Document	Document Title
US07654884B2	Method of polishing end surfaces of a substrate for a recording medium by a grain flow processing method The object of the invention is to provide a method of polishing the end surfaces of a substrate for a recording medium, which is capable of efficiently polishing the inner peripheral end surface and/or the outer peripheral end surface of the substrate preventing the reliability of performance of the recording medium from being impaired by the adhesion of the residual polishing material. According to the invention, there is provided a method of polishing end surfaces of a substrate for a recording medium wherein an inner peripheral end surface or an outer peripheral end surface of a substrate for a disk-like recording medium having a circular hole at the central portion thereof is brought into contact with a polishing medium obtained by dispersing polishing grains in a viscoelastic resin carrier and the polishing medium flows, thereby to polish the inner peripheral end surface or the outer peripheral end surface.
US07654874B2	Electrical connecting device for inserting a male plug connector of an electronic component such as a fuse or relay An electrical connecting device for inserting a male plug connector of an electronic component, consisting of a strip of electrically conductive material having a central portion with an opening for introducing the male plug connector and, symmetrically on both sides of the central portion, two longitudinal portions each having an intermediate insertion section in which a contact blade is formed which is delimited by a cut-out, and a terminal section for being plugged into a support. The strip of material is folded to form a parallelepiped cage delimited by the central portion and by the two intermediate insertion sections formed so that their contact blades each define a contact area for a male plug connector introduced into the cage, and a section which may be plugged into a support consisting of two terminal sections placed against one another.
US07654871B2	Electrical connector with additional mating port An electrical connector includes an electrical receptacle and an electrical plug for mating with the electrical receptacle. The electrical receptacle includes a first port, a second port communicating with the first port. The second port can accommodate a standard B-type USB 2.0 plug. The first and the second ports can be combined to receive the electrical plug for high-speed signal transmission.
US07654868B1	Card connector A card connector is disclosed that includes an insulating housing and a plurality of contacts. The insulating housing defines a plurality of contact slots. Each of the contact slots extends outwardly and laterally to opposite sides to form two resisting protrusions respectively, wherein each of the resisting protrusions forms a resisting surface extending obliquely and inwardly from one side thereof. The contacts are respectively received in the contact slots of the insulating housing. Each of the contacts has a contact portion protruding upwardly for being pressed by a card and the contact portion is connected with a bearing portion resisting against the resisting surface for preventing the contact portion from flipping upwardly out of the insulating housing.
US07654860B2	Signal transmission wire with an audio interface and a USB interface A signal transmission wire with audio interface and USB interface, the wire is a four-core connection wire, one end of which is connected to a USB interface, the other end of which is connected to a dual-track audio interface; the four-core signal connection wire is further provided with a winder, the winder is a box, and a bobbin for intertwining the four-core connection wire is pivotally jointed in its cavity; two opening holes are set on the surface of the winder; the double ends of the four-core connection wire pass through the two opening holes respectively; the wire of the four-core connection wire is winded on the bobbin.
US07654855B2	Socket assembly A socket assembly includes a socket body, a connecting line and an electrical connector. The socket body comprises a panel and at least one socket unit. The socket body is provided with a receiving trough. One end of the connecting line extends into the inside of the socket body. The electrical connector is connected to the other end of the connecting line. The connecting line and the electrical connector are stored in the receiving trough or extend beyond the receiving trough selectively. Via the above arrangement, the socket assembly of the present invention can provide a connecting line and an electrical connector to facilitate the user to quickly connect electronic products. Further, when the connecting line and the electrical connector are not in use, they can be stored in the socket body and thus may not cause clutter and disturbance.
US07654854B1	Push-cord energy saving lampholder easy for the stripping of cord The present invention is to provide a push-cord energy saving lamp holder that is easy for the stripping of power cord, which comprises: a lamp holder body, having push-cord holes and nearby cord-stripped sockets at its top, and first lodging troughs and second lodging troughs in its internal; a set of push-cord stands, each having a plug face from which a power connect face and a conducting face are formed by bending its top and bottom portions, where the edge of the power connect face is further divided into a power connect notch corresponding to the push-cord hole and a cord-stripped trench corresponding to the cord-stripped socket; a set of conducting springy slices, having a plug face lodged in the second lodging trough for a fixing and a conducting face connected to the conducting face of the push-cord stand; and a cover plate, placed on the hollow of the lamp holder body, having a set of positioning grooves on the plate, which accommodate the insertion of the conducting terminals of an energy saving lamp; the cord-stripped socket is designed for accommodating the insertion of a slender cord-stripped tool, where the tool is pushed to bend the cord-stripped trench, which in turn bends the power connect notch, and the effect causes the conducting end portion of the power cord is released easily from the push-cord hole.
US07654853B2	Reader board assembly circuit, system, and method for identifying a digital device among multiple digital devices The present invention provides an electronic circuit for detecting, identifying, and/or activating a digital device, including a touch-and-hold connector configured to hold an object of interest, the digital device coupled to the touch-and-hold connector, for example, wherein the digital device has a unique digital registration number, a microcontroller that reads the unique digital registration number of the digital device, a storage receptacle configured to selectively receive the touch-and-hold connector, a light-emitting source coupled to the storage receptacle and associated with the touch-and-hold connector, and an electrical power source. Further including, an apparatus for releasably securing a digital device to a touch-and-hold connector including a digital device having a unique digital registration number with a first end and a second end, at least one prong located on the first end of the digital device, a touch-and-hold connector having a top portion forming a lip and at least one opening located within the lip for receiving the at least one prong of the digital device, wherein the prong of the digital device is received with the at least one opening within the lip, whereby the digital device is rotated into a position so that the prong is in a spaced apart relationship with the at least one opening forming a releasably secure arrangement between the digital device and touch-and-hold connector.
US07654847B2	Probe having a field-replaceable tip A probe is provided for testing the electrical characteristics of a device. The probe includes a housing, a plurality of cables, a circuit board located within the housing, and a field-replaceable probe tip. The probe tip includes an array of contacts. Each of the plurality of cables is connected to a corresponding contact. The probe includes a retractable shroud that retracts as the probe is connected to the device. The contacts have bifurcated tips. An alignment assembly for aligning a probe with respect to a device to be tested includes a first alignment block, a second alignment block, and an alignment piece connecting the first alignment block and the second alignment block. The first alignment block and the second alignment block are arranged to be attached to the device to be tested to align the probe with respect to the device to be tested.
US07654844B1	Telescopic power connector A power supply module configured for removable insertion into a power supply bay of an electronic system. A telescopic power connector disposed within the power supply housing includes a plurality of internal fixed contacts in electrical communication with an electrical socket and a movable member carrying a plurality of elongate sliding contacts in sliding contact with the internal fixed contacts. The movable member is movable generally perpendicular to an insertion direction of the power supply housing. A mechanical actuator is configured for moving the movable member of the telescopic power connector into connection with an external power connector, such as on a motherboard, so that ends of the sliding contacts are moved into electrical connection with terminals on the external power connector while remaining in sliding contact with the internal fixed contacts.
US07654833B2	Brittle fracture resistant spring A spring contact has a post-release outer upper surface in compression and a post-release outer lower surface in compression. A compressive lower layer of spring material may be formed at a thickness that is three-eighths or less of a tensile upper layer of spring material. A low modulus of elasticity cladding material may also be applied to the outer surface of the spring contact with a lower surface of the cladding material being formed with a compressive stress.
US07654831B1	Cable assembly having improved configuration for suppressing cross-talk A cable assembly (1000) includes a housing (1) has a receiving space (10), said receiving space including a hollow portion and a mating port located in front of the hollow portion; a spacer (4) located in the receiving space; a first and second printed circuit boards (31, 32) partially enclosed within the spacer and arranged apart from one another, both the first and second printed circuit boards having mating interfaces extending into the mating port and mounting portions disposed in the hollow portion; a metallic plate (2) assembled to the spacer and disposed between the pair of first and second printed circuit boards; a plurality of cables (7) coupled to the mounting portions of the pair of first and second printed circuit boards, respectively.
US07654830B2	IC socket having detachable aligning element An IC socket includes a socket body defining a first receiving cavity with a bottom wall, a cover attached pivotally on one end of the socket body and a locking member for locking the cover to the socket body. The IC socket further includes four detachable aligning elements mounted on four corners of the bottom wall. The four aligning elements have a plurality of positioning surfaces adapted for corporately defining a second receiving cavity for snugly accommodating an IC package therein. Different aligning elements with different dimensions can be replaced to mount on the socket body for different IC packages, thus a cost of manufacturing is reduced.
US07654824B2	Extension piece for a dental implant, transfer aid for transferring the position of an implant and of an extension piece, and method for producing a basis for a retention element An extension piece (2) for a dental implant (1) has a head part (20) which serves as a basis for a retention element (7). The extension piece (2) can be screwed in the dental implant (1) with a threaded stem (29). The extension piece (2) is provided with a reference surface (24) via which the position of the extension piece (2) in the circumferential direction can be transferred to a transfer aid (4) having a transfer surface (42) shaped to complement the reference surface (24). The position of the extension piece (2) is transferred via the transfer aid (4) into an impression (93). The extension piece (2) is then provided with a manipulation implant (5) and is repositioned in the impression (93). From this, a working model (M) is formed in which the desired shape of the extension piece (2) can be defined. The extension piece (2) which has been machined to the desired shape is then screwed into the implant (1) with the same torque as is used for taking the impression.
US07654820B2	Control valves for heaters and fireplace devices In certain embodiments, a control valve assembly for gas heaters and gas fireplace devices includes a housing. The housing can define an inlet for accepting fuel from a fuel source, a first outlet for delivering fuel to an oxygen depletion sensor, and a second outlet for delivering fuel to a burner. The assembly can include a valve body configured to selectively provide fluid communication between the inlet and one or more of the first outlet and the second outlet, and can include an actuator configured to move the valve body relative to the housing. The actuator can be configured to transition between a resting state and a displaced state. The assembly can include an igniter that includes a sensor, the igniter electrically coupled with an electrode and configured to repeatedly activate the electrode when the sensor senses that the actuator is in the displaced state. The assembly can include a shutoff valve electrically coupled with the oxygen depletion sensor and configured to operate in response to an electrical quantity communicated by the oxygen depletion sensor.
US07654819B2	Tubular flame burner and method for controlling combustion A tubular flame burner, a combustion method, and combustion controller, are disclosed. Here, the tubular flame burner comprises: a tubular combustion chamber whose h one end is open; fuel-spraying nozzles and oxygen-containing-gas spraying nozzles. The respective nozzle orifices are formed in the inner face of the combustion chamber so that each spraying direction is in a neighborhood of a tangential direction of the inner circumferential wall of the combustion chamber. And an ignition device is disposed at a position r/2 from the tube axis of the combustion chamber (r: the radius of the combustion chamber). The length of the combustion chamber can be adjusted, the tubular flame burner is a multi-stage burner formed of multiple tubular flame burners, and a gap between the inner tube and the outer tube serves as a gas-flow path. A combustion control method for the tubular flame burner is disclosed, wherein on/off of switching valves is controlled so that the spraying speed from each nozzle is maintained in a predetermined range corresponding to the combustion load.
US07654816B2	Lithographic mask alignment Systems and methods of aligning a lithographic mask are described. In one aspect, a substrate and a lithographic mask are aligned based at least in part on a motive force between a substrate alignment mark on the substrate and a mask alignment mark on the lithographic mask that induces movement of at least one of the substrate and the lithographic mask into mutual alignment.
US07654811B2	Mold for manufacturing a tube by extraction A mold equipped with a core having a plurality of branching columnar distal portions in the extrusion direction and a die having an aperture surrounding the distal portions. A softened flexible resin is injected from one end of a resin flow path formed between the core and the die and extruded in order to form a pipe material having a plurality of circular liquid flow paths which are mutually independent and have the same inner diameter. The distal portions of the core shaped as a row of circular distal portions aligned on the same axis, where the two edge distal portions have a smaller diameter than the distal portions disposed between the edge distal portions, while the portions of the aperture surrounding each of the distal portions have the same diameter.
US07654810B2	Injection molding machine which carries out controlling of closing operation of a check ring While a check ring of a screw of an injection molding machine is in open state, an absolute value (\|Δ resin pressure/Δ rotation amount\|) of a variation of a resin pressure per unit variation of the screw reverse rotation becomes greater than a predetermined reference value. However, after the check ring is closed, \|Δ resin pressure/Δ rotation amount\| becomes equal to or less than the reference value. From this, detecting if the \|Δ resin pressure/Δ rotation amount\| during reverse rotation of the screw, it is possible to determine that the check ring is closed or not. As a result, it is possible to obtain a screw reverse rotation amount which is optimal for reliably closing the check ring.
US07654809B2	Injection molding machine having a force peak time detecting device If a screw is moved forward after a metering step is completed, the screw moves in a state where a check ring on a tip end of the screw is in open state. Resin flows in a direction opposite to the injection direction. A rotational force is applied to the screw due to the backflow of the resin. If the check ring closes a resin passage, the rotational force acting on the screw is reduced. A peak time of the screw rotational force is detected as closing point in time of the check ring. Physical amounts such as a screw rotational force and a screw position at that timing are detected. Since the closing point in time of the check ring is precisely detected, correction of the injection/hold pressure switching position and the injection speed switching position can be adjusted more precisely. It is possible to precisely determine whether a molded article is non-defective or defective based on the detected physical amount.
US07654807B2	Method and system for generating foam for the manufacture of gypsum products A method for generating foam for gypsum product manufacturing includes injecting water through a conduit and injecting a foaming agent through the conduit to form a first solution comprising the water and the foaming agent. The method includes straining the first solution in the conduit and injecting air through the conduit to form a second solution comprising the water, the foaming agent and the air. The method also includes straining the second solution in the conduit to form foam and communicating the foam to a gypsum product manufacturing device.
US07654805B2	Scroll compressor with an anti-rotation mechanism A scroll compressor includes a fixed scroll, an orbiting scroll structuring an operation chamber for a fluid with the fixed scroll and compressing the fluid in the operation chamber by orbiting relative to the fixed scroll, a shaft having an eccentric portion connected to the orbiting scroll and receiving a driving force to rotate, a housing accommodating the orbiting scroll, the housing integrally provided with the fixed scroll, a tooth integrally formed at the orbiting scroll and extending in a radial direction of the orbiting scroll and an engaging portion integrally formed in the housing, the engaging portion facing the tooth in the radial direction of the orbiting scroll and engaging with the tooth in a circumferential direction of the orbiting scroll.
US07654797B2	Blade with shroud A blade for a turbo machine has a blade section and a shroud element terminating the blade section in the blade section longitudinal direction. The blade section has a suction face and a pressure face. The shroud element extends essentially at right angles to the blade section longitudinal direction and has a first platform section projecting beyond the blade section and a second platform section projecting beyond the blade section. The platform sections are asymmetric with respect to one another. At least the first platform section of the shroud element is arranged at an additional inclination angle with respect to a normal alignment of the first platform section, with the additional inclination angle being in the opposite direction to the bending torque which acts on the first platform section during operation.
US07654789B2	Apparatus for forming stacks with print products with ejection groove and lifting plates An apparatus for forming stacks with print products includes a platform on which respective stacks are formed. A lift comprised of two lift parts is arranged on the platform to lift up the print products.
US07654787B2	Tool holder with hydraulic coupling means The invention relates to a tool holder for cranes. The tool holder comprises hydraulic cylinder means arranged to detachably be able to lock a tool to the tool holder. Furthermore, hydraulic coupling means is comprised and arranged to be connected with hydraulic coupling means on the tool and hydraulic line means. The object of the invention is, among other things, to reduce the number of requisite lines in the hydraulic line means. According to the invention, the tool holder comprises furthermore valve means provided with switching means arranged to connect the hydraulic line means either to the hydraulic cylinder means or to the hydraulic coupling means of the tool holder. Thereby, the same hydraulic line means may be used for the locking i 5 function and the tool. The invention also relates to a crane provided with such a tool holder as well as use of the tool holder.
US07654784B2	Device housing with integral fastener retainers The present invention is a housing for a surface-mountable device such as a security device (a PIR, a microwave motion detector, and the like). The housing has a surface-mountable housing portion with at least one aperture for receiving a surface-mounting member therethrough, the housing portion fabricated substantially from a plastic material. A member-retaining portion is integrally molded with the housing portion and extends substantially perpendicular from said housing portion, said member-retaining portion adapted to receive a surface-mounting member when inserted therethrough and retain said surface-mounting member in place. As a result of this configuration, when a surface-mounting member such as a screw is inserted therethrough, the surface-mounting member is held in place by the member-retaining portion and is insertable through the aperture when pressure is applied thereto. Preferably, the aperture is circular and the member-retaining portion is substantially cylindrical with at least one slot extending along said member-retaining portion. The member-retaining portion is adapted so as to allow a user to push a surface-mounting member therethrough and to hold the surface-mounting member in place. The member-retaining portion is compressible and/or collapsible so that when a surface-mounting member is inserted therethrough so as to force the surface-mountable housing portion against a wall, the member-retaining portion is substantially compressed and/or collapsed between a head portion of the surface-mounting member and the housing portion.
US07654781B2	Anchor for hollow walls An anchor (910) for mounting to a hollow wall (W) made of friable material comprises a proximal flanged end (918) adapted to be engaged by a rotatable tool (B) to rotate the anchor (910) about a longitudinal axis (A) thereof and to cause is to gradually engage the wall (W). The anchor (910) also includes a distal end (912) adapted to cut through the wall (W) as the anchor (910) is rotated, and a shank (920) extending between the proximal and distal ends (918, 912). The shank (920) includes at least one expandable leg (924) that is in a collapsed position thereof when the anchor (910) is rotated to mount it to the wall (W) and that is located distally beyond a non visible surface of the wall (W) once the anchor (910) has been mounted to the wall and is in a first position thereof. The wall anchor (910) includes an outer thread (922) that securely engages the wall (W). A threaded fastener (B), e.g. a screw, is adapted to be introduced in the anchor (910) and to threadably engage the same distally of the leg (924) such that sufficient rotation of the threaded fastener (B) retracts the distal end (912) towards the proximal end (918) thereby causing the leg (924) to displace to a laterally expanded position thereof and to engage the non visible surface of the wall (W).
US07654780B1	Load lock adjustment mechanism A load lock adjustment mechanism for use with a load lock for trailers is provided. The load lock has a pad positionable against a trailer wall with a connecting rod extending from the pad and at least one tube sized and shaped for receiving the connecting rod. The load lock adjustment mechanism comprises an insert receivable within the tube with the insert having a threaded aperture extending therethrough and a pad holder having a first end and a second end with the first end of the pad holder having a bore for receiving the connecting rod extending from pad and the second end of the pad holder having a threaded hole formed therethrough to the bore. A threaded stud is receivable within the threaded aperture of the insert and receivable within the threaded hole of the pad holder. A tightening mechanism is secured between the first end and the second end of the stud. A lock collar is movable along the second end of the stud between the insert and the mechanism for securing the final distance between the pad and the tube.
US07654779B2	Power tool A power tool includes a tool bit, a tool holder, a bit holding member, a bit mounting hole, a through hole, an outside opening, a bit mounting hole side opening, an engaging member, a cylindrical operating member, a movement preventing portion, a biasing member, a first engaging region, a second engaging region, and a third engaging region. As the first, the second and the third engaging regions respectively cooperate, the tool bit can be automatically secured to the bit holding member by inserting the tool bit into the bit mounting hole of the bit holding member. Mounting and removing of the tool bit can be achieved without a ring spring.
US07654775B2	Soil nail launcher A soil nail launching device and method are provided wherein the launching device includes an improved configuration for the protective shroud and an improved configuration for a connection between the breach and barrel of the launching device. For the protective shroud, a plurality of removable shroud plates are provided to ease maintenance of the shroud plate, as well as to provide more consistent pressure release after the launcher has been fired. The improved breach and barrel design includes a connection that does not reduce the area of the annular space that is evacuated during firing of the device, thereby optimizing the available volume of air to be transferred to the breach for launching the soil nail through the barrel.
US07654774B1	Pipe pulling method and device A method for pulling pipe using a device that is rectangular in shape and is connected at one end thereof to a pulling vehicle so that pulling force from the pulling vehicle is directed along the longitudinal axis of the puller and which has two pipe connecting holes defined therethrough adjacent to the other end thereof.
US07654772B1	Mobile asphalt production machine A mobile asphalt production machine mixes bituminous concrete at the job site through a mixing auger mechanism mounted in an insulated housing. Propane burners provide heat within the mixing auger mechanism and within the insulated housing to produce a hot-mix bituminous concrete in large or small batches. The components of the asphalt mixture are stored in separate bins that can be re-filled at the job site to provide a continuous supply of asphalt. Hot liquid bitumen is added to heated aggregate within the mixing auger mechanism. Recycled asphalt can be added through a port in the mixing auger for incorporation into the mixture. Controls permit the rate of flow of each individual component to be selectively varied in order to change the recipe for the mixture and to provide calibration of the component, while a master control will maintain the pre-established flow rates through a variable speed of operation.
US07654762B2	Pen/pencil apparatus having cosmetic application A pen and/or pencil having an opening positioned opposite its writing end for retaining or storing a cosmetic preparation which can be applied to a user. Caps may also be included to cover both the writing end and/or the opposite end containing the cosmetic preparation. The cap covering the cosmetic preparation may also include an applicator such as a wand having a flat, round, or brush shaped tip.
US07654746B2	Spindle bearing device and corresponding bearing method In a spindle rotor, the orientation of the figure axis is accepted and the anchoring of the rotor bearing (SL) is configured such that the orientation of the geometric rotational axis adapts to the physical main axis of inertia. The bearing is configured in the form of an actively controlled bearing, whereby the orientation is measured and is dynamically carried out, but also in the form of bearing comprising passive elements which are associated with the external ring of the bearing and enable a correspondingly dynamic orientation of the bearing. A damper (T) is provided to dampen the vibrations of the bearing (SL).
US07654744B2	Fluid dynamic bearing mechanism for a motor A fluid dynamic bearing mechanism for a motor (1) suitable for use in a hard disk drive and having a compact and thin shape, high bearing rigidity, and high rotating accuracy, and which securely keeps the rotor member (6) in place against shocks, and allows the inspection of lubricant supply amount easily. A fluid dynamic bearing mechanism having a capillary seal part (12) on one end of lubricant supply part formed by a minute gap including dynamic pressure grooves (10) formed on a shaft member (5) or a bearing member (4) is provided. An annular member (13) is fitted on the shaft member at the location corresponding to the capillary seal part, another annular member (14) is fitted on the bearing member at the location corresponding to the capillary seal part, a taper or step (13a, 14a) is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the annular member on the shaft member side and the inner peripheral surface of the annular member on the bearing member side. These inner and outer peripheral surfaces are arranged to be close to and facing with each other so that the rotor member is prevented from disengaging from the bearing member, and the capillary seal part can be formed at the same time. An axial dynamic pressure bearing unit (1) is formed between the annular member on the shaft member side and one end of the bearing member.
US07654740B2	X-ray tube and method for determination of focal spot properties X-ray tube and method for determination of focal spot properties The invention relates to an x-ray tube (1) comprising at least one cathode (3) which emits electrons accelerated towards a rotating anode (5) such that the focal spot (27) is formed on a surface (9) of the anode (5). A structure (15), in particular slits or pits (13), is disposed on the surface (9) of the anode (5). The x-ray tube (1) comprises a detector (7) for detecting a detection signal which changes, if the structure (15) on the rotating anode (5) passes the focal spot. The x-ray tube (1) further comprises determination means (6) for determining properties of the focal spot from changes of the detection signal. Thus, properties of the focal spot can be determined from changes of the detection signal during operation of the x-ray tube (1).
US07654735B2	Electronic thermometer An electronic thermometer having ergonomic and efficiency features. The thermometer includes a display and a control panel, defined by at least one button, disposed above the display. The thermometer is easy and comfortable to hold and allows the user to operate the thermometer with one hand. The thermometer holds a probe and a container of probe covers in a convenient and compact configuration. A battery door is particularly constructed to avoid accidental opening. A bottom of the thermometer is formed to hold the housing in an upright position when the bottom is placed one a horizontal surface.
US07654734B2	Methods and devices for evaluating the thermal exposure of a metal article A method for evaluating the thermal exposure of a selected metal component which has been exposed to changing temperature conditions is described. The voltage distribution on a surface of the metal component, or on a metallic layer which lies over the component, is first obtained. The voltage distribution usually results from a compositional change in the metal component. The voltage distribution is then compared to a thermal exposure-voltage model which expresses voltage distribution as a function of exposure time and exposure temperature for a reference standard corresponding to the metal component. In this manner, the thermal exposure of the selected component can be obtained. A related device for evaluating the thermal exposure of a selected metal component is also described.
US07654728B2	System and method for therapeutic application of dissolved oxygen A system and method for generating an oxygen enriched aqueous solution for therapeutic application includes a diffuser comprising a first diffusing member having a surface incorporating surface disturbances, and a second diffusing member positioned relative to the first diffusing member to form a channel through which an aqueous solution and oxygen gas may flow. A reservoir containing the aqueous solution is connected to a pump that draws the aqueous solution from the reservoir and inputs the aqueous solution into the diffuser. The aqueous solution is moved through the channel relative to the surface disturbances to create cavitation in the aqueous solution to diffuse the oxygen gas into the aqueous solution to produce an oxygen enriched aqueous solution.
US07654719B2	Optical plate and backlight module using the same An exemplary optical plate includes at least one transparent plate unit and a diffusion layer. The transparent plate unit includes a light output surface, a bottom surface, a plurality of elongated V-shaped protrusions, and a lamp-receiving portion. The bottom surface is opposite to the light output surface. The elongated V-shaped protrusions are formed at the bottom surface. The lamp-receiving portion is defined in the bottom surface. The diffusion layer is formed on the light output surface of the transparent plate unit. A backlight module using the present optical plate is also provided.
US07654717B2	Fiber optically illuminated surface There is provided an illuminated surface mounted on a base surface. The illuminated surface includes a plurality of transmissive tiles configured to allow light to pass therethrough. Each of the transmissive tiles includes an exterior surface, an attaching surface and a plurality of lateral sides disposed between the exterior and attaching surfaces. The attaching surface is affixable to the base surface. The transmissive tiles are arranged in spaced relation to each other to define a cable channel. The cable channel is defined by opposing lateral sides of adjacent transmissive tiles. A fiber optic cable is in optical communication a light source and receives light therefrom. The fiber optic cable includes a longitudinal axis and a first segment disposed within the cable channel. The first segment is configured to radially radiate light along the longitudinal axis into the lateral sides of the adjacent transmissive tiles.
US07654711B2	Lamp assembly A lamp assembly includes a light module and a stem. The light module includes a reflector, a first fixing plate, a second fixing plated mounted on the first fixing plate and having a plurality of fixing pieces pivotally connected thereon for fixing the reflector between the first fixing plate and the second fixing plate, and a lamp. By rotating the fixing pieces, the reflector is easy to replace. The stem includes a plurality of connecting tubes and connecting assemblies. Each connecting assembly has a male joint with an L-shape projecting and a female joint with an L-shape slot. The male joint is fitted into the connecting tube, and the female joint is fitted into another connecting tube. By engaging the L-shape projection with the L-shape slot, the two connecting tubes can be connected without twisting a wire inside the stem.
US07654699B2	LED lamp having heat dissipation structure An LED lamp for lighting purpose includes a lamp base, a heat sink, a plurality of LED modules and a blower. The lamp base encloses an inner space and defines a plurality of vents therein. The vents communicate the inner space with a surrounding atmosphere. The heat sink comprises a cylinder at a center thereof. The cylinder has a through hole therein, which communicates with the inner space and vents of the lamp base and cooperates therewith to form an air passage. The LED modules are attached to a periphery of the heat sink. The blower generates an airflow circulating through the air passage to thereby dissipate heat generated by the LED modules.
US07654698B2	Light source device and display device A light source device includes a discharge tube, a reflector for reflecting a light radiated from the discharge tube, and support members for supporting the discharge tube to the reflector. The support member or the discharge tube is formed of a heat insulating structure so as to prevent a temperature drop of a portion of the discharge tube near electrodes thereof. By this arrangement, it is possible to prolong the operational life of the discharge tube.
US07654697B2	Projector device A liquid crystal projector device of the present invention includes a lamp unit and a lamp cooling fan, the lamp unit having disposed therein a columnar lamp bulb having a luminous body enclosed therein, the lamp unit having a side wall opposed to the lamp cooling fan and provided with a first and second air introduction openings at opposite sides of a plane including a central axis of the lamp bulb and perpendicular to the side wall, for introducing the air drawn from the lamp cooling fan toward the lamp bulb.
US07654687B2	Light mixer and backlight module having the same A light mixer includes a light mixing plate, a plurality of light sources, a plurality of upper reflecting layers, a lower reflecting layer, and a semi-permeable layer. The light mixing plate has an upper surface, a lower surface, a peripheral surface, and a plurality of receiving holes. The light sources are respectively located in the receiving holes. The upper reflecting layers are respectively located right above the light sources. The lower reflecting layer is located on the lower surface of the light mixing plate. The semi-permeable layer wraps the peripheral surface of the light mixing plate. A diffuser is located above the light mixers.
US07654682B2	Glove supporting a pom pom at a finger tip A glove having a pom pom freely attached to a tip of one or more of the glove fingers. The glove may bear indicia, for example, a team logo. The pom poms are typically multicolored, consisting of strands of the team, school, or organization colors. The gloves provide warmth to the wearer's hands. In addition, the wearer's hands are free to hold other items, for example, beverage containers, cameras, programs, etc. Selective movement of a wearer's fingers and/or thumb causes a respective pom pom to move in response thereto. Patterns of successive finger/thumb movements may be executed to cause a variety of visual effects from the pom pom-bearing glove. Bells and/or light sources may also be attached to the gloves instead of or in addition to the pom poms. A motion sensitive switch and/or a simple sequencer may be used to create predetermined or random light patterns.
US07654674B2	Method and apparatus for determining the visual acuity of an eye The invention relates to a method for determining the visual acuity of an eye and a respective apparatus. The method comprises the steps of: providing the wavefront information of the eye, generating a point spread function based on the wavefront information of the eye, said point spread function representing a specific intensity distribution for a corresponding pupil size. After comparing the intensities of the point spread function with a selectable intensity level of intensity, those parts of the point spread function having an intensity being larger than the selectable intensity level are determined as a relevant part of the point spread function.
US07654673B2	Apparatus and method for determining eyesight age An apparatus and method for determining an eyesight age, the apparatus including: a storage module to store at least one test image and age-specific response information for the at least one test image; a control module to receive user adjustment information indicating a variation in the at least one test image and to determine an eyesight age of a user based on the user adjustment information and the age-specific response information; and an output module to output the determined eyesight age.
US07654665B2	Ink jet pen having a free ink chamber An ink jet pen that is equipped with a free ink chamber. The ink jet pen has a free ink chamber in fluid communication with a negative pressure producing chamber. The negative pressure producing chamber is in communication with a printhead. The ink jet pen has a power source and a surface detection device. The surface detection device is adapted to move along a surface of the substrate.
US07654664B2	Platen and image recording apparatus A platen for supporting a reverse surface of a recording medium under a recording head capable of performing image recording with ink droplets on the recording medium, which is conveyed along a specified direction in a main body of an inkjet recording apparatus. The platen comprises an ink receiving portion which receives ink and an ink guiding portion. The ink guiding portion guides the ink received by the ink receiving portion to an ink absorbing member. Specifically, the ink guiding portion guides the ink to an ink guide groove provided in an upper surface of a placement portion, on which the ink absorbing member is placed.
US07654662B2	Ink jet printing method and ink jet printing apparatus An ink jet printing method and apparatus are provided which, even when an ink containing a colorant with a coagulating property is applied to a glossy print medium; enable to keep the glossiness of the print medium from being degraded. For this purpose, when forming an image on a glossy print medium, a coagulation inhibiting liquid for inhibiting a coagulation of ink is applied to at least a part of an area on the print medium where the ink is applied. This suppresses the coagulation of ink on the print medium surface and assures a quick spreading and soaking of ink. As a result, the surface of the glossy print medium can be kept smooth, retaining its glossiness.
US07654658B2	Consumable product container and image forming apparatus An ink cartridge, which is removably set in a printer, has an ink chamber storing ink, an absorbent chamber containing a sponge that absorbs the ink from the ink chamber and holds it, and a fuel chamber storing a liquid fuel to be supplied to a fuel cell of the printer. The fuel chamber is located outside and adjacent to the ink chamber, so that the ink stored in the ink chamber is kept in a constant temperature range. Data on residual amounts of the ink and the fuel in the ink cartridge are detected by a residual ink detector and a residual fuel detector of the printer, and are written in a memory card that is removably attached to the ink cartridge.
US07654657B2	Liquid ejecting apparatus A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head, a carriage carrying the liquid ejecting head, a plurality of subtanks carried on the carriage, a main tank disposed on a body of the apparatus, and a feed pipe. The carriage is moved back and forth in a main scanning direction. Each subtank contains a highly concentrated color ink which corresponds to one of the respective ink colors. The main tank contains a diluent containing no coloring component and/or a colorless ink. The diluent and/or the colorless ink is supplied from the main tank to the carriage through the feed pipe. The liquid ejecting head is supplied with the respective color inks and ejects the inks.
US07654649B2	Liquid delivering device A liquid delivering device including: a flow passage unit having a plurality of pressure chambers each of which communicating with a liquid ejection port; a piezoelectric actuator for selectively changing the volume of the plurality of pressure chambers, the piezoelectric actuator including a plurality of individual electrodes corresponding to the plurality of pressure chambers, a common electrode opposing the plurality of individual electrodes, and a piezoelectric layer sandwiched between the plurality of individual electrodes and the common electrode; and a rigidity reduction section which reduces the rigidity of the piezoelectric actuator and which is provided in an area where at least the pressure chamber is formed and in a vicinity of the individual electrode, in perspective plan view.
US07654643B2	Inkjet printhead nozzle assembly having a raised rim to support an ink meniscus Provided is a nozzle assembly for an inkjet printhead. The nozzle assembly includes a substrate defining a nozzle chamber and an ink inlet channel leading to the chamber. The nozzle assembly also includes a nozzle defined on the substrate and located over the nozzle chamber, the nozzle having a crown portion with a skirt portion depending from the crown portion, the skirt portion forming a first part of a peripheral wall portion of the nozzle chamber, the nozzle surrounded by a raised rim which supports a meniscus of a body of ink in the nozzle chamber. Also included is an actuator with a connecting arm fast with the nozzle to operatively displace the nozzle towards the substrate, wherein the nozzle, actuator and connecting arm are defined according to micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques.
US07654639B2	Ink jet printer and print head device thereof An ink jet printer having a print head unit on which ink ejecting nozzles are arranged. The ink jet printer includes an ink supplying unit having a solid ink storage unit to store solid ink, and a heating unit to melt the solid ink into liquid ink, an ink reservoir to accommodate and store the liquid ink from the ink supplying unit, which is extended so as to correspond to the length of the print head unit, and a heater to heat the liquid ink, disposed in the lengthwise direction of the ink reservoir.
US07654637B2	Photoimageable nozzle members and methods relating thereto Nozzle members, such as for a micro-fluid ejection head, micro-fluid ejection heads, and a method for making the same. One such nozzle member includes a negative photoresist composition derived from a first di-functional epoxy compound, a relatively high molecular weight polyhydroxy ether, a photoacid generator devoid of aryl sulfonium salts, an adhesion enhancer, and an aliphatic ketone solvent. The nozzle member has a thickness ranging from about 10 microns to about 30 microns.
US07654628B2	Signaling method for printhead A signaling method for a printhead with nozzles for ejecting ink, and associated drive circuitry for operating the nozzles that receives drive signals from a print engine controller. The print engine controller generates the drive signals in accordance with print data defining a print job for the printhead. A pre-heating determination unit selectively provides the printhead with a pre-heat signal derived from a combination of signals, at least one of the signals in the combination being the drive signals from the print engine controller. Processing within the controller is more efficient if determining whether pre-heating is necessary is restricted only to those nozzles which are to receive print data.
US07654624B2	Slide rail assembly A slide rail assembly includes an outer slide rail having a protrusion, an intermediate slide rail having a slot, an inner slide rail having a release portion, a latch member slidably attached to a slot of the intermediate slide rail, and a resilient member connected to the latch member for returning the latch member to an original position. The latch member includes first and second engaging portions located at opposite sides of the intermediate slide rail respectively. The protrusion is capable of engaging with the second engaging portion of the latch member to stop the intermediate slide rail sliding into the outer slide rail together with the inner slide rail. The release portion of the inner slide rail is capable of engaging with the first engaging portion to bias the latch member to slide along the slot to release the intermediate slide rail from the outer engaging portion.
US07654616B2	Chair having integrally formed back frame and seat frame The present claimed invention intends to provide a chair having a frame structure that is effective for securing a required strength without needless structure to reinforce the strength.The chair has a chair body A comprising a seat frame 12, a back frame 22 and a rib that reinforces between the seat frame 12 and the back frame 22, wherein the rib is formed to extend to a side direction so as to be used as an arm frame 71, and the seat frame 12, the back frame 22 and the arm frame 71 are continuously and integrally formed three-dimensionally, and openings 12a, 22a into which a mesh member 13, 23 to form a seating face is fitted are arranged at the seat frame 12 and the back frame 22 respectively.
US07654608B2	Extended-travel sliding door with articulating roller bracket A sliding door for a vehicle has a door bracket. A track is mounted along the vehicle and extends to a remote end. A roller bracket is movable between a first position proximate the opening and a second position at the end of the track. The roller bracket includes an articulating arm retained by the roller bracket by a first pivot and pivotally retained at a second end by the door bracket. The articulating arm has a first orientation for rotationally positioning the sliding door toward the closed position and a second orientation for rotationally positioning the sliding door into the open position. Movement of the roller bearing into the second position results in the articulating arm moving from the first to the second orientation. An over-center spring mechanism may maintain the positioning of the roller bracket relative to the sliding door throughout the travel of the bracket.
US07654605B2	Roof opening/closing apparatus A roof opening/closing apparatus includes a roof moved between first and second positions and structured with first, second and third panels, a first supporting mechanism movably supporting the first and second panels in association with each other, a second supporting mechanism movably supporting the third panel, a first lock mechanism locking the first panel to the vehicle body, a second lock mechanism locking the first supporting mechanism, and a third lock mechanism locking the third panel to the second panel. The roof is moved between the first position and the second position by the first and second supporting mechanisms and retained at the first position by the first to third lock mechanisms. The second and third lock mechanisms are connected to each other by an operational member and operated in association with each other to release locking operations thereof by the operational member.
US07654604B2	Vehicle decklid position sensor and control A control system controls the movement of a convertible top, decklid, and tonneau cover to minimize the overall cycle time of the system. The top is pivotally coupled to a vehicle body for movement between an extended position covering a passenger compartment and a retracted position disposed in a storage space. The decklid is pivotally coupled to the body for movement between a closed position covering the storage space and an open position to accommodate movement of the top into the storage space. The tonneau cover moves between a use position extending outwardly from an end of the decklid to conceal the convertible top in the retracted position and a stowed position disposed beneath the decklid. The control system is preprogrammed to begin movement of the tonneau cover to the use position when the decklid reaches a predetermined angle as the decklid moves between the closed and open positions.
US07654600B2	Vehicle tailgate movement assist mechanism using lever driven rotary damper A vehicle tailgate movement assist mechanism including a tailgate configured to rotate between opened and closed positions, and a tailgate lever arm fixedly connected to a bottom area of the tailgate. A drive lever may be pivotally connected to the lever arm and to a bell crank at opposite ends thereof. The bell crank may be connected to a shaft of a rotary gear pivotally anchored to a vehicle body. A rotary damper may be anchored to the vehicle body and include a damper gear connected to a shaft thereof. The damper gear may be rotatably meshed with the rotary gear. Rotation of the tailgate from a closed to an opened position simultaneously rotates the lever arm to move the drive lever and the bell crank to thereby rotate the rotary gear which rotates the damper gear to actuate the rotary damper to reduce an opening speed of the tailgate.
US07654599B2	Vehicle box apparatus An extender device having a base frame with two ends. There is at least one extendable arm that extends from one of the ends of the base frame that allows the bed extender to move from a retracted to an extended position. The length of the bed extender can be set by a locking mechanism located on the base frame that can be used to lock the extendable arm in position. The bed extender can be used to divide a storage compartment or it can be used to extend the length of the pick-up truck bed by using the extendable arms and a pivot mechanism connected to the extendable arms.
US07654593B2	Safety hook for patient lift A safety hook for mounting on the extremity of a spreader bar of a patient lift is secured to a base member that is connected to or integral with the spreader bar. A load-bearing hook member is pivotally suspended from the base member to allow the hook member to move in the plane of the hook member between an open position and a closed position in which the free end of the hook member engages the base member at an engagement point. The hook member is shaped such that it is urged to the closed position when a downward load is applied to it, and that it is urged to the open position when an upward load is applied to it. Under normal circumstances the safety hook closes automatically because of the weight of the load.
US07654592B2	Wheeled snow shovel having vertical lift and projected forward and/or side dump a) A frame having a handle, an upright post extending therefrom having a slide stop on an upper portion, a lower and upper slide on a central portion, a lever having a central portion hinged to the frame having a rearwardly extending end, and a forwardly extending slide lift end, attached and configured through a slide lift to lift the lower slide when the rearwardly extending end is depressed; b) a shovel having a bottom snow carrying portion and an upright back portion; c) a lower shovel arm having one end hinged to a lower portion of the upright back portion of the shovel, and the other opposite end hingably connected to the upper slide; d) an upper shovel portion projecting/dumping linkage, having an upper shovel arm having one end hinged to an upper portion of the upright back portion of the shovel and having the other end hingably connected to an upper end of a pivoting arm, the other end hingably connected to the lower slide and a central portion pivotably pinned to a central portion of the lower shovel arm. When the slides are lifted by the lever the shovel is first lifted up the post, and then when the top slide is prevented from further sliding, the bottom slide continues to move, causing the other ends of the lower arm and the pivoting arm to move together, thereby causing the shovel to extend outwardly and turn from a snow collection to a dumping position.
US07654585B2	High-pressure threaded union with metal-to-metal seal, and metal ring gasket for same A metal ring gasket provides a high-pressure temperature tolerant metal-to-metal seal between subcomponents of a threaded union. The metal ring gasket is received in an annular cavity formed between mating surfaces of the subcomponents of the threaded union. The metal ring gasket is capable of maintaining a fluid seal even at very high temperatures resulting from direct exposure to fire. At high fluid pressures the metal ring gasket is energized because hoop stress induced by the fluid pressure forces the metal ring gasket into tighter contact with the subcomponents of the threaded union.
US07654568B2	Airbag for a front passenger's seat An airbag for a front passenger's seat internally includes a communication port defined by an inner joint that joins inner circumferential edges of a pair of inner panels. The airbag includes at a rear side a recess and a pair of raised regions. The airbag further includes a contact portion where outer surfaces of the inner panels are in face-to-face contact proximate the circumference of the communication port at full inflation. The contact portion is created and maintained by an inner pressure of the airbag at full inflation that acts on the panels of the airbag, and is not formed if the inner pressure is less than that at full inflation of the airbag.
US07654564B2	Protection device activation controller An occupant protection device controller includes a main sensor, a safing sensor, a main control circuit, a sub control circuit, and a trigger signal output circuit. Whereas the main control circuit has a CPU, and the sub control circuit has no CPU. The main control circuit determines whether to output a main control signal based on both an output of the main sensor and an output of the safing sensor. The sub control circuit has a comparator and determines whether to output a sub control signal based on a comparison of the output of the main sensor with a threshold value. The trigger signal output circuit outputs a trigger signal for activating an occupant protection device upon receipt of both the main control signal and the sub control signal.
US07654562B2	Lateral airbag device A lateral airbag device comprises a gas bag which is mounted in a vehicle seat below the seat covering of the vehicle seat. The gas bag is inflated in the event of an accident. The seat covering comprises at least one break line, which can be torn open when the gas bag unfolds enabling the gas bag to exit the vehicle seat. The lateral airbag device is capable of protecting the occupants of a vehicle in the event of an accident in a reliable manner. The seat covering is configured to bring the unfolding gas bag to a predetermined position or to maintain the unfolded gas bag in the predetermined positioned.
US07654561B2	Inflatable cushion for an airbag module An inflatable cushion for use in an airbag module is provided. The inflatable cushion generally includes a primary inflatable chamber configured for deployment from the air bag module, the primary inflatable chamber having an inlet opening for receipt of an inflation gas and the primary inflatable chamber defines a first volume. A secondary inflatable chamber secured to the primary inflation chamber, the secondary inflatable chamber defining a second volume, the second volume being less than the first volume and the secondary inflatable chamber being in fluid communication with the primary inflatable chamber such that the inflation gas must travel through the primary inflatable chamber prior to reaching the secondary inflatable chamber.
US07654556B2	Passenger airbag module A passenger airbag module includes opposite side walls connected by a rear wall. The side walls each include at least one inward projection that traps a semi-cylindrical retainer between the projections and the rear wall. The retainer holds the inflator and airbag within the housing. End walls connect the side walls with interlocking channels thereby preventing the side walls from releasing the retainer, inflator and airbag.
US07654553B2	Fifth wheel coupling with safety latch A safety latch is mounted in the keyhole of a fifth wheel coupling for joining the sections of an articulated vehicle. The safety latch is movable from an inactive position permitting the kingpin to move through the slot and into the aperture to an active position blocking the keyhole slot thereby preventing movement of the kingpin through the keyhole slot when the sections are coupled together.
US07654552B2	Single jaw mechanism for fifth wheel hitch A jaw for a fifth wheel hitch assembly includes a jaw body having a stepped bearing surface. A jaw assembly for a fifth wheel hitch assembly includes a jaw body, a control handle and a connecting link where the connecting link is pivotally connected to the control handle on the jaw body. A fifth wheel hitch assembly includes a base assembly for mounting to a towing vehicle, a head assembly carried on the base assembly and a jaw assembly carried on the head assembly. That jaw assembly includes a jaw body having a stepped bearing surface for engaging a king pin of a trailer.
US07654546B2	Bicycle wheel securing structure A bicycle wheel securing structure includes an adapter, an axial retaining arrangement and a holding member. The adapter is configured and arranged to be mounted in an axle mounting opening of a bicycle fork and has an axial bore that is at least partially threaded. The axial retaining arrangement is disposed between the adapter and the mounting opening to prevent axial removal of the adapter from the mounting opening. The holding member is attached to the bicycle fork. The holding member and the adapter are configured and arranged such that the holding member prevents rotation of the adapter when the adapter is mounted in the axle mounting opening of the bicycle fork and engaged with the holding member.
US07654545B1	Vehicle for exercising This device is exercise equipment. It is a vehicle that is driven by arm and leg power. The device is a three wheeled vehicle that driven by the movement of the handlebars and the seat. The rider moves the handlebars and the seat back and forth. The handlebars are attached to the wheels by a set of pulleys. When the handlebars are moved back and forth they drive the wheels. The handle bars and the seat are attached to each other so that both the legs and the arm are exercised. Thus, an individual can ride around the town in his vehicle exercising his whole body.
US07654540B2	Electromechanical transducing An electromagnetic transducer including a stator and an armature, the armature defining a first axis and being driven to ride between first and second couplers back and forth relative to the stator along the first axis. The second coupler is configured to permit movement of the armature along a second axis orthogonal to the first axis.
US07654538B2	Gasket A high-performance gasket (1) capable of coping with a reduction in size and developing a sealing property without producing a squeeze-out at the time of attachment and using a material having a hardness range of 30 to 80 degrees (JIS durometer type A), wherein the requirement of W1/W0<0.9 is satisfied where the bonding width of a base part (1a) is (W0) and the width thereof at a position half a height from the bonding part of the base part (1a) to the tip end of a main bead part (2) is (W1), the requirement of 1.15=3 is satisfied where the length of the non-bonded portion of the base part (1a) around the cross-section thereof excluding the bonded portion is (L), and the compressibility of the gasket when compressed is 13.5% or higher.
US07654537B2	Gasket for a valve in an internal combustion engine A gasket for a valve in an internal combustion engine is provided with a support element having a tubular configuration according to an axis and coaxially mounted on the valve. An elastically deformable element is interposed between the support element and the valve. The support element includes a first portion elongated according to the above mentioned axis, and a second portion extending from the first portion in a direction transversal to the axis, at least partially housed in an annular seat of the elastically deformable element and having its radially outermost end connected to the first portion itself. The support element comprises a third portion extending from the radially innermost end of the second portion and folded on the second portion itself so as to generate, in the folding area, a rounded edge cooperating with the annular seat of the elastically deformable element.
US07654534B2	Prize-winning game machine and apparatus for grasping an object The prize arrangement is limited in many conventional prize-winning game machines, in which the usable area is only the floor. In a crane game machine of the present invention for grasping a prize, an object grasping system (grasping arms) grasping a prize is suspended by a first and a second wire which are respectively controlled in length by a first and a second Z mechanisms. Thus, the object grasping system can be moved in the longitudinal and the vertical direction, and a direction of the grasping arms can be rotated up-and-down by a predetermined angle. As a result, the grasping arms are capable of grasping the prize disposed on a self provided on the back wall face side of the game machine.
US07654530B2	Casino-type wagering game based on card color A source of symbols with two primary distinguishable characteristics is provided in a wagering environment. A player has wagering opportunities on a sequence of events, wagering on either of the primary distinguishable characteristics for each event in the sequence of events. Playing cards may be used as the source of symbols, such as a 52-card standard deck with one or two jokers or other non-standard cards. Wagers can be placed on each of the number of events in the sequence and special events that occur in the sequence (all symbols of the same characteristic, a particular card or other predetermined events). Side bets may also be placed on the events. Bets may be placed on the color of a limited number of cards dealt to a community flop, with the joker(s) providing a basis for house retention or profits on wagers.
US07654529B2	Combination scratch ticket and on-line game ticket A system and method for implementing a secondary lottery game with a first instant lottery game in an instant lottery game ticket is disclosed. The player purchases an instant lottery game, where chances for winning instant prizes are provided to the player. The player may also be provided a chance to win entry with predetermined entry indicia into a secondary lottery game if the instant lottery ticket indicates that the player has won a ticket to the secondary lottery game.
US07654521B2	Apparatus, method and program product for detecting article multifeed overlap A document processing device that processes a plurality of articles and is capable of detecting a multifeed or a condition that may represent a multifeed may be configured to determine criteria of the multifeed or condition. This is particularly useful for configuring the document processing device to ignore multifeeds or conditions that are considered acceptable. For instance, a user may set predefined overlap criteria. If a detected multifeed criteria or condition criteria meets the predefined overlap criteria, a detection of the multifeed or condition may be ignored. However, if it does not meet the predefined overlap criteria, the detection of the multifeed or condition may cause the document processing device to take predetermined post-processing actions, for example to set an alarm message or halt operation entirely. Alternatively, if a condition is expected, predetermined post-processing actions can be taken if the condition is not detected or does not meet the specified criteria.
US07654513B2	Feed assist assembly A media feedpath having a feed assist roller, comprises a media feedpath having a C-shaped portion, a media input and a feed roll nip, an input roller feeding media from the media input, a feed assist roller downstream of the C-shaped portion of the media feedpath, the feed assist roller assisting media indexing through the media feedpath on a single side and without an opposed pinch roller, the feed roll nip having a driven roller and a feed roll pinch roll opposite the driven roll, the feed assist roller being driven by a toggle gear transmission from the driven roller of the feed roll nip, the gear train adapted for toggling to operably engage or disengage the feed assist roller depending on a driving direction of the driven roller of the feed roll nip.
US07654512B2	Image forming system, image forming method and image forming apparatus Image forming system including at least one image forming apparatus for forming images on sheets on the basis of image data. At least one temporary containing apparatus is disposed downstream of the image forming apparatus for temporarily containing therein the sheets on which the images have been formed. A separating and conveying apparatus separates and conveys the sheets contained in the temporary containing apparatus one by one. A sheet post-processing apparatus conveys the sheets conveyed by the separating and conveying apparatus and the sheets on which the images have been formed by the image forming apparatus and which bypass the temporary containing apparatus in an arbitrary order, in order to effect a set post-process on the conveyed sheets.
US07654510B2	Anti-slip device An anti-slip device provided with a supporting plate of metal or resin having an attachment portion on a reverse face for other members, and a rubber elastic body unitedly mounted on the supporting plate. Plural connection holes are formed from an obverse face to the reverse face of the supporting plate. Further, the rubber elastic body is composed of a receiving piece portion covering approximately whole of the obverse face and a falling-prevention portion from the reverse face to connect the receiving piece portion through a peripheral portion and the connection hole.
US07654509B2	Desuperheater spray nozzle An improved valve element for a spray nozzle assembly of a steam desuperheating device that is configured to spray cooling water into a flow of superheated steam in a generally uniformly distributed spray pattern. The valve element includes a valve body and an elongate valve stem that is integrally attached to the valve body and extends axially therefrom. The valve body itself includes a nozzle cone which is integrally connected to the valve stem, and defines an outer surface. Integrally formed on a bottom surface of the nozzle cone is a hub having multiple ribs protruding therefrom. Integrally connected to each of the ribs is a generally circular fracture ring. The fracture ring is disposed in spaced relation to the lower edge of the nozzle cone which circumvents the bottom surface thereof. In this regard, a series of windows are formed in the valve body, with each window being framed by a segment of the lower edge of the nozzle cone, an adjacent pair of the ribs, and a segment of the top edge of the fracture ring.
US07654499B2	Bookstand that folds thin enough to serve as a bookmark A bookstand made up of a thin material that when in its folded out position receives a book so that the back of the book is tilted up to make its pages more easily viewed by the reader, and that can be folded flat enough to be placed inside the pages of the book so that it can be used as a bookmark.
US07654495B2	Hanger assembly A hanger assembly configured to mount a fan housing in a building including a first support having a lower surface and a second support. The hanger includes a body having a first end engageable with the first support and a second end engageable with the second support. The body is connectable to the fan housing to support the fan housing between the first and second supports and is adjustable to change a length defined between the first and second ends. The first end includes an outwardly extending flange, which is engageable with the first support to orient the body and the fan housing relative to the lower surface of the first support and to maintain a predetermined distance between the lower surface of the support and a lower surface of one of the fan housing and the hanger body.
US07654488B2	Aircraft door arrangement with an aircraft door that swings by 180 degrees A door arrangement for an aircraft that has a fuselage with a fuselage structure includes a door to be arranged inside a door frame of the fuselage structure and a door joint mechanism attached to the door of the door frame and to the fuselage structure. The door joint mechanism has a seven-joint linkage provided with first to seventh joints by means of which the door, guided exclusively in a rotationally articulated manner, is moveable over a predefined pivoting angle range from a closed position inside the door frame to an open position outside of the door frame and fuselage, and back again. In addition, an aircraft, especially a fixed-wing aircraft, encompassing at least one aircraft door arrangement is provided.
US07654482B2	Wear distributing arrangement for wear parts of a grinding machine A wear distributing arrangement for reduction of wear in parts of a grinding machine is disclosed. The arrangement includes the provision of multiple corresponding projections and recesses at evenly spaced radial locations around the circumference of any two parts in a rotating assembly designed to be disassembled and reassembled. Parts bearing projections are reassembled into parts bearing recesses in a random fashion, so that wear to one portion of a part does not prematurely wear it.
US07654480B2	Mulcher The disclosed mulcher has a base unit and a shredding blade in a removable assembly. Two different embodiments are disclosed. In both embodiments, shredded material is removed from air exiting the shredding blade before it reaches an exhaust port. In one embodiment, the material is removed by a filter. In the other embodiment, walls are arranged so that debris must double back against high-speed airflow leaving the shredding blade before exiting the unit. The shredding blade can be mounted in front of and on the same shaft as an air impeller, with the back surface of the shredding blade being supported by the impeller. In another embodiment, the air impeller and the shredding blade are carried in assemblies that are separable from each other and are each separately attachable to a base unit. A detachable power module and a detachable blower are also shown. The power module has a safety switch that disables the power module when it is removed. A power receptacle is shown with a switch that alternately switches power to either the shredder motor or to the power receptacle, but not to both simultaneously.
US07654479B2	Method of controlling a brush chipper An improved brush cutter having an upper feed control member with stop, forward, neutral, and reverse positions also has a lower feed stop member with selectable sensitivity. Another aspect of the invention is to predict the feed roller shutoff point according to the rate of engine deceleration. According to another aspect, when the feed rollers stop feeding material into the cutters, to overcome drag on the cutters, a controller stops the feed rollers and then reverses them for a short time, and then reverses the rollers again if the problem is still present. To prevent jamming, a pressure switch senses when oil in a hydraulic motor system for rotating the feed rollers is too high and the controller momentarily reverses the feed rollers and then causes them to go forward, a cycle which can occur several times until the feed rollers are no longer stalled. By another aspect of the invention, the controller senses characteristics of the brush cutter and chooses an operating system based on the characteristics sensed. The controller can also sense if the brush chipper has not been used for a predetermined period of time and automatically reduce the idle speed of the engine until the brush chipper is used again, and then automatically return the engine to a normal idle speed before the feed rollers will pull brush into the brush chipper.
US07654468B2	Methods and devices comprising flexible seals for modulating or controlling flow and heat Disclosed herein are devices comprising at least one flexible seal, at least one flexible complex seal having at least one closed cavity containing a fluid, or a combination thereof. The devices may comprise at least one immobile and inflexible substrate and at least one mobile and inflexible substrate capable of movement due to the flexible seal, the flexible complex seal, or both. The flexible complex seals comprise at least one closed cavity comprising a fluid, such as a gas or a liquid. As disclosed, the presence or absence of heat will cause the mobile and inflexible substrate to move. The movement will increase or decrease the fluid amount or fluid flow rate in the primary fluid layer. Also disclosed are methods for enhancing the insulating properties of insulating assemblies.
US07654460B2	Optical reading apparatus An automatic optical reading apparatus (1) having a light emitting section (26), a light receiving section (27) and an outside interface section (36). A first unit (2) houses at least one of the emitting section (26) and the receiving section (27) and a second unit (3) houses at least the outside interface section (36). The first unit (2) and the second unit (3) are mutually connectable in at least two different mutual orientations.
US07654454B2	Product item status A method of maintaining a status of a product item, the product item including an associated interface surface, the interface surface having disposed thereon or therein coded data including a plurality of coded data portions, each coded data portion being indicative of an identity of the product item, the method including, in a sensing device: (a) sensing at least one coded data portion; (b) generating, using the sensed coded data portion, indicating data indicative of the product item identity; and, (c) transferring the indicating data to a computer system, the computer system being responsive to the indicating data to update product status information stored in a data store.
US07654453B2	Merchandise registration processing system When obtaining an ID code from a user who holds out an arm to a corresponding merchandise in a noncontact manner, respective information terminal devices accept a registration input of the corresponding merchandise. When accepting the registration input of the corresponding merchandise, registration merchandise information including obtained user identification information and merchandise identification information for identifying the merchandise corresponding to the information terminal device is transmitted to a server device. The server device stores and manages merchandise sales information for the respective ID codes from the registration merchandise information received from the respective information terminal devices. When the ID code is input from a settlement device, the merchandise sales information corresponding to the ID code is transmitted to the settlement device. The settlement device performs the settlement processing based on the merchandise sales information received from the server device.
US07654452B2	Self-service electronic toll collection unit and system A self-service vending unit allows a potential user of a toll transponder to buy the transponder without having to visit a customer-service facility. The vending unit automatically accepts payment, such as cash or a credit or debit card, and issues the transponder with a paid value. The vending unit communicates with a customer-service computer through a TCP/IP connection and allows the user to top off the value on the transponder and otherwise to manage the account.
US07654448B1	Enclosure for automated banking machine A method provides for accessing automated banking machine components for servicing. A lower fascia is moved from a covering position to an accessible position to permit access to a door selectively closing an opening to the secure area of a chest or secure enclosure of an ATM. The open chest door is retained in an open condition by engagement with the lower fascia.
US07654441B2	Airplane carton A food container has an airplane configuration provided by a cardboard-like sheet having a plurality of spaced fold lines defining a number of panels that are folded along the lines and assembled to provide an airplane-like body having food compartments therein. The panels that extend to the tail of the fuselage are especially configured to provide a unitary tail fin and associated stabilizer that present the tail configuration.
US07654439B2	Method of solid phase welding of metal plates In a method of welding of metal plates in a solid phase, wherein the metal plates are combined to form a package, and welded together by heating and deforming the package by contacting with two rotating cylinders, the improvement includes: providing a damping lining between the metal plates; placing the package between two cylinders such that the metal plate with the smallest yield value under welding temperature faces the cylinder with smaller diameter, heating and deforming the package in vacuum, such that during a first stage the temperature reaches 0.4-0.5 of melting temperature of a metal plate with the smallest yield value, during a second stage the package is heated by a high frequency which heats the damping lining up to 0.92-0.95 of its melting temperature, wherein angular velocities of the rotating cylinders and their radiuses are selected in accordance with a formula.
US07654432B2	Forming solder balls on substrates A mask (stencil) having cells (openings) is disposed on a surface of a heater stage, and is then filled (printed) with solder paste. Then a substrate is assembled to the opposite side of the mask. Then the solder paste is reflowed. This may be done partially inverted. Then the mask is separated from the substrate, either before or after cooling. Solder balls are thus formed on the substrate, which may be a semiconductor wafer. A biased chuck urges the substrate into intimate contact with the mask. A method for printing the mask with solder paste is described. Methods of forming high aspect ratio solder bumps (including balls and reflowable interconnect structures) are described.
US07654424B1	All terrain vehicle utility storage box A method of carrying equipment on one side of an ATV having a front top rack, a rear top rack and a foot rest on the one side comprising the following steps: a) attaching a utility box carrying bracket to an outer side portion of the front top rack, the foot rest, and the rear top rack; and, b) mounting a utility box on each of the box carrying brackets. Then equipment may be conveniently carried in and removed from the mounted box. In a preferred aspect of this invention the utility box is generally rectangular in plan view and further comprises a utility box lid hinged to one long top side portion of the box and latched to the other opposite long side portion of the box so that equipment carried in the box is protected from the elements. A lateral side of the mounted box is dimensioned to generally follow the longitudinal shape of the fenders and running board so that the box generally fills the void above the running board and a central portion of the fenders.
US07654423B1	Motor vehicle roof standoff A motor vehicle roof protection system includes a pair of magnetically attachable elongated roof standoffs to carry cargo above a car (or any motor vehicle) roof. One elongated roof standoffs may be positioned near a forward end of the car roof and another elongated roof standoffs may be positioned near a rearward end of the car roof. Magnets are embodied within the elongated roof standoffs to resist movement on the roof surface, with a layer of material under the magnets to protect the roof finish. The elongated roof standoffs have sloped tops, and the roof standoffs are positioned with the slopes facing forward to produce downward force on the roof standoffs, and thereby secure the roof standoffs with fewer magnets than otherwise required. The tops include a textured portion for contact with cargo. The cargo may be held against the elongated roof standoffs using straps, ropes, or any suitable fastener.
US07654415B2	Dispensing unit The invention relates to a combination of a first container and a second container to form a dispensing unit. The first and second containers each have a reservoir for a liquid substance and pump which is secured to the reservoir, can be actuated by hand and has a dispensing opening and a pump-actuating button for dispensing substance from the reservoir. The combination also comprises coupling means for coupling together the first and second containers in a position next to one another. The invention is characterized in that the coupling means comprise: one or more first coupling members, which are each arranged on the first container, and one or more second coupling means, which are each arranged on the second container and which can each be directly coupled to an associated first coupling member on the first container. It is preferable for a first coupling member and an associated second coupling member each to be arranged fixedly on the assembly of reservoir and pump of the associated container in order to create a stable coupling between the assemblies reservoir and pump of the two containers.
US07654408B2	Container with locking strips The present invention provides for a container that has a base and a pair of side walls extending upwardly therefrom, the side walls having a concave portion and a plurality of apertures. Partitions are positioned between the side walls, each having tabs at each end which extend through the side wall apertures. Locking strips extend through the slots in the tabs of the partitions and are positioned in the concave portions of the container side walls. In an alternative embodiment, each locking strip has a locking member to prevent movement of the locking strip.
US07654399B2	Configurable display system and modular display arrangement for consumer electronic devices A method of displaying consumer electronic devices comprises supporting a plurality of rails on a frame in a generally parallel, spaced relationship and configuring each rail for slidable movement relative to the frame in a direction generally perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of each rail. A first row of display units is supported between a first adjacent pair of the rails and a second row of display units between a second adjacent pair of the rails, with each display unit comprising at least one of a device support unit and a plate. The plurality of display units are reconfigurable by exchanging the display units between different lateral positions within at least one of the first and second rows of display units and/or by exchanging at least one display unit between the first row and the second row of display units.
US07654392B2	Carrier tape containing good therein, and container using the carrier tape A carrier tape including a main body and plural pockets arranged on the main body and configured to contain goods therein is described. The pockets have depths greater than the thickness of the main body, and are arranged at equal intervals in a longitudinal direction of the main body. Plural dummy pockets are arranged on the main body and extend away from the main body no less than the pockets. The dummy pockets can be replaced with ribs having a plate shape. A container including the carrier tape and a resin cover tape which covers the pockets and the dummy pockets is also described. The container can be reeled.
US07654388B2	Apparatus to secure and facilitate the inventory of medications in emergency medical services vehicles A clear, lockable, sealable container for the storage of controlled substances in ambulances and other emergency medical vehicles, allowing paramedics and other emergency medical personnel to inspect and inventory readily the pharmaceuticals in the container without opening, unlocking, or breaking the seal on the container.
US07654386B2	Machine for wrapping bundles of roll products A machine (1) for wrapping bundles (2) of roll products (3), where the products (3) are grouped together in piles (4), comprises a bundle (2) forming line (6), equipped with a chain conveyor (7), and a product (3) feed line (12) that serves the forming line (6); the feed line (12) having an elevator (13) which is equipped with a product (3) supporting platform (14) and which is vertically mobile under the forming line (6) between a lowered position where it receives the products (3) and a raised position where it delivers the products (3) to the forming line (6); a screw mechanism, fixed to a fixed machine mounting structure and screwed on a lead nut placed inside a mounting frame, adjusts the position of the chain conveyor, the pair of pulleys and the pusher rods relative to the raised position of the product supporting platform.
US07654384B1	Adjustable conveyor for varied size and shape containers A conveyor for varied size and shape containers has a pair of feed screws mounted parallel to one another on opposite sides of a line of container travel. A mechanism is provided for moving the screws toward or away from one another in a manner to maintain an equal distance of each screw from the line of container travel. The screws are preferably formed with a helix having straight sidewalls that are at an angle of 90° to 100° to one another. In one embodiment one feed screw has a left hand helix and is rotated in a first direction and the other feed screw has a right hand helix and is rotated in a second direction opposite to the first direction.
US07654377B2	Hydraulic actuator for a vehicular power train An actuator system includes a piezoelectric pump; an accumulator including a cylinder, a piston located in the cylinder, a port located at a first side of the piston and hydraulically connected to the pump outlet and a switching circuit, a relief port hydraulically connected to the reservoir and located at a second side of the piston, and a spring biasing the piston toward the port; and a hydraulically actuated servo including a front port hydraulically connected to the switching circuit, a back port hydraulically connected to the reservoir, and the servo causing the friction element alternately to engage and to disengage in response to a magnitude of hydraulic pressure in the servo.
US07654375B2	Rotation transmission device A rotation transmission device includes a roller clutch unit for selectively engaging an inner member mounted on a rotary shaft with an outer ring through rollers, and an electromagnetic clutch unit for electromagnetically controlling the selective engagement by the rollers. The current until the clutch engages is set so as to correspond to a state in which a maximum current according to the revolving speed is required and is varied according to the revolving speed of the rotary shaft to reduce power consumption and the size of the electromagnetic coil.
US07654374B2	Automated transmission controller and vehicle including the automated transmission controller Rotational driving force can be transferred to the follower side (clutch plate) of a friction clutch by adjusting the engagement condition of the clutch so that a first gear and a second gear of a dog-clutch-type transmission can rotate relative to each other. At the time of shift change during stop of the vehicle, the clutch can be further connected at a low speed after connection of the clutch until it reaches a reference clutch position.
US07654370B2	Shock absorber with integrated position sensor A shock absorber includes a dust tube that surrounds a shock body. The shock body is movable relative to the dust tube in response to road load inputs. A plurality of magnets is mounted to one of the dust tube and shock body, and a module is mounted to the other of the dust tube and shock body. The module interacts with the plurality of magnets to determine a position of the dust tube relative to a position of the shock body. This position information can be used to adjust suspension ride height as needed.
US07654362B2	Speaker and method of outputting acoustic sound A speaker has a pipe member with opposed open ends, and a sounding body that is attached to any one of the opposed open ends of the pipe member on the same axle as that of the pipe member. The sounding body is driven on the basis of an acoustic signal that is applied to the sounding body. Sound wave radiated from the sounding body and passed through an inside of the pipe member vibrates with a pipe wall of the pipe member, thereby to enable sound wave corresponding to the acoustic signal to radiate from a whole of an outside surface of the pipe member to outside.
US07654359B2	Tractor control means A control means for an agricultural tractor is disclosed which has a switching element carrier arranged in proximity to the leading end region of an arm rest of a driver's seat. The control means has a large number of switches for controlling various vehicle units and the carrier has a hand rest (3, 4) provided with a spherical surface for the palm of the vehicle driver's hand. An adjustment wheel (14, 19) is provided for controlling a switching element (12, 24), the adjustment wheel having a setting rim (14a, 19a) which extends from the switching element carrier in a region which can be reached by the fingers of the hand resting on the hand rest (3, 4). Preferably the control means is provided with two adjustment wheels (14, 19) one above the other, each adjustment wheel having a setting rim (14a,19a) which can be reached by the fingers of a hand resting on the hand rest. These adjustment wheels (14, 19) preferably have actuating shafts (13, 23) which extend substantially coaxially and the lower adjustment wheel (14) has a larger external diameter than the upper adjustment wheel (19).
US07654357B2	Radiator coil mounted on a motorcycle A motorcycle including a frame having a top, a bottom, a front, a rear, and a centrally-located longitudinal axis extending through the front and the rear. The longitudinal axis defines a vertical plane. The motorcycle also includes an engine supported by the frame and a radiator coil obliquely mounted to the frame. The radiator coil is spaced apart from the vertical plane and includes a forward end and a rearward end as viewed from above the motorcycle. The forward end defines a first distance measured normal to the vertical plane and the rearward end defines a second distance measured normal to the vertical plane. The first distance is shorter than the second distance.
US07654355B1	Flywheel system for use with electric wheels in a hybrid vehicle A hybrid vehicle system having first and second internal combustion engines, first and second flywheels respectively coupled to the first and second internal combustion engines, a plurality of motorized wheels electrically interconnected to first and second flywheels, and a controller connected to the internal combustion engines and to the flywheels and to the plurality of motorized wheels for transferring energy therebetween. Each of the flywheels has permanent magnets affixed to a side of a housing thereof. Each of the flywheels is vacuum sealed within anon-ferrous housing.
US07654348B2	Maneuvering robotic vehicles having a positionable sensor head Configurations are provided for vehicular robots or other vehicles to provide shifting of their centers of gravity for enhanced obstacle navigation. Various head and neck morphologies are provided to allow positioning for various poses such as a stowed pose, observation poses, and inspection poses. Neck extension and actuator module designs are provided to implement various head and neck morphologies. Robot control network circuitry is also provided.
US07654344B2	Torque converter for use when drilling with a rotating drill bit A torque converter for use in drilling with a rotating drill bit, the purpose of the torque converter being to absorb impacts and bring about an axial movement of the drill bit when the torque exceeds a predetermined value. For this purpose the torque converter is composed of two cylindrical string parts connected through the bearing elements. The string parts are connected to each other through helical elements in such a way that relative rotation of the two cylindrical string parts brings about axial movement, which unloads the drill bit.
US07654342B2	Underreaming and stabilization tool for use in a borehole and method for its use An underreaming tool may include a tubular body, a drive tube, at least one blade element (“the blade element”), at least one wedge element (“the wedge element”), and a stop mechanism. The drive tube may include at least one longitudinal groove (“the longitudinal groove”) axially disposed along a length of the drive tube. The wedge element may include a first side having at least one lateral projection (“the lateral projection”) configured to axially slide into the longitudinal groove to couple the wedge element to the drive tube. The stop mechanism comprises a threaded sleeve configured to screw onto the drive tube to lock the wedge element in the longitudinal groove once the lateral projection is slid into the longitudinal groove.
US07654341B2	Drill stem coupling and method for a directional drill A drill stem connection assembly includes a first drill stem section and a second drill stem section. At least one engaging feature is located at an end of the first drill stem section. At least one mating feature accepts the at least one engaging feature. The at least one mating feature is located at an end of the second drill stem section. Coupling of the respective ends of the first and second drill stem sections forms a drill stem joint. A threaded collar engages with at least one of the coupled first and second drill stem sections. When placed in a securing position, the threaded collar holds the engaging feature securely mated with the mating feature and at least partially covers the drill stem joint.
US07654337B2	Arrangement for controlling rock drilling A method for controlling rock drilling and a rock drilling arrangement having at least one feed channel of a feed actuator provided with a restrictor, which causes a pressure drop if the penetration rate increases and, consequently, a flow through the restrictor increases. A pressure difference and an increase in the penetration rate can be detected by sensing the pressure before the restrictor and after the restrictor. When the feed rate increases, a hydraulic system is arranged to decrease percussion pressure.
US07654308B2	Heat exchanger A heat exchanger which has a base plate and several carrier plates projecting from the base plate. At least one cooling element is located on each carrier plate. The cooling elements have a substrate with an underside and an upper side. Webs project from the upper side of the substrate and lie one behind the other, the height of which is less than the distance between adjacent webs. The substrate has a plurality of regularly arranged channels that extend through the substrate.
US07654306B2	Heat-storage unit and operation method of heat-storage unit Provided is a heat-storage unit capable of efficiently storing heat in a heat-storage material and sufficiently taking out the stored heat.The heat-storage unit capable of exchanging heat by direct contact between sodium acetate and oil, storing heat in the sodium acetate, and radiating heat from the sodium acetate by supplying the oil, which has a smaller specific gravity than the sodium acetate and is separated from the sodium acetate, into a heat-storage tank housing the sodium acetate, which stores heat depending on a state change between solid and liquid, in an internal space, in which the unit includes: a third flow pipe of a supply pipe, at least a part of which is provided in a lower portion of the internal space and in which the oil flows; a plurality of discharge holes which are provided for the third flow pipe and discharge the oil flowing through the third flow pipe into the sodium acetate; a fourth flow pipe of the supply pipe, which is connected to the third flow pipe and discharges the oil flowing through the third flow pipe to the outside of the sodium acetate; and a valve that shuts off the fourth flow pipe corresponding to the state change of the sodium acetate.
US07654304B2	Clamshell chassis assembly A method of manufacturing a chassis is provided. The method comprises casting a first segment having a plurality of connected walls such that a window is cast in each of two of the plurality of connected walls in the first segment; casting a second segment having a plurality of connected walls such that a window is cast in each of two of the plurality of connected walls in the second segment; and coupling the first and second segments together to form the chassis having a window in four walls.
US07654301B2	Venetian blind The invention relates to slats (1) for a venetian blind comprising slats of very large dimensions, both relating to the width of the slats and to the longitudinal extension of the slats (1). Thus the venetian blind comprising these slats can be made to cover very large window openings or other parts of buildings and rooms. The slats (1) are provided with longitudinal edge portions (3) serving the dual purpose of increasing the overall rigidity of the slats (1) and of providing attachment means (12) for support cords of the slats (1). The slats are operated by pairs (typically two) of lift and tilt cords running in parallel along the longitudinal edges of the slats (1), thereby avoiding passages through the slats (1), which is advantageous both from an aestetical point of view and from the point of view of the necessary production technique for the slats (1). The invention also relates to releasable attachment means (12) for connection the slats (1) to the tilt cords of the venetian blind. The Invention furthermore relates to the venetian blind as such comprising the above slats (1) and attachment means (12), and due to these is becomes possible to assemble the complete venetian blind in situ in a very easy manner. Also the removal and replacement of individual slats (1) without the necessity to dismantle major portions of the venetian blind is greatly facilitated according to the invention. Finally the invention also relates to a lift- and tilt mechanism for controlling tilting and raising/lowering of the slats (1).
US07654300B2	Obstacle detection stopping device of solar radiation shielding apparatus An obstacle detection stopping device of a solar radiation shielding apparatus capable of suppressing the wear of a lifting cord due to the contact of a slat with the lifting cord. The obstacle detection stopping device (10) comprises a support member (11), a rotary drum (13), a cam clutch (12), and a winding pulley (9). A drive shaft (8) is passed through the inside of the device. A rotating force in the unwinding direction is transmitted to the drive shaft (8) by a tension applied to the winding pulley (9). The rotary drum (13) is integrally fitted to the drive shaft (8), and the cam clutch (12) is fitted to the outer edge thereof so as to be rotated relative to each other. Based on the relative rotation of the cam clutch (12) to the rotary drum (13), the cam clutch (12) is moved along its axial direction to change the state of its engagement with a braking projected part (11g). The cam clutch (12) is installed so as to be non-rotated relative to the winding pulley (9). When the tension applied to the winding pulley (9) is eliminated, the cam clutch stops its rotating motion together with the winding pulley (9), and based on the relative rotation thereof to the rotary drum (13), the cam clutch is engaged with the braking projected part (11g).
US07654296B2	Grooved single facer belt The present invention relates to a single facer corrugator belt having a base structure. The base structure includes an inside and an outside surface and a machine or running direction and a cross machine direction. The base structure is formed by machine direction yarns and cross machine direction yarns and has grooves formed in a surface of the base structure. Alternatively, the corrugator belt may include includes holes formed in a surface of the base structure.
US07654295B2	Tire for motorcycle with sidewall upper layer and sidewall lower layer A tire 2 comprises a tread 4, a pair of sidewalls 6 extended almost inward in a radial direction from an end 18 of the tread 4, a pair of bead cores 8 positioned on an inside in the radial direction of the sidewalls 6, and a carcass 10 laid between both of the bead cores 8 along insides of the tread 4 and the sidewalls 6. The carcass 10 includes a carcass ply 20. The carcass ply 20 is turned up around the bead core 8. The sidewall 6 has a lower layer 34 positioned on an outside in an axial direction of the carcass ply 20 and an upper layer 36 positioned on an outside in the radial direction of the lower layer 34. The upper layer 36 has a hardness which is equal to or higher than 50 and is equal to or lower than 70. The lower layer 34 has a hardness which is equal to or higher than 70 and is equal to or lower than 100.
US07654286B2	Automatic concrete pump comprising a mast support unit for a distribution mast, which is fixed to the chassis The invention relates to a mobile concrete pump provided with a chassis, a concrete distribution boom arranged on the chassis, and a boom support unit whereon the folded distribution boom can be supported in the transport position. According to the invention, the boom support unit comprises a housing part which extends above the chassis, is accessible from the outside via closeable openings and comprises at least one support block for the distribution boom which support block is arranged on the top side thereof. The boom support unit can be provided with a switch element which can be actuated by the lying thereupon of the distribution boom, releasing the actuation of the support struts of the mobile concrete pump.
US07654281B2	Gauge assembly having a stop fill device A gauge assembly includes an indicator for providing an indication of an amount of fluid in a tank and a stop-fill assembly for stopping the flow of fluid flowing into the tank once the fluid reaches a particular level. The gauge assembly has a shaft that rotates as the fluid level changes in the tank. The indicator translates the rotational position of the shaft into a fluid level. The stop-fill assembly moves from an open position, where fluid can flow into the tank, to a closed position, where fluid is prohibited from flowing into the tank, depending on the rotational position of the shaft.
US07654278B2	Level control for liquid throughfeed A reservoir is disclosed for a throughfeed for liquid, such as a liquid pump, to be set into operation selectively, from and/or to a body of liquid such as a pond, aquarium or bath. The reservoir includes a container for containing liquid and with an outlet for connecting onto the throughfeed to the body of water. It further includes a refill container which, depending on the level of the liquid in the container, is movable reciprocally between a high position and at least one lower position, and which is connected to an inlet of the reservoir connected to the body of liquid. The refill container includes an overflow along which liquid flows from the refill container into the container in the at least one lower position of the refill container.
US07654241B2	Dual-chamber type oil pan and engine equipped with same A dual-chamber oil pan includes an oil pan provided below an engine block, an oil pan separator that is provided within the oil pan and defines a first chamber communicating with the engine block, and a second chamber provided around the first chamber, and a suction port disposed within the first chamber. The first chamber includes a large-capacity portion including a bottom portion of the oil pan separator, and a small-capacity portion located above and integrally formed with the large-capacity portion.
US07654236B2	Method and device for controlling an internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine comprises an intake tract in which a throttle valve is disposed. The engine also comprises a camshaft which acts on gas inlet valves associated with respective cylinders. A phase-adjustment device is used to adjust a phase between the camshaft and a crankshaft. A desired air mass flow in a combustion chamber of the cylinder is determined depending on a charge requirement requested by the driver. The desired air mass flow is adjusted by varying the phase between the camshaft and the crankshaft if the desired air mass flow can be adjusted by varying the phase while substantially maintaining an actual pressure difference upstream and downstream of the throttle valve. Otherwise, the desired air mass flow is adjusted by varying the opening angle of the throttle valve.
US07654233B2	Engine device for an oxyhydrogen vehicle An engine device for an oxyhydrogen vehicle includes an oxyhydrogen generator for electrolytically converting an electrolyte into oxyhydrogen gas, a fuel tank for storing combustible fuel, a first pipe unit connected to the oxyhydrogen generator, a second pipe unit connected to the fuel tank, and an engine unit. The engine unit includes a cylinder block, an intake manifold, and fuel injectors. The intake manifold is connected to the cylinder block, is provided with passages, and is further connected to the first pipe unit such that the oxyhydrogen gas generated by the oxyhydrogen generator is fed into the passages. The fuel injectors are connected to the intake manifold, are further connected to the second pipe unit, and serve to inject the combustible fuel in the fuel tank into the passages.
US07654220B2	Indicator An indicator has a permanent magnet and a coil rotatably supported on the permanent magnet and wound so as to form a surface that is parallel to and disposed at a preselected distance from a bottom surface of the permanent magnet. The coil generates a torque by interaction with a magnetic field of the permanent magnet upon supply of a current to the coil. An indicator needle is mounted to undergo rotation with the coil through a range of angles corresponding to indicator angles of the indicator needle. A pair of spiral springs urge the indicator needle in a direction opposite to a direction of the torque to undergo rotation through the range of indicator angles. The pair of spiral springs comprise a first spiral spring connected at one end thereof to one end of the coil and a second spiral spring connected at one end thereof to another end of the coil. The first spiral spring is larger than the second spiral spring and is arranged on an outer peripheral side of and coaxially with the second spiral spring so that the first and second spiral springs lie on a common plane.
US07654216B2	Boat roof, and boat having same A boat roof on a boat deck is provided, including a roof element. The roof element can be raised via a pivoting mechanism with a lifting unit, by pivoting about a pivoting axis in order to produce an opening gap between the roof element and the remaining deck area. A boat having such a boat roof is also provided.
US07654215B2	Diver propulsion system with separate battery and motor-transmission modules A diver propulsion system includes separate operatively associated battery, motor, transmission, and clutch modules.
US07654212B2	Frictional resistance reduction ship The friction drag decreases and the friction resistance decrease ship that improves fuel cost is offered.Duct 3 is divided into two or more independent chambers 5, with partition 4 according to the longitudinal direction; piping 6 is introduced in each chamber 5 and penetrates through partition 4 to supply air to each chamber 5. Air is supplied by assistance compressor 7 through piping 6. Opening 8 is formed in the lateral aspect of each chamber 5, and microbubble generator 10 is installed in this opening 8.
US07654211B2	Marine vessel transfer system A vessel transfer system utilizes a larger, surface effect vessel with a hull and a cargo deck, having a pressurized volume of air under its hull. The larger vessel cargo deck is lowered relative to a water surface in order to receive a smaller vessel. Lowering is achieved by depressurizing the volume of pressurized air under the hull. Movable propulsors on an air cushion vehicle permit efficient operation under way in an outer position, while minimizing the envelope dimensions for stowage in a well deck, providing clearance from bridges, docks, etc. in an inner position. In the outer position, the propellers operate in more uniform inflow conditions, resulting in improved performance and lower noise levels. In addition, the craft can be arranged to use a full width stern ramp resulting in time saved during cargo loading/unloading. The propellers will be less likely to ingest green water in high sea states.
US07654207B1	XY stage An XY stage comprises a base, a movable table which is disposed on the base so as to be movable in an X direction and a Y direction in an X-Y plane, and a work member which is provided on the movable table. The XY stage further comprises: a first linear motor for giving a driving force in the X direction to the movable table at the same height as the center of gravity of a movable section composed of the movable table and the work member; and a second linear motor for giving a driving force in the Y direction to the movable table at the same height as the center of gravity of the movable section.
US07654193B2	Drip coffee maker which does not require electricity to operate A non-electric drip style coffee maker including a pot member having each of a handle member and a pouring spout. A basket like member for holding a filter having ground coffee disposed therein. Such basket like member includes at least one aperture formed through a bottom surface thereof for allowing freshly brewed coffee to pass therethrough and into such pot member. A generally hollow hot water reservoir having apertures formed through a bottom surface thereof and a predetermined diameter opening adjacent a top thereof is provided. There is a lid member having a predetermined size which will enable such lid member to cover both the opening in such hot water reservoir and the opening in such pot member. The lid member includes a grip member connected to an outer surface thereof for ease of placing and removing such lid.
US07654189B2	Heavy duty cylinder A cylinder for a piston-cylinder assembly comprises an extruded stainless steel cylinder body and stainless steel end caps mounted to opposite ends of the body. A unique configuration of three seals is used to seal each end cap to the cylinder body.
US07654179B2	Crayon sharpener A device for sharpening crayons, wax pencils, and the like is provided. This device includes: a multi-blade removable and replaceable crayon sharpening cartridge; an electric motor mechanically coupled to the blade cartridge for axially rotating the blade cartridge around a crayon that has been inserted into the blade cartridge; a base for supporting the electric motor; a contoured receptacle positionable on the base beneath the blade cartridge for capturing crayon debris; and a contoured exterior housing for enclosing the electric motor and the blade cartridge.
US07654172B2	Torque transmission device A torque transmission device having a torque converter which is accommodated in the drivetrain of a motor vehicle, for transmitting torque between a drive unit and a transmission, has a converter housing that is rotationally mounted about an axis of rotation and is nonrotatably connected to the drive unit. The torsionally fixed connection between the drive unit and the converter housing includes a tubular connecting element that is located coaxially to the axis of rotation of the converter housing.
US07654170B2	Centering spring apparatus for a transmission shift control mechanism A centering spring apparatus in a shift control mechanism includes a plurality of brackets providing stationary ground members for spring members and a shift control lever, which is operable to pick up the springs from the grounded portion to impose a centering force on the shift lever. These springs are disposed such that three different centering forces can be occasioned upon the shifting of the lever from one neutral position toward other neutral positions.
US07654169B2	Shift lever In a shift lever, when a button of a knob is pressed, a link member is pivoted, and a detent rod is moved down. Further, impact sound or the like is restrained or prevented from being emitted by bringing the link member into contact with a contact member and elastically deforming the contact member. Here, a cover portion of the knob and the contact member are constituted by separate members. Therefore, the cover portion of the knob and the contact member can easily be constituted by materials suitable for respective functions.
US07654157B2	Airflow sensor with pitot tube for pressure drop reduction An airflow sensor apparatus for measuring flow rate includes a pitot tube with a bypass channel wherein the pitot tube extends halfway into a flow channel in order to reduce a pressure drop. One or more upstream taps can be spaced along the pitot tube facing into a direction of a flow stream which directs the flow to the bypass channel. At least one or more downstream taps can be located to face perpendicular to the direction of flow, such that the fluid after passing over a flow sensor passes through the downstream tap(s). The upstream tap senses stagnation pressure and the down stream tap senses static pressure which is exerted in all directions in the flow channel in order to determine a velocity pressure based on a difference between pressures.
US07654156B1	Distal tip of fluid velocity probe A distal tip of a fluid velocity probe generally includes at least a portion of a housing having first and second sidewalls defining a passageway therebetween, the passageway having inlet and outlet regions. The first and second sidewalls each are substantially symmetrical along an axis extending in the direction of the passageway through the center of each sidewall. The distal tip further includes a mass flow sensor disposed in the passageway between the inlet and outlet regions.
US07654149B2	Roller chain wear gauge The present disclosure relates to a handheld, single-piece wear gauge for chains, and more specifically, to a wear gauge with an elongated body carved into segments with markings, varied widths, and varied heights arranged along a guiding back rail. A roller chain wear gauge includes a single-piece body with a measuring end and a handle connected to the measuring end, wherein the measuring end includes a plurality of adjacent and contiguous calibrated segments each having a measuring length, a measuring width, and a measurement marking, and wherein the measuring end defines on one side a back rail formed by an alignment of a first side of each of the calibrated segments and a step function formed by the second side of each of the calibrated segments.
US07654144B2	Nondestructive testing apparatus for blade root of steam turbine of power plant In a nondestructive testing apparatus for testing normality of a blade root in a steam turbine installed in a nuclear plant or a thermal plant, an ultrasonic probe and an encoder can be mounted at the outside by only removing a casing of the steam turbine, without the necessity of withdrawing a turbine rotor, so that an automatic testing can be performed by rotating the steam turbine. Since the testing result can be digitally stored, reliability of the testing is improved. Furthermore, size of the testing apparatus is highly reduced for a tester to conveniently carry and install the testing apparatus alone. As a result, installation time and the whole testing time can be minimized.
US07654143B2	Method and apparatus for in-situ inspection of rotary machine components A method and apparatus for the inspection of rotary machine components is provided. A positioning fixture is clamped to the component to be inspected, and supports a transceiver that is used during the inspection. The positioning fixture can be navigated through and between rotary machine components to the desired location to be inspected. In one example, an ultrasonic transceiver can be used to perform the inspection. The apparatus can be used to perform in-situ inspections.
US07654139B2	Vibratory gyrosensor having a vibration element provided with terminals To improve characteristics by achieving size reduction and high Q value with a simple structure. A vibratory gyrosensor 1 according to the present invention includes a supporting substrate 2, which has a circuit element mounted thereon and a wiring pattern having a plurality of lands 4 disposed thereon; and a vibration element 20 mounted on a surface 2-1 of the supporting substrate. The vibration element 20 includes a base portion 22 having a mounting surface 22-2 provided with a plurality of terminals 25 that are connected to the lands; and a vibrator portion 23 extending integrally from a side of the base portion 22 in a cantilever manner and having a substrate-facing surface which is flush with the mounting surface of the base portion 22, the substrate-facing surface being provided with a first electrode layer 27, a piezoelectric layer 28 stacked on the first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer 29, 30 stacked on the piezoelectric layer. The vibration element 20 is mounted on the supporting substrate 2 by joining the terminals 25 to the lands 4 with metallic projections 26 disposed therebetween.
US07654138B2	Method and device for dynamically measuring the unbalance of a rotor Dynamically measuring the unbalance of a rotor arranged in a device housing (1) and rotating at high angular velocity, wherein the rotor is supported in a separate bearing housing (14), involves the following steps: fastening the bearing housing (14) on the device housing (1) with interposition of resiliently yielding elements (6) so that the bearing housing (14) can be moved relative to the device housing (1) in at least two spatial dimensions and the rotor is arranged in a working position in the device housing (1) suitable for driving, accelerating the rotor, measuring the vibrations induced by unbalance while the rotor rotates at a substantially normal working speed, determining the phase position of the induced vibrations to the relative position of the rotor at the measuring speeds, and using the measured vibrations and the phase position to determine the unbalance of the rotor to be compensated.
US07654137B2	Corrosion-resistant metal made sensor for fluid and a fluid supply device for which the sensor is employed The present invention provides a corrosion-resistant metal made sensor for fluid and a fluid supply device for which the sensor is employed.More specifically, the corrosion-resistant metal made sensor for fluid is equipped with a corrosion-resistant metal substrate, a mass flow rate sensor part comprising a corrosion resistant metal substrate, a thin film forming a temperature sensor and a heater mounted on the back face side of the fluid contacting surface of the corrosion-resistant metal substrate, and a pressure sensor part comprising a thin film forming a strain sensor element mounted on the back face side of the fluid contacting surface of the corrosion-resistant metal substrate, and the sensor is so constituted that the mass flow rate and pressure of the fluid are measured.
US07654134B2	Air flow measuring device An air flow measuring device has a throttle portion provided in a first sub-passage, a second sub-passage branched from the first sub-passage at an upstream side of the throttle portion, and a flow amount sensor located in the second sub-passage. The second sub-passage is configured to introduce therein a part of air flowing in the first sub-passage, and an inlet of the second sub-passage is open into the first sub-passage at one side in a first radial direction perpendicular to a flow direction of air flowing in the first sub-passage. Furthermore, the throttle portion is provided to gradually reduce a passage dimension of the first sub-passage in a second radial direction, as toward an outlet of the first sub-passage. Here, the second radial direction is perpendicular to a surface defined by the first radial direction and the flow direction of air in the first sub-passage.
US07654129B2	Sensor with an analyte modulator A sensor system having an analyte modulator, detector and a pump. The concentration of an analyte sample may be modulated at one time constant. The detector may have an output with a drift at another time constant. The one time constant may be shorter than the latter time constant. The latter time constant may be substantially removed from the detector output with a discriminator. A reservoir may receive high concentrations of analyte from the modulator, before analyte is forwarded to the detector and pump via analyte conveyance lines and valving. The modulation or pre-concentration of analyte in the sensor system may entail shorter times and smaller volumes than those needed by the detector. Such mismatches may be alleviated via accumulation of analyte in the reservoir prior to being forwarded to the detector.
US07654128B2	Gas analyzing apparatus and method A gas analyzing apparatus for analyzing gas composition in a multi-gas stream is disclosed. The gas analyzing apparatus includes a plurality of sensors adapted to sense a characteristic of the gases and a microprocessor connected to the plurality of sensors and adapted to determine actual rates of flow of the gases. A method of analyzing a composition of a gas stream and a fuel cell system are also disclosed.
US07654122B2	Process for straightening a tube In straightening a tube using a roll straightening machine provided with drum type straightening roll pairs vertically opposingly disposed, at least an outer layer portion of a roll main body is made of elastic material having spring type hardness Hs (JIS K 6301 A type) of 50 to 100 in at least three pairs of straightening rolls on an outlet side of the roll straightening machine, and an offset amount is imparted to a tube engaged in the three pairs, at least, of straightening opposing rolls such that η defined by an equation (1) ranges from 1.0×10−3 to 1.5×10−3. The offset amount is set at three positions along a tube axis where the upper and lower rolls of each pair horizontally cross. Therefore, an S/N ratio can be enhanced in an eddy current test from inside of the tube to improve inspection efficiency, and excellent quality accuracy can be ensured in a heat transfer tube used in a steam generator and the like. [ Formula ⁢ ⁢ 1 ] η = 1 R × ( d 2 ) ( 1 ) where a relationship of R=(δ2+L2)/2δ holds, assuming that d (mm) is a tube outside diameter, L (mm) is a roll stand span of the roll straightening machine, and δ (mm) is an offset amount.
US07654120B1	Locking assembly and electronic device using same A locking assembly is configured for locking an electronic device to an object. The electronic device includes a panel. The panel includes two opposite first and second surfaces. A first through hole, a second through hole and a third through hole are defined in the panel. The locking assembly includes a rotating wheel, a lockset and a flexible cable. The rotating wheel is rotatably coupled to the first surface. The lockset includes a lock cylinder and is fixed to the first surface. The lock cylinder is extended through the first through hole and exposed from the second surface. The flexible cable is wrapped around the rotating wheel, and includes a locking end and an opposite connecting end. The connecting end is fixed to the rotating wheel. The locking end is extended through the second through hole and the third through hole, and capable of being engaged with the lockset.
US07654116B1	Architectural scarf Various embodiments of this invention disclose a scarf with a knit tension differential between opposing sides along the length of the scarf that produces the effect of a scarf that takes and holds certain specific architectural shapes when it is worn by a user. The scarf of the present invention preferably has a three dimensional, hyperbolic shape that takes and holds certain architectural shapes when wrapped in different ways around the wearer.
US07654106B2	No-frost refrigerator A no-frost refrigerator having an opening in a separating wall for the through passage of air between a storage chamber and an evaporation chamber. A control element is arranged in the opening and can be displaced or shifted between positions in which the control element covers the opening to different extents. The control element can be rotated about an axis substantially perpendicular to an axis or plane of the air passage opening.
US07654105B2	Refrigerator with icemaker Refrigerator with an icemaker including a cabinet having a mullion wall for compartmentalization of a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber, a case provided to a door on the refrigerating chamber, having a cavity therein, a first duct for supplying cold air from a neighborhood of an evaporator in the freezing chamber to the cavity, the icemaker in the cavity for producing ice, an ice container in the cavity for storing the ice, and a dispenser in the door in communication with the cavity, thereby having ice supplied to a user at an outside of the refrigerator through a dispenser provided to the door.
US07654098B2	Cooling system with variable capacity control A system includes a scroll compressor having a first scroll member interleaved with a second scroll member to define at least two moving fluid pockets that decrease in size as they move from a radially outer position to a radially inner position. A valve in fluid communication with the compression chamber is movable between an open state allowing fluid to the compression chamber and a closed state preventing fluid to the compression chamber. A controller continuously cycles the valve between the open state and the closed state at a rate that is faster than a thermal time constant of a load on the system.
US07654089B2	Gas-turbine combustion chamber with air-introduction ports This invention relates to a gas-turbine combustion chamber with at least one pilot burner (2) and at least one main burner (3) which are axially and radially offset relative to each other, said combustion chamber (1) comprising an outer flame-tube wall (4) and an inner flame-tube wall (5) each provided with ports for the introduction of air, and said main burner (3) being located at the outer flame-tube wall (4) and said pilot burner (2) being located at the inner flame-tube wall (5), characterized in that the outer flame-tube wall (4) is provided with a first arrangement (6) of ports and in that the inner flame-tube wall (5) is provided with a second arrangement (7) of ports.
US07654083B2	Axle driving apparatus for a zero turn radius vehicle An axle driving apparatus includes a first housing having a plurality of cooling fins, an axle rotatably mounted in the first housing, a hydraulic stepless speed change assembly disposed within the first housing. The axle driving apparatus also includes a second housing having a plurality of cooling fins, an axle rotatably mounted in the second housing, a hydraulic stepless speed change assembly disposed within the second housing. A connecting means, such as a bar and/or plate connects the first and second housings. The plurality of cooling fins on the first housing has a different configuration that the plurality of cooling fins on the second housing.
US07654082B2	System of underwater power generation An underwater power generation system (10) that has a line member (30) that moves along a defined pathway. A number of foils (40) drive the line member using the flow of a water current. The defined pathway lies in a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the flow of water current. A power take-off (114, 124) is connected to the line to produce power.
US07654080B2	Metering system and method for operating a metering system The invention relates to a dosing system comprising a dosing means for metering a liquid, especially an aqueous urea solution used for the after treatment of exhaust gases generated by combustion engines. The liquid can be conveyed from a reservoir into an exhaust manifold through the dosing means in a normally operating conveying device. According to the invention, at least one area that is located between a dosing point and the reservoir and is impinged upon by the liquid can be emptied counter to a normal transport direction of the liquid.
US07654079B2	Diesel oxidation catalyst filter heating system A system, method, and software that rapidly heats a diesel oxidation catalyst unit to an effective operating temperature at engine startup is disclosed. Upon ignition of an engine an electronic control unit is operable to lower a fresh air flow target value to a reduced fresh air flow target value as well as lower a valve opening limit of an exhaust gas recirculation valve to a reduced valve opening limit. The electronic control unit monitors a temperature value of a flow of exhaust entering the diesel oxidation catalyst unit until the temperature value reaches a first predetermined threshold value. After reaching the first predetermined threshold value, the electronic control unit causes the fuel system to set post-injection fueling to a predetermined post-injection fueling value until the temperature value of the flow of exhaust entering the diesel oxidation catalyst unit reaches a second predetermined threshold value.
US07654076B2	System for controlling absorber regeneration A system, method, and software for controlling regeneration and desulfurization of a NOx adsorber is disclosed. An electronic control unit is connected with an engine for selectively controlling operation of the engine between a rich operating mode and a lean operating mode. A NOx adsorber is in fluid communication with a flow of exhaust from the engine. A NOx adsorber manager module is executable by the electronic control unit to determine the need to operate in a de-NOx mode or a de-SOx mode. If the NOx adsorber manager module determines a need exists to operate in the de-NOx mode and the de-SOx mode at the same time, the NOx adsorber manager module executes the de-SOx mode.
US07654072B2	Method and apparatus for generating compressed air from liquefied air, for supplying compressed air to an engine An engine unit, particularly for urban transport, comprising an engine (3) supplied with a compressed gas and having a expansion chamber (9), a liquid gas tank (28) in communication with the engine (3), and means (M, M′) for gasifying the liquid gas, which are interposed between the liquid gas tank (28) and the engine (3) for obtaining compressed gas. The gasifying means (M) comprise a gasification chamber (22) in communication with the liquid gas tank (28) and a liquid fuel tank (39) which is connected to the gasification chamber (22). The gasification chamber (22) is in fluid communication with both the liquid fuel tank (39) for the combustion of the liquid fuel with the oxygen of the liquid gas (22), and the expansion chamber (9) so that the compressed liquid gas and gaseous products of combustion process are used to do useful work.
US07654063B2	Method and device for gas filling and sealing of a duct intended to be filled with gas and positioned in a container of a collapsible type, and container blank comprising such a duct The invention relates to a method and a device (16) for gas filling and sealing of a duct (7) intended to be filled with gas and positioned in a container (1) of a collapsible type. The duct (7) is defined by two opposite side walls (2) which are joined along a connecting portion (4) and comprises an inlet (15) arranged in one of the side walls (2). A part of the container (1) that comprises the inlet (15) is clamped between an abutment (17) and a gas module (20) which is axially movable towards the abutment (17). Clamping occurs in such a manner that one of the two side walls (2) included in the duct (7) is allowed, in response to a gas flow supplied from the gas module (20) and entering the duct (7) through said inlet (15), to bulge to form a free passage into the duct (7) for filling the same with gas. After completion of the gas filling, the duct (7) is sealed. The invention also relates to a container blank (10) having a duct (7) which is specially developed for the method and the device (16).
US07654060B2	Reinforced blow-molded plastic panels and structures A partition system may include one or more panels. A panel may be constructed using blow-molded plastic. A panel may include one or more depressions, which may be aligned with one or more depressions on an opposing side of the panel. The depressions may provide additional structural integrity for a panel. The depressions on opposing sides of the panel may extend toward and engage each other. The panels may include patterns with which one or more depressions may intersect. The panels may include symmetric patterns on opposing sides. The partition system may include one or more connectors adapted to receive a portion of one or more panels. The partition system may include one or more feet that may be attached to one or more panels. The panels may include one or more reinforcing members of various shapes disposed proximate one or more edges of a panel.
US07654059B2	Truss connector A truss connector for releasably coupling ends of truss structures in a quick and uniform fashion. The connector connects trusses, end-to-end, by binding to their tubular truss members in spigot fashion with an arbor, traveling nut and expandable collet assembly and by binding to the truss gusset plates in a directly fastened, mated plate assembly.
US07654046B2	Door frame with unitary head flashing, nailing fin, and tear-away construction cover A door assembly includes a frame with brick mold, a threshold, and a door panel. A plastic member is mounted to the frame and the plastic member defines a flashing strip, a nailing fin, and a tear-away construction cover that protects a portion of the frame, such as the brick mold, from damage during construction. After construction, the construction cover is torn away to reveal the protected clean and undamaged brick mold.
US07654045B2	Weather protection barrier for a frangible opening of a building A weather barrier is provided for a frangible element such as a window having an outer perimeter, the frame including a plurality of struts defining a converging end and a diverging end of the frame, the diverging end having a given periphery, a plurality of brackets disposed about the outer perimeter of the frangible element, the diverging end of the frame engageable with the brackets to space the converging end spaced from the window, the given periphery of the diverging end corresponding to the outer perimeter of the window, and a flexible material encapsulating the frame to define an enclosed volume.
US07654044B2	Hurricane protection system A window or door with a radially extending metal or vinyl casing flange mounted in an opening of a building having vinyl siding is protected from hurricanes and other violent weather by providing a panel having dimensions greater than the opening and bracket receiving slots; and a plurality of L-shaped brackets having base plates and perpendicular mounting plates. The bracket base plates are inserted between the window flange and the vinyl siding and secured to the building with fasteners, which are inserted into a wooden frame surrounding the building opening. The panel is then positioned over the opening, with the mounting plates inserted through the slots. The panel is secured in place by temporary fasteners, such as cotter keys.
US07654030B2	Rabbit ear no-gaff spear The present invention includes a spear tip that is removably mounted onto the upper end of a spear shaft, which is securely engaged upon the upper end of a handle. A rubber band secures the spear tip to the upper end of the spear shaft. Spear tip has a conical portion integrally formed upon the top of a cylindrical portion. A cable is fixed to the spear point by passing the end of cable through a transverse passageway formed through the cylindrical portion below conical portion and forming a loop at the end of the cable. A pair of parallel rabbit ears is affixed to opposing sides of the cylindrical portion. The cable is adapted with a quick connect/disconnect mechanism.
US07654025B2	Frame for mounting to a premounted mirror A frame is mounted to a front surface of a previously mounted mirror so that recesses in the back side of the frame receive protruding portions of fasteners which attach the frame to a supporting structure. Guide structures are temporarily mounted to the front surface of the mirror to facilitate the mounting of the frame to the mirror. The guide structures are used to suspend the frame in a position forward of the mirror. Then, while the frame is suspended by the guide structures, the frame is pushed toward the mirror so that the frame slides along the guide structures. As a result, adhesive strips, which are mounted to the back of the frame, engage the front surface of the mirror and become adhered thereto, so that the frame is mounted to the front surface of the mirror by the adhesive strips.
US07654018B2	Excavation apparatus and method An excavation tool having a lever with an end adapted for receiving force from a user's foot, an excavation head mounted to the other end of the lever, and a fulcrum mounted on the lever at the upper end of the excavation head for resting against the soil surface. The excavation tool may also have an excavation head for insertion into the soil with an upper end adapted for receiving a user's foot along the centerline of the excavation head, and a lever fixedly mounted to the excavation head, having an end adapted for receiving force from a user's foot. The excavation tool may have an opening above the upper end of the excavation head for receiving a user's foot on the upper end of the excavation head along the centerline of the excavation head. A fulcrum may be mounted on the lever at the upper end of the excavation head for resting against the soil surface.
US07654012B2	Closure device for shoe The present invention provides a fitted, supportive, comfortable shoe upper with a laceless closure device comprising one interlaced strap capable of rapid adjustment in multiple planes of movement.
US07654008B2	Contour measuring method for measuring aspects of objects An exemplary contour measuring method for measuring aspects of objects includes: (1) providing a contour measuring probe (10) comprising a tip extension (16), a displacement sensor (19), and a processor (119) connected to the displacement sensor, the tip extension being slidable in a first direction; (2) driving the tip extension to move so as to contact with the object at a first predetermined point, and recording a coordinate of the first predetermined point in the processor; (3) driving one of the tip extension and the object to move, thus, the tip extension contacting with the object at a second predetermined point, the displacement sensor sensing a displacement of the tip extension along the first direction and sending the displacement to the processor, and the processor recording a coordinate of the second predetermined point; and (4) repeating the step (3), the processor recording a series of measured coordinates of points.
US07653995B2	Weld repair of superalloy materials A method of weld repairing a superalloy material at ambient temperature without causing cracking of the base material. A superalloy material such as CM-247 LC, as is commonly used in gas turbine blade applications, is subjected to an overage pre-weld heat treatment in order to grow the volume percentage of gamma prime precipitate in the material to a level sufficient to permit ambient temperature welding without cracking. CM-247 LC material is heated in a vacuum furnace at a rate of about 0.5° C. per minute to an intermediate temperature of about 885° C. The material is then gas fan quenched to a temperature of about 52° C. to grow the gamma prime precipitate percentage to about 55%. A fusion repair weld may then be performed on the material at an ambient temperature using a filler material having a chemistry matching a chemistry of the base material.
US07653990B2	Manufacturing method of printed circuit board using an ink jet A manufacturing method of printed circuit board print is disclosed. A method of manufacturing a PCB which includes providing an imprinting stamper with a relievo pattern formed in correspondence with a circuit pattern data using the circuit pattern data, forming an intaglio pattern corresponding to the relievo pattern by pressing the imprinting stamper on an insulation layer, and forming a circuit pattern by printing conductive ink in the intaglio pattern by an ink-jet method using the circuit pattern data, allows the forming of a circuit pattern to a required thickness by injecting conductive ink in a groove processed by the imprint method, and prevents the spreading of ink and the distortion of the pattern shape in the curing process for conductive ink containing metal Also, the circuit pattern CAD data used in the manufacturing of an imprinting stamper can be utilized again in the ink-jet printing process.
US07653985B1	Method of fabricating an RF MEMS switch with spring-loaded latching mechanism Disclosed are methods for fabricating a micro-electro-mechanical switch. The switch has a cantilever arm disposed on a substrate that can be moved in orthogonal directions for latching and unlatching. For latching, the cantilever arm is moved back by a comb-drive actuator and then pulled down by electrodes disposed on the substrate and the cantilever arm. The comb-drive actuator switch is then released and the cantilever arm moves forward to be captured by a dove-tail structure on the substrate. When the voltage is removed, the cantilever arm is held in place by the dove-tail structure. The switch is unlatched by actuating the comb-drive actuator to move the cantilever arm away from the dove-tail structure. The cantilever arm will then pop up once it is released from the dove-tail structure.
US07653981B2	Method of providing a housing for a permanent magnet electric motor A method of providing a housing assembly for a permanent magnet electric motor provides a frame holder having external surface features at an end thereof defining bearing support features. A plastic frame is provided over a portion of the frame holder. The plastic frame has internal surfaces features corresponding to the external surface features of the frame holder. The plastic frame has lamination receiving portions. Permanent magnets are placed adjacent to portions of the frame holder and between the lamination receiving portions of the plastic frame. A ferrous lamination is wound over the lamination receiving portions and the magnets to define flux structure.
US07653971B2	Cotton conditioning device The present invention related generally to a device for adding moisture to fibrous material such as cotton. The conditioning device receives a continuous cotton batt from a battery condenser. The continuous cotton batt is fed between two opposing drums. Hot moist air is fed into one drum and drawn out of the perforated surface of the drum, through the batt as it is being compressed between the two drums, and into the other drum. The opposing drums are internally compartmented by a plurality of longitudinal staves, each compartment being covered by a corresponding segment of the perforated surface. Hot dry air is fed into the compartments of the drums when the corresponding segment of the surface is not carrying the cotton batt in order to dry the surface of the drum and clear the perforations of any lint that might have been retained on the surface.
US07653965B1	System and method for carpet cleaning A system and method for carpet cleaning for cleaning carpets along longer runs from a central tank and vacuum assembly while using less chemicals. The system and method for carpet cleaning includes a central tank and vacuum assembly, a wand assembly, and a hose assembly. The central tank and vacuum assembly facilitates the routing of clean and waste water and creates vacuum pressure for recapturing water applied to a carpet being cleaned. The wand assembly is designed for applying clean water to a carpet to be cleaned, and for recapturing the water in the form of waste water from the carpet. The hose assembly includes a first end operationally coupled to the central tank and vacuum assembly, and a second end operationally coupled to the wand assembly. The hose assembly is used to conduct water and waste water between the wand assembly and the central tank and vacuum assembly.
US07653962B2	Retractable hose for central vacuum cleaning system The invention includes a central vacuum system for use in a dwelling. The system features a vacuum unit having an exhaust outlet and a vacuum inlet connected to a fixed gooseneck shaped tube, a flexible cloth hose having a first end and a second end, where the first end is operatively connected to the gooseneck shaped tube with clamping means and the second end contains means for connecting a vacuum attachment. The gooseneck tube contains a flange to engage the clamp attached to the hose so that the hose cannot be pulled from the vacuum system during use. The flexible hose is adapted to extend from the vacuum unit within the dwelling and out through a wall orifice provided to access a living space of the dwelling. The hose is manually collapsible over the tube by a user when the system is not in use.
US07653961B2	Glass cleaning device A device for cleaning vehicle windshields assists in placing the user's hand in a favorable position to more easily clean the inside of a windshield with a wiping motion. The device includes a base having a padded member attached to its bottom side. A cleaning member is removably attached to the top side of the base. The device has straps that encircle the base and the padded member. The user's hand is placed through the straps such that the top side of the user's hand is against the bottom of the padded member. The user positions their hand to place the top side of the cleaning member against the windshield moving their hand in a wiping motion.
US07653956B2	Method of manufacturing footwear of differing widths A method of manufacturing footwear includes providing a first upper having a first size and positioning a first cushioning member, having a first recess of a first size, beneath the first upper. The first cushioning member is secured to the first upper and a first sole assembly to form a first article of footwear having a first size. A second cushioning member is positioned beneath a second upper having a second size different than the first upper's size. The second cushioning member has a second recess of a second size formed in an upper surface thereof, with the second size being different than the first size of the first recess. The second cushioning member is secured to the second upper and a second sole assembly to form a second article of footwear having a second size different than the first size of the first article of footwear.
US07653950B2	Stiffening device for apparel In one embodiment, the present invention contemplates a T-shaped stiffening device to prevent a trouser leg from becoming entangled between the foot and a shoe, particularly and open-back shoe, of a wearer. Accordingly, the device includes a stiffening device having a central stiffening member arranged between two opposing layers, one layer having an exterior face having an adhesive. One method of use includes locating an interior portion of a trouser leg, preferably near the hem-line, where stiffening is desired and arranging the device vertically starting at the hem-line at a rear portion of the interior portion of the trouser leg. Finally, adhering the device to the interior portion of the trouser leg using an adhesive provided on the device.
US07657946B2	Method for device dependent access control for device independent web content A method, an apparatus, and computer instructions are provided for device-dependent access control for device independent web content. In an illustrative embodiment, a module may be implemented in a computer program detects a client device and security level from a request for a resource by a client device. The module loads, from a data source or configuration file, a three-dimensional device dependent access control matrix, which includes a user role axis, a device axis, and a resource axis. Based on the security level of the device indicated by the device matrix, the module grants or denies access to the resource by the user device. The security levels may include security protocols implemented by different devices, encryption schemes implemented by different devices, and security patches applied by the same device.
US07657942B2	Method of assuring enterprise security standards compliance A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for providing a current and complete security compliance view of an enterprise system. The present invention provides the ability to gain a real-time security posture and security compliance view of an enterprise and to assess the risk impact of known threats and attacks to continued business operations at various levels is provided. Responsive to a change to an enterprise environment, a request, or an external threat, an administrator loads or updates at least one of a Critical Application Operations database, a Historical database, an Access Control database, a Connectivity database, and a Threat database. Based on a comparison of information in the databases against similar security data elements from company or external policies, the administrator may generate a Security Compliance view of the enterprise. A Security Posture view may also be generated by comparing the Security Compliance view against data in the Threat database.
US07657941B1	Hardware-based anti-virus system An anti-virus (AV) system based on a hardware-implemented AV module for curing infected computer systems and a method for updating AV databases for effective curing of the computer system. The hardware-based AV system is located between a PC and a disk device. The hardware-based AV system can be implemented as a separate device or it can be integrated into a disk controller. An update method of the AV databases uses a two-phase approach. First, the updates are transferred to from a trusted utility to an update sector of the AV system. Then, the updates are verified within the AV system and the AV databases are updated. The AV system has its own CPU and memory and can be used in combination with AV application.
US07657939B2	Computer security intrusion detection system for remote, on-demand users An intrusion detection system, and a related method and computer program product, for implementing intrusion detection in a remote, on-demand computing service environment in which one or more data processing hosts are made available to a remote on-demand user that does not have physical custody and control over the host(s). Intrusion detection entails monitoring resources defined by the on-demand user (or a third party security provider) for intrusion events that are also defined by the on-demand user (or security provider), and implementing responses according to event-action rules that are further defined by the on-demand user (or security provider). An intrusion detection system agent is associated with each of the data processing hosts, and is adapted to monitor the intrusion events and report intrusion activity. If there are plural intrusion detection system agents, they can be individually programmed to monitor and report on agent-specific sets of the intrusion events. An intrusion detection system controller is associated with one of the data processing hosts. It is adapted to manage and monitor the intrusion detection system agent(s), process agent reports of intrusion activity, and communicate intrusion-related information to the on-demand user (or security provider). The responses to intrusion events can be implemented by the intrusion detection system controller in combination with the intrusion detection system agents, or by any such entity alone.
US07657938B2	Method and system for protecting computer networks by altering unwanted network data traffic Protecting computer networks by altering unwanted network data traffic. An Intrusion Protection System (IPS) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can monitor network data traffic comprising byte information. This network security device analyzes network data traffic at the byte level to determine whether an intrusion event is present in the network data traffic. If an intrusion event is detected, the network security device alters at least a portion of the relevant byte information to prevent the occurrence of a successful intrusion event at the intended destination. This altered byte information is then passed to the destination by the network security device. If an intrusion event is not present, the network security device passes the byte information without alteration to the destination.
US07657929B2	Method and system for client authentication A method by authorizing the access of a client by performing an anonymous Diffie-Hellman exchange that can produce authentication material (secret key) between the client and the server, and binding the key to the service-oriented state information asserted by the client. The secret key can be used in the future to prove the ownership of resources as outlined in the state information. This method enables resource ownership-dependent service authorization without requiring initial identity authentication.
US07657926B1	Enabling network communication from role based authentication Network communications are secured on clients that do not have a user properly logged in and authenticated. The clients have transmit and/or receive functionality disabled. When a user logs into the client and is properly authenticated, the transmit and/or receive functionality is enabled. In some embodiments, the client can then download firewall policy information to prevent the client from communicating on certain ports or with certain clients. The firewall policy information may be specific to a role that a user logged into the client has. For example, administrators, executives and employee roles may each use different firewall policy information.
US07657918B2	System for interactively distributing information services An interactive information distribution system includes service provider equipment for generating an information stream that is coupled to an information channel and transmitted to subscriber equipment. The service provider also generates a command signal that is coupled to a command channel and transmitted to the subscriber equipment. The service provider also receives information manipulation requests from the subscriber via a back channel. A communication network supporting the information channel, command channel and back channel is coupled between the service provider equipment and the subscriber equipment.
US07657917B2	Interactivity emulator for broadcast communication Described herein is a technology for in the realm of digital video broadcast technology or other such technology. One implementation, described herein, relates to broadcasting web content to client devices in a DVB (digital video broadcast) environment using rotational sequences of data modules (e.g., DSMCC carousels). One implementation, described herein, relates to emulating an interactive browsing experience of web content over a broadcast channel. One implementation, described herein, relates to the client device “smartly” caching select portions of the web content being broadcast. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.
US07657914B2	Object monitoring system detecting motion and tracking human skin An object monitoring system, including a slave system having slave processors (14, 16) and a plurality of cameras (10) for monitoring one or more objects, images of the cameras (10) being processed by respective ones of the slave processor (14, 16), and the slave processors including sensors (30) assigned to respective cameras (10) and at least parts of the fields of view of the cameras (10) to detect predetermined characteristics of the at least parts and generate a trigger in response thereto. A master system has to master processor (20) including agents (34) assigned to at least one of the objects and having one or more of the sensors (30) allocated thereto, the agents (34) each generating an event on receiving triggers from the one or more allocated sensors (30). An event system (6) receives the events and determines whether an alarm condition exists. A user interface system (8) can configure the sensors (30) and agents (34) and respond to events. The monitoring can be used to protect a number of objects, such as paintings and artworks held in a number of locations, from human theft.
US07657910B1	Distributed electronic entertainment method and apparatus A distributed electronic entertainment method and apparatus are described. In one embodiment, a central management resource is coupled to multiple out-of-home venues through a wide area network (WAN). The central management resource stores content and performs management, monitoring and entertainment content delivery functions. At each venue at least one entertainment unit is coupled to the WAN. Multiple entertainment units in a venue are coupled to each other through a local area network (LAN). In one embodiment, an entertainment unit includes a user interface that comprises at least one graphical user interface (GUI). The entertainment unit further comprises a local memory device that stores entertainment content comprising music, a peripheral interface, and a user input device. A plurality of peripheral devices are coupled to the at least one entertainment unit via the peripheral interface, wherein a user, through the user input device and the user interface, performs at least one activity from a group comprising, playing music, playing electronic games, viewing television content, and browsing the Internet.
US07657900B2	Recording and reproducing apparatus for photosensitive recording medium and cartridge thereof An apparatus for recording and reproduction of a photosensitive recording medium, which accommodates a cartridge, the cartridge including: a photosensitive recording medium; a cartridge body rotatably accommodating the photosensitive recording medium and having an opening through which a center and a recording face of the photosensitive recording medium are exposed; a shutter assembled to an outside of the cartridge body and arranged so as to move between a closed position where the opening is closed and an open position where the opening is opened; and an RFID capable of recording disk information with respect to the photosensitive recording medium, wherein the disk information with respect to said photosensitive recording medium is obtained from the RFID.
US07657893B2	Accounting method and logic for determining per-thread processor resource utilization in a simultaneous multi-threaded (SMT) processor An accounting method and multi-threaded processor include a mechanism for accounting for processor resource usage by threads within programs. Relative resource use is determined by detecting a particular cycle state of threads active within the processor. If instructions are dispatched for all threads or no threads, the processor cycle is accounted equally to all threads. Alternatively if no threads are in the particular cycle state, the accounting may be made using a prior state, or in conformity with ratios of the threads' priority levels. If only one thread is in the particular cycle state, that thread is accounted the entire processor cycle. If multiple threads are dispatching, but less than all threads are dispatching, the processor cycle is billed evenly across the dispatching threads.
US07657888B2	Method for forking or migrating a virtual machine A method is provided for increasing the efficiency of virtual machine processing. A parent virtual machine is provided on a host computer. The parent virtual machine is temporarily or permanently suspended. A child virtual machine is created at a new location by forking the parent virtual machine. The child virtual machine may not initially include all the stored data that is associated with the parent virtual machine.
US07657886B1	Mobile device with a MMU for faster firmware updates in a wireless network A mobile electronic device with NOR and/or NAND flash memory may be updated using an update agent able to perform fault tolerant updates. The efficiency of an update of the memory of the device may be significantly improved by employing memory management information provided by a generator used to produce update information for updating the memory. Erasures and writes to blocks of flash memory may be reduced by mapping a logical block layout to a physical block layout that helps avoid moves of memory blocks to be updated. Fault tolerance of the update process is maintained.
US07657879B1	System and method for cross-platform quality control Assurance of quality with respect to of a software application across different operating platforms with different system architectures is provided. Methods for determining and assuring said quality as well as a system for the same is disclosed. A method for ensuring compliance with a contractual obligation related to quality of service in software is also disclosed.
US07657873B2	Visualizer system and methods for debug environment The present invention provides an extensible mechanism for displaying object data in a debug environment in a suitable display format. In one aspect, a system is provided for computerized debug environments. The system includes a display component that presents data at a debug interface, wherein the data is associated with a first representation in a debug object and as at least a second representation at the debug interface. A communications component transmits the data from the debug object to the display component and also transforms the data from the first representation to the second representation.
US07657867B2	System and method for generating a predicate abstraction of a program Described is a method that enables the automatic generation of a boolean program that is a predicate abstraction of a program written using a general programming language. The method is capable of abstracting code statements within the program that include procedure calls, assignments, goto statements, conditionals, and pointers. In accordance with the invention, predicates of interest are identified for each code statement in the program. For each particular code statement, the process generates predicate statements that describe an effect that the statement has on the predicates of interest. If the effect of a particular code statement is indeterminable, non-deterministic predicate statements are included in the boolean program to model the indeterminable nature of the code statement. In addition, if a particular code statement includes a procedure call, the arguments and return value of the procedure call are translated to associated predicates in the calling context.
US07657861B2	Method and device for processing data In a system including a multidimensional field of reconfigurable elements, and a method for operating said field of reconfigurable elements, one or more groups of said elements suitable for processing a predetermined task may be determined, a particular one of the one or more groups is selected, and the selected group is configured in a predetermined manner during runtime for processing the predetermined task, and in manufacturing of said system.
US07657857B2	Performance visualization of delay in circuit design Methods are provided for presenting delay characteristics of a circuit design. The methods acquire routing delay data and logic delay data for each of a number of paths within the circuit design. In one method, a scatterplot of the routing delay data versus the logic delay data for each of the paths is generated and rendered. In another method, the paths are specified as being associated with modules within the circuit design. In this method, a histogram plot of the paths within each module is generated, wherein the paths within each module are identified as being dominated by routing delay or logic delay. In another embodiment, a connectivity diagram is generated to convey an amount of connectivity within modules and between modules. Each of the methods can be implemented as program instructions on a computer readable medium.
US07657855B1	Efficient timing graph update for dynamic netlist changes Various approaches for incrementally updating the timing of an implementation of an electronic circuit design are disclosed. In one approach, a subset timing graph is selected from a primary timing graph. Alternative subset timing graphs are generated that are functionally equivalent and structurally different with respect to the selected subset timing graph. For each of the alternative timing graphs, a respective timing metric is determined. The determined timing metrics and a timing metric for the selected subset timing graph are compared. An alternative timing graph is selected in response to the comparison. Structurally different portions of the selected one of the one or more alternative timing graphs are verified with regard to the design constraints. The structurally different portions are stored to the primary timing graph.
US07657850B2	Chip level scan chain planning for hierarchical design flows A scan chain planning method uses physical data with a hierarchical design to optimize chip level scan chains. Specifically, location data of physical blocks is used to determine optimal partitioning of the hierarchical design to balance chip level scan chains and reduce the number block scan ports by determining optimal locations for the block scan ports. Actual layout of the scan chains is based on the locations of the block scan ports and the number of scan elements determined by the method for each block scan chain.
US07657847B2	Copy control information deciding apparatus The copy control information deciding apparatus includes: a thumbnail obtaining unit 9 which obtains plural pieces of individual control information which are respective pieces of copy control information of plural scaled-down images which are displayed in a menu simultaneously; a copy control information deciding unit 11 which decides a piece of representative control information which is a piece of the copy control information of a menu display image in which the plural scaled-down images are displayed as a menu; and an output unit 14 which outputs the piece of representative control information decided by the copy control information deciding unit 11, in relation to the menu display image.
US07657837B2	Seamless windows functionality to remote desktop sessions regarding z-order In a client-server system, a server-node application runs a user session and a remote presentation protocol communicates between the client node and the server node. The server node stores a remote virtual desktop including remote windows of the user session. The client node displays multiple local windows of applications running locally on the client node and further displays one or more windows of the remote virtual desktop. The one or more windows are clipped to produce a clipped region so that the remote windows are displayed therein to appear as the local windows. The local windows are enumerated according to z-order from back to front and an area of each local window which overlaps the clipped region is subtracted from the clipped region so that the local windows show through the area.
US07657835B2	Method and system for creating a commemorative presentation A method and system for creating a commemorative presentation. The subject of the commemoration can take a variety of forms, including living or deceased individuals, organizations, entities, companies, cities, and the like. A plurality of images are compiled related to the subject. Configuration data is created relating to the display of the plurality of images. The plurality of images and configuration data are stored in a database. A video is dynamically created by accessing the plurality of images and configuration data stored in the datastore and sequentially displaying the plurality of images stored in the datastore in conformance with the configuration data stored in the datastore. While the invention has utility in a number of different applications, one particularly well suited application is in the death care industry for creating commemorative videos for the recently deceased.
US07657834B2	Sensitivity label translation A Sensitivity Label Translation system allows internal Compartmented Mode Workstation (CMW) format labels to be translated to SELinux policy labels and vice-versa. This translation occurs by mapping the internal CMW bit-mapped representation to predefined SELinux policy strings and vice-versa. Particular enabled CMW categories are converted into SELinux category strings and vice-versa. The respective category values and policies are unaffected.
US07657816B2	Low-complexity hybrid LDPC code encoder Encoders and methods for designing encoders for Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) and other block codes are presented. An efficient and systematic method for designing partially parallel encoders is presented. A parallelism factor is selected such that the end result for the encoder is similar to the partially parallel G matrix multiplication method. In addition to the method an initial circuit is given for the G matrix multiplication encoder and the RU encoder. A circuit for the hybrid encoder is presented which achieves less power consumption and smaller area than an equivalent encoder based on the G matrix multiplication with a smaller critical path than previous encoders.
US07657807B1	Integrated circuit with embedded test functionality An integrated circuit including embedded test functionality. An integrated circuit may include a plurality of processor cores each configured to execute instructions, and a test access port configured to interface circuits included within the integrated circuit with a test environment external to the integrated circuit for testing of the circuits. The test access port may include virtualization logic configured to allow a first set of instructions executing on the given processor core to control activity of the test access port for testing of the circuits. In one embodiment, the circuits may be accessible for testing via a plurality of scan chains, wherein the scan chains and the test access port are compliant with a version of Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) standard IEEE 1149, and wherein the test access port includes a Test Data In (TDI) pin, a Test Data Out (TDO) pin, and a Test Clock (TCK) pin.
US07657805B2	Integrated circuit with blocking pin to coordinate entry into test mode An integrated circuit (IC) including a blocking pin. An IC may include state logic, a test control unit configured to coordinate access by external circuitry to operating state of the state logic during a test mode, and interface pins configured to couple the integrated circuit to the external circuitry. Shared interface pins may provide input signals to the test control unit during the test mode of operation and may perform distinct I/O functions during normal mode operation. A blocking interface pin, when asserted by external circuitry during normal mode operation, may force test signals derived from at least a portion of the shared interface pins by the test control unit into respective quiescent states, such that subsequent to assertion of the blocking pin, the integrated circuit is operable to enter the test mode of operation from the normal mode of operation without resetting operating state of the state logic.
US07657802B2	Data compression read mode for memory testing A first series combination of bit match circuits compares a predetermined bit position in data words that are involved in a compression operation. The first series combination compares the values in the predetermined bit position to determine if they are all a logical zero. A second series combination of bit match circuits compares the same predetermined bit position in the data words. The second series combination compares the values to determine if they are all a logical one. If either condition is true, the value of the bit is output through an output buffer. If both conditions are false, the output buffer is placed in a high impedance state to indicate an error condition exists in that bit position.
US07657801B2	Test apparatus, program, and test method There is provided a test apparatus that tests a device under test. The test apparatus includes an address generating circuit that generates a physical address to be supplied to a memory block inside the device under test, a plurality of mask registers being provided in correspondence with a plurality of memory input bits constituting at least a part of a memory input address to be supplied to the device under test, where the plurality of mask registers set values indicating whether a plurality of physical bits constituting the physical address is masked every the physical bit, a plurality of mask arithmetic circuits being provided in correspondence with each of the plurality of memory input bits, where the plurality of mask arithmetic circuits respectively mask the physical address in accordance with the value of the mask register corresponding to this memory input bit, a plurality of logical operation circuits being provided in correspondence with each of the plurality of memory input bits, where the plurality of logical operation circuits respectively output bit data obtained by performing a predetermined logical operation on a masking result by the mask arithmetic circuit as the memory input bit, and an address supplier that supplies the input address including the plurality of memory input bits output from the plurality of logical operation circuits to the device under test.
US07657792B2	Identifying race conditions involving asynchronous memory updates A method of identifying race conditions in a computer program can include identifying a call to a selected function specifying a memory range. The selected function can cause data to be written to the memory range asynchronously. The method further can include spraying the memory range with a predetermined bit pattern and determining whether a detected write operation at least partially overwrites the predetermined bit pattern in the memory range. A race condition can be selectively indicated according to the determining step.
US07657791B2	Method and system for a digital signal processor debugging during power transitions Techniques for the design and use of a digital signal processor, including (but not limited to) for processing transmissions in a communications (e.g., CDMA) system. A method and system control transferring data between debugging registers and digital signal processor processes in association with a power transition sequence of the digital signal processor. In a digital signal processor, debugging registers associate with the core processor process and the debugging process. Control bits control transferring data among the debugging registers, the core processor process and the debugging process. The control bit prevents transferring data among the debugging registers, the core processor process and the debugging process in the event of a power transition sequence. Control bits also prevent a power transition sequence of the digital signal processor in the event of transferring data among the debugging registers and the core processor process or the debugging process.
US07657784B2	Self-reparable semiconductor and method thereof A self-reparable semiconductor comprises M functional units each including N sub-functional units. Corresponding ones of the N sub-functional units in each of the M functional units perform the same function. At least two of the N sub-functional units in one of the M functional units perform different functions. A first spare functional unit includes X sub-functional units, wherein X is greater than or equal to one and less than or equal to N and wherein the X sub-functional units of. the first spare functional unit are functionally interchangeable with corresponding sub-functional units of the M functional units and wherein the X sub-functional units are provided for the at least two of the N sub-functional units. A plurality of switching devices replace at least one of the N sub-functional units with at least one of the X sub-functional units when the at least one of the N sub-functional units is non-operable.
US07657776B2	Containing machine check events in a virtual partition Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for containing machine check events in a virtual partition. One embodiment is a method of software execution. The method divides a hard partition into first and second virtual partitions and attempts to correct an error in a firmware layer of the first virtual partition. If the error is not correctable, then the method reboots the first virtual partition without disrupting hardware resources in the second virtual partition.
US07657773B1	Clock distribution chip for generating both zero-delay and non-zero-delay clock signals In one embodiment of the invention, a clock distribution (CD) chip has one or more input pins, input buffer circuitry, clock generation and distribution circuitry, fanout circuitry, one or more output pins, a feedback pin, and feedback buffer circuitry. Based on single-ended or differential input clock signals applied to the input pins, the CD chip can be programmably configured to generate zero, one, or more zero-delay (ZD) output clock signals and zero, one, or more non-zero-delay (NZD) output clock signals for simultaneous presentation at the output pins.
US07657765B2	Power saving features for computing systems A computing system responds to an event that wakes the computing system from a sleep mode. The computing system recognizes the event and responds to the event. The response includes generating an event notification message that is transmitted to an external device separate from the computing system. The transmission is performed via wireless communication. The computing system then returns to the sleep mode.
US07657758B2	Processing apparatus and integrated circuit to prevent illicit access and reverse engineering A processing apparatus including an internal circuit having a CPU and internal devices and an external circuit including external devices provided externally of the internal circuit, and the like, and is aimed to prevent illicit access and reverse engineering. The internal circuit including a CPU, internal devices and a bus line connecting the CPU to the internal devices and extending externally, and the external circuit including external devices provided externally of an externally extending portion of the bus line. The internal circuit further including a ciphering section 120 provided at an entrance to an external side and ciphering addresses and data on the bus line by ciphering patterns according to a plurality of regions divided from an address space allotted to the entire external devices.
US07657748B2	Certificate-based encryption and public key infrastructure A digital message is sent from a sender to a recipient in a public-key based cryptosystem comprising an authorizer. The authorizer can be a single entity or comprise a hierarchical or distributed entity. In some embodiments, no key status queries or key escrow are needed. The recipient can decrypt the message only if the recipient possesses up-to-date authority from the authorizer. Other features are also provided.
US07657745B2	Secure electronic transfer without requiring knowledge of secret data A secure electronic transfer mechanism that does not require that the computing entities that are parties to the transaction be aware of the secret data used to secure the transfer. A transferring computing entity provides a request from a billing agent computing entity to transfer the electronically transferable item to a computing entity. The billing agent computing entity responds to the request by providing approval data to the second computing entity, the approval data being encrypted using secret data known to the billing agent computing entity and a supplemental computing entity associated with the transferee computing entity, but not to the transferring and transferee computing entity. The approval is provided to the supplemental computing entity, which then credits the transferee account.
US07657735B2	System and method for monitoring network traffic Described is a method of assigning a network address to a trap, the network address being a dark address of a virtual private network. The network traffic destined for the network address is monitored and a classification of the network traffic is determined. After the classification, a predetermined response is executed based on the classification of the traffic.
US07657727B2	Security for logical unit in storage subsystem Mapping tables are for stipulating information for primarily identifying computers, information for identifying a group of the computers and a logical unit number permitting access from the host computer inside storage subsystem, in accordance with arbitrary operation method by a user, and for giving them to host computer. The invention uses management table inside the storage subsystem and allocates logical units inside the storage subsystem to a host computer group arbitrarily grouped by a user in accordance with the desired form of operation of the user, can decide access approval/rejection to the logical unit inside the storage subsystem in the group unit and at the same time, can provide the security function capable of setting interface of connection in the group unit under single port of storage subsystem without changing existing processing, limitation and other functions of computer.
US07657725B2	Integrated circuit with memory-less page table A system is disclosed that comprises a processor, a memoryless first level page table addressable by the processor, and a second level page table stored in a memory coupled to the processor. The second level page table is addressable by at least one entry of the first level page table.
US07657719B2	Controller for a copy operation between a host computer and hard disks, a control method thereof, and a recording medium storing a program for executing the control method A disk array device includes a controller that sets a session pertaining to a copy source disk and a copy destination disk, and without copying the entire data that is recorded in the copy source disk to the copy destination disk, copies to the copy destination disk only the data that is recorded in a data space for writing. Further, if data for reading does not exist in the copy destination disk, the controller searches data from the copy source disk and transfers the searched data to a host computer.
US07657706B2	High speed memory and input/output processor subsystem for efficiently allocating and using high-speed memory and slower-speed memory An input/output processor for speeding the input/output and memory access operations for a processor is presented. The key idea of an input/output processor is to functionally divide input/output and memory access operations tasks into a compute intensive part that is handled by the processor and an I/O or memory intensive part that is then handled by the input/output processor. An input/output processor is designed by analyzing common input/output and memory access patterns and implementing methods tailored to efficiently handle those commonly occurring patterns. One technique that an input/output processor may use is to divide memory tasks into high frequency or high-availability components and low frequency or low-availability components. After dividing a memory task in such a manner, the input/output processor then uses high-speed memory (such as SRAM) to store the high frequency and high-availability components and a slower-speed memory (such as commodity DRAM) to store the low frequency and low-availability components. Another technique used by the input/output processor is to allocate memory in such a manner that all memory bank conflicts are eliminated. By eliminating any possible memory bank conflicts, the maximum random access performance of DRAM memory technology can be achieved.
US07657702B2	Partial block data programming and reading operations in a non-volatile memory Data in less than all of the pages of a non-volatile memory block are updated by programming the new data in unused pages of either the same or another block. In order to prevent having to copy unchanged pages of data into the new block, or to program flags into superceded pages of data, the pages of new data are identified by the same logical address as the pages of data which they superceded and a time stamp is added to note when each page was written. When reading the data, the most recent pages of data are used and the older superceded pages of data are ignored. This technique is also applied to metablocks that include one block from each of several different units of a memory array, by directing all page updates to a single unused block in one of the units.
US07657694B2	Handling access requests in a data processing apparatus A data processing apparatus is provided comprising processing logic for issuing access requests when access to data is required, with each access request specifying a memory address associated with the data the subject of the access request. Access control logic is used to perform an access control operation to check for each access request whether the specified memory address is accessible by the processing logic. Further, a table is provided having a plurality of entries, each entry identifying an address range and an associated action. On occurrence of one or more predetermined events, the access control logic references the table to determine whether the specified address is within the address range identified by an entry of the table. If so, the associated action specified in that entry is invoked, whereas otherwise the access control logic causes any action indicated by the access control operation to be performed. This provides a particularly efficient mechanism for handling access requests in a variety of situations, for example within a virtualization environment where the access requests are directed to virtual devices implemented by hypervisor software.
US07657693B2	Router to use three levels of arbitration for a crossbar channel A router is provided that includes a plurality of lanes to receive inbound data from a plurality of different input ports. The router may further include a shared crossbar channel coupled to each of the lanes and to a plurality of output ports, the crossbar channel to receive inbound data from the plurality of lanes and to provide outbound data to the plurality of output ports. Each lane may include a local lane arbiter, a global lane arbiter and a port arbiter associated with each port.
US07657680B2	Multiple bus interface control using a single controller Mechanisms for configuring an integrated circuit to select one of multiple external device interfaces at a time to use during communication with external devices. The integrated circuit includes a control mechanism, a selection mechanism, and a plurality of external device interfaces. The plurality of device interfaces allow the integrated circuit to communicate with various external devices that support different communication protocols. The control mechanism is configured to designate the selection of one of the plurality of device interfaces for use in communicating with an external device. The control mechanism makes use of the selection mechanism to select the designated device interface to communicate with using the communication protocol supported by the selected interface. The communication may be receiving data from the interface or providing data to the interface. Non-selected interfaces are put in an inactive state.
US07657677B2	Blade server system with a management bus and method for managing the same A blade server system with a management bus and method for managing the same. The blade server system includes a connection board and a management module. The connection board is used for modular interconnection, including communication paths for conducting signals including a management bus signal group and a first bus signal group. The management module is used for management of the blade server system using signals including the management bus signal group and the first bus signal group. If a module is detected, the management module selects the detected module through the management bus and acquires module configuration information of the detected module through the first bus signal group. Distribution of power from a power source to the blade server system is determined according to system configuration information including the module configuration information of the module so that the power source is prevented from being overloaded.
US07657670B2	Control apparatus system A control apparatus system which enables reduction of costs and time for development. An image forming apparatus implementing the control apparatus system has an image output section including a plurality of functional units having different functions. The image output section has an ASIC that is provided in each of the functional units, for performing signal processing on an input signal thereto, a communication IC provided in each of the functional units, and a relay board that performs interface matching between each of the functional units and at least one driver circuit board.
US07657664B2	Method and system for tracking device driver requests A computer implemented method, an apparatus, and a computer usable program product for tracking device driver requests in a data processing system is provided. A controller receives a request from a device driver. The controller associates a timestamp and at least one pointer to the request, wherein the timestamp indicates a time the request is received by an operating system. The controller then links the request from the device driver in a queue in the operating system, wherein the pointer identifies the location of the request in the queue.
US07657660B2	Input-output device and control method thereof The present invention provides an input/output device capable of bringing a per-unit input/output circuit into a simple configuration without impairing reliability even when logic levels opposite in polarity are outputted between input/output devices made conductive to the outside. The input/output device is equipped with one reference port Pk selected from a port group which inputs and outputs signals, target ports Pt selected from other than the reference port of the port group, and a conduction detector which detects that conduction is made between input/output terminals for the reference port Pk and the target ports Pt.
US07657650B2	Reliable and efficient data transfer over serial port A system and method of reliable and efficient data transfer over serial port are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of communicating data to a headless system over a communications medium includes transmitting data over the communications medium, ceasing transmitting data over communications medium in response to detecting a change in a status of a pin (e.g., a pin of a Modem Status Register, a Clear to Send, a 5th bit of the Modem Status Register, etc.) on the communications medium, and repeating the transmitting data over the communications medium in response to receiving a request to resend the data. The method may include transmitting a size of the data (e.g., a 2 byte value) over the serial port.
US07657642B2	IP network node and middleware for establishing connectivity to both the IPv4 and IPv6 networks An Internet Protocol (IP) network node attempts to establish and maintain connectivity to both the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) networks on initialization of one of the operating system and a program application. The IP node includes program instructions for determining IP addresses of all network interfaces associated with the node; program instructions for identifying all usable Internet protocols available on the node; program instructions for determining whether one of IPv4 and IPv6 are usable for communications with other IP nodes; and program instructions for establishing a tunnel through one of the IPv4 and IPv6 networks to a gateway for the other of IPv4 an IPv6 networks if the program instructions determine that either one of the IPv4 and IPv6 networks are not usable for communications with the other IP nodes.
US07657640B2	Method and system for efficient routing of customer and contact e-mail messages After a client or potential client accesses the web-site of a host organization and generates an e-mail to the organization, an e-mail sorting and routing system parses the meta-tags appended to the message to appropriately sort and route the message. The meta-tags specify the language of the client, i.e., the language in which the web-site was communicating with the client when the message was generated. The meta-tags also specify the topic, e.g. a product or service, about which the message was written. This information may be input by the client or ascertained from the content or purpose of the web-page from which the e-mail was generated. The messages are then sorted, first by language and then by topic. As a result, each message is quickly routed to a person qualified as to both language and subject matter who can respond to the client.
US07657638B2	Routing client requests to back-end servers Methods and computer program products for using a front-end server to access content stored on one or more back-end servers. The front-end server receives requests for content from client systems. Back-end servers store the content, but to the client system, it appears as if the front-end server is the content's source. Upon receiving the request, the front-end server checks the validity of the request and examines a global catalog that dynamically maps client system requests to the back-end server or servers that store the requested content. In some circumstances, the content will be stored at a single back-end server and the front-end server directs the request to that server. Alternatively, a list of back-end servers storing the requested content may be generated. If so, the front-end then uses an authentication token as a key to a hash operation that is performed on the list and a single server that is capable of satisfying the request for content is identified. A given request and authentication token always identify the same server if the list of servers available for providing the requested content remains the same. The front-end server provides a single source for content requests so that client systems are not required to alter requests or invalidate local caches when content is moved from one back-end server to another. The front-end server also provides an additional level of security for back-end servers.
US07657632B2	Network session control system A network session is established by a session establishment procedure in accordance with whether or not a difference in priority of session establishment exists among a plurality of terminals for which the network session is to be established. Based on reserved connection information registered in a database, a network administration device for establishing a network session among a plurality of terminals uses a first session establishment procedure that treats all of the terminals in the same manner when there is no difference in the priority of session establishment among the plurality of terminals, and uses a second session establishment procedure that inquires and performs other operations in advance as to whether or not to establish a session with high-priority terminals and treats with priority the terminals of high-priority users when there is a difference in the priority of session establishment.
US07657628B1	External processor for a distributed network access system An external processor for a network access system having a programmable access device includes a service controller that provides at least one service for network traffic, a message processor that processes network messages for service processing by the service controller, and a programmable access device controller that programs the programmable access device in response to service controller processing. It is advantageous for the external processor to include primary and secondary service controllers for a particular service so that, if the primary service controller fails, the secondary service controller can provide the particular service for message received from the programmable access device. In preferred embodiments, the service controller further includes a reporting processor that provides an interface through which reporting messages received from the programmable access device can be communicated to the service controller and a signaling controller that transmits signals to configure network hardware to establish requested network connections. The external processor preferably further supports a service policy interface through which the service controller can request policy decisions from a possibly remote policy server.
US07657621B2	Method for the output of status data A method for automatically indicating status information of a measuring system via an output device includes assigning status information to respective status ranges according to at least one predetermined condition, the status ranges being limited by at least one threshold value. The status ranges are individually outputted. The status information is automatically updated at a predetermined time interval.
US07657620B2	Dynamic intelligent discovery applied to topographic networks A method, system, and computer program product for discovering status of a network topology. A network management framework provides the ability to specify a method for determining how to gather status of a data processing system. A data gathering technique (DGT) may be dynamically adjusted to discovery or monitoring of devices within the data processing system. Different data gathering techniques may be employed in an effort to discover or monitor the devices. In addition, results of previous network data gathering may be stored for later use. These stored results may used to develop an order of relative capabilities for a managed device or devices as compared to other device or devices in the same network. Discovery and monitoring information may be obtained about one device or N devices within the network.
US07657618B1	Management of multiple client requests A system, apparatus, and method are directed to managing multiple back-end connections for pipelined HTTP communications. A traffic management device is configured to open back-end connections to multiple servers. The traffic management device distributes HTTP requests from a client device across multiple server connections. Instead of buffering the responses to ensure that each are returned in a same order as the requests, the traffic management device throttles a TCP receive window between all of the back-end server connections, but that back-end server connection associated with a first expected response. As each response is sent to the client device, the TCP window for the next back-end server connection is opened. This effectively offloads any significant buffering onto the back-end servers, enabling the traffic management device to return the responses in the same order as the requests.
US07657617B1	Method and system for collecting performance related information for a remote device In one embodiment, the invention provides a method comprising for each tuple containing a counter and an object; and for at least one remote device in a network that has the particular object and counter contained in the tuple, automatically sampling the counter.
US07657612B2	XML schema for network device configuration An Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) schema is used to generate configuration settings files. A wireless configuration XML schema defines an XML file for configuring wireless network settings on a wireless device. A wide area network (WAN) configuration schema defines an XML file for configuring a WAN device. A local area network (LAN) configuration schema defines an XML file for configuring a LAN device. A broadband modem configuration schema defines an XML file for configuring a broadband modem device. A device configuration schema defines an XML file for reporting the configuration of a device.
US07657611B2	Content request optimization Content item requests are identified in a web page source document. For each request, it is determined if a content item request has been generated, and if a content item request has not been generated, a content item request for all requests in the web page source document is generated.
US07657606B2	Self-sustained asian font server and service A system for providing non-standard characters over a network is provided. The system includes: (a) a non-standard character server coupled to the network, (b) a character database coupled to the server, and (c) one or more client terminals coupled to the network. A user of each client terminal may create a non-standard character and send a non-standard character index issuance request for the created non-standard character to the non-standard character server. The non-standard character server receives the non-standard character index issuance request including an image of the non-standard character created by the client terminal, automatically assigns an index number to the received image of the non-standard character, stores the received image of the non-standard character and the index number assigned thereto in the character database, and sends the index number assigned to the received image of the non-standard character to all of the client terminals on the network.
US07657593B2	Image processing system, image processing method, image processing apparatus, program for implementing the method, and storage medium An image processing system which is capable of easily customizing a user interface to be displayed on a client computer, according to user's intended use, preference, and/or the like. An image processing apparatus 101 is operable when receiving an operating request from a web client 120, to perform processing corresponding to the received operating request, and transmits to the web client 120 a redirect instruction for commanding access to a display processing service web server 110 as a response to the operating request. The web client 120 is operable when receiving the redirect instruction from the image processing apparatus 101, to access the display processing service web server 110 according to the received redirect instruction. The display processing service web server 110 is operable when being accessed from the web client 120 according to the redirect instruction, to transmit information for display according to a request from the web client 120, to the web client 120.
US07657592B2	System and method for persisting state across navigations in a navigation-based application and for responding to navigation-related events throughout an application Described is a mechanism for persisting state across navigations in a navigation-based application so that the state is accessible by each resource of a app. The invention provides an object (a “NavigationApplication object”) that persists across navigations. The NavigationApplication object allows developers to directly persist state by setting properties on that object and to trap navigation events. Enabling run-time state to be persisted in object form on the client not only improves performance, but makes it possible to develop navigation-based applications that can be run either online or offline. The NavigationApplication object makes it easier to persist state on the client across navigations.
US07657591B2	Dispatching client requests to appropriate server-side methods The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for dispatching client requests to appropriate server-side methods. When a client request is received, a Web server refers to a service contract framework that maps URI paths and HTTP methods to corresponding server implemented methods. A server implemented method corresponding to a URI path and/or an HTTP method included in the client request is identified. The server implemented method is invoked to process the client request message. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention provide a uniform mechanism to dispatch HTTP requests to designated server implemented methods based solely on URI path and HTTP method. That is, an HTTP request can be dispatched to a designated server implemented method without having to include additional dispatch metadata within the HTTP request (e.g., in a SOAP envelope).
US07657584B2	Reorganization method of database and a database reorganization system Provided is a storage system in which a transaction of a database is quiesced, a pair of a first volume and a second volume is split so as to make settings to allow an access to be made only to the database in the first volume, the transaction is then released from the quiescent state, a sparse space is specified in the database stored in the second volume, only the specified sparse space in the second volume is partially reorganized, and the contents of the partially reorganized second volume are copied to the first volume such that the first volume and the second volume are resynchronized with each other to form the pair again.
US07657581B2	Metadata management for fixed content distributed data storage An archival storage cluster of preferably symmetric nodes includes a metadata management system that organizes and provides access to given metadata, preferably in the form of metadata objects. Each metadata object may have a unique name, and metadata objects are organized into regions. Preferably, a region is selected by hashing one or more object attributes (e.g., the object's name) and extracting a given number of bits of the resulting hash value. The number of bits may be controlled by a configuration parameter. Each region is stored redundantly. A region comprises a set of region copies. In particular, there is one authoritative copy of the region, and zero or more backup copies. The number of backup copies may be controlled by a configuration parameter. Region copies are distributed across the nodes of the cluster so as to balance the number of authoritative region copies per node, as well as the number of total region copies per node. Backup region copies are maintained synchronized to their associated authoritative region copy.
US07657580B2	System and method providing virtual applications architecture A virtual applications architecture is provided according to the present invention. The architecture includes a topology manager for managing applications across a plurality of members, and a virtual applications manager for defining a plurality of resources comprising the applications. The topology manager communicates with the plurality of members to initiate scaling of the applications associated with the virtual applications manager to the members. The architecture may also include a replication system for deploying the applications to the members.
US07657572B2	Selectively utilizing a plurality of disparate solid state storage locations A method for selectively utilizing a plurality of disparate solid state storage locations is disclosed. The technology initially receives class types for a plurality of disparate solid state storage locations. The characteristics of the received data are determined. The received data is then allocated to one of the plurality of disparate solid state storage locations based upon the determined characteristics of the received data.
US07657570B2	Optimizing aggregate processing Disclosed is method for processing an aggregate function. Rows that contain a reference to intermediate result structures are grouped to form groups. For each group, aggregate element structures are formed from the intermediate result structures and, if the aggregate function specifies ordering, the aggregate element structures are sorted based on a sort key.
US07657559B2	Method to exchange objects between object-oriented and non-object-oriented environments A mechanism is provided to exchange information comprised in objects between object-oriented and non-object-oriented environments. The mechanism converts an object or a collection of objects into key-value-pairs clearly assigned to its originate object and vice versa. The mechanism feeds the keys and the values of the clearly assigned key-value-pairs one-by-one into a data stream to be used to transport information comprised in the objects from an object-oriented to a non-object-oriented environment and vice versa. Each key and/or value is only fed one time into the data stream and is then replaced by a placeholder referring to the key and/or value already sent.
US07657558B2	Establishing relationships between objects based on object interfaces In an interface-based object system capable of supporting multiple interfaces into objects, a relationship is defined as a pair of complementary collections on two separate interfaces, each interface found on separate objects. A link between objects is formed when an interface of one object lists an object supporting the related interface included in the object and vice versa. The collections may be of objects supporting the related interfaces or may be of specific relationship objects leading to objects supporting the related interfaces. The collections are potentially multi-valued entities that enable relationships to be established between objects using one-to-one, many-to-one, and many-to-many architectures. By implementing a specific relationship object, behavior may be imparted to the relationship itself thereby providing more robust system behavior. Objects thus linked can be easily traversed so that convenient navigation models can be implemented allowing clients quick access to desired objects by navigating through relationships between objects.
US07657554B2	Method and system for managing user interface messages A system, method, data structures and computer-accessible medium is provided for storing, managing, and tracking the development of messages for computer program products. Message and message-related data for messages which computer program products display to users as part of the product's user interface are centralized in a message catalog. A message catalog schema describes the attributes of a message separately from the attributes of one or more conditions for which a message should be displayed. Interfaces are provided for creating, localizing, documenting, maintaining, displaying, and supporting messages and message-related data in a message catalog consistent with the message catalog schema. Notifications to owners of the messages and conditions is performed periodically or whenever a change has been detected.
US07657547B1	Hierarchy modification A hierarchy of nodes is created, each node being one of associated with an item retrieved according to a condition and associated with a category of information including the item. It is determined whether at least one of the nodes is redundant in the hierarchy. The at least one of the nodes is pruned from the hierarchy if the at least one of the nodes is redundant.
US07657528B2	Method, computer program product and article of manufacture for providing service-to-role assignment to launch application services in role-based computer system In a computer system (100) that launches application services for predetermined roles, a service-to-role assignment is customized in a target table. The user inserts a CD-ROM with master and reference tables, and the system automatically provides the target table. The master table (119) stores a first assignment (112) of application services (S, 151-156) to roles (RO), and stores a second assignment (113) of service attributes (SA), such as language or industry branch, of the application services (S). The reference table (129) stores reference attributes (REA) for each application service (S) in the master table. The service representations for each role (RO) are forwarded from the master table (119) into the target table (149) if service and reference attributes match.
US07657520B2	Providing history and transaction volume information of a content source to users A computer-implemented system and method for providing a legitimacy rating of a content source are provided. A request for a document is received. An electronic document associated with a content source is passed by a document provider in response to the request. A legitimacy rating of the content source is passed. Examples of legitimacy rating information include, for example, a history rating of the content source based on the length of time the document provider has published documents associated with the content source and a transaction volume rating of the content source based on the number of electronic documents associated with the content source that are passed by the document provider.
US07657515B1	High efficiency document search A computer-implemented search method and system is provided whereby a file is received including a query, typically for trademark search, having a first list of query terms and a second list of industry terms. The first and second lists may include tens or hundreds of terms. An AND-OR tree is constructed to represent the query terms and the industry terms and traversed to logically combine each of the query terms with each of the industry terms to form sub-queries which are executed in parallel. The results from each sub-query execution are limited according to a sub-query result limit. The sub-query results are combined to construct a query result for the original query included in the file. Duplicate results are removed from the query result and an ordinal number is included for each term in the query result before returning the query result.
US07657513B2	Adaptive help system and user interface A help system tracks user search queries and builds a database by matching the user query to the user's selected result from the search system. As the user repeatedly searches, the user's terminology may be associated with particular search keywords. A relevance factor may be computed using the database for future searches. In some cases, modifications to a user interface may be made by replacing the user's terminology with a function in the user interface, or by highlighting a user's terminology on the user interface using a floating box such as a tool tip.
US07657509B2	System to manage and store backup and recovery meta data A system to manage backup and recovery meta data. A database (54) including a schema (70) having a file table (72), a backup table (74), and a link table (76) stores the backup and recovery meta data. A computerized console portal system (30) then accepts instruction regarding the meta data from a computerized administrator system (24).
US07657505B2	Data retrieval from a database utilizing efficient eager loading and customized queries The subject disclosure pertains to systems and methods that facilitate retrieval of data. In particular, an application defined data shape can regulate loading of data for use in an object relational mapping system, enabling the object-oriented application to access data in a relational data base system. Data shapes define policies that control data retrieval, enabling efficient data loading. A data shape allows users to declaratively specify a set of policies to be applied to all queries associated with the data shape. In particular, data shapes can include policies that control eager loading. In addition, data shapes can also include filtering policies intended to reduce or limit data retrieved from a relational database.
US07657504B2	User interface for displaying images of sights A method and system for identifying sights associated with a location and for displaying images associated with those sights is provided. A tour system identifies sights associated with a location by submitting a search request formed using the location to an image search service. The tour system identifies salient phrases of metadata of the search results to be the candidate sight names. The tour system also provides a user interface for displaying the images associated with the locations. The user interface may present a slideshow of sights encountered when traveling on a trip.
US07657494B2	Method for forecasting the production of a petroleum reservoir utilizing genetic programming A method utilizing genetic programming to construct history matching and forecasting proxies for reservoir simulators. Acting as surrogates for computer simulators, the genetic programming proxies evaluate a large number of reservoir models and predict future production forecasts for petroleum reservoirs.
US07657493B2	Recommendation system that identifies a valuable user action by mining data supplied by a plurality of users to find a correlation that suggests one or more actions for notification Personal data mining mechanisms and methods are employed to identify relevant information that otherwise would likely remain undiscovered. Users supply personal data that can be analyzed in conjunction with data associated with a plurality of other users to provide useful information that can improve business operations and/or quality of life. Personal data can be mined alone or in conjunction with third party data to identify correlations amongst the data and associated users. Applications or services can interact with such data and present it to users in a myriad of manners, for instance as notifications of opportunities.
US07657491B2	Application of fuzzy logic to response and unsolicited information A network management station includes a processor, memory coupled to the processor, and computer executable instructions provided to the memory and executable by the processor. The computer executable instructions are configured to transmit a network management message to a network device connected to the network management station over a network, receive response information from the network device based on the network management message, receive unsolicited information from the network device, and apply fuzzy logic to the received information and the unsolicited information to produce information associated with the health of the network device.
US07657486B2	Techniques for co-existence of multiple stored value applications on a single payment device managing a shared balance A method of managing a first stored value application having a first application balance and a second stored value application having a second application balance, can include the steps of facilitating conducting of a first transaction by the first stored value application, and synchronizing the second stored value application with the first stored value application. The synchronization can be substantially contemporaneous with the transaction. The applications can reside on the same portable payment device.
US07657482B1	System and apparatus for transaction fraud processing A system for processing transaction data is provided. The system includes a fraud policy system that provides merchant fraud policy data. An order information data system receives order information data and the merchant fraud policy data and generates order information fraud score data, such as by modifying the order information data using the merchant fraud policy data and then scoring the modified order information data. A transaction authorization system receives the order information fraud score data and the merchant fraud policy data and generates client authorization data.
US07657481B2	Strategy weight This invention relates to hedge fund indexing in general and methods and systems for constructing and maintaining investable hedge fund indices in particular.
US07657479B2	Method and system for provision and acquisition of medical services and products Transactional costs associated with providing professional services are reduced by allowing prospective patients/clients (bidders) and professional service providers to negotiate competitively for desired fees for proffered services through an interactive on-line communications network such as the Internet. A transaction system server handles online communications and procedures for conducting auctions for delivery of proffered services and maintains a registration database of service providers and bidders. An authentication/qualifier engine automatically researches and verifies service provider credentials and background information upon registration of a service provider with the system. A service feedback interface and database are provided for handling online feedback information and comments from patients/clients and providers regarding the complexity and quality of services received or provided.
US07657471B1	Method and apparatus providing automated financial plan controls Techniques providing automatic control of a distributed electronic financial plan are disclosed. A set of financial statements is created and populated with planned data values that are stored in a database. In certain embodiments, statements in the set are logically linked to facilitate automatic updating as changes occur. The P&L, balance sheet and statement of cash flow are all automatically configured with certain calculated lines and standard lines that maintain proper accounting relationships among the electronic financial plan documents. Spending lines of the P&L are linked meaningfully to constrain spending plans of the corresponding underlying departments so that the P&L becomes conservative in terms of spending. One or more organizational hierarchies may be created and stored, based on departmental organization or revenue flows, and sets of P&Ls, balance sheets, and statements of cash flows are associated with nodes in these hierarchies. A roll-up statement may be created based on any of the hierarchies, enabling a user to rapidly obtain alternative views of lower-level plan data. The user may also prepare multiple different linked groups of P&Ls, balance sheets, and statements of cash flows to view and evaluate multiple scenarios of financial performance.
US07657464B1	System and methods of conducting business-to-business operations by registered sellers and buyers using an internet accessible platform An internet accessible computer system to conduct business to business operations among a plurality of buyer companies and a plurality of seller companies. In one embodiment, the system includes at least one seller client system, at least one buyer client system, at least one computer server coupled to a database for storing data, and a network connecting said at least one seller client system and said at least one buyer client system to said at least one computer server. Said at least one computer server is programmed for, among other things, registering each of the plurality of seller companies with the internet accessible computer system, wherein each of the plurality of seller companies sells goods to a corresponding one of the plurality of buyer companies, and the corresponding one buyer company makes payment for the goods sold by that seller company, and registering each of the plurality of buyer companies with the internet accessible computer system, wherein the registration of each of the plurality of buyer companies depends on the registration of its corresponding seller company.
US07657444B2	Distance-treatment through public network A method and system of providing biological distance-treatment through a public network includes at least a treatment instrument which is electrically connected with an information connection system for providing a treatment for a registered user, wherein a treatment information data package sent from a service provider via the information connection system through the public network to provide digital treatment signals to control the treatment, wherein the treatment information data package is selected from the treatment information database based on a treatment request sent from the information connection system to the service provider and the health information profile of the registered user in the service provider.
US07657443B2	Intravenous medication harm index system A system and method for assessing the severity of medication errors associated with intravenous administration is provided. A harm index database includes harm index values for various parameters of medication administration. A medication administration device may access this database and assess the overall harm index for particular errors in order to provide appropriate alerts based on the severity of the error. Further, assessment of the harm index value may be used retrospectively to provide reports of event logs that include an overall harm index value associated with each alert.
US07657440B2	Fishing gear maintenance cost estimation system and fishing gear maintenance cost estimation program A fishing gear maintenance cost estimation system uses a fishing gear maintenance cost estimation program to estimate cost of maintenance of fishing gear. The fishing gear maintenance cost estimation system has an information acceptance component, a replacement part determination component, a cost computation component and a display. The information acceptance component accepts estimation basis information including product information and condition information. The product information is information for identifying a product name of fishing gear. The condition information is information for identifying condition of the fishing gear. The replacement part determination component determines a part which must be replaced on the basis of the estimation basis information. The cost computation component computes the overhaul cost including the cost of the part. The display displays the overhaul cost.
US07657435B2	Acoustic signal transmission method and apparatus with insertion signal The acoustic signal transmission method is based on generating a synthesized sound electrical signal by electrically synthesizing an audible sound signal and another signal different than the audible sound signal at the sending side, and transmitting the synthesized sound electrical signal, and extracting the another signal different than the audible sound signal from the synthesized sound electrical signal at the receiving side. Here, generation of the synthesized sound electrical signal is made by using a data hiding technique, for example. Accordingly, the acoustic signal represented by the synthesized sound electrical signal can be heard by human ears in the same way as the audible sound signal, and the synthesized another signal cannot be detected by human ears. Here, the synthesized sound electrical signal can be transmitted as a sound wave in air space, as electrical signal through a transmission line or as radio signals such as infrared and electromagnetic waves.
US07657433B1	Speech recognition accuracy with multi-confidence thresholds A speech recognition system uses multiple confidence thresholds to improve the quality of speech recognition results. The choice of which confidence threshold to use for a particular utterance may be based on one or more features relating to the utterance. In one particular implementation, the speech recognition system includes a speech recognition engine that provides speech recognition results and a confidence score for an input utterance. The system also includes a threshold selection component that determines, based on the received input utterance, a threshold value corresponding to the input utterance. The system further includes a threshold component that accepts the recognition results based on a comparison of the confidence score to the threshold value.
US07657425B2	Method and system for information extraction A method, a system and a computer program for extracting information from a natural language text corpus based on a natural language query are disclosed. The natural language text corpus is indexed and stored. A natural language query is analyzed with respect to phrases, phrase types, syntactic roles, word tokens of phrases, and lexical meaning of word tokens. One or more surface variants are created for at least one phrase of the natural language query. The one or more surface variants each have the same phrase type as the at least one phrase of the natural language query, and each comprise a word token which is a lexical head and has the same lexical meaning as a word token which is a lexical head of the at least one phrase of the natural language query. The one or more surface variants and the at least one phrase of the natural language query are compared with the indexed and stored natural language text corpus. Portions of text are extracted from the indexed and stored natural language text corpus, which portions comprise a string of word tokens that matches any one of said surface variants or said at least one phrase of the natural language query.
US07657424B2	System and method for processing sentence based queries Sentence based queries from a user are analyzed to determine appropriate answers from an electronic database. Text in the queries is dissected to identify different phrases; the phrases in turn are matched against candidate phrases to determine best matching answers responsive to the user's question. The system and methods are useful for Internet based search engines, as well as distributed speech recognition systems such as a client-server system. The latter are typically implemented on an intranet or over the Internet based on user queries at his/her computer, a PDA, or a workstation using a speech input interface.
US07657420B2	Systems and methods for the generation of alternate phrases from packed meaning Techniques are provided to generate alternate phrases from a packed meaning representation. The semantics of input items in a packed meaning representation are matched against a lexicon to determine initial entries in a phrasal information structure. Context, syntax and semantic information describing each phrasal entry are added to the phrasal information structure. Linear or other implications are used to determine a set of unordered rewrite rules. The unordered rewrite rules associate semantic information with pseudofacts such that a complete set of choices from the set of disjunctions in the packed meaning representation is selected. Semantic information associated with the unordered rewrite rules identifies entries in the phrasal information structure to be updated with the pseudofact of the unordered rewrite rule. Entries in the phrasal information structure not associated with false contexts are combined based on ordered rewrite rules. The ordered rewrite rules are based on the language of the packed meaning representation. Source information associated with each new entry in the phrasal information structure reflects the phrasal entry identifiers of the entries used to determine the new entry. For any set of entries in the phrasal information structure produced by an ordered rewrite rule, the context of a missing semantic fact is subtracted from the context of the entry lacking the semantic fact. Entries associated with a false context are discarded and entries sharing the same syntax and semantic information are merged. Any entries in the phrasal information structure associated with the “ALL” pseudofact are then determined. Alternate phrases are generated based on the source information for the entry in the phrasal information structure associated with the “ALL” pseudofact.
US07657417B2	Method, system and machine readable medium for publishing documents using an ontological modeling system A method, system and machine readable medium are disclosed to process one or more documents in a domain. The method includes modeling the domain with a plurality of domain models using an ontological system; representing each document as a collection of one or more domain models; and populating the domain models that are used to represent the document with values corresponding to properties of the document being represented.
US07657413B2	Method of constraining a heterogeneous permeability field representing an underground reservoir by dynamic data A method of constraining a stochastic model of Gaussian or related type, representing a porous medium such as an underground reservoir, to data characteristic of the displacement of the fluids is disclosed. The method is based on an iterative development in two stages. The first stage carries out a flow simulation, in identifying zones inside the reservoir and in estimating the modification to be brought to the effective permeabilities of these zones so as to improve calibration between the real data and the corresponding responses obtained with the flow simulator. The second stage involves an intermediate optimization problem intended to minimize an intermediate objective function (implemented from a gradual deformation technique) measuring the difference between the effective permeabilities calculated for the zones and the effective permeabilities identified during the first stage for better calibration.
US07657412B2	Method of and apparatus for displaying structure optimizing result To provide a method of and an apparatus for displaying a structure optimizing result which are capable of displaying rigidity values calculated on the basis of an initial wall thickness value, an optimum wall thickness value, and a standard wall thickness value in such a manner that a change between two of these rigidity values is clearly indicated. The structure optimizing result is displayed wherein an actual rigidity value of a structure is calculated on the basis of an inputted initial value of a wall thickness of each component of the structure. An optimum value of the wall thickness of each of the components is calculated on the basis of a sensitivity analysis result in order to make the calculated actual rigidity value close to a required rigidity value of the structure and the calculated result is displayed. In the method and apparatus, the actual rigidity value and a rigidity value of the structure on the basis of the optimum wall thickness value of each of the component are comparatively displayed as a list by an output calculation/display control unit.
US07657409B2	Simulation techniques A method for assessing wave propagation in a physical system by numerical simulation; a computational domain comprises first grid cells with a first-grid time step, refined second grid cells with a second-grid time step, and intermediate grid cells of first-grid cell size and second-grid time step, with solution points located on the cells; obtaining values of a physical quantity after a first-grid time step at a solution point of one first-grid cell; using values from the first grid to obtain values at a perimeter of the intermediate grid; obtaining values of the physical quantity after the second-grid time step; using values from the intermediate grid to obtain the values at the perimeter of the second grid; using the values at the perimeter of the second grid, to obtain values of the physical quantity after a second-grind time step for solution points of the second-grind cell.
US07657403B2	Method for reducing digital data in an EMAT pig A method for reducing digital data of an electro magnetic acoustic transducer pig that travels through a pipeline so as to detect defects by measuring an analog ultrasonic echo includes determining a size of a defect and determining a background noise at the defect. The size of the defect is determined by selecting peak values of the digital data based on a plurality of amplitude/transit time vectors indicating maxima of an ultrasound envelope, each vector being determined by three amplitude/transit time pairs. The ultrasound envelope is generated by determining a width of a respective vector ultrasound envelope for each vector. The background noise at the defect is determined by summing peak values of the digital data in time intervals so as to form an interval-specific summation value.
US07657399B2	Methods and systems for detecting deviation of a process variable from expected values In methods and systems that may facilitate detecting abnormal operation in a process plant, values of a process variable are analyzed to determine whether they significantly deviate from expected values. If there is a significant deviation, an indicator may be generated. Analyzing the process variable may include, for example, determining whether a number of values of the process variable are increasingly deviating from expected values, or determining whether the process variable is cycling. Analyzing the process variable may also include, for example, processing and analyzing the process variable to determine whether the process is in a normal state, one or more abnormal states, or an indeterminate state.
US07657398B2	Method for detecting an error in a measurement cycle A method of detecting an error in a measurement cycle. The method includes wirelessly transmitting a sequence of electrical signals sweeping through a predetermined frequency band from a transmitter to the receiver of an electric evaluation circuit of household appliance controller. The levels of the signals are measured, and a parameter is calculated from the signal levels in the evaluation circuit. The parameter is compared to an upper and lower limit, and the quality of the measurement cycle is determined as a function of the comparison.
US07657395B2	Two-axis accelerometer for detecting inclination without the effect of common acceleration A system and device for detecting inclination that eliminates the need to compensate for the acceleration of the vehicle is disclosed. The system includes a multi-axis acceleration sensing device that is fixedly attached to the object such that each sensing axis of the multi-axis acceleration sensing device lies in a common plane with the forward-aft axis of the object and the sensing axes are orthogonal to one another and each sensing axis is oriented 45 degrees from the forward-aft axis.
US07657389B2	Method of aligning probe for eddy current inspection A system and method using a touch probe device for eddy current inspection. The touch probe provides a simple approach for coming within close contact of the specimen while maintaining a normal angle and pressure at the right positions. The use of the touch probe further reduces the total time for the eddy current inspection. The touch probe aligns the probe to a specimen to be inspected, for the purpose of reducing measurement errors and increasing productivity.
US07657388B2	Quality assessment tool Non-intrusive speech quality assessment method and apparatus for storing a sequence of intercepted packets associated with a call, each packet containing speech data, and an indication of a transmission time of the packet; storing with each intercepted packet an indication of an intercept time of the packet; extracting a set of parameters from the sequence of packets; and generating an estimated mean opinion score in dependence upon the set of parameters. The extracting step comprises the sub steps of: generating a jitter parameter for each packet of the sequence of stored packets; generating a long term average jitter parameter for the stored packet; and generating a differential jitter parameter in dependence upon the jitter parameter for the stored packet and the long term average jitter parameter.
US07657380B2	Methods of generating variant antibodies with increased host string content The present invention relates to novel methods for generating variant proteins with increased host string content by comparing a parent protein sequence with two or more natural protein sequences from a host species, analyzing one or more amino acid strings of the parent protein sequence with a structurally corresponding amino acid string of each of said natural protein sequences, substituting one or more amino acid strings of the parent protein sequence with a structurally corresponding amino acid string of one of the two or more natural protein sequences on an amino acid string by amino acid string basis so that the variant protein has increased host string content, and, synthesizing and screening the variant protein.
US07657373B2	Vehicle-mounted information processing apparatus The present invention solves problems to provide an in-vehicle information processing device that is equipped in a vehicle to perform communications wirelessly and has a function as a communication terminal for transmitting and receiving information without an access point to form an ad-hoc wireless communication network, the device comprising: a road shape storage unit 19 operable to store road shape data of a road leading to a driver's destination; a propagation path derivation unit 21 operable to derive propagation path data from information received by a driver's vehicle, using position data of another vehicle from which the information is propagated; a determination unit 15 operable to determine whether or not the propagation path data matches the road shape data, and to generate match information in a case that the propagation path data matches the road shape data; and a notification unit 16 operable to notify the driver of the received information in a case that the match information is generated.
US07657367B1	Method of developing traffic messages A method is disclosed for developing traffic messages. The method obtains traffic data indicating collected traffic speeds at various locations on a road network. Traffic messages are developed from the traffic data. The method obtains ground truth data indicating ground truth speeds at a subset of the locations on the road network. The ground truth speed represents average speed of vehicles at one of the locations. For those locations for which ground truth speed has been obtained, the method computes a traffic quality value comparing the collected traffic speed to the ground truth speed for the location. The traffic messages and traffic quality data representative of the traffic quality values are transmitted.
US07657357B2	Vehicle motion control device A transfer clutch control units operates a second transfer clutch torque corresponding to a yaw moment out of the transfer clutch torque to be output to a transfer clutch drive unit by a second transfer clutch torque operational unit. The second transfer clutch torque operational unit operates a reference lateral acceleration from a lateral acceleration to be operated based on a linear vehicle motion model from a vehicle driving state and a preset coefficient according to the vehicle driving state, in addition to the yaw moment sensing the yaw rate and the yaw moment sensing the steering wheel angle, and operate the yaw moment corresponding to the deviation between the reference lateral acceleration and the actual lateral acceleration as a corrected value of the yaw moment. Not only a high μ road but also a low μ road, even abrupt change of road surfaces or the like can be consistently and optimally coped with in excellent response.
US07657355B2	Device for actuating a bending mast in a large manipulator and a large manipulator comprising said device The invention relates to a device for monitoring the safety of a bending pole (22) in a large manipulator, whereby the arms (23-27) of the mast can be pivoted in relation to each other by means of a drive unit (34-38). The relative position of the arms of the mast in relation to the respective adjacent arm of the mast or frame of the mast (21) is measured for adjusting the position thereof. According to the invention, the positing measuring values (εI) of the arms of the mast are used in order to control the safety of the drive units (34-38) or the actuators thereof (80-84) in relation to a variation of predefined safety values.
US07657354B2	Vehicular electronic system with crash sensors and occupant protection systems Electronic system in a vehicle includes crash sensor systems each arranged to sense a crash involving the vehicle and occupant protection systems each including an occupant protection device arranged to protect an occupant in the event of a crash involving the vehicle. The crash sensor system(s) and the occupant protection system(s) are connected to a bus and supplied with power by the bus and communication through the bus. Each occupant protection device is actuated in the event of a crash involving the vehicle as sensed by a crash sensor system. Each occupant protection system may include a power supply for providing power to enable actuation of the occupant protection device, diagnostic circuitry for self-diagnosis, an occupant sensor and a controller for controlling actuation of the occupant protection device based on a signal received from a crash sensor system over the bus, and data from the occupant sensor.
US07657351B2	Method of controlling engine stop-start operation for heavy-duty hybrid-electric and hybrid-hydraulic vehicles A start-stop or idle-stop method for a heavy-duty hybrid vehicle that turns off the fuel supply while maintaining the crankshaft rotation of the internal combustion engine when the vehicle stops or, optionally, when the vehicle travels downhill, travels in a noise sensitive location, travels in an exhaust emissions sensitive location, or operates in an emergency situation. The stop-start or idle-stop method automatically turns on the engine fuel supply to restart combustion when the vehicle starts accelerating, is no longer traveling downhill, is no longer traveling in a noise sensitive or exhaust sensitive location, is no longer in an emergency situation, or has dropped below the minimum energy storage restart level.
US07657350B2	Method of controlling engine stop-start operation for heavy-duty hybrid-electric and hybrid-hydraulic vehicles This invention relates to a Start-Stop method for a heavy-duty hybrid vehicle that turns off the internal combustion engine when the vehicle stops or, optionally, when the vehicle travels downhill. The Stop-Start method automatically restarts the internal combustion engine when the vehicle starts accelerating or is no longer traveling downhill. The software instructions for the Stop-Start method reside within the programming of the hybrid vehicle control computer as a subset of the hybrid vehicle control strategy in hybrid-electric or hybrid-hydraulic heavy-duty vehicle. During the time the internal combustion engine is turned off the necessary vehicle accessories operate from the available power of the hybrid high power energy storage.
US07657337B1	Skip feature for a broadcast or multicast media station A skip function for a broadcast or multicast media station is disclosed. In one embodiment, two content streams are simultaneously transmitted for a single radio station. A receiving device simultaneously receives the two content streams transmitted for the radio station. The receiving device provides playback of a first content stream of the two content streams. During playback of the first content stream, the receiving device buffers one or more most recently received content items from the second content stream. When a user of the receiving device initiates a skip, the receiving device performs a skip function by switching playback from the first content stream to the second content stream beginning at the start of the one or more most recently received content items from the second content stream that have been buffered at the receiving device.
US07657332B2	Process and systems for the epoxidation of an olefin A process for the epoxidation of an olefin, which process comprises reacting a feed comprising the olefin, oxygen and a reaction modifier in the presence of a highly selective silver-based catalyst at a reaction temperature T, and with the reaction modifier being present in a relative quantity Q which is the ratio of an effective molar quantity of active species of the reaction modifier present in the feed to an effective molar quantity of hydrocarbons present in the feed, and which process comprises the steps of: operating at a first operating phase wherein the value of T is T1 and the value of Q is Q1, and subsequently operating at a second operating phase at a reaction temperature which is different from the reaction temperature employed in the first operating phase, such that the value of T is T2 and the value of Q is substantially Q2, whereby Q2 is determined by calculation and Q2 is defined by the formula Q2=Q1+B(T2−T1), wherein B denotes a constant factor which is greater than 0; a reaction system suitable for performing the process for the epoxidation of an olefin; a computer program product which comprises a computer readable program recorded on a computer readable medium, suitable for instructing a data processing system of a computer system to execute calculations for the process for the epoxidation of an olefin; and a computer system which comprises the computer program product and a data processing system.
US07657330B2	Optical ring architecture A system and method for providing a network that includes at least two microprocessor-controlled devices that include a first microprocessor-controlled device and a distinct second microprocessor-controlled device, and at least two bi-directional fiber optic cables to provide a communicative ring amongst the at least two microprocessor controlled devices by connecting the at least two microprocessor-controlled devices in a daisy-chain, where the first microprocessor-controlled device and the distinct second microprocessor-controlled device communicate via at least two of the bi-directional fiber optic cables.
US07657323B2	Endovenous device for dispersing a dilating agent Apparatus and methods are disclosed for inserting electrical leads within a heart. A method is provided for positioning a medical electrical lead in a cardiac vein. The method comprises inserting a lead within a coronary sinus, dispersing at least one vasodilating agent to dilate at least one cardiac vein, and inserting the lead into a dilated cardiac vein.
US07657307B2	Method of and apparatus for classifying arrhythmias using scatter plot analysis A method of classifying arrhythmias using scatter plot analysis to define a measure of variability of a cardiac rhythm parameter such as for example, without limitation, R-R interval, A-A interval, and the slope of a portion of a cardiac signal, is disclosed. The variability measurement is derived from a scatter plot of a cardiac rhythm parameter, employing a region counting technique that quantifies the variability of the cardiac rhythm parameter while minimizing the computational complexity. The method may be employed by an implantable medical device or system, such as an implantable pacemaker or cardioverter defibrillator, or by an external device or system, such as a programmer or computer. The variability measurement may be correlated with other device or system information to differentiate between atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation, for example. The variability information may also be used by the device or system to select an appropriate therapy for a patient.
US07657292B2	Method for evaluating extracellular water concentration in tissue The present disclosure provides systems, devices, and/or methods for assessing body fluid-related metrics and/or changes therein. The disclosure further provides systems, devices, and/or methods for correlating body fluid-related metrics in a particular tissue with the corresponding whole-body metric. The disclosure also provides, systems, devices, and/or methods for assessment of such metrics to facilitate diagnosis and/or therapeutic interventions related to maintaining and/or restoring body fluid balance.
US07657286B2	Multiradio control interface element in modem A system for managing the simultaneous operation of a plurality of radio modems in a single wireless communication device (WCD). The multiradio control may be integrated into the WCD as a subsystem responsible for scheduling wireless communications by temporarily enabling or disabling the plurality of radio modems within the device. The multiradio control system may comprise a multiradio controller (MRC) and a plurality dedicated radio interfaces. The radio interfaces are dedicated to quickly conveying delay sensitive information to and from the radio modems. This information may be requested by the MRC, or provided by one or more of the plurality of radio modems, if a change occurs during operation.
US07657283B2	System and method for measuring and configuring miss-configured 2G neighbors in 3G networks A system and a method for measuring and configuring miss-configured 2G neighbors in a 3G network. The system comprises a user equipment, an operation and maintenance center, a radio network controller and a data register, wherein the operation and maintenance center further comprises a measurement information unit and a configuration unit, and the radio network controller further comprises a measurement control unit. The method comprises the steps of: setting parameters and measuring 2G neighbors in a 3G cell according to the parameters; generating a to-be-measured 2G neighbor list and delivering the to-be-measured 2G neighbor list to the user equipment for measuring; receiving report of measurement information of the 2G neighbors from the user equipment, and if the reported measurement information of one of the to-be-measured 2G neighbors meets condition of miss-configuration, adding the one to the miss-configured 2G neighbor list.
US07657272B2	Text messaging conversation user interface functionality A computer readable medium, method and user device for a user interface functionality for wireless text message conversations is provided. A group of individual wireless text messages is treated as a single entity by the wireless text message conversation UI, the wireless text message conversation history UI saves space by including the wireless text message editor within the conversation history panel, and displays a pop-up display with useful information regarding the wireless text message being edited.
US07657267B2	Receiving apparatus and method, information distribution method, filtering and storing program, and recording medium It is possible for the content distribution side to control the conditions of target viewers for distributions without depending on the functions specific to a receiver. Content which is broadcast, a content profile, and a program are received. In an initial step of the program, prestored viewer profile information is read. All the content profiles and the contents are downloaded temporarily. Next, the profile information is read, and then a process of matching the profile information with the viewer profile information is performed. When it is determined that they do not match, a matching process for the next content profile is performed. If, on the other hand, they match, at the next step, the content is stored. The viewer reproduces the stored content at an appropriate time.
US07657264B2	Scheduling of data transmission for terminals with variable scheduling delays Techniques for scheduling terminals with different scheduling delays. Initially, the scheduling delay of each terminal is determined, and the total available transmit power and the link efficiency of each terminal are estimated. In a first scheme, the terminals are scheduled for data transmission based on the longest scheduling delay among the delays of all terminals. In a second scheme, each terminal is assigned a particular priority based on its scheduling delay, and the terminals are scheduled based on their assigned priorities. In a third scheme, the terminals are categorized into classes based on their scheduling delays. A percentage of the total available transmit power is allocated to each class, and the terminals in each class are scheduled based on the transmit power allocated to that class. In a fourth scheme, the terminals are scheduled for data transmission, and the schedule for each terminal is applied after its scheduling delay.
US07657263B1	Method and system for automatic call distribution based on customized logic relating to agent behavior A method of routing calls of an automatic call distributor system that includes receiving a first workflow, comprising a desired behavior, associated with a first agent of a plurality of agents and receiving at least one request from a respective user for connection with one of the agents. The method also includes monitoring system information and executing the first workflow after the first agent becomes available for connection with one of the requests. The method includes selecting a first request of the at least one request, wherein the first request is selected based on the first agent's desired behavior and the monitored system information, and connecting the first request to the first agent. The method may also include receiving a notification that the first agent is available for connection with one of the respective users, and executing the first workflow after receiving the notification that the first agent is available.
US07657260B2	Method of providing data redundancy for home location register The present invention discloses a method of providing data redundancy for HLR, the method comprises: performing cutover for subscribers' data preserved in master HLRs into a redundant center HLR; preserving all successfully executed operation & maintenance commands which are associated with system data and said subscribers' data of the master HLRs during runtime of the master HLRs; transferring said operation & maintenance commands preserved in the master HLRs to the redundant center HLR; converting the received operation & maintenance commands into internal operation commands recognizable by the redundant center HLR, and loading them into a host machine of the redundant center HLR. The present invention enhances the conformity of the subscribers' data, and reduces the maintenance workload of the redundant center HLR and lowers the maintenance complexity.
US07657257B2	Loading an application to be deployed in a terminal and a chip card In order to rapidly load from a server (1) an application to be deployed (AP) in a terminal (2) and a chip card (3), a message (MAP) containing both a first application part and second application part formatted so as to be compatible with a protocol for communication between the terminal and the card is transmitted by the server to the terminal, which stores the two parts. The first part (APT) extracted from the application message (MAP) is installed in the terminal. A specific loader (CAPC) loads the second part (APC) extracted from the message according to the communication protocol. The installations of the two application parts are thus synchronous under the control of the terminal.
US07657256B2	Notifying a user of a portable wireless device A method, apparatus and system for notifying a user of a portable communication device. In one embodiment, a location of a first portable communication device is determined for a first user and the location of a second portable communication device is determined for a second user. A determination is made as to whether the location of the second portable communication device is within a same region containing the first portable communication device. If the second portable communication device is within the same region as the first portable communication device, then the first user is notified of the presence of the second user.
US07657255B2	Provisioning of wireless connectivity for devices using NFC The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates connecting a wireless device to a secure network. A device can establish a near field communication link with a verified device on a network, wherein the near field communication link can be a secure and/or encrypted link to provision the device without compromising security constraints within the network. An installation component can invoke the transfer of provisioning data to the network via the near field communication link to secure a wireless connection for the device to the network.
US07657249B2	Distributed wireless online access system A method for providing wireless online access comprises: establishing a wireless access signal space wherein a wireless communications link is established between a secondary wireless unit and at least one primary wireless unit, thereby providing a corresponding secondary subscriber with online access by data packet transmission between the primary wireless unit and the secondary wireless unit; and receiving, from an online access provider, a credited revenue amount in return for providing online access for the secondary subscriber.
US07657247B1	Mixer constant linear range biasing apparatus and method A Gilbert cell mixer for a wireless transceiver includes a first stage that performs voltage to current conversions and that includes first and second transistors that are operated in a saturation region and third and fourth transistors that are operated in a triode region. A second stage communicates with the first stage and that performs frequency conversion. A biasing circuit communicates with the first stage to maintain a substantially constant input linear range over temperature and process variations.
US07657238B2	Method and apparatus for modulating a radio signal using digital amplitude and phase control signals A transmitter for modulating an RF carrier signal with an input digital data stream is disclosed. The transmitter has a processor for generating digital phase and digital amplitude signals which characterise the input digital data stream, a signal generator for generating an RF carrier signal with a phase property defined by the generated digital phase signal, an amplifier arranged to receive the RF carrier signal as an input, and a bi-level switching circuit responsive to the generated digital amplitude signal to switch between the two levels to generate a voltage signal for supplying power to the amplifier.
US07657234B2	Transparent broadcast services for a multi-mode wireless device To provide “transparent” broadcast services for a multi-mode wireless device capable of communicating with multiple wireless communication networks, a composite set of pertinent parameters for broadcast messages used by the multiple networks is defined. The parameters of the broadcast message for each network are mapped to corresponding parameters in the composite set. The composite set of parameters is used for processing and displaying broadcast messages received from the multiple networks. A broadcast message for each network (e.g., a CBS message in GSM or a broadcast SMS message in CDMA) is received and processed in accordance with the parameters of the message and filtering configurations applicable for the network. The parameters of the broadcast message are mapped to corresponding parameters in the composite set. The broadcast message is further processed and displayed based on the parameters in the composite set.
US07657213B2	Doctor blade with tangential working tip A doctor blade for a printer may include a cantilever spring. The free end of the cantilever spring includes a section with a first bend in one direction and a second bend in the opposite direction. Thus, a bump end may be formed which has a surface which is generally tangential to the surface of a developer roll against which the doctor blade is biased.
US07657206B2	Image forming apparatus and developing agent cartridge An image forming apparatus is described. The image forming apparatus may include: a casing; a plurality of image carriers parallelly arranged along one direction in the casing, and formed with an electrostatic latent image; a plurality of developing agent carriers opposed to the image carriers, for visualizing the electrostatic latent image by feeding a developing agent to the image carriers; and a plurality of developing agent cartridges, parallelly arranged in the one direction to be opposed to the developing agent carriers in the longitudinal direction of the developing agent carriers, and configured to be together attachable/detachable to/from the casing along the one direction, for accommodating the developing agent fed to the developing agent carriers.
US07657188B2	Optical device and circuit using phase modulation and related methods A disclosed apparatus comprises a guiding element and a nonlinear element. The guiding element guides optical input signals, at least one of which is phase-modulated, to an interference area where such signals meet and interfere. The resulting interference signal is nonlinearly discriminated by the nonlinear element to produce an optical output signal that can be amplitude- or phase-modulated according to the phase modulation of the input signals. The invention also includes related methods and photonic logic gates.
US07657187B2	Optical transmission apparatus and optical transmission control method for wavelength-division-multiplexed optical signal An optical transmission apparatus for amplifying and relaying a wavelength-division-multiplexed optical signal includes (1) a variation-detecting unit which detects varying speed of input power of the wavelength-division-multiplexed optical signal and compares the varying speed with a set value, (2) an optical amplifying unit which amplifies the wavelength-division-multiplexed optical signal at a fixed amount of amplification, (3) a variable optical attenuating unit which variably attenuates the wavelength-division-multiplexed optical signal, (4) and a controlling unit which controls attenuation amount of the variable optical attenuating unit in accordance with the varying speed.
US07657180B2	Communication path calculation method and module The present invention relates to a communication path calculation method and module. More particularly, the present invention provides a communication path calculation method and module that are implemented or incorporated in a transmission apparatus including a ROADM or the like which performs WDM communication, advertises information on a wavelength which can be added or dropped, as information on a link, and uses the information to autonomously calculate a communication path. Optical transmission equipment that is accommodated in a WDM network over which a wavelength-division multiplexed signal is transferred includes a reconfigurable OADM module. For calculation of a communication path, the OADM module creates a link table listing clients of the own equipment and connected WDMs, and advertises the link table to the other pieces of equipment accommodated by the network as pieces of information on restrictions to be imposed on routing from the own equipment. The other pieces of equipment each receive and store the advertised pieces of information on restrictions to be imposed on routing, and use the pieces of information as pieces of information on restrictions to be imposed on a calculation to calculate a communication path from the own equipment.
US07657170B2	Motor structure with built-in lens A motor structure with a built-in lens includes a motor (30), and a lens unit (50) received in the motor and driven by the motor to telescopically move along an axial thereof. An internal thread (344) is formed on an inner surface of the motor. The lens unit includes an upper portion (51) and a lower portion (54). An external thread (544) is formed on an outer surface of the lower portion of the lens unit to threadedly engage with the internal thread of the motor. A dust cover (70) is arranged on the upper portion of the lens unit and defines an opening (71) for the upper portion of the lens unit to move therethrough. The lower portion of the lens unit is limited in the cover so that the external thread is prevented from being exposed to the environment during movement of the lens unit.
US07657160B2	Unified control and memory for a combined DVD/HDD system A combined digital versatile disc (DVD)/hard disk drive (HDD) system controls a HDD assembly and a DVD assembly comprises a DVD/HDD control module controls operation of the HDD assembly and the DVD assembly. Volatile memory communicates with the DVD/HDD control module and stores volatile data relating to the operation of the DVD assembly and the HDD assembly. Nonvolatile memory communicates with the DVD/HDD control module and stores nonvolatile data relating to the operation of the DVD assembly and the HDD assembly.
US07657159B2	Slide show generation on DVD-video compatible discs including DVD+RW and DVD+R A method and a device generate a DVD-Video compatible data structure from still pictures so as to create a slide show, where the data structure is compatible with the DVD+RW and DVD+R specifications. In one embodiment, a set of Ni video object units (VOBUs) is generated for each still picture, where each of the VOBUs include one video picture derived from the original still picture and a video gap. The video pictures of the Ni VOBUs only differ by their time stamps. Consequently, the DVD-Video compatible data structure is easy and fast to author. The DVD-Video compatible data structure has a low bitrate, and the presentation time of each picture can be adapted by setting the number Ni and/or the length of the video gap.
US07657156B2	Digital video recording apparatus and method A digital video recording apparatus and method is disclosed. Under the condition in which the user sets information of a preferred program in the digital video recording apparatus, a broadcast stream received by the digital video recording apparatus is analyzed. Based on the results of the analysis, the preferred program can be automatically recorded. In accordance with the digital video recording apparatus and method, there is convenience in that it is unnecessary for the user to directly check there is a preferred program, to be recorded, in the broadcast stream, or to manually enable recording of the preferred program.
US07657155B2	Program data recording method and apparatus In order to make a recording mode in case of recording a broadcast program to be a mode which is easily used when reproducing, guide information of the broadcast program of the recorded channel is obtained in a case when a received broadcast program is recorded and a pointer is set according to the obtained guide information at a recording position of the time from which each program is started in a case when a plurality of programs exist during a period from the recording start time to the ending time thereof.
US07657143B2	Method for improving refractive index control in PECVD deposited a-SiNy films An apparatus, device, system, and method for controlling the index of refraction of at least one layer of amorphous silicon-based film deposited on a substrate are disclosed. The apparatus, device, system and method include providing at least one volume of each of N2, SiH4, and He, and depositing the at least one layer of amorphous silicon-based film on the substrate by vapor deposition. The device may include a waveguide that includes at least one layer of amorphous silicon-based film, wherein the at least one layer of amorphous silicon-based film is deposited by vapor deposition using an at least one volume of each of N2, SiH4, and He.
US07657139B2	Y-junction reflector tunable delay or resonator waveguide devices The invention provides tunable delay or resonator devices in an electro optical substrate. Signals in at least one waveguide in the electro optical substrate pass through Y-junction reflectors which direct signals from one branch of the waveguide back into another branch of the waveguide. A coupled delay or resonator approximated loop is presented in an embodiment of the invention with opposing Y-junction reflectors. In other embodiments of the invention, a delay ladder is provided with selectable levels of delay from multiple outputs.
US07657135B2	Waveguide and optical motion sensor using optical power modulation An optical motion sensing device included a sensor frame defining an opening, a sensor pad disposed in the opening, an optical sensing system adapted to detect an amount of movement of the sensor pad in the sensor frame, and an output unit. The optical sensing system includes an optical waveguide, an optical source device, and an optical detector. The optical waveguide is positioned within the sensor frame such that the movement of the sensor pad results in the flexing or compressing of the optical waveguide. The optical source device supplies optical energy to the optical waveguide. The optical detector detects an amount of optical energy exiting the optical waveguide. The output unit is configured to receive a signal indicative of the amount of optical energy exiting the optical waveguide and to generate a measure of the amount of movement of the sensor pad from the received signal.
US07657126B2	System and method for search portions of objects in images and features thereof Embodiments enable searching of portions of objects in images, including programmatically analyzing each image in a collection in order to determine image data that, for individual images in the collection, represents one or more visual characteristics of a portion of an object shown in that image. A user is enabled to specify one or more search criteria that includes image data, and a search result may be determined based on one or more images in the collection that show a corresponding object that has a portion that satisfies a threshold. The threshold is defined at least in part by the one or more search criteria.
US07657117B2	Method and apparatus for calibrating a camera-based whiteboard scanner In accordance with one aspect of the present exemplary embodiments, a calibration arrangement is configured to assist in calibration of a surface scanning system where the calibration arrangement includes a preconfigured physical object which may embody dimensional information wherein the dimensional information is used to calibrate a surface of the scanning system. In an alternative embodiment, the preconfigured physical object is configured to obtain data for use in calibration of the surface of a pan/tilt surface scanning system.
US07657115B2	Image edge enhancement apparatus and method thereof An image edge enhancement apparatus and a method thereof used for adjusting the brightness of a pixel are provided. The image edge enhancement apparatus comprises a first edge judgment circuit, a second edge judgment circuit and a process circuit. The first edge judgment circuit retrieves the edge data of the pixel in a first direction to output a first edge value. The second edge judgment circuit retrieves the edge data of the pixel in a second direction to output a second edge value. The process circuit determines an operation mode according to the brightness of a plurality of adjacent pixels around the pixel, the first edge value and the second edge value to output an adjusted brightness of the pixel according to operation mode. The adjusting method effectively avoids the noise in an image being amplified, and avoids the same edge being repetitively enhanced by different edge judgment circuits.
US07657100B2	System and method for enabling image recognition and searching of images Embodiments programmatically analyze each of a plurality of images in order to determine one or more visual characteristics about an item shown in each of the plurality of images. Data is stored corresponding to the one or more visual characteristics. An interface in is provided for which a user is able to specify one or more search criteria. In response to receiving the one or more search criteria, a search operation is performed to identify one or more items that have a visual characteristic that satisfies at least some of the one or more search criteria.
US07657089B2	Automatic classification of photographs and graphics A method and system for classifying an image as a photograph or a graphic based on a ranked prevalent color histogram feature or a ranked region size feature is provided. The prevalent color histogram feature contains counts of the colors that are most prevalent in the image sorted in descending order. The region size feature contains counts of the largest regions of the image sorted in descending order. The classification system then classifies the image based on the ranked prevalent color histogram feature and/or the ranked region size feature using a previously trained classifier.
US07657086B2	Method and apparatus for automatic eyeglasses detection using a nose ridge mask A method and an apparatus automatically detect eyeglasses in an image. The method according to one embodiment accesses digital image data representing an image including a face; detects eyeglasses in the image by using nose ridge masking; and outputs a decision about presence or absence of eyeglasses in the image.
US07657083B2	System, method, and apparatus for generating a three-dimensional representation from one or more two-dimensional images In a system and method for generating a 3-dimensional representation of a portion of an organism, collecting training data, wherein the training data includes a first set of training data and a second set of training data. At least one statistical model having a set of parameters is built using the training data. The at least one statistical model is compared to a 2-dimensional image of the portion of the organism. At least one parameter of the set of parameters of the statistical model is modified based on the comparison of the at least one statistical model to the 2-dimensional image of the portion of the organism. The modified set of parameters representing the portion of the organism is passed through the statistical model.
US07657076B2	Characterizing biological stimuli by response curves A method for generating stimulus response curves (e.g., dose response curves) shows how the phenotype of one or more cells change in response to varying levels of the stimulus. Each “point” on the curve represents quantitative phenotype for cell(s) at a particular level of stimulus (e.g., dose of a therapeutic). The quantitative phenotypes are multivariate phenotypic representations of the cell(s). They include various features of the cell(s) obtained by image analysis. Such features often include basic parameters obtained from images (e.g., cell shape, nucleus area, Golgi texture) and/or biological characterizations derived from the basic parameters (e.g., cell cycle state, mitotic index, etc.). The stimulus response curves may be compared to allow classification of stimuli and identify subtle differences in related stimuli. To facilitate the comparison, it may be desirable to present the response curves in a principal component space.
US07657074B2	Method for determining acquisition parameters for a medical tomography device, and an associated apparatus A method and apparatus are disclosed for determining, with particular simplicity, an acquisition parameter for a medical tomography device. It is provided here to make an original image available for a selection, selection of the original image being used to select an original parameter set assigned thereto as acquisition parameter set. In order to compile the original image, it is provided here to modify a basic tomographic raw data record before carrying out a 3D reconstruction by means of a noise algorithm for simulating a virtual image quality measure.
US07657072B2	System and method for automatic extraction of spinal cord from 3D volumetric images A method of extracting a spinal cord from a digitized medical image includes providing a digitized medical image, selecting a set of points from said image as candidates for belonging to the spine, initializing a probability for each candidate point to belong to said spine, minimizing a weighted sum of square differences of image intensities of said candidate points and intensities determined by a mathematical model of said spine to estimate parameter values for said model, calculating a residual error for each point from the differences at each point between an estimated image intensity calculated from said estimated model parameters and an actual image intensity, updating the candidate point probabilities from said residual errors, and eliminating candidate points whose probability falls below a predetermined value.
US07657070B2	Automated system of processing biological specimens and method An automated laboratory slide management and interpretation system and method in which slides are stained and then digitally imaged and the images are interpreted prior to referral to a diagnostician or placement in storage. The interpretation of the images involves the application of pattern recognition principles to compare the digitized images to known sample patterns from a variety of sources. Additionally, based on the results of the interpretation, the slide may undergo additional testing or staining, and additional samples may be prepared and tested. The specimens may be delivered to the diagnostician along with a tentative diagnosis.
US07657065B2	Marker placement information estimating method and information processing device A marker placement information estimating method includes a constraint condition setting step for setting a constraint condition that can be defined with a geometric condition regarding placement information of markers, a capturing step for capturing photographed images including a marker image, a marker detecting step for detecting markers from the photographed images, and an estimating step for estimating the placement information of the markers using the positions of the detected markers on the images and the constraint condition. Thus, even if a constraint condition regarding the placement of markers exists, the placement information can be obtained with precision so as to satisfy the constraint condition.
US07657053B2	Speaker unit In a speaker unit of the present invention, a diaphragm with an aspect ratio exceeding one is provided in an internal space of a frame. The frame has both ends thereof provided with a pair of air holes opening on a rear surface, and a pair of electrode members attached thereto. Each of the electrode members includes a clamping portion to be fixed to an end of the frame, and an elastic arm portion extending from the clamping portion along the frame. The elastic arm portion is opposed to the air hole. A clamping portion rear area and a main body rear area having the air hole opened thereon are formed on the rear surface of the frame. The main body rear area is formed lower than the clamped portion rear area in a direction apart from the elastic arm portion of the electrode member.
US07657046B2	IC chip type hearing aid module for mobile communication terminal Disclosed is an IC chip type hearing aid module for use in a mobile communication terminal having a hearing aid circuit including: a first section having a resistor R1 and an inductor L1 which are connected in series on a first output line Receiver_P between the mobile communication terminal and an ear speaker; a second section having a resistor R4 and an inductor L2 which are connected in series on a second output line Receiver_N between the mobile communication terminal and the ear speaker; a third section having a resistor R2 and a capacitor C2 which are connected in series between an input terminal of the first section and an output terminal of the second section; and a fourth section having a resistor R3 and a capacitor C3 which are connected in series between an input terminal of the second section and an output terminal of the first section.
US07657044B2	Ultrasonic transducer for parametric array An ultrasonic transducer having a reduced cost of manufacture. The ultrasonic transducer includes a first insulative retaining layer, a second insulative retaining layer, and a vibrator film layer sandwiched between the first and second retaining layers. The first retaining layer includes a first plurality of apertures formed therethrough, and the second retaining layer includes a second plurality of apertures formed therethrough, in which the second apertures are substantially in registration with the first apertures. The ultrasonic transducer further includes a first cover portion having a plurality of spring/backplate assemblies connected thereto, and a second cover portion. The combination of the first retaining layer, the vibrator film layer, and the second retaining layer is sandwiched between the first and second cover portions of the ultrasonic transducer. The laminated construction of the ultrasonic transducer allows the formation of an array of ultrasonic film transducers using a single piece of ultrasonic vibrator film.
US07657040B2	Parameter setting apparatus for audio mixer, and program therefor In an audio mixer, there are stored a plurality of scene data each including, as a set of data, respective settings of a plurality of types of parameters, and these scene data are displayed on a scene data list shown on a display section. Human operator selects a desired one of the scene data from the scene data list using an increment or decrement switch. Determination is made as to whether any object-of-caution data, such as patch data, is among the plurality of types of parameters included in the selected scene data, and, if so, a caution display window is displayed to caution the human operator about the object-of-caution data.
US07657038B2	Method and device for noise reduction In one aspect of the present invention, a method to reduce noise in a noisy speech signal is disclosed The method comprises: applying at least two versions of the noisy speech signal to a first filter, whereby that first filter outputs a speech reference signal and at least one noise reference signal, applying a filtering operation to each of the at least one noise reference signals, and subtracting from the speech reference signal each of the filtered noise reference signals, wherein the filtering operation is performed with filters having filter coefficients determined by taking into account speech leakage contributions in the at least one noise reference signal.
US07657032B2	Data outputting method, recording method and apparatus, reproducing method and apparatus, and data transmitting method and receiving method A data outputting method, including the steps of converting input data into sector unit data that starts with a start code and a header preceded by the start code, the header being composed of two bits, at least one of which represents an encryption control; when the converted data is to be encrypted, setting at least one of the two bits preceded by the start code to a state that represents that the data has been encrypted; encrypting the converted data; encoding the encrypted data; and outputting the encoded data.
US07657029B2	Systems and methods for generating random addition chains An addition chain is first generated, and then an integer x is derived from it. Doubling and star steps may be implemented in the addition chain. This approach eliminates the computationally expensive step of generating the addition chain from an exponent, and therefore can greatly reduce the computation time of the modular exponentiation.
US07657027B2	Portable terminal with hinge apparatus A portable terminal with a hinge apparatus is provided. The portable terminal includes a hinge apparatus which pivotally couples a pair of housings together. The hinge apparatus provides a first hinge axis and a second hinge axis which are perpendicular to each other. The hinge apparatus includes a first hinge shaft coupled to the first housing along the first hinge axis, a second hinge shaft coupled to the second hinge housing along the second hinge axis and rotating about the first hinge axis and the second hinge axis, a stopper slot formed on an outer circumferential surface of the first hinge shaft along the first hinge axis, a stopper groove formed on the second hinge shaft along a circumference thereof and encompassing a part of the outer circumferential surface of the first hinge shaft, and a stopper rib formed within the stopper groove and selectively engaging with the stopper slot. Thus, when one of the housings is rotated about one of the hinge axes, the housing is restricted from rotating about the other hinge axis.
US07657022B2	Method and system for performing automated telemarketing As described above, the embodiments of the invention may be embodied in the form of computer-implemented processes and apparatuses for practicing those processes. Embodiments of the invention may also be embodied in the form of computer program code containing instructions embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, or any other computer-readable storage medium, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. An embodiment of the present invention can also be embodied in the form of computer program code, for example, stored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. When implemented on a general-purpose microprocessor, the computer program code segments configure the microprocessor to create specific logic circuits.
US07657019B2	System for and method of hairpinning a remote PBX or KTS or gateway phone call to a local call In a system having a switching device in a first location, and an extending device in a second location, a method of providing a communications link between (i) a first phone associated with the extending device and (ii) a second phone local to the second location and not associated with the extending device includes analyzing parameters associated with the first phone and the second phone so as to determine that the first phone and the second phone are local to the second location. The method further includes separating signaling data associated with the communications link from voice traffic associated with the communications link. The method further includes directing the signaling data through the switching device via an extension link between the switching device and the extending device, and directing the voice traffic between the first phone and the second phone.
US07657012B2	Telephone terminal and method for controlling display of the telephone terminal A telephone terminal is connected to a communication network that transmits voice packets and connected to a terminal control unit. The telephone terminal includes a display, an input buffer, an acquisition unit, and a controller. The input buffer temporarily stores text display information that represents an operational state of the telephone terminal, the text display information being transmitted from the terminal control unit via the communication network. The acquisition unit acquires display control information required for dividing the text display information into a plurality of pieces of component information. The controller reads the text display information stored in the input buffer, divides the text display information into a plurality of pieces of component information based on the display control information, and controls the display to display the component information pieces in different display positions.
US07657011B1	Lawful intercept trigger support within service provider networks The invention is directed to techniques for initiating lawful intercept of packets associated with subscriber sessions on a network device of a service provider network based on identification triggers. A law enforcement agency may send an intercept request for a subscriber to an administration device of the service provider network. The administration device may then configure one or more identification triggers for the subscriber based on the intercept request. The techniques described herein initiate lawful intercept when one or more subscriber sessions on a network device match the one or more identification triggers. The techniques described herein include configuring trigger rules that include identification triggers for subscribers on a network device via a command line interface (CLI) of the network device. In addition, the techniques described herein include configuring identification triggers in a subscriber profile on an authentication device connected to a network device.
US07657008B2	Storage-enabled telecommunications network Methods, systems, and apparatuses are disclosed for enabling a telecommunications network with data storage capability. A data connection is established to a storage device. The storage device is associated with a telecommunications network facility. Customer-defined electronic data is communicated to the storage device via the data connection. At least some of the electronic data may be managed according to a service level agreement.
US07657004B2	System and method for detecting a connection condition of a phone jack A phone jack connection detection system and method of operating the same, including a phone jack circuit having a data access arrangement circuit in communication with at least two pins, a stimulus input in communication with the phone jack circuit, the stimulus input being adapted to communicate a stimulus to the phone jack circuit, and a detection circuit in communication with the phone jack circuit, the detection circuit being adapted to detect a response of the phone jack circuit to the stimulus and notify a user of the status of the connection.
US07657003B2	X-ray tube with enhanced small spot cathode and methods for manufacture thereof An x-ray source produces a well-defined electron beam, without an undesirable halo. The x-ray source includes a housing, a cathode disposed within the housing, an anode spaced apart from the cathode for accelerating electrons emitted from the cathode and an x-ray emitter target disposed within the housing and spaced apart from the cathode for impact by the accelerated electrons. The cathode includes a passivation layer over only a portion of the area of the cathode, leaving an emission portion of the cathode that is not passivated. The passivation layer reduces or prevents emissions from the passivated portion of the cathode, thereby preventing a halo, which would otherwise be produced by lower-level emissions from the portion of the cathode that surrounds the emission portion of the cathode.
US07657002B2	Cathode head having filament protection features A cathode assembly including certain features designed to protect the integrity of a filament contained therein is disclosed. In particular, the cathode assembly is configured to prevent damage to the filament should it inadvertently contact another portion of the cathode assembly. In an example embodiment, an x-ray tube incorporating features of the present invention is disclosed. The x-ray tube includes an evacuated enclosure containing a cathode assembly and an anode. The cathode assembly includes a head portion having a head surface. A slot is defined on the head surface and an electron-emitting filament is included in the slot. A protective surface is defined on the head surface proximate to a central portion of the filament. The protective surface in one embodiment is composed of tungsten and is configure to prevent fusing of the filament to the protective surface should the filament inadvertently contact the protective surface.
US07657000B2	Method and apparatus for dual energy radiography There is provided an apparatus and method for x-ray imaging of a subject that comprises an x ray source emitting a spectrum of radiation of low energy component as well as high energy component to be attenuated by the subject. At least one CR plate adapted to absorb mainly the radiation of low energy component that was attenuated by the subject is provided, wherein low energy x rays image can be attained on the CR plate as well as a DR plate that is adapted to absorb the high energy component, wherein the DR plate is placed further to the CR plate relative to the subject so as to attain image from higher energy x rays. The apparatus is further provided with a processor adapted to process the CR and DR images obtained in a single irradiation of the subject so as to obtain a third combined processed image.
US07656996B2	Device and method for mapping the distribution of an X-ray fluorescence marker The invention relates to a method and a device for determining the distribution of an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) marker (16) in a body volume (14). The body volume (14) is irradiated with a beam of rays (12) from an X-ray source (10) with a first ray component with a quantum energy just above and a second ray component with a quantum energy just below the K-edge of the XRF marker (16). Secondary radiation emitted from the body volume (14) is detected in a location-resolved way by a detector (30). To separate the X-ray fluorescence components in the secondary radiation from background radiation, the body volume is irradiated for a second time with a beam of rays from which the first ray component has been substantially removed by a filter (22) made from the material of the XRF marker.
US07656988B2	Start up circuit for delay locked loop An initialization circuit in a delay locked loop ensures that after power up or other reset clock edges are received by a phase detector in the appropriate order for proper operation. After reset of the delay locked loop, the initialization circuit assures that at least one edge of a reference clock is received prior to enabling the phase detector to increase (or decrease) the delay in a delay line. After at least one edge of a feedback clock is received, the initialization circuit enables the phase detector to decrease (or increase) the delay in a delay line.
US07656984B2	Circuits and methods for recovering a clock signal A circuit for recovering a clock signal may include a frequency multiplier configured to generate a plurality of local clock signals, each having a different phase, based on a plurality of received global clock signals at a first frequency and each having a different phase. The local clock signals may be generated at a second frequency higher than the first frequency. The circuit may include a phase interpolator configured to generate a recovered clock signal at a given phase and at a third frequency, based on the generated local clock signals, and a phase shifter configured to adjust the phase of the recovered clock signal so as to synchronize the phase of the recovered clock signal with a phrase of input data that is input to the phase shifter.
US07656979B2	Data communication device A data communication device comprises an input circuit (DRTC) that converts external data (XDT) into internal data (IDT) on the basis of a sampling signal (SP). A synchronization circuit (SYNC) provides the sampling signal (SP) on the basis of an oscillator signal (OS) and a synchronization value (SV). The synchronization value (SV) is representative of a number of cycles of the oscillator signal (OS) contained within a time interval for a unit of external data. The synchronization value (SV) is an initial value (IV) during an initial synchronization phase and a measured value (MV) during a measurement-based synchronization phase. A control circuit (IFC) carries out a calibration step in which the initial value (IV) is a preprogrammed reset value (RV) and in which the measured value (MV) is stored as a calibration value (CV). The control circuit (IFC) applies the calibration value (CV) as the initial value (IV) in subsequent initial synchronization phases.
US07656977B2	Method and system of frequency domain equalization A method and system of frequency domain equalization. In an embodiment, the frequency domain equalizer system includes a transmit driver. A receiver decision circuit is communicatively coupled to the transmit driver. The receiver decision circuit may have an input signal and an output signal. An all-pass filter may be communicatively coupled to the transmit driver and the receiver decision circuit. The all-pass filter having an all-pass input signal which comprises an integration of a summation of the receiver decision circuit input signal and the receiver decision circuit output signal, each signal being acted upon by at least one band-pass filter.
US07656976B2	Systems and methods for multicarrier modulation using multi-tap frequency-domain equalizer and decision feedback Through the use of feedback in determining frequency domain equalization, intersymbol interference can be reduced. Specifically, the determined constellation point closest to the determined received point can be fed back to aid in determining one or more other closest constellation points.
US07656971B2	Adjustable phase controlled clock and data recovery circuit A clock and data recovery circuit including: means for generating a first and a second clock signal; means for receiving the first clock signal and for generating a third clock signal from the first clock signal and means for receiving the second clock signal and for generating a fourth clock signal, wherein at least one of the third and the fourth clock signals differ in phase from the first and the second clock signal respectively; means for receiving the third and fourth clock signals and a serial data stream and for generating a reconstructed serial data stream and a phase error signal; means for receiving the phase error signal and for generating a phase adjustment signal and means for receiving the phase adjustment signal by the by the clock generation circuit in a feedback loop to adjust the phases of the first and second clock signals.
US07656969B2	Dual payload and adaptive modulation A wireless broadband communications system that provides higher performance and increased spectral efficiency in point-to-point and point-to-multipoint applications. The wireless communications system includes a plurality of transceivers and a plurality of transmit and receive antennas. The system can be configured as a 1:n SIMO system that transmits and receives signals over a single channel of information flow, or an n:n MIMO system that transmits and receives signals over multiple channels of information flow, based upon channel state information and average vector error measurement values corresponding to the respective channels of information flow, which are determined by the system via an adaptive modulation technique.
US07656968B2	Radio receiver, system on a chip integrated circuit and methods for use therewith A system on a chip integrated circuit includes an analog front end for receiving a received radio signal having a plurality of channel signals, each of the plurality of channel signals being modulated at one of a corresponding plurality of carrier frequencies, and for converting a selected one of the plurality of channel signals into a digital signal. A digital clock generator generates a digital clock signal at a digital clock frequency that varies based on the selected one of the plurality of channel signals. The digital clock frequency, and integer multiples of the digital clock frequency, are not substantially equal to the carrier frequency of the selected one of the plurality of channel signals. A digital section converts the digital signal into at least one audio signal that corresponds to the selected one of the plurality of channels, based on the digital clock signal.
US07656949B1	Methods and apparatus for performing efficient inverse transform operations According to the present invention, methods and apparatus for performing efficient inverse transform operations are provided. Zero patterns are identified in a block of transform coefficients to derive zero pattern information. Using the zero pattern information, inverse transform operations are performed on a subset of the columns of the block of transform coefficients. Zero patterns can optionally be identified in the resulting block. One-dimensional inverse transform operations are then performed on the rows of the resulting block to complete the inverse transform. In another example, one-dimensional inverse transform operations can be performed first on the rows and then on the columns.
US07656948B2	Transcoding system and method for maintaining timing parameters before and after performing transcoding process A transcoding system and method effectively synchronize segmentation metadata with A/V content when converting an MPEG stream to another format stream using a segment browser. The transcoding system includes a timing synchronizer, which adjusts the timing parameters so that the video data can be synchronized with segmentation metadata even after the transcoding process, a transcoding condition determiner, which determines transcoding conditions suitable for an end user environment, and an encoder, which compresses a video sequence reconstructed from the video data according to the transcoding conditions determined by the transcoding condition determiner and records a presentation time stamp, which is one of the adjusted timing parameters, in the compressed video sequence.
US07656945B1	Stabilized digital timing recovery using low-complexity equalizer A low-complexity digital linear equalizer whose operation and adaptation makes stabilized digital timing recovery practical. The technique is fundamental for the operation of communications receivers employing digital timing recovery, e.g., in a modem. A technique for automatically adjusting the parameters of a digital linear equalizer to compensate for low-pass impairments while maintaining a relatively constant timing characteristic is described.
US07656939B2	Adaptive equalizer with passive and active stages An equalizer may use a passive input stage to improve linearity and reduce power consumption. In addition, the equalizer may use two gain circuits, one in a high frequency amplification path and the other in an all-pass path. The relative proportion of all-pass to high frequency amplification may be adjusted using a single control signal. The equalizer may provide 20 dB of peaking at 5 GHz with good linearity, using CMOS technology.
US07656932B2	Digital receiver device A digital processing device for a modulated signal, arranged at the input of a radio frequency receiver chain, suited in particular to a transmission system a direct sequence spread spectrum operation, comprising an analog-to-digital converter performing undersampling of the signal received, leading to an overlapping of the frequency range of the undersampled wanted signal by the frequency range of an interfering signal, demodulation means connected at the output of the analog-to-digital converter in order to bring the undersampled wanted signal back to baseband, a low pass filter connected at the output of the demodulation means and a filter matched to the spreading code used, and an additional filtering unit arranged between the low pass filter and the matched filter, for implementing a stochastic matched filtering operation to improve the signal-to-noise ratio at the input of the matched filter.
US07656929B2	Method for demodulating UWB pulse sequences The present invention relates to a method for transmitting data in the form of at least one pulse sequence Tsgk (for k=1 to K). The method according to the invention includes at least one symbol decoding step in the course of which at least one modulation value Pwk representative of an amount of power carried by each pulse sequence Tsgk is computed and compared to at least one predetermined threshold value thk1, thk2 . . . thkM(k). The method according to the invention enables to limit the processing time and power needed for performing the demodulation of a power-modulated UWB signal, since the information carried by such a signal may be recovered by a receiver without said receiver having to map precisely, with respect to time, the received pulse sequences.
US07656919B2	Semiconductor system having a ring laser fabricated by epitaxial layer overgrowth The present invention provides a ring laser system comprising forming an optical core by an epitaxial layer overgrowth over an intermediate layer, forming multi-quantum wells adjacent to the optical core and forming an outer structure further comprising a total internal reflector, wherein forming photons within the multi-quantum wells further comprises circulating the photons within the ring laser structure comprising the outer structure, the multi-quantum wells, and the optical core.
US07656917B2	Circuit arrangement for generating light pulses A circuit arrangement for generating light pulses includes an electro-optical converter; a switching element; and a charge store. The electro-optical converter is connected to the charge store via the switching element. The closing of the switching element triggers a discharging process in the charge store and, in the process, generates an electrical pulse that is converted to a light pulse in the electro-optical converter. First and second impedance matching circuits are arranged, respectively, between the charge store and the switching element and between the switching element and the electro-optical converter.
US07656915B2	Microchannel cooler for high efficiency laser diode heat extraction A laser diode package includes a laser diode, a cooler, and a metallization layer. The laser diode is used for converting electrical energy to optical energy. The cooler receives and routes a coolant from a cooling source via internal channels. The cooler includes a plurality of ceramic sheets and a highly thermally-conductive sheet. The ceramic sheets are fused together and the thermally-conductive sheet is attached to a top ceramic sheet of the plurality of ceramic sheets. The metallization layer has at least a portion on the thermally-conductive sheet. The portion is electrically coupled to the laser diode for conducting the electrical energy to the laser diode.
US07656914B1	Directly-modulated diode lasers with reduced overshoot An optical signal is produced from a direct modulation resonant cavity device, such as directly-modulated diode laser having an electrode divided into multiple sections. Each section is driven with an electrical waveform such that a time delay is introduced between sections so as to ensure that the different sections reach their peaks at slightly different times.
US07656909B1	Self-steering autoplexer for transmitter multicoupling A self-steering autoplexer for transmitter multicoupling has a linear summer for summing transmit signals at several frequencies. An input demultiplexer uses input diplexers to separate and route the transmit signals by frequency. Amplifiers amplify the separated transmit signals from the input demultiplexer. An output multiplexer uses diplexers to combining the amplified and separated transmit signals into a combined transmit signal for transmission by an antenna. The output multiplexer may have an even multiplexer for combining the transmit signals into even band transmit signals for transmission by an even band antenna and an odd multiplexer for combining the transmit signals into odd band transmit signals for transmission by the antenna. The input diplexers of the input demultiplexer comprise diplexers connected such that the transmit signals are applied to outputs of the diplexers to separate the transmit signals into low and high frequency signals.
US07656905B2	Apparatus and method for aggregation and transportation of gigabit ethernet and other packet based data formats The invention provides an apparatus and method for transparently transporting four plesiochronous Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel or other packet-based data signals over a network. Multiple plesiochronous Gigabit Ethernet data streams are aggregated onto an independent clock source at an ingress circuit through the use of transparent IDLE character insertion. The independent clock is selected such that the output data rate is greater than the composite input data rate of all the plesiochronous data streams. The signals are encapsulated with forward error correction and mapped to a reciprocal FEC interface prior to transport. An egress circuit at the receiving end recovers the modulated signal and extracts the data stream. Each independent data stream is mapped to a local clock domain via IDLE character insertion or removal. Therefore, the input and output signals are transparent and identical in content.
US07656904B2	Telephone system having multiple distinct sources and accessories therefor In conjunction with a data communication network carrying multiple telephony signals and allowing for connection of telephone sets, a system and method in which two external feeders connect to the data network at two distinct points via two distinct devices. The data network can be based on dedicated wiring or can use existing in-premises medium such as telephone, powerlines or CATV wiring. In the latter case, the wiring can still carry the original service for which it was installed. The external telephone connections can be based on the traditional PSTN, CATV network, cellular telephone network or any other telephone service provider network, using specific adapter for any medium used. In the case of connection to a POTS telephone signal, VoIP gateway (or any other converter) is required.
US07656902B2	Method for transmitting packet data in communication system A method and apparatus for a transmitter having a radio protocol with an upper layer and a lower layer therein used for management of full header packet transmission when transmitting data packets to a receiver are provided. If the upper layer receives from the lower layer, information of a successful transmission of a full header packet, the upper layer decides to stop sending any additional full header packet that contains the same full header as the previously successfully transmitted full header packet.
US07656900B2	Methods and systems for adaptive communication One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of limiting data loss in a point-to-multipoint communication system. Data is transferred on a communication channel among network nodes of the point-to-multipoint communication system according to an initial frequency band plan. If a characteristic of the communication channel changes, then data is transferred among the network nodes according to a modified frequency band plan that differs from the initial frequency band plan.
US07656893B2	System and method for implementing auto-configurable default polarity The present invention relates to a system and method for implementing auto-configurable default polarity. More specifically, the present invention relates to a transceiver module comprising, for example, a single chip multi-sublayer PHY, where the single chip multi-sublayer PHY is adapted to implement auto-configurable default polarity. In one embodiment, the transceiver module comprises at least one program module adapted to be programmed with at least a default polarity setting. The single-chip multi-sublayer PHY comprises at least one selection register communicating with at least the program module, where the selection register is adapted to store at least the default polarity setting. The single chip multi-sublayer PHY further comprises at least one multiplexer communicating with at least the selection register and adapted to select one polarity from at least two possible polarities based at least in part on the default polarity setting.
US07656880B1	Prioritized segmentation and reassembly methods and systems The disclosed technology provides systems and methods for accommodating a diversity of services (e.g., telephone, video broadcasting, email, etc.) using a fixed connection of a certain service type. A method and system of communicating data using a fixed connection, including, based on at least two service data units (SDUs), associating a priority and a channel identifier with the at least two SDUs, iteratively (i) selecting one of the at least two SDUs based on priority to provide a selected SDU, and, (ii) forming at least one data packet, the at least one data packet including (a) data associated with the selected SDU, and, (b) the channel identifier associated with the selected SDU; and, transmitting the formed at least one data packet using the fixed connection.
US07656865B2	Method for transmission of data telegrams in a switched cyclical communication system A method for the transmission of data messages in a switched cyclical communication system (38, 39) with a linear or ring arrangement of the users. Real-time critical data messages are transmitted in a first segment (20) of a transmission cycle (31), without the need to first plan the send and receive instants in the forwarding users, such that the chronological start (21) of the first segment (20) of a transmission cycle (31) is guaranteed by all users in all transmission cycles through monitoring. The duration of the first segment (20) of a transmission cycle (31) can be fixedly specified or automatically adjusted using a timeout procedure.
US07656863B2	Method for soft switch call control and soft switch device using the same A method for soft switch call control and a soft switch device therefore are provided. The soft switch device acquires an initial address message (IAM) at a calling side, analyzes information of the calling party and the called party based on the acquired initial address message (IAM), and informs the media gateways to create a context and to add TDM semi-permanent physical terminations of time slots corresponding to the calling party and the called party into the context when the calling party and the called party are controlled by the same media gateway. Thus, it can implement a local loop of TDM voice, reduce IP loop of RTP streams and efficiently reduces network resources such as steps for digital signal processing, echo elimination and etc.
US07656861B2	Method and apparatus for interleaving text and media in a real-time transport session Text is interleaved and transported along with media data over the same real-time Internet Protocol (IP) media transport session. A network processing device identifies text characters corresponding with text signaling. The identified text characters are formatted into text packets and sent over the same real-time IP media transport session used for real-time media transport. The media transport session can identify the sequence that the text characters are transmitted and can specify a maximum character transfer rate.
US07656854B2	Avoiding hidden terminals in wireless local area networks A method, apparatus and computer program product for preventing occurrences of the hidden node problem are presented. A transmission request (CC-RTS) is received from a source node, the CC-RTS frame including a reservation duration value indicating the length of time needed for a transmission reservation. A timer is adjusted for the period other nodes must refrain from transmitting on the channel (NAV) equal to a duration of a transmission request/transmission response (CC-RTS/CC-CTS) handshake. When the CC-RTS has been denied, then a second CC-RTS frame is received having a reservation duration value of zero, and when the CC-RTS is accepted then the NAV is extended to remainder of the reservation duration value of the original CC-RTS frame. The CC-RTS and CC-CTS are sent at a more robust PHY mode than traffic frames.
US07656851B1	Adaptive message routing for mobile ad HOC networks Domains are formed in a mobile ad hoc network by exchanging topology update messages among neighboring nodes, each message including the node coverage of the originating node. The node having an optimum coverage of its neighbors becomes a domain lead (DL) node, and nodes within hearing distance or range of the DL node form a network domain. Each domain node, including the DL, selects a set of bridge nodes (BNs) that can link the domain node to nodes in corresponding neighboring domains. All domain lead nodes in the network exchange messages to inform one another of the nodes contained in their respective domains. A node in one domain seeking a route for a message destined to a node in another domain, may send a route discovery (RDisc) message to the DL node of the inquiring node's domain. A responsive route resolution (RRes) message is returned to the inquiring node.
US07656837B2	Method for packet-switching interface for code division switching in a terrestrial wireless system A method is provided for code division switching at a destination access radio port of a terrestrial wireless network, in which the access radio port interfaces with a group of terminal users located within one or more microport cells. A preamble, which has a PN-code, is acquired. The PN-code is processed to insure synchronization. An acknowledgment is sent. Payload data is received.
US07656834B2	Discontinuously transmitting and receiving multimedia broadcast/multicast service data in mobile communication system Discontinuous transmission and reception of point-to-multipoint service data between a network and a mobile terminal is achieved by transmitting scheduling information from the network to the mobile terminal via a first common channel. The mobile terminal determines a time for receiving the service data in response to the scheduling information and discontinuously receives the service data through a second common channel.
US07656831B2	Method and apparatus for power saving in beacon generation of wireless networks in ad hoc mode Methods for increasing power saving in a station that sends or receives frames in an ad hoc wireless network (e.g., IBSS), while allowing the station to enter a power-saving mode quickly upon completion of scheduled tasks. At the same time, a method of the present invention allows two stations in the ad hoc wireless network to infer each other's power management mode without requiring an ATIM/ACK exchange between the STAs within an ATIM window. Consequently, a station may enter a power-saving mode promptly without impairing the station's ability to receive packets. In one embodiment, a “more data” field is used between stations to exchange information. Stations with various computation abilities provide information under different time constraints. The stations may enter power-saving modes that send multicast/broadcast frames or use promiscuous mode within an ATIM window.
US07656828B2	Transmitting receiving arrangement for TD-SCDMA mobile radios The invention relates to a transmitting and receiving arrangement for radios having a baseband component and a radio-frequency component that are connected via an interface for interchanging payload data. The interface includes a bidirectional data link that can be operated in a half-duplex mode for transmission of digital payload data to be transmitted from the baseband component to the radio-frequency component and for transmission of received digital payload data from the radio-frequency component to the baseband component.
US07656827B2	Apparatus for, and method of, reducing noise in a communications system A communication line having a plurality of twisted wire pairs connects a plurality of transmitters, one transmitter at each end of each twisted wire pair, with a plurality of receivers, one receiver at each end of each twisted wire pair. Each receiver receives a combination signal including a direct signal from the transmitter at the opposite end of the twisted wire pair with which the receiver is associated and a plurality of far-end crosstalk (FEXT) impairment signals, one from each of the remaining transmitters at the opposite end of the communications line. A plurality of FEXT cancellation systems, one associated with each receiver, provides a replica FEXT impairment signal. A device associated with each receiver is responsive to the combination signal received by the receiver and the replica FEXT impairment signal provided by the FEXT cancellation system associated with the receiver for substantially removing the FEXT impairment signals from the combination signal. If necessary, a skew adjuster delays the arrival of the combination signal at the device so that the combination signal and the FEXT impairment signal arrive at the device at substantially the same time. A sequential decoder operates on signals from each of the plurality of wire pairs simultaneously to produce receiver outputs. A plurality of near-end crosstalk (NEXT) cancellation systems and echo cancellers remove NEXT and echo impairment signals from the combination signal.
US07656826B2	Terminal control system A terminal control system is provided that has a main control device, a plurality of terminal devices controlled by the main control device, and communication lines for connecting the main control device and each of the terminal devices so as to allow bidirectional communication, wherein the configuration is simple, communication time is short, and highly reliable bidirectional communication is possible. The terminal control system comprises a main control device 1, a plurality of terminal devices 2 controlled by the main control device 1, and communication lines 3 for connecting the main control device and each of the terminal devices so as to allow bidirectional communication, wherein control data is simultaneously and collectively sent from the main control device 1 to a plurality of the terminal devices 2, and terminal data for each of the terminal devices is independently sent from each of the terminal devices 2 to the main control device 1.
US07656825B2	System and method for wireless communication in a frequency division duplexing region A method and system for using half-duplex base stations and half-duplex nodes in a Frequency Division Duplexing region to provide wireless connectivity between the half-duplex base stations and customers in multiple sectors of a cell. The method and system can use two physical channels to form two logical channels. Each logical channel shares both physical channels during alternating frames of time. The half-duplex nodes can include a millimeter-wave band frequency synthesizer configured to transmit and receive on different channels to and from the half-duplex base station. Re-use patterns of the physical channels are used for deployment of half-duplex base stations and half-duplex nodes in the FDD region to minimize co-channel interference and interference due to uncorrelated rain fade. Additional methods and systems utilize full-duplex base stations and smart antenna to communicate with the half-duplex nodes.
US07656819B2	Method and apparatus for improving convergence in networks A method of improving convergence in networks that use path vector protocols. In one embodiment using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for inter-domain route and reachability communication, nodes that need to remove routes using EBGP NLRI announcements send BGP WITHDRAW messages containing a new route originator attribute that identifies an originator of a specified withdrawn route. A receiving node removes the specified route from its routing information base (RIB), and matches the originator to other paths in the RIB. Matching paths are marked as ineligible for consideration in a best path computation, thereby preventing the use of routes that are unreachable but not yet withdrawn by an originating node. The approach causes faster BGP convergence, reduces unnecessary route flapping, and alleviates unnecessary route dampening.
US07656810B2	System and method for monitoring and reacting to peer-to-peer network metrics The overall health of a peer-to-peer network may be inferred from statistics gathered and analyzed pertaining to individual node and node-to-node performance within the peer-to-peer network. When used with simulations for development or testing, the health statistic may be used instead of or to supplement standard regression testing to determine whether or not changes made improve system performance. When used with live peer-to-peer networks, the health statistic may provide a real-time view into network performance. Such a view may be used to adjust peer-to-peer network topology or to isolate underperforming or malicious nodes.
US07656809B2	System and method for planning ports in DSL network elements A system for automatically planning firmware card ports on multiplexors in a DSL network is disclosed. The system is operable to query element management systems (EMS's) in a DSL network to identify the multiplexor devices that each of the EMS's is dedicated to managing. Thereafter, the system queries the multiplexor devices identified as being managed by a particular EMS for the planning status of the multiplexor's ports. Upon identifying unplanned ports, and those that are inconsistent with the prescribed plan, the system plans the ports consistent with a prescribed planning arrangement.
US07656804B2	Method and apparatus for operating an AD-HOC communication system An ad-hoc communication system is established where each node within the system may have multiple children nodes and parent nodes. An address scheme is proposed where each node may comprise more than one address, each address being based upon one of the parent's address. Because each node may have more than one parent, a bridge, or shortcut may exist between network branches.
US07656803B2	Method for controlling radio access bearer in a communication system A radio access bearer in a mobile communication system is controlled by disposing a radio resource control layer having radio access bearers in a user side, disposing a radio link control layer, a media access control layer, and a physical layer in the user side beneath the radio resource control layer in succession, measuring a traffic volume of the media access control layer and radio link control layer in the user side by using the media access control layer in the user side to produce traffic volume measurements, comparing the traffic volume measurements to at least one of an upper critical value and a lower critical value provided to the media access control layer in the user side from a radio resource control layer in a network side of the communication system through the radio resource control layer in the user side of the system, and forwarding a comparison result and the traffic volume measurements to the radio resource control layer in the network side through the radio resource control layer in the user side, and controlling the radio access bearer in the user side through the radio resource control layer in the network side according to a result of the comparison.
US07656794B2	Method and apparatus for authenticated quality of service reservation A method and apparatus for providing authenticated quality of service reservation in a communication system. According to one embodiment of the invention a signaling controller distributes keys for use by a first quality of service server and a router for establishing quality of service over a communication system.
US07656784B2	Optical information recording medium, and substrate and manufacturing method for the optical information recording medium In an optical disk including at least a rewritable phase change material and comprising a recording layer having a reflectivity of more than 15%, an address output value as an address pit signal component occupying in a reproduced signal in a non recording state is prescribed to be 0.18 though 0.27 or a numerical aperture of an address pit signal occupying in a reproduced signal in a non recording state is prescribed to be more than 0.3.
US07656771B2	Optical pickup and optical disc drive An optical pickup for writing information to and/or for reading information from an optical disc having at least two recording layers (dual layer) provided with first and second recording layers can prevent layer crosstalk resulting from disturbing a signal reproduced from the first recording layer by a reflected light beam reflected from the second recording layer during a writing operation for writing information to the first recording layer or a reading operation for reading information from the fist recording layer. An orthogonal polarization region forming component forms an orthogonal polarization region, in which respective directions of polarization of a first light beam focused on and reflected by a first recording layer of an optical disc and a second light beam reflected by a second recording layer of the optical disc are perpendicular to each other, in a region, in which the first and the second light beam overlap each other, on a light-receiving surface of a detector. The orthogonal polarization region forming component is a polarization switch for changing the directions of polarization of part or all of the first and the second light beam.
US07656767B2	Information storage medium including data area having plurality of sync data and additional data area having first sync data and second sync data different from the first sync data, reproducing apparatus using the medium, and method of reproducing information from the medium An information storage medium has user data areas and additional data areas, and sync patterns to distinguish the additional data areas from the user data areas. The information storage medium includes a user data area in which user data is recorded and an additional data area located in at least one of areas before and after the user data area. Second sync patterns used in the additional data area are different from first sync patterns used in the user data area.
US07656762B2	Write once recording medium, recorder and recording method for write once recording medium, reproducer and reproducing method for write once recording medium, computer program for controlling recording or reproduction, and data structure A write-once-type recording medium (100) on which record data can be recorded only once, provided with: a data area (108) to record therein the record data; and a shared area (104, 105) to temporarily record therein evacuation data which is record data to be recorded or already recorded at a position of a defect in the data area and defect management information (120) including an evacuation source address of the evacuation data, the evacuation data being recorded with one predetermined point which exists in the shared area as a start point, the defect management information being recorded with another predetermined point which exists at a different point from the one point as a start point, in the shared area.
US07656755B2	Method and apparatus for recording digital audio to compact disc from a mass storage device Audio data which are read out from a compact disc drive are written into a hard disk drive (6) at a rate that is higher than an audio playback rate. The written audio data are read out at a rate which is higher than the audio playback rate, and then output to audio output interfaces (buffer memories). The audio output interfaces read out the audio data at the playback rate and output the data. Since the hard disk drive (6) can perform reading/writing at a rate which is sufficiently higher than the playback rate of audio data, monitoring is enabled while performing ripping.
US07656746B2	Rational motion compensated seabed seismic sensors and methods of use in seabed seismic data acquisition Apparatus and methods for acquiring seismic data using a seabed seismic data cable positioned on a seabed are described, including correcting for the effect of one or more sensor non-linear motions, which improves accuracy of seismic data. One or multiple non-linear movements of the sensor may be corrected for. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract, which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. 37 CFR 1.72(b)
US07656744B2	Memory module with load capacitance added to clock signal input A novel memory module with a multiple-rank configuration is provided to solve the problem that high-speed operation is impossible due to the fact that timing of a data strobe signal input to a memory is deviated from timing of a clock signal input thereto. In the memory module, a load capacity is provided at the vicinity of a clock signal input pin of a phase-locked loop circuit where the clock signal is input to match a time constant of a data strobe signal line with a time constant of a clock signal line. The matching of the input timings of the clock signal and the data strobe signal input to the memory enables the memory module to operate at a high speed.
US07656742B2	Circuit and method for sampling valid command using extended valid address window in double pumped address scheme memory device Provided are a circuit and method for sampling a valid command using a valid address window extended for a high-speed operation in a double pumped address scheme memory device. A method for extending the valid address window includes: inputting a valid command signal and a first address signal at the first cycle of a clock signal; inputting a second address signal at the second cycle of the clock signal; generating a decoded command signal and extended first and second internal address signals respectively in response to the command signal and the address signals; and latching and decoding the extended first and second internal address signals in response to the decoded command signal.
US07656740B2	Wordline voltage transfer apparatus, systems, and methods The apparatus and systems comprise a plurality of memory cells coupled to a local wordline, and a wordline drive circuit that includes a regulator coupled to a plurality of pass transistors and a string driver. The regulator may comprise a regulator transistor having a threshold voltage that is substantially the same as the threshold voltage of the string driver during memory cell program operations. The regulator may comprise a cascode-connected pair of transistors. Methods of manufacturing and operating the apparatus and systems are also described.
US07656736B2	Semiconductor device including internal voltage generation circuit A semiconductor integrated circuit device has a negative voltage generation circuit provided at each power supply circuit unit for six memory macros. Therefore, the response with respect to variation in a negative voltage is increased. In a standby mode, a negative voltage supply line for the six memory macros is connected by a switch circuit, and only a negative voltage generation circuit of one power supply circuit unit among six negative voltage generation circuits of the six power supply circuit units is rendered active. Thus, increase in standby current can be prevented.
US07656735B2	Dual voltage flash memory methods A voltage regulation circuit in a nonvolatile memory card accepts an input voltage from a host at two or more different voltage levels and provides an output voltage at a single level to components including a memory die. The voltage regulation circuit can provide an output voltage that is higher or lower than the input voltage.
US07656734B2	Methods and apparatus for extending the effective thermal operating range of a memory Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided for thermal regulation of a non-volatile memory IC. The systems and apparatus may include a thermal sensor on a memory IC; and a heating element coupled to the thermal sensor and adapted to heat the memory IC in response to a signal from the thermal sensor. The methods may include sensing a temperature of a memory IC using an integrated thermal sensor on the memory IC and heating the memory IC, using an integrated heating element operatively coupled to the thermal sensor, if the sensed temperature is below a threshold temperature.
US07656726B2	Memory with improved BIST An integrated circuit device includes an embedded memory having a plurality of memory macros and a built-in-self-test (BIST) circuit coupled to the plurality of memory macros for simultaneous operation of the memory macros, wherein the BIST circuit is configured to select from the memory macros' data outputs an individual memory macro's data output for analysis while the memory macros are operated simultaneously.
US07656708B2	Memory architecture with advanced main-bitline partitioning circuitry for enhanced erase/program/verify operations The present invention provides a solution for long master bit lines in a large capacity memory device. A master bit line is partitioned by at least one switching transistor placed on the master bit line.
US07656707B2	Systems and methods for discrete channel decoding of LDPC codes for flash memory Embodiments include systems and methods for soft encoding and decoding of data for flash memories using Log-Likelihood Ratios (LLRs). The LLRs are computed from statistics determined by observation of flash memory over time. In some embodiments, the write, retention and read transition probabilities are computed based on the observed statistics. These probabilities are used to compute the LLRs. During a read operation, a device reads the voltage of a cell of the flash memory. The level of the output is determined from the voltage. The level determines which LLRs to compute and transmit to a soft decoder.
US07656703B2	Method for using transitional voltage during programming of non-volatile storage To program one or more non-volatile storage elements, a set of programming pulses are applied to at least one selected non-volatile storage element and one or more particular unselected non-volatile storage elements, for example, via a common word line. A boosting voltage is applied to other unselected non-volatile storage elements during the programming process in order to boost the channels of the unselected non-volatile storage elements so that programming will be inhibited. Each of the programming pulses has a first intermediate magnitude, a second intermediate magnitude and a third magnitude. In one embodiment, the first intermediate magnitude is similar to or the same as the boosting voltage. The second intermediate magnitude is greater than the first intermediate magnitude, but less then the third magnitude. Such an arrangement can reduce the effects of program disturb.
US07656700B2	Magnetoresistive sensor memory with multiferroic material A memory cell includes a magnetoresistive sensor that comprises layers that include a free layer. The magnetoresistive sensor conducts a read current representative of data stored in the memory cell during a read interval. A first write conductor carries a write current that writes data in the free layer. At least one of the layers comprises a multiferroic layer formed of multiferroic material.
US07656694B2	Methods of programming one-time programmable devices including chalcogenide material A method of programming a one-time programmable device is provided. A switching device disposed in a substrate is turned on and a program current is applied to a fuse electrically connected to the switching device, thereby cutting the fuse. The fuse includes a first electrode electrically connected to the switching device, a second electrode spaced apart from the first electrode, and a chalcogenide pattern disposed between the first and second electrodes. Related one-time programmable devices, phase change memory devices and electronic systems are also disclosed.
US07656692B2	Method and apparatus for supplying and switching power An exemplary embodiment of an apparatus for supplying and switching power may include a power source, a transformer, a full bridge rectifier and a control switch. The transformer has a first winding and a second winding, the first winding being connected to the power source, the second winding having a first tap and a second tap, with the first tap being connected to a first load output. The full bridge rectifier includes four nodes, the first being connected to the second tap of the second winding, the second being connected to a second load output, the third being connected to a reference voltage source. The control switch is connected between a fourth of the four nodes and the reference voltage source.
US07656688B2	DC-DC converter for a display A DC-DC converter for a display. The DC-DC converter comprises a negative voltage generator, a level sifter and a DC-DC sub-converter. The negative generator generates a negative voltage. The level shifter, coupled to the negative voltage generator, generates complementary switch control signals. The DC-DC sub-converter coupled to the level shifter operates in response to the complementary switch control signals.
US07656687B2	Modulated transformer-coupled gate control signaling method and apparatus A modulated transformer-coupled gate control signaling method and apparatus provides reduction of circuit complexity and robust design characteristics in switching power circuits having a transformer-coupled gate drive. A modulated control signal at a rate substantially higher than the switching circuit gate control rate is provided from the controller circuit to a demodulator via transformer coupling. Power for the demodulator can be obtained by rectifying the modulated control signal at the demodulator, or from another transformer winding. The modulation scheme is chosen to have a DC average value of zero, eliminating any magnetization current management requirements. The modulated control signal may carry redundant control information and/or may encode additional information to provide a more sophisticated gate drive control, such as oversampled gate control information.
US07656682B1	Electromagnetic noise reduction device Briefly, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, an electromagnetic interference (EMI) reduction device may include a circuit and at least one heatsink. The circuit may include analog devices coupled to reduce EMI signals received by the heatsink. The devices may be specifically adapted to substantially invert or phase-shift by 180° the EMI signals received by the heatsink.
US07656678B2	Stacked module systems The present invention stacks integrated circuit packages into circuit modules. In a preferred embodiment, solder paste and primary adhesive respectively are applied to selected locations on the flex circuitry. Supplemental adhesive is applied to additional locations on the flex circuitry, CSP, or other component. The flex circuitry and the CSP are brought into proximity with each other. During solder reflow operation, a force is applied and the CSP collapses toward the flex circuitry, displacing the primary adhesive and the supplemental adhesive. The supplemental adhesive establishes a bond providing additional support to the flex circuitry. In another embodiment, CSPs or other integrated circuit packages are bonded to each other or to other components with a combination of adhesives. A rapid bond adhesive maintains alignment of the bonded packages and/or components during assembly, and a structural bond adhesive provides additional strength and/or structural integrity to the bond.
US07656675B2	Mobile terminal A mobile terminal includes a frame having a front side and a rear side, the rear side having a first receiving space and a second receiving space located beside one another, a front cover disposed to at least partially cover the front side of the frame, the front cover having a transparent portion, a touch screen located between the front cover and the frame, the touch screen permitting transmission of a signal when the transparent portion is contacted, a camera located in one of the first and second receiving spaces, and a rear cover disposed to at least partially cover each of the first and second receiving spaces.
US07656672B2	Power module A power module has several circuit units (20, 21) that are electrically connected in parallel and are provided with terminal contacts (5, 5′) which are electrically and mechanically interconnected via at least one current-conducting saddle (26). In order to create a power module which is easy to produce and in which the current-conducting saddle (26) requires little space, the saddle (26) is embodied in several parts while encompassing a terminal element (12) that can be connected in a fixed manner to a terminal contact (5) of a circuit unit (20) independently of a connecting element (25) of the saddle (26). The connecting element (25) of the saddle (26) extends on a plane that is spaced apart from the circuit unit (20) while being electrically connected to the terminal element (12).
US07656662B2	Dual sliding portable electronic device A dual sliding portable electronic device (100) includes a main body (20), a sliding body (10) and a dual sliding assembly (30). The main body includes a first key array (231), a second key array (232), and a third key array (233) disposed on a top surface (21). The sliding body includes an upper surface (11), a display (13) disposed on the upper surface, and a bottom surface (12) at an opposite side of the upper surface. The dual sliding assembly slidingly connects the bottom surface of sliding body to the top surface of the main body, and is configured to direct the sliding body to slide along a first direction to reveal both of the second key array and the third key array, and along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to reveal both of the first key array and the second key array.
US07656656B2	Storage device enclosure An enclosure for storage devices having at least one mounting surface and a viscoelastic layer disposed between a first layer and a second layer of the mounting surface. A receiver secured to the mounting surface within the enclosure receives a storage device carrier that retains a disk drive and positions the storage device carrier within the enclosure. Clip-on damped springs, coupled to the storage device carrier, guide the storage device carrier through the receiver and couple the storage device carrier to the mounting surface(s). A bezel of the storage device carrier is configured to receive a key in one of a plurality of key positions, with each key position corresponding to a particular disk drive/enclosure chassis interface.
US07656654B2	Mounting apparatus for storage device A mounting apparatus for a storage device includes a bracket configured for receiving the storage device and including a sidewall defining a through hole therein, a latching member pivotally mounted to the bracket and including a latching protrusion extending through the through hole of the bracket for fixing the storage device, a rotating mechanism connected between the bracket and the latching member to enable the latching member to rotate relative to the bracket, and an elastic member connected between the bracket and the latching member for urging the latching member toward the side wall of the bracket.
US07656650B2	Modular printed board assembly, plasma display apparatus having the same, and method of fabricating the assembly In a modular printed board assembly, a plasma display apparatus including the modular printed board assembly, and a method of fabricating the modular printed board assembly, the modular printed board includes: a frame of plate shape fixed on a chassis base; and a plurality of printed board assemblies, on which a plurality of electronic elements are mounted, installed on the frame.
US07656648B2	Bus-bar and connector A bus-bar having a prismatic housing, an elongate conductor extending along a length of the housing, and a resilient retainer which extends along a length of the housing and retains the conductor in the housing is disclosed.
US07656647B2	Electrolytic capacitor with improved volumetric efficiency Surface mount electrolytic capacitors are provided with anode and cathode terminations having respective first termination portions provided on the bottom surface of a molded package in a generally coplanar configuration. A second cathode termination portion is bent in a generally perpendicular fashion to the first cathode termination portion and may then be adhered to the external cathode layer of a capacitor body. A second anode termination portion is bent in a generally perpendicular fashion to the first anode termination portion and may then be welded to an anode wire connected to and extending from the capacitor body. An insulation pad may be provided between the first anode termination portion and the capacitor body to prevent device shorting. A planar termination frame may be provided to form the electrolytic capacitors of the present subject matter. Additional embodiments of the disclosed technology include additional termination portions to effect wrap-around surface-mount anode and cathode terminations.
US07656643B2	Scalable integrated circuit high density capacitors The present invention provides several scalable integrated circuit high density capacitors and their layout techniques. The capacitors are scaled, for example, by varying the number of metal layers and/or the area of the metal layers used to form the capacitors. The capacitors use different metallization patterns to form the metal layers, and different via patterns to couple adjacent metal layers. In embodiments, optional shields are included as the top-most and/or bottom-most layers of the capacitors, and/or as side shields, to reduce unwanted parasitic capacitance.
US07656639B2	Retainer for surge arrester disconnector Retainers for movable surge arrester disconnectors to prevent relative displacement of the disconnectors with respect to the arrester within predetermined limits.
US07656637B2	Power control system pseudo power-up, aircraft including the power control system and method of controlling power in an aircraft A power control system with a pseudo-power up, an aircraft including the power control system and a method of controlling power in an aircraft. On-board wiring is protected from faults by electronic circuit breakers (ECBs), which may also control AC/DC electrical power supplies of on-board electrical/electronic equipment. A computer processor operating a user interface, e.g., a graphical user interface (GUI), through a display. An on-board store stores the GUI, other computer applications and the current state of each ECB, e.g., in a breaker state table. In a pseudo-power mode up, the stored circuit breaker state is available without providing power to the ECBs and, correspondingly to the coupled on-board electrical systems. When terminated, the system can power off, or proceed to normal power where each ECB is configured according to the breaker state table prior to providing power to protected systems.
US07656633B2	Asymmetric fault detection and protection with AC solid state power controllers An apparatus and method for protecting an AC load from half-wave rectified power detects a half-wave rectified voltage or current, sets a status indication indicating the type of asymmetric fault causing the half-wave rectified power, and selectively turns the SSPC ON or OFF depending on the type of fault. There are two example circumstances that can cause an asymmetric fault: when the SSPC is OFF and a switch is shorted (“SSPC Failed Shorted”), or when the SSPC is commanded ON and a switch remains open (“SSPC Failed Open”). If the SSPC is OFF when the half-wave rectified AC voltage or current is detected, an “SSPC Failed Shorted” status indication is set, and the SSPC is turned ON to clear the fault. If the SSPC is commanded ON when the half-wave rectified AC voltage or current is detected, an “SSPC Failed Open” status indication is set, and the SSPC is turned OFF to clear the fault.
US07656632B2	Electronic circuit including a step-up circuit and electric appliance comprising the same An electronic circuit includes a constant voltage output circuit that outputs a constant voltage and a step-up circuit including an input portion to which outputs of the constant voltage output circuit are connected and is controlled by a control circuit, an overcurrent detecting circuit that detects overcurrent when current of not less than a specified value is supplied to the constant voltage output circuit by not less than a first specified period of time, and an overcurrent protecting circuit that performs operations of protecting the constant current output circuit based on outputs of the overcurrent detecting circuit. The electronic circuit protects, in an electronic circuit using a charge pump type step-up circuit, the step-up circuit from overcurrent in abnormal conditions and achieves more rapid operations.
US07656629B2	Safety switch for a safety circuit A safety switch for safety circuit arrangement has a control part for processing an input signal and at least one switching element with at least one active and one inactive switching state. The control part controls the switching element in order to generate an output signal dependent on the input signal at an output. In addition, the safety switch has a diagnostic function for identifying a functional fault. The control part is configured to transfer the switching element into the inactive state when a functional fault is identified. According to one aspect of the invention, the control part is also configured to generate a data message at the output, which data message is dependent on the functional fault.
US07656624B2	IC power protection circuit An IC power protection circuit functions as a surge protection circuit and reverse connection protection circuit. The IC power protection circuit includes an error amplification circuit, positioned and integrated within an integrated circuit and a transistor positioned as a stand-alone element that is separate from the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a sensor signal processing circuit that processes a signal of a sensor. A transistor protects the integrated circuit against a surge voltage from a battery terminal. A resistor is positioned between an output terminal of an error amplifier and a base terminal of the transistor to provide reverse connection protection. Another resistor is connected between a ground and a connection point between the above resistor and the output terminal to provide overvoltage protection for the integrated circuit. A starting resistor is connected between a collector and base of the transistor.
US07656623B2	Methods and apparatus for charging a battery in a peripheral device A power manager for managing power delivered to a battery operated peripheral device is disclosed. The power manager includes an input current limiter arranged to suppress a power surge associated with an insertion event by a power cable arranged to provide an external voltage. A voltage converter unit coupled to the input current limiter converts the received external voltage to a supply voltage that is transmitted by way of a main bus to a voltage sensor unit coupled thereto. During the insertion event, a comparator unit coupled to the voltage sensor, sends a first switching signal to a switchover circuit that responds by connecting the peripheral device and an uncharged battery to the main bus such that the supply voltage is provided thereto. When the battery is substantially fully charged, the switchover circuit responds by electrically disconnecting the battery so as to not overcharge the battery.
US07656612B2	Magnetic head having a patterned pole layer The system includes a magnetic head which faces a recording medium. The magnetic head has a coil which generates magnetic fields. The magnetic head also has a pole layer which is formed using a pattern. The pole layer allows magnetic flux generated by the coil to write data onto the recording medium. The pole layer generates a write magnetic field for writing data onto the recording medium.A photomask is used to form the magnetic head. The photomask includes three regions. The first region has such a perimeter that a projection image thereof is shaped along a perimeter of an ideal shape of the top surface of the pole layer, and the second region touches the first region's perimeter. The third region suppresses deviation of the pole layer from its desired shape which may be caused by the effect of light reflected while the photoresist layer is exposed.
US07656604B1	Disk drive demodulating a spiral track by finding a maximum correlation between a spiral track crossing signal and a time-shifted nominal spiral track crossing signal A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk including a plurality of spiral tracks, wherein each spiral track comprises a high frequency signal interrupted by a sync mark at a sync mark interval, and a head actuated over the disk. The spiral tracks are demodulated by reading a spiral track to generate a spiral track crossing signal g(xn), where xn is a time in a demodulation window, and determining a position error signal (PES) by determining a time-shift L that maximizes a correlation between g(xn) and a function that estimates a nominal spiral track crossing signal having the time-shift of L.
US07656595B2	Adjustment arrangement of an optical element A arrangement serves for the adjustment of an optical element (1), in particular of a lens in an optical system, in particular in a projection lens system for semiconductor lithography. The optical element (1) is mounted in a mount (3) by means of a number of bearing feet (2) distributed over the circumference of the optical element (1) and is selectively deformable by actuators (5). At least some of the bearing feet (2) are engaged by the actuators (5) in a region of the respective bearing foot (2) in such a way that the respective bearing foot (2) can be displaced in the direction of the optical axis (7).
US07656590B2	Zoom lens and imaging apparatus The invention relates to a zoom lens and an imaging apparatus, and more particularly to a slimmed-down zoom lens well fit for imaging apparatus inclusive of video cameras and digital cameras. The zoom lens comprises, in order from its object side, a first lens group having negative refracting power, a second lens group having positive refracting power, a third lens group having negative refracting power and a fourth lens group having positive refracting power. The first lens group consists of one negative component wherein one negative lens and one positive lens are cemented together. Upon zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end and the second lens group moves toward the object side with a decreasing spacing between the first lens group and the second lens group, a changing spacing between the second lens group and the third lens group and a changing spacing between the third lens group and the fourth lens group.
US07656583B2	Beam combiner employing a wedge-shaped cross-section A beam corradiator for combining two radiation beams, preferably movable beams independent from each other in at least one direction, to scan and/or influence a sample, preferably a manipulation system and an imaging system, with a partially reflecting layer being provided for the corradiation, wherein the thickness of the layer is provided with a preferably consistent incline or decline over the optically effective cross-section of the beam corradiatior.
US07656575B2	Printable pixel structure with carbon fiber emitters A sub-pixel for use in a color pixel structure, includes a microwire preferably printed on a substrate, the microwire having a gap in it; a carbon filament spanning the gap and having opposite ends of the filament in electrical communication with the wire; an electro-optic gel having a tint of one primary color of a white light spectrum, the gel enveloping the carbon filament.
US07656571B1	Balanced light valve Radiation from an illumination source (102) is directed to a total internal reflector (TIR) modulator (10). The modulator includes a an electro-optic member (213) with a plurality of individually addressable pixel regions (210) comprised of a plurality of electrodes arranged in a first and second set. At least one electrode of the first set is adjacent to at least one electrode of the second set and at least one of the pixel regions is controlled to form at least one image pixel on a surface. A first electric potential is imposed on the first set of electrodes selected from a first predetermined group of electric potential values. A second electric potential is imposed on the second set of electrodes selected from a second predetermined group of electric potential values. The first and second predetermined groups of electric potential values together comprise at least three different electric potential values.
US07656567B2	Selecting a best three color solution to a CIE Lab input using linear interpolation A method for selecting a best three color solution for a CIE_Lab request comprises generating a three color database (10) of CIE_Lab values at specified colorant input levels. A closest point in the database with colorant input levels is found, which will produce a CIE_Lab value that is closest to the CIE_Lab request. A matrix of points centered on the closest point (30) is selected. A linear model to the matrix of points is found. An output color consisting of a set of colorant levels is created using the linear model.
US07656564B2	Apparatus and method for compensating for pixel distortion in reproduction of hologram data An apparatus for compensating for pixel distortion while reproducing hologram data includes an extraction unit, a determination and calculation unit, a table, and a compensation unit. The extraction unit extracts a reproduced data image from a reproduced image frame including the reproduced data image and borders. The determination and calculation unit determines position values of edges of the extracted reproduced data image, and calculates average magnification error values of pixels within line data from position values of start and end point pixels thereof, which are based on the determined position values of the edges. The table stores misalignment compensation values for the pixels within the line data, wherein the misalignment compensation values correspond to predetermined references for average magnification error values. The compensation unit compensates for pixel positions in the extracted reproduced data image using the misalignment compensation values that correspond to the calculated average magnification error values.
US07656556B2	Detection of a differential gloss region in a cluster-screen halftone image using filters each having a different polarization An apparatus and method are provided for processing a digital image to determine whether the image includes a region of differential gloss (which would yield a differential gloss when that digital image is printed into hardcopy). The method includes identifying whether an input digital image has a periodic characteristic which is indicative of a cluster screen halftoned digital image and, if so, determining a correlation between first and second filters and halftone structures of the identified digital image. The second filter has a different polarization from the first filter. The first and second filters are selected to enable a region of differential gloss in the identified digital image to be identified, based on the determined correlations. Where such a region or regions are detected, a representation of the differential gloss image may be displayed and/or another action automatically initiated, such as restricting printing of the image.
US07656555B2	Method of recording a computer object using color enabled by a recording device and communication device A computer object such as text, graphics, mathematical formulas, images, audio, and other data and information handled inside a computer or through a computer in industry or daily life etc. is expressed, recorded, reproduced, and transmitted using color or a color numerical value. Color is used as a medium for expressing data or information taking note of the characteristics of color. This helps counter the ballooning amount of recording. Color can also be used to prepare codes.
US07656553B2	Printing user-created custom header/footer/separator pages from the printer driver A method for customizing header pages, footer pages, and/or separator pages is disclosed. According to one aspect, a user interface is displayed. The user interface comprises user interface elements through which a user can specify user-customized content that is to appear on an additional page that is to be printed with the pages of an electronic document. A user-generated representation of the content is received through the user interface. A printer driver generates modified print data based on additional print data, which represents the additional page, and original print data, which represents the electronic document. The modified print data causes the printing device to print the user-customized content on a header, footer, or separator page. As a result, when the printing device receives the modified print data, the printing device prints the header, footer, or separator page, with the user-customized content, in addition to the pages of the electronic document.
US07656549B2	Image forming apparatus When received facsimile data is TSI-transferred, an image forming apparatus selects one box from a table which includes at least one of a box to which a number of a transmission source is assigned as a name and a box to which a part of a number of a transmission source and a symbol attached to the front or last of the number are assigned as a name. In the case where the selected box has the name in which the symbol is added to the front of the part of the number, a last number of a number indicated by data included in the TSI, which has the number of digits identical to those of the part of the number, is compared with the part of the number for all digits. As a result of the comparison, in the case where they match each other, the apparatus transfers the received facsimile data according to transfer setting of the box.
US07656540B2	Apparatus and method for measuring suspension and head assemblies An optical measurement device for determining at least two parameters of a measurement location of a surface of a workpiece positioned in a known coordinate system by a workpiece support is described. The device comprises a first light source providing a first measurement beam at a first wavelength and a second light source providing a second measurement beam at a second wavelength. The device also comprises a beam steering system positioning the first and second measurement beams to be collocated on the surface of the workpiece. Further, the device comprise a first imaging system, detecting the incoming position of the first measurement beam and an optical receiving system, detecting the incoming position of the second measurement beam.
US07656539B1	Multi-conjugate adaptive optics system for field conjugation A multi-conjugate adaptive optics system is described that reduces aberration-induced fluctuations of amplitude and phase in a beam without requiring the explicit measurement and feedback control of the beam's irradiance profile. The system uses a pair of wavefront correctors conjugated to widely separated planes in a turbulent path, where each of the wavefront correctors is controlled by a decentralized wavefront control loop. The system is configured such that the explicit control of phase fluctuations in a beam using the pair of wavefront correctors results in the implicit control of amplitude fluctuations in the beam. Because the system uses decentralized control loops that do not rely on beam irradiance measurement and feedback, the complexity of the control loop is reduced below that of conventional multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems and is comparable to that of single-conjugate adaptive optics systems.
US07656536B2	Fiber-optic assay apparatus based on phase-shift interferometry Apparatus and method for detecting an analyte in a sample based on optical interference. The apparatus includes a light source, detector unit and one or more disposable detector tips. The apparatus also includes an optical coupling assembly that couples light from the source to the detector tips, and from the detector tips to the detector unit.
US07656534B2	System for automatic detection of forest fires through optic spectroscopy The present invention relates to a system for detection of forest fires, based on the chemical analysis of the atmosphere through optic spectroscopy. The smoke originated from a fire has a chemical composition different from that of a normal atmosphere. This chemical composition is determined by the analysis of light absorption, which passes through the smoke, in its different wavelengths, carried out by a spectrometer. In this case, the spectrometer is associated to a telescope and solar light is used as the light source allowing the detection of smoke originated from a fire in a specific area of the horizon. The maximum distance from which the smoke can be detected depends only on the potency of the telescope and may be of many kilometers. The installation of the system on a rotating support and the use of computational logarithms makes the detection in any point of the horizon possible, a completely autonomous way.
US07656532B2	Cavity ring-down spectrometer having mirror isolation A cavity ring-down spectrometer having a light-conveying structure, a mirror and an isolator. The structure may form a resonator cavity, and the resonator cavity may include a sample sub-cavity and a mirror sub-cavity. A preconcentrator medium may be within a sample sub-cavity, and the medium may adsorb a sample substance entering the sample sub-cavity. A heater may heat the medium to desorb the sample through which a light can propagate. The mirror may be within the mirror sub-cavity, and the mirror may direct light through the mirror sub-cavity and the sample sub-cavity. The isolator may reduce, inhibit or prevent the sample substance in the sample sub-cavity from entering the mirror sub-cavity and affecting the mirror in the mirror sub-cavity.
US07656519B2	Wafer edge inspection In one embodiment, a surface analyzer system comprises a radiation targeting assembly to target radiation onto an edge surface of a wafer, the radiation targeting assembly comprising a first expanded paraboloid or expanded ellipsoid reflector positioned adjacent the edge surface of the wafer, a reflected radiation collecting assembly that collects radiation reflected from the surface, a signal processing module to generate surface parameter data from the reflected radiation, and a defect detection module to analyze the surface parameter data to detect a defect on the surface.
US07656508B2	Distance measuring apparatus, distance measuring method, and computer program product A distance measuring apparatus includes a detecting unit which detects a distance to an object located in a predetermined detection range; an imaging unit which generates an image signal group corresponding to a predetermined imaging field; a calculating unit which calculates the distance to the object located in the imaging field based on the image signal group; and an interpolating unit which either interpolates a detection result by the detecting unit by using a calculation result by the calculating unit, or interpolates the calculation result by the calculating unit by using the detection result by the detecting unit.
US07656507B2	Processing unit, exposure apparatus having the processing unit, and protection unit A processing unit including a supply section for storing a mask having a patterned surface having a pattern to be exposed to a plate, the supply section being maintained under atmospheric pressure, a process chamber for processing the plate, the process chamber being maintained in a reduced pressure or vacuum atmosphere and the processing unit transferring the mask between the supply section and the process chamber, and a protection unit for protecting the patterned surface in a non-contact manner and for holding part of the mask other than the patterned surface. The protection unit covers the mask while opening at least a part of the other side surface of the patterned surface. The processing unit further includes a transfer unit for adsorbing the protection unit and for transferring the protection unit and the mask held by the protection unit, between the supply section and the process chamber.
US07656505B2	Apparatus to easily measure reticle blind positioning with an exposure apparatus An exposure apparatus and printed wafer such that a design is printed within a peripheral portion of the wafer. The peripheral portion of the wafer is between an outer boundary of an active portion of the wafer and an outer boundary of the wafer. The exposure apparatus comprises a lens, a reticle that includes a pattern, and a reticle blind. The reticle blind blocks a first portion of light that is passed through the exposure apparatus. A transparent portion of the reticle transmits a remaining portion of the light. The lens focuses the remaining portion of the light onto the wafer such that an image of a portion of the pattern is printed as the design within the peripheral portion of the wafer. The printed design is a function of where the reticle blind is positioned relative to the pattern.
US07656500B2	Liquid crystal display device and fabricating method thereof A liquid crystal display device and a fabricating method having a simplified process are disclosed. The liquid crystal display device compromises, among other features, first and second substrates, a gate line crossing a data line with a gate insulating film therebetween to define a pixel area. A common line is provided on the substrate substantially parallel to the gate line, and a common electrode is extended from the common line into the pixel area. A pixel electrode is extended from a drain electrode into the pixel area to form a horizontal electric field with the common electrode. The data line, a source electrode, a drain electrode and the pixel electrode are formed of a first conductive layer group having at least double conductive layers, and are formed in an area to be sealed by a sealant upon joining the first and second substrates.
US07656492B2	Liquid crystal display device using in-plane switching mode having particular pixel electrodes An in-plane switching (IPS) mode liquid crystal display (LCD) device is described which does not contain a common electrode. In the IPS mode LCD device. In the IPS display device, a pixel is defined by gate lines and data lines that cross each other. One or more switching devices are formed at the pixel. First and second electrodes are disposed at the pixel. The first electrode is connected with one of the data lines through the switching device and the second electrode is connected with another of the data lines through another switching device. The other switching device is either formed at the pixel or formed at an adjacent pixel. The data lines, and thus the first and second electrodes, have different potentials applied thereto, thereby forming an electric field without using a common electrode.
US07656486B2	Liquid crystal display device The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device used as a display part of an electronic apparatus which exhibits high brightness and favorable display quality. The liquid crystal display device includes a pair of substrates which are arranged to face each other in an opposed manner; vertical-alignment type liquid crystal which is sealed between the pair of substrates; a plurality of pixel regions, each pixel region including a sub pixel having a pixel electrode on one substrate and a sub pixel having a pixel electrode on one substrate, a slit formed between the pixel electrodes; and a singular point control part which includes projecting portions which are formed on end portions of the pixel electrodes on the slit-side and controls singular points of the liquid crystal.
US07656484B2	Method and apparatus for forming alignment layer for liquid crystal display A method for forming an alignment layer for a liquid crystal display includes preparing a substrate, applying an alignment material for initial alignment of a liquid crystal, and applying a field flux (e.g., an electric or magnetic field) to the alignment material to determine the alignment direction of the alignment material. Further disclosed is an apparatus for forming an alignment layer for a liquid crystal display. The apparatus comprises a substrate stage on which a substrate is mounted, and an electric or magnetic field generator installed at the periphery of the substrate stage. According to the method and the apparatus, since the alignment direction of an alignment material is determined by using an electric or magnetic field, no physical contact with a substrate is required and thus the problem of light leakage caused by rubbing alignment is solved.
US07656481B2	Electrode structure and transflective liquid crystal display device using the same An electrode structure for use in a transflective liquid crystal display device having a plurality of pixels is disclosed. Each pixel has a reflective region and a transmissive region. The electrode structure at least comprises a first transparent electrode, a reflective electrode and a second transparent electrode. The first transparent electrode is disposed within the transmissive region, while the reflective electrode and the second transparent electrode formed above the reflective electrode are disposed within the reflective region. The area of the second transparent electrode is smaller than the area of the reflective electrode.
US07656473B2	Fabrication method of light controlling assembly and liquid crystal display device A liquid crystal display comprises a liquid crystal display panel; a light source to provide light to the liquid crystal display panel; and a light controlling assembly disposed between the light source and the liquid crystal display panel, the light controlling assembly comprising at least one first light controlling member, at least one second light controlling member disposed on the first light controlling member and an light curing agent disposed on an edge part between the first light controlling member and the second light controlling member to adhere the first light controlling member and the second light controlling member to each other, the first light controlling member and the second light controlling member having an air layer therebetween.
US07656469B2	Structure for mounting display housing to monitor stand A structure for mounting a display housing to a monitor stand of a monitor having a flat display, the display housing for the flat display, and a stand bracket for holding the display housing, includes fastening members at the stand bracket, and coupling members fixed to a rear case of the flat display in correspondence to the fastening members, wherein the fastening members are directly fastened to the coupling members respectively, to mount the display housing to the stand bracket.
US07656467B2	Liquid crystal display and fabricating method thereof Disclosed are a liquid crystal display and a fabricating method thereof enabling to improve an opening ratio of the liquid crystal display by modifying a structure of a thin film transistor. Each pixel of the liquid crystal display includes a gate line formed on a substrate in one direction with a predetermined interval from another one, a data line formed in a direction perpendicular to the gate line so as to define a pixel area, a thin film transistor formed on the gate line at an intersection between the gate and data lines, and a pixel electrode formed in the pixel area.
US07656465B2	Liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing the same Fine electrode patterns pattern-formed in the shape of fine teeth of a comb bilaterally symmetrical with respect to band-shaped portions are formed at even intervals in a pixel electrode, and band-shaped dielectric layers are pattern-formed at even intervals to cover the fine electrode patterns in a display pixel. By the existence of the dielectric layer and the fine electrode patterns complementing this, a portion formed with this layer and the fine electrode patterns is a high threshold voltage region, and relatively, a low threshold voltage region where the dielectric layer does not exist is formed. By the aforementioned construction, it becomes possible to improve a delay in response speed at low gray levels and increase the speed of halftone response, whereby a very reliable image display having moving image performance almost equal to that of a CRT is realized.
US07656464B2	Remote control unit code learning television set A television set which learns to work with a remote control unit not specifically designed to operate that television set. The television set enters a learning mode in response to the user pressing a “Learn Remote” button or menu item, or in response to receiving an unknown remote control signal value, and gives the user a series of prompts for the user to press specified buttons on the remote control unit. As the user presses the buttons, the television set associates the received data values with the prompted button/functionality, to construct the remote code data set of the remote control unit. The television set may retrieve the remote code data set from an external source such as a website. After learning the remote code data set, the television set is able to be controlled by the remote control unit as though it were factory original.
US07656449B2	Solid-state imaging apparatus having gate potential that is negtive with respect to a well region Each unit pixel includes a photodiode, a reading selection transistor, a reading transistor, an amplifying transistor, a reset transistor, and a horizontal selection transistor, and thus a MOS image sensor of a dot-sequential reading 5-Tr type is formed. The reading selection transistor and the reading transistor are formed with a two-layer gate structure, and gate potential of the reading selection transistor and the reading transistor is set to a negative potential. Thereby, a lower layer of a gate region of the reading transistor and the reading selection transistor is controlled to a negative potential. Thus, depletion in the lower layer region is suppressed to reduce leakage current.
US07656432B2	Method and apparatus for photographing moving object An apparatus for photographing a moving object has a velocity detector that measures a velocity of an object, at least one camera that has an image sensor and is located so as to capture the object, an operating processor that calculates a photograph point in accordance with resolution required for an object image, a camera controller that controls the camera on the basis of a detected velocity so as to photograph the object when the object passes the photograph point, and an image transmitting processor that transmits image data, obtained by the camera, outside. The operating processor calculates the photograph point by using an object-resolution conversion diagram. The object-resolution conversion diagram represents a correspondence relationship between an angle of view, a number of pixels, an object distance, and a resolution.
US07656429B2	Digital camera and method for in creating still panoramas and composite photographs Digital cameras and methods that help a user accurately align sequential photographs to create large panoramas and composite photographs derived from a sequence of smaller photographs. This effectively creates a higher resolution, or larger, photograph from a zigzag series of photographs using a low resolution camera. An algorithm running on the camera guides a user through the image-taking procedure, allowing him or her to select if a panoramic or composite photograph is to be taken, and optionally the number of images (width and height) needed to create the final image. The algorithm displays indicia, such as marks or a shadow (transparent) image, that are overlaid and moved over the live image during the image-taking process to help align the subsequent image to be taken with the previously recorded image.
US07656422B2	Pulse width modulaton device and image forming apparatus A disclosed device for generating a pulse-width modulated signal according to image data and based on a pixel clock signal includes a pixel clock generating unit configured to generate the pixel clock signal and a modulated data generating unit configured to generate the pulse-width modulated signal. The pixel clock generating unit includes a multi-phase clock signal generating unit, a comparing unit, a frequency calculation unit, a counting unit, and a pixel clock signal output unit. The modulated data generating unit includes a data converting unit, an edge time calculation unit, and a pulse-width modulated signal output unit.
US07656415B2	Aggregation of curve effects A system, a method and computer-readable media for aggregating curves. An aggregated curve is generated by associating input values from a first curve with output values from a second curve. This aggregated curve may be used, for example, to apply multiple curve effects to a digital image.
US07656413B2	Large display attention focus system A system that allows a user to spotlight a region of particular interest in a large-scale display, such as a wall panel display. The spotlight can be a circular or other shape area around which the display is de-emphasized, such as by being darkened or blurred outside the circle. The spotlight can be moved by the user moving a cursor positioned in the circle. When the cursor encounters an edge of the circle the spotlight is moved in the direction of cursor movement. As the cursor is moved the outside region has less de-emphasis. When the movement is stopped the outside region is darkened to the maximum. A spotlight beam or other attention directing area of emphasis can be used to help focus a viewer's attention on the spotlight. The spotlight can follow objects in a scene as they move.
US07656412B2	Texture resampling with a processor A system, a method and computer-readable media for performing texture resampling algorithms on a processing device. A texture resampling algorithm is selected. This algorithm is decomposed into multiple one-dimensional transformations. Instructions for performing each of the one-dimensional transformations are communicated to a processing device, such as a GPU. The processing device may generate an output image by separately executing the instructions associated with each of the one-dimensional transformations.

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