Document	Document Title
US08214963B2	Mop with spinning device A mop includes a spinning device, a shank fixed to a first end of the spinning device, an operation rod having a first end connected to a second end of the spinning device, and a mop head connected to a second end of the operation rod. When a force is applied in a first direction making the operation rod and the spinning device move relatively in an axial direction, the mechanism in the spinning device drives the operation rod and the mop head to spin in the same direction simultaneously so as to generate a centrifugal force to remove the water from the mop head. When the force stops, the spring and the clutch structure in the spinning device make the operation rod back to the original position under a condition that the operation rod does not spin.
US08214939B2	Splash guard for washing basin A splash guard for installation on a washing basin having a faucet assembly mounted proximate an edge of said basin, said splash guard comprising a one piece, generally concave shell having a floor portion with one or more openings for water supply plumbing to said faucet assembly and an upwardly curved rear wall portion integral therewith for directing splashed material impinging thereon into said washing basin.
US08214937B2	Foot spa tub pump and method A foot spa tub includes a tub basin, a first magnetic drive member rotatably coupled to a drive motor, and a first casing supporting the magnetic drive member. The first casing is disposed against an exterior surface of a sidewall of the basin. A second magnetic drive member is rotatably coupled to a blade. The first and second magnetic drive members are magnetically coupled to each other so that the blade is drivingly coupled to the drive motor. A nozzle houses the second magnetic drive member and the blade. The nozzle is detachably securable to an interior surface of the sidewall by a magnetic attraction force between the first and second magnetic drive members. A method of circulating liquid in a foot tub spa is also provided.
US08214934B2	Seamless sink drain assembly with disposer/strainer mounting system The sink drain assembly (3-5) comprises a downwardly extending drain sleeve (3) integrally formed on the sink (1); a resilient, generally cylindrical mounting member (5) formed with an upper annular section (7) adapted to releasably engage the drain sleeve (3) and with a lower annular section (13) adapted to releasably receive an upper portion (12) of a garbage disposer (8,9); a clamp (14) removably attachable to the mounting member (5) in overlying relation to the upper (7) and lower (13) annular sections, and a strainer (64) having a radially outwardly extending gasket (63) adapted to establish a generally water tight seal between the strainer (64) and a splashguard (66) mounted on the upper portion (12) of the garbage disposer (8,9).
US08214927B1	Protective garment for lower abdomen and upper legs Garments designed to be worn in conjunction with conventional chaps to protect the lower abdomen of the wearer and upper legs of a wearer are described herein. Also described are garments that replace conventional chaps.
US08214926B2	Posture improving garment A garment adapted to be worn by a wearer. The garment includes a main body portion that is configured to be worn over at least a portion of the wearer's lumbo-pelvic region, hips and at least a portion of the legs, wherein the main body portion includes first and second leg portions that each define an axis. The garment also includes a strap system that includes a plurality of leg straps releasably affixed to the main body portion. Each of the leg straps includes at least one connector for affixing the leg strap to the main body portion. Each of the leg straps overlies a grip layer that is adapted to contact the wearer's skin when the garment is worn.
US08220066B2	Vibration compensation in probe microscopy A The local probe microscopy apparatus (1) comprises a probe (3) with translation stages (5a, 5b) for controlling the position of the probe (3) relative to a sample surface. The probe (3) has a feedback mechanism (6, 5 7) for maintaining the deflection of the probe and a height measuring system (9) which includes means for compensating for environmental noise. The local probe microscopy apparatus is particularly suitable for use as a wafer inspection tool in a wafer fabrication plant where the inspection tool is liable to be exposed to significant mechanical vibration.
US08220064B2	Content management system and content management unit A content management system which can prevent a content from being copied exceeding the limited number of copies for the content. The content management system includes a first content management device and a second content management device. The first content management device stores period information that indicates an available period during which a first external device is permitted to use a copied content which has been copied from the content, and outputs the period information to the second content management device when the content is moved. Upon receiving the period information from the first content management device, the second content management device judges whether the available period of the copied content has expired, using the received period information, and if it is judges that the available period has not expired, it inhibits the content from being copied to the second external device.
US08220059B2	Method and apparatus for generating rights object by reauthorization Provided are a method and apparatus for generating a rights object (RO) by reauthorization. The method includes a second device mutually authenticating a first device, which received the first authorization information from a right issuer (RI), receiving a first RO from the first device, receiving a second authorization information from the first device, generating a third authorization information based on the second authorization information, changing the first RO to a second RO using the second authorization information, and transmitting the third authorization information and the second RO to an unauthorized device.
US08220051B2	Generation and delivery of multimedia content-adaptation notifications A method for conditioning multimedia containers to be compatible with decoding facilities of receivers of diverse types is disclosed. Content of a multimedia container may include components of different encoding formats. Container conditioning also detects and, where feasible, removes undesirable insertions within each content component of a multimedia container. A content component of a container may be filtered, re-encoded, or deleted. Notifications indicating conditions of a container and any modifications performed are appended to the container. A notification may be presented in at least one form compatible with characteristics of a respective receiver. An editing engine implementing the method is associated with a network entity to which multimedia containers are directed. The editing engine accesses a receiver database storing information on several types of receivers and a repository of notification templates encoded in several forms.
US08220050B2	Method and system for detecting restricted content associated with retrieved content In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for contextual information caused to be attached to data as it passes through a series of computing devices, the contextual information relating to the series of computing devices. The data and the contextual information may then be scanned to determine if the data is a target data. In response to the identification of a target data, the contextual information may be communicated to a central repository. The contextual information may then be analyzed in relation to other information stored in the central repository to determine a target source.
US08220045B2	System and method of identifying and preventing security violations within a computing system A system and method of identifying and preventing security violations within a computing system. Some exemplary embodiments may be a method comprising monitoring activity on a core bus coupled to a processor core (the processor core operating in a computing system), identifying activity on the core bus as a security violation, and preventing execution of an instruction within the processor core in response to the security violation.
US08220038B1	Method for securely routing communications A method and program product for securely routing communicating data between sources and destinations having various data protocols. Data protocols are converted to internet protocol, if not already in internet protocol, for routing. Cryptographic keys of the source, the message, and the destination are verified. If a source and a destination share the same control system, the communication need not, but may, be encrypted for routing; otherwise, the communication is encrypted for routing on the local area network and then decrypted before transmission to the destination. Some communications require further security processing, such as in a HAIPE for certain SATCOM communications. Also, a method and a program product to initialize the secure routing system by loading cryptographic keys, configuring components of the routing system, and loading preprogrammed communication parameters. The programming dynamically responds and changes routing of a communication depending on what communication parameters change.
US08220036B2	Establishing a secure channel with a human user A method of establishing a secure channel between a human user and a computer application is described. A secret unique identifier (“PIN”) is shared between a user and an application. When the user makes a request that involves utilizing the PIN for authentication purposes, the application renders a randomly selected identifier. The randomly selected identifier is in a format that is recognizable to a human but is not readily recognizable by an automated agent. The randomly selected identifier is then presented to the human user. The user identifies the relationship between the randomly selected identifier and the PIN. If the user's input reflects the fact that the user knows the PIN, then the user is authenticated.
US08220033B2	Method and apparatus for managing bootstrap credentials for credentials-storage systems One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates accessing a credential. During operation, the system receives a request at a credentials-storage framework (CSF) to retrieve the credential. If a target credential store containing the credential is not already connected to the CSF, the system looks up a bootstrap credential for the target credential store in a bootstrap credential store, which contains bootstrap credentials for other credential stores. Next, the system uses this bootstrap credential to connect the CSF to the target credential store. Finally, the system retrieves the credential from the target credential store, and returns the credential to the requestor.
US08220018B2	System and method for preferred placement programming of iTV content Preferred placement of programming content is provided by a system and method to organize or sequence the display of a set of programmable content elements of an iTV application to a viewer, using business rules that describe the preferred placement conditions or criteria. Such criteria include brand, content owner, application location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, content category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and/or subscriber and set-top box profile and behavior data. In one implementation, the present invention allows for managing the ‘shelf space ’ within and for iTV applications.
US08220017B1	System and method for programmatic generation of continuous media presentations A method of dynamically generating a presentation sequence from a plurality of authored presentation documents includes the steps of receiving the plurality of authored presentation documents from a plurality of data sources; applying the plurality of authored presentation documents to a set of presentation rules; and generating the presentation sequence in response to the applying step.
US08220016B2	Method for protection of data reproduction according to both medium protection data and apparatus protection data In a reproduction apparatus, for reproducing an original signal conveyed as main data by a data medium such as a recording disk or broadcasting system, with medium protection data which are specific to the data medium being conveyed together with the main data, the apparatus includes a section for generating apparatus protection data which are specific to the reproduction apparatus, a section for combining the apparatus protection data with the medium protection data to define a protection level, and a section for applying the protection level to restrict reproduction of the original signal, with stepwise variations in restriction occurring in accordance with changes in protection level. The medium protection data may include information for specifying restricted reproduction of portions of the original signal, such as by producing degraded resolution within specified regions of specified frames of a video signal.
US08220005B2	Apparatus, system, and computer program product for processing information An image processing apparatus includes an input unit that inputs a command, a wireless interface unit that wirelessly exchanges data with an image forming apparatus in a direct manner, a transmission/reception control unit that controls an operation of the wireless interface unit, and a program processing unit that performs an installation process of a program. The transmission/reception control unit causes the wireless interface unit to receive a driver module from the image forming apparatus. The program processing unit performs an installation process of the driver module received by the wireless interface unit.
US08220004B2	Method, apparatus and computer program product for sharing resources via an interprocess communication An apparatus for sharing resources between interconnected processes via an interprocess communication may include a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to at least perform operations including receiving a request from at least one first process that controls one or more resources. The request may include data requesting assignment of one or more rights to share at least one of the resources with at least a second process. The instructions may further cause the apparatus to assign the rights to share the resource with the second process and remove the rights to share the resource from the second process upon receipt of a first message. Corresponding computer program products and methods are also provided.
US08220001B2	Adaptive cluster timer manager Described herein are techniques for adaptively managing timers that are used in various layers of a node. In many cases, the number of timers that occur in the system is reduced by proactively and reactively adjusting values of the timers based on conditions affecting the system, thereby making such a system to perform significantly better and more resiliently than otherwise.
US08219995B2	Capturing hardware statistics for partitions to enable dispatching and scheduling efficiency A method, system and computer program product enables the granular collection and utilization of hardware statistical samples for the efficient scheduling and allocation of data processing resources. In particular, a Partition Statistics Capture and Analysis (PSCA) utility utilizes special purpose registers to collect statistical samples, such as: (1) instructions completed; (2) Level2 (L2) cache misses; (3) cycles per instruction (CPI); and/or (4) other statistics selected based on the programming of the PSCA utility. Further, these statistical samples are utilized for the several purposes, including: (1) determining how long (time) the footprint of a partition takes to become established during the “cold start” period, i.e., during system instantiation; (2) detecting movement of the CPI curve in order to determine the (shifted) location of the onset of steady state (i.e., the knee) on the CPI curve; and (3) utilizing the statistical samples to guide dispatch decisions and make tuning recommendations.
US08219992B2	Data processing system having a plurality of processors and operating systems Management programs for concealing differences in hardware configuration and OS are operated and stayed resident every OS. A database manipulated by the management programs is prepared. The database defines correspondences between tasks for hardware control and software processing, which are processed under the control of the OSs and their attached OSs, over the OSs. When the corresponding management program detects a startup request of a task, the management program extracts an entry corresponding to the task from the database. If an attached OS owned by the extracted entry is its own OS, then the task is processed under the control of the corresponding OS. If the attached OS owned by the extracted entry is other OS, then the startup request is passed to a processor of the other OS, where the task is processed.
US08219990B2	Techniques for managing virtual machine (VM) states Techniques for managing virtual machine (VM) states are provided. Applications executing within a processing context of a VM communicate outside that processing context with a hypervisor or VM Monitor (VMM) to have the hypervisor perform host operations for the VM.
US08219987B1	Optimized virtual machine specification for provisioning application specific runtime environment Systems and methods of executing an application in an application specific runtime environment are disclosed. The application specific runtime environment is defined by an application environment specification to include a minimal or reduced set of software resources required for execution of the application. The application environment is generated by determining software resource dependencies and is optionally used to provision the application specific runtime environment in real-time in response to a request to execute the application. Use of the application specific runtime environment allows the application to be executed using fewer computing resources, e.g., memory. The application specific runtime environment is optionally disposed within a virtual machine. The virtual machine may be created in response to the request to run the executable application and the virtual machine may be automatically provisioned using an associated application environment specification.
US08219976B2	Managing sets of entities Methods and apparatus, including computer systems and program products, that implement a description language and a parser for a description language. A method includes receiving input including a specification of base items, a specification of contexts, and a specification of a selected context from the contexts. The method further includes generating an output set of items by evaluating the selected context. In that method, each item in the output set of items includes core attributes of a corresponding base item and can include attributes from a context. Generating an output set of items can include generating a specific bill of materials.
US08219974B2	Enforcing legal holds of heterogeneous objects for litigation Software for managing legal holds on objects identifies a target object to associate with a particular legal hold. The example software is further operable to automatically communicate with a lookup table to verify a hold record associated with the target object. In another example, the software for managing legal holds on objects can receive a legal hold status request for a target object associated with a business application. The software can automatically communicate with a lookup table to determine a hold record identifying a legal hold associated with the target object. The software is further operable to respond to the legal hold status request with a legal hold status based on the lookup table communication.
US08219972B1	Platform for processing semi-structured self-describing data with aggregating clauses An Extensible Markup Language (XML) Application Server for storing, processing, communicating, and displaying dynamic semi-structured information. It comprises a declarative specification language, a transactional indexed XML data store, and an XML application server engine. An integrated architecture (a) provides for optimization, indexing, and backtracking search in a business logic layer, (b) provides for general-purpose programming idioms including recursive function definitions, iteration, and dynamic dispatch in data layer queries and updates, and (c) eliminates processing overhead and maintenance issues caused by transforming between relational, object-oriented, and semi-structured data paradigms.
US08219965B2	Layout design method of semiconductor integrated circuit including regenerating a cell layout to set first and second distances and generating library data A layout design method of a semiconductor integrated circuit includes providing a cell layout including a cell that includes a gate or a plurality of gates extending in a first direction, a plurality of diffusion layers, a first boundary of the cell in parallel with the gate or the plurality of gates, a second boundary of the cell being in an opposite side of the first boundary of the cell, a first distance, a second distance, a third distance, and a fourth distance, regenerating the cell layout to set the first distance and the second distance to a first value, or to set the third distance and the fourth distance to a second value, and generating a library data of the cell for a placement and routing tool, based on the cell layout.
US08219963B2	Method and apparatus for analyzing and designing semiconductor device using calculated surface potential In a support apparatus for analysis and design of a semiconductor device, a function indicating an impurity concentration distribution in a channel region of a first transistor in a depth direction is set. A structure data indicating a structure of a transistor device and a measurement value of each of electric characteristics of the transistor are related. A Poisson's equation, which is express by using the function, is solved by using a depletion layer width as a variable to calculate a surface potential, and a first calculation value of the electric characteristic of the first transistor is calculated by using the surface potential. A determining section determines the function to indicate the impurity concentration distribution of a first transistor when a measurement value corresponding to a first structure data which indicates a structure of the first transistor, and the first calculation value are substantially coincident with each other.
US08219959B2	Generating integrated circuit floorplan layouts A method of generating a floorplan layout of an integrated circuit (IC) that is amenable to implementation in a computer-aided design tool. The method is capable of performing placement and routing processing for the IC while requiring very little information about the specific circuitry used in various functional blocks of the IC. For example, at the time of the placement and routing processing, one or more functional blocks of the IC can be specified as empty functional blocks and/or functional blocks that are only partially rendered in gates.
US08219958B1	Creating evaluation hardware using a high level modeling system Within a system comprising a processor and a memory, a method of creating evaluation hardware within an integrated circuit can include automatically inserting, by the processor, a disable circuit block into a circuit design. The method can also include automatically selecting a location within the circuit design to insert the disable circuit block, and/or inserting an unlock circuit block into the circuit design, wherein responsive to receiving an unlock code, the unlock circuit block overrides the disable circuit block. The method also can include storing, within the memory, the circuit design comprising the disable circuit block.
US08219951B2	Method of thermal density optimization for device and process enhancement The present disclosure provides an integrated circuit method. The method includes providing an integrated circuit (IC) design layout; simulating thermal effect to the IC design layout; simulating electrical performance to the IC design layout based on the simulating thermal effect; and performing thermal dummy insertion to the IC design layout based on the simulating electrical performance.
US08219947B2	Method and apparatus for merging EDA coverage logs of coverage data An electronic design automation technology merges coverage logs. The coverage logs are generated by verification of a hardware description language circuit design. The coverage logs are merged as the coverage logs are generated, without waiting for all pending coverage logs. Another electronic design automation technology also merges coverage logs. The merged coverage logs include a first coverage log of a first simulation of a hardware description language circuit design and a second coverage log of a second simulation of the hardware description language circuit design. The first simulation is based on a first hardware verification language coverage model of the hardware description language circuit design. The second simulation is based on a second hardware verification language coverage model of the hardware description language circuit design. The second hardware verification language coverage model is newer and different than the first hardware verification language coverage model.
US08219943B2	Physical design system and method A design system for designing complex integrated circuits (ICs), a method of IC design and program product therefor. A layout unit receives a circuit description representing portions in a grid and glyph format. A checking unit checks grid and glyph portions of the design. An elaboration unit generates a target layout from the checked design. A data prep unit prepares the target layout for mask making. A pattern caching unit selectively replaces portions of the design with previously cached results for improved design efficiency.
US08219936B2	User interface for a mobile device using a user's gesture in the proximity of an electronic device An electronic device having a user interface on a display and method for controlling the device, the method including: detecting a proximity of an object to the display; detecting a two-dimensional motion pattern of the object; and controlling the user interface according to the detected two-dimensional motion pattern. Also, a method including: detecting an object in a space over a border between first and second zones of a plurality of touch-sensitive zones and outputting a detection signal; and simultaneously displaying first and second information elements corresponding to the first and second zones in response to the detection signal.
US08219925B2	Formatting ticker content in a handheld wireless telecommunication device Tickers are populated with location-based information that is selected according to the geographic location of communication devices. The location of a communication device is identified based on a GPS system, proximity to transmitters in a wireless network, user input, or using other techniques. Location-appropriate content is obtained either in real-time from the network or from a local data store at the communication device. In general location-based, context-aware content can be displayed on tickers associated with a variety of communication devices, including mobile communication devices and “immobile” or stationary personal computers.
US08219923B2	Automatic generation of documentation for specified systems System and method for generating information regarding the functionality of a system. Input specifying at least a portion of functionality of a system may be received, e.g., from a user via a graphical user interface (GUI), and may specify one or more components of the system at a component level. The input may specify one or more components of the system, e.g., software component(s), hardware device(s), function(s) of the system, etc. Information, e.g., help information and/or documentation, describing one or more aspects of the functionality of the system may be automatically generated based on the input. The descriptions of the aspects may include information regarding the synergistic/combinatorial interactions of the components at a system level, e.g., via calculation or derivation from data retrieved from various sources regarding the components of the system. The information may be automatically stored and/or automatically displayed in the GUI substantially in real-time.
US08219914B2	Systems and methods for generating personalized dynamic presentations from non-personalized presentation structures and contents Computer system comprising master storage containing master presentation data having a master nodal structure and master contents associated with content structure nodes, structure editor capable of copying master nodal structure into a personalized data structure in a dedicated read/write storage and of selectively changing the copied master nodal structure into a personalized nodal structure in response to user inputs, personalized nodal structure comprising all or part of the nodes of the master nodal structure, contents editor capable of copying a master content into personalized data structure in dedicated read/write storage and of selectively changing the copied master content into a personalized content in response to user inputs, dynamic presentation generator for generating a personalized presentation by accessing personalized data structure, determining which content nodes in structure belong to personalized presentation, for such content nodes selectively accessing master contents or personalized content if the latter is present in personalized data structure.
US08219913B2	Parameter setting apparatus provided with a display unit having a touch sensor When it is determined on the basis of the output from a touch sensor of a touch screen 5 that a touch operation is started in the area of one on/off button displayed on a display screen of the touch screen 5, the on/off state of an on/off parameter assigned to the one on/off button is reversed. When it is determined that the touched position has moved to the area of another on/off button with the touch being maintained, an on/off parameter assigned to the another on/off button is set to the same on/off state as that of the on/off parameter assigned to the one on/off button in which the touch operation has been started. Users are allowed to simultaneously set respective on/off states of on/off parameters assigned to on/off buttons by a single touch operation on the touch screen 5.
US08219909B2	Human-machine interface with integrated position sensors and passive haptic feedback devices A system and method for determining the input force supplied to a user interface by a user is provided. A passive feedback mechanism is coupled to the user interface, and a change in position of the passive feedback mechanism is sensed. The input force supplied by the user to the user interface is then calculated from the sensed change in position.
US08219902B2	System and method for remote update of display pages A system and method may include a device, e.g., a cellular telephone, and a server providing for remotely updating display pages of the device. The server may: provide for display of a webpage including a first section having a visual replication of a display page of the device and a second section including a plurality of graphical objects, the webpage including interactive functionality for modification of the visual replication in response to a drag-and-drop operation of one of the plurality of graphical objects to a position in the visual replication; and, responsive to receipt of an instruction to permanently set the modification, transmit a synchronization message to the device indicating an association of the one of the plurality of graphical objects with the position. In accordance with the synchronization message, the device may update a data store used by the device for generating the display page.
US08219900B2	Programmatically hiding and displaying Wiki page layout sections Configuring a page to conditionally show specific page components is provided. In response to receiving a request to show a current page from a client browser, page components are identified that may be shown from a set of page components. In response to receiving a request to show a current page from a client browser, a layout page associated with the current page is determined. The current page is combined with the identified page components of the layout page to form a combined page. The combined page is sent to the client browser.
US08219897B2	Low complexity decoding of low density parity check codes An improved decoder and decoding method for low density parity check (LDPC) codes is provided. Decoding proceeds by repetitive message passing from a set of variable nodes to a set of check nodes, and from the check nodes back to the variable nodes. The variable node output messages include a “best guess” as to the relevant bit value, along with a weight giving the confidence in the, guess. The check node output messages have magnitudes selected from a predetermined set including neutral, weak, medium and strong magnitudes. The check node output messages tend to reinforce the status quo of the input variable nodes if the check node parity check is satisfied, and tend to flip bits in the input variable nodes if the check node parity check is not satisfied. The variable node message weights are used to determine the check node message magnitudes.
US08219889B2	Communication error detection apparatus When a communication error detection apparatus according to the present invention is initially installed, it performs a detection processing of the errors based on a sampling method in which a sampling interval of packet signals at the start of detection processing is a comparatively short. If the amount of the packet signals, which are sampled and accumulated, reaches a predetermined value, the communication error detection apparatus performs a detection processing of the errors based on another sampling method. In addition, if the detection processing of the errors is temporally released, the sampling method in which a sampling interval of packet signals is a comparatively short is used.
US08219888B2	Multi-channel transmission and reception with block coding in a communication system Techniques for transmitting and receiving multiple channels with block coding in a communication system are disclosed. In one aspect, a secondary broadcast channel is transmitted concurrently with parity information, encoded from a primary broadcast channel. In another aspect, a mobile station repurposes its receiving circuitry to receive one or more portions of the secondary broadcast channel after a sufficient portion of the primary broadcast channel is received without identified error. In another aspect, secondary broadcast channels associated with a plurality of primary broadcast channels are multiplexed onto a single secondary channel. Various other aspects are also presented. These aspects have the benefit of minimizing mobile station resources required to receive multiple broadcast channels, as well as reducing the complexity and channel resources required to transmit multiple broadcast channels.
US08219882B2	Memory card and memory controller A memory card includes a non-volatile memory, a memory controller for controlling the operation of the memory card. The memory controller is capable of providing an interface with outside according to a predetermined protocol, and performs error detection and correction of the memory information at regular time intervals or at the timing of connection of electric power supply, independently of reading out the memory information according to external access request. Therefore, it is possible to improve reliability of data retention in the non-volatile memory without the host device reading out the memory information from the non-volatile memory of the memory card.
US08219875B2	Packet encoding method to provide unequal error protection to users and/or applications data Embodiments of the invention provide a packet encoding scheme to ensure unequal error protection to different bits in a packet or in multiple packets. In one embodiment, a method to process bits in a bit stream comprises scrambling the bit stream; separating the scrambled bit stream into a high priority bit stream with an order of high priority bits from left to right and a low priority bit stream with an order of low priority bits from left to right; rearranging the bits by embedding the high priority bits in the low priority bit stream while preserving the two orders, the rearranged bit stream including blocks of bits, each block including one or more high priority bits disposed left of corresponding one or more low priority bits to provide protection for the high priority bits against noise which is at least equal to protection for the low priority bits; and modulating the rearranged bit stream using Gray encoding method to produce an encoded bit stream.
US08219869B2	Method of retransmitting data in a mobile communication system A communication method according to an automatic repeat request scheme in a mobile communication system includes transmitting a retransmission packet per certain time period (periodically) in response to NACK of a first user equipment related to a first packet transmitted within a frame group consisting of a plurality of successive frames, and transmitting a retransmission packet non-periodically in response to NACK of a second user equipment related to a second packet transmitted within the frame group.
US08219863B2	TAP state count specifying advanced mode command and command data A method comprises performing at least one zero-bit scan across an interface link. The at least one zero-bit scan defines a command window. The method further comprises an interface adapter counting a number of inert scans in the command window, and the number of inert scans defines a particular command or data. An inert scan results in no data being moved into or out of the interface adapter.
US08219860B2	Microprocessor system for controlling at least partly safety-critical processes The invention relates to a microprocessor system (60) for controlling and/or regulating at least partly security-critical processes, which system comprises two central processing units (1, 2) integrated into a chip housing, a first and a second bus system, at least one complete memory (7) on the first bus system, and check data in one or more check data memories, said data being related to data of the memory in the first bus system. The check data memory is smaller than the complete memory. The bus systems comprise comparative and/or driver components which facilitate data exchange and/or comparison of data between the two bus systems. The one or more check data memories are arranged on the first bus system. On the second bus system, neither a check data memory nor a memory safeguarding data of the memory on the first bus is used. The invention also relates to the use of the inventive microprocessor system in automotive control devices.
US08219859B2	Medical support control system A medical support control system comprising: a first controller connected to at least one device; a second controller connected to at least one device; and a manipulation display device shared by the first controller and the second controller, and alternately displaying a first graphical user interface (first GUI) created by the first controller and a second graphical user interface (second GUI) created by the second controller, wherein: first error information that is error information obtained from the first controller side and second error information that is error information obtained from the second controller side are shared by the first and second controllers, and are reflected on the first and second GUIs on the basis of the first and second error information.
US08219858B2	Method for testing hard disks under an extensible firmware interface A method for testing hard disks under an extensible firmware interface (EFI) provides a device tree of hard disks. Nodes of the device tree represent block devices or file systems of the hard disks. Devices paths and handles corresponding to each of the device paths are obtained from the device tree. Parent controller handles of each of the device paths are obtained. If there are parent controller handles the same as the obtained handles, the parent controller handles the same as the obtained handles are deleted. The computer determines that a number of the hard disks is equal to a number of the device paths corresponding to the remained parent controller handles. Nodes information of each of the device paths corresponding to the remained parent controller handles are determined as hard disk information of each of the hard disks.
US08219856B2	Memory growth detection A process for monitoring memory growth of a software application includes measuring a baseline memory usage for processes operating on a computer system. A background memory logging script is then executed to log process memory usage. At some later time, a trending script is executed which outputs a list showing how memory usage has changed for each process operating on the system.
US08219838B2	Image processing apparatus with power saving An image processing apparatus includes a plurality of functions to perform image processing, an execution frequency calculation unit that calculates an execution frequency for each of the plurality of functions on the basis of an execution history of the image processing, a first selection unit that selects a function to which power is supplied in a power saving mode from the plurality of functions based on the execution frequency calculated by the execution frequency calculation unit, and a function setting unit that sets the function selected by the first selection unit as a function to which power is supplied in the power saving mode.
US08219827B2	Secure boot with optional components A method manages optional trusted components that are active within a device, such that the device itself controls the availability of trusted components. The device includes: a storing unit storing a plurality of pieces of software and a plurality of certificates; a receiving unit receiving the certificates; and a selecting unit selecting one of the certificates. The device further includes an executing unit verifying an enabled one of the plurality of pieces of software using the selected and updated one of the certificates.
US08219825B2	Debugging port security interface The present invention provides a secure JTAG interface to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In the preferred embodiment the invention operates through the combined efforts of a Security Module (SM) comprising a state machine that controls the security modes for the ASIC, and a Test Control Module (TCM) which contains the JTAG interface. The TCM operates in either a restricted mode or an unrestricted mode, depending on the state of the SM state machine. In a restricted mode, only limited access to memory content is permitted. In an unrestricted mode, full access to memory content is permitted.
US08219824B2	Storage apparatus, memory card accessing apparatus and method of reading/writing the same A storage apparatus having a non-volatile memory and a controller is provided, wherein the non-volatile memory includes a root directory area and a data area, and a password file is stored in the root directory area. The controller identifies a user by using a password in the password file, and the user can access the data area through an encryption/decryption unit of the controller only if the user passes the identification. By using the secured storage apparatus, the risk of the password and encrypted data being cracked is reduced. Accordingly, the protection over the data stored in the storage apparatus is enhanced.
US08219810B2	Method and system for facilitating throttling of interpolation-based authentication One embodiment provides a system that facilitates throttling of interpolation-based authentication at a client. During operation, the system receives data points encrypted with a public key associated with a throttle server. The system then applies offsets to the data points, wherein a respective offset for a data point is associated with a user input. The system blinds the offset data points, and sends to the throttle server the blinded offset data points, thereby allowing the throttle server to perform an interpolation on the blinded offset data points and maintain a count of interpolation attempts from the client. Subsequently, the system receives from the throttle server an evaluation point based at least on the interpolation. In response, the system unblinds the evaluation point, and uses the unblinded evaluation point as a secret for a subsequent authentication process.
US08219809B2	Method of optimizing data communication A device and method of optimizing data communication, are discussed. In an embodiment of the method, encrypted authentication is performed to transmit and receive encrypted data to and from a display device after a default delay time has elapsed in a state in which a source device and the display device are connected to each other. If it is determined that the authentication has failed, the encrypted authentication is performed again after an additional delay time or a delay time stored in conjunction with the display device has elapsed. If it is determined that the authentication has succeeded, a required delay time in conjunction with the display device is stored or updated. Thus, the delay time, which is required before the establishment of data communication, can be optimized in consideration of the characteristics of a device connected to perform the data communication.
US08219806B2	Management system, management apparatus and management method The present invention relates to a management system, and this management system comprises a storage unit for storing information specifying a terminal apparatus and a restoration user information file cipher key related to a security function module in a state associated with each other and a transmission unit for transmitting the restoration user information file cipher key to the terminal apparatus in response to a calling request from the terminal apparatus for the restoration user information file cipher key. This enables the reduction of the man-hour to be taken by a terminal manager and the management of a situation of use of the restoration user information file cipher key.
US08219798B1	Method and system for securing E-mail transmissions A method for frustrating unauthorized access to an electronic mail message having address, body and attachment information and being transmitted from a first computer to a second computer, including: at the first computer: detecting a request to send the message; encrypting the extracted body information; replacing the extracted body information with the encrypted body information; extracting the attachment information; encrypting the extracted attachment information; replacing the extracted attachment information with the encrypted attachment information; returning the message having the encrypted body and attachment information to the mail user application; and transmitting the message having the encrypted body and attachment information to a third computer; and, at the third computer: decrypting and re-encrypting the transmitted body information; decrypting and re-encrypting the transmitted attachment information; and, transmitting the re-encrypted body and attachment information to the second computer.
US08219794B1	Non-disruptive firmware upgrade of a storage shelf A storage system includes a storage server and a storage subsystem having an I/O module coupled to disks. The storage subsystem receives new firmware from the storage server for an I/O module in the storage subsystem. The storage subsystem stores state data for the I/O module. The storage subsystem reboots a CPU for the I/O module to load the new firmware and determines after reboot that the reboot was for loading the new firmware based on the stored state data. The storage subsystem initializes the I/O module to use the new firmware. The initialization of the I/O module is based on the stored state data, does not reset I/O routing hardware on the I/O module, and is independent of the I/O module processing a request to access data stored on disks coupled to the I/O module.
US08219784B2	Assigning and pre-decoding group ID and tag ID prior to dispatching instructions in out-of-order processor A computer-implemented method and apparatus for managing an out of order dispatched instruction queue in a microprocessor. In one embodiment, the method and apparatus include assigning a group identification number and a target identification number to an instruction in an instruction stream. The group identification number and the target identification number are labeled inside an instruction fetcher unit. The group identification number and the target identification number are pre-decoded. The instruction is sent to an instruction queue. The instruction is re-ordered in the instruction stream after executing the instruction utilizing information from the pre-decoding of the group identification number and the target identification number.
US08219774B2	Storage controller and storage control method A storage controller having a plurality of storage device and a control circuit providing a plurality of virtual volumes, to each of which a storage area in a plurality of pool volumes provided with the plurality of storage devices can be mapped for writing data in response to a write access sent from an information processing apparatus to a logical area in one of the plurality of virtual volumes, respectively. The control circuit, according to a search of the plurality of pool volumes for a certain storage area in which a certain data pattern is written, release the certain storage area from mapping to a logical area in the plurality of virtual volume, so that the control circuit can use the released certain storage area for mapping to a virtual volume of the plurality of virtual volume as a destination of another write access from the information processing apparatus.
US08219771B2	Portable device for storing private information such as medical, financial or emergency information A portable housing capable of being carried by a certain person includes a circuit. The circuit includes a memory for storing private data concerning that certain person, a circuit operable to effectuate storage of the private data in the memory in a secure manner, and a processing unit operable to control access to the memory for purposes of reading private data concerning the certain person from the memory and storing private data concerning the certain person to the memory. The conditions under which access to the memory for read and write operations with respect to the private data is permitted are governed by parameters that are specified by the certain person to whom the stored private data concerns. A biometric sensor may also be included to capture identification information useful in implementing the operations for controlling access to the memory.
US08219760B2	Storage subsystem and its control method Provided is a storage subsystem capable of maintaining the reliability of I/O processing to a host apparatus, even if there is an unauthorized access from a processor core to a switch circuit, by applying a multi-core system to a processor. A multi-core processor is applied to a second logical address space that is different from a first logical address space to be commonly applied to multiple controlled units such as a host interface to be accessed by the processor. The switch circuit determines the processor core that issued an access based on an address belonging to a second address space, and maps an address containing in an access from the processor core to an address of a first address space.
US08219758B2	Block-based non-transparent cache In an embodiment, a non-transparent memory unit is provided which includes a non-transparent memory and a control circuit. The control circuit may manage the non-transparent memory as a set of non-transparent memory blocks. Software executing on one or more processors may request a non-transparent memory block in which to process data. The control circuit may allocate a first block, and may return an address (or other indication) of the allocated block so that the software can access the block. The control circuit may also provide automatic data movement between the non-transparent memory and a main memory system to which the non-transparent memory unit is coupled. For example, the automatic data movement may include filling data from the main memory system to the allocated block, or flushing the data in the allocated block to the main memory system after the processing of the allocated block is complete.
US08219757B2	Apparatus and method for low touch cache management In some embodiments, a processor-based system includes a processor, a system memory coupled to the processor, a mass storage device, a cache memory located between the system memory and the mass storage device, and code stored on the processor-based system to cause the processor-based system to utilize the cache memory. The code may be configured to cause the processor-based system to preferentially use only a selected size of the cache memory to store cache entries having less than or equal to a selected number of cache hits. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US08219756B2	Systems and methods for lookahead instruction fetching for processors utilizing tagless hit instruction caches Systems and methods may be provided for lookahead instruction fetching for processors. The systems and methods may include an L1 instruction cache, where the L1 instruction cache may include a plurality of lines of data, where each line of data may include one or more instructions. The systems and methods may also include a tagless hit instruction cache, where the tagless hit instruction cache may store a subset of the lines of data in the L1 instruction cache, where instructions in the lines of data stored in the tagless hit instruction cache may be stored with metadata indicative of whether a next instruction is guaranteed to reside in the tagless hit instruction cache, where an instruction fetcher may be arranged to have direct access to the L1 instruction cache and the tagless hit instruction cache, and where the tagless hit instruction cache may be arranged to have direct access to the L1 instruction cache.
US08219752B1	System for caching data A system for caching data in a distributed data processing system allows for the caching of user-modifiable data (as well as other types of data) across one or multiple entities in a manner that prevents stale data from being improperly used.
US08219750B2	Method and system for execution of applications in conjunction with distributed RAID Systems and methods are disclosed which allow various applications which may utilize a distributed RAID system (or other types of applications) to be executed on the same set of computing devices which implement that distributed RAID system. More particularly, in certain embodiments a virtualization layer may be executed on a data bank. A set of desired application programs may be executed using this virtualization layer, where the context for each instance of the applications executing on the virtualization layer may be stored in a volume kept utilizing the distributed RAID system.
US08219743B2	Semiconductor device with double program prohibition control The present invention provides a semiconductor device and a method for controlling the semiconductor device, the semiconductor device including memory regions; program prohibition information units storing program prohibition information to be used for determining whether to prohibit or allow programming in the memory regions corresponding to the program prohibition information units; a first prohibition information control circuit that prohibits a change of the program prohibition information from a program prohibiting state with respect to a memory region based on first prohibition information; and a second prohibition information control circuit that prohibits a change of the program prohibition information from a program allowing state to a program prohibiting state with respect to the corresponding memory region based on second prohibition information with respect to the corresponding memory region.
US08219741B2	Hardware and operating system support for persistent memory on a memory bus Implementations of a file system that is supported by a non-volatile memory that is directly connected to a memory bus, and placed side by side with a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), are described.
US08219726B2	Method for data transfer between host and device The present invention relates to a method for data transfer between a host and a device as well as to respective apparatus. A host is seen as a communication apparatus which organizes data traffic. A device is seen as dependent on the host. In a tiered-star topology there are usually multiple devices connected to one host.A method for data transfer between a host and a device through pipes is presented. The available memory in the host is divided into multiple segments. The assignment of segments is changed between pipes in dependence on the pipe traffic.
US08219714B2	Storage area network and method for provisioning therein A storage array includes at least one target and a logical unit having a logical unit number. The storage array is configured to receive input defining a host group comprising at least one initiator and receive input defining a target group comprising the at least one target. The host group, target group and logical unit number define a view entry. The storage array is further configured to apply the view entry to the logical unit to provide a logical unit inventory that is provisioned for the at least one initiator.
US08219713B2	Method and system for a network controller based pass-through communication mechanism between local host and management controller A network controller in a communication device may be operable to route local host-management traffic between a local host and a management controller within the communication device, wherein the local host may be operable to utilize its network processing resources and function during communication of the local host-management traffic. A dedicated management port may be configured in the network controller to enable receiving and/or transmitting local host-management traffic communicated from and/or to the local host separate from the local host's network traffic communicated via the network controller. The host-management traffic is communicated between the network controller and the management controller via NC-SI interface. The management controller may be assigned Internet protocol (IP) based addressing information for use during routing of local host-management traffic. The IP addressing information may be preset statically, assigned automatically from a list of available addresses, or configured dynamically via a DHCP server function.
US08219712B2	Dynamic resource allocation A network interface device for providing an interface between a network and a data processing device, the network interface device having: a plurality of resources of different types for supporting the interface, and a bus interface for interfacing with the data processing device by means of a bus over which data can be sent by addressing to a address on the bus, the network interface device being arranged so that each resource may be addressed by a respective address on the bus.
US08219709B2	Method for internet name sharing The present invention allows similar named entities having trademarks or tradenames or other monikers in common, to market their complete electronic media identity, including web site and generic electronic mail boxes, using the same domain name which is shared without requiring sub-delegation. It satisfies both the uniqueness requirements of the current addressing system and sovereign trademark laws which have long been at odds.
US08219708B2	Enabling simultaneous use of home network and foreign network by a multihomed mobile node The invention relates to a method performed by a home agent serving a mobile node in a home network of the mobile node upon attachment of a mobile node to the home network as well as to the home agent. Further, the invention also relates to a method for enabling simultaneous use of a plurality of interfaces by a mobile node being attached to a home network through one of the plurality of interfaces and to at least one foreign network through at least another interface of the plurality of interfaces. Moreover, the invention provides a mobile node and a proxy acting on behalf of the mobile node. To enable a mobile node to use a home network and at least one further foreign network for communications the invention suggests the registration of the mobile node's home address or of a network node within its home network as a care-of address in the home network.
US08219700B2	System and methods of streaming media files from a dispersed peer network to maintain quality of service A multi-source peer content distribution system transfers content files from multiple, distributed peer computers to any requesting computer. The content distribution network coordinates file transfers through a mediation system including a content catalog and a host broker system. The content catalog contains an identification of each content file, the segmented subunits of each file, and the peer caches to which the subunits have been distributed. The host broker system receives content file requests issued over a network from requesting computers. In response, manifest files identifying the request corresponding content subunits and distributed cache locations are returned. The requesting computers can then retrieve and assemble the corresponding content subunits from the peer computers to obtain the requested content file.
US08219689B2	System and method for expert service providers to provide one on one chat advice services through unique empowered independent agents to consumers The present invention provides techniques for managing, supporting and empowering Independent Agents to offer a method for enabling expert Service Providers to deliver, and charge for, advice to consumers, by connecting two parties in real time in an online chat. The present invention also provides the method and techniques for expert Service Providers, in turn, to provide their service through a multiplicity of Independent Agent channels without the potential for communication device conflict; thereby ensuring successful connections for consumers.
US08219688B2	Method, apparatus and system for service selection, and client application server A service selection method, apparatus and system, as well as a client application server are provided. The method includes: obtaining meta information according to contents specified by a client; requesting to query services matched with the meta information to obtain a service list including service identifications of the services matched with the meta information; converting the service list into a format recognizable by the client and providing the converted service list to the client; obtaining a corresponding service identification according to acknowledgement information from the client; requesting interface and address information of a service server corresponding to the corresponding service identification, and providing the interface and address information to the client. In this way, services capable of processing current contents may be found according the contents, and an appropriate service may be selected among the services.
US08219683B2	Enabling creation of converged internet protocol multimedia subsystem services by third-party application developers using session initiation protocol support A plurality of pure operator type rules are instantiated within a domain of a telecommunications operator and a plurality of pure application type rules are instantiated within a domain of a third party telecommunications application provider. The plurality of pure operator type rules and the plurality of pure application type rules are associated with a composite service. A plurality of network components are established to transmit given events of a plurality of protocol-level events to at least one of the domain of the telecommunications operator and the domain of the third party telecommunications application provider. The composite service is deployed in an execution engine of the third party telecommunications application provider.
US08219681B1	System and method for managing provisioning of storage resources in a network with virtualization of resources in such a network This invention is a system and method for managing provisioning of resources for one or more data storage networks using a new architecture.
US08219668B2	Resource property aggregation in a multi-provider system The present invention provides for resource property aggregation. A set of new instances is received from one or more providers. For each new instance in the set of new instances, a determination is made as to whether the new instance represents a same resource as at least one other instance. Responsive to determining that the new instance represents the same resource as another instance, a set of properties associated with the new instance and with the at least one other instance are identified. Each property from the new instance is compared to an associated property in the at least one other instance using a set of precedence rules. At least one property value is identified from either the new instance or the at least one other instance. An aggregate instance is then generated that represents the resource using the identified property values.
US08219667B2	Automated identification of computing system resources based on computing resource DNA Computing resource DNA associated with a computing resource of a computing system can be received. The computing resource DNA can include one or more computing resource DNA elements representing identifying characteristics of the computing resource. A set of one or more potential matches for the received computing resource DNA can be ascertained from a set of reference data. When one or more potential matches exist, a confidence factor can be calculated for each potential match. The set of potential matches can then be refined. An optimum match for the computing resource DNA can be determined from the set of refined potential matches. The computing resource DNA can then be identified as a representation of the computing resource associated with the optimum match.
US08219655B2	Method of associating multiple modalities and a multimodal system The multimodal managing system invention comprises: a modality linking data generating unit that generates association data in order to associate a first modality and a second modality of the plurality of modalities; an association correspondence unit that sends content that includes association data, wherein association data is combined with the content to be sent to the first modality, to the first modality; a session information storage unit that stores the correspondence among the connection information of each modality, the link information about the links between the modalities, and the association data generated by the modality linking data generating unit as a session information table; and a modality associating unit that receives link request data sent from the second modality using the association data included in the content that includes association data, and executes a matching process that compares the link request data with the association data stored in the session information storage unit.
US08219648B2	Generalized credential and protocol management of infrastructure To provide a more cost effective way to manage the infrastructure while addressing the security needs of a computerized data center, a technique for credential and protocol independent management of infrastructure in a computerized data processing system is provided. More cost effective and secure management is obtained through modified workflows used in the operational management of the computer data processing system. A workflow is first parsed to locate device specific operation requests. Such specifications are then replaced with logical equivalents. The resulting workflow is neutral with respect to both credentials and protocol. Prior to execution, the modified workflow is combined with information retrieved from a resource or by an administrator that further resolves the workflow to a specific target object or plurality of target objects. Security is enhanced through granular administration of user ID and password combinations which may be maintained separate from the workflows in which they are used.
US08219642B2	System and method for adding targeted content in a web page A network (20) includes a first processor (22) for maintaining a Web page (34) having an embedded first code module (36) and accessible through a Web address (38). A second processor (24) supports a Web browser (52) for receiving transmission of the Web page (34) and executing the first code module (36). When executed, the first code module (36) issues a first command (93) to retrieve a second code module (90) from a server system (26). The server system (26) includes a database (68) having a service response (162, 176, 186) associated with the Web address (38). A processor (62) assembles the second code module (90) having the service response (162, 176, 186). When the second code module is retrieved, the first code module (36) issues a second command (106) to initiate execution of the second code module (90) to provide added function to the Web page (34).
US08219635B2	Continuous data feeding in a distributed environment Techniques for transporting data in a distributed environment are described. In a media system in which boxes are configured to supply each other needed data, stabilities of data transportation among the boxes are important. According to one aspect of the techniques, when one or more supplying boxes are identified to supply respective data portions to an ordering box, each communication session between the ordering box and one of the supplying boxes is constantly monitored. If the data is not transported correctly, a backup session by a backup box is activated to replace the session in which the data is not transported correctly. Without affecting the number of available boxes that may be designated to supply data to other ordering boxes, in one embodiment, one box is used to backup multiple boxes.
US08219628B2	Method to change instant messaging status based on text entered during conversation An embodiment of the invention provides a method for communication within a system, wherein an instant messaging conversation is initiated between a first user and a second user. An indicator and a text entry are received from the first user during the instant messaging conversation. The status of the first user is changed, including automatically setting the text entry as the status of the first user, and automatically including the name of the second user in the status of the first user if preferences of the first user indicate that the name of the second user is to be included in the status of the first user. Further, the text entry is automatically sent to the second user if the preferences of the first user indicate that a text entry following the indicator is to be automatically sent to the second user.
US08219620B2	Unwanted e-mail filtering system including voting feedback A filter mechanism for unwanted e-mail messages uses a downloadable central source (1, 2) of filter rule data. User reports of received unwanted e-mail messages are relayed back to the central source of the filter data and used to automatically update that filter data. An algorithmic approach to identifying characteristics of unwanted e-mail messages may be applied based upon the preponderance of predetermined words within an e-mail message or characteristics of the addressee list. If an e-mail message is identified as suspect, but not definitely unwanted, then it may be encapsulated within a HTML document and sent to its addressee together with buttons (28) allowing the recipient to provide feedback in the form of votes as to whether or not that email message is unwanted. This recipient feedback may be used to establish a new local rule.
US08219610B2	Content providing system, monitoring server, and SIP proxy server A content providing system that provides content to a user terminal via a network includes a content providing server that is connected to the network and provides content, an SIP proxy server that is connected to the network and relays transmission and reception between the user terminal and the content providing server, and a monitoring server that is connected to the network and stores monitoring information regarding transmission and reception between the user terminal and the content providing server, the monitoring information being transmitted from the SIP proxy server.
US08219604B2	System and method for providing a double adder for decimal floating point operations A method for implementing an adder including receiving a first and second operand. A sum of one or more corresponding digits from the first operand and the second operand is calculated. The calculating is performed by a plurality of adder blocks. Output from the calculating includes the sum of the corresponding digits and a carry out indicator for the corresponding digits. The sums of the corresponding digits and the carry out indicators in a carry chain are stored in an intermediate result register. Each of the sums in the intermediate result register is incremented by one. A selection between each of the sums and the sums incremented by one is performed. Input to the selecting includes the carry chain, and the output from the selecting includes a final sum of the first operand and the second operand. The final sum is stored in an output register.
US08219597B2	Information processing apparatus and method An information processing apparatus configured to allow a new version of software to be executed therein is provided. The information processing apparatus acquires management information in a format corresponding to an old version of the software and converts the acquired management information into a format corresponding to the new version of the software. When converting data, the information processing apparatus adds a new value to a management item that is common to the formats of the management information of the old version and the new version of the software so that the value is suitable for the new version of the software.
US08219596B2	System and method of optimizing performance of schema matching In one embodiment the present invention includes a computer-implemented method of improving performance of schema matching. The method includes storing a matching topology that maps a first data structure to a second data structure. The method further includes identifying a first portion of the matching topology that is a candidate for improvement as determined according to an incidence graph. The method further includes rewriting the first portion of the matching topology with a second portion according to the incidence graph.
US08219586B2	Support apparatus and method A design support apparatus includes a database storage storing a first database including respective logical connection information for a first-layer circuit and a second-layer circuit laid lower than the first-layer circuit, both provided in a circuit under design, a file generator that traces logical connection type identification information identifying types of logical connections from the first-layer circuit to the second-layer circuit based on the logical connection information included in the first database, and generates a layer terminal information file including layer terminal code information associating layer terminals in the second-layer circuit with layer terminal codes having trace information regarding the logical connection type identification information, and a database generator that generates a second database based on the generated layer terminal information file for the second-layer circuit including placement information for a plurality of cells included in the circuit and wiring information for wiring among the plurality of cells.
US08219581B2	Method and system for analyzing ordered data using pattern matching in a relational database Several methods and a system for analyzing ordered data using pattern matching over an indefinitely long ordered sequence of rows in a relational database are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a server includes receiving an ordered data in a relational database. The method further includes matching a pattern specified in a query on ordered data in a relational database in a single pass in constant space for overlapping mode of results. The method also includes creating an output data in the single pass in constant space for overlapping mode of results based on the matching of the ordered data with the pattern in the relational database query.
US08219579B2	Expansion of search queries using information categorization A computerized system and method of constructing and expanding search queries for conducting searches through information sources. The system enables retrieving a category options tree, allowing a user to define a category route by selecting a category-node, which defines a search-category. The system may further enable retrieving a query scenario tree, having a hierarchal structure comprising query nodes, where the retrieved query scenario tree is associated with an initial input query, inputted by a user. Each query node defines a query route enabling to construct the content and structure of an expanded search query. The system enables selecting a query node of the retrieved query scenario tree, according to an online decision making process, which analyses the search-category in relation to available query routes in to allow selecting a query node from the retrieved scenario tree that is most compatible with the search-category.
US08219574B2	Querying compressed time-series signals A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a query that pertains to a raw time-series signal. A query executor component selectively executes the query over at least one of multiple available compressed representations of the raw time-series signal, wherein the query pertains to at least one of one of determining a trend pertaining to the raw time-series signal, generating a histogram pertaining to the raw time-series signal, or determining a correlation pertaining to the raw time-series signal.
US08219568B2	Providing extensible document access to assistive technology providers A system and computer program product provides an intermediary access engine between a specific document and a renderer for assisting individuals with vision impairment. The access engine is instantly activated responsive to the initiation of an event within an application. In response to instantiation of the access engine, the renderer queries the access engine to determine supported navigation modes for serving the document to the individual. The access engine receives navigation and commands from the renderer and sends rendering information for the current focus within the document to the renderer. The renderer uses the received information to render an output via one or more enhanced capabilities of the renderer. The rendered output may then be utilized by individuals with vision impairment. The output, for example, may be a speech output, brail output, or font enlargement output for application data.
US08219566B2	System and method for determining valid citation patterns in electronic documents A system and method are provided for comparing portions of document text with potential citation components, determining if individual portions correspond to a citation component, and determining if a set of portions correspond to a valid citation pattern. A set of valid citation patterns is provided. Each citation pattern may include a specified combination of citation components. The invention further relates to identifying potential citation components from text in a document, analyzing a pattern of the identified citation components by comparing the pattern to a set of stored citation patterns to determine if the potential citation is a type of citation, and if so, is it a valid (and/or invalid) citation pattern. Once citation patterns have been determined in the document, annotations may be inserted into the document, and subsequent action may be taken, for example, generating a list of citations, providing research services, error-handling, and/or providing other options related to the citations.
US08219565B2	Filter range bound paged search A filter range based search control to request a range of data from one or more directory servers. A directory server receives a search request from a client application comprising a search filter control defining a set of requested data, a sort control defining a sorting order of the set of requested data, and a range filter control defining a range of entries in the requested data. Data entries matching a search value defined in the search filter control and sorted according to sort attributes defined in the sort control are obtained from a set of directories associated with the directory server to form a sorted list of matching entries. A subset of data entries in the sorted list that match a range value defined in the range filter control are collected, and a response comprising the collected subset of data entries is then sent to the client application.
US08219561B2	Systems and methods for mapping large object data content in a database table to a work area According to some embodiments, a programming language in an application server may access different database server implementations, wherein the programming language accesses content of database tables via work areas derived from the database tables. A database table may be mapped to a work area such that each column in the database table is mapped to a corresponding component of the work area (having a default component type based on the column type of the associated column). It may be determined that a particular column in the database table is to store large object data content, and a new mapping to a work area may be defined such that a particular column maps to a corresponding component having a component type other than the default component type.
US08219558B1	Methods and systems for inventory management The present invention relates to inventory management solutions, and in particular, to methods and systems for inventorying items and property over wireless and data networks, using digital imaging, positioning, RFID, and data terminals. The user experience in performing inventory management is simplified and enhanced over existing methods.
US08219553B2	Methods, systems, and computer program products for managing audio and/or video information via a web broadcast Provided Web broadcast information is managed by annotation markers. At least one marker is received that annotates the audio and/or video information and the annotated audio and/or video information is saved in an electronically searchable file.
US08219540B2	Information viewing stem According to one embodiment, an information viewing system includes an ontology viewing engine coupled to a client and a knowledge store that stores records organized according to a domain ontology. The ontology viewing engine receives requests for records from the client, filters the domain ontology according to a display ontology, generates a graphical user interface (GUI) according to the display ontology including the requested records, and transmits the GUI to the client through an application programming interface of the GUI.
US08219536B2	Systems and methods to select media content Systems and methods to select media content are provided. A particular method includes dynamically selecting media content items for presentation by a media player based on media selection settings. The method also includes generating an output including a current media content item of the dynamically selected media content items. The method also includes accessing a selected media content item from a memory when the selected media content item becomes the current media content item. When the selected media content item is available at a first local memory, the selected media content item is accessed from the first local memory. When the selected media content item is not available at the local memory, a request is sent to a remote network device to send the selected media content item from a remote memory.
US08219535B1	Retail deployment model A method of determining and optimizing the location of a new insurance agency is disclosed to increase market penetration of underrepresented markets. The method comprises the use of a scoring algorithm to rank various geographic regions or related zip codes. The scoring algorithm may be implemented by a location modeling system based on variables selected by a user. In addition, the various ranked geographic regions or related zip codes may be analyzed for proximity to natural or man made perils.
US08219534B2	Multiple file compaction for network attached storage Mechanisms are provided for optimizing multiple files in an efficient format that allows maintenance of the original namespace. Multiple files and associated metadata are written to a suitcase file. The suitcase file includes index information for accessing compressed data associated with compacted files. A hardlink to the suitcase file includes an index number used to access the appropriate index information. A simulated link to a particular file maintains the name of the particular file prior to compaction.
US08219532B2	Smart mediation system in a service oriented architecture In one embodiment, a service mediator provides a service that is a composite of atomic services and executes a recovery pattern in the event that a service is not available. More particularly, in an initial phase of operation, the service mediator determines one or more recovery patterns for each atomic service offered in the composite service and stores in a database an identity of each such recovery pattern for each atomic service. In subsequent operation, the service mediator monitors the availability of each atomic service. When a user inquires of a composite service, the service mediator determines if any of its atomic services is unavailable. If an atomic service is unavailable, the service mediator selects a recovery pattern and executes it.
US08219531B2	Knowledge archival and recollection systems and methods A method of timing and recording user activity in a knowledge archival and recollection system, the method comprising: configuring an activity tracking module; logging into the knowledge archival and recollection system; prompting the user with a task identifier input interface upon opening an application user interface; initiating a timer upon input into the input interface; stopping the timer upon inactive application interface; and storing timer data into a database server.
US08219527B2	File processing apparatus, file processing method, and computer program product According to one embodiment, a file processing apparatus includes an acquisition module, a change module, an association storage module, a receiver, a creator, a call module, a determination module, a file determination module, and an output module. The acquisition module acquires a first file having a first file name. The change module changes the first file name to a second file name. The association storage module stores the file names. The receiver receives a selection of the first file name. The creator creates a second file assigned the first file name. The call module calls an application capable of editing the second file. The determination module determines whether the name of the second file can be changed. When the file name can be changed, the file determination module determines whether a difference exists between the first and second files. When a difference exists, the output module outputs the second file.
US08219526B2	Synchronizing file partitions utilizing a server storage model Embodiments are provided for synchronizing file partitions utilizing a server storage model in a client-server computer network. Edits to content of an electronic document may be received at a client computer. The content may be included in a first partition of a file stored on a server computer. The first partition may include a first stream which includes the electronic document content. The file may include multiple partitions with each partition including one or more streams. The client computer may generate metadata in a second partition of the file. The metadata may be associated with the edits to the electronic document content in the first partition. The second partition may then be individually synchronized with the server computer to store the metadata. The first partition may then be individually synchronized with the server computer to store the edits made to the electronic document content.
US08219523B2	Data quality enrichment integration and evaluation system Data quality enrichment integration and evaluation system that enables the import of data into a database and the turnkey integration with data enrichment entities. The data imported into the database may be validated using validation rules. Data with particular data quality problems may be sent to a particular bucket for to avoid processing or to obtain processing by a particular data quality enrichment entity. A bucket of data may be sent to be enriched by one or more data enrichment entities. The enrichment results may be compared between entities to enable the selection of a data enrichment entity. The enrichment results may also be drilled down into to provide geographic and other plots that show the quality of original data and quality of data enrichment provided by each data enrichment entity. Evaluation of the enrichment results side by side allows for the selection of a data enrichment entity.
US08219514B2	Methods, systems, and computer program product for implementing expert assessment of a product Disclosed are method(s), system(s), and computer program product(s) for implementing expert assessment of a product. Some embodiments are directed at improved methods, systems, and computer program product form implementing expert assessment of product fixes/patches or upgrade. In some embodiments, the method or the system identifies or receives information regarding a client system on which the product runs and a reasoning rule for the expert assessment; analyzes the received or identified information based upon the reasoning rule; and determines the expert assessment based on the result of the act of analyzing the information. In some embodiments, the method or the system further comprises optimizing the expert assessment based on other information; determining whether the determination of the expert assessment is deterministic; and determining whether or not there exists a conflict in the expert assessment.
US08219512B2	Higher order logic applied to expert systems for alarm analysis, filtering, correlation and root causes which converts a specification proof into a program language The present invention is directed to a system and method for applying second- and higher-order logic to analysis of event descriptive information, such as alarms, error messages, and fault signals.
US08219510B2	Method for determining distributions of unobserved classes of a classifier A distribution of an unobserved class for a classifier with no known training data is learned by first determining, for each known class, known distribution using known training data. Sufficient statistics of the distribution of the unobserved class are determined from the known distributions and the training data associated with each known class. If the known training data and the known distributions are bounded, then update parameters of the distribution of the unobserved class from the sufficient statistics, else update the parameters from sufficient statistics and a priori probability distributions that specify the distributions of the parameters.
US08219509B2	Processing device having selectible difficulty levels with intuitive learning capability A processing device and a method of providing learning capability thereto are provided. One of a plurality of processor actions is selected based on an action probability distribution comprising a plurality of probability values corresponding to the plurality of processor actions. The plurality of processor actions are associated with a plurality of different difficulty levels. An action performed by a user is identified, an outcome of selected processor action relative to the identified user action is determined, and the action probability distribution is updated based on the outcome and the difficulty level of the selected processor action.
US08219504B1	Method and system for estimating the actual cost of a product or service using financial data Financial data associated with one or more “contributing consumers” is obtained from one or more sources. The financial data includes data associated with specific financial transactions and the specific financial transactions are tagged as sharable by the contributing consumers. The financial data, and/or specific financial transactions are categorized by the contributing consumers, and/or associated with a specific purchase of a parent product and/or service. The financial data obtained from one or more contributing consumers is then aggregated, processed, and/or categorized, according to the parent product and/or service associated with the financial data. A “user consumer” then initiates a request for financial data associated with the purchase of a specified product and/or service. The financial data obtained from one or more contributing consumers is then searched and data associated with the purchase of the specified product and/or service and any other secondary purchases, is presented to the user consumer.
US08219503B2	Estimated time of arrival (ETA) systems and methods A system on a network provides estimated time of arrival information to a client located on the network. The system is adapted to present to the client pages for eliciting a product inquiry including a product number. The system receives the product inquiry, determines estimated time of arrivals for various destinations for at least one in-transit unit having the product number, and transmits to the client the estimated time of arrivals.
US08219502B2	Automated interview systems and methods Automated interview systems and methods are disclosed. An exemplary method comprises selectively presenting interview questions based on user input to at least one interviewee identified by a user, and receiving answers from the at least one interviewee in response to presenting the interview questions. The method further comprises compiling the interview questions and received answers as a recorded interview to assist the user to build online references for the user's products or services.
US08219493B2	Messaging method and apparatus for use in digital distribution systems A method of subsidizing the presentation of media content by including informative messages as part of the presentation. The presentation of the media content is paused while the informative message is presented. The cost of the media content is credited to the owner and the payment associated with the informative message is debited from the sponsor of the informative message. Some content is segmented into sections and the informative messages are presented before or after each section. Other content is not segmented, but informative messages are presented at intervals determined by an e-PVR.
US08219492B2	System and method for internet marketing by endorsements A method of facilitating the endorsement of products through Internet advertisements accepts a bid for an endorsement, enables communication, associated with the bid, between an advertiser and a potential endorser, and serves an endorsement associated with the bid. In one implementation, the endorsement is displayed together with a symbol verifying the endorser.
US08219483B2	Seller automated engine architecture and methodology for optimized pricing strategies of goods and services An improved seller automated engine architecture methodology particularly (though not exclusively) for use in automated real-time iterative reverse auctions and/or price quotations over the Internet and the like for purchase and sale of goods and services, providing a choice of architectural implementations while enabling price optimization on market share-directed considerations, specific sales target-directed implementations, seller utility derivative-following implementations, model optimizer implementations and explorations, mathematical optimization-oriented and rules-based implementations.
US08219482B2	System and method for providing market data in an electronic trading environment A system and methods are developed for providing market data in an electronic trading environment. One example method includes determining a probability model comprising a probability corresponding to a change in relation to a market data parameter, then, using the probability to generate a compressed bit stream representing the market data parameter, and providing the compressed bit stream to the client terminal.
US08219481B2	Systems and methods for allocating size among trading accounts A system and method for allocating trades of financial instruments among multiple accounts comprising aggregating orders, wherein each order is associated with an account, and wherein each order has an original order size; allocating an executed order based on the aggregated order in a phase I allocation, wherein the phase I allocation is allocated on a pro-rata basis based on the original order size for each account, except for those accounts that would receive an amount less than a minimum allocation; allocating a remainder from the phase I allocation in a phase II allocation, wherein the phase II allocation is allocated among selected accounts in an amount greater than or equal to the minimum allocation or an amount that fills the original order size; repeating the phase II allocation until a remainder from the phase II allocation is less than the minimum allocation; and allocating a reminder from the phase II allocation in a phase III allocation according to predetermined criteria.
US08219477B2	Systems and methods for multi-objective portfolio analysis using pareto sorting evolutionary algorithms The systems and methods of the invention are directed to portfolio optimization and related techniques. For example, the invention provides a method for multi-objective portfolio optimization for use in investment decisions based on competing objectives and a plurality of constraints constituting a portfolio problem, the method comprising: generating an initial population of solutions of portfolio allocations; committing the initial population of solutions to an initial population archive; performing a multi-objective process, based on the initial population archive and on multiple competing objectives, to generate an efficient frontier, the multi-objective process including a evolutionary algorithm process, the evolutionary algorithm process utilizing a dominance filter, the efficient frontier being used in investment decisioning.
US08219472B2	Valuation of derivative products Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for determining the value of a derivative product over nonconsecutive periods. The derivative product may be an interest rate swap product, which, when exchanged traded, normally is valued on a mark-to-market basis over consecutive periods. The product may be valued using swap value factors and settlement values according to the methodology disclosed herein.
US08219466B2	System and method for providing asset management and tracking capabilities A comprehensive method and system is provided for managing bulk and non-bulk material and assets using radio frequency and other asset identification devices, distributed mobile computing systems, centralized data storage environments, and client-server based computing. In particular, a process has been designed and to manage shipment items from businesses and third parties to customer designated locations. Components of this system include electronic asset identification devices, a central data repository, a mobile computing environment and associated software applications supporting a client-server system or n-tiered computer system. The mobile computing environment includes software which enables users to physically locate assets, view asset information, and modify such information to reflect current asset status. This information may then be exchanged and synchronized across the n-tiered computer system. Additionally, various personnel associated with the shipping arrangement may have access to the available information over a computer network such as the Internet. In this manner, such personnel can easily determine the status of various shipments and also promptly act on information collected during any status updates, thereby expediting the resolution of any potential exceptions which may arise. The electronic asset identification devices may be further configured to include various types of sensors. The devices may then operate to process and store sensor output information for subsequent relay to users via the mobile computing environment or other means.
US08219452B2	Systems and methods for a centralized gift registry with upload and merge of a retailer-specific registry Systems and methods for that allow for the creation and management of a centralized gift registry are described. A retailer-specific registry is imported into the centralized gift registry. A gift list is created and displayed. Gift givers may select a gift from the gift list of the centralized gift registry. In one embodiment, when a purchase of a gift occurs, the gift list is updated. Updates to gifts are sent between the centralized gift registry and the retailer-specific registries, such that the gifts common to these registries are synchronized. This synchronization may involve the use of APIs at the centralized gift registry or the retailer-specific registries. The centralized gift registry system automatically searches for all retailer-specific registries pertaining to the gift registrant. The centralized gift registry system may request a retailer's system for information on gift items of a respective retailer-specific registry.
US08219434B2	Ad-hoc coordination actions in business processes Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for ad hoc coordination actions in business processes. A computer-implemented method for implementing an ad-hoc coordination action framework, extending on a business process framework, includes enabling ad-hoc coordination actions as generic callable services in a work context, implementing the ad-hoc actions as templates defining state transitions between roles participating at the work context, and enabling the work context to track state transitions as a conversation thread.
US08219432B1	Automatically controlling availability of tasks for performance by human users Techniques are described for managing the release of tasks so that the tasks are available for performance, such as for tasks submitted by task requesters to be performed by human task performer users, or the release of other types of items as being available for use. In some situations, the managed release of tasks is based at least in part on determining one or more desired task performance characteristic values, and predicting appropriate values for one or more performance-related factors that will produce the determined desired task performance characteristic values. As one example, a determined target quantity of tasks to make concurrently available may be determined that will result in a desired level of task performance contention, such as based on expected or actual values for a rate of task performance and a duration of possible contention.
US08219430B1	Resource management system A resource management system includes a work plan builder module configured to build work plans for workers. The work plan builder module is configured to allow each worker to specify, for each of a plurality of different time periods, one of a plurality of different activities that the worker plans to perform during that time period. The work plans built by the work plan builder module are stored in a computer-accessible memory.
US08219412B2	Architecture for orchestrating promotional services The promotional orchestration engine includes a services engine that provides transactional responses to a user's request, such as informational results being returned to the user or request for further actions that will be forwarded. An analysis engine stores data and provides tactical and strategic level analysis. The analysis engine uses transactional data generated by the services engine to abstract knowledge and consolidate and aggregate such information. The learning engine is a mechanism by which the promotional orchestration engine adapts itself to changing conditions. The learning engine preferably customizes various components of the services engine and components of the analysis engine. The learning engine causes the services engine to present different information over time so as to keep the system fresh. From a user's standpoint, the learning engine allows components of the services engine to be personalized to the particular user.
US08219409B2	Audio wave field encoding An encoder/decoder for multi-channel audio data, and in particular for audio reproduction through wave field synthesis. The encoder comprises a two-dimensional filter-bank to the multi-channel signal, in which the channel index is treated as an independent variable as well as time, and and the resulting spectral coefficient are quantized according to a two-dimensional psychoacoustic model, including masking effect in the spatial frequency as well as in the temporal frequency. The coded spectral data are organized in a bitstream together with side information containing scale factors and Huffman codebook identifiers.
US08219407B1	Method for processing the output of a speech recognizer A system and method for processing speech input comprising a speech recognizer and a logical command processor which facilitates additional processing of speech input beyond the speech recognizer level. A speech recognizer receives input from a user, and when a command is identified in the speech input, if the command meets conditions that require additional processing, a representation of the speech input s stored for subsequent processing. A logical command processor performs additional processing of command input by analyzing the command and its elements, determining which elements are required for successful processing the command and which elements are present and lacking. The user is prompted to supply missing information, and subsequent user input is added to the command structure until the command input is aborted or the command structure reaches sufficient completeness to enable execution of the command. Thereby, speech input of complex commands in natural language in a system running a plurality of applications and processes is made possible.
US08219406B2	Speech-centric multimodal user interface design in mobile technology A multi-modal human computer interface (HCI) receives a plurality of available information inputs concurrently, or serially, and employs a subset of the inputs to determine or infer user intent with respect to a communication or information goal. Received inputs are respectively parsed, and the parsed inputs are analyzed and optionally synthesized with respect to one or more of each other. In the event sufficient information is not available to determine user intent or goal, feedback can be provided to the user in order to facilitate clarifying, confirming, or augmenting the information inputs.
US08219404B2	Method and apparatus for recognizing a speaker in lawful interception systems A method and apparatus for identifying a speaker within a captured audio signal from a collection of known speakers. The method and apparatus receive or generate voice representations for each known speakers and tag the representations according to meta data related to the known speaker or to the voice. The representations are grouped into one or more groups according to the indices. When a voice to be recognized is introduced, characteristics are determined according to which the groups are prioritized, so that the representations participating only in part of the groups are matched against the voice to be identified, thus reducing identification time and improving the statistical significance.
US08219401B1	Script compliance and quality assurance using speech recognition Apparatus and methods are provided for using automatic speech recognition to analyze a voice interaction and verify compliance of an agent reading a script to a client during the voice interaction. In one aspect of the invention, a communications system includes a user interface, a communications network, and a call center having an automatic speech recognition component. In other aspects of the invention, a script compliance method includes the steps of conducting a voice interaction between an agent and a client and evaluating the voice interaction with an automatic speech recognition component adapted to analyze the voice interaction and determine whether the agent has adequately followed the script. In yet still further aspects of the invention, a voice record of the given interaction can be analyzed at least in part to determine whether the agent spoke any extraneous material not dictated by the script, apart from or in addition to ensuring that the voice record contains all material required by the script. The voice record can be analyzed against a pre-defined list of specific words or phrases to identify instances of profanity or abusive language used by the agent.
US08219400B2	Stereo to mono conversion for voice conferencing Stereo to mono voice conferencing conversion is performed during a voice conference. Conferencing equipment receives audio for right and left channels and filters each of the channels into a plurality of bands. For each band of each channel, the equipment determines an energy level and compares each energy level for each band of the right channel to each energy level for each corresponding band of the left channel. Based on the comparison, the equipment determines which channel has more audio resulting from speech. Based on the determination, the equipment adjusts delivery of the audio from the right and left channels to a mono channel for transmission to endpoints only capable of mono audio in the voice conference.
US08219380B1	Methods and systems utilizing behavioral data models with derived properties Embodiments include computer systems, methods, and program code for developing and utilizing behavioral data models. A model can comprise a property and a behavior of the modeled component, with the property defining a data element of the modeled component and the behavior comprising a programmatic expression defining an operation to be performed when the model is consumed. The programmatic expression can comprise as a function to be evaluated to determine a derived property from an input parameter. The model may comprise data representing a constraint to be met by data of an instance of the derived property. The code of a functional component generated based on the behavior can be configured to evaluate data stored in the data structure corresponding to the derived property against the constraint and store data representing whether the constraint is satisfied.
US08219378B1	Automatic numerical simulation of processor environment A system receives a model, internals associated with a target processor, and code information associated with the target processor, and obtains a bit-true model simulation for the target processor based on the model, the target processor internals, and the target processor code information.
US08219374B1	Symbolic switch/linear circuit simulator systems and methods Interactive and real time web-based electrical circuit symbolic solvers and simulators. The invention includes an interactive and innovative graphical user interface (GUI) for creating circuit schematics and generating netlists, circuits symbolic solving and instant simulated solutions, their systems and methods. Users such as students can use GUI interfaces to remotely access a remote server controlled by educational institutions such as universities, or electronic book publishers, in order to draw, symbolically solve, and instantly simulate electrical circuits.
US08219369B2	Automatic generation of joint locations A method determines overlap regions by identifying a face on a first component part of an assembly that is less than a specified gap distance from a face on a second component part of the assembly. The method is also for determining if a minimum width of each of one or more the overlap regions exceeds a specified maximum value, and if the minimum width of an overlap region does not exceed the specified maximum value, determining a guide curve along a centerline of the overlap region. If the minimum width of an overlap region exceeds the specified maximum value, the method is further for determining two or more guide curves along an offset of two or more edges of the overlap region. The method also is for determining one or more joint locations along the guide curve or curves based upon one or more parameters.
US08219350B2	Apparatus for measuring a frequency-domain optical coherence tomography power spectrum from a sample An apparatus is provided for measuring a frequency-domain optical coherence tomography power spectrum from a sample. The apparatus includes a partially reflective element configured to be optically coupled to a light source and to the sample. A first portion of light from the light source is configured to be reflected by the partially reflective element. A second portion of light from the light source is configured to propagate through the partially reflective element, to impinge the sample, and to reflect from the sample. The apparatus is configured to receive the first and second portions of light and to measure the frequency-domain optical coherence tomography power spectrum in response to the first portion of light and the second portion of light.
US08219349B1	Test management system A test management system is provided that performs tests on integrated circuit test structures. A server may be used to distribute a test recipe to multiple test cells. Each test cell may have multiple test instruments and associated instrument drivers. When performing a test, a test type module may run on a given test cell. The test type module may perform tests by using the instrument drivers to control the test instruments available in the test cell. Users may make test option selections using graphical interface screens such as a test recipe setup screen and a platform engine control screen. A user can select test sites for testing based on which process parameters where used to fabricate the test structures associated with the test sites or other criteria.
US08219336B2	Arrangement for determining the operational parameters of a high-frequency power amplifier In order to determine various operational parameters of a power amplifier (for example, a complex load impedance or a complex forward and return power or a reflection factor or a voltage standing wave ratio) on a connecting line between an output of the power amplifier and a complex load, complex analog forward and return voltages on the connecting line are determined by an analog coupling device. These analog voltages are digitized and converted down into a baseband by one or more digital down-converters. From these digital values corresponding in absolute value and phase to the complex forward and return voltages and present in the baseband, desired operational parameters may then be calculated by a computer.
US08219335B2	Electric winding displacement detection method and apparatus A method and system for obtaining the characteristic impedance of an electrical winding by measuring the input and output voltages and the currents within a winding across a low frequency range, and applying transmission line properties to model the winding. The characteristic impedance (Zc) is directly proportional to the capacitance of the winding, and is independent of external circuits. Thus any changes to Zc will reflect movements of the winding that would affect the capacitance. Because Zc has a smooth and robust monotonical relationship with frequency of the applied signal, the resulting curve is exponential in shape. A relative comparison between Zc curves will provide a clear indication of the overall axial or radial winding movements, or winding faults, which can be used to assess the overall health of the winding.
US08219331B2	Electronic device and method for evaluating a variable capacitance An apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a digital signal generator, an analog filter, an amplitude modulator, and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The digital signal generator has a demodulator and provides a digital excitation signal. The analog filter is coupled to the digital signal generator. The amplitude modulator has a variable capacitor and is coupled to the analog filter. The amplitude modulator also generates an amplitude modulated signal with an amplitude that is a function of the capacitance of the variable capacitor. The ADC is coupled to the amplitude modulator and the demodulator, and the digital signal generator and the demodulator operate synchronously.
US08219325B2	Method for determining the ratio of two distinct peptides or polynucleic acids The invention relates to a method for determining the ratio of two distinct target-peptides or polynucleic acids comprising: a) obtaining a sample containing said two distinct target-peptides or polynucleic acids, b) providing a precursor-peptide or precursor-polynucleic acid, comprising the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids in a known ratio, wherein the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids are connected by a cleavage site, c) cleaving the precursor-peptide or precursor-polynucleic acid at the cleavage site to obtain a standard with the known ratio of the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids, d) detecting a signal of each distinct target-peptide or -polynucleic acid of the standard in an analyzer, comparing the signals with the known ratio and determining a correction factor, e) detecting the signal of each distinct target-peptide or -polynucleic acid of the sample in the analyzer and f) determining the ratio of the two distinct target-peptides or -polynucleic acids by means of the correction factor or by double ratio calculation (calculation of the ratio of two intensity ratios—namely of the peptide and isoform-peptide with their corresponding labelled standards) to eliminate the compound-specific correction factors.
US08219324B2	Real-time PCR elbow calling by equation-less algorithm Systems and methods for determining a transition value in a sigmoid or growth curve, such as the end of the baseline region or the elbow value or Ct value of a PCR amplification curve. Numerical determinations of the second derivatives and curvature values of a PCR data set are made. A Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) function with parameters determined using a Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), or other, regression process is used to find an approximation to the second derivative values and to the curvature values, where the maximum values of the numerically determined second derivative values and/or curvature values are used as initial conditions for parameters of the GMM function. The determined parameters provide fractional Ct values. The Ct value(s) are then returned and may be displayed or otherwise used for further processing.
US08219322B2	Processing of stratigraphic data A method of processing stratigraphic data comprising a plurality of stratigraphic features, such as horizon surfaces, within a geological volume is provided. The method includes the steps of: extending a plurality of spaced sampling traces through the volume to traverse the stratigraphic features; and assigning the stratigraphic features respective relative geological ages. On each sampling trace, the relative geological age of each stratigraphic feature traversed by the sampling trace in the direction from geologically younger to geologically older stratigraphic features is increased in relation to the relative geological age of its preceding stratigraphic feature, under the condition that each stratigraphic feature takes the same relative geological age across all the sampling traces by which it is traversed.
US08219318B2	Information mapping approaches Methods, systems and applications for updating, enhancing, organizing, and utilizing geographic maps, for locating points of interest and places of businesses, or POI's. Embodiments provide a method for collecting geo-coordinate data on POIs by eliciting participation of the business owners or designated employees to identify the specific locations of POI's on a map; a map program which synchronizes to a centralized database where POI and other more frequently changing and time-dependent map information is downloaded to individual users; a map program, where in addition to the standard contact information, “qualitative” information and website links are included in an POI information box to aid in pre-qualifying a POI before selection and in booking a reservation; a method for locating markers on an Internet-based search engine map; and an improved contact management system that allows locations of contacts to be viewed on a map while minimizing address geocoding.
US08219316B2	System and method for storing and providing routes In one aspect, a system and method is provided whereby map-related requests from mobile devices are used to store and aggregate routes. The routes are then used to determine optimum directions in response to subsequent requests.
US08219305B2	Engine with an automatic choke and method of operating an automatic choke for an engine An automatic choke connectable to an engine. Also disclosed is an engine including the automatic choke, an apparatus including the engine and the automatic choke, and a method of controlling a choke valve. The automatic choke includes a motor for moving a choke valve and a controller electrically connected to the motor. In one construction, the controller is configured to store position information and a flag related to a position of the choke valve, determine the engine has, and control the automatic choke with the stored position information based on the flag and the determination that the engine has re-started. In another construction, the controller is configured to generate a motor control signal to direct the choke valve to a fully-open position without providing choke relief based on a temperature value indicating the engine temperature is greater than a threshold.
US08219303B2	Method for operating an internal combustion engine for a hybrid powertrain system A hybrid powertrain system includes an internal combustion engine operatively connected to a second torque machine to transmit torque to an output member. A method for operating the hybrid powertrain system includes monitoring an operator torque request, determining an output torque command based upon the operator torque request, commanding a transition between an engine-off state and an engine-on state, monitoring an engine crank angle, spinning the engine unfueled, estimating cylinder pressure based upon the engine crank angle during the spinning of the engine, predicting a cylinder pulse torque based upon the cylinder pressure, determining a cancellation torque for the second torque machine based upon the predicted cylinder pulse torque, and controlling motor torque output from the second torque machine based upon the cancellation torque and the output torque command.
US08219301B2	Control device for internal combustion engine A control device for an internal combustion engine in which controls can be simplified, and being capable of performing high-performance control by appropriately mediating a plurality of requirements. The device includes an emission control unit, a fuel consumption control unit and an idle stability control unit. Those units output requirements for the internal combustion engine on the basis of their respective aims. An efficiency mediation unit that mediates requirements from those units is provided. Furthermore, an actuator instruction value calculation unit, which determines instruction values for the plurality of actuators installed in the internal combustion engine on the basis of a result of mediation performed by the efficiency mediation unit, is also provided. The requirement is a requirement concerning torque efficiency, which indicates a ratio of a required torque to a reference torque that is obtained when operating points of the plurality of actuators are optimized.
US08219299B2	Method for speed regulation of a motor vehicle in a complex traffic situation A method for regulating the velocity of a motor vehicle in a complex traffic situation is presented. The motor vehicle is equipped with a sensor system for recording the environment. In order to regulate the velocity, an at least partially covered object and/or at least one object on an adjacent lane is viewed.
US08219295B2	Engaging-force control apparatus and method An engaging-force control apparatus for a friction-engagement element controls a slip rotational speed between an input-side rotational speed and an output-side rotational speed of the friction-engagement element by increasing or decreasing an engaging force of the friction-engagement element. The engaging-force control apparatus includes an engaging-force feedback control section configured to control the engaging force of the friction-engagement element to bring the slip rotational speed of the friction-engagement element closer to 0 by way of feedback control; and an engaging-force restricting section configured to restrict the engaging force of the friction-engagement element to prevent the engaging force from exceeding a minimum engaging-force value necessary to maintain the slip rotational speed at 0.
US08219294B2	Method for actuating a clutch of a drivetrain A method for actuating a clutch (6) of a drivetrain of a motor vehicle such that, when the motor vehicle is rolling downhill with the accelerator pedal not being actuated and when the motor vehicle is coasting on level ground with the accelerator pedal not being actuated, a clutch position of the clutch (6) is determined as a function of a rotational speed difference between an input speed of a transmission (2) of the drivetrain and an idling speed of a power engine (1) of the drivetrain. The method includes the steps of determining the clutch position from the rotational speed difference between the transmission input speed and the power engine idling speed and correcting the clutch position using at least one parameter that depends on acceleration of the motor vehicle.
US08219293B2	Gear shift control apparatus and method for automatic transmission In gear shift control apparatus and method for an automatic transmission, a first frictional engagement element is, in turn, released, a second frictional engagement element is, in turn, engaged to perform the gear shift to another gear stage, a command hydraulic pressure to the second frictional engagement element is temporarily reduced when a parameter indicating a degree of progress of the gear shift detected during the gear shift to the other gear stage has reached to a predetermined value representing an inertia phase finish immediate prior region at a time of an inertia phase developed during a replacement gear shift, an reduction quantity of the command hydraulic pressure is set whenever a predetermined time has elapsed on a basis of the parameter detected whenever the predetermined time has elapsed in the inertia phase finish immediate prior region to progressively reduce the command hydraulic pressure.
US08219291B2	Method of controlling a vehicle during an auxiliary pump failure A method of controlling a vehicle includes signaling a transmission to shift into a first gear ratio and sensing a current gear ratio of the transmission after signaling the transmission to shift into the first gear ratio. The method further includes implementing a diagnostic transmission shift control strategy to override a normal transmission shift control strategy when the current sensed gear ratio is not equal to the requested first gear ratio to verify proper functionality of a mode control valve that is responsible for shifting the transmission into the first gear ratio.
US08219288B2	Method for positioning a mobile unit in a motor vehicle Disclosed is a method for positioning a mobile unit in a motor vehicle. The mobile unit is driven by an external force and equipped with an electronic jamming protection device. A tactile input unit is provided for positioning the mobile unit. An occupied position of the mobile unit is stored under certain conditions, whereby said stored position is automatically approached when the tactile unit is correspondingly operated.
US08219287B2	System and method for integration of crash signature sensor in vehicle side impact sensing A system and method for performing side impact sensing in a vehicle including at least one side impact zone is provided. The system comprises a controller and at least one crash signature sensor. The controller is configured to deploy one or more safety restraints in response to at least one crash signature signal. The one crash signature sensor is positioned in the side impact zone. The crash signature sensor is configured to detect an impact with an object at the side impact zone. The crash signature sensor is further configured to generate the crash signature signal which corresponds to measured structural impact energy of the vehicle in the side impact zone deformed by the impact at frequencies above 2 kHz.
US08219271B2	Method for controlling a drivetrain for a hybrid vehicle A method for controlling a drivetrain for a hybrid vehicle is provided. The drivetrain has at least one internal combustion engine, a torque converter and an operational link to at least one drivable axle, an electrical energy store, and an electrical machine, which is usable as a generator for charging the electrical energy store during a recuperation operation. The electrical machine is provided on the pump wheel and the operational link being provided on the turbine wheel of the torque converter. A torque is introduced from the drivable axle via the operational link and through the turbine wheel into the liquid of the torque converter in recuperation operation in order to be dissipated as heat.
US08219268B2	Apparatus and method for determining available power and weight distribution in a train A navigation system includes a computer readable storage medium having a sequence of instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to acquire a plurality of parameters of a train comprising parameters measured after the train has begun a journey. The train includes a plurality of vehicles providing tractive effort and a consist coupled to the plurality of vehicles. The sequence of instructions also causes the processor to calculate the tractive effort of less than all of the plurality of vehicles based on the acquired plurality of parameters.
US08219266B2	Method and device for reducing on an aircraft lateral effects of a turbulence Disclosed is a method and device for attenuating lateral effects on an aircraft due to turbulence encountered by the aircraft during flight. The lateral effects are attenuated by applying a roll control order to control a first controllable movable member that acts on aircraft roll and minimizes aircraft roll-wise disturbances due to wind, and a yaw control order that controls a second controllable movable member to act on aircraft yaw. The roll and yaw control orders are calculated based on a sideslip value of the aircraft, while the yaw control order is calculated as a function of the roll control order to compensate for aircraft lateral effects due to turbulence, as well as lateral effects due to application of the roll control order to the first movable member.
US08219261B2	Fan speed control from thermal diode measurement Measurement circuit components are included in an integrated circuit fabricated on a semiconductor substrate. A method is provided for controlling the speed of a cooling fan provided to cool an integrated circuit in which includes the steps of receiving a voltage from a thermal diode, addressing a table of digital temperatures by incrementing the address of the table entries every clock cycle of a circuit clock, converting the addressed data to a second voltage representing temperature, comparing the first voltage to the second voltage, providing a resulting temperature when both the first and second voltages are equal, and adjusting the fan speed accordingly.
US08219259B2	Maintaining uniform power consumption from an electric utility by a local load in a power distribution system Maintaining uniform power consumption from an electric utility by a local load in a power distribution that includes a distributed renewable generation (‘DRG’) system that is capable of providing power to the utility and batteries for storage, where maintaining uniform power consumption is carried out iteratively and includes monitoring present power consumption of the local load from the electric utility; determining whether the present power consumption is greater than a predefined target power consumption by the local load; if the present power consumption is not greater, storing locally generated power in the batteries; if the present power consumption is greater: calculating in dependence upon present local power generation by the DRG system, the predefined target power consumption, and the present power consumption of the local load, an amount of locally generated power to provide to the electric utility; and providing the amount of locally generated power to the electric utility.
US08219245B2	Articulated arm robot To increase the safety of an articulated arm robot with robot members connected by means of joints as open kinematics and with functional elements acting on the joints, such as drive motors, gears, brakes and a weight balance system, while reducing the mechanical limitations of the motion space of the robot, the present invention provides that at least some of the said functional elements have a dual design.
US08219239B2	Dental unit with programmable functions Dental unit, which comprises at least one connection for at least one ancillary device, a drive-power and feed system for providing drive power or feed to said at least one ancillary device, and a control system for controlling the drive-power and feed system as well as the at least one ancillary device. For its part, the control system comprises at least one programmed function, which includes at least one predefined control operation directed to at least one ancillary device. In addition, at least one trigger is defined for each programmed function within the control system, in response to which said programmed function is performed. According to the invention, the dental unit comprises configuration means, which are arranged to receive control commands from the user in order to configure at least one programmed function and to configure said at least one programmed function according to control commands received from the user.
US08219235B2	Method for storing rolls of material Rolls of prepared, and of unprepared materials, for use in a web-processing machine, are stored in a warehouse. Information that is used to anticipate consumption data for an impending production period, or anticipated consumption data, is supplied to a material flow system that includes implemented logic. A warehousing strategy is defined in a sub-process which uses the anticipated consumption data and a current inventory.
US08219234B2	Rapid production apparatus with production orientation determination A method of producing an object by sequentially printing layers of construction material one on top of the other, the method comprising: providing the construction material at a first lower temperature; flowing the construction material through a heated flow path in a flow structure to heat the construction material and delivering the heated construction material to a heated reservoir in a printing head; and dispensing the heated construction material from the reservoir to build the object layer by layer.
US08219223B1	Editing audio assets Systems, methods, and computer program products for editing digital audio data are provided. In some implementations a method is provided. The method includes receiving digital audio data incorporated in a plurality of audio tracks and receiving a selection of one or more audio tracks of the plurality of audio tracks for editing, the selected audio tracks being fewer than all of the plurality of audio tracks. The method also includes receiving an input specifying an audio effect to apply to the selected audio tracks and applying an inverse of the audio effect to one or more non-selected audio tracks in response to the input.
US08219213B2	Active fixation cardiac vein medical lead An implantable medical lead configured for active fixation in the vasculature of a patient includes an elongated lead body having a central lumen and a distal tip. Disposed within the central lumen are a fixation helix and an elongated member, such as a lead coil, coupled to the fixation helix. The elongated member is adapted to rotate the fixation helix, thereby causing it to advance or retract within the central lumen of the lead body. The lead body includes a window along a portion of its length through which the fixation helix may be affixed to a blood vessel of the patient's vasculature.
US08219203B2	Cochlear implant utilizing multiple-resolution current sources and flexible data encoding A programmable cochlear implant system utilizes multiple-resolution current sources and flexible data-encoding scheme for transcutaneous transmission. In certain embodiments, the number of current sources may be equal to or greater than 2, but equal or less than N−1, where N is the number of electrodes. The multi-resolution current source may introduce offset currents to achieve perceptually-based multiple resolutions with high resolution at low amplitudes and low resolution at high amplitudes. The flexible data-encoding scheme may allow arbitrary waveforms in terms of phase polarity, phase duration, pseudo-analog-waveform, while producing high-rate and high-temporal-precision stimulation. In one embodiment, a 2-current-source system may support simultaneous and non-simultaneous stimulation as well as monopolar, bipolar, pseudo-tripolar, and tripolar electrode configurations.
US08219199B2	System and method for protecting implanted medical devices from interfering radiated fields An implantable medical device (IMD) can include an implantable pulse generator (IPG), such as a cardiac pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). At least one lead is coupled to the IMD at a proximal end to the anatomic tissue of a patient at a distal end. According to various embodiments, a one-quarter wavelength open circuit terminated transmission line forms a stub filter to attenuate an interfering signal, such as those created by an MRI scanner during an MRI procedure. By cancelling the interfering signal, both the IMD and patient are protected from any adverse effects caused by the interfering signal.
US08219198B2	Method and device for using impedance measurements based on electrical energy of the heart A method and a device are disclosed for evaluating the cardio-circulatory and pulmonary condition of a patient, including determining the patient's thoracic impedance based on information solely derived from the electrical energy generated by the patient's own heart.
US08219197B2	Apparatus and method for testing and adjusting a bipolar stimulation configuration A system and method for measuring the capture threshold of a bipolar lead in order to determine an appropriate value for the stimulus pulse energy to be used with the lead by a cardiac rhythm management device. An appropriate bipolar stimulating configuration can also be determined. The method is particularly useful in testing bipolar leads used to excite the left ventricle such as when delivering cardiac resynchronization therapy.
US08219194B2	Implantable cardiac stimulator, system, device and method for monitoring cardiac synchrony In a system and method for monitoring cardiac synchrony in a human heart, a first sensor is positioned at a first cardiac wall location that is subject to movements related to longitudinal valve plane movements along the longitudinal axis of the heart, and measures the cardiac wall movements at the first cardiac wall location and a second sensor is positioned at a second cardiac wall location that is subject to movements related to longitudinal valve plane movements along the longitudinal axis of the heart, and measures the cardiac wall movements at the second cardiac wall location. A lead arrangement conducts respective output signals from the first and second sensors to processing circuitry that processes the first and second sensor output signals to produce a synchronization signal therefrom indicative of synchrony in the respective valve plane movements at the first and second cardiac wall locations.
US08219185B2	Rapid method for analyzing bio-signal instantaneously by phase space complexity difference and its device The present invention relates to a method for analyzing bio-signal instantaneously by Chaotic Phase Space Difference (CPSD) operation and its measure analyze device. This method includes time-delay procedure and rebuilt phase space matrix to calculate complexity of phase space matrix and diagnose the bio-signal. This method can also be used as an analyze method in portable device or 24 h ECG recorder which is a fast and convenient measure analyze device.
US08219181B2	Medical imaging system and method containing ultrasound docking port An ultrasound medical imaging system and non-ultrasound medical imaging system are combined and communicate via a suitable docking port, which is supported by the non-ultrasound medical imaging system and configured to receive the ultrasound medical imaging system. The systems can communicate directly, indirectly, and/or wirelessly. Each can also be configured for cross-imaging in the other modality, displaying medical imagery from the other modality on respective and/or combined displays, and/or control by a user interface of the other and/or a common user interface. Registry between patient imagery is possible, and improved workflow is provided.
US08219176B2	Single coil parallel imaging An imaging apparatus for an object in change includes an MRI system having a first channel which produces images of the object using alternate lines of k-space applied along each of the two phase encoding directions and a computer which combines the individual images into a composite 3D image. The MRI system acquires alternate lines of temporally resolved data along each phase encoding direction. A method for imaging an object in change includes producing an individual image of the object with a first channel of an MRI system using alternate lines of k-space applied for each phase encoding direction, producing an individual image of the object with at least a second channel of the MRI system by acquiring alternate lines of temporally resolved data using alternate lines of k-space, and combining the individual images into a composite 3D image of the object with a computer of the MRI system.
US08219170B2	System and method for practicing spectrophotometry using light emitting nanostructure devices Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for practicing spectrophotometry using light emitting nanostructures. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention include a physiologic sensor comprising a sensor body configured for placement adjacent pulsatile tissue of a patient, a first light emitting nanostructure device configured to emit light at a first wavelength through the pulsatile tissue, a second light emitting nanostructure device configured to emit light at a second wavelength through the pulsatile tissue, and a light detector configured to detect the light at the first wavelength and the light at the second wavelength after dispersion through the pulsatile tissue.
US08219166B2	Manufacturing of back lighting structure for mobile terminal There is provided a mobile terminal comprising a back lighting structure. The mobile terminal according to an embodiment comprises a light emitting device and a case part provided on the light emitting device and formed of a transmissive material. The mobile terminal further comprises a shielding coating layer laminated on a region excluding a specific region of the case part and formed of a shielding material so that the specific region of the case part transmits light.
US08219162B2	Electronic device An electronic device, comprising: a main body, a back cover, and a button; wherein, the main body comprises a bottom portion and a side wall extending therefrom, a first through hole is defined on the bottom portion, and a second through hole is defined in the side wall; the button comprises a base and a sliding body connected to the base which is caused to generate an elastic deformation under external force, the base is secured to the bottom portion of the main body, and the sliding portion is received in and exposed from the second through hole; the back cover includes an inner surface and a hook protruding from the inner surface, a hook portion is formed on an end of the hook away from the back cover; when the back cover is connected to the main body, the hook is passed through the first through hole, the hook portion is engaged to the base of the button; when the sliding body is pushed, it causes the base to generate the elastic deformation to make the base disengage the hook.
US08219161B2	Portable terminal A portable terminal, which is small sized, excellent in portability, and having high operability for various functions other than a call function, is provided. Two housings are connected such that they can be extended in directions different from each other. The housings have a retraction state, a first extension state, a second extension state, and a third extension state that is a state achieved by further sliding the housings from the second extension into another state. Broadcast receiving conditions are improved by changing the length of an antenna for receiving digital broadcast reception in the second extension state and the third extension state.
US08219160B2	Portable electronic device A portable electronic device including a first body having a first pair of opposing sides, a second body having a second pair of opposing sides, the second pair of opposing sides being in slidable engagement with the first pair of opposing sides to move the first body from a first position to a second position, and a magnetic unit located adjacent at least one side of the pair of opposing sides of the first body and at least one side of the pair of opposing sides of the second body. Further, the magnetic unit is configured to generate a magnetic force to bias the first body toward one of the first position and the second position.
US08219155B2	Method and apparatus for determining whether a device is suitable for operating at an incidence location A method and apparatus for determining whether a device is suitable for operating at an incidence location enables effective deployment of devices in a wireless communication network. The method includes identifying a location of the device in the wireless communication network. Next, a state of charge of a battery of the device is identified based on data received from the device. A preference value of the device is then determined relative to an incidence location in the wireless communication network. The preference value is a function of the state of charge of the device and a distance between the location of the device and the incidence location. Finally, using the preference value, it is determined whether the device is suitable for operating at the incidence location.
US08219153B2	Mobile advertising on personal cellular telecommunications devices Mobile advertising on personal cellular telecommunications devices includes an initial Level 0 Interactive Display Message (IDM) having a content precursor for requesting additional content with or without a visual advertising component. Level 0 IDMs may be displayed as part of a user initiated client application or automatically replacing an idle screen. Mobile advertising can optionally include one or more Level 1 Advertisement Display Messages (ADMs) including text, graphics, video, and the like Level 1 ADMs may be interactive or not.
US08219150B2	Portable electronic equipment capable of displaying candidate of scene based on frequency information According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a mobile phone including: a first storage configured to store transit information associated with a destination scene for each scene; a second storage configured to store frequency information representing a frequency as to a route passing through a source scene, a first scene transited from the source scene and a second scene transited from the first scene; a first display configured to selectably display a candidate of the second scene, depending upon a transition from the source scene to the first scene and upon the transit information; a second display configured to selectably display a candidate of the second scene, depending upon a transition from the source scene to the first scene and upon the frequency information; and a transit unit configured to transit from the candidate displayed to a scene of the candidate if the displayed candidate is selected.
US08219149B2	Mobile communication terminal A mobile communication apparatus capable of presenting themes, a telecommunication system comprising a such apparatus, and a corresponding method are disclosed. The apparatus comprises a processor arranged to generate an audio signal in response to a set theme. The audio signal comprises a speech signal, wherein speech of the speech signal have voice characteristics which depend on the theme. Alternatively, processor is arranged to set a theme in response to contact information stored in a contact information database of the appatatus and associated with actions performed by the apparatus.
US08219143B2	Mobile radio device A portable wireless device includes a first communication unit having a loop antenna that communicates with external devices using a first usable frequency band, and an RFID chip that performs predetermined processing with respect to information communicated by the loop antenna. A second communication unit includes a main antenna that communicates by a second usable frequency band that is higher than the first usable frequency band, and a communication processing unit that performs predetermined processing with respect to information communicated by the main antenna. A reactance component of the loop antenna is adjusted such that a high-order secondary resonance point of the first usable frequency band does not overlap the second usable frequency band.
US08219139B2	Radio base station accommodating method and network device A radio base station accommodating method according to the present invention includes step A of causing a network device 100 to judge a type of a radio base station 200, 201 upon receipt of a connection request from the radio base station 200, 201, step B of causing the network device 100 to generate an operation parameter to be set in the radio base station 200, 201 by using a method which is different depending on each type of the radio base station 200, 201 and to notify the radio base station 200, 201 of the operation parameter, and step C of causing the radio base station to start operation by using the operation parameter thus notified.
US08219129B2	Dynamic real-time tiered client access Wireless client devices within a wireless network exchange data with other wireless devices during particular time slots determined by the network. More particularly, the system generates and wirelessly broadcasts synchronization information to the client devices, where the synchronization information contains individual masks to be applied to bit fields of individual client devices, where said time slots are determined in accordance with the masked bit fields. In such a manner, client devices can be coordinated to communicate with the system in a dynamic real-time tiered manner.
US08219128B2	Network-centric link adaptation for coordinated multipoint downlink transmission A Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) cell controller performs network-centric link adaptation for User Equipment (UE) in the CoMP cell. The CoMP cell controller receives at least infrequent channel estimates from a UE in the CoMP cell, from which it estimates downlink channel and thermal noise at the UE. The CoMP cell controller is aware of the desired signal to be received at the UE, and the intra-CoMP cell interference to the UE caused by transmissions to other UEs in the CoMP cell. The CoMP cell receives from the UE reports of inter-CoMP cell interference caused by transmissions by other CoMP cells. Based on the downlink channel quality, the desired signal, the intra-CoMP cell interference, the inter-CoMP cell interference, and the thermal noise, the CoMP cell controller performs link adaptation by selecting modulation and coding schemes, and other transmission parameters, for an upcoming transmission duration (such as a TTI).
US08219122B2	Apparatus, and associated method, for paging an access terminal in a radio communication system An apparatus, and an associated methodology for a communication system in which an access terminal is paged by a page sent on a paging channel. Hashes are generated by a hash generator at an access network to identify where in the paging message that page indications are to be positioned. And, hashes are generated at the access terminal to identify where in a received page that page indications are located.
US08219102B2	Method for installing a radio system in a building A radio system is installed in a building, wherein each terminal (T) communicates with neighboring terminals and can transmit telegrams. The terminals (T) are contained in devices or installed as separate mobile terminals. A routing table is created, in which each acceptable route from a source (Q) to a destination (Z) is entered. Connection from source to destination is evaluated with consideration of the number of hops from terminal to terminal within a route, and of the availability of unique individual sections (SES) that cannot be replaced by a parallel path.
US08219095B2	Base station for a cellular communication system and a method of operation therefor A base station (101) for a cellular communication system comprises a transceiver (301) which receives measurement reports from a plurality of user equipments (107) served by the base station (101). The measurement reports comprise receive signal quality indications (such as receive signal levels for pilot signals) for neighbor cells (A-F) of the base station (101). An overlap processor (301) determines a cell overlap indication for each of a set of neighbor cells in response to the receive signal quality indications and a handover control processor (305) performs handover control in response to the cell overlap indications. The invention may allow improved handover performance and may increase the likelihood that the target handover cell can continue to support the user equipment (101) following handover. Particularly advantageous performance can be achieved when used for congestion relief of cells.
US08219094B2	Location-based services in a femtocell network System(s) and method(s) are provided to route traffic and signaling between a set of networked femto access points (APs) and enable location-based services. A femto AP in the set of femto APs is functionally linked to a routing platform that manages traffic and signaling, and is functionally connected to a controller component that relays at least part of data and control to a femto network platform. The femto network platform allows access to one or more external networks. Routing platform can exchange signaling with one or more femto APs to enable, at least in part, location-based services based at least in part on identifier(s) for a femto AP, access privileges, or time-of-flight measurements that assess propagation timing between a mobile device and a femto AP. Routing platform can supply timing configuration to enable predetermined spatial resolution of location estimates. Location estimates can be recorded and conveyed to a consumer layer.
US08219087B2	Method, apparatus, computer program product and system for providing dynamic assignment of session capabilities An apparatus for providing dynamic assignment of session capabilities such as buddy list capabilities includes a processing element. The processing element may be configured to receive a message associated with a communication session with a network node, acquire service plan based capabilities associated with the network node, receive device based capabilities associated with the network node, and determine session based capabilities associated with the service based on the device based capabilities and the service plan based capabilities on a per subscriber basis.
US08219085B2	Method and apparatus for optimizing compressed mode duration An apparatus and method for optimizing compressed mode duration comprising collecting a first set of receive signal strength indication (RSSI) measurements from at least one 2G cell; determining a best 2G cell from the at least one 2G cell using the first set of RSSI measurements; identifying at least one second best 2G cells with at least one of the first set of RSSI measurements within a range threshold TR of the best 2G cell; collecting a second set of RSSI measurements from the second best 2G cells; identifying at least one third best 2G cells with at least one of the second set of RSSI measurements within the range threshold TR of the best 2G cell; and collecting a third set of RSSI measurements from the third best 2G cells.
US08219083B2	Service roaming system and method The present invention relates to service roaming. A service roaming system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first service operator providing a service, a first service reproduction apparatus running the service and transmitting roaming information input from a user to the first service operator, a second service operator providing the service through roaming on the basis of the roaming information, and a second service reproduction apparatus running the service to be provided through roaming.
US08219081B2	In-vehicle wireless communication device, roaming list updating system, and method for updating roaming list A wireless communication unit performs wireless communication with a network of a carrier and receives a roaming list transmitted from the network. A control unit causes a storing unit to store the transmitted roaming list. The control unit sets the stored roaming list to be workable when completing updating of the roaming list and traces a communicable wireless communication system using the workable roaming list. The control unit causes the wireless communication unit to transmit an update request to the network when reception of the transmitted latest roaming list is unsuccessful in the course of the reception and when a predetermined condition is satisfied. The network transmits a latest roaming list to the wireless communication unit in response to reception of the update request.
US08219076B2	CDMA probe for self-testing base station receivers An access probe existing and generated within a base station to simulate a mobile terminal for the purpose of testing base station receive functionality within a communications system. The access probe data is injected at baseband rather than at RF to eliminate the need for analog/RF circuitry. The access probe performs injection at the front end of the base station receiver to exercise as much receive data path as possible. A unique ID is embedded in the access probes so that the communications system is aware which probes within a sequence were received successfully and at what power level. Within in-field applications, the unique ID allows the communications system to distinguish simulated access probes from those corresponding to real mobiles.
US08219074B2	Method and apparatus for communication site planning The present invention relates to a solution for determining wireless communication cell characteristics related to wireless MIMO transmission mode and dynamically selecting suitable communication transmission mode for certain parts of the wireless communication cell. The solution uses a flatness spectrum analysis of received impulse response from a plurality of measurement points in the cell using a plurality of antennas in a wireless network access gateway, e.g. a base station.
US08219069B2	Advanced voice and data operations in a dual-mode mobile data communication device A system and method for integrating voice and data operations into a single mobile device capable of simultaneously performing data and voice actions. The mobile device working in a network capable of exchanging both cell phone calls and data items to the mobile device. By wearing an earphone or an ear-bud device the user is capable of dealing with voice conversations while working with data centric information related to the current caller. By providing a data-centric device with voice capabilities there is a new range of features that allow incoming data events to trigger outgoing voice events.
US08219065B2	Management of CDMA credentials on a smart card A method is performed by a user device and a smart card inserted into the user device. The method includes storing, in the smart card, information to permit the user device to communicate with a particular network; identifying a first smart card identifier associated with the smart card; identifying a second smart card identifier associated with a previous smart card inserted into the user device; comparing the first smart card identifier and the second smart card identifier to generate a first comparison result; pushing, by the smart card and to the user device, the information when the first comparison result indicates that the first smart card identifier matches the second smart card identifier; and obtaining, by the user device, access to the particular network using the information received from the smart card.
US08219061B1	Method and system for obtaining emergency caller location Methods and systems for obtaining the location of a caller during an emergency or other telephone call. Before or during a call, a phone system can obtain from one or more sources a subscriber access line identity associated with a subscriber location record that includes a subscriber access line identity attribute and a subscriber location attribute. A phone system can send a query that includes the subscriber access line identity to a subscriber location query system that returns a subscriber location record or a subscriber location to the phone system. The phone system can then display the caller location information to a phone system, an agent or operator so that emergency services can be quickly and accurately dispatched. Using similar procedure and a memory, phone systems can also determine if a subscriber phone has or is changing location. Methods for testing the emergency call capabilities of a subscriber access line.
US08219060B2	Dual inductor circuit for multi-band wireless communication device This disclosure describes a dual inductor circuit, which may be particularly useful in a mixer of a wireless communication device to allow the mixer to operate for two different frequency bands or in a multi-differential branch low noise amplifier wherein each of the differential branches possess a different set of gain and linearity characteristics for a signal operating at the same frequency. The dual inductor circuit comprises an inductor-within-inductor design in which a small inductor is disposed within a large inductor. The two inductors may share a ground terminal, but are otherwise physically separated and independent from one another. Terminals of the inner inductor, for example, are not tapped from the outer inductor, which can reduce parasitic effects and electromagnetic interference relative to tapped inductor designs. The independence of the inductors also allows the different inductors to define different resonance frequencies or gain and linearity characteristics, which is desirable.
US08219058B2	Radio receiver A radio receiver adapted to alternatively receive data over a communication channel in a first mode and a second mode. The second mode facilitates reception of data at higher data rates than the first mode. The radio receiver comprises a signal-processing unit and a control unit. The signal processing unit is adapted to determine a quality condition of the communication channel. The control unit is adapted to determine, based on the quality condition, whether the communication channel facilitates operation in the second mode and assess at least one configuration condition, one of the at least one configuration condition being that the communication channel is determined to facilitate operation in the second mode. The control unit is further adapted to configure the radio receiver to operate in the second mode when all of at least one configuration condition are fulfilled or to operate in the first mode otherwise. A method for controlling the radio receiver is also disclosed.
US08219051B2	Front-end receiver circuit with multiple paths which are simultaneously active and receiver system using the same A front end receiver is disclosed. The front end receiver comprises a plurality of transmissive signal paths originating from one signal input, a plurality of switching mechanisms; and at least one path of the plurality of transmissive signal paths including a first amplifier coupled to a first input port of each of the plurality of switching mechanisms. The front end receiver also comprises at least another path of the plurality of transmissive signal paths including a second amplifier coupled to a second input port of each of the plurality of switching mechanisms. The receiving subsystem coupled to the output port of each switching mechanism. Each of the receiving subsystems controls a switching mechanism to select the path that is optimal for radio reception depending on the strength of signal being received.
US08219049B2	Generating a process and temperature tracking bias voltage In one embodiment, a method includes generating a current that is proportional to a mobility and an oxide capacitance of a tracking device and independent of a threshold voltage variation of the tracking device, generating a voltage from the current, and providing the voltage as at least part of a bias voltage for another device. In one embodiment, this other device may be a compensation circuit coupled to a main device to compensate for capacitance non-linearity of the main device.
US08219048B2	Method and system for receiving signals via multi-port distributed antenna Methods and systems for receiving signals via a multi-port distributed antenna are disclosed and may include selectively enabling one or more low noise amplifiers (LNAs) coupled to the antenna. The selective enabling may be based on a desired gain level applied to a signal received from the antenna. The LNAs may be coupled to ports on the antenna based on an input impedance of the LNAs and an impedance of the ports. Each of the LNAs may be configured for optimum linearity in different gain ranges, which may be proportional to the input impedance of the LNAs. The antenna may be integrated on a chip with the LNAs, or may be located external to the chip. The antenna may include a microstrip antenna. The LNAs may include variable gain and may be enabled utilizing a processor. Linearity on demand may be enabled via the selective enabling of the LNAs.
US08219034B2	Method for detection of radar signals A method provides for identifying short radar signals in presence of interfering signals from various sources applicable to U-NII devices. The method includes collecting a set of information about received interfering signals until the End-Of-Burst (EOB) condition is identified. When the EOB is identified, the set information about the received train of interfering signals is processed. The algorithm selects the time interval between two pulses as a possible Pulse Repetition Interval (PRI) and checks if the same time interval or a multiple of it can be found between other pulses in the collected set, with some small acceptable error. Pulses matching the criteria are considered as potential radar pulses. When at least one pulse has been identified as a potential radar pulse for a number of times larger than a predefined limit, it is concluded that that pulse has been generated by a radar installation.
US08219020B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus having a sheet support is described. Using one or more configurations, the number of parts for the sheet support may be reduced.
US08219017B2	Image forming apparatus and process cartridge An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image, a protective layer forming device configured to apply a protective agent to a surface of the image bearing member with a brush-shaped protective agent applicator, and a surface roughness maintainer configured to maintain a surface roughness Ry of a contact surface of the protective agent with the brush-shaped protective agent applicator at 500 μm or less. The protective agent is a solid material in which a granular material comprising a fatty acid metallic salt is compressed.
US08219014B2	Image heating apparatus having magnetic flux confining means An apparatus includes a rotatable image heater for heating a recording material, a coil, outside the heater, for generating magnetic flux for heating the heater and having an end outside an end of the heater with respect to the rotational axis direction, a pressor contacting the heater outer surface for forming a nip nipping and conveying the recording material, a metal member for pressing the pressor through the heater and having an end which is located outside the end of the heater and outside an end of the coil with respect to the rotational axis direction, and a magnetic flux confiner disposed inside the heater between the coil and the metal member, for confining the magnetic flux from the coil so as not to extend toward the metal member and having an end located outside the end of the heater with respect to the rotational axis direction.
US08219013B2	Fuser member having composite outer layer Exemplary embodiments provide composite materials used for fixing members that can include silsesquioxane-based particles and/or carbon nanotubes dispersed in a polymer matrix.
US08219008B2	Powder supply unit, manufacturing method of the powder supply unit, and recycling method of the powder supply unit A powder supply unit is disclosed, which includes a housing accommodating powder, a rotating member rotatably provided in the housing, a sheet-like transporting member fixed to the rotating member and having a free end at a side different from the fixed portion side and slidingly moved on an inner wall of the housing by the rotation of the rotating member to transport the powder in the axial direction of the rotating member, and a powder supplying hole provided on the downstream side in the transporting direction of the powder in the housing. The powder supply unit is constructed such that the transporting member, when not in use, is in a hold state in which the free end side thereof is bent in a direction opposite to the direction of bending when in use.
US08219006B2	Image forming unit and image forming apparatus having the same An image forming unit includes an image supporting member; a developer supporting member for attaching developer to a static latent image formed on the image supporting member to form a developer image; and a protective sheet disposed between the image supporting member and the developer supporting member when the image forming unit is stored. The protective sheet has a surface resistivity between 1.0×108Ω/□ and 8.0×1012Ω/□ when a voltage between 10 V and 250 V is applied thereto.
US08219004B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus including: a first and a second photoconductor groups constituted of one or more photoconductors respectively; a first and a second drive control sections for controlling the drive of the first and the second photoconductor groups respectively to rotate the photoconductors thereof, wherein the rotational phases of the first photoconductor group and the second photoconductor group are adjusted to be matched therebetween; and the first and the second drive control sections control so that predetermined profile of a target speed is applied to the first and second photoconductor groups wherein, in the target-speed profile, the first photoconductor group starts rotating after a elapse of a predetermined startup delay time from the second photoconductor group starts rotating, and both groups end at a same final speed predetermined for full-color image formation, wherein the startup delay time is predetermined based on measurements of times needed for each of the first and the second photoconductor groups to reach a predetermined speed from starting the rotation with the target-speed profile being applied thereto.
US08218992B2	Method and apparatus to control cooling fan to cool fusing unit of image forming apparatus To control a cooling fan to cool a fusing unit of an image forming apparatus, it is determined whether the fusing unit is turned on or off. If the fusing unit is determined to be turned on or off, it is determined whether a condition to turn the cooling fan on or off is satisfied. If the cooling fan on/off condition is satisfied, the cooling fan is turned on or off. Thus, the driving of the cooling fan is minimized when the driving of the cooling fan is unnecessary so that the cooling fan is driven at a high efficiency.
US08218985B2	Image printing method with reduced banding Cross-track banding artifacts and wear in an electrophotographic (EP) print engine are reduced. A development member and a supply member are disposed so that charge is transferred between them in a charge-transfer region. The members are retained in a first position with respect to each other for a first dwell time, and neither member is rotated during the first dwell time, so that charge is transferred between members in the charge-transfer region. One of the members is rotated so that at least one point on one of the members is moved out of the charge-transfer region. The members are retained in a second position with respect to each other for a second dwell time that is greater than the time for one revolution of the development member, wherein neither member is rotated during the second dwell time.
US08218982B2	Image forming device having a trickle developing apparatus The developing apparatus, having stirring members for conveying and stirring developer-tank-contained developer and a developer holder, comprises a developer replenishing tank; a magnetic-type toner concentration detecting sensor; a trickle-type discharging mechanism; conveying state switching device for temporarily blocking the flow of the developer-tank-contained developer and for temporarily switching the circulating state of the developer-tank-contained developer to the staying state thereof; and a controller for controlling replenishment operation for replenishing the toner and the carrier for replenishment to the developer tank when the toner concentration is lower than a predetermined reference toner concentration, wherein the controller determines the amounts of the toner and the carrier to be replenished on the basis of the calculated toner concentration and the estimated amount of the developer.
US08218969B2	OFDM transponder interface with variable bit transfer rate in optical communications systems OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) has been proposed for processing signals over WDM channels in an optical network. The number of OFDM sub-carrier channels utilized in transmitting optical signals from a transmitting node to a remote is adapted to the quality of transmission in a WDM channel. Responsive to control signals from the remote node, the number of used sub-carrier channels is set to optimize optical performance of the WDM channel.
US08218949B2	Video information recording device, video information recording method, and recording medium containing the video information recording program A control unit 102 of a digital broadcast receiver 100 finds a motion vector by performing encoding into an MPEG-4 format partially and records the found motion vector into a recording unit 103 as a motion vector stream 147 in parallel with processing to encode program contents into an MPEG-2 format and to record program contents 141 encoded in the MPEG-2 format into the recording unit 103. The control unit 102 then generates program contents in the MPEG-4 format from the program contents 141 in the MPEG-2 format and the motion vector stream 147 recorded in the recording unit 103 to enable use in another device 131.
US08218945B2	Motion picture recording/reproducing apparatus A motion picture recording/reproducing apparatus for embodying the technique includes, at least, a motion picture data input unit which inputs the motion picture data, a storage unit which stores the motion picture data, a recording unit which stores the motion picture data in the storage unit, a feature generating unit which generates a feature of the motion picture data, a ranking generating unit which provides ranking of scenes in the motion picture data according to their importance levels, a reproduction scene deciding unit which decides a reproduction image for each of the scenes in the motion picture data, and a category acquiring unit which acquires the category of the motion picture data. The ranking generating unit provides ranking of the scenes in the input motion picture data on the basis of the acquired category.
US08218944B2	Recording/reproduction device A recording/reproduction device that prevents content and related content from being reproduced simultaneously. The recording/reproducing device (110) includes a recording area (115), a communication processing unit (119) outputting the related content having details identical to details of the content recorded onto the recording area (115) into an external recording medium (160), and an encoding/decoding processing unit (117) obtaining unique information of the external recording medium (160). The encoding/decoding processing unit (117) changes a state of content recorded in the recording area (115) into an irreproducible state unless the unique information of the content is used, when the related content is outputted to the external recording medium (160), and then reproduces the content recorded in the recording area (115) using the unique information, when the encoding/decoding processing unit (117) obtains the unique information.
US08218941B1	Method and system to transfer video from a video source to optical media A method and system to control at least one audio/video recording system. A first embodiment is a method to control at least one audio/video recording system. The method includes receiving audio/video stream, storing the audio/video stream in a storage module, and synchronizing the recording of the one or more audio/video files by a media burner module on recording media, such as a DVD, flash memory, or an equivalent non-volatile recording medium. A second embodiment is a system having modules for the acquisition of audio/video signal, modules for storing the audio/video files in a storage module, and a module for synchronizing the recording of the audio/video files by a media burner module on recording media. These embodiments can be applied in several wired and wireless communication applications, even combinations of wired and wireless technologies including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.16 wireless applications.
US08218938B2	Light guide strip structure A light guide strip structure with neon effect, which is manufactured at lower cost and can be used with the bright-and-dark stripes or diffraction and interference between the light rays minimized. The light guide strip structure includes a transparent main body having a light-scattering surface and a color band disposed in the main body. The color band has a reflective index greater than that of the main body, whereby most of the light is reflected back to the main body and only a minor part of the light enters the color band to create neon effect. The light entering the main body substantially travels along an axis thereof. The light is refracted and reflected between the main body and the color band and scattered from the surface of the main body to enhance brightness and overcome the problem of vagueness.
US08218936B2	Device for receiving a subassembly assigned to an optical fiber cable and for fastening the same to a mounting A device for receiving a fiber optic cable subassembly and fastening the subassembly to a mounting is disclosed. The device comprises a body having a front end, a rear end, a topside, and an underside. A rear anchor is formed on the underside at the rear end and is adapted to be introduced in a recess of the mounting. A u-shaped stop is formed on the underside at the front end. The u-shaped stop has a closed portion and a front anchor formed therein. The u-shape stop is adapted to be introduced in a recess of the mounting for fastening the subassembly received on the device to the mounting. When the u-shape stop is introduced in the recess of the mounting, the u-shaped stop deforms resulting in the body arching and thereby clamping the front anchor and the rear anchor in the recesses of the mounting.
US08218934B1	Monolithic optically-driven high frequency power amplifier A power amplifying apparatus comprises a base layer hosting a power supply, a core insulating layer, a growth layer, and a high power amplifier layer. The high power amplifier layer hosts a control section, a first drive and amplification section, an electrical (RF) signal to optical signal converter section, a plurality of photolithically defined substrate channels forming embedded optical waveguide structures for optical signal routing, an optical signal to electrical signal converter section, a second drive and amplification section, and at least one high frequency and high breakdown voltage power transistor.
US08218932B2	Polarization independent optical device An optical device includes a core sandwiched between two clads. The core includes a planar waveguide layer with ridges protruding into one of the clads, forming a ridge waveguide structure that guides the propagation of light in the core. The core dimensions satisfy the following conditions: the ridge width is less than the total core height; the ridge height is less than the ridge width; the thickness of the planar waveguide layer is equal to or less than one-fourth of the total core height. Dimensions satisfying these conditions can be selected to provide polarization independent operation. The ridges may be arranged to define a pair of optical waveguides forming a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, an optical wavelength filter, or various other optical devices.
US08218929B2	Large effective area low attenuation optical fiber Optical waveguide fiber that has large effective area and low loss characteristics, such as low attenuation and low bend loss. The optical waveguide fiber includes a dual trench design wherein an annular region closer to the core is preferably doped with at least one downdopant such as fluorine, which annular region is surrounded by another annular region that preferably includes closed, randomly dispersed voids.
US08218924B1	Fiber optic cable with a plurality of optical events to define a signature specific to the fiber optic cable A fiber optic cable is described that includes a core, a cladding over the core, and a plurality of optical events on at least one of the core and cladding. The plurality of optical events are constructed and arranged to alter a signal transmitted through the cable, where the plurality of optical events define a signature key of the cable. The signature key can be used in various electronic devices and systems, such that a mode of operation is disabled or enabled based on whether the correct fiber optic cable is installed.
US08218923B2	Optical waveguide substrate with optical fiber fixation groove, process for its production, stamps for use in this production process, and opto-electronic hybrid integrated module including said optical waveguide substrate An optical waveguide substrate with an optical fiber fixation groove, including an optical waveguide which contains a lower cladding layer on a base substrate, wherein the lower cladding layer has an optical fiber fixation groove and a core groove, and a weir is provided between the optical fiber fixation groove and the core groove. The optical waveguide substrate with an optical fiber fixation groove is produced by forming a lower cladding layer on a base substrate using a male stamp produced from a female stamp and then successively forming a core layer and an upper cladding layer thereon.
US08218920B2	Optical microstructures for light extraction and control The application of optical microstructures improve the quality of light available to the viewer of an optical display system, or any display which works on the concept of moving one surface into direct contact or close proximity of a light guide to extract light through frustrated total internal reflection. Certain ones of the microstructures can act to assist in overcoming stiction between the surface and the light guide.
US08218918B2	Optical fiber switch with movable lens A scalable optical switch especially useful for switching multimode beams carried by optical fibers. Light from an input fiber is focused by a lens which is moved in an x-y direction perpendicular to the beam direction in order to switch the beam from one output fiber to a different fiber. In preferred embodiments the beam can be directed to any one of as many as 90 output fibers. Techniques for scaling the switch to produce N×N switches with N being large are described. Embodiments of the present invention can also be utilized to create more elaborate fiber optical switches such as an N×N switch and a N2×N switch.
US08218914B2	Electro-optic device The present invention provides an electro-optic device comprising three or more radio-frequency (RF) signal electrodes, which each include an input segment. The input segments of the three or more RF-signal electrodes are arranged in a fractal pattern followed in an RF-signal transit direction by a parallel-bend pattern. Advantageously, this arrangement allows matching of RF-signal transit times of the input segments and near matching of RF-signal losses of the input segments.
US08218911B2	Image processing apparatus and image processing method An image processing apparatus which applies processes to input image data is disclosed. The image processing apparatus includes a first processing section which applies processes to the image data by a specific calculating device, and a second processing section which applies processes to the image data by a general-purpose calculating program. The input image data are multilevel image data. The first processing section includes an image data binarizing unit for forming binary image data from the multilevel image data, and a multilevel image data processing section for applying a calculation process to the multilevel image data. The second processing section includes a binary image data processing section for applying a calculation process to the binary image data formed by the image data binarizing unit.
US08218904B2	Method and system for circular to horizontal transposition of an image A system and method for automatically transposing an image from a circular image space to another image space, for example, horizontal. Examples of applications include a mail piece a roundel on a mail piece. On a mail piece, company name, city and state, or zip code information can be contained in the roundel instead of, for example, in the permit block. The system implements the methods electronically. Control and data information is electronically executed and stored on computer-readable media.
US08218899B2	Image processing device, image processing method, and image processing program An image processing device that executes deformation of an image. A candidate area setting unit sets candidate areas, each of which includes a specific image, on a target image used as a target for a deformation process. An exclusion determination unit, when there is a candidate area that partially extends off a cropped image that is clipped from the target image through predetermined cropping, excludes the candidate area, which at least partially extends off the cropped image, from the target for the deformation process. A deformation processing unit performs deformation of an image on the candidate areas other than the excluded candidate areas.
US08218897B2	Image processing method, image processing apparatus, and imaging apparatus A distortion included in image data is corrected by performing a coordinate transformation with respect to the image data based on { X = x + ( a + b ⁢ ⁢ y 2 ) ⁢ x Y = y where x and y represents coordinates of a transformation destination with a center of a screen as an origin, X and Y represents coordinates of a transformation source with the center of the screen as an origin, and a and b are coordinate transformation coefficients.
US08218896B2	Image display apparatus and method for correction chroma wrinkle An image display apparatus and a color distortion compensation method are provided. The image display apparatus includes a detecting part which detects whether there is a color distortion in a block, using decoding information acquired from an incoming image and a pixel value of the incoming image, and a compensation part which compensates for the color distortion of the block when it is determined that the color distortion exists. Accordingly, it is possible to detect a color distortion in the block using the decoding information and pixel value acquired from the incoming image, and compensate for the color distortion of the block by performing pixel value adjustment and low pass filtering (LPF) when it is determined that the color distortion exists.
US08218895B1	Systems and methods for generating and displaying a warped image using fish eye warping A retargeted image substantially retains the context of an original image while emphasizing the information content of a determined region of interest within the original image. Image regions surrounding the region of interest are warped without regard to preserving their information content and/or aspect ratios, while the region of interest is modified to preserve its aspect ratio and image content. The surrounding image regions can be warped to fit the resulting warped image regions into the available display space surrounding the unwarped region of interest. The surrounding image regions can be warped using one or more fisheye warping functions, which can be Cartesian or polar fisheye warping functions, and more specifically linear or linear-polynomial Cartesian fisheye warping functions, which are applied along each direction or axis of the region of interest. The image region on each side of the region of interest can be modified using one or more steps.
US08218893B2	Image inpainting method and apparatus based on viewpoint change Provided is a method and apparatus for inpainting a depth image and a color image seen from one viewpoint by using a depth image and a color image inpainted from another viewpoint. The method includes detecting an edge on the basis of a difference between depth values of pixels in a first image seen from a view viewpoint and inpainting depth values of pixels in an occlusion region that is shown in a second image seen from a second viewpoint but not shown in the first image, in a direction from pixels in a region having high depth values among regions forming the edge to pixels in a region having low depth values.
US08218888B2	Motion blur detecting apparatus and method, image processing apparatus, and image display apparatus Motion blur periods (bf) are detected (14) from gradation differences (g1) between a first image signal (d1) and a second image signal (d2), gradation differences (g2) between the second image signal (d2) and a third image signal (d3), and results of the detection of transition periods (h) in the gradations of the second image signal (d2), and the second image signal (d2) is corrected (3) only during the detected motion blur periods (bf). Transition periods (h) are deemed to occur when, for example, the absolute value of a gradation change in the second image signal is greater than a first predetermined threshold value (S1) and less than a second predetermined threshold value S2 (
US08218887B2	Enhanced method of multilayer compression of PDF (image) files using OCR systems In one embodiment, the invention discloses, a method for processing a document image. The method comprises segmenting the document image into a picture component and a non-picture component; compressing the non-picture component; and saving the uncompressed picture component and the compressed non-picture component in memory so that the document image may be recomposed to form a recomposed image based on the uncompressed picture component and the compressed non-picture component.
US08218886B2	Transitioning compression levels in a streaming image system Systems and media for transitioning compression levels of a streaming image system include a machine-accessible medium of a storage device containing instructions for transitioning compression levels between image frames in a streaming image system. Embodiments may include receiving client information from a client of an interactive streaming image system, generating a new image frame based on the received information, determining an initial compression level, comparing the new image frame to a previous frame to determine whether content changed, performing a smoothing heuristic by generating a multi-frame smoothing routine by increasing image quality in response to no change of content and decreasing image quality in response to a change in content, setting the new compression level based on the multi-frame smoothing routine, and encoding and transmitting the new image frame and compression level to a client.
US08218883B2	Image compression method, image compression device, and medical network system Volume data (32) constituted of more than one slice image (30) shot with a CT scanner (12) is transferred to an image server (14). A CPU (40) of the image server (14) makes a site recognizing section (46) recognize a site of each slice image (30) included in the volume data (32). The recognized site is recorded in a tag area (36) of each slice image (30) as site information (36c). The CPU (40) refers to the site information (36c) of each slice image (30) and judges whether more than one site is included in the volume data (32) or not. When judging that more than one site is included in the volume data (32), an image compression section (47) selects a common compression mode and compresses each slice image (30) under a common compression format and a common compression ratio.
US08218878B2	Cumulative time-resolved emission two-dimensional gel electrophoresis A new instrumental design is provided for in-gel detection and quantification of proteins. This new platform, called Cumulative Time-resolved Emission 2-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis, utilizes differences in fluorescent lifetime imaging to differentiate between fluorescence from specific protein labels and non-specific background fluorescence, resulting in a drastic improvement in both sensitivity and dynamic range compared to existing technology. The platform is primarily for image acquisition of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, but is also applicable to protein detection in one-dimensional gel systems as well as proteins electroblotted to e.g. PVDF membranes. Given the increase in sensitivity of detection and dynamic range of up to 5-6 orders of magnitude compared to existing approaches, the described invention represents a technological leap in the detection of low abundance cellular proteins, which is desperately needed in the field of biomarker discovery.
US08218874B2	Object information derived from object images Search terms are derived automatically from images captured by a camera equipped cell phone, PDA, or other image capturing device, submitted to a search engine to obtain information of interest, and at least a portion of the resulting information is transmitted back locally to, or nearby, the device that captured the image.
US08218870B2	Method for segmenting images with intensity-based label propagation and probabilistic of level sets A method exploits user labels in image segmentation. The user labels are propagated with respect to image intensity information. Propagated user labels are included in a cost function of level set evolution. The level set represents a probability of the object segment.
US08218868B2	Method and apparatus for enhancing images A method and an apparatus for enhancing images are provided. An input image generated by an imaging device, such as a short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) camera, sensor, or any other imaging device, is processed to produce an input histogram representing the distribution of pixel intensities in the input image. Histogram start and end points are determined, and a variable plateau profile is calculated depending upon the type of enhancement desired. The plateau profile could take on any desired shape or size, and two or more plateau regions could be included in the profile. The input histogram is clipped along the variable plateau profile. A cumulative histogram is constructed from the clipped histogram, and is normalized. The input image is then transformed into an enhanced output image using the normalized cumulative histogram as a look-up table.
US08218863B2	Image processing apparatus, image processing method and image processing means An image processing apparatus which extracts, from image data, drawing-photograph pixels forming a drawing or a photograph, the image processing apparatus including a pixel value replacement unit configured to replace pixel values of image data with plural representative pixel values; a candidate region extraction unit configured to extract plural candidate regions; a feature value acquisition unit configured to acquire a feature value indicating a degree of contained symbol pixels forming symbols; a feature value determination units.
US08218858B2	Enhanced object reconstruction Processing images includes projecting an infra-red pattern onto a three-dimensional object and producing a first image, a second image, and a third image of the three-dimensional object while the pattern is projected on the three-dimensional object. The first image and the second image include the three-dimensional object and the pattern. The first image and the second image are produced by capturing at a first camera and a second camera, respectively, light filtered through an infra-red filter. The third image includes the three-dimensional object but not the pattern. Processing the images also includes establishing a first-pair correspondence between a portion of pixels in the first image and a portion of pixels in the second image. Processing the images further includes constructing, based on the first-pair correspondence and the third image, a two-dimensional image that depicts a three-dimensional construction of the three-dimensional object.
US08218855B2	Method and apparatus for receiving multiview camera parameters for stereoscopic image, and method and apparatus for transmitting multiview camera parameters for stereoscopic image Provided is a method of receiving multiview camera parameters for a stereoscopic image. The method includes: extracting multiview camera parameter information for a predetermined data section from a received stereoscopic image data stream; extracting matrix information including at least one of translation matrix information and rotation matrix information for the predetermined data section from the multiview camera parameter information; and restoring coordinate systems of multiview cameras by using the extracted matrix information.
US08218849B2	Method and system for automatic landmark detection using discriminative joint context A method and system for detecting anatomic landmarks in medical images is disclosed. In order to detect multiple related anatomic landmarks, a plurality of landmark candidates are first detected individually using trained landmark detectors. A joint context is then generated for each combination of the landmark candidates. The best combination of landmarks in then determined based on the joint context using a trained joint context detector.
US08218836B2	System and methods for generating three-dimensional images from two-dimensional bioluminescence images and visualizing tumor shapes and locations A system and methods for generating 3D images (24) from 2D bioluminescent images (22) and visualizing tumor locations are provided. A plurality of 2D bioluminescent images of a subject are acquired during a complete revolution of an imaging system about a subject, using any suitable bioluminescent imaging system. After imaging, the 2D images are registered (20) according to the rotation axis to align each image and to compensate for differences between adjacent images. After registration (20), corresponding features are identified between consecutive sets of 2D image (22). For each corresponding feature identified in each set of 2D images an orthographic projection model (24) is applied, such that rays are projected through each point in the feature. The intersection point of the rays are plotted in a 3D image of a tumor is generated. The 3D image can be registered with a reference image of the subject, so that the shape and location of the tumor can be precisely visualized with respect to the subject.
US08218835B2	Method for assisting in diagnosis of cerebral diseases and apparatus thereof Input MRI brain images are positioned so as to correct a spatial deviation, gray matter tissues are extracted from these images to effect a first image smoothing, the thus-obtained images are subjected to anatomical standardization, a second image smoothing is effected, the gray level is corrected, brain images after correction are statistically compared with MRI brain images of normal cases, thereby providing the diagnosis result. In this instance, the brain images are automatically checked for input images regarding the resolution dot density and the like, the result of gray matter tissue extraction and the result of anatomical standardization, by which specifications of input images and the like can be confirmed objectively and automatically to make a diagnosis automatically by image processing. Further, an ROI-based analysis is made to provide the analysis result as the diagnosis result.
US08218829B2	System and method for using biometrics technology in conferencing A system and method are provided which utilize biometrics technology in a conference environment. A biometrics engine detects facial images of a user, generates biometrics of the detected facial images, and compares the generated biometrics with biometrics information of authorized users. If a match is found, then the user is authorized and is automatically logged into the conference network. Once logged in, conferences may be automatically established, the user may be tracked by at least one video sensor, user preferences may be automatically set, and/or conference content may be easily accessed and shared with remote conference participants.
US08218828B2	Systems and methods for biometric information automation A method identifies persons based on biometric information. The method includes providing a cache of biometric templates. The cache stores segments of the biometric templates associated with biometric features contained in the segments. The method also includes receiving a sample biometric template to be identified; dividing the sample biometric template into jobs based on the biometric features contained in the sample biometric template; comparing the jobs to the segments corresponding to the biometric features of the sample biometric template to determine candidate biometric templates associated with the segments that match the jobs; and generating a candidates list identifying the candidate biometric templates and entities related to the candidate biometric templates.
US08218827B2	Virtual white lines for delimiting planned excavation sites Methods and apparatus for facilitating detection of a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area. A digital image of a geographic area including the dig area is electronically received, and at least a portion of the received digital image is displayed on a display device. The dig area is delimited on the displayed digital image, via a user input device associated with the display device, so as to generate a marked-up digital image including a delimited dig area, without acquiring geographic coordinates to delimit the dig area. Information relating to the dig area is electronically transmitted and/or electronically stored so as to facilitate the detection of the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area.
US08218822B2	Apparatus and method for recognizing the state of origin of a vehicle license plate A system analyzes various design characteristics of a vehicle license plate, including character size, placement and color, to identify the state of issuance of the plate. In some embodiments, the system uses spectral properties of light reflected from a vehicle license plate to determine spectral frequency bands having the best contrast between characters on the plate and the background of the plate. For example, red characters against a white background exhibit high contrast levels at wavelengths of about 420 nm to about 595 nm. Green characters against a white background exhibit high contrast levels at wavelengths of about 600 nm to about 750 nm. Blue characters against a white background exhibit high contrast levels at wavelengths of about 550 nm to about 750 nm. Thus, spectral characteristics in combination with other design-related characteristics of a license plate may be used to identify the state of origin of the plate. Once the state of origin is identified, origin-specific syntax matching may be used to enhance optical character recognition routines.
US08218821B2	Video preprocessing of image information for character recognition An apparatus processes video signals containing video information related to a scene which may contain a vehicle license plate. The apparatus includes a video camera having a video imaging device for viewing the scene and generating a first video signal. A character detector in the video camera processes the first video signal to detect a license plate within the scene and to generate location information indicating the location of the license plate. A line detector in the camera determines a particular video line of the first video signal into which the location information is to be embedded. An insertion circuit in the camera embeds the location information into the particular video line of the first video signal to form a second video signal. The apparatus may also include a video capture device for receiving the second video signal from the video camera and converting the second video signal into digital image data. A processor extracts the location information from the digital image data, determines the location of the license plate characters within the scene based on the location information, and processes the digital image data to read the license plate characters.
US08218816B2	Moving object detecting device and mobile robot A moving object detecting device measures a congestion degree of a space and utilizes the congestion degree for tracking. In performing the tracking, a direction measured by a laser range sensor is heavily weighted when the congestion degree is low. When the congestion degree is high, a sensor fusion is performed by heavily weighting a direction measured by a image processing on a captured image to obtain a moving object estimating direction, and obtains a distance by the laser range sensor in the moving object estimating direction.
US08218813B2	Method for double feed detection This invention relates to a method of detecting double-feed of email items (10,12) that allows difficult mail types to be processed correctly, wherein simultaneous views are taking of both the sides and bottom of mail items and these views are processed to determine whether or not double feed has occurred. This can be achieved using either two cameras or a single camera (16,2) with additional optics.
US08218812B2	Digital watermark embedding device and method, and digital watermark detection device and method A digital watermark embedding device according to the present invention includes: a watermark pattern generation part (4) which generates a watermark pattern varying in a time direction based on embedding information to be embedded in an input image to be processed; a synchronization pattern generation part (3) which outputs a fixed pattern for detecting synchronization as a watermark pattern; a pattern switching part (5) which selects between the watermark pattern output by the synchronization pattern generation part (3) and the watermark pattern output by the watermark pattern generation part (4) based on the input image (7a); and an embedding processing part (6) which adds the selected watermark pattern to each pixel value of the input image (7a) to generate an embedded image (7c) having a digital watermark embedded therein. Consequently, phase shifting may be detected based on the fixed pattern for detecting synchronization, there by being capable of precisely detecting the digital watermark out of a recaptured image as well.
US08218810B1	Signaling device A signaling device is disclosed that transmits a signal to a personal monitoring system. The signaling device may include an array of RLC components that determine the frequency of the signaling device. The frequency may be tuned by adding or removing RLC components from impacting the frequency. The signaling device may also include a wake-up mechanism for activating the signaling device for normal use and a signal indicating that a predetermined useful life is about to end.
US08218808B2	Earphone capable of adapting to different audio output sockets An earphone is configured to be coupled to a first audio output socket or a second audio output socket. The earphone includes a main body and a plug module. The main body includes a sleeve adapter, an earpiece, and a cable electrically connecting the sleeve adapter and the earpiece. The plug module includes a first end and a second end which are electrically connected to each other. The first end and the second end are of different diameters. In a first mode, the first end is plugged into the sleeve adapter, and the second end is capable of being coupled to the second audio output socket. In a second mode, the second end is plugged into the sleeve adapter, and the first end is capable of being coupled to the first audio output socket.
US08218805B2	Wireless speaker system for use with ceiling fans A multi-channel wireless speaker system to be used with ceiling fans wherein the audio source generator can be one of many medias, not limited by the following: television, stereophonic, monophonic, video game, home theater, public address system or security system. The audio source generator sends an audio signal to the transmitter that in turn relays the audio signal to the wireless receiver located in the ceiling fan housing member. The ceiling fan housing member includes speakers, and a light source if desired. The speakers produce an omni directional sound due to their unique positioning within the ceiling fan. The wireless speaker system is powered by the existing voltage available to the ceiling fan, so no new wiring is required to install the speaker system. The speaker settings are manipulated via a remote control.
US08218797B2	Micro-speaker and manufacturing method thereof A micro-speaker and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The micro-speaker has a sandwich structure. The micro-speaker includes two piezoelectric material layers and a diaphragm disposed between the two piezoelectric material layers, where the piezoelectric material layers have a ring-shaped structure. The problem of insufficient sound pressure at low frequency is resolved, and the flexibility of the micro-speaker is improved.
US08218794B2	Component comprising a MEMS microphone and method for the production of said component A component with a housing for a MEMS microphone is proposed that has a cavity with terminals arranged in the cavity, a sound inlet opening, and SMT contacts on an outer side. The MEMS chip installed in this housing closes the sound inlet opening from the inside and is connected by means of electrically conductive connections to the terminals of the housing. Opposite the electrically conductive connections, the MEMS chip is in mechanically intimate contact with the housing. The dimensioning of the housing relative to the MEMS chip allows the cavity at the sides of the MEMS chip to be used as an acoustic rear volume.
US08218791B2	Volume control feature for use with a multimedia device A disclosed set top box or other type of multimedia handling device (MHD) is configured to support a toggle volume feature that enables the end user to toggle between two or more substantially different audible volume settings using a single push of a single remote control button or other type of control, e.g., a touch screen control. In some embodiments, the MHD includes a processor, storage media accessible to and readable by the processor, a remote control interface in communication with the processor, a multimedia decoder, and an audio digital-to-analog converter. The remote control interface receives input from a remote control device. The multimedia decoder module receives and processes multimedia streams. The decoder generates a decoder audio output and a decoder video output. The DAC processes the decoder audio output and produces an audio signal having a particular volume level.
US08218784B2	Digital audio processor device and method An audio processor device and method is disclosed which measures and provides information relating to the audio level being applied to the ear of a user. The processor device uses a preset or calibrated sensitivity of the applied earphones in combination with an analysis of the audio stream to provide sound-pressure-level or time-weighted exposure information to the user or limit the output when preset levels have been achieved. Also disclosed is the use of microphones, internal or external, to combine an additional audio stream, typically the ambient environment, into the main audio channel.
US08218783B2	Masking based gain control Interfering signals that may be present in a listening environment are masked by reproducing a desired signal in a listening environment, determining a masking threshold associated with the desired signal, identifying an interfering signal that may be present in the environment, comparing the interfering signal to the masking threshold, and adjusting the desired signal over time to raise its masking threshold above the level of the interfering signal.
US08218772B2	Secure multicast content delivery In one embodiment, a method for establishing a secure multicast channel between a service provider and a terminal is provided. A request is received from the service provider for a configuration of the terminal. A configuration of the terminal at a first time is sent to the service provider. A security key is obtained, wherein the security is bound to the configuration of the terminal at the first time. Then the security key is decrypted using a configuration of the terminal at a second time, wherein the decryption fails if the configuration of the terminal at the second time is not identical to the configuration of the terminal at the first time. A secure multicast channel is then established with the service provider using the security key.
US08218769B2	Encrypted communication system, communication status management server, encrypted communication method, and communication status management method An encrypted communication system is provided, in which an encryption key for use in encrypted communication and settings information for the encrypted communication are distributed to each of a plurality of communication devices performing encrypted communication within a group, and in which traffic generated by distributing the encryption key and the like can be reduced. In the encrypted communication system according to the present invention, information including a key for use in the intra-group encrypted communication or a seed which generates the key is distributed to the communication devices belonging to the group that are participating (e.g., logged in) in the intra-group encrypted communication.
US08218767B2	Security system and method for use in network A security system, method and device for use in a network for providing a real-time stream are provided. A server updates security association of a terminal device by periodically providing a key stream. When the key stream for changing the security association of the terminal device is received from the server, the terminal device updates stored key stream information after identifying at least one changed field in the key stream and performs a security policy with the server using the updated key stream information. When a security setting operation is performed through a stream notification periodically provided from the server, an unnecessary waste of system resources can be reduced by updating only a specific changed field through the stream notification and reducing the load of generating a security association table.
US08218766B2	Systems and methods for facilitating transactions in accordance with a region requirement Systems and methods are provided to facilitate transactions or limit operations. According to one embodiment, region information is determined in accordance with information received by a user device from a local location device. A region requirement is also determined, and it is arranged for the user device to operate in accordance with the region information and the region requirement.
US08218762B2	Encrypting apparatus for common key cipher The first route selection device re-arrays a plurality of extended key mask values at random according to the value of a random number generated by a random number generation device. An extended key operation device generates an exclusive logical OR of a plurality of the re-arrayed extended key mask values, a data string representing extended key and an input data string. The second route selection device re-arrays the data string of the exclusive logical OR by performing a re-array conversely with the first route selection device according to the value of the random number. A non-linear conversion device applies non-linear conversion to the re-arrayed data string and outputs a data string masked by a plurality of non-linear conversion mask values. The third route selection device re-arrays the masked data string by performing the same re-array as the first route selection device according to the value of the random number.
US08218761B2	Method and apparatus for generating random data-encryption keys One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates generating random data-encryption keys for data files. During operation, the system receives a command at a computer system to create a data file that may include encrypted data. This data file includes a wrapped data-encryption key to facilitate encrypting and decrypting data. In response to the command, the system generates a bit pattern to be used as the wrapped data-encryption key. Finally, the system creates the data file, which includes the bit pattern as the wrapped data-encryption key.
US08218757B2	Echo canceler An echo canceller, in which an adder adds a pseudo echo generated by an adaptive filter to an echo, so that the echo and the pseudo echo are canceled to each other, includes: a subband filter (8, 14) and a sampling converter (9, 15) for downsampling an audio signal; a selector switch (10, 16) which appropriately switches between a side performing the downsampling and another side performing fullband echo cancellation; and a tap arrangement controller (19) which optimizes a tap arrangement by using coefficients which are updated using a downsampled signal by the adaptive filter (11), the tap arrangement controller outputting the optimized tap arrangement to the adaptive filter (11) at time of the fullband echo cancellation.
US08218746B2	Systems, methods and computer products for caller identification from call to wireless/wireline cellular to internet protocol television Systems, methods and computer products for providing caller identification from a call to a wireless/wireline cellular phone to Internet Protocol Television. Exemplary embodiments include a method for providing caller identification services to an Internet Protocol-enabled device, including receiving a communication request from a caller device over a voice network, the communication request including a caller party number of the caller device and a called patty number of a dual-mode called device associated with the communication request, mapping the called party number to an Internet Protocol-enabled device address of a called party and sending the caller party number to the Internet Protocol-enabled device address corresponding to the called party number.
US08218741B2	Telephone number-based advertising Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which a first telephone number is associated with a second telephone number, and a web-based advertisement is served for an advertiser that includes the first telephone number. A call placed to the first telephone number is received, and the call is routed to the second telephone number based on the association of the second telephone number with the first telephone number. A determination as to whether a call-through event in response to receiving the call placed to the first telephone number has occurred, and an advertiser associated with the second telephone number is charged a cost-per-call amount if the call-through event is determined to have occurred.
US08218735B2	Messaging advise in presence-aware networks A presence aware communications system that includes a messaging system configured to perform one or more of provide a subscriber's communication device with information regarding an incoming contact during a messaging session between the subscriber's communication device and the messaging system, provide the subscriber's communication device with a text message containing information regarding one or more messages when a notification is received that the subscriber's communication device is available, provide the subscriber's communication device with a text message relating to a voice message from a different first party received by the messaging system, in response to the subscriber's communication device requesting a connection with at least one of an inputted telephone number and address, provide the subscriber's communication device with a notification respecting at least one eligible message from a second party associated with the at least one of an inputted telephone number and address, while a contact between the subscriber and a different third party is in progress, provide the subscriber's communication device with information respecting the at least one eligible message from the third party, transform an audio messaging session between the messaging system and the communication device of a contacting party into a graphical user interface-based audio sessions, and transform the audio messaging session into a session having a video channel or both audio and video channels.
US08218732B2	System and method for evaluating and troubleshooting a digital subscriber line system Disclosed is a method and system for evaluating and troubleshooting a DSL system in a plurality of DSL systems having a common static characteristic. The plurality of DSL systems are ranked based on a ranking characteristic different than the common static characteristic.
US08218731B2	Filtering of a source of pulsed radiation A source of pulsed radiation is coupled to a positionable filter. The positionable filter includes an element that produces an indication of a position of the filter. The source is configured to receive the indication of the position of the filter, and to regulate emission of a pulse of radiation based on the indication. A device includes an area including a material that alters a parameter of a beam of radiation that interacts with the material. The device is configured to move relative to a source of pulsed radiation. An element provides a signal to the source of pulsed radiation that indicates a position of the area relative to the source. The signal causes the source to trigger emission of a pulse at a time such that the emitted pulse is incident upon a portion of the area.
US08218728B2	Computed tomography scanner, in particular for performing a spiral scan, and a method for controlling a computed tomography scanner A computed tomography scanner is disclosed for performing a spiral scan. In at least one embodiment, the computed tomography scanner includes a rotatable X-ray emitter for generating a beam fan and an X-ray detector, positioned diametrically opposite to the emitter, and an associated evaluation unit. In at least one embodiment, provision is made for an X-ray filter arranged downstream of the X-ray emitter, the position of the X-ray filter being correlated to that of the X-ray detector. Further, the X-ray filter is partly inserted into the beam fan only during operation for generating an unfiltered and, simultaneously, a filtered radiation component of the beam fan, wherein the radiation components have different X-ray spectra and wherein the evaluation unit is designed for separate evaluation of a measurement signal of the unfiltered radiation component and a measurement signal of the filtered radiation component, to obtain dual-energy images.
US08218727B2	System for medical image processing, manipulation and display A system automatically adaptively adjusts an enlarged region of interest presented as a zoomed image on a secondary live display in response to X-ray filter (e.g., collimator) adjustment. An X-ray medical image user interface system includes one or more displays for displaying medical images. At least one display concurrently presents, a first image window including an X-ray image overview of a portion of patient anatomy and a second image window including an enlarged region of interest within the X-ray image overview. A collimator position detector provides a collimator signal in response to a detected collimator position. An image data processor automatically identifies the enlarged region of interest within the X-ray image overview in response to the collimator signal. A display processor generates data representing an image comprising the enlarged region of interest of the X-ray image overview in response to the identification of the enlarged region of interest within the X-ray image overview.
US08218725B2	Method and device for online IMRT verification A method is provided for monitoring and/or signalling errors of a radiation therapy apparatus during delivery of a radiation treatment to a target, the radiation therapy apparatus being configurable for a given radiation treatment by means of a beam shaping device. The method includes providing a radiation array detector between the beam shaping device and the target, capable of providing a measured detector response of the radiation treatment; determining a predicted detector response for successive times of the radiation treatment; measuring the measured detector response caused by the radiation beams for corresponding successive times of the radiation treatment; performing a comparison between the measured detector response and the corresponding predicted detector response; signalling in a short reaction time, an error when the comparison results in a difference which exceeds a given threshold. The disclosure also relates to a device comprising electronic 2-dimensional detectors, processor device and a main software.
US08218720B2	Method and apparatus to facilitate reconstructing an image using fan-beam data One provides (101) fan-beam data via a translate-rotate computed tomography acquisition process and then reconstructs (102) an image from this data without resampling any pixel positions other than to optionally resample pixel positions to compensate for non-uniform translation intervals. These embodiments also provide for reconstructing this image from this data without interpolating any pixel positions other than to optionally interpolate pixel positions as again may be useful to compensate for non-uniform translation intervals.
US08218717B2	Reconstruction of 3D image datasets from x-ray and cone-beam data A method for producing a 3D image dataset of an object with an imaging system having an x-ray source and an x-ray detector is provided. A series of two-dimensional arrays of cone beam data from the detector is acquired while the source moves along a substantially planar trajectory around the object. The trajectory is described by a series of source points serially numbered by a counter parameter. The cone beam data is differentiated with respect to the counter parameter at a fixed ray direction to produce a derivative of the cone beam data. The derivative is filtered with a Hilbert-like filter to produce filtered cone beam data. The acquired or the filtered cone beam data is multiplied with a redundancy weighting function. The cone beam data is back-projected to reconstruct a 3D image dataset.
US08218713B2	Bi-directional shift register A shift register of an LCD device includes a plurality of shift register units coupled in series. Each shift register unit includes an input circuit and a pull-down circuit having symmetric structures which enable the LCD device to function in a forward-scan mode and a reverse-scan mode.
US08218710B2	Seed counting device A seed counting device where accuracy is maintained at higher counting rates. The seed counting device has a hopper in communication with a tray. An activator is connected to the tray to vibrate the tray. Connected to one end of the tray is a separator having sensors. Below the tray and in partial alignment with the separator is a projecting device. The projecting device projects seeds that fall from the tray past the sensors and into a seed chamber.
US08218704B2	Demodulation method and demodulator of pulse-edge shifted pulse A variable delay circuit delays a carrier signal having a predetermined frequency, and outputs a modulated signal. A delay setting unit sets a delay period for the variable delay circuit according to a data signal to be modulated. The delay setting unit assigns each symbol in the data signal to any one of positive edges and negative edges in the carrier signal, and sets a delay period for the variable delay circuit at the timing at which a positive edge in the carrier signal passes through the variable delay circuit, according to the symbol value in the data signal assigned to the positive edge. Furthermore, the delay setting unit sets a delay period for the variable delay circuit at the timing at which a negative edge in the carrier signal passes through the variable delay circuit, according to the symbol value in the data signal assigned to the negative edge.
US08218703B2	Methods of processing a wireless communication signal, wireless communication synchronization methods, and a radio frequency identification device communication method In one aspect, a wireless communication device includes an antenna configured to receive electromagnetic energy corresponding to a wireless communication signal outputted using an interrogator and to output electrical energy corresponding to the received electromagnetic energy, communication circuitry coupled with the antenna and configured to sample the electrical energy to process the wireless communication signal, synchronization circuitry coupled with the antenna and the communication circuitry and configured to generate a clock signal to control sampling of the electrical energy using the communication circuitry, wherein the synchronization circuitry is configured to generate a plurality of transitions within the clock signal responsive to a plurality of transitions of the electrical energy during a first data period and wherein the synchronization circuitry is configured to generate a plurality of transitions within the clock signal during a second data period including generating at least one of the transitions independent of transitions of the electrical energy.
US08218695B2	Wireless transmission system, receiver thereof, and method for removing inter-carrier interference thereof A method for removing ICI for a received symbol is provided. Firstly, a transmitted symbol is received via a wireless channel within a symbol time so as to obtain the received symbol. The transmitted symbol includes P identical original partial data, wherein P is a positive integer larger than 1. The received symbol includes P received partial data corresponding to the original partial data, respectively. Next, on a time domain at least two of the P received partial data are copied so as to obtain at least two copied partial data. Each copied partial data includes P copies of its corresponding received partial data. After that, an estimated ICI of the time domain is determined according to the product of a predetermined constant array and the difference between the copied partial data. Afterwards, the estimated ICI is subtracted from the received symbol so as to obtain an output symbol.
US08218693B2	Gain control for wireless receiver Various embodiments are disclosed relating to a gain control for a wireless receiver. In an example embodiment, a wireless receiver is provided that may include an analog gain circuit adapted to provide a variable analog gain on a received input signal, an analog to digital converter (ADC) having an input coupled to an output of the analog gain circuit, and a digital gain circuit having an input coupled to an output of the ADC and adapted to provide a variable digital gain on a received digital signal from the ADC. According to an example embodiment, the wireless transceiver may decrease a gain of the analog gain circuit while maintaining a gain of the digital gain circuit substantially constant for a receiver input signal level that increases from a first input signal level up to at least a first test signal level. In addition, in an example embodiment, the wireless receiver may also decrease a gain of the analog gain circuit while maintaining a gain of the digital gain circuit substantially constant for a signal level of the input signal that increases from a first input signal level up to at least a blocker test signal level.
US08218684B2	Method and system for an adaptive automatic gain control (AGC) reference for HSDPA and WCDMA In a method and system for an adaptive automatic gain control (AGC) reference for HSDPA and WCDMA, A RF receiver, comprising a RF front-end, may receive a signal comprising a pilot signal via WCDMA or HSDPA. The operation mode of the RF front-end of the RF receiver may be determined based on the received signal components such as a HS-PDCH, a HS-SCCH, and/or a CPICH. The received signal strength information (RSSI) of the received signal may be determined from the output of a matched filter within the RF receiver. A true RSSI, which may be indicated by the received signal code power (RSCP), may be determined based on the pilot symbols over the CPICH. The operation mode determined for the receiver's RF front-end, the determined RSSI, and the determined CPICH_RSCP, may be provided as inputs to an automatic-gain-control (AGC) loop or circuit within the receiver front-end.
US08218683B2	Method for compensation for any phase and/or amplitude error in a receiver The invention relates to a method for compensation for any phase and/or amplitude error in a receiver having a complex processing branch and a complex-conjugate processing branch, wherein an error-compensated complex signal component is determined by subtraction of a complex-conjugate signal component and to which a correction parameter is applied, from a complex signal component. The correction parameter is determined on the basis of a function of a quotient of the complex signal component and the complex-conjugate signal component.
US08218682B2	Digital signal transmitting apparatus A digital signal transmitting apparatus that prevents occurrences of highness and lowness in error tolerance due to bit positions without raising the redundancy and without retransmittal. In the digital signal transmitting apparatus, a bit interchanging part (103) uses rate match information (105) to interchange bit positions such that a bit inserted by a rate match part (102) is placed at the bit position of a low error tolerance in a single symbol to be multilevel modulated. Moreover, the bit interchanging part (103) also uses the rate match information (105) to interchange bit positions such that another encoded bit, in which the bit punctured by the rate match part (102) is the same as the bit prior to encoding thereof, is placed at a bit position of a high error tolerance in a single symbol to be multilevel modulated.
US08218680B2	Radio communication apparatus capable of switching modulation schemes A transmitting apparatus includes a modulation signal generating section that generates a modulation signal by modulating transmission data using one of a plurality of modulation schemes. The plurality of modulation schemes include a first modulation scheme, a second modulation scheme, and a third modulation scheme, where the first modulation scheme has maximum m-ary modulation value, the second modulation scheme has a lower m-ary modulation value than the first modulation scheme, and the third modulation scheme has a lower m-ary modulation value than the second modulation scheme. The transmitting apparatus also includes a pilot signal generating section that generates a pilot signal having one of a plurality of amplitudes, the pilot signal having a lower amplitude than a maximum amplitude of the first modulation scheme. The transmitting apparatus further includes a selection section that selects the modulation signal or the pilot signal according to a frame timing signal and generates a transmission quadrature baseband signal, a radio section that converts the transmission quadrature baseband signal to a radio signal, an amplifying section that amplifies the radio signal, and an antenna section that transmits the amplified radio signal.
US08218678B2	Apparatus and method for digital pre-distortion, sharing feedback path in a multiple antenna wireless communication system A multiple antenna wireless communication system using a DPD power amplifier and a method for controlling an amplitude of an input signal for a plurality of transmission paths of the DPD power amplifier are provided. The system includes a plurality of amplifiers, a plurality of couplers, a switch, a shared feedback path and a plurality of processors. The plurality of amplifiers amplifies an input signal directed to each of the transmission paths. The plurality of couplers couple amplified signals on respective transmission paths. The switch outputs at least one of the amplified signals coupled on the respective transmission paths. The shared feedback path provides the amplified signal output from the switch to a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors compare a feedback signal provided through the shared feedback path with the input signal and pre-distort the input signal such that the input signal and the amplified signal have a linear relation with each other.
US08218677B2	Transmitter characterization for digital pre-distortion using offset preamble subcarriers Techniques are provided to pre-distort a signal that is transmitted by a transmitter of a wireless communication device, e.g., a device configured for wireless radio frequency communication. The transmitter of the device inherently introduces distortion to the baseband signal to be transmitted. In at least one frame of a baseband signal to be transmitted, at least one subcarrier in a preamble of the frame is shifted in frequency such that the at least one subcarrier is offset from a normal subcarrier frequency position. The at least one frame of the baseband signal is supplied to the transmitter that is configured to produce a transmit signal for transmission. The transmit signal at an output of the transmitter is sampled or detected and inter-modulation distortion in the transmit signal is determined at one or more frequencies as a result of shifting of the frequency of the at least one subcarrier in the preamble of the at least one frame. The baseband signal is pre-distorted based on the inter-modulation distortion prior to coupling to the transmitter for transmission.
US08218670B2	Method of space time coding with low papr for multiple antenna communication system of the UWB pulse type A method of space time coding for UWB transmission system including a plurality of radiative elements, the method coding a block of information symbols S=(σ1, σ2, . . . , σP) belonging to a M-PPM-M′-PAM modulation alphabet, as a sequence of vectors obtained from elements of the matrix: C = ( σ 1 σ 2 … σ P Ωσ P σ 1 ⋱ ⋮ ⋮ ⋱ ⋱ σ 2 Ωσ 2 … Ωσ P σ 1 ) a row of the matrix corresponding to a use of the transmission channel and a column of the matrix corresponding to a radiative element, the matrix C being defined to within a permutation of its rows and/or its columns and Ω being defined as the combination of a permutation (ω) of the modulation positions of the M-PPM alphabet and a symmetry operation (π) of the M′-PAM modulation alphabet for one of the modulation positions (m±).
US08218664B2	Bit allocation among carriers in multicarrier communications A technique is provided that may be employed in multicarrier communications to improve the efficiency of error correction using symbol-oriented error correction methodologies, by reducing the number of error correction code symbols (102, 104 . . . ) that are received in error that result from a single channel error. More specifically, in this technique, bits from the symbols are allocated among the channels in such a way as to minimize the number of respective channels that are allocated bits belonging to more that one respective symbol during a respective transmission period.
US08218656B2	Pulse generator for ultra-wide-band modulating systems and modulating systems using it A pulse generator circuit is provided. The pulse generator circuit has an input adapted to receive an input electrical quantity and an output at which an output electrical quantity is made available. A transfer characteristic establishes a relationship between said input and said output electrical quantities. The pulse generator circuit is adapted to provide said output electrical quantity in the form of pulses having a predetermined shape, suitable to be used for UWB transmission. The transfer characteristic has substantially a same shape as that of said pulses. Moreover, a UWB modulating system exploiting the novel pulse generator is proposed.
US08218654B2	Method for reducing channel change startup delays for multicast digital video streams Methods and systems for reducing channel change startup delays for multicast digital video streams are described. Packets of a multicast digital video transport stream having a plurality of normal Group of Pictures are received. Further, a channel change request is received and a speed-up Group of Pictures is inserted in the stream in response to the channel change request. In one embodiment, video stream specific information is also inserted in the stream. The packets are processed and transmitted.
US08218653B2	Lossy frame memory compression using intra refresh Pixel data is compressed using a combination of variable and fixed quantization for luminance data. The luminance is compared to the result of variable quantization and to the result of the fixed quantization to compute a variable noise and a fixed noise. The result of the variable quantization is selected if the variable noise is less than the fixed noise, otherwise the fixed quantization result is selected if the fixed noise is less than the variable noise. The selected result is transferred to a frame memory. In another aspect of the invention, an intra mode coding decision is forced if the noise corresponding to the selected result exceeds a threshold.
US08218652B2	Image encoder, image decoder, and image encoding system An image coding system includes an image encoder and a predictive image decoder. The image encoder encodes an input image to obtain encoded data, compares the input image with a reference image, generates error information identifying parts of the input image that are changed with respect to the reference image, and outputs the encoded data and the error information. The predictive image decoder predicts the image, using a simplified prediction method for parts of the image identified by the error information as not being changed, and decodes the encoded data and the predicted data to obtain decoded image data. Use of the simplified prediction method in unchanged parts of the image reduces the prediction processing load without significant loss of prediction accuracy.
US08218648B2	Image encoding apparatus and control method thereof This invention enables to generate encoded data without noticeable image quality degradation when reproducing an image at a lower resolution not to mention the original resolution. To accomplish this, when setting is done to transmit an image captured by a digital camera to a network, code stream forming information CF is set to “2” to arrange the encoded data of each tile in a resolution order. To suppress image quality degradation when reproducing at an intermediate resolution, stream conversion information SC is set to “2”. When encoding image data in compression processing, block overlap processing of suppressing discontinuity of data at the boundary between adjacent blocks is executed as many times as the count set in the stream conversion information. The obtained encoded data is arranged in accordance with the code stream forming information CF and output.
US08218645B2	Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding by wavelet transform A wavelet transform encoding apparatus includes a coefficient encoding unit which encodes each group of multiple wavelet transform coefficients LH, HL, and HH located spatially at the same position within multiple high-frequency subbands belonging to the same hierarchy. At the time, the coefficient encoding unit calculates an encoding parameter for the wavelet transform coefficient of an encoding object based on multiple encoded vicinal wavelet transform coefficients within the multiple high-frequency subbands belonging to the same hierarchy, and encodes the wavelet transform coefficient of the encoding object into a variable-length code by utilizing the calculated encoding parameter.
US08218640B2	Picture decoding using same-picture reference for pixel reconstruction Digitally encoded pictures may be decoded by padding all un-decoded pixels within a currently decoding picture with temporary pixel values to produce a padded picture and performing motion compensation using the padded picture as a reference picture.
US08218624B2	Fractional quantization step sizes for high bit rates At high bit rates, the reconstruction error of compressed video is generally proportional to the squared value of quantization step size, such that full quantization step size increments at high bit rates can lead to significant change in the reconstruction error and/or bit rate of the compressed video. A video codec uses fractional increments of quantization step size at high bit rates to permit a more continuous variation of quality and/or bit rate as the quantization scale changes. For high bit rate scenarios, the bit stream syntax includes an additional syntax element to specify fractional step increments (e.g., half step) of the normal quantizer scale step sizes.
US08218616B2	Method and system for addition of video thumbnail Provided is a method and system to generate a static or an animated thumbnail for a digital video on a handheld device, in which a first frame of the video is displayed as the static thumbnail and certain periodic frames of the digital video are displayed as the animated thumbnail.
US08218615B2	Method and apparatus for block-wise decision-feedback equalization for wireless communication Techniques for performing decision feedback equalization are described. A feed-forward filter response and a feedback filter response are derived based on a channel estimate and a reliability parameter and further without constraint on the feedback filter response or with a constraint of no feedback for an on-time sample. The reliability parameter is indicative of the reliability of the feedback used for equalization and may be frequency dependent or frequency invariant. Different feed-forward and feedback filter responses may be derived with different constraints on the feedback filter and different assumptions for the reliability parameter. Equalization is performed with the feed-forward and feedback filter responses. If equalization is performed for multiple iterations then, for each iteration, the reliability parameter may be updated, the feed-forward and feedback filter responses may be derived based on the updated reliability parameter, and equalization may be performed with the filter responses for the iteration.
US08218614B2	Electronic equalization and electronic depolarization method, receiving end equipment, and communication system Embodiments of the present invention disclose an electronic equalization and electronic depolarization method, a receiving end equipment, and a communication system. According to the embodiments of the present invention, parameters required by electronic equalization and electronic depolarization are calculated by detecting a Synchronization Sequence (SS) in a received signal, and then the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization are performed on the received signal in a frequency domain by utilizing the parameters, so as to solve a problem of the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization in a Polarization Division Multiplexing (PDM) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. Furthermore, the realization complexity of the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization performed in the frequency domain is greatly reduced relative to the electronic equalization and the electronic depolarization performed in a time domain.
US08218612B2	Timing error detector and method thereof An effective data sequence based timing error detector (EDS-TED) for baseband transmission system using Tomlinson-Harashima Precoder is disclosed. The EDS-TED extracts timing error information embedded in the received signal to build up autocorrelation between the ESD signals and minimize the mean square error between the received and desired EDS so as to improve the performance of the TED in terms of Peak-to-Peak Jitter and TED gain. Thus the quality of the received signal increases and the error rate decreases.
US08218610B2	System and method for descrambling the phase of carriers in a multicarrier communications system A system and method that demodulates the phase characteristic of a carrier signal are described. The scrambling of the phase characteristic of each carrier signal includes associating a value with each carrier signal and computing a phase shift for each carrier signal based on the value associated with that carrier signal. The value is determined independently of any input bit value carried by that carrier signal. The phase shift computed for each carrier signal is combined with the phase characteristic of that carrier signal so as to substantially scramble the phase characteristic of the carrier signals. Bits of an input signal are modulated onto the carrier signals having the substantially scrambled phase characteristic to produce a transmission signal with a reduced PAR.
US08218606B2	Method and apparatus for direct estimation of impairment correlations for received signal processing According to the teachings disclosed in this document, a receiver estimates impairment correlations for a received signal using received pilot values. This direct estimation of impairment correlations based on direct pilot observations, provides for a rich capture of all impairment sources bearing on the received signal. Advantageously, however, estimation noise is reduced by generating a structured covariance matrix from the measured covariance matrix, and carrying out structured filtering within the structured covariance matrix. Structured filtering involves averaging matrix elements that correspond to the same processing delay difference as used for measured impairment correlation estimation. In one or more embodiments, averaged net channel estimates are used to obtain a rank one matrix, which is used to convert a measured covariance matrix to a structured covariance matrix, for carrying out structured filtering.
US08218596B2	Vertical cavity surface emitting laser and method of manufacturing the same A Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser capable of decreasing the lowering of the yield due to displacement and separation of a pedestal without enormous increase of the threshold value and more difficult manufacturing process is provided. A base of a mesa spreads over the top face of a lower DBR layer. The base is a non-flat face in which end faces of a plurality of layers are exposed. The non-flat face is generated due to etching unevenness in forming the mesa, and is in a state of a step in which end faces of a low-refractive index layer and a high-refractive index layer included in the lower DBR layer are alternatively exposed. At least one of the layers exposed in the non-flat face in the plurality of low-refractive index layers included in the lower DBR layer is an oxidation inhibition layer.
US08218590B2	Designs and processes for thermally stabilizing a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (vcsel) in a chip-scale atomic clock Designs and processes for thermally stabilizing a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (vcsel) in a chip-scale atomic clock are provided. In one embodiment, a Chip-Scale Atomic Clock includes: a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (vcsel); a heater block coupled to a base of the vcsel; a photo detector; a vapor cell, wherein the vapor cell includes a chamber that defines at least part of an optical path for laser light between the vcsel and the photo detector; and an iso-thermal cage surrounding the vcsel on all sides, the iso-thermal cage coupled to the heater block via a thermally conductive path.
US08218584B2	Apparatus for coupling light into an optical wave guide, a laser system with such an apparatus, and a preform to manufacture the apparatus The invention relates to an apparatus for coupling light into an optical wave guide, a laser system with such an apparatus, and a preform to manufacture the apparatus for coupling light into an optical wave guide with the aid of a pumping fiber to guide the light, whereby the optical wave guide comprises a core with a cladding and an initial length segment with a second length segment immediately connected to it, whose cross section increases in tapered form with respect to the first length segment. In order to make a powerful apparatus and thereby a powerful laser system available, including the corresponding preform, it is recommended that the core and cladding of the optical wave guide run continuously through the first length segment and the second length segment, that the end of the pumping fiber embedded in the cladding of the second length segment runs along the cladding and emerges from the forward face out of the end of the second length segment, and that the cross section of the cladding increases in tapered form. Preferably, the cross section of the pumping fiber increases together with the cross section of the second cladding.
US08218578B2	Broadcast receiving apparatus Disclosed is a broadcast receiving apparatus including an analog time information extracting member to extract time information included in an analog broadcast signal; a digital time information extracting member to extract time information included in a digital broadcast signal; a time setting member to automatically set time of the clock in accordance with time information; a display control member to output and display a setting screen to set a channel for time setting, the setting screen being used to set which broadcast channel is selected, the channel including time information which is used by the time setting member to set time of the clock; and an operation input unit to input operation command from external.
US08218572B2	Network element connection management within a network management system Preferred embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods to receive a logical command, the logical command being associated with a target identifier of a network element, determine connection parameters of the network element based on the target identifier, define a work flow based on the logical command, the work flow including a connection manager work unit, and execute the connection manager work unit to retrieve a connection from a connection pool based on the connection parameters.
US08218570B2	Network element abstraction within a network management system Preferred embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods to receive a logical command associated with a network management system to be executed on a network element, convert the logical command into a physical command associated with the network element, communicate the physical command to the network element.
US08218566B2	Systems and methods for making serial ports of existing computers available over a network Systems and methods for making serial ports of existing computers available over a network are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment the system may comprise a serial controller for locally controlling at least one serial port at a networked computer. A management processor is operatively associated with the networked computer. The management processor operates in a first mode to disable local control of the at least one serial port by the serial controller. The management processor takes control of the at least one serial port for network access.
US08218563B2	Method and system for providing adaptive modulation and coding in a multi-carrier wireless network A method of providing adaptive modulation and coding in a multi-carrier wireless network that includes a plurality of subscriber stations is provided. The method includes, for each of the subscriber stations, selecting a type of modulation and a coding rate based on a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) variance.
US08218551B2	Hierarchical scheduling In a first aspect of the invention, a first method is provided for hierarchical scheduling. The first method includes the steps of (1) receiving data from one or more pipes, each pipe including a plurality of pipe flows (2) selecting a winning pipe from the one or more pipes from which to transmit data based upon one or more quality of service parameters corresponding to the winning pipe (3) selecting a pipe flow from the plurality of pipe flows included in the winning pipe based upon one or more quality of service parameters corresponding to the selected pipe flow and (4) transmitting data from the selected pipe flow. Numerous other aspects are provided.
US08218543B2	Method and apparatus for SIP message prioritization The invention includes a method and apparatus for providing SIP message prioritization between network elements along at least a portion of an end-to-end path between a SIP client and a SIP server. The method includes determining a SIP message prioritization policy and distributing the SIP message prioritization policy toward a prioritizing network element adapted to assign message priority levels to respective received SIP messages using the SIP message prioritization policy, process the received SIP messages according to the respective assigned message priority levels, and transmit the prioritized SIP messages toward at least one network element in a manner for propagating the respective assigned message priority levels to the at least one network element. The prioritizing network elements include SIP network elements and non-SIP network elements.
US08218540B1	Modifying a duplicated packet and forwarding encapsulated packets Packet switch operating methods and packet switches use a first port of forwarding circuitry of the packet switch to receive first packets and transmit second packets. The methods and packet switches mirror the first and second packets on a second port of the forwarding circuitry, encapsulate the mirrored packets with a transport identifier, and transmit the encapsulated packets using a third port of the forwarding circuitry.
US08218531B2	System for improving operations in an IMS network A system for improving operations in an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network is provided. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) system having a controller element to receive from a terminating Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) first contact information for a communication device and second contact information for the terminating S-CSCF. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08218528B2	Gateway providing third party call control In one embodiment, a gateway orchestrates a call between an IP device and a PSTN device. As a result, third party call control features such as Click-to-Dial together with various call features in operator services and conferencing service are available for the call with the PSTN device.
US08218524B2	Method for transmitting or receiving data unit using header field existence indicator A method for transmitting and receiving data between a base station and a terminal in an E-UMTS (Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) or an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system is disclosed. A header overhead of data transmitted from a wireless end can be minimized by adding a header field existence indicator indicating presence or absence of a header in an upper data block to a data block of a lower layer, to thus effectively use radio resources.
US08218523B2	Cooperative ultra-reliable wireless communications A network includes a master node (master) and a set of slave nodes (slaves). The network uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and time division multiple access (TDMA) symbols on sub-carriers. During a first downlink transmission from the master to the set of slaves using downlinks and all of the sub-carriers, a broadcast polling packet including data packets for each slave and sub-carrier assignments for the slaves is broadcast. Each slave transmits simultaneously to the master using uplinks and the assigned sub-carriers, a first response packet after receiving the broadcast polling packet. The master then broadcasts using the downlinks and all of the sub-carriers, a group acknowledgement packet, wherein the broadcast polling packet, the response packet, and the group acknowledgement packet include one superframe in one communication cycle, and wherein the broadcasting on the downlinks and the transmitting on the uplinks are disjoint in time.
US08218522B2	Communication scheduling of network nodes using a cluster coefficient In one aspect, a method includes scheduling network communications in a network comprising nodes connected by links, receiving at a first node updated bandwidth values from the other nodes, determining a cluster coefficient based on a number of one-hop neighbors of the first node and a number of neighbors N-hops and less of the first node, adjusting the cluster coefficient to form an adjusted cluster coefficient and determining a wait period based on the adjusted cluster coefficient. The method also includes implementing the updated bandwidth values received to determine updated node weight values of the other nodes after the wait period has expired.
US08218520B2	Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving an uplink acknowledgement channel for a downlink data channel in a mobile communication system using orthogonal frequency division multiple access A communication apparatus and method of a mobile communication system using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). A method of transmitting an uplink acknowledge channel (ACKCH) for a downlink data channel in a mobile communication system using OFDMA includes: determining channel resources for each Control Channel Element (CCE), when a downlink control channel including at least two CCEs is received; generating uplink acknowledgement information by analyzing a received downlink data channel; assigning the at least two CCEs to at least two transmission antennas, respectively; and transmitting the uplink ACKCH including the uplink acknowledgement information through the transmission antennas.
US08218505B2	Mobile communication method In a mobile communication method according to the present invention includes the steps of: transmitting, from a handover source radio base station to a switching center, a handover request including an Next hop Chaining Count (NCC), a Physical Cell Identification information (PCI) and a KeNB; changing, at the switching center, the NCC, changing, at the switching center, the KeNB on the basis of the PCI, and transmitting, from the switching center to the handover target radio base station, the handover request including the changed NCC and the changed KeNB; generating, at the handover target radio base station, a first key on the basis of the KeNB; and generating, at the mobile station, the first key on the basis of the NCC and the PCI included in a handover command.
US08218494B2	Systems and methods for allocating and transmitting uplink data block transmissions Systems and methods for allocating and transmitting uplink data block transmissions with piggy-backed ACK/NACK bitmap field are provided. The systems and methods involve using a request for a DBCCI (Data Block Combined with Control Information) to allocate a timeslot for data transmission. A UADB (uplink allocation for data block) is not also used to allocate the timeslot.
US08218492B2	Apparatus, systems and methods for switching MIMO transmission techniques in wireless communication systems An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus that may include a transceiver operable to communicate with a receiver in a wireless network and adapted to select an optimal mode for transmissions, wherein the receiver estimates the optimal mode and feeds it back to the transceiver which changes a transmitted mode accordingly and wherein the optimal mode is based on a predetermined metric based on a performance equation that puts a threshold to separate between a high correlated signal to low correlation signal.
US08218484B2	Methods and apparatus for sending data packets to and from mobile nodes in a data network Methods for transmitting packets using a Mobile IP protocol between a mobile node and a first node in a data network after the mobile node has transmitted data packets to the first node via a first router from a first CoA or CCoA address and by a first security association with the first node. One method includes the mobile node, sending to the first node via a second router using a second CoA or CCoA address, data packets that include an identifier of the mobile node that enables the first node to identify the mobile node as the sender of the data packets during an initial time period after transmission of the data packets via the second router has started, and during the initial time period, the mobile node authenticates the data packets it transmits to the first node using the first security association with the first node.
US08218482B2	Apparatus and method for call setup in a wireless communication system An apparatus and method for call setup in a wireless communication system are provided. A first Mobile Station (MS) determines a DownLink (DL) duration, performs synchronization, selects one preamble code among a preamble code set reserved for the call setup of the MS out of the cell area, and transmits the selected preamble code during the determined DL duration. A second MS scans a preamble code during the DL duration, determines if the scanned preamble code is a preamble code for the call setup of the MS out of the cell area, and transmits a response message to the preamble code to the first MS.
US08218478B2	Apparatus, and associated method, for facilitating communication connection between a mobile station and a communication network Apparatus, and an associated method, for forming a communication connection between a mobile station and a communication network. The communication network is of either of two protocol versions, such as a UMA-compliant network and a GAN-compliant network. A network access identifier is formed at the mobile station of a format that permits its acceptance by the communication network. If a first network access identifier is formed of a format that is incompatible with the protocol version of the communication network, a subsequent network access identifier is formed of the format of the other of the protocol versions. A listing is maintained at the mobile station that identifies the determined protocol version of the communication network.
US08218471B2	Apparatus, method and system for relaying calls An apparatus connected to a communication terminal and for relaying a call between communication terminals. This apparatus includes a relay determiner, a priority determiner, and a relay controller. The relay determiner determines whether if a new call can be relayed based on the communication capacity, when there is a relaying request of a new call from a communication terminal or to a communication terminal. The priority determiner determines the priorities of a call that is being relayed and a new call based on the pre-configured policy. The relay controller may allow the relaying request of a new call by stopping the relaying of any existing call having a lower priority than the new call among the calls that are being relayed.
US08218463B2	System and method for mobile ad hoc network A method and system for geocasting data packets in a MANET. The MANET is combined with a long-range network such that a wireless terminal can decide whether to rebroadcast a geocast packet over the MANET, the long-range network, or not at all, depending on the wireless terminal's proximity to the geocast region, the location of the originating wireless terminal, or both. A wireless terminal close to or within the geocast region can rebroadcast on the MANET, whereas a wireless terminal far from the geocast region can rebroadcast on the long-range network.
US08218450B2	Throughput estimation method and system In a throughput estimation method for estimating throughput of a first channel in a cellular system in which the first channel and a second channel that are used for an uplink wireless communication service in a cell, noise rise of the second channel is calculated from the traffic volume of the second channel, the noise rise and a target RTWP that is the target total reception power of the base station that is set in the base station are used to calculate a ratio of resources used for the wireless communication service that can be allocated to the first channel, and the resource ratio is then used to calculate the throughput of the first channel.
US08218447B2	Method and system for path identification in packet networks A method and system for extracting and building end-to-end route information in a multi-area Internet protocol (IP) autonomous system (AS) is disclosed. The method and system enable a user, such as a network administrator, to explicitly identify a full set of paths (links and routers) that a given IP packet would potentially traverse from its entry point in the source area of the AS where it originates until its exit point in its intended destination area.
US08218446B2	Frame transfer route confirmation method, node, frame transfer route confirmation program and frame transfer route confirmation system The frame switching unit 630 has the frame analysis unit 700, the frame rewriting unit 710, the frame transfer unit 720, the table search unit 730, the forwarding table 740, the MAC learning unit 750, the control frame distribution unit 760, the setting control unit 790, the STP control unit 780 which, when receiving a topology change message, converts an LT flag from 0 to 1 to indicate an entry as of before switching to leave the entry in the table, and the OAM control unit 770 which, upon an LT execution request before failure switching, transfers an LT frame according an output port in an entry whose LT flag is 1 among entries in the forwarding table 740.
US08218434B1	Ethernet facility and equipment protection Described is a system and method of protection switching in an Ethernet network. First and second point-to-point Ethernet links are established to data equipment. Identical streams of Ethernet traffic are received at a first Ethernet port and at a second Ethernet port. The stream of Ethernet traffic being received at the first Ethernet port is transmitted to the data equipment over the first point-to-point Ethernet link, while the second Ethernet port is prevented from transmitting the stream of Ethernet traffic received at the second Ethernet port. During a protection switch, transmission of Ethernet traffic ceases over the first point-to-point Ethernet link, and commences over the second point-to-point Ethernet link, the second Ethernet port transmitting the stream of Ethernet traffic being received at the second Ethernet port to the data equipment.
US08218406B2	Lens driving apparatus A lens driving apparatus that can be installed in an optical unit. The lens driving apparatus includes a lead screw rotated by rotation of a motor, a lens holder movable reciprocally along a rotation axis line of the lead screw by rotation of the lead screw, a guide shaft extending in parallel with the rotation axis line. The guide shaft passes through the lens holder to guide movement of a lens held at a free end of the lens holder in a cantilevered state.
US08218403B2	Electronic device and method providing improved indication that an alarm clock is in an ON condition An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature having an alarm clock function that advantageously provides an indication to a user that the alarm is set, i.e., is in an ON condition, by outputting the alarm time itself.
US08218402B2	Multi device programmable cooking timer and method of use A programable timer that simultaneously operates cooking stages made of a modulated power level and time interval to multiple cooking devices. The timer may be operated in a manual or automatic mode. The automatic mode cycles through a set of cooking stages set by a recipe stored in memory. When in the automatic mode, the timer may be put into override and the recipe's cooking stages adjusted to conform with the chef's desires. Pre generated recipes may be input from media transfer devices or programmed into the timer via an input interface device. An algorithm stored in memory adjusts the cooking stages of the various devices such that all foods are finished cooking at the same time if desired.
US08218401B2	Reminder device A single use reminder device (100) has a tamperproof housing which contains a counter circuit and a power supply. The device includes a status indicator (106) for indicating when a date or time period has elapsed. The device also includes a button (104) can be depressed so as to activate the status indicator (106). A traffic light LED system is operated, whereby a red signal is shown by the status indicator (106) if the date or time has elapsed, and whereby an amber signal is shown if the elapse date or time is imminent. A similar device comprises a laminated card structure having a portion, which can be pressed to provide status information via an LCD.
US08218391B2	Power control of an integrated circuit memory An integrated circuit memory 10, 12 has clock control circuitry 36 responsive to a clock signal CLK and a chip enable signal CEN to generate control signals for controlling the integrated circuit memory 10 in response to the clock signal CLK when the chip enable signal CEN indicates that the integrated circuit memory 10, 12 is active. When the chip enable signal CEN indicates that the integrated circuit memory 10, 12 is disabled, then power control circuitry 38 serve to switch portions of the integrated circuit memory 10, 12, such as word line driver circuitry 24, sense amplifiers 22 and buffer circuitry 30, into a low power state from an operating state. When the chip enable signal CEN activates the integrated circuit memory 10, 12, the power control circuitry 38 switches these portions 24, 22, 30 which are in the low power state back to the operating state.
US08218390B2	Semiconductor memory device that can stably perform writing and reading without increasing current consumption even with a low power supply voltage Cell power supply lines are arranged for memory cell columns, and adjust impedances or voltage levels of the cell power supply lines according to the voltage levels of bit lines in the corresponding columns, respectively. In the data write operation, the cell power supply line is forced into a floating state according to the bit line potential on a selected column and has the voltage level changed, and a latching capability of a selected memory cell is reduced to write data fast. Even with a low power supply voltage, a static semiconductor memory device that can stably perform write and read of data is implemented.
US08218388B2	Read circuit for semiconductor memory device and semiconductor memory device Provided is a read circuit for a semiconductor memory device which may have a reduced circuit scale, and a semiconductor memory device. In a plurality of sense amplifiers of the read circuit of the semiconductor memory device, for serially reading data from a serial output terminal, if a number of byte selectors which may be selected to determine an address at a predetermined time before determination of the address is four, only four sense amplifiers are required in total, and hence the read circuit and the semiconductor memory device are reduced in circuit scale.
US08218385B2	Current mode data sensing and propagation using voltage amplifier A method and a circuit for current mode data sensing and propagation by using voltage amplifier are provided. Example embodiments may include providing an output signal from a voltage amplifier in response to the voltage amplifier receiving an input signal. The method may include providing a current output signal from a voltage-to-current converter in response to the voltage-to-current converter receiving the output signal. The output signal may be used to drive a current sense amplifier.
US08218384B2	Sense amplifier for controlling flip error and driving method thereof A sense amplifier and a driving method is described for resolving a flip failure occurrence where the voltage applied across the bit line is within an acceptable threshold range when the data is delivered to the data bus. The driving method includes disconnecting a bit line from a sense amplifying circuit according to a bit line select control signal after performing a read operation according to a read request. Then, connecting the sense amplifying circuit to a data bus according to a column select control signal after the bit line is disconnected from the sense amplifying circuit and deactivating an output terminal of the sense amplifier circuit that is disconnected from the bit line and connected to the data bus during a restore section synchronized to a command following the read command. Finally, delivering the data on the bit line to the output terminal of the sense amplifying circuit to update the output terminal of the sense amplifying circuit by connecting the sense amplifying circuit to the bit line according to the bit line select control signal.
US08218383B1	Memory repair system and method Systems and methods for operating an integrated circuit. The method includes: storing data in one or more of a plurality of locations in a memory module, wherein each location in the memory module has a corresponding memory address; storing a memory address of each location in the memory module detected to be defective in a memory repair module; detecting one or more locations in the memory module that are defective, locating one or more redundant memory elements in the memory module, and storing information in the memory repair database, the information associating the memory address of each location in the memory detected to be defective with the redundant memory elements; and physically remapping the memory addresses to a corresponding redundant memory element.
US08218381B2	Programming memory with sensing-based bit line compensation to reduce channel-to-floating gate coupling During programming of storage elements, channel-to-floating gate coupling effects are compensated to avoid increased programming speed and threshold voltage distribution widening. In connection with a programming iteration, unselected bit lines voltages are stepped up to induce coupling to selected bit lines, and the amount of coupling which is experienced by the selected bit lines is sensed. When a program pulse is applied, voltages of the selected bit lines are set based on the amount of coupling. The bit line voltage is set higher when more coupling is sensed. The amount of coupling experience by a given selected bit line is a function of its proximity to unselected bit lines. One or more coupling thresholds can be used to indicate that a given selected bit line has one or two adjacent unselected bit lines, respectively.
US08218379B2	Semiconductor device having resistance based memory array, method of operation, and systems associated therewith In one embodiment, the semiconductor device includes a non-volatile memory cell array, a write circuit configured to write to the non-volatile memory cell array, and a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to store at least one erase indicator. The erase indicator is associated with at least a portion of the non-volatile memory cell array and indicates a logic state. The control circuit is configured to control the write circuit to write the logic state indicated by the erase indicator in the non-volatile memory cell array during an erase operation of the associated portion of the non-volatile memory cell array.
US08218375B2	Oscillation circuits having temperature-dependent frequency generation and semiconductor memory devices having temperature-dependent self refresh rate An oscillation circuit includes an internal voltage generator and an oscillator. The internal voltage generator receives an external voltage and generates an internal voltage based on the external voltage. The internal voltage varies in linearly with an operational temperature. The oscillator generates a variable oscillation signal based on the internal voltage. A period of the variable oscillation signal varies in linearly with the operational temperature.
US08218371B2	Multi-bit flash memory device and method of analyzing flag cells of the same Disclosed is a multi-bit flash memory device which includes a memory cell array and a control circuit. The memory cell array has multiple memory cells and multiple flag cells. The control circuit determines whether the flag cells are programmed, based on a reference corresponding to a read margin of the flag cells, and controls a program operation of the memory cells in response to the determination.
US08218361B2	Data programming circuits and memory programming methods A data programming circuit for storing a writing data into a memory cell is provided. The data programming circuit includes a control circuit and a current generating circuit. The control circuit generates a control signal according to the writing data. The current generating circuit provides a writing current to the memory cell to change a crystalline state of the memory cell. The writing current has a pulse width corresponding to the writing data, and the crystalline state corresponds to the writing data.
US08218354B2	SRAM word-line coupling noise restriction A DC mode word-line coupling noise restriction circuit for multiple-port Random Access Memory cells. This circuit may comprise a Static Random Access Memory array. The SRAM array contains a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows with an SRAM cell formed at a cross-point of the columns and rows. Each SRAM cell has a first word-line conductor and a second word-line conductor. The first word-line conductor is connected to a first coupling noise restriction circuit. The first coupling noise restriction circuit comprises an inverter and a NMOSFET. The inverter has another NMOSFET and a PMOSFET.
US08218351B2	Non-volatile electrochemical memory device A non-volatile electrochemical memory cell formed of a stack of thin films comprising at least one first active layer, suited to releasing and accepting, in a reversible manner, at least one ion species, at least one second active layer, suited to releasing and accepting said ion species, in a reversible manner, the active layers being based on materials having different compositions and electrochemical potential profiles.
US08218346B2	Multi-chip packages including extra memory chips to define additional logical packages and related devices A packaged integrated circuit device includes a primary chip stack and a secondary chip stack. The primary chip stack includes memory chips therein that define a logical package addressable by a memory controller. The secondary chip stack includes fewer memory chips than the primary chip stack. The memory chips of the secondary chip stack are configured to be electrically connected to memory chips of at least one external device package to define an additional logical package addressable by the memory controller. The additional logical package may include a same number of memory chips as the primary chip stack.
US08218345B2	Rectifier with SiC bipolar junction transistor rectifying elements A rectifier circuit can include an input circuit and first and second silicon carbide (SiC) bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). The input circuit is configured to respond to an alternating current (AC) input signal by generating a first pair of opposite polarity AC signals and a second pair of opposite polarity AC signals. The first pair of AC signals has a greater voltage range than the second pair of AC signals. The first and second SiC BJTs each include an input terminal connected to receive a different one of the second pair of opposite polarity AC signals, a base terminal connected to receive a different one of the first pair of opposite polarity AC signals, and an output terminal connected to a rectified signal output node of the rectifier circuit. The input circuit is further configured to control the first and second SiC BJTs through the first and second pairs of opposite polarity AC signals to forward bias the first SiC BJT while reverse biasing the second SiC BJT during a first half cycle of the AC input signal and to reverse bias the second SiC BJT while forward biasing the second SiC BJT during a second half cycle of the AC input signal.
US08218320B2	Heat sinks with C-shaped manifolds and millichannel cooling A heat sink for cooling at least one electronic device package includes a lower lid, an upper lid, and a body formed of at least one thermally conductive material. The body is disposed between and sealed to the lower and upper lids and defines a tapered inlet distribution chamber configured to receive a coolant, C-shaped inlet manifolds configured to receive the coolant from the tapered inlet distribution chamber, inverted C-shaped outlet manifolds configured to exhaust the coolant. The inlet and outlet manifolds are interleaved and disposed in a circular arrangement. The outlet manifolds extend around only a portion of the body and terminate adjacent to opposing sides of the inlet chamber. The body further defines a tapered outlet chamber configured to receive the coolant from the outlet manifolds, where the inlet manifolds extend around only a portion of the body and terminate adjacent to opposing sides of the tapered outlet chamber. Millichannels are formed in the body or are formed in at least one of the lids and are configured to receive the coolant from the inlet manifolds and to deliver the coolant to the outlet manifolds. The millichannels are disposed in a radial arrangement, and the millichannels and the inlet and outlet manifolds are further configured to cool one of the upper and lower contact surfaces of the electronic device package. A lidless heat sink is also provided.
US08218318B2	Low noise cooling device A cooling device (1) using pulsating fluid for cooling of an object, comprising: a transducer (2) having a membrane adapted to generate pressure waves at a working frequency (fw), and a cavity (4) enclosing a first side of the membrane. The cavity (4) has at least one opening (5) adapted to emit a pulsating net output fluid flow towards the object, wherein the opening (5) is in communication with a second side of the membrane. The cavity (4) is sufficiently small to prevent fluid in the cavity (4) from acting as a spring in a resonating mass-spring system in the working range. This is advantageous as a volume velocity (u1) at the opening is essentially equal to a volume velocity (u1′) at the second side of the membrane, apart from a minus sign. Thus, at the working frequency the pulsating net output fluid can be largely cancelled due to the counter phase with the pressure waves on the second side of the membrane resulting in a close to zero far-field volume velocity. Thus a low sound level is achieved, at a low cost, without requiring mechanical symmetry.
US08218297B2	Electronic circuit device An electronic circuit device includes a case and a cover between which a space is defined, electronic circuit parts arranged in the space, and a sealant to seal the electronic circuit parts. The case has a bottom face, a side wall, and an opening face opposing to the bottom face. The cover is located inside of the side wall so as to close the opening face of the case. The cover has a filling port through which the sealant is filled. The cover has a top face located approximately equal to an end face of the side wall, or adjacent to the bottom face relative to the end face of the side wall.
US08218296B2	Housing for an electronic device and sealing ring for a housing A housing comprises a first housing part, having a first bearing surface for a first contact surface of a sealing ring, and a second housing part, which can be screwed together with the first housing part and has a second bearing surface for a second contact surface of the sealing ring. The first contact surface of the sealing ring is produced from a first material having a first coefficient of friction in relation to the material of the first bearing surface, the second contact surface of the sealing ring is produced from a second material that has a second coefficient of friction in relation to the material of the second bearing surface, and the first coefficient of friction is smaller than the second coefficient of friction.
US08218295B1	Universal meter mounting block, unitary lug, sliding lug cap and meter mounting enclosure therefor A watt-hour revenue socket block comprises at least three rising legs to allow the meter socket to step up or recess down depending on the orientation of the meter socket block. A cooperating meter socket enclosure has raised and lowered sections on the back wall to receive the rising legs to allow stepping up or recessing down of the meter socket. The meter socket has integral cap tracks to allow the cap to be moved to a position over the center of the meter socket block and be retained in that position by a tab while inserting the conductor in the lay in channel.
US08218293B2	Winding-type electrolytic capacitor and method of manufacturing the same Provided is an electrolytic capacitor, including: an anode foil having a dielectric coating film and a conductive polymer layer formed thereon; a cathode foil having a conductive polymer layer formed thereon; an anode lead tab and a cathode lead tab electrically connected to the anode foil and the cathode foil, respectively; and a protection member. A first region provided with the protection member is present between the anode foil and the cathode foil that are wound. The first region is at least one of a region covering the anode lead tab, a region covering the cathode lead tab, a region covering a rear side of the anode foil at a connection portion between the anode lead tab and the anode foil, and a region covering a rear side of the cathode foil at a connection portion between the cathode lead tab and the cathode foil.
US08218290B2	Solid electrolytic capacitor Provided is a solid electrolytic capacitor with low ESR (equivalent series resistance) and excellent reliability during high-temperature storage. The solid electrolytic capacitor includes an anode formed of a valve metal, a dielectric film provided on the anode, a conducting polymer layer provided on the dielectric layer, and a cathode extraction layer provided on the conducting polymer layer. The conducting polymer layer contains a metal-based conductive filler in at least one of a flake form and a fiber form.
US08218289B2	Electrolytic capacitor and electric equipment provided therewith An electrolytic capacitor includes: a case including a case body, in which an electrolytic capacitor element is disposed in a sealed manner and filled up with an electrolytic solution, and a safety valve is mounted to the case body for jetting an evaporated gas of the electrolytic solution filling the electrolytic capacitor element; a cover member mounted to the case so as to cover the safety valve provided for the case; a first fixing unit mounted to the cover member so as to prevent the cover member from dismounting when the evaporated gas of the electrolytic solution is jetted outward; and a second fixing unit disposed in association with the first fixing unit and adopted to reinforce and assist a function of the first fixing unit to thereby prevent the cover member from being dismounted. An electric equipment includes a lighting circuit including circuit components, and an electrolytic capacitor of the structure mentioned above.
US08218288B2	Bipolar layered type electric double layer capacitor There is provided a bipolar layered type electric double layer capacitor capable of suppressing upsizing of the capacitor unit and enhancing sealability of adjacent capacitor cells. The present invention relates to a bipolar layered type electric double layer capacitor including a multi-layered type body comprising a plurality of capacitor cells 4 stacked on one another, and one or more polarization substrates 2 each being interposed between the adjacent capacitor cells 4, two current collector metal end plates 6, 6 that are disposed on opposite surfaces of the multi-layered type body, respectively, two end plates 7, 7 between which the multi-layered type body and the two current collector metal end plates 6, 6 are interposed, packing members 5 that seal the capacitor cells 4 and have through-holes, and metal spacers 10 that are each formed with a thread groove on an inner circumferential surface thereof and inserted into the through-holes of the packing members 5, the metal spacers 10 each having opposite end portions into which fastening members 9 are respectively screwed to fasten the end plates 7, 7.
US08218287B2	Thin-film device A thin-film device comprises a base electrode made of a metal, a first dielectric layer, a first inner electrode, a second dielectric layer, a second inner electrode, and a third dielectric layer. Letting T1 be the thickness of the lowermost first dielectric layer in contact with the base electrode in the plurality of dielectric layers, and Tmin be the thickness of the thinnest dielectric layer in the plurality of dielectric layers excluding the first dielectric layer, T1>Tmin. Making the first dielectric layer thicker than the thinnest, dielectric layer in the other dielectric layers can increase the distance between a metal part projecting from a metal surface because of the surface roughness of the base electrode and the inner electrode mounted on the lowermost dielectric layer, thereby reducing leakage currents.
US08218286B2	MEMS microphone with single polysilicon film An integrated circuit structure includes a capacitor, which further includes a first capacitor plate formed of polysilicon, and a second capacitor plate substantially encircling the first capacitor plate. The first capacitor plate has a portion configured to vibrate in response to an acoustic wave. The second capacitor plate is fixed and has slanted edges facing the first capacitor plate.
US08218280B2	Secondary thermal sensor for primary conductors A thermal sensing system for providing thermal protection to an electronic circuit breaker that does not require any additional components. The layout of the conductive traces on the printed circuit board are dimensioned and configured so that the ratio of primary current to primary conductor thermal mass heating is correlated with the ratio of secondary current to secondary thermal mass heating. A voltage at a semiconductor junction in the rectifier behind the secondary transformer is measured, and a temperature or heat is calculated based on the voltage. Because this temperature or heat calculation is correlated with the temperature or heat of the primary conductor, a trip routine can be added based on the measured voltage for thermal protection of the primary conductors. A thermal history of the ‘primary thermal mass’ is also provided for robust thermal protection of the circuit breaker load and primary conductors.
US08218278B2	Current differential relay device, signal processing method thereof and power transmission line protection system A current differential relay device is described. The device has two transmission parts provided in parallel and communicating with an other end of a power transmission line through two transmission paths and transmitting and receiving a quantity data of electricity of each of the terminals to and from an other end in the form of the digital data obtained through analog/digital conversion. Two current differential operation parts are connected to each of the two transmission parts and perform a current differential operation independently for each of the transmission paths by using the digital data of the quantity data of electricity of the one end of the power transmission line and of the other end of the power transmission line. A signal generation part generates a trip signal from the current differential operation result of the two current differential operation parts.
US08218272B2	Early quench detection in a superconducting article A superconducting article is provided which incorporates an early quench detection facility. The superconducting article includes a first superconductive segment and a second superconductive segment, along with a magnetic field sensor(s). The magnetic field sensor(s) is disposed to monitor relative change in strength of a net magnetic field generated by a first current passing through the first superconductive segment and a second current passing through the second superconductive segment. A relative change in strength of the net magnetic field indicates degradation of a critical quench current of the first superconductive segment or the second superconductive segment, caused for example, by formation of one or more hot-spots or quench regions in the first or second superconductive segment. The indication of degradation is thus obtained prior to complete superconductive segment quenching.
US08218270B1	Current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) magnetoresistive (MR) sensor with improved hard magnet biasing structure A hard magnet biasing structure for a CPP-GMR or CPP-TMR read head for a magnetic recording disk drive is located between the two sensor shields and abutting the side edges of the sensor free layer. An insulating layer is located between the biasing structure and the lower shield and the side edges of the free layer. The biasing structure includes a seed layer of either Ir or Ru, a layer of ferromagnetic chemically-ordered FePt alloy hard bias layer on the seed layer, and a Ru or Ru/Ir capping layer on the FePt alloy hard bias layer. The FePt alloy has a face-centered-tetragonal structure with its c-axis generally in the plane of the layer. The relatively thin seed layer and capping layer allow the biasing structure to be made very thin while still permitting the FePt alloy hard bias layer to have high coercivity (Hc), a high remanent magnetization-thickness product (Mrt) and a high squareness (S=Mrt/Ms).
US08218261B1	Thermal solution for drive systems such as hard disk drives and digital versatile discs A drive system including: a printed circuit board; a first integrated circuit mounted onto the printed circuit board; a drive assembly case that is connected to the printed circuit board; and a first thermal interface material thermally coupled between i) the printed circuit board and ii) the drive assembly case. Thermal energy generated by the first integrated circuit is dissipatable by the drive assembly case through the first interface material.
US08218260B2	Processing disks on a spin stand A method of processing disks on spin stand is disclosed, the spin stand comprising a spindle motor having a rotor. A first disk is clamped to the rotor, wherein the first disk comprises a reference servo pattern. A second disk is clamped to the rotor, and a first head is servoed over the first disk in response to the reference servo pattern in order to position a second head over the second disk at a first radial location. Data is written to the second disk at the first radial location using the second head. The second disk is removed from the rotor while the first disk remains clamped to the rotor.
US08218259B2	High-speed, low-power driver system A reduced power driver is described. This reduced power driver comprises: an input current driver for transmitting a current signal that is a fraction of a DC current signal; a first resistor coupled at one end to a first voltage supply; a first current driver coupled to the input current driver and a first switch control; a second switch coupled a first current driver output, another end of the first resistor, and the output control; a dynamic booster coupled between the first voltage supply and the output control; and wherein the reduced power driver is operative for selectively adding an overshoot current to the output control so that power consumption is reduced, while synchronizing the DC current signal with the overshoot current.
US08218258B1	DC-control for post processor Systems and techniques relating to interpreting signals on a noisy channel. A direct current (DC) correction can be applied to an input of a post processor outside of a main read path that supplies data detector output to the post processor. A signal processor, such as a read channel transceiver device usable in a magnetic recording system, has a main read path including a signal equalizer and a data detector. A post processor is responsive to the output of the data detector, and a DC control unit applies a DC correction to an input of the post processor outside of the main read path.
US08218243B2	Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus including the same Provided is a zoom lens including, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens unit having a negative refractive power; a second lens unit having a positive refractive power; and a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, all the lens units moving during zooming; and a secondary aperture having a constant aperture diameter disposed on the image side of the second lens unit, in which the second lens unit includes lens components having a positive refractive powers disposed at a position closest to the object side and a position closest to the image side, and a distance (dd) on an optical axis between a lens surface closest to the image side in the second lens unit and the secondary aperture, and a focal length (fw) of the entire zoom lens at a wide angle end are appropriately set.
US08218242B2	Zoom lens and optical apparatus equipped with this zoom lens A zoom lens of the present invention has a first lens group having negative refractive power, a second lens group having positive refractive power, and a third lens group having positive refractive power, which are disposed in order from an object, wherein the distances between each lens group are changed upon zooming, the second lens group has at least two positive lenses having an aspherical surface respectively, and when νd is an Abbe number at least one of the positive lenses having the aspherical surface satisfies a condition of the following expression: νd>70.
US08218241B2	Viewing optical system and imaging apparatus using the same The invention provides a viewing optical system positioned between a viewing plane as a virtual plane and an eye point. The viewing optical system comprises, in order from the viewing plane side, a first lens group including a positive lens or a negative lens, a second lens group including a cemented lens in which at least one negative lens and at least one positive lens are cemented together, and a third lens group including a positive lens. Of lenses forming the first, second, and third lens groups, at least one lens surface is an aspheric surface.
US08218238B2	Zoom lens system and image taking apparatus including the same Provided is a zoom lens system includes, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens unit having a positive refractive power; a second lens unit having a negative refractive power; a third lens unit having a positive refractive power; and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power, the second and fourth lens units move on an optical axis during zooming. The third lens unit includes, in order from the object side to the image side: a third A lens unit having a negative refractive power; and a third B lens unit having a positive refractive power, the third B lens unit including a positive lens and a negative lens being joined together. When curvature radii of surfaces of the cemented lens on the object side and the image side are R3A and R3B, respectively, the following condition is satisfied: 5<\|(R3A+R3B)/(R3A−R3B)\|<30.
US08218232B2	Optical resonator with structure to improve mode-particle interaction An optical resonator includes a master resonator configured to resonate an electromagnetic wave, one structure or a pair of structures adjacent to each other, each of which is arranged at a position that overlaps one of resonance modes of the master resonator, is made up of a material in which a real part of a permittivity assumes a negative value, and an absolute value of the real part is larger than an absolute value of an imaginary part of the permittivity, and has a size which makes scattering that the electromagnetic wave suffers be Rayleigh scattering, and one or a plurality of particles, each of which is laid out near the structure by a distance smaller than the size of the structure.
US08218227B2	Sculptural imaging with optical tiles The invention relates to structures for representing images by directing light at a viewer. In order to represent an image, a structure is provided comprising a plurality of tile elements (22) which, when illuminated by a light source, each direct an amount of light toward an observer at a viewing location dependent on their orientation angles. The orientation angles of each tile element (22) may be selected based on a visual characteristic of a corresponding pixel of the image, such that the observer sees a representation of that image created by the varying amount of light directed to the viewing location by the tile elements (22).
US08218226B2	Surface-plasmon-based optical modulator An optical modulator that utilizes Bloch surface plasmon (BSP) effects is disclosed. The BSP optical (BSPO) modulator (10) includes a permittivity-modulated (P-M) grating (20) that can be one-dimensional or two-dimensional. Electro-optic (EO) substrates (30) sandwich the P-M grating. The EO substrates have electrodes (64) arranged thereon, and a voltage source (60) connected to the electrodes is used to provide an applied voltage (V30) via a modulation voltage signals (SM) that switches the modulator. Index-matching layers (40) may be used to mitigate adverse reflection effects. The BSPO modulator allows for normally incident input light (100I) to be modulated directly without having to generate oblique angles of incidence for the input light in order to excite the surface plasmon.
US08218218B2	Fatigue resistant MEMS apparatus and system A microelectromechanical system (MEMS) includes a conductor with improved reliability. The conductor flexes with a moving member in the MEMS device, and the improved reliability is achieved through material selections that provides increased fatigue resistance, reduced crack propagation, and/or mechanisms for improved live at a given strain level. The conductor may include a single material, or may include layers of different materials.
US08218208B2	Image processing device and image processing method An image processing device includes a determining unit that determines whether an intermediate parameter that is newly computed by an intermediate parameter computing unit or an intermediate parameter that is previously stored in an intermediate parameter storing unit is to be supplied to a color correcting unit depending upon an image forming condition. The color correcting unit performs color correction based on the intermediate parameter.
US08218204B2	Image reading apparatus and image forming apparatus provided with such an image reading apparatus An image reading apparatus is provided with a carriage accommodating an optical unit for image reading, a driving member for moving the carriage, a guide rail, a guide-rail engaging portion engaged with the guide rail, a holding portion for holding the driving member, a guide plate and a claw portion. The claw portion presses the guide-rail engaging portion against the guide rail by partially deforming the driving member to produce a tensile force in the driving member and causing the tensile force to act on the first end portion of the carriage, and produces such a rotation moment for biasing the first end portion of the carriage in a first direction parallel with a sub scanning direction and, on the other hand, biasing the second end portion of the carriage in a second direction opposite to the first direction and parallel with the sub scanning direction.
US08218201B2	Facsimile machine A facsimile machine, capable of being connected to an external telephone, including a data access apparatus in the form of a semiconductor device, includes a power circuit configured to output a calling signal and supply voltage to the external telephone; a relay configured to switch between a first state in which the external telephone is connected to the power circuit and a second state in which the external telephone is connected to a public line; a detection portion configured to detect a signal level of a signal line between the power circuit and the relay; and a control portion configured to issue an output instruction of the calling signal to the power circuit on the basis of the content of a signal received by the data access apparatus and a detection result obtained by the detection portion in the first state.
US08218200B2	Image processing system, image processing method, and storage medium A color conversion is performed to convert a data of a pixel of black in an object as determined to be a mask into a pixel data of composite black, and convert a data of a pixel of black in an object as not determined to be any mask into a pixel data of composite black or real black, and a set of pixel data of an object as color-converted is operated and processed as a source.
US08218195B2	Cartridge for use in printer for printing coded data A cartridge including identifier data that is indicative of a plurality of globally unique identifiers. The cartridge is configured for use in a printer capable of printing machine-readable coded data onto a surface. The printer has an interface for receiving the cartridge, a reader for reading the identifier data, a coded data generator and a printhead. The coded data generator is configured for allocating a globally unique identifier from the identifier data and generating coded data on the basis of the allocated identifier. The coded data includes a machine-readable pattern of coded data identifying a unique region identity for association with a substrate to be printed.
US08218187B2	Method and apparatus for automatic language switching for an imaging device Recognizing a language format of an input data stream including reading a next data sample of the input data stream in a current state, selecting a next state in response to the next data sample, transitioning to the next state and repeatedly reading the next data sample and selecting the next state until the next state is an end state, and identifying the language format in response to the current state when the next state is an end state.
US08218186B2	Electronic album image forming apparatus Provided is an electronic album image forming apparatus having a scanner function, which includes an electronic album unit for displaying, selecting and editing a digital image; a print unit for printing a digital image selected in the electronic album unit; and a scan unit for scanning an original document and converting it into a digital image.
US08218182B2	Image forming apparatus performing image formation suitable for adding information in handwriting or the like When a printing mode is designated by user operation, an MFP embeds information specifying a storage location in designated stored image data and prints the resultant image data. When a user adds information in handwriting or the like to the above-described printing material, and the printing material after the information is added is scanned, the MFP specifies the storage location from the image data, which is scanned data, and replaces the image data in the above-described storage location by the scanned image data and registers the resultant image data. At the time of the above-described printing, even if the printing condition is set for the image data, the designation of the above-described printing mode allows the printing condition suitable for scanning the printing material to be set.
US08218179B2	Plurality of terminal devices, imaging forming apparatus and system for communicating image data based on registration data An information processing system facilitates an operation performed on an information processor when data is to be transmitted from the information processor to a terminal device, and an information processor and a terminal device that can be used for the information processing system are provided.
US08218176B2	Communication device having timer-transmission function A communication device is configured to transmit subject data to be transmitted. A desired destination is designated by designating a desired abbreviated number contained in a facsimile number list which contains abbreviated numbers and respectively corresponding facsimile numbers. A predetermined operation is applied to a facsimile number corresponding to the desired abbreviated number to obtain a first operated value. Then, the desired abbreviated number and the first operated value are stored. The predetermined operation is applied again to a facsimile number corresponding to the desired abbreviated number as stored to obtain a second operated value after the transmission instruction is acquired. Whether the second operated value coincides with the second operated value is judged, and transmission of the subject data is aborted if the first operated value does not coincide with the second operated value.
US08218166B2	Print processing system and print processing method At the time of processing on print data created by a client computer, in a case where a server computer obtains information that should be notified to the client computer, the server computer adds a message to the print data to be sent to a device. In a case where the print data is added with the message, the device creates the message to be sent to the server computer. The server computer sends the message to the client computer. The client computer displays an image based on the message.
US08218160B2	Adaptive automatic printing Adaptive automatic printing methods and systems allow a user to modify print settings for an automatic print job after sending the job, after which the job is output under the modified print settings without any requirement to resend the job. Accordingly, if a user discovers after sending an automatic print job that an improper or suboptimal print setting has been used, the user can correct the problem without having to resend the job and, in some embodiments, without having to return to the client node.
US08218150B2	Phase-conjugate optical coherence tomography methods and apparatus Phase-conjugate optical coherence tomography (PC-OCT) methods and apparatus. PC-OCT may be employed as a three-dimensional imaging technique of interest for biomedical and other imaging applications. It shares much of the source and detection convenience of conventional OCT employing classical light sources, which is in clinical use in ophthalmology and is being developed for a variety of endoscopic optical biopsy instruments. PC-OCT offers a two-fold improvement in axial resolution and immunity to group velocity dispersion, when compared with conventional OCT, that is available from quantum optical coherence tomography (Q-OCT). PC-OCT does this without Q-OCT's need for a non-classical light source and the attendant requirement of photon-coincidence counting detection. Thus, in comparison with Q-OCT, PC-OCT is capable of producing images in measurement times similar to those of conventional OCT.
US08218144B2	Pathogen and particle detector system and method A particle detector has a sample area of cross section no in excess of about 2 mm for containing environmental fluid, a light source on one side of the sample area for directing a collimated or nearly collimated beam of light through the sample air or water so that part of the light beam will be scattered by any particles present in the air or water while the remainder remains unscattered, and a beam diverting device on the opposite side of the sample area for diverting or blocking at least the unscattered portion of the beam of light and directing at least part of the scattered light onto a detector. The detector produces output pulses in which each pulse has a height proportional to particle size and a pulse height discriminator obtains the size distribution of airborne particles detected in the air or water sample at a given time from the detector output. The detector may also include a device for discriminating between biological agents and inorganic particles.
US08218140B2	Method and system for inspecting indirect bandgap semiconductor stucture Methods (600) and systems (100) for inspecting an indirect bandgap semiconductor structure (140) are described. A light source (110) generates light (612) suitable for inducing photoluminescence in the indirect bandgap semiconductor structure (140). A short-pass filter unit (114) reduces long-wavelength light of the generated light above a specified emission peak. A collimator (112) collimates (616) the light. A large area of the indirect bandgap semiconductor structure (140) is substantially uniformly and simultaneously illuminated (618) with the collimated, short-pass filtered light. An image capture device (130) captures (620) images of photoluminescence simultaneously induced by the substantially uniform, simultaneous illumination incident across the large area for the indirect bandgap semiconductor structure. The photoluminescence images are image processed (622) to quantify spatially resolved specified electronic properties of the indirect bandgap semiconductor structure (140) using the spatial variation of the photoluminescence induced in the large area.
US08218137B2	Methods of operating DRAM devices having adjustable internal refresh cycles that vary in response to on-chip temperature changes An integrated circuit memory device includes a refresh control circuit that generates an internal memory refresh command signal having a period that is changed relative to a period of an external memory refresh command signal received by the memory device. This change in the period of the internal memory refresh command may be in response to detecting a change in temperature of the memory device. In particular, the refresh control circuit is configured so that the period of the internal memory refresh command signal is increased in response to detecting a reduction in temperature of the memory device.
US08218130B2	Device manufacturing method and lithographic apparatus,and computer program product In a lithographic printing process a substrate is moved, in the scanning direction, relative to a patterned beam of radiation being projected onto it during a scanning exposure of a pattern feature. An image of the pattern feature is blurred in the scanning direction. The effect of the blurring is used to reduce a difference of critical dimension between similar horizontal and vertical features. The effect on critical dimension may be obtained by providing an amount of anamorphic magnification to the projection system.
US08218128B2	Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method incorporating a pressure shield A lithographic apparatus is disclosed that has a movable article support configured to hold and move an article, a radiation control system configured to control a beam of radiation to be targeted onto the article, the article support, or both, the article to be moved relatively to the radiation control system by the movable article support for measurement, exposure, or both purposes, and a pressure shield that is mechanically uncoupled from the radiation control system to shield against pressure waves induced by the article support so as to help prevent displacement of the radiation control system caused by the pressure waves.
US08218114B2	Liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing the same The invention relates to a vertical alignment type liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same and provides a liquid crystal display and a method of manufacturing the same which allow a reduction of manufacturing cost. A configuration is employed, which includes a pair of substrates provided opposite to each other, a liquid crystal sealed between the substrates, and a photo-curing material for controlling the alignment of the liquid crystal, the photo-curing material being formed in the vicinity of an interface between the liquid crystal and the pair of substrates as a result of polymerization of a polymerizable component mixed in the liquid crystal, the reaction being promoted by a photo-initiator including no chlorine atom.
US08218101B2	Electronic device having an LCM with particular fixing element An electronic device having an LCM has a main body and an LCM. The main body has a rectangular base defining a top surface and a bottom surface opposite to the top surface. The top surface of the base has a receiving recess for receiving the LCM. The bottom surface of the base has at least one through hole communicating with the receiving recess. At least one fixing element has an adhesive portion received into the through hole. Two connecting portions respectively extend perpendicularly from the ends of the adhesive portion. Two fixing portions respectively extend outwards from the connecting portions. Two contacting portions each extend from the fixing portions and bend inwards. The fixing portions and the contacting portions will clasp the bottom surface of the base when the adhesive portion is received into the through hole and removably connected with the LCM by conductive adhesive.
US08218099B2	Liquid crystal display device and method for manufacturing the same An object is to provide an active matrix liquid crystal display device in which plural kinds of circuits are formed over one substrate and plural kinds of thin film transistors are provided corresponding to characteristics of the plural kinds of circuits. An inverted-coplanar thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer which is over and overlaps with a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer is used for a pixel thin film transistor. A channel-protective thin film transistor is used for a driver-circuit thin film transistor is used. In addition, main parts of the pixel thin film transistor are formed using a light-transmitting material, so that the aperture ratio is increased.
US08218093B2	Remote controller, image signal processing apparatus, and image signal processing method A remote controller includes a base unit having a transmission section configured to transmit a remote control signal, a plurality of function operation units connected to the base unit and configured to operate different functions, and a priority setting section configured to set priorities of the plurality of function operation units. When each of the plurality of function operation units is operated, the transmission section of the base unit sends transmission data, the transmission data including operation data and priority data that indicates the priorities of the plurality of function operation units set by the priority setting section.
US08218090B2	Integrated user interface and control in HDMI/CEC A TV in a HDMI home network discovers other components that can source a common UI such as a cross-media bar (XMB). The XMB generated by each component is dynamically changed to include UI source icons representing components in the network discovered to have the capability to source the XMB, so that the user can select the component that is to source the UI and then, regardless of what remote control device in the system is used to enter XMB commands to its particular component, the component receiving the commands forwards the commands via CEC to the component that has been selected to source the XMB, avoiding distracting unintentional overlaying of multiple XMBs on top of each other.
US08218084B2	Signal separator A signal separator for separating luminance and color signals from a composite video signal includes: a first line delay element for delaying the composite video signal by one line period; a second line delay element for delaying the composite video signal by two line periods; an adder element for adding the first and second delay signals; a subtraction element for subtracting the second delay signal from the first delay signal; a control signal generator for passing a part of the addition signal within a predetermined frequency band therethrough; and a gain control element for reducing a level of the subtraction signal based on the control signal.
US08218078B2	Information storage medium containing subtitles and processing apparatus therefor An information storage medium containing subtitles and a subtitle processing apparatus, where the information storage medium includes: audio-visual (AV) data; and subtitle data in which at least one subtitle text data and output style information designating an output form of the subtitle texts are stored with a text format. With this, output times of subtitle texts included in the text subtitle data can be overlapped, a subtitle file can be easily produced, and subtitles for an AV stream can be output with various forms.
US08218077B2	Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program An image processing apparatus for processing first image data into second image data having a higher quality includes the following elements. A determination unit determines whether broadcast image data is up-converted image data generated by up-converting different image data by increasing the number of pixels forming the different image data. A down-converter down-converts the broadcast image data into down-converted image data by decreasing the number of pixels forming the broadcast image data. A first image converter converts, if the broadcast image data is not the up-converted image data, the first image data into the second image data by using the down-converted image data and the broadcast image data as the first image data. A second image converter converts, if the broadcast image data is the up-converted image data, the first image data into the second image data by using the down-converted image data as the first image data.
US08218076B2	Image display apparatus, image signal processing apparatus, and image signal processing method According to one embodiment, there is provided an image signal processing apparatus includes an interlace-to-progressive conversion circuit and a resolution enhancement circuit. The interlace-to-progressive conversion circuit outputs first signals by performing an interlace-to-progressive conversion process on image signals. The resolution enhancement circuit outputs second signals by performing a resolution enhancement process on the first signals. The resolution enhancement circuit performs the resolution enhancement process not on the first signals on which an interpolation process for dynamic images have been performed.
US08218074B2	Remote inspection device A remote inspection device is provided for inspecting visually obscured locations. The device is generally comprised of a imager housing and a display housing disposed on opposite ends of a modular, flexible cable. An imaging device is embedded in the end of the cylindrical imager housing, such that the imaging device is able to capture an image of a viewing area proximate to the distal end of the flexible cable. One or more light sources also protrude from the outwardly facing end of the cylindrical imager housing along a perimeter of the imaging device such that the imaging device is recessed between the light sources. A display housing is coupled to the other end of the flexible cable and configured to be grasped by a user of the device. A display device supported by the display housing receives a video signal from the imaging device and converts the video signal to a video image.
US08218073B1	Auto focus module for a webcam A webcam includes an external housing; a lens system disposed in the external housing; and a lens cap disposed in the external housing and configured to at least partially surround the lens system, wherein a gap is formed between the lens system and the lens cap.
US08218071B2	Digital camera A digital camera of the present invention includes a microcomputer 110 having a live view mode controlling so that image data generated by a CMOS sensor 133 or image data obtained by subjecting the image data generated by the CMOS sensor 133 to predetermined processing is displayed on a liquid crystal monitor 150 as a moving image in real time, wherein the microcomputer 110 controls so that, when the live view mode is set, the digital camera comes out of the live view mode, and setting information on the digital camera is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 150, in accordance with the manipulation of the manipulation portion 140. Due to this configuration, in a digital camera that includes a movable mirror and is capable of displaying a subject image in a live view through an electronic viewfinder, the operability thereof can be enhanced.
US08218066B2	Interchangeable lens, interchangeable lens system and camera system An interchangeable lens (second interchangeable lens) is disclosed which allows a protruding amount from a mount reference surface of the interchangeable lens to be increased. The second interchangeable lens has a protruding portion protruding from a mount reference surface toward an image plane, has a larger protruding amount than the first interchangeable lens and has the same flange back as the first interchangeable lens. The first camera prevents mounting of the second interchangeable lens by the protruding portion of the second interchangeable lens contacting the first wall portion. The second camera includes a second wall portion provided at a position retreated from the protruding portion. The second camera includes a rotatable mirror member, and the rotation center of the mirror member is positioned on the opposite side of a finder optical system with respect to a plane including an in-plane direction of the mirror member.
US08218064B2	Image recognition device, focus adjustment device, image-capturing device, and image recognition method An image recognition device includes; an image sensor that captures an image via an image forming optical system and outputs image information repeatedly; a detector that detects differences between reference image information related to a reference image and a plurality of sets of partial information included in the image information; a recognition circuit that includes a microprocessor and recognizes a set of partial information, for which a smallest difference value among a plurality of differences detected in correspondence to the plurality of sets of partial information is calculated, as information matching the reference image information if the smallest value is smaller than a threshold value; and a controller that includes a microprocessor and sets the threshold value in correspondence to a color indicated in the reference image information.
US08218062B2	Photographing module This invention provides a photographing module at least including an electrically controlled actuator, an elastic member, and a photo sensor. The electrically controlled actuator at least comprises a fixed element, a movable element, and an electrical unit and at least provides an axial displacement, wherein the movable element is connected to the lens unit and the electrical unit electrically communicates with the elastic member. The elastic member at least comprises a fixed portion, a movable portion, an elastic portion, and a pair of power supply terminals, wherein the fixed portion and the movable portion are respectively connected to the fixed element and the movable element. The photo sensor is positioned on an image side of the photographing module and connected to the fixed member. The various portions of the elastic member may have different thicknesses depending on desired stiffness of each portion, such that the elastic member is thinned so as to facilitate miniaturization of the photographing module.
US08218050B2	Solid-state imaging apparatus, method of driving solid-state imaging apparatus, and imaging system A solid-state imaging apparatus includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix in one or more rows and one or more columns, wherein each pixel includes a photoelectric conversion element converting light into an electric charge and outputs a read out signal based on the converted electric charge, a plurality of capacitors arranged correspondingly to each of the columns to hold the signal output from the plurality of pixels, and a horizontal scanning circuit for sequentially reading out the signals held by the plurality of capacitors, by sequentially transferring data pulse in response to a clock pulse. The horizontal scanning circuit includes a mask signal input portion to which a mask signal is input. When the plurality of pixels output the signals to the plurality of capacitors during a horizontal scan time period in which the horizontal scanning circuit reads out the signal of one row of the pixels, and the read out signals change, the mask signal is input to the mask signal input portion, and a transfer of the data pulse is disabled irrespective of the input of the clock pulse.
US08218046B1	Monochrome/color dual-slope traffic camera system A video traffic system comprises a dual-slope, high dynamic range CMOS camera. Shutter, gain, and pedestal control and set-points for the dual-slope integration knee threshold and trigger time are computed from an operational model of the camera response using an input from a wireless light sensor. Darker pixels can integrate over the full shutter period, but bright pixels that are integrating too quickly and will saturate are reset to an adjustable level around 78% of maximum. Such reset occurs at an adjustable time about 93% of the full shutter period. The bright pixels are released to integrate from that point until the shutter closes.
US08218042B2	Solid-state image-sensing device and camera provided therewith By feeding an appropriate voltage as a signal φTX to a transfer gate TG, a MOS transistor T1 , is operated in a threshold region. A potential linearly or natural logarithmically converted by a buried photodiode PD is transferred to an N-type floating diffusion layer FD so as to be fed out, as an image signal, via MOS transistors T3 and T4.
US08218034B2	Method for automatically correcting frame faults in video assist frames of a video assist system A method for automatically correcting frame faults in video assist frames of a video assist system in a video beam path branched off from a capture beam path of a motion-picture camera, a ground glass screen being arranged in said video beam path, is provided. The video assist system is calibrated by capturing at least one video assist frame of a single-colored, unstructured and uniformly illuminated, flat capture object for a predefined diaphragm aperture of the camera lens and storing it as a video assist calibration frame in a frame store, wherein the stored and inverted video assist calibration frame is superimposed on the video assist frames captured after the calibration.
US08218031B2	Information recording apparatus, imaging apparatus, information recording method, and program An imaging apparatus includes: a captured image data generation unit generating captured image data by capturing a subject; a positional information acquisition unit acquiring positional information indicating a position at which the captured image data are generated; an area determination unit determining whether the position indicated by the acquired positional information is included in a positional information conversion area for converting the acquired positional information; a positional information conversion unit, when the area determination unit determines that the position indicated by the acquired positional information is included in the positional information conversion area, converting the acquired positional information into positional information indicating a position different from the position indicated by the acquired positional information; and a record control unit, when recording the generated captured image data, carrying out control to record the generated captured image data in association with the positional information converted by the positional information conversion unit.
US08218030B2	Digital image processing apparatus and method of controlling the same where an image size may be reduced to increase brightness Provided are a digital image processing apparatus capable of photographing an image of which an ISO sensitivity-to-noise ratio is improved by adjusting a size of the image to be photographed in low light conditions, and a method of controlling the digital image processing apparatus. The method includes the operations of receiving an input image; measuring input brightness of the input image; determining whether the input brightness is lower than an appropriate brightness; and generating an intermediate image by reducing a size of the input image by using an add mode for each pixel if the input brightness is lower than the appropriate brightness.
US08218026B2	Imaging apparatus, imaging method, reproducing apparatus and reproducing method, and recording medium for associating sound data with image data A sound is recorded when shooting a still image, an effect is applied on the still image in accordance with an analytical result of the recorded sound, and the sound and the effect-applied still image are recorded in association with each other, thereby allowing recording of the image having reality in addition to the sound. The still image and the sound are reproduced in association with each other, thereby allowing a viewer to feel an ambience and reality close to a memory that the photographer felt. Thus, image which easily reminds the situation and feeling during shooting can be recorded with a sound.
US08218024B2	Solid state camera and sensor system and method The disclosed subject matter is directed to solid state cameras and sensor systems that include a pickup surface thereof with both a distance detecting area for measuring a distance from a moving object and a movement detecting area for detecting the object's movement. The device can also include an optical communication area for communicating with an outside communication device. Therefore, the device enables a single pickup surface to include at least the following three functions: distance measurement; movement detection; and optical communication. The above-described sensor systems can output a control signal for collision avoidance with stationary or moving obstacle(s) by using the solid state camera. Because the sensor system can be integrated as a single chip IC with a small size, the system is useful as a sensor device in a vehicle, a robot, and the like.
US08218022B2	Imaging apparatus and associated methodology of independently powering components to limit power consumption An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup unit configured to photoelectrically convert light into an electrical signal serving as an imaging signal and output the imaging signal at predetermined frame intervals, a memory configured to store the imaging signal output from the image pickup unit, a first signal processing unit configured to generate a Y/C signal from the imaging signal output from the image pickup unit, a second signal processing unit configured to generate a Y/C signal from the imaging signal stored in the memory, and a control unit configured to control power supplied to each of the first and second signal processing units.
US08218013B1	Star sensing for an earth imaging sensor A star sensor includes (a) a scan mirror for scanning at least one star; (b) a detector array, coupled to the scan mirror, for detecting the one star; and (c) a processor, coupled to the detector array. The processor includes a first filter configured to reduce noise spikes in the detected one star, and provide a detection mask of filtered data. Also included is a second filter configured to reduce non-contiguous samples in the detection mask. A centroid calculator is included to determine a location of the one star, after the first and second filtering. The first filter includes a median filter, followed by an averaging filter, both configured to filter the one star in an along-scan direction of the scan mirror. The first filter includes another median filter, which is configured to filter the detected one star in the cross-scan direction of the scan mirror. An adder is included to subtract (a) output data from the other median filter from (b) output data from the averaging filter and provide filtered star data to the second filter.
US08218008B2	Method of displaying shot image on car reverse video system A method of displaying a shot image on a car reverse video system is described, which is applicable for adjusting an image displaying angle of the car reverse video system with a fixed lens according to a distance from an obstacle. Firstly, a scene image behind the car is shot through using the lens. Then, a distance detector is activated to detect a distance from the obstacle behind the car. If the distance from the obstacle is smaller than a preset distance, a scaling ratio is set according to a ratio of the preset distance to the distance from the obstacle. Finally, according to the scaling ratio and a distance between each pixel in the scene image and a reference point, all pixel pitches are adjusted, such that the scene image is deformed, and thus achieving an effect of switching a viewing angle of the scene image.
US08217968B2	Image display device An image display device 100 is an image display device capable of controlling the luminance of a backlight. The image display device 100 includes: a backlight luminance set value estimator which calculates the luminance set value of a backlight 101 based on an input image; and a signal corrector which corrects the transmittance of a liquid crystal in accordance with the luminance distribution of backlight emitted to the liquid crystal panel. The image display device 100 is characterized in that a signal corrector 107 corrects the transmittance of the liquid crystal while retaining the proportion of a gray-scale level value of each of RGB subpixels of the input image.
US08217966B2	Systems and methods for viewing medical 3D imaging volumes A method of automatically tracking the portions of a 3D medical imaging volume, such as the voxels, that have already been displayed according to use-defined display parameters, notating those portions, and providing the user with information indicating what portions of the imaging volume have been displayed at full resolution.
US08217965B2	Magnification engine An improved graphics processing system and method are described for magnifying visual output information for printing, display, or other output. A graphics engine transforms display information so as to magnify one or more components or areas of an output image for display via output hardware such as a screen or printer. Magnification parameters are supplied to the graphics engine by one or more magnification applications. In an embodiment of the invention, the graphics engine performs compositing of magnified and unmagnified content for display. In an alternative embodiment, the graphics engine outputs corresponding scaled image material to the appropriate magnification application for rendering. In a further embodiment, the graphics engine may operate in both modes. The magnified output according to various embodiments of the invention enhances the accessibility of the computer system for visually handicapped or impaired users by providing high quality magnification and increased system and application stability.
US08217964B2	Information presentation based on display screen orientation A handheld device presents information on a display screen in alternate formats. The device determines its orientation relative to a device user and selects a format based on that orientation. The displayed information may also be scrolled or zoomed based on a detected motion of the device.
US08217961B2	Method for estimating 3D pose of specular objects A method estimates a 3D pose of a 3D specular object in an environment. In a preprocessing step, a set of pairs of 2D reference images are generated using a 3D model of the object, and a set of poses of the object, wherein each pair of reference images is associated with one of the poses. Then, a pair of 2D input images are acquired of the object. A rough 3D pose of the object is estimated by comparing features in the pair of 2D input images and the features in each pair of 2D reference images using a rough cost function. The rough estimate is refined using a fine cost function.
US08217960B2	Device and method for adjusting video luminance A device and a method for adjusting video luminance of at least a color in a display wherein the color is appointed by the user. The device comprises: a color flag generating module for transforming a plurality of color signals into a plurality of color flags; a luminance adjustment value calculating module for calculating a luminance adjustment output value according to a plurality of luminance adjustment input values of different colors and the plurality of color flags; and a luminance output module for applying the luminance adjustment output value to a luminance input signal so as to generate a luminance output signal. Using the device and the method according to the present invention, the user can respectively adjust the luminance of different colors.
US08217957B1	System and method for digital image storage and representation A system generates continuous texture environment based on mipmapped texture and photographic images such that each mipmapped image has a plurality of mipmap level representations of a particular texture or photographic image. The system can include a delta value dataset configured to store a plurality of delta values for the texture images and photographic images. The system further includes an absolute value dataset configured to store a plurality of absolute values for the photographic images to be displayed in the continuous texture environment. The system yet further includes an environment processor configured to generate the continuous texture environment. The environment processor includes a blending processor configured to blend the photographic imagery and texture images to remove discontinuities using the delta values.
US08217952B2	Techniques for caching images Techniques for caching images are presented. A matrix of pixel values represents an image. A diagonal of the matrix is used as an array of numbers representing an index value. The index value is compared to existing index values housed in a cache. When no match is present, the index value is inserted into the cache and the corresponding image associated with the inserted index value acquired. When a match is present no action is taken on the index values of the cache.
US08217950B2	Video processing across multiple graphics processing units A processing unit, method, and graphics processing system are provided for processing a plurality of frames of graphics data. For instance, the processing unit can include a first plurality of graphics processing units (GPUs), a second plurality of GPUs, and a plurality of compositors. The first plurality of GPUs can be configured to process a first frame of graphics data. Likewise, the second plurality of GPUs can be configured to process a second frame of graphics data. Further, each compositor in the plurality of compositors can be coupled to a respective GPU from the first and second pluralities of GPUs, where the plurality of compositors is configured to sequentially pass the first and second frames of graphics data to a display module.
US08217948B2	Display interface system, display device and display system A display interface system includes a display transmitter and a display receiver. The display transmitter transmits a control pattern having image type information about a type of an image to be displayed and selectively transmits image data according to the type of the image to be displayed. The display receiver receives the control pattern and selectively receives the image data based upon the image type information, reducing power consumption.
US08217947B2	Text-reading support on handheld devices and devices with small displays One aspect of the invention relates to techniques for increasing the displayable font size while retaining a wide text line of information on small information displays. In one embodiment, the inventive technique leverages the wider diagonal (in device dimensions) for text viewing and combine this form of display with a horizontal (in text dimensions) scrolling feature i.e. scrolling text along the diagonal of the device's display. Vertical context (in text dimensions) is maintained by adding a constant-offset look-ahead and look-back line above the primary diagonal focus area. Another embodiment bends the text along two edges of the display area to leverage the fact that the lengths of the two sides are even longer than the length of the screen diagonal. In both configurations, one can retain a large font size without sacrificing the number of characters displayed per line.
US08217946B2	Graphical display for physiological patient data An intuitive graphical display as described herein can be rendered by a host device that obtains physiological patient data (such as blood glucose values) in real time or substantially real time. The graphical display includes a calibrated bar graph having a desired measurement range for the monitored parameter. The graphical display also includes a dynamic measurement value indicator that moves along the bar graph in a manner that tracks the current value of the monitored physiological characteristic. The graphical display may also incorporate easy-to-interpret display elements that allow the user to quickly determine whether the current value of the monitored physiological characteristic is within or outside a normal range, whether the monitored physiological characteristic is rising or falling, and the approximate rate of change of the monitored physiological characteristic.
US08217945B1	Social annotation of a single evolving visual representation of a changing dataset Systems and methods of social annotation of a single evolving visual representation of a changing dataset are disclosed. In one or more embodiments, the method includes generating a visual representation of a dataset at an initial time and automatically updating the visual representation of the dataset to reflect the dataset at a changed time through an algorithm that applies changed values between the dataset at the initial time and the dataset at the changed time while maintaining a previous calculation of an unchanged portion of the dataset at the initial time. The method further includes generating an alert when the change status indicates that the underlying data has changed beyond the threshold tolerance range. The method further includes placing a note associated with a first user on the visual representation.
US08217940B2	Directable lighting method and apparatus A method for a computer system includes receiving a plurality of values for an illumination parameter associated with an illumination source for a scene, determining a plurality illumination contributions for a surface of an object within the scene, in response to the plurality of values, determining a plurality of texture maps associated with the surface of the object in response to the plurality of illumination contributions, wherein each of the plurality of texture maps is associated with each of the plurality of values for the illumination parameter, receiving a value for the illumination parameter at render time from a user, determining a texture map associated with the surface of the object, in response to the value for the illumination parameter and in response to the plurality of texture maps, rendering the surface of the object using the texture map to form an image, and displaying the image to the user.
US08217939B1	Method and system for calculating visually improved edge voxel normals when converting polygon data to voxel data A method is provided for calculating edge normals when transforming 3D geometric data (e.g., polygon mesh data) to voxel data, which includes four steps. First, each geometric unit (e.g., each polygon) in the 3D geometric data is mapped to a voxel grid. Second, edge voxels are detected in the voxel grid. As used herein, an edge voxel means a voxel forming an edge of an object to be rendered. Third, for each edge voxel, one or more normals of the one or more geometric units that intersect with that edge voxel are calculated and stored. Fourth, for each edge voxel, an edge normal is obtained by combining (e.g., equal-weight-averaging) the one or more normals stored in association with that edge voxel.
US08217938B2	Method and apparatus for determining item orientation A computer-implemented method and computer software for calculating an orientation for an item. A bounding cube is constructed which encompasses a mesh representation of the item. The bounding cube is divided into a plurality of voxel elements. A data structure may be used to subdivide the bounding cube. Calculations are performed to determine which of the plurality of voxel elements intersect with the mesh, defining a voxel representation of the item. A statistical analysis is performed on the voxel representation to determine an orientation for the item.
US08217933B2	Method and apparatus for detecting between virtual objects A collision target map and a collision target LUT are generated for each pixel to be subjected to rendering as collision target information with recorded identification information for CG data rendering on the pixel, while carrying out rendering of colliding object group CG data. Then, collision target information corresponding to a rendering pixel is referenced while carrying out rendering of collided object group CG data. In a case in which the colliding object group CG data is contained in the collision target information, it is determined that collision detection should be carried out for a virtual object being rendered, and collision detection information is generated. Such collision detection information allows collision between virtual objects to be detected at high speed.
US08217924B2	Display apparatus and method of driving the same A display apparatus includes a display panel including gate and data lines disposed thereon, and a plurality of driver integrated circuits (“ICs”) on the display panel and electrically connected to data lines. Flexible printed circuit boards (“FPCBs”) are disposed on the display panel and a printed circuit board to apply the control signal and the image signal from the printed circuit board to the driver ICs. There are less FPCBs than driver ICs. The driver ICs are divided into first and second driver groups; the data lines are divided into first and second groups of data lines. Driver ICs of the first driver group are directly connected to corresponding FPCBs, and driver ICs of the second driver group are connected to adjacent driver ICs. Each driver integrated circuit of the first driver group outputs a first repair signal to repair a data line of the first group of data lines.
US08217922B2	Synchronized visual and audio apparatus and method A method and apparatus for synchronizing sound with an illuminated animated image is provided. First and second image frames are defined on a planar surface using a plurality of light transmitting media. A plurality of light sources are positioned adjacent to the plurality of light transmitting media such that the first image frame and the second image frame are illuminated independently by selectively activating each light source in accordance with a pre-programmed illumination sequence. A speaker plays a first sound when the first image frame is illuminated and a second sound when the second image frame is illuminated. A driving device, coupled to the light sources and the speaker, is used to synchronize the illumination of the image frames with the sounds.
US08217920B2	Data-holding circuit and substrate for a display device A display device has a data-holding circuit with a capacitance and a display portion with a plurality of pixel electrodes, formed on a first carrier substrate. In the display device, a second carrier substrate disposed opposite the first carrier substrate is placed above the display portion, but the opposing substrate is not present above the area in which the data-holding circuit is disposed. The parasitic capacitance of the data-holding circuit can thereby be reduced. Therefore, the capacitance in the data-holding circuit can be reduced and the area required can be reduced as well. The display data of all the pixels is sent serially to the liquid crystal module without high-speed transfer for each frame time interval, and size can be reduced because the controller IC and interface circuit are formed on the same substrate as the display device substrate.
US08217915B2	Capacitive position sensor A capacitive position sensor for detecting the position of an object, typically an operator's finger, relative to a resistive sensing element, wherein the sensing element comprises a sensing path that has terminals connected along it that subdivide the sensing path into multiple sections. Each terminal is coupled to its own sensing channel, each of which generates a signal that is sensitive to the capacitance between its terminal and a system ground. The signals are fed to a processor for analysis. The processor determines over which section the object is positioned by comparing the signals from the sensing channels, and determines the position of the object within that section by comparing the signals from the terminals spanning that section. In this way, the sensing path can be formed in a closed loop, such as a circle for a scroll dial, in which the operator's finger position and movement can be uniquely determined in a straightforward manner.
US08217911B2	Display with visually homogeneous border A handheld device with a compact integrated touch panel is disclosed. A handheld device incorporating a touch panel display requiring electrical connections is reduced in size by incorporating electrical pathways within the support structure of the touch panel display, obviating the need for a flex circuit extension from the touch panel display for connection to the handheld device. A further reduction in size is obtained by providing an inherent visually homogeneous perimeter for the touch panel display by matching the colors of the conductive and dielectric materials, thereby eliminating the need for a bezel.
US08217903B2	Electronic device and tactile touch screen An electronic device includes a base, a touch screen display, a shape memory alloy and operational components. The touch screen display is connected to the base and moveable relative to the base and includes a display device and a touch-sensitive input surface overlying the display device and connected to a controller for determining a touch event to the touch-sensitive input surface. The shape memory alloy is disposed between the base and the display device and is configured to change shape in response to conduction of an electric current to cause movement of the display device relative to the base. The operational components include a processor between the base and the touch screen display. The processor is operatively connected to the controller, the display device and the shape memory alloy for causing conduction of current through the shape memory alloy in response to the touch event, resulting in movement of the display relative to the base.
US08217900B1	Light beam operated peripheral data input device for use in and out of sunlight The invention is a light operated peripheral standalone input device to be used in and out of sunlight where input is made by a light beam to the peripheral or other input device where the light beam is pointed at a position from distances near and to over a mile away and the function of that position is input. The invention allows for keyboard input and directional control and cursor positioning to dedicated board level microprocessor driven control systems, personal computers, wheelchair operation, control panels for operating equipment and for those who cannot use their arms and hands for normal computer input like partial quadriplegics or other disabled persons, and persons that need a non-contact input device that is operated from a distance in hazardous areas or underwater with a light beam.
US08217893B2	Inertial sensor-based pointing device with removable transceiver An inertial sensor-based pointing device 10 is compatible with a removable USB pod 14 having a digital flash memory 32 and an integrated radio transceiver 30. Flash memory 32 can be used by a user to store software that enables a user to auto load software applications into compatible computers. Pointing device 10 is adapted to receive USB pod 14 resulting in a combined memory/transceiver and pointing device system that can be conveniently carried as a single unit in a pocket or via a belt clip.
US08217891B2	Dielectrophoretic display A display includes a first substrate, a partition element, a second substrate, a dielectric liquid, a plurality of dielectrophoretic particles and a plurality of electrophoretic particles. The partition element is disposed on the first substrate. The second substrate is disposed on the partition element. The partition element forms at least one accommodating room between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first substrate or the second substrate is adapted to forming an electric field in the accommodating room. The dielectric liquid is disposed in the accommodating room and has a first dielectric constant. The dielectrophoretic particles are dispersed in the dielectric liquid. Each of the dielectrophoretic particles has a first color and a second dielectric constant different from the first one. The electrophoretic particles are dispersed in the dielectric liquid. Each of the electrophoretic particles has a second color different from the first one. Another display is also provided.
US08217883B2	Output circuit, and data driver and display device using the same Disclosed is an output circuit including a connection switch and an operation unit. The connection switch receives first and second voltages from first and second terminals, respectively, selects and outputs the first voltage or the second voltage for first to third intermediate terminals, including selection of the same voltage and switches assignment of the first and second voltages to the first to third intermediate terminals responsive to a connection switching signal. The operation unit receives the voltages assigned to the first to third intermediate terminals and outputs to an output terminal a voltage obtained by performing a predetermined operation on the voltages.
US08217877B2	Display device, driving method thereof, and electronic device using the display device A display device is provided in which a signal line can be shared by a plurality of pixels and data supplied from scan lines can be distributed to a desired pixel selected from the plurality of pixels. The display is characterized in its circuit structure of the plurality of pixels, which allows the signal line to be shared by neighboring three pixels. This circuit structure results in the reduction of the number of signal lines and the simplification of the structure of the signal line driver circuit, which contributes to the reduction of the power consumption and miniaturization of the signal line driver circuit. The detailed structure of the display device is defined in the specification.
US08217871B2	Touch-controlled liquid crystal display and touch panel thereof A touch-controlled LCD includes a liquid crystal display panel and a touch panel. The liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The touch panel is disposed on a side of the second substrate facing away from the liquid crystal layer. The touch panel includes a plurality of first electrodes being parallel to each other, a plate shaped second electrodes facing the first electrodes, and a plurality of spacers disposed between the first electrodes and the second electrode.
US08217869B2	Flexible display system The present exemplary embodiment relates to an improved flexible display system. One form of the display may use various types of switchable materials contained in micro cells formed from a fabric or mesh material. These cells may serve as a spacer between two opposing electrode sheets and may be individually sealed to the electrode sheets on each face. Moreover, the fabric may, in some forms, be implemented as an electrical grid for addressing the micro cells.
US08217866B2	Data driving circuit and driving method of light emitting display using the same A data driving circuit capable of displaying images having uniform brightness. The present invention provides a data driving circuit of a display device having: at least one current sinking unit for controlling a predetermined current to flow in a data line; at least one voltage generating unit for resetting voltage values of enhancement voltages using a compensation voltage generated when the predetermined current flows; at least one digital-analog converter for selecting as a data signal one of the enhancement voltages to correspond to a digital value of externally supplied data; at least one boosting unit for boosting a voltage value of the data signal; and at least one switching unit for providing the data line with the boosted data signal.
US08217860B2	Method and device for measuring panel current A method of measuring a panel current in an active matrix organic electroluminescence display panel, wherein when a current flowing through a display panel when one or a plurality of pixels are caused to emit light is measured, a flow-in current flowing into the display panel from a side of a high voltage and a flow-out current flowing out from the display panel toward a side of a low voltage are simultaneously measured, and a value of a panel current is determined using both obtained measurement results.
US08217857B2	Display, display method, and electronic device A display, comprising: a planar display section; a pixel space provided next to a side adjacent to one surface of the display section and encapsulating a plurality of kinds of colorants, each kind having a different color; an accumulation section provided in the pixel space and accumulating the colorants; a separation system that separates a specific kind of colorant from the accumulated colorants in the accumulation section; a transfer system that selects at least one kind of colorant from the separated colorants and transfers this colorant to the side adjacent to the display section of the pixel space. The separation system performs separation utilizing the magnitude of a dielectrophoretic force generated in each colorant upon receipt of an alternating electric field of a specific frequency applied by this system, the magnitude varying depending on the kind of the colorant. A color of at least the one kind of colorant transferred by the transfer system is displayed at the display section.
US08217851B2	Dual band antenna A dual band antenna is provided. The dual band antenna includes a radiating element, a grounding element, and a connection element. The radiating element has a first radiating portion and a second radiating portion, wherein the second radiating portion extends from the first radiating portion in a first direction parallel to the grounding element. The connecting element extends in a second direction and is connected between the radiating element and the grounding element, wherein the connecting element has a first end connected to the radiating element and a second end connected to the grounding element with an including angle between 0° and 90°, and a configuration including the connecting element, the radiating element and the grounding element has a Z-like shape.
US08217839B1	Stripline antenna feed network A stripline antenna feed network is described. The stripline antenna feed network may comprise a first stripline layer comprising one or more reactive splitters and one or more matched splitters; and a second stripline layer comprising one or more reactive splitters. A method of manufacturing a stripline antenna feed network may comprise operably coupling a first stripline layer comprising one or more reactive splitters and one or more matched splitters to a second stripline layer comprising one or more reactive splitters.
US08217838B2	System and method for using data phase to reduce position ambiguities A geographic tracking system with minimal power and size required at the mobile terminal collects observation data at the mobile terminal and forwards the data to a processor, which calculates the position. The mobile terminal is configured to measure both code phase and data phase of a GPS satellite signal. The code phase and data phase information enables the processor to reduce the number of candidate points to be considered.
US08217831B2	System for determining relief on a granule filling surface in a petrochemical reactor The invention relates to a system for determining relief on a granule filling surface in a petrochemical reactor, the filling direction in which the reactor is filled defining a vertical direction, the reactor having a central vertical axis, the system including a transmitter configured to be positioned above the filling surface in such a manner as to transmit a signal to various points of said surface. The system includes shift means for shifting the transmitter about the central axis of the reactor through an angle that is great than 60°.
US08217819B2	Multiplying DAC and a method thereof The present invention is directed to a multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) and its method. First ends of capacitors are electrically coupled to an inverting input node of an amplifier, wherein two of the capacitors are alternatively configured as a feedback capacitor. Each capacitor is composed of at least two sub-capacitors. Second ends of capacitors are electrically coupled to an input signal via a number of sampling switches, and the second ends of the capacitors are electrically coupled to DAC voltages respectively via a number of amplifying switches. A sorting circuit is configured to sort the sub-capacitors, wherein the sorted sub-capacitors are then paired in a manner such that variance of mismatch among the sub-capacitors is thus averaged.
US08217811B2	Bitcount determination for iterative signal coding Methods and apparatus for iteratively encoding a portion of a signal are described in which the portion of the signal is quantised and an output bit count is estimated based on the sum of logarithms to base n of values of each sample in the plurality of quantised samples and the total number of samples. The output bit count corresponds to an estimate of the output bit count for the portion of the signal once encoded using a code, such as a Huffman code.
US08217808B2	Incremental coder and method for determining a value of variation of stable positions of the coder An incremental coder in which stable positions of the coder are defined by multiples of an increment of the coder. The coder computes a difference between a binary word obtained for a current stable position and a binary word obtained for a previous stable position, and computes the value of variation of stable positions by determining the integer part of the division of the difference by the number of increments between two stable positions.
US08217801B2	LED (light emitting diode) module An LED (Light Emitting Diode) module includes a base seat and a plurality of LEDs. The base seat includes a planar portion having a planar external surface and a straight portion connected interactively to the planar portion, and having a straight external surface. The plurality of LEDs includes a first LED mounted on the planar external surface of the planar portion to emit light rays in the facing in a vertical direction and a second LED mounted on the straight external surface of the straight portion to emit light rays in the horizontal direction.
US08217784B2	Battery-less emergency distress signal and position indication broadcasting methods and devices A device for transmitting a distress signal is provided which includes: an impact surface; a power supply for generating electrical energy resulting from an impact force applied to the impact surface; and a transmitter powered by the power supply for transmitter the distress signal. The distress signal can be an RF signal, which can be polarized. The power supply can include one or more piezoelectric generators, at least one capacitor in which the electrical energy generated by the piezoelectric generators is stored and/or an electronics component for regulating a generated voltage and for charging the capacitors. The device can also include a GPS receiver for receiving position data and providing such position data to the transmitter for inclusion into the distress signal.
US08217770B2	Seat belt system A seat belt monitoring system is provided. The seat belt monitoring system includes a seat belt system. The seat belt system has a first portion including a seat belt webbing and a tongue. The seat belt system also includes a buckle. A radio frequency device is associated with the first portion. The seat belt monitoring system further includes a radio frequency receiver that detects either a signal from the radio frequency device or a particular spatial relationship between the radio frequency device and a second radio frequency device placed near the buckle of the seat belt system.
US08217768B2	Video reproduction apparatus and method for providing haptic effects An apparatus and method for allowing a user to dynamically enjoy a video. A difference between image data is computed at every preset unit of time and a vibration corresponding to the computed difference is generated so that the user can sense a motion change of an object within the video. Upon video reproduction, scenes are displayed by applying the lighting effect of a strobe light or the like between the scenes to be reproduced. Upon video reproduction, more enjoyment and various haptic effects can be provided to the user.
US08217765B2	Portable electronics and sensing method A portable electronics includes detection unit which detects a state of the portable electronics, storage unit which stores a detection result of the detection unit at a first period, and determination unit which reads out, every time a second period longer than the first period has elapsed, a plurality of detection results stored in the storage unit during the second period and determines the state of the portable electronics based on the plurality of readout detection results.
US08217756B2	Rule-based filtering and alerting The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates utilizing rule-based technology with radio frequency identification (RFID) network. An interface can receive real-time RFID data from a process comprising at least one device collection in the RFID network, wherein a rules engine (RE) component can employ a declarative event policy associated with the RFID network as rules. The RE allows dynamic updates of business logic associated with applications in real-time without the re-start and/or stop the applications. The system and/or method further comprises a vocabulary component that provides terms that defines at least one of the rule, rule condition, and action based at least in part upon an industry specific nomenclature.
US08217751B2	Electronic device and method An article is provided that includes a plurality of layers. Each layer includes a sinterable mass having a sinter temperature that is less than about 1000 degrees Celsius, and an inner electrode proximate to the sinterable mass. The inner electrode includes a material having a melting point that is within a determined temperature range of about 10 degrees Celsius to about 200 degrees Celsius relative to the sintering temperature. A method to make the article is also provided.
US08217743B2	Magnetic locking system Preferred embodiments of the present magnetic locking system can be used for releasably locking a first component to a second component. In one embodiment, the locking system includes a ferro-magnetic member associated with the first component, where the ferro-magnetic member is made of a ferro-magnetic material, and a housing attached to the second component and positioned adjacent to the ferro-magnetic member. Preferably, the housing includes first and second blocks that sandwich an intermediate block. Further, the first and second blocks are each preferably made of a ferro-magnetic material and the intermediate block is made of a non-ferro-magnetic material. Additionally, there is also an aperture formed within the housing, with a permanent magnet rotatably seated within the aperture. The magnetic locking system preferably includes a switch mechanism that is operatively connected to one of the permanent magnet and the housing, wherein the switch mechanism is configured and arranged to rotate the housing and the permanent magnet relative to each other between an “on” position and an “off” position.
US08217741B1	Magnetically loaded electromechanical switches A switching device is provided. An electromechanical switch controls rotation and/or lateral displacement of a core inside a housing with a magnetic field. The core is magnetically aligned by the magnetic relationship between the core and the housing. An energizing device generates a magnetic field that is sufficiently strong to realign the core with the generated magnetic field. As a result, the core switches to an energized state. When the generated magnetic field is removed, the core switches back to the natural state.
US08217740B2	Electromagnetic relay An electromagnetic relay comprises a coil generating magnetic force when power is distributed, a contact point part opened and closed by the magnetic force, and a fuse functional part having a conductor wired electrically in series with the contact point part and disconnected when predetermined heat quantity is received, and the fuse functional part is disposed at a position which receives arc heat generated in the contact point part when switching the contact point part from conduction state to cut-off state. Thereby, a small electromagnetic relay which enables interruption of current in all current value range can be provided.
US08217723B2	Low noise amplifier circuit Low noise amplifier circuit. The low noise amplifier circuit includes an amplifier that amplifies an input to provide an output. The amplifier is coupled to an input terminal. The circuit also includes a device in a cascode connection with the amplifier. The circuit further includes a tuning circuit coupled to the device to phase shift the output. Further, the circuit includes a feedback circuit that is responsive to a phase-shifted output to enhance gain of the amplifier. The feedback circuit is coupled to the tuning circuit and the amplifier.
US08217722B2	Power amplifier A power amplifier comprises: an amplifying transistor for amplifying an input signal; a reference voltage generating circuit which generates a reference voltage; a bias circuit generating a bias voltage based on the reference voltage and supplying the bias voltage to the amplifying transistor; and a booster elevating an enable voltage input from outside and outputting the enable voltage. The reference voltage generating circuit is turned ON/OFF in correspondence with an output voltage of the booster. The booster includes: an enable terminal to which the enable voltage is applied; a power source terminal connected to a power source; a transistor having a control electrode connected to the enable terminal, a first electrode connected to the power source terminal, and a second electrode that is grounded; and a FET resistor connected between the first electrode of the transistor and the power source terminal. A gate electrode of the FET resistor is open.
US08217718B2	Highly efficient class-D amplifier A simplistic low cost circuit that generates the necessary drive voltage for use in a source follower totem pole power switching circuit is described where the simplified gate drive circuit may have a dual charge pump and a complementary pair of low-power switching Mosfets.
US08217698B2	Clock integrated circuit The clock circuit of an integrated circuit operates with variations such as temperature, ground noise, and power noise. Various aspects of an improved clock integrated circuit address one or more of the variations in temperature, ground noise, and power noise.
US08217696B2	Adaptive digital phase locked loop In some embodiments, a digital PLL is disclosed with a dynamically controllable filter for changing the effective DPLL bandwidth in response to one or more real-time performance parameters such as phase error.
US08217693B2	Charge pump with reduced current mismatch Charge pump circuitry is provided that is insensitive to charge sharing and current mismatch effects. The charge pump circuitry has an output node at which a charge pump output voltage is provided. A first current source charges the output node to increase the output voltage or a second current source discharge the output node to decrease the output voltage. The charge pump circuitry uses a unit-gain op-amp circuit to prevent charge sharing effects from affecting the output voltage when switching between discharging and charging operations. A low-pass filter is used to reduce feedback noise on the output node. A replica feedback circuit prevents current mismatch between the currents produced by the first and second current sources. The first and second current sources may be formed using programmable transistors that are adjusted by static control signals provided by programmable elements to further minimize current mismatch.
US08217689B2	Method and circuit for DisplayPort video clock recovery A method and a circuit are described for recovery of video clocks for a DisplayPort receiver. The disclosure includes two clock dividers, a direct digital synthesis (DDS), a fixed multiplier Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) on a DisplayPort video system. A DisplayPort receiver link clock is divided to a lower frequency as the input of the DDS which can lower the performance requirement on a DDS circuit. The output from a time stamp value indirectly controls a direct digital synthesis device, which then drives a PLL to generate the recovery clock signal. The technique is suitable for implementation on an integrated circuit and Field Programmable Gate array system.

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