Document	Document Title
US08864216B2	Reinforced body in white and method of making and using the same A structural body of a vehicle can comprises: a hollow metal component comprising walls that define a channel, wherein the metal component has a metal component length, and wherein the metal component is selected from the group consisting of beam, rail, pillar, chassis, floor rocker, and cross-bar, combinations comprising at least one of the foregoing; and a plastic-metal hybrid reinforcement having a cavities therethrough, and a metal support having greater than or equal to 3 walls forming a support channel. The plastic element is located in the support channel wherein the reinforcement is located in the component channel.
US08864215B2	Air guiding device for a motor vehicle An air guiding device for a motor vehicle has a spoiler lip (12) extending in the transverse direction of the vehicle and an actuating device (28) for moving the spoiler lip (12) between a retracted rest position and an extended maximum position. The spoiler lip (12) is mounted on an adaptor (34) and the adaptor (34) is connected to a fastening device (38). The air guiding device is connectable via the adaptor (34) and the fastening device (38) to a front panel (40) of the motor vehicle.
US08864214B2	Air-conducting system An air-conducting system for a tractor and/or trailer is described, wherein at least one of the vehicles has a wind deflector. The problem addressed by the invention was to improve the aerodynamic drag of tractors and/or trailers. The problem is solved according to the invention by an air-conducting system in which the wind deflector is arranged at the rear of the trailer and/or at the rear and/or in the front region of the tractor and can be adjusted depending on the driving speed.
US08864209B2	One touch stow in floor seat assembly with automatic lateral displacement A seat assembly is provided for supporting in an automotive vehicle. The seat assembly comprises a seat cushion and a seat back pivotally coupled to the seat cushion for movement between a reclined seating position and a fold flat position. A recliner assembly is coupled between the seat back and the seat cushion to provide pivotal movement of the seat back. A riser assembly is pivotally coupled to the seat cushion and pivotally latched to the floor to allow pivotal movement of the seat cushion between a horizontal seating position and a forwardly upright tumbled position. A release mechanism is coupled between the seat back and the riser assembly for automatically synchronizing actuation of the recliner assembly and the riser assembly to provide movement of the seat assembly to the tumbled position in response to the pivotal movement of the seat back to the fold flat position.
US08864207B2	Mobile vending trailer A mobile vending trailer is provided. In at least one embodiment, a solar-powered mobile vending apparatus includes: a portable chassis; a housing; at least one vending machine configured to be stored and transported in the housing; a solar panel array configured to capture sunlight and convert the captured sunlight into electricity, thereby to provide solar power to the vending machine; a plurality of batteries configured for charge from the electricity generated from the solar panel array in order to provide power to the at least one vending machine; a controller configured to control the solar panel array and the plurality of batteries; and at least one lift configured to lower and raise the vending machine. The solar-powered mobile vending apparatus is adapted for use both off-grid and on-grid. In various embodiments, the apparatus also includes one or more of a wind turbine, generator, inverter, and combiner.
US08864202B1	Spring retained end effector contact pad An end effector is disclosed for use in substrate processing. The end effector includes a effector body portion, a contact pad pocket formed in the end effector body, a spring retaining pocket formed in the end effector body adjacent the contact pad pocket and extending to an edge of the end effector body, and a pair of through-holes extending from the spring retaining pocket to the contact pad pocket. The end effector can include a contact pad seated within the contact pad pocket, the contact pad having at least one retaining channel formed therein, and a retaining spring having a pair of retaining arms extending from the retaining spring pocket through the through-holes and into the contact pad pocket. The retaining arms may extend at least partially into the at least one retaining channel of the contact pad and may thereby restrict movement of the contact pad.
US08864179B2	Pipe coupling apparatus A pipe coupling apparatus for simultaneously connecting and locking together pipe couplings comprising a plurality of sockets and plugs. The pipe coupling apparatus includes a socket-side unit having a plurality of sockets and a plug-side unit having a plurality of plugs. Each socket is provided with locking elements, and each plug is provided with an engagement groove. When the plug is inserted into the socket, the locking elements enter the engagement groove. A sleeve is provided displaceably between a locking completion position where it holds the locking elements from coming out of the engagement groove to lock the socket and the plug to each other and a retracted position separated from the locking completion position. A locking confirmation plate is displaceable from a locking unconfirmed position to a locking confirmed position when all the sleeves are at the locking completion position, thereby allowing confirmation of the completion of locking.
US08864177B2	Movable highlight strip A highlighter strip including adhesive to form a removable bond with a substrate, constructed from a translucent and colored material. The highlighter strip can be affixed over writing or other markings, which highlights the indicia that remains legible. One or both ends of the strip can omit the adhesive, thereby providing a grabbing portion to facilitate removal from an initial position and optionally subsequent positions. The strip can be included in a set of strips affixed to each other and optionally affixed to another base; such as a notebook, binder, or other entity where one would expect writing, text, or other indicia requiring highlighting.
US08864173B2	Seat belt retractor and seat belt apparatus including the same A seat belt retractor is provided that realizes the proper meshing between a plurality of internal teeth and external teeth with a simple movement of a spool. In the case of an emergency, external teeth of a pawl provided at a spool right side end mesh with internal teeth provided on a frame, and, with load acting on a seat belt, a spool left side end contacts a spool guide. Since the spool left side end tends to move further in the direction of seat belt load, the spool guide brings one external tooth at the spool left side end into contact with one target internal tooth provided on the frame. Hence, some of the spool external teeth are made to mesh properly with the respective internal teeth. Thus, some of the spool external teeth effectively mesh with the respective frame internal teeth with simple movement of the spool.
US08864169B2	Valve device for a medium and airbag for a motor vehicle A valve device for a gaseous medium of an airbag is provided. The valve device includes a textile layer, in particular a woven fabric, which is permeable with respect to the medium at least in certain regions. The valve device also includes at least one film covering the textile layer in at least one region and which forms at least one passage region of the valve device, which is at least substantially closed in a closed position of the valve device and open at least in certain regions in an at least temporary passage position of the valve device.
US08864159B2	Bicycle frame A bicycle frame having a first frame section carrying a handle bar assembly and a front wheel assembly; a second frame section carrying a crank unit and a rear wheel assembly; a first primary connecting arm carried by said first frame section being received into a second primary connecting arm carried by said second frame section, wherein said first primary connecting arm is telescopically carried by said second primary connecting arm for extending and retracting said first frame section relative to said second frame section; a mounting plate included in said second frame section extending over said rear wheel assembly; a plate suspension member included in said second frame section connecting said mounting plate to said rear wheel assembly for controlling relative motion between said mounting plate and said rear wheel assembly. A rider platform is carried by said mounting plate for accommodating a rider.
US08864157B2	Rear portion structure for a saddle type vehicle A rear portion structure for a saddle vehicle includes a wide accommodation space for accommodating parts therein while improving the foot grounding property of a rider. A rear fender of a motorcycle has a bottom wall disposed on the inner side of a rear frame in the vehicle widthwise direction, and left and right side walls extending upwardly from the bottom wall. An accommodation space for accommodating a part therein is formed from the bottom wall and the left and right side walls. Left and right first bending portions which individually extend in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle and at which the left and right side walls can individually be bent with respect to the bottom wall are formed between the bottom wall and the left and right side walls. The left and right side walls are inclined inwardly and upwardly along the inner side of the rear frame.
US08864153B2	Automotive rear suspension subassembly An automotive rear-suspension subassembly includes a rear-suspension frame, a first and second independent suspension, and a steering actuator coupled with each independent suspension through a bellcrank. The frame includes a front cross-member, a first side-rail, and a second side-rail, and defines a first side and a second side. The actuator is disposed on the first side of the frame, and the bellcrank extends across the frame from the first side to the second side. Each independent suspension is respectively configured to support a vehicle wheel, and includes a respective knuckle. Actuation of the steering actuator urges each respective knuckle to rotate.
US08864150B2	Foot propelled vehicle A foot propelled vehicle comprises a front housing in which a first rotatable ground engaging sphere is mounted by bearings for rotation about a transverse axis and a rear housing in which a second rotatable ground engaging sphere is mounted by bearings for rotation about three orthogonal axes. The front housing is longitudinally spaced from and connected rigidly to the rear housing. A seat is situated between the first and second housings and positioned so that a rider's feet can contact the ground to propel the vehicle. A handle is mounted on the front housing for the user to hold whilst riding and steering the vehicle. Lateral stabilizers may be provided. In some embodiments both spheres may be mounted for rotation about three orthogonal axes.
US08864145B2	Device and method for suspension of a vehicle seat by means of additional volumes A device and method for suspension of a vehicle seat by means of additional volumes, in particular a utility vehicle seat, comprising at least one air spring for height adjustment of a seat part of said air spring being arranged between the seat part and a lower part, and a control device for controlling the supply and discharge of at least one additional volume to or from the air spring, wherein, at predefinable speed or acceleration values of a spring movement of the air spring, the additional volume which can be supplied or discharged can be switched on or off by means of the control device in such a way that, in end-of-travel regions of the air spring, the profile of a force/travel air spring characteristic during an extension and/or return spring movement of the air spring does not exhibit any incline in a first and in a second range.
US08864142B2	Adjusting device for shrink-fit chuck tool holder The invention relates to an adjusting device for axially supporting a shank tool in a shrink-fit chuck tool holder, comprising a leveling section on the side facing the shank tool to level out or at least reduce any changes in position and/or orientation of the shank tool which are due to shrinkage.
US08864140B2	Sealing structure using a liquid gasket A sealing structure using a liquid gasket, having a liquid gasket interposed in the form of a thin film between mating surfaces of a first member and a second member, thereby preventing the movement of oil via the mating surfaces, the sealing structure, includes at oil-side end portions of the mating surfaces, a gasket lump portion that is formed of an excess of the thin-film liquid gasket squeezed out from the mating surfaces, and an oil-shielding portion that covers a boundary portion where the gasket lump portion and the first member come into contact, thereby preventing a flow of the oil from directly striking the boundary portion, and is provided on an oil-flow upstream side from the boundary portion.
US08864134B2	Image forming apparatus, method of controlling image forming apparatus, and storage medium A reduction is prevented in stacking efficiency of a sheet stacking apparatus due to a wrong setting of a stacking tray performed by a user thereby achieving a high stacking efficiency. In a control method for controlling an image forming apparatus including a sheet stacking control unit configured to stack sheets, subjected to printing in a print job, on one of a plurality of removable sheet stacking units, the control method includes specifying a sheet discharging unit used in the print job, determining whether a sheet stacking unit corresponding to the specified sheet discharging unit is properly set, and, in a case where it is determined that the sheet stacking unit is not properly set, restricting conveying sheets to the sheet stacking unit.
US08864124B2	Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming apparatus including the same A sheet conveying apparatus includes a casing, a first conveying path, a second conveying path, a joining conveyance path, and a guide member. The joining conveyance path is connected to a junction portion of the first conveying path and the second conveying path, and extends downward in a sheet conveying direction. The guide member is disposed in the junction portion of the first conveying path and the second conveying path, and shifted to a position between a first position to guide the first sheet from the first conveying path to the joining conveyance path and a second position to guide the second sheet from the second conveying path to the joining conveyance path. The guide member includes a supporting point portion disposed at a central part or around thereof in a lengthwise direction, so as to change in position by pivoting around the supporting point portion.
US08864102B2	Actuator An actuator for actuating a plunger of a valve is provided. The actuator has an inlet and includes first and second hollow caps. A main actuation assembly is provided between the caps. The main actuation assembly includes a deformable diaphragm; first and second chambers, static sealing elements and a main piston movable between actuated and unactuated positions. A biasing mechanism biases the piston in the unactuated position. When pressurized gas is flown through the inlet and/or drawn from the outlet of the actuator, the first chamber expands, moving the main piston from the unactuated position to the actuated position, an actuating stem connected to the main piston thereby sliding within a channel provided in the bottom cap. Stackable actuating assemblies can also be used between the caps. Using static sealing elements advantageously avoids friction between moving parts.
US08864101B1	Machine implemented utility valve exercising apparatus A method implemented by a valve operating apparatus for hands free exercising of an in ground utility valve, which may include repeatedly opening and closing the utility valve without requiring the use of a computer program or a physical human manipulation. A valve operating apparatus may include a bi directional hydraulic powered motor which may be coupled to a utility valve stem for the purpose of rotating the valve stem of the utility valve in a closing direction or an opening direction. The direction of rotation, of a hydraulic motor, may be reversed in response to detecting an opening of a preset pressure relief valve.
US08864099B2	Plate carrier for plate fixing device A plate carrier for mounting at the upper end of the upper element of the central pole of a “plate hoist” device or the like comprises at least one longitudinal central body having two substantially rectangular plates separated by three longitudinal walls forming at least two central sheaths. Each central sheath accommodates a generally T-shaped transverse arm which includes a longitudinal median branch slidably mounted in a sheath and a transverse tubular part welded to the free end of the median branch. The transverse tubular part extends substantially in the plane of the central body.
US08864093B2	Vehicle seat sliding apparatus Provided is a vehicle seat sliding apparatus including a lower rail, an upper rail to the lower rail, a locking mechanism, unlocking mechanism, an unlocked-state maintaining lever, and an unlocked-state releasing lever, in which the unlocked-state releasing lever includes a rotational operating portion configured to rotate in a first direction and to be capable of coming into contact with an operating member in the direction of the relative movement of the upper rail, and the unlocked-state releasing lever is configured to press and move the unlocked-state maintaining lever in the direction of releasing the maintenance of the unlocked state and is capable of rotating in the first direction is disabled without moving the unlocked-state maintaining lever from the maintaining position.
US08864090B2	Fixing apparatus for waveguide plate A fixing apparatus for fixing a waveguide plate includes a number of conductive fixing members fixed to corresponding sides of the waveguide plate, and a bracket. Each fixing member includes a fixing portion having an identical length to the corresponding sidewall and a resilient abutting portion extending from a side of the fixing portion. Each fixing portion is in tight contact with the corresponding side of the waveguide plate. The waveguide plate is received in the bracket. The resilient abutting portions resiliently abut against an inner surface of the bracket.
US08864089B2	Holding device A holding device includes a base, an upper holding arm unit connected to an upper portion of the base, and a pair of lower holding arm units connected to the base. Each of the lower holding arm units includes a lower holding arm that is connected to the base and that is rotatable between upper and lower positions. Each lower holding arm is movable relative to the base in a sliding direction between an extended position and a contracted position. Each of the lower holding arm units further includes a stop member that extends into the base and that is operable for positioning the lower holding arm relative to the base. The lower holding arm units cooperate with the upper holding arm unit to define a holding space for retaining a display.
US08864088B2	Bracket for wood shelving Brackets for shelving and related systems are provided herein. An example bracket for shelving includes a main body defining first and second lower support features each configured to receive a respective first and second piece of wood in a vertical orientation such that a top surface of the first piece of wood and a top surface of the second piece of wood align to form a lower shelf support surface for supporting a lower shelf. The main body further defines first and second upper support features each configured to receive a respective third and fourth piece of wood in a vertical orientation such that a top surface of the third piece of wood and a top surface of the fourth piece of wood align to form an upper shelf support surface for supporting an upper shelf. The main body may also define a decorative feature, such as a bear-shaped cutout.
US08864084B2	Railway track switch cover system The present disclosure provides a track switch cover system and method. The system and method allows for easy installation and removal of track switch covers as well as quick and easy access to the switch mechanism shrouded by the covers.
US08864076B2	Elongate composite structural member A composite material elongate structural member, such as a spar or stringer, for use in an aerospace structure, comprises a web having an angled portion, for example in the form of a chamfer, curved surface or the like, which joins a foot of the member to the rest of the web. A first surface on the foot is shaped to abut a structure to be stiffened. The foot also has a second surface opposite the first surface. The web has a third surface and a fourth surface at the same layer in the composite material as the first and third surfaces, respectively. On/in the interposed portion there is a fifth surface which joins the first and third surfaces. The geometry of the member may vary along its length (L) so that with increasing distance, the first surface is displaced towards the second surface as the width of the fifth surface decreases. The risk of causing, during fabrication of the elongate member, undesirable creasing, stressing or stretching of composite material layers in a region in which the geometry of the member varies may be reduced by means of such an arrangement.
US08864071B2	Seat which can be converted into a bed In a block of two seats side by side which can be converted individually between a chair configuration and a horizontal flat bed configuration, the two seats are arranged and oriented substantially in the same direction, the longitudinal axes of each of the seats in the bed configuration converge towards a point situated behind the seats at a distance such that upper parts of the seat backs and of the head rests are superposed in a head area of the block. The bed planes of the seats of a block are vertically offset and extended by rest surfaces of the foot areas arranged in lateral columns arranged to the sides of the head area in the region of the rear shell of a block situated in front, allowing to reduce the seat pitch without affecting comfort and allowing an improved layout of a cabin for transporting passengers.
US08864057B2	Processes for recycling carpet and products of such processes Methods for the recycling of carpet are disclosed that produce clean face fiber suitable for industrial use. The methods allow the recovery of face fiber material, for example a polyester or a polyamide, from carpets that includes a face fiber material and a backing material, and include the steps of heating the carpet to a temperature lower than the melting point of the face fiber material, but higher than the initial thermal decomposition temperature of the backing material, for a time and at a temperature sufficient to thermally decompose, pyrolyze, or oxidize at least a portion of the backing material, rendering the backing material friable, that is more friable than the untreated backing; and applying mechanical force to the carpet so as to liberate the friable backing material from the face fiber material.
US08864049B2	Rotary atomizer with a spraying body A rotary sprayer for a coating apparatus is disclosed. An exemplary rotary sprayer may include a spraying body configured to be mounted on a drive shaft of a drive motor for rotation with the drive shaft. The spraying body may further include a detachable mounting device for coaxial connection of the spraying body to the drive shaft. The detachable mounting device may include a spraying body thread that mates with a driveshaft thread defined by the drive shaft, and a plurality of elastic tabs configured to abut a corresponding cavity defined by the driveshaft, such that rotation of the spraying body increases an abutment force between the elastic tabs and the corresponding cavity of the driveshaft.
US08864046B2	Closed nebulizing system for removing bubbles A closed nebulizing system for removing bubbles includes a first pump, a nebulizing module and a second pump. The first pump is for providing a fluid. The nebulizing module includes an outlet channel, an inlet channel connected with the first pump, and a plurality of nozzles for nebulizing and ejecting part of the fluid. The second pump is connected with the outlet channel for outputting non-nebulized fluid. The first pump, the nebulizing module and the second pump form a closed fluid loop, so that the fluid continuously contacts with the plurality of nozzles and bubbles generated during nebulization process are evacuated from the nebulizing module.
US08864043B2	Rail fastening system A rail fastening system is provided. The rail fastening system includes a fastener including a baseplate and at least one of clamp. The at least one clamp mounts with the baseplate and extends under a rail of a railroad to abut against a flange of the rail opposite a flange adjacent to the baseplate. Certain embodiments of the fastener include adjustment teeth to finely adjust the positioning of the clamps relative to the baseplate. Certain other embodiments of the fastener include slotted clamps that receive a baseplate.
US08864039B2	Transponder tagged object and method for manufacturing a transponder tagged object It is described a transponder tagged object, comprising: a conductive structure (103, 105, 403, 405); an insulating region (109, 409) galvanically isolating a first portion (103, 403) of the conductive structure from a second portion (105, 405) of the conductive structure; and a transponder tag (111, 411, 611) comprising a first antenna pad (133, 333) and a second antenna pad (135, 335), wherein the transponder tag is fixed at the object such that the first portion of the conductive structure in particular capacitively couples to the first antenna pad and such that the second portion of the conductive structure in particular capacitively couples to the second antenna pad. Further, a method for manufacturing a transponder tagged object is described.
US08864038B2	Systems and methods for fraud prevention, supply chain tracking, secure material tracing and information encoding using isotopes and other markers Encoding information in a material using a material tracing system includes storing information to be encoded in the material, generating a number based on the information, determining an amount of at least one tracer to be incorporated into the material corresponding to the number, and incorporating the determined amount of the at least one tracer into the material. Decoding information encoded in the material includes measuring an amount of the at least one tracer, in some embodiments after tracer activation, determining a number corresponding to the measured at least one tracer, and decoding the number to obtain information associated with the material. A material tracing system is also provided.
US08864033B2	Robust decoding of color barcode printed with extremely small data cells A method for decoding digital data in a color barcode having a plurality of data cells, including the steps of: scanning the color barcode of the hardcopy document, separating color image of the color barcode into print primary color planes, computing peaks of each print primary color plane, projecting, for at least one of the print primary color planes, the data cells along a horizontal direction and a vertical direction at the peaks of the at least one of the primary color planes in each direction which represent data cell center locations respectively, and creating a grid where each of its intersection is a respective data cell center location, assigning a color to each grid intersection which corresponds to a respective data cell by examining values of the print primary color planes at such location, and decoding digital data from the data cells based on the respective color assigned to each data cell.
US08864031B1	Remote management of a barcode reader A computer includes an application that expects to receive data via a unidirectional communication interface. The computer also includes a background service having a first thread and a second thread. The computer additionally includes device management client software. A barcode reader scans one or more barcodes to generate scanned data. The scanned data is sent to the computer via the unidirectional interface. The first thread of the background service reads the scanned data from the unidirectional interface and sends the scanned data to the application. The second thread of the background service enables the device management client software to perform management operations on the barcode reader via a bidirectional communication interface.
US08864030B2	Sample analyzer, method of obtaining sample identification information and sample identification information obtaining apparatus A sample analyzer comprising: a measurement unit for measuring a sample contained in a sample container; a barcode reader; a rotating section; and a controller is disclosed. The controller controls the rotating section and the barcode reader so that the barcode reader repeatedly reads the barcode over the range of a predetermined rotation angle; and obtains identification information of the sample contained in the sample container on the basis of reading results obtained as a result of the repeated reading of the barcode by the barcode reader. Method of obtaining sample identification information and a sample identification information obtaining apparatus are also disclosed.
US08864013B2	Sustainable packaging system and method thereof A sustainable packing system is provided comprising a first fiberboard having a substantially flat surface for accepting a first item and at least one scored line for facilitating folding of the first fiberboard, the first fiberboard adapted to form a closed wall; and a second fiberboard adapted to be frictionally secured within the closed wall of the first fiberboard, having a substantially flat surface for accepting a second item and at least one scored line for facilitating folding of the second fiberboard to form a closed wall. A packaging method is also provided comprising providing a fiberboard having a substantially flat surface; scoring lines in the fiberboard to facilitate folding; wrapping a first item around the fiberboard; and folding the fiberboard forming a closed wall.
US08864004B2	Tool retention device A tool retention device is described. In implementations, a tool retention device may involve interchangeable panels that are used to retain tools. For example, an interchangeable panel has opposing first and second sides, where the first side includes tool retainers for retaining the tools. Additionally, a flexible bag component has an interior side that may removably secure the interchangeable panel. The flexible bag component also has an exterior side that may be removably secured to a user-wearable rig.
US08863997B2	Fuel delivery nozzle and air vent and portable container having same Featured is a delivery nozzle/vent assembly for a portable container including a first section, a second section movable coupled to the first section, a passageway alignment assembly and a valve assembly. The alignment assembly is configured and arranged to align liquid and air lines/passages of the first and second sections when the nozzle is moved to a given position. The valve assembly includes an actuation mechanism that selectively fluidly couples/decouples the aligned liquid and air lines/passages in the first and second sections. When these passages are so fluidly coupled, liquid can flow from the portable container and delivered to a targeted receptacle and air can flow into the container as a volume replacement for the departing liquid. Also featured are a portable container with such a nozzle/vent assembly and methods related thereto. The liquid can be a liquid organic compound such as gasoline, kerosene and diesel.
US08863995B2	Spray cap The invention relates to a spray cap for placement on top of an aerosol container of the type that has a spray valve disposed at the top of the container and a valve stem extending upwardly therefrom for actuating the valve. The spray cap comprises a cap body with a spray nozzle and a tubular member defining a spray channel arranged within the cap body. The spray channel on one end is in communication with the spray nozzle. The tubular member has a first portion which is hingedly attached to the cap body in a region adjacent the spray nozzle. The tubular member furthermore has a second portion which is angular with the first portion and which, when the spray cap is mounted on a container, extends concentrically with the valve stem of the container and is connected therewith. The cap further comprises an actuating member connected to the tubular member, such that when the actuating member is operated, the tubular member is hinged downward and the second portion of the tubular member forces down the valve stem thereby opening the valve of the container. The tubular member, in the first portion thereof, comprises at least one flexible section which is more flexible than the remainder of the tubular member, which results in that the deformation of the tubular member is easier causing the second portion of the tubular member is easier maintained in line with the valve stem.
US08863991B2	Condiment bottle A bottle formed of a food-grade plastic material, such as clear polyethylene terephthalate, may include a frustoconical neck portion, a shoulder region, a base region, and a sidewall portion have opposed grip-enhancing surfaces, and elastically deformable pressure panels. A cap for the container may include a valve to control product leakage, and may be sized to allow inversion of the bottle. A generally trapezoidal tab of the cap may be moveable between a closed position covering a cap orifice and an open position outside the plane of the cap.
US08863987B2	Beverage apparatus waste bin level detection A beverage forming method and system in which a waste bin arranged to collect leaked or spilled liquid has a liquid level sensor and can be removed from the beverage forming machine, e.g., to allow disposal of the waste bin contents. One or more electrical contacts on the waste bin can be connected to the level sensor and electrically connect to control circuitry of the beverage forming machine when the waste bin is received by the machine. A liquid level detected by the level sensor may correspond to a fill level that is far less than the maximum volume of the waste bin, allowing beverage production to be prevented unless the waste bin can collect the full volume of a beverage dispensed.
US08863982B2	Pail cover A container lid includes a panel portion and an outer wall portion having a ledge protruding inwardly therefrom. A plurality of tabs extend downward from the outer wall portion. At least two of the plurality of tabs are separated from one another by a gap. The ledge of the outer wall portion extends across the gap to provide a seal across the gap. A tear strip removably connects the plurality of tabs to one another.
US08863969B2	Feeding bottle system Feeding bottle (10) comprising a neck to which a teat (14) is attached, characterized in that it comprises at least two visual marks (20, 22) located on one and the same circumference near the neck or near the teat and separated from one another about the axis of the feeding bottle, one of these marks (20) defining an angular position of the feeding bottle (10) about its axis for which the other mark (22) indicates a point through which the free surface (24) of the liquid contained in the feeding bottle needs to pass in order for the hydrostatic pressure of the liquid at an outlet orifice (16) of the teat (14) to be substantially zero.
US08863960B2	Utensil sorting apparatus An apparatus and method are provided for managing (e.g. sorting, orienting, arranging, and stacking, etc.) one or more utensils; the utensils having a first and second end that define a longitudinal axis. The utensil sorting apparatus comprises of a plurality of arms to which a mechanism for locating a utensil, one or mechanisms for identifying a utensil, a device for orienting a utensil, and a device for grasping a utensil are attached. The grasping mechanism is used to transport a utensil to various steps used in a sorting process with a final step being to place the utensil in a designated bin, or compartment. The utensils placed in a compartment are oriented such that the first end of each utensil is at the same end of a wall of the compartment. The apparatus can also be used to arrange and stack utensils in preparation for secondary operations.
US08863959B1	Vibratory separator A separator includes a trough having an inlet end, an outlet end, and a bottom wall, and a vibration generator attached to the trough. The separator also includes first, second, and third deck sections, each of which is disposed within the trough, the first deck section being disposed at a higher elevation relative to the bottom wall than the second deck section, and the third deck section being disposed above the second deck section. The separator also includes at least one source of heated air, the first deck section and the second deck section being in fluid communication with the at least one source of heated air so that heated air from the at least one source passes through the first and second deck sections.
US08863948B2	Drug storage container A drug storage container includes: a first container; a second container that is disposed on the lower end side of the first container; a needle tube for making an internal space of the first container and an internal space of the second container communicate with each other; operating means for performing an operation of bringing the first container closer to the second container; a drug stored in the internal space; and a liquid stored in the internal space. In the drug storage container, with the first container and the second container brought closer to each other by the operating means, the internal space of the first container and the internal space of the second container are made to communicate with each other through the needle tube, and the volume of the internal space of the second container is reduced.
US08863944B2	Abrasion resistant conveyor belt A wear-resistant modular plastic conveyor belt can resist wear at the hinge for a long operating life, even in abrasive environments. The conveyor belt comprises a plurality of modules having T-shaped link ends interleaved together. A hinge rod may be inserted in a hinge passageway, formed at least in part by kidney-shaped openings in the T-shaped links. The conveyor belt employs multiple surfaces to transfer load from module to module during operation of the conveyor belt depending on the relative motion of the modules.
US08863943B2	Plastic chain conveyor with magnet connecting pins Front and back ends (2a, 2b) of plastic chain modules (2) made of a plastic material are rotatably linked by multiple plastic connecting pins (3a) and metal connecting pins (3b) to form an endless plastic chain conveyor (1). In the plastic chain modules (2) of the plastic chain conveyor (1), carrier surfaces (4a) (top surfaces) of module bodies (4) are smooth. Offset engaging parts (5a, 5b) that can be attached to and detached from each other in the width direction of the plastic chain conveyor (1) are formed on linking end pieces (4X) of the module bodies (4). Circular through-holes (6) receiving the bar-shaped connecting pins (3a, 3b) that rotatably link the offset engaging parts (5a, 5b) of the chain modules (2) are formed at the centers of the sides of the offset engaging parts (5a, 5b).
US08863938B2	Transport device for agricultural utility machine and agricultural utility machine A transport device for an agricultural utility machine is provided, having a first pipe section in which a first conveyor auger is rotatably situated and a second pipe section in which a second conveyor auger is rotatably situated, and a joint and/or plug device to connect the first pipe section to the second pipe section. A friction clutch is provided between the first and the second conveyor auger to transfer torque from the first conveyor auger to the second conveyor auger. An agricultural utility machine having such a transport device is also provided.
US08863931B2	Valve devices, systems, and methods for controlling the distribution of materials The various embodiments of the present invention are directed to valve devices, systems, and methods for controlling the distribution of materials to multiple locations. The improved valve devices, materials distribution systems, and materials distribution methods disclosed herein are particularly suitable for use in applications where the materials being distributed are, for example but not limited to, non-gaseous fluid materials (e.g., raw liquids, solutions, slurries, colloids, suspensions, and the like) and solid materials having some level of tackiness, moisture content, or like property. The valves, systems, and methods disclosed herein can be operated without having to stop the flow of materials therethrough in order to change the position of the valve from one outlet to another. Further, the valves and systems disclosed herein have few directional changes, therefore there are few, if any, points within the system where the material can get stuck and/or lodged.
US08863925B2	Decoupler with integrated torsional vibration damper A decoupler assembly with an input hub, an output member, and a one-way clutch. In one form, the decoupler assembly includes an annular bearing mount with a needle bearing disposed between the bearing mount and the input hub to support the output member for rotation on the input hub. In another form the decoupler assembly further comprises a torsional vibration damper that is received within an internal cavity that is bounded on opposite axial ends by the output member and a cover that is coupled to the output member.
US08863915B2	Disc brake pad cushions Cushions for disc brake pads are disposed between the brake pads and their caliper pistons or caliper fingers. The cushions possess such characteristics of resilience that, during braking action, brake pads follow irregularities and ride over high spots on rotor faces. This action significantly reduces uneven frictional drag, which lowers braking temperature increasing braking efficiency and brake system longevity. Each cushion comprises a resilient body which is further comprised of either a material, such as an elastomeric pad, or a structure such as a compressible spring or other apparatus.
US08863913B2	Apparatus for transferring optical element including brake An apparatus for transferring an optical element, the apparatus including: a support portion for supporting the optical element; a guide portion for guiding the support portion to move in a rectilinear direction; a brake disposed between a first position that contacts the support portion and restricts a movement of the support portion, and a second position that is spaced apart from the support portion and allows the movement of the support portion to change a position thereof; and a driving portion for driving the brake.
US08863909B2	Braking device for braking a lift car A braking device (2) for braking a lift car which moves relative to a lift shaft, having at least one braking module (6) which is provided in order to interact with a device, and having a catch (4) which can be adjusted between two operating positions (36, 360, 38), wherein the catch (4), in a first operating position (36, 360), is connected to the at least one braking module (6) such that the catch (4) transmits a release force (22) to the at least one braking module (6), and wherein the catch (4), in a second operating position (38), is separated from the at least one braking module (6), and the at least one braking module (6) is therefore in contact with the device.
US08863906B2	Elevator and traction sheave of an elevator A counterweight and an elevator car are suspended on a set of hoisting ropes. The elevator comprises one or more rope pulleys provided with rope grooves, one of said pulleys being a traction sheave driven by a drive machine and moving the set of hoisting ropes. At least one of the rope pulleys has against the hoisting rope a coating adhesively bonded to the rope pulley and containing the rope grooves, said coating having an elasticity that is greater in the edge portions of the rope groove than at the bottom of the rope groove. In a preferred solution, the traction sheave is a rope pulley like this.
US08863894B2	Silencer and rotating machine equipped therewith In a silencer, holes are disposed in one row with intervals to each other along one direction, holes forming the one row are disposed in a plurality of rows in a direction perpendicular to the one direction, and positions of the holes in adjacent rows are shifted in the one direction and disposed in a zigzag pattern. A disposition interval of the holes of an outer edge hole row forming one row in at least two sides opposite to each other in the silencing porous plate is set to be larger than a disposition interval of the holes of a row inside the outer edge hole row.
US08863892B2	Torsional vibration damper with arc spring and end cap An end cap for an arc spring in a torsional vibration damper having a cylindrical section for engaging with the arc spring and a radial section at one end of the cylindrical section for engaging with an input or output side of the torsional vibration damper, the end cap being producible by shaping from a metal sheet. A torsional vibration damper for elastic transmission of torque between an input side and an output side including the described end cap for transmission of force between one of the sides and the arc spring.
US08863891B2	Device for damping of sounds and motor vehicle comprising such a device Device for damping sounds which comprises a casing (11) around one or more sound-generating equipment items, and a sound-damping panel (20) via which air flows out from the casing. The sound-damping panel has a throughflow space (23) between a first wall (21) which faces towards the inside of the casing and a second wall (22) which extends along and at a distance from the first wall. The first wall has a plurality of apertures (24) for air to flow into the throughflow space. Diffusers (25) on the second wall directly opposite each aperture deflect the air which flows towards the second wall into various different directions in the throughflow space. At least some of the internal surfaces of the throughflow space are covered with sound-absorbing material (29). Air flows from the throughflow space to the surroundings via outlet apertures (31) of the sound-damping panel.
US08863884B2	Vehicle chassis, vehicle body and vehicle suspension A vehicle chassis in the form of a trough is ‘V shaped and encloses the vehicle driveline and is resistant to ballistic and blast damage. The chassis has a removable body attached by longitudinal pivot pins. A torsion bar suspension is pivoted on the axis of the torsion bar.
US08863881B2	Fuel tank and radiator layout structure for saddle-type vehicle A fuel tank and radiator layout structure for a saddle type vehicle that makes the vehicle smaller-sized and compact while securing cooling efficiency of a radiator. A front wall of a fuel tank is inclined forward to obliquely extend downwardly rearward from its upper end. The radiator is disposed on the rear and lower side of the front end of the fuel tank, and the radiator is provided vertically or is inclined forward so as to have its lower end located rearwardly of its upper end in side view. The forward inclination angle of the front wall of the fuel tank relative to the vertical is greater than the forward inclination angle of the radiator relative to the vertical.
US08863876B2	Intake structure for saddle type vehicle An intake structure for a saddle type vehicle for effectively lower the temperature of suction air includes an intake system disposed behind an engine supported on a vehicle body frame and a vehicle body cover for covering at least a side of the intake system. An inlet that is open to a side of a vehicle body on the inner side of the vehicle body cover is provided in the intake system. Further, a negative pressure formation section is provided at a position of the vehicle body cover at a substantially equal height to that of the inlet and on the rear side of the vehicle. The negative pressure formation section is configured from a depressed portion at which a vehicle body cover surface is depressed to the inner side of the vehicle body and an opening positioned in the depressed portion.
US08863875B2	Air guide plate for automobile and sealing structure The air guide plate includes a plate body formed of a resin material and deformable skirt portions which are formed of the same resin material as the plate body and integrally formed on an outer periphery of the plate body. The air guide plate is arranged such that the plate body is disposed at a front of an automobile without connecting to automobile parts, thereby forming a gap between the outer periphery of the plate body and the automobile parts arranged around the plate body. The deformable skirt portions are disposed so as to be in contact with the automobile parts under flexural deformation, thereby closing the gap by the deformable skirt portions to prevent the air from leaking through the gap.
US08863871B2	Fuel cell apparatus for vehicles A cowl top 7 includes a tubular peripheral wall 71 provided above a dash panel 104, with its upper portion 73 extending along a lower edge of a front wind shield 105, the upper portion 73 of the peripheral wall 71 having a front communication aperture 75 and a rear communication aperture 76 formed for air communication between atmosphere and the interior of the tubular peripheral wall 71, and a diluter 6 includes an air inlet aperture area 62 communicating with the interior of an air discharge duct 4, an air outlet aperture area 63 communicating with the interior of the tubular peripheral wall 71, and a dilution chamber 61 made up to introduce fuel gas discharged from a fuel cell stack 3, dilute introduced fuel gas with air introduced through the air inlet aperture area 62, and discharge diluted fuel gas through the air outlet aperture area 63.
US08863870B2	Method and system to prevent vehicle driveaway during battery charging A system and method are disclosed for preventing driveaway or roll away of a plug-in electric vehicle when it is being charged or is coupled to an external power supply cord. When it is detected based on at least one of the following conditions: a current is flowing to the battery charger, a voltage source is coupled to the battery charger, an access door allowing access to the receptacle on board the vehicle is open and/or a plug detect switch indicates that a plug is coupled with the receptacle, a mechanical restraint on the driveline is prevented from being released. The mechanical restraint may be a parking brake. Alternatively, the mechanical restraint may include preventing the gear shift selector from being moved out of the park position.
US08863866B2	Method for testing a motor vehicle and a test vehicle with an active secondary vehicle To be able to simulate any desired kind of driving state with a test vehicle it is envisioned to connect an active secondary vehicle 2 to the front or rear of the test vehicle 1, and wherein the secondary vehicle 2 is equipped with its own drive and load device 3 by which the test vehicle 1 is braked and/or pushed additionally to its own deceleration and/or acceleration.
US08863863B2	Undercutting tool An undercutting tool for producing transverse grooves in a drilled hole. An upper support and a lower support axially delimit a receiving region of a shank. At least two spreading elements are disposed in the receiving region between the spreading elements and the receiving region. The shank and the supports are disposed so the axial distance between the supports can be reduced by exerting an axial force. The spreading elements each have an oblique upper and lower end face, which each have such an outer geometric shape, extending in a direction not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and are displaced in substantially opposite radial directions, and the axial force is in each case converted to a radial force in the radial directions.
US08863861B2	Downhole telemetry apparatus and method A telemetry tool having position and direction sensors, a power supply, a signal receiver and a signal emitter is mounted in a drill string adjacent to a drill bit. A base unit at the surface generates, and transmits into the geological formation, a carrier signal, which may be a DC carrier signal. The geological formation provides a current path between the carrier current generator and the downhole end at which a portion of the carrier current is received by the telemetry tool. The drill string defines a relatively low resistance return signal conductor. The telemetry unit superimposes a time varying signal on the carrier current. The time varying signal includes a recognition sequence, followed by a data string which may include compass direction, azimuth dip, rotational speed, acceleration, and so on. The base unit strips the signal off the carrier current, and reads the code.
US08863859B2	Method for determining the wear of a force-loaded linkage of an earth-working device The invention relates to a method for determining the wear of a force-loaded linkage of an earthwork device, wherein the instantaneous load on the linkage is measured during operation of the earthwork device and used to perform a calculation of the service life.
US08863857B2	Row unit for agricultural implement An agricultural row unit for use with a towing frame hitched to a tractor includes an attachment frame adapted to be rigidly connected to the towing frame, and a furrow-opening module comprising a first linkage pivotably coupled to the attachment frame, a first movable frame pivotably coupled to the linkage to permit vertical pivoting movement of the first movable frame relative to the linkage, a furrow-opening device mounted on the first movable frame, and a first biasing element pivotably attached to the linkage and coupled to the first movable frame for urging the furrow-opening device downwardly against the soil. The row unit also includes a furrow-closing module and a second biasing element for urging the at least one furrow-closing device downwardly against the soil.
US08863854B2	Method and apparatus for isolating tubing with a swellable seal An apparatus for isolating at least a portion of a tubular for use in a wellbore comprising a first, inner tubular in the form of carrier tube and a second, outer tubular in the form of protective shroud, coupled to the carrier tube. One or more aperture is provided in a wall of the carrier tube for permitting fluid transfer through the tube and one or more aperture is provided to permit fluid transfer through the shroud. A sealing layer is disposed on a surface of the shroud, the sealing layer defining a first configuration permitting fluid flow through the apertures and, on exposure to a selected reactant, adopting a second configuration to restrict fluid flow through the apertures, the sealing layer adapted to return from the second configuration to the first configuration where concentration of the selected reactant falls below a selected threshold.
US08863849B2	Electric submersible pumping completion flow diverter system A technique provides a system and methodology for enhancing the operational life of an electric submersible pumping system. A completion is combined with a flow diverter valve and is positioned downhole in a wellbore. An electric submersible pumping system is coupled into the completion and the flow diverter valve is oriented to control fluid flow with respect to the electric submersible pumping system. For example, the flow diverter valve may be automatically operable to direct well fluid to the electric submersible pumping system when the pumping system is operating and to direct well fluid to bypass the electric submersible pumping system when the pumping system is not operating.
US08863832B2	Orientable eccentric downhole assembly An assembly employing multiple eccentric devices about a mandrel. The assembly is configured such that at least one of the eccentric devices is adjustably orientable relative another. Thus, for example, where the devices are packers disposed about completions tubing, the adjustable orientation may be utilized to ensure enough clearance is available for downhole advancement of the assembly. As such, the assembly may remain eccentric in nature without concern over damage during positioning, particularly to a communication line running to actuatable implements of equipment coupled to the completions assembly.
US08863819B2	Continuous casting device and relative method A continuous casting device including at least a crystallizer suitable for casting a metal product, and a plurality of guide and containing segments with rolls, the function of which is to accompany the cast product exiting from the crystallizer. The device includes, an extension of or in an intermediate position to one or more of the guide and containing segments with rolls, one or more guide and containing segments of the mixed type with panels and rolls, each including one or more guide rolls disposed on at least one side of the product and insulated and/or reflecting and/or heated panels disposed on the opposite side of the product, so as to reduce the loss of temperature of the cast product in transit.
US08863810B2	Screen A screen includes: a screen base body, wherein the screen base body includes a plurality of substrates, each of the substrates has a sheet part and a connecting part provided at least one of the surfaces of the sheet part, the connecting part of one of the substrates is detachably connected with the connecting part of the other substrate, and when the screen is used the screen base body is produced by connecting the connecting parts of the respective substrates such that the substrates can be combined.
US08863809B2	Methods and systems for recycling of laminated materials In an embodiment of the disclosure, there is provided a method and system for recycling a cured composite laminate material into a delaminated recyclate that maintains a fiber volume fraction and a lamina level fiber alignment substantially the same as the cured composite laminate material. The method provides a cured composite laminate material having a fiber volume fraction and a lamina level fiber alignment. The cured composite laminate material undergoes solvent soak preconditioning, liquid solvent removal, pre-heating, and rapid heating with phase change delamination of the cured composite laminate material to obtain the delaminated recyclate that maintains a fiber volume fraction and a lamina level fiber alignment substantially the same as the cured composite laminate material.
US08863808B2	Pair of substrate holders, substrate holder, substrate bonding apparatus and method for manufacturing device A substrate holder pair comprising a first substrate holder and a second substrate holder that holds a first substrate and a second substrate bonded to each other, between itself and the first substrate holder. The first substrate holder includes a pressure receiving portion that, when the first substrate holder is separated from the second substrate holder, is pressed by a pressing member, and the second substrate holder includes a passing portion through which passes the pressing member, to enable pressing of the pressure receiving portion by the pressing member.
US08863804B2	Device for coating a workpiece The present invention provides a device for coating a workpiece, which comprises at least a deflector means for feeding a material web, downstream of which a pressure means for applying the material web to workpiece surface is arranged, wherein preferred pressure and deflector means comprise cylinders, rollers and/or shoes, wherein the device further comprises at least an energy source, the point of action of which lies in the region of the pressure means, in particular in a region of the pressure means which contacts the material web at least in portions. The device is configured to apply the material web onto the workpiece surface in the inline and/or offline method.
US08863803B2	Apparatus for manufacturing absorbent article An apparatus for manufacturing an absorbent article includes: first and second reference-signal outputting sections for outputting first and second reference signals indicating a conveyance amount of a workpiece, a processing device for processing the workpiece based on a drive signal, an adhesive discharging device for discharging adhesive toward the workpiece based on a discharge signal, and a controller. While manufacturing the absorbent article, the controller generates both the drive signal and the discharge signal based on the first reference signal. While inspecting a discharge amount of the adhesive, the controller generates the discharge signal based on the second reference signal, without outputting the drive signal.
US08863802B2	Apparatus for automatic marking of containers of biological samples An apparatus for automatically marking laboratory test tubes in the stage of drawing biological material to be analyzed, which includes two or more distributors of test tubes of different types that are selectable by a control unit and are suitable for feeding test tubes to a test-tubes positioning device which in turn is suitable for presenting correctly positioned test tubes to a computerized labelling machine containing a printer for printing barcodes on labels. Each distributor includes an automatic drawing and discharging device for drawing and discharging single test tubes from a container of test tubes of a selected distributor to the positioning device.
US08863799B2	Tire with a cellular layer A tire with a cellular layer is provided. The tire includes a tire structure formed of at least one crown extended by two sidewalls and two beads. A base of each of the two beads is configured to be mounted onto a rim seat. The tire also includes a carcass-type reinforcing structure anchored into the two beads, and a layer that includes a cellular material, also referred to as a cellular layer. The cellular layer is positioned on an inner wall of the tire structure, such that the cellular layer is bonded to the tire structure over at most over 20% of a surface of the cellular layer and is not bonded to the tire structure elsewhere on the surface.
US08863794B2	Internal wheel suspension system with shock absorption An internal wheel suspension and shock absorbing system includes a hub with radially extending spokes, cooperating with springs axially mounted thereon, abutting a hub and entering the rim of a wheel. The spokes secure onto a hub that mounts onto the vehicle axle, for rotation. When a force is encountered, the forces are absorbed by the spokes, the springs, and the slots as the hub has limited translation within the rim. The springs are adjustable and bias against the head of the spokes and the hub, and absorb the impact of vector forces generated from any impact.
US08863789B2	Method and filling system for filling containers in a pressurized manner The invention relates to a filling system for filling bottles, cans, or similar containers (2) with a liquid filling good, comprising at least one filling element (1, 1a) having at least one dispensing opening (7) for introducing the filling good into the particular container (2) in a controlled manner, means (10) for retaining and pressing the particular container (2) having a container opening (2.1) in a sealing position against the filling element (1, 1a) in the area of the dispensing opening (7), at least one pneumatic device (15.1, 16.1, 19) for producing at least one component of the press-on force, which pneumatic device can be exposed to the pressure (P1) of a gaseous and/or vaporous operating medium. In order to change and/or set the press-on force, a second component of said force is produced by a further hydraulic or pneumatic device (15.2, 16.2, 20), which is exposed to a variable or settable pressure (P2, P3, P5) of a liquid and/or gaseous and/or vaporous auxiliary medium preferably different from the process medium or is exposed to a vacuum (VAK).
US08863784B2	Viscoelastic damped jumpers A system, in certain embodiments, includes a multi-layer composite strip of pipe dampening materials, comprising a first layer of a first material, a second layer of a second material disposed adjacent to the first layer of material, and a third layer of a third material disposed adjacent to the second layer of material, wherein the second material comprises a viscoelastic material, and wherein the multi-layer composite strip of pipe dampening materials is configured to be affixed to an outer surface of a section of pipe. In certain embodiments, the first layer and the third layer may have stiffness values that are substantially different from each other. The difference in stiffness values may enable relative motion in the first layer and the third layer to be generated during vibration of the section of pipe, and the energy may be dissipated by the viscoelastic material, thereby dampening vibration of the section of pipe. In certain embodiments, multiple strips of pipe dampening materials may be used.
US08863782B2	Grounding system for a heated hose A grounded electrical circuit in a heated hose is provided. In one embodiment, the heated hose assembly includes: a flexible hose body; a first and a second heating wires and a hose ground wire each extending longitudinally and parallel to an axis of the hose body and within an inner wall; a first fluid coupling provided on the first end portion of the flexible hose body, the first fluid coupling comprising a stem inserted into the flexible hose body and radially clamping an end of the hose ground wire against an inner surface of the inner wall, such that a contact between the first fluid coupling and the end of the hose ground wire grounds the hose ground wire; a power cord electrically connected to the first and second heating wires and to the hose ground wire; and a thermostat electrically connected to the first and second heating wires.
US08863778B2	Ceramic water control valve A ceramic water control valve with cold, hot and warm water positioning function includes a valve casing with an annular frame of reduced diameter, a rotary driving seat with a projecting tube part, a valve stem, a ceramic valve plate set, and a base. A rotatable ring is installed outside the annular frame of reduced diameter. At the top edge of the rotatable ring, a trepan boring is installed to allow the projecting tube part to protrude upward. A simultaneous movement cooperating unit includes the driving part installed inside projecting tube part and the driven part installed in the rotatable ring top edge. The driving part and driven part can cooperate the drive the rotatable ring simultaneously in the rotation of the rotary driving seat. A scale division positioning unit is installed at the position corresponding to the rotatable ring and the annular frame of reduced diameter.
US08863759B2	Cosmetic article including an electrochromic multilayer structure A cosmetic device for applying to human keratinous materials, the device including an electrochromic multilayer structure having an electro sensitive stack formed by at least: first and second electrode layers; first and second active electrochromic layers; and an electrolyte layer; and further including: an optically-active layer that is superposed, at least in part, on the electrosensitive stack.
US08863753B2	Power supply device for electronic cigarette A power supply device of an electronic cigarette is disclosed, the device comprising a battery and a control board installed inside a battery sleeve; the power supply device further comprises electrode connectors provided at one end of the battery for connecting an atomizer as a load into the circuit loop of the electronic cigarette, wherein the electrode connectors comprises a negative pole connector coupled to one end of the battery sleeve; a positive pole connector sit inside the negative pole connector; an insulation ring being provided between the negative pole connector and the positive pole connector to achieve electric isolation; the controlling board being provided at the other end of the battery inside the battery sleeve; the controlling board is integrated thereon a controller, a LED light and an airflow switch; the controller connecting the load connected between the positive pole connector and the negative pole connector into the power supply loop of the battery and controlling on/off of the LED light.
US08863752B2	Electronic Cigarette An electronic cigarette includes a battery assembly, an atomizer assembly and a cigarette bottle assembly. An external thread electrode is located in one end of battery assembly. An internal thread electrode is located in one end of atomizer assembly. The battery assembly and the atomizer assembly are connected by the screwthread electrode. The cigarette bottle assembly is inserted into the other end of the atomizer assembly and both form a cigarette type or cigar type body.
US08863751B2	Apparatus for filling cigarette tubes with tobacco An apparatus (1) for filling cigarette tubes with tobacco comprises a base (10), a magazine chamber (2) adapted to receive a supply of tobacco (T), a lid (20) adapted to close a top of the magazine chamber (2), a filling chamber (4) adapted to receive the tobacco to be filled into a cigarette tube, a stamp (30) adapted to shape the tobacco of the filling chamber (4), and a slider arranged in the filling chamber (4) which transfers the tobacco of the filling chamber (4) into a cigarette tube supported in front of the filling chamber (4). A press-down lever (6) is connected to the stamp (30) and to a coupling mechanism in order to move the slider after actuation of the stamp (30). A pusher for forwarding the tobacco in the magazine chamber can also be coupled to the press-down lever.
US08863737B2	Sustained modulation of temperature of self heating chemical system Exothermic reactions are used in self heating products, such as food, beverages, and clothing. Temperature peaks are important as heat can cause user injuries or increase pressures within the heating container to unsafe levels. Disclosed is a composition that modulates chemical reactions by control of the reaction initiation. Solid exothermic reactants, like calcium oxide and zeolite, are wetted with a combination of water and at least one surfactant, such as polyethylene glycol. The use of surfactants limits the initial rate of wetting, and also provides modulation of the reaction by changing phase. Optional addition of weak acids or acid salts modulated temperature and pH.
US08863731B2	Slingshot seat A slingshot seat has a frame with a rocker bottom configured to provide a low trajectory and a high trajectory. A seat is mounted on the frame and positioned to allow a user to rock forward on the rocker bottom to a forward position of the low trajectory and positioned to allow a user to rock backward on the rocker bottom and a backward position of the high trajectory. A pair of upwardly extending arms extend from the frame. The pair of upwardly extending arms terminate in a right upper end and a left upper end. An elastic cord is attached to the right upper end and attached to the left upper end. A pocket is mounted on the elastic cord between the right upper end and the left upper end.
US08863728B2	Model-based transient fuel injection timing control methodology A method for controlling a direct-injection internal combustion engine includes monitoring internal combustion engine operational parameters, determining a start of injection in response to the engine operational parameters, monitoring an intake air flow comprising a residual gas component, monitoring an exhaust gas flow, monitoring a fuel flow, determining a time constant corresponding to an intake air flow reaction time based upon the intake air flow, the exhaust gas flow, and the fuel flow, modifying the start of injection with the time constant, and operating the engine subject to the modified start of injection.
US08863727B2	Piezoelectric fuel injector system, method for estimating timing characteristics of a fuel injection event This disclosure provides a fuel injector system and method in which the timing of events in during period of fuel injection of a piezoelectric-actuated fuel injector are estimated based on sensed forces within the injector. The force sensor is positioned between a piezoelectric actuator and a hydraulic link assembly mechanically coupled with the piezoelectric actuator, and the force sensor operable to output a signal corresponding to forces between the piezoelectric actuator and the hydraulic link assembly. From information contained in the sensor output signal, timing in the injection period of at least one fueling characteristic based can be estimated to allow for adjusting fuel injector characteristics to compensate for variations affecting fuel injection, such as manufacturing tolerances, environmental conditions, and deterioration/wear.
US08863722B2	Cylinder block and method of machining same A machined shape of a bore is based on the deformation amount of a data-acquisition bore after fastening of cylinder head. A cross section of an approximate shape is set to be an approximately-true circle shape, and a diameter of the approximately-true circle shape is changed along a central axial direction in accordance with the deformation amount of the data-acquisition bore, to determine the approximate shape. The approximate shape has a cross section having the approximately-true circle shape and has a simple shape which is symmetrical about the central axis. Since the machined shape of the bore is the shape obtained by reversing a phase of a recess and a projection of the approximate shape about a predetermined cylindrical shape, the machined shape has a cross section having the approximately-true circle shape and has a simple shape which is symmetrical about the central axis.
US08863720B2	Coated piston and a method of making a coated piston A piston for a diesel internal combustion engine including a crown portion at least partially formed of steel and having a combustion surface with a combustion bowl formed therein is provided. The combustion bowl presents a combustion bowl rim area, and a coating including at least one of a noble metal and a refractory metal is applied to substantially only the combustion bowl rim area. The coating is preferably applied in the areas of the combustion bowl rim area that are in line with the sprays of diesel fuel when the piston is in a top dead center position during operation of the engine.
US08863717B2	Intake device of an internal combustion engine An intake device of an internal combustion engine has primary and secondary intake lines for aspirating primary and secondary combustion air, respectively. The primary intake line opens into a primary inlet chamber and the secondary intake line opens into a secondary inlet chamber of a filter housing. In comparison to the primary intake line, the secondary intake line has a configuration such that, in normal engine operation, a flow capacity of the secondary intake line, in comparison to a flow capacity of the primary intake line, is so minimal that secondary combustion air aspirated through the secondary intake line has a negligible effect on the performance of the internal combustion engine. When the primary intake line is closed, the flow capacity of the secondary intake line suffices to supply the internal combustion engine with a minimum combustion air mass flow required for operating the internal combustion engine.
US08863708B2	Valve timing control device of internal combustion engine Even if an internal combustion engine is stopped having a lock pin of a vane rotor kept disengaged from a lock recess, subsequent engine starting can instantly move the vane rotor to a desired angular position where the lock member an be engaged with the lock recess. The vane rotor has therein two passage control mechanisms each having a hydraulically actuated valve body. When the valve body is moved to a given position, retarding and advancing hydraulic holes become communicated to each other through an annular groove of the valve body. Due to this ON communication, retarding and advancing operation chambers become communicated, so that reciprocative swing movement of the vane rotor induced by an alternating torque produced at the starting of the engine is effectively made and thus the vane rotor can be quickly turned to the desired angular position for ease of engine starting.
US08863706B2	Four-stroke cycle engine There are output pistons 18 for opening intake valves 11, an intake cam 19 coaxial with a crankshaft 7 to actuate an input piston 22, a hydraulic control valve 20, output passageways 25A, 25B connecting the output pistons 18 to the hydraulic control valve, and an input passageway 24 connecting an input hydraulic chamber 21 to the hydraulic control valve. The hydraulic control valve has one state, which enables pressure-transmission communication between the input passageway and the output passageway 25A at least during a period for one cycle of reciprocating motion of the input piston 22, and another state, which enables pressure-transmission communication between the input passageway and the output passageway 25B at least during the period for one cycle of reciprocating motion of the input piston 22. The hydraulic control valve assumes the states alternately in every rotation of the intake cam 19.
US08863704B2	Liquid-cooled internal combustion engine and method for operating an internal combustion engine of said type A liquid-cooling engine system is described with a coolant control device having an adjustable control element capable of independently controlling the flow of coolant through a cylinder head and cylinder block. The device contains a rotatable drum that can be rotated along its longitudinal axis to expose holes and thereby allows coolant circulation based on a temperature within the engine system. The coolant control device has three positions but may also be fine-tuned within each position to control the flow of coolant through the cylinder head and cylinder block in order to adjust the amount of heat extracted according to demand, which serves to control the liquid-type cooling circuit in a demand-dependent manner that accounts for the operating modes of the internal combustion engine.
US08863695B1	CUBRA avian shelter An avian shelter comprising a top or bottom cover portion designed to engage with one or more wall sections to form a stackable enclosure, including an access opening adapted to provide privacy and access to the interior of the cage enclosure. Optional complementary locking members are disposed on the outer surfaces to provide the ability to secure one or more said enclosures to each other.
US08863693B2	Animal toilet Animal toilets presently do not have an automated method of cleaning the toileting surface and disposing of wastes. The animal toilet disclosed herein is equipped with a permeable toileting surface, a catchment surface underlying the toileting surface to collect and channel liquids, and a drain. The toileting surface may be equipped with a rinsing element to rinse wastes from the toileting and catchment surfaces. The drain may be further equipped with tubing to convey the liquids to a convenient disposal location. The animal toilet may be equipped with a moving toileting surface, which results in improved rinsing, and potential solid waste collection. In all embodiments, absorbent material may be used in place of permeable material for the toileting surface, which may not require any rinsing. The solid waste disposal may be automated through the use of rinse water and disposal tubing routed to the proper disposal location.
US08863691B2	Nectar feeder with float and valve The present invention is a nectar feeder for birds. The nectar feeder has a container for storing nectar feed. A base tray is connected in fluid communication with the container. A float is positioned between the container and the base tray. In operation, the nectar feed flows through the container and into the base tray until the float rises to a level to prevent fluid from flowing into the base tray.
US08863684B2	Apparatus and method for smoothly coating substrates The surface of a substrate may be smoothly covered with a liquid when the substrate is fixed in a holder which together with forms, together with the surface of the substrate, a process volume into which the liquid may be introduced onto the surface of the substrate by means of a wetter, and when the holder including the substrate is set in a swaying motion by means of a swayer, so that the liquid will smoothly spread on the surface of the substrate. By the swaying motion, concentration of the volume of liquid at a specific location of the substrate surface is prevented, since the direction of motion of the liquid changes constantly.
US08863683B2	Impact indicator According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a device and technique for impact detection and indication is disclosed. The device includes a housing and a detection assembly configured to detect receipt by the housing of an acceleration event. In response to detecting the acceleration event, the detection assembly causes a display element coupled to the housing to provide an encoded indication of impact status.
US08863679B2	Linkage device for flap rudders for watercraft In a linkage device for flap rudders for watercraft, in particular ships, a first bearing housing includes a sliding piston and a first sliding bearing, and a second bearing housing includes a linkage pin and optionally a second sliding bearing. The first and the second bearing housings and/or the sliding piston and the linkage pin and/or optionally the first and the second bearings each have substantially the same diameter and/or substantially the same width and height.
US08863671B2	Secondary containment pallet having flexible walls A secondary or spill containment pallet that is the combination of a base or reservoir member composed of a flexible, non-self-sustaining material, one or more horizontally disposed apertured deck members, and an internal load-bearing support structure capable of supporting the deck member and liquid containers disposed on the deck members. The support structure maintains the deck members a suitable distance above the bottom of the base member such that a large internal volume is created, whereby liquid leaking or spilling from the containers will be received and retained within the base member, the walls of which are suspended from or attached to the deck members.
US08863665B2	Connectors for separable firing unit assemblies, separable firing unit assemblies, and related methods Connection cables for separable firing unit assemblies comprise a first mating connector at a first end and a second mating connector at a second, opposing end. A stripline cable electrically connects the first mating connector to the second mating connector. Separable firing unit assemblies comprise an initiation device. An electronics assembly is configured to transmit a firing pulse to the initiation device. One of a first mating connector and a second mating connector is coupled to the initiation device and the other of the first mating connector and the second mating connector is coupled to the electronics assembly. A second housing of the second mating connector is configured to receive a portion of a first housing of the first mating connector therein.
US08863663B2	Method for controlling the orientation and/or position of sheets processed on a printing machine There is described a method for controlling the orientation and/or position of sheets (1) processed on a printing machine, each sheet being provided with at least one marking (12; 15) embedded in the sheet, which marking is embedded in the sheet during manufacturing thereof, prior to processing of the sheet on a printing machine. The marking (12; 15) is disposed in a selected location of the sheet and defines a unique orientation and/or position of the sheet. The method comprises the steps of: —checking for the presence or absence of the marking at the selected location on the sheet and/or of characteristic features of the said marking; and —issuing a warning signal if the marking is not detected at the selected location or if the characteristic features of the marking are not detected at the said selected location. The invention advantageously makes use of features already embedded in the sheets (such as metallic and/or magnetic strips or threads, watermarks, etc.) as control markings for controlling the orientation and/or position of the sheets.
US08863656B2	Power juicer A power juicer comprised of a motor disposed within a housing and having an output shaft projecting away from the housing; at least two alternate cutters each individually detachably connectable to the output shaft; a plurality of alternate inserts wherein a selected one of the plurality of alternate inserts circumscribes a selected one of the at least two alternate cutters detachably connected to the output shaft; and a body circumscribing the selected one of the plurality of alternate inserts wherein the body and the selected one of the plurality of alternate inserts include openings for feeding food to the selected one of the at least two alternate cutters detachably connected to the output shaft and openings for receiving juice, homogenized food, or shredded food therefrom upon actuation of the motor under the control of a safety system.
US08863655B2	Juicer with alternate cutters A juicer device comprised of a motor disposed within a housing and having an output shaft projecting away from the housing; at least two alternate cutters each individually detachably connectable to the output shaft; a plurality of alternate inserts wherein a selected one of the plurality of alternate inserts circumscribes a selected one of the at least two alternate cutters detachably connected to the output shaft; and a body circumscribing the selected one of the plurality of alternate inserts wherein the body and the selected one of the plurality of alternate inserts include openings for feeding food to the selected one of the at least two alternate cutters detachably connected to the output shaft and openings for receiving juice, homogenized food, or shredded food therefrom upon actuation of the motor under the control of a safety system.
US08863653B2	Cooking utensil with extended anti-deformation slots A cooking utensil includes a base (3) doubled underneath via an insert (1a) made from a hard material with openings (7) crossing the insert for the fixing thereof to the base. At least some of the openings are in the form of elongated slots (31a) individually defining over the length thereof, a global arched form with opposing end portions either leading to the centre of the insert or to the external periphery (10a) of the insert.
US08863647B2	Oil gallery piston with improved thermal conductivity A method of making a piston with enhanced thermal conductivity. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a piston with an oil gallery, the piston made of a material; and depositing a layer of a material in the oil gallery, the material having a higher thermal conductivity than a thermal conductivity of the piston material. Another aspect of the invention is a piston having enhanced thermal conductivity.
US08863634B1	Lightweight impact absorbing armor panel Designs and methods are provided for a multi-layer panel capable of mitigating the transmission of a high energy impulse to the hull of the vehicle. In one exemplary embodiment, the blast panel comprises a first penetration resistant layer on the side facing away from the vehicle, a first core made of a crushable structural material between the first penetration resistant layer and the vehicle, and a shock dissipation layer disposed between the first penetration resistant layer and the first core.
US08863628B2	Apparatus for trimming paper rolls or logs and an operating method for treating the logs Apparatus for trimming paper rolls or logs (2) characterized in that it comprises: a section for the entry of the logs (2) to be trimmed; a section for the exit of the trimmed logs (2′); a station with cutting means (6) for trimming the logs (2); means (3) for moving the logs (2, 2′) between the entry section, the cutting station and the exit section; means (4), associated with the log-moving means (3), for retaining the logs when subjected to movement.
US08863605B2	Gear shift lever apparatus A gear shift lever apparatus includes: a first support shaft pivotally supported on an upper housing; a gear shift lever swingably supported via the first support shaft; an engagement member provided to the gear shift lever; a second support shaft pivotally supported on a lower housing in parallel to the first support shaft with at least part of the second support shaft overlapping the first support shaft in an axial direction thereof; a selector lever swingably supported via the second support shaft; an engagement receiver formed in the selector lever and being engageable with the engagement member in a swing direction thereof; and a bypass unit configured to prevent the selector lever from interfering with the first support shaft upon swinging of the gear shift lever due to a manipulation of the gear shift lever through engagement between the engagement member and the engagement receiver.
US08863601B2	Deflecting device for ball screw device A ball screw device includes a screw engaged into a nut member for forming two or more endless ball guiding passages and for receiving a number of ball bearing members, the nut member includes two or more conduits and recesses communicative with the helical grooves of the nut member, two deflecting devices are attached to end portions of the nut member and each include an inner member attached to the nut member and having two or more pathways aligned with the recesses of the nut member, and an outer member attached to the inner member and coupled to the inner member with one or more radially extended protrusions for suitably guiding ball bearing members.
US08863597B2	Stardrive propulsion system A device that produces linear motion by sequentially and in a continuous sequence accelerating inertial thrust masses at well defined times towards the axis of counter-rotating disks. The inertial thrust masses are contained in cavities placed equidistantly about the periphery of counter rotating capture disks mounted on a common axle. They are radially accelerated by a bi-directional impulse ramps that can be moved to any position around the periphery of the counter rotating capture plates and into and out of the paths of the gyrating thrust masses to any desired depth within the mechanical range of the impulse ramps which simultaneously engage and radially accelerate the inertial thrust masses of each counter-rotating capture plate. The counter-rotating capture plates are each separately driven by a gear assembly powered by an external engine or motor that powers the rotation of the disks. Each radial acceleration of the inertial thrust masses produces an impulse of force that pushes against the mass accelerator with a force equal to the force used to radially accelerate each thrust mass. Each impulse is a vector force and imparts motion along the chosen vector to any object to which the device is attached.
US08863594B2	Sample container and filtration apparatus and method of filtration using same A sample container and filtration apparatus includes a sample container portion with an interior volume and a fluid path passing through a bottom wall. The sample container may also include a valve casing connected to and moveable relative to the sample collection portion between a first and second position. A valve secured to and moveable with the valve casing may close the fluid path of the sample collection portion when in a first position and open the fluid path when in a second position. The apparatus may also include a vacuum base coupling portion that is distal to the valve casing, and includes a filter membrane support surface for supporting a filter membrane.
US08863593B2	Sampling device and method Disclosed is a sampling device and method for detecting liquid. The device includes a sampling probe; an action module for actuating the sampling probe; a control module for controlling the action module; a detection module for detecting a change of a relevant physical quantity of the sampling probe and converting the physical quantity into a corresponding electric signal output to the control module. The control module processes the electric signal output by the detection module and controls the action module to actuate the sampling probe based on the electric signal. The device is capable of determining abnormal liquid suction situations, making the sampling more reliable.
US08863592B2	Sensor system for combined speed-torque detection A sensor system having at least two phase tracks spaced apart in the axial direction of a rotation axis of a rotating body and situated circumferentially around it, having at least one sensor element for each phase track situated fixed in place opposite the rotating body to detect the particular phase track. At least one first sensor element assigned to a first phase track, with at least one second sensor element assigned to the first phase track, is connected to at least one first sensor element bridge, extending parallel to the first phase track and perpendicularly to the rotation axis of the rotating body, and at least one sensor element assigned to a second phase track, with at least one sensor element assigned to the first phase track, is connected to at least one second sensor element bridge extending perpendicularly to the two phase tracks and parallel to the axis.
US08863591B2	Method for accurately measuring applied torque in a hydraulic breakout machine and a hydraulic breakout machine that measures applied torque A method of accurately measuring applied torque in a hydraulic breakout machine involves using at least one sensor to measure reactive torque, and using the reactive torque measurement as an accurate indication of applied torque.
US08863590B2	Large diameter flow-through Kiel-style pressure probe for high moisture applications A Kiel-style pressure probe includes pressure tubing having a remote sending end, the pressure tubing extending through an open-ended shroud, wherein the shroud has a diameter of at least about 0.375 to 0.50 inch and wherein a forward end of the shroud is formed with at least two drainage apertures in proximity to the remote sensing tip of the pressure tubing.
US08863587B2	Method for determining the flow rates of a first gas phase and at least one second liquid phase present in a polyphasic fluid A method for determining a first flow rate of a gas phase and a second flow rate of at least one liquid phase present in a polyphasic fluid circulating in a conduit is presented. The method essentially comprises circulating the polyphasic fluid through the neck of a venturi delimited by the conduit. The method further comprises estimating the first flow rate and the second flow rate by using a measured pressure difference of the fluid through the neck and a property representative of the relative surface occupied by the gas phase relative to a total surface over a cross-section of the neck. The step of estimating the first flow rate and the second flow rate further comprises (a1) calculating an amount representative of the liquid phase present in the gas rich core relative to the total amount of liquid phase in the neck and calculating the first and second flow rate as a function of the amount representative of the liquid phase present in the core calculated during step (a1).
US08863583B2	Material testing system Provided is a material testing system provided with: an upper gripper 21 and a lower gripper 22 that grip a test piece 10; a video camera 18 that photographs the upper gripper 21 and the lower gripper 22 and the test piece 10; a first display part 25; a second display part 26; and a setting support section 61 that, in order to do test preparation where the test piece 10 is made to be gripped by the upper gripper 21 and the lower gripper 22, on the second display part 26, together with an image around the upper gripper 21 and the lower gripper 22, displays setting position indicators that support at least any one of positioning of the grippers, attachment of the test piece, and placement of gage marks to be marked on the test piece that is in a state of being gripped by the grippers.
US08863576B2	Method for manufacturing a sensor A method for manufacturing a sensor, in particular for recording rotational speed. At least one stamped grid is provided for electrically contacting the sensor, in particular a sensor element of the sensor. In addition, at least one homogenization plate is provided for influencing a magnetic field, the stamped grid and the homogenization plate being connected by at least one holder. The holder fixes the stamped grid and the homogenization plate in place positively and/or non-positively.
US08863575B2	Microelectromechanical three-axis capacitive accelerometer A micromechanical structure for a MEMS structure is provided with: a substrate; a single inertial mass having a main extension in a plane and arranged suspended above the substrate; and a frame element, elastically coupled to the inertial mass by coupling elastic elements and to anchorages, which are fixed with respect to the substrate by anchorage elastic elements. The coupling elastic elements and the anchorage elastic elements are configured so as to enable a first inertial movement of the inertial mass in response to a first external acceleration acting in a direction lying in the plane and also a second inertial movement of the inertial mass in response to a second external acceleration acting in a direction transverse to the plane.
US08863565B2	Three-dimensionally bending machine, bending-equipment line, and bent product A three-dimensionally bending machine comprises a supporting unit to support a workpiece and a feeding unit to feed the workpiece from an upstream side of the workpiece. A heating and cooling unit, provided around the outer circumference of a portion of the workpiece downstream of said supporting unit heats the portion of workpiece in a temperature range for plastic deformation and quenches and rapidly cools the deformed workpiece. A three-dimensionally movable unit, provided downstream of said heating and cooling unit, supports the metal material and controls the supporting position and/or the moving speed of the metal material to apply the bending moment in association with a feed amount, a heating amount, and a cooling amount of the workpiece. Even when a high-strength workpiece is bent, a workpiece having excellent shape fixability and uniform hardness distribution can be made, especially for application to sophisticated automobile parts.
US08863559B2	Method for washing laundry in a program-controlled domestic appliance, and corresponding domestic appliance A method for washing laundry in a program-controlled domestic laundry-care appliance including the steps of heating washing liquid present in the tub and heating the washing liquid to a specific washing temperature set as a function of determined parameter values that are specific to the laundry being washed and/or the appliance.
US08863558B2	Laundry treating appliance and method of operation A laundry treating appliance for treating a laundry load according to at least one cycle of operation and a method of operating a laundry treating appliance to determine a speed at which the laundry satellizes, comparing the same to a given amount or range, and altering execution of the at least one cycle of operation based on comparison such that the laundry treating appliance may be operated in an effective and efficient manner.
US08863549B2	Refrigerator and rapid fluid cooling apparatus Provided is a chilling device or cooling apparatus that quickly chills a beverage. The chilling device or cooling apparatus may be provided to a refrigerator or a refrigerating storage.
US08863548B2	Cabin air compressor motor cooling A cabin air compressor assembly includes a cabin air compressor disposed at a compressor inlet and a cabin air compressor motor operably connected to the cabin air compressor. At least one cooling flow inlet is located at a first end of the cabin air compressor motor substantially opposite a second end whereat the cabin air compressor is located. The cooling flow inlet is configured to direct a cooling flow across the cabin air compressor motor. A blower is operably connected to the cabin air compressor and is configured to urge a cooling flow from across the cabin air compressor motor toward a cooling flow outlet, thereby increasing the cooling flow across the cabin air compressor motor.
US08863545B2	Refrigeration apparatus A refrigeration apparatus includes a multi-stage compression mechanism, heat source-side and usage side heat exchangers each operable as a radiator/evaporator, a switching mechanism switchable between cooling and heating operation states, a second-stage injection tube, an intermediate heat exchanger and an intermediate heat exchanger bypass tube. The intermediate heat exchanger bypass tube ensures that refrigerant discharged from the first-stage compression element and drawn into the second-stage compression element is not cooled by the intermediate heat exchanger during a heating operation. Injection rate optimization controls a flow rate of refrigerant returned to the second-stage compression element through the second-stage injection tube so that an injection ratio is greater during the heating operation than during a cooling operation. The injection ratio is a ratio of flow rate of the refrigerant returned to the second-stage compression element through the second-stage injection tube relative to flow rate of the refrigerant discharged from the compression mechanism.
US08863542B2	Apparatus for cooling of electrical elements Apparatus for cooling electrical elements, comprising a heat sink (1, 101, 201) through which a coolant can flow, a plurality of electrical elements (2, 102, 202) which each have a bottom surface and a side surface, with the bottom surfaces being aligned essentially on one plane, with the heat sink (1, 101, 201) having at least one channel (4, 5, 104, 105, 204, 205) through which a coolant can flow and making thermal contact with the electrical elements (2, 102, 202), characterized in that the heat sink (1, 101, 202) extends essentially parallel to the plane of the bottom surfaces, with the channel (4, 5, 104, 105, 204, 205) in the heat sink having a profile which is matched to edges of the electrical elements (2, 102, 202).
US08863527B2	Combustor liner A combustor liner for a turbine engine is disclosed herein. The combustor liner includes an inner liner surface operable to define at least part of a combustion chamber in a turbine engine. The inner liner surface extends along a portion of a chordal arc on a first side of the chordal arc. The combustor liner also includes a bearing surface operable to support a floating dome panel. At least part of the bearing surface is spaced from the chordal arc on a second side of the chordal arc opposite the first side.
US08863525B2	Combustor with fuel staggering for flame holding mitigation The present application provides a combustor. The combustor may include an air flow path with a flow of air therein. A flow obstruction may be positioned within the air flow path and cause a wake or a recirculation zone downstream thereof. A number of fuel injectors may be positioned downstream of the flow obstruction. The fuel injectors may inject a flow of fuel into the air flow path such that the flows of fuel and air in the wake or the recirculation zone do not exceed a flammability limit.
US08863524B2	Burner A burner for a gas turbine including a burner housing is provided. Provided is a lean-rich partially premixed low emission burner for a gas turbine combustor providing stable ignition and combustion process at all engine load conditions. At the upstream end of that burner a pilot combustor creates a flow of an unquenched concentration of radicals and heat. Respectively provided is a plurality of quarl sections surrounding the exit of the pilot combustor, a main combustion room defined downstream the pilot combustor and at least a first channel defined as an annular space between an upstream quarl section and the closest downstream quarl section providing air and fuel to a main flame in the combustion room.
US08863519B2	High output modular CAES (HOMC) A compressed air energy storage system integrated with a source of secondary heat, such as a simple cycle gas turbine, to increase power production and to provide power regulation through the use of stored compressed air heated by said secondary heat to provide power augmentation.
US08863516B2	System for collecting concentrated solar radiation The present invention is directed to a solar energy system including a tower having a solar radiation receiver, the solar radiation receiver including a plurality of tubes carrying a heat-transfer medium and a drum, the drum in thermal communication with the tubes, and one or more mirrors configured to reflect solar radiation onto the receiver, wherein the receiver receives the reflected solar radiation from the mirrors, thereby heating the heat transfer medium and vaporizing the heat transfer medium.
US08863514B2	Multi-stage turbocharger arrangement The present invention relates to a multi-stage turbocharger arrangement (1), having a high-pressure turbocharger (20) which has a turbine housing (26A), a bearing housing (27A), a compressor housing (28A); and having a low-pressure turbocharger (21) which has a turbine housing (26B), a bearing housing (27B), a compressor housing (28B); wherein the turbine housings (26A, 26B) are combined to form at least one turbine housing unit (26), and/or wherein the bearing housings (27A, 27B) are combined to form at least one bearing housing unit (27), and/or wherein the compressor housings (28A, 28B) are combined to form at least one compressor housing unit (28).
US08863513B2	Centrifugal compressor and turbo supercharger A compressor including a housing assembly that includes a bearing housing and a compressor housing, and a movable vane. In the housing assembly, a diffuser is formed by a first diffuser wall portion and a second diffuser wall portion. The movable vane includes a base portion and vane portions. The movable vane is movable between a projected position where a facing surface of the base portion contacts with a positioning surface provided in a storage chamber and a retracted position. The compressor housing includes an affixing portion projecting further than the second diffuser wall portion, and a fastening surface being, provided, to the affixing portion. The compressor housing is assembled with the bearing housing by attaching the fastening surface to a mounting surface of the bearing housing. The positioning surface is provided in the storage chamber so as to be flush with the fastening surface.
US08863511B2	Wave and water energy converter mounted on bridge supports This is a low-cost, ingenious, high-efficiency energy producing system from hydrokinetic energy in water waves, currents and tides. Cost advantages are due to the use of existing bridge structures to mount the water energy converter to withstand fierce wind and water forces.
US08863509B2	Meterless hydraulic system having load-holding bypass A hydraulic system is disclosed. The hydraulic system may have a pump, a hydraulic actuator, and first and second passages fluidly connecting the pump to the hydraulic actuator in a closed-loop. The hydraulic system may also have a control valve, and a load-holding valve configured to selectively lock movement of the hydraulic actuator. The load-holding valve may include a valve block at least partially defining a pump passage, an actuator passage, a control passage, a restricted passage connecting the actuator passage and the control passage, and a bypass passage connecting the actuator passage and the control passage. The load-holding valve may also include a valve element movable between a first position at which flow between the pump and the hydraulic actuator is blocked, and a second position at which fluid is allowed to flow between the pump and the hydraulic actuator, the valve element being spring-biased toward the first position.
US08863507B2	Exhaust gas purification system for the treatment of engine exhaust gases by means of SCR catalyst An exhaust gas purification system (method and device) for the treatment of diesel exhaust gases containing nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons is disclosed, which comprises the addition of ammonia or of a compound decomposable to ammonia into the exhaust gas stream and the subsequent leading of the exhaust gas stream over two successively arranged SCR catalysts with different properties and compositions. Both SCR catalysts are free of vanadium compounds and only the downstream SCR catalyst contains zeolite compounds. The exhaust gas purification system according to the invention is characterized by good “kick-off” behavior at low temperatures and a simultaneously high conversion performance over a wide temperature range.
US08863501B2	Injection system for injecting fluid into an exhaust tract The invention relates to an injection system for injecting a fluid into a filter provided in an exhaust system, comprising at least two modules and at least one pressure compensation volume (44, 46, 48, 54, 56, 58), which is designed for feeding fluid to at least one of the modules and hydraulically connects at least two of the modules. Each module comprises at least one injection unit (40, 50, 60) designed for injecting fluid into the exhaust system.
US08863495B2	Ignition/chemical reaction promotion/flame holding device, speed-type internal combustion engine, and furnace An ignition/chemical reaction promotion/flame holding device and a high-performance speed-type internal combustion engine using this device are provided, whereby ignition and the spreading and holding of flames can be dramatically improved in a gas turbine, a ram machine, a rocket engine, or another speed-type internal combustion engine. An ignition/chemical reaction promotion/flame holding device of a speed-type internal combustion engine comprises a spark plug for preparing charged particles in a predetermined location in a combustor of the speed-type internal combustion engine, and a microwave oscillator and antenna for inducing plasma with a working fluid in the combustor as a starter material by irradiating the charged particles and their surrounding vicinity with microwave pulses; wherein a region in which sufficient conditions for performing combustion are met is formed in the combustor by supplying an active chemical species produced from the working fluid by the effect of the plasma.
US08863491B2	Gas turbine engine shaft bearing configuration A gas turbine engine includes a core housing that includes an inlet case and an intermediate case that respectively provide an inlet case flow path and an intermediate case flow path. A geared architecture is arranged within the inlet case. A shaft provides a rotational axis. A hub is operatively supported by the shaft. A rotor is connected to the hub and supports a compressor section. The compressor section is arranged axially between the inlet case flow path and the intermediate case flow path. A bearing is mounted to the hub and supports the shaft relative to one of the intermediate case and the inlet case.
US08863487B2	Narrow row head unit A narrow row head unit may include a back plate secured to a left gearbox and a right gearbox, which gearboxes may be positioned adjacent one another. Each gearbox may provide rotational power to a pair of stalk rolls and a drive sprocket for a gathering chain. A right mounting tab may be secured to the back plate and the right gearbox, and a left mounting tab may be secured to the back plate and left gearbox. A right plate and leg may extend outward from the back plate adjacent the right mounting tab and a left plate and leg may extend outward from the back plate adjacent the left mounting tab. A narrow row head unit positioned left-of-center on a header may have the gathering chain positioned substantially over the right plate, and right-of-center substantially over the left plate.
US08863475B2	Method for terminating an edge of a roof waterproofing membrane Disclosed herein is A method for terminating an edge of a roof waterproofing membrane, the method including covering a building roof with at least one first waterproofing membrane, aligning at least one stiff member along a perimeter of the building roof, covering the at least one stiff member within a second waterproofing membrane, sealing the second waterproofing membrane to the first waterproofing membrane, thereby encapsulating the stiff member, and attaching the stiff member to the structure of the building.
US08863468B1	Support chair for bracing objects to be imbedded in concrete or the like A support chair for bracing objects, such as rebar, cable, or the like. The support chair is preferably configured to support rebar at any one of multiple different heights.
US08863467B1	System and method for free standing prefabricated glued laminated modular timber frame members A system of framework timber construction in a building structure, the system comprising: a plurality of free-standing prefabricated glued laminated modular timber frame members, each timber frame member comprising four studs, the four studs being two posts, each post having a lateral dimension L2 and width WP, and two beams, each beam having a lateral dimension L1 and width WB, each timber frame member further comprising: at least three two-post-two-beam members, each two-post-two-beam member having two posts, two beams, and four joints between respective posts and beams, each of the posts and beams having an elongated rectangular shape defined by respective elongated lengths LP and LB, and having respective widths WP and WB, and having a thickness, with the at least three two-post-two-beam members having a crisscross glulam construction; wherein the plurality of free-standing prefabricated glued laminated modular timber frame members are configured to form supporting walls of the building structure.
US08863462B2	Structure with surface for seasonal selectiveness of solar irradiation absorption and reflection Disclosed are various structure surface configurations and related methods. An exemplary structure includes a facade that has grooved cavities that are configured in a manner that reflects summer (cooling season) insolation and absorbs winter (heating season) insolation. The effective absorptivities of the exemplary structure for various cavity reflectance characteristics, i.e., a wide range of diffuse and specular reflectance characteristics, are evaluated using a Monte Carlo model. The calculations in an illustrated embodiment are performed for the latitude of 41° N where both heating and cooling loads are significant. Embodiments of various structures are similarly within the scope of the disclosure for locations of different latitudes and longitudes.
US08863451B2	Photovoltaic roofing systems and methods for repairing them The present invention relates generally to photovoltaic systems. The present invention relates more particularly to photovoltaic roofing systems in which photovoltaic elements are disposed upon roofing elements such as shingles, tiles, shakes or slates. For example, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a photovoltaic roofing system for use on a roof deck, the photovoltaic system including a plurality of horizontally-arranged first photovoltaic roofing elements disposed on the roof deck, each having a top end and a bottom end; one or more first flashing elements disposed on the roof deck upwards from the first photovoltaic roofing elements, the first flashing element having a top end, and a bottom end overlapping the top end of one or more of the first photovoltaic roofing elements; and a plurality of horizontally-arranged second photovoltaic roofing elements disposed on the roof deck upwards from the one or more first flashing elements, each second photovoltaic roofing element having a top end, and a bottom end overlapping the top end of one or more of the first flashing elements, the second photovoltaic roofing elements not overlapping the bottom end of any of the first flashing elements.
US08863450B2	Tilt tower and pipe auger anchor assembly A tilt tower and pipe auger anchor assembly comprising a tilt tower having a mast and a swing tube and a coax cable engaging both the mast and the swing tube, the mast has a near end, the near end has a mast flange plate with fastener holes therethrough. A pipe auger anchor has walls defining a generally hollow elongated body having a near end and a removed end, the near end including a pipe auger anchor flange plate mateable with the mast flange plate. The pipe auger anchor flange plate has fastener openings therein and fixedly attached to the near end perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the hollow elongated body and an auger at the removed end. The auger provides a penetration force when the body is rotated and the auger is engaged with the ground.
US08863442B2	Protected membrane roof system A protected membrane roof system for installation on a roof decking comprising an upper insulation board having an upwardly-facing upper board top surface and an opposite downwardly-facing upper board bottom surface and at least one through-hole communicating therebetween, a ballast material positioned over the upper insulation board, a netting positioned over the ballast material, and at least one fastener assembly having a base seated substantially adjacent the upper board bottom surface, a rod extending substantially vertically from the base of sufficient size so as to extend through the through-hole of the upper insulation board, the ballast material, and the netting, and a cap engaged with the rod above the netting, whereby the wind uplift resistance of the protected membrane roof system is improved and scour of the ballast material is reduced by effectively anchoring the netting to the upper insulation board beneath the ballast material.
US08863441B2	Platform arrangement A removable platform for covering bowling alley lanes to provide a flat surface above the lanes suitable for a variety of other activities.
US08863436B2	Automated seed sampling apparatus, method and system An automated high throughput apparatus, method and system for seed sampling is provided. The seed sampling system includes an ablation subsystem having a controlled cutting path and a seed handling subsystem comprising a staging system having a plurality of seed staging positions for staging a batch of seed in a sequential manner, and a carrier system for simultaneously presenting seed staging positions at the cutting path for removing a sample portion from each seed in the batch. A method of this invention includes providing ablation means having a controlled cutting path, automatically staging a batch of seed at a plurality of staging positions in a sequential manner, simultaneously presenting the batch of seed at the cutting path, and removing a sample portion from each seed in the batch.
US08863433B2	Gun sight with single point reference The present disclosure provides a gun sight system that utilizes vernier acuity to provide a single point of sight for aiming that requires little or no visual and mental estimation such that the respective firearm can be quickly, easily and accurately aimed at a still or moving target. The sight system includes a front sight comprising a sighting structure extending substantially orthogonally from the end of the slide that includes a ‘V-shaped’ notch in a distal end. The system additionally includes a rear sight comprising a sighting stud extending substantially orthogonally from a rear of the slide includes a ‘inverted-V-shaped’ tip such that when a user looks longitudinally along the top of the slide, the user can align an apex of the rear sight ‘inverted-V-shaped’ tip with a nadir of the front sight ‘V-shaped’ notch with the target nested within the front sight ‘V-shaped’ notch to accurately aim the firearm.
US08863424B2	Sear for converting a pull trigger into a release trigger A sear for a shotgun trigger assembly is used to convert a pull trigger to a release trigger. The release trigger sear includes a second catch surface that holds the striker catch until the trigger is released. The sear having the second catch surface may be retrofit into an existing pull trigger assembly to convert the pull trigger assembly to a release trigger assembly without further modifications to the trigger assembly. The disclosure also provides a release trigger having an assembly that adjusts the pull and release weights of the trigger.
US08863416B2	Powered tree construction A power transfer system to facilitate the transfer of electrical power between tree trunk sections of an artificial tree is disclosed. The power transfer system can advantageously enable neighboring tree trunk sections to be electrically connected without the need to rotationally align the tree trunk sections. Power distribution subsystems can be disposed within the trunk sections. The power distribution subsystems can comprise a male end, a female end, or both. The male ends can have prongs and the female ends can have voids. The prongs can be inserted into the voids to electrically connect the power distribution subsystems of neighboring tree trunk sections. In some embodiments, the prongs and voids are designed so that the prongs of one power distribution subsystem can engage the voids of another power distribution subsystem without the need to rotationally align the tree trunk sections.
US08863412B2	Outsole having grooves forming discrete lugs Various arrangements for an article of footwear including an outsole having grooves forming discrete lugs are presented. The outsoles generally include a plurality of grooves formed in at least a portion of the outsole that extend from a lateral side of the outsole to a medial side of the outsole. The grooves may be linear or curved and generally extend in an angular fashion. The grooves may have a first depth at a perimeter of the outsole and a second depth, greater than the first depth, at the center of the outsole. The grooves form discrete lugs. In some arrangements, the lugs are diamond shaped.
US08863408B2	Article of footwear having a sole structure with a fluid-filled chamber An article of footwear may have a sole structure with a chamber, a plate, and an outsole. The chamber encloses a fluid and has an upper surface and an opposite lower surface. The plate is positioned adjacent to the upper surface and has a plurality of projections that extend into indentations in the chamber. The outsole may be positioned adjacent to the lower surface and may have a plurality of projections that extend into indentations in the chamber. In some manufacturing processes for the sole structure, the plate and outsole may be located within a mold, and the chamber may then be shaped by surfaces of the plate, outsole, and mold.
US08863405B2	Clothes dryer Disclosed is a clothes dryer, which includes: a main body in which a drum is rotatably installed; a circulation passage which becomes a path of the air passing through the drum in the main body to dry the clothes; a heat exchanger composed of an evaporator, a compressor, an expansion valve and a condenser to cool and heat the air on the circulation passage; an inlet port provided on one lateral surface of the main body to inhale the outdoor air; and an outlet port provided on the bottom surface of the main body to discharge the outdoor air.
US08863403B2	Misting control method of clothing dryer Disclosed herein is a control method of clothing dryer that sprays an appropriate amount of mist based on the amount of clothing and dries the clothing at a fiber rearrangement temperature to remove wrinkles from the clothing. Standard regain of clothing is confirmed, mist is sprayed such that an amount of mist equivalent to approximately twice the standard regain reaches the clothing, and the clothing is dried at the fiber rearrangement temperature, whereby wrinkles are removed from the clothing.
US08863401B2	Household laundry dryer condensate filtering apparatus and method A household laundry dryer has at least one filter container which includes a chamber with an inlet for condensate water to be cleaned. The chamber has a first outlet, a second outlet and a filter element which is arranged between the inlet and the first outlet and which divides the chamber into an inlet-side first chamber part and a second chamber part. The filter container can be configured in such a way that the inlet is arranged below the filter element and the filter element is arranged below the first outlet, and the second outlet opens into the first chamber part. Particles deposited on the filter element by water being pushed through the inlet into the chamber are detachable from the filter element by water flowing back into the chamber, when no water is being pushed through the inlet, and removable through the second outlet.
US08863396B2	Rotary laser device and method for controlling a laser beam A rotary laser device and method is disclosed. The rotary laser device includes a laser device, which generates a laser beam, a rotating device, which moves the laser device at least partially around an axis of rotation at a rotation speed, and a measuring device, with which an angle of rotation of the laser device around the axis of rotation can be determined. A memory device is provided for saving at least one angular position.
US08863391B2	Egg slicer An egg slicer includes a base having a plurality of ribs for supporting a food item to be sliced. The cutting element formed with a frame and one or more blades extending across the frame may be pressed downward such that it slices through the food item and the one or more blades are received within channels formed between the ribs. Openings formed between sidewalls of the base serve as guides to ensure an axial path of travel of the cutting element. Several different arrangements of channels between the ribs allows for the accommodation of several corresponding different arrangements of blades.
US08863390B1	Method for fabricating damped propshaft assembly A method for forming a propshaft assembly. The method includes: providing a hollow shaft; tuning a mass and a stiffness of at least one liner to form an intermediate damper, the intermediate damper being configured to attenuate at least one of a bending moment vibration and a torsion mode vibration that occurs at a first predetermined frequency; tuning the intermediate damper to form a tuned damper, the tuned damper attenuating the at least one of the bending moment vibration and the torsion mode vibration at the first predetermined frequency and also attenuating shell mode vibration; and installing the tuned damper into the hollow shaft.
US08863386B2	Support structure for solar plants and method for mounting Support structure, comprising a supporting wall, advantageously with a substantially parabolic profile or suchlike, for solar plants of the concentration type, and able to support at least a thin and flexible reflection plate, able to reflect the sun's rays in order to concentrate them in correspondence with collectors to exploit the solar energy. The support structure comprises clamping elements movable with respect to the supporting wall, and able to clamp the reflection plate in cooperation with the supporting wall. The support structure comprises adjustment means constrained to the clamping elements and able to cooperate with relative elastic means constrained to the supporting wall. The elastic means are disposed and conformed with respect to the supporting wall so as to exert an action of traction on the adjustment means and on the clamping elements, so as to exert the desired action of deformation on the reflection plate.
US08863384B2	Seal packing assembly apparatus and method of assembly of seal packing A seal packing assembly apparatus which assembles a seal packing into a core plate used as a component of a heat exchanger, which apparatus is provided with rollers which push a seal packing into a groove of a core plate while moving by rolling along the groove and guide members which abut against the core plate, the rollers being supported so as to displace along the shape of the core plate by the reaction force which the guide members receive from the core plate, whereby the reliably of assembly of the seal packing is improved.
US08863375B2	Method for connecting a plurality of elements of a circuit board The invention relates to a method for connecting a plurality of elements for a circuit board, comprising the following steps: providing the elements of a circuit board to be connected to each other, the elements having contours adapted to each other; arranging the elements to be connected to each other in close proximity in at least one of two peripheral areas that have complementary contours, while maintaining a distance between opposing peripheral areas; and mechanically connecting the opposing peripheral areas by means of at least one sub-area thereof in order to connect the elements of the circuit board to be connected to each other. Furthermore, a circuit board produced from a plurality of elements connected to each other is provided.
US08863374B2	Production plant, particularly for suitcases and trunks A production plant, particularly for suitcases and trunks, such suitcases and trunks comprising at least two half-shells mutually associated so as to form at least one internal containment compartment. The plant comprises: at least one station for loading at least one half-shell; at least one work island which has at least one dispenser of perimetric gasket seals; at least one storage area for the half-shells; at least one center for mating the half-shells, so as to form substantially the finished product, such as a suitcase and a trunk; at least one station for unloading the finished product.
US08863369B2	Slit tube locking longeron According to the invention, an extendable member is disclosed. The extendable member may include a structure having a first state and a second state. The structure may be deformable between the first state and the second state. In the first state the structure may include a compact form. In the second state the structure may include a hollow longeron having a slit along the entire length of the hollow longeron. One or both longitudinal edges along the slit of the hollow longeron may have lateral protrusions. The lateral protrusions of a longitudinal edge may act in such a way with the other edge, and possibly its protrusions, to at least partially inhibit relative motion of the edges.
US08863368B2	Winding member manufacturing method, winding member manufacturing apparatus, winding member peripheral length measuring apparatus and pre-tension applying apparatus [Problems] To provide power transmission chain manufacturing method and apparatus which can prevent a pin against damage when, by increasing a pre-tension, a more proper residual compression stress is applied to a link.[Means for Solving Problems] The manufacturing apparatus comprises a pre-tension applying apparatus 31 which includes a first pre-tension applying pulley 32 and a second pre-tension applying pulley 33 around which an endless shaped chain 1 can be wound. The mutually opposed sheave surfaces 32a and 33a of the pre-tension applying pulleys 32 and 33 are respectively formed to have a concave shape which corresponds to the convex curved portion 14a of the end face of a pin 14.
US08863367B2	Vehicle trim panel having beverage retainer and method A vehicle trim panel assembly is provided having a beverage retainer formed in a storage compartment on the door of an automotive vehicle. The trim panel assembly includes a storage receptacle and a trim panel arranged to define at least a portion of the storage receptacle. The trim panel includes a base portion connected to a beverage retainer portion via a living hinge. The beverage retainer portion is pivoted about the living hinge into position within the storage receptacle.
US08863366B2	Method of converting a non-rechargeable flashlight to a rechargeable flashlight A method for converting a non-rechargeable flashlight to a rechargeable flashlight (100) enables economical and environmentally friendly retrofitting of non-rechargeable flashlights. The method includes removing an original tail cap from the flashlight (100); placing a rechargeable battery (300) into a housing (110) of the flashlight (100); and replacing the original tail cap with a replacement tail cap (305), wherein the replacement tail cap (305) comprises circuitry (320) for receiving electrical power from a recharging base station for recharging the rechargeable battery (300).
US08863364B2	Pinching closed a collapsible tube for biopharmaceutical use The pinching device includes two cross-sections, each having a hollow part with a male indentation and a female indentation, and locking elements, whereby the surfaces of the indentations form a positive pinching passage of the tube; the male indentation has a U shape with a core and two wings; the female indentation has a U shape with a core and two wings; and the pinching passage has a U shape with a core and two wings; the two opposite wings will draw together toward their ends that are opposite to the cores of the indentations, and each of the two wings of the pinching passage has an opening whose width will diminish towards its end that is opposite to the core of the pinching passage; the width of the opening of the pinching passage is at most slightly smaller than twice the thickness of the wall of the flexible tube to be pinched, and, designed to constitute a pinching closing device, it is disposable, performing a function of closing the tube on itself in the pinching region, preventing any passage of fluid into the tube.
US08863358B2	Adjustable hinge A hinge for pivotally attaching a door to a door frame is disclosed. The hinge has a first hinge plate, a first lifting element and a second lifting element. The first lifting element extends through the first hinge plate at a location proximate to a free edge, and is adapted for selective movement from a retracted position to an extended position extending above a mounting face of the first hinge plate. The second lifting element extends through the first hinge plate at a location proximate to a pivot edge of the first hinge plate, and is adapted for selective movement from a retracted position to an extended position extending above the mounting face. The first lifting element and second lifting element are disposed on opposing sides of a vertical reference axis disposed between the free edge and the pivot edge of the first hinge plate. A method is also disclosed.
US08863357B1	Adjustable door closer An adjustable door closer has a hollow pedestal with a first and a second chamber as well as an actuating groove. An actuating device is set into the actuating groove. A first piston assembly is set into the first chamber and a second piston assembly set into the second chamber. A partition wall is formed between the first and second chambers. Due to a laterally configured flow resistance unit, the holes to be set into the first and second chambers are reduced to three, including a connecting hole and first and second backflow bypass holes, all of which are connected only to the second chamber from the partition wall. As such, the flow path structure is simplified compared to the five holes required for typical structures. The adjustable door closer could reduce significantly the manufacturing cost and realize better regulating functions with improved applicability and economic benefits.
US08863354B2	Flanged roller The caster is essentially characterized by the fact that it includes at least one wheel 1 including a hub 10 and a train 11 situated around the hub 10, a cover-plate 21, clip elements 22 suitable for clipping the cover-plate to the hub 10, the clip elements 22 for clipping the cover-plate to the hub 10 including at least one hole 30 made in the hub 10, at least two hooks 31, 32 mounted to project from the intermediate cover-plate 21 so that when the cover-plate 21 is clipped to the hub 10, the two hooks 31, 32 deform elastically and catch on the edge 34 of the hole 30 defining between them an inter-hook empty space 35. Application to casters used for making it easier to move items such as pieces of furniture, suitcases mounted on casters, or the like.
US08863342B2	Clutch assembly A clutch assembly for a surface treatment appliance includes an input clutch member, an output clutch member driven by the input clutch member, a motorized mechanism for effecting relative movement between the input clutch member and the output clutch member from an engaged position, in which torque is transmitted by the output clutch member to an output, to a disengaged position, in which torque is not transmitted to the output, and a control system for actuating the motorized mechanism.
US08863336B2	Mattress and bedding system The invention provides a mattress comprising an array of air springs, each in communication with a supply of air for selectively varying the air pressure within said spring, so as to provide a resilient body against which a user may recline; an aperture in an upper surface of each air spring, providing access to a cavity within said spring, said cavity open to ambient pressure and sealed from the air supply.
US08863331B2	Securing mechanism for a height adjustable emergency cot Embodiments of a height adjustable emergency roll-in cot comprise a cot support frame comprising having a leading end, a trailing end, and a pair of opposing side frame members disposed between the leading and trailing ends, a pair of wheeled front legs slidingly coupled to the cot support frame via a slideable front transverse support member, and a pair of wheeled back legs slidingly coupled to the support frame via a slideable back transverse support member, wherein the slideable front transverse support member, the slideable back transverse support member, or both include a pair of locking pins (90, 92). The height adjustable emergency roll-in cot comprises a long ratchet bar (130) and a short ratchet bar (140) connected and parallel to one another, wherein the short ratchet bar and the long ratchet bar define different slot profiles (132, 142) such that when the slots of the long ratchet bar and the slots of the short ratchet bar are configured to engage the respective locking pins, the long ratchet bar engages its respective locking pin before the short ratchet car.
US08863329B2	Infant accessory for side and thoracic pressure aid A wearable or swaddling accessory blanket provides gentle pressure on the side and/or on the thoracic area of an infant to mimic the human hold. The wearable garment or swaddling blanket appliance includes integrated protrusions in the form of pressure accessories for simulating the slight pressure felt from a caregiver when holding or cradling an infant. The pressure accessories are enlarged or expanded areas disposed at locations on a textile base such as a blanket such that they approximate the arm and hand positions of a caregiver when the swaddling appliance is engaged by wrapping around an infant. Wings or flaps of the appliance facilitate engaging the appliance around an infant such that tension in the wrapped blanket appliance induce a slight inward pressure on the pressure accessories such that the infant perceives the pressure and interprets a caregiver hold or touch.
US08863327B1	Face cradle cover with protective storage element The present invention relates to a cover for a massage table face cradle. Specifically, the invention is a fitted cover for a massage table face cradle that further includes a pocket for stowing the cover, providing a barrier between the user from any unprotected and potentially unsanitary areas of massage table and face cradle hardware, providing a secure space to store personal items such as but not limited to scented sachets, aromatherapy, personal items such as jewelry and electronic devices, and transport or storage.
US08863326B2	Active mattress spinner A device is disclosed for facilitating rotation of a mattress in a horizontal plane carried by a box spring or a platform. Slick surfaces are placed in contact between the mattress and the box spring or platform The slick surfaces may be provided by two (2) separate covers; one cover for the mattress and one cover for the box spring or platform. A first cover is provided with a slick and non-slick surface. A second cover includes a slick surface on one side and forms part of a levitation device. The other side of the second cover may be formed with a slick or a non-slick surface. The levitation device creates an air cushion between the mattress and the box spring under the influence of an air supply which lifts the mattress and allows the mattress to be rotated in a horizontal plane virtually effortlessly.
US08863318B2	Active head covering with moveable element A system and method for increasing customer interest in head coverings. A set of actuating components are coupled to moveable elements of an active head covering, the moveable elements respond to operation of an actuating mechanism in a side extension.
US08863316B2	Horseback riding training glove An improved horseback riding training glove that includes engagement mechanisms positioned on a plurality of fingertip sections, a palm section, a thumbtip section and a side of the index finger section. When the engagement mechanisms positioned on the fingertip sections releasably connect with the engagement mechanisms positioned on the palm section and the engagement mechanism positioned on the thumbtip section releasably connects with the engagement mechanism positioned on the side index finger section, a rider's fingers may be secured in the proper position for gripping the reins, while also allowing the rider to disconnect the engagement mechanisms by spreading out their fingers.
US08863314B2	Garment smartpad holder A garment mounted storage compartment for support and transport of a planar electronic device such as a tablet computer having a video screen. The device features a compartment which has a rotatable flap with supports to position the electronic device in front of the user's eyes and in a position for operation with the user's fingers. Support while walking or sitting allows the user to operate the electronic device.
US08869307B2	Mobile posture-based policy, remediation and access control for enterprise resources A mobile device management system that monitors the security state of one or more mobile devices and sets indicators related to such security state. Enterprise network applications, such as an email application, can access the security state information when making access control decisions with respect to a given mobile device.
US08869303B2	Method and system for generation of dynamic password A method and system of independent generation of dynamic password by a client and a server for subsequent verification of the generated password by either the server or the client is provided. The method includes registration of user ID for identification of the client and associating client's related information. Then the client provides one or more static values and one or more variable values for the registered user ID. The server then drives the base value and further the instructions are then applied on the registered ID. Thus generating the random password and further verifying the generated password with the random password and thus authorizing the client.
US08869302B2	System and method for managing and sharing users' information and contacts within a computer network A system and a method for managing and sharing, within a computer network, information and contacts related to users, according to which the user (UC), on his personal profile (PF) created on the restricted access web site, can create a certain number of business cards (BV) to be booked to given categories of persons, with the information and/or data he considers to inserted into that card; in this way, the system does not allow to a third party to access user's (UC) personal profile (UC), neither in as merely curios observers, and reserves to each user (UC) places for the insertion of their information which, thus, are made accessible only to whom the user (UC) decides to send them and only during the period for which the user (UC) desires to send them. Once the user (UC) comes into contact with a person belonging to the categories to whom he has allowed the vision of the data, he can share, for each category, certain information which are however lent, for a prefixed time period, and automatically updated in real time on personal profile (PF) of then web site.
US08869301B2	Methods, data processing systems, and computer program products for assigning privacy levels to data elements Methods, data processing systems and computer program products for assessing and assigning privacy levels to data elements are provided. A method of assigning privacy levels to data elements (e.g., text files, web page files, image files, audio files, video files, and portions thereof) includes assigning a predetermined privacy level to a data element; storing the data element with the assigned privacy level; determining if the assigned privacy level for data element is proper; and assigning a different privacy level to the data element in response to determining that a currently assigned privacy level for the data element is not proper. A predetermined privacy level may be assigned to a data element under various conditions, such as when the data element arrives at a device, when the data element is created by a device, and/or when the data element is modified by a device.
US08869296B2	Access to user information A method may include storing user information associated with a first user, where the user information includes at least two of location information, presence information, address book information or calendar information. The method may also include storing access control information identifying criteria for allowing parties to access the user information and receiving, from a first party, a request for access to at least a first portion of the user information. The method may further include determining, based on the access control information, whether the first party is authorized to access the first portion of the user information and providing access to the first portion of the user information, when it is determined that the first party is authorized to access the first portion of the user information.
US08869288B2	Method for using time from a trusted host device A method for using time from a trusted host device is disclosed. In one embodiment, an application on a memory device receives a request to perform a time-based operation from an entity authenticated by the memory device, wherein the entity is running on a host device. The application selects time from the host device instead of time from a time module on the memory device to perform the time-based operation and uses the time from the host device to perform the time-based operation. Other embodiments are disclosed, and each of the embodiments can be used alone or together in combination.
US08869283B2	Resisting the spread of unwanted code and data A method or system of receiving an electronic file containing content data in a predetermined data format, the method comprising the steps of: receiving the electronic file, determining the data format, parsing the content data, to determine whether it conforms to the predetermined data format, and if the content data does conform to the predetermined data format, regenerating the parsed data to create a regenerated electronic file in the data format.
US08869276B2	Method and apparatus for whole-network anomaly diagnosis and method to detect and classify network anomalies using traffic feature distributions To improve network reliability and management in today's high-speed communication networks, we propose an intelligent system using adaptive statistical approaches. The system learns the normal behavior of the network. Deviations from the norm are detected and the information is combined in the probabilistic framework of a Bayesian network. The proposed system is thereby able to detect unknown or unseen faults. As demonstrated on real network data, this method can detect abnormal behavior before a fault actually occurs, giving the network management system (human or automated) the ability to avoid a potentially serious problem.
US08869273B2	Apparatus and method for enhancing security of data on a host computing device and a peripheral device A method of enhancing security of at least one of a host computing device and a peripheral device coupled to the host computing device through a communication interface. Data is transparently received from the peripheral device or the host computing device, and the received data is stored. The stored data is analyzed to detect a circumstance associated with a security risk. If such a circumstance is not detected, then the data is transparently forwarded to the other of the peripheral device or the host. However, if a circumstance associated with a security risk is detected, then a security process, defined by a rule, is performed. Related apparatus are provided, as well as other methods and apparatus.
US08869271B2	System and method for risk rating and detecting redirection activities A method in one example implementation includes sending a first request to a first network address on a first server and determining whether the first network address has been redirected on the server to a second network address. The method further includes searching a memory element for a predetermined risk rating associated with the second network address if the first network address has been redirected to the second network address. The method also includes providing a risk response to a client if a predetermined risk rating is found. In more specific embodiments, the risk response includes sending an alert to the client or blocking the client from accessing the second network address if the predetermined risk rating indicates the second network address is malicious. In other more specific embodiments, the first network address is redirected to one or more other network addresses before being redirected to the second network address.
US08869267B1	Analysis for network intrusion detection A technique for intrusion detection analysis is disclosed. The technique comprises performing a first analysis, wherein the analysis results in a first event; performing a second analysis, wherein the second analysis analyzes the first event; and performing an action associated with the second analysis.
US08869253B2	Electronic system for securing electronic services A method of accessing an internet based service, involves using a cellular telephony device to obtain a token from the provider of the internet based service, and within the cellular telephony device, using the token to calculate a time-limited password. The time-limited password is used in combination with at least one further user identification parameter to obtain access to the internet based service.
US08869250B2	Providing secure dynamic role selection and managing privileged user access from a client device An approach is provided that receives a first role selection from a client device. Each of the roles includes various user accounts provisioned to access various software applications. An authentication challenge is retrieved. The authentication challenge is based upon the role selection that was received from the client device. The authentication challenge is transmitted to the client device. An authentication submission is received from the client device. This authentication submission is authenticated and, if the authentication is successful, then the client device access is granted access to software applications using the provisioned user accounts that were included in the role selection. In addition, audit data of usage of the software applications by the client device is recorded. The audit data includes identification of the provisioned user accounts used to access the software applications using the role selection.
US08869241B2	Network acquired behavioral fingerprint for authentication A computationally-implemented method, for certain example embodiments, may include, but is not limited to: identifying a network connection coupling a computer server to a computing device; and transmitting, via the network connection, a behavioral fingerprint associated with an authorized user of the computing device, the behavioral fingerprint providing at least one status of the authorized user with respect to the computing device. In addition to the foregoing, other example aspects are presented in the claims, drawings, and written description forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08869240B2	Soft method for local secure connection to a device A system for pairing two devices includes a monitoring system and a server. The monitoring system receives a request made by a local submitter, such as servicing device or a technician operating the servicing device, for accessing diagnostic data of the monitoring system. The monitoring system initiates a request made to the server for connecting the monitoring system with the servicing device. The server generates pairing information and transmits the pairing information to the monitoring system. The server determines that a pairing key is received as input at the servicing device and/or monitored device and determines if the pairing key matches the pairing identification. If the server determines that there is a match, the server relays diagnostic data received from the monitoring system to the servicing device.
US08869237B2	Method and system for propagating network policy A technique for acquiring and disseminating network node characteristics to enable policy decisions including receiving a resolution request from one or more clients in a network environment is disclosed. Information, for example, network address, is then acquired from one or more sources regarding a specific location in a network, for example, a network node. A list of the network addresses is then generated and ranked based on one or more parameters that merit making traffic handling decisions. The network addresses are then associated with a host name on at least one directory server and then propagated to the one or more clients.
US08869235B2	Secure mobile browser for protecting enterprise data A system is disclosed that includes components and features for enabling enterprise users to securely access enterprise resources (documents, data, application servers, etc.) using their mobile devices. An enterprise can use some or all components of the system to, for example, securely but flexibly implement a BYOD (bring your own device) policy in which users can run both personal applications and secure enterprise applications on their mobile devices. The system may, for example, implement policies for controlling mobile device accesses to enterprise resources based on device attributes (e.g., what mobile applications are installed), user attributes (e.g., the user's position or department), behavioral attributes, and other criteria. Client-side code installed on the mobile devices may further enhance security by, for example, creating a secure container for locally storing enterprise data, creating a secure execution environment for running enterprise applications, and/or creating secure application tunnels for communicating with the enterprise system.
US08869232B2	System for managing media services A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a media content processor (MCP) having a controller to detect a communication device roaming into a personal area network, receive a communication identifier from the communication device, authenticate the communication device responsive to validating the communication identifier, and enable the communication device to manage operations of the MCP according to a profile of a subscriber of the communication device responsive to a successful authentication of the communication device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08869230B2	Mobile terminal and coupon managing method thereof A mobile terminal and coupon managing method thereof are disclosed, by which coupon information may be received using broadcast related information and by which a specific coupon may be received using the received coupon information. The present invention includes receiving broadcast related information, extracting at least one coupon information from the received broadcast related information, displaying the extracted at least one coupon information, and receiving a coupon corresponding to a selected coupon information if the coupon information is selected from the displayed at least one coupon information.
US08869228B1	Signal processing apparatus and methods A unified system of programming communication. The system encompasses the prior, art (television, radio, broadcast hardcopy, computer communications, etc.) and new user specific mass media. Within the unified system, parallel processing computer systems, each having an input (e.g., 77) controlling a plurality of computers (e.g., 205), generate and output user information at receiver stations. Under broadcast control, local computers (73, 205), combine user information selectively into prior art communications to exhibit personalized mass media programming at video monitors (202), speakers (263), printers (221), etc. At intermediate transmission stations (e.g., cable television stations), signals in network broadcasts and from local inputs (74, 77, 97, 98) cause control processors (71) and computers (73) to selectively automate connection and operation of receivers (53), recorder/players (76), computers (73), generators (82), strippers (81), etc. At receiver stations, signals in received transmissions and from local inputs (225, 218, 22) cause control processors (200) and computers (205) to automate connection and operation of converters (201), tuners (215), decryptors (224), recorder/players (217), computers (205), furnaces (206), etc. Processors (71, 200) meter and monitor availability and usage of programming.
US08869227B2	System and method for remotely managing voicemail utilizing a set-top box A system and method for managing a voicemail system through a set-top box. A call may be received from a caller. The call is intercepted utilizing a voicemail system available through a network. The voicemail system is operable to store one or more messages. A user selection is received to access the voicemail system utilizing a set-top box. An interface for the voicemail system is displayed to a user. The interface is displayed on a display in communication with the set-top box. The one or more voicemail accounts are managed based on user input.
US08869224B2	Addressable account commands One embodiment takes the form of an apparatus or method for generating and transmitting distribution system commands addressed by a general identification, such as a customer-specific identification. The general identification may take the form of a customer number or any other identifier unique to a customer account. The identifier may be stored in the computer-readable memory of several or all of the set-top boxes associated with a particular customer such that commands addressed with the unique identifier may be decrypted and executed by the set-top boxes. Thus, a single command addressed with the customer identification may be received and executed by several or all of the set-top boxes for a particular customer without the need for addressing the command to each set-top box individually.
US08869216B2	Method of processing non-real time service and broadcast receiver A method of processing a non-real time service of a broadcast receiver, which receives and processes a service being transmitted in non-real time, and a broadcast receiver are disclosed. Herein, the method of processing a non-real time service in a broadcast receiver includes receiving in non-real time first signaling information including access information of a content item and second signaling information including detail information of the content item, receiving in non-real time a file belonging to the content item by accessing to a FLUTE session transmitting the content item, wherein the file corresponds to a compressed file that has one or more files including an entry file compressed therein, and decompressing the compressed file and then executing the content item referring to information on the entry file.
US08869209B2	Display device and transmitting device A display device includes a signal receiving unit, an image display unit, a communicating unit, a position designating unit, and an information transmitting unit. The signal receiving unit receives a video signal by a differential signal through a plurality of channels from an external apparatus via a transmission path. The image display unit processes the video signal received in the signal receiving unit to display an image. The communicating unit performs a bi-directional communication by using a predetermined line which constitutes the transmission path. The position designating unit designates a position on a display screen of the image display unit. The information transmitting unit transmits, by the communicating unit, coordinate information on the position designated by the position designating unit to the external apparatus.
US08869208B2	Computing similarity between media programs System and method are provided to associate or compare media programs. A method includes: obtaining, using at least one processing circuit, first metadata for a first media program and second metadata for a second media program, wherein the first metadata are organized into a plurality of first fields, and the second metadata are organized into a plurality of second fields; extracting, using at least one processing circuit, a plurality of first tokens from one of the plurality of the first fields and a plurality of second tokens from one of the plurality of second fields; assigning a weight factor to each of the first and second tokens; cross-correlating the first and second tokens between the plurality of first fields and the plurality of second fields; and calculating a similarity score between the first and second media programs based on the cross-correlating.
US08869201B2	Program guide apparatus A method acquires program guide information in an image signal receiver, and program guide method and apparatus using the same. In the program guide apparatus, information immediately required by a user is obtained first, and information of less preferential channels is obtained next, thus presenting a smooth interface to the user. The method of acquiring program guide information for channels includes acquiring the program guide information for each channel by scanning accessible channels while a received program is not displayed. The program guide apparatus includes a tuner tuning a channel, a program guide information detector, a memory, a key input, a microprocessor, and a character signal generator.
US08869186B2	Automated acquisition of discovered content Automated acquisition of content including digital media for a device. A device such as a satellite radio can discover content from multiple data stream sources. The device then receives input from a user selecting or identifying specific content to acquire. The device, upon detecting an appropriate network that enables the device to communicate with a remote service or media repository, requests the content using a portion of the specific content such as metadata. The device then receives the content from the service or from the media repository. Often the received content is a higher quality version of the content whereas the portion of the content stored by the device may be lower quality. The user is notified after the content has been acquired.
US08869179B2	Rotary head data storage and retrieval system and method A data storage and retrieval system includes a head carriage unit having a working surface and multiple heads disposed at the working surface. The head carriage unit is adapted for rotational motion about an axis oriented substantially normal to the working surface. The system also includes a tape drive unit for moving a tape media past the working surface of the head carriage unit, the tape media having a width approximately equal to a width of the working surface of the head carriage unit. The multiple heads are configured to record multiple data tracks on or retrieve multiple data tracks from the tape media as the head carriage unit rotates while the tape media moves past the working surface of the head carriage unit.
US08869171B2	Low-latency communications A method of handling communications by a computer. A system-call communication routine receives a request of an application to perform a socket-related task on a given socket in a blocking mode. The routine repeatedly performs in alternation polling of one or more input/output (I/O) devices servicing the computer and performing the socket-related task.
US08869168B2	Scheduling synchronization in association with collective operations in a parallel computer Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for scheduling synchronization in association with collective operations in a parallel computer that includes a shared memory and a plurality of compute nodes that execute a parallel application utilizing the shared memory are provided. Embodiments include acquiring an available channel of the shared memory; posting to the acquired channel of the shared memory one or more collective operations and a synchronization point; determining that processing within the acquired channel has reached the synchronization point; and posting to the acquired channel, in response to determining that processing within the acquired channel has reached the synchronization point, a background synchronization operation corresponding to the one or more collective operations.
US08869162B2	Stream processing on heterogeneous hardware devices A stream processing execution engine evaluates development-time performance characteristic estimates in combination with run-time parameters to schedule execution of stream processing software components in a stack of a stream processing application that satisfy a defined performance criterion in a heterogeneous hardware device. A stream processing application includes a stack of interdependent stream processing software components. A stream processing execution engine evaluates one or more performance characteristics of multiple computational resources in the heterogeneous hardware device. Each performance characteristic is associated with performance of a computational resource in executing a computational-resource-dependent instance of a stream processing software component. The stream processing execution engine schedules within the run-time environment a computational resource on which to execute a computational-resource-dependent instance of one of the stream processing software components. The computational-resource-dependent instance is targeted for execution on the computational resource that satisfies a performance policy attributed to the stream processing software component.
US08869157B2	Systems and methods for distributing tasks and/or processing recources in a system A method is provided for managing the execution of tasks by a system having multiple processors, each having multiple types of resources. The method may include receiving from a user a task configuration specifying one or more performance parameters for a proposed task, automatically determining for each type of resource a quantity of that resource corresponding to the performance parameters for the proposed task, automatically determining for each processor a quantity of each type of resource available to that processor, automatically comparing for processor (a) the quantity of each type of resource available to that processor with (b) the quantity of each type of resource corresponding to the performance parameters for the proposed task, automatically determining based on the comparisons whether any processor has capacity to perform the proposed task, and automatically determining whether to perform the proposed task based at least on whether any processor has capacity to perform the task.
US08869155B2	Increasing parallel program performance for irregular memory access problems with virtual data partitioning and hierarchical collectives A method for increasing performance of an operation on a distributed memory machine is provided. Asynchronous parallel steps in the operation are transformed into synchronous parallel steps. The synchronous parallel steps of the operation are rearranged to generate an altered operation that schedules memory accesses for increasing locality of reference. The altered operation that schedules memory accesses for increasing locality of reference is mapped onto the distributed memory machine. Then, the altered operation is executed on the distributed memory machine to simulate local memory accesses with virtual threads to check cache performance within each node of the distributed memory machine.
US08869146B2	Virtual machine migration In embodiments of virtual machine migration, a virtual machine migration system includes a storage array that maintains data. A first host computer includes at least one virtual machine with a virtual drive that is mapped to a logical unit number (LUN) of the storage array, and the LUN corresponds to a LUN mask that associates the LUN with the first host computer. A virtual manager is executable on the first host computer, and is implemented to unmask the LUN to migrate the virtual machine from the first host computer to a second host computer that is configurable as a host of the virtual machine. The virtual manager can log the first host computer out of the LUN and the second host computer can log into the LUN to access the data in the storage array.
US08869138B2	Robust firmware update with recovery logic Systems and methods for updating firmware include a firmware update module executing on a client device. A firmware package to be installed on the client device may be verified by the firmware update module, including verifying that firmware files included in the firmware package are intact prior to beginning a firmware update. Recovery logic for enabling a client device to boot-up from a functional partition after a failed firmware update may be provided. The recovery logic may ensure that, when a firmware update failure occurs, the client device may boot-up from a functional partition. A recovery process may back up certain components stored in the client device. An update status related to the firmware update process may be provided.
US08869133B2	Method and system for use in facilitating patch change management of industrial control systems An offline patch change management system for an industrial facility includes at least one reader device configured to read patch update information stored on computer-readable storage media inserted therein. The industrial facility includes an industrial control system that includes at least cyber asset. The system also includes a memory device coupled to the reader device. The memory device is configured to store the patch update information. The system further includes a processor coupled to the memory device. The processor is programmed to scan the at least one cyber asset. The processor is also programmed to generate a scan report including a patch status for at least one patch not operatively resident on the at least one cyber asset. The scan report includes a deployment temporal period value for deployment of the patch.
US08869127B2	Refactoring programs for flexible locking Disclosed is a novel computer implemented system, on demand service, computer program product and a method that provides a set of lock usages that improves concurrency resulting in execution performance of the software application by reducing lock contention through refactoring. More specifically, disclosed is a method to refactor a software application. The method starts with accessing at least a portion of a software application that can execute in an operating environment where there are more two or more threads of execution. Next, a determination is made if there is at least one lock used in the software application to enforce limits on accessing a resource. In response to determining that there is a lock with a first type of construct with a given set of features, the software application is refactored with the lock to preserve behavior of the software application.
US08869118B2	System aware performance counters System aware performance counters including a processor for performing a method that includes executing a predefined code segment of an application, the executing on a processor. The executing includes executing an instrumented thread included in the predefined code segment. The method includes performing a first action associated with executing the instrumented thread in the predefined code segment, and registering the instrumented thread. A performance counter associated with the predefined code segment is started. Also, the execution of the predefined code segment is paused and the performance counter is paused. The method further includes performing a second action associated with pausing the executing of the predefined code segment. The executing of the predefined code segment is resumed and the performance counter is resumed responsive to resuming the executing of the predefined code segment. Also, a third action associated with resuming executing the predefined code segment is performed.
US08869112B2	System and method for modular business applications A tailored add-on component for a released software product having internal and released development objects. The released development objects are designed for external use, such as end-user customization. The internal development objects are designed for use within the released software product, with no access from outside components. The tailored add-on component adds a functional application that makes calls to both released and internal objects. Access to internal objects is made while maintaining stability by confining internal object calls to a single adaptation component within the add-on, while also implementing an interface for the objects of the software product that are used by the add-on. The interface includes a function to freeze objects that are in the interface, and a set of automatic test components to identify changes in the objects that are in the interface.
US08869100B1	Data objects for model-based design A method of defining data objects for use with an executable block diagram modeling and code generation system including providing pre-defined data object classes, each of the pre-defined data classes having default attributes, extending the pre-defined data object classes with subclasses, each of the subclasses having user-defined attributes and generating data objects, which are instances of the pre-defined classes and the subclasses.
US08869099B2	System and method of enabling multi-tenancy for software as a service application A method and system for enabling multi-tenancy for software as a service application is provided. The method includes defining a plurality of policy configuration files for each tenant of the SaaS application. The method further includes identifying a tenant and tenant-context for the SaaS application. Thereafter, the method includes identifying one or more policy configuration files and then applying one or more variations to one or more variation points to provide the SaaS application to the user.
US08869095B2	Software framework and development platform for multi-sensor systems The disclosed software framework and development platform facilitates software development for multi-sensor systems. In some implementations, developers can select a sensor board that includes a desired combination of sensor devices. The sensor board can be coupled to a development board that includes a target processor and other circuitry to facilitate development and testing of a system that includes the target processor and the sensors. Various software support tools are provided including an Application Programming Interface (API) that provides API abstractions for software drivers for the sensors on the sensor board. By using the abstractions of the API, a software developer does not have to write code (“glue”) to interact with the various software drivers. Additionally, the API provides access to a variety of software library functions for performing data scaling, unit conversion and mathematical functions and algorithms.
US08869093B2	Displaying interface protocol activity Protocol related data generated by a simulation application are captured. One or more protocol objects are displayed in a window on a display device based on the protocol related data. The protocol objects represent events associated with the interface protocol. In at least some embodiments, a location of the protocol objects on the display device is correlated to a simulation time. In at least some embodiments, protocol-related data are grouped according to an abstraction level of the interface protocol, and the protocol objects are displayed on the display device based on grouping. The protocol objects displayed on the display device can be associated with concurrent, interleaved protocol events, or both.
US08869090B2	Stretch dummy cell insertion in FinFET process A method embodiment includes identifying an empty region in an integrated circuit (IC) layout, wherein the empty region is a region not including any active fins and outside a minimum spacing boundary, applying a grid map over the empty region, wherein the grid map comprises a plurality of grids inside the empty region, and filling the empty region with a plurality of dummy fin cells by placing a dummy fin cell in each of the plurality of grids, wherein applying the grid map and filling the empty region is performed using a computer.
US08869075B2	Locally optimized coloring for cleaning lithographic hotspots Approaches for cleaning/resolving lithographic hotspots (e.g., during a simulation phase of semiconductor design) are provided. Typically, a hotspot will be identified in a first polygon (having a first color) of a lithographic pattern or contour. Once a hotspot has been identified, a location (e.g., another portion of the first polygon or in a second polygon of the lithographic pattern having the first color) proximate the hotspot will be identified to place a stitch marker. Once the location has been identified, a stitch marker will be placed at that location. Then, a color of the stitch marked location will be changed to a second color, and the resulting lithographic pattern can be further processed to clean/resolve the hotspot.
US08869071B2	Mobile terminal and method of controlling the operation of the mobile terminal based on movement of a main body A mobile terminal and a method of controlling the operation of the mobile terminal are provided. The method includes displaying a first list including one or more items on a display module provided in a main body of the mobile terminal; determining whether the main body has been rotated so as to turn the display module upside down; and if it is determined that the mobile terminal has been rotated so as to turn the display module upside down, displaying a second list, instead of the first list, on the display module. Therefore, it is possible to control various operations performed by the mobile terminal in accordance with the movement of the main body of the mobile terminal.
US08869063B2	Method and system for holistic project management A method for holistic project management may include presenting a graphical user interface for a user to enter project information for a project. The method may also include determining a priority for the project based on an impact of the project to each of a plurality of predetermined drivers.
US08869062B1	Gesture-based screen-magnified touchscreen navigation Screen magnification software on a touchscreen device detects when a low-vision user reaches the boundary of a magnified viewport. If additional canvas or menus lay on the other side of the boundary the present invention enables the low-vision user to maintain the same exploration gesture on the touchscreen while causing the underlying canvas to scroll into view in the direction of the gesture. This invention enables the low-vision user to navigate about the entire underlying canvas of a touchscreen graphic user interface with a single, intuitive touchscreen gesture even under magnification.
US08869057B2	Server displaying status of operator using seat layout, terminal for manager, system, and method A server (10) is connected to a terminal (13) for an operator and a terminal (12) for a manager through a network (14), receives operation situation data representing the operation situation of the terminal (13) transmitted from the terminal (13) together with the seat ID, creates display data for displaying an image of the seat layout representing the operation situation different with the type of the received operation situation data according to the seat ID from the layout data read out of a storage unit (120) of the server (10), and transmits the display data to the terminal (12).
US08869056B2	Information-processing device and program An information-processing device according to the present invention displays plural windows in a certain arrangement. The information-processing device selects one of displayed windows as a selected window, and in response to an operation to specify a direction, sets a window located in the direction as a selected window. The information-processing device also, in a case where plural windows are displayed in a certain arrangement, changes the arrangement in accordance with a predetermined operation. The change may be made in a regular manner or according to a random pattern. For example, in a case where window W1 shown in Fig. (a) is a selected window, a desired window (a window a user wishes to select) is window W5, and arrangement is changed, the arrangement is changed to an arrangement shown in Fig. (b) or (c) so that a number of operations that is required for a user to select the desired window is reduced.
US08869054B2	Framework for persistent user interactions within web-pages A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for tracking user interactions comprising receiving a first request associated with a first user, to exchange a communication with a second user about one of a plurality of elements of a web-page, wherein the plurality of elements includes at least one of graphical elements and textual elements; in response to the first request, exchanging a communication between the first user and the second user; capturing the communication; storing an interaction object comprising the communication, wherein storing includes associating the interaction object with the one of the plurality of elements of the web-page; and serving a modified version of the web-page to a third user; wherein the modified version specifies the interaction object being associated with the one of the plurality of elements of the web-page.
US08869040B2	Application sharing security A method, apparatus and computer-readable medium for facilitating application sharing. In operation, a user selects at least one of a plurality of applications operating on a first computer to share with at least a second computer. The user then selects at least one of a plurality of security measures for preventing a user operating the second computer from performing at least one of a plurality of unauthorized operations. Next, the user initiates applications sharing on the first computer, wherein the user operating the second computer may access or observe an application running on the first computer, but may not perform any unauthorized operations on the first computer.
US08869033B2	Providing contact information via a computer network Embodiments of the invention provide for systems, devices, apparatus, methods, and computer program products for providing contact information via a computer network in response to activating an activatable indicium on a user interface. The activatable indicium integrates and provides the contact information for multiple channels of an entity along with statistical information for multiple contact options associated with each channel, and thus enables a user to contact an agent associated with the entity in a faster, more efficient, and better informed manner.
US08869030B2	Hierarchical representation of contextual information Method and system enabling a user to select a data element out of a set of available data elements through the use of a hierarchical view (e.g. a tree). Whenever the user needs to choose a data element, the system collects the descriptions of all data elements that are both available and relevant in accordance with the specific use from a set of available data elements through the use of a hierarchical view. The tree represents each entity (data element) as a node and the properties of each entity as sub-nodes under it, possibly grouped into property groups represented as tree nodes. The system hides all implementation aspects of the data structure from the user—selection of the required value causes the underlying system to automatically perform all required actions in order to retrieve, calculate or search for the desired data element.
US08869019B1	Method and apparatus for automatic website optimization Web pages of a website are parsed and a set of n-grams are generated from the parsed web pages. A relevancy value is determined for each n-gram and a second set of n-grams is generated by removing any n-gram in the first set whose relevancy value is below a threshold. A third set of n-grams is generated at least by removing those of the second set of n-grams that have been determined to be similar to another one of the second set of n-grams. Responsive to determining that there is not a web page that is directed at an n-gram, a web page is automatically created with content directed at that n-gram including reusing existing content of the website that is related to the n-gram. One or more links to the created page are added to web pages so that the created page is not an orphan page.
US08869016B2	Page creation system Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for creating web pages for third party web sites such as Facebook. A page creation system is disclosed for creating web pages that encourage visitors to like a particular page on a third party site. Integration details are received about a third party site. Upon selecting a particular page template, the template is displayed with incomplete sections of the page template for the user to fill in. Content is received from the user for incomplete sections to form a completed page content. A create page selection is received from the user. A blurred version of a web page is created from the completed page content. A normal version of the web page that is designed for display after the blurred version is also created. The blurred version and normal version of the web page are published to the third party site.
US08869009B2	Read commands specifying error performance A method includes, in a memory controller that controls a memory, receiving from a host a read command that specifies data to be retrieved from the memory and further specifies a target error performance to be achieved in retrieving the data. A data retrieval configuration is selected in the memory controller depending on the target error performance specified in the read command. The data is retrieved from the memory using the selected data retrieval configuration, and the retrieved data is output to the host.
US08869005B2	Error correction in a stacked memory Electronic apparatus, systems, and methods to construct and operate the electronic apparatus and/or systems include a stack of memory dies with user data and/or first level error correction data stored in a stripe across the memory dies. One such stack can include a second level error correction vault, such as a parity vault, to store parity data corresponding to the user data and/or first level error correction data. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US08869004B2	Memory storage device, memory controller thereof, and data transmission method thereof A memory storage device, a memory controller thereof and a data transmission method thereof are provided. The memory storage device includes a rewritable non-volatile memory module having a first and a second memory dies, and the first and the second memory dies are coupled to the memory controller through the same data input/output bus. The method includes transmitting a read command to the first memory die and then transmitting a write command to the second memory die by the memory controller. The method further includes controlling the first and the second memory dies to respectively read out and put data onto the data input/output bus in accordance with the read command and write the data from the data input/output bus into the second memory die in accordance with the write command at the same time by the memory controller.
US08869003B2	Method, apparatus, computer program product and device providing semi-parallel low density parity check decoding using a block structured parity check matrix The invention relates to low density parity check decoding. A method for decoding an encoded data block is described. Encoded data block comprising data sub-blocks are stored. Decoding is performed in a pipelined manner using an irregular, block-structured parity check matrix, where at least two data sub-block matrices of the parity check matrix are read from and written in each of a plurality of clock cycles. The reading and writing of the data sub-blocks is evenly distributed between at least two area of a memory. The decoding is performed with shift values which eliminate cycles at or below a predetermined threshold length. An apparatus, computer program product and device are also described.
US08869002B2	Wireless communication device and data reception method The present disclosure eliminates the need for a buffer large enough to store a MAC PDU for the CRC check and eliminates processing delay involved in outputting data to, and inputting data from, the buffer. A wireless communication device analyzes and buffers an RLC data PDU, which is a data processing unit in the Radio Link Control layer (RLC layer), in the RLC layer without waiting for the completion of error detection processing, which is performed in the Medium Access Control layer (MAC layer), for a data processing unit (PDU) in the MAC layer. In the RLC layer, the wireless communication device references the result of the error detection processing for the MAC PDU performed in the MAC layer and creates an RLC Service Data Unit (RLC SDU) using an error-free RLC data PDU.
US08869000B2	Methods and systems for efficient decoding of concatenated error correction codes Decoding data received includes decoding the received data using a first error correcting circuitry that decodes data in accordance with a first decoding process, terminating execution of the first decoding process used to correct the data before the first error correcting circuitry completes executing the first, decoding process and outputting partially decoded data, determining whether partially decoded data requires further decoding, and in response to determining whether partially decoded data requires further decoding, decoding the partially decoded data using a second error correcting circuitry that decodes data in accordance with a second decoding process. A system decodes data in accordance with the method.
US08868991B2	Memory devices, testing systems and methods Testing systems and methods, as well as memory devices using such testing systems and methods, may facilitate testing of memory devices using a read-modify-write test procedure. One such testing system receives a signal indicative of at least some of a plurality of bits of data read from an address differing from each other, and then masks subsequent write operations at the same address. Therefore, any address at which the bits of read data do not all have the same value may be considered to be faulty. Failure data from the test can therefore be stored in the same array of memory cells that is being tested.
US08868980B2	Monitoring circuit A monitoring circuit monitors for the occurrence of a failure event on a data bus. The monitoring circuit includes a failure detection circuit for detecting the occurrence of the failure event within a device coupled to the data bus. An isolation circuit isolates the device from the data bus in response to the occurrence of the failure event.
US08868973B2	Automating diagnoses of computer-related incidents A technique includes using a computer agent to observe diagnoses of computer-related incidents. Based on the observation, patterns are identified in the diagnoses, and based at least in part on the patterns, the diagnoses are selectively automated.
US08868971B2	Wireless diagnostic system Results of field testing of portions of a distributed system such as a Broadband Communications System are communicated from a testing device to a device including a display which downloads test protocols to the testing device. The testing device can thereafter operate in a stand-alone manner and transfer the results of testing and analysis to a device including a display that may comprise virtually any wireless communication device by storing an application or information therein. The communication device can transfer captured test data and analysis to a central facility for storage, further analysis and/or management purposes.
US08868968B2	Partial fault processing method in computer system As regards a hardware fault which has occurred in a computer, a hypervisor notifies an LPAR which can continue execution, of a fault occurrence as a hardware fault for which execution can be continued. Upon receiving the notice, the LPAR notifies the hypervisor that it has executed processing to cope with a fault. The hypervisor provides an interface for acquiring a situation of a notice situation. It is made possible to register and acquire a situation of coping with a hardware fault allowing continuation of execution through the interface, and it is made possible to make a decision as to the situation of coping with a fault in the computers as a whole.
US08868967B2	Method and system for connection-error handling of service in an automatically switched optical network The present invention discloses a method for connection-error handling of service in an Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON), to resolve the technical problems that the conventional method for connection-error handling cannot realize rapid automatic configuration and the efficiency is low and other problems. Through automatically completing the configuration of the connection-error handling information of the start node and the end node by the control plane, the present invention overcomes the defect that manual setting is error prone; it is rapid and simple to implement the interaction of the error handling information between the start node and the end node by protocol exchange. Because the present invention can automatically complete the configuration of the connection-error handling information of the start node and the end node by the control plane, and can cite, when a connection error alarm occurs, the error prevent information of the original connection over a new connection of the service under the conditions of different error handling policies, the present invention enhances the system availability and the service robustness to a great extent.
US08868965B2	SVC cluster configuration node failover Methods, systems, and computer programs are provided for failover responses to configuration node failures in SVC clusters. An SVC cluster manages a plurality of storage devices and includes a plurality of SVCs interconnected via a network, each SVC acting as a separate node. A storage device event log is saved, with an original configuration node. An entry is made in the storage device event log each time the original configuration node receives storage device events and setting the entry to a negative value indicating a storage device event has not been handled. The entry is set to a positive value indicating the storage device event has been handled after the original configuration node notifies respective subscribed clients about those of the storage device events the original configuration node receives. A new configuration node is activated in response to configuration node failures.
US08868964B2	Method and apparatus for supporting failover for live streaming video A computer implemented method and apparatus for receiving, at a first media content packager, a request for at least one of an index file of media segments or a media segment; creating, in response to the request for an index file, an index file comprising a plurality of universal resource locators (URLs); and sending, from the media content packager an error message when at least one of: (i) in response to a request for an index file, the created index file is determined to comprise media segments that have previously been sent from a media packager, or (ii) in response to a request for a media segment, at least one of the URLs in the index file references media content that is not available on the first packager, or a media segment is incomplete, wherein sending the error message results in receiving the request at a second media content packager.
US08868959B1	Logical battery partitions A logical battery partitioning approach is disclosed. In one embodiment, a power management system in a portable computing device having a plurality of subsystems can include: (i) a battery coupled to a plurality of subsystems; (ii) a first battery variable provided to a first subsystem to indicate a characteristic of a first logical battery partition; and (iii) a second battery variable provided to a second subsystem to indicate a characteristic of a second logical battery partition. A battery variable can include an accessibility control, or a percent of battery power available, for example.
US08868953B2	Image forming apparatus and method of controlling power consumption thereof A method of controlling power consumption of an image forming apparatus includes outputting information regarding power consumption of a plurality of operation units if a power consumption check mode is set, performing power save operation in which at least one operation unit from among the plurality of operation units is turned on and the remaining operation units are turned off if a power save mode is set. Accordingly, on/off of the plurality of operation units may be controlled in the power save mode based on power consumption of each of the operation units.
US08868952B2	Controller and program product According to one embodiment, a controller includes a state detecting unit, a calculating unit, and a determining unit. The state detecting unit detects an idle state in which indicates there are no process that can execute on a processing device capable of performing one or more processes. The calculating unit calculates a resuming time, which indicates a time length until the next process starts, when the state detecting unit detects the idle state. The determining unit determines an operation mode of the processing device on the basis of the resuming time calculated by the calculating unit.
US08868947B2	Fan control for determining a fan speed that is closer to an optimal fan speed based on an amount of measured change in system power consumption and temperature of a processor In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes running a cooling fan within a computer at low speed while the computer is in low temperature operations (e.g., idle). The operation of the cooling fan may reduce CPU temperature enough to decrease CPU leakage power, offsetting the power consumption of the fan, and possibly resulting in a net system power reduction. The benefit at the platform level increases further when considering the low efficiency of voltage regulation (VR) in this lower power regime, and potentially reductions in other components (e.g., graphics processor). The optimal fan speed is the speed at which the overall system power is reduced the most (e.g., CPU power savings is greater than fan power utilized). The optimal temperature may be determined dynamically during operation or may be determined in manufacturing and applied statically during operation.
US08868940B2	Systems apparatus and method for blocking power transition in response to a comparision with present system state Systems, apparatus, and methods are disclosed for blocking a power-transition. The method discloses: receiving a power-transition signal; monitoring a present-state of the computer; comparing the present-state of the computer, to a predetermined set of blocked power-transition states; and blocking the power-transition signal from being effected, if the present-state of the computer corresponds to one of the blocked power-transition states. The system discloses: blocked power-transition states; a power control module, and a power control circuit. The apparatus discloses: a blocking switch, and a power control module.
US08868932B2	Apparatus for selecting and displaying a file associated with a current geographic location An apparatus includes a storage device, a position comparison processor coupled to the at least one storage device, and a display coupled to the position comparison processor. A plurality of files is stored on the storage device, wherein each file contains at least one item of confidential information and wherein a geographic location of use is associated with the file. The position comparison processor compares a current geographic location with each of the geographic locations of use associated with the plurality of files and the display displays contents of a selected file, wherein the geographic location of use associated with the selected file matches the current geographic location.
US08868930B2	Systems and methods for transformation of logical data objects for storage Systems and methods for encrypting a plaintext logical data object for storage in a storage device operable with at least one storage protocol, creating, reading, writing, optimization and restoring thereof. Encrypting the plaintext logical data object comprises creating in the storage device an encrypted logical data object comprising a header and one or more allocated encrypted sections with predefined size; encrypting one or more sequentially obtained chunks of plaintext data corresponding to the plaintext logical data object thus giving rise to the encrypted data chunks; and sequentially accommodating the processed data chunks into said encrypted sections in accordance with an order said chunks received, wherein said encrypted sections serve as atomic elements of encryption/decryption operations during input/output transactions on the logical data object.
US08868914B2	System and methods for distributing trusted time Systems and methods for distributing trusted time, including trusted dates with digital data files, which are accessed, created, modified, received, or transmitted by devices that include a trusted time source in a tamperproof environment. The system includes one or more subsystems for providing trusted time for a moment in time. The trusted time source may be a real time clock, which is not resettable, is independent of any system clock of the devices, and where one or more devices may contribute to the distribution of trusted time among each other.
US08868912B2	Method and apparatus for establishing a security association A method for establishing a security association between a client and a service node for the purpose of pushing information from the service node to the client, where the client and a key server share a base secret. The method comprises sending a request for generation and provision of a service key from the service node to a key server, the request identifying the client and the service node, generating a service key at the key server using the identities of the client and the service node, the base secret, and additional information, and sending the service key to the service node together with said additional information, forwarding said additional information from the service node to the client, and at the client, generating said service key using the received additional information and the base key. A similar approach may be used to provide p2p key management.
US08868906B2	Signature specification for encrypted packet streams Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for specifying a signature for an encrypted packet stream. One method receives the encrypted stream of packets, and encryption obscures the contents of a packet. A signature for insertion into the stream of packets is specified, and the signature identifies a type of data encrypted within the stream of packets. The signature identifies the contents of the packet despite the encryption obscuring the contents.
US08868905B2	Adaptive document redaction Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for adaptive document redaction. A container is generated comprising a set of redacted documents corresponding to an original document, each redacted document having a level of redaction corresponding to a viewing location, and a header comprising encryption information for each redacted document in the set of redacted documents. A request to view the original document is received from a requesting device. The container is transmitted to the requesting device. A request for additional encryption information for a redacted document from the set of redacted documents is received from the requesting device, wherein the redacted document comprises a level of redaction for a viewing location that is equal to a location of the requesting device. The additional encryption information is transmitted to the requesting device.
US08868904B2	Information processing device, disc, information processing method, and program A configuration is provided wherein usage restrictions of an application are determined in accordance with timestamps. A certificate revocation list (CRL) in which the revocation information of a content owner who is a providing entity of an application program recorded in a disc is recorded is referred to verify whether or not a content owner identifier recorded in an application certificate is included in the CRL, and in the case that the content owner identifier is included in the CRL, comparison between a timestamp stored in a content certificate and a CRL timestamp is executed, and in the case that the content certificate timestamp has date data equal to or later than the CRL timestamp, utilization processing of the application program is prohibited or restricted. According to the present configuration, a configuration is realized wherein an unrevoked application is not subjected to utilization restriction, and only a revoked application is subjected to utilization restriction.
US08868902B1	Characteristically shaped colorgram tokens in mobile transactions A transaction security process includes authentication and identification parts for pushing an encrypted colorgram for user authentication and persona descriptors for user identification from a transaction server to a first personal trusted device. A decryption of the colorgram is displayed on the first personal trusted device. An image is captured by a second personal trusted device. An encryption of the image captured from the second personal trusted device is uploaded to the transaction server. The persona descriptors are used to build a composite rendering for identification of the first user to the second user. The second user clicks “OK” if they recognize the composite drawing as a reasonable persona of the first user.
US08868899B2	System and method for switching between environments in a multi-environment operating system Various embodiments of the present invention provide a mobile computing device that operates multiple, co-existing and independent operating system environments on a common kernel. A booting process for initiating a multiple operating system environment is also provided. Additionally, various embodiments of the present invention include processes for managing a switch between one operating system environment to a second operating system environment.
US08868892B2	Method and apparatus for selective heating for electronic components of a handheld device A method and apparatus for thermal management of components and functional subsystems of a handheld device, including for a peripheral device electrically coupled to thereto. A power source provides power to a plurality of functional subsystems of the handheld device and optionally the peripheral device. The components and functional subsystems comprise predetermined thermal signatures.
US08868881B2	Data translation system and method A data translation system and method. This invention provides a reverse approach to implement a M bit input to N bit output cumulative/monotonic transfer function, (where M>N) by a (2N)×M bit memory instead of the conventional (2M)×N bit memory. The invention offers substantial circuit size savings without compromising on transfer function resolution and is independent of transfer function mapping algorithms. The M bit memory content of the reverse LUT contains input video group information for each output level and the (2**N) addresses of the reverse LUT represent the corresponding transfer function output levels. This data to address representation of the input to output relationship is exactly opposite to the conventional address to data format. Search and compare methods are employed to locate the input video group that the incoming video belongs to and the associated address of the reverse LUT represents the output.
US08868879B2	System on chip with reconfigurable SRAM A system on chip includes a random access memory, a read-only memory, and a processor. The processor is configured to, during a development phase of the system on chip, read program code from the random access memory and execute the program code. The program code is developed during the development phase until a completed version of the program code is reached. The processor is configured to, during an operational phase of the system on chip, (i) read the completed version from the read-only memory, (ii) execute the completed version, and (iii) cache data in the random access memory. The processor is configured to, during the operational phase and in response to an improvement to the completed version of the program code being developed, (i) read program code corresponding to the improvement from the random access memory, and (ii) read remaining portions of the completed version from the read-only memory.
US08868878B2	Disk array system and hard disk drive expansion method thereof Even if an arbitrary hard disk drive is added, the hard disk drive is operated in a specific operation mode suited for that hard disk drive.As triggered by attachment of a hard disk drive to a disk adapter, a processor operates the hard disk drive in a predetermined operation mode based on predetermined parameter information that has been prepared in advance. The hard disk drive stores, in advance, particular parameter information including information about the specific operation mode suited for operation. The processor reads the particular parameter information from the hard disk drive in the predetermined operation mode and operates the hard disk drive in the specific operation mode based on the particular parameter information.
US08868877B2	Creating encrypted storage volumes based on thin-provisioning mode information Methods and systems for thin provisioned storage. A storage array controller may materialize LUN extents, by filling extents with random data only as necessary at materialization time. Encryption software may recognize operation on a thin provisioned LUN having extents that are pre-filled and/or re-materialized on next use.
US08868825B1	Nonrepeating identifiers in an address space of a non-volatile solid-state storage A method of applying an address space to data storage in a non-volatile solid-state storage is provided. The method includes receiving a plurality of portions of user data for storage in the non-volatile solid-state storage and assigning to each successive one of the plurality of portions of user data one of a plurality of sequential, nonrepeating addresses of an address space. The address range of the address space exceeds a maximum number of addresses expected to be applied during a lifespan of the non-volatile solid-state storage. The method includes writing each of the plurality of portions of user data to the non-volatile solid-state storage such that each of the plurality of portions of user data is identified and locatable for reading via the one of the plurality of sequential, nonrepeating addresses of the address space.
US08868823B2	Data storage apparatus and method of calibrating memory According to one embodiment, a data storage apparatus includes an interface module and a controller. The interface module is configured to control rewritable nonvolatile memories provided for the respective channels. The controller is configured to write calibration data to the nonvolatile memories of any channel designated, through the interface module at the same time, in order to perform calibration.
US08868805B2	Storage device and control method for storage device A storage device, which is to be connected with hosts each having host-side communication ports and a multipath driver, includes logical storage units; communication ports; a driver type judging part that stores into a storage, when a prescribed SCSI command that a non-TPGS-compliant multipath driver does not transmit is received from a host by one of the communication ports, information indicating that the TPGS-compliant multipath driver is used in the host; and a command processing part, with respect to a SCSI command received via a communication path that is set as a standby path, judges by referring to the storage whether the TPGS compliant multipath driver is used in a host that transmitted the SCSI command, and, if the TPGS compliant multipath driver is not used in the host, processes the SCSI command assuming that the communication path is not the standby path.
US08868804B2	Unified I/O adapter Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with a unified hybrid input/output adapter are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes an Input/Output (I/O) interconnect configured to connect with a host device and to provide communications with the host device. The apparatus also includes a network adapter connected to the I/O interconnect and configured to communicate with a network storage. The apparatus includes a host adapter connected to the I/O interconnect and configured to communicate with a first storage device and a second storage device. The first storage device has a higher latency than the second storage device. The apparatus further includes a storage logic configured to control the I/O interconnect to cause storage access requests from the host device to be cached in the second storage device via the host adapter.
US08868798B1	Techniques for modeling disk performance Described are techniques for determining whether to move data between devices. A first cost metric is determined for a first device and a second device. At least one portion of data is selected for movement from one of the first device and the second device to another of the first device and the second device. A second cost metric is determined for the first device and the second device based on moving said at least one portion of data between said first device and said second device. It is determined using the first cost metric and the second cost metric whether to move the at least one portion of data.
US08868787B2	Incremental downlink of flight information A method for providing flight information to a ground server is provided. The flight information is received from an aircraft system. The flight information is converted into a graphical representation and a plurality of properties associated with the flight information. The graphical representation and the plurality of properties is stored. The graphical representation and the plurality of properties is processed to generate a compressed graphical representation and plurality of properties having a compressed file size. The compressed plurality of properties is transmitted to the ground server.
US08868785B1	Method and apparatus for displaying multimedia content A method and apparatus for displaying multimedia content on a display device is disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer implemented method receives a web page comprising multimedia content for display upon a display device and detects non-displayable content within the multimedia content. Upon detecting the non-displayable content, the method requests transcoding for only the non-displayable content and receives multimedia data transcoded from the non-displayable content. The method displays the web page using content decoded from the multimedia data to replace the non-displayable content.
US08868779B2	Method and apparatus to accomplish peer-to-peer application data routing between service consumers and service providers within a service oriented architecture A Peer-to-Peer Application Data Routing Fabric is described. The Fabric provides routing between endpoints resident in peer nodes of a Service Oriented Architecture where the routing is based on endpoint presence, availability, status, and location to satisfy the requirements of fault tolerance and load balancing among homogenous endpoints; or routing by address among instances of differing type. In the preferred embodiment of the Fabric, the Session Initiation Protocol components, interactions and transport mechanisms are leveraged and extended.
US08868754B1	Dynamically populating an identity-correlation data store A method and apparatus for detecting a violation of a data loss prevention (DLP) policy and correlating an external identifier of an incident record of the violation to a unique internal identifier using an identity-correlation data store are described.
US08868753B2	System of redundantly clustered machines to provide failover mechanisms for mobile traffic management and network resource conservation Systems of redundantly clustered machines to provide failover mechanisms for mobile traffic management and network resource conservation are disclosed. One embodiment includes a system of redundantly clustered machines to provide failover mechanisms for mobile traffic management and network resource conservation including, a first set of redundantly clustered machines coupled to a second set of redundantly clustered machines via a common repository node where each of the first and second set of redundantly clustered machines function independently to provide mobile traffic management or network resource conservation services. The first and second set of redundantly clustered machines can be physically located in different data centers or in the same data center.
US08868746B2	Allocation of central application resources based on social agreements Described is a method for allocating a central application resource. Upon a determination that a user has depleted an allocation of the resource, a request for an additional allocation of the resource is generated. The user is a member of a group of users that is a subset of all users of the central application resource. After determining that the request is valid according to a policy defining rules for allocation relevant to the user, the additional allocation is provided to the user. An allocation of the resource is reduced for one or more other users in the group so that a total allocation of the resource for the group remains unchanged.
US08868738B2	Automatic server position determination A method is provided for determining the location of a target computer device, such as a server in an array of interconnected servers. In one embodiment, the method comprises selecting a first server defining a first point of an axis of a reference coordinate system and selecting a second server defining a second point of the axis. A first cable is connected from the target server to the first server and a second cable is connected from the target server to the second server. The location of the target server is determined according to the length of the first cable, the length of the second cable, and the locations of the first and second servers. The axis may be designated using an axis cable, by connecting a first end of the axis cable to the first server and connecting a second end of the axis cable to the second server.
US08868735B2	Wide area network optimization In one embodiment, a method includes receiving application traffic at a network device from one or more endpoints, measuring performance of applications at the network device, optimizing TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) applications and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) applications based on the measured performance and policy input received at the network device, queuing the application traffic at the network device such that the application traffic shares available bandwidth in accordance with the measured performance and the policy input, and transmitting the application traffic over a wide area network. An apparatus is also disclosed.
US08868729B2	Information collection device, information collection program, and method An information collection device acquires information from a plurality of devices connected through a network. The information collection device includes: a first addition unit that adds, for each of the devices, an information collection duration required to collect information of the devices to a communication duration required to communicate with the devices; a second addition unit that adds a maximum duration among the durations by addition of the first addition unit to a predetermined time to obtain a first time; a subtraction unit that subtracts the information collection duration of each of the devices from the first time; a first setting unit that sets a time obtained by the subtraction unit as a second time that is when information collection starts at each of the devices; and an acquisition unit that acquires information obtained by the information collection that starts at the second time.
US08868728B2	Systems and methods for detecting and investigating insider fraud Systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for detecting insider fraud. One method includes identifying one or more insider threat detection rules for an enterprise and obtaining behavioral data for an enterprise insider from multiple behavioral data sources. The enterprise is associated with a plurality of enterprise insiders, and the behavioral data describes at least one action of the first enterprise insider. The method further includes determining a threat score for the first enterprise insider based on the behavioral data for the first enterprise insider and one or more of the insider threat detection rules and initiating, when the threat score satisfies a threat threshold, one or more protective actions.
US08868722B2	Monitoring activity on a computer A mechanism of monitoring activity on a computer which may be applied to measuring the performance of the computer. The computer is configured to track a first set of information relating to at least a first occurrence of at least one scenario on the computer. At least some of the first set of information is evaluated to make a determination about the first occurrence of the scenario. Based on that determination, the computer may be configured to track a second set of information relating to at least a second occurrence of the scenario on the computer, in which the second set of information includes at least some types of information not tracked in the first set of information. The second set of information can then be evaluated.
US08868713B2	Method and apparatus providing a user interface for a request-oriented service architecture An approach for providing a request in a request-oriented service architecture is described. A user interface is presented. A verb-noun request based on an input into a user interface causes generation of a transaction based on a feature, declaration information, an action to be performed on the feature, and a current state of the feature. A response is received indicating that the current state of the feature is updated, at least in part, by the transaction. An indication relating to the response is presented by the user interface.
US08868712B2	Effective visualization of an information technology environment through social scoring According to one embodiment, a method may include providing a representation of each of a plurality of nodes of an information technology (IT) environment to a plurality of administrators responsible for maintaining the IT environment. A plurality of scores for each of two or more of the plurality of nodes may be received. Each score may provide an assessment of a respective node of the plurality of nodes. One or more display characteristics may be determined for each node for which one or more scores was received. The display characteristics may comprise a size of a respective node that is based on the scores received for the respective node. The display characteristics may be provided to at least one administrator of the plurality of administrators responsible for maintaining the IT environment.
US08868706B2	Vendor gateway technology Apparatus and methods for communicating between a gateway server and a plurality of other servers. The apparatus and methods may involve receiving information requests from the plurality of other servers. Each of the plurality of other servers may provide a platform for a different development environment. The apparatus and methods may further involve using the gateway server to generate an identification tag for each information request received from each of the plurality of other servers. The approved methods may include receiving a response to such information requests. In addition, the apparatus and methods may include associating the response received to the information request to which the response is responsive.
US08868705B2	Agile network protocol for secure communications using secure domain names A method is used to transparently create an encrypted communications channel between a client device and a target device. Each device is configured to allow audio/video communications between the client and target devices over the encrypted communications channel once the encrypted communications channel is created. The method comprises receiving from the client device a request for a network address associated with the target device, determining whether the request is requesting access to a device that accepts an encrypted channel connection with the client device, and in response to determining that the request is requesting access to a device that accepts an encrypted communications channel connection with the client device, providing provisioning information required to initiate the creation of the encrypted communications channel between the client device and the target device such that the encrypted communications channel supports secure audio/video communications transmitted between the two devices.
US08868699B2	Minimum intervention authentication of heterogeneous network technologies (MIAHNT) Methods and systems for enabling communication of information within a network are disclosed herein and comprise receiving at a first communication device located within a network, configuration information from a network service provider for configuring a plurality of communication devices located within said network. The first communication device located within the network can be configured based on at least a portion of the received configuration information. In response to a user input at a second communication device located within the network, at least a portion of the received configuration information can be communicated from the first communication device to the second communication device located within the network. The network service provider can be coupled to the first communication device via a wired connection. The network can comprise a wireless network.
US08868698B2	Establishing a secure wireless network with minimum human intervention Techniques for automatically configuring necessary parameters of a device to be coupled to a network with minimum human intervention are disclosed. In one embodiment, a wired and/or wireless Ad-hoc network is established to facilitate communications among a group of devices. When a new device is added to the network, a rudimentary communication path is initially established between one of the devices in the network and the new device such that necessary parameters (e.g., SSID, WEP security, channel frequency) can be exchanged for the new device to function properly in the network. To ensure the parameters are exchanged in a secure fashion, an additional public security procedure can be used between the two devices.
US08868696B2	Registration notification for mobile device management System(s) and method(s) are provided for notification of registration of a mobile device with femto coverage for firmware content management. An attachment component that administers location of mobile devices or a femto access point (AP) conveys a notification to a network platform that manages firmware content updates when a mobile device for which firmware update is available hands off from wireless macro coverage onto femto coverage through the femto AP. The notification is triggered in response to firmware update notification received by the attachment component, or an update flag received by the femto AP. Upon reception of the notification, to exploit wireline bandwidth, the network platform delivers firmware content(s) update through backhaul link to the femto AP to which the mobile device is registered. Femto APs not provisioned to serve a mobile device can be incentivized to authorize the mobile device for coverage and thus facilitate firmware updates.
US08868695B2	Configuring a generic computing device utilizing specific computing device operation information A method begins with the specific computing device token sending a distributed storage network (DSN) access request to DSN memory via the generic computing device. The DSN access request identifies specific computing device operation information that is stored as one or more of-sets of encoded data slices in the DSN memory. The method continues with the specific computing device token receiving the one or more of sets of encoded data slices from the DSN memory via the generic computing device and decoding the one or more of sets of encoded data slices to retrieve the specific computing device operation information. The method continues with enabling the generic computing device to function as a specific computing device in accordance with the specific computing device operation information.
US08868691B2	Method and system for processing published content on the internet Disclosed is a method for processing content published on-line so as to identify each item in a unique manner. In some implementations, an RSS feed is received from a publisher and a unique identifier is identified for each item in the feed. Each item then has third party content or advertisements associated with the item based on the unique identifier. The feed is then stored and, when appropriate, updated. The augmented feed, which contains the third party content and the items in the feed, is provided to user devices.
US08868682B2	Tracker in P2P systems with DVD functionalities A method of optimizing the design of a Tracker in P2P applications to support DVD features, the method including determining for each peer and video operation the time T and jump point Pj, generating a hash key HKj for each peer, the hash key having a value Kj=(Pj−T)/C, where C>=1 is the granularity of the system, and grouping the peers with the same hash-key, where the system is designed to provide good viewer experience while supporting DVD features like pause, forward and backward jump operations.
US08868673B2	Optimized data communications in a parallel computer A parallel computer includes nodes that include a network adapter that couples the node in a point-to-point network and supports communications in opposite directions of each dimension. Optimized communications include: receiving, by a network adapter of a receiving compute node, a packet—from a source direction—that specifies a destination node and deposit hints. Each hint is associated with a direction within which the packet is to be deposited. If a hint indicates the packet to be deposited in the opposite direction: the adapter delivers the packet to an application on the receiving node; forwards the packet to a next node in the opposite direction if the receiving node is not the destination; and forwards the packet to a node in a direction of a subsequent dimension if the hints indicate that the packet is to be deposited in the direction of the subsequent dimension.
US08868668B2	Self-management of group email reception A method for self-managing group membership is disclosed. The method has a portion operating on a client terminal. The client-side portion includes determining if an email received at an email address is an intra-organizational email from a mailbox of a group. Additionally, the method provides a graphical interface element when the received email is determined to be an intra-organizational email from a mailbox of a group. The graphical interface element is configured to selectablely transmit a remove instruction to the group. Moreover, the method has a portion operating on a server. The server-side portion includes receiving the remove instruction; identifying a sender of the remove instruction; locating the sender in the group member list; and unsubscribing the sender from the group member list.
US08868664B2	Systems and methods for registering and managing domain names and e-mail addresses via a resource-limited interface Disclosed embodiments provide domain name registration, e-mail registration, e-mail forwarding, and other services via resource-limited interfaces, such as SMS-based services. Domain names may be requested, registered, and managed, and e-mail addresses may be requested and forwarding options selected by a user by way of a resource-limited device or protocol. E-mails may be provided to a user over an e-mail-to-SMS forwarding system.
US08868660B2	Electronic communication work flow manager system, method and computer program product The present invention provides systems, methods and a computer program product for the management of electronic work items by providing uniform methodology across an enterprise. Work items are electronically received by an organization and routed to available users depending upon the business rules of the organization and certain parameters of the work items. Service level commitments may be assigned, tracked and reported as capturing standard reporting across the enterprise specifically with respect to electronic work items.
US08868655B2	User affiliations spanning multiple virtual spaces Affiliations between users may be facilitated across multiple virtual spaces accessible via virtual environments. Affiliations may be established within individual ones of two or more virtual spaces. A given affiliation within a given virtual space may include a discrete group of users with a relationship having a functional significance within the given virtual space. The affiliations may include a first affiliation within a first virtual space between a group of users including a first user and a second user. A recommendation may be provided for potential affiliations to users in the two or more virtual spaces such that responsive to the first user having an account in a second virtual space, and responsive to the second user creating an account in the second virtual space, the first user may be recommended to the second user for a potential affiliation in the second virtual space based on the first affiliation.
US08868643B2	Methods and apparatus to collect process control data Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to collect process control data are disclosed. An example method to collect process control data includes registering an electronic device description describing a parameter to be measured and a measurement sampling rate, measuring the parameter based on the measurement sampling rate, storing data representative of the measured parameter in a data structure, and transferring data in the data structure to a first process control device via a process control network in response to at least one of a request for the data, a condition associated with the data, or an event associated with the data.
US08868640B2	System and method for centralized retrieval and delivery of content to mobile devices using a server based RSS feed A system, server, and method are provided for delivering at least one web feed to at least one wireless device. The server subscribes to the at least one web feed. The server has a processor connected to a memory with at least one module stored in the memory for execution by the processor. The server is configured to: monitor the web feed status for an expiration of a refresh time; retrieve new content from the web feed upon expiry of the refresh time; process the new content and package the processed new content as a content package for delivery to the wireless device; and send the content package to the wireless device as a push delivery.
US08868637B2	Page rendering for dynamic web pages In one embodiment, in response to the detection of an event initiated in connection with a first structured document rendered by a first client application executing on a host, the event related to a target structured document, a method includes receiving, by executable code segment embedded in with the first structured document and executing within the context of the first client application, a first request for resources, related to the target structured document, generated by the first client application; formulating and transmitting, by the executable code segment, a second request related to the target structured document to a remote server; accessing, by the executable code segment, one or more resources related to the target structured document; and rendering, by the executable code segment, content rendered by the first client application based at least in part on the one or more accessed resources.
US08868633B2	Method and circuitry for square root determination A method, performed by a processor, of determining a square root using a single processor cycle per iteration is described. The method includes, in a single cycle: obtaining, from a stored lookup table, a quotient digit and a square of the quotient digit; retrieving a current solution; and determining a new solution using the current solution and the quotient digit. Circuitry configured to perform the method is described.
US08868628B2	Sharing computer data among computers Sharing computer data among computers, including identifying by a user through a user interface on a first computer at least one object of a file system to be shared through a second computer; creating by a sharing file system generator on the first computer a sharing file system; installing by the sharing file system generator in the sharing file system the object to be shared; and exposing the object to be shared from the sharing file system to a second computer through a Universal Serial Bus (‘USB’) connection between the first computer and the second computer.
US08868623B2	Enhanced garbage collection in a multi-node environment Embodiments of the invention enhance a garbage collection process running on a parallel system or distributed computing environment. Using a garbage collector in such an environment allows a more in-depth analysis to be performed than is possible on other systems. This is because the number of compute nodes present in many parallel systems, and the connections between them, allows the overhead of doing advanced analysis to be spread across the nodes and the results of that analysis to be shared among the nodes.
US08868617B2	Common connection definitions for database clients A system and method for connection of an application program to its corresponding database in a relational database system environment. Rather than embedding connection configuration information or properties in an application program, connection configurations are stored in a connection configuration repository. The connection configuration repository is likewise stored in a database within the relational database system environment. The connection configuration information stored in the configuration repository may be updated, revised, deleted or assembled into groups/subgroups, without affecting the application programs.
US08868596B2	Set based item recommendation system A system for generating one or more recommended items for a user receives a target items set for the user which includes two or more target items. The system then queries a database of a plurality of related items sets using the target items set, where each related items set comprises a plurality of related items. In response to the querying, the system retrieves one or more similar items sets from the plurality of related item sets, each similar items set being similar to the target items set. The system then performs a union of the similar items sets to generate the recommended items.
US08868591B1	Modifying a user query to improve the results The present invention relates to the identification of alternative suggestions which potentially improve on a given query suggestion, without being perceived by a user as being offensively different from the user's query. The alternative suggestions may for example be different query formulations that relate to the same topic as that of the given query suggestion. The technology disclosed uses similarity screening of the given query suggestion against unique queries which do not include the given query suggestion as a prefix, in conjunction with query utility scores representing prior user response to the unique queries.
US08868585B2	Contents replay apparatus and contents replay method To enable a lot of audio data and image data such as a still image and a moving image to be effectively and efficiently used. When audio data accumulated in a material database 21 is replayed, a controller 10 acquires the metadata added to the audio data to be replayed from the material database, refer to the metadata of image data based on the above metadata to thereby search image data intimately related to the audio data, controls a voice replay system such as an audio decoder 32 and the like and an image replay system such as an image decoder 31 and the like, and replay the audio data to be replayed and the searched image data in relation with each other.
US08868584B2	Compression pattern matching Systems and methods are provided for data comparisons in a compression algorithm to optimize the compression of data. An exemplary method includes receiving input data. The method further includes generating a hash table address for the input data. The method further includes obtaining a pointer associated with the hash table address. The method further includes reading a data library with the pointer to obtain an associated piece of historical data. The method further includes comparing the historical data to the input data to determine a match.
US08868580B2	Data profiling Processing data includes profiling data from a data source, including reading the data from the data source, computing summary data characterizing the data while reading the data, and storing profile information that is based on the summary data. The data is then processed from the data source. This processing includes accessing the stored profile information and processing the data according to the accessed profile information.
US08868568B2	Detecting associates Detecting, for a content item, associated preference events is disclosed. For the content item, a plurality of preference events from a plurality of users is received. The received preference events are accumulated. Associated events are detected. The effect of the events is reduced when assigning a status to the item.
US08868566B2	Electronic communication messaging Systems, methods, and apparatus related to suggesting components of an electronic communication. A component input associated with an electronic communication is received. Suggested recipient address sets of the electronic communication based on previous electronic communications associated with the component input are identified and presented to a user for selection.
US08868565B1	Calibrating click duration according to context Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining short click measures and long click measures on a per-category basis. In one aspect, a method includes determining, for each of a set of categories, a respective first threshold click duration that is a long click duration that defines a period of time for which click durations resulting from selections of resources that belong to the category and that meet the first threshold click duration are classified as long clicks, and a respective second threshold click duration is a short click duration that defines a period of time for which click durations resulting from selections of resources that belong to the category and that do not meet the second threshold click duration are classified as short clicks.
US08868562B2	Identification of semantic relationships within reported speech Methods and computer-readable media for associating words or groups of words distilled from content, such as reported speech or an attitude report, of a document to form semantic relationships collectively used to generate a semantic representation of the content are provided. Semantic representations may include elements identified or parsed from a text portion of the content, the elements of which may be associated with other elements that share a semantic relationship, such as an agent, location, or topic relationship. Relationships may also be developed by associating one element that is in relation to, or is about, another element, thereby allowing for rapid and effective comparison of associations found in a semantic representation with associations derived from queries. The semantic relationships may be determined based on semantic information, such as potential meanings and grammatical functions of each element within the text portion of the content.
US08868558B2	Quote-based search A user search for quotes attributable to people or information regarding the quotes is fulfilled by providing the relevant information from a quote index. The quote index is built from a data store comprising articles that include quotes given by people. Quotes are extracted from the articles along with the relevant attributes such as the keywords, topics and entities. The extracted keywords, topics and entities are indexed with unique identifiers. A quote index is built by storing the quotes along with the keywords, topics and related entities. Quotes or information associated with the quotes based on various criteria is retrieved and presented in different formats.
US08868557B2	Actionable email documents A received reply email document enables some action to be effectuated using data included in the email document responsive to field identifiers associated with the data and corresponding to fields of metadata. The associated field identifiers that correspond to known fields of the metadata provide some expectation as to the semantic meaning and/or syntactic constraints of the data to which the field identifiers are associated. In a described implementation, an actionable email documents module creates an email document having blocks that are mapped to fields of metadata. The email document is transmitted to one or more recipients. Each recipient adds data to the blocks so that the data becomes mapped to the fields of the metadata. The recipients return a reply email document having the field-mapped data. Upon receipt, the module can effectuate some action using the field-mapped data responsive to the mappings.
US08868556B2	Method and device for tagging a document There are disclosed a method and a device for tagging a document. The method includes the steps of acquiring structural information of the document, retrieving a content block list corresponding to a user-input tag, comparing blocks in the structural information with blocks in the content block list, to obtain similar blocks, and annotating the user-input tag at positions, which correspond to the similar blocks, in the document.
US08868547B2	Programming content on a device Discovering content on a device. Content stored on a device can be examined or searched based on the programming of channels that are available to the device. The content can be searched using other rules related to user preferences. Based on the results of the examination of the content, playlists are generated. Each playlist includes content from the device that matches or partially matches the content associated with one of the channels. Using the playlists, a user can load content from their device that has a theme consistent with a particular channel. The playlists can also be used to tune to the channels associated with the playlists and thereby discover the content on those channels.
US08868544B2	Using relational structures to create and support a cube within a relational database system A method and mechanism for performing an operation based on multidimensional data in a relational database. A first query is submitted to a relational database engine of the relational database management system, thereby causing a relational cube to be generated. The first query includes instructions to select a portion of multidimensional data for inclusion in the relational cube. The first query includes instructions to group the selected portion of multidimensional data using at least two or more levels of granularity of at least one dimension. The first query also includes instructions to generate a materialized view. Based on a received request for an operation, a second query is submitted to the relational database engine for execution against the relational cube, thereby causing the operation to be performed.
US08868536B1	Real time map spam detection A likelihood that a map listing is spam is determined by referencing identifying information associated with the listing. The determination is made in real-time such that an identifying term associated with the map listing that has not previously been encountered may be recorded and made available instantly to identify other, correlated terms. These pair-wise correlations are used to generate a pattern of heuristics that identifies a hierarchy of which pairs of map listing terms most commonly appear together. The likelihood that the map listing is a legitimate listing increases for those pairs of key words that occur together in a map listing. The value more accurately reflects the likelihood that the map listing is legitimate as more edits to the listing are received. If the map listing is determined to be likely spam, the listing is removed from a group of searchable listings.
US08868533B2	Method and apparatus for intelligent capture of document object model events A monitoring system intelligently captures Document Object Model (DOM) events. The DOM events may provide state information that may not usually be captured during a web session. To reduce processing bandwidth, content identifiers may be used to represent some DOM events. Checkpoints may be identified during the web session and a current state of the webpage may be captured to provide replay synchronization. Different data may be captured based on a sequence and timing of the DOM events during the original web session. Data exchanged with third party websites also may be selectively captured to provide a more through simulation of the original web session.
US08868523B2	File server for migration of file and method for migrating file A file server stores storage management information and migration policy information. The storage management information includes information that indicates a storage attribute for each storage apparatus. The migration policy information includes a plurality of information sets. Each of the information sets includes information that indicates a condition of a file attribute and information that indicates a condition of a storage attribute of a storage apparatus that is a migration destination. The file server specifies a migration target file, specifies a storage apparatus that conforms to the storage attribute condition indicated by the information set that includes the information indicating a condition of a file attribute that conforms to that of a file attribute of a target file based on the storage management information, and migrates a target file from a storage apparatus that has stored the target file to the storage apparatus that has been specified.
US08868522B1	Updating geographic data based on a transaction Systems and methods for updating geographic data based on a transaction are provided. In some aspects, one or more transaction records associated with a business are accessed from a memory. Each transaction record identifies a transaction time, geographic location data, and transaction information. A geocoded record of the business is selected to update, based on the geographic location data of the one or more transaction records. The selected geocoded record is updated based on at least one of the transaction time or the transaction information identified in the transaction records.
US08868521B2	Method for improving security in distribution of electronic documents In the distribution of electronic documents within an organization or across the perimeter of the organization, security is an important issue as the documents may be sensitive to a larger and a smaller degree. The distribution specifically takes place between individual persons and groups of persons either within or outside the organization, and on data communication networks including both intranets and extranets. In order to improve the security communication paths are determined for each distributed document on the basis of the set of all mappings of communication relations between senders or documents providers and all potential and actual recipients of the documents, including temporal parameters. Determined communication paths are used to compute a degree of sensitivity for the document, and this degree of sensitivity is used to monitor and limit the distribution of the document in compliance with an established security scheme for the organization.
US08868518B2	Processing of streaming data with keyed aggregation Keyed aggregation is used in the processing of streaming data to streamline processing to provide higher throughput and decreased use of resources. The most recent event for each unique replacement key value(s) is maintained. In response to an incoming event having a same key as a previous event, the effect on an aggregation of the previous event is removed. The aggregation is then updated with one or more values from the arriving event and the updated aggregation is output.
US08868504B2	Database system with active standby and nodes A system includes an active node and a standby node and zero or more replica nodes. Each of the nodes includes a database system, such as an in-memory database system. Client updates applied to the active node are written through to the standby node, and the standby node writes the updates through to a primary database and updates the replica nodes. Commit ticket numbers tag entries in transaction logs and are used to facilitate recovery if either of the active node or the standby node fails. Updates applied to the primary database are autorefreshed to the active node and written through by the active node to the standby node which propagates the updates to the replica nodes. Bookmarks are used to track updated records of the primary database and are used to facilitate recovery if either of the active node or the standby node fails.
US08868500B2	Data synchronization Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for data synchronization. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving a knowledge vector from a first device of the pair of devices, the knowledge vector identifying data items and latest changes to the data items known to the peer device; comparing, at a second device of the pair of devices, the received knowledge vector with a local knowledge vector for changes unknown to the first device; and sending a list of changes to the first device.
US08868499B2	Method and system for pushing data to subscribers in an on-demand service In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for pushing data, which maybe associated with documents that are being tracked, in an on-demand service. These mechanisms and methods for pushing data in an on-demand service can enable subscriptions to elements associated with the documents being shared. As a result of the subscription the user may be notified that a document associated with the subscription has been changed (e.g., altered). In an embodiment, the subscription may be forced on a user.
US08868497B2	Correlation aware synchronization for near real-time decision support A query handler may be configured to receive a query which is applicable against different combinations of a plurality of remote databases and a corresponding plurality of replica databases including at least some replicated data of respective ones of the remote databases, wherein the query arrives at a plurality of query arrival times and is executed at a plurality of query execution times. A replication manager may be configured to execute a synchronization plan for at least one selected replica database in which a selected synchronization timestamp of the at least one selected replica database is updated to a target synchronization timestamp, wherein the synchronization occurs during a synchronization processing time. A synchronization scheduler may be configured to schedule the synchronization plan to increase an information value of a query response, including selecting the target synchronization timestamp including relating the synchronization processing time to a selected query execution time.
US08868495B2	System and method for indexing user data on storage systems A system and method for indexing user data on storage systems is provided. A client of the storage system executes a novel client side agent that is configured to detect changes to data stored by the client on the storage system. In response to detecting that data has been modified, the agent examines modified data containers and parses the modified data to identify new and/or modified index terms or the creation/deletion of data containers. Once the data has been parsed by the agent to identify new/modified index terms, the parsed data is transmitted from the agent to a management module executing on a management server. The management module receives the parsed data and updates a search database using the received parsed data.
US08868483B2	Database load engine The invention described herein provides a load engine and method for efficiently accomplishing mass conversions of customer data into an existing customer database. In particular, the method incorporates existing business rules for validating new customer data and for creating tables for the new customer data, creates load files for the new customer data, and provides a means for running multi-threaded data loads of the new customer data tables onto an existing customer database.
US08868479B2	Natural language parsers to normalize addresses for geocoding The present invention provides a technique for building natural language parsers by implementing a country and/or jurisdiction specific set of training data that is automatically converted during a build phase to a respective predictive model, i.e., an automated country specific natural language parser. The predictive model can be used without the training data to quantify any input address. This model may be included as part of a larger Geographic Information System (GIS) data-set or as a stand alone quantifier. The build phase may also be run on demand and the resultant predictive model kept in temporary storage for immediate use.
US08868474B2	Anomaly detection for cloud monitoring Technologies are presented for anomaly detection in a cloud environment using a sparsity measure. In some examples, cloud metric data may be gathered and processed into a dictionary base. Linear transform coefficients for a test sample may then be calculated from the dictionary base using l1-norm minimization. A sparsity measure may then be computed from the linear transform coefficients. If the sparsity measure does not exceed a predefined threshold, the test sample may be determined as anomalous.
US08868472B1	Confidence scoring in predictive modeling Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving a plurality of first training examples, training a first predictive model using the first training examples, for each example in the first training examples, providing the first features of the example to the trained first predictive model to generate a respective first prediction, generating a second training example for each of the first training examples, wherein the second training example comprises the first features of the first training example and an answer that indicates whether the first answer of the first training example matches the respective first prediction of the first training example, training a second predictive model using the second training examples, and using the trained second predictive model to determine a confidence score for a prediction generated by the trained first predictive model.
US08868469B2	System and method for phrase identification A phrase identification system and method are provided. The method comprises: identifying one or more phrase candidates in the electronic document; selecting one of the phrase candidates; numerically representing features of the selected phrase candidates to obtain a numeric feature representation associated with that phrase candidate; and inputting the numeric feature representation into a machine learning classifier, the machine learning classifier being configured to determine, based on each numeric feature representation, whether the phrase candidate associated with that numeric feature representation is a phrase.
US08868465B2	Method and system for publishing media content Systems and methods have been developed for manipulating media assets in a networked computing environment where processing power, bandwidth and/or storage capacity may be limited.
US08868463B2	System and method of managing digital rights A method of managing digital rights is disclosed that includes recording media content at one or more servers supporting a multimedia content distribution service. The one or more servers are configured to transmit multimedia data to multiple customer premises equipment (CPE) devices. The method further includes determining recorded media content at the one or more servers that is associated with a content source and providing a graphical user interface (GUI) accessible to a content manager at the content source to manage digital rights. The GUI includes a list of the recorded media content and at least one selectable element associated with each item of the list accessible to select media content and to configure digital rights associated with the selected media content.
US08868461B2	Electronic trading platform and method thereof An electronic trading platform performs trading of one or more types of financial instruments and includes at least one cloud providing at least one independent trading environment executed by a server. The at least one cloud includes a plurality of instances of an express interface application executed by the server and configured to receive interests in the financial instruments. The plurality of instances of the express interface application are configured to write the interests to a shared memory on the server. A matching engine, executed by the server, is configured to continuously poll the shared memory, read the interests written by the plurality of instances of the express interface application, analyze the read interests to determine if there is a matching contraside interest and allocate matching interests based on at least one allocation rule.
US08868458B1	Remote account control system and method A computer-implemented remote control method and system are disclosed for providing financial account security to prevent unauthorized use of the financial account. The method may include providing, for an account holder device, a graphical user interface for facilitating automatic activation and deactivation of the financial account and receiving over a network from the account holder device, an account holder command entered through the provided graphical user interface. The method may additionally include authenticating the account holder command and processing the account holder command entered through the provided graphical user interface using a command processing engine including computer processing components, the command processing engine changing an account status from an active state to an inactive state or from an inactive state to an active state in accordance with the received command.
US08868456B1	Method and apparatus for managing financial control validation processes The invention comprises a method and apparatus for determining compliance of at least one financial control. Specifically, the method comprises obtaining the at least one financial control where the at least one financial control is associated with at least one revenue generation process, selecting at least a portion of sample data associated with the at least one financial control, generating at least one test result by testing the at least one financial control using the at least a portion of the sample data, and determining at least one maturity level associated with the at least one financial control according to the at least one test result, the at least one maturity level for determining compliance of the at least one financial control with at least one regulation.
US08868454B1	Method and system for providing rapid access to tax refund money Refund issuing stations that can be accessed by users/taxpayers include a user interface for obtaining user ID data associated with users/taxpayers and a card/cash dispenser for providing the users/taxpayers with a prepaid tax refund debit or credit card, or currency, based on user tax and/or refund data provided by a financial management system used to prepare user's tax returns and tax related documents, and/or file the user's tax returns.
US08868452B2	Smart grid deployment simulator A decision management system simulates a smart grid communications network service deployment using business and technology changeable parameters, models describing traffic profiles for smart grid domain devices and smart grid applications, smart grid infrastructure and a cost model. Candidate solutions for deploying the smart grid service are determined for different sets of changeable parameters through the simulations. These solutions are analyzed to identify a solution for deploying the smart grid service.
US08868450B2	Limited-use browser and security system A limited-use browser and related security system control access to content stored on a server computer linked to a network. The security system secures the content on the server and only permits it to be downloaded to a client computer running the limited-use browser or a general purpose browser executing an add-in security module providing the same functions as the limited-user browser. The limited-use browser or module secures the downloaded content on the client computer and displays it in a “view-only” mode. While the secured content is being displayed, menu selections, key combination, or pointing device commands initiated on the client computer that would modify the content or create a copy of another medium are either disabled as a default or monitored to determine if the action is permitted.
US08868446B2	System and method for concept development A computer implemented method, system, and computer program product include one or more processors identifying a dynamic element within framework for building a visual representation of a product concept, the visual representation including one or more of a textual component and a graphical component, the dynamic element associated with a variant list including one or more variant elements; one or more processors identifying one of a longest variant element and a shortest variant element from within the variant list; and one or more processors generating a first instantiation of a visual representation of a product concept including the one of the longest variant element and the shortest variant element as the dynamic element.
US08868432B2	Audio signal bandwidth extension in CELP-based speech coder A method for decoding an audio signal having a bandwidth that extends beyond a bandwidth of a CELP excitation signal in an audio decoder including a CELP-based decoder element. The method includes obtaining a second excitation signal having an audio bandwidth extending beyond the audio bandwidth of the CELP excitation signal, obtaining a set of signals by filtering the second excitation signal with a set of bandpass filters, scaling the set of signals using a set of energy-based parameters, and obtaining a composite output signal by combining the scaled set of signals with a signal based on the audio signal decoded by the CELP-based decoder element.
US08868430B2	Methods, devices, and computer program products for providing real-time language translation capabilities between communication terminals A language translation device includes a network transceiver configured to provide communication between first and second communication terminals, a language recognition unit, and a language translation unit. The language recognition unit is configured to receive a signal representing speech and/or text in a first human language from the first communication terminal and map the received signal to intermediate data. The language translation unit is configured to generate a translated signal representing speech and/or text in a second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the intermediate data and provide the translated signal to the second communication terminal. The speech and/or text represented by the translated signal has a meaning corresponding to that of the speech and/or text represented by the received signal. Related devices and methods of operation are also discussed.
US08868427B2	System and method for updating information in electronic calendars Systems and methods for updating electronic calendar information. Speech is received from a user at a vehicle telematics unit (VTU), wherein the speech is representative of information related to a particular vehicle trip. The received speech is recorded in the VTU as a voice memo, and data associated with the voice memo is communicated from the VTU to a computer running a calendaring application. The data is associated with a field of the calendaring application, and stored in association with the calendaring application field.
US08868423B2	System and method for controlling access to resources with a spoken CAPTCHA test Systems and methods for controlling access to resources using spoken Completely Automatic Public Turing Tests To Tell Humans And Computers Apart (CAPTCHA) tests are disclosed. In these systems and methods, entities seeking access to resources are required to produce an input utterance that contains at least some audio. That utterance is compared with voice reference data for human and machine entities, and a determination is made as to whether the entity requesting access is a human or a machine. Access is then permitted or refused based on that determination.
US08868421B2	Methods and systems for identifying errors in a speech recognition system A method for model adaptation for a speech recognition system includes determining an error rate, corresponding to either recognition of instances of a word or recognition of instances of various words, without using a transcript of words input to the system. The method may further include adjusting an adaptation, of the model for the word or various models for the various words, based on the error rate. Apparatus are disclosed for identifying possible errors made by a speech recognition system without using a transcript of words input to the system. An apparatus for model adaptation for a speech recognition system includes a processor adapted to estimate an error rate, corresponding to either recognition of instances of a word or recognition of instances of various words, without using a transcript of words input to the system. The apparatus may further include a controller adapted to adjust an adaptation of the model for the word or various models for the various words, based on the error rate.
US08868416B2	Apparatus and method for cancelling echo in joint time domain and frequency domain Disclosed in the present invention is a method for cancelling echo in joint time domain and frequency domain. The method includes: receiving an input receiver signal and an input transmitter signal; implementing echo cancellation on the received transmitter signal, based on the received receiver signal, by using a first echo canceller which is either a time domain echo canceller or a frequency domain echo canceller, to obtain a first echo-cancelled signal; implementing echo cancellation again on the first echo-cancelled signal, based on the received receiver signal, by using a second echo canceller which is the other one of the time domain echo canceller and the frequency domain echo canceller, to obtain a second echo-cancelled signal; wherein, and the first and second echo canceller respectively include the corresponding first and second filters, and the filter parameter of the second filter is updated based on the input receiver signal, the second echo-cancelled signal and the filter parameter of the first filter. By using said method in the present invention, fast response to echo reflecting environment can be achieved with little residual echo, thus the effect of echo cancellation is entirely improved.
US08868415B1	Discontinuous transmission control based on vocoder and voice activity A method and system is disclosed for control of discontinuous transmission based on vocoder and voice activity. An access terminal (AT) may engage in a communication session via an encoder-decoder in a network device in a wireless network. During silence intervals of the communication session, when the AT has no data to transmit, the AT may transmit periodic silence frames at a silence-frame rate to the encoder-decoder. The silence frames may contain parameters for generation of audio noise by the network device. Upon determining that the encoder-decoder has ceased transmitting data to the AT in response to a prolonged absence of transmissions from the AT, the AT may increase the silence-frame rate so as to reduce the duration of the absence of transmissions from the AT, and correspondingly cause the encoder-decoder to begin transmitting audio data to the AT.
US08868410B2	Non-dialogue-based and dialogue-based learning apparatus by substituting for uttered words undefined in a dictionary with word-graphs comprising of words defined in the dictionary The invention provides a dialogue-based learning apparatus through dialogue with users comprising: a speech input unit (10) for inputting speeches; a speech recognition unit (20) for recognizing the input speech; and a behavior and dialogue controller (30) for controlling behaviors and dialogues according to speech recognition results, wherein the behavior and dialogue controller (30) has a topic recognition expert (34) to memorise contents of utterances and to retrieve the topic that best matches the speech recognition results, and a mode switching expert (35) to control mode switching in accordance with a user utterance, wherein the mode switching expert switches modes in accordance with a user utterance, wherein the topic recognition expert registers a plurality words in the utterance as topics in first mode, performs searches from among the registered topics, and selects the maximum likelihood topic in second mode. Finally for every uttered word which is not found in a predetermined dictionary, it substitutes the said word with a word-graph comprising of either a known or a combination of known words in the said dictionary.
US08868406B2	System and method for classifying communications that have low lexical content and/or high contextual content into groups using topics Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for identifying document topics. A system configured to practice the method receives a document from a corpus of documents, learns interpersonal relationships of users associated with the document, performs a lexical analysis of the document, and, based on the interpersonal relationships of the users and the lexical analysis, identifying a topic for the document. The approaches disclosed herein can integrate user-people relationships to identify topics for documents with low lexical or high contextual content. The system can learn this user-people relationship from context. The system uses this learned behavior to identify communication documents correctly. Another aspect is the separation of the two phases. The system overlays the learned model on the lexical topic analysis, allowing the system to capture user-defined topics and user behavior that is learned from other factors such as medium (calls, events, etc) or user preferences.
US08868390B2	Method of developing a petroleum reservoir from a flow model calibrated through pressure and saturation map scaling A method of developing a petroleum reservoir from a flow model constrained by production data and seismic data is disclosed. It is used to define a development scheme and to start or continue the reservoir development. Production data and seismic data associated with a fine grid are acquired during the development of the reservoir. Production data, as well as pressure and saturation values, are simulated in each cell of the flow model. A pressure value and a saturation value are assigned to each cell of the fine grid. A pressure equation is therefore solved locally on the fine grid and the saturations are calculated by writing the continuity of the phase flows between neighboring lithofacies, the conservation of the pore volume and the conservation of the phase volume. The maps obtained are then used to simulate seismic data.
US08868387B2	Method of optimizing a model, a method of measuring a property, a device manufacturing method, a spectrometer and a lithographic apparatus A set of parameters used in a model of a spectrometer includes free parameters and fixed parameters. A first set of values for the parameters is set and the model is used to generate a first spectrum. A value of one of the fixed parameters is changed and a second spectrum is generated. An inverse of the model of the spectrometer is then applied to the second spectrum to generate a set of values for the parameters, the values being the same as the first set of values except for one or more of the free parameters. If the free parameter has significantly changed the fixed parameter is designated a free parameter.
US08868386B2	Navigation in simulated workflows An enabled task accessed by a user within a workflow is identified. The workflow is expressed as a Petri net and includes enabled tasks and non-enabled tasks. A non-enabled task selected by a user is identified, and a suitable state that enables the non-enabled state is determined based on the identified enabled task. A simulated workflow for the selected non-enabled task is generated based on the determined suitable state. The simulated workflow is expressed as a Petri net. The user is enabled to navigate through the simulated workflow.
US08868384B2	Methods and apparatus for monitoring operation of a system asset A device for monitoring operation of a plurality of system assets includes a storage device configured to store a model of a plurality of system assets, wherein the model includes a plurality of asset images associated with the system assets, and a plurality of component connections representative of a plurality of conduits coupled to the system assets. The device also includes a processor coupled to the storage device. The processor is configured to display the plurality of asset images and to display the plurality of component connections. The processor is also configured to select an asset image, display a status of a system asset associated with the selected asset image, and automatically display a representation of at least one of a process flow entering the system asset and a process flow exiting the system asset when the asset image is selected.
US08868376B2	Apparatus for monitoring a door with a 3D sensor An apparatus for monitoring a door with a 3D sensor which is able to detect distances to an object in the monitoring area as the third dimension, the 3D sensor being arranged in a housing, and immovably arranged transmission means for transmitting a measurement beam and receiver means for receiving a reflected measurement beam being provided in the housing, characterized in that provision is made of a control unit which is designed to obtain an item of information relating to the position of the apparatus, and in that the control unit evaluates the measurement beam on the basis of an item of position information.
US08868368B2	Motion smoothing in 3-D position sensing apparatus A method of estimating and extrapolating the position of an article is provided. The article's position is detected by relatively infrequent ultrasonic ranging, and provides more frequent reports from internal accelerometers, gyroscopes and optional magnetometers. In a first instance, the method includes calculating new position, velocity and orientation vectors by linearly interpolating between the readings of the sensors at two times. In a second instance, the method includes estimating the orientation of the article by calculating the duration of a timeslice, making a rotational increment matrix and taking the product of the initial orientation and the increment matrix for the appropriate number of timeslices. In a third instance, the method includes calculating the acceleration of an article between three ultrasonically determined locations and recalibrating the accelerometers to align the measured acceleration with the calculated acceleration.
US08868363B2	Method of estimating pulse response using an impedance spectrum Electrochemical Impedance Spectrum data are used to predict pulse performance of an energy storage device. The impedance spectrum may be obtained in-situ. A simulation waveform includes a pulse wave with a period greater than or equal to the lowest frequency used in the impedance measurement. Fourier series coefficients of the pulse train can be obtained. The number of harmonic constituents in the Fourier series are selected so as to appropriately resolve the response, but the maximum frequency should be less than or equal to the highest frequency used in the impedance measurement. Using a current pulse as an example, the Fourier coefficients of the pulse are multiplied by the impedance spectrum at corresponding frequencies to obtain Fourier coefficients of the voltage response to the desired pulse. The Fourier coefficients of the response are then summed and reassembled to obtain the overall time domain estimate of the voltage using the Fourier series analysis.
US08868354B2	Method and apparatus for testing valve control system The present invention provides a method and apparatus for testing a valve control system in an aircraft fuel supply system having a plurality of control valves, wherein the control system includes a processor adapted to receive feedback signals from each of the plurality of control valves, the method comprising the steps of: connecting a test device to the control system such that the test device is connected for signal transmission to the processor; outputting a signal to the processor simulating a feedback signal from at least one of the control valves; detecting a control signal which is output by the processor to the at least one of the control valves; and identifying the detected control signal which is output by the processor to the control valve.
US08868345B2	Meteorological modeling along an aircraft trajectory A method of providing approximate weather data points for an aircraft trajectory to a system, such as a flight management system (FMS), which is configured to accept a number of weather data points for the aircraft trajectory.
US08868336B2	Information processing apparatus, program, information processing method, and map data An information processing apparatus including a position information allocation unit for allocating position information to plural spots on a deformed map; and an interpolation unit for interpolating position information of each spot on the deformed map on the basis of the position information allocated to the plural spots and locations of the plural spots on the deformed map.
US08868335B2	Method of creating map data A computerised method of creating map data from a plurality of trips where each trip comprises position data derived from the positions of at least one navigation device 200 over a period of time, the method comprising using a processing circuitry to perform the following steps: i. processing the position data; ii. determining from the processing the believed accuracy of the position data constituting a trip; iii. reducing the weight applied to and/or removing position data in which the belief is below a predetermined threshold to generate filtered position data; iv. deriving information about the road 700 based upon the filtered position data; and v. generating further map data.
US08868317B2	Fuel injection amount control apparatus for an internal combustion engine A fuel injection amount control apparatus of an embodiment according to the present invention comprises an air-fuel ratio sensor 56 which is disposed between an exhaust gas aggregated portion HK and a three-way catalyst 43, and which outputs an output value corresponding to an amount of oxygen and an amount of unburnt substances contained in an exhaust gas that has reached an exhaust-gas-side electrode layer via a porous layer (diffusion resistance layer). This control apparatus obtains an actual detected air-fuel ratio by correcting the output value of the air-fuel ratio sensor 56 based on an alcohol concentration of a fuel detected by the alcohol concentration sensor 59 and an air-fuel ratio imbalance indicating value representing a degree of a non-uniformity among cylinder-by-cylinder air-fuel ratios. The control apparatus feedback controls on a fuel amount in such a manner that the actual detected air-fuel ratio coincides with a target value.
US08868310B2	Method and apparatus for real time estimation of road surface friction coefficient A computer program product, a method and an apparatus for detection of road surface friction coefficient for vehicle stability control are disclosed. The computer program product comprises stored instructions for receiving detected vehicle parameters from a vehicle; calculating a lookup value based on the detected vehicle parameters, the calculating comprising an recursive least square estimation; retrieving a road surface friction coefficient from a lookup table by matching the calculated lookup value to the road surface friction coefficient stored in the lookup table; calculating adjustments to the vehicle using the road surface friction coefficient; and outputting the adjustments to a vehicle control system for execution.
US08868308B2	Method for controlling the operation of a means of mechanically coupling the first and second axles of a motor vehicle A method controlling operation of a mechanism mechanically coupling first and second axles of a transmission system of a motor vehicle, the first axle being driven as standard and the second axle being driven as an option depending on a status of the coupling mechanism, the transmission system being capable of operating in a first mode in which a value of transmittable torque that can be transmitted by the mechanical coupling mechanism is fixed, or in a second mode in which the value of the transmittable torque that can be transmitted by the mechanical coupling mechanism is higher than the value of the transmittable torque for the first mode.
US08868303B2	Method and apparatus for automatic positioning of gull wings of stackerbar planter based on tractor hitch position A method and apparatus for automating some of the tasks that heretofore required operator action at headland turns or similar events are provided. The present invention automates operation of lift assist wheels and/or gull wings, such as those found on a stack-fold implement, based on the position of the tractor hitch to which the implement is coupled. An operator may control the position of the implement, such as at a headland turn, by raising and lowering the tractor hitch using a remote control. The invention enables the planter to compare the tractor hitch position relative to an implement position and control operation of the implement accordingly without additional user inputs.
US08868297B2	Power steering system and control apparatus for power steering system In a power steering system and a control apparatus for the power steering system, an abnormality detection process section (27) installed in a second ECU, the second ECU, the second ECU having a multi-core microcomputer in which a plurality of processor cores are mounted within a single processor package, to detect an abnormality of a first angle calculation process section of a first ECU, the first ECU having a single core microcomputer in which a single processor core is mounted within another single processor package and the first angle calculation process section a first angle calculation process section (21) installed in the first ECU to calculate rotation angles of the input axle and output axle on a basis of sinusoidal wave signals and cosine wave signals derived from a steering angle sensor and a torque sensor.
US08868287B2	Prediction of maintenance operations on an aircraft engine The invention relates to a method and a system for predicting maintenance operations on a current aircraft engine, comprising: processing means to compare a set of failure models (M1, . . . , Mn) adapted to said current engine to select a relevant failure model (Mi) with a failure age (T0) defining the age of said engine at the time of the failure; processing means to associate decision rules (R) about the workscope on said current engine with said relevant failure model (Mi), as a function of a set of parameters (P1, P2, Pi) related to said current engine; and processing means to determine the required maintenance workscope (Wf) to be applied to said current engine, as a function of said decision rules.
US08868286B2	System and method for facilitating transportation of a vehicle involved in a crash A system, method, and computer-readable medium to facilitate treatment of a damaged vehicle by gathering crash information, estimating an extent of vehicle damage, and requesting transport of the damaged vehicle from the crash site to a treatment facility.
US08868272B2	Electric vehicle and method of controlling the same An electric vehicle includes an electric storage device, an electric motor that generates driving force for running the vehicle, using electric power output from the storage device, and a controller that controls an output of the storage device. The controller includes a restriction control unit that restricts a permissible output power indicating electric power permitted to be output from the storage device, based on a load condition of the storage device, and an output control unit that reduces the rate of increase of the electric power output from the storage device as the permissible output power is more likely to be restricted when returning from a restricted condition in which the permissible output power is restricted by the restriction control unit.
US08868265B2	System and method for aligning aircraft and runway headings during takeoff roll An aircraft system and method provide visual input to a pilot during takeoff roll. A runway centerline line vector is determined from a captured image, a displacement of the aircraft from the centerline line vector and an aircraft line vector are determined from the image based on the knowledge of sensor characteristics. The runway centerline line vector and the aircraft line vector are displayed to indicate a direction in which the pilot may change heading to maintain the aircraft on the runway.
US08868261B2	Monitoring device for an actuation system of an aircraft, actuation system and method for reconfiguring the actuation system A monitoring device is disclosed for an actuation system of an aircraft for monitoring a guiding device of a regulating flap with a load sensor. An actuation system with the monitoring device and a method for reconfiguring such an actuation system are disclosed. The monitoring device includes an interface to the load sensor and an interface to a driving device for adjusting the regulating flap. The monitoring device can determine or receive in-flight information actively signaling a predefined flight attitude and/or a predefined operational state of the aircraft. The monitoring device can compare a load value corresponding to a sensor value acquired by the load sensor and a limiting value corresponding to a minimum operational load for the predefined flight attitude and/or the predefined operational state of the aircraft and a monitoring function. The monitoring function can assign a fault mode to the regulating flap.
US08868257B2	Device and a method for constructing a flight path in order to reach a destination A device (10) for defining a flight path (2) enabling an aircraft (1) to reach a destination (B), said device (10) including a digital terrain model (21) and a display screen (30), and being provided with generator means (15) for generating a flight path (2) including at least one flight segment (3) associated with a flying altitude. The device (10) includes a digital noise database (20) having volumes that are to be avoided, said device (10) having a computer (11) with a main memory (13) containing instructions for displaying on said display screen (30) and as an overlay on a first representation (31) of said terrain as provided by said digital terrain model (21): a second representation (41) of said volumes to be avoided; and a flight path (2) that has been generated by using said generator means (15).
US08868253B2	Bicycle communication adapter A bicycle communication adapter is provided with a voltage converting component, a signal converting component and a superimposing component. The voltage converting component is configured to convert a received voltage supplied from a bicycle electrical management system to a converted voltage suitable for at least one of a plurality of electric devices of a bicycle electrical system. The signal converting component is configured to convert a received signal outputted from a bicycle electrical management system into a converted signal compliant with a standard for power line communication. The superimposing component is configured to superimpose the converted signal converted by the signal converting component onto the converted voltage converted by the voltage converting component.
US08868250B2	Fan speed control In one implementation, an environmental controller operates a cooling system in an electronic device. The environmental controller includes a closed loop control system for operating a cooling fan at a target speed. The environmental controller may select the target speed based on one or more temperature sensors. The environmental controller may select the target speed based on the speeds of additional fans or the fans may be controlled in unison. The closed loop control system includes a proportional weight. When a measured cooling fan speed deviates from the target speed by more than a threshold error value, the proportional weight is constant. As the measured cooling fan speed approaches the target speed, and the threshold error value is crossed, the proportional weight is variable. The variance may be a function of time such as a periodic stair step function.
US08868244B2	Support surface with proximity sensor and operable in low power mode A support surface includes a pump and a plurality of air cells that are selectively inflated and deflated by the pump. A proximity sensor detects whether an object is supported on the air cells, and a control unit connected to the pump and the proximity sensor controls operation of the pump based on a signal from the proximity sensor. Battery power can be saved by operating the device in a power save mode when the proximity sensor determines that the user has left the support surface.
US08868242B2	System for monitoring plant equipment A system for monitoring plant equipment is provided. Another aspect provides an automated analysis system wherein software instructions operably compare sensor data to predefined valves and determine mechanical problems in multiple machines. In another aspect, a cement manufacturing system includes sensors for sensing movement conditions of cement making machines. A further aspect provides a central computer connected to vibration sensors associated with cement making machines, where software instructions perform real-time comparisons and machine performance determinations, based at least in part on sensed signals.
US08868237B2	Robot confinement An autonomous coverage robot system includes an active boundary responder comprising a wire powered with a modulated current placed along a perimeter of a property, at least one passive boundary responder placed on a property interior circumscribed by the active boundary responder, and an autonomous coverage robot. The robot includes a drive system carried by a body and configured to maneuver the robot across the property interior. The robot includes a signal emitter emitting a signal, where the passive boundary responder is responsive to the signal and a boundary responder detection system carried by the body. The boundary responder detector is configured to redirect the robot both in response to the responder detection system detecting an active boundary responder and in response to detecting a passive boundary responder.
US08868231B2	Flexible production collating system In a system, one or more robotic arms are positioned adjacent a transport surface that is moving workpieces, and one or more picking elements are connected to each of the robotic arms. The picking elements have physical picking features that remove the workpieces from the transport surface and move the workpieces to another location. A controller is operatively connected to the robotic arms and the picking elements, and the controller independently controls the robotic arms and the picking elements to dynamically position the picking elements in coordination with a dynamic size, spacing, and transport speed of the workpieces being moved by the transport surface.
US08868230B2	Iterative packing optimization An iterative method and system for performing the method are described that implement a technique to fit irregularly shaped items into a defined space. In particular, one example may take the form of a method including predetermining one or more layouts for a defined space. Each layout has a plurality of shapes. The method also includes receiving a set having a plurality of items and determining one or more configurations formed by assigning to each shape in the layout an item from the set. The items match the shapes to which they are assigned. Additionally, the method includes scoring each configuration and selecting one configuration based at least in part upon the scoring.
US08868226B2	Systems, methods and apparatus for fabricating an orthopedic implant Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some aspects a custom orthopedic implant is designed, fabricated and sterilized for immediate surgical use to treat a patient's injury. In some aspects, the orthopedic implant is designed using patient and injury specific scan data, fabricated using a five axis milling machine, and sterilized with a sterilization system. In other aspects, the fabricated orthopedic implant is transferred into the sterilization system with a transport system. In some aspects, methods to design, fabricate and sterilize a custom orthopedic implant are presented. In other aspects, patient and injury specific scan data is used to design and plan the placement of a custom orthopedic implant to treat the injury, and the custom orthopedic implant is then fabricated and sterilized to be used in surgery.
US08868225B2	Server for integrated pharmaceutical analysis and report generation service, method of integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development numerical analysis, and computer readable recording medium A web-based tool (as a server) for integrated pharmaceutical analysis and report generation service is provided in the present invention. The server can be used for numerical analysis and report generation for pharmaceutical manufacturing, research and development, and has advantages such as simple operation, complicated but fast calculation and professional report generation, and high accuracy. The server includes at least one pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development numerical analysis system configured to perform different pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development numerical analyses and generate different reports. Each of the at least one pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development numerical analysis system includes an input module configured to receive, via a user interface, at least one of a template file and a backup file previously output by the server as at least one input file, wherein the at least one input file includes a plurality of data fields to provide corresponding data; at least one calculation module, each configured to execute a built-in pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development numerical analysis calculation program, thereby automatically performing a pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development numerical analysis calculation on at least one of the data of the at least one input file and on-line filled data; and an output module configured to generate at least one of a backup file and a report file as at least one output file based on the result of the pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development numerical analysis calculation performed by the at least one calculation module and provide the at least one file via the user interface.
US08868223B1	Positioning using audio recognition Systems and methods for determining location based on audio fingerprinting are disclosed. An extraction component extracts a set of interest points from an audio signal associated with an audio announcement. Then a matching component determines if the extracted set of interest points matches a set of interest points representative of an audio fingerprint in a data store comprising audio fingerprints. In an aspect, the audio fingerprints in the audio fingerprint data store represent announcements for underground transportation systems. A location component further determines location information associated with the audio fingerprint based in part on the set of extracted interest points matching the set of audio interest points representative of the audio fingerprint in the data store.
US08868219B2	Thermostat user interface A thermostat for controlling an HVAC system is described, the thermostat having a user interface that is visually pleasing, approachable, and easy to use while also providing ready access to, and intuitive navigation within, a menuing system capable of receiving a variety of different types of user settings and/or control parameters. For some embodiments, the thermostat comprises a housing, a ring-shaped user-interface component configured to track a rotational input motion of a user, a processing system configured to identify a setpoint temperature value based on the tracked rotational input motion, and an electronic display coupled to the processing system. An interactive thermostat menuing system is accessible to the user by an inward pressing of the ring-shaped user interface component. User navigation within the interactive thermostat menuing system is achievable by virtue of respective rotational input motions and inward pressings of the ring-shaped user interface component.
US08868218B2	Customized control system for electrical appliances using remote device A remote device having an electrical appliance control function and an electrical appliance control system are provided. The remote device includes an appliance communication module for communicating with an electrical appliance which is used by a user inside or outside home using power; a network communication module for supporting communication with outside to obtain user set optimal control data which controls the electrical appliance to operate in some other mode than an operation mode basically provided by a manufacturer of the electrical appliance; and a control part for controlling the electrical appliance based on the user set optimal control data. Hence, user's convenience can be promoted by allowing the user to control the electrical appliance on the optimal condition.
US08868208B2	MR-compatible implantable medical lead A medical electrical lead may include a lead body having a proximal end and a distal end, a conductive electrode shaft located near the distal end within the lead body, a coiled conductor extending within the lead body from the proximal end and coupled to a first end of the conductive electrode shaft, and an electrode located near the distal end of the lead body and coupled to an opposite end of the conductive electrode shaft as the coiled conductor. The lead may also include an energy dissipating structure located near the distal end of the lead body and formed from a conductive material that defines a lumen through which a portion of the coiled conductor extends. The portion of the coiled conductor extending through the lumen defined by the energy dissipating structure is formed to provide an interference contact with the energy dissipating structure.
US08868195B2	Phase triggered envelope sampler A method of generating electrode stimulation signals for an implanted electrode array is described. An acoustic audio signal is processed to generate band pass signals which each represent an associated band of audio frequencies. For each band pass signal, fine time structure information is extracted to determine a sequence of phase event signals. For each sequence of phase event signals, when the number of phase event signals reaches a channel pitch rate factor, a signal limiting period without signals is introduced to produce a modified sequence of phase event signals. Each modified sequence of phase event signals is weighted with a channel amplitude value in order to generate a set of electrode stimulation signals for the implanted electrode array.
US08868183B2	Method and apparatus to implement multiple parameter sets in an implantable device An implantable cardiac function management device including a programmable controller can be used to include a user-specifiable therapy control parameter set. The therapy control parameter set may then be configured to include at least one therapy control parameter that is user-configurable to automatically switch from a first parameter value to a second parameter value at a time that occurs between separate user programming sessions of the device. Various attributes of physiological measures may allow for refinement of the parameter sets to adapt to changed conditions of the subject. Methods of use are also presented.
US08868182B2	Device based cardiac monitoring and stress test A medical device and associated method establish an occurrence of a premature atrial contraction. The device senses a ventricular signal. A control unit is configured to determine a metric of the ventricular signal during an interval following the premature atrial contraction and detect a change in cardiac stress tolerance in response to the determined metric.
US08868179B2	Determination for effective defibrillation A method for managing care of a person receiving emergency cardiac is disclosed and involves monitoring, with an external defibrillator, multiple parameters of the person receiving emergency cardiac assistance; determining from at least one of the parameters, an indication of trans-thoracic impedance of the person receiving emergency cardiac care; determining, from at least one of the parameters corresponding to an electrocardiogram of the person receiving emergency cardiac assistance, an initial indication of likely shock effectiveness; determining, as a function of at least the indication of trans-thoracic impedance and the initial indication of likely shock effectiveness, an indication of whether a shock provided to the person receiving emergency medical assistance will be effective; and affecting control of the defibrillator by a caregiver as a result of determining the indication of whether a shock will be effective.
US08868171B2	System and method for reconstructing and viewing cardiac electrical activation System for reconstruction and visualization of cardiac electric activity, with high-resolution capabilities, which improves the performance of current systems by means of the inclusion of the a priori information of the bioelectric problem in a learning algorithm, and by means of the exploitation of the spatial and temporal correlations thanks to interpolation and decimation subsystems. The system consists of, at least: a plurality of catheters; ways for obtaining the location coordinates of said array; ways for obtaining the cardiac walls geometry; ways for processing the signals from the catheters, implementing an algorithm based on Support Vector Machines, allowing the incorporation of the bioelectric phenomena; ways of interpolation and redundance exploiting for yielding high resolution without matrix inversions; and ways of visualization.
US08868166B2	Arrhythmia detection based on active muscle noise detection Implantable electromedical device or loop recorders or ILRs that solve the problem of very low arrhythmia detection specificities in, i.e., high number of false positives, based on detection and analysis of external noise, specifically muscle noise surrounding the electromedical device. Embodiments generally employ active detection of lead or device movement that induces signal artifacts indicative of external noise. One or more embodiments may detect lead or device movement through use of a piezoelectric transducer, for example located proximally to the device or in the lead of the electromedical.
US08868165B1	Use of cardiogenic impedance waveform morphology to analyze cardiac conditions and to adjust treatment therapy In specific embodiments, one or more cardiogenic impedance signal template is stored, where each template has a corresponding morphology. Additionally, one or more cardiogenic impedance signal is obtained using electrodes implanted within a patient, where each signal has a corresponding morphology. The morphology of one or more obtained cardiogenic impedance signal is compared to the morphology of one or more stored template, to determine one or more metric indicative of similarity between the compared morphologies. The one or more metric indicative of similarity is used to analyze the patient's cardiac condition, to discriminate among arrhythmias and/or to adjust a cardiac pacing parameter.
US08868161B2	Detection and display of measured subsurface data onto a surface The present disclosure provides systems and methods for imaging and display of subsurface features of a region of interest such as a portion of a body of a patient. A first imaging portion of the system is used to cause an interaction of an imaging beam with an underlying feature of a region of interest. A retro-reflected or returned portion of said imaging beam is detected by a detector which then provides an output to control a display portion of the system for displaying an image corresponding to that which was detected. The system can be used for guiding or assisting clinical or industrial operations or for diagnosis of medical conditions and other uses within medicine, industry and others.
US08868156B1	Optical spectroscopy device and method for its manufacture A device (1) for use in optical spectroscopy and a method for its manufacture are described. The device includes at least one light source (8) and at least one spectrometer (3) fabricated integratively, the optical components of the at least one spectrometer (3) being optical microcomponents (11,13,16,19,20,21) which are mounted integratively on the top and/or bottom side (9,12) of a substrate board (2). In the method according to the present invention, at least one light source (8) is mounted on a substrate board (2), and at least one spectrometer (3) is produced monolithically in a three-dimensional integration on the substrate board (2). In this context, the spectrometer (3) that is produced according to the method is assembled from optical microcomponents (11,13,16,19,20,21).
US08868149B2	Photoplethysmography device and method A system and method for measuring one or more light-absorption related blood analyte concentration parameters of a mammalian subject, is disclosed. In some embodiments, the system comprises: a) a photoplethysmography (PPG) device configured to effect a PPG measurement by illuminating skin of the subject with at least two distinct wavelengths of light and determining relative absorbance at each of the wavelengths; b) a dynamic light scattering measurement (DLS) device configured to effect a DLS measurement of the subject to rheologically measure a pulse parameter of the subject; and c) electronic circuitry configured to: i) temporally correlating the results of the PPG and DLS measurements; and ii) accordance with the temporal correlation between the PPG and DLS measurements, assessing value(s) of the one or more light-absorption related blood analyte concentration parameter(s).
US08868141B2	Methods and apparatus for controlling the transmission and/or reception of safety messages by portable wireless user devices Safety message monitoring operations and/or safety message transmission operations are controlled for a mobile wireless communications device. The periodicity with regard to safety message monitoring and/or safety message transmissions is varied based on the environment of the mobile wireless device. The transmission power level with regard to safety message transmissions is varied based on the environment of the mobile wireless device. In some embodiments, safety message monitoring and transmission operations are disabled when the mobile device is determined to be inside a building or inside a vehicle. In some embodiments, safety message monitoring rate and safety message transmission rate is varied as a function of proximity to vehicular traffic and/or the level of detected vehicular traffic. In some embodiments, safety message transmission power level is varied as a function of proximity to vehicular traffic and/or the level of detected vehicular traffic.
US08868138B2	Method for controlling low-power state in mobile handset Provided is a method for controlling a low-power state in a mobile handset. The method includes shifting from an active state to a low-power idle state by blocking power of modules for a mobile communication function and decreasing a frequency of a control clock when an inactive request of the mobile communication function is received; shifting from the low-power idle state to a low-power access state by increasing the frequency of the control clock when an additional service request is received; shifting from the low-power access state to the low-power idle state if an additional service request is not received any more; shifting from the low-power idle state to a suspension state by suspending the control clock when request is not received for predetermined time; and shifting from the suspension state to the low-power idle state when the input interrupt and the timer interrupt occur.
US08868133B1	Beacon and associated components for a ranging system A beacon for a ranging system includes an electronic scanned array (ESA) antenna and a transceiver. The ESA antenna is configured to emit a separate radio frequency (RF) phased-array narrow beam for each of a plurality of segments of an arc, and receive from an end user node a response signal based on at least one of the RF phased-array narrow beam. Each segment of the arc is scanned at a specified time interval. The transceiver is configured to transmit a pulsed signal via the RF phased-array narrow beam, and receive the response signal.
US08868131B2	Mobile devices having fax capabilities Devices, systems and methods are disclosed which relate to incorporating a fax machine function into a mobile device. A camera on the mobile device is used to scan or capture an image of an existing document. Logic on the mobile device converts the image into a fax transmittal that can be transmitted to a fax machine. Once the fax transmittal is ready, a connection is initiated with a traditional fax machine across one or more networks, and the fax transmittal is sent to the fax machine at a speed determined by the slower device. Upon a successful transmission, the connection is terminated, and a report is generated.
US08868121B2	Control channel gain factor with data channel scaling There is provided a method and a program and an apparatus (e.g., a user equipment) that determines a data channel gain factor and a control channel gain factor; determines that total transmit power would exceed a maximum allowed value after applying the data and control channel gain factors; reduces the data channel gain factor so that the total transmit power does not exceed the maximum allowed value; and uses the control channel gain factor that is applied before the data channel factor is reduced when a boost mode is configured for the control channel (e.g., if TFCIi>E-TFCIec, boost). There may a plurality k of data channels E-DPDCHk and k data channel gain factors βed, k which are reduced by scaling each of them equally. When the boost mode is not configured the control channel gain factor which is used is received in signaling from an access node.
US08868097B2	Frequency spectrum sensing method using pilot signal and cognitive radio system using the same An operation method of a radio communication station is provided. The operation method of a radio communication station, the operation method including: transmitting a basic pilot signal to at least one terminal located in a coverage of a preoccupied system; and transmitting a cognitive radio (CR) pilot signal.
US08868091B2	Methods and apparatus for facilitating inter-cell interference coordination via over the air load indicator and relative narrowband transmit power Systems and methods for facilitating inter-cell interference coordination using resource partitioning are described. A UE may receive or determine information related to received interference and/or future scheduling. The information may be communicated to a serving base station, which may use the information to allocate uplink or downlink resources between cells. The uplink and/or downlink resource may be partitioned in subbands to mitigate interference from adjacent network nodes. The eNBs may communicate, such as directly, via a backhaul connection, and/or between UEs to configure interference coordination and signaling.
US08868090B2	Method and apparatus for receiving sensing results in a wireless LAN system Provided are a method and apparatus for receiving sensing results in a wireless local area network (LAN). The method, with the first station serving as an unlicensed device, allowed to operate in an available channel not being used by a licensed device at a TV white space band, includes: transmitting a frame including a first element having information on a point when sensing is performed and a second element having a reporting sequence bitmap representing stations selected from a plurality of second stations to perform sensing and the sensing result report order of the selected stations to the second stations, receiving a measurement report frame, including a sensing result at the point when the sensing is performed, from each of the selected stations based on the sensing result report order, and determining, using the measurement report frame, whether the licensed device is using a channel used by the first station.
US08868087B2	Radio access technology interworking Radio access interworking technologies allow a target network to notify a source network that a mobile device has moved from source network to target network, wherein mobile device does not need to perform notification to source network. Further, source network can provide a first subset of overhead information to mobile device and, after moving to target network, mobile device can receive a second subset of overhead information from target network. Further, mobile device can perform prehashing prior to moving to target network based on a channel list received from source network.
US08868085B2	Communications base station with decision function for distributing traffic across multiple backhauls A communication station, such as a base station or access point, has multiple backhaul options and distributes backhaul data between the available backhaul options. The communication station includes a transceiver for transmitting and receiving data with user equipments, multiple backhaul interface modules, and a backhaul distribution module arranged for monitoring demand for backhaul bandwidth and distributing data over the backhauls based on the demand for backhaul bandwidth. Additional modules for user data and control plane processing may be included with the user/control distinction used in distributing data over the backhauls. The backhaul options may include a preferred backhaul and an alternate backhaul. Distributing data over the backhauls may be based, for example, on applications associated with the data, financial cost, delay, robustness, computational resources, and/or additional security associated with using a particular backhaul.
US08868082B2	Adjusting coverage regions of wireless access points serving as handoff indication mechanism in wireless local area networks A mobile communication device includes a processor and a communication subsystem coupled to the processor. The communication subsystem is configured to provide the mobile device with wireless communications via an access point of a wireless network. The mobile device communicates with the access point via the communication subsystem for adjusting boundaries of an RF coverage region of the access point. The mobile device subsequently communicates with the access point via the communication subsystem in the adjusted RF coverage region for handoff to another wireless network, while the access point serves as part of a handoff indication mechanism in the wireless network.
US08868081B2	Systems and methods for speed and location based network access and features control Systems and methods are presented to allow or prohibit any or all services between a network and a node in the network based upon the geographic location and rate of travel of the node. One exemplary application is for the prevention of texting while driving. For example, in FIG. 1: Typical Wireless Communications Network, the location and rate of travel of the mobile station, (MS), 140, can be determined from the use of Global Positioning System, (GPS), information received by the MS, (140), and transmitted to the network. The MS, (140), may have any or all of its subscriber services enabled or disabled by the network based upon the speed that the MS, (140), is traveling and/or its geographical location. Other methods are possible to determine the location and rate of travel of a mobile station as well. In the preferred exemplary embodiment, it is possible for a mobile wireless network to determine the location and speed of an MS. The preferred exemplary embodiment will disallow the operation of features like text messaging or speaking on the mobile phone, when an individual is driving over a range of predetermined speeds. Additionally, this embodiment would disallow the operation of similar features in specific locations, like schools, and jails. In this embodiment it is also possible to allow any MS to access predetermined destinations for emergencies, like 911, at any time. This embodiment also allows services at otherwise forbidden speeds and/or locations to specific MSs or end-users. In this way public safety officials are not restricted and “hotspot” service can be offered on buses or trains. This enhancement to the network would permit more fine-grained control over where and when services can be allowed.
US08868079B2	Radio communication system, radio base station, and communication control method A radio communication system includes a first radio base station that forms a first cell; a plurality of second radio base stations each of which forms a second cell; and a mobile station provided with a radio communication unit that connects, by radio, to each radio base station. The first radio base station specifies a correction value according to the number of the second cells formed in the first cell of the first radio base station and signals the correction value to the mobile station. The mobile station corrects a characteristic value indicating the reception characteristic of radio waves from the second radio base station by using the correction value. Either the first radio base station or the mobile station selects the destination of the mobile station according to the characteristic value of the first radio base station and the corrected characteristic value of the second radio base station.
US08868077B2	Method and apparatus for topology management for handovers in heterogeneous networks A method comprises receiving a relocation required message for a user equipment from a source Radio Access Network (RAN); multicasting a relocation request to multiple local RANs; receiving a first relocation acknowledgement from a first local RAN of the multiple local RANs to which a user equipment may be handed into; and forwarding the first relocation acknowledgement to the source RAN.
US08868075B2	Modular cell phone for fixed mobile convergence A communication system including a communication system, including a modular cell phone, including a baseband modem for connecting to a core mobile network via a cellular network, and a connector for physically connecting the modular cell phone to a port of a mobile electronic device, and a mobile electronic device, including a modem for connecting to the core mobile network via an IP access network, a port for physically connecting the modular cell phone to the mobile electronic device, and a connection enhancer for receiving a connection of an ongoing cellular phone call, between the modular cell phone and the core mobile network via the cellular network, and seamlessly handing over the ongoing phone call to a voice over IP connection, between the mobile electronic device and the core mobile network via the IP access network, in response to the modular cell phone being connected with the mobile electronic device port. A method is also described and claimed.
US08868070B2	Method of and architecture for a virtual wireless network A virtual wireless network including a server running a home location register (HLR), the home location register being associated solely with a virtual wireless network operator that does not have any licensed frequency spectrum, but provides wireless services to a subscriber by using the wireless basestations of a wireless network operator that does have licensed frequency spectrum.
US08868060B2	Method, network and device for information provision by using paging and cell broadcast services Informing a number of users about an emergency or other situation of public interest is accomplished using a broadcast service. A specific identifier is used in a paging message for activating broadcast service in terminals. A terminal checks a received paging message with regard to the presence of the specific identifier and when detecting the specific identifier, switches to a broadcast mode for receiving broadcast content. The received broadcast emergency content is notified and/or displayed to the users of the terminals.
US08868056B2	Systems and methods of device calibration A method includes receiving, at a device to be calibrated, a data packet from a second device that is directing the calibration. The data packet includes at least two segments, where each segment corresponds to at least one calibration instruction. The method includes conducting a calibration of the device according to the calibration instructions corresponding to the at least two segments.
US08868051B2	Method and user interface for facilitating conference calls Presented are systems and methods for presenting conference call information using a mobile conferencing system. The mobile conferencing system classifies a call type parameter as a conference call based on conference details. The mobile conferencing system joins a mobile device to a teleconference using the conference details and the call type parameter. The mobile conferencing system then displays an active call graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface displays at least part of the conference details.
US08868043B1	Call interception feature permitting subscribers to send customizable messages to callers A telephone call processing arrangement establishes a path between a called switching center and call feature server in response to receipt of an incoming call to a subscriber. A predetermined message is transmitted from the call feature server, and the incoming call is disconnected with out extending a call leg to the subscriber. Such provision may be employed for a mobile or landline subscriber.
US08868039B2	Context-related arrangements In one arrangement, a first device presents a display that is based on context data, derived from one or more of its sensors. This display is imaged by a camera in a second device. The second device uses context data from its own sensors to assess the information in the captured imagery, and makes a determination about the first device. In another arrangement, social network friend requests are automatically issued, or accepted, based on contextual similarity. In yet another arrangement, delivery of a message is triggered by a contextual circumstance other than (or in addition to) location. In still another arrangement, two or more devices automatically establish an ad hoc network (e.g., Bluetooth pairing) based on contextual parallels. In still another arrangement, historical context information is archived and used in transactions with other devices, e.g., in challenge-response authentication. A great number of other features and arrangements—many involving head-mounted displays—are also detailed.
US08868031B2	Telecommunications charging with externally-controlled account selection A method of operating a charging system (22) for a telecommunications network comprises: (1) receiving a charging request in conjunction with a telecommunications activity involving a telecommunications terminal; (2) determining a default account to which a charge resulting from the charging request may be allocated; (3) making a request for an externally-controlled account selection of a selected account; and, (4) finally allocating the charge to the selected account. In an example embodiment and mode the method further comprises, prior to making the request for the externally-controlled account selection of the selected account, making a temporary allocation for a reservation for the telecommunications activity; and performing a default account rating for the telecommunications activity, the default account rating being performed upon assumption of use of the default account.
US08868022B2	Broadband transconductance amplifier A transconductance amplifier having an input terminal for receiving an input signal and an output terminal for communicating an output signal based on the input signal, the transconductance amplifier may include a gain transistor and a variable capacitance. The gain transistor may have a gate terminal, a first non-gate terminal, and a second non-gate terminal, the first non-gate terminal coupled to the output terminal of the transconductance amplifier. The variable capacitance may be coupled between the gate terminal of the gain transistor and the second non-gate terminal of the gain transistor.
US08868020B2	Community interaction using mobile communication devices Techniques are provided for delivering content to mobile communication devices related to interactions of members with a user community. The method involves detecting a communication session involving a mobile communication device; determining one or more context parameters associated with the communication session; and delivering content related to the context parameters to one or more mobile communication devices. Data is stored at a central computing entity that indicates association or membership of a plurality of mobile communication device users in a user community. The central computing entity detects when an action is taken by one mobile device user that is a member of the user community, and sends a notification to members of the social circle based on the detected action. These techniques allow individuals who are involved in a user community to maintain their interaction with the user community using their mobile communication devices.
US08868018B2	Reciprocal mixing noise cancellation system A system for cancellation of a reciprocal-mixing noise may comprise a down-converter mixer that may be configured to down convert a radio-frequency (RF) signal and to generate a baseband signal. The RF signal may include a desired signal and a blocker signal. A first signal path may be configured to receive the baseband signal and to generate a first signal. A second signal path may be configured to receive the baseband signal and to generate a second signal. A subtraction module may be configured to subtract the second signal from the first signal and to generate an output signal. The second signal may comprise the reciprocal-mixing noise, and the output signal may comprise the desired signal substantially free from the reciprocal-mixing noise.
US08868017B2	Rectifier, received signal strength indicator, and receiver A received signal strength indicator is provided. The received signal strength indicator includes a plurality of differential amplifiers forming an amplifier chain for amplifying differential signals and a plurality of rectifiers for rectifying signals output from the plurality of differential amplifiers and the differential signals, and a low pass filter for combining the signals rectified by the plurality of rectifiers to output received signal strength. Each rectifier includes a class AB voltage-current converter for converting a differential voltage into a current, and two triode transistors.
US08868016B2	Acoustic signalling to switch from infrastructure communication mode to ad hoc communication mode A system includes a first computerized device configured for communicating in an infrastructure mode and an ad hoc mode and a second computerized device configured for communicating at least in the ad hoc mode. A first computerized device operating in infrastructure mode prompts the user of the first computerized device to switch to ad hoc mode in order to communicate with the second computerized device.
US08868010B2	RF transmitter for electrically short antenna A synthetic-frequency RF transmitter is provided for transmitting an electromagnetic signal via an electrically short antenna. The transmitter comprises a reactive energy storage with an effective reactance adapted to form with the antenna a resonance circuit with a resonance frequency and a driver adapted to provide to the resonance circuit an electric transmission signal having an instantaneous frequency that varies in dependence on an information signal. The transmitter is characterized in that the transmitter is adapted to dynamically change the resonance frequency by changing the effective reactance in dependence on the information signal. Thus, the instantaneous pass-band of the resonance circuit may be controlled to substantially always comprise the instantaneous frequency of the electric transmission signal and thus of the electromagnetic signal.
US08868009B2	Method and system for multi-beam forming based on joint transceiver information A method for multi-beam forming based on joint receiving and transmitting end information is provided. The method includes: a transmitting end decomposing a channel matrix H using a geometric mean decomposition (GMD) way to obtain a unitary matrix P; the transmitting end using the unitary matrix P as a weight matrix of GMD beam forming and executing multi-beam forming processing on an original transmission signal x. The present invention also provides a system for multi-beam forming based on joint receiving and transmitting end information, and a transmitting device and receiving device for supporting multi-beam forming based on joint receiving and transmitting end information. By using geometric mean decomposition way to decompose the channel matrix H, the sub channels corresponding to various beams obtain the equal gain. When the channel is ill-conditioned, the channel equalization will not interfere with searching the perturbation vector, thereby avoiding the performance degradation.
US08868005B1	Systems, methods, and devices having databases for electronic spectrum management Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided for automated identification of baseline data and changes in state in a wireless communications spectrum, by identifying sources of signal emission in the spectrum by automatically detecting signals, analyzing signals, comparing signal data to historical and reference data, creating corresponding signal profiles, and determining information about the baseline data and changes in state based upon the measured and analyzed data in near real time, which is stored on each apparatus or device and/or on a remote server computer that aggregates data from each apparatus or device.
US08868002B2	System and method for conducting wireless site surveys A method for surveying a site for installation of wireless access points is provided. A map of the site under survey is displayed. User input relating to the position of a first wireless device at the site is received. User input relating to the position of a second wireless device at the site is also received. Wireless signals broadcast by the second wireless device are measured using the first wireless device to obtain signal strength values corresponding to the strength of the wireless signals. Attenuation values based on the signal strength values are calculated and assigned to features on the map of the site under survey.
US08867998B2	Short range wireless communication device A short range wireless communication device includes: a connection unit connectable with an external connection unit according to multiple data communication protocols defining data communication via a short range communication line covering a communication band; and a control unit that controls connection/disconnection of protocols. The protocols include high and low priority data communication protocols corresponding to high and low priority parts of the communication band, respectively. When a request for concurrently executing data communications under protocols is issued, the control unit preserves the high priority part of the communication band in priority to the low priority part of the communication band to execute high priority data communication under the high priority data communication protocol in priority to low priority data communication under the low priority data communication protocol.
US08867964B2	Rotary body unit A first rotary body is configured to rotate by a drive force input from an external source and has a first outer peripheral surface. A second rotary body has a second outer peripheral surface and is configured to rotate by following a rotation of the first rotary body through a friction generated between the first outer peripheral surface and the second outer peripheral surface. A first gear is configured to rotate together with the first rotary body. A second gear is configured to rotate together with the second rotary body and is directory engaged with the first gear. The first gear has a first pitch circle and the second gear has a second pitch circle. A radius of the first pitch circle is smaller than a radius of the first rotary body, and a radius of the second pitch circle is larger than a radius of the second rotary body.
US08867961B2	Image forming apparatus capable of preventing belt from meandering An image forming apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store a first tilted position of a roller at which meandering of the belt can be prevented in a state that the belt abuts on the image bearing member and a second tilted position of the roller at which meandering of the belt can be prevented in a state that the belt is separated from the image bearing member, and a control unit configured to move the roller to the first tilted position if the belt abuts on the image bearing member while the belt is conveyed and move the roller to the second tilted position if the abutment of the belt on the image bearing member is cancelled while the belt is conveyed.
US08867960B2	Image forming apparatus and process cartridge An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member having a surface layer A having a surface hardness of 200 N/mm2 or greater, the surface layer A containing fillers made of a metal oxide and a cleaning blade having a reed-like elastic blade having a front edge portion to remove toner from the surface layer A in motion while the front edge portion is in contact with the surface layer A, the front edge portion having a laminate structure formed of a substrate of the elastic blade, a mixed layer of the substrate and an acrylic and/or methacrylic resin, the mixed layer having a thickness of 1.0 μm or greater, and a surface layer B having an acrylic and/or methacrylic resin, the surface layer B having a thickness of 0.1 μm or greater.
US08867955B2	Developer accommodating unit, process cartridge and electrophotographic image forming apparatus A developer accommodating unit includes a flexible developer accommodating container sealed with a sealing member at its developer discharging opening; a rotatable unsealing member for removing the sealing member from the opening; a drive transmission member for transmitting a rotational force to the unsealing member, wherein the drive transmission member is mounted at one longitudinal end portion of the unsealing member and is rotatably assembled with a frame; and a supporting member for supporting the unsealing member when the unsealing member is assembled. The supporting member includes a preventing portion for preventing the unsealing member from dropping from the supporting member. In a state in which the drive transmission member is assembled with the frame, a gap between the unsealing member and the supporting member is larger than a gap between the drive transmission member and the frame. The unsealing member is spaced from the supporting member.
US08867948B2	Cartridge configuration for maintaining contact between a transfer roller and a drum A cartridge may include a transfer roller, a photoconductor drum and a transfer electrode. In one or more examples, the transfer electrode may be disposed on a first side of the transfer roller while the photoconductor drum is disposed on a second side of the transfer roller, where the second side is opposite to the first side. The transfer electrode may further include ribs configured to aid in placement or positioning of the transfer electrode in one or more directions.
US08867943B2	Fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating same A fixing device includes a fixing rotary body inside which a heat generator is disposed and an exciting coil unit disposed opposite the heat generator via the fixing rotary body. A first moving mechanism is connected to one of the heat generator and the exciting coil unit to move the one of the heat generator and the exciting coil unit between a first position where the exciting coil unit is disposed away from the heat generator and a second position where the exciting coil unit is disposed closer to the heat generator. The exciting coil unit heats a first heat generation layer of the fixing rotary body at the first position, and heats both the first heat generation layer of the fixing rotary body and a second heat generation layer of the heat generator at the second position.
US08867942B2	Lever switcher with mechanism for minimizing mechanical shock and sound and fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating lever switcher A fixing device includes a first opposed body and a second opposed body pressed against the first opposed body. A resilient member exerts a resilient bias to the second opposed body that presses the second opposed body against the first opposed body. A lever assembly is swingable to move the second opposed body against the resilient bias exerted by the resilient member between at least a reduced pressure position where the second opposed body presses against the first opposed body with reduced pressure therebetween and an enhanced pressure position where the second opposed body presses against the first opposed body with enhanced pressure therebetween. A resistance applier engages the lever assembly to exert drag on the lever assembly when the lever assembly moves the second opposed body from the reduced pressure position to the enhanced pressure position.
US08867931B2	Digital radio frequency transceiver system and method A transceiver architecture for wireless base stations wherein a broadband radio frequency signal is carried between at least one tower-mounted unit and a ground-based unit via optical fibers, or other non-distortive media, in either digital or analog format. Each tower-mounted unit (for both reception and transmission) has an antenna, analog amplifier and an electro-optical converter. The ground unit has ultrafast data converters and digital frequency translators, as well as signal linearizers, to compensate for nonlinear distortion in the amplifiers and optical links in both directions. In one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the digital data converters, frequency translators, and linearizers includes superconducting elements mounted on a cryocooler.
US08867929B2	Optical receiver using single ended voltage offset measurement An optical receiver includes an optical detector that generates a photocurrent at an output. A transimpedance amplifier generates an amplified voltage signal corresponding to the photocurrent generated by the optical detector. An offset voltage generator generates an offset voltage that biases the voltage signal generated by the transimpedance amplifier. A switch having a first input electrically connected to the output of the transimpedance amplifier and a second input electrically connected to the output of the offset voltage generator switches between the offset voltage and the voltage signal generated by the transimpedance amplifier.
US08867926B2	Optical communication of interleaved symbols associated with polarizations An apparatus comprises a coherent optical transmitter. The coherent optical transmitter comprises a first modulator for generating a first polarization, a second modulator for generating a second polarization, and a symbol interleaver configured to receive a first symbol stream intended to be transmitted on a first polarization and a second symbol stream intended to be transmitted on a second polarization, to direct one portion of symbols of the first symbol stream to the first modulator for modulation onto the first polarization and another portion of the symbols of the first symbol stream to the second modulator for modulation onto the second polarization, and to direct one portion of symbols of the second symbol stream to the first modulator for modulation onto the first polarization and another portion of the symbols of the second symbol stream to the second modulator for modulation onto the second polarization.
US08867924B2	Low power consumption small form-factor pluggable transceiver A method is provided to lower the overall power consumption of small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers. The method includes receiving an indication to operate the SFP transceiver in a low power mode, and setting the SFP transceiver to a low power mode in response to the indication by at least switching off a thermal electric cooler (TEC) that controls a temperature of a laser diode of the SFP transceiver. The proposed method may be implemented whenever a reach is not more than a predetermined distance, for example, 65 kilometers. At such reduced distances, the TEC of the SFP transceiver can be switched off while still guaranteeing link functionality. The instant low power mode has the benefit of reducing the power consumption of the SFP transceiver so that, for example, host platforms with lower power delivery budgets can support the SFP transceiver for at least some applications.
US08867913B2	Optical transport network high order mapping systems and methods Optical Transport Network (OTN) High Order (HO) mapping systems and methods utilize pointer processing to map one HO signal into another similarly sized HO signal. An OTN HO mapping method and circuit include receiving a first HO signal at a first rate, asynchronously mapping the first HO signal into a second HO signal at a second rate, wherein the first rate and the second rate are substantially similar, translating a portion of overhead from the first HO signal to overhead of the second HO signal, utilizing pointers in the overhead of the second HO signal for frame alignment of the first HO signal, and transmitting the second HO signal containing the first HO signal.
US08867906B2	Dry fire protection system A dry fire protection system for a water heater is provided. The water heater includes a body having an elongated hollow for holding water to be heated, an inlet opening and an outlet opening in communication with the hollow for flowing water therethrough. A heating element is coupled to the body for heating the water within the hollow. The dry fire protection system comprises a sensing element disposed in the hollow of the body for detecting the presence of water in the hollow. The sensing element is spaced from and operably connected to the heating element. The sensing element is configured to generate a voltage in response to a temperature of the sensing element. A controller is operably connected to the sensing element for monitoring the generated voltage across the sensing element. The controller is configured to prevent a supply of electrical power to the heating element as a function of the generated voltage.
US08867904B2	Personal video recording with apportioned loans of storage space Automated personal video recording, including recording, for a group comprising a number of members, a show having a storage space requirement, in which each of the members has allocated storage space on a personal video recorder (“PVR”) optionally including free space, and apportioning the show's storage space requirement, including apportioning to each member an apportioned amount of the show's storage space requirement. When a member's apportioned amount of the show's storage space requirement exceeds the member's free space by a deficit amount: selecting, in dependence upon the deficit amount, one or more lenders; borrowing, in dependence upon the deficit amount, from the lenders for the group, at least one loan amount of storage space; and apportioning the loan amount among the members.
US08867903B2	Image processing apparatus and image processing method This invention provides a technique for displaying a suitable image even when displaying, as a movie display image or still image display image, a frame image which forms a movie. When it is represented to display a frame image as a movie display image, a multiple outline removal unit updates the frame image by blurring an outline in the frame image. An image output unit outputs the updated frame image as a movie display image. When it is represented to display a frame image as a still image display image, a motion blur removal unit updates the frame image by removing a motion blur from the frame image. The image output unit outputs the updated frame image as a still image display image.
US08867899B2	Playback apparatus and playback method According to one embodiment, a playback apparatus includes a setting module, a detector, and a playback controller. The setting module is configured to set first limitation information configured to limit viewing of a person having an age lower than a first age. The detector is configured to detect second limitation information from a content including a plurality of programs, the second limitation information being configured to limit viewing of a person having an age lower than a second age set with respect to a first program included in the plurality of programs. The playback controller is configured to control playback of the content based on the first and second control information.
US08867889B2	Apparatus, method, and computer program for processing information An information processing apparatus may include a recording controller for controlling recording of management information containing access information corresponding to recording information for an information recording medium. The recording controller may record backup management information on a non-volatile recording medium prior to the recording of master management information on the information recording medium, and record the master management information after recording the backup management information. The recording controller may record a position information mapping table mapping a recording destination of the master management information to a recording destination of the backup management information in the recording of the backup management information.
US08867888B2	Recording apparatus for simultaneously recording the same moving image to a plurality of recording media A recording apparatus includes an input unit configured to input moving image data, a recording unit configured to record the moving image data input by the input unit to a plurality of recording media, an output unit configured to output information to a display device, a selection unit configured to select any of a plurality of modes including a first mode for simultaneously recording the moving image data input by the input unit to the plurality of recording media, and a control unit configured, when a last clip is recorded in the first mode from the moving image data of a plurality of clips recorded to the plurality of recording media, to control the output unit to output a selection screen for selecting any of the plurality of recording media, and erase the moving image data of the last clip from the selected recording medium.
US08867887B2	Multimedia data recording/reproducing device An audio data capturing device captures packetized multimedia data transmitted through a transmission path from a stage unit, and converts the packetized multimedia data to original audio data. A storage section stores the data. An audio data delivery section packetizes audio data stored in the storage section and transmits it to the mixer through the transmission path. A path switching control section performs switching-control among the stage unit, the mixer, the audio data capturing section and the audio data delivery section.
US08867873B2	Arrayed waveguide grating An optical wavelength multi/demultiplexing circuit is provided in which temperature dependence at a transmission center wavelength remained in an athermalized AWG is compensated. An AWG according to an embodiment of the present invention is compensated for the main temperature dependence at the transmission center wavelength. The AWG comprises an optical splitter, a first and second arm waveguides, an optical mode combining coupler and a multimode waveguide between an input/output waveguide and a slab waveguide. The optical mode combining coupler couples fundamental mode light from the first arm waveguide as fundamental mode and the fundamental mode light from the second arm waveguide as first mode. The multimode waveguide is capable of propagating the fundamental and first mode light. This AWG is configured such that the temperature dependence remained in the arrayed waveguide grating is compensated by changing the optical path length difference between the first and second arm waveguides with temperature.
US08867871B2	Optical printed circuit board and method of fabricating the same An optical printed circuit board (PCB) and a method of fabricating the same wherein the optical PCB is mounted with an alignment pattern area whose particular area of an integral optical connection module embedded in the optical PCB is exposed, and the alignment pattern area is formed with a sill lower than a surface of the optical PCB, whereby a transmission/reception module automatically aligned via the alignment pattern area is eased to increase the alignment accuracy between an optical connection module and the transmission/reception module and to increase the efficiency of alignment.
US08867867B2	Fiber optic switch This disclosure is of a fiber optic switch, where an actuated plunger causes a snap-action mechanism to change rapidly from a first state to a second state and place a loaded member from a first strain condition into a second strain condition where the two conditions are substantially different. A strain sensor mounted on the loaded member senses the strain of the loaded member and transmits a corresponding signal on a fiber optic cable.
US08867865B2	Point set matching with outlier detection Aspects of the present invention include point set matching systems and methods. In embodiments, a tree model is used to find candidate matching locations for a set of query points. In embodiments, a similitude transform is assumed, and the parameters are separately solved to reduce computation complexity. In embodiments, the dominant scaling (α) and rotation (R) parameters are obtained by identifying a maximum in an accumulator space. A translation (t) matrix is calculated in another 1D accumulator space. With the obtained similitude transform, outliers can be reliably detected. This two-stage approach reduces the complexity and calculation time of determining a similitude transform and increases the accuracy and ability to detect outliers.
US08867852B2	Decoding a picture based on a reference picture set on an electronic device A method for decoding a picture on an electronic device is described. The method includes obtaining a bitstream. The method also includes obtaining a current picture. The method further includes obtaining a relative reference picture set (RPS) parameter. The method additionally includes initializing an index value. Furthermore, the method includes processing another RPS parameter based on the index value. The method also includes decoding the current picture.
US08867847B2	Method for fast, robust, multi-dimensional pattern recognition A method and system for probe-based pattern matching including an apparatus for synthetic training of a model of a pattern. The apparatus comprises a sensor for obtaining an image of the pattern and a processor for receiving the image of the pattern from the sensor and running a program. In the steps performed by the program a boundary of the pattern in the image is identified. A plurality of positive probes are placed at selected points along the boundary of the pattern and at least one straight segment of the boundary of the pattern is identified. The at least one straight segment of the boundary is extended to provide an imaginary straight segment and a plurality of negative probes are placed at selected points along the imaginary straight segment, where each negative probe has a negative weight.
US08867845B2	Path recognition device, vehicle, path recognition method, and path recognition program The recognition of a lane boundary line expressed by a stud-shaped lane mark is realized with high accuracy against noise and with a small calculation amount and a small memory consumption amount.A lane recognition device extracts a candidate position of a lane mark from a received input image. A vote value is weighted according to the elapsed time with regard to the extracted candidate position of the lane mark to cumulatively perform voting to a parameter space of an approximate curved line or an approximate straight line, and, thus, to generate a time-series cumulative voting feature image. A candidate of a lane boundary line position is extracted based on the generated time-series cumulative voting feature image to determine the lane boundary line position. The lane recognition device may be provided with an image output device which images an image and outputs the imaged image.
US08867830B2	Image processing method for recovering details in overexposed digital video footage or digital still images The present method relates to digital color image processing, in particular restoration and recovery of lost contrast and details in highlights due to overexposure or clipping by reconstructing components based on the signal remaining in at least one non-clipped signal component.
US08867829B2	Method and apparatus for editing color characteristics of electronic image A method of editing color characteristics of an electronic image includes: a) receiving an original electronic image at a color editing subsystem; b) analyzing the original electronic image to identify original color characteristics and to identify a recommended set of color editing options, the recommended set of color editing options being less than a complete set of color editing options provided by the color editing subsystem; c) presenting the recommended set to a user via a user interface device; d) receiving a color editing instruction from the user interface device in response to the user selecting a corresponding color editing option from the recommended set; and e) adjusting the original color characteristics to form an adjusted electronic image having adjusted color characteristics based at least in part on the color editing instruction. An apparatus for editing color characteristics of an electronic image is also provided.
US08867828B2	Text region detection system and method A method for detecting a text region in an image is disclosed. The method includes detecting a candidate text region from an input image. A set of oriented gradient images is generated from the candidate text region, and one or more detection window images of the candidate text region are captured. A sum of oriented gradients is then calculated for a region in one of the oriented gradient images. It is classified whether each detection window image contains text by comparing the associated sum of oriented gradients and a threshold. Based on the classifications of the detection window images, it is determined whether the candidate text region is a true text region.
US08867822B2	Model-based coronary artery calcium scoring A system and method are provided for model-based coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring. A model image of a heart region is aligned with an image of a patient's heart region in order to more easily identify the coronary arteries and other relevant anatomical features in the image. Once the images are aligned, relevant calcium plaques are identified by their presence within a coronary artery, and the relevant plaques are then labeled by the specific coronary artery in which they are located. The coronary arteries with the labeled plaques are scored individually based on their size and X-ray attenuation, and an overall score based on all of the relevant plaques is then computed, which is related to the patient's risk for coronary artery disease.
US08867819B2	Information technology asset location using visual detectors Mechanisms are provided for determining the physical location of a physical asset in a physical area. A plurality of physical assets are controlled to cause each physical asset to output a visual output pattern on visual output elements of the physical asset. An image of a target physical asset is captured that has the current state of the visual output elements. An identification of the target physical asset is determined based on the current state of the visual output elements. A physical location of the target physical asset is determined based on a physical location of the image capture device when the image was captured. Location data identifying the determined physical location of the target physical asset is stored in an asset database in association with configuration information for the physical asset.
US08867813B2	Ultrasonic imaging device, ultrasonic imaging method and program for ultrasonic imaging An ultrasonic imaging apparatus is provided, discriminates a noise area where echo signals are faint, by selecting a reference frame and a comparative frame from an image obtained by processing received signals and including a plurality of frames. A region of interest is set in the reference frame, a search area wider than the region of interest is set in the comparative frame, and multiple candidate regions being destination candidates of the region of interest are set within the search area. A degree of similarity between an image characteristic value in the region of interest and an image characteristic value in the candidate region is calculated, with respect to each of the candidate regions, to obtain a distribution of the degrees of similarity across the search area. Based on the similarity distribution, whether or not the region of interest corresponds to the noise area is determined.
US08867806B2	Method and apparatus for correction of errors in surfaces Methods and systems are disclosed for correcting segmentation errors in pre-existing contours and surfaces. Techniques are disclosed for receiving one or more edit contours from a user, identifying pre-existing data points that should be eliminated, and generating a new corrected surface. Embodiments disclosed herein relate to using received edit contours to generate a set of points on a pre-existing surface, and applying a proximity test to eliminate pre-existing constraint points that are undesirable.
US08867796B2	Automated inspection of a printed image Automated inspection method for detecting a defect in a printed image, comprising processing a raster image, sending the raster image to a print process, printing a printed image corresponding to the raster image onto a medium, capturing a target image from at least a part of the printed image at a lower resolution than the printed image, at least in a medium moving direction, converting at least a part of the raster image to a reference image, and comparing the reference image to the target image.
US08867794B2	Systems and methods for performing image inpainting based on texture analysis Various embodiments are disclosed for performing image inpainting. One embodiment is a method for editing a digital image in an image editing device. The method comprises obtaining a restoration region in the digital image and determining texture information corresponding to the restoration region. Based on the texture information, a texture strength map is generated corresponding to the restoration region. Based on the texture strength map, an inpainting operation is applied to pixels in the restoration region.
US08867793B2	Scene analysis using image and range data Image and range data associated with an image can be processed to estimate planes within the 3D environment in the image. By utilizing image segmentation techniques, image data can identify regions of visible pixels having common features. These regions can be used to candidate regions for fitting planes to the range data based on a RANSAC technique.
US08867789B2	Systems and methods for tracking an object in a video Disclosed are various embodiments for tracking an object shown as moving in a video. One embodiment is a method for tracking an object in a video that comprises tracking in a first temporal direction an object in a plurality of video frames and generating a first tracking result, evaluating the first tracking result corresponding to tracking of the object in the first temporal direction, and stopping tracking in the first temporal direction upon the occurrence of a predefined event, wherein the predefined event is based on an evaluated tracking result. The method further comprises obtaining data identifying an object outline of the object upon stopping the tracking in the first temporal direction, tracking in a second temporal direction the object based on the data identifying the object outline of the object to generate a second tracking result, and generating a refined tracking result based on at least on one of the first tracking result, the second tracking result, or a combination thereof.
US08867785B2	Method and apparatus for detecting proximate interface elements A method, apparatus and computer program product are therefore provided in order to provide an efficient, aesthetically pleasing display of points of interest in an AR interface that maximizes usability and display efficiency. In this regard, the method, apparatus and computer program product may utilize a mobile terminal to perform pre-processing of interface elements to reduce display clutter and increase efficiency of display processing. Interface elements may be projected onto a cylindrical surface to locate the interface elements relative to the mobile terminal. Interface elements may be analyzed in the projection to identify interface elements that are proximate to one another. Data indicating that particular interface elements are proximate to one another may be stored in a data structure for reference prior to displaying of the interface elements in an AR interface.
US08867781B2	Two level cross-correlation based system for watermarking continuous digital media A two level cross-correlation based system for watermarking continuous digital media at the system application level. It is a post-compression process for watermarking where no a priori knowledge of the underlying compression algorithm is required. Per each compressed media frame, a current unique digital signature is generated based on the data from the current compressed frame plus the digital signature that has been previously generated. The signature thus generated is then used in conjunction with the next compressed frame to generate the next unique digital signature. All digital signatures are correlated according to the above process until a “reset” signal is issued. A new chain of correlated digital signatures is produced by the system with a predetermined initial signature.
US08867778B2	Loudspeaker A loudspeaker has a short support post joined to the forward plate; upper end of the support post in association with the fixing post is joined to the middle part of the drum paper with the fixing post; the voice coil has the upper end thereof joined to the drum paper; when the voice coil drives the drum paper to vibrate and emit sound, the upper end of the short support post sways and generates a small offset because of the lower end of the support post being retained by the forward plate such that the voice coil moves axially in the magnetic clearance without deviation, and the voice coil is incapable of touching the yoke or the forward plate to produce noise; therefore, quality of sound output from the loudspeaker is enhanced effectively.
US08867773B2	Audio processing device An audio processing device including a first audio collecting unit configured to convert an audio vibration into an electric signal and acquire an audio signal includes a shielding unit having a predetermined resonant frequency that shields the first audio collecting unit from an influence of airflow outside the device; and an acquiring unit configured to acquire, as a first audio signal, an audio signal in a predetermined frequency band lower than the resonant frequency of the shielding unit from among the audio signal acquired by the first audio collecting unit that is shielded from the influence of the air flow outside the device by the shielding unit.
US08867766B2	Method for producing a signal which is audible by an individual Audible signals (m2) which are transmitted via an uncontrolled transmission path (11) to an individual's ear wearing the control signal processing path (1) of a hearing device are compensated by audible signals (m3) which are produced by an additional controlled signal processing path (20). Signal processing parts are commonly exploited (25b, 25d, 7/27) by both controlled signal processing paths (1, 20).
US08867765B2	Antenna used in conjunction with the conductors for an audio transducer A hearing assistance device to provide sound to the ear of a user, the device comprising a housing, hearing assistance electronics enclosed in the housing, an acoustic transducer adapted to be worn in the ear, a cable assembly adapted to connect the acoustic transducer to the hearing assistance electronics, a wireless communications receiver connected to the hearing assistance electronics, and an antenna comprising one or more conductors forming at least a portion of the cable assembly.
US08867762B2	Audio towing handle One embodiment provides a system and method for an audio handle. The audio handle includes a rope, the rope including a first end operable to be attached to a vehicle for towing a user. The audio handle further includes a handle connected to the rope. The handle includes one or more speakers operable to communicate an audio signal to the user. The rope includes one or more wires for communicating an electronic audio signal from an audio source of the vehicle to the speakers to generate the audio signal. The first end includes an audio jack for connecting the one or more wires to the audio source to receive the electronic audio signal.
US08867754B2	Dereverberation apparatus and dereverberation method A dereverberation apparatus includes a signal selecting unit which selects a sound signal to be used for dereverberation process from a plurality of sound signals, and a dereverberation processing unit which performs the dereverberation process for the selected sound signal.
US08867735B2	Echo cancelling device, communication device, and echo cancelling method having the error signal generating circuit An echo cancelling device includes an adaptive filter which synthesizes a spurious echo signal from a receiving signal, a first subtractor which generates an echo cancellation signal based on an input signal including a voice signal of a speaker and the spurious echo signal, and an error signal generating circuit which generates an error signal based on the input signal and the echo cancellation signal.
US08867734B2	Functionality during a hold period prior to a customer-service video conference Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods and computer program products for providing functionality to users during a hold period prior to conducting a customer-service video conference. In specific embodiments of the present invention, the user is able to exit the video conferencing application during the hold period and be subsequently notified when the hold period is about to end and the video conference about to start. Such exiting of the video conference application and subsequent notification of the imminence of the video conference, allows for the user to perform other functions/execute other applications on the device while being assured that the user will have opportunity to conduct the video conference when the user's position in the hold period queue indicates they are next in line for conducting the video conference.
US08867733B1	Real-time predictive routing The methods, apparatus, and systems described herein are designed to route customer communications to the best available agent. The methods include predicting a personality type of the customer, determining the occupancy level of agents to provide a list of available agents, providing a routing recommendation based on the predicted personality type of the customer and agent data such as proficiency in handling customers with the predicted personality type, and/or analyzing real-time customer-agent interactions.
US08867731B2	System and method for web-based real time communication with optimized transcoding A system and method is provided to allow for real-time communication between a web browser application and a contact center resource, where media codecs supported by the two parties may differ. A processor is configured to bridge the media exchanged between the browser and contact center resource. In bridging the media, the processor transcodes the media based on a first media codec for media directed to and from the web browser application, and further transcodes the media based on the second media codec for media directed to and from a contact center resource.
US08867728B2	Managing reserve agents in a contact center A reserve agent management system (“RAMS”) allows a user, such as a contact center agent or administrator, to access and edit a reserve schedule. In one embodiment, the reserve schedule indicates times, called reserve times, during the agent's off-hours when the agent would be willing to receive a recall invitation and potentially return to work. When, during operation of the contact center, a determination is made that additional agent resources are needed, agents having compatible reserve times are notified and invited to be recalled. Agents responding and agreeing to be recalled are then recalled by being scheduled to work at certain recall times. In another embodiment, agent's break times can be shifted to potentially accommodate unexpected changes in the required agent resources. The RAMS allows administrators and agents a limited amount of flexibility in adapting agent work schedules to accommodate unplanned needs for agent resources.
US08867727B2	Telephone number groups A method includes receiving a list of sequential telephone numbers, and iteratively: identifying a first number and a last number of the list, selecting a group size, creating a group of sequential telephone numbers from the list of sequential telephone numbers based on the selected group size, and removing the created group from the list of sequential telephone numbers. Creating the group may include determining whether a first number in the list of sequential telephone numbers ends with a predetermined digit, assigning the first number as a start number of the group, and identifying an end number in the group based on the start number and the selected group size.
US08867724B2	Distinctive ring tones prompted by call urgency and context Devices, methods and systems for enhanced ringing features on communications terminals. Flexible user-established rules, customized in a subscriber profile database, enable the ring-tone to vary based on caller-id, caller priority, call-urgency (as determined by caller), call context and so forth. Call set-up logic applies the profile rules prior to completing the call set-up. “Buzz-tones” extend the basic distinctive ringing feature to the “silent” mode that is currently available on cell-phones, which is of particular utility to subscribers with hearing disabilities. Other kinds of alerts (audio/motion/visual) like flashing colors on a display, moving pictures and the like, and any combination of notification modes, are contemplated by alternative embodiments.
US08867723B2	Method of retrieving service information A method for a communications device (12) to successively querying a remote service platform (32) for service information updates, the method comprising at the device: monitoring a PSTN line for a trigger event associated with a PSTN call; determining if a trigger event has occurred, and if so, establishing a data session with the remote service platform; generating a request for a service information update, the request including a calling line identifier for the PSTN line; and sending the request to the remote service platform.
US08867717B2	Dynamic device pairing with control session establishment A communication system, method, and components are described. Specifically, a communication method is disclosed which enables a media device and control device to be dynamically paired to one another and a control link call to be established between the media device and the control device. The control link call can be utilized to permit the media device to be controlled by the control device while the media device exchanges media with a communication device operated by another user.
US08867714B2	Communication apparatus A communication apparatus including: a requiring section which transmits a requirement for establishing a state in which and the communication apparatus and a first communication apparatus are communicable with each other via an internet line, to the first communication apparatus via the internet line; a communication establishing section which establishes the state; a calling section which transmits a dial signal to an exchanger via the telephone line and calls a to-be-called apparatus, when the communication establishing section has established the state; a notifying section which transmits a notification about calling of the communication apparatus, to the first communication apparatus via the internet line after the calling section has called; a receiving section which receives an acknowledgment signal transmitted via the internet line from the first communication apparatus having received the notification; and a communication controlling section which controls the communication with the to-be-called apparatus via the telephone line.
US08867713B2	Systems and methods for personal identification number distribution and delivery Systems and methods for obtaining a personal identification number (PIN) from a client terminal are disclosed. A method includes storing, at the client terminal, PINs for plural prepaid services. The method also includes receiving, at the client terminal, a request for a PIN associated with a desired prepaid service corresponding to one of the plural prepaid services. A PIN request is then sent, from the client terminal, to a server when less than a predefined number of PINs associated with the desired prepaid service are stored at the client terminal. In response, one or more PINs associated with the desired prepaid service are received at the client terminal. The method further includes dispensing at least one PIN corresponding to the desired prepaid service from the client terminal.
US08867712B2	Adjusting a power allocation of users in a digital subscriber line environment A method and a device adjust a power allocation of users in a digital subscriber line environment. An intermediate power allocation is determined for at least one user initializing with the digital subscriber line environment based on a new power allocation determined for the digital subscriber line environment containing the at least one user. The intermediate power allocation provides a predefined minimum signal-to-noise ratio margin for the active users of the digital subscriber line environment. Furthermore, a communication system can contain such a device.

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