Document Document Title
US08297428B2 Angled currency processing system
An angled arrangement of a currency document handling device and a second unit and an angle arrangement of two currency document handling devices, components of the same, and methods of coupling and using the same. For example, a currency document processing system for processing currency documents including currency bills comprises a currency handling device, a first currency document receiving unit, and a first angular transport unit. The first currency document receiving unit is adapted to receive at least some bills processed by the currency handling device. The first angular transport unit is adapted to receive bills from the currency handling device and transport bills to the first currency document receiving unit. The angular transport unit is adapted to be coupled between the currency handling device and the first currency document receiving unit such that the currency handling device and the first currency document receiving units are angled relative to each other such as by ninety degrees (90°).
US08297422B2 Multiple clutch device
A multiple clutch device which includes a drive unit, a downstream transmission connected to a drive shaft of the drive unit and accommodated in a clutch bell that does not co-rotate with the drive shaft, two wet multi-plate clutches, which include a plate support at the input and output end and plates alternating axially, and an actuation mechanism. A housing of the actuation mechanism is supported on the clutch bell, and the plate support at the input end of at least one of the multi-plate clutches is connected to the housing by a supporting metal sheet or a supporting pot and a footstep bearing such that a flow of an actuation force generated by the actuation mechanism is redirected to the housing of the actuation mechanism via the supporting metal sheet or the supporting pot and the footstep bearing, thus creating a closed force flow within the device.
US08297421B2 Active materials actuated one-way clutch
A one-way clutch for assisting the rotation of a rotary fluid motor includes a ratchet and a hub rotatable about a longitudinal axis relative to the ratchet. The ratchet includes a plurality of teeth, and the hub includes a pawl for engaging the teeth to rotate the ratchet in a single direction of rotation. A control device including an active material interconnects the pawl and the hub. The active material of the control device contracts in response to a control signal to move the pawl. An actuator including an active material is spirally wound around an outer periphery of the hub. The active material of the actuator contracts to spin the hub and thereby drive the ratchet.
US08297420B2 Method for manufacturing an overrunning clutch
Rollers and springs are installed in notch portions of a clutch outer (S104), an inscribed circle diameter of the rollers is measured in a state in which the rollers are placed in contact with stopping portions by pressure from the springs (S105), and an outside diameter of a cylindrical portion is determined from the inscribed circle diameter measured value such that a predetermined amount of roller bite is achieved (S106). Then, the outside diameter of the cylindrical portion is finished so as to have the determined value of the outside diameter (S108). An overrunning clutch is assembled by pairing together the clutch outer, rollers, and springs and the clutch inner (S110).
US08297415B2 Light weight bicycle brake assembly
A light weight brake assembly for bicycles is disclosed. Some embodiments of the invention are designed to enhance assembly adjustability, for example to accommodate geometric variations that occur with various bicycle frame and wheel geometries. Some embodiments of the invention are designed to allow for a brake leverage that can be non-linear and capable of multiplying during brake actuation so that braking force increases more rapidly than brake lever force applied by the user. Some embodiments of the invention are designed to provide a brake sensitivity that is adjustable in use. Some embodiments provide for a quick-release functionality, for example by quickly increasing the gap between the two brake pads so that the wheel can be easily/quickly removed.
US08297414B2 Wire quick release device for brake wire of bicycle
A wire quick release device of the present invention is mounted on a bicycle in association with a brake device and a brake wire of the bicycle. The wire quick release device includes a quick release having a handle to operate in order to press the brake wire onto the brake device and loosen the brake wire in order to simplify the work of fastening and releasing the brake wire.
US08297412B2 Elevator dispatching control for sway mitigation
An elevator system (20) includes an elongated member (30, 32, 34) that may sway under certain conditions. An exemplary method of controlling the elevator system (20) includes selectively controlling an elevator car dispatching schedule when a condition exists that is conducive to sway of one of the elongated members (30, 32, 34). The control over the elevator car dispatching schedule controls the time that the elevator car is in a predetermined critical zone while the condition exists such that the time does not exceed a selected amount.
US08297408B2 Magnetic stabilizer for material handling equipment
A stabilizer for material handling equipment, includes a base mount for mounting to the material handling equipment, a main frame pivotally attached to the base mount, and a release lever and magnet housing pivotally mounted to the main frame. A biasing element holds the main frame in a disengaged position away from a metallic floor surface. The release lever can be addressed by a user to overcome the biasing element and rotate the magnet housing to an engaged position, so that magnets in the magnet housing engage the metallic floor surface, holding or anchoring the material handling equipment in place. In order to disengage the magnets from the metallic floor surface, the user forces the release lever in an opposite direction, prying the magnets from the floor surface, upon which the biasing element further rotates the main frame, removing the magnet housing from the proximity of the floor.
US08297395B2 Scooter-type vehicle
A scooter-type vehicle can freely set a capacity of a fuel filter without being restricted by swing of a unit-swing type engine. A fuel supply device includes a fuel tank and a fuel supply passage for supplying fuel to an engine. A pump-anterior filter for purifying the fuel in the fuel tank, a fuel pump, a fuel filter disposed on the downstream side of the fuel pump, and an injector for injecting fuel are arranged on the fuel supply passage in this order. The fuel filter is disposed between the upper surface of the fuel tank and the step floor. The size of the fuel filter can freely be set without being restricted by swing of the engine located rearward of the fuel tank.
US08297391B2 Power supply system, vehicle provided with the same, power supply system control method and computer-readable recording medium bearing program for causing computer to control the power supply system
First and second converters are connected in parallel to positive and negative lines, respectively. When a required power is smaller than a reference value, an ECU controls the first and second converters such that one of the first and second converters operates and the other stops. When the required power is equal to or larger than the reference value, the ECU controls the first and second converters such that both the first and second converters operate.
US08297388B2 Wheelchair with suspension arms
Each wheel (10, 14/20, 24) of the wheelchair (1) is fixed to a suspension arm (11,15/21, 25). A force transmitting device, for example a spring and damper of the wheelchair unit, directly connects two suspension arms situated on the same side of the wheeled conveyance, so that forces exerted on one of the wheels are transmitted to the other wheel. In this way, obstacles can more conveniently be overcome. A further advantage of the wheelchair is that it can be easily upscaled and driving properties can be adjusted according to a user's preferences.
US08297384B2 Methods and apparatus for utilizing electrically powered vehicles
Methods and apparatus may augment the utility of an electrically powered vehicle. A first electric motor (110a or 111a) may be provided with a first effective gear ratio, a second electric motor (110b or 111b) may be provided with a second effective gear ratio, and additional electric motors may be provided additional effective gear ratios. An electrically powered vehicle may be differentially powered by said electric motors at said different effective gear ratios. A transdisciplinary electrical diagnostic processor (440) may process electrically recondite operation parameters of one or more electrical components to provide transdisciplinary diagnostic output to a user. A standardized modular interface (540) supported on a trailer chassis (510) may be configured to accept multipurposed modular interchangeable trailer tops (560) at an interchange position (550) of said trailer chassis (510). A hand actuated accessory mount may be provided with a quick release interface (322).
US08297383B2 Endless track suspension
An endless track suspension is comprised of a suspension support beam having an idler wheel assembly connected to a respective one of opposed ends thereof. At least one of the idler wheel assemblies has an endless track binding mechanism. Support wheels are secured to the suspension support beam and project from a lower face thereof. A drive sprocket is secured elevated above the suspension support beam by a support arm. The drive sprocket is secured to a vehicle drive axle by a coupling ring. The drive sprocket, the support wheels and idler wheels constitute an endless track support assembly for supporting an endless track in drivable engagement thereabout. A flexible connection of the drive sprocket support arm and the support wheels absorbs shocks and vibrations transmitted to the vehicle drive axle by the displacement of the endless track over a rough ground surface.
US08297382B2 Polycrystalline diamond compacts, method of fabricating same, and various applications
Embodiments of the invention relate to polycrystalline diamond (“PCD”) exhibiting enhanced diamond-to-diamond bonding. In an embodiment, polycrystalline diamond compact (“PDC”) includes a PCD table having a maximum thickness. At least a portion of the PCD table includes a plurality of diamond grains defining a plurality of interstitial regions. A metal-solvent catalyst occupies at least a portion of the plurality of interstitial regions. The plurality of diamond grains and the metal-solvent catalyst collectively exhibit a coercivity of about 115 Oersteds (“Oe”) or more and a specific magnetic saturation of about 15 Gauss·cm3/grams (“G·cm3/g”) or less. The PDC includes a substrate having an interfacial surface that is bonded to the PCD table. The interfacial surface exhibits a substantially planar topography. Other embodiments are directed to methods of forming PCD and PDCs, and various applications for such PCD and PDCs in rotary drill bits, bearing apparatuses, and wire-drawing dies.
US08297372B2 Soil aeration device having close-coupled shafts
An agricultural implement for towing over fields, for incorporating crop residues into soil, possessing a pair of juxtaposed, substantially parallel, spaced-apart, rotatable shafts, comprising a first forwardly-mounted shaft and a second rearwardly-mounted shaft, each mounted on a frame transversely to a direction of travel of said implement. A plurality of protruding tine members, extending substantially radially outwardly from each of said pair of shafts and longitudinally spaced along each of said pair of shafts, each tine member adapted to rotate about a longitudinal axis of a respective shaft, a tip of each of said tine members when rotating about said respective shaft creating a circular arc, are further provided. The circular arcs of the tine members on one of said pair of shafts interdigitate with a corresponding plurality of circular arcs of said tine members on said other of said pair of shafts.
US08297371B1 System and methods for fire protection
A fire protection system for helping to prevent an area from catching fire comprising a large fire-resistant tarp for draping over the area; cables slidably attached along the side edges of the tarp via eyelets; a guide rope near the bottom of the tarp for helping to help spread the tarp over the area; a plurality of attachment components at the bottom of the tarp for attaching to a structure in the area to secure the tarp; a weighted component disposed near the bottom edge of the tarp to help guide the tarp to a particular position over the area or help prevent the tarp from being blown by drafts; and a flap disposed at the bottom edge of the tarp, the flap remains unrestrained when the tarp is secured over the area, wherein an individual can take shelter beneath the flap.
US08297367B2 Mechanism for activating a plurality of downhole devices
A mechanism for selectively activating a plurality of downhole pathways including a) a valve having: i) a sleeve coupled for movement between an open and normally closed position; and ii) a valve magnet set mounted to the sleeve; and b) a dart for pumping in hole including a dart magnet set matched to the valve magnet set such that the dart couples to the valve when in close proximity and, in turn, the sleeve moves from the closed position to the open position.
US08297360B2 Apparatus and method for processing fluids from a well
Provided is a system, including a first module (35b) configured to process fluid from a well, wherein the first module (35b) has an extension conduit (5b), having a connection that is coupleable to a central mandrel of a manifold (5), a processing device arranged in a region surrounding the extension conduit (5b), a processing input (18a), and a processing output (19a). Further provided is a method of processing well fluids, including diverting fluids from a bore of a manifold (1) to a processing module (35b), wherein the processing module (35b) is coupled to a mandrel of the manifold (5), processing the fluids in the processing module (35b), and returning the fluids to a flowpath (19a) for recovery.
US08297357B2 Acid-soluble cement compositions comprising cement kiln dust and/or a natural pozzolan and methods of use
The present invention relates to acid-soluble cement compositions that comprise cement kiln dust (“CKD”) and/or a natural pozzolan and associated methods of use. An embodiment includes a method of cementing comprising: placing an acid-soluble cement composition in a subterranean formation, wherein the acid-soluble cement composition comprises a hydraulic cement, a component selected from the group consisting of CKD, pumicite, and a combination thereof, and water; allowing the acid-soluble cement composition to set; and contacting the set acid-soluble cement composition with an acid to dissolve the set acid-soluble cement composition.
US08297351B2 Downhole sensing system using carbon nanotube FET
Subterranean sensing devices configured or designed for downhole use to sense a local condition in the well. The sensing devices comprise one or more transistor having at least one carbon nanotube field effect transistor (CNT FET) configured or designed for operation downhole, within a borehole.
US08297344B2 Modular air-cooled condenser apparatus and method
An air-cooled condenser for receiving and condensing steam has at least one first, corner module and at least one second, intermediate module. The first module has a four-sided profile in plan view and a respective vertical tube bundle panel located on each of two adjacent sides of the first module. The second module has a four-sided profile in plan view and a vertical tube bundle panel on one of its sides, and an internal tube bundle panel disposed inside of the second module. Steam is supplied to all of the tube bundle panels.
US08297340B2 Method of producing ductile iron
Process for producing ductile iron by treating liquid iron with an initializer which is a ferrosilicon alloy comprising an effective amount of barium sufficient to inactivate the oxygen activity of the liquid iron. This is followed at a predetermined time thereafter by treating the liquid iron with a magnesium containing nodularizer, followed by treating the liquid iron with a eutectic graphite nucleation-inducing inoculant, and casting the iron.
US08297336B2 Barrier means
Barrier means are provided having a frame including a plurality of frame members, movable between a first substantially erect condition and a second substantially folded condition. At least one of the frame members including two or more telescopically mounted portions capable of relative movement to allow expansion and/or contraction of the length of the frame member. Locking means are associated with one or more of said frame portions to allow the portion or portions to be locked at a required length. The locking means are movable between the locked and/or unlocked position by relative movement of the frame portion or portions with which the locking means are associated.
US08297330B2 Welded knot end effector
An apparatus for forming an end effector includes a welding device having a welder positioned adjacent to a base, and a die coupled to one end of the welder. The base and the welder are movable relative to each other. The welder, base or die includes a source of heat that is applied to a portion of the suture disposed between the welder and the base.
US08297329B2 Coating film transfer tool
An arm rotation shaft of a tape base is disposed so as to be in a position on the substantially opposite side to a winding bobbin across a feeding bobbin, one end of a first arm closer than the outer peripheral face of the transfer tape wound around the feeding bobbin is fixed to an arm rotation shaft, and a tape head is provided on the other end of the first arm. By rotation of the first arm taking the arm rotation shaft as a fulcrum, the tape head is rotated.
US08297328B2 Coating film transfer tool
To provide a coating film transfer tool in which a transfer head is loaded within a case in such a manner as to come out of and go back into the case, and in which the excessive pressure on the transfer head which is projected outside the case is absorbed so as to improve the operability of the coating film transfer tool, the coating film transfer tool includes a coating film transfer section which is disposed in an interior of an accommodation case, and the coating film transfer section includes a supply bobbin, a take-up bobbin and a rotation transmitting device for transmitting the rotation of the supply bobbin to the take-up bobbin, and the coating film transfer section also includes a transfer head in such a state that the transfer head is projected from the coating film transfer section around which an unwound transfer tape from the supply bobbin is made to be suspended, a knocking member projected from the rear end of the accommodation case, a rotary member and a rotary support member disposed between the coating film transfer section and the knocking member, and an elastic member for biasing the coating film transfer section to the rearward, wherein the rotary support member has flexible support arms so that the coating film transfer section can be slightly moved back and forth within the accommodation case.
US08297325B2 Semi-hollow pneumatic tyre and associated wheel rim, notably for agricultural machinery
A pneumatic tyre of the semi-hollow type includes a casing having an uninflated inner volume and including an inner wall provided with a retaining bead and a convex outer wall forming the tread of the tyre, the inner wall and the outer wall of the tyre being connected by two annular borders. The inner wall of the tyre is concave so as to surmount a convex outer wall of the peripheral seat of a rim of a wheel, this outer wall being provided with a peripheral slot adapted to accommodate the retaining bead of the tyre.
US08297324B2 Pneumatic tire for motorcycle
The present invention provides a pneumatic tire for a motorcycle, in which tire durability at a relatively high speed in running straight is enhanced with maintaining good gripping performances in cornering situation by optimizing the distribution of loss tangent in tread rubbers constituting a tread portion. The pneumatic tire for a motorcycle includes a pair of bead portions 1 having bead cores embedded therein, a pair of sidewalls 2 extending on the outer side in the tire radial direction from the bead portions 1, and a tread portion 3 extending over the respective sidewall portions 2, wherein the tread portion 3 is constituted of at least four tread regions such that, when the tread regions are viewed in a section in the tire widthwise direction, loss tangent values of rubbers constituting the adjacent tread regions are different from each other, and a loss tangent value of a rubber constituting a center tread region 5 as a tread region including the tire equatorial plane 4, of the tread regions, is smaller than a loss tangent value of each of rubbers constituting other tread regions 6.
US08297323B2 Pneumatic tire
The present invention provides a pneumatic tire having: a circumferential groove continuously extending in the tire circumferential direction in a ground contact surface of a tread portion; and a resonator provided in a land portion and constituted of a resonance cell portion opened to a ground contact region at a position distanced from the circumferential groove and a siping portion making the resonance cell portion communicate with the circumferential groove, wherein change in a tread pattern as time lapses can be alleviated without scarifying an effect of reducing pipe resonance sounds. Specifically, an opening width of the siping portion at the ground contact surface of the tread portion is designed to change in the longitudinal direction thereof such that the opening with is relatively narrow on the side of the circumferential groove and relatively wide on the side of the resonance cell portion.
US08297319B2 Carrier gas system and coupling substrate carrier to a loadport
A method for pressurizing a substrate carrier including pressurizing a chamber that is of unitary construction with the carrier and/or a substrate cassette within the carrier and maintaining a pressure within the carrier by releasing gas from the chamber into the carrier.
US08297318B2 Check valve
A check valve made up of a substantially rigid portion and a substantially flexible membrane that is generally dome shaped. The substantially rigid portion includes one or more spokes that meet in the center of the rigid portion and one or more partial spokes extending part way to the center of the rigid portion. The dome shaped, substantially flexible membrane also includes one or more flexible spokes and one or more collapse zones. The completed check valve is made by connecting a center portion of the substantially rigid portion to a center portion of the dome shaped, substantially flexible membrane.
US08297316B2 Parabolic bonnet for three-way valve
A fluid control device including a valve body, a control member, and a one-piece bonnet. The valve body defines a flow path for a fluid. The control member is disposed in the valve body and adapted for displacement between at least a first position and a second position. The one-piece bonnet is coupled to the valve body and defines a protrusion. The protrusion extends at least partially into the flow path and is arranged to direct at least some of the fluid flowing along the flow path when the control member is disposed between the first position and the second position.
US08297314B2 Solenoid actuated pilot valve for irrigation system valve
A solenoid actuated pilot valve includes a pilot valve housing defining a pilot valve chamber and a solenoid. The solenoid includes and end cap connected to the pilot valve housing, a reciprocable plunger, and a piston having a shaft with a first end connected to and end of the plunger and a second end connected to a piston head. The end cap has a bore through which the shaft of the piston reciprocates and a first port separate from the bore. A first seal on a first side of the piston head is provided for sealing a first end of the first port. A second seal on a second side of the piston head is provided for sealing a first end of a second port in the pilot valve housing.
US08297309B2 Air pump device and its inflatable product
An inflatable product has an air pump device and a pressure releasing valve. The air pump device has a housing and a pumping assembly. The housing has two openings as an inlet opening and an outlet opening. The pumping assembly is mounted in the housing and has a motor and a fan. The motor is mounted between the inlet and outlet openings and drives the fan. Consequently, mounting the motor between the first opening and the second opening dissipates the heat of the motor because the air passing by the motor cools the motor. The pressure releasing valve is adjusted by users and releases air while pressure of air in the inflatable body reaches a predetermined pressure level.
US08297303B2 Self cleaning valve assembly
A self cleaning valve assembly includes a valve body having an internal valve cavity. A cylinder member received in the valve cavity has a first sealing surface and a cylinder wall, and divides the valve cavity into a liquid-free cavity portion and a flow cavity portion. A spindle includes a spindle body contacting the first sealing surface to continuously prevent pressurized fluid in the flow cavity portion from entering the liquid-free cavity portion. A spindle piston end has a wiper member in a receiving groove frictionally contacting the cylinder wall. A handle pinned to the valve assembly directly contacts the piston end. Handle rotation displaces the spindle from a valve closed to a valve open position permitting pressurized fluid flow into the flow cavity portion. The wiper member wipes a contaminant off the cylinder wall and further prevents contaminant entrance into the liquid-free cavity portion.
US08297300B2 Anti-backflow vacuum breaker valve
An anti-back flow vacuum breaker valve that includes a valve body having a cylindrical internal chamber having an upper portion and a reduced diameter lower portion forming a horizontal valve seat, and having an inlet communicating with the chamber on the underside of the valve seat, and having an outlet communicating with the chamber on the over side of the valve seat. A ball is positioned within the internal chamber for sealing the inlet of the valve body. A valve cap having a lower portion mating with the upper portion of the valve body sealed and securely attached to the valve body, and having an internal conical chamber having a central vertical journal therein, forming a journal vent with a vent seat at the lower end thereof aligned with the valve seat of the body. A buoyant vent plug having an upper stem slidably engaged within the journal vent of the cap, and the vent plug engagable with the vent seat, wherein the vent plug for elevation by the ball upon fluid flow through the inlet to seal the vent, and wherein the vent plug for elevation by backflow of fluid through the outlet to seal the vent.
US08297299B2 Check vacuum breaking device for a tap
A check vacuum breaking device for a tap includes a locking member screwed into a chamber of a tap. The chamber includes an inlet and an outlet. The locking member includes a cover member secured on a top end thereof and having plural air bores disposed around a rim of the cover member, and a shaft extends downward from a center of a bottom surface of the cover member. A fitting member is assembled to the chamber of the tap and includes a hollow peg extending upward from a central portion thereof and having a closed bottom to be fitted to the shaft of the locking member. The hollow peg includes a stepped recess formed on an upper end thereof, and a stopping pad is fitted to the stepped recess. The fitting member includes an annular loading member fitted to a lower end thereof and an anti-leak loop to cover the loading member.
US08297293B2 Substrate support unit, and substrate treating apparatus and method using the same
Provided are a substrate support unit and a substrate treating apparatus and method using the same. The substrate support unit includes a first support part and a second support part. The first support part is movable in a first direction. The first support part supports a first portion of a substrate in which a processing fluid is supplied in a direction corresponding to the first direction. The second support part is movable in a second direction. The second support part supports a second portion of the substrate. At least one of the first support part and the second support part supports the substrate while the processing fluid is supplied.
US08297291B1 Combination parts washer and sink washer
A combination parts washer for cleaning mechanical parts of oil, grease and contaminants. The washer has a cabinet which has two reservoirs. A parts receptacle in the one of the reservoirs receives the parts which are cleaned by ultrasonic waves. An operable sink for manual cleaning is positioned on the top of the cabinet and opens to access the cabinet and reservoir. Fluid from the sink drains to the first reservoir. In the closed position, the sink covers the top of the cabinet and may be used as a sink washer using the attached brush supplied by fluid from the first reservoir. Initial pre-cleaning may be performed in the sink using the brush. Subsequent precision cleaning may be accomplished by immersion and ultrasonic cleaning in the second reservoir.
US08297290B2 Multi-angled dental floss holder
A dental floss holder includes a shank (11), an adjusting member (12) pivotally mounted on the shank and a cleaning unit (20) detachably mounted on the adjusting member. Thus, the rotation portion (111) of the shank is rotated relative to the mounting portion (122) of the adjusting member to adjust the inclined angle between the shank and the adjusting member so that the inclined angle between the shank and the cleaning unit is adjusted according to a user's requirement so as to facilitate the user clearing the teeth in different inclined angles.
US08297276B2 Dry snorkels and methods
Methods are disclosed for improving the performance and design of snorkels (20) that are arranged to reduce splashes of water from entering the snorkel (20) during use. Methods including providing a non-floating active portion (72) and a spring member (54) to move active portion (72) to a closed position (68). Methods are provided for using weighted members (94) and, or floats (44) in conjunction with biasing members (54) exerted with torque across pivoting arms (42) and along longitudinal directions of motion (100). Methods are provided for enabling dry top snorkel devices (38) to automatically achieve, maintain or reestablish a closed position (68) at depth even if little or no pressure differential exists between the inside and outside of the snorkel (20) or if the sealed connection is disengaged at depth, such as can occur during a firm exhale at depth. Other methods are providing for moving the sealing member (46) to a closed position (68) even if no float (44) is used or if no spring member (54) is used.
US08297273B2 Controlling apparatus for a concentration photovoltaic system
Disclosed is a controlling apparatus for use in a photovoltaic system. The photovoltaic system includes a solar cell array, an inverter and a solar tracker. The solar tracker includes a solar position sensor, a controller connected to the solar position sensor, a first motor connected to the controller for rotating the solar cell array according to the azimuth of the sun and a second motor connected to the controller for tilting the solar cell array according to the elevation of the sun. The controlling apparatus includes a central unit, a basic unit, a diagnosis unit, a maintenance unit, a security unit and a check unit.
US08297268B2 Apparatus for launching subcaliber projectiles at propellant operating pressures including the range of operating pressures that may be supplied by human breath
A blowgun for efficiently and accurately launching subcaliber projectiles comprises: an elongate barrel; a detent comprising a magnet affixed near the proximal end of the barrel and a protrusion partially obstructing the bore breech; an associated conical shell discarding sabot; and an associated subcaliber projectile having a magnetically attractable foreshaft and a lightweight elongate shaft. The magnet and the protrusion cooperate antagonistically to hold the projectile abuttingly seated against the sabot in loaded disposition pending launch. The projectile shaft serves in-flight as an aerodynamic stabilizer. Alternatively a subcaliber steel BB-shot is launched with a foam sabot. Another alternative embodiment operates without a detent. An additional alternative embodiment utilizes a blowgun comprising a barrel having a longitudinal straight-line groove in the inner surface of the bore. During launch, the groove guides a cooperating portion of an optional projectile, selectively subcaliber or full-caliber.
US08297264B2 Adaptive pressure control valve with variable switching point
A valve for the control of a gas stream is provided with a valve housing enclosing a valve chamber. At least one pressure-sided inlet and at least one suction-sided outlet is provided with a valve opening between them to link them. An elastically movable control membrane is arranged at the valve housing which reduces or increases the flow cross section in the area of the at least one valve opening and/or opens or closes the at least one valve opening. A first device exerts a first further force on the control membrane in such a way that with an increasing pressure difference the further force exerted by the first device on the control membrane in opposite direction to the closure direction of the valve increases.
US08297262B2 Fuel vapor storage and recovery apparatus
A fuel vapor storage and recovery apparatus includes a fuel vapor storage canister, said fuel vapor storage canister comprising at least first and second vapor storage compartments filled with an absorbent material, for instance filled with activated carbon, at least a vapor inlet port, an atmospheric vent port and a purge port. Said fuel vapor storage canister defines an air flow path between said vapor inlet port and said atmospheric vent port during shut-off of the internal combustion engine of the vehicle. During purging cycles there is defined an air flow path between said atmospheric vent port and said purge port wherein said first and second vapor storage compartments are arranged in concentric relationship and wherein said first and second vapor storage compartments in flow direction are separated from each other by an air gap diffusion barrier.
US08297253B2 Rotary piston engine
A rotary piston engine with a frame, a cylinder liner mounted rotatably therein, a rotor mounted coaxially in the cylinder liner and a gear mechanism connecting the frame, the liner and the rotor, where the gear mechanism is outside a working space arranged between liner and rotor and where the gear mechanism couples the cylinder liner and the rotor for a relative movement periodically oscillating between positive and negative rotational speed. The gear mechanism and the liner form with the rotor a transmission with five rotational joints with a degree of freedom of one and one rotational/prismatic joint, where the gear mechanism has a rotational element mounted rotatably by a first rotational joint on the frame and a connecting rod connected rotatably by a second rotational joint to the rotational element and rotatably by a third rotational joint to the cylinder liner and by the rotational/prismatic joint to the rotor.
US08297244B2 Device for variably adjusting control times of gas exchange valves of an internal combustion engine
A device for variably adjusting control times of gas exchange valves of an internal combustion engine. The device has a drive element, an output element, a rotation angle limiting device, and a control valve and counter-working pressure chambers. Phase adjustment between the output and drive element is initiated by applying pressure to one of the pressure chambers while discharging the other pressure chamber. The rotation angle limiting device, which can be transferred from a locked state into an unlocked state due to pressure, prevents phasing when locked and allows phasing when unlocked. The control valve has a valve housing and a control piston. An inflow connection, an outflow connection, a first and a second working connection and a third working connection are embodied on the valve housing. The working connections are offset in relation to other and do not overlap on the valve housing.
US08297243B2 Switchable cam follower of a valve train of an internal combustion engine
A switchable cam follower of a valve train of a combustion engine, which has an external lever that encompasses an internal lever between its arms. The levers are pivotally moveable relative to one another on an axis applied to a valve-side end. The cam follower also has a stop for a gas exchange valve on an underside on the valve-side end and on the other end has a complementary face for a support element. Additionally, the cam follower has a start face on an upper side for at least one high-lift cam. In one receptacle of one of the cams, a coupling element is seated, which can be brought into engagement in sections in case of coupling with a driving surface of the other lever. Further, a lost-motion spring is clamped between the two levers and is positioned in the region of the other end of the cam follower.
US08297240B2 Variable valve timing control apparatus for internal combustion engine
A variable valve timing control apparatus for an internal combustion engine having a crankshaft and a camshaft, the variable valve timing control apparatus including a hydraulic variable valve timing device, an intermediate lock mechanism, and an oil pressure control device. The control apparatus learns an intermediate lock position to obtain a learning value of the intermediate lock position when the intermediate lock mechanism locks the VCT phase at the intermediate lock position. The control apparatus computes an actual VCT phase based on the learning value of the intermediate lock position. The control apparatus computes a target VCT phase in accordance with an operational condition of the engine based on the learning value of the intermediate lock position. The control apparatus controls a control amount of the oil pressure control device such that the actual VCT phase becomes the target VCT phase.
US08297225B2 Capacitive CVD reactor and methods for plasma CVD process
A decoupled capacitive CVD reactor is described, which provides improved CVD capabilities, including processing at lower temperatures, performing alternating deposition and etching steps, and performing in situ cleaning of the chamber, without the need for a remote plasma source. Two RF frequencies are coupled to the susceptor, while the anode is grounded. The high frequency RF source is operated so as to control the plasma density, while the low frequency RF source is operated to control species bombardment on the substrate, so as to control the properties of the film being deposited. Additionally, both RF sources may be controlled, together with selection of gasses supplied to the chamber, to operate the chamber either in deposition mode, partial etch mode, etching mode, or cleaning mode.
US08297222B2 Fully automated paste dispense system for dispensing small dots and lines
A method of dispensing a flowable conductive paste onto a greensheet from a dispensing apparatus comprising an orifice member having first and second surfaces and a bore therethrough between the surfaces, a pressurized chamber adjacent the orifice member first surface containing the paste, and a punch having a face movable through the orifice member bore. The method comprises positioning the punch outside the orifice member bore such that the punch face is spaced from the orifice member first surface, flowing a desired amount of paste onto the punch face, moving the paste on the punch face through the orifice member bore until the punch face extends beyond the orifice member second surface, and contacting the workpiece with the paste while still on the punch face to deposit the paste on the greensheet. The method then provides for retracting the punch until the punch face is substantially coplanar with the orifice member second surface, and then cleaning the punch face and coplanar orifice member second surface to remove any residual paste thereon.
US08297221B2 Apparatus for slot die setup and control during coating
The invention relates generally to an apparatus and method that enables a very accurate initial setup of the coating gap for slot die coater and subsequent control of the coating gap during coating operations such that web splices and web defects do not interrupt the coating process. An highly accurate initial set up is achieved via the use of a tapered or wedge-shaped adjustment member mounted perpendicular to the axis of travel of the coating head where the movement of this tapered or wedge-shaped adjustment member in a direction perpendicular to the axis of travel of the slot die housing adjusts the coating gap in increments on the order of ten microns. Substrate splices and defects are detected prior to reaching the coating position such that a feed-forward controller is able to momentarily retract the coating head both avoiding slot die damage and avoiding interruption of the coating process, yet the apparatus is able to return the coating head, with high precision, to its prior position once the splice or defect has passed.
US08297220B2 Robotic soaper
A single-cell workstation for processing a tire-wheel assembly including a tire and a wheel is disclosed. The single cell workstation includes a soaping sub-station. The soaping sub-station includes a housing defined by a support surface and one or more walls extending from the support surface and a plurality of fluid dispensing portions extending from the support surface. An apparatus for lubricating one or more beads of a tire is also disclosed. The apparatus includes a head portion; a plurality of radially-adjustable clamping portions axially extending from the head portion; and a plurality of radially-adjustable lubrication applicators axially extending from the head portion.
US08297205B2 Bedpost shelf for dormitory room bed
A shelf unit for attachment to the top of the bedpost of a dormitory room bed. The shelf has a bedpost interface which makes the shelf easy to install, without tools, and which will not damage the bedpost. The bedpost interface may be a pin that mates with a vertical hole located in many dormitory room bedposts, with an optional bracket to prevent the shelf from rotating about the axis of the pin. Alternatively, the bedpost interface may be a sleeve that fits snugly over the top of the bedpost.
US08297203B2 Rail vehicle having height adjustment for a floor plate
A rail vehicle contains a floor plate, which is supported on a shell floor plate with height adjustment elements therebetween. The height adjustment elements have two components arranged one over the other, of which the one rests against the floor plate from below and the other rests against the shell floor plate from above, wherein the two components can be fixed in various positions relative to each other in order to set a total height of the height adjustment elements.
US08297199B2 Railcar primary suspension
A railcar primary suspension is configured to couple an axle box to a truck frame by a coupling mechanism. The coupling mechanism includes: a radius arm including a tubular part which has openings at both sides thereof; a shaft inserted into the tubular part and provided with projecting portions formed at both side surfaces of the shaft; a pair of receiving seats including fitting grooves in which the respective projecting portions are fitted; cover members configured to support the respective projecting portions; and fastening members configured to fix the cover members to the respective receiving seats. A portion of each fitting groove and a portion of the corresponding projecting portion, the portions contacting each other, respectively have arc surfaces, and a portion of each projecting portion and a portion of the corresponding cover member, the portions contacting each other, respectively have flat surfaces.
US08297198B2 Hydraulic-electric regenerative energy storage system
A hydraulic energy storage system (comprising a hydraulic pump/motor, a high pressure hydraulic accumulator, a low pressure hydraulic accumulator/reservoir, and interconnecting hydraulic lines) is incorporated into a EV, HEV, or PHEV to provide hydraulic regenerative braking and propulsive assistance for the vehicle. Implementation of the low cost and long-lasting hydraulic energy storage system in the vehicle, together with the electric energy storage system (comprising a motor/generator and battery pack) of the vehicle, allows significantly reduced demands and higher operating efficiencies for the battery pack, thereby facilitating a more cost-effective, efficient and/or durable overall energy storage system for the vehicle.
US08297193B1 Surrogate RPG
A surrogate RPG includes a warhead with an outer conductive portion and an inner conductive portion spaced from the outer conductive portion. A sabot includes an electrical circuit configured to monitor conductivity between the inner and outer conductive portions. The surrogate RPG can be used to test the effectiveness of various RPG defeat technologies.
US08297192B2 Insensitive munitions warhead explosive venting system
A venting system for a casing containing an explosive material includes a base plug having one or more venting ports. A ring-shaped failure mechanism mounted to the base plug seals the venting ports. The failure mechanism has a selected melting temperature such that raising the temperature of the failure mechanism to its melting temperature causes the failure mechanism to unseal the venting port to allow controlled burning of the explosive material. An insert ring formed of a durable material to protect the failure mechanism from being damaged may be mounted on an outer surface of the failure mechanism. An adhesive may be used to seal gaps between the failure mechanism, the insert ring and the base plug. The failure mechanism may have a peripheral tab formed to fit within a corresponding groove in the base plug to mount the failure mechanism securely to the base plug.
US08297190B1 Door breaching device with radially expandable explosive
A cartridge assembly for breaching a door including a cartridge case, a cartridge body, and a fuse. The cartridge case contains a first propellant and a primer. The cartridge body has a rearward end in locking engagement with a forward end of the cartridge case, a channel located in the cartridge body contains an extrudable explosive, a piston in slidable engagement in the channel is in a forward end of said channel, the piston being forward of the extrudable explosive contained in the channel, whereby rearward movement of the piston forces extrudable explosive rearwardly and radially outwardly through extrusion ports into a cavity inside of the cartridge body where a bladder is stowed. The piston has a rearwardly projecting detonator pin which upon movement to a rearward most position engages a rearward escapement and detonator which in turn initiates detonation of explosive in the bladder. A fuse is attached to a forward end of the cartridge body. A proximity fuse or contact fuse may be used.
US08297186B2 Apparatus and method for changing printing plates
An apparatus and method for changing printing plates is disclosed. A printing plate cartridge for a printing press has multiple cases for accommodating printing plates to be removed during a printing plate change and for accommodating printing plates to be installed during a printing plate change. The printing plate cartridge is mounted in such a way that it may be moved in a rotationally pivotable fashion and in a linear fashion relative to a printing group of the printing press, such that the printing plate cartridge is able to service multiple printing units of the printing group during a printing plate change.
US08297184B2 Synchronous control method and apparatus for rotary stencil printing press
A synchronous control method and apparatus for a rotary stencil printing press individually drive a rotary screen cylinder by a dedicated drive motor, can set how many rotations have been made before arrival of a sheet at a screen printing unit when synchronous control of the drive motor with respect to a prime motor of a sheet-fed offset printing press is started, and stop the rotation of the rotary screen cylinder until the start of the synchronous control.
US08297181B2 Deep fryer for cooking foodstuff
A kitchen appliance for cooking foodstuff in a liquid includes an outer shell having an upper surface and a lower surface, and a base enclosing the lower surface of the outer shell. A cooking pot is positioned within the outer shell for receiving the foodstuff and the liquid. The cooking pot has an upper rim and an air gap is defined by the outer shell, the base and the cooking pot. A heating element is positioned within the air gap. A rib is mounted between the upper surface of the outer shell and the upper rim of the cooking pot for preventing the flow of liquid into the air gap.
US08297172B2 Unmanned air vehicle weapon adapter
In some embodiments, an adapter for attaching a handheld firearm to an unmanned air vehicle comprises a mounting assembly configured for attachment to said firearm and to the unmanned air vehicle, and an actuation assembly comprising an actuation device configured to actuate a trigger of the handheld firearm.
US08297160B2 Hybrid towel dispenser
A hybrid towel dispenser is provided that is operable in an automatic dispensing mode and a manual dispensing mode. The paper towel dispenser comprises: a rotatable drum that advances a paper towel sheet applied on the drum when the drum rotates; a one-way rotational coupling; a motor coupled to the drum by the one-way rotational coupling and automatically operable to rotate the drum; and a manual advance assembly coupled to the drum and manually operable by a user to rotate the drum. The one-way rotational coupling couples the motor to the drum such that the motor drives the drum in a first direction and does not drive the drum when the manual advance assembly is operated to rotate the drum in the first direction.
US08297157B1 Portable beveling tool
A portable beveling tool that is attached to a power tool having a rotary cutter for beveling pipe. The beveling tool includes a base, two rollers extending away from the base, and a tool mount that rotatably mounts the power tool to the base. The rollers and the cutter cooperate to locate the beveling tool on the pipe and to guide movement of the beveling tool around the pipe. The position of one of the rollers is adjustable to accommodate pipes of different diameters and wall thicknesses. An operator can move the beveling tool around the end of the pipe without changing his or her grip on the power tool.
US08297145B2 Adjustable steering column assembly
An adjustable steering column assembly having a column jacket defining a longitudinal axis and moveable in at least one of a telescoping direction and a tilting direction is disclosed. A bracket is coupled to the column jacket with at least one pivot shaft coupled to the bracket along a pivot axis. A lever is mounted to the pivot shaft and rotates between a set position for preventing movement of the column jacket and an adjustable position for allowing movement of the column jacket. A locking device engages the lever and moves between a locked position and an unlocked position in response to rotation of the lever between the set and adjustable positions, respectively. A restrictor encircles the bracket, the column jacket, the lever and the locking device for resisting against an outwardly radial force produced by the locking device when in the locked position.
US08297144B2 Operating device for manual transmission apparatus
An operating device for a manual transmission apparatus, comprising a plurality of operation shafts, a shift-and-select shaft having an engagement groove extending in a circumferential direction thereof, selecting one of a plurality of operation shafts by rotating and moving the selected operation shaft in an axial direction thereof by moving in an axial direction of the shift-and-select shaft, an operating portion for manually operating the shift-and-select shaft, an inertia unit including an engagement pin, positioned within the engagement groove and pivoting in response to a movement of the shift-and-select shaft in the axial direction thereof, and a swing-and-contact member provided at the engagement pin of the inertia unit so as to swing when being pressed by one of first and second inner surfaces of the engagement groove in accordance with the movement of the shift-and-select shaft and contacting the first and second inner surfaces of the engagement groove.
US08297141B2 Transmission for a road vehicle with hybrid propulsion
Transmission for a road vehicle with hybrid propulsion; the transmission having: a gearbox provided with one primary shaft, one secondary shaft and at least one pump actuated by an activating shaft; at least one clutch connected to the primary shaft and having a part which is normally conductive and can be connected to a drive shaft of a thermal engine; a reversible electric machine having a shaft mechanically connectable to the primary shaft; a first mechanical transmission which transmits the motion from the normally conductive part of the clutch to the activating shaft; and a second mechanical transmission which transmits the motion from the shaft of the electric machine to the activating shaft.
US08297140B2 Dual clutch five speed transmission
A transmission connectable to an input member and has an output member, first and second shafts, first and second countershafts, a plurality of co-planar gear sets, and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. The torque transmitting devices include a plurality of synchronizer assemblies and a dual clutch assembly. The transmission is operable to provide at least one reverse speed ratio and a plurality of forward speed ratios between the input member and the output member.
US08297139B2 Device for precisely manipulating objects
A device for precisely manipulating objects by means of multidimensional tooling movement cycles, comprising a revolving shaft assembly, a barrel shaped main cam connected in a slidable but rotationally locked manner with the revolving shaft assembly, a fixed main cam follower configured to engage the main cam such that the main cam performs a cyclic main translational movement in the direction of a shaft rotation axis, a plate shaped secondary cam rigidly connected to the main cam, a tooling holder having a main slide slidable in the direction of the shaft rotation axis and a secondary slide slidable with respect to the main slide in a transversal direction to the shaft rotation axis, wherein the main slide is connected to the main cam and a secondary cam follower is connected to the secondary slide.
US08297130B2 Microtesting rig with variable compliance loading fibers for measuring mechanical properties of small specimens
The present invention provides a microtesting rig for measuring mechanical properties of small specimens. The rig includes a microsized specimen positioned on a mounting block, an interchangeable contact tip connected with an actuator and configured for contact with the microsized specimen, and a magnifying imaging system for imaging the microsized specimen. The contact tip may be a fiber platen for compression testing or a fiber grip for tension testing.
US08297125B2 Media isolated differential pressure sensor with cap
A differential pressure sensor includes two pressure ports for allowing media to pass into contact with both the top and bottom sides of the diaphragm. A silicon pressure sensor die can be attached between the pressure ports using die attach materials for sensing a differential pressure between the media to evaluate media differential pressure. A cap with an opening can be placed on topside of a diaphragm formed in the silicon pressure die. The silicon pressure die can include die bond pads that can be electrically connected to the diaphragm to output electrical signals. The cap can seal the die bond pads from the harsh media and route the electrical signals therein. Media can pass through the opening in the cap such that a media path to the top of the diaphragm is not exposed to the die bond pads of the silicon pressure die to ensure long-term sensor reliability.
US08297123B2 Detection of anomalous movement in a reciprocating device
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the detection of anomalous or aberrant movement of a reciprocating element in a reciprocating device and, more particularly, to the analysis of one or more components of a vibration signal produced by such anomalous or aberrant movement of the reciprocating element. One embodiment of the invention provides a system for identifying an anomalous movement of a reciprocating element in a reciprocating device, the system comprising: at least one sensing device for sensing a vibration signal of the reciprocating element; a processing apparatus for separating the vibration signal into a first component having a first frequency range and a second component having a second frequency range different than the first frequency range; and an analysis device for analyzing, displaying, or both, at least one of the first and the second components of the vibration signal.
US08297110B2 Fluid probe
A device for measuring the properties of a fluid, a method of manufacture, and a method of operation is described. The device includes a body region, a first flexible element and a second flexible element. Each flexible element has a first end and a second end, the first end being fixedly located on the body region. Each flexible element is moveable from at least a first respective configuration to a second respective configuration via bending of the element. The first flexible element includes an actuating portion arranged to move the flexible element between the first configuration and the second configuration. The second flexible element includes an integral movement sensor for sensing movement of the flexible element. The first flexible element is coupled to the second flexible element at a position distant from the body region. Only the actuating portion of the first flexible element is operable to move the first and second flexible elements.
US08297098B2 Dual ram assembly for necker machine
A dual ram assembly for a turret machine includes a first and second ram. The first ram comprises a first cam follower bracket and a first set of cam followers. An outer die tooling is connected to the first ram. The second ram comprises a second cam follower bracket and second set of cam followers. An inner knockout tooling is connected to the second ram. The first set of cam followers is configured to follow a first cam surface. The second set of cam followers is configured to follow a second cam surface. The first ram is connected to the second ram on a slide block. As the first and second sets of cam followers follow the first and second cam surfaces, the inner knockout tooling and the outer die tooling move toward or away from an article to be worked on.
US08297097B2 Closing method and closing machine
A closing machine includes left and right chuck spindles (20) for driving a work piece (9) to rotate, a chuck spindle moving device (30) which moves the respective chuck spindles (20) in a horizontal direction orthogonal to a rotary axis O20 thereof, and left and right slide stoppers (34) for restricting the movement of the chuck spindles (20). The work piece (9) is introduced into each chuck spindle (20), and the chuck spindle moving device (30) moves the respective chuck spindles (20) until the movement of the respective chuck spindles (20) is stopped by the respective slide stoppers (34). During a closing operation, the rotary axis O20 of the chuck spindle (20) and a rotary axis O4 of a die (4) are offset in the horizontal direction by an offset S.
US08297091B2 Nanocomposite coating for hot metal forming tools
In one embodiment, a substrate, for example a tool used in hot metalforming operations, is coated with an enamel nanoparticulate graded coating. The nanoparticles in the coating may be boron nitride nanoparticles. The coating may include a first portion adjacent a surface of the substrate, and a second portion adjacent the first portion. The first portion of the coating may have a lower volume fraction of nanoparticles than the second portion. The first portion has excellent adhesion to the surface of the substrate, and the second portion reduces friction and wear. The coated tool may be formed by applying at least one layer of a coating mixture to a surface of the tool and heating the coating mixture. A metal workpiece may be formed into an article by contacting the metal workpiece against the coated surface of the tool.
US08297087B1 Idiot-proof lock device that prevents a user from changing the code freely and unintentionally
A lock device includes a locking unit, a connecting unit, and a latch. The locking unit includes a shank, a rotation knob, a control wheel, a plurality of number wheels, a plurality of locating pieces, and a plurality of snap-fit members. The shank has a first positioning hole. The rotation knob has a second positioning hole combined with the first positioning hole of the shank by a positioning member. Thus, the user has to detach the positioning member from the first positioning hole of the shank to release the rotation knob so as to rotate the rotation knob for changing the code of the number wheels, thereby preventing the user from changing the code of the number wheels freely when rotating the rotation knob unintentionally.
US08297075B2 Gemstone cut
A gemstone cut into a round stone and method of cutting a gemstone are disclosed herein. A crown having a table may be surrounded by eight star sets. The eight star sets may be surrounded by eight bezel facets. The eight bezel facets may be surrounded by eight pairs of upper girdle facet sets. Each upper girdle facet set may have one primary upper girdle facet and two secondary upper girdle facets. Each star set may have one primary star facet and four secondary star facets. A bottom having a culet may be surrounded by 8 pavilions the eight pavilions may be surrounded by 8 lower girdle facet sets. Each lower girdle facet set may have one primary lower girdle facet and two secondary lower girdle facets. Both the crown and bottom may be surrounded by 16 girdle facets or by perfectly circular girdle.
US08297071B2 Shut-off valve mounting structure, and outdoor unit of air conditioner including the same
A shut-off valve mounting structure is for holding shut-off valves in place in an outdoor unit of an air conditioner, and includes bases, and a fixing portion. The shut-off valves are connected to an indoor unit of the air conditioner via refrigerant communication pipes. The bases extend upwards from a bottom frame of the outdoor unit (2). The fixing portion is continuous with the bases, and holds the shut-off valves in place such that a space exists below the shut-off valves.
US08297067B2 Space-saving high-density modular data pod systems and energy-efficient cooling systems
A space-saving, high-density modular data pod system and an energy-efficient cooling system for cooling electronic equipment and method of cooling are disclosed. The cooling system includes a free-cooling system cooling a first fluid in thermal communication with the electronic equipment using atmospheric air and a mechanical sub-cooling system coupled to the free-cooling system. The mechanical system cools a second fluid flowing in the free-cooling system as a function of an amount by which the free-cooling system has exceeded its maximum cooling capacity. The method of cooling includes using a first fluid, enabling heat transfer from the first fluid to a second fluid that has been cooled using atmospheric air, and mechanically cooling the second fluid to the extent that free cooling the first fluid is insufficient to cool the first fluid. The cooling system operates by the wet bulb temperature exceeding a first predetermined wet bulb temperature.
US08297064B2 Energy efficient air conditioning system
An energy efficient air conditioning system preferably includes a compressor, a reaction turbine, an electrical generator, an expansion device, an evaporator coil, an evaporator fan and a refrigerant gas. A condenser coil and fan are replaced with the reaction turbine. Hot high pressurized gas is piped into the reaction turbine from the compressor, which causes a drive shaft of the reaction turbine to spin the electrical generator. High pressurized liquid exits the reaction turbine into the expansion device as a high pressure liquid. A low pressure liquid exists at an output of the expansion device and enters the evaporator coil. The low pressure liquid boils, absorbing heat in the evaporator. The evaporator fan blows warm air from a confined space over the evaporator coil to provide a flow of cold air to the confined space. The low pressure gas then enters the compressor to start a new cycle.
US08297061B2 Optoelectronic device with upconverting luminophoric medium
A microelectronic device that in operation generates or includes component(s) that generate heat, in which the device comprises a heat conversion medium that converts such heat into a light emission having a shorter wavelength than such heat, to thereby cool the device and dissipate the unwanted heat by such light output. The heat conversion medium can include an upconverting luminophoric material, e.g., an anti-Stokes phosphor or phosphor composition. The provision of such heat conversion medium enables thermal management of microelectronic devices, e.g., optoelectronic devices, to be achieved in an efficient manner, to prolong the operational service life of devices such as LEDs, laser diodes, etc. that are degraded in performance by excessive heat generation in their operation.
US08297056B2 System and method for storing, disseminating, and utilizing energy in the form of gas compression and expansion including thermo-dynamic battery
Thermo-dynamic battery is an energy storage unit for converting compressed gas energy into consumable electrical power for application uses with any device that requires electrical power to function. A method for storing electrical energy in the form of compressed gas and converting the same energy to electric power includes compressing gas and storing the compressed gas for release to drive a generator. A system and method for storing, disseminating, and utilizing energy in the form of gas compression and expansion comprises a method for expanding compressed gas in at least two stages and further provides for storing energy in the form of compressed gas through compression in at least two stages. Apparatus is provided to operate in accordance with the described procedure to contribute at or about 90% efficiency.
US08297050B2 Nozzle diffuser mixer
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed towards an apparatus and method for control of fluid flow through a conduit of an exhaust system for an engine, particularly prior to an exhaust treatment device. In one embodiment, a fluid flow control device for receiving and guiding exhaust gas from an engine towards an exhaust gas treatment device is provided. The fluid flow control device includes a nozzle disposed within an exhaust conduit of the engine. The nozzle includes an inlet opening and an outlet opening for forming a first flow path through the nozzle. The nozzle is spaced from the exhaust conduit for forming a second flow path between the nozzle and the exhaust conduit. The fluid flow control device also includes an injector disposed adjacent the nozzle. The injector may be oriented to direct a pressurized fluid to the first or second flow path.
US08297047B2 Exhaust gas purifying apparatus for internal combustion engine
An exhaust gas purifying apparatus for an internal combustion engine having a lean NOx catalyst in an exhaust system is provided. The lean NOx catalyst traps NOx in exhaust gases when the exhaust gases are in an oxidizing state, and discharges the trapped NOx when the exhaust gases are in an reducing state. In this apparatus, an estimated trapped NOx amount which is an estimated value of an amount of NOx trapped in the lean NOx catalyst, is calculated using a neural network. Engine operating parameters indicative of an operating condition of the engine are input, and the neural network outputs at least one control parameter which is relevant to the lean NOx catalyst. A reducing process of the NOx trapped in the lean NOx catalyst is performed according to the estimated trapped NOx amount.
US08297045B2 Exhaust gas treating apparatus and treating method
An exhaust gas treating apparatus includes an adsorption tower (20) that has an adsorption layer filled with an adsorbent and a heat transfer path through which heat is transferred to the adsorption layer. The apparatus performs switching among the following processes: an adsorption process of introducing an exhaust gas from an engine (10) into the adsorption layer of the adsorption tower so that target components to be treated, including NOX, in the exhaust gas are adsorbed by the adsorbent; a desorption process of introducing the exhaust gas into the heat transfer path of the adsorption tower to heat the adsorption layer and introducing a desorption gas into the heated adsorption layer so that the target components are desorbed from the adsorbent, and a cooling process of introducing a cooling gas into the adsorption layer of the adsorption tower to cool the adsorption layer and introducing the cooling gas that has passed through the adsorption layer into an inlet of the engine. Thus, the apparatus can treat the exhaust gas with a small amount of energy consumption and without performing a wet treatment.
US08297036B2 Method and apparatus for determining failures of gas shutoff valves in gas turbines
A controller for a turbine power plant that is operable to identify a failure condition and measure a shutoff valve performance.
US08297024B2 System and method for modifying existing structures to provide improved resistance to extreme environmental conditions
A method of reinforcing a previously existing structure comprising the steps of constructing a ring foundation surrounding and reinforcing a previously existing foundation. Thereafter, securing reinforcing wall panel assemblies to previously existing wall structures with the wall panel assemblies being external to and secured to upright members of the previously existing wall structures and supported by the ring foundation. Securing platform segments forming reinforcing floor assemblies to upright structural elements of the reinforcing wall panel assemblies, the platform segments being supported by previously existing floor structures during assembly of the platform segments and attachment of the platform segments to the reinforcing wall panel assemblies. Then removing the previously existing floor structures.
US08297013B2 Fireproof resin sash
A fireproof resin sash that is usable in fire zones or the like is provided, regarding which fireproof performance is easily imparted to a general non-fireproof resin sash without modification of the structure thereof.In a fireproof resin sash 1, vertical frame members 11 and 12 and lateral frame members 13 and 14 that are synthetic resin members having a plurality of hollows along the longitudinal directions thereof are combined with each other to constitute an opening body 10, and vertical rail members 21 and 22 and lateral rail members 23 and 24 are combined with each other to constitute screens 20 that support windowpanes 25. Fireproof sheets 15 and 15A made up of thermally expandable fireproof material are inserted into hollows selected from the hollows of the members so that fireproof surfaces can be formed in the direction along the glass surfaces. Preferably, the thermally expandable fireproof material is formed with material having a coefficient of volumetric expansion that increases 3 to 50 times after the material is being heated for 30 minutes under radiant heat flux of 50 kW/m2 and a stress of 0.05 kgf/cm2 or higher at a breaking point after volumetric expansion measured by a compression tester with an indenter of 0.25 cm2. In addition, the fireproof sheets may be inserted together with rolled steel members or wood members into the hollows.
US08297010B2 Adjustable stair riser and method of installing same
An adjustable stair riser includes a body portion made of a flexible material. An upper connecting portion is disposed adjacent to an upper end of the body portion. A lower connecting portion is disposed adjacent to a lower end of the body portion. A front surface of the body portion is concavely shaped between the upper and lower ends so as to create slack for moving the upper and lower ends toward or away from each other to accommodate spacing between adjacent treads of a stairway during installation. The concavely shaped front surface of the body portion additionally provides an obstruction free path of foot travel.
US08297003B2 Gliding bed for concrete slabs, process for the production of a concrete slab and structure with a gliding bed
A gliding bed for a concrete slab comprises a first film and a second film wherein the first film can be brought into contact with a foundation of the concrete bottom slab and the second film can be brought into contact with a bottom side of the concrete slab by pouring concrete onto the second film and which films are tightly connected to each other at edges. In order to minimize friction between the concrete slab and the foundation, at least one gas- and liquid-permeable layer formed from a fleece and/or a textile fabric, a woven fabric or a knitted fabric is provided between the films.
US08297001B2 Wall assembly, wall assembly with display screen, and architecture
A wall assembly of AV-device integrated type comprises: two columnar members; a holding member bridged between the columnar members so as to hold an AV device; and a front base board and a rear base board for covering a part between the columnar members. The holding member has: a plate member whose horizontal side portions are connected to the columnar members; a rectangular opening which is formed in the plate member and into which the AV device is to be fitted; and clamping members provided in an upper side portion and a lower side portion of the opening so as to clamp the AV device from up and down directions.
US08297000B1 Rain gutter cover
A rain gutter cover comprising an elongate cover member adapted to be situated over an open trough of a rain gutter. The cover member has a first cover portion integrally extending into a second water directing portion following a rounded nose portion. An outer surface of the elongate cover member is adapted to substantially cause water passing thereover to adhere to its surface even under light rainfall conditions. The first portion includes ribs forming multiple channels configured to converge water on the first portion and facilitate initial water adherence to the nose area and to the surface of the second portion.
US08296999B2 Bleacher system
A bleacher system comprises: a support structure mounted on wheels; two or more tiers mounted on the support structure, each tier including multiple girders at spaced intervals that are operably connected to the support structure, each girder supporting a plurality of seat supports and a plurality of foot board supports, with seat planks then secured to the seat supports and foot planks secured to the foot board supports in each tier; and at least one actuator operably connected to and extending between the support structure and a selected tier, such that extension of a rod of the hydraulic actuator causes the selected tier to pivot from a transport position into a deployed position, while also causing a corresponding movement of the remaining tiers from the transport position into the deployed position.
US08296993B2 Ultrasonic humidifier for repelling insects
The present invention is directed to an ultrasonic repellent humidifier for dispersing insect repellant into the air as a micro fine repellent vapor. A repellent tank provides rhodinol and cedarwood oil based repellent to a repellent well. An ultrasonic transducer is positioned in the well beneath the level of the repellent. It vibrates, forming a repellant vapor that is drawn into a vapor duct by a forced air system and out of the unit, dispersing the repellent vapor into the surrounding air. The vibrating portion of the ultrasonic transducer that is exposed to the oil-based repellent is a ceramic material that inhibits residue from forming on the transducer that reduces its efficiency. The ceramic material may be formed on the metal case of the transducer or on the piezoelectric oscillation crystal, or it may be a separately replaceable disc.
US08296984B2 Spring enhanced buffer for a firearm
A buffer for a firearm having a sleeve member having an open end and a closed end. A mass is contained within the sleeve member. This mass is chosen to meet the demands of the particular firearm. A bumper secures and seals the open end of said sleeve. A spring within the sleeve maintains the mass at a predetermined location when the buffer is in an at-rest position.
US08296981B1 Modular display system
A novelty advertising system using a plurality of hollow plastic rectangular enclosures simulating stacking boxes of real products to construct an advertising display is herein disclosed. The hollow enclosures provide replaceable advertising inserts depicting the product being sold. Each enclosure is provided with a plurality of interlocking posts and sockets allowing creation of large stable displays without using large quantities of real product which cannot be sold. Such displays can be built with minimal expense while avoiding a danger of toppling displays built with the actual heavy product.
US08296980B2 Adjustable display board system
An adjustable display board system comprises a display board, first and second grippers, first and second racks, and a handle. The first and second grippers are coupled to the display and include a plurality of teeth. The first and second racks are mounted to a rigid structure and include a plurality of teeth generally greater than the number of teeth of the first and second grippers. The teeth of the first and second grippers mesh with the teeth of the first and second racks to maintain the vertical position of the display board. The handle is pushed to disengage the grippers from the racks and allow vertical motion of the display board.
US08296971B2 Device for relieving pressure from a selected area of an animal's skin and methods of fabricating and applying the same
A sheet adapted for juxtaposition adjacent to a region of an animal, such as a human foot, for relieving pressure at a selected sub-region such as a particular part of a foot sole or a foot heel. The sheet possesses an upper surface and a lower surface substantially coplanar with the upper surface. An array of sealed cells are filled with a flowable substance. Selected cells may be punctured such that they collapse in the region to be disposed next to a sore area. The healthy region around the sore area absorbs any pressure, and pressure is relieved from the sore area. Methods of creating the sheet and methods of utilizing the sheet are also disclosed.
US08296969B2 Triple density gel heel cups
A triple density heel cup is disclosed which comprises a generally heel-shaped substrate having a length extending from a heel portion of an integral wall to a front border, which front border in use is adapted to underlie a portion of the arch area of a human foot. The heel-shaped substrate comprises a structural gel layer having a foot receiving surface and a shoe side surface. A generally flat portion of the foot receiving surface will lie adjacent the bottom of a wearer's foot in use and the integral wall which is adapted to lie adjacent the back of wearer's heel and portion of the side of a wearer's heel in use, said integral wall having an apex of maximum height, said wall tapering down in height from said apex toward said front border; The shoe side surface defines a channel formed in said structural gel adapted to receive a reinforcing component which is secured to said structural gel in said channel and is made of a denser material than said structural gel. This provides support to the heel cup and the foot A heel cushion is secured to said structural gel in a heel cushion area defined by the structural gel on the bottom surface of the heel cup. In a preferred embodiment, the heel cushion utilizes honeycomb technology to provide increased cushioning and energy return.
US08296960B1 Compass with improved reading precision
A recreational or outdoor compass is comprised of a base member and a vial assembly pivotally coupled to said base member. The vial assembly comprises a vial with an orienting marker and a magnetized indicator member journaled in the vial and pointing to magnetic north, the indicator member having through hole. The orienting marker has an outer contour, wherein the shape of the outer contour of the orienting marker essentially corresponds to the shape of the inner contour of the through hole, such that the outer contour of the orienting marker virtually matches the inner contour of the through hole when pointing northwards.
US08296959B1 Self-retaining pipe cutting template
Pipe cutting templates for marking cutting lines on pipes for subsequent connection to another pipe. A template includes a flexible magnetic sheet having a front surface and a rear magnetized surface for retaining the sheet on the pipe. The sheet has a pair of straight side edges parallel to each other and defining a width of the sheet, the width of the sheet corresponding to the diameter of the pipe such that, during use when the sheet is wrapped around the pipe, the side edges abut. The sheet additionally has a pair of opposed end edges. At least one of the end edges is contoured to serve as a guide for marking the pipe with a cutting line corresponding to the pipe diameter, at least one particular connection type, and at least one particular angle of connection.
US08296958B1 Folding knife with mechanism to reposition back bar
A folding knife having a back bar configured to engage the tang portion of a blade. A release member mechanism is utilized to engage the back bar to apply force thereto to at least partially disengage the back bar from the tang portion of the blade for purposes of repositioning the blade with respect to the handle.
US08296955B2 Electric shaver
An electric shaver in which a blade frame part is attached to an upper portion of a body part, the blade frame part including an outer blade, an outer blade frame to fix the outer blade thereto, a holding frame to hold the outer blade frame vertically movable, and an outer peripheral frame connected to the holding frame, the upper portion including an inner blade. The holding frame is detachably attached to the outer peripheral frame from an under side thereof, and the outer peripheral frame entirely covers an outer periphery of the holding frame.
US08296954B2 Shaver having spaces for collecting cut-off hairs
A shaver includes a shaving unit having e.g., three shaving elements. Each shaving element accommodates a cutter member for cutting off hairs. Each shaving element further accommodates a gear wheel which is part of a transmission for coupling a drive shaft for driving the cutter member to an output shaft of a motor of the shaver. A top side of a space where the gear wheel is located is covered by a partition, where only the drive shaft extends through this partition. Each shaving element can be individually opened by removing a top portion of the shaving element, including the cutter member, from a base portion of the shaving element where the gear wheel, the drive shaft and the partition are located. An opening system may be provided to open all the shaving elements in one action by reversal of the direction of rotation of the output shaft, for example.
US08296950B2 Pre-aging of rollers, gaskets, or o-rings to improve material response to compression set and compression stress relaxation
Provided is a method of stabilizing an elastomeric property of an elastomeric material. The method includes placing the elastomeric material in a pressurizing chamber and applying a suitable hydrostatic pressure to the elastomeric material within the pressurizing chamber to at least partially compress the elastomeric material. Application of the hydrostatic pressure is maintained for a period of time suitable to at least partially stabilize a restorative force exhibited by the elastomeric material in response to subsequent exposures of the elastomeric material to a compressive force.
US08296946B2 Method for generating openings in a metal foil
A method for generating openings in a metal foil includes at least the following steps: a) providing a planar metal foil, b) generating bends defining extrema in the metal foil, and c) generating at least one opening in the vicinity of the bends through the use of a cutting production process forming chips including simultaneously cutting a plurality of adjacent extrema of the metal foil by using grinding tools.
US08296942B2 Process for preparing a heatsink system and heatsink system obtainable by said process
The invention provides a process for preparing a heatsink system for a heat generating electronic device, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a heat conducting substrate; (b) applying an insulating layer on the heat conducting substrate; and (c) applying a printed circuit on the isolating layer by means of a hot embossing system. The invention further provides a heatsink system obtainable by said process, comprising a heat conducting substrate, an insulating layer that is applied on the heat conducting substrate, and a printed circuit that is applied on the insulating layer, wherein the thickness of the part of the insulating layer which is arranged between the heat conducting substrate and the printed circuit is between 1 and 100 micron.
US08296939B2 Mounting method using dilatancy fluid
Even pressure is applied to a mounting target, even in a case where electronic components having different heights from each other are attempted to be mounted to a substrate, or in a case where an electronic component is attempted to be mounted to a substrate whose rear surface is provided with another electronic component. A mounting device 100 includes a lower pressurizing section 102 as a first pressurizing section and an upper pressurizing section 104 as a second pressurizing section, and pressurizes a substrate, a plurality of electronic components, and the like, sandwiched between the lower pressurizing section 102 and the upper pressurizing section 104, thereby mounting the substrate to the plurality of electronic components. The lower pressurizing section 102 or the upper pressurizing section 104 includes a dilatancy fluid 116.
US08296924B2 Tool for processing light wave conductors
A hand tool is operable to crimp a tubular metal contact member concentrically about the stripped end portion of an insulated fiber optic light-wave conductor in spaced relation to the free end extremity thereof. A tensioning arrangement tensions the excess portion of the conductor that extends beyond the contact member, whereupon a cutting device engages the tensioned portion of the conductor to sever cleanly the excess extremity from the conductor. The tensioning arrangement serves to deflect the conductor excess end portion obliquely outwardly relative to the longitudinal axis of the conductor. Tensioning is achieved by a deflecting disk positioned normal to the longitudinal axis of the light-wave conductor, or by a guide bore contained in a conductor guide device attached to the tool body. Preferably, two contact members are simultaneously crimped on a pair of conductors, and the excess ends of the conductors are simultaneously tensioned and severed.
US08296918B2 Method of manufacturing a fluid sampling device with improved analyte detecting member configuration
An assembly is described that combines blood chemical analysis with lancing in a single multiple-test disposable cartridge. The penetrating members can be assembled and sterilized without damaging the analytical chemistry, and the functioning of the present radical disc cartridge mechanism is not substantially modified.
US08296912B2 Burnishing tool
A burnishing tool includes a bushing portion, a burnishing component connected to the bushing portion, and a detector disposed in the bushing portion, for measuring a burnishing force performed on the burnishing component.
US08296905B2 Hinge mechanism
A hinge mechanism includes a first rotation assembly, a second rotation assembly substantially parallel to the first rotation assembly, a brace member, a connection shaft partially received in the sliding slot, a first connection member, and a second connection member. The first rotation assembly includes a first pivoting shaft and a first bracket sleeved on the first pivoting shaft. The first bracket includes a mounting portion eccentrically formed on one end of the first bracket. The second rotation assembly includes a second pivoting shaft and a second bracket sleeved on the second pivoting shaft. The second bracket includes a mounting portion eccentrically formed on the second bracket. The brace member defines a sliding slot. An end of the first connection member is eccentrically connected to the first pivoting shaft, and the other end of the first connection member is connected to the connection shaft.
US08296901B2 Reconfigurable airflow wand
A wand, such as for a surface cleaning apparatus, comprises at least an upstream rigid tube and a downstream rigid tube releasably pivotally connected to the upstream rigid tube. A flexible fluid flow conduit connects the downstream, tube in fluid flow communication with the upstream tube.
US08296893B2 Apparatus for cleaning female electrical terminals
An apparatus for cleaning cylindrical female electrical terminals comprises a cylindrical shaft portion, a first cleaning extension, and a second cleaning extension. The first cleaning extension extends outward from the cylindrical shaft portion and comprises a first curved and knurled surface region. Likewise, the second cleaning extension extends outward from the cylindrical shaft portion in a direction substantially parallel to the first cleaning extension and comprises a second curved and knurled surface region. The first cleaning extension and the second cleaning extension define a gap therebetween.
US08296881B2 Play system for children, including playmat and playpieces
A play system for children, includes a playmat constructed and dimensioned so as to be foldable from a flat condition for normal use as a mat, to a folded condition defining a receptacle; and a plurality of play pieces for use on the playmat when in its flat condition, and adapted to be received within the receptacle defined by the playmat when in its folded condition. The playmat, and at least some of the play pieces, include mateable fastener elements for releasably retaining the play pieces on the playmat when in its flat condition. Fastener elements are located on the playmat at preselected locations thereon to thereby locate and stabilize the play pieces carrying mateable fastener elements at the preselected locations.
US08296873B2 Portable spa enclosure
A portable spa enclosure provides an aesthetically pleasing cover for pre-manufactured spas. Additionally, spa hardware is concealed by the spa enclosure, while lighting is recessed to provide a “soft” light solution.
US08296872B2 Apparatus for washing anuses
An anus-washing apparatus includes a valve housing, a valve, a raising unit, and a sprayer. The valve housing includes a hot water inlet pipe, a cold water inlet pipe and an outlet pipe. The valve is inserted in the valve housing for opening and closing the hot and cold water inlet pipes. The raising unit is connected to the outlet pipe. The sprayer includes a hollow axle pivotally connected to the raising unit, a pivotal pipe extending from the hollow axle, and an extensible pipe with an end telescopically inserted in the pivotal pipe and another end defining apertures. The valve is operable to let water into the raising unit to raise the pivotal pipe and extend the extensible pipe to move the apertures from the pivotal pipe to spray water.
US08296869B2 Apparatus for teaching batters, and method
The disclosure presents an innovative apparatus for use in instructing hitters how to focus one's field of vision into a preselected angular field; the invention is also a method of providing this instruction. The apparatus includes a helmet and a shroud configured to engage the helmet. An elongate opening is formed on the shroud to restrict a wearer's field of vision to a preselected angle.
US08296866B2 Sweatband
A flexible, non-absorbent sweatband includes a seal band sized to wrap around a wearer's head and a clip into which the free ends of the seal band are secured at the back of the wearer's head. An upwardly opening channel is integrally molded with the seal band to carry sweat dripping down the wearer's forehead to open channel ends behind the wearer's ears.
US08302205B2 Access control decision system, access control enforcing system, and security policy
An access control enforcing system, method, and computer-readable storage medium, the system including an access control enforcing part enforcing an access control for subject information based on access control information, the access control information indicating a control of an access to the subject information in accordance with a security policy. The security policy regulates an access permit to the subject information, a requirement enforced when the access is allowed, and supplement information indicating character information or image information used to enforce the requirement. The access control enforcing part further includes a requirement capability determining part determining whether or not the requirement to execute the access can be executed, the requirement indicated by the access control information. The access control is enforced for the subject information based on a determination result by the requirement capability determining part to satisfy the requirement, by using the supplement information.
US08302202B2 Transportable computing environment apparatus system and method
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed that provides a user-specific transportable computing environment. The apparatus, system, and method facilitate users configuring their own personal computing environment on a properly configured computing host. Users can insert a personal environment key into the computing host and automatically activate and configure any software they are licensed to use. The personal environment key may include all the data, licenses, and keys necessary to activate software that the user has rights to use.
US08302199B2 Anti-cheat facility for use in a networked game environment
The invention is directed to detecting and taking action against unauthorized behavior, such as cheating, committed by a participant in a networked game. A game client receives from an anti-cheat server one or more encrypted blocks containing executable code and computer-readable data. The anti-cheat server transmits a series of challenges, at periodic or randomly-determined intervals, to the game client. A challenge includes instructions regarding the decryption and manipulation of a black box. The anti-cheat server monitors responses, if any, by the game client to the challenges, and determines whether the game client is engaged in unauthorized behavior. The nature of a challenge is such that the player is not easily able to determine or predict whether the challenge actually performs a meaningful cheat-detection procedure, whether the challenge is identical to a challenge received by another player, and whether the challenge is substantially the same as a previously-received challenge.
US08302198B2 System and method for enabling remote registry service security audits
The system and method for enabling remote registry service security audits described herein may include scanning a network to construct a model or topology of the network. In particular, the model or topology of the network may include characteristics describing various devices in the network, which may be analyzed to determine whether a remote registry service has been enabled on the devices. For example, the security audits may include performing one or more credentialed policy scans to enable the remote registry service for certain devices that have disabled the remote registry service, auditing the devices in response to enabling the remote registry service, and then disabling the remote registry service on the devices. Thus, the system and method described herein may enable remotely scanning information contained in device registries during a security audit without exposing the device registries to malicious activity.
US08302193B1 Methods and systems for scanning files for malware
A computer-implemented method includes identifying a file and calculating a first identifier for the file. The method may also include identifying a first malware identifier that is associated with a first malware program. The method may further include comparing the first file identifier with the first malware identifier to determine whether the file comprises the first malware program. The method may include saving the first file identifier in a manner that allows the first file identifier to be retrieved for comparison with a second malware identifier. The second malware identifier may be associated with a second malware program. Various other methods and systems are also disclosed herein.
US08302182B2 Embedded system with authentication, and associated authentication method
An embedded system with authentication includes: a system read only memory (ROM), a processing circuit and an authentication circuit. The system ROM is arranged to store a boot code. In addition, the processing circuit is arranged to process at least according to the boot code in order to perform operations of the embedded system. Additionally, the authentication circuit is arranged to perform authentication on a command script in order to determine whether the command script is authenticated, and is arranged to prevent the command script from being executed by the processing circuit when the authentication circuit determines that the command script is not authenticated, wherein the command script is received from outside a chip where the system ROM, the processing circuit and the authentication circuit are positioned.
US08302179B2 Embedded firewall at a telecommunications endpoint
A method is disclosed that enables the implementation of an embedded firewall at a telecommunications endpoint. In particular, the illustrative embodiment of the present invention addresses the relationship between the application, firewall engine, and packet-classification rules database that are all resident at the endpoint. In the variations of the illustrative embodiment that are described herein, the application: (i) directly communicates with the co-resident firewall engine such as through local message passing, (ii) shares memory with the firewall engine, and (iii) makes socket calls to the operating system that are intercepted by a middleware layer that subsequently modifies the rules database, depending on the socket call. The common thread to these techniques is that the application, firewall engine, and rules database are co-resident at the endpoint, which is advantageous in the implementation of the embedded firewall.
US08302176B2 Validity checking system, validity checking method, information processing card, checking device, and authentication apparatus
OBJECTIVEA user is prevented from inadvertently inputting authentication information to an unauthorized authentication system. In this manner, authentication information leakage is certainly avoided.SOLUTIONA validity checking system includes an information processing card, an authentication system that performs mutual authentication with the information processing card, and a checking device. The information processing card includes a validity authenticating means that authenticates the validity of the authentication system, and an impersonation preventing means that carries out an impersonation preventing process on the result of the authentication performed by the validity authenticating means. The checking device includes a verifying means that verifies the authentication result subjected to the impersonation preventing process and is output from the information processing card, and a verification result output means that outputs the result of the verification performed by the verifying means to a user in a perceptible manner. The verifying means may not be provided in the checking device, and an independent verification device may be provided.
US08302168B2 Push artifact binding for communication in a federated identity system
A data processing system implements push artifact binding for communication in a federated identity system. A federated identity system in the data processing system comprises an initiator that handles a federated action by determining that a user is to be conveyed to a recipient, constructing an appropriate message request or assertion to be sent to the recipient, and sending the message as a push message over a back-channel communication pathway directed to the recipient's location. The federated identity system further comprises a recipient that handles the federated action by responding to the message by forming a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to which the user can be directed. The initiator redirects the user to the URL specified in the recipient response.
US08302167B2 Strong authentication token generating one-time passwords and signatures upon server credential verification
The invention defines a strong authentication token that remedies a vulnerability to a certain type of social engineering attacks, by authenticating the server or messages purporting to come from the server prior to generating a one-time password or transaction signature; and, in the case of the generation of a transaction signature, signing not only transaction values but also transaction context information and, prior to generating said transaction signature, presenting said transaction values and transaction context information to the user for the user to review and approve using trustworthy output and input means. It furthermore offers this authentication and review functionality without sacrificing user convenience or cost efficiency, by judiciously coding the transaction data to be signed, thus reducing the transmission size of information that has to be exchanged over the token's trustworthy interfaces.
US08302159B2 Method and system for protecting content in a programmable system
Method and system for protecting content in a programmable system is provided. The system is connectable to an external device through one or more access ports. Content protection method/manager is implemented by assigning one or more access modes to the access port and switching the access modes. In response to a current access mode, the content protection method/manager restricts visibility of the system to the external device via the access port.
US08302158B2 Secure legacy media peripheral association with authentication in a media exchange network
A method for secure access and communication of information in a distributed media network is disclosed and includes detecting, at a first geographic location, when a media peripheral is communicatively coupled to at least one computing device at the first geographic location within the distributed media network. The media peripheral may be validated for use at the first geographic location using at least one identifier. The at least one identifier may be associated with the media peripheral. The at least one identifier may be used to facilitate communication by and/or to the media peripheral over the distributed media network. The at least one identifier associated with the media peripheral and at least one identifier of a user may be requested utilizing the media peripheral. The at least one identifier associated with the media peripheral is a serial number of the media peripheral.
US08302155B2 UPnP apparatus and method for providing remote access service
A universal plug and play (UPnP) device and method of providing a remote access service, the method including: receiving product identification number (PIN) information that is an identifier provided to a remote access server (RAS) device when manufactured and a uniform resource locator (URL) of the RAS device from the outside; generating WPS messages including a credential ID and remote access transport agent (RATA) capability information, which are generated based on the PIN information; encapsulating an extensible authentication protocol (EAP) packet including the WPS messages as an IP based application protocol packet; and transmitting the IP based application protocol packet to the RAS device.
US08302150B2 Method and system for managing the functionality of user devices
A method for managing the functionality of a user device is provided that includes storing security information for a secure zone in a user device. The security information for the secure zone includes at least one peripheral associated with the secure zone. Based on the security information for the secure zone, the at least one peripheral associated with the secure zone is automatically disabled when the user device enters the secure zone.
US08302148B2 Transmission of composite digital broadcast information
To improve transmission of digital broadcast information, there is proposed a method of transmitting digital broadcast information from a main transmitter (12) to at least one repeater (14). There is generated a composite digital broadcast signal carrying first digital broadcast information according to a first digital broadcast specification (DVB-T) and second digital broadcast information according to a second digital broadcast specification (DVB-H). The composite digital broadcast is then broadcasted such that the second digital broadcast information (DVB-H) is sent in a transmission mode used for transmission of the first digital broadcast information (DVB-T).
US08302146B2 Broadcast receiving apparatus, application transmitting/receiving method and reception status information transmitting method
A broadcast receiving apparatus, application transmitting/receiving method and reception status information transmitting method are disclosed, by which information associated with a broadcast reception status can be transmitted to a broadcast transmitting terminal and by which a problem of a storage device can be transmitted to a broadcast transmitting terminal in advance in case of attempting to receive an application or the like that will be transmitted by the broadcast transmitting terminal. The present invention includes collecting information indicating a remaining size of the storage device and transmitting the collected information according to a network management protocol.
US08302145B2 System and method to manage a content stream
A method of managing bandwidth usage at a customer premises includes receiving a content stream at a set-top box device coupled to a display device. The method also includes receiving a signal at the set-top box device from an external power interface. The signal indicates that a low power state has been detected at a power outlet of the external power interface, the power outlet associated with the display device. Further, the method includes sending a signal to a source of the content stream in response to receiving the signal indicating the low power state. The signal indicates that the source is to cease sending the content stream to the set-top box device.
US08302142B2 Network camera apparatus and distributing method of video frames
When a request for a transmitting method of video frames of the client apparatus is received in a communicating unit to communicate with said client apparatus, whether the received request for the transmitting method of the video frames is a request for the transmitting method of the video frames for recording or a request for the transmitting method of the video frames for a live display is discriminated. If the received request for the transmitting method of the video frames is the request for the transmitting method of the video frames for recording, each of the video frames formed in an image sensing unit is temporarily stored in a memory and each of the stored video frames is transmitted. If the received request for the transmitting method of the video frames is the request for the transmitting method of the video frames for the live display, a process for transmitting the latest frame among the video frames formed in the image sensing unit is repetitively executed.
US08302141B2 Digital broadcasting system and method of processing data
A digital broadcasting system and a method of processing data are disclosed. Herein, additional encoding is performed on mobile service data, which are then transmitted, thereby providing robustness in the processed mobile service data, so that the mobile service data can respond more strongly against fast and frequent channel changes. The method of processing data in a transmitting system includes receiving mobile service data, encapsulating the received mobile service data to a transport stream (TS) packet, and outputting the encapsulated mobile service data as a mobile service data packet, and multiplexing a main service data packet including main service data and the encapsulated mobile service data packet, thereby transmitting the multiplexed data packets to at least one transmitter located in a remote site.
US08302136B2 Systems and methods for packaging, distributing and managing assets in digital cable systems
Assets, such as content and related data are packaged, transmitted, received and managed in a digital cable television system to standardize the distribution of content and services from a content/service provider to subscribers in the system. The standardized format for packaging content enables the digital cable system to package, transmit, receive and manage diverse types of content, such as MPEGs, executable files, HTML pages, and the like, using standard system components without requiring reprogramming of the system to deploy new services. Service and content providers are freed from having to develop custom formats for delivering content and data to the cable system. Moreover, the standardized bundling of content and related data that is enabled by the invention allows the cable system operator to automate the deployment of services based on specific content and data to select subscribers.
US08302135B2 Digital broadcast receiver
[Object] To provide a digital broadcast receiver capable of performing a channel scan in a relatively short time.[Means for Solution] The digital broadcast receiver is designed for installation in an automobile for example, and identifies a current location using a GPS function. The receiver has a channel list per region containing physical channel information of broadcast stations which potentially exist in each region, and performs a channel scan based on broadcast data obtained from receiving means for physical channels listed on the channel list in a region identified.
US08302129B2 Non-real time services
In certain embodiments, a digital television broadcast method involves generating a digital television signal having one or more transport streams; where data in at least one of the one or more transport streams that supports non-real time (NRT) services, where such data comprises an Internet protocol (IP) stream of packets containing NRT content including a FLUTE file description table (FDT), a NRT information table (NRT-IT), and a Service Map Table (SMT); where the NRT-IT contains a content ID that relates the NRT-IT to the FLUTE FDT, and where the SMT contains a service ID that relates the SMT to the NRT-IT table; and outputting the one or more transport streams for broadcast as a digital television signal. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08302126B2 Interactive program guide navigator menu system
An interactive program guide system is provided. The program guide system has a logically flat navigator menu structure made up of program guide categories and selectable program guide options. Program guide categories correspond to fairly broad groups of program guide features. Selectable program guide options correspond to more specific program guide features. Each program guide category has associated selectable program guide options. Program guide categories may be displayed in a row across the top of the display screen. Selectable program guide options may be displayed in the same column as the program guide category with which they are associated. A highlight region may be positioned on one of the selectable program guide options. The selectable program guide options may be scrolled using a pair of vertical cursors. Pressing a horizontal cursor while the highlight region is on one of the selectable program guide options causes a new program guide category and associated column of selectable program guide options to be displayed in place of the originally displayed program guide category and associated selectable program guide options.
US08302117B2 Casing assembling structure of optical disc drive
A casing assembling structure of an optical disc drive is provided to comprise a bottom cover; a top cover combined with the bottom cover to form a space, wherein the top cover has a first side wall and a fixing portion, which is extended from the first side wall and is positioned under the bottom cover; and a first screw screwed on the fixing portion, wherein the top cover, the first side wall and the fixing portion are formed as a integral.
US08302115B2 Slim optical disk drive capable of reducing noise of signals
A slim optical disk drive includes a lower housing, a tray, a protection plate, a flexible cable and an isolated part. The tray is supported by two slide rails for sliding in or sliding out of an opening of the lower housing. The protection plate is for covering a bottom of the tray. The flexible cable includes a plurality of wires. The flexible cable extends toward the opening and is stuck on the lower housing. A curved area is formed by bending the flexible cable near the opening. The flexible cable is accommodated between the protection plate and the lower housing when the tray is slid inside the lower housing. The isolated part is disposed on the protection plate. The isolated part is for shielding predetermined wires of the plurality of the wires to reduce noise of signals.
US08302108B1 Feature based software virtualization
The disclosure is directed to feature based software virtualization. In one example, a first virtual sub-layer associated with a first feature set of a software package is virtually installed to a computing device. The first feature set includes a first subset of features associated with the software package. The first virtual sub-layer is enabled to activate the first feature set. A second virtual sub-layer associated with a second feature set of the software package is virtually installed to the computing device. The second feature set includes a second subset of the features associated with the software package. The second virtual sub-layer is enabled to activate the second feature set. In certain embodiments, a first fee is charged for the first feature set and a second fee is charged for the second feature set.
US08302096B2 Methods and systems to perform individual tasks as a composite task
A method and system to manage tasks are described. The method may comprise providing a graphical user interface to a user, receiving user input via the graphical user interface to identify a composite task and at least two individual tasks, and associating the at least two individual tasks with the composite or virtual task. An operation performed on the composite task may be automatically performed on the individual tasks.
US08302089B2 Rebootless display driver upgrades
Systems and methods for rebootless updating of a IHV display driver are disclosed. According to such a method, first, the operating system stops the driver from running Second, the system switches over to an interim or temporary display driver, which be a default driver provided with the operating system. Third, the new hardware-specific driver is started. Thus, a hardware-specific display driver may be updated without rebooting.
US08302080B2 Automated test input generation for web applications
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for automated test input generation for web applications. In one embodiment, the method comprises performing a source-to-source transformation of the program; performing interpretation on the program based on a set of test input values; symbolically executing the program; recording a symbolic constraint for each of one or more conditional expressions encountered during execution of the program, including analyzing a string operation in the program to identify one or more possible execution paths, and generating symbolic inputs representing values of variables in each of the conditional expressions as a numeric expression and a string constraint including generating constraints on string values by modeling string operations using finite state transducers (FSTs) and supplying values from the program's execution in place of intractable sub-expressions; and generating new inputs to drive the program during a subsequent iteration based on results of solving the recorded string constraints.
US08302069B1 Methods and systems utilizing behavioral data models with variants
Embodiments include computer systems, methods, and program code for developing and utilizing behavioral data models. The 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 defining a variably applicable portion of the model. The behavior can comprise a programmatic expression of an operation to be performed when the model is consumed, such as a function for determining when the variably applicable portion of the model is to be used based on a condition. Consuming the model can comprise generating an in-memory representation of the modeled component comprising a data structure corresponding to the property and code configured to evaluate the condition.
US08302055B2 Semiconductor device design support apparatus and semiconductor device design support method
A semiconductor device design support apparatus includes an input unit which inputs layout information, LSI design information, switching information, a primitive library, an electrical current waveform computation unit which obtains an electrical current waveform in instance units, an electrical current dispersion value computation unit which obtains electrical current dispersion values of each segment, a segment dividing unit which judges whether or not the electrical current dispersion value of a segment is not less than a permitted value and divides the segment in cases in which the electrical current dispersion value is not less than the permitted value, a macro-model creation unit which creates a macro-model for each segment; a substrate netlist extraction unit which extracts a substrate netlist, and a substrate noise analysis netlist creation unit which creates a substrate noise analysis netlist from a macro-model of each segment and the substrate netlist.
US08302053B2 Automated integrated circuit clock insertion
A user device receives a request to perform an automatic clock insertion operation for an integrated circuit; retrieves location information regarding a group of components, of the integrated circuit, that use a clock signal; deploys a clock mesh based on the location information regarding the group of components; and inserts drop points into the clock mesh; deploys a particular buffer for a particular drop point; maps a component, of the group of components, to the particular buffer; generates a clock box for the particular buffer, where dimensions of the clock box are based on a location of the component; deploys an H-tree for the clock box, where dimensions of the H-tree are proportional to the clock box dimensions; connects the H-tree to the component; and displays or stores clock mesh information, information regarding the group of buffers, information regarding the H-tree, and the location information regarding the group of components.
US08302042B2 Generating a convergent circuit design from a functional description using entities having access to the functional description and to physical design information
A method of designing a circuit is described. In an embodiment, a physical design implementation for the circuit is created using a plurality of entities. These entities are named “genomes”. Each entity includes a portion of a functional description of the circuit that has been synthesized into a gate-level implementation. An entity is selected to facilitate the physical design implementation meeting a plurality of design constraints. Several steps (e.g., beginning with selection of an entity) of this method are repeated several times to meet the design constraints. As a consequence, the physical design implementation provides more accurate information for use in a final physical design implementation. Moreover, the physical design implementation can be created faster than prior techniques while still allowing a global view of the physical design implementation in meeting design constraints.
US08302040B2 Compact model methodology for PC landing pad lithographic rounding impact on device performance
A method and computer program product for modeling a semiconductor transistor device structure having an active device area, a gate structure, and including a conductive line feature connected to the gate structure and disposed above the active device area, the conductive line feature including a conductive landing pad feature disposed near an edge of the active device area in a circuit to be modeled. The method includes determining a distance between an edge defined by the landing pad feature to an edge of the active device area, and, from modeling a lithographic rounding effect of the landing pad feature, determining changes in width of the active device area as a function of the distance between an edge defined by the landing pad feature to an edge of the active device area. From these data, an effective change in active device area width (deltaW adder) is related to the determined distance. Then, transistor model parameter values in a transistor compact model are updated for the transistor device to include deltaW adder values to be added to a built-in deltaW value. A netlist used in a device simulation may then include the deltaW adder values to quantify the influence of the lithographic rounding effect of the landing pad feature.
US08302039B2 Secure exchange of information in electronic design automation
Described herein are methods and systems for secure exchange of information related to electronic design automation. Information deemed sensitive and otherwise worthy of protection may be secured by methods such as encryption, obfuscation and other security measures. The secured information may be provided to an electronic design automation tool for processing without revealing at least some of the secured information. For instance, rule files related to integrated circuit manufacturability may be selectively annotated to indicate portions thereof deserving of protection. An encryption tool may be used to secure the information so indicated and generate a file comprising secured information related to electronic design automation. An electronic design automation tool may then unlock and use the secured information without revealing the same. For instance, the tool may be a physical verification tool capable of verifying whether any of the one or more integrated circuit layouts may violate one or more of the secured rules. An error report may be generated without revealing the secured rules.
US08302030B2 Management of multiple advertising inventories using a monetization platform
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for delivery of a sponsored content to a mobile communication facility user. In embodiments, a request may be received for a sponsored content from a publisher, and one or more content inventories may be searched for a content that is relevant to the request. Content may be selected for delivery to the publisher from one or more content inventory. The content may be selected based at least in part on a relevance between the content and the request. The content, and the content inventory from which the relevant content is chosen, may be selected based at least in part on a statistical weight relating to the amount of revenue a wireless operator may realize upon presentation of the content to a mobile communication facility.
US08302023B2 Character input device and character input method
According to one embodiment, a character input device is configured as follows. Based on a key operation on a remote controller, any of alphabetic characters displayed on a screen is selected and input. A plurality of graphemes present for the alphabetic character selected based on the key operation on the remote controller are displayed on the screen. Any of the plurality of graphemes displayed on the screen is selected and input.
US08302021B2 Pointer drag path operations
A graphical user interface allows performing operations simply by dragging a first object over a second object. One or more attributes of the second object are effectively “picked up” by virtue of dragging over the second object. In this manner, the user interface is more friendly, more intuitive, and reduces the number of pointer clicks to implement a particular function, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the user.
US08302020B2 Widget authoring and editing environment
An authoring environment for creating and/or editing user interface elements such as widgets used in a unified interest layer. The authoring environment facilitates creation of widgets that have a consistent appearance and mechanism, and allows third-party developers to easily create widgets that have a look and feel that is consistent with a predefined set of widgets.
US08302017B2 Definition for service interface
Various embodiments provide a model through which service providers can describe offered services using a standardized format. In one or more embodiments, the standardized format is declarative and enables service providers to describe their associated services in a standardized way. In at least some embodiments, the standardized format includes a set of common service properties that are shared across multiple different services. Additionally, service specific properties can be described in addition to the common service properties. In one or more embodiments, existing services can be extended by including, in the standardized format, a description of an extension. In one or more other embodiments, new services can be added for consumption by simply including a description of the new service using the standardized format.
US08302006B2 Interactive tooltip to display and navigate to different resources of a data point
Systems and methodologies for viewing locations of a data point within a system are provided. A system provided herein includes a locate component that determines locations of a selected data point and a display component that displays the locations of the selected data point in a location structure, which can be displayed at a common area of display with the selected data point. In addition, a system provided herein further includes a navigation component that receives the locations of the selected data point and facilitates navigation of the area of display to a location selected from the location structure.
US08302004B2 Method of displaying menu items and related touch screen device
To improve usability of a touch screen device for input with a finger, a method of displaying a plurality of text-based items in the touch screen device includes the touch screen device displaying a predetermined item of the plurality of text-based items as an icon, and the touch screen device displaying the plurality of text-based items less the predetermined item with an increased display size.
US08302003B2 Dynamic questionnaire generation
The invention provides a document generation system for generating a customised document using a document generation program, having means to generate and information capture document for obtaining input information. At least one content element comprises at least a first variable. The system comprises means to evaluate a set of further rules including at least one second variable to determine the number and type of occurrences of the first variable, and means to aggregate the further set of rules to determine the relevance of the first variable in terms of the at least one second variable.
US08301989B1 Calculation of soft decoding metrics
A method for communication includes receiving at a receiver a signal from a transmitter embodying data encoded with an error correction code. The signal is processed in order to extract a sequence of samples in a complex signal space. Scalar values are extracted from the samples and the scalar values are processed so as to define one or more clusters of scalar data points. Gain and noise of the signal are estimated responsively to the defined clusters. Bit value metrics for the signal are computed based on the samples and the estimated gain and noise of the signal. The error correction code is decoded using the bit value metrics.
US08301986B2 Memory system and method for providing error correction
An error correction decoder includes a syndrome computation circuit, an error correction and computation circuit and an error correction circuit. The syndrome computation circuit calculates a syndrome of read data. The error correction and computation circuit calculates a location of a single-bit error using a division operation between elements of the syndrome when the single-bit error exists in the read data. The error correction circuit corrects the single-bit error of the read data based on the location of the single-bit error.
US08301970B2 Sequential circuit with error detection
Sequential circuits with error-detection are provided. They may, for example, be used to replace traditional master-slave flip-flops, e.g., in critical path circuits to detect and initiate correction of late transitions at the input of the sequential. In some embodiments, such sequentials may comprise a transition detector with a time borrowing latch.
US08301964B2 Incremental redundancy with resegmentation
Different transmissions based on different content blocks which were segmented from the same digital content according to different segmentation schemes, where each of the content blocks has any substring in common with at least one of the other content blocks, are received by a receiving radio communication station, for example a mobile telephone or a mobile network base station. Certain encoded received bits derived from different ones of the transmissions are combined into combined bits. Other encoded received bits derived from one or more of the different transmissions are provided together with the combined bits to a decoder.
US08301953B2 Method and device for allocating resources in wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a resource allocation device for minimizing delay of an uplink retransmission resource allocation process in a wireless communication system having a high data rate, and a method thereof. In the method, user data are received and an ACK/NACK state of the received data is determined, and when the NACK state of the received data is determined, retransmission resource allocation is requested, retransmission resources are allocated, and retransmission resource allocation information is generated to be transmitted.
US08301950B2 Method for variable sub-carrier mapping and device using the same
A variable sub-carrier mapping method comprising steps of: applying different bit interleaving schemes to different transmissions of a hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) process in side of transmitter; and in the side of the transmitter, modulating symbols onto sub-carriers for transmitting. Different transmissions in one HARQ process adopt different bit interleavers or different symbol-to-sub-carrier mapping methods so as to realize that the same bit of different transmissions in one HARQ process is transmitted via different sub-carriers. Therefore, the system achieves the frequency diversity gain and reduces the probability of failure of HARQ transmission caused by that some bits are always transmitted via the sub-carrier with the same deep fading. In this way, the average HARQ retransmission times can be reduced and the system throughput can be improved.
US08301945B2 Decompressors for low power decompression of test patterns
Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems used to generate test patterns for testing integrated circuits. Embodiments of the disclosed technology can be used to provide a low power test scheme and can be integrated with a variety of compression hardware architectures (e.g., an embedded deterministic test (“EDT”) environment). Certain embodiments of the disclosed technology can reduce the switching rates, and thus the power dissipation, in scan chains with no hardware modification. Other embodiments use specialized decompression hardware and compression techniques to achieve low power testing.
US08301936B2 Apparatus and method for performing a screening test of semiconductor integrated circuits
An apparatus for performing a screening test of a semiconductor integrated circuit is disclosed, the semiconductor integrated circuit comprising a plurality of processors each having an output signal for instruction execution information, and the processors being programmatically operable. The apparatus for performing a screening test of a semiconductor integrated circuit comprises: an instruction/data signal synchronization circuit for synchronizing the supplying of instructions to said respective processors and for synchronizing the supplying of data to said respective processors; and a trace comparison circuit for comparing instruction execution information that are output from the respective processors to determine whether or not any of said processors has output different instruction execution information.
US08301931B2 Time synchronization of portable devices
A portable time transfer device is provided to transfer accurate date/time to reader devices and, thus, the reader devices do not have to be connected to a source of accurate time. A host computing system is configured to synchronize the portable time transfer device to a network, GPS, or other source of precise (accurate) time. Once the portable time transfer device is synchronized to the accurate date/time by the host computing system, the portable time transfer device is ready to be used by reader devices or any other devices (e.g., laptops, etc.) which need to maintain accurate time regardless of the connectivity to a network or GPS.
US08301930B2 System and apparatus for transmitting phase information from a client to a host between read and write operations
An asymmetrical IO method and system are described. In one embodiment, a host device includes shared resources for data synchronization of the host device and a client device. The shared resources include a shared phase interpolator. In an embodiment, data lines between the host and client are also used to transmit phase information from the client device to the host device, obviating the need for additional, dedicated lines or pins.
US08301929B2 System and method for dynamic power regulator for power supply output adjustment
An apparatus with a direct-current to direct-current power transformer is configured to transform an input voltage at an input terminal to an output voltage at an output terminal. A current sensor is coupled to the power transformer and configured to measure a current flowing through the power transformer. A voltage adjustment controller is coupled to the current sensor and the output terminal and configured to change the output voltage based at least on the measured current.
US08301927B2 Dynamic control of reduced voltage state of graphics controller component of memory controller
A method includes detecting a trigger condition, and in response to detecting the trigger condition, reducing a voltage applied to a graphics controller component of a memory controller. The reduction in voltage may cause the voltage to be reduced below a voltage level required to maintain context information in the graphics controller component.
US08301924B2 Apparatus and method for a power control in a system using an embedded CPU
A portable communication apparatus is configured to perform a method for power control of a Central Processing Unit (CPU) in a portable communication apparatus. The portable communication apparatus for power control of the CPU includes a CPU configured to report an operation status of the CPU and an overhead determiner. The CPU is also configured to change a power control level according to control of the overhead determiner. The overhead determiner is configured to determine an overhead of the CPU and to control the power control level of the CPU based on the overhead of the CPU.
US08301923B2 Multiprocessor system including a power saving mode and control method thereof, and computer-readable medium
A multiprocessor system configured to share processes by a main system having a first processor and a subsystem having a second processor, comprises a first shared memory configured to receive accesses from the main system and the subsystem, a second memory configured to receive access from the subsystem at a power saving mode, a stop unit configured to stop accesses from the main system and the subsystem to the first shared memory when the subsystem enters the power saving mode, and a switching unit configured to switch an access destination of the subsystem from the first shared memory to the second memory when the subsystem enters the power saving mode.
US08301914B2 Power supply control device
The present invention discloses a power supply control device to which can be attached a number of electrical device(s), such as a computer or AV equipment. The power supply device is able to determine and monitor standby power usage levels of the device(s) so that when the control device detects that the connected electrical device(s) are not being used power supply is removed from the device(s).
US08301904B1 System, method, and computer program product for automatically identifying potentially unwanted data as unwanted
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for automatically identifying potentially unwanted data as unwanted. In use, data determined to be potentially unwanted (e.g. potentially malicious) is received. Additionally, the data is automatically identified as unwanted (e.g. malicious). Furthermore, the data is stored for use in detecting unwanted data (e.g. malicious data).
US08301901B2 System and method for expressing and evaluating signed reputation assertions
A method for expressing and evaluating signed reputation assertions is disclosed. In one embodiment, a first entity receives a request to generate a signed assertion relating to a piece of content. The first entity generates a reputation statement about a second entity from reputation-forming information (RFI) about the second entity available to the first entity. The first entity then generates a signed assertion from the reputation statement and the piece of content at least in part by binding the piece of content to the reputation statement and signing a portion encompassing at least one of the bound piece of content and the bound reputation statement. The signed assertion is then transmitted to a receiving entity.
US08301900B1 Secure transformable password generation
The invention relates to generating and using secure transformable passwords. In one example, a user grants a third party access to an online account at a host server, and the user requests a transformed password from the host server. The host server associates an encryption key with the third party and generates a transformed password using the user's online account password and the encryption key. The user transmits the transformed password to the third party which may use the transformed password to access the online account. The host server generates a second transformed password and compares it to the password information received from the third party. If the received password information and the second transformed password are identical, access is granted. The invention also includes methods for invalidating the transformed passwords by changing the encryption keys to an invalid state.
US08301897B2 Challenge-based authentication protocol
Methods and apparatus for authenticating a user are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for authenticating a user includes displaying a first representation of a challenge. The challenge is based on a ruleset. The method also includes receiving a first input, determining if the first input furthers a successful completion of the first representation of the challenge, and determining if the first input completes the first representation of the challenge. If it is determined that the first input completes the first representation of the challenge and that the first input furthers the successful completion of the first representation of the challenge, the method further includes positively augmenting a security indicator.
US08301890B2 Software execution randomization
A method of processing programming instructions may include identifying an instruction to be fetched; determining if the identified instruction is protected; if the identified instruction is protected, selecting an alternate instruction from a plurality of alternate instructions corresponding to the identified protected instruction, and fetching the selected alternate instruction; and if the identified instruction is not protected, fetching the identified instruction. Identifying the instruction to be fetched may include identifying an address stored in a program address pointer. Determining if the identified instruction is protected may include comparing the address stored in the program address pointer to one or more addresses stored in a first memory portion, and determining if there is a correspondence. Selecting the alternate instruction may include randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting an instruction from one or more corresponding alternate instructions stored in a second memory portion, and storing the selected instruction in the program address pointer.
US08301889B1 Secure messaging systems
A system is provided that uses cryptographic techniques to support secure messaging between senders and recipients. A sender may encrypt a message for a recipient using the recipient's public key. The sender may send the encrypted message to the message address of a given recipient. A server may be used to decrypt the encrypted message for the recipient, so that the recipient need not install a decryption engine on the recipient's equipment.
US08301878B2 System and method for enabling bulk retrieval of certificates
A system and method for searching and retrieving certificates, which may be used in the processing of encoded messages. In one embodiment, a certificate synchronization application is programmed to perform certificate searches by querying one or more certificate servers for all of the certificates on those certificate servers. If all of the certificates on a certificate server cannot be successfully retrieved using a single search query, due to a search quota on the certificate server being exceeded for example, the search is re-performed through multiple queries, each corresponding to a narrower subsearch. Embodiments described herein enable large amounts of certificates to be automatically searched for and retrieved from certificate servers, thereby minimizing the need for users to manually search for individual certificates.
US08301874B1 Atomic switching of images in desktop streaming over wide area networks
Techniques are provided for desktop streaming over wide area networks. In one embodiment, a computing device comprises pivot logic that is configured to be executed during a first boot of an operating system on a computing device as a pivot process that is the only process running when performing modifications to a file system on the computing device. During execution, the pivot process replaces a current set of files in the file system with a new desktop image that represents a complete view of the file system. The desktop image includes a prefetch set of files, but other files in the desktop image are represented by file metadata. The prefetch set of files includes a smallest subset of files that is needed to boot the computing device without requiring retrieval of additional files. During execution, the pivot process terminates the first boot and to invoke a second boot that is executed based on the prefetch set of files included in the new desktop image.
US08301872B2 Pipeline configuration protocol and configuration unit communication
An example method of controlling a data processing system having a cellular structure. The method includes transmitting a first configuration word to a first processing unit in the cellular structure. The method also includes processing data with the first processing unit in accordance with the first configuration word. The method also includes transmitting a second configuration word to the first processing unit. The method also includes transmitting a reconfiguration signal to the first unit, the reconfiguration signal indicating that the first unit should begin processing data in accordance with the second configuration word. If the first processing unit has completed processing data in accordance with the first configuration word prior to when the reconfiguration signal is received by the first processing unit, data may be processed by the first processing unit in accordance with the second configuration word. If the first processing unit has not completed processing data in accordance with the first configuration word, data may continue to be processed with the first processing unit in accordance with the first configuration word.
US08301871B2 Predicated issue for conditional branch instructions
A method and apparatus for executing branch instructions is provided. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a branch instruction, wherein a first path of the branch instruction branches to a target instruction, and wherein a second path of the branch instruction branches to one or more interceding instructions between the branch instruction and the target instruction. The method further includes issuing the one or more interceding instructions and the target instruction and determining if the branch instruction follows the first path or the second path. Upon determining that the branch instruction follows the first path, the one or more interceding instructions between the branch instruction and the target instruction are invalidated.
US08301867B1 Secondary core ONU to OLT via internal EPON bus coupled multi-core processor for integrated modular avionic system
A multi-core processor system including a main processor, an internal EPON bus, and a plurality of secondary core processors. The main processor includes a processing unit; an offload engine operatively connected to the processing unit for routing data to and from the processing unit; a plurality of main processor optical network units (ONU's) operatively connected to the offload engine; and, a dual optical line terminal (OLT) operatively connected to the offload engine. The internal EPON bus is operatively connected to the OLT. The plurality of secondary core processors are located physically separate from the main processor, each secondary core processor having a respective secondary core processor ONU being operatively connected to the main processor via the internal EPON bus. A number of the multi-core processor systems can be used to form an integrated modular avionics (IMA) system when operatively connected to remote data concentration components via an external EPON bus connected to the dual OLTs of the multi-core processor systems.
US08301858B2 Control device
A control device is connected to a processor, a memory module, and a specification information storage memory for storing specification information indicating specifications of the memory module. The control device includes: a readout unit that reads the specification information from the specification information storage memory when power is turned on to the control device; a storage unit that stores the specification information read from the specification information storage memory; and a transfer unit that receives a specification information read instruction from the processor, and that transfers the specification information stored in the storage unit to the processor.
US08301854B2 Storage system and virtualization method
The storage system of the present invention is able to generate one virtual logical device from different logical devices which exist in each of the different storage control units and remote-copy all or part of the virtual logical device to another logical device. The same virtual identifier is set for a volume of the first storage unit and for a volume of the second storage unit. The path control unit of the host identifies a plurality of volumes which have the same virtual identifier as one virtual volume. A remote copy pair can also be set by a virtual volume and a volume of the third storage unit. The setting of the virtual volume and the setting of the remote copy can be performed by means of an instruction from the management server.
US08301848B2 Virtualizing storage for WPAR clients using node port ID virtualization
Mechanisms for providing to a plurality of WPARs private access to physical storage connected to a server through a VIOS are disclosed. In one embodiment, a server is logically partitioned to form a working partition comprising a WPAR manager and individual WPARs. Each WPAR is assigned to a different virtual port. The virtual ports are created by using NPIV protocol between the WPAR and VIOS. Thereby, each WPAR has private access to the physical storage connected to the VIOS.
US08301840B2 Assigning cache priorities to virtual/logical processors and partitioning a cache according to such priorities
Mechanisms are provided, for implementation in a data processing system having at least one physical processor and at least one associated cache memory, for allocating cache resources of the at least one cache memory to virtual processors of the data processing system. The mechanisms identify a plurality of high priority virtual processors in the data processing system. The mechanisms further determine a percentage of cache lines of the at least one cache memory to be assigned to high priority virtual processors. Moreover, the mechanisms mark a portion of the cache lines in the at least one cache memory as being evictable by only high priority virtual processors based on the determined percentage of cache lines to be assigned to high priority virtual processors. The marked portion of the cache lines cannot be evicted by lower priority virtual processors having a priority lower than the high priority virtual processors.
US08301839B2 System and method for performing granular invalidation of cached dynamically generated objects in a data communication network
The present invention is directed towards a method and system for providing granular timed invalidation of dynamically generated objects stored in a cache. The techniques of the present invention incorporates the ability to configure the expiration time of objects stored by the cache to fine granular time intervals, such as the granularity of time intervals provided by a packet processing timer of a packet processing engine. As such, the present invention can cache objects with expiry times down to very small intervals of time. This characteristic is referred to as “invalidation granularity.” By providing this fine granularity in expiry time, the cache of the present invention can cache and serve objects that frequently change, sometimes even many times within a second. One technique is to leverage the packet processing timers used by the device of the present invention that are able operate at time increments on the order of milliseconds to permit invalidation or expiry granularity down to 10 ms or less.
US08301837B1 Methods for providing a response and systems thereof
A method, computer readable medium, and system for generating a response includes determining from which of a plurality of levels of cache to retrieve a response. The determination is based on a number of matches between current user session data associated with a current request and stored user session data rewritten into each of one or more metadata data variables for the response when a current request for the response matches at least one prior stored request for the response. The response from the determined level of the plurality of levels of cache is provided.
US08301829B2 Flash memory device and flash memory system including buffer memory
A flash memory device includes a flash memory and a buffer memory. The flash memory is divided into a main region and a spare region. The buffer memory is a random access memory and has the same structure as the flash memory. In addition, the flash memory device further includes control means for mapping an address of the flash memory applied from a host so as to divide a structure of the buffer memory into a main region and a spare region and for controlling the flash memory and the buffer memory to store data of the buffer memory in the flash memory or to store data of the flash memory in the buffer memory.
US08301828B2 Systems and methods for reliable multi-level cell flash storage
Multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory has become widely used due to their capacity to store more information in the same area as a single-level cell (SLC) flash memory. This makes MLC flash memory very attractive for storing media. Flash has also traditionally been used in electronic devices for firmware, but MLC flash is less reliable than SLC flash. For critical memory operations, MLC flash memory can be made as reliable as SLC flash by mapping one binary value to an MLC state corresponding to the highest threshold voltage and the other binary value to the MLC state corresponding the lowest threshold voltage when writing to the MLC flash, and by mapping all MLC states with corresponding threshold voltages above a central cutoff threshold voltage to one binary value and by mapping all MLC states with corresponding threshold voltages below a central cutoff threshold voltage to the other binary value.
US08301821B2 Communication module for connecting a serial bus to a plurality of system buses
A communication module for connecting a serial bus, which transmits data in packets, to a plurality of system buses of a gateway, which transmit data word by word, the communication module having a communication protocol unit, which is connected to the serial bus, for converting between data packages and messages, which are respectively made up of a plurality of data words, a message relaying unit for relaying messages between at least one message memory and the communication protocol unit, as well as buffer memories, a plurality of interface units, which are respectively connected to an associated system bus of the gateway, each interface unit being connected to at least one associated buffer memory, which stores a message temporarily, a transmission of data words via a plurality of system buses and their associated interface units from and to the buffer memories of the interface units taking place simultaneously, without delay.
US08301817B1 Ring bus for sharing resources among multiple engines
An electronic system including modules connected in a ring network is provided. The modules communicate via ring interfaces. The ring interfaces are connected by inter-module links that include a control bus and combined address and data bus. The ring interfaces send and receive single-cycle transactions. The control bus signals the type of transaction and the source and destination modules. The ring interfaces forward transactions to their destinations and may send new transaction when a cycle is empty. Each read operation uses a read request transaction containing an address that is responded to with an acknowledgment transaction that includes the requested data. Each write operation uses two write requests, one containing an address and one containing data. The destination module signals completion of the write operation by sending an acknowledgment transaction.
US08301816B2 Memory access controller, system, and method
A memory access controller including a command analysis unit to receive write access request and command data and to analyze access to a memory, a command execution unit to output command and data control signals to the memory based on write data, and the analysis result, a mode setting unit to switch between a first operation mode in which a write access request is issued when both the command data and the corresponding write data are available, and a second operation mode in which a write access request is issued when the command data is available independently of availability of the write data corresponding to the command data, and a timing arbitration unit provided for each bus master to output the write access request and command data to the command analysis unit and output the write data to the command execution unit in accordance with the mode setting unit.
US08301805B2 Managing I/O request in a storage system
The present invention relates to managing I/O requests in a storage system. By dynamically changing the scheduling parameters to achieve optimal turn around time for I/O requests pending for processing at a component in the storage system. The scheduling parameters are changed based on a feedback mechanism. The turn around time of the I/O request are calculated as the ratio of I/O request processing rate and the average number of I/O requests in the component.
US08301800B1 Message processing for distributed computing environments
Techniques for representation of data representations associated with message processing are disclosed. The techniques can be used to implement a message server operating in a distributed computing environment. The message server provides a flexible environment which is better suited for creation and maintenance of message processing representations used to exchange messages between various nodes in the distributed computing environment. In addition, the message server is also capable of generating pre-computed data suitable for runtime processing of messages. The pre-computed data can be used to improve runtime processing of messages. As result, many problems associated with message processing in conventional distributed computing environments can be addressed.
US08301798B2 System and method for processing large amounts of transactional data
A system including a reference data server that stores a first set of data used in the plurality of processes, a load balancer that reconfigures the transactional data, a first stage processing system and a second stage processing system. The first stage processing system includes one or more first processing modules that execute at least one process of a first set of the plurality of processes on the reconfigured transactional data to generate first stage processed transactional data, each of the one or more first processing modules comprising an in-memory cache that stores a second set of data used in the at least one process, and a first stage data storage system that stores the first stage processed transactional data. The second stage processing system includes one or more second processing modules that execute at least one process of a second set of the plurality of processes on the first stage processed transactional data to generate second stage processed transactional data, each of the one or more second processing modules comprising an in-memory cache that dynamically stores a third set of data related to the at least one process, and a second stage data storage system that stores the second stage processed transactional data.
US08301790B2 Synchronization of audio and video signals from remote sources over the internet
The present invention is an architecture and technology for a method for synchronizing multiple streams of time-based digital audio and video content from separate and distinct remote sources, so that when the streams are joined, they are perceived to be in unison.
US08301783B2 Method, system, and computer program product for efficiently serializing navigational state in a portal
The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for efficiently serializing navigational state into URLs or the header of the new portal page by using a complete stream-based serialization. The inventive serialization is divided into two sub-processes which are both stream-based. The first stream-based serialization sub-process which is hierarchy-oriented uses the hierarchical object representation of the navigational state and transforms it into a series of events. The events serve as the input for various strategies for compacting information that is associated with these events. At the end of the sub-process the compacted navigational state information carried by the received events is transformed into a character-based representation and the hierarchical structure of the navigational state is derived from the order of the received events and transformed into an additional character-based representation both being directly streamed to the second sub-process.The second stream-based serialization sub-process which is hierarchy-independent uses the result of the first sub-process and applies further compression and character encoding strategies and finally streams the compressed and character encoded information into a URL or header of said new Portal page.Both sub-processes are seamlessly linked together.The inventive stream-based serialization method is efficient because it minimizes the overall processing time needed to generate a URL and also effective because it makes sure that the serialization result is as short as possible to meet the requirements regarding URL length and markup size.
US08301768B2 Peer-to-peer indexing-based marketplace
A data sharing and indexing system composed of multiple local indexing systems residing on network storage devices. Each (instantiation of the groupware) local storage device runs software for advanced content-based indexing, and each local indexing system forms a node in a peer-to-peer network. The indexing software performs topic-based categorization by means of a higher-order path analysis algorithm, which mimics human intuition by considering both high- and low-order links between data elements. The indexes generated by the software are automatically partitioned into topic indexes. The topical similarity of indexes to each other and to a pre-established set of topic indices is measured using a cross-training algorithm. The peer-to-peer network is implemented by a novel mesh-based, self-healing protocol, providing specialized means for sharing data and topic indexes. The software leverages the index sharing technology to provide content- and metadata-based searching features.
US08301759B2 Monitoring agent programs in a distributed computing platform
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for monitoring information passed from instances of role(s) of a service application installed on a distributed computing platform and for indexing and analyzing the information within a data store are provided. Monitoring involves a monitoring agent that is integrated within an operating system of computing devices that make up the distributed computing platform. In operation, the monitoring agent retrieves information from the role instances and converts the information into parameters that are assembled to documents. Generally, the parameters are assembled to a uniform-structured format in accordance with a schema imposed by the distributed computing platform. Accordingly, each of the documents across the platform have a common format that promotes processing and analysis without a need for reconfiguration. Accordingly, the health of the service application, although dispersed throughout the distributed computing environment, may be observed and evaluated in a consistent manner.
US08301757B2 System and method for obtaining in-use statistics for voice applications in interactive voice response systems
Systems and methods are provided for obtaining statistics from the use of a voice application. More particularly, the invention may comprise an interception engine that is configured to receive a document from an IVR application server and inject a marker(s) into the document, and pass the document on to an IVR browser. The interception engine is further configured to receive a response document from the IVR browser, remove the marker results, and pass the document on to the IVR application server. The marker results are used to create statistical information useful in the analysis of the operation of the voice application in the IVR system. In an exemplary embodiment, the markers are used in connection with a map of the call flow of the voice application.
US08301755B2 Impact propagation in a directed acyclic graph
A method, system and medium for efficiently propagating service impact data in a directed acyclic graph. One or more service components, impact rules and business rules will be grouped together into a directed acyclic graph and a related metadata array. Impact propagation uses related metadata array to minimize traversal of the graph. As nodes of the graph are updated to propagate impact data a determination is made as to when no further impact propagation is required and calculations are terminated without having to traverse the entire graph. This method will allow a system or business administrator to maintain real-time notification and visualization of, the impacted state of all objects in the graph.
US08301752B2 Load balancing for network server
Embodiments of the invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to load balancing for servers having multiple blades and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for load balancing at the blade level for servers having multiple blades. In one embodiment of the present invention, a blade server for performing load balancing may comprise a plurality of blades, each blade coupled with a plurality of outgoing ports. The blade server may further include a blade management module configured for monitoring throughput performance of the server and the plurality of blades, wherein each blade is coupled with a plurality of outgoing ports, instructing a blade to switch from a first outgoing port to a second outgoing port when throughput performance decreases and instructing the blade to switch from the second outgoing port back to the first outgoing port when throughput performance increases.
US08301748B2 Managing CDN registration by a storage provider
A system, method, and computer readable medium for managing registration, by a network storage provider, of one or more resources with a CDN service provider are provided. A network storage provider storing one or more resources on behalf of a content provider obtains registration information for registering the one or more resources with a CDN service provider. The registration information may include a request to publish one or more resources to a CDN service provider, an identification of the one or more resources, CDN selection criteria provided by the content provider or otherwise selected, and the like. The network storage provider transmits a CDN generation request corresponding to the registration information to the CDN service provider. Then, the network storage provider manages and processes data pursuant to registration of the one or more resources with the CDN service provider.
US08301747B2 Method and computer system for optimizing a link to a network page
To optimize a link (221) which refers to a first network page (11) of a first server (10a) and which is displayed on a second network page (21) of a second server (20), the link is automatically assessed in dependence on link (22) activation by a user (50), wherein the assessment is carried out in dependence on the frequency of activation of the link (22) by any user. A static link is examined in dependence on the assessment of the link as to whether the display of the link on the second network page (21) should be continued. A dynamic link, which is generated in dependence on at least one predeterminable parameter, is examined in dependence on the assessment of the link (22) as to whether the at least one or another predeterminable parameter should be changed.
US08301738B1 Systems and methods for private network addressing in IP protocols
According to one embodiment, a method for generating private network addresses for scopes of validity within a network is provided. The method comprises generating an address prefix or address modifier indicating the type of scopes, the instances of the scopes, and the relative position of the scopes in the network. In this illustrative embodiment, the type of scope determines the value of the prefix data placed in the address prefix and/or the location of that prefix data within the address prefix. The method further comprises generating a standard Internet protocol address for the scope to be created, the address including a subnet prefix and a host ID. The method further comprises saving the address prefix in a routing data structure along with the standard Internet protocol address, such that the address prefix is associated at a higher level in the hierarchy of the standard Internet protocol address. The routing data structure is configured with these extended prefixed addresses to be utilized in the selective communication of data to the correct scope. According to some embodiments, the address combines the scope hierarchy and the standard IP address into a single prefix based scoped network hierarchy.
US08301737B2 Architecture and protocol for extensible and scalable communication
A system performs information technology (IT) tasks using a computer. Examples of IT tasks include installing or configuring software, displaying alerts, executing programs or scripts on the endpoint, or logging activities. In an embodiment of the system, a connection initialization module receives a request for a persistent connection over a network from a managed endpoint. The request is accepted and a persistent connection is opened with the managed endpoint. A tier-1 module then receives configuration information from the managed endpoint over the persistent connection. The configuration information includes a list of functional plugins on the managed endpoint, where a functional plugin comprises a software module for performing an IT task. The tier-1 module stores this configuration information along with information describing the persistent connection and maintains the persistent connection in an open state.
US08301731B2 Source-based alert when streaming media of live event on computer network is of current interest and related feedback
A real time streaming video capture, delivery, and alert system may capture a streaming video of a live event and deliver it into a computer network as the live event is being captured. The system may include a camera, a network interface, a source operator interface configured to receive alerts, and a processing system. The system may issue an alert when the live event is currently of interest.A streaming video search engine may allow prospective viewers to locate at least one streaming video that is currently of interest from among several streaming videos. The engine may include a network interface configured to receive source alerts from real time streaming video capture, delivery, and alert systems, a memory system, a processing system, a searching system, and a viewer interface.
US08301727B1 System, method, and computer program product for receiving security content utilizing a serial over LAN connection
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for receiving security content utilizing a serial over LAN connection. In use, an unsuccessful attempt to connect to a network for accessing security content at a remote second device is indicated by a first device, where the unsuccessful attempt results from a malfunction at the first device. Further, the security content is received at the first device utilizing a serial over local area network (LAN) connection established with the remote second device, based on the indication.
US08301724B2 Targeted media advertising over networks
Advertising on networks can include a three-step system in one embodiment of the disclosure. The first step can include the review of search requests, followed by a response linking to a media file containing an advertisement. The second step can be a delivery process. The advertising cannot be considered spam as the user can be redirected towards information that can directly correlate to the users search. The advertising can be done with the full cooperation and volition of the media company or companies involved. The advertisers' contract with the media companies can allow for payment and the media companies can then expose their product to potential buyers. The third step can be contacting an advertising server any time that media file is played. In this third step it can be determined what the optimal advertisement for this media file is.
US08301718B2 Architecture, system and method for a messaging hub in a real-time web application framework
A method and apparatus for providing a hub in a real-time web application framework is described. In one embodiment, the method includes running applications on a hub server computer system within a real-time web application framework. The method may also include running each application based on configuration parameters associated with each application, the hub server computer system running the applications outside of a web application stack run on a web server computer system of the real-time web application framework.
US08301715B2 Host device and method for accessing a virtual file in a storage device by bypassing a cache in the host device
A host device is provided comprising an interface configured to communicate with a storage device having a public memory area and a private memory area, wherein the public memory area stores a virtual file that is associated with content stored in the private memory area. The host device also comprises a cache, a host application, and a server. The server is configured to receive a request for the virtual file from the host application, send a request to the storage device for the virtual file, receive the content associated with the virtual file from the private memory area of the storage device, wherein the content is received by bypassing the cache, generate a response to the request from the host application, the response including the content, and send the response to the host application. In one embodiment, the server is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server. In another embodiment, the server can determine if a request is associated with a normal user permission or a super user permission, and send a response to the host application only if it is determined that the request is associated with the normal user permission.
US08301710B2 Processing data obtained from a presence-based system
Functionality is described for collecting data from a presence-based system, such as an instant messaging system. The functionality can extract information from the collected data based on one or more rules. For instance, the functionality can identify presence data and/or message data that includes predetermined key words. The functionality can formulate result information based on the extracted information for presentation to a recipient.
US08301709B2 Chat system without topic-specific rooms
A method, system and graphical user interface for a chat system is disclosed. One aspect of certain embodiments includes sending target messages to users based on the respective selection and filtering criteria selected by the respective users instead of having users enter topic specific rooms.
US08301707B1 Predictive electronic mail addressing
A system for predictive electronic mail addressing is provided. The system comprises a computer system and an application, that when executed on the computer system, observes the instantiation of a draft electronic mail message on a client device. The system also analyzes at least one of an entry of a first addressee, an entry of text in the subject line, and an entry of text in the body of the draft electronic mail message. The system also identifies at least one list comprising a plurality of proposed addressees based on the analyzed entries. The system also displays the at least one list in a selection pane on the client device and enters the list into the addressee entry space of the draft electronic mail message when selected.
US08301706B2 Routing of pooled messages via an intermediary
Message intermediation for multiple service instances, while allowing the service instance to control whether messages are processed under a transaction. The message intermediator chooses to dispatch messages among different backend service instances based on any routing rules. The message intermediator performs a peek-lock of message from a forward-end queue, and assigns the message to a service instance. The message is provided into a backward-end queue specific to the assigned service instance. The service instance may then process the message, perhaps under a transaction created at the service instance. Upon completion of processing, the message is deleted in the back-end queue, which causes the forward-end queue to delete the message under the same transaction created by the service instance. Whether or not this deletion at the forward-end is committed or rolled back depends on whether the transaction created at the service instance is committed or rolled back.
US08301702B2 Method and an apparatus to screen electronic communications
A method and an apparatus to screen electronic communications have been disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes extracting URLs from electronic communication and analyzing the URLs extracted to determine whether the electronic communication is of a first predetermined category. Other embodiments have been claimed and described.
US08301701B2 Creating dynamic interactive alert messages based on extensible document definitions
An unsolicited dynamic interactive message is created wherein the message defines any graphical user interface elements to be displayed, the rules associated with the message, the appropriate methods and functions which can be performed and specific contextual interactions supported. The message definition can originate from a local or remote computer and can be pre and post processed as specified by the computing environment and the message definition itself.
US08301696B2 Methods and systems for scalable video delivery
Methods and systems for delivering scalable media content from a server to a client are provided. A server index is provided to a media server for indexing the layers of scalable content in the form of media data groups. The client transmits at least one media request comprising a scalable media presentation identifier, a requested quality identifier and a requested layer identifier. Based on the at least one request, the server identifies the requested media data groups and transmits the requested media data groups to the client. The client receives the requested media data groups, which may be a subset of all available media data groups, and reorders the media data into decoding order for subsequent decoding and playback.
US08301689B2 Controlling presentation engine on remote device
A communication mechanism or facility for enabling interaction with, and control of, a remote presentation engine for presenting a rich media application, such as one written using animated graphics allows the presentation engine to be configured or instructed remotely to perform certain actions, to send requests, and/or to send information, independently of the animated graphics application being executed. The communication facility between a workstation enables a presentation engine to pass a request by the application for resource stored on a workstation—an image file or a data file, for example—thereby creating a virtual file system. Local resource references can thus be maintained in the application during development without having to download all resources to the device in connection with testing.
US08301680B2 Apparatus and method to compute reciprocal approximations
A method and apparatus for reducing memory required to store reciprocal approximations as specified in Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standards such as IEEE 754 is presented. Monotonic properties of the reciprocal function are used to bound groups of values. Efficient bit-vectors are used to represent information in groups resulting in a very compact table representation about four times smaller than storing all of the reciprocal approximations in a table.
US08301676B2 Field device with capability of calculating digital filter coefficients
A digital filter design algorithm is implemented directly within a process control field device or other process related equipment. Filter design parameters are exposed so that filter design parameter values may be provided to the digital filter design algorithm so that the digital filter design algorithm may calculate digital filter coefficients for a digital filter having desired frequency response characteristics. The digital filter design parameter values may be provided by a user, or may be provided as process variable data output from a process control field device or other process related equipment. Once the coefficients of the digital filter having the desired frequency response characteristics have been calculated, the digital filter may be applied to process variable data received by the process control field device or other process related equipment.
US08301675B2 Computer system for predicting the evolution of a chronological set of numerical values
The invention relates to a computer system for assisting prediction of the future of a chronological set (J) of numerical values which are stored in the memory (H) of a computer (O), such as to enable the generation of a topological structure, which can be displayed (V), using an algorithm-based analyzer (A). The topological structure comprises a dense network of regression-based curves in which characteristic figures, which can be used for prediction (P) purposes, can manifest.
US08301669B2 Concurrent presentation of video segments enabling rapid video file comprehension
A concurrent presentation of video segments of a video file enables rapid comprehension of the video file. A video file is segmented into video segments and a condensed representation of the video file is generated. The condensed representation corresponds to a concurrent presentation of the video segments in respective windows in a display area over repeating cycles of a loop period. The concurrent presentation may be processed to concurrently present video segments corresponding to contiguous sections of the video file in respective windows in a display area over repeating cycles of a loop period.
US08301662B2 Sub-mailbox folder hierarchy to represent a separate physical mailbox to a user
Architecture that provides an abstraction of a mailbox store that allows clients to connect to multiple “alternate” mailboxes associated with a single user, exposing the same mechanism used to connect to a user's main mailbox. Beneath this abstraction, support for alternate mailboxes is implemented as a folder hierarchy contained within the user's own mailbox or another physical mailbox. The architecture uses a sub-mailbox folder hierarchy to virtualize a separate physical mailbox. On top of this basic infrastructure, other features can be built such as server-hosted e-mail archives and mailboxes mirrored from other e-mail and PIM data systems. In support thereof, a mechanism is provided for an abstraction layer to expose all or a subset of the alternate mailbox features, and to advertise which alternate mailbox features are supported per alternate mailbox.
US08301656B2 Interface for a universal search
A search engine may perform a search for a user search query over a number of possible search categories. For example, the search query may be performed for general web documents, images, and news documents. The search engine ranks categories based on the search query and/or the documents returned for each category and presents the search results to the user by category. Higher ranking categories may be presented more prominently than lower ranking categories.
US08301653B2 System and method for capturing and reporting online sessions
The present invention discloses a computer system for reporting online sessions and a computer enabled method utilizing the same. The computer system is made up of an icon that preferably appears on a user screen. The icon is capable of capturing a screen session on the user screen and saving it within a recording. The recording may then be communicated to a database server that is capable of extracting a plurality of target components from said recording, and is capable of storing them in a database. The database may contain a benchmark content of the plurality of target components. Target components may then be compared against the benchmark content in a variety of ways to determine whether the level of target components is above or below reasonable and socially accepted levels.
US08301646B2 Research collection and retention system
A system and method for managing research produced by outside research vendors includes a storage unit, data repository stored on the storage unit, and a processing unit in communication with the storage unit and data repository. The processing unit may be configured to collect first research reports from first and second research vendors, where the first and second research reports have first and second formats, respectively. The processing unit may further be configured to reformat the first research reports from the first format into a third format, reformat the second research reports from the second format into the third format, store the reformatted first and second research reports in the data repository, and provide access to the first and second research reports in the third format to members of the organization.
US08301645B1 Aggregated web analytics request systems and methods
Provided is a method that includes receiving a file from a network site, wherein the file defines display information for one or more content items, parsing the file to display the one or more content items. Parsing includes encountering, in the file, a request to transmit analytics data to a remote analytics site, delaying transmission of the analytics data to wait for encountering of subsequent requests in the file, encountering, in the file, one or more subsequent requests to transmit other analytics data to the remote analytics site, aggregating the analytics data and the other analytics data into an analytics request for the remote analytics site, and sending the analytics request to the remote analytics site, such that the remote analytics site receives the analytics data and the other analytics via the same analytics request.
US08301616B2 Search equalizer
A method for processing query data is described that includes receiving a query portion from a client over a network. For each of multiple search contexts, a relevance score is determined, based on the query portion. Each search context corresponds to a different set of information against which queries can be executed. Indication of the relevance scores is provided to the client over the network. Determining the relevance score and providing indication are performed prior to an input indicating a complete query or in response thereto. The method may also include associating shortcuts with search contexts, selecting a set of shortcuts based, at least in part, on the relevance scores for the search contexts and the association between the shortcuts and search contexts, and sending the set of shortcuts to the client. The shortcuts include links for accessing a content location associated with the shortcut.
US08301613B2 System and method for incident processing through a correlation model
Disclosed is a method, system and a computer program for correlating an incident service ticket with an incident resource ticket. The method includes, in response to a creation of an incident service ticket in a certain service category; searching with a data processor for open incident resource tickets of the same or similar category; searching with the data processor based on a set of similarity rules for corresponding critical configuration items defined in business service configuration items and, if both searches succeed, searching with the data processor found incident resource tickets ordered by time using found critical configuration items and, if a match is found, declaring the incident service ticket to be correlated with the matching incident resource ticket. The exemplary embodiments further provide that, if both searches do not succeed, or if a match is not found, obtaining input from a dependency tree for the business service configuration items and if no related service configuration items for the service category are identified then concluding the performance of the method, otherwise searching with the data processor found incident resource tickets ordered by time using found related service configuration items. If no associated resource tickets are available then the method performs constraint adaptive probing of resources determined from the dependency tree to attempt to generate at least one corresponding resource ticket, and to search on any corresponding resource tickets that are generated for related configuration items.
US08301611B2 Records management system and method
A records management system and method that permits paper records to be tagged, stored and retrieved according to user criteria. The system includes a scanning module, a central server, one or more user workstations and an optical character recognition server. After scanning, the records may then be serialized and categorized by project, and then supplemented automatically by the system with a hypertext data file. The system provides for the manual input of additional hypertext data and merger of the hypertext data file with other records in the project. The end user may then search and/or filter records according to information contained in the hypertext data file. Because the pages may be sorted according to user criteria, the user may shuffle through pages from various different documents, thus allowing them to quickly retrieve the records they need and perform such actions as trend-spotting.
US08301610B2 Optimizing search for insert-only databases and write-once data storage
A search of an insert-only database is performed using a search string in a non-key field to obtain a result set having both valid and invalid entries. Each entry includes a primary key field and the primary key field is subsequently scanned for entries in the result set to determine which entries are valid. Thereafter, invalid entries are removed from the result set to result in a modified result set. Such removal can be based, for example, on the timestamp of the respective entries. In some implementations, a secondary persistence is utilized. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US08301607B2 Information management server, information processing system, communication method and program
An embodiment of the invention includes an information management server with a registration unit that registers a status change condition of a database and a notification action so that they are associated with each other. Also, the information management server includes a communication unit that receives an acquisition request for a status change notification via database connection established with respect to a client and a change detection unit that detects a status change satisfying the condition of the acquisition request and invokes the notification action associated therewith. According to aspect of the invention, a notification unit causes the communication unit to send a notification including a result of the notification action via the database connection as a response to the acquisition request, and returns control of the connection to the client.
US08301605B2 Managing maintenance tasks for computer programs
A computer-implemented method for managing maintenance of a computer program can include the steps of receiving usage data from a plurality of users of the computer program, wherein the usage data identifies at least one portion of the computer program accessed by one of the users, and for each portion of the computer program, determining a usage according to the received usage data and assigning a priority level according to the determined usage, where the priority level indicates a relative priority of the portion compared to other portions in the computer program.
US08301592B2 Synchronizing business transaction records from asynchronous messages received out of sequence
A method for processing business transaction orders received asynchronously. The method includes receiving a first message for a business object, the business object comprising an order between a first party and a second party, and storing the business object including a first entity within a data store. The method further includes receiving a second message for the business object including a second entity, and storing the second entity with the business object. Respective chronological indicators for the first entity and the second entity are examined. Based on the chronological indicators, object attribute metadata describing a current status of the business object is updated, and the business object is processed in accordance with the updated object attribute metadata.
US08301587B2 Internet enabled computer system management
System configuration is verified. Configuration information for a managed system is generated. The configuration information indicates existing software and hardware residing on the managed system. The configuration information is sent from the managed system to a management system. The management system compares the configuration information from the managed system with database information that indicates software and hardware supported by the management system in order to generate validity information that indicates any software or hardware on the managed system that is not supported by the management system. The validity information is sent from the management system to the managed system.
US08301585B2 Visualization recommendations based on measure metadata
A system includes reception of metadata associated with one or more measures, determination of a compatibility of the two or more measures based on the metadata, and determination of a first score associated with a first visualization based on the compatibility. Some aspects include determination of a second score associated with a second visualization based on the compatibility, comparison of the first score and the second score, and recommendation of one of the first visualization or the second visualization based on the comparison.
US08301583B2 Automated data conversion and route tracking in distributed databases
A determination is made as to whether a data type associated with a received logical table definition associated with a database query within a distributed database system differs from a data type associated with a local logical table definition. A data conversion is performed on data retrieved from a locally-stored physical table referenced by the local logical table definition in response to determining that the data types differ. Local data conversion information is created identifying the data conversion performed on the retrieved data in response to performing the data conversion. At least one of the retrieved data and the converted data with the created local data conversion information is forwarded to at least one of a distributed database node and an application-level module. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08301581B2 Group compositing algorithms for presence
Systems and methods presented herein construct groups and determine the presence for the groups. The groups can be constructed based on business logic. A set of components can model a group from the business logic, can establish a membership for the group, can determine one or more rules that govern presence determination for the membership, and can provide the group model, membership information, and the one or more rules to a rules engine. The rules engine can evaluate presence within the group model based on the membership and the one or more rules. The group presence can then be provided to one or more entities, applications, or workflows that subscribe to the rules engine for the group presence.
US08301580B2 Method and system for managing computer systems
A management system for a computer system is disclosed. The computer system operates or includes various products (e.g., software products) that can be managed in a management system or collectively by a group of management systems. Typically, the management system operates on a computer separate from the computer system being managed. The management system can make use of a knowledge base of causing symptoms for previously observed problems at other sites or computer systems. In other words, the knowledge base can built from and shared by different users across different products to leverage knowledge that is otherwise disparate. The knowledge base typically grows over time. The management system can use its ability to request information from the computer system being managed together with the knowledge base to infer a problem root cause in the computer system being managed. The computer system being managed can also request the management system to process its knowledge base for possible problem cause analysis. The management system can also continually identify persisting problem causing symptoms.
US08301577B2 Intelligent monitoring system for establishing reliable background information in a complex image environment
An intelligent monitoring system aims to perform object surveillance and tracking, and can quickly build accurate and reliable background data in a complex image condition to achieve desired monitoring result. Based on a dynamic background and a temporary static object and user's requirements, monitoring objects in a background module can be added or deleted to match the actual background information. The whole background data can be tracked according to characteristics of a targeted object set by users, and post-processing can be done for the tracked object, such as zooming, identifying, capturing, surveillance of behaviors, and the like. Thus whether a special attention is needed for a dynamic or static object can be notified. And an alert can be issued to relevant people for timely handling.
US08301573B2 Dynamic interface between BPSS conversation management and local business management
The present invention relates to devices and methods that coordinate an external conversation process between entities with an internal workflow of one of the entities. More particularly, it relates to devices and methods that are compliant with an inter-enterprise conversation process standard for routing electronic commerce documents between enterprises. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
US08301554B2 System and method for managing meetings budgets and allocating and reconciling expenditures
A system, method, and computer program product for managing meetings and allocating and reconciling expenditures. Scheduling information for a plurality of meetings is stored in a database. A plurality of budgets is stored in the database, each of the budgets being associated with and defining budget items for one of the plurality of meetings. Transaction data are received describing a plurality of expenditures made using at least one transaction account, wherein the transaction data comprise an amount expended for each of the plurality of expenditures. A selection of an expenditure, from the plurality of expenditures, and a selection of a meeting related to the selected expenditure from the plurality of meetings are accepted from a user. An allocation of at least a portion of the amount of the selected expenditure to a budget item for the selected meeting is accepted.
US08301543B2 Method and system for administering a discounted security
An exchangeable security, tradable on a securities exchange is issued at a share price that is a discount from the share price of an underlying security or basket of underlying securities. At or prior to maturity of the exchangeable security, a holder of the exchangeable security may exchange a share of the exchangeable security for a share of the underlying security or basket of underlying securities. The exchangeable security may also include a linked payment that is redeemable for the full amount of the payment on maturity of the exchangeable security. Alternatively, the exchangeable security may be issued at the share price of the underlying security with the linked payment. The invention provides methods for issue, trade and redemption as well as systems for issue, trade and redemption of the security.
US08301533B1 Automated fulfilling of currency exchange requests over a computer network
A computer program product is provided for automatically fulfilling currency exchange requests received at a processor for a plurality of different currencies that are received from a plurality of different customers. Each request is a request to exchange an amount of funds of a source currency for funds of a target currency, or a request to receive an amount of funds of a target currency by exchanging source currency. At least some of the requests are fulfilled by automatically matching requests of one or more customers with requests of one or more other customers who have requested an exchange of the converse target and source currencies in an amount of currency sufficient to match a first portion of the requests, and by using amounts of currency in different currency types that are not received from the customers to fulfill a second portion of the requests.
US08301529B1 Method and system for implementing effective governance of transactions between trading partners
An embodiment of the present invention is directed to receiving a first independent log from a first trading partner wherein the first independent log comprises at least one request log entry associated with a transaction wherein the request log entry comprises at least a request identifier; receiving a second independent log from a second trading partner wherein the second independent log comprises at least one reply log entry associated with the transaction between the first trading partner and the second trading partner, wherein the reply log entry comprises at least a reply identifier; matching the at least one request log entry and the at least one reply log entry based on one or more of the request identifier and the reply identifier at a third party interface; identifying non-matching log entries at the third party interface; and forwarding the non-matching log entries for one or more of error processing and dispute resolution.
US08301523B1 System, method and computer readable medium for providing notifications
The invention provides a method, system and computer readable medium for providing a notification to a recipient. The method, system and computer readable medium relate to a notification sent via a processing device, the method including determining, for a recipient, a first notification method and a second notification method, generating a notification, and providing the notification to the recipient in accordance with the first notification method or, upon a failure of the first notification method, providing the notification to the recipient in accordance with the second notification method.
US08301519B2 Methods and apparatus for analyzing revenue cycles of a facility
The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for analyzing the revenue cycles of a facility to more accurately predict future financial performance. Using the methods and apparatus disclosed herein, accountants and financial planners are given forecasts of future accounts paid based on current accounts receivable and past accounts paid.
US08301515B2 Method and system for evaluating product substitutions along multiple criteria in response to a sales opportunity
A system and method evaluate product substitutions along multiple criteria in response to a sales opportunity, for instance, providing sales recommendations of configurable products in response to a customer request based on propensity functions. A customer propensity is determined to estimate attractiveness of a substitute product to a customer based on one or more attributes. A seller propensity is determined to estimate attractiveness to a seller of selling the substitute product based on one or more attributes. The customer propensity and the seller propensity are combined to find a plurality of substitute products.
US08301510B2 Electronic commerce for system registered consumers
A system and method for merchant invoked electronic commerce allowing consumers to purchase items over a network and merchants to receive payment information relating to the purchases. The system includes a server having software which gathers the purchasing information from a consumer to complete a purchasing transaction over a network. The system has a consumer data structure that stores purchasing information for registered consumers. The software is able to access the consumer data structure and enter the consumer's purchasing information during subsequent purchases. Having the software obtain and enter the consumer's purchasing information, the consumer does not have to enter the same information every time they purchase an item over the network. In alternate embodiments, the same technology can be applied to other arenas where a user may have to enter the same repetitive information. In addition, consumers can register with the consumer information server prior to making purchase. In an alternate embodiment, a merchant can gather the purchasing information from a consumer and pass the information to the consumer information server to allow the consumer to register with the consumer information server.
US08301502B2 Methods and systems for account management of group accounts
Account management methods and systems are presented for managing and administering group accounts. A group may establish a financial group account using a novel group account management system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The novel group account management system can provide financial transaction-related controls, privileges, tracking, and/or reporting for one or more users, members, and/or sub-group within the group account. A concept of user-specific, member-specific, and/or sub-group-specific privileges is integrated into the novel group account management system to assign a particular user, member, and/or sub-group to an account management level within the group account. Furthermore, a novel concept of user-managed group account-related rules is also integrated into the novel group account management system to empower, restrict, and/or control certain transaction-related actions for at least some users, members, and/or sub-groups.
US08301501B1 Method and system for informing a user of the effect of a hypothetical purchase on the user's finances at the point of sale
A method and system for displaying to a user the effect of a hypothetical purchase on the user's budgetary goals whereby a given product and/or service being considered for purchase and/or the cost of the given product and/or service being considered is identified and a product/service category database is searched to find a financial category associated with the given product and/or service. Financial budget/goal data indicating the given user's one or more budgetary and/or financial goals for a financial category associated with the given product and/or service for the given period of time, the current financial data indicating the given user's actual spending in the financial category associated with the given product and/or service for the given period of time, and the data indicating the cost of the given product and/or service being considered for purchase is analyzed to present the user data indicating the hypothetical remaining balance for the financial category associated with the given product and/or service for the given period of time that would result if the given product and/or service were actually purchased.
US08301499B2 Product-based advertising
A method and a system that identify seller ads to potential buyers within a network-based commerce system are provided. The method and system may operate to receive a request including a product identification and financial metrics from a seller, and assign to the seller, based on a distance function and the product identification, a matching identification entry included in a set of identification entries. The method and system may further include operations to identify one or more seller ads associated with the matching identification entry, as determined by a relevance function based on the financial metrics and a distance measured between the matching identification entry and at least one extracted identification entry extracted from a selected content page and included in the set of identification entries.
US08301496B2 System and method for increasing traffic to websites
The present document describes a system and method for changing volume of traffic to a website. The system comprises: a user database and a promotional server in communication with each other. The user database comprises user accounts. Each account is associated with a user identification and is also for keeping track of benefits. The promotional server is configured to perform the steps of: detecting an access request to the website by a user from a Web browser; consulting a user database to identify the user from the access request; identifying a method of calling the website from a value of a field or a value of a variable in the access request; from at least one of the identity of the user and the method of calling the website, establishing, by consulting a promotions database, a determined amount; increasing a value of the points field associated to the user in the user database by the determined amount; sending instructions to the Web browser to display one of: information indicative of at least one of an increase in, and the possibility to increase, the points field associated to the user in the user database, the points field being representative of a benefit to the user; and information indicative of the possibility for the user to register in the user database.
US08301493B2 System and method for providing incentives to consumers to share information
A system and method for providing incentives to consumers to share their consumer information with third parties is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided which includes the steps of: accepting consumer information; storing the consumer information; requesting permission from the consumer to share their consumer information with a third party; and offering the consumer a selected incentive in exchange for their permission to share their consumer information.
US08301491B2 Item reservation
Items can be reserved in advance of a future spot market sale. A reservation price can be determined for the item based on an expected spot market price required to obtain the item in the future sport market sale, a time until the spot market sale, and/or market signals. The reservation price can converge to the expected spot market price as the time of the future spot market approaches.
US08301490B2 Methods and systems for optimization of innovative capacity and economic value from knowledge, human and risk capital asset sets
Methods and systems for optimizing innovative capacity and new economic value from aggregates of public and private national, state, provincial and industry sector assets are disclosed. Sets of policy adjustment operations are performed to existing levels of the assets to attain desired benchmark settings based on optimal values and relationships for innovative capacity drivers derived from models and observations of economic performance data. The rate of change and the amount of increase in innovative capacity and economic value is monitored over time in relation to the extent of attainment of the desired benchmark values.
US08301487B2 System and methods for calibrating pricing power and risk scores
A power and risk score calibrator is provided, which receives quantitative power and risk scores for each quantitative segment, and receives qualitative power and risk scores for each qualitative segment. The qualitative segment and the qualitative power and risk scores are defined by a user. The system generates consolidated segments. Then consolidated power and risk scores for each of the consolidated segments are generated, respectively. The gaps between the qualitative power and risk scores and the consolidated power and risk scores are reconciled. From these reconciliations, adjustment factors are generated, which are applied by pricing power and risk value calibrators. The system may also perform a drill down to explain the gap between the qualitative scores and the consolidated scores.
US08301483B2 Modeling system and method to predict consumer response to a new or modified product
Systems and methods for determining a consumer response. At least two attributes are obtained for a sample product, the at least two attributes are associated with a feeding experience of an animal are determined. A regression analysis is performed on one or more factor scores for the sample product derived from the at least two attributes. A consumer response of the feeding experience as a function of the at least two attributes is determined independently of the consumer. The at least two attributes are determined based on an assessment of a plurality of technical measures associated with the feeding experience of an animal. The technical measures may be selected from the group consisting of analytical components (AN), daily feeding patterns based on automatic feeding station (AFS), chemical sensory headspace aroma compounds (CHEM), human sensory descriptive panel (HUMAN), monadic feeding patterns (VIDEO), and preference assessment (PREF).
US08301481B2 Multiple layer manufacturing line rejection management system
A data processing system for analyzing rejection rejections in a manufacturing process having more than one level of manufacture stores test results from an nth-level test for review by an OEM and, subject to consent of the nth level vendor, for review by a vendor on a lower level. The data for rejection analysis is linked to data in a manufacturing floor control system.
US08301480B2 Automatically evolving processes in workflow automation
A system, a method, computer-readable medium for conveying software, or business methods for gradually automating a workflow in a configuration change management system by providing a first workflow template having a relatively low level of automation and complexity in which at least a plurality of tasks require manual input, manual response, or manual approval, operating the first workflow by a workflow automation system engine, monitoring a measurement of the maturity level of the process during the operation the first workflow, and responsive to detecting the maturity level meeting pre-determined benchmark, automatically selecting, engaging, and operating a second workflow template which increases automation by automating one or more subprocesses, adding one or more subprocesses, or eliminating one or more subprocesses.
US08301479B2 System and method for web-based sports event scheduling
A system and methods are provided for communication between entities that need to coordinate on scheduling events. Communication between schedulers, such as coaches, athletic administrators or organization administrators who may be in charge of a multiplicity of sports or activities at institutions, such as colleges or universities, who need to connect and communicate on a particular task. These tasks may include scheduling of events such as sports competitions or other events or activities in which there may be shared or common interests or a shared network of users, players or participants. Search by criteria to find matching potential opponents for scheduling events is also provided. Automatic schedule updates are maintained, typically in a logically centralized database, facilitated by a messaging system to facilitate ease of scheduling.
US08301474B2 Contact center integration into virtual environments
A contact center has an interface with a virtual environment implemented in a computer system. The operation of the contact center includes receiving, from the virtual environment, spatial information relating to the spatial position within the virtual environment of an inhabitant of the virtual environment, and queuing a contact relating to that inhabitant in a queuing system of the contact center. Queuing decisions are based, at least in part, on the spatial information of the inhabitant in the virtual environment.
US08301466B2 Method and system for providing online records
A method for providing a user with the ability to access and collect records associated with the user in a secure and private manner includes associating access information with the user for the user to use to access a server storing files comprising records associated with the user in a computer readable storage medium, providing the user with a user interface on a computing device to remotely access the records stored on the server, receiving at the server the files comprising records associated with the user from a service provider associated with the user, receiving at the server a request from the user made through the user interface of the computing device for access to the files, wherein the access information is associated with the request, and sending the user a file containing the records associated with user from the server to the computing device in response to the request.
US08301461B2 Method and apparatus for generating a radiologist quality assurance scorecard
The present invention provides a quality assurance system and method that generates a quality assurance (QA) scorecard for radiologists that use digital devices in a radiological-based medical imaging study. According to one embodiment, client computers, servers, imaging devices, databases, and/or other components may be coupled to provided a unified data collection system. According to one embodiment, systems and methods are provided that analyze various parameters that are derived from the unified data collection system to calculate a QA score for the radiologist. The QA score provides a combined subjective and objective feedback system that includes performance evaluations from other users, including clinicians and patients. According to one embodiment, the feedback may be provided in real-time.
US08301457B2 Method for selecting program and apparatus thereof
A program selection method and a display apparatus thereof are provided. The program selection method includes generating a program list including at least one program title, determining whether there is a voice input for a program selection; searching for a desired program title corresponding to the voice input for the program selection among the at least one program title in the program list, and selecting a program corresponding to the desired program title based on the searching for the desired program title.
US08301452B2 Voice activated application service architecture and delivery
A system and method for retrieving distributed content responsive to voice data are disclosed. Voice data is transmitted from a source client device to media server which applies a mixing table to route the voice data to one or more destinations described by the mixing table. The media server also analyzes the received voice data for one or more events. Responsive to detecting an event, the media server communicates with an application server, which modifies the mixing table so that subsequent data is also routed to a media generator which analyzes voice data received after detection of the event for a command. The media generator communicates with the application server to retrieve data from a user data source, such as a website, associated with a detected command. The media generator produces an audio representation of the retrieved data which is communicated to the source client device via the media server.
US08301441B2 Speech coding
A method of encoding one or more parent blocks of values, the number of values being the length of each block, the method comprising for each parent block: (a) determining a first sum of values in the parent block; (b) splitting the parent block into smaller subblocks; (c) for at least one of the subblocks, determining a second sum of the values in the subblock, selecting a likelihood table from the plurality of likelihood tables based on said first sum of values in the parent block and encoding the second sum using the likelihood table; (d) designating each subblock a parent block; (e) carrying out steps (a), (b), (c) and (d) until at least one parent block reaches a predetermined condition.
US08301435B2 Removing ambiguity when analyzing a sentence with a word having multiple meanings
A language processing device includes first analysis unit 21 that subjects a natural language sentence containing a polysemic word and other words to a predetermined analysis and outputs a plurality of analysis results for the natural language sentence according to a plurality of meanings of the polysemic word, second analysis unit 23 that performs a particular analysis on the analysis results outputted from first analysis unit 21, and employs one of the analysis results, and generation unit 244 that generates a deletion rule for deleting one or more unnecessary analysis results of the first analysis unit 21 which has been deleted from the analysis results outputted from first analysis unit 21 but employed by second analysis unit 23, according to the analysis results outputted from the first analysis unit 21 and the employment result of second analysis unit 23.
US08301430B2 Systems and methods for constructing genomic-based phenotypic models
The invention provides a computer implemented process for constructing a scalable output network model of a bioparticle. The process includes computer implemented steps of: (a) accessing a database of network gene components including an annotated network set of open reading frames (ORFs) of a bioparticle genome; (b) forming a data structure associating the network gene components with network reaction components, the data structure establishing a data set specifying a network model of connectivity and flow of the network reaction components, and (c) transforming the data set into a mathematical description of reactant fluxes defining the network model of connectivity and flow, wherein the mathematical description defines a scalable output network model of a bioparticle.
US08301414B2 Compactor independent fault diagnosis
Methods, apparatus, and systems for performing fault diagnosis are disclosed herein. In certain disclosed embodiments, methods for diagnosing faults from compressed test responses are provided. For example, in one exemplary embodiment, a circuit description of an at least partially scan-based circuit-under-test and a compactor for compacting test responses captured in the circuit-under-test is received. A transformation function performed by the compactor to the test responses captured in the circuit-under-test is determined. A diagnostic procedure for evaluating uncompressed test responses is modified into a modified diagnostic procedure that incorporates the transformation function therein. Computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform any of the disclosed methods are also provided. Likewise, computer-readable media comprising lists of fault candidates identified by any of the disclosed methods or circuit descriptions created or modified by the disclosed methods are provided.
US08301411B2 Electronic device, host apparatus, communication system, and recording medium
Provided is a communication system comprising a host apparatus and an electronic device that is implemented in an apparatus that communicates with the host apparatus via a network. The electronic device includes an operation circuit that operates when the electronic device is implemented; a diagnostic circuit that tests the operation circuit; and a result transmitting section that transmits a test result obtained by the diagnostic circuit to the host apparatus via the network. The host apparatus includes a test information storage section that stores in advance test information indicating test content to be performed by the diagnostic circuit; and a test information transmitting section that, when the test information is requested by the electronic device, transmits the test information to the electronic device.
US08301407B2 Stabilized solid-state gyrolaser
Solid-state gyrolaser having a device for stabilizing the intensities making it possible to maintain equilibrium of the two counter-propagating modes having at least a means for calculating a rotation measurement (Ω, IΩ) of the gyrolaser on the basis of the counter-propagating modes having a frequency difference (Δνmes) between them, by assuming that the frequency difference (Δνmes) between the two counter-propagating modes is induced only by the rotation of the cavity. The gyrolaser also includes a means for measuring the control command (Co), a means for storing a behavior model (Mo) of a frequency bias (Δνb) induced by the device for stabilizing the intensities, as a function of the control command, a means for calculating the frequency bias (Δνb) induced by the device for stabilizing the intensities, on the basis of the value of the control command (Co) and the model (Mo), a means for calculating the bias (ΔΩb, ΔIΩb) in the rotation measurement (Ω, IΩ), induced by the frequency bias (Δνb), and a means for compensating for the bias (ΔΩb, ΔIΩb) in the rotation measurement (Ω, IΩ).
US08301405B2 System and method for measuring pin voltages of electronic components
A system and method uses a measurement control device and a measurement machine to measure pin voltages of electronic components installed in an electronic device. The measurement control device controls a mechanical arm of the measurement machine to move to the pins of the electronic components according to coordinates of the pins. A voltage probe installed on the end of the mechanical arm can measure voltages of the pins automatically.
US08301397B2 Method of determining physico-chemical properties of a petroleum sample from two-dimensional gas chromatography
A method of determining physico-chemical properties of a petroleum sample from two-dimensional gas chromatography. The amounts of molecular compounds present in the sample are determined by means of two-dimensional gas chromatography. At least one physical property, such as the octane number, is then determined from these amounts. A previously calibrated relation connecting the physical property to the amounts is used to this end.
US08301395B2 Analyte testing systems
The present invention includes analyte measurement systems, analyte measurement meters, analyte testing devices, cartridges thereof and integrated circuits for use therewith, and further includes methods related to the use of the integrated circuits and, in certain embodiments, to the counting or tracking of parameters related to the cartridges and analyte test devices.
US08301392B2 Automated decision support for associating an unknown biological specimen with a family
Three methods of predicting whether an unknown biological specimen of a missing person originates from a member of a particular family comprise an initial automated decision support (ADS) algorithm for determining a list of relatives of the missing person for DNA typing and which typing technologies of available technologies to use for a listed relative. The ADS algorithm may be implemented on computer apparatus including a processor and an associated memory. The ADS method comprises determining a set of relatives of available family member relatives for DNA typing via a processor from a stored list of family member relatives according to one of a rule base, a table of hierarchically stored relatives developed based on discriminatory power or by calculating the discriminatory power for available family relatives to type. The ADS method may further comprise comparing at least one set of DNA typing data for the unknown biological specimen to DNA typing data from biological specimens from the determined set of relatives; calculating by the processor a likelihood function that the person is related to the family; and outputting a decision whether or not the person is related to the family.
US08301385B2 Shot gather data beamer and debeamer
Beamed data can be obtained from shot gather data, and debeamed data can be obtained from beamed data. Shot gather data for a geophysical volume of interest in a first domain and/or beamed data in a third domain may be received. The first domain has a component relating to seismic wave propagation time and a spatial component relating to lateral spacing. The third domain has a component relating to local plane wave arrival time at a beam center surface location and a component relating to plane wave arrival directions. Data may be transformed between the first domain and a second domain. The second domain has a frequency component and a spatial component corresponding to the spatial component of the first domain. A forward or reverse transform may be applied to transform shot gather data in the first domain to/from beamed data in the third domain.
US08301384B2 Wellbore logging performance verification method and apparatus
A method for correcting a measurement of a property of a subsurface material includes: selecting an instrument that includes a test circuit and a separate sensor, the test circuit configured for providing a standard for referencing to generate correction information, the sensor configured for: transmitting an electric signal into the subsurface material; and receiving a data signal from the subsurface material; wherein the test circuit and the sensor are switchably coupled to an electronics unit of the instrument; receiving the electric signal from the test circuit in the electronics unit; using the electronics unit, measuring at least one output characteristic of the instrument; and applying the correction information to the data signal according to the measured output characteristic.
US08301383B2 Estimating in situ mechanical properties of sediments containing gas hydrates
A method for constructing elastoplastic property correlations in multicomponent particulate systems. The method includes obtaining parameters from geophysical data of a sediment-hydrate system, where the parameters include shyd and pc, and where shyd is a hydrate saturation and pc is a confining pressure. The method further includes determining a Young's modulus (E) of the sediment-hydrate system using the parameters and a correlation, where the correlation is E p c = 90.58 + 78.90 α 0.5831 + 800.4 ⁢ s hyd 1.371 α 1.022 , and where α=pc/c and c is a scaling variable with dimensions of pressure. The method further includes adjusting a field operation based on the Young's modulus of the sediment-hydrate system.
US08301381B2 Method for the characterization of geological formations
A method for determining the water saturation of an underground formation traversed by a borehole, the method composing: determining a first parameter (μ) that is representative of the critical exponent of the electrical conductivity of the formation: determining a second parameter (Wc or Sc or φc) that is representative of the formation percolation threshold; measuring a first set of formation properties; and combining, said first set of formation properties, first and second parameters in order to determine the water saturation (Sw) of said underground formation.
US08301378B2 Navigation system
A navigation system includes: a map information acquiring unit for acquiring map information; an HOV lane decision unit for deciding whether an HOV lane is included in a road represented by the map information acquired by the map information acquiring unit or not; a road number processing unit for performing, when the HOV lane decision unit decides that the HOV lane is included, processing of adding information representing the HOV lane to a road number of the road including the HOV lane; and a display processing unit or a voice information unit for causing the road number passing through the processing by the road number processing unit to be displayed on the guide map or output in voice.
US08301372B2 Method of operating a navigation system using images
A method of operating a navigation system determines a route between an origin and a destination and provides a photographic image showing a geographic area through which the route passes. The photographic image shows the geographic area from a land-based viewpoint. The method overlays a route highlight on the photographic image identifying a path to be traveled. The route highlight includes a symbol indicating at least one feature of the route selected from a group consisting of handicap accessible route, tree-lined route, well-lit route, quiet route, scenic route, crowded route, peaceful route, and bicycle friendly route.
US08301371B2 Point of interest spatial rating search method and system
Searching and retrieving location information associated with one or more points of interests (POI). Search criteria can be dependent upon preferences or search restrictions selected by the user device, e.g., rating information about the POI, as well as location of a POI with respect to the real-time position of the user device. Upon selecting a POI from the search result, the user device is then given further information regarding the selected POI, e.g., directions for traveling to the POI. The user device provides a proximity notification once the user device is within a certain distance from the POI. While at a POI, the user device can provide to the system information regarding the POI, such as a rating of the establishment, without having to specifically identify the POI as the system can self-identify the POI by using the position information of the user device.
US08301363B2 System and method for detection of average speed of vehicles for traffic control
The invention relates to a method and a system for identifying moving objects by employing a tag, said tag comprising at least alphanumeric characters and said tag being extracted from pictures taken by cameras located in at least two different points within a certain distance comprising extracting alphanumeric characters of said tag from the pictures taken by at least two cameras; converting said alphanumeric characters into other new characters of another representation space; creating a string of said new characters for each of the tags extracted from the pictures taken by the cameras at different locations, said cameras being synchronized and said pictures taken by the cameras within a predetermined time interval; comparing the strings by associating a correlation score; inputting a threshold score; identifying the moving object if the correlation score is over the predetermined threshold score.
US08301354B2 Vehicle
During vehicle operation, drive wheels are constantly monitored to see whether or not slip of drive wheels occurs and when slip is detected, posture control for slip conditions is performed by uncoupling normal posture control for the drive wheels. A balancer (weight body) which is movable in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle is provided, and posture control is performed by moving the balancer backward when the vehicle inclines forward due to slip and moving the balancer forward when the vehicle inclines backward. The detection of slip is through a comparison between the drive wheels circumferential speed V2 and a vehicle running speed V1.
US08301353B2 Vehicle motion control device and control method
A vehicle motion control device and method computes a size of a using friction circle in each of wheels by multiplying a size of an each wheel friction circle indicating a maximum generating force in each of the wheel tires by a previously computed each wheel using percentage, computes the each wheel tire generating force and the each wheel using percentage indicating a rate with respect to an upper limit value of a μ-using efficiency in each of the wheels, and controls a vehicle motion in such a manner that the computed each wheel tire generating force is obtained on the basis of the computed each wheel tire generating force, thereby minimizing an upper limit of the μ-using efficiency in each of the wheels.
US08301344B2 Device for classifying at least one object in the surrounding field of a vehicle
A device for classifying at least one object in the surrounding field of a vehicle with the aid of an environmental sensor system, the device classifying the at least one object on the basis of its shape and its dimensions, and the environmental sensor system ascertaining the dimensions.
US08301341B2 Travel control device and vehicle
Disclosed is a travel control device for easily achieving a target acceleration/deceleration even by a manual operation of a driver. A travel control device for controlling at least acceleration/deceleration of a vehicle includes acceleration/deceleration characteristic setting means for setting the range of an accelerator operation amount or a brake operation amount corresponding to an induced target acceleration/deceleration greater than the range of an accelerator operation amount or a brake operation amount corresponding to an acceleration/deceleration other than the induced target acceleration/deceleration. The acceleration/deceleration characteristic setting means generates a map GM1 in which the range of the accelerator operation amount or the brake operation amount corresponding to the acceleration/deceleration for achieving the induced target acceleration/deceleration is set greater than a basic map BM1, which defines the relationship between the accelerator operation amount and the acceleration/deceleration corresponding to the accelerator operation amount and the relationship between the brake operation amount and the acceleration/deceleration corresponding to the brake operation amount.
US08301337B2 Analog/digital conversion circuit, semiconductor device, and electric power steering controlling unit
The present invention provides a method in which a counting source is provided in data after analog/digital conversion to lessen a load placed when new and old data after the conversion are compared to each other. A log function is prepared in an A/D conversion controlling circuit. The log function latches the output of a counter in a 12-bit digital/analog converter at the timing of outputting a pulse from a comparator to determine data written into a data register group. In the case where a setting item related to log output in an ADCR is set at 1, not only the output of the 12-bit digital/analog converter, but also the output of a timer counter of an MTU is latched as a log.
US08301332B2 Method and system for fleet operations data management
A method and system for fleet operations data management is provided. The system includes a data collection and distribution network configured to distribute operations data to vehicles in a fleet of vehicles and collect vehicle performance data from the vehicles in the fleet of vehicles, the distributed operations data including at least one of travel plans, navigational databases, vehicle operator business data, and passenger information, the collected aircraft performance data including at least one of vehicle body integrity parameters, FADEC performance, CNS/ATM interoperability, and air computing infrastructure characteristics. The system further includes a plurality of wireless communications channels configured to transfer of data between a vehicle fleet operator and a fleet of vehicles, an adaptive, reconfigurable embedded instrument set configured to monitor variable aspects of individual aircraft performance, and a distributed control function configured to identify an appropriate communications channel for data transfer.
US08301325B2 System and method for autonomous vehicle localization
An autonomous vehicle capable of determining its position in a space through improved communications with beacons is disclosed. The autonomous vehicle utilizes time of flight as well and angular information to determine position, and is capable of intelligent interaction with the beacons.
US08301324B2 Wobble compensation of an encoder speed signal for an electric motor
A vehicle includes a traction motor, a transmission, a speed encoder for the motor, and a control system. The control system compensates for angular wobble in an encoder signal. The control system receives, via a hybrid control processor (HCP), the encoder signal from the speed encoder, and determines a set of wobble characteristics of the encoder signal below a threshold motor speed. The control system also calculates a wobble-compensated speed value via the HCP using the wobble characteristics, and uses the wobble-compensated speed value as at least part of the input signals when controlling the motor. A lookup table tabulates a learned wobble value relative to the angular position value, and a learned wobble value is subtracted from a current angular wobble value to generate an error-adjusted wobble value. A method compensates for wobble in the encoder signal using the above control system.
US08301319B2 Personal navigation system
There is provided a personal navigation system, including a head-mounted orientation sensor, a coordinate position sensor, a head-mounted display, and a processor receiving an input from the head-mounted orientation sensor and an input from the coordinate position sensor and providing a visually sensible output for displaying on the head-mounted display.
US08301314B2 System and method for providing voltage regulation in a power distribution network
A system, device and method for regulating the voltage at a customer premises that is supplied power via a first medium voltage power line is provided. In one embodiment, the method of using a computer system comprises determining medium voltage (MV) data comprising data of the voltage supplied to the first medium voltage power line at a plurality of times, storing the MV data for each of the plurality of times in a memory, determining current data comprising data of a current supplied to the medium voltage power line at the plurality of times, storing the current data at each of the plurality of times in memory in association with the voltage data of the same time. In addition, the method includes receiving low voltage data comprising data of a voltage measurement of a low voltage power line conductor at the customer premises at a plurality of times, storing at least some of the low voltage data in memory in association with MV data that corresponds to the voltage supplied to the first medium voltage power line during the voltage measurement of the low voltage power line conductor, and determining a supply voltage to be supplied to the first medium voltage power line based on the current data stored in memory, MV data stored in memory, and the low voltage data stored in memory.
US08301304B2 Detecting apparatus and method of robot cleaner
A detecting apparatus and method of a robot cleaner is disclosed. The apparatus includes a detecting unit provided with a transmitting unit for sending a signal to detect the floor and a receiving unit for receiving a signal sent from the transmitting unit to be reflected on the floors an optic angle adjusting unit disposed at least one of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit and configured to adjust optic angles of the signals, and a light shielding unit configured to partially shield a signal sent through the optic angle adjusting unit in order to reduce a deviation of each signal of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit. Accordingly, a measurement deviation with respect to color and feel of the floor can be reduced. Also, an amount of light received at the receiving unit can be obtained as much as required, which allows an accurate detection of the detecting apparatus. In addition, even if there are both drop-off and bump on the floor, the robot cleaner can smoothly operate.
US08301301B2 Distributed item dispenser management
Systems and techniques for distributed dispenser management are provided. A list of item selections is received, the list including at least one item with an item type. A collection of one or more dispenser groups may be identified, where each dispenser group in the collection includes a unique combination of one or more item dispensers with a combined unreserved inventory sufficient to dispense each item in the list. An item dispenser group may then be selected from the collection based on even depletion. The items in the list may be reserved from the selected dispenser group.
US08301299B2 Robot system
A robot system is disclosed which includes at least two robots, each having a related processing unit. The processing units are connected to each other via a network bus for data transmission, and distributed sensors are provided for gathering first and/or second measurement data within a local extension of the robot system. First measurement data gathered by at least one first sensor are transmissible to at least one processing unit related thereto. Second measurement data gathered by at least one second sensor are feedable into the network bus and provided to the at least two processing units connected thereto. The processing units can analyze the second measurement data as a variable dynamic share of workload for feeding result-data of the analysis into the network bus.
US08301293B2 Process integration determining system and method
A machined shape determining step of determining a machined shape machined by a basic tooling or basic tooling template of each machining efficiency group from a material shape (S19), a tooling determining step of determining an optimal tooling comprising a combination of a tool, a holder and a tool projection length on the basis of information of the tools and the holders, stored in a tool holder information storage unit, the combination having a maximum machining efficiency and being able to form the material shape into a corresponding one of the machined shapes without interfering with the machined shape (S20), a process candidate determining step of determining an optimal process candidate using the optimal tooling of each machining efficiency group (S21), and a process determining step of determining an optimal process on the basis of the optimal process candidate of each machining efficiency group (S10), are executed.
US08301288B2 Optimized scheduling based on sensitivity data
A scheduling optimizer system, method and program product that analyzes a device for sensitivities, such as ESD sensitivities, and allows for modification of a floor schedule of the assembly unit of the device based on the sensitivity of the device while improving the overall performance of the assembly unit are disclosed. The scheduling optimizer analyzes sensitivity data for a device during operation of the assembly unit on the floor schedule. The floor schedule is then optimized based on the analyzed sensitivity data.
US08301287B2 Method and system for fabricating a dental coping, and a coping fabricated thereby
A wax model of a required coping is produced using CNC machining techniques based on a virtual model of the coping created from digital data obtained from the intraoral cavity. The dental coping is then fabricated from the wax model.
US08301285B2 Computer aided solid state battery design method and manufacture of same using selected combinations of characteristics
A method of designing and manufacturing a solid-state electrochemical battery cell for a battery device. The method includes building a database of a plurality of first characteristics of a solid-state cells for a battery device and determining at least a third characteristic of the solid-state cell for a given application. The method also includes selecting at least one material of the solid-state electrochemical battery cell, the selected material being from the plurality of first characteristics and forming a plurality of factorial combinations of each component using the selected plurality of first characteristics to derive a respective plurality of solid-state electrochemical battery cells. The method performs a design optimization process for the third characteristic. A step of identifying an optimal design of the second characteristics with the selected first characteristics for each solid-state electrochemical battery cell from the plurality of solid-state cells is included.
US08301280B2 Audio signal processing system
In an audio signal processing device having a plurality of tracks recording an audio signal supplied from any of a plurality of buses, when a track is selected in accordance with an operation by a user, a bus supplying the audio signal to the track is searched, and when an appropriate bus is found and it is judged affirmative that a signal input device having an indicator whose display contents can be controlled by the audio signal processing device supplies the audio signal to the found bus, control data for making an indicator corresponding to a transmission port supplying the audio signal to the found bus perform a display indicating that the transmission port is connected to the selected track.
US08301272B2 Active materials-based compliant mechanisms
A compliant mechanism includes a body that is configured to generate a mechanical output in response to a mechanical input. The body has at least one region formed by an active material. The compliant mechanism also includes at least one activation device configured to selectively apply an activation signal to the at least one region. The active material is configured to undergo a change in modulus in response to the activation signal such that the output is characterized by a first magnitude or direction when the activation device applies the activation signal and a second magnitude or direction when the activation device does not apply the activation signal.
US08301267B2 Method and apparatus for sensing mechanical energy of an implantable lead
An apparatus comprises an implantable sensor and a signal analyzer circuit communicatively coupled to the implantable sensor. The implantable sensor is configured for coupling to an implantable lead and the implantable sensor provides an electrical vibration sensor signal representative of mechanical vibration of the implantable lead. The signal analyzer circuit is configured to determine a baseline of the vibration sensor signal, detect a change in the vibration sensor signal from the baseline vibration sensor signal, and provide an indication of the change to a user or process.
US08301259B2 Using a genetic algorithm to fit a cochlear implant system to a patient
Apparatus and method for at least partially fitting a cochlear implant system to a patient is described, comprising: executing a genetic algorithm to select values for a subset of one or more parameters selected from a plurality of parameters for which values are to be selected to fit the implant, wherein said genetic algorithm is operable to generate one or more successive generations of values for said parameter subset; and determining, based on patient feedback, said values of said values for said parameter subset in each of said one or more successive generations.
US08301234B2 Wireless ECG in implantable devices
An implantable medical device such as an implantable pacemaker or implantable cardioverter/defibrillator includes a programmable sensing circuit providing for sensing of a signal approximating a surface electrocardiogram (ECG) through implanted electrodes. With various electrode configurations, signals approximating various standard surface ECG signals are acquired without the need for attaching electrodes with cables onto the skin. The various electrode configurations include, but are not limited to, various combinations of intracardiac pacing electrodes, portions of the implantable medical device contacting tissue, and electrodes incorporated onto the surface of the implantable medical device.
US08301229B2 Biological observation display apparatus for presenting color or spectral images
A biological observation apparatus comprises a color image signal creating section that performs signal processing on either a first image pickup signal for which a subject to be examined illuminated by white illumination light is picked up by a color filter having a transmitting characteristic of a plurality of broadband wavelengths or a second image pickup signal for which a subject to be examined is picked up under illumination of frame sequential illumination lights which cover a visible range, and creates a color image signal. The biological observation apparatus comprises a spectral image signal creating section that creates a spectral image signal corresponding to a narrowband image signal through signal processing on a color image signal based on the first or second image pickup signal. The biological observation apparatus comprises one of a characteristic changing/setting section for a display color converting section that performs conversion of display colors when causing the spectral image signal to be displayed or the like, an interface section for performing an instruction operation for switching and/or confirming information including an image to be displayed, or the like.
US08301227B2 Tissue marking system and method
A tissue marking system is configured to mark a tissue sample. The tissue marking system includes an actuator portion movable between an actuated position and a non-actuated position and a jaw portion coupled to the actuator portion and movable between an open position and a closed position in response to movement of the actuator portion from the actuated position to the non-actuated position. The jaw portion includes a first tooth and a second tooth configured to engage the tissue sample when the jaw portion moves from the open position to the closed position.
US08301224B2 System and method for automatic, non-invasive diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension and measurement of mean pulmonary arterial pressure
A method for diagnosing pulmonary hypertension from phase-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) images includes providing a time series of one or more magnetic resonance (MR) flow images of a patient's mediastinum during one or more cardiac cycles, segmenting the pulmonary artery within each image of the times series of images, identifying the anterior wall and pulmonary valve within the segmented pulmonary artery, analyzing blood flow during a diastolic phase of the one or more cardiac cycles to determine a relative duration of blood flow, tstreamlines, during the diastolic phase, analyzing blood flow during a latter portion of a systolic phase and a subsequent diastolic phase of the one or more cardiac cycles to detect the presence and duration tvortex of a vortex, and diagnosing the presence of pulmonary hypertension from tstreamlines and tvortex.
US08301223B2 Neurobiological method for measuring human intelligence and system for the same
A method for measuring human intelligence using a neurobiogical model is provided. The method enables neurometric IQ to be measured by processing MRI and fMRI images of a subject to determine cortical thicknesses and brain activation level, determining structural IQ (sIQ) and functional IQ (fIQ) from the determined cortical thicknesses and brain activation level, and using the structural IQ (sIQ) and the functional IQ (fIQ) as predictors to measure the neurometric IQ of the subject. With this, individual differences in general cognitive ability can be easily assessed. It suggests that general cognitive ability can be explained by two different neural bases or traits: facilitation of neural circuits and accumulation of crystallized knowledge.
US08301216B2 Method and apparatus for quantification of optical properties of superficial volumes using small source-to-detector separations
A probe for obtaining quantitative optical properties and chromophore concentrations of tissue components in tissue in-vivo at superficial depths and at source-detector separations of 5 mm or less includes a source fiber providing light to expose the tissue, a diffuser layer into which light from the source fiber is directed and then from the diffuser layer to and/or into the tissue, and a detector fiber arranged relative to the diffuser layer for detecting backscattered and/or reflected light returned from the tissue without transmission through the diffuser layer.
US08301202B2 Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof
A mobile terminal including a user input unit configured to receive user-inputs, a wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other terminal, at least one camera configured to capture images, a touchscreen configured to display a camera preview image captured by the camera, a position-location processor configured to obtain information on a current position of the mobile terminal, and a controller configured to display textual object information on the touchscreen identifying objects included within the preview image based on the obtained current position of the mobile terminal.
US08301195B2 Systems and methods for mobile data storage and acquisition
Various data acquisition, storage and/or distribution systems and devices are described herein. As one example, a mobile data acquisition and distribution device is described. The device includes a non-volatile storage medium, a wireless interface, and a processor. The non-volatile storage medium includes instructions executable by the processor to: receive a user data set, and to store the user data set to the non-volatile storage medium. The instructions are further executable by the processor to receive a request initiated through a remote user interface via the wireless interface. Where the request is to provide the user data set to a recipient device, the instructions are further executable by the processor to provide the user data set to the recipient device via the wireless interface.
US08301191B2 Method and apparatus for integrated communication services provisioning for health care community
A method and apparatus is disclosed for providing an integrated communication services (ICS) network that permits wireless and wireline data subscribers to share information on a hospital campus using wireless or wireline local area networks, or to seamlessly tap into the facility's central database while in transit away from the hospital. Users interface with the ICS network through the use of a point of care terminal that resembles a clipboard and accepts data entry from a stylus on an touch screen. The central database, referred to as the integrated communications clearinghouse (ICC) is adapted to store a communication profile for every network server on the ICS network. The ICC also maintains a Global Patient Profile (GPP), consisting of a patient profile for every patient ever added to the network. The GPP provides the ICC with the capability of providing aggregated data and demographic information (with or without patient identification), creating “live” public health statistics through a single query to a central server. To access the ICS, a user at a point of care terminal can utilize several paths in order to deliver data to its destination. This may include existing off-the-shelf PCMCIA based peripherals such as: wireless LANS, standard wired Ethernet LAN, a land line Modem, or wireless wide area networks. The wireless wide area networks may also include several data paths such as a circuit switched cellular, or packet based Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD). The actual selection of a particular channel will be service-dependent and a function of the user whereabouts, the desired quality of the connection, and the costs of the connection.
US08301189B1 Method and apparatus for reducing power consumption in a multimode terminal when performing IP communications
An apparatus for reducing power consumption in an IP (Internet Protocol) communications device. The apparatus may include a high-power consumption main application processor and a low-power consumption application processor to share processor functions. The high-power consumption application processor may carry out functions related to the user interface of the device, signaling and control path. The low-power consumption application processor may implement IP processing, voice signal processing and video signal processing.
US08301186B2 Enhanced sensitivity radio frequency front end circuit
An enhanced sensitivity radio frequency (RF) front end circuit includes a transformer configured to convert a balanced transmit signal to an unbalanced transmit signal and to convert a second filtered receive signal to a balanced receive signal. A switch in a first state receives the unbalanced transmit signal from the transformer and transfers the unbalanced transmit signal to an amplifier circuit and receives an amplified transmit signal from the amplifier circuit and transfers the amplified transmit signal to a filter. In a second state, the switch receives a first filtered receive signal from the filter and transfers the first filtered receive signal to the amplifier circuit and receives a second filtered receive signal from the amplifier circuit and transfers the second filtered receive signal to the transformer. In a first state, the amplifier circuit receives the unbalanced transmit signal from the switch and amplifies the unbalanced transmit signal to generate the amplified transmit signal, and in a second state, the amplifier circuit receives the first filtered receive signal from the switch and attenuates selected first frequencies to generate the second filtered receive signal.
US08301177B2 Efficient paging operation for femtocell deployment
Efficient paging operation for femtocell deployment is generally presented. In this regard, a paging controller is introduced including a wired backbone interface to communicate with a plurality of macro base stations and a plurality of femto base stations, and control logic, the control logic to generate a page for a mobile station, and the control logic to transmit the page over the wired backbone interface to a select subset of all base stations, wherein the select subset of all base stations includes base stations that the mobile station is authorized to access. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08301168B2 Devices and methods for selectively filtering message content
Methods for selectively filtering message content received at a mobile device based upon a current location of the mobile device and/or a user's presence status and devices configured to selectively filter message content based upon a location of the mobile device and/or a user's presence status.
US08301160B2 System and method for SUPL roaming using a held client
A system and method for assisting the H-SLP is selecting a V-SLP using the HELD client of a SET. The SET receives identity information from an access network regarding associated LIS. The SET relays this information as well as measurements taken of the wireless network to the H-SLP. If the H-SLP does not contain enough information to determine a location estimate, the H-SLP uses the identity information from the access network to find an associated SLP that may serve as a V-SLP. A request using roaming location protocol may then be transmitted from the H-SLP to the V-SLP for location assistance.
US08301151B2 Network controller and small base station
A small base station may report to a network controller about whether a radio frequency (RF) signal transmitted from a macro base station is sensed. The network controller may control an operational mode of the small base station depending on whether the RF signal is sensed. Accordingly, the small base station may not transmit the RF signal at all times, and thus, it is possible to reduce an interference between a small cell and a macro cell or interference between the small cell and another small cell.
US08301146B2 Mobile communication system, user apparatus and method
A disclosed user apparatus is for use in a mobile communication system including a macrocell and a closed cell wherein unspecified users are allowed to access the macrocell and specified users are allowed to access the closed cell. The user apparatus includes a measurement unit configured to measure quality of a signal provided from a camped cell in an idle state at a predefined cycle, a cell search unit configured to measure quality of a signal provided from a neighbor cell at a predefined cell search cycle, and a cell reselection unit configured to reselect a cell depending on the cell search result. A frequency of the macrocell is at least partially identical to a frequency of the closed cell. If the user apparatus resides in the macrocell and a predefined reselection criterion is satisfied, the closed cell adjacent to the camped cell is reselected as a standby cell. The predefined reselection criterion corresponds to a state where the quality of the signal provided from the closed cell has been higher than or equal to the quality of the signal provided from the camped cell by a predefined threshold for more than a predefined reselection duration.
US08301121B2 Regulating alerts generated by communication terminals responsive to sensed movement
Various computer-implemented methods and associated mobile communication terminals are provided that regulate the generation of user alerts responsive to received messages so that the alerts may be generated/regenerated when the terminal is moved by a user. A mobile communication terminal may include a movement sensing circuit, a RF transceiver circuit, and a computer circuit. The movement sensing circuit may be configured to generate a movement signal indicating movement of the mobile communication terminal. The RF transceiver circuit may be configured to communicate through a wireless air interface. The computer circuit may be configured to respond to receipt of a defined message through the RF transceiver circuit while the movement signal indicates that the terminal has remained stationary for at least a threshold time by setting an alert logic indicator, and configured to respond to sensed movement of the terminal while the alert logic indicator is set by generating a user alert from the terminal to a user.
US08301115B1 Method for inverse port-based authentication
A service node authenticates a service provider network to which it is connected. When the service node is connected between subscriber devices and a network node of the service provider network, the service node issues an authentication request to the network node. The network node responds to the authentication request by transmitting a reply. The service node receives the reply and determines if it indicates the service provider network to which the service node is connected is authentic. These authentication communications can conform to a standard authentication protocol, such as Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). If the reply indicates the service provider network is authentic, the service node permits communication between the subscriber devices and the service provider network. If the reply indicates the service provider network is not authentic, the service node blocks such communication.
US08301114B2 Offline charging for sessions over a 3GPP network and a WLAN access network
Communication networks and methods are disclosed for providing offline charging in a 3GPP network for sessions over a wireless local area network (WLAN) access network. A AAA server in the 3GPP network provides offline charging messages for a session to an offline charging system. If a data flow is established during the session, such as streaming video, then a packet data network gateway provides offline charging messages for the data flow to the offline charging system. The AAA server and the packet data network gateway share charging identifiers so that one or both are able to include the charging identifier for the session and the charging identifier for the data flow in an offline charging message. This allows the offline charging system to effectively correlate CDRs for the session with CDRs for the data flow occurring during the session.
US08301113B2 Method for managing wireless devices using exception monitoring
An improved solution for managing use of a plurality of wireless devices is provided. In an embodiment of the invention, a usage policy is obtained for the plurality of wireless devices. Usage data for one or more of the plurality of wireless devices is compared against the usage policy, wherefrom an exception report is derived and created. In another embodiment, the exception report is analyzed for non-compliance and a customer is notified.
US08301097B2 Method and system for low noise amplifier (LNA) gain adjustment through narrowband received signal strength indicator (NRSSI)
A method for processing a plurality of signals may include amplifying an input signal and generating a wideband signal from the amplified input signal. The method may further include bandpass filtering the generated wideband signal to generate a narrowband signal, and adjusting amplification of the input signal based on a narrowband received signal strength indication of the generated narrowband signal, and/or a wideband received signal strength indication of the generated wideband signal. The amplified input signal may be downconverted to generate the wideband signal. The amplified input signal may be downconverted to an intermediate frequency (IF) and/or to a baseband signal to generate the wideband signal. At least one blocker signal may be bandpass filtered from the amplified input signal.
US08301096B2 Automatic gain control method and apparatus
Automatic gain control method and apparatus control a gain of a received signal. While the gain is adjusted and thus converges, a finding mode is entered to additionally change the gain at least once according to at least one characteristic value obtained from a relationship between the gain and time, such that the gain approaches a target level. In other embodiments, a tracking mode is further entered to periodically adjust the gain at a period greater than that before when signal strength is being tracked to reduce noise energy introduced. Hence, the embodiments can improve a gain converging speed and reduce the influence of the noise on the communication system in a dynamic receiving environment, and thus enhance the signal receiving performance.
US08301093B2 Receiver circuit and data transmission system
A receiver circuit which can suppress a voltage amplitude appearing on a transmission line. The receiver circuit, coupled to a first and a second transmission lines which transmit information by using currents, includes a first and a second current sources, a first and a second conversion sections which convert currents which flow respectively therein to voltages, a first transistor whose source is coupled to the first current source and to the first transmission line, and whose drain is coupled to the first conversion section, and a second transistor whose source is coupled to the second current source and to the second transmission line, and whose drain is coupled to the second conversion section. The gate and the drain of the first transistor are respectively coupled to the drain and the gate of the second transistor.
US08301084B2 Radio frequency transceiver front end circuit with direct current bias switch
A front end circuit for coupling an antenna to a radio frequency (RF) transceiver for time domain duplex systems is disclosed. The front end circuit includes an antenna port, a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier, and a matching network. The output of the power amplifier and the input of the low noise amplifier are coupled to the matching network and connected in common to the antenna. The power amplifier and the low noise amplifier are activated and deactivated in sequence corresponding to the transmit and receive modes of the transceiver, and the matching network minimizes the effect that one has on the other at the designated operating frequency.
US08301069B2 Cooling a recording medium using an eddy air flow
A cooling apparatus includes: a stacker vessel in which a medium having a fixed visible image is ejected and stacked; and an eddy flow generating device that is arranged in an upper portion of the stacker vessel, and generates an eddy flow which flows along a surface of the medium transported into the stacker vessel to make an eddy and cools the medium.
US08301065B2 Image forming apparatus with secondary transfer section having rubber backup roller
An image forming apparatus including a secondary transfer section of a roller transfer method which transfers a toner image supported on an intermediate transfer belt onto a sheet of paper, wherein the image forming apparatus includes a transfer roller and a backup roller which suspends the above intermediate transfer belt, and opposes to the above transfer roller via the intermediate transfer belt, the surface of the above backup roller has Asker C hardness of 10 degrees or more and less than 45 degrees, and a driving roller driving the above intermediate transfer belt is arranged downstream of a primary transfer section transferring a toner image onto the intermediate transfer belt and upstream of the above secondary transfer section.
US08301060B2 Image forming apparatus with a belt unit and a mark sensor
An image forming apparatus with a detachable belt unit and supporting frame are described. The detachable belt unit is positioned in the supporting frame. One or more mark sensors are positioned on the supporting frame and are configured to detect alignment marks deposited on an endless belt of the belt unit.
US08301054B2 Process cartridge and image forming apparatus
A process cartridge detachably is mountable to a main assembly of the apparatus of an image forming apparatus including an urging member and a positioning portion. The cartridge includes a photosensitive drum; a positionable portion positioning the cartridge by engaging the positioning portion when the cartridge is mounted to the apparatus; first and second urgable portions being urged respectively, by first and second urging portions of the urging member to urge the positionable portion to the positioning portion during cartridge mounting; and an electrical contact, provided between the first and second urgable portions with respect to a horizontal direction crossing an axis of the drum, for connecting electrically to an electrical contact portion in the urging member, when the cartridge is mounted to the apparatus.
US08301053B2 Image forming apparatus including main unit and process cartridge
An image forming apparatus includes a main unit and a process cartridge including: an image holding member rotating about a rotation axis; an image developing device to develop a latent image on the image holding member; and a supporting member formed with a side face spreading in a direction of the rotation axis to support the image holding member and the image developing device and be moved in the direction to be attached/detached to/from the main unit. The main unit includes a main unit connector positioned adjacently to a side face of the supporting member of the process cartridge attached to the main unit such that a face mating with a counterpart connector faces the side face. The process cartridge includes on the side face a cartridge side connector electrically connected to the main unit side connector when the process cartridge is attached to the main unit.
US08301049B2 Characterization of toner patch sensor in an image forming device
A characterization procedure for the a detector in a toner patch sensor of an electrophotographic image forming device is performed with the toner patch sensor operatively connected to the image forming device's power supply. During the characterization procedure, a gain setting is determined that produces a predetermined target output from the toner patch sensor based on electromagnetic radiation reflected from a reference reflectivity sample. Subsequently, a toner patch is generated by the image forming device and a reflectance of the toner patch is measured based on the gain setting, with the toner patch sensor operatively connected to the power supply. The measurement(s) may then be used to adjust at least one electrophotographic image forming parameter. More than one reference reflectivity sample may be used, with corresponding gain settings stored in the image forming device.
US08301039B2 Delay processing apparatus, signal amplification apparatus, opto-electric conversion apparatus, analog-digital conversion apparatus, receiving apparatus, and receiving method
A delay device that provides a delay amount to at least one of the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal, and a delay control section that controls the delay amount provided by the delay device based on a quality of the signals when the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal, to the at least one of which the delay amount is provided, at the delay device are converted into digital signals by the analog-digital converter, and the digital signal processing is carried out at the processor are provided. Thereby, the signal quality of recovered data at a receiving end of a multi-level phase modulation communication system is improved.
US08301038B2 Electronic circuit and communication system
An electronic circuit includes: a differential amplifier circuit into which a digital input signal and a reference signal are fed; a feedback circuit outputting an average of amplitude of the input signal; and a peak holding circuit outputting a signal held based on an output signal of the feedback circuit as the reference signal.
US08301030B2 Rotary joint
A rotary transmitter having a first light-conducting hollow body, at least one transmitter for generating at least one optical signal and at least one receiver for receiving the optical signal is disclosed. The optical signal is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver via the first light-conducting hollow body.
US08301026B2 Network restoration under dual failures using path protecting preconfigured cycles
The design of optical telecommunication networks is such that there is provision of end-to-end path restoration to specified demands under up to two links or nodes failures. Restoration routes are provided on Path Protecting Preconfigured Cycles (PP-PCs), where each demand is assigned one or two restoration routes and restoration wavelengths on a segment of one cycle. Splitting of demand across multiple restoration routes is not allowed. All restoration routes and restoration wavelengths are predetermined where multiple demands may share restoration wavelengths without resorting to intermediate switching or wavelength conversions along restoration routes. First, numerous candidate PP-PCs are generated. Assignment of demands with common failure scenarios are allowed, under certain conditions, to the same PP-PC. Next, a set of PP-PCs is selected from among the candidates, while minimizing total reserved restoration wavelengths cost and ensuring that all demands are protected as required. Finally, conflicts of wavelength assignments are resolved.
US08301023B2 Lens apparatus
The lens apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes: a focus lens which is driven for bringing a desired subject into focus; a zoom lens which is driven for changing a focal length; and a diaphragm having an aperture diameter which is changed for adjusting an amount of photography light, and the lens apparatus is configured to adjust a position of the focus lens, to thereby perform flange back distance adjustment. In such a lens apparatus, the aperture diameter of the diaphragm is changed at a time of mode transition between a photography mode in which a normal photographing operation is possible and an adjustment mode in which the flange back distance adjustment is possible. Accordingly, the user can instantly know whether or not the lens apparatus is in the flange back distance adjustment mode, only by checking a video picture photographed by a television camera.
US08301021B2 Heating device for fuel
The present invention relates to a heating device (1) for fuel with at least one PTC heating element (5) and a heat transfer device (6) in thermal contact with the latter, which exhibits two heat transfer elements (7, 7′), and with a tubular casing (2) made of plastic that envelop the heat transfer device (6) and the a least one PTC heating element (5), wherein the diesel fuel to be heated flows through the casing (2) and around the heat transfer device (6) during operation of the heating device (1). Provided on the interior side of the tubular casing (2) is a guiding device that interacts with the at least one PTC heating element (5) and/or the heat transfer device (6) in such a way that at least one PTC heating element (5) and the heat transfer device (6) can be axially inserted into the casing (2) for assembling the heating device (1). Of significance relative to the invention in this case is that a spring system (8, 18) separate from the heat transfer device (6) is provided, which tensions the heat transfer device (6) against the guiding device so as to fix it in place.
US08301007B2 Video and audio processing system, video processing apparatus, audio processing apparatus, output apparatus, and method of controlling the system
A video and audio processing system includes an output apparatus that outputs video data and audio data to be synchronized and reproduced; an audio processing apparatus that receives the video data and the audio data from the output apparatus, supplies at least the video data to a downstream apparatus, and processes the audio data to generate an audio signal to be supplied to a speaker; and a video processing apparatus that receives the video data output from the audio processing apparatus and generates a video signal used for displaying video. The video processing apparatus includes video signal processing means, control means, and determining means for determining a processing time. The video and audio processing system delays the audio signal to be supplied to the speaker so as to be synchronized with the displayed video on the basis of the determination result of the processing time.
US08301002B2 Slim waveguide coupling apparatus and method
In various embodiments, an illumination structure includes a discrete light source disposed proximate a bottom surface of a waveguide. A top mirror may be disposed above the discrete light source to convert modes of light emitted from the discrete light source into trapped modes, thereby increasing the coupling efficiency of the illumination structure.
US08301000B2 Single-mode optical fiber
A single-mode optical fiber possesses, at a wavelength of 1550 nanometers, an effective area greater than about 90 pm2 without degradation of the optical fiber's other optical parameters. The single-mode optical fiber includes a central core, a first intermediate cladding, a second intermediate cladding, and an outer cladding. The optical fiber also has a cable cut-off wavelength of less than 1260 nanometers. Additionally, at a wavelength of 1310 nanometers, the optical fiber possesses a mode field diameter of between about 8.6 microns and 9.5 microns. Furthermore, the optical fiber possesses a zero chromatic dispersion wavelength of between about 1300 nanometers and 1324 nanometers and, at the zero chromatic dispersion wavelength, a dispersion slope of less than 0.092 ps/(nm2″km).
US08300998B2 Optical fiber connector
An optical fiber connector includes a main body and a cover mechanically coupled to the main body. The main body includes a coupling portion and a light guide portion extending from the coupling portion. The light guide portion includes a light incident surface and a light output surface arranged at opposite sides thereof. The coupling portion includes a first groove formed at a top surface thereof, facing the light incident surface and terminating at opposite sides of the coupling portion, and a plurality of recesses. The cover includes a second groove formed at bottom surface thereof, terminating at opposite sides of the cover, and a plurality of protrusions. The first groove and the second groove cooperatively form a receiving channel for receiving an optical fiber therein and allowing the optical fiber to be optically connected to the light guide portion.
US08300985B2 Image-registration method, medium, and apparatus
An image-registration method, medium, and apparatus obtaining first and second images, generating first and second image pyramids based on the first and second images, respectively, by performing sub-sampling which reduces the length and width of each of the first and second images by half, and determining one of five directions as an optimal movement direction for a current level of the first and second image pyramids based on two images belonging to a corresponding level, updating a motion vector for the current level based on the optimal movement direction for the current level and updating a first image belonging to a level directly below the current level based on the updated motion vector for the current level, wherein the updating comprises updating a motion vector for each of a plurality of levels of the first and second image pyramids in an order from an uppermost level to a lowermost level.
US08300982B2 Information processing apparatus, information processing method and information processing program
Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus for carrying out an information registration process to register preference information of a user for an item determined in advance. The information processing apparatus including: image feature quantity extraction means; an object image feature quantity database; an object image preference information database; matching image detection means; and preference information acquisition means.
US08300979B2 Method and system for robust universal denoising of noisy data sets
Embodiments of the present invention provide context-class-based universal denoising of noisy images and other noise-corrupted data sets. Prediction-error statistics for each prediction class, relative to a prefiltered image, are collected to estimate a bias for each prediction class, and prediction-error statistics for each conditioning class, relative to a prefiltered image, are accumulated based on the difference between predicted values and corresponding prefiltered-image symbols. The prediction-error statistics are accumulated using computed prediction-error-statistics vectors, with inversion of a prediction-error vector generated from each prediction prior to accumulation in a prediction-error-statistics vector. Conditional probability distributions are computed for individual contexts, which allow for computing a clean-image-estimated, value for each noisy-image value by minimizing a computed distortion over a range of possible estimated-clean-image symbols.
US08300976B2 System and method for adjusting backlight in measurement of a profile image
A computer-implemented method for adjusting backlight in measurement of a profile image of an object includes setting a light source of an image measuring machine to an original intensity level, obtaining the profile image of the object laid on the image measuring machine, and performing a mean filter processing and a binary image processing on the profile image. The method further includes setting intensity variables to adjust backlight intensity of the light source, uses the intensity variables to calculate an optimum intensity level of the backlight intensity utilizing an iterative method, and adjusting the backlight intensity of the light source to the optimum intensity level to obtain an optimum profile image of the object.
US08300974B2 Image processing device, image display device, and image processing method therefor
It is an object to provide an image processing device, an image display device, and an image processing method therefor that are capable of curbing generation of a pseudo edge in a digital image.The image processing device and the image display device are provided including a threshold-value control unit 29 that obtains a threshold value depending on a tone in image data; a smoothing filter unit 60 that applies a smoothing process to a predetermined tone in the image data while preserving, depending on the threshold value, a predetermined edge in the image data; and an output unit that outputs image data having been processed by the smoothing filter unit 60.
US08300969B2 Image processing apparatus and method, and program
An edge map creation unit detects an edge intensity of an input image in units of three types of blocks having different sizes. An operation parameter adjustment unit sets initial values of an edge reference value and an extraction reference value on the basis of a dynamic range which is a difference between the maximum and minimum values of the edge intensity. An edge point extraction unit extracts an edge point from the input image on the basis of the edge reference value. Until an extraction amount determination unit determines that the edge point extraction amount is appropriate on the basis of the extraction reference value, the operation parameter adjustment unit repeatedly performs a processing of adjusting the edge reference value, and the edge point extraction unit repeatedly performs a processing of extracting the edge point from the input image on the basis of the adjusted edge reference value.
US08300967B2 Bit rate control circuit and method for image compression
A bit rate control circuit for image compression includes a compression unit, a R-value calculation unit, a linear quantization factor (LQF) calculation unit. The compression unit is used to performs a first quantization process on an image based on a default LQF (LQFini) to obtain an initial bits per pixel (bbpini) with an initial number of zero coefficients (Rini). The R-value calculation unit calculates out a target R value (Rtarget) based on the initial bits per pixel (bbpini), the initial number zero coefficients (Rini), and a target bpp (bbptarget). The LQF calculation unit calculates a target LQF (LQFtarget) based on the target R value Rtarget. The LQFtarget can be used to perform a second compression on the image to obtain a compressed image corresponding to the target bpp (bpptarget).
US08300958B2 System and method for detecting scrolling text in mixed mode film and video
Various embodiments of a system are provided for detecting scrolling text in a mixed-mode video sequence. The system of certain embodiments includes a motion estimator that generates a plurality of motion vectors between blocks of two or more extracted frames of a mixed-mode video sequence. An extracted frame motion analyzer analyzes the motion vectors to detect substantially constant motion of at least some of the blocks between the two or more extracted frames, wherein the presence of substantially constant motion is indicative of the presence of scrolling text in the mixed-mode video sequence. A consecutive frame motion analyzer calculates differences in pixel values between blocks of two or more consecutive frames in the mixed-mode video sequence, wherein the differences in pixel values are further indicative of the presence of scrolling text in the mixed-mode video sequence.
US08300942B2 Area extraction program, character recognition program, and character recognition device
An area extraction method including obtaining a character lattice showing a connection relation between unit areas, which are obtained by separating a character string pattern in an image into patterns each recognized as corresponding to a single character, judging whether or not all combinations of each of the unit areas in the obtained character lattice and each of the unit areas in a regular lattice defining a regular connection relation between the unit areas are likely to be established, generating a path coupling between nodes corresponding to the combination of the unit areas which is determined as likely to be established, determining an optimum path from the generated paths based on a degree of coincidence with the regular lattice or the character lattice, and extracting from an image the unit areas in the character lattice corresponding to the determined optimum path.
US08300941B2 Method and apparatus for reading a surface coded pattern
A method of determining a regular grid pattern from a surface coded pattern that comprises the regular grid pattern interleaved with a further data carrying pattern wherein the surface coded pattern is subject to perspective distortion, the method comprising: extracting a set of straight line hypotheses from the coded surface pattern; clustering the straight line hypotheses by orientation; for each cluster, extracting a set of line pencil hypotheses; generating a set of regular grid hypotheses from pairs of the line pencil hypotheses; and determining the best regular grid hypothesis.
US08300935B2 Method and system for the detection and the classification of events during motion actions
The present invention relates to a system for detecting and classifying events during motion actions, in particular “offside” event in the football game. The system allows determining such event in a real-time and semi-automatic context, by taking into account the variability of the environmental conditions and of the dynamics of the events which can be traced back to the offside. The present invention proposes itself with a not-invasive technique, compatible with the usual course of the match.
US08300934B2 Image processing device and image correction device
An image processing device includes a dividing unit which divides a brightness histogram of an input image into a plurality of value regions according to gradation, a ratio computing unit which computes the number of pixels of each value region divided by the dividing unit and the number of pixels of the input image, respectively, and computes a ratio or a magnitude relation of the number of pixels of each value region with respect to the number of pixels of the input image, and a control-point computing unit which computes a control point, which specifies a shape of a correction curve for image correction according to a feature of the input image, based on the ratio or the magnitude relation of each value region computed by the ratio computing unit.
US08300932B2 Image processor, integrated circuit device, and electronic apparatus
An image processor includes a hue region judging section judging which one of a plurality of hue regions corresponds to a hue and a converting section obtaining a correction value by using the hue to correct the hue based on the correction value. The converting section obtains a first difference value by using a difference between the hue and a first reference value, obtains a second difference value by using a difference between a second reference value and the first difference value, and obtains the correction value by using the second difference value. The hue is corrected based on the correction value.
US08300923B2 Process control method, data registration program, and method for manufacturing electronic device
A process control method and data registration program for a surface mount line includes retrieving printing quality data, mounting quality data, and soldering pass/fail data from a primary recorder, recording the printing quality data, the mounting quality data, and the soldering pass/fail data for each of the components in a secondary recorder, and determining whether the solder printer and the mounter need adjustment by using the data of the components which are associated with the soldering pass/fail data recorded in the secondary recorder by a computer.
US08300921B2 Inspection apparatus and inspection method
An object of the present invention is to provide an inspection apparatus and an inspection method for precisely detecting an amount of misalignment of a component mounted on a panel through an adhesive which contains conductive particles. An inspection apparatus according to an implementation of the present invention detects an amount of misalignment, from a predetermined mounting position, of a component mounted on a surface of a panel through an ACF. The inspection apparatus includes: an infrared light illuminator which illuminates with an infrared light a panel recognition mark and a component recognition mark, the panel recognition mark being formed on the surface of the panel, and the component recognition mark being formed on a surface of the component; an IR camera which is provided opposite the infrared light illuminator in relation to the panel, and captures an image of the panel recognition mark and an image of the component recognition mark which are illuminated with the infrared light; and an amount of misalignment calculation unit which calculates, using the images captured by the IR camera, an amount of misalignment in a positional relationship between the panel recognition mark and the component recognition mark from a predetermined positional relationship, and an optical axis of the infrared light illuminator is inclined with respect to a normal found on the surfaces of the panel or the component.
US08300920B2 System and method for measuring form and position tolerances of an object
A method for measuring form and position tolerances of an object receives a preselected feature element to be fitted from an image of a measured object, obtains a reference feature element from an image of a reference object corresponding to the measured object. The method further fits a feature element corresponding to the preselected feature element so as to obtain a fitted feature element, and calculates form and position tolerances between the fitted feature element and the reference feature element thereby generating the form and position tolerances of the measured object.
US08300917B2 Remote deposit capture for the gaming industry
A remote deposit capture system for distributed processing of check presentation can sense, or be instructed to differentiate, between deposit document types, including checks, cash withdrawals, and casino markets. Thereby, automated recognition and correction features can be selectively applied to an imaged deposit document. Thereby deposit documents that tend to use identical transaction codes, such as the same routing/transit numbers in magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) code line data, can be effectively processed without a high failure rate due to duplicate detection. Yet the advantages of duplicate detection are still leveraged against other deposit types. Alternatively or in addition, duplicate detection can be selected to not depend upon uniqueness of MICR code line data.
US08300912B2 Continuous X-ray image screening examination device, program, and recording medium
Using nature that a pixel value in a lung of a chest X-ray moving image varies due to heart beat, the variation information on the pixel value is effectively used for diagnosis such as of a lung embolism or a heart disease, considering the variation information as lung blood flow information. A continuous X-ray image screening examination device receives a chest X-ray moving image from an X-ray detector and receives an electrocardiogram to become original information on a heart beat variation from an electrocardiogram recording apparatus. From the dynamic state of the heart wall measured by the electrocardiograph or the chest X-ray moving image, the heart dynamic state during the cardiac chamber systolic and diastolic phases is grasped, and information such as the variation of the pixel value of the chest X-ray moving image due to increase (lung blood flow increase) of the blood flow from the heart to the lung during the cardiac chamber systolic phase is generated.
US08300904B2 Method and device for determining a similarity value between minutiae templates
Embodiment of the invention provide a method and a device for determining a similarity value between a first template and a second template. A first cluster characteristic for each first cluster of a plurality of first clusters is determined, wherein each first cluster includes a plurality of first minutiae comprised in the first minutiae template. A second cluster characteristic for each second cluster of a plurality of second clusters is determined, wherein each second cluster includes a plurality of second minutiae comprised in the second minutiae template. The similarity value between the first minutiae template and the second minutiae template is determined based on the first cluster characteristics and the second cluster characteristics.
US08300902B2 Apparatus for distinguishing forged fingerprint and method thereof
An apparatus for distinguishing forged fingerprint and a method thereof are disclosed. A different threshold angle for total reflection is applied when forged fingerprint is touched on a fingerprint input surface of a prism, and the forged fingerprint distinguishing apparatus and method use the above fact. Accordingly, using a separate light source, from which a ray of light is emitted with a light axis at a predetermined range of incident angle, acquired fingerprint image is compared and it is determined whether the fingerprint image corresponds to authentic fingerprint or forged one.
US08300892B2 Moving object detection apparatus and moving object detection method
To provide a moving object detection apparatus which accurately performs region extraction, regardless of the pose or size of a moving object. The moving object detection apparatus includes: an image receiving unit receiving the video sequence; a motion analysis unit calculating movement trajectories based on motions of the image; a segmentation unit performing segmentation so as to divide the movement trajectories into subsets, and setting a part of the movement trajectories as common points shared by the subsets; a distance calculation unit calculating a distance representing a similarity between a pair of movement trajectories, for each of the subsets; a geodesic distance calculation unit transforming the calculated distance into a geodesic distance; an approximate geodesic distance calculation unit calculating an approximate geodesic distance bridging over the subsets, by integrating geodesic distances including the common points; and a region extraction unit performing clustering on the calculated approximate geodesic distance.
US08300888B2 Image displacement detection method
The present invention provides an image displacement detection method, which employs the center of a 1st frame as a starting point, and the previous image displacement vector or the inversed direction displacement of the adjusted previous image displacement vector as the image matching reference block; next, proceeds the matching with the 2nd frame to calculate the image displacement vector between the 1st frame and the 2nd frame. Thus, the method of the present invention can relatively increase about twice the maximum tracking speed of the sensor.
US08300879B2 Apparatus and method of suppressing deterioration of document having encoded data
An image processing apparatus includes an arrangement unit and a restriction unit. The arrangement unit puts images representing codes of an object code string in areas of an object image. The areas correspond to positions of the codes in the object code string. If a first code string and a second code string associated with the first code string are present in the object code string in a certain positional relationship and if satisfied is a condition regarding whether or not codes of the first code string are decodable by a decoder from an image obtained by putting the code images representing the codes of the first code string, which is present in the object code string, the restriction unit restricts the arrangement unit from putting images representing respective codes of the second code string, which is present in the object code string, in the object image.
US08300874B2 Loudspeaker having adjustable magnet
Loudspeakers are provided that include a moveable magnet that can be positioned relative to the speaker piston. A user of the loudspeaker may position the moveable magnet to achieve a desired tone, distortion, or other sound without requiring the loudspeaker to be operated at an undesirable sound pressure level. The loudspeaker may include an indicator showing the relative position of the magnet relative to the piston to the user.
US08300871B2 Earphone for wideband communication
An earphone device capable of achieving sound bandwidths beyond the 150-7000 Hz wideband range, and configured for supra-concha or supra-aural placement. The earphone comprises at least two frequency range receivers positioned within a housing. In at least one embodiment, the earphone is capable of achieving a super-wideband range by physically combining a low frequency range receiver and a high frequency range receiver in a space-efficient and acoustically advantageous manner.
US08300869B2 Lighting and audio communication system
A lighting and communication system with a horn enclosure for recessed ceiling panel or wall mounting, including a speaker with a horn expansion area to direct sound waves from the speaker to a horn enclosure front, at least one light enclosure located within the horn enclosure, the light enclosure defining a light cavity which is separated from said horn expansion area, with a light source inside the light cavity. The light source can be an LED array, which is capable of displaying text, colors or patterns in response to a control system signal.
US08300868B2 Fabric bag including control device
A fabric bag for holding an audio playback device. The fabric bag includes a control device constructed substantially in fabric for controlling an audio playback device. The control device comprises a control portion having indicated regions thereon. The indicated regions are responsive to individually applied manual presses so as to control discrete operations of said audio playback device, and the control portion, including the indicated regions, is responsive to manually applied strokes or gestures so as to control variable operations of the audio playback device.
US08300867B2 Audio/video device having a volume control function for an external audio reproduction unit by using volume control buttons of a remote controller and volume control method therefor
An audio/video (A/V) device having a volume control function for external audio reproduction units by using volume control buttons of a remote controller is provided. The A/V device includes speakers, an audio output port for externally outputting an audio signal, an audio signal processing unit for reproducing and amplifying the audio signal and applying the amplified audio signal to the speakers or the audio output port, a memory unit for storing volume control values, and a control unit for applying to the audio signal processing unit any of the volume control values stored in the memory based on whether the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port. The control unit controls the audio signal processing unit to adjust the volume control values for the audio output port by the volume control buttons when the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port.
US08300856B2 Thermoacoustic device
A thermoacoustic device includes a first electrode, a second electrode and a sound wave generator. The first electrode includes a first electrical conductor and a first conductive adhesive layer located on the first electrical conductor. The second electrode includes a second electrical conductor and a second conductive adhesive layer located on the second electrical conductor. The sound wave generator includes a carbon nanotube structure, and the sound wave generator is electrically connected to the first electrical conductor and the second electrical conductor via the first and second conductive adhesive layers. The adhesive layers permeate into the carbon nanotube structure.
US08300851B2 Method of managing sound source and apparatus therefor
A method of managing a sound source in a digital AV device and an apparatus thereof are provided. The method of managing a sound source in a digital AV device includes: extracting at least one sound source from sound being reproduced through the digital AV device; mapping an image to the extracted sound source; and managing the sound sources by using the mapped image. In addition, preferably, the extracted sound source is registered, changed, deleted, selectively reproduced, or selectively deleted by using the image. Accordingly, sound being output can be visually managed by handling the sound sources separately, a desired sound source can be selectively reproduced or removed such that utilization of the digital AV device can be enhanced.
US08300846B2 Appratus and method for preventing noise
Provided are an apparatus and method for preventing noise. The apparatus estimates a noise signal from a signal transformed into a frequency domain, uses the estimated noise signal to estimate the amplitude of the frequency-domain signal according to a frequency band, and then calculates a phase difference according to a frequency band and eliminates or prevents noise from the amplitude-estimated frequency-domain signal based on the calculated phase difference according frequency band.
US08300840B1 Multiple superimposed audio frequency test system and sound chamber with attenuated echo properties
A composite sound dampening structure includes a first base layer of sound dampening material extending around and against an inside surface of a container and a second wedge layer of sound dampening material attached to an inside surface of the first base layer. The composite sound dampening structure provides improved acoustic dampening in relative small sound chambers. An audio test system generates a composite audio signal of multiple different audio signals that are combined together using linear superposition. The composite audio signal allows a device to be simultaneously tested with multiple different audio frequencies.
US08300835B2 Audio signal processing apparatus, audio signal processing method, audio signal processing program, and computer-readable recording medium
An audio signal processing apparatus includes a cutout unit, a correlation calculating unit, a spectrum calculating unit, a coefficient calculating unit, and an assigning unit. The cutout unit cuts out audio signals of plural channels by a time frame. The correlation calculating unit calculates a correlation value between respective signals of the plural channels included in a predetermined time frame cut out by the cutout unit. The spectrum calculating unit calculates spectrum information indicative of spectral characteristics concerning a signal of a given channel cut out by the cutout unit. The coefficient calculating unit calculates a coefficient to be multiplied by the signal of the given channel, based on the correlation value and the spectrum information. The assigning unit multiplies the coefficient by the signal of the given channel and assigns the multiplied signal to channels other than the given channel.
US08300834B2 Audio signal processing device and audio signal processing method for specifying sound generating period
Even in a state that the change of an environmental noise cannot be anticipated, a sound generating period in an audio signal can be specified with high accuracy. Sound in an audio space in which an audio signal processing system 1 is disposed is always collected by a microphone 20 and inputted to an audio signal processing device 10 as an audio signal. Before a user carried out a prescribed operation, the audio signals inputted from the microphone 20 are sequentially stored in a first buffer 121. After the prescribed operation is carried out, the audio signals are sequentially stored in a second buffer 122. A specifying part 114 considers the level of the audio signal stored in the first buffer 121 as the level of the environmental noise and the level of the audio signal sequentially stored in the second buffer 122 as the level of sound generated at a current time to calculate an S/N ratio. The specifying part 114 sequentially decides whether or not the calculated S/N ratio satisfies a prescribed condition to specify the sound generating period in the audio signal.
US08300830B2 Secure group communications
A device for use in a system with multiple receiving units, and multiple intermediate units each configured to communicate with the device and at least some of the multiple receiving units, includes a communication module configured to send information toward and receive information from the receiving units and the intermediate units, a memory, and a processor coupled to the memory and the communication module. The processor is configured to: cause the communication module to send information toward each of the receiving units sufficient for the receiving units to obtain a key chain corresponding to that receiving unit, each key chain containing a plurality of keys, each key in each key chain being related to other keys in the respective key chains by at least one inverse of a one-way function; select a key from a key chain associated with a particular receiving unit and stored in the memory; and cause the communication module to send the selected key, and an indication of which receiving unit the selected key is associated with, toward the intermediate unit associated with the particular receiving unit.
US08300829B2 Verification key handling
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for enabling verification key handling is disclosed. Said handling is enabled by receiving a verification key including an identifier of the parent verification key of the verification key, wherein the verification key includes a constraint portion, determining whether the constraint portion of the verification key corresponds to the constraint portion of the parent verification key, associating, in case the constraint portion of the verification key corresponds to the constraint portion of the parent verification key, the verification key with a particular state update, and storing the verification key associated with the particular state update.
US08300828B2 System and method for a derivation function for key per page
Disclosed herein are systems, methods and computer-readable media to perform data encryption and decryption using a derivation function to obtain a key per page of data in a white-box environment. The method includes sharing a master key with the sender and receiver, splitting the input data into blocks and sub-blocks, and utilizing a set of keys and a master key to derive a page key. In another aspect of this disclosure, the key validation and shuffling operations are included. This method allows for the derivation of a key instead of storing a predetermined key, thus maintaining system security in a white-box environment.
US08300824B1 System and method for encrypting data using a cipher text in a communications environment
Data is encrypted by receiving a plurality of bits associated with a communications flow and compressing at least a portion of the bits in order to produce a plurality of sub-frames. The sub-frames may be assembled into a superframe and a stream cipher may be applied to the superframe in order to generate an encrypted packet.
US08300823B2 Encryption and compression of data for storage
Described is a process for encrypting and compressing data for storage by computing systems. A data stream received by a computing system is separated into data chunks for storage on a storage device using a data layout format. Each data chunk is examined and if possible, compressed to produce a compressed data chunk. Whether or not the data chunk can be compressed, the data chunk is encrypted and stored on the storage device in addition to metadata that describes the data chunk. When reading the stored data chunk from the storage device, the metadata identifies the starting location of the stored data chunk and provides metadata information to the computing system for decryption and decompression processing.
US08300818B2 System and method for effectively protecting electronic content information
A system and method for effectively protecting electronic content information includes a channel setup module that coordinates a channel setup procedure to create a secure communications channel between a content drive and a display module. A source DRM module transmits a special content key from the content drive to the display module over the secure communications channel. A content playback module then initiates a content playback procedure for utilizing the electronic content. The source DRM module responsively encrypts the electronic content with the content key. The channel setup module and the content playback module are unable to access or utilize the content key. A destination DRM module then receives the electronic content over the secure communications channel and utilizes the content key to decrypt the electronic content.
US08300811B2 Method and device for processing data
The embodiments provides a method for processing data. According to the invention, an elliptic curve with an order m which corresponds to a product of a first cofactor c and a prime number q is provided, wherein the order (q−1) of the multiplicative group of the prime number q corresponds to a product of a second cofactor I and at least two prime divisors s1, . . . , sk, wherein the at least two prime divisors s1, . . . , sk are each greater than a predetermined bound of 2n; and a chosen method is applied to provided data using the provided elliptic curve for providing cryptographically transformed data. The invention enables cryptographically transformed data to be provided while simultaneously minimizing the probability of a successful attack.
US08300795B2 Method and apparatus for providing access and egress uniform resource identifiers for routing
A method and apparatus for providing routing of calls in a packet network, e.g., a Voice over Internet Protocol (IP) network, using one or more criteria extracted from signaling information to determine the routing for the calls are disclosed. In one embodiment, the routing criteria extracted from signaling messages comprises at least one of: an access Uniform Resource Identifier, a destination phone number, a destination URI host, a calling party number, a calling party URI host, an incoming IP address, or a requested codec. An access URI and the egress URI are used to enhance routing decisions in a VoIP network. For instance, the egress URI can be used to specify egress route selections from the egress point of a VoIP network. The access URI can be used to influence the routing decisions within the VoIP network as well as the routing decisions with regard to egress routes from the egress point of the VoIP network.
US08300793B2 Multimodal conversation park and retrieval
Established multimodal conversations are enabled to be parked within an enhanced communication system such that a subscriber of the system can be notified through a variety of means and enabled to retrieve selected or all modalities for continuing the conversation. Different modalities may be parked together or separately. While waiting for the subscriber to retrieve the conversation, a participant may receive audio, video, presentation, or other forms of content as playback.
US08300788B2 Registry of modular services and a method for automatically selecting an appropriate service to provide particular logical guarantees
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for selecting a service to provide a service operation.
US08300781B1 Method and apparatus for retrieving all voicemail messages at the same time
A method and apparatus for retrieving all voicemail messages at the same time on packet networks such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) networks are disclosed. For example, the customer subscribes to a voicemail service where a plurality of voicemails can be retrieved and listened to at the same time. Specifically, when the customer accesses the voicemail service, the application server engages the media server to play the audio files from each of the voicemail messages at the same time, i.e., in a continuous or consecutive manner via a single input. Namely, the audio files are played consecutively without requiring another input from the customer, unless the customer wishes to execute a voicemail function.
US08300777B1 Divided call history user interface
A computing device displays a call history graphical user interface (GUI). The call history GUI includes a new list and an old list. The new list may include new missed call elements and missed call elements associated with new unopened voicemails. The old list may include other call history GUI elements, such as old missed call elements and missed call elements associated with opened voicemails.
US08300775B2 Resolving calling line identification information
A computing device includes a processing unit and a system memory. The processing unit creates a normalization module programmed to modify a plurality of telephone numbers so that the telephone numbers conform to a specified format, creates a calling line manipulation module programmed to manipulate a calling line identification number to form a number for querying one or more databases including contact information, and creates a resource query module programmed to query the databases including the contacting information using the number, receive one or more query results from the databases, and select one of the query results for inclusion in a notification of a telephonic message.
US08300759B2 Decay heat removal system comprising heat pipe heat exchanger
Disclosed herein is a decay heat removal system, including: a decay heat exchanger that absorbs decay heat generated by a nuclear reactor; a heat pipe heat exchanger that receives the decay heat from the decay heat exchanger through a sodium loop for heat removal and then discharges the decay heat to the outside; and a sodium-air heat exchanger that is connected to the heat pipe heat exchanger through the sodium loop and discharges the decay heat transferred thereto through the sodium loop to the outside. According to the decay heat removal system, a heat removal capability can be realized by the heat pipe heat exchanger at such a high temperature at which the safety of a nuclear reactor is under threat, and a cooling effect can be obtained through the sodium-air heat exchanger at a temperature lower than that temperature.
US08300757B2 Methods for detection of failure and recovery in a radio link
A method, telecommunication apparatus, and electronic device for detecting a status of a radio link are disclosed. A transceiver 302 may maintain a radio link with a network base station 104. A processor 304 may map channel state information to a synchronization status associated with the radio link based on the received signal and determine the synchronization status via a block error rate estimate in the radio link based on the channel state information.
US08300747B2 Method and system for an adaptive VBLAST receiver for wireless multiple input multiple outout (MIMO) detection
Various aspects of a system for an adaptive VBLAST receiver for wireless MIMO detection may comprise utilizing log likelihood ratios (LLR) to selectively cancel interference in a received signal when information contained in one or more layers is encoded. Following the selective cancellation of interference, further computations may be performed on the residual received signal. Various aspects of the invention may comprise a linear detector with improved performance in comparison to some conventional VBLAST receivers. Performance may be measured by, for example, a packet error rate (PER) for a given signal to noise ratio (SNR) associated with the received signal.
US08300743B1 Method and apparatus for acquisition and tracking of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol timing, carrier frequency offset and phase noise
A method for updating channel estimates in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing receiver of a wireless local area network includes generating channel estimates for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing subcarrier as a function of subcarrier index values. The method includes generating a complex number by summing a product of frequency domain signals and the channel estimates for each of the subcarrier index values and dividing the sum by a sum of a squared absolute value of the channel estimate for each of the subcarrier index values. The method includes multiplying the complex number by the channel estimates to generate updated channel estimates.
US08300731B2 Methods and systems to digitally switch between frequencies and corresponding bandwidths in a transceiver
Methods and systems to maintain a tuner at a fixed frequency and to switch between frequencies and bandwidths in a digital domain. IQ imbalance equalization coefficients may be determined with respect to a frequency and bandwidth of a first signal, and the coefficients may be applied to baseband data associated with one or more other frequencies and/or bandwidths. Methods and systems disclosed herein may be applied in a multi-mode Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) environment, such as to digitally switch between a MoCA 2 standard and a MoCA 1.x standard.
US08300724B2 Digital transceiver
Digital Transceiver (DTRX) usable in a radio communications systems for transmitting and receiving digital base-band signals, wherein the DTRX (300) comprises: at least one digital up-converter (DUC) (310) for transmitting digital base-band signals and at least one digital down-converter for receiving digital base-band signals. In one aspect of the teachings disclosed herein the DUC (310) comprises at least two over-sampling units (314, 315), at least one quadrature modulation unit (340), and at least one time-discrete sigma delta band-pass modulator (318). The digital down-converter comprises at least one quadrature demodulation unit (360), at least two decimator units (356,357), and at least two sub-sampling units (354, 355). The digital base-band signal comprises an in-phase component (I-signal) and a quadrature component (Q-signal).
US08300715B2 Method and apparatus for reuse of WAN infrastructure resources in a wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) network
To make efficient use of a frequency spectrum, a peer-to-peer network shares a wide area network (WAN) frequency spectrum as well as a time-frequency structure of the WAN, where the time-frequency structure includes a set of tones and symbols. A first wireless terminal monitors the time-frequency structure of the WAN to determine which subsets of tone-symbols are unused for WAN and/or other peer-to-peer connections. Then, the first wireless terminal selects and uses an unused subset of tone-symbols within the time-frequency structure for its peer-to-peer connection with a second wireless terminal.
US08300714B2 Apparatus and method for reducing peak to average power ratio in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system
A method for reducing a Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) using reserved tones in a transmission apparatus of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication system is provided. The method includes detecting a subcarrier spacing interval and the number of spaced symbols based on a predetermined pilot pattern upon signal reception, and determining positions of shifted reserved tones obtained by shifting positions of reserved tones allocated to a predetermined symbol during the number of the spaced symbols at intervals of the spacing interval; determining an impulse waveform obtained by rotating a phase of a complex value of an impulse stored in a memory, using the determined positions of frequency-domain reserved tones of each symbol; calculating a subtrahend for a PAPR of an output signal using the phase-rotated impulse waveform; and reducing a PAPR of an input signal by performing a gradient algorithm using the phase-rotated impulse waveform.
US08300712B2 Equalization for zero prefix OFDM systems
The system, apparatus, and method (300) of the present invention provide sub-optimal channel equalization techniques for zero-prefixed orthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM) systems that retain the performance of least-squares equalization but are not as complex. The technique of the present invention improves equalization performance with less complexity than required by minimum-mean-squared-error (MMSE) equalization as well. The channel matrix is rendered circulant and then truncated where the eigenvalues are small.
US08300699B2 System, method, and computer-readable medium for reducing required throughput in an ultra-wideband system
A system, method and computer-readable medium for reducing the required throughput in an ultra-wideband system is provided. A temporal sub-sampling routine limits the number of frames, or portions thereof, to be transmitted to a sink over an RF link. The temporal sub-sampling routine may have a fixed, or static, sub-sampling rate that specifies the rate at which frames are discarded. In accordance with another embodiment, an automatic temporal sub-sampling mechanism is provided. Additionally, a tile copying mechanism may be implemented for reducing the throughput of the RF link. A WDV subsystem may include an interface to an external frame buffer that facilitates the temporal sub-sampling and tile copy routines disclosed herein.
US08300695B2 Image encoding apparatus and image encoding method
Since a global motion vector detector is disposed on the same chip as, for example, an image converter utilizing spatial correlations, a first problem is that an original frame is not completely reproduced in an image, since the frame to be referred to when detecting the global motion vector is an image obtained by inverse-converting a nonreversibly compression-converted image. A second problem is that, upon high-efficient image encoding, the detection process of the global motion vector is performed even when it is not necessary to detect the global motion vector. An image encoding apparatus is equipped with a mechanism for detecting a global motion vector. The mechanism is located outside an image converter that utilizes spatial correlations, such as high-frequency component removal by a DCT and round-down by a quantization, and variable encoding.
US08300691B2 Video encoding method and apparatus and video decoding method and apparatus using residual resizing
A video encoding method and apparatus and a video decoding method and apparatus are provided. The video encoding method encodes residual values included in a residual block of a current block after sub-sampling or down-sampling the residual values, thereby encoding and decoding the current block using a small number of residual values and thus improving the compression rate of video encoding.
US08300673B2 System, method and apparatus for managing communication in a public safety communication network
A method, system and apparatus for managing communication in a Public Safety Communication Network (PSCN). The PSCN includes a plurality of Mobile Stations (MSs) (110, 115, 120) and a master controller (105). The method includes initiating a communication between one or more MSs and the master controller using a primary channel (405). The primary channel corresponds to a primary frequency spectrum in the PSCN. The method further includes identifying one or more available channels in one or more of the primary frequency spectrum and a secondary frequency spectrum (410). Each of the primary frequency spectrum and the secondary frequency spectrum include one or more channels. Thereafter, a channel hopping pattern is generated for one or more MSs based on one or more available channels (415). The channel hopping pattern corresponds to a sequence of frequency hops for a MS.
US08300667B2 Buffer expansion and contraction over successive intervals for network devices
In one method embodiment, receiving from the network device a multiplex of a compressed video stream and a compressed audio stream, the multiplex comprising a succession of intervals corresponding to a video program corresponding to a first playout rate; and at the start of each interval, replacing the compressed audio stream with a compressed, pitch-preserving audio stream corresponding to a second playout rate different than the first.
US08300665B2 Method for transmitting control signals in a wireless communication system
A method of transmitting control signals includes configuring a multiplexing indicator indicating that a plurality of control signals are multiplexed on a control channel, generating a multiplexed control signal by multiplexing a first control signal and a second control signal according to the multiplexing indicator and transmitting the multiplexed control signal on the control channel. Overhead due to control signaling can be reduced by transmitting a multiplexed control signal on a control channel.
US08300663B2 Dedicated acknowledgement and delivery of management messages in wireless communication systems
Techniques and systems for acknowledging management message reception in a wireless communication system can include operating a first radio station to generate a management message that contains a sequence number unique to the management message and to direct the management message to a second radio station; and operating the second radio station, after receiving the management message from the transmitter, to generate and transmit, before decoding the content of the received the management message, an acknowledgement to the transmitter identifying the received manage message by the sequence number unique to the management message.
US08300662B2 System and method for communicating using an in-vehicle system
A system and method for communicating wirelessly from a mobile device to a remote receiver station is disclosed. The system includes a controller configured to monitor a status of the mobile device and, upon an initiation event, initiate a data transfer process to wirelessly communicate data to the remote receiver station. The system also includes a voice-band modem that, upon initiation of the data transfer process is configured to receive data for transfer to the remote receiver station, divide the source data into a collection source packets, and encode the data using a fountain code encoding protocol to form a series of encoded packets. The voice band modem is also configured to transmit the series of encoded packets to the remote receiver station as a burst including all of the source data and repeatedly transmit the encoded packets until receiving an indication that the series of packets including all of the source data has been received at the receiving station.
US08300659B2 Method and a system for transporting of data with integrated protocol mapping function
The invention relates to a network comprising at least one host device having an interface card connected to a backplane of said host device, wherein said interface card comprises at least one cage for receiving a pluggable module which performs a traffic management of data transported via at least one optical fiber connected to said pluggable module.
US08300653B2 Systems and methods for assured communications with quality of service
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for facilitating communication of data. A method includes communicating data including prioritizing a block of data, setting an indicator in a header of the block of data, transmitting the block of data, and retransmitting the block of data. The indicator indicates that reliable delivery of the block of data is desired. The indicator is set based at least in part on a rule. The indicator is set on a per-message basis. The block of data is retransmitted when a predetermined time has elapsed and when an acknowledgement of delivery of the block of data has not been received.
US08300645B2 Method and device for exchanging diagnostic data for the simulation of aircraft computer networks
A method and a device for exchanging diagnostic data for simulation of computer networks of aircraft are disclosed. Diagnostic data exchange is achieved in a network between a network node and a diagnostic terminal connected to the network. The network node is capable of receiving simulation commands in real time and diagnostic commands. According to the invention, the network node is capable of receiving simulation commands according to at least one predetermined time period, time-based segregation being achieved for emission of diagnostic data relative to processing of simulation commands.
US08300643B2 Method and system for providing user configurable differentiated service
An approach is provided for specifying class of service (CoS) information. A wireless device is configured to connect to a wireless access point that communicates with a data network. The wireless device generates a message including a header that specifies class of service information for establishing a communication path over the data network. The class of service information is configurable by a user of the wireless device.
US08300639B2 Forwarding groups of multicast flows
A routing element and method for forwarding multicast traffic in a network includes grouping a collection of path-related multicast information flows from a source and associating each information flow of the collection with a multicast address from a set of multicast addresses. Forwarding information is placed in routers within the network between the sources and destinations wherein the forwarding information includes a single entry in a forwarding table using an identifier, e.g., a representative address, for the collection.
US08300638B2 Multimodal multilevel precedence and preemption
A device comprising a network resource controller to preempt at least one multiple-user session over a primary modality of communication according to a precedence-level associated with users of the multiple-user session and to switch the multiple-user session to an alternate modality of communication without disconnection of the multiple-user session.
US08300635B2 Programmable crossbar structures in asynchronous systems
Methods, systems, and circuits for forming and operating a crossbar structure in an asynchronous system are described. One or more input ports of a programmable crossbar structure may be connected to send data to one or more output ports. A group of output ports each receiving data from an input port may be connected to send, in response, control signals via a programmable element to the input port. The number of programmable elements used may be determined by the number of input ports being copied to more than one output port. Additional methods, systems, and circuits are disclosed.
US08300633B2 Network quality monitoring device and method for internet services involving signaling
A network quality monitoring device includes a packet receiving unit that receives packets used by a signaling protocol server device that is a server device for processing the signaling protocol, a signaling protocol packet extracting unit that extracts signaling protocol packets for controlling the signaling protocol from packets received by the packet receiving unit, a session management table storing unit that stores the session management tables, a signaling protocol quality analyzing unit that collects quality information regarding the network quality from a session management table corresponding to sessions that have transitioned to a predetermined communication state among the session management tables stored in the session management table storing unit and, based on the collection result, analyzes statistical information regarding the network quality.
US08300628B2 Method and system for transmitting supplementary data, and communication terminal
Method for transmitting supplementary data whose content relates to a communication session which has been set up or terminated to a communication terminal, in which a message is generated which contains the supplementary data and which has an identification for the communication session, and the message is transmitted to the communication terminal.
US08300617B2 Subscriber station, time division multiplexing system and transmission timing control method suitable for wireless communication in synchronous PtoMP scheme
A transmitter transmits a ranging request message to a BS. A receiver receives response information in response to the ranging request message transmitted by the transmitter. A controller transmits the ranging request message from the transmitter at a transmission timing which has been previously set. Subsequently, if the receiver has not received the response information in response to the ranging request message within a predetermined period, the controller retransmits the ranging request message earlier than the transmission timing which has been previously set.
US08300616B2 System and method for wireless communications
A system and method for wireless communications is provided. A method for operating in a communications network includes receiving a codebook, the codebook includes a plurality of codewords, and determining if the codebook satisfies a constant modulus property. The method also includes in response to determining that the codebook does not satisfy the constant modulus property, converting the codebook into a codebook satisfying the constant modulus property, and storing the codebook satisfying the constant modulus property. The method further includes storing the codebook in response to determining that the codebook does satisfy the constant modulus property, and causing to transmit a transmission to a communications device, wherein the transmission is encoded using a codeword in the stored codebook.
US08300613B2 Techniques for detecting beacons on wireless channels
A wireless local access network (WLAN) radio listens for a beacon for a listening duration on each of multiple channels. Periodically, the WLAN radio changes the channel on which the WLAN radio listens for a beacon. The WLAN radio rotates through all channels until an entire beacon period is listened to. The number of iterations is chosen to minimize the overlap of successive listening durations. The WLAN radio can detect a beacon by detecting an incomplete portion of a beacon.
US08300608B2 Faint connectivity session setup
A method for communicating is provided. The method comprises communicating regarding transmission time interval (TTI) bundling related to one or more random access (RA) messages.
US08300606B2 Method and telecommunication device for selecting number of code channels and associated spreading factor for CDMA transmission
A set of permissible parameter pairs with the parameters being a number of code channels and an associated spreading factor is determined according to at least one first selection criterion. Then a parameter pair from the set of permissible parameter pairs for the CDMA transmission is selected according to at least one second selection criterion. In this selection process, the spreading factor is used as a second selection criterion with a higher value being preferred over a lower value if both spreading factors are below or equal to a threshold spreading factor value. This accounts for the fact that in a certain regime low spreading factor involve a prohibitively high processing load and lead to increase inter symbol interference.
US08300604B2 Radio communication system and radio communication method
A radio communication system includes an EPC 100, a 3G network 200 and a mobile station 10 connectable to an external network 300 via any one of the EPC 100 and the 3G network 200. The communication system includes: a handover function unit configured to control a handover from the EPC 100 to the 3G network 200. The number of EPS bearers allowed to be set up with the mobile station 10 and the EPC 100 is larger than the number of PDP contexts allowed to be set up with the mobile station 10 and the 3G network 200. The handover function unit controls the handover in accordance with the number of the EPS beaters already set up with the mobile station 10 and the EPC 100 and the number of the PDP contexts to be newly set up with the mobile station 10 and the 3G network 200.
US08300596B2 Apparatus, method and computer program product providing extended measurement control signal for handoff measurement under interference coordination
In one non-limiting, exemplary embodiment, a method includes: receiving radio resource control signaling with a user equipment, wherein the radio resource control signaling is indicative of at least one frequency sub-band to be measured by the user equipment for a particular cell in a manner transparent to at least one of an interference control scheme and a handover scheme implemented for the cell; performing at least one measurement of the at least one frequency sub-band; and reporting information descriptive of the at least one measurement.
US08300593B2 Frequency layer convergence method for MBMS
A method to control cell selection and/or re-selection in a communication system comprising a plurality of cells with which terminal devices may communicate, the method including the steps of: determining that a terminal device is to start a session for a certain service, the service using a reception frequency; based on that determination, changing at least one cell selection and/or re-selection parameter in respect of the terminal device with the effect that a subsequent cell selection and/or re-selection performed by the device would favor cells that use the reception frequency used in the service session over other cells.
US08300592B2 Signal transmission method and device
A signal transmission method, which includes: each data symbol needing to be transmitted is weighted and repeatedly extended to obtain the extended data symbol of each data symbol; the extended data symbol of each data symbol and the pilot frequency symbol are modulated and mapped to the specified time-frequency locations of each corresponding block repeat resource block to obtain each corresponding repeat data unit block; each repeat data unit block is transmitted. A signal transmission device is also disclosed in the present invention.
US08300583B2 Method for transmitting control information in a mobile communication system
A method for transmitting and receiving control information between AM RLC entities in a mobile communication system is provided. Especially, when a receiving-side AM RLC entity is connected to one or more logical channels, the receiving-side AM RLC entity sends control information through a specific one of the logical channels according to the contents of the control information to allow the transmitting side to quickly perform retransmission, thereby increasing the data transmitting rate.
US08300578B2 System, apparatus and method for seamless roaming through the use of routing update messages
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for managing seamless roaming of a wireless node of a plurality of nodes forming a wireless network comprises detecting, recovering and transmitting operations. The detecting operation involves detecting receipt of a Disassociation message from the wireless node by a first node of the plurality of nodes. The wireless node is roaming and seeking to establish a new communication with a second node of the plurality of nodes. The recovering operation involves addressing information from the Disassociation message by the first node, where the addressing information identifies the second node of the plurality of nodes. The transmitting operation involves transmitting a Route Update message to at least the second node of the plurality of nodes. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08300576B2 Radio communication apparatus
A base unit of a radio communication apparatus of the present invention includes a controller that discriminates whether or not company identifying information transmitted from a cordless handset is specific information in connecting a line in a Bluetooth (BT) communication mode, performs communication in another radio communication standard (company's own mode) on determining that the company identifying information is the specific information, and performs the communication in a BT standard on determining that the company identifying information is not the specific information, and a registering unit for registering an ID peculiar to the apparatus. This simple structure allows long-distance communication at higher sound quality with the other apparatus capable of performing CDL communication in the company's own mode using an error handling function, and sound communication at usual sound quality in a BT data format allowing short-distance communication even when the company identifying information is not the specific information.
US08300566B2 Method and apparatus for enhancing receiving efficiency of an multimedia broadcast multicast service in a wireless communications system
A method for enhancing receiving efficiency of a multimedia broadcast multicast service, know as MBMS, in a wireless communications system includes setting an indicator for indicating whether an MBMS service is transmitted on an MBSFN, an abbreviation of MBMS over a Single Frequency Network, carrier or not, and sending the indicator to a user equipment of the wireless communications system.
US08300558B2 Feature interaction detection in multi-party calls and calls with bridged appearances
A method is disclosed for detecting feature interactions in multi-party calls (i.e., calls involving more than two endpoints), and in calls with bridged appearances. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment, a set of rules is applied to the specifications of two features in order to detect interactions between the features. The rules specify conditions for, or relationships among, the original connections for the features, the resulting connections for the features, the triggering party for the features, and the originating and terminating parties of connections. A rule is considered matched for a multi-party call when any of the original and resulting connections for the call match the conditions of the rule. Similarly, a rule is considered matched for a call with one or more bridged appearances when any of the original and resulting connections for the call, including those of bridged appearances, match the conditions of the rule.
US08300556B2 Optimizing bandwidth in a multipoint video conference
A plurality of multipoint conference units (MCUs) may optimize bandwidth by selecting particular video streams to transmit to endpoints and/or other MCUs participating in a video conference. An endpoint may generate video streams and audio streams and transmit these streams to its managing MCU. During the video conference, an endpoint may also receive and display different video streams and different audio streams. In a particular embodiment, a controlled MCU receives video streams from its managed endpoints, selects potential video streams based upon the maximum number of video streams that any endpoint can display concurrently, and transmits those potential video streams to a master MCU. The master MCU may also receive video streams from its managed endpoints and may select active video streams for transmission to its managed endpoints and to the controlled MCU, which transmits selected streams to its managed endpoints.
US08300553B2 System and method for multicast transmission
A system and method for multicast transmission are disclosed. In one embodiment, a virtual exchange network including interconnected nodes is embedded within a network. A sender is disposed in communication with a root node and receivers are disposed in communication with a set of edge nodes. The sender publishes a packetized data stream to which the receivers subscribe. The packetized data stream is promulgated by implicit signaling through optimum virtual exchange network connections from the sender through the virtual exchange network to the receivers. The interconnected nodes, responsive to receiving the published packetized data stream, are adapted to multicast N instances of the published packetized data stream to N recipients selected from the group consisting of receivers and other of the interconnected nodes.
US08300547B2 Circuit, system and method for communication between two nodes of a radio network
A circuit, system, and method for range finding between two nodes of a radio network, in particular in conformance with the industry standard IEEE 802.15.4. A mode for finding the range to a second node is initiated by the first node. A command for range finding with the address of the second node is transmitted from the first node to the second node in the mode for range finding. The second node is switched into the range finding mode by the command. A sequence is controlled by the command in the range finding mode. As a result of the control by the command, a first signal is transmitted by the first node in a transmission time window of the sequence and the first signal is received by the second node in an associated reception time window of the sequence, and a first phase value of the first signal is measured. As a result of the control by the command, a second signal is transmitted by the second node in a transmission time window of the sequence and the second signal is received by the first node in an associated reception time window of the sequence, and a second phase value of the second signal is measured. As a result of the control by the command, the first frequency of the first signal is changed by a frequency difference and the second frequency of the second signal is changed by the frequency difference in a subsequent time window of the sequence.
US08300543B2 Method and system for establishing a communications connection
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for establishing a communications connection is provided. The method includes transmitting, by a digital subscriber line access multiplexer to a communications device, a plurality of parameters each representing a different indication of a same feature of the digital subscriber line access multiplexer. Each parameter is correlated with one or more communications settings. The method also includes establishing a plurality of digital subscriber line connections with the communications device. Each connection corresponds with a particular one of the parameters. The method also includes selecting one of the connections as meeting a predetermined criteria. The method also includes identifying one of the parameters that corresponds to the selected connection. The method also includes establishing a digital subscriber line connection with the communications device using at least one communications setting correlated with the identified parameter.
US08300540B2 Systems and methods for dynamic network channel modification
Embodiments of the present invention comprise methods and systems for establishment and modification of network allocation parameters.
US08300538B2 Method and system for setting routing path considering hidden node and carrier sense interference, and recording medium thereof
A method of setting a routing path for transmitting a packet from a source node to a destination node in a wireless multi-hop network including plural nodes and plural links for connecting two nodes with each other. The method includes calculating carrier sense interference weights representing carrier sense interference related to the respective links and combining the carrier sense interference weights of the links included in at least one specific path connecting the source node with the destination node. The method further includes calculating hidden node weights representing hidden node problems related to the respective links and accumulating the hidden node weights of the links included in the path. The method further includes calculating a metric value for the specific path by combining the carrier sense interference weights and the hidden node weights, and determining the specific path with the least metric value as the routing path.
US08300533B2 Uplink pilot multiplexing in single user MIMO and SDMA for single carrier frequency division multiple access systems
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate adaptive uplink pilot multiplexing schemes. In various embodiments, frequency position and pilot channel bandwidth can be adaptively varied in a block over time based on the uplink channel data, such as the number of streams to be multiplexed. Thus, the provided adaptive uplink pilot multiplexing schemes provide flexible uplink pilot allocation schemes while maintaining single carrier waveform for improved transmit power efficiency and orthogonality of pilots within blocks for improve channel estimation and suppression of interference.
US08300528B2 Method and apparatus for communicating data over a data network including controlling bandwidth over a DSL line
Providing an interface device interfacing between an access network and a back-bone network comprises: providing a management device, receiving data readings from a transceiver device indicative of the current or recent line rate of a DSL connection of the access network, and providing the interface device to restrict data flowing to the DSL connection to a new maximum rate selected in accordance with the received data readings from the transceiver device indicative of the current or recent line rate of the DSL connection. When the new maximum rate is greater than the existing maximum rate for the DSL connection at which the interface device is currently provided, the interface device is provisioned (or re-provisioned) only after a delay period. The delay period depends upon the increase amount of in the new maximum rate compared to the existing maximum rate so that the greater the increase, the shorter the delay period.
US08300522B2 OFDM signal transmission apparatus and method
An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal transmission apparatus and a method thereof are disclosed. The OFDM signal transmission apparatus includes an inverse Fourier transform (IFT) unit for transforming a frequency domain OFDM signal to a time domain OFDM signal according to one of transmission modes of 4K, 16K, and 32K; a guard interval inserting unit for inserting a guard interval into the transformed time domain OFDM signal according to a predetermined guard interval inserting rate; and a transmitting unit for transmitting the OFDM signal having the guard interval. Therefore, the data transmission rate is enhanced.
US08300517B2 Optical recording medium, apparatus and method of manufacturing optical recording medium, and apparatus and method of recording/reproducing data of optical recording medium
An optical recording medium, an apparatus and method of manufacturing an optical recording medium, and an apparatus and method of recording/reproducing data of an optical recording medium, allocated with a wobble address suitable for a capacity of a high density recording disc, the optical recording medium including a first area and a second area on which data is recorded/reproduced by a recording/reproducing apparatus, the optical recording medium including: a recording unit block on which the data is recorded or reproduced, and a wobble address corresponding to the recording unit block and indicating a location of the recording unit block in the optical recording medium, the wobble address including a plurality of address units (ADIPs), wherein last two bits in the ADIPs in the first area are one of: 00, 10, and 01, and last two bits in at least one ADIP in the second area are 11.
US08300512B2 Liquid crystal element, optical head device, and variable optical modulation element
A liquid crystal element includes: a transparent substrate; and a liquid crystal layer including: a liquid crystal material; and a concavo-convex portion including periodic concaves and convexes, wherein the concavo-convex portion is aligned so that a longitudinal direction of liquid crystal molecules that are positioned on a side of the transparent substrate and on a concavo-convex surface that is an interface of the concavo-convex portion substantially becomes a vertical direction with respect to a concavo-convex surface on the side of the transparent substrate, or a longitudinal direction of liquid crystal molecules that are positioned on a side, in which a medium is disposed and which is opposite to the transparent substrate, and on the concavo-convex surface that is the interface of the concavo-convex portion substantially becomes the vertical direction with respect to a concavo-convex surface on the side, in which the medium is disposed, to form a diffraction grating.
US08300511B2 Optical information record/reproduction apparatus and reproduction apparatus
A holographic memory apparatus comprises first phase modulation means that adds phase information to each pixel of a signal beam to generate page data at recording time; oscillator light generation means that generates an oscillator light that is superimposed on, and interferes with, a diffracted light from a holographic recording medium at reproduction time; second phase modulation means that adds phase information to the oscillator light; and light detection means that detects an interference light generated by superimposing the oscillator light and the diffracted light from the holographic recording medium.
US08300497B1 Method for reducing flow induced vibration and noise in towed arrays
A method for reducing noise in a towed acoustic array includes providing a towed array having a length, diameter, frequency range and tow speed. The relationship between tension in the towed array and wall pressure fluctuation spectral levels is determined. Wall pressure fluctuation spectral levels are related to the noise in the array. An optimal towed array tension is calculated using the determined relationship. Tension is increased to the optimal towed array tension by either provided additional towed array hose or a drogue at the end of the towed array.
US08300493B2 Encoded read-only memory (ROM) decoder
Decoder circuits capable of decoding encoded ROM memory are provided. Embodiments provide several improvements over prior solutions which rely primarily on CMOS logic (e.g., inverters). For example, embodiments provide faster decoding by limiting the number of decoding stages to a single stage. Further, embodiments allow the use of partial swing (as opposed to full swing) on the bit lines, which results in significant power reduction. This, in turn, results in reduced amounts of capacitor discharges when reading the data.
US08300486B2 Temperature detection circuit of semiconductor memory apparatus
A temperature detection circuit of a semiconductor memory apparatus includes a fixed period oscillator, a temperature variable signal generating unit and a counting unit. The oscillator is configured to generate a fixed period oscillator signal when an enable signal is enabled. The temperature variable signal generating unit is configured to generate a temperature variable signal whose enable interval varies based on temperature variations, when the enable signal is enabled. The counting unit is configured to count the oscillator signal during the enable interval of the temperature variable signal to generate a temperature information signal.
US08300484B2 Semiconductor device and semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor device comprises a memory cell array including memory cells, a first bit line transmitting data stored in a selected memory cells, a single-ended first sense amplifier amplifying a signal voltage of the first bit line and converting the voltage into an output current, a second bit line selectively connected to the first bit line via the first sense amplifier, a second sense amplifier determining a level of the signal voltage, and a sense amplifier control circuit detecting a temperature of the memory cell array during an operation and controlling an end of an activation period of the first and/or second sense amplifiers in accordance with a detection result of the temperature. In the semiconductor device, the sense amplifier control circuit controls to delay the end of the activation period at least at a predetermined high temperature indicated by the detection result relative to at an ordinary temperature.
US08300480B2 Semiconductor device having sense amplifiers supplied with an over-drive voltage in a normal mode and supplied with a step-down voltage in a refresh mode
A semiconductor device which has a sense amplifier and is supplied with an external power supply voltage includes a drive signal line connected to the sense amplifier, a step up circuit generating a first voltage from the external power supply voltage, the first voltage being higher than the external power supply voltage, and a step down circuit lowering the external power supply voltage into a second voltage. For enabling the sense amplifier to perform sensing operation in a normal mode involving external access, the first voltage is applied to the drive signal line in an initial stage of the sensing operation, and thereafter the second voltage is applied to the drive signal line. In a refresh mode not involving external access, the step up circuit is shut down, and the second voltage is applied to the drive signal line from the initial stage of the sensing operation.
US08300477B2 Piecewise erasure of flash memory
Embodiments of a circuit are described. This circuit includes control logic that generates multiple piecewise-erase commands to erase information stored in a storage cell of a memory device formed within another circuit. Note that execution of a single one of the multiple piecewise-erase commands within the memory device may be insufficient to erase the information stored in the storage cell. Moreover, the first circuit includes an interface that receives the multiple piecewise-erase commands from the control logic and that transmits the multiple piecewise-erase commands to the memory device.
US08300469B2 Cost saving electrically-erasable-programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) array
A cost saving EEPROM array, having: a plurality of parallel bit lines, a plurality of parallel word lines, and a plurality of parallel common source lines. The bit lines contain a first group bit lines; the word line includes a first and a second word lines; and the common source line includes a first common source line. And, a plurality of sub-memory arrays are provided. Each sub-memory array includes a first and a second memory cells disposed opposite to each other and located on two different sides of the first common source line; the first memory cell is connected to the first group bit lines, the first common source line, and the first word line, and the second memory cell is connected to the first group bit line, the first common source line, and the second word line.
US08300467B2 Nonvolatile memory device and related method of operation
A flash memory device comprises alternately arranged odd and even memory cells. The odd and even memory cells are connected to corresponding odd and even bitlines, which are connected to corresponding odd and even page buffers. In a read operation of the flash memory device, data is sensed at two different times via the odd and even bitlines. In certain embodiments, data is read from the odd page buffers while data is being sensed via the even bit lines, or vice versa.
US08300464B2 Method and circuit for calibrating data capture in a memory controller
A memory controller comprises a multiplexer, a first-in, first-out memory (FIFO), a comparator, and a detection and adjustment circuit. The multiplexer receives a clock signal, a reference voltage, and a gating signal. The FIFO has a clock input coupled to an output of the multiplexer and a data input that receives data from a memory. The comparator has a first input coupled to an output of the FIFO, and a second input coupled to receive a calibration pattern. The calibration pattern is predetermined to match with a first portion of data from the FIFO, and is predetermined to not match with a second portion of data from the FIFO. The detection and adjustment circuit detects if a transition from the first portion to the second portion occurs within a predetermined time period. If the transition is not detected within the time period, a timing of the gating signal is adjusted.
US08300461B2 Area saving electrically-erasable-programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) array
An area saving electrically-erasable-programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) array, having: a plurality of parallel bit lines, a plurality of parallel word lines, and a plurality of parallel common source lines. The bit lines are classified into a plurality of bit line groups, containing a first group bit line and a second group bit line; the word line includes a first word line; and the common source lines include a first common source line. In addition, a plurality of sub-memory arrays are provided. Each sub-memory array contains a first, second, third, and fourth memory cells. Wherein, the first and second memory cells are symmetrically arranged, and the third and fourth memory cells are symmetrically arranged; also, the first and second memory cells, and the third and fourth memory cells are symmetrically arranged with the first common source line as a symmetric axis.
US08300450B2 Implementing physically unclonable function (PUF) utilizing EDRAM memory cell capacitance variation
A method and embedded dynamic random access memory (EDRAM) circuit for implementing a physically unclonable function (PUF), and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. An embedded dynamic random access memory (EDRAM) circuit includes a first EDRAM memory cell including a memory cell true storage capacitor and a second EDRAM memory cell including a memory cell complement storage capacitor. The memory cell true storage capacitor and the memory cell complement storage capacitor include, for example, trench capacitors or metal insulator metal capacitors (MIM caps). A random variation of memory cell capacitance is used to implement the physically unclonable function. Each memory cell is connected to differential inputs to a sense amplifier. The first and second EDRAM memory cells are written to zero and then the first and second EDRAM memory cells are differentially sensed and the difference is amplified to consistently read the same random data.
US08300442B2 Power adaptation device and power supply management method
A power adaptation device and a power supply management method thereof are provided. The power adaptation device includes a terminal seat, a detection structure, a detection unit, an electric power modulation unit, an electric power modulation unit, and a control unit. The power supply management method includes the following steps. A detection result of the detection structure is read by the detection unit to judge whether the power terminal is electrically connected to the electronic device. The detection unit notifies the control unit that the power terminal is not connected to the electronic device when judging that the power terminal is not connected to the electronic device. The control unit controls the electric power modulation unit to stop supplying power to the electric power modulation unit to reduce a total power consumption of the electric power modulation unit.
US08300435B2 Transmission system and a method for control thereof
An HVDC transmission system including a rectifier station and an inverter station each having a series connection of at least two converters. A by-pass DC breaker is connected in parallel with each converter. A control device is adapted to deblock a blocked converter by starting to control the converter at high delay angle and gradually decreasing the delay angle until substantially all DC current flows through the converter and to then control the by-pass breaker to open at substantially zero current, and to stop the operation of a converter by controlling the converter at gradually increasing delay angle until the voltage across the converter is substantially zero and to then control the converter to be blocked by firing a by-pass pair thereof and to then control the by-pass breaker to close for taking over all the DC current when the voltage between a neutral bus and a pole of a transmission line between the stations is to be increased and reduced, respectively.
US08300422B2 Printed circuit board equipped with piezoelectric element
An electronic apparatus includes, for example, a circuit board with an electronic component and a piezoelectric element, a reference potential pattern that gives a reference potential to at least one of the electronic component and the piezoelectric element, and a solder land connected to the reference potential pattern. On the circuit board, the electronic component is located on a downstream side in a transport direction of the circuit board during mounting of the piezoelectric element and the electronic component on the solder land, and the piezoelectric element is located on an upstream side in the transport direction.
US08300420B2 Circuit substrate for mounting electronic component and circuit substrate assembly having same
A circuit substrate includes an electrically conductive layer having electrically conductive patterns formed therein, an insulating layer having a through hole, and a composite layer positioned between the electrically conductive layer and the insulating layer. The through hole is configured for having an electronic component mounted thereon. The composite layer includes a polymer matrix and at least one carbon nanotube bundle embedded in the polymer matrix. One end of the at least one carbon nanotube bundle contacts the electrically conductive patterns, and the other is exposed in the through hole of the insulation layer.
US08300413B2 Fixing device and heat sink assembly using the same
A fixing device for fixing a first element to a second element is provided. The fixing device includes a main body including at least one leg, at least one biasing member movably mounted on the at least one leg for generating a compressive force. At least one hook member rotatably connected to an end of the at least one leg, cooperating with the biasing member to fix the first element to the second element. A heat sink assembly using the fixing device are also provided.
US08300407B2 Drawer and electronic device using the same
A drawer received in an electronic device includes a drawer assembly, two locking assemblies, and a drawer cover. The drawer assembly is for carrying a component of the electronic device, and is operable to move in and out of the electronic device via an opening of the electronic device. The two locking assemblies are fixed on the electronic device. The opening is located between the two locking assemblies. The drawer cover is rotatable connected to the two locking assemblies, and is for covering the opening to block the drawer assembly from inadvertently being detached out of the electronic device.
US08300404B2 Fan holder including cable channels
A fan holder includes a casing structure having a first side and a second side. The casing structure includes a base, fan compartments extending from the base, and cable channels extending from the first side to the second side within the base. Each of the cable channels is configured to removably secure at least one of a plurality of cables.
US08300403B2 Computer system and heat sink
A computer system includes an enclosure having an air intake, a heat sink and an electronic element. The heat sink includes a first heat dissipating portion, a second heat dissipating portion, and a third heat dissipating portion interconnecting the first and second heat dissipating portions. Each of the first heat dissipating portion, second heat dissipating portion, and third heat dissipating portion includes a number of fins and passages formed between each two adjacent fins. The passages of the first heat dissipating portion face toward the air intake. A space is maintained between the first heat dissipating portion and the second heat dissipating portion, and the electronic element is mounted in the space.
US08300399B2 Electronic module with shockproof function
An electronic module includes a case, a holding frame, a removable disk drive, a transmission cable, a fixing part, and a shock-absorbing structure. An opening is formed on the case. The holding frame is disposed at a position of the case corresponding to the opening. The removable disk drive is disposed on the holding frame and is removable from the opening. The transmission cable is connected to the removable disk drive. The fixing part is disposed on the holding frame. The shock-absorbing structure is movably disposed between the fixing part and the holding frame and envelops the transmission cable.
US08300396B2 Mounting frame for hard disk
A mounting frame for hard disk includes a frame and latching members, the frame includes two opposite frame arms including a wall and supporting bases laterally extending from one wall toward the other wall, the wall defines receiving grooves to form wall sections, and a compartment is defined between opposite wall sections. The compartments respectively receive hard disks, the supporting bases support the hard disks and secure with the hard disks to prevent the hard disks from moving along a first direction; Each latching member engages with the opposite receiving grooves, separate adjacent hard disks, and prevent hard disk from sliding along a second direction perpendicular with the first direction.
US08300393B2 Display device and stand therefor
A display device or stand therefor, intended to promote frequent changes in a (5) user's posture by the continuous movement of its display screen (1) in a horizontal and/or vertical manner. In a preferred embodiment the display device comprises a vertical hollow column (10) slidably attached by a saddle (11) to a horizontal hollow column (20). The display screen (1) is mounted on a support (30) fitted with a pivot (32) to a moveable collar (31) slidably mounted on vertical column (1). The saddle (11) and (10) collar (31) are driven by respective electric motors (41, 40). The support (30) may incorporate an arm (33) and a rotating wheel (34) running on an offset bar (35) mounted on column (10) by blocks (36, 37). Because of the pivot (32) and due to the slope of the bar (35) the display screen (1) tilts forwards or backwards as it is raised or lowered.
US08300389B2 Module for expanding function of mobile device and mobile device having the same
A mobile device includes a main body having a coupling element mounted thereon, and an expansion module electrically connected to the main body, wherein the expansion module comprises a magnet disposed to apply a magnetic force to the coupling element to couple the expansion module with the main body, and a movement converter configured to move the magnet away from the coupling element so as to decrease the magnetic force between the coupling element and the magnet thereby decoupling the main body from the expansion module.
US08300384B2 Air variable capacitor comprising an interdigital mobile comb and fixed comb, accelerometer and gyrometer comprising such a capacitor
The invention relates to an air variable capacitor including a mobile comb and a fixed comb. Each of the combs include a body and teeth each having an end fixed to the body and free end. The teeth of the mobile and fixed combs being interdigital and an the air-gap of the capacitor is adjustable by the transverse movement of the teeth of the mobile comb. The teeth of the mobile comb have geometric differences between one another, in order to attenuate the transverse resonance modes of the mobile comb.
US08300382B2 Portable transformer with safety interlock
A portable apparatus for voltage transformation is capable of temporarily augmenting a power transformer. A transformer with a first medium voltage primary winding, a second medium voltage primary winding and a low voltage secondary winding is selectably coupled to a plurality of medium voltage electrical power input couplings capable of temporarily coupling with medium voltage power on a plant. An interlocked switch selectably couples the medium voltage electrical power input couplings to the medium voltage primary windings of the transformer such that only one medium voltage primary winding of the transformer is coupled at a time to the medium voltage electrical power input couplings. The interlocked switch can use a captive key system to prevent more than one secondary winding from being simultaneously connected. Medium voltage circuit protection devices such as fuses are included. A low voltage circuit protection device, operatively coupled to the low voltage secondary windings, provides low voltage power. An interlocked couplings door lockably covers the medium voltage electrical power input couplings and a fuse door lockably covers the fuses such that no door can be unlocked when a medium voltage primary winding of the transformer is coupled to the medium voltage electrical power input couplings. The portable apparatus can be carried on a vehicular trailer.
US08300381B2 Low cost high speed spark voltage and flame drive signal generator
A system for generating a high DC voltage for a spark to ignite a flame in a combustion device, and a high AC voltage for a flame rod to sense a flame in the device, from a low voltage for combustion device control. The system may be an inexpensive mechanism.
US08300379B2 High-voltage insulator and a high-voltage electric power line using said insulator
The high-voltage insulator for securing a high-voltage conductor in an electrical plant or in an electric power line comprises an insulating core, the first end of which is used for mechanically connecting to a high voltage conductor and/or to its coupling elements, the second end being provided with a metal fastening element for fixing the insulator to a support, such as a tower. In order to impart lightning protection properties to the insulator, it is additionally provided with a multi-electrode system including m electrodes which are mechanically attached to the insulating core and are arranged between the ends thereof. The electrodes are disposed in such a way as to support a formation of an electric discharge between the adjacent electrodes, between the electrode adjacent to the first end of the insulating core and to the high voltage conductor or to said coupling elements, and between the electrode adjacent to the second end of the insulating core and the metal fastening element attached to the tower. The insulator is provided with elements for compensating the reduction of the insulator creepage distance caused by the multi-electrode system. The electric power line using the insulator of this type does not require any lightning arresters.
US08300378B2 Method and apparatus for protecting power systems from extraordinary electromagnetic pulses
One form of the invention provides a method and apparatus for preventing an extraordinary electromagnetic pulse from reaching and rendering inoperative an electrical component of an electrical power system, wherein the component is located in a conductive path of the system that receives the pulse. The method and apparatus comprises the steps or means for detecting the presence of the pulse in the conductive path prior to the pulse reaching and rendering inoperative the electrical component. The pulse is diverted around the electrical component with a low inductance, high current capacity circuit relative to the electrical component before the pulse can reach and render the electrical component inoperative. The foregoing invention may beneficially utilize a high-speed current shunt comprising a flat conductive metal strap having a defined current-measuring region, a tapered parallel-plate transmission-line matching transformer attached to the current-measuring region and an output via a coaxial cable.
US08300374B2 Method for limiting current and circuit therefor
A semiconductor component that includes a current limit circuit and a method for limiting current in the semiconductor component. An input/output pin is connected to the gate of a transistor and a control resistor is connected between the gate of the transistor and its source. One terminal of the control resistor is connected to the input/output pin and the other terminal is connected to another input/output pin. A current source is connected to the input/output pin. A reference voltage is generated between the two input/output pins and compared with a drain-source voltage that is between one of the two input/output pins and another input/output pin. A control voltage is set in accordance with the comparison. The control voltage then controls the voltage on another of the pins that is not common to the reference voltage and to the drain-source voltage.
US08300370B2 ESD protection circuit and circuitry of IC applying the ESD protection circuit
A circuitry of an IC is provided, including a pad, an internal circuit, and an ESD protection circuit. The pad transmits or receives a signal and is coupled to a first node. The internal circuit is coupled to the first node for processing the signal. The ESD protection circuit includes an ESD clamping circuit, a first current limiting and shunting unit and a second current limiting and shunting unit. The ESD clamping circuit is coupled to the first node, for clamping an ESD current flowing through the first node. The first current limiting and shunting unit is through the first node coupled to the pad, for limiting the ESD current and shunting part of the ESD current to a first voltage path. The second current limiting and shunting unit is coupled to the first current limiting and shunting unit, for limiting the ESD current and shunting part of the ESD current to a second voltage path.
US08300369B2 System and method for polyphase ground-fault circuit-interrupters
A ground-fault circuit-interrupter (GFCI) system is provided that provides reliable and timely tripping of faulted circuits while minimizing so-called “nuisance” tripping. The GFCI includes a voltage unbalance detection device coupled to the main bus circuit for detecting a voltage unbalance during a fault condition. A computer processor in communication with the voltage unbalance detection device is programmed to determine when an actual fault condition exists based on a state of the voltage unbalance and certain predetermined among the fault signal generated by a GFCI unit in the main bus circuit and the fault signals generated by GFCI units in individual feeder circuits.
US08300362B2 Slider-gimbal scratch mitigation
A head gimbal assembly for use with a load beam includes a gimbal, a slider for carrying a transducing head, and first and second tabs. The gimbal is configured to be supported by the load beam, and includes a gimbal tongue. At least a portion of the slider is secured to the gimbal tongue. The first tab extends from the gimbal tongue proximate a first corner of the slider. The second tab is spaced from the first tab and extends from the gimbal tongue proximate a second corner of the slider.
US08300360B2 Compliant air bearing slider
A compliant, flexible air bearing slider (ABS) reduces the contact forces between the slider and disk, thereby reducing excessive burnishing and wear and increasing the reliability of the slider. According to an embodiment, an ABS has at least one “compliance-enhancing feature” which reduces the bending mode vibration frequency of the slider. By causing the slider to flex, and bringing the bending mode vibration frequency closer to the pitch 2 eigenmode frequency, coupling of the different vibration modes can be obtained. Thus, the different vibration modes can effectively dampen each other and result in reduced contact forces between the slider and disk.
US08300358B2 Magnetic head having write pole, first soft magnetic films separately disposed on both sides of the main pole, and a second soft magnetic film disposed on a trailing side of the main pole
Embodiments of the present invention help to suppress broadening of a write field of a main pole of a perpendicular recording head and realize high-quality write operation. According to one embodiment, a main pole of a write head extends to an air bearing surface or a medium-facing surface and has an inverted trapezoid in cross-section. First soft magnetic films called side shields are separately disposed through a nonmagnetic film on both sides of the main pole. The air bearing surface side end of the first soft magnetic film is provided to recede from the air bearing surface. The first soft magnetic film and the main pole are formed in the same layer. A second soft magnetic film called a trailing shield is provided above the main pole on the air bearing surface side via a nonmagnetic film.
US08300349B2 Systems and methods for format efficient calibration for servo data based harmonics calculation
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for servo data based harmonics calculation. For example, a method for calculating harmonics is disclosed that includes: providing a data processing circuit; receiving a first data set derived from a data source during a servo data processing period; performing a first harmonics calculation using the first data set to yield a first harmonics ratio; receiving a second data set derived from a source other than the previously mentioned data source during a user data processing period; performing a second harmonics calculation using the second data set to yield a second harmonics ratio; and calculating a ratio of the first harmonics ratio to the second harmonics ratio.
US08300348B1 Disk drive detecting disk boundaries using microactuator
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk, an actuator arm, a head coupled to a distal end of the actuator arm, a voice coil motor (VCM) operable to actuate the head over the disk in coarse movements by rotating the actuator arm about a pivot, and a microactuator operable to actuate the head over the disk in fine movements. A disk boundary condition is detected by moving the actuator arm toward one of an outer diameter of the disk and an inner diameter of the disk, and monitoring an induced voltage generated by the microactuator. The disk boundary condition is detected when the induced voltage exceeds a threshold.
US08300342B2 Multi-bit phase alignment for synchronization mark pattern matching
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the detection of synchronization marks in data storage and retrieval. To detect a synchronization mark, embodiments of the present invention require both pattern matching and proper phase alignment, following a repeating synchronization field. According to one particular embodiment, proper phase alignment following a repeated four bit synchronization field, is utilized in conjunction with pattern matching, to identify a synchronization mark. By allowing a synchronization mark to be identified only with proper phase alignment at the earliest possible occurrence of the synchronization mark, accuracy of synchronization mark detection may be improved.
US08300338B1 Disk drive correlating different fly height measurements to verify disk warpage
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk surface, and a head actuated over the disk surface. A first fly height measurement is generated for the head over the disk surface by measuring a first metric, and a second fly height measurement is generated for the head over the disk surface by measuring a second metric different from the first metric. The first fly height measurement is verified by detecting a positive correlation in the first and second fly height measurements.
US08300336B2 Magnetic transfer device
A magnetic transfer device enables precise positioning of both disks while preventing generation of dust by sliding of a holder, and also secures a space for transfer magnet arrangement. A master disk on which is formed a magnetic signal pattern and a magnetic disk which is to receive transfer are accommodated and brought into close contact in opposition to each other within an interior space formed by a male-side holder which moves to approach and withdraw and a female-side holder. A plurality of positioning pins are brought into contact with the outer face of the male-side holder to position the male-side holder, and by installing the positioning pins at positions lower than both the master disk and the magnetic disk, dust generated by sliding of the positioning pins does not fall onto the face of the master disk or the magnetic disk.
US08300321B2 Zoom lens system
A zoom lens system includes a negative first lens group, a positive second lens group, and a positive third lens group. The second lens group includes a positive lens element, and two negative lens elements. The following conditions (1) and (2) are satisfied: 2.0<|VD1t−VD1w|/(ft/fw)<3.4  (1), and 0.89<|m2w/m3w|  (2), wherein VD1t and VD1w designate the distances, at the long and short focal length extremities, from the image-side surface of the lens element provided closest to the image side within the first lens group to the object-side surface of the positive lens element provided closest to the object side within the second lens group; ft and fw designate the entire focal length of the zoom lens system at the long and short focal length extremities; and m2w and m3w designate the lateral magnification of the second and third lens groups at the short focal length extremity when focused on an object at infinity.
US08300317B2 Varifocal lens
Varifocal lens for camera module incorporated in wireless mobile communication device is provided. The varifocal lens includes: a membrane; a frame which is fixed to the membrane and has a receiving hole formed in the middle; a transparent substrate which is fixed to the frame to seal optical fluid received in the receiving hole; one or more actuators to change a curvature of a fluid lens part by bending the circumference of the fluid lens part formed around a central portion of the receiving hole; and a restriction lessening member which is adapted to lessen a restrictive force of an edge of the fluid lens part, is made of a transparent material, has with an area smaller than the fluid lens part to correspond to an inner side of the fluid lens part except the edge of the fluid lens part, and has a larger Young's modulus than the membrane.
US08300315B2 Head-mounted display
A head-mounted display includes: a double-sided display device displayed a image on a first side and a second side opposed the first side; a first optical system that forms the image displayed on the first side of the double-sided display device on one eye of a wearer; and a second optical system that forms the image displayed on the second side of the double-sided display device on the other eye of the wearer. The first optical system and the second optical system have switching mechanisms which make at least a part of view being different from the image displayed on the double-sided display devise visible in eyes of the wearer.
US08300310B2 Method for FCS measurements
A method for conducting FCS measurements includes providing a sample volume, emitting a target light having a first wavelength from a target light source, and marking an FCS volume in the sample volume with the target light by directing the target light onto the sample volume. An illuminating light having a second wavelength is emitted from an illuminating light source, the second wavelength being different than the first wavelength, and the illuminating light is directed onto the sample volume.
US08300301B2 Method of manufacturing substrate and display apparatus having the same
A method of manufacturing a substrate includes; disposing a preliminary planarization layer on a first surface of a plastic substrate, bonding a second surface of the plastic substrate onto a carrier substrate, wherein the second surface of the plastic surface is substantially opposite to the first surface, curing the preliminary planarization layer to form a planarization layer, and separating the carrier substrate from the plastic substrate.
US08300297B2 Electrochromic device and method of fabricating the same
An electrochromic device includes a first substrate, a second substrate facing the first substrate, a first electrode disposed on the first substrate, a carbon nano-structured electrode layer disposed on the first electrode, a second electrode disposed on the second substrate, an electrochromic layer disposed on the second electrode, and an electrolyte layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate.