Document Document Title
US08572755B2 Trust verification in copy and move operations
When using a clipboard or drag-and-drop interface of a graphical computer interface, a source application includes trust information along with data that is proffered to a target application. The target application conditions its acceptance of such data based on the trust information.
US08572754B2 System and method for facilitating unlocking a device connected locally to a client
Systems and methods for facilitating unlocking a device connected locally to a client, utilizing a server located remotely from the client and the device, are provided in accordance with various aspects of the subject technology. In one aspect, a system includes a proxy configured to receive, at the client, at least one string descriptor request from the server over a network, where the at least one string descriptor request is associated with switching an interface of the device from a first interface type to a second interface type. The system further includes a stub driver configured to receive the at least one string descriptor request from the proxy, and to direct the at least one string descriptor request to the device.
US08572752B2 Method and device for rights management
A method of rights management in a first device connected to digital data content, said first device comprising a right for accessing said digital data content and available state information for reflecting the state of use of said digital data content, said method comprising the steps of: —receiving by said first device a request for a state information from a second device; —comparing the content of said request with said available state information; —selecting said requested state information in said available state information according to the result of said comparing step; —transferring said requested state information to said second device via a communication channel; and—duplicating said fight to said second device.
US08572747B2 Policy-driven detection and verification of methods such as sanitizers and validators
A method includes performing a static analysis on a program having sources and sinks to track string flow from the sources to the sinks. The static analysis includes, for string variables in the program that begin at sources, computing grammar of all possible string values for each of the string variables and, for methods in the program operating on any of the string variables, computing grammar of string variables returned by the methods. The static analysis also includes, in response to one of the string variables reaching a sink that performs a security-sensitive operation, comparing current grammar of the one string variable with a policy corresponding to the security-sensitive operation, and performing a reporting operation based on the comparing. Apparatus and computer program products are also disclosed.
US08572744B2 Information security auditing and incident investigation system
An information security auditing and incident investigation method can include applying a correlation template to query different audit targets in an enterprise system to provide a complete result set for the query across different audit targets, receiving audit data provided in response to the query and rendering the audit data to produce an audit report. The applying step can include distributing one or more distributed audit and response tools to each of the targets in the enterprise and communicating with the targets in the enterprise to acquire audit data from each of the targets. The receiving step can include organizing the audit data in a hierarchy, and recursively walking the hierarchy as a directed, cyclic graph noting memberships and paths. Finally, the rendering step can include generating a graphical visualization interface, disposing a real-time object browser within the interface, and further disposing a differential report in the interface.
US08572742B1 Detecting and repairing master boot record infections
Security is provided for a client by replacing a volume boot module adapted to execute during a boot process of the client with a repair module. The client is booted to start the boot process and to execute a master boot module. The repair module is executed in place of the volume boot module. The repair module determines whether the master boot module is infected with malware. If the master boot module is infected, the repair module repairs the malware infection by disabling and/or removing the malware.
US08572737B2 Methods and apparatuses for providing internet-based proxy services
A proxy server receives, from multiple visitors of multiple client devices, a plurality of requests for actions to be performed on identified network resources belonging to a plurality of origin servers. At least some of the origin servers belong to different domains and are owned by different entities. The proxy server and the origin servers are also owned by different entities. The proxy server analyzes each request it receives to determine whether that request poses a threat and whether the visitor belonging to the request poses a threat. The proxy server blocks those requests from visitors that pose a threat or in which the request itself poses a threat. The proxy server transmits the requests that are not a threat and is from a visitor that is not a threat to the appropriate origin server.
US08572723B2 Utilizing virtual private networks to provide object level security on a multi-node computer system
The disclosure herein provides data security on a parallel computer system using virtual private networks connecting the nodes of the system. A mechanism sets up access control data in the nodes that describes a number of security classes. Each security class is associated with a virtual network. Each user on the system is associated with one of the security classes. Each database object to be protected is given an attribute of a security class. Database objects are loaded into the system nodes that match the security class of the database object. When a query executes on the system, the query is sent to a particular class or set of classes such that the query is only seen by those nodes that are authorized by the equivalent security class. In this way, the network is used to isolate data from users that do not have proper authorization to access the data.
US08572721B2 Methods and systems for routing packets in a VPN-client-to-VPN-client connection via an SSL/VPN network appliance
In a method and system for routing packets between clients, a packet is received from a first client connected to a secure sockets layer virtual private network (an SSL/VPN) network appliance. An identification is made, responsive to an inspection of the received packet, of i) a type of connection required for transmission of the received packet to a destination address identified by the received packet and ii) a second client connected via an SSL/VPN connection to the SSL/VPN network appliance and associated with the identified destination address. A request is made for establishment by the second client of a connection of the identified type within the SSL/VPN connection. The received packet is transmitted to the second client via the established connection of the identified type.
US08572719B2 Firewall proxy systems and methods in a backup environment
According to certain aspects, a method for performing remote backup operations is provided that includes receiving a first unidirectional connection request from a media agent module to a proxy device within an enterprise network, through a firewall. The method also includes receiving a second unidirectional connection request from a remote device coupled to an untrusted network, such as through a second firewall. Secure connections are established from the media agent module to the proxy and from the remote device to the proxy. Additionally, the method can include routing with the proxy device backup data from the remote computing device to the media agent over the secured connections. The method also may include storing the backup data on a storage device within the enterprise network. In certain embodiments, during establishment of the secure connections, identification of the media agent or the storage device is not exposed to the untrusted network.
US08572718B2 Method, device, and computer program product for differentiated treatment of emails based on network classification
Method, device, and computer program product are provided for differentiated treatment of incoming and outgoing emails based on a network server. A server receives a query from a gateway, and the query includes information about an email received by the gateway. The server obtains rules for processing the email of the query. The server determines an identity for the email based on the rules for processing the email. The server transmits the identity to the gateway to cause the gateway to send the email having the identity to a post office server. The email having the identity is configured to cause the post office server to process the email based on the identity.
US08572716B2 Integrating operating systems with content offered by web based entities
Example embodiments are provided for integrating operating systems with content offered by internet based entities.
US08572710B2 Pluggable token provider model to implement authentication across multiple web services
A pluggable token provider model for message level authentication across multiple web services is provided. Web service and token provider implementations within a client application are separated from an actual component that operates the business logic to formulate and understand a web request. The web service components may request web services to be executed and supply the body for the web service message while a common framework maintains the web services metadata, which includes definitions associated with respective tokens. The framework may further maintain token provider implementations that actually fetch authentication tokens and perform the web requests.
US08572709B2 Method for managing shared accounts in an identity management system
This disclosure describes a method of and system for provisioning of shared account credentials to provide authorized access to shared or delegated accounts. Preferably, an enterprise single sign-on (E-SSO) system is used to manage the shared account or control delegation of account access, and preferably the shared or delegated account credential is not exposed to the end user. The described technique enables temporary delegation of account privileges to a member of a shared role. Using the described approach, an information technology (IT) account may be shared so that a user who needs to perform a shared duty can do so in the context of a shared role and without having control over the account itself. The approach facilitates delegating the use of a single account to one of a member of the shared role.
US08572705B2 Method and system for ordering, loading and using admission tickets
Method and system for ordering, loading and using tickets ordered from a reservation center through transmission of order data that includes a number assigned to a mobile communications terminal. The ordered ticket is received via a mobile radio network at the mobile communications terminal, and the ticket is stored. A reading device receives ticket information contactlessly from the mobile communications terminal, and an authorization of a user of the mobile communications terminal is decided based on the ticket information.
US08572691B2 Selecting a web service from a service registry based on audit and compliance qualities
A particular web service is selected based on conformation to a particular degree-of-trust. Information about available web services is requested. Responsive to requesting that information on the particular web service, a list of possible services is presented. The list of possible services includes a plurality of services, each of the plurality having a levels-of-trust assigned thereto. An acceptable web service having an acceptable degree-of-trust can then be selected from the list of possible services. Responsive to selecting the acceptable service from the list of possible services, the acceptable service can be invoked.
US08572690B2 Apparatus and method for performing session validation to access confidential resources
According to one embodiment, an apparatus may receive a first token indicating that access to a resource has been requested by a device. The first token may further indicate that the resource is a confidential resource. The apparatus may determine that a plurality of tokens includes a second token and generate a session token based at least in part upon the first token and the second token in response to the determination that the plurality of tokens includes the second token. The apparatus may receive a third token indicating an event affecting the risk associated with granting access to the resource and determine, based at least in part upon the at least one token-based rule, that access to the resource should be terminated in response to receiving the third token. The apparatus may then terminate the session token in response to the determination that access to the resource should be terminated.
US08572689B2 Apparatus and method for making access decision using exceptions
According to one embodiment, an apparatus may store a plurality of token-based exceptions The apparatus may receive a resource token indicating that access to the resource has been requested. The apparatus may determine, based at least in part upon the resource token, at least one token-based exception. The token-based exception further may condition the grant of access to the resource upon the apparatus determining that the plurality of tokens comprises the at least one token. The apparatus may determine that the plurality of tokens does not comprise the at least one token and determine, in response to the determination that the plurality of tokens does not comprise the at least one token, that access to the resource should be denied.
US08572688B2 Method and apparatus for session validation to access third party resources
According to one embodiment, an apparatus may store a plurality of token-based rules. A token-based rule may facilitate access to a resource. The apparatus may further store a plurality of tokens. The apparatus may receive, from an entity, a first token indicating that access to the resource has been requested by a device through the entity and determine at least one token-based rule based at least in part upon the first token. The at least one token-based rule may condition access to the resource upon a second token. The second token may be associated with a subscriber identity module of the device. The apparatus may determine that the plurality of tokens includes the second token associated with the at least one token-based rule and generate a session token based at least in part upon the first token and the second token.
US08572685B2 Consolidated data services apparatus and method
An apparatus for consolidated data services comprising a plurality of devices, a plurality of data services and a content application programming interface (API). A user API provides user identification for each of the plurality of devices using one or more of a plurality of user API methods. A feedback API configured to receive data from each of the plurality of devices that identifies media content that was delivered to the plurality of devices using one or more of a plurality of feedback API methods. A device API configured to provide a client system to one or more of the plurality of devices using one or more of a plurality of device API methods. A web service consolidator coupled to the content API, the user API, the feedback API, the device API, the update API, a plurality of data services and the plurality of devices through the communications media.
US08572676B2 System, method, and device for mediating connections between policy source servers, corporate repositories, and mobile devices
The invention relates to providing policy from an integrated policy server to a mobile device, comprising identifying a policy in an integrated policy server applicable to the mobile device and supplying policy elements to policy transports for transmission to the mobile device. The invention also relates to providing policy from an integrated policy server to a mobile device, including identifying a policy in the integrated policy server applicable to the mobile device, determining whether the mobile device is in compliance with the policy, and supplying policy elements to policy transports for transmission to the mobile device when the mobile device is not in compliance with the policy. The invention further relates to controlling access to a data server by a mobile device, including identifying a policy in an integrated policy server applicable to the mobile device, and determining whether the mobile device is in compliance with the policy.
US08572673B2 Data processing apparatus and method
There is a described a method of certifying compliance with a designated process defined by a plurality of rules which are specified in a public template, wherein at least one rule associated with a process includes a certification requirement which requires compliance with that rule to be certified by a rule certifying authority. A processing apparatus operating in a secure environment receives rule compliance data and checks the received rule compliance data to verify that any certification requirement has been satisfied. If the processing apparatus confirms that all the rules specified in the public template are satisfied, then the processing apparatus issues a process compliance certificate which is digitally signed by the process certifying authority.
US08572671B1 Signal processing apparatus and methods
A unified system of programming communication. The system encompasses the prior art (television, radio, broadcast hardcopy, computer communications, etc.) and new user specific mass media. Within the unified system, parallel processing computer systems, each having an input (e.g., 77) controlling a plurality of computers (e.g., 205), generate and output user information at receiver stations. Under broadcast control, local computers (73, 205), combine user information selectively into prior art communications to exhibit personalized mass media programming at video monitors (202), speakers (263), printers (221), etc. At intermediate transmission stations (e.g., cable television stations), signals in network broadcasts and from local inputs (74, 77, 97, 98) cause control processors (71) and computers (73) to selectively automate connection and operation of receivers (53), recorder/players (76), computers (73), generators (82), strippers (81), etc. At receiver stations, signals in received transmissions and from local inputs (225, 218, 22) cause control processors (200) and computers (205) to automate connection and operation of converters (201), tuners (215), decryptors (224), recorder/players (217), computers (205), furnaces (206), etc. Processors (71, 200) meter and monitor availability and usage of programming.
US08572668B2 Digital broadcasting signal displaying system and signal processing method thereof
A digital broadcasting signal processing method for processing a multimedia stream by a set-top box is disclosed. A USB request command set is pre-defined in a digital signal receiving unit to support the set-top box. The digital signal receiving unit transmits data with the set-top box and controls the signal quality of the data transmission according to the USB request commands transmitted by the set-top box while the digital signal receiving unit connected with the set-top box via USB.
US08572665B2 Selective distribution of cell based video streams over packet based networks
According to the present invention, methods and apparatus are provided to allow selective distribution of video information over packet based networks. Video information associated with a particular channel is received at an edge router from a cell based network. The edge router uses label switching to selectively distribute the video information to designated nodes in the packet based network.
US08572661B2 Satellite signal distribution
Disclosed is a system and method for receiving satellite television signals. A centralized system component may be provided in association with the satellite antenna. The centralized system component includes at least one or more tuners and one or more demodulators. The centralized component may provide output through a network adaptor that provides output through a single output, which is a coaxial cable in one embodiment. The centralized component may send output in the form of packetized data directed to one or more set-top boxes by way of a network transaction. The set-top box or boxes may be operable to receive the network transaction and to process the data, as appropriate, for display on a TV/monitor.
US08572658B2 Method for mapping between signaling information and announcement information and broadcast receiver
A method for mapping signaling information to announcement information and a broadcast receiver are disclosed herein. A method of providing a Non-Real-Time (NRT) service, the method comprises extracting identification information of first signaling information and second signaling information based upon a program specific information/program and system information protocol (PSI/PSIP) table, receiving the first signaling information and second signaling information based upon the extracted identification information, constructing and displaying a service guide using the received first signaling information, acquiring first content identification information as a content selected from the displayed service guide, accessing a File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) session using the received second signaling information, acquiring second content identification information matched with the acquired first content identification information from the accessed FLUTE session and receiving and storing one or more file constructing corresponding content based upon the acquired second content identification information.
US08572652B2 Apparatus and method for displaying channel information in digital broadcasting receiver
An apparatus and method to display channel information in a digital broadcasting receiver. The apparatus includes a first tuner to receive a signal of one of the plurality of channels, a plurality of second tuners to extract channel information and a representative image for each of the plurality of channels from a broadcasting signal during reception of the signal of the selected channel by the first tuner, and a display to display the channel information and the representative image for each channel when requested by the user.
US08572642B2 Customized program insertion system
A customized consumer advertisement module and process are provided for inserting a user selected object into a user selected category of program. The user stores model objects locally at the user site, or communicates the model objects to a remotely located broadcaster for storage at a broadcaster site. The user selects categories of programs in which the model objects, or portions thereof, will be inserted. The customized consumer advertisement module inserts the model objects, or portions thereof, into the selected categories of programs.
US08572640B2 Media data use measurement with remote decoding/pattern matching
Systems and methods are provided for identifying and/or measuring usage of media data gathered at a user location using remote decoding and/or pattern matching techniques. A data set is formed based on the media data, which includes some, but not all, of the information represented by the media data. The data set is communicated to a remotely located processing system for detecting a code based on the data set and/or conducting a pattern matching process based on the data set.
US08572620B2 Resource management
The invention relates to a method, device and system for management of resource in a communication network having a resource owner (RO) providing the resource and at least one resource user (RU) using the resource. According to the present invention a resource broker is introduced between the resource owner and the at least one resource user. Said broker is arranged to perform a management procedure for deciding whether to perform a allocation, keeping or release of resource. In order to take a decision a resource usage measure (TTL) is used. In accordance with the present invention said measure is updated when user's usage measure (Keep Alive, InterestMsg) informing about the expected usage of the resource by a resource user is obtained. The update is performed by means of a cumulative algorithm taking into account current and past values of the resource usage measure (TTL).
US08572613B1 Comparison of virtual computing states by performing identified repeatable computations in a changing virtual computing environment
A physical computer system includes a processor and a memory configured to store instructions executable by the processor to implement a virtualization module, which in turn implements virtual machine(s) that execute an operating system distinct from any underlying operating system executed by the physical computer system. In response to a client request to initially perform a repeatable computation, the virtualization module instructs that the virtual machine(s) archive an original initial state of the repeatable computation, initially perform the repeatable computation, and archive an original terminal state of the repeatable computation. In response to a client request to repeat the repeatable computation, the virtualization module instructs that the virtual machine(s) be initialized according to configuration information indicated by the archived original initial state of the repeatable computation, and that the one or more virtual machines perform the repeatable computation to generate a new terminal state of the repeatable computation.
US08572606B1 System and method for avoiding synchronization bugs through virtualization
A system and method for reducing the likelihood of concurrency errors by identifying vulnerable segments of computer code and stalling other virtual machine threads of execution. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the vulnerable segment is identified at runtime, for example in a dynamic translator. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the vulnerable segment is identified ahead of time, for example in a static translator. According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the vulnerable segment is identified in the binary translator of a virtual machine monitor.
US08572604B2 Method and apparatus to support virtualization with code patches
A processing system executes an emulation patch for a guest virtual machine (VM) of the processing system. In one embodiment, the emulation patch includes data to facilitate identification of a routine to emulate a guest instruction. After executing the emulation patch for the guest VM, the processing system may use the data to find an emulation routine for emulating the guest instruction. The processing system may transfer control from the guest VM to a virtual machine monitor (VMM) in response to execution of the emulation patch, without saving a trap frame. The VMM may then find and execute the emulation routine for the guest instruction without decoding the guest instruction. A break instruction with an immediate value, for example, may be used for the emulation patch. The immediate value may be used for finding the emulation routine. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08572602B1 System and method for synchronization of a web application to a cloud provider
A system and method for synchronization of a web application to a cloud provider is disclosed herein. Preferably, a cloud manager synchronizes the web application to a single cloud provider or to multiple cloud providers. The system and method preferably allows for automatic wiring from a cloud provider to a web application, and allows for use of different Web resources from multiple cloud providers. The cloud manager also preferably allows for concurrent synchronization to multiple cloud providers.
US08572589B2 Programming language translator and enabling translation of machine-centric commands for controlling instrument
A computer readable medium stores a program, executable by a computer, for enabling translation of machine-centric commands in an instrument protocol to a programming language for controlling an instrument configured to use the machine-centric commands. The computer readable medium includes an identifying code segment for identifying instrument protocol commands executable by the instrument, and a generating code segment generates methods corresponding to the instrument protocol commands, each method including programming language source code or compiled machine code for executing the corresponding instrument protocol command. A storing code segment stores the methods in a program library associated with the instrument, the program library enabling selection of at least one method by a programming language program that controls the instrument, in order to execute the instrument protocol command corresponding to the selected method.
US08572574B2 Solving hybrid constraints to validate specification requirements of a software module
In one embodiment, a software module is validated according to requirements associated with the software module. The software module has numeric and string variables, and is associated with first numeric constrains and first string constraints. Second numeric constraints applying to specific numeric variables and second string constraints applying to specific string variables are inferred. Each numeric constraint is represented with an equation, and each string constraint is represented with a finite state machine. Attempt to solve a solution for the numeric and string variables that satisfies all the first and second numeric constraints, all the first and second string constraints, and all the requirements associated with the software module by iteratively testing different possible values for the numeric and string variables.
US08572571B2 Modification of terminal and service provider machines using an update server machine
A system including a terminal machine and a service provider machine is modified using a service provider machine. The terminal machine includes a terminal application for displaying a prompt in a first sequence of prompts and accepting a user data entry in a first series of data entries. The service provider machine includes a provider application for receiving the user data entry. The update server machine sends a dialogue module including a first and second set of updated code to the terminal machine and the service provider machine, respectively. The dialogue module does not modify computer-executable instructions saved on the terminal or service provider machines. The first and second set of updated code adapts the terminal application and provider application, respectively, to use a second sequence of prompts and a second sequence of data entries.
US08572548B2 Integrated design application
Embodiments of the claimed subject matter provide a process and system for designing composite application systems. One embodiment of the claimed subject matter is a process of designing a composite application system to meet an application requirement. The process includes defining a use case scenario performed by a composite application system to meet the application requirement, integrating the use case scenario with an execution tool, and specifying an underlying infrastructure for the system design, wherein, the entire process is performed within an integrated software application.
US08572534B2 System and method for designing multiple clock domain circuits
A Hardware Description Language (HDL) utilizing a Term Rewriting System (TRS) is provided that simplifies handling of clocks, and signaling between various clock domains of a multi-clock domain circuit specification. A specific clock data type is supplied for use with clock signals. Using the clock data type, and other requirements of a circuit specification, clock domain crossing between domains of clocks of the same clock family is handled implicitly. For clock domain crossing between clock domains driven by clocks of different clock families, a “hardware approach” and a “linguistic approach” are provided. A “hardware approach” provides facilities to explicitly specify a synchronizer, using, in part, TRS rules. A “linguistic approach” allows a designer to abstracts the instantiation of synchronizers and instead specify a circuit specification in terms of differently clocked interfaces.
US08572533B2 Waiving density violations
Waiver regions may be identified by waiver identification items. The waiver identification items may be determined based on conducting a density check process. Additionally or alternatively, reference patterns for pattern matching, cell names or markers may serve as the waiver identification items. Waiver geometric items may be created for the waiver regions and added to the layout design. Based on an overlap of a density check window with the waiver geometric items and waiving threshold information, a density violation in that density check window is determined to be reported as a density violation or a waived density violation with some implementations of the invention. With some other implementations of the invention, pattern density of a density check window may not be checked if an overlap of the density check window with the waiver geometric items is above a waiving threshold value.
US08572528B1 Method and apparatus for analyzing a design of an integrated circuit using fault costs
In one embodiment, a method and apparatus for analyzing a design of an integrated circuit (IC) are disclosed. For example, the method parses a netlist file of the IC where a module of the IC is parsed into a plurality of sub-modules in accordance with a hierarchical structure. The method traces through a connectivity of the plurality of sub-modules, and tabulates data associated with the connectivity with a fault cost associated with a structure of the IC.
US08572527B1 Generating properties for circuit designs
An analysis tool that generates properties for a circuit design. The debugging tool receives a circuit design encoded in a hardware description language. The tool identifies portions of the circuit design that correspond to features of interest (e.g., counters, finite state machines, one hot vectors, etc) in the circuit design. Each portion of the circuit design has a cone of influence, and the tool identifies control signals from within the cones of influence. By identifying control signals in this manner, the tool can then generate the properties based on values for the control signals and the identified portions of the circuit design that are obtained from data describing the operation of the circuit design over a number of clock cycles (e.g., simulation data). The result is one or more properties that are likely to represent a relevant behavior of the circuit design.
US08572520B2 Optical proximity correction for mask repair
Integrated circuit (IC) methods for optical proximity correction (OPC) modeling and mask repair are described. The methods include use of an optical model that generates a simulated aerial image from an actual aerial image obtained in an optical microscope system. In the OPC modeling methods, OPC according to stage modeling is simulated, and OPC features may be added to a design layout according to the simulating OPC. In the mask repair methods, inverse image rendering is performed on the actual aerial image and diffraction image by applying an optical model that divides an incoherent exposure source into a plurality of coherent sources.
US08572519B2 Method and apparatus for reducing implant topography reflection effect
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses for integrated circuits. An exemplary integrated circuit (IC) method includes providing an IC design layout that includes a design feature; determining a dimensional difference between the design feature and a corresponding developed photoresist feature of a photoresist layer; modifying the CD of the design feature to compensate for the difference, thereby generating a modified IC design layout; and making a mask using the modified IC design layout.
US08572518B2 Predicting pattern critical dimensions in a lithographic exposure process
A method for predicting pattern critical dimensions in a lithographic exposure process includes defining relationships between critical dimension, defocus, and dose. The method also includes performing at least one exposure run in creating a pattern on a wafer. The method also includes creating a dose map. The method also includes creating a defocus map. The method also includes predicting pattern critical dimensions based on the relationships, the dose map, and the defocus map.
US08572515B2 Turning on and off full screen mode on a touchscreen
Systems and methods for turning on and off full screen mode of an application running on a touchscreen. In some aspects, a method includes receiving an input on the touchscreen; determining whether the input is a first predetermined gesture; and turning off full screen mode when the input is the first predetermined gesture. The method also includes determining whether the first predetermined gesture starts from a predetermined area.
US08572507B2 Systems and methods for interacting with dynamic protocols
Systems and methods to provide users with a user interface at the point of use that provides customizable, interactive protocols, where a protocol is typically an instruction set, procedure, or methodology.
US08572505B2 Automatically testing a web application that has independent display trees
An automatic testing application is provided that can simulate a user interaction with a web application. The automatic testing application can determine that the web application has been completely displayed within a graphical user interface of a web browser using a consistent global page state. The automatic testing application can test that the web application has been correctly displayed by verifying a state of a visualization component of the web application using a communication component. Subsequently, the automatic testing application can transmit an event to the web application that can modify the state of the visualization component using the communication component. Once the automatic testing application has determined that the web application has been completely re-displayed, using the consistent global page state, the automatic testing application can test that the web application has been correctly re-displayed by verifying a modified state of the visualization component using the communication component.
US08572503B2 Device for analysing variable magnitudes by simultaneous multiple windowing
The device (D) is dedicated to the analysis of time varying quantities. It comprises a tool for managing display windows (MA) each for displaying the representation of a selected quantity and each associated with a first quantity selection tool (01) and a second time reference(s) selection tool (02) coupled to the management tool (MA). The device (D) further includes a third linking tool (03a-03c) which i) allows a user, who has selected several quantities and related time references, to select at least two of the display windows and the selected quantities, and ii) connects together the first tools (01) and/or second tools (02) of the selected display windows so that the selection of a quantity by the user using one of the first related tools (01), or master tool, of a master window results in the selection of the same quantity by the management tool (MA) at each so-called slave display window, and/or so that the selection of a time reference by one of the second related tools (02) results in the selection of the same time reference by the management tool (MA) at each slave display window.
US08572480B1 Editing the sequential flow of a page
Editing the sequential flow of objects of a page is disclosed. The objects may have intended correct sequential order for processing or viewing, which may be difficult to detect by a computer algorithm. An initial flow may be created using an initial flow algorithm to provide an initial order of the objects. The initial flow may be visually represented on a page, such as by a curve drawn through the objects. A human editor may reorder the objects if the initial flow is not correct. In some aspects, the editor may trace a new order of the objects by controlling an input device to sequentially order the objects in an editor-assigned flow. In other aspects, the editor may sequentially select objects to create the editor-assigned flow. In response to the editor-assigned flow, a validation flow may be created, which may assist the editor in confirming accuracy of the edited flow. In other aspects, heuristics may learn from the editor-assigned flow to improve the initial flow over time.
US08572460B2 Communication device employing binary product coding with selective additional cyclic redundancy check (CRC) therein
Communication device employing binary product coding with selective additional cyclic redundancy check (CRC) therein. Product code encoding (e.g., employing row and column encoding of matrix formatted bits, selectively with interleaving and/or permutation of the bits therein) may be combined with additional error correction code (ECC) or forward error correction (FEC) coding thereby generating coded bits for use in generating a signal to be launched into a communication channel. Various ECCs/FECs may be employed including a BCH (Bose and Ray-Chaudhuri, and Hocquenghem) code, a Reed-Solomon (RS) code, an LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code, etc. The redundancy of such coded signals as generated using the principles herein is in the range of approximately 7%, and hard decision decoding may be performed on such coded signals generated herein. In accordance with decoding such signals, various bit decisions (within certain iterations) may be selectively ignored and/or reverted back to previous bit decisions.
US08572449B1 Integrated functional testing mechanism for integrated circuits
An on-chip testing unit can be implemented in an integrated circuit (e.g., a SoC) to validate the operation of cache memories associated with a processor of the integrated circuit. For each testing instruction to be executed by the processor for testing a cache memory, the testing unit can intercept information (e.g., address, data, and/or control signals) generated by the processor in response to executing the instruction. The testing unit can determine whether information generated by the processor matches corresponding expected information associated with the instruction. This can enable the testing unit to determine whether the processor can correctly identify an address from which the next instruction is to be fetched, can ensure consistency between data in the cache memories and persistent storage devices, and whether the processor is operating as expected. An error notification can be generated if the information generated by the processor does not match the expected information.
US08572447B2 Circuitry for built-in self-test
A method of testing a data connection using at least one test sequence, the method including providing a first bit sequence by a first generator; duplicating the first bit sequence to generate a second bit sequence identical to the first; and generating the at least one test sequence based on the first and second bit sequences and transmitting the at least one test sequence over a data connection to be tested.
US08572431B2 Disaster recovery framework
A system and method of orchestrating failover operations of servers providing services to an internal computer network includes a DR server configured to execute a control script that performs a failover operation. Information needed to perform the failover operation is stored on the DR server thereby eliminating the need to store agents on each of the application's primary and backup servers. The DR server may provide a centralized location for the maintenance and update of the failover procedures for the internal network's redundant services. A failover operation may be initiated by an authorized user in communication with the internal computer network.
US08572430B2 Storage apparatus and method of cooling storage apparatus
Provided is a storage apparatus for providing a logical storage area as a data storage area to an external apparatus, comprising: a physical storage medium for creating the logical storage area; first and second storage control modules each of which is communicatively coupled to the physical storage medium to control data input/output processing between the external apparatus and the logical storage area; and first and second power supply modules each of which supplies power to the physical storage medium and the first and second storage control modules and includes a blower for generating a cooling airflow to cool down the physical storage medium and the first and second storage control modules, wherein the blower of the first power supply module generates a first cooling airflow which flows through the physical storage medium, the first storage control module, and the first power supply module, the blower of the second power supply module generates a second cooling airflow which flows through the physical storage medium, the second storage control module, and the second power supply module, and in a case where the first power supply module is removed from the storage apparatus, the blower of the second power supply module generates a third cooling airflow which flows through the physical storage medium, the first storage control module, and the second power supply module as a replacement for the first cooling airflow.
US08572426B2 Hardware performance monitor (HPM) with extended resolution for adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) systems
An apparatus includes a delay line having at least two parallel branches, where each branch includes multiple delay cells coupled in series. The delay line is configured to receive an input signal and to propagate the input signal in parallel through the delay cells in the branches. The apparatus also includes multiple sampling circuits configured to sample the input signal at different taps in the branches of the delay line and to output sampled values. The taps in a first of the branches are associated with different amounts of delay compared to the taps in a second of the branches. At least some of the delay cells in the branches of the delay line could have a minimum delay, and a difference in delay between at least one tap in the first branch and at least one tap in the second branch could be less than a smallest of the minimum delays.
US08572423B1 Reducing peak current in memory systems
A memory device includes a plurality of memory cells, a token input interface, a token output interface and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to accept a storage command, to condition execution of at least a part of the storage command on a presence of a token pulse on the token input interface, to execute the storage command, including the conditioned part, in the memory cells upon reception of the token pulse on the token input interface, and to reproduce the token pulse on the token output interface upon completion of the execution.
US08572421B2 Adjusting device performance based on processing profiles
Adjusting processor performance based on processing profiles. The method may determine that a process has entered a processing state after an idle state. In response to entering the processing state the processing time of the processor may be monitored. In response to the processing time exceeding a first threshold of time, the performance of the processor may be increased from a first level to a second level. In response to the processing time exceeding a second threshold time, the performance of the processor may be decreased from the second level to a third level.
US08572418B2 Moving clock gating cell closer to clock source based on enable signal propagation time to clocked storage element
In a particular embodiment, a method of generating an advanced gating cell clock tree includes determining a timing margin for a path between a clock gating cell and a digital data storage element such as a latch or flip flop. The circuit contains a clock source and when the timing margin for the path meets a predetermined threshold, the clock gating cell is automatically moved closer to the clock source. In a particular embodiment, the timing margin is automatically determined. A clock tree synthesis is performed to insert one or more buffers into the path and create an advanced gating cell clock tree.
US08572409B2 Method and apparatus for non-redundant encrypted storage
For secure non-redundant storage of data, to store a data blocklet (sub-block), one takes a hash of each blocklet. The hash value is used as a key to encrypt the blocklet data. The key is then hashed to encrypt it and the hashed key used in the blocklet index to identify the blocklet. The blocklet index entry also conventionally includes the address of that encrypted blocklet. Unless one has a file representation which is a vector of the hash values, one cannot obtain direct information about the original blocklet from the blocklet index or the blocklet storage. To retrieve data, each original blocklet hash is hashed again to generate the index entry.
US08572406B2 Integrated circuit protected against horizontal side channel analysis
An integrated circuit including a multiplication function configured to execute a multiplication operation of two binary words x and y including a plurality of basic multiplication steps of components xi of word x by components yj of word y is described. The multiplication function of the integrated circuit is configured to execute two successive multiplications by modifying, in a random or pseudo-random manner, an order in which the basic multiplication steps of components xi by components yj are executed.
US08572402B2 Method and device for detecting an attempt to substitute an original casing portion of an electronic system with a replacement casing portion
The invention relates to an electronic system comprising a casing consisting of at least first and second casing portions and containing a device for detecting the substitution of the first casing portion. The device comprises a first integrated circuit intended to be fixed to the first casing portion and a second integrated circuit intended to be fixed to the second casing portion. The second circuit is adapted to transmit to the first integrated circuit successive random or pseudo-random digital signals (R). The first integrated circuit is adapted to return to the second integrated circuit, for each digital signal, the first encrypted signature (S) from said digital signal. The second integrated circuit is adapted to determine a second encrypted signature (S′) from said digital signal and to detect a substitution of the first casing portion if the first and second encrypted signatures are different.
US08572401B1 Systems and methods for securing data of volume mirrors
Various computer-implemented methods for securing data of replicated volumes are disclosed. In one example, an exemplary method for performing such a task may include: 1) identifying a set of plexes of a replicated volume, 2) identifying, within the set of plexes, at least one non-trusted plex, 3) intercepting data to be replicated to the non-trusted plex, 4) encrypting the data to be replicated to the non-trusted plex, and then 5) writing the encrypted data to the non-trusted plex. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US08572400B2 Enhanced digital right management framework
Machine-readable media, methods, apparatus and system for enhanced digital right management framework are described. A server platform may receive a request of downloading content and first attestation information from a client platform. The server platform may examine if the client platform attests to a client platform characteristic that affects integrity of the client platform by using the attestation information, and then encrypt and download the content to the client platform if the client platform attests to the client platform characteristic. The server platform may further receive a request of viewing the content and second attestation information from the client platform. The server platform may then examine if the client platform attests to its integrity by using the second attestation information; and then send a content key to the client platform if the client platform attests to its integrity, so that the client platform can decrypt and view the content.
US08572398B1 Systems and methods for identifying biometric information as trusted and authenticating persons using trusted biometric information
Systems and methods of identifying biometric information as trusted and authenticating persons using trusted biometric information are provided. Biometric information can be identified as trusted by comparing it to other biometric information and/or based on the age of the biometric information and/or receiving correct answers to questions based on personal information. Once biometric information has been identified as trusted it can be used as part of an authentication process by receiving biometric information from a person to be authenticated and comparing the received biometric information with the trusted biometric information.
US08572395B2 Information processing apparatus, authentication method, and computer program
An information processing apparatus is configured to authenticate a user. In one embodiment, the information processing apparatus includes a storage unit that stores user identification information in association with user authentication information. Identification information for identifying a user is inputted into the apparatus. If the inputted identification information matches the stored user identification information, the apparatus selects the user authentication information associated with the user identification information that matches the inputted identification information, and sends the selected user authentication information to an authentication server, so that authentication is executed. If the inputted identification information does not match the stored user identification information, the apparatus requires that authentication information be provided by the user. In this case, the apparatus sends the inputted user authentication information to the authentication server, so that authentication is executed; and upon authentication, the apparatus stores the inputted user identification information in association with the inputted user authentication information.
US08572389B2 System and method for protecting master encryption keys
A system and method for protecting master transport encryption keys stored on a computing device. Master transport encryption keys are used to secure data communications between computing devices. In one example embodiment, there is provided a method in which a copy of a master transport encryption key is generated and stored in a volatile store of a first computing device (e.g. a mobile device). This copy of the master transport encryption key can be used to facilitate the decryption of data received at the first computing device from a second computing device (e.g. a data server), even while the first computing device is locked. The method also comprises encrypting the master transport encryption key, with a content protection key for example, and storing the encrypted master transport encryption key in a non-volatile store of the first computing device.
US08572386B2 Secure device, information processing terminal, integrated circuit, terminal application generation apparatus, application authentication method
The present invention is designed to enable a secure device to authenticate a terminal application that operates on an information processing terminal and that accesses the secure device. An application issue request transmitter (301) of the information processing terminal (30) sends a request for issue of a terminal application to an application issuer (101). The application issuer (101) of an secure device (10) reads a terminal application (31) from an application storage (105) and embeds authentication information in the terminal application (31), associates an ID and the authentication information of the terminal application (31) and save them in an issue information storage (106), and sends the terminal application (31) to an application receiver (302) of the information processing terminal through an application transmitter (102). The application receiver (302) starts the terminal application (31). An application authenticator (311) of the terminal application (31) performs an authentication with the secure device (10) by means of the application authentication information.
US08572380B2 Streaming system and streaming method
A streaming system includes an authoring unit (2), a stream server (3) and a client terminal (5). The authoring unit generates a file composed of encrypted contents data and the ancillary information at least containing the packetizing control information for generating an RTP packet, a non-encrypted codec dependent header made up of the information pertinent to encoded contents data, and the encryption information for decrypting the encrypted contents data form packet to packet. The streaming server packetizes the encrypted contents data along with at least the codec dependent header and distributes the resulting data as a stream. The client terminal refers to the codec dependent header of the received packet, re-assembles the packet, and decrypts the encrypted contents data of the re-assembled packet to generate contents data.
US08572378B2 Method for protecting the first message of security protocol
The present invention provides a method for protecting the first message of a security protocol and the method includes the following steps: 1) initialization step; 2) the initiating side sends the first message; 3) the responding side receives the first message. The method for protecting the first message of the security protocol provided by the present invention can implement that: 1) Pre-Shared Master Key (PSMK), which is shared by the initiating side and responding side, and the security parameter in the first message are bound by using computation function of Message Integrality Code (MIC) or Message Authentication Code (MAC), and thus the fabrication attack of the first message in the security protocol is avoided effectively; 2) during computing the MIC or MAC of the first message, only PSMK and the security parameter of the first message are selected to be computed, and thus the computation load of the initiating side and the responding side is effectively reduced and the computation resource is saved.
US08572371B2 Discovery of kernel rootkits with memory scan
A system and method are provided for detecting kernel level rootkits including scanning a kernel memory using a kernel level detector. The kernel level detector includes kernel level code executing in kernel space. The kernel memory is compared to at least one rootkit signature file to determine if a rootkit signature corresponding to the rootkit signature file is present in the kernel memory.
US08572370B1 Accessing a remote virtual environment without user authentication
A method, system and computer program product for providing a secure connection between a client and a remote server to run a Virtual Environment (VE), including (a) establishing a repository for VE content on the remote server; (b) creating a data necessary for the VE to function; (c) generating a two key pairs that includes a VE key pair and a client key pair, wherein the VE key pair includes encryption and decryption keys, the client key pair includes decryption and encryption keys corresponding to encryption and decryption keys of the corresponding VE key pair and the two key pairs are used to provide a full duplex secure network channel between the client and the repository; (d) storing the data necessary for the VE to function as the VE content using data from the VE key pair in the repository; (e) receiving the address for accessing the stored data; and (f) from the client side, using the VE address and the client key pair to start the VE from the data necessary for the VE to function.
US08572367B2 System and method for reducing computations in an implicit certificate scheme
There are disclosed systems and methods for reducing the number of computations performed by a computing device constructing a public key from an implicit certificate associated with a certificate authority in an implicit certificate scheme. In one embodiment, the device first operates on the implicit certificate to derive an integer e. The device then derives a pair of integers (e1, e2) from the integer e, such that each of the pair of integers (e1, e2) has a bit length less than the bit length of the integer e, and such that the ratio of the pair of integers (e1, e2) corresponds to the integer e. The device then computes the public key by combining the integers e1 and e2 with public key contribution data derived from the implicit certificate and a public key of the certificate authority.
US08572360B2 Bootstrap system for dual central processing units
A bootstrap system for dual central processing units includes a south bridge, a first central processing unit, a second central processing unit and a switch control module. The south bridge provides enable signals and reset signals, the first central processing unit provides an identification signal and an operation signal. The second central processing unit receives the enable signals and reset signals. The switch control module receives the identification signal and the operation signal from the first central processing unit to generate a corresponding switch command signal. The south bridge is selectably and electrically connected to the first central processing unit or the second central processing unit under the control of switch command signal.
US08572357B2 Monitoring events and incrementing counters associated therewith absent taking an interrupt
A monitoring facility that is operable in two modes allowing compatibility with prior existing monitoring facilities. In one mode, in response to encountering a monitored event, an interrupt is generated. In another mode, in response to encountering a monitored event, one or more associated counters are incremented without causing an interrupt.
US08572355B2 Support for non-local returns in parallel thread SIMD engine
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for executing a non-local return instruction in a parallel thread processor. The method comprises the steps of receiving, within the thread group, a first long jump instruction and, in response, popping a first token from the execution stack. The method also comprises determining whether the first token is a first long jump token that was pushed onto the execution stack when a first push instruction associated with the first long jump instruction was executed, and when the first token is the first long jump token, jumping to the second instruction based on the address specified by the first long jump token, or, when the first token is not the first long jump token, disabling the active thread until the first long jump token is popped from the execution stack.
US08572352B2 Virtualization controller and data transfer control method
System for controlling data transfer between a host system and storage devices. A virtualization controller implements the data transfer and includes first ports for connection with the storage devices, a second port for connection with the host system, a processor, and a memory configured to store volume mapping information which correlates first identification information used by the host system to access a first storage area in one of the storage devices, with second identification information for identifying the first storage area, the correlation being used by the processor to access the first storage area. When data stored in the first storage area is transferred to a second storage area, the processor correlates the first identification information with a third identification information for identifying the second storage area and registers the first identification information and the third identification information in the volume mapping information.
US08572343B2 Synchronous extent migration protocol for paired storage
Extent migration is provided in a data storage environment configured for synchronous replication between a primary and secondary pair of storage entities, each having tiered storage devices. In one embodiment, by way of example only, a migration instruction is sent, by the primary storage entity, to the secondary storage entity, the migration instruction including a time delta approximately equal to a time of an intended migration at the primary storage entity adjusted for a transmission time such that the primary and secondary storage entities conduct the extent migration at approximately a same time.
US08572336B2 Storage control apparatus and storage control apparatus memory control method
A storage control apparatus of the present invention is able to duplicatively manage data in a cache memory even during maintenance work. When a memory package CMPK3 specified by a user is removed from the apparatus 1 (S2), a microprocessor 2 changes a pair that has been configured using CMPK2 and CMPK3 to a pair of CMPK2 and a free area of a CMPK1. As a result, received data (S5) is respectively written to multiple cache memories (S6, S7), and duplicatively managed.
US08572329B2 Multi-region default memory map
A data processing system is provided with a programmable memory protection unit 10 defining a plurality of programmable memory regions 2, 4, 6, 8 each with associated programmable memory attributes. A default memory protection unit 22 is provided and defines a plurality of default memory regions a, b, c, d, e each with associated default memory attributes. If a miss occurs in the programmable memory protection unit 10, and the memory access is a privileged level memory access, then the default memory protection unit 22 will return default memory attributes for that memory request.
US08572327B2 System and method of selectively caching information based on the interarrival time of requests for the same information
A system and method is provided wherein, in one aspect, a currently-requested item of information is stored in a cache based on whether it has been previously requested and, if so, the time of the previous request. If the item has not been previously requested, it may not be stored in the cache. If the subject item has been previously requested, it may or may not be cached based on a comparison of durations, namely (1) the duration of time between the current request and the previous request for the subject item and (2) for each other item in the cache, the duration of time between the current request and the previous request for the other item. If the duration associated with the subject item is less than the duration of another item in the cache, the subject item may be stored in the cache.
US08572320B1 Memory devices and systems including cache devices for memory modules
A memory apparatus may include one or more cache memory integrated circuit (ICs), each of which may have compare circuitry that compares a received address with stored compare values, a cache memory that provides cached data in response to the compare circuitry, a controller interface having at least address and control signal input terminals, and a module output connection having at least address and control signal output terminals corresponding to the address and control signal input terminals.
US08572314B2 Determining an identification of a DVD based on a format of the DVD
A system, method and computer-readable storage media for digital versatile disc (DVD) identification. Media content from a DVD can be accessed and a format of the media content can be identified. An identification for the media content can be determined based upon the format. A first DVD format may be identified by matching a sequence of symbols on a DVD to format data. Content stored on the DVD in a first location that is used to generate IDs for the first DVD format may be referenced, and the content hashed to generate an ID for the DVD. The first location can be identified by referencing ID processing data that also identified other locations used to generate IDs for different DVD formats. Portions of the media content that are accessed can include directory names, folder names, or file names.
US08572302B1 Controller for storage device with improved burst efficiency
A controller and a method for interfacing between a host and storage medium. A storage medium interface includes CH0 circuitry for performing a CH0 process to access a buffer memory on behalf of the storage medium. A host interface includes CH1 circuitry for performing a CH1 process to access the buffer memory on behalf of the host. Access to the buffer memory is arbitrated in sequential tenures to each channel of the multi-channel bus within a maximum arbitration round trip time defined by the time taken by the storage medium to move a distance corresponding to N sectors in which N is greater than one. In the CH0 tenure, the CH0 process transfers data corresponding to N sectors of the storage medium in a multi-sector burst. The length of the tenure of the CH0 channel is pre-designated so that the multi-sector burst is completed within the CH0 tenure.
US08572300B2 Physical coding sublayer (PCS) architecture for synchronizing data between different reference clocks
A physical coding sublayer includes a first channel configured to receive a first encoded data stream from a physical media attachment layer and to provide a first decoded data stream to a media access layer. The first channel includes a first circuit configured to detect synchronization headers in the first encoded data stream received from the physical media attachment layer, a decoding circuit configured to decode the encoded data stream and to adjust a width of the received data from a first width to a second width based on a signal identifying the synchronization headers received from the first circuit, and a first single configured to compensate for clock differences between the physical media attachment layer and the media access layer to which the first buffer provides the first decoded data stream.
US08572298B2 Architecture to connect circuitry between customizable and predefined logic areas
An integrated circuit comprises a predefined logic area including a microprocessor coupled to a plurality of peripheral devices including an external bus interface over a system bus. A customizable logic area is accessible by the microprocessor over the system bus. A first I/O bus sends data to an external device. A second I/O bus receives data from an external device. A first set of multiplexers in the predefined logic area have first inputs coupled to an output of the external bus interface, second inputs coupled to the customizable logic area, and an output coupled to a first I/O bus. A second set of multiplexers in the predefined logic area have first inputs coupled to the customizable logic area, second inputs coupled to the second I/O bus, and an output coupled to an input of the external bus interface.
US08572290B1 System and architecture for robust management of resources in a wide-area network
A system and method of management of communication in a potentially unreliable wide-area network that contains one or more nodes connected to said network, each potentially having access to one or more inputs and/or outputs and capable of evaluating said inputs and directing said outputs, a global address space (GAS) accessible by said nodes, and a communication system using said GAS that provides communications between said nodes.
US08572289B1 System, method and computer program product for stateless offloading of upper level network protocol operations
A system, method and associated data structure are provided for offloading upper protocol layer operations. In use, data is communicated over a network utilizing a plurality of protocols associated with a plurality of protocol layers, where the protocol layers include a network layer. Further, processing associated with the communicating is offloaded, at least in part. Such offloaded processing involves at least one protocol associated with at least one of the protocol layers situated at or above the network layer. Still yet, such offloading is performed statelessly.
US08572277B2 Self-policing, rate limiting online forums
A method and means for self-policing and automatically rate-limiting multiple-user online forums. The preferred embodiment of the invention includes a set of rules that permit users to censure other users. A censured user has one or more “privileges” (which may include access to the online computer system or the effective message rate of a communications connection) taken away or diminished; the privilege is gradually restored if the censured user behaves. The censuring participant and other pertinent participants are notified of the effect of the censuring on the censured user. In another aspect of the invention, the online computer system automatically tracks the rate at which a user sends certain types of messages, and can message rate limit a user who uses too many system resources by sending a large number of messages in rapid succession.
US08572274B2 Estimating load shed data in streaming database applications
Techniques are disclosed for processing data streams containing data tuples, where some of the data tuples are load shed. Load shedding refers to a process of selectively discarding some data tuples, e.g., when the amount of received data becomes too overwhelming to manage. When operations are invoked that depend on the values (or count) of the load shed tuples, the value (or counts) of the load shed tuples may be used to perform such operations. For example, an aggregation operation may return the sum, average, mean and/or variance associated with a plurality of tuples processed by a node of the stream application.
US08572272B2 Personalized time-shifted programming
A method and apparatus for personalized time-shifted programming. Digital content is retrieved, for example, from a digital library. Once retrieved, the content is stored locally, for example, on a personal computer. The locally stored content is transferred, in whole or in part, to a playback device that allows a user to listen to the content of the playback device. In one embodiment, the user may designate portions of a playback time provided by the playback device to various selections. For example, with a playback device that provides two hours of content, a user may wish to listen to one half hour of news, one half hour of a series and one hour of an book. Thus, the user may partition one quarter of playback time to each of news and the series and one half of the playback time to the book. In one embodiment, the present invention provides different automatic update techniques for the playback device that may be selected by the user based on how the content is to be used For example, the news portion may be one half hour of the most recent news available from a particular source. The series may be the most recent episode in the series, whether or not the user has listened to other stored episodes. The book portion may provide one hour of the book from the most recent stopping place each time the playback device is coupled to the library retrieval device.
US08572271B2 Multimedia management system for seamless multimedia content mobility
In general, techniques are described for providing a multimedia management system to facilitate multimedia content mobility. More specifically, an apparatus may implement the techniques. The apparatus may comprise one or more wireless modems and a control unit. The one or more wireless modems receive multimedia content in a first format from a first application over a wireless communication channel. The control unit includes a Multimedia Management System (MMS) that configures the control unit to provide a multimedia bridge between the first format and a second format, where the second format is supported by a second application. The configured multimedia bridge transforms the multimedia content from the first format to the second format concurrent to the one or more wireless modems receiving a portion of the multimedia content.
US08572268B2 Managing secure sessions
The different illustrative embodiments provide a method, a computer program product, and an apparatus for managing secure sessions. An identity of a requestor is verified in response to receiving a request from the requestor to access a resource. The identity of the requestor comprises authentication information used to identify a number of privileges to the resource for the requestor. A session cookie is sent to the requestor by a first data processing system. The session cookie identifies the number of privileges for a session. A migration cookie is sent to the requestor by the first data processing system, wherein the migration cookie is used to recreate the session on a second data processing system.
US08572266B2 Group management and graphical user interface for associated electronic devices
Methods and systems are provided for managing a group of portable communication devices. In accordance with one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided for managing a group of portable communication devices on an individual basis or an aggregate basis, the method comprising the steps of providing a list of the portable communication devices in the group, selecting a target portable communication device, determining the location of the target portable communication device, and presenting the location of the target portable communication device. The method may further comprise the step of determining whether the group has sufficient credit for acquiring the location of the portable communication devices in the group.
US08572265B2 Opportunistic network updates
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing opportunistic network updates. In one aspect, a method includes determining, by a queue manager on a mobile device that has a network interface, to fulfill one or more requests to upload or download data through the network interface, and in response to determining to fulfill the requests, applying, by the queue manager, one or more rules to the requests, to classify each request as a request that is to be fulfilled, or a request that is not to be fulfilled. The method also includes causing, by the queue manager, the requests that are classified as to be fulfilled to be fulfilled, or the requests that are classified as not to be fulfilled to not be fulfilled.
US08572262B2 System and method for controlling connections to an application server
A system and method are provided for controlling a connection to an application server. The method comprises storing a chat state indicative of interactivity with a chat feature in a social networking application; detecting resumption of the social networking application subsequent to an interruption thereto; determining the chat state; and restoring the chat feature for the social networking application to the determined chat state. The method may also, upon detecting inactivity with respect to the chat feature, comprise executing one or more operations to maintain a connection with a server for the social networking application according to a first communications protocol. The method may also, upon detecting that a second period of time has elapsed subsequent to detecting inactivity, comprise receiving data associated with the chat feature according to a second communications protocol.
US08572253B2 System and method for providing dynamic roll-back
A systems, method and computer-readable media are disclosed for providing a dynamic roll-back reservation mask in a compute environment. The method of managing compute resources within a compute environment includes, based on an agreement between a compute resource provider and a customer, creating a roll-back reservation mask for compute resources which slides ahead of current time by a period of time. Within the roll-back reservation mask, the method specifies a subset of consumers and compute resource requests which can access compute resources associated with the roll-back reservation mask and, based on received data, the method dynamically modifies at least one of (1) the period of time the roll-back reservation mask slides ahead of current time and (2) the compute resources associated with the roll-back reservation mask.
US08572249B2 Network appliance for balancing load and platform services
A network appliance is described that can provide a variety of software services, including both platform services, such as access method services, and a load balancing service. A network may include a network appliance that both provides one or more platform services and acts as a load balancer. When two or more such appliances are used together, they can replace a substantial portion of a conventional network. For example, when a network appliance receives a client communication, its load balancer service can determine whether one of its own platform services will process the communication or forward the communication to another network appliance for processing. Moreover, if the load balancing service of a network appliance fails, another network appliance can provide load balancing. Similarly, if another service of a network appliance fails, then the network appliance may continue to provide load balancing but forward communications requiring the failed service to another network appliance for processing.
US08572246B2 Method and apparatus for home network access
A manner of extending a home network to a mobile device. An FA (foreign agent) in the mobile device registers with an HA (home agent) in the home network, preferable exchanging static UIDs (unique identifiers) and certificates. The HA creates an address for the FA and maintains a registration table listing all registered FAs. The FA registration is in most cases performed while the FA is operating non-remotely and directly connected to a component of the home network. The HA registers with an SG (signaling gateway) in a secure manner and awaits a request for access to the home network. After registration with the SG, the HA initiates a heartbeat message that is acknowledged by the SG. When an FA access request is received from the SG, the HA determines whether the FA is registered with the HA and any applicable access limitations prior to granting or rejecting access.
US08572242B2 Leveraging passive networks
System and methods for leveraging passive networks are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a first data source, a first data descriptor, wherein the first data descriptor identifies an instance of contact between at least two persons. The method also includes determining a connection between the at least two persons, wherein the connection is based on an instance of contact between the at least two persons identified in the first data descriptor. The method further includes determining, with a processor, a first contact count for the connection, the first contact count based on a number of instances of contact between the at least two persons associated with the connection. The method also includes calculating, with the processor, a connection score for the connection, wherein the connection score is based at least in part on the first contact count.
US08572236B2 Distributing services in graph-based computations
A service request is processed according to a computation graph associated with the service by receiving inputs for the computation graph from a service client, providing the inputs to the computation graph as records of a data flow, receiving output from the computation graph, and providing the output to the service client.Data flows are processed concurrently in a graph-based computation by potentially concurrent execution of different types of requests, potentially concurrent execution of similar request types, and/or potentially concurrent execution of work elements within a request.
US08572235B1 Method and system for monitoring a complex IT infrastructure at the service level
A method and system is disclosed for providing service level operational status associated with a complex information technology infrastructure. The method in accordance with the present invention allows a user to quickly determine the functionality of assets associated with the service level of a multi-tiered infrastructure, and to review status history of the assets, to assist in trouble shooting failures at the service or business level.
US08572234B2 MPLS VPN fault management using IGP monitoring system
In an exemplary embodiment, a method for managing a network includes monitoring a network using an interior gateway protocol to detect change in the network, and determining effects of the detected network change on Multi Protocol Label Switching paths in the network. For example, the MPLS paths can be the same as IGP best paths. An exemplary embodiment includes managing a Multi Protocol Label Switching network by discovering edge routers in the Multi Protocol Label Switching network, determining possible combinations of Multi Protocol Label Switching path end points based on services provided within the network, selecting discovered edge routers for observation, based on the determined possible combinations, monitoring the selected edge routers, and determining status of Multi Protocol Label Switching paths in the network based on the monitoring.
US08572233B2 Method and system for site path evaluation using web session clustering
A method and system for site path evaluation using web session clustering is provided. The method identifies properties of a plurality of web site traversal paths. Data is acquired from a plurality of sessions corresponding to at least a portion of the plurality of web page traversal paths. Portions of the web site traversal paths are grouped into a unified web page category. The plurality of sessions is clustered into a plurality of web session clusters according to a similarity measure. One of the plurality of web session clusters most closely exhibiting at least one predefined metric is selected for analysis of the propertied of a web page traversal path contained therein. A system includes a plurality of web pages, a monitoring program and a computational process configured to receive data and identify properties of the plurality of traversal paths.
US08572213B2 Information processing apparatus and method for controlling the same to mediate the transfer of a process request from a client to a file server
An information processing apparatus includes a first reception unit receiving condition setting information which specifies a permission condition for permitting access to a file server and is sent from the file server when the processing apparatus transitions from a first power supply mode to a second power supply mode in which power consumption is less than that in the first power supply mode, a second reception unit receiving a process request with respect to the file server from a client computer, a determination unit determining whether the process request received by the second reception unit satisfies the permission condition specified in the condition setting information, and a transfer control unit sending a response indicating a refusal of access to the client computer without transferring the process request received by the second reception unit to the file server when the determination unit has determined that the permission condition is not satisfied.
US08572192B2 Private messaging a second recipient of an electronic communication
Methods of the present inventions allow for private messaging a second recipient of an electronic communication. An exemplary method may comprise the steps of receiving a request to compose an electronic communication from a sender; generating a first electronic communication comprising a first recipient field, a second recipient field, and a first message field; receiving (from the sender) a first recipient electronic address in the first recipient field, a second recipient electronic address in the second recipient field, and a first message in the first message field; and prompting the sender for a private message for transmission only to the second recipient electronic address. Responsive to a negative response from the sender to the prompting step, the method may further comprise transmitting a completed version of the first electronic communication to both the first recipient electronic address and the second recipient electronic address. Responsive to a positive response from the sender to the prompting step, the method may further comprise generating a second electronic communication comprising the first recipient field, the second recipient field, the first message field, and a private message field; receiving (from the sender) a private message in the private message field; transmitting a completed version of the first electronic communication to the first recipient electronic address; and transmitting a completed version of the second electronic communication to the second recipient electronic address.
US08572190B2 Method and system for recognizing desired email
A system and method for recognizing an incoming email as a desired email examines outgoing email messages to arrange the email into fragments for which representations are created and stored. When an incoming message is received, the message is arranged into fragments for which representations are created. The representations of the incoming message are compared to the stored representations and if the matches between stored representations and the representations of the incoming message meet a predefined threshold test, the incoming message is recognized as being desirable. An incoming email message which has been recognized as being desirable can be subjected to a lesser examination to recognize a SPAM message, or to no further examination to recognize a SPAM message.
US08572188B1 Systems and methods for integrating the management of a temporary email address within an email client application
A computer-implemented method for integrating the management of a temporary email address within an email client application is described. An email client application is provided. A function of the email client application is modified. An attribute is added to the modified function. The attribute is configured to allow the selection of a temporary email address or a non-temporary email address. The selected email address is set as a default email address for the modified function.
US08572184B1 Systems and methods for dynamically integrating heterogeneous anti-spam filters
In some embodiments, a spam filtering method includes computing the relevance of each of a plurality of anti-spam filters according to a relevance parameter set, and deciding whether an electronic message is spam or non-spam according to the relevancies and individual classification scores generated by the anti-spam filters. The relevance of an anti-spam filter indicates the degree to which a classification score produced by that particular filter determines the final classification of a given message. The relevance parameter set of each anti-spam filter may include, among others, a training maturity indicative of the degree of training of the filter, a filter update age indicative of the time elapsed since the latest update of the filter, a false-positive classification indicator, and a false-negative classification indicator of the anti-spam filter.
US08572183B2 Panoramic video in a live meeting client
The present panoramic video technique embodied in the unified client provides panoramic video and other data from various sources for live web-based conferencing applications. In one embodiment, the panoramic video is provided by a panoramic collaboration and communication device, termed a RoundTable Device (RTD). The RTD is a collaboration tool with a 360-degree camera and a microphone or microphone array that, together with the unified client, delivers an immersive conferencing experience that extends the meeting room across multiple locations. This enables live network meeting scenarios that were not possible before.
US08572170B2 System and method for leaving and retrieving electronic message notes
Methods and apparatus for allowing a message to be left for an expected user of a network application are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method includes determining when a first user has requested access to a first application, and determining if there is a message for the first user when it is determined that the first user has requested access to the first application. The method also includes informing the first user of the message if it is determined that there is the message for the first user, as well as providing the first user with access to the first application after informing the first user of the message and after the first user acknowledges that the first user has been informed of the message.
US08572154B2 Reduced-level two's complement arithmetic unit
A processor includes a two's complement arithmetic unit that reduces a level of complexity in the critical path by eliminating the addition of the “1” to the carry in of the two's complement arithmetic unit. To execute a subtraction instruction using two's complement arithmetic, the subtraction as disclosed herein is performed in accordance with the identity “A−B=not (not (A)+B),” where A is a first operand and B is a second operand that is to be subtracted from A. Accordingly, the addition of the “1” term into the carry in is eliminated, and reduces a level of complexity that would otherwise slow down and/or limit the speed at which a subtraction instruction can be performed.
US08572149B2 Apparatus and methods for dynamic data-based scaling of data such as staged fast fourier transform (FFT) while enhancing performance
Disclosed are apparatus and methods for dynamic data-based scaling of data. The disclosed methods and apparatus involve storing one or more input data samples, which are to be scaled and input to a processing function such as a Fast Fourier Transform. A scaling value operable for scaling the one or more data samples is determined based on the one or more input data samples, and then the stored data samples are scaled based on the computed scaling value when read out of storage prior to the processing function. The scaling of data based on the input data allows the data to be scaled dynamically, not statically, and ensures that the data fits within a desired bit width constraint of the processing function thereby economizing processing resources.
US08572138B2 Distributed computing system having autonomic deployment of virtual machine disk images
One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system. The distributed computing system includes a software image repository storing: (i) one or more image instances of a virtual machine manager that is executable on the application nodes, wherein when executed on the applications nodes, the image instances of the virtual machine manager provide one or more virtual machines, and (ii) one or more image instances of one or more software applications that are executable on the virtual machines. The distributed computing system also includes a control node that comprises an automation infrastructure to provide autonomic deployment of the image instances of the virtual machine manager on the application nodes and to provide autonomic deployment of the image instances of the software applications on the virtual machines.
US08572126B2 Systems and methods for optimizing very large n-gram collections for speed and memory
A computer memory stores a data structure representing a ternary search tree (TST) representing multiple word n-grams for a corpus of documents. The data structure includes plural records in a first memory, each record representing a node of the TST and comprising plural fields. At least some n-grams have a sequence of units. The plurality of fields includes one for identifying a given unit of the sequence for a given node, one reserved for storing payload information for the given node, and plural child fields reserved for storing information for a first, second and third child nodes of the given node. The child fields store a null value indicating the absence of the child node or an identifier identifying a memory location of the child node. For at least one record, at least one of the child fields stores an identifier identifying a memory location of a memory different than the first memory.
US08572124B2 Simplified entity relationship model to access structure data
Data may be modeled as an undirected graph. A set of entities and a set of attributes may be defined. A set of relationships may be defined to represent semantic associations with each association connecting at least two entities. Attributes may be associated with entities rather than with relationships. A hierarchical query language with a set of atomic operations on modeled data may be employed. The modeled data may be displayed on a display unit.
US08572123B2 Database system, particularly for multimedia objects
A database system stores data relating to media objects and includes a meta table, a supplementary meta table, a content table, a supplementary content table, each supplementary content data record being linked to a supplementary metadata record and to a content data record. An object type link table links together records in the meta table, and a content data link table links together records in the content data table. An information retrieval system analyzes the tables and provides, for a selected instance of an object, information about that object's attributes and relationships with other objects in a hierarchical form.
US08572115B2 Identifying negative keywords associated with advertisements
REVISE this to be consistent with the new claim 1 . . . The present disclosure includes a system and method for identifying negative keywords associated with advertisements. In some implementations, a method for advertising includes identifying one or more keywords associated with an advertisement. The keywords used to embed the advertisement in web pages such as those including search results. By identifying, from the plurality of search criterion, a subset of search criterion as being off-topic to the advertisement item, one or more negative keywords may be derived from the subset of off-topic search criterion in order to limit the embedding of non-relevant advertisements in web page content.
US08572110B2 Textual search for numerical properties
A textual search index is used to identify data objects that have numerical properties that satisfy search queries. As described herein, a search index contains search index entries, each of which specifies a reference string and a set of data object identifiers. When an original search query is received, the search query is transformed into a transformed search query such that numerical comparison query elements in the original search query are transformed into equivalent textual comparison query elements. The search index is then used to identify ones of the data objects that satisfy the transformed search query. A list of the identified data objects may then be provided in response to the original search query.
US08572105B2 Method and system for desktop tagging of a web page
A system and method are provided for identifying and extracting a subset of data from a selected web page of a web site for display on a client machine. One or more instructions are applied to the selected web page for identifying and displaying a candidate subset of data on the client machine (i.e. a wireless mobile device). The instructions are applied in accordance with one or more pre-defined criteria defining one or more types of the subset of data, and one or more pre-defined confidence intervals defining a pattern for locating the subset of data in accordance with said one or more types on the selected web page. An interface may further be provided to allow the amendment or confirmation of the candidate subset of data.
US08572103B2 Method and system for benchmarking RFID data against SLA data
A system and method to capture and analyze data from an EPCIS repository and an SLA repository is described. The data is captured from both repositories according to predefined criteria. The data from the EPCIS repository is mapped to the data form the SLA repository. Further, the data is combined into a unified format to represent meaningful benchmarking data to stakeholders in a supply chain.
US08572102B2 Method and system for making dynamic graphical web content searchable
There is provided a method for making a rich web application searchable, one embodiment comprising providing companion content in a format searchable by a web search engine, loading the companion content in a web browser, calling a rich web application using the companion content, loading the rich web application in the web browser, and launching a data bridge interfacing the rich web application and the companion content. The method may further comprise retrieving a data feed for the rich web application, located in the companion content. In one embodiment, a system configured to make a rich web application searchable comprises a content storage, companion content in a format searchable by a web search engine, a data feed for the rich web application included in the companion content, and a data bridge interfacing the rich web application with the companion content.
US08572089B2 Entity clustering via data services
A method is provided for forming an entity cluster. In this method, a plurality of entities found in one or more data sources are identified. An entity may represent a word or a phrase found in the one or more data sources. The plurality of entities may then be organized into groups, where each group has a master entity and a set of subordinate entities. The groups are formed using a first comparison criteria. Then, using a second comparison criteria, a first group is associated with a second group. The second comparison criteria may compare the master entities associated with the first and second groups. Based on the association between the first group and the second group, the method can then determine that the first entity is related to the second entity.
US08572057B2 Method and system for applying a group of instructions to metadata
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for applying a group of instructions to metadata in the context of an on-demand database service. These mechanisms and methods for applying a group of instructions to metadata can enable embodiments that ensure that “all or none” of the operations corresponding to the grouped instructions are performed. The ability of embodiments to provide such feature can prevent a scenario where only a portion of a desired effect is accomplished which, in turn, may complicate any effort to undo the same.
US08572053B2 De-duplication indexing
Example apparatus, methods, and computers support data de-duplication indexing. One example apparatus includes a processor, a memory, and an interface to connect the processor, memory, and a set of logics. The set of logics includes an establishment logic to instantiate one-to-many de-duplication data structures, a manipulation logic to update the de-dupe data structure(s), a key logic to generate a key from a block of data to be de-duplicated, and a similarity logic to make a similarity determination for the block. The similarity determination identifies the block as a unique block, a duplicate block, or a block that meets a similarity threshold with respect to a stored de-duplicated block accessible through the dedupe data structure. The similarity determination involves comparing the block to be de-duplicated to a stored block available to the apparatus using a byte-by-byte approach, a hash approach, a delta hash approach and/or a sampling sequence approach.
US08572051B1 Making parallel execution of structured query language statements fault-tolerant
Parallel execution of SQL statements is made fault-tolerant. Specifically, during parallel query processing, a new row source is created that allows checkpoints to be stored at certain points in the query processing. If a failure occurs, then the query can be restarted from the most recent checkpoint (rather than from the very beginning of the query). The checkpoints are implemented at operation boundaries where rows need to be redistributed among processes. These are natural checkpoint locations because (1) each subsequent operation can proceed from the output of the previous operation, which is stored as a checkpoint, and (2) these operation completions tend to be points in the computation where the query state is minimized, thus minimizing checkpoint storage requirements.
US08572048B2 Supporting internal consistency checking with consistency coded journal file entries
Example systems, methods, and apparatus economize generating and processing incremental journal files while maintaining internal consistency. One example method determines whether a sequence number associated with a first inode description in a disaster recovery (DR) journal entry is out of sequence with a second corresponding inode description in a DR metadump. The example method controls a DR journal process to provide a file system inconsistency signal and to suspend application of the DR journal entry to the DR metadump. The suspending and signaling can occur upon determining that a first access time independent verification code computed from the first inode description does not match a second access time independent verification code computed from the second inode description.
US08572047B2 Method and system for data update synchronization by two-phase commit
In an integrated management database system having a plurality of element databases holding the configuration information about an information system and an integrated database for integrally managing the element databases, an element database which cannot return a reply while maintaining a secure state in response to an update request is not informed of the update request in the first phase of a two-phase commit, thereby attaining synchronization when data is updated, and maintaining the consistency of the data in the system.
US08572044B2 Nested recovery scope management for stateless recovery agents
Nested recovery scope management systems and methods for a multiple process computer system having a dynamic multiple address space server are disclosed. Stateless recovery agents are employed, under the control of a supervisory program called Recovery Director, during initialization or restart of servers to restore recoverable data in response to identified failures or other abnormal termination. The Director controls the recovery of protected resources in a systematic manner. The Director is initialized when a first address space of a first server is started. Then, as each instance of a recoverable component is initialized, the component registers with the Director by providing a reference to a stateless recovery agent that can later perform recovery functions for it if needed. As part of the registration, a token representing the current failure scope of the registration is generated and provided to the recoverable component by the Director.
US08572043B2 Method and system for storage of unstructured data for electronic discovery in external data stores
A method and system for storage of unstructured data in external data storage uses low-cost, minimally-functional external data stores (EDS) to store immutable, unstructured content. An external storage layer (ESL) interposed between an e-discovery management application (EMA), and the EDS constitutes an intermediary allowing access to external storage from the EMA and adding functionality unavailable on EDSs, offsetting the functional sacrifice incurred by using the EDS and preserving cost advantage. Caching content on the ESL during propagation to the EDS eliminates latency during file propagation. The ESL creates metadata and maintains an index of the data, allowing the data owner to search and retrieve from the EDS. The ESL compresses, decompresses, encrypts and decrypts data. An ESL vendor can service a number of clients on a fee or subscription basis. The ESL can distribute client data across EDSs and mirror data stored on a first ESL on another ESL.
US08572038B2 Systems and methods for performing data replication
Preparing source data to be replicated in a continuous data replication environment. Certain systems and methods populate a file name database with entries having a unique file identifier descriptor (FID), short name and a FID of the parent directory of each directory or file on a source storage device. Such information is advantageously gathered during scanning of a live file system without requiring a snapshot of the source storage device. The database can be further used to generate absolute file names associated with data operations to be replayed on a destination storage device. Based on the obtained FIDs, certain embodiments can further combine write operations to be replayed on the destination storage device and/or avoid replicating temporary files to the destination system.
US08572036B2 Method and apparatus for fault-tolerant memory management
A device and method for providing a fault-tolerant file system. The fault-tolerant file system attempts to minimize the number of writes used when updating file system data structures. In one embodiment, file system data, including file system metadata, is stored in a fault-tolerant tree including a working state and a transacted state. In one embodiment, a change list is used to track blocks that have been updated, instead of cascading updates to leaf nodes up the tree, and a delta block is used to further minimize block updates when adding or removing nodes from the tree. In one embodiment, a Q-Block is used to prevent cycles when adding and removing free blocks from an allocation tree. Metadata values are stored in the tree in a way that allows certain metadata values to be inferred when not present in the tree, thus conserving space and lowering query time.
US08572031B2 Method and apparatus for maintaining replica sets
Provided are systems and methods for managing asynchronous replication in a distributed database environment, wherein a cluster of nodes are assigned roles for processing database requests. In one embodiment, the system provides a node with a primary role to process write operations against its database, generate an operation log reflecting the processed operations, and permit asynchronous replication of the operations to at least one secondary node. In another embodiment, the primary node is the only node configured to accept write operations. Both primary and secondary nodes can process read operations. Although in some to settings read requests can be restricted to secondary nodes or the primary node. In one embodiment, the systems and methods provide for automatic failover of the primary node role, can include a consensus election protocol for identifying the next primary node. Further, the systems and methods can be configured to automatically reintegrate a failed primary node.
US08572028B2 Synchronizing structured web site contents
Techniques to synchronize structured web site content are described. An apparatus may include a server having a server synchronization module to identify structured content types shared by the server and a client, and synchronize structured content corresponding to the structured content types. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08572012B2 Universal data discernment
An contextual artificial intelligence system is disclosed. Intelligent business objects enable dynamic data object interaction and encapsulation of user context. Data is rationalized and data objects evolve by way of an artificial intelligence assisted process of self-discovery. Significant data is identified based upon factors such as cost, revenue and outcome and contextually significant result sets are automatically generated for users.
US08572011B1 Outcome estimation models trained using regression and ranking techniques
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for outcome estimation and content item selection. In one aspect, a method includes training an outcome estimation model using both regression prediction quality measures and ranking prediction quality measures. In response to receiving a request for one or more content items; a predicted outcome is computed for each content item in a set of content items, each respective outcome being computed using the outcome estimation model and feature values associated with each respective the content item. Selection scores are computed for the content items using the predicted outcome. In turn, one or more content items are selected for presentation based on the selection scores; and data are provided that cause presentation of the one or more content items at a client device.
US08572005B2 Representation of a set of numeric values in a computerized environment
A set of numeric values may be represented using a data structure. The data structure is a graph having a root and leaves. A route in the data structure may represent a mask that represents a set of values. A mask may represent a term in a DNF representation of numeric values. A mask may represent numeric values that correspond to limitations set by the mask, such as having a predetermined value in a predetermined digit. The data structure comprises edges and nodes, each may be associated with a label. The label may represent a portion of a mask.
US08572003B2 Standardized computer system total cost of ownership assessments and benchmarking
A method of collecting data used in assessing total cost of owning enterprise computing systems is provided. The method includes distributing, to an enterprise computing system, an electronic data file that identifies, for use by a data extraction tool, predefined data source fields within the enterprising computing system and that relate to costs included in a predefined cost model that defines costs to be included in an analysis of a total cost of owning an enterprise computing system. The method also includes receiving, from the enterprise computing system, cost information aggregated using data extracted using the distributed data file, wherein the cost information is structured in conformity with the predefined cost model. The method further includes using the received cost information to formulate benchmark total cost of ownership cost information that is structured in conformity with the predefined cost model.
US08572002B2 Systems, methods, and computer-program products for determining shipping incentives
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer-program products for determining shipping incentives. In general, various embodiments of the invention involve applying a shipping incentive for a customer receiving inbound shipments from a plurality of parties based on increased inbound shipments received from such parties. While other embodiments of the invention involve applying a shipping incentive to at least one customer based on increased shipments shipped to and/or received in a locale for a particular time period using a common carrier. In particular embodiments, the incentive may be a discount on a cost of shipping for the customer. While in other embodiments, the incentive may be something else such as a preferred shipping service for the customer.
US08571997B2 System and method for evaluating space efficiency for office users
A system and method for identifying and calculating inefficiencies in a real estate space includes determining the areas of rooms required by a user. A circulation loss is calculated. The total of the room areas and the circulation loss are added to determine a net usable space required by the user. The net usable amount of space is multiplied by the subject building's inefficiency measure to identify the amount of rentable space necessary given an efficient program, space plan and building. The user's updated, proposed space program is compared to the user's current or original space program to identify efficiency losses. The system may be configured on a network computer system or a standalone computer.
US08571988B2 Electronic money system, electronic money terminal device, and information card
An electronic money system includes a plurality of electronic money terminals for withdrawing a sum of money which is spent by a user from money data which has been deposited into an information card. Utilization-history data including the number of times the information card has been utilized, and accumulated in the information card is read out at the time when data relating to the spent money is also withdrawn from the information card. Utilization-history data read out from each of the electronic money terminals are gathered and coordinated, so as to coordinate and tabulate the utilization-histories of the information card which has been utilized on any of the plurality electronic money terminals.
US08571984B1 Systems and methods for providing enhanced account management services for multiple banks
Method, system and program product, the method , comprising: generating by first banking institution file comprising transaction information for funds of client transaction accounts to be transferred to or from aggregated accounts in other banking institutions in an interchange program comprising plurality of FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated deposit accounts; determining/receiving a total amount of funds to be held in first banking institution in its aggregated deposit account; generating transaction information for funds to be transferred to or from the aggregated accounts in other banking institutions; determining difference between an amount comprising total of funds from the client transaction accounts of the first banking institution held in the aggregated deposit accounts in the other banking institutions and total of funds held in the aggregated deposit account in the first banking institution; determining transfer information to deposit or to withdraw funds, based at least in part on the difference.
US08571973B1 Electronic closing
An electronic closing platform facilitates provision of a variety of closing services for lenders, closing agents, borrowers or other parties to closing transactions. Electronic quality control procedures are invoked for closing data and documents whether they are in electronic or paper form. The platform is independently accessible and therefore accommodates data sharing between mortgage industry participants. Electronic signature capabilities, including a batch signing functionality, and tamper evident sealing after signing accommodate improved processing and system integrity. Additional features include registry filing, an electronic vault for storing electronic documents, and electronic recording.
US08571969B1 System, method and program product for contingent commitments
A computer implemented method and system is disclosed for receiving contingent commitment facility information associated with establishing a contingent commitment facility includes CCF criteria for participation in the contingent commitment facility. The method and system may include determining one or more potential participants in the contingent commitment facility who meet CCF criteria associated with the contingent commitment facility and may send to devices associated with the one or more potential participants, invitations to participate in the contingent commitment facility. Contingent commitment information associated with a potential participant and the contingent commitment facility may be received and status of contingencies in the contingent commitment facility may be determined.
US08571967B1 System and method for algorithmic trading strategies
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for algorithmic trading strategies and/or systems and methods for use in executing an order directed to a security traded in a market. More particularly, one embodiment of the present invention relates to a method implemented by a programmed computer system for use in executing an order directed to a security traded in a market, comprising: calculating a plurality of expected market impacts associated with execution of the order over a plurality of different time periods; calculating a plurality of expected price risks associated with execution of the order over the plurality of different time periods; calculating a plurality of expected total costs associated with execution of the order over the plurality of different time periods, wherein the plurality of expected total costs are calculated using the plurality of expected market impacts and the plurality of expected price risks; and trading the security via execution of the order over a time period at which the expected total cost is optimal (e.g., minimized).
US08571959B2 System and method for coalescing market data at a network device
A network device coalesces data received from an exchange, and provides a user with the opportunity to receive fewer, but up-to-date, data updates from an exchange when duplicate prices become available or a large volume of prices becomes available suddenly. Accordingly, the trader can be assured of receiving non-duplicated prices that are fed at a rate that is cohesive with that trader's connection speed. The present invention is designed to conserve on bandwidth thereby increasing the likelihood that bandwidth will be available to receive desirable market information.
US08571958B2 Real-time insurance estimate based on non-personal identifying information
Methods and systems for providing estimated insurance quotes/premiums are described herein. After analyzing rate factors, a subset of rate factors are selected that yield a fairly accurate estimated insurance premium from a minimum amount of information easily obtainable from a user. The user inputs a value from a predetermined set of allowable inputs (value input filter). After receiving and analyzing the user inputs, the system generates one or more estimates and displays the one or more estimates to the user, e.g., via a web page. When multiple estimates are provided, the multiple estimates may differ based on the level of coverage, add-on features, or both. Readily known non-personal identifying information is preferably requested and used, thereby alleviating privacy concerns while still being able to provide an estimate to the user very quickly, e.g., under 30 seconds, once all the requested information is obtained.
US08571956B2 System architecture and methods for composing and directing participant experiences
The present invention contemplates a variety of improved methods and systems for providing an experience platform, as well as sentio or experience codecs, and experience agents for supporting the experience platform. The experience platform may be provided by a service provider to enable an experience provider to compose and direct a participant experience. The service provider monetizes the experience by charging the experience provider and/or the participants for services. The participant experience can involve one or more experience participants. The experience provider can create an experience with a variety of dimensions and features. As will be appreciated, the following description provides one paradigm for understanding the multi-dimensional experience available to the participants. There are many suitable ways of describing, characterizing and implementing the experience platform contemplated herein.
US08571952B2 Automated transaction machine
An automated retail terminal in which a plurality of goods and/or services are provided in an integrated system. The integrated system generally avoids duplicating hardware or functions in the course of delivering the goods or services offered, so for example in a combination ATM and Internet kiosk the same credit card or smart card reader is used for both the ATM and the Internet kiosk functions, the same control screen activates the ATM functions and the Internet functions, and etc.
US08571942B2 Method of product demonstration
A method of demonstrating an appliance by customizing a multimedia presentation in real time based on the consumer information.
US08571941B2 Systems and methods for managing user information over a network
Systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums, consistent with principles of some embodiments of the present invention provide for applying a user interface to an electronic device including storing information relating to a user of an electronic device, wherein the stored information includes user information data and user history data, storing a template user interface, modifying the user interface based on the stored user information and the user history data, and applying the modified user interface to the electronic device, wherein the user interface enables a user to instruct the electronic device to perform operations within a shopping establishment.
US08571933B2 Advertisements in a television recordation system
The present invention discloses a method and system for types of ad placement opportunities in a digital video stream. The described embodiments of the invention increases ad placement opportunities to a targeted audience by using real-time ad placement during mode changes in a dynamic digital medium such as a digital video recorder. Various embodiments also allow various types of temporal overlapping and composite display techniques for viewing ads and video content.
US08571917B2 Community generated scenarios
Embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to systems, methods, and computer program products for creating community-generated scenarios that provide a narrative description of the future. In some embodiments, the present invention: scans the Internet for already published scenarios about the future of a particular topic; identifies underlying trends and change drivers in the already published scenarios; scans the Internet for information about the underlying trends and change drivers; publishes, in the form of abstracts, to a community of stakeholders the information about the underlying trends and change drivers; receives and publishes to the individual stakeholders the community's feedback regarding the validity, relevance, and impact of the underlying trends and change drivers with respect to the future of the topic; and provides a forum through which the community of individual stakeholders, in light of the published abstracts and feedback, can collaboratively apply their knowledge to develop community-generated scenarios about the future of the topic.
US08571909B2 Business intelligence system and method utilizing multidimensional analysis of a plurality of transformed and scaled data streams
A method is provided for qualifying and analyzing business intelligence. At a first part of a data management system receives first, second and third streams of data. The first stream is client provided source data, the second is public source data and the third is data management system internal data previously collected and managed source data in the data management system. The three streams of data are organized into items and their attributes at the data management system. The source data is transformed at a data warehouse where it becomes normalized. Logic is applied to provide multi-dimensional analysis of transformed source data relative to a scale for at least one business intelligence. The data warehouse includes updated data from the multi-dimensional analysis. A user interface communicates with the data management system to create statistical information that illustrates impact over time and value.
US08571898B2 Computerized method, apparatus and system for issuing surety bonds
A method, system and apparatus for obtaining a bond is disclosed. The invention employs a computer system that has a work station in communication with a server to provide information on a contractor that is required by a surety over the computer system. The server is provided with owner/obligee information concerning a bond over the network A surety is selected to provide the bond and the identity of the surety is presented over said computer network. The type of bond sought is identified. Approval of the bond is requested over the computer network and a decision on the bond request is obtained over the network. The approval decision includes an authorization code that is presented at a bid letting along with the contractor's bid. The authorization code permits an owner/obligee to view an approved bond through the computer network.
US08571894B1 Method and process for obtaining consent to access and populate a personal health record
An electronic method and system for obtaining consent to access and populate a personal health record is disclosed. The system and method allows healthcare providers to obtain consent and automatically create and/or populate a personal health record chosen by a patient. The system and method also allows for information from billing records concerning the patient or the patient's visit to be extracted to create a billing file which can be electronically sent for importing into the patient's personal health record.
US08571893B2 Clinical data monitoring and alarming apparatus and methods
Clinical data monitoring and alarming devices may have enhanced sensitivity by using sliding median filters on a clinical data stream. This enhanced sensitivity may be realized without introducing an increase in false negative alarm activation.
US08571878B2 Speech compression and decompression apparatuses and methods providing scalable bandwidth structure
A speech compression apparatus including: a first band-transform unit transforming a wideband speech signal to a narrowband low-band speech signal; a narrowband speech compressor compressing the narrowband low-band speech signal and outputting a result of the compressing as a low-band speech packet; a decompression unit decompressing the low-band speech packet and obtaining a decompressed wideband low-band speech signal; an error detection unit detecting an error signal that corresponds to a difference between the wideband speech signal and the decompressed wideband low-band speech signal; and a high-band speech compression unit compressing the error signal and a high-band speech signal of the wideband speech signal and outputting the result of the compressing as a high-band speech packet.
US08571871B1 Methods and systems for adaptation of synthetic speech in an environment
Methods and systems for adaptation of synthetic speech in an environment are described. In an example, a device, which may include a text-to-speech (TTS) module, may be configured to determine characteristics of an environment of the device. The device also may be configured to determine, based on the one or more characteristics of the environment, speech parameters that characterize a voice output of the text-to-speech module. Further, the device may be configured to process a text to obtain the voice output corresponding to the text based on the speech parameters to account for the one or more characteristics of the environment.
US08571861B2 System and method for processing speech recognition
An automatic speech recognition (ASR) system and method is provided for controlling the recognition of speech utterances generated by an end user operating a communications device. The ASR system and method can be used with a mobile device that is used in a communications network. The ASR system can be used for ASR of speech utterances input into a mobile device, to perform compensating techniques using at least one characteristic and for updating an ASR speech recognizer associated with the ASR system by determined and using a background noise value and a distortion value that is based on the features of the mobile device. The ASR system can be used to augment a limited data input capability of a mobile device, for example, caused by limited input devices physically located on the mobile device.
US08571851B1 Semantic interpretation using user gaze order
Methods, and systems, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable storage mediums, including a method for performing semantic interpretation using gaze order. The method includes obtaining data identifying a sequence of gaze attention dwell positions, obtaining a semantic description of elements displayed on a visual display, obtaining a transcription of an utterance, correlating the gaze attention dwell positions with the semantic description of elements to generate a sequence of one or more of the elements, performing semantic interpretation of at least one term included in the transcription based at least on the sequence of the elements, and outputting a result of performing the semantic interpretation of the at least one term.
US08571848B2 System and method of network emlation for test of on-line server processing heavy traffic
In a network emulation system of the present invention, a packet transmitted from a user-mode application program is intercepted at a kernel-mode network driver and transferred to a user-mode emulation module to perform emulation, and, thereafter, the corresponding packet is returned to the network driver. The emulation module emulates a network characteristic of a multi-node environment through configuration of virtual network topology. At this time, the emulation module classifies the intercepted packets for each flow, stores the classified packets in a plurality of real queues, stores a virtual packet corresponding to the real packet in a virtual queue, and transfers the virtual packet to a virtual network including a plurality of virtual nodes to emulate the network.
US08571846B2 Electronic device and method of generating composite electrical signals
In an electronic device and a method of generating composite electrical signals, a plurality of post-processing software is installed. An output file, which comprises times and voltages of data points that represent an electrical signal, of an electronic circuit simulation software is loaded, and is read using the installed post-processing software. A time interval of outputs of the electrical signal is obtained by selecting an output type of the electrical signal. The worst bit combination of outputs of the electrical signal is analyzed according to the times, the voltage, and the time interval, and a composite electrical signal is generated according to the worst bit combination.
US08571837B1 System and method for simulating a bi-directional connect module within an analog and mixed-signal circuit
According to some embodiments, a method is provided for simulating an analog and mixed-signal circuit design comprising an analog circuit segment connected to a digital circuit segment at a connection point, the method comprising: inserting a bi-directional interface element at the connection point, wherein the analog circuit segment connects to an analog port of the bi-directional interface element and the digital circuit segment connects to a digital port of the bi-directional interface element; and operating the bi-directional interface element such that the bi-directional interface element detects a signal direction and, according to the signal direction, either converts a first analog signal received from the analog port to a first digital signal for the digital port while maintaining a first signal strength of the first analog signal, or converts a second digital signal received from the digital port to a second analog signal for the analog port while maintaining a second signal strength of the second digital signal.
US08571833B2 Field device maintenance apparatus
A field device maintenance apparatus includes a field device connection unit that communicates with a field device whose operation contents are defined by parameters; a work-information acquisition unit that acquires parameter attribute information including whether or not the individual parameters are displayable and work instruction information that shows work contents; a display unit that displays one or more of the parameters of the field device depending on whether or not the individual parameters are displayable according to the parameter attribute information; an operation accepting unit that accepts a changing operation for changing one or more of the parameters displayed by the display unit; and an operation-history-information recording unit that records a history of operations accepted by the operation accepting unit.
US08571830B2 Method and system for detection of collector flashover
A system, method and computer program product for predicting collector flashover is disclosed. The method includes receiving a frame of measured data from a data acquisition system, fitting a statistical model to the measured data wherein the measured data includes a plurality of measured variables measured at multiple time instances. The statistical model and the measured data are used for estimating one or more parameters for the frame wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of field circuit impedance and field current noise. A flashover is predicted based, at least in part, upon the one or more estimated parameter for the frame.
US08571821B2 Method for determining the closing time of an electromagnetic fuel injector
A method for determining the closing time of an electromagnetic fuel injector including the steps of applying at a starting time of the injection a positive voltage to the coil of the electromagnetic actuator in order to circulate through the coil an electric current which causes the opening of an injection valve; applying at an ending time of the injection a negative voltage to the coil in order to annul the electric current flowing through the coil; detecting the trend over time of the voltage across the coil after the annulment of the electric current flowing through the coil; identifying a perturbation of the voltage across the coil; and recognizing the closing time of the injector that coincides with the time of the perturbation of the voltage.
US08571810B2 Information processing system using nucleotide sequence-related information
A system for processing information for providing semantic information and/or information associated with the semantic information useful for each individual organism through effective utilization of differences in nucleotide sequence-related information among individual organisms is constructed. The method for processing information on a nucleotide sequence comprises: (a) receiving request information for an object and/or service; (b) obtaining positional information in accordance with the request information from a memory having positional information representing a position in a nucleotide sequence memorized therein; and (c) obtaining nucleotide sequence-related information corresponding to the positional information obtained in (b) above, and obtaining semantic information implied by the nucleotide sequence-related information and/or information associated with the semantic information.
US08571802B2 Method for determining optimum intraocular locations for drug delivery systems
A method for determining the optimum location for placement of an intraocular implant containing used to treat an ocular condition, particularly implants comprised of a biodegradable polymer and a therapeutic agent for the treatment of retinal tissue.
US08571791B2 Remote processing of selected vehicle operating parameters
Exemplary methods, systems and components enable selective control of an operational mode for a vehicle that is subject to an administrative standard. In some instances a qualified person or entity may attain a possible consequential result related to a user-selected vehicle operation mode that may involve a vehicle operation paradigm and/or a vehicle travel route and/or a vehicle travel destination. In some embodiments, implementation of the selected vehicle operation mode may modify a conformity status of the vehicle relative to the administrative standard. Various accessible records may be maintained regarding administrative compliance states and their respective benefits, as well as regarding certification of preferable consequential results available to qualified recipients based on a correlated vehicle operational mode.
US08571787B2 Dynamic routing
An apparatus and method for providing navigation information via electronic equipment includes dynamically displaying a first route from a current location to a desired location; and dynamically displaying a second route to at least one point of interest. The first route is automatically displayed at a first zoom level, and the second route is automatically displayed at a second zoom level, wherein the first and second zoom levels are independent of one another. The apparatus and method can further use electronic equipment to identify at least one point of interest along a planned route, including comparing a user selected characteristic to at least one characteristic of a plurality of potential points of interest, said potential points of interest being within a predetermined range of the planned route; and identifying as a point of interest any of the plurality of potential points of interest that have at least one characteristic that satisfies the user selected characteristic.
US08571770B2 Automatic transmission control system and control method
Automatic transmission control system and control method have the functions or steps of: controlling shifting of an automatic transmission installed on a vehicle, in one of an automatic shift mode in which shifting of the automatic transmission is carried out based on a shift diagram, and a manual shift mode in which shifting of the automatic transmission is manually carried out; detecting at least one shift command of an upshift command for shifting up the automatic transmission and a downshift command for shifting down the automatic transmission, the shift command being manually entered; measuring a shift command time for which the shift command is detected; and switching from the automatic shift mode to a shift inhibition mode in which shifting of the automatic transmission is inhibited, without switching to the manual shift mode, based on the measured shift command.
US08571756B2 Wheel suspension for a vehicle
Wheel suspension for vehicle, with support, steering knuckle connected in articulated manner with the support via interconnected joints, a vehicle wheel rotatably supported on the steering knuckle, a connecting element extending between a first joint and a second joint which is connected in an articulated manner via the first joint to the steering knuckle and via the second joint to the support, an angle detection device , for measuring the rotation angle of one of the joints and for generating an angle signal characterizing the rotation angle, an evaluation device, for evaluating the angle signal, and which is coupled with the angle detection device. The connecting element is a chassis actuator with an adjusting means, with which the length of the chassis actuator and thereby the position of the vehicle wheel is varied. The length of the chassis actuator is determined with the evaluation device by evaluating the at least one angle signal.
US08571749B2 Grille control mechanism for vehicle
A grille control mechanism for a vehicle includes a movable member being switchable between opened and closed positions, an electric motor actuating the movable member, and a control device controlling a supply of electric current until detecting a lock current value to execute an opening operation or a closing operation, wherein the control device executes a checking operation for returning the movable member to an initial position and executing once again the opening or closing operation in a case where a detecting time of the lock current value since the opening or closing operation is started exceeds a predetermined time, and the control device determines that the movable member is in an abnormal state in a case where a detecting time of the lock current value after the operation is started from the initial position in the checking operation exceeds the predetermined time for a predetermined number of times.
US08571735B2 Warm-up method for hybrid-type construction machine and hybrid-type construction machine
When a hybrid-type construction machine including an electric power accumulator is started under a low-temperature environment, at first an ignition key of an engine is turned on to drive the engine. If the temperature of the electric power accumulator is lower than a predetermined temperature, the electric power accumulator is heated by driving the engine. Further, if the temperature of the electric power accumulator is lower than the predetermined temperature, the engine is driven to carry out a warm-up operation and a motor generator is driven to charging and discharge the electric power accumulator to thereby heat the electric power accumulator.
US08571727B1 Energy-angular momentum closed-loop guidance for launch vehicles
An improved method for launch vehicle guidance is disclosed. A pre-computed energy-angular momentum (E-J) curve to place a launch vehicle into a target orbit is received and stored. An energy, angular momentum, radial distance, velocity magnitude, and flight path angle of the launch vehicle are computed from state vector data while the launch vehicle is traveling to the target orbit. The pre-computed E-J curve and the computed energy, angular momentum, radial distance, velocity magnitude, and flight path angle of the launch vehicle are used to determine pitch and pitch rate of the launch vehicle.
US08571724B2 Method and device for providing information about a user of a social network in the social network
A method and device for providing information about a user of a social network in the social network are provided. In order to enable the driver of a vehicle or a passenger to communicate with an IT social network with as little distraction as possible, the information is acquired using at least one status recognition device, which is provided in a vehicle used by the user of the social network. The status recognition device delivers status information that indicates a specific status of the vehicle, a specific driving situation, and/or the status of one or more users of the vehicle.
US08571723B2 Methods and systems for energy management within a transportation network
A method includes determining whether use of an energy management system (EMS) associated with a vehicle traveling in a transportation network is allowed within a region of the transportation network. The EMS obtains a trip plan for the vehicle that designates operational settings of the vehicle as a function of at least one of distance or time along a trip of the vehicle. The method also includes determining whether the EMS is being used by the vehicle when the vehicle is within the region, and sending a message to an off-board location when the EMS is not being used by the vehicle within the region.
US08571711B2 Modular robotic crawler
A modular robotic crawler can be formed by intercoupling a selected plurality of segment modules from a preexisting collection of differing compatible segment modules. The segment modules can have at least one intercoupleable interface. The selection can be based on a planned operational scenario of functions to be performed.
US08571705B2 Vending machine service scheduling
Techniques are provided for calculating vending machines' service priorities and scheduling the vending machines for service taking into account a number of factors and thresholds (520). In some embodiments, the machines (110) are subdivided into subroutes (320). Each subroute has one or more machines, and at least one subroute has a plurality of machines. The vending machine service schedule is generated by selecting the highest priority subroute (410) and selecting the machines in that subroute (420). Other subroutes can be selected (430, 440) if there is time left in the Service Period.
US08571696B2 Methods and apparatus to predict process quality in a process control system
Example methods and apparatus to predict process quality in a process control system are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving process control information relating to a process at a first time including a first value associated with a first measured variable and a second value associated with a second measured variable, determining if a variation based on the received process control information associated with the process exceeds a threshold, if the variation exceeds the threshold, calculating a first contribution value based on a contribution of the first measured variable to the variation and a second contribution value based on a contribution of the second measured variable to the variation, determining at least one corrective action based on the first contribution value, the second contribution value, the first value, or the second value, and calculating a predicted process quality based on the at least one corrective action at a time after the first time.
US08571694B1 Method for setting audio parameters in a digital signal processor in an electronic device, and electronic device
The invention relates to a method for setting audio parameters in a digital signal processor (4) in an electronic device (1) comprising at least one auxiliary device connection (10) for connecting at least one auxiliary device (11). At least some of the audio parameters can be loaded into the digital signal processor (4) during operation of the electronic device (1) either from the auxiliary device (11) or from a writeable mass storage (25).
US08571688B2 System and method for optimization of gas lift rates on multiple wells
A method includes controlling a lift-gas compression process, controlling a lift-gas extraction process, and controlling a production separation process. The method also includes receiving asset data and optimizing the lift-gas compression process, the lift-gas injection process, and the production separation process according to the asset data.
US08571684B2 Implantable lead assembly having a position tracking sensor and method of manufacturing the lead assembly
A lead assembly of an implantable medical device includes an elongated body, electrodes on the body, and a tracking sensor located in the body. The body extends between a connector end and a leading end and has conductors disposed in the body. The connector end of the body includes terminals coupled with the conductors. The electrodes disposed on the body can be located at or near an anatomy of interest in a patient and are conductively coupled with the terminals of the body by the conductors. The electrodes are configured to sense electric activity of the anatomy of interest and/or deliver stimulus pulses to the anatomy of interest. The tracking sensor is conductively coupled with the terminals of the body by the conductors. The tracking sensor generates an electric position signal representative of a position of the tracking sensor in the heart when the body is in the patient.
US08571682B2 Connecting apparatus and methods
Included herein, amongst other things, is a stimulation lead adapter. The stimulation lead adapter can include a stimulation lead socket configured to electrically engage and retain the proximal end of a stimulation lead. The stimulation lead adapter can also include an adapter plug configured to electrically engage a stimulation lead port of an implantable medical device. The stimulation lead adapter can also include a connector configured to provide electrical communication between the stimulation lead socket and the adapter plug. In an embodiment, the invention includes an implantable cardiac rhythm management device configured to perform at least one pacing system analyzer function. In an embodiment, the invention includes a programmer system for an implantable medical device, the programmer system configured to display pacing system analyzer function data within a single tabbed window of a graphical user interface. Other aspects and embodiments are also provided herein.
US08571680B2 External charger usable with an implantable medical device having a programmable or time-varying temperature set point
An improved external charger for charging the battery within or providing power to an implantable medical device is disclosed. The improved external charger includes circuitry for detecting the temperature of the external charger and for controlling charging to prevent exceeding a maximum temperature. The external charger in some embodiments includes a user interface for allowing a patient to set the external charger's maximum temperature. The user interface can be used to select either constant maximum temperatures, or can allow the user to choose from a number of stored charging programs, which programs can control the maximum temperature to vary over time. Alternatively, a charging program in the external charger can vary the maximum temperature set point automatically. By controlling the maximum temperature of the external charger during charging in these manners, the time needed to charge can be minimized while still ensuring a temperature that is comfortable for that patient.
US08571679B2 Method for controlling telemetry in an implantable medical device based on power source capacity
An implantable microstimulator configured for implantation beneath a patient's skin for tissue stimulation to prevent and/or treat various disorders, uses a self-contained power source. Periodic or occasional replenishment of the power source is accomplished, for example, by inductive coupling with an external device. A bidirectional telemetry link allows the microstimulator to provide information regarding the system's status, including the power source's charge level, and stimulation parameter states. Processing circuitry automatically controls the applied stimulation pulses to match a set of programmed stimulation parameters established for a particular patient. The microstimulator preferably has a cylindrical hermetically sealed case having a length no greater than about 27 mm and a diameter no greater than about 3.3 mm. A reference electrode is located on one end of the case and an active electrode is located on the other end. The case is externally coated on selected areas with conductive and non-conductive materials.
US08571677B2 Programming techniques for stimulation with utilization of case electrode
This disclosure describes techniques that support delivering electrical stimulation via an electrode on a housing of an implantable medical device (IMD) while substantially simultaneously delivering electrical stimulation via one or more electrodes, having the same polarity as the electrode on the housing, on one or more leads engaged to the IMD. The stimulation may be constant current-based or constant voltage-based stimulation in the form of pulses or continuous waveforms. Delivery of stimulation via both a housing anode and one or more lead anodes, for example, may allow a user to control current paths between the housing electrode and the lead electrode(s) in a relative manner to achieve different electric or stimulation field shapes.
US08571676B2 Implantable device having osseointegrating protuberances
A housing for an implantable device for mounting to a patient's bone is disclosed. The housing comprises one or more surfaces, wherein at least one of the surfaces is substantially orthogonal to an implant axis and is configured to abut the patient's bone, and a first osseointegrating protuberance extending from one of the surfaces, wherein a longitudinal axis of the first protuberance is disposed at an acute first angle relative to the implant axis.
US08571663B2 Portable negative pressure ventilation device and methods and software related thereto
Featured is an apparatus an apparatus including a monitoring and sensing means, an electrode patch and a control device operably coupled to each of the sensing means and the electrodes and outputs signals to the electrodes for purposes of stimulating the phrenic nerve to thereby cause breathing by natural contraction of the diaphragm. The control device is configured and arranged to initially localize the phrenic nerve with respect to a given set of electrodes that is effective, when appropriately energized, for stimulating the phrenic nerve to establish negative pressure induced respiration in the body, based on the output signal(s) from the monitoring and sensing means. After such initially localizing; the control device thereafter repetitively outputs stimulation signals via the given set of electrodes so as to thereby continuously stimulate negative pressure induced respiration. Also featured are methods related thereto.
US08571660B2 System and method for graphically configuring leads
Systems and methods are provided for graphically configuring leads for a medical device. According to one aspect, the system generally comprises a medical device and a processing device, such as a programmer or computer, adapted to be in communication with the medical device. The medical device has at least one lead with at least one electrode in a configuration that can be changed using the processing device. The processing device provides a graphical display of the configuration, including a representative image of a proposed electrical signal to be applied by the medical device between the at least one electrode of the medical device and at least one other electrode before the medical device applies the electrical signal between the at least one electrode and the at least one other electrode. In one embodiment, the graphical display graphically represents the lead(s), the electrode(s), a pulse polarity, and a vector.
US08571655B2 Multi-site ventricular pacing therapy with parasympathetic stimulation
A method and device for delivering multi-site ventricular pacing therapy in conjunction with parasympathetic stimulation for reducing ventricular wall stress. Such reduction in ventricular wall stress is useful in reversing or preventing the ventricular remodeling which can occur in heart failure patients.
US08571654B2 Vagus nerve neurostimulator with multiple patient-selectable modes for treating chronic cardiac dysfunction
A vagus nerve neurostimulator system with multiple patient-selectable modes for treating chronic cardiac dysfunction is provided. An implantable neurostimulator includes a pulse generator coupled to a therapy lead terminated by a pair of helical electrodes positioned over a cervical vagus nerve. The pulse generator is configured to deliver through the helical electrodes continuously-cycling, intermittent and periodic electrical stimulation that is parametrically defined to bi-directionally propagate through nerve fibers in the cervical vagus nerve. The implantable neurostimulator includes a magnetic switch configured to switch the pulse generator between a plurality of operating modes that are each separately selectable in response to a unique and remotely-applied magnetic signal. An external controller includes patient-actuatable controls configured to enable selection of one of the operating modes of the pulse generator. The external controller includes an electromagnetic transmitter configured to output the magnetic signal uniquely associated with the operating mode as selected with the controls.
US08571652B2 Adaptive determination of patient specific optimal AV delay during elevated heart rates based on cardiac output measurements
Adaptively creating a table of optimal, patient-specific atrioventricular (AV) delays for a an implantable medical device (IMD) begins as the IMD detects the patient entering a target heart rates within a defined range of elevated heart rates. On detection, the device begins testing AV delays by pacing the heart at a number of different AV delays. The IMD selects the optimal AV delay based on a comparison of measurements of cardiac output obtained during each delay's test pacing period. The optimal AV delay corresponds to the one which resulted in the highest cardiac output. The device selects this optimal AV delay and stores it in an AV delay table on the device. The process continues as the device detects the patient entering the other target heart rates in order to complete the table.
US08571646B2 Emotional state determining apparatus
An emotional state determining apparatus capable of determining an emotional state of a subject without reducing determination accuracy even if the number of brain wave signals to be used is reduced. A multifractal dimension computing section 3 computes multifractal dimensions based on brain wave signals or brain wave difference signals. An emotional state determining section 4 receives input data on the multifractal dimensions, and determines an emotional state of the subject based on determination criteria which are determined in advance by using as reference data the brain wave signals obtained from a reference person. Generalized latent dimensions (vector) respectively obtained by substituting a plurality of different values determined in advance for a Hurst exponent characteristic q in a generalized latent dimension Dq=1/Hq, which is a reciprocal number of a generalized Hurst exponent Hq obtained from the brain wave signals or the brain wave difference signals, are used as the multifractal dimensions.
US08571643B2 Detecting or validating a detection of a state change from a template of heart rate derivative shape or heart beat wave complex
Methods, systems, and apparatus for detecting and/or validating a detection of a state change by matching the shape of one or more of an cardiac data series, a heart rate variability data series, or at least a portion of a heart beat complex, derived from cardiac data, to an appropriate template.
US08571639B2 Systems and methods for gating medical procedures
A method of performing physiological gating in a medical procedure includes acquiring a sequence of images having at least a first image and a second image of a target region, determining a first composite image based on the first and second images, and gating a medical procedure based on the composite image. A method of performing a medical procedure includes providing a plurality of templates, each of the templates having an image and treatment data, acquiring an input image, registering the input image with one of the templates, and performing a medical procedure based on the treatment data of the one of the templates that is registered with the input image.
US08571636B2 Shielded surgical navigation system that determines the position and orientation of the tracked object with real and virtual dipoles
A system for determining the position and orientation of a tracked object by measuring electromagnetic energy. The system includes a shield of magnetic permeable material positioned on one side of the object to be tracked. A transmitter emits the electromagnetic energy and there is a tracker sensor. One of the transmitter or tracker sensor is attached to the object to be tracked. A correction sensor is at fixed location relative to the transmitter assembly. Both sensors assemblies measure the electromagnetic energy emitted by the transmitter. Based on the energy measured by the correction sensor, the location of a virtual dipole that mirrors the transmitter, the real dipole, on the opposite side of the shield is determined. Based on the positions of the real and virtual dipoles and the energy measured by the tracker sensor, the position and orientation of the tracker sensor relative to the transmitter is determined.
US08571635B2 Automated activation/deactivation of imaging device based on tracked medical device position
Methods and systems for controlling an imaging procedure are provided. A medical device is introduced within a patient, and a position (e.g., location and/or orientation) of the medical device is detected within the patient relative to a reference position (e.g., a previously detected position of the medical device or a position within a desired path). Imaging of the patient is automatically activated based on the detected relative position, such that the patient is imaged only during relevant times. In one method, instability/stability of the medical device is detected, in which case, the imaging is automatically activated when the medical device is unstable, and deactivated when the medical device is stable. For example, if tissue is to be ablated with the medical device, medical personnel can be made aware of inadvertent movement of the medical device via the image, and can correct any displacement of the medical device from the ablation site.
US08571629B2 Detection of deception and truth-telling using fMRI of the brain
Methods for deriving an indication of truth or deception are disclosed. Some methods include (a) monitoring the activation of a plurality of regions of a subject's brain, while the subject responds to questions and (b) measuring one or more physiological parameters while the subject responds to questions and combining the results of (a) and (b) to form a composite evaluation indicative of truth or deception in the subject's response. Another method further includes (c) measuring one or more behavioral components while the subject responds to questions and then combining the results of (a), (b), and (c) to form a composite evaluation indicative of truth or deception in the subject's response. Methods for scoring, weighting, and combining the measurements for (a), (b), and (c), and combinations thereof, are also disclosed.
US08571628B2 Apparatus and method for haptic rendering
In one aspect, the invention relates to a method for generating a haptic penalty force, including in one embodiment, the steps of: defining a primary proxy position; defining a secondary proxy position; defining a HIP position; generating a first force in response to the primary proxy position and the HIP position and generating a second force in response to the secondary proxy position and the HIP position.
US08571624B2 Method and apparatus for mounting a data transmission device in a communication system
Method and apparatus for mounting a data transmission device in a communication system including and adhesive pad with pull tab and raised border portions is provided. The adhesive pad may also include a flexible band to fit around the patient's arm to firmly secure the adhesive pad onto the patient's skin. The flexible band is size adjustable. The pull tab and raised borders on the adhesive pad permit easy single handed application and removal process of the adhesive pad by the patient.
US08571623B2 System and method for detection of venous pulsation
In accordance with an embodiment of the present technique, there is provided methods and systems for detecting the presence of venous pulsation by adjusting the sensitivity of a detection algorithm based on a sensor characteristic and/or notifying a caregiver of the presence of venous pulsation by ceasing display of physiological parameters. An exemplary embodiment includes receiving one or more signals from a sensor, the one or more signals corresponding to absorption of light in a patient's tissue; calculating one or more physiological parameters of the patient based on the one or more signals; displaying the patient's physiological parameters; enabling detection of venous pulsation with variable sensitivity based on a location of the sensor; and suspending or terminating the display of the one or more of the patient's physiological parameters when venous pulsation is detected.
US08571622B2 Method for reducing power consumption in pulse oximeter systems, pulse oximeter system and pulse oximeter sensor
Method and pulse oximeter system for determining blood characteristics of a subject are disclosed. A pulse oximeter sensor for collecting plethysmographic data is also disclosed. In order to reduce the power consumption, time instants of systolic rises are estimated in at least one plethysmographic waveform of a subject and light emitting elements of a sensor are controlled according to the estimated time instants, thereby to collect signal samples from a plurality of plethysmographic waveforms of the subject during the systolic rises. A desired blood parameter, typically oxygen saturation, is then defined based on the signal samples collected during the systolic rises.
US08571615B2 Superconducting metallic glass transition-edge-sensors
A superconducting metallic glass transition-edge sensor (MGTES) and a method for fabricating the MGTES are provided. A single-layer superconducting amorphous metal alloy is deposited on a substrate. The single-layer superconducting amorphous metal alloy is an absorber for the MGTES and is electrically connected to a circuit configured for readout and biasing to sense electromagnetic radiation.
US08571612B2 Mobile voice management of devices
A method and system for remotely managing mobile devices over a communication network including transceiving user input data generated at a mobile management terminal to a management computer over a communication network. The transceived user input data is analyzed to determine whether the user input data corresponds to a stored command function and the stored command function is executed at the management computer in response to determining that the user input data corresponds to a stored command function. Data is transceived from the management computer to one or more mobile host devices over the communication network.
US08571607B1 Streaming ring tones
A party is alerted of an incoming telephone call using a caller-selected ring tone or other ring alert, which can be in the form of a data file streamed to the called party's phone as part of the call-setup process. The called party can be presented with options for purchasing the ring alert.
US08571605B2 Mobile terminal and method of reducing power consumption for a dual display system
A mobile terminal and method of reducing power consumption in the mobile terminal are provided. The method includes displaying an operation screen in the first display module, determining a remaining battery power of the mobile terminal, and disabling the first display module and displaying the operation screen in the second display module in response to determining that the remaining battery power is less than a reference battery power.
US08571601B2 Switching communication radio path based on power constraints
Aspects relate to determining whether a constraint or other condition on a mobile device may be alleviated or better satisfied by switching from one communication network to another for a call (or setting up a call on one network in preference to another). A mobile device is operable to conduct a communication session over at least two different communication media, which have different power consumption characteristics. Where a remaining battery power level is constrained, a determination can be made whether using one network over another saves more than a threshold amount of power over another network. Estimates of battery life for each network can be made based on predictions of a length of the communication session, and a power factor calculated for the network.
US08571595B2 Method and system for adjusting WLAN radio receiver gain in a wireless device
A method for adjusting a gain level for a receiver of a first radio simultaneously operational with a transmitter of a second radio, comprising: determining a signal-to-noise ratio (“SNR”) value for signals received by the receiver from an access point (“AP”); and, when the first radio is associated with the AP and the transmitter is not transmitting, if the SNR value exceeds a SNR threshold, reducing the gain level for the receiver from an initial level and initiating transmission from the transmitter, otherwise maintaining the gain level for the receiver at the initial level and initiating transmission from the transmitter; wherein the SNR threshold is a SNR value above which beacon signals from the AP can be successfully received by the receiver.
US08571591B2 Coexistence support for multi-channel wireless communications
Systems and techniques relating to wireless communications are described. A described technique includes monitoring a group of wireless channels that are useable by at least a first wireless communication device for wireless communications, receiving one or more beacon signals from one or more second wireless communication devices, identifying, within the group of wireless channels, one or more primary channels on which the one or more beacon signals are received, estimating a traffic load for the one or more identified primary channels, determining, based on the estimated traffic load, whether to use as a primary channel for the first wireless communication device, a channel of the one or more identified primary channels or a channel of the group of wireless channels that is separate from the one or more identified primary channels; and selecting the primary channel for the first wireless communication device based on a result of the determining.
US08571588B2 Method and apparatus for conferencing of text messages
A system and method are provided which provide a text messaging conference among at least three users who communicate on different first communication channels. A message initiated by a first user is received on one of the first communication channels. The message seeks to initiate a text message conference and includes identities of a plurality of additional users to participate in the messaging conference. Conference participants are identified by a two part identifier, which allows a single participant to participate in multiple ongoing simultaneous conferences.
US08571578B1 Identifying mobile access points
Systems and methods for identifying mobile access points are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving an indication of an accessible access point and an indication of geographic location. The method also includes determining that a stored geographic location associated with the accessible access point is inconsistent with the indication of the geographic location. The method also includes providing, to a server and to a local memory, an indication that the accessible access point is a candidate mobile access point based on the determination that the stored geographic location is inconsistent with the indication of the geographic location.
US08571566B2 Methods and apparatus for determining and assigning spectrum for wireless communications
Methods and apparatus for determining band availability and/or allocating one or more frequency bands to a communications device for wireless communications are described. In different locations and/or at different times different frequency bands, e.g., band corresponding to unused TV channels, may be available for allocation. Various described methods and apparatus are well suited for supporting local peer to peer networks in an environment in which a plurality of different technologies are supported. A centralized control device determines and allocates a frequency band to a wireless terminal for use at a given location and at a given time, e.g., for peer to peer communications using a particular technology supported by the wireless terminal. The centralized control device uses database information and information received from a plurality of wireless terminals in making frequency band allocation decisions, performing load balancing, and/or performing interference management.
US08571560B1 Selecting a wireless access point based on status information
What is disclosed is a method of operating a wireless communication device. The method includes detecting a plurality of beacon signals, wherein each of the plurality of beacon signals is associated with each of a plurality of wireless access nodes. The method also includes receiving status information from each of the plurality of wireless access nodes, wherein the status information comprises a modulation level of a wireless link associated with each of the plurality of wireless access nodes. The method also includes selecting one of the plurality of wireless access nodes based on at least the modulation level of the wireless link associated with the one of the plurality of wireless access nodes, modulating user communications based on the modulation level of the wireless link associated with the selected one of the plurality of wireless access nodes, and exchanging the modulated user communications with the selected one of the plurality of wireless access nodes.
US08571558B1 Mobile communication device initiated hand-off based on air interface metrics
A mobile communication device wirelessly transfers user communications to a first wireless base station. The mobile communication device determines a first metric based on a load indicator for the first base station. The mobile communication device identifies a second wireless base station and determines a second metric based on a load indicator for the second base station. If the second metric is superior to the first metric, the mobile communication device determines if the second base station has sufficient performance characteristics for communication with the device. If the performance is sufficient, the mobile communication device initiates a hand-off from the first base station to the second base station. The mobile communication device may use additional factors to determine the first and second metrics.
US08571557B2 Relay station and base station
A relay station is capable of relaying communication between a radio communication terminal and a base station, and includes a communication quality acquisition unit which, when communication between the radio communication terminal and the base station is relayed, acquires communication quality in communication between the self-station and the radio communication terminal; an interference determination unit, which determines whether the communication between the self-station and the radio communication terminal is receiving interference based on the acquired communication quality; and an interference notification unit which, if it is determined that the communication is receiving interference, notifies the base station of interference information informing of the interference in order to prompt handover of a radio communication terminal, which is communicating with the base station.
US08571556B2 Method of communicating signals in a mobile communication system
A method of communicating signals in a mobile communication system having a first base station, a second base station, and a base station controlling node controlling the first base station and the second base station is presented. The method includes during a handover, receiving, at the first base station, a control message from the second base station including a sequence number indicating at least one data unit to be transmitted to a mobile station or to be received from a mobile station, wherein the first base station receives the control message from the second base station without being controlled by the base station controlling node.
US08571555B2 Method and apparatus for handover by implementing pre-handover indication messages for a preferred target node in wireless telecommunication networks
A method for handover of a mobile terminal from a source node to a target node in a wireless telecommunications network, including the steps of: adding an indication in the preparation phase by which source node indicates to the target node if it is the one preferred or not. If a target node is not the one preferred but is still selected by the UE, it may indicate this to the source node as by a specific new message that comes earlier in the handover process than a message requesting the source node to release resources following successful handover to a new node. The source node can then in this case cancel handover preparations to other target nodes earlier and also start data forwarding where applicable earlier.
US08571554B2 Apparatus and method for managing connection identification in a communication system
A method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving a connection identification (CID) in a communication system is provided. Upon detecting a need for its handover, a mobile station (MS) transmits a handover request message to a first base station (BS) in communication with the MS. Upon receiving the handover request message, the first BS transmits at least one CID for connection setup to a second BS to which the MS will perform handover, to the MS along with a handover response message in response to the handover request message. The MS receives the CID through the handover response message.
US08571549B2 Access control for roaming radio devices
Methods and systems are provided for supporting roaming wireless devices and roaming wireless groups with access controls. One exemplary method involves obtaining a set of permissions associated with a roaming device from its home radio system, obtaining a set of permissions for the roaming device from the visited radio system, merging the obtained sets of permissions, and responding to a request from the roaming device in accordance with the merged set of permissions for the roaming device within the visited radio system. Another exemplary method involves obtaining permissions associated with a roaming radio group from its home radio system, obtaining permissions for the roaming radio group from the visited radio system, merging the obtained permissions, and responding to a group service request for the roaming radio group in accordance with the merged set of permissions for the roaming radio group within the visited radio system.
US08571547B2 Prevention of overreach condition in cellular communication
A method of wireless communication between a base station and a mobile station may entail scanning a first entry of a preferred roaming list for a first base station channel, transmitting a downlink signal from the base station to the mobile station; determining that the downlink signal to the mobile station from the base station has not been received, scanning the preferred roaming list for a second base station, identifying that the second base station does not exist on the preferred roaming list, and inquiring whether a vehicle ignition is off upon determining that the second base station does not exist. Moreover, the method may entail determining that the vehicle ignition is on, and return an excluded channel of a base station to the preferred roaming list and determine that the vehicle ignition is off and invoke a sleep mode of the digital control module.
US08571543B2 Basestation maintenance systems and method
A method and system for maintaining a basestation system is provided. The basestation includes a basestation module. The system includes a translating system for translating at least a portion of the basestation module between a first position and a second position. The system includes a connection module for detachably connecting to the portion of the basestation module when the portion of the basestation circuitry is at the second position.
US08571541B2 Proximity-based authorization
Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for enabling the response to a command from a wireless terminal to be based at least partially on the presence or absence of other users nearby, and possibly the identity of those users. In the illustrated embodiment, a server maintains an updated list of the locations of fixed and wireless terminals within an area (e.g., an IEEE 802.11 wireless access point's area of coverage, a CDMA base station's cell, etc.). When a user issues a command to his or her wireless terminal, the command is transmitted to the server. The server determines whether there are any other nearby wireless terminals (and inferentially, the users associated with these terminals), and then determines whether the command is authorized in that environment.
US08571533B2 Local mobile number for a foreign resident mobile
A system and method for providing a local number service at a native country mobile operator to a foreign resident mobile of a foreign resident country mobile operator. The service enables the foreign resident mobile to receive calls and SMS messages irrespective of its location. It also allows the foreign mobile to register with the native country mobile operator and perform communication services with a local identity.
US08571527B2 System and method for real time self-provisioning for a mobile communication device
A system and method of provisioning services for a mobile communication device are disclosed. A provisioning request including provisioning information and specifying a provisioning operation and a first communication service is prepared on the mobile communication device and sent to a provisioning system. Processing of the provisioning request is dependent upon whether or not a second communication service has been activated for the mobile communication device. If the mobile communication device is outside a coverage area of a wireless communication network when a provisioning request is prepared, the request is stored at the mobile communication device and sent to the provisioning system when the mobile communication device enters the coverage area. The provisioning system preferably manages service provisioning for multiple services, any of which may be hosted by different service providers.
US08571513B2 Integrated circuit passive signal distribution
For one disclosed embodiment, an integrated circuit may comprise an internal transmission line in one or more layers of the integrated circuit. The internal transmission line may be coupled to receive a signal from an external transmission line at a first end of the internal transmission line without use of termination circuitry. The internal transmission line may transmit the signal passively to a second end of the internal transmission line. The integrated circuit may also comprise first circuitry having an input coupled to the internal transmission line at a first location of the internal transmission line to receive the signal and second circuitry having an input coupled to the internal transmission line at a second location of the internal transmission line to receive the signal. The second location may be different from the first location. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US08571512B2 Implementing a passive rotating harmonic rejection mixer (RHRM) for a TV tuner in an integrated circuit
In one embodiment, a passive rotating harmonic rejection mixer (RHRM) is provided that can directly couple to an antenna to receive an incoming radio frequency (RF) signal. This RHRM can have a master RF device to receive the signal and provide first and second RF currents, a master LO device coupled to an output of the master RF device to receive the RF currents and mix them with a master clock signal of multiple polarities to obtain a mixed signal pair. The RHRM may further include a rotating switch coupled to the master LO device to cyclically switch the mixed signal pair to one of multiple virtual ground nodes at an output of the rotating switch, and operational amplifiers each having a first input terminal coupled to one of the virtual ground nodes and having a feedback filter coupled thereto.
US08571511B2 Apparatus and method for a wideband RF mixer
Apparatus and methods of manufacture for a wideband RF mixer are provided. The RF mixer includes an input, an LO input, and an output. A variable impedance tuner is disposed in an input signal path between the input port and the RF mixer, and a variable impedance tuner is disposed in an output signal path between the output and the RF mixer. The impedances of the variable impedance tuners are controllable for a particular frequency of operation with one or more digital or analog control signals.
US08571498B2 Multi-mode/multi-band power management system
A power management system for a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier (PA) load is disclosed. The power management system includes a first switching power supply that is adapted to output a relatively constant voltage, an electronic switch for selectively coupling the first switching power supply to the RF PA load, and a second switching power that is adapted to output a dynamic DC voltage to the RF PA load. The power management system further includes a control system that is adapted to close the electronic switch to supply the relatively constant DC voltage in addition to the dynamic DC voltage to the RF PA load in a first mode and to open the electronic switch wherein the relatively constant DC voltage is not supplied to the RF PA load in a second mode.
US08571495B2 Distortion compensation apparatus and method
A distortion compensation apparatus includes a distortion compensation signal generation unit that performs, on a transmission signal, distortion compensation processing using a series operation; a coefficient updating unit that updates series operation coefficients used for the series operation based on a feedback signal of a power amplification output which is output through power amplification processing of a distortion compensation signal output from the distortion compensation signal generation unit, and based on the distortion compensation signal; a memory that stores the distortion compensation signal corresponding to a transmission signal having a given power value and the feedback signal of the power amplification output as restraint information; and a control unit that performs control so that, in accordance with the power value of the transmission signal, restraint information corresponding to a power value different from the power value of the transmission signal is read and used for updating the series operation coefficients.
US08571494B2 Method and apparatus for establishing communications in low signal to noise ratio environments
An apparatus is disclosed having a receiver configured to communicate, by a first apparatus, with a second apparatus in a first mode; determine side information by the first apparatus based on the communication during the first mode; and store the side information by the first apparatus for communication in a second mode with the second apparatus, wherein the first and second modes of communication have different date rates. A method for wireless communications is also disclosed.
US08571487B2 Network status
There are provided systems and methods for providing a network status to facilitate communications. In particular, in some embodiments, a method of operating an electronic communication device is provided that includes retrieving a network status of another communication device. The network status comprises a signal strength. An available communication mode is determined based on the network status and a recommended communication mode is provided to a user based at least in part upon the retrieved network status.
US08571483B2 Interactive control of communication terminals
An electronic circuit is proposed for a wireless telephone terminal, configured to allow the use of devices present in another remote terminal with which it can communicate.
US08571481B2 System and method for supporting a keep alive mechanism in a wireless communications system
A system and method for supporting a keep alive mechanism in a wireless communications system are provided. A method for communications device operation includes if the communications device is operating within an idle time window and if the communications device is in the idle state, initiating a keep alive procedure, and if the communications device is not operating within the idle time window and if an elapsed time since a last transmission by the communications device is greater than an upper boundary of the idle time window, initiating the keep alive procedure. The method further includes if the communications device is not operating within the idle time window and if the elapsed time since the last transmission by the communications device is less than a lower boundary of the idle time window, not initiating the keep alive procedure.
US08571479B2 Short-range wireless communication
The present specification describes techniques and apparatus that enable wireless devices to communicate effectively at short ranges. In one implementation, the transmit power of a transmitting device is reduced to permit a receiving device to demodulate a signal.
US08571477B2 Automatic resource availability using bluetooth
A method, apparatus, and system for automatically sharing data resources between Bluetooth devices. A Bluetooth device is paired with a “trusted” Bluetooth device. When paired devices are found, the Bluetooth device automatically allows the other device to present a virtual representation of data that is shared. The shared data can be selectively downloaded for use by the other device as long as the devices are in proximity. In an alternate embodiment, the devices may share pairing information with a network, so that the same shared resource can be made available at a large number of access points but specifically only for one paired, trusted device.
US08571473B2 Wireless subscriber station for short range ad-hoc data communication
An embodiment of the present invention is a technique for short-range ad-hoc mode communication. An ad-hoc mode is configured for a first mobile station (MS) operating in an ad-hoc network under a broadband wireless standard. An ad-hoc mode communication is acquired having a simplified communication protocol of the broadband wireless standard. A second MS is communicated with using the ad-hoc mode communication.
US08571472B2 Proximity sensor module and electronic device using same
A proximity sensor module used in an electronic device includes a combination sensing element and antenna, and a detecting circuit electrically connected to the combination sensing element and antenna. The combination sensing element and antenna is used to detect whether an external object is in vicinity of the combination sensing element and antenna according to capacitance changes of the combination sensing element and antenna in presence or absence of an external object in the vicinity, the detecting circuit detects the capacitance changes, and generates a signal associated with the changes to decrease or increase transmission power transmitted to the combination sensing element and antenna.
US08571470B2 System and method for feedback cancellation in repeaters
An apparatus for repeating signals includes a receive antenna for receiving input signals, processing circuitry for processing the input signals to form repeated signals, and a transmit antenna for transmitting the repeated signals. The processing circuitry includes an adaptive digital filter configured to generate cancellation signals that are added to the input signals to cancel unwanted feedback signals from the input signals. A frequency shifting circuit adds a frequency shift to the input signals, after the addition of the cancellation signals, to form repeated signals that are frequency shifted from the input signals. A digital signal processor is coupled to the adaptive digital filter for digitally adapting the filter. The digital signal processor utilizes the frequency shift of the transmission signals to adapt the adaptive digital filter.
US08571466B2 Identifying radio stations of interest based on preference information
Systems and methods are provided for providing recommended radio stations to a user. In particular, an electronic device can compare media from a locally stored or accessed media library with media items provided as part of radio streams received by the device. The electronic device can identify the radio streams having the most media items overlapping with the local library, and recommend those streams as being most likely to be of interest to the user. The electronic device can further access a remote database of a large number of users' libraries, and receive recommendations based on the media items common to the user's library, other users' libraries, and radio broadcasts. This approach allows the electronic device to provide recommendations without requiring any monitoring of the user's listening habits or receiving preference information from the user.
US08571463B2 Systems and methods for computerized interactive skill training
The present invention is directed to interactive training, and in particular, to methods and systems for computerized interactive skill training. An example embodiment provides a method and system for providing skill training using a computerized system. The computerized system receives a selection of a first training subject. A training challenge related to the first training subject is accessed from computer readable memory. The training challenge is provided to a user via a terminal, optionally in verbal form. A first score related to the correctness and/or completeness of a verbalized challenge response provided by the user is stored in memory. A second score related to how quickly the trainee provided the verbalized challenge response is stored in memory. A third challenge score related to the confidence and/or style with which the trainee verbalized the challenge response is stored in memory.
US08571460B2 Calculation of correction factors for lead edge sensor measurement in duplex registration
A method and system for insuring printing accuracy in simplex imaging or duplex imaging, including a media sheet in a media path adapted to move the media sheet through the system. The media path includes sensors and a datum. The sensors include a leading edge sensor and a trailing edge sensor adapted to record the time of arrival of the edge. The edge arrival time difference is determined between the arrival time of the edge using output from the trailing edge sensor and the arrival time of the edge using output from the leading edge sensor. A correction factor is based upon the time difference. The time of arrival of the media sheet at the datum is determined using the correction factor to align items printed on both side of the media sheet.
US08571453B2 Image forming apparatus and charge eliminating device
An image forming apparatus includes a toner image forming unit that forms a toner image, a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a recording material, a fixing unit that fixes the toner image to the recording material, a transport unit that includes a rotary member that transports the recording material from the transfer unit to the fixing unit and a recording material guiding portion that has first protruding portions extending along a recording material transport direction, and a charge eliminating unit that is disposed between the transfer unit and transport unit and eliminates charge on the recording material. The charge eliminating unit includes a first charge eliminating portion having pointed projections, and a second charge eliminating portion that is disposed on a downstream side of the first charge eliminating portion in the recording material transport direction and is disposed to be out of contact with the recording material.
US08571450B2 Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of N image carriers including first through Nth image carriers, a transfer unit including an endless transfer belt, a plurality of M belt supporting members including a plurality of first through Nth nip opposing members contacting the inner surface of the endless transfer belt at positions corresponding to where the plurality of N image carriers contacts the outer surface of the endless transfer belt to form N transfer nips thereat, the first opposing member defining a first supported area of the endless transfer belt, a contact and separation mechanism including a retaining unit to move the first supported area of the endless transfer belt into and out of contact with the first image carrier, and a mark detector to detect a plurality of adjacent marks formed at a predetermined pitch in a circumferential direction of the endless transfer belt.
US08571447B2 Shutter opening/closing mechanism and image forming apparatus provided with the same
A joint member moves forward and backward between an advanced position and a retracted position according to the rotation of a rotary member when a cover is opened and closed between an open state and a half open state, and rotates at the advanced position according to the rotation of the rotary member when the cover is opened and closed between the half open state and a closed state. A coupling member is engaged with the joint member when the joint member is at the advanced position while being disengaged from the joint member when the joint member is at the retracted position. The coupling member opens and closes a toner supply port by rotating according to the rotation of the joint member engaged therewith at the advanced position.
US08571444B2 Neutralization device, developing device and image forming apparatus
A neutralization device includes a light emitter, an optical conductor and multiple diffusion portions. The light emitter emits light for neutralizing an object. The optical conductor, which is opposed to the object and extends in a longitudinal direction, directs and applies the light to the object. The diffusion portions are arranged on the optical conductor in a zig-zag manner from one end of the optical conductor to the other and diffuse the light.
US08571442B2 Image forming apparatus having removable fixing device
An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming apparatus main body; an opening and closing part that is attached to the image forming apparatus main body in an openable and closeable manner; and a fixing device that is removably installed in the image forming apparatus main body to fix a developer image onto a recording medium, the opening and closing part being provided with an engaging portion to engage with an engaged portion defined on the image forming apparatus main body, and the engaging portion including a pressing part that presses the fixing device toward a proper position when a part of the fixing device is positioned in a movement locus of the engaging portion during a closing movement of the opening and closing part.
US08571425B2 Detection device and image forming apparatus
A detection device includes: a detection member that includes an emission member emitting a beam toward a transportation direction of a transportation path and a beam receiving member receiving a reflected beam of the beam emitted from the emission member, and that detects an image on a medium; a transmissive member that allows the beam emitted from the emission member and the beam reflected from the medium to be transmitted therethrough; and a support member that has an open portion blocked by the transmissive member, and that supports an upstream end portion of the transmissive member in the transportation direction of the medium at an upstream portion of the open portion toward the medium, an edge portion of a downstream portion of the open portion in the transportation direction being located closer to the emission member than a bottom surface of the transmissive member.
US08571424B2 Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus that reduces a time period during which no image is formed due to a margin in leading end portion, by calculating the margin in leading end portion from position information of an image and moving forward output timing of a /TOP signal according to the margin in leading end portion.
US08571419B2 Method and system for flexible optical signal aggregation and transmission
In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for spectrally spacing carrier waves comprises determining a frequency offset between a first frequency of a first optical carrier wave and a second frequency of a second optical carrier wave. The method further comprises adjusting the second frequency of the second optical carrier wave according to the frequency offset. The method additionally comprises combining a first optical signal associated with the first carrier wave and a second optical signal associated with he second carrier wave into a multi-frequency signal.
US08571414B2 Optical transmission device, transmission and reception module, optical transmission system, and wavelength dispersion compensation method in optical transmission device
An optical transmission device includes: a variable dispersion compensator to give chromatic dispersion and output an input light, a branching unit to branch the light output from the variable dispersion compensator to a first part and a second part, a reproduction unit to reproduce an electric signal from the first part of the input light, a monitor unit to perform reproducing processing on the electric signal from the second part of the input light, control the variable dispersion compensator based on a result of the reproducing processing, and has a sensitivity to a variation of the chromatic dispersion which is higher than the sensitivity to the variation of the chromatic dispersion of the reproduction unit.
US08571412B2 Bi-directional, compact, multi-path and free space channel replicator
An apparatus for simulating radio frequency (RF) signal propagation characteristics in a wireless communication network is disclosed. The apparatus includes a first RF terminal and a second RF terminal. A first optical modulator is in electrical communication with the first RF terminal. An optical delay line is in optical communication with the first optical modulator. A first optical demodulator is in optical communication with the optical delay line and in electrical communication with the first RF terminal. A second optical demodulator is in optical communication with the optical delay line and in electrical communication with the second RF terminal. A second optical modulator is in electrical communication with the second RF terminal and in optical communication with the optical delay line.
US08571406B2 Early photographic predictor signal synchronization system and method
A system and method for synchronizing a photographic lighting device to image acquisition by a camera such that initiation of light emission of the photographic lighting device occurs after the first shutter blade of the camera begins to expose an image acquisition sensor of the camera to light and before X-sync associated with the first shutter blade stopping movement.
US08571400B2 Methods and apparatus for flash intensity value management in a photographic environment
Methods for providing a flash management feature (“FMF”) in a camera system include obtaining a flash intensity value calculated for a flash device by a camera, saving the calculated flash intensity value in memory, accepting a user-provided adjustment of the calculated value, saving the adjusted flash intensity value in a memory, and providing, when the camera transmits the calculated value to the flash device for use during image acquisition, the adjusted value to the flash device instead of the calculated value. A communication device to provide a FMF includes a microprocessor configured to obtain a calculated flash intensity value from a camera, a memory, and a user interface configured to display and allow a user to adjust the calculated value. The microprocessor stores the adjusted flash intensity value in memory, and signals the flash device to emit light at the adjusted value during image acquisition by the camera.
US08571391B2 Information storage medium storing multi-angle data and method and apparatus for reproducing the multi-angle data
An apparatus and method for reproducing multi-angle data in a seamless manner, even during a change of angle, and an information storage medium on which the multi-angle data is recorded. AV data divided into clips, which are recording units, is recorded on the information storage medium. Additional information regarding jump points is recorded on a space of the information storage medium other than where the clips are recorded. The apparatus for reproducing the multi-angle data includes a reading unit which reads data from the information storage medium, and a reproducing unit which reproduces the data read by the reading unit by searching for and reproducing clips corresponding to the read data when the read data is multi-angle data, and, if there is an angle change command, reproducing clips for a new angle from a jump point of the clip for the new angle.
US08571390B2 Reproduction device, program, reproduction method
A playback apparatus that, when it is incorporated in a home theater system, judges via the HDMI whether an apparatus such as a speaker 600 connected thereto has a playback capability. If the connection partner apparatus has the playback capability, the playback apparatus inquires a user whether a decoding should be performed using a decoder embedded in the connection partner apparatus. If, in response to the inquiry, the user indicates that the decoding should be performed using the decoder of the connection partner apparatus, the playback apparatus reads a digital stream from a recording medium and outputs the read digital stream to the connection partner apparatus, by the pass-through output, regardless of a decoding capability of the playback apparatus itself.
US08571387B2 Personal video recording with storage space requirement checking
Administration of storage space requirements on personal video recorders (“PVRs”), including recording a show having a storage space requirement, and incrementing the show's storage space requirement. Embodiments include tracking a recording period for the show and actual storage space used during the recording period; comparing the storage space used with an amount of storage space projected to be used during the tracked recording period; and incrementing the show's storage space requirement if the storage space used is greater than the storage space projected to be used. Embodiments include incrementing the show's storage space requirement in accordance with a predetermined overallocation rate. Embodiments include incrementing a show's storage space requirement in dependence upon genre.
US08571385B2 Recording and reproduction apparatus and recording and reproduction method
In the case where plural applications are executed at the same time, if each application instructs for different trick play to the same content, a difference is caused between an ideal reproduction state expected by each application and an actual reproduction state. The present invention makes it possible to keep the reproduction state unchanged as long as normal reproduction or trick play is not accepted, by including a moving picture trick play reproduction management unit which determines, in response to an instruction for one of normal reproduction and trick play, whether or not to accept, according to a rule, the instruction, and retains details specified by the instruction in the case of accepting the instruction, and a moving picture reproduction processing unit which reproduces a moving picture based on the details retained by the moving picture trick play management unit.
US08571384B2 Digital video recorder, digital video system, and video playback method thereof
Disclosed is a digital recording apparatus, which includes: a storage device; a processing circuit, coupled to the storage device, for receiving a video signal and storing the video signal to the storage device in the form of a plurality of video files, and for generating an index data structure comprising a plurality of entries corresponding to the video files respectively; and a displaying device, coupled to the processing circuit, for displaying a video concept of the video files; wherein the processing circuit searches and compares the index data structure according to a time counting value when displaying the video concept to determine a first video file to be read of the video files and a first location of the first video file.
US08571376B2 Optical cable connector
Methods, systems, and devices are disclosed for interconnecting two optical fibers using a protective insert, wherein the protective insert includes a connective segment that provides optical communication connection between the two optical fibers. Furthermore the protective insert includes two attachment mechanisms adjacent to the connective segment with each of the two attachment mechanisms adapted to removably attach one of the two optical fibers to the connective segment. Such a protective insert may be implemented inside a network interface device (NID) or with a wall-plate to be installed inside customer premises in a manner that allows a customer to easily interconnect a home network cable to an optical network terminal.
US08571372B2 Optical fiber
The present invention provides an optical fiber in which the transmission loss increase is suppressed even under a high-humidity condition or under a water-immersed condition. A colored optical fiber (22) according to an embodiment of the present invention is a colored optical fiber (22) formed by applying a colored layer to an optical fiber (14) including a glass optical fiber coated with at least a double-layered coating layer of a soft layer and a hard layer, and the ratio of thermal expansion coefficient between the coating layer after the colored layer of the colored optical fiber (22) is applied and the coating layer of the optical fiber (14) before the colored layer is applied is 0.87 or more. Furthermore, an optical fiber ribbon (32) according to another embodiment of the present invention is an optical fiber (32) formed by arranging a plurality of the colored optical fiber (22) in the form of a plane and coating them all together with a ribbon resin and the ratio of thermal expansion coefficient between the coating layer after the colored layer of the colored optical fiber (22) is applied and the coating layer of the optical fiber before the colored layer is applied is 0.90 or more.
US08571369B2 Optical-fiber module having improved accessibility
The present invention relates to optical-fiber modules having improved accessibility. In a typical embodiment, the optical-fiber module includes one or more optical fibers surrounded by an intermediate layer. The intermediate layer typically includes a polymeric medium with a liquid lubricant dispersed therein. A buffer tube encloses the optical fibers and the intermediate layer.
US08571362B1 Forming optical device using multiple mask formation techniques
An optical device includes a first region interfaced with a second region. The first region includes one or more surfaces that are formed using electron-beam lithography and the second region includes one or more surfaces that are formed using photolithography. A component crosses the interface and includes a first portion located in the first region and a second portion located in the second region. The component includes a light-signal carrying region that constrains light signals. The first portion includes a first taper that expands the light-signal carrying region as the component approaches the interface and the second portion includes a second taper that expands the light-signal carrying region as the component approaches the interface.
US08571353B2 Apparatus and method for image processing
An image processing apparatus includes: a reducing section reducing an image for which a feature analysis is to be perform at a predetermined reduction ratio; an ROI mask generating section analyzing a feature of a reduced image as the image reduced at the predetermined reduction ratio, and generating an ROI mask as mask information indicating a region of interest as a region to be interested in the reduced image; an ROI mask enlarging section enlarging a size of the ROI mask to a size of the image before being reduced by the reducing section; and an ROI mask updating section analyzing a feature of a region, set as a blank region as a region not to be interested in the ROI mask, of the image before being reduced by the reducing section, and updating the ROI mask by using an analysis result.
US08571352B2 Difference image generation device, difference image generation method, and computer readable media
One exemplary embodiment includes a difference image generation device including a measurement unit and a scaling unit. The measurement unit measures a variation width of pixel values of a difference image signal obtained by performing subtraction processing on first and second input image signals. The scaling unit scales each pixel value of the difference image signal based on a measurement result of the variation width so that the difference image signal can be represented in grayscale using a predetermined bit width, and outputs a difference image signal subjected to scaling.
US08571351B2 Evaluating mapping between spatial point sets
A computer implemented method for evaluating a one-to-one mapping between a first spatial point set and a second spatial point set in nD comprising the steps of receiving a first and a second spatial point sets and a one-to-one mapping between the two spatial point sets; defining a spatial agent; generating multiple mapped (n+1)-combinations in the first point set; computing multiple affine transformations that transform the multiple mapped (n+1)-combinations to correspondents in the second point set; applying the multiple affine transformations to the spatial agent to generate multiple transformed spatial agents; and computing a distance measure using the multiple transformed spatial agents.
US08571349B1 Image enhancement through discrete patch optimization
An image processing system enhances the resolution of an original image using higher-resolution image data from other images. The image processing system defines a plurality of overlapping partitions for the original image, each partition defining a set of non-overlapping site patches. During an optimization phase, the system identifies, for site patches of the original images, label patches within related images that are of most relevance. During a rendering phase independent of the optimization phase, an output image with enhanced resolution is synthesized by substituting, for site patches of the original image, the identified relevant label patches from the related images.
US08571347B2 Reducing digital image noise
Devices, systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with reducing digital image noise are described. In one embodiment, a method includes determining, on a per pixel basis, mosquito noise values associated with pixels of a digital image. The method determines, on a per pixel basis, block noise values associated with the digital image. The method filters the digital image with a plurality of adaptive filters. A compression artifact in the digital image is reduced. The compression artifact is reduced by combining filter outputs from the plurality of adaptive filters. The filter outputs are combined based, at least in part, on the mosquito noise values and the block noise values.
US08571342B2 Image processing and generation of focus information
Embodiments herein include a focus evaluator configured to categorize portions of image content into different groupings depending on a respective focus value derived for each portion of the image content. The focus evaluator compares relative sizes of the different groupings to identify one or more groupings representative of an overall focus quality associated with the image content. Based on the identified one or more groupings, the focus evaluator generates the overall focus value for the image content.
US08571332B2 Methods, systems, and media for automatically classifying face images
Methods, systems, and media for automatically classifying face images are provided. In some embodiments, features of the face image to be classified for an attribute are selected, wherein each of the features corresponds to a different region of the face image and specifies one or more of a type of pixel data to be evaluated for the region, a normalization to be applied for the region, and an aggregation to be applied for the region. The face image is classified with respect to the attribute based on the features of the image, and the attribute and a confidence value are assigned to the face image based on the classifying. A query is received from a user, and the attribute is identified as corresponding to the query. The face image is determined as corresponding to the attribute, and the face image is identified to the user as corresponding to the query.
US08571331B2 Content based image selection for automatic photo album generation
A method is employed to present image from an event. A plurality of images from the event are received and one or more clusters of images are created, wherein each cluster of images has a similarity greater than a predetermined threshold. A density value of the data distribution within each cluster is estimated and at least one local maximum associated with each cluster is identified via a density function. At least one image from each cluster is selected, wherein each image is a candidate for the presentation. A layout is created to present the images selected.
US08571329B2 System and method for searching digital images
A method and system for automatically analyzing and searching a database of digital content items includes a process for analyzing digital content items to identify portions capable of receiving text. In one implementation user input is received, where the user input helps construct a set of ordered values representing digital content item features desired by the user. The constructed set of ordered values is compared to sets of ordered values corresponding to digital content items in the database of digital content items, and digital content items are retrieved with sets of ordered values corresponding to the constructed set of ordered values.
US08571322B2 Image processing method, image processing apparatus, image processing system and computer for recognizing shape change of a facial part
An image processing method for calculating feature amounts of a facial part in a face on the basis of a plurality of image data obtained in chronological order, comparing the calculated feature amounts with a threshold value, and recognizing the facial part, includes: calculating face orientations on the basis of image data; storing, in a storage, the feature amounts calculated from the image data, the feature amounts being associated with the face orientations; and recognizing a facial part in different image data of the face other than the plurality of the image data on the basis of a feature amount calculated from the different image data, the feature amounts stored in the storage associated with the face orientation in the different image data, and a threshold.
US08571316B2 Electrophotographic apparatus, system, and method of using colorless toner
An image processing system segments input image data into a plurality of regions, and obtains features of at least one region. The system refers to correspondence information to obtain a colorless pattern that is associated with the features of the at least one region of the input image data, and generates colorless image data using the obtained colorless pattern.
US08571308B2 Image processing for aberration correction
Processing of a digital image that has been recorded through an optical system is described, the image being in a raw format matrix of picture elements and comprising a plurality of subsets of picture elements, each subset corresponding to a color component. The method comprises analyzing values of picture elements of the color components in terms of spatial features, resulting in at least one calculated parameter that is representative of aberration caused by the optical system, and performing demosaicing of the digital image by, for each picture element under consideration, defining a kernel comprising picture elements that are to be considered during the demosaicing, the definition of the kernel being dependent on the at least one parameter that is representative of the aberration.
US08571303B2 Stereo matching processing system, stereo matching processing method and recording medium
A stereo matching processing system includes an associating unit that associates with each other such regions, in a plurality of images obtained by shooting a same object from different directions, that are on a same scanning line and have a largest correlation coefficient between them, as items that represent a same position, and a line segment determining unit that determines whether or not line segments that are associated with each other as items that teach a same position are drawn in the plurality of images respectively. When said line segment determining unit determines that the line segments are drawn, said associating unit associates with each other, not such regions that are on the same scanning line and have a largest correlation coefficient between them, but intersections at which the scanning line and the line segments each cross, as items that represent a same position.
US08571299B2 Identifying defects
Identifying systematic defects in wafer processing including performing defect inspection of a plurality of wafers, identifying defects in each of the plurality of wafers as not being associated with a trivial and/or known root cause, determining a physical location on each wafer where each of the defects occurs and correlating the physical locations where each of the defects occurs with cell instances defined for those physical locations.
US08571291B2 Combination weight applied to iterative reconstruction in image reconstruction
The image generation method and system generates an image using a predetermined iterative reconstruction technique, and an instance of the iteration process is weighted according to a predetermined combination of weights during the reconstruction. The predetermined combination of the weights includes weights based upon a predetermined noise model and a predetermined window function to improve image quality.
US08571287B2 System and method for iterative image reconstruction
Methods are provided for iteratively reconstructing an image signal to generate a reconstructed image signal. In one embodiment, sub-iterations of each iteration are performed on pixel subsets. The pixel subsets may be composed of pixels neighboring or spatially separated pixel. In a further embodiment, each iteration is performed at a different resolution. Systems and computer routines for processing image data iteratively in accordance with these techniques are also provided.
US08571286B2 System and method for quality assurance in pathology
Systems and methods for improving quality assurance in pathology using automated quality assessment and digital image enhancements on digital slides prior to analysis by the pathologist are provided. A digital pathology system (slide scanning instrument and software) creates, assesses and improves the quality of a digital slide. The improved digital slide image has a higher image quality that results in increased efficiency and accuracy in the analysis and diagnosis of such digital slides when they are reviewed on a monitor by a pathologist. These improved digital slides yield a more objective diagnosis than reading the corresponding glass slide under a microscope.
US08571285B2 Automated rib ordering and pairing
Ribs are automatically ordered and paired. After ordering ribs on each side, magnetic and spring functions are used to solve for rib pairing. The magnetic function is used to constrain possible pairs across sides, and the spring function is used to maintain the order on each side while accounting for missing or fused ribs.
US08571284B2 Surface analyzer
A surface analyzer with which users only need to perform simple operations to quantitatively compare different physical quantities, such as the altitude and phase, in a region of interest on a sample is provided. A three-dimensional color image created by mapping color information corresponding to the phase onto a three-dimensional image created from two-dimensional distribution data of a sample's altitude is displayed in an analysis result display screen. A section image is superposed on the three-dimensional color image. The one-dimensional area at which the section image intersects the sample is defined as the region of interest. The altitude and phase along this region of interest are graphically shown on the graph display area. Various characteristic values at the position of these cursors, such as the altitude and phase values or the difference in these values between two cursors, are displayed in a characteristic value table.
US08571277B2 Image interpolation for medical imaging
Presented are systems and methods that allow for interpolation of a 3-D volume from arbitrarily oriented 2-D medical images. The interpolation of 3-D volume from arbitrarily oriented 2-D images reduces or eliminates most constraints on image acquisition thereby allowing for, inter alia, freehand manipulation of an image acquisition device (e.g. an ultrasound transducer). Related utilities involve the use of prior information about a specific object of interest to interpolate a surface (e.g., 3-D surface) of the object from limited information obtained from very few 2-D images.
US08571275B2 Device and method for creating photo album
A device for automatically creating a photo album is disclosed. A face detection unit detects faces from an inputted image, an inclination determining unit determines an inclination of the inputted image based on inclinations of the faces, a temporary trimming reference area determining unit determines a trimming reference area containing one or more of the faces, a temporary trimming reference point determining unit determines a trimming reference point in the trimming reference area, an image rotating unit rotates the inputted image depending on the inclination of the inputted image, a trimming unit sets in the inputted image a layout frame of an image insertion area of a photo album template such that the layout reference point is positioned on the trimming reference point and the trimming reference area is contained within the layout frame and carries out trimming, and a template composition unit combines the trimmed area with the template.
US08571270B2 Segmentation of a word bitmap into individual characters or glyphs during an OCR process
An image processing apparatus is provided that includes a character chopper component that segments words into individual characters in a bitmap of a textual image undergoing an OCR process. The Character chopper component is configured to produce a set of (possibly curved) chop-lines which divide a bitmap of any given word into its individual character or glyph candidates. Cases where an input bitmap contains two separate words are handled by marking a place where those words should be split. The character segmentation algorithm computes the set of vertically oriented, curved chop-lines by considering glyph and background colors in a given word bitmap. The set is filtered afterwards using various heuristics, in order to preserve those lines that indeed do separate a word's glyphs and minimize the number of those that do not.
US08571256B2 Multimedia coding and decoding with additional information capability
A multimedia coding and decoding system and method is presented that uses the specific prediction mode to signal supplemental information, e.g., metadata, while considering and providing trade offs between coding performance and metadata capacity. The prediction mode can be encoded according to a mode table that relates mode to bits and by considering coding impact. Start and stop codes can be used to signal the message, while various techniques of how to properly design the mode to bits tables are presented.
US08571251B2 Headset
A headset having a loudspeaker housing and a microphone which are interconnected by a microphone boom arm that includes two opposed spaced apart arm parts, and wherein a name tag display is seatable between the arm parts and retaining tongue and grove pairs are provided at the arms and/or at the name tag display.
US08571240B2 System and method for reducing baffle vibration
Adjustments to an electro-acoustic transducer may be made to match the performance of a second electro-acoustic transducer such that a net inertial force generated by movement of the electro-acoustic transducers' diaphragms are substantially zero. Adjustments may include adjusting a moving mass of one of the elector-acoustic transducers. Adjustments may include applying an equalization to one of the electro-acoustic transducers.
US08571234B2 Display device and driving method thereof
A display device and a driving method thereof where different sounds are output depending upon characteristics of display images. The display device includes a display unit having a plurality of pixels, a signal controller, and a sound controller. The display unit displays images by selectively activating pixels from among the plurality of pixels in accordance with input video signals and input image control signals. The signal controller reads the input video signals to generate on-pixel signals having information about a ratio of a number of the activated pixels compared to a total number of pixels in the plurality of pixels per each frame and generating a sound output start signal. The sound controller determines a range from among predetermined ratio ranges corresponding to the ratio of the number of active pixels to define a plurality of volume levels, and determining the volume level corresponding to the on-pixel signal so as to generate a sound output instruction signal corresponding to the determined volume level.
US08571231B2 Suppressing noise in an audio signal
An electronic device for suppressing noise in an audio signal is described. The electronic device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory. The electronic device receives an input audio signal and computes an overall noise estimate based on a stationary noise estimate, a non-stationary noise estimate and an excess noise estimate. The electronic device also computes an adaptive factor based on an input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and one or more SNR limits. A set of gains is also computed using a spectral expansion gain function. The spectral expansion gain function is based on the overall noise estimate and the adaptive factor. The electronic device also applies the set of gains to the input audio signal to produce a noise-suppressed audio signal and provides the noise-suppressed audio signal.
US08571230B2 Active noise reduction adaptive filter adaptation rate adjusting
A method for determining leakage factors or adaptation rates, or both, for adaptive filters in an active noise reduction system. The leakage factor or adaptation rate, or both, may vary depending on a parameter of an input reference signal. The parameter may include one or more of reference signal input frequency, rate of change of reference input signal frequency, if a predetermined triggering condition exits, or if a predetermined event has occurred.
US08571214B2 Secure network coding for multi-resolution wireless video streaming
Described herein is a method and system for hierarchical wireless video with network coding which limits encryption operations to a critical set of network coding coefficients in combination with multi-resolution video coding. Such a method and system achieves hierarchical fidelity levels, robustness against wireless packet loss and efficient security by exploiting the algebraic structure of network coding.
US08571201B2 Cross channel identification in electronic commerce environments
A technique for providing context information for a PSTN phone call originating from an user includes dynamically selecting a phone number (or invite code or combination thereof) from among a pool of available phone numbers; displaying the selected phone number to the user in a web page; receiving context information corresponding to the user; receiving an incoming phone call on the dynamically selected phone number, connecting the incoming call to an outgoing call to the call center, and providing the context information to a computer corresponding to an agent to whom the outgoing call is connected. The context information may include a web page viewed by the user, and may be sufficient to provide a co-browsing capability. The technique may be utilized with or without session based web pages and may be performed by a sever that serves web page content to the user or a third party service provider.
US08571198B2 Handling redirect calls
In a particular embodiment, a network device receives, from a first device, a first call request for a second device. The network device may then send the first call request to a redirect server, which can determine where to send the call. The network device receives a response from the redirect server indicating an address to redirect the call request to. The network device then determines a redirect ID for the redirect. The network device sends a message to the first device with the redirect ID where the message indicates that a redirection occurred to the third device. The network device then receives a second call request from the first device that includes the redirect ID. The network device determines if the call was part of a previous redirect. If so, the second call request is sent to the address associated with the redirect ID.
US08571196B2 Method for retrieving information from a telephone terminal via a communication server, and associated communication server
The invention pertains to a method for retrieving at least one piece of information regarding a telephone communication between at least two telephone terminals (2, 3) belonging to different users (20, 30) via a communication server (1), from at least one of the telephone terminals (2, 3). The invention further pertains to the corresponding communication server (1). The inventive information retrieval method comprises the steps of the communication server detecting the closing of communication by one of the users (20, 30) and the communication server (1) activating, for at least one of the users, an information retrieval service (1). The retrieval service comprises, for each of the users (20, 30) for which it is activated, the steps of selecting a form based on a criterion, submitting the form to the user (20, 30), and transmitting the completed form, along with said at least one piece of information, to a database (4).
US08571189B2 Efficient transmission of audio and non-audio portions of a communication session for phones
In one embodiment, a server may obtain source data for a communication session having a combined audio portion and non-audio portion. As such, the server may actively split the audio portion of the communication session from the non-audio portion of the communication session, and then provide the audio portion (to a first set of one or more phones) over a phone channel and the non-audio portion (to a second set of one or more phones) over a separate data channel. The second set of phones may then obtain and merge the audio portion from the phone channel and the non-audio portion from the data channel to reestablish the full communication session.
US08571188B2 Method and device for secure phone banking
A small form-factor security device is provided that may be inserted in series with a telephone line to encrypt dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones from a telephone to prevent unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information. A receiving device decrypts the encrypted DTMF tones to receive the original information sent by the telephone. The security device acts as a second factor in a two-factor authentication scheme with a tele-services security server that authenticates the security device.
US08571184B2 Device and associated method for measuring crosstalk
The present invention relates to a device (108, 109, 110) comprising an interface to at least one active subscriber line (112) and an interface to at least one inactive subscriber line (111). The device (108, 109, 110) comprises means for transmitting a first signal on the inactive subscriber line (111) and means for synchronously measuring crosstalk (130; 201, 203, 205, 207) induced into the active subscriber line (112) by transmitting the first signal on the inactive subscriber line (111).
US08571180B2 Miniature X-ray tube for a catheter
A miniature X-ray tube for intravascular or intracorporeal radiation treatment in living beings is proposed. The X-ray tube comprises a cylindrical housing section with a longitudinal axis. The miniature X-ray tube also comprises a cylindrical or cylindrical-tube-shaped first field emission cathode arranged concentrically about the longitudinal axis in the housing with a plurality of carbon nanotubes which emit electrons radially outward. The miniature X-ray tube also comprises a second field emission cathode in the housing with a plurality of carbon nanotubes which emit electrons in the direction of longitudinal axis. The miniature X-ray tube only emits little heat and is robust against mechanical stresses.
US08571147B2 Method and apparatus for reducing the time required to acquire a GPS signal
A method of correlating a digital communications signal is described. In an example, a window is defined equal to a portion of an epoch of the digital communication signal. The digital communication signal is then correlated across the window. A determination is made as to whether a correlation peak results from the correlating. Timing parameters are then established for receiving additional digital communication signals in response to presence of the correlation peak.
US08571143B2 Quadrature signal phase controller for controlling phase
A quadrature signal phase controller includes a first phase shifter and a second phase shifter. The first phase shifter generates phase shifted first in-phase differential output signals and phase shifted first quadrature-phase differential output signals. The second phase shifter generates phase shifted second in-phase differential output signals and phase shifted second quadrature-phase differential output signals. Each of the first and second phase shifters increases or decreases the phase difference between the first in-phase differential output signals and the second quadrature-phase differential output signals, and the phase difference between the second in-phase differential output signals and the first quadrature-phase differential output signals, in response to a change in a level of the first control signal and a change in a level of the second control signal.
US08571137B2 Distortion and aliasing reduction for digital to analog conversion
Distortion and aliasing reduction for digital to analog conversion. Synthesis of one or more distortion terms made based on a digital signal (e.g., one or more digital codewords) is performed in accordance with digital to analog conversion. The one or more distortion terms may correspond to aliased higher-order harmonics, distortion, nonlinearities, clipping, etc. Such distortion terms may be known a priori, such as based upon particular characteristics of a given device, operational history, etc. Alternatively, such distortion terms may be determined based upon operation of a device and/or based upon an analog signal generated from the analog to conversion process. For example, frequency selective measurements made based on an analog signal generated from the digital to analog conversion may be used for determination of and/or adaptation of the one or more distortion terms. One or more DACs may be employed within various architectures operative to perform digital to analog conversion.
US08571136B1 Adaptive symbol transition method for OFDM-based cognitive radio systems
Modulated orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers generate high sidelobes, resulting in adjacent channel interference (ACI). Current sidelobe suppression techniques, such as inserting guard intervals or cancellation carrier bands, diminish the useful radio spectrum or consume significant wireless device resources. Disclosed is a method of suppressing sidelobes through adding an adaptive extension to OFDM symbols that is calculated to avoid ACI while keeping power consumption to low levels. Bandwidth and user location information are collected by a cognitive radio an utilized to determine the extension used. The method significantly reduces ACI to other bands and reduces the required guard bands, opening the radio spectrum to more efficient use.
US08571123B2 Apparatus and method for mapping symbol
In a symbol mapping method, transmission data is encoded to output information bits and redundancy bits. The information bits and the redundancy bits are mapped to a symbol according to a first mapping scheme at a first transmission, and the information bits and the redundancy bits are mapped to a symbol according to a second mapping scheme at a second transmission.
US08571121B2 Method for SER approximation for OSTBC in distributed wire communication systems
A method for Symbol Error Rate (SER) approximation of an SER-based transmission power allocation operation for an Orthogonal Space Time Block Code in a DWCS equipped with multiple transmission Distributed Antennas (DA) geographically dispersed at random. The method for SER approximation includes the steps of: setting multiple combinable antenna subsets from the multiple DAs; selecting a quasi-optimal antenna subset Ag (1≦g≦2n−1) having a quasi-optimal power allocation weight wg based on predetermined power allocation, for each of the set multiple antenna subsets; and calculating an SER approximation value of the selected quasi-optimal antenna subset by applying a Probability Density Function (PDF) of a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) to the OSTBC SER having symbol constellation of a predetermined modulation scheme. The output of the SER approximation value can be output to a transmitter, or to a space-time encoder of a central processor for optimal power transmission.
US08571119B2 Software defined radio for modulation and demodulation of multiple communication standards
A Software Defined Radio (SDR) subsystem capable of supporting a multiple communication standards and platforms for modulation, demodulation and trans-modulation of an input signal is provided. The SDR subsystem includes a Signal Conditioning Cluster (SCC) unit that includes a signal conditioning CPU adapted for sample based signal processing, a Signal Processing Cluster (SPC) unit that includes a signal processing CPU adapted for block based signal processing, and a Channel Codec Cluster (CCC) unit that performs a channel encoding or a channel decoding operation.
US08571110B2 Block error compensating apparatus of image frame and method thereof
An apparatus and method are provided for compensating a block error in an image frame. This may include a video codec decoder for decoding an inputted image frame, and outputting a decoded image frame. An error concealment block may detect an error-generated block in the decoded image frame and compensate the detected error block through a median filter, and output the compensated image frame.
US08571106B2 Digital video compression acceleration based on motion vectors produced by cameras
Architecture for accelerating video compression by using the motion vectors produced locally by a camera is disclosed. Video frames are captured by the camera (e.g., a webcam) which also computes a motion vector for the frames. Metadata can also be generated that represent an index of motion quality associated with the motion vector. The motion vector is passed to a video compression engine which selectively uses the motion vector directly or alternatively as a seed for a compression and encoding algorithm. This algorithm produces a compressed video frame representing a motion estimate having a selected motion quality index value. In this way, complexity is reduced in the video compression engine, resulting in faster and more efficient video compression. Alternatively, the webcam sends a compressed video bitstream to reduce throughput on the connection and the receiving computing system processes residual information to derive an estimate of the quality index for each macroblock/kernel.
US08571104B2 Adaptive coefficient scanning in video coding
This disclosure describes techniques for scanning coefficients of video blocks, e.g., quantized and transformed coefficients. Rather than use conventional zig-zag scanning, the techniques of this disclosure adapt the scanning order based on statistics associated with previously coded blocks that were coded in the same prediction mode. For each prediction mode, statistics of the coefficients are stored, e.g., indicating probabilities that given coefficients are zero or non-zero. Periodically, adjustments to the scanning order can be made in order to better ensure that non-zero coefficients are grouped together and zero value coefficients are grouped together, which can improve the effectiveness of entropy coding. The techniques of this disclosure provide thresholds and threshold adjustments that can reduce the frequency that the scanning order adjustments occur, yet still achieve desired improvements in compression due to such scanning order adjustments.
US08571097B2 Picture coding method, picture decoding method, picture coding apparatus, picture decoding apparatus, and program thereof
A picture coding method of the present invention codes a picture signal and a ratio of a number of luminance pixels and a number of chrominance pixels for the picture signal, and then one coding method out of at least two coding methods is selected depending on the ratio. Next, data related to a picture size is coded in accordance with the selected coding method. The data related to the picture size indicates a size of the picture corresponding to the picture signal or an output area, which is a pixel area to be outputted in decoding in a whole pixel area coded in the picture signal coding.
US08571096B2 Ultra-wideband communication system for very high data rates
The invention concerns an ultra-wideband information transmission method comprising a first encoding step on the part of the transmitter, in which a pulse group which is formed from a predetermined number of individual pulses is encoded in dependence on values of a random number sequence, and a correlation step on the part of the receiver in which correlation of a reception signal with a signal pattern is effected, wherein the signal pattern corresponds to the whole pulse group to be expected when using the same values of the random number sequence.
US08571093B1 Communication interface for galvanic isolation
In one or more embodiments, a system is provided for communicating between different voltage domains using N+1 capacitive-coupled conductive lines to provide N communication channels. For instance, bi-directional communication (e.g., a first communication in a first direction and a second communication path in the opposite direction) may be provided using three capacitive-coupled signal paths. Two of the signal paths are used as single-ended (i.e., non-differential) signal paths. The third signal path is used to suppress voltage disturbances between two voltage domains.
US08571092B2 Interconnect coding method and apparatus
A computer program that is embodied on a storage medium for execution on a processor is provided. With this computer program, A current cost is calculated for each transition on a bus having a predetermined width for a functional circuit so as to form a transition cost matrix. Then, a predetermined number of the lowest cost transitions for from the transition cost matrix is determined so as to generate a probability transition matrix. The product of the probability transition matrix and the transition cost matrix can be iteratively determined, while also updating the probability transition matrix until the probability transition matrix converges.
US08571090B2 Technique for searching for a preamble signal in a spread spectrum using a fast hadamard transform
In one embodiment, a method for demodulating and searching for a preamble signal containing a complex phasor signal is disclosed. The complex phasor is demodulated using a phasor-rotated fast transformer. A received signal is correlated with a spreading code to produce a correlated signal. The correlated signal is coherently accumulated to produce a coherently accumulated signal. A first phasor-rotated signal transformation is performed on a real component of the coherently accumulated signal, and a second phasor-rotated signal transformation is performed on an imaginary component of the coherently accumulated signal. Finally, the signal power of the transformed real and imaginary components of the coherently accumulated signal is determined.
US08571083B2 Nitride semiconductor laser chip
A nitride semiconductor laser chip is provided that offers sufficient reliability even at high output. The nitride semiconductor laser chip has a nitride semiconductor layer formed on a substrate, a resonator facet formed on the nitride semiconductor layer, and a coating film formed on the resonator facet and containing Ar. The coating film has, in a region contiguous with the resonator facet and in the vicinity thereof, a low-Ar region with a low Ar content and, on the side of this low-Ar region opposite from the resonator facet, a high-Ar region with a higher Ar content than the low-Ar region.
US08571081B2 Semiconductor light-emitting device
A first cladding layer is formed above a substrate. An active layer is formed above the first cladding layer. An optical confinement layer is formed above the active layer. A pair of band-like current block layers is formed above the optical confinement layer and opposed to each other through an opening extending in a first direction. A second cladding layer is formed on the current block layers and the optical confinement layer. A contact layer is formed above the second cladding layer. A mesa portion is formed by being sandwiched between a pair of groove portions. The current block layers and the opening are included in the mesa portion, and an end of each current block layer on an opposite side to the opening and a side wall of the mesa portion are spaced apart by a predetermined value or more in a second direction.
US08571077B2 System and method for laser modulation
A laser system can include a laser and a laser output modulator to modulate the output of the laser.
US08571074B2 Fiber laser device
[Object] An object of the invention is to provide a fiber laser device capable of stabilizing intensity of laser light output therefrom.[Means to attain the object] A fiber laser device 100 includes: an pumping light source 11 configured to output pumping light; a rare earth-doped fiber 20 to which the pumping light is input; and a first FBG 30 formed on one side of the rare earth-doped fiber 20 and a second FBG 40 formed on the other side of the rare earth-doped fiber 20 that are configured to reflect light amplified in the rare earth-doped fiber 20, wherein the second FBG 40 has a reflectance lower than that of the first FBG 30, a reflection wavelength band in that of the first FBG 30, and Bragg wavelength on short wavelength side of Bragg wavelength of the first FBG 30.
US08571069B2 Method and device for sending uplink burst data in passive optical network system
A method for sending uplink burst data in a passive optical network (PON) system includes: sending a synchronization pattern of the uplink burst data, the synchronization pattern being of a length, which is an integer multiple of 66 bits, and being formed by connection of 66-bit unit gene blocks; sending a burst delimiter (BD) of the uplink burst data; sending a forward error correction (FEC)-protected data in the uplink burst data; and sending an end of burst (EOB) delimiter of the uplink burst data. The technical solutions in the embodiments allow the use of a less complex equalizer at the reception end of a high-speed PON system.
US08571065B2 Method and apparatus for assigning a virtual address to and text-messaging to multiple text-capable destination entities
A virtual address is configured. A destination address and a capability information associated with each destination entity of a set of destination entities associated with a destination party are configured. Each destination entity from the set of destination entities is a push-capable, text-message-capable entity. Each destination entity from the set of destination entities is associated with a virtual address. The virtual address defines a destination remote from the destination party and remote from premises associated with the destination party.
US08571058B2 Terminal apparatus, data transmission system and data transmission method
There is provided a terminal apparatus including a message monitor to gather transmission request information from each of first and second terminating apparatus, a dynamic bandwidth allocation unit to allocate each transmission band in accordance with the gathered transmission request information, determine a size and an alignment position of a time slot in accordance with the allocated transmission band, determine a transmission start time of the time slot, and allocate an extinction period so as to stop a transmission of an optical signal between a time slot of the optical signal with the second transmission rate and a time slot following the time slot of the optical signal with the second transmission rate, and a MAC controller to generate a control frame for notifying each of the first and second terminating apparatus of the transmission start time and the size of the time slot.
US08571054B2 Terminal distribution control for point-to-multipoint service in wireless communication system
A method for controlling a user equipment (UE) capable of receiving a point-to-multipoint service in a wireless communication system comprises receiving a point-to-multipoint service and performing a cell reselection in response to completion of the receiving of the point-to-multipoint service. The cell reselection is performed among multiple frequencies. The cell reselection may be performed in response to signaling from the network. The cell reselection may be performed regardless of whether cell reselection criteria are satisfied. The cell reselection criteria may comprise at least one of a cell reselection reference value between frequencies and a cell reselection reference value within a frequency. The cell reselection criteria may be embodied in frequency layer dispersion (FLD) information. Alternatively, the cell reselection criteria may be embodied in frequency layer convergence (FLC) information.
US08571044B2 Gateway for data transfer between serial buses
A gateway for data transfer between serial buses, including multiple communication modules that are each provided for connection of one serial bus, and that carry out a conversion between data packets and data words, a bus master that, via an internal control bus, controls a word-based transfer of data via an internal data bus between two communication modules, the bus master applying a source address via a source address bus to an internally transmitting first communication module, and a destination address via a separate destination address bus to an internally receiving second communication module, data received in data packets by the first communication module via a first serial bus connected thereto being transferred from the first communication module directly without buffering, in word-based fashion in one or more data words, via the internal data bus to the second communication module, which delivers these transferred data, in data packets, via a second serial bus connected to the second communication module.
US08571042B2 Reception apparatus for VPN optimization by defragmentation and deduplication and method
A reception apparatus for optimizing a virtual private network operates by defragmenting and deduplicating transfer of variable sized blocks. A large data object is converted to a plurality of data paragraphs by a fingerprinting method. Each data paragraph is cached and hashed. The hashes are transmitted from a primary apparatus. Only data paragraphs which are not previously cached at satellite are received. The data object is integrated from stored and newly transmitted data paragraphs and transmitted to its destination IP address.
US08571031B2 Configurable frame processing pipeline in a packet switch
Highly configurable frame processing pipelines are enabled in packet switches in an efficient manner which satisfies stringent area and power requirements. Frame processing pipelines are described that enable dynamic processing of different types of frames on a per frame basis.
US08571029B1 Label switched path hierarchy for intra-area segments of inter-area point-to-multipoint label switched paths
In general, techniques are described for providing multicast communication in a seamless MPLS architecture, in which thousands of PE routers within different routing areas of the same AS require P2MP connectivity to receive multicast communication. In particular, the techniques enable building inter-area P2MP segmented LSPs within an AS by stitching together intra-area segments of the inter-area P2MP segmented LSPs. The techniques provide LSP hierarchy with segmentation to enable aggregation of congruent intra-area segments within a routing area into an intra-area aggregate LSP. The AS may use the BGP as the inter-area label distribution protocol, and each routing area within the AS may independently select one of the multicast MPLS protocols as its intra-area label distribution protocol. The seamless MPLS architecture may be used by private network instances, such as multicast VPLS instances, MVPN instances, and IP multicast instances.
US08571018B2 Sonet add/drop multiplexer with packet over sonet capability
An advanced SONET add/drop multiplexer capable of supporting packet over SONET and multiprotocol label switching. The add/drop multiplexer is capable of adding and/or dropping both STM and packet traffic, such as Internet Protocol traffic. This SONET add/drop multiplexer allows Internet Protocol streams which are added or dropped at different nodes to be carried over the same SONET path in a network, thereby greatly saving bandwidth.
US08571016B2 Connection arrangement
A plurality of inputs are configured to receive circuit switched traffic from a plurality of initiators. A plurality of outputs are configured to output said traffic to a network on chip. Each output is associated with a different quality of service traffic. A traffic controller directs the received circuit switched traffic to respective ones of the outputs in dependence on a quality of service associated with the traffic.
US08571014B2 Distributed packet-based timestamp engine
A system handles timing information within a packet-switched network. The system classifies packets for processing depending on the packet type. After classification, a new timestamp value may be produced depending on the packet classification. The new timestamp value may use a timestamp value from the received packet, a value from a local clock, and an offset value. The timestamp value may be written into the packet, depending on the packet classification, and checksum-type fields may additionally be updated in the packet. In some embodiments, multiple physical layer circuits are integrated with a local clock circuit.
US08571013B2 Technique for interconnecting circuit-switched and packet-switched domains
A technique for interconnecting circuit-switched (CS) and packet-switched (PS) domains enables network components (302) having a PS network access to make use of CS telephony services. A method embodiment of this technique comprises the steps of receiving PS control information according to a PS control protocol such as SIP, determining, in response to receipt of the PS control information, CS control information according to a CS control protocol such as DTAP, and sending the determined CS control information to a second network component (324) that is located on an application (or service) layer for provision of CS services, based on the determined CS control information, to the first network component (302).
US08571012B2 Customized sip routing to cross firewalls
Systems, methods, and machine-readable media are disclosed for providing customization to routing of messages in a system where routing is based on stored addresses, such as, for example, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) system, to pass through a firewall. In one embodiment, a method of providing customized routing of messages to pass through a firewall can comprise receiving a message from an initiating agent to a target communication identifier at a system for signaling between endpoints. The system can have one or more stored network addresses for each of a plurality of communication identifiers. One or more network addresses for the target endpoint can be determined from the stored network addresses associated to the communication identifier. One or more policies can be applied to the one or more network addresses for the target communication identifier to route the message through the firewall.
US08570994B2 Systems and methods for multi-beam optic-wireless vehicle communications
The present invention offers systems and methods for effective multiple-hop routing, multicasting and media access control for vehicle group communications that employ directional wireless radio technology. Multi-beam optic-wireless media and streamlined operations provide low-overhead communications among vehicles. Systems and methods are provided to maintain a quasi-stationary group of neighboring vehicles, enable high-throughput on-demand switching among multiple vehicles, enable group coding in the vehicle group to achieve higher throughput, and enable dynamic adjustment of link to maintain desirable vehicle group. The proposed solution builds upon the conception of a MAC-free wireless operation and quasi-stationary vehicular switched network to achieve ultra-low-overhead and high-throughput vehicle communications.
US08570992B2 Dedicated signature allocation and choice
Methods for allocating and choosing dedicated signatures for random access are provided. Options for allocating dedicated signatures include allocating the dedicated signature from the unused space of the random signature root index when there is unused space and allocating more dedicated signatures from the same root index using the same time/frequency resources if additional signatures are needed, and reserving some preambles from the contention-based random access preambles from both sets of preambles. The present invention also proposes that the dedicated signatures be reserved in each of two sets of preambles.
US08570991B2 Wireless communications system, wireless terminal device, indoor base station apparatus, and control apparatus for obtaining location information
A wireless terminal device including a time information obtaining part configured to obtain time information indicative of a period of time the wireless terminal device is unable to communicate with a first base station apparatus, a storing part configured to store peripheral cell information in correspondence with the time information, the peripheral cell information including an identifier for identifying a peripheral cell located in a periphery of a first cell in which the wireless terminal device is located before becoming unable to communicate with the first base station apparatus, and a reporting part configured to report the peripheral cell information and the time information to a second base station apparatus capable of communicating with the wireless terminal device.
US08570990B2 Travel characteristics-based ad-hoc communication network algorithm selection
A method of operating an ad-hoc communication system is provided. The method comprises determining a pattern type relating to mobile node travel characteristics over a defined traveling region. Based on the pattern type, selecting a neighbor discovery and route determination algorithm. Implementing the neighbor discovery and route determination algorithm on received location and identification mobile node information to determine communication routes to at least one of mobile nodes and stationary communication stations in the ad-hoc communication system.
US08570976B2 Method and system for fast handover in hierarchical mobile IPv6
A method and system for fast handover in hierarchical mobile IPv6 includes: a mobile node which transmits a proxy route request message to a previous access router of the mobile node according to a handover expectation provided by the link layer, the previous access router transmits a network prefix information of a new access router of the mobile node to the mobile node; the mobile node which generates new care-of address according to the network prefix information; after the mobile node moves to a target network, an optimistic duplicate address detection is performed on the care-of address. The disclosure can simplify the handover procedure of hierarchical mobile IPV6 of the mobile node, reduce the signaling interaction in handover process, and shorten handover delay.
US08570966B2 Base station, mobile station and frequency division multiplexing communication method
Provided is a base station comprising a multiplexer so constituted as to frequency-divide/multiplex a first channel for transmitting first data to be transmitted to a plurality of mobile stations, and a second channel for transmitting second data to be transmitted to one mobile station.
US08570964B2 Device, system, and method of coordinating among multiple co-located wireless communication units
Device, system, and method of coordinating among multiple collocated wireless communication units. For example, a wireless communication device may include a first wireless communication unit to communicate with an access point of a first wireless communication network; and a second wireless communication unit to communicate in a second wireless communication network, wherein the first wireless communication unit is to determine at least one contention-free period, during which the second wireless communication unit is expected not to communicate in the second wireless communication network, and wherein, during the contention-free period, the first wireless communication unit is to transmit to the access point at least one request to transmit one or more pending transmissions to the first wireless communication unit. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08570954B2 System and method for QOS provisioning in broadband wireless mesh networks
A method and system for QoS provisioning in broadband wireless mesh networks are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method, comprises providing a dual mode mesh router having a plurality of radios, wherein the mesh router is used in a cell of a plurality of cells that covers a geographic region. The mesh router includes one or more WiMAX backhaul radios, one or more WiFi backhaul radios, one or more WiMAX access radios, one or more WiFi access radios, and three or more intra-mesh radios. Traffic is received at the dual mode mesh router. A minimum quality of service requirement is identified for the traffic. The traffic is routed via the one or more WiMAX backhaul radio when the minimum quality of service meets a predetermined value.
US08570950B2 Wireless communication system
A wireless communication system broadcasts a control signal at a first frequency band from a base station and allocates additional frequency band(s) for transmitting data by terminal(s). A control signal at the first frequency band indicates the location of the additional frequency band(s) and is not transmitted over the additional frequency band(s). Wireless data transmission is simultaneously performed over the first frequency band and the additional frequency band(s). Each terminal receives the control signal, which is used in time-synchronizing frames between the wireless data transmission at the first frequency band and the wireless data transmission at the additional frequency band(s). The control signal also includes control data for managing wireless data transmission of the terminal(s) at the first frequency band, and is utilized instead of a control signal at the additional frequency band(s).
US08570949B2 Communications terminal, server, playback control method and program
A communications terminal is provided, which includes a reading device which reads in access information recorded on a prescribed recording medium, the access information being necessary for acquiring content which can be played back by a playback device from a prescribed server via a network; and a playback control device which controls the playback device and the reading device. The playback control device controls receiving the content and metadata from the server, and playing back the content according to the metadata, if the content corresponding to the read access information is not stored in the storage device when the reading device reads in the access information; and the playback control device controls playing back the content stored in the storage device according to the metadata stored in the storage device in association with the content, if the content corresponding to the read access information is stored in the storage device.
US08570933B2 Self-interference suppression in full-duplex MIMO relays
A method, and an apparatus, for self-interference suppression in a relay for wireless communication, wherein the relay is arranged for receiving a signal r(n) transmitted from a transmitter, and for transmitting a self-interference suppressed transmit signal xr(n) to a receiver. The self-interference suppressed transmit signal xr(n) is achieved by determining a receive suppression filter matrix Wr, determining a relay amplification matrix G, and determining a transmit suppression filter matrix Wt, and then applying the suppression filters and the amplification matrix to the received signal r(n).
US08570932B2 Wireless communication apparatus
A repeater capable of improving the data decoding performance at a base station while achieving sharing of processing for data exchange between repeaters and initial data transmission to the base station (eNB) is provided. A repeater 100 which cooperates with another repeater 200 to relay data to a base station 300 includes a storage section 113 which stores first data of the local apparatus, a receiving section 101 which receives at least a portion of the second data of another repeater 200, an interleave section 111 which applies interleaving to at least a portion of the first data and the second data in accordance with a difference in propagation quality between the base station 300 and each of the repeaters, and segments data after interleaving, and a transmitting section 116 which, if data after interleaving is segmented, transmits segmented data to the base station.
US08570931B2 Repeater, wireless communication system, control method and recording medium
The present invention provides a repeater, a wireless communication system, a control method and a recording medium that can transmit the same signal received by plural repeaters to the recipient wireless communication device without redundancy of the signal. A repeater connected to a network and relaying a communication of a wireless communication device comprises a packet reception unit receiving a packet transmitted from a sender wireless communication device to a recipient wireless communication device from the network or the sender wireless communication device, a transmission unit transmitting the packet received by the packet reception unit to the recipient wireless communication device, a packet storing unit storing the packet to be transmitted to the recipient wireless communication device as a first packet, and a packet selection unit comparing the first packet with a second packet other than the first packet, and discarding the second packet when both packets match under a predetermined condition.
US08570928B2 Method of handling multimedia broadcast multicast service data reception on multiple component carriers
A method of handling multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) data reception on multiple component carriers for a mobile device in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The mobile device has a maximum component carrier capability indicating the maximum number of component carriers accessible for the mobile device. The method comprises the steps of receiving a broadcast message or a dedicated message sent by the network, obtaining information about the number of the component carriers configured for the MBMS data reception, from the broadcast message or the dedicated message, and sending a first message to inform the network of a component carrier capability indicating the number of the component carriers on which the mobile device is not configured by the network to receive the MBMS data.
US08570926B2 Method and apparatus for inferring state transitions in a wireless communications network
A method, a computer readable medium and an apparatus for inferring state transitions in a wireless communications network are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method infers a state promotion procedure. In another embodiment, the method infers a state demotion procedure.
US08570918B2 System and method for processing a frequency division multiplexing signal
A method for processing a frequency division multiplexing signal transmitted in a channel is provided. The method includes the steps of a) receiving the frequency division multiplexing signal having a residual intercarrier interference (ICI) and a channel noise and transmitted by plural subcarriers; b) performing a cyclic prefix removal and a discrete Fourier transform for the frequency division multiplexing signal to obtain a frequency-domain signal; c) analyzing the frequency-domain signal to obtain a plurality of correlation values for the residual ICI and the channel noise; and d) performing a communication signal processing for the frequency division multiplexing signal based on at least one of the plural correlation values.
US08570915B2 Relay radio front-end
A relay node (34) which wirelessly communicates on a backhaul link over a first interface with a base station node (28) of a radio access technology network and which wirelessly communicates on an access link over a second interface with a wireless terminal (30). The relay node (34) comprises a transceiver (36) and a duplexer section (40). The transceiver (36) comprises a transmitter (42) and a receiver (44). The duplexer section (40) comprises plural transceiver ports (50, 52) and at least one antenna port (48). The relay node (34) is configured to provide a transmit signal from the transmitter (42) in a manner whereby a backhaul link portion of the transmit signal is conveyed through a different transceiver port (50) of the duplexer section than is an access link portion of the transmit signal.
US08570914B2 Apparatuses, systems, and methods for determining location of a mobile device(s) in a distributed antenna system(s)
Distributed antenna systems provide location information regarding client devices communicating with remote antenna units (RAU) in a service area. The location information can be used to determine the location of client devices relative to the RAU(s) with which the client devices are communicating. A location processing unit (LPU) is configured to provide location information for client devices. The LPU includes a control system configured to receive uplink radio frequency (RF) signals communicated by a client device wirelessly communicating to a plurality of RAUs. The control system determines location information for a client device based on which RAU receives the strongest signal from the client device.
US08570906B1 Method and apparatus for assigning a virtual number during porting of a primary number
A method and apparatus for enabling a network provider to instantly assign a virtual number to a subscriber to use until their primary number is successfully ported to the VoIP network is disclosed. For example, a virtual number can be a phone number for callers outside a subscriber's local calling area to call the subscriber for the price of a local call if the subscriber chooses a virtual phone number in their local calling area. After the porting of the primary number is successful, the user can be reached by either having callers directly dial the primary number or the previously assigned virtual number. The subscriber can continue to use both phone numbers or choose to disconnect the virtual number and only use the successfully ported primary number.
US08570905B2 Adaptive enterprise service bus (ESB) runtime system and method
Disclosed are embodiments of an adaptive enterprise service bus (ESB) runtime system and an associated method, which build, at a restart, only the most advantageous path configuration between composable units (e.g., between applications and/or between primitives within a single application). Specifically, during the execution of instantiations of modeled paths and branches thereof, metrics (e.g., the number of times each flow and each branch are activated, the CPU usage associated with building each flow and each branch, etc.) are collected. Then, at a restart of the runtime system, a cost-benefit analysis is performed on the collected metrics and, based on the results of this cost-benefit analysis, only selected ones of the paths and the branches thereof are built (e.g., paths and branches for which operational usefulness outweighs building costs). Other paths and branches are built only as required, during running of the runtime system.
US08570899B2 Provisioning for enterprise services
Configuring a communication system. Configuring a Private Branch eXchange (PBX) system to respond to a configuration telephone number by routing call control for the configuration number to an Service Management Platform (SMP). Determining an enterprise extension associated with an enterprise account in the domain of the SMP. Directing a mobile communication device associated with the enterprise account to call the configuration telephone number, and to communicate the determined enterprise extension and an authentication token of the enterprise account. Receiving, at the PBX system, a call on the configuration telephone number. Routing the call to the SMP. Receiving the determined enterprise extension at the SMP. Determining the PBX system port of the call. Directing the mobile communication device to communicate the authentication token. Receiving the authentication token. Upon receipt of an authentication token equivalent to the directed authentication token, associating the enterprise account with the determined PBX system port.
US08570896B2 System and method for controlling threshold testing within a network
A system and method for authorizing test traffic over a network. A request is received to perform a throughput test. A state of the network is determined. The throughput test is authorized in response to the determined state of the network being acceptable for performing the throughput test. The throughput test is terminated or paused in response to the determined state of the network being unacceptable for performing the throughput test.
US08570890B2 Mobile radio communications device and related method of operation
A mobile station establishes UL synchronization by the use of downlink preamble messages, and by monitoring timing drift within the downlink signalling and by updating the UL synchronization value responsive to the magnitude of the timing drift exceeding a threshold value. Tx power values can also be updated as a function of the updated synchronization value.
US08570888B1 Dynamic reverse activity bit offset adjustment based on RF conditions
A method and system is disclosed for dynamic reverse activity bit (RAB) offset adjustment based on RF conditions. A base station controller (BSC) or radio node controller (RNC) or similar network device will determine a rate of decrease of aggregate reverse-link noise measured at a sector, and from the decrease rate the BSC will further determine an amount of time needed for the sector to detect the aggregate reverse-link noise to cross below a threshold level. The BSC will then set a RAB offset for the sector to be at least as large as the determined amount of time.
US08570887B2 Analog bias control for packet communication systems
Apparatus having corresponding methods and non-transitory computer-readable media comprise an amplifier configured to amplify signals according to a bias current, wherein the signals represent packets of data; a packet module configured to recover the packets of data from the signals amplified by the amplifier; and a control module configured to control the bias current according to one or more characteristics of the packets of data.
US08570886B2 Communication system, mobile station, base station, response decision method, resource configuration decision method, and program
It is possible to solve the problem that a downstream control information amount is significantly increased if allocation information is periodically reported because no allocation method of a default E-DCH resource configuration is defined for a preamble signature. A base station and a mobile station decide a default resource configuration by using a total number of resource configurations or a value obtained from the total number.
US08570885B2 Uplink feedback in a multimedia broadcast/multicast services (MBMS) wireless communications system
A technique for managing uplink feedback involves establishing a channel quality threshold range, for example, in terms of a channel quality indicator (CQI), broadcasting the channel quality threshold range to the mobile stations and using the channel quality threshold range to control the feedback of channel quality information. For example, the mobile stations determine their own mobile station-specific CQI and then generate CQI feedback information in response to a comparison between their own mobile station-specific CQI and the CQI threshold range. In an embodiment, if the CQI of a mobile station falls within the CQI threshold range, then the mobile station can transmit a reduced set of CQI feedback information. For example, the reduced set of CQI feedback information may be a single bit that indicates whether the mobile station-specific CQI is greater than or less than a CQI threshold or whether the CQI has crossed a CQI threshold.
US08570881B2 Transmitter voltage and receiver time margining
A technique for characterizing a communications interface includes determining a voltage margin and a timing margin of the interface based on data sampled by a sampling device of a receiver of the interface. In at least one embodiment of the invention, a method for determining margin associated with a receiver circuit of an integrated circuit includes periodically sampling a signal over a time period by a receiver sampling circuit of the receiver circuit to generate a sampled version of the signal. The method includes incrementally varying a value of the parameter associated with the signal. The varying of the parameter is through a range of values of the parameter over the time period. The method includes determining a margin value of the receiver circuit associated with the parameter based, at least in part, on the sampled version of the signal.
US08570872B2 System and method for selecting network ingress and egress
A system and method for selecting communications routing. Network performance information is gathered from a communications network using performance information packet data packets. A network connection including an ingress packet path and an egress packet path offering the best quality of service is selected between the communications network and an outside network based on the network performance information. The network connection is established between the communications network and the outside network for routing communications.
US08570867B2 Method and apparatus for reshaping cell-based traffic
A cell-based router comprising a controller to receive provisioning information including a transport rate of at least one frame-based router among a group of frame-based routers in a communication network, adjust cell transmission rate to avoid packet losses at the frame-based routers, where cell-based traffic is routed to a bidirectional cell and frame based switch according to updated bandwidth comprising the adjusted cell transmission rate, where the bidirectional cell and frame based switch is coupled to the cell-based router and the frame-based routers.
US08570866B2 System and method for processing network packet flows
A network node includes a classify engine interfaced with the Internet. The classify engine accepts packets from the Internet and determines classification information for each packet. A process engine is interfaced with the classify engine, and has ports, each port being associated with a function. A controller is interfaced with the classify engine and the process engine. The controller programs the classify engine with a dataflow program to route each packet to a predetermined port of the process engine based on the classification information of the packet.
US08570865B2 Reducing power consumption in a fat-tree network
A method for communication includes estimating a characteristic of communication traffic to be carried by a fat-tree network. Responsively to the estimated characteristic, a subset of the spine switches in the highest level of the network is selected, according to a predetermined selection order, to be active in carrying the communication traffic. In each of the levels of the spine switches below the highest level, the spine switches to be active are selected based on the selected spine switches in a next-higher level. The network is operated so as to convey the traffic between the leaf switches via the active spine switches, while the spine switches that are not selected remain inactive.
US08570863B2 Method and apparatus for avoiding collision of uplink preamble using cell identifier
A method and apparatus for avoiding a collision of an uplink preamble using a cell identifier. In a case of installing a new small-sized base station in a mobile communication system, the method and apparatus may set a code parameter, a time parameter, and a frequency parameter, differently from a neighboring small-sized base station using the cell identifier even when dedicatedly using a preamble in a contention-free scheme to avoid a collision of the preamble, so that a random access preamble may be managed without occurrence of the collision with the neighboring small-sized base stations.
US08570856B2 Global ports in multi-switch systems
Global ports are supported in multi-switch systems having arbitrary topologies. In some implementations, global ports are implemented in a manner which makes the switch system robust in the face of link failure. In specific Ethernet implementations, global ports enable flooding, learning, forwarding, and link aggregation across the switch system.
US08570844B1 Absorption enhanced media for energy assisted magnetic recording
A magnetic recording media is disclosed. The media comprises a substrate, a recording layer disposed over the substrate, and a metallic layer disposed between the recording layer and the substrate. The recording layer is configured to receive an electromagnetic radiation, absorb a first portion of the electromagnetic radiation, and transmit a second portion of the electromagnetic radiation. The metallic layer comprises a non-magnetic metal and configured to reflect at least some of the second portion of the electromagnetic radiation towards the recording layer.
US08570839B2 Time-information obtaining apparatus and radio-controlled timepiece
A time-information obtaining apparatus is provided with an input waveform data pattern generating unit for sampling a received standard-time radio wave signal to generate an input waveform data pattern, an internal time counting unit for generate a base time, a calculation-waveform data pattern generating unit for generating plural calculation-waveform data patterns based on the base time, an invalid-bit detecting unit for detecting in the plural calculation-waveform data patterns, invalid bits not to be compared with the input waveform data pattern, an error counting unit for comparing the sample values of valid bits of the plural calculation-waveform data patterns with the invalid bits removed and the corresponding sample values of the input waveform data pattern to detect discrepancies between them, and a present-time correcting unit for correcting the base time based on the calculation-waveform data pattern having the smallest number of errors.
US08570838B2 Electronic timepiece with internal antenna
An electronic timepiece with internal antenna maintains sufficiently high reception performance of circularly polarized waves even when having a metal external case. The timepiece has a cylindrical case; a crystal that covers the opening on the face side of the case; a drive mechanism that arranged inside the case; a metal antenna; and a dielectric. The antenna houses the drive mechanism and has a cylindrical side part, a bottom part that covers the opening on the back side of the side part, and an antenna electrode that contacts the inside of the side part. The back cover covers the back side of the case and is also the bottom part. The dielectric extends circumferentially to the side part, and contacts the antenna electrode in the face-back cover direction. A slot extending circumferentially is formed in the antenna electrode. Part or all of the slot is covered by the dielectric.
US08570837B2 Multilayer backing absorber for ultrasonic transducer
A multilayer backing absorber for use with an ultrasonic transducer comprises an elemental multilayer having at least one metal layer and at least one adhesive layer, wherein the backing absorber is adapted to be coupled to a vibrating layer of the ultrasonic transducer.
US08570828B2 Memory programming using variable data width
A memory system comprises a memory including a plurality of bits arranged as one or more words. Each bit in each word is capable of being programmed either to a particular logical state or to another logical state. A variable data width controller is in communication with the memory. The variable data width controller comprises an adder to determine a programming number of bits in a word to be programmed into a memory. Each bit to be programmed is in the particular logical state. A partitioning block divides the word in to two or more sub-words when the programming number exceeds a maximum number. A switch is in communication with the partitioning block. The switch sequentially provides one or more write pulses. Each write pulse enables a separate communication path between the memory and one of the word and the sub-words.
US08570826B2 Memory device having data paths facilitating array/contact consolidation and/or swapping
Apparatus and methods are disclosed, such as those involving array/port consolidation and/or swapping. One such apparatus includes a plurality of port pads including a plurality of contacts; a plurality of memory arrays; and a plurality of master data lines. Each of the master data lines extends in a space between one of the port pads and a respective one of the memory arrays. Each of the master data lines is electrically connectable to the contacts of a respective one of the port pads. The apparatus further includes a plurality of local data lines, each of which extends over a respective one of the memory arrays. Each of the local data lines is electrically connectable to a respective one of the master data lines. At least one of the local data lines extends over at least two of the memory arrays. This configuration allows memory array consolidation and/or swapping without increasing die space for additional routing and adversely affecting performance of the apparatus.
US08570821B2 Semiconductor memory device and method for repairing the same
A semiconductor memory device includes a latch address generation unit configured to latch row addresses to generate first and second latch addresses when at least one of memory cells coupled to sub word lines is faulty, wherein the first and second latch addresses select different main word lines, and a repair unit configured to perform a repair operation on memory cells coupled to the main word lines selected by the first and second latch addresses.
US08570820B2 Selectable repair pass masking
The present invention relates to a method and circuit for selectively repairing an embedded memory module having memory elements in an integrated circuit chip. The method includes performing a plurality of tests on the embedded memory module under operating conditions to identify a plurality of non-operational memory elements in the embedded memory module and, in response to identifying the non-operational memory elements, generating a plurality of corresponding repair solutions. The method further includes storing the plurality of corresponding repair solutions in a non-volatile storage element and determining from a mask a subset of the plurality of repair solutions that should be restored.
US08570819B2 Non-volatile memory array architecture optimized for hi-reliability and commercial markets
A sense amplifier arrangement includes a first sense amplifier having a first input and a second input. A second sense amplifier has a first input and a second input. A switching circuit is configured to selectively couple the first input of the first sense amplifier to a first bit line in the array and the second input of the first sense amplifier to a first bit line in the array to selectively couple the first input of the first sense amplifier to the first bit line in the array, the first input of the second sense amplifier to the second bit line in the array, and the second inputs of the first and second sense amplifiers to a reference voltage.
US08570818B2 Address multiplexing in pseudo-dual port memory
A pseudo-dual port memory address multiplexing system includes a control circuit operative to identify a read request and a write request to be accomplished during a single clock cycle. A self time tracking circuit monitors a read operation and generates a switching signal when the read operation is determined to be complete. A multiplexer is responsive to the switching signal for selectively providing a read address and a write address to a memory address unit at the proper time.
US08570815B2 Semiconductor device and method of controlling the same
When overdriving a first power supply voltage supplied to a sense amplifier, a line for the first power supply voltage and a line for a second power supply voltage which is higher than the first power supply voltage are connected to each other by a first transistor, thereby boosting the first power supply voltage. When the first power supply voltage drops upon activation of the sense amplifier, the line for the first power supply voltage and the line for the second power supply voltage are connected to each other by a second transistor, thereby increasing the current supply capability. The first transistor and the second transistor are fully driven to operate as switches.
US08570814B2 Memory apparatus including programmable non-volatile multi-bit memory cell, and apparatus and method for demarcating memory states of the cell
Memory states of a multi-bit memory cell are demarcated by generating read reference signals having levels that constitute boundaries of the memory states. The read reference signals may be dependent upon the levels of programming reference signals used for controlling the programming of the memory cell. The memory cell can thus be programmed without reading out its memory state during the programming process, with programming margins being assured by the dependence of the read reference signals on the programming reference signals. Both sets of reference signals may be generated by reference cells which track variations in the operating characteristics of the memory cell with changes in conditions, such as temperature and system voltages, to enhance the reliability of memory programming and readout.
US08570809B2 Flash memory devices and systems
Flash memory devices and systems are provided. One flash memory device includes an n-channel metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (nMOSFET), a silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide silicon (SONOS) transistor coupled to the nMOSFET, and an isolated p-well coupled to the nMOSFET and the SONOS transistor. A flash memory system includes an array of memory devices divided into a plurality of paired sectors, a global bit line (GBL) configured to provide high voltage to each respective sector during erase and program operations coupled to each of the plurality of sectors, and a plurality of sense amplifiers coupled between a respective pair of sectors. Methods for operating a flash memory are also provided. One method includes providing high voltage, via the GBL, to the paired sectors during erase and program operations and providing low voltage, via a local bit line, to each memory device during read operations.
US08570808B2 Nonvolatile memory device with 3D memory cell array
A nonvolatile memory device includes a 3D memory cell array having words lines that extend from a lowest memory cell array layer closest to a substrate to a highest memory cell array layer farthest from the substrate, a voltage generator circuit generating first and second voltage signals, and a row selecting circuit that simultaneously applies the first voltage signal to a selected word line and the second voltage signal to an unselected word line. The selected word line and the unselected word line have different resistances, yet the first voltage signal is applied to the selected word line and the second voltage signal is applied to the unselected word line with a same rising slope over a defined period of time.
US08570806B2 Z-direction decoding for three dimensional memory array
The switch transistors in the NAND strings have combinations of threshold voltage levels that vary across the levels of a three dimensional memory array. A bias arrangement is applied to the select lines electrically coupled to the switch transistors. The NAND strings on a particular level of a three dimensional memory array are selected. The NAND strings on other levels are deselected.
US08570797B2 Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) read with reduced disturb failure
Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) in magnetic random access memory (MRAM) are subject to read disturb events when the current passing through the MTJ causes a spontaneous switching of the MTJ due to spin transfer torque (STT) from a parallel state to an anti-parallel state or from an anti-parallel state to a parallel state. Because the state of the MTJ corresponds to stored data, a read disturb event may cause data loss in MRAM devices. Read disturb events may be reduced by controlling the direction of current flow through the MTJ. For example, the current direction through a reference MTJ may be selected based on the state of the reference MTJ. In another example, the current direction through a data or reference MTJ may be alternated such that the MTJ is only subject to read disturb events during approximately half the read operations on the MTJ.
US08570786B2 Memory device and fabricating method thereof
According to one embodiment, a memory device includes first interconnects, second interconnects, and a first memory cell. The first memory cell is located in an intersection of one of the first interconnects and one of the second interconnects. The first memory cell includes a first multilayer structure and a first variable resistance layer, the first multilayer structure including a first electrode, a first selector, and a first insulator which are stacked. The first selector and the first variable resistance layer are electrically connected in series between the one of the first interconnect and the one of the second interconnect. The first variable resistance layer is formed on a portion of a side surface of the first insulator to cover the portion without covering a residual portion.
US08570774B2 Electrical power system with high-density pulse width modulated (PWM) rectifier
An electrical power system includes an alternating current (AC) power source configured to output an AC signal, a single phase pulse-width modulated (PWM) rectifier coupled to the AC power source and to an electrical load; a DC link capacitor coupled in parallel to the load and the PWM rectifier; and an active ripple energy storage circuit. The active ripple energy storage circuit has a first terminal, a second terminal and a third terminal, the active ripple energy storage circuit being coupled in parallel to the electrical load, the PWM rectifier and the DC link capacitor via the first terminal and the second terminal, the third terminal being coupled to the second terminal, the active ripple energy storage circuit being configured to selectively absorb and discharge at least part of the ripple energy.
US08570772B2 Isolated flyback converter with efficient light load operation
A flyback converter uses primary side sensing to sense the output voltage for regulation feedback. Such sensing requires a predetermined minimum duty cycle even with very light load currents. Therefore, such a minimum duty cycle may create an over-voltage condition. In the flyback phase, after a minimum duty cycle of the power switch at light load currents, a synchronous rectifier turns off approximately when the current through the secondary winding falls to zero to create a discontinuous mode. If it is detected that there is an over-voltage, the synchronous rectifier is turned on for a brief interval to draw a reverse current through the secondary winding. When the synchronous rectifier shuts off, a current flows through the primary winding via a drain-body diode while the power switch is off. Therefore, excess power is transferred from the secondary side to the power source to reduce the over-voltage so is not wasted.
US08570770B2 Opto-isolator multi-voltage detection circuit
An opto-isolator multi-voltage detection circuit is capable to handle a wide range of input voltages ranging from about 9 volts DC to about 240 volts AC includes an input voltage, an opto-isolator, a rectifier, a voltage divider, first and second transistors, and a DC to DC converter. The voltage divider operatively coupled to the first and second transistors is capable of evenly dividing the input voltage across the first and second transistors. The DC to DC converter operatively coupled to the transistors, the voltage divider, and the opto-isolator is capable of maintaining an output current from the rectifier. The use of the DC to DC converter, the voltage divider, and the transistors provide benefit of reducing a power dissipated throughout the entire circuit.
US08570764B2 Backplane and backplane communication system
The embodiments of the present invention disclose a backplane and backplane system. The backplane includes at least two service slots with the same function and an exchange slot. Among the pins of different service slots with the same function respectively connected to the exchange slot, at least two pins are arranged to resemble a stepped form. When arranged in this manner, the distribution and orientation of the connection lines connecting the pins of the service slots with the same function to the exchange slot may be adjusted, and wiring density within a single wiring layer may be increased, which therefore enables the connection lines between the service slots and the exchange slot to be staggered from each other in less wiring layers or even one wiring layer, and as a result, decreases the number of the wiring layers to be used, and reduces the costs of the backplane.
US08570760B2 Serial advanced technology attachment dual in-line memory module device assembly
A serial advanced technology attachment dual-in-line memory module (SATA DIMM) device assembly includes an interface, a cable, and a board. An edge connector is set on a bottom edge of the board, and a control chip and a connector are arranged on the board. The connector includes a first shell and a number of first pins. The first pins include signal pins connected to the control chip, and ground pins. The interface includes a second shell and a connecting portion extended from a bottom of the second shell. A number of second pins are arranged on the connecting portion. The cable is extended through a side of the second shell to be connected to the first pins. A distance between a top of the first shell and a top of the board is greater than a height of the second shell.
US08570756B2 Sliding electronic apparatus
A sliding electronic apparatus that prevents foreign matter from entering a housing is provided. In the apparatus, upper housing 1 and lower housing 2 are slidably coupled, and it is switched by sliding one of upper housing 1 and lower housing 2 with respect to the other, a closed state in which operation section 2b provided on lower housing 2 is covered by upper housing 1 and an open state in which operation section 2b is exposed. The apparatus includes opening 1c formed in a lower surface of upper housing 1, opening 2c formed in an upper surface of lower housing 2, and FPC 3 for electrically connecting wiring board 9 and wiring board 10. FPC 3 includes cover portion 3a mounted on the lower surface of upper housing 1 so as to cover opening 1c and cover portion 3b mounted on the upper surface of lower housing 2 so as to cover opening 2c. Cover portion 3a is electrically connected to wiring board 9 in upper housing 1, and cover portion 3b is electrically connected to wiring board 10 in lower housing 2.
US08570752B2 Server holder and server system including same
A server system includes a number of servers and a server holder. Each server includes two opposite sidewalls with each having a sliding rail formed thereon. The server holder includes two opposite lateral plates and a number of supporting structures. Each lateral plate defines a plurality of rows of receiving holes. Each supporting structure is received in one receiving hole, and includes a supporting block and a torsion spring positioned on the supporting bock. The supporting block is pivotably connected to one of the lateral plates, defines a sliding slot, and includes a resisting surface facing towards interior of the server holder. The sliding rail is slidable along the sliding slot. The torsion spring is configured for providing an elastic force to push the supporting block to keep the resisting surface resisting against one sidewall.
US08570749B2 Auxiliary device for conductively removing the heat produced by an electronic card
An auxiliary device for conductively removing the heat produced by one or more components on an electronic card includes a heat sink covering all or part of the card. The device includes at least a first heat-conducting element mounted to absorb the heat produced by the one or more components, a movable second heat-conducting element, a heat pipe connecting the first element with the second element, and clamping means designed to press the movable second element against a cold wall.
US08570745B2 Electrical connector assembly
The invention relates to an electrical connector assembly. The electrical connector assembly includes a main circuit board having a through hole, a processor, and an auxiliary circuit board. The processor includes a chip and a substrate. The chip is electrically connected to the substrate and located in the through hole. The substrate is at least partially located in the through hole. The auxiliary circuit board has a transitional connecting surface. A first conducting region and a second conducting region electrically connected to each other are disposed on the transitional connecting surface. The first conducting region is electrically connected to the substrate, and the second conducting region is electrically connected to the main circuit board.
US08570742B2 Enclosure of an electronic device
An enclosure includes a case and a cover. The case includes a heat generating device and a bracket mounted therein. The bracket defines an engaging hole. A heat dissipating module is located in the engaging hole and contacts the heat generating device. The cover includes a number of mounting poles pivotally mounted thereon. The cover is mounted on the case. The mounting poles are engaged on the bracket to enclose the heat dissipating module.
US08570740B2 Electronic device with expansion cards
An electronic device includes a circuit board with a number of expansion slots arranged on the circuit board for connecting a number of expansion cards, and a guiding member inserted in one idle expansion slot of the expansion slots for guiding airflow to the expansion cards at opposite sides of the idle expansion slot.
US08570738B2 Handle structure of electronic device enclosure
An enclosure of electronic device includes a casing, a mounting member and a handle. The casing comprises a side plate and a limiting portion on the side plate. The mounting member is secured to the side plate and comprises a pivoting portion. The handle comprises an installing pole. The handle is engaged with the pivoting portion and is rotatable relative to the mounting member between a first position and a second position, and the limiting portion prevents the installing pole from disengaging from the pivoting portion, and prevents further rotation of the handle when the handle is in the second position.
US08570736B2 Component assembly
A portable computing device is disclosed. The portable computing device can take many forms, such as a laptop computer, a tablet computer, and so on. The portable computing device can include at least a single piece housing with a cavity having a substantially flat bottom wall. A battery assembly and main logic board can be mounted directly to the substantially flat bottom wall with a plurality of additional components arranged around a peripheral edge of the battery assembly and main logic board.
US08570730B2 Mounting apparatus for PCI card
A mounting apparatus for a PCI card includes an enclosure, a mounting bracket, a securing bracket mounted in the enclosure, and a securing member slidably mounted on the securing bracket. The mounting bracket secures a first terminal of the PCI card. The securing bracket includes a main body and an elastic piece extending from the main body. The elastic piece comprises a piece body and a securing protrusion. The securing member includes a pressing panel and a securing portion extending from the pressing panel. The securing member slides relative to the main body to enable the securing protrusion to engage with the securing portion and enable the pressing panel to press a second terminal of the PCI card.
US08570728B2 Electronic device with replaceable rear cover
An electronic device includes a frame, a display mounted within the frame, a rear cover, and two switch mechanisms slidably connected to two lateral surfaces of the frame. The rear cover includes at least two opposite hooks on two opposite flanges and two opposite recessed portions on the bottom of two opposite sides thereof, respectively. Each of the two switch mechanisms includes at least one hook portion engaged with a corresponding one of the at least two hooks, and a handle exposed by each of the recessed portions. The handles are forced by an external force to switch the at least two hooks and the at least two hook portions between an engagement state and a disengagement state.
US08570726B2 Foldable keyboard
A foldable keyboard includes a main body, a first hinge portion and a locking element. The first hinge portion is mounted on a middle position of the main body. The locking element includes a locking portion mounted on the main body, a limiting portion mounted on the main body, and for receiving the locking portion, and a controlling portion mounted on the main body, and being received into the limiting portion. The main body is folded along the first hinge portion. The locking portion is engaged in the limiting portion to lock the foldable keyboard in a folding state. The controlling portion unlocks the foldable keyboard from the folding state.
US08570725B2 Flexible hinge and removable attachment
Flexible hinge and removable attachment techniques are described. In one or more implementations, a flexible hinge is configured to communicatively and physically couple an input device to a computing device and may implement functionality such as a support layer and minimum bend radius. The input device may also include functionality to promote a secure physical connection between the input device and the computing device. One example of this includes use of one or more protrusions that are configured to be removed from respective cavities of the computing device along a particular axis but mechanically bind along other axes. Other techniques include use of a laminate structure to form a connection portion of the input device.
US08570724B2 Self-adjustment suspension apparatus and electronic device with same
An exemplary suspension apparatus for suspending built-in equipment is provided. The suspension apparatus includes a fixing plate having a main plate and a recessed portion formed at the main plate, and a rotator rotatably engaged with the fixing plate. The rotator includes an engagement head and a connection pole; the engagement head is received in the recessed portion of the fixing plate, an end of the connection pole is connected to the engagement head, and an opposite end of the connection pole is a suspended end for suspending the built-in equipment.
US08570717B2 Center instrument pedestal display
According to one embodiment, a center pedestal display includes a plurality of mounting faces and a high-resolution screen. The plurality of mounting faces include a first mounting face that is substantially parallel with a first surface of a pedestal mounting block of an existing instrument pedestal and a second mounting face that is substantially parallel with a second surface of the pedestal mounting block, the second surface intersecting the first surface at an angle such that the first surface is not parallel to the second surface. The existing instrument pedestal includes one or more pedestal gauges and one or more pedestal switches. The high-resolution screen is configured to display information comprising at least some information provided by the one or more pedestal gauges. The high-resolution screen is approximately 6×8 inches and has a resolution of at least 1024×768 pixels.
US08570715B2 Load center with branch-level current sensors integrated into power buses on a unit with on-board circuit breaker mounts
A load center comprising a housing and, mounted within the housing as a single pre-fabricated unit of interconnected elements, two power buses, conductive paths branching off from each power bus, respective branch circuit breaker mounting sites each conductively linked to a corresponding one of the two power buses by a respective one of the conductive paths, and current sensors each association with a respective one of the conductive paths branching off from the power buses to provide an output responsive to current passing through said respective conductive path from the corresponding one of the two power buses to the respective branch circuit breaker mounting site. A processor in the housing receives current level signals indicative of the current passing through the conductive paths to produce, and preferably transmit, data for consideration in terms of power consumption by branch circuits fed through the load center.
US08570713B2 Electrical distribution system including micro electro-mechanical switch (MEMS) devices
An electrical distribution system includes at least one circuit breaker device having an electrical interruption system provided with an electrical pathway, at least one micro electro-mechanical switch (MEMS) device electrically coupled in the electrical pathway, at least one hybrid arcless limiting technology (HALT) connection, and at least one control connection. A HALT circuit member is electrically coupled to HALT connection on the circuit breaker device and a controller is electrically coupled to the control connection on the circuit breaker device. The controller is configured and disposed to selectively connect the HALT circuit member and the at least one circuit breaker device via the HALT connection to control electrical current flow through the at least one circuit breaker device.
US08570711B2 Multilayered ceramic electronic component
There is provided a multilayered ceramic electronic component including: a ceramic main body having a dielectric layer, the ceramic main body having a length of 1.79 mm or less and a width of 1.09 mm or less; first and second internal electrodes disposed to face each other with the dielectric layer interposed therebetween within the ceramic main body; and a first external electrode electrically connected to the first internal electrode and a second external electrode electrically connected to the second internal electrode, wherein, when it is defined that the shortest length of at least one of the first and second external electrodes, formed in the lengthwise direction from both end portions of the ceramic main body is A, and the longest length thereof is BW, a relational expression of 0.5≦A/BW<1.0 may be satisfied.
US08570707B2 Scalable integrated circuit high density capacitors
The present invention provides several scalable integrated circuit high density capacitors and their layout techniques. The capacitors are scaled, for example, by varying the number of metal layers and/or the area of the metal layers used to from the capacitors. The capacitors use different metallization patterns to form the metal layers, and different via patterns to couple adjacent metal layers. In embodiments, optional shields are included as the top-most and/or bottom-most layers of the capacitors, and/or as side shields, to reduce unwanted parasitic capacitance.
US08570703B2 Apparatus and methods for modification of electrostatic charge on a moving web
Methods and apparatus (40) to neutralize the charge on a moving web (42) by splitting the field present on the web (42). One portion of the field is removed by a grounded element (55a, 55) proximate to, and optionally contacting, one side of the web (42). Proximate the opposite side of the web, the apparatus includes an ion source (57a, 57b, 57c), which provides ions to the web (42) to neutralize the charge remaining on the web (42), and a second grounded element (50a, 50b, 50c) positioned between the ion source (57a, 57b,57c) and the web (42). The methods provide a web (42) that is net neutralized and is also dual-side or bipolar neutralized.
US08570702B2 Static eliminating sheet, static eliminating system for sheets, and simultaneous design molding method, printing method, and deposition method using static eliminating sheet
There are provided a substrate sheet, a plurality of design portions arranged independently from each other along a longitudinal direction of the substrate sheet and each including at least a conductive material portion, and a band-shaped static eliminating band portion extending continuously along the longitudinal direction of the substrate sheet and electrically connecting the conductive material portions in the plurality of design portions to each other.
US08570701B2 Rackmount I/O signal protector assembly for surge protection
A rackmount I/O signal protector assembly for protecting telecommunications related equipment and other associated sensitive electrical components from transient voltage and current surges includes a housing enclosure, a printed circuit board disposed within the housing enclosure, and a surge protector network mounted on the printed circuit board and interconnected between an unprotected side and a protected side. The surge protector network includes gigabit surge protector circuitry formed of a plurality of voltage suppressor devices, current-limiting devices, diodes, and clamping devices. Input side connector devices are coupled to the unprotected side for connecting to incoming telecommunication lines. Output side connector devices are coupled to the protected side for connecting to customers' electrical equipment to be protected.
US08570700B2 Protection apparatus for load circuit
There is provided a protection apparatus for a load circuit, capable of protecting the load circuit by simulating a fuse. A pseudo heat capacity Cth* smaller than a heat capacity of an electric wire used in the load circuit is set, and a temperature of the electric wire is calculated with reference to an arithmetic expression of heat generation amount of the electric wire, an arithmetic expression of heat radiation amount of the electric wire, a time counted by the count unit, and the pseudo heat capacity Cth*. Then, a semiconductor relay S1 is interrupted when the calculated temperature of the electric wire reaches an allowable temperature of the electric wire to protect the load circuit from heat generation.
US08570695B2 Battery system
Provided is a battery system capable of preventing the voltage that is applied to the voltage detection circuit from exceeding the withstand voltage of the voltage detection circuit when the connection between the cells in the battery module is disconnected, and preventing an overcurrent from flowing in the cell voltage detection circuit and the module. The modules are internally provided with a battery voltage measurement circuit 2 for measuring the voltage of each cell. A reverse voltage protective diode 3 is disposed in the power supply route of the battery voltage measurement circuit 2, and adapted such that the anode thereof is connected to the negative electrode of a drive power source of the voltage measurement circuit and the cathode thereof is connected to the positive electrode of the drive power source of the voltage measurement circuit. A fuse 4 as an overcurrent protective element is provided to the power supply route of the battery voltage measurement circuit 2.
US08570676B2 Optical assembly
An optical assembly supported in an arrangement, especially in an objective or in an illuminating or exposure system, in the interior of a housing comprising at least one optical element, especially a lens, a mirror, or an aperture, wherein the at least one element is influenceable by at least one manipulator is characterized in that the at least one manipulator is arranged either outside of the housing or in a holding means that is separated entirely or to a large extent by the help of a decoupling means, and that there is provided an effective coupling between the manipulator and the element to be influenced by the manipulator in the interior of the arrangement.
US08570674B2 Optical pickup actuator
There is provided an optical pickup actuator for actuating a lens holder having an object lens according to an interaction between coils and magnets. The optical pickup actuator includes a lens-seating portion formed on the lens holder to support the object lens and a lens guide portion protruding from the lens-seating portion to securely support the object lens. The lens guide portion has an adhesive confining groove in which adhesive can be injected to securely fix the object lens.
US08570668B2 Imaging optical system and imaging apparatus
An imaging optical system, which includes an imaging lens group having at least one lens, and an image side prism that bends light which has passed through the imaging lens group toward an image pickup device arranged at a predetermined position, and wherein the image side prism includes a reflection surface which reflects, toward the image pickup device, incident light proceeding from the imaging lens group and an exit surface from which light reflected from the reflection surface emerges, and wherein the image side prism has a cut surface formed by cutting off a vertex portion between the reflection surface and the exit surface such that a whole normal light incident area within which normal light is incident on the reflection surface remains, and the cut surface is a non-diffusing surface.
US08570663B2 Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus equipped with the zoom lens
A zoom lens includes a first lens unit of a positive refractive power, a second lens unit of a negative refractive power, a third lens unit of a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens unit of a positive refractive power, wherein the first lens unit does not move for zooming, at least the second and fourth lens units are moved during zooming, the first lens unit includes at least one positive lens, and an Abbe number and a relative partial dispersion of a material of the positive lens, an average refractive index of materials of negative lenses included in the second lens unit, a movement amount of the second lens unit for zooming from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, a focal length of the second lens unit, and a focal length of the entire zoom lens at the telephoto end are appropriately set.
US08570660B2 Wide-angle converter lens
A wide-angle converter lens capable of being detachably mounted on an enlargement side of an imaging lens includes a first optical element, at least one optical element having negative refractive power, and at least one optical element having positive refractive power, wherein, when an average value of relative partial dispersions of the first optical element and all optical elements of which the sign of refractive power is the same as that of the first optical element is denoted by θgF_ave, a relative partial dispersion of the first optical element is denoted by θgF, and an Abbe number of the first optical element is denoted by νd, these numerical values satisfy appropriate relationships.
US08570658B2 Non powered concepts for a wire frame of fluid filled lenses
Various embodiments of a non-powered actuator arm for controlling liquid flow to a fluid-filled lens are described herein. A vertical tweezer assembly compresses a reservoir of solution in a first vertical direction by lateral disposition of a slider mounted on the outside of the housing. The assembly may also be shaped to provide compression of the reservoir in a second horizontal direction by lateral disposition of a slider. In another embodiment, a housing may contain a piston that moves laterally within the housing and collapses the reservoir disposed adjacent to the piston and also within the housing. The housing may contain a plurality of compressible domes which can each be compressed to cause a local compression on the reservoir disposed within the housing. Compression of the reservoir causes liquid inflation of a lens module.
US08570657B2 Fast-axis collimator array
A micro-optical element for use with an edge-emitting laser diode bar stack, the element comprising a plurality of spaced apart fast-axis collimators formed as a monolithic array, wherein the spacing between the collimators in the fast-axis varies across the micro-optic element. A method of manufacturing a micro-optical element for use with a laser diode bar stack, using a wavelength stabilized CO2 laser is also described.
US08570654B2 Free-space optical hybrid
A free-space optical hybrid is provided. The free-space optical hybrid includes a polarizing beam splitter that split the light beams S and L into horizontal polarization light beams Sx, Lx and orthogonal polarization light beams Sy, Ly, respectively, at least one birefringent crystal splits the horizontal polarization light beams Sx, Lx and orthogonal polarization light beams Sy, Ly into light beams Sxo, Sxe, Lxo, Lxe, Syo, Sye, Lyo, Lye, a light combiner that combine the light beams Sxo+Lxo, Sxo−Lxo, Sxe+jLxe, Sxe−jLxe, Syo+Lyo, Syo−Lyo, Sye+jLye, Sye−jLye and output the light beams at ports. The present invention can realize an optical hybrid in free-space by using a birefringent crystal and can split light beams of different polarization statuses in free-space well. The optical hybrid offers a compact structure and good stability.
US08570653B2 Polarizing glass and optical isolator
The near-field extinction ratio of a polarizing glass is increased. A polarizing glass contains anisotropically shaped metal particles oriented and dispersed in a glass substrate, which contains 0.40-0.85 wt % Cl relative to the entire glass substrate. The Vickers hardness ranges from 360 to 420, the Knoop hardness number ranges from 400 to 495, or the glass substrate contains at least one component selected from the group consisting of Y2O3, La2O3, V2O3, Ta2O3, WO3, and Nb2O5. The content of each of the selected components ranges from 0.05-4 mole percent, and if a plurality of the components are selected, the total content of the components is 6 mole percent or less.
US08570652B2 Solid vision
Two image formation apparatuses are used to create pairs of images of an object analogously to the operation of two human eyes. Then the portions of the images analogous to the nasal field of view of the eyes are removed, leaving the outer portions of each pair of images. These outer portions are combined to create a resultant image that gives an enhanced impression of solidity. The relative proportions of the portions removed from the images are adjustable responsive to factors such as position of the object being imaged.
US08570646B2 Modular, high energy, widely-tunable ultrafast fiber source
A modular, compact and widely tunable laser system for the efficient generation of high peak and high average power ultrashort pulses. Modularity is ensured by the implementation of interchangeable amplifier components. System compactness is ensured by employing efficient fiber amplifiers, directly or indirectly pumped by diode lasers. Peak power handling capability of the fiber amplifiers is expanded by using optimized pulse shapes, as well as dispersively broadened pulses. Dispersive broadening is introduced by dispersive pulse stretching in the presence of self-phase modulation and gain, resulting in the formation of high-power parabolic pulses. In addition, dispersive broadening is also introduced by simple fiber delay lines or chirped fiber gratings, resulting in a further increase of the energy handling ability of the fiber amplifiers. The phase of the pulses in the dispersive delay line is controlled to quartic order by the use of fibers with varying amounts of waveguide dispersion or by controlling the chirp of the fiber gratings. After amplification, the dispersively stretched pulses can be re-compressed to nearly their bandwidth limit by the implementation of another set of dispersive delay lines. To ensure a wide tunability of the whole system, Raman-shifting of the compact sources of ultrashort pulses in conjunction with frequency-conversion in nonlinear optical crystals can be implemented, or an Anti-Stokes fiber in conjunction with fiber amplifiers and Raman-shifters are used.
US08570644B2 Optical modulator
The present invention realizes an enhancement of a fabrication yield and a reduction of a size regarding an optical modulator or an optical device including polarization beam combining means. An optical modulator of the present invention (1) includes: first and second optical modulators (LN optical modulators (101) to (104)) that are formed on a substrate; a polarization beam rotating unit (107) that rotates at least one polarization beam of modulated light beams modulated by the first and second optical modulators; and a polarization beam combining element (110) that is disposed outside the substrate and that combines the polarization beams of the modulated light of which the polarization beams are rotated by the polarization beam rotating unit (107).
US08570642B2 Light control film
Disclosed is a light control film comprising: two of transparent conductive resin substrates each having a transparent conductive layer and a transparent resin substrate; and a light control layer interposed between the two transparent conductive resin substrates to be in contact with the transparent conductive layer sides, the light control layer containing: a resin matrix; and a light control suspension dispersed in the resin matrix, wherein the transparent conductive layer contains: an organic binder resin; and a conductive polymer. The present invention can provide a light control film having satisfactory adhesiveness between the light control layer and the transparent conductive layer and having excellent radio wave transparency.
US08570632B2 Microactuator, optical device and exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method
A pair of support members each having a spring section in a part thereof support a mirror element, and a pair of drive mechanisms arranged respectively corresponding to a pair of the support members transform the spring sections of the corresponding support members, thereby changing a distance between each of support points at which the support members support the mirror element and a base. Accordingly, the mirror element can be translated by driving all of the drive mechanisms, or the mirror element can be inclined with respect to the base by driving some of the drive mechanisms.
US08570628B2 Three-dimensional color display apparatuses and methods
A three-dimensional (3D) color display apparatus may include: light sources emitting different color beams; a volume diffractive element, in which a hologram is recorded using one of the color beams that is emitted from one of the light sources as a reference beam and a signal beam, displaying color images by diffracting the color beams emitted from the light sources; and a scanning unit scanning the color beams diffracted by the volume diffractive element. A 3D color image display method may include: recording holograms in a volume diffractive element using a first color beam as a reference and signal beam; irradiating the first color beam and another color beam onto the volume diffractive element as a reproducing reference beam; forming beam spots by diffracting the first color beam and the another color beam using the volume diffractive element; and scanning the color beams diffracted by the volume diffractive element.
US08570625B2 Device and method for generating an image of an object
A device for generating an image of an object is provided, comprising an illumination module, by means of which the object can be illuminated with a pattern whose phase is altered temporally, a recording module, by means of which a plurality of recordings of the object are carried out during the phase change of the pattern, and a processing module, which generates the image from the recordings, wherein the illumination module moves a light beam over the object and modulates its intensity synchronously with the movement such that the beam generates the pattern in scanning fashion.
US08570623B2 Deep focus image reading system and image forming apparatus
An image reading system reads an image of an original document by conveying the original document through a fixed reading position along a platen glass. The image reading system includes a conveyance device that conveys the original document keeping a prescribed distance from the platen glass at the reading position. The contact glass is arranged outside a depth of focus at the reading position.
US08570621B2 Position measuring device
A position measuring device including a code having a sequence of code elements of equal width B that is disposed in a measurement direction and includes a first property and a second property. The sequence of codes elements includes a first set of code elements having the first property and a second set of code elements having the second property, wherein the first and second sets of code elements are each being disposed aperiodically. The position measuring device further including a scanning unit having a plurality of detectors for scanning the code and obtaining scanning signals, wherein a code word defining an absolute position is defined from the scanning signals. The position measuring device including an arrangement for forming an incremental signal from the scanning signals, wherein the arrangement includes a converter device and a collection device arranged downstream of the converter device and wherein the collection device forms respective intermittently periodic partial signals from the scanning signals derived from scanning positions in a spacing matrix.
US08570614B2 Determining maintenance conditions in a document scanner
A system and method for processing mail and other documents. A method includes scanning a document to produce a document image and analyzing the document image. The method includes determining that there is a condition of the data processing system that requires maintenance based on the analysis. The method includes notifying at least one user of the condition that requires maintenance based on the determination.
US08570610B2 Information processing apparatus, information processing method and computer readable medium for designating a region of reduced document on display and creating image corresponding to the designated region
An information processing apparatus includes: a document acceptance unit that accepts a plurality of documents; a reduction and display unit that reduces and displays the documents accepted by the document acceptance unit; a region designation unit that designates a region for one of the documents displayed by the reduction and display unit; a region image creation unit that creates an image corresponding to the region designated by the region designation unit for each of the documents accepted by the document acceptance unit based on a size of each of the documents displayed by the reduction and display unit; and a region image display unit that displays the images created by the region image creation unit in respective document positions corresponding to the documents displayed by the reduction and display unit.
US08570607B2 Scanner with a multiple lead worm gear
A scanner drive system is disclosed. The scanner drive system has a drive motor. The drive motor has a worm gear attached to the motor spindle. The worm gear has multiple leads. The worm gear is meshed with a helical gear. The helical gear is coupled to a drive train that moves a scanning module.
US08570606B2 Method, device and computer program to correct a registration error in a printing process that is due to deformation of the recording medium
In a method to correct a registration error in a printing process, data of first and second images to be printed are subjected to a raster image process via which at least first and second raster graphics are generated. Control data for a print member or two respective print members are formed from the first and the second raster graphics. A recording medium is printed in a first printing process with the control data of the first image. The recording medium is subjected to a treatment via which the recording medium and the first image deform along at least one deformation axis. The recording medium is printed by the print member with the control data of the second image in a second printing process. To avoid a registration error between the first and second printed images, the control data of the respective raster graphic of at least one of the first and the second print images as a source image are processed along an image processing axis of the respective raster graphic that corresponds to the deformation axis, and wherein respective source pixels to be used for the respective raster graphic are selected stochastically from the source image in a direction transverse to the image processing axis.
US08570602B2 Digital halftoning method and method for constructing class tiling map
A digital halftoning method and a method for constructing a class tiling map are disclosed. The present invention utilizes to arrange class matrixes in a staggering form such that adjacent class matrixes exist a staggering shift. Also, the class tiling map is constructed in this way. Then, a dot diffusion procedure is performed to an original image with the class tiling map so as to generate a halftone image corresponding to the original image. The present invention is capable of solving the problem of a periodic appearance caused by traditional dot diffusion.
US08570600B2 Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes an image data acquisition unit, a frequency distribution acquisition unit, and a color setting unit. The image data acquisition unit acquires image data representing a color image. The frequency distribution acquisition unit allocates a color of each pixel of the data as a class and acquires a frequency distribution representing an occurrence rate of the color based on the data acquired by the image data acquisition unit. The color setting unit sets a first color with the highest frequency distribution occurrence rate as a background color in the color image, sets a second color with an occurrence rate next in magnitude to the first color as a character color in the color image, and sets a color with an occurrence rate lower than that of the second color as a pattern color that is a color of a specific pattern in the color image.
US08570594B2 Image forming apparatus and its control method of correction amount based on selected rotational speed
With this invention, color shifting correction is performed first based on shifting amount information indicating a shifting amount with respect to the scanning direction on an image carrier of each image forming unit, and halftone processing is then performed, thus suppressing generation of moiré due to the color shifting correction, and forming a high-quality image. To this end, an image forming engine has color shifting amount storage units C, M, Y, and K (black) which store actual shifting amounts with respect to ideal scan directions on image carriers C, M, Y, and K in image forming units C, M, Y, and K. Color shifting correction amount arithmetic units C, M, Y, and K calculate color shifting correction amounts for respective color components on the basis of the stored color shifting amounts. Color shifting correction units C, M, Y, and K perform color shifting correction by converting coordinates upon reading out image data from bitmap memories C, M, Y, and K on the basis of the calculated color shifting correction amounts, and then perform tone correction. Data after tone correction undergo halftone processing by halftone processors. C, M, Y, and K. PWM processors C, M, Y, and K generate PWM signals for scanning, and output them to exposure units C, M, Y, and K of the respective image forming units.
US08570592B2 Method of creating lookup table, printing apparatus, lookup table, and printing method
A method of creating a lookup table which describes a correspondence relationship between an input value to a printing apparatus for performing printing by ejecting ink onto a printing medium, and output values of a special gloss ink and a color ink of the printing apparatus, includes: a first process of determining the output value of the special gloss ink to be relatively low at a lattice point where an index value relating to color intensity is dark to be equal to or lower than a predetermined value, with regard to each lattice point of the lookup table; and a second process of determining the output value of the color ink at each lattice point by increasing an ink duty limit value which is the upper limit of the sum of the color ink that can be ejected onto a unit area of the printing medium, according to the determined output value of the special gloss ink.
US08570591B2 Color conversion device, color conversion method and computer readable medium calculate a minimum required black amount in regard to colors that are reproduced by an output device that actually outputs
A color conversion device include a limit value setting unit that sets, in accordance with a color gamut, a limit value of a color material total amount that is used in an output device that uses color materials of M colors including black, where M is an integer equal to or larger than 4, and outputs an image; and a black amount determining unit that calculates a total amount limit value corresponding to the color gamut for each black amount on the basis of the limit value that has been set in accordance with the color gamut by the limit value setting unit and determines a black amount from a conversion target-independent color signal of a device-independent color space.
US08570589B2 Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and computer program product for processing an image based on the type and characteristics of the recording medium
An image forming apparatus includes a sheet-type determining unit that determines a sheet type of a recording sheet; a sheet-characteristic measuring unit that measures a sheet characteristic of the recording sheet; an image processing unit that performs an image processing on image data of an image for adjusting a consumption amount of color material that is used for forming the image on the recording sheet based on the sheet type and the sheet characteristic; and an image forming unit that forms the image of the image data processed by the image processing unit on the recording sheet.
US08570586B2 Active images through digital watermarking
The presently claimed invention relates generally to methods and apparatus employing digital watermarking. Once claim recites an apparatus including: electronic memory for storing received digital imagery or audio, in which the digital imagery or audio comprises digital watermarking including a first instruction, in which the digital watermarking is hidden in the digital imagery or audio through alterations of data representing the digital imagery or through alterations of data representing the audio; and an electronic processor programmed for: decoding the digital watermark from the digital imagery or audio to obtain a first instruction; and based at least in part on the obtained first instruction, updating said apparatus when an address associated with the digital imagery or audio changes. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided too.
US08570584B2 Image forming apparatus including hard disk storage unit, and data display method
An image forming apparatus includes: a hard disk storage unit for storing user registered data; a display unit for displaying the user registered data in a user selectable state; a power supply unit for supplying power to the hard disk storage unit; a power supply control unit for interrupting or starting power supply to the hard disk storage unit; a switch memory for storing at least a part of the user registered data stored in the hard disk storage unit; and an access switching unit for displaying the user registered data stored in the switch memory on the display unit in a user selectable state when the power supply from the power supply unit to the hard disk storage unit is started.
US08570583B2 Method for controlling an image forming apparatus using information from a detachable recording medium
An image processing apparatus, method, and computer readable storage medium in which a controller or control means recognizes whether information read from a detachable recording medium can be applied to the image forming apparatus based on the information stored in a memory of the image processing apparatus and a removable recording medium. When the detachable recording medium is recognized as containing information which can be applied to the image processing apparatus, the information from the detachable recording medium is loaded into the image forming apparatus.
US08570580B2 Printing system, printing apparatus, printing method, control method and computer-readable medium relate to a technique that gives a printing instruction to a printing system in which a plurality of printing apparatuses are series-connected physically and generates one printed product on one printing medium
A printing apparatus comprises: an acquisition unit configured to analyze an input print job and acquires information of a sheet to be used in printing; and a printing unit configured to print the input print job by performing paper feed from an inserter controlled by another connected printing apparatus, if the information acquired by the acquisition unit indicates that a sheet to be used in printing is stored in a manual insertion paper feed unit.
US08570578B2 Image processing apparatus, uploading method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with uploading program for outputting a transmission complete signal as a dummy signal
An image processing apparatus capable of performing at least one of scanning, printing, copying, and facsimile transmission/reception includes a communication portion, a job execution portion, a browsing portion, a monitoring portion, a data acquiring portion, an image transmitting portion, and a dummy signal output portion.
US08570576B2 Scanner device and scanning method
A scanner device transmits scanned image data to a predetermined computer having a local area network transmit tool via a local area network. The scanner device includes a scanning module, a storage module, a determination module, and a control module. The scanning module scans a document waiting to be scanned to form an image data. The storage module stores the image data. The determination module determines an IP address of the predetermined computer. The control module transmits the image data to the predetermined computer via the local area network transmit tool based on the IP address of the predetermined computer.
US08570574B2 Processing system, control method, and storage medium therefor
A processing system may include a server group connectable to an image forming apparatus, a request processing unit, a backend processing unit, a receiving unit, a determination unit, and a sending unit. The receiving unit receives information relating to a document file corresponding to a processing request from the image forming apparatus. If the determination unit determines that that the processing method is a synchronous processing method, then the request processing unit processes the document file based on the processing request. If the determination unit determines that that the processing method is an asynchronous processing method, then the request processing unit requests the backend processing unit to process the processing request. After the document file has been processed according to the determined processing method, the sending unit sends a notification to the image forming apparatus that the document file has been processed.
US08570569B2 Control device of image formation system and recording medium storing image formation control program
When a user operates a control device which is connected to an image formation device, a first preview image corresponding to a mark-up text currently processed by a browser is displayed within a display area of a display device of the control device. When a user operation to a first item incorporated in the first preview image is detected, a second preview image of a second mark-up text which is linked to the first item is displayed in the display area. When an image formation with an image formation device is instructed, a composite image containing images corresponding to the first preview image and the second preview image is formed on a single output medium.
US08570563B2 Apparatus, system, method and computer readable medium in which information is selectively acquired from printing apparatus and print control apparatus
A printing apparatus and print control apparatus acquire apparatus information required to specify each other's apparatuses by exchanging them. An information processing apparatus determines with reference to a database which stores data to be set in a printer driver and information indicating acquisition source of the data in association with each other whether data to be set in the printer driver is acquired from the printing apparatus or print control apparatus. The information processing apparatus acquires data from the determined printing apparatus or print control apparatus and causes the acquired data to be reflected in the settings of the printer driver.
US08570561B2 Image forming apparatus, printing control method, and computer-readable recording medium thereof
An image forming apparatus connected to a network and including a storage part, a printing request receiving part for receiving a printing request from a data processing apparatus via the network and recording the printing request in the storage part, the printing request including a page description language list indicating at least one page description language applicable to the data processing apparatus, a determining part for determining whether the data processing apparatus is to convert electronic data associated to the printing request into printing data based on whether the page description language list includes a page description language processable by the image forming apparatus, a data obtaining part for transmitting first and second requests to the data processing apparatus and receiving the printing data or the electronic data in response to the first and second request; and a printing part for printing data obtained from the data obtaining part.
US08570558B2 Image processing apparatus, method, and recording medium capable of outputting voice data
An image processing apparatus includes: a data memory that stores in itself voice guide data pieces; a voice output portion that outputs the voice guide data pieces stored in the data memory; and a controller. The controller prohibits a first voice guide data piece from being outputted according to a job by the voice output portion, while a second voice guide data piece is being outputted according to another job thereby.
US08570553B2 System and method for compiling print job segments or composite print jobs in a printing system
A system is provided for compiling a multi-part print job. The system is adapted to receive a first print job part at a first print system gateway, and responsive to determining that the first print job part is part of the multi-part job, the first print job segment in memory. A second print job segment is received at a second print system gateway and responsive to determining that the second print job part is part of the multi-part job, the second print job segment in memory. When a selected condition is met, both the first and second print job segments are released from memory for processing as the multi-part print job with an electronic document processing system.
US08570549B2 Image recording apparatus in which a recorded content or output for which the confidentiality is required can be prevented from being visible to another user
An image recording apparatus, including: a recording device; discharge trays; a discharge mechanism; detectors; an input device through which is inputted authentication information relating to image data; and a controller including: an image-data reception portion; an authentication-information confirming portion to make a confirmation as to whether the authentication information contains specific information; a confirmation-necessity judging portion to judge whether the confirmation by the confirming portion with respect to the image data is necessary; a selecting portion to select one discharge tray on which the recording medium is not placed, wherein, where the judging portion judges that the confirmation is necessary, the controller permits selection of the one discharge tray, controls the recording device to record the image based on the image data after the confirmation that the authentication information contains the specific information, and controls the discharge mechanism to discharge, to the selected one discharge tray, the image-recorded recording medium.
US08570545B2 Image forming apparatus having a plurality of image forming units, initial adjustment method for the image forming apparatus, and computer readable medium recording program for causing the image forming apparatus to perform initial adjustment
An image forming apparatus includes a main body storage part, a determination part, and an initial adjustment part. The first image forming unit includes a first storage part storing first information indicative of whether or not an initial adjustment of the first image forming unit has been completed. The determination part determines whether or not the first information stored in the first storage part and the second information stored in the main body storage part satisfy respective prescribed conditions. The initial adjustment part causes the first and second image forming units to perform the initial adjustment when the first information indicates that the initial adjustment of the first image forming unit has not been completed and the second information indicates that the second image forming unit corresponds to an unused state.
US08570544B2 Multifunction peripheral (MFP) and a method for restricting use thereof
A multifunction peripheral (MFP) and a method for restricting the use of the same. A user ID and a password are registered according to a user's input, accessible functions are set according to the registered user, and even the authenticated user is restricted to using only the set functions. Therefore, use of the MFP and specific functions of the MFP can be restricted according to the particular registered user.
US08570543B2 Device and method for improving xerographic voltage uniformity for an image recording apparatus
An image recording apparatus including a memory element and a processor for a specially programmed general purpose computer. The memory element stores correction data for a plurality of locations on a photoreceptor for the image recording apparatus. The processor is for: inducing a charge on the photoconductive layer; receiving image data including, for said each location in the plurality of locations, a first or second desired voltage level; calculating, using the correction and image data, respective desired output power levels for a LED printbar for the apparatus, aligned with the plurality of locations, to discharge each location to the one of the first or second desired charge level, the respective desired output power levels selected to compensate for variances of respective induced charge levels at the plurality of locations; and supplying respective power inputs to the plurality of LEDs to generate the respective desired output power levels.
US08570542B2 Information recording device, information recording method and computer readable medium for storing file information in first or second storage areas based on storage area capacity
An information recording method includes: acquiring plural pieces of file information; acquiring plural pieces of additional information accompanying the acquired pieces of file information; storing the acquired pieces of file information in first or second storage area each having a predetermined capacity for storing the file information. If the pieces of additional information on the acquired pieces of file information indicate the acquired pieces of file information are required to be stored in time order, the acquired pieces of file information are stored into the first storage area in the order of pieces of time information contained in the respective pieces of additional information. If a file capacity of one of the acquired pieces of file information is larger than an empty capacity of the first storage area, the one of the acquired pieces of file information is stored into the second storage area.
US08570539B2 Image processing device for determining whether or not an application is executable based on whether or not an API is available and a computer-readable medium storing a program
Referring to contents of a user information storage, an MFP information storage, an API information storage and the like, whether or not an API is available is determined, an unexecutable function of an application due to unavailability of the API is determined, and a display way for displaying a list of applications on a display is switched
US08570535B2 Pattern generators, calibration systems and methods for patterning workpieces
A pattern generator includes: a writing tool and a calibration system. The writing tool is configured to generate a pattern on a workpiece arranged on a stage. The calibration system is configured to determine a correlation between a coordinate system of the writing tool and a coordinate system of a calibration plate on one of the stage and the workpiece. The calibration system is also configured to determine the correlation at least partly based on an optical correlation signal, or pattern, in a form of at least one optical beam being reflected from at least one reflective pattern on the surface of the calibration plate.
US08570533B2 Position measuring device
A position measuring device including a reflective scale and a scanning unit. The scanning unit includes a retroreflector and a signal unit wherein the signal unit includes a light source and a detector arrangement. The scanning unit and the signal unit are structurally separate from one another and are disposed in planes parallel to one another, and wherein the scanning unit is movable relative to the reflective scale in a measuring direction. The light source emits a beam that propagates freely in a direction to the scanning unit, wherein from the scanning unit along the direction to the signal unit a pair of interfering partial beams propagate freely and wherein between the signal unit and the scanning unit the partial beams propagate freely in a propagation direction that is oriented perpendicular to the planes.
US08570532B2 Noncontact surface shape measuring method and apparatus thereof
Even if a return beam from a work to be measured does not agree with the center of a two-piece sensor, a correction value is calculated according to a voltage difference between two sensors of the two-piece sensor if the voltage difference is within a neighborhood range. The correction value is added to an actual position of an objective lens in an up-down direction, to calculate a movement amount of the objective lens up to a focused state (a state in which the return beam agrees with the center of the two-piece sensor).
US08570518B2 Methods and materials for detection of target species
A test system includes an optical medium, a binding agent capable of capturing a target complex, and a light detector. The optical medium provides a light path, and the binding agent is positioned to hold the target complex in an evanescent field created by propagation of light along the light path. The complex interacts with the evanescent field and emits light that the detector positioned to detect. The optical medium and the detector can be included in an optical integrated circuit where detected light passes through the optical medium transverse to the direction of the light path.
US08570517B2 Colorimetric value calculating method, profile generating method, color conversion method, color conversion apparatus, and computer-readable recording medium with color conversion program recorded therein
First spectral data (spectral transmittance) of a printed object, and second spectral data (spectral reflectance) of the printed object are obtained. Further, third spectral data (spectral radiance distribution) of a transmissive light source, and fourth spectral data (spectral radiance distribution) of a reflective light source are obtained. Then, using the first, second, third and fourth spectral data, colorimetric value data of the printed object in a given observational environment is calculated.
US08570514B2 Optical system polarizer calibration
A method to calibrate a polarizer in polarized optical system at any angle of incidence, by decoupling the calibration from a polarization effect of the system, by providing a calibration apparatus that includes a substrate having a polarizer disposed on a surface thereof, with an indicator on the substrate for indicating a polarization orientation of the polarizer, loading the calibration apparatus in the polarized optical system with the indicator in a desired position, determining an initial angle between the polarization orientation and a reference of the polarized optical system, acquiring spectra using the polarized optical system at a plurality of known angles between the polarization orientation and the reference of the polarized optical system, using the spectra to plot a curve indicating an angle of the polarizer in the polarized optical system, and when the angle of the polarizer is outside of a desired range, adjusting the angle of the polarizer, and repeating the steps of acquiring the spectra, and plotting a curve indicating the angle of the polarizer.
US08570512B2 System, storage mediums, and methods for identifying particles in flow
Methods, storage mediums, and systems for correlating pulses generated from multiple interrogation regions in a flow cytometer to particular particles flowing through the flow cytometer are provided. Embodiments of the methods, storage mediums, and systems include configurations for calibrating a flow cytometer using a calibration particle having a unique signature to determine a time-of-flight for particles flowing through the flow cytometer. Based on the calculated time-of-flight and relative positions of interrogation regions corresponding to collectors of the flow cytometer, the methods, storage mediums, and systems may further include configurations for associating other signal pulses to particles of one or more different particle sets.
US08570507B1 Method and apparatus for acquiring Raman spectra without background interferences
One embodiment of a Raman spectrometer having a temperature controlled diode laser with Bragg grating optical feedback 100 which provides a means for the acquisition of Raman spectra using sequentially shifted excitations and provides a means for spectral processing to obtain a Raman spectrum which is free from background interference such as fluorescence.
US08570502B2 Scanning mirror device
There is provided a scanning mirror device with a microsystem scanning mirror which is mounted rotatably about at least one axis, and a detection module which has a light source which emits a light beam, and a position detector, wherein the detection module directs the light beam onto the scanning mirror from behind, with the result that the light beam is reflected, at the back of the scanning mirror, to the position detector which measures the position of the reflected light beam, from which the rotation angle of the scanning mirror about the at least one axis can be deduced.
US08570500B2 Detector arrangement for a flow cytometry system
Systems and methods for regarding a cytometry system are disclosed. The system can include a plurality lasers which are spatially separated from each other. Each laser can be assigned to a single detector. The single detector can process multiple events from each laser by digital switching of signal processing circuitry. Additional detectors can be assigned to receive light in a similar manner.
US08570493B2 Absolute distance meter that uses a fiber-optic switch to reduce drift
A measurement device is configured to send a first light beam to a target which returns a reflected portion. The device includes a switch configured to receive a first signal, and to send the second portion out of the switch measure port if the first signal is in the first state or out of the switch reference port if the first signal is in the second state. The device also includes a first electrical circuit configured to provide the first signal, to convert the third portion into a first reference value, to convert the fifth portion into a first measure value if the first signal is in the first state, and to convert the seventh portion into a second reference value if the first signal is in the second state; and a processor configured to determine a first distance from the device to the target.
US08570490B2 Lithographic apparatus and control method
A method includes providing a controller to control a speed of a substrate table in a scan direction, the controller including a first input to receive a first signal representative of a first time period of a movement of the substrate table in a step direction, a second input to receive a second signal representative of a distance in the scan direction to be covered by the substrate table during a scan movement thereof, and a third input to receive a third signal representative of an acceleration of the substrate table. The controller includes an output to provide an output signal to control the speed of the substrate table in the scan direction. The method includes calculating the speed of the substrate table in the scan direction from the first, second and third signal, and compensating the output signal for the calculated speed of the substrate table.
US08570482B2 Self assembly of elements for displays
Various embodiments of methods and systems for designing and constructing displays from multiple light emitting elements are disclosed. Display elements having different light emitting and self-organizing characteristics may be used during display assembly.
US08570475B2 Array substrate, liquid crystal panel and liquid crystal display
An array substrate is provided. The array substrate comprises a base substrate. A plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, and a common electrode are formed on the base substrate. A plurality of pixel units are defined by the intersecting of the gate lines and the data lines, a pixel electrode is provided in each of the pixel units, the common electrode extends over the pixel units and overlaps the pixel units, and also the common electrode overlaps with the gate lines and the data lines, and an overlapping region slit is provided in the common electrode for each pixel unit in an overlapping region between the common electrode and one of the gate lines and data lines surrounding the pixel unit. Also, a liquid crystal panel and a liquid crystal display comprising an array substrate are also provided.
US08570467B2 Liquid crystal display and the fabricating method of the same
A transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) includes: a first substrate formed with a thin film transistor and a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor; a second substrate formed with a common electrode and a color filter and facing the first substrate; a liquid crystal layer formed between the first substrate and the second substrate; a first polarizing plate disposed at one side of the first substrate that does not face the second substrate; a second polarizing plate disposed at one side of the second substrate that does not face the first substrate; a cholesteric film formed on the first substrate; and a backlight unit disposed at one side of the first polarizing plate that does not face the first substrate.
US08570459B2 Light diffusing film, polarizing plate, liquid crystal display device and production method of light diffusing film
A light diffusing film contains a thermoplastic resin as the main component and contains, in the thermoplastic resin, at least one kind of a light-transmitting particle having an average primary particle diameter of 3 to 10 μm, wherein the absolute value of the refractive index difference between the thermoplastic resin and the light-transmitting particle is from 0.01 to 0.06, wherein one surface has concavoconvex shape, the total haze value is from 15 to 30%, the internal haze value is from 5 to 25%, the surface haze value is from 5 to 20%, and the average film thickness is from 20 to 200 μm.
US08570457B2 LED backlight and liquid crystal display device
An LED backlight in which deterioration in in-plane uniformity of brightness is prevented, whose thickness, frame width, and wire length are reduced, and in which wiring can be carried out easily, includes an LED provided on one surface of an LED substrate; the LED substrate is mounted on a chassis panel so that a surface of the LED substrate opposite to the one surface contacts the chassis panel; and the chassis panel has a connection hole provided in a portion of a region of the chassis panel in which region the LED substrate is mounted, which passes through the chassis panel.
US08570451B2 Display apparatus and liquid crystal lens
A display apparatus and a liquid crystal lens are provided. The display apparatus includes a display panel and a liquid crystal lens. The liquid crystal lens includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer, a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer, a third electrode layer, and an insulating layer. The liquid crystal layer is between the first and second substrates. The first electrode layer is between the first substrate and the liquid crystal layer. The second electrode layer is between the second substrate and the liquid crystal layer. The third electrode layer is between the second electrode layer and the second substrate. The liquid crystal layer is driven by the first, second, and third electrode layers and has a refractive index that is first decreased and then increased to define a lens unit. The insulating layer is between the second and third electrode layers.
US08570447B2 Digital picture display device
A digital display device including an electronic display screen. The device has a frame and a support extendable rearward from the digital display device. The support includes a corner portion and two elongate members extending from the corner portion in two substantially mutually perpendicular directions to respective mounting portions. The mounting portions are hinged respectively to two adjacent sides of a rear face of the frame along a common axis and at respective positions allowing the elongate members to fold flat to the rear face of the frame.
US08570445B2 Broadcast receiving apparatus and method for performing manual fine tuning
A broadcast receiving apparatus and a method for performing manual fine tuning (MFT) are provided. The broadcast receiving apparatus includes a signal processor which processes a broadcast signal of a tuned channel; a image generator which generates a manual fine tuning (MFT) image on which an optimal frequency of the tuned channel is to be tuned; a display which displays the MFT image; and a controller which, if a signal requesting adjustment is received, determines whether the broadcast signal is blocked and whether to re-tune the tuned channel using an adjusted optimal frequency based on a result of the blocking determination. The method includes processing a broadcast signal of a tuned channel; receiving a signal requesting adjustment; determining whether the broadcast signal is blocked; and determining whether to re-tune the channel using an adjusted optimal frequency based on a result of the determining.
US08570440B2 Method of controlling resolution of digital data broadcasting receiver, apparatus therefor, and digital data broadcasting receiver using the same
Provided are a method of controlling a resolution desired by a user in a graphics device of a digital data broadcasting receiver, an apparatus therefor, and a digital data broadcasting receiver using the same. The method includes providing a list of resolutions available on a graphic plane to a user; changing a resolution of the graphic plane according to a resolution selected by the user from the resolution list; and displaying an application on the graphic plane, the resolution of which has been changed.
US08570426B2 System of and method for video refocusing
Certain systems and methods are directed to acquiring, generating, manipulating and/or editing (for example, focusing or refocusing) refocusable video data, information, images and/or frames. The refocusable video data, information, images and/or frames may be light field video data, information, images and/or frames, that may be focused and/or re-focused after acquisition or recording of such video data, information, images and/or frames. In one aspect, a method of generating video data of a scene using a video acquisition device which acquires refocusable light field video data is disclosed, the method comprising (a) acquiring first refocusable light field video data of a scene, (b) storing first refocusable video data which is representative of the first refocusable light field video data, (c) acquiring second refocusable light field video data of the scene after acquiring the first refocusable light field video data, (d) determining a first virtual focus parameter (for example, a virtual focus depth) using the second refocusable light field video data, (e) generating first video data using the stored first refocusable video data and the first virtual focus parameter, wherein the first video data includes a focus depth that is different from an optical focus depth of the first refocusable light field video data, and (f) outputting the first video data to, for example, memory, a video display, processing circuitry, and/or a recording device.
US08570425B2 Electronic apparatus and method of operating electronic apparatus through touch sensor
An electronic apparatus has a touch sensor provided with a first touching zone including at least a second touching zone and a third touching zone, the second and third touching zones being allocated with different functions. The electronic apparatus is controlled to perform a specific function assigned to a specific touching zone that is the second or the third touching zone when there is a first touch input at first through the specific touching zone and continuously perform the specific function even if there is a second touch input that follows the first touch input, through either the second or the third touching zone that is not the specific touching zone, as long as there is a continuous touch input through the first touching zone from the first to the second touch input with no intermission.
US08570414B2 Multiplexed read-out architecture for CMOS image sensors
This invention targets improvement in CMOS sensors using a multiplexed read-out architecture in which pixels are output at the pixel VN level instead of the line/reference amplifier level. The pixel signal voltage VN and offset voltage VNS are read sequentially, eliminating the differential structure. Interference rejection, usually achieved by a differential signal, is obtained by using a CDS (Correlated Double Sampler) in the same way as in the prior art.
US08570406B2 Low-pass filtering of compressive imaging measurements to infer light level variation
An imaging system and method that captures compressive sensing (CS) measurements of a received light stream, and also obtains samples of background light level (BGLL). The BGLL samples may be used to compensate the CS measurements for variations in the BGLL. The system includes: a light modulator to spatially modulate the received light stream with spatial patterns, and a lens to concentrate the modulated light stream onto a light detector. The samples of BGLL may be obtained in various ways: (a) injecting calibration patterns among the spatial patterns; (b) measuring complementary light reflected by digital micromirrors onto a secondary output path; (c) separating and measuring a portion of light from the optical input path; (d) low-pass filtering the CS measurements; and (e) employing a light power meter with its own separate input path. Also, the CS measurements may be high-pass filtered to attenuate background light variation.
US08570399B2 Imaging apparatus
An imaging apparatus is provided with: an imaging unit including an imaging sensor for imaging light from an object and a storage unit for storing image data generated based on an imaging signal output from the imaging sensor; and a GPS module. The GPS module is used for executing a process of calculating location information based on received data from a satellite. The GPS module shifts from the low power consumption mode or the power OFF state to a normal operation mode in which the process of calculating the location information is executed as a result of the imaging unit shifting from a low power consumption mode or a power OFF state to a normal image-capture mode.
US08570393B2 System and method for processing image data relative to a focus of attention within the overall image
This invention provides a system and method for processing discrete image data within an overall set of acquired image data based upon a focus of attention within that image. The result of such processing is to operate upon a more limited subset of the overall image data to generate output values required by the vision system process. Such output value can be a decoded ID or other alphanumeric data. The system and method is performed in a vision system having two processor groups, along with a data memory that is smaller in capacity than the amount of image data to be read out from the sensor array. The first processor group is a plurality of SIMD processors and at least one general purpose processor, co-located on the same die with the data memory. A data reduction function operates within the same clock cycle as data-readout from the sensor to generate a reduced data set that is stored in the on-die data memory. At least a portion of the overall, unreduced image data is concurrently (in the same clock cycle) transferred to the second processor while the first processor transmits at least one region indicator with respect to the reduced data set to the second processor. The region indicator represents at least one focus of attention for the second processor to operate upon.
US08570385B2 Image stabilization control circuit and imaging device having image stabilization control circuit
A image stabilization control circuit is provided which comprises at least one analog-to-digital converter circuit which converts an output signal of a vibration detection element which detects vibration of an imaging device and an output signal of a position detection element which detects a position of an optical component, into digital signals, and a logic circuit which generates a control signal which drives the optical component based on the output signal of the vibration detection element which is digitized by the analog-to-digital converter circuit and the output signal of the position detection element which is digitized by the analog-to-digital converter circuit, wherein an abnormality of the vibration detection element is judged based on an amplitude of the output signal from the vibration detection element which is converted into the digital signal by the analog-to-digital converter circuit.
US08570383B2 Apparatus, method and computer program for recognizing a gesture in a picture, and apparatus, method and computer program for controlling a device
An apparatus for recognizing gestures in a picture includes a Hough transformer configured to identify elements in the picture or in a pre-processed version of the picture as identified gesture elements and to obtain information about the identified gesture elements.The apparatus further includes a gesture description creator configured to obtain a gesture description while using the information about the identified gesture elements.Moreover, the apparatus includes a gesture classifier configured to compare the gesture description to a plurality of comparative gesture descriptions having gesture codes associated with them. The gesture classifier is configured to provide, as the result of the comparison, a gesture code of a recognized gesture.
US08570381B2 Multi-functional modular digital imaging system
A multi-functional digital imaging system is described that disaggregates camera functions into modular camera functionality. Analytical camera functions of image assessment and control are exported to at least one external computer. The system filters image files in an external computer by using an external DSP and imports the corrected file to the camera for storage and display.
US08570375B1 Method and apparatus for random-access review of point of sale transactional video
The present disclosure includes a system in which a video displayer, having access to video surveillance data and point-of-sale transaction data, provides random-access review of point-of-sale transactional video. Embodiments herein provide a new method of reviewing security video of a transaction taking place at a retail establishment's point-of-sale transaction area, or register. Embodiments herein enable random and instantaneous access to any number of transaction events that may be of interest to a loss prevention investigator. In one embodiment, a video displayer obtains video data comprising a point-of-sale transaction occurring at a point-of-sale transaction area, and transaction data from a point-of-sale terminal. The video displayer displays video of individual transaction events from a larger transaction, and visually modifies displayed video at a moment in the video when a transaction event occurs.
US08570373B2 Tracking an object utilizing location information associated with a wireless device
In one embodiment, a method of tracking an object carrying a wireless location device comprises recording and storing images from a plurality of cameras corresponding to respective coverage areas having predetermined locations, determining location information associated with the wireless location device, the location information corresponding to one or more of said coverage areas, and determining which of the images correspond to the location information, and retrieving said images.
US08570370B2 Compact automated cell counter
Biological cells in a liquid suspension are counted in an automated cell counter that focuses an image of the suspension on a digital imaging sensor that contains at least 4,000,000 pixels each having an area of 2×2 μm or less and that images a field of view of at least 3 mm2. The sensor enables the counter to compress the optical components into an optical path of less than 20 cm in height when arranged vertically with no changes in direction of the optical path as a whole, and the entire instrument has a footprint of less than 300 cm2. Activation of the light source, automated focusing of the sensor image, and digital cell counting are all initiated by the simple insertion of the sample holder into the instrument. The suspension is placed in a sample chamber in the form of a slide that is shaped to ensure proper orientation of the slide in the cell counter.
US08570364B2 3-dimensional image display apparatus and control method of the same
Provided are a 3-dimensional image display apparatus and a control method thereof, the apparatus including: a video signal receiving unit which receives a video signal containing plane image data or stereoscopic image data from an external signal source; a liquid crystal module which includes a liquid crystal display panel to selectively display the plane image data and the stereoscopic image data, and a backlight unit provided in a rear portion of the liquid crystal display panel; a power supply which supplies power to the liquid crystal module; and a controller which determines whether the received video signal contains the plane image data or the stereoscopic image data, and if the video signal receiving unit contains the stereoscopic image data, the controller controls the power supply such that the backlight unit operates in a power saving mode while the stereoscopic image data is scanned to the liquid crystal display panel.
US08570350B2 Semiconductor integrated circuit for driving display panel, display panel driving module, and display device
A display device in which gradation wiring lines of positive polarity included in a (m)th group of wiring lines of positive polarity and gradation wiring lines of positive polarity included in a (m+1)th group of wiring lines of positive polarity are alternately provided, and in which gradation wiring lines of negative polarity included in a (m′)th group of wiring lines of negative polarity and gradation wiring lines of negative polarity included in a (m′+1)th group of wiring lines of negative polarity are alternately provided. The device further includes (n)th resistance dividing circuits of positive polarity which include (m)th resistance dividing circuits connected to the (m)th group of wiring lines of positive polarity, and (m+1)th resistance dividing circuits connected to the (m+1)th group of wiring lines of positive polarity. Resistance dividing circuits of negative polarity are connected in a similar manner to the gradation wiring lines of negative polarity.
US08570349B2 Method for dividing display area for local dimming, liquid crystal display device using the same, and method for driving the liquid crystal display device
A method for dividing a display area for local dimming of LCD is disclosed. The method includes determining an initial number of pixels per data analysis area and a total number of residual pixels, calculating a first residual pixel sum of a current data analysis area using the total number of residual pixels and a second residual pixel sum of a previous data analysis area, determining whether to assign a residual pixel to the current data analysis area using the first residual pixel sum and the total number of data analysis areas, calculating a second residual sum of the current data analysis area whether to assign a residual pixel, and repeating the calculation above until the data analysis area index is a last data analysis area index.
US08570342B2 Process of inheriting colors in a customer relationship management (CRM) application from operating system colors
A method to adjust the colors of skin of a graphical user interface (GUI) of a customer relationship management (CRM) application based upon a color scheme of an operating system is provided. In the method, a color code of the color scheme of an operating system is fetched from a registry entry of the operating system and is saved as a base color. This color code is converted from ARGB format to RGB format and further converted from RGB format to HSL format. Different luminance values are set for various elements of the CRM application to provide different brightness and legibility to different elements of the GUI. The modified color code is converted back to RGB format and assigned to various pixels of GUI skin whereby the CRM application is rendered with new color scheme similar to that of the operating system.
US08570333B2 Method and system for enabling managed code-based application program to access graphics processing unit
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for enabling an intermediate code-based application program to access a target graphics processing unit (GPU) in a parallel processing environment. The method includes the steps of compiling a source code of the intermediate code-based application program to an intermediate code, translating the intermediate code to a PTX instruction code, and translating the PTX instruction code to a machine code executable by the target graphics processing unit before delivering the machine code to the target GPU.
US08570323B2 Volume visualization using tissue mix
Disclosed is a method of constructing an object data set of data elements representing a physical property to be displayed, stored or written to a readable medium. The method includes, assigning, by the data elements, data values to respective positions in a multi-dimensional geometrical space, wherein the data values representing a physical property of an object; assigning attributes to respective data elements; deriving relative contributions of the physical property to the data values of the respective data elements; and assigning the attributes to the data elements on the basis of the relative contributions of the physical property to the data values of the data elements.
US08570322B2 Method, system, and computer program product for efficient ray tracing of micropolygon geometry
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for efficiently ray tracing micropolygon or other highly complex geometry. In operation, a first hierarchy of a plurality of objects is established. Additionally, rays are traced using the first hierarchy to efficiently identify which of the plurality of objects are potentially intersected. Furthermore, at least one of the potentially intersected objects are decomposed, on-demand, into a set of subobjects, each set of subobjects corresponding to one of the at least one of the potentially intersected objects. Still yet, a second hierarchy is established for at least one of the set of subobjects, the second hierarchy being determined by a connectivity of subobjects in an associated set of subobjects in order to accelerate ray tracing.
US08570313B2 Display panel driver
A display panel driver is provided with: first and second amplifiers; first to n-th even output nodes, n being an integer of two or more; first to n-th odd output nodes; first and second output pads connected to data lines of a display panel, respectively; first to n-th switch blocks; first to n-th even electrostatic protection resistors; and first to n-th odd electrostatic protection resistors. The i-th switch block out of the first to n-th switch blocks is configured to switch connections between the first and second amplifiers and i-th even and odd electrostatic protection resistors out of the first to n-th even and odd electrostatic protection resistors. The first to n-th even electrostatic protection resistors are connected between the first to n-th even output nodes and the first output pad, respectively. The first to n-th odd electrostatic protection resistors are connected between the first to n-th odd output nodes and the second output pad, respectively.
US08570312B2 Plasma display device
Provided is a plasma display device including a plasma display panel having a plurality of first and second electrodes extending in the horizontal direction and a plurality of third electrodes extending in the vertical direction, and first electrode driving circuit substrates to supply voltage to the first electrodes, in which center lines in the vertical direction of the first electrode driving circuit substrates are below a center line in the vertical direction of the plasma display panel.