one piece of control information carried in a first serving cell to a user equipment UE, where the control information includes a cell identity (CID), so that the UE parses an information field of the control information to acquire the CID, determines, according to the CID, a serving cell to which data corresponding to the control information belongs, and performs demodulation and decoding on the data in the serving cell by using the control information. |
| US09924535B2 |
Service scheduling method and base station
Embodiments disclose a service scheduling method and a base station. The method includes reporting, by a Medium Access Control (MAC) entity of a carrier, bearer information of the carrier to a Radio Link Control RLC entity; and allocating, by the RLC entity, service data and control information to the carrier, and sending the service data and the control information to a data buffer of the carrier. The method also includes determining, by the MAC entity, a user equipment that needs to be scheduled, and acquiring the service data and the control information from the data buffer; and performing, by the MAC entity, RLC packet assembly and MAC packet assembly on the service data, and sending the service data experiencing the packet assembly to the user equipment. |
| US09924531B2 |
User terminal for D2D communication using uplink radio resource
A mobile communication system according to embodiment comprises: a user terminal that performs D2D communication that is direct device to device communication; and a base station that performs cellular communication with the user terminal. The D2D communication is performed by using a part of uplink radio resources of the cellular communication. The base station transmits, to the user terminal, a timing advance value that is used for adjustment of a transmission timing in an uplink of the cellular communication. The timing advance value is commonly applied to the adjustment of the transmission timing in the uplink, and adjustment of a transmission timing in the D2D communication. |
| US09924529B2 |
Methods and apparatus for managing wireless communication using unlicensed frequency bands
Systems and techniques for managing the use of industrial-scientific-medical bands for cellular network communication. An apparatus comprises a processing system and a memory storing a set of program instructions. The processing system is configured to cause the apparatus to receive channel information from a UE reporting the control of an unlicensed band channel by the UE and cause the apparatus to schedule a communication session with the UE over the channel, with the channel being configured and activated as a component carrier. The apparatus may further request one or more user equipments (UEs) to report their wireless fidelity (WiFi) capability and request user equipments having WiFi capability to compete for the wireless medium and report occupation of the wireless medium in the form of a request to send command, to which the apparatus responds with a clear to send command. |
| US09924526B2 |
Radio resource control mechanism in a wireless device and wireless network
Cells are grouped into a plurality of physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) groups comprising a primary PUCCH group and a secondary PUCCH group. A base station detects a radio link issue with a PUCCH secondary cell while one or more other cells in the secondary PUCCH group have acceptable radio link quality. The base station transmits at least one second message configured to release at least one of the one or more other cells in the secondary PUCCH group. |
| US09924525B2 |
Channel feedback preceding downlink data transmissions in cellular IoT systems
A method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable medium for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus may be a UE. The apparatus may receive a message from a base station. The message may indicate a first dedicated resource for downlink transmission, and the first dedicated resource may be associated with a scheduled downlink transmission from the base station. The apparatus may determine a second dedicated resource for uplink transmission based on the first dedicated resource for downlink transmission indicated in the message. The second dedicated resource for uplink transmission may be associated with the scheduled downlink transmission. The apparatus may determine whether to transmit an information message, to be used by the base station for transmitting the scheduled downlink transmission, on the second dedicated resource. |
| US09924524B2 |
Base station apparatus and communication control method
The object is achieved by providing a base station apparatus for performing time and frequency scheduling in uplink packet access with: an interference amount measurement part configured to measure an uplink interference amount for each interference amount measurement unit which comprises a predetermined period and a predetermined number of frequency blocks; an interference amount determination part configured to determine whether the uplink interference amount satisfies a predetermined condition; and an overload indicator reporting part configured to report an overload indicator to a neighboring cell when the predetermined condition is satisfied. |
| US09924519B2 |
Channel availability coordination for Wi-Fi and unlicensed bands using radio access network
A method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable medium for wireless communication are provided. In one aspect, an apparatus is configured to determine whether radar signals are present on one or more channels. The apparatus is configured to transmit a channel feedback report that includes channel information for each of the one or more channels based on the determination of whether radar signals are present on the one or more channels. The channel information for each of the one or more channels includes at least one of a time at which radar signal detection was attempted, a frequency range of a detected radar signal, a set of radar signal characteristics, a received radar vector, a geographical location of the wireless device when radar signal detection was attempted, or an indication of wireless activity. |
| US09924517B2 |
Radio resource management measurements in dense network scenarios
A method of a wireless communication device for operation in a wireless communication network comprising a plurality of cells is disclosed. The method comprises performing radio resource management measurements based on received reference signals of one or more of the cells, wherein the radio resource management measurements are performed over a bandwidth comprising K subcarriers. The method also comprises organizing the K subcarriers into N blocks, wherein each block comprises adjacent subcarriers, performing coherent averaging of the radio resource management measurements over the adjacent subcarriers of each block to produce intermediate measurement results and performing non-coherent averaging of the intermediate measurement results to produce a radio resource management measurement result. The method further comprises detecting whether a condition is fulfilled, wherein the condition is suitable for determining if the wireless communication device is in a dense network scenario, setting N to a first value if the condition is fulfilled and to a second value if the condition is not fulfilled, wherein the first value is lower than the second value. Corresponding arrangement, wireless communication device and computer program product are also disclosed. |
| US09924516B1 |
Method to transmit data packets on a network
A method and system for assigning data packet transmission in a wireless communications network is provided. The method comprises receiving first and second user data packets having respective first and second packet sizes, one of the packet sizes being larger than the other, determining an uplink/downlink ratio based on network statistics, and assigning the first and second data packets to respective first and second signal carrier spectrums each having a different time interval between uplink transmissions with the network. A system is also provided comprising a network controller configured to receive data packets and assign individual data packets to one of a first and a second signal carrier spectrum based on the size of the data packets, the first and the second signal carrier spectrums having the same uplink/downlink ratio and different uplink intervals. |
| US09924513B2 |
Band-switching operations in a mesh network environment
Techniques and systems for selectively performing band-switching operations are provided. For example, a method, computing device, or computer-program product may be provided, and may include receiving a communication from a first device, wherein the communication is received on a channel of a first WiFi frequency band, wherein the communication is received using a first WiFi circuit of the computing device, and wherein the computing device is a node of a mesh network. The method, computing device, or computer-program product may further include determining whether the first device is a node of the mesh network, determining a second device to which to transmit the communication, and determining whether the second device is a node of the mesh network. The method, computing device, or computer-program product may further include determining whether to transmit the communication to the second device on a second WiFi frequency band, wherein the second WiFi frequency band is different from the first WiFi frequency band, and wherein determining whether to transmit the communication on the second WiFi frequency band depends on whether the first device is a node of the mesh network. |
| US09924512B1 |
OFDMA with block tone assignment for WLAN
A plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) sub-channel blocks are assigned to a plurality of devices including a first device and a second device. The plurality of OFDM sub-channel blocks includes a first OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the first device and a second OFDM sub-channel block assigned to the second device. Data for the first device and data for the second device are received. OFDM data units are generated, wherein data for the first device is modulated on sub-channels in the first OFDM sub-channel block and data for the second device is modulated on sub-channels in the second OFDM sub-channel block. At least one of the OFDM sub-channel blocks is formatted to substantially conform to a physical layer specification of a WLAN communication protocol having a maximum channel bandwidth smaller than a bandwidth of the generated OFDM data units. |
| US09924510B2 |
Wireless device, method, and computer readable media for orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) allocations based on a basic tone resource unit or entire sub-channel
Wireless devices, methods, and computer readable media are disclosed. A high-efficiency wireless local-area network (HEW) master station is disclosed. The HEW master station may include circuitry. The circuitry may be configured to generate one or more resource allocations of a bandwidth for one or more HEW stations. Each resource allocation for a first portion of the bandwidth may be a multiple of a basic resource allocation or the entire first portion of the bandwidth. There may be only one resource allocation for a second portion of the bandwidth that is at least as large as the first portion of the bandwidth. In some embodiments, each resource allocation for the second portion of the bandwidth may be a multiple of the basic resource allocation or the entire second portion of the bandwidth. |
| US09924508B2 |
Communication duration configuring method, relay station, mobile station and mobile communication system
A backhaul is configured in such a manner that a HARQ process in which a HARQ on an upstream access link is incapable of being partly or entirely performed is limited to a particular one of a plurality of HARQ processes. As a result, complexity of scheduling is reduced and efficiency of the access link is improved. |
| US09924505B2 |
Control channels for wireless communication
A method for configuring a search space within which a mobile terminal performs blind decoding attempts for potential control message candidates which may be transmitted by a base station. The frequency domain resource for which the terminal performs a blind decoding attempt for a given candidate message is determined by a pseudo-random selection (known by both terminal and network) from a pre-determined set of possible resources. A pre-determined set of resources can be different for each candidate. In one embodiment the set of resources is configured by the network for each terminal and each candidate. The method may be applied for example to ePDCCH of an LTE-A wireless communication system. |
| US09924502B2 |
Method and device for obtaining and receiving control information in wireless communication system
A method of obtaining control information on a terminal in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes performing blind decoding for a joint DCI format including at least two DCI formats for at least two terminals including the terminal, wherein the size of the joint DCI format is determined depending on the kind of the at least two DCI formats, and the terminal further receives information for performing blind decoding on the DCI format for the terminal in the joint DCI format. |
| US09924501B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing latency of LTE uplink transmissions
A method and apparatus reduce latency of Long Term Evolution (LTE) uplink transmissions. An indication can be sent to a user equipment. The indication can indicate a set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission in an uplink subframe. A physical uplink shared channel can be received in a selected subset of resource blocks in the uplink subframe. The subset of resource blocks can be selected from the set of frequency domain resource blocks for possible physical uplink shared channel transmission based on a selection criterion. The selection criterion can use at least a resource set size acquired from the indication, a modulo function, and an identifier associated with the user equipment. |
| US09924496B2 |
Network apparatus and user terminal
A network apparatus comprises a transmitter configured to transmit a search request for a surrounding user terminal, to a plurality of user terminals; a receiver configured to receive a search result for the surrounding user terminal based on the search request; and a controller configured to determine, on the basis of the search result, a scheduling terminal that performs an assignment of a radio resource used for the D2D communication, from among the plurality of user terminals. The transmitter transmits, to a user terminal determined as the scheduling terminal, a scheduling terminal request to request that the user terminal acts as the scheduling terminal. |
| US09924495B2 |
Methods and devices for transmitting or receiving device-to-device (D2D) broadcast information, and transmission system
Provided are methods and devices for transmitting or receiving Device-to-Device (D2D) broadcast information, and a transmission system. The method for transmitting the D2D broadcast information includes that: classification information of service information to be transmitted is acquired; control information corresponding to the classification information is acquired, wherein the control information is used for indicating resource scheduling information used during transmission and/or retransmission of the service information; and the service information and the control information are transmitted in a broadcast manner according to a preset rule. |
| US09924490B2 |
Scaling multi-core neurosynaptic networks across chip boundaries
Embodiments of the invention provide a system for scaling multi-core neurosynaptic networks. The system comprises multiple network circuits. Each network circuit comprises a plurality of neurosynaptic core circuits. Each core circuit comprises multiple electronic neurons interconnected with multiple electronic axons via a plurality of electronic synapse devices. An interconnect fabric couples the network circuits. Each network circuit has at least one network interface. Each network interface for each network circuit enables data exchange between the network circuit and another network circuit by tagging each data packet from the network circuit with corresponding routing information. |
| US09924484B2 |
Network registration method and apparatus, and mobile terminal
A network registration method and apparatus, and a mobile terminal are presented. During re-registration with a network, after receiving a channel allocation rejection message sent by the network, a mobile terminal sorts all available frequency channels according to network resource statuses of frequency channels with which network registration failed before and that are in a low priority list. And then the mobile terminal tries to camp on all the available frequency channels according to an order of the sorting to determine a frequency channel to be camped on. The mobile terminal sends a network registration message to register with the frequency channel to be camped on. |
| US09924483B2 |
Systems and methods for signal brokering in distributed evolved packet core (EPC) network architectures
Internet protocol (IP) address allocations in distributed EPC networks can be published to an IP address registry maintained at the central EPC entity in order to facilitate the routing of authentication authorization, and accounting (AAA) signaling of third party networks throughout the distributed EPC network architecture. The address allocations can be published directly to an address registry maintained by the central EPC entity, or indirectly via a cloud management server. Additionally, latencies associated with UE authentication in distributed EPC network architectures can be mitigated by triggering communication of the authentication or authorization profile upon reception of an update location request (ULR) message at the central EPC network entity. |
| US09924479B2 |
Communication control device, communication control method, and terminal device
Provided is a communication control device including: a communication control unit configured to control radio communication in a small cell partially or entirely overlapping with a macro cell; and an acquisition unit configured to acquire first synchronization relationship information indicating which frequency bands are mutually synchronized among a plurality of frequency bands used for the small cell. The first synchronization relationship information is supplied in the small cell by the communication control unit and is not supplied in the macro cell by a base station of the macro cell. |
| US09924475B2 |
Method for managing data transmission power in mobile cellular networks
A method manages sub-frame data transmission in a cellular network including a macro node and at least one small node associated therewith. The method includes at a macro node side: based on channel quality information from user equipment associated with the macro node, grouping the user equipment into a first group that can be served at a macro node first transmission power and a second group that has to be served at a macro node second transmission power higher than the macro node first transmission power, and determining a sub-frames pattern including: a number of no-transmission sub-frames wherein data transmission is prevented at the macro node side, a number of limited-transmission sub-frames wherein data transmission is allowed at the macro node side at only the first transmission power, and a number of normal-transmission sub frames wherein data transmission is allowed at the macro node side at the second transmission power. |
| US09924473B2 |
Compensation method, base station, and user equipment for uplink power control in a CoMP system
A compensation method, a base station, and a user equipment for uplink power control in a CoMP system are provided. The method includes: a base station determines an adjustment value for an uplink sending power of a UE; the base station sends to the UE indication information and the adjustment value for the uplink sending power of the UE, where the indication information is used for indicating a range of the adjustment value for the uplink sending power of the UE, so that the UE, according to the indication information and the adjustment value for the uplink sending power of the UE, determines the uplink sending power of the UE. Embodiments of the present invention are capable of improving the quality of sending uplink data. |
| US09924471B2 |
Channel quality reporting using a dynamically adjusted measurement power offset
Methods and apparatuses are provided for facilitating dynamic measurement power offset adjustments for use in reporting channel quality feedback. A user equipment may generate and send a plurality of channel quality indicator (CQI) values to a base station. The base station determines whether at least some of the received CQI values are outside of an upper or lower threshold value. If at least some of the received CQI values are outside the upper or lower threshold value, the base station can transmit an adjusted measurement power offset to the user equipment. On receipt of the adjusted measurement power offset, the user equipment generates subsequent CQI values using the adjusted measurement power offset. |
| US09924461B2 |
Apparatus and method for reducing power consumption in portable terminal
An apparatus and a method for reducing power consumption in a portable terminal that transmits digital broadcast data through an ad hoc network are provided. If a terminal receiving digital broadcast transmits the received digital broadcast to a neighboring terminal, a control unit enters a sleep mode after buffering received data for a predefined time. |
| US09924459B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining packet transmission time using power gain due to packet transmission delay
A method of determining a transmission time of a packet in a mobile device according to the present disclosure may include: if a request for the transmission of a present packet from at least one operated application is detected, identifying whether it is possible to delay a transmission time of the present packet; when it is possible to delay the transmission time of the present packet, calculating a power gain generated as the transmission time of the present packet is delayed; and determining whether the transmission time of the present packet will be delayed according to the calculated power gain. |
| US09924458B2 |
Dynamic resource block identification for power save polling in a high efficiency wireless local-area network
Apparatuses, computer readable media, and methods for dynamic resource block identification for power save polling in a high efficiency wireless local-area network are disclosed. A wireless apparatus comprising a memory and processing circuitry is disclosed. The processing circuitry is configured to encode a packet comprising a plurality of bits one bit for each association identification (AID) of a plurality of AIDs. A bit is set if the wireless apparatus is to poll a station with a corresponding AID. Each set bit indicates a resource block identification. The processing circuitry is further configured to encode a power save (PS) poll trigger to be transmitted to the stations. The processing circuitry is further configured to decode responses to the PS poll trigger from the stations, where the responses are to be received from the stations in accordance with the corresponding resource block identification. |
| US09924456B2 |
Uplink routing for enhanced LWA
Apparatus and methods are provided for LWA uplink routing. In one novel aspect, signaling of an address from the eNB to the UE to enable the UE to populate Address-3 of the MAC header to enable layer-2 forwarding of uplink LWA PDUs from the WLAN AP to an appropriate network entity that implements part or the whole WT functionalities. In one embodiment, the network entity is a WT node, or the eNB or a node aggregating multiple connections to a WT node. In one embodiment, the RRC signaling is used to send the WT node MAC address where the RRC signaling message is a PDCP-Config message or a WLAN-MobilityConfig message. In one embodiment, multiple WT nodes are connected with the WLAN AP. The eNB selects one WT node or the UE selects one WT node to populate the address-3 of the MAC header. |
| US09924449B1 |
Methods and systems for controlling implementation of a location-based service for a wireless communication device
A wireless communication device (WCD) stores a location of a portable WAP and is configured to report the stored location of the portable WAP to a location-based service provider (LBSP) when the WCD is within coverage of the portable WAP and requests a location-based service from the LBSP. While the WCD is within coverage of the portable WAP, the WCD (i) uses a wireless-communication interface to detect that the WCD is also within one or more particular cellular coverage areas and (ii) stores a correlation between the portable WAP and the one or more particular cellular coverage areas. Thereafter, while the WCD is again within coverage of the portable WAP, the WCD determines that the WCD is not within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas. In response, the WCD reconfigures itself to not report the stored location of the portable WAP to the LBSP when the WCD requests the location-based service. |
| US09924447B1 |
Distinguishing between foreground and background communications based on analysis of context information
A method is disclosed for determining whether a communication or communication session requested by or directed to a user equipment device (UE) is a foreground or background communication, based on context information derived about the communication and in the absence of any direct indication from the UE. If it is determined that the communication is foreground, then no action is taken to limit the communication. If it is determined that the communication is foreground, then an action is taken to limit allocation of at least one network resource need for the communication. As a further aspect, the procedure for context-based determination is then initiated contingent upon the determination that the UE is roaming in a wireless network of a service provider different from a home service provider. |
| US09924446B2 |
Method and apparatus for receiving signal by NAN device in wireless communication system
A method for receiving a signal by a neighbor awareness networking (NAN) device in a wireless communication system, according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprises the steps of: receiving a NAN-related frame from an access point (AP); and obtaining information about the AP from information comprised in the NAN-related frame, wherein the information about the AP is comprised in a service ID list attribute or a WLAN infrastructure attribute. |
| US09924442B2 |
Cell selection mechanism in mobile relay operation
The present invention relates to a method in a radio network node of a cellular network, for controlling admission of a UE in a cell covering a region. The method comprises obtaining (710) a location of the UE, comparing (720) information related to a geometric boundary of the region and the obtained location of the UE, and determining (730) whether to admit the UE in the cell based on the comparison. |
| US09924441B1 |
Systems and methods for improving tolerance of delay and disruption of a control-to-data-plane interface in a software-defined network
This disclosure provides systems and methods for improving tolerance of delay and disruption of a control-to-data-plane interface (CDPI) in a software-defined network. A system can include a plurality of moving nodes and an SDN controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of moving nodes. The SDN controller can be configured to send a first control message to a first moving node of the plurality of moving nodes according to a CDPI protocol. The first control message can include instructions for the first moving node to execute a modification of a physical network topology parameter. The SDN controller also can be configured to send a second control message to the first moving node according to the CDPI protocol. The second control message can include instructions for the first moving node to modify routing information stored by the first node based on the modification of the physical network topology parameter. |
| US09924440B2 |
Communication apparatus, method and system
If a network having the same SSID as but a different BSSID from those of a network that has been established by a first communication apparatus is detected, the network established by the first communication apparatus is terminated and the first communication apparatus participates in the detected network. This makes it possible for the first communication apparatus and another communication apparatus to participate in the same network. |
| US09924439B2 |
Cellular communication system with moving base stations and methods and apparatus useful in conjunction therewith
A mobile communication network system operative in conjunction with a network includes a core device, a plurality of base stations including at least one static base station, and a population of mobile stations communicating via antennae with at least one of the base stations. The system includes at least one moving base station included in the plurality of base stations which communicates via antennae with the mobile stations and includes base station functionality, a first radio manager and mobile station functionality all co-located with the base station functionality. The base station functionality has a physical back-connection to the first radio manager. The mobile station functionality communicates via antennae with at least one selectable base station. The plurality of routes of base stations via which the individual moving base station can communicate with the core network includes at least one route characterized by multi-hop backhauling. |
| US09924438B1 |
Frequency acquisition during roaming
Devices, systems and methods are disclosed for allowing a mobile device to roam from a first frequency band to a second frequency band for a dual band access point when a signal strength associated with the first frequency band improves. For example, the mobile device may store a first signal strength associated with the first frequency band when the mobile device first connects to the first frequency band and may monitor subsequent signal strengths to determine if they exceed the first signal strength. When a subsequent signal strength exceeds the first signal strength, the mobile device may use this as an indication that the mobile device is closer to the access point and within range of the second frequency band. The mobile device may then detect and connect to the second frequency band. |
| US09924434B1 |
Method and system for diverting WCDs based on unavailability of authentication procedure
A wireless communication device (WCD) transmits to a first serving system a data-connection request that requests a packet data connection. A mobility management entity (MME) determines that an authentication procedure for authenticating the WCD for the requested packet data connection is unavailable. In response, the MME initiates a handover of the WCD from the first serving system to a second serving system. The first and second serving systems use different air interface protocols. When the handover has been successfully completed, the MME stores an indication that the WCD has been diverted to the second serving system. The MME may subsequently determine that the authentication procedure has become available. In response, the MME determines whether the WCD is associated with a valid subscriber profile. If so, the MME requests the second serving system to invite the WCD to connect to the first serving system. |
| US09924431B2 |
Seamless relocation of a mobile terminal in a wireless network
A method for performing seamless relocation of a mobile terminal in a wireless network includes selecting a first serving gateway (SGW) among a plurality of SGWs and a first packet data network gateway (PGW) among a plurality of PGWs, wherein the first SGW connects to the first PGW to setup the first S5 session, establishing a first communication channel between the terminal and the first PGW and assigning an internet protocol (IP) address to the terminal, selecting a second SGW among the plurality of SGWs when the terminal is about to move out of an area being served by the first SGW, connecting the second SGW to the second PGW to setup a new S5 session when a second PGW among the plurality of PGWs is closer to the second SGW than the first PGW or connecting the second SGW to the first PGW to modify the first S5 session when no PGW is closer to the second SGW than the first PGW, establishing a second communication channel between the terminal and the second SGW using the IP address allocated to the terminal, reconfiguring routing for terminal IP destination, and terminating the first communication channel between the terminal and the first PGW. |
| US09924427B2 |
Network backhaul access
A communication system can provide an independent mobile cellular network to devices within a covered area. In addition, the system can determine whether user equipment within a covered area of the communication system are to have backhaul access to another communication system and/or whether to adjust the point of presence of the user equipment. |
| US09924423B2 |
Different frequency measurement and evaluation method and apparatus of cluster answering user
A method and apparatus for different-frequency measurement and evaluation by a cluster answering user are provided, which relate to the technical field of communications. The method includes acquiring a public network signal evaluation threshold value and a signal threshold adjustment value, the signal threshold adjustment value being for adjusting an evaluation threshold; saving a result of different-frequency measurement by performing the different-frequency measurement on cells; and evaluating the saved result of different-frequency measurement using the acquired public network signal evaluation threshold value and the acquired signal threshold adjustment value. The method and apparatus enable a cluster terminal to timely measure a better adjacent cell and to switch to the cell, thereby making the cluster terminal always reside in a better cell to use voice and data services, ensuring the quality of the services and bringing user experience. |
| US09924421B2 |
User equipment, method, and base station
A method for receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message by a user equipment (UE) is described. The method includes receiving an RRC connection reconfiguration (RRCConnectionReconfiguration) message including secondary cell group (SCG) configuration parameters. The RRC connection reconfiguration message has a structure that the SCG configuration parameters do not include a data radio bearer (DRB) configuration. |
| US09924418B1 |
Automatic deletion of inaccurate neighbor relations
A method may include receiving a local identifier associated with a cell of a cellular network. The method may include identifying a stored global identifier corresponding to the local identifier based on a data structure. The method may include determining, based on the data structure, that the stored global identifier is not verified as associated with the local identifier. The method may include causing a received global identifier to be obtained based on determining that the stored global identifier is not verified as associated with the local identifier. The method may include determining that the stored global identifier matches the received global identifier to verify the stored global identifier. The method may include causing a handover to the cell based on determining that the stored global identifier matches the received global identifier. |
| US09924415B2 |
Intersystem change between different radio access networks
A wireless terminal can communicate with two radio access networks (RAN) (304, 306) of different types. The wireless terminal can register simultaneously with a RAN of the first type and a RAN of the second type and can wirelessly connect to a RAN of either the first type or the second type in a connected state. The wireless terminal when registered with both a first RAN and a second RAN and when wirelessly connected to the first RAN in the connected state, receives a mobility signal via the first RAN indicating a RAN of the second type and, in response to receiving the mobility signal and in response to being so registered with the first RAN and second RAN, transmits an access trigger signal (417). The access trigger signal indicates that the wireless terminal is to be connected to the second RAN in the connected state. |
| US09924413B2 |
Method and apparatus for supporting local IP access and selected IP traffic offload
A method and apparatus for home Node-B (HNB) mobility with a local IP access (LIPA) packet data network (PDN) connection are described. A target home node-B (HNB) may receive a handover request message from a source HNB to handover a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU). A path switch request may be transmitted to a local gateway (LGW) to change a downlink data path towards the target HNB in response to the handover request message. The LGW may act as a mobility management and local mobility anchor for the handover; and informing an HNB gateway (GW) about the handover so that the downlink data path for core network (CN) traffic is modified towards the target HNB. |
| US09924411B2 |
Method and system for controlling communication network and router used in the network
The present invention provides a communication network comprising a host network, a plurality of base stations, at least a mobile host capable of establishing links to the base stations, and a hierarchy-network of plural routers which are improved in transferring performances for ensuring continuous operations with a reduced load without packet loss. |
| US09924409B2 |
Method and system for group communication, group server, and group member device
Embodiments of the present invention provide a group communication method, system, group server, and group member device. A group server receives notification messages sent by a group member device, aggregates, according to an address of a subscription device, the notification messages destined for the same subscription device, and sends a notification message obtained after aggregation to the subscription device. By aggregating multiple messages sent by the group member device to the subscription device, messages exchanged between the group member device and the subscription device are reduced, thereby reducing communication traffic between the group member device and the subscription device. |
| US09924406B2 |
Blended data transmission network for machine type communications
A method includes broadcasting, from an evolved node b (eNodeB), a plurality of Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN) identifiers (IDs). The plurality of PLMN-IDs include at least one PLMN-ID for a data intensive network and at least one M-PLMN-ID for machine type communications (MTC) in a short messaging network. The method includes receiving a request to transmit MTC data from a MTC device and determining whether the MTC device includes the at least one M-PLMN-ID. The method includes determining whether the MTC data is in a class required to be sent by the data intensive network. The method also includes determining whether the message size is less than the length of structured small data (SSD), and sending the message via the short messaging network in response to a determination that the message size is less than the length of the SSD. |
| US09924398B2 |
Method for reducing load by filtering out broadcast messages
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for reducing load by filtering out broadcast messages. In some embodiments, a system may receive a broadcast message at a device at a first time. The system can monitor the device until a second time when a pre-determined number of broadcast messages have been received at the device. Based on a difference between the first time and the second time, the system can determine a filtering time duration. The system can then filter out further broadcast messages received at the device after the second time for a period of time that is equivalent to the filtering time duration. |
| US09924387B2 |
FTM protocol with angle of arrival and angle of departure
Apparatuses and methods are disclosed that may perform ranging operations between an initiator device and a responder device. The initiator device may request the responder device to perform a ranging operation. The responder device may transmit a first fine timing measurement (FTM) frame to the initiator device, may receive an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the responder device, and may transmit a second FTM frame to the initiator device. The second FTM frame may include a time value and angle information. The time value may indicate a difference between a time of departure (TOD) of the first FTM frame and a time of arrival (TOA) of the ACK frame. The angle information may indicate a direction of the initiator device relative to the responder device. |
| US09924385B2 |
Antenna apparatus and method of configuring a transmission beam for the antenna apparatus
An antenna apparatus operates as a base station in a wireless network, with a method configuring a transmission beam within such antenna apparatus. The antenna apparatus has a rotatable antenna assembly employing selected transmission beam patterns, and a controller to rotate the antenna assembly altering its azimuth direction. During configuration mode, a sweep operation rotates the antenna assembly to selected azimuth directions. Quality metric determination circuitry determines, for each selected azimuth direction, a link quality metric for wireless terminals based on communication between the wireless terminals and the base station whilst the rotatable antenna assembly is at that selected azimuth direction. Transmission beam determination circuitry determines, from the link quality metrics determined for the wireless terminals at each selected azimuth direction, both a transmission beam pattern and an azimuth direction for subsequent communication with the wireless terminals. The antenna apparatus efficiently self-configures its transmission beam pattern and azimuth direction. |
| US09924380B2 |
Mobile communication method
In switching a radio base station (SeNB) from a radio base station (SeNB#1) to a radio base station (SeNB#2) in an “Inter-node UP aggregation”, forwarding of new downlink data destined for a mobile station (UE) from a radio base station (MeNB) to the radio base station (SeNB#2) is quickly started. A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes: sending, by the mobile station UE, the radio base station (MeNB) a “New data delivery request” that requests forwarding of new downlink data destined for the mobile station (UE) to the radio base station (SeNB#2), in response to an “SeNB change command”; and forwarding, by the radio base station MeNB, the new downlink data destined for the mobile station (UE) to the radio base station (SeNB#2), in response to the “New data delivery request”. |
| US09924378B2 |
Concentric cells in a wireless communication system
Aspects described herein relate to a base station for providing air-to-ground wireless communication over various altitudes. The base station includes a first antenna array comprising one or more antennas configured to form a first cell coverage area extending substantially from a horizon up to a first elevation angle away from the first antenna array to a predetermined distance from the first antenna array. The base station further includes a second antenna array configured at an uptilt elevation angle to form a second cell coverage area extending at least from the first elevation angle to a second elevation away from the second antenna array, wherein the first cell coverage area and the second cell coverage area are concentric to define the ATG cell at least to the predetermined distance and up to a predetermined elevation. |
| US09924376B2 |
Method for enhancing coverage of user equipment and an apparatus using the same
The present invention related to a method and an apparatus for enhancing coverage of an UE. The method comprising receiving a signal, wherein a control signal is received on a downlink control channel with a repeated transmission based on the reception coverage of the UE, and transmitting a control signal on an uplink control channel. |
| US09924372B2 |
Method for sharing of unlicensed radio frequency bands by cellular LTE and WiFi networks
A coexistence scheme enables spectrally-efficient and fair spectrum sharing between a first wireless network and a coexisting wireless network in the same frequency bands. The spectrum sharing problem is modeled as a fairness constrained mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem, by jointly determining dynamic channel selection, carrier aggregation and fractional spectrum access for the first wireless networks, while guaranteeing fair spectrum access for the coexisting wireless network based on a cross-technology fairness criterion. An algorithm based on a combination of branch and bound and successive convex relation techniques is provided to optimally solve the problem, i.e., maximize the utility of the first wireless network with guaranteed optimality precision that can be set arbitrarily at the expense of computational complexity. The coexistence scheme requires no signaling exchange between the first wireless network and the coexisting wireless network, and does not require any changes to the communication protocol stack of the coexisting wireless network. |
| US09924369B2 |
Selective non-distribution of received unlicensed spectrum communication signals by a remote unit(s) into a distributed communications system (DCS)
Selective non-distribution of received unlicensed spectrum communications by a remote unit(s) into a distributed communications system (DCS) is provided. In one aspect, the DCS is configured to receive communications signals in unlicensed spectrum from a source transceiver(s) for communications services. The DCS is configured to distribute the received communications signals in unlicensed spectrum to one or more remote units forming respective remote communications coverage areas. To reduce or avoid signal interference when communication signals in unlicensed spectrum are transmitted into the DCS that is also being used for transmissions by a remote transceiver to a remote unit at the same time, received communications signals by the remote units are monitored for unlicensed spectrum. The remote unit is configured to disable or disconnect the reception and/or transmission of the communications signals in the unlicensed spectrum based on the communication signal activity in the unlicensed spectrum. |
| US09924367B2 |
Method and apparatus for maximizing network capacity of cell sites in a wireless network
A method, computer-readable storage device and an apparatus for maximizing the capacity of a wireless network across a geographical area are disclosed. For example, the method monitors the wireless network and gathering network information and user endpoint device information for a geographical area comprising a plurality of cells of the wireless network, processes, for each cell, the network information and the user endpoint device information that is gathered and generating a cell specific traffic pattern, determines whether the capacity is below a threshold, and increases the capacity of the geographical area in accordance with the network information and the user endpoint device information that is processed for each cell, and the cell specific traffic pattern that is generated for each cell, when the capacity is below the threshold. |
| US09924361B2 |
Information processing method and electronic device
The present disclosure discloses an information processing method and an electronic device. A first operation on an unlocking graphic interface of the electronic device is acquired in a locked state. It is detected whether digit information corresponding to the first operation matches a phone number. The phone number is called when the digit information matches the phone number. |
| US09924359B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for enhancing security of beacon device
A method, system and apparatus for enhancing the security of a beacon device are herein disclosed. A service device includes a service communication unit and a service control unit. The service communication unit communicates with at least one terminal and a beacon device, and transmits and receives data required to enhance the security of the beacon device. The service control unit performs control so as to receive pieces of identification information from the terminal and the beacon device, to check the received pieces of identification information and then perform validation based on the times at which the pieces of identification information have been generated and whether authentication keys match each other, to extract service information in response to the result of the validation, and to transmit the extracted service information to the terminal. |
| US09924358B2 |
Bluetooth voice pairing apparatus and method
A method and apparatus for authenticating a wireless connection between a first device and a second device. In a first aspect, the first device generates a changing passkey code and converts the passkey code to an audio file that is played through a speaker of the first device as an audible signal. A user hears the audible signal and enters the passkey code into a keyboard of the second device. The second device sends the entered code to the first device for authentication. In a second aspect, the first device generates a passkey code and displays the code on a screen. A user speaks the code aloud to a microphone on the second device. The second device converts the speech into text and then sends the converted speech to the first device for authentication. If the codes of the first or second aspect match, the wireless connection is authenticated. |
| US09924356B2 |
Controlling, filtering, and monitoring of mobile device access to the internet, data, voice, and applications
Systems and methods for controlling, filtering, and monitoring mobile device access to the internet are disclosed. According to an embodiment a server is responsible for controlling, filtering and monitoring internet activity. For every request, the server interacts with back-end databases that categorize requests, and based on user/carrier/corporate settings, allow or disallow access to particular content. |
| US09924355B2 |
System, communication apparatus, communication method, and storage medium storing program
A system includes a first communication apparatus having an acquisition unit to acquire connection information and a public key stored in a first memory of a short distance wireless communication unit of a second communication apparatus, an encryption unit to encrypt, by using the acquired public key, data to be processed by the second communication apparatus, and a transmission unit to transmit the encrypted data to the second communication apparatus via an established long distance communication. The second communication apparatus includes a decryption unit to decrypt, by a private key which corresponds to the public key and is stored in a second memory of the second communication apparatus, the transmitted encrypted data. While the second communication apparatus operates in a power saving state, the public key is acquired by the first communication apparatus, and the private key is not able to be acquired by the first communication apparatus. |
| US09924346B2 |
Changing of mobile communication system
A subscriber identity is changed for a mobile terminal through an instruction being provided to the mobile terminal to detach from a first mobile communication system, to which the first mobile communication system the mobile terminal is attached using a first subscriber identity, where the instruction is also an instruction to change to a second subscriber identity associated with a second mobile communication system. The mobile terminal receives the instruction via the first mobile communication system, detach from the first mobile communication system attaches to the second mobile communication system using the second subscriber identity. |
| US09924345B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing system, and information processing method for transmitting display information in response to a user switching from a first terminal to a second terminal
An information processing apparatus includes following components. A memory stores user identification information identifying a user, terminal identification information identifying a terminal used as a user interface of the information processing apparatus, and operational context information indicating a status of an operation performed on the terminal in association with one another. An execution unit executes a process. A memory controller controls, in response to the user switching the terminal from a first terminal to a second terminal, the memory to change the terminal identification information from information identifying the first terminal to information identifying the second terminal. The transmission unit transmits, in response to occurrence of information to be displayed in relation to the process started in response to an operation on the first terminal, display information used to display a window corresponding to the operational context information to the second terminal if the terminal identification information has been changed. |
| US09924337B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing emergency call of communication terminal
A method and an apparatus for processing an emergency call of a communication terminal are provided. The method includes: obtaining current country or region information based on resident cell system information of the communication terminal; when an emergency request, which contains an emergency call category requested by a user, is received, retrieving a first storage region based on the current country or region information and the requested emergency call category to determine a call mode corresponding to the requested emergency call category in the current country or region, where the first storage region stores call modes corresponding to multiple emergency call categories and multiple countries and regions; and connecting with an emergency call center based on the determined call mode. Accordingly, users of the communication terminal can get emergency services conveniently, promptly and efficiently no matter which country or region he or she resided. |
| US09924336B2 |
Location ranking using social graph information
In one embodiment, a user of a social networking system requests to check in a place near the user's current location. The social networking system generates a list of places near the user's current location, ranks the places in the list of places near the user's current location by a distance between each place and the user's current location, as well as activity of the user and the user's social contacts for each place, and returns the ranked list to the user. |
| US09924335B2 |
Communication device, communication method, and storage medium storing communication program
According to an aspect, a communication device includes: a first communication unit for performing communication using a first communication scheme; a second communication unit for performing communication using a second communication scheme; and a control unit for processing the incoming call based on a status of the second communication unit. |
| US09924334B1 |
Message pushing method, terminal equipment and computer-readable storage medium
A message pushing method, terminal equipment and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The method is applied to a mobile terminal, and includes: a plurality of unread pushed messages are acquired; target audio data are generated according to the plurality of unread pushed messages; and the target audio data are output. |
| US09924330B2 |
Method for providing notifications for multi-media broadcast/multicast service
Disclosed is a method for a multi-media broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) by a radio network controller (RNC), including generating a command for updating an MBMS notification indicator, the command including notification indicator information and a connection frame number, transmitting the command to a base station, and receiving a notification indicator starting at a time based on the connection frame number for a modification period if the modification period is included in the command, wherein the notification indicator information is used to generate the notification indicator. |
| US09924329B2 |
Method for providing notifications for multi-media broadcast/multicast service
A method for a multi-media broadcast/multicast service by a base station includes receiving, from a radio network controller (RNC), a command for updating an MBMS notification indicator, the command including notification indicator information and a connection frame number, determining whether a modification period is included in the command, and transmitting a notification indicator starting at a time based on the connection frame number for the modification period if the modification period is included in the command, wherein the notification indicator information is used to generate the notification indicator. |
| US09924327B2 |
Systems and methods for inter-application communication in a network of moving things
Systems and methods for providing inter-application communication in a network of moving things. As non-limiting examples, various aspects of this disclosure provide configurable systems and methods for providing inter-application communication in a network of moving things, for example in which clients may register for participation, subscribe to topics, publish different types of messages, etc. |
| US09924312B2 |
Apparatus and method for determining user's presence
The present disclosure relates generally to a sensor network, Machine Type Communication (MTC), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, and technology for Internet of Things (IoT). The present disclosure may be applied to intelligent services based on the above technologies, such as smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car, connected car, health care, digital education, smart retail, security and safety services.A communication apparatus performs a method for determining a user's presence in a specific space. In the method, the apparatus receives a first signal from a first sensor and identifies a user access direction, based on the received first signal. Then, the apparatus selects a second sensor, based on the identified user access direction, receives a second signal from the selected second sensor, and determines whether a user enters in the specific space, based on the received second signal. |
| US09924311B2 |
Active geo-fence management
In one embodiment, techniques approximate concurrent monitoring of a large number of geo-fences, potentially beyond a number supported by a mobile device, The mobile device may obtain a set of geo-fences and maintain a first subset of the geo-fences as an active subset of geo-fences and a second subset of the geo-fences as an inactive subset of geo-fences. The mobile device may also establish and monitor an envelope geo-fences that excluded the inactive subset of geo-fence. In response to detecting that the mobile device has moved to a new location proximate to the envelope geo-fence, one or more geo-fences are moved between the active subset of geo-fences and the inactive subset of geo-fences to produce a new active subset of geo-fences and a new inactive subset of geo-fences. |
| US09924310B2 |
Location-driven social networking system and method
One or more processors generate a graphical user interface, on a client computing node, and communicate with the client computing node via an Internet connection. The processor(s) obtains user data from a client, where the user data includes attributes of the user and privacy selections related to the attributes. The processor(s) utilizes location services in the client computing node to obtain location information from the client computing node indicating a position of the client computing node. The processor(s) determines a geographic segment for the client computing node that represents a pre-defined geographic area that includes the position of the client computing node. The processor(s) displays in the graphical user interface, based on the attributes of the user and the assigned geographic segment, a portion of attributes associated with at least one other user, where the at least one other user is associated with the geographic segment. |
| US09924309B2 |
System and method for mobile device location tracking with a communication event trigger in a wireless network
Disclosed are systems and methods for location tracking. In one embodiment, an apparatus receives a message sent to a user of a mobile device in a wireless network, and a processor determines at least one location parameter. Data is extracted from the message, and initiation of a computing function (e.g., transmission of a communication to the mobile device) is triggered by a match between the location and the data from the message. |
| US09924307B2 |
Terminal for performing position measurement and operating method thereof
This specification discloses a terminal which performs position measurement and an operating method of the terminal. That is, a specific positioning area, to which the terminal belongs, is determined out of two or more positioning areas, to which different positioning methods are assigned, and the position measurement is performed by the terminal according to the positioning method which is assigned to the specific positioning area, such that the power consumption amount of the terminal for performing the position measurement is minimized and the accuracy of the position measurement is improved. |
| US09924305B2 |
Mobile computing and communication
An application development platform enables applications to be created easily for, e.g., mobile devices that have short-range wireless communication capability. The development platform exposes a carefully chosen core set of services through an API. Each of the applications can broadcast its services to local and remote devices. Message delivery between devices is guaranteed even for messages that cannot be delivered directly by local short-range wireless transmission. Message delivery through other channels, including the Internet, can occur transparently to the user. Each device can be associated with an “owner”, which can be a person or a entity. Services can be customized to the owner based on stored information that maps owners to devices. Information associated with each of the owners of devices can be stored centrally and used in connection with providing the services at each of the mobile devices. Virtual GPS capabilities can be provided for mobile devices that do not have GPS chips. |
| US09924289B2 |
System and method for forming and rendering 3D MIDI messages
MIDI-generated audio streams or other input streams of audio events are perceptually associated with specific locations in 3D space with respect to the listener. A conventional pan parameter is redefined so that it no longer specifies the relative balance between the audio being fed to two fixed speaker locations. Instead, the new MIDI pan parameter extension specifies a virtual position of an audio stream in 3D space. Preferably, the relative position of a single audio stream is set along a predefined arc in 3D space. |
| US09924286B1 |
Networked speaker system with LED-based wireless communication and personal identifier
A networked speaker system communicates using Li-Fi. The LEDs implementing the Li-Fi may also have modes in which they are used to map the walls of a room in which the speakers are located, detect the locations of speakers in the room, and detect and classify listeners in the room. Based on this, waveform analysis may be applied to input audio to establish equalization and delays that are optimal for the room geometry, speaker locations, and listener locations. |
| US09924284B2 |
Method of adapting a hearing device to a user's ear, and a hearing device
The application relates to a hearing device comprising an input unit for providing an electric input audio signal, a configurable signal processing unit for processing an audio signal and providing a processed audio signal, and a reversible output transducer for converting an electric output signal to an acoustic output sound. The hearing device further comprises a measurement unit configured to convert a sound pressure level to an electric signal, termed the measurement signal, and a control unit configured to determine a present electric impedance of the output transducer or a measure indicative of said present electric impedance from said measurement signal. This has the advantage that no additional microphone or other measurement equipment is needed to provide a (e.g. in-situ) real ear measurement of sound pressure level. The invention may e.g. be used to control audio signal processing in hearing aids, headsets, ear phones, active ear protection systems, or combinations thereof. |
| US09924282B2 |
System, hearing aid, and method for improving synchronization of an acoustic signal to a video display
A system for improving synchronization of an acoustic signal to a video display includes a hearing aid comprising a hearing loss processor configured for signal processing in accordance with a hearing loss of a user of the hearing aid, the hearing aid being configured for receiving a first audio signal for synchronous presentation to the user viewing the video display, the hearing aid being configured for generating a first acoustic signal to be presented to the user of the hearing aid, the first acoustic signal comprising at least a first part being generated in response to the first audio signal. The system also includes a delay unit configured for applying a delay, such that synchronization of the at least first part of the first acoustic signal to the video display is improved. |
| US09924276B2 |
Adjustable venting for hearing instruments
An ear tip apparatus for use with a hearing device is provided and comprises a malleable structure. The malleable structure is sized and configured for placement in an ear canal of a user. The malleable structure is deformable to allow an adjustable venting of the ear canal, thereby minimizing the occlusion effect. Methodology for adjusting a degree of venting of the ear canal is also provided, including the automatic adjustments. Adjusting the degree of venting may be done in response to one or more of detected feedback or an environmental cue. |
| US09924272B2 |
Method and apparatus for outputting audio in electronic device
A method and device for processing an audio output in consideration of the hearing characteristics of a user and the characteristics of an audio device connected to an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a user interface; an audio interface configured to establish a connection to an audio device, a memory, and at least one processor electrically connected to the user interface, the memory, and the audio interface, wherein the at least one processor is configured to acquire at least one of identification information of the audio device and characteristics of the audio device, select audio adaptation information, change an audio signal, at least partially based on the audio adaptation information, and transmit the changed audio signal to the audio device. |
| US09924269B1 |
Filter gain compensation method for specific frequency band using difference between windowed filters
A filter gain compensation method for a specific frequency band for use in an electronic device is provided. In the method, a windowed filter is applied on each of a plurality of band-pass filters in a multi-segment band-pass filter corresponding to the high-frequency signal and different frequency bands of the low-frequency signal. In addition, a high-frequency cancellation filter corresponding to the high-frequency signal of an input digital signal is calculated. A compensation gain for the high-frequency cancellation filter and each of the band-pass filters is calculated according to fitting frequency gains and a fitting frequency relationship matrix. The output acoustic signal is synthesized using output signals from the windowed band-pass filters and the high-frequency cancellation filter that are obtained according to updated filter features and compensation gain for the windowed band-pass filters and the high-frequency cancellation filter. |
| US09924266B2 |
Audio signal processing
Disclosed is an audio signal processing device comprising an input for receiving a noisy audio signal, a variable gain component and a noise suppression component. The noisy audio signal has a desired audio component and a noise component. The variable gain component and the noise suppression component are respectively configured to apply a gain and a noise suppression procedure to the audio signal, thereby generating a gain adjusted noise reduced audio signal. The aggressiveness of the noise suppression procedure is rapidly changed responsive to a change in the applied gain. That change is a change from a current value by an amount substantially matching the change in applied gain to a new value. The aggressiveness is then gradually returned to the current value. |
| US09924264B2 |
Microphone and microphone apparatus
A microphone includes: first and second bi-directional microphone units having respective directional axes arranged on two straight lines passing through one point and radially extending with an interval of 120 degrees; a third bi-directional microphone unit having a directional axis arranged on a straight line perpendicular to a plane formed by the two straight lines; and an omnidirectional microphone unit arranged in sound collection regions of the first, second, and third bi-directional microphone units. |
| US09924259B2 |
Earplug-type earphone
An earplug-type earphone is disclosed including: an earplug (10) for producing sound and an elastic support (30). The earplug (10) includes a front housing (200) and a rear housing (500) connected in that order. The elastic support (30) is positioned on an outer side of the rear housing (500). When the earplug (10) is inserted in the external auditory canal, the elastic support (30) is pressed and deformed and then applies resilience to the helix, by which the earplug can be stably positioned in the external auditory canal. |
| US09924250B2 |
Sound-transmitting structure, sound-transmitting membrane, and waterproof case
The sound-transmitting structure (100) of the present invention includes a sound-transmitting membrane (1) that allows passage of sounds and prevents passage of foreign matters and a case (120) having a sound-transmitting opening (122). This sound-transmitting membrane (1) includes a supporting member (12) that is a nonwoven fabric containing an elastomer and a porous resin membrane (11) disposed on the supporting member (12) and containing polytetrafluoroethylene as a main component. The sound-transmitting membrane (1) covers the sound-transmitting opening (122) with the supporting member (12) welded to the case (120). |
| US09924248B2 |
Pon wavelength bonding for high-rate services
Methods, systems, and apparatus for Passive Optical Network (PON) wavelength bonding are disclosed. In one aspect, a first frame of data to a first optical network unit (ONU) is transmitted by an optical line terminal (OLT) over a first wavelength. While the first frame of data is being transmitted to the first ONU over the first wavelength, a first portion of a second frame of data to a second ONU is transmitted by the OLT over a second wavelength. After transmission of the first frame of data over the first wavelength has completed and while the first portion of the second frame of data is still being transmitted to the second ONU over the second wavelength, a second portion of the second frame of data to the second ONU is transmitted by the OLT over the first wavelength. |
| US09924247B2 |
Optical paired channel transceiver and system
An optical paired channel transceiver component comprises an optical channel interface to concurrently receive an inbound optical signal at a designated receiver frequency, and output an outbound optical signal at a designated transmitter frequency distinct from the receiver frequency; a receiver operable to process the inbound optical signal at the receiver frequency; a laser input interface to receive a laser input at the transmitter frequency to produce the outbound optical signal; and a resonant optical structure optically coupling each of the laser input interface and the receiver to the optical channel interface via respective optical paths, and having a resonance corresponding to one of the transmitter frequency and the receiver frequency such that a resonant one of the inbound signal and the outbound signal is resonantly redirected by the resonant optical structure along a resonant one of the respective paths. |
| US09924240B2 |
Systems and methods for interactive video generation and rendering
A method for animating a map resource is provided, the method includes receiving a plurality of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) from a third party website, the plurality of URLs comprising one or more attributes; receiving a user selection to create an animation sequence of one or more of the attributes; querying a current value of the one or more attributes from an external resource and returning the queried value; receiving, from the user, a first keyframe and a second keyframe for the animation sequence; interpolating one or more additional keyframes with assigned values; and creating the animation sequence based on the first keyframe, the second keyframe, and the one or more additional keyframes. |
| US09924238B2 |
Method and a system for using a computerized source device within the virtual environment of a head mounted device
A method for allowing/supporting the usage of a computerized source device within a simulated virtual environment produced by a head mounted device associated with at least one processor. The method includes presenting at least one icon of at least one identified available source device within the virtual reality environment simulated by the head mounted device, enabling the user to select at least one icon using an applicable GUI interface at the head mounted device and projecting a 3D object which has at least one surface which displays the mirrored 2D image of the source device within the simulated virtual reality environment. |
| US09924232B2 |
Display device and method for displaying broadcast content and interactive content using the same
A display device and a method for providing content in the display device are disclosed, in which a display displays a menu screen including selectable icons representing a plurality of execution modes that indicate versions of content to be displayed, and a controller detects a user action for selecting an icon, identifies an execution mode indicated by the selected icon, in response to the detected user action, and executes the content in the identified execution mode. The plurality of execution modes may include edited version mode, Web mode, and application mode. |
| US09924230B2 |
Providing interactive multimedia services
A method for presenting interactive multimedia programs includes selecting a multimedia program having a plurality of segments, classifying the multimedia program and the plurality of segments according to content, and generating a plurality of additional content items based on the classification, each of which being associated with at least one of the plurality of segments. The method further includes generating a plurality of pre-defined queries for each of the plurality of segments based on a content of the segment and at least one speech recognition grammar based on the plurality of pre-defined queries. The plurality of additional content items are retrievable responsive to the plurality of pre-defined queries. The method further includes generating a data stream including the at least one speech recognition grammar and all of the plurality of additional content items and the plurality of pre-defined queries arranged according to an order of the plurality of segments. |
| US09924226B2 |
Method and device for processing identification of video file
The present disclosure relates to a method and a device for processing an identification of a video file. The method includes detecting a video on a display of a device, wherein the video includes a plurality of frames; identifying a detection area in at least one frame of the plurality of frames of the video; detecting a video identification mark in the detection area of the at least one frame; and concealing the video identification mark based on pixel values of boundary pixels of the detection area. |
| US09924219B2 |
Device and method for storing a plurality of overlapping recordings of a same digital video and/or audio stream
In storing of a plurality of overlapping recordings of a same digital video and/or audio stream, resource optimization is obtained through reuse of allocated resources when multiple record actions are operated on a same digital video and/or audio stream. |
| US09924214B2 |
Device, system, and method for scheduled avail tone validation
An avail comparator and method validates scheduled avail tones. The method includes receiving an automation playlist indicating at least one scheduled avail tone configured to be included in a broadcast. The method includes receiving a feed corresponding to the broadcast. The method includes receiving a signaling for each of the at least one scheduled avail tone based upon the automation playlist. The method includes determining whether the at least one scheduled avail tone was triggered in the broadcast based upon the corresponding signaling. |
| US09924213B2 |
Excluding specific application traffic from customer consumption data
Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for excluding specific application traffic from customer consumption-based data billing counts. This is useful for excluding traffic from consumption totals where the application traffic has been accounted for using other means, such as through billing as a separate or technically distinct service. In practice, a tablet computer (or other end user device) can run a video application that uses a high-speed data network via a cable modem. This video application may be included as part of a core video package associated with a distinct cable television service. The system then provides accurate consumption billing of customer traffic that is outside of any other managed services by creating separate logical data service flows at a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) for excluding specific traffic counts. |
| US09924212B2 |
Method for generating a menu for presenting audiovisual programs paid for by several users, device and computer program for implementing the method
A method is provided for generating a presentation menu for presenting audio and audiovisual contents on the screen of a receiver, which are downloadable from a broadcasting network or from dedicated sites. A user selects accessible contents and makes payment to make these contents available at the receiver. The receiver retrieves information on availability of all the contents from the receiver and requests display of a presentation menu presenting a list of available contents. Thus each user gets to know all the available contents from the receiver, including those purchased by other users. The presentation menu can visually associate each document with the identity of the user who made the document available. The presentation menu can display an indication that the replay of an available content has already begun and has been interrupted at a certain point in time. This point in time is made available at the display. |
| US09924211B2 |
Transport stream processor capable of timing calibration, and timing calibration device and method
A timing calibration device for calibrating a timing relationship between a clock signal and a first signal includes: an input port, receiving the clock signal through a clock transmission path, and receiving the first signal through a first path; and a calibrator. The calibrator includes: a first sampling circuit, sampling the first signal according to the clock signal to generate a first sample result; a control circuit, determining that the first sample result is valid when the first sampling result includes a transition edge of the first signal; and a first edge adjusting circuit, adjusting one of a transition edge of the clock signal and the transition edge of the first signal when the first sample result is valid to satisfy a predetermined timing relationship. |
| US09924207B2 |
Apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, apparatus for receiving broadcast signals, method for transmitting broadcast signals and method for receiving broadcast signals
The present invention provides a method of transmitting broadcast signals. The method includes, generating input packets including broadcast content data; generating a link layer packet by using the generated input packets, wherein the link layer packet includes a link layer header and a link layer payload including the generated input packets, wherein the link layer header includes a count field indicating number of the input packets included in the link layer payload, wherein the link layer header further includes a length part, wherein the length part includes a plurality of length fields as many as that the count field indicates, wherein each of the length fields indicates length of the each input packets included in the link layer payload; generating a broadcast signal including the generated link layer packet; and transmitting the broadcast signal. |
| US09924204B2 |
Systems and methods for personalized in-flight entertainment
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for personalized in-flight entertainment. In one embodiment, an in-flight content personalization method is disclosed. Flight information associated with an aircraft may be received at an airline server. One or more passengers related to the flight information may be identified, and content for synchronization to an in-flight entertainment server located on the aircraft for the one or more passengers may be determined. After determining that the airline server is operatively connectable to the in-flight entertainment server, the content may be synchronized. In another embodiment, an in-flight entertainment personalization method is disclosed. Content may be received at an in-flight entertainment server from an off-aircraft airline server via a network connection. A user request for personalized content may be received from a device located on an aircraft during flight. The personalized content for responding to the user request may be identified and provided. |
| US09924201B2 |
System and method of filtering noise
A system and method of removing noise in a bitstream is disclosed. Based on the segment classifications of a bitstream, each segment or portion is encoded with a different encoder associated with the portion model and chosen from a plurality of encoders. The coded bitstream for each segment includes information regarding which encoder was used to encode that segment. A circuit for removing noise in video content includes a first filter connected to a first input switch and a first output switch, the first filter being in parallel with a first pass-through line, a second filter connected to a second input switch and a second output switch, the second filter connected in parallel with a second pass-through line, and a third filter connected to a third input switch in a third output switch. |
| US09924200B2 |
Adaptive noise reduction engine for streaming video
An adaptive video noise reduction (AVNR) engine reduces noise in streaming video. The engine reads embedded information in the streaming video describing attributes of the video, such as bit rate, frame rate, resolution, content type and quality of the streaming video. The information may be included in a manifest of the streaming video. Based on the video attributes, the engine outputs one or more input values to applications that reduce noise of the streaming video. The one or more applications may reduce mosquito, block, temporal, random and banding noise of the video in response to the input values from the engine. |
| US09924199B2 |
Method and apparatus for compressing image data using compression profiles
Methods of data encoding using trees formed with logic gates are described which lead to spatial compression of image data. Data encoding is achieved using a five-level wavelet transform, such as the Haar or the 2/10 transform. A dual transform engine is used, the first and engine being used for the first part of the first-level transform, the second part of the first-level transform and the subsequent-level transforms being performed by the second transform engine within a time interval which is less than or equal to the time taken by the first transform engine to effect the part-transform. Each bit plane of the resulting coefficients is then encoded by forming a tree structure from the bits and OR logical combinations thereof. Redundant data are removed from the resulting tree structure, and further data can be removed by using a predetermined compression profile. The resulting blocks of compressed data are of variable length and are packaged with sync words and index words for transmission so that the location and identity of the transformed data blocks can be determined from the received signal. |
| US09924193B2 |
Picture coding supporting block merging and skip mode
A coding efficiency increase is achieved by using a common signalization within the bitstream with regard to activation of merging and activation of the skip mode. One possible state of one or more syntax elements within the bitstream may signalize for a current sample set of a picture that the sample set is to be merged and has no prediction residual encoded and inserted into the bitstream. A common flag may signalize whether the coding parameters associated with a current sample set are to be set according to a merge candidate or to be retrieved from the bitstream, and whether the current sample set of the picture is to be reconstructed based on a prediction signal depending on the coding parameters associated with the current sample set, without any residual data, or to be reconstructed by refining the prediction signal depending on the coding parameters associated with the current sample set by means of residual data within the bitstream. |
| US09924190B2 |
Optimized image decoding device and method for a predictive encoded bit stream
An image decoding device and method that set up a first skip mode and second skip mode for each motion prediction and block and its motion vector allocation regions, respectively, allowing for expressing a hierarchy of skip modes when decoding a video signal having a specific format and can be adaptive to the characteristics of a temporal change of each color component signal. |
| US09924184B2 |
Error detection, protection and recovery for video decoding
Error detecting and protection innovations for video decoders are described. For example, in a multithreaded video decoder, a picture extent discovery (PED) task detects an error in a video bitstream which corrupts a picture. The PED task then determines any PED sub-stage which have been completed for the picture, and based on this determination, performs error-handing PED operations. In another example, an entropy decoding (ED) task checks validity on a macroblock-by-macroblock basis using a redundant buffer to avoid overflows. Additionally, error recovery innovations are described which facilitate playback of a video bit stream at an arbitrary position. For example, a video decoder chooses a picture in the bit stream after the arbitrary position at which to begin decoding based on a determination of acceptable recovery time and/or acceptable picture quality. |
| US09924183B2 |
Fast HEVC transcoding
The emerging High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard achieves significant performance improvement over H.264/AVC standard at a cost of much higher complexity. An H.264/AVC to HEVC transcoder is described for multi-core processors implementing Wavefront Parallel Processing (WPP) and SIMD acceleration, along with expedited motion estimation (ME) and mode decision (MD) by utilizing information extracted from the input H.264/AVC stream. Experiments using standard HEVC test bitstreams show that the described transcoder may achieve a 70× speed up over the HEVC HM S.1 reference software (including H.264 encoding) at very small rate distortion (RD) performance loss. |
| US09924180B2 |
Image encoding/decoding method and device
Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for image encoding/decoding that support a plurality of layers. The method for image decoding that supports a plurality of layers includes decoding information of a first layer which a picture of a second layer including a current decoding target block refers to; mapping the information of the first layer to a picture size of the second layer, configuring a reference picture list for the picture of the second layer by adding the mapped information of the first layer and generating prediction samples of the current decoding target block by predicting the current decoding target block of the second layer based on the reference picture list, and the information of the first layer includes at least one of a sample value and motion information of the first layer picture. |
| US09924177B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method
An image processing apparatus and a method for processing an image. The image processing apparatus includes circuitry configured to set a current quantization parameter for a current coding block in a layer lower than a layer of a largest coding block and a quantization parameter based on a difference between the current quantization parameter for the current coding block and a slice quantization parameter for a slice in which the current coding block is located. The circuitry quantizes image data to generate quantized data based on the current quantization parameter. Further, the circuitry codes the generated quantized data in a coding block including a hierarchical structure to generate a code data including the quantization parameter. |
| US09924170B2 |
Coding structure
Apparatuses and techniques relating to encoding a video are provided. An encoding device includes a motion coding module configured to determine a coding block level for processing an image data, and further configured to determine a block formation for a motion coding of the image data according to the coding block level; and a texture coding module configured to determine a block size for a texture coding of the image data according to the block formation to thereby generate a coded bit stream. |
| US09924169B2 |
Method and apparatus for selecting a filter based on a variance of depth data
According to the present invention, a method of processing a video signal includes the steps of: receiving the depth data corresponding to a given block containing present pixels; determining a variation of the depth data; comparing the variation of the depth data with a predetermined value; if the variation is less than the predetermined value, coding the present pixels by using a first partial filter, and if the variation is greater than the predetermined value, coding the present pixels by using a second partial filter; wherein the second partial filter is applied to a wider range than the first partial filter. Accordingly the image quality of improved; the complexity according to the filter application is reduced; and at the same time variable filtering may improve the coding efficiency. |
| US09924168B2 |
Method and apparatus of motion vector derivation 3D video coding
A method and apparatus for three-dimensional and multi-view video coding are disclosed, where the motion vector (MV) or disparity vector (DV) candidate list construction process for a block depends on whether the target reference picture corresponds to an inter-view reference picture or whether the inter-view candidate refers to an inter-view reference picture. In one embodiment, an MV or DV candidate list for a block coded in Merge mode is constructed, and an inter-view candidate in the MV or DV candidate list is set lower than the first candidate position if the inter-view candidate refers to an inter-view reference picture. In another embodiment, an MV or DV candidate list for a block coded in advanced motion vector prediction mode is constructed, and an inter-view candidate is set lower than the first candidate position if the inter-view candidate refers to an inter-view reference picture. |
| US09924166B2 |
Sampling grid information for spatial layers in multi-layer video coding
Sampling grid information may be determined for multi-layer video coding systems. The sampling grid information may be used to align the video layers of a coding system. Sampling grid correction may be performed based on the sampling grid information. The sampling grids may also be detected. In some embodiments, a sampling grid precision may also be detected and/or signaled. |
| US09924163B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An image processing apparatus includes a decoding unit, a deblocking filter, and a sample adaptive offset processing unit. The decoding unit is configured to perform a decoding process for a coded stream to generate an image. The deblocking filter is configured to store a block, a corresponding block of which on a current edge is not input, in a memory, out of blocks of the image generated by the decoding unit and read the block stored in the memory at timing when the corresponding block is input, to perform a filter process. The sample adaptive offset processing unit is configured to perform a sample adaptive offset process by using a pixel of the block that has been subjected to the filter process by the deblocking filter. |
| US09924162B2 |
Image decoding method including switching a decoding order to either a fixed processing order or an adaptive processing order
An image decoding method for decoding a coded moving picture includes: switching a decoding order to either a fixed processing order or an adaptive processing order based on first information included in the coded moving picture; and decoding image data items included in the coded moving picture according to the decoding order switched to. |
| US09924158B2 |
Method of displaying three dimensional image and three dimensional display apparatus for performing the method
A method of displaying a three-dimensional (“3D”) image, the method includes determining a shutter electrode of an unit part included in a shutter panel as a left-eye electrode and a right-eye electrode, the unit part including ‘n’ shutter electrodes (herein, n is a natural number), selectively driving the left-eye electrode and the right-eye electrode as an opening part based on an image displayed on a display panel to transmit light through the opening part, and providing light transmitted through the opening part with an observer's two eyes through a lens plate, the lens plate including a plurality of lenses. |
| US09924150B2 |
Techniques for stereo three dimensional video processing
An apparatus for processing a stereo three dimensional video includes a memory to store an encoded stereo three dimensional (S3D) video frame of the stereo three dimensional video, where the S3D video frame comprising a left frame, right frame, and depth frame. The apparatus may include a processor to retrieve a pixel (x,y) of the depth frame, the pixel (x,y) comprising a reference device depth(x,y). The apparatus may also include a device aware decoder component to determine pixel pair positions for a left pixel in the left frame and right pixel in the right frame based upon the pixel (x,y), and to calculate a target device disparity for the pixel (x,y), based upon the reference device depth(x,y) and a screen size of a target device to present the S3D video. |
| US09924147B2 |
Systems and methods for digital photography
A system, method and computer program product for generating an image set for a photographic scene. The method comprises sampling evaluation images, enumerating exposure requirements for each image comprising the image set, selecting exposure coordinates for each image comprising the image set, generating camera subsystem exposure parameters for each image comprising the image set based on corresponding selected exposure coordinates, storing camera subsystem exposure parameters for each image comprising the image set, sampling each image comprising the image set based on corresponding camera subsystem exposure parameters, and storing each sampled image comprising the image set. Techniques disclosed herein advantageously reduce inter-frame time for images sampled sequentially. |
| US09924145B2 |
Image display apparatus, control method for image display apparatus and storage medium for image quality adjustment
An image display apparatus that enables easy setting of an adjustment parameter of an image quality setting item according to user preference includes an adjustment unit configured to adjust a display image based on an adjustment parameter, a display unit configured to generate a plurality of adjustment parameter candidates different from each other and display a list of a plurality of adjusted images adjusted by the adjustment unit based on the plurality of adjustment parameter candidates, and a selection unit configured to select an adjusted image from the displayed list. The adjustment parameter is set based on the adjusted image selected from the plurality of adjusted images and the plurality of adjustment parameter candidates when displaying an image. |
| US09924141B2 |
Communication and monitoring system
An audio-video communication system comprises a wireless exterior module located proximate an entrance, a computerized controller running a software application, and a remote peripheral device. The wireless exterior module includes a proximity sensor for detecting a person at the entrance, a video camera for recording an image of the person at the entrance, a microphone for recording the person at the entrance, a speaker for playing audio to the person at the entrance, a transmitter for communicating sounds and images of the person at the entrance, and a receiver for receiving communications at the wireless exterior module. The computerized controller is disposed in wireless electronic communication with the wireless exterior module via the transmitter and the receiver of the wireless exterior module. The remote peripheral device is configured to electronically communicate with the computerized controller for viewing an image from the video camera communicated from the wireless exterior module. |
| US09924137B2 |
Multifunctional conferencing systems and methods
A conferencing system for providing remote assistance according to the present disclosure includes a service requester device configured to execute a service requester application, a service provider device configured to execute a service provider application and a server application executing on a computer server remotely located from the service requester and service provider devices, the service requester and service provider applications are configured to dynamically connect to each other through the at least one server application. |
| US09924136B1 |
Coordinated display transitions of people and content
The techniques disclosed herein provide coordinated display transitions of renderings of content and people that are moved between display areas of a user interface to bring emphasis to salient activity of a teleconference session. For example, as renderings of people or content shift from one section of a UI to another, the movement is performed in a guiding manner that enables participants of a teleconference session to follow the relevant action of a session. The movement is also performed in a manner that is natural, fluid, and delightful to users. The coordination of moving elements may emphasize the movement of a first rendering of people or content and deemphasize other types of activity. In addition, one or more graphical displays can involve the use of an easing curve and parallax animation techniques to emphasize or deemphasize select renderings of people or content. |
| US09924132B2 |
Video data processing device and video data processing method
Even when mixing video data whose video formats are different, appropriate mix processing can be performed. Output video data is obtained by performing mix processing such as dissolve and wipe on first video data and second video data. Before performing the mix processing, a format of the first video data and the second video data is made the same as a video format handled by the mixing unit. Further, after performing the mix processing, a format of the output video data is made the same as an output video format. |
| US09924131B1 |
System and method for automatic video scaling
A method of identifying and scaling a region of interest on a display device is presented. The region of interest is detected based on the rate of change between frames. A size of the display area of the display device and aspect ratio are determined. The detected region of interest is scaled to fit the display area in full screen mode based on the display area and the aspect ratio. The region of interest may be, for example, an active video region. In full screen mode, any static or slow-moving images are hidden. |
| US09924129B2 |
Digital video transmission
A method and system for supplying a digital video signal from a source to a sink are described. The digital video signal includes digital video data for three different colors and a pixel clock signal, such as DVI and HDMI. The digital video data and the pixel clock signal are received at a transmitter which sends a signal representative of the frequency of the pixel clock signal over a cable connecting the transmitter and a receiver. Digital video data for three different colors is sent over three different twisted wire pairs of the cable to the receiver. A local pixel clock signal is generated at the receiver using the signal representative of the frequency of the pixel clock signal. The local pixel clock signal is used to process the received digital video data and recovered digital video data and the local pixel clock signal are output. |
| US09924124B2 |
Video display apparatus and terminal apparatus
The present invention provides user-friendly video display apparatus and terminal apparatus. In the present invention, a terminal apparatus having a function of remotely controlling a video display apparatus includes a communication unit that transmits a command related to setting of the video display apparatus and receives status information, a signal receiving unit that receives a signal output from a broadcast station and decodes a video content, a memory unit that stores a content of a command including a channel of the video content, and a display unit that displays the video content and various types of information. In this terminal apparatus, the communication unit transmits an identification code specific to the terminal apparatus when transmitting the command, and when the status information is received after a channel of the video display apparatus is set by remote control, the video content of the channel stored in the memory unit is decoded by the signal receiving unit and is displayed on the display unit. |
| US09924120B2 |
Pixel unit and image sensor
A pixel unit includes a photoelectric conversion element; a first transistor, which is coupled to the photoelectric conversion element, configured to transfer an electric charge that has been subjected to photoelectric conversion at the photoelectric conversion element; a second transistor configured to reset the electric charge transferred by the first transistor; and a diffusion region including diffused impurities. The diffusion region accumulates the electric charge transferred from the first transistor. The diffusion region is disposed between the first and second transistors. The diffusion region includes a first region that is directly coupled to gates of the first and second transistors; and a second region that is adjacent to the first region, the second region being directly coupled to the gate of the first transistor and being coupled to the second transistor via the first region. The impurity concentration is lower in the second region than in the first region. |
| US09924113B2 |
Radiation imaging apparatus and radiation imaging system
An apparatus includes a plurality of imaging pixels configured to acquire a radiation image, a plurality of detection pixels each including a detection conversion element and a detection switch element, a drive unit configured to drive the detection switch element of each of the plurality of detection pixels, a plurality of detection regions in each of which the plurality of detection pixels are arranged, a control unit configured to control the drive unit to drive the plurality of detection pixels arranged in each of the plurality of detection regions at respective different timing, and an acquisition unit configured to acquire an amount of incidence of radiation rays on each of the plurality of detection regions based on a value obtained by summing or averaging signals read out from the plurality of detection pixels. |
| US09924108B2 |
Goal recognition system and method for recognizing a goal
A system and a method for goal recognition, in which a plurality of cameras monitor a goal line plane that is generated by a framework for a goal, wherein at least one camera module is provided which can be used to monitor a sector outside the goal laterally adjacent to the framework or in front of the framework in the direction of a playing field in order to determine a trajectory for a playing body in the region of the playing field in the direction of the goal, wherein the operation of the cameras for monitoring the goal line plane and/or the evaluation of the image data therefrom can be controlled on the basis of the image data from the camera module. |
| US09924107B2 |
Determination of exposure time for an image frame
An apparatus for adjusting an exposure time for an image frame is presented. The apparatus comprises at least one processing unit and at least one memory. The at least one memory stores program instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, cause the apparatus to process at least one image frame, select at least one region of interest from the at least one image frame, process at least two consecutive image frames to determine a motion field, segment the motion field into at least one motion cluster, select based on the at least one region of interest and the at least one motion cluster, the most relevant motion cluster, and adjust the exposure time based on motion information of the selected most relevant motion cluster. |
| US09924104B2 |
Background-differential extraction device and background-differential extraction method
This invention provides a technology that allows the acquisition of background differentials using images acquired by a camera, the viewpoint of which moves. First, said camera acquires a background image, i.e. an image that does not contain a target object. Using information on the line-of-sight direction and viewpoint position of the camera, position information for pixels in the background image is transformed to polar-coordinate information Next, the camera acquires an object image. Using information on the line-of-sight direction and viewpoint position of the camera, position information for pixels in the object image is transformed to polar-coordinate information. The polar-coordinate information for the pixels in the object image is used to identify a target background, said target background being the part of the background image in an angle region corresponding to the object image. By comparing the object image and the target background, the differential therebetween is extracted. |
| US09924099B2 |
Imaging apparatus and imaging method with a distance detector
An imaging apparatus includes: a distance detection unit that detects an object distance; a shake detection unit that detects an amount of shake of the imaging apparatus; a driving unit that moves an optical element or an imaging element included in an imaging optical system to correct an image blur caused by a shake of the imaging apparatus; and a control unit that calculates an amount of movement of the optical element or the imaging element moved by the driving unit based on the amount of shake detected by the shake detection unit and controls the driving unit, and the control unit directs the imaging element to continuously capture images in response to an imaging instruction and changes a correction gain which is used to calculate the amount of movement for each imaging operation, depending on the object distance detected by the distance detection unit. |
| US09924094B2 |
Image pickup apparatus capable of changing drive mode and image signal control method
An image pickup apparatus capable of changing a live view photographing drive mode without causing freezing of live view display is demonstrated. When a switch is operated in a state where image signals output from an image pickup device sent via a first path are used for live view and image signals output from the image pickup device sent via a second path are used for AF, a drive mode of the image pickup device is changed such that image signals from the second path can be used for live view, then an acquisition destination of the live view signals is changed from the first path to the second path, then the drive mode is changed such that high-definition live view image signals are output from the first path, and then the acquisition destination of the live view signals is changed from the second path to the first path. |
| US09924092B2 |
Array cameras incorporating independently aligned lens stacks
Array cameras, and array camera modules incorporating independently aligned lens stacks are disclosed. Processes for manufacturing array camera modules including independently aligned lens stacks can include: forming at least one hole in at least one carrier; mounting the at least one carrier relative to at least one sensor so that light passing through the at least one hole in the at least one carrier is incident on a plurality of focal planes formed by arrays of pixels on the at least one sensor; and independently mounting a plurality of lens barrels to the at least one carrier, so that a lens stack in each lens barrel directs light through the at least one hole in the at least one carrier and focuses the light onto one of the plurality of focal planes. |
| US09924090B2 |
Method and device for acquiring iris image
A method for acquiring an iris image is provided. The method includes: acquiring an image including an eye of a person; identifying a position of an eyeball in the image; determining a parameter for photographing an iris based on the position of the eyeball; and capturing the iris image based on the parameter. |
| US09924089B2 |
Image capturing apparatus, method of displaying image, and storage medium storing program
In an image capturing apparatus that sequentially photographs a plurality of images by changing a focus position of a lens unit by a predetermined amount, a display area is selected according to a ratio of a vertical line component to a horizontal line component of a main subject for each of the plurality of images photographed by the image capturing apparatus. A display unit displays a plurality of display areas corresponding to the focus detection area selected by the selection unit, by arranging the plurality of display areas side by side. |
| US09924088B2 |
Camera module
A camera module including a main body having a spherical shape and including a camera; a first arm connected to the main body and including a first motor configured to rotate the main body; a second arm connected to the first arm and including a second motor configured to rotate the first arm; a fixing member connected to the second arm and including a third motor for rotating the second arm; and a controller configured to independently rotate the main body, the first arm and the second arm to allow omnidirectional capturing in a three-dimensional space where the camera is placed. |
| US09924085B2 |
Apparatus and method for disabling a driver facing camera in a driver monitoring system
Various examples of a driver monitoring apparatus and a method of disabling a driver facing camera are disclosed. A driver monitoring controller receives video images of a driver and transmits control messages to a driver facing camera. The driver monitoring controller receives a signal indicating that the driver desires to disable the driver facing camera. The driver monitoring controller receives messages indicating a vehicle state. The control logic of the driver monitoring controller disables the driver facing camera by transmitting a control message to disable the driver facing camera in response to a control input indicating the driver desires to disable the driver facing camera and a vehicle state message indicating a vehicle state does not meet a predetermined condition. The control logic of the driver monitoring controller enables the camera automatically in response to a vehicle state message indicating the vehicle state meets the predetermined condition. |
| US09924078B2 |
Image-capturing device, in particular person-counting mechanism, having a housing which is transparent in the infrared range and nontransparent in the optically visible range
An image-capturing device contains a housing and a camera accommodated in the housing in particular for continuous image capturing and the generation of corresponding image data. Accordingly, the camera is a thermal-imaging camera for capturing thermal images. At least one part of the housing lying in the field of view of the thermal-imaging camera or a part of the housing embodied as an optical lens is constructed such that the part is at least substantially transparent in the infrared range and nontransparent, in particular opaque, in the optically visible range. According to one particular embodiment, the image-capturing device is configured as a person-counting mechanism. |
| US09924067B2 |
Information processing device, information processing system, control method, and storage medium
A cooperation server executes printing processing of a document from an MFP through a printing server based on matter information including a printing instruction for the document received from a matter management server. The cooperation server notifies the client PC of the printing order that includes the printing ID and access information used for registering the costs related to the printing after completion of printing, provides a registering screen for costs related to printing by reason of the access from the client PC, and registers the costs registering information received from the client PC on the matter management server. |
| US09924064B2 |
Information processing apparatus, method of controlling the same, and storage medium
An information processing apparatus and a method of controlling the same include/use: a storage unit that stores user information; a timer that clocks a time; a storing unit that stores retention period information indicating a retention period of the user information; and a saving unit that saves data of a job input by a user. The user information stored in the storage unit is deleted in accordance with a current date and time obtained from the timer, the retention period information stored in the storing unit, the user information, and a save status of the data in the saving unit. |
| US09924063B2 |
Multifunction peripheral which stores and uses user history information and Multifunction peripheral management method corresponding to same
In a case of a first function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from a user of a multifunction peripheral (10), the user is set as an execution user. In a case of a second function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from an application, a user instructed by the application is set as an execution user. Further, in a case where an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the first function and an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the second function are identical, use history information of the execution user is managed as use history information of a single user. This makes it possible to appropriately manage use history information of a cooperative processing. |
| US09924062B2 |
Apparatus, system and method for activating features of an image processing device
A system and method of authorizing one or more features of an application is provided. A first application having a first set of features that control one or more functionality of an image processing device and are always available and a second set of features controlling functionality different from that controlled by the first set of features and which require authorization to be operable. A second application executing on the image processing device includes data representing authorization parameters to selectively authorize one or more of the features in the second set of features. In response to detecting, by the second application, that a feature activation service is registered in an operating system of the image processing device by the first application, the second application communicates the authorization parameter data to the first application to authorize and make operable the one or more features of the second set of features. |
| US09924061B2 |
Image forming apparatus, method and recording medium that execute standard application to control hardware resources
Provided is an image forming apparatus having a control circuit. The control circuit includes a standard application execution circuit, an apparatus control platform, and a standard application control circuit. The standard application execution circuit has the standard application execution service that executes a standard application. The apparatus control platform includes control service, apparatus control execution service, and an apparatus control management service. The control service controls hardware on an operating system. The apparatus control execution service executes the control service with an interface that is an executing procedure of the control service. The apparatus control management service instructs a call of the control service to the apparatus control execution service. The standard application control circuit manages a state of the standard application and provides an interface for using the hardware resources of the standard application execution service. |
| US09924058B2 |
Information processing apparatus that controls power supply to different destinations, method of controlling the same, and storage
An information processing apparatus capable of properly supplying electric power to a power supply destination associated with each function of a USB device. An MFP as the information processing apparatus is capable of operating in a power saving mode. A USB device having both of a Bluetooth communication function and a wireless LAN communication function is connected to the MFP. When an instruction for returning from the power saving mode is received from the USB device, it is determined whether the return instruction is an instruction generated due to the Bluetooth communication function or an instruction generated due to the wireless LAN communication function. Electric power supply destinations to which electric power is to be supplied when the information processing apparatus returns from the power saving mode are decided based on a result of the determination. |
| US09924057B2 |
Image forming device that can be operated from a terminal device
In order to promote the use of a display panel as an operation panel part, if a communicable terminal device (9) is detected (S1), a CPU (10) requests the terminal device (9) to transmit panel information (S2), and determines, on the basis of the panel information, whether or not the operability of the terminal device (9) is higher than that of an operation panel part (6) (S3). If the operability of the terminal device (9) is higher than that of the operation panel part (6), the CPU (10) displays a terminal device utilization screen on a display panel (61) (S4). If an operation of an image forming device (1) by the terminal device (9) is selected by a user, the CPU (10) generates data for displaying an image of an operation screen based on the display on the display panel (61) and a setting value set by the operation of the operation panel part (6), and transmits the data to the terminal device (9) (S6). |
| US09924054B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes: wires; electronic components; a control board connected to the electronic components via the wires, configured to control the electronic components, and having a first surface and a second surface; a first frame opposed to the first surface and supporting the control board; connectors arranged on the second surface of the control board, at least one of the wires each being connected to a corresponding one of the connectors; an insulated member interposed between the first frame and the first surface of the control board in a first direction; and a positioner formed on the insulated member and extending from the insulated member toward the control board in the first direction. The positioner positions at least one specific wire at a position farther from the insulated member than the second surface. |
| US09924052B2 |
Method of controlling image forming apparatus through user terminal, and image forming apparatus and user terminal for performing the method
A method of controlling an image forming apparatus using a user terminal includes displaying a popup window corresponding to an event generated in the image forming apparatus, determining whether at least one user terminal is connected to the image forming apparatus, and applying a previously set timeout to the popup window according to the connection of the user terminal. |
| US09924045B1 |
Identifying unused capacity in wireless networks
A method may include determining a capacity metric for sectors in a network, estimating a usage metric for each of the sectors for periods of time and determining a number of user devices that can access data services based on the capacity metric and the usage metric. The method may also include storing information identifying the determined number of user devices, receiving a request from a first user device for access to data services during a first period of time and accessing the stored information to determine whether the number of user devices that can access data services for the first period of time is greater than zero. The method may further include providing access via the wireless network to the first user device during the first period of time, in response to determining that the number of user devices that can access data services is greater than zero. |
| US09924044B2 |
Recommendations based on real-time usage information
A method including receiving a request for a service or an application from a user device associated with a customer; determining a type of service or a type of application; providing the service or the application; performing real-time tracking of the customer's usage of the service or the application based on the type of service or the type of application; generating one or more recommendations pertaining to the service or the application based on the real-time tracking; and sending the one or more recommendations to the customer via the user device. |
| US09924042B2 |
Uniform RCS voice/videomail services
Videomail and/or voicemail methods for mobile devices and systems are provided. A communication session request is received from a source device for communication with a destination device. Responsive to the request, it is determined whether the requested session will be established with the destination device. When the requested session will not be established with the destination device, the source device is caused to present a message request to a source device user. Responsive to the message request, a message generated by the source device user is received which includes at least one of video or audio information. A file transfer (FT) message is generated from the received message. The FT message is temporarily stored on a messaging server, and is sent to the destination device via the messaging server, without maintaining a stored copy of the FT message on the messaging server. |
| US09924041B2 |
Techniques for case allocation
Techniques for case allocation are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for case allocation comprising receiving, by at least one computer processor, at least one case allocation allocated using a first pairing strategy, and then reassigning, by the at least one computer processor, the at least one case allocation using behavioral pairing. |
| US09924037B1 |
Method and system for a scalable computer-telephony integration system
Methods, systems, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable media are described for a scalable computer-telephony integration system. Various aspects may include storing sets of call agent login information for several call agents within the computer-telephony integration system and across several independent computing systems in a contact center login database. Additionally, various aspects may include generating several contact center service categories and sets of contact information for each contact center service category, which may be stored in a contact center directory database. When an incoming call is received from a customer, various aspects may include obtaining customer call information from the customer and generating a customer call key, which may be stored as a reference to the customer call information in a contact center customer call information database. The call key may be used to reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between call agents during telephone call transfers. |
| US09924027B2 |
Wearables distraction reduction while driving
An automotive wearable electronic device arrangement for a motor vehicle includes an indicator device indicating a state of an operating parameter of the vehicle. A wireless communication device is communicatively coupled to the indicator device and detects that a driver is wearing a wearable electronic device. The detecting includes receiving a signal from the wearable electronic device. The wireless communication device transmits a signal to the wearable electronic device instructing the wearable electronic device to cease issuing notifications to the driver. The transmitting is dependent upon a state of an operating parameter indicated by the indicator device. |
| US09924024B2 |
Electronic device and method of executing application
The electronic device includes a display configured to display at least one of a call screen, a screen of an application, or a transmission application screen, an input unit configured to detect a touch input, a controller configured to execute the application during a call, to detect a touch input for moving an object to be transmitted within the screen of the application, to the call screen, to execute a transmission application based on information on the moved object when the touch input is detected, to generate a transmission message, to which the moved object is attached, through the transmission application based on information on a call counterpart, and a communication unit configured to transmit the transmission message to the call counterpart. |
| US09924023B2 |
Using a voicemail system
A method and system for using a voicemail system. A command is received, from a first telephone device connected to the voicemail system after a call from a second telephone device was received by the first telephone device. The command is for the voicemail system to pause a process of recording a voicemail message being spoken by a user using the first telephone device. In response to the receiving the command, the voicemail system is directed to pause the process of recording the voicemail message, which results in the process of recording the voicemail message being paused by a pause/resume invocation system that is remote to the voicemail system. |
| US09924022B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing message history data for a mobile communication device
A method and apparatus for managing history data of messages received from and transmitted to other users by a user of a mobile communication device is provided. Message history data is extracted from received and transmitted messages and stored such that a user of the mobile communication device may easily input a conditional request to the device and view message history data associated with a specific other user or message history data identified by conditional data input to the device. |
| US09924016B2 |
Content download method, related device, and system
A content download method, a related device, and a system are provided. The content download method includes: receiving a download request message for content sent by a user equipment; querying a state value corresponding to a user equipment, where the state value corresponding to the user equipment includes a load value of a cell in which the user equipment is located currently and/or a current traffic charging value of the user equipment; and if the state value corresponding to the user equipment is less than a preset threshold, notifying the user equipment to directly download the content from a content providing server. |
| US09924011B2 |
Manual bluetooth hands free transfer mode
A method for controlling audio signal transfer from a mobile device to a hands-free device in a vehicle multimedia system includes receiving by a processor of the vehicle multimedia system a request from a mobile device to connect to a hands-free device. The processor determines if the mobile device is engaged in an active call. In response to determining that the mobile device is engaged in an active call, a confirmation message is displayed to confirm that a user wishes to transfer an audio signal associated with the active call to the hands-free device. In response to receiving user's confirmation to transfer the active call, the audio signal is transferred from the mobile device to the hands-free device. |
| US09924009B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling call answer and mobile terminal using the same
An apparatus for controlling answering a call includes a display unit configured to display an incoming call icon when receiving a call signal, the incoming call icon differing from a call answer icon and a call end icon of a normal incoming call screen, a touch screen configured, upon the display unit displaying the incoming call icon, to receive an input of a predetermined operation with respect to the incoming call icon from a user, and a control unit including a call-permission processing unit configured to compare the predetermined operation with a preset call permission operation set in advance with respect to the incoming call icon and to permit answering the call when the predetermined operation matches the preset call permission operation. |
| US09924005B1 |
Universal phone mounting apparatus
A universal mounting device is presented. The device includes a main clamp with a left and right vertical main posts, an inverted v-shaped clamp connecting the top ends of the main posts, and a handle bar connecting the bottom ends of the main posts. A compression spring resides inside a cavity in each main post. A bottom clamp with a v-shaped clamp base and a left and right bottom post is coupled to the main clamp via a pusher. The pusher has a horizontal handle and a vertical leg at opposing ends that couples the main clamp to the base clamp through the springs in the main posts to the bottom posts. Each vertical leg has a lower leg through a cavity in the spring and an upper leg that pushes on the spring. The pusher is secured with a nut coupler at the bottom post. |
| US09924004B2 |
Input and output hall structure for sound device in a portable terminal
An input/output hall structure for a sound device in a portable terminal includes a main hole and a plurality of sub-holes. The main hole is provided in a case frame forming the exterior of the portable terminal to be exposed to the exterior, and inputs/outputs sound. The plurality of sub-holes is branched from the main hole and communicates with the main hole. The sub-hole and a corresponding sound device communicate sound. The structure reduces the number of holes for inputting/outputting sound of a sound device and provides a more elegant appearance with improved function. A plurality of sound devices can input/output through the main hole and branched configuration of sub-holes. |
| US09924003B2 |
Electronic device having key module
Disclosed are various embodiments of an electronic device including a key module for hermetically sealing an inside of the device. According to one embodiment, a portable device includes: a front cover; a rear cover; and a bezel that surrounds at least a portion of a space formed between the front and rear covers, and includes a first portion and an opening. Disposed within the space is a display including a screen exposed through the front cover; a plate including a support surface with multiple protrusions and an accommodation hole that provides a pathway leading to the opening; a key; and a first member including a via hole through which a portion of the key passes. When the key is inserted into the pathway and moved in a first direction, the inside space of the electronic device is hermetically sealed from the outside. |
| US09923997B2 |
Systems and methods for packet classification
A method for packet classification. In some embodiments, the method includes instantiating a first machine; allocating a first SC to the first machine, the first SC being configured to classify a packet based on information contained in a field of a header included in the packet; instantiating a second machine; allocating a second SC to the second machine, the second SC being configured to classify a packet based on information contained in a field of a header included in the packet; monitoring the first machine to detect if the first machine is in an overload state; and in response to detecting that the first machine is in an overload state, instantiating a third machine and allocating a third SC to the third machine, the third SC being configured to classify a packet based on information contained in a field of a header included in the packet. |
| US09923993B2 |
Self-describing diagnostic data for presentation on mobile devices
Industrial devices are configured to provide their associated industrial data to client-side user interface applications in a self-describing manner that instructs the interface applications how the data is to be rendered. In response to a request for a data item from a user interface application, the industrial device sends the requested data item together with presentation metadata that identifies a widget or graphical objects to be used by the interface application to render the data item on a user interface. By providing the industrial data in a self-describing manner, additional data or services can be added to the industrial device without requiring a corresponding update to the client-side interface application. |
| US09923992B2 |
Inter-process communication method based on application layer of android and basic application communication system
Disclosed in the present invention are an inter-process communication method based on an application layer of Android and a basic application communication system. In accordance with a client/server communication mode, frame encapsulation applications for the mutual communication between system-level applications and user applications are created and virtualized as a client side; a daemon process IPC Service is created and virtualized as a server side; registration and binding of the IPC Service are completed through the applications, so as to achieve mutual communication among every application. Through the adoption of the technical solution of the present invention, a special communication mechanism can be rapidly and safely built during the inter-process communication of every application. |
| US09923986B2 |
Master TSM
A master TSM is provided. The master TSM intermediates between entities connected to different TSMs by connecting the TSMs via an interface module which is communicable with a plurality of TSMs. Accordingly, interoperability is possible between entities and clients connected to different TSMs and thus a variety of services can be provided. Therefore, conveniences for all of the entities and clients can be guaranteed from the information processing and service providing aspects. |
| US09923985B2 |
Facilitating an efficient exchange of streaming data constructs between origin and target systems while making remote procedure calls
A method, computer program product, and/or system for facilitating communication between an origin machine and a target machine are provided. To facilitate communication, a reference to an original object of the origin machine is constructed within a remote object services level. Then reference is passed within the remote object services level from the origin machine to the target machine. The passing of the reference, in turn, causes a creation of a proxy and an invocation of a target method on the target machine. |
| US09923984B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for remote authentication dial in user service (RADIUS) message loop detection and mitigation
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for remote authentication dial in user service (RADIUS) message loop detection and mitigation are disclosed. One method includes receiving, at a RADIUS proxy node, a RADIUS signaling message. The method further includes determining whether the RADIUS signaling message includes an attribute with a host identifier corresponding to the RADIUS proxy node. In response to determining that the RADIUS signaling message includes the attribute that includes the host identifier corresponding to the RADIUS proxy node, performing a RADIUS loop mitigation action for the RADIUS signaling message. |
| US09923983B2 |
Method of providing digital content for users of physical items
Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided for enhancing users' overall experiences with physical items by supplementing their physical experiences with digital experiences. According to an embodiment, an electronic device scans a smart tag associated with an item to obtain an item identifier of the item, and sends the item identifier to a server, which selects digital content to be made available to a user of the item. |
| US09923980B2 |
Apparatus and methods for providing recommendations based on environmental data
Embodiments of apparatus and methods for providing recommendations based on environmental data and associated contextual information are described. In embodiments, an apparatus may include a data collector to receive environmental data and an analysis module to identify a behavioral model of the first user based at least in part on the environmental data associated contextual information of the first user. The apparatus may further include a recommendation module to provide a recommendation to the first user based at least in part on the behavioral model of the first user and/or environmental data for a second user. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed. |
| US09923979B2 |
Systems and methods of determining a geographic location based conversion
Systems and methods of determining a geographic location based conversion via a computer network. A data processing system can receive, from a computing device, an indication of interest in an online content item that is associated with a commercial entity having a location. The system can also receive data points that each include time information and location information of a computing device. The system can generate a valid cluster indicating an activity at the location of the commercial entity by evaluating the time information and the location information of two or more data points with a duration threshold and a location threshold. The system can use the valid cluster to identify the indication of interest in the online content item as the location based conversion based on the activity at the location of the commercial entity. |
| US09923976B2 |
Control device and control method
A control device includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: when detecting a new access from a communication device, based on session information including times of past accesses, compute a time period of a difference between a first time at which the new access is detected and a second time of a last access among the past accesses, and when the time period exceeds a given time interval, determine whether a session established with the communication device is valid for the new access in accordance with another time period over which the communication device is in locked state from the second time to the first time, the locked state not accepting an operation by a user. |
| US09923975B2 |
Session handling based on shared session information
A connection manager and worker nodes of an application server are both capable to access and control a shared memory session table. |
| US09923973B2 |
Bluetooth service discovery
A method provides a service in a Bluetooth device. The method includes initiating, in a first Bluetooth device connection establishment with a second Bluetooth device; carrying out a service discovery procedure with the second Bluetooth device, during which at least one unique service identifier associated with a personal training data service is exchanged between the first Bluetooth device and the second Bluetooth device, wherein the personal training data service comprises at least one personal training data item processed by the first Bluetooth device and/or the second Bluetooth device during a physical exercise; and after the service discovery procedure, transferring at least one frame with the second Bluetooth device, wherein the frame comprises an information element specifying personal training data and a command information element specifying how to process the personal training data. |
| US09923972B2 |
Control apparatus for controlling data transmission via network, and method for selecting data destination
A control apparatus for controlling data transmission via a network, comprising: a reception unit configured to receive, via the network, a result of detection by a sensor for detecting a state of a device; a management unit configured to manage results of detection by a plurality of sensors for detecting states of a plurality of devices corresponding to a common identification; and a selection unit configured to select, from the plurality of devices, a device which is a destination of data whose destination is the identification, based on the results of detection managed by the management unit. |
| US09923971B2 |
Systems and methods for identifying unidentified plumbing supply products
Methods and systems for identifying an unidentified plumbing supply product are provided. According to certain aspects, an application executing on an electronic device may be configured to capture image data encoding an image of the unidentified plumbing supply product therein. The application may cause the electronic device to transmit the image data to an identification server. The identification server may analyze the image data to determine the unidentified plumbing supply product encoded in the image data matches a known plumbing supply product in a plumbing supply products database. The identification server may then transmit an indication to the electronic device that the unidentified plumbing supply product was successfully identified. The identification of the unidentified plumbing supply product may be used to process and/or subrogate an insurance claim. |
| US09923965B2 |
Storage mirroring over wide area network circuits with dynamic on-demand capacity
An approach is provided for managing an allocation of a bandwidth of a dedicated channel in a network being utilized by an application performing a replication of data from a first to a second storage resource. Checks of parameters specified by the application are determined. The parameters include, but are not limited to, average compression ratio, compression ratio trend, throughput, throughput trend, and round trip time. Respective high and low threshold values for the parameters are determined. At least one of the checks of the parameters is executed, which determines a violation of a threshold value for one of the parameters. If the violation of the high threshold value is determined, an increase in the bandwidth is triggered. If the violation of the low threshold value is determined, a decrease in the bandwidth is triggered. |
| US09923963B2 |
Apparatus, system and method of managing an application service platform (ASP) session
Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of managing an Application Service Platform (ASP) session. For example, an apparatus may include a first ASP to communicate with a second ASP via a wireless Peer-to-Peer (P2P) connection over a P2P link to manage an ASP-session between a first device including the first ASP and a second device including the second ASP. The first ASP may communicate with the second ASP a message to close the ASP-session, the message including a reason field including an indication of a reason for closing the ASP-session. |
| US09923961B2 |
Integrity check of DNS server setting
There are provided measures for enabling/realizing an integrity check of a DNS server setting, thereby enabling/realizing detection of DNS hacking or hijacking. Such measures could exemplarily include triggering a DNS resolution operation by a service device configured to provide a service using the DNS server setting, wherein the DNS server setting is used for DNS resolution or DNS forwarding in service provisioning, acquiring the IP address of a DNS server device, which is configured to perform DNS resolution in service provisioning, by reading the IP address of the DNS server device included in a DNS message as part of the triggered DNS resolution operation by the service device, and processing the acquired IP address of the DNS server device for evaluating integrity of the DNS server setting used in service provisioning. |
| US09923960B2 |
Partition balancing in an on-demand services environment
Techniques for partition balancing. Organization identifiers (orgIDs) are acquired for one or more organizations within a multi-organization on-demand services environment having multiple nodes, each of which have one or more partitions. A mapping of the orgIDs to the partitions within the multi-organization on-demand services environment is determined. Resource consumption for the organizations is determined. Resource consumption for the partitions based on the resource consumption of the organization and the mapping of the organization to the partitions is determined. A score for the partitions based on the resource consumption is generated. The partitions are redistributed among the nodes based on the partition scores. |
| US09923958B1 |
Highly available network filer with automatic load balancing and performance adjustment
Techniques are provided for exporting one or more file systems through multiple nodes of a cluster. One or more of the exported file systems may be simultaneously exported through a single node of the cluster. A bundle, or mapping, between a node in the cluster and a file system, is created. The bundle represents an amount of work assigned to the node. A bundle is reassigned from one node to another node in the cluster in response to a failover, an addition of a new node to the cluster, or in response to a load balancing determination. |
| US09923955B2 |
Virtual fencing gradient to incrementally validate deployed applications directly in production cloud computing environment
A method and a system for enabling resource consumption for one or more applications running in a virtual production environment within a production environment based on a testing analysis. The method and system includes generating a multi-stage virtual computing environment within a computing production environment. A software application can run in the virtual computing environment. The method and system provides access to resources in the computing production environment from the virtual computing environment. The method and system allows the software application access to the computing production environment based on a testing analysis and uses abstraction layers to control allocation of resources in the production environment. |
| US09923953B2 |
Extending mobile applications to the lock screen of a mobile device
App content, such as an app notification, is displayed on a lock screen or home screen of a mobile device even when the app is closed. In contrast to present app content, the content may be full-screen, engaging, interactive, and media-rich. An app content SDK is inserted into an app and works directly with native app software. The content SDK determines whether the app has permission to display content on, for example, a lock screen. It may also determine whether the app has priority in displaying the content. The content itself is retrieved either from a content server or from the app itself. In either case, the retrieval and display of the content is coordinated and managed by the SDK which may use other constraints, such as date/time, geographic location, and device motion patterns to determine which content should be displayed. |
| US09923941B2 |
Method and system for dynamic proximity-based media sharing
Disclosed embodiments provide an approach for sharing media items between mobile devices that are in proximity to one another. A device ID is generated and shared with nearby devices. Media items are uploaded to a data server and then sent from the data server to other devices that request them based on a shared device ID. Users do not need to know each other or be connected to each other in any social media sense, and yet can still share media items. Thus, disclosed embodiments provide a new level of crowd-sourced coverage of an event based on sharing of media items. |
| US09923940B2 |
Operating a group chat session
A first chat controller receives a request to create a group chat session, and creates the session, including determining a first local chat ID for the session. The first chat controller sends the first local chat ID to the server. The server assigns a common chat ID to the session. A second chat controller determines a second local chat ID for the group chat session associated with the second chat controller. The server receives the second local chat ID, receives a request from the second chat controller to control the session, and assigns control of the session to the second chat controller. The server receives a request from a second user to join the group chat session, sends the request to the second chat controller using the second local chat ID. The second chat controller sends an invitation to the second user to join the session. |
| US09923939B2 |
Electronic share server, screen sharing method, and program for electronic share server
The electronic share server allowing user terminals to share a screen receives a connection request each from a sender's user terminal 100a and a receiver's user terminal 100b, 100c, issues an authentication number to specify the sender's user terminal 100a with which a screen is to be shared, in response to the connection request, allows the receiver's user terminal 100b, 100c to display a prompt to ask for an input of the authentication number, and receives screen sharing data from the sender's user terminal 100a and sequentially transfers the screen sharing data to the receiver's user terminal 100b, 100c, if the authentication number is correct; and counts the receiver's user terminal 100b, 100c to which the screen sharing data is transmitted and do not transmit the screen sharing data if the counted number of the receiver's user terminal is a predetermined number or more. |
| US09923937B2 |
Dynamic personalized content presentation to re-engage users during online sessions
Users can participate in various different types of online sessions, such as webinars, massive open online courses (MOOCs), social learning sessions, and so forth. A record of interactions that the user has with an online session is maintained. During the online session, the user may become disengaged from the online session for various reasons, such as the user losing interest in the information being presented, the user becoming sidetracked due to other programs running on his or her computer or phone, and so forth. The techniques discussed herein detect that a user is not engaged in the online session and generate dynamic content to attempt to re-engage the user in the online session. This dynamic content is personalized to the user, and is based on the maintained record of user interactions with the online session. |
| US09923928B2 |
Automated generation of access control rules for use in a distributed network management system that uses a label-based policy model
An access control rule authorizing communication between a plurality of managed servers within an administrative domain is determined. Communication information describing past communication between the plurality of managed servers is obtained. A subset of managed servers from the plurality of managed servers is identified by grouping the plurality of managed servers based on the obtained communication information. A group-level label set is determined to associate with the subset of managed servers. Role labels are determined for managed servers in the subset of managed servers. A managed server is associated with one role label. Based on the group-level label set and the role labels, an access control rule is generated authorizing communication between a first managed server of the subset of managed servers and a second managed server. The access control rule is stored as part of an administrative domain-wide management policy. |
| US09923927B1 |
Methods and systems for enabling access control based on credential properties
Methods and systems are provided to enable access control based on credential properties. Besides authenticating a credential, an authentication service can provide additional credential-related information with respect to a credential such as last updated time. An entity receiving such additional credential-related information can implement access control policies based on the credential-related information. For instance, a user's access rights may be gradually restricted after an initial expiration time and towards a final expiration time. In an example, such access control may be implemented by a client application or client website of the authentication service. Alternatively or additionally, such access control may be implemented by an authorization service used by the client application or client website. |
| US09923925B2 |
Cyber security sharing and identification system
Systems and techniques for sharing security data are described herein. Security rules and/or attack data may be automatically shared, investigated, enabled, and/or used by entities. A security rule may be enabled on different entities comprising different computing systems to combat similar security threats and/or attacks. Security rules and/or attack data may be modified to redact sensitive information and/or configured through access controls for sharing. |
| US09923922B1 |
Virtualized network honeypots
Disclosed are various embodiments for virtualized network honeypots. In one embodiment, client computing devices that are coupled to a network are each configured with both a primary operating system and a honeypot operating system. The primary operating system is configured to provide workstation functionality for a user having permission, and the honeypot operating system is configured to route unauthorized network traffic to a honeypot server. The honeypot server is configured to provide a honeypot environment that mimics characteristics of client or server computing devices. |
| US09923920B1 |
Detecting computer security threats in electronic documents based on structure
In an embodiment, a method providing an improvement in remediating vulnerabilities in computer security comprising: receiving, using a network tap of a sensor computer that is coupled to a compromised computer, a communication packet that was sent from the compromised computer to a target computer; using the sensor computer, determining that the target computer is one of a plurality of enterprise computers; reading, at the sensor computer, a plurality of fields within a header of the communication packet; and performing a remediation measure by generating a header of an action packet, wherein the header comprises duplicates of at least some fields of the plurality of fields so as to appear to be generated by the target computer, generating a payload of the action packet, and sending the action packet comprising the generated header and the generated payload to the compromised computer. |
| US09923917B2 |
System and method for automatic calculation of cyber-risk in business-critical applications
A system for calculating cyber-risk in a software application includes a cyber-risk calculator. The cyber-risk calculator receives a security assessment result sample having a list of security modules, each security module listing including a respective result of a security assessment of the application identifying a vulnerability and/or misconfiguration capable of being exploited and/or abused. When run in a risk calculation mode, the cyber-risk calculator determines a world partition of the application in the security assessment result sample belongs to, references a set of parameters from a parametrization database according to the world partition corresponding to the application, determines a cyber-risk exposure level for the application based upon the security assessment result sample and the set of parameters, and reports results of the cyber-risk calculation. |
| US09923916B1 |
Adaptive web application vulnerability scanner
Adaptive methods and systems are provided to scan websites/Web applications for vulnerabilities. The methods and systems identify a reference string in a first response web page and an authorized context in which the reference string appears. The first response web page is generated at least in part based on the reference string. An escape attempt input is determined based on the reference string and authorized context, and the escape attempt input is present to the website. The methods and systems identify an escape attempt input in a second response web page and a candidate context in which the escape attempt input appears, wherein the second response web page is generated at least in part based on the escape attempt input. The methods and systems determine when the escape attempt input appears in an un-authorized context in the second response web page. The adaptive methods and systems herein, efficiently identify website vulnerabilities, and thus may be run frequently, thereby resulting in improved security without excessively drawing upon website resources. |
| US09923914B2 |
Systems and platforms for intelligently monitoring risky network activities
Technology for improving and monitoring data communication security is presented herein. The technology monitors a plurality of sources of risky activities, crawls on computer networks to scan the risky activities, visualizes the risky activities, and detects and prevents risky activities. |
| US09923913B2 |
System and method for malware detection learning
Malware detection techniques that detect malware by identifying the C&C communication between the malware and the remote host, and distinguish between communication transactions that carry C&C communication and transactions of innocent traffic. The system distinguishes between malware transactions and innocent transactions using malware identification models, which it adapts using machine learning algorithms. However, the number and variety of malicious transactions that can be obtained from the protected network are often too limited for effectively training the machine learning algorithms. Therefore, the system obtains additional malicious transactions from another computer network that is known to be relatively rich in malicious activity. The system is thus able to adapt the malware identification models based on a large number of positive examples—The malicious transactions obtained from both the protected network and the infected network. As a result, the malware identification models are adapted with high speed and accuracy. |
| US09923912B2 |
Learning detector of malicious network traffic from weak labels
Techniques are presented that identify malware network communications between a computing device and a server utilizing a detector process. Network traffic records are classified as either malware or legitimate network traffic records and divided into groups of classified network traffic records associated with network communications between the computing device and the server for a predetermined period of time. A group of classified network traffic records is labeled as malicious when at least one of the classified network traffic records in the group is malicious and as legitimate when none of the classified network traffic records in the group is malicious to obtain a labeled group of classified network traffic records. A detector process is trained on individual classified network traffic records in the labeled group of classified network traffic records and network communication between the computing device and the server is identified as malware network communication utilizing the detector process. |
| US09923906B2 |
System, method and computer program product for access authentication
A method and technique for access authentication includes: responsive to receiving an access request from a user for a secure resource, transmitting a uniform resource locator (URL) to the user; responsive to transmitting the URL to the user, logging a timestamp for the URL transmission; responsive to receiving a request for the URL, logging a timestamp for the URL request; and responsive to verifying that a difference between the timestamp for the URL transmission and the timestamp for the URL request is within a predetermined time period, providing access to the secure resource. |
| US09923902B2 |
Remote processsing of mobile applications
In an example implementation of the disclosed technology, a method includes accessing, by a management agent associated with a client device, a profile associated with a requested resource, wherein the profile comprises at least one profile criterion. The method also includes evaluating the profile criterion based, at least in part, on status information associated with the client device to determine any processing restrictions associated with the requested resource. The method also includes, responsive to receiving an indication that the resource is subject to a server-device processing restriction, requesting access to the resource from a remote server and receiving an instance of a user interface for interacting with the resource. |
| US09923901B2 |
Integration user for analytical access to read only data stores generated from transactional systems
The technology disclosed preserves the tenant specificity and user specificity of the tenant data by associating user IDs to complementary special IDs referred to as the integration user(s). In particular, it combines the traceability of user actions, the integration of security models and the flexibility of a service ID into one integration user(s). |
| US09923900B2 |
Online privacy management system with enhanced automatic information detection
A privacy management system (PMS) is disclosed for a Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) or other user to use in monitoring and/or controlling in realtime the flow of data (e.g., outflow) about the user and his/her online experience. The PMS may employ pattern recognition software to evaluate analytics data and potentially block private information from being sent within the analytics data. The PMS may provide a dashboard displaying a whitelist and/or blacklist indicating what destinations/sources are blocked or allowed as well as private information settings indicating what types of private information should be blocked. The PMS includes browser-client scripting code and may also include a PMS-certified verification icon and/or lock and unlock icons for display on webpages being monitored/controlled in realtime by the PMS. |
| US09923897B2 |
Edge server selection for enhanced services network
An enhanced services network provides enhanced privacy and/or security over public networks to client subscribers of the service. Client devices access the enhanced services network over a public communications network (e.g., the Internet, cellular network, etc.) via a client-side edge server of the enhanced services network. The enhanced services network interfaces with client-requested network resources hosted by third-party server devices via a resource-side edge server. The particular client-side edge server and/or resource-side edge server that is utilized for a particular client session may be selected by the enhanced services network according to a rule set. The rule set may seek to achieve one or more target goals, such as: (1) limit discoverability of the enhanced services network, (2) minimize or reduce geographic/network distance between an edge server and a target computing device, and/or (3) establish connections that are more secure than the connections originally requested by the client. |
| US09923895B2 |
Machine-to-machine network assisted bootstrapping
The service layer may leverage the access network infrastructure so that applications on a device may bootstrap with a machine-to-machine server without requiring provisioning beyond what is already required by the access network. |
| US09923894B2 |
System and method of facilitating the identification of a computer on a network
A system and method for facilitating identification of an attacking computer in a network is provided. A user attempting to login to a network application may be presented with a screen prior to the login which lists preconditions of gaining access to the application. If a user concurs with the preconditions, a security module is downloaded to the user's computer and executed which gathers various configuration settings and transmits the gathered information to a predetermined destination. The security module may also attempt to place a call to a predetermined destination over a modem in the computer to cause registration of caller-ID data when answered at the predetermined destination. Once the security check is completed, login may proceed with the network application. Any data gathered by the security module may be stored for later recall and use to identify the computer in the event of an attack. |
| US09923890B2 |
Generating and distributing pre-computed data (PCD) assets to a target device
The embodiments described herein describe technologies for pre-computed data (PCD) asset generation and secure deployment of the PCD asset to a target device in an operation phase of a manufacturing lifecycle of the target device in a cryptographic manager (CM) environment. One implementation includes a Root Authority (RA) device that receives a first command to generate a unique PCD asset for a target device. In response, the RA device generates the PCD asset and packages the PCD asset for secure deployment of the PCD asset to the target device and to be used exclusively by the target device. The RA device deploys the packaged PCD asset in a CM system for identification and tracking of the target device. |
| US09923888B2 |
Single sign-on method for appliance secure shell
A system and method for efficiently establishing a secure shell connection for accessing Web resources. A user attempts to establish a secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) session between a client computing device and a remote storage device. The storage device redirects the Web browser of the client computing device to a single sign-on (SSO) third-party identity provider for authorizing the user. After successful authorization, the client computing device receives information to use to maintain a secure HTTP session. This information is stored on the storage device. The user attempts to establish a text-based secure shell session. The user is not prompted for login credentials. However, the user is authenticated using the previously stored information and a text-based secure shell session is established. |
| US09923886B2 |
Trusted service interaction
In one embodiment a controller comprises logic configured to define, for display on a region of a display device coupled to the controller, a dialog box, lock the dialog box such that input/output operations conducted in the dialog box are visible to the secure controller and are not visible to an untrusted execution complex communicatively coupled to the secure controller, receive one or more authentication credentials based on a user input to the dialog box, and use the one or more authentication credentials to establish a secure communication session with a remote service. Other embodiments may be described. |
| US09923883B2 |
Downloadable security and protection methods and apparatus
Methods and apparatus for control of data and content protection mechanisms across a network using a download delivery paradigm. In one embodiment, conditional access (CA), digital rights management (DRM), and trusted domain (TD) security policies are delivered, configured and enforced with respect to consumer premises equipment (CPE) within a cable television network. A trusted domain is established within the user's premises within which content access, distribution, and reproduction can be controlled remotely by the network operator. The content may be distributed to secure or non-secure “output” domains consistent with the security policies enforced by secure CA, DRM, and TD clients running within the trusted domain. Legacy and retail CPE models are also supported. A network security architecture comprising an authentication proxy (AP), provisioning system (MPS), and conditional access system (CAS) is also disclosed, which can interface with a trusted authority (TA) for cryptographic element management and CPE/user device authentication. |
| US09923881B2 |
System, apparatus and method for migrating a device having a platform group
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a processor to execute instructions and having at least a first logic to execute in a trusted execution environment, a secure storage to store a platform group credential, and a first logical device comprising at least one hardware logic. The platform group credential may be dynamically provisioned into the apparatus and corresponding to an enhanced privacy identifier associated with the apparatus. The first logical device may have a first platform group private key dynamically provisioned into the first logical device and corresponding to an enhanced privacy identifier associated with the first logical device, to bind the first logical device to the apparatus. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09923877B2 |
External indexing and search for a secure cloud collaboration system
An end-to-end secure cloud-hosted collaboration service is provided with a hybrid cloud/on-premise index and search capability. This approach includes on-premise indexing and search handling, while relying on the cloud for persistent storage and search of the index. The on-premise indexer receives a copy of an encrypted message from the cloud-hosted collaboration service. The encrypted message has been encrypted with a conversation key. The indexer receives the conversation key from an on-premise key management service, and decrypts the encrypted message with the conversation key. A set of tokens are extracted from the decrypted message, and subsequently encrypted with a secret key, different than the conversation key, to generate a first set of encrypted tokens. The first set of encrypted tokens is transmitted for storage in a search index on the cloud-hosted collaboration service. |
| US09923873B2 |
Syndicating device and application management
Techniques to provide syndicated device and application management are disclosed. In various embodiments, a request associated with accessing a third party service is received, for example, at a device management server or other management system. A third party service configuration data is used to configure the managed device to access the third party service directly from the third party service. |
| US09923871B1 |
Application-aware connection for network access client
Virtual private network (VPN)-related techniques are described. The techniques provide intuitive mechanisms by which a client device more efficiently establishes a VPN connection. In one example, a client device includes a memory, processor(s), and a VPN handler. The VPN handler is configured to monitor actions initiated by one or more applications executable by the programmable processor(s), and determine whether each of the initiated actions requires a VPN connection via which to transmit outbound data traffic corresponding to a respective application of the one or more applications. The VPN handler is further configured to, in response to a detection that at least one initiated action requires the VPN connection via which to transmit the outbound data traffic, automatically establish the VPN connection to couple the client device to an enterprise network, and transmit the outbound data traffic corresponding to the respective application, via the VPN connection. |
| US09923867B2 |
Security threat identification, isolation, and repairing in a network
A first computing system may identify a security threat located at least at a first virtual server. The first virtual server may be within a second computing system. The first computing system may provision, in response to the identifying, a first firewall associated with the first virtual server. The first firewall may include a rule to deny all communication transmitted from the first virtual server. The first computing system may execute, in response to the provisioning, a first repair operation to repair the first virtual server. |
| US09923866B2 |
Communication system, terminal apparatus and server
A communication system allows terminals PC1 and PC2 located behind NAT routers to communicate with each other by using source address, source port number, destination address and destination port number. The terminals PC1 and PC2 send data to a server in order to notify respective partner terminals PC2 and PC1 of their respective source port numbers. The server notifies the terminals PC2 and PC1 of port numbers based on the source port numbers used for the data transmission by the terminals PC1 and PC2. The terminals PC1 and PC2 attempt to connect to the terminals PC2 and PC1, respectively, by sending data by using source port numbers different from the source port numbers used for the data transmission to the server SV, and destination port numbers based on the received port numbers related to the terminals PC2 and PC1. |
| US09923865B1 |
Network address management
A technology is described for assigning a logical private network address to a computing instance. An example method may include obtaining a preserved logical private network address associated with a customer account so that the preserved logical private network address may be assigned as a logical private network address to a computing instance located in a computing service environment. The logical private network address may be used for network communications within a physical host containing the computing instance and the logical private network address may translate to a physical private network address used for network communications outside of the physical host and within the computing service environment. A network address record for the computing instance may be identified that associates the logical private network address with the physical private network address, and the network address record may be updated by setting the preserved logical private network address associated with the customer account as the logical private network address. |
| US09923863B2 |
Voice and SMS communication from a mobile device over IP network and satellite or communication network
Systems, devices, and methods for communication system that includes a mobile application (software) installed on a user mobile device, a communications gateway, capable of performing EAP-SIM and/or EAP-AKA WPA2 wireless authentication & authorization, a Ground-based gateway, capable of proxying RADIUS messages, handling SIP communications and SMPP (SMS) messaging, and an integrated communications gateway platform (ICP), capable of performing the functions of a BTS, VLR and SIP/SMPP communications router. The systems, devices and methods allows for vehicle passengers, such as aircraft passengers the capability to use their mobile communication devices, such as smart phones and their smart phone numbers to send and receive calls and text messages to remote communication devices anywhere in the world while on the aircraft, wherein the remote communication devices display the phone numbers of the mobile communication devices. |
| US09923861B2 |
Electronic message recipient disposition characteristics
A computer implemented method for determining recipient disposition characteristics of an electronic message that was acted upon by an electronic message reader is described. The method includes receiving by a computer system message requests in response to the electronic message reader acting on the electronic message and executing by the computer system one or more rules that compare a value of one or more fields included in the one or more message requests to one or more field values included in the one or more rules. |
| US09923859B1 |
Creating a group of members based on monitoring a social network
In a computer-implemented method to facilitate administration of a virtualization infrastructure, operational conditions of members of the virtualization infrastructure are monitored, wherein the members of the virtualization infrastructure are mapped to a social network such that at least a portion of the members of the virtualization infrastructure are also members of the social network. A group of members of the virtualization infrastructure is created within the social network based at least in part on the operational conditions. |
| US09923855B2 |
Systems and methods for electronic message prioritization
Systems and methods for prioritizing electronic messages in an electronic message repository are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method may include (1) at least one computer processor determining an amount of message review time for a user; (2) the at least one computer processor estimating a number of electronic messages that the user can review in the message review time; (3) the at least one computer processor determining a priority level for a plurality of electronic messages in the user's electronic message repository; (4) the at least one computer processor selecting electronic messages from the user's electronic message repository based on the estimated number of electronic messages that the user can review and the priority level for the electronic messages. |
| US09923848B2 |
Electronic device and method of processing message in electronic device
Methods and apparatus are provided for processing a message in an electronic device. A first message application is executed, which displays a first message and a second message in a combined message display window of an interlocutor. A second message application is executed, which provides the second message to the first message application while the first message application is executed. The first message is received and/or transmitted through the first message application, and the second message is received and/or transmitted through the second message application. The first message application and the second message application have different message reception and transmission techniques. |
| US09923847B1 |
In-call services using presence
A presence-based capability discovery mechanism for in-call services in the rich communication services (RCS) release 6 suite of services is provided. A method can comprise receiving a unique identifier representing a communication between a first user device and a second user device, the unique identifier comprising a concatenation of a first string, a second string, and a third string, as a function of the second string, performing a look up of a first presence tuple associated with the first user device; and associating the unique identifier to first presence tuple. |
| US09923846B2 |
Instant simultaneous messaging
The present invention relates to a process that enables nearly real-time exchange of instant simultaneous messages between the users of a digital communication network. Instant Simultaneous Messaging enables “real” simultaneous exchange of contents between the users over a subject. This simultaneous exchange ensures that each user can access other users' contents with exactly the same order, e.g. privilege. Therefore, none of the users within a simultaneous conversion can be affected by other users' messages. The purpose of instant simultaneous messaging is to heal herd mentality by enforcing novelty/originality to the contents that are exchanged between the users. Therefore, while users are communicating over a subject simultaneously, a given user can not learn or get affected by other users' opinions before disclosing its own. The present invention provides a method and its apparatus for Instant Simultaneous Messaging between a sending user and a target user over a digital communication network. |
| US09923844B1 |
Conveying instant messages via HTTP
A system and methods are provided for conveying connection-oriented communications (e.g., textual messages among multiple users) via a protocol such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). When a device operating a communication application that features a custom application layer protocol for formatting messages for transmission cannot connect to the system hosting the application using a default protocol stack that include the custom application layer protocol, it instead connects using HTTP's chunked mode of transfer encoding. Each outgoing communication is encapsulated in a separate HTTP chunk, and communications to multiple different users may be conveyed via the one connection. Incoming communications (e.g., from the multiple users) are received as separate chunks and are unwrapped or de-encapsulated to retrieve the communication for presentation to a user. |
| US09923843B2 |
Layer 7 application classification
Maintaining layer 7 state as a client device roams between network devices during a session. Data packets used in executing a layer 7 application are received at a first network device that a client device is coupled to during a session. Data packets received by the first network device are stored in a layer 7 application buffer that is sent to a second network device that a client device roams to during a session. A layer 7 application buffer is used to classify a layer 7 application that is the subject of a session in order to maintain layer 7 state as a client device roams to a second network device during a session. |
| US09923840B2 |
Improving performance and security of multi-processor systems by moving thread execution between processors based on data location
In an embodiment, a processing resource allocation method is disclosed. The method may include identifying an instruction mapped to data having a preselected data location. The method may also include determining whether to transfer a call of the instruction from a first processing unit (PU) to a second PU based on the preselected data location. |
| US09923839B2 |
Configuring resources to exploit elastic network capability
Resource configuration to exploit elastic network capability is provided by establishing an elastic network bandwidth allocation level to provide for an application for transfer of data between the application and an elastic network, the application hosted at a data center, then dynamically configuring, for the application, elastic network bandwidth allocation from the network service provider in accordance with the established elastic network bandwidth allocation level, and allocating storage resources of the data center for the application and processing resources of the data center for the application, the allocating being based on the established elastic network bandwidth allocation level and providing storage resources and processing resources to operate at a level commensurate with the established elastic network bandwidth allocation level. |
| US09923836B1 |
Systems and methods for configuring a delay based scheduler for an access node
Systems and methods are described for configuring a delay based scheduler for an access node. A plurality of packets may be received at an access node, where at least a first packet is associated with an application running on a wireless device in communication with the access node. The plurality of packets may be inspected to determine that one or more of the packets associated with the application are marked, where the mark indicates network congestion. A remaining time for the first packet may be calculated based on a packet delay budget associated with the running application and the determination that one or more of the packets associated with the application are marked. The first packet may then be scheduled for transmission to the wireless device, using a delay based scheduler, based on the calculated remaining time. |
| US09923831B2 |
Packet prioritization in a software-defined network implementing OpenFlow
A software-defined networking (SDN) OpenFlow apparatus comprises a processor, and a memory system coupled to the processor and comprising a flow pipeline, wherein the flow pipeline comprises a series of flow tables, wherein each of the flow tables comprises at least one match field, wherein the match fields correspond to a plurality of network services, wherein the match fields are ordered based on a prioritization of the network services, which of the match fields are shared among the network services, a shared dependency of the match fields, and processing speed, and wherein the prioritization is based on which network services are most important and which network services are most frequently used. |
| US09923827B2 |
Load balancing and migration of transport connections
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a server comprising a memory to store instructions and a controller coupled to the memory, in which the controller, responsive to executing the instructions, performs operations. The operations include detecting a condition requiring a migration of an active transport connection at a source server to a target server without interrupting communications occurring in the active transport connection. The source server is directed to transmit to the target server a migration command with state information from the source server to enable migrating the active transport connection to the target server without interrupting communications occurring in the active transport connection. A message is then received from the source server indicating the source server has received from the target server an acknowledgment that the migrating has been performed. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09923820B2 |
End-to-end quality of service and flow control for adaptive channels
Providing quality of service (QoS) for applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and enforcing service level agreements (SLA) are major requirement in any current and future communication networks. On the other hand, more communication networks are employing adaptive transmission mechanisms, such as DVB-S2 ACM in satellite communication networks. In non-adaptive networks, QoS enforcers use static bit rate configurations. However, using a static bit rate configuration in an adaptive network may result in underflow situations, during which it may not be possible to utilize the full capacity of the transmission channel and expensive resources may therefore be wasted, In addition, using a static bit rate configuration in an adaptive network may result in overflow situations, during which it may be necessary to drop user traffic packets and therefore quality of service may not be maintained. It is therefore imperative that QoS enforcers have knowledge of the network's available bit rate at all times. This invention describes a method for achieving exactly that. |
| US09923819B2 |
Systems and methods for routing information in an information handling system using extended L3 lookup tables
An information handling system is provided. The information handling system includes a plurality of forwarding processors, the plurality of forwarding processors each including a memory having a forwarding host table and a forwarding route table. The information handling system also includes at least one switching device coupled to the plurality of forwarding processors, the at least one switching device including a memory having a destination module and port table, a switching device host table and a switching device route table, wherein the at least one switching device is configured to perform an extended lookup in at least one of the switching device host table and switching device route table based on values included in a fabric header of information routed to the switching device to determine a destination of the information. A method for extending lookup tables is also provided that adds lookup tables in a switching device. |
| US09923810B1 |
Application update using multiple disparate networks
A system and method that enables an application to retrieve application update from the software vendor using one or more network connection. The application checks for updates when it is invoked by the user. The checking of updates is done by sending a request to the vendor server via one or multiple network connections. The network connection can be wired or wireless. By using multiple network connections, the update process can send and receive update data faster than using one network connections. Another aspect of the invention is if the checking for update request failed via the default or 1st network connection, the application will check for the next available network connection to send the update request. By checking for update from the vendor, the application will always have the most up to date patches, fixes, and/or new features. |
| US09923806B2 |
Network traffic routing tool
A network traffic routing apparatus includes a memory and a processor. The processor receives a change to the first production environment and determines a score for deploying the change. The score indicates a probability that the change, when deployed, will conflict with another change from a plurality of scheduled changes. The processor determines an aggregate score by summing the score and a plurality of scores for the plurality of scheduled changes. The processor also determines that the aggregate score is below a threshold and in response to that determination, schedules the deployment of the change. The processor further routes network traffic from the first production environment to the second production environment. The processor deploys the change to the first production environment after the network traffic has been routed to the second production environment, and after the change has been deployed, routes the network traffic back to the first production environment. |
| US09923801B2 |
Fabric network
Systems and methods relating to communication within a fabric network are presented. The fabric network includes one or more logical networks that enables devices connected to the fabric to communicate with each other using various profiles known to the devices. A device sending a message may follow a general message format to encode the message so that other devices in the fabric may understand the message regardless of which logical networks the devices are connected to. Within the message format, a payload of data may be included for the receiving device to forward, store, or process the message. The format and the contents of the payload may vary according to a header within the payload that indicates a profile and a message type within the profile. Using the profile and message type, the receiving devices may decode the message to process the message. |
| US09923799B2 |
Data processing
Measures for processing data in a packet-switched network. At a first device in the network, a packet transmitted from a second device in the network is received. The received packet comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) address for a third device in the network. On the basis of the IP address for the third device comprised in the received data packet, lookup in an IP routing table of the second device is initiated to obtain a next-hop address for the received packet. The obtained next-hop IP address is determined to be an IP address of a device connected to the first device. |
| US09923797B2 |
Enforcing parameters for quality of data link service at a future time
A method is provided for enforcing quality of service parameters. A gateway receives a request for data usage from a mobile device. The gateway sends, to a controller, inquiry for allowed bit rate. Upon receiving a first bit rate value, the gateway sends, to a charging system, request for quota. In response to receiving the quota, the gateway provides data to the mobile device based on the first bit rate value. The gateway provides data to the mobile device until the quota is exhausted. Once a data usage threshold is reached, the gateway receives, from the controller, a second bit rate value. In response to receiving the second bit rate value, the gateway provides data to the mobile device based on the second bit rate value, until an activation-time is reached. When the activation-time is reached, the gateway resets the allowed bit rate from the second bit rate value to the first bit rate value. |
| US09923796B2 |
Apparatus and method to efficiently use the PTP timestamp for two-way delay and delay variation measurement in IP networks
A method is implemented by a network device to establish a two-way active measurement protocol (TWAMP) test session to verify that a session sender and session reflector support a timestamp format extension including a Precision Time Protocol Version 2 (PTPv2) timestamp format. The PTPv2 timestamp format is to be utilized in place of a Network Time Protocol (NTP) timestamp format. The network device acts as a control-client that communicates with a server to establish the TWAMP test session between the session-sender and the session-reflector. |
| US09923794B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for identifying abnormal IP data stream
A method, an apparatus, and a system for identifying an abnormal IP data stream, which are used to improve identification accuracy. The method provided by the embodiments of the present invention includes: receiving Y elements sent by a data collection node; mapping the Y elements to N buckets; acquiring a bucket in the N buckets as a target bucket; acquiring r upper traffic limits of a first object in r buckets within the current time interval, the first object is any object mapped to the target bucket; and identifying, according to a preset abnormal object type and the r upper traffic limits within the current time interval, whether the first object is an abnormal object, where the preset abnormal object type is a heavy hitter or a heavy changer. |
| US09923793B1 |
Client-side measurement of user experience quality
Techniques are provided for measuring user-perceived client-side performance of network documents. Client-side performance data associated with a network document can be collected during the loading of the network document by a web browser of a client device, for example, by a browser-executable script. The collected performance data may include latency information respectively associated with a plurality of digital assets configured to be rendered by the network document. A subset of the collected performance data can be selectively provided. The selectively provided performance data may be associated with a subset of the plurality of digital assets that are configured to be rendered within an active portion of the network document. The active portion of the network document may indicate a current area of interest for a user of the client device such as a viewport. The selectively provided performance data may be used to improve user-perceived performance at the client device. |
| US09923792B2 |
Methods and systems for enhanced round trip time (RTT) exchange
Disclosed are systems, methods and devices for obtaining round trip time measurements for use in location based services. In particular implementations, a fine timing measurement request message wirelessly transmitted by a first transceiver device to a second transceiver device may permit additional processing features in computing or applying a signal round trip time measurement. Such a signal round trip time measurement may be used in positioning operations. |
| US09923790B2 |
Method and system for monitoring and controlling a video signal network
The embodiments described herein provide a method for operating a video signal network. The method comprises: providing a video signal router having a plurality of input ports for receiving input video signals and a plurality of output ports for transmitting a plurality of output video signals and wherein the router has a plurality of monitorable router status conditions; providing a router control system for controlling the configuration of the router; defining, in the router control system, a plurality of predetermined states, wherein each of the predetermined states comprises at least one condition from the group consisting of: one or more signal conditions relating to one or more of the input and output video signals; and one or more router conditions relating to one or more of the monitorable status conditions; for each of the states, defining at least one action; configuring the video signal router to couple at least some of the input ports to at least some of the output ports; monitoring at least some of the input and output video signals and at least some of the router status conditions; in response to the monitored input and output video signals and router status conditions corresponding to one of the predetermined states, transmitting a notification message to the router control system; and initiating an action corresponding to the transmitted notification message. |
| US09923786B2 |
System and method for performing a service discovery for virtual networks
A system and method for performing a service discovery on a distributed computer system includes obtaining information of a service that is provided by a host computer in the distributed computer system and embedding the information into a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) data frame to be transmitted from the host computer to another component of the distributed computer system. |
| US09923782B1 |
Computer network virtual entity pathway visualization system
A computerized virtual entity pathway visualization method and system provide a virtual entity packet pathway display indicating a packet pathway along which a data packet would travel from between virtual entities (e.g., virtual machines) in a computer system. One implementation includes modeling of a computer system having physical and virtual entities, identifying a packet pathway from a source virtual entity in the computer system to a destination virtual entity in the computer system, and rendering on a computer display screen a packet pathway and an arrangement of plural active icons corresponding to physical and virtual entities included in the packet pathway from the source virtual entity to the destination virtual entity. |
| US09923775B2 |
Datacenter topology definition schema
In various embodiments, methods and systems for modeling or representing hardware inventory based on a topology definition is provided. A topology definition having physical elements and logical elements corresponding to a physical topology layer and a logical topology layer is received. An instance definition for a rack, cluster, or datacenter for a hardware management operation is received. The instance identifies a physical topology and a logical topology for the operation. A hardware management service is executed, based on the topology definition and the instance definition, to manage the hardware inventory of the topology definition. Hardware management of the hardware inventory corresponding to the separately defined physical elements and logical elements is performed with attributes that are defined in the schema. The topology definition can include precision levels that indicate a hierarchical classification of topology components classified at a device level, a rack level, a cluster level, and a datacenter level. |
| US09923772B2 |
Interfrequency and inter-technology neighbor planning on a self-organizing network
In an example, a self-organizing network (SON) provides automated interfrequency load balancing for a base station such as a NodeB. The NodeB may provide a plurality of carriers, such as in a plurality of UARFCN frequencies, and the SON may provide configuration directives for increasing efficiency. For example, when one carrier becomes loaded, the SON may update neighbor associations to take advantage of relatively unloaded frequency carriers. A plurality of scenarios S may be provided, and a policy P may be defined for each. When the NodeB encounters a scenario S, SON may send configuration directives to implement policy P. Similar concept and policy could be applied in conjunction with INTER Technology Neighbor Definitions between LTE and UMTS and UMTS and GSM. Example if GSM Frequency Neighbors needs to be replaced with different Frequency Neighbors from UMTS based on Load or RF conditions. |
| US09923769B2 |
Methods and systems for verifying installation of a device
Methods and systems for verifying installation of a networked device are disclosed. Short message service (SMS) messages are used to communicate between an in-field device and a central computer system after an installation of a network device. The in-field device request an installation verification process be executed by the central computer system. The central computer system first requests an installation number from the in-field device, and then contacts a gateway networked to the network device to perform an installation verification test. The results of the test are sent to the in-field device via SMS. |
| US09923766B2 |
System and method for providing a data center management controller
A data center including a data center management controller and a plurality of floor tiles. Each floor tile includes a tile management controller coupled to the data center management controller. The data center management controller aggregates floor tile information from each floor tile and provides floor tile configuration information to each floor tile. |
| US09923756B2 |
Maintenance entity group end point of a subnetwork within a multi-domain network
A Maintenance Entity Group, MEG, End Point, MEP, of a subnetwork within a multi-domain network, said MEP comprising an encapsulation unit configured to encapsulate SOAM frames received by a passive Service Access Point, SAP, of the MEP and a decapsulation unit configured to decapsulate encapsulated SOAM frames received by an active Service Access Point, SAP, of the MEP. |
| US09923750B2 |
High speed pulse modulation system
A modulator operable to control an oscillator is described. The modulator can include a memory that stores oscillator control values and a bit streaming block. The bit streaming block can generate a bit stream based on the oscillator control values and transmit the bit stream to the oscillator to control an oscillation frequency of the oscillator. The modulator can also include a bit streaming loader (BSL). The BSL can receive one or more of the oscillator control values from the memory, generate one or more corresponding bit values based on the one or more of the oscillator control values, and provide the one or more bit values to the bit streaming block. The bit streaming block can then generate the bit stream based the one or more bit values generated by the BSL. |
| US09923744B2 |
OFDM signal transmission method and apparatus
An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal transmission apparatus which transmits OFDM signals by using a plurality of transmission antennas includes a subcarrier setting device which sets signals for subcarriers so as to use some of the subcarriers of the OFDM signals as pilot subcarriers to transmit pilot signals and use the remaining subcarriers as data subcarriers to transmit data signals, the subcarrier setting device changing polarities of signals for the pilot subcarriers for each transmission antenna. |
| US09923738B1 |
Backchannel transmission adaptation
Receiver circuitry for receiving a data signal includes summation node circuitry that predicts an error value of the received data signal. The receiver circuitry also includes adaptation engine circuitry coupled to the summation node circuitry. The adaptation engine circuitry determines a transmitter adjustment based on the error value and sends a freeze signal to one or more components of the receiver to cause the receiver to continue operating without changing current settings of the one or more components. The receiver circuitry further includes a user interface and sequence controller, coupled to the adaptation engine circuitry, wherein the user interface and sequence controller sends a signal indicative of the transmitter adjustment to the transmitter. |
| US09923730B2 |
System for multicast and reduction communications on a network-on-chip
A multicast message that is to originate from a source is received. The multicast message comprises an identifier. A plurality of directions in which the multicast message is to fork at the router are stored. A plurality of messages from the directions in which the multicast message is to fork are received. The received messages are to comprise the identifier. The plurality of messages are aggregated into an aggregate message and sent towards the source. |
| US09923728B2 |
System and method for associating an end user for billing in a network environment
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving one or more packets of a communication session from one or more interfaces, such that the interface is a subscriber interface or a network interface. The method further includes associating the communication session to an end user with a source Internet Protocol (IP) address of the packet if the packet is received from the subscriber interface or to an end user with a destination IP address of the packet if the packet is received from the network interface. |
| US09923726B2 |
RDMA transfers in mapreduce frameworks
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for transferring data in a MapReduce framework. In one embodiment, MapReduce jobs are performed such that data spills are stored by mapper systems in memory and are transferred to reducer systems via one-sided RDMA transfers, which can reduce CPU overhead of mapper systems and the latency of data transfer to reducer systems. |
| US09923723B2 |
Intelligent sensor and controller framework for the power grid
Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for monitoring and using data in an electric power grid. For example, one disclosed embodiment comprises a sensor for measuring an electrical characteristic of a power line, electrical generator, or electrical device; a network interface; a processor; and one or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions. In this embodiment, the computer-executable instructions include instructions for implementing an authorization and authentication module for validating a software agent received at the network interface; instructions for implementing one or more agent execution environments for executing agent code that is included with the software agent and that causes data from the sensor to be collected; and instructions for implementing an agent packaging and instantiation module for storing the collected data in a data container of the software agent and for transmitting the software agent, along with the stored data, to a next destination. |
| US09923722B2 |
Message authentication library
A vehicle communication test system is described that includes a diagnostic computer having a computer program product stored thereon. The program product includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium for the diagnostic computer that includes an application software program stored on the computer-readable medium that includes instructions adapted to validate encrypted messages transmitted over a network connection in a vehicle. The instructions include: performing an initialization sequence that includes receiving initialization data at the diagnostic computer, wherein the initialization data is associated with a plurality of vehicle system modules (VSMs) which are coupled together via the vehicle network connection; receiving as a data input at the diagnostic computer an encrypted message transmitted over the network connection; and based on the initialization data, determining at the diagnostic computer whether the received encrypted message is valid. |
| US09923719B2 |
Location aware cryptography
Encrypted data transmitted from a second entity to a first entity may be received. The encrypted data may be encrypted by a location based public key based on a public key and a location associated with the second entity. A location associated with the first entity may be identified. A location based private key may be generated based on a private key that corresponds to the public key and the location associated with the first entity. Furthermore, the encrypted data may be decrypted with the location based private key when the location associated with the first entity matches the location associated with the second entity. |
| US09923716B2 |
Smart card personnalization with local generation of keys
For personalizing a smart card (SC) coupled with a communication device (CD) of a user being a subscriber of a first telecommunication network (TN1) and wishing to become a subscriber of a second telecommunication network (TN2), a first international identity (IMSI_1) and a first authentication key (AK_1) being stored in the smart card (SC), the smart card receives a message (MesP) from an application server (AS) connected to the first telecommunication network and the second telecommunication network, the message (MesN) comprising a personalization command (ComP) and an admin code (ACas), after that the application server has received a request (Req) of subscription change comprising an identifier (1dMNO2) of the second telecommunication network (TN2) and has established a secured session with a personalization server (PS) of the second telecommunication network (TN2) identified by the identifier (1dMNO2), and interprets the personalization command (ComP) to establish a secure session with the personalization server (PS) via the application server (AS), if the admin code (ACas) is valid. The smart card negotiates with the personalization server to agree on an second authentication key, by exchanging messages containing values derived from random secrets, receives a message (Mes3) containing an second international identity (IMSI_2) from the personalization server (PS), and replaces the first international identity (IMSI_1) and the first authentication key (AK_1) by the second international identity and the second authentication key. |
| US09923714B2 |
Secure network coding for multi-resolution wireless transmission
Described herein is a method and system for hierarchical wireless video with network coding which limits encryption operations to a critical set of network coding coefficients in combination with multi-resolution video coding. Such a method and system achieves hierarchical fidelity levels, robustness against wireless packet loss and efficient security by exploiting the algebraic structure of network coding. |
| US09923713B2 |
Denial-of-service attack protection for a communication device
A peripheral and central device in a wireless network, such as a Bluetooth Low Energy network, may maintain privacy while connecting. During connecting energy in the peripheral device may be saved by linking an advertised address of the peripheral device to a resolvable private address of the central device, thereby providing an early indication if the central device is, according to the peripheral device, allowed to connect to the peripheral device. Hence a peripheral device performing such linking may have an improved resistance to a denial-of-service attack. |
| US09923712B2 |
Wireless receiver with axial ratio and cross-polarization calibration
A wireless receiver includes an antenna panel coupled to an H-combined/V-combined generation block, an axial ratio and cross-polarization calibration block to correct for an undesired variation in H-combined and V-combined outputs, and an LHCP/RHCP generation block to produce left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP) and right-handed circularly polarized (RHCP) outputs. The axial ratio and cross-polarization calibration block generates an H-corrected output by summing the H-combined output amplified by a first variable gain amplifier and the V-combined output amplified by a second variable gain amplifier, and a V-corrected output by summing the V-combined output amplified by a third variable gain amplifier and the H-combined output amplified by a fourth variable gain amplifier. |
| US09923697B2 |
Packet data transmitting method and mobile communication system using the same
A packet data transmitting method and mobile communication system using the same enables transmission of common ACK/NACK information from each sector of a base station to a user entity in softer handover. The method includes receiving via at least one of the plurality of sectors a data packet from the mobile terminal, the data packet being correspondingly received for each of the at least one of the plurality of sectors; combining the correspondingly received data packets, to obtain a signal having a highest signal-to-noise ratio; decoding the value obtained by the combining; determining a transmission status of the data packet according to the decoding; and transmitting to the mobile terminal a common ACK/NACK signal including one of a common ACK signal and a common NACK signal according to the determining, the common ACK/NACK signal being transmitted via each of the at least one sector. |
| US09923690B2 |
Dynamic signaling of the downlink and uplink subframe allocation for a TDD wireless communication system
An apparatus for use in a wireless communication network, comprising a processing resource configured to determine a time interval for periodic time division duplex (TDD) Uplink/Downlink (UL/DL) reconfiguration windows, generate a UL/DL reconfiguration command to indicate a dynamic TDD UL/DL allocation change, and encode the UL/DL reconfiguration command in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) data, and a radio front end (RF) interface coupled to the processing resource and configured to cause the encoded UL/DL reconfiguration command to be transmitted to a first of a plurality of wireless user equipment (UEs) in a first of the UL/DL reconfiguration windows, wherein the encoded UL/DL reconfiguration command is transmitted via a PDCCH to provide a fast TDD UL/DL reconfiguration. |
| US09923689B2 |
Mobile communication system, user terminal, and processor for assigning radio resources for transmission of sounding reference signals and device to device communication resources
In a mobile communication system, comprising: a user terminal that performs communication with a base station and Device to Device (D2D) communication, the user terminal transmits a sounding reference signal to the base station. When at least a part of a first radio resource assigned to transmission of the sounding reference signal overlaps a second radio resource assigned to the D2D communication, the user terminal stops transmitting the sounding reference signal in the first radio resource. |
| US09923684B2 |
Methods to support inter-eNodeB CoMP
A method of executing inter-eNB CoMP JT between a CoMP UE and multiple CoMP eNBs is disclosed. A first CoMP eNB constructs a first set of dynamic control information (DCI). The first set of DCI is independently constructed by the first CoMP eNB. The first CoMP eNB transmits the first set of DCI to the CoMP UE. The first set of DCI includes independent DL assignments allowing the first CoMP eNB to perform independent scheduling of a PDSCH associated with the first CoMP eNB. A second CoMP eNB constructs a second set of DCI. The second set of DCI is independently constructed by the second CoMP eNB. Furthermore, the second CoMP eNB transmits the second set of DCI to the CoMP UE. The second set of DCI includes independent DL assignments allowing the second CoMP eNB to perform independent scheduling of a PDSCH associated with the second CoMP eNB. |
| US09923679B2 |
High-efficiency Wi-Fi (HEW) station, access point, and methods for random access contention
Embodiments of a high-efficiency Wi-Fi (HEW) station, access point (AP), and method for communication in a wireless network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the HEW station may perform random access contention with other HEW stations for uplink resources for data transmission to the HEW AP. The HEW station may determine transmission activity during a first portion of a channel sensing period, and may select a sub-channel on which transmission activity is not determined. The HEW station may transmit an announcement signal on the selected sub-channel during a second portion of the channel sensing period. The announcement signal transmission may indicate, to other contending HEW stations, an intention by the HEW station to transmit on the same selected sub-channel during a subsequent access period. |
| US09923677B2 |
Multiplexing many client streams over a single connection
Methods and apparatus for multiplexing many client streams over a single connection. A proxy server establishes multiple TCP connections with respective clients that desire to access a web server connected to the proxy server via a multiplexed TCP connection. TCP packets received from the clients via the TCP connections are separated out based on their TCP connections, a packet payload data is extracted and added to client data streams. Data segments comprising sequential runs of bits from the client data streams and embedded in multiplexed (MUX) TCP packets that are sent over the multiplexed TCP connection. Upon receipt, the web server de-encapsulates the data segments and buffers them in queues allocated for each TCP connection in re-assembled client data streams. This enables the packet flows transported over the multiplexed connection for the TCP connections to be individually controlled. The multiplexed TCP connection may also be used for forwarding packet payload data generated at the web server to the clients via the proxy server and the client's TCP connections. |
| US09923668B2 |
Coded modulation architecture using sparse regression codes
A communication system is configured to use coded modulation architecture using sparse regression codes. A transmitter includes a plurality of antenna and processing circuitry configured to: divide a data signal into a plurality of layers, allocate power individually to each of the plurality layers, encode a subset of the plurality of layers, the subset comprising a number of layers less than the whole, and interleave the subset of the plurality of layers. A receiver includes a plurality of antenna and processing circuitry configured to divide a received data signal into a plurality of layers and perform layer-by-layer decoding on the received data and control signals. |
| US09923663B2 |
Methods and arrangements for time-sharing in a dense environment
Logic may enable communication between stations in the presence of interference. Logic may communicate with the station in the presence of interference, the interference from a communication between other stations comprising a first network allocation vector (NAV) reminder, by entering a mode in which a Control Physical layer (PHY) modulation and coding scheme (MCS) is enabled and a Single Carrier PHY MCS is disabled. Logic may enable the Single Carrier PHY MCS in response to receipt of a clear-to-send (CTS) or an expiration of a CTS timeout. Logic may determine an active time remainder during a Contention-based access period. Logic may determine a time to access a channel in response to receipt of the Denial to Send and based upon a predefined, maximum inactivity time. Logic may remain beamformed while the apparatus is in the Control PHY mode. |
| US09923661B2 |
Device element, node device, and method and system for adjusting tunnel bandwidth
Provided are a device unit, a node device, and a method and a system for automatically adjusting a tunnel bandwidth. The device unit includes: a client side element, configured to dynamically adjust The quantity of the first timeslots according to a bandwidth of a received data service before the received data service is mapped to an Optical Channel Data Unit (ODU) tunnel; a line side element, configured to configure, according to the quantity of the first timeslots adjusted by the client side element, The quantity of the second timeslots matched with the first timeslots; a tunnel managing element, configured to adjust, according to the quantity of the first timeslots and the quantity of the second timeslots, the quantity of unblocked ODU tunnels between the client side element and the line side element, wherein unblocked ODU tunnels after the adjustment carry the data service. When the bandwidth of the received data service increases or decreases, the device unit of the present disclosure flexibly controls usage of an ODU0 timeslot in an ODU of each stage, and does not need to use a complicated ODUflex frame format, thereby meeting the requirement of automatically adjusting the bandwidth without using ODUflex. |
| US09923660B2 |
Optical add-drop multiplexer and branching unit
An optical add-drop multiplexer and a branching unit are provided, where implementation of the optical add-drop multiplexer includes: an optical processing component, a first combining device, a second combining device, and a second scrambler, where the optical processing component includes an input end, a first output end, a second output end, and a third output end; the first output end of the optical processing component is connected to a first input end of the second combining device, and the second output end of the optical processing component is connected an input end of the second scrambler; an output end of the second scrambler is connected to a second input end of the second combining device; and the third output end of the optical processing component is connected to a first input end of the first combining device. |
| US09923659B2 |
Method and apparatus for searching control information by terminal in multinode system
Provided is a method of searching for control information of a user equipment (UE) in a multi-node system including a plurality of nodes and a base station connected to each of the plurality of nodes and capable of controlling the nodes. The method includes: receiving search space indication information from the base station; and searching for the control information in a radio resource region indicated by the search space indication information, wherein the search space indication information indicates any one of a first search space and a second search space. |
| US09923655B2 |
Method and apparatus for mode balance for analog FM, digital, radio blend logic in an automotive environment
A radio includes a first tuner and a second tuner. A processor compares a first perceivable volume level of a station tuned by the first tuner to at least one second perceivable volume level of at least one background station tuned by the second tuner. The processor enables automatic volume knob changes using a pre-calibrated lookup table that associates a volume step of the volume knob with a difference between the first perceivable volume level and the second perceivable volume level. |
| US09923653B2 |
Audio system
A digital tuner in a broadcasting receiving unit outputs audio data at a sample rate of Fs+dr (Hz), and an ASRC rate-converts audio data to audio data at a sample rate of Fs+ds (Hz) and transmits the resulting audio data to an audio processing unit. A DAC in the audio processing unit analog-converts the received audio data at an output rate of Fs+da (Hz) and outputs the resulting audio data to a speaker. The sample rate Fs+ds and the output rate Fs+da are synchronized with a SYNC transmitted from the broadcasting receiving unit to the audio processing unit on a 125 ms cycle. For the sample rate Fs+ds and the output rate Fs+da, a relationship of (da−ds)×0.125<1 is assured. |
| US09923651B2 |
Systems and methods for adaptive frequency synchronization
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving transmission segments from at least one device over a plurality of channels pursuant to a channel-switching schedule, the channel-switching schedule comprising an iteratively-repeated channel sequence. The iteratively-repeated channel sequence comprises a plurality of channels, the channel-switching schedule specifying an assigned transmission duration for each channel. In addition, the method includes, for at least one channel of the plurality of channels, detecting interference during a time segment of the assigned transmission duration, the time segment comprising at least one of a beginning portion and an ending portion of the assigned transmission duration. Further, the method includes responsive to the detected interference, determining to shift, by a specified quantity of time, a future channel switch indicated by the iteratively-repeated channel sequence. |
| US09923650B1 |
Compact dual-channel transceivers
In one embodiment, a method for monitoring a structure includes associating a passive sensor with the structure, the sensor being configured to measure a physical parameter of the structure that is indicative of the structure's condition, associating a dual-channel transceiver with the structure, the transceiver having a sensing repeater that operates on a first channel and a reference repeater that operates on a second channel, wherein the sensing repeater is connected to the passive sensor, receiving with a receive antenna of the reference repeater an interrogation signal transmitted from an interrogation device, multiplying a frequency of the received interrogation signal with the reference repeater to generate a reference response signal having a multiplied frequency, and transmitting the reference response signal with the reference repeater to the interrogation device. |
| US09923648B1 |
System and method for distinguishing ADS-B out function failures from transponder failures
Systems and methods for testing and distinguishing ADS-B Out function failures from transponder failures are disclosed. The system may include a transponder configured to: detect a test signal on an electronic interface coupled with the transponder; in response to a detection of the test signal, determine whether the transponder is experiencing a transponder failure or an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out function failure; and for a predetermined period of time starting from the detection of the test signal, report a failure signal to only when it is determined that the transponder is experiencing the transponder failure. |
| US09923644B2 |
Method for generating a medical network
A method for setting up a medical network for carrying out at least one medical function is disclosed. The medical network comprises network nodes and the network nodes are set up for communicating with one another by an initialization step, wherein the network nodes exchange initialization information that includes information characterizing the network nodes and a self-organization step where the network nodes define their role distribution. A work step where the network carries out the medical function and the two network nodes interact in the role of distribution defined in the self-organization step. |
| US09923640B2 |
Transmission apparatus and transmission system
A transmission apparatus including: a waveform shaper that performs spectrum correction on an optical signal converted from an electrical signal encoded by OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing); a converter that converts the optical signal on which the waveform shaper has performed the spectrum correction, into the electrical signal; and a nonlinear compensator that compensates for a nonlinear distortion with respect to the electrical signal converted by the converter. |
| US09923636B2 |
Interconnect structure for E/O engines having impedance compensation at the integrated circuits' front end
Disclosed embodiments relate to an interconnect structure for coupling at least one electronic unit for outputting and/or receiving electric signals, and at least one optical unit for converting said electric signals into optical signals and/or vice versa, to a further electronic component. The interconnect structure comprises an electrically insulating substrate and a plurality of signal lead pairs to be coupled between said electronic unit and a front end contact region for electrically contacting said interconnect structure by said further electronic component. A ground plane layer is electrically insulated from said pairs of signal leads, wherein each pair of signal leads has a circuit connecting region for electrically contacting respective terminals of said at least one electronic unit, and wherein in a region adjacent to said terminals of said at least one electronic unit said ground plane layer has a plurality of clearances that are each allocated to one pair of signal leads and separated from a respective neighboring clearance. |
| US09923635B2 |
Optical transmitter or transceiver including reversed planar lightwave circuit (PLC) splitter for optical multiplexing
A multi-channel optical transmitter or transceiver uses a reversed planar lightwave circuit (PLC) splitter as an optical multiplexer to combine optical signals at different channel wavelengths into a multiplexed optical signal. The reversed PLC splitter includes splitter output ports that are used as the mux input ports and a splitter input port that is used as the mux output port. The mux input ports may be optically coupled to respective transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA) modules with or without optical fibers. The PLC splitter includes wavelength independent branched waveguides that combine the optical signals received on the mux input ports into the multiplexed optical signal on the mux output port. |
| US09923633B2 |
Method of optically transmitting digital information from a smart phone to a control device
A load control device for controlling the power delivered from an AC power source to an electrical load is able to receive radio-frequency (RF) signals from a Wi-Fi-enabled device, such as a smart phone, via a wireless local area network. The load control device comprises a controllably conductive device adapted to be coupled in series between the source and the load, a controller for rendering the controllably conductive device conductive and non-conductive, and a Wi-Fi module operable to receive the RF signals directly from the wireless network. The controller controls the controllably conductive device to adjust the power delivered to the load in response to the wireless signals received from the wireless network. The load control device may further comprise an optical module operable to receive an optical signal, such that the controller may obtain an IP address from the received optical signal and control the power delivered to the load in response to a wireless signal received from the wireless network that includes the IP address. |
| US09923632B2 |
Optical transmission apparatus, optical transmission system, and method of controlling output of optical signal
An optical transmission apparatus includes a variable attenuator configured to adjust output intensity of each wavelength signal included in a multiplexed optical signal having been input; a monitor configured to measure an output spectrum of the variable attenuator; a calculation unit configured to calculate an amount of spectral narrowing and an amount of spectral surplus, based on a measured value by the monitor, and a target value set in advance; and a control unit configured to control an amount of attenuation of the variable attenuator, based on the amount of spectral narrowing and the amount of spectral surplus. |
| US09923627B2 |
Semiconductor device, semiconductor memory device and communication system
A semiconductor device may include: a conversion value generator suitable for detecting first and second transition factors that are independent of each other, and generating first and second conversion values corresponding to the first and second transition factors, respectively; and a signal converter suitable for generating an output signal by reflecting the first and second conversion values into an input signal. |
| US09923626B2 |
Mobile ionospheric data capture system
A method for capturing ionospheric data is disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, a plurality of phase-coherent signals transmitted by at least one Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellite is received via a mobile multi-frequency GNSS receiver. Respective code phase data and carrier phase data for each of said plurality of phase-coherent signals are derived using a software defined GNSS receiver operating on a processor of a first communication device of the multi-frequency GNSS receiver. Respective code phase data and carrier phase data for each of the plurality of phase-coherent signals is stored in a data storage device. The respective code phase data and carrier phase data is appended with a respective time-stamp and position fix. An ionospheric sample based upon respective code phase data and carrier phase data of said plurality of phase-coherent signals is wirelessly transmitted to a second location. |
| US09923616B2 |
Feedback based on codebook subset
The present invention provides for an improved application of signal strength weightings in a SDMA sectorized cellular network. The improved signal strength weightings application is conducted through the improved selection of weightings from a new codebook subset or by the selection of weightings from a larger codebook subset. In a further embodiment, an antenna beam index or bit map can be used to select the best beam(s) in a SDMA sectorized cellular network. In another embodiment, a field or factor in an uplink or downlink transmission packet can designate which directional transmission beam is best suited for the transmission or when the directional transmission beam should be activated. |
| US09923608B2 |
Processing uplink signals in high speed scenario
A network node is connected to a plurality of antenna nodes that are located along a path where a plurality of wireless communication devices are located. The antenna nodes are controlled (302) to maintain reception radio lobes substantially along the path such that the wireless communication devices can communicate with the network node via the reception radio lobes. From a detected (304) radio frequency signal, a determination (306) is made that a UE belongs to a group of UEs having common Doppler radio frequency characteristics. This determination then enables processing (308) of the received signal involving the common Doppler characteristics. |
| US09923606B2 |
Information reading system, information reading apparatus, storage medium having stored therein information reading program, and information reading method
An information reading system performs near field communication with an information storage medium. The information reading system includes: an antenna structure including a plurality of antenna coils, each arranged across at least one of the others and each having a reading area; and a computer processor configured to perform near field communication with the information storage medium in each reading area, thereby reading information from the information storage medium in proximity to the reading area. |
| US09923602B2 |
Configurable, power supply voltage referenced single-ended signaling with ESD protection
A single-ended data transmission system transmits a signal having a signal voltage that is referenced to a power supply voltage and that swings above and below the power supply voltage. The power supply voltage is coupled to a power supply rail that also serves as a signal return path. The signal voltage is derived from two signal supply voltages generated by a pair of charge pumps that draw substantially same amount of current from a power supply. |
| US09923600B2 |
Estimation of impedances in a transmission medium
The present disclosure relates to wireline communication systems, and in particular to aspects of a method and a line estimation device for estimating a characteristic impedance of a section of a transmission medium. The method comprises determining, by a test equipment having a test port with known impedance Zref, an S11 scattering parameter vector S11ref[f] of the transmission medium, indexed by frequency f. The method also comprises generating, based on Zref and S11ref[f], a model of reflection in the transmission medium corresponding to an observation of the transmission medium via a test port having a test impedance ZT, and also estimating the characteristic impedance of the section as a value of ZT which minimizes a difference between a reflection value of the model of reflection and a respective target reflection value of the section. |
| US09923594B2 |
Voltage swing uniformity in radio-frequency switches
Fabricating a radio-frequency switching circuit involves providing a substrate, forming, on the substrate, one or more field-effect transistors connected in series to define a radio-frequency signal path between an input end and an output end, each field-effect transistor having a source, a drain, a gate node, and a body node, and forming an element coupled to a selected body node of the one or more field-effect transistors connected in series to thereby provide reduced voltage distribution variation across the switching circuit. |
| US09923592B2 |
Echo cancellation using minimal complexity in a device
Described herein are technologies related to an implementation of a system to measure and compensate non-linearity (e.g., echo cancellation) in a transceiver circuitry of a device. Particularly, the echo cancellation utilizes reduced number of components for power savings, and further increases efficiency of signal or data packet transmissions in the device. An echo signal is determined by sampling a power amplifier output signal. The output signal is split into signals with different delays. Down conversion and digital interpolation of the signal with the shortest delay is performed. An echo cancellation signal is calculated based on the output signal as received as an input signal to a receive chain. The calculated signal is subtracted from a received echo signal to generate an echo free signal. |
| US09923587B2 |
Mobile wireless communications system including NFC carrying case and related methods
A mobile wireless communications system may include a mobile wireless communications device that may include a portable housing, a wireless transceiver carried by the portable housing, and a processor carried by the portable housing and coupled to the wireless transceiver. The mobile wireless communications device may also include a near-field communication (NFC) device coupled to the processor. An NFC carrying case may carry and communicate with the mobile wireless communications device. The NFC carrying case may include a base panel to carry the mobile wireless communications device, and a removable cover panel coupled to the base panel. The NFC carrying case may also include pairs of discontinuous NFC circuit segments carried by the removable cover panel and switch assemblies carried by the removable cover panel. Each switch assembly may selectively couple a respective pair of discontinuous NFC circuit segments to establish NFC communication with the NFC device. |
| US09923583B2 |
Coordination between multiple WLAN cores that are using the same frequency band
A system and method to communicate in a wireless local area network (WLAN) device having a first Media Access Control (MAC) and a second MAC is provided. The method includes determining whether the first MAC and the second MAC are transmitting and receiving on the same frequency band, determining whether transmission by the first MAC overlaps with reception by the second MAC, and relaxing a reception criteria by the second MAC when transmission by the first MAC overlaps with reception by the second MAC. |
| US09923582B2 |
High-frequency signal predistortion device and nonlinear distortion correcting device for power amplifier
A high-frequency signal predistortion device includes a high-frequency signal estimator, a predistortion estimator, and a predistorter. The high-frequency signal estimator is configured to determine non-linear distortion characteristics of high-frequency signals transmitted by antennas. The predistortion estimator is coupled to the high-frequency signal estimator. The predistortion estimator is configured to determine a predistortion coefficient based on the non-linear distortion characteristics. The predistorter is coupled to the predistortion estimator. The predistorter is configured to distort a base signal of the high-frequency signals based on the predistortion coefficient. |
| US09923581B2 |
Front-end module and antenna design for a wireless device simultaneously using WLAN modules operating in different wireless bands
Systems and methods for enabling a WLAN client to communicate simultaneously over more than one band at a time are described, where each client has at least one radio that is operational in each supported band. Load balancing based on traffic requirements optimizes the use of the multiple bands. |
| US09923576B2 |
Decoding techniques using a programmable priority encoder
A system, computer-readable media, and methods are disclosed for building a decoding table. The system may include one or more registers configured to store a data value based on an order in which one or more lengths were obtained. The system may also include a programmable priority encoder configured to scan the one or more registers for the data value. Further, the system may include a memory configured to store, based on locations of the data value in the one or more registers, at least one of encoding values or letters. |
| US09923574B2 |
Analogue-to-digital converter
This application relates to analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). An ADC 200 has a first converter (201) for receiving an analog input signal (AIN) and outputting a time encode signal (DT), such as a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) signal, based on input signal and a first conversion gain setting (GIN). In some embodiments the first converter has a PWM modulator (401) for generating a PWM signal such that the input signal is encoded by pulse widths that can vary continuously in time. A second converter (202) receives the time encoded signal and outputs a digital output signal (DOUT) based on the time encoded signal (DT) and a second conversion gain setting (GO). The second converter may have a first PWM-to-digital modulator (403). A gain allocation block (204) generates the first and second conversion gain settings based on the time encoded signal (DT). The gain allocation block (204) may have a second PWM-to-digital modulator (203) which may be of lower latency and/or lower resolution that the first PWM-to-digital modulator (403). |
| US09923572B2 |
Delta modulator receive channel for capacitance measurement circuits
A circuit, system, and method for measuring capacitance are described. A current may be received at an input of a conversion circuit. The current may be converted to a voltage signal which may be used to create a negative feedback current to the input of the conversion circuit and which may be demodulated digitally to provide a static digital output representative of a capacitance. |
| US09923571B2 |
Ramp analog-digital converter able to provide an average of two signals directly
Ramp analog-digital converters used in matrix image sensors to provide a digital value representative of a level of illumination of a pixel are provided. Two voltage samples are applied to a comparator, a counter is used to count pulses at a frequency F from a starting instant of the ramp until a toggling of the comparator. Two other voltage samples, one of which is added to a linear voltage ramp having an identical starting instant and slope to the first ramp, are applied to a second comparator, a half counting frequency F/2 is applied to the counter from the toggling of one of the comparators, and the content of the counter at the moment of toggling of the other comparator is stored. Two measurements of samples of the same signal or of two different signals are averaged without undergoing a digital conversion for each signal and a digital addition. |
| US09923554B2 |
Wireless power transmitter
A wireless power transmitter includes an amplifier configured to amplify a power; a transmitter configured to resonate the power amplified by the amplifier; and a reference signal provider configured to provide a reference signal to the amplifier and change a frequency of the reference signal. |
| US09923548B1 |
Switched mode negative inductor
A switched mode negative inductance circuit includes an input node responsive to a voltage signal. The circuit also includes first and second voltage sources, first and second controlled switches having first poles coupled to the first and second voltage sources, respectively and an inductor having a first electrode coupled to second poles of the first and second controlled switches and a second electrode coupled to the input node. The input node is coupled to a control electrode of the first controlled switch, and to a control electrode of the second controlled switch through a voltage inverting circuit. The disclosure also illustrates balanced negative inductance circuits and implementation approaches using NMOS transistors. |
| US09923547B2 |
Method and system for a distributed transmission line multiplexer for a multi-core multi-mode voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)
Methods and systems for a distributed transmission line multiplexer for a multi-core multi-mode voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) may comprise a plurality of voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) arranged adjacent to each other, where each of the plurality of VCOs are operable to generate an output signal at a configurable frequency, an impedance matching circuit comprising a respective driver and impedance matching elements coupled to each of the plurality of VCOs, and an output device coupled to the impedance matching circuit. The impedance matching elements may include capacitors and inductors. Between each adjacent pair of the respective drivers coupled to each of the plurality of VCOs, the impedance matching elements may include two inductors coupled in series between the drivers and a capacitor coupled to ground and to a common node between the two inductors. Impedance values of the capacitors and inductors may be configurable. The impedance matching elements may include a resistor coupled to a bias voltage VDD and to a common node with a capacitor that is coupled to ground, where the common node is coupled to one of the inductors. The output device may include a prescaler that is an integer or fractional frequency-N divider, or a buffer. The respective drivers coupled to each of the plurality of VCOs may be configured to provide a constant output power no matter which of said plurality of VCOs is enabled. |
| US09923545B2 |
Compound spring MEMS resonators for frequency and timing generation
A compound spring MEMS resonator includes a resonator body constructed using one or more spring unit cells forming a compound spring block and one or more compound spring blocks forming the resonator body. Each compound spring block is anchored at nodal points to ensure a high quality factor. The resonator body further includes masses attached to the open ends of the compound spring block and capacitively coupled to drive/sense electrodes. The dimensions of the spring unit cells, the number of spring unit cells for a compound spring block, the size and weight of the masses, and the length and width of the support beams are selected to realize a desired resonant frequency. Meanwhile, the number of compound spring blocks is selected to tune the desired electrical characteristics, such as impedance, of the MEMS resonator. |
| US09923544B2 |
Piezoelectric vibration element, manufacturing method for piezoelectric vibration element, piezoelectric resonator, electronic device, and electronic apparatus
A piezoelectric vibration element includes a piezoelectric substrate including a thin vibration region and a thick section integrated along three sides excluding one side of the vibration region, excitation electrodes respectively arranged on the front and rear surfaces of the vibration region, and lead electrodes. The thick section includes a first thick section and a second thick section arranged to be opposed to each other across the vibration region and a third thick section connected between proximal ends of the first and second thick sections. The second thick section includes an inclined section connected to the one side of the vibration region, a second thick section main body connected to the other side of the inclined section, and at least one slit for stress relaxation. |
| US09923539B2 |
Acoustic wave device and method for manufacturing the same
An acoustic wave device includes: a piezoelectric substrate; an interdigital electrode that is provided on the piezoelectric substrate and made of a laminated film, an electric resistivity of a material of an uppermost layer in the laminated film being larger than that of a material of a just-under layer located one layer lower than the uppermost layer; and a pad electrode that is provided on the piezoelectric substrate and electrically connected to the interdigital electrode, and has a same film structure as a film structure from a layer on the piezoelectric substrate to the just-under layer in the laminated film of the interdigital electrode, an upper surface of a layer corresponding to the just-under layer being exposed. |
| US09923535B2 |
Noise control method and device
A noise control method and device are provided that relate to the field of noise control. The noise control method includes: acquiring noise information of an ambient environment; judging whether the noise information satisfies a predetermined condition, and if yes, acquiring a first message from a first device; and judging, according to the first message, whether the noise information is related to the first device, and if yes, sending a second message to the first device, the second message being used to notify the first device to adjust a volume. The noise control method and device in the embodiments of the present application may easily and quickly realize noise control over a specific device, thereby improving user experience. |
| US09923531B2 |
Power processing circuit, two-path power processing circuit and multiplex power processing circuit
A power processing circuit includes a first portion, a second portion, a third portion, a resistor, a first coupling portion, a second coupling portion, a third coupling portion and a fourth coupling portion. The first portion, the second portion and the third portion are connected to respective external components. The first coupling portion and the third coupling portion are micro-strips symmetrical to the first portion. The second coupling portion and the fourth coupling portion are micro-strips symmetrically connected to two terminals of the resistor. |
| US09923528B2 |
Adaptive boost supply with slope control
An apparatus includes a first circuit configured to generate a boost voltage, and a second circuit to control a slope of a magnitude of the boost voltage when the magnitude of the boost voltage is reduced. The first circuit is configured to generate the boost voltage having the magnitude equal to a first voltage when a control signal is in a first state, and reduce the magnitude of the boost voltage when the control signal is in a second state and the magnitude of the boost voltage is greater than a second voltage which is less than the first voltage. A method of providing a boost voltage includes controlling a slope of a magnitude of the boost voltage when the magnitude of the boost voltage is decreased. |
| US09923521B1 |
Stacked PA power control
Systems, methods and apparatus for efficient power control of an RF amplifier for amplification of a constant envelope RF signal are described. A reduction in a size of a pass device of an LDO regulator is obtained by removing the pass device of the LDO regulator from a main current conduction path of the RF amplifier. Power control is provided by varying one or more gate voltages to cascoded transistors of a transistor stack of the RF amplifier according to a power control voltage. Various configurations for controlling the gate voltages are presented by way of a smaller size LDO regulator or by completely removing the LDO regulator. In a case where a supply voltage to the transistor stack varies, such as in a case of a battery, a compensation circuit is used to adjust the power control voltage in view of a variation of the supply voltage, and therefore null a corresponding drift in output power of the RF amplifier. |
| US09923510B2 |
Clamp assembly for solar tracker
In an example, the solar tracker has a clamp assembly configured to pivot a torque tube. In an example, the assembly has a support structure configured as a frame having configured by a first and second anchoring region. In an example, the support structure is configured from a thickness of metal material. In an example, the support structure is configured in an upright manner, and has a major plane region. In an example, the assembly has a pivot device configured on the support structure, a torque tube suspending on the pivot device and aligned within an opening of the support, and configured to be normal to the plane region. In an example, the torque tube is configured on the pivot device to move about an arc in a first direction or in a second direction such that the first direction is in a direction opposite to the second direction. |
| US09923508B2 |
Mounting unit for solar electricity generation systems and improved installation method
The present invention provides a mounting unit for solar panels that simplifies the complexity of storage, transit and in-field installation of solar electric generation systems. According to one embodiment, the mounting unit comprises a top panel, a bottom panel and a pair of panel guides, each formed integral with and adjacent to an opposing side of the top panel. Each panel guide includes a horizontal portion for supporting a solar panel and a vertical portion for providing an air channel between a bottom surface of the solar panel and an upper surface of the top panel. The air channel enables natural convection to cool the solar panel and optionally a power conversion device used within the system, thereby improving the solar conversion efficiency of the system. An improved method for installing a solar electric generation system is also provided herein. |
| US09923507B2 |
Position-sensorless control method and apparatus for brushless motor
The present invention discloses a position-sensorless control method for a brushless motor, the method including: turning off a first driving voltage of a first phase coil, and within detection time, detecting a back electromotive force of the first phase coil; determining a reference phase and a cycle of a second driving voltage according to the back electromotive force; determining a pulse width modulation signal according to the reference phase and the cycle; and determining to provide the second driving voltage for the brushless motor according to the pulse width modulation signal, the second driving voltage being used to drive the brushless motor. The present invention effectively reduces the cost, decreases implementation difficulty and increases system performance and reliability. |
| US09923506B1 |
Motor control system and method for implementing a direct on-off communication control routine
A high-efficiency motor control system and method is presented for controlling an electric motor. The system can feature a multi-phase inverter having a logic control device and associated control circuity, a plurality of floating charge pumps and pump circuitry, a multi-phase bridge having a plurality of power switching devices and a bootstrap capacitor circuit having a floating ground. The floating charge pumps feature grounds electrically coupled to motor phase leads. The bootstrap circuit can feature a floating ground, with a floating voltage being carried across the bootstrap circuit and delivered to the switching devices to produce an indefinite on-time for the switching devices for switching the high-side of a power supply to a load. |
| US09923505B2 |
Methods and systems for controlling an electric motor
A system and method of controlling an electric motor using a motor drive controller are provided. The motor drive controller includes a rectifier configured to convert an AC input voltage to a DC voltage, a DC bus electrically coupled to the rectifier, an inverter electrically coupled to the DC bus and configured to generate an AC voltage to drive the electric motor, and a control unit. The control unit includes a sign calculation module configured to determine a polarity of each phase of a reference current command and a compensation module configured to generate a voltage compensation command signal using one of the determined polarities of the reference current command and a measured current, and one of a measurement of DC bus voltage and a constant DC bus voltage value, the voltage compensation signal compensating the drive controller to neutralize a deadtime effect. |
| US09923504B2 |
Control device for AC rotary machine and control device for electric power steering
In a control device for an AC rotary machine that includes a first three-phase winding and a second three-phase winding having a phase difference, a voltage is applied to each phase of the first three-phase winding at an ON interval or an OFF interval equaling or exceeding a first predetermined value. When a first three-phase current is determined to be undetectable, a first voltage command is generated such that ON timings or OFF timings relating respectively to at least two phases of the voltage applied to the first three-phase winding are within a second predetermined value that is smaller than the first predetermined value, and when a second three-phase current is determined to be undetectable, a second voltage command is generated such that ON timings or OFF timings relating respectively to at least two phases of a voltage applied to the second three-phase winding are within the second predetermined value. |
| US09923498B2 |
Method for operating an electric motor
A method for operating an electric motor when at a rotational speed below or above a predetermined limit value. The method involves operating an electric motor that has a stator and a rotor, wherein the stator or the rotor has at least three segments each having at least one electromagnetic element. The method includes simultaneously de-energizing all electromagnetic elements of all segments while the rotor rotates, measuring an electrical quantity induced in the electromagnetic elements, in particular an induced voltage, for each segment, and determining a rotor position of the rotor in relation to the stator from the measured electrical quantities. An electrical current can be supplied to the electromagnetic elements such that a segment magnetic field is formed to provide a segment torque to the rotor. The intensity of the electrical current depends on a segment position of the rotor in relation to the segment. |
| US09923497B2 |
Motor control system and method with predictive motor current estimation
A chiller system includes a compressor configured to circulate a refrigerant between an evaporator and a condenser in a closed refrigerant loop and a synchronous motor configured to drive the compressor. The motor includes a stator winding and a rotor. The chiller system includes a controller configured to estimate a flux linkage of the rotor and generate a control signal for the motor based on the estimated flux linkage. Estimating the flux linkage includes applying a voltage of the stator winding to a transfer function having an error correction variable, using a first value of the error correction variable in the transfer function to obtain convergence of the flux linkage over an initial motor starting interval, and using a second value of the error correction variable after the initial motor starting interval to reduce an error in estimating the flux linkage. |
| US09923495B2 |
Motor control device
A motor control device to control rotation of an electric motor configured to conduct opening/closing of an opening/closing body provided in a vehicle includes a control unit configured to generate a regenerating brake force to the electric motor until a predetermined time passes, in a case where it is determined that the opening/closing body reaches a full open position. |
| US09923490B2 |
Vehicle
An electric motor gives regenerative braking force to a hybrid vehicle by regenerative control. A regeneration level selector selects regenerative braking force of the electric motor by a driver's operation. When an ECO mode is applied, an ECU increases the regenerative braking force selected by the regeneration level selector as compared with the time when the ECO mode is not applied. |
| US09923489B2 |
Vortex flux generator
A method and apparatus for generating electricity by electromagnetic induction, using a magnetic field modulated by the formation, dissipation, and movement of vortices produced by a vortex material such as a type II superconductor. Magnetic field modulation occurs at the microscopic level, facilitating the production of high frequency electric power. Generator inductors are manufactured using microelectronic fabrication, in at least one dimension corresponding to the spacing of vortices. The vortex material fabrication method establishes the alignment of vortices and generator coils, permitting the electromagnetic induction of energy from many vortices into many coils simultaneously as a cumulative output of electricity. A thermoelectric cycle is used to convert heat energy into electricity. |
| US09923483B2 |
Method for operating an inverter and inverter comprising a switch between a center point of a DC link and a connection for a neutral conductor of an AC grid
A method of operating a transformerless inverter connected on the input side to a generator and on the output side to a multiphase AC grid and comprising a multi-phase inverter bridge with a switch between a midpoint of a DC intermediate circuit on the input side and a terminal for a neutral conductor of the multiphase AC grid, includes feeding electric power from the DC intermediate circuit into the AC grid by the inverter bridge with the switch closed when first operating conditions are present, and opening the switch when there is a transition from the first operating conditions to second operating conditions different from the first operating conditions. The method further includes feeding electric power from the DC intermediate circuit into the AC grid by the inverter bridge with the switch open when the second operating conditions are present, and closing the switch when there is a transition from the second operating conditions to the first operating conditions. |
| US09923477B2 |
PWM rectifier including capacitance calculation unit
A PWM rectifier includes a main circuit unit carrying out AC-DC power conversion by PWM-control, a PWM control unit PWM-controlling the main circuit unit, a DC voltage detection unit detecting a DC voltage across a smoothing capacitor connected to the DC-side of the main circuit unit, a DC voltage storage unit storing respective DC voltages at the start and end times of an initial boost period during which the smoothing capacitor having been charged to an AC voltage peak value is further charged to a higher voltage, an input power calculation unit calculating input power flowing in from the AC-side based on an AC voltage and current, an integral power calculation unit calculating integral power from the input power over the initial boost period, and a capacitance calculation unit calculating the capacitance of the smoothing capacitor based on the respective DC voltages and the integral power. |
| US09923474B2 |
Power supply apparatus
A power supply apparatus includes a primary-side circuit and a secondary-side circuit magnetically coupled by a transformer. The secondary-side circuit includes: a first circuit that is connected to a secondary winding of the transformer, performs current doubler rectification, and outputs a first output voltage; a second circuit that is connected to the secondary winding of the transformer, performs a step-down chopping operation, and outputs a second output voltage; semiconductor switching elements that control the step-down chopping operation; and diodes that are shared by the first circuit and the second circuit when rectifying a direct current voltage supplied from the primary-side circuit. The first circuit includes first inductors connected in parallel. A control unit controls switching of the primary-side circuit to establish electrical continuity between the secondary winding of the transformer and the first inductors in order. |
| US09923473B2 |
Power supply apparatus for reducing noise induced in DC wires
In a power supply apparatus, one of a transformer and a first semiconductor device is stacked on the other thereof to constitute a stack assembly. The stack assembly, a second semiconductor device, and a choke coil are located on the major surface. A primary direct-current wire, which connects the first semiconductor device to a direct-current power source, is drawn out from a first predetermined portion of the stack assembly. A primary alternating-current wire, which connects the first semiconductor device and the transformer, is drawn out from a second predetermined portion of the stack assembly. The primary direct-current wire and the primary alternating-current wire are located to be separated from each other via at least a part of the stack assembly. |
| US09923468B2 |
Multiphase power conversion using skewed per-phase inductor current limits
A power conversion circuit has multiple phases wherein each of the phases has an inductor coupled to a power switch circuit and is coupled to an output node. A power conversion controller controls the switching of one or more of the phases to yield a regulated voltage on the output node. The controller uses a variable inductor current limit for one or more designated phases, and temporarily increases the variable inductor current limit during a transient condition. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. |
| US09923467B2 |
Multiphase converting controller
A multiphase converting controller, adapted to control a plural converting circuits coupled to an input voltage to commonly supply an output voltage, is disclosed. The multiphase converting controller comprises a feedback control circuit, an on-time control circuit, and a multiphase logic control circuit. The feedback control circuit determines a conduction starting point in time according to the output voltage and accordingly generates a conduction signal. The on-time control circuit determines a conduction time period. The multiphase logic control circuit controls the plural converting circuit in sequence in accordance to the conduction signal and the conduction time period. The on-time control circuit adjusts a length of the conduction time period according to a mode signal. |
| US09923466B2 |
DC-DC converter with inductor current direction reversed each switching period
Embodiments of the present invention provide a DC-DC converter having a first DC voltage gate, a second DC voltage gate and a storage choke. The storage choke is coupled between the first DC voltage gate and the second DC voltage gate by means of electric switching elements. The DC-DC converter is configured such that a direction of a current flow through the storage choke is inverted at least once during a switching period of the electric switching elements. Further, the DC-DC converter is configured to track or readjust a switching frequency of the electric switching elements in case of a change of operating parameters of the DC-DC converter such that a change of direction of the current flow through the storage choke during a switching period of the electric switching elements is ensured. |
| US09923465B2 |
Power conversion circuit and associated operating method
A power conversion circuit includes an input terminal, a first switching element, a second switching element, a third switching element, a fourth switching element, a capacitor; an inductor; and a controller configured to control the switching elements to be switched ON/OFF, such that a voltage at the load is regulated by repetitively (1) charging the inductor with a first current before charging the capacitor causing a second current to flow in the inductor and (2) charging the inductor with a third current before discharging the capacitor causing a fourth current to flow in the inductor. |
| US09923462B2 |
DC-DC converter and driving method thereof
A DC-DC converter includes: a switching circuit to change a voltage value of an input voltage, and to generate an output voltage; a feedback circuit connected between an output terminal to which the output voltage is supplied and a source of a first power, and to generate a feedback voltage corresponding to the output voltage; a gate pulse generator to generate a gate pulse to be supplied to the switching circuit by utilizing the feedback voltage; a current protector to control the switching circuit by utilizing the feedback voltage and the gate pulse; and a voltage protector to control the switching circuit by utilizing the feedback voltage. |
| US09923461B2 |
Control arrangement for a switched mode power supply
The disclosure relates to a control arrangement for a SMPS, the control arrangement comprising: an input terminal configured to receive a feedback-signal (V1) representative of an output of the SMPS; a normal-mode-processing-arrangement-configured to process the feedback-signal and provide a normal-mode-control-signal for operating the SMPS in a normal mode of operation; a burst-mode-processing-arrangement configured to process the feedback-signal and provide a burst-mode-control-signal for operating the SMPS in a burst mode of operation; and a feedback-control-processing-arrangement configured to operate the SMPS such that the feedback signal in the normal mode of operation has a predetermined relationship with the feedback signal in the burst mode of operation. |
| US09923459B2 |
Charge pump
Charge-pump devices and corresponding methods are disclosed. A control input of a valve transistor of the charge pump device may be coupled with one of an input terminal or an output terminal via a further transistor. |
| US09923458B2 |
Booster circuit including a booster section configured to operate intermittently
Provided is a booster circuit enabling improvement of efficiency of a stress test for a circuit to which a boosted voltage is applied. A voltage divider circuit is configured to have a voltage-dividing ratio that is variable depending on a test signal, and a limiter circuit is configured to clamp a voltage to a voltage higher than a boosted voltage in normal operation. In a test mode, the voltage divider circuit is controlled so that the boosted voltage becomes higher than that in the normal operation, and the limiter circuit clamps the boosted voltage, with the result that a booster section continuously operates. |
| US09923455B2 |
Current-sensing and gain-switching circuit and method for using wide range of current
A current control circuit includes a current transformer that detects a primary current, a sensor gain switch that selectively connects the primary current to one of a first gain amplifier and a second gain amplifier to provide a current sensing output, a controller gain switch that selectively connects the current sensing output to one of a first controller amplifier and a second controller amplifier, and a controller that controls switching of the sensor gain switch and the controller gain switch. |
| US09923452B2 |
Switched-mode power supply for powering a frequency converter
A switched-mode power supply for supplying an operating voltage to a frequency converter includes a supply capacitor configured to supply the operating voltage to a control device for generating control signals for semiconductor switches of the switched-mode power supply. The supply capacitor is chargeable through a start-up circuit from a DC link of the frequency converter. The start-up circuit includes a current regulator that is configured to control a total current from the DC link to the start-up circuit. |
| US09923451B2 |
Method and apparatus for filtering a rectified voltage signal
A configurable impedance circuit is provided, including a filter for filtering a received DC voltage and a controller. The filter includes a first capacitor, a second capacitor, and a selectable switch coupled in series with the second capacitor and coupled to receive a control signal. The selectable switch and the second capacitor are selectively coupled in parallel with the first capacitor. The controller is connected to sense a differential voltage across the second capacitor and configured to generate the control signal to open or close the selectable switch based on the differential voltage across the second capacitor, so as to maintain a voltage range across the second capacitor. According to disclosure of the present invention, the total physical size of the capacitors is reduced and the size of the power supply is reduced accordingly. |
| US09923449B2 |
Damping apparatus and damping method of converter system
The present disclosure relates to a damping apparatus of a converter system, which compensates an input voltage reference being transmitted to a converter to damp an output current of a harmonic filter that is connected between an output end of the converter and a system, including a voltage reference compensation unit configured to compensate for the input voltage reference using a ratio between inductances of inductors included in the harmonic filter; a capacitor voltage value compensation unit configured to compensate for a voltage value of a capacitor included in the harmonic filter using the ratio between the inductances of the inductors; and a voltage reference generation unit configured to generate a final voltage reference by subtracting the compensated voltage value of the capacitor from the compensated input voltage reference. |
| US09923443B2 |
Hollow magnetic metal core pulse energy harvesting generator
This invention relates to energy harvesting of electrical energy by the change in a magnetic circuitous permeability path for magnetic lines of force that move through a coil of wire to induce, by Faraday's Law of Electromotive Induction, an electromotive force at the coil winding terminals of an associated coil. An abrupt, substantially instant change generated by a magnet's axial or angular mechanical and magnetic contact or dislocation through instant movement of the magnet by magnetic unlike pole spring back attractive force action with a high permeability stationary hollow or solid magnetic metal core centered in a coil bobbin with a wire wound wire coil providing efficient electrical generation therefrom. |
| US09923440B2 |
Hybrid electric motor with self aligning permanent magnet and squirrel cage rotors
A hybrid induction motor includes a fixed stator, an independently rotating outer rotor, and an inner rotor fixed to a motor shaft. In one embodiment the outer rotor includes spaced apart first bars and permanent magnets, and the inner rotor includes spaced apart second bars. In another embodiment the outer rotor includes angularly spaced apart first bars but no permanent magnets, and the inner rotor includes permanent magnets and may also include angularly spaced apart second bars. The outer rotor is initially accelerated by cooperation of a rotating stator magnetic field with the first bars. As the outer rotor accelerates towards synchronous RPM, the inner rotor is accelerated to transition to efficient synchronous operation. The outer rotor thus acts as a clutch to decouple the inner rotor from the rotating stator magnetic field at startup and to couple the inner rotor to the rotating stator magnetic field at synchronous speed. |
| US09923437B2 |
Tool for making generator bars
A tool for shaping generator bars for large power generators. In particular, a tool for shaping a stator bar out of a straight unprocessed bar. |
| US09923434B2 |
Rotor end band
An end band and method of forming an end band for a rotor. The end band includes a hollow cylindrical band, wherein at least a portion of the band has a grain flow in a direction parallel to the hoop stress of the band. The end band also includes at least a portion having a grain flow in a direction perpendicular to the hoop stress of the band. |