| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08677510B2 |
System, method, and device for communicating and storing and delivering data
A system, method, and device includes a platform data storage that stores a wrap that secures an executable controller, executable sensors, and a virtual operating system. The wrap is verified, optionally through a connection to a verification server. After verifying the wrap, the wrap is opened and an executable controller is copied into the platform memory. The executable controller allows the platform processor to execute the virtual operating system, which gives the platform processor access to virtual operating system resources necessary to verify the platform and create a connection to a connection server. |
| US08677507B2 |
Systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection
The present invention provides systems and methods for secure transaction management and electronic rights protection. Electronic appliances such as computers equipped in accordance with the present invention help to ensure that information is accessed and used only in authorized ways, and maintain the integrity, availability, and/or confidentiality of the information. Such electronic appliances provide a distributed virtual distribution environment (VDE) that may enforce a secure chain of handling and control, for example, to control and/or meter or otherwise monitor use of electronically stored or disseminated information. Such a virtual distribution environment may be used to protect rights of various participants in electronic commerce and other electronic or electronic-facilitated transactions. Distributed and other operating systems, environments and architectures, such as, for example, those using tamper-resistant hardware-based processors, may establish security at each node. These techniques may be used to support an all-electronic information distribution, for example, utilizing the “electronic highway.” |
| US08677501B2 |
Privilege violation detecting program
A privilege violation detecting program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer to detect a privilege violation of an test target program by receiving an authority request API from an authority request API trace log storing unit; reading out, from an object access rule storing unit, an assumed access API assumed to be output in response to the received authority request API; determining an actual access API returned in response to the received authority request API from the actual access API trace log storing unit; and storing, into a least privilege violation data storing unit, data of the received authority request API when the actual access API returned in response received authority request API does not match the read out assumed access API. |
| US08677498B2 |
Apparatus and method of managing security data
An apparatus and method are provided for securely managing security data between a host device and a secure multimedia card. A host device includes an access mode setting unit which sets an access mode for security data that is stored in a secure multimedia card, a transmitting and receiving unit which transmits an access request message that includes the set access mode, and an access information managing unit which receives, if connection between the host device and the secure multimedia card is separated, access information stored in the secure multimedia card, and compares the access information. |
| US08677495B1 |
Dynamic trap for detecting malicious applications in computing devices
A trap is dynamically created in a computing device to detect a malicious application. The trap may be a fake e-mail address created in response to detecting running of an application in the computing device. The fake e-mail address includes a local-part that identifies the application and identifies the mobile computing device (e.g., by user identifier). A backend system receives e-mails that are addressed to fake e-mail addresses. The backend system parses a recipient address of a received e-mail to identify an application associated with the e-mail and the computing device where the fake e-mail address was generated. The backend system informs a user of the computing device of a data leakage occurring in the computing device and the application that may be responsible for the data leakage. |
| US08677491B2 |
Malware detection
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating a computer to detect malware, which malware writes a copy of an executable file to a non-volatile memory of the computer and creates a launch point that causes that executable file to be run at start-up of the computer. The method includes, during the shutdown procedures of the computer, monitoring the creation and/or modification of any launch points and, for any such modification or creation, saving a further copy of any executable file associated with the launch point to the non-volatile memory, and, following a subsequent start-up of the computer, examining said further copy to determine if it is potential malware. |
| US08677480B2 |
Anomaly information distribution with threshold
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide techniques for distributing information about possible anomalies in a network. A sensor in a network may detect packets with payloads that match an anomaly signature. Address dispersion information, for example, in the form of source and address bitmaps, may be gathered at the sensor. The address dispersion information may be distributed to one or more peer sensors if the information indicates that the number of different addresses of the detected matching packets exceeds a threshold. |
| US08677476B2 |
Providing remotely defined security data to a local application extension
Systems and methods, including computer software adapted to perform certain operations, can be implemented for providing remotely defined security data to an application extension on a client device. A sequence of instructions and at least one permission indicator associated with the sequence of instructions are received. A first permission indicator is associated with a code extension to a software application adapted to execute at least a portion of the sequence of instructions. The code extension is adapted to perform one or more operations that supplement the operations supported by the software application. An instruction within the sequence of instructions associated with adapted for execution by the code extension and with an activity is identified. The first permission indicator is provided to the code extension. The code extension determines whether performance of the activity is permitted based, at least in part, on the first permission indicator. |
| US08677469B2 |
Firewall device
In a firewall device protecting a specific network against an attack from an external network, a filtering object identifying portion identifies whether or not received data includes filtering object data, a filtering execution/inexecution selector transmits to a source device of the received data, when the received data includes the filtering object data, a selection request of a desire for a filtering execution or inexecution of the received data, does not select the filtering execution of the received data from the source device on a condition that a selection response indicates a desire for the filtering inexecution and the source device is authenticated, but selects the filtering execution under other conditions, and a filtering processor filters the selected received data. |
| US08677466B1 |
Verification of digital certificates used for encrypted computer communications
A digital certificate may be extracted from communications between a web browser and a web server computer. The digital certificate may be verified independent of the web browser by comparing the digital certificate against contents of a database containing digital certificates of legitimate websites or by consulting a remotely located security server computer. For example, the digital certificate may be forwarded from a client computer running the web browser to the security server computer. The security server computer may obtain a digital certificate from the web server computer and compare it to the one received from the client computer to detect man-in-the-middle attacks, for example. |
| US08677462B2 |
Efficient and secure renewal of entitlements
A method for granting a grace period entitlement, the method comprising receiving a grace period entitlement message, establishing whether a grace period flag indicates that a grace period may be granted, granting a grace period to an expired entitlement based, at least in part, on the grace period entitlement message, only if the grace period flag is “off”, and setting the grace period flag to indicate that the grace period has been granted. Related methods and apparatus are also described. |
| US08677457B2 |
Security for codes running in non-trusted domains in a processor core
A method and apparatus configure a trusted domain and a plurality of isolated domains in a processor core. Each isolated domain is assigned a unique domain identifier. One or more resources are associated with each isolated domain. The associations are stored as permissions to access physical addresses of resources. Code to be executed by a hardware device is assigned to one of the isolated domains. The domain identifier for the assigned isolated domain is written to the hardware device. When the hardware device executes the code, each instruction is logically tagged with the domain identifier written to the hardware device. An instruction includes request to access a physical address. The hardware device compares the domain identifier of the instruction with the permissions. If the permissions allow the domain identifier to access the physical address, then access to the resource at the physical address is allowed. Access is otherwise blocked. |
| US08677456B2 |
Accelerated reevaluation of authorization rules
A method for evaluating authorization rules, the method including evaluating a plurality of authorization rules in connection with an authorization process for a subject, storing in a computer-readable storage medium and in association with the subject a rule identifier of any of the rules that are applicable to the subject, and performing, in connection with a subsequent authorization process for the subject, a computer-based action indicated by any of the rules identified by any of the stored rule identifiers, where the performing step is performed independent from an evaluation of the applicability of any of the authorization rules in connection with the subsequent authorization process. |
| US08677442B2 |
Method of sending a command to a digital data flow server and apparatus used to implement said method
The invention relates to a method of sending commands to a VOD server, e.g. using RTSP, which is local to the client, said commands comprising a reference to the relative current position. The current relative position is maintained by the receiver on the basis of PTS received in the MPEG stream, without sending a request to the server or relying on the existence of a descriptor in the stream that can be used to deal with jumps in PTS included in the stream. |
| US08677429B2 |
Resource conflict resolution for multiple television
A system for managing resource-usage conflict among a plurality of viewers associated with a plurality of TVs, including a plurality of resources for shared usage among the viewers, the resources including at least one input device adapted to receive a program broadcast and to transmit the program broadcast onward for display, a resolution arrangement operationally connected to the at least one input device, the resolution arrangement being adapted to identify a usage conflict of at least one of the resources, and send an on-screen display having a resource usage action-choice to at least two of the TVs. Related apparatus and methods are also described. |
| US08677426B2 |
System and method for internet protocol television network status notifications
A method of running a network status module in a set-top box device is disclosed. A loss of a portion of a signal in an Internet Protocol television network is detected. When interference of the signal is cause over a connection between the set-top box device and the residential gateway, a first icon to indicate a first failure in a connection between the set-top box device and a residential gateway on a display device is displayed. When the interference of the signal is over the wide area network of the Internet Protocol television network, a second icon to indicate a second failure in a wide area network of an Internet Protocol television network is displayed. |
| US08677421B2 |
Digital broadcast reception apparatus
An object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcast reception apparatus that allows a stable viewing even if a reception environment changes along with a movement. In the present invention, based on current position information indicating a current position detected by a current position detection section and broadcast area information stored in a broadcast area information storage section, a search-mode switching control section instructs a tuning control section to select a diversity operation mode if the current position is close to a boundary of a broadcast area, and select an independent reception operation mode if the current position is not close to the boundary of the broadcast area. In the diversity operation mode, a first system and a second system are tuned to the same physical channel, and cooperate with each other to demodulate a digital broadcast signal and a make an output through a diversity process. In the independent reception operation mode, the first system and the second system individually and independently demodulate the digital broadcast signal and make an output. |
| US08677420B2 |
Personal monitoring and information apparatus
The present invention relates to portable video decoder devices that are used by sporting enthusiasts to monitor and access real time information concerning a sporting event. The present invention comprises a receiver which includes a touch screen display, keypad, audio and other media input and output ports which allows the user to monitor the statistics of a live sporting event and further access up to date information related to the event. A transmitter scheme is also disclosed for transmitting a plurality of media feeds related to an event where such media feeds are derived from source media feeds. |
| US08677409B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for categorizing/rating content uploaded to a network for broadcasting
Methods, systems, and computer program products that automatically categorize and/or assign ratings to content (video and audio content) uploaded by individuals who want to broadcast the content to others via a communications network, such as an IPTV network, are provided. When an individual uploads content to a network, a network service automatically extracts an audio stream from the uploaded content. Words in the extracted audio stream are identified. For each identified word, a preexisting library of selected words is queried to determine if a match exists between words in the library and words in the extracted audio stream. The selected words in the library are associated with a particular content category or content rating. If a match exists between an identified word and a word in the library, the uploaded content is assigned a content category and/or rating associated with the matched word. |
| US08677408B2 |
Advertisements for use in a program guide
Row advertisements for use in a program guide are described. An example includes a program guide to aid a user navigate a media presentation system; a list of entries to represent a plurality of programs; an advertisement positioned within the list of entries, wherein the advertisement is interactive to allow a user to manipulate the advertisement, and wherein the advertisement is associated with one of the plurality of programs. |
| US08677405B2 |
Virtual channel table for a broadcast protocol and method of broadcasting and receiving broadcast signals using the same
A virtual channel table for broadcasting protocol and a method for broadcasting by using the virtual channel table includes identification information identifying and permitting discrimination of active and inactive channels contained in the virtual channel table. At a receiver, the virtual channel table transmitted from the transmitting side is parsed, thereby determining whether the current received channel is an active or inactive channel. |
| US08677404B2 |
System and method for controlling video inputs to a computer
A system and method are disclosed for configuring video ports on a computer. An operating system is used to generate a visual user interface comprising a plurality of icons representing video input sources coupled to a tuner and a plurality of icons representing tuner output channels. A user provides input data to associate individual video input sources with individual tuner output channels, thereby generating a set of predetermined video source-channel associations. Appropriate control signals are then used to process video data in accordance with said predetermined video source-channel associations. |
| US08677399B2 |
Preprocessing video to insert visual elements and applications thereof
Embodiments of this invention relate to preprocessing video such that visual elements, such as advertisements, can be inserted at a later point in time when the video is requested by a user. In an embodiment, a video and target data is received. The video is analyzed to determine how a target moves and changes over time. Metadata describing how the target moves and changes over time is stored. When a user requests an on-demand video such as from a video sharing site, a visual element is inserted into the video. The visual elements move and change as defined in the stored metadata. In this way, advertisements can be inserted into on-demand video such as video from a video sharing website. |
| US08677397B2 |
Systems and methods for media packaging
The invention relates to a method for packaging media and data for transmission over a broadband communications network link for display at a terminal destination. Features of the method included creating desired media segments for transmission to the terminal destination and for creating targeting information, for example in whole or in part in the form of metadata, for transmission to the terminal destination. Other features include packaging the created media segments and the created targeting information in a single package and unpacking the single package for display of the targeted media at the terminal destination. In another aspect, the invention can provide a method for unpacking media and data for display at a terminal destination implementing, at the terminal destination, receiving a single package containing media segments and instructions regarding handling of the media segments, quickly unpacking the media segments and the instructions from the single package and, based on the unpacked instructions, assembling one or more of the media segments for display at the terminal destination. |
| US08677391B2 |
Moving image data delivery system, an advertising image data delivery system, and a moving image viewing apparatus
An advertisement provider issues coupons to an audiences of television set in exchange of viewing a commercial message and receives advertising rate from the advertiser of the commercial message in exchange of informing of the coupon issuance. A television station allows the audience to decompress a downloaded digital image data of a television program in exchange of presentation of the coupon. The television station receives allotment of the advertising rate in exchange of informing of the coupon presentation form audiences. The television station sorts the presented coupons by the advertisement providers to inform each advertisement provider of the coupon presentation. The television station allows the decompression even in a shortage of the presented coupon, provided that it will be compensated by money or later presentation of coupon by due data. The commercial messages are provided automatically or by request. The audience may voluntarily replace television program by commercial message. |
| US08677378B2 |
Lightweight, high performance, remote reconfigurable communications terminal architecture
A software defined radio system having at least one radio core that has the ability to request or accept the delivery of a Reconfigurable Communications Architecture (RCA) compliant application(s), store the application(s), and has the minimum parts of the RCA framework necessary to run the application(s). |
| US08677377B2 |
Method and apparatus for building an intelligent automated assistant
A method and apparatus are provided for building an intelligent automated assistant. Embodiments of the present invention rely on the concept of “active ontologies” (e.g., execution environments constructed in an ontology-like manner) to build and run applications for use by intelligent automated assistants. In one specific embodiment, a method for building an automated assistant includes interfacing a service-oriented architecture that includes a plurality of remote services to an active ontology, where the active ontology includes at least one active processing element that models a domain. At least one of the remote services is then registered for use in the domain. |
| US08677375B2 |
Selecting executing requests to preempt
Systems, methods, and computer-readable and executable instructions are provided for selecting executing requests to preempt. Selecting executing requests to preempt can include determining whether an application is in an overload condition. Selecting executing requests can also include in response to determining the application is in an overload condition, identifying each request that is being executed by the application. Selecting executing requests can also include determining a value for each request that is executing. Furthermore, selecting executing requests can also include selecting executing requests to preempt based on the values for the requests. |
| US08677374B2 |
Resource management in a virtualized environment
In a method for managing resources in a virtualized computing environment, a command to initiate execution of an operating system image dump process for a logical partition of the virtualized computing environment is received while the logical partition is in a process of terminating. One or more resources that are allocated to the logical partition that will not be utilized by the logical partition during execution of the operating system image dump process are determined. A notification to a hypervisor program in the virtualized computing environment is sent. The notification identifies the one or more resources. One of the one or more resources is reallocated. The operating system image dump process is executed. |
| US08677357B2 |
Method and apparatus for distributing a composite software stack as a virtual machine image
Methods and apparatus are provided for distributing a composite software stack as a virtual appliance. A new virtual appliance is published by obtaining a parent virtual appliance; configuring the new virtual appliance; obtaining file level differences between the parent virtual appliance and the new virtual appliance; and publishing the new virtual appliance as a patch comprising the file level differences relative to the parent virtual appliance. The file level differences comprise one or more of additions, deletions and modifications to the parent virtual appliance. An update to a given virtual appliance can be published as a fix pack, wherein the fix pack comprises file level differences relative to the given virtual appliance. An end user obtains a desired virtual appliance is obtained (for example, from a library of virtual appliances) by selecting the desired virtual appliance; obtaining metadata for the desired virtual appliance comprising an identifier of a patch file and a parent virtual appliance; and applying the patch file to the parent virtual appliance to get a modified virtual appliance. |
| US08677354B2 |
Controlling kernel symbol visibility and accessibility across operating system linkage spaces
A kernel extension associated with a first instance of an operating system can be detected. The kernel extension is configured to extend functionality of the kernel when loaded in a kernel managed by a second instance of the operating system. Some embodiments are further directed to detecting symbols for the kernel extension, where the symbols specify one or more functions associated with the kernel extension. Some embodiments are further directed to generating a first namespace that is assigned only to the first of the plurality of instances of the operating system. The first namespace is separate from a second namespace for the second of the plurality of the instances of the operating system. Some embodiments are further directed to storing the symbols in the first namespace. |
| US08677348B1 |
Method and apparatus for determining least risk install order of software patches
A method or apparatus determines an order for installing software patches by comparing information in the software patches. The information may include files created or modified to fix software errors in a software program and metadata referring to the files. By comparing the information, the method or apparatus may determine whether at least two of the software patches include files in common. Based on the results of comparing the information, the method or apparatus may automatically determine an order for installing the software patches into the software program. The files in a given software patch may be used to fix unrelated software errors. The metadata may refer to a time at which the files in the software patches were created or modified, and the order of installation may occur in a chronological manner based on creation or modification dates. |
| US08677346B1 |
Providing installer package information to a user
Installer package information is presented to a user in response to an attempted installation of an application on an endpoint. The attempted installation is detected and the installer package is identified to an information server. The installer package may be identified using a hash key or other unique identifier. In response, the information server provides to the endpoint information associated with the identified installer package based on information received from a plurality of other endpoints. The endpoint may also provide installation and application information related to the installer package to the information server. In one embodiment, when the information server obtains more than the threshold amount of information for an installer package, the information server may analyze the information and provide the analysis to requesting endpoints. The analysis may include the risk or performance impact of the installer package, or the category or functionality of the application. |
| US08677341B2 |
Software-delivered dynamic persistent data
A method and apparatus for dynamically managing non-volatile memory items in a wireless device, the method comprising the steps of: checking the non-volatile memory items for a unique identifier item; if the unique identifier item exists, comparing an identifier stored within the unique identifier item with a software identifier located in software on the wireless device; and if the unique identifier item does not exist or if the identifier is different from the software identifier, performing the steps of: updating the non-volatile memory items; and writing the software identifier to the unique identifier item. The method may further include a rollback scheme for previous software versions. |
| US08677337B2 |
Static profitability control for speculative automatic parallelization
A compilation method and mechanism for parallelizing program code. A method for compilation includes analyzing source code and identifying candidate code for parallelization. Having identified one or more suitable candidates, the profitability of parallelizing the candidate code is determined. If the profitability determination meets a predetermined criteria, then the candidate code may be parallelized. If, however, the profitability determination does not meet the predetermined criteria, then the candidate code may not be parallelized. Candidate code may comprises a loop, and determining profitability of parallelization may include computing a probability of transaction failure for the loop. Additionally, a determination of an execution time of a parallelized version of the loop is made. If the determined execution time is less than an execution time of a non-parallelized version of said loop by at least a given amount, then the loop may be parallelized. If the determined execution time is not less than an execution time of a non-parallelized version of said loop by at least a given amount, then the loop may not be parallelized. |
| US08677329B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for a compiler server
A method and an apparatus that instructs a compiler server to build or otherwise obtain a compiled code corresponding to a compilation request received from an application are described. The compiler server may be configured to compile source codes for a plurality of independent applications, each running in a separate process, using a plurality of independent compilers, each running in a separate compiler process. A search may be performed in a cache for a compiled code that satisfies a compilation request received from an application. A reply message including the compiled code can be provided for the application, wherein the compiled code is compiled in direct response to the request, or is obtained from the cache if the search identifies in the cache the compiled code that satisfies the compilation request. |
| US08677323B2 |
Recording medium storing monitoring program, monitoring method, and monitoring system
A recording medium readable by an information processing apparatus, has recorded thereon a monitoring program for monitoring an operation status of a monitoring target program that runs on an information processing apparatus having a processor and a memory. The monitoring program causes the information processing apparatus to obtain, at a time of installation of a program, information indicating a status where the program is executed in the information processing apparatus and becomes a monitoring target program. The program monitors, on the basis of the information obtained, whether the monitoring target program exists in a memory in which the monitoring target program has been loaded. |
| US08677302B2 |
Multi-threaded detailed routing
Some embodiments provide techniques and systems for routing nets in a circuit design in parallel. During operation, the system can receive a set of partitions for a circuit design, wherein each partition has zero or more overlapping partitions along four directions, e.g., up, down, left, and right. Next, the system can perform, in parallel, detailed routing on non-overlapping partitions in the set of partitions, wherein detailed routing is performed on a partition after detailed routing is completed on adjacent or overlapping partitions that located along two perpendicular directions. In some embodiments, each detailed routing thread that is executing in parallel performs detailed routing on a different net. |
| US08677300B2 |
Canonical signature generation for layout design data
Contour-related information for geometric elements in layout design data is obtained. Relevant portions of the contour-related information are provided to a canonical hash function, from which a canonical signature for the layout design data is generated. |
| US08677296B2 |
Circuit design support computer product, method, and apparatus
A computer-readable recording medium stores a design support program that causes a computer to execute a process that includes generating based on a control flow graph conversion result for operation description information concerning a circuit-under-design, a first synthesis result according to which a time length of 1 clock cycle of the circuit-under-design is greater than or equal to a clock period in which the circuit-under-design operates; calculating based on the generated first synthesis result, first circuit scale information indicating a circuit scale of the circuit-under-design; acquiring a second synthesis result that is for the circuit-under-design and conforms to a timing constraint that is based on the control flow graph conversion result; calculating second circuit scale information indicating the circuit scale of the circuit-under-design, based on the generated second synthesis result; and outputting the calculated first circuit scale information and the calculated second circuit information. |
| US08677280B2 |
Sprocket shaped user interface for navigating a dynamic collection of information
The sprocket shaped menu accepts selections of information from the menu, where selecting an item in the menu causes other parts of the look of the menu to change. In one embodiment, this can cause a break in the menu which shows a preview. In another embodiment, touching an item on the menu can cause an automatic update of the other items unless those other items have been automatically updated within a predetermined time before, such as within 15 minutes. |
| US08677279B2 |
Visual hierarchy explorer
A method and a system are described that involve generating a graphical tree hierarchy of a data structure and its accompanying metadata. In one embodiment, the method includes building a graphical tree hierarchy with a plurality of levels, wherein the graphical tree hierarchy includes at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes. Further, the method includes aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at a level of the graphical tree hierarchy, if a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level. The method also includes scaling down the plurality of leaf nodes, if the plurality of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy exceeds a maximum number of levels. |
| US08677271B2 |
Method for displaying information in a motor vehicle and display device for a motor vehicle
In a method for displaying information in a motor vehicle, at least one two-dimensional object is represented graphically with the aid of a display mounted in the motor vehicle, the graphical object including a display field and an operating field. A user-interface device generates graphics data which control the display such that the display field is shown on one side of the two-dimensional graphical object and the operating field is shown on the other side of the two-dimensional graphical object, and in response to an input with the aid of an input device, an arithmetic logic unit of the user-interface device alters the graphics data such that the object in the perspective representation on the display rotates from one side to the other side. A corresponding display device is provided for a motor vehicle, and a motor vehicle may include such a display device. |
| US08677268B2 |
Device, method, and graphical user interface for resizing objects
A method for resizing a currently selected user interface object includes simultaneously displaying on a touch-sensitive display the currently selected user interface object having a center, and a plurality of resizing handles for the currently selected user interface object. The method also includes detecting a first contact on a first resizing handle in the plurality of resizing handles, and detecting movement of the first contact across the touch-sensitive display. The method further includes, in response to detecting movement of the first contact, when a second contact is detected on the touch-sensitive display while detecting movement of the first contact, resizing the currently selected user interface object about the center of the currently selected user interface object. |
| US08677265B2 |
Application program and image processing apparatus
An application program capable of operating on a prescribed operating system includes a plurality of functional processing units, a window processing unit allowing a window corresponding to any of the functional processing units operated in a case where any of the plural functional processing units is operated, a minimization unit minimizing the window, and a setting selection unit selecting setting information for the minimization. The minimization unit minimizes the window based on the setting information selected by the setting selection unit, and the setting selection unit is capable of selecting the setting information with respect to each of the plural functional processing units. |
| US08677264B2 |
Information processing apparatus, terminal apparatus, content of interest determination method, content of interest determination program, terminal program, recording medium on which program is recorded, and information provision system
Content is displayed in an active display region of a terminal apparatus, and information relating to the display of said content when the content scrolls in accordance with a scrolling operation performed by a user and content identifying information for identifying the content are obtained from the terminal apparatus and it is determined whether or not the user of the terminal apparatus is interested in the content identified by the content identifying information that is extracted in accordance with the information relating to the display of the content. |
| US08677262B2 |
Presentation of industrial automation data as a function of relevance to user
A visualization system that generates visualization(s) in an industrial automation environment is provided. An interface component receives input concerning displayed objects and information. A context component can detect, infer or determine context information regarding an entity. A reference component infers or determines relevance of respective display objects as a function of the context information. A visualization component dynamically generates a visualization from a set of display object, and spatially organizes the display objects as a function of the inferred or determined relevance. |
| US08677258B2 |
Method of and apparatus for ascertaining and providing information in relation to an image
The invention concerns a method of ascertaining and providing information in relation to an image in a survey comprising: displaying the image to a large number of survey persons; recording the input of metadata in relation to the image which are inputted by the large number of survey persons; and carrying out an assessment of the recorded metadata in relation to the image. The method according to the invention is distinguished in that the image is subdivided into pre- and/or postdetermined image portions (150, 150i, 150ii, 150iii, 150iv, 150v, 150vi), wherein the input of at least one metadatum is recorded in relation to a region (140) of the image that can be freely selected by a survey person and wherein the freely selected image region is compared to the predetermined or postdetermined image portions and upon the occurrence of a conformity beyond a predetermined degree the metadatum recorded in relation to the freely selected image region is associated with the conforming, predetermined or postdetermined image portion.The invention further includes an apparatus for ascertaining and providing information in relation to an image in a survey. |
| US08677257B2 |
Granular graphical user interface element
A graphical user interface (GUI) element permits a user to control an application in both a coarse manner and a fine manner. When a cursor is moved to coincide or overlap the displayed GUI element, parameter adjustment is made at a first (coarse) granularity so that rapid changes to the target parameter can be made (e.g., displayed zoom level, image rotation or playback volume). As the cursor is moved away from the displayed GUI element, parameter adjustment is made at a second (fine) granularity so that fine changes to the target parameter can be made. In one embodiment, the further the cursor is moved from the displayed GUI element, the finer the control. |
| US08677256B2 |
Graphic-based electronic signature management system and method
A computer-implemented system for managing an electronic signature is provided. A data collector receives one or more contact information items. A signature builder builds a graphic-based electronic signature based on at least one of the contact information items. The graphic-based electronic signature includes a set of icons. Individual icons in the set of icons are respectively associated with at least one of the contact information items. Individual icons in the set of icons are configured to initiate a communication application when one of the icons is selected in order to communication via the communication application using the contact information item associated with the selected icon. |
| US08677252B2 |
Systems and methods for displaying to a presenter visual feedback corresponding to visual changes received by viewers
Methods for providing to the presenter visual feedback regarding the screen data received by one or more viewers in an online presentation environment having a presenter transmitting screen data to one or more viewers over a network may include: transmitting data representing changed visual data; receiving confirmation of receipt of the changed visual data from one or more viewers; generating a representation of the visual data received by one or more viewers responsive to the received confirmation data; and displaying the generated representation at the presenter. Corresponding systems may include: a transmitter which transmits data representing changed visual data; a receiver which receives confirmation of receipt of the changed visual data from one or more viewers; and a display generator which generates a representation of the visual data received by one or more viewers responsive to the received confirmation data, and which displays the generated representation at the presenter. |
| US08677250B2 |
System and method for switching between an instant messaging conversation and a game in progress
A system and method are provided for enabling a game to be played on an electronic device, comprising: enabling a game application on the electronic device to utilize a contact list for an instant messaging application, during a game in progress with a particular contact in the contact list, preparing game messages to be sent to the particular contact by including game progress data, communicating at least one game message during the game in progress with the particular contact using an instant messaging system used by the instant messaging application; displaying at least one instant message in an instant messaging conversation user interface; and displaying a game in progress user interface associated with the game play, after detecting a selection in the instant messaging conversation user interface to switch to the game in progress. |
| US08677249B2 |
System for and method of providing a user interface for a computer-based software application
A system for providing a graphical interface to a user includes a server platform and an operating system and application software running thereon. The system includes a client device capable of running a standard web browser that accesses the software application on the server platform for displaying information to the user in a display area on the client device. The web browser displays the information without requiring additional software to be installed, downloaded or run on the client device, and without requiring a scripting language to be enabled in the web browser on the client. The application software facilitates user manipulation of unstructured data in the display area for detailed inspection, and facilitates the user selectively causing to display annotations within the display area. The application software facilitates the user inserting annotations within the display area, thereby causing an action to occur in this system or an external system. |
| US08677243B2 |
Media recommendation system and method
A system and method for providing content offering recommendations to users based on the users' preferences. Content offerings may be assigned to a primary metagenre and one or more sub-genres, as well as a secondary metagenre (and additional sub-genres if desired). The offerings may also be identified by their source, and this information can be used with the primary/secondary metagenre/sub-genre data to prepare a listing of recommended files. The listing may be generated by first generating three match listings: 1) a strong genre match listing identifying those offerings that match two user preferred metagenres; 2) a genre/style match listing identifying those offerings whose primary metagenre and corresponding sub-genre are preferred by the user; and 3) a weak genre match listing identifying those offerings whose primary metagenre matches a user preference, but whose secondary metagenre does not. These listings may be combined, redundancies may be removed, and a subset may be presented to the user as a recommendation list. |
| US08677242B2 |
Dynamic positioning of timeline markers for efficient display
Systems and methods are presented for simultaneously displaying a plurality of timeline markers within a timeline marker region of an interface for a video application. The timeline marker region may include multiple display tracks within which numerous timeline markers may be positioned for simultaneous display. At a given instant, each timeline marker may appear in a particular one of the multiple display tracks, and the entire collection of timeline markers being simultaneously displayed at that instant may be arranged so that all of the timeline markers appear separately from each other. Pairs of timeline markers which coincide with non-overlapping portions of the timeline may be placed in the same display track, while timeline markers that coincide with overlapping portions of the timeline may be put into separate display tracks, thus guaranteeing that all the timeline markers appear separately from each other. |
| US08677232B2 |
Devices, methods, and graphical user interfaces for document manipulation
An electronic device displays at least a portion of an electronic document with a predefined page layout at a first magnification level on a display; detects a first input indicating a first insertion point in the document, where the first insertion point is proximate to a first portion of text in the document; and in response to detecting the first input: selects a second magnification level different from the first magnification level, where the second magnification level is selected so as to display the first portion of text at a target text display size, and, while maintaining the predefined page layout of the document, displays, at the second magnification level, a portion of the document that includes the first portion of text. |
| US08677228B2 |
Recording medium for creating electronic album
A recording medium on which material information and a program are recorded for a user to create an original electronic album in relation to a sightseeing spot, wherein the material information is recorded with situational information, such as location, date, and time, added to information, such as text, images, audio, and maps related to this sightseeing spot, and the program is made to automatically or selectably display material information related to the situational information, such as location, date, and time, recorded with images and the like prepared by a user. Thus, it is possible to create an original electronic album by oneself relatively easily. |
| US08677226B2 |
Systems and methods for retransmission return channel error detection
A method implemented in a digital subscriber line (DSL) system is described for minimizing a misdetection probability at a far-end coded message receiver during transmission of a coded message. The method comprises jointly determining, at the far-end coded message receiver, a P matrix and a modulation scheme. The method further comprises encoding a message into a coded message with a systematic linear block code, the systematic linear block code having a generator matrix [I P], where I represents a linear block code component identity matrix and P represents the determined P matrix. The method also comprises modulating the encoded message to one or more tones forming a discrete multi-tone (DMT) symbol according to the determined modulation scheme. |
| US08677225B1 |
Low-density parity-check decoder
This disclosure describes a low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoder that is configured to decode a codeword using an iterative process. The decoder includes a memory to store the codeword and a first syndrome memory configured to store a syndrome result determined in a previous iteration. The decoder further includes circuitry to flip bits of the codeword based on the syndrome result and one or more parity-check equations, and a second syndrome memory configured to update a current syndrome result during a current iteration based on the bits of the codeword that are flipped by the circuitry. |
| US08677214B2 |
Encoding data utilizing a zero information gain function
A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module encoding data using a dispersed storage error coding function to produce a set of encoded data slices. The method continues with the DS processing module encoding a first encoded data slice of the set of encoded data slices using a zero information gain (ZIG) function based on a second encoded data slice of the set of encoded data slices to produce a ZIG encoded data slice. The method continues with the DS processing module outputting the ZIG encoded data slice and a subset of encoded data slices of the set of encoded data slices, wherein the subset of encoded data slices includes less than a decode threshold number of encoded data slices and does not include the first or the second encoded data slice. |
| US08677202B1 |
Generating a moving average
Devices, systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with generating a moving average are described. In one embodiment, a method calculates, using at least an accumulator, an average value of M sequential data values is calculated, where M is an integer. The M sequential data values are delayed before passing a delay output. The method detects a data value with an error in the M sequential data values that are delayed and controls the accumulator to correct the average value of the M sequential data values as a function of the error. |
| US08677200B2 |
Integrated circuit with transition control circuitry for limiting scan test signal transitions during scan testing
An integrated circuit comprises scan test circuitry and additional circuitry subject to testing utilizing the scan test circuitry. The scan test circuitry comprises transition control circuitry configured to detect transitions between binary logic levels in a scan test signal, and responsive to a number of detected transitions reaching a threshold, to limit further transitions associated with a remaining portion of the scan test signal. In an illustrative embodiment, the transition control circuitry limits further transitions associated with the remaining portion of the scan test signal by replacing at least part of the remaining portion of the scan test signal with a limited transition signal. The limited transition signal may be maintained at a constant binary logic level such that it has no transitions. By limiting the number of transitions associated with the scan test signal, the transition control circuitry serves to reduce integrated circuit power consumption during scan testing. |
| US08677199B2 |
Pulse dynamic logic gates with mux-D scan functionality
A scannable pulse dynamic logic gate may include an evaluation network that evaluates dynamic inputs in response to assertion of an evaluate pulse. The evaluate pulse may be generated from a clock signal such that it is shorter in duration than the clock signal. During a normal mode of operation, when the evaluate pulse is asserted, the evaluation network may discharge a dynamic node depending on the state of the dynamic inputs. The resultant state of the dynamic node may be stored within an output storage element. When the evaluate pulse is deasserted, the dynamic node may be precharged. During a scan mode of operation, the dynamic node may remain precharged. Scan data may be transferred to the output storage element under the control of scan-related control signals. |
| US08677198B2 |
Method and apparatus for system testing using multiple processors
An apparatus is provided for performing testing of at least a portion of a system under test via a Test Access Port (TAP) configured to access the system under test. The apparatus includes a first processor for executing instructions adapted for controlling testing of at least a portion of the system under test via the TAP, and a second processor for supporting an interface to the TAP. The first processor is configured for detecting, during execution of the test instructions, TAP-related instructions associated with control of the TAP, and propagating the TAP-related instructions toward the second processor. The second processor is configured for receiving the TAP-related instructions detected by the first processor and processing the TAP-related instructions. The first processor is configured for performing at least one task contemporaneously with processing of the TAP-related instructions by the second processor. An associated method also is provided. |
| US08677192B2 |
Information correction support system and method
An information correction support system includes a first information providing unit to provide first information that is input by a first user to a second user, a first information accepting unit to accept an error entry position in the first information and second information that is correct information for the input error entry that are input by the second user, an error entry position providing unit to provide the accepted error entry position to the first user without providing the accepted second information, a second information accepting unit to accept third information that is correction information for the error entry input by the first user, a correctness determination unit to determine whether the accepted third information is correctly input information based on the accepted second information, and a warning unit to warn the first user according to a determination by the correctness determination unit. |
| US08677189B2 |
Recovering from stack corruption faults in embedded software systems
A method and system for recovering from stack-overflow or stack-underflow faults without restarting software or hardware. At every task switch operation in an application program, a portion of the memory stack is copied to a backup location, so that portion of the stack can be restored if it is subsequently corrupted by a stack-overflow or stack-underflow fault during the execution of the next task. State variable data is similarly copied to a backup location, so that it can be used to restore or estimate the output of the next task if that task experiences a fault. Techniques are disclosed for selecting which state variable data and which portion of the memory stack to copy to backup, and for detecting a stack-overflow or stack-underflow fault and restoring state variable and memory data in the event of such a fault. |
| US08677185B2 |
Information processing apparatus
A CPU (1) of an information processing apparatus (8) executes software stored in a DRAM (7). A watchdog timer (2) monitors the operation of the software. A hardware monitoring device (4) monitors the state of hardware provided in the information processing apparatus (8). Results of the monitoring are managed by a management LSI chip (3). A non-volatile memory (6) is where failure information is saved. If no watchdog toggles are received for a given period of time, the watchdog timer (2) notifies the CPU (1) with an NMI signal and starts the second round of time counting. The CPU (1) collects failure information from the management LSI (3). The CPU (1) is rebooted through cold reset when failure information collection is completed, and through hot reset when failure information collection is incomplete. In the case of hot reset, the CPU (1) collects failure information after rebooted. |
| US08677183B2 |
Dynamic testing of networks
Service providers strive to maintain networks with high levels of availability and performance. To maintain the networks, the service providers measure performance and perform network diagnostics. Measuring performance and performing network diagnostics typically involves manual verification of functionality or performing individual tests between user agents. Service providers who maintain networks and service providers who use networks can dynamically run tests with operations of a signaling protocol (e.g., session initiation protocol) to diagnose network problems and determine appropriate responses. An agent manager can coordinate the dynamic tests across multiple user agents to gather more information to increase problem diagnosis accuracy. |
| US08677178B2 |
Recovery control in mirrored disks
A method for operating a mirrored disk storage system, comprises a detector component operable to detect that a failure has left read stability in doubt, a determiner component for determining a repair characteristic of a pair of mirrored disks, a comparator for comparing the repair characteristic of a first of the pair with the repair characteristic of a second of the pair, and a selector for selecting one of the first or the second of the pair having a preferred repair characteristic to be used as a synchronization source disk. The preferred repair characteristic comprises the characteristic that no repair is required for the one of the first or the second of the pair, or that a least repair time is required for the one of the first or the second of the pair. |
| US08677173B2 |
Method and circuit for trimming an internal oscillator of a USB device
A circuit for trimming an internal oscillator of a USB device that generates a clock signal as a frequency source of the USB device includes a counter, a first detector for detecting an end of packet from an input data stream to initialize a counter, a second detector for detecting a synchronization sequence, a token packet or a handshake packet in the data stream for the counter to carry out clock counting on the clock signal, and a trimming code controller for comparing the count value with a reference value to determine a trimming code for trimming a clock frequency of the internal oscillator. |
| US08677169B2 |
Session redundancy using a replay model
A mechanism for synchronizing states of components in a first routing engine to corresponding components in a second routing engine is provided. In order to reduce the amount of data required to synchronize the state of the components and the time and resources required to perform the synchronization, the state-related information transmitted from the first routing engine to the second routing engine is limited to information used to build states of a subset of the components associated with the first routing engine. That subset of components is limited to those components that receive stimuli (e.g., data streams or data packets) from sources external to the routing engine. Other components on the second routing engine synchronize state by receiving information from those components on the second routing engine that received the external stimuli information. |
| US08677157B1 |
Systems and methods for detecting power consumption of a computing device
A computer-implemented method to detect power consumption of a computing device is described. At least one component of the computing device is identified to monitor. A state of the identified component is determined. A database is accessed to determine a power consumption rate of the identified component. The power consumption rate is based on the determined state of the component. An overall power consumption value of the computing device is calculated based on a power consumption rate for each monitored component of the computing device. |
| US08677153B2 |
Method for protecting a cryptographic module and a device having cryptographic module protection capabilities
A device and a method for protecting a cryptographic module of which the method includes: estimating a functionality of a circuit that is adapted to malfunction when a physical parameter has a first value different from a nominal parameter value at which the cryptographic module functions correctly. The cryptographic module malfunctions when the physical parameter has a second value different from the nominal parameter value and a difference between the first value and the nominal parameter value being smaller than a difference between the second value and the nominal parameter value. A cryptographic module protective measure is applied if estimating that the circuit malfunctions. |
| US08677136B2 |
Authenticating messages using cryptographic algorithm constants supplied to a storage-constrained target
The present invention provides for authenticating a message. A security function is performed upon the message. The message is sent to a target. The output of the security function is sent to the target. At least one publicly known constant is sent to the target. The received message is authenticated as a function of at least a shared key, the received publicly known constants, the security function, the received message, and the output of the security function. If the output of the security function received by the target is the same as the output generated as a function of at least the received message, the received publicly known constants, the security function, and the shared key, neither the message nor the constants have been altered. |
| US08677135B2 |
Digital signatures with error polynomials
Representations of polynomials a, s, t, e—1 and e—2 can be provided. Values of coefficients of the polynomials can be limited, and can be computed using randomization techniques. A verification key can be generated to include representations of polynomials a, b, and c. Computation of b can include computing a product using a and s, and adding e—1. Computation of c can include computing a product using a and t, and adding e—2. A signing key can represent s and t. The signing key can be used to produce a message signature that can represent a sum of t and a product of s and m, with m being derived from a message to be signed. The verification key can be used to verify the signature by checking coefficient sizes of a polynomial represented by the signature, and of a checking polynomial derived from the verification key and the signature. |
| US08677131B2 |
Method of securing data in 2D bar codes using SSL
Methods and apparatus authenticate a printed document associated with a source entity. The printed document includes a two-dimensional code (2-D code) that includes data encoded therein. The encoded data includes a resource locator to an intent. An image of the 2-D code is decoded to obtain the resource locator to an intent, and it is detected whether the resource locator to an intent includes a protocol identifier designating a secure 2-D code. If so, the protocol identifier is replaced with a protocol identifier used to access a secure server of the source entity located at a host portion of the resource locator. The secure server is accessed to obtain the intent. A certificate of the secure server is accessed and an electronic device displays an indicator of whether the certificate is valid and also displays the intent. The indicator may be used to decide whether the intent can be trusted. |
| US08677119B2 |
Remote data viewer
A medical image and data application service provider system provides a way of remotely viewing and manipulating medical images and data for diagnostic and visualization purposes by users unconstrained by geography. Medical images and data are stored on one or more servers running application service provider software along with meta-data such as access control information, origin of information and references to related data. A set of medical data consisting related information is sent as an encrypted stream to a viewing station running client software in a secure execution environment that is logically independent of the viewing station's operating system. |
| US08677111B2 |
Booting devices using virtual storage arrays over wide-area networks
Virtual storage arrays consolidate data storage at a data center for physical and virtual computer systems at one or more branch network locations. Standalone and virtualized computer systems at a branch network location load, execute, and store their operating systems, applications, and data using virtual storage arrays and do not require any built-in or external non-volatile data storage devices such as hard disk drives or solid-state drives at the branch network location. The virtual disks of the virtual storage array are mapped to physical data storage at the data center and accessed via a WAN using storage block-based protocols. A storage block cache at the branch network location includes storage blocks prefetched based on knowledge about the computer systems at the branch network location and the behavior of their operating systems and applications. |
| US08677102B2 |
Instruction fusion calculation device and method for instruction fusion calculation
An instruction fusion calculation device of the present invention includes an instruction fusion detection circuit, an instruction fusion circuit, and a calculator. The instruction fusion detection circuit determines whether or not a fusion of a preceding instruction and a subsequent instruction that have a flow dependence relationship between them can be made. The instruction fusion circuit fuses the preceding instruction and the subsequent instruction to which it is determined by the instruction fusion detection circuit that the instructions can be fused into one instruction. The calculator executes the fused instruction into which the instructions are fused by the instruction fusion circuit to output the calculation result and outputs at least one of the calculation results obtained by executing the preceding instruction and the subsequent instruction as an intermediate result. |
| US08677096B2 |
Storage system and storage control method that compress and store data elements
A pool is formed based on a plurality of storage devices. This pool is constituted by a plurality of real pages. Real pages of different lengths are included in this plurality of real pages. Among a plurality of virtual pages which make up a virtual volume, a controller compresses a write data element for a write destination virtual page, selects a real page of a real page length based on the data length of a data unit including the compressed write data element, and allocates the selected real page to the write destination virtual page. |
| US08677094B2 |
Storage system, release method, and secondary storage apparatus
The storage system includes page area association information that associates a page area that partitions a storage area in a real volume into predetermined storage areas with a page area that partitions a storage area in a virtual volume into predetermined storage areas; a pair setting unit for pairing a primary virtual volume that stores data from a host computer and a secondary virtual volume to store a copy of the data stored in the primary virtual volume; and a page release unit for releasing association between a page area in the secondary virtual volume and a page area in the secondary real volume associated in advance with the page area in the secondary virtual volume. |
| US08677091B2 |
Writing data and storage system specific metadata to network attached storage device
A system and method for communicating, browsing, verifying and routing data in storage operation systems using network attached storage devices is provided. In some embodiments, the system may include a management module and a media management component connected to the management server, which interoperate with network attached storage devices to provide the communicating, browsing, verifying and routing functions. |
| US08677087B2 |
Continuous backup of a storage device
Continuous backup from a local storage device to a remote storage device includes subdividing the local storage device into subsections, providing a time indicator that is modified periodically, and, in response to a request to write new data to a particular subsection of the local storage device at a particular time, maintaining at the remote storage device data being overwritten by the new data according to the particular subsection and according to a value of the indicator at the particular time. Providing continuous backup from a local storage device to a remote storage device may also include restoring the local storage device to a state thereof at a particular point in time by writing the maintained data to the remote storage device and transferring the data from the remote storage device to the local storage device. |
| US08677085B2 |
Virtual machine snapshotting in object storage system
The storage system exports logical storage volumes that are provisioned as storage objects within logical storage containers. These storage objects are accessed on demand by connected computer systems using standard protocols, such as SCSI and NFS, through logical endpoints for the protocol traffic that are configured in the storage system. A snapshot profile can be separately defined for each of these logical storage volumes, even for those that are within the same storage container. The snapshot profile for a logical storage volume defines whether or not snapshot is enabled for that logical storage volume, the frequency of the snapshot, and the number of snapshots to be retained. |
| US08677083B1 |
System and method for toggling a storage system versioning feature
Systems and methods providing a versioning feature in a storage system may allow the versioning feature to be toggled on and/or off during operation. Access operations targeting data objects stored in the system (e.g., delete and store type operations) may behave differently depending on whether versioning is (or has ever been) enabled for the storage system or a storage bucket thereof, or is not (or has never been) enabled for the storage system or storage bucket. For example, if versioning is off or suspended, a store operation may overwrite existing data. However, if versioning is enabled, a store type operation may create and store a new, unique object. If versioning has never been enabled, a delete operation may delete a stored object. However, if versioning has ever been enabled, a delete operation may create a new, unique delete marker object and may or may not delete any objects or data. |
| US08677068B2 |
Scalable storage devices
Techniques using scalable storage devices represent a plurality of host-accessible storage devices as a single logical interface, conceptually aggregating storage implemented by the devices. A primary agent of the devices accepts storage requests from the host using a host-interface protocol, processing the requests internally and/or forwarding the requests as sub-requests to secondary agents of the storage devices using a peer-to-peer protocol. The secondary agents accept and process the sub-requests, and report sub-status information for each of the sub-requests to the primary agent and/or the host. The primary agent optionally accumulates the sub-statuses into an overall status for providing to the host. Peer-to-peer communication between the agents is optionally used to communicate redundancy information during host accesses and/or failure recoveries. Various failure recovery techniques reallocate storage, reassign agents, recover data via redundancy information, or any combination thereof. |
| US08677061B2 |
Information processing apparatus and cache control method
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a storage device, a volatile memory, and a processor. The storage device includes a controller, a first nonvolatile storage module, and a second nonvolatile storage module whose access speed is higher than an access speed of the first nonvolatile storage module. The processor is configured to execute an operating system and a cache driver that are loaded into the volatile memory. The cache driver uses at least part of an area in the second nonvolatile storage module as a cache for the first nonvolatile storage module. |
| US08677054B1 |
Memory management schemes for non-volatile memory devices
A method includes storing data in a non-volatile memory that includes multiple memory blocks. At least first and second regions are defined in the non-volatile memory. A definition is made of a first over-provisioning ratio between a first logical address space and a first physical memory space of the first region, and a second over-provisioning ratio, different from the first over-provisioning ratio, between a second logical address space and a second physical memory space of the second region. Portions of the data are compacted, individually within each of the first and second regions and independently of the other region, by copying the portions from one or more source memory blocks to one or more destination memory blocks using the first and second over-provisioning ratios, respectively. |
| US08677053B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device and method for operating the same
A nonvolatile memory device includes a selecting unit configured to select one of a read data or a program signal indicating a program period, an output unit configured to output an output signal of the selecting unit to the outside of a chip, and an output pin connected to the output unit. |
| US08677051B2 |
Memory system, control method thereof, and information processing apparatus
According to the embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory that includes a plurality of banks capable of operating in parallel, a command analyzing unit that, upon receiving a power management command from a host, analyzes the received power management command, and a recording control unit that dynamically and variably controls an upper limit of the number of banks to be operated in parallel at a time of writing in accordance with an analysis result by the command analyzing unit are included, thereby suppressing the upper limit of a power consumption in accordance with an instruction from the host. |
| US08677045B2 |
Transaction reordering system and method with protocol indifference
An embodiment of a transaction reordering arrangement is provided. The transaction reordering arrangement includes a queue into which respective responses to requests are writable and a controller configured to control a position in said queue to which said respective responses to said requests are written. The position is controlled such that the responses are read out of said queue in an order which corresponds to an order in which the requests are issued. |
| US08677033B2 |
Method for initializing registers of peripherals in a microcontroller
Embodiments described in the present disclosure relate to a method for initializing registers of peripherals of a microcontroller, including acts of: accessing initialization data in a non-volatile memory connected by a main bus to a processing unit of the microcontroller and to the peripherals, activating a peripheral including registers to be initialized, and transferring the data read into the registers of the activated peripheral, the initialization data being accessed in the memory by an initialization circuit distinct from the processing unit, the initialization data accessed being sent to the peripherals by an initialization bus distinct from the main bus. |
| US08677030B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing packet classification tables
Methods and apparatus are provided for managing classification of packets within a multi-function input/output device, and for allowing the device's classification tables to be cleared in a non-blocking manner. The input/output device conveys multiple communication connections corresponding to multiple physical and/or virtual PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) functions bound to software images executing on hosts. The device comprises gate logic configured to indicate statuses of the functions or the DMA engines bound to the functions. When the gate logic indicates a particular destination function is valid, the packet is transferred normally after being classified. A portion of the logic corresponding to a given function is reprogrammed to indicate the function is invalid when that function is reinitialized (e.g., FLR or Function Level Reset). The function's entries in packet classification tables are cleared afterward. When the logic indicates a function is invalid, packets destined for that function are dropped. |
| US08677026B2 |
Computers and microchips with a portion protected by an internal hardware firewalls
This invention generally relates to one or more computer networks having computers like personal computers or network servers with microprocessors linked by broadband transmission means and having hardware, software, firmware, and other means such that at least one parallel processing operation occurs that involve at least two computers in the network. |
| US08677024B2 |
Aggregating shared Ethernet adapters in a virtualized environment
In a method for managing shared Ethernet adapters in a virtualized computer environment, a computer programmed with a hypervisor program receives a first request from a virtual client to transmit data. In response to receiving the first request, the computer programmed with the hypervisor program selects a first active virtual server from a first plurality of concurrently active virtual servers of the virtualized computer environment. The computer programmed with the hypervisor program copies the data from a memory of the virtual client to a trunk adapter of a first shared Ethernet adapter of the selected first active virtual server. |
| US08677021B1 |
Download in place
Systems and methods are presented for providing a persistable data decompression stream that enables large downloads to restart from a place other than the beginning if they are interrupted during the decompression process. |
| US08677018B2 |
Parallel, side-effect based DNS pre-caching
Embodiments of the present invention include methods and systems for domain name system (DNS) pre-caching. A method for DNS pre-caching is provided. The method includes receiving uniform resource locator (URL) hostnames for DNS pre-fetch resolution prior to a user hostname request for any of the URL hostnames. The method also includes making a DNS lookup call for at least one of the URL hostnames that are not cached by a DNS cache prior to the user hostname request. The method further includes discarding at least one IP address provided by a DNS resolver for the URL hostnames, wherein a resolution result for at least one of the URL hostnames is cached in the DNS cache in preparation for the user hostname request. A system for DNS pre-caching is provided. The system includes a renderer, an asynchronous DNS pre-fetcher and a hostname table. |
| US08677005B2 |
System and method for media content streaming
In accordance with an embodiment, a method includes electronically receiving a media presentation description (MPD) from a network. The MPD describes multimedia content that includes alternative representations of a plurality of media types, and the MPD includes information indicative of how the alternative representations are encoded. The method also includes selecting one of the plurality of alternative representations for at least one of the plurality of media types based on information included in the MPD, requesting the selected one of the plurality of alternative representations piece-by-piece, and electronically receiving a piece of media data. |
| US08677000B2 |
Methods and systems for restricting electronic content access based on guardian control decisions
Methods, computer-readable media, and systems are provided to facilitate a second user to allow or deny a first user, such as a child, from accessing content by proving the second user with a content profile based on decisions made by other users with respect to the content. In one implementation, a system allows the second user to set a threshold to automatically allow or deny access based on the other users' decisions. The decisions made by other users are aggregated into information that may be based on similarities between the child and other children from whom other users have previously made decisions regarding the particular content. In addition, the aggregation may more heavily weight decisions by users that have a history of making similar decisions to the second user. |
| US08676994B2 |
Load balancing of server clusters
A load balancing scheme is described for a server cluster. An application identifier is received by the cluster from a client desiring to connect to the application. Each one of the servers in the cluster independently hashes the application identifier into a unique number. This unique number is used to determine a preferred one of the servers for the connection. The servers then each calculate a priority code using the unique number, a load level for each server, and/or a node identifier assigned to the servers in the cluster. If the preferred cluster server is available, it transmits its priority code to the client before the other servers transmit their priority codes. Otherwise, each of the available cluster servers transmits their priority codes to the client. The client selects the cluster server with the most favorable priority for making the connection. |
| US08676991B2 |
Signaling mechanisms and systems for enabling, transmitting and maintaining interactivity features on mobile devices in a mobile broadcast communication system
Systems, apparatus and methods provide an automatic capability for generating interactivity event applications for execution on receiver devices within a broadcast network based upon interactivity event application data, information and sequence logic. Interactivity event content providers may provide to a broadcast network interactivity event application data, event metadata information and sequence logic a broadcast network. Interactivity application data for an interactive sequence may be delivered out-of-band, such that the application data is not embedded in an interactivity event. Interactivity sequence application data may be sent out-of-band from the associated interactivity event signaling message. Application data may be sent on a different transport channels in advance of the interactivity event. The system may determine when data should be sent out-of-band and when it should be sent in-band. |
| US08676988B1 |
Systems and methods for secure data exchange in a distributed collaborative application
A collaborative communication system that includes a plurality of endpoints and interconnecting nodes configured to communicate via messages over interconnecting channels. Each of the plurality of endpoints and/or interconnecting nodes can determine whether to apply protection to the messages on a per message basis and/or base on the interconnecting channel being used. Thus, a balance between adequate protection and use of system resources and bandwidth can be maintained. |
| US08676980B2 |
Distributed load balancer in a virtual machine environment
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request packet at a flow director in communication with a plurality of servers, each server comprising a virtual load balancer module and one or more virtual machines and forwarding the request packet to one of the virtual load balancer modules at one of the servers. The virtual load balancer module is configured to select one of the virtual machines to receive the request packet and transmit a response packet. The response packet is transmitted without passing through the flow director. An apparatus for load balancing in a virtual machine environment is also disclosed. |
| US08676979B2 |
Methods and systems for efficient API integrated login in a multi-tenant database environment
Methods and systems for efficient API integrated login in a multi-tenant database environment and for decreasing latency delays during an API login request authentication including receiving a plurality of API login requests at a load balancer of a datacenter, where each of the plurality of API login requests specify a user identifier (userID) and/or an organizational identifier (orgID), fanning the plurality of API login requests across a plurality of redundant instances executing within the datacenter, assigning each API login request to one of the plurality of redundant instances for authentication, and for each of the respective plurality of API login requests, performing a recursive query algorithm at the assigned redundant instance, at one or more recursive redundant instances within the datacenter, and at a remote recursive redundant instance executing in a second datacenter, as necessary, until the login request is authenticated or determined to be invalid. |
| US08676978B2 |
Efficient storage and retrieval of resources for rendering structured documents
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a resource list associated with a structured document loaded by a client application executing within a client device; identifying a first set of resources referenced in the resource list that are stored within a storage space of the client device; retrieving the first set of resources from the storage space; loading the first set of resources into a model representation of the structured document generated by a client document-rendering application for rendering by the client document-rendering application; identifying a second set of resources referenced in the resource list that are not stored within the storage space of the client device; formulating and transmitting one or more requests for the second set of resources; receiving the second set of resources in response to the requests; and loading the second set of resources into the model representation for rendering by the client document-rendering application. |
| US08676977B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling traffic entry in a managed packet network
A method for control of real-time traffic entry of a managed packet network includes the step of receiving, from a border element processor, a first message indicative of a new active registration request associated with a client. The border element processor is one of a plurality of border element processors at an edge of a managed packet network controlling packets (e.g., relating to real-time multimedia traffic) entering the managed packet network. The method also includes the step of load balancing, by a load balancing engine, the new active registration request across the plurality of border element processors and assigning the client to a designated border element processor. A second message is generated in response to the new activation registration request. The second message includes a parameter identifying the designated border element processor assigned to the client. |
| US08676973B2 |
Light-weight multi-user browser
A multi-user web browser is stored on a computer. The multi-user web browser permits more than one user to create and use a browser user account without requiring different users to log into different operating system user accounts. Instead, a browser user can log into the multi-user browser by providing a browser user name and browser password associated with the browser user name. This enables the multi-user web browser to support multiple users from within a single operating system user account. |
| US08676962B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing data asset management activities
Methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing data asset management activities are provided. A method includes defining authorization and authentication permissions for accessing network entities of an organization, defining rules for conducting audits and audit response activities with respect to the network entities, and executing an audit of the network entities by applying the rules to events occurring at the network entities during the audit. The method also includes generating a summary of results of the audit. |
| US08676959B2 |
Integrated heartbeat monitoring and failover handling for high availability
A computing system method for high-availability operation is disclosed. Implementations of the system include a plurality of host computers connected together in a network, each host computer running an HA process to monitor activity on the host computer. The system further includes a master HA process, designated from all other HA processes running on the plurality of host computers. The master HA process includes a heartbeat monitor to monitor activity of the network to detect a failed host computer, and a failover handler to transfer at least one of the one or more tasks from the failed host computer to an active host computer. All other HA processes other than the master HA process are used as cache for read requests to topology data. |
| US08676957B2 |
Method and system for remote diagnostic, control, and information collection based upon a connection or connectionless communication method for sending messages to the resource manager
A method, system, and program product for communicating with machines connected to a network. Information sent to or from the machines is transmitted using electronic mail or via a direct connection. The electronic mail may be transmitted over the Internet to a service center or from a service center to a resource administrator, but also may remain within a local or wide area network for transmission between a machine and a resource administrator. E-mail messages may be transmitted from a computer which is attached to a device that is being monitored or controlled and include information regarding the status, usage, or capabilities of the attached device. The device may send status messages and usage information of the device to either a resource administrator or to a service center on the Internet through a firewall. The message may be sent directly to the resource administrator station if urgent service is needed by the device. For routine information, the service center may manage all the resources on an intranet and may send predetermined types of information to the resource administrator using e-mail. |
| US08676952B2 |
User adaptive HTTP stream manager and method for using same
A stream manager and a method are described herein for creating an adaptive stream manifest file (e.g., HTTP adaptive stream manifest file) associated with original content where the original content is subsequently modified while being streamed based on input from a user of a user device. The user device is configured to request, receive and playback the original content and the modified content associated with the adaptive stream manifest file. |
| US08676947B2 |
Resource reservation apparatus and method
A resource reservation apparatus reserving a resource on a second and third route connecting a start with end node of the first route over a network having a resource on a first route, includes a resource controller for defining a fourth route including a link obtained by excluding a common link between the first and second route and between the first and third route from a link included in the first, second or third route, a message generator for generating a message used for reserving a resource of the link included in the fourth route and transmitting the message to a node on the fourth route, and a message processor for transmitting a message used for generating the second and third route from the resource on the first route and on the fourth route reserved by the message generator to a node included in the second or third route. |
| US08676933B2 |
NAT traversal method in session initial protocol
The present invention provides an NAT (Network Address Translator) traversal method in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for solving the problems of SIP in Internet phone (VoIP) under current Internet environment. In other words, the present invention solves the SIP problems caused by NAT (Network Address Translator) that P2P (Peer to Peer) transmission cannot traverse the NAT firewall directly. The major content of the present invention is that the computer conducts multiple registrations before issuing an Invite message in order to detect the rule of the NAT server to assign port number and IP address. Additional commands or parameters beyond the SIP standard are not required for the NAT traversal function. Hence, the capability of SIP for a NAT traversal function is provided without no additional commands or parameters. |
| US08676932B2 |
System and method for automatic distribution and storage of digital media
In general, aspects of the invention relate to the automatic distribution and storage of digital media. Specifically, the invention relates to the automatic distribution and storage of digital media in the home environment. In one embodiment, a system and method are provided for retrieving data objects from sources like digital media input devices and sending those objects to destination digital media input devices. |
| US08676931B1 |
Methods for managing manual changes to network infrastructures through automated systems
Network automation systems, and methods of implementing planned changes to a network infrastructure are provided. A network automation system includes software configured to model a manual change of the planned change and identify a conflict between the manual change and another change of the planned change. The system also includes a policy module configured to verify that the changes of the planned change conform to a policy. The system further includes a device proxy configured to allow a user to implement the manual change. An exemplary method for implementing the planned changes includes modeling a manual change of the planned change, checking for a conflict between the manual change and another change, and implementing the planned change. The method can also include verifying that the manual change complies with a policy. |
| US08676927B2 |
Method and apparatus of managing contact lists aware of user interests
A method of managing contact lists on a plurality of mobile devices, the mobile devices being connected to a network. The method sensing one or more communications provided by a plurality of broadcast services, the one or more communications including contact information; selecting the contact information of the sensed one or more communications in which a user of a mobile device is interested; adding the selected contact information in a contact list associated with the mobile device of the user; determining contact information that has expired; and removing the expired contact information from the contact list associated with the mobile device of the user. |
| US08676919B2 |
Asynchronously editing a synchronous data store, such as a project management data store
A dynamic client system is described that provides an interactive client-side web application experience to a user accessing an application through a web browser. At the client, the system receives an edit to a project task from a user of the client. The system receives an indication that the user has completed editing the project task. The system sends the edited project task to the project server. The client sends edits to the project server in the background and users can continue editing the project without waiting for the project server to finish processing the edits. |
| US08676917B2 |
Administering an epoch initiated for remote memory access
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for administering an epoch initiated for remote memory access that include: initiating, by an origin application messaging module on an origin compute node, one or more data transfers to a target compute node for the epoch; initiating, by the origin application messaging module after initiating the data transfers, a closing stage for the epoch, including rejecting any new data transfers after initiating the closing stage for the epoch; determining, by the origin application messaging module, whether the data transfers have completed; and closing, by the origin application messaging module, the epoch if the data transfers have completed. |
| US08676913B1 |
Discussion-topic, social network systems
Apparatus and methods for social media networking using devices configured to communicate in a data communications network where exchanged information is organized according to discussion topics. Users may exchange content with selected members of discussion-topic groups. Initiating comments and replies may be posted to a discussion topic for review by participants. Sub-discussion topics may be defined for discussion topics. A user may further flexibly define active tag and associated arguments for the active tags as a relational or linking structure for a discussion topic. Conventional email messages may be converted and ported into the discussion-topic system. |
| US08676909B2 |
Method, system and architecture for delivering messages in a network to automatically increase a signal-to-noise ratio of user interests
The present invention pertains to a method for delivering messages in a social network to increase a signal-to-noise ratio for the recipients of messages, characterized in that a process mechanism comprises of a diffusion process and a selection process combined through an adaptive process, in which: the diffusion process dispatches each message through dynamic routing graphs defined between the sender user and a set of potentially interested recipient users; the selection process locally filters the messages that are transmitted from sender users and received by potentially interested recipient users, according to the result of the application of a selection function on the metadata values constituting a message profile extracted from each transmitted message and weighted feature values constituting a user profile of the recipient to establish an estimate of interest for the user regarding each message, and the adaptive process continuously adjusts processing functions to adapt the graphs structure according to the user profiles dynamically updated by message metadata. |
| US08676904B2 |
Electronic devices with voice command and contextual data processing capabilities
An electronic device may capture a voice command from a user. The electronic device may store contextual information about the state of the electronic device when the voice command is received. The electronic device may transmit the voice command and the contextual information to computing equipment such as a desktop computer or a remote server. The computing equipment may perform a speech recognition operation on the voice command and may process the contextual information. The computing equipment may respond to the voice command. The computing equipment may also transmit information to the electronic device that allows the electronic device to respond to the voice command. |
| US08676903B2 |
System and method to control email whitelists
A system and method to control email whitelists by collecting one or more website email addresses parsed from a web page, detecting whether one or more of the user's email addresses are included in a webform of the web page, confirming whether the collected one or more website email addresses are to be added to one or more email whitelists, and updating the configuration of the one or more whitelists in response to a confirmation to add the one or more site email addresses to the one or more email whitelists. |
| US08676898B2 |
Communication apparatus, control method, and storage medium that can identify communication errors
A communication apparatus capable of notifying a receiver of a reception mail error or transmission mail error by printing or the like and preventing incorrect data or error notification mail from being transferred or stored without notifying the user of the error, and a control method and storage medium therefor. To accomplish this, when analysis of electronic mail data reveals a MIME analysis error, BASE64 decoding error, TIFF analysis error, or image decoding error, i.e., when data which cannot be handled by the communication apparatus is contained, a global variable FORWARD is set to “1”. Also, when the received electronic mail is an error notification mail, the variable FORWARD is set to “1”. When the variable FORWARD is set to “1”, transfer and BOX storage of the received mail are inhibited, and the mail is printed by a printer section (2). When the variable FORWARD is not set to “1”, the received mail is transferred to the designated transfer destination or stored by BOX storage. |
| US08676894B2 |
Sponsored-stories-unit creation from organic activity stream
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a first selection of an entity associated with a user of a social-networking system; receiving a second selection of a type of user interaction with the entity; and providing the first and second selections for use in a sponsored-story specification. The use of the first and second selections in the sponsored-story specification facilitate entries in an organic activity stream of the social-networking system that match the sponsored-story specification being provided for display in pre-determined areas of web pages. |
| US08676890B2 |
Online date planning servers, methods and computer program products
A date planning server facilitates planning of a date between an initiator of the date and a subject of the date. Personal characteristics of the subject are obtained and stored. Various dating activities are obtained and stored. Personal characteristics are evaluated relative to the dating activities, to produce at least one proposed dating activity, which is suggested to the initiator. Related methods and computer program products are also provided. |
| US08676884B2 |
Security configuration
An example embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus including at least one processor; and at least one memory including executable instructions, the at least one memory and the executable instructions being configured to, in cooperation with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: retrieving, from a reputation server, reputation data of uniform resource locators (URL) of one or more web sites relating to one or more web site features that are available via the web site; and determining executable web site features on the basis of the retrieved reputation data. |
| US08676883B2 |
Event management in a distributed processing system
Methods, systems, and computer program products for event management in a distributed processing system are provided. Embodiments include receiving, by the incident analyzer, one or more events from one or more resources, each event identifying a location of the resource producing the event; identifying, by the incident analyzer, an action in dependence upon the one or more events and the location of the one or more resources producing the one or more events; identifying, by the incident analyzer, a location scope for the action in dependence upon the one or more events; and executing, by the incident analyzer, the identified action. |
| US08676876B2 |
Synchronizing an active feed adapter and a backup feed adapter in a high speed, low latency data communications environment
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for synchronizing an active feed adapter and a backup feed adapter in a high speed, low latency data communications environment that include brokering, by a stream administration server, establishment of an active message stream to a subscribing client device from an active feed adapter, the active message stream capable of communicating active application messages; brokering, by the server, establishment of a backup message stream to the client device from a backup feed adapter, the backup message stream capable of communicating backup application messages; receiving an active feed adapter state in backup messaging middleware of the backup adapter from active messaging middleware of the active adapter; determining, by the backup feed adapter, whether a backup feed adapter state is synchronized with the active feed adapter state; and administering, by the backup feed adapter, operation of the backup adapter in dependence upon the determining. |
| US08676875B1 |
Social media measurement
A system and method is disclosed for measuring social media. A social media measurement tool is configured to receive or otherwise determine a keyword for evaluation. The tool identifies directly relevant content on one or more social media platforms, where the directly relevant content includes the received keyword. The tool then identifies relevant downstream content on the one or more social media platforms by identifying content that is relevant to the directly relevant content. The system uses the identified content to calculate respective values for one or more metrics for the keyword. |
| US08676871B2 |
Functional unit capable of executing approximations of functions
A semiconductor chip is described having a functional unit that can execute a first instruction and execute a second instruction. The first instruction is an instruction that multiplies two operands. The second instruction is an instruction that approximates a function according to C0+C1X2+C2X22. The functional unit has a multiplier circuit. The multiplier circuit has: i) a first input to receive bits of a first operand of the first instruction and receive bits of a C1 term of the second instruction; ii) a second input to receive bits of a second operand of the first instruction and receive bits of a X2 term of the second instruction. |
| US08676869B2 |
Adaptive display for enhancing audio playback
An audio playback device and method searches initiates a web search for images related to music or other audio files being played, downloads images from selected web pages returned by the search engine, and outputs one or more images from the selected web pages on a display to enhance the user's listening experience. |
| US08676864B2 |
Methods and systems for providing schema layout in an on-demand services environment
Methods and systems are provided for automatically arranging graphical representations of objects on a canvas. Optionally, the automatic arrangement of the graphical representation of the object may be performed in an on demand, multi-tenant database as part of a tool for creating and displaying schema. A data object with more connections to other data objects may tend to be placed closer to other objects, where as data objects with fewer connections may tend to be placed further apart. The algorithm for placement is based on computations of pseudo-forces between objects. The pseudo force on an object from all other objects is calculated in a given time step and when the force is less than a threshold value, the positions of the objects is updated based on the forces. When the computed displacements are less than a threshold, the objects are in equilibrium. |
| US08676862B2 |
Information management
A method for information management comprises monitoring output from an application to an operating system, wherein the output is monitored substantially continuously; determining if a policy applies to data associated with the output; and executing the policy if the policy applies. |
| US08676847B2 |
Visibility control of resources
Organization and assignment of access privileges to resources in a computer network. The resources of the network are organized into a hierarchical tree structure, with each node in the tree representing a resource, resource group, or resource instance. Read and/or write permission to one or more resources may be explicitly granted to the resource or implicitly granted based upon the location of the resource in the hierarchical structure. The access rights attach to the resource(s). Upon movement of the resource within the tree structure or to an alternate tree structure, the access rights associated therewith remain with the relocated resource. |
| US08676843B2 |
Failure recovery in a parallel-processing database system
A system and method for failure recovery in a multiple processing node system are described herein. Each node can be adapted to store a backup copy of its database portion and/or results to disk storage or memory of at least one other node. In the event of a failure of a node, the replacement node can be adapted to transfer or copy the backup copy of the database portion of the failed node from the failed node's neighbors to the replacement node's disk storage or memory in between database operations. Before the transfer or copy of the backup copy is completed, the replacement node can be adapted to perform database operations in part on the portion of the backup copy the replacement node has already received and in part on the backup copy stored at the neighboring node(s). |
| US08676841B2 |
Detection of recurring non-occurrences of events using pattern matching
Techniques for detecting recurring non-occurrences of an event. In one embodiment, techniques are provided for detecting the non-occurrence of an event within each of a series of time periods following the occurrence of another event. Language extensions are provided that enable queries to be formulated for detecting recurring non-occurrence of an event following occurrence of a triggering event. |
| US08676836B2 |
Search capability enhancement in service oriented architecture (SOA) service registry system
A method for searching a web service registry system by use of a search controller. A first search of a service registry program product is performed with a service name received by the search controller from a user. It is determined that the received service name does not have a service description associated with the received service name in the service registry program product. A second search of the service registry program product is coordinated with a candidate service name by use of the search module, wherein the candidate service name is semantically and syntactically interchangeable with the received service name such that the candidate service name identifies the service description associated with the received service name within the service registry program product. The service description is discovered to be associated with the candidate service name within the service registry program product and is subsequently returned to the user. |
| US08676818B2 |
Dynamic storage and retrieval of process graphs representative of business processes and extraction of formal process models therefrom
A method for modeling a process includes receiving a plurality of graphs representing processes wherein for each graph. A sequence of process steps of the processes are represented as nodes and edges connecting pairs of nodes represent transitions between process steps. A numeric value representative of graph appearance for each of the plurality of received graphs is calculated. Each of the plurality of received graphs is stored within a tree-like data structure according to its corresponding numeric value. Each of the above steps is performed using a computer system. |
| US08676816B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method for recommending content to a user
An information processing apparatus is configured to search for and recommend content by considering both the feature quantities of content and the references of the user. A correction unit corrects item feature quantities of a recommendation target item by using user preferences of a recommendation target user. A matching unit compares the item feature quantities corrected by the correction unit with the item feature quantities of another item and searches for content having item feature quantities that resemble those of the recommendation target item. A recommendation unit recommends related items to the recommendation target user having features resembling those of the recommendation target item. |
| US08676810B2 |
Multiple index mixed media reality recognition using unequal priority indexes
An MMR system for processing image queries across index tables with unequal priority comprises a plurality of mobile devices, a pre-processing server or MMR gateway, and an MMR matching unit, and may include an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the pre-processing server or MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page, and the location on the page. The MMR matching unit includes a dispatcher, a plurality of recognition units, and index tables, as well as an image registration unit. In one embodiment, the system includes an MMR matching plug-in installed on the mobile device. The present invention also includes methods for processing image queries across index tables of unequal priority and updating a high priority index based on received or projected image queries. |
| US08676804B1 |
Managing information about entities using observations generated from user modified values
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for managing entities using observations. In one aspect, a method includes receiving data identifying an entity; generating a user interface document that, when rendered by a user device, presents a plurality of attribute values to a user and allows the user to modify one or more of the plurality of attribute values; and storing an observation in a data store, the observation including a user-modified value of one of the plurality of attribute values and a context including one or more of the presented attribute values. |
| US08676803B1 |
Clustering images
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for clustering images. In one aspect a system includes one or more computers configured to, for each of a plurality of digital images, associate extrinsic image-related information with each individual image, the extrinsic image-related information including text information and co-click data for the individual image, assign images from the plurality of images to one or more of the clusters of images based on the extrinsic information associated with each of the plurality of images, receive in the search system a user query from a user device, identify by operation of the search system one or more clusters of images that match the query, and provide one or more cluster results, where each cluster result provides information about an identified cluster. |
| US08676798B1 |
Query generation for searchable content
Query generation for searchable content is provided. In some embodiments, query generation for searchable content includes receiving searchable content (e.g., the searchable content can include a unique identifier for the searchable content, such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a web site, and the web site can include one or more web pages); and generating a set of queries, the set of queries including one or more queries (e.g., the set of queries can include ranked queries) that are relevant to the searchable content. |
| US08676790B1 |
Methods and systems for improving search rankings using advertising data
Systems and methods for improving search rankings using advertising data are disclosed. In one embodiment, a search engine implements a method comprising receiving a search query, identifying a plurality of articles relevant the search query, determining advertising data associated with the search query, and ranking the articles based at least in part on the advertising data. |
| US08676783B1 |
Method and apparatus for managing a backlog of pending URL crawls
The technology described relates to reducing a backlog of pending URL crawls in view of a limited URL crawl capacity. This technology is useful for crawling URLs with low latency. Because of the limited crawl capacity, uncrawled URLs from crawl requests are entered into a backlog data structure of pending crawl requests. Various criteria are applied to the URL's that are requested to be crawled, so that less important URL crawls are rejected early from the backlog data structure. This early rejection tends to limit the backlog data structure to the more important pending URL crawls, and tends to keep the average latency low by quickly failing the less important requested URL crawls. |
| US08676780B2 |
System and method for citation processing, presentation and transport and for validating references
The present invention comprises a system and method for automatically processing one or more citations contained within a document while the document is presented by a document rendering application. The method of the present invention comprises scanning the document to identify an unformatted citation and parsing the unformatted citation to determine one or more citation terms. One or more citation libraries are queried to find citations comprising the one or more citation terms. A citation falling within the scope of the query is selected and inserted into the document. The present invention may further provide enhanced workflow solutions for authors and publishers in preparing documents in structured format for facilitating efficient and accurate validation of references cited or included in papers and other submissions for publication or for review. An author prepares a document containing a set of cited references using a formatting structure. A system includes a processor to process the document to extract embedded metadata associated with the set of cited references. The processor executes code associated with a reference validation software module and automatically recognizes the formatting structure and the embedded metadata. The processor automatically extracts the embedded metadata and compares the extracted metadata against an authority database to determine the validity of the set of cited references. |
| US08676769B2 |
Method for defragmenting indexes in a relational database and system for performing the method
A method and a system defragment indexes in a relational database. The relational database contains a set of tables, in which each table contains a set of indexes, in which, for each index, a fragmentation parameter is associated indicating the fragmentation level of the index. The method includes the following steps: getting a list of the set of tables; for each table of the list, getting the fragmentation parameter associated to each index of the table; and depending on the value of the fragmentation parameter, defragmenting the associated index. |
| US08676765B2 |
Database archiving performance benefit determination
A database archiving performance benefit determination system may include a data reduction module to ascertain a reduction value of data stored on a database, and a database setup module to ascertain a setup of the database. A performance modeling module may calculate a performance increase for a database application using the database based on the reduction value, the setup of the database, and at least one parameter representing the database application. |
| US08676763B2 |
Remote data protection in a networked storage computing environment
A method, system, and program product are provided for protecting and restoring data within a networked (e.g. cloud) storage computing environment through asynchronous replication and remote backup of data and its associated metadata. Data backup and recovery functionality provides data backups by detecting incremental updates to the data and its associated metadata at specific points in time determined by policies. The policies are configurable based on user requirements. Multiple copies of the data backups can be made and stored in separate compressed files at backup/disaster recovery locations. The backups of data and its associated metadata, which includes file system configuration information can be used to restore the state of a computer file system to that of a given point-in-time. Accordingly, a data protection approach is disclosed for protecting data at both the file system level and application level. |
| US08676762B2 |
Efficient backup and restore of a cluster aware virtual input/output server (VIOS) within a VIOS cluster
In a Virtual Input/Output (I/O) Server (VIOS) partition within a data processing system that comprises cluster-aware VIOSes, the system provides the functions of: performing, via a backup/restore utility of a cluster aware (CA) operating system (OS) executing on a processor resource of the first VIOS partition, a backup operation on the first VIOS partition, which creates a first configuration backup file having configuration information about the hardware, logical and virtual devices of the VIOS partition; storing the configuration backup file within local storage; and responsive to receipt of a VIOS restore command: retrieving the configuration backup file from the local storage; and restoring the configuration of the hardware, logical and virtual devices of the first VIOS to a state that existed at a time at which the backup operation creating the configuration backup file was performed. |
| US08676758B2 |
Extending configuration management databases using generic datatypes
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for allowing users with minimal database skills to produce efficient, extended configuration management databases. Input is received from a user to extend a configuration management database, wherein the input includes a generic data type. The generic data type is mapped to a database data type of the configuration management database. An SQL statement is then generated to create the database data type in the configuration management database. Responsive to a successful execution of the SQL statement, the tables in the configuration management database are updated with the database data type to reduce a number of tables created for the database data type. |
| US08676757B2 |
Application of a differential dataset to a data store using sequential change sets
Systems and methods are described herein for creating, maintaining and applying a dataset that can be used to synchronize multiple instances of a data store. The dataset includes a sequentially-ordered sequence of change sets associated with the data store, wherein each change set includes zero or more entries that specify how the state of certain entities in the data store have changed since state changes represented by a previous change set in the sequence were applied to the data store. When a new change set is added to the dataset, any entries in any previously-added change sets dealing with the entities identified in the new change set are removed. Consequently, the dataset provides a concise and complete representation of all the state changes that have occurred to the data store since a known origin state. |
| US08676755B2 |
Contact entry population from call entity information
Populating a contact entry with selected entity information based on an identifier associated with a call (e.g., a telephone call, VoIP call, text message, electronic mail message, or any other communication). As the call is detected, entity information for the identifier (e.g., a telephone number, VoIP address, MAC address, etc.) is generated. The entity information is filtered based on a category of the entity information, user preferences, location of a computing device (e.g., mobile telephone) of the user, or other filtering criteria. The filtered entity information is associated with the contact entry for the identifier, thereby enhancing the contact entry while reducing typing on the computing device. In some embodiments, additional information such as advertisements for a competitor of the entity are provided to the user. |
| US08676748B2 |
Clearing metadata tracks in a storage system
Methods, systems, computer program products and methods for deploying computing infrastructure for clearing metadata in a storage subsystem. The method includes identifying one or more metadata tracks to clear, receiving a request from a client to clear the identified tracks, quiescing any active processes, clearing the identified tracks and resuming the quiesced processes. The request may be a single request operable to clear all metadata tracks. Alternatively, target volumes having metadata tracks to be cleared are identified and a request is received from a client for each target volume. A dynamic function list may also be created for each target volume, the list including a list of functions in which the target volume is associated. After active processes are quiesced, each function in the dynamic function list of each target volume is invoked whereby the metadata tracks are cleared. The quiesced processes are then resumed. |
| US08676747B2 |
Document management apparatus, document management method, and computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing document management program
A document management apparatus includes a document storing portion to store a document, a designated part accepting portion to accept any part designated by a user within the stored document as a designated part, an associating portion to associate the accepted designated part with a notification destination, an altering portion to alter the stored document, and a notifying portion to notify the notification destination associated with the designated part when at least a portion of an altered part altered within the stored document by the altering portion is included in the designated part. |
| US08676743B2 |
Space-time-nodal type signal processing
Example methods, apparatuses, or articles of manufacture are disclosed that may be implemented using one or more computing devices or platforms to facilitate or otherwise support one or more processes or operations associated with a space-time-node engine signal processing. |
| US08676730B2 |
Sentiment classifiers based on feature extraction
Method and apparatus are provided for providing one or more sentiment classifiers from training data using supervised classification techniques based on features extracted from the training data. Training data includes a plurality of units such as, but not limited to, documents, paragraphs, sentences, and clauses. A feature extraction component extracts a plurality of features from the training data, and a feature value determination component determines a value for each extracted feature based on a frequency at which each feature occurs in the training data. On the other hand, a class labeling component labels each unit of the training data according to a plurality of sentiment classes to provide labeled training data. Thereafter, a sentiment classifier generation component provides a least one sentiment classifier based on the value of each extracted feature and the labeled training data using a supervised classification technique. |
| US08676722B2 |
Method, system, and computer program for user-driven dynamic generation of semantic networks and media synthesis
This invention relates generally to classification systems. More particularly this invention relates to a system, method, and computer program to dynamically generate a domain of information synthesized by a classification system or semantic network. The invention discloses a method, system, and computer program providing a means by which an information store comprised of knowledge representations, such as a web site comprised of a plurality of web pages or a database comprised of a plurality of data instances, may be optimally organized and accessed based on relational links between ideas defined by one or more thoughts identified by an agent and one or more ideas embodied by the data instances. Such means is hereinafter referred to as a “thought network”. |
| US08676721B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for intelligent management of oil and gas platform surface equipment
A method, system, apparatus (and related computer program) for intelligent management of oil and gas offshore and onshore platform surface equipment over a computer network is disclosed. The system utilizes a data aggregator for gathering real-time data streams from surface equipment located on such platform(s), such surface equipment containing one or more sensors for monitoring in real time the performance of equipment operational parameters of interest. The data analysis engine is in network communication with the data aggregator, and comprises a trained neural network capable of generating self organizing maps, and creating predictive operational parameters regarding such surface equipment. An interface is provided for inputting into the neural network various data including, for example, the published performance operational parameters for such equipment. A network user interface is also provided for transmitting such predictive operational input to one or more end user terminals equipped with end user dashboard display software. |
| US08676718B2 |
Efficiently delivering and displaying a heated food product
Aspects for delivering and displaying warm food products are disclosed. In one aspect, a disclosed method includes determining a threshold delivery time for delivering such products after production, and ascertaining a peak period corresponding to a sale of those products at a delivery location. The method further includes loading the warm food products onto a heat-insulated container at a production source, and scheduling a delivery of those products in the heat-insulated container. A heat-insulated display case is also provided, which includes a housing compartment coupled to a display door that includes a window. Here, a seal between the display door and the housing compartment in a closed position is configured to maintain an optimal ambient temperature range within the housing compartment. In a further aspect, another disclosed method includes receiving warm food products from a production source, and loading those products onto a heat-insulated display case. |
| US08676711B2 |
Payment method and apparatus for use in digital distribution system
A method to distribute and monetize media content by associating media content with a cost stored in associated media information within a media package. The user can elect to pay all of the cost, a portion of the cost, or none of the cost. When the user does not pay all of the cost, informative messages paid for by sponsors can be presented as part of the presentation of media content. |
| US08676708B1 |
Methods and apparatus for facilitating a financial transaction
A method is provided for authorizing a financial transaction of a consumer, comprising: issuing a card to a cardholder by a card-issuing financial institution; creating a card account associated with the card and the cardholder; creating a deposit account associated with the cardholder; creating a liability payment remittance account associated with the cardholder; associating the card with the deposit account and the payment remittance account; and placing money in the deposit account; receiving a request for authorization for a transaction from a clearing system by the card-issuing financial institution; and if adequate resources exist, transferring funds from the deposit account to the payment remittance account; and authorizing the purchase transaction; thereby building an outstanding balance on the credit card account; applying a funds debit or charge to the payment remittance account; and crediting the credit card account for an amount of payment. |
| US08676698B2 |
System and method for operating a gift certificate on the basis of credit card transactions
A system and method for operating a credit card gift certificate based on credit card transactions is disclosed. According to the method for operating the credit card gift certificate, a credit card gift certificate server adds the limit of the credit card gift certificate corresponding to an amount of money printed on the credit card gift certificate to the transaction limit of a credit card of a credit card user, and the credit card user uses the amount of money of the gift certificate through the credit card transactions within the additionally configured limit of the credit card transaction. An amount obtained by subtracting the limit of the gift certificate from an amount paid by the credit card is determined as a payment amount to be paid by the user on a credit card bill that is sent to the user. |
| US08676690B1 |
Management of related portfolios
A computer-implemented method comprising: retrieving information indicative of sets of upper level portfolios; retrieving information indicative of a plurality of objectives for the sets of upper level portfolios; retrieving a plurality of constraints, with at least one of the constraints restricting aggregate trade amounts for the same lower level portfolio across the sets of upper level portfolios, and with a constraint comprising a parameter that is at least partly based on an objective and attributes of the sets of upper level portfolios; and executing by one or more computer systems a collection of optimization rules to apply across the sets of upper level portfolios to current trade amounts of the sets of upper level portfolios and to the objectives according to parameters specified by the constraints to determine rebalanced trade amounts for the sets of upper level portfolios. |
| US08676687B2 |
Asset planning and tracking
A asset planning and tracking system plans and tracks progress towards a savings goal and analyzes the consumption of assets that are being used to satisfy the savings goal. The system may further be configured to analyze a user's periodic (e.g., monthly, quarterly, yearly) transactions and provide suggested transactions if the user has excess income for the period. An asset planning and tracking system may be implemented in the context of a retirement planning system to aid a non-retired user in planning for his or her retirement and to aid a retired user in tracking the consumption of retirement assets. |
| US08676684B2 |
System and method for evaluating risk in fraud prevention
A method of determining a risk score indicating a risk that an electronic transaction will involve fraud and/or abuse. The method includes receiving transaction data associated with a not yet completed transaction from a merchant. The transaction data includes one or more characteristics related to the transaction. A profile is selected that identifies network devices each associated with the characteristics and having a device reputation. Next, a profile-based risk factor is determined as a function of a percentage of the network devices having a negative reputation. The risk score is determined as a function of the profile-based risk factor. In some embodiments, a transaction-based risk factor may also be determined. In such embodiments, the risk score is determined as a function of the profile-based and transaction-based risk factors. The risk score is provided to the merchant to be used thereby to determine whether to proceed with the transaction. |
| US08676673B2 |
Aqua index
A method and system for computing a stable index value of a regulated substance by computing a virtual value of the substance based on the value of a freely marketed product of the substance. Particularly the invention may be applied to develop a stable investment instrument for investing in fresh water. |
| US08676665B2 |
Method and medium for universal shopping cart order injection and payment determination
A universal shopping cart is provided that obtains and orders products and services from different merchants located on the Internet. The consumer completes all of their shopping on the shopping site and is not directed to another merchant's site to complete an order. The universal shopping cart provides a monitoring service that allows the consumer to monitor a product for specified criteria. The order injection system places orders for products contained within the universal shopping cart from affiliated and non-affiliated merchants. Specific ordering details required from merchants external to the shopping site are hidden from the consumer. For external merchant sites that require a consumer account before allowing the product to be purchased, the shopping site creates a new consumer account without intervention from the consumer. Once the products are ordered, the consumer may keep track of the ordered products from the shopping site. |
| US08676659B1 |
Methods and apparatuses for facilitating financial transactions using gamer tag information
Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatuses for performing financial transaction using gamer tag information. For example, in one embodiment, a method is provided to: (1) receive information associated with a first gamer tag and information associated with a proposed financial transaction; (2) determine that the first gamer tag is associated with a first financial account; and (3) facilitate the proposed financial transaction, wherein the proposed financial transaction involves the first financial account. |
| US08676658B2 |
Method and system for dynamically generating a gallery of available designs for kit configuration
Methods, computer-readable storage media, and apparatuses for dynamically generating a gallery of available designs for a particular kit configuration including a plurality of different products are presented. |
| US08676639B2 |
System and method for promotion processing and authorization
An example funds facilitation system that facilitates transactions between a payer and payee includes a promotion processing system that facilitates the provision of promotions to account holders on the funds facilitation system. The party offering the promotion may be a merchant/payee that also has an account with the funds facilitation system. The promotion processing system applies promotion rules based on the identity of the merchant/payee and upon conditions placed on the promotion that identify a payer or a group of payers to receive the promotion. A user interface is provided for generating promotion rules and monitoring promotions. A user interface is also provided that displays unused promotion and gift codes and links to merchant/payee websites associated with the unused codes. The funds facilitation system can also provide authorization for purchases based on a condition, such as the age of the payer. |
| US08676638B1 |
System and method for determining an advertisement plan
A system and method for determining an advertisement plan includes determining the in-market results of an advertisement prior to publication and optimizing the distribution of media weight among the advertisements of the advertisement plan. The in-market results are determined based on the sales effectiveness and the effective delivery of the advertisement. The distribution of media weight is optimized based on the sales effectiveness of the advertisements of the advertisement plan and an effective delivery per media weight ratio. The in-market results and the optimization of the distribution of media weight may be transmitted to a client machine over a network. |
| US08676636B2 |
System for managing electric energy grid-vehicle exchange devices
A system for managing electric energy exchange devices is disclosed. The system comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to receive a set of predefined parameters for electric energy exchange a vehicle using an electric energy exchange device for a time increment. The processor is further configured to receive a set of transaction specific parameters. The processor is configured to determine a price for electric energy exchange based at least in part on the set of predefined parameters and the set of transaction specific parameters. The memory is coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions. |
| US08676632B1 |
Pricing and forecasting
The pricing of a product is programmatically defined as a solution to a price optimization equation that includes an in-date constraint and an out-date constraint. The in-date constraint may require that the price established by the price optimization equation be predicted not to exhaust an inventory of the product during a first time interval. The out-date constraint may require that the same price established by the price optimization equation be predicted to exhaust an inventory of the product by the end of a second time interval. |
| US08676620B2 |
System and method for workorder management
A system and method for managing workorders from a single location is provided. The system includes functionality to create workorders, to transmit workorders to equipment at a job site, e.g., an agricultural field, and to log the results of a completed workorder. |
| US08676618B2 |
Systems and methods for automatic detection and processing of instances of business rules
A method for processing instances of business rules, includes providing a business rule, parsing the business rule to extract entities used as rule parts, creating a hierarchical entity buffer indicating the entities used as the rule parts and identifying instances of each of the entities and real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities and creating a step result table indicating instances of the business rule and information identifying the real data in the hierarchical entity buffer used by each of the instances of the business rule. |
| US08676610B2 |
Insurance product, rating system and method
In the present invention, an insurance product, rating system and method generally relates to a rating and pricing system for quantifying the risk that the annual savings will not fall below specified levels associated with implementing and maintaining economic improvements. The product, system and method can be applied to various industries, including, power generation, petro-chemical, manufacturing and refining facilities. Various embodiments disclosed herein relate to systems and products for providing a computer implemented insurance product. |
| US08676599B2 |
System and method for ordering patient specific healthcare services
A system and method for ordering healthcare services wherein a list of selectable orders for medical services for a given patient is dynamically generated based on medical information of the patient (e.g., the patient's condition or set of conditions) and presented to a user (e.g., a physician). In one aspect, a system for ordering patient specific healthcare services comprises a user interface that enables a user to input a medical condition of a patient and to select desired medical services from a list of orderable medical services presented to the user; a services database comprising a plurality of predetermined medical services that are each associated with a medical condition; and an engine for compiling the list of orderable medical services from one or more predetermined medical services in the services database that are associated with the input medical conditions of the patient. A clinical knowledge model is used by the engine to identify a medical condition that is potentially associated with a known or identified medical condition of the patient, based upon potential etiology, potential complication, clinical associations, or any combination thereof. |
| US08676597B2 |
Methods and systems for mapping healthcare services analytics for volume and trends
Certain examples provide systems and methods for analysis and graphical visualization of healthcare services data. Certain examples provide a healthcare services analysis and visualization system. The system includes a data store to store data related to healthcare services provided in at least one geographic region. The system also includes a processor to retrieve and sort data from the data store based on one or more criteria, analyze the sorted data, and transform the sorted data into a geographical map representation of the healthcare services data. The system includes a user interface to display the geographical map representation of the healthcare services data and facilitate user review and interaction with the geographical map representation and the underlying healthcare services data. |
| US08676596B1 |
Stimulating reviews at a point of sale
A user is prompted to provide a review at a point of sale. Review data is received from the user. The review data is transmitted to a reputation platform configured to evaluate the received review data. If the review data indicates a positive review, a review request action is commenced. If the review data indicates a negative review, a remedial action is commenced. |
| US08676588B2 |
System for handling a plurality of streaming voice signals for determination of responsive action thereto
Streaming voice signals, such as might be received at a contact center or similar operation, are analyzed to detect the occurrence of one or more unprompted, predetermined utterances. The predetermined utterances preferably constitute a vocabulary of words and/or phrases having particular meaning within the context in which they are uttered. Detection of one or more of the predetermined utterances during a call causes a determination of response-determinative significance of the detected utterance(s). Based on the response-determinative significance of the detected utterance(s), a responsive action may be further determined. Additionally, long term storage of the call corresponding to the detected utterance may also be initiated. Conversely, calls in which no predetermined utterances are detected may be deleted from short term storage. In this manner, the present invention simplifies the storage requirements for contact centers and provides the opportunity to improve caller experiences by providing shorter reaction times to potentially problematic situations. |
| US08676585B1 |
Synchronizing the playing and displaying of digital content
The techniques disclosed herein allow a user to synchronize the playing and displaying of digital content on an electronic device. The device may render a first portion of digital content so it may be displayed. The device may also play a segment of the digital content as audio using text to speech software. The device may also render a second portion of digital content for display depending on whether the position of the last word read is greater than the last position in the first portion of digital content. |
| US08676584B2 |
Method for time scaling of a sequence of input signal values
The invention relates to a digital signal processing technique that changes the length of an audio signal and, thus, effectively its play-out speed. This is used for frame rate conversion or sound effects in music production. Time scaling may further be used for fast forward or slow-motion audio play-out.According said method the waveform similarity overlap add approach is modified such that a maximized similarity is determined among similarity measures of sub-sequence pairs each comprising a sub-sequence to-be-matched from a input window and a matching sub-sequence from a search window wherein said sub-sequence pairs comprise at least two sub-sequence pairs of which a first pair comprises a first sub-sequence to-be-matched and a second pair comprises a different second sub-sequence to-be-matched.The input window allows for finding sub-sequence pairs with higher similarity than with a WSOLA approach based on a single sub-sequence to-be-matched. This results in less perceivable artefacts. |
| US08676572B2 |
Computer-implemented system and method for enhancing audio to individuals participating in a conversation
A computer-implemented system and method for enhancing audio to individuals participating in a conversation is provided. Audio data for individuals participating in one or more conversations is analyzed. Possible conversational configurations of the individuals are generated based on the audio data, and each possible conversational configuration includes one or more subconfigurations of at least two of the individuals. A probability weight is assigned to each of the subconfigurations and includes a likelihood that the individuals of that subconfiguration are participating in one of the conversations. A probability of each possible conversational configuration is determined by combining the probability weights for the subconfigurations of that possible conversational configuration. The possible conversational configuration with the highest probability is selected as a most probable configuration. The individuals participating in the conversations are determined based on the most probable configuration. Audio for each individual participating in the determined conversations is enhanced. |
| US08676566B2 |
Method of extracting experience sentence and classifying verb in blog
Provided are a method of extracting an experience-revealing sentence from a blog document and a method of classifying verbs into activity verbs and state verbs in a sentence recorded in a blog document. The method of extracting an experience sentence from a blog document includes generating a sentence classifier using a machine learning algorithm based on grammatical features, and classifying experience sentences that represent actual experiences of users and non-experience sentences that represent no experience in the blog document using the sentence classifier. By classifying sentences in a blog document into experience sentences and non-experience sentences, it is possible to extract experiences that a user has actually had or that have actually happened to a user from the document. |
| US08676565B2 |
Semantic clustering and conversational agents
Semantic clustering techniques are described. In various implementations, a conversational agent is configured to perform semantic clustering of a corpus of user utterances. Semantic clustering may be used to provide a variety of functionality, such as to group a corpus of utterances into semantic clusters in which each cluster pertains to a similar topic. These clusters may then be leveraged to identify topics and assess their relative importance, as for example to prioritize topics whose handling by the conversation agent should be improved. A variety of utterances may be processed using these techniques, such as spoken words, textual descriptions entered via live chat, instant messaging, a website interface, email, SMS, a social network, a blogging or micro-blogging interface, and so on. |
| US08676553B2 |
Apparatus abnormality diagnosis method and system
A technique relating to an apparatus abnormality diagnosis system, capable of easily creating and adding/updating an diagnosis model with respect to an initial and new failure case, and appropriately and efficiently achieving diagnosis of abnormality and instruction of operation using the model. In the abnormality diagnosis system, an diagnosis model creating process unit creates a structured abnormality model expressing a structured abnormality of maintenance operation type to an alarm and apparatus event relating to the maintenance operation type by a graph network structure based on acquisition of maintenance operation data. And, by synthesizing the structured abnormality model with an existing structured abnormality model, the diagnosis model is updated. |
| US08676551B1 |
Multi-solver simulation of dynamic systems in a modeling environment
Two or more solvers used in a simulation of a dynamic system may exchange information during minor steps of at least one of the solvers. The information may be exchanged one way—that is, a first solver sending the information to a second solver after the second solver's minor step, or it may be exchanged two ways (or multiple ways in a case with more than two solvers). If the solvers are instances of the same type of solver, they may exchange information at each minor step. |
| US08676548B2 |
Support apparatus using objective function
A design support apparatus for determining a plurality of objective functions for modeling an object having a plurality of elements, each of the elements providing variable geometrical parameters, the design support apparatus includes a memory for storing the variable geometrical parameters and a processor for executing a process including: determining boundary information associated with specified geometrical parameters of the elements which indicate a state of contact between the elements, dividing the variable geometrical parameters into a plurality of groups on the basis of the boundary information, and determining the plurality of objective functions for each of the groups by using the variable geometrical parameters. |
| US08676545B2 |
Methods and apparatus to determine air duct system configurations
Example methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to determine pliable air duct configurations are disclosed. A disclosed example method involves determining a first quantity of adjustable air outlet duct sections to configure an air delivery duct system when an operating mode identifier is received. The operating mode identifier is associated with an amount of air delivered by the air delivery duct system into targeted areas. The first quantity of adjustable air outlet duct sections is based on an airflow rate value and the operating mode identifier. The airflow rate value is indicative of airflow through an air delivery duct system. Each adjustable air outlet duct section includes at least one adjustable air outlet having at least one size-adjustable orifice. |
| US08676539B2 |
System and method for rapidly locating historical performance data
A method is described for providing performance metrics stored in an array of at least three-dimensions. The method includes receiving at least one metric criteria associated with a performance metric. The method also includes determining a list of array elements. The list represents a portion of the array including the at least one metric criteria. The method further includes sorting the list of array elements according to predetermined ordering criteria to identify a best match of the at least one metric criteria. A system and article of manufacture are also described for providing performance metrics stored in an array of at least three dimensions. |
| US08676538B2 |
Adjusting weighting of a parameter relating to fault detection based on a detected fault
A method, apparatus and a system, for provided for performing a dynamic weighting technique for performing fault detection. The method comprises processing a workpiece and performing a fault detection analysis relating to the processing of the workpiece. The method further comprises determining a relationship of a parameter relating to the fault detection analysis to a detected fault and adjusting a weighting associated with the parameter based upon the relationship of the parameter to the detected fault. |
| US08676528B2 |
System and method for calibrating an accelerometer
A method and system are provided for obtaining data for calibrating an accelerometer. The method and system operate by using at least one magnetometer reading to detect that a first orientation is being maintained; obtaining a plurality of accelerometer readings at the first orientation; using at least one magnetometer reading to detect that a plurality of additional orientations are being maintained and, for each orientation, obtaining a plurality of accelerometer readings at that orientation; determining calibration parameters comprising, for each axis of the accelerometer, at least one of a gain value and an offset value, using the plurality of accelerometer readings at the first and plurality of additional orientations; and applying the calibration parameters to subsequent accelerometer readings. |
| US08676527B2 |
Industrial machine
A coordinate measuring machine (industrial machine) includes: a column and a support that extend along the Z-axis; a beam being provided between the column and the support; a slider being movable on the beam; a ram being held on the slider movably along the Z-axis direction; a temperature detecting sensor and a temperature detector that detect the respective temperatures of the column, the support and the ram; and a shift amount calculator that calculates a Z-axis shift amount based on the respective temperatures of the column, the support and the ram, reference position data indicating a positional relationship between the column, the support and the ram at a reference temperature, and respective thermal expansion coefficients for the column, the support and the ram. |
| US08676525B2 |
Current measurement in switched mode power supply
A method of determining a current in a switched mode power supply. The method comprises: storing values representing at least one pre-calculated matrix A; receiving measured current values; and using the stored values representing the matrix A and the received current values to calculate a respective initial value for each of the coefficients of the line and for each measured current value: calculating an estimated current using the equation of the line and the calculated initial values of the coefficients; determining a difference between the measured current value and the estimated current value to generate a difference value, and comparing the difference value against a threshold and, if the difference value is greater than the threshold, calculating updated values of the coefficients using stored values representing matrix A and difference value. A value for the current in the switched mode power supply is determined using the updated values of the coefficients |
| US08676521B2 |
System and method for handling wide dynamic range signals encountered in vibration analysis using a logarithmic amplifier
A data acquisition system for vibration analysis signals includes a logarithmic amplifier for compressing wide dynamic range signals. The logarithmic amplifier replaces attenuators, gain amplifiers, and gain switches used in a conventional system. Further, only a low bit-count analog to digital converter is needed in combination with the logarithmic amplifier. Consequently, the footprint of the system and system cost are reduced. |
| US08676518B2 |
Signal processing method, signal processing apparatus, and Coriolis flowmeter
A signal processing method for a Coriolis flowmeter, the signal processing method including: measuring a frequency of a first digital signal obtained by converting a first input signal from one of a pair of vibration detection sensors into the first digital signal; transmitting a modulatable frequency signal based on the measured frequency of the first digital signal; performing frequency conversion to add or subtract the frequency of the modulatable frequency signal to or from the frequency of the first digital signal; performing frequency conversion to add or subtract the frequency of the modulatable frequency signal to or from the frequency of a second digital signal obtained by converting a second input signal from the other one of the pair of vibration detection sensors into the second digital signal; and measuring a phase difference between (i) the frequency converted first digital signal and (ii) the frequency converted second digital signal. |
| US08676515B2 |
System and method for detecting clutch-related faults in an automatic transmission
A fault diagnostic method for an automatic transmission may include monitoring an operating state of a trim system configured to selectively supply clutch engagement pressure and exhaust to at least one clutch control valve, determining an expected operating state of the trim system based on current operating conditions of the transmission, and generating a fault signal if the monitored operating state of the trim system is different from the expected operating state of the trim system. |
| US08676511B2 |
Method and system for predicting liver fibrosis and related pathologies
Provided herein are methods of detecting and staging liver fibrosis in an individual with liver disease. Also provided are methods of detecting necroinflammatory activity. Invention methods utilize four serum markers, age, and gender to determine an end value. The end value is compared to a cut-off value, in order to identify significant fibrosis (METAVIR stages F2 to F4), or an absence of advanced fibrosis (stages F3 and F4) or cirrhosis (stage F4). In particular aspects, progression or treatment of liver fibrosis can be monitored by invention methods. The end value is also used to distinguish between no to mild necroinflammatory activity (METAVIR grade A0 to A1) and moderate to severe necroinflammatory activity (grade A2 to A3). |
| US08676509B2 |
System for tracking biological samples
Systems, methods, and apparatus are described for the handling of biological specimens for analysis. The systems, methods and apparatus are designed to reduce errors in misidentification, incorrect processing, and recordkeeping and reporting. The systems, methods, and apparatus can also provide real time tracking of samples at any stage, from collection to processing to analyzing to storage. |
| US08676506B1 |
Systems and methods for identifying missing signage
Methods and systems for identifying missing signage are described herein. The method includes generating a route from an origin to a destination, the route having a plurality of maneuvers. The method further includes receiving missing signage information from a first device, the missing signage information relating to one or more maneuvers of the plurality of maneuvers, and providing the missing signage information and at least one of the one or more related maneuvers to a second device. |
| US08676501B2 |
Satellite navigation using long-term navigation information
An improved approach to satellite-based navigation (e.g., GPS) is provided. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a first set of tracking information. A nominal orbital path for the navigation satellite is determined using the first set of tracking information. Ephemeris data corresponding to the nominal orbital path is computed and uploaded to the navigation satellite. Long-term navigation information corresponding to the nominal orbital path is transmitted to a communication system for broadcast to a plurality of navigation devices. A second set of tracking information is received, an orbital path of the navigation satellite using the second set of tracking information is predicted, and a difference between the predicted orbital path and the nominal orbital path is determined. Commands configured to instruct the navigation satellite to adjust an actual orbital path of the navigation satellite to substantially conform to the nominal orbital path are uploaded to the navigation satellite. |
| US08676494B2 |
Multi-dimensional road representation
A method and system for representing multiple road properties with a single multi-dimensional parametric spline curve is disclosed. A B-Spline is generated to represent a first road dimension. The B-Spline is written mathematically in vector format. One or more road dimensions to be added to the B-Spline are selected. Depending on the selection, the road dimensions are created in a format compatible with the B-Spline. For example, the road dimensions may be created using curve fitting, B-Spline merger, or direct assignment. Once the road dimensions are created, they are added to the original B-Spline vector. The new B-Spline vector is then stored in a data storage unit for use by systems, such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. |
| US08676489B2 |
Positioning map views to show more optimal route information
Described is a technology by which a more optimal map view with respect to route information is returned in response to an online mapping request. A start or end location is positioned away from the map center as appropriate to show as much route information as possible within the map view, given view size and zoom constraints. In one example, various-sized bounding boxes that contain the start or end location and one or more routes may be evaluated to determine a largest bounding box that meets the mapping size constraint; the center of that bounding box is the center of the map view. In one alternative, map views at various zoom levels may be scored against one another to determine which map view contains the most important route information, such as the most maneuver points and/or landmarks within each map view; the map view with the best score is returned. |
| US08676486B2 |
Vehicular information processing device
Disclosed is a vehicular information processing device which performs a predetermined process of a host vehicle on the basis of reference positional information acquired from positional information of another vehicle within a predetermined positional range. When there are a plurality of other vehicles within a predetermined positional range, representative positional information is acquired on the basis of a plurality of pieces of positional information obtained from the plurality of other vehicles, and the predetermined process is performed with the acquired representative positional information as the reference positional information. |
| US08676480B2 |
Three-dimensional traffic flow presentation
Traffic flow is viewed in mapping or navigation. A processor generates a two-dimensional map from a perspective view. The perspective view is at an angle, which is not a normal to the map, looking down on the two-dimensional map. At least one road or pathway represented on the two-dimensional map is identified. Traffic flow information is obtained for a plurality of locations along the at least one road or pathway. A line is projected along a third dimension on the two-dimensional map. The line is above the road or pathway from the perspective view. A height of the line is a function of the traffic flow information for the locations such that the height for a first of the locations is greater than for a second of the locations. The map is displayed with the line. |
| US08676477B2 |
Rotational fluctuation malfunction detection device and rotational fluctuation malfunction detection method for internal combustion engine
A rotational fluctuation malfunction detection device for an internal combustion engine determines that fluctuations in output shaft rotational speed are “normal” when a rotational fluctuation value, obtained in a “disturbance fluctuation state” is below threshold L1. If rotational fluctuation value obtained in “disturbance fluctuation state” equals or exceeds L2, the rotational fluctuation malfunction detection device determines that the rotational fluctuation value is “abnormal.” However, when the rotational fluctuation value obtained in “disturbance fluctuation state” is equal to L1 or between L1 and L2, the rotational fluctuation malfunction detection device determines that the rotational fluctuation value is “normal” if the rotational fluctuation value obtained in the “non-disturbance state” is below L3, and the rotational fluctuation value is “abnormal” if the rotational fluctuation value obtained in the “non-disturbance state” equals or exceeds L3. |
| US08676476B2 |
Method for real-time, self-learning identification of fuel injectors during engine operation
A system and method for real-time, self-learning characterization of fuel injector performance during engine operation. The system includes an algorithm for an engine controller which allows the controller to learn the correlation between the fuel mass and pulse width for each injector in the engine in real time while the engine is running. The controller progressively perceives those pulse widths that achieve the desired fuel mass, while it can continuously adapt what it has learned based on various input variations, such as temperature and fuel rail pressure. The controller then uses the learned actual performance of each injector to command the pulse width required to achieve the desired quantity of fuel for each cylinder on each cycle. |
| US08676473B2 |
Method for the self-learning of the variation of a nominal functioning feature of a high pressure variable delivery pump in an internal combustion engine
A method for the self-learning of the variation of a nominal functioning feature of a high pressure pump in an internal combustion engine, which pump feeds fuel to a common rail and is controlled by a solenoid valve depending on an objective pressure inside the common rail and by using the nominal functioning feature which provides a delivery of fuel; in cut-off conditions of the engine, the method includes determining the value of the pressure leaks due to blow-by in the common rail; measuring the real pressure of the fuel inside the common rail; actuating the high pressure pump by controlling the solenoid valve with a predetermined closing angle; measuring the real pressure of the fuel inside the common rail again; determining a pressure deviation between the real pressure and an expected pressure of the fuel, and correcting the nominal functioning feature according to this deviation. |
| US08676468B2 |
Vehicle control device
Provided is a vehicle control device which generates a speed pattern of a vehicle and controls traveling of the vehicle based on the speed pattern, including: rear vehicle travel situation checking means for checking a travel situation of a rear vehicle which travels behind the vehicle; wave-like travel speed pattern generating means for generating a wave-like travel speed pattern where acceleration travel and free run travel are alternately repeated based on the travel situation of the rear vehicle; and control means for controlling the traveling of the vehicle based on the wave-like travel speed pattern. |
| US08676467B2 |
Speed change control system for a vehicle
A speed change control system includes a speed change control section for setting a speed change value of a stepless speed change device; a speed change operational tool for providing the speed change control section with a speed change command the stepless speed change device; a constant speed travel operational device for providing the speed change control section with a changing command for changing a constant speed mode speed change value which is a speed change value at the time of the constant speed mode, a shifting command for shifting to the constant speed mode and a departing command for departing from the constant speed mode; and a constant speed travel management section which causes the speed change control section to execute the constant speed mode with the constant speed mode speed change value, based on the shifting command from the constant speed travel operational device. |
| US08676466B2 |
Fail-safe speed profiles for cooperative autonomous vehicles
A method for controlling speed of a vehicle based upon control messages received through a communications device within the vehicle includes monitoring communication of control messages to a propulsion controller wherein control messages includes a speed profile including a current speed command representing instantaneous desired speed of the vehicle and future speed commands representing a predetermined controlled vehicle stop through a speed profile period, detecting anomalous communications of the control messages, and controlling the speed of the vehicle during anomalous communications using the future speed commands. |
| US08676463B2 |
Travel controlling apparatus of vehicle
A travel controlling apparatus of a vehicle includes a slip ratio detecting unit that obtains a slip ratio of front wheels and rear wheels depending on a travel state of the vehicle, a friction coefficient detecting unit that obtains a friction coefficient of the front wheels and the rear wheels depending on the travel state of the vehicle, a slip ratio stable region setting unit that sets a slip ratio stable region in which the friction coefficient becomes a predetermined value or more depending on the travel state of the vehicle, a braking/driving force controlling unit that controls a braking/driving force in the slip ratio stable region, and a slip ratio stable region changing unit that changes an upper limit value and a lower limit value in the slip ratio stable region depending on a variation of the friction coefficient when the slip ratio increases and when the slip ratio decreases. |
| US08676459B2 |
Powertrain for a vehcile and system and method for controlling the powertrain
A system and method for controlling a powertrain of a vehicle having an engine configured to output a variable torque, can include a transmission with a plurality of gear ratios and selectively driven by the variable torque, and a pair of wheels selectively driven by the transmission. The system can include a longitudinal acceleration sensor and a controller. The controller can be in electrical communication with the longitudinal acceleration sensor. The controller can be configured to determine an inertial value of the vehicle based on data from the longitudinal acceleration sensor prior to a shift from one of the plurality of gear ratios to another of the plurality of gear ratios. The controller can also be configured to determine a first estimate of a real-time torque value based on at least one of an engine map, the plurality of gear ratios, a torque converter map and driveline losses, and to determine a second estimate of a real-time torque value based on the inertial value and data from the longitudinal acceleration sensor, during the shift from the one of the plurality of gear ratios to the another of the plurality of gear ratios. |
| US08676450B2 |
Steering wheel position control system for a vehicle
A steering wheel position control system includes a head position acquisition part for acquiring a position of a head part of a driver, a seat movement detection part for detecting movement of a seat, on which the driver is seated, a steering wheel position calculation part for calculating a position of a steering wheel based on the position of the head part acquired by the head position acquisition part when the movement of the electric power seat is detected by the seat movement detection part, and a steering wheel position change part for moving the steering wheel to the position of the steering wheel calculated by the steering wheel position calculation part. |
| US08676449B2 |
Vehicle governance system
Disclosed are a method and system for preventing the unauthorized use of a vehicle. A set of vehicle operating parameters is entered onto a person's driver's license, and that person registers as an authorized user of a specified vehicle. When that person enters the vehicle, the person inserts the driver's license into a card reader, and the card reader reads the operating parameters and enters those parameters onto a computing platform. The computing platform receives these operating parameters and checks to determine if the person is an authorized user of the vehicle. If the computing platform determines that the person is an authorized user, the computing platform sends the operating parameters to a control module within the vehicle. If the person then operates the vehicle, the control module controls the vehicle to maintain that operation within the operating parameters. |
| US08676442B2 |
In-vehicle drive pattern optimization for reduced road wear
The present principles are directed to in-vehicle drive pattern optimization for reduced road wear. A method includes monitoring statuses of various vehicle functions. The method further includes controlling the various vehicle functions to optimize the vehicle drive pattern for reduced road wear, responsive to an output of the monitoring step and known information at least about a road segment currently being or about to be traversed. |
| US08676439B2 |
Information processing adapter for on-board diagnostics
An information processing adapter for an on-board diagnostic (OBD) includes an input connector inserted into a socket of the OBD, a circuit board connected to the input connector and a first output connector connected to the circuit board. The circuit board has a controller area network (CAN) transceiver and a microcontroller. The adapter gets vehicle driving information through the input connector and transmits to the microcontroller through the CAN transceiver to perform interpretation and format conversion, then sends the converted vehicle driving information to an external electronic device through the first output connector. With the format of vehicle driving information converted by the adapter, the information can be directly displayed or stored in various electronic devices without specific specification. |
| US08676438B2 |
Method and system for implementing ultrasonic sensor signal strength calibrations
Temperature compensation for ultrasonic sensors can have a significant error that is highly undesirable because temperature of ultrasonic sensors and the temperature of the medium through which they sense objects affect signal strength calibrations (e.g., echo thresholds) applied when detecting an object. In order to increase the detection capabilities and reported distance of an object, ultrasonic sensors need to adjust their detection criteria and distance calculations as the temperature of air surrounding a vehicle (i.e., outside air temperature) changes and also as the temperature of the sensor changes. Embodiments of the inventive subject matter provide for a simple, effective and consistent approach for determining a temperature upon which such detection criteria and distance calculation adjustments can be based. |
| US08676426B1 |
Automatic guided vehicle system and method
An apparatus and method for guiding an automatic guided vehicle along a magnetic pathway and more specifically to an apparatus and a method capable of accurately and precisely following a weak magnetic field emitted by a substantially continuous passive magnetic marker having route junctions. |
| US08676424B2 |
Drive system for a motor vehicle and method for operating such a drive system
A drive system includes at least two drive devices, at least one of which is electric, that drive at least two drive axles, a power electronics system, an energy storage arrangement, and a control device. The control device includes a drive control module for providing a recuperation limiting value for each electric drive, a recuperation control module for combining the recuperation limiting values to form a maximum recuperation total limiting value, and a brake control module for providing a total braking torque requested by a driver or assistance system, such that it derives a recuperation total torque that is less than the recuperation total limiting value and also derives recuperation partial torques for each electric drive. In the case of a total braking torque that is greater than the recuperation total limiting value, the brake control module generates a hydraulic brake pressure and transmits it to the brake system. |
| US08676419B2 |
Time-based vehicle battery balancing system and method
A power system for a vehicle may include at least one controller and a battery having a plurality of cells. The at least one controller may, for each of the cells, determine a voltage of the cell, determine a discharge time to reduce the voltage to a value approximately equal to a minimum of the determined voltages, and cause the cell to discharge for the discharge time to balance the battery. |
| US08676415B2 |
Engine power demand load-leveling for a hybrid electric vehicle
A method for controlling a demand for engine power in a control for an engine in a hybrid electric vehicle with power-split characteristics. Following transitions from acceleration or deceleration operating modes to a steady-state operating mode, power demand excursions from road-load power are attenuated or avoided by filtering the power demand using a filter constant that changes within battery power constraints as a function of a normalized driver demand for power at traction wheels for the vehicle. |
| US08676413B2 |
Arrangement for determining a force acting on a rudder
In order to reduce the switching hysteresis in a dynamic positioning system and/or an autopilot system for watercraft, an arrangement is provided for determining a force acting on a rudder for watercraft. This arrangement includes a processing unit, at least one measuring device for determining values of a physical quantity of a rudder, and means for transmitting the determined values of the physical quantity to the processing unit. The processing unit is configured to determine the force acting on the rudder on the basis of the determined values of the physical quantity. |
| US08676391B2 |
Blocked nozzle detection and remedial method and system
System and method for controlling a stuck nozzle system installed between first and second turbines connected in series to a compressor. The method includes determining whether the nozzle system is stuck; instructing the first turbine to increase a minimum speed reference when the nozzle system is stuck; verifying whether the nozzle system continues to be stuck; instructing the compressor to increase an inlet bleed heat (IBH) flow from a current value to a maximum value when the nozzle system is stuck; verifying whether the nozzle system continues to be stuck; and instructing the compressor to increase an inlet guide vanes (IGV) angle from a current value to a maximum value when the nozzle system is stuck. |
| US08676385B2 |
Method for operating a heat exchanger unit
A method operates a heat exchanger unit and determines a current physical characteristic of a process fluid at or adjacent a process fluid outlet of the heat exchanger unit and predetermining a desired physical characteristic of the process fluid at which the process fluid is desired to exit the heat exchanger unit. If the current physical characteristic of the process fluid is greater than the desired physical characteristic of the process fluid, then either a current fan speed is incrementally increased or the current fan speed is set at a predetermined low set point fan speed. Alternatively, if the current physical characteristic of the process fluid is less than the desired physical characteristic of the process fluid, then either the current fan speed is incrementally decreased or the current fan speed is set at a predetermined high set point fan speed or an OFF operating mode is activated. |
| US08676369B2 |
Method for monitoring a production process
A method for monitoring a production process with regard to quality is disclosed. The method includes: a) breaking down the production process into a sequence of individual steps, defined by a sequence of control commands for a production program for carrying out the production process on a machine tool; b) generating at least one signal template per individual step of the production process from the control commands for the individual steps, each signal template corresponding to a theoretical signal curve for a parameter which may be measured upon executing the production process; c) measurement of a signal curve for at least one parameter per individual step during the execution; and d) comparison of the or each measured signal curve with the respective arithmetically generated signal template, wherein a qualitatively poor production process is determined if the measured signal curve deviates from the signal template by more than a given tolerance. |
| US08676368B2 |
System and method for optimizing a production process using electromagnetic-based local positioning capabilities
A system includes a handheld tool for executing steps of a sequence within a work cell. An electromagnetic marker connected to the tool emits a magnetic field within the cell. A receptor detects the magnetic field and generates a raw position signal in response thereto. A control unit updates an assembly setting of the tool. The host executes a control action when a position determined using the raw data is not equal to an expected position in the sequence. A method calculates the present position of a torque wrench using magnetic fields generated by the marker and measured by a receptor array, and calculates a present position of the tool or a fastener. The present position of the fastener may be compared to an expected position in the calibrated sequence, and the torque wrench may be disabled when the fastener position is not equal to the expected position. |
| US08676362B2 |
Encapsulation of high definition audio data over an input/output interconnect
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to systems, methods, and apparatuses for encapsulation of high definition audio data over an input/output interconnect. In some embodiments, a system includes tunneling logic coupled with a high definition (HD) audio controller. The tunneling logic may receive digital audio data from the HD audio controller, encapsulate the digital audio data in a message suitable for an in-band input/output (IO) interconnect, and send the message to an add-in graphics card via the in-band input/output IO interconnect. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08676358B2 |
Numerical control method and numerical control device
A numerical control machine tool has two spindles mounted in opposition to each other. In order to enable consecutive operations of lathe turning machining work in accordance with a speed command, drill machining work for drilling with rotating tools with a work positioned at a given angle, and other machining works while keeping a state where a single work is grasped by both of the spindles, switching means 152, 215 and 225 are provided which switch a reference spindle 314 to a profile control axis in a state where both of the spindles are held in the position control mode selected during spindle synchronized control, in a case where a C-axis control switching command is issued to treat the reference spindle 314 as the profile control axis while spindle synchronized control is performed for the reference spindle 314 and a synchronized spindle 324 and the synchronized spindle 324 is revolving at a command speed given to the reference spindle 314. |
| US08676351B2 |
MRI conditionally safe lead with low-profile multi-layer conductor for longitudinal expansion
An implantable electrical lead includes a lead body and a multi-layer coil conductor extending within the lead body. The multi-layer coil conductor includes a first coil layer and a second coil layer disposed about the first coil layer. The first and second coil layers are configured such that the multi-layer coil conductor has an axial stiffness substantially equal to an axial stiffness of the lead body adjacent to the multi-layer coil conductor. |
| US08676345B2 |
Electrodes for stimulation leads and methods of manufacture and use
An electrode has a unitary ring with an exterior surface, interior surface, and at least two edges. The electrode also includes a seat formed in at least the exterior surface of the unitary ring. The seat is configured and arranged for attachment of a terminal end of a lead wire, disposed in the seat, to the electrode. A lead includes a lead body; a plurality of electrodes disposed at the distal end of the lead body; and a plurality of lead wires. Each electrode includes a unitary ring and a seat in the unitary ring. The unitary ring has an exterior surface and an interior surface and defines a hollow center region. The seat is formed as a depression of a portion of the unitary ring. Each of the lead wires extends along the lead body and is attached to a corresponding electrode at the seat of the corresponding electrode. |
| US08676343B2 |
Multi-electrode leads for brain implantation
A lead for use in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) and similar applications has a rigid lead tip with multiple electrodes thereon. The electrodes are formed by coating a lead tip core with a conductive material; selectively removing the conductive material to define the electrodes and conductive tracks leading therefrom; and then applying a layer of insulating material over the tracks to leave the electrodes exposed. Terminals are also left exposed on the tracks for connection to energy supply and/or data transmission lines. Such lines are preferably provided on or within a flexible lead body connected to the lead tip. |
| US08676336B2 |
Methods and devices for detection of context when addressing a medical condition of a patient
Methods and devices detect context related to a patient when monitoring a physiological condition of the patient and/or when applying one or more modes of therapy. The context may be a patient context such as posture or an environmental context such as ambient conditions. The context may be used in various ways in relation to the physiological measurement, such as to control when the physiological measurements are made, to appropriately flag physiological measurements, to be recorded in association with the physiological measurements, and/or to correct the physiological measurements based on a reference context. A device such as a beacon transmitter is used in detecting the context and a measurement device such as an implantable cardiovascular device is used to capture the physiological measurements. |
| US08676329B2 |
Dorsal column stimulation therapy
In some examples, the disclosure relates to system, devices, and techniques for delivering dorsal column stimulation. One or more locations for dorsal column stimulation may be identified based on sensed signals evoked by delivery of stimulation to a dorsal root and/or peripheral nerve of a patient. In some examples, an IMD may deliver dorsal column stimulation in combination with dorsal root stimulation to a patient to treat a patient condition. |
| US08676326B1 |
Implantable device with responsive vascular and cardiac controllers
Exemplary methods are described for providing responsive vascular control with or without cardiac pacing. An implantable device with responsive vascular and cardiac controllers interprets physiological conditions and responds with an appropriate degree of vascular therapy applied as electrical pulses to a sympathetic nerve. In one implementation, an implantable device is programmed to deliver the vascular therapy in response to low blood pressure or orthostatic hypotension. The device may stimulate the greater splanchnic nerve, to effect therapeutic vasoconstriction. The vascular therapy is dynamically adjusted as the condition improves. In one implementation to benefit impaired physical mobility, vascular therapy comprises vasoconstriction and is timed to coincide with a recurring segment of the cardiac cycle. The vasoconstriction assists circulation and venous return in the lower limbs of inactive and bedridden individuals. In various implementations, cardiac pacing therapy that is synergistic with the vascular therapy may be added to augment treatment. |
| US08676323B2 |
Ventilatory assist system and methods to improve respiratory function
Systems and methods are provided to improve respiratory function. Systems include an external electrical stimulator coupled to electrodes that stimulates diaphragm contraction and may optionally include a positive pressure mechanical ventilator. The system further includes an electrode suitable for temporary implantation. Electrical stimulation is provided to specific portions of the diaphragm, such as one hemidiaphragm preferentially over another. By preferentially contracting one hemidiaphragm, a specific portion of a lung may be expanded, such as a posterior portion. By the provision of the negative intrathoracic pressure from diaphragm contraction, greater expansion of specific portion of lung is achieved in relationship to air pressure within the lung, thereby improving compliance. Supplementation of stimulated diaphragm contraction with positive pressure driven air flow from a PPMV directs the air flow to specific portions of the lung. Such portion may include a posterior portion of a lung, and may cause a clearing of atelectasis in that portion. |
| US08676319B2 |
Implantable medical device with compressible fixation member
An implantable medical device and method of implanting a medical device, the device including a housing surrounding an operative component and a resiliently deformable fixation member. The fixation member includes a ring shaped annulus circumscribing the housing and a plurality of elongated struts having a proximal end affixed to the housing and a distal end affixed to the annulus. The fixation member may be comprised of a hydrogel such that it may be in a smaller, dehydrated form during implantation, and then may absorb fluid to expand to a larger, hydrated form after insertion to engage the surrounding tissue. |
| US08676318B2 |
Efficient external charger for charging a plurality of implantable medical devices
An improved external charger for a battery in an implantable medical device (implant), and technique for charging batteries in multiple implants using such improved external charger, is disclosed. During charging, values for a parameter measured in the implants are reported from the implants to the external charger. The external charger infers from the magnitudes of the parameters which of the implants has the highest and lowest coupling to the external charger, and so designates those implants as “hot” and “cold.” The intensity of the magnetic charging field is optimized for the cold implant consistent with the simulation to ensure that that the cold implant is charged with a maximum (fastest) battery charging current. The duty cycle of the magnetic charging field is also optimized for the hot implant consistent with the simulation to ensure that the hot implant does not exceed the power dissipation limit. As a result, charging is optimized to be fast for all of the implants, while still safe from a tissue heating perspective. |
| US08676314B2 |
Method and apparatus to ensure consistent left ventricular pacing
A method of operating a cardiac therapy system to deliver cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) pacing that includes pacing both ventricles or pacing only the left ventricle is described. Delivery of the CRT pacing to one or both ventricles is scheduled for a cardiac cycle. If an intrinsic depolarization of a ventricle is detected during a pacing delay of the ventricle, then the scheduled CRT pacing to the ventricle is inhibited for the cycle. The intrinsic interval of the ventricle, such as the intrinsic atrioventricular interval concluded by the intrinsic depolarization, is measured. During a subsequent cardiac cycle, the pacing delay of the ventricle is decreased to be less than or equal to the measured intrinsic interval. Capture of the ventricle is verified after pacing is delivered during the subsequent cardiac cycle. |
| US08676312B2 |
Medical devices alerting user about potential interruption of wireless patient data transfer
An external defibrillator can receive wirelessly a data signal transmitted by a transmitting device over a communication link. The defibrillator can include a processor configured to monitor a reception parameter of the communication link while the data signal is being received and to set an alert flag if the processor determines from the reception parameter that reception of the data signal may be discontinued prematurely. The defibrillator can also include a user interface capable of outputting an alerting user notification responsive to the alert flag being set. |
| US08676310B2 |
Implantable medical device including two power sources
An implantable medical device (IMD) may include a battery dedicated to providing cardiac stimulation therapy and a separate power source that provides power for electrical stimulation therapy. Such a configuration preserves the battery dedicated for providing cardiac stimulation therapy even if the second power source is depleted. As an example, the IMD may comprise a cardiac stimulation module configured to deliver at least one stimulation therapy selected from a group consisting of pacing, cardioversion and defibrillation. The IMD further comprises a electrical stimulation module configured to deliver electrical stimulation therapy, a first power source including a battery, wherein the first power source is configured to supply power to the cardiac stimulation module and not to the electrical stimulation module, and a second power source. The second power source is configured to supply power to at least the electrical stimulation module. |
| US08676305B2 |
Automated analysis of complex fractionated electrograms
A method for mapping abnormal electrical activity, including obtaining electrical signal data from respective locations in a heart of a living subject, and automatically analyzing the signal data to identify complex fractionated electrograms (CFEs) therein. The method further includes analyzing the CFEs so as to identify reentry locations comprised in the respective locations, and displaying information derived from the identification in relation to a map of the heart. |
| US08676303B2 |
Methods and systems for treating heart instability
Systems and methods define an index of risk for cardiac disease by detecting cellular derangements that may lead to cardiomyopathy, heart rhythm disorders or ischemic heart disease. The markers include fluctuations or abnormal rate-behavior of electrical, mechanical or other measurable biosignals. The invention operates in modes that can be applied to prevent atrial fibrillation or the risk for ventricular arrhythmias. Alternative embodiments are applied to tissue outside the heart such as skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, the central nervous system, the respiratory system, the urogenital system and the gastrointestinal system. |
| US08676298B2 |
Medical image alignment apparatus, method, and program
Generating, with respect to each of the three-dimensional image and the three-dimensional comparison image, a plurality of tomographic images orthogonal to a central axis of each vertebra of the subject along the central axis, calculating a first characteristic amount representing a profile in a direction orthogonal to the central axis at each point on the central axis based on the tomographic images, calculating a second characteristic amount representing a profile in a direction of the central axis at each point on the central axis based on the tomographic images, calculating a third characteristic amount representing regularity of disposition of each vertebra at each point on the central axis based on the calculated first and second characteristic amounts, and aligning positions of the third characteristic amount calculated from the three-dimensional image and the third characteristic amount calculated from the three-dimensional comparison image along the central axis. |
| US08676297B2 |
Method and device for separate three-dimensional presentation of arteries and veins in a part of body
The invention is directed to a method and a device for separate three-dimensional presentation of arteries and/or veins of a vessel system in a part of the body of a vertebrate by a rotation computer tomography. A masking run of the tomograph is undertaken without contrast media around the part of the body. Then two filling runs with contrast media are executed, with the venous phase of vessel contrasting during the first filling run occurring during the arterial phase of vessel contrasting of the second filling run and vice-versa. The data from the first and second filling run is combined into data sets from the arterial or the venous phases of the vessel contrasting of the filling runs. The data of the masking run is subtracted from the combined data sets to obtain final data sets for a three-dimensional presentation of the arterial or the venous vessel system. |
| US08676289B2 |
Method and apparatus for discriminating cardiac signals in a medical device based on wavelet decomposition analysis
A method of detecting cardiac signals in a medical device that includes decomposing a cardiac signal using a wavelet function at a plurality of scales to form a corresponding wavelet transform, determining approximation coefficients in response to the plurality of scales, reconstructing a first wavelet representation of the wavelet transform using predetermined approximation coefficients of the determined approximation coefficients, and evaluating the detected cardiac signals in response to the reconstructing. |
| US08676288B2 |
Device and method for determining analyte levels
Devices and methods for determining analyte levels are described. The devices and methods allow for the implantation of analyte-monitoring devices, such as glucose monitoring devices, that result in the delivery of a dependable flow of blood to deliver sample to the implanted device. The devices comprise a unique microarchitectural arrangement in the sensor region that allows accurate data to be obtained over long periods of time. |
| US08676286B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing coupling between signals in a measurement system
A method and an apparatus for separating a composite signal into a plurality of signals is described. A signal processor receives a composite signal and separates a composite signal in to separate output signals. Feedback from one or more of the output signals is provided to a configuration module that configures the signal processor to improve a quality of the output signals. In one embodiment, the signal processor separates the composite signal by applying a first demodulation scheme to the composite signal to generate a first output signal. In one embodiment, the signal processor also applies a second demodulation scheme to the composite signal to generate a second output signal. In one embodiment, the composite signal is obtained from a detector in a system for measuring one or more blood constituents. |
| US08676281B1 |
Interchangeable color backgrounds for cell phone protector cases
A transparent cell phone protector case where the face of the cell phone is facing away from the rear of the transparent cell phone protector case. This case is a snap fit over the cell phone and sandwiches a decorative accessory color card between the transparent cell phone protector case and the cell phone. The invention is to insert a card of a different color between the back of the cell phone and the acrylic transparent case so that the colored card gives the cell phone protector case a different colored appearance. A set of these colored cards can be sold so that an individual can exchange the color to match the outfit they are wearing. |
| US08676280B2 |
Antenna case for enhancing transmission and reception of radio waves
A portable accessory for preventing death grip of a hand-held apparatus and improving radio wave transmission and reception of the hand-held apparatus. The portable accessory includes an inductive signal amplifying circuit including: a radio transmission/radio unit that transmits or receives radio waves; a capacitive coupled unit that is capacitively coupled with an antenna mounted in the hand-held apparatus; and an impedance matching unit that connects the radio wave transmission/reception unit and the capacitive coupled unit and transmits radio waves. |
| US08676279B2 |
Electronic instrument attached to a hand
A system for attaching an electronic instrument to the inside of a hand. The system includes a fixed plate removably attached to an electronic instrument. The system further consists of a fixed plate attached to the cell phone and a rotational plate attached to the fixed plate. The rotational plate has threaded there through an elastic band having loops, each of which will connect to a middle finger and a ring finger, respectively, designed to hold the hand of a user snugly on the electronic instrument. The fixed plate may also be attached to a case of a cell phone. |
| US08676278B2 |
Mobile terminal device
A mobile terminal device comprise a first housing 11a provided with a displaying unit 13; a second housing 11b on which the first housing 11a is laid; a hinge portion 12 pivotably connecting respective one end portions of the first housing 11a and second housing 11b with each other such that the first housing 11a moves toward/away from the second housing 11b; and a self-stand maintaining unit for maintaining a self-standing state where the displaying unit 13 is inclined by pivoting the first housing 11a relative to the second housing 11b with the hinge portion 12 as a pivoting center, as well as moving the first housing 11a along an axial direction of the hinge 12 to bring a side of the first housing 11a and a contact portion A on a side surface of the second housing 11b into contact with a placement surface. |
| US08676277B2 |
Communication device, communication method, program and communication system
A communication device is provided and includes: an electromagnetic-wave generating means for outputting an electromagnetic wave; and a transmitting/receiving means for transmitting data by modulating the electromagnetic wave in accordance with data as well as receiving data transmitted from the other device by demodulating the electromagnetic wave outputted by the electromagnetic-wave generating means or the electromagnetic wave outputted by the other device as the other party of communication, wherein the transmitting/receiving means transmits attribute information indicating communication ability of the device itself as well as receives attribute information indicating communication ability of the other device as the data, and the electromagnetic-wave generating means turns off the output of the electromagnetic wave for a given period of time after the transmission of the data based on the attribute information. |
| US08676272B2 |
Mobile terminal and method of controlling operation of the mobile terminal
A method of controlling an operation of a mobile terminal having a display screen, and which includes displaying a plurality of avatar images on the display screen, wherein at least a first avatar image represents a first party registered in a phone book of the mobile phone; detecting, via a controller of the mobile terminal, an occurrence of the communication event associated with the first avatar image, the first avatar image having a first shape indicating a first action; and changing the first shape of the first avatar image into a second shape indicating a second action of the first avatar image to inform a user of the mobile terminal about the detected occurrence of the communication event. |
| US08676271B2 |
Application displaying method and mobile communication terminal based on user's habit
The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and provides an application displaying method and a mobile communication terminal based on a user's habit. The method includes: when the mobile communication terminal runs an application, acquiring a statistical value of displaying in a landscape manner and a statistical value of displaying in a portrait manner when the mobile communication terminal previously ran the application, comparing the statistical value of the landscape-manner displaying and the statistical value of the portrait-manner displaying to acquire a displaying manner corresponding to a larger displaying statistical value; and displaying a display interface of the application of the mobile communication terminal in the displaying manner corresponding to the larger displaying statistical value. |
| US08676268B2 |
System and method for monitoring and restricting the usage of a mobile communication device
A system and methodology for monitoring and restricting the use of a mobile communication device while operating a moving vehicle is disclosed. The mobile communications device environmental/geometrical context and the vehicle environmental/geometrical context are self determined, shared and stored locally. This information context is used to restrict a mobile communication device communication channel when motion conditions have been met. Further methods are disclosed to allow the mobile communication device to function normally when local vehicle location and synchronization have been established or an emergency communication channel initiated. |
| US08676258B2 |
Systems and methods of transferring user information to different devices
A communications system according to certain embodiments includes a mobile device and a second type of communications system, such as a landline telephone system, that share usage information. The shared information can include call logs of in-coming and out-going calls, missed calls, text messages, address book information, GPS data, internet browsing data, and the like. |
| US08676257B2 |
Multi-mode mobile communication device with motion sensor and methods for use therewith
A mobile communication device includes a motion sensor for generating motion signals in response to motion of the mobile communication device. A motion data generation module generates motion data based on the motion signals. At least one transceiver sends the motion data to a game device in a gaming mode of operation and transceives wireless telephony data with a wireless telephony network in a telephony mode of operation. |
| US08676254B2 |
Cellular phone line replacement adapter
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for automated processing and routing of data messages or packets, via a cellular network, from analog or digital data devices where said routing is accomplished without a need for call origination on the cellular network. The present invention includes a fixed cellular communication device and may also include a fixed wireless RF communication device and/or a mobile wireless RF transceiver. The fixed cellular communication device provides a means for formatting and transmission of data packets received from data devices directly connected to the fixed cellular communication device, or the fixed cellular communication device may receive signals from the fixed wireless RF communication device and/or from the mobile wireless RF transceiver. |
| US08676253B2 |
Method and device for ranking frequencies
An arbitration method and device for arbitrating receiving conflict in a multi-mode multi-SIM multi-standby communication terminal is provided. The method includes: determining if there are at least two cards to receive messages in a time cycle while all of the cards are in standby states, the time cycle being a radio frame of one card; identifying types of messages to be received by the at least two cards after determining there are at least two cards to receive messages in the time cycle, and the types of messages comprising paging message and broadcast message; determining if a receiving conflict occurs; and arbitrating based on the types of receiving conflicts and obtaining arbitration results after determining there is a receiving conflict. The arbitration results include: receiving a paging message preferentially; receiving the paging message with the longest paging period; and receiving the broadcast message with the highest priority. |
| US08676249B2 |
Apparatus and method for increased security of wireless transactions
A mobile communication device with security mechanisms is provided for enabling wireless personal information transfer with increased security. In another embodiment of the invention, a mobile communication device is used to confirm a transaction. |
| US08676248B2 |
Device, method, and medium for optimizing simultaneous long term evolution (LTE) signals and signals in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) radio band
A wireless communication device includes a processing unit with first chip and second chip that operates in parallel with the first chip. The first chip transmits/receives data according to LTE. The second chip transmits/receives data over a WLAN. The processing unit determines access points (AP) through which data can be transmitted/received by the second chip over the WLAN; and identifies an optimal AP, based on factors including a determination, for each AP, of whether transmission/reception of data by the first chip according to the LTE standard, simultaneous to transmission/reception of data over the WLAN by the second chip, would decrease the overall throughput of the first and second chips. When the second chip is previously connected to the WLAN through any AP other than the optimal AP, the second chip is disconnected from the other AP, and it is connected to the WLAN through the optimal AP. |
| US08676236B1 |
System, method, and computer program for generating a short message service (SMS) message using template codes
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for generating a short message service (SMS) message using template codes. In use, a message to be sent as a short message service (SMS) message is received. Additionally, a template associated with the message is identified. Further, at least one code associated with the template is identified. Moreover, the SMS message is generated using the at least one code. |
| US08676233B2 |
Methods and apparatuses supporting multiple positioning protocol versions in wireless communication networks
Methods and apparatuses that support multiple positioning protocol versions within wireless communication networks are disclosed. In a particular embodiment, a method includes determining, at a first device, a first set of versions of a positioning protocol supported by the first device. An indication signal is transmitted from the first device to a second device. The indication signal includes a set of position determination data messages (PDDMs). Each particular PPDM of the set of PDDMs has a corresponding particular version of the first set of versions. |
| US08676232B2 |
Locating mobile contacts using a geo-contact list
A system including a memory for storing a contact list of records each record including a contact name, a mobile device phone number, and a list of location entries, each entry comprising a location name, a location phone number, a location address, and location geographic coordinates, and a locator for receiving as input a designated contact name, for obtaining current geographic coordinates of the designated contact's mobile device, for obtaining current geographic coordinates of at least one other mobile device, and for generating as output at least one proximal entity, each proximal entity including either the name of a contact whose mobile device is currently located close to the designated contact's mobile device, or the name of a contact and the name of a location associated with the contact, the location being currently close to the designated contact's mobile device. |
| US08676222B2 |
Initial connection establishment in a wireless communication system
A method, user equipment, network equipment and a system for initiating a wireless connection and subsequent communication over a shared physical resource in a wireless communication system between user equipment and network equipment comprising: processing a UE-derived temporary identifier; communicating the temporary identifier as an identifier to the network equipment; communicating a downlink message conveying the temporary identifier and a description of a scheduled resource on a shared channel, the scheduled resource comprising a resource allocated to the user equipment by the network equipment; and communicating data on the scheduled resource in response to the downlink message. |
| US08676213B2 |
Indication of user equipment mobility state to enhance mobility and call performance
A user equipment UE reports its mobility state in signaling for establishing, re-establishing, or re-configuring a radio connection between the UE and a network access node. In one embodiment the reported mobility state is selected from among normal; medium and high. In another embodiment the reported mobility state informs of a number of cell changes the UE has performed within a predetermined evaluation period. The UE may also include an indication whether a hysteresis period for entering into a normal mobility state is running for the UE. The network configures the UE in dependence on the reported mobility state, such as setting a parameter for measuring or reporting neighbor cells (e.g., suspend a serving cell quality threshold as a condition for measuring/reporting; limit inter-frequency and/or inter-radio access technology reporting; set a shortest measurement, reporting gap; disable an event trigger; and/or set layer 3 filtering of measurement results for faster reporting). |
| US08676211B2 |
Systems and methods for selective communications network access
Systems and methods for network congestion management thru selective network access among wireless cells and wireless hotspots are provided. In an embodiment of the present invention, a method to transmit a connection policy decision to a wireless communications device that is connected to a cellular wireless network whether to access a wireless hotspot is provided. The method includes determining a wireless cell location of the wireless communications device, generating a connection policy decision to determine whether the wireless communication device should access a wireless hotspot based on the wireless cell location and wireless hotspot availability, and transmitting the connection policy decision to the wireless communications device. In additional embodiments, the connection policy decision is based on one or more of battery charge levels of the wireless communications device, a mobility pattern of the wireless communications device, and historical success rates accessing the wireless hotspot within the wireless cell location. |
| US08676210B2 |
Handling of event trigger registrations on BBERF during hand-over
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method performed by a policy and charging rules node of provisioning event triggers. The method may include: receiving, from a requesting node, a request to provision a set of event triggers on a primary gateway; forwarding, to the primary gateway, the set of event triggers; storing the set of event triggers in association with a session; detecting a handover of the session; determining a new primary gateway; and forwarding, to the new primary gateway, the set of event triggers. The method may further include: receiving a message; determining whether the message includes the same set of event triggers; if the message includes the same set of event triggers, refraining from sending the set of event triggers to the primary gateway; and if the message includes a different set of event triggers, forwarding the different set of event triggers to the primary gateway. |
| US08676209B2 |
Handoff selection for wireless communication systems
Techniques for selecting serving sectors and performing handoff for a terminal on the forward and reverse links are described. The terminal may obtain pilot measurements for pilots transmitted on the forward link and may update an active set based on the pilot measurements. The terminal may send a transmission (e.g., for pilot, signaling, etc.) on the reverse link and may receive channel quality information indicative of reverse link channel quality for the terminal at multiple sectors in the active set. The transmission may include pilot, and the channel quality information from each sector may include a pilot carrier-over-thermal ratio (pCoT) determined by that sector based on the pilot. The terminal may select a serving sector based on the channel quality information, interference information, and/or other information and may send a request for handoff (e.g., via a signaling message an/or an access probe) to the selected serving sector. |
| US08676208B2 |
Scanning and handover operation in multi-carrier wireless communications systems
A comprehensive solution is provided for multi-carrier scanning and handover operations in OFDM wireless systems. A multi-carrier scanning is any scanning operation that involves multi-carrier radio frequency carriers. In one embodiment, a mobile station communicates with a serving base station over a primary carrier, and performs scanning over one or more determined carriers. A multi-carrier handover is any handover operation that involves multiple radio frequency carriers. In a first embodiment, a break-before-entry (BBE) handover procedure with fast synchronization is provided. In a second embodiment, an entry-before-break (EBB) handover procedure through unavailable intervals is provided. In a third embodiment, EBB handover procedures for both inter-FA and intra-FA using multiple carriers are provided. Finally, in a fourth embodiment, intra-BS handover procedures are provided. The multi-carrier handover procedures may be applied to 2-to-2 or N-to-N carriers handover situation. The overall scanning time and handover interruption time may be reduced through the provided procedures. |
| US08676200B2 |
Mobile communication system, base station device, mobile station device, and handover method
A mobile communication system includes: a mobile station device; a first base station device to which an accessible time is set; and a second base station device. If the mobile communication system detects that a time according to the accessible time elapses and if the mobile station device is in communication with the first base station device, the mobile communication system performs a handover to switch a communication connection between the mobile station device and the first base station device to a communication connection between the mobile station device and the second communication device. Accordingly, disconnection of a call is prevented from occurring if the communication device is in communication with the first base station device when the accessible time expires. |
| US08676198B2 |
Method of supporting location privacy
A method of supporting location privacy of a mobile station includes receiving, from a base station, a message including a temporary station identifier (TSTID) during an initial ranging procedure, wherein the TSTID is temporarily used to protect the location privacy of the mobile station; performing, with the base station, a basic capabilities negotiation procedure after the initial ranging procedure; performing, with the base station, an authentication procedure after the basic capabilities negotiation procedure; performing, with the base station, a registration procedure after the authentication procedure; and releasing the TSTID after receiving a station identifier (STID) which is assigned during the registration procedure, wherein the STID uniquely identifies the mobile station in the base station. |
| US08676195B2 |
Fixed mobile roaming service solution
The present invention is directed to systems for and methods of using dual mode handsets or softphone client for voice, sms, and data services. In one embodiment of the present invention, a mobile handset uses a SIP User Agent to register on a visiting network. The mobile handset generates SIP REGISTER messages. The SIP REGISTER messages are translated into corresponding MAP registration (or RADIUS message) and authentication commands, allowing system to contact the HPLMN HLR (or home AAA) associated with the mobile device to authenticate the mobile device and register it on a VLR of a visiting network. MAP responses (or RADIUS response) are translated to corresponding SIP commands that are forwarded to the mobile device, thereby completing the connection set up. |
| US08676181B2 |
Mobile phone number anonymizer
A method, computer readable media and apparatus for temporarily mapping an anonymous number to a mobile endpoint device are disclosed. For example, the method assigns a first temporary anonymous number to a mobile endpoint device having a mobile number, and receives a call request to reach the mobile endpoint device in accordance with the first temporary anonymous number. The method forwards the call request to the mobile endpoint device if the first temporary anonymous number has not expired. |
| US08676179B2 |
System and method for providing identifying information to a mobile device
A system and method for providing identifying information about the source of an incoming communication to a mobile device is provided. An incoming communication is received by an enterprise network and a connection is established to the mobile device. A DTMF message is sent to the mobile device by the enterprise network. If the source of the incoming communication has an enterprise-assigned number then the DTMF message comprises an identifying key corresponding to the key field of a profile list comprising enterprise-assigned numbers and an identifying information entry for each enterprise-assigned number in the list. If the source of the incoming communication does not have an enterprise-assigned number, the DTMF message comprises an identifying number for the source of the incoming communication. If DTMF is not available on the mobile device, similar logic may be employed using, for example, ANI manipulation. |
| US08676176B2 |
Universal call control systems and methods
Methods and systems for providing a user with control over telecommunications services provided by a service provider. Using almost any type of communications device, a user may gain access to, view, and make changes or modifications to profile information related to the services. The changes may be made quickly and efficiently, but accuracy and thoroughness in the implementation of the changes are not sacrificed. Further, the changes to the communications services are implemented almost immediately and without involvement by the service provider.Particularly, profile information about the telecommunications service is stored on a server in a data network. A change action relating to the profile information may be received at the server from a data device (such as a wireless unit) operating on the network. The change action is implemented on the profile information to result in changed profile information, which may be provided from the server via the data network to the telecommunications system. |
| US08676172B2 |
Generating relational indicators based on analysis of telecommunications events
A system for generating a relational indicator based on analysis of at least one telecommunications event between a first party and a second party, comprises: a relation management engine which is configured to process first content characteristics extracted from a plurality of telecommunications events to produce a first relation parameter and to process second content characteristics extracted from the plurality of telecommunications events to produce a second relation parameter; a terminal device configured to use the first and second relation parameters to generate the relational indicator. |
| US08676170B2 |
System for monitoring the physical activity of a user, a portable medium and a method for monitoring
A system for monitoring the physical activity of a user comprises a portable medium and a remote server having access to a database containing data received from the portable medium. The portable medium has a sensor for detecting the movement of the user, a display, a memory, an interface for exchanging data with a gym machine, a processor for deriving in real time a dimensionless parameter representing the physical activity of the user wearing the portable medium, and wireless communication means configured to establish a connection between the portable medium and a mobile telephone which is set up to connect to the remote server to transfer data to the remote server in real time. The remote server is programmed to transmit, in real time, motivational indications as a function of the data transmitted by the portable medium for display on the mobile telephone. |
| US08676167B2 |
Mobile station with voice call acknowledgement and missed call scheduling
A communication station has a circuit that receives an incoming voice call from a calling party, and an acknowledgement mechanism that produces an acknowledgement message sent to the calling party in response to the incoming call if a user of the communication station does not answer the call. In the examples, the communication station sends short message service (SMS) or multimedia message service (MMS) acknowledgement message to the calling party. Also, a scheduling mechanism may be provided for adding a calendar entry to a calendar implemented in the communication station so as to remind the user about the acknowledged incoming call. |
| US08676164B2 |
Mobile communication system, mobile station, and radio base station using a carrier aggregation security process
A mobile communication system according to the present invention is a mobile communication system so configured that a mobile station UE performs communication with a radio base station eNB by simultaneously using a plurality of frequency carriers, in which the mobile station UE is configured to perform a communication security process by applying the same key KeNB to all of the plurality of frequency carriers. |
| US08676160B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling UE supporting dual mode
A method and an apparatus control a UE that supports a dual mode for controlling power consumption. A wireless local area network (WLAN) modem of a user equipment (UE) automatically turns on when the UE detects that the UE has entered into an area (e.g. home) that employs a home network including a femto Node B and a WLAN access point (AP). The method and apparatus may also determine whether a femto identifier received from a Node B of a home network is an identifier registered in a WLAN turn-on list stored in the UE. If the femto identifier is registered in the WLAN turn-on list, the WLAN modem of the UE is turned on. |
| US08676159B1 |
Mobile network interoperability
In general, techniques are described for modifying control plane messages for subscriber sessions with a network device to add and/or modify discrete information elements and thereby conform the messages to different versions of mobile network specifications, including roaming protocols, executed by different mobile networks or by heterogeneous infrastructure elements within a mobile network. In some examples, an input network interface of a network device receives a roaming protocol message on an interface connecting a first support node of a first mobile network and a second support node of a second mobile network. A roaming protocol module of the network device modifies the roaming protocol message by adding or modifying a discrete information element to conform the roaming protocol message to a roaming protocol of the second mobile network. An output network interface of the network device sends the modified roaming protocol message to the second support node. |
| US08676149B2 |
Prolonging internal power supply life in a mobile communication device
A method of communicating between a mobile communication device including a power supply, and a base station. The mobile device has first and second alternative communication modes, the first communication mode having higher quality of service and higher power consumption than the second communication mode. The second communication mode is adopted in response to a characteristic of the mobile device power supply indicative of a reduced reserve of power in the power supply, and a state indication is transmitted from the mobile device to the base station. The base station can respond to the state indication from the mobile device by modifying a communication characteristic of the base station with the mobile device, whereby to tend to compensate for the mobile device switching between the first and second communication modes. |
| US08676148B2 |
Differential amplifier circuit and wireless receiving apparatus
A differential amplifier circuit includes a source follower circuit to which is input one of the differential signals and a common source circuit that is connected in series with the source follower circuit and to which is input the other of the differential signals. |
| US08676146B2 |
Electronic apparatus, dispersion adjustment method of IC internal component section of electronic apparatus and IC
An electronic apparatus includes: a first integrated circuit including an internal component section capable of being adjusted with adjustment data, a nonvolatile memory in which beforehand acquired adjustment data of a result of adjustment carried out in advance for the internal component section are stored, and an interface section having a data transfer function of transferring the beforehand acquired adjustment data read out from the nonvolatile memory to the outside and a data storage function of storing actual use adjustment data sent thereto from the outside and supplying the stored actual use adjustment data to the internal component section; and a second integrated circuit including a signal processor, to which the interface section of the first integrated circuit is connected. |
| US08676141B1 |
Power control based on mobile receive diversity
A power control method in a mobile station having at least two antennas. The mobile station operates in a receive-diversity state in which the mobile station wirelessly receives communications with multiple antennas. The mobile station determines a relative gain of operating in the receive-diversity state versus operating in a non-receive-diversity state in which the mobile station wirelessly receives communications with one antenna rather than with multiple antennas. The mobile station uses the determined gain as a basis to set one or more power characteristic(s). The one or more power characteristic(s) may include (i) an initial power control setpoint for use by the mobile station to evaluate strength of received transmissions and (ii) an initial power level at which a remote entity transmits to the mobile station. |
| US08676138B2 |
Method of handling system information reception and related communication device
A method of handling system information reception for a mobile device capable of receiving and transmitting on a plurality of component carriers in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises receiving system information of a secondary component carrier of the plurality of component carriers via a first dedicated signaling, and maintaining the system information of the secondary component carrier valid until an update of the system information of the secondary component carrier is received via a second dedicated signaling. |
| US08676127B2 |
Methods and communication devices in a radio telecommunications network
Methods for enabling provision of data to be used in a performance analysis are provided. The communication device obtains an input to set up at least one rule within the communication device to be fulfilled in order to create at least one performance management counter to count occurrences of a performance management parameter related to the communication device. The communication device sets up the at least one rule and detects an impulse. The communication device determines if the at least one rule has been fulfilled. The communication device monitors data associated to the communication device if the at least one rule has been fulfilled, and creates the at least one performance management counter to count occurrences of the at least one performance management parameter based on the monitored data. A message including a result of the at least one performance management counter is transmitted to another device. |
| US08676121B1 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting message from short-range wireless device over a satellite network
A communications system including a SN Device including a satellite transmitter and a local wireless transceiver and a GUI Device, separate from the SN Device. The GUI Device includes a user interface and local wireless transceiver capable of establishing a wireless link with the SN Device. The GUI Device transmits command information to the SN Device and the SN Device transmits at least location data to a satellite network. |
| US08676118B2 |
Location-aware multimodal communication system
A system and method for providing a multimodal list of transceiver devices to a remote terminal is disclosed. A positioning unit determines a location of a remote terminal. A processor identifies transceivers for communicating in at least a first communication mode and a second communication mode according to the location of the remote terminal. The processor retrieves information about the identified transceivers from a database and generates a multimodal list. The processor causes a transceiver to transmit the multimodal list of transceiver devices to the remote terminal using a communication mode of the remote terminal. |
| US08676103B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating same
A fixing device includes a tubular belt holder, a rotatable, flexible fuser belt, a heater, a fuser pad, and a pressure member. The belt holder extends in an axial direction. The fuser belt is looped around the belt holder to rotate in a circumferential direction of the belt holder. The heater is disposed adjacent to the belt holder to heat the belt holder. The fuser pad is accommodated in the belt holder inside the loop of the fuser belt. The pressure member is disposed opposite the belt holder with the fuser belt interposed between the fuser pad and the pressure member. The pressure member presses in a load direction against the fuser pad through the fuser belt to form a fixing nip therebetween. The belt holder includes, along a circumferential dimension thereof, an upstream, first circumferential portion, a downstream, second circumferential portion, and a midstream, third circumferential portion. |
| US08676092B2 |
Image-forming device having mechanism for separating developing rollers from photosensitive drums
An image-forming device includes image carrying members aligned in a first direction in a main casing, one of the image carrying members being for black color, and remaining ones of the image carrying members being for other colors; a developing members provided in one-to-one correspondence with the image carrying members, each of the developing members configured to contact a corresponding image carrying member, one of the developing members being for black color, and remaining ones of the developing members being for other colors r; and a first contact/separation member linearly movable in the first direction, the first contact/separation member being disposed on one side of the plurality of developing members. The first contact/separation member comprises an elongated shape in the first direction. The first contact/separation member comprises a separating surfaces configured to contact respective developing members to separate the developing member from the image carrying member. |
| US08676090B1 |
Rotational force transmitting part
An electrophotographic photosensitive drum unit includes (a) a cylinder having a photosensitive layer at an outer periphery thereof and (b) a drum flange provided at one end of the cylinder, with the drum flange including at least two projections provided inside of the drum flange and projected radially inwardly of the drum flange, and with a space diametrically between the two projections. Each of the two projections projects radially inwardly of the drum flange to a greater extent at a position farther from the cylinder than it does at a position closer to the cylinder. |
| US08676077B2 |
Optical fixing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and optical fixing method
An optical fixing apparatus includes a transport unit that transports a recording medium in a first direction in a first fixing process and a second fixing process subsequent thereto and transports the recording medium in a second direction after the first fixing process and before the second fixing process; a light irradiating unit that irradiates the recording medium with light having a predetermined intensity while the recording medium is transported in the first and second fixing processes; a controller that performs a control so that the intensity of the light is lower than the predetermined intensity in a first period before the end of the first fixing process and a second period after the start of the second fixing process, and so that an area of the recording medium irradiated in the first period and an area of the recording medium irradiated in the second period overlap. |
| US08676076B2 |
Heating controlling device, heating device, image forming device, program storage medium, and method
There is provided a heating controlling device having: a receiving section receiving heating instructions for plural heaters; and a controller that, when the receiving section receives a heating instruction to heat another heater while two or more heaters other than the heater for which the heating instruction is received are heating, stops heating of the heaters that are heating, after a first predetermined time period elapses from the control to stop heating, starts heating of the heater for which the heating instruction is received, and each time a number of second predetermined time periods elapses from the control to start heating, restarts heating, on the basis of predetermined priority rankings, of the heaters that were controlled to stop heating. |
| US08676074B2 |
Method for providing ratio modulated printing with discharge area development
Methods for printing are provided. In one aspect, the method includes providing a primary imaging member having engine pixel locations with a ratio modulated difference of potentials, establishing a first development difference of potential to form a first net development difference of potential between the first development difference of potential and the engine pixel location and providing a first charged toner such that the first toner develops at the engine pixel location according to the first net development difference of potential. Establishing a second development difference of potential that is greater than the first difference of potential proximate the engine pixel location such that a determined amount of second toner develops at the engine pixel locations. Wherein the range of first toner potentials is such that a determined range of ratios of first toner amounts and the determined second toner amount provide ratio modulated differences of potential. |
| US08676072B2 |
Ratio modulated printing with charge area development
Methods for printing are provided. In one aspect, the method includes providing a primary imaging member having engine pixel locations with a ratio modulated difference of potentials, establishing a first development difference of potential to form a first net development difference of potential between the first development difference of potential and the engine pixel location and providing a first charged toner such that the second toner develops at the engine pixel location. Establishing a second development difference of potential that is greater than the first difference of potential proximate the engine pixel location such that a determined amount of first toner develops at the engine pixel locations according to a second net development difference of potential. Wherein the range of second toner potentials is such that a determined range of ratios of second toner amounts and the determined first toner amount provide ratio modulated differences of potential. |
| US08676068B2 |
Image forming apparatus and fixing unit control method thereof
An image forming apparatus including: an image forming unit which forms an image; a fixing unit which fixes the image transferred to a printing medium; a power supply which supplies operation power to the fixing unit; a contactless sensor sensing a temperature of the fixing unit and respectively outputting a sensor-sensing voltage and a sensor-compensating voltage; and a contactless-sensing protector which shuts off the power if the sensor-sensing voltage is higher than the sensor-compensating voltage. The fixing unit can be protected from overheating and control error through the contactless-sensing protector for sensing the fixing temperature and shutting off the power. |
| US08676062B2 |
Optical transmission apparatus and method
In an optical transmission apparatus, a light-emitting laser varies its output wavelength when applied with a wavelength control signal for switching wavelengths. A wavelength controller outputs the wavelength control signal, and a filter unit subjects the wavelength control signal to a filtering process to remove high-frequency noise superimposed on the wavelength control signal. The filter unit stops the filtering process during the wavelength control and executes the filtering process during the operation. |
| US08676048B2 |
Small-sized camera module for correcting hand-shake
The purpose of the present invention provides a small-sized camera module for correcting hand-shake, in which a magnet for correcting the shaking is integrated with a magnet for adjusting the focus to implement a simple structure. According to the present invention, the small-sized camera module for correcting hand-shake comprises: a housing; a holder which is mounted on the housing to move in a horizontal direction; a lens unit which is mounted inside the holder to move vertically, and has a lens therein; a first coil member which is wound on the outer surface of the lens unit; a second coil member which is mounted on either the holder or housing, and has a hollow form; and a magnetic member which is mounted on the remaining holder or housing, wherein the magnetic member comprises; a magnet which is inserted and arranged on the second coil member, and has polarities separated in left and right direction; and a yoke which is disposed on a lateral portion of the magnet, and encloses the lateral portion of the magnet and the upper/lower portions of the second coil member. |
| US08676038B2 |
Recording/reproducing apparatus, recording apparatus, reproducing apparatus, recording method, reproducing method and computer program
There is provided a recording/reproducing apparatus that includes an image recording unit for recording moving picture, an audio recording unit for recording audio, a reproduction information recording unit for recording in parallel, at the time of recording moving picture and audio, reproduction information of moving picture and audio, and a reproducing unit reproducing moving picture and audio based on reproduction information, wherein the reproduction information recording unit records, for each chunk of audio data, audio synchronization information for synchronizing video and audio at the time of recording the reproduction information. |
| US08676036B1 |
User data-driven DVR download scheduling system
A method, program product and system are provided for optimizing power requirements of a video recorder system in recording user-selected video programs. When it is determined that recording a selected video program at a time subsequent to a user designated time would result in a cost savings, an acceptable recording delay period is determined and if the subsequent recording time is within the acceptable recording delay period, the user-selected video program is recorded at the subsequent recording time rather than being recorded at the user designated time. The acceptable recording delay period is determined by accessing stored user data which are indicative of a future time when the user will be available to view a recording of the selected video program. |
| US08676035B2 |
Multimedia visual progress indication system
A multimedia visual progress indication system that provides a cache bar that is overlaid onto the program material or displayed on a dedicated display. A cache bar indicates the length of a recording session or the length of stored program material and expands to the right when material is being recorded. Index and/or bookmark indicators are displayed next to the cache bar. A position indicator moves within the cache bar and tells the user visually where his current position is within the program material. Numeric time or counter mark of the current position is displayed in the vicinity of the cache bar. The trick play bar and its associated components are displayed for a predetermined time period. |
| US08676029B2 |
Recording medium, method and apparatus for recording and/or reproducing digital data streams
A method and apparatus for recording digital data streams on a recording medium, are discussed. According to an embodiment, the method includes recording a received digital data stream of data packet units by grouping the data packet units into an object; and creating and recording a managing information for the object, the managing information including entry point map information associated with an entry point of the digital data stream and indication information indicating whether or not the entry point map information associated with the entry point exists, wherein the management information is recorded in an area separate from the data packet units on the recording medium. |
| US08676025B2 |
Method of timebase management for MPEG decoding with personal video recording functionality
Systems and methods that provide time-based management for MPEG decoding are provided. In one example, a method for live decoding in a personal video recorder system includes the steps of receiving at least one data packet; determining at least one program clock reference (PCR) using the at least one data packet; and locking a timing mechanism to the at least one determined PCR. |
| US08676024B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating data representing digests of pictures
Video data pieces are classified into groups according to prescribed rules. A cut number assigned to each of the groups is decided on the basis of the length or lengths of a video data piece or pieces in each of the groups and the number of the video data piece or pieces in each of the groups. A cut or cuts are extracted from the video data piece or pieces in each of the groups. Regarding each of the groups, the number of the extracted cut or cuts is equal to the decided cut number. Digest data is generated from the extracted cuts for all the groups. |
| US08676021B2 |
Apparatus and method for processing an optical waveguide
An apparatus for processing an optical waveguide includes a stripper, a cleaner, a cleaver, a sensor, and an actuator assembly. The stripper is adapted to remove an outer coating of a part of an optical waveguide. The cleaner is adapted to clean the part of the optical waveguide and includes a means for cleaning the part of the optical waveguide. The cleaver is adapted to cleave the optical waveguide. The sensor is configured for determining a feature of the optical waveguide. The actuator assembly is configured to move the optical waveguide with respect to at least one of the stripper, the cleaner, and the cleaver. Further, the actuator assembly includes a means for moving the optical waveguide and a means for clamping the optical waveguide. |
| US08676017B2 |
Light control element and optical waveguide circuit
A light control element includes three or more silicon thin-film layers (522, 524, 526) placed on a first dielectric layer (521), second dielectric layers (523, 525) placed between the three or more silicon thin-film layers (522, 524, 526), and a third dielectric layer (529) placed to surround the silicon thin-film layers and the second dielectric layers. The three or more silicon thin-film layers are arranged to partially overlap with one anther. In the part where the silicon thin-film layers overlap, the second dielectric layers are placed between the silicon thin-film layers. In the three or more silicon thin-film layers, the silicon thin-film layers adjacent to each other have different conductivity types. |
| US08676016B2 |
Compressible photonic crystal
A compressible photonic crystal comprising a polymer with an ordered array of voids, the photonic crystal having a reflectance in a first wavelength range for light incident to its incident surface and its opposing incident surface; wherein compression against at least a portion of at least one of the surfaces shifts the reflectance to a second wavelength range in at least that portion of that surface. The crystal may be used in authentication devices of various types. |
| US08676013B2 |
Imaging system using and related techniques
A method and apparatus for imaging using a double-clad fiber is described. |
| US08676008B2 |
Bragg grating fiber hydrophone with a bellows amplifier including a fluid cavity and an optical fibre in which the bragg grating is integrated
A Bragg grating fiber hydrophone, includes a fluid chamber and an optical fiber in which a Bragg grating is integrated, the optical fiber passing through the fluid chamber along a longitudinal axis such that the Bragg grating is positioned inside the latter. The fluid chamber is filled with a compressible fluid and is defined by a casing including two ends connected to the optical fiber. The casing includes at least one portion formed by an extensible and compressible tube extending along the longitudinal axis. The portion formed by an extensible and compressible tube includes an outer end coinciding with one of the two casing ends and can be longitudinally deformed by a difference in the pressures applied on the walls thereof, which results in a variation of the length of the optical fiber as measured by a variation in the wavelength of a luminous flux extracted from the optical fiber. |
| US08676005B2 |
Light guide for light source device and method for manufacturing the same
A light guide for a light source device includes a core layer which is formed from a transparent resin and has a refractive index n1 and cladding layers which are provided on both surfaces thereof and have a refractive index n2 which is lower than the refractive index n1 of the core layer. A light reflecting layer which scatters and reflects light is provided in the front surface of one cladding layer, the front surface of the other cladding layer is set as a light emitting face, and a recess is provided which reaches from at least one of either of the front surface of the one cladding layer or the front surface of the other cladding layer to the core layer passing through the cladding layer. |
| US08675999B1 |
Apparatus, system, and method for multi-patch based super-resolution from an image
Embodiments of the present invention include apparatuses, systems and methods for multi-patch based super-resolution from a single video frame. Such embodiments include a scale-invariant self-similarity (SiSS) based super-resolution method. Instead of searching HR examples in a database or in LR image, the present embodiments may select the patches according to the SiSS characteristics of the patch itself, so that the computational complexity of the method may be reduced because there is not any search involved. To solve the problem of lack of relevant examples in natural images, the present embodiments may employ multi-shaped and multi-sized patches in HR image reconstruction. Additionally, embodiments may include steps for a hybrid weighing method for suppressing artifacts. Advantageously, certain embodiments of the method may be 10˜1,000 times faster than the example based SR approaches using patch searching and can achieve comparable HR image quality. |
| US08675990B2 |
Composite evaluation
A method of evaluating a composite structure in which a portion of the structure is imaged and subsequently transformed to provide a 2D output of the angular distribution of features, eg a 2D FFT. A weighting function is applied to the output to compensate for variation in the angular density of pixel population. The weighted output is then used to provide an angular distribution of feature intensity. The structure can be imaged in two or more intersecting planes to allow a 3D determination of feature direction to be obtained. |
| US08675989B2 |
Optimized orthonormal system and method for reducing dimensionality of hyperspectral images
A method for reducing dimensionality of hyperspectral images includes receiving a hyperspectral image having a plurality of pixels. The method may further include establishing an orthonormal basis vector set comprising a plurality of mutually orthogonal normalized members. Each of the mutually orthogonal normalized members may be associated with one of the plurality of pixels of the hyperspectral image. The method may further include decomposing the hyperspectral image into a reduced dimensionality image, utilizing calculations performed while establishing said orthonormal basis vector set. A system configured to perform the method may also be provided. |
| US08675977B2 |
Recording medium having recorded thereon coded information using plus and/or minus rounding of images
Computer-readable medium with an image decoding program performing: storing a reference image of a previously decoded image; receiving coded information including motion vector and rounding method information specifying a rounding method used in synthesizing a prediction image of a currently decoded image; and synthesizing prediction image by performing motion compensation using the motion vector information and reference image; wherein synthesizing a prediction image uses a positive and negative rounding method for interpolating pixel intensity values; wherein the interpolation of pixel intensity values uses a rounding method specified by the rounding method information; wherein interpolation is via the rounding method specified by rounding method information included in the encoded bitstream when the current frame is a P frame; wherein the rounding method information is not in the encoded bitstream when the current frame is an I frame; and wherein the rounding method information specifies one of a plurality of values. |
| US08675971B2 |
Method and apparatus for classifying image pixels
A method of classifying pixels in an image is described that includes calculating for each target pixel in the image, a functional value based on a median value of a block of pixels including the target pixel and storing the functional value for each pixel. Pixels in the image are then analyzed to determine if they correspond to edges in the image and if so, are classified as edge pixels. Next the stored functional values are analyzed to define a flat area delimiting function for the image. The stored functional values that do not correspond to edge pixels are then analyzed to define an image detail delimiting function and the non-flat area pixels are classified as being either flat area pixels or detail pixels based on the flat area delimiting function and the detail delimiting function. |
| US08675968B2 |
Image processing apparatus
An image processing apparatus includes a character data extraction unit, a contour data extraction unit, and an image density changing unit. The character data extraction unit extracts character data, forming a character image serving as a target to be read by an image reading apparatus, from image data. The contour data extraction unit extracts contour data forming a contour image of the character image from the image data. The image density changing unit changes an image density of the contour image base on the contour data extracted from the contour data extraction unit. |
| US08675963B2 |
Method and apparatus for automatic brightness adjustment of image signal processor
An automatic brightness adjusting method and apparatus for image signal processor (ISP) is provided. The image processing apparatus may include a histogram generating unit, a cumulative distribution function calculator, and a histogram equalization (HE) unit. The histogram generating unit may generate a histogram of brightness values of pixels in an input image. The cumulative distribution function calculator may generate a cumulative distribution function and an inverse cumulative distribution function, based on the generated histogram. The HE unit may generate a conversion function based on the cumulative distribution function and the inverse cumulative distribution function, and may apply HE to the input image based on the conversion function so as to generate an output image. |
| US08675957B2 |
Image quality assessment to merchandise an item
Image-based features may be significantly correlated with click-through rates of images that depict a product, which may provide a more formal basis for the informal notion that good quality images will result in better click-through rates, as compared to poor quality images. Accordingly, an image assessment machine is configured to analyze image-based features to improve click-through rates for shopping search applications (e.g., a product search engine). Moreover, the image assessment machine may rank search results based on image quality factors and may notify sellers about low quality images. This may have the effect of improving the brand value for an online shopping website and accordingly have a positive long-term impact on the online shopping website. |
| US08675954B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer program product for image processing
According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a first setting unit, a second setting unit, and a specifying unit. The first setting unit detects a position of at least a part of an object in an image so as to obtain, for one pixel or each of a plurality of pixels in the image, a first likelihood that indicates whether the corresponding pixel is included in a region where the object is present. The second setting unit obtains, for one pixel or each of a plurality of pixels in the image, a second likelihood indicating whether the pixel is a pixel corresponding to a 3D body by using a feature amount of the pixel. The a specifying unit specifies a region, in the image, where the object is present by using the first likelihood and the second likelihood. |
| US08675949B2 |
Reviewed defect selection processing method, defect review method, reviewed defect selection processing tool, and defect review tool
The present invention relates to semiconductor inspection and provides a technology capable of efficiently detecting a systematic defect. In the present system, with regard to the process (S7, S8) of matching hot spot (HS) points that can be simulated in advance and defect points obtained as a result of a visual inspection each other and the unmatched defect points, a process (S6, S9) of classifying the defect points into groups based on similarity of pattern layout at the defect points to determine the defects belonging to a pattern layout where defects frequently occur, thereby reliably detecting the systematic defect. Also, with a process (S11) of acquiring an uneven distribution in a defect occurrence distribution on a wafer, the systematic defect occurring due to topography of the wafer can also be detected. |
| US08675948B2 |
Mask inspection apparatus and mask inspection method
A mask inspection apparatus includes irradiation means for irradiating a sample with an electron beam, electron detection means for detecting a quantity of electrons generated from the sample having a pattern formed thereon by the irradiation with the electron beam, image processing means for generating image data of the pattern on the basis of the quantity of the electrons, and control means for creating a line profile and a differential profile of the pattern formed on the sample on the basis of the quantity of the electrons detected by the electron detection means. The control means detects a rising edge and a falling edge of the pattern on the basis of the differential profile, and then generates mask data of a multi-level structure on the basis of data of the edges and the image data created by the image processing means. |
| US08675945B2 |
System and method for image registration
A system and method for providing processable data associated with anatomical images may provide a user interface including a pivot and stem tool via which to align multiple images, a flashlight bar for viewing portions of an overlaid image, and/or user-movable markers for establishing a location of one or more anatomical landmarks with regions of one or more images. |
| US08675944B2 |
Method of registering image data
A method of registering a first set of image data and a second set of image data, comprises performing an initial registration of the first set of image data and the second set of image data, selecting a region for further registration, and performing a further registration of first image data corresponding to the image region from the first set of image data and second image data from the second set of image data. |
| US08675931B2 |
Medical image segmentation
A segmentation method comprises clustering spatial, intensity and volumetric shape index to automatically segment a medical lesion. The algorithm has the following steps: (1) calculating volumetric shape index (SI) for each voxel in the image; (2) combining the SI features with the intensity range and the spatial position (x, y, z) to form a 5-dimensional feature vector set; (3) grouping the 5-dimensional feature vector set into clusters; (4) employing a modified expectation-maximization algorithm (EM) considering not only spatial but also shape features on an intensity mode map from the clustering algorithm to merge the neighbouring regions or modes. The joint spatial-intensity-shape feature provides rich information for the segmentation of the anatomic structures of interest, such as lesions or tumours. |
| US08675926B2 |
Distinguishing live faces from flat surfaces
Multiple images including a face presented by a user are accessed. One or more determinations are made based on the multiple images, such as a determination of whether the face included in the multiple images is a 3-dimensional structure or a flat surface and/or a determination of whether motion is present in one or more face components (e.g., eyes or mouth). If it is determined that the face included in the multiple images is a 3-dimensional structure or that that motion is present in the one or more face components, then an indication is provided that the user can be authenticated. However, if it is determined that the face included in the multiple images is a flat surface or that motion is not present in the one or more face components, then an indication is provided that the user cannot be authenticated. |
| US08675924B2 |
Road estimation device and method for estimating road
A road estimation device receives data including a core point being assigned along a road and assigned with attributes for identifying the road. An input unit inputs map data including links having attributes corresponding to the attributes of the core point. An extraction unit first narrows down links into candidate links each having an attribute corresponding to a non-shape-relevant attribute of the core point. The extraction unit subsequently narrows down the candidate links into a candidate link having an attribute corresponding to a shape-relevant attribute of the core point, thereby to extract the candidate link pertinent to the road represented by the core point from the map data for estimating the road on a map. |
| US08675919B2 |
Method for quantifying the number of free fibers emanating from a surface
The present disclosure provides a method for counting the number of fibers emanating from the surface of a web substrate. |
| US08675916B2 |
User interface apparatus and method using movement recognition
A movement recognition method and a user interface are provided. A skin color is detected from a reference face area of an image. A movement-accumulated area, in which movements are accumulated, is detected from sequentially accumulated image frames. Movement information corresponding to the skin color is detected from the detected movement-accumulated area. A user interface screen is created and displayed using the detected movement information. |
| US08675910B2 |
Monitoring usage of a computer by performing character recognition on screen capture images
Compositions of matter comprising computer readable media storing a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform operations related to the monitoring of usage of a computer. In various aspects, the operations may include the steps of associating an identified user with a computer, and capturing an image of a monitored region of a computer screen of the computer at a specified time. The operations may include the steps of extracting image text from the image, determining image text content of the image text, and capturing a subsequent image of the monitored region of the computer screen of the computer at a subsequent time-subsequent to the specified time, in various aspects. A time difference between the specified time and the subsequent time is dependent upon image text content of the image text, in various aspects. The identified user does not control the associating step, the capturing step, the extracting step, the determining step, and the capturing a subsequent image step, in various aspects.This Abstract is presented to meet requirements of 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b) only. This Abstract is not intended to identify key elements of the methods, systems, and compositions of matter disclosed herein or to delineate the scope thereof. |
| US08675908B2 |
Low cost programmable sound recording and playback device and method for communicating with, and recharging of, the device
A low cost sound recording and playback device and a low cost method for wirelessly communicating with, and recharging of, the device. The device utilizes commonly available electronic components generally included in electronic sound producing devices thereby allowing for lowest cost of manufacture. The device includes a low cost low-power processor, general purpose low-cost loudspeaker, and a power source. The method incorporates inductive coupling between an external communication and recharging device, and the internal loudspeakers voice coil of the device. Substantial reductions in cost and space savings are realized by utilizing the internal loudspeaker's voice coil for multiple purposes. |
| US08675907B2 |
Vehicle audio system having door mounted speaker support
A vehicle audio system comprises a loud-speaker, a door assembly including a rigid inner panel and an outer panel joined to the inner panel along a front edge, a rear edge, and a bottom edge. A speaker support defined by a highly rigid panel is configured to receive and support the loud speaker in a speaker mounting opening. The speaker support comprises three sides having mounting points located at each corner such that the speaker support and loud speaker supported thereby, contacts the door assembly at a rigid front edge portion, a rigid bottom edge portion and a front corner defined by the intersection of the two. |
| US08675901B2 |
Howling suppression device, hearing aid, howling suppression method, and integrated circuit
A howling suppression device includes: a subtractor which generates an error signal; an adaptive filter which applies filtering to the error signal; and a coefficient update control unit which controls an update rate of a filter coefficient and includes: a convergence analysis unit which determines whether or not a condition that the degree of convergence of filter characteristics is higher than a criterion value is satisfied; a change amount analysis unit which determines whether or not a condition that the degree of convergence has turned out to be higher is satisfied; and an update rate control unit which sets the update rate to a first rate when both the conditions are satisfied and to a second rate when at least one of the conditions is not satisfied. The adaptive filter updates the filter coefficient at the update rate. |
| US08675897B2 |
Ear-muff type headset for two-way communication
It is an object of the invention to provide a headset for performing simultaneous two-way communication or alternate two-way communication, which has excellent sound insulating properties such that external noise is not possibly mixed even when used under high noise conditions. A pair of bowl-shaped housings 1 each having an annular pad 2 attached to the rim of an opening portion are connected together through a headband 3, an acoustic speaker 5 supported by a buffer material 4 is arranged in at least one of the housings 1, and a bone conduction microphone 6 supported by the buffer material 4 such that the distal end is brought into abutment against the ear or the portion around the ear when a user wears the headset is arranged in at least one of the housings 1. |
| US08675885B2 |
Adjusting noise reduction in headphones
A headset includes first and second earcups each having a front opening adapted to be adjacent to a respective ear of a user and including an electroacoustic transducer, a headband coupled to each of the earcups, and an active noise reduction circuit coupled to the electroacoustic transducers. The headband is configurable between at least two configurations that each press the earcups against the head of the user with different amounts of force. The active noise reduction circuit is configured to determine which of the at least two configurations the headband may be configured in, to provide a different amount of noise reduction when the headband may be configured in each of the different amounts of force, and to automatically transition between the different amounts of noise reduction in response to a change in the configuration of the headband between the at least two configurations. |
| US08675874B2 |
Apparatus for performing data compression processing using algebraic torus
A compressing unit compresses an element on an algebraic torus into affine representation according to a compression map. A determining unit determines whether a target element on the algebraic torus to be compressed is an exceptional point representing an element on the algebraic torus that cannot be compressed by the compression map. The compressing unit generates, when it is determined that the target element is the exceptional point, a processing result including exceptional information indicating that the target element is the exceptional point, and generates, when it is determined that the target element is not the exceptional point, a processing result including affine representation obtained by compressing the target element according to the compression map. |
| US08675873B2 |
Method of making secure a link between a data terminal and a data processing local area network, and a data terminal for implementing the method
This method makes secure a link, for example a radio link, between a data terminal (PDA2) and a data processing local area network (WLAN2) that is coupled to a mobile telephone network (PLMN2) that includes an authentication center (AU2). It consists in: linking (L3) the data terminal (PDA2) to a mobile telephone terminal (T2) that includes means (SIM3) for executing a procedure for making secure a radio link between said mobile telephone terminal (T2) and the mobile telephone network (PLMN2), said procedure including in particular exchanging information with the mobile telephone network (PLMN2), said exchange of information usually being supported by a radio link between the mobile telephone terminal (T2) and the mobile telephone network (PLMN2); executing the same procedure in the mobile telephone terminal (T2), but with the exchange of information supported by the link (L4) between the data terminal (PDA2) and the data processing local area network (WLAN2) and by an interworking link (IL2) connecting the data processing wireless local area network (WLAN2) and the mobile telephone network (PLMN2); and transferring the result of this procedure from the mobile telephone terminal (T2) to the data terminal (PDA2). |
| US08675864B2 |
Apparatus for encrypting data
An apparatus for encrypting data is provided. The apparatus is capable of symmetrically encrypting data and then encrypting the symmetrically encrypted data with the aid of a bit string. The bit string has a maximum entropy. Encryption of the symmetrically encrypted data is designed such that a section of the bit string is used for encryption and successive encryption operations are carried out with varying sections of the bit string while the bit string remains unchanged. |
| US08675854B2 |
Multi-modal communications with conferencing and clients
A system and method for merging multi-modal communications are disclosed. The multi-modal communications can be synchronous, asynchronous and semi-synchronous. By way of a non-limiting example, at least two devices operating with varied modalities can be connected to a conferencing appliance. The conferencing appliance can integrate the differing modalities from the at least two devices by executing at least one of turn taking, conference identification, participant identification, ordering of interjections, modulation of meaning, expectation of shared awareness, floor domination and combination thereof. |
| US08675853B1 |
System, method, and computer-readable medium for diagnosing a conference call
A system, method, and computer readable medium that facilitate diagnosing a conference call are provided. A tap is deployed at the ingress side and the egress side of one or more processing systems that handle each leg of a conference. When a conference is disrupted by noise, loss, or the like, an operator may initiate a command to systemically record each leg of the conference for a predetermined period of time. Each leg may then be analyzed to determine if it is the source of the disruption. |
| US08675850B2 |
Content delivery during call idle time
A method for effective utilization of call idle time, including automatically detecting that a first person using a phone has initiated a phone call to a second person, and that the second person has not yet answered the call, wherein the phone is operative in an idle mode to present content pre-designated by the first person, and is operative in a normal mode to send and receive voice communications to and from the second person and to not present the pre-designated content, activating the idle mode of the phone in response to the automatically detecting, further automatically detecting that the second person has answered the call, and automatically activating the normal mode of the phone in response to the further automatically detecting. A cell phone is also described and claimed. |
| US08675831B2 |
Storage of data messages for later retrieval by the recipient
Systems and methods are disclosed that allow for storing of data messages (e.g., text messages or multimedia messages) in a data message mailbox. If a data message is sent from a sender to a recipient, then the communication network receiving the data message attempts to deliver the data message to the recipient. If unsuccessful in delivering the data message, then the network stores the data message for the recipient. If the communication network later receives a request to retrieve the stored data message from the recipient, then the communication network delivers the stored data message to the recipient. |
| US08675826B1 |
System and method for IVR signature detection and event management
An IVR signature detection and event management system facilitates real-time discovery and notification of abnormal behavior within an IVR system. The system collects metrics associated with usage of the IVR system, The system uses the collected metrics to define a baseline. Having defined a baseline, the system collects evaluation metrics for comparison to the baseline. Where the evaluation metrics deviate from the baseline beyond a threshold deviation, the system detects aberrance. The system triggers an event in response to the detected aberrance. The event may be a message, one or more corrective actions, or the like. |
| US08675818B2 |
Ceramic metallization in an x-ray tube
Ceramic metallization in an x-ray tube. In one example embodiment, a metalized ceramic plate for an x-ray tube includes a first side configured to reside inside an evacuated enclosure of an x-ray tube, a second side configured to reside outside the evacuated enclosure, a recess formed in the second side, feedthru openings that extend through the plate between the first side and the recess, and metallization formed around the perimeter of the recess and electrically connected to one of the feedthru openings. |
| US08675810B2 |
Programmable low power multi-modulus divider with 50/50 duty cycle
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for a modular high performance low power divider with 50/50 duty cycle output. The modularity offers custom dividers to be quickly developed while maintaining minimum power usage. A multi-modulus divider (MMD) receives an input signal and outputs an MMD output signal. The MMD includes a chain of modulus divider stages in such a way as to generate any divide value from 1 to 2(n+1)−1 (n is the number of cascaded elements) while maintaining a 50/50 duty cycle output. Power can be dramatically reduced as the frequency of each subsequent element is halved. The modular nature allows rapid development of any dividers simply by adding more elements to the chain. |
| US08675809B2 |
Nuclear fuel cladding having an exterior comprising burnable poison in contact with aqueous reactor coolant
An article made by applying a burnable poison onto the cladding of a nuclear fuel rod, which involves providing a nuclear fuel rod and at least one application device, rotating the nuclear fuel rod, optionally removing one or more oxides and/or surface deposits on the outer surface of the nuclear fuel rod by spraying an abrasive material onto the nuclear fuel rod via the application device while adjusting the position of the application device in relation to the nuclear fuel rod, and applying burnable poison particles onto the outer surface of the nuclear fuel rod by spraying the burnable poison onto the nuclear fuel rod via the application device while adjusting the position of the application device in relation to the nuclear fuel rod, where the burnable poison particles are applied at a velocity sufficient to cause adhesion to the outer surface of the cladding. |
| US08675808B2 |
Natural circulation type boiling water reactor
A natural-circulation type boiling water reactor includes a plurality of divided chimneys provided above a reactor core and a number of fuel assemblies are charged in the reactor core. The natural-circulation type boiling water reactor is provided with a pressure equalization structure arranged on rectangular-columnar lattice plates of the divided chimneys for equalizing pressures in divided chimney portions so as to equalize the pressures of the divided chimneys with the pressure equalization structure. |
| US08675807B2 |
Basket and pH adjusting device
Disclosed is a basket 50 that is located within a basket containment vessel, into which a boric acid solution capable of dissolving a pH adjuster flows, and can allow a pH adjuster solution to flow out by the inflowing boric acid solution. The basket 50 includes a plurality of containment units 71 stacked in a vertical direction with a predetermined first space L1 therebetween. The pH adjuster can be stored in each of the containment units 71. Also disclosed is a pH adjusting device including the basket 50, the basket containment vessel in which the basket 50 can be contained and in which cooling water can be stored, and an overflow pipe that, within the basket containment vessel, allows the pH adjuster solution that is obtained from the pH adjuster dissolved in the cooling water to flow out. |
| US08675806B2 |
Dielectric coating for surfaces exposed to high temperature water
Example embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for reducing electrostatic deposition of charged particles on wetted surfaces that are exposed, periodically or substantially continuously, to high velocity fluid flow within a coolant flow path in a nuclear reactor. The method may include depositing a first or base dielectric layer and a second or outer dielectric layer on a conductive surface that forms a portion of a high velocity flow path to attain the apparatus. The first dielectric layer material is selected to provide improved adhesion and insulation to the conductive surface and the second dielectric layer material is selected to provide suitable adhesion to the first dielectric layer and improved corrosion and/or mechanical resistance in the anticipated operating environment. |
| US08675804B2 |
Boiling water reactor fuel support casting flow limiter
A flow limiter may include a head and a fin extending from a bottom of the head. The head may include a side surface having at least one first hole and the side surface may be symmetric about a first axis. The fin may include at least one second hole and the at least one second hole may have an axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis. The flow limiter may be inserted into a support casting that may interface with a nuclear fuel bundle to reduce the flow of water to the nuclear fuel bundle thereby reducing a moisture carry over (MCO) level at an exit of a fuel bundle of a nuclear reactor. |
| US08675802B2 |
Method and apparatus of deactivating explosives and chemical warfare with high-energy neutrons generated from deuterium tritium fusion reaction
A non-destructive assay of deactivation of the contents of explosives and chemical warfare on-field (and or in lab) is presented with high-energy neutrons at 14, 4 and 2 MeV. The elements and substances present in the munitions are transmuted into passive elements through neutron-alpha nuclear reactions. Deactivating of the explosives on-field is presented with a unique and compact neutron generator fueled with deuterium gas and tritium breeder. Several high explosives and chemical warfare are presented in the transmutation with physical analysis. The present method and technique can be employed on-field as an improvised explosive device and as a precise explosive device in labs and centers. |
| US08675800B2 |
Synchronizing circuit, synchronizing method, and receiving system
Disclosed herein is a synchronizing circuit including: a first PLL circuit; a second PLL circuit; a first output circuit; a second output circuit; a first detection circuit; a second detection circuit; a control circuit; and a holding section. |
| US08675797B2 |
Real time processing supported by programmable control unit
The real time processing supported by programmable control unit (RTP PCU) includes a method, a system and an apparatus for implementing programmable algorithms for analyzing a very wide range of low and high frequency wave-forms. The RTP PCU comprises sequential processing stages (SPS) for real time capturing and processing of in-coming wave-form and a programmable control unit (PCU) for controlling SPS operations and supporting adaptive signal analysis algorithms. The RTP PCU further comprises a circuit for Sequential Data Recovery from Multi Sampled Phase (SDR MSP). |
| US08675793B2 |
MIMO communication system and control method thereof
Disclosed are a MIMO communication system and a method of controlling the same. The MIMO communication system includes an MCS (modulation and coding scheme) level selector for selecting an MCS level representing combination of data modulation and coding schemes according to a channel status, a modulation and coding section for processing transmit data according to modulation and coding schemes corresponding to the selected MCS level, a D-STTD (double-space time transmit diversity) encoder for coding the transmit data, which has been processed through the modulation and coding section, through a D-STTD scheme and transmitting the transmit data through M transmit antennas, and a receiver for receiving data, which have been coded through the D-STTD scheme, through N receive antennas, detecting the received data through an OSIC-MMSE (ordered successive interference cancellation-minimum mean-square error) scheme, and decoding the received data through the modulation and coding schemes employed in the modulation and coding section. |
| US08675792B2 |
Method of Doppler spread estimation
A method includes receiving a signal comprising a symbol-carrier matrix, the symbol-carrier matrix including a predetermined pattern of reference symbols, and determining at least one channel estimate Ĥi,k at at least one of the reference symbol positions of the reference symbols in the symbol-carrier matrix, wherein i=0,1,2, . . . is the carrier index and k=0,1,2, . . . is the symbol index of the symbol-carrier matrix. The method further includes determining a Doppler spread {circumflex over (ω)}D on the basis of the at least one channel estimate Ĥi,k. |
| US08675789B2 |
Receiver with variable gain elements and automatic gain control to maintain a positive signal to noise ratio margin
A receiver comprising: one or more variable gain elements; an automatic gain control (AGC) for controlling a gain of one or more of the one or more the variable gain elements; and a frame detector configured to detect the presence of a frame in a signal received by the receiver and to output a signal to the AGC on detection of a data frame, wherein the AGC is configured to estimate a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal on receiving an input signal from the frame detector, to calculate a SNR margin between the estimated SNR and a target SNR and to adjust the gain of one or more of the one or more variable gain elements to maintain a positive SNR margin such that in the event of interference with the received signal the one or more variable gain elements do not saturate. |
| US08675785B2 |
Method and apparatus for Turbo receiver processing
One aspect of the present invention concerns the management of processing resource allocations for a Turbo receiver, where such resources are consumed from a finite resource budget within a defined processing time interval. The contemplated Turbo receiver attempts to allocate more processing resources to those demodulation and/or Turbo decoding tasks that make more valuable contributions with respect to the ultimate goal of successfully decoding all data streams that are of interest in a received signal. The advantageous management approach allows the Turbo receiver to obtain better results for a given consumption of processing resources, and further permits the Turbo receiver to quit upon either achieving a successful outcome within a defined processing time interval or exhausting the budgeted resources. |
| US08675780B2 |
Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmitted signal vector estimation employing Monte Carlo sampling techniques
A method of determining a transmitted vector (x) in a MIMO receiver includes the steps of receiving a received vector (y) representative of the transmitted vector (x), generating a first random number and forming, in a first iteration, a first symbol of a first candidate vector, the candidate vector representing a potential solution vector. The step of forming is based on a first approach if the first random number is greater than a first predetermined value (q), but is based on a second approach if the random number is less than or equal to the first predetermined value (q). The first approach randomly selects the first symbol from a uniform distribution of symbols in the transmission alphabet. The second approach selects the first symbol based on Gibbs sampling. The method represents a randomized Markov Chain Monte Carlo (RMCMC) sampling technique. |
| US08675778B2 |
Carrier recovery circuit and demodulation circuit under quasi-coherent detection method
A carrier recovery circuit, adapted to a demodulation circuit according to a quasi-coherent detection method for generating baseband signals by way of quadrature detection on a received signal having an intermediate frequency, rotates phases of baseband signals; detects a phase error and an amplitude error; controls a bandwidth of a loop filter based on its difference, eliminates a high-frequency component from the phase error; and performs phase rotation based on the phase error eliminating its high-frequency component. It expands the bandwidth of the loop filter when a difference between the phase error and the amplitude error is greater than a predetermined threshold, whilst reducing bandwidth of the loop filter upon determining that the amplitude error decreases due to a reduction of the bandwidth of the loop filter. This optimizes the bandwidth of the loop filter to follow variations of the C/N ratio of the received signal, improving bit error rate. |
| US08675767B2 |
Method of data transmission in multiple antenna system
A method of data transmission includes determining the number of layers, generating mapping symbols by mapping modulation symbols for a first codeword and modulation symbols for a second codeword to each layer, and transmitting the mapping symbols through a plurality of antennas. At least one of the first codeword and the second codeword is mapped to at least 3 layers and the number of layers is larger than 3. |
| US08675763B2 |
Multi-stream communication system
The present invention relates to a multi-stream communication system comprising a transmitting node provided with a polyphase antenna and a receiving node provided with an antenna arrangement configured to receive multiple data streams. The polyphase antenna has at least one group of multiple antenna elements, each group having N antenna elements. The transmitting node is also provided with at least one radio chain and a switch for each radio chain arranged to cyclically connect each radio chain to the antenna elements in one of the groups. The switch is configured to operate with a switching frequency fsw. The transmitting node is further configured to transmit M weighted symbols of an uncorrelated signal from each antenna element in each group, the M weighted symbols being less than or equal to N, and the receiving node is further configured to convert the received N data streams into each respective uncorrelated signal. |
| US08675758B2 |
Methods and apparatus for measuring, communicating and/or using interference information
Wireless communications methods and apparatus are described. A communications apparatus, e.g., a base station, measures interference information, e.g., other sector interference information. The communications apparatus generates a preamble which includes a plurality of pilot symbols and at least one of the pilot symbols includes interference information. In some embodiments, the preamble is part of a superframe structure, e.g., a recurring superframe structure, including the preamble and a plurality of frames, at least some of the frames used to convey traffic data. The communications apparatus transmits the preamble, thus broadcasting the interference information to access terminals in the vicinity. An access terminal receives the preamble including a plurality of pilot signals, at least one of the pilot signals including interference information. The access terminal recovers the interference information from the received preamble and controls signal transmission based on the recovered interference information. |
| US08675756B2 |
Method for identifying received symbols corrupted by burst noise and related device
A method for identifying a corrupted received signal that includes symbols is described. Each symbol may have a value of a Galois field associated therewith. The receiver may be configured to store a logarithm of normalized probability mass functions and corresponding Galois field values for each of the symbols. The normalized probability mass functions may be normalized with respect to a greatest probability mass function of a given symbol. The method may include comparing, for each symbol, a logarithm of normalized probability of an n-th best probability value with a respective threshold, counting a number of the logarithms that exceed the respective threshold and generating, for each symbol, a score corresponding to the number. The method may also include calculating a moving average of the scores, and comparing the moving average with an output threshold and flagging a just received symbol as corrupted based upon the comparison. |
| US08675747B2 |
Channel estimating apparatus and method thereof
A channel estimating technique is applied to an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication system which receives a plurality of OFDM symbols. In one aspect, a channel estimating method includes performing Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) with a second number of sampling points and a phase shift on each of preliminarily estimated frequency-domain channel responses including a first number of response values corresponding to each of the OFDM symbols, so as to obtain a first time-domain channel impulse response corresponding to each of the OFDM symbols, where the first number is lager than the second number. The method also generates a plurality of frequency-domain channel responses corresponding to the OFDM symbols according to the time-domain channel impulse responses. |
| US08675744B1 |
Channel tracking in an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing system
A receiver determines phase and frequency information from data signals that carry information from a transmitter to a receiver, instead of or in addition to, information from control signals. In a specific embodiment, the information is obtained from data signals modulated as a binary phase-shift keying (“BPSK”) waveform by demodulation. Other phase-shift keyings might be used instead. Encoded information might be recovered in received OFDM packets by receiving OFDM subcarriers modulated with the two low data rates supported by IEEE 802.11 standard(s) wherein the subcarriers encoding the packet are modulated using binary phase shift keying and the encoding information is at a zero phase or a π (pi) phase offset on each of the subcarriers. Determining the carrier frequency might be done by calculating the square of each of subcarrier signal and/or determining the phase offset of the subcarriers even with information modulated onto the subcarriers. |
| US08675737B2 |
Method and apparatus for predictive reference data transfer scheme for motion estimation
A method and apparatus for predicting reference data transfer scheme for motion estimation. The method includes computing, via the processor, hypothetical rectangle region in reference frame containing all the predicting and reference data for doing motion estimation search around the region, if the macroblock is not the first in a row, utilizing overlap with previously fetched reference data, computing overlap with previously fetched reference data, and transferring needed data, invalidating any predictor, wherein the predictor is not part of the fetched data, and regulating the motion estimation and setting the motion vector to an effective value based on the fetched and computed data. |
| US08675728B2 |
Transmitting apparatus and method, and receiving apparatus and method
Image data is encoded to generate encoded data. An encoding-time buffer period that is a minimum buffer period necessary to prevent synchronous reproduction in which the encoded data is decoded and reproduced in synchronization with a timestamp added to the encoded data from failing due to a delay caused by encoding of the image data is added to the encoded data as encoding header information. A transmission-time buffer period that is a minimum buffer period necessary to prevent the synchronous reproduction from failing due to a delay caused by encoding of the image data and transmission of the encoded data is added to the encoded data as transmission header information different from the encoding header information. The encoded data having the encoding-time buffer period and the transmission-time buffer period added thereto is transmitted to another apparatus that performs the synchronous reproduction via a network. |
| US08675723B2 |
Apparatus and methods for processing a vestigial sideband signal using a sectionalizing adaptive equalizer
A symbol sequence corresponding to a vestigial sideband (VSB) signal is divided into a plurality of sections, respective ones of which correspond to respective time periods. Individual ones of the sections are recursively adaptively equalized to produce respective equalized sections. A bit stream is constructed from the equalized sections. |
| US08675721B1 |
Method and apparatus for determining and displaying the throughput rate of a modem
A method and apparatus for determining and displaying the throughput rate of a modem that includes a first housing, first circuitry disposed within the first housing for demodulating data received by the modem and modulating data transmitted by the modem, and a first port for outputting demodulated data from the modem and inputting data to the modem for modulating. A counting device is connected between the modem and connected equipment. The counting device includes second circuitry for monitoring traffic between second and third ports and generating the throughput rate in accordance with the monitoring. The counting device displays an indication of the throughput rate to a user of the connected equipment. |
| US08675706B2 |
Optical illuminator
Illuminator module comprising VCSEL arrays with planar electrical contacts, readily adaptable for surface mounting, is provided. Monolithic VCSEL arrays are configured in array patterns on two and three-dimensional surfaces. Illuminator modules are easily expandable by increasing the array size or by modularly arranging more arrays with or without a transparent substrate. Different shapes of illuminator modules may be configured by tiling array modules monolithically on a common substrate, or by tiling small modules. The surface mountable illuminator modules are easily assembled on a thermally conductive surface that may be air or liquid cooled for efficient heat dissipation. Array modules may be integrated with other electronic circuits such as current drivers, sensors, controllers, processors, etc. on a common platform, for example, a single or multiple layer printed circuit boards (PCB) to assemble illumination systems for different applications including a gesture recognition apparatus and a battery operated portable illuminator devices. |
| US08675696B2 |
Chemical detection and laser wavelength stabilization employing spectroscopic absorption via laser compliance voltage sensing
Systems and methods are disclosed that provide a direct indication of the presence and concentration of an analyte within the external cavity of a laser device that employ the compliance voltage across the laser device. The systems can provide stabilization of the laser wavelength. The systems and methods can obviate the need for an external optical detector, an external gas cell, or other sensing region and reduce the complexity and size of the sensing configuration. |
| US08675691B2 |
Added information insertion apparatus and method in broadcasting system
The embodiments provide an additional information insertion apparatus for a broadcasting system. The system includes a broadcasting signal transmitter configured to transmit a broadcasting signal along with a data extractor configured to extract a modulated signal by dividing the modulated signal from a modulator of the broadcasting signal transmitter. An additional data generator is configured to extract synchronization of the broadcasting signal from the extracted broadcasting signal, modulate the additional information based on the extracted synchronization, and generate a level of the modulated additional information to be a smaller level than a signal level of the modulated signal by as much as a predetermined value. A data synthesizer is provided to insert the additional data from the data generator into the modulated broadcasting signal. |
| US08675690B2 |
Low latency and self-adjusting frame synchronization algorithm for data streaming applications
A method for synchronizing frames when a frame synchronization pattern is lost is provided. The method includes forcing a frame state machine to an operate mode following an initial synchronization, searching for the frame synchronization pattern on a bit level while running the frame state machine in the operate mode, and correcting for synchronization on the bit level while running the frame state machine in the operate mode when synchronization is lost. The initial synchronization includes a search mode. |
| US08675687B2 |
Cross-scope synchronization of data item knowledge and corresponding metadata
The subject disclosure relates to cross scope synchronization among different sets of nodes that synchronize the same data item(s) according to different synchronization scopes. In one aspect, create and update versions are defined for a scope in which a data item was created and updated, respectively, and create and update versions are defined for a local node shared for different groups of nodes synchronizing according to the different synchronization scopes (e.g., a server node). |
| US08675684B2 |
Frame generating apparatus and frame generating method
A frame generating apparatus accommodating a client signal in an optical data transfer unit frame with a higher bit rate than the client signal includes a deserializer, a plurality of generic mapping procedure circuits, and a serializer. The deserializer deserializes the client signal into parallel signals, the number of parallel signals corresponding to the number of tributary slots used in the optical data transfer unit frame. The plurality of generic mapping procedure circuits inserts data and stuff into a frame accommodating portion of the optical data transfer unit frame based on a difference in the bit rate between the client signal and the optical data transfer unit frame. The serializer serializes the parallel signals output from the plurality of generic mapping procedure circuits. |
| US08675679B2 |
Cooperative writes over the address channel of a bus
A method of communicating over a bus is disclosed. The bus includes a write address channel, a write channel, and a read address channel. The method includes sending an address from a sending device to a receiving device via the write address channel. The method further includes concurrently sending a portion of a payload to the receiving device via the write channel and another portion of the payload to the receiving device via the read address channel. When sending multiple sequential portions of the payload via the bus concurrently, the sending device is configured to give data ordering preference to the write channel over the read address channel by sending a first sequential portion of the multiple sequential portions via the write channel and sending a subsequent sequential portion of the multiple sequential portions via the read address channel. |
| US08675668B2 |
Methods, systems, and products for sharing content
Methods, systems, and products share content between a device and a media delivery device. The media delivery device includes a content sharing application stored in memory and a processor communicating with the memory. The processor sends a presence update message to indicate the media delivery device is active and available to receive content. The processor receives an invite, and the invite requests a session between the media delivery device and the device. The processor sends an accept message to accept the invitation. The processor receives the content and receives a message that terminates the session. |
| US08675661B1 |
Allocating IP version fields to increase address space
Computer systems, computer-readable media, and computerized methods for assigning network identifiers in a network are provided. A dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server is employed to allocate various fractional IP addresses that include a common IPv4 address paired with a value of an IP version field within a data packet, wherein the value is selected from a plurality of available values. In order to differentiate between fractional IP addresses that share a common IPv4 address, a particular value of the IP version field is selected by the DHCP server and assigned to a client device when that particular value is not currently or previously assigned to another client device. Upon assignment to the client device, a fractional IP address that includes the common IPv4 address together with the particular value of the IP version field uniquely identifies the client device as a destination of a data packet within the network. |
| US08675651B2 |
Coexistence mechanism for non-compatible powerline communication devices
A powerline network may comprise powerline communication (PLC) devices of a first class of PLC devices that are incompatible with PLC devices of a second class of PLC devices. This can result in interference between communications of the first and the second classes of PLC devices. A dual mode PLC device that is compatible with the first and the second classes of PLC devices can be implemented for coexistence with both classes of PLC devices. The dual mode PLC device can determine whether the powerline network comprises a combination of PLC devices of the first and the second classes of PLC devices. One of a plurality of packet headers that is compatible with both the classes of PLC devices can be selected for transmission in response to determining that the powerline network comprises a combination of PLC devices of the first and the second classes of PLC devices. |
| US08675641B2 |
System and method for supporting concurrent communication over multiple access points and physical media
A system and method for enabling communication concurrently over multiple access points and multiple physical media including but not limited to: cellular, network (e.g., Ethernet), broadband wireless, audio communication schemes. |
| US08675636B2 |
Node in a wireless system and method for time and frequency synchronizing nodes in a wireless system
A node in a wireless system using transmit/receive slots for a communication among the nodes in the wireless system comprises a reception block configured to receive from a transmitting node in the wireless system a synchronization signal, and to derive from the synchronization signal a time offset and a frequency offset between the clock generators in the node and in the transmitting node. Further, a slot synchronization block is provided including the clock generator which is updated based on the derived time offset and the derived frequency offset. Further, a transmission block is provided for transmitting data. The slot synchronization block sets a slot start of a slot based on the derived time offset and sets a slot of a subsequent slot based on the derived frequency offset. |
| US08675628B2 |
Demultiplexing apparatus, multiplexing apparatus, communication apparatus, and relay satellite
A demultiplexing apparatus includes, in each of n stages, 2n FC+RXHBFs that down-sample a signal, from which a high-frequency component is removed after frequency conversion is carried out, and output the signal. The demultiplexing apparatus extracts, from an input signal including a plurality of band signals, the band signals to thereby demultiplex the input signal. The demultiplexing apparatus includes a reception-filter-bank control unit that calculates, based on channel information including bands and frequency arrangement of the band signals, a dividing position on a frequency axis and a frequency offset value indicating a frequency conversion value and instructs the FC+RXHBF, which is set as a target of output of divided signals of the input signal, about the calculated values. The FC+RXHBF carries out frequency conversion based on the frequency offset value. |
| US08675614B2 |
Methods and apparatus for communicating subscriber control packets in a trunked radio system
Embodiments include a trunking site base station receiving a first base station control packet over a network and, in response, transmitting a first subscriber control packet over a subscriber control channel at a first transmission time that is determined based on a transmission schedule. The first subscriber control packet includes a frame sync, a network ID, and a payload. Responsive to determining that a second base station control packet has not been received before a first timeout (or based on another trigger), the base station transmits a second subscriber control packet at a second transmission time that is determined based on the transmission schedule. The second subscriber control packet includes the frame sync and the network ID. The second subscriber control packet also may include a payload indicating a delay period for a subscriber radio to wait before making an attempt to register with a different trunking site. |
| US08675612B2 |
Channel quality measurements for downlink resource allocation
A method for reporting channel quality from a user equipment (UE) to a base station is described. The UE derives a channel quality for each of a plurality of downlink resources. The UE transmits channel quality reports in a pattern of time intervals by rotating through the plurality of downlink resources in different time intervals of the pattern, wherein a channel quality report is not transmitted by the UE in each time interval of a frame. |
| US08675608B2 |
Method and system for sector switching during packet transmission
A method and apparatus for handing off packet-transmission between sectors of a wireless communication system is disclosed herein. During transmission of a packet from an access network to an access terminal, the access terminal determines that the packet should theoretically be transmitted to the access terminal in fewer timeslots in another sector than the number of allowed timeslots remaining for the packet transmission in a current sector. In response, the access terminal abandons packet transmission in the current sector and hands off to the other sector, in an effort to increase throughput and save air interface resources. |
| US08675604B2 |
Relay enhanced cellular telecommunication network
Systems and techniques for avoiding inefficiencies resulting from failed handover attempts. A base station selects one or more mobility management entity (MME) pools for assignment to a relay node, with the selection being performed so as to minimize or eliminate handover attempts requiring that a target device support a particular MME pool when the MME pool is not supported by the MME. A base station selects, when communicating with a relay node, a subset of the MME pools that it supports and assigns the subset to the base station. UEs served by the relay node are assigned the MME pool or MME pools assigned to the relay node. The relay node is informed of the MME pools supported by one or more neighbor nodes and, when attempting a handover to a neighbor node, attempts an X2 handover only to neighbor nodes supporting an MME pool assigned to the relay node. |
| US08675599B2 |
Apparatus and method of changing access point in wireless network system
An apparatus and method of changing an access point in a wireless network system is provided. The wireless network system includes a first access point existing on a wireless network, and a user terminal accessing the first access point. The first access point transmits information on a second access point, which is one of a plurality of access points accessible by the user terminal, to the user terminal, and the user terminal determines whether to access the second access point and accesses the second access terminal in accordance with the determination result. |
| US08675592B2 |
Methods, apparatus and computer programs for physical layer transmission and/or reception
Embodiments include a method for physical layer transmission in a network equipment including receiving, from a higher layer, messages to be transmitted during a subframe on one or more control channels. The number of elements required (i.e. aggregation level) for each control channel is determined. A plurality of physical resource blocks (PRBs) for transmitting the control channels and partitioning the PRBs into clusters is allocated. The interleaving depth (IDP) for each cluster is determined. Each element is mapped to a cluster according to the IDP for that cluster. A transmission signal including the clusters is generated. |
| US08675581B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for enhancing data rate for packet-switched (PS) data service
A wireless communication device for eliminating performance degradation of a packet-switched (PS) data service. The device comprises a processor configured to receive a request to perform the PS data service with a first subscriber identity card, reduce a plurality of scheduled monitoring tasks associated with a second subscriber identity card, and perform the PS data service with the first subscriber identity card while using the reduced plurality of scheduled monitoring tasks to maintain mobility or receive network messages with the second subscriber identity card. |
| US08675578B2 |
Method for allocating resources in wireless communication system and system thereof
This invention relates to a method for allocating resources in a wireless communication system and a system thereof. The disclosed method comprises steps for: allowing a user's terminal to receive information about the wireless transmission resources among semi-permanent transmission resources; performing CRC-calculation by receiving a message about the allocation of the semi-permanent transmission resources based on the received information; verifying the validity of the message by comparing the information about the wireless resources indicated in the received message with the received information about the wireless transmission resources; and receiving data as the transmission resources indicated in the message if there is no error in the verification. |
| US08675571B2 |
Apparatus, methods and computer program products providing a common signaling entry for a modular control channel structure
The exemplary embodiments of the invention provide information (e.g., a common control signaling entry) for a control channel. The information may include signaling information about the overall control channel structure in a given sub-frame and/or other common information to assist UEs in decoding the channel (e.g., definitions related to the overall arrangement and parameterization of the channel structure). The information may provide non-UE-specific, common signaling information for the UEs served in the cell. In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, a method includes: providing at least one control channel allocated over at least one set of subcarrier resources, wherein the at least one control channel extends over a number n of multicarrier symbols; and transmitting information via a portion of the sub-carrier resources, wherein the transmitted information is indicative of at least one property of the at least one control channel. |
| US08675543B2 |
Route limiting in border gateway protocol over satellite networks
Routes stored by routers in a network that uses the border gateway protocol may be limited to a default route. A device may set, a first route in a routing table, advertised using BGP by a first predetermined network, to be a default route for the device. The device may block forwarding of second routes, advertised using BGP, when the second routes do not correspond to the default route. |
| US08675534B2 |
Method and system for realizing carrier control
The present disclosure provides a method and system for realizing a carrier control. The method includes: a BBU obtains and collects on-off state information of corresponding logic carriers of all configured cells and logic physical relationships of carrier frequencies according to on-off states of physical carriers reported by RRUs and reports them to a Base Station Controller (BSC); the BSC re-determines the on-off states of the logic carriers and returns them to the BBU; and the BBU converts the obtained on-off states of the logic carriers into on-off states of the physical carriers and transmits them to corresponding RRUs, and the RRUs perform carrier controls according to the obtained on-off states of the physical carriers. By the method of the present disclosure, the BSC ensures itself to be consistent with the on-off states of the carriers of the RRU by effectively controlling the on-off states of the RRU through the BBU, so that carriers are well controlled and the target of saving energy and reducing consumption is better achieved. |
| US08675526B2 |
Wireless communication system, base station, channel allocation method, and program
A wireless communication system includes a terminal and a base station for forming a plurality of sectors and receiving an uplink subframe from said terminal positioned in any of said plurality of sectors, according to an OFDMA/TDD scheme. Here, in said uplink subframe, said base station allocates a predetermined subchannel among subchannels usable by said base station to two predetermined sectors among said plurality of sectors in said uplink subframe, according to time division. |
| US08675525B2 |
Media conference recording based on termination events
A media conference device is provided. The media conference device includes a processor and a memory coupled with the processor. The memory stores instructions that are executable by the processor. The instructions are executable to detect a termination event and transmit a termination event message that indicates that the termination event was detected and requests that a media conference be recorded. |
| US08675523B2 |
Optimized spanning tree construction based on parameter selection
Embodiments herein relate to optimized spanning tree construction based on parameter selection. A selected parameter of a bridged packet-switched network is correlated to an algorithm. A spanning tree is constructed based on the correlated algorithm. |
| US08675520B2 |
Uplink communication in a wireless communication network
The invention provides a method of operating a first base station (100) as a reception station for a wireless uplink communication connection with a wireless appliance (102), wherein the method comprises: controlling the wireless uplink communication with the wireless appliance, receiving a signal (127) from the wireless appliance, receiving a rest signal (126) from at least one second base station (104), and analyzing the rest signal from the at least one second base station for detecting a signal (129) from the wireless appliance that is above a threshold. |
| US08675516B2 |
Method and device for configuring and sending downlink CSI reference signal
A method for configuring and sending a downlink CSI reference signal is provided. The method comprises: an eNB configures the downlink CSI reference signal and sends configuration information of the downlink CSI reference signal to a UE, wherein the configuration information comprises a starting subframe number and/or a cycle of the downlink CSI reference signal; the eNB sends the downlink CSI reference signal to the UE according to the configuration information of the downlink CSI reference signal. |
| US08675512B2 |
Fixed multiple access wireless communication
A user terminal for wireless communication with a remote access point can include a mapping module, a delay module, a transmit module, and a directional antenna. The mapping module can be used to map one or more input data bits to an uplink symbol. The delay module can be used to apply a delay to the uplink symbol. The transmit module can be used to modulate the delayed symbol into a frequency channel. The directional antenna can be oriented along a dominant path to the access point, and the antenna is used to transmit the modulated symbol to the access point. The delay is chosen such that the transmitted symbol arrives at the access point simultaneously with a another symbol that is modulated into the frequency channel and transmitted by another user terminal. |
| US08675500B2 |
Automated network condition identification
Performance data relating to each of multiple network devices distributed in a geographic region is analyzed. That data can include values for various parameters measured automatically by routine polling of subscriber devices and/or network elements serving those subscriber devices. Measured parameter values can then be stored in a database and made available, together with information about subscriber device locations, to one or more analysis servers that analyze different portions of the network. As part of that analysis, groups of devices experiencing performance problems are identified based on device location. Information about those groups is then communicated and can be made available for, e.g., monitoring by service personnel. |
| US08675491B2 |
Packet switching
In an embodiment, an apparatus is provided that may include an integrated circuit including switch circuitry to determine, at least in part, an action to be executed involving a packet. This determination may be based, at least in part, upon flow information determined, at least in part, from the packet, and packet processing policy information. The circuitry may examine the policy information to determine whether a previously-established packet processing policy has been established that corresponds, at least in part, to the flow information. If the circuitry determines, at least in part, that the policy has not been established and the packet is a first packet in a flow corresponding at least in part to the flow information, the switch circuitry may request that at least one switch control program module establish, at least in part, a new packet processing policy corresponding, at least in part, to the flow information. |
| US08675489B2 |
Device for low priority handling
The embodiments herein relates to a method in a transceiver (110) for enabling traffic you prioritizing in a wireless communication system (100). The transceiver (110) is configured to transmit traffic to a first communication node (101, 120). The transceiver (110) transmits a message to the first communication node (101, 120). The message comprises an indicator indicating that the transmitted traffic tolerates a delay, enabling traffic prioritizing in the wireless communication system (100). |
| US08675488B1 |
Subscriber-based network traffic management
In general, the invention is directed to techniques for offloading per-subscriber traffic management from an access gateway to one or more upstream service nodes within a service provider network. For example, as described herein, an upstream service node receives a new packet flow for a subscriber and sends packet flow information, such as a network address, to a session and resource controller (SRC). The SRC maintains a table of subscriber attachment sessions and maps the packet flow information to a subscriber attachment session in the table to obtain a subscriber identifier for a subscriber. The SRC then determines subscriber-specific services to be applied to subscriber data traffic, transforms the services to a set of one or more enforcement policies, and returns the enforcement policies to the service node. In turn, the service node applies the enforcement policies for the subscriber-specific services to the subscriber data traffic in the packet flow. |
| US08675470B2 |
Crosstalk coefficient estimating apparatus and crosstalk coefficient estimating method
This invention relates to crosstalk coefficient estimating apparatus and crosstalk coefficient estimating method. The crosstalk coefficient estimating apparatus is used to estimate a crosstalk coefficient of crosstalk inflicted on one channel of an optical fiber transmission system comprising two or more channels. The crosstalk coefficient estimating apparatus comprises a complex conjugate unit, for obtaining a complex conjugate signal for signal in one polarization-state of another channel other than said one channel; a multiplying unit, for multiplying the complex conjugate signal obtained by the complex conjugate unit with signal in another polarization-state of the another channel; and a filter, for filtering the multiplication result of the multiplying unit to obtain a crosstalk coefficient of crosstalk inflicted on the signal in one polarization-state of said one channel, wherein a transmission function of the filter is set according to system parameters of the optical fiber transmission system. |
| US08675469B2 |
Monitoring non-managed wire pairs to improve dynamic spectrum management performance
A digital subscriber line (DSL) network provides enhanced dynamic spectrum management (DSM) based on estimated foreign interference obtained from monitoring unmanaged wire pairs in a cable. A DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) or other line terminal provides vectored DSL signaling to a plurality of subscribers via a first set of wire pairs of the cable. The DSLAM monitors a second set of one or more wire pairs of the cable that are not connected to the vectored group associated with the first set of wire pairs to estimate foreign interference introduced to the first set of wire pairs. The DSLAM then modifies the vectored DSL transmitted signaling responsive to the estimated foreign interference so as to pre-cancel or otherwise compensate for the foreign interference introduced into the managed wire pairs. |
| US08675466B2 |
Optical disc with pre-recorded and recordable regions and methods of forming the disc
An optical disc having a region with pre-recorded data and a recordable region, a method of fabricating the disc, a stamper for forming a disc master, and a recording device for use with the disc are disclosed. Data recorded in the recordable region may be used for activation of the disc, providing unique identification or enhancing program content on the disc. |
| US08675451B2 |
Acoustic and optical illumination technique for underwater characterization of objects/environment
The invention provides a method for acoustically and optically characterizing an immersed object of interest by generating a serial plurality of acoustic and optical illumination pulses through a liquid. In addition to the spectral analysis/imaging of objects/environment made possible by the white-light illumination, a target material can be ablated, generating an ionized plume to spectrally identify the target's constituent atoms. |
| US08675442B2 |
Energy efficient memory with reconfigurable decoding
A sacrificial memory bank is added to a block of regular banks in a memory to reduce dynamic power consumption of the memory. The sacrificial bank is accessed by a set of bit lines that is substantially shorter than corresponding bit lines extending through all of the regular memory banks. Memory read and write operations, which are addressed to one of the regular banks, are deliberately redirected to the sacrificial bank having the short bit lines. Tracking circuitry identifies the regular bank that was addressed for each location in the sacrificial bank. Data is moved from the sacrificial bank to a regular bank only when a new write operation does not match the bank of the previous write operation. Dynamic power is reduced because locality of reference causes access to the sacrificial bank without having to access a regular bank for most memory read and write operations. |
| US08675427B2 |
Implementing RC and coupling delay correction for SRAM
A method and circuit for implementing delay correction in static random access memory (SRAM), and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. The SRAM circuit includes a precharge enable signal coupled between precharge near and precharge far signals and wordline near and wordline far signals of the SRAM. A precharge pull down device is coupled between the precharge far signal and ground and is controlled responsive to the precharge enable signal to decrease a time delay of the falling transition of the precharge far signal. A respective word line pull up device is coupled between a respective wordline far signal and a voltage supply rail and is controlled responsive to the precharge enable signal to increase wordline voltage level upon a rising transition of the wordline far signal. |
| US08675426B2 |
Semiconductor device, semiconductor system having the same, and command address setup/hold time control method therefor
A semiconductor system includes a controller configured to output a clock enable signal, first to third command/address signals, a chip select signal, first and second entry commands and an exit command, and receive an output signal; and a semiconductor device configured to latch the first and second command/address signals and transfer the output signal in response to the chip select signal and the first entry command, latch the first and third command/address signals and transfer the output signal in response to the chip select signal and the second entry command, and transfer data generated by the first to third command/address signals as the output signal in response to the clock enable signal and the exit command signal. |
| US08675420B2 |
Devices and systems including enabling circuits
Examples of devices and systems including enabling circuits are described. Two voltage supplies may be used to operate different portions of the devices, including peripheral circuits and I/O circuits. When the voltage supply to the peripheral circuits of one or more devices is disabled, the I/O circuits of that device may be disabled. In some examples, power may advantageously be saved in part by eliminating or reducing a DC current path through the I/O circuits. |
| US08675416B2 |
Flash memory device and related program verification method
A nonvolatile memory device performs a program operation using an incremental pulse programming (ISPP) scheme in which a plurality of program loops alternate between a coarse-fine verify operation, and a fine verify operation according to a value of a program loop counter. |
| US08675408B2 |
Non-volatile memory device having configurable page size
A flash memory device having at least one bank, where the each bank has an independently configurable page size. Each bank includes at least two memory planes having corresponding page buffers, where any number and combination of the memory planes are selectively accessed at the same time in response to configuration data and address data. The configuration data can be loaded into the memory device upon power up for a static page configuration of the bank, or the configuration data can be received with each command to allow for dynamic page configuration of the bank. By selectively adjusting a page size the memory bank, the block size is correspondingly adjusted. |
| US08675405B1 |
Method to reduce program disturbs in non-volatile memory cells
A non-volatile memory and methods of operating the same to reduce disturbs is provided. In one embodiment, the method includes coupling a first positive high voltage to a first global wordline in a first row of an array of memory cells, and coupling a second negative high voltage (VNEG) to a first bitline in a first column of the array to apply a bias to a non-volatile memory transistor in a selected memory cell to program the selected memory cell. A margin voltage having a magnitude less than VNEG is coupled to a second global wordline in a second row of the array, and an inhibit voltage coupled to a second bitline in a second column of the array to reduce a bias applied to a non-volatile memory transistor in an unselected memory cell to reduce program disturb of data programmed in the unselected memory cell due to programming. |
| US08675399B2 |
Magnetic unit and magnetic storage device
A magnetic unit includes: a magnetic pinned layer, a first function body, and a second function body. The magnetic pinned layer is provided that a magnetization direction is pinned. The first function body is provided in contact with the magnetic pinned layer and performs a function with the magnetic pinned layer. The second function body is provided in contact with the magnetic pinned layer. The second function body is any of a nonmagnetic conductor, a nonmagnetic insulator, and a function body. The magnetic pinned layer includes: a plurality of magnetic substance layers, and a nonmagnetic conductive layer provided between the plurality of magnetic substance layers. The nonmagnetic conductive layer ferromagnetically or antiferromagnetically couples magnetic substance layers on both sides. A total amount of magnetizations of the plurality of magnetic substance layers is approximately zero. Among the plurality of magnetic substance layers, a magnitude of an anisotropic magnetic field of a group of magnetic substance layers directed toward a first direction is different from that of a group of magnetic substance layers directed toward a second direction. |
| US08675396B1 |
Integrated circuit devices and systems having programmable impedance elements with different response types
An integrated circuit (IC) device can include a memory array having memory elements formed with a solid ion conductor, the memory array programmable to provide portions with different response types; and a logic section comprising logic circuits configured to perform logic functions, the logic section being coupled to the memory array to store and read data values therefrom. A memory device can also have a plurality of access ports, each configurable to access any of the different portions of the memory array. A memory device can further include a read circuit configured to read data values from the different portions according to the response type of each portion. |
| US08675388B2 |
Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a memory cell array including plural first lines, plural second lines, and plural memory cells each including a variable resistance element; a first decoder connected to at least one ends of the plurality of first lines and configured to select at least one of the first lines; at least one pair of second decoders connected to both ends of the plurality of second lines and configured such that one of the pair of second decoders is selected for selecting the second lines according to a distance between the one of the first lines selected by the first decoder and the both ends of the second lines; and a voltage application circuit configured to apply a certain voltage between the first line and the second line selected by the first decoder and the second decoder. |
| US08675387B2 |
Variable resistance nonvolatile memory device and programming method for same
A variable resistance nonvolatile memory device includes a plurality of memory cells in each of which a variable resistance element and a current steering element having two terminals are connected in series. Additionally, a current limit circuit limits a first current flowing in a direction for changing the memory cells to a low resistance state, and a boost circuit increases, when one of the memory cells changes to the low resistance state, the first current in a first period before the memory cell changes to the low resistance state. |
| US08675381B2 |
Transistor having an adjustable gate resistance and semiconductor device comprising the same
A memory device comprises an array of memory cells each capable of storing multiple bits of data. The memory cells are arranged in memory strings that are connected to a common source line. Each memory cell includes a programmable transistor connected in series with a resistance. The transistor includes a gate dielectric that is switchable between a plurality of different resistance values. The threshold voltage of the transistor changes according to the resistance value of the gate dielectric. Memory states of the memory cells can thus be associated with respective resistance values of the dielectric layer of the transistor. |
| US08675380B2 |
Power supply unit with a housing and a switched power supply arranged in the housing
The invention relates to a mains plug component with a housing and a mains switch component arranged in the housing comprising a first stage for rectifying a mains AC voltage and a second stage for generating a DC voltage from the rectified mains AC voltage. The first stage comprises an electromechanical switch, by means of which a first or second voltage range may be selected. The housing has a section for a pin of an inserted plug piece such that, on insertion, the switch is activated by the inserted pin. The plug piece for insertion has no pin for the first voltage range and a pin for the second voltage range. |
| US08675379B2 |
Power converting apparatus having improved electro-thermal characteristics
A power-converting apparatus, such as a power module, may include a base plate (16), a first direct current (DC) bus and a second DC bus (22, 24). A power semiconductor component (18, 20) may be electrically coupled to one of the buses, and may be disposed on a substrate (12, 14) physically coupled to the base plate. The power semiconductor component may be made from a high-temperature, wide bandgap material, and the substrate may be exposed to a heat flux based on an operational temperature of the power semiconductor component. At least a first capacitor (50) may be coupled across the first and second DC buses, and at least second and third capacitors (52) may be respectively coupled across respective ones of the first and second buses and an alternating current (AC) return path. Capacitors (50, 52) may each be located inside the power module to establish circuit connections sufficiently proximate to the first power semiconductor component to reduce a formation of parasitic inductances, and further may each be located physically apart from the substrate and thus not exposed to the heat flux. |
| US08675364B2 |
Power module and power conversion device
A power module according to the present invention includes: a semiconductor element for converting DC current to AC current by switching operation; an electrical wiring board to which the semiconductor element is electrically connected, with the semiconductor element being disposed upon one of its principal surfaces; an insulating resin layer provided on the other principal surface of the electrical wiring board; a first insulation layer that is disposed opposite from the electrical wiring board, separated by the insulating resin layer, and that is joined to the insulating resin layer; a second insulation layer that is disposed opposite from the insulating resin layer, separated by the first insulation layer, and that ensures electrical insulation of the semiconductor element; and a metallic heat dissipation member that is disposed opposite from the first insulation layer, separated by the second insulation layer, and that radiates heat generated by the semiconductor element via the electrical wiring board, the insulating resin layer, the first insulation layer, and the second insulation layer. |
| US08675363B2 |
Thermal conductors in electronic devices
In one implementation, an electronic device includes a first body portion, a second body portion movably coupled to the first body portion, a heat source, and a thermal conductor in thermal communication with the heat source. The heat source is disposed within one of the first body portion or the second body portion. The thermal conductor has a first end portion, a second end portion, and a flexible portion between the first end portion and the second end portion. The first end portion of the thermal conductor is disposed within the first body portion. The second end portion of the thermal conductor is disposed within the second body portion. |
| US08675360B2 |
Output device
An output device which houses a portable device in an internal space and which outputs at least audio or images outputted from the housed portable device to the outside, includes: a case body including a housing portion housing the portable device; a lid body connected to the case body so as to pivot about a hinge portion and pivoted between an opened position in which the housing portion of the case body is opened and a closed position in which the housing portion of the case body is closed; and a pair of buckles pivotally supported at one outer peripheral portion of the case body or the lid body between a locked position and a lock release position as well as pivoted to the locked position when the lid body is pivoted to the closed position to thereby lock the lid body with respect to the case body. |
| US08675357B2 |
Data center aisle containment system utilizing a movable sash that is integral to the computer rack cabinet
An embodiment includes a transparent sash mounted integral to the perforated doors on racks which hold computer servers typically installed in data centers. The racks are arrayed in rows forming cold aisles and hot aisles. Cooled air introduced into the cold aisle flows through the racks and cools the servers, and subsequently is removed from the hot aisle. Embodiment sashes slide vertically and extend above the tops of the racks and form a sealing relationship with the data center ceiling and adjacent sashes, thereby preventing wasteful mixing and recirculation of cooled and heated air over the tops of the racks. Embodiments are raised and lowered manually or automatically. The controls for the movement of the sashes are tied to the building automation and fire alarm systems and the sashes are lowered automatically upon activation of the data center fire suppression system, thereby complying with code requirements and avoiding interference with the fire sprinkler and suppression systems. |
| US08675351B2 |
Sliding module, a sliding apparatus and an electronic device using the same
The present invention provides a sliding module comprising a plurality of guiding rods; a plurality of elastic members; a first component having a first fastener and a plurality of guiding apertures; and a second component having a second fastener and a plurality of fastening holes that correspond to the plurality of guiding apertures of the first component; wherein the first component and the second component are configured to slide with respect to each other; each of the elastic members is configured to shield a respective guiding rod; each of the guiding rods is configured to be fastened in a respective fastening hole at the second component, and traverse through a respective guiding aperture at the first component; and a longitudinal axis across the respective centers of the first fastener and the second fastener is configured to be parallel to each of the guiding rods. |
| US08675348B2 |
Capacitor electrolyte
A capacitor for an implantable medical device is presented. The capacitor includes an anode, a cathode, a separator therebetween, and an electrolyte over the anode, cathode, and separator. The electrolyte includes ingredients comprising acetic acid, ammonium acetate, phosphoric acid, and tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether. The capacitor has an operating voltage ninety percent or greater of its formation voltage. |
| US08675343B2 |
Conductive paste for external electrode, multilayered ceramic electronic component using the same and fabrication method thereof
There are provided a conductive paste for an external electrode, a multilayered ceramic electronic component using the same, and a fabrication method thereof. The conductive paste for external electrode includes: a conductive metal; and a conductive amorphous metal including a (Cu, Ni)-bZr-c(Al, Sn) that satisfies conditions of a+b+c=100, 20≦a≦60, 20≦b≦60, and 2≦c≦25. A degradation of connectivity between external electrodes and internal electrodes and defective plating due to a glass detachment may be solved. |
| US08675340B2 |
Multilayer ceramic electronic component and method of manufacturing the same
There is provided a multilayer ceramic electronic component, including: a ceramic element having a plurality of dielectric layers laminated therein; and first and second internal electrodes formed within the ceramic element, wherein the first and second internal electrodes include 80 to 99.98 wt % of nickel (Ni), 0.01 to 10 wt % of copper (Cu), and 0.01 to 10 wt % of barium titanate (BaTiO3). |
| US08675339B2 |
Feedthrough capacitor
A feedthrough capacitor includes an inner electrode that extends coaxially within a grounded outer electrode. A non-conductive, epoxy-based potting material insulates and adhesively joins opposing roughened portions of the inner and outer electrodes. A capacitor assembly extends between the inner and outer electrode and serves to bypass relatively high frequency signals carried by the inner electrode to the grounded outer electrode. The capacitor assembly includes a plurality of monolithic multilayer ceramic capacitors, each capacitor having first and second terminals that are respectively surface mounted onto inner and outer concentric conductive rings. A plurality of deflectable tines project radially inward from the inner ring and resiliently circumferentially contact the exterior of the inner electrode. Similarly, a plurality of deflectable tines project radially outward from the outer ring and resiliently circumferentially contact the interior of the outer electrode. |
| US08675338B2 |
Electrical feedthrough of a capacitor for medical implants and method for the production and use thereof
A feedthrough of an electrolyte or other capacitor, in particular for use in a medical-electronic implant, is provided having a terminal pin which has a section which can be soft soldered at least in the interior of the electrolyte capacitor, an aluminum flange enclosing the terminal pin, and a glass solder plug which hermetically seals the terminal pin in relation to the aluminum flange. |
| US08675337B2 |
Variable capacitor and filter circuit with bias voltage
A variable capacitor includes a metal oxide film having a perovskite structure, first and second electrode films having the metal oxide film placed therebetween and to be coupled to an external voltage source, and a bias voltage source configured to provide a bias voltage that is applied in series or parallel to a capacitance of a capacitor including the metal oxide film and the first and second electrode films, wherein the bias voltage applied by the bias voltage source to the capacitance is adapted to maximize a voltage dependency of a relative permittivity of the metal oxide film. |
| US08675334B2 |
Method for operating a tank device especially of a motor vehicle
In a method for operating a tank device of a motor vehicle having a tank and a valve which is adjustable by a driver stage connected to an energy supply, the valve is closed in response to an ascertained fault. Based on the fault, two output signals are formed for closing the valve: one of the output signals represents a relay signal and interrupts the energy supply to the driver stage. |
| US08675332B1 |
Thermally protected light emitting diode module
A recessed light fixture includes a thermally protected light emitting diode (“LED”) module. The thermally protected LED module includes a thermal protector positioned in series between a source of electrical power and an LED driver and is configured to open a circuit to prevent power from being supplied by the power source to the LED driver for an LED package when a thermal rating or activation temperature of the thermal protector is exceeded. For example, the maximum operating temperature of the LED driver may be 90 degrees Celsius, and the thermal rating of the thermal protector may be 80 degrees Celsius, and when the temperature of the driver or a mounting bracket upon which the driver is mounted reaches 80 degrees Celsius, the thermal protector opens a circuit and removes current flow from the power source to the driver, thereby removing power to the LED package. |
| US08675328B2 |
Battery charge protection system
A system comprises a battery including one or more cells, an energy source, a load, and a battery protection circuit coupled to the battery, the energy source and the load. The circuit determines if the charge of each cell is at/above a predetermined, band gap supplied threshold voltage, which results in disconnecting of the battery from the energy source. The circuit also may determine if the charge of any cell is at/below a second predetermined level, which may result in disconnecting of the battery from the load. The circuit may be radiation-hardened (e.g., via redundancy), through the use of two sets of field effect transistors, two logic gates, two groups of comparator circuits, and two relays. The circuit provides multiply redundant protection comprising: redundantly assessing the overvoltage determination; redundantly triggering battery isolation; and preventing inadvertent isolation and non-charging, occurring absent overvoltage, through redundant first and second relays. |
| US08675327B2 |
Fast impedance protection technique immune to dynamic errors of capacitive voltage transformers
The present invention relates to methods for providing impedance protection differentiating between in-zone and out-of-zone faults based on instantaneous, digitally derived operating and polarizing distance comparator signals. The method uses a pair of fast orthogonal filters to derive D and Q components of the input voltages and currents. Two sets of operating and polarizing signals are derived for better speed of response under varying fault moment with respect to the peaks and zero crossings of power signals. Three stages of comparison between the operating and polarizing impedance terms are used. These comparator stages use half a cycle averaging windows, and three-quarters-of-a-cycle windows. The first stage of comparison is based on energy comparator responding to both magnitude and phase information in the signals. Stages 2 and 3 are of phase comparison type, responding mostly at the phase information and neglecting the magnitude information for better immunity to noise and signal distortions. |
| US08675324B2 |
Short-circuit isolator
Provided is a short-circuit isolator capable of earlier detection of recovery from short circuit of a disconnected line and reconnecting the line. The short-circuit isolator includes: a switch for switching a connection state between a primary signal line and a secondary signal line; a short-circuit monitor circuit which is connected to a primary wiring of the switch through a resistor as a current limiting section and connected to a secondary wiring of the switch, for detecting short circuit when a voltage of the secondary signal line is lower than a short-circuit detection threshold and detecting recovery from the short circuit when the voltage of the secondary signal line is higher than a short-circuit recovery threshold which is a voltage value lower than the short-circuit detection threshold after the short circuit is detected; and a switch control section for turning off the switch when the short circuit is detected by the short-circuit monitor circuit and turning on the switch when the recovery from the short circuit is detected by the short-circuit monitor circuit. |
| US08675321B2 |
Start test electronic device and system and method of use thereof
The present invention is a method and system for monitoring the continuous flow of power delivered by multiple DC Direct current operated starter motors used to start engine driven electrical generators. The method and system comprise the closing of a starter battery system and an associated starter control switch, causing the starter battery system to discharge through a shunt whereby current is fed into a starter motor. The shunt is optionally provided as a precision resistor with a pre-calibrated voltage drop in millivolts DC proportional to a current passing through it. The shunt directs current to a meter relay, which is calibrated by establishing two set points, or desired trigger ranges, for the meter relay. If the current falls outside a range established by the two set points, then a meter relay alarm output is activated; and, if the current remains within the range, then the meter relay alarm output is not activated. The meter relay alarm output is, optionally, a dry contact which activates a signal device. |
| US08675304B2 |
Disk drive spindle motor with hole volume and component density relationship
A motor includes a stationary portion and a rotating portion. The rotating portion includes a sleeve portion including one communicating hole arranged to extend completely there through from an upper surface to a lower surface thereof, and a cover portion including a hole portion. The axial extension range of the hole portion is arranged to overlap with the axial extension range of the communicating hole in a radial direction. A center of the hole portion is arranged on a plane including a central axis and a center of the communicating hole. The communicating hole and the hole portion are arranged on opposite sides of the central axis. The following inequality is satisfied: V2<(σ1/σ2)·V1, where σ1 is the density of the sleeve portion, V1 is the volume of the communicating hole, σ2 is the density of the cover portion, and V2 is the volume of the hole portion. |
| US08675297B2 |
Media defect classification
The present inventions are related to apparatuses and methods for detecting and classifying media defects. For example, an apparatus for classifying a media defect is disclosed including a DFT circuit operable to yield real and imaginary components of a signal derived from data read from a storage medium, a calculation circuit operable to calculate an amplitude and a phase of the signal based on the real and imaginary components, and a classifier operable to detect the media defect based on the amplitude and to classify the media defect based on the phase. |
| US08675295B2 |
Piezoelectric actuator, lens barrel, and camera
A piezoelectric actuator comprises a first piezoelectric element, a second piezoelectric element, a first set of a first member that is mounted with the first piezoelectric element which is deformed in a first direction with an application of a first voltage, and a second set of a second member that is mounted with the second piezoelectric element which is deformed in the opposite direction of the first direction with the application of the first voltage. |
| US08675288B2 |
Lens module
There is provided a lens module, including: a first lens having positive refractive power, an object-sided surface thereof being convex; a second lens having negative refractive power, an image-sided surface thereof being concave; a third lens having positive refractive power; a fourth lens having negative refractive power, an image-sided surface thereof being convex; and a fifth lens having negative refractive power, an image-sided surface thereof being concave, wherein the fourth lens satisfies Conditional Expression 1, [Conditional Expression 1] f 4 f < - 3.0 where f is an overall focal distance of an optical system and f4 is a focal distance of the fourth lens. |
| US08675276B2 |
Catadioptric imaging system for broad band microscopy
A system and method for inspection is disclosed. The design includes an objective employed for use with light energy having a wavelength in various ranges, including approximately 266 to 1000 nm, 157 nm through infrared, and other ranges. The objective includes a focusing lens group having at least one focusing lens configured to receive light, a field lens oriented to receive focused light energy from said focusing lens group and provide intermediate light energy, and a Mangin mirror arrangement positioned to receive the intermediate light energy from the field lens and form controlled light energy. Each focusing lens has a reduced diameter, such as a diameter of less than approximately 100 mm, and a maximum corrected field size of approximately 0.15 mm. An immersion substance, such as oil, water, or silicone gel, may be employed prior to passing controlled light energy to the specimen inspected. |
| US08675274B2 |
Dynamic motile medium
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a device for modulating light. The device comprises a plurality of nano-scale particles; a conformal structure defining a surface to which the nano-scale particles conform under influence of a displacement force; and a displacement mechanism to apply the displacement force to the nano-scale particles; wherein the nano-scale particles when they conform to the conformal structure change the optical characteristics of the conformal structure. |
| US08675270B2 |
Scanning micromirror
The present invention may relate to a scanning micromirror. The scanning micromirror can include a substrate having an open region; a micro plate provided in the open region; a first gimbal provided between the substrate and the mirror plate, and including a first curvature curved toward the mirror plate along an X-axis of the open region; a second gimbal including a second curvature formed along the first curvature of the first gimbal; a first elastic body configured to connect the substrate with the first curvature of the first gimbal; a second elastic body configured to connect the first gimbal with the second gimbal along a Y-axis of the open region; and a third elastic body configured to connect the second gimbal with the mirror plate along the Y-axis of the open region. |
| US08675269B2 |
Optical lift apparatuses and methods thereof
A method for optical lift includes receiving illumination in a first direction on at least one of two different surface profiles of one or more cambered refractive objects. The one or more cambered refractive objects are rotated to a position of stable rotational equilibrium in response to the received illumination. The one or more cambered refractive objects are moved in a second direction non-parallel direction from the first direction. |
| US08675262B2 |
Image reading device and image forming apparatus including the same
A position adjustment mechanism (90) includes a rack (91) fixed onto an upper surface of a second hinge member (87), a worm gear 93 that meshes with the rack (91), a handle (95) that rotates the worm gear (93), and a lever (97) that presses the second hinge member (87) against the first hinge member (85) to fix the second hinge member (87) to the first hinge member (85). The lever (97) is operated to release the pressure on the second hinge member (87) so that the handle (95) is operated, to thereby adjust a tilt of the document conveying device (27) with respect to the image reading portion (6) without using a tool and the like. After the adjustment, the lever (97) is operated to press the second hinge member (87), to thereby position the document conveying device (27) precisely at a position after the adjustment. |
| US08675257B2 |
Automatic trapping method and system
An automatic trapping method and system is used for packaging printing. The method includes translating trapping objects into simple color blocks, scanning all of the blocks and attaining trapping boundaries, determining whether the color blocks on both sides of the trapping boundaries meet the trapping rule depending on the ink dots percentage and luminance, connecting trapping boundaries by analyzing regions, creating trapping zone and filling ink into the zone and reducing color. |
| US08675256B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and storage medium
The cluster of a background is specified among a plurality of clusters classified by clustering processing, and a label area whose size is less than a first threshold value is combined with adjoining another label area which is not the cluster of the background among label areas to which the same label number is given by labeling processing. Then, whether the label area is combined with the adjoining another label area based on characteristic quantity obtained from the label area is determined, and combining, vector data is generated based on the label area after combining the label area when determined as the label area being combined. |
| US08675252B2 |
Multicolor electronic devices and processes of forming the same by printing
There is provided a method of forming a regular array of rows of subpixels on a workpiece. The subpixels have c different colors, where a colors are formed by printing. The subpixel pitch is s. The method includes (a) providing a printing head having a sets of z adjacent nozzles arranged in a row, wherein the spacing between adjacent nozzles within the same set is p1=cs and the spacing between adjacent nozzles in different sets is p2=(c+1)s, the printing head being at a first position relative to the workpiece; (b) providing a different printing inks, one for each of the a colors; (c) supplying each of the printing inks to the nozzles such that each of the nozzles within a set receive the same color and a different color is supplied to each set of nozzles; (d) printing a first set of az rows of subpixels with the printing head; (e) moving the workpiece laterally relative to the printing head by a distance d, where d=cz(s); (f) printing a second set of az rows of subpixels with the printing head; and (g) repeating steps (e) and (f) n−2 times for a total of n sets of az rows of subpixels. In the process, a, c, n, and z are independently integers greater than 1. |
| US08675251B2 |
Multilevel printing process and device using a raster bitmap and assignment method for multilevel screens
A process for printing substrates includes assigning image dots of printer-ready copy to pixels of a multilevel map and assigning values to the pixels depending on the tonal value of the image dot for assigning n+1 different values, where n>1. Artifacts are prevented in multilevel printing processes by assigning threshold values of any threshold value matrix to the pixels of the multilevel map on which the printing is based with respect to their positions relative to the printing substrate, calculating tonal values of the image dot, fixing the values of the pixels depending on the threshold value and the tonal value of the assigned image dot, and printing the multilevel map on a printing substrate in a multilevel printing process, with different values representing different amounts of ink of a printed pixel. A screen assignment device assigns a value to a pixel of a multilevel map generated by an RIP. |
| US08675246B2 |
Image processing device and program
An image processing device for determining whether to carry out color printing or monochrome printing to achieve a printing operation on a print sheet based on an original document, the device including: a determination area obtaining unit configured to automatically obtain a partial area of the original document estimated to be printed on the print sheet; and a color/monochrome determination unit configured to carry out the determination with using image data of the obtained partial area. |
| US08675234B2 |
Printing system, print service apparatus, service providing apparatus, control method and computer-readable medium
A print service apparatus includes: a reception unit configured to receive, via a Web browser together with a print job designated from a window, window information of the window, user information, and message information of a message which is contained in the window and provided by a microblogging function; an addition unit configured to add, as a user using the microblogging function, a comment on the message corresponding to the message information to the window; a monitoring unit configured to monitor whether another user has added a comment on the message corresponding to the message information; a determination unit configured to determine whether the added comment is a comment by the user; and a decision unit configured to decide processing for the print job based on a content of the added comment when the determination unit determines that the added comment is a comment by the user. |
| US08675230B2 |
Recognizing an image forming apparatus as a printer and an external storage device to reduce an initialization time of the image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a communication interface unit which allows the print controlling terminal to recognize the image forming apparatus as a printer, a determination unit which determines whether a printer driver of the image forming apparatus is installed in the print controlling terminal, a controlling unit which controls the communication interface unit to receive print data generated by the printer driver, and an image forming unit which prints the received print data, and the communication interface unit, if a printer driver is not installed in the print controlling terminal, controls the print controlling terminal to additionally recognize the image forming apparatus as an external storage medium and provides the print controlling terminal with a printer driver installation program stored in the external storage medium, and a method of performing the same. |
| US08675229B2 |
Image forming apparatus including a fluid transport device
An image forming apparatus includes a transport device that transports fluid inside a body of an image forming apparatus; a counting unit that counts a cumulative number of image forming operations; and a transport control unit that controls a start and a stop of operation of the transport device so as to keep the transport device stopped when an image forming operation is started, and to start the transport device when the cumulative number of image forming operations has become larger than or equal to a preset number. |
| US08675226B2 |
Control point, image forming apparatus, and method of controlling printing
A control point includes a communication interface to search for one or more image forming apparatuses using digital living network alliance (DLNA), a user interface unit through which at least one piece of content is selected for printing using a user interface of the control point, and through which an image forming apparatus is selected from among the searched image forming apparatuses to perform printing, a DLNA stack unit to set a connection policy regarding connection to the selected image forming apparatus, and to selectively control the DLNA connection status to the selected image forming apparatus according to the connection policy, and a controller to control the communication interface to transmit print data corresponding to the selected content-for-printing and the connection policy to the selected image forming apparatus. |
| US08675224B2 |
Mutualistic engine controller communicating with printer non-volatile memory
A printing device includes at least one printing engine that has actuators and sensors. At least one engine controller is operatively connected to the printing engine, the engine controller uses software to control operations of the printing engine. At least one non-volatile memory is operatively connected to the engine controller. The non-volatile memory stores values used by the engine controller to control operations of the printing engine. Further, at least one adapter card is operatively connected to the non-volatile memory and to the actuators and sensors. The adapter card stores data and receives sensor feedback from the sensors. The adapter card uses the data and the sensor feedback to control the actuators by bypassing the engine controller when communicating with the actuators. The adapter card provides adapter card feedback to the non-volatile memory. |
| US08675218B2 |
System for monitoring and displaying printer status
A data processor includes a communication unit, a customized data acquiring unit, a storing unit, a status data acquiring unit, and a display unit. The communication unit performs data communication with an electrical equipment. The customized data acquiring unit acquires customized data. The storing unit stores fixed data and the customized data acquired by the customized data acquiring unit. The customized data is correlated with the fixed data. The status data acquiring unit acquires status data from the electrical equipment via the communication unit. The display unit displays the fixed data and the customized data. The fixed data and the customized data are in association with the status data acquired by the status data acquiring unit. |
| US08675217B2 |
Data processing apparatus having a printer driver for changing an output destination
An application mounted in a data processing apparatus creates a document and issues a print request of the document. A printer driver receives the print request and creates print data by setting a format of the document as a specific format of model dependency, and changes a default output destination of the print data into a changed output destination. A spooler receives the print data and sends the print data to one of a plurality of image forming apparatuses designated by the changed output destination through a network interface. |
| US08675197B2 |
Particle characterization
In one general aspect, a method of measuring characteristics of particles in a liquid sample is disclosed. The method includes suspending the liquid sample in a tube. The suspended liquid sample is illuminated along an illumination axis, and at least a portion of the light is detected along a first detection axis after it is scattered by the particles in the suspended liquid sample. The illumination axis and the detection axis are oriented at an angle with respect to each other. |
| US08675189B2 |
System and method for estimating projector primary spectra using RGB measurement
A method for characterizing a primary radiant spectra of a projector includes projecting primary colors with a projector having a projector lamp and color filters. Measurements of each primary color are taken with a multi-band camera. Spectra of the color filters are estimated using the measurements from the multi-band camera. The primary radiant spectra of the projector are estimated using spectral data of the projector lamp and the estimated spectra of the color filters. |
| US08675174B2 |
Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method for producing device
An exposure apparatus includes a nozzle member which has at least one of a supply port for supplying a liquid and a recovery port for recovering the liquid, and a nozzle adjusting mechanism which adjusts at least one of a position and a posture of the nozzle member depending on a position or a posture of a substrate. The exposure apparatus forms an immersion area of the liquid on the substrate, and performs exposure for the substrate through the liquid in the immersion area. Accordingly, the liquid is satisfactorily retained between the projection optical system and the substrate, thereby making it possible to realize the exposure highly accurately. |
| US08675167B2 |
Polymer dispersed display panels including quantum dots and display apparatuses including the same
A polymer dispersed display apparatus includes a polymer layer, and a plurality of liquid crystal drops dispersed in the polymer layer. Quantum dots emitting a plurality of colors of light are mixed in the liquid crystal drops. Therefore, the polymer dispersed display apparatus displays colors without the need for a color filter. Thus, the polymer dispersed display apparatus need not include a polarization plate and a color filter, so that a light usage efficiency of the polymer dispersed display apparatus increases. |
| US08675157B2 |
Thin-film transistor display panel and liquid crystal display including the same
Provided are a thin-film transistor (TFT) display panel in which grayscale inversion at sides of the TFT display panel is controlled to improve color at sides thereof due to the shifting of chromaticity coordinates, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) including the TFT display panel. The TFT display panel includes a first pixel electrode corresponding to a first pixel, a second pixel electrode corresponding to a second pixel, and a third pixel electrode corresponding to a third pixel, wherein each of the first through third pixel electrodes includes a first subpixel electrode and a second subpixel electrode which receive different data voltages from the data lines, and saw-toothed fine patterns are formed on oblique edges of the first subpixel electrode of the first pixel electrode. |
| US08675154B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel, a first polarizer between the liquid crystal display panel and a back light behind the liquid crystal display panel, the first polarizer including a first polarization film having a first transmission axis and a first phase-difference film having a first polarization axis, a second polarizer in front of the liquid crystal display panel, the second polarizer including a second polarization film having a second transmission axis intersecting the first transmission axis, a second phase-difference film having a second polarization axis intersecting the first polarization axis, and a third phase-difference film having a third polarization axis, and a substrate structure above the liquid crystal display panel and the second polarizer, the substrate structure includes a third polarizer in the substrate structure, the third polarizer including a fourth phase-difference film having a fourth polarization axis intersecting the third polarization axis. |
| US08675148B2 |
Gradient refractive index liquid crystal optical apparatus and image display apparatus
A gradient index liquid crystal optical apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a first substrate having a first face; a second substrate having a second face opposed to the first face of the first substrate; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate; a plurality of first electrodes provided on the first face of the first substrate, and arranged along a first direction; a plurality of second electrodes provided on the first face of the first substrate to correspond to the first electrodes, the plurality of second electrodes being arranged along the first direction; a plurality of third electrodes provided on the first face of the first substrate and arranged along the first direction; and a fourth electrode provided on the second face of the second substrate. |
| US08675145B2 |
Projector
A projector includes: a reflection-type polarizing plate which separates entering luminous flux by polarization into first linearly polarized light and second linearly polarized light whose polarization directions cross each other at right angles; a reflection-type light modulation device disposed inclined to the reflection-type polarizing plate to modulate the first linearly polarized light separated by polarization by the reflection-type polarizing plate according to image information and emit the modulated first linearly polarized light toward the reflection-type polarizing plate; a supporting body which supports the reflection-type polarizing plate and the reflection-type light modulation device; and a light shielding member disposed in an area to emit side of the second linearly polarized light which entering the reflection-type polarizing plate before modulation by the reflection-type light modulation device and separated by polarization, and connected with the supporting body. |
| US08675144B2 |
Television and electronic apparatus
According to at least one embodiment, an electronic apparatus, such as a television, includes a housing, battery cells in the housing, and a supporting portion between the battery cells. The supporting portion is thicker than one of the battery cells. The electronic apparatus can also include case including a base and a cover. |
| US08675141B2 |
Closed loop feedback for electronic beam alignment
Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a closed loop feedback system for electronic beam alignment in a scanned beam display comprises a light source to emit one or more light beams, a controller to provide a control signal to drive the light source, a scanning platform to receive the one or more light beams and scan the light beams in a scanning pattern to project an image, and an alignment detector to provide a feedback signal indicative of beam position information of the light beams in the far field to the controller. An optic may be disposed in the beam path to magnify and/or to transform beam position information into the far field for the one or more alignment detectors. The controller adjusts the control signal in response to the feedback signal received from the alignment detector to maintain alignment of the light beams in a far field. |
| US08675140B2 |
Playback apparatus for playing back hierarchically-encoded video image data, method for controlling the playback apparatus, and storage medium
Hierarchically-encoded video image data and audio data associated with a predetermined encoded layer of the hierarchically-encoded video image data are received, and the audio-associated encoded layer with which the audio data is associated is specified from among a plurality of encoded layers of the hierarchically-encoded video image data. Then, the ratio of the field of view of a decoded video image of an encoded layer to be played back to the field of view of a decoded video image of the audio-associated encoded layer is calculated. A prestored audio correction amount is multiplied by the calculated ratio, and the resulting new audio correction amount is used to correct the audio data. |
| US08675137B2 |
Apparatus and method for adaptive filtering
An apparatus and a method for adaptive filtering includes an antenna that receives analog video broadcast signal data; an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the antenna and converting the received analog video broadcast signal data to digital video signal data; a frame buffer memory storing the digital video signal data; an instruction memory storing adaptive filtering instructions; and an adaptive filter coupled to the memory and the analog-to-digital converter, wherein the adaptive filter: reads the adaptive filter instructions from the memory; executes the adaptive filter instructions; averages an input pixel with a corresponding pixel stored in the frame buffer memory; calculates a forgetting factor for each pixel in the plurality of pixel values stored in the frame buffer memory; and filters noise from each pixel of the plurality of pixel values stored in the frame buffer memory based on the forgetting factor. |
| US08675135B2 |
Display apparatus and display control method
A rendering control unit determines movie and graphic display modes with reference to a rendering processing command, and acquires maximum speed information indicating the maximum value of a read/write speed allowed for a memory. The rendering control unit decides a speed to be distributed to a read/write speed of the movie data and a speed to be distributed to a read/write speed of the graphic data with respect to the memory, of a maximum speed indicated by the maximum speed information, based on the determination result. The rendering control unit controls a read/write access of an image with respect to the memory based on the rendering processing command, in accordance with the decided speeds. |
| US08675131B2 |
Signal processing device and TV with the signal processing device
A signal source which is detachably and electrically connected with a TV is disclosed. The TV has a video output unit and an audio output unit. Driven by the TV, the signal source exchanges a media signal with the TV. The signal source includes an audio input interface which receives an audio signal from an external audio input unit, and a media storage unit which is used for storing the media signal. |
| US08675130B2 |
Electronic adapter unit for selectively modifying audio or video data for use with an output device
A standalone or integrated electronic unit for selectively modifying audio or video data for use with an output device. The electronic unit has one or more audio or video inputs and one or more audio or video outputs for outputting the modified audio or video source material. The unit may include sensors, selectors, and/or logic for selecting from among a plurality of modification profiles and applies the selected profile to the audio or video source material before conveying it to the output device. The modification profile may be used to adapt an audio or video source for a specific type of audio or video playback or output device. For audio, the modification profile may be used to modify audio quality by altering the transfer function, and for video, the modification profile may be used to modify video quality by altering the visual characteristics of the video source signal. |
| US08675128B2 |
Image processing method and system with repetitive pattern detection
An image processing engine, comprising: a frame rate conversion entity configured to: (a) generate output pictures from input pictures, the output pictures comprising a set of first output pictures and a plurality of sets of second output pictures, each set of second output pictures being associated with one of the first output pictures, each of the first output pictures being derived from a respective one of the input pictures; and (b) control generation of the set of second output pictures associated with a particular first output picture based upon repetitive pattern presence detection within a related picture that is either (i) the particular first output picture or (ii) the input picture from which the particular first output picture was derived. |
| US08675126B2 |
Photographing apparatus and method of removing foreign substance
Provided are a photographing apparatus and a method of removing foreign substances. The photographing apparatus includes an imaging device for converting a captured image into an electrical signal; a vibration member mounted at an imaging plane side of the imaging device; a vibration-applying unit for vibrating the vibration member; and a vibration control unit inputting at least two different control signals such that input times of the at least two control signals are overlapped. |
| US08675123B2 |
Light amount adjustment device operable at high speed and with high resolution, and optical apparatus having the same
An optical apparatus having a light amount adjustment device capable of realizing a high-speed operation and a high-resolution operation. The light amount adjustment device includes a second motor that has a rotor provided with magnetized poles whose number is two times the number of magnetized poles provided in a rotor of a first motor, so that the second motor has a resolution two times higher than that of the first motor. A control unit of the optical apparatus controls the drives of the first and second motors independently of each other. In a high-speed drive mode, the first and second motors are driven simultaneously or only the first motor is driven. In a low-speed drive mode, only the second motor is driven. |
| US08675120B2 |
Manual focusing mechanism of imaging apparatus and imaging apparatus
A manual focusing mechanism, of an imaging apparatus provided with a lens system that includes a focusing lens group, which changes an image plane position by linearly moving the focusing lens group in an optical axis direction thereof via a manual operation of a focusing operational member includes a click-stop mechanism which holds the focusing operational member at one of a plurality of click-stop positions with respect to a support member. An amount of movement of the image plane position in the optical axis direction per one click-stop position of the focusing operational member via the click-stop mechanism is determined to be within a range of the depth of focus of the lens system of the imaging apparatus. An imaging apparatus having such a manual focusing mechanism is also disclosed. |
| US08675117B2 |
Imaging unit for wide-angle and telephoto zooming and imaging apparatus incorporating the same
An imaging unit includes: a first lens group having positive refractive power; a second lens group having negative refractive power; a third lens group having positive refractive power; and a solid-state imaging device that images an optical image formed by the first lens group to the third lens group sequentially arranged from an object side toward an image side, wherein, at zooming from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group becomes larger and a distance between the second lens group and the third lens group becomes smaller, and a distance from the second lens group to the solid-state imaging device at the wide-angle end is the longest in all zoom positions. |
| US08675115B1 |
Forward interpolation approach for constructing a second version of an image from a first version of the image
A forward interpolation approach is disclosed for enabling a second version of an image to be constructed from a first version of the image. According to one implementation of the forward interpolation approach, pixels from the first version of the image are processed one row at a time. As the pixels in a row of pixels in the first version of the image are processed, they may cause pixel values on different rows of the second version of the image to be determined. Since the pixel values of the second version of the image are stored in output line buffers, this means that, at any particular point in time, there may be multiple partially filled output line buffers. It has been observed that the forward interpolation approach enables significant benefits (such as reduced storage requirements and reduced internal bandwidth and processing) to be achieved over a backward interpolation approach. |
| US08675105B2 |
Learning of image processing pipeline for digital imaging devices
A learning technique is provided that learns how to process images by exploiting the spatial and spectral correlations inherent in image data to process and enhance images. Using a training set of input and desired output images, regression coefficients are learned that are optimal for a predefined estimation function that estimates the values at a pixel of the desired output image using a collection of similarly located pixels in the input image. Application of the learned regression coefficients is fast, robust to noise, adapts to the particulars of a dataset, and generalizes to a large variety of applications. The invention enables the use of image sensors with novel color filter array designs that offer expanded capabilities beyond existing sensors and take advantage of typical high pixel counts. |
| US08675095B2 |
Image data processing system for transfering image data between devices
An image data processing system transfers image data, stored in an image file and corresponding to independent images, from a first device to a second device. The first device includes data output, image file generation, and transfer processing units. The second device includes a specification data generation unit. The data output unit outputs combined miniaturized image data. The combined miniaturized image data shows combined miniaturized images. The miniaturized images correspond to the independent images. Each miniaturized image has a smaller data volume than the independent image. The specification data generation unit generates transfer subject specification data from the combined miniaturized image data. The transfer subject specification data specifies data corresponding to a transfer subject independent image. The image file generation unit generates a transfer image file storing the transfer subject image data. The transfer processing unit transfers the transfer image file to the second device. |
| US08675077B2 |
Alignment metrology and resolution measurement system for imaging arrays
An alignment metrology and resolution measurement system concurrently determines the alignment of an imaging array in six degrees of freedom relative to an external reference frame, and further determines the resolution of the imaging array. To achieve this, an image of at least three mask patterns is projected on the imaging array. First and second positions of the imaging array relative to first and second coordinate axis of the reference frame is obtained using pixel positions of the images along the first and second axis. A first rotational position of the imaging array about a third coordinate axis is obtained using pixel positions of the images along the first and second axes. The third position and the second and third rotational positions of the imaging array about the first and second coordinate axis are determined using feature widths of focus images of the patterns and distances between the mask patterns. |
| US08675074B2 |
Custom video composites for surveillance applications
A video surveillance system includes a plurality of video sources, where each video source is arranged to monitor and acquire video surveillance data within a field of view (FOV), a video manager connected to each of the plurality of video sources to control the video sources and to process video surveillance data acquired therefrom and a user interface connected to the video manager that allows an end-user to observe the FOVs from each of the plurality of video sources, and identify a region of interest (ROI) within particular FOVs to dynamically render a composite FOV comprising the ROIs from the particular FOVs. Where a video source includes enhanced abilities, such as a mega-pixel camera or video source, the enhanced video source may forward, instead of video data for the entire FOV, only that video dated from the selected ROI to realize reduced network traffic for more optimal video surveillance applications. |
| US08675072B2 |
Multi-view video camera system for windsurfing
A multi-view video camera system (25) for filming a windsurfing sailor during sailing, comprising of two video cameras in waterproof compartments (7) with lenses (8) and screw caps (29) attached to a clamp (10) with tightening screw (9) and wing nut (23) for attachment to the mast (11) of a windsurfing sail rig (22). The compartments (7) are oriented to aim the contained video cameras (24) along each side of the windsurfing sail rig (22) at corresponding locations a windsurfing sailor would occupy while sailing the windsurfing sail rig. Video streams, resulting from the contained video cameras could then be combined into single composite video for analysis. |
| US08675070B2 |
Driving support device, driving support method, and driving support program
In a driving support device and method, images of a vicinity of a vehicle are captured and recorded. Movement information relating to movement of the vehicle is acquired and a movement status of the vehicle based on the acquired movement information is determined. Based on (i) the determined movement status and (ii) a parameter associated with the determined movement status, the recorded image data is composited to create a composite image of an area including a position of the vehicle. The composite image is displayed on a display unit. The parameter is calibrated based on (a) a position of a reference marker included in the composite image created according to the movement status and (b) a predicted position of the reference marker superimposed and displayed on the composite image according to the movement status. |
| US08675064B2 |
Display system
A display system is provided which determines an effective image area by automatically detecting a boundary between the effective image area and a non-image area created owing to the difference between the pixel numbers of the camera image sensor and television signal, to thereby display the images on a monitor by adjusting a display size and position suitable for the effective image area, whereby an inappropriate display size and position are avoided from being set while a lighting device for illuminating a camera's field of vision is off. The display system receives a signal notifying about activation of the lighting device from the lighting controller that provides on/off control of the device; the system then determines the effective image area if the device is on, and does not if it is off. |
| US08675060B2 |
Machine vision based obstacle avoidance system
Machine vision based obstacle avoidance system is provided. The system utilizes a CCD camera to capture an image. A normalized image and dynamic masking is used in object detection. |
| US08675058B2 |
Electronic endoscope apparatus
An electronic endoscope apparatus includes a connection unit for selectively connecting a plurality of machine types of electronic endoscopes which use different color information obtainment methods and a plurality of replacement tables which are provided for the plurality of machine types of electronic endoscopes respectively, and each of which stores a correspondence between values representing colors which can be obtained by each of the electronic endoscopes by photographing an observation object and values representing the true colors of the observation object. The electronic endoscope apparatus distinguishes the machine type of the electronic endoscope and replaces the values of obtained colors by using the replacement table for the distinguished machine type. Further, the electronic endoscope apparatus stores setting information for each purpose of examination, and further performs image processing, based on selected setting information, on the image of which the values of the colors have been replaced. |
| US08675055B2 |
Signal processor, signal processing method, display device and program product
A signal processor includes: a phase matching section adapted to bring two image signals supplied from two cameras into phase, one image signal being a left image signal and the other image signal being a right image signal; a phase adjustment section adapted to change the horizontal phase of the left and/or right image signal based on a phase displacement so as to move both or either of the left and right images horizontally by a predetermined distance and output the image signals with changed parallax between the left and right images; and a read section adapted to output the left and/or right image signal in which, of those areas displayed three-dimensionally and other areas where only the left or right image is displayed two-dimensionally, the image in the two-dimensionally displayed areas has been replaced by an image different from that in the three-dimensionally displayed areas. |
| US08675051B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An image processing apparatus includes: a unit that detects a motion vector from a first video image and a second video image; a unit that detects a disparity vector between a frame of the first video image and a frame of the second video image; a unit that, when there exists a non-detection position at which no motion vector is detected in a frame of one video image, performs correction by detecting a corresponding position included in a frame of the other video image that corresponds to the non-detection position using the disparity vector, and setting a motion vector of the frame of the other video image at the corresponding position, to the non-detection position; and a unit that generates respective interpolation frames of the first video image and the second video image using the motion vector after correction. |
| US08675045B2 |
Method of simulating blur in digitally processed images
In an image processing method, a first two-dimensional image (I(x, y)) of a three-dimensional scene is obtained. Each pixel location of a first image is associated with a respective distance parameter (z(x, y)) representing a distance of a viewer's eye to an object of the scene appearing at this pixel location in the first image. A respective spreading parameter (Φd(x, y)) is determined for each pixel location as a function of the distance parameter associated with this pixel location, of a dioptric power (Pcorr) of a portion of a correction lens simulated as placed along a ray extending between the viewer's eye and the object of the scene appearing at said pixel location in the first image, and of a simulated maximum accommodation power (Pacc) of the viewer's eye. A second, blurred two-dimensional image (I′(x, y)) is generated from the first image using a local convolution kernel varying across the image. This kernel can be made sparse, i.e. with a number of non-zero points much smaller than the number of points of a blur region whose dimension is given by the spreading parameter. |
| US08675036B2 |
Deflection scanner
An optical scanning apparatus has first and second light sources, a deflection scanning device, and first and second scanning optical systems that guide the first and second laser beams deflected for scanning by the deflection scanning device. The first and second scanning optical systems include scanning lenses and a polarization beam splitter arranged in a downstream side of an optical path of the scanning lens, the first scanning optical system including a half-wave plate arranged in the downstream side of the optical path of the scanning lens and in an upstream side of an optical path of the polarization beam splitter, the first laser beam and the second laser beam having different phases by 180 degrees from each other before being incident on the first and second scanning optical systems. |
| US08675028B2 |
Display system and device with sustainable power generation
A display system and device includes energy generating elements operable to generate and store energy sufficient power the display device. The display device or devices are formed on flexible and preferable translucent sheaths to allow for mounting of the devices on virtually any surface. A control device is connected to several devices to provide instructions to operate light emitting elements in the devices to provide a desired image. |
| US08675025B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing control over a device display based on device orientation
An apparatus for enabling provision of control over a device display based on device orientation may include at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured, with the processor, to cause the apparatus to perform at least receiving an indication of data associated with a first potential display view, receiving orientation information indicative of an orientation angle of a device including a display, and enabling provision of a display view at the display that includes a variable portion the first potential display view based on the orientation angle. A corresponding method and computer program product are also provided. |
| US08675019B1 |
View navigation guidance system for hand held devices with display
System and method for view navigation guidance system for a physical display that is smaller than the virtual display it needs to display. Guidance map placed in a heads-up display layer within a small user defined area of the physical display provides an instantaneous indication of the current position of the screen view with minimal obstruction of the contents information. Color selection for the guidance map is automatically determined based on the background color in the main display layer beneath the map. The guidance map area on a touch screen display may include tapping controls, and the position of the guidance map can be dynamically altered by the user during the view navigation to control the navigation parameters. |
| US08675012B2 |
Selective display of OCR'ed text and corresponding images from publications on a client device
Text is extracted from a source image of a publication using an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process. A document is generated containing text segments of the extracted text. The document includes a control module that responds to user interactions with the displayed document. Responsive to a user selection of a displayed text segment, a corresponding image segment from the source image containing the text is retrieved and rendered in place of the selected text segment. The user can select again to toggle the display back to the text segment. Each text segment can be tagged with a garbage score indicating its quality. If the garbage score of a text segment exceeds a threshold value, the corresponding image segment can be automatically displayed instead. |