Document	Document Title
US09173018B2	Acoustic filter In an aspect, in general, a loudspeaker element includes an enclosure, a cone diaphragm of a driver element located within the enclosure, a first cavity wall extending from the cone diaphragm of the driver element to a throat opening which has an area less than an area of the cone diaphragm and forming a first cavity within the enclosure, an exit element extending from the throat opening to an environment outside of the enclosure, and an impedance compensation element extending from the first cavity wall, the impedance compensation element including a second cavity wall which forms a second cavity within the enclosure and a resistance element separating the second cavity from the first cavity.
US09173013B2	Method and device for adjusting a laser in an optical network A method and a device for adjusting a laser in an optical network. At least one alive message is transmitted from a first optical component towards a second optical component. A confirmation message is transmitted from the second optical component to the first optical component determining the wavelength of the laser to be used based on the alive message received by the second optical component. Furthermore, an optical communication system is provided with an optical element.
US09173011B2	Satellite-based low power resource meter reading systems and methods Systems and methods for monitoring a utility resource are disclosed. One system includes utility resource usage capture components connected to a utility resource management computing system via a satellite communications network. Each of the utility resource usage capture components includes a utility resource meter interface and a satellite communication module. The utility resource meter interface is configured to communicate with different types of utility resource meters from different manufacturers. Each of the utility resource usage capture components has a low power state and an operational state, and is configured to automatically enter the operational state, interrogate an associated utility resource meter, communicate the reading via the satellite communication module, and return to the low power state. The utility resource management computing system stores information regarding a location of each of the utility resource usage capture components and receives and stores readings from each of the utility resource usage capture components.
US09173009B2	Computer-implemented system and method for notifying users upon the occurrence of an event A computer-implemented system and method for notifying users on the occurrence of an event is disclosed. An embodiment further includes notifying selected users upon the occurrence of particular events in sessions using a variety of notification methods.
US09173006B2	Method for live broadcasting in a distributed network and apparatus for the same The present invention has provided a method for live broadcasting in distributed network and means for the same. Wherein the method mainly comprises steps of: tracker servers receive the status report information from the program source connected to the tracker server; generates the status information of the program source based on said status report information; sends status information of the program source to the information synchronization means.
US09173003B2	Media system with internet content An interactive television system is provided that supports newsgroup features. An interactive television application, such as an interactive television program guide, may be used to allow a user to view and post newsgroup messages to one or more newsgroup servers. The newsgroup servers may be located at a television distribution facility. The newsgroup servers may be Usenet servers accessed via the Internet. The user may use the newsgroup feature while watching television programming or while otherwise viewing other content provided by the interactive television application. Cross-referencing may be used to allow the user to access content related to a particular subject matter. Parental control features may be used to limit access to certain newsgroups. Newsgroup messages may contain links to other content made available through the interactive television application.
US09172993B2	Broadband local area network A BCN network with BCN modems that enable network wired devices to communicate over a typical home coaxial network that may include passive splitters and different types of coaxial cable.
US09172983B2	Automatic media editing apparatus, editing method, broadcasting method and system for broadcasting the same Disclosed are an automatic media editing apparatus, an editing method, a media broadcasting method and a broadcasting system thereof. The media editing apparatus edits or labels the media clips in accordance with specified features according to the analysis of the received multimedia. A new multimedia clip can be created after reproducing the media clips. The sources of the multimedia may be the contents which are side-recorded by a plurality of area servers located at multiple areas. Followed on, the edited multimedia as required can be broadcasted to clients. The automatic media editing technology may be applied to a media broadcasting system across multiple areas. The system may include a main server and a plurality of area servers. The area server may integrate and clip the content in accordance with the specified features.
US09172977B2	Filtering apparatus, method, and medium for multi-format codec Provided is a filtering apparatus, method, and medium for a multi-format codec, in which a blocking artifact of decoded video data is removed. The filtering apparatus includes a compression format detection unit, a block strength determination unit, a table determination unit, and a first filtering unit. The compression format detection unit detects a video compression format of the decoded video data. The block strength determination unit determines a block strength indicating a filtering strength with respect to the decoded video data according to the detected video compression format. The table determination unit determines a filtering table differently according to the block strength when the block strength is greater than a predetermined threshold. The first filtering unit performs filtering on the decoded video data in units of a block using the determined filtering table.
US09172973B2	Method and system for motion estimation in a video encoder Described herein is a method and system for motion estimation in a video encoder. There are two parts to the motion estimation. Coarse motion estimation generates a set of motion vectors for a current picture and at least one reference picture. Typically, coarse motion estimation operates on sub-sampled pictures. Fine motion estimation can refine coarse motion estimation results by searching interpolated video data in a region defined by the motion vectors from the coarse motion estimation.
US09172970B1	Inter frame candidate selection for a video encoder This disclosure relates to selecting an inter frame candidate for encoding. In particular, one or more previous motion vectors for a current block and a zero valued motion vector are selected. At least one of the one or more previously determined motion vectors is generated for a neighboring block in a current frame. Additionally, an estimated motion vector is determined based at least in part on a sum of absolute difference (SAD) calculation and a penalty value. A cost value for each of the one or more previous motion vectors, the zero valued motion vector and the estimated motion vector are calculated based at least in part on a sum of squared differences (SSD) calculation. Accordingly, a motion vector with a lowest cost value is selected from the one or more previous motion vectors, the zero motion vector and the estimated motion vector as an inter frame candidate for encoding.
US09172967B2	Coding and decoding utilizing adaptive context model selection with zigzag scan There is a coding. The coding may include preparing video compression data based on source pictures utilizing a processor. The preparing may include processing a generated transform unit, including generating a significance map having a significance map array with y-x locations corresponding to the transform array. The generating may include scanning, utilizing a zigzag scanning pattern, a plurality of significance map elements in the significance map array. The generating may also include determining, utilizing the zigzag scanning pattern, a context model for coding a significance map element of the plurality of significance map elements based on a value associated with at least one coded neighbor significance map element of the significance map element in the significance map array. There is also a decoding including processing video compression data which is generated in the coding.
US09172964B2	Systems and methods for changing rate-control setting during video encoding Methods for changing a rate-control (RC) setting during video encoding, performed by an RC controller and a video encoder, are provided. An embodiment of the method comprises determining whether change in the RC setting is allowed for encoding a next portion of a video sequence, detecting a request for changing the RC setting before encoding the next portion of the video sequence if the RC setting is allowed to be changed; and executing video encoding for the next portion of the video sequence ceaselessly utilizing the changed RC setting when detecting the request.
US09172961B2	Method of applying edge offset Provided is a method generates an edge index of a current sample, and applies an edge offset corresponding to the edge index to the current sample. The edge index is generated using the differences between a current sample and two neighboring samples determined by an edge offset type. Accordingly, the difference between original samples and reconstructed samples are effectively reduced by generating the optimum edge index. Also, the quantity of bits required for reducing the differences are reduced by fixing the sign of offset to positive or negative.
US09172954B2	Hybrid memory compression scheme for decoder bandwidth reduction A method for reducing memory bandwidth in a video decoder begins by performing a data reduction operation on a decoded first coded image to produce a second set of image data. The second set of image data stored and is selectively used for subsequent image decoding, thereby reducing the memory bandwidth. The data reduction operation can include image downsampling, wherein the pixel density is reduced by a factor of two in each of the vertical and horizontal directions.
US09172953B2	Compressing image data Methods, systems, and computer programs for encoding and decoding image are described. In some aspects, an input data block and a prediction data block are accessed. A projection factor is generated based on a projection of the input data block onto the prediction data block. A scaled prediction data block is generated by multiplying the projection factor by the prediction data block. A residual data block is generated based on a difference between the input data block and the scaled prediction data block. In some aspects, a prediction data block, a residual data block, and a projection factor associated with the residual data block are accessed. A scaled prediction data block is generated by multiplying the projection factor by the prediction data block. An output data block is generated by summing the residual data block and the scaled prediction data block.
US09172952B2	Method and system for analyzing video stream accuracy in a network environment A method is provided in one example and includes receiving a video sequence having at least one code symbol embedded therein. The at least one code symbol is selected from a sequence of code symbols. The method further includes determining whether the at least one code symbol is decodable, and determining one or more video quality parameters based upon whether the at least one symbol is decodable. The method still further includes determining a video quality metric associated with the video sequence based upon the one or more video quality parameters.
US09172947B2	Method and apparatus for processing multi-view image using hole rendering A method and apparatus for processing a multi-view image are provided. A priority may be assigned to each hole pixel in a hole region generated when an output view is generated. The priority of each hole pixel may be generated by combining a structure priority, a confidence priority, and a disparity priority. Hole rendering may be applied to a target patch including a hole pixel having a highest priority. The hole pixel may be restored by searching for a source patch most similar to a background of the target patch, and copying a pixel in the found source patch into a hole pixel of the target patch.
US09172935B2	Terminal device capable of managing storage capacity and management method thereof A terminal device capable of managing a storage capacity is provided. The terminal device includes a storage which stores a plurality of contents, a controller which selects candidates to be deleted according to a characteristic value from among the plurality of contents and generates a deletion candidate list, a display which displays the deletion candidate list, and an input which receives a user command to select content to be deleted from the deletion candidate list. A method of managing a storage capacity includes checking a storage capacity of a terminal device; in response to the storage capacity meeting a preset capacity condition, selecting candidates to be deleted from among a plurality of contents and generating a deletion candidate list; displaying the deletion candidate list; and deleting at least one content selected from the deletion candidate list.
US09172925B2	Solid state image capturing element, image capturing apparatus, and focusing control method An image capturing element 5 has a phase difference detecting region 50a in a light receiving region 50 in which pixel cells are arranged, in the region 50a, some of pixel cells mounted with G filters, among the pixel cells which are arranged in a Bayer pattern, serve as phase difference detecting pixel cells 51R and 51L, the pixel cell 51L and the pixel cell 51R receive light which passes through different pupil areas of the image capturing lens 1, the pixel cell 51L includes two types of pixel cells (3) and (4) having different arrangement patterns of the adjacent pixel cells 51 and the pixel cell 51R includes two types of pixel cells (1) and (2) having different arrangement patterns of the adjacent pixel cells 51.
US09172924B1	Systems and methods for sharing encoder output Embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for sharing encoder output of video streams. In a particular embodiment, a method provides determining video profiles for each of a plurality of devices. The method further provides determining if two or more of the video profiles are similar by determining if parameters associated with each video profile differ by less than a threshold value. The method further provides transmitting a video stream encoded in a single format to the devices if they have similar profiles and transmitting video streams encoded in different formats to the devices if they do not have similar profiles.
US09172922B1	Doorbell communication systems and methods A doorbell system can include a remote computing device and a doorbell that has a camera. The doorbell can receive a communication from a remote sensor in response to an event. The communication may cause a power setting of the doorbell to be overridden. Then, the doorbell can send an outgoing communication.
US09172914B1	Using EQAM video de-jitter memory for processing M-CMTS DEPI PSP priority queues Methods, systems, and apparatus can be used to repurpose MPEG-TS de-jitter memory for DEPI DOCSIS PSP priority queues processing.
US09172912B2	Telepresence method, terminal and system The disclosure discloses a telepresence method, a telepresence terminal and a telepresence system. The system includes a telepresence terminal, multiple audio inputting devices and multiple audio outputting devices and/or multiple video inputting devices and multiple video outputting devices and a remote endpoint, wherein the telepresence terminal has multiple audio and video inputting and outputting interfaces for connecting the multiple audio inputting devices and the multiple audio outputting devices and/or the multiple video inputting devices and the multiple video outputting devices, and is configured to: establish a session, exchange input/output location information of multiple audio streams and/or video streams, perform media capability negotiation, and establish media logical channels with the remote endpoint; encode streams input by the multiple audio inputting devices and/or the multiple video inputting devices, and send the encoded streams to the remote endpoint according to input/output locations of the streams based on the established media logical channels; receive and decode multiple audio streams and/or video streams from the remote endpoint, and forward the decoded streams respectively to audio outputting devices and/or video outputting devices at local locations corresponding to input/output locations of the multiple audio streams and/or video streams received, so that the decoded streams are played by the audio outputting devices and/or the video outputting devices at the local locations. With the disclosure, problems of complicated deployment of an existing telepresence system, intercommunication and stream synchronization within the system are solved.
US09172908B2	Unpaired devices Disclosed is a user device comprising an output component configured to deliver an experience to a user in a standalone mode of the user device and an input component configured to receive a notification of an event. The device also comprises an indication generator for generating an indication for transmission over an air interface in response to receiving the input. The indication comprises an identifier relating to the event. Further, the device comprises a processing component configured to receive a message from a network node via a network. The message indicates that a media device has detected the identifier, and also comprises information of the media device. The processing component is configured to process the message received from the network to enable transfer of at least part of the experience to the media device.
US09172903B1	Method and system with multiple camera units installed in protective enclosure A system and method for simultaneously and continuously capturing video from the interior and exterior of a vehicle. The system includes, for example, a first housing including a first connection mechanism, first and second cameras and a memory disposed in the first housing. The system also includes a second housing including a second connection mechanism adapted to be removably connected to the first connection mechanism of the first housing and encasing said first housing within the second housing. A mounting mechanism is adjustably connected to said second housing and configured to maintain at least one of the first camera and the second camera in a predetermined position by adjusting the second housing. Additional embodiments are also described including a method for capturing data.
US09172902B2	Media recorder that selects when to record media content that is available at multiple times A particular method includes receiving program data designating media content to be recorded at a media recorder. An electronic program guide accessible to the media recorder includes multiple scheduled delivery times for the media content. The method includes receiving delay data. The delay data enables delayed recording of the media content and specifies at least one delay recording condition. The method includes determining an onset time to begin recording the media content based on the multiple scheduled delivery times for the media content and based on the at least one delay recording condition. The method also includes scheduling the media content to be recorded at the media recorder beginning at the onset time.
US09172897B2	Audio/visual device graphical user interface A user interface for an audio/visual device incorporates one or both of a touch sensor having a touch surface on which is defined a racetrack surface having a ring shape and a display element on which is displayed a racetrack menu also having a ring shape, and where the user interface incorporates both, the ring shapes of the racetrack surface and the racetrack menu are structured to generally correspond such that the position of a marker on the racetrack menu is caused to correspond to the position at which a digit of a user's hand touches the racetrack surface.
US09172887B2	Imaging apparatus, control method of imaging apparatus, interchangeable lens and lens-interchangeable type imaging apparatus body An imaging apparatus includes: a lens-interchangeable type imaging apparatus body which includes a solid-state imaging device; and an interchangeable lens as defined herein; and the interchangeable lens is provided with a first storage portion which stores individual difference information about brightness of the interchangeable lens; and the lens-interchangeable type imaging apparatus body is provided with a second storage portion which stores information about a change of incident light sensitivity of the solid-state imaging device relative to each diaphragm value, and a control portion which uses the individual difference information about the brightness read from the first storage portion of the mounted interchangeable lens and the information about the change of the sensitivity in the second storage portion to thereby correct exposure at a time of imaging the photographic subject.
US09172881B2	Camera and method of controlling operation of same It is arranged so that a user looking at an optical viewfinder and manipulating an operating member of a camera can ascertain which operating member is being manipulated. An optical image of a subject is displayed in the optical viewfinder. Operating members of the camera, which include a shutter-speed dial, exposure dial and command lever, are provided with respective touch sensors for sensing that these operating members have been touched. If the user touches the shutter-speed dial, an image representing the shutter-speed dial touched by the user appears on the optical image of the subject. Viewing the displayed image allows the user to ascertain that he is manipulating the shutter-speed dial.
US09172876B2	Measurement method, measurement apparatus, storage medium having stored therein computer program A measurement method capable of measuring a motion blur amount of an image with a high accuracy is provided. The measurement method fixes a camera on a vibratory table of a vibratory apparatus; selects one of a plurality of pieces of vibration data in accordance with the mass of the camera; shakes the vibratory table of the vibratory apparatus in accordance with the selected vibration data; acquires an evaluation image by imaging a subject by the camera while the vibratory table is being shaken; and measures a motion blur amount of an image based on the acquired evaluation image. In this case, the vibration data may be obtained by performing statistic processing for measured data.
US09172875B2	Video processing method and electronic device A video processing method includes the steps of: inputting a video; matching multiple frames of the video according to corresponding positions, wherein one of the frames serves as a reference image; marking a motion region, to be preserved, in the video; and submerging a content of each of the frames, corresponding to the motion region, into the reference image to generate a replacement frame. An electronic device is also disclosed.
US09172872B2	Digital photographing apparatus, methods of controlling the same, and computer-readable storage medium to increase success rates in panoramic photography Digital photographing apparatus, methods of controlling the same, and computer-readable storage medium to increase success rates in panoramic photography are disclosed. A method of controlling a digital photographing apparatus is provided that includes initiating panoramic photography, and providing a capture guide when an image is captured during the panoramic photography.
US09172864B2	Imaging device with autofocus operation An imaging device that images a subject includes a focus lens group that collects a light beam from the subject and forms an image of the subject, a focus motor that drives the focus lens group in the optical axis direction, and an imaging element that performs photoelectric conversion of the light beam and outputs a video signal. The imaging device further includes a contrast signal generator that generates and outputs a lower-frequency contrast signal from a luminance component of the video signal, an AF processor that employs the lower-frequency contrast signal as an auto focus evaluation value and moves the focus lens group to the in-focus position with wobbling the focus lens group, and a histogram signal generator that generates and outputs a high-luminance pixel count of the video signal. The AF processor varies the amplitude of the wobbling of the focus lens group based on the high-luminance pixel count.
US09172861B2	Image pickup information output apparatus and lens apparatus equipped with same Image pickup information output apparatus which outputs information about image pickup condition derived from combination of positions/states of condition decision members serving as optical members that affect fulfillment of the condition, comprising: setting unit for setting a condition setting value as the condition to be fulfilled; controller for driving one of the condition decision members to control its position/state based on the condition setting value, condition calculator for calculating information about the condition as calculated condition based on the combination of positions/states of the condition decision members; determination unit for determining whether or not the condition setting value changed; decision unit for determining the information about condition to be output, based on the calculated condition and the determination made by the determination unit as to whether or not the condition setting value changed; and output unit for outputting information about the condition to be output determined by the decision unit.
US09172860B2	Computational camera and method for setting multiple focus planes in a captured image Camera devices in form of a computational camera and corresponding methods are described wherein at least two different focus planes are set in an image.
US09172857B2	Image capture apparatus, imaging lens, and image capture system An image capture system including an image capture apparatus and an imaging lens detachable from the image capture apparatus comprises an image capture unit which captures an image of an object, an aperture which adjusts an amount of light that enters the image capture unit; a stepping motor of a 1-2 phase driving type, which is configured to drive the aperture, and a control unit which controls to set the stepping motor in a current applied state when the aperture is stopped down, and to drive the aperture by a difference between an aperture value while the aperture is stopped down and an aperture value for still image capture, when a still image capture instruction is issued while the aperture is stopped down.
US09172852B2	Camera system, video processing apparatus, and camera apparatus Disclosed herein is a camera system including, a camera apparatus having, an image sensor, a correction section, a first transmission processing section, and a synchronization processing section, and a video processing apparatus having a second transmission processing section and a conversion section, wherein the video processing apparatus outputs the video data obtained by the conversion by the conversion section.
US09172847B2	Scanning method and device for obtaining color images In a method of scanning an image on an original, an optical sensor including sensor elements for each of a number of basic colors is used to generate pixel values of rows of pixels of the scanned image. The sensor elements are used to generate grey scale pixel values representing different parts of the image. A first sensor element for each of the basic colors is used to generate pixel values of odd pixels of rows on the original, and a second sensor element for each of the basic colors is used to generate pixel values of even pixels of rows of the original. Each color pixel value is generated mainly on the basis of a pixel value of at least one of the first sensor elements and pixel values of at least two of the second sensor elements for adjacent pixels.
US09172838B2	Image reading device An image reading device comprising: a document placing portion; a conveyor; and a reading unit configured to read an image of the document. The reading unit includes: an image sensor; and a support which supports the image sensor, wherein in the case of reading the image of the document conveyed by the conveyor. The support is to be stopped at a predetermined reading position; a guide; and a driving unit. The reading unit further includes: a release unit configured to release the contact with the guide by separating the support from the guide when the support is moved toward the predetermined reading position; and a contact portion configured to contact with the support separated from the guide by the release unit when the support is moved toward the predetermined reading position.
US09172829B2	Three-dimensional printer with laser line scanner A three-dimensional printer includes a laser line scanner and hardware to rotate the scanner relative to an object on a build platform. In this configuration, three-dimensional surface data can be obtained from the object, e.g., for use as an input to subsequent processing steps such as the generation of tool instructions to fabricate a three-dimensional copy of the object, or various surfaces thereof.
US09172818B1	Optimizing identification of public safety answering platform next generation 911 media support A method, system, and medium are provided for generating a profile for public safety answering platforms. The profile identifies media formats or media format combinations that are supported by the PSAPs at various cell sector locations maintained by a network provider. A network server selects a cell sector and generates test emergency services calls. The test emergency services calls are transmitted to a PSAP or multiple PSAPs. The PSAP generates a response that indicates whether the PSAP supports a media format identified in the test emergency services call. The PSAP may rely on capabilities of a secondary PSAP or a proxy PSAP to generate the response. The PSAP transmits the response to the network server for storage in the profile.
US09172810B2	System and method for calculating context-aware estimated wait time for customers An Estimated Wait Time (EWT) computing system for computing estimated wait time for customers in a contact center is provided. The EWT computing system includes an analysis module for analyzing each incoming contact to determine attributes corresponding to the incoming contact. The EWT computing system further includes a categorization module for categorizing the incoming contact based on the determined attributes and a past history of the incoming contact or similar contacts. The EWT computing system further includes a computing module for computing an estimated wait time for the incoming contact based on a category of the incoming contact and availability of suitable agents for handling the incoming contact. The EWT computing system further includes a reporting module for reporting the estimated wait time to the incoming contact.
US09172798B1	Determining calling windows for called telephone numbers A location determination rule is applied by a dialer when processing a telephone number of a target party in record from a dialing list. The location determination rule indicates how a geo-location of the target party is to be ascertained, so that the time zone of the target party is ascertained. Once the time zone is known, then a local time of the target party is ascertained, and a determination can be made whether a call can be originated to the target party within a prescribed calling window. The calling window indicates the beginning and ending times, local to the target party, when calls can be attempted to the target party. In one embodiment, the location determination rule can be defined for each record in the dialing list or for all records in the dialing list.
US09172796B2	Location based mixer priorities in conferences In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a plurality of locations associated with a conference system that has a conference server and a mixer, and prioritizing the locations by assigning a first priority to at least a first location and assigning a second priority to a second location. The second priority is lower than the first priority. The method also includes processing received media streams such that media streams received from endpoints associated with the first location are processed as having a higher priority than media streams received from endpoints associated with the second location.
US09172795B1	Phone call context setting Example apparatus and methods concern establishing additional context for a call using pre-call information. The additional context is provided by a caller and used to determine, for example, whether and how to answer a call. An apparatus (e.g., smart phone, VoIP device) may be configured to augment an outgoing call with first context setting information (e.g., short message, picture, voice clip). The first context setting information may be embedded in the outgoing call or may be provided separately as part of a distinct communication. The apparatus may also be configured to acquire second context setting information associated with an incoming call. The second context setting information may be retrieved from the incoming call or may be retrieved using a separate communication that is triggered by the incoming call. The second context setting information may be presented in an integrated display that produces a single user interruption.
US09172789B2	Contextual search by a mobile communications device Contextual search by a mobile communications device is described. In an implementation, a search query is a received and a context is detected of a user interface currently being displayed on a display device of a mobile communication device. One or more search results are displayed on a display device of a search performed in the detected context using the search query.
US09172786B2	Apparatus and method for controlling functions of a mobile phone using near field communication (NFC) technology Disclosed herein is an apparatus for controlling certain functions of a mobile terminal using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The apparatus includes an NFC chip module, a base band chip, and a USIM card. The NFC chip module is electrically connected to the base band chip of a mobile terminal, allows a command data signal to be transmitted to the base band chip or a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) card of the mobile terminal for the control of certain functions of the mobile terminal.
US09172771B1	System and methods for compressing data based on data link characteristics Systems and methods for compressing data in a network system communicated across a network are discussed. The network system may determine a data link characteristic for a data link between a source and a destination. A compression algorithm may be selected from among a plurality of compression algorithms based on the data link characteristic. A chunk of data may be compressed, using the selected compression algorithm, to be communicated over the data link. A compression ratio of the compressed chunk and the chunk uncompressed may be compared to a compression threshold. The compressed chunk may be provided, using the control circuitry, if the compression ratio is greater or equal to the compression threshold. The chunk uncompressed may be provided if the first compression ratio is less than to the first compression threshold.
US09172770B1	Web-based distributed computing with browser-executed code A reusable distributed computing framework may be established in which contributors of computing resources may participate by using a web browser to visit a web page that incorporates a distributed computing participation component. A distributed computing job provider may submit distributed computing jobs to a web-based distributed computing service. A distributed computing job may include browser-executable code in accordance with a particular distributed computing programmatic interface and data to be processed by the browser-executable code. The web-based distributed computing service may assign independently processable portions of the job data to browsers visiting a donor page for processing with the job code. Results returned by the donor browsers may be indexed and made available in real-time, as may a status of the distributed computing job such as with respect to processing the job data.
US09172769B2	Server reservation method, reservation control apparatus and program storage medium An information processing device including a communication interface that exchanges data with a first device and a second device; and a processor that performs authentication of the first device; receives content data from the first device via the communication interface; and controls the communication interface to send the content data in real time to the second device based on an access control setting, which indicates a restriction on sending the content data.
US09172763B2	Method and apparatus for server side remote desktop recordation and playback Various methods for server-side recordation and playback of a remote desktop session are provided. One example method may comprise receiving data related to a remote desktop protocol session. The method of this example embodiment may further comprise providing for storage of the data at a location other than the device associated with the remote desktop protocol client of the remote desktop protocol session. Furthermore, the method of this example embodiment may comprise receiving a request to reproduce the remote desktop protocol session. The method of this example embodiment may also comprise retrieving the data from storage. Additionally, the method of this example embodiment may comprise facilitating reproduction of at least a portion of the remote desktop protocol session based at least in part on the retrieved data. Similar and related example methods, apparatuses, systems, and computer program products are also provided.
US09172761B2	Method of gathering information related to activity of a user and a data processing system program product Information related to activity of a user may be provided using a method or a data processing system program product to perform the method. In one embodiment, the method includes sending a first view request to a first electronic site, receiving a first view from the first electronic site, and first information related to the first view request to a second entity that is different from the first entity. In another embodiment, a data processing system program product may perform a method of sending information related to a view request from the user for an electronic site. The information is to be sent to an entity that is different from an entity that substantially controls or owns the electronic site and different from an Internet service provider of the user, if the user is to use the Internet service provider in accessing the electronic site.
US09172756B2	Optimizing application performance in a network environment An example method for optimizing application performance in a network environment is provided and includes retrieving an L7 session identifier (ID) from a packet, generating a hash from at least the L7 session ID, and inserting the hash into a header of the packet. The L7 session ID identifies a particular application layer session between a client and a server in a network environment. The server includes a plurality of processors configured to process the packet, and the hash indicates a specific processor in the plurality of processors.
US09172754B2	Storage fabric address based data block retrieval Techniques for retrieving data blocks are provided. In one aspect, a storage fabric address of a controller associated with a data block is retrieved by a node. If the node is on the same storage fabric as the retrieved address, the data block may be retrieved over the storage fabric. In another aspect, a directory server maintains mappings of data blocks to storage fabric addresses of controllers associated with the data blocks. A request for the location of the data block includes the storage fabric address of the associated controller.
US09172750B2	Cluster-node load balancing in a distributed database system In one exemplary aspect, a method of a cluster-node load balancing system of a distributed database system includes receiving a request from a cluster with at least one node of a cluster of the distributed database system. The request includes a query for an identity of all other nodes known by the node as well as a metadata of all data maintained by the node. The identity of all other nodes known by the node as well as the metadata of all data maintained by the node is provided to the cluster.
US09172747B2	System and methods for virtual assistant networks A system for the operation of a virtual assistant network, comprising a plurality of virtual assistants stored and operating on network-connected devices, and a plurality of virtual assistant brokers stored and operating on network-connected devices, wherein the virtual assistants receive user requests and send the requests to the virtual assistant brokers, and wherein the virtual assistant brokers delegate the requests to other virtual assistants for fulfillment.
US09172742B2	System for detecting trigger event at location and sending notification to remote user device featuring detecting device for detecting trigger event and remote site for receiving notification from detecting device and sending notification to client application of remote user device Systems and methods for providing registration at a remote site that may include, for example, a monitoring module that may communicate with a remote site. A registration protocol may be used by the monitoring module and the remote site in generating the messages communicated during the registration process. The monitoring module may gather and generate various identification information to be included in the registration protocol messages. The registration information provided by the monitoring module maybe stored at the remote site in a database server having a database. A confirmation message may be communicated from the remote site to the monitoring module that may either acknowledge successful registration or report that an error occurred during the registration process.
US09172739B2	Anticipating domains used to load a web page Aspects of the subject technology are related to systems and methods for anticipating content domain names to be used by a browser. A system may be configured to detect network events while one or more web pages associated with a domain name are being loaded, identify, based on the network events, one or more content domain names that are associated with the domain name, and storing, in a data repository, associations of the one or more content domain names with the domain name. The associations of the one or more content domain names in the data repository may be used to initiate a Domain Name System (DNS) request for at least one of the one or more content domain names when a subsequent web page associated with the domain name is loaded by a browser.
US09172735B2	Method and apparatus for content distribution via non-homogeneous access networks A method and apparatus for streaming content to an access network in an interactive information distribution system. The method encapsulates the content in accordance to an Internet Protocol (IP). The content is then transcoded into a format supported by the access network, and streamed over a distribution network to a remote server or to a subscriber terminal that is coupled to the access network. The apparatus is embodied as stream caching server for streaming the content encapsulated within the packet to access networks via a stream distribution network in response to a request for content. A packet processor is coupled to the stream server for processing the encapsulated content within the IP packets into a format native to the access network.
US09172725B2	Apparatus for signaling circle of friends A device and method is provided for signaling an affinity of a peer device. According to one embodiment, the device receives a wireless signal from the peer device and determines the presence of the peer device based on the received signal. The device is able to detect the peer device when the peer device is within the vicinity or a certain proximity of the device. The received signal carries an affinity code of the peer device so that the device can detect the affinity of the peer device by comparing the received affinity code with its preset affinity code. If the two affinity code match, the device generates an the user to the presence of another user and signals that the two users share the same affinity.
US09172724B1	Licensing and authentication with virtual desktop manager A computer-implemented method for virtual desktop system to license and authenticate various user devices to access virtual desktop system, includes one or more of following operations: (a) establishing network connection between a user device and a virtual desktop manager, (b) receiving request from user device to obtain access token to access a target virtual desktop of a virtual machine, (c) verifying the user device registration and security policy, (d) generating a unique token with expiration by virtual desktop manager if user device is authorized, (e) providing unique token with expiration and security policy to user device, (f) establishing connection between user device and target virtual desktop of virtual machine using unique token with expiration and security policy, (g) verifying token with virtual desktop manager by virtual machine of target virtual desktop, and (h) allowing user device to access target virtual desktop of virtual machine if user device is authorized.
US09172718B2	Endpoint load rebalancing controller A endpoint load rebalancing controller, method of controlling endpoint activity to suppress side channel variation and computer program product for controlling endpoint activity for suppressing side channel variation in information from utility company users, e.g., from power company endpoints. The load rebalancing controller monitors period to period endpoint service usage and predicts next period endpoint service usage. Whenever the controller maintains determines that the endpoint usage will exhibit a change that may be sufficient to convey activity information in side channel activity, the controller rebalances activity for the next period. Rebalancing may include shifting off-line execution from one period to another and capping or increasing on-line execution activity.
US09172716B2	System and method for detecting DNS traffic anomalies Systems and methods for analyzing domain name system (“DNS”) lookup data perform operations that may include: calculating traffic scores for a network address based on a set of DNS lookup data associated with the network address, where the set of DNS lookup data includes a plurality of query records having one or more queried network addresses; calculating a first variance and a second variance for the network address based on the traffic scores for the network address; and determining a rank of the network address based on the first and second variances.
US09172710B2	Media transport protocol extensions for system integrity and robustness, and applications thereof Methods, systems and computer program products to implement extensions of the Media Transport Protocol (MTP) are provided herein. The methods include opening a session between an initiator and a responder, exchanging one or more of device and system information and sending one of an operation or event based on media player application features. The operation includes one or more of a dataset, response code, operation parameter and response parameter. In an embodiment, the extensions enable the initiator and responder to manage connections efficiently between devices, send media player application information to a media player device, exchange device and system information, manage digital rights, monitor system security and specify properties within one or more extensions of MTP. These extensions may be in the form of one or more of an operation, an event, a dataset or property code.
US09172707B2	Reducing cross-site scripting attacks by segregating HTTP resources by subdomain An arrangement for reducing the occurrence of harmful cross-site scripting is provided by segregating on-line content or other resources so that they are accessible at different domains or subdomains, each of which corresponds to a set of users, called a “sharing set,” where each user in the set has identical access privileges to certain resources. The sharing set is provided with an identifier (which may or may not be unique), so that the identifier may be used as the name of the domain or subdomain for which any member of the sharing set is authorized to access the resources located there. In this way, script that is embedded with the content can only be executed among members of the sharing set. Users who are not members of the sharing set are unable to invoke cross site-scripting attacks that would allow them to gain access to data from sharing set members.
US09172703B2	System and method for peer-to-peer hybrid communications An improved system and method are disclosed for peer-to-peer communications. In one example, the method enables two endpoints to directly establish and maintain a communication session after authenticating with an access server.
US09172698B1	System and method for key generation in security tokens Functional randomness in security tokens (FRIST) may achieve improved security in two-factor authentication hardware tokens by improving on the algorithms used to securely generate random data. A system and method in one embodiment according to the present invention may allow for security of a token based on storage cost and computational security. This approach may enable communication where security is no longer based solely on onetime pads (OTPs) generated from a single cryptographic function (e.g., SHA-256).
US09172697B1	Facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.
US09172682B2	Local authentication in proxy SSL tunnels using a client-side proxy agent A traffic management device (TMD), system, and processor-readable storage medium are directed towards reducing a number of login web pages served by a server device over an end-to-end encrypted connection. In one embodiment, a TMD intercepts and processes requests for content addressed to the server device. The TMD may serve a stored copy of a login page corresponding to the requested content to the client device. In response, the client device may submit login information associated with the login page to the TMD. The TMD may extract the login information from the submitted response and send a request to the server device to authenticate the client device based on the extracted login information. If the client device is authenticated, the TMD may transmit a ‘login successful’ page to the client device.
US09172678B2	Methods and apparatus to improve security of a virtual private mobile network Methods and apparatus are disclosed to improve security of a virtual private mobile network. An example method includes identifying a request to initialize the virtual private mobile network, identifying a number of subgroups to associate with the virtual private mobile network, generating a virtualized slice count value based on the number of subgroups, and initializing network elements with a number of virtualized slices based on the virtualized slice count value.
US09172674B1	Managing request routing information utilizing performance information Systems and methods for managing requesting routing functionality associated with resource requests for one or more resources associated with a content provider are provided. The request routing functionality can correspond to the processing of domain name service (“DNS”) requests for resources by computing devices and the resolution of the DNS requests by the identification of a network address of a computing device that will provide the requested resources. Based on the processing resource requests initiated by a client computing device, a CDN service provider can obtain performance information from client computing devices and correlate the performance information into a prioritized list for classes of client computing devices. The prioritized list can be utilized in resolving subsequent DNS queries.
US09172672B2	Communication streams Embodiments described herein organize and percolate important messaging and information to the top of a communications pile, and create a high ratio of front-and-center communication versus chatter communication. This is analogous to creating a high signal-to-noise ratio in signal communications. Thus, embodiments described herein raise the desired signal level high above the noise level to obtain a visual at-a-glance level of communication with reduced clutter or no clutter.
US09172669B2	Apparatus, methods and computer-readable storage media for security provisioning at a communication device Apparatus, methods and computer-readable storage medium are provided for security provisioning at a communication device. In some embodiments, a method can include: executing a high security application on a communication device based, at least, on detecting that high security is enabled for the communication device and detecting execution of a low security application; outputting, via a user interface (UI), information configured to detect an entry to the communication device; detecting an entry at the UI of the communication device; determining whether the entry corresponds to security access information stored in the communication device; and providing access to the communication device based, at least, on determining that the entry corresponds to the security access information.
US09172667B2	Preventing co-user addition to user definable co-user lists Systems and methods are disclosed for tracking and displaying the logon status of selected co-users of an on-line or network system in real time to a tracking user in a unique graphical interface. The invention provides user definable on-line co-user lists, or “buddy lists,” which track specific co-users in real-time automatically. When a user logs on to a system, one or more of the user's buddy lists are presented to the buddy list system. The buddy list system attempts to match co-users currently logged into the system with the entries on the user's buddy list. Any matches are displayed to the user. As co-users logon and logoff, a user's buddy list is updated to reflect these changes. An indication can also be added to show that a co-user just logged on or just left the system.
US09172652B2	Method and apparatus for diagnosing faults in a hybrid internet protocol network An Ethernet switch can receive an internet protocol query packet generated by a receiver for collecting telemetry data between a source and the receiver in a multicast network, translate the internet protocol query packet to an Ethernet query packet, collect in the Ethernet query packet telemetry data from the Ethernet switch where at least one telemetry field of the Ethernet Switch includes an arrival time of the Ethernet query packet at the Ethernet switch, and submit the Ethernet query packet to the next network element of the multicast network. An internet protocol router can receive an Ethernet query packet generated by an Ethernet switch having at least one field for telemetry for collecting telemetry data between a source and a receiver, translate the Ethernet query packet to an internet protocol query packet, and submit the internet protocol query packet to the next network element. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US09172645B1	Methods and apparatus for destination based hybrid load balancing within a switch fabric In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a switch module configured to receive an order identifier of a first data packet from a first stage of a multi-stage switch. The switch module is configured to receive an indicator of an available capacity of the first module of a second stage of the multi-stage switch fabric, and an indicator of an available capacity of a second module of the second stage of the multi-stage switch fabric. The switch module is configured, when the order identifier is assigned, to direct the first data packet to the first module of a second stage of the multi-stage switch fabric when the available capacity of the second module is lower than the available capacity of the first module. The switch module configured, when the order identifier is unassigned, to direct the first data packet to the second module when the available capacity of the second module is higher than the available capacity of the first module.
US09172644B2	System and method for automatically adapting audio packet marking in a packet network Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for managing a packet network to deal with a problem of dropped audio packets. A triggering event signal indicates that audio marked packet traffic in the packet network has exceeded a capacity limit. Upon receiving the triggering event signal, a transmitting device transmits audio packets marked as non-audio packets through the packet network. The transmitting device, for example, is a VoIP telephone. The triggering event signal, for example, is generated when the audio marked packet traffic exceeds a dropped packet threshold, or when monitoring of audio marked packet traffic indicates that audio marked packet traffic approaches a committed data rate (CDR) threshold.
US09172643B2	Method and system for cooperative congestion detection in cellular networks Congestion information is determined based on a file segment transferred to one of user terminals. The congestion information is available to a server or controller communicatively linked with a plurality of user terminals. The congestion information is shared with other user terminals that share a bottleneck link.
US09172640B2	Frameworks and interfaces for offload device-based packet processing High-speed processing of packets to, and from, a virtualization environment can be provided while utilizing hardware-based segmentation offload and other such functionality. A hardware vendor such as a network interface card (NIC) manufacturer can enable the hardware to support open and proprietary stateless tunneling in conjunction with a protocol such as single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) in order to implement a virtualized overlay network. The hardware can utilize various rules, for example, that can be used by the NIC to perform certain actions, such as to encapsulate egress packets and decapsulate packets.
US09172639B2	Distributing functions in a distributed and embedded environment The different switch modules making up a distributed virtual switch may route configuration commands for hardware resources to different modules within the distributed switch using a distribution and routing layer. At least one of the switch modules maintains a routing table that defines which switch modules are responsible for which hardware resources. The switch module uses the routing tables to forward the commands on the distribution and routing layer to the responsible switch module which then ensures that the relevant hardware resources are configured.
US09172635B2	Ethernet backbone network system for vehicle and method for controlling fail safe of the ethernet backbone network system A backbone network system for a vehicle enables high-speed and large-capacity data transmission between integrated control modules mounted in the vehicle, such that communication can be maintained through another alternative communication line when an error occurs in a specific communication line. The backbone network system enables various kinds of integrated control modules mounted in the vehicle to perform large-capacity and high-speed communications, based on Ethernet communication, by connecting domain gateways of the integrated control modules through an Ethernet backbone network, and provides a fast fail-safe function so that domain gateways can perform communications through another communication line when an error occurs in a communication line between the domain gateways.
US09172624B1	Determining physical connectivity of data center devices A patch panel device has communication ports respectively associated with a unique binary number having a number of binary digits, and a plurality of computing devices are each respectively coupled to at least one of the ports. A connectivity test includes configuring the patch panel device to send a message to a first sending device in response to receiving data at a port associated with a binary number having a first value as the respective binary digit, and not to send a message to a second sending device in response to receiving data at a port associated with a binary number having a second value as the respective binary digit. Each of the computing devices is caused to transmit data for arrival at a corresponding port, an indication is received for each device regarding whether the device received a message. A connectivity map is generated.
US09172622B2	Methods, systems and computer products for download status notification Methods, systems, and computer products for download notification including identifying content for download, requesting a download of the content to a device and requesting a notification related to the status of the download.
US09172614B2	Network capacity management system and method A network capacity management system and method are disclosed. The system (10) includes a first data repository (20) encoding topology definition data, the topology definition data comprising data on topology elements of a network and including data on capacity of a respective topology element, a second data repository (30) encoding service consumption data, the service consumption data comprising data on service elements associated with a network and including data on capacity requirements associated with a respective service element, a network definition component (40) operable generate a network definition from the topology definition data and the service consumption data, the network definition encoding capacity criteria determined from said data on capacity of the respective topology elements and from data on capacity requirements of the respective service elements and an optimization component (50) operable to process said network definition in dependence on one or more predetermined optimization criteria to optimize said network definition based on said optimization criteria and on said capacity criteria.
US09172613B2	Multiple topology routing architecture in computer networks In a multiple interface, low power and lossy network comprising a plurality of nodes, a low transmission power and medium transmission power topology are defined for the network and a channel-hopping schedule is defined for the devices operating in each topology. A sender determines that data is capable of being transmitted via a link on the low transmission power topology. The sender determines the transmission parameters for the transmission of the data over the link on the low transmission power topology and determines a low transmission power channel for transmission of the data. The sender transmits the determined channel and the transmission parameters to the receiver. The sender transmits the data via the determined channel in the low transmission power topology.
US09172610B2	Multiple form enumerated attributes Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: receiving, via a user interface of the DRA, a request to define a rule; retrieving metadata associated with a context object; determining that a component specified by the metadata is an enumerated type component; presenting, via the user interface, a first displayed component for the enumerated type component, wherein the first displayed component is associated with a numeric value; presenting, via the user interface, a second displayed component for the enumerated type component, wherein the second displayed component is associated with an alphanumeric value; and receiving, via the user interface, a rule definition, wherein receiving the rule definition comprises receiving a selection of at least one of the first displayed component and the second displayed component.
US09172606B2	System for remotely controlling device of node featuring client application that displays virtual component corresponding to physical component of device and remote site located remote from node for sending control commands received from client application to node Systems and methods for providing registration at a remote site that may include, for example, a monitoring module that may communicate with a remote site. A registration protocol may be used by the monitoring module and the remote site in generating the messages communicated during the registration process. The monitoring module may gather and generate various identification information to be included in the registration protocol messages. The registration information provided by the monitoring module may be stored at the remote site in a database server having a database. A confirmation message may be communicated from the remote site to the monitoring module that may either acknowledge successful registration or report that an error occurred during the registration process.
US09172604B1	Target mapping and implementation of abstract device model A Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for a target computing device that is equipped with an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or other hardware element that provides forwarding and/or switching capability is used to analyze an abstract candidate device model. The abstract candidate device model is received from a controller and specifies intended forwarding behavior for the target device. The HAL analyzes the abstract candidate device model based on its knowledge of the architecture of the ASIC or other hardware element providing forwarding or switching capability to the target device. If the behavior is supported by the target device's architecture, the model may be implemented in a specific manner supported by that architecture and used to control forwarding behavior on the target device.
US09172600B1	Efficient I/O error analysis and proactive I/O failover to alternate paths for InfiniBand channel An InfiniBand managed storage environment is made up of processor nodes containing HCAs and managed storage devices containing TCAs and exposing a plurality of LUNs and volumes. For each InfiniBand channel between a specific HCA and a specific TCA, the paths between the HCA and any LUN or volume exposed by the TCA are grouped into a set. Occurrence of failures on specific paths of specific sets on specific channels are determined, for example by registering for callbacks or polling for occurrence of events which adversely affect communication between endpoints. Also, I/O operations executed by processor nodes are tracked and failures thereof are detected. When the occurrence of a failure on a specific path of a set is determined, all I/O operations on all paths of the set are proactively rerouted to a separate set on a separate channel that connects the same processor node and storage device.
US09172595B2	Systems and methods of packet object database management The present disclosure generally provides systems and methods of packet object database management. The database management system includes a database server designed specifically to process binary network packet data. The database server is associated with a parser, query engine, retrieval engine, virtual machine, data manger, and file processor. The database management system uses a proprietary query language to support all accesses to the database. The parser identifies whether the query is a data management query or if it is a data retrieval instruction. If the query is a data management query, the data manager manages the query request and attempts to satisfy the query request. Otherwise, query engine could further analyze or parse the query into a particular query structure or sub-structures to attempt to satisfy the query request.
US09172593B2	System and method for identifying problems on a network Aspects of the invention may involve systems, methods, and computer readable medium. In an embodiment, a telecommunications network may contain telecommunications probes capable of generating detailed records describing network events. The telecommunications probes may be coupled to computer processors and/or memory. The memory may store detailed records created by the probes and instructions executable by the processors. The instructions may be to: identify detailed records that indicate an event failure including error codes and associated subscriber identifiers; learn a distribution of error codes and associated subscriber identifiers; detect event failures that indicate an increase in the number of subscriber identifiers for an error code; analyze attributes of the detected event failures to identify common attributes between the detected event failures; prepare a report identifying a network issue based on the identified common attributes between the detected event failures; transmit the report; and receive feedback based on the report.
US09172585B2	Content management apparatus, web server, network system, content management method, content information management method, and program A content management apparatus includes a content storage section configured to store a piece of content together with a content unique identifier; a content transmitter configured to transmit the piece of content together with the content unique identifier to a Web server; an intra-server management identifier receiver configured to receive an intra-server management identifier corresponding to the content unique identifier from the Web server; a management table for storing the content unique identifier and the intra-server management identifier; a content information updating message receiver configured to receive content information on the piece of content and a content information updating message containing the intra-server management identifier from the Web server; an identifier converter configured to convert the intra-server management identifier contained in the content information updating message into the content unique identifier; and a content management section configured to allow the content storage section to store the content information.
US09172581B2	Communication system, datacenter apparatus, and control method used in datacenter apparatus According to one embodiment, a communication system includes at least one user apparatus and a datacenter apparatus. The datacenter apparatus includes a processor, a memory and a controller. The processor includes a plurality of containers required to execute a plurality of communication functions associated with the exchange processing between the communication terminals or between the communication terminal and the communication line. The memory stores a user ID used to identify the user apparatus. The controller provides a communication service using at least one of the plurality of containers when a use request of the communication function is received from the user apparatus.
US09172564B2	Method for detection using a YI algorithm, and YI detector In the field of communications technologies, embodiments of the present invention provide a method for detection using a YI algorithm and a YI detector, so as to solve the technical problem of poor detection performance caused by signal environment variation in the prior art. In the embodiment of the present invention, parameters are obtained according to a received signal; a level threshold at each level starting from a level corresponding to a Tailbits value is obtained according to the parameters, and validity of at least one node at the level is determined according to the level threshold, where the level is the same as a level of the level threshold; and a detection identifier is output according to the validity. The embodiment of the present invention is mainly applied to a scenario of detection using thresholds.
US09172554B2	Method and network access device for enabling data forwarding between different physical mediums The disclosure discloses a network access device and a method for enabling data forwarding between different physical mediums. The method comprises: a network access device establishing a first Point-to-Point Protocol virtual channel (PPP channel) based on a first physical medium and a second PPP channel based on a second physical medium; the network access device performing channel negotiations with the first PPP channel and with the second PPP channel respectively, and the network access device setting a relationship between the first PPP channel and the second PPP channel to be a binding relationship, when the channel negotiations of the two virtual channels succeed, to enable data forwarding between the first physical medium and the second physical medium. The disclosure can enable data forwarding quickly and efficiently. The networking mode is simple and the operation cost is low.
US09172552B2	Managing an entity using a state machine abstract In an implementation, a method for managing an entity may include establishing of a framework for characterization of the entity, in which the framework abstracts operation of the entity to a state machine. In addition, each state in the state machine may be characterized in terms of distributions of a performance metric associated with the entity. The method may also include implementing of the framework for characterization of the entity to manage the entity.
US09172547B2	Apparatus and method for signature verification A receiver comprises a security processor and a first memory that stores software code or second stage authentication key and a signature for the software or the second stage key. The receiver also stores a plurality of verification keys (PUAK). When the receiver is switched on or reset, the software or second stage key and the signature are loaded from the first memory. The security processor then loads a PUAK and uses it to verify the signature. In case of successful verification, the software code or second stage key is used and the verification method ends; it is then possible to activate CA specific functions in the receiver. However, if the verification is unsuccessful, then it is verified if there are untried PUAKs. If there are no untried signatures, then the verification has failed and the software cannot be verified; the verification method ends. If there are untried signatures, then the next PUAK is loaded.
US09172546B2	Network mediated multi-device shared authentication Described in an example embodiment herein is an apparatus, comprising a communication interface and authentication logic coupled with the wireless interface. The authentication logic authenticates with at least one neighboring device forming a trust relationship with the at least one neighboring device. The authentication logic obtains via the communication interface data representative of a user associated with a user device. The authentication logic sends a challenge to the user device, via the communication interface, the challenge requesting data associated with the user associated with the user device. The authentication logic receives a response to the challenge via the user interface and validates the response to the challenge. The authentication logic provides data to the at least one neighboring device indicating that the user associated with the user device has been authenticated, to enable access to the functionality and/or resources of the at least one neighboring device.
US09172542B2	System and method to pass a private encryption key A method and system may include receiving, by a certificate authority computing device, a request to provision and provide a private key. A connection may be established between a requester device and a network for identification. The identity of the requester device may be verified via a network path utilized by the connection. A secure session with the requester device may be initiated using an intermediate agent on the network. A private key may be provided from the certificate authority to the requester device using the secure session. The private key may be provisioned. The intermediate agent may be connected to the network at a location that provides the requester device with a connection to the network. The intermediate agent may further authenticate the requester device using the location of the connection to the network of the requesting device.
US09172540B2	System and method for processing encoded messages for exchange with a mobile data communication device A system and method are provided for pre-processing encrypted and/or signed messages at a host system before the message is transmitted to a wireless mobile communication device. The message is received at the host system from a message sender. There is a determination as to whether any of the message receivers has a corresponding wireless mobile communication device. For each message receiver that has a corresponding wireless mobile communication device, the message is processed so as to modify the message with respect to one or more encryption and/or authentication aspects. The processed message is transmitted to a wireless mobile communication device that corresponds to the first message receiver. The system and method may include post-processing messages sent from a wireless mobile communications device to a host system. Authentication and/or encryption message processing is performed upon the message. The processed message may then be sent through the host system to one or more receivers.
US09172539B2	In-market personalization of payment devices Systems and methods for remotely personalizing payment devices for consumers are described. In an embodiment, a system includes a MOTAPS server computer that provides data preparation functions and a trusted service provider (TSP) personalization server computer. The system also includes a service provider computer operably coupled to the TSP personalization server computer, and a remote personalization device (RPD) operably coupled to the service provider computer. The RPD transmits personalization requests, receives personalization data, and personalizes a payment device before providing the personalized payment device to a consumer.
US09172538B2	Secure lock for mobile device A secure lock procedure for mobile devices is disclosed. The secure lock process generally includes detecting a device access attempt at a telecommunication device during a security-enabled boot sequence. The device access attempt may include a cryptographic key, which when detected, initiates a cryptographic authentication operation. The cryptographic authentication operation results in access to one or more resource of the telecommunication device being enabled, when the cryptographic key is determined to be valid, or denied, when the cryptographic key is determined to be invalid. The device access attempt may be associated with a root-level device access attempt or software flash attempt, and the secure lock procedure can be implemented in conjunction with a boot loader stored within a memory of the telecommunication device.
US09172537B1	Array encryption core A scalable and efficient array encryption architecture is provided for encrypting data with a cryptographic algorithm using a variable number of encryption cores. The architecture can be implemented as circuitry in a fixed logic device, or can be configured into a programmable integrated circuit device such as a programmable logic device (PLD). An input arbitration logic circuit may schedule timeslots within the encryption cores to maximize system bandwidth. Each one of the encryption cores may use a plurality of pipelined registers and may support simultaneous encryption operations of multiple data blocks. Each core may provide timeslot availability signals to indicate current or anticipated availability of a timeslot for processing data in that core. The same top-level design may be used for different choices of processing depth, parallelism level, and/or system throughput.
US09172534B2	Range search system, range search method, and range search program In case of a range search to the encryption DB (database), conventionally, because there is a correlation between a value of the data and the number of search keys for the range search, the contents of the encrypted data can be inferred and are not safe. Also, it is not efficient sufficiently in case of insertion of the data, and search. In the present invention, the search keys related by the data are generated for a predetermined number without depending on the value of the data. Also, when the search keys showing a range are generated, the search keys are provided from the search key having a narrow width to the search key having a wide range, and the widths have a relation of a power series length, to suppress the number of necessary search keys.
US09172521B2	Communication channel calibration using feedback A method for calibrating a communication channel coupling first and second components includes transmitting a data signal from the first component to the second component on the communication channel, and sensing a characteristic, such as phase, of the data signal on the second component. Information about the sensed characteristic is fed back to the first component using an auxiliary channel. An adjustable parameter, such as phase, for the transmitter is adjusted on the first component in response to the information. Also, a characteristic of a data signal received from the transmitter on the second component is sensed and used to adjust an adjustable parameter for the receiver on the first component.
US09172519B2	Method and device for transmitting ACK/NACK in wireless communication system Provided are a method and a device for transmitting an acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) of a terminal which is set with a plurality of serving cells. The method comprises the steps of: receiving data in a subframe n of a second serving cell; and transmitting an ACK/NACK signal for the data in a subframe n+kSCC(n) of a first serving cell connected to the subframe n of the second serving cell, wherein the first serving cell is a primary cell for the terminal to execute an initial connection establishment procedure or a connection reestablishment procedure, and uses a frequency division duplex (FDD) wireless frame, the second serving cell is a secondary cell allocated to the terminal in addition to the primary cell, and uses a time division duplex (TDD) wireless frame, and the kSCC(n) is a previously determined value.
US09172518B2	Apparatus, system, and method for signaling a quantity of antenna ports in a wireless communication system A quantity of antenna ports of a transmitting apparatus is signalled in a wireless communication system. The quantity of antenna ports of the transmitting apparatus is encoded into a first type information and a second type information. The first type information is transmitted on a physical broadcast channel (PBCH); and the second type information is transmitted on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). The PDSCH is transmitted on at least one antenna port indicated by the first type information.
US09172514B2	Method and arrangement for positioning a wireless device A method in a network node and a network node with positioning functionality in a wireless communications network in a multi-carrier system are described. The network node enables positioning measurements for a wireless device in the multi-carrier system based on at least one capability indicator that identifies on which carrier frequencies positioning measurements in the multi-carrier system can be performed.
US09172510B2	Systems and methods for improved recovery for the downlink Systems, methods, and devices for an improved recovery for the downlink are described herein. In some aspects, delay and overhead associated with retransmission of data lost due to an interruption can be reduced and/or eliminated by configuring a receiver to generate and transmit status information following resumption from the interruption. The receiver can be configured to generate and transmit status information immediately upon resuming from the interruption. In some aspects, the receiver can be configured to automatically generate and transmit status information independent of receiving a polling request from the sender. Status information can indentify at least last received user data prior to the interruption. In some aspects, status information further identifies lost data due to the interruption.
US09172506B2	Packet loss recovery A network device includes a network interface device that receives at least a subset of a plurality of recoverable packets. The plurality of recoverable packets corresponds to a plurality of original packets generated by a source device. A processor having a packet recovery module recreates each of the original packets based on the subset of the recoverable packets received. The subset of recoverable packets excludes recoverable packets lost during transmission to the network interface device. A system includes a first network device that generates original packets and converts the original packets to recoverable packets. A second network device receives at least a subset of the recoverable packets, excluding recoverable packets lost during transmission from the first network device. The second network device includes a packet recovery module that recreates the original packets based on the subset of the recoverable packets received at the second network device.
US09172497B2	Data processing device and data processing method A data processing device and a data processing method that can readily process control data having its PAPR improved. In a transmission device, a padder pads control data necessary for demodulation with zeros as dummy data, and a scrambler scrambles the padded control data (post-padding control data). A replacement unit replaces scrambled dummy data in the scrambled post-padding control data with the dummy data, and a BCH encoder and an LDPC encoder perform BCH encoding and LDPC encoding as error correction encoding on the replacement data obtained through the replacement. A shortening unit performs shortening by deleting the dummy data contained in the LDPC code and puncturing the parity bits of the LDPC code. The device can be applied in cases where control data is subjected to error correction encoding and is then transmitted, for example.
US09172489B2	Discovery of an adjacent network element within a network data plane The present invention provides a system, apparatus and method for discovery of network elements, which are adjacent within the network data plane but may or may not be adjacent in the network control plane. In one embodiment of the present invention, digital network elements, with a plurality thereof having a lambda switching capability (hereinafter “LSC”) interface, is provided. A digital network element with an LSC interface originates and sends a local advertisement to its immediate control neighbor. Using this LSC originated advertisements; a neighboring network element may be discovered that is adjacent on the network data plane.
US09172470B2	Communication device A communication device includes four signal sending chips, four signal receiving chips, a first optical module and a second optical module. Each of the first optical module and the second optical module includes a main body and four lenses formed on the main body. The first optical module has four signal sending channels corresponding to the four lenses thereof, and the second optical module has four signal receiving channels corresponding to the four lenses thereof. The first optical module and the second optical module are individual from each other.
US09172468B2	Optical transceiver with optical receiver electrically isolated from housing and optical transmitter with enhanced heat dissipation to housing An optical transceiver that copes with both the enhanced heat dissipation from heat generating components and the electrical isolation of components processing faint signals from other components generating EMI noises is disclosed. The optical transceiver provides, in addition to a bottom of a frame, a bottom cover made by material with higher thermal conductivity. The former components are directly mounted on the bottom cover through openings in the frame, while, other component to be electrically isolated from the chassis are mounted by putting an insulating support between them and the bottom cover.
US09172466B2	Method for switching an optical data stream, computer program product and corresponding storage means and node A method and apparatus for switching an optical data stream via an optical network node, capable of switching optical data received at input ports to output ports. The method includes the following steps performed by a processing chain upon detection of a stream at a given wavelength by a given input port: determining a resource of the node based on a predetermined routing policy such that, for a given wavelength common to source and destination nodes of the stream, routing within the network is carried out according to a routing tree covering the network, a root of the tree being the destination node; consulting an occupancy table for the resource, indicating if at least one possible preceding stream is using the resource; determining a delay to be applied by the processing chain to prevent a collision between the stream and the possible preceding stream; and configuring the processing chain to apply the delay.
US09172461B2	Optical fibers with varied mode-dependent loss Various embodiments provide for detection of tapping of an optical signal. In one embodiment an optical fiber includes a cladding region and first and second core regions. The first core region has a first core medium having a first mode-dependent loss (MDL) figure of merit. The second core region has a second core medium having a second different MDL figure of merit. Tapping of the optical signal may be determined to occur when the MDL of the first and second optical signals differs by a predetermined threshold value.
US09172460B2	Transmission equipment and path selection method Transmission equipment comprises: a measurement unit configured to measure respective transmission delays of the plurality of paths by using a frame transmitted between the transmission equipment and correspondent equipment; a detector configured to detect a priority of an input packet; a selector configured to select a path for transmitting the input packet from among the plurality of paths; and a frame processing unit configured to transmit a frame onto which the input packet is mapped to the correspondent equipment through a path selected by the selector. The selector selects an alternative path for transmitting the input packet from among the plurality of paths based on the priority of the input packet detected by the detector and respective transmission delays of the plurality of paths measured by the measurement unit when a failure occurs in a path that has been selected by the selector.
US09172453B2	Method and apparatus for pre-coding frequency division duplexing system Accordingly, a method and apparatus are provided wherein a receiver system selects a pre-coding matrix, comprising eigen-beamforming weights, to use and provides rank value and matrix index associated with the selected matrix to the transmitter system. The transmitter system upon receiving the rank value and matrix index, determine if the matrix associated with the matrix index provided by the receiver system can be used. If not, them transmitter system selects another matrix for determining eigen-beamforming weights.
US09172450B2	Processing method and device for performing space-time decoding on MIMO signal Provided is a processing method and apparatus for performing space-time decoding on MIMO signals. The method includes: performing QR decomposition on a channel matrix H with a size of Nr×Nt in a MIMO system and performing an initialization operation, wherein Nt is the number of transmitting antennas and Nr is the number of receiving antennas; enumerating candidate constellation points of transmitting signals at each level of transmitting antennas according to an input parameter M=[M1, M2, . . . , MNt], a receiving signal y and a result of QR decomposition of H, wherein M is the number of the numerated candidate constellation points at each level, y=Hs+n; calculating increments of a Euclid distance due to addition of selection of a candidate constellation point at present level according to obtained candidate constellation points; and deciding and outputting space-time decoding according to the sum of calculated increments of Euclid distances of candidate constellation points at all levels.
US09172447B2	Method and apparatus for transceiving data in a MIMO system The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transceiving data. A method in which a transmitting terminal transmits data to a receiving terminal in a MIMO system according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises the following steps: generating a data field containing the data; generating a signal field containing information on the data field; generating a data frame containing the data field and the signal field; and transmitting the data frame to the receiving terminal. According to the present invention, an end of the frame being transmitted is accurately notified to the receiving terminal in a communication system in which the frame is transmitted using MIMO, thereby decoding the frame in a more efficient manner at the receiving terminal.
US09172434B2	Communication system using wireless power Provided are apparatuses, systems and methods for performing communication using wireless power. According to one general aspect, a communication device using wireless power may include: a controller configured to determine whether a mutual resonance occurs between a target resonator and a source resonator; and a modulator configured to modulate data based on whether the mutual resonance occurs.
US09172428B2	Determining the spectral energy content of a data bus Techniques for determining the spectral content of a data bus are described herein. An example of a device in accordance with the present techniques includes a data bus comprising one or more signal lines, a first phasor generator, and a second phasor generator. The first phasor generator obtains a first data value based on the data to be transmitted over the data bus and generates a first phasor. The second phasor generator obtains a second data value based on the data to be transmitted over the data bus and generates a second phasor. The sum of the first phasor and the second phasor indicate, at least in part, the spectral content of the data to be transmitted over the data bus.
US09172427B2	Crosstalk cancellation device and method with improved vectoring stabilisation A crosstalk cancellation device cancels crosstalk noise of at most M disturbing communication lines in a victim communication line forming part of a vectoring group. The crosstalk cancellation device gradually decreases the cancellation depth of a cancelled disturbing communication line in the victim communication line upon a crosstalk noise variation in the vectoring group requiring cancellation of crosstalk noise of a not yet cancelled disturbing communication line in the victim communication line.
US09172420B2	Mobile communication terminal The present disclosure discloses a mobile communication terminal comprising: a first antenna, being configured to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal from the outside; a wireless transceiver, being configured to obtain the RF signal and amplifies a down-converted signal in the RF signal into a baseband signal; a baseband processor, being configured to obtain the baseband signal from the wireless transceiver and demodulate the baseband signal to generate a to-be-transmitted signal; the wireless transceiver is further configured to convert the to-be-transmitted signal into an RF signal and output the RF signal from the signal transmitting port; and a second antenna, being configured to obtain the to-be-transmitted RF signal and transmit the to-be-transmitted RF signal. With the above technical solution, the present disclosure solves the problem of insertion loss caused by using a duplexer, thereby lowering the noise level in the transmitting path within the receiving frequency band.
US09172419B2	Protecting device for tablet computer A protecting device with keys' functions is provided. The protecting device includes a triggering member, a printed circuit board, and plural curable resinic structures. The printed circuit board includes plural first contacts. The plural first contacts are disposed on a top surface of the printed circuit board. The triggering member is disposed over the printed circuit board. The triggering member includes plural second contacts. The plural curable resinic structures are arranged between the triggering member and the printed circuit board for separating the plural first contacts and the plural second contacts from each other. Since the triggering member, the printed circuit board and the plural curable resinic structures of the protecting device of the present invention may replace the keys and the membrane switch circuit module of the conventional keyboard device, the thickness of the protecting device is largely reduced.
US09172417B2	Power management for a battery-powered handheld audio device A method for managing power of a battery powered handheld audio device by receiving an indicia of signal quality for a received continuous-time radio signal. The method compares the indicia of signal quality to a signal threshold. Upon a favorable comparison, enacting a first analog signal conditioning setting. Upon an unfavorable comparison, enacting a second analog signal conditioning setting. The method further provides, upon the favorable comparison, disabling a digital filtering operation, and upon the unfavorable comparison, enabling the digital filtering operation.
US09172409B2	Multi-path digital pre-distortion An apparatus relates generally to multi-path digital predistortion. In this apparatus, a single-band digital predistorter engine has first and second sample paths. An input stage is coupled to receive input samples and configured to separate them into first samples and second samples. The input stage provides first and second magnitudes for the first and second samples, respectively. A first set of digital predistorters receives the first samples, the first magnitudes and the second magnitudes. A second set of digital predistorters receives the second samples, the second magnitudes and the first magnitudes. An output stage is coupled to receive predistorted outputs from the first set of digital predistorters and the second set of digital predistorters and is configured to provide a digital predistorted composite signal from the first set of digital predistorters and the second set of digital predistorters.
US09172407B2	Carried recovery in re-modulation communication systems A communication apparatus includes transmission circuitry and a frequency conversion unit. The transmission circuitry is configured to down-convert an input Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal using a transmit (TX) Local Oscillator (LO) signal so as to produce a TX baseband signal, to up-convert the TX baseband signal to produce an output Radio Frequency (RF) signal, and to send the output RF signal to an antenna. The frequency correction unit is configured to estimate a frequency of the TX baseband signal or of the input IF signal, and to adjust the TX LO signal based on the estimated frequency so as to cause the transmission circuitry to down-convert the input IF signal to a predefined target frequency.
US09172402B2	Multiple-input and multiple-output carrier aggregation receiver reuse architecture A wireless communication device configured for receiving a wireless multiple-input and multiple-output signal. The wireless communication device includes a first multiple-input and multiple-output carrier aggregation receiver reuse architecture. The first multiple-input and multiple-output carrier aggregation receiver reuse architecture includes a first antenna, a second antenna and a transceiver chip. The first multiple-input and multiple-output carrier aggregation receiver reuse architecture reuses a first carrier aggregation receiver path. The wireless communication device also includes a second multiple-input and multiple-output carrier aggregation receiver reuse architecture. The second multiple-input and multiple-output carrier aggregation receiver reuse architecture includes a third antenna, a fourth antenna and a receiver chip. The second multiple-input and multiple-output carrier aggregation receiver reuse architecture reuses a second carrier aggregation receiver path.
US09172384B1	Low-noise voltage regulator for voltage-controlled oscillator One embodiment relates to an apparatus for regulating a voltage-controlled oscillator. The apparatus includes a digital-to-analog converter that has an input that receives a digital input signal and an output that outputs an analog control signal. A transistor receives the analog control signal so as to control an output voltage of the voltage-controlled oscillator. Control circuitry receives the output voltage and generates the digital input signal. Another embodiment relates to a method of regulating a voltage-controlled oscillator. A digital input signal is converted to an analog control signal using a digital-to-analog converter. The output voltage of the voltage-controlled oscillator is controlled using the analog control signal and monitored using a plurality of comparators. The digital input signal is changed depending on outputs of the plurality of comparators. Other embodiments, aspects, and features of the invention are also disclosed.
US09172377B2	Clock-tree transformation in high-speed ASIC implementation A method includes providing a first clock tree including a root clock and a plurality of levels of integrated clock gates (ICGs) under the root clock. The plurality of levels of ICGs in the first clock tree is flattened to generate a second clock tree including a plurality of ICGs in a same level under the root clock. A fake module is formed to reserve a region between the root clock and the plurality of ICGs. The fake module includes the root clock as a first input, and a first plurality of outputs coupled to clock-inputs of the plurality of ICGs. A skew balancing is performed on the second clock tree using a clock tree synthesis (CTS) tool to generate a third clock tree, wherein no buffers are inserted into the fake module, and wherein buffers are inserted by the CTS tool under the plurality of ICGs.
US09172366B2	Collector current driver for a bipolar junction transistor temperature transducer In one embodiment, a collector current driver is provided that controls the collector current for a bipolar transistor temperature transducer. The collector current driver is configured to use negative feedback to generate an emitter current for the bipolar transistor responsive to target current.
US09172354B2	Analog active low-pass filters Apparatus and methods for high-frequency low-pass filtering are disclosed. A first resistor is operatively coupled between a first node and a second node. A second resistor is operatively coupled between the second node and a third node. An amplifier circuit has a first input operatively coupled to the third node and a first output operatively coupled to a fourth node. The first output is configured to provide a first output signal. A first complex impedance network is operatively coupled between the fourth node and the third node. A first feedback path is operatively coupled between the fourth node and the second node. The first feedback path is configured to invert at least a portion of the first output signal. The first feedback path is further configured to provide a first feedback capacitance at the second node.
US09172352B2	Integrated microelectromechanical system devices and methods for making the same Integrated Microelectromechanical System (“MEMS”) devices and methods for making the same. The integrated MEMS device comprises a substrate (200) with first electronic circuitry (206) formed thereon, as well as a MEMS filter device (100). The MEMS filter device has a transition portion (118) configured to (a) electrically connect the MEMS filter device to second electronic circuitry and (b) suspend the MEMS filter device over the substrate such that a gas gap exists between the substrate and the MEMS filter device. The transition portion comprises a three dimensional hollow ground structure (120) in which an elongate center conductor (122) is suspended. The RF MEMS filter device also comprises at least two adjacent electronic elements (102/110) which are electrically isolated from each other via a ground structure of the transition portion, and placed in close proximity to each other.
US09172345B2	Personalized adjustment of an audio device Described herein are apparatuses, systems and methods that facilitate user adjustment of an audio effect of an audio device to match the hearing sensitivity of the user. The user can tune the audio device with a minimum perceptible level unique to the user. The audio device can adjust the audio effect in accordance with the minimum perceptible level. For example, a loudness level can adjust automatically to ensure that the user maintains a perceptible loudness, adjusting according to environmental noise and according to the minimum perceptible level. Also described herein are apparatuses, systems and methods related to an audio device equipped with embedded audio sensors that can maximize a voice quality while minimizing the effects of noise.
US09172342B2	Cross product enhanced subband block based harmonic transposition The invention provides an efficient implementation of cross-product enhanced high-frequency reconstruction (HFR), wherein a new component at frequency QΩ+rΩ0 is generated on the basis of existing components at Ω and Ω+Ω0. The invention provides a block-based harmonic transposition, wherein a time block of complex subband samples is processed with a common phase modification. Superposition of several modified samples has the net effect of limiting undesirable intermodulation products, thereby enabling a coarser frequency resolution and/or lower degree of oversampling to be used. In one embodiment, the invention further includes a window function suitable for use with block-based cross-product enhanced HFR. A hardware embodiment of the invention may include an analysis filter bank (101), a subband processing unit (102) configurable by control data (104) and a synthesis filter bank (103).
US09172340B2	Power amplifying apparatus for amplifying power and transmitter for transmitting signal by amplifying power A power amplifying apparatus includes a filter that filters a predetermined frequency, a branch line provided subsequently to the filter on a substrate on which the filter is provided to distribute power, a power amplifying device provided subsequently to the branch line to amplify power, and a connecting line provided subsequently to the power amplifying device to compose power. The power amplifying apparatus may further include a directional coupler that monitors transmitted high-frequency signals.
US09172334B2	Digital predistortion system and method with extended correction bandwidth The digital predistortion system and method with extended correction bandwidth includes a predistortion system that uses a two-box architecture based on the cascade of a memory polynomial followed by a memoryless predistortion function. The memoryless predistorter is identified offline and used to perform a coarse linearization which cancels out most of the static nonlinearity of the device under test allowing for a reduced observation bandwidth for the synthesis of the memory polynomial predistortion sub-function.
US09172330B2	Nonlinear load pre-distortion for open loop envelope tracking An apparatus for providing envelope tracking (ET), comprising: a power amplifier (PA) load variation pre-distortion, and an open loop ET modulator operatively coupled to the PA load variation pre-distortion, wherein the PA load variation pre-distortion is configured to determine a load variation at a PA supply voltage path based on an input signal received by a PA, and generate a pre-distortion compensation signal using the load variation, and wherein the open loop ET modulator is configured to generate a PA supply voltage on the PA supply voltage path using the pre-distortion compensation signal.
US09172324B2	Motor drive system A motor drive system has a brushless motor having coils classified into a group A and a group B, a stator having 12 teeth, around each of which any one of the coils classified into the group A and the group B is wound, and a shaft and a rotor which are provided inside the stator; a controller which applies three-phase voltages to each coil of the group A; a controller which applies the three-phase voltages to each coil of the group B; and a sensor portion which outputs an electric signal according to the rotation angle of the shaft to the controllers. Both the total number of the coils of the group A and the total number of the coils of the group B are 6.
US09172322B2	Control apparatus for AC motor A current estimation section of a motor control apparatus carries out the following processing. When an AC motor is controlled under a current feedback control scheme (sine wave control mode or overmodulation control mode), a β-axis current iβ is calculated based on a current detection value iw_sns in a sensor phase and a current command value iv* in one other phase. When the AC motor is controlled under a torque feedback control scheme (rectangular wave control mode), the β-axis current iβ is calculated based on a differential value Δiα of an α-axis current. Then a sensor phase reference current phase θx is calculated to estimate a U-phase current. Thus it is possible to use the current feedback control scheme and the torque feedback control scheme together.
US09172318B2	Method and system to compensate for dynamic DC offset of measured phase current A motor control system for determining an offset correction value is provided. The motor control system includes a motor, an inverter, an inverter controller, and a dynamic offset compensation control module. The inverter is configured to transmit the phase current to the motor. The inverter controller determines the phase current to the motor. The dynamic offset compensation control module is in communication with the inverter controller and the motor, and is configured to perform a method at a fixed periodic interval to determine the offset correction value.
US09172316B2	Inverter control method and system for eco-friendly vehicle Provided is an inverter control system and method for an eco-friendly vehicle, by which overall improvements can be obtained in terms of switching loss, electromagnetic performance, noise-vibration-harshness (NVH) performance, control stability, and so forth, when compared to a conventional case in which one fixed switching frequency and one fixed sampling frequency are used over the entire operation area. To this end, the inverter control method for an eco-friendly vehicle which generates a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal according to a switching frequency and a sampling frequency and controls ON/OFF driving of a switching element, in which a controller changes and sets the switching frequency according to a current motor speed, changes and sets a sampling frequency according to the switching frequency, and controls on/off driving of a switching element according to the switching frequency corresponding to the motor speed and the sampling frequency.
US09172312B2	Reducing photovoltaic array voltage during inverter re-enablement An apparatus for harvesting solar power includes a photovoltaic array for generating a DC voltage; a discharge circuit for causing the DC voltage to decay from a first value to a second value; and an inverter circuit for transforming an output voltage from the discharge circuit into an AC voltage.
US09172311B2	Switching arrangement for inverter, and inverter Exemplary embodiments are directed to a method and switching arrangement for an inverter. The inverter including a positive direct current pole, a negative direct current pole, and a neutral direct current pole. The arrangement having a first controllable switch connected between the neutral direct current pole of the inverter and a virtual neutral point of an alternating current network supplied by the inverter; and/or a second controllable switch connected between the neutral direct current pole of the inverter and an earth potential of an alternating current network supplied by the inverter.
US09172300B2	Charge-pump voltage divider and associated control method The embodiments of the present invention disclose a charge-pump voltage divider and associated start-up method. The charge-pump voltage divider comprises a start-up circuit that can regulate an inrush current during start up. The start-up circuit comprises a switch, which operates in linear region state during start-up, and operates in switching state after the start-up completes. The charge-pump voltage divider may further comprise a load control switch configured to ensure the start-up is independent of a load current.
US09172296B2	Common mode filter system and method for a solar power inverter A photovoltaic system, method and apparatus are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, the system includes a photovoltaic array, a distribution system that distributes power within a premises of a demand-side energy consumer, an inverter coupled to the distribution system that is configured to convert DC power from the photovoltaic array to AC power and apply the AC power to the distribution system, a damping portion configured to damp high frequency voltages derived from the inverter, and trapping circuitry coupled to the damping portion that is configured to reduce a level of low frequency current traveling through the damping portion.
US09172293B2	Hybrid stepping motor There is provided a hybrid stepping motor including a rotor including a plurality of rotor small teeth arranged at an equal pitch on an outer circumferential surface thereof, and a stator including a plurality of salient poles, each including a plurality of stator small teeth arranged to face the outer circumferential surface of the rotor via a gap. The stator small teeth have a predetermined stator tooth thickness and are arranged at a predetermined stator tooth pitch. The rotor small teeth have a predetermined rotor tooth thickness and are arranged at a predetermined rotor tooth pitch. A repulsion area ratio which is a ratio of an area of repulsion poles to a total area of all stator small teeth facing the rotor ranges from 0% to a predetermined threshold value.
US09172290B2	Method for unbalance correction of rotors by applying corrective weights by welding To correct an unbalance of rotors, a method and a device are proposed by means of which a corrective weight (15) is adapted to be welded to a rotor (2) by means of an electric welding device (14). The device comprises a robot (20) with a jointed arm (21) mounting the electric welding device (14). Arranged within reach of the jointed arm (21) is an unbalance measuring station (1) for measuring the amount of unbalance of the rotor (2) with an electronic computer which computes a corrective weight (15) to be attached to the rotor (2) for unbalance correction and transmits control data to a control device (23) of the robot (20). Under robot control, the welding device (14) picks the computed corrective weight (15) from a magazine (27) arranged within reach of the jointed arm (21) and welds it to the rotor (2) in the unbalance measuring station (1). During the welding operation the rotor (2) takes support on a first supporting device (11) and the welding device (14) on a second supporting device (12).
US09172287B2	Actuator configuration for a rotary drive A rotary drive includes: a support structure; and a linear actuator supported by the support structure. The linear actuator includes: a first member; a second member that moves in a linear direction relative to the first member when a drive signal is applied to the linear actuator; and a bearing arrangement supporting the first and second members within the support structure and enabling independent movement of the first member and the second member relative to the support structure. The rotary drive also includes a linear-to-rotary converter to which the second member of the linear actuator is coupled. The linear-to-rotary converter includes an output member having a rotational axis. During operation, the linear-to-rotary converter converts linear reciprocating movement of the second member of the linear actuator to rotary movement of the output member about the rotational axis.
US09172285B2	Linear stepping motor having a plate cover for fixing a bearing in a structure The present invention relates to a linear stepping motor, the motor characterized by: a housing; a stator mounted inside the housing: a rotor rotatively arranged at an inner surface of the stator and mounted with a female screw threaded to a lead screw; a mounting plate fixed at a lateral surface of the housing for passing the lead screw; and a plate cover coupled between the mounting plate and the housing configured to prevent a bearing rotatively supporting the female screw from axially moving, such that the bearing can be securely fixed in a simple structure by the plate cover itself to allow a free design in the size of a central hole of the housing or the size of an outer diameter of a magnet regardless of the size of outer diameter of the bearing, and the bearing is securely fixed to the plate cover by caulking to prevent the bearing from moving axially, whereby vibration and noise can be remarkably reduced to enhance the reliability of the product.
US09172280B2	Conductor and rotating electrical machine with a covering material A conductor for a coil of a rotating electrical machine that includes a conductor wire bundle formed by gathering a plurality of conductor wires and a flexible insulating covering material that covers a periphery of the conductor wire bundle. The conductor has an intra-covering gap formed inward of the insulating covering material in a radial direction so that the conductor wires can move relative to each other in the intra-covering gap, and a cross-sectional shape of the insulating covering material along a perpendicular plane that is perpendicular to an extending direction in which the conductor wire bundle extends can be deformed.
US09172279B2	Automotive embedded permanent magnet rotary electric machine An automotive embedded permanent magnet rotary electric machine can suppress increases in torque ripples and cogging torque, reduce core loss near a stator, and increase magnetic torque and reluctance torque. In the automotive embedded permanent magnet rotary electric machine, a first permanent magnet and a second permanent magnet that constitute a magnetic pole are embedded so as to line up in a main direction of rotation of magnetic poles of a rotor core and are embedded so as to be radially outwardly convex in a region that extends from a leading end portion to a trailing end portion in the main direction of rotation of the magnetic poles, and the first permanent magnet is formed into an integrated body that extends from the leading end portion in the main direction of rotation of the magnetic poles beyond a pole center toward a trailing side.
US09172271B2	Parallel control and protection for UPS According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a method of operating a UPS system having a first UPS and a second UPS coupled in parallel to provide output power to a load from a power source, each of the first UPS and the second UPS having an inverter and having a bypass switch, with each UPS configured to operate in one of an inverter mode in which output power is derived from the power source through the inverter, and a bypass mode in which output power is derived from the power source bypassing the inverter, the method comprising powering on the first UPS and the second UPS in the inverter mode of operation, designating one of the first UPS and the second UPS as a master UPS, and controlling the bypass switch of the first UPS and the bypass switch of the second UPS using the master UPS.
US09172265B2	Battery charger, voltage monitoring device and self-diagnosis method of reference voltage circuit A battery charger includes a battery cell, a reference voltage generating section, an A/D converting section including an A/D converter and a control section. The reference voltage generating section includes a first reference voltage circuit generating a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage circuit generating a second reference voltage equal to the first reference voltage. To diagnose the A/D converter, the first reference voltage circuit is used. To diagnose the first reference voltage circuit, a second A/D conversion value obtained by A/D converting a second divided voltage of the second reference voltage via the A/D converter using the first reference voltage is compared with a first reference value obtained by A/D converting a first divided voltage of the first reference voltage via the A/D converter using the first reference voltage when the first reference voltage circuit is normal.
US09172255B2	Method and apparatus for performing battery balancing control with aid of pluggable mechanism A method for performing battery balancing control with aid of pluggable mechanism is provided. The method is applied to a power supply device. The method includes the steps of: providing a pluggable external module, wherein the pluggable external module includes a first connection port, and further includes a set of external balancing circuits corresponding to a set of battery cells of a specific battery module within the power supply device, respectively; and on a case of the specific battery module, providing a second connection port corresponding to the first connection port, allowing the pluggable external module to be coupled to the specific battery module with aid of the pluggable mechanism formed with the first connection port and the second connection port, in order to utilize the set of external balancing circuits to perform balancing operations on the set of battery cells. Associated apparatuses are further provided.
US09172250B2	Electrical distribution system An electrical generating system for aircraft with one or more engines includes a plurality of generators associated with the engines so as to produce respective AC outputs. The frequencies of these outputs can differ from each other, as a result of differing engine speeds and/or deliberate design, but they are to be connected to a common bus to avoid redundancy of wiring. One or more converters are present between the generators and the bus for adjusting the output frequency of the generators to provide an AC output voltage at a common bus frequency. The system includes a control system for setting the AC bus frequency in such a way that it can vary with time. The bus frequency may follow the natural frequency of the engine, and only small converters are needed to make the already approximately equal generator frequencies identical, so that they can all feed the common bus.
US09172248B2	Cascaded converter station and cascaded multi-terminal HVDC power transmission system A cascade converter station and a multi-end cascade high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission system. The converter station includes a low-voltage end converter station (11) and a high-voltage end converter station (12). The high-voltage end converter station (12) is connected in series with the low-voltage end converter station (11) through a medium-voltage direct current (DC) power transmission line (13) and connected to a HVDC power transmission line (14). With the cascade converter station and the multi-end cascade HVDC power transmission system, HVDC power transmission can be achieved in a flexible, reliable and economical manner.
US09172246B2	Phase balancing of power transmission system Phase balancing techniques for power transmission systems are disclosed. In one embodiment, a phase balancing protocol (240) includes executing a first phase balancing protocol (350) in relation to a first power transmission section (400a). A second phase balancing protocol (370) may be executed if the first phase balancing protocol (350) is unable to provide a phase balanced condition. The first phase balancing protocol (350) may utilize a first ordering sequence (364) to rank the current flow on the power lines (16) of the first power transmission section (400a), while the second phase balancing protocol (370) may utilize a second ordering sequence (384) to rank the current flow on the power lines (16) of the first power transmission section (400a). The order sequences (364, 384) are opposite of each other—one ranks the current flows from high-to-low, and the other ranks the current flow from low-to-high.
US09172244B1	Self biased electro-static discharge clamp (ESD) for power rail A circuit with an electro-static discharge clamp coupled to a first power source and second power source. The electro-static discharge clamp includes an NMOS stack and an electro-static discharge detector. The NMOS stack has a first NMOS transistor with a first gate node and a second NMOS transistor with a second gate node. The electro-static discharge detector is configured to control the NMOS stack, and may include three switches. A first switch is configured to switch the first gate node to the second power source. A second switch is configured to switch the first gate node to the second gate node. A third switch is configured to switch the first gate node to the ground.
US09172234B2	Ground monitor circuit protection apparatus An apparatus includes a resistor assembly with resistors connected in series between a first terminal and a second terminal of a pilot conductor and/or a ground return of a ground monitor. The pilot conductor injects an electrical signal in a ground of a power cable assembly. A zener diode assembly is connected between a zener connection point and the ground return. The zener connection point is the first or second terminal. The zener diode assembly includes zener diodes connected in series between the zener connection point and the ground return and is sized to clamp a voltage from the zener connection point to the ground return to a value less than a zener threshold voltage. The zener threshold voltage is set above a nominal voltage on the pilot conductor. The components of the apparatus are spaced to prevent an arcing fault current for voltages less than 3000 V.
US09172230B2	Cable raceway support device for an aircraft, in particular an aircraft with a structure at least partly formed from a composite material A cable raceway support device for an aircraft, formed from an electrically conductive material, comprising a pedestal having a fastening plane for the fastening of the device onto a primary structure and also having, on a support face which is an opposite face to the fastening plane, at least one pair of jaws having at least one electrical contact enabling a sliding electrical contact to be formed and the support face has a contact that projects, and also has a jaw overhanging the support face, the jaw forming with part of the pedestal the pair of jaws forming a stirrup-shaped clamp comprising a base and two branches, one branch of the clamp merging with the pedestal, and the other branch of the clamp corresponding to the jaw and bearing a second contact facing the first contact.
US09172221B2	Converter building A converter building including at least one room having a solid room wall enclosing an interior space and an electrical active part contained in the interior space, the room wall having at least one opening, which is designed such that it allows a human to enter the interior space. The opening is sealable, the room wall encloses the interior space in a gas-tight manner when the opening is sealed, and the interior space contains a dielectric insulation medium including a dielectric insulation component other than air.
US09172218B2	Electrical junction box An electrical junction box of the present invention includes a frame (11) in which a storing box B is formed which has a unit storing room (20) in which an electronic control unit (63) is accommodated, and an upper cover (15) which is assembled to the side of the frame (11) where a accommodating port (20a), which becomes an entrance when the electronic control unit (63) is accommodated in the unit storing room (20), is formed so that the accommodating port (20a) is closed.
US09172217B2	Pre-chamber spark plug with tubular electrode and method of manufacturing same A pre-chamber spark plug that includes a shell, and an end cap attached to the shell. Additionally, the pre-chamber spark plug includes an insulator disposed within the shell. In a particular embodiment, a center electrode has a first portion surrounded by the insulator, and a second portion that extends from the insulator into a pre-chamber. The pre-chamber defined by the shell and end cap. In a further embodiment, a ground electrode is attached to the shell. In particular embodiments, the ground electrode is tubular in shape and includes an inner spark surface ring spaced in surrounding relation to the center electrode to create a spark gap, an outer ring attached to the shell, and a plurality of rounded spokes connecting the inner and outer rings. In a particular embodiment, the ground and center electrodes accommodate attachment of precious metal alloys to increase electrode surface life.
US09172212B2	Tunable semiconductor laser diode A tunable LD with reduced number of the butt joint is disclosed. The tunable LD includes the reflector and a waveguide core. The reflector includes a plurality of segments each having a grating region and a space region adjacent to the grating region. The waveguide core includes a gain region extending in two segments adjacent to each other and a tuning region extending in two segments adjacent to each other and also adjacent to the segment for the gain region.
US09172210B2	Mount for semiconductor devices using conformable conductive layers, and method A mount for semiconductor laser devices comprises thermally conductive anode and cathode blocks on either side of a semiconductor laser device such as a laser diode. Interposed between at least the anode block and the anode of the semiconductor laser device is a sheet of conformable electrically conductive material with high thermal conductivity such as pyrolytic highly-oriented graphite. In some embodiments, a second sheet of such electrically and thermally conductive conformable material is interposed between the cathode of the semiconductor laser device and the cathode block. The semiconductor laser device can be either a single laser diode or a diode bar having a plurality of emitters. A thermally conductive, but electrically insulating, spacer of essentially the same thickness as the laser diode or bar surrounds the diode or bar to prevent mechanical damage while still permitting the conformable material to be maintained in a compressed state and directing current through the laser device.
US09172207B2	Laser beam combining device A laser beam combining device includes three lasers, a polarizer, and a mode converter. The second laser device, the mode converter, and the third laser device are located on a first straight line in that order. The polarizer intersects with the first straight line at an imaginary joint point. An included angle between the first straight line and the polarizer is about 45 degrees. The polarizer and the mode converter are positioned between the second laser device and the third laser device. The polarizer is adjacent to the second laser device. The mode converter is adjacent to the third laser device. The first laser device faces the polarizer and is located on a second straight line perpendicular to the first straight line and passing through the joint point. The three laser devices emit TE mode red, green and blue laser beams, respectively.
US09172203B2	Laser system for the marking of metallic and non-metallic materials A laser system for the marking of metallic and non-metallic materials comprising a laser oscillator (1), characterized in that said laser oscillator (1) comprises: an active optical means (13) of the crystal laser type, a laser pump (10) to provide a pump energy to said active optical means (13); a mirror (14) disposed upstream said active optical means (13); an optical switch (16), apt to provide a pulsed laser beam, disposed downstream said active optical means (13); a mode adaptor (18) coupled to said optical switch (16); a predetermined length single-mode optical fiber (19), coupled to said mode adapter (18); a Bragg Grating type reflector coupled to said optical fiber (19).
US09172196B2	Brush having a plurality of elastic contact pieces arranged in parallel An aspect of the present invention provides a brush in which positional accuracy of elastic contact pieces is enhanced while production cost is reduced by simplifying production, whereby the brush includes a support that is connected to a base and a conductive portion that is integral with the support, such that the conductive portion includes plural elastic contact pieces extending in parallel from a side edge of the support.
US09172194B2	Coaxial connector plug An outer conductor has a substantially cylindrical shape extending in an axial direction. A center conductor has a substantially cylindrical shape extending in the axial direction, and is provided inside the outer conductor. An insulator fixes the center conductor relative to the outer conductor. The center conductor is provided with a hole that communicates with the inside and the outside of the center conductor. The insulator extends, via the hole, to the inside of the center conductor from the outside.
US09172184B2	Lever connector A fitting lever (30) includes housing coupling substrates (31) which are coupled to the outside surfaces of a first connector housing (10), cam plates (32) which are coupled to the central parts of the housing coupling substrates (31), and a lever body 33 which is an operating part to pivot the cam plates (32). The cam plates (32) include cam grooves (322a, 322b) into which the connector housings (10, 20) are fitted with each other with pivoting, and engagement opening grooves (323) which make the cam plates (32) detachable from the connector housings when the cam plates (32) are moved to a pivoting final position N2.
US09172182B2	Power supply connector When the grasping member 3 is moved forward with respect to the case 9, the linkage 15a joint with the grasping member 3 is pushed in to the front. Because the linkage 15a moves forward, the arm rotates with the pin 23a as its axis of rotation. With the arm 13 rotating, the connector body 11 connected to the arm 13 via linkage 15b moves in the same direction as the grasping member 3. Note that because the coupling position of the grasping member 3 and the connector body 11 with respect to the arm 13 differ, the distance of movement of the grasping member 3 and the distance of movement of the connector body 11 with respect to the case 9 differ. That is, mechanisms such as the arm 13 etc. function as a deceleration mechanism.
US09172175B2	Underwater electrical connection and termination assemblies An underwater electrical connection assembly may include a contact pin including an axially extending conductive core and an axially extending annular insulation portion around said conductive core, a front end portion of the conductive core having an electrical contact surface, a rear end portion of the conductive core having an electrical contact surface, and an intermediate portion of the conductive core extending axially at an intermediate location between the front and rear end portions, wherein the rear end portion of the conductive core of the pin has a diameter larger than the diameter of the intermediate portion thereof, and wherein the annular insulation portion includes an inner insulating layer around the intermediate portion of the conductive core and an insulating sleeve around the inner insulating layer.
US09172170B2	Bus connector with reduced insertion force A bus connector configured for receiving a bus is provided. An example bus connector includes a plurality of contact fingers configured to engage with the bus. The plurality of contact fingers include a first set of contact fingers and a second set of contact fingers arranged substantially parallel to one another, and the first set and second set clamp the bus when the bus is inserted between the first set and the second set. The bus connector further includes a connector frame, wherein the connector frame is configured to hold the plurality of contact fingers. The plurality of contact fingers includes contact fingers of a first length and contact fingers of a second length, wherein the second length is different than the first length.
US09172166B2	Press-fit terminal and terminal press-fit structure To provide a press-fit terminal and a terminal press-fit structure that enable shortening of a press-fit portion in its longitudinal direction and miniaturization of a connector. A press-fit terminal has insertion stoppers that are projectingly provided on respective flanks of a press-fit portion and that have respective engagement surfaces oriented orthogonally to a press-fit direction; and holding projections that are projectingly provided on respective protruding leading-end faces of the insertion stoppers and that bite into interior side walls of a press-fit hole of a housing which receives the press-fit portion. Each of the holding projections is projectingly formed in a portion of the protruding leading-end face of the insertion stopper along its thicknesswise direction.
US09172162B2	Circuit board connector A circuit board connector includes a contact having a mating end with a spring beam having a separable mating interface and a terminating end configured to be terminated to a wire. A housing holds the contact and includes a main body extending between a front and a rear. The housing has a mounting flange extending from the main body. The main body has a contact channel holding the contact and a wire barrel at the front configured to receive the wire. The rear of the main body is positionable on the circuit board such that the spring beam of the contact is aligned with the contact pad. A fastener is coupled to the mounting flange and is used to secure the housing to a substrate independent of the circuit board.
US09172148B2	Watch with bezel antenna configuration A wrist-worn electronic device comprises a housing, a display, a location determining element, and a first antenna. The housing includes a lower surface configured to contact a wearer's wrist, an opposing upper surface, and an internal cavity. The display is visible from the upper surface of the housing. The location determining element is configured to process a location signal to determine a current geolocation of the electronic device. The first antenna is configured to receive the location signal from a satellite-based positioning system and communicate the location signal to the location determining element. The first antenna is positioned on the upper surface of the housing adjacent a perimeter of the display and capacitively coupled with a conductive component positioned in the internal cavity.
US09172146B2	Antenna apparatus According to an embodiment, an antenna apparatus include a ground plate; a first element disposed along the ground plate; a second element disposed along the first element at an opposing side of the ground plate; a connecting part to connect first and second terminal parts of the first element with first and second terminal parts of the second element, respectively, or to connect the first and second terminal parts of the first element with the ground plate; a first power feeding portion to feed power at a midpoint of the first or second element in a longitudinal direction when the first and second elements are connected together by the connecting part; and a second power feeding portion to feed power to the first element or the ground plate when the first element and the ground plate are connected together by the connecting part.
US09172138B2	Dual-feedpoint antenna system and method for feedpoint switchover of dual-feedpoint antenna system A system includes a first feedpoint and a second feedpoint symmetrically disposed on the left and right sides of an antenna on a small board. A first switch, a second switch, and a third switch are disposed on a mainboard. The first switch, the second switch, and the third switch are controlled through a control instruction so that the system is in a first connection state and a second connection state. Signal strength corresponding to the first connection state and signal strength corresponding to the second connection state are detected, and if the signal strength corresponding to the first connection state is greater than the signal strength corresponding to the second connection state, each switch is controlled through an instruction so that the system is in the first connection state, in which the first feedpoint is working. Otherwise, the second feedpoint is working.
US09172123B2	Metal/air battery with gas driven mixing In one embodiment, a metal/air battery includes a negative electrode, a positive electrode, a protection layer located between the negative electrode and the positive electrode, and a liquid phase electrolyte within the positive electrode, wherein the positive electrode is arranged to induce convection of the electrolyte by movement of a gas phase of oxygen within the positive electrode.
US09172117B2	User-controlled application-based power management A user-controlled application-based power management function is provided for a battery-operated device. In general, for each of a number of applications of the battery-operated device, a power management function enables a user of the battery-operated device to provide a usage parameter for the application defining a desired amount of usage of the application for each of one or more tasks. For each task, the power management function determines an estimated amount of battery life that is sufficient to provide the desired amount of usage of the application for the task and determines whether the estimated amount of battery life is available. If the estimated amount of battery life is available, the power management function allocates an amount of battery life corresponding to the estimated amount of battery life to the application for the task.
US09172115B2	Battery pack with multiple water discharge pathways The present invention relates to a battery pack including a housing, a latch mechanism, a printed circuit board connected to electrical terminals, and an internal frame. The housing includes a first and second portion. The first portion includes openings that receive the latch mechanism and openings that receive the terminals. The battery pack also includes a latch cover that protects against water infiltrating between the openings and the latch mechanism, and a terminal cover that protects against water infiltrating between the first housing portion and the terminals. Water that enters the battery pack is directed to the bottom of the battery pack. The water is then drained through openings in the lower housing portion. The internal frame includes openings that secure batteries within the lower housing portion with the help of wedges that are positioned in between adjacent rows of batteries.
US09172109B2	Electrode assembly and secondary battery using the same An electrode assembly includes first and second electrode plates respectively comprising first and second active material portions on which first and second active materials are coated and first and second non-coating portions on which the first and second active materials are not coated; a separator interposed between the first and second electrode plates; and first and second electrode tabs respectively coupled to the first and second non-coating portions. In the electrode assembly, portions of the first and second non-coating portions are opposite to each other but the first and second electrode tabs are not opposite to each other in the electrode plates. The electrode assembly is formed by winding the first and second electrode plates from the portion at which the first and second non-coating portions are opposite to each other. A secondary battery includes the electrode assembly and a case accommodating the electrode assembly therein.
US09172102B2	Fuel cell system having improved fuel gas circulation The invention relates to a fuel cell system (1, 2) having at least one or more fuel cells (10, 30), wherein the fuel cell (10, 30) extends between a first cell end (10a, 30a) and a second cell end (10b, 30b) in a tubular shape, and wherein the fuel cell (10, 30) is mechanically received with the first cell end (10a, 30a) on an inflow distributor unit (11, 33), and wherein a fuel gas flows through the fuel cell (10, 30), the gas entering the first cell end (10a, 30a) and exiting one of the cell ends (10a, 10b, 30a, 30b) as exhaust gas. According to the invention, means (12, 16, 18, 32) are provided which suction at least a part of the exhaust gas exiting the fuel cell (10) and feed said gas to the inflow distributor unit (11, 33) for recirculation.
US09172090B2	Electrochemical device comprising lithium manganese borate compounds The present invention generally relates to certain lithium materials, including lithium manganese borate materials. Such materials are of interest in various applications such as energy storage. Certain aspects of the invention are directed to lithium manganese borate materials, for example, having the formula LixMny(BO3). In some cases, the lithium manganese borate materials may include other elements, such as iron, magnesium, copper, zinc, calcium, etc. The lithium manganese borate materials, according to one set of embodiments, may be present as a monoclinic crystal system. Such materials may surprisingly exhibit relatively high energy storage capacities, for example, at least about 96 mA h/g. Other aspects of the invention relate to devices comprising such materials, methods of making such materials, kits for making such materials, methods of promoting the making or use of such materials, and the like.
US09172089B2	Anode active material, method of preparing the same, anode including the anode active material, and lithium battery including the anode An anode active material including: a core having a molybdenum-based material; and a coating layer formed on at least a portion of a surface of the core, wherein the coating layer comprises at least one material selected from the group consisting of molybdenum oxynitride and molybdenum nitride, a method of preparing the same, and an anode and a lithium battery.
US09172085B2	Electrode including current collector with nano-scale coating and method of making the same Current collectors and methods are provided that relate to electrodes that are useful in electrochemical cells. The provided current collectors include a metallic substrate, a substantially uniform nano-scale carbon coating, and an active electrode material. The coating has a maximum thickness of less than about 200 nanometers.
US09172083B2	Lithium ion secondary battery The lithium-ion secondary battery provided by the present invention comprises a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a non-aqueous liquid electrolyte. The positive electrode comprises as a primary component of its positive electrode active material, a lithium-containing olivine compound. The positive electrode further comprises 2 to 20 parts by mass of an activated carbon relative to 100 parts by mass of the positive electrode active material.
US09172063B2	Method and apparatus for manufacturing display devices A method for fabricating a display device including forming a standard mark in a flexible substrate fed in a first direction, forming a partition wall in the flexible substrate, and forming an electrode by applying a conductive member at a predetermined position between the partition walls by an applicator based on the standard mark. An apparatus is provided that includes a transportation unit to transport a flexible substrate in a first direction, a mark formation unit to form a standard mark in the flexible substrate, a partition wall formation unit to form a partition wall in the flexible substrate, and an application unit to apply a conductive member to a predetermined position between the partition walls based on the standard mark. A display device is provided that includes a flexible substrate, a partition wall formed by pressing the flexible substrate, and an electrode formed by application between the partition walls.
US09172062B2	Composite phase retarder and organic light emitting display apparatus using the same The present invention provides a composite phase retarder and an organic light emitting display apparatus using the same. The organic light emitting display apparatus comprises an organic light emitting display panel and the composite phase retarder. The composite phase retarder comprises a quarter wave (λ/4) phase retarder, a polarizer and a pattern retarder stacked in sequence. The present invention can be applicable to display 3D images and enhance a display contrast of the organic light emitting display apparatus.
US09172059B2	Light-emitting device and electronic device using light-emitting device First to third light-emitting elements each including a reflection electrode layer, a transflective electrode layer, and a light-emitting layer provided therebetween are provided. In the first light-emitting element, the light-emitting layer is in contact with the reflection electrode layer and the transflective electrode layer. In the second light-emitting element, a first transparent electrode layer is in contact with the reflection electrode layer, the light-emitting layer is in contact with the first transparent electrode layer and the transflective electrode layer. In the third light-emitting element, a second transparent electrode layer is in contact with the reflection electrode layer, the light-emitting layer is in contact with the second transparent electrode layer and the transflective electrode layer. The first transparent electrode layer is different form the second transparent electrode layer in thickness.
US09172056B2	Organic light emitting diode with transparent electrode and method of making same A transparent electrode is provided for an organic light emitting diode (OLED) device. The electrode may be made according to a method including: sputter-depositing a first layer of or including indium tin oxide (ITO) on a substrate; sputter-depositing a thin second metallic or substantially metallic layer on the glass substrate over the first layer to form an electrode structure, and heat treating the electrode structure at temperature(s) of at least about 400 degrees C. in order to thermally activate at least the first layer of or including ITO. The electrode structure may then be provided in an OLED device on the light-emitting side of the organic light emitting semiconductor layer.
US09172047B2	Hole transport material for organic electroluminescence device and organic electroluminescence device using the same A hole transport material for the organic electroluminescence device, the hole transport material being represented by the following Formula 1,
US09172039B2	Methods of fabricating memory devices Provided is a method of fabricating a memory device. The method includes defining a cell region and a driving region on a substrate, forming driving transistors on the driving region, forming a first bit line in the cell region, a first unit memory cell disposed on an upper surface of the first bit line, a word line disposed on upper surfaces of the first unit memory cells, and a second unit memory cell disposed on an upper surface of the word line, forming a planarization layer configured to fill between the second unit memory cells, and including second bit line grooves on the upper surfaces of the first bit lines, bit line contact vias in the second bit line grooves, floating electrode grooves on upper surfaces of ends of the word lines, and a first floating contact via and a second floating contact via in each of the floating electrode grooves, simultaneously forming second bit lines in the second bit line grooves, bit line contact electrodes in the bit line contact vias, floating electrodes in the floating electrode grooves, first floating contact electrodes in the first floating contact vias, and second floating contact electrodes in the second floating contact vias.
US09172037B2	Combined conductive plug/conductive line memory arrays and methods of forming the same Memory arrays and methods of forming the same are provided. One example method of forming a memory array can include forming a conductive material in a number of vias and on a substrate structure, the conductive material to serve as a number of conductive lines of the array and coupling the number of conductive lines to the array circuitry.
US09172036B2	Top electrode blocking layer for RRAM device An integrated circuit device including a resistive random access memory (RRAM) cell formed over a substrate. The RRAM cell includes a top electrode having an upper surface. A blocking layer covers a portion of the upper surface. A via extends above the top electrode within a matrix of dielectric. The upper surface of the top electrode includes an area that interfaces with the blocking layer and an area that interfaces with the via. The area of the upper surface that interfaces with the via surrounds the area of the upper surface that interfaces with the blocking layer. The blocking layer is functional during processing to protect the RRAM cell from etch damage while being structured in such a way as to not interfere with contact between the overlying via and the top electrode.
US09172034B2	Memory diodes A memory cell (32C), including a first non-insulator (34C) and a second non-insulator (40C), different from the first non-insulator. The second non-insulator forms a junction (46C) with the first non-insulator. The cell further includes a first electrode (48C) which is connected to the first non-insulator and a second electrode (50C) which is connected to the second non-insulator. At least one of the first and second non-insulators is chosen from a group consisting of a solid electrolyte and a mixed ionic electronic conductor and has an ionic transference number less than 1 and greater than or equal to 0.5.
US09172033B2	MRAM device and fabrication method thereof A method of forming and a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) device. In an embodiment, the MRAM device includes a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) disposed over a bottom electrode, the magnetic tunnel junction having a first sidewall, a top electrode disposed over the magnetic tunnel junction, and a dielectric spacer supported by the magnetic tunnel junction and extending along sidewalls of the top electrode, the dielectric spacer having a second sidewall substantially co-planar with the first sidewall of the magnetic tunnel junction.
US09172029B2	Storage element and memory A storage element includes a storage layer, a fixed magnetization layer, a spin barrier layer, and a spin absorption layer. The storage layer stores information based on a magnetization state of a magnetic material. The fixed magnetization layer is provided for the storage layer through a tunnel insulating layer. The spin barrier layer suppresses diffusion of spin-polarized electrons and is provided on the side of the storage layer opposite the fixed magnetization layer. The spin absorption layer is formed of a nonmagnetic metal layer causing spin pumping and provided on the side of the spin barrier layer opposite the storage layer. A direction of magnetization in the storage layer is changed by passing current in a layering direction to inject spin-polarized electrons so that information is recorded in the storage layer and the spin barrier layer includes at least a material selected from oxides, nitrides, and fluorides.
US09172027B2	Manufacturing method and system for an ultrasonic generating device that includes an attachment unit to generate an ultrasonic vibration A manufacturing method of an ultrasonic generating device includes applying a compressive force to an attachment unit toward a first axial direction while a first end of a bolt-shaped member is a free end and the second end thereof is fixed, and thereby generating a first elastic force in the attachment unit. The manufacturing method includes attaching a fastening member to a bar portion of the bolt-shaped member in a balanced condition in which a second elastic force of the bolt-shaped member and the first elastic force are in balance, and thereby maintaining the balanced condition.
US09172023B2	Electrothermal transducer, and temperature controlling device The present invention relates to an electrothermal converter, which has at least one cold side and one warm side. Provision is made that all the components of the converter cope with the thermal loads appearing when the converter is operated and/or in particular maintains its mechanical stability.
US09172016B2	Semiconductor light emitting device and method for manufacturing same According to one embodiment, the optical layer has a larger planar size than the semiconductor layer. The optical layer is transmissive to emission light of the light emitting layer. The first insulating film is provided on a side surface of the semiconductor layer continued from the first surface. The metal film includes a first reflective part covering the side surface of the semiconductor layer via the first insulating film. The metal film includes a second reflective part opposed to the optical layer in a region around the side surface of the semiconductor layer and extending from the first reflective part toward a side opposite from the side surface of the semiconductor layer.
US09172015B2	Light emitting device, light emitting device package, and lighting system Provided are a light emitting device, a light emitting device package, and a lighting system. The light emitting device includes a substrate, a light emitting structure layer, a second electrode, a first electrode, a contact portion, and a first electrode layer. The first electrode is disposed in the substrate from a lower part of the substrate to a lower part of a first conductive type semiconductor layer in a region under an active layer. The contact portion is wider than the first electrode and makes contact with the lower part of the first conductive type semiconductor layer. The first electrode layer is disposed under the substrate and connected to the first electrode.
US09172009B2	Light-emitting device having an interlayer of a polysiloxane mixture Formation of an interlayer is realized for a light-emitting device, the interlayer having properties of anticorrosion and adhesion to a silicone layer, thus preventing incidence of cracking during a baking process. The light-emitting device includes a light-emitting element covered with the silicone layer, and the interlayer is provided between the light-emitting element and the silicone layer. The interlayer is formed of a mixture of a tri-functional polysiloxane and a tetra-functional polysiloxane.
US09172001B2	Semiconductor light emitting device with thick metal layers A device according to embodiments of the invention includes a semiconductor structure including a light emitting layer sandwiched between an n-type region and a p-type region and first and second metal contacts, wherein the first metal contact is in direct contact with the n-type region and the second metal contact is in direct contact with the p-type region. First and second metal layers are disposed on the first and second metal contacts, respectively. The first and second metal layers are sufficiently thick to mechanically support the semiconductor structure. A portion of a sidewall the device adjacent to one of the first and second metal layers is reflective.
US09172000B2	Semiconductor light emitting device and method of manufacturing the same Disclosed are a semiconductor light emitting device and a method of manufacturing the same. The method includes providing a substrate having first and second main surfaces opposing each other and forming a first uneven structure in the first main surface, forming a sacrificial layer on the first main surface of the substrate, forming a mask having open regions on the sacrificial layer so as to expose a portion of an upper surface of the sacrificial layer, forming a second uneven structure in the substrate by etching the sacrificial layer and the substrate through the open regions, removing the sacrificial layer and the mask from the substrate, and forming a light emitting stack on the first and second uneven structures of the substrate.
US09171999B2	Thin film transistor array panel and method for manufacturing the same A thin film transistor array panel is provided and includes a gate line, a gate insulating layer covering the gate line, a semiconductor layer disposed on the gate insulating layer, and a data line and a drain electrode disposed on the semiconductor layer. The data line and the drain electrode have a dual-layered structure including a lower layer and an upper layer with the lower layer having a first portion protruded outside the upper layer and the semiconductor layer having a second portion protruded outside the edge of the lower layer.
US09171995B2	Flip chip type light emitting diode and manufacturing method thereof The present disclosure provides a flip chip type light emitting diode which comprises a substrate and a light emitting diode chip. The substrate comprises a body, a plurality of third pads, a fourth pad, a first electrode, a second electrode, a plurality of first vias, and a second via. The body has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The third pads and the fourth pad are disposed on the first surface of the body. The first electrode and the second electrode are disposed on the second surface of the body. The first vias traverse through the body and are each electrically coupled to a respective one of the third pads and the first electrode. The second via traverses through the body and is electrically coupled to the fourth pad and the second electrode.
US09171993B2	LED die and method of manufacturing the same An LED die includes a substrate, a light emitting structure, electrodes, a first transparent protecting layer, a reflection layer, and a second transparent protecting layer. The light emitting structure includes a first semiconductor layer, an active layer, a second semiconductor layer successively formed on the substrate. A part of first semiconductor layer being exposed. A first electrode is formed the first semiconductor layer. A second electrode is formed on the second semiconductor layer. The first transparent protecting layer, the reflection layer, and the second transparent protecting layer successively formed on the first electrode. The present disclosure also provides a method of manufacturing the LED die.
US09171984B2	Optical system and method of use In one embodiment, the present disclosure provides an energy production apparatus. The apparatus includes fuzzy focusing optics and a mounting plate having a generally planar surface. The planar surface is positioned relative to the fuzzy focusing optics such that at least a portion of light incident on the fuzzy focusing optics is directed onto the planar surface. The apparatus also includes a plurality of solar cells coupled to the planar surface of the mounting plate. A power transmission bus is coupled to the plurality of solar cells. A drive mechanism is coupled to the mounting plate and configured to rotate the mounting plate about an axis normal to the planar surface of the mounting plate.
US09171961B2	Coating materials for oxide thin film transistors The present teachings provide a coating composition (a passivation formulation) for preparing a coating material in a metal oxide thin film transistor, where the coating material comprises a polymer blend including a polymer and a stabilizing agent. Incorporation of a stabilizing agent according to the present teachings in the coating material can lead to improved device performance of the metal oxide thin film transistor, in particular, reduced shift in the threshold voltage and long-term bias-stress stability.
US09171948B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor storage device and fabrication method thereof A nonvolatile semiconductor storage device has a plurality of memory strings in which electrically rewritable memory cells are connected in series. The memory strings have word-line electroconductive layers laminated at a prescribed interval to sandwich an interlayer insulating film onto a semiconductor substrate and through holes that penetrate through the word-line electroconductive layers and the interlayer insulating films. The gate insulating film is formed along an inner wall of the through holes and includes a charge-accumulating film. The columnar semiconductor layer is formed inside the through holes to sandwich the gate insulating film along with the word-line electroconductive layer. The columnar semiconductor layer contains carbon, oxygen, or nitrogen.
US09171943B2	Method for manufacturing semiconductor device To provide a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor which is capable of having stable electric characteristics and achieving high reliability, by a dehydration or dehydrogenation treatment performed on a base insulating layer provided in contact with an oxide semiconductor layer, the water and hydrogen contents of the base insulating layer can be decreased, and by an oxygen doping treatment subsequently performed, oxygen which can be eliminated together with the water and hydrogen is supplied to the base insulating layer. By formation of the oxide semiconductor layer in contact with the base insulating layer whose water and hydrogen contents are decreased and whose oxygen content is increased, oxygen can be supplied to the oxide semiconductor layer while entry of the water and hydrogen into the oxide semiconductor layer is suppressed.
US09171941B2	Fabricating method of thin film transistor, fabricating method of array substrate and display device An embodiment of the present invention provides a fabricating method of a thin film transistor, a fabricating method of an array substrate, and a display device. The fabricating method of a thin film transistor comprises: forming a gate electrode on a substrate; and forming a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor layer, source and drain electrodes and a channel region on the substrate, wherein, the semiconductor layer is formed of a metal oxide, and two etching steps are used to form the channel region, and in a first etching step, a part of a source-drain metal layer above the semiconductor layer corresponding to the channel region is removed by using a dry etching, and in a second etching step, a remaining part of the source-drain metal layer above the semiconductor layer corresponding to the channel region is removed by using a wet etching, thereby forming the channel region.
US09171940B2	Thin film transistor substrate, display device, and method for manufacturing thin film transistor substrate In a thin film transistor substrate (10) having an island-like channel protection layer (15a) covering a channel portion of an oxide semiconductor layer (14), a source electrode (16S) and a drain electrode (16D) are formed of an aluminum alloy film or a multilayer film including an aluminum alloy film.
US09171933B2	Display device and manufacturing method thereof A display device includes a plurality of pixel areas and a thin film transistor disposed on a substrate. A first light blocking member is disposed on the thin film transistor, and a contact hole is disposed in the first light blocking member to expose a portion of the thin film transistor. A pixel electrode is disposed on the first light blocking member, and connected with the thin film transistor through the contact hole. A second light blocking member is disposed on the pixel electrode overlapping with the contact hole. A roof layer is disposed spaced apart from the pixel electrode with a microcavity interposed therebetween. An injection hole is disposed below the roof layer to expose a portion of the microcavity, and a liquid crystal layer is disposed in the microcavity. An encapsulation layer is disposed on the roof layer covering the injection hole so as to seal the microcavity.
US09171932B2	Display panel and method of manufacturing the same A display panel includes a gate line, a gate electrode, a planarization layer, a gate insulation layer, an active layer, a data line, a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a pixel electrode. The gate electrode extends from the gate line. The planarization layer covers the gate line and the gate electrode to have an opening exposing a portion of the gate electrode formed therethrough. The gate insulation layer covers a portion of the gate electrode exposed by the opening and the planarization layer. The active layer is formed on the gate insulation layer and corresponds to the gate electrode. The data line is formed. The source electrode extends from the data line to cover a portion of the opening. The drain electrode is spaced apart from the source electrode and covers a portion of the opening. The pixel electrode is connected to the drain electrode.
US09171927B2	Spacer replacement for replacement metal gate semiconductor devices A method comprising steps of removing a first dielectric material, including a hard mask layer and one or more spacer material layers, from a semiconductor device having a sacrificial gate whose sidewalls being covered by said spacer material layers, and a raised source and a raised drain region with both, together with said sacrificial gate, being covered by said hard mask layer, wherein the removing is selective to the sacrificial gate, raised source region and raised drain region and creates a void between each of the raised source region, raised drain region and sacrificial gate. The method includes depositing a conformal layer of a second dielectric material to the semiconductor device, wherein the second material conforms in a uniform layer to the raised source region, raised drain region and sacrificial gate, and fills the void between each of the raised source region, raised drain region and sacrificial gate.
US09171922B1	Combination finFET/ultra-thin body transistor structure and methods of making such structures One illustrative device disclosed herein includes, among other things, an active layer positioned above a layer of insulating material, a fin positioned above the active layer, a gate insulation layer positioned on the active layer and on the fin, a conductive gate structure that is positioned around at least a portion of the fin and above at least a portion of the active layer, wherein the conductive gate structure comprises at least one work function adjusting metal layer positioned on the gate insulation layer, a first channel region defined in the fin under the conductive gate structure, and a second channel region defined in the active layer under the conductive gate structure.
US09171921B2	Trench MOSFET and method for fabricating the same The present disclosure relates to a trench MOSFET and a method for fabricating the same. The method comprises: providing a substrate with an epitaxy layer; forming a trench in the epitaxy layer; forming a first insulating layer, a first gate, a second insulating layer, and a second gate successively in the trench by deposition and etching; forming a well and a source region at both sides of the trench by ion implantation, and forming a trench-type contact and a metal plug. By forming the first gate and the second gate which are separated from each other, the first insulating layer between a lower portion of the first gate and the epitaxy layer has a thickness larger than that of the second insulating layer between the second gate and the well and the source region. The two separate gates are connected with each other by the metal plug. The resultant MOSFET has an increased breakdown voltage and stable performance while its manufacturer cost is lowered because the manufacturer process is simplified.
US09171911B2	Isolation structure in gallium nitride devices and integrated circuits An integrated semiconductor device which includes a substrate layer, a buffer layer formed on the substrate layer, a gallium nitride layer formed on the buffer layer, and a barrier layer formed on the gallium nitride layer. Ohmic contacts for a plurality of transistor devices are formed on the barrier layer. Specifically, a plurality of first ohmic contacts for the first transistor device are formed on a first portion of the surface of the barrier layer, and a plurality of second ohmic contacts for the second transistor device are formed on a second portion of the surface of the barrier layer. In addition, one or more gate structures formed on a third portion of the surface of the barrier between the first and second transistor devices. Preferably, the one or more gate structures and the spaces between the gate structures and the source contacts of the transistor devices collectively form an isolation region that electrically isolates the first transistor device from the second transistor device.
US09171910B2	Semiconductor electronic components with integrated current limiters An electronic component includes a high-voltage depletion-mode transistor and a low-voltage enhancement-mode transistor. A source electrode of the high-voltage depletion-mode transistor is electrically connected to a drain electrode of the low-voltage enhancement-mode transistor, and a gate electrode of the high-voltage depletion-mode transistor is electrically coupled to the source electrode of the low-voltage enhancement-mode transistor. The on-resistance of the enhancement-mode transistor is less than the on-resistance of the depletion-mode transistor, and the maximum current level of the enhancement-mode transistor is smaller than the maximum current level of the depletion-mode transistor.
US09171907B2	Graphene transistor A transistor includes a silicon carbide crystal (110) having a silicon terminated face (112). A semiconducting-type graphene layer (120) is bonded to the silicon terminated face (112). A first semimetallic-type graphene layer (122) is contiguous with a first portion of the semiconducting-type graphene layer (120). A second semimetallic-type graphene layer (122) is contiguous with a second portion of the semiconducting-type graphene layer (120) that is spaced apart from the first portion. An insulator layer (132) is disposed on a portion of the semiconducting-type graphene layer (120). A gate conductive layer (134) disposed on the insulator layer (132) and spaced apart from the semiconducting-type graphene layer (120).
US09171906B2	Semiconductor device having a trench gate structure and manufacturing method of the same In a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device, a trench is defined in a semiconductor substrate, and an adjuster layer having a first conductivity type impurity concentration higher than a drift layer is formed at a portion of the semiconductor substrate adjacent to a bottom wall of the trench. A channel layer is formed by introducing second conductivity type impurities to a portion of the semiconductor substrate adjacent to a sidewall of the trench and between the adjustment layer and a main surface of the semiconductor substrate while restricting the channel layer from extending in a depth direction of the trench by the adjustment layer.
US09171901B2	Method for improving device performance using dual stress liner boundary An integrated circuit with DSL borders perpendicular to the transistor gates primarily inside the nwell and with DSL borders parallel to the transistor gates primarily outside the nwell. A method for forming an integrated circuit with DSL borders perpendicular to the tranistor gates primarily inside the nwell and with DSL borders parallel to the transistor gates primarily outside the nwell.
US09171894B2	Organic EL element, organic EL panel, organic EL light-emitting apparatus and organic EL display apparatus An organic EL element including: pixel electrode on a section of TFT substrate corresponding to pixel region; auxiliary connector on a section of TFT substrate corresponding to auxiliary region; hole injection layer on pixel electrode and auxiliary connector; and light-emitting layer on a section of hole injection layer corresponding to pixel region. The organic EL element additionally includes: electron injection layer on light-emitting layer and a section of hole injection layer corresponding to auxiliary region; and seamless common electrode on electron injection layer. Hole injection layer contains WOx. Electron injection layer contains NaF. Common electrode contains Al that causes the reduction of NaF contained in electron injection layer.
US09171892B2	Method of manufacturing an organic light emitting display device by patterning and formation of pixel and gate electrodes A organic light emitting display device includes a thin film transistor (TFT) having a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode which are insulated from the gate electrode, and a semiconductor layer which is insulated from the gate electrode and which contacts each of the source electrode and the drain electrode; and a pixel electrode electrically connected to one of the source electrode and the drain electrode. The gate electrode is made up of a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer on the first conductive layer, and the pixel electrode is formed of the same material as the first conductive layer of the gate electrode on a same layer as the first conductive layer of the gate electrode.
US09171886B2	Semiconductor memory device and manufacturing method thereof A semiconductor memory device according to embodiments includes a semiconductor substrate and plural switching transistors provided on the semiconductor substrate. In the semiconductor memory device, a contact plug is embedded between adjacent two of the switching transistors, and is insulated from gates of the adjacent two switching transistors. The contact plug is also electrically connected to a source or a drain of each of the adjacent two switching transistors, and an upper surface of the contact plug is at a position higher than an upper surface of the switching transistors. A memory element is provided on the upper surface of the contact plug and stores data. A wiring is provided on the memory element.
US09171882B2	Semiconductor light emitting device and light emitting module According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a plurality of chips, a first insulating layer provided between the chips, one p-side external terminal, and one n-side external terminal. Each of the chips includes a semiconductor layer, a p-side electrode, and an n-side electrode. Each of the chips is separated from each other. The one p-side external terminal is provided corresponding to one chip on the second face side. The p-side external terminal is electrically connected to the p-side electrode. The one n-side external terminal is provided corresponding to one chip on the second face side. The n-side external terminal is electrically connected to the n-side electrode.
US09171881B2	LED component by integrating epitaxial structure and package substrate together and method of manufacturing the same The present invention discloses an integral LED component which integrates LED epitaxial structure electrodes and interconnects with a package substrate together and an integral manufacturing process thereof. The integral LED component can be made with multiple epitaxial structures or with just a single epitaxial structure. The integral LED component can be mounted into a hollow carrier. And by having support by the hollow carrier, the package substrate can be mounted and contacted with a heat conductive or a dissipation device. The integral LED component is fabricated by wafer level process and cut from the wafer as an independent component. By different manufacturing process, the integral LED component can be made as Vertical LED structure or Lateral LED structure.
US09171880B2	Photoelectric conversion device, method of manufacturing the same, and camera A photoelectric conversion device, comprising a photoelectric conversion portion, provided in a semiconductor substrate, including a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type, a second semiconductor region of the first conductivity type provided adjacent to the first semiconductor region, a third semiconductor region of the first conductivity type provided at a position away from the second semiconductor region, and a gate electrode provided between the second semiconductor region and the third semiconductor region, wherein the second semiconductor region is provided at a position away from the gate electrode, and the semiconductor substrate includes a region of a second conductivity type within a region extending from an edge of the second semiconductor region to below the gate electrode.
US09171875B2	Solid-state imaging device, manufacturing method thereof, and electronic apparatus Disclosed herein is a solid-state imaging device including: a laminated semiconductor chip configured to be obtained by bonding two or more semiconductor chip sections to each other and be obtained by bonding at least a first semiconductor chip section in which a pixel array and a multilayer wiring layer are formed and a second semiconductor chip section in which a logic circuit and a multilayer wiring layer are formed to each other in such a manner that the multilayer wiring layers are opposed to each other and are electrically connected to each other; and a light blocking layer configured to be formed by an electrically-conductive film of the same layer as a layer of a connected interconnect of one or both of the first and second semiconductor chip sections near bonding between the first and second semiconductor chip sections. The solid-state imaging device is a back-illuminated solid-state imaging device.
US09171869B1	Array substrate and display device The present invention provides an array substrate and a display device, to solve the problem of low testing precision due to significant difference between characteristics of TFTs in the detecting region and TFTs in the display region in the prior art. The array substrate comprises a display region and a dummy pixel region provided in the periphery of the display region, wherein, at least one detecting unit is provided in the dummy pixel region, each detecting unit comprises one second pixel unit, one thin film transistor is provided correspondingly to each second pixel unit, and respective electrodes of each thin film transistor provided correspondingly to the second pixel unit are connected to an external test device through test lines, respectively.
US09171864B2	Display substrate and method of manufacturing the same A display substrate includes a gate metal pattern including a gate line disposed on a base substrate and a gate electrode electrically connected with the gate line, an active pattern entirely overlapped with the gate metal pattern and comprising an oxide semiconductor and a data metal pattern disposed on the active pattern and including a data line, a source electrode electrically connected with the gate line and a drain electrode spaced apart from the source electrode. The active pattern has an overlapped region in which the active pattern is overlapped with the source electrode and the drain electrode and an exposed region in which the active pattern is not overlapped with the source electrode and the drain electrode. The thickness of the overlapping region and a thickness of the exposing region are same.
US09171863B2	Methods and apparatuses including strings of memory cells formed along levels of semiconductor material Various embodiments include methods and apparatuses including strings of memory cells formed along levels of semiconductor material. One such apparatus includes a stack comprised of a number of levels of single crystal silicon and a number of levels of dielectric material. Each of the levels of silicon is separated from an adjacent level of silicon by a level of the dielectric material. Strings of memory cells are formed along the levels of silicon. Additional apparatuses and methods are disclosed.
US09171862B2	Three-dimensional memory and method of forming the same A method of forming a three-dimensional memory is provided. A stacked structure including semiconductor layers and insulating layers arranged alternately is formed on a substrate. The stacked structure is patterned to form a mesh structure having first strips extending in a first direction and second strips extending in a second direction. The first strips and the second strips intersect with each other. The mesh structure has first holes. A dielectric layer is formed in each first hole. At least a portion of the first strips of the mesh structure is removed to form second holes and bit line stacked structures separated from each other. A charge storage layer is formed on sidewall and bottom of each second hole. A gate pillar extending in a third direction is formed on each charge storage layer in the second hole. Word lines extending in the first direction are formed on the gate pillars.
US09171861B2	Semiconductor memory device and system having the same A semiconductor memory device includes a first dummy transistor coupled to a bit line, a first select transistor formed where a first selection line surrounds a vertical channel layer, a second dummy transistor coupled to a common source line, a second select transistor formed where a second selection line surrounds the vertical channel layer, and main cell transistors coupled between the first and second select transistors.
US09171854B2	Semiconductor devices including variable width floating gates A semiconductor device includes a substrate including an active region defined by a device isolation pattern and a floating gate on the active region. The floating gate includes an upper portion, a lower portion having a width greater than a width of the upper portion, and a step-difference portion between the upper portion and the lower portion. A dielectric pattern is on the floating gate, and a control gate is on the dielectric pattern. The lower portion of the floating gate has a height of about 4 nm or more.
US09171851B2	One click web records A method, system, computer medium, and other embodiments for integrating unrelated web services with stand-alone media-based devices are provided. Users can access and control the media-based device conveniently with a web-browser through various portals on the Internet. In an embodiment directed to a single web session, users program the media-based device by clicking on one or more hyperlinks or hypertexts in the form of advertisements of upcoming broadcasts. The advertisements may be web-hosted or sponsored by web portals.
US09171843B2	Semiconductor device and fabricating the same The present disclosure provides a method for fabricating an integrated circuit device. The method includes providing a precursor including a substrate having first and second metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) regions. The first and second MOS regions include first and second gate regions, semiconductor layer stacks, and source/drain regions respectively. The method further includes laterally exposing and oxidizing the semiconductor layer stack in the first gate region to form first outer oxide layer and inner nanowire set, and exposing the first inner nanowire set. A first high-k/metal gate (HK/MG) stack wraps around the first inner nanowire set. The method further includes laterally exposing and oxidizing the semiconductor layer stack in the second gate region to form second outer oxide layer and inner nanowire set, and exposing the second inner nanowire set. A second HK/MG stack wraps around the second inner nanowire set.
US09171841B2	Field plate trench transistor and method for producing it A field plate trench transistor having a semiconductor body. In one embodiment the semiconductor has a trench structure and an electrode structure embedded in the trench structure. The electrode structure being electrically insulated from the semiconductor body by an insulation structure and having a gate electrode structure and a field electrode structure. The field plate trench transistor has a voltage divider configured such that the field electrode structure is set to a potential lying between source and drain potentials.
US09171839B2	Integrated circuits with resistors An integrated circuit includes a transistor. The transistor includes a first gate dielectric structure over a substrate, a work-function layer over the first gate dielectric structure, a conductive layer over the work-function layer, and a source/drain (S/D) region adjacent to each sidewall of the first gate dielectric structure. Additionally, the integrated circuit includes a resistor structure. The resistor structure further includes a first doped semiconductor layer over the substrate, wherein a top surface of the resistor structure is substantially planar with a top surface of the transistor.
US09171835B2	Semiconductor apparatus including dummy patterns A semiconductor apparatus and system including a semiconductor apparatus may include: a main pattern block having a plurality of main patterns formed to be coupled to a power source and one or more dummy pattern blocks formed around the main pattern block. Any one of the one or more dummy pattern blocks may include a protection part formed to protect the main pattern block.
US09171834B2	Over voltage protection for a thin oxide load circuit An IC includes: a substrate having a thick oxide portion and a thin oxide portion; a load circuit disposed on the thin oxide portion and coupled between a supply node and a virtual supply node; and a current source circuit and protection circuit disposed on the substrate. The current source circuit has an output coupled to the virtual supply node and is operable to provide a voltage at the virtual supply node. The protection circuit includes a sensing portion and a protection portion. The sensing portion is coupled to the virtual supply node and is operable to detect the voltage at the virtual supply node. The protection portion is coupled to the sensing portion and is operable, in response to the sensed voltage, to prevent a difference in voltage between the voltage at the virtual supply node and a second voltage at the supply node from exceeding a maximum voltage.
US09171830B2	Fabricating a proximity sensor having light-blocking structure in leadframe A method for fabricating a semiconductor proximity sensor includes providing a flat leadframe with a first and a second surface. The second surface is solderable. The leadframe includes a first and a second pad, a plurality of leads, and fingers framing the first pad. The fingers are spaced from the first pad by a gap which is filled with a clear molding compound. A light-emitting diode (LED) chip is assembled on the first pad and encapsulated by a first volume of the clear compound. The first volume outlined as a first lens. A sensor chip is assembled on the second pad and encapsulated by a second volume of the clear compound. The second volume outlined as a second lens. Opaque molding compound fills the space between the first and second volumes of clear compound, forms shutters for the first and second lenses, and forms walls rising from the frame of fingers to create an enclosed cavity for the LED. The pads, leads, and fingers connected to a board using a layer of solder for attaching the proximity sensor.
US09171829B2	Photocoupler A photocoupler includes: a light emitting element; a light receiving element; an inner resin layer; and an outer resin layer. The light emitting element is driven by an input electrical signal. The light receiving element is configured to convert emission light of the light emitting element into an electrical signal. The inner resin layer includes a base resin and a curing agent. The base resin contains isocyanuric acid having an epoxy group. The curing agent contains an acid anhydride having an acid anhydride group. The inner resin layer covers the light emitting element and the light receiving element. Then outer resin layer encloses the inner resin layer and configured to block the emission light. Carbon atomic concentration increases and oxygen atomic concentration decreases with distance in depth direction of the inner resin layer from an interface.
US09171815B2	Method of forming package systems having interposers A package system includes a first integrated circuit disposed over an interposer. The interposer includes at least one molding compound layer including a plurality of electrical connection structures through the at least one molding compound layer. A first interconnect structure is disposed over a first surface of the at least one molding compound layer and electrically coupled with the plurality of electrical connection structures. The first integrated circuit is electrically coupled with the first interconnect structure.
US09171814B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device and semiconductor device To improve coupling reliability in flip chip bonding of a semiconductor device. By using, in the fabrication of a semiconductor device, a wiring substrate in which a wiring that crosses an opening area of a solder resist film on the upper surface of the wiring substrate has, on one side of the wiring, a bump electrode and, on the other side, a plurality of wide-width portions having no bump electrode thereon, a solder on the wiring can be dispersed to each of the wide-width portions during reflow treatment in a solder precoating step. Such a configuration makes it possible to reduce a difference in height between the solder on each of terminals and the solder on each of the wide-width portions and to enhance the coupling reliability in flip chip bonding.
US09171805B2	Substrate identification circuit and semiconductor device Provided is a substrate identification circuit that generates a numeric value, whose duplication is difficult and which is proper to a substrate, at low cost and a semiconductor device having such a substrate identification circuit. A substrate identification circuit 304 is produced by utilizing variations in characteristics among TFTs formed on a substrate having an insulating surface. The substrate identification circuit 304 includes a plurality of proper bit generating circuits, each of which is constructed from a plurality of TFTs and outputs a one-bit random number based on variations in characteristics among the plurality of TFTs. The substrate identification circuit generates a numeric value proper to the substrate using the one-bit random number. The substrate identification circuit may include a circuit that makes a judgment by comparing the numeric value proper to the substrate with an identification number inputted from the outside.
US09171801B2	E-fuse with hybrid metallization A structure including a first interconnect including a first line overlying a first via and a second interconnect including a second line overlying a second via. The first line and the second line are co-planar. The first interconnect comprises a first conductor, the first conductor comprises a metal silicide including titanium silicide, cobalt silicide, nickel silicide, tungsten silicide, platinum silicide, molybdenum silicide, tantalum silicide, or some combination thereof. The second interconnect comprises a second conductor, the second conductor comprising copper.
US09171800B2	Electrical fuse with bottom contacts A method including forming a fuse link after a first fuse contact and a second fuse contact. The fuse link is in direct contact with both the first fuse contact and the second fuse contact. Embodiments of the invention provide an e-fuse that is capable of being connected to a device either through back end of line or by a long contact allowing for sufficient separation between the e-fuse and the device.
US09171797B2	System-in-package having integrated passive devices and method therefor A semiconductor device has a substrate, first passivation layer formed over the substrate, and integrated passive device formed over the substrate. The integrated passive device can include an inductor, capacitor, and resistor. A second passivation layer is formed over the integrated passive device. System components are mounted to the second passivation layer and electrically connect to the second conductive layer. A mold compound is formed over the integrated passive device. A coefficient of thermal expansion of the mold compound is approximately equal to a coefficient of thermal expansion of the system component. The substrate is removed. An opening is etched into the first passivation layer and solder bumps are deposited over the opening in the first passivation layer to electrically connect to the integrated passive device. A metal layer can be formed over the molding compound or first passivation layer for shielding.
US09171786B1	Integrated circuit with recess for die attachment An integrated circuit (IC) die has an active side and an inactive side, opposite the active side. A recess is formed within the interior of the inactive side and extends partially through the integrated circuit towards the active side. The IC die is part of a packaged IC device, where the die is attached to a package component such as a lead frame, substrate, or another die, using die attach adhesive that fills the recess, thereby providing a more reliable bond between the IC die and the package component.
US09171785B2	Power overlay structure with leadframe connections A power overlay (POL) packaging structure that incorporates a leadframe connection is disclosed. The a POL structure includes a POL sub-module having a dielectric layer, at least one semiconductor device attached to the dielectric layer and that includes a substrate composed of a semiconductor material and a plurality of connection pads formed on the substrate, and a metal interconnect structure electrically coupled to the plurality of connection pads of the at least one semiconductor device, with the metal interconnect structure extending through vias formed through the dielectric layer so as to be connected to the plurality of connection pads. The POL structure also includes a leadframe electrically coupled to the POL sub-module, with the leadframe comprising leads configured to make an interconnection to an external circuit structure.
US09171784B2	Dual power converter package using external driver IC A dual power converter package is disclosed. The package includes a leadframe having a first control FET paddle configured to support a drain of a first control FET, and a second control FET paddle configured to support a drain of a second control PET. The leadframe further includes a sync FET paddle configured to support a source of a first sync FET and a source of a second sync FET, and a first plurality of contacts configured to receive control signals for each of the control PETS and each of the sync FETs from a driver integrated circuit (IC) external to the leadframe. The leadframe may additionally include first and second switched nodes, configured for electrical connection to the first control FET and the first sync FET via a first clip, and to the second control PET and the second sync PET via a second clip, respectively.
US09171780B2	Method for manufacturing semiconductor package Disclosed herein is a method for manufacturing a semiconductor package. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for manufacturing a semiconductor package includes: preparing a rectangular frame having a plurality of quadrangular holes; attaching a plurality of semiconductor chips and the frame on one surface of a tape; forming a molding part on the tape to cover the semiconductor chip and the frame; peeling the tape; forming a resin layer at a portion at which the tape is peeled; and forming a wiring on the resin layer to be connected to the semiconductor chip.
US09171774B2	Power semiconductor module and method of manufacturing the same A power semiconductor module has a first frame portion, a power semiconductor element, a second frame portion, a control integrated circuit, a wire, and an insulator portion. The power semiconductor element is mounted on a first surface of the first frame portion. The control integrated circuit is mounted on a third surface of the second frame portion for controlling the power semiconductor element. A wire has one end connected to the power semiconductor element and the other end connected to the control integrated circuit. The first surface of the first frame portion and the third surface of the second frame portion are located at the same height in a direction vertical to the first surface of the first frame portion.
US09171755B2	Methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices including capped metal patterns with air gaps in-between for parasitic capacitance reduction A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device may include: forming an interlayer insulating layer having openings on a substrate; forming a metal layer in the openings and on the interlayer insulating layer, the metal layer including a sidewall portion on a sidewall of each of the openings and a bottom portion on a bottom surface of each of the openings, wherein the bottom portion is thicker than the sidewall portion; reflowing the metal layer to form metal patterns in the openings, the metal patterns having top surfaces at a level lower than a topmost surface of the interlayer insulating layer; and/or forming capping patterns covering the metal patterns in the openings.
US09171744B2	Attaching passive components to a semiconductor package Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method comprising forming an electrically conductive structure on a surface of a semiconductor die, attaching the semiconductor die to a substrate, forming a molding compound to encapsulate the semiconductor die, forming an opening in the molding compound, the opening to at least partially expose the electrically conductive structure, and electrically coupling a passive component to the electrically conductive structure through the opening in the molding compound. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09171742B2	Alignment of integrated circuit chip stack The present disclosure relates to methods and devices for manufacturing a three-dimensional chip package. A method includes forming a linear groove on an alignment rail, attaching an alignment rod to the linear groove, forming alignment channels on a plurality of integrated circuit chips, and aligning the plurality of integrated circuit chips by stacking the plurality of integrated circuit chips along the alignment rail. Another method includes forming an alignment ridge on an alignment rail, forming alignment channels on a plurality of integrated circuit chips, and aligning the plurality of integrated circuit chips by stacking the plurality of integrated circuit chips along the alignment rail.
US09171734B1	Substrate processing apparatus, method of manufacturing semiconductor device and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium A substrate processing apparatus includes a processing chamber accommodating a substrate; first and second process gas supply units that respectively supply first and second process gases from above and laterally relative to the substrate; and first and second reactive gas supply units that respectively supply first and second reactive gases from above and laterally relative to the substrate. A control unit controls the other units such that a total amount of the first and second process gases supplied to a center portion of the substrate is different from that supplied to a peripheral portion of the substrate, or a total amount of the first and second reactive gases supplied to the center portion of the substrate is different from that supplied to the peripheral portion of the substrate.
US09171733B2	Method of selectively etching a three-dimensional structure A method of selectively etching a three-dimensional (3-D) structure includes generating a plasma in contact with the 3-D structure, and illuminating a designated portion of the 3-D structure with a laser beam while the plasma is being generated. Nonilluminated portions of the 3-D structure are etched at a first etch rate, and the designated portion of the 3-D structure is etched at a second etch rate, where the second etch rate is different from the first etch rate.
US09171730B2	Electrodes for semiconductor devices and methods of forming the same A III-N semiconductor HEMT device includes an electrode-defining layer on a III-N material structure. The electrode-defining layer has a recess with a first sidewall proximal to the drain and a second sidewall proximal to the source, each sidewall comprising a plurality of steps. A portion of the recess distal from the III-N material structure has a larger width than a portion of the recess proximal to the III-N material structure. An electrode is in the recess, the electrode including an extending portion over the first sidewall. A portion of the electrode-defining layer is between the extending portion and the III-N material structure. The first sidewall forms a first effective angle relative to the surface of the III-N material structure and the second sidewall forms a second effective angle relative to the surface of the III-N material structure, the second effective angle being larger than the first effective angle.
US09171728B2	Method for forming a power semiconductor device A method for forming a semiconductor device includes providing a semiconductor body which has a main surface and a first n-type semiconductor region, forming a trench which extends from the main surface into the first n-type semiconductor region, and forming a dielectric layer having fixed negative charges on a surface of the trench, by performing at least one atomic layer deposition using an organometallic precursor.
US09171715B2	Atomic layer deposition of GeO2 Atomic layer deposition processes for forming germanium oxide thin films are provided. In some embodiments the ALD processes can include the following: contacting the substrate with a vapor phase tetravalent Ge precursor such that at most a molecular monolayer of the Ge precursor is formed on the substrate surface; removing excess Ge precursor and reaction by products, if any; contacting the substrate with a vapor phase oxygen precursor that reacts with the Ge precursor on the substrate surface; removing excess oxygen precursor and any gaseous by-products, and repeating the contacting and removing steps until a germanium oxide thin film of the desired thickness has been formed.
US09171707B2	Reagents for electron transfer dissociation in mass spectrometry analysis The invention provides improvements in reagents for use in electron transfer dissociation ionization techniques for use in mass spectrometry, particularly for sequencing peptides and proteins using mass spectrometric techniques involving electrospray ionization and MS/MS characterization of fragment ions. The novel reagents used in the inventive methods allow for more effective determination of protein sequences, especially of long peptides or post-translationally modified protein fragments. Use of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons azulene, homoazulene, and acenaphthylene, and homodimers and heterodimers thereof, are described.
US09171699B2	Impedance-based adjustment of power and frequency Systems and methods for impedance-based adjustment of power and frequency are described. A system includes a plasma chamber for containing plasma. The plasma chamber includes an electrode. The system includes a driver and amplifier coupled to the plasma chamber for providing a radio frequency (RF) signal to the electrode. The driver and amplifier is coupled to the plasma chamber via a transmission line. The system further includes a selector coupled to the driver and amplifier, a first auto frequency control (AFC) coupled to the selector, and a second AFC coupled to the selector. The selector is configured to select the first AFC or the second AFC based on values of current and voltage sensed on the transmission line.
US09171687B2	Circuit breaker A miniature intelligent circuit breaker, including a box body, the box body including an upper cover and a bottom box, and a circuit breaker actuating mechanism for switching on/off the circuit breaker, a wire inlet end, and a wire outlet end being arranged in the box body. An automatic closing function part is arranged inside the box body and includes an automatic closing mechanical unit and an automatic closing control unit. The automatic closing mechanical unit includes a motor and an intermediate transmission mechanism. The operation of the motor is realized through the automatic closing control unit. The circuit breaker actuating mechanism is driven to move through the transmission of the intermediate transmission mechanism, such that the closing action of the circuit breaker is ultimately realized.
US09171684B2	Circuit breaker latching mechanism A circuit breaker includes a latching mechanism including a switching mechanism operatively connected to a tensioning element, and an unlatching mechanism by which, in response to a tripping signal, the tensioning element can be transferred from a tensioned state into an at least substantially relaxed state. The tensioning element is indirectly coupled to a tension lever which can be locked or tripped as a function of a position of a blocking pawl of the unlatching mechanism and which includes a blocking mechanism by which, in an OFF position of the latching mechanism in which the switch is open and the tensioning element is tensioned, tripping of the tension lever is prevented despite a tripping signal. The blocking mechanism of the tension lever includes a rocker arm which is fastened movably on the tension lever.
US09171677B2	Ionic liquid and power storage device including the same An ionic liquid having high electrochemical stability and a low melting point. An ionic liquid represented by the following general formula (G0) is provided. In the general formula (G0), R0 to R5 are individually any of an alkyl group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, a methoxy group, a methoxymethyl group, a methoxyethyl group, and a hydrogen atom, and A− is a univalent imide-based anion, a univalent methide-based anion, a perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acid anion, tetrafluoroborate, or hexafluorophosphate.
US09171673B2	On-chip capacitors with a variable capacitance for a radiofrequency integrated circuit Methods of fabricating an on-chip capacitor with a variable capacitance, as well as methods of adjusting the capacitance of an on-chip capacitor and design structures for an on-chip capacitor. The method includes forming first and second ports configured to be powered with opposite polarities, first and second electrodes, and first and second voltage-controlled units. The method includes configuring the first voltage-controlled unit to selectively couple the first electrode with the first port, and the second voltage-controlled unit to selectively couple the second electrode with the second port. When the first electrode is coupled by the first voltage-controlled unit with the first port and the second electrode is coupled by the second voltage-controlled unit with the second port, the capacitance of the on-chip capacitor increases.
US09171669B2	Ultra-wideband assembly system and method An ultra-wideband assembly is provided. The assembly includes a non-conductive tapered core having an outer surface, a proximate end and a distal end being larger than proximate end. The assembly includes a conductive wire having a proximate end and a distal end and being wound about at least a portion of the non-conductive tapered core. The proximate end of the conductive wire extends away from the proximate end of the tapered core and is being conductively coupled to a micro-strip line of a circuit board. The distal end of the conductive wire extends away from the distal end of the tapered core. The conductive wire contacts at least a portion of the outer surface of the non-conductive tapered core. The assembly includes a supporting bracket coupled to the non-conductive tapered core. The supporting bracket is configured to dispose the non-conductive tapered core at a predetermined angle to the circuit board.
US09171661B2	Noise reducer A noise reducer is provided that ameliorates electromagnetic noise interference. More specifically, the noise reducer ameliorates electromagnetic noise interference for electronic equipment caused by noise superimposed on a conductor wire. The conductor wire includes a magnetic cylindrical core that penetrates a hollow hole, a winding coiled around the magnetic cylindrical core, and an impedance element connected to the winding. When a noise current is superimposed on the conductor wire that has been made to penetrate the magnetic cylindrical core, part of the noise current is electromagnetically induced from the conductor wire to the winding and flows to the winding. The noise current that flows to the winding is transformed into heat and consumed by the impedance element. As a result, the noise power that gives electromagnetic noise interference to the electronic devices can be reduced and the electromagnetic noise interference for the electronic devices ameliorated.
US09171656B2	Electrically insulating nanocomposite having semiconducting or nonconductive nanoparticles, use of this nanocomposite and process for producing it A cellulose material contains cellulose fibers having an impregnation. Accordingly, the impregnation is made of nanoparticles, in particular BNNT, containing a shell of polymers, in particular PEDOT:PSS. The impregnation forms a type of network that can reduce the specific resistance of the cellulose material due to the electrical conductivity of the network. The cellulose material can thereby be advantageously adapted to corresponding applications with respect to the electrical properties thereof. The cellulose material can thus also be used to electrically insulate transformers, wherein the cellulose material is thereby saturated with transformer oil and an adaptation of the specific resistance of the cellulose material to the specific resistance of the oil leads to improved dielectric strength of the transformer insulation. A method for producing the cellulose material described above contains a suitable impregnation step for the cellulose material.
US09171649B2	Shielded structure for radiation treatment equipment and method of assembly A modularized approach for rapidly and cost effectively assembling a structure suitable for housing radiation emitting equipment is disclosed. The modules include reinforced walls to contain radiation shielding fill material. The modules are transported empty and then filled on site with the fill material to form a radiation shielding barrier around radiation emitting equipment.
US09171639B2	eFuse macro An eFuse with at least one fuse unit is provided. The fuse unit includes a first common node providing a first reference voltage, a second common node providing a second reference voltage, at least one fuse coupled to the first common node, and a determining unit coupled between the fuse and the second common node, generating an output signal indicating whether the fuse is blown or not according to a first condition in a normal mode and a second condition in a test mode.
US09171628B2	Incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) scheme capable of determining a next starting pulse based on a current program-verify pulse for improving programming speed A method for programming a memory including a plurality of memory cells is provided. The method comprises selecting a current cell and executing a pre-program verify operation at a first program verify level. The method comprises executing a program and program verify operation for the current cell, including applying a sequence of program pulses and performing program verify steps. The sequence includes a starting pulse having a starting magnitude. The program verify steps use a second program verify level. The method also comprises determining the starting magnitude for a next cell as a function of a magnitude of the program pulse in an instance of the program verify step in which the current cell passes verify at the second program verify level.
US09171622B2	Non-volatile memory device and method of fabricating the same This technology provides a non-volatile memory device and a method of manufacturing the same, which may prevent an over-erase phenomenon and also increase the degree of integration, In an aspect, the non-volatile memory device includes a select gate formed over a substrate, a plurality of floating gates laterally formed with respect to the select gate and spaced apart from each other, to be independently programmable, and a plurality of junctions formed in the substrate and arranged to be controllable by the respective floating gates.
US09171615B2	Semiconductor memory device A semiconductor memory device according to an embodiment comprises a memory cell array configured from a plurality of row lines and column lines that intersect one another, and from a plurality of memory cells disposed at each of intersections of the row lines and column lines and each including a variable resistance element. Where a number of the row lines is assumed to be N, a number of the column lines is assumed to be M, and a ratio of a cell current flowing in the one of the memory cells when a voltage that is half of the select voltage is applied to the one of the memory cells to a cell current flowing in the one of the memory cells when the select voltage is applied to the one of the memory cells is assumed to be k, a relationship M2<2×N×k is satisfied.
US09171612B2	Resistive changing memory cell architecture having a select transistor coupled to a resistance changing memory element A resistance changing memory array architecture includes an array of resistance changing memory unit cell arranged in rows and column, wherein at least two adjacent columns share a sense bit line, and a control line individually associated with each column, wherein a current control component within each unit cell along a respective column is coupled to a respective control line. The architecture further includes a plurality of word lines each associated with a respective row, wherein a resistance changing element associated with each unit cell along a respective row is coupled to a respective word line.
US09171610B2	Static random access memory device including dual power line and bit line precharge method thereof A static random access memory (SRAM) device is provided. A memory cell is supplied with a first driving voltage. A bit line pair is connected to the memory cell. A sense amplifier is connected to the bit line pair. The sense amplifier is supplied with a second driving voltage that is lower than the first driving voltage. A control logic selects a pre-charge voltage from the first and second driving voltages, pre-charges the bit line pair to the pre-charge voltage and adjusts the pre-charged voltage to a target voltage.
US09171607B2	Ground-referenced single-ended system-on-package A system of interconnected chips comprising a multi-chip module (MCM) includes a first processor chip, a system function chip, and an MCM package configured to include the first processor chip and the system function chip. The first processor chip is configured to include a first ground-referenced single-ended signaling (GRS) interface circuit. The system function chip is configured to include a second GRS interface circuit. A first set of electrical traces are fabricated within the MCM package and coupled to the first GRS interface circuit and to the second GRS interface circuit. The first GRS interface circuit and second GRS interface circuit together provide a communication channel between the first processor chip and the system function chip.
US09171598B2	Memory system A memory system according to the embodiment comprises a cell array including a unit cell array, the unit cell array containing plural first lines, plural second lines intersecting the plural first lines, and plural memory cells provided at the intersections of the plural first lines and the plural second lines and operative to store data in accordance with different physical states; and an access circuit operative to make access to the memory cell via the first line and the second line, wherein the access circuit, on writing data in the access cell, uses a non-access-side first line driver to electrically connect a non-access first line adjacent to an access first line to a first potential power supply via a diode-connected transistor.
US09171591B2	Circuits and methods for efficient execution of a read or a write operation A system for efficient execution of a read or a write is described. The system includes a memory array including a way. The system further includes a read and compare circuit. The read and compare circuit compares data stored within lower address memory cells of the way with information received from a storage device to generate a result of comparison. Moreover, the read and compare circuit compares data stored within higher address memory cells of the way with the information to generate a result of comparison. The system further includes a merge and multiplex circuit coupled to the read and compare circuit. The merge and multiplex circuit merges the result of comparison generated based on the comparison with the lower address memory cells and the result of comparison generated based on the comparison with the higher address memory cells to create a merged outcome of comparison.
US09171581B2	Friction force measurement assembly and method The application discloses a sensor device to measure friction force at a head-media interface. As disclosed, the sensor device has a transducer element oriented to provide an electrical output responsive to force or strain imparted to the transducer element along an in-plane axis. Sensor circuitry is coupled to the transducer element to process the electrical output to provide an output measure of friction force. In illustrated embodiments, the head includes an actuator element which is powered on/off at an on/off frequency to cyclically protrude a localized portion of the head. The on/off frequency of the actuator is used by the sensor circuitry to detect excitation of the sensor device due to friction force at the head-media interface.
US09171574B1	Shingled band with a cache track A disc data storage medium can include a shingled band of tracks, some of which do not map to host accessible logical block address. The tracks that do not map to host accessible logical block addresses (cache tracks) can store cache data and may map to disc accessible logical block addresses. Data operations can be performed on the data in the cache tracks, and the data may then be moved to storage regions mapped to host logical block addresses.
US09171568B1	Data storage device periodically re-initializing spindle motor commutation sequence based on timing data A data storage device is disclosed comprising a disk comprising timing data, a spindle motor configured to rotate the disk, wherein the spindle motor comprises a plurality of windings, and a head actuated over the disk. A phase of a commutation controller is initialized based on the timing data on the disk, and a commutation sequence of the commutation controller is driven based on the timing data on the disk, wherein the commutation controller is configured to commutate the windings based on the commutation sequence. The phase of the commutation controller is re-initialized based on the timing data on the disk, thereby compensating for a cumulative phase error when driving the commutation sequence based on the timing data on the disk.
US09171565B2	Method of producing a data storage medium The present invention relates a method of producing a data storage medium comprising the steps of: a) coating a layer comprising a polymer material onto at least a part of a template surface thereby to obtain a modified template surface; b) clamping the modified template surface produced in step (a) with a target surface thereby to obtain an assembly; and c) introducing a liquid to an environment of the assembly obtained in step (b) thereby to transfer the layer comprising the polymer material of the modified template surface onto at least an adjacent region on the target surface.
US09171563B1	Recording medium having independent track for velocity, timing and/or longitudinal position A product according to one embodiment includes a magnetic recording tape having at least one first servo track having timing information, and a supplemental servo track having at least one of: velocity encoding and longitudinal position encoding. An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a magnetic head and at least one module having an array of transducers. The apparatus is configured to read and/or write to magnetic recording media having at least one first servo track having timing information, and a supplemental servo track having at least one of: velocity encoding and longitudinal position encoding.
US09171560B1	Sloping transition on a ramp of a hard disk drive Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a ramp for a hard disk drive. The HDD ramp generally includes a ramp body having a head separator fin, a gimbal limiter adjacent to the head separator fin which is thicker than the head separator fin, and a first chamfer at a transition between a first surface of the gimbal limiter and a first surface of the head separator fin. A hard disk drive including such a HDD ramp and a method for using the HDD ramp are also disclosed.
US09171559B1	Sensor structure with pinned stabilization layer A reader sensor that has a sensor stack with an AFM layer, a pinned stabilization layer, and a pinned layer, with the pinned stabilization layer closer to the AFM layer than to the pinned layer. The stack also includes a non-magnetic spacer layer between and in contact with the pinned stabilization layer and with the pinned layer. A magnetic coupling between the pinned stabilization layer and the pinned layer is no more than 50% of a magnetic coupling between the pinned stabilization layer and the AFM layer.
US09171555B2	Magnetic flux barrier Data storage systems having barriers that may reduce erasure flux and increase write-ability are provided. Data storage systems include a writing element. The writing element has a write pole with a flare region. A magnetic flux barrier is located along the write pole flare region. The magnetic flux barrier is illustratively made from an in-plane magnetically anisotropic material that has an easy plane of magnetization. In another embodiment, a data storage system includes a writing element having an air bearing surface and a shield at the air bearing surface. The shield has a magnetic permeability of approximately zero. The shield illustratively includes alternating layers of positive and negative permeabilities. The shield optionally includes a plurality of shields that may include top, bottom, and side shields.
US09171547B2	Multi-pass speech analytics Included are embodiments for multi-pass analytics. At least one embodiment of a method includes receiving data associated with a communication, performing first tier analytics on the received data, and performing second tier analytics on the received data, where the second tier analytics determines different characteristics of the received data than the first tier analytics.
US09171546B1	Performing functions based on commands in context of telephonic communication Aspects of this disclosure are directed to establishing a telephonic communication between a first computing device and a second device and receiving, with the first computing device, a command that defines a function to be performed. When the command comprises a voice command, the function defined in the voice command may be performed. When the command does not comprise the voice command, it may be determined that the command comprises an instruction to perform the function after an occurrence of a future condition. The function defined by the command may be performed after the occurrence of the future condition.
US09171540B2	Method, apparatus, and access network system for speech signal processing A method and an apparatus for speech signal processing are provided. The method includes: receiving an encoded speech signal sent by a user equipment, where the encoded speech signal includes a first substream, a second substream, and a third substream, and the first substream is attached with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC); performing decoding processing on the first substream, the second substream, and the third substream by adopting a decoding algorithm, where a decoding algorithm that is based on an auxiliary decision of the CRC is adopted to perform decoding processing on the first substream; and sending decoding results of the first substream, the second substream, and the third substream to a base station controller, where the decoding result of the first substream includes a decoded bit stream and a CRC result. Decoding performance of the first substream is improved, and users' higher requirements for the speech quality are met.
US09171539B2	Transforming components of a web page to voice prompts Embodiments of the invention address the deficiencies of the prior art by providing a method, apparatus, and program product to of converting components of a web page to voice prompts for a user. In some embodiments, the method comprises selectively determining at least one HTML component from a plurality of HTML components of a web page to transform into a voice prompt for a mobile system based upon a voice attribute file associated with the web page. The method further comprises transforming the at least one HTML component into parameterized data suitable for use by the mobile system based upon at least a portion of the voice attribute file associated with the at least one HTML component and transmitting the parameterized data to the mobile system.
US09171531B2	Device and method for interpreting musical gestures Musical rendition is provided through the use of microsensors, in particular of accelerometers and magnetometers or rate gyros, and through an appropriate processing of the signals from the microsensors. In particular, the processing uses a merging of the data output from the microsensors to eliminate false alarms in the form of movements of the user unrelated to the music. The velocity of the musical strikes is also measured. Embodiments make it possible to control the running of mp3 or wav type music files to be played back.
US09171526B2	Display device, method for controlling display device, program, and recording medium A display device includes a display panel having pixels each constituted by red, green, blue, and white subpixels and a backlight, further including: a grayscale ratio calculating section acquiring RGB data and calculating a ratio of the lowest to the highest of RGB grayscales in each pixel; a detection section detecting, from the RGB data, a ratio of the number of target pixels in one frame; a conversion coefficient calculating section acquiring, by using the detected ratio, a conversion coefficient for converting the RGB data into RGBW data; a RGB data conversion section converting the RGB data into the RGBW data per pixel by using the conversion coefficient; and a display control section generating, from the RGBW data, an image to be displayed on the display panel and causing the display panel to display the image.
US09171516B2	Gate driver on array circuit The present invention provides a gate driver on array circuit. The gate driver on array circuit comprises: multiple gate driver on array units connected in cascade. The n-th gate driver on array unit of the gate driver on array circuit comprises a (n−2)-th signal input terminal 21, a (n+2)-th signal input terminal 22, a clock signal first input terminal 23, a clock signal second input terminal 24, a first low-level input terminal 25, a second low-level input terminal 26, a first output terminal 27 and a second output terminal 28. The n-th gate driver on array unit further comprises: a pulling-up driving unit 32, a pulling-up unit 34, a first to a third pulling-down unit 36, 37, 38. The present invention adds a second low-level signal, which uses the second low-level to decrease the voltage difference (Vgs) between the gate and the source of the thin film transistor of the first output terminal, so that the leakage current of the thin film transistor is less and can be controlled precisely.
US09171513B2	Luminance adjustment part, display apparatus having the luminance adjustment part, and method for adjusting luminance A luminance adjustment part includes a luminance determination part and a data compensation part. The luminance determination part may determine a control value for controlling luminance of a backlight assembly using linear image data that has a linear luminance profile and is generated by performing a de-gamma process on a first copy of input image data that has a nonlinear luminance profile. The compensation part may compensate pixel data that corresponds to pixels of a display panel using the control value, the pixel data being generated using a second copy of the input image data. Thus, color distortion of a displayed image as perceived by a viewer may be minimized when power consumption of a display apparatus that includes the display panel is decreased.
US09171505B2	Scan driving unit and organic light emitting display device having the same A scan driving unit and OLED display device including the unit are disclosed. In one aspect, the unit includes a first pre-decoder block that receives upper scan-line selection signals for selecting one of upper scan-lines that are arranged in an upper display region of a display panel, and outputs first logic signals based on the upper scan-line selection signals. It also includes a second pre-decoder block that receives lower scan-line selection signals for selecting one of lower scan-lines that are arranged in a lower display region of the display panel, and outputs second logic signals based on the lower scan-line selection signals. It further includes a first final-decoder block coupled between the upper display region and the first pre-decoder block that selects one of the upper scan-lines based on the first logic signals, and a second final-decoder block coupled between the lower display region and the second pre-decoder block that selects one of the lower scan-lines based on the second logic signals.
US09171502B2	Pixel selection control method, driving circuit, display apparatus and electronic instrument A pixel selection control method, driving circuit, display apparatus and electronic instrument are disclosed. A driving circuit includes a logic circuit configured to receive a reference signal associated with a line of pixels. The reference signal has a first logic level or a second logic level. The driving circuit also includes a switch circuit configured to receive the reference signal and an enable signal, and to provide the enable signal to the logic circuit when the reference signal is at the first logic level. A display apparatus may be provided that includes the driving circuit.
US09171500B2	System and methods for extraction of parasitic parameters in AMOLED displays A system reads a desired circuit parameter from a pixel circuit that includes a light emitting device, a drive device to provide a programmable drive current to the light emitting device, a programming input, and a storage device to store a programming signal. One embodiment of the extraction system extracts a parasitic capacitance value from a pixel circuit by measuring at least one parameter of the pixel circuit when in a first state having a first set of operating voltages and currents, measuring at least one parameter of the pixel circuit when in a second state having a second set of operating voltages and currents different from the first set, and extracting the value of a selected parasitic capacitance from the measurements.
US09171498B2	Organic light emitting diode display device and method for driving the same An organic light emitting diode display device can include a display panel in which data lines and gate lines intersect each other; an image processing circuit converting a first digital image data including a plurality of color digital data into any one of a second digital image data including the plurality of color digital data and a first white digital data and a third digital image data including a plurality of color conversion digital data that converts the plurality of color digital data and a second white digital data according to whether the first digital image data is included in a first gray scale region or a second gray scale region which is higher than the first gray scale region; and a data driving circuit converting the second digital image data into data voltages and supplying the data voltages to the data lines.
US09171496B2	Image control display device and image control method An image control technology that enables low power consumption with less compromise in the overall quality of the image is disclosed, in which color information of an image is saved while minimizing degradation of picture quality, and improving text readability. In one aspect, an image control display device includes an image controller configured to measure at least one of luminance values and chroma values of pixels of an input image. In addition, the image controller is configured to detect an edge using the at least one of luminance and chroma values and is configured to invert color information of the input image into inverted image data. The image controller is further configured to generate output image data comprising an inverted region and an exception region, where the inverted region displays the inverted image data and the exception region displays uninverted input image data. The display device additionally includes a data driver configured to receive the output image data and to apply a plurality of data voltages corresponding to the output image data to a display panel.
US09171493B2	Semiconductor device and driving method thereof, and electronic device A driving method of a semiconductor device for compensating variation in threshold voltage and mobility of a transistor is provided. A driving method of a semiconductor device including a transistor and a capacitor electrically connected to a gate of the transistor includes a first period where voltage corresponding to threshold voltage of the transistor is held in the capacitor, a second period where a total voltage of video signal voltage and threshold voltage is held in the capacitor holding the threshold voltage, and a third period where charge held in the capacitor in accordance with the total voltage of the video signal voltage and the threshold voltage in the second period is discharged through the transistor.
US09171490B2	Method of driving display panel and display apparatus for performing the same A method of driving a display panel includes determining a driving mode including a two-dimensional (“2D”) mode and a three-dimensional (“3D”) mode and charging a voltage which varies according to the driving mode to at least one subpixel in a unit pixel of the display panel.
US09171481B2	Method for identifying, displaying, selecting, naming and matching colors The color device has a core with hues that gradually change whiteness, respectively. The discs have hues covering an entire color spectrum at a certain level of whiteness. All hues of the first and second discs have the first and second level of whiteness, respectively. The discs extend perpendicularly outwardly from the core. The first disc is axially remote from the second disc so that a distance (d) is formed therebetween. The discs are aligned so that color cells of the first disc axially aligned with color cells of the second disc have identical hues except for different whiteness. The level of color saturation in the color cells is gradually increased radially outwardly from the core.
US09171478B2	Learning model for dynamic component utilization in a question answering system Mechanisms are provided in a data processing system for utilizing algorithms based on categories in a question answering system. The mechanisms capture a history of performance and correctness metrics for identifying efficiency of respective algorithms for finding answers to questions in respective question categories in a question answering system. The mechanisms determine sets of algorithms to use for respective question categories according to efficiency and correctness analysis. The mechanisms determine a question category of a given input question and execute a set of algorithms corresponding to the question category of the given input question that meet an efficiency threshold to contribute to finding a correct answer for the given input question.
US09171474B2	Navigation aid instrument for aircraft Navigation aid instrument for an aircraft pilot including: a first display device (R3) extending horizontally, wherein the center of the display device embodies the longitudinal axis (X) of the aircraft, a mobile marker can move on either side of the center of the first display device (R3) indicating the aircraft flight direction relative to the ground, and the mobile marker is further away from the center of the display device (R3) the further the aircraft drifts from the rectilinear flight path, and/or two left (R2) and right (R1) display devices that extend vertically at a distance from each other and have the function of indicating the angle of inclination of the aircraft wings relative to the horizontal respectively on the left side or right side of the aircraft, wherein a mobile marker can move either along the left display device (R2), or along the right display device (R1) to indicate to the pilot which way his aeroplane is inclined and the value of the inclination is higher the further the mobile marker is away from the top of the left (R2) or right (R1) display device concerned.
US09171469B2	Smart spacing allocation A method, system and computer program product for allocating parking spaces for vehicles in a parking area. In one embodiment, the invention provides a system comprising a sensor system for generating output representing measurements of vehicles in the parking area, a marking system for identifying parking spaces in the parking area, and a controller for calculating parking spaces for vehicles. The controller obtains defined measurements for the vehicles in the parking area, and calculates for each of the vehicles, a respective one parking space in the parking area. Embodiments of the invention dynamically allocate parking spaces based on: (1) Determining the minimum space that should be enough for the size of the car that is being currently identified for parking; and (2) Maximizing utilization of space by preventing improper fragmentation, where because of allocating fixed size spaces to all cars, big/small/medium, fragments of space would be wasted.
US09171464B2	Encoded representation of route data For a route server that generates route data for a route between a starting location and a destination location on a map, a method of compressing the route data that includes a maneuvering instruction for each of a plurality of junctures from the starting location to the destination location of the route is described. For a maneuvering instruction for each juncture of the route, the method determines whether the maneuvering instruction for the juncture is needed at a route client that is to receive the route data. When the maneuvering instruction for a particular juncture is determined not to be needed at the route client, the method modifies the route data by removing the maneuvering instruction for the particular juncture from the route data.
US09171460B2	Systems and methods for collecting information from vehicle devices via a vehicle data bus Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention continuously collecting information via a vehicle data bus, store the information in a database, and retrieve the information in response to requests from remote devices. One embodiment includes a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller spaced apart from the at least one operable vehicle device and connected to the vehicle data bus so that the vehicle data bus extends from said controller to the at least one operable vehicle device. The controller is configured to query the at least one vehicle device via the vehicle data bus and store the information provided in a database, and receive requests for information from a remote device via the wireless communications device, query the database for the requested information and send the requested information to the remote device via the wireless communications device.
US09171451B2	Method and apparatus for tracking and disseminating health information via mobile channels An approach is provided for tracking and disseminating health information. Health information corresponding to a geographic location is caused, at least in part, to be received. Location information associated with a user equipment configured to receive a message specifying content is determined. Whether the location information is encompassed by the geographic location is determined. The message is modified to present a health alert indicator by appending supplemental content to the message or by amending the content. Initiation of delivery of the modified message to the user equipment when the user equipment is in or within a predetermined range of the geographic location is caused, at least in part.
US09171442B2	Item identification using video recognition to supplement bar code or RFID information A method and system for confirming the identity of a product in a security system and for determining sales-related information pertaining to the products. One or more products are associated with a product identification element, such as a bar code or an RFID tag. A reader or a scanner within the system receives a signal from the product identification element containing product identity information about the product. The system further includes a camera that captures a video image of the product. Signals representing the product identity information and the video image of the product are forwarded to a data correlation unit that determines if the product associated with the product identity information matches the product in the video image.
US09171438B2	Multi-axis photoelectric sensor Provided is a multi-axis photoelectric sensor that outputs a high-level signal while a detection area is not shielded and stops the signal output when the detection area is shielded, wherein a sequence of a change in a non-shielded state and in a shielded state of the detection area formed by optical axes and inputs from muting sensors are divided into a plurality of stages for monitoring, and muting processing is executed when the stages progress normally. When an abnormality in the sequence is detected in a stage being monitored, indicator lights are blinked by a number of times corresponding to the stage in which the abnormality has been detected, to provide a notification of a stage in which the abnormality has been detected.
US09171437B2	Haptic information presentation system and method A system and method are disclosed in which in a conventional non-grounding man-machine interface having no reaction base on the human body and for giving the existence of a virtual object and the impact force of a collision to a person, a haptic sensation of a torque, a force and the like can be continuously presented in the same direction, which cannot be presented by only the physical characteristic of a haptic sensation presentation device. In a haptic presentation device, the rotation velocity of at least one rotator in the haptic presentation device is controlled by a control device, and a vibration, a force or a torque as the physical characteristic is controlled, so that the user is made to conceive various haptic information of the vibration, force, torque or the like.
US09171434B2	Selectively redirecting notifications to a wearable computing device A first computing device can include at least one processor, and a notification redirection module operable by the at least one processor to receive sensor data from a second computing device, responsive to determining, based on the sensor data, that the second computing device is not being worn, output and for display, a notification, and responsive to determining, based on the sensor data, that the second computing device is being worn, send to the second computing device, an indication of the notification.
US09171432B2	Customer checkout accelerator A system and method for accelerating customer sales transactions in a retail store. A customer checkout accelerator provides a customer user interface to initiate a request for a preapproval amount for a sales transaction before reaching the point of sale terminal for completion of the purchase transaction. A card reader integrated into the customer checkout accelerator reads a customer payment card number when the payment card is swiped through the reader. A customer checkout accelerator server module resident on a store controller server determines a preapproval amount for the sales transaction and transmits the request to an external card services system for payment approval. The customer checkout accelerator also provides the ability to purchase additional promotional items in the checkout lane with this process integrated into the payment preapproval process. Once payment approval is obtained from the external card services system, an entry is placed in a preapproval database associated with the customer checkout accelerator server module on the store controller server. The server module forwards the approval notification to the point of sales terminal where it is placed in a preapproval cache for use in completing the actual sale transaction.
US09171426B2	Advertising space for tournaments Examples disclosed herein relate to systems and methods for tournament game player. An electronic gaming device may include a memory, one or more processors, and a plurality of reels. One or more paylines may be formed on at least a portion of the plurality of reels. The memory may include one or more tournament game structures. The memory may also include one or more advertisement structures. The one or more processors may initiate one or more tournaments based on one or more tournament game structures. The one or more processors may initiate one or more advertisements based on at least one of the one or more advertisement structures and one or more triggering events.
US09171425B2	Gaming device with interactive spin action visual effects The present invention relates to a reel-type slot machine having interactive spin action visual effects. The reel-type slot machine includes at least M reels, each reel having symbols associated with it; a video display for displaying a video image of a M N matrix of squares, each square associated with a symbol of a corresponding reel; and a spin actuator for initiating play and interactively producing spin action visual effects associated with the M×N matrix of squares by inputting a direction vector and speed, wherein the direction vector and speed respectively determine the direction and speed of the spin action visual effects. Preferably, the spin actuator is a trackball.
US09171416B2	Banknote handling apparatus and banknote handling method A banknote handling apparatus that performs a depositing handling or a depositing/dispensing handling by transporting banknotes along a transport path includes a recognizing unit that recognizes an inserted banknotes; a deposit acceptability judging unit that determines, based on a recognition result obtained by the recognizing unit, whether the banknotes is acceptable for deposit; a reject reason identifying unit that identifies a reject reason of rejected banknotes that is determined to be unacceptable for deposit by the deposit acceptability judging unit; and a dispensing handling unit that sorts and dispenses the rejected banknotes based on the reject cause identified by the reject cause identifying unit.
US09171414B2	Banknote validator A banknote validator (2) comprising: a first banknote input/output aperture (3); a second banknote input/output aperture (4); a banknote transport path (5) interconnecting the first banknote input/output aperture (3) and the second banknote input/output aperture (14); an intermediate validation transport branch (11) disposed between the first and second banknote input/output apertures (3, 4); and a diverter mechanism (12) disposed proximal to an entrance to said intermediate validation transport branch (11); characterised in that the diverter mechanism (12) is moveable between: a first position in which the banknote transport path bypasses the intermediate validation transport branch (11) providing a direct passage between the first and second banknote input/output apertures (3, 4); and a second position in which the banknote transport path is indirect between the first banknote input/output aperture (3) and the second banknote input/output aperture (4) and is via the intermediate validation transport branch (11).
US09171412B2	Sensor and method for operating the sensor A sensor for checking different features of value documents is arranged to carry out a self-test for testing its functionality. Before the sensor carries out its self-test, at least one of the features that is to be checked by the sensor is selected. It is provided in the self-test that the sensor rates a malfunction ascertained in the self-test differently and reacts to the ascertained malfunction differently in dependence on the selected feature. While a malfunction of the sensor has hitherto always led to a failure of the sensor, the sensor, despite ascertained malfunctions, can nevertheless carry out the check of certain features. It is achieved that the number of function failures of the sensor is reduced through the different reactions of the sensor to the ascertained malfunction in dependence on the feature.
US09171406B2	Offline exception processing of mail Mail processing systems and methods. A method includes scanning a plurality of mail pieces in a first processing step to produce mail piece images. The method includes producing a template based on a plurality of the mail piece images and associating a plurality of mail pieces with the template, the associated plurality of mail pieces forming a mail set. The method includes identifying quality-control problems associated with the mail set, separating the mail set from other mail during a second processing step, and separately processing the mail set from the other mail.
US09171391B2	Systems and methods for imaging a volume-of-interest Systems and methods for imaging a volume-of-interest, which may include an object or point of interest to be analyzed in a display of three-dimensional data.
US09171384B2	Hands-free augmented reality for wireless communication devices This disclosure relates to techniques for providing hands-free augmented reality on a wireless communication device (WCD). According to the techniques, an application processor within the WCD executes an augmented reality (AR) application to receive a plurality of image frames and convert the plurality of image frames into a single picture comprising the plurality of image frames stitched together to represent a scene. The WCD executing the AR application then requests AR content for the scene represented in the single picture from an AR database server, receives AR content for the scene from the AR database server, and processes the AR content to overlay the single picture for display to a user on the WCD. In this way, the user may comfortably look at the single picture with the overlaid AR content on a display of the WCD to learn more about the scene represented in the single picture.
US09171380B2	Controlling power consumption in object tracking pipeline Embodiments related to detecting object information from image data collected by an image sensor are disclosed. In one example embodiment, the object information is detected by receiving a frame of image data from the image sensor and detecting a change in a threshold condition related to an object within the frame. The embodiment further comprises adjusting a setting that changes a power consumption of the image sensor in response to detecting the threshold condition.
US09171379B2	Hybrid precision tracking Disclosed herein are through-the-lens tracking systems and methods which can enable sub-pixel accurate camera tracking suitable for real-time set extensions. That is, the through-the-lens tracking can make an existing lower precision camera tracking and compositing system into a real-time VFX system capable of sub-pixel accurate real-time camera tracking. With this enhanced level of tracking accuracy the virtual cameras can be used to register and render real-time set extensions for both interior and exterior locations.
US09171378B2	Camera apparatus and method for tracking object in the camera apparatus A camera apparatus capable of tracking a target object based on motion of a camera sensed by a motion sensor and a method for tracking an object in the camera apparatus are provided. The method includes, if input image data is inputted, sensing motion of a camera which captures the input image data, generating camera motion data corresponding to motion of the camera, estimating a pose or motion of the camera based on the camera motion data, and tracking translation of a target object based on at least one of the estimated pose or motion of the camera and the input image data.
US09171369B2	Computer-aided detection (CAD) system for personalized disease detection, assessment, and tracking, in medical imaging based on user selectable criteria An embodiment of the current invention includes computer-implemented method for image processing. The method includes receiving a first medical image from a data storage device, the first medical image comprising a plurality of image voxels and representing a plurality of tissue regions of a subject; automatically determining a reference value based on the first medical image, the reference value capable of providing a range of background level of voxel intensity values within at least one non-disease tissue region of the subject; generating a disease threshold based on the reference value; identifying portions of the medical image corresponding to disease-tissue regions according to the disease threshold, each of the portions comprising a plurality of connected image voxels in the medical image; and entering data encoding the disease-tissue regions into a database for subsequent comparisons.
US09171364B2	Wafer inspection using free-form care areas Methods and systems for detecting defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes determining characteristics of care areas for a wafer based on wafer patterns. Determining the characteristics includes determining locations of care areas, identifying at least one pattern of interest (POI) in the wafer patterns for each of the care areas, allowing any of the care areas to have a free-form shape, allowing the care areas to be larger than frame images and selecting two or more POIs for at least one of the care areas. The method also includes searching for POIs in images generated for the wafer using an inspection system. In addition, the method includes detecting defects on the wafer by determining positions of the care areas in the images and applying one or more defect detection methods to the images based on the positions of the care areas in the images.
US09171362B2	Method for determining the luminance of traffic signs and device for implementing same The method of the invention comprises: obtaining a sequence of at least two images, with different levels of illumination; extracting the region containing the sign in the image; calculating the luminance values of the signs; and obtaining the difference in luminance of the sign corresponding to the two levels of illumination. The value obtained is the luminance of the sign (11) corresponding to an illumination equal to the difference between the illuminations, or additional illumination. This result is based on the additive property of luminance, according to which the luminance of a sign is the sum of the luminance produced by each source of illumination. A basic illumination device (5), an additional illumination device (7), at least one camera for taking images, and image recording, positioning and synchronism systems are required to implement the method.
US09171355B2	Near infrared guided image denoising Systems and methods for multispectral imaging are disclosed. The multispectral imaging system can include a near infrared (NIR) imaging sensor and a visible imaging sensor. The disclosed systems and methods can be implemented to de-noise a visible light image using a gradient scale map generated from gradient vectors in the visible light image and a NIR image. The gradient scale map may be used to determine the amount of de-noising guidance applied from the NIR image to the visible light image on a pixel-by-pixel basis.
US09171343B1	Means and method for improved glycemic control for diabetic patients A glycemic control system includes a physician processor, remote processor, and a portable telephone having a data input mechanism, a display, and an internal processor for bi-directional communication with the physician's processor and the remote processor. A patient inputs data to the internal processor responsive to input from the physician's processor and then transmits the information to the remote processor where an optimized number of units to be administered is sent back and displayed on the portable telephone.
US09171340B2	Identifying and visualizing attributes of items based on attribute-based RFID tag proximity A portable device receives a particular RFID signal identifying that a particular attribute is associated with a particular item placed proximate to the RFID tag emitting the particular RFID signal, wherein the particular RFID signal is identified from among a plurality of RFID signals, wherein a selection of the plurality of RFID signals are each associated with a separate attribute from among a plurality of attributes. The portable device displays a visual representation depicting that the particular item is associated with the particular attribute.
US09171335B1	Providing social graph information for a webpage Systems and techniques for displaying information associated with multiple accounts of multiple social media websites owned by an owner. In one implementation, a webpage accessed by a user can be determined to be a webpage of a social media website; data can be obtained from the webpage identifiable with an owner of an account of the social media website in which the owner of the account is not the user; based on the data from the accessed webpage identifiable with the owner, another social media webpage associated with another account of the owner for another social media website can be identified; data associated with the other social media webpage can be obtained; and the data associated with the other account can be provided for display with the accessed webpage.
US09171331B1	Commercial card packet The present invention is directed to a commercial card packet form system that enables one or more users associated with a financial institution to input information associated with a customer to whom a commercial card (e.g., a purchase card, a travel card, a debit card, a credit card, a temporary card) is being issued. Each user may be granted or denied access to particular fields of information on the commercial card packet form depending on her or his role at the financial institution. The packet form may require reentry of information or user authentication to ensure accuracy of information. Pop-up warnings may alert the one or more users of potentially incomplete fields of information and instruct the one or more users to provide additional information. An audit trail may track updates to information and includes a timestamp and details associated with the user who made the updates.
US09171330B2	Transparency data analysis and reporting An accountability provider is configured to enable specification of queries for data sources of accountable entities. The queries are based on an analysis of transparency goals of the accountable entities and utilize transparency metrics of those entities. The accountability provider is further configured to present representations of the transparency metrics generated responsive to the queries, to enable interaction with the representations, and to update the representations based on at least one of viewer requests or viewer interactions. Also, the accountability provider is configured determine representations of transparency metrics available to viewers based on viewer descriptors and to present the determined representations responsive to logins of the viewers.
US09171322B2	Methods and systems for routing calls in a marketing campaign An online and offline communication processing and tracking system using data processing and data/voice networks is described. A phone address from a phone address number pool is automatically assigned to a first customer prospect communication. A call quality rating is determined and recorded. A call from a caller directed to the phone address is received at a call bridging system coupled to at least one network, wherein the call is associated with call signaling information. Based at least in part on the call quality associated with the caller call, the caller call is routed to entity placing a bid on the caller call. An outbound call is generated from the call bridging system and the inbound and the outbound calls are bridged.
US09171320B2	Recommending link placement opportunities Techniques for recommending Web pages or other content sources as candidates for link placement are described. Some embodiments provide a marketing activity support system (“MASS”) configured to recommend candidate Web pages for link placement. Recommending candidate Web pages may include determining multiple Web pages that include or reference one or more keywords that describe some subject matter domain. Recommending candidate Web pages may then further include ranking or ordering at least some of the multiple Web pages based on how many times each of the at least some Web pages references another one of the multiple Web pages. The ordered Web pages may then be presented as recommended candidate sites for link placement.
US09171319B2	Analysis system and method used to construct social structures based on data collected from monitored web pages Embodiments of a method for determining a mapping are illustrated. In an embodiment, the method includes receiving a log record from a tracking component that is located on a plurality of web pages. The method further includes determining a first mapping between a plurality of anchors associated with the plurality of users. The method also includes determining a second mapping between the plurality of users based on the first mapping.
US09171318B2	Virtual insertion of advertisements A device includes a communication interface and one or more processors. The communication interface may receive a playlist that lists segments of a content stream in an order the segments are to be recombined, receive advertisement information that describes an advertisement, receive a breakpoint, and send a revised playlist to a remote server. The one or more processors may generate the revised playlist based on the playlist, the advertisement information, and the breakpoint. The revised playlist may include references to the segments and the advertisements.
US09171314B2	Cloud based management of an in-store device experience The technology allows a user's demo experience to be set up and maintained remotely. Retailers and vendors may remotely manage and update the user experience on demonstration devices. A package of applications that highlight a particular device's capabilities can be selected and installed on demo versions of the particular device in stores all across the country. Usage information from the demonstration devices may be collected. With the collected information, retailers can ascertain user interest in particular devices and applications. Further, the user experience may be maintained and reset to default settings on a regular basis. Automatically resetting the experience maintains a consistent retail experience.
US09171313B2	Encoding AD and/or AD serving information in a click URL The tracking of ad selections (such as ad clicks for example), and/or rich levels of ad performance may be facilitated by encoding one or more ad properties in a click URL of the ad. An intermediate URL server may be used to decode such ad properties when the ad is selected. Ad properties may include a rendering attribute of the ad; a geolocation to which the ad was served; information pertaining to advertiser charges, etc.
US09171309B2	Method and system for rating expert classified by keyword A method and system for computing an expert point value of a user for each keyword is provided, including: a first step of assigning a first knowledge-based expert rating value associated with a keyword to a user identifier of a user which enters the keyword into an expert field; a second step of assigning a second knowledge-based expert rating value associated with the keyword to the user identifier when another user stores the keyword to correspond to the user identifier; a third step of assigning a third knowledge-based expert rating value associated with the keyword to the user identifier when the user of the user identifier performs an answer activity for the keyword; and a fourth step of computing the knowledge-based expert rating value of the user identifier for the keyword based on at least one of the first, the second, and the third knowledge-based expert rating values.
US09171303B2	System and method for checkless cash advance settlement Methods, devices, and systems for conducting a checkless cash access settlement are provided. In one embodiment, a cash advance method includes the following: a customer initiates a cash access transaction with a financial card via a cash access system; the customer receives authorization or denial; the customer provides identification and the financial card to a cashier or attendant; the cashier or attendant validates the customer's identity, retrieves the transaction information, and completes the cash advance application; the application prints a non-negotiable instrument, such as a transaction receipt; the customer signs the receipt confirming the transaction with a physical receipt or electronic capture; the receipt image is stored electronically for subsequent transmittal to a central server; the transaction information, including the receipt image if applicable, is recorded on the central server; and the central server generates an ACH file and electronically transmits the ACH file to a designated financial institution.
US09171299B1	Isolated payment system A payment company separate from a retailer runs a payment application having credentials on a server computer. There are wireless personal portable interfaces belonging to the payment company but located in real and virtual retail, showrooms. The retailer agrees to the credentials of the payment company, which include prespecified real and virtual currencies for remittance. Credentials also include rules regarding limitations on acceptance of remittance in virtual currencies. A customer having a personal portable device enters a showroom and selects merchandise to purchase. She selects a payment company who remits payment to the retailer according to the credentials.
US09171298B2	Systems and methods for managing access to benefits associated with products Systems and methods for managing access to electronic products are described. In an embodiment, a system implemented method includes receiving, from a source, a first code associated with an item; receiving, from another source, another first code and a second code associated with the item; evaluating the first code with the another first code; associating the second code with the first code based on a result from the evaluating; identifying an access key, and transmitting the access key to the second source, the access key is for accessing one or more rights associated with the item.
US09171295B2	Not-connected product data exchange via symbology An electronic device, such as a print device, generates barcodes that contain encoded data corresponding to a functional destination and a variety of electronic device operational parameters. When a user selects a functional category, the electronic device determines the category's destination and relevant parameters, and generates the barcode with destination data and the parameters. A user may then use a barcode scanner to scan the barcode and automatically transmit the parameters to the destination.
US09171278B1	Item illumination based on image recognition An inventory item to be picked may be selected along with an inventory location (e.g., storage bin) storing a particular unit of the item among a units of heterogeneous items also stowed in the inventory location. One or more images of the inventory location may be obtained and analyzed to determine a position of the unit of the item. Instructions may be sent to direct a device to illuminate the determined position of the unit of the item, and pick instructions may be sent to the same or a different the device. A device may receive the position instructions from a control system, and illuminate the determined position of the unit of the item within the inventory location. The pick instructions may direct an agent or mobile storage bin to a particular location and direct the agent to pick the unit of the item from the illuminated position.
US09171270B2	Gas demand prediction system and gas demand prediction method A delivery server comprises: a reception unit configured to receive sets of meter indication data of a plurality of gas meters; a storage device configured to store the respective sets of meter indication data; a gas usage calculating unit configured to calculate a gas usage on a basis of comparison between corresponding sets of meter indication data; a first rate-of-change calculating unit configured to calculate a rate of change in a past gas usage consumed in each of a plurality of supply facilities on a basis of comparison between a plurality of gas usages in a time of earlier than a meter indication date of the received sets of meter indication data by a predetermined period of time; and a prediction unit configured to modify the gas usage in accordance with the rate of change and predict the modified gas usage as a prospective gas usage to be consumed.
US09171265B1	Crowdsourcing for documents that include specified criteria Techniques for utilizing a pool of human workers along with an automated classification feedback loop for identifying documents that meet certain criteria. As described herein, a requestor that desires to locate documents that meet certain specified criteria may first program a classifier with the specified criteria. The requestor may also determine the desired classes into which the classifier will categorize documents that are run against the classifier. The requestor may then locate one or more documents that represent each of the determined classes and then train the classifier using the documents. Thereafter, the requestor may publish a request to a pool of human workers soliciting documents meeting the criteria. Each of the documents may be run against the trained classifier and passed onto the requestor for further analysis if the classifier categorizes the respective document as acceptable.
US09171263B2	Content-based expertise level inferencing system and method A content-based expertise level inferencing system and method analyzes content such as text-based content that is associated with a user and infers an expertise level of the user that is associated with a topic. Language-based analytic techniques may be applied in inferring the expertise level, including the application of domain-specific vocabulary and frequency analyzes. The expertise level may be further inferred based on usage behaviors of the user and/or other users. Calibration information may be applied in generating the inference of the expertise level. Recommendations may be generated based on the inferred expertise level, and explanations for the recommendation and/or the inference may be generated for delivery to a recommendation recipient.
US09171255B2	Method, software, and system for making a decision A method for making a decision includes receiving a first decision question from a first user, providing a database of information regarding elements of decision quality, populating the database with data corresponding to each element of decision quality as applied to the first decision question, and providing a decision recommendation for the first decision question based at least in part on the data.
US09171242B2	Coded information bearing identification tags for cables A information bearing device into which several wires or a cable can be disposed, for the display of QR code information pertaining to the wires or cable. The device includes a first indicia bearing engaging portion and a second receiving portion for mounting the device on a wire(s) or cable. QR code or micro QR code indicia may be printed directly onto the surface of the engaging portion, or the indica may be added to the indicia receiving surface by placement of self adhesive QR code containing tabs to be read by QR code readers, cameras and smart phones.
US09171234B2	Method of learning a context of a segment of text, and associated handheld electronic device An improved method of learning a context of a segment of text input enables facilitated text input on an improved handheld electronic device. In response to a series of inputs, segments and other objects are analyzed to generate a proposed character interpretation of the series of inputs. Responsive to detecting a replacement of a segment of the character interpretation with another segment, a combination object comprising the another segment and a preceding object is stored. In response to another series of inputs, the combination object can be employed by a processing algorithm to ascertain a preference for the another segment in the context of the preceding object of the combination object.
US09171232B2	Method and system for a selection of a solution technique for a task A method, system, and computer program product for selecting a solution technique from a plurality of solution techniques for accomplishing a task is provided. The plurality of solution techniques are ranked according to a set of parameters. A first set of solutions are then obtained based on each of the plurality of solution techniques until at least the first predefined number of solutions from the first set of solutions matches with the corresponding solution from the second set of solutions. The second set of solutions corresponds to correct solutions for the task. Thereafter, one of the plurality of solution techniques is selected for which at least the first predefined number of solutions from the first set of solutions matches with the corresponding solution from the second set of solutions.
US09171231B2	System to compile landmark image search results This patent discloses a system to compile a landmark image search result. The system may determine a rank of each image within a visual cluster according to at least one of a low-level self-similarity score, a low-level discriminative modeling score, and a point wise linking score. The landmark image search result may be compiled as a function of the rank of each image.
US09171227B2	Apparatus and method extracting feature information of a source image Provided is an apparatus and method for extracting feature information of an image using a scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm. The apparatus may include a first interface configured to generate one or more tile images from a first source image stored in a particular memory, such as a high-capacity short-term memory, and a feature information extractor configured to receive the generated one or more tile images and to respectively extract feature information from each of the one or more input tile images, where the first interface may be configured to generate the one or more tile images by selectively dividing the first source image into the one or more tile images based on a horizontal resolution of the first source image.
US09171224B2	Method of improving contrast for text extraction and recognition applications An electronic device and method receive (for example, from a memory), a grayscale image of a scene of real world captured by a camera of a mobile device. The electronic device and method also receive a color image from which the grayscale image is generated, wherein each color pixel is stored as a tuple of multiple components. The electronic device and method determine a new intensity for at least one grayscale pixel in the grayscale image, based on at least one component of a tuple of a color pixel located in correspondence to the at least one grayscale pixel. The determination may be done conditionally, by checking whether a local variance of intensities is below a predetermined threshold in a subset of grayscale pixels located adjacent to the at least one grayscale pixel, and selecting the component to provide most local variance of intensities.
US09171223B2	System and method for effective section detecting of hand gesture A system is provided for detecting an effective section of a gesture by recognizing the gesture, pose information and motion information included in the gesture from an acquired image. In addition, a controller determines whether a pose has been recognized based on the pose information and when the pose has been recognized, an effective section is detected based on a start point and an end point of the pose. Further, when the effective section for the pose is detected, the gesture is recognized based on the motion information.
US09171222B2	Image processing device, image capturing device, and image processing method for tracking a subject in images An image processing device for tracking a subject included in a first image, in a second image captured after the first image includes: a segmentation unit that divides the first image into a plurality of segments based on similarity in pixel values; an indication unit that indicates a position of the subject in the first image; a region setting unit that sets, as a target region, a region including at least an indicated segment which is a segment at the indicated position; an extraction unit that extracts a feature amount from the target region; and a tracking unit that tracks the subject by searching the second image for a region similar to the target region using the extracted feature amount.
US09171219B2	Methods and apparatus for image fusion Systems and methods configured to implement sliced source imaging to produce a plurality of overlapping in-focus images on the same location of a single imaging detector without using beamsplitters.
US09171218B2	Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer readable medium that recognize overlapping elements in handwritten input An image processing apparatus includes a reception unit, a determination unit, a handwriting separation unit, an image generation unit, an image recognition unit, and an output unit. The reception unit receives handwriting information. The determination unit determines whether first handwriting indicated by first handwriting information and second handwriting indicated by second handwriting information overlap each other on the basis of the handwriting information. The handwriting separation unit separates the first handwriting from the second handwriting by changing a first/second handwriting position in the first/second handwriting information when the determination unit has determined that the first and second handwriting overlap each other. The image generation unit generates an image from handwriting information obtained through the separation, and information regarding handwriting that has been determined not to overlap other handwriting. The image recognition unit recognizes the generated image. The output unit outputs the recognition result.
US09171216B2	Method and device for detecting fog at night A method of detecting the presence of an element (fog, rain, etc. . . . ) disturbing the visibility of a scene illuminated by a headlight (105, 107) at night. The method comprises: a) acquiring an image of the scene with the help of a camera (120); b1) detecting the light sources in the image; b2) detecting the presence of the disturbing element as a function of the halo (H) appearing in the image in the vicinity of the light sources; c) detecting the presence of the disturbing element in the image as a function of the backscattering of the light emitted by the light sources; and d) weighting the results of the detections performed in steps b2) and c) in such a manner as to output an indication concerning the presence of the element disturbing the visibility of the scene. The method provides satisfactory results in an environment with or without lighting. The invention also provides a computer program and a device for implementing the method.
US09171215B2	Image processing device An exposure level determination unit (33) determines, for a region of interest in an original image captured by a camera (2) using a first exposure level in a control cycle at a predetermined time point, a second exposure level which is an exposure level for the next control cycle, by calculating a transparent pixel saturation rate which is a ratio of transparent pixels having a saturated gradation value among transparent pixels in the region of interest, and changing the first exposure level according to the transparent pixel saturation rate.
US09171208B2	System and method for filtering data captured by a 2D camera A system comprises a memory operable to store light intensity information for a plurality of neighboring pixels of an image that includes a dairy livestock. The system further comprises a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The processor determine that a difference between the light intensity information for a first pixel of the plurality of neighboring pixels and at least some of the other neighboring pixels exceeds a threshold. The processor further discards the first pixel and determines a location of a teat of the dairy livestock based on the image, excluding the discarded pixel.
US09171202B2	Data organization and access for mixed media document system A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one particular embodiment, the MMR system includes a content-based retrieval database configured with an index table to represent two-dimensional geometric relationships between objects extracted from a printed document in a way that allows look-up using a text-based index. A ranked set of document, page and location hypotheses can be computed given data from the index table. The techniques effectively transform features detected in an image patch into textual terms (or other searchable features) that represent both the features themselves and the geometric relationship between them. A storage facility can be used to store additional characteristics about each document image patch.
US09171200B2	Gestural interaction identification A method of identifying gestural interaction comprises detecting a user with an imaging device, detecting with the imaging device the depth value at the centroid of the user with respect to the imaging device, detecting with the imaging device the closest distance of the user with respect to the imaging device, and, with a processor, identifying the initiation of a gestural interaction based on the ratio of the closest distance and the depth value at the centroid of the user is above a predetermined threshold. A computer program product for identifying initiation and termination of gestural interaction within a gestural interaction system comprises a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising computer usable program code that identifies the initiation of a gestural interaction by a user depending on whether a virtual bubble around the user has been broken.
US09171190B2	Appliance and method for data exchange in a household Embodiments of an appliance and method utilize data keys to facilitate the exchange of data and information among devices as part of an energy management system. The data keys contain and/or encode information particular to the appliance. This information helps to distinguish data that originates from one appliance from data that originates from other appliances in the household. In one embodiment, the data keys are stored locally, either on devices (e.g., memory) incorporated into the appliance or on a communication device (e.g., a wireless radio) that can connect to the appliance to permit the exchange of inputs and outputs. Exemplary configuration of the appliance can sense the connection with the communication device and provide an input to the communication device to determine the data key that is associated with the appliance.
US09171189B2	Systems and methods for preventing saturation of analog integrator output Systems and methods for preventing saturation of analog integrator outputs are provided. Applications of the systems and methods in hybrid analog-digital integrators are also provided. Exemplary systems include two switches, one operational amplifier, one capacitor C, four gain blocks, three comparators, one XOR gate, one OR gate, one T flip-flop, and one digital counter.
US09171181B2	Systems and methods for enhanced mobile photography Certain embodiments of the disclosed technology allow users who are photographed to control those photographs, even when the photographs are taken from a third party's mobile device. Other aspects of the disclosed technology facilitate candid photographs to be taken of users that want them.
US09171178B1	Systems and methods for optimizing security controls for virtual data centers A computer-implemented method for optimizing security controls for virtual data centers may include 1) identifying a security policy that applies to at least one workload configured to store data on a first storage appliance, 2) identifying at least one storage-appliance functionality capable of implementing at least a part of the security policy, 3) identifying a second storage appliance that possesses the storage-appliance functionality, and 4) migrating the data from the first storage appliance to the second storage appliance in response to identifying the security policy and the storage-appliance functionality. Variants include methods, systems, and computer-readable media.
US09171177B2	Information processing method for executing a command included in an installer and a storage medium storing a program therefor Commands such as installation operation and launch program commands need to be executed after appropriately switching between an administrator account and another account, for each command, when an installer constituting a program for readily performing installation operations collectively for a plurality of pieces of software or the like is launched. When an installer is launched in the present invention, process-to-process communication is secured between the processes of an administrator account and a user account, and an account to execute a command included in the installer is determined in the process of the administrator account. If the determination result indicates that the account to execute the command is the user account, the command is executed in the process of the user account rather than in the process of the administrator account.
US09171172B2	Automated multi-level federation and enforcement of information management policies in a device network Methods, apparatus, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable media for managing a plurality of disparate computer application and data control policies on a computing device, especially a computing device connected to a computer network, are described. In one example, at least one policy distribution point is provided that includes least one policy distribution point including at least one information management policy. A plurality of policy enforcement points, including a first policy enforcement point operating at a first policy enforcement level, and a second enforcement point operating at second policy enforcement level, are also provided. A first policy element to the first policy enforcement point, and a second policy element to the second policy enforcement point, are allocated. A management compartment in computer memory in communication with said computing device including one or more computer applications, data, and metadata specified and controlled by the information management policy is also provided.
US09171166B2	Data processing apparatus and computer-readable recording medium Disclosed is a data processing apparatus providing a predetermined function by executing a program for the data processing apparatus, including a first storage unit that stores encoded execution starting data for starting execution of the program; a first decode key storage unit that stores a first decode key capable of decoding the encoded execution starting data; a start up unit that obtains the first decode key from the first decode key storage unit when turning on the power is accepted and decodes the encoded execution starting data by the first decode key to start executing the program; and an authentication confirmation unit that sends a request for authentication to an external apparatus after the start up unit starts executing the program and starts providing the predetermined function when obtaining an authentication result indicating the apparatus is authenticated from the external apparatus.
US09171153B2	Bloom filter with memory element Techniques are provided for determining if an element is contained in a set of elements. In one aspect, an element may be received and inserted into a bloom filter. The element may also be inserted into a memory associative on the bloom filter indexes. In another aspect, a search element may be received and compared to a bloom filter. If the search element is included in the bloom filter, a memory may be used to determine if the search element is included in the set of elements.
US09171133B2	Securing a device and data within the device Systems and methods are provided for securing a self-securing device and information that is stored in memory within the device. The self-securing device comprising a processor unit and memory external to the processor unit. The processor unit contains a processor and processor unit memory. Upon initialization of the self-securing device, the processor unit determines whether a secure key is stored in the processor unit memory. If no secure key is stored, then the processor unit generates a secure key and stores it in the processor unit memory. The processor unit uses the secure key to decrypt information read from the memory external to the processor unit and to encrypt information to be stored in memory external to the processor unit.
US09171130B2	Multiple modality mammography image gallery and clipping system A system and method for analyzing and retrieving images of breast tissue abnormalities obtained from multiple sources. Providing a tool for a radiologist that includes a convenient region-of-interest association of mammogram, or other anatomical images, of an individual patient. One embodiment provides an efficient collection of all of the mammogram abnormalities for a patient. In yet another embodiment, the region-of-interest abnormalities in a single location in a patient's tissue are correlated across a variety of imaging modalities including X-rays, mammogram, CT, ultrasound, MRI, or other imaging technologies.
US09171126B1	Range pattern matching in mask data Pattern matching technology is used to find locations in mask data that are available for later processes, such as marking. These locations are found using pattern definitions. A match algorithm outputs locations that match the pattern definitions. Each pattern definition may include multiple marks. The patterns can be symmetrical or asymmetrical and the marks can be correctly placed during a marking step by using orientation information determined during the pattern matching process. Large area geometries may be located by a two-step process that generates a pattern definition by defining smaller patterns therein and by defining the spatial relationships of the smaller patterns. An additional correlation step results in high accuracy while minimizing computing resources.
US09171123B2	Diagnosis and debug using truncated simulation Patterns used to detect a failure in a semiconductor chip are analyzed to determine a subset of logic in a design where a semiconductor chip, fabricated based on the design, contains a fault in the subset. Parts of the semiconductor chip can be pre-calculated to identify a key subsection of logic, based on the patterns, with that subsection being stored in a computer readable file. Good-machine simulation is performed on the subsection of logic using truncated rank-ordered simulation. The results are compared to the results of the testing of the physical semiconductor chip.
US09171120B2	Method of converting between non-volatile memory technologies and system for implementing the method A method of designing a charge trapping memory array including designing a floating gate memory array layout. The floating gate memory layout includes a first type of transistors, electrical connections between memory cells of the floating gate memory array layout, a first input/output (I/O) interface, a first type of charge pump, and an I/O block. The method further includes modifying the floating gate memory array layout, using a processor, to replace the first type of transistors with a second type of transistors different than the first type of transistors. The method further includes determining an operating voltage difference between the I/O block and the second type of transistors. The method further includes modifying the floating gate memory array layout, using the processor, to modify the first charge pump based on the determined operating voltage difference.
US09171117B2	Method for ranking paths for power optimization of an integrated circuit design and corresponding computer program product The invention pertains to a method for ranking paths for power optimization of an integrated circuit design, comprising identifying a plurality of paths of the integrated circuit design, each path comprising one or more instances of electronic devices providing an instance power estimate for each instance in the identified paths providing, for each identified path, at least one weighted power estimate based on the instance power estimates for instances in the path, and providing a ranking of the paths based on the least one weighted power estimate. The invention also pertains to a corresponding computer program product.
US09171106B2	Apparatus and method to collect and condense design violations from output data files A method includes searching a plurality of lines of a log file for a violation of a defined condition; creating a database of all discovered violations; converting the database of all discovered to a list of output violations grouped by master; and producing a condensed summary of error messages, the producing including: searching for a selected error message; extracting a single instance or error message and load into a master log file; searching for all other examples at all levels of a hierarchical output of the list; writing a count of instances of the violation messages to the master log file; and presenting a single instance of the violations, and the count of that violation.
US09171103B2	Concurrent insertion of elements into data structures A method of adding an element to a data structure may include atomically associating the element with the data structure if the element is not associated with the data structure. The element may be prepared for insertion into a location in the data structure. The method may also include atomically inserting the element into the location in the data structure if another element has not been inserted into the location.
US09171101B2	Data converter A method and apparatus are provided for preparing a data converter between a source apparatus, in which source data items have been stored according to a predetermined specification of source representation, and a user apparatus having a specification of user representation for the utilization of user data items. The method includes: setting up a pair of machine-interpretable source and user descriptors respectively, of the source and user specifications of representation respectively; and comparing between the source descriptor and the user descriptor to set up therefrom a block for data interpretation by a machine.
US09171098B2	Decomposing markup language elements for animation Embodiments prepare a markup language (ML) element for animation. A request to perform at least one animation on at least one ML element is intercepted or received. One or more animation preparation attribute values are defined based at least on the requested animation and current attribute values of the ML element. The ML element is altered to include the defined animation preparation attribute values, and an animation engine performs the animation of the altered ML element. The animation preparation attributes and values (e.g., style elements) may be reset, removed, or otherwise modified after animation. In some embodiments, a library of application programming interfaces (APIs) enable web browsers to request animations of legacy hypertext markup language (HTML) elements for consumption by animation engines based on JAVASCRIPT scripting or cascading style sheets (CSS).
US09171086B1	Website duration performance based on category durations Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining duration performance of websites. In one aspect, a method includes, for each of a plurality of websites, obtaining duration measurements of user device session visits to resources of the website, obtaining data describing a plurality of categories to which the website belongs; determining for each of the plurality of categories to which the website belongs, a category duration score based on the duration measurements, each category durations score being proportional to durations of time from the duration measurements; and determining from one or more of the category duration scores, a duration performance score for the website, the duration performance score proportional to the one or more category duration scores from which the duration performance score is determined.
US09171078B2	Automatic recommendation of vertical search engines The automatic search engine recommendation technique described herein automatically recommends topic-specific search engines for user queries. In one embodiment, it automatically matches each query submitted to a non-topic specific or general search engine with one or more vertical search engines using a recommendation model and a set of features. For a given query, one embodiment of the technique suggests vertical search engines and topic-specific search results along with the search results from the general search engine.
US09171073B1	Index mechanism for report generation Database query analysis technology, in which an input query is received that relates to multiple attribute classes of data records. An index that is descriptive of the data records in data storage is accessed and relative positions in the accessed index for the multiple attribute classes are identified. The accessed index is processed based on more than one of the multiple attribute classes and the identified relative positions, and the processed index is used to identify groups of data records that are included in the data records in the data storage and that share common values for the multiple attribute classes in the input query. Metrics corresponding to the data records included in each of the identified groups of data records are accessed, computations are performed on the accessed metrics, and a report is generated that reflects results of the computations.
US09171069B2	Method and apparatus for analyzing a document Method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are provided for analyzing a document including text. In one example, a method for identifying patterns in a document is described. The method includes identifying a plurality of candidate phrases in the document based on candidate identification criteria, grouping the candidate phrases of the plurality of candidate phrases with a phrase family based on family criteria and comparison between candidate phrases of the plurality of candidate phrases to obtain consistent phrases, and, for remaining phrases not meeting all of the candidate identification criteria, associating at least one of the remaining phrases with a phrase family based on inconsistent phrase criteria to obtain inconsistent phrases. Identified in this manner, the inconsistent phrase may be displayed via a user interface to permit a user the opportunity to determine whether an inconsistent phrase requires modification.
US09171065B2	Mechanisms for searching enterprise data graphs Highly relevant search results for unstructured queries are efficiently identified from normalized data. A server graphs relationships between each of the data objects. For each search term, the server identifies a candidate set of data objects mapped to the term. The server calculates priority scores for the candidate data objects based at least in part on one or more of: a link analysis of the graph; or an analysis of metadata describing structural constraints upon the candidate data objects. Based on the graph, the server identifies one or more search result subgraphs, each comprising at least one data object from each of the candidate sets. The server looks for subgraphs in an order that is based on the priority scores for the candidate data objects. The server may terminate its search early, in part because prioritizing the candidate data objects increases the likelihood of receiving relevant search results first.
US09171061B2	Local storage and conditioning systems for nutritional substances Nutritional substance systems and methods are disclosed enabling the tracking and communication of changes in nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of nutritional substances, and further enabling the adaptive storage and adaptive conditioning of nutritional substances.
US09171059B2	Selective quantity takeoff from computer aided design drawings One embodiment of the invention sets forth a CAD application configured to perform quantity takeoff computations. The CAD application is further configured to organize a CAD drawing into a hierarchical representation of object families and associated object types, where instances of the object types represent drawing objects present in the CAD drawing. The CAD application is further configured to receive a selection of an object family and to parse the selection to determine the object types associated with the selection. The CAD application then creates a takeoff object for each of the object types associated with the selection and identifies instances, associated with object properties, of each of the object types of the selection. The CAD application quantifies the instances and associated properties to produce a quantity takeoff value. Advantageously, users are able to more quickly and easily estimate the cost of a design project associated with the CAD drawing.
US09171056B2	System and method for retrieving and normalizing product information A system and method for retrieving and normalizing product information is described. The system may collect product information from suppliers. The product information may relate to a product that is described differently by two or more of suppliers. The system may further provide a normalized representation of the product.
US09171055B1	Content packs for multidimensional data storage cubes Some embodiments provide a program that defines a set of data source views (DSVs) that each derives data from a subset of a set of data source objects. The program defines a set of dimensions that each derives data from a first DSV in the set of DSVs. The program defines a set of multidimensional data storage (MDDS) cubes that each derives data from a subset of the set of dimensions and a second DSV in the set of DSVs. The program generates a content pack that includes a set of DSV definitions for the set of DSVs, a set of dimension definitions for the set of dimensions, and a set of MDDS cube definitions for the set of MDDS cubes. The content pack for an MDDS system to process in order to provision the set of MDDS cubes to MDDS clients for viewing the set of MDDS cubes.
US09171024B1	Method and apparatus for facilitating application recovery using configuration information A method and apparatus for facilitating application recovery using configuration information is described. In one embodiment, a method for facilitating application recovery using configuration information includes accessing information in memory associated with an application configuration that correlates with source computer hardware for operating an application using at least one processor, identifying at least one portion that is to be restored of the application configuration using the at least one processor and applying the at least one portion of the application configuration in the memory to destination computer hardware using the at least one processor.
US09171020B2	Deleting records in a multi-level storage architecture Deleting a data record from the second level storage or main store is disclosed. A look-up is performed for the data record in the first level storage, where the data record is defined by a row identifier. If the row identifier is found in the first level storage, a look-up is performed for an updated row identifier representing an update of the data record in the second level storage and the main store, the update of the data record being defined by an updated row identifier. If the updated row identifier is found in the second level storage, an undo log is generated from the first level storage to invalidate a row identifier of the row identifier. A flag is generated representing an invalid updated row identifier, and a redo log is generated to restore the data record in the first level storage.
US09171007B2	Compression/decompression accelerator protocol for software/hardware integration Embodiments relate to providing a data stream interface for offloading the inflation/deflation processing of data to a stateless compression accelerator. An aspect includes transmitting a request to inflate or deflate a data stream to a compression accelerator. The request may include references to an input buffer for storing input data from the data stream, an output buffer for storing processed input data, and a state data control block for storing a stream state. The stream state is provided to the compression accelerator to continue processing the data stream responsive to the request being a subsequent request. The compression accelerator is instructed to store a current stream state in the state data control block responsive to the request being a non-final request. Accordingly, the current stream state is received from the compression accelerator responsive to the request being a non-final request. The processed input data is received from the compression accelerator.
US09171005B2	System and method for selective file erasure using metadata modifcations A process that ensures the virtual destruction of data files a user wishes to erase from a storage medium, such as a hard drive, flash drive, or removable disk. This approach is appropriate for managing custom distributions from a large file sets as it is roughly linear in compute complexity to the number of files erased but is capped when many files are batch erased.
US09171002B1	File based incremental block backup from user mode A system for incremental backup comprises a storage device and a processor. The processor is configured to: 1) start fileIO ETW tracking, wherein a file changed block info is tracked in map(s), wherein each of the map(s) tracks writes indicated via a node of a set of nodes; 2) receive request for an incremental backup of one or more files of one or more volumes, wherein the map(s) track changed blocks from writes to the one or more files; 3) halt writes to the one or more files and queue writes to the one or more files after halting; 4) freeze the map(s) of changed blocks; 5) change file IO ETW tracking, wherein the change block info is tracked to a new set of maps; 6) determine changed blocks using the map(s); 7) write changed blocks to a backup volume; and 8) release writes to the one or more files.
US09170999B2	Method, system, and program product for transferring document attributes The present invention provides a method, system, and program product for transferring document attributes. Specifically, under the present invention, a change to an attribute corresponding to a document archived in a content storage system is received on an indexing system. In response to the change, an archival date corresponding to storage of the document in the content storage system is set to a current date. Also, a start date and an end date in an index transfer tool is set to the current date. Thereafter, the changed attribute is transferred to the content storage system based on a matching of the newly changed archival date with the set start and end dates.
US09170992B2	Treatment determination and impact analysis A method, software, database and system for determining an optimal treatment for an illness in an individual and for determining the impact (e.g., side effects and intended benefits) of the treatment in the individual are presented in which an attribute profile of the individual containing genetic and non-genetic attributes is compared against a database containing combinations genetic and non-genetic attributes that are statistically associated with successful treatment of the illness in other individuals.
US09170990B2	Method and system for document retrieval with selective document comparison This invention discloses a novel system and method for displaying electronic documents on remote devices and enabling collaborative editing where the system upon a request by a user to access a document, automatically determines the latest version of a document that the person had accessed and also whether a newer version had been created. The invention also merges parallel changes that have not been viewed by the user into the comparison result. The invention also includes running a comparison on the two versions and presenting the result to the user.
US09170973B2	USB communication apparatus and method of reducing power consumption amount thereof using a squelch signal to indicate the presence of signals on a USB bus are at a predetermined level A USB (Universal Serial Bus) communication apparatus includes: a driver circuit connected to a USB bus and configured to transmit a packet onto the USB bus for a packet transmission period which is determined based on a transmission request signal from another unit. A receiver control circuit generates a fixation request signal and a generation control signal in response to the transmission request signal. A receiver circuit connected to the USB bus generates a squelch signal showing that the packet is being transmitting onto the USB bus, and stops generating the squelch signal in response to the generation control signal. A line state signal control circuit is configured to output a specific line state signal based on the squelch signal to notify to another unit that the packet is been transmitting onto the USB bus, and to fix the specific line state signal in response to the fixation request signal.
US09170972B2	Data transmitting device having serial advanced technology attachment device expansion function and serial advanced technology attachment module thereof A serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) module includes a number of circuit boards and a number of SATA devices. Each of the circuit boards includes an expansion microchip. The expansion microchip includes an input terminal, an output terminal and an expansion terminal. The expansion microchips are electrically connected in series with the input terminal of one expansion microchip connecting to the expansion terminal of another expansion microchip. The input terminal of a front expansion terminal positioned at a first end of the expansion microchips is configured to connect to a SATA controller. Each of the SATA devices is electrically connected to the output terminal of one expansion microchip and configured to transmit data with the SATA controller by the corresponding expansion microchip.
US09170970B2	Detector to search for control data Implementations related to detecting control data are presented herein. A detector searches for control data in a first set of pre-determined control data, wherein a respective subset of the first set is assigned to a respective logical port and the respective subset is excluded from the first set when searching for the control data received from the respective logical port.
US09170967B2	System and method for transmitting information from a transmitter to a receiver via a single line A method for transmitting logical information from a transmitter to a receiver via a single line, the receiver being connected to the transmitter by the line, the receiver placing a first signal on the line and the first signal being made up of alternating recessive and dominant levels, the transmitter placing a second signal on the line and the second signal being superposed on the line by the transmitter at least in the segments in which the first signal has a recessive level, the second signal being made up of a sequence of recessive and dominant levels, and the receiver determining from the second signal the logical information that is to be received.
US09170965B2	Interrupt assigning method, interrupt control method, and system therefor A multicore processor system includes core configured to detect a process assignment instruction; acquire a remaining time obtained by subtracting a processing time of interrupt processing assigned to an arbitrary core of a multicore processor from a period that is from a calling time of the interrupt processing to an execution time limit of the interrupt processing, upon detecting the process assignment instruction; judge if the remaining time acquired at the acquiring is greater than or equal to a processing time of processing defined to limit an interrupt in the process; and assign the process to the arbitrary core, upon judging that the remaining time is greater than or equal to the processing time of the processing defined to limit an interrupt in the process.
US09170961B2	Location of computing assets within an organization Mechanisms are provided for determining the location of computing assets within an organization. These mechanisms determine first location information identifying a location of at least one first physical asset housing in a predetermined physical area of the organization relative to a predetermined coordinate system, and second location information identifying a location of at least one second physical asset housing within the at least one first asset housing. The mechanisms automatically determine third location information identifying a location of at least one computing asset within the at least one second physical asset housing. In addition, the mechanisms generate an asset location map data structure for the organization based on the first, second and third location information. The mechanisms also perform at least one management operation for managing resources of the organization, based on the asset location map data structure for the organization.
US09170959B2	Method and device for configuring storage system connection A method for configuring a connection in a storage system is provided. A configuring device determines that the configuring device cannot communicate with a first control board; searches a route information table for route information related to the first control board, wherein the route information is route information between an adapter card and the first control board, wherein the adapter card is connected to a north bridge of the first control board through a PCIe bus; modifies the searched out route information by changing an address of the first control board in the route information to an address of a second control board, and stores the modified route information in the route information table.
US09170957B2	Distributed dynamic memory management unit (MMU)-based secure inter-processor communication A first processor and a second processor are configured to communicate secure inter-processor communications (IPCs) with each other. The first processor effects secure IPCs and non-secure IPCs using a first memory management unit (MMU) to route the secure and non-secure IPCs via a memory system. The first MMU accesses a first page table stored in the memory system to route the secure IPCs and accesses a second page table stored in the memory system to route the non-secure IPCs. The second processor effects at least secure IPCs using a second MMU to route the secure IPCs via the memory system. The second MMU accesses the second page table to route the secure IPCs.
US09170955B2	Providing extended cache replacement state information In an embodiment, a processor includes a decode logic to receive and decode a first memory access instruction to store data in a cache memory with a replacement state indicator of a first level, and to send the decoded first memory access instruction to a control logic. In turn, the control logic is to store the data in a first way of a first set of the cache memory and to store the replacement state indicator of the first level in a metadata field of the first way responsive to the decoded first memory access instruction. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09170951B1	Method and apparatus for event/alert enrichment Methods and apparatus to provide alert enrichment in a cloud storage system. In one embodiment, the system performs alert/event identification with information from an identity matching service for the components of the cloud storage system to generate a resource identifier for the component associated with a first one of the processed alerts/events, and use the resource identifier to identify a service, platform, virtual machine, virtual application, virtual data center, organization and/or platform component associate with the first one of the processed alerts/events.
US09170950B2	Method, apparatus and computer programs providing cluster-wide page management An exemplary method in accordance with embodiments of this invention includes, at a virtual machine that forms a part of a cluster of virtual machines, computing a key for an instance of a memory page that is to be swapped out to a shared memory cache that is accessible by all virtual machines of the cluster of virtual machines; determining if the computed key is already present in a global hash map that is accessible by all virtual machines of the cluster of virtual machines; and only if it is determined that the computed key is not already present in the global hash map, storing the computed key in the global hash map and the instance of the memory page in the shared memory cache.
US09170947B2	Recovering from data errors using implicit redundancy Some implementations disclosed herein provide techniques and arrangements for recovery of data stored in memory shared by a number of processors through information stored in a cache directory. A core of a processor may initiate access (e.g., read or write) to particular data located in a first cache that is accessible to the core. In response to detecting an error associated with accessing the particular data, a location in the processor that includes the particular data may be identified and the particular data may be copied from the location to the first cache.
US09170946B2	Directory cache supporting non-atomic input/output operations Responsive to receiving a write request for a cache line from an input/output device, a caching agent of a first processor determines that the cache line is managed by a home agent of a second processor. The caching agent sends an ownership request for the cache line to the second processor. A home agent of the second processor receives the ownership request, generates an entry in a directory cache for the cache line, the entry identifying the remote caching agent as having ownership of the cache line, and grants ownership of the cache line to the remote caching agent. Responsive to receiving the grant of ownership for the cache line from the home agent an input/output controller of the first processor adds an entry for the cache line to an input/output write cache, the entry comprising a first indicator that the cache line is managed by the home agent of the second processor.
US09170931B2	Partitioning a memory into a high and a low performance partitions Examples disclose partitioning a volatile memory into a high performance partition and a low performance partition. Further the example discloses retrieving an application with a high performance data and a low performance data from a non-volatile memory to place the high and the low performance data in the high and low performance partitions, respectively. Additionally, the example also discloses receiving a request to decrease power and in response, reduce an amount of power to the high performance partition and maintaining an amount of power provided to the low performance partition.
US09170928B1	I/O scheduling and load balancing across the multiple nodes of a clustered environment Write operations are scheduled for multiple nodes in a shared storage cluster that supports volume replication. Requests are received from nodes for allocation of space for write operations in a replication log. In response to a received request, the current capacity of the requesting node to manage a backlog can be determined. The amount of space in the replication log allocated to the node is then calibrated to the node's capacity, thereby preventing self-throttling. A separate priority can be assigned to each volume, and space in the replication log assigned to each volume based on its priority. Nodes can target synchronous and other latency sensitive operations to higher priority volumes. A single global queue can be maintained to schedule write operations for all nodes, thereby providing a fair scheduling. A separate local queue can be maintained for each node, thereby providing specific levels of preference to specific nodes.
US09170918B2	Model verification system, model verification method, and recording medium A model verification system includes a formal language conversion part operable to convert model figure data registered as a design pattern in association with a program into formal language expression data based upon an expression format of a predetermined formal language, and a formal language increment part operable to add a modification to a component of the formal language and/or attribute information on the formal language expression data converted by the formal language conversion means to generate formal language expression data of a derivative design. The model verification system conducts refactoring.
US09170909B2	Automatic parallel performance profiling systems and methods An automatic profiling system and method determines an algorithm profile including performance predictability and pricing of a parallel processing algorithm.
US09170906B2	Base protocol layer testing device Embodiments relate to testing of a computing system using a base protocol layer testing device. An aspect includes, based on determining, by the base protocol layer testing device, that a current test comprises a test of a base protocol layer of the computing system, enabling a low level test assist device of the base protocol layer testing device for the current test, wherein the low level test assist device comprises a hardware device that is directly attached to an input/output (I/O) card of the computing system. Another aspect includes storing base protocol layer traffic that passes through the I/O card by the low level test assist device during performance of the current test by the base protocol layer testing device. Yet another aspect includes analyzing the stored base protocol layer traffic after completion of the current test to determine a result of the current test.
US09170905B2	Base protocol layer testing device Embodiments relate to testing of a computing system using a base protocol layer testing device. An aspect includes, based on determining, by the base protocol layer testing device, that a current test comprises a test of a base protocol layer of the computing system, enabling a low level test assist device of the base protocol layer testing device for the current test, wherein the low level test assist device comprises a hardware device that is directly attached to an input/output (I/O) card of the computing system. Another aspect includes storing base protocol layer traffic that passes through the I/O card by the low level test assist device during performance of the current test by the base protocol layer testing device. Yet another aspect includes analyzing the stored base protocol layer traffic after completion of the current test to determine a result of the current test.
US09170903B2	System level architecture verification for transaction execution in a multi-processing environment Embodiments relate to building, by a computing device, a pseudo-random dynamic instruction stream that comprises instructions configured to perform a transaction execution. The computing device may cause the transaction execution to be tested in a multi-processing system based on the instruction stream. A status of the test may be output to one or more output devices.
US09170892B2	Server failure recovery A metadata server configured to maintain storage assignment mappings in non-persistent storage is described herein. The tract storage assignment mappings associate servers with storage assignments, the storage assignments representing the data stored on the servers. Responsive to a failure, the metadata server receives the storage assignments from the servers and rebuilds the storage assignment mappings from the storage assignments. The metadata server is also configured to enable clients to operate during a recovery process for a failed server by providing the storage assignment mappings to the clients during the recovery process. Also during the recovery process, the replacement server for the failed server conditionally overwrites stored data with other data received from other servers as part of the recovery process. The replacement server conditionally overwrites based on version information associated with the data and version information associated with the other data, the version information being associated with one or more versions of the storage assignment mappings.
US09170890B2	Combined stream auxiliary copy system and method A system and method for transferring data in a library storage system. The library storage system comprises a management server including a storage policy. A media agent is connected to the management server. A plurality of storage media and a data source are connected to the media agent. The data source is divided into at least a first and a second portion of data. The portions of data are transferred from the data source to a first and second primary storage medium using a first and a second data stream respectively. The media agent then causes the first and second portion of data to be transferred from the first and second storage medium to a third auxiliary storage medium using a third combined data stream. Auxiliary copying is performed in chunks and multiple streams are copied in parallel.
US09170884B2	Utilizing cached encoded data slices in a dispersed storage network A method begins with a processing module of a dispersed storage network (DSN) executing a write operation to write a plurality of sets of encoded data slices to DSN memory, where the write operation includes temporarily storing encoded data slices in cache memory. The processing module receives a read request for a portion of the data object and determines whether a decode threshold number of encoded data slices of a set is stored in the cache memory. When less than the decode threshold number of encoded data slices is stored in the cache memory, the processing module retrieves encoded data slices from the DSN memory to obtain the decode threshold number of encoded data slices, decodes the decode threshold number of encoded data slices to recover a corresponding data segment, and outputs the recovered corresponding data segment.
US09170883B2	Online data consistency checking in a network storage system with optional committal of remedial changes A network storage server includes a tool for detecting and fixing errors while the network storage server remains online (available for servicing client requests), which includes enabling a user to approve or disapprove remedial changes before the changes are committed. The technique bypasses the usual consistency point process for new or modified data blocks representing potential remedial changes. At a consistency point, dirty data blocks representing the potential remedial changes are written to a change log file residing outside the volume. The modified data blocks are written in sequential order to logical blocks of the change log file. In response to a user input indicating that a potential change should be committed, the corresponding modified data blocks are read from the change log file in the order in which they were written to the change log file, and they are written to persistent storage in that order.
US09170872B2	Reset supervisor Multiple processor systems are provided. A first processor is configured to monitor the state of at least one other processor by comparing received signals. When the first processor determines that another processor needs to be reset, the first processor provides a reset signal to a reset pin of the processor that needs to be reset. The first processor may reset itself after providing the reset signal.
US09170868B2	Identifying an error cause within a dispersed storage network A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module selecting two or more correlated error messages of a plurality of error messages. The method continues with the DS processing module identifying two or more collection of records corresponding to the selected two or more correlated error messages such that a collection of records includes an event record including information regarding an event, a first record including information regarding a dispersed storage (DS) processing module processing an event request to produce a plurality of sub-event requests, and a plurality of records including information regarding a plurality of DS units processing the plurality of sub-event requests. The method continues with the DS processing module identifying a correlation cause of one or more errors corresponding to the two or more correlated error messages based on the two or more collections of records.
US09170867B2	Server system An exemplary system server includes a first server, a second server, and a bridge board. The bridge board includes a printed circuit board and a power input positioned on the printed circuit board. The power input receives power from a power source. The first server includes a first controller and a first ground end connected to ground. The first controller includes a first detecting end connected to the power input. The second server includes a second controller and a second ground end. The second ground end connects the first detecting end to ground via the bridge board. The first controller determines whether the second server functions according to a voltage of the first detecting end.
US09170866B2	System and method for in-service diagnostics based on health signatures In accordance with the present disclosure, a system and method are herein disclosed for providing in-service diagnostics based on health signatures of an information handling system. In one embodiment, the health of an information handling system is periodically probed by a software agent running as a service. The service polls a set of probes from interfaces on the host system and tracks parameters indicative of system and component health and performance. An analytics engine processes the data to identify anomalies and outliers, and to detect signatures that are precursors to potential service incidents. A rule set matches signatures to potential actions. Based on the detected signatures and rule sets, the service is operable to select, schedule, and execute one or more diagnostic tests. If an information handling system or component thereof fails a diagnostic test, the results are archived to persistent storage and communicated to an administrator.
US09170857B2	Managed execution environment for software application interfacing Some embodiments are directed to controlling interactions between a host software program and a computer system by providing a managed execution environment running within the host software program. In one embodiment, a computer system integrates a managed execution environment within a host software program. The computer system uses the managed execution environment to interact with one or more features of the host software program. The managed execution environment includes interface controls configured to interface between the computer system and the host software program. The compute system alters one or more of the various software program features based on code that is identified in downloaded content.
US09170847B2	Real time verification of web applications A software verification system including a cloud service, a plurality of test nodes, a client manager, and an expediter is disclosed. The cloud service is a commercially available shared resource service having two or more physical machines, each of which is configured to host a plurality of virtual machines. Each test node is one virtual machine running a platform. The client manager manages a verification session between one of the clients and the verification system. The expediter recognizes the available platforms for use by the test nodes in a cloud service pool of servers and a local pool of servers. When a clients requests the verification session to use a specific platform, the expediter obtains a network address of an available test node running the specified platform and connects the requesting client to the available test node running the requested platform. If the requested platform is not available, a new virtual machine, located in the local pool of servers, having the requested platform is started and connected with the requesting client.
US09170836B2	System and method for re-factorizing a square matrix into lower and upper triangular matrices on a parallel processor A system and method for re-factorizing a square input matrix on a parallel processor. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a matrix generator operable to generate an intermediate matrix by embedding a permuted form of the input matrix in a zeroed-out sparsity pattern of a combination of lower and upper triangular matrices resulting from a prior LU factorization of a previous matrix having a same sparsity pattern, reordering to minimize fill-in and pivoting strategy as the input matrix and (2) a re-factorizer associated with the matrix generator and operable to use parallel threads to apply an incomplete-LU factorization with zero fill-in on the intermediate matrix.
US09170828B2	Extraction of operating system-specific characteristics via a communication interface Systems and methods for specifying extended descriptor information in a device accessed using a communication interface are disclosed. One method includes transmitting a request to a device from a host computing system, and receiving an extended capability descriptor identifying to the host computing system at least one extended descriptor set stored on the device. The extended capability descriptor identifies a minimum operating system version able to support a corresponding extended descriptor set.
US09170819B2	Forwarding condition information from first processing circuitry to second processing circuitry A data processing apparatus comprises first and second processing circuitry. A conditional instruction executed by the second processing circuitry may have an outcome which is dependent on one of a plurality of sets of condition information maintained by the first processing circuitry. A first forwarding path can forward the sets of condition information from the first processing circuitry to a predetermined pipeline stage of a processing pipeline of the second processing circuitry. A request path can transmit a request signal from the second processing circuitry to the first processing circuitry, the request signal indicating a requested set of condition information which was not yet valid when a conditional instruction was at the predetermined pipeline stage. A second forwarding path may forward the requested set of condition information to a subsequent pipeline stage when the information becomes valid.
US09170815B2	Bitstream buffer manipulation with a SIMD merge instruction Method, apparatus, and program means for performing bitstream buffer manipulation with a SIMD merge instruction. The method of one embodiment comprises determining whether any unprocessed data bits for a partial variable length symbol exist in a first data block is made. A shift merge operation is performed to merge the unprocessed data bits from the first data block with a second data block. A merged data block is formed. A merged variable length symbol comprised of the unprocessed data bits and a plurality of data bits from the second data block is extracted from the merged data block.
US09170812B2	Data processing system having integrated pipelined array data processor A data processing system having a data processing core and integrated pipelined array data processor and a buffer for storing list of algorithms for processing by the pipelined array data processor.
US09170810B2	Selection and assessment of software components The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer implemented methods for providing selection and assessment of software components. One process includes operations for identifying a software component for assessment. Dependencies associated with the software component are analyzed, wherein analyzing dependencies includes identifying at least one relevant perspective associated with the software component, identifying a scope associated with the at least one relevant perspective, and determining whether the software component is associated with at least one related infrastructure component based on the scope or at least one other software component that the software component depends on based on the scope. The software component and each of the at least one related infrastructure component or the at least one other software component are assessed against a set of criteria.
US09170804B2	Method and apparatus for modifying compressed files A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for preparing and installing update packages for compressed files. In the context of a method, a method for preparing an update package is provided that includes receiving an original file and a modified file, causing the original file and the modified file to be decompressed, and generating one or more delta files based on the decompressed original file and the decompressed modified file. A corresponding method for installing an update package is also provided that includes receiving the update package comprising one or more delta files corresponding to an original file, causing the original file to be decompressed, generating one or more modified subfiles based on the one or more delta files and the decompressed original file, and generating a compressed modified file by compressing the one or more modified subfiles.
US09170780B2	Processing changed application metadata based on relevance A system includes execution of a software application based on metadata defining a first plurality of software components, reception of second metadata defining the first plurality of software components, determination, based on the second metadata, of a second plurality of the first plurality of software components for which the second metadata is different from the first metadata, and for which the second metadata is associated with elements of the software application, and generation of the elements of the software application based on the second metadata of the second plurality of software components.
US09170773B2	Mixed precision estimate instruction computing narrow precision result for wide precision inputs A technique is provided for performing a mixed precision estimate. A processing circuit receives an input of a first precision having a wide precision value. The processing circuit computes an output in an output exponent range corresponding to a narrow precision value based on the input having the wide precision value.
US09170772B2	Method and apparatus for decimal floating-point data logical extraction Embodiments of systems, apparatuses, and methods for performing BIDSplit instructions in a computer processor are described. In some embodiments, the execution of a BIDSplit instruction tests the encoding of a binary-integer decimal source value and extracts a sign, exponent, and/or significand into a destination.
US09170771B2	Residue-based error detection for a processor execution unit that supports vector operations A residue generating circuit for an execution unit that supports vector operations includes an operand register and a residue generator coupled to the operand register. The residue generator includes a first residue generation tree coupled to a first section of the operand register and a second residue generation tree coupled to a second section of the operand register. The first residue generation tree is configured to generate a first residue for first data included in the first section of the operand register. The second residue generation tree is configured to generate a second residue for second data included in a second section of the operand register. The first section of the operand register includes a different number of register bits than the second section of the operand register.
US09170767B2	Information storage medium, terminal device, display system, and image generating method A terminal device includes: an image generating unit generates a configuration change image used for changing a configuration of an entire image displayed by a display device which includes an individual image on the basis of image information supplied from one or more terminal devices; and an input unit to which operation information representing an operation relating to a change in the configuration is input. The configuration change image represents an arrangement of the individual image in the entire image and includes an individual-image arranging area divided into a plurality of display target areas and an icon arranging area including the icon of each of the terminal devices.
US09170763B2	Information processing apparatus and control method An information processing apparatus in which an OS is executed that provides a first UI environment (touchscreen UI) and a second UI environment different from the first UI environment, is provided in which, if identification information of a peripheral device connected to a communication network has been obtained when the first UI environment is provided, a device control application for controlling the peripheral device is obtained from a service that manages applications operable in the first UI environment, using the identification information.
US09170758B2	Automatic load balancer for presses A press load balancer automatically balances the printing load over a number of presses by taking into account the load on each press and the substrates (i.e., paper types) and inks installed on the presses to improve throughput while minimizing load on the press operators.
US09170755B2	Command and data selection in storage controller systems A storage controller system may include a host controller that queues host commands as data transfer commands in a plurality of queue channels. The storage controller system may also include a data storage controller that selects data transfer commands for execution. The data storage controller may select all data transfer commands associated with a host command when all of the data transfer commands are located at heads of the queue channels. Alternatively, the data storage controller may select for execution data transfer commands at heads of the queue channels when associated cache areas are available to receive data, regardless of whether all of the data transfer commands associated with a host command are at the heads. The host controller may then retrieve the data in the cache areas when all of the data to be sent to the host in response to the host command is being cached.
US09170749B2	Management system and control method for computer system for managing a storage apparatus To provide a storage management technique for creating and managing, with single operation by a user, a large quantity of writable snapshots, which satisfy a requirement desired by the user, while controlling a use form of a storage apparatus not to exceed limits of the performance and the capacity of the storage apparatus. Therefore, a management computer manages configuration information and performance information of plural storage apparatuses and an operation state of a writable snapshot. When a writable snapshot is created, the management computer controls, concerning an original snapshot, a use form of the storage apparatuses not to exceed a disk performance limit and a controller performance limit and a capacity limit of a storage on the basis of the number of writable snapshots to be created and a performance requirement (IOPS) and a capacity requirement of the writable snapshot.
US09170744B1	Computer program product for controlling a flash/DRAM/embedded DRAM-equipped system A computer program product, apparatus and associated method/processing unit are provided for utilizing a memory subsystem including NAND flash physical memory and DRAM physical memory. Further included is a first buffer for receiving DDR signals and converting the DDR signals to SATA signals. The first buffer includes embedded DRAM physical memory. Also provided is a second buffer for receiving the SATA signals and converting the SATA signals to NAND flash signals. The second buffer is communicatively coupled to the first buffer via a first memory bus associated with a SATA protocol, the NAND flash physical memory via a second memory bus associated with a NAND flash protocol, and the DRAM physical memory.
US09170741B2	Information processing system and control method for information processing system An information processing system includes a first information processing apparatus coupled to a first magnetic-disk-device groups including first magnetic disk devices whose motors rotate, a second information processing apparatus coupled to a second magnetic-disk-device group including one or more second magnetic disk devices whose motors rotate and a plurality of third magnetic disk devices whose motors are in a stop state. A management apparatus which included in the system is configured to manage the first and second information processing apparatuses, wherein, when data is to be written, the management apparatus outputs a write request to any of the plurality of first magnetic disk devices and any of the one or more second magnetic disk devices, and when data is to be read, the management apparatus outputs a read request to any of the plurality of first magnetic disk devices.
US09170733B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and non-transitory computer readable medium An information processing apparatus includes a display, a detector, a display controller, a display region changing unit, and an editing execution unit. The detector detects plural touches made by an indicator on a screen of the display. The display controller causes the screen to display a first element and a second element, the second element being arranged on the first element. The display region changing unit changes, if a predetermined type of change occurs in a touch position of the indicator, a display region in which the first element and the second element are displayed on the screen, in accordance with the change. The editing execution unit executes, after a first touch position and a second touch position have been detected, if a predetermined type of change occurs in the second touch position with the first touch position being maintained, editing associated with the change on the second element.
US09170730B2	Method for executing private mode in mobile terminal and mobile terminal using the same Disclosed is a method for executing a private mode in a mobile terminal, including sensing a multi-touch applied over a display part, determining whether the multi-touch is identical with a touch code for entering to the private mode preset in a storage part, and turning off the display part or controlling a screen brightness when the multi-touch is identical with the touch code.
US09170727B2	Image processing apparatus, display method, and computer-readable storage medium storing display program An image processing apparatus is provided that includes a display, a memory storing a plurality of functions in such a manner that associates the functions each with one of a plurality of categories, and a controller for causing the display to array and display objects representing respective functions that are a part of a plurality of functions. In response to a command to change the displayed objects, the controller changes the displayed objects on category basis.
US09170726B2	Apparatus and method for providing GUI interacting according to recognized user approach An interface controlling method and an apparatus thereof are provided to control a user interface based on a proximity sensor and a touch pad. A number of items are displayed, an item approached by a user is identified by sensing an approach, information is provided regarding the identified item, contact by the user is sensed, and a function corresponding to the user contact is performed.
US09170712B2	Presenting content related to current media consumption Disclosed are various embodiments for presenting content items that are related to media items that are currently being consumed by a user. A media item in a stream of media items being presented to a client is identified. A content item that is relevant to the media item is determined. An entry is added to the entries of a relevant content listing. The entry includes a link to the content item. The entries in the relevant content listing are arranged in a time-based sequence such that the at least one entry correlates to a sequence of playback in the client of a plurality of media files. The relevant content listing is updated in a user interface that is being presented to the user.
US09170708B2	Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders A multifunction device displays a plurality of selectable user interface objects on the display. In response to detecting the first input, the device moves a first object in the plurality of selectable user interface objects across the display to a location on the display that is proximate to a second object in the plurality of selectable user interface objects. In response to detecting that the first input meets predefined folder-creation criteria while the first object is proximate to the second object, the device creates a folder that contains the first object and the second object.
US09170707B1	Method and system for generating a smart time-lapse video clip An electronic device with a display, processor(s), and memory displays a video monitoring user interface including a video feed from a camera located remotely from the client device in a first region and an event timeline in a second region, the event timeline including event indicators for motion events previously detected by the camera. The electronic device detects a user input selecting a portion of the event timeline, where the selected portion of the event timeline includes a subset of the event indicators. In response to the user input, the electronic device causes generation of a time-lapse video clip of the selected portion of the event timeline. The electronic device displays the time-lapse video clip, where motion events corresponding to the subset of the event indicators are played at a slower speed than the remainder of the selected portion of the event timeline.
US09170704B2	Sequencing content Several implementations provide a system for sequencing, or cueing, content for presentation to an audience. One such implementation provides a low bit-rate system for use with, for example, a tablet. One particular implementation constructs a display plane including a first content source window indicating content from a first content source, and a timeline for sequencing the first content source into a presentation for a presentation device. The display plane is provided to a remote device, and command information is received from the remote device. The command information is for modifying the display plane. The display plane is modified based on the received command information. Another particular implementation receives the display plane, determines command information for modifying the display plane, and provides the command information to the remote device for modifying the display plane.
US09170702B2	Management system user interface in a building automation system A client manager application for a building management system. A method includes maintaining a client manager application configured to interact with both a web client data processing system and an installed client data processing system to perform building management system functions. The installed client data processing system operates an installed client manager application to provide an installed building management interface. The method includes deploying a browser client manager module to the web client data processing system. A browser building management interface that has substantially the same appearance and functionality as the installed building management interface. The server interacts with both the installed client data processing system and the web client data processing system to perform the building management system functions. The client manager application can be configured to run in a web client data processing system as well as in an installed client data processing system.
US09170701B2	Suggesting contextually-relevant content objects Techniques for providing contextually-relevant content include monitoring interaction with content objects accessed through a portal by a user, at least a portion of the content objects presented to the user in a list through a graphical user interface (GUI); determining that the interaction with a particular content object of the content objects by the user exceeds a threshold interaction criteria; and updating the list of content objects presented to the user through the GUI with the particular content object based, at least in part, on the interaction with the particular content object exceeding the threshold interaction criteria.
US09170700B2	Playing and editing linked and annotated audiovisual works In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining metadata that relates to a video program and that defines, for one or more specified time points in the video program, one or more web services to be invoked at those time points; generating and displaying, on a computer, a video window that is configured to play the video program; during playing the video program on a computer, detecting that the video program is playing at one of the time points and determining an identifier of a particular web service associated with that one of the time points; in response to the detecting, causing the computer to invoke the particular web service.
US09170697B2	Touch unit and flat panel display In a flat panel display, two direction sensing electrodes, respectively representing an X-axis sensor and a Y-axis sensor, are disposed on both sides of a substrate of a color filter of the flat panel display. One direction sensing electrode is disposed in the black matrix on one side of the substrate and the other direction sensing electrode is disposed on the other side of the substrate locating farther from the black matrix. The configuration provides a much thinner dimension for the flat panel display with touch function while the touch function is less interfered by the display panel.
US09170695B2	Seamless capacitive touch panel A seamless capacitive touch panel includes a substrate, a pattern layer, a first electrode, and a second electrode. The pattern layer is formed on the substrate. The first electrode is formed on the pattern layer. The second electrode is formed on the substrate. The first electrode and the second electrode are separated by the pattern layer for preventing conduction between the first and second electrodes.
US09170691B2	Capacitive in cell touch panel and driving method thereof, display device Embodiments of the present invention disclose a capacitive in-cell touch panel, a driving method thereof and a display device. Touch sensing electrodes extended along the row direction of pixel units are arranged on a color filter substrate; a thin-film transistor (TFT) array substrate adopts a dual gate structure, that is, two gate signal lines are disposed between every two adjacent rows of pixel units; every two adjacent columns of pixel units are taken as a group of pixel unit columns and share a data signal line disposed between the two pixel unit columns, so that the positions of a part of data signal lines can be saved; and touch driving electrodes for achieving the touch function are arranged at the saved positions of the data signal lines.
US09170688B2	Apparatus and method for sensing capacitance, and touch screen apparatus There are provided an apparatus for sensing capacitance, a method for sensing capacitance, and a touch screen apparatus. The apparatus for sensing capacitance includes; a driving circuit unit applying driving signals to a first capacitor; an integration circuit unit including a second capacitor and a third capacitor respectively charged by a change in capacitance generated in the first capacitor based on the driving signals to generate a predetermined output voltage and calculating a voltage difference between the output voltage of the second capacitor and the output voltage of the third capacitor; and a control unit determining characteristics of a noise signal based on the voltage difference and controlling the driving signals based on the characteristics of the noise signal.
US09170681B2	Noise reduction method and system of capacitive multi-touch panel A noise reduction system includes a driving device, a sensing device, a first switch, a second switch, and a controller. The driving device has a plurality of drivers for generating touch driving signals. The sensing device has a plurality of sensors for detecting whether there is an external object approached and generating touch sensing signals. The first switch is provided for electrically connecting the plurality of drivers and the plurality of sensors to the capacitive touch panel. The second switch is provided for electrically connecting the plurality of drivers and the plurality of sensors to the capacitive touch panel. The controller configures the first switch and the second switch to perform a first direction driving and second direction sensing, and configuring the first switch and the second switch to perform a second direction driving and first direction sensing.
US09170680B2	Method, system and computer program product for operating a touchscreen Within a display area of a touchscreen, multiple elements are displayed. A location is detected of a physical touch within the display area. In response to determining that an ambiguity exists about which of the elements is being targeted by the physical touch, a menu is displayed on the touchscreen for prompting a user to select between ones of the elements that are at least partially displayed within a specified area around the location. The ambiguity is resolved by receiving a selection from the user via the menu.
US09170673B2	Electronic device and method of data transmission A terminal device (electronic device) includes a display which displays an image that specifies data, a touch panel which is disposed on the display and detects a contact of an object, a transmission operation detection unit which, when the display displays the image that specifies data, detects that a transmission operation has been performed with respect to the data if the touch panel detects a contact that continues over at least a predetermined distance and is in a predetermined direction, and a data transmission unit which, when the transmission operation detection unit detects the transmission operation, transmits the data to another electronic device.
US09170668B2	Ultrasonic touch sensor with a display monitor A touch screen monitor having a display monitor and an ultrasonic device. The ultrasonic device may include a sensor array using piezoelectric sensors to detect the surface topology of a biological or other object that is in contact with a surface of the display monitor. The display monitor may be a LCD or LED monitor.
US09170666B2	Representative image A system including a display, a sensor and a controller. The sensor can detect an object and generate data related to the object. The controller can determine a first pose of the object from the data and display a first representative image on the display. The controller can determine a second pose of the object and display a second representative image on the display, wherein the second representative image is associated with a displayed element.
US09170665B2	Lifetime OLED display Light emitting devices including sub-pixels having different numbers of emissive layers are provided. At least one sub-pixel of a first color may include a single emissive layer, and at least one sub-pixel of a second color may include multiple emissive layers disposed in a vertical stack. Light emitting devices in which different voltages are applied to each sub-pixel or group of sub-pixels are also provided. In some configurations, the voltage to be applied to a sub-pixel may be selected based upon the number of emissive layers in the sub-pixel.
US09170659B2	Mobile terminal The present disclose provides a mobile terminal, including a terminal body having a front surface and a rear surface, a front display unit disposed on the front surface and configured to output visual information thereon, and a rear input unit disposed on the rear surface and configured to be manipulated to input a control command, wherein the rear input unit includes a frame installed on a case of the terminal body to be manipulated in a pressing manner, and having a mounting portion, and a rear display mounted onto the mounting portion, and configured to output visual information toward the rear surface, the visual information being related to an event generated in the mobile terminal.
US09170648B2	System and method for virtual engineering A method and system for generating a virtual image of a virtual environment is provided. A virtual reality manager receives hand position data for at least one hand of a user from a hand system. The virtual reality manager receives head position data for a head of the user from a head-mounted system. The virtual reality manager identifies image-based position data and a current frame of reference for a current time using a target image corresponding to the current time. The virtual reality manager generates virtual image control data for the current time using the hand position data, the head position data, the image-based position data, and the current frame of reference. The virtual image control data is configured for use by a virtual image application.
US09170629B2	Medium, control method and information processing apparatus A computer-readable storage medium stores a control program for an information processing apparatus that includes a process unit capable of executing an application program. The control program causes the information processing apparatus to execute a process. The process includes acquiring control information included in the application program, generating association information associating the application program with response performance information in accordance with the control information acquired in the acquiring, type information associating a combination of control information with a type of the application program, and response performance information associated with a type of the application program, and controlling operating frequency of the process unit in accordance with the response performance information corresponding to the application program when the application program described in the association information is operating.
US09170628B2	Energy-savings control system for showcases, refrigerators and freezers An energy-savings control system can control the showcase, refrigerator and freezer so that they can run with the reduced energy consumption by responding to the electric current values flowing in each respective one of the showcase, etc. A freezing-machine is provided in each respective one of the showcase, refrigerator and freezer in which the electric current values flowing in the freezing-machine may be detected at time intervals of every one minute, and the average electric current values during the continuous time period of 30 minutes may be computed from the electric current values as detected above. If it is determined that the freezing-machine's operating rate as computed above is greater than the freezing-machine's predetermined operating rate, the freezing-machine installed therein may be controlled so that the electromagnetic valve can be switched to its opened position.
US09170624B2	User level control of power management policies In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor having a core and a power controller to control power management features of the processor. The power controller can receive an energy performance bias (EPB) value from the core and access a power-performance tuning table based on the value. Using information from the table, at least one setting of a power management feature can be updated. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09170615B2	Compact network server or appliance A rack mount network appliance may include a chassis that includes a front compartment proximal a front side of the chassis and a rear compartment proximal a rear side of the chassis. The chassis may be configured to be mounted in an appliance rack. A front vent on the front side of the chassis may be configured to allow air to flow between an external environment and the front compartment. A front loading module mountable in the front compartment may include a heat generating device. A front loading airflow module may be configured to draw in air within the front compartment into the front loading airflow module in a first direction and force air out of the front loading airflow module into the rear compartment in a second direction such that air is drawn in the front vent, over the heat generating device of the front loading module, and forced rearward over rear heat generating devices and out a rear vent of the chassis. The first direction may be substantially orthogonal to the second direction.
US09170613B2	Connecting assembly and electronic device having the same A connecting assembly between first and second bodies of an electronic device is provided. The connecting assembly includes a guiding member fixed to the second body and pivoted on a side of the first body along an axis, a guiding portion, an engaging member fixed to the first body, an engaging portion fixed to the second body, and a restoring member between the guiding member and the first body. When the second body is assembled to the first body, engagement between the guiding member and the guiding portion allows the guiding member to rotate relative to the first body along the axis from a first to a second position. The restoring member restores the position of the guiding member to the first position relative to the first body to establish engagement between the engaging member and the engaging portion. An electronic device having the connecting assembly is also provided.
US09170609B2	Extension apparatus and extension system According to one embodiment, an extension apparatus includes, a housing, a hook portion, a switch portion, a mechanical portion which moves the hook portion between the engaged state and the disengaged state, a pin portion provided inside the switch portion, a first spring portion interposed between the housing and the pin portion, an abutting portion provided in the mechanical portion, abutting a distal end of the pin portion, and releasing abutment when the pushing amount of the switch portion exceeds a predetermined amount, and a second spring portion striking the distal end of the pin portion against a sound-producing portion when abutment of the distal end of the pin portion is released.
US09170602B1	Calibrating a high-speed clock signal generated using a processor internal to the electronic authentication device without using a crystal oscillator A method is used in calibrating an internal clock generator. An electronic device is instructed to output a high-speed clock signal which is communicated to an external calibration system. The high-speed clock signal is measured using measurement equipment associated with the external calibration system. One or more calibration values based on the measured clock signal value are calculated. The calculated calibration values are communicated to the electronic device. The electronic device is instructed to generate a calibrated clock signal by applying the one or more calibration values to an internally generated clock signal.
US09170594B2	CC-CV method to control the startup current for LDO Methods and circuits for linearly controlling a limited, constant current during startup of LDOs, amplifiers, or DC-to-DC converters independent of load capacitor size and controlling a clean transition without glitches from a constant current (CC) mode during startup to a constant voltage (CV) mode during normal operation (CC-CV method) are disclosed. The constant current control loop and the constant voltage control loop are implemented in such a way that at the end of startup the voltage loop has taken over control and the current loop is moved far away from its active transistor region, allowing a switch of modes to occur without any nasty transitions on the output.
US09170587B2	Current control semiconductor element and control device using the same This invention provides a current control semiconductor element that can detect a current with high accuracy in a single IC chip by dynamically correcting changes in a gain a and an offset b, and a control device that uses the current control semiconductor element, the current control semiconductor element has a transistor 4, a current-to-voltage conversion circuit 22 and an AD converter 23 on the same semiconductor chip. A reference current generation circuit 6 superimposes a current pulse Ic on a current of a load 2 and changes a voltage digital value to be output from the AD converter. A gain/offset corrector 8 executes signal processing on change in the voltage digital value caused by the reference current generation circuit 6 to dynamically acquire the gain a and the offset b that are used in an equation that indicates a linear relationship between the voltage digital value output from the AD converter 23 and the current digital value of the load. A current digital value calculator 12 uses the gain and the offset acquired by the gain/offset corrector 8 to correct the voltage value output from the AD converter.
US09170585B2	Remote climate control device including electrical heater for a hybrid vehicle and associated methods A remote climate control system is for a hybrid vehicle having a rechargeable electrical power source and an electrical heater selectively powered thereby, a sensor associated with the rechargeable electrical power source, and a data communications bus extending throughout the hybrid vehicle. At least one of the electrical heater and the sensor is coupled to the data communications bus. The remote climate control system includes a remote transmitter and a receiver to be positioned at the hybrid vehicle for receiving signals from said remote transmitter. A vehicle remote climate controller cooperates with said receiver and to be coupled to the data communications bus extending within the hybrid vehicle for communication thereover to selectively operate the electrical heater responsive to the sensor and said remote transmitter.
US09170582B2	Path based power generation control for an aerial vehicle Methods and systems described herein relate to power generation control for an aerial vehicle. An example method may include operating an aerial vehicle in a crosswind-flight orientation substantially along a first flight path to generate power. The first flight path may include a substantially circular path that allows the aerial vehicle to generate the power. While the aerial vehicle is in the crosswind-flight orientation the method may include determining to reduce the power being generated by the aerial vehicle, and responsive to the determination, determining a second flight path that will reduce the power generated by the aerial vehicle when operating on the second flight path. Once determined, the aerial vehicle may operate substantially along the second flight path.
US09170579B1	System, method and computer program product for monitoring and controlling industrial energy equipment A digital energy system monitors and controls a plurality of industrial energy devices. The system includes a server and one or more interface devices coupled to the industrial energy devices. Each of the interface devices has a dynamically configurable runtime environment. The server sends configuration data to each of interface devices. The configuration data includes variable definitions that reference specific registers on the industrial energy devices. The server monitors the industrial energy devices by obtaining values for one or more of the variables set forth in the variable definitions. To control an industrial energy device, the server sends a write request for the industrial energy device to the interface device with a value for a defined variable in the device definition for the industrial energy device.
US09170578B2	Tool recognition with profinet The invention relates to a method for activating an automation station in the automation apparatus of an industrial application. The invention provides a method for activating an automation station in the automation apparatus of an industrial application, in which the automation station comprises a plurality of Profinet-compatible devices to which an unambiguous symbolic name is provided for identification, and wherein an identification of the automation station connected to the automation apparatus for operation is performed based on the symbolic names of the Profinet-compatible devices, and the Profinet-compatible devices are driven by the automation apparatus after connection of the automation station in functional dependence on the identified automation station.
US09170573B2	Method and system for updating tuning parameters of a controller A method and system for updating tuning parameters associated with a controller without repetitive compilation of a controller code. The controller code represents an algorithm associated with the controller and can be compiled separately from a data set representing a solution for an optimization problem and also from a data set representing parameters required for prediction. The algorithm can be implemented in a programming language code suitable for implementation on an embedded platform or other types of computer platforms. The data sets can be represented in a specified data structure and the variables associated with the data structure can be declared in the controller template code. The variables can be updated independently without varying the compiled code associated with the controller algorithm that is referring to the variables. The controller can also be updated while the controller actively performs online. Such an approach enables repetitive tuning of the controller without repetitive compilation of the code representing the controller algorithm.
US09170570B2	Cooling apparatus for internal combustion engine A cooling apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes a fan that cools a coolant by operating at least at a first drive voltage and a second drive voltage higher than the first drive voltage; and a control unit that drives the fan at the first drive voltage when a vehicle is driven at a low vehicle speed that is a vehicle speed lower than a vehicle speed threshold and a coolant temperature is higher than a fan low-voltage activation threshold.
US09170564B2	Time-to-digital converter and PLL circuit using the same A time-to-digital converter (TDC) that has high resolution, excellent linearity, and a widerange. The TDC includes a first oscillator unit that generates and outputs a pair of first oscillation signals based on a pair of predetermined clock signals that have a predetermined phase difference, a second oscillator unit that generates and outputs a second oscillation signal that have a predetermined frequency based on the pair of first oscillation signals outputted from the first oscillator unit, and a quantizer that calculates a quantized value based on a number of edges of the second oscillation signal outputted from the second oscillator unit.
US09170560B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a main body including a fixing portion, a cartridge including a photosensitive member, a transfer unit disposed facing the photosensitive member of the cartridge, and a separation member configured to separate the photosensitive member from the transfer unit and including a fixing portion. The cartridge is configured to be disposed in a first position in the main body where the photosensitive member is separated from the transfer unit and in a second position in the main body where the photosensitive member contacts the transfer unit. When the separation member is fixed in the main body by engagement of the fixing portion of the separation member to the fixing portion of the main body, the cartridge is disposed in the first position, and when the separation member is removed from the main body, the cartridge is disposed in the second position.
US09170554B2	Cleaning device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus A cleaning device includes a brush to contact a photoconductive member, a roller to contact the brush, and a blade. The blade is located along the roller in a longitudinal direction. The blade has a first portion, a second portion, and a bent portion between the first portion and the second portion. A contact surface or edge of the first portion contacts a surface of the roller to remove toner therefrom.
US09170544B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus for forming an image on each of recording media includes an optical sensor to irradiate each of the recording media with light to detect smoothness of each of the recording media according to a strength of specularly reflected light of the light with which each of the recording media is irradiated, and a processor to compare the smoothness of the recording media to determine whether a normal image can be formed on one of the recording media having a smoothness detected last.
US09170535B2	Fixing device and image forming apparatus In a fixing device thermally fixing toner images on recording sheets of various sizes, (i) a conductive heat generating rotational body configured to heat toner images, (ii) an excitation coil positioned along a part of an outer circumferential surface of the heat generating rotational body and configured to generate a magnetic flux to heat the heat generating rotational body by electromagnetic induction, and (iii) a demagnetization coil positioned close to the excitation coil so as to cover a part of the excitation coil and configured to cancel, when a toner image is being fixed on a smaller-sized recording sheet, a part of the magnetic flux generated by the excitation coil so that overheating is prevented in a non sheet-passing region, are provided. The demagnetization coil has a thickness smaller than a thickness of the excitation coil in an axis direction of the coils.
US09170521B2	Light beam detection circuit, light beam scan unit and image forming apparatus to detect light beam that changes light-amount thereof In order to detect a passage timing of a light beam and to suppress cost, a light beam detection circuit (2) includes a detection signal generation section (34) configured to receive a light beam for scanning of a scanning target (101A) with one optical sensor (10), and generate a detection signal corresponding to an amount of received light; a reference signal output section (44) configured to output a reference signal that is in proportion to a light-amount control signal of a light-emission element (LD1) that emits the light beam; and a synchronizing signal generation section (35) configured to compare a detection signal generated by the detection signal generation section (34) with a reference signal output from the reference signal output section (44) to generate a synchronizing signal to determine a position to start scanning of the scanning target (101A) with the light beam.
US09170511B2	Toner, development agent, and image forming apparatus Toner contains a binder resin containing one or more kinds of crystalline resin and one or more kinds of non-crystalline resin. The non-crystalline resin located at the surface portion of the toner forms a shell structure of a continuous phase of the non-crystalline resin and the toner has an amount of melting heat of 30 J/g or more in a second temperature rising as measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

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