Document Document Title
US09332678B2 Cold air containment system in a data centre
A system is provided for containing cold air in a corridor created on the side of a computer cabinet, comprising a base mountable on the computer cabinet, and a panel fastened to the base and moveable with respect to the base, the panel being suitable for separating the cold air in the corridor below the panel from the hot air above the panel.
US09332677B2 Electronic device
In an electronic device, a substrate mounting unit is provided at a front side inside a housing, and contains a plurality of electronic substrates under a state where faces of any two mutually adjacent ones of the plurality of electronic substrates are opposite to each other. A power supply unit is provided at a position which is located at a rear side inside the housing and is located behind the substrate mounting unit, and supplies the plurality of electronic substrates with electric power. A power-supply fan unit, which is provided at a rear side of the power supply unit, takes in air outside the housing from the power-supply air intake opening, and discharges the taken-in air to an outside of a rear side of the housing via the substrate mounting unit and the power supply unit.
US09332676B2 Sealed battery charger housing
A housing or other enclosure used to facilitate fluid cooling of a circuitry of a battery charger, such as but not limited to a battery charger of the type used to facilitate charging a high voltage vehicle battery with AC energy provided from a utility power grid. The housing may include a groove and seal arrangement operable to seal a fluid coolant chamber used to cool the circuitry from leaking fluid during use.
US09332674B2 Field-replaceable bank of immersion-cooled electronic components
A cooled electronic system and cooling method are provided, wherein a field-replaceable bank of electronic components is cooled by an apparatus which includes an enclosure at least partially surrounding and forming a compartment about the electronic components, a fluid disposed within the compartment, and a heat sink associated with the enclosure. The field-replaceable bank extends, in part, through the enclosure to facilitate operative docking of the electronic components into one or more respective receiving sockets of the electronic system. The electronic components of the field-replaceable bank are, at least partially, immersed within the fluid to facilitate immersion-cooling of the components, and the heat sink facilitates rejection of heat from the fluid disposed within the compartment. In one embodiment, multiple thermal conductors project from an inner surface of the enclosure into the compartment to facilitate transfer of heat from the fluid to the heat sink.
US09332673B2 Surface modification of hoses to reduce depletion of corrosion inhibitor
An inside surface of a hose for use with liquid-cooled cooling plate assemblies and other applications that contain copper (Cu) components is pre-treated with a passivating agent to reduce depletion of a copper corrosion inhibitor (e.g., benzotriazole (BTA)) dissolved in a liquid coolant (e.g., deionized water) that flows through the hose. Exemplary passivating agents include, but are not limited to, aliphatic alcohols (e.g., 1-hexanol), alkoxysilanes (e.g., (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane), and multidentate polymers (e.g., polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)). In one embodiment, a solution of pre-hydrolyzed (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane and deionized water is passed through a multilayer hose to form a pre-treated multilayer hose. In some embodiments, one or more pre-treated hoses interconnect liquid-coolant cooling system components (e.g., cold plates, headers, manifolds, pumps, reservoirs, and heat exchangers) of a cooling apparatus that removes heat from one or more electronic components.
US09332670B1 Data center module with leveling pad
A system includes a floor, one or more modules, one or more pads between a base of the modules and the floor, and one or more pad compression mechanisms. The data center modules include more electrical systems coupled to the module base. The pads compress to conform to variations in the surface of the floor. The pad compression mechanisms are operable by a user to compress the pads between the modules and the floor.
US09332667B2 Electronic apparatus
An electronic apparatus includes: a panel having at least one of an input section and a display section; a main body configured to retain the panel rotatably; and a retention mechanism configured to retain the panel at a predetermined rotation angle. The retention mechanism includes: a retaining member provided in the main body; a retained member provided on the panel and configured to be retained by the retaining member; an elastic deformation member configured to be connected to the retained member and changeable between a first state in which the elastic deformation member is not elastically deformed and a second state in which the elastic deformation member is elastically deformed; a contact member configured to contact with the elastic deformation member and change the state of the elastic deformation member; and an operating member configured to receive an operation for making the elastic deformation member contact with the contact member.
US09332656B2 Interposer and method for manufacturing same
An interposer includes an insulating substrate, a photosensitive dielectric film, a conductive layer, and a conductive via. The insulating substrate includes a bottom surface and a top surface, and defines a receiving through hole extending through the bottom surface and the top surface. The photosensitive dielectric film is mounted on the bottom surface. The photosensitive dielectric film defines a through hole spatially corresponding to and communicating with the receiving through hole. The conductive layer is mounted on an end of the photosensitive dielectric film away from the insulating substrate. The conductive layer covers an end of the through hole. The conductive via is received in the receiving through hole and the through hole. The conductive via contacts and electrically connects to the conductive layer.
US09332653B2 Resin composition for insulating film, and use thereof
The present invention provides a resin composition for an insulating film which resin composition is excellent in tack property after drying and allows a resultant insulating film to be excellent in flexibility and electrical insulation reliability and to be small in warpage after curing, a resin film for an insulating film, an insulating film, and a printed wiring board provided with an insulating film. The resin composition for an insulating film contains at least: a (A) binder polymer; and (B) cross-linked polymer particles, whose polymer has a urethane bond and a carbonate skeleton in its molecule.
US09332651B2 Process for producing structure with metal film, mother die for use in the process, and structure produced by the process
The invention provides is a process for producing a structure (22) with a metal film, including the steps of preparing a mother die (10) in which a first metal film (16) is formed on the surface of a base (12) on which a concave and convex pattern (14) is formed, forming a second metal film (18) on the first metal film (16), adhering a support member (20) to the second metal film (18), and separating the second metal film (18) to which the concave and convex pattern has been transferred to the second metal film (18) together with the support member from the first metal film (16). Preferably, the first metal film (16) is a film containing Cr and Al, and the second metal film (18) is a film containing at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Au, Ag, Cu, Al, and Pt.
US09332650B2 Method of producing multilayer circuit board
The present invention relates to a method of producing a multilayer circuit board including: a film-forming step of forming a swellable resin film on the surface of an insulative substrate, a circuit groove-forming step of forming circuit grooves having a depth equal to or greater than the thickness of the swellable resin film on the external surface of the film, a catalyst-depositing step of depositing a plating catalyst or the precursor thereof on the surface of the circuit grooves and the surface of the swellable resin film, a film-separating step of swelling the swellable resin film with a particular liquid and then separating the swollen resin film from the insulative substrate surface, and a plating processing step of forming an electrolessly plated film only in the region where the plating catalyst or the plating catalyst formed from the plating catalyst precursor remains unseparated after separation of the film.
US09332642B2 Circuit board
One aspect of the present invention relates to a circuit board including an insulating base substrate; and a circuit layer that is formed of a conductor and that is provided on the surface of the insulating base substrate, wherein the insulating base substrate has a smooth surface having a surface roughness Ra of 0.5 μm or less, and the conductor is at least partially embedded in a wiring groove formed in the surface of the insulating base substrate.
US09332634B2 Electrical device
An electrical device includes a first substrate, a second substrate opposed to a first side of the first substrate, and a functional element between the first side of the first substrate and the second substrate. A first electrode is arranged to a first substrate side of the functional element and overlaps with the functional element. A second electrode is arranged to a second substrate side of the functional element and overlaps with the functional element. An electronic component is arranged between the functional element and the first electrode, overlaps the first and second electrodes, and drives the functional element. A connecting section includes a first wiring, a second wiring, a first contact hole connecting the first electrode to the first wiring, and a second contact hole connecting the first wiring to the second wiring. The first contact hole has a portion that does not overlap with the second contact hole.
US09332631B2 Heat dissipating substrate, and element equipped with same
A main object of the invention is to provide a heat dissipating substrate which is excellent in heat dissipating performance, and undergoes neither peel therein nor short circuit. The invention attains this objet by providing a heat dissipating substrate comprising a support base material, an insulating layer formed directly on the support base material, and a wiring layer formed directly on the insulating layer, wherein the insulating layer is formed by non-thermoplastic polyimide resin, and has a thickness in the range of 1 μm to 20 μm.
US09332627B2 Thermal dissipating module
A thermal dissipating module suitable for removing heat from a heating element disposed on a circuit board is provided. The thermal dissipating module includes a heat conductive structure, an adhesive layer and an elastic member. The heat conductive structure is suitable for being disposed on the heating element. The adhesive layer is suitable for being disposed on the circuit board and adjacent to the heating element. The elastic member is glued to the circuit board by the adhesive layer, and the elastic member applies a force to make the heat conductive structure to be attached to the heating element.
US09332621B2 LED lamps with enhanced wireless communication
An LED lighting device includes a light emitting assembly including at least one LED and a wireless network interface connecting the LED lighting device to a network. The wireless network interface includes a RF transceiver. An antenna is in electrical communication with the RF transceiver. A thermally conductive housing receives the light emitting assembly, the thermally conductive housing in thermal communication with the at least one LED. In one aspect the thermally conductive housing is formed of a thermally conductive and electrically nonconductive material. In another aspect, the thermally conductive housing includes a first portion attached to a second portion, wherein the first portion is formed of a first, thermally conductive material and defines an interior cavity receiving the wireless network interface. The second portion is formed of a second, electrically nonconductive material and defines an aperture allowing optical output of the at least one LED to pass therethrough.
US09332619B2 Solid-state luminaire with modular light sources and electronically adjustable light beam distribution
A luminaire having a plurality of power sockets arranged over its housing is disclosed. In some embodiments, the luminaire includes a driver operatively coupled with all (or some sub-set) of the power sockets and configured to control the light output of a modular solid-state light source operatively interfaced therewith. In some such embodiments, the luminaire also includes a power-line communication (PLC) module configured to output a PLC signal utilized by the driver in controlling the modular light source's output. In some other embodiments, the modular light source includes the driver, which may utilize a PLC signal, a command signal received from a remote source, or both, in controlling light output. In some cases, the modular solid-state light sources may allow the luminaire to produce a target light beam distribution utilizing a minimal or otherwise reduced quantity of such light sources, reducing cost and difficulty of installation and commissioning.
US09332607B2 LED backlight driving circuit and liquid crystal display device
A LED backlight driving circuit includes a voltage boosting circuit for converting an input voltage into an output voltage for a LED string; a current control module connected to a negative terminal of the LED string and for regulating a working current of the LED string; a driver chip for supplying the voltage boost circuit and current control module respectively with first and second square wave signals; a current detection module for detecting the working current of the LED string to generate detection signal; a control signal module for receiving the detection signal to generate a control signal; and a frequency regulation module for receiving the control signal to thereby generate a resistance. The frequency regulation module connects the driver chip, and the driver chip regulates a driving frequency of the driving circuit according to the resistance. A LCD device using the driving circuit also is provided.
US09332594B2 Electric induction melting assembly
A dry-break electrical disconnect is provided between an induction melting furnace and a component of the electric induction melting assembly in which the furnace is removably installed for melting in a vacuum or otherwise controlled environmental chamber. Electric power connections are made to the induction melting furnace in a sealed interior volume of the assembly component that can be pressurized and of a different environment than that in the controlled environmental chamber. The assembly component may be a tilting cradle installed in the controlled environment chamber.
US09332592B2 Seat heater and capacitive occupancy sensor combination
In a combined seat heater and capacitive occupancy sensor, the present invention proposes to perform two measurements with two different frequencies. In a first step, the carrier frequency is set to a first known carrier frequency, the complex current through inductance and unknown capacitance and complex drive voltage are measured. In a second step, the carrier frequency is set to a second known carrier frequency, the complex current through inductance and unknown capacitance and complex drive voltage are measured. The measured complex values are used in a formula which yields the unknown capacitance.
US09332590B2 Wireless communication apparatus and method for selecting a group of coordinated communication nodes based on signal intensities and delay times of source signals
Disclosed is a base station that performs coordinated communication with a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs), including: a communication unit receiving source signals from the plurality of remote radio heads; a measurement unit measuring signal intensities and delay times of the respective source signals; a selection unit selecting remote radio heads that will perform the coordinated communication among the plurality of remote radio heads based on the signal intensities and the delay times; and a demodulation unit demodulating source signals received from the selected remote radio heads.
US09332587B2 Smart proximity priority pairing
A method for overriding a pairing priority for a slave device connected to a master device, or for connecting a new slave device to the master device and setting a new pairing priority relative to an existing paired slave device over a short-range wireless connection such as Bluetooth®. The method includes executing an application and setting a connection priority override on either the slave device or the master device. When a connection between the slave device and master device is requested and negotiated, a priority override is communicated to the master device or queried on the master device, and if the priority override is higher than an existing priority, a connection for that device is completed with the master device, and additional slave devices in a list of last paired devices is adjusted by the master device.
US09332585B2 Non-synchronized ADPCM with discontinuous transmission
A method for coordinating an encoder and a decoder in a wireless communication system employing discontinuous transmission, the method comprising performing a syncless reset command on the encoder and the decoder, in order to bring the encoder and decoder into stable and compatible states. The syncless reset command can be implemented by setting the variables of the encoder and decoder into predetermined values, or by performing a normal reset command followed by encoding or decoding a predetermined number of predetermined sample values.
US09332584B2 Discontinuous reception cycle scaling in a wireless device
Connected-mode discontinuous reception (C-DRX) cycle scaling by a wireless user equipment (UE) device. The UE may establish a connection with a network via a wireless link, which may operate according to LTE. The UE may communicate with the network via the wireless link using C-DRX over a plurality of C-DRX cycles. Each C-DRX cycle may include a period of time during which the UE operates in a reduced-power state and a scheduled on-duration period of time. An indication may be received to remain in the reduced-power state during the scheduled on-duration period of time of at least one C-DRX cycle. The UE may remain in the reduced-power state during the scheduled on-duration period of time of at least one C-DRX cycle in response to the indication.
US09332560B2 Method of performing measurement at UE in wireless communication system and apparatus thereof
A method of performing measurement at a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes receiving channel status information-reference signals (CSI-RSs) for channel status information feedback from a plurality of transmission points (TPs), performing radio resource management (RRM) measurement based on the CSI-RSs, and selecting one or more TPs for receiving a signal from among the plurality of TPs based on the result of measurement.
US09332555B2 System and method for direct mobile communication
Embodiments are provided reducing interference between cellular and direct mobile communication (DMC) links in wireless systems. In embodiment, a method performed by a network controller includes sending, to a second network controller, information of resources for a first set of DMC links between DMC user equipments (UEs). The first set of DMC links is associated with the network controller. The method further includes receiving second information of resources for a second set of DMC links associated with the second network controller. The network controller coordinates with the second network controller the allocation of network resources for the first set of DMC links between the DMC UEs. The network resources comprise cellular and DMC resources.
US09332550B2 Controlling fast dormancy
A user equipment, UE, in a radio communication network is given a threshold time value that the UE uses to decide whether it should trigger a fast dormancy request to a network node or not. The determination of the threshold time value can be adapted so that it minimizes UE battery consumption when the load in the network node is low and at other times minimizes the load on the network node. That is, if the UE estimates that a predicted time interval until reception of a data burst is less than threshold time value it will not trigger a fast dormancy request, and if the estimated time interval is larger than the threshold time value it will trigger a fast dormancy request. Since the network typically controls state switching, there is a large benefit for the UE to comply with the scheme, otherwise the network may not obey the UEs wish to be down switched by the fast dormancy request.
US09332537B2 System and method for signaling control information in a mobile communication network
A method of decoding encoded information communicated over a radio channel includes receiving a vector of encoded information transmitted by a wireless terminal. The encoded information includes an encoded representation of unencoded information bits that have been encoded using a first order Reed-Muller code. The method also includes generating a vector of transform values by performing a Hadamard Transform on the received vector and identifying a subset of the transform values based on scheduling information associated with the wireless terminal. Additionally, the method includes selecting, from the subset of transform values, one of the transform values based on a magnitude of the selected transform value and determining an estimate of the unencoded information bits based on a bit sequence associated with the selected transform value. In accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, an apparatus is operable to implement this method.
US09332529B2 Physical downlink shared channel transmission method
A Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) transmission data method is provided. A User Equipment (UE) receives cross-carrier scheduling information in a PDCCH of a cell for scheduling. The cross-carrier scheduling information carries scheduling information indicating at least one PDSCH in at least one sub-frame of a cell being scheduled in cross-carrier scheduling. The UE processes data of PDSCH corresponding to the instruction according to received cross-carrier scheduling information. The UE sends a HARQ-ACK message to a base station according to the processed result. The peak rate of the UE is increased, and the requirement for higher throughput of the UE is satisfied.
US09332523B2 Systems and methods of offloaded positioning for determining location of WLAN nodes
This disclosure includes systems and methods for determining the location of each of a plurality of STAs of a WLAN where an AP measures the round-trip time (RTT) and the angle of arrival (AOA) to each STA from implicit packet exchange, such as data frame and ACK frame. The AP may then report the RTT and AOA measurements to each STA using a dedicated beacon information element (IE) which multicasts RTT and AOA measurements to the STAs. By employing an additional parameter, namely, angle of arrival AOA, a single AP may compute the two-dimensional location of each associated STA. Further, another beacon IE may multicast mapping of the AIDs to MAC addresses so that the associated STAs can understand such mapping for STAs in a network so that one STA may know the location of other STAs. Encryption may be employed to achieve privacy.
US09332508B2 Uplink power control for wireless communication
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide closed loop and open loop power control techniques for each antenna of the user equipment (UE). The access point may measure the received signals from each antenna of the user equipment, calculate a power adjustment parameter for each antenna of the UE, and transmit the parameters to the UE. The UE may use the adjustment parameters to determine the transmit power value for each antenna. In addition, the UE may measure the path loss for each antenna and update the transmit power per antenna based on the path loss and other parameters.
US09332505B2 Methods and apparatus for performing measurements in adaptive downlink power transmission
A wireless device, and a method therein, for performing a measurement on a first type of radio signal. The wireless device is comprised in a communications network. The wireless device receives at least two resource specific parameters for the first type of radio signal. The at least two resource specific parameters indicate different transmit power levels of the first type of radio signal and the different transmit power levels relate to two different resources in two different time periods for the first type of radio signal. Further, the wireless device receives a first type of radio signal transmitted at two different transmit power levels, and performs at least one measurement on the received first type of radio signal using the at least two resource specific parameters.
US09332501B2 System and method for antenna-receiver communication
An antenna-receiver communication system comprises an antenna conductor, antenna, and intelligent antenna controller. The intelligent antenna controller and antenna are connected via a conductor for providing power to the antenna from the intelligent antenna controller, and a received signal from the antenna to the intelligent antenna controller. The intelligent antenna controller is configured to provide voltage to the antenna for its operation, and to systematically alter the provided voltage level to communicate information to the antenna. The antenna is configured to communicate messages to the intelligent antenna controller by systematically altering the current consumed by the antenna. Both the intelligent antenna controller and antenna are configured to decode received messages and act on them. A method for communication between an intelligent antenna controller and antenna utilizing patterns of voltage and current fluctuation over the conductor providing power from the intelligent antenna controller to the antenna is also provided.
US09332499B2 Apparatus and methods for enhanced user equipment power management via controlled cell change notifications
Apparatus and methods for power management in a wireless communication device include detecting a change in a serving cell for data communication from a first cell to a second cell; determining whether a terminal equipment (TE) is in a low power state; detecting a first technology type of the first cell and a second technology type of the second cell; determining whether the second technology type is a different technology mode than the first technology type; sending a cell change notification to a data processor associated with the TE when the second technology type is in the different technology mode than the first technology type and the TE is not in a low power state; and suppressing the sending of the cell change notification when the second technology type is not in the different technology mode and the TE is in the low power state.
US09332495B2 Method and device of supporting arbitrary replacement of multiple data units
The disclosure discloses a method of supporting arbitrary replacement of multiple data units, which includes: configuring patterns for arbitrary position replacement of N data units; and during a process of data unit replacement, performing a replacement operation on the N data units according to the configured patterns. The disclosure further discloses a device of supporting arbitrary replacement of multiple data units. By means of the method and device, an occupied area of a data unit replacement circuit in a chip can be decreased, and power consumption can be reduced.
US09332491B2 Apparatus and method for optimizing performance of a radio device
An apparatus (1600) and method (200) determine an instance quality set of an access system while the access system is used by an application package of a radio device. The access system comprises a radio system (110, 115) and an access network (140, 145). The application package has communicated information using a networked service (150) of the access network. The apparatus and method determine additional information that comprises at least one of a location of the device and an acquisition time, the instance quality set, and a radio system identifier of the radio system used. The apparatus and method perform at least one of storing within the radio device and transmitting from the radio device an application identifier of the application package in association with the additional information. The apparatus and method selects at least one of a preferred radio system and a preferred application package based on the instance quality set.
US09332490B2 Method and apparatus for automatically connecting short range wireless network in portable terminal
A method and an apparatus for automatically connecting a short range wireless network in a portable terminal. The method for automatically connecting a short range wireless network in the portable terminal includes, when registering to an Access Point (AP), storing location information of the AP. The method also includes obtaining location information of the terminal. The method further includes controlling an activation cycle of a communication module by comparing the location information of the terminal and the location information of the AP. The method still further includes, when the communication module is activated, searching for the AP.
US09332488B2 Pre-association discovery
The present disclosure describes techniques for pre-association discovery. In some aspects a frame having information useful to identify a service provided by a wireless device is received, the service provided by the wireless device is identified based on the information of the frame and known service identification information, and the identified service is associated with the wireless device effective to enable use of the identified service.
US09332486B2 Method and system for selecting a wireless network
A method and system for selecting alternative wireless networks to establish a connection to, based on pattern information concerning determined relationships between the wireless user and the wireless network location. By monitoring location information and available wireless networks with range of a wireless user terminal, patterns of frequent and recurring locations and available wireless access points can be used to identify the wireless access points for alternative wireless networks that provide the best opportunity for offloading. Because people tend to be creatures of habit and frequently return to certain locations during their daily lives, such as their home and their place of employ, as well as the homes of relatives and friends and other favorite places like restaurants, coffee shops, shopping and sporting venues. Assumptions can be derived by monitoring available wireless networks to identify those wireless networks that provide a beneficial opportunity to offload primary (e.g., cellular) network services onto other local networks.
US09332471B2 Cell selection or handover in wireless networks
Network device selection or handover schemes enable higher network capacity based on partially-observable Markov decision processes. Unavailable cell loading information is observed and/or predicted from non-serving base stations and actions are taken to maintain an active base station set or network device candidate data for selection in routing communications of a mobile device in a mobile device cell selection or handover procedure. A reward function is considered in the selection based on various parameters comprising system capacity, handover times, and mobility of a mobile device or mobile station.
US09332470B2 Method and device for distributing idle user equipment in multi-carrier based mobile communication system
The present invention relates to a method and device for distributing idle UE by a carrier in eNB of a multi-carrier based mobile communication system. The method of distributing idle UE in a multi-carrier based mobile communication system according to the present invention includes a process of determining a search rate by a carrier on the basis of information representing load on the carrier, a step of determining a cell reselection priority on the idle UE on the basis of the determined search rate, and a process of transmitting the determined cell reselection priority to the idle UE.
US09332469B2 Frequency offset measurement enhancements for long term evolution (LTE)
Embodiments for providing frequency offset measurement enhancements are generally described herein. In some embodiments, user equipment is informed of a configuration of a first reference signal and a configuration of a second reference signal. The first reference signal is provided to user equipment for performing channel estimation. A second reference signal for estimating carrier frequency offset is provided, wherein the second reference signal is co-located with the first reference signal. A carrier frequency offset estimation is calculated based on the co-located first and second reference signals.
US09332467B2 SRVCC handover of calls between access networks with efficient media gateway selection
A mechanism is presented for performing a session transfer with Single Radio Voice Call Continuity, SRVCC, from a Packet Switched, PS, access to a Circuit Switched, CS, access of a telecommunications session that has been established over the PS access via an IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS, network. The method includes receiving a request for the transfer of the session to the CS access. An indication of an already-seized media gateway, MGW, that has been established for use in one or more other sessions over the CS access is obtained from the IMS network. A MGW is selected as a Mobile-Media Gateway, M-MGW, for the session based on the obtained indication. Allocation of resources for the session in the CS access network is initiated, including specifying the MGW to be used as the Mobile-Media Gateway, M-MGW. Transfer of the session to the CS access is then initiated.
US09332455B2 Scheduling a user equipment transmission mode to assist uplink interference characterization
Systems, methods, and apparatuses for scheduling a user equipment transmission mode to assist uplink interference characterization are provided. One method includes a first base station (BS) wirelessly communicating with a first plurality of user equipment (UE), selecting a second BS associated with the first BS, the second BS wirelessly communicating with a second plurality of UE, selecting a UE from the second plurality of UE, scheduling the selected UE to transmit according to a transmission mode during a scheduled transmission, and characterizing, by the first BS, interference of the selected UE at the first BS during the scheduled transmission.
US09332439B2 Coexistence of white space devices and wireless narrowband devices
Architecture that enables wireless narrowband devices (e.g., wireless microphones) and white space devices to efficiently coexist on the same telecommunications channels, while not interfering with the usability of the wireless narrowband device. The architecture provides interference detection, strobe generation and detection and, power ramping and suppression (interference-free coexistence with spectrum efficiency). The architecture provides the ability of the white space device to learn about the presence of the microphone. This can be accomplished i using a geolocation database, reactively via a strober device, and/or proactively via the strober device. The strober device can be positioned close to the microphone receiver and signals the presence of a microphone to white space devices on demand. The strober device takes into consideration the microphone's characteristics as well as the relative signal strength from the microphone transmitter versus the white space device, in order to enable maximum use of the available white space spectrum.
US09332436B2 Network access control methods and apparatus
Methods and apparatus that provide user access control within wireless networks such as those having both fixed and portable nodes. In one embodiment, the network comprises a 3G cellular network or Interworking WLAN (iWLAN), and the portable nodes comprise Home Node B (HNB) base stations. The HNB is configured to authenticate new users, and provide network access while still maintaining user privacy. The portable nodes also may operate in a number of different operating modes which provide different functional control over user access. In one variant, an easy-to-use owner-assigned ID based access control mechanism with a reliable unambiguous user ID is utilized. Methods for providing access control across differing network architectures and protocols, such the aforementioned iWLAN, and business methods, are also described.
US09332431B2 Method of and system for authenticating and operating personal communication devices over public safety networks
A public safety (PS) person having a PS communications device is able to authenticate and authorize operation of a non-PS, personal communications device over a PS network. The PS device issues a challenge, and the personal device responds to the challenge, when the devices are in close proximity. A conditional token having specified conditions is sent to the personal device, which captures information at an incident scene. The personal device attaches the conditional token to the captured information, and uploads the captured information with the attached token to the PS device to permit distribution of the captured information in accordance with the specified conditions of the attached conditional token.
US09332426B2 Communication system, communication method, and communication program
Provided is a communication system capable of releasing a tunnel while securing mobility without securing resources in an SGW or the like. A first node provided in a communication system that provides mobility of packet data using tunneling includes: a tunnel control unit that releases a tunnel and deletes tunnel information; and a management unit that associates and manages an IP address allocated to a terminal to which the tunnel is established and subscriber identification information of the terminal when the tunnel is released and the tunnel information is deleted.
US09332410B2 Method, apparatus, and terminal for answering call
The present invention discloses a method, an apparatus, and a terminal for answering a call and relates to the field of terminal technologies. The method includes, after a call is received from a calling party, answering the call by using an automatic call answering function of a terminal, and talking with the calling party. If an instruction is received from an owner in the process of talking with the calling party, an operation is performed according to the instruction of the owner. If no instruction is received from an owner in the process of talking with the calling party, an emergency level of the call according to call content is determined, and an operation is performed according to the determined emergency level.
US09332409B1 System and method for emulating call center screen-pop application
A system and method establish interactive communications between a merchant and a customer via a third party. A merchant computer provides a link to a customer computer via a computer network for accessing a data entry element on the customer computer. The data entry element facilitates entry of customer information for sending to a third-party server at a contact time to initiate merchant communications. The merchant computer receives from the third party server, generally at the contact time, customer information comprising at least one of calling history, the customer information entered into the data entry element, customer information from a data source, and demographic information. The merchant computer accesses the customer information for determining whether to engage in interactive communications with the customer generally at the contact time. The merchant engages in interactive communications with the customer generally at the contact time when it is determined to do so.
US09332408B2 System and method for provision of a second line service to a telecommunications device
A method for routing calls between a third party telecommunications device (“TD”) and a subscriber TD associated with a primary service and a second line service (“SLS”) involves associating the SLS number of the subscriber, the primary number of the subscriber and the primary number of a third party via a common relationship number. Calls directed from a third party to the SLS number of a subscriber are routed to an SLS platform and redirected to the subscriber TD. Calls directed from the subscriber TD to the third party use the relationship number to route the call to the SLS platform. The combination of the SLS number and the relationship number identifies the third party calling number for call completion. Calls can be directed to and from an SLS number of a subscriber TD without having to coordinate the provisioning of a call through the subscriber's primary service provider.
US09332397B2 Method of communicating voice and data transmissions for telematics applications
A method of establishing an alternate communication channel between a telematics unit and a central facility that includes determining that a vehicle telematics unit is unable to communicate data over a voice call using a voice channel; initiating a data call from the vehicle telematics unit to a central facility based on that determination; sending information identifying the vehicle telematics unit to the central facility over the data call; establishing a voice call from the central facility to verbally communicate with the vehicle telematics unit based on the information identifying the vehicle telematics unit; and communicating data between the central facility and vehicle telematics unit via short messaging services (SMS) messages using the voice call from the central facility.
US09332389B1 Indoor-outdoor detector for estimating the location of a wireless terminal
A disclosed detector estimates the wireless terminal as being indoors or outdoors by utilizing information that includes measurement report data from previous calls involving both i) wireless terminals that are known to have been indoors and ii) wireless terminals that are known to have been outdoors while the measurement report data was collected. Based on this call data, one or more classification features are computed in accordance with the illustrative embodiment of the present invention. Then, for a wireless terminal that is to be classified during a call and with respect to the terminal being either indoors or outdoors, features that are representative of that wireless terminal for the call are evaluated against a characterization that is a composite of one or more previously-computed classification features. The features that are representative of the wireless terminal can be derived from the measurement reports received from the wireless terminal during the call.
US09332376B2 Method and technical equipment for short range data transmission
The invention relates to a method and a technical equipment for short range data transmission, e.g. Bluetooth low energy. The method comprises receiving, as a response to a transmitted advertisement packet, a scan request from a scanning device; reporting the scan request from a link layer to an application layer; determining a following action according to the scan request and performing the determined action.
US09332360B2 Compression and mixing for hearing assistance devices
This application relates to a system for compression and mixing for hearing assistance devices by application of compression to individual sound sources before mixing, according to one example. Variations of the present system using surround sound provide separate signals from a surround sound synthesizer which are compressed prior to mixing of the signals.
US09332351B2 Long-throw acoustic transducer
An acoustic transducer includes a housing, which may be a circular cylinder or may have a rectangular cross-section. Two permanent magnets that closely fit the inside of the housing are joined by a linkage having a high magnetic permeability to form a piston that is inserted into the housing. Two pole coils surround the housing with each coil adjacent one of the permanent magnets. The coils are arranged to cause the piston to oscillate within the housing and emit sound waves when coupled to an electrical signal. One end of the housing may be closed except for a barometric leak. A third permanent magnet or a spring may provide a restoring force that centers the piston between the coils when the piston is not subjected to other forces. One of the permanent magnets on the piston may include a vent passage.
US09332340B2 Device for controlling and cleaning wired audio headsets
A device for controlling and cleaning wired audio headsets, each audio headset including a headband, two earphones and an electrical cable connected to the earphones and ending in a plug, the device includes: impedance control elements; audio control elements; elements for cleaning the headsets; elements for winding up the cable of the headset.
US09332336B2 Headphone device
[Problem] To provide a headphone device that outputs an audio signal output from a playback device, such that the headphone device has a more compact housing while being capable of highly sensitive acoustic output of an audio signal having high sound quality, and is capable of consuming less power during highly sensitive acoustic output of an audio signal having high sound quality. [Solution] In a headphone device that outputs an input audio signal, the headphone device is provided with: a housing shaped with a hollow interior, said housing being provided with a projection on the front thereof, said projection being provided with a hole passing therethrough in the front-to-back direction; and a first driver unit and second driver unit each affixed to the inner wall of the housing, and each having a diaphragm that acoustically outputs the input audio signal. The first driver unit and the second driver unit have been given a parallel arrangement, such that the diaphragms thereof are in mutual opposition.
US09332327B2 Systems and methods for scaling DSLAM deployments
A system for scaling vectored DSLAM deployments has a DSLAM interfaced with a cross-connect apparatus. The DSLAM receives POTS signals from at least one bridge connection assembly. When a DSLAM is added at the cross-connect facility, at least one connector of the bridge connection assembly is disconnected from an existing DSLAM and is interfaced with the newly-added DSLAM. By moving the connector to the newly-added DSLAM, a batch of downstream distribution pairs (which are preferably bound by a single distribution cable) are effectively moved from the existing DSLAM to the new DSLAM without having to reconfigure the jumpers of the cross-connect apparatus. Accordingly, it is possible to scale the cross-connect facility to any number of vectored DSLAMs while limiting vector group sizes, thereby reducing the complexity of vectoring operations, without having to perform complex reconfigurations of the cross-connect apparatus.
US09332325B2 Optical switch
An optical switch includes: a first birefringent element; a first Faraday rotator; a first half-wave plate; a second birefringent element; a second half-wave plate; a second Faraday rotator; and a third birefringent element, which are arranged in a forward direction from the front, wherein the first birefringent element splits light in the forward direction from a first optical port into ordinary and extraordinary lights emitted onto first and second optical paths, respectively, the first and second half-wave plates are arranged on the first and second optical paths, respectively, and in the first and second Faraday rotators, a permanent magnetic field in a left-right direction and an external magnetic field in a front-back direction in an on state are applied to a Faraday element, a bidirectional optical path is formed between the first and second optical ports in an off state, and the optical path is interrupted in the on state.
US09332324B2 Method and apparatus for efficient and transparent network management and application coordination for software defined optical switched data center networks
Application actions are optimized by receiving actions from one or more distributed applications, translating the received actions into one or more network operation primitives, processing the network operation primitives to determine an optimized set of network operation primitives, determining an optimal execution sequence for the optimized set of network operation primitives, and executing the optimized set of network operation primitives based on the optimal execution sequence.
US09332323B2 Method and apparatus for implementing a multi-dimensional optical circuit switching fabric
An optical switching system is described. The system includes a plurality of interconnected wavelength selective switching units. Each of the wavelength selective switching units is associated with one or more server racks. The interconnected wavelength selective switching units are arranged into a fixed structure high-dimensional interconnect architecture comprising a plurality of fixed and structured optical links. The optical links are arranged in a k-ary n-cube, ring, mesh, torus, direct binary n-cube, indirect binary n-cube, Omega network or hypercube architecture.
US09332322B2 Multimodal climate sensor network
Techniques and systems are disclosed for monitoring multiple indoor and outdoor climate parameters and wirelessly transmitting the monitored data to a network for on-line analysis and dissemination. In one aspect, a monitoring device includes multiple sensors to monitor air quality modalities and generate corresponding monitored air quality data. The monitoring device includes a processor in communication with the multiple sensors to receive and process the monitored air quality data generated from the multiple sensors. Additionally, the monitoring device includes a display unit in communication with the processor to display the processed air quality data. The monitoring device includes a data communication unit to transmit the processed air quality data to a server. The server stores and optimizes the data through cross-calibration and makes the data available to persons who have purchased the monitoring devices and who wish to share the data in a social network.
US09332321B2 Method and apparatus for generating uncompressed video data packet
Provided are a method and apparatus for generating a packet including uncompressed video data. The method includes: generating color component bit information indicating the number of bits of each color component of pixels of the uncompressed video data; and generating a packet including the color component bit information and the uncompressed video data.
US09332319B2 Amalgamating multimedia transcripts for closed captioning from a plurality of text to speech conversions
Methods and systems for converting speech to text are disclosed. One method includes analyzing multimedia content to determine the presence of closed captioning data. The method includes, upon detecting closed captioning data, indexing the closed captioning data as associated with the multimedia content. The method also includes, upon failure to detect closed captioning data in the multimedia content, extracting audio data from multimedia content, the audio data including speech data, performing a plurality of speech to text conversions on the speech data to create a plurality of transcripts of the speech data, selecting text from one or more of the plurality of transcripts to form an amalgamated transcript, and indexing the amalgamated transcript as associated with the multimedia content.
US09332310B2 System and method of selecting a multimedia stream
A method includes receiving, at a server, channel change request data from a media device. The channel change request data specifies a requested channel that is associated with a plurality of multimedia streams. Each multimedia stream of the plurality of multimedia streams has a corresponding content format. The method includes determining, at the server, an available bandwidth of a service to a premises associated with the media device. The method includes selecting, at the server, a particular content format based on the available bandwidth and a multimedia stream of the plurality of multimedia streams that has the particular content format. The method also includes sending an identification of the multimedia stream from the server to the media device.
US09332308B2 Image communication apparatus and control method therefor
An image communication apparatus has a function of outputting a shot image obtained by imaging an object, a function of displaying at least the shot image, a function of generating a captured image by capturing a displayed image, a function of encoding an image and decoding an encoded image, a function of writing the encoded shot image in a memory and reading out a recorded image stored in the memory, and a function of communicating with another apparatus through a network. The image communication apparatus switches the mode of video to be transmitted to the other apparatus by controlling these functions based on a control event.
US09332307B2 Data insertion apparatus and methods for use with compressed audio/video data
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for performing data insertion in compressed audio/video data streams are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein include receiving an input multi-program data stream including a first compressed media data stream associated with a media program and a second data stream containing descriptive information describing the media program, rearranging data in frames of the first compressed media data stream to form contiguous sequences of skip bytes at respective locations in the frames of the first compressed media data stream, extracting the descriptive information from the second data stream, inserting payload data prepared from the descriptive information at the locations of the contiguous sequences of skip bytes in the frames of the compressed media data stream, and recombining the second data stream with the compressed media stream after inserting the payload data to form an output multi-program data stream.
US09332299B2 System for configuring soft keys in a media communication system
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, set top box (STB) having a controller to record one or more soft key preferences associated with a user of the STB for each of a plurality of media presentation states of a media communication system, receive a request for presentation of a graphical user interface (GUI) associated with one of the media presentation states, select one or more soft keys according to the one or more soft key preferences assigned to the requested media presentation state, and present the selected one or more soft keys in the GUI. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09332294B2 Timing of displayed objects
Systems and methods for displaying an object determine a display time of a first object, wherein the display time of the first object is determined based on one or more attributes of objects in a collection of objects, generate a display that includes at least part of the first object in a first portion of the display for the display time of the first object, wherein the display is configured for rendering on a display device, and remove the first object from the first portion of the display after the display time of the first object has elapsed.
US09332293B2 Method and apparatus for secure transfer and playback of multimedia content
A method and apparatus for secure transfer and playback of multimedia content enables the secure transfer of multimedia content from a digital video recorder (DVR) to a personal computer (PC) and further to a handheld device. A DVR determines which devices on a Local Area Network (LAN) are authorized to share and/or retrieve content from the DVR. The DVR receives a connection request from a PC on the LAN, authorizes the connection request and establishes a secure connection between the DVR and the PC. Once the secure connection is established, the DVR receives a request for multimedia content from the PC, prepares the multimedia content for transfer and transfers the multimedia content to the PC.
US09332287B2 System and method for session management of streaming media
A system and method for session management of streaming media are provided. The system and method authenticate and validate any request for live or streaming video and manage the streaming session in a manner that continues to verify the validity of existing video streams with respect to new requests. The system and method provide for receiving a first request for a first video stream from a client, generating a token based on the first request and at least one parameter associated with the client, validating the token based on at least one predetermined rule associated with the client, and upon validation, providing the first video stream to the client. Upon receiving a subsequent second request for a second video stream, the system and method validate a second token based on the first video stream, terminate the first video stream and provide the second video stream to the client.
US09332286B2 Constructing a transport stream
There is disclosed a head-end system in which differently processed copies of content portions are reordered such that copies from different content portions are not interleaved in the final transport stream.
US09332285B1 Switching modes of a media content item
Systems and techniques are provided for switching between different modes of a media content item. A media content item may include a movie that has different modes, such as a cinematic mode and an interactive mode. For example, a movie may be presented in a cinematic mode that does not allow certain user interactions with the movie. The movie may be switched to an interactive mode during any point of the movie, allowing a viewer to interact with various aspects of the movie. The movie may be displayed using different formats and resolutions depending on which mode the movie is being presented.
US09332281B2 Image encoder and decoder using undirectional prediction
The present invention relates to an image encoding and decoding technique, and more particularly, to an image encoder and decoder using unidirectional prediction. The image encoder includes a dividing unit to divide a macro block into a plurality of sub-blocks, a unidirectional application determining unit to determine whether an identical prediction mode is applied to each of the plurality of sub-blocks, and a prediction mode determining unit to determine a prediction mode with respect to each of the plurality of sub-blocks based on a determined result of the unidirectional application determining unit.
US09332277B2 Transform space difference compression
An invention is disclosed for performing differencing of graphical data in post-transform space for a remote presentation session. Graphical data is transformed from a first representation to a second representation (e.g. with a DWT), and then a difference is taken of the post-transform data and the post-transform data of the frame that preceded the current frame. This difference is then encoded and transmitted to a client, which decodes it, and creates a representation of the graphical data using the delta, and a previously determined representation of the previous frame. By performing differencing in post-transform space, fidelity of the remote presentation session is retained while it may decrease bandwidth. This may occur because the entropy of the delta representation is usually lower than a non-delta representation while the scheme retains the identical data of the final decoded image of the non-delta version of the same compression scheme.
US09332273B2 Method and apparatus for motion vector determination in video encoding or decoding
Provided are motion vector determining method and apparatus for determining a motion vector via motion vector prediction. The motion vector determining method involves determining a candidate motion vector list comprising motion vectors of a plurality of candidate blocks referred so as to predict a motion vector of a current block, when a reference image of a first candidate block from among the plurality of candidate blocks is different from a reference image of the current block, determining whether or not to use a motion vector of the first candidate block from the candidate motion vector list, based on whether each of the reference image of the current block and the reference image of the first candidate block is a short-term reference image or a long-term reference image, and determining the motion vector of the current block by using a candidate motion vector selected from among the motion vectors comprised in the candidate motion vector list.
US09332270B2 Apparatus capable of performing both block-matching motion compensation and global motion compensation and method thereof
An interpolation unit receives an incoming video bit stream comprising a plurality of frames including first macroblocks encoded using block-matching motion compensation and second macroblocks encoded using global motion compensation. A translation unit converts global motion parameters included in a current frame of the incoming video bit stream into a global motion vector. The interpolation unit performs luminance and chrominance interpolation operations on each macroblock contained in each frame of the incoming video bit stream. When processing a current macroblock, if the current macroblock is encoded using global motion compensation, the interpolation unit performs the luminance interpolation operations according to the global motion vector at half-pel resolution, and performs the chrominance interpolation operations at quarter-pel resolution. If the current macroblock is encoded using block-matching motion compensation, the interpolation unit performs the luminance and chrominance interpolation operations according to the macroblock motion vector contained in the current macroblock at half-pel resolution.
US09332266B2 Method for prediction in image encoding and image encoding apparatus applying the same
A method for prediction in image encoding and an image encoding apparatus applying the same are disclosed. The method includes steps of receiving a plurality of candidates with respect to a current prediction target of an image; calculating a distortion-based cost of a first candidate in the plurality of candidates; and for each of the other candidates, computing a data access availability and a data access requirement for calculating a distortion-based cost of a current candidate in the other candidates of the plurality of candidates; and if the data access requirement does not exceed the data access availability, calculating the distortion-based cost of the current candidate; otherwise, selecting the candidate with the minimum calculated distortion-based cost as a matched candidate for the current prediction target. Therefore, coding performance setback due to external memory data access is improved.
US09332255B2 Signaling long-term reference pictures for video coding
A video decoder may be configured to decode a first value representative of a difference between a base most significant bits (MSBs) value of a picture order count (POC) value of a current picture of video data and a first MSBs value of a first POC value of a first long-term reference picture of the video data, decode a second value representative of a difference between a second MSBs value of a second POC value of a second long-term reference picture of the video data and the first MSBs value, wherein the first POC value and the second POC value have different least significant bits values, and decode at least a portion of a current picture of the video data relative to at least one of the first long-term reference picture and the second long-term reference picture.
US09332249B2 Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal is disclosed, which enables a user to change and view a 2D image and/or a 3D image on a display unit by changing a view angle without manipulation of an input unit. The present invention includes a display panel configured to display a plurality of output images, a multi-view angle panel provided in front of the display panel to provide a user with a prescribed one of a plurality of the output images in accordance with a plurality of preset view angles, and a controller partitioning the display panel into a plurality of display regions, the controller partitioning a plurality of the output images into a plurality of partitioned images to correspond to the number of a plurality of the display regions, the controller controlling the display panel to display a plurality of the partitioned images on a plurality of the display regions.
US09332247B2 Image processing device, non-transitory computer readable recording medium, and image processing method
Provided is a technique that can reduce the fatigue of the eyes of an observer who observes a stereoscopic image. To attains this object, an image processing apparatus includes: a first acquisition section that obtains a base image; a second acquisition section that obtains pieces of base distance information an identification section that performs an identification process for, classifying an image space into a gaze area and a non-gaze area; a first generation section that performs a generation process for generating a derived image and pieces of derived distance information, the derived image and the pieces of derived distance information being obtained as a result of a blurring process being performed on an image in an area corresponding to the non-gaze area; and a second generation section that generates a pseudo image of the object based on the derived image and the pieces of derived distance information.
US09332237B2 Projector and method of controlling projector
A projector includes a projection section adapted to project light, a human detection section adapted to detect a human existing in a predetermined region, and a mode switching section adapted to switch an operation mode to one of a content mode for projecting light of an image related to a content by the projection section, and an illumination mode for projecting light for illumination by the projection section in accordance with a detection result of the human detection section.
US09332235B2 Imaging capture apparatus having plurality of image sensors generating respective image signals based on emitted light areas
An imaging apparatus includes a filter, a first image sensor and a second image sensor. The filter transmits a first light in a range of wavelengths and reflects a reflected light out of the range of wavelengths. An incident light is split to the first light and the reflected light. The first image sensor receives the first light to generate a first image signal. The second image sensor receives the reflected light to generate a second image signal.
US09332228B2 Content provision apparatus and method
Provided are a content provision apparatus and method. The content provision apparatus includes a message reception module receiving a service request message from a display apparatus which displays first content; a content extraction module analyzing the received service request message and extracting second content associated with the first content; and a communication module transmitting the extracted second content.
US09332227B2 Dynamic facial feature substitution for video conferencing
In an approach to determine facial feature substitution in a video conference, a computer receives one or more pre-recorded videos of an attendee of a video conference. The one or more pre-recorded videos include at least one pre-recorded video of an attendee speaking. The computer determines an avatar for use in place of a video of the attendee in the video conference. Furthermore, the computer determines one or more portions of the one or more pre-recorded videos of the attendee corresponding to at least one targeted facial feature of the attendee in the video of the attendee in the video conference. The computer substitutes the one or more portions of the one or more pre-recorded videos into the avatar, the substitution corresponding to the at least one targeted facial feature of the attendee in the video conference.
US09332222B2 Controlled three-dimensional communication endpoint
A controlled three-dimensional (3D) communication endpoint system and method for simulating an in-person communication between participants in an online meeting or conference and providing easy scaling of a virtual environment when additional participants join. This gives the participants the illusion that the other participants are in the same room and sitting around the same table with the viewer. The controlled communication endpoint includes a plurality of camera pods that capture video of a participant from 360 degrees around the participant. The controlled communication endpoint also includes a display device configuration containing display devices placed at least 180 degrees around the participant and display the virtual environment containing geometric proxies of the other participants. Placing the participants at a round virtual table and increasing the diameter of the virtual table as additional participants are added easily achieves scalability.
US09332220B2 Apparatus, system, and method of managing data, and recording medium
A transmission management system stores association information that associates, for each one of a plurality of starting terminals, starting terminal identification information for identifying the starting terminal capable of requesting to start communication with one or more candidate counterpart terminals, and candidate counterpart terminal identification information for identifying each one of the one or more candidate counterpart terminals. In response to receiving a request for deleting at least one candidate counterpart terminal selected from the one or more candidate counterpart terminals, for at least one starting terminal selected from the plurality of starting terminals, the management system specifies candidate counterpart terminal identification information of the selected candidate counterpart terminal using the association information, and deletes the candidate counterpart terminal identification information of the selected candidate counterpart terminal from one or more candidate counterpart terminals being associated with the selected starting terminal.
US09332206B2 Frame sharing
A method including providing television content (TC) to a user; receiving a TC capture request; capturing TC frames based on the TC capture request; displaying to the user one or more TC frames included in the captured TC frames; receiving a user selection of one or more TC frames included in the displayed one or more TC frames; receiving a user selection of one or more destinations to send the selected one or more TC frames; and sending the selected one or more TC frames to the one or more destinations.
US09332205B2 Image pickup element, image pickup apparatus, and image processing method
An image pickup element includes a pixel matrix, a pupil dividing portion, and a shielding portion. Pixels in the pixel matrix include a photoelectric conversion portion, and are arranged in units of a matrix of a predetermined number of the pixels. The pupil dividing portion is arranged on a side of a light receiving surface of the photoelectric conversion portion of each pixel to divide a pupil region. The shielding portion arranged between the pupil dividing portion and the photoelectric conversion portion shields a predetermined region of the light receiving surface of the photoelectric conversion portion. The predetermined region of each pixel corresponds to any one of the divided pupil regions obtained when the pupil region is divided by the pupil dividing portion. A proportion of the predetermined region is smaller than a proportion of a region not-shielded by the shielding portion in the light receiving surface.
US09332197B2 Infrared sensor control architecture
A system and method for optimizing fixed and temporal noise in an infrared imaging system. The system may use correction tables with correction factors, each correction factor indexed to a plurality of system parameters.
US09332196B2 Image processing device, method and program
An image processing device includes a recording control unit that controls recording of an image of a predetermined frame among images of a plurality of consecutive frames, a trim box setting unit that sets a plurality of trim boxes containing a subject area which is an area of a subject of interest in the image of the predetermined frame recorded by the recording control unit, and a generation control unit that controls generation of the plurality of trim images from the image of the predetermined frame recorded by the recording control unit, based on the plurality of trim boxes set by the trim box setting unit.
US09332193B2 Synchronization of image acquisition in multiple image sensors with a synchronization clock signal
A multiple image sensor image acquisition system includes a clock control unit to generate a synchronization clock signal. The synchronization clock signal has a prolonged constant cycle during which the synchronization clock signal is held at a constant level for a period of time corresponding to multiple clock cycles. A first image sensor is coupled with the clock control unit to receive the synchronization clock signal and has a first synchronization unit that is operable to synchronize operation for the first image sensor based on detection of an end of the prolonged constant cycle. A second image sensor is coupled with the clock control unit to receive the synchronization clock signal and has a second synchronization unit that is operable to synchronize operation for the second image sensor based on detection of the end of the prolonged constant cycle. The image sensors are synchronized operationally.
US09332182B2 Image recording and playback device, and image recording and playback method
An image processing device of the present invention comprises a storage section for storing first image data obtained by imaging in front of the imaging device body or using a telephoto lens, and second image data obtained by imaging behind the imaging device body or using a wide-angle lens; a movement pattern detection section for processing the first image data to detect a movement pattern of the first image represented by the first image data; a movement pattern determination section determining whether or not the movement pattern of the first image is unstable movement; and an image processing section for rewriting a part of the first image data, for which it has been determined by the movement pattern determination section that the movement pattern of the first image is unstable, using the second image data.
US09332176B2 Display apparatus with a camera and control method thereof
A display apparatus and a control method thereof include an image communication camera including an image sensor is installed to be movable up and down at an upper portion of the display apparatus, and protrudes from the display apparatus when in use; an image processor processing an image signal sensed by the image sensor; a display displaying the processed image signal; a sensor sensing the position of the image communication camera; a power supply supplying components of the display apparatus; and a controller controlling the power supply to supply electric power to the image communication camera if the image communication camera is moved up, and cut off the electric power to the image communication camera if the image communication camera is moved down. Thus, it is possible to determine whether the image communication camera and the microphone operate or not based on the position of the image communication camera.
US09332171B2 Method for transmitting video data and haptic data and video acquisition device
A method for transmitting video data and haptic data between a mobile video acquisition device and a remote computer through a communication network, and a video acquisition device. A server capable of direct communication exists in the communication network. The video data can be presented on a screen of the remote computer for a user to view, and the haptic data can be used to control a motion state of the video acquisition device acting as an avatar of the user. In the present invention, a first channel for transmitting video data and a second channel for transmitting haptic data are established between a computer having access to the Internet and a video acquisition device having access to the Internet by using a server and through a P2P technology. The present invention enables forming of a low-cost long-distance avatar network of multiple users versus multiple avatars, thereby greatly reducing travel of people, and contributing to low carbon environmental protection.
US09332166B2 Imaging apparatus equipped with illumination optical system having a plurality of optical integrators that guide light
An imaging apparatus (1) includes an illumination optical system (100) that includes a light source (110) and is configured to guide light from the light source to a target(B), an imaging optical system configured to capture an image of the target, and a plurality of image sensors (430) arranged on an image plane of the imaging optical system. The illumination optical system includes a plurality of integrators (121,122). Light flux exits from one of the plurality of integrators illuminates at least one of the plurality of image sensors, and light exits from the other integrators illuminates at least one of the plurality of image sensors other than the image sensor illuminated by the light exits from the one of the plurality of integrators.
US09332162B2 System and method for video frame sequence control
A video sequence control system comprising: a video frame sequence component for providing video frames for display by a projector, the video frames having a sequence of at least one crosstalk reduction frame followed an image frames; and a synchronization control component, the synchronization control component communicatively coupled to an image capture device the synchronization control component providing a timing signal to synchronize image capture with the occurrence of the at least one crosstalk reduction frame in the video frame sequence.
US09332158B2 Color processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable recording medium performing color conversion, adjustment and matching process between input color data and reproducible color data of image output device
Provided is a color processing apparatus including an associated information obtaining section that obtains first associated information in which first color information in a first color space is associated with first output color information that is a target to be output in a second color space, and second associated information in which the first color information is associated with second output color information in the second color space of an image output, an output section that outputs second color information in the first color space to the color adjustment target unit, an output color information obtaining section that obtains third output color information in the second color space output by the color adjustment target unit, and a conversion relation creating section that creates the conversion relation.
US09332157B2 Print control apparatus and print control program for printing with special color ink
A print control apparatus includes an image data acquisition unit for acquiring at least first image data of a raster format that defines color information and second image data of a raster format that defines an amount of recording with a special color ink different from the color that is indicated by the color information, a PDL data generation unit for generating PDL data with which an instruction for printing a document comprising at least an image represented by the first image data and the second image data is described by a page description language, and a transfer unit for transferring the generated PDL data to a print unit, wherein the PDL data generation unit generating a command for designating a method of printing for the special color ink represented by the second image data and generating PDL data that includes the generated command.
US09332156B2 Glare and shadow mitigation by fusing multiple frames
In one example, a method for glare and shadow mitigation by fusing multiple frames includes illuminating the target with light from a first illumination direction and capturing a first frame of the target with a camera while the target is illuminated in the first illumination direction. The method also includes illuminating the target with light from a second illumination direction and capturing a second frame of the target with the camera while the target is illuminated in the second illumination direction. The first frame and second frame are fused together to form a composite image that simultaneously mitigates glare and shadow areas.
US09332154B2 Image binarization using dynamic sub-image division
Image binarization method and device for converting a grayscale image into a black and white binary image are provided. The grayscale image is divided into sub-images dynamically created from pixel to pixel containing a given pixel as well as neighboring pixels. A threshold for each pixel is determined based on the color values of all the pixels in the sub-image. Therefore, at a certain color value, this given pixel is converted to white and at another color value the pixel is converted black. The foregoing is effectuated pixel by pixel in a dynamic fashion evaluating each pixel relative to its neighboring pixels in order to produce a binary image.
US09332149B2 Image processing apparatus capable of generating image including arranged images
An image processing apparatus includes a processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the image processing apparatus to perform: receiving first image data representing a first image; specifying a partial image included in the first image; specifying an internal area included in the partial image; and generating a second image in which more than two of the partial image are continuously arranged as first partial image and a second partial image, wherein the second partial image is arranged continuously to the first partial image and overlaps with the internal area of the first partial image.
US09332147B2 Image forming apparatus and method of booting image forming apparatus having hibernation function
A method of booting an image forming apparatus having a hibernation function. In the method, when booting of the image forming apparatus starts, whether a storage device has a defect is checked based on a flag indicating whether the hibernation function is activated, and a system of the image forming apparatus is booted using a stored boot image.
US09332144B2 Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus including an automatic document feeder (ADF) that transports a document is provided. The ADF unit includes a subtray that is openable and closable. When transporting a document, the subtray is opened and a document to be transported is fed into a space below a guide member. At this time, surfaces of the subtray and a main tray are used as a feed tray. The document that has been transported is discharged onto a guide member and is further transported onto the surface of the second tray. At this time, the surface of the second tray and the surface of the guide member are used as a discharge tray.
US09332138B2 Guest-activated image capture system for venues and associated methods
An image capture system for a venue includes fixed image capture areas spaced throughout the venue. Each fixed image capture area includes at least one camera, and a kiosk coupled to the at least one camera. The kiosk includes an identification (ID) reader to read a guest ID presented by a guest, and a processor to activate the at least one camera to take a photo of the guest based on the ID reader reading the guest ID. The processor also links the guest ID with the photo. A server is coupled to the fixed image capture areas to store each photo with the linked guest ID.
US09332137B2 Method for form filling an address on a mobile computing device based on zip code lookup
A system for creating image and or text-based projects from a computing appliance includes a server connected to a network, the server having access to a processor, a data repository, and a non-transitory physical medium. Software running from the non-transitory physical medium provides a first function for establishing a client server connection between the server and a computing appliance connected to the network, a second function for initiating an active data session between the computing appliance and a data server, a third function for storing a database of zip codes with the relevant cities and states on the user-operated computing appliance, a fourth function for detecting when a user enters a zip code onto a form field, a fifth function for looking up the entered zip code, and a sixth function for retrieving the associated city and state information and auto-populating the text fields associated with the zip code.
US09332131B2 Information processing device, usage charge calculation method and program
Provided is an information processing device including a calculation unit which calculates a usage charge to be imposed by a first provider on a second provider which provides a radio communications service using a physical network possessed by the first provider. The calculation unit calculates the usage charge based on a value of a parameter depending on efficiency of use of radio resources in the radio communications service.
US09332129B2 Methods and apparatus for automated communications forwarding
Methods and apparatus for the automated updating of forwarding preferences for communications in a telecommunications network. In one embodiment, the network includes a wireless (e.g., cellular) network with user mobile user devices configured to detect a change to their configuration (such as a user changing out SIM cards or virtual access clients). In response, the device causes an update to its associated communication forwarding preferences to reflect the change. If the configuration alteration meets certain criteria (e.g., changes the phone number at which the device may be reached), the device sends a forwarding message instructing a network entity (e.g., routing server) to direct communications addressed to the old phone number to the new phone number. Thus, a user with two or more user profiles (such as two different carrier accounts) may be reached at any number associated with any of the profiles, even if only one profile is currently active.
US09332126B2 Method and system for controlling mobile device functions via a service or background process
This provides for controlling mobile device functions and features, along with systems incorporating these devices and methods. For example, it limits or disables the use of some of mobile device features which could cause distraction to the user, when the user is engaged in another activity. In an example, it enables other mobile device features based on occurrence of events related to the user or environment. Another example addresses controlling the mobile device features, such as SMS, while the user is in a vehicle or driving. Another example restricts the ability of the driver of a vehicle to text, while the vehicle is in motion, by automatically disabling the texting ability of mobile device within and around the perimeter of the driver's seat. Other variations, examples, improvements, detection mechanisms, models, techniques, calculations, verification mechanisms, and features are also described in details.
US09332122B2 System and method for identifying E-911 calls and notifying family members/friends of the caller
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method and system may be provided for providing notification that an emergency call is being placed. The system and method includes identifying a telephone call as being an emergency call, identifying a calling party of the telephone call, locating a notification list associated with the identified calling party, and sending a notification to members on the notification list.
US09332117B2 Information processing device, information processing method, and program
Provided is an information processing device including a retrieval unit configured to retrieve a data record in which a marker detected in an image acquired by a terminal device is associated with a function of the terminal device, and a calling function determination unit configured to determine the function to be called in the terminal device based on the data record found through the retrieval. The data record includes information generated based on a calling history of the function in which the marker in the terminal device is used.
US09332108B2 Apparatus and method for controlling application in wireless terminal
An apparatus and method for controlling an application in a wireless terminal to automatically download an application on a home screen classified on a category basis. The apparatus preferably includes a display unit for displaying home screens set to categories and a controller for automatically matching and setting the home screens of the wireless terminal to categories received from a server in a home screen category setting mode and downloading an application on a home screen set to a category of the application.
US09332106B2 System and method for access control in a portable electronic device
A method of access control in an electronic device includes monitoring for input at the electronic device, for each input determined to be one of a plurality of predefined gestures including gestures from a touch-sensitive input device or from a movement sensor, mapping the input to a respective Unicode character and adding the respective Unicode character to a passcode to provide an entered passcode, comparing the entered passcode to a stored passcode, and changing an access state at the electronic device if the entered passcode matches the stored passcode.
US09332102B2 Mobile terminal device, storage medium and sound output control method
A mobile terminal device includes: a telephone communication speaker and a control module. The telephone communication speaker includes: a first speaker which releases sound waves corresponding to sounds to be output and vibration waves generated by vibrations of one surface of a housing according to vibrations corresponding to the sounds to be output, thereby to transfer the sounds to a user; and a second speaker which releases sound waves corresponding to sounds to be output. In case of execution of a function to output sounds from the telephone communication speaker, when a predetermined trigger action is not made, the control module executes first control in which the first speaker outputs sounds but the second speaker does not output sounds, and when the trigger action is made, the control module executes second control in which at least the second speaker outputs sounds.
US09332100B2 Portable communications device
Improvements to enhance electronic books, particularly improvements having both a viewing and audio enunciation capability are disclosed. A exemplary user control is provided enabling a reader to receive a “recap” up to a point designated by the reader or, alternatively, allow the reader to “finish the book” by being provided with a summary, covering the material from a given point to the end. In another example, a pointing device (e.g., a touch pad) is provided along with curser on the display, enabling a reader to click on words for additional information. In still another example, when material of any kind is “read” to a user, the device may be used to automatically display images on the display screen associated with the material being read. In another example, an electronic book may be provided with a communications link or a short-range radio transmitter, such as a low-power FM transmitter.
US09332097B2 Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal is disclosed. The mobile terminal may include a front case, a rear case installed to a rear of the front case, an antenna module provided to the rear of the front case, the antenna module including a first region provided at a first edge portion of the front case and a second region provided at a second edge portion of the front case and a speaker provided between the first region of the antenna module and the front case to output sound to a space between the antenna module and the front case.
US09332091B2 Address manipulation to provide for the use of network tools even when transaction acceleration is in use over a network
In address-manipulation enabled transaction accelerators, the transaction accelerators include outer-connection addressing information in packets emitted over an inner connection between transaction accelerators and inner-connection addressing information is added in packets sent over the inner connection. The inner-connection addressing information can be carried in TCP option fields, directly in other fields, or indirectly through data structures maintained by the endpoints processing the connection. Address information can be encoded into header fields originally intended for other purposes but that are unused or encoded into used fields, overlaid in combination with other data that is being carried in those used fields. The existence of inner-connection addressing information in a packet can be signaled by a flag in the packet, by a bit or other designated encoding. The flag can be in an unused header field or overlaid. Where replacement and option addition is needed, swappers and unswappers might be used.
US09332090B1 Communication data padding
Sending padding data is disclosed. Uncompressed communication data in a first data grouping is prepared using a data compression algorithm. A header of the first data grouping identifies that the first data grouping includes uncompressed contents. A second data grouping is selected. The second data grouping includes compressed padding data configured to fill a buffer of a receiver to at least a predetermined size. The first data grouping and the second data grouping are sent.
US09332078B2 Locality based content distribution
A system and method for content distribution are provided. A content provider generates a network topology having one or more subnetworks made up of content sources. The content provider segments content, such as applications, into segments for distribution. The content provider then distributes the content such that for each identified subnetwork, each content segment is distributed to a content source. Subsequent, client computing device requests for content can be serviced by selecting a content source in a particular subnetwork selected for delivering the requested content to the client computing device to minimize traffic flow of the requested content through the nodes of the distribution network.
US09332076B2 Method and apparatus for setting a language of a remote device
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus for setting a language of a remote device are disclosed. For example, the method determines connectivity information for interacting with the remote device, assesses a language setting of the mobile endpoint device, and sets the language of the remote device by sending the language setting of the mobile endpoint device to the remote device using the connectivity information.
US09332069B2 Methods, devices and systems for initiating, forming and joining memberships in distributed computing systems
A computer-implemented method of deploying a membership of nodes in a distributed computing system may comprise selecting nodes to be part of a membership of nodes; creating a membership task identifying a membership creator node as the node that is creating the membership and comprising a membership target identifying at least one node of the distributed computing system that is to become a member of the membership; and creating a beacon configured to send a create membership message to each identified node, the create membership message comprising at least an identity of the membership task and an identification of the membership. Upon receiving a response from a node in the membership target, the node from which the response was received may be removed from the beacon. The membership may be deployed when a response has been received from each of the nodes identified in the membership target.
US09332066B2 Connection rate limiting for server load balancing and transparent cache switching
Each service in a computer network may have a connection rate limit. The number of new connections per time period may be limited by using a series of rules. In a specific embodiment of the present invention, a counter is increased each time a server is selected to handle a connection request. For each service, connections coming in are tracked. Therefore, the source of connection-request packets need not be examined. Only the destination service is important. This saves significant time in the examination of the incoming requests. Each service may have its own set of rules to best handle the new traffic for its particular situation. For server load balancing, a reset may be sent to the source address of the new connection request. For transparent cache switching, the connection request may be forwarded to the Internet.
US09332062B2 Method and arrangement for providing documents
A method and arrangement for handling document requests in a communication services network. When a first document server (200) receives (2:1) a request for a first service document from a requesting party (200), the requested first service document (Doc 1) is retrieved (2:2), which comprises a reference (ref) to service related information in a second service document (Doc 2). The first document server (200) then fetches (2:3) said service related information (list) in the second service document using the information reference, and aggregates (2:4) the fetched service related information with the first service document. The first document server (200) finally returns (2:5) the first service document together with the aggregated service related information (Doc 1′) to the requesting party in response to the received document request. Thereby, the requesting party is not forced to request for more documents than the first service document to obtain the needed information.
US09332060B2 Methods, secure element, server, computer programs and computer program products for improved application management
It presented a method, performed in a secure element, the secure element being arranged to enable user applications of the secure element to verify authenticity of incoming user application commands. The method comprises the steps of: receiving a command from a secure element reader for a user application on the secure element, the command comprising an application identifier of the user application; determining whether there is a matching user application in the secure element; invoking the matching user application; and establishing, when there is an absence of any matching user applications, a communication channel with a remote application manager server and sending an absent user application message to the application manager server indicating that the user application has been requested on the secure element. A corresponding secure element, method for an application manager server and application manager server are also presented.
US09332059B2 Method of file sharing
A method of file sharing based on a file server is intended to share specific data and enable data constraints for automatic deletion of specific shared data which has been downloaded by a downloader device.
US09332056B2 Methods and apparatus to distinguish between parent and child webpage accesses and/or browser tabs in focus
Methods and apparatus to distinguish between parent and child webpage accesses and/or browser tabs in focus are disclosed. An example implementation includes identifying an HTTP request; retrieving Page Info data from a browser; electronically detecting if the Page Info data and the HTTP request identify a same Internet resource; electronically classifying the HTTP request as a parent call when the Page Info data and the HTTP request identify the same Internet resource; and electronically classifying the HTTP request as a child call when the Page Info data and the HTTP request identify different Internet resources.
US09332055B2 Method and apparatus for routing XCAP requests
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for finding out which XDM server a specific user is allocated to in a network with several XDM servers. An HTTP proxy (120) receives an XCAP request (610) from an XDM client (100), including information related to a user associated with the XDM client. The HTTP proxy checks if the user exists in its storage (330), based on the received user information, and if not, the HTTP proxy creates a SIP request (630) including the user information, and passes it over to a SIP Proxy (130, 230). The SIP Proxy finds out which XDM server the user is allocated to by enquiring a subscriber database (140), and then the SIP proxy passes the XDM server address information back to the HTTP Proxy (640), which is then able to route the XCAP request (650) to the correct XDM server (150, 250).
US09332050B2 Media streaming with adaptation
A method and apparatus for receiving a media stream provided in a plurality of different, alternative encoded representations. Each representation comprises a series of discrete fragments and each fragment comprises a contiguous temporal segment of the stream. The method comprises: obtaining (240, 310) at least a part of a first fragment from a first one of the representations; obtaining (210, 320) at least a part of a second fragment from a second one of the representations, wherein the first and second fragments comprise temporal segments that overlap at least partially; decoding (250, 330) a first temporal segment of the media stream from the first fragment; and decoding (260, 350) a second, later temporal segment of the media stream from the second fragment. In this way, the method switches from receiving the stream in the first representation to receiving it in the second representation.
US09332044B2 System and method for automatically suggesting or inviting a party to join a multimedia communications session
The present disclosure includes a system and method for automatically suggesting or inviting a party to join a multimedia communications session. In some embodiments, a first party, which is not currently participating in an existing multimedia communications session, attempts to contact a second party, which is currently participating in the multimedia communications session. In these embodiments, the first party automatically receives a suggestion or invitation to join the multimedia communications session when the first party has permission to join. In some instances, the multimedia communications session is a video conference including audio and video communications.
US09332039B2 Method, apparatus, and system for establishing voice communication
Methods, apparatus and systems for establishing voice communication are provided herein. An exemplary method can be implemented by an electronic device. A request initiated by a user can be received. The request can include one of a voice-communication request, a voice-communication-invitation request, a temporary-voice-communication request, a temporary-voice-communication-invitation request, an exclusive-voice-communication request, and an exclusive-voice-communication-invitation request. According to the request, a voice-room number can be obtained from a first server or a second server, without using third-party communication software. The method further includes starting a voice client and entering a voice room directly using the voice client, according to the voice-room number.
US09332038B2 Remote procedure call with call-by-reference semantics using remote direct memory access
Embodiments relate to providing remote procedure calls (RPC) with call-by-reference semantics using remote direct memory access (RDMA). An aspect includes establishing a session between a client and a server. A client session heap memory and a server session heap memory are initialized with a RDMA provider. A parameter is then stored in the session heap memory. A handle for the parameter is passed to the server which permits access to the parameter responsive to an on-demand request from the server.
US09332037B2 Method and apparatus for redundant signaling links
According to at least one embodiment of the invention, a protocol for managing redundant signaling links to form a reliable signaling connection is provided. The protocol has an initialization phase, in which the availability of signaling links is determined and an available signaling link is selected and activated, followed by an operational phase in which the activated link is used for sending signaling messages for a higher-level protocol. During the operational phase both links are monitored for availability using a query and reply technique. Should either link fail, a status message is sent to the remaining available link along with an activity switchover being performed, as required, depending on whether the failed link was the active link. The higher-level protocol process running on the media gateway performs management of the links, and the media gateway controller operates as a slave, whereby it need not initiate nor control any of the activities for management of the signaling links, thereby reducing the processing burden placed upon it. However, optionally, a media gateway controller may request a link switchover, which may be used to support link maintenance activities or link congestion avoidance measures.
US09332028B2 System, method, and apparatus for providing network security
Methods, systems, and apparatuses for proactively protecting a computing network are disclosed. A proactive security mechanism is disclosed, among other things, with the ability to monitor a protected domain in real-time and safely identify inoculation procedures for responding to threats introduced to the protected domain via malware. The proactive security mechanism includes an Artificial Neural Network Interface (ANNI) configured to execute at least some features of the proactive security mechanism.
US09332024B1 Utilizing digital linear recursive filters to estimate statistics for anomaly detection
A method is provided to estimate statistics of user interaction with a computing system. For example, the method includes tracking the interaction of a plurality of users with the computing system to collect statistical data associated with the user interaction, wherein the statistical data is collected in each of a plurality of sampling intervals. The collected statistical data is applied to a digital linear recursive filter that is configured to combine and filter the collected statistical data based on at least one cyclical function. The filtered statistical data generated by the digital linear recursive filter is then utilized to compute final statistics indicative of the user interaction with the computing system. The final statistics are utilized to identify anomalous activity involving the computing system.
US09332023B1 Uploading signatures to gateway level unified threat management devices after endpoint level behavior based detection of zero day threats
Zero day threats are detected at gateway level and blocked from entering a network. A database containing signatures identifying malware is maintained at the gateway. Inbound network traffic is scanned using the signatures, and files containing malware are detected and blocked by the gateway. When a file is received by a given endpoint in the network, behavior based malware detection is used to determine whether the file contains a zero day threat. Whenever a file is adjudicated by an endpoint as containing a zero day threat, the endpoint generates an identifying signature, and transmits the signature to the gateway in real time. The gateway thus receives signatures identifying multiple zero day threats from multiple endpoints, and subsequently scans inbound network traffic for the received signatures. From that point, the gateway detects files containing the zero day threats, and blocks them from being routed to endpoints in the network.
US09332022B1 Systems and methods for detecting suspicious internet addresses
The disclosed computer-implemented method for detecting suspicious Internet addresses may include (1) monitoring Internet communications of an entity (e.g., an organization or individual), (2) compiling an Internet-address history for the entity that includes one or more Internet addresses involved in the Internet communications of the entity, (3) detecting, after compiling the Internet-address history for the entity, an additional Internet address that may be used in future Internet communications involving the entity, (4) computing a similarity metric between the additional Internet address and at least one Internet-address in the Internet-address history, (5) determining that the similarity metric indicates that the additional Internet address is suspicious, and (6) performing a security action in response to determining that the similarity metric indicates that the additional Internet address is suspicious. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09332020B2 Method for tracking machines on a network using multivariable fingerprinting of passively available information
A method for tracking machines on a network of computers includes determining one or more assertions to be monitored by a first web site which is coupled to a network of computers. The method monitors traffic flowing to the web site through the network of computers and identifies the one or more assertions from the traffic coupled to the network of computers to determine a malicious host coupled to the network of computers. The method includes associating a first IP address and first hardware finger print to the assertions of the malicious host and storing information associated with the malicious host in one or more memories of a database. The method also includes identifying an unknown host from a second web site, determining a second IP address and second hardware finger print with the unknown host, and determining if the unknown host is the malicious host.
US09332011B2 Secure authentication system with automatic cancellation of fraudulent operations
The present invention relates to a method and system to securely authenticate an operation request using a secure device. Automatic rejections are initiated on the basis of detection of mismatch of information by the secure device received from a server computer and an insecure terminal. The system and method further enables the user to manually confirm/reject operation requests by providing user inputs on an insecure terminal.
US09332010B2 Methods and systems for token-based application management
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for token-based application management. In an embodiment, requests are received from applications for tokens that can be active or inactive. A token-interaction-directive pool is maintained in data storage, each directive having a triggering token, a target token, and one or both of triggering-token actions and target-token actions. Responsive to receiving a token request from an application, any directives having their triggering token equal the requested token and having their target token active are identified. A response plan that includes the actions in the identified directives is generated. Any triggering-token actions in the response plan are communicated to the requesting application, and any target-token actions in the response plan are communicated to each application that is authorized to access the corresponding target token.
US09332009B2 Use, provision, customization and billing of services for mobile users through distinct electronic apparatuses
An office electronic apparatus is associated to an apparatus card and is able to use or provide a service by means of identification information; the identification information allows billing of the use or provision of the service. A mobile telephone terminal is associated to a subscriber card storing subscriber identification information. According to the method of the present invention, at least the subscriber identification information and preferably also subscriber authentication information are transferred from the mobile telephone terminal to an office electronic apparatus when the said mobile telephone terminal is in proximity of the office electronic apparatus, the transferred information is stored into the apparatus card of the office electronic apparatus, and the service is autonomously used or provided by the office electronic apparatus by means of the transferred information.
US09331997B2 Systems and methods for managing disclosure of protectable information
A server and one or more portals cooperate with a first registered agency, an administrator of the first registered agency, a second agency, and an administrator of the second registered agency to determine whether access to protectable information should be granted to a registered requester.
US09331990B2 Trusted and unsupervised digital certificate generation using a security token
A method, system and computer program product for ensuring PKI key pairs are operatively installed within a secure domain of a security token prior to generating a digital certificate. The public key component of the PKI key pair is incorporated into a digital certificate which is returned to the security token for storage. The arrangement included herein incorporates the use of a critical security parameter to ensure a chain of trust with an issuing entity such as a registration authority. Furthermore, the arrangement does not require security officer or system administrator oversight during digital certificate generation as the critical security parameter provides a sufficient level of trust to ensure that digital certificate generation is being performed in conjunction with a designated security token rather than a rogue application. Lastly, separate inventive embodiments allow alternate communications and verification arrangements to be implemented.
US09331975B2 Systems, methods, and apparatus to identify media presentation devices
Systems, methods, and apparatus to identify media presentation devices are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a domain name service query from a first device at a server, the first device and a second device being associated with a same public Internet protocol address. The first device is identified as originating the domain name service query based on an identity of the server. The first device is credited with accessing content associated with a domain name identified in the domain name service query.
US09331966B2 Processing connection request in online service
Disclosed is a system and method for processing a connection request in an online service by a server corresponding to the online service. A connection request message that originates from a personalized account for a first user is sent to a personalized account for a second user and a certain threshold of access to posts related to the personalized account for the first user is provided to the personalized account for the second user for a certain period of time. An access to the posts related to the personalized account for the first user is otherwise accorded to authorized contacts of the personalized account for the first user on the online service.
US09331960B2 Communication system, communication device, storage medium, and communication method
An example communication system, including: a plurality of devices that form a mesh-type network, each of the plurality of devices performing communication from a source device to a destination device, directly or by relaying via one or more other devices, and at least one of the plurality of devices including a selecting unit, that selects a communication route from the source device to the destination device according to a first restriction with regard to a relay value indicative of the number of communication routes that each device is able to relay.
US09331954B2 Functional device, access system, and communication establishing method
A functional device can communicate with an access apparatus through wireless communication. At least one additional device can be connected to the functional device. The functional device includes an access controller that performs an initialization process of the additional device to obtain characteristic information of the additional device from the additional device, before establishing communication between the access apparatus and the functional device, a memory that stores the obtained characteristic information, a communication unit that performs transmission and reception of data with the access apparatus, and a communication controller that transmits the characteristic information stored in the memory to the access apparatus without performing an initialization process of the additional device, upon establishment of communication with the access apparatus by the communication unit.
US09331951B2 Path discovery in data transport networks based on statistical inference
A method and network management node for determining the managed nodes on a path from a given source node to a given destination node based on a statistical inference of traffic volume reports available from the nodes. Traffic counts from Performance Management (PM) counters are collected from all managed transport nodes including the source and destination nodes. Based on the observed pattern of traffic volume received from the PM counters, the most likely matching path from a given source to a given destination is selected. If the traffic counts are insufficient to establish a path with adequate certainty, the method may optionally generate additional traffic from the source node to the destination node to increase the reliability of the path determination.
US09331950B2 Apparatus and method for VoIP traffic flow identification
A data exchange device that identifies VoIP traffic flow. When a type of data flow is received by the data exchange device, the data exchange device determines whether the type of data flow is bidirectional traffic flow. If the type of data flow is bidirectional traffic flow, the data exchange calculates a first data size of downstream data of the type of data flow and a second data size of upstream data of the type of data flow. Then, the data exchange device identifies whether the type of data flow is the VoIP traffic flow according to the first data size and the second data size. If the type of data flow is the VoIP traffic flow, the type of data flow is processed according to a high priority.
US09331943B2 Asynchronous scheduling informed by job characteristics and anticipatory provisioning of data for real-time, parallel processing
Systems and methods are disclosed for scheduling jobs processed in a distributed fashion to realize unharnessed efficiencies latent in the characteristics of the jobs and distributed processing technologies. A job store may be communicatively coupled to a job analyzer. The job analyzer may be operable to read information characterizing a job to identify multiple data blocks to be processed during the job at multiple locations in a cluster of nodes. A scheduling module may use information about the multiple data blocks, their storage locations, their status with respect to being provisioned to processing logic, data blocks to be processed by other jobs, data blocks in cache that have been pre-fetched for a prior job, quality-of-services parameters, and/or job characteristics, such as job size, to schedule the job in relation to other jobs.
US09331941B2 Traffic flow redirection between border routers using routing encapsulation
In response to receiving one or more packets from an interface, an anchoring border router classifies the traffic flow and either transmits the packets based upon the routing control table as usual, or determines that the packets of the traffic flow are to be forwarded to a forwarding border router. Upon determining that the packets are to be forwarded, the packets are encapsulated with a routing encapsulation key corresponding to a routing path and are forwarded from the anchoring border router to the forwarding border router via a routing encapsulation tunnel. When a forwarding border router receives the redirected packets over the routing encapsulation tunnel, the forwarding border router removes the routing encapsulation key from the packets of the traffic flow and transmits the packets via a routing path corresponding to the routing encapsulation key.
US09331940B2 System and method providing distributed virtual routing and switching (DVRS)
Systems, methods, architectures and/or apparatus for providing a distributed Virtual Routing and Switching (dVRS) solution at a data center (DC) by logically representing the networking resources of the data center as a plurality virtual nodes, each virtual node comprising an IP infrastructure based on a physical network node and a plurality of virtual switches, each virtual switch including a VRS instance linked to one or more VRS instances at other virtual switches via a VLAN to provide thereby a virtual service, wherein the physical network node performs control plane processing and provides to each virtual switch the specific routing information associated with the local services of that virtual switch. Thus, from a data plane perspective the virtual switches route and/or switch traffic directly to tunnels pointing to remote VRS instances without involving the Controller in the forwarding of the packets.
US09331938B2 Extension of logical networks across layer 3 virtual private networks
A method of manages a set of managed forwarding elements that forward data between machines. The method configures (1) a first managed forwarding element to operate in a first network that uses first and second address spaces that at least partially overlap with each other, (2) a second managed forwarding element to operate in a second network that uses the first address space, and (3) a third managed forwarding element to operate in a third network that uses the second address space. A machine in the second network and a machine in the third network have an identical address that belongs to both the first and second address spaces. The method directs the first managed forwarding element to connect to the second and third managed forwarding elements in a manner that enables the first managed forwarding element to forward data from a machine in the first network to the machine in the second network via the second managed forwarding element.
US09331935B2 Network device selection
An embodiment may include circuitry that may be capable of selecting, from network devices, at least one network device to which at least one packet is to be transmitted. The network devices may be associated, at least in part, with each other in at least one link aggregation. The circuitry may select the at least one network device based at least in part upon a relative degree of affinity that the at least one network device may have with respect to at least one central processing unit (CPU) socket that may be associated, at least in part, with at least one flow to which the at least one packet may belong. The relative degree of affinity may be relative to respective degrees of affinity that one or more others of the network devices may have with respect to the at least one CPU socket. Many modifications are possible.
US09331931B2 Path selection based on hop metric distributions
In one embodiment, a network device determines, for each particular path of a plurality of paths in a computer network, a hop metric distribution that indicates, for each interval of the hop metric distribution, a number of hops along the particular path that have a hop metric value within a corresponding interval. As such, the device may then select a path from the plurality of paths that minimizes the number of hops with correspondingly poor hop metric values along the selected path based on the hop metric distribution, and may forward traffic on the selected path, accordingly.
US09331926B2 System and method for presence notification based on presence attribute
Methods and apparatuses are provided for providing a presence notification. A presence server receives a request including a filtering rule from a watcher client. The filtering rule is defined based on presence attributes of the watcher client. The presence server stores a notification blocking filter corresponding to the filtering rule, when the request has been authorized using authorization related information.
US09331925B2 Multiple test site bandwidth limit measurement
In one embodiment, methods are described to measure bandwidth limits through multiple test sites. A testing quantity of network packets is generated, the network packets are sent through a service provider network to a plurality of receivers at a testing transmission rate that exceeds an upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network, a report indicating a received number of packets is received from each of the plurality of receivers, and an upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network is determined based on the testing transmission and the reports. By using multiple test sites, potential bottlenecks at any one test site are reduced. A similar method can be used to calculate a downstream transmission rate limit. Once measured, the bandwidth limits may be used to adjust quality of service on an edge router or compared against a known service level agreement of the service provider network.
US09331923B2 DS-Lite with BFD support
A network node for detecting failures in a Dual Stack Lite (DS-Lite) tunnel, comprising a processor configured to obtain a domain name that identifies a first node, create the DS-Lite tunnel to the first node using the domain name, initiate a first bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) session to the first node, transmit a plurality of BFD data packets within the DS-Lite tunnel, and detect a failure within the DS-Lite tunnel using the BFD data packets.
US09331921B2 Internet connected household identification for online measurement and dynamic content delivery
A method, apparatus, system, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to identify an internet connected household (ICH). An Internet Protocol (IP) address is received at an Internet entity. Determinations are made regarding whether the IP address belongs to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides residential internet service, whether device activity from the IP address does not exceed a defined activity threshold, and whether an IP assignment age for the IP address is greater than a defined threshold age. Based on the determinations, the IP address can be identified as belonging to an ICH or not.
US09331917B2 Integrated production support
Embodiments for integrating production support features are included in systems for receiving modules from a client application associated with an operator device. The embodiments include selecting at least one client module from the received modules, identifying a trace objective for the at least one client module, selecting a data collection level based on the trace objective, and collecting, by a processor, data associated with the at least one client module in response to the selected data collection level. The systems are combinable with additional production support features including event monitoring.
US09331916B1 Data-driven detection of servers and clients
An improved technique involves processing network traffic data to automatically establish whether a device on the network satisfies a particular set of constraints. Along these lines, a SIEM server observes and processes incoming and outgoing traffic data corresponding to a particular device at an address of the network. The SIEM server then analyzes this traffic data in order to determine whether the data satisfies a set of constraints satisfied by a client, or another set of constraints satisfied by a server. The SIEM server then applies the label of “client” or “server” to the device according to which set of constraints the SIEM server determines the data to have satisfied.
US09331914B2 Service specific bandwidth policy configuration in data networks
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for service specific bandwidth policy configuration in a data network (100) comprising a service management server (150), an access node (120) and an intermediate node (130, 140). The methods of the present invention comprise the steps of receiving a message comprising a service configuration for a client device connected to the data network and information regarding the bandwidth policy of the service configuration from the service management server (150). A service according to the information regarding the bandwidth policy of the service configuration is configured in the access node (120) and the intermediate node (130, 140), respectively.
US09331908B2 Specifying priority on a virtual station interface discovery and configuration protocol response
A method implemented by a network component is provided. The method includes receiving a Virtual Station Interface (VSI) Discovery Protocol (VDP) request from an Edge Virtual Bridging (EVB) station and transmitting, to the EVB station, a VDP Response in response to the request. The VDP Response includes a VDP Type-Length-Value (TLV) having a Filter Information field. The Filter Information field is configured to specify a Priority Code Point (PCP) value associated with one or more Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Identifier (VID) values carried by the VDP Response. The PCP value is carried in a PCP field and adopted by the EVB station as a default PCP value associated with the VSI and at least one VID. The Filter Information field further contains a PCP Significant (PS) field associated with each PCP field, and wherein the PS field indicates whether the PCP field carries the PCP value.
US09331907B1 Network traffic monitoring
A first set of bandwidth utilization data comprising a bandwidth utilization for one or more links in a network is determined. Also, a second set of bandwidth utilization data comprising a bandwidth utilization for one or more media paths in the network is determined. At least some of the first set of bandwidth utilization data is compared to at least some of the second set of bandwidth utilization data, thereby providing information useful for monitoring the network.
US09331902B2 Apparatus and method providing unified network management
A unified network management framework enables a network operator to manage an entire network as if the operator is managing a single device.
US09331900B2 Centralized management of access points
Systems and methods are provided for centralized access, control, and management of access points (AP) in a network architecture to facilitate easy and efficient maintenance and monitoring of access points, for example. Systems and methods are also provided for assigning unique identifiers to one or more access points, and use the identifiers through an interface, such as a command line interface (CLI) of an access controller (AC), to manage and monitor the one or more access points through their respective interfaces. System of the present disclosure further enables transitioning from CLI of a first access point to CLI of a second access point without going through AC.
US09331896B2 Server information handling system NFC ticket management and fault storage
Server information handling system deployment and maintenance is enhanced with automated trouble ticket generation at a mobile telephone through an NFC transaction with a management controller. NFC transactions coordinate authorization for replacement component installation and server information handling system replacement. In one embodiment, a bezel includes an NFC device that interfaces with a management controller and stores configuration information to aid installation of replacement server information handling systems in the event of a system failure. A back-up battery provides power to an NFC support circuit that stores fault codes detected by the management controller so that fault codes are available during management controller failures.
US09331895B2 Electronic apparatus and method for controlling electronic device thereof
A method for controlling an electronic device and an electronic apparatus are provided. A position of the electronic apparatus in a spatial area is obtained. A scene of the spatial area where the electronic apparatus is located is displayed in a display unit. A position of a controllable target apparatus included in the scene is obtained by using the position of the electronic apparatus and searching in a target apparatus distribution database of the spatial area, and a relative position of the controllable target apparatus and the electronic apparatus is obtained. According to the obtained position of the controllable target apparatus, an apparatus image layer corresponding to the controllable target apparatus is displayed at a corresponding position of the scene. When the apparatus image layer receives an enabling signal, a controlling command is transmitted to the controllable target apparatus corresponding to the apparatus image layer.
US09331894B2 Information exchange in data center systems
System information may be retrieved by an element manager on a device in a data center system where the element manager detects an application programming interface (API) call to the element manager from a centralized manager. The element manager establishes a two-way communication channel between the first element manager and the centralized manager according to a communications protocol. The element manager queries the centralized manager for data center system information through the two-way communication channel. The centralized manager manages a storage area network containing the device of the element manager.
US09331889B2 Providing access to information of multiple types via coordination of distinct information services
Techniques are described for providing users of client devices with coordinated access to Information and/or functionality of multiple types, such as by using multiple types of connections to multiple information services of distinct types that exchange context information related to activities of the users and/or clients. The client devices can be, for example, wireless devices with multiple distinct modes (e.g., voice and data modes) for different types of connections with different types of servers (e.g., voice servers and data servers). In some situations, coordination between different servers allows multiple distinct interaction sessions of different types with different servers to remain synchronized or otherwise coordinated over time as the user performs interactions via the different sessions. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and is not intended to be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09331880B2 Methods and systems for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) multiple zone partitioning
Aspects of the invention include methods and devices for inserting data and pilot symbols into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) frames having a time domain and a frequency domain. A method involves inserting in at least one zone of a first type a two dimensional array of data and pilot symbols in time and frequency and inserting in at least one zone of a second type a two dimensional array of data and pilot symbols in time and frequency. In some implementations the zone of the first type comprises common pilot symbols that can be detected by all receivers receiving the OFDM frame. In some implementations the zone of the second type comprises dedicated pilot symbols that are only detectable by a receiver that is aware of pre-processing used to encode the dedicated pilot symbols.
US09331869B2 Input/output request packet handling techniques by a device specific kernel mode driver
The input/output request packet (IRP) handling technique includes determining if a received input/output request packet should receive a given handling. If the input/output request packet should receive the given handling, the input/output request packet is dispatched to a device specific dispatch input/output request packet handler. Otherwise, the input/output request packet is redirected to an operating system dispatch input/output request packet handler.
US09331867B2 Virtual networks in a communication system architecture
One or more I/O channels are assigned masks of message types that may pass through the channels, and one or more fields of an outbound message are set to one or more message type. A channel mask of an I/O channel is applied to a type of the outbound message, and if the channel mask matches the type of the outbound message, the outbound message is allowed to pass through the I/O channel to a switch. The outbound message is switched to an output port, and if the channel mask does not match the type of the outbound message, the outbound message is rejected from passing through the I/O channel and the channel mask of a next I/O channel is applied to the type of the outbound message.
US09331852B2 System and method for securing data transaction
A secure messaging channel is necessary especially when the message involves confidential transactions, for example a bank transaction which involves funds transfer and other additional information. The present disclosure describes securing message. The method of securing a message comprises providing a personal identification number by the user, wherein the personal identification number is associated to a unique number of a user. The unique number can be a mobile number. The correct personal identification number invokes the one-time password generator. The one time password generator accesses a metadata which comprises a value stored. The value stored in the metadata is retrieved to generate a dynamic key. The dynamic key is converted to a symmetric encryption key to encrypt the data. The dynamic key can also be converted to a symmetric decryption key to decrypt the data.
US09331851B2 Apparatus and method for giving the compressed encryption functionality to integer-based homomorphic encryption schemes
The present invention relates to a compressed encryption and decryption apparatus comprising: an interface receiving a public key, a secret key and a compression ratio; a memory storing instructions for encryption and decryption of plaintexts; and a processor encrypting and decrypting plaintexts according to the instruction, wherein the instruction comprises instructions performing; generating an extended public key and an extended secret key by revising the public key and the secret key according to the compression ratio; outputting the extended public key; receiving compressed ciphertext; and decrypting the compressed ciphertext using modulo operation for multiplication of the extended secret key and the compressed ciphertext.
US09331849B2 Information setting method and wireless communication system
An information setting method for a setting device includes the following processes. A first certificate and identification information are obtained from a wireless device to be caused to join a wireless network managed by a management device. The first certificate certifies that the wireless device is a formal wireless device and includes a first public key. The identification information is information that identifies the wireless device. A second certificate is obtained from the management device. The second certificate certifies that the management device is a formal management device and includes a second public key. Apparatus information required for the wireless device to join the wireless network is encoded using the first public key and is output to the wireless device. Management information including the apparatus information and the identification information associated with the apparatus information is encoded using the second public key and is output to the management device.
US09331847B2 Countermeasure method and device for protecting data circulating in an electronic component
The disclosure relates to a countermeasure method in an electronic component, wherein binary data are transmitted between binary data storage units, binary data being transmitted in several transmission cycles comprising a first cycle comprising: randomly selecting bits of the data, transmitting the selected bits and transmitting bits, each having a randomly chosen value, instead of transmitting non-selected bits of the data. A last transmission cycle comprises transmitting bits of the data that have not been transmitted during a previous cycle.
US09331842B2 Time synchronization and controlled asynchronization of remote trigger signals
A mechanism is disclosed for transmitting pulses onto respective cables so that the pulses arrive at the remote ends of the respective cables in synchronized (or controllably asynchronized) fashion. First, the round-trip time of flight of each cable is measured using speedy delivery pulses, i.e., pulses whose leading edges have exponential shape. Second, a calculation is performed to determine the input delay(s) between the pulses that would produce desired output delay(s). For example, it may be desirable that the pulses arrive at the respective remote ends at the same time, in which case the desired output delay(s) is (are) zero. Third, the same speedy delivery pulses are transmitted onto the respective cables so that the interpulse delay(s) conform to the computed input delay(s). Thus, the desired output delay(s) are achieved at the remote ends of the cables.
US09331837B2 Method and device for detecting 1588 time error between network elements
A method and a device for detecting a 1588 time error between network elements are disclosed. The method includes: a 1588 time network is established for an entire network; when it is required to detect a 1588 time error between a network element and its opposite network element, the network elements transmit, probe packets, each including a local timestamp to each other; and the network element receiving a probe packet calculates, according to a preset time difference algorithm, a time difference between the local timestamp and the timestamp in the probe packet, determines, according to the time difference, whether there is a failure in a detection path, and reports an alarm when there is a failure in the detection path. The disclosure prevents erroneous time transmission due to the time error, thus ensuring the network stability.
US09331826B2 Method and apparatus for transmitting control information in a wireless communication system
The embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for transmitting control information by a base station in a wireless communication system, wherein the method comprises a step of transmitting a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The downlink control information of the PDCCH may include an indicator indicating whether or not a reference signal is transmitted in a time domain corresponding to the subframe in which the PDCCH is transmitted.
US09331815B2 Transmission device, reception device, transmission method, and reception method
A transmission device for rigorously protecting important information when information is transferred via a best-effort network. In this transmission device, a quality control information retention unit holds quality control information set by a user. A delay amount instruction unit determines the retransmission upper limit frequency of packets for each real-time streaming on the basis of transmission quality information from a reception device and the quality control information held by means of the quality control information retention unit. Retransmission control units accumulate packets during a fixed period in accordance with the retransmission upper limit frequency determined by means of the delay amount instruction unit, and generate retransmission packets in accordance with a retransmission request from the reception device.
US09331811B2 Optical communications networks, optical line terminations and related methods
Wireless communication systems are provided including a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is configured to transmit a first polarized signal and a second polarized signal to the receiver, and in accordance with an instruction from the receiver, halt transmission of the second polarized signal. The receiver is configured to receive the polarized signals from the transmitter, determine whether or not the reception quality of the second polarized signal is below a threshold, and if so, instruct the transmitter to halt transmission of the second polarized signal.
US09331809B2 DWA control in an OLT with decrease in margin of bandwidth utilization caused by bandwidth reallocation minimized
In a TDM/WDM-PON using cyclic sleep, a controller in an OLT calculates the total bandwidth in use for each OSU, and compares the total bandwidth with a threshold. If the calculated bandwidth exceeds the threshold, the controller determines the number of ONUs staying in sleep mode among the ONUs managed by the assignor OSU. If such an ONU exists, that ONU is selected as an ONU whose management is to be changed. From the total bandwidth in use of an assignor OSU from which the management is to be changed, a bandwidth allocated to the ONU which is in sleep mode is subtracted to thereby obtain a bandwidth, which will be compared with the threshold. If the calculated bandwidth exceeds the threshold, from among active ONUs managed by the assignor OSU an ONU whose management is to be changed is selected.
US09331802B2 Identifying scope ESG fragments and enabling hierarchy in the scope
Provided are apparatuses and methods in a digital broadcast transmission system for identifying a desired ESG fragment in a list of ESG fragments. The list of ESG fragments or bootstrap ESG may be created by a designated service provider, operator or other apparatus or system. The bootstrap ESG may contain information on, or refer to, secondary ESG fragments. In addition, the secondary ESG fragments may contain information on, or refer to, other ESG fragments in a hierarchical arrangement. A mobile terminal may identify a desired ESG fragment from the bootstrap ESG by identifying criteria within the bootstrap ESG corresponding to a secondary ESG, for example.
US09331780B1 Systems and methods for adaptive energy utilization of optical interconnection networks
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for an energy efficient communication system. The communication system can include a transmitter, a receiver and a communication link for communicating data between the transmitter and the receiver. In some implementations, the receiver determines a signal quality parameter (SQP) value of the received data, and communicates the SQP value to the transmitter. In some implementations, the transmitter adjusts one or more operational parameters of the transmitter to reduce power based on the received SQP value being less than a threshold value. In some implementations, the receiver also adjusts one or more operational parameters of the receiver based on the SQP value being less than a threshold value. In some implementations, the receiver can communicate the SQP value to the transmitter over out-of-band communication links.
US09331775B2 Method and system for detecting broadcast signals transmitted by terrestrial sources and received by a satellite
A method (50) for detecting broadcast signals, transmitted by terrestrial sources (40) and received by a satellite (20), in individual signals obtained respectively from different individual antennas (24) of an antenna array (22) of the satellite, includes a first detection iteration (51a) and a second detection iteration (51b), each of the first and second detection iterations including a step (52) of forming, from the individual signals, virtual beams of different respective main radiation directions, and a step of searching for the presence of broadcast signals in the virtual beams. Furthermore, for at least one broadcast signal detected during the first detection iteration, the respective contributions of the at least one detected broadcast signal to the different individual signals are attenuated, relative to the first detection iteration, for all or part of the virtual beams formed during the second detection iteration. A system (10) for detecting broadcast signals is also described.
US09331767B1 Translation of basis functions for feedback in a wireless network
An example technique may include transmitting, by a base station to a mobile station, sounding signals via a first set of basis function beams, and receiving, by the base station from the mobile station in response to the transmitting, feedback signals indicating a translated basis-function weighting for one or more basis function beams of the second set of basis function beams, the translated basis-function weighting for one or more basis function beams being based on the first set of basis function beams, wherein the second set of basis function beams is different than the first set of basis function beams.
US09331766B2 Terminal apparatus, feedback control method, base station, pairing control method, program, and wireless communication system
Provided is a terminal apparatus including an estimation unit that estimates a channel to a base station by using a reference signal transmitted from the base station, a selection unit that selects a transmission weight desirable for down-link transmission on the channel from a plurality of transmission weight candidates in accordance with an estimation result by the estimation unit, and a feedback controller that controls feedback of the transmission weight selected by the selection unit to the base station. When the selection unit selects two transmission weights or more, the feedback controller feeds back the selected two transmission weights or more to the base station.
US09331763B2 Communication system, communication method, base station apparatus, and mobile station apparatus
In a communication system in which a plurality base station apparatuses are arranged such that the entirety or part of cells of the plurality of base station apparatuses overlaps with one another, a master base station apparatus calculates transmission weighting coefficients of the base station apparatuses and reception weighting coefficients of mobile station apparatuses such that directions of equivalent channels of interference signals received by the mobile station apparatuses connected to the base station apparatuses become orthogonal to the reception weighting coefficients by which the mobile station apparatuses multiply their respective reception signals. The base station apparatuses transmit the reception weighting coefficients to the mobile station apparatuses connected thereto, and the mobile station apparatuses perform a reception process by multiplying their respective reception signals including the interference signals by the reception weighting coefficients.
US09331761B2 Method and apparatus for coding and interleaving for very high throughput wireless communications
A wireless transmitter can include a plurality of bandwidth modules, each bandwidth module processing data based on a predetermined frequency band. In one embodiment, such a wireless transmitter can include encoding components for receiving transmit data and generating encoded data. A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) stream parser can receive the encoded data and generate a plurality of MIMO streams. A first module parser coupled to a first MIMO stream can generate a first plurality of partial MIMO streams. A first bandwidth module can include a first interleaver that interleaves bits of the first partial MIMO stream and generates first interleaved data. A second bandwidth module can include a second interleaver that interleaves bits of the second partial MIMO stream and generates second interleaved data. A first inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) unit can combine and process the first and second interleaved data and generate a first transmission MIMO stream.
US09331760B2 Method and apparatus for leveraging spatial/location/user interaction sensors to aid in transmit and receive-side beamforming in a directional wireless network
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus is embodied in a device that determines a first set of antenna weights for communicating a first communication ray, detects a change in a physical orientation of the device, determines a mapping between the first set of antenna weights, the detected change in the physical orientation, and a second set of antenna weights for communicating a second communication ray, communicates the second communication ray based on the second set of antenna weights.
US09331759B2 HARQ timing design for a TDD system
Disclosed are methods and apparatuses related to receiving one or more indications of time division duplex (TDD) uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configurations for two consecutive radio frames. Based on the indications of the TDD UL/DL configurations, a reference TDD UL/DL configuration may be identified for one or more Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) processes.
US09331752B2 Memory including wireless communication capability
A memory includes a control layer that includes a first radio communication unit that performs radio communication and a control unit that controls the radio communication; and a memory layer that includes a second radio communication unit that performs the radio communication with the first radio communication unit and a first storage unit that stores information, the memory layer being provided on the control layer.
US09331745B2 Electronic device and communication system for mediating establishment of communication between plurality of communication devices
An electronic device includes a communication unit configured to communicate with a first communication device or a second communication device, and a controller configured to control the communication through the communication unit. When the electronic device is brought close to the first communication device, the controller obtains identification information indicating the first communication device from the first communication device, and when the electronic device is brought close to the second communication device, the controller transmits the identification information and predetermined additional information to the second communication device. The second communication device activates an operation for establishing communication with the first communication device indicated by the identification information, when receiving the identification information and the predetermined additional information.
US09331744B2 Methods and apparatus for improving collision resolution among multiple NFC-A devices
Aspects disclosed herein relate to providing an improved collision resolution mechanism for handling multiple NFC-A devices where one or more of the NFC-A devices may not support SDD. In one example, a communications device is equipped to determine that a remote NFC device of two or more remote NFC devices supports SDD, resolve the remote NFC device of the two or more remote NFC devices using SDD, and determine whether a remaining remote NFC device of the two or more remote NFC devices supports SDD. In an aspect in which the remaining remote NFC device does not support SDD, the communications device may be equipped to set a flag indicating that unresolved remote NFC devices are present and/or send a read identifier (RID) message to the remaining remote NFC device.
US09331741B2 Power line communication system and control method thereof
A power line communication system includes a power distribution device connected to two power lines, a plurality of power line communication devices and a first coupler device electrically connected between the first power line and the second power line. The first coupler device is configured at the last end of the power line communication system. Before a transmitting device transmits data to a receiving device, the first coupler device determines whether to couple the power lines with each other according a first signal quality between the transmitting and the receiving device when the power lines are not coupled with each other and a second signal quality between the transmitting and the receiving device when the power lines are coupled with each other.
US09331740B2 Device suppressing common-mode radiation
The present invention provides a device for suppressing common-mode radiation comprising: at least one resonator embedded into a plate, wherein the at least one resonator defines a plane having a normal direction parallel and perpendicular, respectively, to a longitudinal direction and a thickness direction of the plate. The embedment of the resonator into the plate enables a magnetic field, which is generated by a cable conductor when the device for suppressing common-mode radiation wraps the cable conductor therein, to perpendicularly pass through the plane so that the magnetic field and the resonator resonate together to generate a strong diamagnetism and thereby to suppress the common-mode radiation.
US09331729B2 Mobile terminal test device and mobile terminal test method
A frequency variation provider gives a predetermined frequency variation when a situation in which a mobile terminal approaches or is separated from a base station is simulated to a downlink (DL) signal which is transmitted to a mobile terminal by a transmitting unit. A receiving unit receives an uplink (UL) signal output from the mobile terminal which has received the DL signal and converts the UL signal into a baseband signal. A frequency variation detector detects a frequency variation of the UL signal from the baseband signal. A frequency corrector corrects the frequency of a local signal which is used by the receiving unit to obtain the baseband signal, on the basis of the detected frequency variation. A variation characteristic display displays the characteristics of the frequency variation of the UL signal transmitted from the mobile terminal on a display unit.
US09331727B2 Method and apparatus for processing signal interference
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and an apparatus for processing signal interference, including: splitting a first self-interference signal into at least two same sub self-interference signals, adjusting amplitudes and phases of the sub self-interference signals to obtain adjusted sub-signals, superposing the adjusted sub-signals and received signals, to obtain superposed sub-signals, filtering the superposed sub-signals by using filters of corresponding channels, to obtain wanted sub-signals, and merging each of the wanted sub-signals to obtain a complete wanted signal. Because received signals are separately filtered by using n different channels, it can be implemented that a self-interference signal can be effectively filtered out on each frequency band.
US09331726B2 Method for locating defective points in a high frequency (HF) signal transmission path
A method for locating defects in a signal transmission path by generating an HF signal having a frequency f1 and a signal modulated by a predetermined type of modulation; generating a HF signal 2 having a frequency f2; generating an intermodulation product in the form of an intermodulation product signal having frequency fIM-GENERATED from HF signals 1 and 2; introducing the HF signals 1 and 2 into the signal transmission path at an introduction point; receiving an intermodulation product from the HF signals 1 and 2 at a defective point and reflected back and corresponding to the generated intermodulation product, in the form of an intermodulation product signal; determining a time lag tx between the generated intermodulation product signal and the received intermodulation product signal by a cross-correlation and calculation of a length L between the introduction point and the place of signal reflection, from the time lag tx.
US09331717B2 Forward error correction decoding avoidance based on predicted code block reliability
A method and device for performing forward error (FEC) correction avoidance based upon predicted block code reliability in a communications device is provided. An avoidance unit comprising a metric computation unit and a decision unit generates a reliability metric based upon a received code block. The reliability metric is compared to a reliability threshold, and the forward error correction decoder in the communications device is disabled if the metric is below or equal to the threshold.
US09331714B1 Circuit structure and method for high-speed forward error correction
One embodiment relates a method of receiving data from a multi-lane data link. The data is encoded with an FEC code having a block length. The data is FEC decoded at a bus width which is specified within particular constraints. One constraint is that the FEC decoder bus width in bits is an exact multiple of a number of bits per symbol in the data. Another constraint may be that the FEC code block length is an exact multiple of the FEC decoder bus width. Another constraint may be that the FEC decoder bus width is an exact multiple of a number of serial lanes of the multi-lane interface. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.
US09331710B1 Method and apparatus for encoding digital data into an oversampling digital to analog converter
A method for an oversampling digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes oversampling M-bit binary data to provide N-bit oversampled binary data, wherein M and N are integers and N is greater than M, encoding the N-bit oversampled binary data to provide 2(N-1)-bit thermometer code data and a sign bit, shuffling the 2(N-1)-bit thermometer code data to provide 2(N-1)-bit shuffled data, converting the 2(N-1)-bit shuffled data and the sign bit to an analog output signal, and smoothing the analog signal to provide a smoothed analog output signal.
US09331709B2 Analog-to-digital converter
An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) system and method. The ADC system in accord with one embodiment includes a sampling digital-to-analog converter configured to sample a combination of an analog signal value and an analog dither value, and a control circuit comprising a mismatch-shaping encoder. The control circuit is configured to sequentially apply a plurality of digital codes to the sampling digital-to-analog converter during an analog-to-digital conversion operation to derive a digital code representing the combination of the analog signal value and the analog dither value. Several embodiments are presented.
US09331704B2 Apparatus and method for generating an oscillating output signal
An apparatus for generating an oscillating output signal includes an inductive-capacitive (LC) circuit and a current tuning circuit. The LC circuit includes a primary inductor and a varactor coupled to the primary inductor. A capacitance of the varactor is responsive to a voltage at a control input of the varactor. The current tuning circuit includes a secondary inductor and a current driving circuit coupled to the secondary inductor. The current driving circuit is responsive to a current at a control input of the current driving circuit. An effective inductance of the primary inductor is adjustable via magnetic coupling to the secondary inductor, and a frequency of the oscillating output signal is responsive to the effective inductance of the primary inductor and to the capacitance of the varactor.
US09331702B2 Apparatuses and methods for compensating for power supply sensitivities of a circuit in a clock path
Apparatuses and methods for compensating for differing power supply sensitivities of a circuit in a clock path. One such method includes altering signal timing of at least one of reference and feedback clock signals differently according to variations in power supply voltage to compensate for differences in delay power supply sensitivities of delays of a forward clock path and of a feedback clock path. Another example method includes providing an output clock signal in phase with an input clock signal and compensating for delay error between delays used in providing at least some of the delay of the output clock signal relative to the input clock signal by providing delays having power supply sensitivities resulting in a combined power supply sensitivity that is inverse to the delay error.
US09331701B1 Receivers and methods of enabling the calibration of circuits receiving input data
A data interface enabling the calibration of input data comprises a first data receiver having a first plurality of input data lines coupled to receive a corresponding first plurality of data bits associated with a data bus, the first data receiver having a first control circuit enabling calibration of the first plurality of input data lines; and a second data receiver having a second plurality of input data lines coupled to receive a corresponding second plurality of data bits associated with the data bus, the second data receiver having a second control circuit enabling calibration of the second plurality of data lines. The first plurality of input data lines of the first data receiver are calibrated in parallel with the second plurality of input data lines of the second data receiver.
US09331691B2 Control unit, in particular for a vehicle component
The control unit, in particular for a vehicle component, is provided with a manually actuable control element (12) for selecting and optionally for activating a control function, wherein the control element (12) can be moved manually into a selection and/or trigger position for selecting and optionally for activating a control function. In addition, the control unit has a capacitive tactile sensor (41) for identifying manual touching contact with the control element (12) and optionally identifying the event of a hand approaching the control element (12), wherein the tactile sensor (41) has a first and a second electrode (38, 40), which have electrode sides which substantially face one another and are spaced apart from one another. The first electrode (38) is arranged on the control element (12). The second electrode (40) is arranged immovably. The two electrodes (38, 40) extend with respect to one of the two dimensions thereof spanning the electrode sides parallel to the direction of the relative movement of the two electrodes (38, 40), said relative movement being performed as the control element (12) is moved manually into the selection and/or trigger position, wherein the size of the overlapping areas (34, 36) of the opposing electrode sides, which overlapping areas are provided during the relative movement of the two electrodes (38, 40), remains substantially the same.
US09331684B2 Semiconductor device for sensing physical quantity
A semiconductor device 3 for sensing a physical quantity adjusts the output characteristic of a pressure sensor, for example, based on trimming data stored in an EPROM 34. A comparator 311 compares an input voltage given to a terminal 43 and a predetermined reference voltage, and delivers a write control signal for EPROM 34. When the comparator 311 delivers a Low signal for the EPROM 34, a first gate circuit 312 provided between the terminal 43 and a temperature sensor 32 connects the terminal 43 and the temperature sensor 32. A second gate circuit 313 provided between the terminal 43 and a pull-down resistor 314 disconnects the terminal 43 and the pull-down resistor 314. The operational voltage of the temperature sensor 32 is lower than the reference voltage, and the terminal 43 is used as an output terminal for the temperature sensor 32.
US09331681B2 System and method for gaussian random noise generation
In accordance with an embodiment, a method of generating noise includes generating, using a hardware-based noise generator, a plurality of periodic waveforms having different frequencies, weighting, using the hardware-based noise generator, amplitudes of the plurality of periodic waveforms based on a predetermined spectral shape to form a plurality of weighted waveforms, and summing the plurality of plurality of weighted waveforms to form an output random noise signal.
US09331678B2 Local oscillator signal generation
A local oscillator signal generation circuit for a frequency divider circuit is disclosed. The local oscillator signal generation circuit includes a delay device adapted to delay a data signal according to a control signal, a data flip-flop having the delayed data signal provided to its data input terminal and a reference clocking signal provided to its clock input terminal and a control circuit adapted to generate first and second partially overlapping pulse windows from the delayed data signal and to generate a control signal based on the first and second partially overlapping pulse windows and the reference clocking signal. The control signal is provided to the delay device to control the amount by which the data signal is delayed so that the data signal is stable when it is sampled by the data flip-flop. A local oscillator signal is derived from the output of the data flip-flop.
US09331670B1 Gamma boosting unit (GBU) for hybrid load and source pull
A hybrid load pull tuner system uses a combination of a passive and active tuner system. A closed loop system means that the system is independent of the available power of the device under test (DUT). The proposed hybrid system is formed around a closed loop Gamma Boosting Unit (GBU) consisting of two back to back broadband directional couplers, broadband variable time-delay, broadband variable phase-shifter and a broadband microwave amplifier, all inserted in the coupled path of the couplers; the GBU is connected in cascade with a passive tuner and boosts its reflection factor; for this the amplifier must have enough linear power and gain to match the difference between the power reflected back to the DUT by the passive tuner and the desired total reflected power to reach the expected Gamma, considering coupling loss and insertion loss of the test fixture.
US09331659B2 Integrated circuit architecture with strongly coupled LC tanks
An integrated circuit for a radio frequency (RF) circuit such as a voltage controlled oscillator or an injection locked frequency divider is provided. The integrated circuit architecture includes a primary LC tank circuit comprising a first inductor and a first capacitive device connected in parallel and one or more secondary LC tank circuits, each comprising an inductor and a capacitive device connected in parallel. Each of the one or more secondary LC tank circuits is strongly coupled to the primary LC tank circuit and to each other either electrically, magnetically or a combination of electrically and magnetically.
US09331658B2 Filter circuit
A filter circuit includes an antenna-side circuit, a transmission-side circuit, a reception-side circuit, and an external connection capacitor. The antenna-side circuit is connected to an antenna-side terminal. The transmission-side circuit is connected to a transmission-side terminal and the antenna-side circuit. The reception-side circuit is connected to a reception-side terminal, the antenna-side circuit, and ground. The external connection capacitor is connected between an external control terminal and a connection point between the antenna-side circuit and the reception-side circuit. The antenna-side circuit and the transmission-side circuit constitute a low pass filter. The antenna-side circuit and the reception-side circuit constitute a band pass filter. The reception-side circuit includes an LC parallel resonant circuit.
US09331653B2 Apparatus and methods for envelope shaping in power amplifier systems
Apparatus and methods for envelope shaping in power amplifier systems are provided. In certain implementations, a power amplifier system includes a modulator for generating a RF signal, a power amplifier for amplifying the RF signal, a gain control circuit for controlling the gain of the power amplifier, and an envelope tracking system for controlling a voltage level of the power amplifier's supply voltage based on an envelope signal corresponding to the RF signal's envelope. The gain control circuit includes a gain adjustment table, and the envelope tracking system includes an envelope shaping circuit including an isodistortion table. The isodistortion table can be used to map the envelope signal to a shaped envelope signal so as to maintain a substantially constant distortion in the system's transmit and/or receive bands across the envelope signal's range.
US09331650B2 Audio system
An audio system includes a channel (10) for processing signals. The channel (10) includes a processing module (50) that follows a chain of modules (40) wherein the chain (40) includes a preceding processing module (45). The following processing module (50) is coupled to the preceding processing module (45) in the chain of modules (40) for receiving the output signal (25). The channel (10) further includes a combiner (60). The combiner (60) has two inputs, a first input (65) receives the signal (30) to be processed in the channel (10), and a second input (70) receives a reference signal (75). The combiner (60) further includes an output (80) coupled to an input of the preceding processing module (45) in the chain (40). By coupling a combination of the signal (30) to be processed and the reference signal (75) to the input (55) of the preceding processing module (45) in the chain (40) and by having a correction signal (90) from the processing unit (85) generated in response to a modification of the reference signal (75) in the output signal (25) of the preceding processing module (45) in the chain (40), the amount and type of processing in the preceding processing module (45) in the chain (40) can be estimated in the processing unit (85) and be corrected for in the following processing module (50).
US09331642B2 Monolithic transistor circuits with tapered feedback resistors, RF amplifier devices, and methods of manufacture thereof
Embodiments of an integrated resistor may be incorporated into monolithic transistor circuits and packaged RF amplifier devices. An embodiment of an integrated resistor includes a semiconductor substrate and a resistor formed over the top surface of the semiconductor substrate from resistive material. The resistor includes at least first and second resistive sections. The first resistive section is tapered so that the first resistive section widens toward an input end of the resistor. The second resistive section is coupled in series with the first resistive section. According to a further embodiment, the second resistive section also is tapered so that the second resistive section widens toward an output end of the resistor. According to another further embodiment, a third resistive section with one or more meanders is coupled in series between the first and second resistive sections.
US09331639B2 Power amplification circuit and power amplification module
It is possible to increase linearity in a power amplification circuit. A power amplification circuit includes a first amplification element which amplifies and outputs an input signal with a gain according to the level of the input signal and the level of a bias voltage, a second amplification element which has the same gain characteristic as the first amplification element and amplifies and outputs the input signal, and a variable bias voltage generation circuit which generates a bias voltage decreasing with an increase in level of an output signal of the second amplification element.
US09331633B1 System and method for eliminating intermodulation
A system for adaptively eliminating intermods from a spectrum generated by combining two or more signals in a component or circuit includes a sampler for sampling an output signal of the component or circuit, a signal source for generating a conversion signal having a frequency matched to a target intermod of the spectrum, and a cancellation circuit to generate a cancellation phasor. The cancellation circuit is configured to receive the generated conversion signal and the sampled output signal and generate a cancellation phasor therefrom having a phase and amplitude configured to cancel the target intermod. A combining network can combine the cancellation phasor into the component or circuit to cancel the target intermod from the spectrum.
US09331630B2 Outside wall cladding element and an outside wall provided with such an outside wall cladding element
Disclosed is an outside wall cladding element for cladding an outside wall (6). The outside wall cladding element includes a structure (1) of a panel-shaped material and fastening elements to be mounted on the outside wall, in which the panel-shaped material includes a zigzag or wave-shaped element (1), and is provided with a bottom side (4) and a top side (5), in which the bottom side and the top side of the zigzag-shaped element make an angle δ (delta) with one another which is in a range between 50 to 130 degrees, and in which a side (4) includes a light-absorbing layer and another side (5) includes a light-reflecting layer.
US09331627B2 Control apparatus for AC motor
According to a control apparatus for an AC motor, a switching section selects a two-phase control current value as a current fixing value, when a first current detection value of a first phase of the AC motor and a second current detection value of a second phase of the AC motor are normal. The switching section selects an one-phase control current value, which is calculated based on a normal phase current detection value, which is a value of a normal phase and is one of the first and second current detection values, as the current fixing value, when an abnormality is detected in part of the first and second current detection values, and a predetermined period has elapsed from the detection of the abnormality.
US09331622B2 Method and control system for suppression of vibration
A method for suppression of vibration includes: adjusting a center frequency of a band-pass filter, and subjecting a to-be-detected signal to processing by the band-pass filter to result in a bandpass-filtered signal; performing signal processing upon the bandpass-filtered signal to obtain a converted result; determining whether a scanning process is completed, and repeating the previous two steps when a result is negative to obtain plural converted results; determining a maximum value among the converted results, and determining the corresponding center frequency to serve as an interference frequency; and setting the interference frequency as an operating frequency of a notch filter.
US09331617B2 Circuit and method for speed monitoring of an electric motor
A method for determining a phase angle between voltage applied to a winding of the electric motor and an electric current flowing through the winding may include receiving a signal from the electric motor, including a value of a voltage applied to a winding of the electric motor. The method may also include determining a value of an electric current flowing through the winding and determining a phase angle between the voltage applied to the winding and the electric current flowing through the winding. The method may also include determining a speed or a stall state of the electric motor.
US09331599B2 Multilevel electric power converter
There is described a multilevel electric power converter circuit comprising: Ns switching elements connected in series in a closed loop; NAE additional elements, the additional elements being one of a direct current source and at least one passive element, connected within the closed loop such that each additional element is connected to four of the switching elements, the ratio of a number of additional elements NAE to a number of switching elements NS corresponding to NS=2NAE+2; and one of a load and an alternating current source connected across the closed loop at nodes between adjacent switching elements that are separate from nodes to which the additional elements are connected.
US09331591B2 Primary-side burst mode control scheme for LLC converters
An LLC converter having a primary side burst control circuit, and a secondary side regulator circuit. The primary side burst control circuit has an inner feedback loop circuit for adjusting the LLC operating frequency to control the power drawn by the LLC converter proportional to an optical feedback signal.
US09331586B2 Sampling for dimmer edge detection in power converter
A controller and a method for controlling a power converter includes a sample block coupled to generate a first, second, and third sample by sampling an input sense signal that is representative of an input voltage of the power converter. An enable signal is asserted when a first difference between the first sample and the second sample exceeds a first threshold. An edge signal is asserted when both the enable signal is asserted and a second difference between the first sample and the third sample exceeds a second threshold. A drive circuit is coupled to output a drive signal in response to the edge signal. The drive signal is for controlling a switch coupled to regulate an output of the power converter.
US09331583B2 Switch mode power supply, control circuit and associated control method
A switch mode power supply having an output terminal configured to provide an output voltage, the switch mode power supply has a first switch and a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to provide a switching control signal to control the first switch. The control circuit is configured to provide the switching control signal based on a first pulse signal having a first frequency and a second frequency for a light load condition, and the control circuit is configured to provide the switching control signal based on a second pulse signal for a non-light load condition.
US09331582B2 Volt-second integration cable compensation circuit
A power converter (such as a battery charger) includes a cable configured to deliver a source voltage and current to a load, where the cable is anticipated to drop some voltage as the load current increases. The power converter also includes a regulator having a feedback-adjusting transistor configured to gradually compensate for the dropped cable voltage as the load current increases. The transistor has a gate capacitance and a resistance forming an integrator configured to filter a volt-second product of an output waveshape of the converter to derive an average voltage correlated to the load current as the load current increases. The regulator is configured to increase a gate voltage of the transistor through a threshold region of the transistor and gradually turn the transistor on. The transistor is configured to apply an adjusting resistance coupled to a feedback sensing node of the regulator to increase the source voltage to compensate for the cable voltage drop and improve the load voltage regulation.
US09331573B2 Circuit and method for controlling a switching transistor of a switching regulator
A control circuit for controlling a switching transistor of a switching regulator includes a hysteresis comparator circuit comparing a feedback voltage according to an output signal of the switching regulator with a reference voltage and a threshold voltage and outputting a pulse width modulation signal as an output signal of the hysteresis comparator circuit, where the threshold voltage has a hysteresis according to the pulse width modulation signal. The control circuit further includes a driver driving the switching transistor based on the pulse width modulation signal, a phase comparator generating a phase difference signal based on a phase difference between a reference clock signal and a pulse signal corresponding to the pulse width modulation signal, and a loop filter generating a control voltage by filtering the phase difference signal. The hysteresis comparator circuit is further configured to control a response speed thereof depending on the control voltage.
US09331567B2 Systems and methods for reducing electromagnetic interference using switching frequency jittering
System and method are provided for regulating a power converter. The system includes a signal processing component configured to receive a first input signal and a second input signal, process information associated with the first input signal and the second input signal, and output a drive signal to a switch based on at least information associated with the first input signal and the second input signal. The first input signal is associated with at least a feedback signal related to an output voltage of the power converter. The second input signal is associated with at least a primary current flowing through a primary winding of the power converter. The signal processing component is further configured to change a peak value of the primary current within a first predetermined range, and change the switching frequency of the power converter within a second predetermined range.
US09331556B2 Brush motor and cooling fan incorporating the motor
A brush motor includes a stator and a rotor. The stator includes multiple magnets attached to an inner surface of a stator housing and a brush assembly fixed relative to the housing. The rotor includes a rotor core and a commutator located in a receiving space defined by a mounting portion and an annular sidewall of the rotor core. The commutator includes multiple conductive segments, each of which has a leg penetrating the rotor core and connected with windings on the rotor core.
US09331554B2 System and method for controlling motor
Provided are a system for controlling a motor and a method thereof. The system includes: a data storage unit in which data relating to a thermal equivalent circuit of the motor is stored; a temperature measuring unit which measures a temperature of a cooling medium which enters a cooling flow path portion; a rotation speed measuring unit which measures a rotation speed of a rotor; a driving electric current measuring unit which measures a driving electric current of the motor; a permanent magnet temperature estimating unit which estimates a temperature of the permanent magnet portion of the rotor; and a driving controller controls driving of the motor.
US09331553B2 Systems and methods for direct winding cooling of electric machines
A system and method for cooling electric machines using direct winding heat exchangers (DWHX) is disclosed. The system can comprise a plurality of DWHXs disposed in thermal communication with a plurality of copper windings in the stator of an electric machine for cooling the plurality of copper windings. The plurality of DWHXs can also be in fluid communication with one or more fluid manifolds for providing coolant to the plurality of DWHXs. The one or more manifolds can be in fluid communication with one or more heat reservoirs for rejecting the heat absorbed by the plurality of DWHXs. The heat reservoir can be an internal system radiator or an infinite reservoir such as a cooling pond. The method can comprise a design tool for optimizing a DWHX cooling system utilizing the internal system radiator or an infinite reservoir, among other things.
US09331546B2 In-wheel motor and in-wheel driving device
An in-wheel motor includes: a motor rotor installed inside a wheel of a vehicle; and a plurality of motor stators installed on the circumference of the motor rotor so as to be separated from each other, and forming magnetic fields to rotate the motor rotor.
US09331541B2 Motor structure
A motor structure includes a first silicon steel seat, at least one insulation support and a second silicon steel seat. The first silicon steel seat has a receiving space. The insulation support is disposed in the receiving space. The insulating support has a winding section. A first protection wall section and a second protection wall section are respectively formed on two sides of the winding section. The second protection wall section is formed with multiple through holes. Two ends of the second protection wall section are respectively formed with a first channel and a second channel. The second silicon steel seat is assembled and connected with the second protection wall section. The manufacturing cost of the motor structure is lowered and the manufacturing process of the motor structure is simplified.
US09331529B2 Actuator
An actuator includes: a coil; a permanent magnet rotor secured to and rotatably supported by an output shaft inside the coil; a bobbin made of a non-magnetic material and around which the coil is wound; a first stator inserted into and secured to the bobbin in one direction, and including an inner magnetic pole portion and an outer magnetic pole portion extending inside and outside the coil in an axial direction of the rotor, respectively; and a second stator inserted into and secured to the bobbin in a direction opposite to the one direction, and including an inner magnetic pole portion and an outer magnetic pole portion extending inside and outside the coil in the axial direction of the rotor, respectively.
US09331527B2 System and method for transferring electric energy to a vehicle using segments of a conductor arrangement which can be operated independently
A system and method for transferring electric energy to a vehicle includes at least one electric conductor arrangement for producing an alternating electromagnetic field and for transferring electromagnetic energy to the vehicle. The conductor arrangement includes a plurality of segments, each extending along a section of the path of travel of the vehicle and including one line for each phase of alternating current carried by the segment to produce the electromagnetic field. A plurality of source units connected in parallel provide the alternating current to the segment and a current supply conducts electrical energy to the plurality of source units. At least a first source unit is connectable to each segment of a first set of at least two segments of the at least one conductor arrangement. Each neighboring segment of the first set of segments is exclusively connectable to another source unit.
US09331522B2 Backup power supplying device having programmable current-balancing control
A backup power supplying device having programmable current-balancing control includes at least two power modules connected in parallel. The power module includes a power converter, a current sensing component, a potential tuner, a microprocessor, a current-balancing control circuit and an output voltage controller. The current sensing component senses an output current of the power converter to generate a current sensing signal. The microprocessor controls the potential tuner to generate a tuning signal, and receives a mode signal to control the power module to operate in a power supply or sleep mode. The current-balancing control circuit receives the current sensing signal, the tuning signal and the mode signal. When the power module operates in the sleep mode, an output voltage of the power converter is a sleep voltage; a voltage level of the sleep voltage is lower than a voltage level of a supply voltage by a predetermined voltage value.
US09331518B2 Adaptive multi-pathway wireless power transfer
Adaptive multi-pathway wireless charging is described. In one aspect, embodiments enable one or more wireless charging pathways to be established concurrently in a wireless charging environment. The wireless charging pathways use same or different frequencies, powers, wireless power transfer (WPT) standards, and WPT configurations. Embodiments for adaptively configuring wireless charging based on detected events or changes in WPT characteristics are also provided.
US09331517B2 Electronic device, method, and storage medium
An electronic device includes a first unit that wirelessly receives power from a power supply apparatus, and a control unit that executes control, if an external apparatus, including a second unit that wirelessly receives power from the power supply apparatus, and the electronic device are connected, to select at least one of the first unit and the second unit.
US09331513B2 Adaptive surface concentration battery charging
Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system that adaptively charges a battery, wherein the battery is a lithium-ion battery which includes a transport-limiting electrode, an electrolyte separator and a non-transport-limiting electrode. To charge the battery, the system first determines a lithium surface concentration at an interface between the transport-limiting electrode and the electrolyte separator. Next, the system uses the determined lithium surface concentration to control a charging process for the battery so that the charging process maintains the lithium surface concentration within set limits.
US09331510B2 Protective circuit, battery charger, and power storage device
A low-power protective circuit includes a detection unit that intermittently detects a voltage across a secondary battery; a battery management unit that includes a buffer memory device and a processor and determines, based on a value of the voltage, whether the secondary battery needs to be charged; a switch circuit that establishes or breaks electrical continuity between a host system and the secondary battery; a switch control unit that turns on or off the switch circuit in accordance with the judgment made by the battery management unit; a switch that controls supply of power supply voltage from the secondary battery to the battery management unit; and a power controller that intermittently stops supply of the power supply voltage to the battery management unit by turning off the switch.
US09331508B2 Electronic device capable of testing USB cable and method for testing USB cable
The present disclosure provides a method for testing a USB cable applied in an electronic device. The electronic device includes a battery charged by a charger via the USB cable. The method can include determining at least two different values of charging currents. The method can further include generating a first control signal according to the determined values of charging currents. Sending the first control signal to the charger via the USB cable, to inform the charger to respectively charge the battery by charging currents with the determined values. Detecting values of at least two voltages output to the battery. Comparing a calculated variation degree between the detected values of voltages with a preset variation degree. Generating a first type of message according to a compared result between the calculated variation degree and the preset variation degree.
US09331501B2 Multi-cell thin film microbattery array
A rechargeable thin film microbattery cell array of at least four thin film microbattery cells is electrically connected together in parallel to provide power as a single battery power source. The array further comprises testing logic to determine if a microbattery cell has a microbattery cell voltage that is more than a predetermined percentage different from the voltage of the overall microbattery cell array or has an absolute voltage below a predetermined cutoff threshold, and logic to disconnect any microbattery cell from the microbattery cell array if the microbattery cell has a microbattery cell voltage that is more than a predetermined percentage different from the voltage of the overall microbattery cell array or has an absolute voltage below a predetermined cutoff threshold. Embodiments also comprise a Switch Capacitor DC-DC downconverter component that reduces the voltage potential to operate some or all functionalities located on the integrated circuit.
US09331498B2 Power generation system that provides efficient battery charger selection
Some embodiments relate to a power generation system. The power generation system includes a first generator and a first battery charger. The first battery charger is adapted to charge a first battery and a second battery. The first battery and the second battery are each adapted to provide power to start the first generator. The power generation system further includes a controller that determines a state of charge for each of the first battery and the second battery. Based on the state of charge for each of the first battery and the second battery, the controller determines which of the first battery and the second battery receives charging current from the first battery charger.
US09331491B2 Systems configured to transmit optical power signals transdermally out of a living subject, and devices and methods
In an embodiment, a system includes an internal optical power transmitter configured to be disposed within a living subject. The internal optical power transmitter includes a power source configured to provide electrical energy and an electrical-optical converter operably coupled to the power source. The electrical-optical converter may be configured to convert at least a portion of the electrical energy into one or more optical power signals transdermally transmittable out of the living subject. The system further includes an external optical-electrical converter configured to convert the one or more optical power signals into one or more electrical power signals and at least one external device configured to be operably coupled to the external optical-electrical converter and powered by the one or more electrical power signals. Embodiments of methods, biocompatible electrical-optical converters, and internal optical power transmitters are also disclosed.
US09331486B2 Method and apparatus for detecting islanding conditions of a distributed grid
An exemplary method and apparatus for detecting islanding conditions of a distributed grid are disclosed, wherein transfer of power through a power electrical unit is controlled on the basis of a control reference. The apparatus includes a first stage and a second stage performing a respective portion of the method. The first stage injects a reactive component to the control reference, and, for at least one electrical quantity of the grid, determines a change in the quantity induced by the injected component, and determines, on the basis of the change in the electrical quantity, whether to move to the second stage of the method. The second stage, for at least one electrical quantity of the grid, determines a value of the electrical quantity, forms a positive feedback term using at the determined value adding a positive feedback term to the control reference, determines a change in an electrical quantity induced by the feedback term, and determines islanding condition on the basis of the change in the quantity induced by the feedback term.
US09331484B2 Systems and methods of controlling battery deterioration by controlling battery temperature during power exchange
A power exchange controller adjusts a power exchange between a plurality of batteries and an upper authority to control deterioration of a state-of-health of each of the plurality of batteries at an equivalent rate. The power exchange controller is operable to receive a total power demand from the upper authority and each of the plurality of batteries connected to a charging station and adjust the power exchange between the upper authority and each of the plurality of batteries by detecting a battery temperature of each of the plurality of batteries and determining the power exchange with each of the plurality of batteries based on the total power demand and an equalized temperature determined from each battery temperature. Each power exchange is determined so that the battery temperature of each of the plurality of batteries during the power exchange is adjusted to the equalized temperature.
US09331480B2 Variable topology distributed intelligence for utility grid control operation services
In one embodiment, a grid service controller receives advertisements from one or more grid service devices that indicate one or more grid control operations for which a corresponding grid service device is capable, and also maintains state and locality of the grid service devices. In response to receiving a request from a grid device for a particular grid control operation, the grid service controller may then direct the grid device to a particular grid service device capable of providing the particular grid control operation for the grid device based on the state and locality of the grid service devices, accordingly.
US09331479B2 Sensor device
A sensor device has a sensor unit, a control unit; and multiple power supply paths from a power supply to the sensor unit and the control unit. The multiple power supply paths are configured to be switched in accordance with an operation status of the sensor unit. The sensor device further has a wireless communication device for transmitting a measurement result of the sensor unit. The multiple power supply paths are provided to supply power from the power supply to the wireless communication device. The multiple power supply paths are configured to be switched in accordance with an operation status of the wireless communication device.
US09331473B2 Fault detecting device for an electricity supply
A fault detecting device having a plurality of supply conductors, including a first current transformer having a primary winding comprising at least two supply conductors and a secondary winding into which a current is induced in response to a fault current in the primary winding. A fault detection circuit connects the secondary winding to an electromechanical actuator having mechanical contacts in the supply conductors, the fault detection circuit generating an output signal to the actuator when an induced current is detected in the secondary winding, the output signal causing the actuator to open the mechanical contacts. The device further includes a second current transformer having a primary winding connected to an oscillator and a secondary winding comprising at least one supply conductor, the second current transformer arranged to induce an oscillating current into the at least one supply conductor in the event of a fault condition.
US09331467B2 Lightning protection and grounding device for vehicle
The present invention relates to a lightning protection and grounding device for a vehicle including: a dipole lightning rod mounted on the vehicle to in advance remove the focusing of an electric field of a lightning strike and to induce the discharge of lightning current when the lightning strike is induced thereto; grounding means disposed on earth to allow the lightning current of the lightning strike induced to the dipole lightning rod to flow to the earth, the ground means being formed of a flat plate disposed behind the rear wheels of the vehicle in such a manner as to be fixed compressedly to earth by means of the driving pressure of the rear wheels; and a connection terminal box adapted to connect the dipole lightning rod and the grounding means with each other.
US09331457B2 Semiconductor laser apparatus
A semiconductor laser apparatus, including: a beam divergence angle correction optical system for correcting a divergence angle of beams generated from light emitting points of a semiconductor laser bar; a beam rotation optical system for rotating the beams each having the corrected divergence angle; a wavelength dispersion optical element having a wavelength dispersion function; and a partial reflection mirror. A relative position of the beam divergence angle correction optical system with respect to the light emitting point in a divergence angle correction direction is changed for each light emitting point.
US09331451B2 Pump radiation arrangement and method for pumping a laser-active medium
The disclosure relates to a pump radiation arrangement comprising: a pump radiation source for producing pump radiation, a means for stabilizing the wavelength of the pump radiation source and a laser-active medium through which the pump radiation passes in a bidirectional manner. The pump radiation arrangement also has a retro-reflector for reflecting pump radiation which is not absorbed by the laser-active medium back to the pump radiation source and a wavelength-selective element for preventing a wavelength destabilization of the pump radiation source by filtering out undesirable spectral portions of pump radiation which is not absorbed by the laser-active medium. The invention also relates to an associated method for pumping a laser-active medium.
US09331446B2 Crimp tooling for a terminal crimping machine
Crimp tooling for crimping a crimp barrel of an electrical terminal to a wire includes an insulation crimper having an insulation crimp profile for crimping an insulation barrel segment of the crimp barrel to insulation of the wire, a wire crimper having a wire crimp profile for crimping a wire barrel segment of the crimp barrel to a conductor of the wire, and a transition crimper between the wire crimper and the insulation crimper. The transition crimper has a blended profile segueing from the wire crimp profile to the insulation crimp profile. The blended profile is used for crimping a transition segment of the crimp barrel between the insulation barrel segment and the wire barrel segment.
US09331428B2 Connector mateable with mating connector and having lock structure including lock member and operation member which is operable to move lock member
A connector is mateable with a mating connector comprising a mating fitting portion and a locked portion. The connector comprises a fitted portion and a lock structure arranged in a first direction. The fitted portion is fitted to the fitting portion under a mated state where the connector is mated with the mating connector. The lock structure includes a lock member and an operation member. The lock member has an operated portion and a lock portion. The operation member has an operation portion. The lock portion locks the locked portion under the mated state. Under the mated state, when the operation portion is moved from a first position toward a second position, the operated portion is operated and moved by the operation portion. The lock portion is moved in conjunction with the operated portion along a direction perpendicular to the first direction to unlock the locked portion.
US09331425B2 Cable connector
The subject matter of the invention is a cable connector (1) for electrically connecting an electric vehicle to a charging apparatus, wherein the cable connector (1) is designed to form an electric connection to a device connector (2) associated with the electric vehicle or the charging apparatus, the cable connector (1) has a latching means (4) which is designed in such a manner that a pair of cable connectors (1) and device connectors (2) connected to each other can be latched to each other by means of the latching means (4), and the cable connector (1) has a counter-contour (10) which is designed in such a manner that a locking means (8) associated with the device connector (2) for locking the latching means (4) against being unlatched can be prevented from being unlocked by the counter-contour (10).
US09331419B2 Electric connector
The electric connector including a housing formed with a plurality of holes into each of which a terminal is inserted, the holes being aligned in a line in a first direction, a rear holder connected to the housing through a hinge such that the rear holder is rotatable relative to the housing, a first engagement unit for connecting the rear holder and the housing to each other, the first engagement unit being arranged at at least one of opposite ends in the first direction, and a second engagement unit for preventing the rear holder and the housing from separating from each other after the rear holder and the housing are connected to each other, the second engagement unit being situated between the holes located adjacent to each other.
US09331417B2 Electronic devices with housing port shutters
An electronic device may have a housing in which a display and other components are mounted. Audio components such as a speaker and microphone and other electrical components may be mounted in an interior portion of the housing. A housing port may be formed from one or more openings that pass through the housing. The audio component or other component may be aligned with the housing port. A shutter may be interposed between the audio component and the housing port. The shutter may have an electrically controlled positioner that is used to position a movable shutter member. The shutter may be closed by placing the shutter member in a position in which the housing openings are blocked, thereby preventing intrusion of contaminants into the interior portion of the housing. The shutter may be opened by placing the shutter member in a position in which the housing openings are unblocked, thereby allowing sound to pass through the housing port.
US09331411B2 Connector terminal
A connector terminal to be inserted into a connector and to electrically connect with a terminal portion formed at a marginal area of a surface of a board inserted into the connector, includes an inclined portion inclining relative to the board inserted into the connector, the inclined portion being resiliently deformable when compressed by the board, a contact portion formed on the inclined portion and making contact with the terminal portion, and a projecting portion formed on the inclined portion and making contact with the board prior to the contact portion when the board is inserted into the connector, the projecting portion, when the board is inserted into the connector, making contact with an edge of the board, then riding onto the terminal portion, and then, rising away from the terminal portion when the contact portion makes contact with the terminal portion.
US09331406B2 Receptacle connector and method of producing receptacle connector
A receptacle connector includes a receptacle insulator having an annular outer peripheral wall which defines a fitting recess; receptacle contacts; and a receptacle-side metal fixing member. When a projecting fitting portion of a plug insulator of a plug connector is fitted into the fitting recess, plug contacts of the plug connector come into contact with the receptacle contacts, and the plug connector comes into contact with the receptacle-side metal fixing member. The receptacle-side metal fixing member and the receptacle insulator are integrally formed by insert molding, and the receptacle-side metal fixing member includes a resilient contact portion which is spaced from a surface of the outer peripheral wall on the circumferentially inner side thereof when the resilient contact portion is in a free state.
US09331403B2 Bulb socket and lighting device
A pair of terminal portions of a bus bar (i.e. a terminal clamp) includes spring portions each of which is arranged to exert a pushing force in a direction of sandwiching a base portion of a bulb, and contact portions each provided at a tip portion of the spring portion. A housing (i.e. a socket body) includes regulation portions located on opposite side of the terminal portions and arranged to abut on the terminal portions from opposite side of the base portion to regulate elastic deformation amount of the spring portions to be within a predetermined value.
US09331393B2 Front feed satellite television antenna and satellite television receiver system thereof
A front feed satellite television antenna includes a metamaterial panel. The metamaterial panel includes a core layer and a reflective panel. The core layer includes a core layer lamella which further includes a circular area and multiple annular areas distributed around the circular area. Within the circular area and the annular areas, refractive indexes are identical at a same radius, and within the respective areas, the refractive indexes decrease gradually as radius increases. The minimum refractive index of the circular area is less than the maximum the refractive index of the annular area adjacent thereto. For two adjacent annular areas, the minimum refractive index of the annular area at the inner side is less than the maximum refractive indexes of the annular area at the outer side. The metamaterial panel can replace conventional parabolic antenna, thus facilitating manufacturing and processing, and further reducing costs.
US09331369B2 Rechargeable metal nitric oxide gas battery
A metal-nitric oxide electrochemical cell is provided. Also provided is a rechargeable battery containing the metal-nitric oxide electrochemical cell. A vehicle system wherein NO from a combustion engine exhaust is fed to a metal-nitric oxide battery is additionally provided.
US09331344B2 Fuel cell
A power generation unit of a fuel cell stack includes a first metal separator, a first membrane electrode assembly, a second metal separator, a second membrane electrode assembly, and a third metal separator. A first oxygen-containing gas flow field includes a plurality of wavy flow grooves. An outlet merging area is provided at the end of the wavy flow grooves on the outlet side. The outlet merging area is connected to a plurality of straight connection flow grooves. The groove depth of the straight connection flow grooves is smaller than the groove depth of the wavy flow grooves.
US09331342B2 Electrochemical systems and methods of operating same
This disclosure relates to electrochemical systems, e.g., a combination of an electrical energy source and an electrical energy storage system having a regenerative fuel cell system, that exhibit operational stability in harsh environments, e.g., both charging and discharging reactions in a regenerative fuel cell in the presence of an acid or a mixture of acids, or a halogen ion or a mixture of halogen ions. The electrochemical systems are capable of conducting both hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs) and hydrogen oxidation reactions (HORs) in the same system. The electrochemical systems have low cost, fast response time, and acceptable life and performance. This disclosure also relates to methods of operating the electrochemical systems containing a regenerative fuel cell system.
US09331341B2 Durable platinum/multi-walled carbon nanotube catalysts
Platinum nanocatalysts on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) functionalized with citric acid (CA) are disclosed, along with methods for the synthesis thereof.
US09331339B2 Perforated aluminium foil and manufacturing method thereof
An object of the present invention is to provide an aluminum foil having a plurality of through holes and a desired foil strength, and a manufacturing method thereof. The high-strength perforated aluminum foil of the present invention includes a plurality of through holes extending from a front surface to a back surface of the foil, and has: (1) a foil thickness of 50 μm or less; and (2) a tensile strength of [0.2×foil thickness (μm)] N/10 mm or more. The method of manufacturing a high-strength perforated aluminum foil of the present invention is characterized in that a perforated aluminum foil having a plurality of through holes is either embossed, or simultaneously stretched and bent.
US09331338B2 Polymer composition for lithium secondary battery, electrode for lithium secondary battery including the same, and lithium secondary battery including the electrode
A polymer including a first repeating unit represented by Formula 1, a polymer composition for a lithium battery including the polymer, an electrode for a lithium battery including the polymer composition, and a lithium battery including the electrode: wherein, in Formula 1, R, R′, A, A′, Y, and Y′ are as defined in the specification.
US09331329B2 Carbon-coated lithium iron phosphate of olivine crystal structure and lithium secondary battery using the same
Disclosed is a lithium iron phosphate with an olivine crystal structure wherein the lithium iron phosphate has a composition represented by the following Formula 1 and carbon (C) is coated on the surface of the lithium iron phosphate by chemical bonding via a heterogeneous element other than carbon. Li1+aFe1−xMx(PO4−b)Xb (1) (wherein M, X, a, x, and b are the same as defined in the specification).
US09331324B2 Connector assembly and battery pack having the same
The present invention relates to a connector assembly and a battery pack having the same. For this purpose, provided are a connector assembly with optimized size and mounting area of the connector assembly serving as a current-carrying medium of the battery pack, and improved bond strength between the connector terminal and the housing, and a battery pack having the same.
US09331321B2 Fabric composite support or enclosure for an automotive battery pack
A battery enclosure comprising a support and a cover fabricated from a thermoset or thermoplastic polymer reinforced by at least a woven fabric reinforcement is described. In an embodiment the reinforcement is a woven glass fabric.
US09331310B2 Method for manufacturing light-emitting device
A method for exposing an electrode terminal covered with an organic film in a light-emitting device without damaging the electrode terminal is provided. In a region of the electrode terminal to which electric power from an external power supply or an external signal is input, an island-shaped organic compound-containing layer is formed and the organic film is formed thereover. The organic film is removed by utilizing low adhesion of an interface between the organic compound-containing layer and the electrode terminal, whereby the electrode terminal can be exposed without damage to the electrode terminal.
US09331309B2 Display apparatus, method for manufacturing display apparatus, and method for designing display apparatus
A display apparatus includes (A) a first substrate where a plurality of light emitting elements, which are formed by laminating a first electrode, a light emitting section which is configured by an organic layer provided with a light emitting layer, and a second electrode, are formed, and (B) a second substrate which is arranged to oppose the first substrate, in which the first substrate is further provided with a light reflecting layer formed of first members which propagate and output light from each light emitting element to an outside and second members placed between two first members, the first members have a truncated cone shape where a cutting head section opposes the light emitting element, a part of light propagated by the first members is completely reflected on opposing surfaces of the second members which oppose the first members.
US09331303B2 Organic light-emitting diode lighting apparatus
Disclosed herein is an organic light-emitting diode lighting apparatus. The organic light-emitting diode lighting apparatus may include a transparent substrate main body with a plurality of groove lines formed therein, auxiliary electrodes formed in at least of the plurality of groove lines, a first electrode formed on the substrate main body, positive temperature coefficients configured to connect the auxiliary electrodes and the first electrode, an organic emission layer formed on the first electrode, and/or a second electrode formed on the organic emission layer.
US09331292B2 Perovskite and other solar cell materials
Photovoltaic devices such as solar cells, hybrid solar cell-batteries, and other such devices may include an active layer disposed between two electrodes, the active layer having perovskite material and other material such as mesoporous material, interfacial layers, thin-coat interfacial layers, and combinations thereof. The perovskite material may be photoactive. The perovskite material may be disposed between two or more other materials in the photovoltaic device. Inclusion of these materials in various arrangements within an active layer of a photovoltaic device may improve device performance. Other materials may be included to further improve device performance, such as, for example: additional perovskites, and additional interfacial layers.
US09331288B2 Compound for organic electric element, organic electric element comprising the same and electronic device thereof
A compound represented by Formula 1. An organic electric element includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an organic material layer between the first electrode and the second electrode. The organic material layer includes the compound represented by Formula 1. When the organic electric element includes the compound in the organic material layer, driving voltage, luminous efficiency, color purity, stability, and life span can be improved.
US09331286B2 Organic electroluminescent compounds and organic electroluminescent device using the same
The present disclosure relates to an organic electroluminescent compound employed as a hole transport material or a hole injection material and an organic electroluminescent device including the same. The organic electroluminescent compound is represented by [Chemical Formula 1] and an organic electroluminescent device employing the organic electroluminescent compound as a hole transport material exhibits very superior luminous efficiency and lifetime characteristics.
US09331284B2 Polymer compound and light-emitting device using same
It is an object of the invention to provide a polymer compound that, when used in a light-emitting device, results in excellent luminance life for the obtained light-emitting device. The invention provides a polymer compound comprising a constitutional unit represented by formula (1). [In formula (1), R1A, R1B, R2A, R2B represent an unsubstituted alkyl group, R3 and R4 represented an unsubstituted or substituted alkyl group, an unsubstituted or substituted alkoxy group, an unsubstituted or substituted aryl group, an unsubstituted or substituted aryloxy group, an unsubstituted or substituted heterocyclic group, an unsubstituted or substituted silyl group, a halogen atom, an alkoxycarbonyl group, a carboxyl or a cyano group, and R5 and R6 represent an unsubstituted or substituted alkyl group, an unsubstituted or substituted alkoxy group or an unsubstituted or substituted aryl group. The letters a, b, c and d each represent an integer of 0 to 3. When multiple R3, R4, R5 and R6 groups are present, they may be the same or different.]
US09331280B2 Transparent electrochromic polyimide, method for manufacturing the same, and electrochromic device utilizing the same
Disclosed is a transparent electrochromic polyimide, polymerized of a diamine and a cycloaliphatic dianhydride. The diamine includes a diamino triphenylamine having the formula: wherein R1 consists of hydrogen, halogen, C1-6 alkyl group, C1-6 alkoxy group, or and R2 consists of hydrogen, halogen, C1-6 alkyl group, or C1-6 alkoxy group. The cycloaliphatic dianhydride includes
US09331266B2 Magnetic field controlled reconfigurable semiconductor logic device and method for controlling the same
A non-volatile reconfigurable logic device executing logical operations and a memory function and controlled by a magnetic field is provided. The reconfigurable logic device includes i) at least one semiconductor device; and ii) a pair of magnetic field controlled devices respectively spaced apart from both sides of the semiconductor device and that are adapted to generate magnetic field leakage to control the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes i) a first semiconductor layer; and ii) a second semiconductor layer located on the first semiconductor layer. One of the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer is a p-type semiconductor layer and the other is an n-type semiconductor layer.
US09331254B2 Light emitting device
Pkg resin crack is suppressed after dicing.A light emitting device 1 where a light emitting device 2 that emits light is mounted on a lead frame 3 and that uses a resin cavity molding package 5 having an integrally molded lead frames 3, 4 constituting electrodes that correspond to the light emitting element 2 and resin, wherein roundness is given to a part or all of a cutting plane corner part of a retention section (hanger lead 3a, 4a) that become a cause of crack generation due to the retention sections (hanger leads 3a, 4a) of the lead frames giving stress concentration to resin at the time of cutting by a blade 7.
US09331251B2 Light emitting device
To provide a light emitting device that can suppress the increase in pits and projections caused by the thermal history of the reflective film on the surface of the reflective film used in the light emitting device, the light emitting device includes: a light emitting element; and a reflective film for reflecting light from the light emitting element, in which the reflective film contains silver as a principal component, and nanoparticles of an oxide.
US09331240B2 Utlraviolet light emitting devices and methods of fabrication
An ultraviolet light emitting semiconductor chip, its use in a LED, and methods of its fabrication are disclosed. The semiconductor chip can include a buffer layer of AlxGa1-xN, where 0
US09331235B2 Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor layer of an n type including a nitride semiconductor, a first metal layer of an alloy containing Al and Au, and a second metal layer. The first metal layer is in contact with the first semiconductor layer. The second metal layer is in contact with the first metal layer. The second metal layer includes a metal different from Al. The first metal layer is disposed between the second metal layer and the first semiconductor layer.
US09331231B2 Process for continuous deposition of a sublimated source material to form a thin film layer on a substrate
A method for vapor deposition of a sublimated source material, such as CdTe, onto substrates in a continuous, non-stop manner through the apparatus is provided. The sublimated source material moves through a distribution plate and deposits onto the upper surface of the substrates as they are conveyed through the deposition area. The substrates move into and out of the deposition area through entry and exit slots that are defined by transversely extending entrance and exit seals. The seals are disposed at a gap distance above the upper surface of the substrates that is less than the distance or spacing between the upper surface of the substrates and the distribution plate. The seals have a ratio of longitudinal length (in the direction of conveyance of the substrates) to gap distance of from about 10:1 to about 100:1.
US09331227B2 Directly bonded, lattice-mismatched semiconductor device
A semiconductor device may include a first subassembly and a second subassembly. The first subassembly may include a first bonding layer. The second subassembly may include a second substrate and a second bonding layer directly bonded to the first bonding layer. The first bonding layer and the second bonding layer may be lattice-mismatched to one another. At least one of the following may be selected: the first bonding layer is lattice-mismatched to the first substrate, and the second bonding layer is lattice-mismatched to the second substrate.
US09331224B2 Photovoltaic roofing elements, photovoltaic roofing systems, methods and kits
The present invention relates generally to the photovoltaic generation of electrical energy. The present invention relates more particularly to photovoltaic roofing products for use in photovoltaically generating electrical energy. One aspect of the invention is a photovoltaic roofing element comprising: a flexible roofing substrate; a photovoltaic element disposed on the flexible roofing substrate; and an electrical connector operatively coupled to the photovoltaic element, wherein the flexible roofing substrate has formed therein a recess shaped to at least partially receive the electrical connector.
US09331223B2 Solar cell module and photovoltaic power generation system including the same
A solar cell module is disclosed. The solar cell module includes a solar cell panel, and a frame disposed at a periphery of the solar cell panel. A fixing hole is formed at the frame. A first fastening member is coupled to the fixing hole.
US09331217B2 Electronic gate enhancement of Schottky junction solar cells
Various systems and methods are provided for Schottky junction solar cells. In one embodiment, a solar cell includes a mesh layer formed on a semiconductor layer and an ionic layer formed on the mesh layer. The ionic layer seeps through the mesh layer and directly contacts the semiconductor layer. In another embodiment, a solar cell includes a first mesh layer formed on a semiconductor layer, a first metallization layer coupled to the first mesh layer, a second high surface area electrically conducting electrode coupled to the first metallization layer by a gate voltage, and an ionic layer in electrical communication with the first mesh layer and the second high surface area electrically conducting electrode. In another embodiment, a solar cell includes a grid layer formed on a semiconductor layer and an ionic layer in electrical communication with the grid layer and the semiconductor layer.
US09331216B2 Core-shell nickel alloy composite particle metallization layers for silicon solar cells
Materials and methods for fabrication of rear tabbing, front busbar, and fine grid line layers for silicon based photovoltaic cells are disclosed. Materials include conductive metallization pastes that contain core-shell nickel based particles.
US09331214B2 Diode cell modules
Diode cell modules for use within photovoltaic systems, including lead frames including first leads extending from the first outlet terminal, second leads spaced from the first leads, second outlet terminals extending from the second leads, and diodes. In some examples, first leads define base portions connected to the first outlet terminal and diode portions extending from the base portions transverse to the first outlet terminal. In some examples, second leads may define a base portion and diode portions extending from the base portion substantially parallel to the diode portion of the first lead. In some examples, diodes may be in electrical contact with the diode portion of the first lead and with the diode portion of the second lead. In some examples, the first leads and second leads may be thermally conductive. In some examples, diodes may define die interfaces that are substantially fully engaged with diode portions of leads.
US09331211B2 PN junctions and methods
A PN junction includes first and second areas of silicon, wherein one of the first and second areas is n-type silicon and the other of the first and second areas is p-type silicon. The first area has one or more projections which at least partially overlap with the second area, so as to form at least one cross-over point, the cross-over point being a point at which an edge of the first area crosses over an edge of the second area.
US09331204B2 High voltage field effect transistors and circuits utilizing the same
A high-voltage circuit is described that comprises a high-voltage finFET can have a semiconductor fin with an insulating cap on the fin. A gate dielectric is disposed on the first and second sides of the fin. A gate overlies the gate dielectric and a channel region in the fin on the first and second sides, and over the cap. Source/drain terminals are disposed on opposing sides of the gate in the fin, and can include lightly doped regions that extend away from the edge of the gate to more highly doped contacts. The dimensions of the structures can be configured so that the transistor has a breakdown voltage of 30 V or higher.
US09331200B1 Semiconductor device and method for fabricating the same
A method for fabricating semiconductor device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a substrate having a gate structure thereon; and forming a first epitaxial layer, a second epitaxial layer, and a silicide layer in the substrate adjacent to the gate structure. Preferably, the first epitaxial layer, the second epitaxial layer, and the silicide layer comprise SiGeSn.
US09331199B2 Semiconductor device
Provided is a semiconductor device to which a pattern structure for performance improvement is applied. The semiconductor device includes first and second active regions spaced apart from each other in a first direction with an isolation layer interposed therebetween, a first normal gate formed on the first active region to extend in a second direction crossing the first direction, a first dummy gate having a portion overlapping with one end of the isolation layer and the other portion overlapping with the first active region and spaced apart from the first normal gate in the first direction, a second dummy gate having a portion overlapping with the other end of the isolation layer and the other portion overlapping with the second active region, a first normal source/drain contact formed on a source/drain region between the first normal gate and the first dummy gate, and a dummy contact formed on the isolation layer so as not to overlap with the first and second dummy gates and having a different size from the first normal source/drain contact.
US09331197B2 Vertical power transistor device
A power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) includes a substrate, a drift layer over the substrate, and a spreading layer over the drift layer. The spreading layer includes a pair of junction implants separated by a junction gate field effect (JFET) region. A gate oxide layer is on top of the spreading layer. The gate contact is on top of the gate oxide layer. Each one of the source contacts are on a portion of the spreading layer separate from the gate oxide layer and the gate contact. The drain contact is on the surface of the substrate opposite the drift layer.
US09331187B2 Bipolar transistor
P-type second semiconductor layers each interposed between a corresponding pair of n-type first semiconductor layers reduce the apparent doping concentration in the entire collector layer without reducing the doping concentrations in the first semiconductor layers. This improves the linearity of capacitance characteristics and enables sufficient mass productivity to be achieved. Interposing each of the second semiconductor layers between the corresponding pair of the first semiconductor layers reduce the average carrier concentration over the entire collector layer, which allows a wide depletion layer to be formed inside the collector layer and, as a result, reduces base-collector capacitance.
US09331185B2 Non-volatile memory device with undercut ONO trapping structure and manufacturing method thereof
A method for manufacturing a non-volatile memory structure includes providing a substrate having a gate structure, performing a first oxidation process to form a first SiO layer at least covering a bottom corner of the conductive layer, performing a first etching process to remove the first SiO layer and a portion of the dielectric layer to form a cavity, performing a second oxidation process to form a second SiO layer covering sidewalls of the cavity and a third SiO layer covering a surface of the substrate, forming a first SiN layer filling in the cavity and covering the gate structure on the substrate, and removing a portion of the first SiN layer to form a SiN structure including a foot portion filling in the cavity and an erection portion upwardly extended from the foot portion, and the erection portion covering sidewalls of the gate structure.
US09331184B2 Sonos device and method for fabricating the same
A silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) device is disclosed. The SONOS device includes a substrate; a first oxide layer on the substrate; a silicon-rich trapping layer on the first oxide layer; a nitrogen-containing layer on the silicon-rich trapping layer; a silicon-rich oxide layer on the nitrogen-containing layer; and a polysilicon layer on the silicon-rich oxide layer.
US09331172B2 Method for making HKMG dummy gate structure with amorphous/ONO masking structure and procedure
A method for manufacturing a dummy gate structure. The method may include: forming a dummy gate oxide layer and a dummy gate material layer on a semiconductor substrate sequentially; forming an ONO structure on the dummy gate material layer; forming a top amorphous silicon layer on the ONO structure; forming a patterned photoresist layer on the top amorphous silicon layer; etching the top amorphous silicon layer with the patterned photoresist layer as a mask, the etching being stopped on the ONO structure; etching the ONO structure with the patterned photoresist layer and a remaining portion of the top amorphous silicon layer as a mask, the etching being stopped on the dummy gate material layer; removing the patterned photoresist layer; and etching the dummy gate material layer, the etching being stopped at the dummy gate oxide layer to form a dummy gate structure.
US09331168B2 Semiconductor structure and manufacuturing method of the same
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes a substrate, a high k dielectric layer disposed over the substrate, and a gate layer over the high k dielectric layer. The high k dielectric layer is partially crystallized and comprising an average thickness of from about 10 Å to about 30 Å. Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure. The method includes (i) forming a high k dielectric layer with a thickness of from about 10 Å to about 30 Å over a substrate, (ii) forming a gate layer over the dielectric layer, and (iii) transforming at least a portion of the dielectric layer from a first phase to a second phase by microwave irradiation.
US09331166B2 Selective dielectric spacer deposition for exposing sidewalls of a finFET
Angled directional ion beams are directed to sidewalls of a gate structure that straddles at least one semiconductor fin. The directions of the angled directional ion beams are contained within a vertical plane that is parallel to the sidewalls of the at least one semiconductor. A pair of gate spacers are formed on sidewalls of the gate structure by accumulation of the deposited dielectric material from the angled directional ion beams and without use of an anisotropic etch, while the sidewalls of the semiconductor fins parallel to the directional ion beams remain physically exposed. A selective epitaxy process can be performed to form raised active regions by growing a semiconductor material from the sidewalls of the semiconductor fins.
US09331153B2 Methods and structures for forming microstrip transmission lines on thin silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers
A structure is provided having: (A) a first silicon layer and a first silicon dioxide layer over the first silicon layer; and (B) a second silicon layer and a second silicon dioxide layer over the second silicon layer; the first silicon dioxide layer bonded to the second silicon dioxide layer. An upper surface of the first silicon layer is polished to reduce its thickness. A III-V layer is grown on the upper surface of the thinned silicon layer. A III-V device is formed in the III-V layer together with a strip conductor connected to the formed. The second silicon layer, the second silicon dioxide layer and the first silicon dioxide layer are successively removed to expose a bottom surface of the first silicon layer. A ground plane conductor is formed on the exposed bottom surface, the strip conductor and the ground plane conductor providing a microstrip transmission line.
US09331152B2 Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device includes: a gate oxide film formed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate; a gate electrode formed on the gate oxide film; and a high concentration impurity layer connected to a main electrode and formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate, wherein an impurity species doped in the high concentration impurity layer comprises a first impurity species of phosphorous and a second impurity species of at least one of argon and nitrogen, a concentration of the second impurity species is higher than a concentration of the first impurity species in a surface of the high concentration impurity layer, and a peak position of a concentration distribution of the first impurity species in a depth direction in the high concentration impurity layer is deeper than a peak position of a concentration distribution of the second impurity species in the depth direction.
US09331151B2 Method for coupling a graphene layer and a substrate and device comprising the graphene/substrate structure obtained
The present disclosure regards a method for coupling a graphene layer to a substrate having at least one hydrophilic surface, the method comprising the steps of providing the substrate having at least one hydrophilic surface, depositing on the hydrophilic surface a layer of a solvent selected in the group constituted by acetone, ethyl lactate, isopropyl alcohol, methylethyl ketone and mixtures thereof and depositing on the solvent layer a graphene layer. It moreover regards an electronic device comprising the graphene/substrate structure obtained.
US09331147B1 Methods and systems for using conformal filling layers to improve device surface uniformity
The invention discloses a treatment process for a semiconductor, comprising providing a substrate; defining a trench opening region of the substrate; performing plasma etching to form a trench region at the trench opening region; subjecting the substrate to a first epitaxial process with a first plurality of gaseous species to form a protective layer overlaying at least the first sidewall and the bottom of the trench region; and subjecting the substrate and the protective layer to a second epitaxial process with a second plurality of gaseous species to form a filling material overlaying the protective layer and being positioned at least partially within the trench region. The invention further provides a semiconductor processing technique used to eliminate or reduce dislocation defect on the semiconductor device and improve device performance. In the treatment process, at least one epitaxial process to form the protective layer overlaying at least the first sidewall and the bottom of the trench region corresponds to form a filling material overlaying the protective layer and being positioned at least partially within the trench region.
US09331146B2 Silicon nanowire formation in replacement metal gate process
Techniques for a semiconductor device are provided. Techniques are directed to forming a semiconductor device by: forming a fin structure in a substrate, forming a protective layer over an upper portion of the fin structure, the protective layer having an etch selectivity with respect to a material of the fin structure, and performing an undercut etch so as to remove a lower portion of the fin structure below the protective layer, thereby defining a nanowire structure from the fin structure.
US09331145B2 Lateral double diffused MOS transistors and methods of fabricating the same
A lateral double diffused MOS transistor including substrate of a first conductivity type, drift region of a second conductivity type and body region of the first conductivity type disposed in the substrate, source region of the second conductivity type disposed in the body region, drain region of the second conductivity type disposed in the drift region, isolation layer disposed in the drift region to surround sidewalls of the drain region, gate insulation layer and gate electrode sequentially stacked generally on the body region, first field plate extending from the gate electrode to overlap the drift region and to overlap a portion of the isolation layer, second field plate disposed above the isolation layer spaced apart from the first field plate, and coupling gate disposed above the isolation layer generally between the drain region and the second field plate, wherein the coupling gate is electrically connected to the second field plate.
US09331141B2 CMOS structure on replacement substrate
CMOS structures with a replacement substrate and methods of manufacture are disclosed herein. The method includes forming a device on a temporary substrate. The method further includes removing the temporary substrate. The method further includes bonding a permanent electrically insulative substrate to the device with a bonding structure.
US09331140B2 Semiconductor devices having hybrid capacitors and methods for fabricating the same
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of capacitors disposed on a substrate and a support pattern supporting upper portions and lower portions of the capacitors. Each of the capacitors includes a lower electrode, an upper electrode, and a dielectric layer between the lower and upper electrodes. The lower electrode includes a first electrode portion electrically connected to the substrate and having a solid shape and a second electrode portion stacked on the first electrode portion and having a shape comprising an opening therein. The support pattern includes an upper pattern contacting sidewalls of top end portions of the lower electrodes and a lower pattern vertically spaced apart from the upper pattern. The lower pattern contacts sidewalls under the top end portions of the lower electrodes.
US09331125B2 Solid-state imaging device using plasmon resonator filter
According to one embodiment, a solid-state imaging device includes: a first inorganic photoelectric converter; a semiconductor substrate that includes a light-receiving face to which light is to be incident and a circuit-formed surface on which a circuit including a readout circuit is formed, the light-receiving face facing the first inorganic photoelectric converter, the semiconductor substrate including a second inorganic photoelectric converter thereinside; and a first part including a microstructure arranged between the first inorganic photoelectric converter and the second inorganic photoelectric converter.
US09331119B2 Detection apparatus having interlayer insulating layer composed of organic material and covering layer composed of inorganic material, detection system, and method for producing detection apparatus
A detection apparatus includes a plurality of conversion elements, an interlayer insulating layer, and a covering layer. Each of the plurality of conversion elements includes an electrode electrically connected to a corresponding one of a plurality of switching elements and a semiconductor layer disposed on the electrode. The interlayer insulating layer is disposed so as to cover the plurality of switching elements and composed of an organic material, and has a surface including a first region and a second region located outside the first region. The electrodes are disposed on the surface of the interlayer insulating layer in the first region. The covering layer is disposed on the surface of the interlayer insulating layer in the second region and composed of an inorganic material.
US09331104B2 Array substrate for display device
Discussed is an array substrate for a display device, that may include a plurality of cell portions each including a display area and a non-display area except the display area, the display area having a plurality of pixels, first and second cell portions each including the plurality of cell portions, and a shorting bar surrounding the first cell portion and the second portion and disposed therebetween, wherein the display area includes pixel electrodes respectively formed in the plurality of pixels and a common electrode formed on the pixel electrodes, the common electrode being formed throughout entire the display area.
US09331094B2 Method of selective filling of memory openings
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, such as a three-dimensional monolithic NAND memory string, includes providing an opening having a different sidewall material exposed on a sidewall of the opening than a bottom material exposed on a bottom of the opening, selectively forming a sacrificial material on the bottom of the opening but not on the sidewall of the opening, selectively forming a first layer on the sidewall of the opening but not on the sacrificial material located on the bottom of the opening, and selectively removing the sacrificial material to expose the bottom material on the bottom of the opening such that the first layer remains on the sidewall of the opening.
US09331093B2 Three dimensional NAND device with silicon germanium heterostructure channel
A method of making a monolithic three dimensional NAND string including forming a stack of alternating layers of a first material and a second material different from the first material over a substrate, forming an at least one opening in the stack, forming at least a portion of a memory film in the at least one opening and forming a first portion of a semiconductor channel followed by forming a second portion of the semiconductor channel in the at least one opening. The second portion of the semiconductor channel comprises silicon and germanium and contains more germanium than a first portion of the semiconductor channel which is located closer to the memory film than the second portion.
US09331082B2 Three-dimensional semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a stacked structure having first conductive layers stacked stepwise and first insulating layers interposed between the first conductive layers, wherein undercuts are formed under the first conductive layers and each of the first conductive layers includes a first region covered by the first conductive layer and a second region extending from the first region, contact pads coupled to the second regions of the respective first conductive layers, and a liner layer formed on the contact pads and filling the undercuts.
US09331077B2 Semiconductor device and manufacturing method of semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes: a first conductivity type transistor and a second conductivity type transistor, wherein each of the first conductivity type transistor and the second conductivity type includes a gate insulating film formed on a base, a metal gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film, and side wall spacers formed at side walls of the metal gate electrode, wherein the gate insulating film is made of a high dielectric constant material, and wherein offset spacers are formed between the side walls of the metal gate electrode and the inner walls of the side wall spacers in any one of the first conductivity type transistor and the second conductivity type transistor, or offset spacers having different thicknesses are formed in the first conductivity type transistor and the second conductivity type transistor.
US09331075B2 Systems and methods for fabricating semiconductor devices at different levels
Systems and methods are provided for fabricating semiconductor device structures on a substrate. For example, a substrate including a first region and a second region is provided. One or more first semiconductor device structures are formed on the first region. One or more semiconductor fins are formed on the second region. One or more second semiconductor device structures are formed on the semiconductor fins. A top surface of the semiconductor fins is higher than a top surface of the first semiconductor device structures.
US09331074B1 Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor device includes first and second Fin FET transistors and a separation plug made of an insulating material and disposed between the first and second Fin FET transistors. The first Fin FET transistor includes a first fin structure extending in a first direction, a first gate dielectric formed over the first fin structure and a first gate electrode formed over the first gate dielectric and extending a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The second Fin FET transistor includes a second fin structure, a second gate dielectric formed over the second fin structure and a second gate electrode formed over the first gate dielectric and extending the second direction. In a cross section along the second direction and across the first gate electrode, the second gate electrode and the separation plug, the separation plug has a tapered shape having a top size smaller than a bottom size.
US09331071B2 Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
Provided is an in-wiring-layer active element (component) which allows for electrical isolation between a gate electrode and a channel in a top gate structure. A semiconductor device includes a first wiring layer, a second wiring layer, and a semiconductor element. The first wiring layer has a first interlayer insulating layer, and a first wire embedded in the first interlayer insulating layer. The second wiring layer has a second interlayer insulating layer, and second wires embedded in the second interlayer insulating layer. The semiconductor element is provided at least in the second wiring layer. The semiconductor element includes a semiconductor layer provided in the second wiring layer, a gate insulating film provided in contact with the semiconductor layer, a gate electrode provided on the opposite side of the semiconductor layer via the first gate insulating film, and a first side wall film provided over a side surface of the semiconductor layer.
US09331065B2 Semiconductor diode and method of manufacture
A diode (200) is disclosed having improved efficiency, smaller form factor, and reduced reverse biased leakage current. Schottky diodes (212) are formed on the sidewalls (210) of a mesa region (206). The mesa region (206) is a cathode of the Schottky diode (212). The current path through the mesa region (206) has a lateral and a vertical current path. The diode (200) further comprises a MOS structure (214), p-type regions (220), MOS structures (230), and p-type regions (232). MOS structure (214) with the p-type regions (220) pinch-off the lateral current path under reverse bias conditions. P-type regions (220), MOS structures (230), and p-type regions (232) each pinch-off the vertical current path under reverse bias conditions. MOS structure (214) and MOS structures (230) reduce resistance of the lateral and vertical current path under forward bias conditions. The mesa region (206) can have a uniform or non-uniform doping concentration.
US09331054B2 Semiconductor package assembly with decoupling capacitor
A semiconductor package assembly includes a first semiconductor package. The first semiconductor package includes a first body having a first device-attach surface and a first bump-attach surface opposite to the first device-attach surface. A second semiconductor package is bonded to the first device-attach surface of the first semiconductor package. The second package includes a second body having a second device-attach surface and a second bump-attach surface opposite to the second device-attach surface. A dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device is mounted on the second device-attach surface. A decoupling capacitor is mounted on the second device-attach surface. Conductive structures are disposed on the second bump-attach surface of the second package, connecting to the first bump-attach surface of the first body of the first semiconductor package.
US09331049B2 Bonding structure of bonding wire
The invention is aimed at providing a bonding structure of a copper-based bonding wire, realizing low material cost, high productivity in a continuous bonding in reverse bonding for wedge bonding on bumps, as well as excellent reliability in high-temperature heating, thermal cycle test, reflow test, HAST test or the like. The bonding structure is for connecting the bonding wire onto a ball bump formed on an electrode of a semiconductor device, the bonding wire and the ball bump respectively containing copper as a major component thereof. The bonding structure comprises a concentrated layer A provided at an interface of a bonding part of the ball bump and the bonding wire, wherein the concentration of a metal R other than copper in the concentrated layer A is not less than ten times the average concentration of the metal R in the ball bump; and a concentrated layer B provided at an interface of a bonding part of the ball bump and the electrode, wherein the concentration of the metal R in the concentrated layer B is not less than ten times the average concentration of the metal R in the ball bump.
US09331046B2 Integrated circuit package with voltage distributor
An integrated circuit package includes a semiconductor die attached to a package support. The die has a plurality of peripheral bond pads along a periphery of the die and a first bond pad on an interior portion of the die wherein the first bond pad is a power supply bond pad. A conductive distributor is over the die and within a perimeter of the die and has a first opening. The plurality of bond pads are located between the perimeter of the die and a perimeter of the conductive distributor. The first bond pad is in the first opening. A first bond wire is connected between the first bond pad and the conductive distributor. A second bond wire is connected between a first peripheral bond pad of the plurality of peripheral bond pads and the conductive distributor.
US09331045B2 Semiconductor die laminating device with independent drives
A laminating device (230) and method are disclosed for laminating semiconductor die (220) on substrates on a panel (200) of substrates. The laminating device (230) includes lamination units (234,236,238,240) that operate independently of each other so that a row or column of semiconductor die (220) may be independently laminated onto a row or column of substrates simultaneously.
US09331044B2 Semiconductor device connected by anisotropic conductive film
A semiconductor device connected by an anisotropic conductive film including a first insulation layer, a conductive layer, and a second insulation layer one above another, wherein the conductive layer has an expansion length of 20% or less in a width direction thereof, and the second insulation layer has an expansion length of 50% or more in a width direction thereof, the expansion length is calculated according to Equation 1, below, after glass substrates are placed on upper and lower sides of the anisotropic conductive film respectively, followed by compression at 110° C. to 200° C. for 3 to 7 seconds under a load of 1 MPa to 7 MPa per unit area of a sample, Increased ratio of expansion length (%)=[(length of corresponding layer in width direction after compression−length of corresponding layer in width direction before compression)/length of corresponding layer in width direction before compression]×100.  [Equation 1]
US09331043B1 Localized sealing of interconnect structures in small gaps
An apparatus relates generally to a microelectronic device. In such an apparatus, a first substrate has a first surface with first interconnects located on the first surface, and a second substrate has a second surface spaced apart from the first surface with a gap between the first surface and the second surface. Second interconnects are located on the second surface. Lower surfaces of the first interconnects and upper surfaces of the second interconnects are coupled to one another for electrical conductivity between the first substrate and the second substrate. A conductive collar is around sidewalls of the first and second interconnects, and a dielectric layer is around the conductive collar.
US09331042B2 Semiconductor device manufacturing method and semiconductor device
A plurality of protruding electrodes of a semiconductor chip are in contact with a plurality of electrodes formed on a semiconductor substrate, via a plurality of solder sections. In this state, the solder sections are melted so as to form a plurality of solder bonding sections joined to the protruding electrodes of the semiconductor chip and the electrodes of the semiconductor substrate. Moreover, a distance between a part of the semiconductor chip and the semiconductor substrate is larger than a distance between the other part of the semiconductor chip and the semiconductor substrate, extending at least some of the solder bonding sections. Thus, the solder bonding sections vary in height. Holes are then formed at least in a solder bonding section having a maximum height out of the solder bonding sections. After that, the solder bonding sections are solidified.
US09331040B2 Manufacture of coated copper pillars
The present invention relates to a method for forming a copper pillar on a semiconducting substrate, the copper pillar having an underbump metallization area comprising a metal less noble than copper and optionally a solder bump on the top portion, and having a layer of a second metal selected from tin, tin alloys, silver, and silver alloys deposited onto the side walls of said copper pillar. A layer of a first metal which is more noble than copper is deposited onto the entire outer surface of the copper pillar prior to deposition of the second metal layer. The layer of a second metal then has at least a reduced number of undesired pin-holes and serves as a protection layer for the underlying copper pillar.
US09331039B2 Semiconductor device including a buffer layer structure for reducing stress
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip, wiring that is included in the semiconductor chip and has a coupling part between parts with different widths, a pad being formed above the wiring and in a position overlapping the coupling part, a bump being formed on the pad, a buffer layer being formed in a position between the coupling part and the pad so as to cover the entire couple part, and inorganic insulating layers being formed between the wiring and the buffer layer and between the buffer layer and the pad, respectively. The buffer layer is made of a material other than resin and softer than the inorganic insulating layer.
US09331032B2 Hybrid bonding and apparatus for performing the same
A method includes performing a hybrid bonding to bond a first package component to a second package component, so that a bonded pair is formed. In the bonded pair, first metal pads in the first package component are bonded to second metal pads in the second package component, and a first surface dielectric layer at a surface of the first package component is bonded to a second surface dielectric layer at a surface of the second package component. After the hybrid bonding, a thermal compressive annealing is performed on the bonded pair.
US09331031B2 Wireless communication system
A wireless communication system includes: a filter; and a semiconductor chip including a signal processing integrated circuit having an amplifier, wherein a main surface of the semiconductor chip is provided with a plurality of electrode terminals along an edge portion thereof; wherein the amplifier has a transistor including a control electrode, a first electrode through which a signal is outputted, and a second electrode to which a voltage is applied; wherein the control electrode, the first electrode and the second electrode of the transistor are connected to the electrode terminals, respectively; and wherein none of wirings are arranged between the electrode terminals and placements of the control electrode, the first electrode and the second electrode, making space between the electrodes and the electrode terminals narrow.
US09331018B2 Semiconductor arrangement and formation thereof
One or more techniques for forming a semiconductor arrangement and resulting structures formed thereby are provided herein. The semiconductor arrangement includes a power divider comprising a transmission line and a resistor, where the transmission line is over and connected to an active area input, a first active area output and a second active area output. The semiconductor arrangement has a smaller chip size than a semiconductor arrangement where the transmission line is not over the active area input, the first active area output and the second active area output. The smaller chip size is due to the active area input, the first active area output and the second active area output being formed closer to one another than would be possible in a semiconductor arrangement where the transmission line is formed between at least one of the active area input, the first active area output or the second active area output.
US09331015B2 Semiconductor device with a multilayer wire
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor structure having a first wire extending in a first direction, an intermetallic insulating layer covering the semiconductor structure, a via structure penetrating the intermetallic insulating layer, and a second wire extending on the intermetallic insulating layer in a second direction at a predetermined angle with respect to the first direction, the second wire being connected to the first wire through the via structure and including first and second portions on each other, and a protruding portion protruding from at least one of the first and second portions, the protruding portion being at a boundary of the first and second portions.
US09331013B2 Integrated capacitor
A structure includes first, second, and third conductive leaf structures. The first conductive leaf structure includes a first conductive midrib and conductive veins. The second conductive leaf structure is electrically connected to the first conductive leaf structure, and includes a second conductive midrib, conductive veins extending toward the first conductive midrib, and conductive veins extending away from the first conductive midrib. The third conductive leaf structure includes a third conductive midrib between the first conductive midrib and the second conductive midrib, conductive veins extending toward the first conductive midrib, and conductive veins extending toward the second conductive midrib.
US09331007B2 Semiconductor device and method of forming conductive ink layer as interconnect structure between semiconductor packages
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die with an encapsulant deposited over and around the semiconductor die. An opening is formed in a first surface of the encapsulant by etching or LDA. A plurality of bumps is optionally formed over the semiconductor die. A bump is recessed within the opening of the encapsulant. A conductive ink is formed over the first surface of the encapsulant, bump and sidewall of the opening. The conductive ink can be applied by a printing process. An interconnect structure is formed over a second surface of the encapsulant opposite the first surface of the encapsulant. The interconnect structure is electrically connected to the semiconductor die. A semiconductor package is disposed over the first surface of the encapsulant with a plurality of bumps electrically connected to the conductive ink layer. The semiconductor package may contain a memory device.
US09331005B2 Power semiconductor package with multi-section conductive carrier
In one implementation, a power semiconductor package includes a non-contiguous, multi-section conductive carrier. A control transistor with a control transistor terminal is coupled to a first section of the multi-section conductive carrier, while a sync transistor with a sync transistor terminal is coupled to a second section of the multi-section conductive carrier. The first and second sections of the multi-section conductive carrier sink heat generated by the control and sync transistors. The first and second sections of the multi-section conductive carrier are electrically connected only through a mounting surface attached to the power semiconductor package. Another implementation of the power semiconductor package includes a driver IC coupled to a third section of the multi-section conductive carrier. A method for fabricating the power semiconductor package is also disclosed. The power semiconductor package according to the present disclosure results in effective thermal protection, current carrying capability, and a relatively small size.
US09331004B2 Magnetically coupled galvanically isolated communication using lead frame
An integrated circuit package includes an encapsulation and a lead frame. A portion of the lead frame is disposed within the encapsulation. The lead frame includes a first conductor forming a first conductive loop. A second conductor is galvanically isolated from the first conductor. The second conductor forms a second conductive loop proximate to and magnetically coupled to the first conductive loop to provide a magnetic communication link between the first and second conductors. A signal that is transmitted from a transmit circuit coupled to the first conductor is coupled to be received through the magnetic communication link by a receive circuit coupled to the second conductor.
US09331003B1 Integrated circuit packaging system with pre-molded leadframe and method of manufacture thereof
An integrated circuit packaging system, and method of manufacture thereof, includes: lead islands; a pre-molded material surrounding a bottom of the lead islands; a device over a portion of the lead islands and having electrical connections to another portion of the lead islands, the electrical connections over areas of the another portion of the lead islands over areas covered by the pre-molded material; and an encapsulation over the device and the lead islands.
US09331000B2 Heat management in electronics packaging
An electronics packaging system includes an insulator that electrically insulates a heat sink from electrical leads. An interface between the insulator and the heat sink includes a stress reliever constructed such that a stiffness of the interface is greater than the stiffness of the interface without the stress reliever.
US09330996B2 Semiconductor module system, semiconductor module arrangement and method for mounting a semiconductor module on a heat sink
A semiconductor module system has a semiconductor module and a protective cover. The semiconductor module has a bottom side with a heat dissipation surface and a top side opposite the bottom side, the top side being separated from the bottom side in a vertical direction. The protective cover can be mounted irreleasably on the semiconductor module in such a way that, in a mounted state, the top side is exposed and the protective cover covers the heat dissipation surface. By virtue of the protective cover, a thermal interface material applied onto the heat dissipation surface can be protected.
US09330988B1 Method of fine-tuning process controls during integrated circuit chip manufacturing based on substrate backside roughness
Disclosed is a method of manufacturing integrated circuit (IC) chips. In the method, wafers are received and the backside roughness levels of these wafers are determined. Based on the backside roughness levels, the wafers are sorted into different groups. Chips having the same design are manufactured on wafers from all of the different groups. However, during manufacturing, process(es) is/are performed differently on wafers from one or more of the different groups to minimize systematic variations in a specific parameter (e.g., wire width) in the resulting chips. Specifically, because systematic variations may occur when the exact same processes are used to form IC chips on wafers with different backside roughness levels, the method disclosed herein selectively adjusts one or more of those processes when performed on wafers from one or more of the different groups to ensure that the specific parameter is approximately equal in the resulting integrated IC chips.
US09330985B2 Automated hybrid metrology for semiconductor device fabrication
Methods and systems are provided for fabricating and measuring features of a semiconductor device structure. An exemplary method of fabricating a semiconductor device structure involves fabricating a feature of the semiconductor device structure on a wafer of semiconductor material, determining a hybrid recipe for measuring the feature, configuring a plurality of metrology tools to implement the hybrid recipe, and obtaining a hybrid measurement of the feature in accordance with the hybrid recipe.
US09330979B2 LDMOS transistor having elevated field oxide bumps and method of making same
A low Rdson LDMOS transistor having a shallow field oxide region that separates a gate electrode of the transistor from a drain diffusion region of the transistor. The shallow field oxide region is formed separate from the field isolation regions (e.g., STI regions) used to isolate circuit elements on the substrate. Fabrication of the shallow field oxide region is controlled such that this region extends below the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate to a depth that is much shallower than the depth of field isolation regions. For example, the shallow field oxide region may extend below the upper surface of the substrate by only Angstroms or less. As a result, the current path through the resulting LDMOS transistor is substantially unimpeded by the shallow field oxide region, resulting in a low on-resistance.
US09330978B2 Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode, a dummy gate electrode, and a first impurity diffusion region. The semiconductor substrate has first and second grooves. The gate electrode is in the first groove. The dummy gate electrode is in the second groove. The dummy gate electrode has a first top surface. The first impurity diffusion region in the semiconductor substrate is positioned between the first and second grooves. The first top surface is positioned at a lower level than a bottom of the first impurity diffusion region.
US09330973B2 Workpiece processing method
Disclosed is a method of processing a workpiece so as to form an opening that extends from an oxide region to a base layer through a portion between the raised regions. The method includes: (1) a step of forming an opening in the oxide region to expose a second section between the raised regions; and (2) a step of etching a residue made of silicon oxide and existing within the opening and a second section. In the second step, a denatured region is formed by exposing the workpiece to plasma of a mixed gas including a hydrogen-containing gas and NF3 gas to denature the residue and the second section, and the denatured region is removed.
US09330972B2 Methods of forming contact structures for semiconductor devices and the resulting devices
One method disclosed herein includes, among other things, a method of forming a contact structure to a source/drain region of a transistor device. The transistor device includes a gate structure and a gate cap layer positioned above the gate structure. The method includes forming an extended-height epi contact structure that is conductively coupled to the source/drain region. The extended-height epi contact structure includes an upper surface that is positioned at a height level that is above a height level of an upper surface of the gate cap layer. The method further includes performing an etching process to trim at least a lateral width of a portion of the extended-height epi contact structure, and, after performing the etching process, forming a metal silicide material on at least a portion of the trimmed extended-height epi contact structure and forming a conductive contact on the metal silicide material.
US09330968B1 Method of fabricating integrated circuit
A method of fabricating an integrated circuit includes the following steps. A first reticle is used to form a first pattern and a first alignment mark and a second reticle is used to form a second pattern and a second alignment mark in a same layer. A third reticle is aligned to the first alignment mark and the second alignment mark, to obtain an overlay correction value; additionally, a third reticle is aligned to the first alignment mark to obtain a first overlay correction value, a third reticle is aligned to the second alignment mark to obtain a second overlay correction value, and a total overlay correction value is obtained by trading off the first overlay correction value and the second overlay correction value. The third reticle is used to form a third pattern by aligning the third reticle with the total overlay correction value.
US09330963B2 Conformal low temperature hermetic dielectric diffusion barriers
Conformal hermetic dielectric films suitable as dielectric diffusion barriers over 3D topography. In embodiments, the dielectric diffusion barrier includes a dielectric layer, such as a metal oxide, which can be deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) techniques with a conformality and density greater than can be achieved in a conventional silicon dioxide-based film deposited by a PECVD process for a thinner contiguous hermetic diffusion barrier. In further embodiments, the diffusion barrier is a multi-layered film including a high-k dielectric layer and a low-k or intermediate-k dielectric layer (e.g., a bi-layer) to reduce the dielectric constant of the diffusion barrier. In other embodiments a silicate of a high-k dielectric layer (e.g., a metal silicate) is formed to lower the k-value of the diffusion barrier by adjusting the silicon content of the silicate while maintaining high film conformality and density.
US09330960B2 Semiconductor devices including capacitors
A semiconductor device includes a first capacitor structure, a second capacitor structure, and an insulation pattern. The first capacitor structure includes a first lower electrode, a first dielectric layer and a first upper electrode sequentially stacked on a substrate. The second capacitor structure includes a second lower electrode, a second dielectric layer and a second upper electrode sequentially stacked on the substrate, and is adjacent to the first capacitor structure. The insulation pattern partially fills a space between the first and second capacitor structures, and an air gap is formed between the first and second capacitor structures on the insulation pattern.
US09330959B2 Isolated semiconductor layer in bulk wafer by localized silicon epitaxial seed formation
An integrated circuit may be formed by forming a buried isolation layer in an isolation recess in a single-crystal silicon-based substrate. Exposed lateral surfaces of the substrate at the buried isolation layer are covered with a dielectric sidewall. A seed trench is formed through the buried isolation layer to expose the substrate. A single-crystal silicon-based seed layer is formed through the seed trench, extending above the top surface of the buried isolation layer. A silicon-based non-crystalline layer is formed contacting the seed layer. A cap layer is formed over the non-crystalline layer. A radiant-induced recrystallization process converts the non-crystalline layer to a single-crystal layer aligned with the seed layer. The cap layer is removed and the single-crystal layer is planarized, leaving an isolated semiconductor layer over the buried isolation layer.
US09330955B2 Support ring with masked edge
A support ring for semiconductor processing is provided. The support ring includes a ring shaped body defined by an inner edge and an outer edge. The inner edge and outer edge are concentric about a central axis. The ring shaped body further includes a first side, a second side, and a raised annular shoulder extending from the first side of the ring shaped body at the inner edge. The support ring also includes a coating on the first side. The coating has an inner region of reduced thickness region abutting the raised annular shoulder.
US09330952B2 Bipolar mobile electrostatic carriers for wafer processing
In one embodiment, there is provided a carrier comprising a top semiconductor layer having isolated positive electrode regions and isolated negative electrode regions separated by a frontside trench through the top semiconductor layer extending at least to an underlying insulating layer positioned between the top semiconductor layer and a bottom semiconductor layer. A dielectric layer covers the top exposed surfaces of the carrier. Backside trenches through the bottom semiconductor layer extending at least to the insulating layer form isolated backside regions corresponding to the frontside positive and negative electrode regions. Backside contacts positioned on the bottom semiconductor layer and coupled to the positive and negative electrode regions allow for the electric charging of the frontside electrode regions.
US09330951B2 Robot and adaptive placement system and method
An apparatus including at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: determine locations of at least two substrates on respective end effectors of the apparatus while the substrates are being moved by the end effectors in substantial unison towards respective target locations for the substrates; and while the end effectors are being moved towards the respective target locations, and based upon the determined locations of the substrates, adjust a position of at least a first one of the end effectors on the apparatus relative to a second one of the end effectors, where the position of the first end effector is adjusted relative to the second end effector while the apparatus is moving the substrates in substantial unison towards the respective target locations and prior to reaching the target locations.
US09330949B2 Heat treatment apparatus for heating substrate by irradiating substrate with flash of light
Three support members made of silicon carbide are provided fixedly on an inner periphery of the support ring. The support members are inclined at an angle in the range of 15 to 30 degrees with respect to a horizontal plane. With an outer peripheral edge of a semiconductor wafer supported by the three support members, a heating treatment is performed by irradiating the semiconductor wafer with halogen light from halogen lamps. Silicon carbide absorbs the halogen light better than quartz. The support members support the outer peripheral edge of the semiconductor wafer in point contacting relationship, so that the contact between a holder and the semiconductor wafer is minimized. This minimizes the disorder of the temperature distribution of the semiconductor wafer due to the support members to achieve the uniform heating of the semiconductor wafer.
US09330939B2 Method of enabling seamless cobalt gap-fill
Methods for depositing a contact metal layer in contact structures of a semiconductor device are provided. In one embodiment, a method for depositing a contact metal layer for forming a contact structure in a semiconductor device is provided. The method comprises performing a cyclic metal deposition process to deposit a contact metal layer on a substrate and annealing the contact metal layer disposed on the substrate. The cyclic metal deposition process comprises exposing the substrate to a deposition precursor gas mixture to deposit a portion of the contact metal layer on the substrate, exposing the portion of the contact metal layer to a plasma treatment process, and repeating the exposing the substrate to a deposition precursor gas mixture and exposing the portion of the contact metal layer to a plasma treatment process until a predetermined thickness of the contact metal layer is achieved.
US09330936B2 Method for depositing metal layers on germanium-containing films using metal chloride precursors
A method is provided for forming a semiconductor device. According to one embodiment, the method includes providing a substrate having a Ge-containing film thereon, identifying a first plasma processing recipe that uses a metal chloride precursor to deposit a first metal layer on the Ge-containing film at a higher rate than the Ge-containing film is etched by the metal chloride precursor, identifying a second plasma processing recipe that uses the metal chloride precursor to etch the Ge-containing film at a higher rate than a second metal layer is deposited on the Ge-containing film by the metal chloride precursor, performing the first plasma processing recipe to deposit the first metal layer on the Ge-containing film, and performing the second plasma processing recipe to deposit the second metal layer on the first metal layer, and where the second metal layer is deposited at a higher rate than the first metal layer.
US09330933B2 Method and apparatus for planarizing a polymer layer
A method for planarizing a polymer layer is provided which includes providing a substrate having the polymer layer formed thereon, providing a structure having a substantially flat surface, pressing the flat surface of the structure to a top surface of the polymer layer such that the top surface of the polymer layer substantially conforms to the flat surface of the structure, and separating the flat surface of the structure from the top surface of the polymer material layer.
US09330931B2 Method of manufacturing semiconductor device
In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which uses a triple patterning process, a porous layer covering sidewalls and an upper surface of a polymer-containing pattern is formed on a layer to be etched. A decomposition gas is supplied to the polymer-containing pattern through the porous layer, and a portion of the polymer-containing pattern is decomposed to form a reduced polymer-containing pattern and form a void between the reduced polymer-containing pattern and the porous layer. A portion of the porous layer is removed to form a porous spacer pattern spaced apart from the reduced polymer-containing pattern. The layer to be etched is etched by using the reduced polymer-containing pattern and the porous spacer pattern as an etch mask.
US09330924B2 Method for forming control gate salicide
A method for forming a semiconductor device includes forming a conductive structure of a silicon material on a substrate and forming a planarized dielectric layer adjacent the conductive structure. The method also includes removing a portion of the dielectric layer to expose a top portion of the conductive structure and removing an outer portion of the exposed top portion of the conductive structure such that the top portion of the gate structure has a narrower width than the unexposed portion. The method further includes forming a metal layer over the exposed portion of the gate structure and a top surface of the dielectric layer, and forming a silicide layer over the top portion of the conductive structure. The width of the silicided top portion of the conductive structure is substantially the same as the width of the bottom portion of the conductive structure.
US09330922B2 Self-aligned stack gate structure for use in a non-volatile memory array and a method of forming such structure
A stack gate structure for a non-volatile memory array has a semiconductor substrate having a plurality of substantially parallel spaced apart active regions, with each active region having an axis in a first direction. A first insulating material is between each stack gate structure in the second direction perpendicular to the first direction. Each stack gate structure has a second insulating material over the active region, a charge holding gate over the second insulating material, a third insulating material over the charge holding gate, and a first portion of a control gate over the third insulating material. A second portion of the control gate is over the first portion of the control gate and over the first insulating material adjacent thereto and extending in the second direction. A fourth insulating material is over the second portion of the control gate.
US09330918B2 Edge termination by ion implantation in gallium nitride
A method of making an edge terminated semiconductor device includes providing a GaN substrate having a GaN epitaxial layer grown thereon and exposing a portion of the GaN epitaxial layer to ion implantation. The energy dose is selected to provide a resistivity that is at least 90% of maximum achievable resistivity. The method also includes depositing a conductive layer over a portion of the implanted region.
US09330910B2 Method of forming an array of nanostructures
A method of forming an array of nanostructures includes forming a plurality of seed points on a surface of a substrate, and growing masks from the seed points to create masked regions of the substrate underlying the masks. A remainder of the substrate comprises an unmasked region. Each mask and masked region increase in size with growth time while the unmasked region of the substrate decreases in size. During the growing, the unmasked region is etched to remove material from the substrate in a depth direction, and, simultaneously, unetched structures are formed from the masked regions of the substrate underlying the masks. Each of the unetched structures has a lateral size that increases with depth.
US09330907B2 Material quality, suspended material structures on lattice-mismatched substrates
Suspended structures are provided using selective etch technology. Such structures can be protected on all sides when the selective undercut etch is performed, thereby providing excellent control of feature geometry combined with superior material quality.
US09330906B2 Stress relieving semiconductor layer
A semiconductor structure, such as a group III nitride-based semiconductor structure is provided. The semiconductor structure includes a cavity containing semiconductor layer. The cavity containing semiconductor layer can have a thickness greater than two monolayers and a multiple cavities. The cavities can have a characteristic size of at least one nanometer and a characteristic separation of at least five nanometers.
US09330894B1 Ion transfer method and device
An ion transport device can include a plurality of pole rod pairs arranged in parallel, and a controller. The controller can be configured to apply voltages in a repeating voltage pattern to the pole rod pairs thereby creating a plurality of potential wells capable of capturing ions, and move the repeating voltage pattern along the pole rod pairs to move captured ions along the ion transport device. The ion transport device can be incorporated into a mass spectrometer.
US09330889B2 Plasma generation device with microstrip resonator
A plasma generation device, a system including a plasma generation device, and a method of generating plasma and vacuum UV (VUV) photons are described. In a representative embodiment, plasma generation device, includes: a substrate having a first surface and a second surface; a resonant ring-shaped structure disposed over the first surface of the substrate, the resonant ring-shaped structure having dimensions selected to support at least one standing wave having more than one electric field maximum along a length of the resonant ring-shaped structure; a ground plane disposed on the second surface of the substrate; and an apparatus configured to provide a gas at locations of the electric field maxima.
US09330884B1 Dome detection for charged particle beam device
According to an embodiment, a method of operating a charged particle beam device is provided. The charged particle beam device includes a beam separation unit, a first optical component distanced from the beam separation unit and a second optical component distanced from the beam separation unit and distanced from the first optical component. The method includes generating a primary charged particle beam. The method further includes generating a first electric field and a first magnetic field in the beam separation unit. The method further includes guiding the primary charged particle beam through the beam separation unit in which the first electric field and the first magnetic field are generated, wherein a travel direction of the primary charged particle beam leaving the beam separation unit is aligned with a first target axis under the influence of the first electric field and the first magnetic field. The method further includes generating a secondary charged particle beam by impingement of the primary charged particle beam onto a sample. The method further includes separating the secondary charged particle beam from the primary charged particle beam in the beam separation unit, wherein the secondary charged particle beam is deflected under the influence of the first electric field and the first magnetic field to travel from the beam separation unit to the first optical component. The method further includes generating a second electric field and a second magnetic field in the beam separation unit. The method further includes guiding the primary charged particle beam through the beam separation unit in which the second electric field and the second magnetic field are generated, wherein the travel direction of the primary charged particle beam leaving the beam separation unit is aligned with the first target axis under the influence of the second electric field and the second magnetic field. The method further includes separating the secondary charged particle beam from the primary charged particle beam in the beam separation unit, wherein the secondary charged particle beam is deflected under the influence of the second electric field and the second magnetic field to travel from the beam separation unit to the second optical component.
US09330880B2 Ion implantation device
An ion implantation device equipped with a vacuum chamber (11), an electrode roll (13) on a portion of the outer circumferential part of which a film (2) is wound, a voltage application means (21) that applies a voltage to the electrode roll, and a gas introduction means (31) that introduces a gas into the vacuum chamber, wherein a voltage is applied to the electrode roll by means of the voltage application means and a gas is introduced by means of the gas introduction means, and an ion implantation process is performed on the surface of the film. In addition, electrode members (42) are provided opposing the surface of the electrode roll on which the film is wound.
US09330878B2 Electromechanical x-ray generator
An electro-mechanical x-ray generator configured to obtain high-energy operation with favorable energy-weight scaling. The electro-mechanical x-ray generator may include a pair of capacitor plates. The capacitor plates may be charged to a predefined voltage and may be separated to generate higher voltages on the order of hundreds of kV in the AK gap. The high voltage may be generated in a vacuum tube.
US09330874B2 Solder bump sealing method and device
A method for forming a cavity in a microfabricated structure, includes the sealing of that cavity with a low temperature solder. The method may include forming a sacrificial layer over a substrate, forming a flexible membrane over the sacrificial layer, forming a release hole through a flexible membrane to the sacrificial layer, introducing an etchant through the release hole to remove the sacrificial layer, and then sealing that release hole with a low temperature solder.
US09330872B2 Electromagnetic relay
An electromagnetic relay includes a contact that includes a fixed contact and a movable contact, a permanent magnet provided on the peripheral side of the contact, and a non-magnetic body. The movable contact is displaceable in a first direction to move toward the fixed contact and in a second direction to move away from the fixed contact. The permanent magnet has a polarity direction perpendicular to the first and second directions. The non-magnetic body faces toward the direction of a Lorentz force that acts based on the permanent magnet in a direct electric current flowing through the contact.
US09330865B2 Current switch
A current switch includes a blade-shaped movable contact that extends in a radial direction from a rotation center, and that reciprocates such that a free end of the movable contact draws a rotation locus, a fixed contact that includes a plurality of pairs of energizing contacts that come into and out of contact with the movable contact, a movable arcing contact that is provided on the movable contact, fixed arcing contacts that are provided on a pair of energizing contacts, and a pair of permanent magnets that are arranged within the pair of energizing contacts adjacent to the fixed arcing contacts.
US09330860B2 Handle operating device for circuit breaker
The present disclosure relates to a handle operating device for a circuit breaker, and there is provided a handle operating device including a connecting rod configured to transfer power for operating a manual operating handle that manually operates the on/off of a circuit breaker from the outside; a movable frame connected to the connecting rod to be movably coupled to an outer surface of a circuit breaker case in a direction parallel to the operating direction of the manual operating handle; a movable member provided at the movable frame in an interlocking manner to move the manual operating handle; a slot hole is formed on the moving member in an inclined manner from the moving direction of the manual operating handle; and a fastening member fastened to the movable member and movable frame through the slot hole.
US09330859B2 Rotor for an electric switch
A rotor is disclosed for an electric switch. In an embodiment, the rotor includes a rotor housing and a rotatably mounted contact link, which has two movable contacts. In an embodiment, by rotation of the rotor, the two movable contacts are configured to interact with two stationary contacts of an electric switch so as to close or open a circuit. Further, the rotatably mounted contact link is mounted movably in the rotor housing in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the contact link in its closing position.
US09330852B2 Tantalum capacitor and method of manufacturing the same
There is provided a tantalum capacitor including: a capacitor body containing tantalum powder and having a tantalum wire exposed to one end thereof; a positive electrode lead frame including a positive electrode terminal part and a positive electrode connection part formed by upwardly bending a portion of the positive electrode terminal part from the outside toward the inside and connected to the tantalum wire; a negative electrode lead frame having the capacitor body mounted thereon; and a molded part formed to enclose the capacitor body while exposing a lower surface of the positive electrode terminal part of the positive electrode lead frame and a lower surface of the negative electrode lead frame.
US09330833B2 Power supply with low electro-magnetic interference and inductor for power supply with low electro-magnetic interference
A power supply circuit includes an input configured to receive an input voltage, an output configured to supply an output voltage, at least one inductor, at least one diode, and at least one switch. The inductor may have a parasitic capacitance less than about 100 pF. Related inductors are also disclosed.
US09330829B2 Rolled-up transformer structure for a radiofrequency integrated circuit (RFIC)
A rolled-up transformer structure comprises a multilayer sheet having a rolled configuration comprising multiple turns about a longitudinal axis. The multilayer sheet comprises more than one conductive pattern layer on a strain-relieved layer, including a first conductive film and a second conductive film separated from the first conductive film in a thickness direction. The first conductive film comprises an even number of primary conductive strips, where each primary conductive strip has a length extending in the rolling direction, and the second conductive film comprises an even number of secondary conductive strips, where each secondary conductive strip has a length extending in the rolling direction. In the rolled configuration, turns of the primary conductive strips and turns of the secondary conductive strips wrap around the longitudinal axis. The primary conductive strips serve as a primary winding and the secondary conductive strips serve as a secondary winding of the rolled-up transformer structure.
US09330824B2 Direct drive generator-equipped with flux pump and integrated cryogenics
This invention relates generally to a generator having a rotor with a rotor structure, a set of flux pumps secured to the rotor structure and a cooling system secured to the rotor structure for cooling each one of the flux pumps. The flux pump includes separate superconducting loops in separate layers with each superconducting loop including a plurality of sections in revolutions in its respective layer. Each cooling system includes a compressor, heat exchanger, expansion valve, and cryocooler inline with one another. The rotor is rotatably mounted to a stator component through a bearing. A power supply circuit includes components integrated within the rotor for providing power to the flux pump and the compressor.
US09330823B1 Integrated circuit structure with inductor in silicon interposer
An integrated circuit structure can include an interposer having a plurality of conductive layers and a die coupled to the interposer through an internal interconnect structure. The integrated circuit structure can include an inductor implemented within at least one of the conductive layers of the interposer. The inductor can include a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal and the second terminal can be coupled to the internal interconnect structure.
US09330814B2 Insulated electric wire
According to one embodiment, an insulated electric wire is disclosed. The insulated electric wire includes a conductor and an insulating film formed on the conductor, the insulating film including a first layer of a first polyamideimide containing an adhesion improver, a second layer of a second polyamideimide obtained by reacting an isocyanate component containing 10 to 70 mol % in total of 2,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate and dimer acid diisocyanate react with an acid component formed on the first layer, and a third layer of a polyimide formed on the second layer.
US09330809B2 Electrically conducting composites, methods of manufacture thereof and articles comprising the same
Disclosed herein is a composition comprising a regioregular polyalkylthiophene and/or a regioregular poly[2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno(3,2-b)thiophene]; and a metallocene; where the metallocene is present in an amount of greater than 75 wt %, based on the total weight of the composition; where the charge mobility is increased by a factor of 3 or more over compositions having 50 wt % of ferrocene or less with the remainder being a regioregular polyalkylthiophene and/or a regioregular poly[2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno(3,2-b)thiophene]. Disclosed herein too is a method of manufacturing a thin film comprising dissolving a regioregular polyalkylthiophene and/or a regioregular poly[2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno(3,2-b)thiophene] in a solvent to form a solution; dissolving a metallocene in the solution; where the metallocene is present in an amount of 75 wt % or greater based on the total weight of the ferrocene and the regioregular polyalkylthiophene and/or the regioregular poly[2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno(3,2-b)thiophene]; disposing the solution on a substrate; and annealing the substrate.
US09330801B2 Method for fabricating medical imaging multilayer, multiaperture collimator
A photon collimator, suitable for use in medical imaging equipment, is constructed from a block of photon-attenuating material, such as solid tungsten or molybdenum alloy that defines a plurality of integrally formed septa slats. Each slat has an elongated length dimension greater than thickness and depth dimensions, and is oriented in an opposed pattern array that is laterally spaced relative to its respective thickness dimension. An aperture channel is defined between each pair of opposed slats. Rows of integrally formed slats in one block or separately affixed blocks may be stacked on each other at skewed angles to form two-dimensional grids of apertures having polygonal cross sections. The slats may be formed by electric discharge or laser thermal ablation machining, such as by a sequential passing of an EDM wire cutting head along the pattern array, repeating sequential cutting of respective channel depth and width.
US09330798B2 Systems and methods for processing irradiation targets through a nuclear reactor
Apparatuses and methods produce radioisotopes in instrumentation tubes of operating commercial nuclear reactors. Irradiation targets may be inserted and removed from instrumentation tubes during operation and converted to radioisotopes otherwise unavailable during operation of commercial nuclear reactors. Example apparatuses may continuously insert, remove, and store irradiation targets to be converted to useable radioisotopes or other desired materials at several different origin and termination points accessible outside an access barrier such as a containment building, drywell wall, or other access restriction preventing access to instrumentation tubes during operation of the nuclear plant.
US09330792B2 Testing memory devices with distributed processing operations
Automated testing system and method of testing memory devices with distributed processing operations. A redundancy analysis system includes multiple test site processors (TSPs) respectively coupled to multiple devices under test (DUTs). Each TSP is installed with a redundancy analyzer configured to analyzing redundancy data returned from a respective (DUT). Each TSP may be coupled with a respective fail engine for returning the redundancy data from the corresponding DUT. A main TSP of the multiple TSPs is configured to control testing routine over the multiple DUTs and process failure related data from the DUTs. The main TSP may direct the RAs distributed in the multiple TSPs to execute the redundancy analyzers in parallel.
US09330786B2 Semiconductor device, test method thereof, and system
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of chips comprising a plurality of I/O terminals connected in common via through electrodes. Each of the chips includes an I/O compression circuit operable to output a compression result obtained by compression of data of a plurality of internal data buses to a first I/O terminal of the plurality of I/O terminals. Each of the chips also includes a test control circuit having a register group that sets the number of the first I/O terminal. Setting information that assigns different first I/O terminals to different chips is set in the register group. Each of the chips inputs or outputs data with use of the number of the I/O terminal that is different from those in other chips. Thus, the I/O compression circuits can concurrently perform an I/O compression test in parallel in the plurality of chips without a bus fight.
US09330779B2 Detecting programmed word lines based on NAND string current
A number (Nwl) of programmed word lines in a block of NAND strings is determined by measuring a reference combined current (Iref) in the block when all of the memory cells are in a conductive state. Subsequently, to determine if a word line is a programmed word line, an additional combined current (Iadd) in the block is measured with a demarcation voltage applied to the selected word line. The selected word line is determined to be programmed word lines if Idd is less than Iref by at least a margin. Nwl can be used to adjust an erase-verify test of an erase operation by making the erase-verify test relatively hard to pass when the number is relatively small and relatively easy to pass when the number is relatively large. Or, Nwl can be used to identify a next word line to program in the block.
US09330773B2 Semiconductor memory apparatus and method for reading data from the same
A semiconductor memory device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first cell string and a second cell string coupled to a first word line group and a second word line group, respectively. An operating method of the semiconductor memory device may include forming a channel in the second cell string by applying a pass voltage to the second word line group, reflecting data of a selected memory cell coupled to a selected word line of the first word line group, among memory cells of the first cell string, on the channel of the second cell string through the bit line, and determining the data of the selected memory cell by sensing a quantity of electric charge of the second cell string through the bit line.
US09330766B1 Semiconductor device and operating method thereof
A semiconductor device according to an embodiment may include cell strings including a plurality of memory cells coupled between bit lines and a source line and coupled to word lines, a peripheral circuit suitable for programming selected memory cells coupled to a selected word line among the word lines by applying a program voltage to the selected word line, and applying one or more pass voltages to unselected word lines, and a control circuit suitable for controlling the peripheral circuit to temporarily float the unselected word lines while the selected memory cells are programmed.
US09330765B2 Non-volatile memory device having configurable page size
A flash memory device having at least one bank, where the each bank has an independently configurable page size. Each bank includes at least two memory planes having corresponding page buffers, where any number and combination of the memory planes are selectively accessed at the same time in response to configuration data and address data. The configuration data can be loaded into the memory device upon power up for a static page configuration of the bank, or the configuration data can be received with each command to allow for dynamic page configuration of the bank. By selectively adjusting a page size the memory bank, the block size is correspondingly adjusted.
US09330752B2 Memory system and method for writing data into memory system
A memory system of one embodiment includes: a nonvolatile memory including a plurality of word lines each connected to memory cells, each one of the memory cells being capable storing two bits, the memory cells connected to one of the plurality of word lines constituting an upper page and a lower page, each one of the pages being a unit of data programming; a random access memory configured to store an address translation table indicating relationships between logical addresses designated by a host and physical addresses in the nonvolatile memory. The memory system of the embodiment further includes a memory controller which execute data fixing for saving the address translation table from the random access memory to the nonvolatile memory; and write dummy data to at least one page subsequent to the page in which valid data has been written in the nonvolatile memory before executing the data fixing.
US09330750B2 Integrated circuit using method for setting level of reference voltage
An integrated circuit includes a reference voltage level setting circuit and a reference voltage generation circuit. The reference voltage level setting circuit is configured to set a level of an input reference voltage to a preset level in a power-up period or a self-refresh mode. The reference voltage generation circuit is configured to select one of a plurality of reference voltages and output the selected reference voltage as the input reference voltage when the power-up period is ended and an operation mode is not in the self-refresh mode.
US09330744B2 MRAM with magnetic material surrounding contact plug
An electronic device includes semiconductor memory, and the semiconductor memory includes a contact plug which is disposed over a substrate and extends in a vertical direction; a variable resistance element which is coupled to the contact plug and includes a first magnetic layer having a variable magnetization direction, a second magnetic layer having a pinned magnetization direction, and a tunnel barrier layer interposed between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer; and a third magnetic layer which surrounds a sidewall of the contact plug and has a same magnetization direction as the second magnetic layer.
US09330740B1 First-in first-out circuits and methods
A first first-in first-out (FIFO) circuit includes a storage circuit, a second first-in first-out (FIFO) circuit, and a third first-in first-out (FIFO) circuit. The storage circuit stores write data at a write address in response to a write clock signal. The storage circuit outputs read data from a read address in response to a read clock signal. A write pointer indicating the write address is synchronized with the write clock signal. A read pointer indicating the read address is synchronized with the read clock signal. The second first-in first-out (FIFO) circuit synchronizes the write pointer with the read clock signal. The third first-in first-out (FIFO) circuit synchronizes the read pointer with the write clock signal.
US09330732B2 Semiconductor memory device
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a first bit line extending in a first direction, a first source line including a first portion that extends in the first direction, a second portion that extends in the first direction, and a third portion that connects one end of the first portion and one end of the second portion, a first memory cell having one terminal electrically connected to the first bit line and the other terminal electrically connected to the first portion of the first source line, a first sense amplifier arranged on the other end side of the first portion and the second portion of the first source line, and a first current sink arranged on a side of the first sense amplifier with respect to the first bit line and the first source line.
US09330728B1 Spindle motor and disk drive apparatus
A spindle motor includes a base portion molded by casting. The base portion includes a plate portion extends radially with respect to a central axis, and a wall portion arranged to extend in an axial direction from a radially outer edge of the plate portion. The wall portion includes a hole portion in which an attaching member to attach a cover member to the spindle motor is arranged, and is arranged to support at least a portion of the cover member. An inside surface of the base portion includes a metal surface subjected to a cutting process. The base portion includes a recessed portion arranged between the metal surface and the hole portion. The recessed portion is recessed either upward or downward in the axial direction, overlaps with at least one of the metal surface and the hole portion when viewed in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the central axis.
US09330722B2 Methods and architecture for indexing and editing compressed video over the world wide web
A system and method is provided for editing and parsing compressed digital information. The compressed digital information may include visual information which is edited and parsed in the compressed domain. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a method for detecting moving objects in a compressed digital bitstream which represents a sequence of fields or frames of video information for one or more captured scenes of video.
US09330721B2 Streaming-based media system
The invention relates to a system and method for processing or editing media contents. The media system comprises a transcoding apparatus which preferably receives high-resolution media data and converts them into a media stream with low resolution and a media stream with high resolution and provides them with an identical media stream identifier. The images of the media data in the two media streams are provided with identical identification codes by the transcoding apparatus. A logging apparatus receives the media stream with low resolution and displays the media data to a user. The logging apparatus provides the media data as a whole, individual image sequences or images therefrom with metadata. The individual metadata are allocated to individual image sequences or images of the media stream with low resolution using the identification codes and are logically combined with the media data using the media stream identifier.
US09330720B2 Methods and apparatus for altering audio output signals
Methods, systems and computer readable media for altering an audio output are provided. In some embodiments, the system may change the original frequency content of an audio data file to a second frequency content so that a recorded audio track will sound as if a different person had recorded it when it is played back. In other embodiments, the system may receive an audio data file and a voice signature, and it may apply the voice signature to the audio data file to alter the audio output of the audio data file. In that instance, the audio data file may be a textual representation of a recorded audio data file.
US09330713B2 Linear recording executing optimum writing upon receipt of series of commands including mixed read and write commands
An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a head, a controller coupled to the head, and logic integrated with and/or executable by the controller. The logic is configured to receive a series of commands, the series of commands including mixed read, overwrite, and append write commands, cause reading of data from a specified position of a tape using the head and storing the data in a buffer in response to a read command; and cause writing of data stored in the buffer starting from an appended data end position of the tape in response to an append write command.
US09330711B2 Bearing device
In order to prevent leaking of lubricant, the bearing device includes a rolling bearing having an outer ring and an inner ring, a shaft fixed to the inner ring, and a sleeve fixed to the outer ring. A flange part is formed on at least one end part of the shaft. The flange part includes a disk part extending from the shaft toward an outside in a radial direction and a cylindrical part extending from the disk part along an axial direction. The cylindrical part is disposed at an outside of the outer ring, and a labyrinth gap which bends at two places is formed by gaps.
US09330707B2 Recording apparatus, server apparatus, recording method, program and storage medium
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and information processing apparatuses. The medium stores instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method including automatically reading first management data from a first recording medium. The first management data identifies tracks of source data recorded on the first recording medium. One of the tracks of source data is automatically identified based on the first management data and second management data, which identifies files of ripped data recorded on a second recording medium. The one of the tracks of source data is absent from the second recording medium. The one of the tracks of source data is automatically transferred to the second recording medium and becomes one of the files of ripped data. The method further includes automatically displaying transferring status of the one of the tracks of source data by a symbolic figure.
US09330695B1 Disk drive head suspension tail with a noble metal layer disposed on a plurality of structural backing islands
A head suspension assembly for a disk drive includes a load beam and a laminated flexure that comprises a stainless steel layer, a copper trace layer, and a dielectric layer between the stainless steel layer and the copper trace layer. The laminated flexure includes a flexure tail that extends away from the load beam to a flexure tail terminal region. The copper trace layer includes a plurality of flexure bond pads in the flexure tail terminal region. The stainless steel layer includes a plurality of backing islands in the flexure tail terminal region. Each of the plurality of backing islands is aligned with a corresponding one of the plurality of flexure bond pads. A noble metal layer is disposed on the plurality of backing islands.
US09330691B1 Microwave assisted magnetic head
According to one embodiment, a microwave assisted magnetic head includes a spin torque oscillator, and if driving current of the spin torque oscillator is zero, a magnetization direction of the spin injection layer is identical regardless of polarity of recording current, and if the driving current of the spin torque oscillator is not zero, the magnetization direction of the spin injection layer changes in response to the polarity of the recording current.
US09330690B2 Method of forming a TAMR writer with a concave leading shield for enhanced field magnitude
A method of forming a TAMR (Thermal Assisted Magnetic Recording) write head that uses the energy of optical-laser excited plasmons to locally heat a magnetic recording medium and reduce its coercivity and magnetic anisotropy. The magnetic field of the write head is enhanced by the formation of a leading shield that is formed in a concave geometrical shape and partially surrounds the waveguide portion of the head within the concavity, which allows the distal end of the waveguide to extend to the ABS plane of the write head. This arrangement reduces the gap between the shield and the magnetic pole and does not interfere with the ability of the waveguide to efficiently transfer its optical energy to the plasmon generator and, ultimately, to the surface of the magnetic recording medium.
US09330684B1 Real-time wind buffet noise detection
Wind buffet noise in a microphone signal is detected using a per-frequency probability of speech estimate as well as short-term and long-term low-frequency energy. Using the probability of speech presence estimate, the buffet-no-speech condition can be accurately detected. But the probability of speech presence, by itself, is insufficient for distinguishing between the buffet-speech and either of the no-buffet conditions. It can be assumed that, if wind buffeting is occurring, it is occurring during both speech and non-speech segments to help distinguish between the other possible states. That is, the probability difference may be used as the criteria for entering the buffet-no-speech state, and then some other information (e.g., low frequency energy) may be used to determine when to transition to the buffet-speech state or one of the no-buffet states once the probability difference criteria is no longer met.
US09330664B2 Controller for voice-controlled device and associated method
A controller for a voice-controlled device is provided. The controller includes a setting module and a recognition module. The setting module generates a threshold according to an environmental parameter. The recognition module compares a confident score of speech recognition with the threshold to accordingly execute voice control.
US09330658B2 User intent analysis extent of speaker intent analysis system
A speaker intent analysis system and method for validating the truthfulness and intent of a plurality of participants' responses to questions. A computer stores, retrieves, and transmits a series of questions to be answered audibly by participants. The participants' answers are received by a data processor. The data processor analyzes and records the participants' speech parameters for determining the likelihood of dishonesty. In addition to analyzing participants' speech parameters for distinguishing stress or other abnormality, the processor may be equipped with voice recognition software to screen responses that while not dishonest, are indicative of possible malfeasance on the part of the participants. Once the responses are analyzed, the processor produces an output that is indicative of the participant's credibility. The output may be sent to proper parties and/or devices such as a web page, computer, e-mail, PDA, pager, database, report, etc. for appropriate action.
US09330653B2 Noise reduction apparatus and audio reproduction apparatus
A noise reduction apparatus includes: a speaker with a speaker unit held by holding means to make it possible to mix sounds emitted from front and rear of a vibration plate of the speaker; a microphone provided in an area where the sounds emitted from the front and rear of the vibration plate of the speaker are mixed and cancelled; and means for supplying a noise reduction audio signal obtained by phase-inverting an audio signal collected by the microphone to the speaker.
US09330646B2 Support stand
A stand moveable between an open configuration and a closed configuration. A plurality of legs is rotatably coupled to a connector and are rotatable between a closed position, in which each the plurality of legs is substantially parallel, and an open configuration. When the stand is in a closed configuration the plurality of legs are in the closed position and received in a cavity, and the connector is removably secured to the body. When the stand is in an open configuration, the plurality of legs are in the open position and the connector is removably secured to the body such that the plurality of legs are outside of the cavity and such that the body is positioned to receive and support at least a portion of a guitar.
US09330643B2 Hi-hat for electronic cymbal assembly
The present invention includes an electronic cymbal assembly including a hi-hat clutch for mounting a hi-hat to a hi-hat stand post; a top cymbal; a self dampening trigger system attached to the underside of the top cymbal; a bottom cymbal; an input jack box mounted to the underside of the bottom cymbal; and a hi-hat cymbal mounting post. The cymbal assembly may be mounted using a magnetic ring configuration or a threaded pole configuration.
US09330641B2 Percussionists' mallet towel
A percussionist's towel comprises a terry-cloth towel having a deformable band centrally located between the long edges of the towel and preferably including grommets along the shorter edges of the towel. The deformable band may comprise a pocket filled with microbeads, foam, padding, flocculation, or other substances used for pillows. The towel and deformable band are sound-deadening. The deformable band deters percussion mallets or the like from rolling off the towel when the towel is placed on a music stand that has been set into a generally horizontal position to function as a table.
US09330639B1 Adjustable pitch stop for the tremolo bar of an electric guitar
An adjustable pitch stop for a tremolo bar of an electric guitar, the adjustable pitch stop having a generally C-clamp or U-shaped clamp and set screw to secure the pitch stop to the tremolo bar, the C-clamp having a tubular member attached thereto, there being a threaded male member slidably secured through the tubular member, the threaded male member having an adjustment knob positioned at one end to adjust the positioning of the male threaded member, the male threaded member having a stop member at the opposing end for contact with the body of the electric guitar, the being interposed between the adjustment knob and the tubular member, a first locking nut, there being disposed a second locking nut and biasing component secured between the stop member and the tubular member allowing the presetting of two descending notes.
US09330638B2 Tremolo device for a stringed musical instrument
The tremolo device can be used in stringed musical instruments, and more particularly in electric guitars. It provides a simplified construction allowing easier usage and improved sustain, wherein, in the front portion of the rear string saddle (5) an opening (5f) is formed, which axis is nonparallel to and does not intersect the saddle assembly shaft (7) axis and also does not intersect the string (29) axis. In the opening (5f) the fine tuning spring (6) is disposed, reaching the opening bottom with one end and with the other—the back wall of the front string saddle (4).
US09330636B1 Turning peg structure equipped with changeable panel
A turning peg structure equipped with changeable faceplate to drive a winding shaft assembly of a string instrument to adjust the tightness of a string. The turning peg structure includes a bracket, at least one first faceplate, at least one second faceplate and a linking rod. The bracket includes a plate and a passage embedded in and run through the plate. The plate includes a first side and a second side opposite to the first side. The first faceplate includes a first connecting portion connected to the first side of the bracket. The second faceplate includes a second connecting portion connected to the second side of the bracket. The linking rod has one end located in the passage and another end engaged with the winding shaft assembly. Through the bracket, the turning peg structure does not lose string adjustment function due to damage thereof.
US09330628B2 Drive circuit, display panel, display device and drive method
A drive circuit of a display panel, a display panel, a display device and a method of driving a display device are provided. The circuit comprises: j select circuits and j data line signal output circuits, j is an integer greater than or equal to 2. Each data line is connected with a select circuit, different data lines are connected with different select circuits, each select circuit is connected with the j data line signal output circuits, each select circuit can control the data line connected therewith to be connected with one of these j data line signal output circuits and to control the data line connected therewith to be disconnected from the other ones of these j data line signal output circuits; so pixels at different locations can be scanned by powering the data lines connected with the pixels using the different data line signal output circuits.
US09330627B2 Self-adaptive multi-region common voltage regulation system and method
The present disclosure discloses a system of self-adaptively adjusting Multi-area common voltage, comprising a plurality of photosensitive devices, for sensing luminous quantity from the different areas so as to obtain and transmit flicker values corresponding to the different areas; a multiplexing element, connected with the plurality of photosensitive devices; a calculation and comparison unit, for continuously receiving the flicker values which are sensed by the plurality of photosensitive devices in a time sequence, calculating actual display condition, and comparing the actual display condition with an optimal display condition; and an common voltage adjusting and outputting unit, connected with the calculation and comparison unit, for adjusting the value of the current output common voltage if the optimal display condition is not met and remaining the value of the current output common voltage unchanged if the optimal display condition is met. The present disclosure can achieve automatically adjustment of the common voltage and thus increase the productivity.
US09330625B2 Maintenance circuit for display panel
A maintenance circuit for a display panel, the display panel being divided by a plurality of source driver integrated circuits into a plurality of partitions(X1-X8) corresponding thereto, wherein each of source driver integrated circuits controls one partition, each four of adjacent partitions form a group of partitions, each of the maintenance circuit units comprises: a first maintenance line(RP1, RP3) and a second maintenance line(RP2, RP4) each provided with a half-turn shape surrounding around a group of partitions corresponding thereto; a first operational amplifier(OP1, OP3) and a second operational amplifier(OP2, OP4), the inverting input terminal of each of which is connected to an output terminal thereof and is connected to a corresponding maintenance line; and a plurality of resistors(R1-R8, L1-L8) selectively connected in accordance with two partitions of the group of the partitions to be maintained, so as to respectively import the two partitions to non-inverting input terminals of the two operational amplifiers via signals outputted from a corresponding source driver integrated circuits, and to feed the signals outputted from the two operational amplifiers back to the corresponding partitions.
US09330619B2 Driving device of display device and driving method thereof
A driver for pixels of a display, having pixels arranged into a plurality of pixel blocks including at least two pixels in a row and at least two pixels in a column is presented. The driver includes a first converter, a second converter, and a frame memory. The first converter receives input image signals for a pixel block of the plurality of pixel blocks and generates compressed image signals by compressing the input image signals based on compression reference image signals. The frame memory stores the compressed image signals. The second converter reads the compressed image signals from the frame memory, and restores the compressed image signals based on compression reference image signals to generate restoration image signals. A compression reference image signal for a first pixel of the pixel block is the restoration image signal for a second pixel of a neighboring pixel block. Compression reference image signals for the remaining pixels in the pixel block are restoration image signals for different pixels in the pixel block.
US09330615B2 Display device with crosstalk level correction
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a display device in which the occurrence of crosstalk can be suppressed. A display device (10) includes a display unit and a separation unit (34). The display unit displays a synthetic image formed by dividing each of a plurality of images that are different from one another and arraying the divisional images thus obtained in a predetermined order. The separation unit (34) separates the plurality of images contained in the synthetic image. The display unit includes a storage unit (54) and a correction unit (52). The storage unit (54) stores crosstalk levels used when gray scale level data of a pixel displaying an image that a viewer is supposed to see, among the plurality of images contained in the synthetic image, are corrected. The correction unit (52) corrects the gray scale level data of the pixel displaying the image that a viewer is supposed to see, by using the crosstalk levels stored in the storage unit (54). The crosstalk levels are set for the case where a viewer is supposed to see images in a plurality of predetermined directions, respectively.
US09330614B2 Method of processing image data for display on a display device, which comprising a multi-primary image display panel
A method of processing image data for display on a display device having a multi-primary image display panel (2) comprises receiving image data constituting an image for display on the image display panel. In a first mode, signal voltages to be applied to sub-pixels of the image display panel are determined from the received image data and from a secondary data value for the pixel thereby to generate luminance variations perceivable at a first viewing position (5) but substantially not perceivable at a second viewing position (3). This provides a private display mode, since the luminance variations perceivable at the first viewing position (5) obscure the image from an observer at the first viewing position, while an observer at the second viewing position (3) is able to perceive the image since the luminance variations are not perceivable (or are substantially not perceivable) at the second viewing position In a second mode, signal voltages to be applied to sub-pixels of the image display panel may be determined just from the received image data thereby to generate an image perceivable at the first viewing position (5) and at the second viewing position (3). This provides a public or wide-view display mode.
US09330612B2 Electrofluidic display pixels
A device cover includes a protective layer and a display layer. The display layer includes a plurality of display pixels. Each display pixel includes a first fluid having a first color characteristic and a second fluid having a second color characteristic.
US09330602B2 Display device that switches light emission states multiple times during one field period
A scan driving circuit includes a shift register unit and a logic circuit unit. The start of a start pulse of an output signal STp+1 of a p+1′th shift register is situated between the start and end of a start pulse of the output signal STp of a p′th shift register, and one each of a first enable signal through a Q′th enable signal exist in sequence between the start of the start pulse of the output signal STp and the start of the start pulse of the output signal STp+1. The operations of a (p′, q)′th NAND circuit are restricted based on period identifying signals, such that the NAND circuit generates scanning signals based only on a portion of the output signal STp corresponding to the first start pulse, the signal obtained by inverting the output signal STp+1, and the q′th enable signal ENq.
US09330595B2 Organic light emitting display device and driving method thereof
An organic light emitting display device is configured to compensate for deterioration of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) included in the device. The organic light emitting display device includes: a plurality of pixels; a timing controller for generating a comparison signal to determine a deterioration degree of an OLED included in each of the pixels; a sensing unit for sensing a deterioration information of the OLED; a supply time controller coupled between data lines and a data driver; a compensation unit for controlling the supply time controller so that a supply time of a data signal varies to correspond to the deterioration information and the comparison signal; and a switching unit coupled to the data lines, the sensing unit, and the supply time controller. The switching unit is configured to selectively couple the data lines to the sensing unit or the supply time controller.
US09330592B2 Pixel structure and display device comprising the same
The present invention discloses a display device comprising the structure. The pixel structure comprises multiple pixel units arranged in a matrix form, and multiple gate lines and data lines for providing drive to the multiple pixel units, wherein the multiple pixel units are scanned progressively in unit of L rows; the L rows of pixel units being simultaneously scanned among the plurality of pixel units are configured as a pixel block; and at least two adjacent rows of pixel units in the L rows of pixel units being used for displaying different images, wherein L≧3. By adopting the pixel structure, the problems of undercharge of a storing capacitor Cs and RC delay of the data lines are alleviated, thus the display uniformity and the display quality of the display device is ensured. The pixel structure is particularly suitable to a large-size ultra-high-resolution display device.
US09330591B2 Data display method and device
A low power display and a method for display in a display device having an Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes AMOLED panel are provided. A display window that includes content to be displayed on the AMOLED panel is determined. Luminance values of pixels constituting the display window are grasped. The pixels having luminance values that are to be adjusted are determined in accordance with a distribution degree of pixels having luminance values that are larger than a reference luminance value. The luminance values of the determined pixels are changed to the reference luminance value, and the display window is displayed on the AMOLED panel with the changed luminance values.
US09330582B1 Motive sign apparatus
A motive sign apparatus for broadcasting a sign up and down and back and forth to gain attention. The motive sign apparatus includes a mobile cart having a housing with side walls; an actuator assembly disposed inside the housing and including an actuator; and a sign support assembly in communication with the actuator.
US09330567B2 Etiquette suggestion
Methods and systems for a complete vehicle ecosystem are provided. Specifically, sensor data, accumulated from one or more sensors of one or more vehicles, is compared to rules or standards. Based on the comparison, a system may generate and provide etiquette suggestions to the one or more vehicles to ensure those vehicles do not create a disruption in the flow of traffic. The one or more vehicles can receive the suggestions and provide the suggestions to a user. The user or the vehicle may decide to act on the suggestion.
US09330561B2 Remote communication systems and methods for communicating with a building gateway control to control building systems and elements
A wearable monitoring device, worn by a user, has one or more sensors which acquire at least one of a user's activities, behaviors and habit information, an antenna and a unique user ID. The monitoring device includes a wireless user interface with a one or more input selection elements, which are accessible by the user to control at least a portion of one or more controllable devices housed in a building. One or more controllable systems or devices are at the building. At least a first portion of the one or more controllable systems or devices have an interface with a receiver in communication with the monitoring device that enables the monitoring device to communicate with the receiver.
US09330559B1 System and method for alarm extension
An alarm extension system that takes an interior alarm condition and extends it to the exterior of a structure. In various embodiments, the present invention is a system and method that links to an existing alarm (smoke detector, burglar alarm, etc.) and activates a flashing mode in one or more exterior lights or an exterior siren. Thus, during an alarm condition within the house or other structure, a neighbor or anyone passing by can become aware of the alarm condition. This method of signaling thus alerts many in the surrounding area of a situation within the building that may require emergency assistance.
US09330556B2 Pneumatic pressure switch
A pneumatic pressure detector comprises a first electrical terminal, a second electrical terminal and a deformable diaphragm configured to deform between first, second and third positions. When the diaphragm is in its first position, the first and second terminals are open. When the diaphragm is in its second position, the first terminal is open and the second terminal is closed. When the diaphragm is in its third position, the first and second terminals are both closed. The pneumatic pressure detector may be connected to a sensor tube.
US09330554B2 Maritime alarm and rescue system and method for controlling said system
Particularly applicable to life jackets and suits, it makes it possible to provide a location and maximum safety of shipwrecked people who have fallen overboard, providing, in the event of a man overboard (MOB) situation, a fast and effective solution, as the alert system continues in its attempt to communicate until a vessel responds with a signal of acknowledgement. The alert system fundamentally stands out due to the location and communication achieved by the DSC calling device and the AIS identification device. For its part, the control process stands out as it allows performing a repetition of search in the localization of the vessels in the immediate vicinity of the own vessel (vessel that the crew member comes from), so that if said own ship does not respond to the emergency call of the shipwrecked person, it communicates with other adjacent vessels.
US09330543B2 Managing serviceability modes
A computer-implemented method, carried out by one or more processors, for managing serviceability modes in a data center. In an embodiment, the method comprises the steps of receiving a serviceability mode selection for a component in a data center, wherein the serviceability mode correlates to information presented by one or more components in the data center; assigning a scheme for one or more LEDs on the component based, at least in part, on the received serviceability mode selection; and determining to activate the one or more LEDs on the component based at least on the assigned scheme.
US09330537B2 Extending presentation of mood-related gaming effects
A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In some embodiments, the operations can include detecting a winning event during a wager cycle a wagering game, which is played using a wagering game machine. In some embodiments, the operations can further include determining gaming activity that occurred before the wager cycle. The operations can further include presenting, based on the gaming activity, a congratulatory gaming effect via an output device of the wagering game machine. In some examples, the presenting of the congratulatory gaming effect occurs during the wager cycle and during one or more later wager cycles.
US09330531B1 System and method for displaying a game using a primary display and communicating alliance information among alliance members using a secondary display
The disclosure relates to systems and methods for communicating a primary display comprising information that facilitates visual presentation of a view of a game space to a primary client device and facilitating communication of alliance information among members of an alliance through a secondary client device such as a user's smartphone. The system may include a game device that allows a user to play a video game or otherwise interact with a virtual environment, and send or receive alliance information using the primary client device and send or receive alliance information using a secondary client device while playing the video game using the primary client device. The primary client device or the secondary client device may also be used to control actions taken by the alliance. Thus, alliance control may be facilitated using either or both of the primary client device and the secondary client device.
US09330529B2 Game terminal configured for interaction with jukebox device systems including same, and/or associated methods
Portable coin-operated video game systems and methods are provided. Portable interactive entertainment devices are removably secured to stands. The portable interactive entertainment devices may be unsecured in response to a user providing currency or a credit card or in response to a remote control signal. The portable interactive entertainment devices may include touch screens and allow users to play video games and access data and devices connected to a local area network and a wide area network.
US09330528B2 Token dispenser system, installation apparatus, and method
A token dispensing system is adapted suitable for installing a token dispenser in a game device. A mounting bracket for the token dispenser provides a simple and inexpensive way to install the token dispenser as part of the token dispensing system inside the housing of a game device. The dispensing system includes an electronic control circuit that controls an alarm device to provide a low level warning signal when the level of tokens in the token dispenser is low and an empty warning signal when the token dispenser is empty. The electronic control circuit controls dispensing tokens from the token dispenser such that a user receives the correct number of tokens even if the dispenser runs out of tokens in the middle of dispensing a selected number of tokens during a transaction.
US09330527B2 Systems, methods and devices for playing wagering games with randomized clumping of symbols
Gaming devices, gaming systems, methods of conducting a wagering game, and computer programs for initiating a wagering game are presented herein. A gaming system is presented that includes a wager input device, a display, and a controller. The wager input device receives wagers from players to play the wagering game. The display displays outcomes of the wagering game. Prior to displaying the outcome of the wagering game, the controller determines whether to add at least one symbol clump to at least one of a plurality of reels. A symbol clump comprises one or more identical symbols occupying two or more symbol positions located immediately adjacent one another on one reel. In response to a determination to add at least one symbol clump, the controller instructs the display to visually indicate the addition of the symbol clump to the reel, and to display the outcome of the wagering game.
US09330523B2 Wagering game machine with biofeedback-aware game presentation
A computerized wagering game system includes a gaming module comprising gaming code which is operable when executed on to conduct a wagering game on which monetary value can be wagered, and a biofeedback module operable to track at least one biometric characteristic of a game player. The wagering game is further operable to alter presentation of the wagering game based on changes in the at least one biometric characteristic. A mood enhancement module is operable to provide energy to a wagering game player at a frequency designed to provide a mood enhancing effect.
US09330517B2 Coin identification system and method using image processing
A coin identification system and method is disclosed for determining the identity of a source coin by way of image processing. The system comprises a source coin image capture means, an image processing means, and an output that relays information to the user or sorts the coin according to its match results. The processing means compares at least one image of the source coin to a plurality of reference coin images, whereby the image of the source coin is manipulated and overlaid onto the reference coin images to determine if a match is available with a given probability. An embodiment of the system employs a coin collection and sorting device. Another embodiment contemplates a handheld electronic device that captures and processes the source coin. Both embodiments may connect to a remote server housing the reference coin information or store the information locally.
US09330516B2 Apparatus for receiving and sorting disks
An apparatus for receiving and sorting disks includes a wheel having at least one well for receiving a disk, a motor coupled to the wheel, a collecting device positioned relative to the wheel, a disk sensor, an ejector, and a controller. The collecting device has at least a first collector and a second collector configured for receiving disks. The disk sensor is configured to detect a value of a parameter of a disk received in the well and generate a parameter value signal. The ejector is coupled to the wheel proximate the well and configured to eject a disk from the well in a plane parallel to a bottom surface of the wheel in response to an eject signal. The controller is operably coupled with the disk sensor and the ejector.
US09330515B1 Disk-type coin processing unit with angled sorting head
Currency processing systems, coin processing machines, and methods of sorting batches of coins are presented herein. A currency processing system is disclosed which includes a housing with a coin input area for receiving coins, and one or more coin receptacles stowed inside the housing. A disk-type coin processing unit is operatively coupled to the coin input area and the coin receptacle(s). The coin processing unit includes a rotatable disk for imparting motion to coins received from the coin input area, and a sorting head having a lower surface generally parallel to and at least partially spaced from the rotatable disk. The lower surface forms a plurality of shaped regions for guiding the coins, under the motion imparted by the rotatable disk, to a plurality of exit stations through which the coins are discharged to the coin receptacle(s). The sorting head and the rotatable disk are obliquely angled with respect to the support surface upon which the housing rests.
US09330514B2 Systems and methods for locking device management
A system for locking device management is disclosed. A server can transmit locking device programming instructions for a locking device to a mobile device based on a locking device programming trigger. The mobile device can search for the locking device and transmit the programming instructions to the locking device via wireless signals. The locking device can communicate with the mobile device via wireless signals and execute the programming instructions.
US09330511B2 Apparatus and methods for identity verification
An identity verification device comprises a cellular telecommunications modem and a fingerprint scanner coupled to the modem, the verification device being configured for storing first fingerprint data in an enrollment process and being operable, in response to the modem receiving a verification command via a cellular telecommunications network, to perform a verification process in which the fingerprint scanner scans a fingerprint to obtain second fingerprint data, the first and second fingerprint data are compared with each other, and in the event of a match between the first and second fingerprint data, the modem transmits a response signal to a predetermined destination via the telecommunications network. The device may be used in a networked telecommunications system in which the electronic transactions may be initiated by smart cards and other devices.
US09330510B2 Electronic key registration method and electronic key registration system
A method for registering an electronic key to a controller of a communication subject includes locating an electronic key ID of a registered electronic key, which is registered to a first controller that was previously installed in the communication subject, based on a communication subject ID unique to the communication subject, and reregistering the registered electronic key to a second controller installed in the communication subject in lieu of the first controller by storing the electronic key ID of the registered electronic key and an encryption code corresponding to the electronic key ID in the second controller.
US09330501B2 Systems and methods for augmenting panoramic image data with performance related data for a building
A system and method for augmenting panoramic images with performance related data for a building are disclosed. The system includes a memory coupled to a processor configured to receive panoramic image data, generate a digital image based on the panoramic image data, and modify the digital image to include a graphical representation of the performance related data. The processor maps performance related data to the coordinate system of the panoramic images such that the graphical representation may be generated without converting the panoramic image data into a high-quality, three-dimensional model in a CAD program. In this way, computer-generated graphical representations of building performance data, such as temperature fields or virtual structures, may be overlaid directly onto a two-dimensional projection of the panoramic image data. In one embodiment, the panoramic image data is a spherical, 360 degree panoramic image captured by a laser scanning device.
US09330492B2 Prediction method, generation method and storage medium
A prediction method generates a fragment number map having a predetermined number of pixels and a mipmap of the fragment number map, and for a pixel of one layer in the mipmap, derives an estimated number of fragments included on average on one light path in a case where ray-bundles for a light transport computation are defined for a corresponding region in a 3D scene corresponding to the pixel, and outputs, as a predicted number of ray-bundle light paths for the computation storable in a predetermined memory region for a pixel of one layer, a value obtained by dividing the size of the memory region by this value. The method derives an estimated number of fragments by adding a compensation value corresponding to a layer of the pixels in the number of fragments which is a pixel value of one pixel.
US09330489B2 Mobile apparatus displaying a 3D image comprising a plurality of layers and display method thereof
A mobile apparatus is provided including a display unit which displays layers in different depth degrees from each other and displays a plurality of layers which are arranged in a depth direction of a screen in 3D images, including a sensing unit to sense movement of the mobile apparatus, and a control unit which controls a plurality of layers according to movement direction and movement distance, when movement of the mobile apparatus moving toward a depth direction of a screen is sensed.
US09330478B2 Augmented reality creation using a real scene
The creation of augmented reality is described using a real scene. In one example, a process includes observing a real scene through a camera of a device, observing a user gesture through the camera of the device, presenting the scene and the gesture on the display of the device, generating a virtual object and placing it in the scene based on the observed user gesture, and presenting the virtual object in the real scene on the display.
US09330474B1 Distinguishing between stock keeping units using a physical dimension of a region depicted in an image
The disclosure includes a system and method for distinguishing between stock keeping units of similar appearance that vary in size. An image recognition application receives an image including a shelving unit stocking a plurality of items, identifies each item in the image, generates a region of interest for each identified item in the image, identifies a physical dimension of a portion of region depicted in the image, determines a dimension of the region of interest for each identified item and the portion of region in pixels, determines a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using the dimension in pixels of the portion of region and the physical dimension of the portion of region depicted in the image, and determines a stock keeping unit identifier of each identified item in the image based on the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and the dimension of the region of interest for each identified item.
US09330471B2 Camera aided motion direction and speed estimation
Methods and devices for camera aided motion direction and speed estimation are disclosed. The method of determining position characteristics of a mobile device comprises capturing a plurality of images that represent views from the mobile device, adjusting perspectives of the plurality of images based at least in part on an orientation of the mobile device, determining a misalignment angle with respect to a direction of motion of the mobile device using the plurality of images, and storing the misalignment angle and the direction of motion in a storage device.
US09330467B2 Timing system and method
A timing system that includes a glyph associated with an object to be timed and at least one camera for capturing images of the glyph or associated object. A computer generates a virtual line, associates the virtual line with at least one of the images, and determines when the glyph or associated object intersects, crosses or has crossed the virtual line. A database records the identity of the glyph and the time that the glyph or associated object intersected or crossed the virtual line. The invention also relates to a related method for determining the time a glyph or object associated therewith passes a predetermined point or line.
US09330465B2 Augmented reality virtual automotive X-ray having service information
A tool for providing a user with information on a particular object related to a position and an orientation of the tool with respect to the object includes an image capturing device configured to capture an image of the object. The tool further includes a position and orientation sensor configured to determine the position of the tool with respect to the object, a processor configured to determine from the image the type of object, a display configured to display the image of the object, the display further configured to display additional information in addition to the image of the object in response to the determination of the type of object, and the processor further configured to determine a change in one of the position and the orientation of the sensor and the tool and further configured to modify the display.
US09330461B2 Image-based method for measuring elasticity of biological tissues and system thereof
The present disclosure proposes an image-based method for measuring elasticity of biological tissues including following steps: obtaining N successive grayscale images of a testing biological tissue, where N is a positive integer; obtaining regions of interest (ROI) of the grayscale images; dividing the regions of interest into a grid of small sections; calculating relative displacement vector of each interrogation window using texture matching method; and calculating elastic modulus of each interrogation window according to the relative displacement vectors. The present disclosure also proposes an image-based system for measuring elasticity of biological tissues. The present disclosure applies to various resolutions of grayscale images obtaining in ultrasound imaging, optical imaging, photoacoustic imaging, CT imaging, magnetic resonance imaging ect. The system can be integrated into a traditional clinical imaging system as an image post-processing software module to characterize tissue elasticity. Because it's no need to update the traditional clinical imaging system hardware, updating cost is low. It's easy to be accepted by hospital and is convenient to popularize.
US09330460B2 Treatment recommending system of plant symptoms, method and non-transitory computer-readable medium
A treatment recommending system of plant symptom includes an operation interface, an image capture unit, a processing unit and a storage unit for storing plant symptom data and diagnostic data. The processing unit may find target contour data presenting a plant part according to symptom description and symptom characteristic data. The image capture unit obtains plant image data corresponding to the target contour data. The processing unit analyzes the plant image data, and coordinates with the symptom characteristic data to determine corresponding treatment recommendation data.
US09330457B2 Device, method, and program for analyzing a magnetic resonance image using phase difference distribution
An image analysis device for analyzing a magnetic resonance image obtained from a living body includes a phase difference distribution creating unit configured to create a phase difference distribution of a magnetic resonance image obtained from a predetermined area of the living body, a fitting unit configured to fit the phase difference distribution created by the phase difference distribution creating unit with a plurality of function groups, and a verifying unit configured to verify normality of the living body included in the predetermined area, based on the magnetic susceptibility of the tissue included in the predetermined area determined on the basis of the parameters of the plurality of function groups fit to the phase difference distribution by the fitting unit.
US09330445B2 Local contrast enhancement method and apparatus
A local enhancement method is provided, including: dividing an image into a plurality of blocks, which include a first block and a second block adjacent to the first block; generating histograms of the blocks respectively; generating enhancement functions of the blocks respectively based on the corresponding histograms, wherein the enhancement functions include at least a first contrast enhancement function of the first block and a second contrast enhancement function of the second block; and for each pixel in the blocks: generating a first enhanced pixel value for a current pixel of the first block based on the first contrast enhancement; generating a second enhanced pixel value for the current pixel of the first block based on the second contrast function of the second block; and generating a final enhanced pixel value for the current pixel based on the first and second enhanced pixel values.
US09330436B2 Multi-camera array with adjacent fields of view
Multiple cameras are arranged in an array at a pitch, roll, and yaw that allow the cameras to have adjacent fields of view such that each camera is pointed inward relative to the array. The read window of an image sensor of each camera in a multi-camera array can be adjusted to minimize the overlap between adjacent fields of view, to maximize the correlation within the overlapping portions of the fields of view, and to correct for manufacturing and assembly tolerances. Images from cameras in a multi-camera array with adjacent fields of view can be manipulated using low-power warping and cropping techniques, and can be taped together to form a final image.
US09330435B2 Bare earth finding and feature extraction for 3D point clouds
Generally discussed herein are systems and apparatuses that relate to systems and methods for analysis of 3D light radar (LiDAR) point clouds. The disclosure also includes techniques of bare earth and feature extraction. According to an example, bare earth and feature extraction can include estimation of a ground layer, generation of an inverse Above Ground Layer (AGL), identification of paths, roads, and cleared areas, identification and removal of buildings, and identification of a Human Activity Layer (HAL). This combination of features may provide for a much higher probability of detection of human activity.
US09330429B2 Scalable watermark insertion for fragmented media stream delivery
A media stream is delineated into multiple fragments. Different watermark variants of individual fragments are generated. Particular sequences of watermark variants are selected for particular clients and maintained in a user access database. Analyzing media streams allows determination of the sequences of watermark variants and identification of particular clients intended to receive the media streams. Fragments can continue to be cached efficiently and unique watermarks need not be generated for each individual client.
US09330425B2 Power profile management
A power profile management method and system. The method includes retrieving by a computer processor input data associated with a user of power consumption devices at a specified location. The computer processor retrieves power consumption data comprising power consumption levels for the power consumption devices. The computer processor generates and transmits a mobile usage portfolio associated said user and the power consumption devices. The computer processor generates a load usage prediction report associated with the user and the power consumption devices. The load usage prediction report is generated based on the mobile usage portfolio and said power consumption data. The computer processor transmits the load usage prediction report to a power provider utility for analysis.
US09330423B2 Method and apparatus for providing a personal value for an individual
A method and apparatus for generating a personal value for a user are disclosed. For example, the method collects data associated with the user, wherein the data that is collected comprises social connection data, enhances the data that is collected, receives a request, and generates a response to the request by using a personal value for the user, where the personal value is generated from the data that is enhanced.
US09330422B2 Conversation analysis of asynchronous decentralized media
The present disclosure provides a system that allows for the real-time and online monitoring of the exchanges between customers and a CRM team over social media. While crawling all messages exchanged over the social media by customers and CRM team, the system aggregates related messages exchanged between a given customer and the CRM team into a conversation. The system includes a linguistic framework for the analysis of conversations (based on the two linguistic theories of dialog acts and conversation analysis) to label the nature of the messages in a conversation or thread.
US09330420B2 Using crowdsourcing to improve sentiment analytics
A method and computer for managing analysis of sentiment is disclosed. A computer retrieves data used to perform the analysis of sentiment. The computer analyzes the data and the analysis of sentiment to determine if a gap exists requiring further processing to improve the analysis of sentiment. Responsive to a determination that the gap exists requiring further processing to improve the analysis of sentiment, the computer generates a task to address the gap. The computer then uses crowdsourcing to submit the generated task for processing.
US09330414B2 Approval system for buyer-initiated requisition modifications
A method of modifying a requisition within approval and budgetary constraints by a procurement organization may include receiving the requisition from a requesting organization, where the requisition may comprise one or more lines, each having been approved by the requesting organization. The method may also include receiving a change to be applied to a first line associated with a first budget allocation, where the change may be received from a buyer in the procurement organization, and the change may be associated with a second budget allocation. The method may additionally include determining that the change violates a threshold, sending the change to the requesting organization for a second approval, receiving, from the requesting organization, an indication as to whether the second approval is granted, and creating a purchase order based on the indication as to whether the second approval is granted.
US09330401B2 Validation of mobile advertising from derived information
A system and method of validating an advertisement presented to an advertisement recipient via a mobile communication device includes presenting an advertisement for a product or service to a recipient via a mobile communication device, monitoring the geospatial location of the mobile communication device relative to some predetermined criteria, and inferring information about the reaction of the advertisement recipient to the advertisement on the basis of the monitored geospatial location information.
US09330397B2 Return coupon holder
A return coupon holder is described for holding a return coupon issued in a store in conjunction with a customer's merchandise return transaction. The return coupon holder is preferably sized large enough to discourage the customer from stowing the coupon away, such as in a handbag. Additionally, holders may be of different types that visually or electronically convey information about a category associated with the customer's return transaction. Thus, salespersons may accordingly provide appropriate customer service to the customer. The holder categories may indicate an approximate dollar value of the return transaction, a type of merchandise returned, a return payment method, an assessment of the profitability of the customer, an assessment of the risk of fraud associated with the return transaction, and the like. A computer decision system may select holder type. Some embodiments of the coupon holder are fitted with a device that allow tracing of the customer's movements while still in the store.
US09330390B2 Securing a driver license service electronic transaction via a three-dimensional electronic transaction authentication protocol
Methods and systems are provided for supporting electronic transactions, including transactions that are provided with per-user, per-device and per-domain security across domains of multiple service providers.
US09330387B2 Alternative payment method for online transactions using interactive voice response
A method for performing payments in remote transactions between a buyer and a vendor is provided. The method includes receiving buyer information from a vendor's network outlet when the buyer indicates a desire to purchase a selection at a later time through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) center; providing a token to the buyer; receiving information about the token from the buyer through the IVR center; verifying the information about the token; transferring funds from a buyer account to a vendor account. Also provided is a system for processing payments in remote transactions including an IVR center to: receive a request for token from a buyer to purchase products from a vendor, and to receive information about the product; provide the token to the buyer; access a database, the database including information from vendor's and buyer's accounts; transfer funds from buyer's account to vendor's account upon buyer confirmation.
US09330381B2 Portable multifunction device, method, and graphical user interface for viewing and managing electronic calendars
In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method is performed at a portable multifunction device with a touch screen display. The touch screen display includes a long axis, a short axis, a portrait view and a landscape view. The computer-implemented method includes executing a calendar application. In response to detecting the portable multifunction device in a first orientation that comprises a substantially vertical orientation of the long axis, a calendar is displayed for a first time period in the portrait view. In response to detecting the portable multifunction device in a second orientation that comprises the substantially vertical orientation of the short axis, a calendar is displayed for a second time period in the landscape view. The second time period is longer than and includes the first time period.
US09330374B2 Source-to-processing file conversion in an electronic discovery enterprise system
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for improved electronic discovery. Embodiments herein disclosed provide for an enterprise-wide e-discovery system that provides for source-to-processing file conversion of electronic communications and, in some embodiments, decryption of encrypted electronic communication entries for the purpose of efficiently processing data and supplying the electronic data to third party data analysis providers.
US09330365B2 Method and system for estimating size and effort of software assurance projects
A method and system is provided for estimating size and effort of software assurance project for distributing the estimated effort across the software assurance project phases. Particularly, the invention provides a method and system for estimating the software assurance project size based on the predefined weight ratios assigned to the test cases after classifying them into simple, medium and complex categories. Further, the invention provides a method and system for utilizing the estimated software assurance project size and organizational baseline productivity information for estimating the software assurance efforts. Further, the invention provides a method and system for distributing the estimated effort across the software assurance project phases.
US09330351B2 Image forming apparatus with recursive memory configured for selectively storing print error logs
An image-forming apparatus to process a job includes volatile memory, non-volatile memory, a judging unit, a calculating unit, a defining unit, and a controller. The volatile memory stores a generated error log using a memory area. The non-volatile memory stores information for identifying an overwrite restricted error. The judging unit judges whether a generated error is a particular error. The calculating unit calculates remaining memory which is changed by a subsequent error log being written secured, with a position where a particular error log is written in the volatile memory as a reference, where the error is the particular error. The defining unit defines an acquisition level of an error log in a stepwise manner based on the calculated remaining memory. The controller outputs an error log to an apparatus according to the defined acquisition level being a particular level at which an error log has to be output.
US09330346B2 Printing device, printing method for printing device, and print medium
A printing device includes a labeling information forming unit which, on a print medium where a dot group is printed in advance, selectively turns a dot of the dot group into a non-display state and thereby forms labeling information including a dot pattern.
US09330340B1 Noise estimation for images using polynomial relationship for pixel values of image features
Implementations relate to estimating noise in images using a polynomial relationship for pixel values of image features. In some implementations, a computer-implemented method to estimate noise in an image includes determining a plurality of patches of pixels in the image. For each patch of pixels, the method determines feature pixels in the patch that are included in a particular image feature at least partially depicted in the patch. The method determines an error estimate for each patch of pixels, where each error estimate is based on an amount by which pixel values of the feature pixels in the patch of pixels are different from an estimated polynomial relationship between the feature pixels in the patch of pixels. One of the error estimates is selected as a noise level estimate for the image.
US09330327B2 Image capture and identification system and process
A digital image of the object is captured and the object is recognized from plurality of objects in a database. An information address corresponding to the object is then used to access information and initiate communication pertinent to the object.
US09330316B2 Sensor location and logical mapping system
A system to locate and map a data collection device includes at least one image. The image may be included with a subsystem or a component monitored by the system. A data collection device, such as a smart sensor, is configured to detect a stimulus and to capture the at least one image. The smart sensor is further configured to output an image signal indicating the at least one image. A main control module is in electrical communication with the at least one smart sensor. The main control module is configured to determine the image based on the image signal, and compare the at least one image to a stored image. The main control module is further configured to authenticate the at least one image in response to the at least one image matching the stored image.
US09330315B2 Determining foregroundness of an object in surveillance video data
A computer identifies a proto-object in a digital image using a background subtraction method, the proto-object being associated with a lighting artifact in the surveillance region. The background subtraction method preserves boundary details and interior texture details of proto-objects associated with lighting artifacts. A plurality of characteristics of the proto-object digital data are determined, the characteristics, individually or in combination, distinguish a proto-object related to a lighting artifact from its background. A learning machine, trained with the plurality of characteristics of proto-objects classified as either foreground or not foreground, determines a likelihood that the plurality of characteristics is associated with a foreground object.
US09330312B2 Multispectral detection of personal attributes for video surveillance
Techniques, systems, and articles of manufacture for multispectral detection of attributes for video surveillance. A method includes generating one or more training sets of one or more multispectral images, generating a group of one or more multispectral box features, using the one or more training sets to select one or more of the one or more multispectral box features to generate a multispectral attribute detector, and using the multispectral attribute detector to identify a location of an attribute in video surveillance, wherein using the multispectral attribute detector comprises, for one or more locations on each spectral band level of the multispectral image, applying the multispectral attribute detector and producing an output indicating attribute detection or an output indicating no attribute detection, and wherein the attribute corresponds to the multispectral attribute detector.
US09330309B2 Correcting writing data generated by an electronic writing device
In embodiments of correcting writing data generated by an electronic writing device, an electronic writing device includes a positional sensor configured to sense movement of the electronic writing device when the device is used to write on a writing surface, and to generate writing data corresponding to the movement of the electronic writing device. The device also includes a correction component that is configured to correct each sample of writing data using rotation data generated by a gyroscope. To do so, the correction component calculates an offset angle of the electronic writing device relative to a reference axis of the positional sensor based at least in part on the rotation data generated by the gyroscope. The correction component then determines a correction angle based on the offset angle, and adjusts the sample of writing data by applying the correction angle to the sample of the writing data.
US09330298B2 Face impression analyzing method, aesthetic counseling method, and face image generating method
The face impression analyzing device (100) includes a facial form acquiring unit (10), a face component analyzing unit (50), a face impression determining unit (60), and a storage unit (70). The facial form acquiring unit (10) acquires facial form information representing a form of a face surface of a subject. The storage unit (70) stores one or more feature values obtained by applying multivariate analysis to target population face information representing three-dimensional forms of facial surfaces of a target population formed by a plurality of persons, and tendency information indicating an impression tendency of a facial shape associated with each of the one or more feature values. The face component analyzing unit (50) calculates an amount of revelation of each of the one or more feature values of the face of the subject on the basis of the facial form information of the subject, and the feature value extracted from the target population face information. The face impression determining unit (60) refers to the storage unit (70), and acquires the impression tendency of the face of the subject or the degree of the impression tendency on the basis of the feature value of the face of the subject and the amount of revelation of the feature value.
US09330297B2 Methods and systems for video-based chew counting via feature tracking
A system and method of video-based chew counting by receiving image frames from a video camera, determining feature points within the image frames from the video camera, generating a motion signal based on movement of the feature points across the image frames from the video camera, and determining a chew count based on the motion signal.
US09330289B2 Communication apparatus and computer program product
Disclosed is a communication apparatus comprising: a communication section which performs communication in an ASK modulation format with an RFID tag; and a control section which sets a modulation degree of the ASK modulation of the communication section to a large degree when polling of the RFID tag is performed by the communication section and which sets the modulation degree to a small degree when response information is received from the RFID tag through the communication section.
US09330284B1 Broadcast refresh of RFID tag persistence
A reader may broadcast a refresh command to a population or subpopulation of tags and thereby refresh and extend the persistence time of a tag flag, such as an inventoried flag. The characteristics, timing, and other details of this broadcast refresh command may be determined based on the state of a reader, environmental, tag-population, and/or tag-capability conditions and parameters. The refresh command may be a Select command of the Gen2 Specification, in which case parameters of the Select command specify the refresh operation.
US09330278B1 Service profiles for associating data services with applications
Service profiles for associating data services with applications are described, including receiving a first input from a user identifying a first service to include in a service profile; receiving a second input from the user identifying a second service to include in the service profile, the second service is associated with the user; receiving a third input from the user defining one or more boundaries of one or more of the first service and the second service; receiving a fourth input from the user indicating association of the service profile with one of the at least one application; storing the service profile with information of the first service, the second service, and the association with the one of the at least one application; and based on the service profile, determining whether to grant access to the first service and second service by the at least one application.
US09330265B2 Method for component access control and electronic device
Disclosed are a method for component access control and electronic device. The method comprises: acquiring a target component list corresponding to the first application, which list includes at least one target component required by the first application, with the at least one target component belonging to at least one basic component; after a component selection command is received, generating information about those basic components accessible by the first application from the target component list according to the component selection command; and storing the information about those basic components accessible by the first application. In the present solution, it is unnecessary to set access to all the component when applying for an application; rather, those component accessible by the application can be controlled during the installation or use of the application according to system or user requirements, thereby increasing the flexibility of the application in accessing components and reducing the probability of the user privacy being stolen.
US09330258B1 Systems and methods for identifying uniform resource locators that link to potentially malicious resources
A computer-implemented method for identifying URLs that link to potentially malicious resources may include (1) compiling a set of URLs that link to at least one potentially malicious resource, (2) identifying a common pattern of characters included in the set of URLs that link to the potentially malicious resource, (3) deriving a regular expression capable of being used to identify additional URLs that link to one or more potentially malicious resources based at least in part on the common pattern of characters, and then (4) identifying at least one additional URL that links to at least one potentially malicious resource by (i) applying the regular expression to the additional URL and then (ii) determining that the additional URL links to the potentially malicious resource based at least in part on applying the regular expression to the additional URL. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09330252B2 Password check by decomposing password
A proposed password is decomposed into basic components to determine and score transitions between the basic components and create a password score that measures the strength of the proposed password based on rules, such as concatenation, insertion, and replacement. The proposed password is scored against all known words, such as when a user is first asked to create a password for an account or access. The proposed password can also be scored against one or more previous passwords for the user, such as when the user is asked to change the user's previous password, to determine similarity between the two passwords.
US09330251B1 Authenticating ferroelectric random access memory (F-RAM) device and method
A memory device including a ferroelectric memory array is described. In one embodiment, the ferroelectric memory array includes a user memory space. The memory device includes control logic configured to provide external read and write access for a host system to the user memory space upon authentication between the host system and the memory device. The host system accesses the user memory space and communicates with the control logic through address, data and control buses. The memory device further includes memory interface configured to interface between the address, data and control buses and the control logic, and through which the host system communicates with the control logic, and a cipher engine in communication with the control logic and the memory interface, the cipher engine comprising a random number generator and an encryption/decryption block. Other embodiments are also described.
US09330250B2 Authorization of media content transfer between home media server and client device
A method for authorizing media content transfer between a home media server and a client device and provisioning DRM credentials on the client device, the method comprising receiving a service authorization credential at a client authorization server from a PKI provisioning server, wherein the service authorization credential is associated with a client device, and sending a validation response from the client authorization server to the PKI provisioning server if the client authorization server determines that the service authorization credential was previously provided by the client authorization server to the client device, wherein the validation response releases the PKI provisioning server to send DRM credentials to the client device.
US09330237B2 Pattern recognition and filtering in a therapy management system
A method of diabetes analysis includes receiving a plurality of glucose level readings for a user. A common event occurrence in at least two of the glucose level readings is determined. The at least two glucose level readings from the common event occurrence onwards in time for a time period is analyzed. A glucose level pattern formed by the at least two glucose level readings having a similar shape is determined. At least one anomalous glucose level reading having the similar shape and not conforming to the glucose level pattern is analyzed. The at least one anomalous glucose level reading is adapted to the pattern to form an adapted glucose level pattern. An insulin dosage for the time period beginning at the common event occurrence is calculated based on the adapted glucose level pattern.
US09330235B2 System and method for providing access to electronically stored medical information
A method and system for storing medical information of an individual with a service provider and providing access to that medical information to medical providers remotely. An individual's medical information may be accessed by medical providers after being authenticated by the service provider and used to pre-register or register the individual so the individual receives faster medical treatment. Access to the medical information is monitored to prevent unauthorized access and to store time and location when medical information is accessed by a medical provider. The medical information may be accessed by a mobile software application that allows the medical provider to scan a machine-readable medium linked to the individual's medical information stored by the service provider.
US09330234B1 Method, apparatus and computer program to provide access to client records and data resources
A method, computer program and apparatus are disclosed that include accessing client data records, such as, medical records. The method for may include, for example, receiving a data file at a file server comprising client records information. The method may also include forwarding the file to a database and adding the file to a record in the database, creating a database file and storing the database file on the file server, and scheduling a call to at least one client, the call including a portion of the information included in the received data file. The method may further provide performing the call, monitoring the call, and may also include updating the client records information stored in the database based on the additional information provided by the at least one client.
US09330230B2 Validating a cabling topology in a distributed computing system
Validating a cabling topology in a distributed computing system comprised of cabled nodes connected using data communications cables, each cabled node characterized by cabling dimensions, each cable corresponding to one of the cabling dimensions, includes: receiving a selection from a user of at least one cabled node for topology validation; identifying, for each cabling dimension for each selected cabled node, a shortest cabling path; determining, for each cabling dimension, whether the number of cabled nodes in the shortest cabling path for each selected cabled node match; and if, for each cabling dimension, the number of cabled nodes in the shortest cabling path for each selected cabled node match: selecting, for each cabling dimension, the number of cabled nodes in the shortest cabling path as a representative value for the cabling dimension, calculating a product of the representative values, and determining whether the product equals the number of selected cabled nodes.
US09330226B1 Modeling substrate noise coupling for circuit simulation
Aspects of the disclosed techniques relate to techniques for modeling substrate noise coupling. Electrical impedance between two contacts in the presence of one or more other contacts is modeled based on a horizontal impedance model and an L-shaped impedance model. The one or more other contacts may be clustered together in four regions first and then are represented by the horizontal impedance model and/or the L-shaped impedance model. The electrical impedance is inserted into netlist for circuit simulation.
US09330214B2 Phase noise reduction in voltage controlled oscillators
A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a method of designing a voltage controlled oscillator, and a design structure comprising a semiconductor substrate including a voltage controlled oscillator are disclosed. In one embodiment, the VCO comprises an LC tank circuit for generating an oscillator output at an oscillator frequency, and an oscillator core including cross-coupled semiconductor devices to provide feedback to the tank circuit. The VCO further comprises a supply node, a tail node, and a noise by-pass circuit connected to the supply and tail nodes, in parallel with the tank circuit and the oscillator core. The by-pass circuit forms a low-impedance path at a frequency approximately twice the oscillator frequency to at least partially immunize the oscillator core from external noise and to reduce noise contribution from the cross-coupled semiconductor devices.
US09330211B2 Simulation system for implementing computing device models in a multi-simulation environment
An embodiment of a simulation tool includes a path determiner and a simulator. The path determiner is configured to identify a first communication path between first and second devices of a system, and the simulator is configured to simulate a routing of a first item from one of the first and second devices to the other of the first and second devices via the identified path. The path determiner may also be configured to identify the communication path before the simulator simulates the routing of the item, or to identify the communication path while the simulator is inactive.
US09330203B2 Real-time event feedback
Methods, systems and devices are provided for presenting event feedback information regarding participants to an event. A first radio of a first participant device carried by a first participant receives a first checkpoint communication from a checkpoint device at a first checkpoint located along a first course of the event. The first checkpoint communication includes a first checkpoint identifier and a first event time reflecting when the first participant crossed the first checkpoint. A first checkpoint event time is determined based upon the first checkpoint identifier and the first event time. Also, the first checkpoint event time is displayed on the first participant device. Further, a checkpoint device and an event server may be used to in presenting the event feedback information.
US09330199B2 Striping of directed graphs and nodes with improved functionality
Embodiments are disclosed for striping a directed graph, e.g., a social graph, so as to efficiently perform an operation to each node in the directed graph. At least some of the embodiments can select first and second sets of nodes from the directed graph to form first and second stripes. The first and second sets of nodes are selected, for example, based on available computing resources. First and second intermediate results can be generated by performing the operation to each node of the first and the second stripes, respectively. The operation iteratively performs a superstep. The first and the second intermediate results are combined to form a collective result as an output of the superstep.