Document	Document Title
US08868726B1	Systems and methods for performing backups A computer-implemented method for performing backups may include identifying a request to back up a client system. The computer-implemented method may also include identifying a plurality of backup servers available to the client system via a network. The computer-implemented method may further include pairing the client system with a backup server in the plurality of backup servers based on a measure of network proximity between the client system and the backup server. The computer-implemented method may additionally include performing the requested backup of the client system via the backup server as a result of the pairing. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US08868725B2	Apparatus and methods for real-time multimedia network traffic management and control in wireless networks The invention is directed to network management systems and methods that provide substantially real-time network management and control capabilities of multimedia streaming traffic in telecommunications networks. The invention provides pre-emptive and autonomous network management and control capabilities, and may include shared intelligence of embedded systems—Heterogeneous Sensor Entities (HSE) and the Sensor Service Management (SSM) system. HSEs are distributed real-time embedded systems provisioned in various network elements. HSEs performs fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security network management functions in real-time; and real-time network management control activations and removals. SSM facilitates automated decision making, rapid deployment of HSEs and real-time provisioning of network management and control services. The service communication framework amongst various HSEs and the SSM is provided by the Heterogeneous Service Creation system. The proposed network management procedure provides real-time network management and control capabilities of multimedia traffic in wireless networks and clusters of independent networks respectively.
US08868719B1	Identity and reputation monitoring Monitoring for potential misuses of identity information is disclosed. A profile comprising a user's identity information is received. An indication from a third party website that at least a portion of the identity information in the user's profile is being or has been provided to register at the third party website, alter user information stored by the third party website, or both is received. Whether the indicated use of the identity information is a potential misuse is evaluated.
US08868715B2	Report generation and visualization systems and methods and their use in testing frameworks for determining suitability of a network for target applications A system visualizes and generates reports from stored data, concerning various measured parameters related to a network carrying call traffic. The network is displayed in an easily recognized arrangement, with various parameters being indicated by different shapes and colors for each device on the network. The parameters are changed to indicate the status of the network at different times. More detailed information about a parameter, a device or a path between devices may be obtained simply using a mouse or keystrokes. A variety of different types of detailed displays allows the operator to troubleshoot problems in the network.
US08868708B2	Methods and devices for communicating diagnosis data in a real time communication network Methods and devices for non-intrusive identification and communication between a server node and at least one client node in a communication network. An identification message is first transmitted to at least one client node, the identification message including at the application level a duplicate of the addressing data, the physical address and the internet address of the server node, also contained in the MAC and IP layers. The reception of at least one couple of addresses from at least one client node, wherein a couple of addresses from a client node includes a physical address and an internet address according to the same duplication strategy, can be used for identifying the client node by the server. Similarly, the methods and devices can be used for identifying in a client node at least one server node in the network.
US08868702B2	Server device and program product According to one embodiment, a server device connected to a client device by way of a network includes a receiving unit, a first detecting unit, a cycle changing unit, a second detecting unit, and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit receives operation data through the network. The first detecting unit detects, from among operation events based on the received operation data, a specific operation event. The cycle changing unit, when the specific operation event is detected, changes a change detection cycle for screen data that is updated in an application in accordance with the specific operation event from a first cycle to a second cycle that is longer than the first cycle. The second detecting unit detects a change in the screen data in the second cycle. The transmitting unit transmits the screen data, in which the change is detected, to the client device.
US08868701B1	Configuration management repository for a federation of distributed platforms Some embodiments provide a repository that manages configurations for a distributed platform and that automatedly configures servers of the distributed platform with different hierarchical sets of configurations while ensuring integrity and consistency across the servers and in the repository. In some embodiment, the repository includes a data store that stores configurations for a first set of servers that are operated by a first service provider and a second set of servers that are operated by a second service provider. The data store also identifies different sets of configurations to deploy to different sets of servers from the first and second sets of servers. The repository also includes a function processor to automatedly deploy the different sets of configurations to the different sets of servers and to perform functions for updating the configurations in a manner that ensures integrity and consistency.
US08868697B2	Method and system for device management, and device The present invention discloses a method and a system for device management and a device, and relates to the field of communications technologies. The method includes: mapping information of a first command supported by a proxied device to an object in a data model; receiving a second command which is used for setting the object in the data model and is sent by a management device; and sending the first command to the proxied device according to the setting of the object in the data model by the second command, and reporting a result of executing, by the proxied device, the first command to the management device as a response of the second command.
US08868694B2	Configuring multiple network devices in a setup flow A smart network may include a smart network host device as well as a smart network connector device, a smart network extender device and one or more client devices configured to connect to the smart network. An installation module is configured to connect to the smart network host device to determine whether a user is attempting to setup multiple network devices substantially simultaneously. The installation module then configures the multiple network devices based on the other network devices connected to the smart network host device. The installation module simplifies setup of the smart network by combining the configuration of multiple network devices into a single setup flow.
US08868693B2	Compliance tool Described herein are apparatuses, methods, and computer program products for changing an out of compliance client device into a client device that is in compliance utilizing a compliance tool. In some embodiments of the invention the compliance tool identifies the location of the out of compliance client device, determines why the client device is out of compliance, brings the client device into compliance, and modifies the client device to allow it to access the network. In other embodiments of the invention the compliance tool is a compliance agent, wherein at a least a part of the compliance agent is uploaded on the client device. The compliance agent periodically checks the client device to determine if the client device has been brought into compliance, and when it is brought into compliance the compliance agent modifies the client device to allow it to access the network, and is then uninstalled from the client device.
US08868687B2	Multimedia network system with content importation, content exportation, and integrated content management This system provides wired and/or wireless access throughout a multimedia network built on a distributed architecture which can be transparent to the user. This multimedia network includes content which is imported or generated within the network. The system allows for the content provider to determine the license status of content and update the license status of content which was previously provided by that provider. The external content can be accessed in real time or downloaded and stored within the system for later access at the convenience of the user. The usage of some content is controlled by the use of encryption and other protection methods. The system allows for storage of live video by storing the digitized video and allowing the user to control how, when and where the content is viewed. The system makes available multiple multimedia services to all users in the network or connected via the internet.
US08868685B2	System and method for providing an early notification when paging a wireless device A system and method for a server to provide an early notification to a target group devices when paging a wireless device during a push-to-talk (PTT) communication. When a wireless device is ready to transmit a PTT communication, a message is sent from the wireless device to a server that then sends an early PING message to a base station while processing a call request message from the wireless device. After processing the call request message, the server sends an announce message to the base station. On receipt of the PING message, the base station sends a paging message to all targeted devices while processing the announce message. The early PING message causes a communication channel to be established between a targeted device and the base station, and the communication channel can then be used by the announce message with less set-up time.
US08868684B2	Telepresence simulation with multiple interconnected devices Telepresence is coordinated among multiple interconnected devices. The presence of a first interconnected device and a second interconnected device in a common space is determined. Multimedia capabilities of the first interconnected device and the second interconnected device are determined. Communications of at least one type of media information using one of the first interconnected device and the second interconnected device are selectively and temporarily enabled by an external controller over a second network. Communications of the at least one type of media information using the other of the first interconnected device and the second interconnected device are selectively and temporarily not enabled by the external controller over the second network.
US08868681B2	Method, device, and system for remotely acquiring user physiological detection data A method, a device, and a system for remotely acquiring user physiological detection data are provided according to embodiments of the present invention. The method includes: receiving detection related information sent by handheld equipment, in which the detection related information includes user identity (ID) information and equipment positioning information; sending a detection start instruction to corresponding medical detection equipment according to the equipment positioning information; receiving user physiological detection data sent by the medical detection equipment, in which the user physiological detection data is associated with an equipment ID of the medical detection equipment; and binding and sending the user physiological detection data and the associated user ID information according to associative information of the user ID information and the equipment ID of the medical detection equipment.
US08868680B2	Methods for recommending personalized content based on profile and context information and devices thereof A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus that identifies profile information for a received request associated with an end user at a requesting computing device and context information associated with the requesting computing device. Customized content responsive to the received request is obtained from a content provider device based on the identified profile information and the identified context information. The obtained customized content is providing to the requesting computing device.
US08868674B2	Streaming and bulk data transfer transformation with context switching In described embodiments, processing of a data stream, such as a packet stream or flow, associated with data streaming is improved by context switching that employs context history. For each data stream that is transformed through processing, a context is maintained that comprises state information and includes a history and state information that enables the transformation for the data stream. Processing for the data transformation examines currently arriving data and then processes the data based on the context data and previously known context information for the data stream from the history stored in memory.
US08868653B2	Peer discovery and connection management based on context sensitive social networks In a method for automatically filtering communications, a networking request from an initiating party on an initiating communication device is received. The networking request pertains to a request for communication between the initiating communication device and a recipient communication device of a user over a communication channel. A determination is made of whether the communication channel to be used for the communication matches a communication channel for a previous communication between the initiating party and the user. It is automatically determined whether to grant the networking request, based at least in part on the determination of whether the communication channel for the communication matches the communication channel for the previous communication between the initiating party and the user. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08868650B1	Consolidating multi-party communications Methods, devices, and products facilitate consolidating multi-user communications by redirecting calls to a multi-user device, with which multiple users can interact. A multi-user device monitors the density of users and devices within a specified distance of the multi-user device. Based at least in part on the proximity of a user, the multi-user device can designate a preferred device associated with the user and inform a multi-user-device server of the preference. The multi-user-device server provides a conference server with instructions that include contact information for the preferred devices to be used by the conference server when initiating a multi-user communication session.
US08868646B2	Apparatus and method for generating virtual game clients Disclosed herein are an apparatus and method for generating virtual game clients. The apparatus includes a description grammar module, a description generation module, and a client generation and control module. The description grammar module includes a game packet description grammar. The description generation module generates a game protocol description corresponding to the structure of a packet protocol of a game and a game protocol sequence description corresponding to the relationship of transmission and reception between packets, based on the game packet description grammar. The client generation and control module generates a virtual game client using the game protocol description and the game protocol sequence description.
US08868638B2	Methods for reducing latency in network connections using automatic redirects and systems thereof A method, computer readable medium, and apparatus for reducing latency in network connections include receiving at a web content optimization apparatus a request from one of one or more client devices for network content hosted at one of one or more server devices. The web content optimization apparatus determines whether an automatic redirect parameter is enabled for the request. The request from one proxy processing device acting as the requesting one of the client devices within the web content optimization apparatus is sent to another proxy processing device within the web content optimization apparatus when the automatic redirect parameter is determined to be enabled. One or more redirect messages with one or more optimized cookies associated with the requested network resource are obtained from the one or more server devices at the another proxy processing device within the web content optimization apparatus. The last of the one or more redirects messages with the one or more optimized cookies when the requested network resource is located is sent from the another proxy processing device within the web content optimization apparatus to the one proxy processing device within the web content optimization apparatus. The last of the one or more redirect messages with the one or more optimized cookies associated with the requested network resource is sent from the web content optimization apparatus to the requesting one of the one or more of client devices.
US08868635B2	System and method for near-optimal media sharing A media content sharing system includes multiple broadcast operation centers that together are configured to automatically acquire and distribute media content among one another based upon the media content needs and inventories of each participating broadcast operation center. The media sharing system architecture eliminates any single-point of system failure such that an inventory of media content corresponding to a particular broadcast operation center remains available to broadcast operation centers remaining on the media content sharing system subsequent to failure of the particular broadcast operation center.
US08868630B1	Verification of pseudorandom number streams A method of assessing parallel random number streams includes mixing two or more parallel random number streams. Mixing the parallel random number streams may include pairing at least one of the random number streams with other random number streams. For each mixed random number stream, an inter-stream correlation value may be computed based on a correlation among the random number steams used. A quality metric for the parallel random number streams may be determined from inter-stream correlation values for the two or more mixed streams created from the parallel random number streams. A quality metric for a single random number stream may be computed by segmenting the single random number stream into multiple substreams and applying the methods of mixing streams and computing quality metric in the case of parallel streams.
US08868620B2	Techniques for composing data queries Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for composing data queries. In one embodiment, a mapping template is provided to represent data in terms that are easy to understand. The mapping template is used to provide a tree structure made up of nodes that are queried. A query may be composed by navigating the tree structure to select nodes of interest and specifying predicates for the selected nodes. Once the query is composed, it may be executed against the data.
US08868618B2	Usage-optimized tables Systems and methods are disclosed for employing usage-optimized tables with a computer database system. In one embodiment, the database system stores create, update, and delete database operations in the usage-optimized table. The create, update, and delete database operations remain in the usage-optimized table until a flush condition is reached. When the flush condition is reached, the create, update, and delete operations are transferred to their corresponding real tables. In embodiments, the read operation does not flush the contents of the usage-optimized table to the real table. In such embodiments, the database system modifies read operations to account for data resident on the usage-optimized tables.
US08868616B1	Event data monitoring systems and methods A personal monitoring system of the present disclosure has a network and a sensing device. The sensing device has a network interface for coupling the sensing device to the network and is coupled to a user for sensing raw data at a discrete time related to the user. Additionally, the system has logic that associates a timestamp with the raw data at the discrete time and stores the raw data as raw history data indicative of a plurality of raw data from discrete times. Further, the logic determines, based upon the raw history data, whether an event has occurred.
US08868614B2	System and method for creating and utilizing metadata regarding the structure of program content Metadata is created in connection with an editing of a copy of a digital media for the purpose of generating a sample of the digital media, such as a ringtone generated from a song. The metadata is published and is retrievable for use in editing another copy of the digital media to automatically recreate the media sample.
US08868613B2	Updating data on a remote device Systems and methods, including computer software products, for updating data on a remote device involve defining multiple channels on a remote device, where each channel is associated with a predetermined type of content. Content updates for the channels are automatically delivered to the remote device, and an update frequency is identified for each channel. A most frequent update frequency among the multiple channels defined on the remote device is determined, and updates to the channels are requested according to the most frequent update frequency.
US08868608B2	System and method for managing a virtual appliance lifecycle A system and method for managing a virtual appliance lifecycle is provided. In particular, a hosted web service may provide a collaborative environment for and unified environment for developing, configuring, personalizing, building, testing, deploying, and otherwise managing a lifecycle for one or more virtual appliances, wherein the collaborative and unified environment may provide various features for-creating virtual appliances, monitoring upstream changes and modifications to the virtual appliances, and providing real-time analysis and feedback during various phases of the virtual appliance lifecycle, among other things.
US08868599B2	Computing correlated aggregates over a data stream Described herein are approaches for computing correlated aggregates. An aspect provides for receiving a stream of data elements at a device, each data element having at least one numerical attribute; maintaining in memory plurality of tree structures comprising a plurality of separate nodes for summarizing numerical attributes of the data elements with respect to a predicate value of a correlated aggregation query, said maintaining comprising: creating the plurality of tree structures in which each node implements one of: a probabilistic counter and a sketch, wherein said probabilistic counter and said sketch each act to estimate aggregated data element numerical attributes to form a summary of said numerical attributes; and responsive to a correlated aggregation query specifying said predicate value, using said plurality of tree structures as a summary of said data element numerical attributes to compute a response to said correlated aggregate query.
US08868595B2	Enhanced control to users to populate a cache in a database system Providing enhanced control to users to populate a cache in a database system. A user provides an explicit indication indicating the specific information (available from the data stored in a storage of the database system) to be populated in the cache, and the cache is populated with the corresponding information. The information in the cache (whether due to explicit indications or otherwise) can then be used to generate results of queries, without having to access the same information from the storage of the database system.
US08868592B1	Providing customized autocomplete data Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing customized autocomplete suggestions. First profile data is obtained for a first user. Second profile data is obtained for second users that submitted search queries, where the second users are different from the first user. Based on the first profile data and the second profile data, similarity scores are determined. The similarity scores are each indicative of a degree of similarity between the first user and at least one of the second users. A proper subset of the search queries is selected based on the similarity scores, and an update for an autocomplete cache of a computing device associated with the first user is generated using the selected subset of search queries. The update is provided to the computing device associated with the first user.
US08868588B2	System and method for providing a composite view object and SQL bypass in a business intelligence server Systems and methods are described for performing a SQL bypass in a business intelligence (BI) server environment. The BI server initially receives a SQL query and constructs an extensible markup language (XML) representation of the SQL query. The XML representation is sent to an application server that hosts an application developer framework (ADF). The ADF receives the XML representation of the SQL query and constructs a composite view object at runtime, to access the appropriate data. It then generates a database-specific query based on the composite view object and returns it to the BI server. The BI server replans the database-specific query and sends it to a database storing the data.
US08868586B2	Generating search results based on determined relationships between data objects and user connections to identified destinations A search system generates an ordered list of destination targets including identified individuals and data objects, based on applying a user context to an information context and to a connection context. The user context identifies a search context (i.e., the information the user is seeking) relative to an identity of the user, and the information context identifies destinations accessible by the user, including data objects and communications-based actions (e.g., voice over IP telephony calls, instant messaging session transcripts, etc.). The connection context identifies relationships between chosen destinations throughout the system, and the strength of those relationships determined from artifacts of the chosen destinations: the connection context is updated based on artifact detection. The portion of the connection context that is relevant to the user context is used to order the portion of the information context that is relevant to the user context, resulting in the ordered list of destination targets.
US08868581B2	Communication device and method of controlling operation of communication device A communication device and method of controlling an operation of a communication device are provided, by which an application can be efficiently selected according to location information. The communication device includes a wireless communication unit for determining a location using received information, a controller for generating location information based on the determined location and searching for an application corresponding to the location information, and a display for displaying an indicator of the searched application.
US08868576B1	Storing files in a parallel computing system based on user-specified parser function Techniques are provided for storing files in a parallel computing system based on a user-specified parser function. A plurality of files generated by a distributed application in a parallel computing system are stored by obtaining a parser from the distributed application for processing the plurality of files prior to storage; and storing one or more of the plurality of files in one or more storage nodes of the parallel computing system based on the processing by the parser. The plurality of files comprise one or more of a plurality of complete files and a plurality of sub-files. The parser can optionally store only those files that satisfy one or more semantic requirements of the parser. The parser can also extract metadata from one or more of the files and the extracted metadata can be stored with one or more of the plurality of files and used for searching for files.
US08868575B2	Method and system for transformation of logical data objects for storage Various embodiments for transforming a logical data object for storage in a storage device operable with at least one storage protocol are provided. In one such embodiment, the logical data object into one or more segments are divided with each segment characterized by respective start and end offsets. One or more obtained variable size data chunks are processed corresponding to the logical data object to obtain processed data chunks, wherein at least one of the processed data chunks comprises transformed data resulting from the processing. Each of the variable size data chunks is associated with a respective segment of the logical data object. The processed data chunks are sequentially accommodated in accordance with an order of chunks received while keeping the association with the respective segments.
US08868563B2	System, method, and computer program product for analyzing and decomposing a plurality of rules into a plurality of contexts A system, method, and computer program product are provided for analyzing a plurality of rules in a textual rules structure. Further, the plurality of rules are decomposed into a plurality of contexts, based on the analysis. In addition, the plurality of contexts are stored in a table. Furthermore, a database associated with a device and/or any robot equipped with an operating system may be utilized.
US08868552B2	Systems and methods to facilitate searches based on social graphs and affinity groups Business, recommendation, and social relationship graph information for businesses may be received from a data source social networking website, where each business is recommended by users. The recommendation information may indicate users that recommend certain businesses. The social relationship graph information may indicate user-specific networks of social relationships on the social networking website. For a user query including business and affinity group selection criteria, business, recommendation, and social relationship graph information may be searched to select businesses that: match the business selection criteria; and are recommended by users having social relationships within a maximum degree of closeness with the querying user and being in an affinity group matching the affinity group selection criteria. The selected businesses may be ranked based on numbers of recommending users and social relationship graph information. A search result, with businesses indicated in a rank order and with business and recommendation information, may be provided.
US08868550B2	Method and system for providing an answer A method of providing an answer, comprising receiving a criteria, identifying a subset of a set of answers in a data store based on the criteria, calculating a random value for each of the answers in the subset, ranking the subset of answers based on the random values, selecting one of the answers of the subset based on the ranking; and providing an output including the selected answer.
US08868549B1	In-context searching A system limits search results based on context information. The system obtains the context information and a search query, and obtains a set of references to documents in response to the search query. The system then filters the set of references based on the context information and presents the filtered set of references to a user.
US08868543B1	Finding web pages relevant to multimedia streams A media stream, such as a news broadcast, is supplemented with documents that are relevant to the media stream. The documents may be web pages returned from a search engine. A search query generation component generates search queries for the search engine based on the media stream. A post processing component may re-rank and/or filter the documents to enhance the viewing experience for the user.
US08868542B2	Customized user interface based on user profile information A user interface including one or more references to content is customized. Several user profiles are provided from which a user may be associated. Each user profile includes user profile information. The user profile associated with a user to whom a user interface will be provided is accessed. A user interface is configured for the user, based at least in part upon the user profile accessed as being associated with the user. Access to content is enabled based on user manipulation of the configured user interface.
US08868537B1	Simple web search A system of one or more computing devices is utilized for, among other purposes, creating a template-driven search interface and conducting searches thereon. In an embodiment, the system comprises: a template repository; search templates in the template repository, the search templates comprising at least: field specification data that specify search interface fields for obtaining search input data, and query specification data that specify how to generate structured queries based on the search input data obtained for the one or more of the search interface fields; a search field generator that generates search fields indicated by the field specification data; a template loading module, coupled to the template repository, that identifies available search templates in the template repository; and a search interface generator, coupled to the search field generator and template loading module, that generates different search interfaces depending on which template is selected.
US08868519B2	System and method for generating and updating location check digits Method, apparatus and program product for generating check data for a location within an area of a workspace include receiving an identifier for a selected location that has check data associated therewith. Candidate check data for use with the selected location is generated. The candidate check data is evaluated for a match against at least one of existing check data for the selected location or check data associated with a related location. Based on the evaluation, a determination is made of whether the candidate check data is acceptable for use for the selected location.
US08868516B2	Managing enterprise data quality using collective intelligence An embodiment of the invention is directed to a method associated with a data processing system disposed to receive and process enterprise data. Responsive to receiving a specified data element, the method determines a data type to be used for the specified data element. The method selectively determines a confidence level of the specified data element, and selects a plurality of subject matter experts (SMEs), wherein the data type of the specified data element is used in selecting each SME. A request is dispatched to each of the SMEs to selectively revise and validate the specified data element. The specified data element is then updated in accordance with each revision provided by an SME in response to one of the requests.
US08868515B2	Distribution of mainframe data in the PC environment A method of distributing mainframe software and data using PC-based data media is disclosed, comprising a mainframe program for converting a mainframe sequential dataset or all or part of a mainframe library of texts or load modules to a sequential dataset of fixed length records and for reverting these converted records to its original form in the same or another mainframe data center, and procedures for downloading the converted mainframe data to a PC and uploading the PC file to a mainframe. The converted mainframe data downloaded to a PC can be delivered to another mainframe data center using floppy diskettes, recordable CD-ROM, Internet Website, TCP/IP FTP, or email attachment, as an alternative to magnetic tapes. The PC hard disk is used as a backup storage of the mainframe libraries, and a mainframe text library downloaded to a PC can be edited on a local or remote stand-alone PC.
US08868512B2	Logging scheme for column-oriented in-memory databases According to some embodiments, a column-oriented in-memory database structure may be established. The database structure may, for example, include a main store and a dictionary compressed delta store. Moreover, the delta store may comprise a value identifier vector and a delta dictionary associated with a column of the database. A transaction associated with the column may then be received and recorded within the delta store. According to some embodiments, entries associated with the transaction may be added to a value log of the value identifier vector and, independently, to a dictionary log of the delta dictionary.
US08868511B2	Archiving—safe replication of relational data A computer-implemented method for archiving information includes: executing a first application in a first process; determining that the first application is an archiving application configured to archive information stored in a transactional system; assigning, based on the determination, an archiving mode to the first process; receiving, from the first process and after assigning the archiving mode, a request to delete information; and processing the request to delete information according to the archiving mode.
US08868507B2	Method and apparatus for data recovery using storage based journaling A storage system maintains a journal and a snapshot of one or more data volumes. Two journal entry types are maintained, an AFTER journal entry and a BEFORE journal entry. Two modes of data recovery are provided: “fast” recovery and “undo-able”recovery. A combination of both recovery modes allows the user to quickly recover a targeted data state.
US08868505B1	Systems and methods for protecting data in a network host environment Data protection programs are installed at each network host. The programs communicate with each other to scan the hosts and identify duplicate and unique data objects stored at the hosts. Duplicate data objects are maintained on the hosts. Unique data objects are broken into chunks, copied to other hosts, and a parity data is calculated. When a network host becomes unavailable and is replaced with a new network host, duplicate data objects stored on the now unavailable network host may be rebuilt on the new network host using the maintained duplicate data objects on the other hosts. Unique data objects stored on the now unavailable network host may be rebuilt on the new network host using the copied chunks and parity data.
US08868489B2	Method and system for generating collaborative content A method and system for users to concurrently edit a digital file to achieve a predetermined goal. Each iteration creates a copy of the digital file for each user; enables the users to create an altered digital file by making a change having a magnitude within predetermined limits; creates a voting set containing a plurality of digital files, the plurality of digital files including at least one altered or unaltered digital file; enables the users to cast votes in relation to the digital files in the voting set; repeats the steps of creating a voting set and enables the users to cast votes until one of the digital files in one of the voting sets receives a number of votes above a predetermined voting threshold; and includes in the next iteration the digital file which received a number of votes above the predetermined voting threshold.
US08868488B2	Techniques for integrating structured accounting data with unstructured data Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for integrating structured accounting data with unstructured data. From an application that manages structured accounting data related to an entity, a user selection is received to create a document container for a collaboration tool. The document container is used for storing unstructured data related to the entity. In response to the selection of the create option, a site creation service is launched for automatically creating the document container using settings previously specified by an administrator on a configuration screen of the application. Once the document container is created, unstructured data related to the entity is stored in the document container. The user can view and navigate between the structured accounting data and unstructured data without having to leave the application. Unstructured data is automatically published to the document container for the entity as users interact with the application.
US08868484B2	Efficiently updating rows in a data warehouse An aspect of the present invention facilitates efficient updating of rows in a data warehouse. In one embodiment, a sequence of identifiers is allocated to rows of data elements received earlier, and then inserted along with the received data elements in a table according to the defined by the sequence of identifiers. On receiving data elements as updates to the rows having associated identifiers, the received data elements are sorted according to the order of the associated identifiers and updates of the rows are performed successively in the sorted order of identifiers. According to another aspect, the above features are performed when (target) fact/dimension tables in the data warehouse are sought to be updated based on transformations/computations performed on data in other (source) fact/dimension tables.
US08868477B2	Multi-compartment neurons with neural cores Embodiments of the invention provide a neural core circuit comprising a synaptic interconnect network including plural electronic synapses for interconnecting one or more source electronic neurons with one or more target electronic neurons. The interconnect network further includes multiple axon paths and multiple dendrite paths. Each synapse is at a cross-point junction of the interconnect network between a dendrite path and an axon path. The core circuit further comprises a routing module maintaining routing information. The routing module routes output from a source electronic neuron to one or more selected axon paths. Each synapse provides a configurable level of signal conduction from an axon path of a source electronic neuron to a dendrite path of a target electronic neuron.
US08868459B2	System and method for adjusting asset value and availability in data records for mitigating speculative trading in a prediction market The present subject-matter belongs to the field of system and methods for automatic and electronic transaction control, namely in introducing minimum holding times and forcing transaction outcomes in a market. The system and method include adjusting asset value and availability for mitigating speculative market manipulation and pure speculative trading transactions outcomes in a prediction market. The modules introduce pure delays, selective delays or force the transaction outcome evaluations such that these goals are addressed. One of the principles used in these methods and modules is that by increasing the risk of the purely speculative or manipulative trading strategies, their expected payoff will be reduced. Thus participants will have less incentive to use them and their occurrence and impact will be greatly reduced.
US08868457B2	Firm offers of credit system A computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer includes receiving consumer information from a consumer via a network, receiving a selection via the network from the consumer to permit at least one soft credit inquiry of the consumer's credit record, submitting a soft credit inquiry to a credit reporting agency, the soft credit inquiry based on the consumer information, receiving at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, the firm offer of credit resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the soft credit inquiry on the consumer's credit record, each firm offer of credit provided by a credit issuer; and providing the at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.
US08868453B2	System for supply chain management A system for tracking a product from origin to destination is disclosed. The system includes a probe that comprises two plates, a power source and a processor. The power source is controlled by the processor to produce an oscillating output at the plates. Using the oscillating voltage, the probe interrogates a device through capacitive coupling. The device includes a control unit, a memory unit, and first and second materials physically associated with the device for communication using capacitive coupling. Information associated with the device is transferred from the device to the probe through capacitive coupling between the first and second materials and the first and second plates, respectively.
US08868445B2	Apparatuses, methods and systems for ad-hoc applications based on advertisement The disclosure details the implementation of apparatuses, methods and systems for a Framework for Ad-hoc Applications Based on Advertising (FAABA). The FAABA may employ short-range radio-frequency communications. The disclosure teaches mechanisms for providing targeted advertising in connection with ad-hoc applications/point-to-point (P2P) communications between user terminals. In a manner, the invention teaches general collection components for user terminals, which is responsible for collecting and maintaining a dynamic set of advertisements as a background operation. This allows the user terminals to initiate applications that are based on P2P communication, and furthermore, allows collections of pre-loaded advertisements to be provided to the user terminals along and/or during the P2P communications. Also, the FAABA teaches that after advertisements are stored in the receiving device, the advertisements can be tailored more closely to the interests of the user of the device and the advertisements can be filtered based on current context of the user.
US08868444B2	System and method for rewarding in channel accomplishments The systems, methods, and computer program products (collectively “systems”) described herein are generally configured to monitor actions in digital channels. More specifically, the systems may be employed in digital channels to initiate purchases or facilitate rewards. The systems are capable of syncing transaction accounts with various digital channels. Moreover, the systems are capable of initiating or completing transaction based on user information. The systems may also be capable of providing rewards based on activities or accomplishments in the digital channels. Moreover, the systems may be capable of verifying activities based on transaction information.
US08868422B2	Storing a representative speech unit waveform for speech synthesis based on searching for similar speech units According to one embodiment, a method for editing speech is disclosed. The method can generate speech information from a text. The speech information includes phonologic information and prosody information. The method can divide the speech information into a plurality of speech units, based on at least one of the phonologic information and the prosody information. The method can search at least two speech units from the plurality of speech units. At least one of the phonologic information and the prosody information in the at least two speech units are identical or similar. In addition, the method can store a speech unit waveform corresponding to one of the at least two speech units as a representative speech unit into a memory.
US08868414B2	Audio signal processing device with enhancement of low-pitch register of audio signal An audio signal processing device is designed to enhance the low-pitch register of an audio signal by generating harmonics causing a missing fundamental effect with a light load of processing but without damaging an audio waveform. The audio signal processing device includes a filtering part (e.g. a band-pass filter configured of a high-pass filter and a low-pass filter) that extracts a low-pitch signal from an audio signal input thereto; a dynamic range compression part that compresses a dynamic range of the low-pitch signal by use of a time-variant gain relative to a peak of the low-pitch signal, which is detected via a peak hold operation using a predetermined time constant, thus producing a compressed signal; and an adder that adds the compressed signal to the audio signal so as to produce a processed audio signal including harmonics.
US08868413B2	Accelerometer vector controlled noise cancelling method A telecommunication device is disclosed, comprising: a microphone array comprising a plurality of microphones, wherein each microphone receives an analogue acoustic signal; a position sensing device for determining how the telecommunication device is positioned in three-dimensions with respect to a user's mouth; at least one analogue/digital converter for converting each analogue acoustic signal into a digital signal; a digital signal processor for performing signal processing on the received digital signals comprising a controller, a plurality of delay circuits for delaying each received signal based on an input from the controller and a plurality of preamplifiers for adjusting the gain of each received signal based on a gain input from the controller, wherein the controller selects the appropriate delay and gain values applied to each received signal to remove noise from the received signals based on the determined position of the telecommunication device. A method for creating and controlling a location of a virtual microphone near a telecommunication device so as to reduce background noise in a speech signal is also disclosed.
US08868405B2	System and method for comparative analysis of textual documents A system and method are presented for the comparative analysis of textual documents. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the method includes accessing two or more documents, performing a linguistic analysis on each document, outputting a quantified representation of a semantic content of each document, and comparing the quantified representations using a defined metric. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention such a metric can measure relative semantic closeness or distance of two documents. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention the semantic content of a document can be expressed as a semantic vector. The format of a semantic vector is flexible, and in exemplary embodiments of the present invention it and any metric used to operate on it can be adapted and optimized to the type and/or domain of documents being analyzed and the goals of the comparison.
US08868401B1	Verification harness for automatically generating a text-based representation of a graphical model A system and method automatically generates an object-oriented, textual program from a graphical model, and verifies the performance of the textual program as compared to the graphical model. The graphical model may have a plurality of interconnected blocks, and each block may have a plurality of parameters. One or more of the blocks are mapped to a system object, and the block's parameters are mapped to properties of the system object. An object-oriented, executable textual string is generated automatically for the block. The generated string includes at least one command to: instantiate a system object having functionality that matches the block; set one or more properties of the system object based on the block's parameters; and run the instantiated object.
US08868398B2	Method for predicting arc flash energy and PPE category within a real-time monitoring system A method for simulating an arc flash event on an electrical power system is disclosed. The virtual system model of the electrical system is modified to introduce a short circuiting feature. The standard to supply equations used in the arc flash event calculations is chosen. The arc flash event is simulated using the modified virtual system model in accordance with the chosen standard. The quantity of arc energy released by the arc flash event is calculated using results from the simulation. The report that forecasts an aspect of the arc flash event is communicated.
US08868391B2	Process for characterising the evolution of an oil or gas reservoir over time Disclosed is a process for characterising the evolution of a reservoir over a time lapse comprising the steps of: providing a base and a plurality of monitor surveys of the reservoir, each having a set of seismic traces at different times; deriving an optimal regularization weight-map from a combination of at least three surveys; and using the optimal regularization weights to invert and obtain an improved time lapse seismic image between pairs of seismic surveys.
US08868389B2	Computer-implemented simulation method and non-transitory computer medium for use in molding process, and molding system using the same A computer-implemented simulation method for use in molding process by a computer processor includes specifying a simulating domain having a mold cavity configured to connect a tube of a molding machine, creating a mesh by dividing at least part of the simulating domain, generating at least one flow parameter of a molding material in the tube, specifying boundary conditions of the mesh by taking into consideration the at least one flow parameter of the molding material, and simulating a molding process of the molding material that is injected into the mold cavity by using the boundary conditions to generate a plurality of molding conditions.
US08868388B2	Contact defining device, contact defining method, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium A contact defining device includes: a component moving unit that moves a component represented by data of a surface region in a 3D model in a predetermined direction; an overlap determination unit that determines whether or not the surface region of the component moved by the component moving unit includes an overlapping area that overlaps the surface region of another component; and a contact defining unit that, when a determination is made by the overlap determination unit that the surface region of the component includes the overlapping area that overlaps the surface region of another component, defines the overlapping area as a contact area with the another component.
US08868381B2	Control system design simulation using switched linearization A method converts a plurality of functional blocks into linear blocks such that the nonlinear blocks are divided into a plurality of states through switched linearization. The plurality of states generated by said switched linearization is then transitioned selectively based on a predetermined operational scenario. Each state is then tested separately to ensure that implementation of the states are safe. A first guard block is provided when a state is deemed unsafe such that the first guard block is enabled to cause a system shutdown so as to prevent further processing that can cause an unsafe result.
US08868379B2	Measurement apparatus A measurement apparatus obtains a reference signal from reference light modulated at a first frequency and a measurement signal from measurement light reflected by a target object modulated at a second frequency along with movement of the target object in addition to the modulation at the first frequency, and processes the reference signal and the measurement signal to measure a position of the target object. Synchronized detection units multiply the measurement signal by a signal synchronized with the reference signal and output signals having the second frequency and harmonic components. Decimation filters filter, at a decimation frequency, the signals output from the synchronized detection units to attenuate the harmonic components.
US08868378B2	Power monitoring system The invention provides a hierarchically accessible monitoring system configured to be used with a standby generator, and a method of remotely accessing generator information from a standby generator. The hierarchically accessible monitoring system includes an interface unit configured to receive information from the standby generator and to communicate the generator information, and a remote data server in communication with the interface unit. The remote data server receives the generator information from the interface unit, stores the generator information, and controls access to the generator information based upon at least two hierarchical levels, each hierarchical level having different access privileges. The hierarchically accessible monitoring system also includes a user interface configured to display the generator information from the remote data server to at least one user. The user has access privileges to read the generator information based upon the user's assigned hierarchical level.
US08868366B2	Calculation method and calculation apparatus The present invention provides a method of calculating a surface shape of a target surface, including the steps of defining, as a measurement target region, each of a plurality of regions on the target surface in which adjacent regions overlap each other, and obtaining data that give the heights at the plurality of positions in each of the plurality of regions, and removing, for each of the plurality of regions, an average data from the data that are obtained in the step of obtaining the data and give the heights at the plurality of positions in each of the plurality of regions, thereby generating correction data for each of the plurality of regions.
US08868364B2	Apparatus and method for real time harmonic spectral analyzer In one embodiment, a measuring device may comprise two oscillators. The first oscillator may generate a local reference signal in a frequency detector to detect a fundamental frequency of the alternating current (AC). The second oscillator may generate two substantially mutually orthogonal sinusoid signals having the selected frequency. The measuring device further may comprise a first group of multipliers that mixes the two sinusoid signals with a current and a voltage data signal of the AC respectively, a group of low-pass filters for removing high frequency components from the multiplication products, a second group of multipliers for mixing the filtered multiplication products respectively, and a plurality of adders each to sum together a pair of multiplication products of the second group of multipliers.
US08868358B2	Fill level measuring device working with microwaves A fill level measuring device includes: a transmitting and receiving system for producing a higher frequency microwave signal and a lower frequency microwave signal. The transmitting and receiving system includes a single antenna, which has an internally funnel shaped horn and two hollow conductor segments connected with one another and connected to the horn. The antenna additionally includes, a coaxial conductor connection, via which the antenna is fed with the lower frequency microwave signal and the associated lower frequency echo signal is received. The antenna additionally includes, connected to a horn-remote end of that one of the two hollow conductor segments arranged on an end of the hollow conductor segment adjoining the horn, a hollow conductor connection, via which the antenna is fed with the higher frequency microwave signal and the associated higher frequency echo signal is received.
US08868346B2	Correction for low porosity effects on neutron gamma density Systems, methods, and devices are provided to determine an accurate neutron-gamma density (NGD) measurement for a broad range of formations, including low-hydrogen-index or low-porosity formations and formations with heavy elements. For example, such an NGD measurement may be obtained by emitting neutrons into a formation such that some of the neutrons inelastically scatter off elements of the formation and generate inelastic gamma rays. The neutrons and inelastic gamma rays that return to the downhole tool may be detected. Some characteristics of certain formations are believed to affect the fast neutron transport of the formations. Thus, if a formation has one or more of such characteristics, a correction may be applied to the count rate of neutrons, the count rate of inelastic gamma rays, or the neutron transport correction function, upon which the neutron-gamma density (NGD) may be determined.
US08868344B2	Systems and methods for combining a priori data with sensor data Systems and method for improving the presentation of sensed data (e.g., radar) by including a priori data. The a priori data is recast as if it were the output of a sensor. This allows the inclusion of the a priori data into an evidence grid that is combined with data from multiple types of sensors. Before the sensor data is combined into the evidence grid, the sensor data is aligned with the a priori data using an optimization algorithm. The optimization algorithm provides an optimum probability of a match between the sensor data and the a priori data by adjusting position or attitude associated with the sensor device. This removes any navigational errors associated with the sensor device data.
US08868341B1	Personnel accountability an safety system Systems and methods for locating users or equipment on an offshore oil rig or other hazardous location or during transit include user devices, each having a locatable element, at least one motion sensor, and data storage having identifying information relating to a user or item of equipment. Locator devices positioned at discrete locations detect the locatable elements and generate a record that includes the discrete location, the identifying information, and the speed or orientation of the user device. A central device can receive the record from each locator device, generate a log of the records, compare the log to expected parameters, receive expected deviations from the parameters, and generate alerts if a deviation is not expected. Additional locatable devices not associated with users can be provided for emergent access in escape vessels, emergency equipment, or similar locations, by users separated from a user device.
US08868339B2	System and method for dynamic route guidance A system and method for informing commuters of real-time time of arrival and cost information with respect to one or more routes prior to commencement of a trip. Reserved lane information (e.g., toll charge, traffic speeds in the reserved and general lanes, etc.) can be integrated with a data feed provided to, for example, navigation enabled devices such as in-car guidance systems or mobile phones. Time of arrival information with respect to the destination can be provided based on wireless data indicative of traffic conditions and highway speed limit information. Additionally, real-time toll charges can be provided to the commuter for multiple routes.
US08868334B2	Moving body position detection system, moving body position detection apparatus, moving body position detection method, and computer-readable storage medium A moving body position detection system including a unit that acquires dead reckoning navigation information on a moving body; a unit that identifies a position on the moving body on a link based on the dead reckoning navigation information on the moving body; a unit that acquires current position link data on a current position link and neighboring link data on a neighboring link. The current position link is a link on which the moving body position is located, and the neighboring link is connected to the current position link. The system also includes a unit that compares the dead reckoning navigation information on the moving body with the current position link data and with the neighboring link data; and a unit that updates the position of the moving body based on a comparison result of the comparison unit.
US08868331B2	Navigation apparatus A navigation apparatus in a vehicle displays road names of cross roads that crosses a to-be-traveled road along the to-be-traveled road at positions that area adjacent to respective cross roads. In this manner, a user of the navigation apparatus easily recognizes the road names of the roads to be traveled by the vehicle in his/her view.
US08868320B2	Control device for internal combustion engine, vehicle, and control method for internal combustion engine Control over an internal combustion engine that automatically stops includes: setting a first idle rotation speed, which is used after a lapse of a short stop period of the internal combustion engine, and a second idle rotation speed, which is used after a lapse of a long stop period of the internal combustion engine, at different values; and, when an idle rotation speed of the internal combustion engine is the second idle rotation speed, restricting automatic stop of the internal combustion engine.
US08868306B1	Wheel loader A control section selectively executes one of a first control and a second control when the accelerator opening degree is less than a first opening degree and a switching operation is performed by a forward and reverse switching operation lever. The control section controls a motor capacity control section so as to maintain the capacity of a hydraulic motor before and after the switching operation in the first control. The control section controls the motor capacity control section such that the capacity of the hydraulic motor is a minimum value which is set in advance at each speed level in the second control. The control section executes the first control when the temperature of the hydraulic oil is equal to or less than a first temperature and executes the second control when the temperature of the hydraulic oil is higher than the first temperature.
US08868300B2	Multi-variable rate agricultural product application system, device and method The invention provides a system, device and method that can control the rates of seed dispensation and fertilizer application as a function of forward speed as well as across all rows. Thus, the system and control device allow control of each individual row unit, whereby dispensation and application are effected, by a central controller which controls a plurality of pulse width modulation valves, each of which controls a hydraulic motor with an integrated rpm reduction and which drives a stub drive shaft which rotates at the proper speed in order to provide the desired seed and fertilizer metering. Each of the stub drive shafts may rotate at completely different speeds and/or may be shut down while the remaining stub drive shafts rotate at the desired speed. The integrated rpm reduction within each hydraulic motor allows very fine rotational control of the dispensation and application rates.
US08868295B2	Movement input apparatus applied to steering apparatus and mobile control system using the same There is provided a movement input apparatus applied to a steering apparatus and a mobile control system using the same. In detail, the steering apparatus performing steering or adjusting functions includes: a movement input apparatus including a signal detector that is attached or embedded in a surface of a steering apparatus and uses a resistive conductive yarn to detect finger contact signals; an estimator that receives the finger contact signals detected in the signal detector to estimate a status of an operator; and a display unit that converts and displays the estimated movement of the operator into signals of a type able to be sensed by a user; an extractor that analyzes the status information transmitted from the transmitter to extract the operational signals of the user; a controller that generates and transmits control signals for external devices according to the extracted operational signals of the user.
US08868292B2	Apparatus for controlling interior temperature of a vehicle and method thereof Provided is an apparatus for controlling a vehicle interior temperature, which includes a storage means configured to store a temperature control table; a wireless transceiver means configured to receive a message from an external device and transmit a corresponding response message; a message analysis means configured to analyze the message received by the wireless transceiver means; a control means configured to identify a current vehicle interior temperature and control the vehicle interior temperature based on the temperature control table until the vehicle interior temperature reaches a target temperature by communicating with a vehicle controller through an association means, when the message analyzed by the message analysis means is a temperature control message; and the association means configured to associate the control means with the vehicle controller.
US08868291B2	Infrared data-based object evaluation A solution for evaluating an object using infrared data is provided. In particular, infrared data corresponding to the object is processed to enhance a set of signal features. The infrared data is analyzed to determine whether one or more anomalies are present.
US08868289B2	Vehicle location navigation system An apparatus includes a connector to an on board diagnostic (OBD) port of a vehicle, wireless communications circuitry, a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to monitor the ignition state of the vehicle, and upon detecting an ignition off state, reporting at least the off state to a network-enabled communications appliance wirelessly paired for wireless communication with the apparatus.
US08868279B2	Time-based vehicle battery balancing system and method A power system for a vehicle may include at least one controller and a battery having a plurality of cells. The at least one controller may, for each of the cells, determine a voltage of the cell, determine a discharge time to reduce the voltage to a value approximately equal to a minimum of the determined voltages, and cause the cell to discharge for the discharge time to balance the battery.
US08868277B2	Vehicular hybrid drive system A hybrid drive system configured to selectively establish one of a first drive mode in which a first motor/generator MG1 is operated with a drive force of an engine, to generate an electric energy and in which a vehicle drive force is generated primarily by a second motor/generator MG2, and a second drive mode in which the vehicle drive force is generated by the engine, and at least one of the first motor/generator MG1 and second motor/generator MG2 is operated to generate an assisting vehicle drive force, as needed, and further configured such that an amount of a working oil to be supplied to the first motor/generator MG1 is larger in the first drive mode than in the second drive mode, permitting sufficient cooling of the electric motor depending upon a selected one of the vehicle drive modes.
US08868266B2	Method and system for engine exhaust filter regeneration of a vehicle in a consist Methods and systems for distributing engine output among rail vehicles of a consist are disclosed. One method comprises, adjusting redistribution of engine output from at least a first engine to at least a second engine based on a particulate filter regeneration of a filter coupled to the second engine.
US08868260B2	Consolidated vehicle propulsion control using integrated modular avionics A vehicle is provided. The vehicle may include, but is not limited to, a virtual backplane, a vehicle management computer communicatively coupled to the first virtual backplane and having a first predetermined schedule, a consolidated propulsion controller communicatively coupled to the virtual backplane and having a second predetermined schedule different from the first predetermined schedule, at least one engine communicatively coupled to the first virtual backplane, each of the at least one engines having a unique schedule, and at least one control system communicatively coupled to the first virtual backplane, each of the at least one control systems having a unique schedule, wherein each of the vehicle management computer, consolidated propulsion controller, at least one engines and at least one control system are configured to add and consume date from the virtual backplane according to their respective schedules.
US08868258B2	Methods and apparatuses for autonomous flight termination A flight safety assembly onboard an aerial vehicle includes a first sensor configured to sense first information related to flight of the aerial vehicle and a second sensor configured to sense second information related to the flight of the aerial vehicle. A sensor input is adapted to receive third information related to the flight of the aerial vehicle. A processor is operably coupled to the first sensor, the second sensor, and the sensor input. The processor is configured to determine three independent instantaneous impact points for the aerial vehicle by independently analyzing each of the first information, the second information and the third information. The processor is also configured to generate three independent onboard flight termination indicators for each of the three independent instantaneous impact points that intersects with a region to be protected.
US08868254B2	Accessory control with geo-fencing A vehicle accessory can transmit a first signal to a mobile device, the first signal including a location of a vehicle. The mobile device can monitor its own location. The mobile device can assess whether one or more location-based criteria have been satisfied based on the location of the mobile device and the location of the vehicle. Upon determining that a location-based criterion has been satisfied, the mobile device can transmit a second signal to the vehicle accessory indicating that a function of the vehicle is to be controlled. Thus, for example, the mobile device can activate or de-activate vehicle features (e.g., door locking, vehicle defrosting, etc.) in a manner that capitalizes on efficient signal transmission.
US08868249B2	Hybrid controlling and driving circuit and method thereof Methods, circuits, apparatus, and systems related to a hybrid driving and controlling circuit are disclosed. In one embodiment, a hybrid driving and controlling circuit in a double power supply system includes first and second power supplies and at least one load, and the circuit can include: (i) a controller coupled to a hybrid switcher that enables energy transfer from the first and second power supplies; (ii) when a determined energy of the first power supply is sufficient, the controller can control the hybrid switcher to transfer energy from the first power supply to the second power supply; and (iii) when the determined energy of the first power supply is insufficient, the controller can control the hybrid switcher to transfer energy from the second power supply to the at least one load.
US08868248B2	Smart control device A smart control device is disclosed. The smart control device can be equipped in an electrical appliance, so as to be capable of controlling the electrical appliance by using diverse information that is provided from both the inside and the outside of the electrical appliance. In a smart control device monitoring and scheduling operations of an electrical appliance, the smart control device includes an interface unit configured to receive energy information, a smart controller configured to control energy saving functions of the electrical appliance based upon the energy information received from the interface unit, and an input unit configured to receive an inputted control command respective to the electrical appliance. Herein, the smart controller may be provided in the electrical appliance, and the smart controller may control the electrical appliance so that the electrical appliance can be operated in an energy saving operation mode based upon the received energy information.
US08868240B2	Walking robot and pose control method thereof A walking robot, respective joints of which are operated through torque servo control to achieve stable pose control, and a pose control method thereof. A virtual acceleration of gravity is calculated using the COG of the robot and gravity compensation torques to apply force to links are calculated from the calculated acceleration of gravity so as to actively cope with external changes including external force or a tilt of the ground, thereby allowing the robot to stably maintain an erect pose and a desired upper body angle. Further, the robot maintains the erect pose with respect to the direction of gravity even under the condition that data regarding whether or not the ground is level or tilted are not given in advance, and maintains uniform poses of an upper body and legs while actively changing angles of ankle joints even if the ground is gradually tilted.
US08868224B1	Computer-implemented systems and methods for volatile organic compound calculations Computer-implemented systems and methods for use in processing a paint batch. As an example, a system and method can include an input software mechanism for receiving input data related to the paint batch. Volatile organic compound software instructions are configured to determine an addition amount of solvent to add to the paint batch. The addition amount of solvent is determined based upon the input related to the paint batch and upon pre-specified criteria.
US08868220B2	Systems and methods for automatically changing operational states of appliances Systems and methods for automatically changing an operational state of an appliance associated with a known fixed location. A current location of an individual is automatically determined with respect to a known fixed location using at least one wireless communication device. The system automatically determines if an operational state of at least one appliance associated with the known fixed location is to be changed based on at least the current location of the individual. The operational state of the at least one appliance is automatically changed if it is determined that the operational state is to be changed.
US08868217B2	Electrode for muscle stimulation Devices and methods of treating a targeted body tissue by stimulating the body tissue with an electric current. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes an electrode carrier configured to be removably coupled to an interior surface of an orthosis. The electrode carrier includes a recess configured to matingly receive a portion of an electrode. The electrode carrier is electrically coupled to the electrode when the portion of the electrode is disposed within the recess. A connection member is electrically coupled to the electrode carrier and is configured to be releasably coupled to a surface of the orthosis. The electrode carrier is electrically coupled to the orthosis when the connection member is coupled to the orthosis. In some embodiments, the electrode carrier is configured to be removably coupled to the interior surface of the orthosis. In some embodiments, at least a portion of the electrode is constructed of an absorptive material.
US08868216B2	Electrode garment The present disclosure is directed to a wearable garment device for application of electrical current to a patient's tissue. The garment device includes a material having a aperture and a mesh material extending across the aperture. At least one electrode is attached onto one side of the mesh material. The surface of the mesh material attached to the at least one electrode is defined as the outer surface. The other surface of the mesh material is defined as the inner surface. The inner surface of the mesh material is placed against the patient's tissue to receive the electrical stimulation from the electrode.
US08868215B2	Apparatus and methods for minimally invasive obesity treatment Apparatus and methods are provided for the effective and minimally invasive treatment of obesity. In one embodiment, a device for providing therapy to a patient includes an inflatable structure adapted and configured for positioning at least partially within a gastroesophageal (GE) space formed between an inner wall of a phrenoesophageal ligament (POL) and outer walls of the esophagus and cardiac orifice and an electrode structure adapted and configured for positioning at least partially within the GE space. In another embodiment, a method for treating a patient includes introducing an electrode at least partially into a gastroesophageal (GE) space formed between an inner wall of a phrenoesophageal ligament (POL) and outer walls of the esophagus and cardiac orifice and modulating tissue using the electrode.
US08868212B2	Medical device with an electrically conductive anti-antenna member A lead includes a conductor having a distal end and a proximal end and a resonant circuit connected to the conductor. The resonant circuit has a resonance frequency approximately equal to an excitation signal's frequency of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner or a resonance frequency not tuned to an excitation signal's frequency of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner so as to reduce the current flow through a tissue area, thereby reducing tissue damage. The resonant circuit may be included in an adapter that provides an electrical bridge between a lead a medical device such as an electrode, sensor, or signal generator. The resonant circuit may also be included directly in the housing of a medical device.
US08868209B2	Fixation mechanisms for temporary implantable medical electrical stimulation leads A temporary implantable medical device lead includes a connector configured to connect the lead to an external control module, a helically coiled conductor including a plurality of insulated filars and having a proximal end mechanically and electrically connected to the connector, and one or more electrodes defined by uninsulated portions of the helically coiled conductor. The temporary implantable medical device lead also includes one or more tine assemblies proximal to the one or more electrodes and configured to inhibit axial migration of the temporary implantable medical device lead, each tine assembly including a base and a plurality of tines extending from the base.
US08868206B2	Electrode array having embedded electrodes and methods of making the same A method of manufacturing a device for brain stimulation includes forming a lead body having a distal end section and coupling at least one pre-electrode to the distal end section of the lead body. The pre-electrode defines a divider with a plurality of partitioning arms, and has a plurality of fixing lumens. A portion of the pre-electrode aligned with the portioning arms is removed to divide the pre-electrode into a plurality of segmented electrodes. Each of the plurality of segmented electrodes defines at least one of the plurality of fixing lumens at least partially disposed through the segmented electrode. A material is introduced through the at least one fixing lumen to couple the plurality of segmented electrodes to the lead body.
US08868205B2	System and method for determining physiological parameters based on electrical impedance measurements A system and method for determining physiological parameters based on electrical impedance measurements is provided. One method includes obtaining electrical measurement signals acquired from a plurality of transducers coupled to a surface of an object and constructing a system matrix to define one or more relationships between the impedance measurement signals. The method also includes decomposing the system matrix to separate the electrical measurement signals.
US08868203B2	Dynamic lead condition detection for an implantable medical device A method, apparatus, and system for perform dynamic detection of a lead condition associated with a lead assembly in an implantable medical device that provides a controlled current therapeutic electrical signal to a cranial nerve. A pulsed therapeutic electrical signal is provided to a portion of a patient's body. A multiplicity of feedback signals is provided. Each the signal in the multiplicity comprises a voltage signal associated with the lead assembly for a pulse in the pulsed therapeutic electrical signal. For each the feedback signal, a determination is made as to whether the voltage signal is below a predetermined threshold to create a multiplicity of voltage signal comparison results. A determination is made as to whether or not a lead condition problem exists based upon the multiplicity of voltage signal comparison results.
US08868202B2	Implantable vestibular prosthesis An implantable nerve stimulation device has a sensor system, a data processor in communication with the sensor system, and a nerve stimulation system in communication with the data processor and constructed to provide electrical stimulation to at least one branch of at least one vestibulocochlear nerve. The nerve stimulation system includes an electrode array that has a first plurality of electrodes structured to be surgically implanted in electrical communication with a superior branch of the vestibular nerve, a second plurality of electrodes structured to be surgically implanted in electrical communication with a horizontal branch of the vestibular nerve, a third plurality of electrodes structured to be surgically implanted in electrical communication with a posterior branch of the vestibular nerve, and a common erus reference electrode structured to be surgically implanted into a common eras of the vestibular labyrinth.
US08868201B2	Adaptively configuring the validation timeout of a session key used for securing communication with an implantable medical device Methods, devices and systems are disclosed that provide for dynamically adjusting the valid lifespan of a session key for wireless communication sessions established between at least two medical devices. Adjusting the session key lifetime balances protecting the communications link so that it is not unnecessarily susceptible to eavesdropping by third parties or other interference while obviating the need for a user to repeatedly perform access control steps.
US08868200B2	Implantable medical device with an improved antenna An implantable medical device has a housing having a first housing surface side, a second housing surface side opposing the first housing surface side, and an intermediate surface side extending between the first and second housing surface sides. The implantable medical device has an antenna device arranged at the first housing surface side, continuing at the intermediate surface side and further at the second housing surface side. Improved radiation characteristics are obtained in a desired direction.
US08868198B2	Heuristic safety net for transitioning configurations in a neural stimulation system A system and method using a plurality of electrodes. An immediate virtual multipole is defined, an immediate electrode configuration emulating the immediate virtual multipole is defined, electrical energy is conveyed to the electrodes in accordance with the immediate electrode configuration, a new virtual multipole is defined by changing a parameter of the immediate virtual multipole by a step size, a new electrode configuration that emulates the new virtual multipole is defined, a difference value as a function of the immediate virtual multipole and the new virtual multipole is computed, the different value is compared to a limit value, electrical energy is conveyed to the electrodes in accordance with the new electrode configuration if the difference value does not exceed the limit value, and the absolute value of the step size is decreased to create a new step size if the difference value does exceed the limit value.
US08868186B2	Methods for measuring impedances associated with the heart An exemplary method includes introducing current between a first pair of electrodes configured for placement internally in a patient, triggering a potential measurement between a second pair of electrodes configured for placement internally in a patient wherein communication of a signal through the patient allows for proper triggering, measuring potential between the second pair of electrodes and, based at least in part on the measuring and the introducing, determining a cardiac condition. Other exemplary methods, devices, systems, etc., are also disclosed.
US08868185B2	Use of thoracic and extra-thoracic impedance for diagnostic monitoring A medical device and associated method for delivery of a cardiac therapy that includes determining a first impedance signal along a thoracic electrode vector extending within a portion of a thoracic cavity, determining a second impedance signal along an extra-thoracic electrode vector extending outside the thoracic cavity, comparing first amplitude measurements corresponding to the first impedance signals and second amplitude measurements corresponding to the second impedance signals, comparing first slope measurements corresponding to the first impedance signals and second slope measurements corresponding to the second impedance signals, and determining delivery of the cardiac therapy in response to the comparing.
US08868180B2	Resuscitation device with expert system A resuscitation device for automatic compression of victim's chest using a compression belt which exerts force evenly over the entire thoracic cavity. The belt is constricted and relaxed through a motorized spool assembly which repeatedly tightens the belt and relaxes the belt to provide repeated and rapid chest compression. An assembly includes various resuscitation devices including chest compression devices, defibrillation devices, and airway management devices, along with communications devices and senses with initiate communications with emergency medical personnel automatically upon use of the device.
US08868175B2	Apparatus and method for estimating stroke volume of the heart using bio-impedance techniques A method of estimating stroke volume of the heart is described. In this method, the volume of the heart is estimated from electrical impedance data of the chest, at two different phases of the cardiac cycle. The stroke volume is estimated from the difference between the volumes estimated at the two phases.
US08868170B2	Active medical device, including an implantable defibrillator, for detection of QRS complexes in a very noisy signal An active implantable medical device (e.g., implantable pacemaker or defibrillator), for detection of QRS complexes in noisy signals. Functional units (12-16) collect, amplify, prefilter and convert from analog-to-digital an endocardial signal, and digital functional units (18) provide signal processing and analysis of the digitized signal, for delivery of an indicator corresponding to a signal peak detection representative of the presence of a QRS complex in the endocardial signal. A double threshold comparator (30) is employed, receiving as input (28) the digitized signal and outputting (40) the indicator of peak detection when, cumulatively: the amplitude (A) of the input signal exceeds a peak amplitude threshold (SA), and the peak amplitude threshold is exceeded for a period (W) greater than a peak width threshold (SW). The peak amplitude threshold (SA) is a variable adaptive threshold, according to a noise level calculated from the energy (RMS) of the input signal.
US08868168B2	System for cardiac condition characterization using electrophysiological signal data A system for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection includes an interface for receiving signal data representing an electrical signal indicating electrical activity of a patient heart over multiple heart beat cycles. A signal processor uses the received signal data in calculating at least one of, (a) a first signal characteristic value substantially comprising a ratio of a time interval from S wave to T wave, to a time interval from Q wave to S wave and (b) a second signal characteristic value substantially comprising a ratio of a T wave base voltage from a peak of a T wave to a zero base reference voltage, to an R wave base voltage from a peak of an R wave to a zero base reference voltage. A comparator compares at least one of the first and second characteristic values with a threshold value to provide a comparison indicator. A patient monitor in response to the comparison indicator indicating a calculated signal characteristic value exceeds the threshold value, generates an alert message associated with the threshold.
US08868164B2	Fetal monitoring device and method A fetal monitoring device includes a piezofilm sheet, a first electrode, and a second electrode. A controller is operably connected to the piezofilm sheet, first electrode, and second electrode and receives a biopotential and a piezofilm signal. The controller derives at least one of a maternal heart rate and a uterine activity for the biopotential and derives at least one of a fetal heart rate and fetal motion detection from the piezofilm signal. The controller derives an index of fetal health and operate an indicator to present the derived index of fetal health.
US08868151B2	Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy enabled continuous glucose monitoring sensor system The use of electrical impedance spectroscopy to adjust calibration settings in an in vivo monitoring system, such as an in vivo continuous glucose monitoring sensor. The adjustments can compensate for the condition of the sensor membrane in vivo.
US08868150B2	Optical sensor including disposable and reusable elements An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a noninvasive optical sensor or probe including disposable and reusable components. The assembly of the disposable and reusable components is straightforward, along with the disassembly thereof. During application to a measurement site, the assembled sensor is advantageously secured together while the componentry is advantageously properly positioned.
US08868147B2	Method and apparatus for controlling positioning of a noninvasive analyzer sample probe The invention relates generally to a probe interface method and apparatus for use in conjunction with an optical based noninvasive analyzer. More particularly, an algorithm controls a sample probe position and attitude relative to a skin sample site before and/or during sampling. For example, a sample probe head of a sample module is controlled by an algorithm along the normal-to-skin-axis. Preferably, the sample probe head is positioned in terms of 3-D location in the x-, y-, and z-axes and is attitude orientated in terms of pitch, yaw, and roll. Further, attitude of the probe head is preferably orientated prior to contact of the sample probe head with the tissue sample using indicators, such as non-contact distance feedback from capacitance sensor, contacting or non-contacting optical sensors, and/or contact electrical sensors.
US08868144B2	Smart antenna system using orientation sensors A wireless device comprising an antenna subsystem having a selectable polarization, at least one sensor configured to provide at least one orientation measurement of the wireless device, and a processor unit coupled to the at least one sensor and configured to receive the at least one orientation measurement, select a polarization of the antenna subsystem based on the at least one orientation measurement, and set the polarization to achieve the selected polarization.
US08868139B2	Integrated circuit and method with pre-beacon activation time adjustment An integrated circuit including a transceiver module that receives beacons from an access point (AP), and transition a wireless network device to an active mode based on: a predetermined beacon interval; and a first predetermined period prior to one of multiple beacons. A timestamp module calculates a first correction value based on a first timestamp received from the AP. An adjustment module adjusts the first predetermined period based on the first correction value. A beacon module detects a beacon missed during an inactive mode by the transceiver module. The timestamp module transmits a probe request signal to the AP a second predetermined period after detection of the missed beacon, receives a second timestamp from the AP in response to the probe request signal, and recalculates the first correction value based on the second timestamp. The adjustment module adjusts the first predetermined period based on the recalculated first correction value.
US08868134B2	Handheld device and power saving method therefor The present invention provides a handheld device comprising: a processor, which is electrically connected to a light sensor. When the processor determines that a phone call event has occurred, the processor will enable the light sensor to control the display. Moreover, the present invention provides a power saving method for a handheld device that will execute the following steps when a phone call event occurs: measuring an ambient brightness value of the handheld device; continuing determining whether a change of the ambient brightness values satisfies at least one predetermined condition; and turning off a display of the handheld device if the change satisfies the predetermined condition.
US08868132B1	Techniques for providing efficient transmit diversity and bandwidth segmentation in a wireless communication system Wireless communication techniques for cellular deployment of wireless communication systems with transmitters in each cell to have partially overlapped transmission patterns between two adjacent transmitters. Implementations of the described techniques can provide transmit diversity with intentional partial beam pattern overlays to improve cell sectorization or frequency re-use factor, at the same time, reduce intra-cell and inter-cell interference. Various modulations may be used in the described systems, including FDMA, TDMA, and OFDMA modulation schemes.
US08868130B2	Apparatus and methods for state suspension in hybrid networks Methods and apparatus for suspending session state during hybrid network operation. In one exemplary embodiment, a cellular device uses a single-radio solution to support circuit-switched calls on a CDMA 1X network and packet-switched calls on LTE. Periodically, the cellular device tunes away from LTE and monitors CDMA 1X activity, and vice versa. During these tuned-away periods, the client device may suspend operation on the tuned away network for extended tune away intervals.
US08868127B2	Mobile terminal device, storage medium and sound output control method A mobile terminal device includes: a telephone communication speaker and a control module. The telephone communication speaker includes: a first speaker which releases sound waves corresponding to sounds to be output and vibration waves generated by vibrations of one surface of a housing according to vibrations corresponding to the sounds to be output, thereby to transfer the sounds to a user; and a second speaker which releases sound waves corresponding to sounds to be output. In case of execution of a function to output sounds from the telephone communication speaker, when a predetermined trigger action is not made, the control module executes first control in which the first speaker outputs sounds but the second speaker does not output sounds, and when the trigger action is made, the control module executes second control in which at least the second speaker outputs sounds.
US08868126B2	Mobile apparatus with radio frequency architecture supporting simultaneous data and voice communications Mobile apparatus with radio frequency architecture supporting simultaneous data and voice communications, in an embodiment, includes first and second antennas, a tranceiver unit, first and second radio frequency (RF) front-end units. The tranceiver unit has a plurality of first, second, and third RF terminals. The first RF front-end unit is coupled between the first antenna and first RF terminals to provide first paths for a high-speed data communication mode and a first mobile communication mode between the first RF terminals and first RF front-end unit. The second RF front-end unit is coupled between the second antenna and second and third RF terminals to provide second paths for at least one second communication mode between the second RF terminals and second RF front-end unit and to provide third paths for the high-speed data communication mode and first mobile communication mode between the third RF terminals and second RF front-end unit.
US08868124B2	Frequency domain equalizer for a beamformed system A method, system, and computer program product for beamforming in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method, system, and computer program product comprise a plurality of transmit antennas for a transmitter and at least one receive antenna for a receiver. The method, system, and computer program product comprise: initiating beamforming on a communication channel between the plurality of transmit antennas and the at least one receive antenna. The communication channel includes two data streams. A received signal to noise ratio (SNR) on one of the two data streams is weaker than a received SNR of the other data stream. The method, system, and computer program product include reallocating the transmit power between the stronger stream and the weaker stream to provide improved channel performance.
US08868107B2	Wireless terminal surveillance system An illustrative system and method for detecting a wireless terminal in a wireless network by ascertaining information about the wireless terminal's location, thus enabling individualized surveillance and tracking of certain wireless terminals. In some embodiments, the detection is triggered by a signal that is compliant with the Customized Applications for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic (“CAMEL”) protocol. Several kinds of mobile-telecommunications events can trigger detection, including events that do not involve call origination. Advantages include bypassing the home location register when obtaining a location estimate for the wireless terminal and when determining whether a wireless terminal is of interest.
US08868103B2	Method and system for authorized location monitoring Techniques for location tracking, location utilization, and dissemination and management of location information are disclosed. As a location monitoring system, one embodiment includes at least a plurality of mobile computing devices supported by a wireless network, and a computing device coupled to a wired network (e.g., the Internet) that couples to the wireless network. Each of the mobile computing devices is associated with and proximate to an object whose location is being monitored. The computing device stores the locations of each of the mobile computing devices or the objects proximate thereto, and enables only authorized users to obtain access the locations via the wired network.
US08868100B1	Systems and methods for preventing noise transmission at end of telephone calls A system for preventing noise transmission at the end of a telephone call includes a telephone having a handset and a base unit. The telephone has a proximity sensor configured to detect when the handset is in close proximity to the base unit prior to the handset contacting the base unit. A control element communicates with the proximity sensor and prevents transmission of sound received from the handset when the proximity sensor indicates that the handset is in close proximity to the base unit thereby preventing transmission of noise caused by the handset contacting the base unit.
US08868099B2	Vehicle identification system The specification and drawing figures describe and show a vehicle identification system that includes a programmable application for database management of a plurality of customer-specific vehicle descriptors. The vehicle identification system also includes a mobile computing platform in a mobile satellite communications system adapted to operatively associate the customer-specific vehicle descriptors with a vehicle.
US08868074B2	Method, device and mobile terminal for switching network connection automatically A method, a device and a mobile terminal for switching network connection automatically are provided by the embodiments of the present invention. The method includes: using one of the multiple available network connections for the mobile terminal as the current network connection, and setting the other network connections of the multiple network connections as the standby network connections; switching the mobile terminal to one of the standby network connections according to the priority order of the standby network connections when preset switching event which happens at present time is detected. Application of the method, device and mobile terminal provided by the embodiments of the present invention can provide automatic and quick switching to the standby network connections, thereby improving the switching efficiency without affecting the uninterrupted usage of the network for the user.
US08868071B2	Method and system for managing closed subscriber group of a femto base station in WiMAX system A femto base station of a WiMAX system can manage a list of closed subscriber groups (CSGs). A CSG indicator is broadcast. The femto base station receives a registration request message from a mobile station having received the CSG indicator and adds the mobile station to a CSG registration list. The femto base station searches for the mobile station from the CSG registration list if an attach request message is received; and forwards the attach request message to an access service network (ASN) gateway if the mobile station is in the CSG registration list. The femto base station establishes a link message with the mobile station if an attach acceptance message corresponding to the attach request message from the ASN-gateway.
US08868069B2	Airliner-mounted cellular base station An aircraft-mounted base transceiver station (mBTS) for providing intermittent coverage in a cellular radio network. The mBTS utilizes the existing protocol of its terrestrial counterparts, thereby avoiding dual-mode devices and enabling common usage of terminal monitoring and device management systems for devices connected to a single radio access network even when outside terrestrial coverage areas. The aircraft follows a transient flight pattern, providing intermittent flyover connectivity for remote radio device such as machine-type devices. Connectivity may be store and forward. Channel usage may be adjusted to avoid interfering with terrestrial communication cells during flyover. Doppler effects due to aircraft speed may be accounted for. The mBTS may be configured to service in-range radio devices which are outside a Doppler-inhibited region and/or to prioritize communication with devices based on expected time outside the Doppler-inhibited region. An aircraft mounted antenna may have a radiation pattern focused toward devices outside the Doppler-inhibited region.
US08868063B2	Using personal wireless devices for network testing A personal wireless device is utilized to carry out measurements of one or more network-performance related metrics in response to a triggering event. The triggering event can be a message that is transmitted by a network element to the personal wireless device. The personal wireless device may be exemplified by a variety of personal devices such as, for example, a cellular phone, or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The measurements may be used to derive network-performance related information such as cellular signal coverage areas, signal hole areas, and signal interference areas.
US08868062B2	Initial access method and apparatus of user equipment using power reduction request in heterogeneous network An initial access method of a user equipment (UE) and an apparatus performing the same are provided. The initial access method of a user equipment attempting access a macro cell base station in a network with which the macro cell base station and at least one Femto cell base station share, includes: receiving a cell ID from the macro cell base station or the Femto cell base station; transmitting an interference control request message to the Femto call base station when the received cell ID is a Femto cell ID; and receiving a macro cell ID provided from the macro cell base station when an interference control response message is received from the Femto cell base station to attempt an initial access. When a macro UE near to a Femto cell base station attempts to access a macro cell, it searches an ID of the macro cell through interference control from the Femto call base station to achieve initial access.
US08868050B2	Information output method and device An information output method includes obtaining an identifier of a second communication terminal when a communication connection request is initiated to a second communication terminal or a communication connection request is received from the second communication terminal; determining whether the identifier of the second communication terminal satisfies a first preset condition; obtaining first associated information corresponding to the identifier of the second communication terminal according to the identifier of the second communication terminal, if the second communication terminal identifier satisfies the first predetermined condition; and outputting communication connection request prompt information and the first associated information to a display interface of the first communication terminal.
US08868047B2	Apparatus and method of wireless instant messaging A wireless communication device declares one of a plurality of extended instant messaging states and transmits the declared states to a presence information server. Declared extended instant messaging states for destination devices are received, and an enhanced instant message based on declared extended instant messaging states is generated.
US08868042B2	Global platform for managing subscriber identity modules Disclosed is method comprising: storing in a home location register (HLR) at least one subscription record of a mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, the mobile device having a subscriber identity module (SIM) identified by a currently activated first international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), the currently activated first IMSI belonging to a set of IMSIs allocated to the system, wherein the provisioning server is operative to: receive a notification that the mobile devices has moved into a first one of the wireless networks; confirm that an allocation rule is satisfied; add and activate a second one of the IMSIs in the set of IMSIs to the HLR and remove the currently activated first IMSI from the HLR; and send the second IMSI to the mobile device to enable the mobile device to communicate wirelessly in the first wireless network as a local device.
US08868040B2	Wireless communication terminal, wireless communication system, wireless communication method, and computer program product A first wireless communication terminal includes: a receiver configured to receive an instruction to initiate a setting process of setting unique information to be used for a first encrypted communication with a second wireless communication terminal; a setting unit configured to set based on the instruction, a first setting method to be used for the setting process; and a processor configured to, if a first report is received from the second wireless communication terminal after the instruction is received, the first report including information indicating a second setting method to be used for the second wireless communication terminal to perform the first encrypted communication, and the first and second setting methods being identical, perform the setting process using the first setting method, and perform a set-up process of specifying an authentication method and an encryption method to be used for a second encrypted communication performed after the first encrypted communication.
US08868038B2	Methods of and systems for remotely configuring a wireless device A particular method includes transmitting a message from a first device to a second device. The message includes first information associated with identification of the first device. The first information enables the second device to obtain access data. The method also includes establishing a first communication link between the first device and the second device based on the access data. The method further includes receiving, via the first communication link, second information associated with establishment of a second communication link between the first device and a third device. The method also includes configuring the first device to establish the second communication link between the first device and the third device based on the second information.
US08868035B2	Methods for access control with a back-off timer maintained for low priority devices or machine type communication (MTC) devices, and apparatuses using the same A mobile communication device configured for Machine Type Communication (MTC) is provided. In the mobile communication device, a wireless module performs wireless transmissions and receptions to and from a service network, and a controller module starts a back-off timer in response to adding a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) identity to a forbidden PLMN list or in response to setting a subscriber identity card coupled to the mobile communication device as invalid. Also, the controller module further forbids any access to the service network via the wireless module until the back-off timer expires, and, before the back-off timer expires, stores an amount of a remaining time for the back-off timer to expire in response to a power-off of the mobile communication device or in response to detaching from the service network via the wireless module.
US08868028B1	Network server emergency information accessing method Methods are disclosed for using an Internet server with access to a data base of PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) jurisdiction boundaries and telephone numbers to track the location of a wireless communication device and to determine a PSAP telephone number to call to request emergency services at the location of said wireless communication device using telephone company provided location information. Methods are disclosed for establishing conference call connections between a person, a PSAP and a remote wireless communication device. Also disclosed are methods for establishing an Explicit Call Transfer call connection that redirects a call from a person to a wireless communication device to the telephone of a PSAP having jurisdiction over the location of said remote wireless communication device. Alzheimer tracking devices, offender monitoring devices, medical alert notification devices, satellite tracking devices and child safety telephone embodiments of the current invention are also disclosed.
US08868021B1	Ultra-broadband planar millimeter-wave mixer with multi-octave IF bandwidth In some embodiments, a system may include a passive uniplanar single-balanced millimeter-wave mixer. In some embodiments, a three-port diode-tee IC forming a mixer core is coupled between an end of a slotline balun and a second coplanar balun. The operational bandwidth of a mixer structure is enhanced by optimizing the distance between the mixer diode-tee core and the back-short circuits. The frequency separation of LO and IF signals may be accomplished by means of stand-alone three-port filter-diplexer device. The system may allow wider than a frequency octave operational bandwidth for a frequency converter device all the way into millimeter wave frequencies at the same time as supporting the operational bandwidth for baseband IF signal over more than six frequency octaves. In some embodiments, the system may accomplish a 500 MHz to 34.5 GHz continuous IF bandwidth with RF signal sweeping from 33 GHz to 67 GHz and local oscillator at 67.5 GHz fixed frequency.
US08868007B2	DC offset cancellation Communication processing paths include distortions, such as DC offset in the baseband analog path which needs to be accounted for. The use of a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to inject a DC offset cancellation signal can bring about noise/area/power advantages. The DAC is driven by a mixed signal low pass filter loop. However, the DAC could also be driven in an open loop system, or a combination of open and closed loop. A low noise sign and magnitude DAC with low area and power requirements is implemented using selectively connected programmable current sources to virtual earth input terminals on a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) op-amp circuit. The constant virtual earth voltage eliminates linearity problems that would otherwise exist due to the finite current source output impedance. Current sources are only switched in when required so unneeded sources are out of circuit and do not contribute noise or use any power.
US08868006B2	Bi-directional signal interface A bi-directional signal interface includes a first waveguide that propagates a first traveling wave. The first waveguide has one end that is coupled to a RF input port that receives a RF transmission signal and another end that is coupled to a RF bi-directional port that receives a RF reception signal and that transmits the RF transmission signal. A second waveguide is positioned proximate to the first waveguide. The second waveguide has one end that is coupled to an output port that passes the received RF reception signal. A non-reciprocal coupler couples fields from the first waveguide to the second waveguide so that the RF reception signal from the bi-directional port couples from the first waveguide to the second waveguide in a substantially non-reciprocal manner and then passes through the output port, and the RF transmission signal from the RF input port passes through the first waveguide to the RF bi-directional port.
US08868004B2	Systems, methods, and devices for electronic spectrum management Systems, methods, and devices enable spectrum management by identifying, classifying, and cataloging signals of interest based on radio frequency measurements. In an embodiment, signals and the parameters of the signals may be identified and indications of available frequencies may be presented to a user. In another embodiment, the protocols of signals may also be identified. In a further embodiment, the modulation of signals, data types carried by the signals, and estimated signal origins may be identified.
US08868003B2	Controlling transmission of data In an embodiment, a method of controlling transmission of data from a wireless device to a receiver connected via a communication channel includes an application executing on the wireless device providing an estimate of end-to-end bandwidth of the communication channel; supplying to the application from wireless access circuitry in the wireless device at least on communication-related parameter and modifying in the application the estimate of end-to-end bandwidth using the at least one communication-related parameter.
US08867999B2	Downlink interference cancellation methods A method to mitigate interference in a wireless system is provided. The method includes processing a set of radio network identifiers and limiting a number of hypotheses associated with the radio network identifiers in order to mitigate interference in a wireless network. In another aspect, the method includes processing a set of hypotheses and limiting the set of hypotheses by limiting a number of downlink grants to a common space, limiting the number of downlink grants to a number of instances, or limiting the number of grants to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) type. In yet another aspect, the method includes processing a downlink set and generating a target termination level for the downlink data set, the termination level associated with a Hybrid automatic repeat-request.
US08867997B2	Short-range communication system, in-vehicle apparatus, and portable communication terminal A short-range communication system includes a portable communication terminal and an in-vehicle apparatus communicatively connected to the portable communication terminal. When connection is established between the portable communication terminal and the in-vehicle apparatus, a content is executed in the in-vehicle apparatus. When the connection therebetween is released while the content is being executed in the in-vehicle apparatus, the portable communication terminal executes the content by taking over an application execution state of the in-vehicle apparatus which is transmitted from the in-vehicle apparatus.
US08867995B2	Apparatus and method for human body communication in a mobile communication system An apparatus and method for human body communication in a mobile communication system are provided. A portable terminal includes a human body communication module and a controller. The human body communication module performs human body communication. The controller performs a process to perform connection with an external device through the human body communication and then perform an operation executable through the human body communication.
US08867992B2	Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof A mobile terminal and controlling method thereof are discussed, by which if a situation recognized by contacting with an external NFC tag corresponds to a user-set situation, a function different from a function set in the external NFC tag is activated. The method can include setting a 1st operation to be performed in case of recognizing at least one external NFC tag and a 2nd operation to be performed in case of recognizing the external NFC tag in a specific situation, performing the 1st operation if the external NFC tag is recognized via an NFC module, and performing the 2nd operation if the external NFC tag is recognized in the specific situation via the NFC module.
US08867991B2	Use of proximity sensors with near-field communication Various arrangements for selecting data for transmission from a mobile device are presented. Proximity data indicating proximity between one or more proximity sensors and a triggering entity may be collected by the mobile device. A type of near-field communication (NFC) transaction may be determined by the mobile device. Using the proximity data and the type of the NFC transaction, data to transmit to a remote NFC device may be determined.
US08867988B2	Performing contactless applications in battery off mode Contactless services, applications, and/or transactions can be performed between a mobile terminal and a contactless reader even when the mobile terminal battery power is found to be insufficient or if there is some other problem with the battery. Current is induced from electromagnetic (EM) fields or radio frequency (RF) signals detected near the mobile terminal such that sufficient power can be momentarily and/or temporarily used to access information from a smart card or other components within the mobile terminal, and allow user interaction via the contactless reader.
US08867978B2	Image forming method and image forming apparatus A method of forming an image comprising the steps of: forming an image on an image support to obtain an original image, and forming a gloss adjusting layer comprising a clear toner-fixed image comprising a clear toner on the original image, wherein the gloss adjusting layer comprises an aggregate of gloss adjusting units, wherein the gloss adjusting units each comprise a section where the clear toner is attached and a section where the clear toner is unattached, wherein a borderline between the section where the clear toner is attached and the section where the clear toner is unattached comprises a straight line.
US08867970B2	Toner cartridges having positional control features A toner cartridge for use in an image forming device according to one example embodiment includes a housing having a reservoir for containing toner therein. The housing has an exit port in fluid communication with the reservoir to permit toner from the reservoir to pass out of the housing. A first leg and a second leg each project from a bottom portion of the housing to limit the side-to-side travel of the toner cartridge during insertion into the image forming device. Wing guides are positioned on opposite side surfaces of the housing. A stop extends from each wing guide to limit the forward travel of the toner cartridge in the image forming device. Rounded projections extending from the bottom surfaces of the wing guides define contact points to control the vertical position of the toner cartridge in the image forming device.
US08867969B2	Rotation restricting member, mechanical device, and image forming device The present invention provides a rotation restricting member that includes, a shaft that is inserted into a shaft insertion hole with a predetermined angle relationship, and a plurality of rotation restriction portions, each of which is formed at a different position around the shaft insertion hole and performs a rotation restriction function of the shaft by engaging with an external portion, where the shaft insertion hole is set to have a shape of the shaft and is formed around the shaft with a different angle corresponding to the shape of the shaft to allow any of the plurality of rotation restriction portions to engage with the external portion.
US08867953B2	Image forming apparatus and separation device for toner collection An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section that forms an image with toner, a housing that houses the image forming section, and a toner collection mechanism. The toner collection mechanism includes a suction unit that sucks the toner, which leaves the image forming section and is flying, and air, and a separation unit separating the toner from air. The separation unit includes a separator that collects the toner and allows air to pass therethrough, a casing that houses the separator that has an opening, through which the toner and air flow, and a joining unit that is disposed along an edge of the opening and joins the casing and the housing to each other. The joining unit projects upward beyond the edge of the opening at least in the lower portion of the opening, thereby forming a space that allows the toner to be trapped.
US08867952B2	Image carrier and image forming apparatus having the same An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, where the image carrier may include an image carrier body having a hollowness and image carrier flanges, which are installed at both ends of the image carrier body. Each image carrier flange may include a blower fan integrally formed therewith, so that air outside of the image carrier body is moved from one end of the image carrier body, at which a drive gear is positioned, to the other end of the image carrier body as the image carrier rotates. Waste developer which may accumulate on the drive gear is reduced, thereby preventing the operational error of the image carrier and thus avoiding the degradation of the image quality.
US08867946B2	Image forming system using pattern images for image forming on two sides of a sheet Provided is an image forming system having a first image forming apparatus and a second image forming apparatus, the image forming system including: a first image forming unit provided to the first image forming apparatus and forming an image on a first surface of a recording sheet; and a second image forming unit provided to the second image forming apparatus and forming an image on a second surface of the recording sheet on the first surface of which the image has been formed by the first image forming unit, in which, when the first image forming unit and the second image forming unit form pattern images for image position adjustment on the recording sheet, the first image forming unit and the second image forming unit form a first pattern image and a second pattern image on the same surface of the recording sheet.
US08867940B2	Image forming apparatus and method of controlling transfer power thereof An image forming apparatus including a transfer unit that transfers onto a transfer medium an image that is formed on a photosensitive medium; a power supply unit that provides a transfer power to the transfer unit; and a transfer power control unit that controls the transfer power that is provided to the transfer unit by the power supply unit. The transfer power control unit sets as a target voltage an output voltage of the power supply unit that is measured by supplying an initial transfer current to the transfer unit in a predetermined certain period before an image is transferred onto the transfer medium and controls the power supply unit to apply the set target voltage to the transfer unit while an image is being transferred onto the transfer medium.
US08867939B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable photosensitive member, and a charging member for electrically charging the photosensitive member in contact or proximity to the photosensitive member. The charging member forms an upstream gap and a downstream gap between the photosensitive member and itself. In addition, a power source applies a DC voltage to the charging member, an irradiation unit irradiates with light a surface of the photosensitive member in the upstream gap, and a controller controls the irradiation of the light by the irradiation unit. The photosensitive member is movable at a first speed and a second speed slower than the first speed, and wherein the irradiation of the light is effected when the photosensitive member is moved at the first speed to effect image formation, and is not effected when the photosensitive member is moved at the second speed to effect the image formation.
US08867938B2	Image forming apparatus for optically detecting and adjusting a toner image If the length of an adjustment toner image is longer than a circumferential length of a photosensitive member, a voltage which is less than a discharge start voltage is applied while a region of the photosensitive member irradiated with light by an optical sensor passes through a transfer portion. Further, a voltage which is greater than or equal to the discharge start voltage is applied while the photosensitive member rotates at least once after the region of the photosensitive member irradiated with light by the optical sensor passes through the transfer unit. As a result, density unevenness in the adjustment toner image and a potential change in the photosensitive member due to the optical sensor exposing the adjustment toner image are prevented.
US08867937B2	Diffuse reflection output conversion method, attached powder amount conversion method, and image forming apparatus In an embodiment, a diffuse reflection output conversion method is executed in an apparatus detecting a plurality of gradation patterns. The apparatus includes a light emitter and light receiver, and detects specular reflection and diffuse reflection simultaneously. A region before specular reflection saturation is a region where the specular reflection component decreases and saturates at minimum level. A diffuse reflection detector is calibrated by: obtaining a diffuse reflection output resulting from an amount of attached powder at a border between the region before specular reflection saturation and the region after specular reflection saturation; calculating a ratio between the diffuse reflection output and a reference diffuse reflection output calculated in advance as a calibration coefficient; and multiplying a diffuse reflection output obtained from the gradation patterns by the calibration coefficient calculated at the calculating.
US08867936B2	Image forming apparatus, method of controlling the same, and program This invention provides an image forming apparatus which performs sleep control for a shift to the sleep mode for each function and provides a user-friendly operation system, and a method of controlling the same. To accomplish this, the image forming apparatus sets a shift time until a power state of the image forming apparatus shifts to the low-power state after execution of image formation; and performs control to shift the power state of the image forming apparatus to the low-power state, when the shift time is not more than the predetermined time, before an elapse of the shift time after execution of image formation by the printing function, while shifting the power state of the image forming apparatus to the low-power state, in response to an elapse of the shift time after execution of image formation by the copying function.
US08867934B2	Method for judging toner shortage and image forming apparatus The image forming apparatus carries out a monitoring operation in which (i) sensor outputs of the magnetic permeability sensor are periodically sampled, (ii) a time period, corresponding to one (1) circulation period which is required for the developer to be circulated once in the circulation carrying path, is evenly divided into a plurality of blocks, and (iii) an average of the sensor outputs in one (1) block time period corresponding to one (1) block is calculated for each of the plurality of blocks; and determines that toner has run short, in a case where the number of times that the averages of the sensor outputs consecutively exceed a threshold, set to be higher than a reference value of the sensor outputs, becomes not less than the number of the plurality of blocks which correspond to the time period corresponding to one (1) circulation period.
US08867932B2	Cartridge and image forming apparatus A cartridge detachably attachable to an image forming apparatus which includes a main body, a driving unit and a detecting unit, includes: a housing that is configured to accommodate a developer therein, and includes a first side wall and a second side wall opposed to the first side wall in a longitudinal direction; a passive unit that is configured to receive a driving force from the driving unit, is mounted on the first side wall, and is rotatable around a first axis line parallel to the longitudinal direction; and a detected body mounted on the first side wall and including a detected part which is detected by the detecting unit. The detected body advances outwards in the longitudinal direction with respect to the first side wall and retracts inwards in the longitudinal direction with respect to the first side wall by the driving force received by the passive unit.
US08867919B2	Multi-port accumulator for radio-over-fiber (RoF) wireless picocellular systems A multi-port accumulator apparatus for a radio-over-fiber (RoF) wireless picocellular system comprising a housing supporting a tail cable port and transponder ports. The tail cable port is optically coupled to the RoF transponder ports to provide for transmission of uplink and downlink optical signals between the tail cable port and each of the transponder ports. The tail cable port is also electrically coupled to provide power to each transponder port. The multi-port accumulator supports RoF transponders, one at each of the transponder ports. Each RoF transponder includes a directional antenna system forming a picocellular coverage sub-area, with the combined sub-areas constituting a picocellular coverage area for the multi-port accumulator. The multi-port accumulator permits quick installation and deployment of large numbers of RoF transponders without individually connecting each RoF transponder to downlink and uplink optical fibers in an optical fiber RF communication link.
US08867909B2	Touch-type portable terminal A touch type portable terminal is disclosed, whereby a user is prevented from viewing a wrong auto focusing area by indicating an indicator in response to changes in view angle of lenses during auto focusing operation.
US08867908B2	Self-programming water heater A hot water heater includes a tank for storing water, one or more heating elements for selectively applying heat to the water in the tank, and a controller for controlling the heating elements, operative to automatically self-program control of the hot water heater to reduce energy consumption of the hot water heater based on usage data. The controller is operative to execute a learning algorithm that tracks usage data of the hot water heater based on one or more parameters.
US08867907B2	Reservoir fluid heating devices and methods of heating A heater assembly for a fluid reservoir includes an outer housing coupled to a flange on the fluid reservoir, an inner tubular member disposed within the outer housing, the inner tubular member having a central passageway therethrough, wherein an annulus is formed between the outer housing and the inner tubular member, and a heating device coupled to a lower end of the outer housing and having heating elements which extend upwardly into the central passageway of the inner tubular member.
US08867905B2	Collaborative production asset management In an approach, a method of spotting music for a motion picture comprises: receiving music editor (MXE) cue related data defining a plurality of cues each having a start timecode value and an end timecode value; based on the MXE data, creating and storing an MXE timecode path, a composer (CMP) timecode path, and a cue sheet timecode path; copying one or more of the MXE cue related data to CMP cues in the CMP timecode path in a CMP spotting dataset; receiving one or more changes to the CMP cues without also modifying the MXE cue related data; applying an editing lock to the CMP cues; auto-populating the CMP cues to cue sheet cues in the cue sheet timecode path; receiving one or more changes to the cue sheet cues without also modifying the CMP cues; finalizing and distributing a cue sheet based on the cue sheet cues; wherein the method is performed by one or more special-purpose computing devices.
US08867902B2	User interface for method for creating a custom track A system for allowing a user to create a custom track on a user apparatus, the user apparatus having a display is described. A memory stores a plurality of video clips and an audio track having a timeline. An application is stored in the memory. The application is configured to provide, on the display of the user apparatus, a plurality of video source windows, each of the plurality of video source windows corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of video clips. The application is further configured to allow the user to create the custom track while the audio track is playing by correlating portions of the plurality of video clips with the audio track by selecting respective ones of the plurality of video source windows at desired times in the timeline of the audio track.
US08867901B2	Mass participation movies A system, method, and computer program product are provided for mass participation movies. A storyline is provided to story line subscribers. Video segments based on the storyline are received from the story line subscribers. Viewers are enabled to view at least one of the video segments as part of a mass participation movie via user interfaces associated with the viewers.
US08867900B2	Emulation prevention byte removers for video decoder An emulation prevention byte remover may include one or more of a first buffer, a second buffer, a checker, and a shifter. The first buffer may store first stream data. The second buffer may store second stream data. The checker may determine whether one or more emulation prevention bytes are included in the first, second, or first and second stream data. If the checker determines that the one or more emulation prevention bytes are included in the first, second, or first and second stream data, the checker may output a check signal. In response to the check signal, the shifter may remove at least one of the one or more emulation prevention bytes from the first, second, or first and second stream data. The shifter may generate output stream data based on the first, second, or first and second stream data.
US08867898B1	Commercials on mobile devices Among other things, videos and commercials are downloaded to a mobile device for storage on the mobile device and later playout on the mobile device. The downloading includes downloading of metadata associated with the commercials and based on which the mobile device can select commercials for insertion into videos being played back to the user of the mobile device. The commercials to be downloaded are selected based on one or a combination of any two or more of the location of the user, the type of mobile device, and personally-identifiable information about a user of the mobile device.
US08867897B1	Commercials on mobile devices Among other things, videos and commercials are downloaded to a mobile device for storage on the mobile device and later playout on the mobile device. The downloading includes downloading of metadata associated with the commercials and based on which the mobile device can select commercials for insertion into videos being played back to the user of the mobile device. The commercials to be downloaded are selected based on one or a combination of any two or more of the location of the user, the type of mobile device, and personally-identifiable information about a user of the mobile device.
US08867895B2	Data processing apparatus, method, and control program A data processing apparatus generates an information file which has a plurality of storage unit elements each of which includes size information and which information file include one or more first storage unit elements each for storing encoded information data and one or more second storage unit elements each for storing management information regarding the information data stored in the first storage unit element, such that a new first storage unit element is formed for every predetermined amount of the encoded information data, and the second storage unit element corresponding to the formed first storage unit element is formed, thereby generating information file.
US08867894B2	Video processing system A method and apparatus for producing video content. The method includes acquiring video data from a source. If the video data is not digitized, then the video data is digitized. The method includes generating scene indexes for the video data including a representative still image for each scene and combining the video data and scene indexes along with a media player on a video disc. The video player is operable to play the video data in accordance with the scene indexes including playing a scene from the video data on a client computer while displaying the representative stills for other of the scenes available for display on the video disc.
US08867893B2	Multi-program playback status display Various arrangements are described that may cause a recording of a television channel to be stored. The recording of the television channel may include a plurality of television programs. A graphical playback status element may be displayed via a display device. The graphical playback status element may indicate a start point for each television program of the plurality of television programs within the recording of the television channel.
US08867886B2	Surround video playback Methods and systems are disclosed including a computing device configured to allow a user to view a multi-stream video from a selected angle/direction with respect to the contents of the multi-stream video, under the user's control. The multi-stream video is generated using multiple Image Acquisition Devices (IAD), such as cameras, simultaneously, consecutively, or independently filming a scene, each IAD having a different position with respect to each of the other IADs. Each image data stream obtained from each IAD may be uniquely identified to allow selective real-time playback of image data streams under user control. Each image data stream represents a corresponding viewing angle to the user. The user may dynamically change the selection of an image stream, and thus the viewing angle, while viewing a recorded scene. Multiple image streams of the same scene may be selected and viewed simultaneously to provide 3D or other visual effects.
US08867882B2	Optical input/output device for photo-electric integrated circuit device and method of fabricating same A photo-electric integrated circuit device comprises an on-die optical input/output device. The on-die optical input/output device comprises a substrate having a trench, a lower cladding layer disposed in the trench and having an upper surface lower than an upper surface of the substrate, and a core disposed on the lower cladding layer at a distance from sidewalls of the trench and having an upper surface at substantially the same level as the upper surface of the substrate.
US08867863B2	Presentation and manipulation of high depth images in low depth image display systems High depth grayscale images, (e.g. <8 bits per pixel) are losslessly cross channel encoded to multi-channel image formats for transformation and display by display devices not capable of displaying high depth grayscale. DICOM and other images may be encoded and provided to web browser based client image viewers that leverage native code for handling multi-channel images. Transformations are applied to reconstitute the high depth grayscale images.
US08867860B2	Signal processors and methods for estimating transformations between signals with phase estimation Signal processing devices and methods estimate transforms between signals, and in particular, utilize techniques for estimating phase between a reference signal and a suspect signal. A phase estimation method estimates the phase of reference signal components in a suspect signal using a point spread function. The method provides a set of feature locations representing a discrete reference signal, applies a transform to the reference signal to provide a set of transformed locations, and then uses a point spread function to sample phase from the suspect signal at discrete sample locations in a neighborhood around the transformed locations. This process provides an estimate of phase of the suspect signal at locations corresponding to the transformed locations.
US08867856B2	De-noising image content using directional filters for image de-blurring Systems and methods are provided for providing improved de-noising image content by using directional noise filters to accurately estimate a blur kernel from a noisy blurry image. In one embodiment, an image manipulation application applies multiple directional noise filters to an input image to generate multiple filtered images. Each of the directional noise filters has a different orientation with respect to the input image. The image manipulation application determines multiple two-dimensional blur kernels from the respective filtered images. The image manipulation application generates a two-two-dimensional blur kernel for the input image from the two-dimensional blur kernels for the filtered images. The image manipulation application generates a de-blurred version of the input image by executing a de-blurring algorithm based on the two-dimensional blur kernel for the input image.
US08867854B2	Image encoder and decoder using undirectional prediction The present invention relates to an image encoding and decoding technique, and more particularly, to an image encoder and decoder using unidirectional prediction. The image encoder includes a dividing unit to divide a macro block into a plurality of sub-blocks, a unidirectional application determining unit to determine whether an identical prediction mode is applied to each of the plurality of sub-blocks, and a prediction mode determining unit to determine a prediction mode with respect to each of the plurality of sub-blocks based on a determined result of the unidirectional application determining unit.
US08867853B2	Image processing to prevent access to private information A processing resource receives original image data by a surveillance system. The original image data captures at least private information and occurrence of activity in a monitored region. The processing resource applies one or more transforms to the original image data to produce transformed image data. Application of the one or more transforms sufficiently distorts portions of the original image data to remove the private information. The transformed image data includes the distorted portions to prevent access to the private information. However, the distorted portions of the video include sufficient image detail to discern occurrence of the activity in the retail environment.
US08867851B2	Sparse coding based superpixel representation using hierarchical codebook constructing and indexing Embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods for identifying an object in an image. In embodiments, object identification includes using smooth encoding from a tree structure to generate a feature from a descriptor. In embodiments, the smooth encoding may be performed by, having identifying a leaf node for a descriptor, moving up the tree voting structure a number of levels from the identified leaf node to a branch node to identify leaf nodes dependent from the branch node; and then, by determining a sparse code under a condition that a distance between the descriptor and centroids of the leaf nodes dependent from the branch node weighted by the sparse code is minimized, wherein each element of the sparse code representing a weight corresponding to leaf nodes.
US08867849B1	Suggesting profile images for a social network A system and method for generating an ordered set of suggested profile images. The profile image application includes a scorer, a recognition engine, a trend analyzer, a suggestion module and a user interface engine. The scorer scores user images based on metadata, such as the number of people tagged in the image and the recency of the image. The recognition engine identifies people and objects in the image. The trend analyzer identifies trends. The suggestion module generates the ordered set of suggested profile images based at least in part on the score. The user interface engine generates a user interface that includes the ordered set of suggested profile images.
US08867842B2	Image processing device producing a single-viewpoint image based on a plurality of images viewed from a plurality of viewing points, image processing system producing a single-viewpoint image based on a plurality of images viewed from a plurality of viewing points, and image processing method producing a single-viewpoint image based on a plurality of images viewed from a plurality of viewing points According to one embodiment, an image processing system includes a decoder, a corresponding area detector and an image corrector. The decoder is configured to decode an input image signal obtained by encoding a plurality of images viewed from a plurality of viewing points different from each other, to generate a first image signal, a second image signal, and a motion vector for referring to the first image from the second image. The corresponding area detector is configured to detect a corresponding area in the second image, the corresponding area corresponding to a target block in the first image. The image corrector is configured to mix each pixel in the target block with each pixel in the corresponding area according to a degree of similarity between the target block and the corresponding area, to generate a third image signal.
US08867826B2	Disparity estimation for misaligned stereo image pairs A disparity vector for a pixel in a right image corresponding to a pixel in a left image in a pair of stereo images is determined. The disparity vector is based on a horizontal disparity and a vertical disparity and the pair of stereo images is unrectified. First, a set of candidate horizontal disparities is determined. For each candidate horizontal disparity, a cost associated with a particular horizontal disparity and corresponding vertical disparities is determined. The vertical disparity associated with a first optimal cost is assigned to each candidate horizontal disparity, so that the candidate horizontal disparity and the vertical disparity yield a candidate disparity vector. Lastly, the candidate disparity vector with a second optimal cost is selected as the disparity vector of the pixel in the right image.
US08867825B2	Method and apparatus for determining a similarity or dissimilarity measure A solution for determining a similarity or dissimilarity measure for a selected pixel of a first image relative to another selected pixel in a second image is described. The first image and the second image form a stereoscopic image pair or part of a multi-view image group. In a first step a first support window containing the selected pixel in the first image is determining. Then a second support window containing the selected pixel in the second image is determining. Subsequently one or more statistical properties of the selected pixel in the first image are calculated to define a probability distribution for the selected pixel in the first image. Finally, pixel similarity or dissimilarity between the first support window and the second support window is aggregated using only those pixels belonging to the probability distribution for the selected pixel in the first image with a probability above a defined minimum.
US08867817B1	Display analysis using scanned images A method for analyzing a display is described. The method includes scanning the display to generate a scanned image of the display. The scanned image may be analyzed to determine a characteristic of the display, such as whether or not the display is defective.
US08867815B2	Sample identification device and sample identification method A cell stethoscope 1 comprises a sample image input section 31 for inputting image information of a cell, an image display part 50 for displaying the image information to an observer, an area designation part 40 for designating a fixed area included in the image information in response to an operation carried out by the observer according to the image information displayed by the image display part 50, a frequency conversion section 32 for frequency-converting vibration information of the cell in the fixed area designated by the area designation part 40 into sound information, and a sound output part 60 for outputting the sound information frequency-converted by the frequency conversion section 32 to the observer.
US08867814B2	Methods and systems for generating a positron emission tomography attenuation correction map A method for generating a positron emission tomography (PET) attenuation correction map. The method includes obtaining a magnetic resonance (MR) image dataset of a subject of interest, obtaining a positron emission tomography (PET) emission dataset of the subject of interest, segmenting the MR image dataset to identify at least one object of interest, determining a volume of the object of interest, and generating a PET attenuation correction map using the determined volume. A medical imaging system and a non-transitory computer readable medium are also described herein.
US08867811B2	MR imaging guided therapy A therapeutic system, comprising: a MR imaging unit arranged to acquire MR signals from a patient in an examination volume, and a thermal treatment unit for depositing thermal energy within tissue of the patient. The system is arranged for: initiating a thermal treatment by heating the tissue at a focus within the examination volume selectively acquiring MR signals from a first image plane, including the focus, reconstructing a thermographic MR image from the MR signals acquired from the first image plane, computing a baseline thermographic MR image from a temperature distribution within at least one second image plane, moving the focus to a new position within the examination volume, changing the position and/or orientation of the first image plane corresponding to the new position of the focus, repeating the acquiring and reconstructing steps, wherein the baseline thermographic MR image is used for thermographic image reconstruction in a subsequent reconstructing step.
US08867810B2	Automatic identification of disruptive events in imaging scans In methods and an apparatus for detecting an incident or behavior in a medical image scan of a subject, a list of image data points captured during the scan is obtained, and a scan period of the scan selected. A model for a distribution of list data over the scan period is obtained, the model at least in part based on the list data from the scan period. List data are compared with the model, by calculating a statistical measure of the self-consistency of the list data with reference to the model.
US08867807B1	Intelligent dynamic preloading and processing Provided herein are various systems and methods of adjusting images of an image series that are preloaded (and/or otherwise processed) in view of behavior data associated with viewing of other previous exams having similar characteristics (e.g., same modality) and/or by the same user.
US08867805B2	Method and system for reconstruction of tomographic images Approaches are described for addressing artifacts associated with iterative reconstruction of image data acquired using a cone-beam CT system. Such approaches include, but are not limited to, the use of asymmetric regularization during iterative reconstruction, the modulation of regularization strength for certain voxels, the modification of statistical weights, and/or the generation and use of synthesized data.
US08867799B2	Fingerprint sensing assemblies and methods of making A fingerprint sensing module includes a sensor substrate having a sensing side and a circuit side, an image sensor including conductive traces on the circuit side of the sensor substrate, and a sensor circuit including at least one integrated circuit mounted on the circuit side of the sensor substrate and electrically connected to the image sensor. The sensor substrate may be a flexible substrate. The module may include a velocity sensor on the sensor substrate or on a separate substrate. The module may further include a rigid substrate, and the sensor substrate may be affixed to the rigid substrate.
US08867791B2	Gesture recognition method and interactive system using the same A gesture recognition method for an interactive system includes the steps of: capturing image windows with an image sensor; obtaining information of object images associated with at least one pointer in the image windows; calculating a position coordinate of the pointer relative to the interactive system according to the position of the object images in the image windows when a single pointer is identified according to the information of object images; and performing gesture recognition according to a relation between the object images in the image window when a plurality of pointers are identified according to the information of object images. The present invention further provides an interactive system.
US08867790B2	Object detection device, object detection method, and program An object detection device that can accurately identify an object candidate in captured stereo images as an object or a road surface. The object detection device (100) have a disparity map generator (120) that generates a disparity map based on the stereo images; a road surface estimator (130) that estimates a road surface based on the disparity map; an object candidate location extractor (140) that extracts an object candidate region above the road surface, based on the disparity map and the road surface; an object identifying region extractor (150) that extracts an object identifying region including a region around the object candidate region; a geometric feature extractor (160) that extracts a geometric feature of the object candidate based on the object identifying region; and an object identifying unit (170) that identifies whether the object candidate is an object or a road surface based on the geometric feature.
US08867788B2	Vehicle periphery monitoring device A vehicle periphery monitoring device includes: a first edge image generation element 5 which generates a first edge image on the basis of luminance components of a captured image acquired by an in-vehicle camera 2; a second edge image generation element 6 which generates a second edge image on the basis of hue components or saturation components of the captured image; a composite edge image generation element 7 which generates a composite edge image formed by combining the first edge image and the second edge image; and an object classification identification element 8 which identifies whether or not the object is a prescribed kind of structure on the basis of the external shape of the object represented by the composite edge image.
US08867787B2	Turbine inspection system, computer program product and method of inspecting The disclosure includes a system, a computer program product, and a method for inspecting a turbine system. In one embodiment, the system includes at least one computing device configured to inspect a turbine system by performing actions including: obtaining a set of pre-maintenance digital images of the turbine system, obtaining a set of post-maintenance digital images of the turbine system, comparing the set of pre-maintenance digital images with the set of post-maintenance digital images to identify an anomaly in the set of post-maintenance digital images, and comparing the set of post-maintenance digital image with a set of computer modeled image of the turbine system to determine a type of the anomaly in response to identifying the anomaly. The post-maintenance digital images depict the turbine system after a maintenance process has been performed on the turbine system.
US08867786B2	Scenario-specific body-part tracking A human subject is tracked within a scene of an observed depth image supplied to a general-purpose body-part tracker. The general-purpose body-part tracker is retrained for a specific scenario. The general-purpose body-part tracker was previously trained using supervised machine learning to identify one or more general-purpose parameters to be used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track a human subject. During a retraining phase, scenario data is received that represents a human training-subject performing an action specific to a particular scenario. One or more special-purpose parameters are identified from the processed scenario data. The special-purpose parameters are selectively used to augment or replace one or more general-purpose parameters if the general-purpose body-part tracker is used to track a human subject performing the action specific to the particular scenario.
US08867777B2	Speaker assembly A speaker assembly includes a speaker housing having a substantially closed speaker chamber, the speaker housing including a first wall with a dimple assembly defining a heat sink formed therein. A first driver is mounted and enclosed in the speaker chamber, the first driver including a cone coupled to a driver magnet for generating sound. The driver magnet is in direct contact with the dimple assembly effectively exposing the driver magnet to an exterior of the speaker housing via the heat sink defined by the dimple assembly.
US08867775B2	Combined device audio panel Aspects of the present invention may provide audio devices, which may be included in protective covers, suited for use with tablet computers and the like. Embodiments may include audio devices including a substantially tablet-shaped rigid housing. The housing may include a top surface, a bottom surface, and a recess in the top surface. A relatively flat audio speaker may be received in the recess of the housing, and may be pivotally mounted to the housing such that a free end of the speaker is movable between a closed position and an open position.
US08867771B2	Portable vibration speaker The invention discloses a kind of portable vibration speaker that is composed of an upper cover, a lower cover, and a vibrating tone generator and a control circuit (the both are fitted inside the lower cover). The inside of the upper cover is fitted with a speaker. The improvements include a blow-molded spring; one end of the blow-molded spring is connected to the upper cover, and the other end is connected to the lower cover in rotating mode; inner wall of the upper cover is provided with a buckle, and a buckle flute is arranged in a position on the lower cover corresponding to the buckle. A blow-molded spring connects the resonant sound unit and speakers into one piece so as to avoid the flaws such as poor sound effects and narrow volume range of pure resonant sound unit or conventional compact sound unit. Music of different sound quality may be given with superior sound quality effects. The portable vibration speaker is characterized by its compactness, handiness and superior bass effects, and may meet the needs of young consumers.
US08867764B1	Calibrated hearing aid tuning appliance A hearing aid can be tuned while worn by a user according to a heuristic method, including select an adjustable parameter and an stimulus having audio energy characteristics related to the adjustable parameter. The stimulus is played via a calibrated audio output device and amplified by the hearing aid. After selecting a user perception query associated with the adjustable parameter, feedback is obtained from the user indicating that the stimulus was not perceived neutrally. A perceptual adjustment curve and a threshold curve are determined according to the user feedback, and an estimated perception curve that estimates the user's perception of the stimulus is determined. When at least a portion of the estimated perception curve exceeds a threshold curve, the hearing aid is programmed according to at least one adjustment value determined according to the user feedback value.
US08867763B2	Method of focusing a hearing instrument beamformer A beamformer of a hearing instrument is focused by automatically adapting the beam width and/or beam direction. A spatial orientation and/or position of the head of the hearing instrument user is first captured. When no head movements are captured, the acoustic signals are picked up with directional dependency. Then the amplification of acoustic signals is boosted that originate from a focus solid angle in front of the head of the hearing instrument user, compared with acoustic signals from other solid angles. This activates or increases directivity. Then the focus solid angle is decreased to gradually focus and to increase directivity, until the level of acoustic signals from the focus solid angle, actually the presence of the desired signals in the focus solid angle (purely theoretically the probability that the desired signal is present in the focus solid angle), reduces on account of reducing the focus solid angle.
US08867753B2	Apparatus, method and computer program for upmixing a downmix audio signal An apparatus for upmixing a downmix audio signal describing one or more downmix audio channels into an upmixed audio signal describing a plurality of upmixed audio channels includes an upmixer configured to apply temporally variable upmixing parameters to upmix the downmix audio signal in order to obtain the upmixed audio signal. The apparatus also includes a parameter interpolator, wherein the parameter interpolator is configured to obtain one or more temporally interpolated upmix parameters to be used by the upmixer on the basis of a first complex-valued upmix parameter and a subsequent second complex-valued upmix parameter. The parameter interpolator is configured to separately interpolate between a magnitude value of the first complex-valued upmix parameter and a magnitude value of the second complex-valued upmix parameter, and between a phase value of the first complex-valued upmix parameter and a phase value of the second complex-valued upmix parameter, to obtain the one or more temporally interpolated upmix parameters. A respective method can be implemented, for example, as a computer program.
US08867751B2	Method, medium, and system encoding/decoding a multi-channel audio signal, and method medium, and system decoding a down-mixed signal to a 2-channel signal A method, medium, and system encoding and/or decoding a multi-channel audio signal, and a method, medium, and system decoding a signal down-mixed from multi-channels to a 2-channel signal. The method of encoding an audio signal may include generating spatial cues indicating directivity information of a virtual sound source generated by at least two channel sound sources among a plurality of channels, and down-mixing the plurality of channel signals. The method of decoding an audio signal may include receiving inputs of spatial cues indicating directivity information of a virtual sound source generated by at least two channel sound sources among sound sources of a plurality of channels, and a signal down-mixed from the plurality of channel signals, and restoring the down-mixed signal to a plurality of channel signals by using the spatial cues. According to such systems, media, and methods, a multi-channel audio signal can be accurately encoded and/or decoded regardless of frequency bands.
US08867750B2	Surround sound virtualizer and method with dynamic range compression Method and system for generating output signals for reproduction by two physical speakers in response to input audio signals indicative of sound from multiple source locations including at least two rear locations. Typically, the input signals are indicative of sound from three front locations and two rear locations (left and right surround sources). A virtualizer generates left and right surround outputs useful for driving front loudspeakers to emit sound that a listener perceives as emitting from rear sources. Typically, the virtualizer generates left and right surround outputs by transforming rear source inputs in accordance with a head-related transfer function. To ensure that virtual channels are well heard in the presence of other channels, the virtualizer performs dynamic range compression on rear source inputs. The dynamic range compression is preferably accomplished by amplifying rear source inputs or partially processed versions thereof in a nonlinear way relative to front source inputs.
US08867744B1	Security in wireless communication systems Wireless security is enforced at L1, in addition to or in lieu of other layers. AP's can switch dynamically from serving to scanning. Scanners listen for authorized frame headers. Scanners either receive, or allow authorized frames to be received, at their destination. Scanners kill unauthorized frames while they are still transmitting; scanners continue listening for and killing unauthorized frame headers until frame ending time demands their return to serving, multiplying their effectiveness. AP's include dual-mode multi-frequency omni-directional antennae, used to prevent third parties from snooping messages received at those AP's.
US08867742B2	Optical transmission device and reception device for Yuen encryption, optical transmission method and reception method for Yuen encryption, and encrypted communication system A configuration method of an optical signal, an encryption device, and an encryption system makes it possible for a legitimate communicating party to ensure information-theoretic security against a known plain text attack and to communicate long-distance. By adding a transmission information data sequence randomization device to the Yuen encrypted communications device according to the present information, which divides transmission information data into blocks, appends sequence numbers thereto, randomly switches the sequence of the blocks with a digitized signal of output of an electrical noise generator, and inputs same into a transmission data generator of a conventional Yuen encrypted optical transmitter, the relation between a known transmission information data sequence (plain text) and an optical signal which is outputted from the transmitter is randomized, allowing forcibly making even a circumstance wherein a known-plain text attack would be possible into a cipher-text-only attack, realizing information-theoretic security against a known-plain text attack.
US08867721B2	Automatic mute detection A system and methodology for managing a mute function muting a connection to a conference call is disclosed. The system is implemented when the mute function is activated on a line connected to a conference call through a telecommunications network. The method includes receiving a sound, determining whether the sound meets predetermined criteria and if the sound meets predetermined criteria then performing a mute status operation.
US08867719B2	Systems and methods for generating a calling list for a conference call Systems and methods are described that facilitate the generation of calling lists for use in planning or setting up conference calls. The system may include a communications module and a contact database comprising a plurality of contact records, each contact record corresponding to a different contact. Each contact record may include at least one contact address and at least one descriptor. For example, the descriptor may include a job title and/or expertise for the contact. The system may also include a selection module configured to select at least one of the contacts and also configured to compare the at least one descriptor to at least one qualifier criteria. The method may include: providing a contact database comprising a plurality of contact records, each contact record corresponding to a different contact; wherein each contact record comprises at least one contact address and at least one descriptor; determining at least one qualifier criteria; comparing the qualifier criteria to the at least one descriptor; determining a calling list corresponding to at least one contact.
US08867718B2	Automated electronic telecommunications order translation and processing Systems and method for processing orders for telecommunications services are disclosed. Generally a telecommunications transaction set of an electronic data interchange standard is received, the telecommunications transaction set corresponding to a telecommunications product or service for a customer. An order for the telecommunications product or service is then generated based on processing of the telecommunications transaction set.
US08867716B2	Telephone number sharing configuration A system and a method are disclosed for providing telephone number sharing services to subscribers over public switched telephone network or data network. The disclosed system maintains a bank of reusable caller identifiers (IDs). The system receives call details of a call from a subscriber of the system. The call details include a caller identifier (ID) preference of the subscriber and a called number corresponding to the called party. The system stores the call details in a database. The system determines whether the call from the subscriber is a first call to the called number. In response to the call being the first call to the called number, the system assigns a call ID from the bank of reusable caller IDs that satisfies the reusable caller ID preference of the subscriber, and connects the call to the called number along with the caller ID.
US08867709B2	Method and system for answer-mode identification of a telephony device A method and an apparatus for the identification of the mode of a telephony device in a network are provided. A call initiation signal is received from a mode-identifying telephony device. The call initiation signal is used to communicate with a mode-selecting telephony device. Thereafter, the mode at the mode-selecting telephony device is detected and an answer mode signal, including the information regarding the answering mode of the mode-selecting telephony device, is sent to the mode-identifying telephony device.
US08867705B2	Display of AEC sensor location A method for indicating a position of a radiation energy sensor element in a radiographic imaging system, the method executed at least in part by a computer, identifies the position of the radiation energy sensor element relative to a subject to be imaged and displays the identified position relative to the subject.
US08867694B1	Modular gray code counter A Gray code counter has multiple two-bit Gray code counter modules, clock gated integrated cells (CGICs), and a parity bit generator. The CGICs gate clock signals provided to the two-bit counter modules, which reduces dynamic power consumption. The parity bit generator generates a parity bit that indicates a count of binary ones in a counting state.
US08867690B2	Pressurized water reactor with compact passive safety systems A nuclear reactor includes a pressure vessel and a nuclear reactor core disposed in the pressure vessel. A subterranean containment structure contains the nuclear reactor. An ultimate heat sink (UHS) pool is disposed at grade level, and an upper portion of the subterranean containment structure defines at least a portion of the bottom of the UHS pool. In some embodiments, the upper portion of the subterranean containment structure comprises an upper dome, which may protrude above the surface of the UHS pool to define an island surrounded by the UHS pool. In some embodiments, a condenser comprising a heat exchanger including hot and cold flow paths is disposed inside the subterranean containment structure; and cooling water lines operatively connect the condenser with the UHS pool.
US08867671B2	Conversion circuit for converting complex analog signal into digital representation A conversion circuit (20) for converting a complex analog input signal having an in-phase, I, component and a quadrature-phase, Q, component resulting from frequency down conversion of a radio-frequency, RF, signal (XRF) to a frequency band covering 0 Hz into a digital representation is disclosed. It comprises a channel-selection filter unit (40) arranged to filter the complex analog input signal, thereby generating a channel-filtered I and Q components, and one or more processing units (53, 53a-b). Each processing unit comprises four mixers (60-75) for generating a first and a second frequency-translated I component and a first and a second channel-filtered Q component based on two LO signals with equal LO frequency and a 90° mutual phase shift. Furthermore, each processing unit comprises a combiner unit (85, 120) for generating a first, a second, a third, and a fourth combined signal proportional to sums and differences between said frequency translated I and Q components. The first and the fourth combined signals form a first complex signal, and the second and the third combined signals form a second complex signal. Each processing unit further comprises four ADCs (110a-d, 115a-d) for providing digital representations of the first complex signal and the second complex signal for forming said digital representation of the analog complex input signal. A related radio receiver circuit and a related electronic apparatus are also disclosed.
US08867655B2	Apparatus and method for transmitting data using multiple antennas and beamforming Provided are an apparatus and method for transmitting data using multiple antennas and beamforming. The apparatus of the present invention comprises: a modulation unit which performs constellation mapping on input bits to generate modulated symbols; a pre-coding unit which multiplies a pre-coding matrix and the modulated symbols to generate pre-coded symbols; and a plurality of transmitting antennas for transmitting the pre-coded symbols. According to the present invention, a beam width is maintained constant, regardless of a radiation angle, thus preventing a loss of power caused by an angular spread and preventing the generation of shadow zone at a large radiation angle.
US08867651B2	Systems and methods for providing signals of multiple active wireless transmitters Systems and methods for combining signals from multiple active wireless transmitters are discussed herein. An exemplary system comprises a radio enclosure, a first transmitting RFU, a second transmitting RFU, and a combiner. The first transmitting RFU may be configured to receive a signal, upconvert the signal, compare a phase of the upconverted signal to a predetermined phase value, and adjust the phase of the signal based on the comparison to provide a first phase-adjusted upconverted signal. The second transmitting RFU may be configured to receive the signal, upconvert the signal, compare a phase of the upconverted signal to the predetermined phase value, and adjust the phase of the signal based on the comparison to provide a second phase-adjusted upconverted signal. The coupler may be configured to combine the first and second phase-adjusted upconverted signals to create an output signal and provide the output signal to an antenna for transmission.
US08867648B2	Method for reporting channel status information in a multiantenna wireless communication system and device for same The present application discloses a method for reporting channel status information in a multi antenna wireless communication system. In more detail, the method includes: receiving a reference signal from a base station; calculating the optimum precoding matrix index (PMI), at which the intensity of a signal from the base station is maximized, on the basis of the reference signal: determining at least one interference PMI from the base station on the assumption that a plurality of interference PMIs corresponding to the optimum PIM are applied; and transmitting information on at least one determined interference PMI to the base station. Beams corresponding to the plurality of interference PMIs are orthogonal to the beams corresponding to the optimum PMI.
US08867643B2	Testing apparatus and method for MIMO systems Four (=M) transmission information signals are output from transmission information generating unit to linear transform unit, where they are transformed into synthesis signals by linear transform expressed by multiplication by a 2×4 matrix having complex numbers as elements. Signal processors perform signal processing corresponding to the modulation technique of test target on synthesis signals. On the resultant signals, 2×2 channel processing unit performs 2×2 pseudo channel processing, thereby forming equivalent M×N channels. Parameter setting unit sets information necessary to acquire desired M×N channel characteristics as the synthesis characteristics of linear transform unit and N×N channel processing unit.
US08867638B2	Variable-length cyclic prefixes in OFDM coaxial communications A coax network unit (CNU) is coupled to a coax line terminal (CLT) by a cable plant. In a discovery mode of operation, the CNU receives from the CLT one or more message packets that include one or more orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols with cyclic prefixes of a first length. In a normal mode of operation subsequent to the discovery mode, the CNU receives data packets comprising OFDM symbols from the CLT. The OFDM symbols of the received data packets have cyclic prefixes of a second length that is less than the first length.
US08867623B2	Method for turbo transmission of digital broadcasting transport stream, a digital broadcasting transmission and reception system, and a signal processing method thereof A digital broadcasting transmission/reception system, and a signal processing method thereof for turbo-processing digital broadcasting transport stream and transmitting the processed stream, includes a parity area generating unit preparing a first area for parity insertion with respect to a dual transport stream (TS) which includes a normal stream and a turbo stream as multiplexed, a first interleaver interleaving the dual TS which is transmitted from the parity area generating unit, a turbo processing unit detecting the turbo stream from the interleaved dual TS, exclusively encoding the detected turbo stream for turbo-processing, and stuffing the encoded turbo stream into the dual TS, a deinterleaver deinterleaving the dual TS which is processed by the turbo processing unit, and a transmitting unit transmitting the dual TS which is processed at the deinterleaver.
US08867611B2	Video transmitting method and system with image quality adjusting function A video transmitting method with an image quality adjusting function is provided. In the method, a video stream is transmitted to a receiving terminal. A received number of frames of the video stream received by the receiving terminal in a preset period is obtained. An image quality of the video stream is adjusted according to the received number of frames.
US08867608B2	Systems and methods for segmenting and communicating video data A data processing system receives video data from a data source and separates the video data into multiple video data segments. Each of the multiple video data segments are substantially the same size. The system generates a data segmentation element associated with each video data segment. The data segmentation element describes content in the associated video data segment. Each video data segment and the associated data segmentation element are communicated to a destination device.
US08867607B2	Method and an apparatus for processing a video signal The present invention includes determining a motion vector candidate set of a current block including a plurality of motion vector candidates, obtaining motion vector indication information of the current block from a video signal, extracting a motion vector candidate corresponding to the motion vector indication information from the motion vector candidate set, determining a predicted motion vector of the current block based on the extracted motion vector candidate, and performing motion compensation on the current block based on the predicted motion vector.
US08867598B1	Timing and data recovery in feed-forward equalization An equalizer is disclosed, and associated operational method. The equalizer has a configuration that balances performance and complexity by obtaining samples that are strongly correlated with future and past transmitted bits, and are weakly correlated with future and past bit transitions, and is useful for timing recovery circuits. Samples are only obtained or collected at time intervals more than one sample period away from the reference sample. Samples are shifted by a delay value less than the sample period, and are obtained at a sample period of one unit interval. A means to adjust the sampling point delay is also disclosed. In an implementation, samples that are within the sample period away from the reference sample are obtained and used for implementing a timing shift, not for equalization of the timing recovery signal. Embodiments are also disclosed for optimizing performance for data recovery.
US08867593B2	Method and transceiver for digital subscriber line system This disclosure provides a method and transceiver for a digital subscriber line (DSL) system. A first transceiver performs a communication with a second transceiver with a bit table including a first parameter of bit load for sub-carriers, and transmits a switch message for requesting a bit load reduction to the second transceiver when the first transceiver determines that an obtained communication performance parameter reaches or exceeds the predetermined value; and in response to the transmission of the switch message, executing a switch to a second parameter of bit load for sub-carriers at a certain symbol of a frame. The first transceiver calculates the second parameter of bit load by subtracting a corresponding bit number from the first parameter of bit load. The corresponding bit number is transmitted by the first transceiver to the second transceiver for calculating a same parameter of bit load as the second parameter of bit load.
US08867592B2	Capacitive isolated voltage domains In some embodiments, a receiver circuit is configured to receive a modulated signal from a transmitter that is galvanically isolated from the receiver circuit. The receiver circuit is configured to demodulate the modulated signal by using two comparator circuits that respectively detect the presence or absence of first and second signal states of a carrier signal. Based on the detection of the first and second states, the receiver circuit determines whether the carrier signal is present or absent in the modulated signal to determine a demodulated value of the modulated signal.
US08867584B2	Intra-cavity optical parametric oscillator An optical parametric oscillator comprising: an optical cavity; a semiconductor gain-medium located within the optical cavity, such that together they form a semiconductor laser, and a nonlinear material located within the cavity such that the nonlinear material continuously generates down-converted idler- and signal-waves in response to a pump-wave continuously generated by the semiconductor gain-medium, wherein the pump wave is resonant within the optical cavity and one or other but not both of the down-converted waves is resonant within the pump wave cavity or a further optical cavity. Brewster plates ensure singly resonant optical parametric oscillators and a birefringent filer is used for frequency setting. Coupled cavities allow for setting the photon lifetime in the cavity that relaxation oscillations are prevented.
US08867582B2	Laser diode assembly A laser diode assembly includes a housing having a housing part and a mounting part that is connected to the housing part and that extends away from the housing part along an extension direction. A laser diode chip is disposed on the mounting part. The laser diode chip has, on a substrate, semiconductor layers with an active layer for emitting light. The housing part and the mounting part have a main body composed of copper and at least the housing part is steel-sheathed. A first solder layer having a thickness of greater than or equal to 3 μm is arranged between the laser diode chip and the mounting part.
US08867579B2	Semiconductor laser device A laser device (100) includes a laser (110; 210; 310; 410; 510) in turn including at least one Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) section (111), at least one phase section (112) and at least one gain section (113), further including a laser control element (150), a feedback control element (140) and a frequency noise discriminator (130,131), which feedback control element is arranged to feed a variable feedback signal to at least one of the at least one DBR section and the at least one phase section of the laser, so that the output laser frequency is altered in response to a variation in the feedback signal or the combination of respective feedback signals, whereby the feedback signal or combination of respective feedback signals is varied as a function of the detected frequency fluctuation so as to counteract the detected frequency fluctuation.
US08867576B2	Generator and laser system comprising coupled sub-cavities A laser system having a cavity formed by at least two sub-cavities and a mechanism for optically pumping a first of the at least two sub-cavities. In the system, the optical pumping mechanism is arranged in such away to not reach a laser emission threshold of the first sub-cavity, the first sub-cavity (2) comprising a device for generating a short pulse, a second sub-cavity (3) comprising an external triggering device. The first and second sub-cavities are coupled such that the triggering of the second sub-cavity has at least two such laser systems, to a light emission system with a wide spectral band, comprising such a laser system and a mechanism for generating non-linear optical effects inserted into the second sub-cavity, and to a light generator with a wide spectral band, comprising such a laser generator having at least one laser system provided with a mechanism for generating non-linear optical effects inserted into the second sub-cavity.
US08867575B2	Method for enabling a wireless device for geographically preferential services Disclosed is system comprising: a server platform operative to communicate with a wireless communication network; and data storage coupled to the server platform to store a plurality of business rules, wherein the server platform is operative to: generate a first provision instruction to provision a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) with a first rule set associated with a first set of business rules for wireless usage incurred by a mobile terminal operating in the wireless communication network; generate a first billing instruction based on the first set of business rules and a first data type determined by a packet gateway that inspects packet data communicated to or from the mobile terminal.
US08867555B2	Method and system for transparent LAN services in a packet network A network apparatus includes a customer network portion having a customer premises equipment (CPE) bridge configured to connect to internal network entities of the customer network portion and to edge bridges of a provider network portion interconnecting separate customer network portions. The CPE bridge is configured to determine a transparent local area network service (TLS) for a packet received from one of the internal network entities based on a media access control (MAC) address of a destination of the packet in a different separate customer network portion. The CPE bridge is also configured to modify the packet to indicate the determined TLS, for the provider network portion to utilize to transmit the packet based on the determined TLS to a second CPE bridge associated with the destination, without the provider network utilizing the destination MAC address.
US08867548B2	Method and user equipment for transmitting uplink control information In the event ACK/NACK information on downlink data transmitted on one or more carriers must be transmitted on a PUCCH together with SR, user equipment of the present invention always modulates the ACK/NACK information to a first complex modulation symbol regardless of the number of the carriers when a specific carrier is ACK and the other carriers are NACKs, or the specific carrier is ACK and ACK/NACK bundled for other carriers is NACK. Also, the user equipment always modulates the ACK/NACK information to a second complex modulation symbol regardless of the number of the carriers when a specific carrier is NACK and the other carriers are NACKs, or the specific carrier is ACK and the ACK/NACK bundled for the other carriers is NAC. According to the present invention, regardless of the number of carriers needed for the user equipment, at least ACK/NACK information on the specific carrier can be exactly transmitted to a base station.
US08867547B2	Method and apparatus for processing a call to an aggregate endpoint device A method and an apparatus for processing a call to an aggregate endpoint device over a network are disclosed. For example, the method receives a session request by an application server, wherein a route header for the session request comprises an aggregate endpoint identifier, and determines at least one Public User Identity (PUID) of the aggregate endpoint device in accordance with the aggregate endpoint identifier. The method obtains a Serving-Call Session Control Function Fully Qualified Domain Name (S-CSCF FDQN) of a Serving-Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) that performs a termination processing for the aggregate endpoint device, and forwards the session request to the S-CSCF with a route header that comprises the PUID of the aggregate endpoint device.
US08867545B2	Modified Ethernet preamble for inter line card communications in a modular communication chassis A method of providing information regarding an Ethernet frame, within the Ethernet preamble of the Ethernet frame, comprises inserting into the Ethernet preamble an inter-line-card header that includes a start control character, a version number, a parity bit, a source port, a destination port, and a forwarding domain entry; and preserving said inter-line-card header, inside of said Ethernet preamble, in a Media Access Control (MAC) sub-layer in said Ethernet frame. The method may include a step of selecting the decoding format for the inter-line-card header corresponding to the version number and/or forwarding other Ethernet frames according to additional forwarding information provided by the forwarding domain entry. The inter-line-card header may be preserved in the MAC sub-layer by keeping the Ethernet preamble at the beginning of an Ethernet frame received over an Ethernet backplane, and passing the combined preamble and associated Ethernet frame to an inter-line-card header processing module.
US08867539B2	Multicast-unicast protocol converter A protocol converter includes a processor configured to receive a request for content from a client system. The processor is further configured to determine if the protocol converter is currently receiving the content through the multicast session, and join the multicast session if the protocol converter is not currently receiving the content. Additionally, the processor is configured to receive the content as an end point of the multicast session, format the content for communication to the client system, and provide content to the client system in a communication separate from the multicast session. Receiving the content as an end point of the multicast session can include terminating the application layer protocol used by the multicast session. Additionally, formatting the content can include re-encapsulating the content as hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) with an appropriate content-type.
US08867532B2	Method and system of voice carry over for instant messaging relay services A method of assisting communication for a user is provided. The method includes receiving an IM message including a request for a voice carry over from the user, and transmitting to the user an invitation to join a first voice connection. The method further includes initiating the first voice connection with the user, and initiating a second voice connection with a recipient. Additionally, the method includes communicating to the recipient a first voice communication from the user over the first and second voice connections, and communicating to the user a response IM message including a transcribed version of a second voice communication from the recipient. An apparatus for assisting communication for a user is provided. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions is provided. The computer-executable instructions cause a processor to perform a method when executed.
US08867530B2	Signaling gateway for routing signaling messages A method of operating a signaling gateway for routing signaling messages between a SS7 network and an IP-based network is provided. The signaling gateway has a signaling point code allocated as a network address. Further, a signaling gateway for routing signaling messages between a SS7 network and an IP-based network is provided. The signaling gateway comprises an interface towards the SS7 network and an interface towards the IP-based network. The signaling gateway comprises a processing unit which may implement a SS7 protocol stack and an IP protocol stack. The processing unit may be configured to translate a message delivered to an upper protocol layer of the SS7 protocol stack to a corresponding message conforming to a user adaptation protocol of the IP protocol stack.
US08867516B2	Binary CDMA image-transceiving system directly connected to an image capture device A binary CDMA image transmission and receiving system directed connected to an image capturing device includes an image transmission unit including: an image capturing device comprising a CCD/CMOS camera module and configured to output a captured digital image signal; an image pre-treatment processing unit configured to process a digital image signal output from the image capturing device to be vivid; a digital image processing unit configured to convert the image signal into a compressible signal; a transmission side A/V codec configured to compress an image and a voice of an output image signal; a transmission side host processor configured to perform a binary CDMA function, a transmission side binary CDMA baseband processor; and an RF transmission unit, and an image receiving unit including: an RF receiving unit configured to receive the transmitted RF signal; a receiver side binary CDMA baseband processor configured to receive and decode the received RF signal; a receiver side host processor; a receiver side A/V codec configured to restore the image and the voice; and an image post-treatment unit configured to output the image signal. The binary CDMA image transmission and receiving system may increase a resolution of an image through a digital processing method, not an analog method, may improve security by being capable of encoding a transmission data, may have an excellent frequency efficiency, may enable a remote distance communication superior to a short range wireless communication, and may enable a low power high speed transmission.
US08867512B2	Autonomous discovery for enhanced wifi devices Techniques for discovering one or more nodes in a communication system are provided. A node may receive one or more discovery messages during a first occurrence of a periodic discovery interval. The node may determine a duration of a subsequent occurrence of the periodic discovery interval based on the one or more received discovery messages. The node may adjust the duration for the subsequent occurrence of the periodic discovery interval based on the determined duration.
US08867509B2	Integrated bluetooth and wireless LAN transmitters having simultaneous bluetooth and wireless LAN transmissions Integrated Bluetooth (BT) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) transceivers are described. BT signals and WLAN signals can be transmitted simultaneously with one another. Samples from a BT signal sample stream are injected into a WLAN signal sample stream. According to one exemplary embodiment, a simultaneously transmitted BT signal/WLAN signal can be amplified and coupled onto a pin of an integrated circuit device for transmission. If there is no WLAN signal to be transmitted when a BT signal is to be transmitted, then the BT signal can be processed in a BT section of the transceiver, amplified and coupled to the same pin for transmission.
US08867507B2	Split-plane wireless network architecture A split-plane mobility network architecture separates control and data plane operations typically encapsulated in a conventional wireless controller. Configurations provide a unified split-plane mobility switch that separates the data transport and switching in a separate hardware element, and performs control plane operations via exchanges with a centralized topology, rather than simply by adjacent switches within range. In contrast to conventional switch deployment, in which the same switch handles processing demands of the control plane and the data plane, the disclosed approach separates the data plane processing base by employing a mobility agent to define adjacent switch visibility. Thus, the routing capabilities of the data plane may be enhanced, such as to handle increasingly bandwidth-hungry applications of the same user base, without uprooting the infrastructure defined by the control plane.
US08867504B2	Providing distributed wide area coverage infrastructure using bluetooth signal combiner A distributed wide area coverage system is disclosed that effectively expands the coverage area of the local wireless links by combining the signals from local area base stations and routing the combined signal back to the base stations. The base stations provide two-way open wireless communication channels among mobile devices situated within wireless signal coverage area of each of the base stations.
US08867503B2	Localized CoMP precoding A system is provided for precoding in a coordinated multipoint (CoMP) joint transmission (JT) system. During operation, the system identifies, at a first base station (BS) of a first cell, a set of regular user equipments (UEs), which are located within the first cell and receive signals from the first BS; and one or more coordinated multipoint (CoMP) UEs, which are located within a second cell and receive signals. The CoMP UEs receive signals from both the first BS and a second BS of the second cell. The system obtains a first channel state information (CSI) associated with the regular UEs, receives a second CSI associated with the CoMP UEs from the second BS, and constructs a local precoder for the first cell in accordance with the first CSI and the second CSI.
US08867499B2	Method and apparatus for transmitting a signal in a wireless communication system A method for transmitting a signal in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes: allocating a radio resource for transmitting a signal; and transmitting the signal to a destination station by using the radio resource, wherein the radio resource includes a plurality of symbols in a time domain, at least two symbols among the plurality of symbols include a guard time for switching transmission and reception of a signal, and the radio resource includes a partial symbol which is a radio resource other than the guard time in the symbol including the guard time.
US08867497B2	Timing advance enhancements for cellular communications Example methods and apparatus to implement timing advance enhancements for cellular communications are disclosed. A disclosed example method to communicate over a cellular network by a device involves retrieving a stored timing advance value and determining if the stored timing advance value is valid based at least on whether the device is operating in a stationary mode. When the stored timing advance is valid, a contention-based transmission is transmitted to a network using the stored timing advance value in order to compensate for propagation delay.
US08867493B2	Scheduling algorithms for cooperative beamforming based on resource quality indication Certain aspects of the present disclosure support techniques for cooperative beamforming based on inter-cell coordination. Signaling design allows coordinated downlink transmissions with reduced inter-cell interference.
US08867492B2	Radio network controller with IP mapping table Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed for routing data to mobile devices that undergo handovers from one access point to another. In one embodiment, a processor performs operations including receiving a network location of a mobile device from a network agent in communication with the mobile device, updating a mapping table with the network location of the mobile device, receiving a request to transfer a data packet to the mobile device, routing the data packet to the mobile device according to the mapping table, and forwarding the network location to a source of the data packet. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08867473B2	Integrated self-optimizing multi-parameter and multi-variable point to multipoint communication system The invention provides a method and system for adaptive point to multipoint wireless communication. The wireless physical layer and the wireless media-access-control (MAC) layer collectively include a set of parameters, which are adaptively modified by a base station controller for communication with a plurality of customer premises equipment. The base station controller adjusts communication with each customer premises equipment individually and adaptively in response to changes in characteristics of communication, including physical characteristics, amount of communication traffic, and nature of application for the communication traffic.
US08867461B2	Method of transmitting or receiving uplink signals and equipment therefor A method of transmitting or receiving uplink signals in a wireless communication system and an apparatus therefor are provided. In one aspect of the method of transmitting the uplink signals, a base station determines whether each of user equipments uses an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheme or a single carrier-frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) scheme in uplink transmission. Further, the base station transmits scheduling information containing information regarding the determined multiple access scheme to the user equipments, and thus reports a multiplexing scheme to be used by each user equipment. In addition, each user equipment transmits the uplink data to the base station by multiplexing the uplink data by using the OFDMA scheme or the SC-FDMA scheme according to the scheduling information.
US08867446B2	Method and apparatus for transceiving signals in a distributed antenna system The present invention relates to a terminal which receives signals from a base station, and to a method in which the terminal receives signals from the base station in a distributed antenna system (DAS). The terminal receives, from the base station having a plurality of antennas, control information on one or more active transmission antennas allocated to the terminal, from among the plurality of antennas, and receives signals from the base station via said one or more active transmission antennas.
US08867444B2	Wireless communication system, transmitting device and receiving device A wireless communication system has a transmitting device and a receiving device that perform communication by using a multi-carrier signal, wherein the receiving device includes a quality generating unit generating each piece of receiving quality information on each pilot channel for transmitting each pilot signal, a determining unit determining the number of pilot channels needed in the multi-carrier signal based on the receiving quality information, and a notifying unit transmitting a signal requesting the determined number of pilot channels to the transmitting device, and the transmitting device includes an allocation unit determining allocations of pilot signals in the direction of the time axis and in the direction of the frequency axis, corresponding to a requested number of pilot channels, and a transmitting unit transmitting the multi-carrier signal having the determined pilot signal allocations.
US08867441B2	Wireless apparatus for a multi-carrier system A wireless apparatus for a multi-carrier system is disclosed. The wireless apparatus comprises; a control channel unit which monitors a control channel transmitted via at least one carrier from among a plurality of carriers; and a data channel unit which transmits or receives data packets to or from a data channel using the resource allocation received from the control channel. The control channel unit monitors the control channel in a plurality of search space in a subframe.
US08867440B2	Power headroom reporting for multicarrier LTE systems A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus maintains at least one PHR trigger for triggering communication of a PHR for a plurality of component carriers. In addition, the apparatus communicates the PHR for at least one of the component carriers upon the at least one PHR trigger being triggered. The communicated PHR may be an aggregated PHR that includes power headroom information on the PCC and activated SCCs. The communicated PHR may further include an index associating information in the PHR to a corresponding component carrier. The communicated PHR may further include information indicating use of a PUSCH reference for computing the PHR for the at least one of the component carriers on which there is no PUSCH transmission.
US08867439B2	Method and apparatus for establishing an interface between access points Methods and apparatuses are provided that facilitate establishing an interface for communications between access points. Where access points operate in a same local or enterprise network, an interface can be established via the local or enterprise network instead of (or in addition to) a wireless operator network. A source access point can determine an address over which to request establishment of the interface based at least in part on an identifier of a target access point. In another example, target access point can determine an address to provide to the source access point for establishing the interface based at least in part on an identifier of the source access point.
US08867432B2	Processing uplink signal and downlink signal in radio unit Described embodiments provide a method for processing an uplink signal in a radio unit. A first uplink signal may be received directly from user equipment. The received uplink signal may be delayed using uplink delay information. A second uplink signal may be received indirectly from user equipment through at least one repeater connected to the radio unit. The delayed first uplink signal and the second uplink signal may be combined and transmitted to a digital unit.
US08867428B2	Split-cell relay application protocol Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate packet routing among relay eNBs in a wireless network. Packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer communications from a user equipment (UE) can terminate at a donor evolved Node B (eNB) and vice versa. In this regard, a relay application protocol (RAPP) layer is defined to transport application layer control data among relay eNBs to facilitate appropriate routing. RAPP layer messages can be similar to control messages at other application layers, such as S1-AP, X2, etc., while additionally including a relay UE identifier for routing the messages among relay eNBs. In addition, RAPP layer messages can exclude other parameters normally defined in other application layers to protect security and encryption/decryption details.
US08867426B2	Method and apparatus for providing multimedia broadcast and multicast service (MBMS) in wireless communication system A method and apparatus for providing a multimedia broadcast and multicast service (MBMS) in a wireless communication system are disclosed. A method for receiving a multimedia broadcast and multicast service (MBMS) by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system includes obtaining a predetermined system information block (SIB) from a base station (BS), and transmitting an MBMS interest indication message to the base station (BS) only when the predetermined system information block (SIB) is obtained. The predetermined system information block (SIB) includes information related to MBMS continuity.
US08867416B2	Method and apparatus for controlling load balance A method for controlling a load balance between a CDMA2000 1X EV-DO network and a CDMA2000 1X network is provided. A base station controller (BSC) in the CDMA2000 1X EV-DO network receives a connection request message sent by a terminal, determines that a load of the CDMA2000 1X EV-DO network is higher than a threshold, sends a load query message to a BSC in the CDMA2000 1X network, receives a load query response message indicating that the CDMA2000 1X network is not overloaded from the BSC in the CDMA2000 1X network, and sends a system switchover message to the BSC in the CDMA2000 1X network to instruct the BSC in the CDMA2000 1X network to switch the terminal from the CDMA2000 1X EV-DO network to the CDMA2000 1X network.
US08867414B2	Method and apparatus for interaction of cell-specific and user-equipment-specific sounding reference signal periodicity and offset Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a technique for enabling transmission of sounding reference signals for uplink and downlink scheduling.
US08867411B2	Emergency call mode preference in wireless communication networks A system and method to determine a type of wireless network that is to be used for an emergency communication session that is initiated at a mobile device. A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) header is modified to introduce an emergency call mode preference (ECMP) field into the header. When a mobile device registers a session with an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the ECMP field is populated by the service provider with information that conveys the preferred network to use when an emergency communication session is initiated by a user of the mobile device. In the event of a subsequent request to start an emergency communication session using the mobile device, the mobile device utilizes the preferred network to establish communication.
US08867396B2	Method and system for last gasp device identification A method for device identification includes determining a mass event has occurred in a wireless network from a reception of a plurality of signals each having a last gasp message, sampling a plurality of mapped zones associated with a base station, identifying which mapped zones are associated with a disconnected endpoint in a zone list, determining a length of time of the mass event, and selectively providing the zone list to identify disconnected endpoints based at least upon the length of time of the mass event. Each mapped zone includes a plurality of wireless device endpoints associated with the mapped zone. The sampling includes determining whether any of a subset of the endpoints associated with the given mapped zone are disconnected from the wireless network.
US08867392B2	Handoff of a mobile device moving at a high relative velocity to base stations for a wireless network Examples are disclosed for handoff of a mobile device moving at a high relative velocity to a plurality of base stations for a wireless network.
US08867388B2	Distributing content to a plurality of mobile stations using a downlink point-to-multipoint (PTM) bearers and downlink point-to-point (PTP) bearers A method and apparatus is provided for distributing content to a plurality of mobile stations using a downlink point-to-multipoint (PTM) bearers and downlink point-to-point (PTP) bearers. A controller can process events, to determine whether a current modulation-and-coding scheme (MCS) level applied to downlink transmissions over the downlink PTM bearer is to be changed or maintained, and to communicate a change message whenever the current MCS level is to be changed. An actuator can adjust, in response to receiving a change message, a MCS level that is applied to downlink transmissions over the downlink PTM bearer.
US08867382B2	Power control method for a GERAN system to increase GERAN network capacity The present patent application comprises means, instructions and steps for controlling signal power by allowing a small bit error rate during burst processing comprising setting a transmit signal power granularity to be less than a current level (1210), tracking a power measurement report of at least one remote stations (1220), determining if at least one signal quality indicator has reached an upper threshold (1230), decreasing a downlink signal power if the at least one signal quality indicator reaches an upper threshold (1240), and stopping the decreasing of the downlink signal power (1260) when the at least one quality indicator reaches a lower threshold (1250).
US08867380B2	Scheduling algorithms for cooperative beamforming Certain aspects of the present disclosure support techniques for cooperative beamforming based on inter-cell coordination. Signaling design allows coordinated downlink transmissions with reduced inter-cell interference.
US08867379B2	Flexible spectrum sharing Various example embodiments are disclosed. According to one example embodiment, a method may include receiving, by a first wireless node in a first wireless network, a request from a second wireless node in a second wireless network to borrow spectral resources from the first wireless network. The method may further include determining a cost of granting the request, the cost being based at least in part on a cost to a lending cell within the first wireless network from which the spectral resources will be borrowed and a cost to neighboring cells of the lending cell. The method may further include lending the spectral resources to the second wireless node based at least in part on the determined cost of granting the request.
US08867373B2	Apparatus and method for declaring radio link failure (RLF) According to one aspect, there is provided a method performed by a communication device for declaring RLF. In some embodiments, the method includes: (1) the communication device establishing a connection with a serving base station; (2) the communication device determining whether to relax a condition for declaring RLF; (3) the communication device using a first rule in declaring an RLF in response to determining that the communication device should not relax the condition; and (4) the communication device using a relaxed rule in declaring an RLF in response to determining that the communication device should relax the condition, wherein the relaxed rule is less stringent than the first rule.
US08867372B2	Method for efficient parallel testing of time division duplex (TDD) communications systems The invention described herein utilizes devices under test (DUTs) outfitted with stored, predefined test sequences, testers equipped with vector-signal generation (VSG) and vector-signal analysis (VSA) functionality, and novel methods for combining loopback and single-ended test functions in order to obtain higher testing efficiency for DUTs using Bluetooth or other time-division duplex (TDD) based communications.
US08867358B2	Energy control in a mobile communication network In a mobile communication network, data traffic of a certain quality of service class is forwarded in accordance with a traffic forwarding policy associated with this quality of service class, e.g. by establishing dedicated bearers (52, 54). For implementing energy control, an energy control attribute is assigned to the quality of service class. On the basis of the energy control attribute, a data throughput for forwarding the data traffic is limited to a maximum limit. This may be accomplished by using a throughput limiter (150, 250) in one or more nodes (100, 110, 120, 200) participating in the transport of the data traffic.
US08867356B2	Credit-based flow control for ethernet A method for communication includes sending a pause frame from a first node to a second node over a communication link between the nodes. In response to the pause frame, one or more data frames are immediately transmitted from the second node to the first node upon receipt of the pause frame at the second node.
US08867352B2	Receiver based power efficient transmitter for ethernet Systems and methods are used to adjust, e.g., reduce, current driving a transmitter, i.e., to reduce transmitter power consumption, based on an actual value of a received signal from received along a cable. For example, this is very beneficial to an Ethernet system where the received signal is attenuated by the lossy cable. In this case, the transmitter power consumption can be lowered during a normal application where data is transmitted and received through the cable.
US08867349B2	Regulation of network traffic in virtual private networks In an embodiment, a method is provided for regulating network traffic and virtual private networks. In this method, network traffic transmitted along multiple communication paths is received, and these communication paths are associated with forwarding identifiers. A portion of the forwarding identifiers is identified to match a particular forwarding identifier associated with a particular virtual private network. At the same time, the policy associated with the particular virtual private network is identified. A portion of the network traffic that is associated with the portion of the identified forwarding identifiers can then be regulated based on the policy.
US08867346B2	Method, system, and computer program product for providing network data flow analysis and routing Data flow analysis and routing processes include monitoring a process of a workflow, intercepting data traffic for data entered for the process, and identifying a communication path of a destination location for the data traffic. The method also includes verifying compliance of the process by applying business rules to the data, and notifying an entity of any non-compliance identified from the verification.
US08867340B2	Discarded packet indicator A source device (10) sends information to a destination device (12) through intermediary network elements (14). If an intermediary network element (14) needs to discard one or more packets of information, it sends a smaller informational packet to the destination device (12). Upon receiving the informational packet, the destination device can immediately begin correctional procedures.
US08867337B2	Structure-aware caching Techniques for structure-aware caching are provided. The techniques include decomposing a response from an origin server into one or more independently addressable objects, using a domain specific language to navigate the response to identify the one or more addressable objects and create one or more access paths to the one or more objects, and selecting a route to an object by navigating an internal structure of a cached object to discover one or more additional independently addressable objects.
US08867329B2	Allowing a single transmitter to transmit multiple data frames in OFDM communication networks In one embodiment, a transmitting device may determine a first data frame to a first destination and a second data frame to a second destination, and may assign subcarriers in a non-overlapping arrangement to the first and second data frames. Once assigned, the transmitting device may augment a transmission physical (PHY) header with a destination and tone map tuple for each of the first and second destinations, and transmits the transmission with the first and second data frames simultaneously on the assigned subcarriers.
US08867319B2	Interval timing device Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to an interval timing device and methods of utilizing the same. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a device for timing customized interval exercises, having set workout periods and rest periods, over a predetermined number of intervals and methods of utilizing the same. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, an interval timing device comprises a housing, a means for starting the interval timing device, at least one graphical user interface for displaying multimedia content, wherein the at least one graphical user interface comprises an exercise hold timer, a rest timer, and a repetition counter.
US08867312B1	Method for compressing the dynamic range of measured signals A sonar system is provided with the system having comparatively reduced power consumption, data bandwidth and data storage requirements. A sensor array of the system is configured to a sleep mode, low-resolution mode and high-resolution mode. In the sleep mode, all sonar sensors are configured in the mode and no acoustic signals are detected or processed. In the low-resolution mode, a limited number of sonar sensors are powered and acoustic signals received by the sensors are processed with reduced bandwidth and dynamic range, and then stored on a data storage device. In the high-resolution mode, the acoustic signals detected by the sonar sensors are processed with full signal bandwidth and dynamic range and then stored on the data storage device. A 10 bit mu-Law encoding scheme is used to reduce the amplitude scale of measurement or dynamic range of the digitized acoustic signals.
US08867310B1	Method and system for transmission of seismic data The transmission method utilizes multiple seismic acquisition units within an array as intermediate short range radio receivers/transmitters to pass collected seismic data in relay fashion back to a control station. Any one seismic unit in the array is capable of transmitting radio signals to several other seismic units positioned within radio range of the transmitting unit, thus allowing the system to select an optimal transmission path. Utilizing an array of seismic units permits transmission routes back to a control station to be varied as needed. In transmissions from the most remote seismic unit to the control station, each unit within a string receives seismic data from other units and transmits the received seismic data along with the receiving unit's locally stored seismic data. Preferably, as a transmission is passed along a chain, it is bounced between seismic units so as to be relayed by each unit in the array.
US08867303B2	Memory arbitration circuitry An integrated circuit with memory elements is provided. The memory elements may be single-port memory cells that are used to provide multiport memory functionality. The integrated circuit may include an arbitration circuit operable to receive memory access requests from at least first and second request generators. The arbitration circuit may be configured to operate in a synchronous mode and an asynchronous mode. The arbitration circuit operating in the synchronous mode may perform port selection based on a predetermined logic table. The arbitration circuit operating in the asynchronous mode may execute a memory request as soon as it is received by the arbitration circuit. Requests received while a current memory access is being performed may be put on hold until the current memory access has been completed.
US08867302B2	Data input circuit A data input circuit includes a clock sampling unit, a final clock generation unit, and a write latch signal generation unit. The sampling unit is configured to generate a shifting signal including a pulse generated after a write latency is elapsed, and generate a sampling clock by sampling an internal clock during a burst period from substantially a time when the pulse of the shifting signal is generated. The final clock generation unit is configured to generate a level signal by latching the shifting signal in synchronization with the sampling clock and generate a final clock from the level signal in response to a burst signal. The write latch signal generation unit is configured to generate an enable signal by latching the final clock and generate a write latch signal for latching and outputting aligned data in response to the enable signal.
US08867293B2	Semiconductor memory device changing refresh interval depending on temperature A semiconductor memory device includes a memory core circuit having memory cells for storing data, a circuit configured to refresh the memory core circuit at a refresh interval, a temperature detecting unit configured to detect temperature, and a control circuit configured to shorten the refresh interval immediately in response to detection of a predetermined temperature rise by the temperature detecting unit and to elongate the refresh interval after refreshing every one of the memory cells at least once in response to detection of a temperature drop by the temperature detecting unit.
US08867292B2	Semiconductor device, method of retrieving data, and microcomputer A semiconductor device includes a data memory cell for storing data; a reference data memory cell for storing reference data to be compared with the data; an inverted data memory cell for storing inverted data of the reference data; a sense amplifier unit; and a data output unit. In a first retrieving process, the sense amplifier unit differentially amplifies the data and the reference data, and adjusts an output thereof when a voltage difference between the data and the reference data becomes a predetermined retrievable voltage difference. In a second retrieving process, the sense amplifier unit differentially amplifies the data and the inverted data, and adjusts an output thereof when a voltage difference between the data and the inverted data becomes the predetermined retrievable voltage difference. The data output unit determines and outputs the data according to a result of the first retrieving process and the second retrieving process.
US08867285B2	Semiconductor apparatus and data write circuit of semiconductor apparatus for preventing transmission error A data write circuit of a semiconductor apparatus includes a plurality of latches configured to latch a plurality of data in response to activation of a plurality of control signals and output the latched data to data lines; and a control unit configured to generate the plurality of control signals to be activated at different timings, such that partial data input at relatively earlier timing among the plurality of data is latched at earlier timing than the other data by a portion of the plurality of latches.
US08867282B2	Semiconductor apparatus with open bit line structure A semiconductor apparatus with an open bit line structure includes a memory bank including a plurality of memory cell blocks and dummy mats, in which a plurality of bit lines are formed, a bit line sense amplifier configured to be arranged between the plurality of memory cell blocks and the dummy mats, compare a voltage difference between a bit line and a complementary bit line, and amplify the difference, and a dummy word line driving unit configured to selectively activate a dummy word line of the dummy mat in response to a test mode.
US08867281B2	Hybrid chargepump and regulation means and method for flash memory device A hybrid charge pump and control circuit for use in a memory device is disclosed.
US08867278B2	Nonvolatile memory device, memory system including the same, and method of operating nonvolatile memory device A non-volatile memory device includes a non-volatile memory cell array including a plurality of word lines, a voltage generator configured to generate a first high-voltage using a supply voltage and a second high-voltage using an external voltage which is higher than the supply voltage, and a word line selection circuit configured. The word line selection circuit is configured apply, during a program operation of the memory cell array, the first high-voltage to a selected word line among the plurality of word lines, and the second high-voltage to unselected word lines among the plurality of word lines.
US08867277B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device A first non-selected word line including a word line adjacent to a selected word line is applied with a first write pass voltage. Furthermore, a second non-selected word line which is a non-selected word line excluding the first non-selected word line is applied with a second write pass voltage smaller than a program voltage. A control circuit, in the write operation, raises the first write pass voltage toward a first target value by executing a voltage raising operation having a first voltage rise width, X times, and raises the second write pass voltage toward a second target value by executing a voltage raising operation having a second voltage rise width, Y times. The first voltage rise width is larger than the second voltage rise width, and X times is fewer than Y times.
US08867274B2	Method of operating nonvolatile memory device controlled by controlling coupling resistance value between bit line and page buffer A method of operating a nonvolatile memory device includes determining whether a program operation is performed on even memory cells coupled to even bit lines of a selected page, setting a coupling resistance value between odd bit lines of the selected page and page buffers depending on whether the program operation for the even memory cells is performed, performing a program operation on the odd memory cells coupled to the odd bit lines, and coupling the odd bit line to the page buffer based on the set coupling resistance value and performing an verification operation for verifying whether threshold voltages of the odd memory cells on which the program operation is performed are a target voltage or more.
US08867269B2	Semiconductor memory device A semiconductor memory device includes: a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells, a plurality of word lines, and a plurality of bit lines, and a control circuit. A first memory cell stores first data of n bits, a second memory cell stores second data used to determine whether data of k bits is stored in the first memory cell, and the control circuit performs first determination of determining data read from the data of the second memory cell, performs second determination of determining data read from the second memory cell by supplying the first word line with a second read voltage different from the first read voltage, and outputs either one of a result obtained by reading the data stored in the first memory cell at the first read voltage and a result obtained by reading the data stored in the first memory cell at the second read voltage, based on a result of the second determination.
US08867265B1	Semiconductor memory apparatus A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a resistive memory cell; a data sensing unit configured to sense an output voltage, formed by a sensing current supplied to the resistive memory cell, based on a reference voltage, and output data having a value corresponding to the sensing result; and a reference voltage generation unit comprising a dummy memory cell including first and second resistors having first and second resistance values, respectively, and configured to output a voltage formed by the sensing current supplied to the dummy memory cell as the reference voltage.
US08867256B2	Systems and methods for writing and non-destructively reading ferroelectric memories Ferroelectric memory cell configurations, a system for controlling writing and reading to those configurations and a method for employing those configurations for writing and reading ferroelectric memories are provided. Ferroelectric memory cells according to the disclosed configurations are read without disturbing the stored data, i.e., not requiring any modification of the stored polarization state of the ferroelectric memory cell to read the stored data, thus providing a “non-destructive” reading process. Ferroelectric memory cells are read without requiring that a charge or sense amplifier be a part of the ferroelectric memory cell. Various transistor configurations provide a capability to read a signal effect through a transistor channel as an indication of capacitance of a ferroelectric memory cell polarization state.
US08867253B2	Semiconductor device having multiport memory A semiconductor device enabling expansion of a noise margin. For example, in a memory area in which each memory cell MC is coupled to a word line WLA for a first port and a word line WLB for a second port, and a plurality of memory cells MC are disposed in a matrix shape, each word line is disposed in the order of WLA0, WLB0, WLB1, WLA1, WLA2. Further, a pitch d2 between WLA-WLA and between WLB-WLB is made smaller than a pitch d1 between WLA-WLB. As such, the word lines of an identical port are disposed at the pitch d2 on one of both sides of a certain word line and the word lines of different ports are disposed at the pitch d1 on the other.
US08867250B2	High output current split package A/C adapter A power adapter, including an AC input terminal, an AC-DC power converter, a DC-DC power converter, and an output terminal, wherein the AC-DC power converter and the DC-DC power converter are separate components, and wherein the power AC input terminal, AC-DC power converter, DC-DC power converter and the output terminal are connected sequentially via a plurality of cords.
US08867246B2	Communication device and battery pack in which the communication device is provided A communication device, includes a CMOS type inverter configured to transfer a signal, the signal being transferred and received between an electronic device and a control part able to communicate with the electronic device whose electric power supply is a rechargeable battery; and a regulator configured to generate a regulated voltage, the regulated voltage being formed by decreasing an electric power supply voltage of the electronic device, wherein the regulator includes a depletion type NMOS transistor where a drain is connected to a high electric potential side of the electric power supply voltage and a gate and a source are mutually connected, and a capacitive element having an electrode connected to the source side and another electrode connected to a low electric potential side of the electric power supply voltage, wherein a voltage of the capacitive element is supplied across both ends of the inverter.
US08867241B2	Method of upgrading a plant for transmitting electric power and such a plant A plant for transmitting electric power through HVDC includes two converter stations interconnected by a monopolar direct voltage network and each having an alternating voltage side for feeding electric power from one of said alternating voltage sides to the other. Each station has a line commutated converter. The plant is upgraded by making the direct voltage network bipolar, providing each station with a Voltage Source Converter and providing two switches for both line commutated converters or both Voltage Source Converters and a device configured to control said four switches.
US08867236B2	Computer system with space for guiding cables A computer system includes an enclosure, at least one cable holder, at least one data storage device, and at least one cable. The at least one cable holder is attached to the enclosure. A guiding space is defined between the at least one cable holder and a bottom wall of the enclosure. The at least one data storage device is installed in the enclosure and located above the at least one cable holder. The at least one cable is received in the guiding space. The at least one cable holder separates the at least one data storage device from the at least one cable thereby preventing the at least one data storage device and the at least one cable from interfering with each other.
US08867226B2	Monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) having conductor-backed coplanar waveguides and method of designing such MMICs A MMIC having: a substrate; a plurality of active and passive electrical elements disposed on a top surface of the substrate; a plurality of coplanar waveguide transmission line sections disposed on the top surface of the substrate for electrically interconnecting the active and passive electrical elements; an electrical conductor disposed on a bottom surface of the substrate under the coplanar waveguide section. Edges of ground plane conductors of the coplanar waveguide (CPW) sections have slots therein in regions thereof connected to the active and passive devices. The design of such circuit includes mathematical models of the CPW with the pair of local ground planes and the strip conductor thereof have relatively narrow connectable ports.
US08867216B2	Slot design for flexible and expandable system architecture An apparatus includes a printed circuit board including a connector footprint comprising a first footprint portion operative to receive a first connector portion and a second footprint portion operative to receive a second connector portion. The first footprint portion is compliant with a first communications link type and the first and second footprint portions are jointly compliant with a second communications link type. The printed circuit board includes first conductive traces coupled to the first footprint portion and a first device footprint. The first conductive traces are selectively configurable according to a selected one of the first and second communications link types. The printed circuit board includes a second conductive traces coupled to the second footprint portion and the first device footprint. In at least one embodiment of the apparatus, the first communications link type is AC-coupled and the second communications link type is DC-coupled.
US08867203B2	Locking device, electronic device, and locking method A locking device includes a first slide part having a first lock part and configured to be movable, a second slide part having a second lock part and configured to support the first slide part and be movable independently from the first slide part, and a lock arm part configured to be movable in a direction intersecting with the first slide part and the second slide part and engage with the first lock part and the second lock part at a locking position to prevent the first slide part and the second slide part from moving.
US08867199B2	Bag computer two panel propping computer The disclosed invention is a bag and computer combination where the computing unit is in a panel on the front of the bag. The display panel is pivotally attached near the top front of the bag and pivots to cover the computing unit. The display panel may be held in an operating angular position using a fabric flap or free sections on the display panel side edges to suspend the display panel from the bag while an extension on the display panel temporarily sticks to the computing unit panel. Several ways are described to provide access from the computer to the bag interior. As an alternative, the display panel may be pivotally attached in a similar manner directly to the computing unit panel which is attachable to the bag front. In this arrangement the computer is removable and usable on a desk top or on a wall.
US08867197B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a first right frame, a first left frame facing the first right frame, a second right frame positioned below the first right frame, a second left frame facing the second right frame and positioned below the second right frame. The image forming apparatus further includes an image forming unit positioned between the first right frame and the first left frame. The image forming apparatus still further includes a frame connecting unit configured to connect the first right frame, the first left frame, the second right frame and the second left frame. The first right frame and the second right frame are relatively slidable in an up-down direction, and the first left frame and the second left frame are relatively slidable in the up-down direction.
US08867195B2	Attachment/detachment mechanism for electronics unit, electronics unit, power supply unit, and electronics apparatus Disclosed herein is an attachment/detachment mechanism for an electronics unit mounted on a casing in an attachable/detachable manner, including: a position-keeping type switch switching between first and second states of the electronics unit; a lever switching between a securing state where the electronics unit is secured to the casing and an attachable/detachable state where the electronics unit is made attachable/detachable to/from the casing; a first restricting member switching between a restricting state where state-switching of the lever is restricted and a permitting state where the state-switching of the lever is permitted; and a second restricting member traveling between a first position where the state-switching of the first restricting member is restricted and the state-switching of the position-keeping type switch is permitted, and a second position where the state-switching of the first restricting member is permitted and the state-switching of the position-keeping type switch from the first state to the second state is restricted.
US08867189B2	Systems and methods for a thin film capacitor having a composite high-K thin film stack Systems and methods are provided for fabricating a thin film capacitor involving depositing an electrode layer of conductive material on top of a substrate material, depositing a first layer of ferroelectric material on top of the substrate material using a metal organic deposition or chemical solution deposition process, depositing a second layer of ferroelectric material on top of the first layer using a high temperature sputter process and depositing a metal interconnect layer to provide electric connections to layers of the capacitor.
US08867180B2	Dynamic current protection in energy distribution systems An electric circuit, including an electric load operable from an operating current; an energy storage system providing the operating current at both a first mode and a second mode with the first mode having a first current in a first range of zero to a first particular current value and with the second mode having a second current in a second range of the first particular current value to a second particular current value; and an active protection coupled to the energy storage system, the active protection dynamically reconfigurable between a first mode and a second mode, the first mode applying a first overcurrent protection rating to the operating current when the operating current is operating in the first mode and the second mode applying a second overcurrent protection rating to the operating current when the operating current is operating in the second mode.
US08867175B1	Magnetic shield base lamination A magnetic element may generally be configured as a read head with at least a magnetic stack that contacts at least one magnetic shield. The magnetic shield can be positioned on top of a base lamination and have at least a predetermined anisotropy and magnetic coercivity corresponding to the base lamination.
US08867157B2	Perpendicular pole head for servo writing magnetic media The present disclosure relates to a perpendicular pole head for creating a perpendicular magnetic moment in a concentrated pattern for writing the pattern on perpendicular magnetic media, such as BaFe based media. The pole head can have flux concentrators in the shape of the written pattern, which can be repeatedly applied to a moving magnetic medium to create a timing pattern on the media, e.g., a servo timing pattern.
US08867146B2	Imaging lens, optical apparatus equipped therewith, and method for manufacturing imaging lens The imaging lens includes, in order from an object side, a first lens group having positive refractive power; and a second lens group having the positive refractive power, the first lens group being fixed with respect to an image plane, the second lens group being moved toward the object side to adjust a focus on a close object, and a given conditional expression being satisfied, thereby disclosing a downsized imaging lens having a wide angle of view, capable of preferably correcting various aberrations upon focusing on a close object from an infinitely distant object and having high optical performance over an entire picture, an optical apparatus including the imaging lens and an imaging lens manufacturing method.
US08867145B2	Zoom lens system, interchangeable lens apparatus, and camera system A compact and lightweight zoom lens system having excellent imaging performance, which is favorably applicable to an interchangeable-lens type digital camera system, is provided. The zoom lens system of the present invention includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit having positive optical power and composed of not more than two lens elements, a second lens unit having negative optical power, a third lens unit having negative optical power, and a fourth lens unit having positive optical power. In zooming from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit, the fourth lens unit moves along an optical axis. Further, the following conditions are satisfied: 1.50
US08867141B2	Lens with multi-concave meniscus wall The present invention relates generally to a liquid meniscus lens with a meniscus wall. The meniscus lens may include an arcuate front curve and back curve lens. Some specific embodiments include a liquid meniscus lens with a meniscus wall essentially in the shape of multiple segments of a torus concave from the optical axis. Embodiments may also include a lens of suitable size and shape for inclusion in a contact lens.
US08867137B2	Head-up display device A head-up display device includes an indicator configured to emit a display light, a lower casing to which the indicator is mounted, an upper casing which is mounted to an upper portion of the lower casing, a pair of support portions which are provided on the lower casing and extend toward the upper casing, guide grooves which are formed on the support portions at opposite sides thereof, and a reflective mirror which is inserted and mounted to the lower casing toward a bottom surface of the lower casing while both lateral edges of the reflective mirror are engaged with the guide grooves, to reflect the display light emitted from the indicator and guide the reflected display light to a windshield of a vehicle.
US08867132B2	Thermochromic filters and stopband filters for use with same Thermochromic filters use combinations of absorptive, reflective, thermoabsorptive, and thermoreflective elements covering different portions of the solar spectrum, to achieve different levels of energy savings, throw, shading, visible light transmission, and comfort. Embodiments include stopband filters in the near-infrared spectrum.
US08867125B2	Multi-mode optical fiber amplifier An apparatus includes a multi-core optical fiber and first, second, and third optical couplers. The multi-core optical fiber is rare-earth doped to provide optical amplification in response to optical pumping thereof. The first optical coupler is configured to end-couple a first multi-mode optical fiber to an end of the multi-core optical fiber. The second optical coupler is configured to end-couple a second multi-mode optical fiber to an end of the multi-core optical fiber. The third optical coupler is configured to optically couple a pump light source to the multi-core optical fiber.
US08867115B2	Control of array of two-dimensional imaging elements in light modulating displays Light emitting elements in an illumination unit of a display may be blanked during updates of pixels of a spatial light modulator (SLM). Updates of pixels in different segments of the SLM may be coordinated with blanking of corresponding segments of the illumination unit. Updating of segments of a light source (30A-30D) may be coordinated so that not all segments are updated in each frame (34A-37D) of a video.
US08867113B2	Laser processing device and laser processing method A laser processing device includes a laser light source, a spatial light modulator, a control section, and a condensing optical system. The spatial light modulator, presents a hologram for modulating the phase of the laser light in each of a plurality of two-dimensionally arrayed pixels, and outputs the phase-modulated laser light. The control section causes a part of the phase-modulated laser light (incident light) to be condensed at a condensing position in a processing region as a laser light (contribution light) having a constant energy not less than a predetermined threshold X. The control section causes a laser light (unnecessary light) other than the contribution light condensed to the condensing position existing in the processing region to be dispersed and condensed at a condensing position existing in a non-processing region as a plurality of laser lights (non-contribution lights) having an energy less than the predetermined threshold.
US08867112B2	Image reading device determining conveying path In an image reading device, a scanning unit moves relative to the main unit between a base position and a moved position. A conveyance unit moves relative to the scanning unit between a base position and a moved position at which the cover closes the platen, and is formed with a first and second openings. The cover member moves between a base position at which the cover member covers a second opening and a moved position. The first and second detectors detect a state of the scanning unit, the conveyance unit, and the cover member. The conveyance unit conveys the document along one of a first and second conveying paths that is used to convey the document and is determined based on the state of the first and second detectors.
US08867111B2	Document reader A document reader is provided that includes a document table at least part of which is configured to swing around a first axis, between a first position to function as the document table and a second position to be more slanted with respect to a first guide than when in the first position, a swing portion configured to form a part of a feeding surface forming a second guide and configured to swing around a second axis, between a third position to function as the second guide and a fourth position to expose a part of a feeding path that is formed by the second guide to the outside of the document reader, and a switching mechanism for swinging the swing portion from the third position to the fourth position with the swing motion of the at least part of the document table.
US08867109B2	Light guide, illumination device, and image reading apparatus Provided is a light guide, in which: at least one of a reflecting part or a light exit part has a light condensing action in a direction intersecting a predetermined direction; the at least one of the reflecting part or the light exit part includes diffusing parts arranged in the predetermined direction; the diffusing parts include: a first curved surface having a first degree of diffusion in the predetermined direction for a sparse region of light sources; and a second curved surface having a second degree of diffusion, which is lower than the first degree of diffusion, in the predetermined direction for a dense region of the light sources; and each of the first curved surface and the second curved surface has a shape corresponding to a part of a cylinder extending in a direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction in which the light sources are arrayed.
US08867105B2	Original reading apparatus with variable gain amplification An original reading apparatus including: a light source configured to illuminate an original; a line image sensor configured to convert light reflected from the original into an analog output signal; an AD converter configured to convert the analog output signal output from the line image sensor into a digital output signal; a control device configured to control the line image sensor and the AD converter; and a variable gain amplifier provided inside the line image sensor, for adjusting a signal range of the analog output signal.
US08867100B2	Image quantization for digital printing An image may be quantized into a pattern of dots, e.g., for devices capable of printing dots of variable size and variable color intensity. One may use a pre-determined mapping of the continuous-tone intensity value into a discrete vector of intensity values, and each intensity value may then be processed by a set of binary quantizers. The resulting binary vector may then be mapped into a combination of available dot sizes and color intensities. Through a scalar multiplier, the pre-determined mapping of continuous-tone intensity values may be used at multiple print resolutions.
US08867098B2	Recording apparatus having data concealment processing function When executed by a controller of recording apparatus, the instructions causes the recording apparatus to perform: calculating at least one of a first recording ratio and a second recording ratio based on an image data of an image recorded on a recording medium; controlling a depositing device of recording apparatus to perform a concealment process when at least one condition is satisfied, the at least one condition including a condition that the at least one of the first recording ratio and the second recording ratio is smaller than a threshold value; and controlling the depositing device not to perform the concealment process when the at least one of the first recording ratio and the second recording ratio is greater than or equal to the threshold value.
US08867097B2	Image processing apparatus and method for correcting image distortion using correction value An image processing apparatus includes a forming unit configured to form, on a sheet, a pattern from which at least two lines each connecting two points located at positions parallel to a conveyance direction of the sheet are detectable, a detection unit configured to detect, from the pattern formed by the forming unit, at least two lengths of lines each connecting two points located at positions parallel to the conveyance direction, and an acquisition unit configured to acquire a correction value used when correction is performed so that there is no difference between the lengths of a plurality of lines detected by the detection unit. The forming unit forms an image obtained by correcting a corrected image to be output using the correction value acquired by the acquisition unit.
US08867087B2	Printing apparatus, printing system, and printing control method for printing a watermark on a receipt along with print data sent from a host apparatus A printing apparatus in which data representing a watermark is stored, printing system, and a printing control method that permits the watermark to be printed on a receipt superimposed with print data received from a host apparatus including a watermark printing avoidance control unit for avoiding printing the watermark on the print area of the receipt identified for printing specific print data contained in the received print data from the host apparatus.
US08867086B2	Information processing apparatus, control method therefor, and computer-readable storage medium There is provided a mechanism of preferentially using a memory layer which suffers a small influence of heat of an SOC die, based on the positional relationship between the SOC die and the memory layer, and decreasing the refresh frequency of the DRAM and a leakage current. To accomplish this, an information processing apparatus allocates, in order to execute an accepted job, a memory area for executing the job preferentially from a memory physically farthest from the SOC die among a plurality of memories, and then executes the job.
US08867084B2	Management system for managing an image forming apparatus, control method thereof, print system, and non-transitory computer-readable medium A system comprises: a processing unit which performs layout processing on data of a job; a holding unit which holds, in a storage unit, identification information of an image forming apparatus, identification information of the job and content of the layout processing performed on the data of the job by the processing unit in association with each other; a unit which transmits the data that has undergone the layout processing to the image forming apparatus and obtains history information of the processed job; and a tally unit which performs tally processing with respect to the processed job, by using the history information and the content of the layout processing held in the storage unit in association with the identification information of the image forming apparatus corresponding to the history information and identification information of the job in the history information.
US08867078B2	Operation device and operation method Disclosed is an operation device which receives an input of an address twice in a row from a user, and determines the input of the address when a second address is identical to a first address, and the operation device includes a pseudo-address generator 402, a pseudo-address display unit 404, and an address determining unit 405. The pseudo-address generator 402 generates a pseudo-address obtained by converting a portion of characters included in the first address to predetermined characters when the first address is input. The pseudo-address display unit 404 displays a key of the first address and a key of the pseudo-address to be pressed by the user. The address determining unit 405 sets a predetermined address of a pressed key to a second address when the key of the predetermined address is pressed, and determines whether the second address is identical to the first address.
US08867075B2	Print data processing apparatus for consolidating print objects A print data processing apparatus performs detection as to whether or not an identical resource is duplicated and described within print data. In a case where there is duplicated description, the duplicated resource is deleted from its second occurrence onward and the print objects are consolidated, the duplicated resources are deconstructed into individual resources and registered in a format that can be referenced in common from multiple print objects.
US08867074B2	Image forming apparatus, firmware updating method, and program using confirmation time and application time A confirmation time at which confirmation processing for confirming whether firmware applicable to an image forming apparatus is managed by a delivery server and an application time at which the firmware is applied to the image forming apparatus are set in advance by an operation unit of the image forming apparatus, and an update control unit performs the confirmation processing at an actual confirmation time which is acquired by shifting the confirmation time, and if firmware applicable to the image forming apparatus is managed by the delivery server, the firmware is downloaded from the delivery server, and the firmware is stored in a storage device, and the update control unit applies the stored firmware to the image forming apparatus at the application time.
US08867072B2	Information processing apparatus, control method therefor, and computer-readable medium An information processing apparatus connected to a print apparatus via a network, comprises: receiving unit configured to receive a plurality of jobs; determination unit configured to determine a priority level of each of the plurality of jobs in an order in which jobs are sent to the print apparatus, based on information of a post-processing step which corresponds to each of the plurality of jobs and is performed after the plurality of jobs are printed by the print apparatus; and sending unit configured to send the plurality of jobs to the print apparatus in accordance with the priority levels in which jobs are sent, which are determined by the determination unit.
US08867067B2	Controlling device and computer program for controlling device A controlling device may be configured to perform a wireless setting process for connecting a target wireless printer to a wireless network according to an automatic wireless setting mode, acquire unique identification information of the target wireless printer from the target wireless printer by performing a communication without usage of an IP layer when the wireless setting process is performed, acquire one or more unique identification information of one or more printers from the one or more printers by performing a communication with usage of the IP layer after an IP address has been set to the target wireless printer, determine a specific printer among the one or more printers as the target wireless printer, generate a print port, which is different from a WSD port, for the specific printer determined as the target wireless printer, and install a printer driver for the specific printer.
US08867065B2	Page parallel RIP printing methods and systems Disclosed are methods and apparatus for operating a page parallel RIP printing system including a plurality of image marking engines (IMEs). According to an exemplary method, a print job is split into a plurality of job chunks, each job chunk grouped by its destination IME; and the job chunks are processed into a printer ready format by a plurality of RIP nodes associated with the job chunk group's respective destination IME.
US08867057B2	Print control apparatus, method thereof, and medium storing a program, that control a print processing based on number of sheets required by a print job This invention relates to a printing system configured to output printing media having undergone print processing by a print apparatus to a plurality of destinations including a specific destination which has a structure allowing an operator to take out the printing media. In the system, output of printing media to the specific destination is restricted while the operator takes out the printing medium outputted to the specific destination, and in case that the number of printing media necessary for a job processed by the print apparatus is smaller than a predetermined number, the system is controlled not to output to the specific destination a printed material formed from printing media smaller in number than the predetermined number. This invention can achieve efficient printing by controlling not to stop the print operation of the system as much as possible.
US08867053B2	Image forming apparatus, control method, and program A method is provided for appropriately controlling, if paper information of a paper to be used in printing is not registered, registration of the paper information and the printing process. An image forming apparatus which stores in a storage area, attribute information of a recording medium used in printing analyzes, before printing, print data, determines before printing the print data whether attribute information matching the acquired attribute information is stored in the storage area, and registers in the storage area the acquired attribute information which is not stored in the storage area.
US08867051B2	Printing system, image forming apparatus, print data managing method thereof, and program An image forming apparatus that stores print data transmits identification information for identifying itself to another image forming apparatus that includes a notification image forming apparatus is storing print data. When printing print data, the image forming apparatus requests a list of image forming apparatuses in which print data is stored from the another image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus requests a list of print data from image forming apparatuses corresponding to the received.
US08867048B2	Delayed review of scanned documents using unique identification marking on scanned documents A method and system include a computerized device operatively connected to a multi-function printing device. The multi-function printing device has a scanner, a media path, a printer, etc. The scanner scans a plurality of sheets of media to produce scanned images. The computerized device automatically stores the scanned images, and the media path automatically feeds the sheets of media from the scanner to the printer after the scanner scans the sheets of media. The printer automatically prints unique identification markings on the sheets of media after the scanner scans the sheets of media, such that each of the sheets of media has a different identification marking printed thereon by the printer. The computerized device automatically adds data representing each unique identification marking to each corresponding scanned image stored within the computerized device. When error images (e.g., ones of the sheets of media that were not scanned properly by the scanner) are identified, the computerized device automatically outputs the data representing each the unique identification marking for each of the error images, allowing a user to locate the sheet of media associated with the error image, to permit the improperly scanned sheets to be rescanned.
US08867041B2	Optical vacuum ultra-violet wavelength nanoimprint metrology An optical metrology apparatus for measuring nanoimprint structures using Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) light is described. Focusing optics focus light onto the sample and collect the light reflected from the sample so as to record an optical response from nanoimprint structures on the sample, wherein the nanoimprint structures have an orientation that varies over a surface of the sample. A sample stage is configured to support the sample. At least one computer is connected to the metrology instrument and the sample stage and is configured to run a computer program which causes the sample stage to rotate the sample so as to present multiple different locations on the sample to the optical metrology instrument such that the orientation of the nanoimprint structures at the multiple different locations remains fixed with respect to a plane of the focusing optics of the metrology instrument in order to eliminate polarization effects.
US08867033B2	Spectrometer A spectroscopic system including a light source adapted to provide a beam of illumination; an optical system adapted to provide the beam of illumination to a sample and receive a spectroscopy signal from the sample and direct the spectroscopy signal to at least one single channel detector is provided. The optical system comprises an adjustable dispersing element for directing one or more spectral features of the spectroscopy signal to the at least one single channel detector. A calibration detector is adapted to determine a set point of the adjustable dispersing element; and a source synchronization component is adapted to synchronize an operation of the light source and the at least one single channel detector. A method of calibrating a dispersing element of a spectrometer is also provided.
US08867032B2	Surface enhanced optical detection substrate for sensing purposes and methods for manufacturing A substrate is described that is suitable for surface enhanced optical detection. The substrate comprises an electrically conductive layer The substrate further comprises at least one nanoparticle comprising an electrically conductive portion. The electrically conductive portion may provide an opening to an underlying material. Such at least one nanoparticles may be a nanoring, a nanodisc, or a non-spherical nanoshell. The substrate further comprises a dielectric spacer for spacing the electrically conductive layer from the at least one nanoparticles. The dielectric spacer is a dielectric material substantially only present under the at least one nanoparticle, leaving the electrically conductive layer uncovered from dielectric material at positions away from the nanoparticles. The at least one nanoparticle and the dielectric spacer are interfaced along a first major surface and the at least one nanoparticle comprises an upstanding surface not in line with an upstanding surface of the dielectric spacer.
US08867031B2	Anesthesia vaporizer system An anesthetic vaporizer system is disclosed herein. The anesthetic vaporizer system may include a sump adapted to retain an anesthetic agent. The anesthetic vaporizer system may also include a level sensor disposed at least partially within the sump. The level sensor is configured to generate an optical beam, and to estimate the amount of anesthetic agent within the sump based on a measured characteristic of the optical beam.
US08867030B2	Object detection device provided with angle adjustment mechanism A horizontal adjustment-engagement member (33) of an object detection device (D) drives the horizontal rotation component (32) to adjust a horizontal angle of a detection unit (11, 12), and a vertical adjustment-engagement member (37) drives the vertical rotation component (36) to adjust a vertical angle of a detection unit. Both adjustment-engagement members (33 and 37) are positioned adjacent to each other at fixed positions such that portions thereof are exposed on a front surface of the device (D), are removably engaged with an external automatic angle adjustment unit (70) from front surfaces, and are automatically adjusted by a driving force of the automatic angle adjustment unit (70) based on a signal level of a detection signal outputted by level output section (7).
US08867020B2	Metrology method and apparatus, and device manufacturing method Methods are disclosed for measuring target structures formed by a lithographic process on a substrate. A grating or other structure within the target is smaller than an illumination spot and field of view of a measurement optical system. The position of an image of the component structure varies between measurements, and a first type of correction is applied to reduce the influence on the measured intensities, caused by differences in the optical path to and from different positions. A plurality of structures may be imaged simultaneously within the field of view of the optical system, and each corrected for its respective position. The measurements may comprise first and second images of the same target under different modes of illumination and/or imaging, for example in a dark field metrology application. A second type of correction may be applied to reduce the influence of asymmetry between the first and second modes of illumination or imaging, for example to permit a more accurate overly measurement in a semiconductor device manufacturing process.
US08867011B2	Liquid crystal display device A liquid crystal display device includes a TFT substrate having a display region which has first and second electrodes, a plurality of TFTs and a plurality of scanning signal lines connected to the plurality of TFTs, a counter substrate, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the TFT and counter substrates, and sealed by a sealant, a plurality of scanning line leads connected to the plurality of scanning signal lines formed in a region outside of the display region, and a shield electrode formed on the TFT substrate covering the plurality of scanning line leads. The second electrode is connected to one of the plurality of TFTs, and liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer are driven by an electric field, which is generated between the first and second electrodes. The shield electrode is electrically connected to the first electrode and overlapped with the sealant in plan view.
US08867003B2	Liquid crystal display device A liquid crystal display device including a first substrate including a pixel electrode, a second substrate facing the first substrate and including a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first substrate includes a storage capacitive line. The liquid crystal display device further includes a domain forming member that is formed over a first region corresponding to the storage capacitive line and a second region adjacent to the first region. The domain forming member is formed with irregular parts including a first irregular part having an enlarged width, a second irregular part having a reduced width, and an external irregular part, which is closest to the first region of the irregular parts formed in the second region and has an enlarged width.
US08867001B2	Patterned retardation film comprising relief-like stripe structures and sub micron grooves A patterned retardation film including a base substrate, a patterned resin layer and a liquid crystal layer is provided. The patterned resin layer having plurality of first areas and a plurality of second areas is disposed on the base substrate. The combination of the first and second areas is a grating-like stripe structure. The patterned resin layer includes an aligning micron structure. The aligning micron structure includes a plurality of first sub micron grooves and a plurality of second sub micron grooves respectively located in the first areas and the second areas. The liquid crystal layer is disposed on the patterned resin layer and aligned with the aligning micron structure. The liquid crystal layer disposed above the first areas provides a first phase retardation. The liquid crystal layer disposed above the second areas provides a second phase retardation.
US08866994B2	Liquid crystal display device A backlight device includes a frame with a first opening having a first side, a second side, a third side, and a fourth side, a planar light source which is disposed in the first opening of the frame, a plurality of optical sheet groups which are disposed on the planar light source and include a first optical sheet group and a second optical sheet group, and an adhesive layer which has a second opening formed along the first, second, third, and fourth sides of the frame. The first optical sheet group is fixed to the frame via the adhesive layer at the second, third, and fourth sides of the frame, and the second optical sheet group is fixed to the frame at the first side of the frame and is not fixed to the frame at the second, the third, and fourth sides of the frame.
US08866991B2	Tiled display device having uniform brightness A tiled display device includes a plurality of display devices defining an image display part, the image display part divided into a central portion and an outer edge portion, a support frame tiling the plurality of display devices side by side, and a plurality of light guides, each light guide disposed on each of the display devices, wherein the brightness of an image displayed at the outer edge portion is higher than that of an image disposed at the central portion.
US08866985B2	Display panel and repair method thereof A flat display panel and a related repairing method are provided. The flat display panel includes multiple horizontal repair lines parallel to scan lines and multiple vertical repair lines parallel to data lines. The vertical repair lines are disposed on one side of the data lines one to one, and the horizontal repair lines are disposed on one side of the scan lines one to one. When one of the data lines or one of the scan lines is broken, an electrical route formed by a use of the vertical repair lines or the horizontal repair lines detours the broken scan line or data line, so as to deliver signal to pixel electrode normally.
US08866979B2	Display device with parallax barrier The present disclosure discloses a display device comprises: a parallax barrier comprising a light transmission region and a light blocking region; a backlight unit; and a transflective film disposed between the parallax barrier and the backlight unit.
US08866978B2	Display device and touch panel thereof A display device includes a display element and a touch panel including a first electrode plate and a second electrode plate. The first electrode plate includes a first conductive layer and two first electrodes electrically connected to the first conductive layer. The second electrode plate includes a second conductive layer and two second electrodes electrically connected to the second conductive layer. The display element includes a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns along a first direction and a second direction. At least one of the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes arranged primarily along the same aligned direction. The aligned direction and the second direction define an angle ranging from above 0° to less than or equal to 90°.
US08866973B1	Method for zooming picture with single key A method for zooming a picture on a display without a touchscreen is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: a) displaying a picture and a zoom key on a screen; b) defining a rectangular coordinate system in the picture with an origin at a center of the picture; c) defining the zoom key as a point P (x, y) in the perpendicular coordinate system; d) drawing a line through the point P and a reflection point Q at (−x, −y); e) defining points Q1 and Q2 on the line beside the point Q, wherein a distance d between the points Q and Q1 is the same as that between the points Q and Q2, and double the distance d is defined as a simulated operating distance; and; and f) creating a zoom event object corresponding to the simulated operating distance.
US08866961B2	Image pickup apparatus The invention relates to an image pickup apparatus including a pixel section in which plural pixels are arrayed two-dimensionally, an exposure amount control section that determines an exposure amount and controls the pixel section to be continuously exposed plural times, a memory section that can store a pixel signal from the pixel section for plural frames of an output image, a vertical scanning circuit that reads out the pixel signal of the pixel section and stores the pixel signal in the memory section, and a column processing section that reads out the pixel signal stored in the memory section. The vertical scanning circuit sequentially reads out respective pixel signals related to the plural times of exposures and stores the pixel signals in the memory section.
US08866950B2	Imaging device and imaging apparatus having plasmon resonator An imaging device includes: an imaging area in which a plurality of pixels used to acquire an image are provided; a spectrum area in which a plurality of pixels used to acquire a color spectrum are provided; and a filter that is formed above the pixels provided in the spectrum area and allows an electromagnetic wave with a desired wavelength to pass, wherein the filter is formed of a plasmon resonator that is a conductive metal structure having an unevenness structure at a predetermined pitch, and the imaging area and the spectrum area are provided on a single chip.
US08866935B2	Drive unit, camera system, and non-transitory machine readable medium Provided is a drive unit which, if an amount of driving to rotate the imaging optical system during the preset mode is smaller than a threshold value in accordance with an imaging field angle of the imaging optical system, the control unit is further configured to control the driving to rotate at a speed in accordance with a change rate per unit time of imaging field angle and the imaging field angle by the zooming of the imaging optical system and, if the amount of driving to rotate the imaging optical system during the preset mode is greater than the threshold value, the control unit is further configured to control the driving to rotate at a speed irrespective of a change rate per unit time of the imaging field angle and the imaging field angle by the zooming of the imaging optical system.
US08866927B2	Determining an image capture payload burst structure based on a metering image capture sweep A first plurality of images of a scene may be captured. Each image of the first plurality of images may be captured with a different total exposure time (TET). Based at least on the first plurality of images, a TET sequence may be determined for capturing images of the scene. A second plurality of images of the scene may be captured. Images in the second plurality of images may be captured using the TET sequence. Based at least on the second plurality of images, an output image of the scene may be constructed.
US08866920B2	Capturing and processing of images using monolithic camera array with heterogeneous imagers Systems and methods for implementing array cameras configured to perform super-resolution processing to generate higher resolution super-resolved images using a plurality of captured images and lens stack arrays that can be utilized in array cameras are disclosed. An imaging device in accordance with one embodiment of the invention includes at least one imager array, and each imager in the array comprises a plurality of light sensing elements and a lens stack including at least one lens surface, where the lens stack is configured to form an image on the light sensing elements, control circuitry configured to capture images formed on the light sensing elements of each of the imagers, and a super-resolution processing module configured to generate at least one higher resolution super-resolved image using a plurality of the captured images.
US08866910B1	Unusual event detection in wide-angle video (based on moving object trajectories) Object images captured by a wide-angle camera are distorted due to the optical effects of the wide-angle lens. The disclosed innovations allow an automatic analysis on the corrected image distinguishing normal movement from an unusual event movement. The analysis is based on Markov Modeling on moving object trajectories and motion angles.
US08866895B2	Passing control of gesture-controlled apparatus from person to person A television (TV) includes a display and a processor controlling the display and receiving signals representing human gestures. The processor is programmed to respond to gestures from a first viewer to control the display. Also, the processor is programmed to respond to gestures from a second viewer to control the display only responsive to a determination that the first viewer has both looked toward the second viewer, and that the first viewer has confirmed, as a separate act from looking toward the second viewer, a desire to transfer control of the TV to the second viewer.
US08866891B2	Method for the non-destructive inspection of a mechanical part An automatic method of non-destructive inspection of a mechanical part by comparing images of the surface of the part with reference images recorded in a database, by a digital image acquisition device including an image sensor, a lighting source, and a mechanism for moving the image sensor and the lighting source relative to the mechanical part.
US08866884B2	Image processing apparatus, image processing method and program An image processing apparatus includes an image input unit that inputs a two-dimensional image signal, a depth information output unit that inputs or generates depth information of image areas constituting the two-dimensional image signal, an image conversion unit that receives the image signal and the depth information from the image input unit and the depth information output unit, and generates and outputs a left eye image and a right eye image for realizing binocular stereoscopic vision, and an image output unit that outputs the left and right eye images. The image conversion unit extracts a spatial feature value of the input image signal, and performs an image conversion process including an emphasis process applying the feature value and the depth information with respect to the input image signal, thereby generating at least one of the left eye image and the right eye image.
US08866881B2	Stereoscopic image playback device, stereoscopic image playback system, and stereoscopic image playback method In the case where a parallax of left and right images is not appropriate, an influence on the health caused by stereoscopic viewing is preliminarily prevented. A camera and a television are connected (step S1) and a television size is input from the camera (step S2). A parallax adjustment amount v is created based on the input television size (step S3) and the left and right image data and the parallax adjustment amount v are transmitted to the television (step S4). When the television receives those (step S101), the parallax of the left and right images is adjusted by the parallax adjustment amount v (step S102). A region including the subject having the largest parallax among subjects in the left and right images is clipped and displayed in a small screen with the size of the display unit of the camera (step S103). The user checks the image displayed in the small screen (step S5) and when there is no problem, the left and right images are displayed on all over the television size in a 3D mode (step S104).
US08866877B2	Split screen presentation of 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 split-screen functionality to be provided to a user device during a hold period prior to a customer-service video conference. Specifically, according to defined embodiments, the present invention provides for a first portion of split-screen includes a visual depiction of a queue of users currently awaiting a video conference with the customer-service associate. The queue allows for the user/customer to gauge how long the hold period will last. In addition to the visual depiction of the hold queue, the split screen may provide for other portions of the screen to include other information and/or functionality such as, such as information related or unrelated to the impending video conference.
US08866876B2	Color correction for multiple video objects in telepresence applications A method comprising rendering a video display signal comprising combining local illumination video objects from different sources into each frame of a plurality of frames, wherein the local illumination video objects are video objects on which chromatic adaptation was performed using an illumination reference common to all video objects. An apparatus comprising a processor configured to render a video display signal comprising combining local illumination video objects from different sources into each frame of a plurality of frames, wherein the local illumination video objects are video objects on which chromatic adaptation was performed using an illumination reference common to all video objects.
US08866875B2	Method and apparatus for controlling a conference place environment in video communication Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and an apparatus for controlling a conference place environment in video communication, in which, the method for controlling a video communication conference place environment includes: generating illumination feedback information indicating an illumination effect of a video communication conference place, in which the illumination feedback information comprises: a parameter indicating an illumination flaw or a parameter indicating correction of the illumination flaw; and outputting the illumination feedback information, so that a lighting controlling device in the video communication conference place controls lighting in the video communication conference place according to the illumination feedback information. By use of technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention, a conference place environment in video communication is able to be remotely controlled.
US08866857B2	Apparatus and method for controlling white balance of laser display system The present invention relates to device and method for adjusting white balance in a laser display system, which enables to adjust white balance taking an optical characteristic of a laser beam into account. The device for adjusting white balance in a laser display system, having red, green, and blue laser beam sources, includes a temperature sensing unit for sensing the present temperatures of the laser beam sources, a detecting unit for measuring laser beam output intensity of the laser beam sources, a storing unit for storing reference values on allowable current ranges at different temperatures and laser beam output intensity at different temperatures, an adjusting value generating unit for comparing a measured value of the laser beam output intensity obtained from the detecting unit to the reference values obtained from the storing unit, to generate an adjusting value, a laser beam source driving unit for adjusting the laser beam output intensity of a relevant laser beam source according to a current value within the allowable current range or the adjusting value generated thus, and a control unit for searching the storing unit for the allowable current range corresponding to the present temperature sensed thus, or the reference value corresponding to the laser beam output intensity measured thus to control the adjusting value generating unit and the laser beam source driving unit.
US08866853B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing method and medium for storing information processing program An apparatus includes a processor that executes a process including detecting a position of an object with respect to a screen of a display, determining whether a distance from the object to the screen is between a first value and a second value smaller than the first value on a basis of the position, displaying a first image on the screen when the distance is determined to be between the first value and the second value, the first image being an enlarged image of an area corresponding to the position, determining whether the distance is equal to or less than the second value on a basis of the position and displaying a second image when the distance is determined to be equal to or less than the second value, the second image being displayed on the screen when the distance decreases to be the second value.
US08866852B2	Method and system for input detection Methods and devices for applying at least one manipulative action to a selected content object are disclosed. In one aspect, a head-mounted-device (HMD) system includes at least one processor and data storage with user-interface logic executable by the at least one processor to apply at least one manipulative action to a displayed content object based on received data that indicates a first direction in which the HMD is tilted and an extent to which the HMD is tilted in the first direction. The at least one manipulative action is applied to a degree corresponding to the indicated extent to which the HMD is tilted in the first direction.
US08866849B1	Portable device supporting videotelephony of a head mounted display and method of controlling therefor A method of controlling a portable device according to one embodiment of the present specification includes the steps of pairing with a head mounted display (HMD), detecting a first position of the paired HMD when an incoming call is received, configuring marker information corresponding to the incoming call according to the detected first position of the paired HMD, and transmitting an augmented reality image corresponding to the marker information to the paired HMD.
US08866844B2	Image processing apparatus displaying processed image representing result of sepia image process In an image processing apparatus, a process display unit displays on the display a plurality of candidate image processes to be performed on the image data. The plurality of candidate image processes includes a sepia image process. A process receiving unit receives an instruction indicating the sepia image process selected from among the plurality of candidate image processes. A process storing unit stores the selected sepia image process. An image display unit displays a display image corresponding to the image data on the display. An image designating unit designates a display image. The image display unit displays a processed display image that represents a result of the selected sepia image process performed on the image data corresponding to the designated display image before performing the selected sepia image process on the image data corresponding to the designated display image.
US08866836B2	Method and apparatus for data communication based on digital image processing A data communication apparatus based on digital image processing includes a display that displays a color block array including color blocks corresponding to transmission data. The data communication apparatus also includes a camera that captures an image of a color block array displayed on a display of a transmitting side, and a storage that stores a code table including information about colors mapped to data values. The data communication apparatus further includes a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) that creates a color block array by converting transmission data to color blocks according to the code table during data transmission, identifies the color block array in the image captured by the camera, detects colors of color blocks in the color block array, and extracts data values corresponding to the detected colors during data reception.
US08866830B2	Memory controller interface for micro-tiled memory access In one embodiment of the invention, a memory integrated circuit is provided including an address decoder to selectively access memory cells within a memory array; a mode register with bit storage circuits to store an enable bit and at least one sub-channel select bit; and control logic. The control logic is coupled to a plurality of address signal lines, the address decoder, and the mode register. In response to the enable bit and the at least one sub-channel select bit, the control logic selects one or more of the address signal lines to capture independent address information to support independent sub-channel memory accesses into the memory array. The control logic couples the independent address information into the address decoder.
US08866825B2	Multiple display frame rendering method and apparatus An apparatus includes a plurality of image processing circuits. Each image processing circuit generates an image frame corresponding to a single large surface. The first image processing circuit provides a portion of the generated image frame for a first display or plurality of displays and provides a remaining portion of the image frame to the remaining image processing circuits. The next image processing circuits provides the remaining portion of the image frame for the next plurality of displays.
US08866824B2	Image processing method, image processing device, and display apparatus An image processing method includes: calculating a first index value through back matching between a first image and a second image in relation to a first pixel which is one or a plurality of pixels of the first image and a second pixel which is one or a plurality of pixels located at a position corresponding to the first pixel in the second image; calculating a second index value by normalizing a correlation index value indicating correlation between the first pixel and the second pixel using a complexity index value indicating complexity of an image which is displayed by the first pixel; and calculating a third index value by multiplying the first index value by the second index value.
US08866816B2	Dimension reducing visual representation method In a data visualization system, a method of arranging, in n dimensions, data points representing n or more variables, the method including the steps of: a data point ranking module ranking a set of data points with respect to a first axis of a visual representation using a first variable; and based on a second variable, a data point distribution module distributing the set of data points along the first axis while retaining information relating to the ranking of data points determined in step i).
US08866815B2	Automated treemap configuration Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention provide for representing a plurality of source data values as graphical elements in a default treemap visualization, where each data value is associated with a plurality of data dimensions. A first data dimension is selected to be mapped to an area cell characteristic based on the first data dimension having a quality of numeric and a quality of non-negative. A second data dimension is selected to be mapped to a color cell characteristic based on the second data dimension having a quality of numeric and a quality of previously unmapped. The default treemap visualization is generated based on the selected first data dimension and the selected second data dimension.
US08866800B2	Stacked display with a bended substrate, an electronic apparatus and a method for manufacturing the same A stacked display (20b) comprises superposed regions for changing between a reflective color state (R, G, B) and a transparent state, which regions form part of a˜bended substrate (20). The substrate (20) may comprise a sequence of portions (1-6) which forms regions having pre-defined color. Each portion (1-6) is electrically connected to a further portion in the sequence by interconnect regions (b′, c′, d′) which form an oversized loop between the regions (1-2, 3-4, 5-6) when the substrate (20) is bent. The regions (1-2, 3-4, 5-6) are filled with a suitable optoelectronic color material (R, G, B).
US08866798B2	Capacitive stylus with disc tip A stylus assembly for a capacitive touch screen provides input via conventional handwriting action. A stylus is attached at a contact end to a disc providing ample capacitive proximity with the touch screen. A layer of capacitive material is embedded within the disc, and may be formed with a distinct shape, layout, or outline to provide a uniquely recognizable capacitive signature. The stylus terminates at the contact end in a received portion, attached to the disc by a receiving portion formed thereon. Free rotation of the received portion within the receiving portion accepts positioning of the stylus body at any angle with no degradation of capacitive proximity, allowing natural handwriting action. The receiving portion can be formed with sufficient flexibility to allow disengagement and re-engagement thereof, enabling simple and low-cost replacement of the disc.
US08866794B2	Statistical analyzing method and statistical quality indicator for reliability improvement of a capacitive touch device For a capacitive touch device having a capacitive touch sensor to be sensed to generate sensed values, a sensing apparatus and method statistically analyze the sensed values generated in a certain time period to evaluate the sensing quality thereof, discard the poor reliable sensed values, and re-sense the capacitive touch sensor to generate new sensed values, by which the resultant output signal will have improved reliability.
US08866791B2	Portable electronic device having mode dependent user input controls Improved approaches to provide user interaction with a portable electronic device operating to in a particular mode, such as an e-reader mode, are disclosed. In one embodiment, the portable electronic device is a multi-function portable electronic device that can be configured differently based on a particular mode being used. Based on the mode of operation or application being used, the user inputs to the device can be characterized differently. Advantageously, with mode-based configurations, the portable electronic device can operate to make use of user interface controls in an efficient manner. The mode-based configuration can save power, increase efficiency, and/or speed up operation of the device.
US08866787B2	Integrated touch panel for a TFT display This relates to displays for which the use of dual function capacitive elements does not result in any decreases of the aperture of the display. Thus, touch sensitive displays that have aperture ratios that are no worse than similar non-touch sensing displays can be manufactured. More specifically, this relates to placing touch sensing opaque elements so as to ensure that they are substantially overlapped by display related opaque elements, thus ensuring that the addition of the touch sensing elements does not substantially reduce the aperture ratio. The touch sensing display elements can be, for example, common lines that connect various capacitive elements that are configured to operate collectively as an element of the touch sensing system.
US08866782B2	Display device An electrostatic-capacitance touch panel includes of X electrodes which are formed above a front surface of the electrostatic-capacitance touch panel, Y electrodes which intersect with the X electrodes, a back-surface electrode which is formed above a back surface of the electrostatic-capacitance touch panel, X-electrode signal lines which supply signals to the X electrodes from both ends of each X electrode, Y-electrode signal lines which supply signals to the Y electrodes from both ends of each Y electrode, a flexible printed circuit board connected to the X-electrode signal lines and the Y-electrode signal lines at a connection portion, intersecting portions where the X electrodes and the Y electrodes overlap with each other, and electrode portions each of which is formed between two intersecting portions. A back-surface-connection-use terminal is formed outside of the connection portion, and the back-surface-connection-use terminal and the back-surface electrode are connected to each other using a conductive member.
US08866774B2	Low power touch screen overlays for providing tactile feedback Tactile feedback for touch screens is provided by an overlay structure disposed on the top surface of the touch screen. This overlay structure can be in either of two states. In the first state (non-typing), the overlay structure has a uniform top surface. In the second state (typing), the overlay structure top surface has localized regions of increased vertical elevation to provide tactile feedback for typing. The overlay structure is configured to be switched between these two states by actuator(s) disposed to provide mechanical force(s) in lateral direction(s) to the overlay structure. Preferably, the actuator is a latching actuator (e.g., magnetic solenoid) that does not consume power to hold the overlay structure in either of its states. Thus, power is only consumed to switch the state of the overlay structure.
US08866765B2	Light emitting unit, manufacturing method thereof and touch panel having the same A manufacturing method of light emitting units is shown below. First step is providing a substrate with multi circuit areas. A light emitting diode is mounted on the circuit area respectively. Next step is forming a package structure to cover the light emitting diode. Next step is dicing the package structure to form a biconic package structure. The package structure is diced twice in two directions, respectively. As above-mentioned, the light emitting unit has asymmetric light radiation pattern.
US08866760B2	User identification based on body-coupled communication A secure identification system is proposed in which a user gets access through an identification device or badge or tag (51) worn on his/her body, which applies the techniques of body coupled communication (BCC) to create a kind of aura around the user. An identification (ID) is communicated to a user interface of the secure identification system through BCC communication, and the user is authenticated by the system through an authentication procedure checking the identity of the user on the basis of an assumed secure BCC communication of the ID.
US08866759B2	Display device with touch panel and spacer The display device with a touch panel according to the present invention has high reliability and is a display device with a touch panel having a display panel and a touch panel placed on the front surface of the display panel, wherein the display panel has a first substrate and a second substrate provided so as to be layered on the first substrate, the first substrate has a non-overlapping region that does not overlap the second substrate, and the touch panel is a liquid crystal display device with a touch panel secured on the second substrate, the touch panel has an overlapping region that overlaps the non-overlapping region of the first substrate, and a spacer is secured to the touch panel between the non-overlapping region of the first substrate and the overlapping region of the touch panel.
US08866754B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing method and information processing program An information processing apparatus includes: touch operation sections provided to be spaced from each other by a specified distance and detect a position touched by an operating part; a drag detection section to detect a drag moved in a state where the operating part touches the touch operation sections; a vibration detection section to detect a vibration amount of the touch operation sections; a vibration acquisition section to acquire the vibration amount in a period after the drag detection section detects that an arbitrary touch operation section is dragged among the touch operation sections and before the drag detection section detects that another touch operation section adjacent to the arbitrary touch operation section is dragged; and a drag determination section to determine, based on the vibration amount, whether the drag on the arbitrary touch operation section is continuous with the drag on the another touch operation section.
US08866746B2	Handheld electronic device and associated method providing disambiguation of an ambiguous object during editing and selectively providing prediction of future characters A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software and prediction software. During editing of an object, the object can be ambiguous, and the system provides one or more disambiguated interpretations of the ambiguous object. In some circumstances, the system can additionally provide one or more completions, i.e., predictions of future characters. However, in other circumstances the outputting of completions of an ambiguous object can be suppressed in order to avoid distracting the user and to provide more meaningful results to the user.
US08866744B2	Keyboard having touch input device A keyboard having a touch input device includes a keyboard body and a touch input device. The touch input device is disposed on the keyboard body and is used in a digital input mode. The touch input device has a touch pad and a pattern layer. The pattern layer is bonded to a surface of the touch pad, and has a plurality of key indication areas. Each key indication area is corresponding to a key used in the digital input mode, for being recognized and selected by a user. In addition, through a switching module disposed on the keyboard, the digital input mode can be switched to a cursor control mode, a gesture control mode, or a handwriting input mode, thereby achieving a wide range of applications.
US08866743B2	Navigational tool with drag-based tactile feedback on a handheld wireless communication device A wireless handheld communication device features a rotational navigation tool assembly such as a trackball or a thumbwheel. The rotational navigation tool assembly provides a user with tactile feedback corresponding to motion of a selection or position indicator on the device display. The tactile feedback is electromagnetically induced and may, for example, be considered an electromagnetic detent.
US08866736B2	Gaze detection apparatus and method A gaze detection apparatus is disclosed. The gaze detection apparatus includes: a gaze detection section that detects gaze of a target person; a display section that includes a display screen for displaying an image; a gaze position determination section that determines, based on a result of detection by the gaze detection section, whether or not the display screen lies in the gaze of the target person; and a first display control section that displays a first detection result image at an intersection point between the gaze of the target person and the display screen when the first gaze position determination section determines that the display screen lies in the gaze of the target person.
US08866734B2	Motion input device for portable terminal and operation method using the same The present invention relates to a motion input device for portable terminal and an operation method using the same. A motion input device of a portable terminal of the present invention includes a sensor unit configured to collect a sensor signal from at least one sensor; an operation recognition unit configured to generate a motion signal corresponding to an operation of portable terminal based on the sensor signal; a scenario preparation unit configured to generate an input scenario based on at least one motion signal; and a scenario mapping unit configured to detect, in a scenario database, a standards scenario corresponding to the input scenario, and to generate an input signal corresponding to the standards scenario.
US08866732B2	Display panel and display apparatus having the same A display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate, an electrophoretic layer, and a shielding electrode. The first substrate includes a first base substrate and pixel electrodes disposed on the first base substrate. The second substrate includes a second base substrate and a common electrode disposed on the second base substrate to face the pixel electrodes. The electrophoretic layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate to display a gray-scale image. The shielding electrode is disposed between the pixel electrodes and faces the common electrode with the electrophoretic layer interposed between the shielding electrode and the common electrode to receive a voltage corresponding to a black gray-scale.
US08866729B2	Method for driving liquid crystal display device A method of driving a light source unit of a liquid crystal display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes the steps of calculating average and maximum values of image signals applied to the liquid crystal panel; calculating a representative value of the image signals using the average and maximum values; determining the luminance of the light source unit according to the representative value and driving the light source unit accordingly. The representative value may be calculated from Lrep=(1−β)×Lavg+β×Lmax, where Lrep is a representative value, Lavg is an average value, Lmax is the maximum value, and β is a value that decreases as a difference between the maximum and average image signal values increases, and has a range between 0 and 1.
US08866728B2	Liquid crystal display The liquid crystal panel displays a video in a display area by modulating light from the backlight including a plurality of light sources. The luminance value calculator calculates light source luminance values of the light sources based on an input video signal including signal values of pixels. The luminance distribution calculator calculates luminance distribution of light in illumination areas obtained by tentatively dividing the display area if the light sources emit light according to the light source luminance values. The representative value calculator calculates, based on the input video signal, a representative luminance value in each of divided areas obtained by dividing the display area. The signal corrector corrects the input video signal based on the luminance distribution according to a difference between a maximum value of the representative luminance values and an average value of the representative luminance values.
US08866725B2	Liquid crystal display device viewable in dim ambient light An object is to provide a liquid crystal display device in which image display can be recognized even in an environment where light is dim around the liquid crystal display device. Another object is to provide a liquid crystal display device capable of image display in both modes of a reflective mode in which external light is used as a light source and a transmissive mode in which a backlight is used. One pixel is provided with a pixel electrode having both of a region where light incident through a liquid crystal layer is reflected and a region having a light-transmitting property, so that image display can be performed in both modes of a reflective mode in which external light is used as a light source and a transmissive mode in which a backlight is used.
US08866723B2	Display device A display device according to an embodiment comprises: a display panel; a data driver that supplies a data signal to the display panel; a gate driver that supplies a gate signal to the display panel; and a timing driver that controls the data driver and the gate driver and comprises a voltage controlled oscillator of which frequency is varied according to a control signal generated in the timing driver.
US08866702B1	Use of optical display system as a visual indicator for a wearable computing device Methods and systems for use of an optical display system as an indicator of a wearable computing device are provided. In one example, a method includes receiving, by the wearable computing device, information for display by an optical display system coupled to the wearable computing device. The method includes in response, making a determination of whether the wearable computing device is in use. The method also includes based on the determination, causing a light source coupled to the wearable computing device to modulate an illumination of the optical display system.
US08866700B2	Mobile electronic device A first cabinet comprising a first display module and a second cabinet comprising a second display module are provided. A switching is allowed between: a first state in which the first cabinet is placed on top of the second display module and the first display module faces outside, and a second state in which the first cabinet and the second cabinet are arranged next to each other and the first display module and the second display module face outside. A first screen to be displayed by the first display module and a second screen to be displayed by the second display module are stored and a screen switching operation is detected. Displaying of the first screen on the first display module is canceled and the second screen is displayed on the first display module, when the screen switching operation is detected in the first state.
US08866696B2	Antenna with integrated RF module An antenna assembly includes an antenna housing, an antenna located within the housing, a radio frequency (RF) module located within the housing and connected to the antenna, and a cable assembly operably associated with the module. The module includes a radio frequency device, such as a transmitter, receiver or transceiver, electrically connected to the antenna. The cable assembly includes electrical wires for providing external power to the module and conducting processed signals between the module and external circuitry. The proximal nature of the antenna and RF module reduces or eliminates induced power losses between the antenna and module, resulting in a very effective power transfer ratio. Resulting processed signals between external and internal processing circuitry can be conducted over relatively long lengths without appreciable signal loss.
US08866690B2	Antenna suitable in hand-held device This invention provides an antenna structure, especially relates to an antenna structure in hand-held device. The antenna structure of the present invention is formed by a continue transmission line, and forming an annular shape. It is featured that the antenna structure has two end points, the first end point is a floating point, and the second end point connected to a ground. A signal input point is connected to the continue transmission line for inputting an antenna signal into the antenna structure. The signal input point keeps two-thirds of wavelength distance from the second end point. According to present invention, a small antenna structure is provided and fitting in with operation in ultra wide bandwidth frequency, furthermore the multi-frequency signal can be transceived. The antenna structure has lower signal intensity of high order harmonic signals, therefore the structure can reduce the antenna signal interferences with the high order harmonic signals.
US08866687B2	Modular feed network A modular feed network is provided with a segment base provided with a feed aperture, a corner cavity at each corner and a tap cavity at a mid-section of each of two opposite sides. A segment top is provided with a plurality of output ports. The segment top is dimensioned to seat upon the segment base to form a segment pair. the segment base provided with a plurality of waveguides between cavities of the segment base. The modular feed network is configurable via a range of feed, bypass and/or power divider taps seated in the apertures and/or cavities to form a waveguide network of varied numbers of output ports by routing across one or more of the segment tops. For example, the modular feed network may comprise 1, 4 or 16 of the segment bases retained side to side.
US08866685B2	Omnidirectional multi-band antennas Disclosed herein are various exemplary embodiments of omnidirectional multi-band antennas. In an exemplary embodiment, an antenna includes upper and lower portions. The upper portion includes one or more radiating elements, one or more tapering features for impedance matching, and one or more slots configured to enable multi-band operation of the antenna. The lower portion includes one or more radiating elements and one or more slots.
US08866683B2	Communication device and reconfigurable antenna element therein A communication device includes a ground element, an antenna element, and a reconfigurable circuit element group. The antenna element includes a first radiating portion and a second radiating portion. One end of the first radiating portion is a feeding end of the antenna element, and the other end is an open end. One end of the second radiating portion is coupled to the ground element, and the other end is an open end. The second radiating portion is longer than the first radiating portion. The second radiating portion surrounds the open end of the first radiating portion, and includes a first portion and a second portion. The reconfigurable circuit element group is coupled between the first portion and the second portion of the second radiating portion, and includes at least two branches. The reconfigurable circuit selectively opens and closes the branches such that the antenna element operates in different bands.
US08866682B1	Composite forward coldplate for a phased array radar assembly A coldplate assembly for a phased array antenna has a first coldplate having one or more internal coolant channels and one or more interlocking members disposed at side edges thereof; and a second coldplate having one or more internal coolant channels and one or more interlocking members disposed at side edges thereof. The one or more interlocking members of the first coldplate interlock with the one or more interlocking members of the second coldplate.
US08866681B2	Vehicle mirror antenna assembly The present invention is generally related to an antenna assembly, and in particular to a rear-view mirror antenna assembly for motor vehicles. The antenna assembly comprises a mirror attached to a casing (11) defining an outer perimeter (4), the assembly further comprising an antenna element (1) having a radiating element, wherein said radiating element is housed within said mirror and said casing and it is located substantially along said outer perimeter.
US08866670B2	Hybrid positioning using synchronous and asynchronous techniques Methods and apparatuses for a mobile station to obtain a position fix using synchronous hybrid positioning and asynchronous hybrid positioning techniques are described. In one embodiment, a wireless communication apparatus may transmit a request to a mobile station for fine time assistance (FTA) corresponding to a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The apparatus may be configured to receive the FTA, first timing measurements from one or more base stations, and second timing measurements from the GNSS. The apparatus may identify whether the FTA was received from the mobile station. If it is determined that the FTA was received, then the apparatus may establish a position fix for the mobile station using a synchronous hybrid positioning technique relating the timing measurements to a time scale associated with a system frame number (SFN). If not, then the apparatus may establish the position fix using an asynchronous hybrid positioning technique.
US08866668B2	Radar apparatus with different operation modes In a radar apparatus, a peak extractor performs frequency analysis on a beat signal to obtain a frequency spectrum for each of first and second detection modes based on the beat signal for a corresponding one of the first and second detection modes. The peak extractor extracts a plurality of first peak-signal components from the frequency spectrum obtained for the first detection mode, and a plurality of second peak-signal components from the frequency spectrum obtained for the second detection mode. A determiner compares each of the plurality of first peak-signal components with a corresponding one of the plurality of second peak-signal components to deter mine whether a noise is included in the beat signal according to a result of the comparison.
US08866667B2	High sensitivity single antenna FMCW radar One embodiment is directed towards a FMCW radar having a single antenna. The radar includes a transmit path having a voltage controlled oscillator controlled by a phase-locked loop, and the phase-locked loop includes a fractional-n synthesizer configured to implement a FMCW ramp waveform that ramps from a starting frequency to an ending frequency and upon reaching the ending frequency returns to the starting frequency to ramp again. The radar also includes a delay path coupled between a coupler on the transmit path and a mixer in a receive path. The delay path is configured to delay a local oscillator reference signal from the transmit path such that the propagation time of the local oscillator reference signal from the coupler to the mixer through the delay path is between the propagation time of signal reflected off the antenna and the propagation time of a leakage signal through a circulator.
US08866665B2	Obstacle detection apparatus Various targets are detected in a more accurate manner. Provision is made for a receiving antenna part that has a plurality of receiving antennas arranged in a horizontal direction with a part thereof being shifted in a vertical direction from the others, and has a plurality of combinations of the receiving antennas, of which each combination detects an azimuth in the horizontal direction and an azimuth in the vertical direction of a target; and detection means that detects the target a plurality of times while changing the combination of the receiving antennas. The detection accuracy of the target can be enhanced by making a comparison between at least two detection results obtained by the detection means.
US08866659B2	Data acquisition device with real time digital trigger A data acquisition device incorporates a front end analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which is responsive to an applied analog input signal, sample that signal and provide digital data representative of the sampled signal. The digital data is applied to a data channel connected to a data acquisition memory, which stores data values representative of the sampled analog input signal. The digital data from the ADC is also applied to a real time a trigger channel connected to a composite function trigger equalizer and filter, a trigger processor and to a trigger memory. The trigger channel operates in real time to identify trigger events and store real-time trigger event occurrence signals in the trigger memory. A controller reads out the stored data values from the data acquisition memory by way of a data equalizer, in synchronism with corresponding real-time trigger event occurrence signals from the trigger memory.
US08866657B2	Apparatus and method for converting analog signal to digital signal An apparatus of a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) is provided. The apparatus includes a logic circuit for performing a logical operation based on a combination of bit values b0 through bN-1 of a digital code, and a plurality of switches for controlling an output state of a plurality of current cells based on an output of the logical operation, wherein the plurality of the current cells respectively output currents under a control of respective ones of the plurality of switches.
US08866651B2	Analog-to-digital converter and self-diagnosis method for analog-to-digital converter An analog-to-digital converter includes an input terminal to which an analog input voltage is input, a digital-to-analog converter unit, a comparator that compares the analog input voltage and an output voltage of the digital-to-analog converter unit with each other, a successive approximation register that stores a conversion result output from the comparator, a generator unit that generates added digital data and subtracted digital data, the added digital data and the subtracted digital data being obtained by adding and subtracting the conversion result to and from the conversion result retained by the successive approximation register, respectively, and a determination unit that determines whether or not a failure is occurring, by using a result of the comparison between the analog input voltage and output levels obtained by the digital-to-analog converter unit converting the added digital data and the subtracted digital data.
US08866642B2	Uniquely identifiable keys for electronic keyboards An electronic keyboard including a plurality of keys arranged as a matrix, each key including a plunger, and a conductive element on the bottom of the plunger, the conductive element having a characteristic resistance, an electronic circuit having an input current source, and mounted on a surface beneath the plurality of keys such that when a key is pressed its conductive element closes a switch in the circuit, an analog-to-digital convertor for converting an output voltage of the circuit to a digital signal, and a controller for determining from the digital signal when a key is pressed, and for identifying the key that is pressed.
US08866632B2	Method for communicating with logging tools A method of communication from the surface with to the downhole logging tool string is disclosed. The method includes movement of the drill pipe string up or down at the surface to create coded signature signals by the downhole logging tool string and send those signature signals to a processor in the downhole logging tool string that has been preprogramed to recognize the signature signals.
US08866630B2	Container with internally emitted audio A container having an internally directed audible output actuated by removal of a stopper is described. The container includes a hollow body with an open mouth and a base that includes a speaker and control electronics. A sensor is provided that is configured to detect presence of the stopper in the open mouth of the container. In one embodiment the sensor is comprised of a normally open electrical circuit formed by a pair of opposing arrays of electrical traces disposed within the mouth. In another embodiment, the sensor comprises an infrared light source and sensor that detects an amount of internally reflected infrared light within walls of the body. In yet another embodiment, the sensor comprises a device which detects the presence and/or absence of a magnetic field. Upon detection of removal of the stopper, an audible output is produced by the speaker into the container body and is perceivable by nearby users.
US08866614B2	Active circuit for RFID An RFID card includes a smartcard controller that receives power from a host device. The RFID card also includes a small inductive device capable of inductive coupling with an RFID reader. The small inductive device is small enough to fit in the form factor of a memory card or SIM card. Enhancement circuits enhance the usable read and write distance of the RFID card.
US08866609B2	RFID-based electric seal with tracking device An electric seal includes a wireless tracking facility having a wireless telecommunicating device disposed in a container and having two contacts, a housing engaged in the receptacle, and a lock shaft engageable into the receptacle and lockable to the housing for retaining the receptacle and the housing together, and the lock shaft includes a portion electrically connected to one of the contacts of the wireless telecommunicating device and another portion connected to the other contact of the wireless telecommunicating device for electrically coupling to the contacts of the wireless telecommunicating device together, and the wireless telecommunicating device emits a signal out when the lock shaft is cut or damaged.
US08866602B2	Systems and methods for mapping message contents to virtual physical properties for vibrotactile messaging Systems and methods for mapping message contents to virtual physical properties for vibrotactile messaging are disclosed. For example, one disclosed method includes the steps of receiving a sensor signal from a sensor, the sensor configured to detect an interaction with a messaging device, determining a virtual physical property of a virtual message object based at least in part on the sensor signal, determining a haptic effect based at least in part on the virtual physical parameter; and generating a haptic signal configured to cause an actuator to output the haptic effect.
US08866601B2	Overdrive voltage for an actuator to generate haptic effects A system in which haptic effects are generated using an actuator receives a frequency response for the actuator at a standard voltage and generates a lookup table for an overdrive voltage based on the frequency response. The system then receives a haptic signal for the haptic effect and extracts one or more frequencies for the haptic signal. The system then determines the corresponding overdrive voltage from the lookup table for each of the frequencies and, for each of the frequencies, applies the corresponding overdrive voltage to the actuator. The overdrive voltage is greater than or equal to the standard voltage.
US08866598B2	Healthcare communication system with whiteboard A system for use in a healthcare facility having a nurse call system with a nurse call computer located remotely from patient rooms is provided. The system includes a hospital bed having communication circuitry configured for communicating data from the hospital bed. An interface unit is spaced from the hospital bed. The interface unit has a first connector to which the hospital bed couples via a wired connection, a second connector which is communicatively coupled to the nurse call system, and circuitry comprising a third connector for connection to an external device.
US08866596B1	Code-based RFID loss-prevention system In RFID systems employed for loss prevention, an item supplier or an ingress reader writes an ownership code associated with an organization or facility into a tag, indicating that an item to which the tag is attached is associated with the facility and not foreign. At checkout or point-of-sale an authorization reader or mobile device writes a computed code and/or a ticket into the tag indicating that the tagged item is allowed to leave the facility. At point-of-exit an exit reader determines if the tagged item is allowed to leave the facility by verifying the ownership code and the code or ticket. The loss-prevention system may issue an alert or sound an alarm if a facility-associated item is leaving the facility without a proper code or ticket indicating that the item is approved to leave.
US08866581B1	Securing content using a wireless authentication factor A mobile device is described that stores and renders content. Access to certain content is predicated at least upon receiving a particular wireless signal from an external or separate device that has previously been associated with the mobile device or with content stored on the mobile device.
US08866576B2	Transformer and display device using the same There is provided a transformer capable of significantly reducing leakage inductance while satisfying safety standards. The transformer includes: a winding part having a plurality of coils wound on an outer peripheral surface of a pipe shaped body part while being stacked thereon; and a terminal connection part extended from one end of the winding part in an outer diameter direction thereof and having a plurality of external connection terminals coupled to a distal end thereof, the terminal connection part including at least one catching groove formed such that the coils are led to the outside of the winding part therethrough, and a lead wire of at least one of the coils being led to the outside of the winding part while maintaining a winding direction of the coils.
US08866570B2	Reed switch apparatus and method of using same A reed switch apparatus utilizes one or more reed switches to communicate with one or more devices. In one configuration, the reed switch apparatus utilizes a single magnetic field to simultaneously activate two or more reed switches. In another configuration, two or more reed switches, each acting independent of one another are simultaneously activated by a single magnetic field. Additionally, a method of controlling at least two devices includes exposing a reed switch apparatus to a single magnetic field. Yet another method includes activating a device via the use of a single reed switch mounted to a portion of a warehouse structure.
US08866567B2	Quartz crystal unit, quartz crystal oscillator and electronic apparatus A quartz crystal unit has a quartz crystal tuning fork resonator having a thickness within a range of 0.05 mm to 0.18 mm, and at least one groove formed in at least one of opposite main surfaces of each of first and second tuning fork tines so that a length of the at least one groove is within a range of 20% to 78% of an overall length of the resonator and less than 1.29 mm. An electrode is disposed on at least one of a base portion and a surface of the at least one groove so that the electrode of the first tuning fork tine has an electrical polarity opposite to an electrical polarity of the electrode of the second tuning fork tine. The capacitance ratio r2 of a second overtone mode of vibration of the quartz crystal tuning fork resonator is greater than 1500. The quartz crystal tuning fork resonator is housed in a case having an open end, and a lid is connected to the case.
US08866553B2	Output stage with fast feedback for driving ADC A driver for an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) has an overall feedback loop between its input and its output for maintaining overall accuracy, and a much faster feedback loop in its output stage that quickly compensates for output transients before the overall feedback loop can substantially react to the transients. Output voltage transients are created by the intermittent capacitive load of the ADC. The fast feedback loop can be made very fast since there are only a few components in the fast feedback path. The fast reduction of the output transients enables a shorter sampling time, leading to more accurate analog-to-digital conversion. The overall gain of the driver can be set to be greater than unity while still providing good output transient suppression.
US08866552B2	Current-mode line driver Disclosed are various embodiments of a current-mode line driver that may facilitate transmitting signals to a load. The current-mode line driver may comprise a common-mode current sense element that provides a signal corresponding to the common-mode output current of the line driver. A transconductance element receives the signal from the common-mode current sense element and provides a compensating current that is based at least in part on the signal. The compensating current may reduce the common-mode output current of the line driver.
US08866549B2	Method of power amplifier calibration The exemplary embodiments include methods, computer readable media, and devices for calibrating a non-linear power detector of a radio frequency device based upon measurements of the non-linear power detector output and the associated power amplifier output level, and a set of data points that characterize a nominal non-linear power detector. The set of data points that characterize the nominal non-linear power detector is stored in a calibration system memory as nominal power detector output data. The measured non-linear power detector outputs, power amplifier output levels, and the nominal power detector output data is used to determine a power detector error function that characterizes the difference between the response of the non-linear power detector and the nominal non-linear power detector. The power detector error function and the nominal power detector output data are used to develop a calibrated power detector output data set that is stored in the non-linear power detector.
US08866538B2	Constant current circuit of high efficiency The present inventive concept is a hyuntak transistor that can prevent a thermal runaway phenomenon and a low heat high efficiency constant current circuit using an auxiliary transistor capable of a high amplification and a constant current. The circuit may be applied to drive a LED and a motor.
US08866533B2	Method and apparatus for controlling device in electronic equipment A method and apparatus for controlling a device in electronic equipment having a plurality of devices are provided. The apparatus includes a power supply for supplying power, a slave device including a driving circuit operated according to the supplied power for transmitting and receiving data to and from another device, a switching circuit for connecting the driving circuit to a ground terminal when the switching circuit is turned-on and for opening the driving circuit from the ground terminal when the switching circuit is turned-off, and a host device for transmitting a control signal for turning-on the switching circuit when driving the slave device and for turning-off the switching circuit when not driving the slave device. When the device is not driven, the switching circuit may open a driving circuit from a ground terminal, thereby cutting-off leakage of an electric current through the device.
US08866532B2	Passive integrator and method In accordance with an embodiment, a passive integrator includes a charge storage element coupled between first and second transistors, wherein the first transistor has a current carrying electrode coupled for receiving a signal and a current carrying electrode coupled to the charge storage element. The second transistor has a current carrying electrode coupled to the charge storage element and a second current carrying electrode coupled to another charge storage element.
US08866531B2	Broadband analog radio-frequency integrator Broadband analog radio-frequency devices can be used to create building blocks for scalable analog signal processors that operate over bandwidths of 50 MHz to 20 GHz or more. Example devices include integrators (transconductors), digitally controlled attenuators, buffers, and scalable summers implemented using deep sub-micron CMOS technology. Because the devices are implemented in CMOS, the ratio of trace/component size to signal wavelength is about the same as that of low-frequency devices implemented in printed circuit boards. Combining this scaling with high gain/high bandwidth enables implementation of feedback and programmability for broadband analog signal processing.
US08866524B2	Semiconductor device having output circuit and operating method thereof A semiconductor device includes a plurality of driving units configured to drive an output node based on an input signal and be on/off controlled based on driving force control codes, respectively, a slew rate control signal generation block configured to generate a slew rate control signal based on the driving force control codes, and a plurality of signal delay units configured to delay the input signal by respectively different delay amounts, transfer resultant signals to the plurality of driving units, and be respectively controlled in their delay amounts based on the slew rate control signal.
US08866515B2	Drive unit for driving voltage-driven element A drive unit comprises a switching circuit and an abnormal signal generating circuit. The switching circuit is configured to be connected to an external time generating circuit, and is configured to switch a driving condition relating to a driving voltage of a voltage-driven element in a transitional period between a driving state and a non-driving state of the voltage-driven element based on a measurement time which is measured by using of the time generating circuit. The abnormal signal generating circuit is configured to generate an abnormal signal when an accurate measurement of the time using the time generating circuit is not executed.
US08866506B2	Contact structure for inspection A contact structure for inspection that is installed on a bottom surface of a circuit board includes a ground conductor that is grounded; an elastic contact member that is brought into contact with an inspection target object; and a conductive line that electrically connects the circuit board and the elastic contact member. Here, the elastic contact member may be provided on a bottom surface of the ground conductor that is grounded. The elastic contact member may include an insulating layer, a wiring layer, a contactor and an elastic body provided at a position corresponding to the contactor. The elastic body provides the elastic contact member with elasticity when the contactor is brought into contact with an electrode. The elastic contact member is provided in parallel with the ground conductor. The wiring layer and the ground conductor form a microstrip line.
US08866502B2	Simultaneously tagging of semiconductor components on a wafer Methods and apparatus are disclosed to simultaneously, wirelessly test semiconductor components formed on a semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor components transmit respective outcomes of a self-contained testing operation to wireless automatic test equipment via a common communication channel. Multiple receiving antennas observe the outcomes from multiple directions in three dimensional space. The wireless automatic test equipment determines whether one or more of the semiconductor components operate as expected and, optionally, may use properties of the three dimensional space to determine a location of one or more of the semiconductor components. The wireless testing equipment may additionally determine performance of the semiconductor components by detecting infrared energy emitted, transmitted, and/or reflected by the semiconductor wafer before, during, and/or after a self-contained testing operation.
US08866497B2	Apparatus and method for determining a touch input A capacitive sensor for detecting a stimulus. The capacitive sensor includes an electrode and a processing unit electrically coupled to the electrode and configured to determine the presence of a stimulus based on the rate of change of the electrode capacitance. A substrate is positioned adjacent the electrode, wherein the stimulus corresponds to the placement of an object against the substrate. The processing unit is operative to determine a time rate of change based on successive measurements of the electrode capacitance. In addition, the processing unit is operative to determine the presence of a stimulus in response to the time rate of change being less than a reference value.
US08866492B2	Manufacturing method, switching apparatus, transmission line switching apparatus, and test apparatus An actuator is manufactured that includes piezoelectric film that does not suffer physical damage. Provided is a manufacturing method comprising first insulating layer deposition of depositing a first insulating layer on a substrate using an insulating material; first annealing of annealing the first insulating layer; first electrode layer deposition of depositing a first electrode layer on the first insulating layer using a conductive material; first piezoelectric film deposition of depositing a first piezoelectric film on the first electrode layer by applying a sol-gel material on the first electrode layer and annealing the sol-gel material; second electrode layer deposition of depositing a second electrode layer on the first piezoelectric film using a conductive material; second insulating layer deposition of depositing a second insulating layer on the second electrode layer using an insulating material; and second annealing of annealing the second insulating layer.
US08866481B2	Stacked coil for magnetic resonance imaging A receive coil for MRI includes a stacked pair of coil elements to communicate the respective MR signals therein to the signal processing system in separate channels. This greatly increases image SNR and penetration depth and in parallel imaging. The coils are arranged in a stacked relationship so as to be at least partly and preferably wholly overlapped and lying in the same or closely adjacent planes. The coils include tuning capacitors to a common resonant frequency. The coils are connected by a conductor arranged such that the signals of the first and second coils are decoupled. The conductor can form a common portion of the coils including a capacitance of in the common portion arranged. The coils can be connected by two conductors one of which is a short and the other contains a capacitor. In both cases the connection conductors provide the decoupling.
US08866477B2	Magnetic resonance method and system for phase correction of magnetic resonance signals originating in mixed tissue In a magnetic resonance (MR) system and method to separate an MR system-dependent phase influence from a subject-dependent phase influence in phase values of an MR phase image data set of an examination subject, to which two different tissue types with different resonance frequencies make a signal contribution, the system-dependent phase influence is determined by selecting a contour around a region shown in the MR phase image data set, calculating the system-dependent phase influence in this region with the assumption that the spatial curve of the background phase corresponds to a harmonic or quasi-harmonic function, and subtracting the system-dependent phase influence from the acquired phase image data set to determine the subject-dependent phase influence.
US08866471B2	Probe for inspecting the surface of a circumferential slot in a turbojet disk by means of eddy currents A probe for eddy current monitoring of the surface of a circumferential slot formed in a turbojet disk. The probe includes a stem fastened to a support and a first multi-element sensor constrained to move with the stem and configured to be inserted into the circumferential slot to perform the inspection, and a second multi-element sensor. The two multi-element sensors are disposed back to back, and the stem of the probe is mounted to pivot about its own axis to enable the two multi-element sensors to be inserted in the slot.
US08866467B1	Systems and methods to perform integrated power measurement and RDSon measurement Systems and methods are disclosed to provide a process independent circuit for measuring output current of low drop out (LDO) regulators as well as buck regulators. The system can also measure the on resistance (RDSon) of the buck power transistors.
US08866460B2	Dynamic dropout control of a power supply A power supply uses a power converter to generate a regulated voltage by referencing to a first DC voltage, a low dropout (LDO) regulator to generate an output voltage from the regulated voltage by referencing to a second DC voltage, and a reference voltage generator to dynamically adjust the first DC voltage according to the input voltage and the control voltage of the output transistor of the LDO regulator. The dropout voltage of the LDO regulator can be minimized to maintain the high efficiency of the power supply at different loading or selected output voltages.
US08866458B2	Integrated high-voltage power supply start-up circuit An integrated start-up circuit for a power supply includes a converter, which in one implementation can be a buck converter. The buck converter includes a gate driver configured to drive a power switch, where the power switch is coupled across a DC bus node and a switching node of the buck converter. The power switch is configured to provide a start-up voltage to the buck converter from the DC bus node during start-up of the buck converter. The buck converter includes a bootstrap switch coupled across the gate driver and a Vcc node and a Schottky diode coupled across the bootstrap switch and the switching node, where the start-up voltage is provided at the Vcc node through the bootstrap switch.
US08866457B2	Voltage regulator A voltage regulator has a phase compensation circuit which changes consumption current according to load current thereby to reduce consumption current. The phase compensation circuit includes: a first transistor having a drain connected to an output terminal of an error amplifier circuit; a second transistor having a drain connected to a gate of the first transistor and a gate connected to the gate of the first transistor; a current mirror circuit connected to the output terminal of the error amplifier circuit, a drain of the first transistor, and the drain of the second transistor; and a capacitor connected between the gate of the second transistor and a drain of an output transistor. Thereby, current consumed by the phase compensation circuit can be changed according to the load current, resulting in that the voltage regulator consumes less current.
US08866452B1	Variable minimum input voltage based switching in an electronic power control system An electronic system includes a controller that controls switching in a switching power converter in accordance with a dynamically determined, minimum line voltage switching threshold based on one or more operating parameters of the electronic system. In at least one embodiment, the one or more operating parameters of the electronic system include power utilization of a load. The controller utilizes the dynamically determined, minimum line voltage switching threshold to determine when to enable and disable switching in the switching power converter. Since the controller bases determination of the dynamically determined, minimum line voltage switching threshold on power utilization of the load, the controller operates more efficiently by reducing switching losses while still meeting power demand by the load.
US08866448B2	Control unit and method for activating personal protection devices A control unit and a method for triggering personal protection devices are proposed, which charge an energy reservoir for the control unit via a charging circuit. The charging circuit sets a charging rate for charging as a function of a signal generated outside the charging surface.
US08866440B2	Battery charger with sensor-activated light source An electronic device, including a battery, a port for connecting a battery charger to charge the battery, a light emitter, and a sensor connected to the light emitter, for activating the light emitter when the sensor detects one or more vicinity light requirements indicating a need for light in the environment of the sensor, and for deactivating said light emitter when the battery charger is successfully connected to the port.
US08866439B2	Electromechanical lock and its operation method using mechanical power from normal operation for setting electromechanical lock in a mechanically openable state Electromechanical lock and its operation method are provided. The lock includes a threshold device configured to control the power transmission mechanism so that the amount of the received mechanical power in the form of the electric power is sufficient for powering the electronic circuit and the actuator, and so that a normal operation of the electromechanical lock, including an insertion of the key into the electromechanical lock, is sufficient for power the electronic circuit and the actuator.
US08866438B2	System and method for providing reactive power using electric car battery Provided are a system and a method for providing reactive power using an electric car battery, and more particularly, a system and a method for providing reactive power to a micro-grid using a bidirectional charger that is an electric car battery and an electric car charging device.
US08866435B2	Control device and control method for power control unit A control device controls an inverter controlling an output of a motor by PWM control. The control device calculates a reference frequency based on a torque and a rotation speed of the motor, calculates a random coefficient using two data tables, and calculates, as a random frequency, a value obtained by adding, to a reference frequency, a value obtained by multiplying a prescribed width by the random coefficient. The control device calculates control limit lines based on the rotation speed of the motor, and corrects the random frequency so as to fall within a range that is higher than the control limit line and lower than the control limit line. The control device generates a carrier signal having a random frequency as a carrier frequency.
US08866432B2	Motor control device and image forming apparatus A motor control device comprises: a motor control unit that controls a motor; and a signal output unit that outputs a signal according to rotation of the motor, wherein the motor control unit controls the motor based on an output signal of the signal output unit so that a driven object driven by the motor is displaced to a target stop position. The motor control unit is configured to function as: a first control unit that estimates a upper current limit and controls the motor according to the upper current limit; a second control unit that controls motor according to an operated amount of at least one of the motor or the driven object; a switching unit that switches between the first control unit and the second control unit; a first calculating unit that calculates an amount necessary for stop; and a second calculating unit.
US08866429B2	Device and method for power-saving driving of device having same load pattern A power-saving driving device is provided for a same load pattern device 23 that is driven by a motor 21 receiving electric power from an inverter 19 and repeatedly operated in a same load pattern. The power-saving driving device includes: an electric power amount calculator 81 that calculates an electric power amount W received by the inverter in the same load pattern; and a parameter selection and command device 83 that makes a parameter of the inverter change to a plurality of values, compares the received electric power amounts corresponding to the values of the parameter, selects the parameter value minimizing the received electric power amount and issues the selected value as a command to the inverter.
US08866428B2	Method and apparatus for thermally monitoring a permanent magnet electric motor A method for determining a temperature of an electric motor including stator windings includes injecting an AC current into a D-axis current of a stator winding at a frequency that is synchronized with a control frequency of the electric motor, determining a DC-phase current, determining a resistance of the stator winding corresponding to the DC-phase current and an applied voltage, and determining a temperature of the electric motor as a function of the resistance of the stator winding.
US08866424B2	Motor driving device Provided is a motor driving device. The motor driving device includes a drive signal generating unit, a current control unit, and a driving unit. The drive signal generating unit generates a motor drive signal for driving a motor. The current control unit is disposed at a front of the drive signal generating unit and controls a current of the drive signal generating unit so as to prevent noise and vibration of a motor caused by electromagnetic interference generated when a switch of the drive signal generating unit is turned on/off. The driving unit drives the motor based on the motor drive signal outputted from the drive signal generating unit.
US08866413B2	LED drive circuit An LED drive circuit, which comprises a transformer, an MOS tube, a power regulating resistor, a direct current isolation circuit, a rectifying circuit, and a voltage control circuit; when the voltage of the control terminal of the voltage control circuit is higher than the threshold voltage of the MOS tube, the MOS tube is on, a current from an external power supply flows through the first winding of the transformer, the MOS tube and the power regulating resistor successively; when the voltage of the power regulating resistor is close to the voltage of the reference terminal of the voltage control circuit, the MOS tube is cut off, the second winding of the transformer charges the capacitor of the MOS tube via the direct current isolation circuit, the rectifying circuit is on, and the first winding of the transformer supplies power to the LED load via the rectifying circuit.
US08866412B2	Source and multiple loads regulator A circuit that has one or more control units that divide a load into two or more load groups, with each load group comprised of at least one load element. The one or more control units directing power from a power source to one or more of the load groups based on voltage variations in an output of the power source, load grouping, and operational parameters of the load elements. The circuit further includes one or more pass stages that regulate current flow from the power source to the load groups.
US08866409B2	Constant-current LED driver circuit and output voltage adjustable circuit and method thereof A constant-current Light Emitting Diode (LED) driver circuit is provided, and the circuit includes: an output voltage adjustable circuit and at least one path of LED load, wherein the output voltage adjustable circuit comprises: a switch converting main circuit, an output characteristic parameter sampling circuit, and an output voltage controller. The output voltage controller is used to adjust the output voltage of the switch converting main circuit according to the variation relationship between the sampling signal output by the output characteristic parameter sampling circuit and the output voltage, determine the adjustive direction of the output voltage magnitude of the switch converting main circuit according to the change of the sampling signal, adjust the magnitude of the output voltage of the switch converting main circuit according to the preset step, and finally make the output voltage equal to the voltage of one path of LED load with the highest voltage or the difference between the output voltage and the voltage of one path of LED load voltage with the highest voltage within the predetermined range. The present solution implements reducing the connection complexity and power dissipation on the base of controlling the multi-path constant-current LED.
US08866405B2	Discharge-lamp lighting device A lighting device has a direct-current power generation circuit, a rectangular-wave generation circuit, a pulse generating circuit, lamp-voltage detection means, and pulse-generation command means. The direct-current power generation circuit generates direct-current power from external power. The rectangular-wave generation circuit converts the direct-current power to rectangular-wave alternating-current power. The pulse generating circuit superposes high-voltage pulses on the rectangular-wave power output from the rectangular-wave generation circuit and starts a discharge lamp. The lamp-voltage detection means detects, in digital form, a lamp voltage supplied to the discharge lamp. The pulse-generation command means issues a pulse generation command to the pulse generating circuit when the value detected by the lamp-voltage detection means reaches a predetermined no-load-voltage determination level.
US08866401B2	Multi-stage power supply for a load control device having a low-power mode A multi-stage power supply for a load control device is able to operate in a low-power mode in which the power supply has a decreased power consumption when an electrical load controlled by the load control device is off. The load control device comprises a load control circuit and a controller, which operate to control the amount of power delivered to the load. The power supply comprises a first efficient power supply (e.g., a switching power supply) operable to generate a first DC supply voltage. The power supply further comprises a second inefficient power supply (e.g., a linear power supply) operable to receive the first DC supply voltage and to generate a second DC supply voltage for powering the controller. The controller controls the multi-stage power supply to the low-power mode when the electrical load is off, such that the magnitude of the first DC supply voltage decreases to a decreased magnitude and the inefficient power supply continues to generate the second DC supply voltage.
US08866395B2	Display apparatus using a backlight The instant application describes a display apparatus that includes a display panel configured to display an image; and a backlight unit configured to illuminate the display panel from a back of the display panel. The backlight unit includes: N light-emitting diode strings connected in parallel with each other, each of the N light-emitting diode strings includes M light-emitting diodes connected in series, N being an integer of 2 or more and M being an integer of 1 or more; a power source unit connected in series with the N light-emitting diode strings and configured to generate a voltage; a drive unit connected in series with the N light-emitting diode strings and the power source unit and configured to supply currents to the N light-emitting diode strings; and a current regulator configured to regulate current flowing in each of the N light-emitting diode strings.
US08866393B2	Low voltage system and method Low voltage systems and methods, as well as a light assembly and LED driver are provided. In one aspect, a low voltage system is provided that is capable of drawing power from a power source having a first voltage, the system having at least one low voltage power supply connectable to the power source and having an output providing a second voltage that is lower than the first voltage. The system further has at least one low voltage load and circuit means connecting the output of the power supply to the at least one low voltage load. The at least one load can be a light assembly, and the light assembly can comprise one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Also provided is an LED driver that provides for one or more improved dimming characteristics. A light assembly employing the LED driver is also provided.
US08866389B2	Plasma temperature control apparatus and plasma temperature control method The plasma temperature control apparatus includes a plasma generating section 40 that turns a plasma-generating gas into plasma, and a plasma-generating gas temperature control section 30 that controls the temperature of the plasma-generating gas supplied to the plasma generating section 40. The temperature of the plasma generated in the plasma generating section 40 is controlled by controlling the temperature of the plasma-generating gas.
US08866387B2	Vehicular headlight apparatus The vehicular headlight apparatus includes a control means configured to change a light illumination area following a position of a detected target object until a shift angle between a reference direction and a direction to the target object with respect to a headlight is calculated to exceed a maximum limit shift angle, and configured to, when a vehicle speed is detected to exceed a predetermined threshold value, set the maximum limit shift angle to a small deflection angle, and change the present light illumination area to a low-beam light illumination area covered by the headlight in a low-beam state if the shift angle is calculated to exceed the maximum limit shift angle set to the small deflection angle.
US08866380B2	Light-emitting arrangement with organic phosphor The invention provides a light-emitting arrangement, comprising: a light source adapted to emit light of a first wavelength; a wavelength converting member comprising an organic wavelength converting compound adapted to receive light of said first wavelength and to convert at least part of the received light to light of a second wavelength, said wavelength converting member and said light source being mutually spaced apart; and a sealing structure at least partially surrounding said wavelength converting member to form a sealed cavity containing at least said wavelength converting member, said sealed cavity containing an inert gas and oxygen gas, the concentration of oxygen gas being in the range of from 0.05 to 3% based on the total volume within said sealed cavity. An oxygen concentration in this range has been found to have very limited influence on the life time of the organic wavelength converting compound.
US08866373B2	Light emitting device and display device having the same A display device includes a display panel and a light emitting device to supply light to the display panel. The light emitting device includes a light emitting element emitting a first light and a fluorescent layer receiving the first light, transmitting a portion of the first light, converting a remaining portion of the first light to a second light having a wavelength range different from the first light, and emitting the second light. The second light emitted by the fluorescent layer has a full width at half maximum equal to or larger than 110 nanometers (nm) and a light emission spectrum having a peak wavelength within a wavelength range of about 530 nm to about 560 nm. The second light has a light emission intensity corresponding to 10 to 30 percent of a peak light emission intensity of the first light.
US08866370B2	Spark plug A spark plug including a center electrode and a ground electrode having a core portion and an outer layer covering the core portion, the core portion being formed from a material having a thermal conductivity higher than that of the outer layer. At least a portion in which thickness of the outer layer is 0.5 mm or less is present at a cross-section perpendicular to a direction in which the ground electrode is extended. Further, the composition of the electrode material forming the outer layer is as follows: Ni is 96 mass % or more, total of at least one kind selected from Y and rare earth elements is 0.05 mass % or more, Al is 0.5 mass % or less, and Si is 0.5 mass % or more and 1.5 mass % or less, where the total of Ni, Y, rare earth elements, Al, Si does not exceed 100 mass %.
US08866368B2	LED light bulb An LED light bulb includes a bulb housing, at least two heat sinks, an LED chip connected on each of the heat sinks, a circuit board driving the LED chip to work, a bulb base, and a bulb cap. The inner sides of the heat sinks encircle into an air cavity. Each heat sink has a first opening. The bulb base has a second opening. The first opening is exposed in the second opening to communicate with the air cavity. The top end of the bulb housing has a third opening to communicate with the air cavity. The air cavity forms up-and-down circulating convection air via the three openings.
US08866363B2	Electrostatic actuator having urging members with varying rigidities According to one embodiment, an electrostatic actuator includes a substrate, an electrode unit, a film body unit, and an urging unit. The electrode unit is provided on the substrate. The film body unit is provided to oppose the electrode unit and is conductive. The urging unit is configured to support the film body unit and includes a connection unit connected to the substrate and an elastic unit provided between the connection unit and the film body unit. A contacting state and a separated state are possible for the electrode unit and the film body unit according to a voltage applied to the electrode unit. The elastic unit has a branch portion between one end of the elastic unit connected to the connection unit and multiple one other ends of the elastic unit connected to the film body unit.
US08866360B2	Rotor barrier shaping for demagnetization mitigation in an internal permanent magnet machine A rotor core for an Internal Permanent Magnet (IPM) machine includes a cavity having a magnet disposed therein. The cavity defines an air slot adjacent a radially outermost edge of the magnet disposed therein. A leakage flux path extends across the air slot and connects opposing sides of the cavity. The leakage flux path is oriented in an approximate tangential relationship relative to an axis of rotation of the rotor core, and is angled relative to the radially outermost edge of the magnet disposed within the cavity to direct flux away from the magnet. The cavity further includes an air pocket disposed along a radial inner surface of the magnet relative to the axis of rotation, adjacent the air slot of the cavity.
US08866355B2	Switched reluctance motor Disclosed herein is a switched reluctance motor including: a rotor part including a rotor core having a shaft fixedly coupled to the center thereof and a plurality of rotor poles formed to be protruded from the rotor core; a stator part having the rotor part rotatably received therein and a plurality of stator salient poles formed to be protruded from the stator yoke; a balancing part selectively coupled to an upper portion or a lower portion of the rotor part and having a plurality of sensing grooves formed in an outer peripheral surface thereof; a motor housing provided with an opening part through which the shaft penetrates; and a position detecting unit disposed between the rotor part and the stator part and coupled to an inner portion of the motor housing.
US08866348B2	Power system controlling and monitoring power semiconductor devices employing two serial signals A power system includes a power semiconductor devices; a control circuit outputting first firing signals each being for a corresponding power semiconductor device, and outputting first activation response signals each being associated with a corresponding power semiconductor device. A first interface circuit cooperates with the control circuit to input a first serial signal and output the first firing signals, and to input the first activation response signals and output a second serial signal. A second interface circuit cooperates with a controller to input the second serial signal, to output to the controller second activation response signals corresponding to the first activation response signals, to input from the controller second firing signals corresponding to the first firing signals, and to output the first serial signal. The controller controls the power semiconductor devices with the second firing signals, and monitors the power semiconductor devices with the second activation response signals.
US08866344B2	System and method of paralleling engine-generators on a common bus A system parallels engine-generators on a common bus and includes circuit breakers and automatic voltage regulators. Each engine-generator includes an output having an alternating current voltage. Each breaker is between the output of a corresponding engine-generator and the bus. Each regulator includes a first mode controlling field excitation for a corresponding engine-generator and a second mode automatically controlling the AC voltage. A processor for the regulators starts the engine-generators, closes the breakers, causes the regulators to increase the field excitation for the corresponding engine-generator in the first mode as long as less than a predetermined current flows through a corresponding breaker until the field excitation is equal to a rated voltage, and responsively causes the regulators to automatically control the AC voltage of the output of the corresponding engine-generator in the second mode, and, otherwise, decreases the field excitation of the corresponding engine-generator in the first mode.
US08866340B2	Supercapacitor-based grid fault ride-through system The supercapacitor-based grid fault ride-through system provides a dynamic model of a wind generation system including a Voltage Source Converter (VSC), which functions as a Static Compensator (STATCOM). The power control capability of the STATCOM is extended by incorporating energy stored in a supercapacitor. The system implements a vector control technique based on the decoupling of real and reactive power. Simulation results show that a fixed speed induction generator is capable of withstanding a significant grid fault when aided by the supercapacitor-based grid fault ride-through system. Moreover, the induction generator regains its pre-fault status immediately after the fault is cleared.
US08866337B2	Inline power multiplexer device Techniques are provided for providing power onto multiple power distribution paths. Power controller devices receive power from a power source device and are coupled to first and second multiplexer units. The multiplexer units receive power from the power source devices via the power controller devices for first and second power distribution paths. A multiplexer control unit controls the multiplexer units to output power from the first power distribution path, the second power distribution path or both of the paths. Power subsystems are provided comprising first and second power transistor units. The first transistor unit receives power from the first multiplexer unit over the first path and the second transistor unit receives power from the second multiplexer unit over the second path. Ports are provided and are coupled to a powered device. The multiplexer control unit controls the multiplexer units to supply power to the respective ports according to the type of powered device detected at a port.
US08866336B2	Bathing system load device with auxiliary power connection A line voltage device with an auxiliary power connection for a bathing installation. An exemplary embodiment of the device includes a housing structure, and a primary electrical power connection connected to the housing structure and including a primary wiring cable for connection to a line voltage source. A load system is disposed within or adjacent the housing and configured for powered operation by electrical power from the primary electrical power connection. An auxiliary power connection is provided for electrical connection to a separate bathing installation device to provide power to the separate device. A wiring circuit is disposed within or adjacent the housing structure and electrically couples the primary electrical power connection and the auxiliary power connection so that line voltage power is shared between the load system and the separate bathing installation device.
US08866333B2	Power control system and vehicle power control device A power control system includes a vehicle having a first battery and a second battery separate from the first battery; a power converter provided at a building, the power converter converting power charged in the first battery and supplying the converted power to electrical equipment; a first connection line connecting the first battery and the power converter and supplying the power from the first battery to the power converter; and a second connection line connecting the second battery and the power converter and supplying control power to activate the power converter from the second battery to the power converter.
US08866330B2	Tower for a wind turbine The invention relates to a tower for a wind turbine and to a cable guide therefor, wherein a nacelle for the wind turbine is arranged on the tower such that it can rotate by means of the azimuth bearing about a vertical axis which runs in the longitudinal direction of the tower. Current-conducting cables are routed in the tower of the wind turbine out of the nacelle from electrical components to the ground. The tower has at least two bundling devices which are suitable for joining the individual cables which run longitudinally in the tower together to form a cable bundle with the cables fixed with respect to one another. The bundling devices are attached to the cables between an upper and a lower area of the cable bundle. In this case, geometric configuration of the bundling device ensures that at least between three cables it is not below a specific minimum distance.
US08866326B1	Interleaved motor controllers for an electric taxi system Embodiments of the disclosure include an electric taxi system including a generator configured to provide an AC power source and a main controller configured to generate one or more PWM control signals. The electric taxi system also includes a plurality of motor controllers connected in parallel to the generator, wherein each of the plurality of motor controllers receives one of the one or more PWM control signals. The electric taxi system further includes a plurality of motors, wherein each of the plurality of motors are coupled to one of the plurality of motor controllers.
US08866321B2	Articulated-raft/rotary-vane pump generator system An apparatus and method for generating electricity from ocean wave energy by using a floating device having a first portion that is movably coupled to a second portion. A hydraulic pump is coupled between these portions such that when the floating device is exposed to ocean wave energy, the hydraulic fluid within the pump is displaced. A flow rectifier is used to create a unidirectional hydraulic fluid flow that is dispensed through a rotary-vane pump which, in turn, is coupled to an electrical generator. Thus, as the rotary-vane pump is activated by the unidirectional hydraulic fluid flow, the rotary-vane pump turns the electrical generator for generating electricity. A plurality of hydraulic pumps and associated flow rectifiers, rotary-vane pumps and electrical generators can be coupled between the first and second portions. In addition, the floating device can include a third portion that is also movably coupled to the second portion and a plurality of hydraulic pumps and associated flow rectifiers, rotary-vane pumps and electrical generators can be coupled between the second and third portions.
US08866314B2	Method for operating a power rotary actuator and a power plant for carrying out said method The invention relates to inertial systems for the accumulation and conversion of energy, and can be used as a power unit to drive various machines and vehicles. According to the disclosed method, a source of mechanical oscillations is used to generate an alternating rotational torque which is applied to the working train made capable of unidirectional rotational motion. An inertial vibrator disposed axially on the working train is used as the oscillation source. The power unit putting the method into practice comprises an electrical generator, a control device and a power drive, including a base on which a first assembly is disposed, with the capability of unidirectional rotation and including a driving train for the transmission of operating torque and a motor with the capability of free rotation of at least one member with unbalanced mass on a shaft disposed on the first assembly axially relative to the rotation of the driving train, in so doing the kinematic linkage between it and the final driven train contains a second assembly having the capability to transmit the operating torque. The invention makes it possible to eliminate the negative feedback effect of the mechanical load on the motor.
US08866311B2	Semiconductor package substrates having pillars and related methods The substrate includes a first dielectric layer, a first circuit pattern, a plurality of pillars and a second circuit pattern. The first dielectric layer has opposing first and second dielectric surfaces. The first circuit pattern is embedded in the first dielectric layer and defines a plurality of curved trace surfaces. Each of the pillars has an exterior surface adapted for making external electrical connection and a curved base surface abutting a corresponding one of the trace surfaces. The second circuit pattern is on the second dielectric surface of the first dielectric layer and electrically connected to the first circuit pattern.
US08866307B2	Deposition and selective removal of conducting helplayer for nanostructure processing A method for making one or more nanostructures is disclosed, the method comprising: depositing a conducting layer on an upper surface of a substrate; depositing a patterned layer of catalyst on the conducting layer; growing the one or more nanostructures on the layer of catalyst; and selectively removing the conducting layer between and around the one or more nanostructures. A device is also disclosed, comprising a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises one or more exposed metal islands separated by one or more insulating areas; a conducting helplayer disposed on the substrate covering at least some of the one or more exposed metal islands or insulating areas; a catalyst layer disposed on the conducting helplayer; and one or more nanostructures disposed on the catalyst layer.
US08866306B2	Signal path and method of manufacturing a multiple-patterned semiconductor device A multiple-patterned semiconductor device and a method of manufacture are provided. The semiconductor device includes one or more layers with signal tracks. The signal tracks have a quality characteristic. The semiconductor device also includes repeater banks to repower signals. The method of manufacture includes defining portions of layers with photomasks having signal track patterns, determining a quality characteristic of the signal track patterns, and selecting a photomask for etching vias.
US08866302B2	Device including two semiconductor chips and manufacturing thereof A device includes a first semiconductor chip with a first contact pad on a first face and a second semiconductor chip with a first contact pad on a first face. The second semiconductor chip is placed over the first semiconductor chip, wherein the first face of the first semiconductor chip faces the first face of the second semiconductor chip. Exactly one layer of an electrically conductive material is arranged between the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip. The exactly one layer of an electrically conductive material electrically couples the first contact pad of the first semiconductor chip to the first contact pad of the second semiconductor chip.
US08866300B1	Devices and methods for solder flow control in three-dimensional microstructures Structures, materials, and methods to control the spread of a solder material or other flowable conductive material in electronic and/or electromagnetic devices are provided.
US08866298B2	Bonded system with coated copper conductor A semiconductor component includes a semiconductor die and a copper-containing electrical conductor. The semiconductor die has a semiconductor device region, an aluminum-containing metal layer on the semiconductor device region, and at least one additional metal layer on the aluminum-containing metal layer which is harder than the aluminum-containing metal layer. The copper-containing electrical conductor is bonded to the at least one additional metal layer of the semiconductor die via an electrically conductive coating of the copper-containing electrical conductor which is softer than the copper of the copper-containing electrical conductor.
US08866290B2	Molded heat spreaders Embodiments of the present disclosure describe techniques and configurations for molded heat spreaders. In some embodiments, a heat spreader includes a first insert having a first face and a first side, the first face positioned to form a bottom surface of a first cavity, and a second insert having a second face and a second side, the second face positioned to form a bottom surface of a second cavity. The second cavity may have a depth that is different from a depth of the first cavity. The heat spreader may further include a molding material disposed between the first and second inserts and coupled with the first side and the second side, the molding material forming at least a portion of a side wall of the first cavity and at least a portion of a side wall of the second cavity. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US08866279B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes: a lead frame; a semiconductor element held by the lead frame; a frame body which is formed on the lead frame to surround the semiconductor element, cover a side surface of the lead frame, and expose a bottom surface of the lead frame; and a protective resin filling a region surrounded by the frame body. The lead frame includes an uneven part formed in a section which is part of an upper surface of the lead frame, and is covered with the frame body.

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