Document	Document Title
US09350017B2	High performance lithium or lithium ion cell Disclosed herein are lithium or lithium-ion batteries that employ an aluminum or aluminum alloy current collector protected by conductive coating in combination with electrolyte containing aluminum corrosion inhibitor and a fluorinated lithium imide or methide electrolyte which exhibit surprisingly long cycle life at high temperature.
US09350016B2	Composite anode active material, method of preparing the same, and lithium battery including the composite anode active material In an aspect, a composite anode active material including a lithium titanium oxide; and phosphates, a method of preparing the composite anode active material, and a lithium battery including the composite anode active material is provided.
US09350012B2	Rechargeable organosodium polymer battery Technologies are generally described for electrochemical cells and batteries containing electrochemical cells. An electrochemical cell may incorporate two types of conducting polymers each located at an electrode, a cation, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon radical anion that contacts one of the conducting polymers, and an electrolyte. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon radical anion may be a covalent substituent of one of the conducting polymers or may be in noncovalent contact with one of the conducting polymers. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon radical anion may permit the use of cations other than lithium, e.g. an alkali metal cation such as sodium or alkali earth metal cation such as calcium. Such an electrochemical cell may provide alternative batteries to existing lithium ion batteries, permitting the use of cations that may be more abundant, more easily extracted, or more sustainable compared to known lithium supplies.
US09350001B2	Battery pack for a lithium polymer Battery A polymer battery pack assembly comprising a mounting frame having a first cavity defining a first mounting location and a second cavity defining a second mounting location, the first and second cavities being separated from each other; a top case mounted on the second mounting location, the top case having a third cavity defining a third mounting location; a lithium polymer battery cell mounted within the first mounting location, the battery cell having a positive tap and a negative tap extending beyond the first cavity towards the second mounting location; and a protection circuit module mounted in the third mounting location, the protection circuit module being electrically connected to the positive tap and the negative tap when the top case is mounted to the mounting frame such that the protection circuit module fits into said second cavity.
US09349993B2	Film for improving color display and method for manufacturing the same, and display apparatus including improved color display film Provided are a color display film, a method for manufacturing the same, and a display apparatus including the color display film. The color display film includes a base material layer, a high-refractive light diffusion layer including a light diffuser, a high-refractive resin layer, and a low-refractive resin layer on which an optical pattern is formed. The method for manufacturing a color display film includes forming a high-refractive light diffusion layer by coating a resin comprising a diffuser on one surface of a base material layer and hardening the resin, forming a high-refractive resin layer, in which optical patterns are formed, on one surface of the high-refractive light diffusion layer, and forming a low-refractive resin layer having optical patterns formed on one surface thereof by coating a low-refractive transparent resin on a surface of the high-refractive resin layer in which the optical patterns are formed and hardening the resin.
US09349992B2	Methods of forming an organic scattering layer, an organic light emitting diode with the scattering layer, and a method of fabricating the organic light emitting Provided is a method of fabricating an organic scattering layer. The method may include providing a deposition apparatus with a reaction chamber and a source chamber, loading a substrate in the reaction chamber, supplying carrier gas into the source chamber that may be configured to supply an evaporated organic source material into the reaction chamber, a temperature of the carrier gas ranging from 25° C. to 50° C., and spraying the carrier gas and the evaporated organic source material into the reaction chamber through a showerhead to deposit an organic scattering layer on the substrate, the organic scattering layer including organic particles, which may be provided in a molecularized form of the evaporated organic source material, and thereby having an uneven surface.
US09349989B2	Organic luminescence emitting display device and method of manufacturing the same An organic light emitting display apparatus including an organic light-emitting unit formed on a substrate; a moisture absorbing layer formed on the organic light-emitting unit; and at least one inorganic layer, which is formed on the moisture absorbing layer and includes a low temperature viscosity transition (LVT) inorganic material.
US09349987B2	Method of manufacturing OLED display apparatus An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the OLED display apparatus, the apparatus includes anode electrodes having different thicknesses for different types of sub-pixels.
US09349986B2	OLED display device, method for manufacturing the same, and OLED display apparatus The present disclosure provides an OLED display device, a method for manufacturing the same, and an OLED display apparatus. The OLED device includes: a base substrate, an anode layer, a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, a light emitting material layer, an electron transport layer, an electron injection layer, a cathode layer and a packaging layer, wherein the hole injection layer, the hole transport layer, the electron transport layer and/or the electron injection layer are doped with a water-absorbing organic compound and an oxygen-absorbing organic compound.
US09349985B2	Display device A display device includes a circuit substrate that is formed of a plurality of layers including a light control element; a counter substrate that faces a surface of the circuit substrate on which the light control element is disposed, with a gap therebetween; a seal that is disposed between the circuit substrate and the counter substrate to surround the light control element; and a filler with which a sealed space surrounded by at least the circuit substrate, the counter substrate, and a sealing surface of the seal is filled. The sealing surface includes internal angle corner surfaces formed by an inner surface of the seal, and a convex surface formed adjacent to the corner surfaces from at least one of the circuit substrate, the counter substrate, and the seal.
US09349984B2	Encapsulation structure and encapsulating method of OLED device An encapsulation structure for OLED device comprises a glass substrate, a glass cover plate, an OLED device and a sealing layer. The glass substrate has a recessed portion, the glass cover plate is located at an opening of the recessed portion, and a periphery of the glass cover plate and the glass substrate are bonded through a frit barricade formed by melted glass powders, so that the glass cover plate and the glass substrate have an integral structure, a closed cavity is formed by the glass cover plate and the recessed portion, and both the OLED device and the sealing layer are located within the closed cavity. With the above encapsulation structure, water vapor and oxygen gas can be prevented from entering the OLED device, and service life of the OLED device is prolonged. There is further disclosed an encapsulating method.
US09349981B2	Substrate for organic electronic device Provided are a substrate for an organic electronic device (OED), an organic electronic system, a method of manufacturing the substrate or the system, and lighting. The substrate for an OED may be increased in durability by preventing penetration of an external material such as moisture or oxygen, and thus an organic electronic system having excellent light extraction efficiency may be formed. In addition, since the substrate may be stably attached to an encapsulating structure sealing the organic electronic system, the device may have excellent durability with respect to abrasion of an electrode layer or pressure applied from an external environment. In addition, a surface hardness of an external terminal of the organic electronic system may be maintained at a suitable level.
US09349970B2	Quantum dot-fullerene junction based photodetectors A photodetector includes one or more photodiodes and a signal processing circuit. Each photodiode includes a transparent first electrode, a second electrode, and a heterojunction interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. Each heterojunction includes a quantum dot layer and a fullerene layer disposed directly on the quantum dot layer. The signal processing circuit is in signal communication each the second electrode. The photodetector may be responsive to wavelengths in the infrared, visible, and/or ultraviolet ranges. The quantum dot layer may be treated with a chemistry that increases the charge carrier mobility of the quantum dot layer.
US09349963B2	Photoelectric conversion element and solid-state imaging apparatus A photoelectric conversion material is provided and includes an organic material having an absorbing coefficient of about 1.5×105 (cm−1) or more and that is represented by the following formula (1). In the formula (1), each of R1 to R20, and each of X1 to X8 is one of a hydrogen atom and a substituent.
US09349962B2	Composition for an active layer or electrode of photovoltaic cells A composition including a graft copolymer, having: a linear trunk including at least one non-aromatic vinyl polymer or an unsaturated polyolefin; and at least two grafts attached to said trunk via a chemical bond, each graft having a conjugated polymer, characterized in that said composition further includes: fullerenes and a conjugated polymer; or carbon and/or graphene nanotubes. Also, a photovoltaic module incorporating such a composition, and to the use of said composition for the same purposes. Finally, methods for synthesizing the molecules forming all or part of the composition.
US09349960B2	Compounds and polymers which contain substituted indenofluorene derivatives as structural unit, process for the preparation thereof, and the use thereof as electronic devices and mixtures and solutions The present invention relates to polymers which contain substituted indenofluorene derivatives as structural unit, to substituted indenofluorene derivatives, to a process for the preparation of the polymers according to the invention, to mixtures and solutions which comprise the polymers according to the invention, and to the use of the polymers according to the invention in electronic devices, in particular in organic electroluminescent devices, so-called OLEDs (OLED=organic light emitting diode).
US09349958B2	Use of zwitterionic molecules for forming a hole or electron transport layer The invention relates to the use of zwitterionic molecules for forming a hole or electron transport layer. The preferred zwitterionic molecules of the invention are derivatives of p-benzoquinonemonoimines. The invention is useful in the field of electronic devices in particular.
US09349955B2	Patterning method for OLEDs Methods of fabricating a device having laterally patterned first and second sub-devices, such as subpixels of an OLED, are provided. Exemplary methods may include depositing via organic vapor jet printing (OVJP) a first organic layer of the first sub-device and a first organic layer of the second sub-device. The first organic layer of the first sub-device and the first organic layer of the second sub-device are both the same type of layer, but have different thicknesses. The type of layer is selected from an ETL, an HTL, an HIL, a spacer and a capping layer.
US09349953B2	Resistance variable memory structure and method of forming the same A semiconductor structure includes a memory region. A memory structure is disposed on the memory region. The memory structure includes a first electrode, a resistance variable layer, protection spacers and a second electrode. The first electrode has a top surface and a first outer sidewall surface on the memory region. The resistance variable layer has a first portion and a second portion. The first portion is disposed over the top surface of the first electrode and the second portion extends upwardly from the first portion. The protection spacers are disposed over a portion of the top surface of the first electrode and surround the second portion of the resistance variable layer. The protection spacers are configurable to protect at least one conductive path in the resistance variable layer. The protection spacers have a second outer sidewall surface substantially aligned with the first outer sidewall surface of the first electrode.
US09349945B2	Memory cells, semiconductor devices, and methods of fabrication A magnetic cell includes magnetic, secondary oxide, and getter seed regions. During formation, a diffusive species is transferred from a precursor magnetic material to the getter seed region, due to a chemical affinity elicited by a getter species. The depletion of the magnetic material enables crystallization of the depleted magnetic material through crystal structure propagation from a neighboring crystalline material, without interference from the now-enriched getter seed region. This promotes high tunnel magnetoresistance and high magnetic anisotropy strength. Also during formation, another diffusive species is transferred from a precursor oxide material to the getter seed region, due to a chemical affinity elicited by another getter species. The depletion of the oxide material enables lower electrical resistance and low damping in the cell structure. Methods of fabrication and semiconductor devices are also disclosed.
US09349943B2	Hall sensor semiconductor component and method for operating the hall sensor semiconductor component The Hall sensor semiconductor component comprises an arrangement of at least two Hall sensors (1, 2) with signal connections (11, 13, 21, 23) and supply connections (12, 14, 22, 24), and a switching network, which varies the positions of the supply connections in successive phases and connects the Hall sensors in series in each phase via the respective signal connections.
US09349940B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a magnetic shield plate, a semiconductor element, a sealing layer, and a magnetic shield film. The magnetic shield plate includes a plate portion disposed along the substrate, inclined portions extending in obliquely upward directions from opposite edges of the plate portion, and arcuate portions disposed at tip ends of the inclined portions. The semiconductor element is mounted on the plate portion. The sealing layer seals the semiconductor element and the plate portion and the inclined portions of the magnetic shield plate. At least a part of each of the arcuate portions is exposed on a surface of the sealing layer. The magnetic shield film covers an upper surface of the sealing layer and is in contact with each of the arcuate portions.
US09349937B2	Drive circuit including connection path selection sections and voltage generation section A drive circuit is adapted to charge and discharge a first capacitive load and a second capacitive load. The drive circuit includes a first connection path selection section, a second connection path selection section and a voltage generation section. The first connection path selection section is configured to selectively supply a plurality of voltages to the first capacitive load. The first connection path selection section is arranged so as to correspond to the first capacitive load. The second connection path selection section is configured to selectively supply a plurality of voltages to the second capacitive load. The second connection path selection section is arranged so as to correspond to the second capacitive load. The voltage generation section is configured to generate and supply the voltages shared by the first connection path selection section and the second connection path selection section.
US09349933B2	Vertical thermoelectric structures A thermoelectric device is disclosed which includes metal thermal terminals protruding from a top surface of an IC, connected to vertical thermally conductive conduits made of interconnect elements of the IC. Lateral thermoelectric elements are connected to the vertical conduits at one end and heatsinked to the IC substrate at the other end. The lateral thermoelectric elements are thermally isolated by interconnect dielectric materials on the top side and field oxide on the bottom side. When operated in a generator mode, the metal thermal terminals are connected to a heat source and the IC substrate is connected to a heat sink. Thermal power flows through the vertical conduits to the lateral thermoelectric elements, which generate an electrical potential. The electrical potential may be applied to a component or circuit in the IC. The thermoelectric device may be integrated into an IC without adding fabrication cost or complexity.
US09349931B2	Resin composition, resin sheet, cured resin sheet, resin sheet laminate, cured resin sheet laminate and method for producing same, semiconductor device and LED device The present invention provides a resin composition including an epoxy resin monomer, a novolac resin containing a compound having a structural unit represented by the following general Formula (I), and a filler, in which a particle size distribution of the filler, measured using laser diffractometry, has peaks in the respective ranges of from 0.01 μm to less than 1 μm, from 1 μm to less than 10 μm, and from 10 μm to 100 μm, and the filler contains boron nitride particles having particle sizes of from 10 μm to 100 μm. In the general Formula (I), R1 represents an alkyl group, an aryl group, or an aralkyl group. Each of R2 and R3 independently represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, aryl group, or an aralkyl group. m represents a number from 0 to 2; and n represents a number from 1 to 7.
US09349930B2	LED module and lighting assembly Disclosed are a light emitting diode (LED) module and a lighting assembly. The lighting assembly comprises a light emitting device, a driver integrated circuit device for driving the light emitting device, a heat sink for dissipating heat generated from the light emitting device, and a heat shielding portion for blocking thermal interference between the driver integrated circuit device and the light emitting device. In the LED module, the driver integrated circuit device is disposed on the heat shielding portion. Accordingly, it is possible to block thermal interference between the light emitting device and the driver integrated circuit device and to decrease the size of the lighting assembly.
US09349917B2	Photoconductive antenna, terahertz wave generating device, camera, imaging device, and measuring device A photoconductive antenna is adapted to generate terahertz waves when irradiated by pulsed light. The photoconductive antenna includes a semiconductor layer, a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer, a first electrode and a second electrode. The first conductive layer is disposed on a first surface of the semiconductor layer. The second conductive layer is disposed on the first surface of the semiconductor layer with a prescribed gap being formed between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer. The first electrode is electrically connected to the first conductive layer. The second electrode is electrically connected to the second conductive layer. The first conductive layer contains a first conductive type impurity. The second conductive layer contains a second conductive type impurity. The semiconductor layer has a carrier density lower than a carrier density of the first conductive layer or a carrier density of the second conductive layer.
US09349916B2	Semiconductor light emitting device having patterns A semiconductor light emitting device includes a substrate structure; a semiconductor layer disposed on the substrate structure, the semiconductor layer including a light emitting layer; and an electrode formed on a surface of the semiconductor layer, wherein a relatively coarse uneven portion and a relatively fine uneven portion are formed by a frost process on a surface of the semiconductor layer at a side of the electrode.
US09349914B2	Light emitting device and light emitting device package Disclosed are a light emitting device and a light emitting device package. The light emitting device includes a first conductive semiconductor layer, an active layer on the first conductive semiconductor layer, and a second conductive semiconductor layer on the active layer. The active layer includes (T+1) barrier layers, T well layers between the (T+1) barrier layers, and a first dummy layer between N well layers adjacent to the second conductive semiconductor layer and N barrier layers adjacent to the N well layers, in which T>N≧1.
US09349906B2	Anneal techniques for chalcogenide semiconductors Techniques for precisely controlling the composition of volatile components (such as sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tin (Sn)) of chalcogenide semiconductors in real-time—during production of the material are provided. In one aspect, a method for forming a chalcogenide semiconductor material includes providing a S source(s) and a Se source(s); heating the S source(s) to form a S-containing vapor; heating the Se source(s) to form a Se-containing vapor; passing a carrier gas first through the S-containing vapor and then through the Se-containing vapor, wherein the S-containing vapor and the Se-containing vapor are transported via the carrier gas to a sample; and contacting the S-containing vapor and the Se-containing vapor with the sample under conditions sufficient to form the chalcogenide semiconductor material. A multi-chamber processing apparatus is also provided.
US09349902B2	System and method for reducing irregularities on the surface of a backside illuminated photodiode System and method for processing a semiconductor device surface to reduce dark current and white pixel anomalies. An embodiment comprises a method applied to a semiconductor or photodiode device surface adjacent to a photosensitive region, and opposite a side having circuit structures for the device. A doped layer may optionally be created at a depth of less than about 10 nanometers below the surface of the substrate and may be doped with a boron concentration between about 1E13 and 1E16. An oxide may be created on the substrate using a temperature sufficient to reduce the surface roughness below a predetermined roughness threshold, and optionally at a temperature between about 300° C. and 500° C. and a thickness between about 1 nanometer and about 10 nanometers. A dielectric may then be created on the oxide, the dielectric having a refractive index greater than a predetermined refractive threshold, optionally at least about 2.0.
US09349901B2	Solar cell apparatus and method of fabricating the same A solar cell apparatus according to the embodiment includes a support substrate; a back electrode layer on the support layer; a light absorbing layer on the back electrode layer; a first buffer layer having first conductivity on the light absorbing layer; a second buffer layer having second conductivity on the first buffer layer; and a window layer on the second buffer layer.
US09349899B2	Modular solar systems facilitating rapid assembly A solar system for collecting solar energy, adapted to be rapidly assembled on site. The modular solar system includes a solar energy collector-assembly, having two wings of collectors, arranged in at least one row. The modular solar system further includes an energy-receiving-module, having a receiver unit, adapted to absorb the solar energy, a shaft, a support structure, a stand, disposed on rigid surface, a control-subsystem, a motor and a sun-following mechanism coupled to operate with the control-subsystem. The receiver unit has a diameter dr, wherein collected energy directed at the external surface of the receiver unit forms a pair of solar energy strips, each strip having a width de, such that de
US09349898B2	Optical system provided with aspherical lens for generating electrical energy in a photovoltaic way Disclosed is an optical system for concentrating effective light the wavelength whereof is comprised between two limit values (λi, λs), comprising: an aspheric lens adapted for receiving and refracting the sunlight and provided with a convex lower portion defining a lower face with curved profile consisting of a predetermined number of curvatures with common tangency points in the contact points between two contiguous curvatures and which therefore provides for different focal points, each one corresponding to a wavelength value of effective light, comprised within the range defined by two focal points (fi, fs) respectively corresponding to said limit values (λi, λs); an optical manifold with tapered shape, internally hollow and provided with an internal reflecting surface; said manifold extending from a larger base, facing said lower portion of the aspheric lens, to a smaller base and being adapted for receiving the effective light therein, focused by said aspheric lens, and for reflecting the effective light portion that does not directly hit the receiving surface interfaced with the smaller base of said optical manifold; and a photovoltaic cell facing the smaller base of the manifold and provided with a predetermined number of respectively superimposed layers, each layer being intended for absorbing light rays of predetermined wavelengths coming from a corresponding capture area of the aspheric lens and/or from the manifold, so as to have on said photovoltaic cell, a distribution of light energy with a predetermined homogeneity level.
US09349892B2	Solar cell module A solar cell module includes a solar cell panel which includes multiple solar cells, a bus bar being disposed at a side of the solar cell panel, an external interconnection cable including a bypass diode, and connected to the bus bar, and a case including an inner space for accommodating the solar cell panel and the external interconnection cable.
US09349887B2	Three-dimensional thin-film solar cells A three-dimensional thin-film solar cell comprising a three-dimensional thin-film solar cell substrate having a prism array design comprising a plurality dual-aperture unit cells with emitter junction regions and doped base regions. The three-dimensional thin-film solar cell comprises emitter metallization regions and base metallization regions.
US09349885B2	Multilayer transparent electroconductive film and method for manufacturing same, as well as thin-film solar cell and method for manufacturing same A multilayer transparent electroconductive film is obtained by stacking a transparent electroconductive film (II) on a transparent electroconductive film (I), and in this structure, the transparent electroconductive film (I) contains one or more added elements selected from aluminum and gallium, and the content of the added elements is in a range represented by −2.18×[Al]+1.74≦[Ga]≦−1.92×[Al]+6.10. The transparent electroconductive film (II) contains one or more added elements selected from aluminum and gallium, and the content of the added elements is in a range represented by −[Al]+0.30≦[Ga]≦−2.68×[Al]+1.74. In this case, [Al] is the aluminum content expressed as the atomic ratio (%) Al/(Zn+Al) and [Ga] is the gallium content expressed as the atomic ratio (%) Ga/(Zn+Ga).
US09349878B2	Multi level programmable memory structure A memory structure includes a memory cell, and the memory cell includes following elements. A first gate is disposed on a substrate. A stacked structure includes a first dielectric structure, a channel layer, a second dielectric structure and a second gate disposed on the first gate, a first charge storage structure disposed in the first dielectric structure and a second charge storage structure disposed in the second dielectric structure. The first charge storage structure is a singular charge storage unit and the second charge storage structure comprises two charge storage units which are physically separated. A channel output line physically connected to the channel layer. A first dielectric layer is disposed on the first gate at two sides of the stacked structure. A first source or drain and a second source or drain are disposed on the first dielectric layer and located at two sides of the channel layer.
US09349866B2	Structure and method for FinFET device The present disclosure provides an embodiment of a fin-like field-effect transistor (FinFET) device. The device includes a fin structure disposed over a substrate. The fin structure includes a semiconductor oxide layer disposed over the substrate, which has a top surface facing away from the substrate, a first semiconductor material layer disposed over and spaced apart from the semiconductor oxide layer, which has a top surface facing away from the substrate and an opposing bottom surface facing the substrate, and a dielectric sidewall spacer disposed along a sidewall of the semiconductor oxide layer and extending to the first semiconductor material layer. The device also includes a gate dielectric layer disposed over the fin structure and a gate electrode layer disposed over the gate dielectric layer. The gate electrode extends between the top surface of the semiconductor oxide layer and the bottom surface of the first semiconductor material layer.
US09349857B2	Trench power MOSFET and manufacturing method thereof A trench power MOSFET and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The gate of the trench power MOSFET includes an upper doped region and a lower doped region which have different types of doping to form a PN junction. As such, when the trench power MOSFET is in operation, a junction capacitance formed at the PN junction is in series with the intrinsic gate-to-drain capacitance. Accordingly, the effective capacitance between the gate and the drain may be reduced.
US09349856B2	Semiconductor device including first interface and second interface as an upper surface of a convex protruded from first interface and manufacturing device thereof A semiconductor device includes a first n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer, a second n-type semiconductor layer and a trench. The first n-type semiconductor layer includes a first interface and a second interface. The second interface forms an upper surface of a convex protruded from the first interface. The p-type semiconductor layer is stacked on the first n-type semiconductor layer and includes a first region stacked on the first interface and a second region stacked on the second interface. The first region is uniformly continuous with the second region. The second n-type semiconductor layer is stacked on the p-type semiconductor layer. The trench is depressed from the second n-type semiconductor layer through the p-type semiconductor layer into the convex of the first n-type semiconductor layer.
US09349855B2	Wide band gap semiconductor device A semiconductor device comprises an n+ type SiC semiconductor substrate, an n type low concentration drift layer of an SiC semiconductor on the substrate, p type channel regions selectively arranged in the drift layer with a specified distance between the channel regions, an n type source region selectively arranged in the channel region, a source electrode in common contact with the source region and the channel region, and a gate electrode disposed over the drift layer between two channel regions, and over a part of the channel region positioned between the drift layer and the source region intercalating a gate oxide film therebetween. The drift layer has a low concentration of at most 70% of the concentration that is required to exhibit a specified withstand voltage at a minimum ON resistance.
US09349849B2	Semiconductor device and electronic device including the semiconductor device In a semiconductor device including a transistor, an oxygen release type oxide insulating film is formed in contact with a channel formation region of the transistor. The channel formation region is formed in an oxide semiconductor film. Oxygen is supplied from the oxide insulating film to the oxide semiconductor film. Further, an oxygen bather film which penetrates the oxide insulating film is formed around the channel formation region, whereby a diffusion of oxygen to the wiring, the electrode, and the like connected to the transistor can be suppressed.
US09349845B2	Self-aligned bipolar junction transistors Device structures and design structures for a bipolar junction transistor. An intrinsic base is formed on the substrate, a terminal is formed on the intrinsic base, and an extrinsic base is formed that is arranged in juxtaposition with the intrinsic base on the substrate. The intrinsic base and terminal are respectively comprised of first and second semiconductor materials.
US09349844B2	Semiconductor device manufacturing method The present invention makes it possible to lower the on resistance of a semiconductor element without hindering the function of a diffusion prevention film in a semiconductor device having the semiconductor element that uses a wire in a wiring layer as a gate electrode and has a gate insulation film in an identical layer to the diffusion prevention film. A first wire and a gate electrode are embedded into the surface layer of an insulation layer comprising a first wiring layer. A diffusion prevention film is formed between the first wiring layer and a second wiring layer. A gate insulation film is formed by: forming a recess over the upper face of the diffusion prevention film in the region overlapping with the gate electrode and around the region; and thinning the part.
US09349843B2	Method for manufacturing thin-film transistor The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a thin-film transistor. The thin-film transistor has a bottom gate coplanar structure. The method includes the following steps: step (1): providing a substrate (20); step (2): forming a gate terminal (22) on the substrate (20); step (3): forming a gate insulator layer (24) on the gate terminal (22) and the substrate (20); step (4): forming a source/drain terminal (26) on the gate insulator layer (24) and covering the source/drain terminal (26) with a photosensitive material layer (27); step (5): subjecting a surface of the gate insulator layer (24) to a plasma treatment; step (6): removing the photosensitive material layer (27) located on the source/drain terminal (26); and step (7): forming an oxide semiconductor layer (28) on the source/drain terminal (26) and the gate insulator layer (24) and patternizing the oxide semiconductor layer (28). The present invention applies a plasma treatment to a surface of the gate insulator layer to repair defects on an interface between the gate insulator layer and the oxide semiconductor layer so as to improve the electrical characteristics of the thin-film transistor.
US09349839B2	FinFET device structure and methods of making same Embodiments of the present disclosure are a method of forming a semiconductor device, a method of forming a FinFET device, a FinFET device. An embodiment a method for semiconductor device, the method comprising forming a first dielectric layer over a substrate, forming a first hardmask layer over the first dielectric layer, and patterning the first hardmask layer to form a first hardmask portion with a first width. The method further comprises forming a first raised portion of the first dielectric layer with the first width, wherein the first raised portion is aligned with the first hardmask portion, and forming a first spacer and a second spacer over the first dielectric layer, wherein the first spacer and the second spacer are on opposite sides of the first raised portion, and wherein the sidewalls of the first spacer and the second spacer are substantially orthogonal to the top surface of the substrate.
US09349838B2	Semiconductor structure with deep trench thermal conduction Diodes and resistors for integrated circuits are provided. Deep trenches (DTs) are integrated into the diodes and resistors for the purposes of thermal conduction. The deep trenches facilitate conduction of heat from a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate to a bulk substrate. Semiconductor fins may be formed to align with the deep trenches.
US09349836B2	Fin end spacer for preventing merger of raised active regions After formation of gate structures over semiconductor fins and prior to formation of raised active regions, a directional ion beam is employed to form a dielectric material portion on end walls of semiconductor fins that are perpendicular to the lengthwise direction of the semiconductor fins. The angle of the directional ion beam is selected to be with a vertical plane including the lengthwise direction of the semiconductor fins, thereby avoiding formation of the dielectric material portion on lengthwise sidewalls of the semiconductor fins. Selective epitaxy of semiconductor material is performed to grow raised active regions from sidewall surfaces of the semiconductor fins. Optionally, horizontal portions of the dielectric material portion may be removed prior to the selective epitaxy process. Further, the dielectric material portion may optionally be removed after the selective epitaxy process.
US09349833B1	Semiconductor device and method of forming the same A semiconductor device includes a plurality of gate structures, a source/drain region, a first dielectric layer, and a floating spacer. The gate structures are disposed on a substrate, and each gate structure includes a gate electrode, a capping layer and a spacer surrounding the gate electrode and the capping layer. The source/drain region is disposed at two sides of the gate electrode. The first dielectric layer is disposed on the substrate and has a height being less than a height of the gate electrode. The floating spacer is disposed on a side wall of the spacer, and also on the first dielectric layer.
US09349828B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes a first semiconductor layer formed of a nitride semiconductor on a substrate; a second semiconductor layer formed of a nitride semiconductor on the first semiconductor layer; an insulating layer formed on the second semiconductor layer; a source electrode and a drain electrode formed on the second semiconductor layer; and a gate electrode formed on the insulating layer. The insulating layer is formed of a material including an oxide and is formed by laminating a first insulating layer and a second insulating layer in a positioning order of the first insulating layer followed by the second insulating layer from a side of the second semiconductor layer, and an amount of hydroxyl groups included in per unit volume of the first insulating layer is less than an amount of hydroxyl groups included in per unit volume of the second insulating layer.
US09349822B2	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 an interlayer dielectric (ILD) layer thereon; forming a first recess, a second recess, and a third recess in the ILD layer; forming a material layer on the ILD layer and in the first recess, the second recess, and the third recess; performing a first treatment on the material layer in the first recess; and performing a second treatment on the material layer in the first recess and second recess.
US09349821B2	Electrode structure, method of fabricating the same, and semiconductor device including the electrode structure An electrode structure is disclosed. The electrode structure includes a first polysilicon layer doped with resistance adjustment impurities; a second polysilicon layer for adjusting grains, formed in the first polysilicon layer and doped with grain adjustment impurities; an ohmic metal layer formed on the first and second polysilicon layers; a barrier metal layer formed on the ohmic metal layer; and a metal layer formed on the barrier metal layer.
US09349820B2	Method for manufacturing semiconductor device An object is to provide a semiconductor device having good electrical characteristics. A gate insulating layer having a hydrogen concentration less than 6×1020 atoms/cm3 and a fluorine concentration greater than or equal to 1×1020 atoms/cm3 is used as a gate insulating layer in contact with an oxide semiconductor layer forming a channel region, so that the amount of hydrogen released from the gate insulating layer can be reduced and diffusion of hydrogen into the oxide semiconductor layer can be prevented. Further, hydrogen present in the oxide semiconductor layer can be eliminated with the use of fluorine; thus, the hydrogen content in the oxide semiconductor layer can be reduced. Consequently, the semiconductor device having good electrical characteristics can be provided.
US09349808B2	Double aspect ratio trapping A semiconductor structure is provided by a process in which two aspect ratio trapping processes are employed. The structure includes a semiconductor substrate portion of a first semiconductor material having a first lattice constant. A plurality of first semiconductor-containing pillar structures of a second semiconductor material having a second lattice constant that is greater than the first lattice constant extend upwards from a surface of the semiconductor substrate portion. A plurality of second semiconductor-containing pillar structures of a third semiconductor material having a third lattice constant that is greater than the first lattice constant extend upwards from another surface of the semiconductor substrate portion. A spacer separates each first semiconductor-containing pillar structure from each second semiconductor-containing pillar structure. Each second semiconductor-containing pillar structure has a width that is different from a width of each first semiconductor-containing pillar structure.
US09349807B2	Semiconductor device having GaN-based layer A semiconductor device includes a first conductivity type semiconductor substrate including one of Si and SiC; a second conductivity type semiconductor region at a surface of the semiconductor substrate, a GaN-based semiconductor layer on the semiconductor substrate, and a lateral semiconductor element at the GaN-based semiconductor layer and above the semiconductor region, the lateral semiconductor element having a first electrode and a second electrode electrically connected to the semiconductor region.
US09349806B2	Semiconductor structure with template for transition metal dichalcogenides channel material growth Disclosed is a semiconductor structure comprising a single crystal substrate, a channel layer formed above the substrate from a transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) material, and a single crystal epitaxial buffer layer formed between the substrate and the channel layer, wherein the buffer layer is formed from material having a lattice constant mismatch of less than 5% with the lattice constant of the channel layer material. Also, disclosed is a method of forming a semiconductor structure comprising selecting a substrate formed from a single crystal material, preparing the substrate for template growth, growing a template on the substrate wherein the template is formed from single crystal material, and growing channel material on the template wherein the channel material is formed from a TMDC material and wherein the buffer layer material has a lattice constant mismatch of less than 5% with the lattice constant of the channel layer material.
US09349804B2	Composite wafer for bonding and encapsulating an SiC-based functional layer A composite wafer includes a substrate and a SiC-based functional layer. The substrate includes a porous carbon substrate core and an encapsulating layer encapsulating the substrate core. The SiC-based functional layer comprises, at an interface region with the encapsulating layer, at least one of: a carbide and a silicide formed by reaction of a portion of the SiC-based functional layer with a carbide-and-silicide-forming metal. An amount of the carbide-and-silicide-forming metal, integrated over the thickness of the functional layer, is 10−4 mg/cm2 to 0.1 mg/cm2.
US09349803B2	Semiconductor graphene structures, semiconductor devices including such structures, and related methods A semiconducting graphene structure may include a graphene material and a graphene-lattice matching material over at least a portion of the graphene material, wherein the graphene-lattice matching material has a lattice constant within about ±5% of a multiple of the lattice constant or bond length of the graphene material. The semiconducting graphene structure may have an energy band gap of at least about 0.5 eV. A method of modifying an energy band gap of a graphene material may include forming a graphene-lattice matching material over at least a portion of a graphene material, the graphene-lattice matching material having a lattice constant within about ±5% of a multiple of the lattice constant or bond length of the graphene material.
US09349797B2	SiC devices with high blocking voltage terminated by a negative bevel The present disclosure relates to a Silicon Carbide (SiC) semiconductor device having both a high blocking voltage and low on-resistance. In one embodiment, the semiconductor device has a blocking voltage of at least 10 kilovolts (kV) and an on-resistance of less than 10 milli-ohms centimeter squared (mΩ·cm2) and even more preferably less than 5 mΩ·cm2. In another embodiment, the semiconductor device has a blocking voltage of at least 15 kV and an on-resistance of less than 15 mΩ·cm2 and even more preferably less than 7 mΩ·cm2. In yet another embodiment, the semiconductor device has a blocking voltage of at least 20 kV and an on-resistance of less than 20 mΩ·cm2 and even more preferably less than 10 mΩ·cm2. The semiconductor device is preferably, but not necessarily, a thyristor such as a power thyristor, a Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT), an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), or a PIN diode.
US09349792B2	Super junction semiconductor device having columnar super junction regions A super junction semiconductor device includes a semiconductor portion with a first surface and a second surface parallel to the first surface. The semiconductor portion includes a doped layer of a first conductivity type formed at least in a cell area. The super junction semiconductor device further includes columnar first super junction regions of a second, opposite conductivity type extending in a direction perpendicular to the first surface and separated by columnar second super junction regions of the first conductivity type. The first and second super junction regions form a super junction structure between the first surface and the doped layer. A distance between the first super junction regions and the second surface does not exceed 30 μm.
US09349791B2	Semiconductor device having oxide semiconductor channel It is an object to provide a semiconductor device having a new productive semiconductor material and a new structure. The semiconductor device includes a first conductive layer over a substrate, a first insulating layer which covers the first conductive layer, an oxide semiconductor layer over the first insulating layer that overlaps with part of the first conductive layer and has a crystal region in a surface part, second and third conductive layers formed in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, an insulating layer which covers the oxide semiconductor layer and the second and third conductive layers, and a fourth conductive layer over the insulating layer that overlaps with part of the oxide semiconductor layer.
US09349789B1	Coaxial carbon nanotube capacitor for eDRAM A deep trench (DT) opening is provided in a semiconductor substrate and then conducting carbon nanotubes are formed within the DT. Each conducting carbon nanotube is coated with a high k dielectric material and thereafter the remaining volume of the DT is filled with a conductive material.
US09349773B2	Memory devices using a plurality of diodes as program selectors for memory cells At least one junction diode fabricated in standard CMOS logic processes can be used as program selectors for the memory cells that can be programmed based on the directions of current flow. These memory cells are MRAM, RRAM, CBRAM, or other memory cells that have a resistive element coupled to the P terminal of the first diode and to the N terminal of a second diode. The diodes can be constructed by P+ and N+ active regions on an N well as the P and N terminals of the diodes. By applying a high voltage to a resistive element and switching the N terminal of the first diode to a low voltage while disabling the second diode, a current flows through the memory cell can change the resistance into one state. Similarly, by applying a low voltage to a resistive element and switching the P terminal of the second diode to a high voltage while disabling the first diode, a current flows through the memory cell can change the resistance into another state. The P+ active region of the diode can be isolated from the N+ active region in an N well by using dummy MOS gate, SBL, or STI isolations.
US09349767B2	Image sensors with through-oxide via structures An imaging system may include an image sensor die stacked on top of a digital signal processor (DSP) die. The image sensor die may be a backside illuminated image sensor die. Through-oxide vias (TOVs) may be formed in the image sensor die and may extend at least partially into in the DSP die to facilitate communications between the image sensor die and the DSP die. Color filter housing structures may be formed over active image sensor pixels on the image sensor die. In-pixel grid structures may be integrated with the color filter housing structures to help reduce crosstalk. Light shielding structures may be formed over reference image sensor pixels on the image sensor die. The TOVs, the in-pixel grid structures, and the light shielding structures may be formed simultaneously. The formation of the color filter housing structures may also be integrated the formation of the TOVs.
US09349764B1	Embedded image sensor packages and methods of fabricating the same An embedded image sensor package includes a core layer having a cavity therein, an image sensor chip disposed in the cavity and having a top surface on which a light receiver and connection members are disposed, a first insulation layer disposed on a top surface of the core layer and the top surface of the image sensor chip and having an opening that defines a light receiving area including the light receiver, a protection layer disposed between the light receiver and the first insulation layer to surround the light receiver, and a light transmission layer disposed on the light receiver. The protection layer is disposed along edges of the light receiving area. Related methods are also provided.
US09349759B2	Manufacturing method of low temperature poly-silicon TFT array substrate A manufacturing method of an LTPS-TFT array substrate is provided. The exemplary method comprises a step of sequentially forming a poly-silicon layer and a data-line-metal layer on a base substrate, and performing a patterning process by using a third mask to simultaneously form an active layer and source and drain electrodes, the active layer being provided on the gate insulating layer and corresponding to the gate electrode, and the source and drain electrodes being provided on the active layer.
US09349758B2	Flexible display device with divided power lines and manufacturing method for the same There is provided a flexible display having a plurality of innovations configured to allow bending of a portion or portions to reduce apparent border size and/or utilize the side surface of an assembled flexible display.
US09349744B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same A semiconductor device includes a first channel layer, a second channel layer protruding from the first channel layer, a pipe gate including a silicide area surrounding the first channel layer, a tunnel insulating layer surrounding the second channel layer, a data storage layer surrounding the second channel layer with the tunnel insulating layer interposed therebetween, and interlayer insulating layers and conductive patterns which are alternately stacked while surrounding the second channel layer with the data storage layer and the tunnel insulating layer interposed therebetween.
US09349738B1	Content addressable memory (CAM) device having substrate array line structure A content addressable memory (CAM) device can include a plurality of CAM cells each formed within a cell area of a substrate. Each cell area can have a cell length dimension in a first direction parallel to a substrate surface. The CAM device can also include at least one common line comprising a contiguous region of the substrate doped to a first conductivity type and formed in a base semiconductor region doped to a second conductivity type. The common line can extend in the first direction for more than one cell length and can be commonly coupled to non-power supply connections to the plurality of CAM cells.
US09349729B2	Semiconductor structures and fabrication method thereof A method for fabricating a semiconductor structure includes providing a semiconductor substrate having a first region and a second region; and forming a first dummy gate on the semiconductor substrate in the first region and a device layer on the semiconductor substrate in the second region. The method also includes forming a dielectric layer on of the first dummy gate and the device layer; and removing the first dummy gate to form a first trench. Further, the method includes forming a first metal layer on the first trench and the surfaces of the dielectric layer and the device layer; and performing a first planarization process onto the first metal layer using a polishing slurry having a first protective agent to form a first gate electrode in the first trench and form a protective layer on the device layer preventing the device layer being damaged during the first planarization process.
US09349727B2	Semiconductor device In a semiconductor device, an active region includes: a first impurity region to which a predetermined voltage is applied; second and third impurity regions forming a pair of conductive electrodes of an insulated gate field effect transistor; and at least one impurity region disposed between the first and second impurity regions. A voltage that causes electrical conduction between the second and third impurity regions is applied to a gate electrode disposed between the second and third impurity regions. All gate electrodes disposed between the first and second impurity regions are configured to be electrically connected to the first impurity region constantly. All impurity regions disposed between the first and second impurity regions are electrically isolated from the first and second impurity regions and maintained in a floating state.
US09349723B2	Semiconductor device and method of forming passive devices A flip chip semiconductor device has a substrate with a plurality of active devices formed thereon. A passive device is formed on the substrate by depositing a first conductive layer over the substrate, depositing an insulating layer over the first conductive layer, and depositing a second conductive layer over the insulating layer. The passive device is a metal-insulator-metal capacitor. The deposition of the insulating layer and first and second conductive layers is performed without photolithography. An under bump metallization (UBM) layer is formed on the substrate in electrical contact with the plurality of active devices. A solder bump is formed over the UBM layer. The passive device can also be a resistor by depositing a resistive layer over the first conductive layer and depositing a third conductive layer over the resistive layer. The passive device electrically contacts the solder bump.
US09349722B2	Semiconductor memory device including a memory cell comprising a D/A converter A nonvolatile semiconductor device is provided. Each memory cell in a semiconductor device includes a D/A converter and an amplifier transistor. An output voltage of the D/A converter is stored as data in the memory cell, whereby two or more bits of data can be stored in the memory cell. By stacking transistors of the D/A converter with an interlayer film provided therebetween and using the parasitic resistance of a conductive material provided in a contact hole formed in the interlayer film as a resistor of the D/A converter, the area of the memory cell can be reduced. The transistor includes an oxide semiconductor in a channel formation region. Accordingly, a nonvolatile semiconductor device can be easily obtained.
US09349721B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device comprising: a Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor including: a semiconductor substrate including a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type; second semiconductor layers of a second conductivity type extending in a depth direction from one surface of the semiconductor substrate, and having space each other; a first diode including a fifth semiconductor layer of the second conductivity type contacting the second semiconductor layer in one surface side of the semiconductor substrate, the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layers; and an anode of the second diode connected to an anode of the first diode.
US09349720B2	Integrated circuit device An integrated circuit device includes a semiconductor substrate, an active element and a passive element. The active element is made of the semiconductor substrate. The passive element includes a functional element filled in a groove or hole provided in the semiconductor substrate along a thickness direction thereof and is electrically connected to the active element. The functional element has a Si—O bond region obtained by reacting Si particles with an organic Si compound.
US09349714B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device, block stacked body, and sequential stacked body A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided which is capable of improving productivity and reliability. The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device (1) of the invention includes a sequential stacking process, an individual stacked body-obtaining process, and a base material bonding process. In the sequential stacking process, a block stacked body is obtained. The block stacked body is a block stacked body (2B) in which semiconductor blocks (10B, 12B, 14B, and 16B) are stacked in a state of not being solder-bonded. In the semiconductor blocks (10B, 12B, 14B, and 16B), a plurality of semiconductor components are arranged. In the individual stacked body obtaining process, an individual stacked body (2) is obtained in which terminals of the stacked semiconductor components are solder-bonded and which is cut from the block stacked body (2B) in a stacked semiconductor component unit.
US09349710B2	Chip package and method for forming the same A method for forming a chip package is provided. A first substrate is provided. A second substrate is attached on the first substrate, wherein the second substrate has a plurality of rectangular chip regions separated by a scribed-line region. A portion of the second substrate corresponding to the scribed-line region is removed to form a plurality of chips on the first substrate, wherein at least one bridge portion is formed between adjacent chips. A chip package formed by the method is also provided.
US09349708B2	Chip stacked package structure and electronic device A chip stacked package structure includes a first chip and a second chip, where the second chip is stacked with the first chip and the second chip includes a package layer and a first routing layer, where the package layer includes at least two dies and an attaching part configured to attach the at least two dies, where the attaching part is provided with multiple vias, with a part of vias in the multiple vias disposed at an outer periphery of the at least two dies, and the other part of vias in the multiple vias disposed between the at least two dies, and the first routing layer electrically connects the at least two dies; where the package layer is located between the first routing layer and the first chip, an electrically conductive material is provided in the multiple vias.
US09349707B1	Contact arrangements for stackable microelectronic package structures with multiple ranks An apparatus relates generally to a microelectronic assembly. In this apparatus, a first substrate and a second substrate each have opposing surfaces. Contact arrangements are disposed on a surface of the first substrate, including: first contacts disposed as a ring to provide a first array of the contact arrangements on such surface; and second contacts disposed interior to the ring of the first contacts to provide a second array of the contact arrangements on the first surface. The first contacts and the second contacts are for interconnection with first microelectronic dies and second microelectronic dies. The second microelectronic dies are disposed below the first microelectronic dies in same a package as the first microelectronic dies. The first microelectronic dies and the second microelectronic dies include at least two ranks thereof for commonly sharing the first contacts and the second contacts among the first microelectronic dies and the second microelectronic dies.
US09349704B2	Jointed structure and method of manufacturing same A jointed structure comprises a first metal layer and a second metal layer. The first metal layer and the second metal layer are jointed together and have different coefficients of thermal expansion. The first metal layer and the second metal layer are jointed together by solid-phase joining via a jointing interface microstructure, wherein the jointing interface microstructure includes an amorphous oxide phase and having a thickness of 50 nm or less.
US09349703B2	Method for making high density substrate interconnect using inkjet printing Generally discussed herein are systems and apparatuses that include a dense interconnect bridge and techniques for making the same. According to an example a technique can include creating a multidie substrate, printing an interconnect bridge on the multidie substrate, electrically coupling a first die to a second die by coupling the first and second dies through the interconnect bridge.
US09349699B2	Front side copper post joint structure for temporary bond in TSV application A method of forming an integrated circuit structure is provided. The method includes providing a substrate, the substrate having a conductive pad thereon. A dielectric buffer layer is formed over at least a portion of the conductive pad, and an under-bump-metallurgy (UBM) is formed directly coupled to the conductive pad, wherein the UBM extends over at least a portion of the dielectric buffer layer. Thereafter, a conductive pillar is formed over the UBM, and one or more conductive materials are formed over the conductive pillar. The substrate may be attached to a carrier substrate using an adhesive.
US09349696B2	Integrated antennas in wafer level package A semiconductor module comprises a wafer package comprising an integrated circuit (IC) device embedded within the wafer package and a layer comprising at least one antenna structure and redistribution structures, wherein the antenna structure is coupled to the IC device and wherein the redistribution structures are coupled to the IC device.
US09349686B2	Reduced height M1 metal lines for local on-chip routing Systems and methods are directed to an integrated circuit comprising a reduced height M1 metal line formed of an exemplary material with lower mean free path than Copper, for local routing of on-chip circuit elements of the integrated circuit, wherein the height of the reduced height M1 metal line is lower than a minimum allowed or allowable height of a conventional M1 metal line formed of Copper. The exemplary materials for forming the reduced height M1 metal line include Tungsten (W), Molybdenum (Mo), and Ruthenium (Ru), wherein these exemplary materials also exhibit lower capacitance and lower RC delays than Copper, while providing high electromigration reliability.
US09349679B2	Singulation method for semiconductor package with plating on side of connectors A method of singulating semiconductor packages, the method comprising: providing a plurality of semiconductor dies coupled to a single common leadframe, wherein a molding compound at least partially encases the semiconductor dies and the leadframe; singulating the plurality of semiconductor dies, wherein the leadframe is at least partially cut between adjacent semiconductor dies, thereby forming exposed side surfaces on leads of the leadframe; and plating the exposed side surfaces of the leads with a plating material, wherein the plating material is a different material than the leads. In some embodiments, singulating the plurality of semiconductor dies comprises performing a full cut of the leadframe. In some embodiments, singulating the plurality of semiconductor dies comprises performing separate partial cuts of the leadframe.
US09349677B2	Stacked half-bridge package with a common leadframe According to an exemplary embodiment, a stacked half-bridge package includes a control transistor having a control drain for connection to a high voltage input, a control source coupled to an output terminal, and a control gate for being driven by a driver IC. The stacked half-bridge package further includes a sync transistor having a sync drain for connection to the output terminal, a sync source coupled to a low voltage input, and a sync gate for being driven by the driver IC. The control and sync transistors are stacked on opposite sides of a common conductive leadframe with the common conductive leadframe electrically and mechanically coupling the control source with the sync drain. The common conductive leadframe thereby serves as the output terminal.
US09349676B2	Chip rotated at an angle mounted on die pad region A package includes: a plurality of lead frames configured to extend inwardly from an outer circumferential portion of the package; a die pad region surrounded with the lead frames in a plane view; a semiconductor chip mounted on the die pad region; a plurality of bonding pads disposed on the semiconductor chip; and a plurality of bonding wires configured to connect the lead frames and the bonding pads, respectively, wherein the bonding wires are respectively connected to front end portions of the lead frames by bonding with an angle ranging from 45 to 135 degrees with respect to a trace of front end portions of the lead frames in the plane view.
US09349675B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes preparing a lead frame provided with a die pad having an upper surface and a plurality of leads being arranged so as to be aligned on a side of the die pad and each including a wire joint part at a distal end on the side of the die pad, after the preparing the lead frame, mounting a semiconductor chip having a main surface and a plurality of electrode pads formed on the main surface, on the upper surface of the die pad, and after the mounting the semiconductor chip, electrically connecting a first electrode pad among the plurality of electrode pads of the semiconductor chip and a first lead among the plurality of leads to each other via a first wire.
US09349659B2	Methods for probing semiconductor fins and determining carrier concentrations therein A method includes probing at least one semiconductor fin using a four-point probe head, with four probe pins of the four-point probe head contacting the at least one semiconductor fin. A resistance of the at least one semiconductor fin is calculated. A carrier concentration of the semiconductor fin is calculated from the resistance.
US09349656B2	Method of forming a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device A complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device and methods of formation thereof are disclosed. In a particular example, a method of forming a CMOS device includes forming a first layer on an extension layer of a wafer, forming a first gate on a portion of the first layer, and forming an expansion region proximate to the extension layer. The method also includes removing a portion of the first gate to create a cavity and removing a portion of the first layer to extend the cavity to the extension layer.
US09349655B2	Method for mechanical stress enhancement in semiconductor devices The present disclosure provides an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a semiconductor substrate having an active region; at least one operational device on the active region, wherein the operational device include a strained channel; and at least one first dummy gate disposed at a side of the operational device and on the active region.
US09349651B2	Semiconductor device and method for fabricating the same Provided are a semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the same. The semiconductor device includes a substrate including a circuit region and a scribe lane region, an active fin protruding from the substrate in the circuit region, a first gate structure extending over the active fin in the circuit region, and a second gate structure formed in the scribe lane region.
US09349650B2	Low resistance and defect free epitaxial semiconductor material for providing merged FinFETs A gate structure is formed straddling a first portion of a plurality of semiconductor fins that extend upwards from a topmost surface of an insulator layer. A dielectric spacer is formed on sidewalls of the gate structure and straddling a second portion of the plurality of semiconductor fins. Epitaxial semiconductor material portions that include a non-planar bottommost surface and a non-planar topmost surface are grown from at least the exposed sidewalls of each semiconductor fin not including the gate structure or the gate spacer to merge adjacent semiconductor fins. A gap is present beneath epitaxial semiconductor material portions and the topmost surface of the insulator layer. A second epitaxial semiconductor material is formed on the epitaxial semiconductor material portions and thereafter the second epitaxial semiconductor material is converted into a metal semiconductor alloy.
US09349647B2	Cutting method A cutting method for cutting by a cutting blade a workpiece which includes metal at least in a predetermined cutting position. The cutting method includes a cutting step of cutting by the cutting blade the predetermined cutting position of the workpiece while supplying a cutting fluid, containing an organic acid and an oxidizing agent, to a processing point at which the cutting blade cuts into the workpiece.
US09349642B2	Method of forming contact layer A method of forming a contact layer on a substrate having a contact hole to make a contact between the substrate and a buried metal material, includes disposing the substrate in a chamber, introducing a Ti source gas, a reducing gas and an Si source gas into the chamber, and converting the Ti source gas, the reducing gas and the Si source gas into plasma to form a TiSix film on the substrate. A portion of the TiSix film in a bottom of the contact hole corresponds to the contact layer.
US09349640B1	Electrode pair fabrication using directed self assembly of diblock copolymers Structures including alternating first U-shaped electrodes and second U-shaped electrodes and contact pads interconnecting the first and the second U-shaped electrodes are provided. Each of the first U-shaped electrodes includes substantially parallel straight portions connected by a bent portion located on one end of a substrate. Each of the second U-shaped electrodes includes substantially parallel straight portions connected by a bent portion located on an opposite end of the substrate. Every adjacent straight portions of neighboring first and second U-shaped electrodes constitute an electrode pair having a sub-lithographic pitch. Each of the contact pads overlaps and contacts the bent portion of one of the first and the U-shaped electrodes.
US09349631B2	Method for defining an isolation region(s) of a semiconductor structure Methods for defining an isolation region of a semiconductor structure are provided. The method includes, for instance: providing a semiconductor structure with a recess therein; disposing an insulator layer conformally within the recess in the semiconductor structure to partially fill the recess; modifying at least one material property of the insulator layer to obtain a densified insulator layer within the recess, where the modifying reduces a thickness of the densified insulator layer compared to that of the insulator layer; and depositing at least one additional insulator layer within the recess over the densified insulator layer, where the densified insulator layer within the recess defines, at least in part, an isolation region of the semiconductor structure.
US09349624B2	Semiconductor wafer monitoring apparatus and method Metrology methods and apparatus for semiconductor wafer fabrication in which data for metrology is obtained by detecting a measurable property of a monitored entity, which is either (i) a wafer transporter (e.g. a FOUP) loaded with one or more wafers to be monitored, or (ii) a plurality of wafers. Performing metrology measurements on a loaded wafer transporter enables the step of extracting wafer (s) from the transporter for metrology measurements to be omitted. Moreover, metrology measurement may be obtained while transporting the wafer (s) between treatment locations. By considering a plurality of wafers as a unit, a single measurement representing a combination of individual wafer responses is obtained. All wafers contribute to the metrology measurement without the need to perform individual wafer measurements.
US09349617B2	Mechanisms for wafer cleaning Embodiments that relate to mechanisms for cleaning wafers is provided. A method for wafer cleaning includes cleaning wafers by a wet-bench cleaning operation. The method also includes thereafter cleaning each of the wafers by a single-wafer cleaning operation. In addition, a cleaning apparatus for enhancing the performance of the above method is also provided.
US09349613B1	Electronic package with embedded materials in a molded structure to control warpage and stress A method and system are provided for an electronic package with embedded materials in a molded structure to control warpage and stress. A first material can be deposited on a substrate with a semiconductor die. The substrate can be a coreless substrate. The substrate with the semiconductor die can be placed in a mold tool that when closed defines a space about the semiconductor die. A second material, such as an epoxy mold compound, for example, can be applied to the defined space to produce a mold cap in which the first material is at least partially embedded in the second material. The first and second materials can have a different modulus and/or coefficient of thermal expansion. The first material can be used to cover electrical components on a surface of the substrate. In some instances, more than one material can be at least partially embedded in the second material.
US09349612B2	Lead frame A lead frame includes a plurality of unit lead frames arranged in a matrix. Leads of adjacent ones of the unit lead frames are connected via a connecting bar, in which a longitudinal connecting bar and a transverse connecting bar are crossed at a crossing part. The lead frame further includes a dicing part including the connecting bar and a part of the leads, to be cut along a dicing line, a half-etching part formed along the dicing part, and being smaller in width than the dicing part, and a strength retention part formed in the half-etching part and extended from the crossing part of the connecting bar at least to an end lead located closest to the crossing part among the leads of the unit lead frame adjacent to the crossing part.
US09349605B1	Oxide etch selectivity systems and methods Embodiments of the present technology may include a method of etching a substrate. The method may include striking a plasma discharge in a plasma region. The method may also include flowing a fluorine-containing precursor into the plasma region to form a plasma effluent. The plasma effluent may flow into a mixing region. The method may further include introducing a hydrogen-and-oxygen-containing compound into the mixing region without first passing the hydrogen-and-oxygen-containing compound into the plasma region. Additionally, the method may include reacting the hydrogen-and-oxygen-containing compound with the plasma effluent in the mixing region to form reaction products. The reaction products may flow through a plurality of openings in a partition to a substrate processing region. The method may also include etching the substrate with the reaction products in the substrate processing region.
US09349600B2	Semiconductor device manufacturing method and semiconductor device A semiconductor device manufacturing method includes: forming an element isolation insulating film in a semiconductor substrate; forming a first film on a surface of the semiconductor substrate; forming a second film on the element isolation insulating film and on the first film; forming a first resist pattern that includes a first open above the element isolation insulating film in a first region; removing the second film on the element isolation insulating film in the first region to separate the second film in the first region into a plurality of parts by performing first etching; forming a third film on the second film in the first region; forming a first gate electrode on the third film in the first region; and forming a first insulating film that includes the first to third films under the first gate electrode by patterning the first to third films.
US09349595B2	Methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices Methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, a material layer is formed over a workpiece. The workpiece includes a first portion, a second portion, and a hard mask disposed between the first portion and the second portion. The material layer is patterned, and first spacers are formed on sidewalls of the patterned material layer. The patterned material layer is removed, and the second portion of the workpiece is patterned using the first spacers as an etch mask. The first spacers are removed, and second spacers are formed on sidewalls of the patterned second portion of the workpiece. The patterned second portion of the workpiece is removed, and the hard mask of the workpiece is patterned using the second spacers as an etch mask. The first portion of the workpiece is patterned using the hard mask as an etch mask.
US09349594B1	Non-planar semiconductor device with aspect ratio trapping As disclosed herein, a semiconductor device with aspect ratio trapping is provided, including a bulk substrate, a plurality of isolation pillars formed on the bulk substrate, wherein one or more gaps are formed between the isolation pillars, an oxide layer formed by epitaxy on the bulk substrate, between the isolation pillars, wherein the oxide layer partially fills the gaps between the isolation pillars, one or more fins formed over the oxide layer between the isolation pillars, such that the one or more fins fill the gaps between the isolation pillars, wherein the oxide layer electrically isolates the one or more fins from the bulk substrate. The oxide layer has an aspect ratio that is selected to substantially eliminate defects at the interface between the oxide layer and the fins. The semiconductor device may also include a semiconductor layer between the bulk substrate and oxide layer.
US09349591B2	Crystal formation on non-lattice matched substrates A semiconductor structure can be created by forming an insulator layer over a surface of a substrate. An intermediate layer can be formed on top of the insulator layer, wherein openings in the intermediate layer may expose regions of the insulator. Openings may be formed in the exposed regions of the insulator layer to create exposed areas of the substrate. A first element of a multi-element semiconductor can be deposited onto the exposed regions of the insulator layer, into the openings in the exposed regions of the insulator layer, and onto the exposed areas of the substrate. A capping layer can be formed over the first element of the multi-element semiconductor. The first element can be melted. A liquid solution can be created by dissolving a second element of the multi-element semiconductor into first element. A multi-element semiconductor, seeded off the substrate, can be formed from the liquid solution.
US09349590B2	Method for manufacturing nitride semiconductor layer According to one embodiment, a method for manufacturing a nitride semiconductor layer is disclosed. The method can include forming a first lower layer on a major surface of a substrate and forming a first upper layer on the first lower layer. The first lower layer has a first lattice spacing along a first axis parallel to the major surface. The first upper layer has a second lattice spacing along the first axis larger than the first lattice spacing. At least a part of the first upper layer has compressive strain. A ratio of a difference between the first and second lattice spacing to the first lattice spacing is not less than 0.005 and not more than 0.019. A growth rate of the first upper layer in a direction parallel to the major surface is larger than that in a direction perpendicular to the major surface.
US09349589B2	Vacuum processing apparatus and vacuum processing method A vacuum processing apparatus is configured to include a process chamber, a turntable provided in the process chamber, and a substrate receiving area provided in one surface of the turntable and including a regulation part formed therearound to regulate a position of a substrate. A transfer mechanism is provided outside the process chamber, and a lifting member is configured to support the substrate and to move up and down in order to transfer the substrate between the transfer mechanism and the turntable. An exhaust mechanism is configured to selectively evacuate a gap between the substrate receiving area and the substrate before the lifting member places the substrate on the substrate receiving area.
US09349585B2	Pattern formation method According to an embodiment, a guide pattern having a first opening pattern and a second opening pattern shallower than the first opening pattern, is formed on a film to be processed. A directed self-assembly material is set into the first and second opening patterns. The directed self-assembly material is phase-separated into first and second phases in the first and second opening patterns. A third opening pattern is formed by removing the first phase. The third opening pattern in the second opening pattern is eliminated, and the second and third opening patterns are transferred to the film to be processed, by one etching to be processed from the tops of the second and third opening patterns.
US09349584B2	Method for depositing a film and film deposition apparatus A method for depositing a film is provided. In the method, an object to be processed is accommodated in a process chamber, and an insulating film made of a polymer thin film is deposited on a surface of the object to be processed by supplying a first source gas composed of an acid anhydride and a second source gas composed of a diamine into the process chamber that is evacuated. Next, the insulating film is modified so as to have a barrier function by stopping the supply of the second source gas into the process chamber and continuously supplying the first source gas into the process chamber.
US09349573B2	Total release method for sample extraction in an energetic-beam instrument A substrate located in an energetic-beam instrument has a region of interest to be extracted as a sample for further analysis. Cuts are made in the substrate to define a sample, and a stress-buffer layer is formed over the region of interest or adjacent to it. An isolating cut is made to separate the portion of the substrate containing the region of interest from the bulk substrate; however, the isolated area remains attached to the stress-buffer layer. An end-effector, such as the probe of a nano-manipulator, is attached to the stress-buffer layer, and the stress-buffer layer is cut to free the sample. The sample may then be attached to a holder by attachment of the stress-buffer layer thereto. Thus the sample is never at the same time connected directly and rigidly to two different objects that may move relatively to one another, creating undesirable stresses in the sample.
US09349571B2	Particle optical system A particle optical system comprises a beam generating system (3) configured to generate a plurality of particle beams (5) and to direct the plurality of particle beams (5) onto an object plane (7), a first deflector arrangement (35) arranged in the beam path of the particle beams (5) upstream of the object plane (7) and configured to deflect the plurality of particle beams (5) before they are incident on the object plane (7), an object holder (15) configured to hold an object (17) to be inspected in the object plane (7), a plurality of detectors (27) configured to receive and to detect the plurality of particle beams (5) having traversed the object plane (7), wherein the detectors are arranged in a detection plane (21) on a side of the object plane (7) opposite to the beam generating system (3), at least one first particle optical lens (19) configured to collect particles of the particle beams emanating from the object plane on the detectors (27), and a controller (31) configured to control the first deflector arrangement (35) in order to deflect locations of incidence (9) of the particle beams (5) on the object plane (7) by deflecting the particle beams (5).
US09349569B2	Charged particle beam system A charged particle beam system capable of suppressing drift of a functional component used in association with a sample is offered. The charged particle beam system (1000) images the sample (S) by irradiating the sample with a charged particle beam (EB). The system includes the functional component (such as a sample holder (20)), drive portions (40, 50) for moving the sample holder (20), and a controller (60) for controlling the drive portions (40, 50). The controller (60) controls the drive portions (40, 50) to vibrate the sample holder (20) such that its amplitude is driven to decrease with time.
US09349559B2	Low-profile electronic circuit breakers, breaker tripping mechanisms, and systems and methods of using same Embodiments provide a low-profile, electronic circuit breaker. The electronic circuit breaker includes a housing containing first and second electrical branches coupled to respective first and second load terminals, and an electronic processing circuit within the housing adapted to monitor an electrical condition of the first and second electrical branches, wherein a maximum transverse width (Wt) of the housing is limited to occupy only a single standard breaker panelboard location. Circuit breakers including triggering mechanisms and tripping units are also disclosed. System and method aspects are provided, as are other aspects.
US09349558B2	Mechanically acuated heat switch A heat switch has a first contact, a plug of thermally conductive material, and a mechanical actuator attached to the plug of thermally conductive material, the mechanical actuator arranged to move the plug into contact with the first contact in a first position and to move the plug out of contact with the first contact in a second position responsive to an input signal.
US09349549B2	Electronic component An electronic component comprises a flexible planar substrate which is substantially non-stretchable, the substrate having at least two slits arranged to allow first and second portions of the substrate lying in the same plane to be moved apart, the first portion of the substrate supporting a region of conductive material.
US09349547B2	Switching module for voltage regulator The present disclosure provides techniques for an improved switching module for voltage regulators or transformers with voltage regulating taps. The switching module disclosed herein includes a first bypass switch and a second bypass switch coupled to the first bypass switch, at least one prime mover coupled to and configured to actuate at least one of the first bypass switch and the second bypass switch, and at least one load breaking switch coupled between the first and second bypass switches. In certain example embodiments, a separate prime move is configured to actuate each of the bypass switches and the load breaking switch. In certain other example embodiments, one or more of the bypass switches and the load breaking switch is actuated by a shared prime mover.
US09349528B2	Power supply arrangement having a boost circuit for an electricity meter A power supply arrangement for an electricity meter includes an input, a full wave rectifier, and a voltage doubler circuit. The input is configured to receive a periodical input signal. The full wave rectifier is coupled to the input and has a first output. The first output is coupled to a first load of the electricity meter. The voltage doubler circuit is coupled to the input and has a second output coupled to a second load of the electricity meter. The voltage doubler is configured to prevent the flow of current from the second output to the input.
US09349526B2	Pulse transformer A pulse transformer is provided with a drum core 2 including a winding core 3 and first and second flanges 4A and 4B, and wires S1 to S4 wound around a winding core 3 of the drum core 2. Terminal electrodes 6a and 6b and a center tap 6c are provided on the flange 4A, and terminal electrodes 6d and 6e and a center tap 6f are provided on the flange 4B. Each end of the wires S1 to S4 is connected to a corresponding one of the terminal electrodes P1 and N1, the center tap CT2, the terminal electrodes P2 and N2, and the center tap CT1. A front end of the terminal electrode 6b is setback toward an outer side surface of the flange 4A, and a front end of the terminal electrode 6e is setback toward an outer side surface of the first flange 4B.
US09349518B2	Cable connector assembly A cable connector assembly (100) includes a connector (1), a cable (2) connected to the connector, a magnetic element (3) encircling the cable, and a housing (4) covering the magnetic element. The housing includes a front wall (40) adjacent to the connector, a rear wall (41) away from the connector, and a side wall (42) with closed periphery connecting the front and the rear wall, a receiving space (43) defined in the housing and running through the front and the rear wall to form a first hole (401) on the center of the front wall and a second hole (411) on the center of the rear wall. The housing includes a first projection (44) between the first hole and an outer edge of the front wall to weaken the concentrated stress generated by the cable wound on the housing.
US09349502B2	Automotive wire The present invention is an automotive wire provided with a conductor including at least one solid wire composed of a core and a metal film that covers the surface of the core, and an insulator that covers the conductor, wherein the core is composed of carbon steel, and the metal film has a thickness of 12.4 μm to 29.6 μm.
US09349494B2	X-ray beam shaper An imaging system (500) includes a focal spot (508) that rotates along a path around an examination region and emits a radiation beam that traverses a field of view of the examination region and a subject or object therein. The system further includes a detector array (520) that is located opposite the radiation source, across the examination region. The detector array detects radiation traversing the field of view and outputs a signal indicative of the detected radiation. The system further includes a beam shaper that is located between the radiation source and the examination region. The beam shaper rotates with the focal spot and, relative to the focal spot, in an opposite direction of the focal spot with a same angular frequency as the rotating of the focal spot and attenuates the radiation beam which reduces a flux density across the detector array at each rotational angle of the focal spot.
US09349492B1	Radiation shielding suspension device A radiation shielding suspension device comprising a support member, a vertical member, a swing arm, an attachment member, a balancer, a spreader bar, and a plurality of straps, being attachable a radiation shielding garment, such as a lead apron is provided. An operator can attach straps to a radiation shielding garment thus offsetting the weight of the garment and providing the operator unbiased mobility along a transverse axis and around a rotational axis.
US09349483B2	One-time programmable memory and system-on chip including one-time programmable memory A one-time programmable (OTP) memory includes an OTP cell array including a plurality of OTP cells that each include a programming transistor configured to change irreversibly when programmed; a temperature compensation reference voltage generating unit configured to sense a temperature of the OTP cell memory and generate a reference voltage such that as the sensed temperature changes, the reference voltage generated by the temperature compensation reference voltage generating unit changes in a manner that is inversely proportional the change in the sensed temperature; and a temperature compensation operating voltage generating unit configured to receive the reference voltage to generate an operating voltage that is proportional to the reference voltage and is applied to the OTP cell array.
US09349479B1	Boundary word line operation in nonvolatile memory One or more word lines in a Multi Level Cell (MLC) block are identified as being at high risk of read disturb errors and data is selectively copied from such high risk word lines to a location outside the MLC block where the copy is maintained. Subsequent read requests for the data may be directed to the copy of the data outside the MLC block.
US09349466B2	Nonvolatile memory device having selectable sensing modes, memory system having the same and programming method thereof A non-volatile memory device includes a sensing mode selector configured to select a sensing mode according to environment information. A page buffer senses a data state of a memory cell in one of a plurality of sensing methods, depending upon the selected sensing mode. Memory device operations include high speed program operations, high speed verify operations, high reliability accurate program operations, and high reliability accurate verify operations.
US09349462B1	Flash memory and programming method thereof A programming method of an NAND flash memory is provided, for narrowing a distribution width of a threshold voltage. The method includes a step of verification reading for verifying a threshold voltage of a selected memory cell after a programming voltage is applied to a selected word line. The verification reading further includes a step of pre-charging a voltage to a bit line, a step of discharging the pre-charged bit line to a source line, and a step of reading the voltage of the bit line after the discharging step. Regarding the discharge period from starting the discharging of the bit line to starting the read out, the discharge period of the verification reading after the initial programming voltage is applied is set longer than the discharge period of the verification reading after the subsequent programming voltage is applied.
US09349461B1	Applying substantially the same voltage differences across memory cells at different locations along an access line while programming An embodiment of a method of programming might include applying a first voltage difference across a first memory cell to be programmed, where applying the first voltage difference comprises applying a first channel bias voltage to a channel of the first memory cell, and applying a second voltage difference, substantially equal to the first voltage difference, across a second memory cell to be programmed while applying the first voltage difference across the first memory cell, where applying the second voltage difference comprises applying a second channel bias voltage to a channel of the second memory cell. The first channel bias voltage is different than the second channel bias voltage, and the first memory cell and the second memory cell are commonly coupled to an access line and are at different locations along a length of the access line.
US09349459B2	Programming memory cells using smaller step voltages for higher program levels Memory devices and methods are disclosed. An embodiment of one such method includes programming a first memory cell to a first program level by applying a first series of programming pulses to a control gate of the first memory cell, where the programming pulses of the first series have voltages that sequentially increase by a certain first voltage; and programming a second memory cell to a second program level that is higher than the first program level by applying a second series of programming pulses to a control gate of the second memory cell, where the programming pulses of the second series have voltages that sequentially increase by a certain second voltage less than the certain first voltage.
US09349456B2	Method of operating non-volatile memory device A method of operating a non-volatile memory device includes erasing a memory cell block, supplying a first drain turn-on voltage higher than a target level to the drain select line of the memory cell block, and performing a soft program operation by supplying a soft program voltage to the word lines of the memory cell block.
US09349444B2	Methods and apparatuses using a transfer function to predict resistance shifts and/or noise of resistance-based memory Two or more workload indicators affecting a memory cell of a resistance-based, non-volatile memory are measured. The two or more workload indicators are applied to a transfer function that predicts a resistance shift and/or resistance noise variance in response to the two or more workload indicators. A result of the transfer function is applied to shift and/or determine a threshold resistance used for at least one of a program operation and a read operation affecting the memory cell. An error rate of the memory cell is reduced as a result.
US09349441B2	Fractional bits in memory cells Methods, devices, modules, and systems for programming memory cells are disclosed. One method embodiment includes storing charges corresponding to a data state that represents an integer number of bits in a set of memory cells. The method also includes storing a charge in a cell of the set, where the charge corresponds to a programmed state, where the programmed state represents a fractional number of bits, and where the programmed state denotes a digit of the data state as expressed by a number in base N, where N is equal to 2B, rounded up to an integer, and where B is equal to the fractional number of bits represented by the programmed state.
US09349440B1	Non-volatile SRAM with multiple storage states Technologies are generally described herein for a non-volatile static random access memory device with multiple storage states. The multi-storage state non-volatile random access memory device has two or more memory cells. Each memory cell may include one or more programmable resistive devices that may be dynamically programmed to configure the memory cell in a particular logic state.
US09349437B2	Memory cell having built-in read and write assist A memory cell having integrated read and write assist functionality includes a storage element and first and second switching circuits. The first switching circuit is configured to selectively couple a first internal storage node of the storage element with a first bit line. The second switching circuit is configured to selectively couple a second internal storage node of the storage element with a second bit line. During a read operation, at least one of the first and second switching circuits is configured to increase a switching threshold of at least one inverter in the storage element. During a write operation, at least one of the first and second switching circuits is configured such that ground bounce associated with at least one of the first and second switching circuits assists in writing a logical state of the memory cell.
US09349433B2	Hidden refresh of weak memory storage cells in semiconductor memory In an example, the present invention provides a computing system. The system has a memory interface device comprising a counter, a dynamic random access memory device coupled to the memory interface device. The device comprises a plurality of banks, each of the banks having a subarray, each subarray having a plurality of memory cells. The device has a data interface coupled to the plurality of banks. The device has an address interface coupled to the plurality of banks, and a particular pre-charge command configured to be transferred to the memory interface device. The counter is adapted to count a measured time duration from a first time when data are available at the data interface to a second time when a pre-charge command is received by the address interface.
US09349423B2	Single node power management for multiple memory devices Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a node to couple to a plurality of memory devices, memory cells, and a module to perform an operation on the memory cells, to cause at least one change in a level of a signal at the node in order to make a request to perform a particular stage of the operation such that the request is detectable by the memory devices, and to perform the particular stage of the operation after the request is acknowledged. Other embodiments are described.
US09349422B2	Supporting calibration for sub-rate operation in clocked memory systems The disclosed embodiments related to a clocked memory system which performs a calibration operation at a full-rate frequency to determine a full-rate calibration state that specifies a delay between a clock signal and a corresponding data signal in the clocked memory system. Next, the clocked memory system uses the full-rate calibration state to calculate a sub-rate calibration state, which is associated with a sub-rate frequency (e.g., ½, ¼ or ⅛ of the full-rate frequency). The system then uses this sub-rate calibration state when the clocked memory system is operating at the sub-rate frequency. This calculation of the sub-rate state calibration states eliminates the need to perform an additional time-consuming calibration operation for each sub-rate.
US09349421B2	Memory interface A data path interface for transferring data to a memory device, comprising: programmable delay units (“PDUs”), wherein data is received by the interface according to a first clock signal and wherein the PDUs apply delays to the received data; and align blocks, wherein the align blocks select certain ones of the delayed data as a function of the first clock signal and a second clock signal, and wherein the selected certain ones of the delayed data are processed for transmission to the memory device according to the second clock signal.
US09349412B2	EPG realignment Arrangements detailed may cause a television channel received via the tuner to be recorded for a period of time to create a channel-specific file. The channel-specific file may include multiple television programs. User input that requests playback of a first television program of the plurality of television programs from the channel-specific file may be received. A front-end adjustment time period for playback of the first television program may be determined. A start time from which playback commences in the channel-specific file may be at least partially based on the front-end adjustment time period and a scheduled start time of the television program.
US09349409B1	Video data organization In organizing video data, an analysis can be performed to determine whether the video data meets specifications for organization on storage media. Potential breaks in the video data may be identified for organizing the video data on discrete physical portions of the storage media. A buffer space may be calculated based on an identified potential break for spacing the video data around the potential break to meet the data organization specifications.
US09349399B2	Preventing damage to storage devices within a storage system due to movement of the storage system A method implemented in a storage system that has moveable storage devices includes a motion controller receiving movement related data of a storage device from at least one sensor associated with the storage device. In response to the received movement related data indicating at least one pre-identified condition, a park command is issued that triggers the reading head of the storage device to enter a parked state in which the storage device is protected from damage that can occur due to motion of the reading head while the pre-identified condition exists.
US09349392B1	Methods for improving adhesion on dielectric substrates Various embodiments described herein provide for substrate structures including uniform plating seed layers, and that provide favorable adhesion on dielectric substrate layers. According to some embodiments, a methods for forming a magnetic recording pole is provided comprising: forming an insulator layer; forming a trench in the insulator layer; forming an amorphous seed layer over the insulator layer; forming an adhesion layer over the amorphous seed layer, the adhesion layer comprising a physical vapor deposited (PVD) noble metal; forming a plating seed layer over the adhesion layer, the plating seed layer comprising chemical vapor deposited (CVD) Ru; and forming a magnetic material layer over the plating seed layer.
US09349389B2	Magnetic recording head and magnetic recording and reproducing device According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording head records information in a magnetic recording medium by shingled magnetic recording. The magnetic recording head includes a magnetic pole and a shield opposing the magnetic pole. The magnetic pole has a shield-opposing surface opposing the shield. The shield-opposing surface includes a first portion and a second portion. A position of the second portion in a track width direction is different from a position of the first portion in the track width direction, the track width direction intersecting a first direction from the magnetic pole toward the shield. The first portion records the information in the magnetic recording medium after the second portion in the shingled magnetic recording. A first distance between the first portion and the shield is shorter than a second distance between the second portion and the shield. The shield-opposing surface is tilted with respect to the first direction.
US09349388B1	Data writer front shield with varying throat height A data storage device employing a data writer may configure the data writer with at least a write pole that is separated from a front shield on an air bearing surface. The front shield can be arranged to continuously extend from the air bearing surface a first throat height distal the write pole and a second throat height proximal the write pole with the first and second throat heights being different.
US09349387B1	Detection of open write heads and/or cables in tape drives An apparatus, according to one embodiment, includes a controller having a write driver, and a comparator circuit configured to detect a high resistance condition by comparing a first output voltage of the write driver with a second output voltage of the comparator circuit. A high resistance condition is detected in response to determining that the second output voltage of the comparator circuit is greater than the first output voltage of the write driver. Other systems, methods, and computer program products are described in additional embodiments.
US09349383B2	Audio bandwidth dependent noise suppression A system and method for audio bandwidth dependent noise suppression may detect the audio bandwidth of an audio signal responsive to one or more audio indicators. The audio indicators may include the audio sampling rate and characteristics of an associated compression format. Noise suppression gains may be calculated responsive to the audio signal. Noise suppression gains may mitigate undesirable noise in the reproduced output signal. The noise suppression gains may be modified responsive to the detected audio bandwidth. Less noise reduction may be desirable when more audio bandwidth is available. The modified noise suppression gains may be applied to the audio signal.
US09349381B2	Method and device for pulse encoding, method and device for pulse decoding The present invention discloses a method and a device for pulse encoding, and a method and a device for pulse decoding. The method for pulse encoding includes: calculating an index value of an input pulse; selecting an adjustment threshold value according to the number of pulses, and comparing the index value of the pulse with the adjustment threshold value; if the index value is smaller than the adjustment threshold value, adopting the first number of encoding bits to encode the index value, if the index value is not smaller than the adjustment threshold value, adopting the second number of encoding bits to encode the index value plus an offset value, where the first number is smaller than the second number, the first number and the second number are both positive integers, and the offset value is greater than or equal to the adjustment threshold value.
US09349376B2	Bitstream syntax for multi-process audio decoding An audio decoder provides a combination of decoding components including components implementing base band decoding, spectral peak decoding, frequency extension decoding and channel extension decoding techniques. The audio decoder decodes a compressed bitstream structured by a bitstream syntax scheme to permit the various decoding components to extract the appropriate parameters for their respective decoding technique.
US09349374B2	Voice-controlled three-dimensional fabrication An additive three-dimensional fabrication system includes voice control for user interaction. This voice-controlled interface can enable a variety of voice-controlled functions and operations, while supporting interactions specific to consumer-oriented fabrication processes.
US09349365B2	Voice based automation testing for hands free module An electronic control unit (ECU) of a hands-free module may be tested by an automated voice based testing tool in a first device. The tool reads test input data from an Excel input file. The tool generates simulated audible voice commands in a specified language, accent, pitch, volume or speed to test the hands-free module. The voice commands are transmitted via a speaker to a hands-free module microphone. The hands-free ECU is coupled to a CAN bus and the tool receives CAN bus information corresponding to hands-free module operations. The tool outputs test verdict information and/or CAN bus message logs as text in an Excel file.
US09349356B2	Drum heads and drums A drum head having a striking feeling similar to an acoustic drum includes an inner head layer and a pair of outer head layers. The outside diameter of the inner head layer is smaller than the outside diameter of a flat part of the outer head layers and the inside diameter of the edge of the shell. The inner head layer is inside the connection part between the flat part and a cylindrical part of the outer head layers and the shell edge part. When tension is applied to the outer head layers, tension is prevented from being applied to the inner head layer.
US09349354B1	Acoustic weight system and a stringed musical instrument including the same An acoustic weight system for a stringed musical instrument is disclosed herein. The acoustic weight system includes one or more acoustic braces, tone bars, or ribs configured to be attached to one or more walls of a musical instrument body; and one or more weights coupled to the one or more acoustic braces, tone bars, or ribs by attachment means. The acoustic weight system is configured to change a resonant frequency of the one or more walls of the musical instrument body in order to modify a sound and/or tone of the stringed musical instrument. A stringed musical instrument, which includes acoustic weight system, is also disclosed herein.
US09349353B2	Method and apparatus for efficient storage of frequency values for a display device A device and corresponding operational method for storing frequency values to a memory of the device, comprising an internal memory and an external memory, are provided. A frequency value in a memory cell of the internal memory is actualized by an increment or a decrement. After a specific number of increments and decrements in the memory cells of the internal memory, a maximum frequency value of the frequency values stored in the memory cells of the internal memory is determined, and the maximum frequency value is transferred to a corresponding memory cell of the external memory. The memory cell of the internal memory that contains the transferred maximum frequency value is reset. After a period, content of each memory cell of the internal and external memory is read, and each memory cell of the internal and external memory is reset.
US09349350B2	Method for providing contents along with virtual information and a digital device for the same A method for providing contents and a digital device for the same in which image data are displayed and navigated together with augmented reality information surrounded by a point where the corresponding image data are recorded.
US09349338B2	Display device and method for driving same A memory access section 16 writes, in a memory (10), a received image signal, in a case where a current frame is one that is located right before a frame in a scanning signal. On the other hand, the memory access section 16 does not write, in the memory (10), a received image signal, in a case where the current frame is one that is located right before a frame in a pause period. This allows a further reduction in electric power used to write, in the memory (10), an image signal received from outside.
US09349332B2	Non-overlap data transmission method for liquid crystal display and related transmission circuit The present disclosure provides a non-overlap data transmission method for a liquid crystal display (LCD). The non-overlap data transmission method includes obtaining an entire fame image data; dividing the entire frame image data into a plurality of image data segments and individually sending the image data segments to a plurality of display processing units at the same time, wherein each of the image data segments is sent to one of the display processing units and image data of each image data segment does not overlap with image data of the other image data segments; and mutually sending image data of the image data segments through the display processing units.
US09349327B2	Electrophoretic display apparatus, method for driving same, and method for measuring image stability thereof Disclosed are an electrophoretic display apparatus and a method for driving the same, which facilitate minimization of the flickering of the screen as well as minimization of the unintended gray scale transition caused by the neighboring cells. Disclosed also is a method for measuring the image stability of an electrophoretic display apparatus which allows a user to visually recognize any unintended gray scale transition that may occur after a predetermined time passes without a data voltage supplied and to identify whether the degree of the unintended gray scale transition exceeds an allowable range. When an image switching is performed, no data voltage is supplied to a first cell to be maintained with a first gray scale without gray scale transition, and a data voltage of a predetermined waveform is supplied to a second cell to be maintained with a second gray scale without gray scale transition.
US09349324B2	Pixel circuit and display device using the same A pixel circuit includes four transistors, two capacitors and a light emitting element. A gate of first transistor receives a scan signal and a source/drain thereof receives a display data. A terminal of first capacitor couples to another source/drain of first transistor. A gate and a source/drain of second transistor couple to another terminal of first capacitor; and another source/drain thereof receives a switch signal. A terminal of second capacitor receives a reset signal; and another terminal thereof couples to another terminal of first capacitor. A gate of third transistor couples to a terminal of first capacitor. A gate of fourth transistor receives an enable signal; a source/drain thereof couples to a first power supply voltage; and another source/drain thereof couples to one source/drain of third transistor. The anode and cathode of the light emitting element couple to one source/drain of third transistor and a second power supply voltage, respectively.
US09349320B2	Display device and output buffer circuit for driving the same Disclosed herein is a display device including: a plurality of pixel circuits; a power source line connected to corresponding ones of the plurality of pixel circuits; and an output buffer circuit for supplying currents to corresponding ones of the plurality of pixel circuits by alternately applying a first potential applied to a first power source supply terminal, and a second potential applied to a second power source supply terminal to the power source line. The output buffer includes a variable resistance circuit connected to a path between the first power source supply terminal and the power source line, the variable resistance circuit serving to change a resistance value thereof in accordance with a magnitude of a total sum of the currents.
US09349315B2	Organic light-emitting display device to compensate pixel threshold voltage An organic light-emitting display device includes: an organic light-emitting panel defined into a plurality of pixel regions which each includes a drive transistor configured to drive an organic light emission element and a load capacitor configured to charge a threshold voltage of the drive transistor; and a controller configured to calculate an offset information on the basis of the threshold voltage and derive a second image signal by reflecting the offset information to a first image signal.
US09349308B2	Dynamic application of a design across multiple product packages Systems and methods are described for dynamically applying a single design across a display field composed of visual surfaces of a number of non-adjoined product packages to create an impression of a single, unified aesthetic. Geometries and layouts of product packages are used to calculate a display field. A source image can be mapped to some or all of the display field to generate one or more field maps. Individual package images can be generated from the field maps, according to various factors, including the individual product package geometries and layouts. Some embodiments allow the generated package images to be previewed, the entire display field to be virtually previewed, and/or the package images to be output.
US09349302B2	Voice output device, information input device, file selection device, telephone set, and program and recording medium of the same A device, computer program and method for outputting linguistic information. The voice output device, for example, includes an output information acquisition unit acquiring linguistic information and attribute information. Attribute information includes an attribute added to each linguistic element included in the linguistic information. A tactile pattern storage unit stores a predetermined tactile pattern corresponding to each linguistic element. A tactile pattern acquisition unit acquires the tactile pattern from the tactile pattern storage unit. A voice output unit reads aloud the linguistic elements and a tactile pattern output unit outputs, in parallel with reading aloud each linguistic element, the tactile pattern corresponding to the attribute added to the linguistic element, thereby allowing a user to sense the tactile pattern by the sense of touch.
US09349296B2	Methods and systems for dynamically providing contextual weather information Methods and systems are provided for providing dynamic information. Routing data for a vehicle is integrated with weather data for an area to generate contextual weather information. The contextual weather information is presented with respect to a predetermined route of the vehicle.
US09349290B2	Self-reported tracking methods including a trip plan with an expected duration or expected return A trip plan is received at an in-vehicle application on a memory of an in-vehicle infotainment unit or at an application on a mobile device memory. The trip plan includes an expected trip duration and/or an expected trip return. An in-vehicle bus facilitates monitoring for a return event, or a mobile device monitoring system facilitates monitoring for a return event. In an example, a notification that the return event has been recognized is received at one of the applications. The return event is identified as having occurred prior to or at the expiration of the expected trip duration and/or return. In another example, one of the applications recognizes that the expected trip duration and/or the return has expired and that no notification of the return event has been received, and a pending alert notification is transmitted to another party.
US09349276B2	Automated reporting of account and sensor information A mechanism is provided for receiving sensor configuration information from a remote security, monitoring and automation (SMA) controller, storing that sensor configuration information, and transmitting the sensor configuration information to a remote central station alarm monitoring system in a form usable by the remote central station. In addition, a mechanism is provided for receiving account configuration information from a remote node, storing that account configuration information, and transmitting the account configuration information to the remote central station in a form usable by that remote central station. In this manner, inefficiencies during installation and modification of a security system using the SMA controller can be avoided through automated provision of the information.
US09349271B2	Methods, user equipment, property device, and computer program products for detecting movement of the property device and of indicating such movement at the user device Short or middle range capabilities are activated at a user device, if not already active, in response to receiving a first message initiated at the property device via a wireless wide range connection. a response message, indicating that the short or middle range capabilities of the user device are active, is transmitted to the property device, via a wireless wide range connection. In response to receiving a second message initiated at the property device and indicating a failed scanning for the user device by the property device via a wireless wide range connection, an alarm indicating movement of the property device and that the property device is located out of range for the short or middle range capabilities of the user device is activated at the user device. At the property device, failed scanning processe(s) triggers the property device to initiate alarm activation at the user device.
US09349270B1	Method and apparatus for confirming an asset is associated with a given transportation structure A method and apparatus is provided for establishing the whereabouts of an asset being tracked while in the process of being transported to a given destination. This may optionally be accomplished by utilizing identification beacons in the form of RF or other wireless transmitters to establish to a tracking system that a given asset is being transported via the appropriate structure in a pre-established schedule. Further, by knowing in advance that a given structure will be used for transportation or temporary storage, sensing parameters of smart tracking devices may be adjusted to better accommodate customer alert situations.
US09349269B2	Glass breakage detection system and method of configuration thereof A glass breakage detector system including an audio sensor, room-specific evaluation function generating functionality operative to generate at least one room-specific audio signal alarm evaluation function based on at least one of at least one acoustic parameter characterizing a room in which the audio sensor is located and at least two of the following environmental parameters: a size of the room, at least one size of at least one glass element in the room, at least one type of the at least one glass element in the room and at least one distance between the at least one glass element and the audio sensor, and alarm generation functionality operative to receive outputs from the audio sensor and to generate a glass breakage alarm when the outputs from the audio sensor fulfill criteria established by the at least one room-specific audio signal alarm evaluation function.
US09349268B2	TNT-medical alert system The inventive device object of the present application is a comprehensive medical alert system that will save the lives of many people. When immediate medical attention is needed to save a life or to reduce complications, first responders need prompt access to the patient when they arrive at the patient's home. When the door is unlocked automatically using this system, medical personnel will be able to attend to the patient more quickly. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure.
US09349262B2	Security system providing a localized humanly-perceivable alert for identifying a facility to emergency personnel The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for guiding emergency personnel to a location in a facility proximate to an alarm that has been generated. In one aspect, a method may include detecting an alarm condition at a facility protected by a security system and determining a location at the facility of the alarm condition. The method may further include causing at least one indicator at the facility, which is proximate to the determined location of the alarm condition, to generate an identifying alert that is humanly perceivable from an exterior of the facility such that emergency personnel can identify the facility based at least in part on the identifying alert. In some aspects, the method may also include notifying a security representative of the alarm condition, and receiving a notification from the security representative indicating that emergency personnel are dispatched to the facility.
US09349260B2	Sensor device with enhanced light guide visualization and related methods A sensing device comprises a sensor housing defined in part by two or more outer planes, a light guide including one or more legs, where the light guide defined in part by a vertical plane, and the light guide is an indicator for the sensing device. The light guide extends along a first portion and a second portion, where the first portion is disposed along at a first outer plane of the housing, the second portion is disposed along a second outer plane of the housing. The sensing device further includes a light source disposed adjacent to the light guide, and the light guide includes at least one slot therein. The light source is directed toward the slot, and a surface within the slot transmits light in multiple directions.
US09349258B2	Method of gaming, a gaming system and a game controller A gaming system, game controller and method of gaming implementing a game wherein one or more symbols are selected to be retained from a previous game outcome based on symbols which contribute to a winning symbol combination in the game outcome. One or more subsequent game outcomes can be generated including the retained symbols. The retained symbols from a previous game outcome can be selected from symbols which contribute to a winning symbols combination in the previous game outcome. In the subsequent game outcome, the retained symbols can contribute to further winning symbol combinations.
US09349255B2	Gaming devices having game modifiers usable between games and stages within games Embodiments of the present invention are directed to the use of game modifiers that are triggered in a first game and are used in game stages in a subsequent second game. According to some embodiments, a gaming device is configured to play a multi-stage game of chance. After each stage is completed in a first game, it is determined whether any of the game stages have triggered modifications of one or more game modifiers that are used in one or more corresponding game stages in a subsequently played game. The altered game modifiers may modify prizes associated with an incremented one of the game stages in the subsequent game so that the altered modifiers move between game stages in multiple games.
US09349252B2	Game ticket selection apparatus and method A method and system for a player to select numbers for a game ticket for play of a random draw game by displaying available game tokens on a display screen of a mobile computer device, selecting a pre-determined number of the available game tokens, and communicating the selected game ticket to a controller for the random draw game.
US09349247B2	User interface manager for a skill wagering interleaved game Systems for a networked gaming system are disclosed, including an entertainment game controller connected to a game world controller, and constructed to: communicate an initialization request; receive a plurality of transaction identifiers; communicate game world information and a transaction identifier; receive a gambling outcome and game world resources; display gambling outcome; integrate game world resources; a real world controller connected to the game world controller, and constructed to: receive a wager request; determine gambling outcome; communicate gambling outcome; the game world controller connected to the entertainment game controller and to the real world controller, and constructed to: receive initialization request; determine whether or not the player is authorized; generate plurality of transaction identifiers; communicate plurality of transaction identifiers; receive game world information and transaction identifier; determine whether the transaction identifier is valid; communicate wager request; receive gambling outcome; determine game world resources; and communicate gambling outcome and game world resources.
US09349240B2	Gaming terminal with an inclined input interface A gaming terminal includes a first display screen operative to display a wagering game that includes a lower section. A second display screen is operative to display images of input buttons and includes a touchscreen operative to receive inputs at the input buttons to play the wagering game. The second display screen is smaller than the first display screen. The second display screen is positioned forwardly relative to the lower section of the first display screen such that the second display screen is closer than the first display screen to a player position in front of the gaming terminal. The second display screen is inclined relative to horizontal such that an imaginary plane containing the second display screen intersects the lower section of the first display screen thereby creating an infinity pool effect when viewing the first display screen relative to the second display screen.
US09349237B2	Method of authenticating a printed document A method for authenticating a printed document which carries barcode that encode authentication data, including word bounding boxes for each word in the original document image and data for reconstructing the original image. The printed document is scanned to generate a target document image, which is then segmented into text words. The word bounding boxes of the original and target document images are used to align the target document image. Then, each word in the original document image is compared to corresponding words in the target document image using word difference map and Hausdorff distance between them. Symbols of the original document image are further compared to corresponding symbols in the target document image using feature comparison, symbol difference map and Hausdorff distance comparison, and point matching. These various comparison results can identify alterations in the target document with respect to the original document, which can be visualized.
US09349236B2	Solutions for relay attacks on passive keyless entry and go A passive entry system, in particular for a motor vehicle, comprising: a mobile device to be carried by a user, said mobile device comprising a low-frequency transceiver for short range communication, an ultra-high-frequency transceiver for long range communication and information concerning access, such as an access code, which is transmittable by said transceivers; and a locking device which is to be unlocked by the mobile device, said locking device comprising a low-frequency transceiver for short-range communication and an ultra-high frequency transceiver for long range communication to receive said information concerning access, such the access code. The transceivers of the mobile device communicates with the transceiver of the locking device and exchange information concerning access, such as said access code, to the locking system via the respective transceivers, wherein the communication range of the ultra-high-frequency transceiver of the mobile device is limited to a short range in a normal operating mode of the mobile device.
US09349221B2	Printer apparatus and control method therefor When a medium is set to a printer apparatus, a first printing condition for a longer boarding ticket of two types of boarding ticket length is read and set, the medium is started to be conveyed. Upon detection of a cue mark of the medium, the medium is advanced by a predetermined distance and the apparatus is set to a print-standby state of a second boarding ticket to wait to receive data. Upon reception of first printing data, printing is started under the first printing condition. When the cue mark is detected, if printing is completed, subsequent printing is performed under the first printing condition. If the cue mark is detected before printing is completed, a second printing condition for a shorter boarding ticket is read and set and the printing is performed under the second printing condition.
US09349217B1	Integrated community of augmented reality environments An architecture is provided to integrate multiple augmented reality environments to expand user experiences that might otherwise be limited in a single augmented reality environment. The architecture includes multiple augmented reality functional nodes located in separate locations to generate augmented reality environments within respective locations. The nodes are communicatively coupled together through a peer network, via cloud services, or other arrangements. The community of environments allows data, such as captured images, to be ported from one location to another, thereby allowing users to share in common experiences. Examples of such experiences might include team software coding, playing software games, virtually extending line-of-sight beyond physical boundaries, and controlling remote locations by virtually placing oneself in those locations.
US09349214B2	Systems and methods for reproduction of shadows from multiple incident light sources Systems and methods are provided for simulating shadows in a scene. In an embodiment, two or more light sources that cast shadows from objects are identified. Each of those light sources is then assigned to a channel in a shadow mask buffer. The shadows are then accumulated into the shadow mask buffer and may be combined with corresponding lights to render the scene.
US09349213B2	Tile-based accumulative multi-layer alpha blending systems and methods A system for blending includes a memory device, cache, cache controller, and a graphics processing device. The graphics processing device performs blending of a plurality of source images into a single destination image. The graphics processing device performs a method including, for each tile position in the plurality of source images, requesting tiles for the tile position form each source image, blending the tiles individually with a destination tile and overwriting the destination tile in the cache with the result of the blending after each individual blending. The destination tile may be written to memory after each source tile for the each tile position has been blended with the destination tile, such as in response to a cache controller determining that the destination tile is a least recently used (LRU) entry in the cache.
US09349206B2	Editing animated objects in video In one aspect, in general, a method includes receiving, in a user interface of a video editing application executing on a computer system, an indication from a user of the video editing application to edit an animated object associated with a video clip displayed in the user interface, receiving, by the video editing application executing on the computer system, data specifying an editing location of the animated object, and determining, by the video editing application executing on the computer system, a frame of the video clip associated with the editing location of the animated object, the determination based on the data specifying the editing location of the animated object. Other aspects may include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer program products.
US09349194B2	Method for superpixel life cycle management A method and an apparatus for life cycle management for superpixels associated to frames of a sequence of frames are described. An area occupied by a superpixel in a frame of the sequence of frames is monitored. In case the area of the superpixel becomes smaller than a specified first value, the superpixel is terminated in the later frame. In case the area of the superpixel becomes larger than a specified second value, the superpixel is split in the later frame.
US09349186B2	Systems and methods for image segmentation using target image intensity The system and method of the invention combines target image intensity into a maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) framework as in STAPLE to take advantage of both intensity-based segmentation and statistical label fusion based on atlas consensus and performance level, abbreviated iSTAPLE. The MLE framework is then solved using a modified expectation-maximization algorithm to simultaneously estimate the intensity profiles of structures of interest as well as the true segmentation and atlas performance level. The iSTAPLE greatly extends the use of atlases such that the target image need not have the same image contrast and intensity range as the atlas images.
US09349183B1	Method and apparatus for three dimensional viewing of images A method, apparatus and computer program product for three-dimensional viewing of images is presented. Embodiments of the invention provide a process for combining slices generated by medical imaging devices to create a volume of interest and then present this volume in a three-dimensional representation to a head display unit so that the user can obtain a holistic view of the patient. Key image processing techniques are applied which enable the user to rotate and view the volume of interest from alternative viewpoints; to enable tissue subtraction to facilitate unobstructed viewing of a region of interest; to identify differing tissues with color schematics; to zoom in for optimal viewing; and to view a moving image of a volume of interest.
US09349169B2	Sampling-based multi-lateral filter method for depth map enhancement and codec A preferred method receives a color image and a corresponding raw depth map from a sensor or system. Unreliable regions are determined in the raw depth map by calculating pixel reliabilities for pixels throughout the depth map. Information is collected from the color image, for corresponding pixels in the unreliable regions of the raw depth map, from neighboring pixels outside the unreliable regions. The depth of pixels in the unreliable regions is updated with information collected from the reliable regions. Robust multi-later filtering is conducted on the adjusted depth map to produce an enhanced depth map.
US09349168B2	Image processing device and method to correct brightness signal of an input image A region determination circuit (60) determines whether or not each of the pixels in an image is within a region subject to correction, in which pixels having at most a predetermined brightness level appear with a frequency equal to or less than a predetermined value. An offset level generation circuit (10) generates an offset level (Offset) on the basis of the brightness of the pixels determined to be within the region subject to correction. An offset subtraction circuit (1) subtracts the offset level (Offset) from the image signal (Yi) to generate an offset image signal (Yofst). A gain generation circuit (20) generates a gain for the offset image signal (Yofst). A gain multiplication circuit (2) multiplies the offset image signal (Yofst) by the gain to generate a corrected image signal (Ya).
US09349162B1	System and method for image color correction A reference value for a color statistic and an input image sample are received. A global color mapping is performed between the input image sample and the reference value to obtain a globally-mapped input image sample, the color statistic of the globally-mapped input image sample substantially matching the reference value and each pixel location in the globally-mapped input image sample having a correspondence with a corresponding pixel location in the input image sample. A point-to-point color mapping function minimizing for all pixels an error between the globally-mapped input image sample and the input image sample mapped according to the color mapping function is computed, the color mapping function transforming a color value of each pixel location in the input image sample to substantially match a color value of the corresponding pixel location in the globally-mapped input image sample.
US09349157B2	Method and apparatus for controlling a virtual camera A method of controlling the movement of a virtual camera whose image plane provides a cut-out from a captured image of a scene is disclosed. The method comprises: defining a set of first pixel positions forming the boundary of the cut-out of the captured image; defining a set of second pixel positions for the boundary of the captured image; calculating a virtual camera rotation matrix to be applied to the first pixel positions, the virtual camera rotation matrix representative of the difference in at least one of the yaw and pitch of the image plane of the virtual camera and the image plane of the captured image of the scene, wherein the virtual camera rotation matrix is limited such that when one of the set of first pixel positions is transformed using the virtual camera rotation matrix, the transformed first pixel position is located within the boundary of the captured image.
US09349156B2	Adaptive frame buffer compression Image data is subject to compression and decompression when it is respectively written to and read from a frame buffer. If a portion of the image data is identified as static (subject to less than a threshold amount of change for greater than a threshold time), then compression control parameters used for compression of that portion of the image are adjusted so as to increase the compression ratio achieved, hold the degree of lossiness substantially constant and increase the energy consumed while compressing that portion. The increased energy consumption during this high compression ratio compression is likely compensated for by a reduction in energy subsequently consumed when writing that frame-buffer image data to the frame buffer and reading that frame-buffer image data multiple times from the frame buffer. The compression characteristics varied may be to increase the block size used in the compression. Other variations in compression applied may be to change from single-pass compression to multi-pass compression, switch compression on and off altogether, or reorder the data when it has been compressed so as to match the order it will be read and so achieve support for longer read burst.
US09349155B2	Computing apparatus and method using X-Y stack memory A computing apparatus is provided. The computing apparatus includes a memory unit configured to have an address space defined as a multidimensional space having at least two axes, and a memory access unit configured to include a first pointer register storing a first pointer pointing to a row corresponding to the first axis and a second pointer register storing a second pointer pointing to a column corresponding to the second axis.
US09349154B2	Bindless texture and image API One embodiment of the present invention sets for a method for accessing data objects stored in a memory that is accessible by a graphics processing unit (GPU). The method comprises the steps of creating a data object in the memory based on a command received from an application program, wherein the data object is organized non-linearly in the memory, transmitting a first handle associated with the data object to the application program such that data associated with different draw commands can be accessed by the GPU, wherein the first handle includes an address related to the location of the data object in the memory, receiving a first draw command as well as the first handle from the application program, and transmitting the first draw command and the first handle to the GPU for processing.
US09349153B2	Correcting image capture distortion The disclosure relates generally to improving readability of machine-readable information, despite signal capture distortion. One claim recites a method comprising: obtaining input data, the input data representing imagery or video, the input data comprising test data and a machine-readable signal; determining characteristics associated with the test data to determine information regarding signal capture distortion of the input data; based on at least the characteristics, determining an amount of correction or counteracting to be applied to the input data; using a programmed processor, applying a determined amount of correction or counteracting to the input data; and analyzing corrected or counteracted input data to obtain the machine-readable signal. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided as well.
US09349151B2	Fingerprinting of data A fingerprinting apparatus, including: a plurality of receiving units to receive a plurality of input datasets, each of the plurality of input datasets divided into a plurality of input segments, at least one of the plurality of input datasets uniquely marked; a selector to select at least one input segment from one of at least two different input datasets of the plurality of input datasets; and at least one combiner to arrange the selected at least one input segment to produce an output dataset having a plurality of output segments, such that the number of output segments is equal to the number of input segments in each input dataset.
US09349148B2	Methods and apparatus for adaptive multisensor analisis and aggregation The present invention is directed to a self consistent method for adaptive implementation of overflying multi sensor measurements and derivation of conclusions and determinations “agregants”, derived and/or developed from the measured results and/or resulting from science-based processing design to integrate and process the measured results and other data and scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the aggregants may be pertinent to determination of status and proactive management models of the at least one distributed resource by a single or repeatable implementation of one or several steps.
US09349141B2	Service for adding functionality to applications An application management system modifies developer-submitted applications, such as mobile applications, to add various types of functionality before such applications are made available for purchase. The added functionality may, for example, enable end users to make in-application purchases of content items from an application store. As another example, Digital Rights Management (DRM) functionality may be added for controlling user access to content items, such as content items available in an application store.
US09349136B2	Content distribution system and method Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide an electronic marketplace that matches units of content from secondary content providers with suitable vacancies from primary content providers. Vacancies may constitute, or be included in, any digital transmission containers, such as a television or radio programming, web pages, and the like. Specifically, the electronic marketplace automatically matches content offered by secondary content providers with vacancies offered by primary content providers thus filling the vacancies in these containers through a real-time content trading, placement, and distribution system. To do so, attributes associated with the vacancies and with units of secondary content are used to trade and match suitable vacancies with suitable content. This invention enables both secondary content owners and vacancy owners (primary content providers) to obtain the full commercial benefit of their secondary content and containers.
US09349131B2	Interactive digital advertising system A interactive digital advertising system including a soft-copy display including at least an information display region and a command control region, a digital image capture system positioned to capture a time sequence of images of users located in a field-of-view of the soft-copy display, and a storage memory storing a library of advertisements. A time sequence of images is analyzed to detect a plurality of users, and at least one of the users is designated to be a controlling user. The captured images are displayed in the command control region, wherein the detected users are demarked using graphical elements. The captured time sequence of images is analyzed to determine one or more demographic attributes relating to the designated controlling user, and a particular advertisement from the library of advertisements is selected and displayed in the information display region responsive to the determined demographic information.
US09349130B2	Generating relative and absolute positioned resources using a single editor having a single syntax Both a relative positioned resource and an absolute positioned resource may be generated using a single editor having a single syntax for both the relative and absolute positioned elements. A layout module generates an intermediate data structure based on element information. The element information includes content of at least one element, Cartesian coordinates of the at least one element, and dimensional information of the at least one element. A unified processing module generates a first resource having absolute positioned elements by processing the intermediate data structure, and generates a second resource having relative positioned elements by processing the same intermediate data structure.
US09349123B1	Hybrid native networked application Disclosed are various embodiments for a hybrid networked application. An application context communicates with a thin client application. The application context maintains a navigation state and manages previously loaded content to simulate a native application experience. Navigation contexts facilitate the search and discovery of information. Overlays facilitate the discovery and rendering of item details.
US09349116B2	Establishment of message context in a collaboration system A processing device used to support communications between users of the collaboration system is provided with a graphical user interface. A graphical context activation mechanism associated with a discussion between users of the collaboration system may be displayed. Responsive to a selection input, a graphical illustration of information regarding the users participating in the discussion is displayed. The graphical illustration may comprise indicia of location of at least one of the users that may be displayed, for example, within the context of a geographical map. The graphical illustration may further comprise indicia of identity of at least one of the users. Additionally, a textual context activation mechanism may be provided and utilized in the same manner, thereby allowing text-based context regarding the message to be displayed. In this manner, team-wide context may be more readily established.
US09349110B2	Enterprise product management system and method A comprehensive enterprise product management system to effectuate efficient product time to market. The system includes a process model and a data model. The process model consists of entities that represent typical concepts in a trade setting and relationships among these entities. The data model represents the complexity of a product, including defining the entities that comprise the product and the relationship among these entities. The process model and the data model accommodate the dynamic characteristics associated with both product definition and channels of trade.
US09349105B2	Machine learning with incomplete data sets Machine learning solutions compensate for data missing from input (training) data and thereby arrive at a predictive model that is based upon, and consistent with, the training data. The predictive model can be generated within a learning algorithm framework by transforming the training data to generate modality or similarity kernels. Similarity values can be generated for these missing similarity values.
US09349104B2	Learning geofence models directly Methods and apparatus are directed to geofencing applications that utilize machine learning. A computing device can receive a plurality of geofence-status indications, where a geofence-status indication includes training data associated with a geofence at a first location. The geofence is associated with a geographical area. The computing device trains a geofence-status classifier to determine a geofence status by providing the training data as input to the geofence-status classifier. The training data includes data for a plurality of training features. After the geofence-status classifier is trained, the computing device receives query data associated with a second location. The query data includes data for a plurality of query features. The query features include a query feature that corresponds to a training feature. The query data is input to the geofence-status classifier. After providing the query data, the trained geofence-status classifier indicates the geofence status.
US09349103B2	Application of machine learned Bayesian networks to detection of anomalies in complex systems According to one embodiment, in response to a set of data for anomaly detection, a Bayesian belief network (BBN) model is applied to the data set, including for each of a plurality of features of the BBN model, performing an estimate using known observed values associated with remaining features to generate a posterior probability for the corresponding feature. A scoring operation is performed using a predetermined scoring algorithm on posterior probabilities of all of the features to generate a similarity score, wherein the similarity score represents a degree to which a given event represented by the data set is novel relative to historical events represented by the BBN model.
US09349096B2	Context-awareness system and method of forming event data A context-awareness system has an event data producer for forming event data from node data including a node value and node information, a context producer, and an event data manager for storing event data formation suppression information and event data conversion rules. The context producer sends the number of entries of event data (the number of inputs) to the event data manager per unit time. The manager sends to the event data producer the event data formation suppression information and event data conversion rules corresponding to the number of inputs. The event data producer forms event data depending on the event data formation suppression information and event data conversion rules corresponding to the number of inputs. Appropriate context information is formed without increasing the amount of resources when data including values related to events are entered in large amount and frequently.
US09349094B2	Optimal non-recursive method for finding a minimal subset satisfying an upward-closed property According to an aspect, a method for providing a minimal explanation to a set of unsatisfiable constraints involves retrieving a minimal subset of constraints that remain together unsatisfiable. The method includes iterating over a list of n constraints, and building a minimal explanation to a set of unsatisfiable constraints by determining which constraint to add to the set of unsatisfiable constraints. Building includes accelerating by removing an increasing number of constraints until removed further constraints makes the set of constraints satisfiable. A dichotomic search is performed on the removed further constraints. The average observed distance is identified between successive constraints in the set of unsatisfiable constraints. A plurality of 2k further constraints located in the list of constraints is removed at the average observed distance from the most recently added constraint. Testing whether a current selected subset is unsatisfiable is performed for the first log2(n) added constraints.
US09349087B2	Method of generating a random marker There is disclosed by the present invention a method of generating a marker to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit goods by applying to surfaces of items, articles, goods, vehicles, fabrics and/or premises, the method includes: applying at least one coding to the surface, where the coding is applied randomly such that the coding provides a unique pattern when subjected to a particular type of stimulus.
US09349076B1	Template-based target object detection in an image Systems and methods are provided for detecting target object(s) within image(s) based on selective template matching. More specifically, the systems and methods relate to template generation, selection and matching based on the identification of regions of interest within image(s). Training images showing target object(s) can be obtained and regions of interest that are deemed more likely to contain part(s) of the target object can be identified based on the training images. Subsequent to the identification of regions of interest, templates for target object detection can be generated based thereon. Templates can be applied on testing images. Based on the test application of templates, a subgroup of templates can be selected to serve as a basis for target object detection in subsequent images.
US09349064B2	Machine-readable form configuration and system and method for interpreting at least one user mark One embodiment of the present invention relates to a machine-readable form configuration (and associated method). Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a system for interpreting at least one user mark (and associated methods). In one example, a plurality of user marks may be interpreted. In another example, the machine-readable form may be a lottery play slip, survey, test, or the like. In another example, the system may interpret user mark(s) made on a lottery play slip, survey, test or the like. In another example, the system may interpret user mark(s) made on a paper or the like having non-planar distortion(s).
US09349059B2	Three-dimensional object detection device A three-dimensional object detection has an image capturing device, a three-dimensional object detection unit, a high-luminance area assessment unit and a controller. The image capturing device captures images of an area including a right-side detection area or a left-side detection area rearward of a vehicle. The three-dimensional object detection unit detects a three-dimensional object based on the images acquired by the image capturing device. The high-luminance area assessment unit accesses a first detection area including a high-luminance area complying with a predetermined reference on either the right-side detection area or the left-side detection area. The controller suppresses detection of the three-dimensional object based on image information of the first detection area that was detected, and maintains or promotes detection of the three-dimensional object based on image information of a second detection area other than the first detection area within the right-side detection area or the left-side detection area.
US09349056B2	Method of measuring road markings A method of measuring road markings. The steps of which include first projecting a red laser line onto the road including a portion on the road surface and a portion on the road markings. Second, filter out all colors except red and convert to a grayscale image. Thirdly, separate image into one pixel wide columns and apply a filtering so only white pixels having a predetermined minimum brightness remain. Next, calculate the road-paint boundary to determine which columns belong to the road surface and which belong to road marking. Using linear regression, a line equation for points corresponding to the road surface is generated and extrapolated to convert the road marking measurements to a height.
US09349051B2	Method and apparatus for image collection and analysis A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a processor that can detect an event, access location information for a group of mobile communication devices that are each automatically capturing images, and identify a subset of the group of mobile communication devices that are in proximity to the event based on the location information. The processor can provide first image analysis criteria to the subset of the group of mobile communication devices without providing the first image analysis criteria to remaining devices of the group of mobile communication devices where the first image analysis criteria includes first characteristics associated with an object. The processor can receive a first target image that includes the object from a first mobile communication device of the subset of the group of mobile communication devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09349049B2	Motion capture and analysis system Portable wireless mobile device motion capture and analysis system and method configured to display motion capture/analysis data on a mobile device. System obtains data from motion capture elements and analyzes the data. Enables unique displays associated with the user, such as 3D overlays onto images of the user to visually depict the captured motion data. Ratings associated with the captured motion can also be displayed. Predicted ball flight path data can be calculated and displayed. Data shown on a time line can also be displayed to show the relative peaks of velocity for various parts of the user's body. Based on the display of data, the user can determine the equipment that fits the best and immediately purchase the equipment, via the mobile device. Custom equipment may be ordered through an interface on the mobile device from a vendor that can assemble-to-order customer built equipment and ship the equipment.
US09349042B2	Human detection and tracking apparatus, human detection and tracking method, and human detection and tracking program A human detection and tracking apparatus prevents errors in a size of a person and a location of body parts between actual image data and a tracking result. Human frame detecting section detects, from first image data, a human frame as a region having high possibility of presence of a human, based on human feature data representing a feature of an entire human body. Body part frame location determining section determines a body part frame in the first image data, based on part feature data illustrating a feature of a body part of the human and a part frame determined as a region having high possibility of presence of a body part of the human in second image data previous to the first image data. Body part frame location correcting section corrects, based on the human frame, a location of the part frame determined in the first image data.
US09349037B2	Skin colour probability map A data processing system for performing face detection on a stream of frames of image data, the data processing system comprising: a face detector configured to detect a first face candidate in a first frame by performing face detection within first search tiles defined for the first frame; a color measurement unit configured to calculate a set of color parameters including an average color of the first face candidate expressed according to a predefined color space; a transformation unit configured to: transform a second frame into the predefined color space, one of the axes of the color space being substantially oriented in the direction of maximum variation according to a predetermined distribution of skin color; and form a skin color probability map for the second frame by calculating the probability that a given color is a skin color from a measure of the color space distance of that color from the calculated average color; and a search tile generator configured to generate second search tiles based on the skin color probability map for use by the face detector, the second search tiles defining areas of the second frame within which the face detector is to perform face detection so as to detect one or more second face candidates in the second frame.
US09349030B2	System and method of optimizing the process of identifying items tagged with RFID tags in an enclosed shielded space A system and method comprises a plurality of RF antennas having beams directed to a storage space in which medical items having RFID tags are stored. Each antenna is controlled to inject energy at a different frequency in a frequency-hopping set of frequencies to activate the tags. The return signal strength is monitored and for each tag that responds, the antenna location, frequency of the injected energy, identification response, and signal strength are stored as identification data. If a tag fails to respond in new scans, the antenna at which the tag last responded receives all the frequency-hopping frequencies in an attempt to locate the tag. If new tags are found, they are compared to a list of expected new medical items.
US09349024B2	Assigning a data item to a storage location in a computing environment A computer implemented method assigns a data item to a storage location in a computing environment. A request to store a data item is detected. A determination is made as to whether a volatile memory in the second computer comports with an isolation rule for the data item. In response to determining that the volatile memory in the second computer comports with the isolation rule for the data item, access time for data in the volatile memory in the second computer is compared with access time for data in a local hard drive in a first computer. The data item is then selectively stored in either the volatile memory in the second computer or the local hard drive in the first computer as determined by their relative access times.
US09349019B2	System and method for associating tags with online content In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of associating tags with online content may generally include receiving, by one or more computing devices, a tag request from a user to associate a tag with a content object, classifying the tag as a controlled tag, accessing an access control list associated with the controlled tag, determining whether the user is permitted access to the controlled tag based on the access control list, associating the tag with the content object when the access control list permits access to the controlled tag, identifying a moderator for a tag group associated with the controlled tag and providing a moderator feed to the moderator of the content object associated with the controlled tag for approval or rejection of the controlled tag.
US09349017B2	System and method for authentication A multi-functional device is attached to a secure network and includes a control circuit. The control circuit receives indications as to whether a user is authenticated to use the multi-functional device and in response, generates and sends a control signal to the multi-functional device. As long as the multi-functional device continues to receive the control signal, the multi-functional device remains in an operational mode to allow the authenticated user to access the multi-functional device functions. If the multi-functional device ceases to receive the control signal, the multi-functional device deactivates itself.
US09349010B2	Managing update attempts by a guest operating system to a host system or device Attempts to update confirmation information or firmware for a hardware device can be monitored using a secure counter that is configured to monotonically adjust a current value of the secure counter for each update or update attempt. The value of the counter can be determined every time the validity of the firmware is confirmed, and this value can be stored to a secure location. At subsequent times, such as during a boot process, the actual value of the counter can be determined and compared with the expected value. If the values do not match, such that the firmware may be in an unexpected state, an action can be taken, such as to prevent access to, or isolate, the hardware until such time as the firmware can be validated or updated to an expected state.
US09349008B1	Safe printing Approaches for processing a digital file in a manner designed to minimize exposure of any malicious code contained therein. A digital file resides with a virtual machine. When the virtual machine receives an instruction to print or digitally transfer at least a portion of the digital file, the virtual machine converts at least a portion of the digital file from an original format to a different format within the virtual machine. The different format preserves a visual presentation of the digital file without supporting metadata or file format data structures of the original format. The virtual machine instructs the host OS to print or digitally transfer the portion of the digital file. The host OS may consult policy data in determining how to service the instruction to print or digitally transfer the digital file.
US09349007B2	Web malware blocking through parallel resource rendering Apparatus and method for transforming Web resources into safe versions such that malicious code on the resources cannot attack the client viewing the resources. The invention separates the processing of insecure code from the processing of benign code. For Web pages, the benign code is displayed immediately to the client while insecure code is processed on a separate machine. Once insecure code is processed, benign outputs of that code are passed to the client for display. The invention safeguards the client against known and zero day exploits without requiring a catalog of malware/virus signatures, heavyweight code checkers, complete page re-writing or highly restrictive access policies. The invention provides the client with complete malware blocking while retaining most of the original functionality of the Web resource.
US09349005B2	Preventing re-patching by malware on a computer Preventing re-patching by malware on a computer by detecting a request to modify a write-protection attribute of a memory location within a memory of a computer to allow the memory location to be written to, where the detecting is performed subsequent to the detection of activity identified as malware-related activity involving the memory location, and preventing modification of the write-protection attribute of the memory location.
US09349002B1	Android application classification using common functions Known malicious Android applications are collected and their functions are extracted. Similarity values are calculated between pairs of functions and those functions with a low similarity value are grouped together and assigned a unique similarity identifier. A common set of functions or common set of similarity identifiers are identified within the applications. If at least one function in the common set is determined to be malicious then the common set is added to a blacklist database either by adding functions or by adding similarity identifiers. To classify an unknown Android application, first the functions in the application are extracted. These functions are then compared to the set of functions identified in the blacklist database. If each function in the set of functions is present (either by matching or by similarity) in the group of extracted functions from the unknown application then the unknown application is classified as malicious.
US09349000B2	Web service sandbox system A web service sandbox system. The web service sandbox system provides a secure mechanism with little to no risk to an origination domain hosting a user agent for the user agent to retrieve content from a potentially insecure web service hosted in another domain and using JSONP to bypass same-origin policy restrictions. The user agent posts a command message to a separate quarantined web session of a sandbox service acting as intermediary between the user agent web session and the web service. The sandbox service makes the actual call to and parses the response from the web service. Scripts from the response are executed only in the quarantined web session of the sandbox service. The resulting “safe” content obtained from the web service by the sandbox service is returned to the user agent where it may be rendered.
US09348999B2	User terminal, reliability management server, and method and program for preventing unauthorized remote operation It is possible to effectively prevent an unauthorized remote operation of a terminal. A user terminal provides a user with higher precision information related to execution determination of a program to be executed, by detecting, from the program, a command for performing a remote operation with a remote operation terminal, temporarily stopping the execution of the program, and inquiring of a reliability management server about the reliability.
US09348974B2	Remote management of therapy programming The disclosure is directed to techniques for remote management of information relating to therapy delivered to a patient by an implantable medical device (IMD). A remote monitoring system for therapy programming includes an IMD that delivers therapy, e.g., neurostimulation, drug therapy, or both, to a patient, an external programming device associated with the IMD, such as a patient programmer, and a remote networking device that receives usage information from the external programming device. The external programming device communicates with the IMD via local, wireless communication, and the remote networking device receives usage information from the external programming device via a network. The usage information includes information that relates to use of therapy by the patient, use of features of the external programming device and the IMD, or use of navigation patterns of a user interface of the external programming device.
US09348967B2	Overlaying business intelligence data on a product design visualization In a method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable device having instructions for overlaying business intelligence data on product design visualization, one or more visualization data files with visualization data for rendering a visualization of an object are received, business intelligence data for the object is received, business intelligence data for a portion of the object is correlated to at least a portion of visualization data from the one or more visualization data files, a determination is made when the portion of the object is being rendered with the portion of the visualization data on the display screen, a determination is made that the portion of the object has associated business intelligence data, and an overlay of a visual indicator for business intelligence data is displayed onto at least a portion of the visualization for the object.
US09348959B1	Optimizing supply voltage and threshold voltage A method for determining or configuring supply voltage and threshold voltage for a design implementation of a given electronic design, includes: determining a first set of supply voltage-threshold voltage combinations that meet timing requirements for the design implementation; performing power analysis using a processor; and selecting a supply voltage-threshold voltage combination from the first set of supply voltage-threshold voltage combinations based at least in part on a result from the power analysis, wherein the selected supply voltage-threshold voltage combination provides an optimal amount of power consumption for the design implementation.
US09348957B1	Repetitive circuit simulation Method and system are disclosed for repetitive circuit simulation. In one embodiment, a computer implemented method for performing multiple simulations of a circuit includes providing descriptions of connectivity, instants, signal activities, and statistical parameters of the circuit, parsing the circuit in accordance with the descriptions of connectivity, instants, signal activities, and statistical parameters of the circuit to form one or more circuit partitions, performing a first pass simulation of the one or more circuit partitions in accordance with a set of stimuli to generate a history of the first pass simulation, and performing subsequent simulation of the one or more circuit partitions using the history of the first pass simulation.
US09348954B2	Non-transitory, computer readable storage medium, method of controlling analytical support device, and analytical support device A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to conduct a processing, the processing has creating a solid figure surrounding an object and a solid figure surrounding a plurality of components of a group of components included in the object, based on design information related to the object, determining elements belonging to the solid figure surrounding the plurality of components from a plurality of elements partitioned and divided from the created solid figure surrounding the object, generating a spatial model that represents a space in which the plurality of components exist, based on the determined elements that belong to the solid figure surrounding the plurality of components, and outputting a result of the generating.
US09348953B2	Swing simulation system, swing simulation apparatus, and swing simulation method Provided is a swing simulation system capable of simulating a swing without amplifying errors contained in measured values on three-dimensional coordinates of a grip during the swing. The simulation system according to the present invention includes: at least two imaging devices for imaging identification features capable of identifying a closed virtual plane that follows a grip of a golf club during a swing; and a simulation apparatus for simulating a behavior of the golf club during the swing, based on position information on the virtual plane.
US09348942B2	Promoting philanthropy Among other things, a user can navigate a database of philanthropic charities systematically to select a set of charities of interest, by interactively specifying in any order a succession of one or more (e.g., up to five) different criteria to narrow the selection from more general to more specific. A result of applying each of the criteria is displayed in real time to the user.
US09348939B2	Web site sectioning for mobile web browser usability A method of displaying web page information. The method includes dividing a web page into sections, displaying on a mobile device having a web browser the web page having the sections, panning to a web page section of interest, and zooming-in to the web page section of interest to enlarge text or images on the web page section of interest while the mobile device browser loads only content for the web page section of interest. The method is performed by one or more computing devices. Also disclosed is a computer program product for displaying web page information.
US09348933B2	Inter-frame communication of objects Inter-frame communication of an object of a type is not directly supported by a receiving module of the target frame. Instead, the source object is restructured to be a particular transport-compatible type that is supported by the receiving module of the target frame. The restructured object also has encoded therein source type information correlated to the particular source type of the object. The sending module of the source frame then converts the object into data of a particular transport type, such as a string, for transporting the data to the receiving module of the target frame. The receiving module may then recover the object of the particular transport-compatible type. The target frame may then decode the source type information from the recovered object, and use that source type information to obtain an object that has at least some of the semantic structure of the source object.
US09348931B2	Integration of web information architecture taxonomy and web metrics taxonomy Mechanisms are provided for integration of Web information architecture taxonomy and Web metrics taxonomy. When the author creates source content, the mechanism classifies the content using a rich taxonomy. The mechanism also adds unique identifiers into the source content pages as tags. The mechanism may then transform the source content into Web content that contains the identifiers in the tags. When users view the Web content, the tags generate usage data, which contain the identifiers. A Web metrics mechanism generates a Web metrics report from the usage data. The page tags are the identifiers from the source content. The Web metrics report associates each page of Web content with the rich taxonomy available in the source content.
US09348923B2	Software asset management using a browser plug-in A software asset management method comprising storing URL data for each of a first plurality of software entities, obtaining, by means of a first browser plug-in, first data indicative of a URL from which a browser has obtained content, comparing, for at least one of the first plurality of software entities, the URL data of the respective software entity with the first data, and communicating the first data to a first computer other than a computer hosting the browser subject to a first condition that, for each of the first plurality of software entities, the comparing reveals that the first data does not match the URL data of the respective software entity.
US09348920B1	Concept indexing among database of documents using machine learning techniques Systems and techniques for indexing and/or querying a database are described herein. Discrete sections and/or segments from documents may be determined by a concept indexing system. The segments may be indexed by concept and/or higher-level category of interest to a user. A user may query the segments by one or more concepts. The segments may be analyzed to rank the segments by statistical accuracy and/or relatedness to one or more particular concepts. The rankings may be used for presentation of search results in a user interface. Furthermore, segments and/or documents may be ranked based on recency decay functions that distinguish between segments that maintain their relevance over time in contrast with temporal segments whose relevance decays quicker over time, for example.
US09348909B1	Video indexing, search and delivery platforms, methods, systems and apparatuses A video ingest, search and delivery solution is provided in which videos and their associated metadata are ingested based on ingest criteria. Moments in the metadata are identified by parsing comments in the metadata for comments that reference a time in the video. Moments are recorded with the referenced time and the text of the comment. Videos are rated and may be delivered to users based at least in part on the rating. Moments may be displayed together with the video by displaying the text of moments at the associated time in the video as the video is being delivered. The text of moment records may be searched based on search parameters received from a user to identify videos to deliver to the user.
US09348901B2	System and method for rule based classification of a text fragment A method for classifying a text fragment by applying one or more rule functions is provided. The method includes (i) obtaining a set of words from one or more sentences of the text fragment obtained from a multimedia content, (ii) mapping each word from the set of words with one or more category map tables to obtain a set of candidate vector, each candidate vector includes at least one category associated with each word, (iii) generating one or more category vectors based on the at least one category, (iv) applying rule functions on the one or more category vectors, (v) generating a candidate classification decision matrix based on the rule functions, and (vi) classifying the text fragment based on the candidate classification decision matrix. The candidate classification matrix includes results of each rule function applied on each of the category vector.
US09348885B2	System and method for ranking and selecting data features Example systems and methods of extracting the most informative data parameters from a set of data are provided. Large dimensionality data sets may reduced to a desired dimensionality while substantially preserving their real world interpretation so that the resultant reduced dimensionality set may still be effectively interpreted in light of a real world initial data set. The systems and method first complete the data set by filling in missing data in a manner that will not bias the resultant reduced data set. The system then selects the N most informative data parameters while minimizing reconstruction error.
US09348883B2	Systems and methods for replication replay in a relational database Systems and methods for replication replay in a relational database are disclosed. In one embodiment, a relational database includes a master database and a slave database, and events performed on the master database are stored in a log. A portion of the log is provided to a slave replay system associated with the slave database, and the slave replay system identifies a first table row associated with a first event of the portion of the log and a second table row associated with a second event in the portion of the log. The slave replay system replays the first and second events on the slave database in parallel if the first and second rows are different rows with unique sets of values, and otherwise replays the first and second events serially.
US09348870B2	Searching content managed by a search engine using relational database type queries According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system searches content managed by a search engine. The system receives a relational database type query, translates the relational database type query into a query for the search engine, and submits the translated query to the search engine to retrieve information. The system formats resulting information from the search engine into a relational database query result set. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for searching content managed by a search engine in substantially the same manners described above.
US09348869B2	Data skew insensitive parallel join scheme A method for creating a joined data set from a join input data set is disclosed. The method starts by categorizing the join input data set into a high-skew data set and a low-skew data set. The low-skew data set is distributed to the plurality of CPUs using a first distribution method. The high-skew data set is distributed to the plurality of CPUs using a second distribution method. The plurality of CPUs process the high-skew data set and the low-skew data set to create the joined data set.
US09348865B2	System and method for massively parallel processing database In one embodiment, a method for managing database resources includes selecting a first query from a queue of queries and transmitting, by a global resource manager to a portion of a plurality of data nodes, a plurality of reserve resource messages. The method also includes receiving, by the global resource manager from the portion of the plurality of data nodes, a plurality of acknowledgement messages and transmitting, by the global resource manager to a coordinator node, an execute query message when the plurality of acknowledgement messages are positive acknowledgements.
US09348857B2	Probabilistically finding the connected components of an undirected graph A method for probabilistically finding the connected components of an undirected graph. The method includes identifying a first edge, having a first and second vertex, and inserting information detailing the first and second vertex of the first edge into a bloom filter associated with a root node of a bloom filter data structure. A first node, connected to the root node, is created, comprising an associated bloom filter containing information associated with the first and second vertex of the first edge. The method includes identifying a second edge, having a first and second vertex, and inserting information detailing the first and second vertex of the second edge into a bloom filter associated with the root node of the bloom filter data structure. A second node, connected to the root node, is created, comprising an associated bloom filter containing information associated with the first and second vertex of the second edge.
US09348856B2	Data movement from a database to a distributed file system Provided are techniques for data movement. An activity is created that overrides existing security, that is associated with a user, that defines one or more source tables in a relational database and one or more target tables that are available to the user for the activity, and that provides security credentials of an author of the activity for use by the user, wherein the one or more target tables represent data in one or more target files in a file system. The activity is executed using the security credentials of the author to move data in a source table of the one or more source tables to a target file of the one or more target files, wherein a target table of the one or more target tables is defined over the target file. Access is provided to the user to the moved data using the target table.
US09348852B2	Frequent pattern mining A system for frequent pattern mining uses two layers of processing: a plurality of computing nodes, and a plurality of processors within each computing node. Within each computing node, the data set against which the frequent pattern mining is to be performed is stored in shared memory, accessible concurrently by each of the processors. The search space is partitioned among the computing nodes, and sub-partitioned among the processors of each computing node. If a processor completes its sub-partition, it requests another sub-partition. The partitioning and sub-partitioning may be performed dynamically, and adjusted in real time.
US09348851B2	Data quality monitors Systems and methods are presented for data quality monitoring. Data quality monitors may be created and configured to identify objects with specified data quality issues and/or property values. Objects identified by a data quality monitor can be presented to users for confirmation and resolution. Properties used by the data quality monitor to match objects may also be displayed to users.
US09348850B1	Method for large-scale data schema analysis and quality assurance A system and method for large-scale data schema analysis and quality assurance is disclosed. A data schema may be received and compiled into an internal representation for analysis. The schema's information may also be exposed via an application programming interface. Using the schema's application programming interface along with a provided requirement, the schema may be analyzed and/or corrected for quality, consistency and interoperability.
US09348840B2	Adaptive data striping and replication across multiple storage clouds for high availability and performance Technologies for adaptively striping data across multiple storage clouds include receiving user constraints corresponding one or more cloud storage providers, receiving a file to be striped across the cloud storage providers, splitting the received file into file blocks, allocating each of the file blocks to a different one of the cloud storage providers as a function of the user constraints and operating conditions of each of the cloud storage providers, and sending each of the file blocks to the cloud storage provider to which each file block is allocated. In some embodiments, file blocks may be re-allocated from one cloud storage provider to another cloud storage provider as a function of changing user constraints or operating conditions. In addition, each of the file blocks may be retrieved from the cloud storage providers to re-assemble the file.
US09348838B2	Data backup, storage, transfer and retrieval system, method and computer program product A data storage system including a virtual server on a network managing a plurality of user accounts, each user account including one or more files; the virtual server adapted to verify user access information for a particular user account; the virtual server transferring over the network information relating to files stored on the virtual server in the particular user account to a verified user on a user computer; the virtual server further adapted to transfer files associated with the particular user account to and from the user computer.
US09348830B2	Back up using locally distributed change detection Systems and methods for replicating a client data set on a computer includes replicating the client data set using an application software on the computer; generating a manifest of a target data set during replication containing state of target data reflecting post-update state; and determining differences between the local data and manifest to determine required backup operations.
US09348805B1	Learning parsing rules and argument identification from crowdsourcing of proposed command inputs Systems, methods and apparatus for learning parsing rules and argument identification from crowdsourcing of proposed command inputs are disclosed. Crowdsourcing techniques are used to generate rules for parsing input sentences. A parse is used to determine whether the input sentence invokes a specific action, and if so, what arguments are to be passed to the invocation of the action.
US09348801B2	System and method for automatic page layout The present disclosure includes a system and method for automatic page layout. One automatic page layout method includes dividing a plurality of ordered graphical items into groups, and bisecting a space into regions having a reading order corresponding to an order of the ordered graphical items, each region corresponding to one of the groups and being sized according to a first layout characteristic of the ordered graphical items of the region's corresponding group in proportion to a second layout characteristic of the plurality of ordered graphical items. An output is caused in which each region has been filled with that region's associated group of ordered graphical items.
US09348800B2	Method of managing arrays of documents The present application provides a method and an information organizing system thereof for discriminating axes of documents on a display, the method comprising displaying, at a first time about an time-of-axis-display timeline substantially aligned with a depth of view of the display, a first axis of documents substantially rectilinearly displaying documents along a first chronological order thereof; and displaying, at a second time about the time-of-axis-display timeline, chronologically following the first time about the time-of-axis-display timeline at which the first axis of documents was displayed, a second axis of documents substantially rectilinearly displaying documents along a second chronological order thereof, the second axis of documents being displayed at the second time along the time-of-axis-display timeline with a lesser depth of view than a depth of view with which the first axis of documents is displayed at the first time about the time-of-axis-display timeline, whereby the first axis of documents and second axis of documents are concurrently displayed about the time-of-axis-display timeline in such a way as to graphically indicate to a viewer of the display that the first axis of documents was displayed chronologically before the second axis of documents is displayed.
US09348797B2	Efficient computation of sketches Determining a summary feature set is disclosed. A plurality of subsegments of a first segment are selected. For each subsegment, a plurality of values by applying a set of functions to each subsegment are computed. From all the values computed for all the subsegments, a first subset of values is selected.
US09348787B2	Method and system for processing analysis data Data for a plurality of samples collected by an LC/MS, GC/MS or other systems are converted into a two-dimensional table format without losing information and with a light load, thereby allowing a multivariate analysis processing to be efficiently performed. After LC/MS data on a plurality of samples are obtained and the respective extracted ion chromatograms (XICs) are created (S1 and S2), the correction of the retention-time difference, the waveform processing and the like are performed (S3 and S4), followed by the creation of a one-dimensional table in which the signal-strength values are arranged for each XIC. Then, one-dimensional tables of a plurality of XICs for one sample are joined together in order of m/z value to create an elongate one-dimensional table (S5). The elongate one-dimensional tables of a plurality of samples are arranged in another dimensional direction to obtain a two-dimensional table (S6).
US09348783B2	Apparatus and method emulating a parallel interface to effect parallel data transfer from serial flash memory Apparatus and method emulating a parallel interface to effect parallel data transfer from serial flash memory are provided. A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) may be coupled to a processor via a data bus. A serial flash memory may be coupled to the FPGA via a serial interface. The FPGA may be programmed to emulate a parallel interface by converting a serial data stream of boot code or operating software received from the serial flash memory to a parallel data stream to effect parallel data transfer over the data bus to the processor. The FPGA may be responsive to respective logic signals set by the processor to start access to the serial flash memory by pointing to at least one predefined location corresponding to at least one starting address of data to be transferred to the processor without using a plurality of address lines to access the serial flash memory.
US09348779B2	Multifunctional electronic apparatus for charging electronic product A multifunctional electronic apparatus includes a casing, a connection port group integrated with the casing, a memory card slot group, an operation interface, a power input element, a wireless antenna, a first storage element, an output element, a second storage element and a control circuit. The multifunctional electronic apparatus is a base station for wirelessly connecting to the Internet, and has reading memory cards, storing data, supplying power, charging and playing data functions.
US09348774B2	Controller-opaque communication with non-volatile memory devices The disclosure is directed to a system and method for controlling a non-volatile memory (NVM) device with controller-opaque commands issued by a host. A device controller is configured to receive a command script from a host. The device controller executes one or more commands of the command script including sending one or more operations of the command script to a NVM device in communication with the device controller. The device controller is enabled to provide at least a portion of the one or more operations from the command script to be executed by the NVM device without any embedded knowledge by the device controller of the actions of and/or consequences of the operations, thereby allowing the host to access NVM commands that are not necessarily supported by the device controller.
US09348762B2	Technique for accessing content-addressable memory A tag unit configured to manage a cache unit includes a coalescer that implements a set hashing function. The set hashing function maps a virtual address to a particular content-addressable memory unit (CAM). The coalescer implements the set hashing function by splitting the virtual address into upper, middle, and lower portions. The upper portion is further divided into even-indexed bits and odd-indexed bits. The even-indexed bits are reduced to a single bit using a XOR tree, and the odd-indexed are reduced in like fashion. Those single bits are combined with the middle portion of the virtual address to provide a CAM number that identifies a particular CAM. The identified CAM is queried to determine the presence of a tag portion of the virtual address, indicating a cache hit or cache miss.
US09348759B2	Direct memory access (DMA) address translation with a consecutive count field DMA translation table entries include a consecutive count (CC) field that indicates how many subsequent translation table entries point to successive real page numbers. A DMA address translation mechanism stores a value in the CC field when a translation table entry is stored, and updates the CC field in other affected translation table entries as well. When a translation table entry is read, and the CC field is non-zero, the DMA controller can use multiple RPNs from the access to the single translation table entry. Thus, if a translation table entry has a value of 2 in the CC field, the DMA address translation mechanism knows it can access the real page number (RPN) corresponding to the translation table entry, and also knows it can access the two subsequent RPNs without the need of reading the next two subsequent translation table entries.
US09348742B1	Detecting code alteration based on memory allocation Techniques are described for identifying potential code injection attacks against a process by analyzing the memory allocation for the process. Memory allocation data may be collected on one or more host computing devices, the memory allocation data describing the amount of memory allocated for a process or utilized by a process during its execution. The collected memory allocation data may be analyzed to identify instances of anomalous memory allocation during process execution. Statistical or machine learning algorithms may be employed to identify anomalous memory allocation based on the analysis of aggregated memory allocation data for the process.
US09348735B1	Selecting transactions based on similarity of profiles of users belonging to different organizations Selecting a transaction for a certain user based on similarity of a profile of the certain user to profiles of users belonging to different organizations involves executing the following: receiving activity data obtained by monitoring activity of the users on software systems; identifying transactions executed by the users on the software systems; generating profiles of the users, based on the transactions, indicating transactions executed by the users; receiving a profile of the certain user, which indicates transactions executed by the certain user; and selecting, based on similarity of at least some of the profiles of the users to the profile of the certain user, a certain transaction that was executed by a user with a similar profile to the profile of the certain user.
US09348734B2	Generation of automated tests for business software solution packages Systems and methods to provide generation of automated tests for business software solution packages are provided. In example embodiments, a user selection of a selection option that customizes a solution package for a process is received. A customized solution package is created based on the user selection of the selection option. An automated test comprising a predefined test unit assigned to the user selection of the selection option is generated. The automated test is executed to determine operability of the customized solution package.
US09348732B2	Microstackshots A method and apparatus of a device that captures a stackshot of an executing process is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device detects an interrupt of the process occurring during the execution of the process, where the process execution can be in a kernel space and user space, and the interrupt occurs during the user space. The device further determines whether to capture a stackshot during the interrupt using a penalty function. If the stackshot is to be captured, the device captures the stackshot and saves the stackshot.
US09348727B1	Enhancing GUI automation testing using video A method, computer program product, and system for testing an application on a GUI are provided. A request to perform a test of an application is received. The test uses a script that includes instructions to perform real actions on a GUI of the application. Execution of the script is initiated. A test recording is generated by capturing a first plurality of screenshots of the GUI during the test. In response to detecting an error during execution of the script, a baseline video is retrieved. The baseline video includes a second plurality of screenshots of the GUI from a successful execution of the script. An error message is issued. The error message includes at least a portion of the test recording and at least a portion of the baseline video.
US09348722B2	Diagnostic and managing distributed processor system A network of microcontrollers for monitoring and diagnosing the environmental conditions of a computer is disclosed. The network of microcontrollers provides a management system by which computer users can accurately gauge the health of their computer. The network of microcontrollers provides users the ability to detect system fan speeds, internal temperatures and voltage levels. The invention is designed to not only be resilient to faults, but also allows for the system maintenance, modification, and growth—without downtime. Additionally, the present invention allows users to replace failed components, and add new functionality, such as new network interfaces, disk interface cards and storage, without impacting existing users. One of the primary roles of the present invention is to manage the environment without outside involvement. This self-management allows the system to continue to operate even though components have failed.
US09348721B2	Diagnosing entities associated with software components In one embodiment, a method includes evaluating event history information for each of one or more events associated with a hardware entity against a symptom rule, the symptom rule defining a validity state of a diagnosis. The method also includes identifying contextual information by receiving and inspecting the event history information in response to the symptom rule being satisfied and the diagnosis being validated. An indication of the validity state of the diagnosis is sent to at least one subscriber that has requested a subscription specifically for the diagnosis.
US09348718B2	Apparatus and method for computer debug A computer debug module for use in a computer at least includes a power sequence monitor module. The power sequence monitor module includes a monitor unit, a register, and an output control unit. The monitor unit is configured to monitor a plurality of power sequence signals relative to the computer and generate a monitor result. The register is configured to store the monitor result. When the power sequence monitor module operates in a debug mode, the output control unit generates a detection signal according to the stored monitor result and transmits the detection signal to an output device.
US09348717B2	Storage failure processing in a shared storage architecture The disclosed embodiments relate to systems and methods for coordinating management of a shared disk storage between nodes. Particularly, a messaging protocol may be used to communicate notifications regarding each node's perception of the shared storage's state. The nodes may use the messaging protocol to achieve consensus when recovering from a storage device failure. Some embodiments provide for recovery when localized failures, such as failures at an adapter on a node, occur.
US09348715B2	Storage device health status synchronization One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for storage device health status synchronization. For example, a first health status registry is maintained for a first storage controller at a first storage site. The first storage controller stores storage device health status information of storage devices currently owned by or assigned to the first storage controller within the first health status registry. A second health status registry is maintained for a second storage controller at a second storage site. The second storage controller stores storage device health status information of storage device currently owned by or assigned to the second storage controller within the second health status registry. The first health status registry and the second health status registry are synchronized during operation of the first storage site and the second storage site and/or are merged between the first storage site and the second storage site after disaster recovery.
US09348714B2	Survival site load balancing One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for load balancing between storage controllers. For example, a first storage controller and a second storage controller may be configured at a first storage site according to a high availability configuration, and may be configured as disaster recovery partners for a third storage controller and a fourth storage controller at a second storage site. If the first storage controller fails, the second storage controller provides failover operation for a first storage device. If a disaster occurs at the second storage site, the second storage controller provides switchover operation for a third storage device and a fourth storage device. Responsive to the first storage controller being restored, the third storage device may be reassigned from the second storage controller to the first storage controller for load balancing at the first storage site during disaster recovery of the second storage site.
US09348708B2	Memory system performing address mapping according to bad page map A memory system comprises a nonvolatile memory comprising a memory block having multiple pages, and a controller configured to control the nonvolatile memory to store data in the memory block according to a command and logical address received from an external source. The controller is configured to determine whether the logical address is currently mapped to a bad page of the memory block by referring to a bad page map, and as a consequence of determining that the logical address corresponds to the bad page, remaps the logical address to a different page and stores dummy data in the bad page.
US09348707B2	Dynamically adjusting the number of replicas of a file according to the probability that the file will be accessed within a distributed file system In a distributed file system with a number of replicas of a file set to two or more replicas, a computer sets a timer to track a time since a last access to the file, wherein the replicas of the file are distributed across two or more nodes within the distributed file system. Responsive to an access to the file prior to the timer reaching a first timer window threshold, the computer resets the timer. Responsive to the timer matching a first timer window threshold, the computer automatically reduces a number of replicas of the file within the distributed file system, wherein the probability that the file will be accessed prior to the first timer window threshold is greater than the probability that the file will be accessed after the first timer window threshold.
US09348701B2	Method and apparatus for failure recovery in a machine-to-machine network According to one aspect of the teachings herein, a Network Services Capability Layer or NSCL is configured to initiate failure recovery responsive to detecting an abnormal reset at the NSCL. Failure recovery operations exploit recovery information that is maintained by the NSCL in a persistent data store during normal operation, e.g., on an ongoing basis, in real-time as new M2M registrations or other M2M information changes occur at the NSCL. Such operations advantageously permit the NSCL to recover missing or corrupted information after the abnormal reset, from M2M entities identified from the recovery information.
US09348699B2	Memory system According to the embodiments, a memory system includes a nonvolatile semiconductor memory and a writing-loop-count monitoring unit that monitors a loop count of an applied voltage to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory required for data writing of the nonvolatile semiconductor memory as a writing loop count. Moreover, the memory system includes a management table for managing the writing loop count in block unit that is a unit of data erasing and a life managing unit that determines a degraded state of the nonvolatile semiconductor memory based on the management table.
US09348696B2	Distributed multi-level protection in a raid array based storage system A system and method for dynamic RAID geometries. A computer system comprises client computers and data storage arrays coupled to one another via a network. A data storage array utilizes solid-state drives and Flash memory cells for data storage. A storage controller within a data storage array is configured to configure a first subset of the storage devices for use in a first RAID layout, the first RAID layout including a first set of redundant data. The controller further configures a second subset of the storage devices for use in a second RAID layout, the second RAID layout including a second set of redundant data. Additionally, when writing a stripe, the controller may select from any of the plurality of storage devices for one or more of the first RAID layout, the second RAID layout, and storage of redundant data by the additional logical device.
US09348695B2	System and method of storing redundancy data A data storage device includes a controller operatively coupled to a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory includes a plurality of blocks. When the controller is configured to operate according to a first mode, a portion of a first redundancy block of the plurality of blocks stores first redundancy data corresponding to a first group of multiple data portions. The multiple data portions stored in multiple blocks of the plurality of blocks. When the controller is configured to operate according to a second mode, the portion of the first redundancy block stores second redundancy data corresponding to a single block of the plurality of blocks.
US09348686B2	Error checking using serial collection of error data Embodiments relate to implementing error data collection for a processor. Aspects of the embodiments include identifying a plurality of error state devices in a processor, each of the plurality of error state devices configured to hold a state indication, and organizing the plurality of error state devices as a sequence. Aspects also include collecting a plurality of state indications by serially sampling the state indication from each of the plurality of error state devices in an order corresponding to the sequence, sequentially storing the plurality of state indications as a single linear data array, and outputting the linear data array as a data structure. The data structure can include information regarding one or more error events based on one or more errors occurring in the processor.
US09348684B2	In-vehicle electronic control device An in-vehicle electronic control device for diagnosing the details of an abnormality of a microcomputer appropriately is provided. A monitoring function for detecting a malfunction by monitoring input/output of a main function of a hardware part and a monitoring function for detecting an abnormality by monitoring the calculating result of a main function in a software part are provided in a microcomputer. The main function to be monitored is implemented with a different structure than the malfunction/abnormality monitoring function. Furthermore, a malfunction processing circuit for monitoring an abnormality of the microcomputer is provided outside the microcomputer.
US09348679B2	DRAM controller having DRAM bad page management function and bad page management method thereof A bad page management system is provided to guarantee a yield of a volatile semiconductor memory device such as a DRAM. A bad page list exists in a DRAM. A page remapper in a memory controller performs a page remapping operation in parallel with a normal operation of a scheduling unit to perform a latency overhead hidden function. A chip size of the DRAM is reduced or minimized. A DRAM controller performs a latency overhead hidden function to control a DRAM.
US09348671B1	Monitoring application loading Methods, systems, and apparatus, for determining when an application is sufficiently instantiated to be subject to a crawling operation. In an aspect, a method includes instantiating a native application instance that generates environment instances for display on a user device within the native application instance; in response to the instantiation of the native application instance: monitoring for occurrences of activity lifecycle events of the native application instance, monitoring for changes in a memory footprint of the native application instance, and generating, in response to the monitoring of the lifecycle events and monitoring of the changes in the memory footprint indicating the native application instance is sufficiently instantiated to be subject to a crawling operation, a load signal indicating the native application instance is sufficiently instantiated to be subject to the crawling operation.
US09348658B1	Technologies for efficient synchronization barriers with work stealing support Technologies for multithreaded synchronization and work stealing include a computing device executing two or more threads in a thread team. A thread executes all of the tasks in its task queue and then exchanges its associated task stolen flag value with false and stores that value in a temporary flag. Subsequently, the thread enters a basic synchronization barrier. The computing device performs a logical-OR reduction over the temporary flags of the thread team to produce a reduction value. While waiting for other threads of the thread team to enter the barrier, the thread may steal a task from a victim thread and set the task stolen flag of the victim thread to true. After exiting the basic synchronization barrier, if the reduction value is true, the thread repeats exchanging the task stolen flag value and entering the basic synchronization barrier. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09348657B2	Method and system of synchronizing processors to the same computational point A system for synchronizing central processing units (CPU) includes a schedule module that communicates a synchronization point, a first CPU that writes a first memory address to a first register in response to the first CPU reaching the synchronization point, and a second CPU that writes a second memory address to a second register in response to the second CPU reaching the synchronization point. The system further includes a first logical AND module that writes a first value to a third register based on the first and second memory addresses and a second logical AND module that writes a second value to a fourth register based on the first and second memory addresses. The system also includes a scheduler module that selectively generates a processor sync signal based on the first and second value.
US09348650B2	Determining an optimal computing environment for running an image based on performance of similar images Aspects of the present invention provide an approach that evaluates a locally running image (e.g., such as that for a virtual machine (VM)) and determines if that image could run more efficiently and/or more effectively in an alternate computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). Specifically, embodiments of the present invention evaluate the local (existing/target) image's actual and perceived performance, as well as the anticipated/potential performance if the image were to be migrated to an alternate environment. The anticipated/potential performance can be measured based on another image that is similar to the existing/target image but where that image is running in a different computing environment. Regardless, the system would display a recommendation to the end user if it were determined that the image could perform better in the alternate environment (or vice versa).
US09348635B2	Method and system for determining requirements for interface between virtual network elements and network hypervisor for seamless (distributed) virtual network resources management A method for determining and then abstracting the requirements for the interface between virtual network entity or element (VNE) and Network Hypervisor (NHV) is described. The abstraction helps creation of an open and interoperable VNE-NHV environment because suitable interworking Apps for interface can now be easily invoked on the basis of instantaneous demands from the services. Automation of configuration together with assignment of VNEs mitigates the impact of limitation of resources in any network. Once an NHV is created and the VNEs—irrespective of their domains—are attached to it, the VNEs can be utilized by the services seamlessly.
US09348631B2	File mapping and converting for dynamic disk personalization for multiple platforms File mapping and converting for dynamic disk personalization for multiple platforms are provided. A volatile file operation is detected in a first platform. The file supported by the first platform. A determination is made that the file is sharable with a second platform. The volatile operation is performed on the file in the first platform and the modified file is converted to a second file supported by the second platform. The modified file and second file are stored in a personalized disk for a user. The personalized disk is used to modify base images for VMs of the user when the user accesses the first platform or second platform. The modified file is available within the first platform and the second file is available within the second platform.
US09348629B2	Apparatus, system, method and computer-readable medium for scheduling in which a check point is specified A scheduling apparatus according to an example embodiment includes a controller. The controller determines whether a resource of a second processor in a second terminal device can execute a group including at least one virtual machine in a first terminal in addition to virtual machines in the second terminal device by each combination of a cycle and an executing period per cycle. The controller specifies a cycle and an executing period of which a ratio of the executing period to the cycle is the smallest from among pairs of a cycle and an executing period for which the controller determines that the group can be executed, and assigns the specified cycle and the specified executing period to the group including the at least one of the one or more virtual machines in the first terminal in addition to the one or more virtual machines in the second terminal device.
US09348626B2	Mobile device maintaining adequate security and data partitioning between user mode and business mode One or more embodiments of the invention facilitate switching between a host environment of a mobile device and a guest environment of the mobile device. One method comprises configuring the host environment to launch a user interface (UI) proxy application upon receiving an indication by a user on a user interface (UI) of the mobile device of a desire to switch from the host environment to the guest environment. Upon a launch of the UI proxy application as a result of receiving the indication, the UI proxy application initiates a request to wake-up the guest environment and facilitates access by a hardware framebuffer of the mobile device to contents of a memory buffer that is updated with display data for the guest environment as a result of a waking-up of the guest environment.
US09348616B2	Linking a function with dual entry points A method for a static linker to resolve a function call can include identifying, during link time, a first function call of a calling function to a callee function, determining whether the callee function is a local function, determining whether the callee function has a plurality of entry points, and whether an entry point of the plurality of entry points is a local entry point. The method can include resolving, during link time, the first function call to enter the local entry point, which can include replacing a symbol for the function in the first function call with an address of the local entry point during link time. If the callee function cannot be determined to be a local function, the method can include generating stub code and directing the first function call to enter the stub code during link time.
US09348611B2	Navigation through historical stored interactions associated with a multi-user view According to one aspect of the present disclosure an apparatus for navigation through historical stored interactions associated with a multi-user view includes a communications fabric, a memory connected to the communications fabric containing computer executable program code, and a processor unit connected to the communications fabric and executing the program code to direct the apparatus to: receive a previously saved multi-user view, wherein the multi-user view comprises a set of artifact attributes; receive an identified filter from a user; present a filtered view to the user; determine whether to amend the filtered view; responsive to a determination to amend the filtered view, generate an amended view from the filtered view; and responsive to a determination to save the amended view, save the amended view as one of a new view or an updated view.
US09348607B2	Quiet hours for notifications In some implementations, a computing device can be configured to automatically turn off notifications when generating a notification would cause a disturbance or be unwanted by a user. The device can be configured with quiet hours during which notifications that would otherwise be generated by the computing device can be suppressed. In some implementations, quiet hours can be configured as a time period with a start time and an end time. In some implementations, quiet hours can be derived from application data. For example, calendar data, alarm clock data, map data, etc. can be used to determine when quiet hours should be enforced. In some implementations, the device can be configured with exceptions to quiet hour notification suppression. In some implementations, the user can identify contacts to which the quiet hours notification suppression should not be applied.
US09348606B2	Fast computer startup Fast computer startup is provided by, upon receipt of a shutdown command, recording state information representing a target state. In this target state, the computing device may have closed all user sessions, such that no user state information is included in the target state. However, the operating system may still be executing. In response to a command to startup the computer, this target state may be quickly reestablished from the recorded target state information. Portions of a startup sequence may be performed to complete the startup process, including establishing user state. To protect user expectations despite changes in response to a shutdown command, creation and use of the file holding the recorded state information may be conditional on dynamically determined events. Also, user and programmatic interfaces may provide options to override creation or use of the recorded state information.
US09348600B2	Prioritising of instruction fetching in microprocessor systems A method and a system are provided for prioritizing the fetching of instructions for each of a plurality of executing instruction threads in a multi-threaded processor. Instructions come from at least one source of instructions. Each thread has a number of threads buffered for execution in an instruction buffer. A first metric for each thread is determined based on the number of instructions currently buffered. A second metric is then determined for each thread, this being an execution based metric. A priority order for the threads is determined from the first and second metrics, and an instruction is fetched from the source for the thread with the highest determined priority which is requesting an instruction.
US09348596B2	Forming instruction groups based on decode time instruction optimization Instructions are grouped into instruction groups based on optimizations that may be performed. An instruction is obtained, and a determination is made as to whether the instruction is to be included in a current instruction group or another instruction group. This determination is made based on whether the instruction is a candidate for optimization, such as decode time instruction optimization. If it is determined that the instruction is to be included in another group, then the other group is formed to include the instruction.
US09348594B2	Core switching acceleration in asymmetric multiprocessor system An asymmetric multiprocessor system (ASMP) may comprise computational cores implementing different instruction set architectures and having different power requirements. Program code executing on the ASMP is analyzed by a binary analysis unit to determine what functions are called by the program code and select which of the cores are to execute the program code, or a code segment thereof. Selection may be made to provide for native execution of the program code, to minimize power consumption, and so forth. Control operations based on this selection may then be inserted into the program code, forming instrumented program code. The instrumented program code is then executed by the ASMP.
US09348593B2	Instruction address encoding and decoding based on program construct groups Coding circuitry comprises at least an encoder configured to encode an instruction address for transmission to a decoder. The encoder is operative to identify the instruction address as belonging to a particular one of a plurality of groups of instruction addresses associated with respective distinct program constructs, and to encode the instruction address based on the identified group. The decoder is operative to identify the encoded instruction address as belonging to the particular one of a plurality of groups of instruction addresses associated with respective distinct program constructs, and to decode the encoded instruction address based on the identified group. The coding circuitry may be implemented as part of an integrated circuit or other processing device that includes associated processor and memory elements. In such an arrangement, the processor may generate the instruction address for delivery over a bus to the memory.
US09348582B2	Systems and methods for software dependency management Techniques for managing software dependencies are described. For example, a dependency specification that pertains to a first product is accessed. The product may be a collection of artifacts and may provide a software functionality. A determination may be made, based on the dependency specification, that the first product has a dependency on a second product. Metadata pertaining to the second product may be accessed. A valid version of the second product may be identified based on the metadata. The valid version may be usable at build time of the first product.
US09348578B2	Information processing apparatus capable of updating firmware, control method therefor, and storage medium storing control program therefor An information processing apparatus that is capable of shortening downtime caused by updating firmware. A setting unit sets obtaining time at which update firmware for updating firmware of the information processing apparatus is obtained and update time at which the firmware of the information processing apparatus is updated. An obtaining unit obtains the update firmware from an external apparatus at the obtaining time. A development unit develops the update firmware obtained to a predetermined area. A determination unit determines whether the development unit has completed development of the update firmware at the update time. The information processing apparatus changes to the update starting state from the normal starting state when the update firmware has been developed. And the information processing apparatus cancels the developed update firmware and changes to the update starting state from the normal starting state after cancelling when the update firmware has not been developed.
US09348570B2	Providing a custom virtual appliance A method, system and/or computer program product provides a custom virtual appliance. A description file of a custom virtual appliance is generated based on a user requirement. A configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance is acquired from the description file. A list of candidate virtual appliances is created based on the configuration metadata by using conversion information, wherein the candidate virtual appliances in the list are capable of converting to a configuration that corresponds to the configuration metadata.
US09348566B1	Continuous profiling for automatic feedback directed optimization A system and method for improving the performance of all applications are disclosed. Production profile data may be collected about each application while the application is executing. The production profile data may be converted into symbolized profiles and stored in a database. The symbolized profiles may be aggregated into a single aggregated profile. This aggregated profile may be used as a compilation input when compiling new versions of an application's binary to improve the application's performance for observed application behavior.
US09348549B2	Image forming apparatus, server apparatus, and method of controlling printing of server apparatus A method of controlling printing of a server apparatus is provided. The method includes: receiving printing data, receiving error information from at least one image forming apparatus; determining an error state level corresponding to the error information among a plurality of error state levels; and when the determined error state level is an allowed level to print, transmitting the printing data to the image forming apparatus and deleting the stored printing data, and when the error state level is a disallowed level, not transmitting the printing data.
US09348530B2	Presentation of virtual arrays using n-port ID virtualization A storage array presents virtual arrays to hosts through use of virtual port IDs. The storage array includes groups of logical units of storage. The groups are coupled to a switch through at least one physical port. Each group is assigned a unique virtual port ID for each physical port to which it is coupled. The virtual port IDs are assignable by the switch. The virtual port IDs are used by hosts coupled to the switch to exchange data with the groups to which the virtual port IDs are assigned. Further, a zoning table in the switch can associate each virtual port ID to a host facing port on the switch. In this case each host can communicate only with groups of logical units that are assigned virtual IDs associated with the host facing port to which it is coupled.
US09348526B2	Placement engine for a block device A system, method, and computer program product are provided for implementing a reliable placement engine for a block device. The method includes the steps of tracking one or more parameters associated with a plurality of real storage devices (RSDs), generating a plurality of RSD objects in a memory associated with a first node, generating a virtual storage device (VSD) object in the memory, and selecting one or more RSD objects in the plurality of RSD objects based on the one or more parameters. Each RSD object corresponds to a particular RSD in the plurality of RSDs. The method also includes the step of, for each RSD object in the one or more RSD objects, allocating a block of memory in the RSD associated with the RSD object to store data corresponding to a first block of memory associated with the VSD object.
US09348524B1	Memory controlled operations under dynamic relocation of storage A computing device is provided and includes a plurality of nodes. Each node includes multiple chips and a node controller at which the multiple chips are assignable to logical partitions. Each of the multiple chips includes processors and a memory unit configured to handle local memory operations originating from the processors. The node controller includes a dynamic memory relocation (DMR) mechanism configured to move data having a DMR storage increment address relative to a local one of the memory units without interrupting a processing of the data by at least one of the logical partitions. During movement of the data by the DMR mechanism, the memory units are disabled from handling the local memory operations matching the DMR storage increment address and the node controller handles the local memory operations matching the DMR storage increment address.
US09348523B2	Code optimization to enable and disable coalescing of memory transactions A transactional memory system controls the coalescing of outermost memory transactions. The coalescing causing committing of memory store data to memory for a first transaction to be done at transaction execution (TX) end of a second transaction. A processor of the transactional memory system executes a run-time instrumentation program for monitoring and modifying an associated program having a plurality of transactions. The processor initiates execution of the associated program. Based on execution of transactions, by the processor, of the associated program, the run-time instrumentation program dynamically obtains instrumentation information associated with the execution. Based on the obtained instrumentation information, the processor dynamically modifies continued execution of transactions of the associated program to optimize transactional execution (TX).
US09348519B1	System and methods for optimizing multiple data streams throughput to maximize overall throughput of a backup application A system and method for controlling a backup of a plurality of computing devices to a distinct storage is provided. The method comprises: determining, based at least on a write speed parameter and backup data parameter of each computing device, whether a throughput and/or a speed of a backup of computer devices can be improved; calculating, in response to a positive result of the determining, new write speeds for the individual computing devices; and sending the new write speeds to at least the corresponding ones of the computing devices. The new write speeds of individual ones of the plurality of computers are balanced such that each computing device completes backup at substantially the same time.
US09348517B2	Using a migration threshold and a candidate list for cache management of sequential write storage Embodiments of the invention relate to cache management of sequential write storage. Cache states of cache blocks in cache storage are tracked. The tracking incudes creating a migration candidate list that organizes the cache blocks into virtual volumes. Based on determining that a cache migration threshold has been reached, at least a subset of the cache blocks are selected from the migration candidate list for migration. The selected cache blocks are ordered into a sequential order based on the migration candidate list. At least a subset of the selected cache blocks are migrated in the sequential order, the migrating including writing contents of the selected cache blocks to the sequential write storage.
US09348512B2	Methods for facilitating text entry A system and method controlling the location of a text insertion cursor that marks a location where content is to be added to a content accumulator. The system automatically maintains one or more active cursor locations that mark where content has been sequentially added at one or more different positions in the content accumulator. The system receives a command to move the insertion cursor to a location of a previously created active cursor location. In one embodiment, active cursor locations are stored in a list and the insertion cursor can be moved to each active cursor location in the list. Therefore, if the user enters content in the content accumulator non-sequentially, the method may maintain one active cursor following each sequentially entered text string. Upon receiving an active cursor recalling command from the user, the method recalls an active cursor by relocating the content insertion cursor to the active cursor.
US09348494B2	Secure online communication through a widget on a web page A client device requests a web page via a network, where the web page is identified by an identifier and references a widget. Following receipt of the requested web page, the client device requests the widget referenced by the requested web page and presents, within the requested web page, a presentation of the widget. Thereafter, in response to receiving user information within the presentation of the widget, the client device communicates the user information to a server via a secure connection between the widget on the client device and the server while maintaining user context at the client device in the requested web page, where the secure connection is initiated by the client device and employs a secure communication protocol implemented by the widget.
US09348487B2	Apparatus and method for generating cognitive avatar One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to an apparatus and method for generating a cognitive avatar, and according to one or more of the above embodiments of the present invention, the process of allowing the user to select images, which are recognized as similar, from face images of various impressions which are classified as a plurality of impression groups and are stored, is repeatedly performed, and an avatar, which corresponds to the target face which the user intends to generate as the avatar, by a cognitive approach based on the repeatedly performed user's selection, so that a natural avatar, which is similar to the target face, may be expressed without a separate analysis or re-analysis process for the target face.
US09348481B2	Viewing and editing media content Among other things, a method includes displaying, in a user interface of a video editing application, an interface enabling a user of the video editing application to mark ranges in video clips presented in the user interface, the ranges of the video clips each representing a portion of video content of each respective clip, and at least some of the ranges of the video clips being displayed as marked simultaneously, receiving, from the user, a selection of multiple marked ranges of video clips, and establishing a relationship between the selected multiple ranges of the video clips.
US09348478B2	Touch panel with multi-function single plate A touch panel with single plate includes a plate and a sensing circuit structure. The plate is used as a cover. The sensing circuit structure includes a transparent conductive layer. The transparent conductive layer has a plurality of first transparent conductive portions and a plurality of second transparent conductive portions. The first transparent conductive portions are substantially disposed on the plate along with a first axis. The second transparent conductive portions are substantially disposed on the plate along with a second axis.
US09348471B2	Method and apparatus for improving touch sensitivity of touch screen panel A method and an apparatus for improving touch sensitivity of a capacitive type touch screen panel are provided. In the method, the apparatus sequentially drives a plurality of transmitting channels of the touch screen panel using a predetermined scan frequency. The apparatus determines a sequential touch count by simultaneously scanning a plurality of receiving channels of the touch screen panel wherein the sequential touch count is the number of sequentially touched receiving channels. Also, the apparatus specifies a scan unit to be used for dividing the plurality of receiving channels into groups on the basis of the sequential touch count and for sequentially scanning the groups of the receiving channels. The apparatus determines a touch coordinate by sequentially scanning the plurality of receiving channels using the specified scan unit.
US09348463B2	Retroreflection based multitouch sensor, method and program A detection apparatus includes a multilocation sensor. The apparatus includes a sheet in communication with the sensor, which when a plurality of locations of the sheet are simultaneously activated, the sensor senses these locations, simultaneously with retroreflection.
US09348450B1	Foldable display apparatus Embodiment relate to a structure for supporting a bending portion of a flexible display panel in an unfolded state so that the bending portion does not flex when pressed. The structure also enables the bending portion of the flexible display panel to bend at a predetermined curvature in a folded state. The structure includes two rotating plates rotating about two axes that slide relative to flexible supporting members extending from portions of the flexible display panel that do not bend as the flexible display panel is bent. As the flexible display panel is bent, the distance between ends of the rotating plates are increased so that the bending portion of the flexible display panel would have an increased radius of curvature.
US09348446B1	Bezel for vehicular touchscreen displays An apparatus and system for a vehicular touchscreen system. The apparatus includes a bezel configured to surround a touchscreen of a vehicular touchscreen device. The bezel includes an outwardly extending bezel portion. The outwardly extending bezel portion extends outwardly in a direction at least partially having a component direction perpendicular to a surface of the touchscreen.
US09348440B2	Touch screen device for a portable terminal A touch screen device for a portable terminal includes an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) film providing a touch screen feature; a light guide film attached onto one surface of the ITO film; and a light emitting device attached onto one surface of the ITO film and disposed in one side of the light guide film, wherein light output from the light emitting device provides lighting to an area where the light guide film is attached, while passing through the light guide film, and wherein the light guide film and the light emitting device are installed on the ITO film by a surface mounting process, thus reducing manufacturing costs and making it possible to secure more space capable of mounting other parts which in turn contribute in miniaturizing portable terminals.
US09348439B2	Touch sensitive display and manufacturing method thereof The present invention relates to a touch sensitive display, which comprises a merged layer made of sensing electrodes and organic light-emitting electrodes. The touch sensitive display further comprises a first touch sensing layer and an organic light-emitting assembly, wherein the first touch sensing layer has a plurality of first sensing electrodes, which are formed onto a surface of an upper substrate. This organic light-emitting assembly is disposed on an upper surface of a lower substrate, and the merged layer is formed on the surface of the organic light-emitting assembly. The sensing electrodes that comprised in this merged layer are second sensing electrodes, while the organic light-emitting electrodes are counter electrodes which originally belong to the organic light-emitting assembly. In addition, the present invention also provides a manufacturing method of a touch sensitive display. Thereby, the present invention could reduce the manufacturing procedure and efficiently increase the yield rate of production.
US09348432B2	Transmittance based sensor A device may include an image sensor configured to capture an image of an object in front of the image sensor, an image analyzer configured to analyze the captured image to calculate a transmittance of a light that is transmitted from outside of the object to the image sensor via the object, a command mapper configured to translate the transmittance into a command, and an executor configured to execute the command.
US09348429B2	Method and apparatus for word prediction using the position of a non-typing digit Methods and apparatuses are provided for improving word prediction in an electronic device. User input of one or more characters is received via a capacitive physical keyboard having a plurality of input members. Concurrently, the device determines the location of a non-typing digit, such as the user's finger or a stylus. Word prediction candidates are generated and weighted, and candidates that have subsequent characters associated with the input member proximal to the location of the non-typing digit are given more weight. The word prediction candidates are displayed, a second user input is then received comprising a selection of one of the candidates, and the device displays the selected word prediction candidate on the display.
US09348418B2	Gesture recognizing and controlling method and device thereof A gesture recognizing and controlling method and device thereof are provided. The gesture recognizing and controlling method includes the following steps. First, a pending image having depth information is captured, in which the pending image includes a human form image. The human form image is analyzed so as to obtain hand skeleton information having a first skeleton and a second skeleton. It is determined whether the first skeleton and the second skeleton have an intersection point. If yes, it is determined whether an included angle formed by the first skeleton and the second skeleton is within a predetermined angle range. When the included angle is within the predetermined angle range, a controlling signal is output accordingly.
US09348417B2	Multimodal input system The subject disclosure relates to user input into a computer system, and a technology by which one or more users interact with a computer system via a combination of input modalities. When the input data of two or more input modalities are related, they are combined to interpret an intended meaning of the input. For example, speech when combined with one input gesture has one intended meaning, e.g., convert the speech to verbatim text for consumption by a program, while the exact speech when combined with a different input gesture has a different meaning, e.g., convert the speech to a command that controls the operation of that same program.
US09348395B2	Power demand reduction system An information handling system includes a processor, an air moving system, a power system, and power demand reduction circuit. The air moving system is operable to cool the processor. The power system is operable to power the processor and the air moving system. The power demand reduction circuit is operable to detect a total power system power demand that will exceed a power system output capacity of the power system in response to a processor power demand from the processor and, in response, reduce an air moving system power provided to the air moving system such that the processor power demand will no longer cause the total power system power demand to exceed the power system output capacity. The air moving system power may be increased when a decrease in the processor power demand results in the two contributing to a total power system power that will not exceed the power system output capacity.
US09348392B2	Systems and methods for measuring and verifying energy savings in buildings A computer system for use with a building management system in a building includes a processing circuit configured to use historical data received from the building management system to automatically select a set of variables estimated to be significant to energy usage in the building. The processing circuit is further configured to apply a regression analysis to the selected set of variables to generate a baseline model for predicting energy usage in the building.
US09348376B2	Tablet information handling system display stand with flexible power connection A tablet information handling system has power contacts disposed on an outer surface of a planar housing to accept power from a power connector without affixing the power connector to the power contacts at the planar housing. For example, the power connector is disposed at a support surface of a stand in a position that aligns with power contacts of the planar housing when the planar housing rests on the support surface. The power connector provides power without a port or similar structure so that the planar housing may be place on and taken off the support surface at a variety of orientations rotated about the axis at which the power connector and power contacts meet.
US09348374B2	Hard disk mounting mechanism A hard disk mounting mechanism can be used for assembling a hard disk into a housing defining an opening. The hard disk can be inserted into the housing via the opening. The hard disk mounting mechanism can include a mounting bracket and a slidable carrier. The mounting bracket can include a cover and a slidable carrier. The cover can be rotatably connected to the housing for covering the opening. The slidable carrier can be located in the housing adjacent to the opening, and has a first surface facing the opening. A first heat conductive pad can be arranged on the first surface of the slidable carrier. The hard disk can be assembled on the slidable carrier. The hard disk can contact with the first heat conductive pad from the opening when the cover is rotated to cover the opening.
US09348373B2	Electronic apparatus and cooling method thereof An electronic apparatus includes a first unit having a first power switch for turning on/off a data processing part, a hard disk drive device, a power supply part and the electronic apparatus, a second unit that is separated from the first unit, is supplied with the power from the power supply part in the first unit, and has a drive device of a detachable recording media and a second power switch having the same function as that of the first power switch, and a cable for communicating data between the first unit and the second unit and supplying power from the power supply part of the first unit to the second unit.
US09348371B2	Protective case for a portable computing device A protective case for a portable computing device may include a rigid component comprising an upper surface and a cavity therein for receiving a portable computing device. The protective case may also include a cover having a surface area that is larger than the area of the upper surface that is open to the cavity. At least a central area of the cover may be transparent. The cover may be positioned over the cavity, and may also be positioned over part of the upper surface of the rigid component. The protective case may also include a pliable component molded around at least a portion of the rigid component and over a portion of the cover that is in contact with the upper surface of the rigid component, thereby forming a waterproof seal between the cover and the upper surface of the rigid component.
US09348369B2	Foldable display device A foldable display device includes a flexible display panel, a case supporting the flexible display panel, a bonding member fixing the flexible display panel to the case. The case includes a hinge portion, and supports respectively coupled to the hinge portion at opposing sides of the hinge portion. The flexible display panel includes a bendable area corresponding to the hinge portion, and planar areas respectively at opposing sides of the bendable area and corresponding to the supports of the case. The bonding member is between a support of the case and the corresponding planar area of the flexible display panel, and is displaceable with respect to the support along one of a thickness direction and a width direction of the flexible display panel when the flexible display panel is folded.
US09348368B2	Entertainment apparatus An entertainment apparatus for a passenger of a vehicle is provided with a casing having a top edge region, a bottom edge region and two respective side edge regions interconnecting the top and bottom edge regions. The four such edge regions frame and define a front side of the entertainment apparatus, the front side being provided with a monitor screen. The apparatus plays optically-readable discs, and is provided with an opening in the bottom edge region of its casing for receiving and ejecting optically-readable discs in a generally vertical plane. The apparatus is adapted to be mounted to a more forward seat of a vehicle for use by a passenger when seated behind the more forward seat of the vehicle.
US09348366B2	Protective case with keyboard for portable electronic device A protective case for a tablet device having a back face and a front face, a touchscreen on its front face, and one or more control buttons and ports on its perimeter walls. The case comprises a shell having front and back sides wherein the front side is configured to receive and retain the tablet device while providing user access to the touchscreen and user access to one or more of the control buttons, said shell including a back wall that is configured to cover at least a portion of the back face of the tablet. The protective case further includes a front cover that includes a tray, a wireless keyboard and keyboard housing. The tray includes opposing side rails and the keyboard housing includes opposing grooves on opposing side walls that are concealed and configured to engage the rails to allow the keyboard housing to slide in and out from the tray in a defined manner. The tray, keyboard and shell may each include magnets to facilitate the positioning of the case in the various open and closed positions.
US09348352B2	Bandgap reference circuit A bandgap reference circuit is provided and which includes an operating voltage, a current mirror, a first p-channel metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor and an amplifier. The current mirror is coupled to the operating voltage. The first PMOS transistor is coupled to the operating voltage and the current mirror. The amplifier is coupled to the current mirror and the first PMOS transistor. When the bandgap reference circuit is activated, the operating voltage starts to supply voltage such that the first PMOS transistor is turned on first. When the operating voltage is higher than a preset voltage level, the first PMOS transistor is turned off, in order to complete an start-up process.
US09348350B2	Voltage regulator Provided is a voltage regulator including an overcurrent protection circuit in which an output voltage-output current characteristic exhibits an optimal fold-back characteristic even when an overcurrent state is detected. The overcurrent protection circuit includes a control circuit for generating a current in accordance with an output voltage, and controls a gate of an output transistor with use of a current obtained by subtracting the current from a sense current flowing in accordance with an output current.
US09348348B2	Active clamps for multi-stage amplifiers in over/under-voltage condition Multi-stage amplifiers, such as linear regulators or linear voltage regulators (e.g. low-dropout regulators) configured to provide a constant output voltage subject to load transients are presented. A multi-stage amplifier, having a differential amplification stage configured to provide a stage output voltage at an output node, based on a first input voltage and a second input voltage is presented. Furthermore, the multi-stage amplifier comprises a second amplification stage comprising an amplifier current source configured to provide an amplifier current; and an amplifier transistor arranged in series with the amplifier current source; wherein a gate of the amplifier transistor is coupled to the output node of the differential amplification stage. In addition, the multi-stage amplifier comprises a detection circuit.
US09348345B2	Fixed frequency DC to DC converter control circuit with improved load transient response Analog pulse width modulation (PWM) control circuits and techniques are presented for improving output voltage load transient response in controlling DC to DC conversion systems in which a transient detector circuit restarts a PWM carrier ramp waveform to initiate asynchronous injection of a pulse between the regular periodic PWM pulses in a fixed frequency pulse stream to mitigate the effect of output inductor energy depletion on output voltage.
US09348338B2	Modular and expandable irrigation controller Described herein are several embodiments relating to modular irrigation controllers. In many implementations, the irrigation controllers are modular in that various functional components of the irrigation controller are implemented in removable modules that when inserted into position within the controller, expand the capabilities of the controller. Also described are various different types of expansion modules that may be coupled to the modular controller, having as variety of functions and features, as well as related methods of use and configuration of these modules in the controller. In some embodiments, a serial communication bus is provided between a control unit of a modular irrigation controller and an expansion module.
US09348336B2	Robot assistance for detecting, managing, and mitigating risk The disclosure includes a system and method for using a robot to prevent risk to a user by identifying a point of interest, determining whether the point of interest is a risk for the user with visual impairments based on the user's position, responsive to a first predetermined threshold for distance being met, determining where to move the robot to mitigate the risk to the user, and instructing the robot to move to a new location. The robot may move between the user and the point of interest to prevent the user from colliding with the point of interest. The robot may use an auditory or tactile warning to warn the user. The tactile warning may be transmitted to a walking stick or a belt worn by the user.
US09348332B2	Abnormality diagnosis device and abnormality diagnosis system for servo control device An abnormality diagnosis device includes a factor-data storage unit that stores therein factor data including a candidate of an alarm-generating factor corresponding to an alarm number; a stored-data storage unit that stores therein, as stored data, statistical data acquired from a statistical data server including the alarm number corresponding to a system configuration number of a servo control device classified based on a system configuration of the servo control device, and a candidate of the alarm-generating factor corresponding to the alarm number, and a generation probability of the candidate; a display unit; and an abnormality-diagnosis processing unit that acquires the alarm number from the servo control device when an alarm is generated, and based on the alarm number, the factor data, and the stored data, adds the generation probability to each candidate and displays, on the display unit, the candidate with the generation probability added.
US09348331B2	Robot apparatus and speed reducer state diagnosing method A robot apparatus includes a multi-joint robot including, in at least one portion, a joint including a motor, a speed reducer connected to the motor, an input angle detecting unit configured to detect a rotational angle of a rotating shaft of the motor, and an output angle detecting unit configured to detect an output rotational angle of the speed reducer, and a controller configured to diagnose a state of the speed reducer from an angle difference between the input rotational angle detected by the input angle detecting unit and the output rotational angle detected by the output angle detecting unit.
US09348325B2	Systems and methods for detecting a control loop interaction A system for detecting a control loop interaction between two or more control loops. The system includes a processing circuit configured to store a history of detected loop disturbances for a plurality of control loops. The processing circuit is also configured to compute a measure of interaction between control loops using the history of detected loop disturbances. The processing circuit is further configured to determine whether a loop interaction exists based on the computed measure of interaction.
US09348324B2	Controlling a wind power plant transformer A method for controlling a pilot signal (Ps) to a WPPT with an adjustable coil ratio, wherein the primary side of the transformer is connected to a plurality of WTGs and a variable reactive compensation load, the method comprising the steps of receiving an actual primary-side voltage (VMV), receiving an actual primary-side current (IQMV), estimating a line drop voltage (DV) on the basis of the compensation current (IQC) and the actual primary-side current (IQMV), forming a voltage error (Verr) as the sum of a rated voltage value (VR) and the estimated line drop voltage (DV) minus the actual primary-side voltage (VMV), namely: Verr=VR+DV VMV, and updating the pilot signal (Ps) in accordance with the voltage error (Verr).
US09348321B2	Method, time consumer system, and computer program product for maintaining accurate time on an ideal clock Methods, time consumer systems, and computer program products for maintaining accurate time on an ideal clock of a timing device are disclosed. The method includes receiving time information from a local clock, a reference clock, and one or more secondary clocks. The method further includes calculating frequencies for the local clock, the reference clock, and the one or more secondary clocks. The method further includes comparing the calculated frequencies of the reference clock to the calculated frequencies of the one or more secondary clocks. The method further includes detecting a holdover and/or a compromise situation based on the comparison. The method further includes syntonizing the ideal clock to one or more of the calculated frequencies.
US09348319B1	Chronograph mechanism and timepiece comprising the chronograph mechanism A chronograph mechanism includes an intermediate chronograph mobile which is provided for transmitting a drive to first and second sweep-hand mobiles. A first and a second return device are configured to return the first sweep-hand mobile to a first predetermined angular position relative to the intermediate chronograph mobile, in the absence of angular immobilization of the first sweep-hand mobile by a first brake, and the second sweep-hand mobile to a second predetermined angular position relative to the intermediate chronograph mobile, in the absence of angular immobilization of the second sweep-hand mobile by a second brake. A control system includes a coordination device arranged to maintain the first and second brakes alternately in two opposite configurations, in each of which one of the first and second brakes is in an inactive state and the other is in an active state.
US09348314B2	Assembly between a dial and a timepiece movement Dial (1) for a timepiece, comprising a disc (2) intended to be positioned substantially parallel to a timepiece, and a skirt (3) extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the disc (2) of the dial, characterized in that the skirt (3) comprises at least one elastic element (10) which extends partially over the height of the skirt to retain the dial axially on a timepiece movement.
US09348313B2	Anti-adhesion device for a balance spring on a bar The invention relates to a timepiece movement including a resonator formed by the cooperation of a balance with a balance spring, said resonator being pivotally mounted between a bar and another part such as a bar or a main plate. According to the invention, the timepiece movement further includes a device preventing adhesion of said balance spring against said bar including a surface decreasing means formed on the bar for limiting the contact surface when the faces of said balance spring and of said bar touch each other.
US09348312B2	Timepiece lever Timepiece lever for the transmission of motion between a transmitter wheel set and a receiver wheel set pivoting about distinct first and second axes of the lever which includes a pivoting plate carrying a transmission means remote from the first axis and of variable angular position relative to the first axis and which includes a control finger-piece or a transmission wheel set, the lever also including a frictional connection between a first friction surface of the transmitter wheel set and a second friction surface of the pivoting plate, the element carrying the first friction surface is elastic and the element carrying the second friction surface is elastic.
US09348305B2	Image forming apparatus with a cartridge that includes and image bearing member An image forming apparatus that can prevent a protection cover from being detached from an apparatus main body when the attaching of a process cartridge is completed, with a simple structure includes a biasing portion that can bias the process cartridge. The biasing portion applies biasing force in such a manner that a distal end portion of the protection cover is sandwiched between the apparatus main body and the process cartridge when the process cartridge is attached to the apparatus main body. This structure can prevent the protection cover from being detached from the apparatus main body at a time when the attaching of the process cartridge is completed.
US09348298B2	Image forming apparatus with waste toner collection container An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; an image forming unit configured to form a toner image on the image carrier by using toner, based on image information; a transfer unit configured to transfer the toner image formed on the image carrier to a sheet; a cleaning unit configured to clean toner on the image carrier; a collected toner box in which the toner cleaned by the cleaning unit is collected; a rotating member configured to be rotated for moving the toner in the collected toner box; and a controller configured to control, based on the image information, whether or not to rotate the rotating member.
US09348286B2	Printing apparatus, printing apparatus control method, and storage medium for performing background color removal An offset image that can occur at a time when reading images printed on both sides of a sheet is automatically removed by a simple operation.
US09348284B2	Sheet conveyor and image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet conveyor A sheet conveyor, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes a first conveyor to convey a sheet via a first sheet conveying path and move in a direction intersecting a sheet thickness direction, a second conveyor to convey the sheet via a second sheet conveying path and include a third conveyor and a fourth conveyor bringing either one close to and away from the other via the second sheet conveying path in the sheet thickness direction, a first attaching part provided to the first conveyor to attach the first conveyor to the sheet conveyor, and a state changer to change a state of one of the first attaching part to a movement allowed state and the second conveyor to a sheet releasing state in conjunction with a releasing action of the other of the first attaching part and the second conveyor.
US09348282B2	Fixing member A fixing member, includes: a base layer; and a porous elastic layer provided on the base layer and configured to contain a needle-like filler. The elastic layer has a thermal conductivity, with respect to a longitudinal direction thereof, which is 6 times to 900 times a thermal conductivity with respect to a thickness direction thereof. The elastic layer has an open cell rate larger at longitudinal end portions than at a longitudinal central portion.
US09348269B1	Image transfer product including a phase change material An image transfer product is provided which includes a phase change material in one or more layers of the product to regulate the temperature of the product during printing operations. The image transfer product may be in the form of a printing blanket, printing sleeve, electrophotographic/xerographic transfer blanket, image transfer belt, or roller which includes a print surface layer and at least one layer underlying the printing surface layer. The phase change material may be included in any of the layers of the image transfer product, but is not present at the upper surface of the print surface layer. The phase change material may be in the form of a powder, fibers, capsules, or combinations thereof.
US09348266B2	Image forming apparatus using press member to prevent deflection of belt An outer roller is provided at a position offset upstream, in a rotation direction of an image carrying belt, of an inner roller. The inner and outer rollers are provided across the image carrying belt and form a transfer nip portion nipping and conveying a recording medium. A press member presses the image carrying belt from an inner circumferential side at upstream of the inner roller. The press member is provided such that a length along a belt surface of the image carrying belt between a downstream end of a part thereof in contact with the image carrying belt and an upstream end of the transfer nip portion is shorter than a length of an end margin formed on an upstream end area of the recording medium.
US09348258B2	Developing unit A developing unit includes a housing, a developing roller and a seal contacting an outer peripheral surface of the developing roller. The seal includes a first part disposed inward in an axial line direction of the developing roller and contacting the outer peripheral surface of the developing roller, and a second part contacting an outer edge of the first part in the axial line direction and disposed outward from the first part in the axial line direction and contacting the outer peripheral surface. The first part has a contact surface contacting the developing roller and a plurality of first grooves each of which is recessed from the contact surface and extends along the contact surface. The plurality of first grooves extends from outward to inward in the axial line direction, as the plurality of first grooves extends from upstream to downstream in a rotational direction of the developing roller.
US09348249B2	Image forming apparatus and image forming and decoloring system According to one embodiment, there is provided an image forming apparatus which forms an decolorable image and an non-decolorable image by fixing a toner image including a decolorable toner and a toner image including a non-decolorable toner or a medium. The decolorable toner has a first peak of a loss tangent tan δ at a temperature TE1, and the non-decolorable toner has a first peak of a loss tangent tan δ at a temperature TU1. A difference between the temperature TE1 and the temperature TU1 is within 20° C.
US09348242B2	Electrophotographic photosensitive member, process cartridge, and electrophotographic apparatus Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a charge-generating layer that includes: an amine compound represented by the formula (1) and a gallium phthalocyanine crystal, or a gallium phthalocyanine crystal containing the amine compound represented by the formula (1); and an arene compound, in which the arene compound includes at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a compound represented by the formula (2) and a compound represented by the formula (3).
US09348237B2	Mask carrier, mask handling module and method for adjusting a mask Mask carriers and mask alignment in vacuum deposition processes, mask handling modules, and methods for aligning a mask. A mask handling module can include a substrate carrier for carrying at least one substrate; a mask carrier for carrying at least two masks. The mask carrier can include at least two mask carrier sections each being adapted to carry a mask and a mask carrier positioning device for moving the mask carrier relative to the substrate carrier. The mask carrier sections are arranged so that the masks carried on the mask carrier sections can be positioned on the mask carrier in respective planes forming an angle with respect to each other so that only one of the at least two masks can be aligned to one of the at least one substrates.
US09348236B2	Electrostatic clamp, lithographic apparatus and method of manufacturing an electrostatic clamp An electrostatic clamp for use in a lithographic apparatus includes burls and an electrode surrounded by an insulator and/or a dielectric material between adjacent burls. In an embodiment, two or more layers of dielectric material are provided between adjacent burls and surround an electrode provided between adjacent burls. The electrostatic clamp may be used to clamp an object to an object support in a lithographic apparatus.
US09348235B2	Exposure apparatus and method of manufacturing device An exposure apparatus projects an image of a pattern formed on a mask onto a substrate through a projection optical system. The exposure apparatus includes: a prediction unit configured to predict an imaging characteristic fluctuation of the projection optical system which is caused by thermal action due to exposure, by using a model formula modeling the imaging characteristic fluctuation; and a correction unit configured to correct the imaging characteristic based on a prediction result obtained by the prediction unit. The model formula includes a composition of a plurality of functions modeling the imaging characteristic fluctuation and indicating a time dependency, each of the plurality of functions having an exposure-angle-of-view dependency and the exposure-angle-of-view dependencies of the plurality of functions being different from each other.
US09348226B2	Radiation-sensitive resin composition A radiation-sensitive resin composition comprising an acid-labile group-containing resin obtained by living radical polymerization having a specific structure which is insoluble or scarcely soluble in alkali, but becomes alkali soluble by the action of an acid, and a photoacid generator, wherein the ratio of weight average molecular weight to number average molecular weight (weight average molecular weight/number average molecular weight) of the acid-labile group-containing resin is smaller than 1.5.
US09348210B2	Projection apparatus and transparent screen for it There is provided a projection apparatus using an oblique projection optical system, which generates little reflection loss by providing a linear Fresnel lens at an incident surface in the case where the apparatus is used as a linear system, wherein said linear Fresnel lens makes total reflection of image light, and is capable of obtaining total surface property with good brightness in a region with small incident angle onto a screen, by using a total reflection Fresnel lens and a refraction Fresnel lens in combination. In addition, total surface property with further good brightness can be obtained by using a plurality of projection image display apparatuses in the same projection apparatus.
US09348209B2	Portable electronic device having projection unit A portable electronic device includes a main body, a display substrate, a projection unit, and a reflection film. The main body includes a first surface and defines a receiving cavity in the first surface. The displaying substrate is rotatably received in the receiving cavity. The displaying substrate includes a first projection surface and a second projection surface facing away from the first projection surface. The first projection surface is close to the receiving cavity. The projection unit is received in the receiving cavity. The reflection film is movably positioned on the second projection surface.
US09348206B2	Light source apparatus and projector having a light combiner with a polarization separation film A light combiner having a polarization separation film and transmitting P-polarized light from a first light source unit whereas reflecting S-polarized light from a second light source unit forms combined light, and the angle of incidence of the light from the first light source unit and the angle of incidence of the light from the second light source unit with respect to the polarization separation film are each greater than 45°.
US09348198B1	Mirrored photographing system A mirrored photographing system is disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a mirrored photographing system comprises a back plate, a mirror, and a camera. The mirror is mounted to the back plate, which provides structural support. The mirror has a viewing aperture and a reflective surface covering at least a portion of the front surface of the mirror for self-viewing by a subject standing in front of the mirror. The camera is positioned between the back plate and the mirror and aligned with the viewing aperture for the camera to view the subject therethrough. The camera is configured for electronic wireless communication with a remote electronic device to at least one of (i) receive directions therefrom and (ii) to forward captured photographs thereto.
US09348195B2	Method of operating wavelength swept source apparatus A method of operating a wavelength swept source apparatus includes generating a single mode light, and generating a basic optical comb including light rays having identical frequency differences with adjacent light rays by modulating the generated single mode light. The method further includes generating other optical combs that include the same number of light rays as that of light rays of the optical comb that has a frequency band different from that of the basic optical comb, and is distributed in a frequency band wider than that in which the basic optical comb is distributed, by modulating the light rays of the basic optical comb. The light rays of the basic optical comb and the light rays included in the other optical combs are sequentially emitted according to frequencies of the light rays of the basic optical comb and the light rays included in the other optical combs.
US09348185B2	Pixel structure and manufacturing method thereof A pixel structure and a manufacturing method of the pixel structure are provided. The pixel structure includes a substrate, a transistor, a planarizing layer, a plurality of contact windows, and a pixel electrode layer. The transistor is disposed on the substrate and includes a gate, a source, and a drain. The planarizing layer is disposed on the gate, the source, and a portion of the drain. The contact windows penetrate the planarizing layer and expose another portion of the drain. The pixel electrode layer is disposed on the planarizing layer, on the another portion of the drain, and in the contact windows and is electrically connected to the drain.
US09348174B2	Rigid LCD assembly Exemplary embodiments disclosed herein provide a rigid LCD assembly including a LCD having a perimeter, a first layer of tape around the perimeter of the LCD, and a diffusing plate attached to the later of tape so as to create a cavity defined by the space between the LCD, tape, and diffusing plate. One or more optical films may be inserted into the cavity, and while constricted in directions perpendicular to the films, the films may be free to move slightly in the directions parallel to the films. A U-shaped backlight wall may attach to the diffusing plate and would contain a backlight. An optional thermal plate can be attached to the backlight wall, which can be used with a second thermal plate to define a channel for accepting cooling air.
US09348173B2	Light source module A light source module includes at least one light bar, a reflector, and at least one bar-shaped reflection unit. The light bar includes light-emitting elements arranged along an extension direction. The reflector has at least one accommodation space accommodating the light bar and reflective convex surfaces located on two opposite sides of the light bar. The bar-shaped reflection unit is located above the light bar, extends along the extension direction, and has a reflection surface facing the light bar. A cross-sectional line obtained by cutting the reflection surface along an optical axis of any of the light-emitting elements and along a direction perpendicular to the extension direction includes a convex arc line protruding toward the light-emitting elements and two concave arc lines connected to two opposite sides of the convex arc line.
US09348172B2	Transflective liquid crystal display device and electronic apparatus According to an aspect, a transflective liquid crystal display device includes: a first substrate on which reflective electrodes are arranged for pixels; a second substrate on which a transparent electrode is provided; a liquid crystal layer between the first and the second substrates; and a color filter that is provided closer to the transparent electrode than the reflective electrodes, and includes filters of a plurality of colors. The first substrate is provided with a first space between reflective electrodes of adjacent pixels and a second space between reflective electrodes of adjacent pixels, the first space extending in a first direction and overlapping a border between filters of different colors, the second space extending in a second direction and having transmittance higher than that of the first space. Transmissive display is performed by using the second space where a light shielding member is not positioned.
US09348162B2	Liquid crystal display and narrow bezel structure thereof A narrow bezel structure of a LCD is disclosed. The narrow bezel structure of the LCD comprises a liquid crystal module, a front cover, a middle cover, and a back cover. An external layer of the liquid crystal module is a polarizer film, and the polarizer film is spaced apart from an edge of the liquid crystal module to form a step. The front cover comprises a first horizontal part, a first perpendicular part, a second horizontal part, and a second perpendicular part that are integrally formed and sequentially connected. The first horizontal part is attached to the step. The second horizontal part and the second perpendicular part form a second step. The second perpendicular part is fixedly connected to the back cover. The present invention further provides a LCD utilizing the narrow bezel structure.
US09348147B2	Spinning fan mirror beam combiner for a borderless self-contained pepper's ghost A 3D display apparatus for providing a Pepper's Ghost effect. The apparatus includes a background set spaced apart from a viewing space such that a viewer in the viewing space has a line of sight to the background set. The apparatus also includes a mirrored surfaces fan, which includes a motor, a hub rotatable by the motor, and a plurality of fan blades attached in a spaced apart manner to the hub to rotate with the hub. In some cases, each of the fan blades has a reflective region on a side facing away from the background set. The apparatus also includes a display device with a screen displaying an image of an object. The screen is positioned at an offset angle in the range of 40 to 60 degrees from a rotation plane for the sides of the fan blades. Often, the display device includes a 3D autostereoscopic device.
US09348146B2	Apparatus for projecting space image An apparatus for projecting a space image in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: a receiving unit configured to receive the space image; a display unit configured to display the space image and to emit light; a control unit configured to control the display unit to display the space image; and a projection unit configured to allow the light to permeate or reflect the light and to project the space image.
US09348145B2	Naked-eye 3D liquid crystal display panel and driving method for the same A naked-eye 3D liquid crystal display panel and a driving method for the same are provided. The naked-eye 3D liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate disposed oppositely, and a liquid crystal layer. A side of the first substrate adjacent to the liquid crystal layer provides with a driving electrode layer. A side of the second substrate adjacent to the liquid crystal layer provides with a common electrode layer. The driving electrode layer and the common electrode layer respectively receive an AC voltage driving signal, which are the same in frequency and opposite in polarity such that the liquid crystal layer is tilted to form a 3D display. Accordingly, the voltage output requirement of the driving circuit of the 3D liquid crystal display panel 10 when displaying 3D is reduced such that the driving stability and load capacity of the driving circuit is improved.
US09348138B2	Laser processing device A laser processing device including: a laser oscillator; a processing table; a transmission optical system for transmitting laser light emitted from the laser oscillator to the processing table; a processing head for condensing and radiating the laser light transmitted via the transmission optical system to an object to be processed; a moving mechanism for changing a relative position between the object to be processed and the laser light to be radiated to the object to be processed; and a variable curvature spherical mirror. The transmission optical system includes a reflective beam expander mechanism for collimating and magnifying the laser light from the laser oscillator. The reflective beam expander mechanism includes a spherical mirror and a concave mirror having different curvatures in two orthogonal axes.
US09348137B2	Optical scanning apparatus, system and method An optical scanning apparatus, a system and a method of optical scanning independently determine illumination spot size and spacing. The apparatus includes an array of optical emitters to provide a plurality of optical beams and a plurality of microlenses to receive the optical beams. The microlenses form an intermediate image of the array at substantially unity array magnification. The apparatus further includes an adjustable collimator to receive the plurality of optical beams from the intermediate image, a beam scanner to scan the optical beams in an in-scan direction, and a scan lens to focus the scanned optical beams. An arrangement of illumination spots forms an image of the array.
US09348136B2	Micromirror apparatus and methods A DMD having an array of micromirror pixels wherein each pixel comprises a right electrode on a first side of the pixel, a left electrode on a second side of the pixel adjacent the first side and a cantilevered beam supporting a mirror. The cantilever beam tilts on two axes of translation: pitch and roll. The mirror has a first landed position (on a first and second spring tip) over the right electrode and a second landed position (on the first and a third spring tip) over the left electrode such that the first landed position and the second landed positions are 90° apart. In transitioning from the first landed position to the second landed position, the mirror maintains contact with the first spring tip while rolling from the second spring tip to the third spring tip.
US09348121B2	Magnification optical system A magnification optical system forms an enlarged image of an object. It includes a refractive optical system including a plurality of lens groups; and a mirror train including a curved mirror, arranged in this order from an object side, a first focus structure configured to move the respective lens groups of the refractive optical system by different amounts along a normal line of a conjugate surface on the object side, and a second focus structure configured to move the respective lens groups along the normal line of the conjugate surface on the object side by different amounts from those of the first focus structure.
US09348118B2	Optical system and optical apparatus having the same An optical system includes, in order from an enlargement conjugate side to a reduction conjugate side via a largest air gap, a front unit having a negative power, and a rear unit having positive power. The optical system satisfies 1.75
US09348117B1	Photographing optical lens assembly, image capturing unit and electronic device A photographing optical lens assembly includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element and a fifth lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface, wherein the object-side surface and an image-side surface thereof are aspheric. The second lens element has negative refractive power, wherein an object-side surface and an image-side surface thereof are aspheric. The third lens element has refractive power, wherein an object-side surface and an image-side surface thereof are aspheric. The fourth lens element has positive refractive power, wherein an object-side surface and an image-side surface thereof are aspheric. The fifth lens element with negative refractive power has a concave image-side surface, wherein an object-side surface and the image-side surface thereof are aspheric.
US09348112B2	Optical system The present invention relates to an optical system.An optical system of the present invention includes a first lens having a positive refractive power and an object-side surface convex toward an object side; a second lens having a negative refractive power and an image-side surface concave toward an image side; a third lens having a negative refractive power; a fourth lens having a positive refractive power; a fifth lens having a positive refractive power and an image-side surface convex toward the image side; and a six lens having a negative refractive power and an image-side surface concave toward the image side.
US09348108B2	Lens driving device The present invention aims to provide a lens driving device which can prevent a lens support from being suspended in an inclined state and can correspond to energizing amount and carry out appropriate linear movement action. A front side primary coil and a rear side primary coil are respectively wound around an axis parallel to an optical axis in a manner of being coaxial to a secondary coil and are combined with each other through electromagnetic induction. The secondary coil is such disposed that its two coil terminals are connected with two ends of a diode respectively. The secondary coil and a permanent magnet assembly are arranged opposite to each other at an interval along the radial direction and a driving current is supplied to the primary coils.
US09348107B2	Tool for opening an extruded profiled body of a power cord assembly device A tool for opening an extruded profiled body of a power cord assembly device includes at least one pair of guides and at least one support, the pair of guides and the support being arranged in a frame, wherein a first guide of the pair of guides is arranged and shaped to releasably connect to the an interconnection area of the profiled body, and wherein a second guide of the pair of guides is arranged and shaped to releasably connect to a second interconnection area of the profiled body, said support being provided with a support member adapted to bear against a portion of the first wall opposite to a slit in the profiled body, the distance of the pair of guides relative to the support being such that the slit is widened in the area of the elongation of the profiled body where the tool is applied, thereby allowing a fiber optic cable to be introduced into the chamber.
US09348098B2	Optical port adapted to mate with plugs of different types An optical port is provided that is adapted to mate with optical plugs of at least first and second types. For example, the first type of optical plug may be a VLF-type optical plug and the second type of optical plug may be a non-VLF-type optical plug. The optical port has at least one first latching feature for engaging at least one first latching feature of a VLF-type optical plug with which the optical port may be mated. The optical port has at least one second latching feature for engaging at least one second latching feature of a non-VLF-type optical plug with which the optical port may be mated.
US09348087B1	Bending insensitive single-mode optical fiber In one aspect of the invention, the bend insensitive single-mode optical fiber includes a core layer and cladding layers having an inner cladding layer, a trench cladding layer and an outer cladding layer sequentially formed surrounding the core layer from inside to outside. For the core layer, the diameter is 7-7.9 μm, and the relative refractive index difference Δ1 is between 4.6×10−3 and 6.0×10−3. For the inner cladding layer, the diameter is 15-17 μm, and a relative refractive index difference Δ2 is between −3×10−4 and 3×10−4. For the trench cladding layer, the diameter is 24-33 μm, and the relative refractive index difference Δ3 is between −2.9×10−3 and −7.3×10−3, changes in a gradient manner and increases gradually from outside to inside, where a relative refractive index difference Δ32 at an outermost interface is smaller than a relative refractive index difference Δ31 at an innermost interface.
US09348086B2	Few-mode optical fibers Herein presents a few-mode optical fiber, wherein the core comprising a main core(1) and 2N assistant cores(2), wherein N is positive integer number. All the cores are formed by the same material and embedded in a low-index background (3). The centers of the main core (1) and all the assistant cores (2) are located in a straight line. The assistant cores(2) are denoted based on the distance with the main core(1) as 1 , 2 , . . . N. The center-to-center distance between the main core (1) and the adjacent assistant core(2) is Lma=dm+da1. The center-to-center distance between the assistant core(2) and the adjacent assistant core(2) is Li,i=da,i +da,i+1 wherein i=1˜N−1 and da,i denotes the diameter of assistant core(2) i. That is to say, the boundary of the main core (1) is tangent to the boundary of the adjacent assistant core(2). Also the boundaries of the adjacent assistant cores(2) are tangent.
US09348075B2	Method of manufacturing polarizing plate, polarizing plate manufactured by the same, and liquid crystal display having the polarizing plate A method of manufacturing a polarizing plate includes fabricating a base film, dyeing the base film by using iodine, stretching the base film to form a polarizing film, firstly drying the polarizing film at a first temperature, and secondly drying the polarizing film while sequentially increasing a temperature from the first temperature to a second temperature higher than the first temperature. The polarizing plate and a liquid crystal display including the same are manufactured through the above method.
US09348074B2	Method for producing optical laminate A method for producing an optical laminate including a film substrate and a polarizing layer which comprises the steps of: (A) laminating a re-releasable film on one main surface of the film substrate to obtain a laminate film substrate; B) performing a rubbing treatment on the other main surface of the film substrate of the laminate film substrate; C) coating the rubbing-treated surface of the film substrate with a solution containing a lyotropic liquid crystal compound and a solvent; and D) detaching the re-releasable film from the laminate film substrate.
US09348070B2	Security devices The present invention relates to improvements in security devices that can be used in various authenticating or security applications, and in particular to an optically variable security device which can be viewed under low light conditions. The security device comprises a light deflection structure having a first side and a second opposing side. A colorshifting layer is applied to the first side of the light deflection structure and a reflection layer is applied to at least a first region of the second side of the light deflection structure so as to provide a strong reflection in a direction substantially parallel to the incident light source when the direction of the incident light is at an angle away from the normal to the security device. The security device has at least one second region in which the reflection layer is absent, said first and second regions defining indicia.
US09348069B2	Article having a plurality of optical structures An article having optical structures disposed on a base material element. Optical structures include lenticular lens structures and discrete coloring elements. Lenticular lens structure has several lens layers. The article has a different appearance when an observer views the article at various angles. The appearance may differ in terms of coloring scheme.
US09348067B2	Tilted gratings and method for production of tilted gratings The present invention relates to phase-contrast imaging which visualizes the phase information of coherent radiation passing a scanned object. Focused gratings are used which reduce the creation of trapezoid profile in a projection with a particular angle to the optical axis. A laser supported method is used in combination with a dedicating etching process for creating such focused grating structures.
US09348065B2	Multivariate color system with texture application Implementations of the present invention relate to a translucent and/or transparent polymer-based panel system that incorporates multi-colored insert layers that enable manipulation of color, transparency or light transmission of the finished panel system. Implementations of the present invention also relate to the construction of such panels to avoid the capture and retention of air within the panels through the use of textured surfaces at the lamination interfaces. In addition, implementations of the present invention provide a method of quantifying the optical response achieved in a given panel system and describes types of construction that enable the multiplicity of color and optic manipulation. Furthermore, implementations of the present invention provide methods for applying texture in an efficient, uniform manner.
US09348060B2	Polymeric triarylmethane dye, blue resin composition including for color filter including the polymeric dye and color filter using the resin composition The present invention relates to a polymeric triarylmethane dye, a blue resin composition for a color filter including the polymeric dye, and a color filter using the resin composition. The blue resin composition of the present invention is highly soluble in solvents and has excellent luminance, contrast, heat resistance, and chemical resistance due to the use of the polymeric triarylmethane dye. Particularly, the blue resin composition exhibits higher luminance and contrast than blue resin compositions using existing pigments. In addition, the blue resin composition of the present invention has greatly improved heat resistance and chemical resistance compared to blue resin compositions using existing triarylmethane dye monomers.
US09348056B2	Image-based direct numerical simulation of petrophysical properties under simulated stress and strain conditions A testing system for performing image based direct numerical simulation to characterize petrophysical properties of a rock sample under the simulated deformation condition, for example as representative of subsurface conditions. A digital image volume corresponding to x-ray tomographic images of a rock sample is segmented into its significant elastic phases, such as pore space, clay fraction, grain contacts and mineral type, and overlaid with an unstructured finite element mesh. A simulated deformation is applied to the segmented image volume, and the resulting deformed unstructured mesh is numerically analyzed, for example by way of direct numerical simulation, to determine the desired petrophysical properties.
US09348054B2	NMR measurement of engineered flow management structures Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) measurement apparatus, NMR sensors, NMR measurement methods are disclosed to determine NMR properties of engineered flow management structures, and to estimate engineering properties using determined NMR properties. Example engineered flow management structures include engineered water storage, water management, water production, water sampling structures, and/or structures that serve as conduits or barriers to water movement. Technologies disclosed herein are also applicable to measuring properties relating to other fluid and/or gas flow in engineered flow management structures.
US09348053B2	Metal detector with at least one transmit/receive switch The present invention relates to a method for detecting an electrically conducting target in soil, including the steps of generating a repeating transmit signal cycle of a fundamental period using transmit electronics, the repeating transmit signal cycle including a first period and a second period within each fundamental period; generating a transmit magnetic field using a magnetic field transmitter, based on the repeating transmit signal cycle, for transmission into the soil; receiving a receive magnetic field using a magnetic field receiver; producing a receive signal induced by the receive magnetic field; arranging for a current flowing through the magnetic field transmitter to flow to a first potential through a damping resistor during the second period for providing a damping effect on the current flowing through the magnetic field transmitter; arranging for the current flowing through the magnetic field transmitter to flow to a second potential, predominantly through an alternative path with a lower resistance than the damping resistor during the first period; monitoring the current flowing through the magnetic field transmitter to provide a control signal, the control signal, in effect, causing the second period to begin when the current flowing through the magnetic field transmitter is substantially zero; and processing the receive signal during at least part of the repeating transmit signal cycle to produce an indicator signal indicating the presence of an electrically conducting target when the target is within the influence of the transmit magnetic field.
US09348047B2	Modeling of parallel seismic textures An approach for seismic data analysis is provided. In accordance with embodiments of this approach, parallel regions within a volume of seismic data are modeled. Residual regions within the volumetric data set are identified, where the residual regions comprise those regions not modeled as parallel regions. The residual regions or a graphic derived from the residual regions are displayed for review.
US09348045B2	Field correlation for real-time passive seismic surveillance There is provided herein a method of passive seismic acquisition that utilizes real time or near real time computation to reduce the volume of data that must be moved from the field to the processing center. Much of the computation that is traditionally applied to passive source data can be done in a streaming fashion. The raw data that passes through a field system can be processed in manageable pieces, after which the original data can be discarded and the intermediate results accumulated and periodically saved. These saved intermediate results are at least two, more likely three, orders of magnitude smaller than the raw data they are derived from. Such a volume of data is trivial to store, transport or transmit, allowing passive seismic acquisition to be practically used for continuous near-real-time seismic surveillance.
US09348041B2	Phase modulation and noise minimization for simultaneous vibroseis acquisition An embodiment of the invention includes simultaneous drive signals whose respective phase angle offset(s) varies over a portion or duration of the simultaneous sweeps. Other embodiments are discussed herein.
US09348036B2	Method and apparatus for supplying bias voltage to radiation detector A radiation detecting apparatus includes a radiation detector, a power source, a current detector, and a bias voltage adjuster. The detector includes a semiconductor layer having a compound semiconductor directly converting incoming radiation photons to electric charges and a pair of electrode layers stacked individually on both surfaces of the semiconductor layer. One layer of the paired electrode layers has plural collecting electrodes which enable the semiconductor layer to have one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally arrayed pixels. The power source applies a direct-current bias voltage between the electrodes such that the electric charge is collected to one electrode of the electrodes. The current detector detects current supplied from the power source when the power source applies the bias voltage between the electrodes. The bias voltage adjuster changes a value of the bias voltage applied by the power source depending on a value of the current detected by the current detector.
US09348035B2	Systems and methods for selectable detector configurations An X-ray detector includes a light sensor configured to receive light energy from a scintillator receiving X-rays. The light sensor includes a grid of pixels having a light reception surface oriented toward the scintillator and configured to receive light from the scintillator. Each pixel includes a diode assembly, a control assembly and a capacitor assembly. The diode assembly is disposed on the light reception surface and is configured to produce electric charge responsive to light received by the diode assembly. The diode assembly includes plural diodes selectably configurable in plural combinations, wherein an amount of the electric charge produced by the diode assembly varies based on a selection of diode combination. The control assembly is operably connected to the diode assembly and configured to selectably configure the diodes. The capacitor assembly is operably connected to the diode assembly and configured to receive and store the electric charge from the diode assembly.
US09348030B2	Hybrid satellite positioning receiver A satellite positioning receiver. The receiver comprises: an RF front end, for receiving satellite positioning signals; an analog to digital converter, for sampling the received signals to generate signal samples; a memory; and a processor, for processing the signal samples to derive code-phases and pseudo-ranges and to calculate a position fix. The processor has a first mode in which it is operable to process the samples as they are generated, to calculate the position fix. It also has a second mode in which it is operable to store the samples or the code-phases or pseudo-ranges in the memory for later processing.
US09348029B2	Imaging system for wire detection The present disclosure provides a system, method, and apparatus for detection and imaging. In one or more embodiments, the disclosed method involves transmitting, with a first optical transmitter, a first transmit signal to an object (e.g., a wire); and transmitting, with a second optical transmitter, a second transmit signal to the object. The method further involves receiving, with an optical receiver, a receive signal that is reflected from the object. In one or more embodiments, the receive signal is a function of the first transmit signal and the second transmit signal. Further, the method involves detecting, with a detector, the receive signal. The frequency of the receive signal is the sum of the frequency of the first transmit signal and the frequency of the second transmit signal, and/or is the difference between the frequency of the first transmit signal and the frequency of the second transmit signal.
US09348009B2	Electromagnetic emitter emitting simultaneously along three orthogonal axes to detect object position and orientation An electromagnetic emission device for helmet position detection systems includes an electromagnetic emitter and control electronics, the emitter comprising three windings arranged perpendicularly, the processing electronics comprising three electronic chains each associated to a given winding and working simultaneously. Each electronic chain comprises closed-loop control means arranged such that the related signal generated comprises three analogue components: a first component, being the stimulus component, modulated at an “emission” frequency of the winding, each of the three emission frequencies being different from one winding to the next, and a second and a third component, referred to as correction components, modulated at an emission frequency of another winding, the phase and amplitude of which are calculated such as to compensate the parasitic signals received by said winding from the other two windings. Each winding in steady-state only emits electromagnetic radiation at its own emission frequency and at a predetermined phase and intensity.
US09347981B2	Test method for interposer A test method for an interposer is provided. The interposer includes a plurality of conductive lines therein and a plurality of connecting contacts thereon, wherein the connecting contacts are electrically connected to the conductive lines. The test method for an interposer provides a passive transponder device. The passive transponder device includes a first circuit including an open/short test circuit and at least a pair of connecting contacts. The test method for an interposer includes contacting the connecting contacts of the first circuit in the passive transponder device with the selected contacts on the interposer to form a checking area and conducting an open-circuit or short-circuit test for the interposer through the checking area.
US09347977B2	Connection error detecting apparatus and method which detect a connection error in a smart meter Provided are a connection error detecting apparatus and method. The connection error detecting apparatus, which detects connection errors for each rating of a smart meter, comprises: a parameter calculating unit for calculating connection error detecting parameters including an actual three-phase voltage value, an actual three-phase current value, an effective amount of three-phase power, and an ineffective amount of three-phase power; and a connection error determining unit for setting connection error criteria for detecting connection errors for each rating of the smart meter, and detecting the connection errors for each rating by determining whether or not any one of the connection error detecting parameters satisfies the connection error criteria.
US09347974B2	Method for determining beam parameters of a charge carrier beam, measuring device, and charge carrier beam device The application relates to a method for determining beam parameters of a charge carrier beam, a measuring device, and a charge carrier beam device. The charge carrier beam (4) from a charge carrier beam device (1) is guided, by means of a beam deflection unit (3), over a slit aperture arrangement which is provided in an aperture device (7) and which has one or more slit apertures (8). Measurement plane coordinates of the beam components that penetrate the slit aperture arrangement are determined. On the basis of the measurement plane coordinates, the aperture device automatically moves in such a way that a measuring aperture (9) arranged in the aperture device moves over a predefined measurement reference point. The beam parameter is measured by the measuring aperture. In a measuring device (5) suitable for carrying out said method, the slit aperture arrangement has at least two non-parallel slit aperture sections (12, 13, 15, 16) which can be part of a single continuous slit aperture.
US09347969B2	Compound microscope A compound microscope of an optical microscope and a scanning probe microscope includes a stage to support a sample substrate holding a sample, and a cantilever chip having a substrate, a cantilever supported by the substrate, and a probe provided at the free end of the cantilever. The compound microscope further includes a scanner to hold the cantilever chip so that the probe faces the sample substrate and so that the substrate is inclined with respect to the sample substrate and to three-dimensionally scan the cantilever chip with respect to the sample substrate, a displacement sensor to optically detect the displacement of the cantilever, and an illumination light source to apply illumination light for observation by the optical microscope to the sample through the space between the substrate and the sample substrate.
US09347956B2	Biomarker and uses thereof in diagnosis, treatment of autism A new biomarker, a peptide having sequence SSKITHRIHWESASLLR*, wherein the side chain of the C-terminal arginine denoted with the asterisk is lacking the NH2- C═NH moiety normally present in the side chain. Usefulness of the biomarker in the diagnosis of neurological and/or neuropsychiatric disorders (in particular autism) is disclosed, as well as are methods for determining the concentration of the new biomarker and antibodies directed to the new biomarker. Treatment of autism, comprising administering a complement factor I inhibitor to the subject.
US09347955B2	Device and methods for the immunological identification of cerebrospinal fluid The present disclosure relates to detection of the presence or absence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in a sample by the detection of one or more antigens that are enriched in CSF compared to their levels in other bodily fluids. The devices and methods are suitable for the detection of the presence or absence of cerebrospinal fluid in samples of mixed bodily fluids from a wide variety of human populations crossing ethnicity, age, gender, health status and genetic variability.
US09347951B2	Fusion protein comprising the extracellular domain of a filovirus glycoprotein fused to an immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region This invention provides fusion proteins comprising a Filovirus glycoprotein segment and an immunoglobulin polypeptide segment. The fusion proteins are useful in immunogenic compositions to protect against infections by Filoviruses, such as Ebola virus, in both humans and non-human animals. The fusion proteins are also useful in diagnostic assays to detect Filovirus infections.
US09347948B2	Phenyl glyoxal probes Novel phenyl-glyoxal based anti-citrulline probes and methods of synthesis are provided. Methods of use, such as, the development of methods for monitoring substrate citrullination over time; for identifying citrullinated proteins from cells are described.
US09347943B2	Proteins used for the diagnosis of lyme borreliosis Chimera proteins including: (i) at least one sequence of a DbpA protein of a Borrelia species selected from B. afzelii, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto and B. garinii, and (ii) at least one sequence of an OspC protein of a Borrelia species selected from B. afzelii, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto and B. garinii. Also, a method and a kit for the in vitro diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis using said proteins.
US09347936B2	Inactive Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIα knockin animal and knockin cell of the same The present invention provides an inactive Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIα (CaMKIIα) knockin animal in which only the protein kinase activity of CaMKIIα has been specifically impaired. Since CaMKIIα is considered to be involved in higher brain functions including learning and memory, and inhibit epileptic seizure and brain disorders caused by ischemia, the inactive CaMKIIα knockin animal of the present invention is widely usable for various studies of the brain and nerve, such as the studies of mechanisms of learning disability, dysmnesia, epileptic seizure and brain disorders.
US09347927B2	Systems and methods for implementing advanced agent monitoring using a heated vaporizer inlet apparatus A system and method are provided for implementing an advanced monitoring scheme to detect a localized presence of particular target substances, including toxic chemical agents, in a space, and particularly for detecting and monitoring a presence of chemical agents that are absorbed into porous or semi-porous products and surfaces in the space when it is determined that potential chemical agent exposure has occurred. A heated vaporizer inlet apparatus provides a sensor source that is optimized for the detection of less volatile chemical agents, and particular less volatile chemical agents, that have been absorbed by materials with porous compositions or surfaces. The heated vaporizer inlet apparatus is used for heating architectural surfaces that were exposed to chemical agents in an effort to substantially increase a vapor pressure of a target substance disposed on or absorbed in a particular target surface.
US09347922B2	Method and apparatus for analyzing alkalinity conditions in aqueous liquids Method for analyzing the alkalinity conditions in aqueous liquids, comprising: sampling a known amount of the aqueous liquid and placing it in a container of known volume, measuring pH in the sampled liquid and pressure in the container, adding a known amount of CO2 to the sampled liquid, and measuring pH in the sampled liquid and the pressure in the container, and finally calculating the total alkalinity based on the values from the performed measurements. An apparatus for conducting the method is also described as well as a method for controlling chemistry of a glycol containing liquid in a system for recovery of glycol.
US09347921B2	Method for filtering a chromatogram Low-complexity, application-independent fixation of a chromatogram is achieved by a) determining a limit frequency under the assumption that the shape of the peaks in the chromatogram corresponds approximately to a Gaussian function having a standard deviation and the Fourier transform of the Gaussian function describes the frequency spectrum of a peak, at which limit frequency the Fourier transform has decreased to a predetermined limit value, b) determining the height, width, and retention time of each individual peak from the chromatogram, or a chromatogram taken previously under the same conditions, c) determining a constant factor based on a first predetermined relationship, d) determining the functional dependency of the limit frequency on the retention time as a variable quantity based on a second predetermined relationship, and e) filtering the chromatogram with the limit frequency depending on the retention time as the variable quantity using a low-pass filter.
US09347912B2	Sensor adapter, method for the manufacture thereof, method for the use of a sensor in this sensor adapter and bioreactor with this sensor adapter A sensor adapter is described for the noninvasive positioning of a sensor, especially of an electrochemical sensor, in a medium. The sensor adapter comprises an accommodating channel, in which the sensor can be positioned and the one end region of which is closed off by a semipermeable membrane. Moreover, the sensor adapter comprises a hollow cylindrical sealing structure, which is disposed within the accommodating channel coaxially with the longitudinal axis of the latter and with which the sensor can be disposed gas tight adjacent to the semipermeable membrane.
US09347901B2	Liquid transport apparatus and bubble determination method A liquid transport apparatus includes a tube for transporting a liquid, plural fingers that push and block the tube, a cam that pushes the fingers in sequence so as to squeeze the tube to transport the liquid, a first electrode and a second electrode that are provided at the tube located further toward the downstream side than a region pushed by the plural fingers, and a determination unit that determines the presence/absence of a bubble on the basis of the impedance between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US09347885B2	Method of detecting thalassemia by optical analysis of blood components The method of detecting thalassemia by optical analysis of blood components is a spectral detection method that is based on the fluorescence spectra of a set of biomolecules, including tyrosine, tryptophan, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and flavin adenine dinucleotide, which are all found in blood plasma, and porphyrin, which is found in red blood cells (RBCs). Measured ratios of intensity maxima between tryptophan and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, flavin adenine dinucleotide and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, tyrosine and tryptophan, and the normal form of porphyrin and the basic form of porphyrin may each be used, alone or in combination, to diagnose a patient as suffering from thalassemia.
US09347877B2	Laser gas analyzer A laser gas analyzer includes a wavelength-variable laser having a wide wavelength-variable width, a light-split module configured to split an output light of the wavelength-variable laser into a measurement light and a reference light, a first gas cell into which gases to be measured are introduced, and the measurement light is made to be incident, and a data processor configured to obtain an absorption spectrum of each of the gases to be measured based on a reference signal related to the reference light and an absorption signal related to an output light of the first gas cell, and to obtain concentrations of the respective gases to be measured.
US09347871B2	Laser scanning type observation apparatus having a delay circuit unit, a multi-stage delay setting unit and a decision unit A laser scanning type observation apparatus includes a pulsed-laser oscillation means irradiating pulsed laser to an object, a detector receiving light from the object to output a detection signal, a means detecting pulsed-laser oscillation to output a synchronous signal, a circuit delaying the synchronous signal for an optional amount of time to output a trigger signal, a means sampling the detection signal in synchronization with the trigger signal, a memory storing the sampled detection signal, a setting unit capable of setting delay time for delaying the synchronous signal in two or more stages within one period of the synchronous signal, and a decision unit determining an optimum delay stage for image formation using data on intensities of the detection signal at the respective delay stages, wherein the setting means fixes delay time for delaying the synchronous signal at delay time corresponding to the delay stage determined by the decision unit.
US09347868B2	Methods and systems for rapidly testing adhesion Adhesion testing systems, methods of fabrication, and methods of testing are disclosed. Test systems include test coupons with non-metallic test adherends. Test coupons are configured to test bonds to the non-metallic test adherends under peeling stress and/or shearing stress. Test methods are simplified and rapid as compared to standard adhesion tests and include methods of accelerated environmental testing. Test methods also are adapted for qualitative and quantitative measurement of bond performance.
US09347866B2	Laser diffraction with inhaler enclosed in positive pressure chamber The present disclosure relates to an improved device and methods for adapting to a laser diffraction apparatus used for measuring particle size distribution and density of the plume of a powder composition emitted from a dry powder inhaler.
US09347864B2	System and methods for determining structure stiffness Systems and methods for determining the stiffness of a structure based on vertical track modulus. Vertical deflection data is collected along a particular section of a structure, such as a railroad track. A first set of vertical modulus is determined, based in part, on the collected vertical deflection data. At a second time, vertical deflection data is again collected along the particular section of the structure to be used in determining a second set of vertical modulus. At least the first and second sets of vertical modulus are analyzed to determine a mathematical algorithm that facilitates developing a trend in the vertical track modulus of the structure and evaluating the stiffness of the structure.
US09347863B2	Phosphorothioate oligonucleotide-labeling of white blood cells The present invention provides labeling and capture reagents that comprise phosphorothioate oligonucleotides (PS-ODN). The PS-ODN bind to all white blood cells (leukocytes) in an indiscriminative fashion and enable the labeling, capture, or concentration of leukocytes in a manner that preserves the antigenic integrity of the cells. Methods for the use of phosphorothioate oligonucleotides are provided.
US09347854B2	Glow plug with pressure sensor A glow plug with a pressure sensor including a heater member (4) having a heating element (9) disposed therein and projecting from a forward end of a metallic shell (2), a center rod (3) having, at its forward end, a connection portion (3A) to which a rear end portion of the heating element (9) is connected, and an annular clearance CR formed between the metallic shell and the heater member in a region located on the forward end side of a junction portion (14A) of a deformable member (14) joined to the heater member. A portion of the heating element located on the forward end side relative to the forward end of the connection portion is at least partially located on the radially inner side of the clearance CR, and the forward end of the connection portion is located on the forward end side relative to the forward end of the junction portion.
US09347849B2	Method and apparatus for determining the thermal status of fuel in a line leak detection system A method of determining the thermal status of fuel in a fuel distribution system (10) includes pressurizing the distribution line (16) by activating a submersible pump (14) in an underground storage tank (12). Once the distribution line (16) is pressurized, the pump (14) is switched off, and the reverse flow rate out of the distribution line back into the tank (12) is monitored. The test is repeated after a period of time, and the reverse flow rates of the separate tests are compared to determine if the fuel in the distribution line (16) is in thermal stability with the surrounding environment based on flow rate changes between tests.
US09347845B2	Magneto-elastic sensor, load pin, ball-joint and tow coupling comprising this sensor, method of determining a direction of a load vector A magneto elastic sensor having a longitudinally extending shaft like member which is subject to a load, is provided. A magneto-elastically active region is directly or indirectly attached to or forming a part of the member in such a manner that the mechanic stress is transmitted to the active region. A magnetically polarized region of the active region becomes increasingly helically shaped as the application stress increases. A magnetic field sensor is arranged approximate the magneto-elastically active region for outputting a signal corresponding to a stress induced magnetic flux emanating from the magnetically polarized region. The magnetic sensor determines one out of a shear stress and a compressive stress. The magnetic sensor can include at least one direction sensitive magnetic field sensor, which is arranged having a predetermined and fixed spatial coordination with the member.
US09347833B2	Infrared touch and hover system using time-sequential measurements A touch and hover-sensitive sensor system is provided. The system may include a planar light guide that has a plurality of light sources located along a first edge of the light guide and a plurality of light sensors located along a second edge of the light guide orthogonal to the first edge. The light guide may include light-turning arrangements that are configured to redirect light passing through a first side of the light guide from/along orthogonal directions within the light guide. A controller may illuminate proper subsets of the light sources; light that is emitted from the first side and that encounters an object, e.g., a fingertip, may be reflected back into the first side and then redirected to the light sensors. Depending on the light sensors that detect the highest redirected reflected light intensity and the active light sources, the controller may determine the XY/XYZ location of the object.
US09347832B2	Optical systems and methods employing a polarimetric optical filter A birefringent filter includes an EM directing element in optical alignment with a first surface of the birefringent plate. A polarimetric imager includes a birefringent filter including a birefringent plate formed of a birefringent material and an EM directing element in optical alignment with a first surface of the birefringent plate. The imager further includes a detector in optical alignment with a second surface of the birefringent plate. A projection system includes an EM directing element and a birefringent filter. The filter includes (1) a birefringent plate formed of a birefringent material and having a first surface in optical alignment with the emissions source, and (2) an EM directing element in optical alignment with a second surface of the birefringent plate.
US09347825B2	Vehicle lamps with uniform apparent brightness A Parabolic-Type reflector has a uniform Apparent Brightness over the reflector surface. A model of the reflector is divided into a plurality of elements arrayed radially around the reflector focus. Each element has a length li measured radially from the focus and perpendicular to an optical axis of the reflector, and an initial depth d-initi measured parallel to the optical axis. For each element, a light-angle αi is calculated, the angle of light from the light source subtended by the element. An Apparent Brightness is found for each element, ABi≡αi/li. The element emin with the lowest Apparent Brightness ABmin is identified. For each element other than emin a required light-angle is found, the required light-angle α-corri=ABmin×li. While maintaining li, the initial depth d-initi of the element is reduced to a corrected depth d-corri necessary to achieve α-corri.
US09347822B2	Photocell receptacle having variably positionable cap and base A photocell receptacle includes a base configured to be fixedly mounted to a housing of a light fixture. The base has an opening providing access to the interior of the housing of the light fixture. The base has a base locking feature. The photocell receptacle includes a cap having a cap locking feature. The cap locking feature operably engaging the base locking feature to secure the cap to the base. The cap is variably positionable at different angular positions relative to the base. The cap has contact channels holding electrical contacts configured to be electrically connected to corresponding contacts of a photocell.
US09347819B2	Systems and methods for reducing weighing errors associated with partially off-scale items Systems and methods are provided for reducing erroneous weighing of items by detecting items extending beyond a peripheral edge of a weigh platter associated with a data reader. For example, in response to a weigh request a scale guard module acquires data indicative of whether an item extends between the weigh platter and another surface, compares the acquired data to reference data, and based on the comparison, determines whether an item extends off the weigh platter and thus on to another surface. The scale guard module may utilize non-electromagnetic compression waves, radio waves, a portion of a data reader's scan field to scan a set of patterns extending along at least one edge of the weigh platter, an imaging based scanner to capture an image of at least one edge of the weigh platter, light beams extending along at least one edge of the weigh platter, or any combination thereof.
US09347817B2	Surgical object and comprehensive fluid monitoring system having capability of mobile monitoring and having highly sensitive and reliable detection of objects being placed in a container A surgical sponge and comprehensive fluid monitoring system and method are provided. The system includes a support ring for securely supporting a container with at least one port opening for receiving surgical sponges placed into the container. A hollow spine structure includes a channel and a rod that can move in the channel. The rod transfers weight force from the support ring to a weight force sensing device. A flexure maintains the rod vertically aligned in the channel with a gap separating the length of the rod from the channel walls. A processor receives an information signal indicative of at least one of urine outflow, suction fluid outflow, irrigation fluid intake; and intravenous fluid intake, of a surgical patient. The processor accumulates a total amount of estimated net fluid volume loss for the patient from the surgical sponge, and from other measured fluid outflow and intake.
US09347816B2	Two part hollow profile sensor A hollow profile sensor for installation in roads or a road surface for the purpose of sensing the weight of vehicles and/or driving dynamics reactions of vehicles or vehicle wheels to the road includes a tube part having a hollow interior profile. A counterpart is connected to the tube part. A measuring arrangement is held in the hollow interior profile between the tube part and the counterpart. A force introduction flange is connected to the tube part in such a manner that force application lines are concentrated on the measuring arrangement.
US09347805B2	Method for optimally determining the characteristics and arrangement of a set of sensors for monitoring an area An iterative method is provided, implemented by computer, of optimized design of a system for monitoring a geographical zone comprising a plurality of sensors of different types and characteristics represented by a vector S each component of which indicates the type and the characteristics of a sensor and its position in said zone, said system exhibiting a plurality of absolute technical constraints.
US09347804B2	Test head manipulator A test head manipulator system comprising a base structure, a main arm unit configured to support a test head and to be moved relative to the base structure, an actuator having a range of motion of L, and an enhancement mechanism positioned between the main arm unit and the actuator and configured such that movement of the actuator a first distance causes the main arm unit to move a second distance that is greater than the first distance. Additionally, a fluid control system for controlling a test head manipulator system. The pneumatic control system includes a regulator configured to controllably provide an output pressure to the main fluid actuator, and a second fluidly controlled actuator configured to adjust the regulator to modify the output pressure provided to the main fluid actuator. The second actuator is configured to be positively positioned in at least four operating modes with each operating mode causing the regulator to provide a different output pressure to the main fluid actuator.
US09347797B2	Shape memory sensor The invention relates to a sensor for measuring an environmental effect, comprising a sensor material having an internal stress, which sensor material is designed to at least partially relax under the influence of the environmental effect. The sensor further comprising a detection unit for indirectly or directly detecting said relaxation. The invention also relates to a waveguide, comprising a grating in at least a portion of the waveguide, which waveguide comprises a coating, the coating comprising a polymer that contains reversible crosslinks that can be broken by the environmental effect in such a way that the polymer changes shape. The invention further relates to a sensor system comprising a waveguide, a light source, and a photo-detector.
US09347786B2	Intersection guide system, method, and program Intersection guide systems, methods, and programs acquire information on a vehicle path, acquire a vehicle travel direction at a guide intersection ahead of the vehicle based on the information on the path, and cause a display to transition from a first display state to a second display state when a degree of approach of the vehicle to the guide intersection becomes equal to or more than a threshold. In the first display state, the display displays a guide image that represents the travel direction superimposed on a portion of a forward scene ahead of the vehicle other than the guide intersection, and displays a connection line image superimposed on the forward scene that connects between the guide intersection in the forward scene and the guide image. In the second display state, the display displays the guide image superimposed on the guide intersection in the forward scene.
US09347783B2	Pet friendly search, meeting, social profile mapping system A method and system for assisting users with determining a convenient location for a meeting between at least two users having dogs, the method and system including providing an initial location (via GPS) for a first user and dog, providing an initial location (via GPS) for a second user and dog, determining a meeting point between the first users and the second user, and providing directions to the meeting point to the first user and the second user, via electronic devices. Preferably the meeting point is a dog friendly point of interest. The system may also provide social profiles of users, including dogs and their owners. The system provides search, social networking, and mapping for dog owners.
US09347781B2	Terminal device and guidance program A navigation device includes a GPS receiver, map data including tunnel data and periodically acquires a vehicle's speed to provide guidance on the current position N acquired at the GPS receiver, and when GPS radio waves become unreceivable after the vehicle passes a tunnel entrance, calculates a travel distance according to a vehicle speed and a time T up to a branch, and continues providing guidance on the current position up to the branch. After passing the branch, the navigation device suspends guidance, calculates a distance La between the branch and a tunnel exit, which is shorter, and when GPS radio waves are not received even after a movement distance from the branch exceeds distance La, after passing the branch, determines a road whose distance is longer as the road being traveled, and provides guidance on the current position.
US09347775B2	Method and apparatus for self-calibration of gyroscopes A gyroscope having a resonant body utilizes a self-calibration mechanism that does not require physical rotation of the resonant body. Instead, interface circuitry applies a rotating electrostatic field to first and second drive electrodes simultaneously to excite both the drive and sense resonance modes of the gyroscope. When drive electrodes associated with both the drive and sense resonance modes of the gyroscope are excited by forces of equal amplitude but 90° phase difference, respectively, the phase shift in the gyroscope response, as measured by the current output of the sense electrodes for each resonance mode, is proportional to an equivalent gyroscope rotation rate.
US09347771B2	Spherical shape measurement method and apparatus A partial spherical shape of each measurement area of a sphere to be measured, which is established so as to have an area overlapping with another measurement area adjacent to each other, is measured at each rotation position, and the surface shape is measured by joining the partial spherical shapes of the measurement areas by a stitching operation based on the shape of the overlapping area. The position at which the sphere is measured is changed and re-held. A positional displacement between half parts of the sphere before and after re-holding, which is caused by an effect of an error owing to the re-holding, is separated into three rotational components. Magnitudes of the three rotational components are quantified by image correlation and the positional displacement corrected. Then, the stitching operation is performed to measure the entire part of the sphere surface.
US09347769B2	Method for aligning a phase retardation plate with a display panel An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for aligning a phase retardation plate with a display panel comprising the following steps: S1: determining the positions of a first reference line on the phase retardation plate and a second reference line on the display panel, wherein the first reference line is the central line between the first and second ends of the phase retardation area, and the second reference line is the central line between the third and fourth ends of the display area; S2: obtaining a positional deviation between the first reference line and the second reference line by calculation; S3: adjusting the relative position between the phase retardation plate and the display panel according to the positional deviation.
US09347767B2	Spherically mounted retroreflector and method to minimize measurement error A spherically mounted retroreflector (SMR) having a reference point placed on a body of the SMR in a fixed and predetermined relationship to a runout error vector as given in a manufacturer's data sheet. A method for aligning the reference point to minimize measurement error.
US09347765B2	Real time SD-OCT with distributed acquisition and processing The present invention relates to distributed computing system to acquire, process, and display OCT images at real-time frame rates.
US09347748B1	Mobile ballistic defense shield with enhanced user protection A mobile ballistic defense shield with enhanced protection for a user includes a base frame with swivel castors to contact a ground surface, a ballistic main plate with at least one shooting port and a viewing port, the ballistic main plate affixed to the base frame and oriented to enable the main plate to extend upward from the ground surface, a ballistic foot plate pivotably mounted to a bottom portion of the ballistic main plate, and a handle affixed to the ballistic foot plate and connected to a support assembly affixed to the base frame. The handle adjusts to a first position to enable the ballistic foot plate to contact the ground surface. The handle adjusts to a second position to enable the ballistic foot plate to pivot away from the ground surface, thereby permitting the base frame to travel along the ground surface.
US09347744B2	Camouflage for day and night use Camouflage articles are formed of arrangements of portions of different colors. The lighter colored portions or parts thereof are formed of reflective ink in that particular color. This arrangement provides the article with a camouflage appearance, altering depth perception by animals in daylight, and reflectivity at night for safety.
US09347743B2	Offset aperture dual-gimbaled optical system An offset aperture two-axis gimbaled optical system comprises a two-axis gimbal and an optics assembly that is mounted on the inner gimbal and offset radially from the rotation axis of the outer gimbal. The optics assembly is suitably offset so that its optical aperture does not overlap the rotation axis of the outer gimbal and its optical aperture is symmetric about the rotation axis of the inner gimbal. In different applications, the offset aperture provides for reduced optical aberrations and improved utilization of the available packaging volume to accommodate multiple offset aperture optics assemblies.
US09347742B2	Electro-optic system for crosswind measurement An electro-optic system, e.g., mounted to a weapon, measures down range winds and a range-to-target for compensating the ballistic hit point. The system may include an optical light source, collimated to generate a laser spot on the target. The system may include a wind measurement receiver that captures laser light scattered from the target. The captured light may be modulated by atmospheric scintillation eddies, producing optical patterns which change in time and move with the crosswind. These patterns may be analyzed by a processor using covariance techniques in either the time-domain or the frequency-domain to determine path-integrated crosswinds and associated errors. Ranging is done by measuring the time of flight of the laser pulse to the target collecting the scattered signal from the target. Compensated ballistic hit point, measurement errors and other data may be displayed on a micro-display digital eyepiece, or projected onto the direct view optics (DVO) of a riflescope so as to be overlaid in real-time on the optical image of the target.
US09347741B2	Holster mechanism Holster mechanism techniques are described. In one or more implementations, an apparatus comprises a holster configured to secure a device, a hood connected to the holster, and a locking mechanism. The hood comprises a biasing portion configured to receive a force to cause the hood to move between a closed position and an open position. The locking mechanism comprises a first locking portion and a second locking portion configured to engage the first locking portion to secure the hood in the closed position or the open position.
US09347736B2	Firing switch of the single/continuous firing air soft gun In a firing switch of the single/continuous firing air soft gun, the air soft gun includes a gun body and a barrel fixed in the gun body, and the firing switch includes a piston seat and a firing switch device, wherein the piston seat is disposed in the gun body and capable of reciprocally moving in horizontal with respect to the barrel; and the firing switch device is installed on the piston seat, and includes a stop piece and a toggle piece connected with the stop piece, and the stop piece is disposed corresponding to the trigger assembly.
US09347731B1	Crossbow device A crossbow device at least comprises a stock with a body portion, a track, and a aiming position member. A lower bow portion is arranged at the front of the body portion which includes a connection portion and a first screw hole is arranged thereinside. A bow frame is fastened in the track and assembled with the aiming position member. A second screw hole is formed at the front of each rod. A bow string set is assembled with the bow frame. Tow positioning blocks are protruded in the limit groove and a third screw hole is arranged at each positioning block and corresponding to the second screw hole. A fourth screw hole is arranged at a hook portion and corresponding to the first screw hole. The screw members are screwed in the third screw hole, the second screw hole, and the fourth screw hole of the hook portion.
US09347712B2	Heat dissipating device A heat dissipating device includes a heat dissipating fin module, a second base, a third base, a heat pipe, a first sleeve and a fourth base. The heat dissipating fin module includes a first base and a plurality of first heat dissipating fins. A recess is formed on the second base. The third base is disposed in the recess. The heat pipe includes a heat dissipating segment, a heat absorbing segment and a connecting segment connecting the heat dissipating segment and the heat absorbing segment. The heat dissipating segment is disposed in the first base. The heat absorbing segment is disposed in the second and third bases and contacts the third base directly. The first sleeve at least covers the connecting segment. The fourth base is formed by a die casting process and covers peripheries of the first and second bases and the first sleeve.
US09347706B2	Reduced pressure drying method and device of a substrate A reduced pressure drying method and device for a substrate are presented. Firstly, a substrate is placed in a sealed space; then the surface to-be-dried of the substrate is partitioned into a predetermined number of sealed regions; thereafter, the sealed regions are subjected to pressure reduction through gas extraction; finally, the sealed regions are dried through gas insufflation, and then the substrate is taken out from the sealed space. The method can perform reduced pressure drying to various-sized substrates, ensuring uniform pressure and humidity and avoiding formation of reduced pressure drying speckles.
US09347698B2	System and method for creating a glass with an ice lining An ice mold configured to be placed into a glass or cup such that a side wall void is created between the outer wall of the ice mold and the interior wall of the glass or cup. The exterior shape of the ice mold generally mirrors the interior shape of the cup or glass. Liquid such as water or juice is placed into the glass or cup after the ice mold is inserted, thereby forcing the liquid into the side wall void, following which the combination of the ice mold and glass or cup are frozen. Once the liquid freezes, the ice mold is then removed leaving an ice wall on the interior wall of the glass or cup. The ice mold may feature one or more attachment mechanisms or an outer rim in order to secure the mold to an upper rim of the glass or cup.
US09347697B2	Air conditioner and control method thereof Provided is an air conditioner. The air conditioner including a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, an indoor heat exchanger, and an expansion device includes a supercooling device for supercooling a refrigerant condensed in the outdoor heat exchanger or the indoor heat exchanger, an injection passage through which the refrigerant passing through the supercooling device is introduced into an injection inflow part of the compressor, a bypass passage extending from the injection passage to a suction part of the compressor to bypass the refrigerant, and a passage opening/closing part disposed in at least one of the injection passage and the bypass passage to selectively block a flow of the refrigerant.
US09347693B2	Supporting assembly A supporting assembly for a solar cell lamination includes a frame member, a column member, and an adapter member. The frame member includes a first flange, a second flange, and a first wall. The second flange is substantially parallel with the first flange. The first flange, the second flange and the first wall cooperate to define a space for accommodating the solar cell lamination. The column member is used for supporting the frame member, in which the column member has an end surface facing the frame member. The end surface has a proximal half portion and a distal half portion respectively proximal and distal to a central axis of the frame member, and a location of a vertical projection of the first wall on the end surface falls on the distal half portion. The adapter member is used for connecting the column member and the frame member.
US09347686B2	Solar receiver with dual-exposure heat absorption panel A dual-exposure heat absorption panel is disclosed, which can be used in a solar receiver design. Generally, the heat absorption panel includes a tube panel through which a heat transfer fluid is flowed to absorb solar energy from heliostats that are focused on the tube panel. A structural support frame surrounds the tube panel. A stiffener structure runs across the exposed faces of the tube panel. The headers and other support structures on the periphery are protected by use of a heat shield.
US09347680B2	Moving device and dust cover The present invention provides a moving device and dust cover. The moving device includes a moving cart and a dust cover; the dust cover forming a dust-prevention space over the moving cart; the dust cover including an air-driver device, a vent tube and an outer cover; the air-driver device being disposed outside of outer cover for sucking in outside air and driving air into vent tube; the vent tube being connected to air-driver device and outer cover, for flowing of the air sucked in by air-driver device into the dust-prevention space formed by outer cover so that the space forming a positive pressure with respect to outside of outer cover; the outer cover performing filtering on the air flown in through vent tube. As such, the present invention accomplishes a better cleanroom result and provides easy disassembly and flexible usability to reduce the cost.
US09347679B2	Grille door opener A door opener for a linear bar grille.
US09347676B2	Enhanced dehumidification control with variable condenser reheat An air conditioning system comprising an air mover for circulating air to a space; a vapor compression circuit including a compressor, a condenser, and an expansion device; an evaporator; an air-reheat heat exchanger; and a control system. In one embodiment, the evaporator receives refrigerant from the vapor compression circuit and provides a cooled stream of air to the space. The air-reheat heat exchanger is positioned to receive the cooled stream of air. In one embodiment, the vapor compression circuit, the evaporator, and the air-reheat heat exchanger are operable in combination to provide a plurality of modes of operation. In a preferred embodiment, the control system is configured to compute a Sensible cooling-to-Total cooling (S/T) process ratio and to control an operation of at least one of the vapor compression circuit, the evaporator, and the air-reheat heat exchanger. A method of manufacturing the air conditioning system is also provided.
US09347675B2	Architectural heat and moisture exchange An architectural heat and moisture exchanger. The exchanger defines an interior channel which is divided into a plurality of sub-channels by a membrane configured to allow passage of water vapor and to prevent substantial passage of air. In some embodiments, the exchanger includes an opaque housing configured to form a portion of a building enclosure, such as an exterior wall, an interior wall, a roof, a floor, or a foundation.
US09347674B2	Household appliance having a mounting system for door skin outer glass A household cooking appliance include a housing having an oven chamber accessible through an opening, the opening having a seal surrounding a perimeter of the opening, and a door covering the opening and moveable about a hinge between an open position and a closed position. The door includes an outer door skin forming an outer surface of the door, the outer door skin including an outer glass panel, a full glass inner panel forming an inner surface of the door, the full glass inner panel abutting the seal when the door is in a closed position, a middle glass panel disposed between the outer glass panel and the inner glass panel, and outer glass support means for supporting the outer glass panel on the outer door skin.
US09347670B2	Burner assembly for an appliance A burner assembly for an appliance is provided. The appliance includes a top panel constructed of a non-conducting material. A gas burner is removably mounted to the top panel at an opening of the top panel. A conducting contact extends between the gas burner and a mounting assembly positioned at the opening of the top panel. The conducting contact can be used to ground the gas burner.
US09347666B2	Combustor with fuel injector pegs for reducing combustion pressure oscillations A combustor includes a combustor external cylinder, a tubular combustor basket installed in the combustor external cylinder, a compressed air channel defined between the combustor external cylinder and the combustor basket, and a plurality of fuel nozzles installed in the combustor basket. Compressed air flowing along the compressed air channel is approximately reversed in the flow direction at an end of the combustor basket, and is introduced into the plurality of fuel nozzles. Fuel injection pegs made up of an upstream side fuel injection peg injecting upstream side fuel and a downstream side fuel injection peg injecting downstream side fuel, are installed in the compressed air channel. Concentration fluctuation of the upstream side fuel caused by pressure fluctuation in the combustor is configured so as to reduce a peak of concentration fluctuation of the downstream side fuel at a combustion start position of the combustor.
US09347660B1	Dual magnification illuminated multi-spectrum table mirror A mirror includes a frame holding therein back-to-back mirror plates having different magnification factors, e.g. 1× and 5×, each plate having a central reflective imaging area and a concentric light transmissive window. Continuously rotatable bushings supporting the frame between opposed arms of a yoke enable interchangeable orientation of 1× and 5× mirror plates in a forward-facing use position. A printed circuit board holding a circular ring of alternating yellow and white light emitting diodes (LED's) within the frame between the windows receives electrical power from a power supply in the base of the mirror via novel continuously rotatable two-conductor and single-conductor electrical connectors located in opposite sides of the frame and a coaxial cable and a single conductor wire disposed through opposed yoke-arm bushings, enabling energization of yellow, white, or both type LED's to thus illuminate a face or other object near the windows at three different selectable color temperatures.
US09347653B2	Light source device, artificial sunlight radiation apparatus, and method for maintaining light source device A light source device (10) according to the present invention includes a first light source (1) and a first condensing member (2) that has a first opening (24) and that outputs output light from the first light source (1) through the first opening (24). The first condensing member (2) is constituted of a front condensing member (2a) that includes the first opening (24) and a rear condensing member (2b) that does not include the first opening (24). The rear condensing member (2b) is detachable from the first condensing member (2).
US09347646B2	Light emitting device providing controlled color rendition A light emitting device for controlled color rendition includes a support unit; a luminous element mounted on the support unit; and a wavelength conversion unit formed on the support unit. The wavelength conversion unit covers the luminous element as an encapsulant containing first light wavelength converters emitting light of a first wavelength and second light wavelength converters emitting light of a second wavelength, where the first wavelength is larger than the second wavelength. The wavelength conversion unit includes a first mixture region adjacent to the luminous element and a second mixture region above the first mixture region. The first light wavelength converters are concentratively distributed in the first mixture region, and the second light wavelength converters are concentratively distributed in the second mixture region.
US09347638B2	Vehicular lamp A vehicular lamp includes: a lamp body having an opening portion; an outer cover that closes the opening portion and that, together with the lamp body, forms a lamp chamber between the outer cover and the lamp body; a light emission portion disposed within the lamp chamber; a vapor deposition sheet that is disposed within the lamp chamber and that covers the lamp body with at least a portion of the light emission portion exposed; and an engaging portion that at least one of the outer cover and the lamp body has and that is capable of engaging with the vapor deposition sheet and holding the vapor deposition sheet in a shape that substantially conforms to the outer cover or the lamp body.
US09347635B2	Headlight system incorporating adaptive beam function A light source system comprising projection optics, which are capable of producing a far-field image of a light source. The light source comprises a fluorescent medium that when illuminated by light from laser emitters of a first waveband emits light of a second or more wavebands of longer wavelength. The resulting light emission produces a colour perceived as white. The light source is illuminated by a plurality of laser emitters arranged to illuminate the light source in an array-like manner. Control of the output of one or more of the laser emitters results in a variation of the spatial emission distribution from the light source and hence a variation of the far-field beam spot distribution. Further, fine variation of the far-field beam spot distribution may be achieved by re-direction of the laser beams by separate control methods.
US09347633B1	Cordless decorative lamp A decorative cordless lamp has a replaceable rechargeable energy storage device for powering an LED lighting element. The LED lighting element may be controlled by a variety of switches, timers, and sensors to enable the user to selectively tailor the operation of the decorative cordless lamp. The cordless lamp utilizes wireless charging to improve the user's experience and a series of interchangeable bases to facilitate decorating.
US09347628B2	Light-emitting device, electronic device, and lighting device A light energy reuse type light-emitting device with low power consumption is provided by converting light from a light-emitting device into electric power efficiently for reuse. Also, a light energy reuse type light-emitting device with high yield is provided. A light-blocking film of the light-emitting device is replaced to a photoelectric conversion element, so that light is converted into electric power. That is, conventionally, light is not emitted in a portion of a light-blocking film. In the disclosed invention, light which is not emitted can be converted into electric power by a photoelectric conversion element, and can be reused. Therefore, a light-emitting device with low power consumption is realized.
US09347627B2	Battery powered light with alignment mechanism A portable lamp is provided that is powered by a plurality of batteries. The lamp includes a housing having a battery compartment with a removable closure. The closure includes a plurality of electrically conductive contacts configured to contact batteries in the battery compartment. The battery compartment and the closure comprise mating alignment elements adapted to align the contacts on the closure with batteries in the battery compartment. The alignment element on the closure is configured to move relative to the closure when the closure is twisted relative to the battery compartment to connect the closure to the housing. The lamp also incorporates a valve that may be integrally formed with a sleeve on the housing.
US09347626B2	Illumination device including uniformization optical member including a plurality of unit cells and display unit including the illumination device An illumination device includes: a light source section including a laser light source; a uniformization optical member including a plurality of unit cells which are two dimensionally arranged, and receiving light from the light source section; an optical device disposed on an optical path between the light source section and the uniformization optical member; and a drive section vibrating the optical device, in which an expression (1) is satisfied: {6×f×tan(θf)}>Pf (1) where f is a focal length of the unit cell, Pf is a pitch of the unit cell, θf is a marginal ray angle in a light flux emitted from the optical device to enter the uniformization optical member.
US09347618B2	LED lighting apparatus with first and second cover portions An LED lamp includes a plurality of LED modules arranged in direction x, a tubular enclosure for housing the LED modules that is open at ends spaced from each other in direction x, and end caps respectively closing the ends of the tubular enclosure in direction x. Each of the end caps is configured to diffuse light from the LED modules while transmitting the light, and includes an emission surface for emitting light in a direction z perpendicular to direction x. This arrangement ensures that the LED lamp has a good appearance even when it is made long.
US09347613B2	Air pump with a biasable head An air pump with a biasable head is disclosed to include a head connectable to an air valve of an inflatable object, a cylinder providing an air output end, and a flexible air guide tube haying a front end thereof fixedly connected to the head and an opposite rear end thereof connected to the air output end of the cylinder. Subject to the arrangement of the flexible air guide tube, the air pump does not vibrate the connected air valve during its operation. Further, the flexible air guide tube has a short length, and can positively maintain the head in connection with the cylinder during delivery, avoiding disconnection of the head from the cylinder.
US09347605B2	Hanging module A hanging module includes a first hanging mechanism. The first hanging mechanism includes first and second slot disks, first and second hook disks, a first sliding member, and a first guiding member. The first and second hook disks are disposed on first and second displayers respectively. A first hook of the first hook disk and a second hook of the second hook disk are used for hooking a first protruding slot of the first slot disk and a second protruding slot of the second slot disk respectively. The first sliding member has a first pivot portion and a first rod portion. The first guiding member has a second pivot portion and a first slot portion. The first and second pivot portions are pivoted onto the first and second protruding slots respectively. The first rod portion is slidably disposed in the first slot portion.
US09347604B2	Nestable collapsible support apparatus Nestable collapsible support apparatus includes a first member and a second member moveably attached to the first member. The second member includes a plurality of segments moveably attached each other. One of every two adjacent segments is slidable relative to every other two adjacent segments for allowing the second member to be in a collapsed position, where the second member is received in the first member. One of every two adjacent segments is rotatable relative to another every other two adjacent segments for allowing the second member to be in a extended position, where the second member supports an object.
US09347603B2	Counterweight hoisting apparatus A hoisting apparatus includes at least one pair of substantially vertical columns defining a frame. A tie bar and a carriage are selectively securable to the at least one pair of columns and oriented substantially perpendicular to the columns. A lifting device connected to the tie bar at a first end and to the carriage at a second end. The lifting device is operable to cause movement of the tie bar relative to the at least one pair of columns when the carriage is secured to the at least one pair of columns and to cause movement of the carriage relative to the at least one pair of columns when the tie bar is secured to the at least one pair of columns. The hoisting apparatus is connectable to a counterweight of a belt conveyor for raising or lowering the conveyor in a series of incremental hoisting steps.
US09347602B2	Adjusting apparatus An adjusting apparatus including first and second bases, a pivot shaft, an adjusting unit and a first cable is provided. The second base is disposed under the first base. The first and second bases are pivoted by the pivot shaft. The adjusting unit includes a first adjusting base and a first adjusting rod. The first adjusting rod is passed through the first base and the first adjusting base. The first cable has first and second sections, wherein the first and second sections have first end portions, the first end portions are fixed to the second base, and the first and second sections are held by the first adjusting base. When the first adjusting rod is rotated, the first adjusting base is moved relative first base, such that the first or second section is dragged and the second base is rotated around a first axis relative to the first base.
US09347597B2	Aircraft tool A guidance tool for restricting the potential angular misalignment between the axial centerlines of a pipe end and a corresponding socket arrangement during a pipe installation process. The guidance tool may include a sleeve and a clamp configured to removably engage the sleeve with an external surface of a pipe end, such that at least part of the sleeve and pipe end may be inserted into a corresponding socket arrangement.
US09347594B2	Hydraulic connection assembly with pressure discharge control An hydraulic connection assembly for connecting one or more hydraulic lines may have a one-block body enclosing one or more hydraulic lines and at least one draining line connected to said hydraulic lines. The assembly may also have at least one coupling provided with an axially movable element adapted to actuate a sealing member to allow discharge of fluid pressure and relieve pressure from the tool lines before disconnecting or to facilitate maneuvering of connecting lines. The assembly also reduces the production costs and time, as well as the threes that the operator must apply when engaging pressurized lines.
US09347588B1	Cable holding assembly A cable holding assembly for preventing an amplifier jack from being damaged while coupled to an instrument cable includes a base coupled to an instrument amplifier. A retainer is coupled to said base. The retainer may engage the instrument cable when the instrument cable is coupled to the amplifier jack to prevent damaging the amplifier jack.
US09347581B2	Device, method and system for compressed air control and compressed air supply For a vehicle, a compressed air control device controls operating states of a compressor and an air drying device, and includes a compressor control outlet pneumatically connectable to a control inlet of the compressor, a system pressure inlet pneumatically connectable to a system pressure line that conducts a system pressure produced by the compressor, a ventilation control outlet pneumatically connectable to a control inlet of the air drying device and configured to pneumatically switch an operating state of the air drying device, a pneumatically operable ventilation control valve controllable by the system pressure to pneumatically couple the system pressure inlet to the ventilation control outlet to switch the operating state of the air drying device, and an electrically operable supply control valve configured to pneumatically couple the system pressure inlet to the compressor control outlet independently of the system pressure to switch the operating state of the compressor.
US09347580B2	Valve device A valve device of the present invention includes: a main valve body interposed between a first pressure chamber of a main passage and a second pressure chamber; and a pilot valve body provided in the second pressure chamber. A first pilot passage including a first restrictor extends from an outside of a housing or a primary passage to the second pressure chamber, and a second pilot passage including a second restrictor is formed at the main valve body. The pilot valve body is maintained at a first operation position by a pilot valve body biasing member and is caused to move to a second operation position by a valve body driving unit. When the pilot valve body is located at the second operation position, the main valve body is caused to move to an open position by a pressure difference between the first pressure chamber and the second pressure chamber.
US09347578B2	Check valve assembly Provided is a check valve assembly including a check valve having a body and a stem having at least one radially inwardly deflectable member having an end with a radially outwardly projecting catch, and a valve shield retained on the stem between the body and the end of the at least one radially inwardly deflectable member by the radially outwardly projecting catch. In this way, a mechanical bond is provided between the check valve and the valve shield, thereby eliminating the need to clean the body of the check valve to remove contaminants to allow an adhesive to hold the check valve to the valve shield.
US09347574B1	Self actuating weather protective cover An environmental (weather) protective cover for a vent conduit. In accordance with some embodiments, a flexible body portion is adapted to cover a distal end of a vent conduit coupled to an upstream pressure source. A flap supported by the body portion has a flap slot opening. The body portion and the flap have a closed mode in which the vent conduit is sealed and an open mode in which the body portion and the flap slot opening are expanded when pressurized fluid discharging from the vent conduit is sufficient to flex the body portion and increase the slot opening to discharge the pressurized fluid. The body portion and the flap return to the closed mode when the pressurized fluid has been released.
US09347567B2	Valve for vehicle A valve apparatus for the vehicle that may be disposed in a vehicle to exhaust operating fluid, which flows therein, to the outside, may include a main body that has at least one exhaust port and input port and the operating fluid flows there in through the input port, and an opening/closing unit that may be disposed in the main body, wherein the opening/closing unit selectively fluid-connects one of the at least a exhaust port with the input port according to a temperature of the operating fluid such that the inflow operating fluid may be exhausted to the outside through the exhaust port.
US09347560B2	Temperature regulating device for a pressure vessel A pressure vessel is disclosed, the pressure vessel having an outer shell, an inner shell, and a temperature regulating device, the temperature regulating device adapted to regulate the temperature of a fluid stored in the inner shell during operation of the pressure vessel and to minimize curing time during manufacture of the pressure vessel.
US09347559B2	Piston ring A high-thermal-conductivity piston ring having excellent scuffing resistance and wear resistance, which can be used in a high-heat-load environment in engines is provided. Also, to provide a piston ring with low friction for contributing to the improvement of fuel efficiency, a TiN coating as thick as 10-60 μm, in which the texture coefficient of a (111) plane is 1.2-1.65 in X-ray diffraction on the coating surface, with the texture coefficient of a (111) plane>the texture coefficient of a (220) plane>the texture coefficient of a (200) plane, is formed under the optimized ion plating conditions on a peripheral surface of the piston ring. Further, to obtain excellent sliding characteristics with low friction without losing excellent thermal conductivity of TiN, a hard amorphous carbon coating is formed on the TiN coating.
US09347556B2	Dual shift fork A dual shift fork includes a sliding fork and a rotary fork rotatably connected to the sliding fork. A pair of pad members are disposed on an inner side of both ends of the sliding fork. A sleeve disposed at an inner side of the sliding fork and contacting the pad members. The pad members are simultaneously engaged with the sliding fork and the rotary fork at an inner side of both ends of the rotary fork. The rotary fork rotates at a predetermined angle with respect to the sliding fork as the sleeve moves independently from the sliding fork.
US09347555B2	Variator lockout valve system A variator lockout valve system for a continuously variable transmission includes a pair of shift valves. Each shift valve has at least one port that is fluidly coupled to a variator of the continuously variable transmission. Electro-hydraulic actuators control the position of each of the shift valves. When the shift valves are in one position, pressure control valves supply fluid pressure to the variator. If one of the shift valves is in another position, one of the pressure control valves is blocked from supplying fluid pressure to the variator.
US09347554B2	Hydrostatic drive system A hydrostatic drive system for a machine is disclosed. The hydrostatic drive system includes a pump, a hydraulic motor configured to receive a pressurized fluid from the pump and a controller operably connected to the pump and the hydraulic motor. The controller is configured to receive an input signal indicative of a current machine speed and a desired machine speed. Further, the controller is configured to output a motor displacement command signal and a pump displacement command signal to adjust a displacement of the hydraulic motor and the pump respectively based on the input signal to maintain at least one of constant machine speed or constant acceleration or constant deceleration during adjustment of the pump displacement and the motor displacement.

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