最新美国发明专利第2018-05-01期 - 专利汇|PatentHub专利检索|专利查询网|发明专利查询分析

Document	Document Title
US09960509B2	Power tool with light unit A power tool includes a housing coupled to an electrical power source, a motor contained in the housing, and a motor control circuit that controls output speed of the motor. A light nut is coupled to the housing to illuminate a work surface. A light unit control circuit controls illumination of the light, unit. A switch unit is coupled to the housing and selectively operable to control the operation of the motor control circuit and the light unit control circuit. The light unit control circuit includes a timer configured to cause the light unit to illuminate a first brightness level when the switch unit is actuated, and to remain illuminated at the first brightness level for a predetermined time period after the trigger is actuated. The predetermined time period restarts if the switch unit is not deactivated before the end of the predetermined time period.
US09960503B2	Method of stranded electrical wire connection A method of stranded electrical wire connection involves inserting stripped, stranded ends of the wires into and then out of open container housing. A dielectric gel filled canister having an open bottom is placed over the electrical wires and the container housing, thereby completely encasing the wires. The canister is then snapped onto or otherwise secured over the container housing, to seal the electrical wires, thus completing the sealed, waterproof electrical connection.
US09960500B2	Compact antenna array using virtual rotation of radiating vectors In one example, a device includes an antenna array having at least a first cross dipole antenna element having a first dipole and a second dipole orthogonal to the first dipole and at least a second cross dipole antenna element having a third dipole and a fourth dipole orthogonal to the third dipole. An orientation of the at least a second cross dipole antenna is offset 45 degrees with respect to the at least a first cross dipole antenna element. The at least a first cross dipole antenna element and the at least a second cross dipole antenna element are for transmitting and/or receiving signals at plus 45 degrees and minus 45 degrees slant polarizations.
US09960498B2	Foldable radio wave antenna A foldable radio wave antenna includes a foldable parabolic reflector member formed a foldable tension member attachable to the peripheral rim of the reflector member.
US09960496B2	Antenna and vehicle including the same An antenna having a low loss rate, high radiation directivity, and wideband characteristics in a millimeters wavelength region to be suitable for 5th-Generation (5G) communication, and having a low-profile structure to reduce air resistance when installed in a vehicle includes a feed circuit through which a radio signal provided from a feed point is transmitted; and a plurality of radiation units, each radiation unit including a diverging wall configured to cause the radio signal transmitted through the feed circuit to diverge in at least two directions, and at least two diverging cavities through which radio signals diverged by the diverging wall are transmitted. A vehicle including the antenna is described.
US09960494B2	Impedance helical antenna forming Π-shaped directional diagram A quadrifilar helix antenna includes a cylindrical support extending along an antenna axis; a plurality of spiral conductors wrapped helically on the cylindrical support and along the antenna axis from a feed end to a remote end; a circular ground plane perpendicular to the antenna axis; and each of the spiral conductors including a plurality of gaps, with the gaps having capacitors between conducting portions of the spiral conductors. The capacitors are positioned higher than 60 mm above the ground plane, and capacitance value varies inversely with height. The antenna exhibits a DU(10°)=−20 dB or better at an operating frequency f0=1575 MHz. The diameter of the cylindrical support is 30+/−5 mm. A total height of the cylindrical support is 300+/−50 mm. A winding angle of the helix is variable.
US09960481B2	Hitch mount for antenna systems Various embodiments provide an antenna hitch mount for securing an antenna, such as a satellite dish, to a vehicle. According to one embodiment, the hitch mount includes a hitch mounting portion, a plate, and an antenna mounting portion. The hitch mounting portion is configured to be inserted in to a hitch. The hitch mounting portion includes holes that are on opposite sides of the hitch mounting portion and are aligned with each other. The plate is used to couple the hitch mounting portion and the antenna mounting portion to each other. The antenna mounting portion is configured to support an antenna. Namely, an antenna is secured to the antenna mounting portion by a fastening device, such as a mast clamp.
US09960471B2	Transmission line In a transmission line, first and second signal conductors are located inside a dielectric base body. The first and second signal conductors are located between first and second ground conductors in a thickness direction of the dielectric base body. A main conductor portion of the second ground conductor is located between the first and second signal conductors in a width direction of the dielectric base body. First and second auxiliary conductor portions of the second ground conductor respectively extend from the main conductor portion to first-signal-conductor-side and second-signal-conductor-side lateral surfaces of the dielectric base body. A first lateral-surface conductor connects the first auxiliary conductor portion to a plating-connection conductor connected to the first ground conductor. A second lateral-surface conductor connects the second auxiliary conductor portion to a plating-connection conductor connected to the first ground conductor.
US09960468B2	Metalized molded plastic components for millimeter wave electronics and method for manufacture Waveguide components that have a high degree of performance accuracy over the temperature range of interest are provided. The components require no post-formation trimming steps, are light-weight, and dimensionally stable. In addition, a method for the manufacture of these millimeter wave components is provided.
US09960467B2	Magnesium oxygen battery A non-aqueous type magnesium oxygen battery including a negative electrode, a positive electrode, a non-aqueous magnesium ion conductor, and a promoter is described. The negative electrode is configured to absorb magnesium and release magnesium ion. The positive electrode is configured to produce a discharge product that includes magnesium and oxygen during a discharge process of the battery. The non-aqueous magnesium on conductor is between the negative electrode and the positive electrode. The promoter is included with the positive electrode. The promoter is configured to promote MgO2 (magnesium peroxide) production during the discharge process of the battery.
US09960461B2	System and method for temperature control of multi-battery systems An system includes a first battery having a first desired operating temperature range between a first lower threshold temperature and a first upper threshold temperature and a second battery having a second desired operating temperature range between a second lower threshold temperature and a second upper threshold temperature. The system further includes a temperature control system coupled to the first and second batteries and configured to convey heat energy from the first battery to the second battery when the temperature of the second battery is less than the second lower threshold temperature to increase the temperature of the second battery toward the second desired operating temperature range and to convey heat energy away from the second battery when the temperature of the second battery is greater than the second upper threshold temperature to decrease the temperature of the second battery toward the second desired operating temperature range.
US09960460B2	Energy storage apparatus An energy storage apparatus includes: an energy storage device; a spacer disposed on one side of the energy storage device in a first direction, the spacer including a pair of wall portions; and a measuring part for measuring a state of the energy storage device, the measuring part disposed on one side of the energy storage device in a second direction which intersects with the first direction. The wall portions include a first wall portion disposed on the one side of the energy storage device in the second direction and a second wall portion disposed on the other side of the energy storage device opposite to the one side of the energy storage device. The energy storage device is arranged at a position where a distance between the energy storage device and the first wall portion is set shorter than a distance between the energy storage device and the second wall portion.
US09960459B2	Method of manufacturing nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery A method of manufacturing a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery includes: constructing a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery including an electrode body and an electrolytic solution, the electrode body including a negative electrode, and the electrolytic solution containing a nonaqueous solvent and a negative electrode film forming agent having a decomposition voltage that is lower than a decomposition voltage of the nonaqueous solvent; performing first charging of the nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery at a voltage that is equal to or higher than the decomposition voltage of the negative electrode film forming agent and lower than the decomposition voltage of the nonaqueous solvent and at −30° C. to 0° C.; and performing second charging of the nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery at a voltage that is equal to or higher than the decomposition voltage of the nonaqueous solvent and at a temperature of 25° C. or higher and lower than a boiling point of the electrolytic solution.
US09960458B2	Battery systems having multiple independently controlled sets of battery cells Provided are battery systems having multiple independently controlled sets of battery cells and method of using these systems to power, for example, drive trains of electric and hybrid vehicles. A battery system includes two or more sets of battery cells. Each set can be discharged and/or charged independently of another set based on different factors, such as a current power demand, power output capabilities of each set, and other like factors. One or multiple sets can be used to deliver power at any given time. In some embodiments, one set may be used to charge another set in the same power system. The same or different types of battery cells may be used in different sets. For example, one set may have battery cells having a higher power output capability, while another set may have battery cells with a higher energy density.
US09960454B2	Wicking nonwoven mat from wet-laid process Examples of the present technology may include a method of making a non-woven fiber mat. The wet nonwoven fiber mat may include a first plurality of first glass fibers and a second plurality of second glass fibers. The first plurality of first glass fibers may have nominal diameters of less than 5 μm, and the second plurality of second glass fibers may have nominal diameters of greater than 6 μm. The method may further include curing the binder composition to produce the nonwoven fiber mat. The nonwoven fiber mat may have an average 40 wt. % sulfuric acid wick height of between about 1 cm and about 5 cm after exposure to 40 wt. % sulfuric acid for 10 minutes conducted according to method ISO8787, and the nonwoven fiber mat may have a total normalized tensile strength greater than 2 (lbf/in)/(lb/sq) fora sq (100 ft2).
US09960453B2	Lithium ion secondary battery and system using same Provided is a lithium ion secondary battery that enables lithium ion replenishment in a short period of time. The lithium ion secondary battery disclosed herein is provided with a wound electrode assembly in which a long sheet-shaped positive electrode and a long sheet-shaped negative electrode are wound such that the negative electrode is positioned on the outer side of the positive electrode; a third electrode that is disposed outside the wound electrode assembly and that has an Li supply source capable of supplying lithium ion; and a porous insulating film that is disposed between the wound electrode assembly and the third electrode and that is formed from a material usable as a separator in a battery. In this lithium ion secondary battery, the third electrode has a portion facing, across the insulating film, an outer surface of the negative electrode that constitutes the outermost circumference of the negative electrode of the wound electrode assembly, and has a portion facing, across the insulating film, a wound electrode assembly open end face that communicates with the interior of the wound electrode assembly and is an end face of the wound electrode assembly along the direction of the winding axis.
US09960449B2	Non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery including tungsten Provided is a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery with reduced resistance in a low SOC range, with the battery having a coating on its negative electrode active material. This invention provides a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprising a positive electrode that has a positive electrode active material layer comprising a positive electrode active material, a negative electrode that has a negative electrode active material layer comprising a negative electrode active material, and a non-aqueous electrolyte. The negative electrode active material has a coating. The coating comprises an oxalato complex-derived component and an N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-derived component. The non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery internally comprises tungsten. The tungsten content per unit capacity of the non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery is 0.0048 g/Ah to 0.0078 g/Ah.
US09960446B2	Secondary battery and electronic device A secondary battery suitable for a portable information terminal or a wearable device is provided. An electronic device having a novel structure which can have various forms and a secondary battery that fits the forms of the electronic device are provided. In the secondary battery, sealing is performed using a film provided with depressions or projections that ease stress on the film due to application of external force. A pattern of depressions or projections is formed on the film by pressing, e.g., embossing.
US09960444B2	Semi-vanadium redox flow battery using electrolytes of vanadium ions and iodine-vitamin C A semi-vanadium(V) redox flow battery (semi-VRFB) including a positive electrolyte tank, a negative electrolyte tank and a cell stack. The positive electrolyte tank is stored with a positive electrolyte of V ions and the negative electrolyte tank is stored with a negative electrolyte of iodine(I)-vitamin C. The cell stack comprises a positive electrode, a negative electrode, an insulating film, a positive electrode plate, and a negative electrode plate. The negative electrode is made of carbon (C) sandwiched with titanium dioxide(TiO2), and can further comprise a metal or an alloy. The insulating film is located between the positive electrode and the negative electrode. The positive and negative electrode plates are located in front of the positive and negative electrodes, respectively. The positive and negative electrolytes flow through the positive and negative electrode plates to charge/discharge power by the electrochemical reactions of V ions and I-vitamin C at the positive and negative electrodes.
US09960442B2	Process for separating electrode for membrane-electrode assembly of fuel cell and apparatus therefor Disclosed are a process for separating an electrode for membrane-electrode assemblies of fuel cells from the decal transfer film and an apparatus for separating the electrode. In particular, during the electrode separating process, only an electrode is separated from the decal transfer film on which the electrode is coated, without any damage, by a freezing method for freezing the specimen on the deionized water surface, and thus, wasting the expensive MEA is prevented. Thus, mechanical properties of the pristine electrode can be rapidly quantified in advance, and therefore, long term durability evaluation period during developing MEA having excellent durability is substantially reduced.
US09960440B2	Fuel cell system and control method for fuel cell system A fuel cell system includes a compressor for supplying the cathode gas to the fuel cell, an anode gas discharge system for discharging anode off-gas discharged from the fuel cell into a cathode gas flow passage, a pulsating operation control unit for causing a pressure of the anode gas to pulsate based on an operating state of the fuel cell, a purge control unit for purging the anode off-gas into the cathode gas flow passage based on an impurity concentration of an anode of the fuel cell and a pressure of the anode, and a compressor control unit for controlling the compressor based on a purge flow rate controlled by the purge control unit, and the purge control unit for setting the pressure of the anode to a predetermined value determined according to a pulsating state of the anode gas.
US09960438B2	Fuel cell system and method to prevent water-induced damage In one or more embodiments, a fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack including an anode and a cathode, a first conduit positioned to supply oxygen to the cathode, a second conduit positioned to supply hydrogen to the anode, and a third conduit positioned separate from the first and second conduits and to supply oxygen to the second conduit. The third conduit may be positioned to supply oxygen from the first conduit to the second conduit.
US09960435B2	Fuel-cell-stack manufacturing method and fuel-cell-stack A fuel-cell-stack manufacturing method, includes arranging an extension portion extended from a proximal end of a raised piece on one surface of a base material disposed so as to abut at least one of a cathode side separator and the anode side separator, and setting an interval between the anode side separator and the cathode side separator along a lamination direction so that deformation of the raised piece exceeds an elastic deformation region and enters a plastic deformation region, and is also in a region in which the proximal end moved due to the deformation does not come in contact with the cathode side separator or the anode side separator.
US09960429B2	Iron compound particles, method for producing the iron compound particles, and oxidation catalyst using the iron compound particles Iron compound particles comprise a β-FeOOH crystal phase and a metal element other than Fe with which the β-FeOOH crystal phase is doped, whereinthe metal element other than Fe is at least one metal element selected from the group consisting of elements of Al as well as 3d and 4d transition metals belonging to periodic table Groups 4 to 12 other than Fe,an atomic ratio of the metal element other than Fe to the Fe element (metal element other than Fe/Fe element) is 0.001 to 0.5, andthe iron compound particles satisfy at least one of the following requirements (A) and (B): (A) having a crystallite diameter of 1 to 60 nm when measured by X-ray diffraction; and (B) having an average particle diameter of 1 to 600 nm when measured by dynamic light scattering in a solvent.
US09960427B2	Conductive material for lithium secondary battery and electrode for lithium secondary battery including the same The present invention relates to a conductive material for a secondary battery, including a pitch coated graphene sheet, an anode for a secondary battery including the same, and a lithium secondary battery including the electrode.
US09960421B2	Sulfur-containing composite for lithium-sulfur battery, a process for preparing said composite, and the electrode material and lithium-sulfur battery comprising said composite The present invention relates to a sulfur-containing composite with a core-shell structure for lithium-sulfur battery, wherein the substrate of the core contains macropores and/or mesopores and optionally micropores, and the substrate of the shell is a microporous coating layer; as well as a process for preparing said sulfur-containing composite, an electrode material and a lithium-sulfur battery comprising said sulfur-containing composite.
US09960420B2	Lithium-sulfur battery cathode material and method for making the same A method for making a lithium-sulfur battery cathode material includes steps of providing a carbon nanotube source; providing sulfur and a first solvent; adding the carbon nanotube source and the sulfur into the first solvent, and ultrasonically agitating the first solvent to form a first suspension. A second solvent is added during an agitation process to form a second suspension and the first solvent and the second solvent are removed from the second suspension. The present disclosure also relates to a lithium-sulfur battery cathode material obtained by the method.
US09960419B2	Cathode active material, secondary battery comprising the same, and method of manufacturing the positive active material A positive active material including: a core comprising a metal oxide, a non-metal oxide, or a combination thereof capable of intercalation and deintercalation of lithium ions or sodium ions; and a non-conductive carbonaceous film including oxygen on at least one portion of a surface of the core; a lithium battery including the positive active material; and a method of manufacturing the positive active material.
US09960414B2	Lithium ion secondary battery, electric tool, electric vehicle, and power storage system A lithium ion secondary battery includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and an electrolytic solution. The positive electrode contains a lithium composite oxide. The negative electrode contains a material including at least one of silicon Si and tin Sn as a constituent element. The lithium composite oxide includes lithium Li having a composition ratio a, a first element having a composition ratio b, and a second element having a composition ratio c as a constituent element. The first element including two kinds or more selected from among manganese Mn, nickel Ni, and cobalt Co, and including at least manganese. The second element including at least one kind selected from among aluminum Al, titanium Ti, magnesium Mg, and boron B. The composition ratios a to c satisfy the relationships of 1.1b+c.
US09960412B2	Electrode active material with low moisture retention and lithium secondary battery including the same The present invention is directed to a lithium secondary battery comprising an anode comprising an anode active material, a cathode comprising a cathode active material, and a polymer membrane, wherein the polymer membrane is disposed between the cathode and the anode, wherein the anode active material comprises a mixture of at least two kinds of lithium metal oxide particles having different mass median particle diameters D50, wherein the lithium metal oxide particles are secondary particles comprising primary particles, the mixture comprises first lithium metal oxide particles having a mass median particle diameter D50 of 1 nm to less than 3 μm, second lithium metal oxide particles having a mass median particle diameter D50 of 3 μm to 30 μm, and a mix ratio of the first lithium metal oxide particles to the second lithium metal oxide particles is 70:30 to 30:70.
US09960409B2	Apparatus for manufacturing electrode for lithium ion secondary battery Provided is an apparatus for manufacturing an electrode for a lithium ion secondary battery that makes it possible to form a more uniform active material layer by using granulated particles. The manufacturing apparatus includes: a conveying mechanism, a supply unit, a squeegee, an adjustment unit, and rolling rolls. The conveying mechanism conveys a collector. The supply unit supplies granulated particles, including active material particles and a binder, onto the surface of the conveyed collector. The squeegee levels the supplied granulated particles. The adjustment unit is disposed upstream of the squeegee. The adjustment unit controls the accumulation height of the granulated particles accumulated upstream of the squeegee. The rolling rolls roll the leveled granulated particles and form the active material layer.
US09960408B2	Secondary cell manufacturing method A secondary cell manufacturing method includes the steps of: disposing a cap including a magnetic body so as to cover a liquid injection hole provided in a lid member; disposing the lid member so as to cover an opening of an outer case; and bringing close to each other the magnetic body and a magnetic body that applies a magnetic force to the magnetic body, and so holding the position of the cap that is disposed to cover the liquid injection hole by the magnetic force applied from the magnetic body to the magnetic body.
US09960402B2	Process of manufacturing a battery system assembly using the battery system assembly press A method of manufacturing a battery pack is disclosed. The method includes placing first and second sets of battery cells in first and second battery cell holders of a battery system assembly press, placing a cooling duct in a gap between the first and second sets of battery cells, and applying a first and second forces to the first and second sets of battery cells to cause the first and second sets of battery cells to respectively press against first and second sides of the cooling duct. The method also includes, while applying the first and second forces, placing the first and second plurality of battery cells in a first tray configured to hold the first and second plurality of battery cells.
US09960398B2	Power supply apparatus A power supply apparatus that supplies electric power to an external electrical device through a cable is provided with a battery pack, and a battery pack case that houses the battery pack. The battery pack case includes a case body having an opening through which the battery pack to be taken in and out, a cover member that liquid-tightly closes the opening of the case body, in which at least one of the case body and the cover member is formed with a ventilation hole so as to penetrate therethrough, and a filter apparatus that does not allow liquid to pass therethrough but allows gas to pass therethrough is provided in the ventilation hole.
US09960395B2	Battery module A battery module having a first battery cell; a frame member having first and second sides and first, second, third and fourth peripheral walls; and first and second thermally conductive plate members is provided. A plurality of flow channels are formed by the first and second thermally conductive plates. The third peripheral wall has a first outlet that receives the first electrical terminal of the first battery cell therethrough, such that if the first battery cell outputs gases therefrom the first outlet routes the gases from the first battery cell to outside of the frame member such that the gases are isolated from the air flowing through the plurality of flow channels.
US09960393B2	Battery and seal unit A battery disclosed herein includes a container member housing an electrode body and a lead, a gasket, an external terminal, and a restraining member. The container member includes a terminal-connecting part having a thickness of 0.3 mm or less. The terminal-connecting part includes a through hole including a rising part. The gasket includes a hollow shaft inserted into the rising part. The external terminal includes a terminal shaft. The terminal shaft includes a diameter-reduction part. The restraining member restrains at least a part of the diameter-reduction part of the terminal shaft via the diameter-reduction part of the rising part and the shaft of the gasket. The inclination angle of the rising part is larger than the inclination angle of the terminal shaft.
US09960389B1	Polymeric films and display devices containing such films Polymeric films, which may be adhesive films, and display devices including such polymeric films, wherein a polymeric film includes: a first polymeric layer having two major surfaces, wherein the first polymeric layer includes a first polymeric matrix and particles. The first polymeric layer includes: a first polymeric matrix having a refractive index n1; and particles having a refractive index n2 uniformly dispersed within the first polymeric matrix; wherein the particles are present in an amount of less than 30 vol-%, based on the volume of the first polymeric layer, and have a particle size range of 400 nanometers (nm) to 3000 nm; and wherein n1 is different than n2.
US09960386B2	OLED device having enhancement layer(s) A method for improving the operation of an OLED includes maximizing on-radiative transfer of excited state energy from the OLED's organic emissive material to surface plasmon polaritons in an enhancement layer by providing the enhancement layer no more than a threshold distance away from the organic emissive layer; and emitting light into free space from the enhancement layer by scattering the energy from the surface plasmon polaritons through an outcoupling layer that is provided proximate to the enhancement layer but opposite from the organic emissive layer.
US09960385B2	Organic EL display device Due to insufficient moisture inside a panel it may take a long time for a screening. An organic EL display device includes a light emitting region including a lower electrode, an organic EL layer, and an upper electrode, a barrier film formed so as to cover the light emitting region, and a moisture retaining film which is formed on the barrier film and is moisture retentive.
US09960382B2	Organic electroluminescence element, display panel, and method for manufacturing organic electroluminescence element Disclosed is an organic electroluminescence element that can provide uniform light emission over the entire surface and also can reduce the risk of short circuit and leakage. An organic electroluminescence element 10 according to the present invention includes a substrate 1, a first electrode 2, a second electrode 5, an organic layer 4 including a light-emitting layer, and an auxiliary wiring layer 3. The first electrode 2, the organic layer 4, and the second electrode 5 are laminated on one surface of the substrate 1 in this order. The organic layer 4 is connected electrically to both the electrodes. The auxiliary wiring layer 3 is arranged at a position where the auxiliary wiring layer 3 is not in contact with the organic layer 4. The auxiliary wiring layer 3 is connected electrically to the second electrode 5 and is not in contact with the first electrode 2.
US09960379B2	White organic light emitting device Disclosed is a white organic light emitting device for enhancing emission efficiency and a color viewing angle or a color reproduction rate. The white organic light emitting device includes a first emission part between a first electrode and a second electrode, the first emission part having a first emission layer, a second emission part on the first emission part, the second emission part having a second emission layer, and a third emission part on the second emission part, the third emission part having a third emission layer. At least two emission layers of the first to third emission layers emit lights having a same color to enhance emission efficiency and a color viewing angle, and the at least two emission layers are adjacent to each other.
US09960377B2	Color filter substrate and fabrication method thereof, OLED structure, related display panel, and related display device The present disclosure provides a color filter substrate used in an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) or liquid crystal (LC) display structure for improving a contrast ratio and light output. The color filter substrate includes a substrate; a color filter layer comprising a plurality of pixel units; and a reflective metallic matrix comprising a plurality of reflective metallic matrix elements surrounding each pixel unit.
US09960374B1	Stripping method of flexible substrate The present invention provides a stripping method of a flexible substrate, comprising: providing a porous metal substrate; forming a buffer layer on the porous metal substrate; forming a flexible substrate on the buffer layer; putting the flexible substrate in the electrolytic tank so that the part of the porous metal substrate is immersed in the electrolyte, and the porous metal substrate is employed to be a cathode electrified to electrolyze water in the electrolyte, and the porous metal substrate will releases the hydrogen, and the flexible substrate and the buffer layer are stripped from the porous metal substrate with the acting force of the hydrogen to obtain the flexible substrate with the buffer layer at the bottom. The method is high efficient and without damaging to promote the production yield of the flexible substrate.
US09960370B2	Organic light-emitting device and display apparatus Provided is an organic light-emitting device improved in emission efficiency and lifetime. The organic light-emitting device includes a pair of electrodes and an organic compound layer disposed between the pair of electrodes, in which: the organic compound layer includes a benzo[f]isoquinoline iridium complex of a specific structure and a hydrocarbon compound of a specific structure; and the hydrocarbon compound is a compound formed only of an SP2 carbon atom and a hydrogen atom.
US09960368B2	Heterocyclic compound Provided is a novel heterocyclic compound which can be used for a light-emitting element, as a host material of a light-emitting layer in which a light-emitting substance is dispersed. A heterocyclic compound represented by a general formula (G1) is provided. In the formula, A represents any of a substituted or unsubstituted dibenzothiophenyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted dibenzofuranyl group, and a substituted or unsubstituted carbazolyl group, R11 to R19 separately represent any of hydrogen, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group having 6 to 13 carbon atoms, and Ar represents a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group having 6 to 13 carbon atoms.
US09960363B2	Organic electroluminescent element The present invention provides an organic electroluminescent element which comprises: an anode; a cathode; and an organic layer interposed between the anode and the cathodes, wherein the organic layer comprises one or more types of layer from the group consisting of a hole-injection layer, hole-transport layer, light-emitting layer, lifetime enhancement layer, electron-transport layer, and electron-injection layer.
US09960361B2	Organic light-emitting device An organic light-emitting device having low-driving voltage, improved efficiency, and long lifespan includes: a first electrode; a second electrode facing the first electrode; a first layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, the first layer including a first compound; a second layer between the first layer and the second electrode, the second layer including a second compound; and a third layer between the second layer and the second electrode, the third layer including a third compound; wherein the first compound does not include a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group comprising ═N—′ as a ring forming moiety, and wherein the first compound, the second compound, and the third compound each independently include at least one group selected from groups represented by Formulae A to C:
US09960360B2	Organic electroluminescent device using aryl amine derivative containing heterocycle An organic electroluminescent device including: an anode, a cathode, an emitting layer formed of an organic compound and interposed between the cathode and the anode, and two or more layers provided in a hole-injecting/hole-transporting region between the anode and the emitting layer; of the layers which are provided in the hole-injecting/hole-transporting region, a layer which is in contact with the emitting layer containing a compound represented by the formula (1); and of the layers which are provided in the hole-injecting/hole-transporting region, a layer which is interposed between the anode and the layer which is in contact with the emitting layer containing an amine derivative represented by the formula (2).
US09960352B2	Method of doping an organic semiconductor and doping composition A method of forming a n-doped semiconductor layer wherein a film comprising an organic semiconductor and an n-dopant reagent is irradiated by light having a wavelength that is within an absorption range of the organic semiconductor, and wherein an absorption maximum wavelength of the n-dopant precursor is shorter than any peak wavelength of the light. The n-doped semiconductor layer may be an electron-injection layer of an organic light-emitting device.
US09960348B2	In-situ annealing to improve the tunneling magneto-resistance of magnetic tunnel junctions Embodiments are directed to a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) memory cell that includes a reference layer formed from a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) reference layer and an interfacial reference layer. The MTJ further includes a free layer and a tunnel barrier positioned between the interfacial reference layer and the free layer. The tunnel barrier is configured to enable electrons to tunnel through the tunnel barrier between the interfacial reference layer and the free layer. A first in-situ alignment is provided between a tunnel barrier lattice structure of the tunnel barrier and an interfacial reference layer lattice structure of the interfacial reference layer. A second in-situ alignment is provided between the tunnel barrier lattice structure of the tunnel barrier and a free layer lattice structure of the free layer. The PMA reference layer lattice structure is not aligned with the interfacial reference layer lattice structure.
US09960345B2	Two-dimensional array of four-terminal thin film devices with surface-sensitive conductor layer and method of fabricating the same A technique relates to a semiconductor device. First metal contacts are formed on top of a substrate. The first metal contacts are arranged in a first direction, and the first metal contacts are arranged such that areas of the substrate remain exposed. Insulator pads are positioned at predefined locations on top of the first metal contacts, such that the insulator pads are spaced from one another. Second metal contacts are formed on top of the insulator pads, such that the second metal contacts are arranged in a second direction different from the first direction. The first and second metal contacts sandwich the insulator pads at the predefined locations. Surface-sensitive conductive channels are formed to contact the first metal contacts and the second metal contacts. Four-terminal devices are defined by the surface-sensitive conductive channels contacting a pair of the first metal contacts and contacting a pair of the metal contacts.
US09960344B2	Method for producing a thin film made of lead zirconate titanate The invention relates to a method for producing the thin film made of lead zirconate titanate in a 111-oriented perovskite structure, comprising the following steps: providing a substrate having a substrate temperature above 450° C. and a lead target, a zirconium target, and a titanium target; applying the thin film by sputtering lead, zirconium, and titanium from the respective targets onto the substrate, wherein the total deposition rate of lead, zirconium, and titanium is greater than 10 nm/min, the deposition rate of zirconium is selected in such a way that the atomic concentration of zirconium with respect to the atomic concentration of zirconium together with titanium in the thin film is between 0.2 and 0.3, and the deposition rate of lead is selected to be sufficiently low, depending on the substrate temperature and the total deposition rate of lead, zirconium, and titanium, for an X-ray diffractometer graph of the 111-oriented lead zirconate titanate to have a significant peak value (19) in a diffraction angle range from 33 to 35.5°; and completing the thin film.
US09960342B2	Piezoelectric polymer composite material A piezoelectric polymer composite material includes piezoelectric particles dispersed in a matrix made from a polymer material. The piezoelectric particles is composed primarily of lead zirconate titanate having a general formula of Pb(ZrxTi1−x)O3 and each of the piezoelectric particles contains a mixture of tetragonal crystals and rhombohedral crystals.
US09960337B2	Thermoelectric converter A thermoelectric converter includes a battery box, an outer box and a connecting ring. The battery box has a bottom case, a battery disposed in the bottom case, a battery circuit board electrically connected to the battery, and an application circuit board disposed at one end of the bottom case. The outer box has a heat sink surrounding and covering the battery box, a thermoelectric module electrically connected to the battery circuit board with the thermoelectric module electrically connected to the battery through the battery circuit board, a heat conducting plate overlying the thermoelectric module and configured to conduct thermal energy from ambient environment to the thermoelectric module for the thermoelectric module to absorb the thermal energy and convert the thermal energy to electricity, and a non-metal adiabatic frame surrounding the thermoelectric module and configured to prevent the thermal energy from being dissipated to the ambient environment.
US09960334B2	Thermoelectric materials and their manufacturing method Disclosed is a thermoelectric material with excellent thermoelectric conversion performance. The thermoelectric material is expressed by Chemical Formula 1 below: CuxSe1-yXy where X is at least one element selected from the group consisting of F, Cl, Br and I, 2
US09960329B2	LED packages using highly reflective die attach material and enhanced reflective substrates Methods and apparatus are provided to improve long-term reliability of LED packages using reflective opaque die attach (DA) material. In one novel aspect, a protected area surrounding edges of the LED is determined. The DA is applied to the determined protected area by a dispense process, a stamping process, or a screen printing process, such that the effect of temperature degradation is reduced. A heat distribution model is used to determine the protected area, which is between edges of the LED and a predefined isothermal line where the temperature is 1/e that of the temperature at edges of the LED. In another embodiment, the protected area is further based on a spreading ratio of the substrate size to the LED size. In another novel aspect, with multiple LEDs in the LED package, the spreading ratio is further based on pitch distances to the immediate adjacent LEDs and the substrate boundary.
US09960326B2	Light emitting device A light emitting device includes a base substrate having a recessed portion at a flat upper surface thereof. The recessed portion has an inner wall. A sealing member is provided in the recessed portion. The sealing member contains surface-treated particles, or particles coexisting with a dispersing agent. The particles have a particle diameter of 1 nm or more and 100 μm or less. The particles are made of an organic material or an inorganic material. The organic material and the inorganic material are free of a phosphor. The at least a part of an edge portion of the sealing member is a region located in the vicinity of an edge of the recessed portion which is a boundary between a surface of the inner wall and the flat upper surface. The at least one of the particles and aggregates of particles are unevenly distributed in the region.
US09960322B2	Solid state lighting devices incorporating notch filtering materials Solid state lighting devices include one or more notch filtering materials arranged to filter light emissions to exhibit a spectral notch. At least one notch filtering material may be arranged in at least one coating deposited directly on an emitter chip or on a lumiphoric material that itself is coated or otherwise deposited on an emitter chip. A notch filtering material may be combined with a lumiphoric material. Emissions of a resulting lighting device may include a CRI Ra value of at least 80 and a GAI value in a range of from 75 to 100 or from 80 to 100.
US09960320B2	Semiconductor light emitting device According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a semiconductor layer, a first metal pillar, a second metal pillar, and an insulating layer. The semiconductor layer includes a first surface, a second surface, and a light emitting layer. The first metal pillar is electrically connected to the second surface. The first metal pillar includes first and second metal layers. The first metal layer is provided between the second surface and at least a part of the second metal layer. The second metal pillar is arranged side by side with the first metal pillar, and electrically connected to the second surface. The second metal pillar includes third and fourth metal layers. The third metal layer is provided between the second surface and at least a part of the fourth metal layer. The insulating layer is provided between the first and second metal pillars.
US09960317B2	Method for manufacturing display device A lamination includes a sheet substrate and a display element layer. The sheet substrate includes a plurality of product regions cut out into a plurality of products and a blank region surrounding the product regions. The display element layer is formed on each of a plurality of display areas placed on each of the plurality of product regions for displaying an image. The sheet substrate adheres to a top of a substrate. The substrate has light transmissivity. A protective film is adhered to the lamination so as to cover the display areas. A divider line is formed in a blank region that surrounds the product regions by removing a portion of the lamination. The substrate is removed from the sheet substrate by irradiating the sheet substrate with a laser beam.
US09960312B2	Apparatus and methods for fast chemical electrodeposition for fabrication of solar cells The invention relates generally to electrodeposition apparatus and methods. When depositing films via electrodeposition, where the substrate has an inherent resistivity, for example, sheet resistance in a thin film, methods and apparatus of the invention are used to electrodeposit materials onto the substrate by forming a plurality of ohmic contacts to the substrate surface and thereby overcome the inherent resistance and electrodeposit uniform films. Methods and apparatus of the invention find particular use in solar cell fabrication.
US09960311B1	Illuminated address panel An illuminated address display for a building and residence having a housing with a front wall with an inclined upper portion and vertical lower portion, solar cells on the inclined upper portion and a group of small rectangular panels suspended from the lower portion of the housing. On the small rectangular housing there is an address identifier consisting of alphanumeric digits which disclose the address of the residence or building. The alphanumeric digits have segments which extend through the panels and are backlit by light emitting diodes which are mounted on a removable cover on the bottom of the housing. Inside of the housing are batteries and a solar charge controller to prevent overcharging of the batteries and an “on/off” switch.
US09960309B2	Photoelectronic device including charge barrier A photoelectronic device includes a semiconductor substrate doped with a first type impurity, a second semiconductor layer doped with a second type impurity of an opposite type to the first type impurity, a transparent electrode formed on a second surface of the second semiconductor layer, the second surface being opposite a first surface on which the semiconductor substrate is formed, and a barrier layer disposed between the second semiconductor layer and the semiconductor substrate or between the second semiconductor layer and the transparent electrode. The second semiconductor layer has a band gap energy less than that of the semiconductor substrate, and the barrier layer includes a semiconductor material or an insulator having a band gap greater than that of the semiconductor substrate.
US09960308B2	Photoelectric conversion element A number of micro-sized rectangular dot-like n-type semiconductor regions 121 are created in a p-type semiconductor region which is a base body 11. Contact parts 14, each of which is in contact with one n-type semiconductor region 121 and almost entirely covers the same region, are mutually connected by a wire part 15 as a common cathode terminal. The n-type semiconductor regions 121 receives no light; their function is to collect carriers generated within and outside the surrounding depletion layers. Appropriate setting of the spacing of the n-type semiconductor regions 121 enables efficient collection of the carriers generated in the p-type semiconductor region while improving the SN ratio of the photo-detection signal by a noise-reduction effect due to a decrease in the p-n junction capacitance. Carriers originating from light of shorter wavelengths are barely reflected in the photo-detection signal. Thus, unfavorable influences of the shorter wavelengths of light are eliminated.
US09960303B2	Sunlight concentrating and harvesting device Device for concentrating and harvesting sunlight comprising: A panel having rigid layer having a patterned electrical circuit thereon. An array of sunlight concentrating and harvesting units, each unit being formed by at least one rigid element and a portion of the rigid layer; and including: a rigid optical concentrating element, a photovoltaic cell sandwiched within the panel for converting sunlight into electrical energy, and an electrical conductor. The electrical conductor being the primary heat sink for the photovoltaic cell, the photovoltaic cell being primarily cooled via conduction. The electrical conductor and the optical concentrating element being dimensioned and arranged within the unit such that the electrical conductor does not materially impede transmission of sunlight to the photovoltaic cell. The electrical conductor transmitting electrical and thermal energy received from the photovoltaic cell away from the unit.
US09960297B2	Optical cladding layer design Embodiments of the invention describe apparatuses, optical systems, and methods related to utilizing optical cladding layers. According to one embodiment, a hybrid optical device includes a silicon semiconductor layer and a III-V semiconductor layer having an overlapping region, wherein a majority of a field of an optical mode in the overlapping region is to be contained in the III-V semiconductor layer. A cladding region between the silicon semiconductor layer and the III-V semiconductor layer has a spatial property to substantially confine the optical mode to the III-V semiconductor layer and enable heat dissipation through the silicon semiconductor layer.
US09960296B2	Solar energy collecting module A solar energy collecting system includes a substrate and at least one solar chip. The substrate includes a first surface, a second surface and a plurality of lateral surfaces, wherein the first surface faces the second surface, the lateral surfaces are adjacent to the first and second surfaces, and a first micro structure is formed on the first or the second surface. The solar chip is near one of the lateral surfaces. Solar light penetrates the first and the second surface and is refracted or reflected by the first micro structure to leave the substrate via the lateral surface and be absorbed by the solar chip.
US09960290B2	Solar cell and solar cell panel including the same A solar cell is disclosed. The disclosed solar cell includes a semiconductor substrate, a conductive region disposed in or on the semiconductor substrate, and an electrode including a plurality of finger lines connected to the conductive region, and formed to extend in a first direction while being parallel, and 6 or more bus bar lines formed to extend in a second direction crossing the first direction. Each bus bar line has a width of 35 to 350 μm at at least a portion thereof. Each bus bar line has a distance between opposite ends thereof in the second direction smaller than a distance between outermost ones of the finger lines respectively disposed at opposite sides in the second direction.
US09960287B2	Solar cells and methods of fabrication thereof A passivation layer is deposited on a first portion of a region of the solar cell. A grid line is deposited on a second portion of the region. The passivation layer is annealed to drive chemical species from the passivation layer to deactivate an electrical activity of a dopant in the first portion of the region of the solar cell.
US09960284B2	Semiconductor structure including a varactor A semiconductor structure includes a varactor and a field effect transistor. The varactor includes a body region that includes a semiconductor material and a first gate structure over the body region. The body region is doped to have a first conductivity type. The first gate structure includes a first gate insulation layer and a first work function adjustment metal layer. The field effect transistor includes a source region, a channel region, a drain region and a second gate structure over the channel region. The source region and the drain region are doped to have a second conductivity type that is opposite to the first conductivity type. The second gate structure includes a second gate insulation layer and a second work function adjustment metal layer. The first work function adjustment metal layer and the second work function adjustment metal layer include substantially the same metal.
US09960281B2	Metal oxide thin film transistor with source and drain regions doped at room temperature Thin film transistors are provided that include a metal oxide active layer with source and drain regions having a reduced resistivity relative to the metal oxide based on doping of the source and drain regions at room temperature. In an aspect, a transistor structure is provided, that includes a substrate, and source and drain regions within a doped active layer having resulted from doping of an active layer comprising metal-oxide and formed on the substrate, wherein the doped active layer was doped at room temperature and without thermal annealing, thereby resulting in a reduction of a resistivity of the source and drain regions of the doped active layer relative to the active layer prior to the doping. In an aspect, the source and drain regions have a resistivity of about 10.0 mΩ·cm after being doped with stable ions and without subsequent activation of the ions via annealing.
US09960277B2	Method for producing semiconductor device A method for producing a semiconductor device includes a first step of forming a first insulating film around a fin-shaped semiconductor layer on a semiconductor substrate; a second step of forming a second insulating film, depositing a first polysilicon, planarizing the first polysilicon, forming a third insulating film, forming a second resist, and forming a pillar-shaped semiconductor layer, a first dummy gate, and a first hard mask; and a third step of forming a fourth insulating film, depositing a second polysilicon, planarizing the second polysilicon, etching back the second polysilicon, depositing a sixth insulating film, forming a fourth resist, forming a second hard mask, forming a third hard mask, forming a second dummy gate, and forming a first dummy contact on the fin-shaped semiconductor layer.
US09960275B1	Method of fabricating air-gap spacer for N7/N5 finFET and beyond Embodiments disclosed herein relate to an improved transistor with reduced parasitic capacitance. In one embodiment, the transistor device includes a three-dimensional fin structure protruding from a surface of a substrate, the three-dimensional fin structure comprising a top surface and two opposing sidewalls, a first insulating layer formed on the two opposing sidewalls of the three-dimension fin structure, a sacrificial spacer layer conformally formed on the first insulating layer, wherein the sacrificial spacer layer comprises an aluminum oxide based material or a titanium nitride based material, and a second insulating layer conformally formed on the sacrificial spacer layer.
US09960272B1	Bottom contact resistance reduction on VFET Embodiments are directed to a method and resulting structures for a vertical field effect transistor (VFET) having a reduced bottom contact resistance. A multilayered bottom doped region having alternating doped layers and doped sacrificial layers is formed on a substrate. One or more cavities are formed by removing portions of the doped sacrificial layers. A bottom contact is formed over the multilayered bottom doped region. The bottom contact includes one or more conductive flanges that fill the cavities.
US09960262B2	Group III—nitride double-heterojunction field effect transistor A semiconductor structure having a buffer layer, a pseudomorphic, impurity doped, back-barrier layer disposed on the buffer layer, a channel layer disposed on the back-barrier layer, the channel layer lattice matched to the buffer layer, and a top barrier layer disposed on the channel layer. A Group III-Nitride transition layer is disposed between the buffer layer and the pseudomorphic back-barrier layer. The buffer layer and the pseudomorphic back-barrier layer are both Group III-Nitride materials. The Group III-Nitride material of the buffer layer is different from the Group III-Nitride material in the back-barrier layer. The back-barrier layer has a wider bandgap of than the buffer layer bandgap. The composition of the Group III-Nitride material in the transition layer varies from the composition of the Group III-Nitride material in the buffer layer to the composition of the Group III-Nitride material in the pseudomorphic back-barrier layer as a function of distance from the buffer layer.
US09960260B2	Metal oxide thin film transistor and a preparation method thereof A Metal Oxide Thin Film Transistor (MOTFT) and a preparation method thereof are provided. The preparation method includes the following steps in turn: Step a: a metal conductive layer is prepared and patterned as a gate on a substrate; Step b: a first insulating thin film is deposited as a gate insulating layer on the metal conductive layer; Step c: a metal oxide thin film is deposited and patterned as an active layer on the gate insulating layer; Step d: an organic conductive thin film is deposited as a back channel etch protective layer on the active layer; Step e: a metal layer is deposited on the back channel etch protective layer and then patterned as pattern of a source electrode and a drain electrode; Step f: a second insulating thin film is deposited as a passivation layer on the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US09960259B2	Semiconductor device, method for manufacturing same, power conversion device, three-phase motor system, automobile, and railway carriage An object of the present invention is to provide high-performance highly-reliable power semiconductor device.The semiconductor device according to the present invention is provided with a semiconductor substrate of a first conductive type, a drain electrode formed on a back side of the semiconductor substrate, a drift layer of the first conductive type formed on a semiconductor substrate, a source area of the first conductive type, a current-diffused layer of the first conductive type electrically connected to the drift layer, a body layer of a second conductive type reverse to the first conductive type in contact with the source area and the current-diffused layer, a trench which pierces the source area, the body layer and the current-diffused layer, which is shallower than the body layer, and the bottom of which is in contact with the body layer, a gate insulating film formed on an inner wall of the trench, a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film, and a gate insulating film protective layer formed between the current-diffused layer and the gate electrode.
US09960256B2	Merged gate and source/drain contacts in a semiconductor device Provided are approaches for forming merged gate and source/drain (S/D) contacts in a semiconductor device. Specifically, one approach provides a dielectric layer over a set of gate structures formed over a substrate; a set of source/drain (S/D) openings patterned in the dielectric layer between the gate structures; a fill material formed over the gate structures, including within the S/D openings; and a set of gate openings patterned over the gate structures, wherein a portion of the dielectric layer directly adjacent the fill material formed within one of the S/D openings is removed. The fill material is then removed, selective to the dielectric layer, and a metal material is deposited over the semiconductor device to form a set of gate contacts within the gate openings, and a set of S/D contacts within the S/D openings, wherein one of the gate contacts and one of the S/D contacts are merged.
US09960254B1	Replacement metal gate scheme with self-alignment gate for vertical field effect transistors A method is presented for forming a semiconductor structure. The method includes forming a fin structure over a substrate, forming a dummy gate over the fin structure, and etching the dummy gate by a first amount to expose a top portion of the fin structure. The method further includes forming a first dielectric layer adjacent the exposed top portion of the fin structure, forming a spacer adjacent the first dielectric layer contacting the fin structure, and etching the dummy gate by a second amount. The method further includes depositing a second dielectric layer to encapsulate the remaining dummy gate, depositing an inter-level dielectric (ILD) over the second dielectric layer, depositing at least one hard mask to access the dummy gate, stripping the dummy gate to form at least one recess, and filling the at least one recess with a high-k metal gate (HKMG).
US09960248B2	Fin-based RF diodes Methods for forming a fin-based RF diode with improved performance characteristics and the resulting devices are disclosed. Embodiments include forming fins over a substrate, separated from each other, each fin having a lower portion and an upper portion; forming STI regions over the substrate, between the lower portions of adjacent fins; implanting the lower portion of each fin with a first-type dopant; implanting the upper portion of each fin, above the STI region, with the first-type dopant; forming a junction region around a depletion region and along exposed sidewalls and a top surface of the upper portion of each fin; and forming a contact on exposed sidewalls and a top surface of each junction region.
US09960246B2	Semiconductor structure with insertion layer and method for manufacturing the same A semiconductor structure and a method for forming the same are provided. The semiconductor structure includes a substrate, an interfacial layer formed over the substrate, and an insertion layer formed over the interfacial layer. The semiconductor structure further includes a gate dielectric layer formed over the insertion layer and a gate structure formed over the gate dielectric layer. The insertion layer and the gate dielectric layer may be metal oxides where the insertion layer has an oxygen coordination number greater than the gate dielectric layer.
US09960243B2	Semiconductor device with stripe-shaped trench gate structures and gate connector structure A semiconductor device includes a transistor cell with a stripe-shaped trench gate structure that extends from a first surface into a semiconductor body. A gate connector structure at a distance to the first surface is electrically connected to a gate electrode in the trench gate structure. A gate dielectric separates the gate electrode from the semiconductor body. First sections of the gate dielectric outside a vertical projection of the gate connector structure are thinner than second sections within the vertical projection of the gate connector structure.
US09960238B2	Nanopillar field-effect and junction transistors with functionalized gate and base electrodes Systems and methods for molecular sensing are described. Molecular sensors are described which are based on field-effect or bipolar junction transistors. These transistors have a nanopillar with a functionalized layer contacted to either the base or the gate electrode. The functional layer can bind molecules, which causes an electrical signal in the sensor.
US09960237B2	Termination structure with multiple embedded potential spreading capacitive structures for trench MOSFET A termination structure with multiple embedded potential spreading capacitive structures (TSMEC) and method are disclosed for terminating an adjacent trench MOSFET atop a bulk semiconductor layer (BSL) with bottom drain electrode. The BSL has a proximal bulk semiconductor wall (PBSW) supporting drain-source voltage (DSV) and separating TSMEC from trench MOSFET. The TSMEC has oxide-filled large deep trench (OFLDT) bounded by PBSW and a distal bulk semiconductor wall (DBSW). The OFLDT includes a large deep oxide trench into the BSL and embedded capacitive structures (EBCS) located inside the large deep oxide trench and between PBSW and DBSW for spatially spreading the DSV across them. In one embodiment, the EBCS contains interleaved conductive embedded polycrystalline semiconductor regions (EPSR) and oxide columns (OXC) of the OFLDT, a proximal EPSR next to PBSW is connected to an active upper source region and a distal EPSR next to DBSW is connected to the DBSW.
US09960235B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device including a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type, a plurality of base regions of a second conductivity type formed on a first principal surface of the semiconductor substrate via a semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type, and a plurality of source regions of the first conductivity type formed in the base regions. Each base region, in a top-down view from an angle perpendicular to the first principle surface, is of a polygonal shape. Each adjacent two of the base regions in the top-down view have two sides, one from each of the two base regions, that face each other across a portion of the semiconductor layer, the source region being formed at only one of the two sides.
US09960231B2	Standard cell architecture for parasitic resistance reduction A MOS IC may include a first contact interconnect in a first standard cell that extends in a first direction and contacts a first MOS transistor source and a voltage source. Still further, the MOS IC may include a first double diffusion break extending along a first boundary in the first direction of the first standard cell and a second standard cell. The MOS IC may also include a second contact interconnect extending over a portion of the first double diffusion break. In an aspect, the second contact interconnect may be within both the first standard cell and the second standard cell and coupled to the voltage source. Additionally, the MOS IC may include a third contact interconnect extending in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction and couples the first contact interconnect and the second contact interconnect together.
US09960230B2	Silicon-carbide transistor device with a shielded gate A SIC transistor device includes a silicon-carbide semiconductor substrate having a plurality of first doped regions laterally spaced apart from one another and beneath a main surface of the substrate, a second doped region extending from the main surface to a third doped region that is above the first doped regions, and a plurality of fourth doped regions in the substrate extending from the main surface to the first doped regions. The second doped region has a first conductivity type. The first, third and fourth doped regions have a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type. A gate trench extends through the second and third doped regions. The gate trench has sidewalls, a bottom and rounded corners between the bottom and the sidewalls.
US09960228B2	Wide gap semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same A wide gap semiconductor device comprises a first conductive-type semiconductor layer (32); a second conductive-type region (41), (42) that is provided on the first conductive-type semiconductor layer (32); a first electrode (1), of which a part is disposed on the second conductive-type region (41), (42) and the other part is disposed on the first conductive-type semiconductor layer (32); an insulating layer (51), (52), (53) that is provided adjacent to the first electrode (10) on the first conductive-type semiconductor layer (32) and that extends to an end part of the wide gap semiconductor device; and a second electrode (20) that is provided between the first electrode (10) and the end part of the wide gap semiconductor device and that forms a schottky junction with the first conductive-type semiconductor layer (32).
US09960226B2	High density capacitor structure and method High density capacitor structures based on an array of semiconductor nanorods are provided. The high density capacitor structure can be a plurality of capacitors in which each of the semiconductor nanorods serves as a bottom electrode for one of the plurality of capacitors, or a large-area metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor in which the semiconductor nanorods serve as a support structure for a bottom electrode of the MIM capacitor subsequently formed.
US09960225B2	Manufacturing method of power storage device It is an object to improve performance of a power storage device, such as cycle characteristics. A power storage device includes a current collector and a crystalline semiconductor layer including a whisker, which is formed on and in close contact with the current collector. Separation of the crystalline semiconductor layer is suppressed by an increase of adhesion, whereby cycle characteristics in which a specific capacity of a tenth cycle number with respect to a first cycle number is greater than or equal to 90% is realized. In addition, cycle characteristics in which a specific capacity of a hundredth cycle number with respect to a first cycle number is greater than or equal to 70% is realized.
US09960223B2	Active-matrix display device An active-matrix display device according to the present disclosure includes a plurality of pixels. Each of the pixels includes: a drive transistor disposed on a substrate; and an organic EL element that is caused by the drive transistor to emit light and includes an AM layer disposed above the substrate and a transparent electrode layer disposed above the AM layer. The active-matrix display device further includes: a source line that supplies data to the pixels; and a power supply line that supplies electric power to the pixels. The power supply line is shared by, among the plurality of pixels, two pixels that are adjacent to each other in a second direction that crosses a first direction in which the power supply line is extended. The source line and the AM layer are disposed not to overlap each other in a plan view of the substrate.
US09960214B2	OLED display panel and manufacture method thereof The present invention discloses an OLED display panel, comprising a substrate; a photochromic layer, being formed on the substrate, and comprising photochromic material which changes from transparent to opaque under excitation of light; a transparent anode, formed at one side of the photochromic layer away from the substrate; an emission layer, formed at one side of the transparent anode away from the photochromic layer, and employed to emit light, and the light comprises a wavelength employed to excite the photochromic material; and a semitransparent cathode, formed at one side of the emission layer away from the transparent anode, and employed to pass a portion of the light and reflect the other portion of the light. The OLED display panel of the present invention has the longer micro cavity total optical distance. The present invention further discloses a manufacture method of an OLED display panel.
US09960213B2	Input and output device having touch sensor element as input device and display device A flexible input and output device in which defects due to a crack is reduced. The input and output device includes a first flexible substrate, a second flexible substrate, a first buffer layer, a first crack inhibiting layer, an input device, and a light-emitting element. A first surface of the first flexible substrate faces a second surface of the second flexible substrate. The first buffer layer, the first crack inhibiting layer, and the input device are provided on the first surface side of the first flexible substrate. The first buffer layer includes a region overlapping with the first crack inhibiting layer. The first buffer layer is between the first crack inhibiting layer and the first surface. The input device includes a transistor and a sensor element. The light-emitting element is provided on the second surface side of the second flexible substrate.
US09960204B2	Waveguide and semiconductor packaging A method and apparatus for integrating individual III-V MMICs into a micromachined waveguide package is disclosed. MMICs are screened prior to integration, allowing only known-good die to be integrated, leading to increased yield. The method and apparatus are used to implement a micro-integrated Focal Plane Array (mFPA) technology used for sub millimeter wave (SMMW) cameras, although many other applications are possible. MMICs of different technologies may be integrated into the same micromachined package thus achieving the same level of technology integration as in multi-wafer WLP integration.
US09960203B2	Radiation sensor The present disclosure relates to a radiation sensor. In one implementation, the sensor may include a radiation detector array having a plurality of pixels; at least two readout connectors having a plurality of contacts, each readout connector being configured for receiving a readout module; a routing circuit having conductors configured for routing electrical signals from each of the plurality of pixels to a corresponding contact of one of the readout connectors. The plurality of pixels is grouped in two or more groups of pixels, at least two pixels of a first group of pixels being separated by at least one pixel from another group of pixels. The routing circuit is configured for leading pixels of the first group of pixels to a first readout connector, and pixels from the other group of pixels to a second readout connector.
US09960202B2	Solid-state imaging device, method of manufacturing a solid-state imaging device, and electronic apparatus Disclosed is a solid-state imaging device including a plurality of pixels and a plurality of on-chip lenses. The plurality of pixels are arranged in a matrix pattern. Each of the pixels has a photoelectric conversion portion configured to photoelectrically convert light incident from a rear surface side of a semiconductor substrate. The plurality of on-chip lenses are arranged for every other pixel. The on-chip lenses are larger in size than the pixels. Each of color filters at the pixels where the on-chip lenses are present has a cross-sectional shape whose upper side close to the on-chip lens is the same in width as the on-chip lens and whose lower side close to the photoelectric conversion portion is shorter than the upper side.
US09960199B2	Dielectric mirror based multispectral filter array An optical sensor device may include a set of optical sensors. The optical sensor device may include a substrate. The optical sensor device may include a multispectral filter array disposed on the substrate. The multispectral filter array may include a first dielectric mirror disposed on the substrate. The multispectral filter array may include a spacer disposed on the first dielectric mirror. The spacer may include a set of layers. The multispectral filter array may include a second dielectric mirror disposed on the spacer. The second dielectric mirror may be aligned with two or more sensor elements of a set of sensor elements.
US09960197B1	Molded image sensor chip scale packages and related methods Implementations of a molded image sensor chip scale package may include an image sensor having a first side and a second side. A first cavity wall and a second cavity wall may be coupled to the first side of the image sensor and extend therefrom. The first cavity wall and the second cavity wall may form a cavity over the image sensor. A transparent layer may be coupled to the first cavity wall and the second cavity wall. A redistribution layer (RDL) may be coupled to the second side of the image sensor. At least one interconnect may be directly coupled to the RDL. A mold material may encapsulate a portion of the RDL, a portion of the image sensor, and a side of each cavity wall, and a portion of the transparent layer.
US09960195B2	Method for manufacturing TFT backplane and structure of TFT backplane The present invention provides method for manufacturing a TFT backplane and a structure of a TFT backplane. The method includes (1) forming a gate terminal (2) and a first metal electrode M1 on a substrate (1); (2) sequentially forming a gate insulation layer (3), a semiconductor layer, and an etch stop layer on the gate terminal (2), the first metal electrode M1, and the substrate (1) in a successive manner and applying a photolithographic operation to form an island-like semiconductor layer (4) and an island-like etch stop layer (5); (3) applying a photolithographic operation to patternize the island-like etch stop layer (5) and the gate insulation layer (3) to form a plurality of etch stop layer vias (51) and a gate insulation layer via (31); (4) forming source/drain terminals (6) and a second metal electrode M2; (5) forming a passivation protection layer (7); (6) forming a planarization layer (8); (7) forming a pixel electrode layer (9); (8) forming a pixel definition layer (10); and (9) forming a spacer pillar (11).
US09960188B2	Thin film transistor, array substrate, and fabrication method there of, and display apparatus A thin film transistor comprises a source over a substrate; a first insulation layer having a source contact through-hole corresponding to a position of the source over the source; an active layer electrically connecting with the source through the source contact through-hole over the etching stop layer; a second insulation layer having a drain contact through-hole exposing a portion of the active layer over the active layer; and a drain electrically connecting with the active layer through the drain contact through-hole over the second insulation layer.
US09960187B2	Electrical connection structure and thin film transistor array substrate including electrical connection structure An electrical connection structure providing better optical properties in a display includes an electrical connection unit, an interference layer, and an electrically insulating cover. The interference layer is positioned on a side of the electrical connection unit. The electrically insulating cover is positioned on the other side of the electrical connection unit and formed to cover the electrical connection unit. The electrical connection unit includes a metal layer to reflect light. The interference layer can reflect light falling on a first region close to the electrically insulating cover. A degree of reflectance of the first region of the interference layer is equal to the reflectance of the metal layer.
US09960185B2	Base and manufacturing method thereof, display device A base and a manufacturing method thereof and a display device are provided, so that a problem of faultage of an insulating layer when forming the insulating layer on an aluminum electrode of a substrate is solved. The base includes an aluminum electrode in a first setting pattern on a substrate, and an aluminum oxide layer or an aluminum nitride layer (3) in a second setting pattern provided in a same layer with the aluminum electrode. The first setting pattern and the second setting pattern are complementary to each other.
US09960183B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including: preparing a substrate in which an insulating layer, a semiconductor layer, and an insulating film are laminated on a semiconductor substrate, and a device isolation region is embedded in a trench. The insulating film in a bulk region is removed; the semiconductor layer in the bulk region is removed; and thereafter the insulating film in the SOI region and the insulating layer in the bulk region are thinned. An impurity is implanted into the semiconductor substrate in the SOI region, and thereafter the insulating film in the SOI region and the insulating layer in the bulk region are removed.
US09960178B2	Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing same According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a stacked body and a column. The stacked body includes a plurality of electrode layers. The column includes a semiconductor channel, a charge storage film, and a doped silicon layer. The semiconductor channel extends in the stacking direction. The semiconductor channel is a polycrystalline. An average grain size of crystals in a polycrystalline is not less than a film thickness of the semiconductor channel. The charge storage film is provided between the semiconductor channel and the electrode layers. The doped silicon layer contains a metal element and an impurity other than a metal element. The doped silicon layer is in contact with a top end of the semiconductor channel.
US09960175B2	Field effect transistor memory device A method for generating a non-volatile memory device may comprise: applying plasma for a preset time period to an exposed surface of a channel of a field effect transistor such that a plurality of charge-trapping sites are formed at the channel. The channel is comprised of a multi-layer structure of atomically thin two-dimensional sheets.
US09960174B2	Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer; an electrode layer; a first insulating film; a charge storage film; and a second insulating film. The first insulating film is provided between the electrode layer and the semiconductor layer. The charge storage film is provided between the first insulating film and the electrode layer. The charge storage film includes a charge trapping layer and a floating electrode layer. The floating electrode layer includes doped silicon. The second insulating film is provided between the floating electrode layer and the electrode layer.
US09960170B1	Methods of fabricating memory devices Methods of fabricating a memory device are provided. The methods may include forming a mask pattern including line-shaped portions that are parallel to each other and extend on a first region of a substrate. The mask pattern may extend on a second region of the substrate. The methods may also include forming word line regions in the first region using the mask pattern as a mask, forming word lines in the word line regions, respectively, and removing the mask pattern from the second region to expose the second region. The mask pattern may remain on the first region after removing the mask pattern from the second region. The methods may further include forming a channel epitaxial layer on the second region while using the mask pattern as a barrier to growth of the channel epitaxial layer on the first region.
US09960169B2	Methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, mask patterns are formed on a semiconductor substrate. An organic layer is formed on the semiconductor substrate to cover the mask patterns. An upper portion of the organic layer is planarized using a polishing composition. The polishing composition includes an oxidizing agent and is devoid of abrasive particles.
US09960168B2	Capacitor strap connection structure and fabrication method Structures and methods for deep trench capacitor connections are disclosed. The structure includes a reduced diameter top portion of the capacitor conductor. This increases the effective spacing between neighboring deep trench capacitors. Silicide or additional polysilicon are then deposited to complete the connection between the deep trench capacitor and a neighboring transistor.
US09960166B2	Method of operating semiconductor memory device with floating body transisor using silicon controlled rectifier principle Methods of operating semiconductor memory devices with floating body transistors, using a silicon controlled rectifier principle are provided, as are semiconductor memory devices for performing such operations. A method of maintaining the data state of a semiconductor dynamic random access memory cell is provided, wherein the memory cell comprises a substrate being made of a material having a first conductivity type selected from p-type conductivity type and n-type conductivity type; a first region having a second conductivity type selected from the p-type and n-type conductivity types, the second conductivity type being different from the first conductivity type; a second region having the second conductivity type, the second region being spaced apart from the first region; a buried layer in the substrate below the first and second regions, spaced apart from the first and second regions and having the second conductivity type; a body region formed between the first and second regions and the buried layer, the body region having the first conductivity type; and a gate positioned between the first and second regions and adjacent the body region. The memory cell is configured to store a first data state which corresponds to a first charge in the body region in a first configuration, and a second data state which corresponds to a second charge in the body region in a second configuration. The method includes: providing the memory cell storing one of the first and second data states; and applying a positive voltage to a substrate terminal connected to the substrate beneath the buried layer, wherein when the body region is in the first state, the body region turns on a silicon controlled rectifier device of the cell and current flows through the device to maintain configuration of the memory cell in the first memory state, and wherein when the memory cell is in the second state, the body region does not turn on the silicon controlled rectifier device, current does not flow, and a blocking operation results, causing the body to maintain the second memory state.
US09960160B2	Method of forming a single metal that performs N work function and P work function in a high-k/metal gate process The present disclosure describes a semiconductor device. The device includes a semiconductor substrate, an isolation structure formed in the substrate for isolating a first active region and a second active region, a first transistor formed in the first active region, the first transistor having a high-k gate dielectric layer and a metal gate with a first work function formed over the high-k gate dielectric layer, and a second transistor formed in the second active region, the second transistor having the high-k gate dielectric layer and a metal gate with a second work function formed over the high-k gate dielectric layer. The metal gates are formed from at least a single metal layer having the first work function and the second work function.
US09960145B2	Flip chip module with enhanced properties A flip chip module having at least one flip chip die is disclosed. The flip chip module includes a carrier having a top surface with a first mold compound residing on the top surface. A first mold compound is disposed on the top surface of the carrier. A first thinned flip chip die resides over a first portion of the first mold compound with interconnects extending through the first portion to the top surface wherein the first portion of the mold compound fills a region between the first flip chip die and the top surface. A second mold compound resides over the substrate and provides a first recess over the first flip chip die wherein the first recess extends to a first die surface of the first flip chip die. A third mold compound resides in the first recess and covers an exposed surface of the flip chip die.
US09960144B2	Method for heating a metal member, method for bonding heated metal members, and apparatus for heating a metal member A heating method includes an oxide film forming step and a heating step. The thickness of an oxide film is set in a first range that includes a first maximal thickness and a second maximal thickness and that is smaller than a second minimal thickness in the relationship with the laser absorption having a periodic profile. The first maximal thickness corresponds to a first maximal value a of the laser absorption. The second maximal thickness corresponds to a second maximal value of the laser absorption. The second minimal thickness corresponds to a second minimal value of the laser absorption, namely the minimal value of the laser absorption that appears between the second maximal value and a third maximal value, or the maximal value of the laser absorption that appears subsequent to the second maximal value.
US09960143B2	Method for manufacturing electronic component and manufacturing apparatus of electronic component A method for manufacturing an electronic component includes positioning a first surface of a first component facing a second surface of a second component in a first state. The first surface has a first pad having a first center. The second surface has a second pad having a second center. At least one of the first or second pads includes a metal member. The method includes melting the metal member and moving the first and second components until the melted metal member contacts both pads, moving at least one of the first or second components in a direction along the first surface, and solidifying the metal member in a second state. A first distance in a direction along the first surface between the first and second centers in the first state is longer than a second distance in the direction between the first and second centers in the second state.
US09960134B2	Semiconductor device and bump formation process A semiconductor device includes a solder bump overlying and electrically connected to a pad region, and a metal cap layer formed on at least a portion of the solder bump. The metal cap layer has a melting temperature greater than the melting temperature of the solder bump.
US09960128B2	Fan-out semiconductor package A fan-out semiconductor package includes: a first interconnection member having a through-hole; a semiconductor chip disposed in the through-hole and having an active surface having connection pads disposed thereon and an inactive surface opposing the active surface; an encapsulant encapsulating at least portions of the first interconnection member and the inactive surface of the semiconductor chip; a second interconnection member disposed on the first interconnection member and the active surface of the semiconductor chip; and a passivation layer disposed on the second interconnection member. The first interconnection member and the second interconnection member include, respectively, redistribution layers electrically connected to the connection pads of the semiconductor chip, the second interconnection member includes an insulating layer on which the redistribution layer of the second interconnection member is disposed, and the passivation layer has a modulus of elasticity greater than that of the insulating layer of the second interconnection member.
US09960126B2	Semiconductor device According to the present invention, a semiconductor device includes a heat spreader, a semiconductor chip fixed to a mounting surface of the heat spreader via a bonding member and sealing resin that covers the heat spreader and the semiconductor chip, wherein a groove is formed on the mounting surface around the semiconductor chip, a length between the semiconductor chip and the groove is equal to or greater than a depth of the groove, and the bonding member is not provided on at least part of a region of the mounting surface between the semiconductor chip and the groove.
US09960123B2	Method of forming semiconductor structure with aligning mark in dicing region The present invention provides a method of forming a semiconductor structure. A wafer with a dicing region is provided, the dicing region comprises a central region, a middle region surrounds the central region, and a peripheral region surrounds the middle region. Next, an aligning mark is formed in the dicing region, wherein the aligning mark is a mirror symmetrical pattern and comprises a plurality of second patterns in the middle region and a plurality of third patterns in the third region, each third pattern has a plurality of lines and the lines comprises a plurality of inner lines which are formed by a sidewall image transfer (SIT) process.
US09960122B2	Composite device with substrate and mounted component A composite device includes a substrate and a mounted component mounted on a surface of, or inside, the substrate. The substrate includes a first thermoplastic resin layer. A surface of the mounted component includes a second thermoplastic resin layer that includes a same or a similar material as that of the first thermoplastic resin layer. A bonding layer that bonds the second thermoplastic resin layer and the first thermoplastic resin layer together is provided between the second thermoplastic resin layer and the first thermoplastic resin layer.
US09960121B2	Semiconductor device having conductive via and manufacturing process for same In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor die or chip, a package body and a through package body via. The semiconductor chip includes a plurality of conductive pads. The package body encapsulates a sidewall of the semiconductor chip, and has at least one hole formed therein having a sidewall which is of a prescribed first surface roughness value. The through package body via is disposed in the hole of the package body and comprises a dielectric material and at least one conductive interconnection metal. The dielectric material is disposed on the sidewall of the hole and defines at least one bore having a sidewall which is of a second surface roughness value less than the first surface roughness value. The interconnection metal is disposed within the bore.
US09960120B2	Wiring substrate with buried substrate having linear conductors A wiring substrate includes a buried substrate disposed within a through-hole penetrating through a resin substrate of a core layer and including a plate-like body and a plurality of linear conductors penetrating the plate-like body, a first insulating layer covering a first surface of the resin substrate, a first wiring layer including a first pad pattern formed on a first surface of the buried substrate and a first wiring pattern formed on a first surface of the first insulating layer, and a third wiring pattern formed on the first surface of the resin substrate and covered by the first insulating layer. In the plurality of linear conductors, a gap between the adjacent linear conductors is smaller than a diameter of each of the linear conductors. The third wiring pattern is formed so as to have a thickness thicker than a thickness of the first wiring pattern.
US09960117B2	Air gap semiconductor structure with selective cap bilayer A semiconductor substrate including one or more conductors is provided. A first layer and a second layer are deposited on the top surface of the conductors. A dielectric cap layer is formed over the semiconductor substrate and air gaps are etched into the dielectric layer. The result is a bilayer cap air gap structure with effective electrical performance.
US09960116B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof A resistor whose characteristic value can be changed without requiring a photolithography process again is provided. The resistor includes a plurality of first resistor units which is connected serially to each other and a second resistor unit which is connected in parallel to part of the first resistor units. Then, after the measurement of a semiconductor integrated circuit, the second resistor unit is electrically disconnected as necessary. The first resistor units may be either a unit including a single resistor or may be a unit including a plurality of resistors.
US09960115B1	Heat dissipation and series resistance reduction of PA and RF switch in SLT by backside thick metal Methods of forming a SOI PA and RF switch device having a thin BOX layer in the PA power cell region and a thick metal layer directly under the thin BOX layer and the resulting device are provided. Embodiments include providing a SOI structure having a substrate, BOX, device and metallization layers; bonding a handling layer to the metallization layer; removing the substrate; forming a passivation oxide layer over the BOX; forming first and second trenches through the passivation, BOX, and device layers down to the metallization layer; forming a third trench through the passivation layer and a portion of the BOX above a PA power cell region of the SOI structure, a thin portion of the BOX remaining; forming a first backside contact in the first trench; and forming a second backside contact in the second and third trenches and over a portion of the passivation oxide layer.
US09960113B2	Method to fabricate a high performance capacitor in a back end of line (BEOL) A method can include applying a patterned mask over a semiconductor structure, the semiconductor structure having a dielectric layer, forming using the patterned mask a material formation trench intermediate first and second spaced apart metal formations formed in the dielectric layer, and disposing a dielectric material formation in the material formation trench.
US09960112B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device comprising: a substrate; a decoupling capacitor disposed on the substrate; a first connection pad vertically overlapping with the decoupling capacitor; a passivation layer exposing a portion of the first connection pad; and a first solder bump disposed on the first connection pad and covering a portion of a top surface of the passivation layer.
US09960111B2	Mechanisms for forming metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor structure A method for forming a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor structure is provided. The method includes providing a substrate and forming an interconnect structure over the substrate. The interconnect structure includes a top metal layer, and wherein the top metal layer includes a first portion and a second portion. The method includes forming an insulating layer on the first portion of the top metal layer; and forming a metal pad on the insulating layer. The metal pad includes a first portion and a second portion, the MIM capacitor is constructed by the first portion of the top metal layer, the insulating layer and the first portion of the metal pad, and the second portion of the metal pad directly contacts the first portion of the metal pad and the second portion of the top metal layer.
US09960107B2	Package substrate, method for fabricating the same, and package device including the package substrate A package substrate including an insulating layer having a top surface and a bottom surface opposite to the top surface, at least one first copper pattern disposed in the insulating layer and adjacent to the top surface of the insulating layer, at least one second copper pattern disposed on the bottom surface of the insulating layer, and at least one embedded aluminum pad disposed on the at least one first copper pattern, the at least one embedded aluminum pad disposed in the insulating layer such that a top surface of the at least one embedded aluminum pad is exposed by the insulating layer may be provided.
US09960094B2	Packaged semiconductor components having substantially rigid support members and methods of packaging semiconductor components Packaged semiconductor components having substantially rigid support member are disclosed. The packages can include a semiconductor die and a support member proximate to the semiconductor die. The support member is at least substantially rigid. The packages can further include an adhesive between the support member and the semiconductor die and adhesively attaching the support member to the semiconductor die. The packages can also include a substrate carrying the semiconductor die and the support member attached to the semiconductor die.
US09960093B2	Packaging structure, packaging method and template used in packaging method Disclosed are a packaging structure, a packaging method and a template used in packaging method. The packaging structure comprises: a substrate; a chip mounted on the substrate; bonding wires for electrically connecting the substrate to the chip; and a protective layer which is formed on the substrate and is used for covering the chip, the bonding wires and bonding pads connected to the bonding wires, the size of the protective layer being smaller than that of the substrate. The packaging structure, the packaging method and the template used in packaging method can solve the problems in the prior art of the great difficulty in designing a mold chase, a complicated molding process, a high manufacturing cost and a high molding material consumption.
US09960090B2	Display panel and method of manufacturing the same A display panel includes first and second test lines connected to the each of data lines, extending in the second direction, and arranged in the first direction, a first test pad electrically connected to the first test line, the first test pad and the first test line being formed from a same layer, and a second test pad electrically connected to the second test line through a contact hole formed through a first insulation layer and disposed adjacent to the first test pad in the second direction.
US09960087B2	Fabrication of thin-film encapsulation layer for light emitting device An ink jet process is used to deposit a material layer to a desired thickness. Layout data is converted to per-cell grayscale values, each representing ink volume to be locally delivered. The grayscale values are used to generate a halftone pattern to deliver variable ink volume (and thickness) to the substrate. The halftoning provides for a relatively continuous layer (e.g., without unintended gaps or holes) while providing for variable volume and, thus, contributes to variable ink/material buildup to achieve desired thickness. The ink is jetted as liquid or aerosol that suspends material used to form the material layer, for example, an organic material used to form an encapsulation layer for a flat panel device. The deposited layer is then cured or otherwise finished to complete the process.
US09960086B2	Methods, apparatus and system for self-aligned retrograde well doping for finFET devices At least one method, apparatus and system are disclosed for forming a fin field effect transistor (finFET) having doping region self-aligned with a fin reveal position. A plurality of fins of a transistor is formed. A nitride cap layer on the plurality of fins is formed. An N-type doped region in a first portion of the plurality of fins. A P-type doped region in a second portion of the plurality of fins. A shallow trench isolation (STI) fill process for depositing an STI material on the plurality of fins. A fin reveal process for removing the STI material to a predetermined level. A cap strip process for removing the nitride cap layer for forming a fin reveal position that is self-aligned with the P-type and N-type doped regions.
US09960085B2	Multiple patterning techniques for metal gate The present disclosure relates to an integrated circuit with a work function metal layer disposed directly on a high-k dielectric layer, and an associated method of formation. In some embodiments, the integrated circuit is formed by forming a first work function metal layer directly on a high-k dielectric layer. Then the first work function metal layer is patterned to be left within a first gate region of a first device region and to be removed within a second gate region of a second device region. Thereby, the first work function metal layer is patterned directly on the high-k dielectric layer, using the high-k dielectric layer as an etch stop layer, and the patterning window is improved.
US09960083B1	Method for fabricating semiconductor device First, a substrate having a first region and a second region is provided, a first gate structure is formed on the first region and a second gate structure is formed on the second region, an interlayer dielectric (ILD) layer is formed around the first gate structure and the second gate structure, and the first gate structure and the second gate structure are removed to expose the substrate on the first region and the second region. Next, part of the substrate on the first region is removed to form a first recess and part of the substrate on the second region is removed to form a second recess, in which the depths of the first recess and the second recess are different. Next, a first metal gate is formed on the first region and a second metal gate is formed on the second region.
US09960081B1	Method for selective etching using dry film photoresist A method for selective etching using a dry film photoresist includes forming an opening through a substrate from a first surface to expose a stop layer at a second surface of the substrate. A material layer is formed over an inner surface of the opening and over the stop layer. The dry film photoresist is applied over the first surface of the substrate and over the opening. A second photoresist is applied on the dry film photoresist. First and second aligned holes are formed in the second photoresist and the dry film photoresist, respectively. The holes are approximately centered over the opening and are smaller in diameter than the opening so that a composite structure of the dry film photoresist and the second photoresist overhangs edges of the opening. The material layer is removed from the stop layer by etching via the first and second holes.
US09960078B1	Reflow interconnect using Ru A method for forming conductive structures for a semiconductor device includes depositing a reflow liner on walls of trenches formed in a dielectric layer and depositing a reflow material on the reflow liner. The reflow material is reflowed to collect in a lower portion of the trenches. The depositing and the reflowing steps are repeated until the trenches are aggregately filled with the reflow material. The reflow material is planarized to form conductive structures in the trenches.
US09960076B2	Devices with backside metal structures and methods of formation thereof A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming trenches filled with a sacrificial material. The trenches extend into a semiconductor substrate from a first side. An epitaxial layer is formed over the first side of the semiconductor substrate and the trenches. From a second side of the semiconductor substrate opposite to the first side, the sacrificial material in the trenches is removed. The trenches are filled with a conductive material.
US09960075B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuit device Using an STI insulating film in a high breakdown voltage MOSFET leads to deterioration in reliability due to impact ionization near the bottom corner of a drain isolation insulating film. The invention provides a method of manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit device including forming a hard mask film, an opening therein, and a sidewall insulating film on the side surface thereof; forming a shallow trench in the opening with the hard mask film as a mask and oxidizing at least an exposed portion; filling the trench with an insulating film and then removing it so as to leave it outside the trench in the opening and thereby forming a drain offset STI insulating film inside and outside the trench; and forming a gate electrode extending from the upper portion of a gate insulating film in an active region contiguous thereto to the upper portion of the drain offset insulating film.
US09960070B2	Chucking warped wafer with bellows A vacuum chuck has at least one suction assembly that pulls a wafer surface toward a chucking surface. The suction assembly may be used with a wafer that is warped. A suction force engages a pad of a suction assembly with the wafer surface and retracts a bellows of the suction assembly. As the bellows retracts and draws the wafer surface closer to the chucking surface, the suction force provided by the vacuum chuck can pull the wafer flat.
US09960067B2	Electrostatic chuck According to an aspect of an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an electrostatic chuck including: a ceramic dielectric substrate including a first major surface for mounting a clamped target, a second major surface on opposite side from the first major surface, and a through hole provided from the second major surface to the first major surface; a metallic base plate supporting the ceramic dielectric substrate and including a gas feed channel communicating with the through hole; and an insulator plug including a ceramic porous body provided in the gas feed channel and a ceramic insulating film provided between the ceramic porous body and the gas feed channel and being denser than the ceramic porous body, the ceramic insulating film biting into the ceramic porous body from a surface of the ceramic porous body.
US09960064B2	Substrate storing container The lateral substrate support part has: a plurality of plate parts, which have a parallel positional relationship, and support end portions of a plurality of substrates; and a plate-part support part, which supports the plate part, and is fixed to a side wall. The plate-part support part has: a groove-forming portion having a groove formed therein, said groove linearly extending over the whole plate parts in the direction intersecting the plate parts; a protrusion, which is formed in the groove, and which protrudes such that the protrusion reduces the width of the groove in the direction orthogonal to the direction in which the groove extends; and a positioned part that is formed at a center portion of the groove in the direction in which the groove extends.
US09960063B2	Substrate transport apparatus and substrate transport method An apparatus for transporting a substrate includes a base, a holding device which retracts relative to the base and holds multiple substrates in multiple stages, respectively, a detection device including three detection components such that the three detection components are positioned to detect peripheries of the substrates held by the holding device from different positions, respectively, and a control device including circuitry which estimates a position of the substrates based on detection result of the detection device, calculates an amount of shifting between a base position and an estimated position of the substrates, determines whether a calculated amount of shifting is within a threshold value, and executes transport of the substrates held by the holding device when the calculated amount of shifting is determined to be within the threshold value.
US09960060B2	Platen assembly A platen assembly includes a base and a clamping layer fixed to the base. A portion of the base that faces the clamping layer and a portion of the clamping layer that faces the base define a gap between the base and the clamping layer. The gap is configured to circulate a fluid during a first operating mode and provide a thermal break during a second operating mode. The platen assembly is capable of operating over a wide temperature range.
US09960059B2	Honeycomb heaters for integrated circuit manufacturing A honeycomb heater includes a lamp housing having an outer edge that forms a partial circle. The lamp housing has an opening extending from a top surface to a bottom surface of the lamp housing. The opening further extends from the outer edge into a center region of the lamp housing. A plurality of lamps is distributed throughout the lamp housing, and is configured to emit light out of the top surface of the lamp housing.
US09960058B2	Device and method for treating substrate surfaces A device and method for treatment of a substrate treatment surface of a substrate with a fluid by immersion of the substrate treatment surface into the fluid. The device includes: receiving means for receiving the fluid with an immersion opening and immersion means for immersion of the substrate treatment surfaces through the immersion opening into the receiving means, Rotation means are provided for rotation of the receiving means for at least predominant discharge of the fluid from the receiving means.
US09960056B2	Substrate cleaning method, substrate cleaning apparatus and vacuum processing system In order to remove a deposit adhered to the backside of the peripheral portion of a wafer, a cleaning gas containing carbon dioxide gas is set to a pressure that is slightly lower than the pressure corresponding to a vapor pressure line of carbon dioxide at a temperature in the nozzle, and a gas cluster of carbon dioxide is generated. A gas cluster of carbon dioxide generated under such a condition is in a state immediately prior to undergoing a phase change to a liquid and therefore is a gas cluster having a large cluster diameter and having molecules that are firmly solidified.
US09960052B2	Methods for etching a metal layer to form an interconnection structure for semiconductor applications Embodiments of the present invention provide methods for patterning a metal layer, such as a copper layer, to form an interconnection structure in semiconductor devices. In one embodiment, a method of patterning a metal layer on a substrate includes (a) supplying an etching gas mixture comprising a hydro-carbon gas into a processing chamber having a substrate disposed therein, the substrate having a metal layer disposed thereon, (b) exposing the metal layer to an ashing gas mixture comprising a hydrogen containing gas to the substrate, and (c) repeatedly performing steps (a) and (b) until desired features are formed in the metal layer. During the patterning process, the substrate temperature may be controlled at greater than 50 degrees Celsius.
US09960046B2	Methods of manufacturing semiconductor device having a blocking insulation layer A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming insulation layers and sacrificial layers that are alternately and repeatedly stacked on top of each other a substrate, forming a vertical hole that penetrates the insulation layers and the sacrificial layers, and forming a vertical channel structure in the vertical hole. The forming the vertical channel structure includes forming a blocking insulation layer, a charge storage layer, a tunnel insulation layer, and a semiconductor pattern. The forming the blocking insulation layer includes forming a first oxidation target layer, oxidizing the first oxidation target layer to form a first sub-blocking layer, and forming a second sub-blocking layer. The first sub-blocking layer is formed between the second sub-blocking layer and an inner sidewall of the vertical hole.
US09960044B2	Semiconductor device and methods for forming a semiconductor device A method for forming a semiconductor device includes implanting doping ions into a semiconductor substrate. A deviation between a main direction of a doping ion beam implanting the doping ions and a main crystal direction of the semiconductor substrate is less than ±0.5° during the implanting of the doping ions into the semiconductor substrate. The method further includes controlling a temperature of the semiconductor substrate during the implantation of the doping ions so that the temperature of the semiconductor substrate is within a target temperature range for more than 70% of an implant process time used for implanting the doping ions. The target temperature range reaches from a lower target temperature limit to an upper target temperature limit. The lower target temperature limit is equal to a target temperature minus 30° C., and the target temperature is higher than 80° C.
US09960042B2	Carbon dopant gas and co-flow for implant beam and source life performance improvement Ion implantation processes and systems are described, in which carbon dopant source materials are utilized to effect carbon doping. Various gas mixtures are described, including a carbon dopant source material, as well as co-flow combinations of gases for such carbon doping. Provision of in situ cleaning agents in the carbon dopant source material is described, as well as specific combinations of carbon dopant source gases, hydride gases, fluoride gases, noble gases, oxide gases and other gases.
US09960040B2	Manufacturing method of silicon carbide semiconductor device In producing a MOS silicon carbide semiconductor device, after a first heat treatment (oxynitride) is performed in an oxidation atmosphere including nitrous oxide or nitric oxide, a second heat treatment including hydrogen is performed, whereby in the front surface of a SiC epitaxial substrate, a gate insulating film is formed. A gate electrode is formed and after an interlayer insulating film is formed, a third heat treatment is performed to bake the interlayer insulating film. After contact metal formation, a fourth heat treatment is performed to form a reactive layer of contact metal and the silicon carbide semiconductor. The third and fourth heat treatments are performed in an inert gas atmosphere of nitrogen, helium, argon, etc., and a manufacturing method of a silicon carbide semiconductor device is provided achieving a normally OFF characteristic and lowered interface state density.
US09960037B2	Laser assisted SiC growth on silicon A method for forming a compound on a substrate is provided. The method includes depositing a composition onto a surface of a substrate; illuminating the composition and the substrate with pulsed energy; melting the substrate and decomposing the composition simultaneously; and forming a compound on the substrate. A first component of the compound is derived from the substrate and a second component of the compound is derived from the composition.
US09960035B2	Variable frequency microwave (VFM) processes and applications in semiconductor thin film fabrications Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are described herein. A vacuum multi-chamber deposition tool can include a degas chamber with both a heating mechanism and a variable frequency microwave source. The methods described herein use variable frequency microwave radiation to increased quality and speed of the degas process without damaging the various components.
US09960034B2	Method of forming a thin film that eliminates air bubbles A method, which forms an air-bubble-free thin film with a high-viscosity fluid resin, initially dispenses the fluid resin on an outer region of a semiconductor wafer while the semiconductor wafer is spinning, and then dispenses the fluid resin onto the center of the semiconductor wafer after the semiconductor wafer has stopped spinning.
US09960033B1	Method of depositing and etching Si-containing film A method of filling recesses or grooves on a patterned surface with a layer of film, by combining depositing a film by PEALD/PPECVD on the patterned surface and etching the film, wherein the deposition and the etching are separately controlled, and wherein the conditions for deposition can be controlled by controlling RF power.
US09960031B2	Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method In a plasma processing apparatus comprising a processing chamber arranged in a vacuum chamber, a sample stage arranged under the processing chamber and having its top surface on which a wafer to be processed is mounted, a vacuum decompression unit for evacuating the interior of the processing chamber to reduce the pressure therein, and introduction holes arranged above said sample stage to admit process gas into the processing chamber, the wafer having its top surface mounted with a film structure and the film structure being etched by using plasma formed by using the process gas, the film structure is constituted by having a resist film or a mask film, a poly-silicon film and an insulation film laminated in this order from top to bottom on a substrate and before the wafer is mounted on the sample stage and the poly-silicon film underlying the mask film is etched, plasma is formed inside the processing chamber to cover the surface of members inside the processing chamber with a coating film containing a component of Si.
US09960029B2	Apparatus and method for thermal assisted desorption ionization systems The present invention is directed to a method and device to desorb an analyte using heat to allow desorption of the analyte molecules, where the desorbed analyte molecules are ionized with ambient temperature ionizing species. In various embodiments of the invention a current is passed through a mesh upon which the analyte molecules are present. The current heats the mesh and results in desorption of the analyte molecules which then interact with gas phase metastable neutral molecules or atoms to form analyte ions characteristic of the analyte molecules.
US09960028B2	Systems and methods for analyzing a sample from a surface The invention generally relates to systems and methods for analyzing a sample from a surface. In certain aspects, the invention provides systems that include a sample introduction member that has an inlet, an outlet, and an opening along a wall of the sample introduction member. The sample introduction member may be configured such that the opening couples with a surface that includes a sample in a manner in which molecules of the sample enter the sample introduction member via the opening and exit the sample introduction member via the outlet. A mass spectrometer is configured to receive the molecules of the sample.
US09960026B1	Ion pump with direct molecule flow channel through anode An ultra-high vacuum (UHV) system includes a UHV cell and an ion pump to maintain the UHV in the UHV cell. The ion pump has a GCC (glass, ceramic, or crystalline) housing. An interior wall of the ion-pump housing serves as an anode or bears a coating that serves as an anode. At least one cathode is disposed with respect to the housing so that it can cooperate with the anode to form an electric field for establishing a Penning trap. The GCC housing defines a flow channel that extends radially through the anode so that a molecule can flow directly into the most ionizing region of a Penning trap.
US09960024B2	Biasable flux optimizer / collimator for PVD sputter chamber In some implementations described herein, a collimator that is biasable is provided. The ability to bias the collimator allows control of the electric field through which the sputter species pass. In some implementations of the present disclosure a collimator that has a high effective aspect ratio while maintaining a low aspect ratio along the periphery of the collimator of the hexagonal array of the collimator is provided. In some implementations, a collimator with a steep entry edge in the hexagonal array is provided. It has been found that use of a steep entry edge in the collimator reduces deposition overhang and clogging of the cells of the hexagonal array. These various features lead to improve film uniformity and extend the life of the collimator and process kit.
US09960022B2	Sputtering target with optimized performance characteristics The invention relates to a sputtering target containing a sputtering material containing a metal oxide. The sputtering material contains zirconium and titanium as metals and contains at least one mixed oxide phase.
US09960021B2	Physical vapor deposition (PVD) target having low friction pads Embodiments of target assemblies for use in substrate processing chambers are provided herein. In some embodiments, a target assembly includes a plate comprising a first side including a central portion and a support portion; a target disposed on the central portion; a plurality of recesses formed in the support portion; and a plurality of pads partially disposed in the plurality of recesses.
US09960019B2	Life enhancement of ring assembly in semiconductor manufacturing chambers The present invention generally relates to a ring assembly that may be used in an etching or other plasma processing chamber. The ring assembly generally includes an inner ring body having a top planar surface and a bottom planar surface, and an outer ring body having a top surface, a bottom surface substantially parallel to the top surface, and an inside surface that extends between the top surface and the bottom surface, the inside surface having a roof covering a portion of the inner ring body when the inner ring body is disposed adjacent the roof, wherein the inner ring body can be flipped into a different position so that a portion of the inner ring body that is not covered by the roof provides a substantially planar surface.
US09960015B2	Impedance-based adjustment of power and frequency Systems and methods for impedance-based adjustment of power and frequency are described. A system includes a plasma chamber for containing plasma. The plasma chamber includes an electrode. The system includes a driver and amplifier coupled to the plasma chamber for providing a radio frequency (RF) signal to the electrode. The driver and amplifier is coupled to the plasma chamber via a transmission line. The system further includes a selector coupled to the driver and amplifier, a first auto frequency control (AFC) coupled to the selector, and a second AFC coupled to the selector. The selector is configured to select the first AFC or the second AFC based on values of current and voltage sensed on the transmission line.
US09960014B2	Plasma etching method In the plasma etching method, a sample is placed on a stage in a chamber. A first gas is introduced into the chamber. Electric field is supplied within the chamber to plasma is generated from the first gas. A first RF power of a first frequency, which is for generating a bias voltage in the sample for etching the sample with radicals which are generated in the plasma while the plasma is generated, is supplied to the stage. A second gas is introduced from a position in outer periphery of a surface of the stage, on which the sample is placed. A second RF power of a second frequency higher than the first frequency and capable of generating plasma from the second gas above the stage that allows radicals generated in the plasma generated from the second gas to be supplied in the outer periphery, is supplied to the stage.
US09960012B2	Method for structuring an object and associated particle beam system A includes arranging a substrate in a working region of a first particle beam column and a second particle beam column; producing a desired target structure on the substrate by directing a first particle beam generated by the first particle beam column at a multiplicity of sites of the substrate to deposit material thereon or to remove material therefrom; repeatedly interrupting the production of the desired target structure and producing a marking on the substrate by directing the first particle beam onto the substrate and continuing the production of the desired target structure; and capturing positions of the markings on the substrate by directing a second particle beam produced by the second particle beam column onto the markings on the substrate, and detecting particles or radiation which are produced in the process by the second particle beam on the substrate.
US09960007B2	Electron beam irradiation device An electron beam irradiation device includes a stage, a main body unit, and a first mechanism. The main body unit includes a substrate, first members, and a first layer. The first members are arranged to be separated in a second direction intersecting a first direction and is provided at a first surface of the substrate opposing the stage. The first layer is provided between the stage and the first members and between the stage and the substrate. The first layer converts a light ray into an electron beam. The first mechanism is provided in the stage and moves the stage in the second direction. A distance of the movement is not less than a spacing between a center in the second direction of the first member and a center in the second direction of one other first member adjacent to the first member.
US09960001B2	Relay system A relay system is provided which is designed to avoid flow of inrush current through a capacitor in a pre-charge mode wherein the capacitor is pre-charged. The relay system includes a pair of power lines, a capacitor, a series-connected assembly, a control circuit, and a relay module. The relay module includes two main switches, a main coil, and a sub-coil. In the pre-charge mode, the control circuit energizes both the main and sub-coils to turn on only one of the main switches. Before entering the pre-charge mode, the control circuit diagnoses the sub-coil. When the sub-coil is determined as being malfunctioning, the control circuit inhibits the pre-charge mode from being entered.
US09959997B2	Remote controlled switch cover A light switch cover for converting a standard toggle switch into a remote-controlled toggle switch. In one embodiment, the light switch cover comprises a switch toggle member for acting upon a toggle light switch member to place the toggle light switch member into either an on position or an off position, a gear train coupled to the switch toggle member that causes the switch toggle member to act upon the toggle light switch member, an electric motor, coupled to the gear train, for driving the gear train in a first direction to cause the switch toggle member to place the toggle light switch member into the on position, and for driving the gear train in a second direction to cause the switch toggle member to place the toggle light switch member into the off position, motor driving circuitry coupled to the electric motor, a receiver for receiving signals that cause actuation of the standard toggle switch, and processing circuitry coupled to the receiver and the motor driving circuitry that causes the light switch cover to receive a signal to turn the toggle switch into the on position and, in response, causing the electric motor to rotate in a direction to cause the switch toggle member to place the toggle light switch member into the on position.
US09959994B1	Keyboard A keyboard includes a base plate, a pressure sensing layer, plural key structures, a circuit board, a flexible layer and a controlling unit. The pressure sensing layer is disposed on the base plate and located under the circuit board. The flexible layer is disposed on the pressure sensing layer and located under the circuit board. While a key structure is depressed, a part of the key structure is penetrated through the circuit board to press the flexible layer, and a force is transmitted from the flexible layer to the pressure sensing layer. The controlling unit compares the force with a predetermined force value. According to the comparing result, the controlling unit generates a corresponding pressure sensing signal. Consequently, the use of a single key structure can achieve the functions of multiple keys.
US09959993B2	Key connecting module The present invention relates to a key connecting module for triggering a switch circuit board, where the key connecting module includes a frame having a support structure, and a triggering assembly, and the triggering assembly is accommodated in the support structure and is moveable relative to the frame to trigger the switch circuit board. The triggering assembly includes a first combining part corresponding to a first keycap and a second combining part corresponding to a second keycap. When the key connecting module is connected to the first keycap, the first keycap is combined with the first combining part. When the key connecting module is connected to the second keycap, the second keycap is combined with the second combining part.
US09959992B1	Keyboard device A keyboard device includes a key structure, a base plate and a soft fixing element. The key structure includes a keycap and a stabilizer bar. The stabilizer bar is connected with the keycap and the soft fixing element. The soft fixing element is disposed on the base plate. The soft fixing element has an accommodation space. The stabilizer bar is inserted into the accommodation space, so that the stabilizer bar is connected with the base plate. After a fixing post of the soft fixing element is penetrated through a fixing hole of the base plate, the fixing post is thermally treated to form the hot melt fixing structure. Consequently, the soft fixing element is firmly fixed on the base plate. Since the metallic stabilizer bar and the metallic base plate are separated by the soft fixing element, the keyboard device is capable of reducing noise.
US09959987B2	Switch device and method for manufacturing switch device A switch device includes a housing having a case and a holding member, a moving member, a biasing member, a movable contact, a common fixed contact, a first switching fixed contact, a second switching fixed contact, extending portions, at least two terminal members, and resistors for obtaining the resistance value between two terminal members, and fixing portions to which the resistors are soldered. The holding member includes a bottom wall portion that covers the bottom of the case, and a holding wall portion holding the fixing portions. The holding wall portion is formed of a first synthetic resin material having heat resistance, and the bottom wall portion is made of a second synthetic resin material having a heat distortion temperature lower than that of the first synthetic resin material. A method for manufacturing a switch device includes a first molding step, a resistor mounting step, and a second molding step.
US09959984B2	Three-dimensional graphene composite, preparation method for the same, and supercapacitor comprising the same The present invention relates to a three-dimensional graphene composite, a preparation method for the same, and a supercapacitor including the same, and more particularly to a three-dimensional graphene composite including at least one electrode material nanoparticle selected from a transition metal hydroxide, a transition metal oxide and a conducting polymer as adsorbed onto the surface of a three-dimensional graphene foam, a preparation method for the three-dimensional graphene composite, and a supercapacitor including the three-dimensional graphene composite.
US09959982B2	Photoelectric conversion element and method for producing the same To provide a photoelectric conversion element being excellent in photoelectric conversion efficiency and stability of photoelectric conversion function, a method for producing the photoelectric conversion element, and a solar cell using the photoelectric conversion element. A photoelectric conversion element having a substrate, a first electrode, a photoelectric conversion layer containing a semiconductor and a sensitizing pigment, a hole transport layer having a conductive polymer, and a second electrode, wherein the hole transport layer is formed by bringing the photoelectric conversion layer into contact with a solution containing a conductive polymer precursor and an oxidizer at a ratio of 0.1<[Ox]/[M] (wherein [Ox] is the molar concentration of the oxidizer; and [M] is the molar concentration of the conductive polymer precursor), and irradiating the photoelectric conversion layer with light.
US09959979B2	Low ESR capacitor An improved capacitor is provided wherein the improved capacitor has improved ESR. The capacitor has a fluted anode and an anode wire extending from the fluted anode. A dielectric is on the fluted anode. A conformal cathode is on the dielectric and a plated metal layer is on the carbon layer.
US09959967B2	Magnetic devices and methods for manufacture using flex circuits Magnetic devices, and associated methods of manufacture, using flex circuits. Conductive flex circuit traces, or combinations of such traces with conductive printed circuit board or other substrate traces, form windings around toroidal ferromagnetic cores. Bending the flex circuit into a partial loop or a full loop forms partial or full windings respectively. Bonding or flow soldering electrically connects the windings together and to a printed circuit board or other substrate. The methods yield transformers with high conversion efficiency, are compatible with conventional printed circuit boards and readily available high-volume assembly equipment, and avoid the higher cost of manually made windings.
US09959965B2	Packaging structure of a magnetic device An inductor is disclosed, the inductor comprising: a T-shaped magnetic core, being made of a material comprising an annealed soft magnetic metal material and having a base and a pillar integrally formed with the base, wherein the volume of the base is V1 and the volume of the pillar is V2; a coil wound on the pillar; and a magnetic body encapsulating the pillar, the coil and a portion of the base, wherein the ratio of V1 to V2 (V1/V2) is configured in a pre-determined range so as to reduce the total core loss of the inductor with the equivalent permeability of the inductor being between 28.511 and 52.949.
US09959964B2	Thin film magnet inductor structure for high quality (Q)-factor radio frequency (RF) applications A thin film magnet (TFM) three-dimensional (3D) inductor structure may include a substrate with conductive vias extending through the substrate. The TFM 3D inductor structure may also include a magnetic thin film layer on at least sidewalls of the conductive vias and on a first side and an opposing second side of the substrate. The TFM 3D inductor structure may further include a first conductive trace directly on the magnetic thin film layer on the first side of the substrate and electrically coupling to at least one of the conductive vias. The TFM 3D inductor structure also includes a second conductive trace directly on the magnetic thin film layer on the second side of the substrate and coupled to at least one of the conductive vias.
US09959957B2	Resistor and method for manufacturing same A resistor includes a resistive element, a protective film, and a pair of electrodes. The resistive element is made of a metal plate. The protective film is formed on the upper surface of the resistive element. The plated layers are formed to cover the electrodes. The electrodes are separated from each other with the protective film therebetween and are formed at both ends of the upper surface of the resistive element. The electrodes are formed by printing metal-containing paste.
US09959953B2	Torque-balanced electrical cable An embodiment of a wellbore cable comprises a cable core, at least a first armor wire layer comprising a plurality of strength members and surrounding the cable core, and at least a second armor wire layer comprising a plurality of strength members surrounding the first armor wire layer, the second armor wire layer covering a predetermined percentage of the circumference of the first armor wire layer to prevent torque imbalance in the cable.
US09959948B2	Highly conductive graphitic films A flexible graphene platelet-filled composite film comprising a carbon or graphitic matrix and 1% to 99% weight fraction of graphene platelets dispersed in the matrix, wherein the graphene platelets are aligned along planar directions of said film and are selected from pristine graphene, oxidized graphene, reduced graphene oxide, fluorinated graphene, hydrogenated graphene, doped graphene, chemically functionalized graphene, or a combination thereof, and wherein the carbon or graphitic matrix is obtained by carbonizing a carbon precursor polymer at a carbonization temperature of at least 300° C. or by carbonizing and graphitizing the carbon precursor polymer at a final graphitization temperature higher than 1,500° C., and the graphitic matrix comprises graphene layers that are substantially oriented parallel to one another with an inclination angle between two graphene layers less than 5 degrees. The film is thermally and electrically conductive, and can be used to dissipate heat in an electronic device or device housing.
US09959946B2	Conductive graphene-metal composite material, the production method of the same and use of the same A production process of a conductive material includes processing graphite oxide into a graphene suspension comprising graphene monolayer nanoflakes, and processing the graphene suspension and metal or metal oxide so as to provide a liquid comprising a composite as the conductive material.
US09959945B2	High temperature gas cooled reactor steam generation system A high temperature gas cooled reactor steam generation system (1) includes a nuclear reactor (2) that has helium gas as a primary coolant and heats the primary coolant by heat generated by a nuclear reaction that decelerates neutrons by a graphite block, a steam generator (3) that has water as a secondary coolant and heats the secondary coolant by the primary coolant via the nuclear reactor (2) to generate steam, a steam turbine (4) that is operated by the steam from the steam generator (3), and a generator (5) that generates electricity according to an operation of the steam turbine (4). Moreover, the system (1) includes pressure adjustment means for setting a pressure of the secondary coolant in the steam generator (3) to be lower than a pressure of the primary coolant in the nuclear reactor (2).
US09959940B2	Systems and methods for VOA model generation and use A computer implemented system and method provides a volume of activation (VOA) estimation model that receives as input two or more electric field values of a same or different data type at respective two or more positions of a neural element and determines based on such input an activation status of the neural element. A computer implemented system and method provides a machine learning system that automatically generates a computationally inexpensive VOA estimation model based on output of a computationally expensive system.
US09959939B2	Granular cache repair Systems and methods for granular cache repair. An example processing system comprises a processing core communicatively coupled to a cache via a cache controller and a cache repair memory communicatively coupled to the cache controller. The cache controller is configured, responsive to receiving a read request referencing a physical address, to: retrieve cache data from a cache location identified by the physical address, retrieve, in parallel with retrieving the cache data, cache repair data from the cache repair memory, the cache repair data associated with the cache location, the cache repair data comprising at least one of: a bit repair value, a column repair value, and a raw repair value, and output the cache data multiplexed with the cache repair data.
US09959938B2	Semiconductor memory device outputting status fail signal and operating method thereof In a method of operating a semiconductor memory device, a program command is received, and a program operation is performed to increase threshold voltages of memory cells to be programmed by applying a program pulse to a word line. Page data is read from the selected memory cells by applying a verification voltage to the word line, and it is determined whether the number of memory cells corresponding to a program pass is greater than a determined number, based on the page data. A status fail signal is output based on the determination result.
US09959937B2	Memory system including test circuit A memory system includes a semiconductor memory device, a controller configured to access the semiconductor module, a plurality of pins for connection to the outside of the memory system, the pins configured to receive and output serial data, and a test circuit. When one of the pins receives serial test data, the test circuit converts the serial test data into parallel test data, and outputs the parallel test data to the semiconductor memory device for writing therein, and when the test circuit receives parallel test data written in the semiconductor memory device, the test circuit converts the parallel test data to serial test data, and outputs the serial test data through one of the pins for test of the memory system.
US09959933B2	Non-volatile memory devices and methods of operating the same A method of operating a non-volatile memory device includes selecting a first select transistor from among a plurality of select transistors included in a NAND string, and performing a check operation on a first threshold voltage of the first select transistor. The check operation includes comparing the first threshold voltage with a first lower-limit reference voltage level, and performing a program operation on the first select transistor when the first threshold voltage is lower than the first lower-limit reference voltage level. When the first threshold voltage is equal to or higher than the first lower-limit reference voltage level, the check operation on the first threshold voltage is ended.
US09959924B2	Semiconductor integrated circuit device and wearable device To provide a semiconductor device which can be stably operated while achieving a reduction of the power consumption.A semiconductor device includes a CPU, a system controller which designates an operation speed of the CPU, P-type SOTB transistors, and N-type SOTB transistors. The semiconductor device is provided with an SRAM which is connected to the CPU, and a substrate bias circuit which is connected to the system controller and is capable of supplying substrate bias voltages to the P-type SOTB transistors and the N-type SOTB transistors. Here, when the system controller designates a low speed mode to operate the CPU at a low speed, the substrate bias circuit supplies the substrate bias voltages to the P-type SOTB transistors and the N-type SOTB transistors.
US09959921B2	Apparatuses and methods for refresh control Apparatuses and methods of for refresh control of a semiconductor device are described. An example apparatus includes a command control circuit that provides a plurality of pulses on a first control signal in series responsive to a plurality of refresh commands issued in series; a signal generation circuit that produces a plurality of pulses on a second control signal in sequence; and a refresh control circuit that receives two or more of the plurality of pulses on the first control signal during a period of time between one pulse and a succeeding pulse of the plurality of pulses on the second control signal, disables refresh operations responsive to at least one of the two or more of the plurality of first control signal and executes a refresh operation responsive to remaining one or more pulses of the two or more of the plurality of pulses on the first control signal.
US09959920B2	Apparatus and methods for memory using in-plane polarization A memory device includes a semiconductor layer with an in-plane polarization component switchable between a first direction and a second direction. A writing electrode is employed to apply a writing voltage to the semiconductor layer to change the in-plane polarization component between the first direction and the second direction. A reading electrode is employed to apply a reading voltage to the semiconductor layer to measure a tunneling current substantially perpendicular to the polarization direction of the in-plane polarization component. The directions of the reading voltage and the writing voltage are substantially perpendicular to each other. Therefore, the reading process is non-destructive. Thin films (e.g., one unit cell thick) of ferroelectric material can be used in the memory device to increase the miniaturization of the device.
US09959919B2	Memory system including non-volatile memory of which access speed is electrically controlled A memory system has a non-volatile memory of which access speed is electrically controlled, a control circuitry that selects a first region which is a portion of a memory region of the non-volatile memory, and a boost circuit that adjusts an access speed of the first region to be higher than an access speed of a second region different from the first region in the memory region.
US09959916B2	Dual rail memory, memory macro and associated hybrid power supply method A dual rail memory operable at a first voltage and a second voltage, the dual rail memory includes: a memory array operates at the first voltage; a word line driver circuit configured to drive a word line of the memory array to the first voltage; a data path configured to transmit an input data signal or an output data signal; and a control circuit configured to generate control signals to the memory array, the word line driver circuit and the data path; wherein the data path and the control circuit are configured to operate at both the first and second voltages. Associated memory macro and method are also disclosed.
US09959913B2	Apparatuses and methods for performing logical operations using sensing circuitry The present disclosure includes apparatuses and methods related to performing logical operations using sensing circuitry. An example apparatus comprises an array of memory cells and sensing circuitry coupled to the array. The sensing circuitry is configured to perform a logical operation using a data value stored in a first memory cell coupled to a sense line as a first input and a data value stored in a second memory cell coupled to the sense line as a second input. The sensing circuitry is configured to perform the logical operation without transferring data via a sense line address access.
US09959903B2	Video playback method A video playback method and a video playback apparatus are provided. The object path extraction module of the video playback apparatus extracts at least one object path from an original video. The video synthesizing module of the video playback apparatus selectively adjusts said object path, so as to synthesize the object path into the synthesis video. The video synthesizing module determines the time length of the synthesis video based on the playback time length set by user, wherein the time length of the synthesis video less than the time length of the original video.
US09959898B1	Magnetic disk device, controller, and seeking method A magnetic disk device includes a magnetic disk having a plurality of tracks, a magnetic head used for writing data on the magnetic disk and reading data from the magnetic disk, a controller configured to control seek operations of the magnetic head, and a vibration sensor. The controller predicts a first vibration caused by a currently executed seek operation, based on a seek control signal, predicts a second vibration based on vibration detected by the sensor, and determines an adjusted start time of the currently executed seek operation so that a phase of the first vibration does not match a phase of the second vibration.
US09959894B2	Magnetic tape and method of manufacturing the same The magnetic tape comprises a nonmagnetic layer comprising nonmagnetic powder and binder on a nonmagnetic support, and comprises a magnetic layer comprising ferromagnetic powder and binder on the nonmagnetic layer, wherein a fatty acid ester, a fatty acid amide, and a fatty acid are contained in either one or both of the magnetic layer and the nonmagnetic layer, with the magnetic layer and nonmagnetic layer each comprising at least one selected from the group consisting of a fatty acid ester, a fatty acid amide, and a fatty acid, a quantity of fatty acid ester per unit area of the magnetic layer in extraction components extracted from a surface of the magnetic layer with n-hexane falls within a range of 1.00 mg/m2 to 10.00 mg/m2, and a weight ratio of the quantity of fatty acid ester per unit area of the magnetic layer to a combined total of a quantity of fatty acid amide and a quantity of fatty acid, quantity of fatty acid ester/(quantity of fatty acid amide+quantity of fatty acid), per unit area of the magnetic layer falls within a range of 1.00 to 3.00 in the extraction components.
US09959889B2	Hard drive data destroying device Three systems for the destruction of the data storage portion of electronic media storage devices such as hard disk drives, solid state drives and hybrid hard drives. One system utilizes a mill cutter with which the hard drive has relative motion in the direction of the axis of the mill cutter to destroy the data storage portion. A second system utilizes a laser to physically destroy the data storage portion. The third system utilizes a chemical solvent to chemically destroy the data storage portion.
US09959888B2	System and method for detection of the Lombard effect A user wearing headphones (e.g., to listen to music, to engage in a voice call, etc.) may speak while receiving an audio signal through the headphones, which may cause the user to produce Lombard speech. Because the Lombard effect is generally involuntary, the user may be unaware that he or she is producing Lombard speech. The Lombard speech may inconvenience proximate individuals and/or embarrass the user (e.g., in an office, in an airport, etc.). An apparatus may be configured to receive, through a microphone communicatively coupled to the apparatus, an audio signal. The apparatus may be configured to determine whether the audio signal indicates speech by a user. The apparatus may be further configured to alert the user based on the determination that the audio signal indicates Lombard speech by the user.
US09959887B2	Multi-pass speech activity detection strategy to improve automatic speech recognition An automatic speech recognition system and a method performed by an automatic speech recognition system are provided. The method includes performing at least two passes of speech activity detection on an acoustic utterance uttered by a speaker. The at least two passes include an initial pass and a subsequent pass. The method further includes estimating at least one of feature statistics and transforms for acoustic feature extraction and acoustic modeling based on an output of an initial pass. The method further includes performing automatic speech recognition using an output of the subsequent pass while bypassing an output of the initial pass to recognize the acoustic utterance.
US09959880B2	Coding higher-order ambisonic coefficients during multiple transitions In general, techniques are described for coding higher-order ambisonic coefficients during multiple transitions. A device comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor may be configured to perform the techniques. The processor may be configured to obtain a multi-transition indication of whether an ambient HOA coefficient is in transition during a same frame of the bitstream as a foreground audio signal is in transition. The processor may also be configured to obtain a vector that describes a spatial characteristic of a corresponding foreground audio signal based on the multi-transition indication, both the vector and the corresponding HOA audio signal decomposed from the HOA audio data. The memory may be configured to store the vector.
US09959877B2	Multi channel coding A device includes a receiver and a decoder. The receiver is configured to receive stereo parameters encoded, by an encoder, based on a plurality of windows having a first length of overlapping portions between the plurality of windows. The decoder is configured to perform an upmix operation using the stereo parameters to generate at least two audio signals. The at least two audio signals are generated based on a second plurality of windows used in the upmix operation. The second plurality of windows has a second length of overlapping portions between the second plurality of windows. The second length is different from the first length.
US09959875B2	Specifying spherical harmonic and/or higher order ambisonics coefficients in bitstreams In general, techniques are described for specifying spherical harmonic coefficients in a bitstream. A device comprising one or more processors may perform the techniques. The processors may be configured to identify, from the bitstream, a plurality of hierarchical elements describing a sound field that are included in the bitstream. The processors may further be configured to parse the bitstream to determine the identified plurality of hierarchical elements.
US09959874B2	One way sound A method and a system for identity authentication are presented. In one example embodiment, audio data (e.g. a sound wave) may be received from a user. The audio data may be used to establish an identity of an entity to the user. The audio data may be stored at a storage location; and be presented to the user to establish the identity of the entity when the entity participates in an electronic communication with the user. In another example embodiment, a server (e.g., a web client or client application server) may present a plurality of audio files to a user; receive a user selection of selected audio data from the plurality of audio files; responsive to the user selection, the server may communicate, via a network, the selected audio data to another server. The selected audio data may be used as an identity authentication.
US09959863B2	Keyword detection using speaker-independent keyword models for user-designated keywords A method, which is performed by an electronic device, for obtaining a speaker-independent keyword model of a keyword designated by a user is disclosed. The method may include receiving at least one sample sound from the user indicative of the keyword. The method may also generate a speaker-dependent keyword model for the keyword based on the at least one sample sound, send a request for the speaker-independent keyword model of the keyword to a server in response to generating the speaker-dependent keyword model, and receive the speaker-independent keyword model adapted for detecting the keyword spoken by a plurality of users from the server.
US09959857B2	Flexible acoustic barrier A flexible acoustic barrier for suspending from a support frame wherein the flexible acoustic barrier comprises a portion of acoustic insulation material and at least one loudspeaker that is configured to emit an audible sound-masking signal to mask sound from a sound source. Another aspect of the invention comprises a corresponding method of mitigating noise pollution.
US09959851B1	Collaborative synchronized audio interface A system and method eliminates the drag associated with CPU drag on experienced by combine audio streams from multiple sources. The embodiments receive audio signals from two separate audio sources and apply a MIDI based timing signature to the audio signals. The audio signals are synchronized according to the MTC signature signal and combined, when synchronized, at a summing module for output as a combined audio stream.
US09959849B2	Drum A drum, including: a shell; at least one head; and a vibration damping portion including at least one of (a) an outer-surface facing surface which is disposed in substantially parallel with and is closely opposed to an outer surface of an outer peripheral portion of the at least one head without contacting the outer surface and (b) an inner-surface facing surface which is disposed in substantially parallel with and is closely opposed to an inner surface of the outer peripheral portion of the at least one head without contacting the inner surface.
US09959847B2	Stringed instrument or stringed instrument pick design and method of manufacture Exemplary embodiments described herein are directed at instruments and instrument accessories and their associated designs and methods of manufacture based on contoured surfaces and their acoustic properties. Exemplary embodiments may be used to broaden the basic design of stringed instruments or stringed instrument picks or the associated accessories to include forms in three dimensions or using and optimizing the acoustic and/or strength properties inherent in an infinite variety of shapes and sizes.
US09959845B2	Locking intonated string nut with tuner mount for stringed musical instruments and methods of use The present inventive disclosures are generally directed to various improved versions of locking compensated nuts for fretted stringed musical instruments. Many embodiments are especially directed to improved locking compensated nuts that can be more-easily retrofitted into existing guitars and other stringed musical instruments without requiring any major reconfigurations or modifications of the base instruments, and some variations are directed to a detachably coupled tuner-mount device that will facilitate enhanced tuning capabilities because of improved vibrational communication between the instrument strings and the tuner. In addition, some improved locking compensated nuts described herein feature interchangeable compensated inserts to allow for easy adaption to alternate string sets.
US09959843B2	Sound producing apparatus, keyboard instrument, and sound production control method A sound producing apparatus includes: a plurality of sound producing members with differing oscillation frequencies; dampers each corresponding to a respective sound producing member and suppressing vibration by contacting the corresponding sound producing members; a damper operation mechanism that moves each damper, thereby controlling a state of contact of the damper with a corresponding sound producing members; a soundboard that undergoes sympathetic resonance with sound producing members; a vibrator that vibrates the soundboard; an acquisition unit configured to acquire an audio signal; a signal output unit configured to: generate a drive signal for driving the vibrator with a vibration corresponding to the acquired audio signal; and output the drive signal to the vibrator; and a damper control unit configured to drive the damper operation mechanism to change a state of contact between the sound producing members and their corresponding dampers, based on frequency distribution of acquired audio signal.
US09959837B2	Perceptual luminance nonlinearity-based image data exchange across different display capabilities A handheld imaging device has a data receiver that is configured to receive reference encoded image data. The data includes reference code values, which are encoded by an external coding system. The reference code values represent reference gray levels, which are being selected using a reference grayscale display function that is based on perceptual non-linearity of human vision adapted at different light levels to spatial frequencies. The imaging device also has a data converter that is configured to access a code mapping between the reference code values and device-specific code values of the imaging device. The device-specific code values are configured to produce gray levels that are specific to the imaging device. Based on the code mapping, the data converter is configured to transcode the reference encoded image data into device-specific image data, which is encoded with the device-specific code values.
US09959836B2	Image output apparatus, operation method for an image output apparatus, electronic circuit, electronic apparatus, and program An image output apparatus includes a light emitting unit, a power supplying unit, and a control unit. The light emitting unit is configured to emit a laser beam. The power supplying unit is configured to supply power to the light emitting unit at a predetermined voltage. The control unit is configured to control the power supplying unit to supply the power to the light emitting unit in a predetermined period at the voltage associated with a peak light emission amount of the light emitting unit in image data for the predetermined period.
US09959830B2	GOA circuit The present invention provides a GOA circuit, comprising a forward-backward scan control module, an output module, an output pull-down module, a node control module, a second node signal input module, a second node signal control module, a voltage stabilizing module and a second capacitor; the forward scan of the circuit is controlled with the ninth and the tenth thin film transistors, and the signal input of the second node is controlled with the first and the eleventh thin film transistors, and the mutual control of the first node and the second node are achieved with the second, the fourth and the fifth thin film transistors, and meanwhile, as the GOA circuit applies to a display of dual side drive interlaced scan structure, the GOA circuits of the two sides can respectively receive four different clock signals to reduce the loading of the signal line of the GOA circuit.
US09959829B2	Liquid crystal drive circuit and GOA panel with shared auxiliary pull-down circuit The present invention relates to a liquid crystal drive display device, including a display area and a liquid crystal drive circuit, the liquid crystal drive circuit including a plurality of stage GOA circuits, each stage GOA circuit includes a signal line and an auxiliary pull-down circuit, wherein the signal lines are divided into odd-numbered signal lines and even-numbered signal lines, the auxiliary pull-down circuits are divided into first auxiliary pull-down circuits and second auxiliary pull-down circuits; wherein the odd-numbered signal lines and the even-numbered signal lines are separately located on two sides of the display area, and the first auxiliary pull-down circuits and the second auxiliary pull-down circuits are also separately located on two sides of the display area, any two adjacent stage GOA circuits of the plurality of stage GOA circuits share the first auxiliary pull-down circuits and the second auxiliary pull-down circuits.
US09959828B2	Method and apparatus for driving display panels during display-off periods A method for driving a thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) panel during a display-off period is provided for avoiding image flickering when the panel resumes image display. Flickering when resuming image display is due to charge accumulated on liquid crystals (LCs) during the display-off period. For a cell having a TFT and a LC, the method releases the accumulated charge by driving a gate electrode with a VGH voltage to turn on the TFT for a short pre-determined duration regularly over the display-off period. Over the pre-determined duration, a VCOM electrode and a source electrode of the cell are also driven with a GND voltage, thereby releasing the accumulated charge from the LC as the TFT is turned on. The remaining time in the display-off period may be advantageously used for touch sensing while avoiding flickering after image display is resumed.
US09959827B2	Display panel, driving method thereof and display device A black matrix of the display panel comprises N columns of first sub-regions and M columns of second sub-regions, the pixel electrodes comprise N columns of first pixel electrodes in one-to-one correspondence with N columns of first sub-regions and M columns of second pixel electrodes in one-to-one correspondence with M columns of second sub-regions. A width of the M columns of second sub-regions and a width of the M columns of second pixel electrodes along the row direction of the black matrix are increased only by reducing a width of the N columns of first sub-regions along the row direction of the black matrix, such that some signal lines in the divided gate driver may be placed at the M columns of second sub-regions to enable the display panel not having frames at the left and the right, without substantially not changing the aperture ratio of the display panel.
US09959826B2	Liquid crystal display device A liquid crystal display device is provided where deterioration of the liquid crystal panel is prevented while reducing power consumption. A liquid crystal panel (12) includes a display region (26) in which a video is displayed. The display region (26) includes a plurality of sub-regions (26A, 26B, 26C, 26D). A drive unit (14) rewrites the display on at least one of the plurality of sub-regions (26A, 26B, 26C, 26D) based on a video signal. An identification unit (38) identifies the one of the plurality of sub-regions (26A, 26B, 26C, 26D) on which the drive unit (14) has not rewritten the display for a predetermined number of frames. An output unit (40) outputs an interrupt signal for requesting a video signal for rewriting the display on the sub-region identified by the identification unit.
US09959825B2	Liquid crystal display device and method of driving the same A liquid crystal display device that performs intermittent driving involving a driving period and an idle period includes a gray scale level control unit that generates, from an input image signal, an image signal for display and an image signal for correction. A signal line control unit writes the image signal for correction to the plurality of signal lines before writing the image signal for display during a driving period. An LUT stores a correction gray scale value associated with a gray scale value of at least a current frame. An adding circuit corrects the input image signal based on the correction gray scale value read from the LUT. The subtracting circuit specifies, in a pixel region, a regular image pattern including at least a first pixel and a second pixel and changes an output from the adding circuit for the first image by a predetermined gray scale width.
US09959821B2	Liquid crystal display device and method for driving same In a liquid crystal display device, a drive unit is controlled in a direction of eliminating a polarity bias of a data voltage corresponding to image data at a point of time when a refresh signal for updating an image displayed on a display unit by periodical refreshment or forced refreshment is generated, and the polarity bias is obtained for each of subsequent frame periods. In this manner, not only the polarity bias after the point of time when the refresh signal is generated is obtained so that the polarity bias at the point of time when the refresh signal is generated is eliminated, but also the polarity bias is repeatedly obtained in the same way every time the refresh signal is generated, and accordingly, the polarity bias can be prevented from being increased.
US09959820B2	Array substrate, display device and image display method An array substrate, display device and image display method. In this array substrate, among the sub-pixels two adjacent columns of sub-pixels are grouped together, and sub-pixels in different groups do not overlap each other; in each group, all of the sub-pixels are electrically connected with a same data line; each row of the sub-pixels corresponds to two gate lines, and in each row of the sub-pixels, two sub-pixels belonging to the same group are electrically connected with one of the two gate lines corresponding to this row of the sub-pixels respectively; thus, in the process of sequentially loading a gate scanning signal to each grid line within the display time of one frame, charging difference between rows of sub-pixels caused by the jump of voltage loaded on the data line may be reduced, whereby poor stripes present when a flat panel display is displaying a screen may be improved.
US09959811B2	Sensing unit, flexible device, and display device A sensing unit measuring a bending degree of a flexible substrate includes: a first line formed on the flexible substrate; a second line adjacent to the first line; and a first controller applying a first sensing signal to the first line and measuring a change of crosstalk generated in the second line by the first sensing signal according to bending of the flexible substrate.
US09959808B2	Pixel structure and displaying method thereof, and related display apparatus The present disclosure provides a pixel structure. The pixel structure includes first sub-pixels, second sub-pixels, and third sub-pixels. In the pixel structure, two adjacent third sub-pixels facing each other form a third sub-pixel group, the second sub-pixels are arranged along a direction of a first axis to form second-sub-pixel rows. The second sub-pixels are arranged along a direction of a second axis to form second-sub-pixel columns, the first sub-pixels and the third sub-pixel groups are arranged in an alternating configuration along the direction of the column axis, the second-sub-pixel columns and columns formed by the first sub-pixels and the third sub-pixel groups are arranged in an alternating configuration. Geometric center of each second sub-pixel is positioned on a perpendicular bisector of a line connecting centers of any two of adjacent third sub-pixel groups and first sub-pixels.
US09959801B2	Display device and method for driving same with light-emission enable signal switching unit A picture-frame size of a display device including self light-emitting type display elements which are driven by a current is reduced over conventional devices. Transistors for controlling supply of a light-emission enable signal outputted from an emission driver to emission lines are provided between the emission driver and the emission lines. In such a configuration, based on selection signals provided to the transistors, one of the transistors is brought into an on state in each subframe, and each of the transistors is brought into an on state once during one frame period.
US09959800B1	Voltage compensation circuits and voltage compensation methods thereof A voltage compensation circuit and A method thereof are provided. The voltage compensation circuit includes a power management chip, a feedback circuit, and a control circuit. A gate driving voltage (VGH) connects an input end of the control circuit, the input end of the control circuit connects to a first end of the fifth resistor (R5), and a second end of the fifth resistor (R5) connects to a forward input end of the voltage comparator, and first ends of the sixth resistor (R6) and the first capacitor (C1). A second end of the sixth resistor (R6) and a second end of the first capacitor (C1) are grounded, a backward input end of the voltage comparator connects to the reference voltage (VREF), an output end of the voltage comparator connects to a gate of the first FET (Q1). With such configuration, the display performance may be enhanced.
US09959797B2	Route protection circuit and liquid crystal display The circuit of the present invention comprises a detection module and a feedback module, wherein an output end of a power supply management module is coupled to one end of a voltage level shift module, and the other end of the voltage level shift module is coupled to a first end of the detection module, and a second end of the detection module is coupled to a WOA route module or a GOA route module, and a third end of the detection is coupled to one end of the feedback module, and the other end of the feedback module is coupled to an enable end of the power supply management module, and the detection module detects whether the WOA route module or the GOA route module is short, and feeds back a short signal; the feedback module receives the short signal, and sends a disable signal to the enable end.
US09959791B2	Water displays including changing pools A water display is described having different layers that each include a geometric shape. Water is provided to and drained from the display to vary the height of the water between the layers of the display. As the water height increases or decreases from one layer to another, pools of water assuming the geometric shapes formed in a given layer appear. The geometric shapes formed in a given layer appear. The geometric pools of water transform shapes as the water is raised or lowered.
US09959789B2	Method and apparatus for applying a label or laminate sheet to a substrate A sheet assembly and method is provided for applying a facestock layer to a substrate. The facestock layer may include a facestock bridge portion with an adhesive layer. A liner sheet is attached to the facestock layer and may include a strip portion having a first dimension that is configured to be removed to expose a portion of the adhesive layer under the facestock bridge portion. The sheet assembly is positioned as desired and the facestock bridge portion is adhered to the substrate to anchor the sheet assembly to the substrate and allow the remaining liner sheet to be removed in a generally aligned manner as desired. The facestock layer may be made of a see-through material. The facestock layer may be a label. The sheet assembly may include at least one perforation line that divides the sheet assembly into multiple sections.
US09959787B2	Method for injecting a fluid into an artificial venous structure A training method for sclerotherapy. The method includes directing a needle tip into communication with an artificial venous structure, dispensing a fluid through the needle to force fluid from the artificial venous structure and detecting the fluid that is displaced from the artificial venous structure.
US09959786B2	Surgical training model for laparoscopic procedures A surgical training device includes a model comprising a simulated tissue portion mounted in selectable tension onto a plurality of posts connected to a base. Each post includes at least one notch configured for retaining the simulated tissue portion. Mounting the simulated tissue portion that is in the form of a sheet in notches of different heights creates an angled installation of simulated tissue upon which surgical techniques such as cutting and suturing can be practiced in a simulated laparoscopic environment. More than one sheet can be mounted and each sheet can be mounted with selectable tension by pulling the sheet more or less as desired onto the posts. One variation includes a simulated tumor disposed between sheets, angled or wobbly posts and textured and imprinted simulated tissue surfaces to provide various levels of dynamism and difficulty for surgical skills training in a laparoscopic environment.
US09959782B1	Accessibility remote control for the blind A remotely controlled device receives a command from a remote control (RC) but does not execute the command. Instead, the remotely controlled device accesses an audio file pertaining to the command and announces what the command is, so that a vision-impaired person can hear the command caused by the key that was just pressed. If the person wishes the command to be executed, he presses the key again within a threshold period. In another embodiment, the RC receives a press of a key but does not send the associated command. Instead, the RC announces the command. If the user wishes to send the command to a remotely controlled device, he presses the key again.
US09959775B2	Monitoring, tracking, and managing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease Various embodiments of the present invention describe mechanisms configured to monitor, track, and manage symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). According to particular embodiments, a system includes an interface configured to present a memory test to a user and an interface configured to receive a response to the memory test. The system includes a processor that is configured to determine whether the user experienced a memory lapse based on the response to the memory test. The system further includes a computer memory configured to store data related to the memory lapse and memory ratings over time. Memory ratings and Alzheimer's disease progression ratings can be displayed using the system.
US09959770B2	Aircraft flight itinerary alerting system A flight itinerary alerting system for monitoring a flight itinerary includes a monitoring system storing flight itinerary data like pilot contact data, first tier contact data, and second tier contact data. An alert routine executable on the monitoring system i) determines first or second tier alert conditions if no deactivation message is received upon expiry of a respective first or second duration following the expected arrival time, and ii) send an alert message through a communication network to a computer device of a corresponding first or second tier contact person upon determination of the respective alert condition. The multiple tiers of contact data with respective alerting criteria allows quick determination if search and rescue should be contacted with inherent redundancy, thus preventing overdue aircraft from being overlooked, while also minimizing false alarms in reporting overdue aircraft to search and rescue which might reasonably be accounted for by responsible persons.
US09959769B2	Apparatus and method for assisting parking The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for assisting parking, the apparatus including: an image sensor photographing front/rear view images of a vehicle; and an estimated trace of vehicle generation and process unit generating an estimated trace of the vehicle to a parking target area using steering angle information of the vehicle, and overlaying the estimated trace of the vehicle to the photographed front/rear view images of the vehicle, wherein the estimated trace of the vehicle includes a first estimated trace of the vehicle based on a rear wheel of the vehicle and a second estimated trace of the vehicle based on a front wheel of the vehicle.
US09959768B2	Apparatuses, methods and computer programs for controlling road user acknowledgement Apparatuses, computer programs and methods are provided. A method includes causing display on an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle of a dynamic sign acknowledging the presence of at least one road user.
US09959767B1	Method and apparatus for warning of objects A method and apparatus for warning of occluded or obstructed objects are provided. The method includes: detecting a presence of at least one object in a predetermined area, the predetermined area being visually obstructed from an operator of a machine; determining whether at least one condition for displaying the detected at least one object is met; and in response to determining that the at least one condition is met, displaying a graphical indicator corresponding to the detected at least one object. The method and apparatus may be implemented in a vehicle to display graphical indicators warning of object on obstructing portions of the vehicle.
US09959765B2	System and method for providing alert to a vehicle or an advanced driver assist system based on vehicle dynamics input A motor vehicle alert system based on vehicle dynamics input includes a communication module positioned in a host vehicle receiving and sending vehicle data in a vehicle mobility data format. A list generator in communication with the communication module generates the vehicle data as specific vehicle identification data in a track list to distinguish a sensed vehicle and at least one other vehicle positioned proximate the host vehicle. A tracker module in communication with the list generator periodically updates the vehicle data for the sensed vehicle and the at least one other vehicle. A transient condition data device generates data identifying when a transient condition of the sensed vehicle is present. A message standard conformance module receives the data identifying the transient condition and forwards the data identifying the transient condition to the communication module for transmission to the at least one other vehicle proximate to the host vehicle.
US09959764B1	Synchronization of vehicle sensor information A method includes receiving and storing operational data including a first plurality of data points indicative of a plurality of respective states of an operational parameter of the vehicle at a plurality of respective times, external data including a second plurality of data points indicative of a plurality of respective states of an environment external to the vehicle at a plurality of respective times, and synchronization data. The method also includes generating a virtual model of an event involving the vehicle using the stored data, at least by generating a first visual representation of the plurality of respective states of the operational parameter, generating a second visual representation of the plurality of respective states of the external environment, and using the synchronization data to cause the first visual representation to be displayed simultaneously with, and in a time-aligned manner with, the second visual representation.
US09959763B2	System and method for coordinating V2X and standard vehicles In various embodiments, the present disclosure includes a system for reducing vehicular collisions having: (a) a vehicle comprising sensors, an acceleration system, a braking system, a processor, and memory; and (b) programs operatively coupled to the vehicle including: (1) a marking program configured to mark an outside vehicle as V2X or standard; (2) a reaction program configured to generate a signal in response to the mark, the signal being based on the mark.
US09959760B2	Parking assistant A method for finding a parking space for a first motor vehicle includes determining a required minimum length of the parking space on which the first motor vehicle is parkable, scanning a length of the adjacent parking space through the second motor vehicle, and driving the first motor vehicle to the adjacent parking space bounded by the second motor vehicle when the length of the adjacent parking space corresponds to at least the minimum length. Related transmission devices and control systems are also provided.
US09959759B2	Method, computer program product, and electronic control device for locating a parking space for vehicles To find a parking space for a vehicle in a target area, a connection server stores connection data associated with the target area for a plurality of data servers. A search request to find a parking space in the target area is addressed to the connection server. The connection server uses the association data to establish a connection to the data servers and, in the process, queries whether availability data relating to available parking spaces in the target area are stored in the respective database. In a first query stage, the data servers are preselected, in which case first parking space data based on the target area are requested by the connection server and corresponding first feedback data from the data servers are used to respond whether the respective data server contains parking space data relating to the target area. Based on the first feedback data, the connection server decides which of the respective data servers are preselected, and at least one data server is selected as a selection server, and second feedback data, more detailed than the respective first feedback data, are respectively retrieved in a second query stage of the selection server.
US09959752B2	Apparatus and method for a relay station for vehicle-to-vehicle messages A device and to a method for a relay station for vehicle-to-vehicle messages. The relay station communicates using vehicle-to-vehicle messages via at least one antenna. The device includes an input interface to receive a vehicle-to-vehicle message via the at least one antenna and a control module to filter the vehicle-to-vehicle message based on a relevance of the vehicle-to-vehicle message for one or more receivers in a coverage area of the at least one antenna. The control module provides the filtered vehicle-to-vehicle message via an output interface via the at least one antenna if the vehicle-to-vehicle message is relevant for the one or more receivers.
US09959751B2	Filter method for adapting a computing load A filter method for adapting a computing load to a computing capacity of a car-to-x communication system, in which method car-to-x messages are received and/or sent using the car-to-x communication system and the received car-to-x messages require processing by the car-to-x communication system. The filter method decides which of the received car-to-x messages to process and which of the received car-to-x messages to discard.
US09959750B2	Mobile terminal and method of controlling function of the mobile terminal A method of controlling a function of a mobile terminal is provided. The method includes placing the mobile terminal within a communication range of a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device previously registered in the mobile terminal, receiving identification information of the BLE device from the BLE device, extracting function information corresponding to the received identification information of the BLE device, and performing a previously set function corresponding to the extracted function information.
US09959749B2	Vehicular assistance device, program product, and assistance information reception method A vehicular assistance device, which is equipped to a vehicle and performs a wireless communication with a facility-side device to receive assistance information useful to a user from the facility-side device, includes a facility ID reception portion receiving a facility ID used for identifying a facility from the facility-side device, an area information acquisition portion acquiring area information related to a position of the facility, a position information acquisition portion acquiring position information of the vehicle, a determination portion determining whether the received facility ID is valid based on the position information of the vehicle and the area information related to the facility corresponding to the received facility ID, and a user ID transmission portion, when the facility ID is valid, transmitting, to the facility-side device, a user ID used for identifying the user as a request for transmitting the assistance information.
US09959748B2	Fire detection system with self-testing fire sensors The system and method provide for the monitoring and trending the rate at which fire detection devices get dirty. This information is used to determine which devices are clogged or getting clogged and to establish that the chambers are open to air flow because they are accumulating dirt over time. Air flow through the detection chamber is proven using this analysis. Further self-testing is also employed for the fire detection devices by including modules that simulate the smoke interference with the light. This can be accomplished in two ways. In one example, light from the chamber light source can be reflected toward the scattered light photodetector to simulate alarm conditions. In another example, an additional chamber light source can be added to the detection chamber that can generate light to simulate alarm conditions.
US09959747B1	Network for detection and monitoring of emergency situations A method and system for assessing a threat level associated with a distress signal. The method may include linking a first communication device on a client side communication system with a second communication device on a provider side communication system over a communications network. The method may include transmitting a distress signal from the first communication device to the second communication device, and mapping, via the provider side communication system, a geographic origin of the distress signal. The method may also include transmitting an audio signal in a one-way communication link from the first communication device to the second communication device, and attributing a threat level associated with any of an audio level, a frequency, and a duration of the transmitted audio signal via the provider side communication system.
US09959745B2	Temporary security bypass method and apparatus A method, system, and apparatus for temporarily disarming a barrier alarm in a security system. In one embodiment, a method is described, performed by a barrier alarm in communication with a central controller, where the barrier alarm receives a first signal from a user interface on the barrier alarm to disarm the barrier alarm, disables the barrier alarm in response to receiving the indication, and re-arming the barrier alarm upon receipt of a second signal from a sensor that forms part of the barrier alarm.
US09959743B2	Hygiene compliance system According to the present disclosure, a hygiene compliance system includes a handwash sensor, a badge, an occupant sensor, and a remote computer. The sensors and the badge may communicate with the remote computer to provide information regarding hygiene events. The hygiene compliance system determines whether the hygiene events comply with a hygiene operations scheme.
US09959741B2	Method of locating peripheral device, computer program product and electronic device thereof A method of locating peripheral device applied to an electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device is connected or electrically connected to a peripheral device. The method includes: obtaining a first location information via a locating unit; when the first connecting unit is connected to the second connecting unit, sending the first location information to the peripheral device; after the first connecting unit and the second connecting unit are separated, obtaining the first location information sent by the second transmitter via the first transmitter; obtaining a second location information via the locating unit; comparing the first location information and the second location information to determine the relative position of the electronic device and the peripheral device.
US09959740B2	Electronic device for reminding of task and controlling method thereof A method of controlling an electronic device that provides a reminder of a task is provided. The controlling method includes receiving an input of a content of a reminder target task, designating a related application that is linked with the reminder target task, and generating and storing the reminder target task of which the content is to be displayed using a predetermined event as a trigger.
US09959732B2	Method and system for fall detection The present disclosure provides a method and a system for fall detection. Measurement signals are received from a plurality of sensors to monitor user activities, the plurality of sensors including a motion sensor for collecting motion information and a biomedical sensor for collecting physiological information. According to a signal processing sequence, whether the measurement signals meet multiple qualifying conditions for a fall incident is determined. The multiple qualifying conditions include: a condition evaluating at least the motion information, and a condition evaluating at least the physiological information. The method further includes: when the measurement signals do not meet the multiple qualifying conditions, continuing to monitor the user activities; and when the measurement signals meet the multiple conditions, determining that a fall incident has occurred, and sending an alert message to a designated contact.
US09959720B2	Input zone enhancer and method A burglar alarm system with an input zone enhancer using a power source with random variable timing or voltage to supply the zone loop. The input zone enhancer measures the current flowing through a zone loop of a burglar control unit. A method includes providing random variable timing and a voltage to supply the zone loop. A method includes directly measuring the current flowing through a hard wired zone loop of a burglary control unit in order to overcome sensitivities associated with electromagnetic noise. A method includes detecting compromise attempts by calculating a correlation of two signals, the zone loop current and the reference current, and by calculating the autocorrelation of the zone loop current with itself at different points in time.
US09959714B2	Systems and methods for minimal haptic implementation Systems and methods for minimal haptic implementation are disclosed. For example, one disclosed system includes: an actuator; and a control-circuit in communication with the actuator, the control circuit configured to: receive a haptic signal including a first bit indicating a power state; and transmit a power signal based on the haptic signal, the power signal configured to cause the actuator to operate at an actuation state at a fixed power.
US09959706B2	Specifically programmed game-operating computer systems for conducting games having a common jackpot and computer-implemented methods of use thereof In some embodiments, the present invention provides for a specifically programmed game operating computer system which, when executing the particular program code, is configured to operate in real-time a game based, at least in part, on: electronically receiving, in real-time, via a computer network, game entries data representing game entries for playing the game which has a common jackpot or shares the common jackpot with another game, where the common jackpot is configured to be calculated, in real-time during game entry submission, based on the game having a plurality of options within at least one of the following parameters: a price point per game entry, a payout level, a prize structure, a common jackpot contribution collection, and a prize distribution mechanism.
US09959705B2	System and method for dynamically adjusting prizes or awards based on a platform One aspect of the disclosure relates to implementing a system to encourage cross platform operation in an online game. The online game may provide the ability to provide incentives for participating in cross platform game play. The system may monitor the player's performance on a particular console and provide incentives to accomplish tasks through game play on a different platform than the player is currently operating to play the game.
US09959703B2	Gaming machine with symbol replacement A gaming machine may determine that a trigger event for a bonus game occurred during a base outcome event of a base game, wherein the base game and the bonus game are both reel-based games being executed on behalf of a client machine. In response, the gaming machine may award use of two or more replaceable symbols for the bonus game. Until all of the replaceable symbols have been used, the gaming machine may repeatedly carry out iterations of bonus game operations including: determining a symbol set for display on a plurality of reels, where the symbol set includes non-replaceable symbols and zero or more replaceable symbols, and where each displayed replaceable symbol is successively replaced in the display by either a new non-replaceable symbol or a new replaceable symbol until no displayed replaceable symbols remain on the plurality of reels.
US09959702B2	Remote content management and resource sharing on a gaming machine and method of implementing same A gaming system including a number of host devices each coupled to one or more gaming machines, wherein content provided by the host device is output on the gaming machine. To output the content provided by the remote host, a host-controlled process that is authenticated by the gaming machine and executed in a secure memory location such that it is isolated from other processes executing on the gaming machine may be utilized. The host-controlled processes may be decoupled from the process used to execute the game of chance played on the gaming machine such that the content output by the host-controlled process doesn't alter the play of game of chance.
US09959696B2	Resiliently biased actuator A dispenser which deters theft of packaged items includes an ejector. The ejector is resiliently biased to an extended position, and is selectively retracted to a retracted position. When so retracted, it can be released so that it can translate a static package into a dynamic state as quickly as possible to minimize the effect of drag and friction between the package being ejected and the package immediately behind it in a column of packages, as well as between the package and the portions of the housing which are initially contacted by the package. The first package is ejected in a short impulse so as to minimize a transfer of kinetic energy to a second package, thus minimizing the effect of static inertia of the second package on the first package.
US09959694B2	Security systems for protecting an asset Security systems for protecting assets are described, including password-based security systems that can provide different levels of access responsive to entry of a primary or secondary password. In some versions, user-configurable security rules can provide customized responses to entry of primary or secondary passwords, including feigned or limited access, security alerts, etc. Passwords comprising overt and covert components can be used to provide enhanced security and improved user control over system response. Improved security systems involving transactions between multiple parties are also considered, with options for user-customized security rules including primary and secondary passwords, and reverse challenge and response methods. Systems for Limited Use Credentials are also disclosed to reduce the risk of identity theft.
US09959693B2	Identifying desynchronization between representations of data obtained from an ordered plurality of documents In a method for identifying desynchronization between representations of data obtained from an ordered plurality of documents, a processor can receive ordered first and second pluralities of data strings obtained from the respective plurality of documents; compare each data string in the first plurality to the corresponding data string in the second plurality and to each data string sequentially before or sequentially after the corresponding data string in the second plurality; based on the comparison, designate each data string in the first plurality as being one of synchronized, leading, or trailing; identify a continuous sequence of N data strings in the first plurality that all have a designation of leading or all have a designation of trailing, where N equals or exceeds a specified sequence threshold; and generate a single error signal that identifies all N of the data strings in the continuous sequence as being desynchronized.
US09959691B2	Electronic latch release backup system for a motor vehicle door A latch release backup system for a latch assembly of a motor-vehicle door is provided with a key cylinder configured to receive a vehicle key and which is rotatably mounted to the motor-vehicle door, and a mechanical coupling arrangement mounted within the motor-vehicle door and operable to convert a rotation of the key cylinder into actuation of an actuation group of the latch assembly for causing latch release. The key cylinder defines an electrical interface socket designed to receive the vehicle key. An electronic control unit is mounted within the motor-vehicle door and is electrically connected to the electrical interface socket to receive identification information (Id) from the vehicle key when plugged into the electrical interface socket. The mechanical coupling arrangement is normally disengaged from the actuation group of the latch assembly, and the electronic control unit is configured to control selective engagement of the mechanical coupling arrangement to the actuation group of the latch assembly based on the identification information (Id) received from the vehicle key.
US09959689B2	System and method for creation of unique identification for use in gathering survey data from a mobile device at a live event A method is provided for interacting with audience members in an event, each of the potential attendees having available thereto a unique identifier. The method comprises creating, for an attendee, a unique ID (UID) on a mobile wireless device (MWD) by the steps of inputting to the MWD one of the unique identifiers, combining the obtained unique identifier with a UID time stamp at the time of creation of the UID; receiving with a server on a first wireless channel communications from the MWD; registering the UID at the physical location of the event; generating a visual query; displaying on the MWD response indicators; receiving at the server from the registered attendee a response, to the query over the first wireless channel; and storing in a database on the server the received response in association with the displayed query.
US09959679B2	Floating graphical user interface A method of controlling a widget in a virtual space is disclosed, comprising: moving a field-of-view and a point of gaze in the virtual space; determining if the widget and the point of gaze overlap each other, and providing an input to the widget if the widget and the point of gaze overlap; determining if at least a part of the widget is positioned outside the field of view; and moving the widget so that the part of the widget is positioned inside the field of view if it is determined that at least a part of the widget is positioned outside the field of view.
US09959677B2	Multidimensional graphical method for entering and exiting applications and activities in immersive media In one general aspect, a method can include executing, by a computing device, a virtual reality (VR) application, providing, by the computing device, content for display on a screen of a VR headset in a VR space, the content including at least one object being associated with an action, detecting a first movement of a user immersed in the VR space towards the at least one object included in the VR space, and performing the associated action in the VR space based on detecting the first movement.
US09959676B2	Presentation of enhanced communication between remote participants using augmented and virtual reality Embodiments disclosed herein provide methods, systems, and computer readable storage media for presenting a meeting between remote participants. In a particular embodiment, a method provides, during a conference session, compiling view information used to determine a first view seen by the first participant. The method further provides receiving conference video comprising at least video captured of a second participant remote to the physical location of the first participant. Also, the method provides presenting the video captured of the second participant such that the second participant appears at a first position of a meeting location in the first view to the first participant.
US09959671B1	System and method for capturing, processing and rendering data through a template-driven processing pipeline A system and method are provided which generate a three-dimensional model of a subject from continuous capture of images or video on a hand-held portable device, such as the typical consumer “smartphone.” The system may comprise a depth sensor, an integrated digital camera, an inertial measurement unit, and a template-driven data processing pipeline. The pipeline receives and processes depth, color and inertial measurement data to produce a real-time three-dimensional rendering of the subject. The system may also allow for coordination of multiple connected devices such that processing functions may be allocated to different devices. A user may save the rendering in a variety of different formats and transmit it to multiple devices via any conventional means available. The system is thread-safe to prevent crashes. It is also platform-agnostic and may operate on a variety of hardware and software platforms on different types and brands of devices without re-programming.
US09959669B2	Method and apparatus for rendering a computer generated image A method and apparatus for rendering a computer-generated image using a stencil buffer is described. The method divides an arbitrary closed polygonal contour into first and higher level primitives, where first level primitives correspond to contiguous vertices in the arbitrary closed polygonal contour and higher level primitives correspond to the end vertices of consecutive primitives of the immediately preceding primitive level. The method reduces the level of overdraw when rendering the arbitrary polygonal contour using a stencil buffer compared to other image space methods. A method of producing the primitives in an interleaved order, with second and higher level primitives being produced before the final first level primitives of the contour, is described which improves cache hit rate by reusing more vertices between primitives as they are produced.
US09959662B2	Simulation and skinning of heterogeneous texture detail deformation A method is disclosed for reducing distortions introduced by deformation of a surface with an existing parameterization. In an exemplary embodiment, the method comprises receiving a rest pose mesh comprising a plurality of faces, a rigidity map corresponding to the rest pose mesh, and a deformed pose mesh; using the rigidity map to generate a simulation grid on the rest pose mesh, the simulation grid comprising a plurality of cells; defining a set of constraints on the simulation grid, the constraints being derived at least in part from the rigidity map; running a simulation using the simulation grid and the set of constraints to obtain a warped grid; and texture mapping the deformed pose mesh based on data from the warped grid.
US09959657B2	Computer generated head A method of animating a computer generation of a head, the head having a mouth which moves in accordance with speech to be output by the head, said method comprising: providing an input related to the speech which is to be output by the movement of the lips; dividing said input into a sequence of acoustic units; selecting expression characteristics for the inputted text; converting said sequence of acoustic units to a sequence of image vectors using a statistical model, wherein said model has a plurality of model parameters describing probability distributions which relate an acoustic unit to an image vector, said image vector comprising a plurality of parameters which define a face of said head; and outputting said sequence of image vectors as video such that the mouth of said head moves to mime the speech associated with the input text with the selected expression, wherein a parameter of a predetermined type of each probability distribution in said selected expression is expressed as a weighted sum of parameters of the same type, and wherein the weighting used is expression dependent, such that converting said sequence of acoustic units to a sequence of image vectors comprises retrieving the expression dependent weights for said selected expression, wherein the parameters are provided in clusters, and each cluster comprises at least one sub-cluster, wherein said expression dependent weights are retrieved for each cluster such that there is one weight per sub-cluster.
US09959655B2	Segmented full body inverse kinematics A method, system, and computer program product provide the ability to render an animated creature in real-time. A creature diagram for a creature, having chains sections, is drawn. An effector is created for each section and each chain, and defines a target position and an orientation that is reached. A chain solving type is selected for the chains, and is used to simulate a desired biomechanical behavior of the creature. The creature diagram, including the sections, chains, and chain solving types, is mapped to a three-dimensional (3D) model. The creature is animated/rendered in a real-time 3D application based on the mapping.
US09959653B2	Mosaic oblique images and methods of making and using same A computer system running image processing software receives an identification of a desired scene of a geographical area for which an oblique-mosaic image is desired including one or more geometry parameters of a virtual camera; creates a mathematical model of the virtual camera having mathematical values that define the camera geometry parameters that configure the model to capture the geographical area, and looking down at an oblique angle; creates a ground elevation model of the ground and vertical structures within the oblique-mosaic pixel map, wherein source images were captured at an oblique angle and compass direction similar to the oblique angle and compass direction of the virtual camera; and reprojects, with the mathematical model, source oblique image pixels of the overlapping source images for pixels included in the oblique-mosaic pixel map using the ground elevation model to thereby create the oblique-mosaic image of the geographical area.
US09959651B2	Methods, devices and computer programs for processing images in a system comprising a plurality of cameras The present disclosure relates to processing images representing a real scene, the images comprising at least two images obtained from at least two sources of images, a sub-image of each of the at least two images representing an overlapping area of the real scene. A role map comprising a plurality of parts, all the points of each part of the role map being associated with a single identifier of a source of images, is generated during a training phase. To process the images, parts of the role map are selected as a function of an identifier of a considered source of images, and sub-images of an image obtained from the considered source of images are processed, the processed sub-images corresponding to the selected parts of the role map.
US09959647B1	Representation of activity in images using geospatial temporal graphs Various technologies pertaining to modeling patterns of activity observed in remote sensing images using geospatial-temporal graphs are described herein. Graphs are constructed by representing objects in remote sensing images as nodes, and connecting nodes with undirected edges representing either distance or adjacency relationships between objects and directed edges representing changes in time. Activity patterns may be discerned from the graphs by coding nodes representing persistent objects like buildings differently from nodes representing ephemeral objects like vehicles, and examining the geospatial-temporal relationships of ephemeral nodes within the graph.
US09959646B2	Information display device, distribution device, information display method, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium According to one aspect of an embodiment, an information display device includes a display unit that displays first content in a display region. The information display device includes a detection unit configured to detect a physical state of a terminal device. The information display device includes a display control unit configured to direct the display unit to display second new content in the display region while changing a display mode of the first content, on the basis of the detection result of the detection unit.
US09959644B2	Computerized method and device for annotating at least one feature of an image of a view A computerized method for annotating at least one feature of an image of a view, includes the steps of obtaining the image with an image sensor of a portable device, and retrieving at least one condition. Based on the at least one condition, the method automatically selects a feature identification method among a plurality of features identification methods. It then applies the feature identification method for identifying the at least one feature, and annotates some of the identified features.
US09959642B2	Graph generation apparatus, graph display apparatus, graph generation program, and graph display program A vector data selection unit selects, from a vector file of a past line graph, each vector data of a time period where a new line graph overlaps. An attribute value setting unit sets, of the vector data selected, a high transparency degree value to oldest vector data, sets a low transparency degree value to newest vector data, and sets an intermediate transparency degree value to intermediate vector data. A graph display unit displays a portion of a time period of the past line graph where the new line graph overlaps, with a gradation.
US09959636B2	Systems and methods for processing images of objects using global lighting estimates An image processing system and method for determining an intrinsic colour component of one or more objects for use in rendering the object(s) is described. One or more input images are received, each representing a view of the object(s), wherein values of the input image(s) are separable into intrinsic colour estimates and corresponding shading estimates. A set of surface normals for the object(s) of the input image(s) is determined. In accordance with the values of the input image(s) and the determined set of surface normals, a global lighting estimate is determined which provides consistent corresponding intrinsic colour estimates for a plurality of regions of the object(s) from the input image(s). The intrinsic colour component is determined in accordance with the values of the input image(s) and the determined global lighting estimate. The determined intrinsic colour component of the object(s) and the determined set of surface normals for the object(s) are stored for use in rendering the object(s).
US09959632B2	Object extraction from video images system and method A computer implemented method of object extraction from video images, the method comprising steps a computer is programmed to perform, the steps comprising: receiving a plurality of video images, deriving a plurality of background templates from at least one of the received video images, calculating a plurality of differences from an individual one of the received video images, each one of the differences being calculated between the individual video image and a respective and different one of the background templates, and extracting an object of interest from the individual video image, using a rule applied on the calculated differences.
US09959631B2	Tomography apparatus and method for reconstructing tomography image thereof A tomography apparatus includes a data acquirer acquiring a first image and a second image that are partial images, by using data acquired in a first angular section corresponding to a first time point and a second angular section corresponding to a second time and facing the first angular section, by performing a tomography scan on an object that is moving, and acquiring first information indicating a motion amount of the object by using the first image and the second image, and an image reconstructor reconstructing a target image indicating the object at a target time, based on the first information.
US09959627B2	Computing 3D shape parameters for face animation A three-dimensional shape parameter computation system and method for computing three-dimensional human head shape parameters from two-dimensional facial feature points. A series of images containing a user's face is captured. Embodiments of the system and method deduce the 3D parameters of the user's head by examining a series of captured images of the user over time and in a variety of head poses and facial expressions, and then computing an average. An energy function is constructed over a batch of frames containing 2D face feature points obtained from the captured images, and the energy function is minimized to solve for the head shape parameters valid for the batch of frames. Head pose parameters and facial expression and animation parameters can vary over each captured image in the batch of frames. In some embodiments this minimization is performed using a modified Gauss-Newton minimization technique using a single iteration.
US09959624B2	Early detection of turning condition identification using perception technology An in-vehicle system for identifying turn-only and shared turn lanes and identifying turn rules according to visual indicia captured from turn signs. An image apparatus configured to obtain image data including graphic data and/or text data from a roadway sign, as well as street light image data for an intersection on the roadway. The image data may be processed to detect a graphic image and/or text from the image data relating to the roadway sign. Street light image data may also be captured and processed to determine a street light status. An identification module may determine rules for turning on the intersection of the roadway based on the processed image data relating to the roadway sign, wherein the identification module is further configured to determine if the turn on the roadway is allowed based on the determined street light status.
US09959621B2	Testing apparatus with dual cameras Embodiments disclose a device for testing biological specimen. The device includes a sample carrier and a detachable cover. The sample carrier includes a specimen holding area. The detachable cover is placed on top of the specimen holding area. The detachable cover includes a magnifying component configured to align with the specimen holding area. The focal length of the magnifying component is from 0.1 mm to 8.5 mm. The magnifying component has a linear magnification ratio of at least 1. Some embodiments further include a multi-camera configuration. These embodiments include a first camera module and a second camera module arranged to capture one or more images of the first holding area and the second holding area, respectively. The processor may perform different analytic processes on the captured images of different holding areas to determine an outcome with regard to the biological specimen.
US09959618B2	Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer-readable recording medium An image processing apparatus includes: a detecting unit configured to detect images of interest including regions of interest that are estimated as an object to be detected, from a group of a series of images acquired by sequentially imaging a lumen of a living body; a global similarity calculating unit configured to calculate a global similarity that is a similarity between regions including at least regions other than the regions of interest, between the images of interest different from one another; an image-of-interest group extracting unit configured to extract an image-of-interest group including identical regions of interest, in accordance with comparison between a threshold and the global similarity or a determination parameter based on the global similarity; and a representative image extracting unit configured to extract a representative image from the image-of-interest group.
US09959614B2	Image processing device and method A first concentration range, which is a concentration range of a region of interest, and an output concentration range are determined in an input image. A compression table for compressing a dynamic range of the input image is generated on the basis of the first concentration range and the output concentration range. The first concentration range is changed at a predetermined ratio with respect to the changed output concentration range to determine a second concentration range. A new compression table is generated on the basis of the changed output concentration range and the second concentration range. The dynamic range of the input image is compressed using the new compression table.
US09959612B2	Measuring optical turbulence using cell counting algorithms Methods for characterizing atmospheric turbulence along an optical path from a laser transmitter to a laser receiver can include the steps of counting the number of laser speckles at the receiver imaging plane, and then finding Fried's parameter r0 using the counting result to characterize the turbulence along the path. Before counting speckles, images at the receiver image plane can be preprocessed by capturing the images. The captured images at the image plane can then be blurred and a threshold can be chosen so that only certain pixels in the image are further processed. The thresholding can be via Otsu's methods or via variants of a Gaussian fit. Kostelec's method can then be used to count speckles in the portions of the image that have made it through the thresholding step. Other counting methods could be used. Fried's can then be found using the speckle count.
US09959610B2	System and method to detect substrate and/or substrate support misalignment using imaging A method and apparatus for detecting substrate misalignment (i.e., position displacement error) and/or substrate support misalignment. According to certain aspects, a method for detecting a misalignment of an object in a processing system is provided. The method generally includes obtaining a first image of the object, determining first values associated with pixels in at least one region of the first image, calculating at least one of a center of gravity value of the pixels in the at least one region or an average weight of the pixels in the at least one region, and detecting a misalignment of the object based on at least one of the calculated center of gravity or average weight of the pixels in the at least one region.
US09959608B1	Tethered 3D scanner In a computer-implemented method and system for capturing the condition of a structure, the structure is scanned with a three-dimensional (3D) scanner. The 3D scanner generates 3D data. A point cloud or 3D model is constructed from the 3D data. The point cloud or 3D model is then analyzed to determine the condition of the structure.
US09959607B2	Automatic verification of graphic rendition of JSON data Aspects provide automatic verification of graphic rendition of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data by using a baseline JSON file to render data values of a baseline data set into a baseline graphic presentation that meets a boundary condition requirement for displaying the data values. The baseline data set data values are rendered into a baseline graphic presentation that is stored into a local file system and used to render data values of a second set of data of a back end server data warehouse data into a new graphic presentation, which is compared to the stored baseline graphic presentation on a pixel-by-pixel basis. In response to the pixel-by-pixel comparison indicating a difference in display of boundary condition requirement values, the stored baseline JSON file is revised into a revised baseline JSON file that renders the data values of the second data set into a revised new graphic presentation.
US09959605B2	Image processing apparatus, image capturing apparatus, and storage medium An image processing apparatus acquires a first image generated by image capturing, stores data about an image restoration filter that is used for an image restoration process and corresponds to a first F-number, stores interpolation data corresponding to each of a plurality of second F-numbers different from the first F-number, which relates to an interpolation proportion in an interpolation process, and generates, when an image capturing F-number as the F-number for the image capturing is one of the second F-numbers, a second image by performing for the first image a correction process that includes the image restoration process and the interpolation process, by using the image restoration filter corresponding to the first F-number and the interpolation data corresponding to the image capturing F-number.
US09959604B2	Dynamic global tone mapping with integrated 3D color look-up table The processing of RGB image data can be optimized by performing optimization operations on the image data when it is converted into the YCbCr color space. First, a raw RGB color space is converted into a YCbCr color space, and raw RGB image data is converted into YCbCr image data using the YCbCr color space. For each Y-layer of the YCbCr image data, a 2D LUT is generated. The YCbCr image data is converted into optimized CbCr image data using the 2D LUTs, and optimized YCbCr image data is generated by blending CbCr image data corresponding to multiple Y-layers. The optimized YCbCr image data is converted into sRGB image data, and a tone curve is applied to the sRGB image data to produce optimized sRGB image data.
US09959600B2	Motion image compensation method and device, display device Disclosed are a motion image compensation method and a device, and a display device. The motion image compensation method comprises: acquiring a first image corresponding to a pre-motion picture and a second image corresponding to a post-motion picture; dividing the first image and the second image respectively into several image blocks; performing computations on any pair of mutually corresponding image blocks in the first image and the second image based on a phase correlation method; performing edge detection on the first image and the second image respectively; and according to a preset condition, acquiring, from the at least one displacement vector, a displacement vector matched with a transformation between the edge feature patterns within the pair of mutually corresponding image blocks as a displacement vector corresponding to the pair of image blocks during a motion compensation process.
US09959595B2	Dense structure from motion Determining three-dimensional structure in a road environment using a system mountable in a host vehicle including a camera connectable to a processor. Multiple image frames are captured in the field of view of the camera. In the image frames, a line is selected below which the road is imaged. The line separates between upper images essentially excluding images of the road and lower images essentially including images of the road. One or more of the lower images is warped, according to a road homography to produce at least one warped lower image. The three-dimensional structure may be provided from motion of a matching feature within the upper images or from motion of a matching feature within at least one of the lower images and at least one warped lower image.
US09959594B2	Fusion of multiple images A method includes fusing at least three images together into a single fused image, wherein at least one of the three images includes a binary-pattern representation image. A system includes an image processing system (100) that combines an anatomical image, a functional image and a binary-pattern representation image into a single image. A computer readable storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor of a computer, cause the processor to combine an anatomical image, a functional image, and a binary-pattern representation of a different functional image into a single image such that the anatomical image and the functional image are visible in interspaces between binary points of the binary-pattern representation of the functional image.
US09959593B2	Memory controller having plurality of channels that provides simultaneous access to data when accessing unified graphics memory An apparatus includes a unified system/graphics memory and a memory controller. The memory controller is operative to receive client data access requests associated with one or more clients and a central processing unit (CPU) data access request associated with a CPU, to a plurality of memory channels for accessing the unified system/graphics memory. The memory controller is operative to provide access to the plurality of memory channels, in parallel, by the CPU and at least one client of the one or more clients. The memory controller is operative to prioritize the CPU data access request to the unified memory over the client data access requests to the unified memory and control the plurality of memory channels to access, in parallel, data for the CPU and data for the at least one client based on a request of the client data access requests and the CPU data access request.
US09959592B2	Disabling a display refresh process A method performed by a physical computing system, the method includes disabling a display refresh process of a video controller of the physical computing system if no active display device is connected to the physical computing system. A physical computing system includes a video controller comprising a rendering engine and a display refresh controller; a memory controller connected to a memory; and a display controller to determine whether an active display device is connected to the physical computing system; in which a display refresh process performed by the display refresh controller is disabled when no active display device is connected to the physical computing system.
US09959589B2	Image driving device, electronic device including image driving device, and image driving method An image driving device includes a determining unit, and image processing unit, and a memory. The determining unit determines whether an input image is a moving image or a still image, and may be synchronized with an internal clock different from an external clock. The image processing unit may image-process at least one frame but less than all frames of the input image when the input image is determined to be a still image. The image processing unit may output the at least one image-processed frame as first image data, and the memory may store the first image data.
US09959583B2	Secure content distribution system A user selection of one or more of a plurality of content is received. The selected content is encrypted by a first encryption key that is remote and unknown to the distribution server. Payment information associated with the user selection is also received and verified. The selected content from is retrieved from a remote database. The first encryption key corresponding to the selected content to decrypt the encrypted content corresponding to the user selection is obtained. Decryption is performed by a hardware-based engine of the distribution server that is isolated from a host processor of the distribution server. The content corresponding to the user selection is encrypted according to a second encryption key that is known to the distribution server.
US09959571B2	User published auctions in online mediums A method and system is disclosed for user-published interactive widgets for auctions hosted by an auction forum resource. Examples include an auction forum configured to generate a script associated with an auction upon a publisher-request, and to provide the script to be published on the publisher's resource, resulting in an external interactive component displayed on the publisher's resource. Example features may be configured to respond to user inputs submitted from the interactive component. Furthermore, reward logic can be included to issue a reward to the publisher associated with the script request.
US09959570B2	Replacement of content items The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes receiving a user account identifier of a content item suppression account and an identity of a user-specified content item, receiving an auction announcement message including the user account identifier and a request for allocation of a content item to a content inventory unit to be presented at the user device, determining a bid for presenting the content item in place of third-party content, transmitting the bid to the auction platform, transmitting the content item in response to the auction announcement message, receiving a message indicating that the content item has been presented in place of the third-party content and an auction price for presenting the content item in place of the third-party content, and reducing a stored account value associated with the user account identifier based on the auction price.
US09959561B2	Simplenutrition nutritional management system A nutritional management system which comprises a processor, a memory, a first data store comprising a list of products, universal product codes associated with the products, and nutritional information associated with the products, a second data store comprising a physiological information profile for each of a plurality of different loyalty card users, an application stored in the memory. When executed by the processor the application accesses the second data store to read the physiological information profile of a loyalty card user, analyzes the physiological information profile based on objective nutritional guidelines set forth for physiological characteristics disclosed in the physiological information profile, searches the first data store to find products that satisfy the objective nutritional guidelines, transmits the products, receives a selection of one or more of the products, and promotes generating a personalized shopping list comprising selected products that is based on the physiological information profile.
US09959557B2	Dynamically generated audio in advertisements A content server provides a client device with audio content including an audio advertisement, which is provided in response to receiving a request for digital audio content from a client device associated with a user. The content server obtains user information about the user and retrieves advertisement text received from an advertiser, which are used to generate a personalized text advertisement. The personalized text advertisement is generated according to an advertisement template specifying an ordered combination of text components. The personalized text advertisement includes the received advertisement text, user information text selected from the obtained user information, and template text. The client device is provided with an advertisement based on the personalized text advertisement and is configured to play an audio version of the personalized text advertisement. The audio advertisement is generated using a text-to-speech algorithm at the client device or at the content server.
US09959556B1	Method and apparatus of providing video data notifications to user devices A method and apparatus are disclosed for transmitting notifications to customers. One example method may include identifying a notification event associated with a customer via a customer management module and retrieving a customer preference record. The method may also include determining a notification device preference for a customer Internet protocol (IP) device included in the customer preference record and determining a current presence status of the customer Internet protocol (IP) device. The method may also include transmitting the notification event to the customer's IP device based on the notification device preference.
US09959555B2	Activating display and performing additional function in mobile terminal with one-time user input Disclosed is a mobile terminal including a touch screen display, a camera, a power button and an activation button for turning on the touch screen display. The mobile terminal has a first function and a second function to perform in response to user input and provides user settings for configuring at least one of the first and second functions such that the at least one of the first and second functions is performed along with turning on the touch screen display when pressing of the activation button is detected while the touch screen display is turned off. The mobile terminal is configured to perform the first and second functions depending upon length of pressing of the activation button in addition to turning on the touch screen display.
US09959552B2	System and method for discounted sales transactions A method and system for communicating promotional offers by registering an electronic device with a server, activating a promotional offer stored on the server, receiving location information of the electronic device by the server over a network, determining the electronic device is to receive the promotional offer based upon the received location information, sending the promotional offer from the server to the electronic device over the network, sending a positive response to the promotional offer from the electronic device, over the network, and to the server, and sending a confirmation of the positive response from the server, over the network, and to the electronic device.
US09959551B1	Customer-level cross-channel message planner Techniques for providing a messaging plan may be provided. A message that conforms to a channel agnostic format may be received. In an example, a messaging plan that includes a channel for delivering the message may be determined based at least in part on a score determined by a machine learning module utilizing metrics of a user. The message may be provided to the user according to the messaging plan. The messaging plan may be updated for subsequent messages based at least in part on updated metrics of the user received in response to the user interacting with the message.
US09959549B2	Mental state analysis for norm generation Mental state data is gathered from a plurality of people and analyzed in order to determine mental state information. Metrics are generated based on the mental state information gathered as the people view media presentations. Norms, defined as the quantitative measures of the mental states of a plurality of people as they view the media presentation, are determined based on the mental state information metrics. The norms can be determined based on various viewer criteria including country of residence, demographic group, or device type on which the media presentation is viewed. Responses to new media are then compared against norms to determine the effectiveness of the new media presentations.
US09959546B2	Associating financial accounts with a social networking system user profile A social networking system associates a financial account identified by a user with a user profile maintained by the social networking system for the user. The social networking system may compensate the user for associating the financial account with the user profile by crediting the identified financial account by an amount. The credit may be applied to subsequent purchases by the user at a vendor identified by the user. To simplify vendor selection, the social networking system may suggest one or more candidate pages associated with vendors to the user. Information in a transaction history of the financial account and in the user profile may be used to identify the candidate pages, allowing the user to select a vendor with which the user has previously transacted by selecting a candidate page associated with the vendor.
US09959539B2	Continual authorization for secured functions A computing device may determine to execute a secured function. The computing may obtain a biometric of the user of the computing device utilizing one or more biometric sensors associated with the computing device, determine that the biometric matches the biometric of a user authorized to utilize the secured function, and execute the secured function. Whenever during execution of the secured function the computing device determines that the biometric sensor no longer detects the biometric of the user, the computing device may cease execution of the secured function.
US09959536B1	Current-mode hysteresis comparator A comparator can incorporate a hysteresis circuit to control when the output of the comparator changes between a high voltage signal and a low voltage signal. The comparator can receive a differential signal and can output either the high voltage signal or the low voltage signal. When the differential input signal is above a first threshold voltage, the output of the comparator can transition to the high voltage signal and when the differential input signal is below a second threshold voltage, the output of the comparator can transition to the low voltage signal. The hysteresis circuit of the comparator is used to adjust the first threshold voltage and the second threshold voltage required to transition the output of the comparator based on the present state of the output signal of the comparator.
US09959535B2	Prepaid value account with reversion to purchaser systems and methods Systems, methods, and devices are described for a refundable prepaid transaction cards. The methods and systems include a prepaid transaction card funded with funds by a purchaser. Also included is an issuer. The issuer receives the funds a distributes a prepaid transaction card associated with the funds. The methods and systems also include a prepaid transaction card identifier, wherein the prepaid transaction card identifier identifies the prepaid transaction card. The issuer maintains a central computer system that stores at least one parameter entitling the purchaser to a refund of at least a portion of the funds. The methods and systems also include a cash pool, the cash pool holding at least a portion of the funds funded by the purchaser.
US09959532B2	Secure element authentication for remote deposit capture compatible check image generation A check image generator application generates a remote deposit capture RDC compatible check image. The RDC compatible check image is sent from a sender mobile device to a recipient mobile device. The RDC compatible check image may pass through a server and may be encrypted. The recipient mobile device receives the RDC compatible check image and forwards it to a financial institution for deposit.
US09959530B2	Method and device for accessing, controlling and purchasing a product through a dispenser Various technologies described herein pertain to an automated dispenser including a dispensing portion, a motion sensor, a receiver module, and a control module. The control module initiates motion sensing by the motion sensor in response to receipt of an activation signal from a network server by the receiver module. The dispensing portion dispenses a product in response to the motion sensor sensing an absence, presence or motion of an object.
US09959529B1	Open tab transactions A customer device generates an order for purchasing one or more goods or services from a merchant. A list of the purchased items is stored in a data structure designated as a tab. The list is routed to a merchant device. The customer device is carried by a user to the merchant. When the user reaches the merchant, the customer device or merchant device can receive a request to add an additional item to the list of purchased items. The tab remains open and modifiable until the customer device or merchant device receives an input to close it. Payment for the goods or services listed in the modified tab is processed upon closing of the tab.
US09959521B2	System and method for control of bailment inventory A method and system for control of bailment inventory is disclosed. The method includes receiving a customer identifier from a customer, receiving from the customer at least one customer item for bailment, associating the customer identifier with the at least one customer item, storing the at least one customer item, and returning the at least one customer item to the customer.
US09959514B2	Optimized asset maintenance and replacement schedule There are provided a system, a method and a computer program product for generating an optimal preventive maintenance/replacement schedule for a set of assets. The method includes receiving data regarding an asset, said data including a failure rate function of said asset, a cost of preventative maintenance (PM) of said asset, a cost of an asset failure, and a cost of replacing an asset. An optimal number K of preventative maintenance time intervals tk and an indication of a possible replacement is computed and stored for each asset by minimizing a mean cost-rate value function with respect to an electrical age of the asset. A first PM schedule is formed without consideration of labor and budget resource constraints. The method further generates a second maintenance schedule for a system of assets by minimizing a deviation from the optimal PM time intervals subject to the labor and budget resource constraints.
US09959513B2	Systems and methods involving features of sales force processing and/or productivity Systems and methods are disclosed associated with classifying, processing and interpreting information based on the aggregation and/or analysis of fact-based data events. Some implementations include associated notifications, reports and/or dispute resolution mechanisms.
US09959512B2	System and method for operating a service to arrange transport amongst parties through use of mobile devices A system and method are described for enabling transportation to be arranged for individuals carrying handsets or mobile devices. In some embodiments, a customer can transmit a request for transport from a given customer geographic location. A service may handle the request by selecting a driver for the customer.
US09959510B2	System and method for assembly of business systems from reusable business control elements in an asset based component business model architecture A method and system for assembling business systems by identifying assets and commercialization mechanisms needed for a business system, which are then associated with business components described on a component business model (CBM) map, based on asset types and elemental control structures that are common across an industry, and therefore reusable. The generic elemental control structures needed for the business system are configured and then assembled into a service network for implementing the business system. A business system so assembled may be enhanced by adding elemental control structures to the service network.
US09959509B2	Computing dependent and conflicting changes of business process models Changing a business process model involves several aspects: (1) given a set of change operations, dependencies and conflicts are encoded in dependency and conflict matrices; (2) given a change sequence for a process model M, the change sequence is broken up into subsequences such that operations from different subsequences are independent; (3) given a change sequence for a process model V1 and another change sequence for a process model V2, conflicts between operations in the different change sequences are determined; (4) the process structure tree can be used to localize dependency computations, yielding a more efficient approach to determining dependencies; and (5) the process structure tree can be used to localize conflict computations, yielding a more efficient approach to determining conflicts.
US09959506B1	Predictive content retrieval using device movements Features are disclosed for predicting or otherwise determining when a user will initiate an operation on a user computing device, such as requesting network-accessible content. Upon making the determination, the user computing device can proactively perform the determined operation or portions thereof. The user computing device may use a detection model or profile that associates user-initiated operations with data from sensors on the user computing device. The sensors may include movement sensors, environmental sensors, and the like. One benefit, among others, is that user-perceived performance can be improved because some or all of a user-initiated operation has been performed prior to user-initiation of the operation.
US09959504B2	Significance of relationships discovered in a corpus Certain relationships representing material insights are identified from among a set of discovered relationships. Cognitive discovery of relationships in a knowledge base, or corpus, are ranked according to one or more metrics indicative of material insights, including recentness and degree of alignment.
US09959494B1	RFID-based item presence detection An RFID-based item tracking system may use statistical methods to determine whether a tag or tagged item that does not respond when inventoried is present in a particular zone or reader antenna field-of-view. In one embodiment, the item tracking system may determine an observability of an item based on one or more initial trials. Upon not detecting the item in one or more subsequent trials, the item tracking system may estimate whether the item is still present based on the observability.
US09959490B2	Print orientation of documents based on device sensor output This is directed to defining the orientation in which a document is printed from the orientation of the device on which the document is displayed. In particular, some electronic devices can have limited user interfaces that do not provide for a simple or elegant interface for defining print settings. To overcome limitations in a displayed user interface, the orientation of an electronic device can be used to define the print orientation of a displayed document. In particular, a motion-sensing component of an electronic device can determine whether the electronic device display is in a portrait or landscape orientation, and define the page orientation of the displayed document to match the determined device orientation. The electronic device can then send information representing the displayed document in the defined page orientation to the printer system.
US09959484B2	Method and apparatus for generating image filter The present disclosure discloses a method and an apparatus for generating an image filter. The method includes receiving a first image that is selected with a specific imaging effect desired for the image filter, generating a group of images corresponding to the first image, wherein the group of images comprises at least a second image of a common structure characteristic with the first image and without the specific imaging effect, calculating a mapping relationship for transforming the group of images to the first image and storing the mapping relationship to be used as the image filter to generate the specific imaging effect on other images.
US09959483B2	System and method for information identification The present invention is to provide a system and a method for information identification to more accurately identify an object and make the process more easily. The system for information identification includes a database that registers information on an object; images the object from a predetermined direction by using the first imaging unit; images the object from a different direction by the second imaging unit; registers information on the object imaged by the first imaging unit in the database; and compares information on the object imaged by the second imaging unit with information registered in the database to identify the object.
US09959482B2	Classifying method, storage medium, inspection method, and inspection apparatus The present invention provides a classifying method of classifying an article into one of a plurality of groups based on an image of the article, comprising determining an evaluation method for obtaining an evaluation value of an image by using at least some of sample images, obtaining evaluation values for the sample images by the determined evaluation method, changing the evaluation method so as to increase a degree of dissimilarity in an evaluation value range for sample images between the plurality of groups by changing a evaluation value of at least one sample image having a singular evaluation value among the sample images, obtaining an evaluation value for the image of the article using the changed evaluation method, and classifying the article into one of the plurality of groups based on the evaluation value for the image of the article.
US09959478B2	Method and system for biometric recognition High quality, high contrast images of an iris and the face of a person are acquired in rapid succession in either sequence by a single sensor and one or more illuminators, preferably within less than one second of each other, by changing the data acquisition settings or illumination settings between each acquisition.
US09959472B2	Parking assisting system Disclosed is a parking assist system including a camera unit for photographing front or rear view of a vehicle, and a display unit for displaying a front or rear view image of the vehicle photographed by the camera unit, the system characterized by: a processor unit generating a first and second parking guide line, one being perpendicular to the other, at an area which is apart from the vehicle by a predetermined distance, and generating an estimated travel trajectory line based on steering angle information obtained from a steering angle sensor of the vehicle; and an overlay unit for overlaying the photographed front or rear view image of the vehicle on the first and second parking guide lines and the estimated travel trajectory line.
US09959470B2	System and method for contexually interpreting image sequences A system and method for contextually interpreting image sequences are provided. The method comprises receiving video from one or more video sources, and generating one or more questions associated with one or more portions of the video based on at least one user-defined objective. The method further comprises sending the one or more portions of the video and the one or more questions to one or more assistants, receiving one or more answers to the one or more questions from the one or more assistants, and determining a contextual interpretation of the video based on the one or more answers and the video.
US09959469B2	Object display system, management apparatus, and object display method for identifying an estimated position of an object apparatus An object display system according to an aspect of the present invention includes: management means for generating an object identifier capable of distinguishing an object apparatus to which the object identifier is assigned in a predetermined region; signal information transmitting means for transmitting the object identifier generated, to an object apparatus which is an originating apparatus selected from a plurality of originating apparatuses each sending a signal representing the object identifier; signal detecting means for detecting the signal representing the object identifier transmitted to the object apparatus as an object signal which is a signal to be sent by the object apparatus; identifying means for identifying an origination region from which the object signal is sent in a captured video; and display control means for outputting the video in which a mark is provided on the origination region identified in the video.
US09959468B2	Systems and methods for object tracking and classification A method for classifying at least one object of interest in a video is provided. The method includes accessing, using at least one processing device, a frame of the video, the frame including at least one object of interest to be classified, performing, using the at least one processing device, object detection on the frame to detect the object of interest, tracking, using the at least one processing device, the object of interest over a plurality of frames in the video over time using a persistent tracking capability, isolating, using the at least one processing device, a segment of the frame that includes the object of interest, classifying, using the at least one processing device, the object of interest by processing the segment using deep learning, and generating an output that indicates the classification of the object of interest.
US09959462B2	Locating and tracking fingernails in images A computer-implemented method and system are described for locating fingernails of a person's hand in an image. An approximate location of each fingernail in the image is determined. An approximate location of each of a plurality of digit-shape objects in the image is initialized based on the approximate locations of the fingernails, and initially refined based on respective digit-shape object models and corresponding functions. The approximate location of each fingernail sub-shape is further refined based on a respective fingernail model and its corresponding function.
US09959460B2	Re-wandering alarm system and method Provided are a re-wandering detecting device and method. The method includes: detecting an object and positional information about the object from an input image; determining whether the object wanders based on the positional information about the object; in response to determining that the object wanders, determining whether the object re-wanders by determining whether a database stores information about an object identical to the object detected from the input image; and providing information about wandering of the object according to whether the object re-wanders.
US09959456B2	Image search server, image search apparatus, and method of controlling operation of same An image search server constituting an image search system having a client computer and the image search server includes at least one hardware processor configured to calculate, with regard to each image of a multiplicity of images, the values of feature quantities representing characteristics of the image, score the image based upon the calculated values of the feature quantities, and responsive to application of a first move command which moves one image among a plurality of images displayed in a candidate area, which has been formed on a display screen of said client computer, to a search result area, raise the value of feature quantities, which correspond to the feature quantities of the one image for which the first move command has been applied, and score said multiplicity of images based upon the raised values of the feature quantities.
US09959453B2	Methods and systems for three-dimensional rendering of a virtual augmented replica of a product image merged with a model image of a human-body feature A system for rendering a merged virtual 3D augmented replica of a 3D product image and a 3D model image of a body part. A 3D modeling engine transforms an acquired 2D image of a body part into a 3D augmented replica thereof. A GUI enables the merging, displaying and manipulating of the 3D product image and the 3D augmented replica of a body part.
US09959451B2	Image inspection device, image inspection method and image inspection program Provided is an image inspection device, an image inspection method and an image inspection program which are capable of easily and accurately inspecting a shape of an inspection target. In a setting mode, positioning image data of a setting target placed on a stage is registered. In an inspection mode, a positioning image is displayed on a display part based on the positioning image data. An image for positioning of the inspection target placed on the stage is displayed in the display part. Thereafter, image data for alignment of the inspection target is acquired, and then aligned to image data for alignment of the setting target. A size in a height direction of a measurement target place of the inspection target is measured based on the aligned height image data, to determine Pass/Fail of the inspection target. The determined determination result is displayed on the display unit.
US09959449B2	Method for controlling unlocking and terminal A method for controlling unlocking includes the following operations. A finger of a user is scanned by a fingerprint recognition module of a mobile terminal to acquire a reference feature-point set of the finger when a touch operation on the fingerprint recognition module is detected. Match the reference feature-point set with M pre-stored template feature-point subsets. Unlock the mobile terminal when detecting that a current template feature-point set matches with the reference feature-point set.
US09959447B2	Fingerprint recognition device, display screen and display device The present invention provides a fingerprint recognition device, a display screen and a display device, which belong to the field of display technology and can solve the problem of high cost for conventional fingerprint recognition devices. The fingerprint recognition device of the present invention arranged at a light emitting side of a display panel includes a protection substrate, a glass base positioned under the protection substrate, a plurality of detecting electrodes formed on the glass base, capacitance being formed between the plurality of detecting electrodes and ridges or valleys of a fingerprint when touching occurs, and a control unit used to recognize the fingerprint based on the capacitance. The fingerprint recognition device of the present invention has a simple structure and a low cost.
US09959443B1	Systems and methods for image capture vector format lasering engine A transaction card construction and computer-implemented methods for a transaction card are described. The transaction card has vector formatted visible information lasered onto its surface. In some embodiments, systems and methods are disclosed for electronically verifying information on a transaction card. The systems and methods may receive a request to provide a verification status for the transaction card and first visible information comprising a signature of a customer written on a point-of-sale terminal. The systems and methods may also receive second visible information comprising a vector representation of a user signature on a transaction card. In addition, the systems and methods may determine the verification status based on a comparison of the first visible information to the second visible information and send the verification status.
US09959439B1	Activating a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader to read an RFID tag Techniques for tracking a location of an item retainer are described. In an example, a computer system may receive one or more signals from one or more devices. At least one device may be located at a distance from a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader. The RFID reader may be located at a space opening and may cover a read zone around the space opening. The signal(s) may indicate that a condition to activate the RFID reader is met. This condition may be associated with a state of the space opening or a proximity of an item retainer to the read zone. The computer system may activate the RFID reader based on the condition being met and may determine a progress of the item retainer through the space opening based on whether an RFID tag was read by the RFID reader while the RFID reader was activated.
US09959438B2	Method and apparatus for tracking one or more plants and/or plant based products and/or tracking the sale of products derived from the same, utilizing RFID technology This invention is for tracking at least one plant. A method of this invention comprises: putting at least one seed or at least one stem in a corresponding at least one pot; positioning a corresponding at least one RFID tag with respect to the seed or stem in a manner, wherein the RFID tag comprises a strap; packaging a harvested material into a packaged product and attaching the RFID tag from the potted plant, or a product RFID tag that is associated with the plurality of tags to the packaged product; confirming a request for authorization by a RFID buy card; and after confirming ID information, transferring at least one product.
US09959431B2	Method and apparatus for displaying potentially private information Methods and apparatus for displaying potentially private information are disclosed. A computing device, that is showing a breathing view on its touch screen display, detects a peek request event, such as a swipe on the display. Before allowing the user to see potentially private information in response to the peek request, the computing device determines if the computing device is currently locked and if an increased privacy setting is enabled. If the computing device is not locked, or the increased privacy setting is not enabled (even though the computing device may be locked), the computing device shows a full peek view (e.g., some or all of the text from a recent text message). However, if the computing device is locked, and the increased privacy setting is enabled, the computing device shows a secure peek view (e.g., the number of new text messages, but no text from the messages).
US09959430B2	Counterfeit microelectronics detection based on capacitive and inductive signatures Systems and methods for detecting counterfeit integrated circuits are provided. One exemplary embodiment of a method can include: providing an integrated circuit for testing; and characterizing capacitive and inductive loading of the integrated circuit power for a specified frequency range; wherein the characterizing step further comprises applying a low level alternating current to a power pin while measuring for capacitance characterization conditions created by the integrated circuit's internal capacitance and inductance responses, wherein by sweeping the alternating current signal across a specified frequency range one or more capacitance related device signature can be created and used to identify a component as originating from a trusted source or not. A system can include components and machine readable instructions for operating the components using exemplary methods. Exemplary embodiments can include automated systems that can also be used with the device signature on a production line or in a supply chain verification location.
US09959425B2	Method and system of privacy protection in antagonistic social milieu/dark privacy spots An efficient and robust system 100 of privacy protection to provide security of a computing device by identifying and detecting unauthorized intrusion/peek problems related to computing device's environment/surrounding is disclosed. The system 100 includes a detector unit 102 for detecting data related to environment/surrounding of the computing device; a processing unit 104 for processing the detected data and a recommendation unit 106 to notify the user about the threat posed by environment/surrounding. The present disclosure enables device owner to access his device more freely in vulnerable surroundings.
US09959424B2	Information based life view A method for enabling a user to customize, prioritize, and view information filtered to align with the user's life state that includes interaction with an online market place. The user provides priority, positioning, and custom information about the user's life state which allows the user to view information in a life view. This information may include at least demographic information, logistical information, ethnic information, social information and psychological information. The partners may use the information about the user's life to filter its information according to the information about the user's life, which is then viewed in a life view by a user, according to the user defined positioning, prioritization, and other custom parameters. The method also enables the user to view partner and user participation in a marketplace to procure the information about the user's life, user ratings according to the user's behavior, and partner ratings according to the partner's information delivery.
US09959423B2	Security and data isolation for tenants in a business data system A multi-tenant hosting system receives business data and tenant-identifying data, from a tenant. The data from multiple different tenants is stored on a single database, but the data corresponding to each tenant is partitioned by marketing the data with a partition identifier, within the database. Therefore, the hosting system only allows individual tenants to have access to their own data.
US09959422B2	Limited-access functionality accessible at lock screen Techniques and technologies for providing limited-access functionality accessible at a “login screen” (or “lock screen”) of a device are described. In at least some embodiments, a system includes a user interface operatively coupled to a processing component; and one or more instructions stored on a memory that, when executed by the processing component, are configured to: (a) generate a login portion displayed on the user interface, the login portion configured to receive at least one user access credential to determine whether to provide access to one or more authorized-access functionalities; and (b) generate a limited-access functionality access portion displayed on the user interface concurrently with the login portion, the limited-access functionality access portion configured to provide access to at least one limited-access functionality without requiring receipt of the at least one user access credential.
US09959421B2	System and method for monitoring and diagnostics in a multitenant application server environment A system and method for monitoring and diagnostics in an application server environment. A system can comprise one or more computers, which can include an application server environment executing thereon, together with a plurality of deployable resources configured to be used within the application server environment, and a plurality of partitions, wherein each partition provides an administrative and runtime subdivision of a domain. A diagnostic framework, such as a WebLogic Diagnostic Framework (WLDF) can also be provided, wherein the diagnostic framework is configured to perform at least one action from the group consisting of partition scoped logging, partition scoped monitoring, and partition scoped diagnostic imaging.
US09959420B2	System and method for enhanced security and management mechanisms for enterprise administrators in a cloud-based environment A cloud-based platform (e.g., cloud-based collaboration and/or storage platform/service) is described that provides administrators with better visibility into content and activity across an enterprise account via advanced search tools and activity reports. Administrator tools are also provided that allow for actively managing content and passively monitoring content with real-time alerts sent to the administrator if usage of the cloud-based platform changes within the enterprise account. A reporting API is also supported by the cloud-based platform to permit the platform's activity logs to be retrieved by a third-party platform. Additionally, administrators are provided with the option to select two-step login verification of enterprise account users.
US09959419B2	Digital communications A device to apply a digital fingerprint to a digital signal comprises a means of intercepting or acquiring a signal, a storage element and a processor for executing computer implemented program code components in the storage element to effect the methods. The methods include transforming a plurality of signal samples onto a discrete orthonormal basis and ranking the transformed samples according to their magnitude. The n largest principal components of the ranked transformed samples are optionally permuted to generate a re-ordered set of principal components, which are then altered by a marking angle. The marked principal components and unmarked non-principal components are converted and combined and applying an inverse of the transform function to the combined principal and non-principal components to generate a fingerprinted digital signal. Methods to prepare the signal for marking, recover the digital fingerprint and verify the distributor and/or recipients of the signal are also disclosed.
US09959417B2	Methods and systems for preventing transmission of sensitive data from a remote computer device A technique for preventing selected sets of data words from unauthorized transmission out of the secure perimeter of a computer system is disclosed. A set of security rules is applied to an outgoing data message and if one of the set of rules is triggered, at least a portion of the message is transmitted to a central server that is within the secure perimeter, for scanning by another set of security rules. The central server then sends a security command back to the remote device, which executes the security command before transmitting the outgoing message out of the secure perimeter of the computer system.
US09959416B1	Systems and methods for joining online meetings A method includes receiving, at a meeting server, a first input from a first computing device associated with a first user; identifying, at the meeting server, a second user who is connected to an in-progress meeting using the first input; transmitting an access request message from the meeting server to a computing device associated with the second user; and in response to receiving a positive response to the access request message at the meeting server from the second computing device, granting the first user access to the in-progress meeting.
US09959415B1	Methods and systems for accessing data from different security domains Methods and apparatus for use in presenting information from a plurality of security domains. A first request for first data from a first data source and a second request for second data from a second data source are transmitted by a computing device. The first data source is associated with a first security domain, and the second data source is associated with a second security domain. A bridge computing device forwards the first request and/or the second request based on determining that the requests are authorized. The first data and the second data may be received and combined by the computing device.
US09959414B1	Method and apparatus for the virtualization of cryptographic resources A method and apparatus is provided for the virtualization of cryptographic resources which enables memory speed encryption and decryption that is not bound by the speed at which processor resources can compute the result of a symmetric-key algorithm. This is achieved through a time-memory tradeoff via empty space at provisioning time. When implementing the apparatus, un-initialized memory is filled with the output of a symmetric-key algorithm uniquely keyed for the specific set of data that is going to be written to the provisioned area. Since the provisioning operation stores cryptographically structured data, rather than redundant data, plaintext that is xor'ed into memory is automatically encrypted and ciphertext that xor'ed into memory is automatically decrypted without the need for additional cryptographic computation. This reduced computation requirement enables cryptographic function to be implemented at the ends of communication, rather than the middle, and treated as a virtualized resource.
US09959413B2	Security and data privacy for lighting sensory networks In one example, a method of protecting customer data in a networked system comprises collecting sensor data available at sensor nodes within a sensor network in communication with a service data platform over a network. The method includes encrypting the sensor data using a certified public key associated with a customer key-pair, the sensor data representing the customer data associated with sensitive identification information. The sensor data is cryptographically signed with a device private key. The method includes transporting the encrypted sensor data to the service data platform for storage, and decrypting at the service data platform, the encrypted sensor data using a private key sharing scheme that reconstructs the private key associated with the customer key-pair using a first share and a password encrypted second share, the first share assigned to the service data platform and the password encrypted second share assigned to a customer of the customer key-pair.
US09959409B2	Processors, methods, systems, and instructions to change addresses of pages of secure enclaves A processor of an aspect includes a decode unit to decode a user-level instruction. The user-level instruction is to indicate a page of a secure enclave and is to indicate a linear address. An execution logic is coupled with the decode unit. The execution logic is operable, in response to the user-level instruction, to change an initial linear address of the page of the secure enclave. The initial linear address is to be stored in an enclave page storage metadata unit. The initial linear address is to be changed by the execution logic to the linear address that is to be indicated by the user-level instruction. The change to the linear address is performed without contents of the page of the secure enclave being lost.
US09959407B1	Systems and methods for identifying potentially malicious singleton files A computer-implemented method for identifying potentially malicious singleton files may include (1) identifying a set of benign singleton files and a set of malicious singleton files, (2) obtaining, for each singleton file in the sets of benign and malicious singleton files, file identification information that identifies the singleton file, (3) using the file identification information of the singleton files from the sets of benign and malicious singleton files to train a classifier to classify unknown singleton files, (4) detecting an unclassified singleton file, (5) analyzing, with the trained classifier, information that identifies the unclassified singleton file, (6) determining, based on the analysis of the information that identifies the unclassified singleton file, that the unclassified singleton file is suspicious, and (7) triggering a security action in response to determining that the unclassified singleton file is suspicious. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09959403B2	Information processing system for mutual authentication between communication device and storage The communication device sends an authentication code (N) to a semiconductor memory to instruct the semiconductor memory to authenticate the communication device. The semiconductor memory authenticates the communication device based on the authentication code (N), and if the communication device is determined to be valid, sends an authentication code (N+1) to the communication device to instruct the communication device to authenticate the semiconductor memory in response to the authentication code (N). The communication device authenticates the semiconductor memory based on the authentication code (N+1).
US09959400B2	Controlling the access to a user interface for atmosphere control with an atmosphere creation system The invention relates to accessing user interfaces for atmosphere controlling, particularly to comfortably accessing dedicated user interfaces of a complex atmosphere control system. A basic idea of the invention is to provide several user interfaces, each of which is provided for a certain control configuration for atmosphere control with an atmosphere creation system and to control the access to the user interfaces. In an embodiment of the invention, a system for controlling the access to a user interface for atmosphere control with an atmosphere creation system (10), which is provided to create atmospheres in an environment, is provided, wherein the user interface access control system comprises—several user interfaces (12), wherein each use interface is provided for a certain control configuration for atmosphere control with the atmosphere creation system, —several access control codes (14, 16), wherein each access control code is assigned to one of the several user interfaces, and —user interface access control means (18, 20) being adapted to receive an access control code and to access the user interface assigned to the received access control code.
US09959399B2	Automatic intelligent local device fraud detection Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses may provide a mobile device with the ability to locally detect fraudulent activity by an unauthorized user. A mobile device may include a fraud detection module that may build a historical usage pattern of a user of the mobile device. The fraud detection module may monitor usage of the mobile device for multiple parameters and record events pertaining to the parameters. Periodically or in response to each event, the fraud detection module may compute a current usage pattern using each of the current parameter values. The fraud detection module may compare the current usage pattern with the historical usage pattern and may use the comparison result to compute a confidence score. The fraud detection module may then compare the confidence score with a preset confidence score to determine whether fraudulent activity is occurring at the mobile device.
US09959396B2	System and methods for obtaining digital multimedia files from a server based on optically scanned digital rights management information tag imprinted on a store purchased compact multimedia disk System and methods for obtaining digital multimedia files from a server based on optically scanned digital rights management information tag imprinted on physical media is described. A greeting card or gift card can be provided with indicia containing a code printed thereon. Then the code can be optically scanned by client device. The code can then be provided by the client device to a remote server for retrieval of multimedia files identified by the code if the code authorizes multimedia file retrieval from the remote server by the client device. Then the client device retrieves multimedia files identified by the code from the remote server following authorization of multimedia file retrieval by the remote server based on the code.
US09959394B2	Device for decrypting and providing content of a provider and method for operating the device The invention relates to a device for decrypting protected content and for providing the decrypted content for playback. The device comprises one or more system software modules providing functions for facilitating the decryption of the protected content and at least one client software module assigned to a provider of protected content. The client software module is adapted to access functions of the system software modules in order to control the system software to decrypt the protected content of the provider. Moreover, the device is adapted to validate the system software and/or a further client software module and to prevent the decryption and/or provision of the protected content of the provider, if the system software and/or the further client software module are not validated successfully. The validation of the system software and/or a further client software module comprises a comparison of identification data of software modules of the system software and/or further client software modules loaded in a processor of the device and identification data included in a revocation list assigned to the provider. In addition to the device, the invention relates to a method for operating the device.
US09959392B2	Olfactory signature and odorant mixture having the same An odorant mixture is disclosed. The odorant mixture comprises N odorant components wherein N equals at least 20. Each odorant component is characterized by a multidimensional vector of attributes. A z score of an average of characteristic distances between vectors corresponding to odorant components in the mixture and vectors corresponding to odorant components in a group of M odorant components but not in the mixture is less than 2.
US09959388B2	Systems, devices, and methods for providing electrical stimulation therapy feedback A system for storing stimulation programs or sets of stimulation parameters includes at least one memory; at least one of i) multiple stimulation programs or ii) a multiple sets of stimulation parameters stored on the at least one memory from multiple different devices remote from the system and used to stimulate different patients; at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory to retrieve the stored stimulation programs or sets of stimulation parameters from the at least one memory when requested and to store additional stimulation programs or sets of stimulation parameters on the at least one memory; and a communications arrangement coupled to the at least one processor to deliver the stored stimulation programs or sets of stimulation parameters to external device and to receive additional stimulation programs and sets of stimulation parameters from external devices.
US09959382B2	Adaptive characterization and instantiation of timing abstracts A method, system, and computer program product to characterize and adaptively instantiate timing abstracts to perform timing analysis of an integrated circuit include generating an adaptable timing abstract for one or more macro models of a macro, the macro including two or more primitives of a component of the integrated circuit, the adaptable timing abstract being a parameterized timing model with at least one aspect represented by two or more models, and estimating requirements for the timing analysis, the requirements including accuracy, runtime, or memory requirements. Selecting a specific timing abstract, obtained by setting parameters of the adaptable timing abstract, is to perform the timing analysis based on the requirements.
US09959375B2	Efficient emulation and logic analysis An emulation environment includes a host system and an emulator. The host system configures the emulator to load a design under test (DUT) and the emulator emulates the DUT. The emulator includes one or more design field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that emulate the DUT. In addition, the emulator includes at least one system FPGA with a logic analyzer and multiple virtual FPGA. The virtual FPGAs emulate sections of the DUT. By the virtual FPGAs emulating sections of the DUT, the logic analyzer is able to obtain for performing logic analysis certain signals from the virtual FPGAs, rather than from the design FPGAs.
US09959374B2	Atmospheric sensor network and analytical information system related thereto Disclosed is an atmospheric information network comprised of a group of low earth orbit satellite-based sensors providing global coverage of the earth, together with one or more ground-based sensor networks, together with one or more mobile sensor networks, all operating to collect near-real-time or real-time data, together with data gathering from other governmental and commercial atmospheric data sources, together with software algorithms and processes for data reduction, data analysis, correlation of information, data fusion, modeling, reporting of near-real-time or real-time atmospheric conditions of air pollution and wind, and prediction of future atmospheric conditions of air pollution and wind. Such information is presented in geospatial and infographic formats on computer or mobile device displays, or electronic billboards.
US09959367B2	Third party centralized data hub system providing shared access to third party questionnaires, third party responses, and other third party data A system for providing a third party centralized data hub. The system includes a server storing a database of sets of third party data, and the system includes a third party risk management module on the server maintaining the third party data. The system includes a first set of client devices communicatively linked with the server over a digital communications network and operable by data providers to provide and modify one of the sets of third party data. The system includes a second set of client devices linked with the server and operable by data consumers to access a subset of the sets of third party data. During operations, the risk management module monitors the third party data, identifies a modification, by one of the data providers, of one of the sets of third party data, and automatically generates and transmits an alert to the second set of client devices.
US09959366B2	Managing and automatically linking data objects A computer-implemented method for managing data objects stored in a data repository and displaying elements associated with data objects on a graphical user interface is presented. The method includes using reusable logic to provide at least one displayed input element associated with a first data object stored in the data repository. In response to user input associated with the displayed input element, the method includes generating a second data object stored in the data repository, and linking the second data object with one or more related data objects in the data repository automatically based on the data object associated with the displayed element.
US09959364B2	Content recommendations Users consume a wide variety of content from various sources, such as videos accessible through websites. As provided herein, content recommendations that are contextually and/or semantically relevant to current content consumed by a user may be identified and provided to the user. For example, metadata for a video being watched by the user may be identified (e.g., terms extracted from a description, user reviews, a category, and/or other information). The metadata may be used to identify content recommendations based upon the metadata corresponding to terms grouped into a set of refined topic groupings of a graph comprising terms and relationships between terms extracted from a content corpus. The metadata may be matched to relevant terms within the set of refined topic groupings, and content recommendations comprising content corresponding to the relevant terms may be suggested to the user.
US09959358B2	Navigation tool for device user interface An example method for facilitating software navigation includes storing navigation history information pertaining to user interaction with software; displaying one or more representations of breadcrumbs in accordance with the navigation history information, resulting in displayed breadcrumbs; detecting when a number of breadcrumbs exceeds a threshold number of breadcrumbs; and replacing, in response to the detection, one or more of the breadcrumbs with a user interface control adapted to selectively display representations of the one or more breadcrumbs in response to user selection of the user interface control. Hence, certain breadcrumbs of a breadcrumb trail may be condensed or collapsed, e.g., into a drop-down menu control, when a breadcrumb trail would otherwise be too large to display.
US09959352B2	Automatically modifying a custom search engine for a web site based on administrator input to search results of a specific search query Automatically creating and modifying a search engine for a website. User input may be received specifying an address of a website. A search engine may be automatically created for the website based on the user input. Webpages of the website may specify a plurality of tags specifying custom attributes of the webpages. During creation of the search engine, these custom attributes may be incorporated into the search engine index. Additional user input may be received customizing the search engine for various search engine contexts, e.g., based on the custom attributes of the webpages. Search engine results for the website may be based on various ranking functions, potentially including social impact of webpages of the website.
US09959348B2	Applying social annotations to search results A method including obtaining search results for a search query, determining a type of the search query, calculating a degree of focus score for the search query when the type of the search query is a non-navigation type, determining one or more social annotations to provide for display along with the search results based on the degree of focus score, and providing the one or more social annotations for display with the search results.
US09959343B2	Generating and distributing a replacement playlist An embodiment may involve a server device transmitting, over a wide area network, a first playlist with a first duration to a client device. Possibly while the client device is playing out a current audio file of a first plurality of audio files in the playlist, the server device may receive an instruction from the client device and generate a second playlist. The second playlist may include references to a second plurality of audio files, where playout of the second plurality of audio files may have a duration that is less than the duration of the playout of the first plurality of audio files. The server device may transmit, over the wide area network, the second playlist to the client device. Reception of the second playlist at the client device may cause the audio player application to retrieve and play out the second plurality of audio files.
US09959342B2	Audio augmented reality system Techniques for online information search and retrieval for a query including a digital audio waveform. In an aspect, an audio waveform is received and digitized by at least one of a plurality of audio input devices. The digitized audio waveforms are transmitted to a central processing unit, which formulates and submits a query to an online engine. The formulated query may include the at least one digital audio waveform. The online engine retrieves one or more online results relevant to the formulated query. The online results may include one or more relevant visual results, and/or one or more relevant audio results. The retrieved results are served in real-time back to a user, via a device having audio output capability, and/or a device having visual data output capability.
US09959341B2	Systems and methods for learning semantic patterns from textual data In some embodiments, a system is provided comprising at least one processor programmed to process an input text to identify a plurality of semantic patterns that match the input text, wherein, for at least one semantic pattern of the plurality of semantic patterns: the at least one semantic pattern comprises a plurality of semantic entities identified from the at least one input text, and the plurality of semantic entities occur in a common context within the at least one input text. The at least one processor may be further programmed to use statistical information derived from training data to associate a respective weight with each semantic pattern of the plurality of semantic patterns.
US09959336B2	Compiling extract, transform, and load job test data cases Compiling test cases. The method may include uploading at least one extract, transform, load job (ETL job) and a plurality of test cases. The method may also include identifying a plurality of design features associated with the at least one uploaded ETL job. The method may further include identifying at least one feature change within the plurality of identified design features. The method may also include determining a plurality of related test cases within the plurality of uploaded test cases corresponding to the at least one identified feature change. The method may further include creating a test bucket based on a grouping of the determined plurality of related test cases. The method may also include adding at least one of a plurality of corresponding ETL jobs and a plurality of corresponding ETL job stages associated with the at least one identified feature change to the created test bucket.
US09959333B2	Unified access to personal data A method and system for providing unified access to data for multiple computing devices includes a system that associates multiple computing devices with a user of an information management system, assigns information management policies to data from the multiple computing devices within the information management system, and collects multiple data objects from the multiple computers. The system may generate a preview version of each collected data object, and provide at least one preview version of a collected data object to a computing device associated with the user. The system may also generate indexing information for each collected data object and distribute the indexing information with the preview version of the data object.
US09959332B2	System and method for massively parallel processor database In one embodiment, a method includes determining a number of initial servers in a massively parallel processing (MPP) database cluster and determining an initial bucket configuration of the MPP database cluster, where the initial bucket configuration has a number of initial buckets. The method also includes adding a number of additional servers to the MPP database cluster to produce a number of updated servers, where the updated servers include the initial servers and the additional servers and creating an updated bucket configuration in accordance with the number of initial servers, the initial bucket configuration, and the number of additional servers, where the updated bucket configuration has a number of updated buckets. Additionally, the method includes redistributing data of the MPP cluster in accordance with the updated bucket configuration.
US09959331B2	Content transfer The present invention provides a method of transferring content from a file and a database. In this case, the file includes content instances, each content instance being associated with a respective field, and each field having a respective type. The transfer is achieved by determining the type of each field, and then storing each content instance in a store in accordance with the determined field type of the associated field. Each content instance can then be transferred to the database in accordance with the determined field type. A similar procedure is provided for creating XML files based on content within the database.
US09959327B2	Creating conversations in shared folder backed integrated workspaces Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for shared folder backed integrated workspaces. In some implementations, a content management system can provide a graphical user interface (GUI) that integrates communications and content management into a single user interface. The user interface can include mechanisms that allow a user to provide input to generate a new workspace. The user interface can provide a mechanism to allow a user to view conversations related to the workspace and/or content items associated with the workspace. The user interface can present representations of content items associated with the workspace and allow the user to provide input to generate, view, edit, and share content items associated with the workspace.
US09959320B2	Generating card stacks with queries on online social networks In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a client device of a user of an online social network, an input from the user to access a card-stack interface, generating a plurality of cards, where each card comprises a suggested query referencing a query-domain associated with the online social network and one or more query-filters, and where each query-filter references one or more objects of the online social network, each card further comprising one or more search results corresponding to the suggested query, and each search result referencing an object of the online social network matching the suggested query of the card; and sending, to the client device in response to the input from the first user, the card-stack interface for display to the first user, wherein the card-stack interface comprises one or more of the generated cards.
US09959318B2	Default structured search queries on online social networks In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, identifying a nodes corresponding to a page currently accessed by a first user, generating one or more structured queries, where each structured query comprises a reference to the identified node and one or more edges that are connected to the identified node, and transmitting one or more of the structured queries to the first user for display on the page.
US09959316B2	Device and method for automatic filter adjustment A method and a device for adjusting filter parameters comprises a display, a physical user interface, a memory and a processing unit. The memory comprises a sorted list of items in an ordered manner, the order determined by their rank, and each item has at least one feature-value pair that represents a value of a feature of the item. The processing unit generates a graphical representation of the items in the list in an ordered manner on the display. The processing unit responds to the user interface so as to allow a user to re-order (rearrange) and/or drop items in the graphical representation of the list of items; it modifies the rank of the items in the list, and it determines a like-degree for at least some of the feature-value pairs.
US09959315B1	Context scoring adjustments for answer passages Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for context scoring adjustments for candidate answer passages. In one aspect, a method includes scoring candidate answer passages. For each candidate answer passage, the system determines a heading vector that describes a path in the heading hierarchy from the root heading to the respective heading to which the candidate answer passage is subordinate; determines a context score based, at least in part, on the heading vector; and adjusts answer score of the candidate answer passage at least in part by the context score to form an adjusted answer score. The system then selects an answer passage from the candidate answer passages based on the adjusted answer scores.
US09959314B2	Performing application search based on entities In one embodiment, a search query is received from a computing device, the search query including one or more search terms. Based on the one or more search terms, one or more entities are identified from a set of multiple entities. Each of the one or more identified entities is associated with one or more application functionalities. In addition, a set of applications are identified based on the one or more search terms. Based at least on a type of at least one of the identified one or more entities, a determination is made that a particular application from the set of applications supports the at least one of the identified one or more entities. Thereafter, the applications in the set are ranked based in part on the determination that the particular application supports the at least one of the identified one or more entities.
US09959313B2	Database management system and method capable of dynamically issuing inputs/outputs and executing operations in parallel A database management system has a query interface for receiving a query and a query executor for executing the received query. The query executor dynamically generates a task, and executes a plurality of tasks in parallel. In execution of each task, each time data is required to be read from a database, the query executor generates a task for acquiring the data, and in execution of the generated task, issues a data read request for reading the data from the database, to thereby shorten a time taken to execute each task.
US09959312B2	High performance index creation on sorted data using parallel query plans Creation of an index for a table of sorted data for use by a data storage application is initiated. Thereafter, N+1 logical partition of rows of the table are defined so that each logical partition has a corresponding worker process. Each worker process then builds a sub-index based on the corresponding logical partition which are later merged to form the index. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US09959310B2	Accessing single entities in OData entity sets A system includes activation of an OData service exposing a parameterized database view, the OData service exposing a Parameter Entity Type and a Result Entity Type, wherein the Parameter Entity Type specifies one or more input parameters of the database view as properties of the Parameter Entity Type, and defines a Parameter Entity Type key formed by each of the one or more input parameters, and wherein the Result Entity Type specifies the one or more input parameters and one or more output of the database view as properties of the Result Entity Type, and defines a Result Entity Type key formed by each of the one or more input parameters and at least one of the one or more output parameters. Also included is reception of an OData request comprising a Uniform Resource Indicator, the Uniform Resource Indicator including the OData service, the Result Entity Type, and a value for each of one or more input parameters of the database view and for at least one of the one or more output parameters of the database view, and execution, in response to the request, of the OData service to return a single entity associated with the values.
US09959306B2	Partition-based index management in hadoop-like data stores A method for processing a dataset in a partitioned distributed storage system having data stored in a base table and an index stored in an index table, may include receiving base and index table metadata from the partitioned distributed storage system, where the base and index table metadata includes respective table partition information. The method may further include partitioning the dataset into a set of base-delta files according to the base table metadata, and generating a set of index-delta files corresponding with the base-delta files according to the index table metadata. The method may additionally include updating the partitioned distributed storage system with the set of base-delta and the set of index-delta files, where a first update of the base table is synchronous with a second update of the index table.
US09959301B2	Distributing and processing streams over one or more networks for on-the-fly schema evolution In an embodiment, a method comprises receiving a first record comprising one or more first fields from a first source computer; in response to determining that the first record is a first type and a first node is associated with the first type, sending the first record to the first node to be processed; receiving a second record comprising the one or more first fields and one or more second fields from a second source computer; in response to determining that the second record is a second type and a second node is associated with the second type, sending the second record to the second node; in response to determining that the second type is a first subtype of the first type, sending the second record to the first node to be processed, without suspending the first node.
US09959299B2	Compression-aware partial sort of streaming columnar data According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system for sorting data records generates a plurality of data structures associated with corresponding record fields used to sort the data records, and inserts values of the record fields into the corresponding data structures. Each of the data structures comprises one or more ordered parts, and each inserted value is inserted into a part of the corresponding data structure. Each part of a data structure corresponding to a record field having a sort priority immediately below another record field corresponds to a distinct value inserted into a part of the data structure corresponding to the other record field. The system processes the generated data structures to determine sorted data records. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for sorting data records in substantially the same manners described above.
US09959290B2	Method for the continuous processing of two-level data on a system with a plurality of nodes A method for continuous processing of two-level data on a system with a plurality of nodes for processing the data includes determining a system state representing at least one of actual or possible performance capabilities of the system, determining already processed data on the nodes, splitting and assigning high-level input data for processing with lower level data on one or more of the plurality of nodes according to the determined system state, processing requirements of the data and already processed data in a form of at least of lower level data on the nodes such that in case of the already processed data, data to be processed is compared with the already processed data, and input data is split and assigned to the plurality of nodes such that an amount of data to be exchanged for processing the input data on the respective nodes is minimized.
US09959288B2	Declarative cluster management A planning indication directed to a declaratively-described operation and a target MPP database is received where the operation includes multiple mid-operation states and the operation includes, for each state in the plurality of states, those types of devices in a MPP database which would be affected by that state if the operation were performed, including a first set of affected device types and a first mid-operation state. In response to receiving the planning indication, affected device(s) in the target MPP database which would be affected by the first mid-operation state if the operation were performed are determined without performing the operation on the target MPP database. This determination is based at least in part on the first set of affected device types included in the operation. The first mid-operation state and the affected devices are indicated in a display.
US09959283B2	Records declaration filesystem monitoring Techniques for managing records on a filesystem to enforce a record disposition protocol. Embodiments identify records on the filesystem using one or more record definitions. Each record definition may contain a conditional statement which, if satisfied by a particular file on the filesystem, indicates the particular file as a record. Embodiments may then monitor file activity for each of the identified records and upon detecting the file activity, may enforce the record disposition protocol for the record. Such enforcement may include preventing the file activity, and may further include logging information related to the file activity.
US09959282B2	Method, apparatus, and electronic device for file management Methods, apparatus, and electronic devices for file management are provided. On a touch screen, whether a duration time of a first pre-set operation to a target file is greater than a first pre-set threshold value can be detected. When the duration time of the first pre-set operation to the target file is detected greater than the first pre-set threshold value, the target file, and other files related to the target file and on an interface of the target file can be determined as files to be managed. According to a second pre-set operation to the files to be managed, a corresponding management to the files to be managed can be performed.
US09959280B1	Garbage collection of data tiered to cloud storage Systems and methods are provided herein for garbage collecting data previously tiered to cloud storage. A cloud object index can be generated and used to track objects stored in cloud storage. As objects within cloud storage are added or modified, the transactions can be tracked and the cloud object index can updated based on the activity. Expiration dates associated with cloud objects can be maintained in the cloud object index factoring in user defined retention periods, process defined retention periods for services like backup and snapshots, and regulatory defined retention periods depending on the type of data being tiered. Upon a determination that no active processes are linking to a cloud data object, that an expiration date has been met, and other custom factors, cloud objects can be removed from cloud storage permanently.
US09959269B1	Method and system for implementing a website builder A method and system for a site builder. The site builder is an application designed to create and edit websites for hosting providers, resellers and end users. Built with hosting in mind, the proposed site builder allows providers to easily offer site building capabilities to their customers. The easy five-step wizard interface provides for an effortless way for customers to create, modify and update their own websites without any technical skills or HTML know-how. The site builder application for LINUX/Unix or WINDOWS also comes with a comprehensive administration panel that allows providers to quickly and easily tailor the application to their needs.
US09959268B2	Semantic modeling of geographic information in business intelligence In some embodiments, a method includes receiving a template identifying a format for presenting geographic information, receiving an input corresponding to business intelligence (BI) data, and extracting geographical information from the input, the geographical information associated with the BI data. The method further includes accessing a geo-database and identifying a type of the geographical information associated with the BI data, adapting the geographical information to conform to the format identified in the template, and displaying the BI data in a geospatial context based on the geographical data. The BI data can be organized in one or more semantic data models. The geographical information can include one or more location types, where each location definition may be associated with a prioritization value.
US09959262B2	Display of user comments to timed presentation A method and system to dynamically display a presentation of a time duration are described. The method includes receiving comments associated with the presentation, the comments arranged in a first ordering. The method also includes identifying a time reference comment among the comments, the time reference comment including a time reference, the time reference referencing a time instant within the time duration of the presentation, and dynamically changing a display of the comments from the first ordering to a second ordering at the time instant.
US09959260B2	System and method for creating a presentation using natural language The invention provides for a system, method, and computer readable medium storing instructions related to controlling a presentation in a multimodal system. The method embodiment of the invention is a method for the retrieval of information on the basis of its content for incorporation into an electronic presentation. The method comprises receiving from a user a content-based request for at least one segment from a first plurality of segments within a media presentation preprocessed to enable natural language content searchability; in response to the request, presenting a subset of the first plurality of segments to the user; receiving a selection indication from the user associated with at least one segment of the subset of the first plurality of segments and adding the selected at least one segment to a deck for use in a presentation.
US09959258B2	Generating characteristics of users of an online system presented with content in a context relative to other content An online system maintains information identify a context in which sponsored content items were presented to users. A context in which a sponsored content item was presented to a user identifies additional content presented to the user prior to the sponsored content item, and may identify additional content presented in conjunction with the sponsored content item. The online system identifies users to whom at least one sponsored content item was presented in a context and generates characteristics for the context based on characteristics of users who were presented with at least one sponsored content item in the context. When the online system receives a request to present sponsored content items in the context that does not identify an online system user, the online system selects sponsored content items for the request based on the generated characteristics for the context.
US09959257B2	Populating visual designs with web content Techniques are described for populating visual designs with web content. In implementations, a document design is generated via a digital media application. The document design includes a layout of repeating design elements, such as a grid or table of repeating areas each having various design elements. Web content having a structured arrangement of data elements is accessed through a data panel exposed via the application. The web content data may be linked to the document design to populate elements of the document design with “real-world” data. To do so, the web content is to detect semantically similar repeating data elements by based on element positions, node types, style types, and node hierarchies reflected by structured data defining the web content. Design elements in the layout of the document design are then auto-populated with content of the semantically similar repeating data elements to produce a preview linked to “real-world” data.
US09959255B2	Dynamic streaming content provided by server and client-side tracking application A system can stream content items and ad items to a user interface of a client-side application (such as a web browser) without refreshing the user interface and by requesting such items from a local cache and/or a remote cache associated with the client-side application or the user interface. The remote cache can operate much like a local cache for the client-side application or the user interface. Items can be streamed to a user interface without refreshing the user interface and by requesting such items from a remote cache dedicated to caching the items that can be presented by the user interface. Because the tracking of such items and the tracking of the interactions with such items creates such large amounts of data, communicating the tracked data may be impracticable without use of a system that can effectively compress associated instrumentation data.
US09959254B2	Representation of an element in a page via an identifier Embodiments are directed to computing, by an apparatus comprising a processing device, an identifier (ID) for an element in a page using an algorithm responsive to encountering the element a first time, causing, by the apparatus, the ID to be stored in a storage device, encountering, by the apparatus, the element a second time, determining, by the apparatus, that the element is encountered the second time, and responsive to determining that the element is encountered the second time, representing, by the apparatus, the element by the ID at the time of the second encounter by retrieving the ID from the storage device.
US09959253B2	Multimedia aggregation in an online social network Particular embodiments receive a search request and identify matching users associated with group information corresponding to the search request. Examples of group information include group ID, name, description of the group, and members of the group. Profile information is retrieved for each of the one or more matching users. Information to display a web page may be sent in response to the search request. The information to display the web page comprises the profile information and the group information for at least one of the one or more matching users. The web page may also include content associated with matching users (e.g., multimedia content, social networking content). Particular content may be designated as featured content based on the popularity of the content.
US09959248B1	Iterative simple linear regression coefficient calculation for big data using components Methods, systems, and computing system program products for iteratively calculating Simple Linear Regression (SLR) coefficients for Big Data, including iteratively calculating one or more components of SLR coefficients for a modified computation set based on one or more components of SLR coefficients calculated for a pre-modified computation set and then calculating the SLR coefficients for the modified computation set based on the iteratively calculated components. Iteratively calculating SLR coefficients avoids visiting all data elements in the modified computation set and performing redundant computations thereby increasing calculation efficiency, saving computing resources and reducing computing system's power consumption.
US09959246B2	Vector processor configured to operate on variable length vectors using implicitly typed instructions A computer processor is disclosed. The computer processor may comprise a vector unit comprising a vector register file comprising one or more registers to hold a varying number of elements. The computer processor may further comprise processing logic configured to implicitly type each of the varying number of elements in the vector register file. The computer processor may be implemented as a monolithic integrated circuit.
US09959243B2	Apparatus and circuit for processing data A circuit for processing data is provided. The circuit includes an Application Processor (AP), a Communication Processor (CP), and a storage unit including at least a first region which the AP and the CP access and from/to which data related to at least one of the AP and the CP is read/written, and a second region which the CP accesses and from/to which data related to the CP is read/written.
US09959242B2	Keys and sensors for daily consumer activities Communication accessories, such as keyfobs (KFs) and/or transmitter/receiver dongles, which can transmit and receive signals to enable connectivity between owners of different portable devices even when the devices are off or when in a sleep mode, are described. In some examples, the keyfobs and/or the dongles are programmed with connectivity tokens, such as being programmed with Facebook (FB) information, FB accounts or FBIDs, LinkedIn ID, or generically social network user information, that can be used to authenticate different smart portable devices belonging to different users to facilitate networking. Once the keyfobs and/or dongles are authenticated, they will buzz, sound, or otherwise alert their respective owners that one or more social network users, such as a FB user or a LinkedIn user, are within the general vicinity and that further actions through smart portable devices may be needed to connect the users.
US09959241B2	System and method for accessory device architecture that passes via intermediate processor a descriptor when processing in a low power state An accessory device architecture is described. In one or more implementations, data is received from an accessory device at an integrated circuit of a computing device, the data usable to enumerate functionality of the accessory device for operation as part of a computing device that includes the integrated circuit. The data is passed by the integrated circuit to an operating system executed on processor of the computing device to enumerate the functionality of the accessory device as part of the integrated circuit.
US09959239B2	Secondary data channel communication system A USB Type-C secondary data channel communication system includes a controller system coupled to a first USB Type-C connector. The controller system determines a second USB Type-C connector orientation when a second USB Type-C connector is connected to the first USB Type-C connector. The controller system then communicates with a connected system through a first data channel available through the second USB Type-C connector and determines that the connected system provides a second data channel mode. In response to determining the connected system provides the second data channel mode, the controller system uses the second USB Type-C connector orientation to configure the provisioning of first data through the first data channel and second data through a second data channel that is available through the second USB Type-C connector. Different data communications may then be provided to the connected system using the first and second data channels.
US09959233B2	NUMA-aware root bus selection A method includes determining a first host Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) node of a plurality of host NUMA nodes on a host machine that provides a virtual machine to a guest, the first host NUMA node being associated with a pass-through device, creating a virtual NUMA node on the virtual machine, mapping the virtual NUMA node to the first host NUMA node, adding a virtual expander to a virtual root bus of the virtual machine, and associating the virtual expander with the virtual NUMA node.
US09959223B2	Method and system for interrupt signaling in an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus system Embodiments of a method and system are disclosed. One embodiment of a method for signaling an interrupt in an I2C system that includes a master I2C device and at least one slave I2C device that are connected by an SDA line and an SCL line is disclosed. The method involves, at the slave I2C device, pulling the SDA line low to signal an interrupt and at the slave I2C device, releasing the SDA line in response to either the SCL line having been pulled low or the expiration of a predetermined time period, whichever occurs first. In an embodiment, the predetermined time period is 1 ms.
US09959217B2	Storing data in a server computer with deployable encryption/decryption infrastructure For storing data in a data-storage structure of a server computer, an infrastructure is deployed to a server computer. The infrastructure has a forwarder module to receive data from an application and to identify a data portion, a crypto module to encrypt the data portion with a key and key control module adapted to generate and to store the key. The infrastructure is also able to process data in the opposite direction. The key is provided into the key control module upon receiving a key trigger from the client computer.
US09959214B1	Emulated translation unit using a management processor An emulated input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) includes a management processor to perform page table translation in software. The emulated IOMMU can also include a hardware input/output translation lookaside buffer (IOTLB) to store translations between virtual addresses and physical memory addresses. When a translation from a virtual address to a physical address is not found in the IOTLB for an I/O request, the translation can be generated by the management processor using page tables from a memory and can be stored in the IOTLB. Some embodiments can be used to emulate interrupt translation service for message based interrupts for an interrupt controller.
US09959213B2	Implementing barriers to efficiently support cumulativity in a weakly-ordered memory system A technique for operating a lower level cache memory of a data processing system includes receiving, by a store queue controller, an operation that is associated with a first thread. The store queue controller uses level one (L1) cache memory miss information for the operation to limit dependencies in a dependency data structure of a store queue of the lower level cache memory that are set and to remove dependencies that are otherwise unnecessary.
US09959209B1	Data storage device adjusting command rate profile based on operating mode A data storage device is disclosed comprising a non-volatile memory. A command rate profile is initialized, wherein the command rate profile defines a limit on a number of access commands received from a host as a function of an internal parameter of the data storage device. The command rate profile is adjusted in response to a change in operating mode.
US09959205B2	Shared row buffer system for asymmetric memory An architecture for improved memory access in asymmetric memories provides a set of shared row buffers that may be freely allocated between slow and fast memory banks of the asymmetric memory. This permits allocation of row buffers dynamically between the slow and fast memory banks to improve execution speeds and also permits a lightweight memory swap procedure for moving data between the slow and fast memory banks with low processor and memory channel overheads.
US09959204B1	Tracking sequential ranges of non-ordered data Embodiments described herein are directed to systems and methods for ordering read sector data that has been returned from a hard disk controller out of order. For example, in typical storage systems, the firmware of the storage system and/or the host interface typically process read sectors in logical block address order. However, some of the data that is received may be received out of order. As such, the disk block hardware within the hard disk controller may accept these out of order sectors from the read channel and subsequently provide information that describes the available sectors that are in order to the firmware and/or the host interface.
US09959202B2	Memory and processor hierarchy to improve power efficiency A computing memory includes an execution unit and an access processor coupled with a memory system, where the execution unit and the access processor are logically separated units. The execution unit is for processing operand data. The access processor is for providing operand data and configuration data to the execution unit. The access processor reads operand data from the memory system and sends the operand data to the execution unit. The execution unit executes the operand data according to the provided configuration data. The access processor includes information about execution times of operations of the execution unit for the provided configuration. The access processor reserves time-slots for writing execution unit results provided by the execution unit into selected locations in the memory system based on the information about the execution times, upon sending at least one of the operand data and the configuration data to the execution unit.
US09959201B2	Automated test generation for multi-interface enterprise virtualization management environment Embodiments for automated testing of a virtualization management system are described. According to one aspect, a method includes generating a test case including a plurality of instances of commands and sending the test case to a plurality of interfaces supported by the virtualization management system. The method also includes generating a response file corresponding to each command in the test case. The method also includes comparing results from each interface to an instance of a command and in response to the results from each interface being identical, storing, the results in the response file corresponding to the command. The method also includes reporting an error in response to the results from each interface of the virtualization management system not being identical. The present document further describes examples of other aspects such as systems, computer products.
US09959198B1	Simulated testing of API A definition for the API is received. A request and response model is built for each defined operation of the API resource using the received definition. A simulated response for each defined operation of the API resource is generated in an API development environment according to the request and response model.
US09959195B2	Dynamic instrumentation of WSGI applications An agent installed on application server having a WSGI web application dynamically instruments that web application. The agent may modify the application via instrumentation such that it can be monitored without specific details of the WSGI application framework. A configuration file may be modified upon detecting a call to the application configuration file through a gateway interface that receives the call. After modifying the configuration file, the modified configuration file is executed in response to the call. Additionally, for subsequent calls to that particular web application, the WSGI gateway will call the modified WSGI configuration file for execution instead of the original WSGI file.
US09959194B1	Indexing a trace by insertion of memory snapshots for replay responsiveness Inserting memory snapshots during indexing of a trace for responsive trace replay. A method includes identifying a plurality of points of interest in execution of executable entit(ies) whose execution is traced in first data stream(s). Based on the first data stream(s), a traced section of execution of the executable entit(ies) preceding each point of interest is replayed. During replay of each traced section of execution, memory addresses that are accessed by the executable entit(ies) during replay of the section, and a most recent value encountered at each memory address, is tracked. Second data stream(s) are recorded, which includes recording a plurality of memory snapshots in connection with the plurality of points of interest into the second data stream(s). Each memory snapshot summarizes memory addresses and values encountered in at least one section of execution preceding each point of interest.
US09959192B1	Debugging interface for inserted elements in a resource Systems and methods for providing a debugging interface for inserted elements in a resource are provided. One method includes detecting a trigger for a request to provide a debugging interface for a webpage, the webpage including a content interface configured to display third party content items. The method further includes transmitting the request for the debugging interface to a remote device, and receiving a script representing the debugging interface from the remote device. The method further includes inserting the debugging interface into the webpage by injecting the script into data of the webpage during loading of the webpage. The method further includes detecting a characteristic of at least one of the webpage, the content interface, or the remote device; and generating debugging information using the detected characteristic. The method further includes providing the debugging information in the debugging interface.
US09959188B1	Managing processor usage of a physical host configured for hosting computing instances Technology for detecting processor usage of a physical host hosting computing instances is provided. In one example, a method may include identifying a location of a hardware register of a physical host containing data in a model specific register. The physical host hosts a plurality of computing instances using a hypervisor. The method may include determining power consumption by a processor of the physical host for the computing instances from the data. An upper level of acceptable processor power consumption may be identified. Processor usage may be determined based on the power consumption determined and the upper level of acceptable processor power consumption. The processor usage may be provided as data through the hypervisor.
US09959187B2	Decoalescing resource utilization at boot An embodiment provides a method, including: in a system, determining a set of processes which run at system boot; monitoring the processes at system boot for system resource utilization; categorizing processes of the set of processes based on said monitoring; and changing a start time during boot of at least one process based on said categorizing. Other aspects are described and claimed.
US09959185B2	Memory system capable of generating notification signals A memory system includes a memory device, a switch device, and a built-in self-test circuit. The memory device is for storing data and toggling a notification signal whenever a read operation or a write operation is completed. The switch device has a first input terminal for receiving an external clock signal, a second input terminal coupled to the memory device for receiving the notification signal, a select terminal for receiving a selection signal, and an output terminal for outputting a memory clock signal to the memory device. The memory clock signal is one of the external clock signal and the notification signal. The built-in self-test circuit is for outputting a control signal required by the memory device to perform the read operation or the write operation and check whether the memory device functions normally.
US09959184B2	Input/output (I/O) line test device and method for controlling the same An input/output (I/O) line test device and a method for controlling the same are disclosed, which may relate to a technology for testing a base die having no cell using various patterns. The I/O line test device may include an interface controller configured to perform signal transmission/reception between a pad and an input/output line (IOL), and a signal transceiver configured to perform signal transmission/reception between the IOL and a through silicon via (TSV). The I/O line test device may include a latch unit configured to latch output data of the signal transceiver, and a test controller configured to output a control signal for controlling whether the signal transceiver performs a reception operation in response to a write enable signal and a test signal.
US09959183B2	Replicating test case data into a cache with non-naturally aligned data boundaries Data is replicated into a memory cache with non-naturally aligned data boundaries to reduce the time needed to generate test cases for testing a processor. Placing data in the non-naturally aligned data boundaries as described herein allows replicated testing of the memory cache while preserving double word and quad word boundaries in segments of the replicated test data. This allows test cases to be generated for a section of memory and then replicated throughout the memory and tested by a single test branching back and using the next strand of the replicated test data in the memory cache.
US09959180B1	Systems and methods for shipping an I/O operation to prevent replication failure A computer-implemented method for shipping I/O operations to prevent replication failure may include 1) attempting to perform an I/O operation in a system configured to replicate data from a data cluster to another data cluster, 2) detecting a failure in at least part of the attempt to perform the I/O operation that threatens to fail the system's replication of data from the data cluster to the other data cluster, and, in response to detecting the failure, 3) shipping the I/O operation from a node originally responsible for servicing the I/O operation to another node to complete the I/O operation without failing the system's replication of data from the data cluster to the other data cluster. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09959177B2	Backing up virtual machines A processing device generates a live snapshot of a virtual disk image attached to a virtual machine, wherein generating the live snapshot comprises converting an existing read-write volume to a read-only volume. The processing device generates, from the read-only volume, a temporary snapshot of the virtual disk image, the temporary snapshot comprising a temporary read-write volume. The processing device attaches the temporary snapshot of the virtual disk image to a backup component and causes at least one of the backup component or a backup service to backup the virtual disk image from the attached temporary snapshot.
US09959175B1	Restoring deleted objects in a web application Systems and methods for a backing up and/or restoring data in a cloud based application are provided. Objects that are deleted in bulk are restored in bulk. The relationships between the objects that were deleted are determined at the time of backup and used during the restore process. The restored objects have the same relationships as the original objects even when the objects are not identical. The restore process accounts for data or information in the objects that cannot be restored or that is assigned by the web application to which the objects are restored.
US09959166B2	Error correction for non-volatile memory Techniques for encoding data for non-volatile memory storage systems are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method including determining whether the memory includes a defective memory cell, receiving a message to be written to the memory, sub-dividing the message into a plurality of sub-messages, generating a first error correction code for the sub-messages, the first error correction code being a first type, generating a plurality of second error correction codes for the sub-messages, the second error correction codes being a second type different from the first type, generating a combined message comprising the sub-messages, the first error correction code, and the plurality of second error correction codes, and writing the combined message to the memory, at least a portion of the combined message being written to the defective memory cell.
US09959165B2	Method, memory controller, and memory system for reading data stored in flash memory An exemplary method for reading data stored in a flash memory includes: selecting an initial gate voltage combination from a plurality of predetermined gate voltage combination options; controlling a plurality of memory units in the flash memory according to the initial gate voltage combination, and reading a plurality of bit sequences; performing a codeword error correction upon the plurality of bit sequences, and determining if the codeword error correction successful; if the codeword error correction is not successful, determining an electric charge distribution parameter; determining a target gate voltage combination corresponding to the electric charge distribution parameter by using a look-up table; and controlling the plurality of memory units to read a plurality of updated bit sequences according to the target gate voltage combination.
US09959163B2	Processing main cause errors and sympathetic errors in devices in a system Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for processing main cause errors and sympathetic errors in devices in a system. Error data for the devices in the system are analyzed to determine a main cause error for one of the devices that cause at least one sympathetic error in the system. A main cause event object for the determined main cause error and at least one sympathetic event object for the determined at least one sympathetic error resulting from the main cause error are generated. A determination is made from the at least one sympathetic event object of at least one sympathetic event action to perform. The determined at least one sympathetic event action is performed to recover from the at least one sympathetic error represented by the at least one sympathetic event object providing the at least one sympathetic event action.
US09959159B2	Dynamic monitoring and problem resolution A method, computer program product, and system for dynamic relational integrated intelligent monitoring and problem resolution of systems is provided. An IT environment is monitored for a first symptom. The first symptom is a malfunction of at least one component of a plurality of components. In response to determining a first measurement deviates from a reference value, a first component is determined to be the cause component. In response to determining a monitoring tier of the cause component is activated, a plurality of measurements is determined for the plurality of components. A component with the greatest number of activated monitoring tiers is identified and compared to the cause component. Probe data for the plurality of components is collected. A probe ripple is determined, based on one or more components affected by the malfunction. A root cause of the first symptom is reported.
US09959156B2	Interest return control message One embodiment provides a system that facilitates processing of error-condition information associated with a content-centric network (CCN) message transmitted over a network. During operation, the system receives, by a first node, a packet that corresponds to a CCN message, where a name for the CCN message is a hierarchically structured variable length identifier (HSVLI) which comprises contiguous name components ordered from a most general level to a most specific level. Responsive to determining that the CCN message triggers an error condition, the system generates an interest return message by pre-pending a data structure to the CCN message, where the data structure indicates the error condition. The system transmits the interest return message to a second node.
US09959146B2	Computing resources workload scheduling Examples may include techniques to a schedule a workload to one or more computing resources of a data center. A class is determined for the workload based on a workload type or profile for the workload. Predicted operating values for at least one of the one or more computing resources is determined based on the class and the predicted operating values are used as inputs in at least one scoring model to evaluate the workload being supported by the at least one of the one or more computing resources. The workload is then scheduled to the at least one or more computing resources based on the evaluation.
US09959145B1	Scalable game space Users are allowed to communicate with a server via a local client even when the server experiences an abnormal peak of traffic. The local client is configured to send a new connection request only after a specified time interval passes from a previous connection. The local client presents content, such as a game, that makes it appear to the user as if the user is interacting with the server while the local client is waiting for reconnection to the server. The user interactions during the time interval are locally stored and later provided to the server for further process.
US09959139B2	Partitioning processes across clusters by process type to optimize use of cluster specific configurations A system and method for virtualization and cloud security are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a system comprises a first multi-core processing cluster and a second multi-core processing cluster in communication with a network interface card and software instructions. When the software instructions are executed by the second multi-core processing cluster they cause the second multi-core processing cluster to receive a request for a service, create a new or invoke an existing virtual machine to service the request, and return a desired result indicative of successful completion of the service to the first multi-core processing cluster.
US09959137B2	Transaction redo using skip element for object The use of a skip element when redoing transactions, so as to avoid tracking dependencies between transactions assigned to different threads for parallel processing. When the second thread comes to a second task in the course of redoing a second transaction, if a first task that is mooted by the second task is not already performed, the second thread inserts a skip element associated with the object to be operated upon by the particular task, instead of actually performing the particular task upon the object. When the first thread later comes to the first task in the course of redoing a first transaction, the first thread encounters the skip element associated with the object. Accordingly, instead of performing the dependee task, the first thread skips the dependee task and perhaps removes the skip element. The result is the same regardless of whether the first or second task is redone first.
US09959133B2	Identification and removal of zombie virtual machines A method and a computer program product for causing a processor to perform the method are provided. The method includes creating a virtual machine having a virtual machine identifier, and storing an entry in a temporary virtual machine registry, wherein the entry includes the virtual machine identifier, inactivity criteria for the virtual machine, and a responsive action for the virtual machine. The method further includes monitoring the activity of the virtual machine, and initiating the responsive action associated with the virtual machine in response to the virtual machine satisfying the inactivity criteria.
US09959132B2	Managing virtual computing nodes using isolation and migration techniques Systems and method for the management of virtual machine instances are provided. A network data transmission analysis system can use contextual information in the execution of virtual machine instances to isolate and migrate virtual machine instances onto physical computing devices. The contextual information may include information obtained in observing the execution of virtual machines instances, information obtained from requests submitted by users, such as system administrators. Still further, the network data transmission analysis system can also include information collection and retention for identified virtual machine instances.
US09959130B2	Process simulation for information processing system, information processing method, and information processing program product Disclosed is an information processing system having one or more computers. The information processing system includes a request receiver configured to receive a request from a program causing an apparatus to execute a predetermined process, a simulator configured to simulate the process executed by the apparatus in accordance with the request, an instruction receiver configured to receive a status change instruction for changing a status of the simulator from a user, and a status changer configured to cause the simulator to change a status of the simulator in accordance with the status change instruction. In the information processing system, the simulator simulates the process executed by the apparatus in the status changed by the status changer.
US09959127B2	Systems and methods for exporting diagnostic data and securing privileges in a service operating system Systems and methods for exporting failure and diagnostic data and securing privileges in a service Operating System (OS). In some embodiments, an Information Handling System (IHS) includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IHS to: identify a malfunction; store malfunction data in a predefined location; detect the coupling of an external device to the IHS; and export the malfunction data from the predefined location to the external device.
US09959123B2	Speculative load data in byte-write capable register file and history buffer for a multi-slice microprocessor An approach is provided is provided in which a computing system matches a writeback instruction tag (ITAG) to an entry instruction tag (ITAG) included in an issue queue entry. The writeback ITAG is provided by a first of multiple load store units. The issue queue entry includes multiple ready bits, each of which corresponds to one of the multiple load store units. In response to matching the writeback ITAG to the entry ITAG, the computer system sets a first ready bit corresponding to the first load store unit. In turn, the computing system issues an instruction corresponding to the entry ITAG based upon detecting that each of the multiple ready bits is set.
US09959122B2	Single cycle instruction pipeline scheduling A method includes allocating a first single-cycle instruction to a first pipeline that picks single-cycle instructions for execution in program order. The method further includes marking at least one source register of the first single-cycle instruction as ready for execution in the first pipeline in response to all older single-cycle instructions allocated to the first pipeline being ready and eligible to be picked for execution. An apparatus includes a decoder to decode a first single-cycle instruction and to allocate the first single-cycle instruction to a first pipeline. The apparatus further includes a scheduler to pick single-cycle instructions for execution by the first pipeline in program order and to mark at least one source register of the first single-cycle instruction as ready for execution in the first pipeline in response to determining that all older single-cycle instructions allocated to the first pipeline are ready and eligible.
US09959117B2	Instruction to load data up to a specified memory boundary indicated by the instruction A Load to Block Boundary instruction is provided that loads a variable number of bytes of data into a register while ensuring that a specified memory boundary is not crossed. The boundary may be specified a number of ways, including, but not limited to, a variable value in the instruction text, a fixed instruction text value encoded in the opcode, or a register based boundary.
US09959114B2	Representation of customizable types in a development environment A computing system comprises, in one example, a difference generation component configured to access a type file representing a type in a base version of a computing system and identify a customization made to the type in the base version of the computing system to obtain a customized version of the computing system, and a type accessing component configured to serialize the customization into a customization file of a given file format, the customization file having a separate element representing each customization made to the type in the base version of the computing system to obtain the customized version of the computing system, the type accessing component storing the customization file as a separate file from the type file.
US09959111B2	Prioritization of software patches Various embodiments of systems, computer program products, and methods for prioritizing software patches are described herein. In an aspect, the software patches are retrieved by querying software repositories. Further, code changes associated with the software patches are determined. One or more instances of bug fix patterns are identified in determined code changes. The software patches are classified based on the identified bug fix patterns. Priorities of the software patches corresponding to the identified instances of the bug fix patterns are determined based on the classification and a pre-defined policy. Upon determining priorities, the software patches are installed based on the priorities.
US09959110B2	Firmware updating methods and apparatus for optical transceiver An optical transceiver is programmed by downloading firmware data from a remote provider onto a computing device local to the transceiver and electronically writing data derived from the downloaded firmware data onto the transceiver using a hardware device connected electrically to the computing device, the transceiver being electrically connected to the hardware device.
US09959109B2	Upgrading a physical security system having multiple server nodes A physical security system that includes multiple server nodes may be upgraded by receiving an upgrade installation package from a client and propagating the installation package between at least two of the server nodes. One of the server nodes (“source server”) receives the installation package from the client and another of the server nodes (“requesting server”) requests and receives the installation package from the source server. To transfer the installation package from the source to the requesting server, the source server notifies the requesting server that the installation package is present at the source server, the requesting server then sends the source server a request for the installation package, and the source server then sends the installation package to the requesting server in response to the request. The requesting server may then be upgraded by running the installation package.
US09959106B2	Sharing of portable initialized objects between computing platforms A sub-process is performed on a first computing platform to create a portable initialized object. The portable initialized object is communicated to a second computing platform. The second computing platform uses the portable initialized object to replace performing the sub-process.
US09959105B2	Configuration of an application in a computing platform A platform executing on a computer system identifies a capability to be used by an application based on an application descriptor for the application and determines a component that provides the capability based on a component descriptor of the component. The platform identifies an additional capability to be used by the component based on the component descriptor and determines an additional component that provides the additional capability. The platform determines that the application descriptor further specifies that the application will use the additional capability provided by the additional component and determines that a single instance of the additional component will provide the additional capability to both the application and the component. The platform then groups the application, component, and additional component for deployment based on constraints associated with the application, component, and additional component.
US09959103B2	Code deployment assistance Computer programming is aided by way of automatic code generation, and more specifically generation of deployment code automatically. An application can be analyzed and deployment code, including installation, maintenance (e.g., update/upgrade), and removal (e.g., un-install) code, can be generated as a function of the analysis as well as a particular execution environment.
US09959099B2	Framework for on demand functionality Methods and system are disclosed that instantiate an on demand functionality for a layer in a multilayered system. In one aspect, a framework integrated with the multilayered system may receive a request to create a root function. The root function may be associated with common functionalities or specific functionalities. Based on parameters associated with the layers and attributes associated with data flow paths between the layers, a layer to deploy the root function may be determined. Upon deploying the root function, sub functions may be created in the determined layer by the framework. The sub functions may be configured common functionalities or specific functionalities by the framework. A function model including the root function and the sub functions may be generated. The function model may be instantiated to provide an on demand functionality or an on demand application.
US09959093B2	Binary fused multiply-add floating-point calculations A binary fused multiply-add floating-point unit configured to operate on an addend, a multiplier, and a multiplicand. The unit is configured to receive as the addend an unrounded result of a prior operation executed in the unit via an early result feedback path; to perform an alignment shift of the unrounded addend on an unrounded exponent and an unrounded mantissa; as well as perform a rounding correction for the addend in parallel to the actual alignment shift, responsive to a rounding-up signal.
US09959092B2	Accumulation of floating-point values An apparatus and method for generating a sum of floating-point input values are provided. To sum the values multiple partial sum floating-point values are maintained and the partial sum to which an input value may be added is selected by a least significant portion of the exponent of the input value. If the exponent of the input value is equal to the exponent of the value stored in the selected partial sum a mantissa sum of the input value and stored partial sum value replaces the mantissa value of the selected partial sum value. If the exponent of the input value is larger than the exponent of the value stored in the selected partial sum the selected partial sum value is replaced with the input value. An associative and deterministic summation is thus provided.
US09959089B2	Mobile audio player with individualized radio program The present invention relates to a mobile audio player, comprising memory means adapted to store music data and non-music data, input means adapted to receive a user input with user preferences, radio program generating means adapted to generate, without a connection to an external entity, an individualized radio program from stored music data and non-music data depending on user preferences input via the input means, and audio output means adapted to output audio signals representing a generated radio program.
US09959086B2	Electronic device and control method thereof There are provided an electronic device and a control method thereof. First contents related to an image and second contents generated by converting the recorded audio into text are displayed on a touchscreen, instead of a playback screen of the image when the electronic device plays the image and enters a mode for recording audio. Thus, a user can use a image, when viewing and listening to it, in various manners.
US09959084B2	Communication terminal, communication system, communication control method, and recording medium A communication terminal displays an image having a plurality of image layers, being shared with a first communication terminal and a second communication terminal. In response to a user input for changing appearance of a first image layer of the image, the communication terminal stores information reflecting the change caused by the user input to the first image layer in a memory, and generates an updated image having the first image layer that reflects the change caused by the user input. The communication terminal transmits the information reflecting the change to the first image layer to the first communication terminal to cause the first communication terminal to generate and display the updated image. The communication terminal transmits the updated image having the first image layer that reflects the change to the second communication terminal to cause the second communication terminal to store the updated image.
US09959081B2	System including operation device and information storing apparatus, method performed by the system, and the information storing apparatus A system includes an operation device and an information storing apparatus, which are connected via a network. The operation device determines, based on information input from the outside of the operation device in response to an operation performed on the operation device, an electronic device among a plurality of electronic devices connected to the system, for causing the electronic device to input electronic data to the information storing apparatus, and sends, to the information storing apparatus, a first request to cause the determined electronic device to input the electronic data to the information storing apparatus. The information storing apparatus sends, to the determined electronic device, a second request based on the first request sent from the operation device, and stores the electronic data that has been sent from the determined electronic device based on the sent second request.
US09959080B2	Transfer of mobile device camera image to an image-supporting surface The invention relates to a method and system for a user to use a mobile device camera to place a camera image on one of a series of transparent product overlays to display on the viewfinder window a real-time mock-up of the camera image on the transparent product overlay. The user has the ability to modify the size and location of the camera image on the transparent product overlay. The user can then accept the latter display or make final adjustments to the camera image to make a final mock-up. The user can share the user's camera image creation without geographic restriction by via email, text, social media, or obtain the product with the camera image thereon in the exact form as the final mock-up, in less than 15 seconds. The user also has the option to share their creation to a newsfeed in which other users can view, share, and buy. The original creator of the product will get a commission of a purchase.
US09959079B2	Writing data into redundant array of independent disks (RAID) of storage system In a storage system, a control device determines that at least one first storage device of X storage devices is out of service. Then, the control device selects a second storage device from the X storage device. A quantity of stripe members of a data stripe stored in the second storage device is less than a ratio of T divided by X. The control device further writes target data into the second storage device. The target data is a data unit or a check unit used to update at least one stripe member of the data stripe stored in the first storage device.
US09959077B2	Data randomization for flash memory Data words written to an SSD device, or other device or output data stream, may be randomized using a seed based on physical addressing information, such as a page address, column address, and a cycle count for the page address. This enables the storage and de-randomization of variable length data blocks stored at random locations within a page without requiring storage of additional data, which would make recovery impossible if lost in prior approaches. The page address, column address, and block address are physical attributes of the storage location for the data word and do not need to be saved and therefore will not be lost making recovery of the seed always possible. The cycle count can be saved and, if lost, limited trials with range of cycle counts can be exercised to de-randomize the data word and decoding may be used to determine whether descrambling was successful.
US09959075B2	System and method for flush power aware low power mode control in a portable computing device Systems and methods for improved implementation of low power modes in a multi-core system-on-a-chip (SoC) are presented. A cache memory of the multi-core SoC not being accessed by other components of the SoC is identified and a number of dirty cache lines present in the cache memory is determined. For a low power mode of the core, an entry latency based on the number of dirty cache lines is determined, and an exit latency is determined. An entry power cost for the low power mode is also determined based on the number of dirty cache lines A determination is made whether the low power mode for the cache memory results in a power savings over an active mode for the cache memory based at least on the entry power cost and the entry latency of the cache memory entering the first power mode.
US09959074B1	Asynchronous in-memory data backup system Data backup systems and methods are provided to asynchronously mirror in-memory checkpoint images generated by a process executing on a host system. For example, a data backup system is configured to: receive a checkpoint request message to store a copy of a checkpoint image which includes memory pages residing in a first memory region of memory on the host system; pull a copy of metadata associated with the memory pages from a second memory region of memory on the host system; pull a copy of the memory pages of the checkpoint image from the first memory region; generate a copy of the checkpoint image using the memory pages and associated metadata pulled from the host system; and store the copy of the checkpoint image in a storage device with an in-memory format that is the same as the checkpoint image residing in the first memory region on the host system.
US09959073B1	Detection of host connectivity for data migration in a storage system Described embodiments provide systems and processes for performing data migration in a storage system. One or more volumes are migrated from a source device to a target device in a storage system. A discovery state of the migrated volumes is determined by one or more host devices in communication with the storage system. An initiator group is configured for each host device. Each initiator group sends at least one inquiry to each of one or more volumes of the target devices. Responses to each inquiry from each volume are tracked. The system receives a selection of one or more migrated volumes to include in a cutover operation, the selection based at least in part upon the determined discovery states. One or more volumes of the source devices associated with the included volumes are deactivated.
US09959067B2	Memory block allocation by block health An individual block health metric value calculated for each of a plurality of blocks from a combination of factors including at least program-erase cycle count and error rate is used to order the plurality of blocks in order of block health metric values in an ordered list. Subsequently, a block may be selected for use according to a position of the block in the ordered list.
US09959065B2	Hybrid blockchain A system includes circuitry for performing hybrid blockchain rewrites by trusted parties. The hybrid blockchain may include blocks with multiple parts. In some cases, the blocks may include a core part and a tertiary part. The system may include conditions for validity preserving and/or non-tamper-evident rewrites to the parts of the block. The conditions to support rewrites to the core part may be more stringent than the corresponding conditions to support rewrites to the tertiary part. In some cases, the core part may be write-locked.
US09959064B2	Overlapping write detection and processing for sync replication A primary write request that is to modify a primary portion of primary data stored in a primary storage node is received. The primary write request is to be replicated to create a current secondary write request. The current secondary write request is to modify a current secondary portion of secondary data that is stored in a secondary storage node. A current data range of the current secondary portion is determined. A determination is made of whether a previous secondary write request is in process of modifying a previous data range that at least partially overlaps with a current data range of the current secondary portion. Execution of the primary write request is suspended, until the previous secondary write request has completed updating the secondary storage node.
US09959063B1	Parallel migration of multiple consistency groups in a storage system Described embodiments provide systems and processes for performing data migration in a storage system. One or more consistency groups are migrated from at least one source device to at least one target device in the storage system. The consistency groups are replicated from the source device to the target device by an asynchronous data replication operation from the source device to the target device and one or more synchronous data replication operations from the source device to the target device if data stored on the source device is changed. The consistency groups are operated on the source device and the target device in an active-active mode, wherein the source device and target device are active and accessible by host devices. Replicated consistency groups are determined to include in a cutover operation that is performed by deactivating the at least one source device associated with the included consistency groups.
US09959061B1	Data synchronization A computer implemented method for replicating virtual machine disk volumes on a storage array supporting reading signatures of data based on offset of data by reading signatures of data of a production virtual machine on production site; wherein reading the signature includes mapping a virtual machine disk offset into a physical storage offset and reading the signature from the physical storage; reading signatures of data of a replica virtual machine used to replicate the production virtual machine on a replica site wherein reading the signature includes mapping a virtual machine disk offset into a physical storage offset and reading the signature from the physical storage; and based on determination the signatures are not identical marking the locations for synchronization in a synchronization structure.
US09959059B2	Storage error management A storage controller identifies a storage division comprising unreadable data. In response, the storage controller relocates readable data (if any) from the identified storage division. The storage controller may be further configured to associate the unreadable data with a logical address, and to record persistent metadata to indicate that the logical address is mapped to unreadable, corrupt data. The storage controller may clear the corruption indicator from the logical address. The logical address may be cleared in response to determining that the unreadable data is invalid and/or available from another source.
US09959057B2	Performance-based grouping of storage devices in a storage system A computer determines an intrinsic read speed and an intrinsic write speed associated with a first disk and a second disk. The computer receives a request to read a portion of data, wherein the portion of data is stored redundantly on both the first and second disk. The computer identifies a first latency associated with reading the portion of data from the first disk, where the first latency is based on at least the intrinsic read speed and the intrinsic write speed associated with the first disk. The computer identifies a second latency associated with reading the portion of data from the second disk, wherein the second latency is based on at least the intrinsic read speed and the intrinsic write speed associated with the second disk. The computer determines that the first latency exceeds the second latency. The computer selects the second disk to read the portion of data.
US09959056B2	Methods and systems for efficiently storing data at a plurality of storage tiers using a transfer data structure Methods and systems for a networked system are provided. One method includes receiving a request by a processor to transfer a data block stored at a first storage tier to the second storage tier; using an object staging data structure to determine that an object is available for transferring the data block from the first storage tier to the second storage tier. The object staging data structure an indicator providing a status for the object and an object length and an offset value of a transfer log indicating where information regarding the data block is stored. The method further includes updating an address of the storage tier where the information regarding data block is stored at the transfer log; increasing the object length and the offset value at the object staging data structure; and creating the object at the second tier.
US09959055B2	Placement of a processing unit in unfair lock mode in response to a queue in a fair lock mode Examples herein disclose identification of a presence of a processing unit that is to obtain the lock within a queue in a fair lock mode. In response to the presence of the processing unit within the queue, the examples place a separate processing unit in an unfair lock mode.
US09959054B1	Log cleaning and tiering in a log-based data storage system A technique is directed to cleaning a log structure. The technique involves identifying extents (e.g., a contiguous segment of 8 MB) to reclaim from a first storage tier of a set of storage tiers containing the log structure. The technique further involves performing a tier selection operation to select a target storage tier from the set of storage tiers based on a utilization measure of the log structure. The technique further involves, after identifying the extents to reclaim and performing the tier selection operation, storing data from the identified extents into a new extent of the target storage tier and freeing the identified extents. Such a technique combines log cleaning and tiering into a single operation thus placing less stress on storage devices (e.g., less wear on flash memory, etc.), consuming fewer system resources, and providing better performance.
US09959052B1	Media based cache for data storage device Write commands are received for a Data Storage Device (DSD) to store write data in a plurality of corresponding write locations on at least one disk of the DSD. At least a portion of the write data is cached in at least one Media Based Cache (MBC) region of the at least one disk based on a write cache policy for determining which write data is eligible for caching in the at least one MBC region. The at least one MBC region is used to cache data to be stored in other locations on the at least one disk. During an active time period when host commands are performed on the at least one disk, a portion of an I/O bandwidth for performing commands is used to copy the at least a portion of the write data to corresponding write locations of the plurality of corresponding write locations.
US09959047B2	Capacity forecasting based on capacity policies and transactions According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method and technique for capacity forecasting is disclosed. The method includes: storing, in a memory, resource data associated with an environment, the resource data comprising inventory information of applications, processing resources and storage resources of the environment; and providing a ledger module executable by a processor unit to: create a capacity-associated transaction; identify and link at least one of an application, processing resource and storage resource to the transaction from the resource data; determine an initiation time and duration associated with the transaction; and forecast a change in capacity of at least one linked storage resource for the transaction and a time of the change in capacity.
US09959046B2	Multi-streaming mechanism to optimize journal based data storage systems on SSD A system and method for using multi-streaming with journal information (305) and data (325) is disclosed, when using an application (125) and/or a data storage system (120) that performs double-writes. A journal write request (310) can be sent with the journal information (305) specifying that the journal information (305) should be written to one stream (315). The data write request (320) can be sent with the data (325) specifying that the data (325) should be written to another stream (330). A controller (135) on the storage device (130) can then write the journal information (305) to a block (405, 410) associated with the first stream (315) and the data (325) to a block (415, 420) associated with the second stream (330).
US09959035B2	Electronic device having side-surface touch sensors for receiving the user-command An electronic device includes a front-surface touch screen, a plurality of side-surface touch sensors that receive a user-command, and a body that includes a processor for processing the user-command, where the body is combined with the front-surface touch screen and the side-surface touch sensors. Here, the user-command includes an operation in which at least one of the side-surface touch sensors is touched by a user for more than an activation time and an operation in which a touched point of the at least one of the side-surface touch sensors is moved by the user.
US09959033B2	Information navigation on electronic devices In one example, a method includes outputting for display a first graphical user interface (GUI) of an application executing at the portable computer terminal, wherein the first GUI displays information received from the mobile computing device at a first degree of specificity. The method also includes, in response to receiving input to display a second GUI of the application: outputting, for display at a presence-sensitive display device of the portable computer terminal, the second GUI and removing the first GUI from display. The second GUI may be different from the first GUI, and the second GUI may display information received from the mobile computing device at a second degree of specificity that is different than the first degree of specificity.
US09959031B2	Electronic device with dynamic positioning of user interface element An electronic device includes a display and a touch input disposed over the display. The touch input receives touch inputs from a user and detects location of the user's hand relative to the display including location of the user's hand in front of and not touching the touch input. A controller controls the display of content, including determining an obstructed area of the display that is obstructed from viewing by the user's hand as indicated by the detection made by the touch input; determining that a default location for the display of a new graphical user interface (GUI) element that should be added to the display overlaps with the obstructed area by at least a predetermined amount; and changing a manner in which the new GUI element is displayed so that the new GUI element is not obstructed by the user's hand.
US09959027B1	Displaying an image on an irregular screen Presented here are systems and methods to enable software applications to display images on irregular screen shapes containing the shape without display functionality. In one embodiment, the shape without display functionality is confined within a bounding shape, which, when subtracted from the irregular screen shape leaves a rectangular area of the screen where the image can be displayed. The area within the bounding shape can be occupied by images provided by the operating system associated with the irregular screen, such as a status bar and/or navigation bar. In another embodiment, the image can be displayed on the full irregular screen, such that the shape without display functionality covers a part of the image. When the occluded part of the image contains a critical object, such as a menu item, a button, etc., the image can be modified to move the critical object out of the area occluded by the shape without display functionality.
US09959026B2	Spread-to-duplicate and pinch-to-delete gestures Techniques for spread and pinch gestures are described. A spread gesture can be recognized effective to cause an item to be duplicated. In implementations, the spread gesture includes at least two inputs that select the item and spread apart to increase a distance between the two inputs. The item is divided into two substantially identical items in response to the distance between the two inputs exceeding a distance threshold. A pinch gesture can also be recognized effective to cause one or more items to be removed from a display of items. In implementations, the pinch gesture includes two or more inputs that select and drag two non-adjacent items toward one another to decrease a distance between the two non-adjacent items. The one or more items that are between the two non-adjacent items are removed from the display based on recognition of the pinch gesture.
US09959022B2	Systems and methods for displaying wells and their respective status on an electronic map Systems and methods for displaying wells and their respective status on an electronic map based on a geographical area, a time frame and a preferred well activity.
US09959020B2	Systems, methods, and computer program products displaying interactive elements on a canvas A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon comprises code for generating a canvas upon a display space, the canvas being larger than the display space and including an interactive element, code for navigating within the canvas upon the display space code for changing a status of the interactive element in response to navigation moving the interactive element within the display space.
US09959019B1	Customizable media player framework Disclosed are various embodiments for a media player customization application. A media player framework defines basic functionality to render media items. Plugins may be added to the media player framework to implement desired functionality. The plugin model allows for a media player to minimize file sizes by only included required functionality.
US09959011B2	Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for quantifying a subjective experience The present disclosure relates to quantification of subjective experiences. A method for quantifying a subjective experience may include outputting an adjustable graphic that is continuously adjustable between differing states. The position of a selector may be manipulated to cause the adjustable graphic to be substantially simultaneously manipulated between the differing states to produce an adjusted graphic. Thus, a user may match the adjustable graphic to his or her subjective experience regarding a particular topic. The position of the adjustable graphic may be stationary, and thus independent of the position of the selector. A scaled value corresponding to the adjusted graphic may be calculated to quantify the subjective experience.
US09959008B2	Computer peripheral display and communication device providing an adjunct 3D user interface A system for providing a visual user environment includes a processing unit, a memory, a primary display device for providing a primary visual interface, and an adjunct communication device for providing an adjunct visual interface. In an embodiment, the adjunct display device is configured to present quasi-3D or 3D images. A process can include detecting an adjunct content event corresponding to adjunct visual content associated with an aspect of an application program; and selectively transferring one of an adjunct content notification and adjunct visual content to the adjunct communication device, wherein the adjunct content event corresponds to one of an application program installation sequence, an application program event, an indication of user proficiency in interacting with the application program, a communication session with a remote system, and a predefined visual sequence that is automatically selected for presentation to the user during one of application program installation and application program execution.
US09959000B2	Touch sensing device A touch sensing device is provided. The device includes a substrate; a plurality of first electrodes formed on the substrate and arranged along a first direction without overlapping one another; a first insulating layer formed on the substrate and covering the plurality of first electrodes; and a plurality of second electrodes formed on the first insulating layer and arranged along a second direction without overlapping one another, wherein the first direction is orthogonal to the second direction.
US09958998B2	Mesh-type electrode pattern and manufacturing method thereof, and touch panel including the same An electrode pattern includes unit patterns having a mesh-shape, the unit patterns connected to each other and including a first unit pattern and a second unit pattern, in which each of the first and second unit patterns includes sides connected to each other, an area of the first unit pattern is smaller than an area of the second unit pattern, and at least one side of the first unit pattern has a line width smaller than a line width of one side of the second unit pattern.
US09958997B2	Adjustable shield electrode arrangement for capacitive touch sensor array An apparatus including a plurality of distinct capacitive sensor electrodes distributed over a sensing area; conductive traces connected to respective ones of the plurality of distinct capacitive sensor electrodes; one or more first shield electrode portions, positioned on a first side of the sensing area to overlap, in the sensing area, at least some of the conductive traces, and one or more second shield electrode portions, positioned on the first side of the sensing area to overlap, in the sensing area, at least some of the capacitive sensor electrodes.
US09958996B2	Capacitive touch sensor A capacitive touch sensor is described. The touch sensor includes a sensor grid that includes a trace that has a trace start point and end point, is electrically conductive between the trace start point and the trace end point, is formed in one or more pairs of trace cells that each include a first trace cell and a second trace cell that is rotationally symmetrical to the first trace cell. The trace start point and the trace end point define a trace axis. A trace direction is defined from the trace start point to the trace end point. A trace-perpendicular direction is defined as being perpendicular to the trace direction. A segment of the trace that is formed in the first trace cell includes a first portion, a second portion, a third portion, a fourth portion, a fifth portion, a sixth portion, a seventh portion, and an eighth portion.

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