US08126862B2
Systems according to the present invention may be used to convey information to enhance customer service for a wide variety of industries. Among other things, systems of the present invention allow a service provider to supply customers with information on services provided for the customer using one or more methods of distribution and in a manner that is fast, efficient, and easy for the customer to access. The information provided to customers can be distributed in a variety of formats and stored permanently for retrieval by the customer at any time. The present invention also allows service providers to gather metrics on communications to customers, as well as to facilitate targeted marketing efforts to help build customer loyalty.
US08126854B1
Using a versioning feature of an authoring application to back up multiple versions of a stored object in single, version-enabled instance stored on backup media is disclosed. In some embodiments, an indication is received that a subsequent version data associated with an object an existing instance of which is stored in a backup storage location is to be backed up. A version control mechanism of an authoring application that created or updated the object as stored in a primary storage location is invoked to incorporate the subsequent version data into the existing instance of the object as stored in the backup storage location.
US08126842B2
A synchronization process, and associated apparatus, for placing database copies in match with one another by way of communications effectuated upon an air interface of a radio communication system. Hash functions are performed at a mobile node and at a network part upon mobile and network copies of database information. Comparison of the hash information formed therefrom provides a preliminary indication of whether the databases are in match with one another. If a determination is made that the databases are out of match, the data is compared, and the data is placed in match with one another responsive to such additional comparisons.
US08126841B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for managing data items. A data store includes at least two copies of each data item. Each copy of a data item is used for a unique set of operations performed on the data item. An application programming interface receives a request from a consumer to perform an operation on a data item in the data store. The application programming interface selects, based on the received request, which copy of the data item is to be used when performing the operation.
US08126838B2
Systems and methods can provide an immersive learning environment based on cognitive task analysis followed by an analysis of instructional requirements and development of an instructional strategy. One or more immersive scenarios can be created and presented via an audio/visual training structure which enables a participant to improve real-time decision making in stressful, rapidly changing circumstances.
US08126836B2
A method, apparatus, and electronic device for hierarchical communications are disclosed. A connection interface 1260 may receive a query. A processor 1210 may select an initial expert from the hierarchical expert tree based upon the query and direct the query towards the initial expert. A session initiation protocol server 418 may generate a hierarchical expert tree from an expert pool.
US08126833B2
Techniques are described for detecting anomalous events using a long-term memory in a video analysis system. The long-term memory may be used to store and retrieve information learned while a video analysis system observes a stream of video frames depicting a given scene. Further, the long-term memory may be configured to detect the occurrence of anomalous events, relative to observations of other events that have occurred in the scene over time. A distance measure may used to determine a distance between an active percept (encoding an observed event depicted in the stream of video frames) and a retrieved percept (encoding a memory of previously observed events in the long-term memory). If the distance exceeds a specified threshold, the long-term memory may publish the occurrence of an anomalous event for review by users of the system.
US08126832B2
An artificial intelligence system and method for interpreting input from a user and generating a response to the user. The input is converted into an array of concepts which are compared to a database of interrelated concepts. A response is generated based on the concepts in the database and their relationship to the concepts in the input array. The system and method may be implemented in a number of electronic or computer devices to interact with humans or computer systems.
US08126830B2
In a database query operation, a quantum private query (QPQ) protocol allows a user to determine whether the database provider has been trying to obtain information about their query by performing quantum superpositions of different queries in addition to performing normal queries. This means that, in addition to being able to request the jth or the kth records in the database, the user can also request both records in a quantum superposition. To find out whether the database provider is trying to discover her queries, the user sends proper superpositions of queries and then checks the answer provided by the database to determine whether the superposition has been preserved. If superposition has not been preserved, the user can be confident that the database provider has cheated, and has tried to obtain information on the query.
US08126828B2
A special purpose processor (SPP) for implementing a synthetic neural model of the biological anatomy of the human brain to control a brain-based device (BBD) that is movable in a real-world environment, including neural processing units (NPUs), each having a programmed processor and a local memory that stores data records of neural elements, a system memory for storing data about all the NPUs, and a finite state machine and a system bus for transferring data between the NPUs and system memory.
US08126824B2
A payment integrity system that processes data, including data associated with a biometric technology. The system includes a discovery module to receive insurance records from a source of data, which includes the data associated with the biometric technology, the records providing information that pertain to at least one transaction. The discovery module includes a query component and an artificial intelligence engine to process the records to identify a second subset of the records having anomalous information, and provide a second analysis output indicative of the second subset. The system also includes an audit module to determine whether to instruct the artificial intelligence engine to analyze the records according to the outputs. The system facilitates resolution of a claim payment based on the first analysis output and the second analysis output.
US08126820B1
A method for managing trust level in a community comprises selecting a data provider and a data entry entity from the community, wherein the community comprises data providers providing provided data, data entry entity providers providing data entry entities, and reviewers, obtaining provided data and a trust level of the provided data from the data provider, retrieving a data entry quality level of the selected data entry entity from a community system, wherein the community system comprises data entry quality levels corresponding to the data entry entities, and determining a data source trust level based on the trust level of the provided data and the data entry quality level of the selected data entry entity, wherein the data source trust level indicates validity of data produced by the selected data entry entity.
US08126812B1
A digital content vending machine, DCVM (10), in which a client (12) on a personal computer, PC (14), contains an infrastructure (16) and an inventory (18). The infrastructure (16) and inventory (18) may both be stored in a hard drive (20), or the inventory (18) may instead be stored on a removable media (24), such as a CD (16), DVD (28), or tape (30). The infrastructure (16) presents a graphical user interface on the client (12) which metaphorically resembles a village (46) containing a plurality of stores (44) operated by vendors (42). Customers (40) shop in the stores (44) by selecting assets (22), constituting the inventory (18), and sending money (52) and an identifier (54) to a clearing house (50) via a communications system such as telephone (118), private network (120), or the Internet (122). The clearing house (50) returns a key (58) used to at least partially remove a digital wrapper (60) protecting the asset (22) from unauthorized use. A master server (48) may also be provided to update the infrastructure (16) and inventory (18), and to provide additional keys (58) used to remove the digital wrappers (60).
US08126804B2
Methods and systems for automated decision support in analyzing operation data from a complex network. Embodiments of the present invention utilize these algorithms and techniques not only to characterize the past and present condition of a complex network, but also to predict future conditions to help operators anticipate deteriorating and/or problem situations. In particular, embodiments of the present invention characterize network conditions from operation data using a state estimator. Contingency scenarios can then be generated based on those network conditions. For at least a portion of all of the contingency scenarios, risk indices are determined that describe the potential impact of each of those scenarios. Contingency scenarios with risk indices are presented visually as graphical representations in the context of a visual representation of the complex network. Analysis of the historical risk indices based on the graphical representations can then provide trends that allow for prediction of future network conditions.
US08126800B2
The present invention provides an auction system that allows IPO sales to be offered in an open and transparent manner, wherein, a certain percentage (up to 100%) of shares in an IPO can be offered to qualified bidders at a “buy now” pre-auction price, set by an issuer and/or underwriter. Investors can be allowed to “bid some shares out of the auction process” and thus guarantee those investors' allocation while also allowing bidders to participate in an open auction for other shares. Shares of stock to be offered in an IPO can include a subset of pre-auction price shares and a subset of auction price shares. The pre-auction price shares are offered to pre-auction bidders at a pre-auction price, and auction shares are generally sold to the highest bidder. Pre-auction sales can serve as a catalyst for generating enthusiasm for an associated IPO auction.
US08126794B2
Methods and systems for trading and replicating contingent claims, such as derivatives strategies, in a demand-based auction are described. In one embodiment, a set of demand-based claims, each of which can be a vanilla option or a digital option, approximate or replicate the contingent claim into a vanilla replicating basis or a digital replicating basis, and the order for the contingent claim is then evaluated or processed in the demand-based auction. In another embodiment, a plurality of strikes and a plurality of replicating claims are established for a demand-based auction on an event, one or more replicating claims striking at each of the strikes in the auction. A contingent claim, such as a derivatives strategy, is replicated with a replication set that includes one or more of the replicating claims in the auction. The equilibrium price and/or the payout for the derivatives strategy is determined as a function of the demand-based valuation of each of the replicating claims in the replication set. For a customer order requesting a number of a certain derivatives strategy in the demand-based auction and a limit price per derivatives strategy, the premium of the customer order is determined as a product of the equilibrium price for the derivatives strategy and a filled number of derivatives strategies for the order, each determined as a function of the demand-based valuation of each of the replicating claims in the demand-based auction.
US08126793B2
An automated payment system for processing payment by a customer to a company. The payment system includes a document scanning system which has an input receptacle adapted to accept a document. After receiving an authorization agreement from the customer, the scanner acquires at least one image from the document. Also provided is a first computer adapted to receive images from the document scanning system. Adapted to communicate information represented by the image, a first communication link couples the document scanning system and the first computer. The payment system also includes a second computer adapted to receive images which is in communication with the first computer via a second communication link. The second communication link is adapted to communicate images and payment information.
US08126792B2
A system conducts online financial transactions between individuals or between individuals and entities such as banks, merchants and other companies. Each user establishes an online account, which is used to transfer funds to and from other online accounts. Any user may initiate a send money transaction or a request payment transaction with any other entity provided that entity has an e-mail address. The online fund transfer may include a verification of a user's information including verifying a mailing address.
US08126778B2
This document discusses, among other things, example embodiments of a transaction system that may receive, over a network, a first set of transaction data associated with a transaction for an item. In an example embodiment, a reputation application may adjust a rating associated with the transaction when the first set of transaction data indicates a purchase or a return of the item.
US08126769B1
A method of electronic transit fare payment is provided. The method comprises receiving a transit card state correction input and storing a transit card state correction record based on receiving the transit card state correction input. The method also comprises changing the transit card state in response to receiving the transit card state correction input. The method also comprises providing transit card information including the transit card state correction record to a exit fare gate to support electronic payment with a transit card.
US08126767B1
A method of systematically applying parameter evaluation techniques to large numbers of complex segmented models used for managing and analyzing a segmented manufacturing or supply chain process. These models include a plurality of segment models, each segment model representing a process segment within the segmented manufacturing or supply chain process and comprising a mathematical expression including at least one parameter. The method compares predicted values generated by a segment model with actual observed values to determining a score representative of the performance of the segment model. New parameters for the mathematical equation associated with the segment model are determined through statistical techniques when the model score indicates an unacceptable performance of the segment model. The segment models may be evaluated and updated in parallel and without manual intervention.
US08126757B2
A method and system to select one or more participants in an online collaborative process are provided. The method includes receiving selection information and identifying a potential list of the participants from an information system based on the selection information, the information system containing transaction data relating to prior collaboration processes with the participants. In particular, the method establishes trust parameters for each of the participants, the trust parameters representing at least qualifications, credentials or trustworthiness properties of the participants. The establishing of trust parameters includes identifying the trust parameters and quantifying the trust parameters. The trust parameters are identified by performing a search for relevant ones of the transaction data that matches the selection information, the selection information relates to trustworthiness properties of the participants. The trust parameters are further quantified by applying the relevant ones of the transaction data with statistical algorithm to compute a value that measures the trustworthiness properties of the participants.
US08126753B2
An exemplary method of responding to a request for a value of at least one metric associated with at least one process includes a step of determining whether responding to the request requires updating the value of the at least one metric. When responding to the request does not require updating the value of the at least one metric, a response is determined based at least in part on at least one stored value of the at least one metric. When responding to the request does require updating the value of the at least one metric, the value of the at least one metric is updated and a response is determined based at least in part on the at least one updated value of the at least one metric. Updating the value of the at least one metric, at least when responding to the request requires updating the value of the at least one metric, includes steps of determining at least one new value of the at least one metric based at least in part on at least one stored value of the at least one metric and storing the at least one new value of the at least one metric. The method also includes a step of responding to the request with the determined response.
US08126745B1
Digital assets may be insured against loss. The digital assets may comprise commercial products and/or user-generated data. An insurance product may provide either for monetary reimbursement or replacement (e.g., repurchase) of the digital assets and/or for backup services to backup insured digital assets so that the insured digital assets may be retrieved if the original user copies are lost.
US08126744B2
Faults in technical facilities are oftentimes unanticipatable and unplannable. For the operator of a facility, it is therefore always uncertain when and at what level costs will be incurred for fault rectification. A method is therefore proposed for rectifying faults in technical facilities by which for a defined period of time, and for a number of facility components which are defined before the period starts, the rectification of faults is undertaken by a technical service organization, for which purpose an operator of a facility pays the service organization a defined sum of money for the defined period of time, whereby the costs of fault rectification during the defined period of time are then met by the service organization, up to level of the sum of money, and costs over and above this are met by an insurance company. The facility operator then has from the outset costs which can be estimated and planned, and need not establish separate reserves. On the other hand, it is possible to guarantee expert fault rectification in a short time, whereby the downtimes for the facility are reduced.
US08126737B2
A method for providing insurance coverage to a subscriber comprises offering an insurance policy to the subscriber wherein the insurance policy comprises providing allowances to pay for one or more expenses covered by the insurance policy and providing monetary credits to the subscriber for any unused portion of a given allowance where the monetary credits can be used to cover the cost of a subsequent allowed expense. The insurance policy may be a pharmacy benefits plan. The covered expenses may be pharmacy expenses. The allowed expenses may be medical expenses which qualify under Section 213 of the US Internal Revenue Code for payment by an employer without the subscriber having to declare the payment as taxable income.
US08126731B2
A method according to an aspect of the present invention includes activating a first device in response to an event, receiving data through a wired connection from a medical device by the first device, transmitting the data to a second device by the first device, and transmitting the data from the second device to a medical data server. This method may be practiced automatically, either continuously or at set intervals, or may be initiated by someone utilizing the system. This method allows the first device to be activated only as necessary to communicate with the medical device in order to conserve battery life.
US08126730B2
A method according to an aspect of the present invention includes receiving data through a wired connection from a medical device, storing the data, transmitting the data to an intermediary device, and formatting a message including the received data for transmission to a medical data server. This method can be practiced automatically to allow a medical device for a patient or other subject to be monitored without requiring the patient to manually enter information. This method allows the data to be stored for any desired length of time, and/or until a particular event occurs.
US08126724B2
A voice response system for use in obtaining return qualification information for a product using a non-unique product identifier, including: a dial-in voice system operable to prompt a caller for the non-unique product identifier, wherein the non-unique product identifies the product as a member of a defined product group; a product registration database including a plurality of different, non-unique product identifiers; a return policy storage that defines return policies for each of the non-unique product identifiers; and an arrangement that looks up a specific return policy for the non-unique product identified entered by the caller and provides information to the caller regarding return qualification for the product identified by the non-unique product identifier.
US08126723B1
A system and method provide a way of improving customer satisfaction with an IVR by identifying tuning opportunities for applications of an IVR system based on customer satisfaction scores. The system and method compare portions of the IVR application to a customer satisfaction score obtained from a customer satisfaction survey. The comparisons show, statistically, which portions of the IVR application correlate to a low customer satisfaction score. A report is produced which identifies these areas that correlate to low customer satisfaction, and these areas may be tuned to improve customer satisfaction with the IVR.
US08126718B2
To facilitate text-to-speech conversion of a username, a first or last name of a user associated with the username may be retrieved, and a pronunciation of the username may be determined based at least in part on whether the name forms at least part of the username. To facilitate text-to-speech conversion of a domain name having a top level domain and at least one other level domain, a pronunciation for the top level domain may be determined based at least in part upon whether the top level domain is one of a predetermined set of top level domains. Each other level domain may be searched for one or more recognized words therewithin, and a pronunciation of the other level domain may be determined based at least in part on an outcome of the search. The username and domain name may form part of a network address such as an email address, URL or URI.
US08126717B1
A method for generating a prosody model that predicts prosodic parameters is disclosed. Upon receiving text annotated with acoustic features, the method comprises generating first classification and regression trees (CARTs) that predict durations and F0 from text by generating initial boundary labels by considering pauses, generating initial accent labels by applying a simple rule on text-derived features only, adding the predicted accent and boundary labels to feature vectors, and using the feature vectors to generate the first CARTs. The first CARTs are used to predict accent and boundary labels. Next, the first CARTs are used to generate second CARTs that predict durations and F0 from text and acoustic features by using lengthened accented syllables and phrase-final syllables, refining accent and boundary models simultaneously, comparing actual and predicted duration of a whole prosodic phrase to normalize speaking rate, and generating the second CARTs that predict the normalized speaking rate.
US08126708B2
A dynamic normalization factor for a current frame of a signal is determined to reduce loss in precision for low-level signals. The normalization factor depends on an amplitude of the current frame of the signal. The normalization factor also depends on values of filter states after one or more operations were performed on a previous frame of a normalized signal and on the normalization factor for the previous frame. The current frame of the signal is normalized based on the normalization factor that is determined. The states' normalization factor may be adjusted based on the normalization factor that is determined.
US08126701B2
A method for providing effective communication in a network, including obtaining from an editor data in a first language, accepting from the editor at least one allowable language other than the first language, receiving a request from a reader to access the data in a second language, if the second language is the at least one allowable language, rendering a version of the data in the second language to the reader, and if the second language is not the at least one allowable language, providing the data to the reader in the first language.
US08126697B1
Systems and methods are provided for establishing a communication session between a first and second communication device. A request may be received for a communication session from the first communication device, the request indicating a language for media streams transmitted to, and received from, the first communication device. A communication session invitation specifying a plurality of languages supported for the communication session may be transmitted to the second communication device. A response may be received, from the second communication device, indicating a language for media streams transmitted to, and received from, the second communication device. The communication session, between the first and second communications devices may be established such that the media streams transmitted to, and received from, the first and second communications device are in a language indicated by the first and second communications devices respectively.
US08126695B2
Systems (200, 230, 240) and methods (400) for event based execution of a Fieldbus process control strategy (FPCS) for simulation of an industrial process at least partially implemented by a Fieldbus system including a FIM (114, 116, 212, 214, 232, 234) and a field device (122, 124). The methods involve representing an implementation of the FPCS (702) as a Fieldbus data structure (FDS) comprising operational blocks (802, . . . , 818) representing operations of the FIM and a field device. The methods also involve creating a Link Active Schedule (LAS) using the FDS. The LAS (706) schedules software operations for simulating the field device operations. The methods further involve running simulation software installed on a computing device (222, 226, 232, 234, 242) for simulating the field device operations. The simulation software is configured for performing functional block executions of the software implementations identified and scheduled in the LAS.
US08126687B2
This invention provides a method of identifying an antinode of a primary vibration mode of the golf club head having a hollow golf club head having a face portion, a crown portion, a sole portion, and a side portion. A viscoelastic body is to be mounted in at least one of the face portion, crown portion, sole portion, and side portion. The viscoelastic body is mounted in a part of a portion where the viscoelastic body is to be mounted, the part corresponding to an antinode of a primary vibration mode.
US08126683B2
A method for embellishment placement is provided. More specifically, an automated method for determining placement of embellishments for an item, such as a jewelry item, is provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises, determining and setting values for parameters, creating offsets along a portion of the item to be embellished, setting points along the offsets, randomizing the points, adding decorative features to the item, and eliminating points based on the parameter values. After points violating the parameter values have been eliminated, the remaining points comprise positions for embellishments.
US08126673B2
The invention offers a calculation method and program capable of performing line-by-line calculations using a Voigt function at speeds of 50-100 times what is conventional. The Voigt function is divided into a first range around the peak and a skirt portion not contained in the first range. The first range is replaced by a cubic function, and the skirt portion is taken as the Voigt function to perform calculations in predetermined ranges of equal intervals. Furthermore, the peak area of the first range is replaced by a cubic function, and the skirt portion is taken as a function representing the difference between the Voigt function and the cubic function to perform calculations in second predetermined intervals smaller than the aforementioned first predetermined intervals. This is repeated until the desired level of precision is reached. Additionally, interpolation is performed by dividing these predetermined intervals into four or five parts.
US08126670B2
A method for calibrating vectorial network analyzers, which provide exactly n test ports, for the testing of electrical components with differential connections, where several calibration measurements are implemented, and where several different calibration standards are connected to the test ports. In the method, n is a positive integer greater than 1, and exactly one arbitrary test port is used as a reference test port. The following measurements are implemented for the calibration: (n−1) calibration measurements, where the reference test port is connected to every further test port respectively in its own calibration measurement by direct connections or short matched lines of known reflection, length and attenuation, one calibration measurement where all n test ports are terminated by respectively known input impedances of arbitrary transmission properties, and one calibration measurement where all n test ports are terminated by unknown, respectively-identical, reflecting terminations.
US08126668B2
Disclosed is a method of signal detection. A received input signal is divided into a frame unit and each input signal present in a first frame and a second frame is transformed into a frequency signal. Then, first power spectrum information and second power spectrum information are computed utilizing the transformed frequency signal and a delta spectrum entropy value corresponding to a difference of the two computed power spectrum information is obtained. A predetermined input signal is included in a predetermined frame among the input signal after judging through comparing the delta spectrum entropy value with a critical value. Desired signal can be detected in a noisy environment including a noise signal by using the delta spectrum entropy value.
US08126664B2
In order to detect, localize and interpret a partial discharge occurring in a partial discharge site along an electrical equipment, two measurement probes and a synchronization probe are installed along the electrical equipment. The measurement probes detect pulses travelling in the electrical equipment while the synchronization probe detects a phase angle in the electrical equipment and is usable for calibration purposes. A control unit receives the signals sensed by the probes and conditions them. Digital processing applied on the conditioned signals, involving their correlation, a time-frequency distribution and a form factor estimation, allows establishing a diagnosis indicating a detection of a partial discharge and its localization along the electrical equipment. A wideband magnetic probe may be provided for detecting the pulses traveling in the electrical equipment.
US08126658B2
Provided is a method for rapidly, surely, and easily identifying a factor of a shape defect of an artifact attributed to elastic recovery of deformation upon molding by using the numeric value simulation technique, thereby eliminating lowering of dimension accuracy. The method includes a step of calculating a stress distribution and distortion distribution working on an artifact before elastic recovery; a step of calculating a deformation amount δ0 based on the elastic recovery of an evaluation point when the stress distribution is given to the artifact shape before the elastic recovery; a step of dividing the artifact shape into a plurality of regions and calculating a deformation amount δn based on the elastic recovery of the evaluation point when the stress distribution is given to each of the regions of the artifact shape before the elastic recovery; and a step of comparing the deformation amount δ0 and the deformation amount δn and identifying a region where the difference between them is minimum as a main affect region, i.e., a stress distribution region which most affects the shape defect of the evaluation point before and after the elastic recovery.
US08126650B2
Method for efficient inversion of controlled-source electromagnetic survey data to obtain a resistivity model of the subsurface of the survey area. The method extracts the dimensions and location of sub-surface structures as they may be revealed by existing seismic or other available high resolution survey data from the subsurface area (33). This structure geometry information is used to construct a discretization (grid, or mesh) for the inversion computation (34) that is different from the mesh used for the forward modeling calculations (32) in that (a) it has fewer and hence larger cells; and (b) the cells honor the assumed structural information. The inversion need only extract resistivity information (35), the geometry of the resistive structures being specified by the inversion mesh.
US08126639B2
In a method for closed loop controlling the air system in an internal combustion engine, in particular a diesel internal combustion engine with a first actuating element for recirculated exhaust gas in the exhaust gas recirculation tract and a second actuating element for air in the inlet tract, the two actuating elements being adjusted as a function of each other. In order to increase the quality of closed loop control, provision is made for each actuating element to be controlled separately by its own respective controller, each controller being optimally configured for the respective controlled system, and a target value being provided for each controller.
US08126634B2
A control system for an engine capable of operating on more than one type of fuel includes an engine control unit that determines a default fuel volume to be injected into the engine based on relevant engine parameters and characteristics of a default fuel type. A default mass fuel flow rate is derived from the default fuel volume and relevant engine parameters. The actual mass fuel flow rate into the engine is inferred from the mass air flow rate into the engine and the exhaust gas air-to-fuel ratio, which is determined using a wide range oxygen sensor. A fuel correction factor is calculated from the default mass fuel flow rate and the inferred mass fuel flow rate. The fuel correction factor is used to increment or decrement the default fuel volume in a subsequent fuel injection cycle thereby incrementing or decrementing the inferred mass fuel flow rate toward the default mass fuel flow rate.
US08126632B2
Various methods are described for controlling engine operation for an engine having a turbocharger and direct injection. One example method includes performing a first and second injection during a cylinder cycle, the first injection generating a lean combustion and the second injection exiting the cylinder unburned into the exhaust upstream of a turbine of the turbocharger.
US08126629B2
Methods and systems for operating a gas turbine engine system are provided. The system includes a gas turbine engine that includes at least one combustor configured to receive a flow of fuel from a flow control device and a fuel control system. The fuel control system includes a piping system configured to channel the flow of fuel from a fuel source to the flow control device, a sensor configured to generate a signal indicative of a property of the flow of fuel wherein the property of the flow of fuel is variable over time, and a controller including a processor. The processor is programmed to receive the generated signal, using a flow model of the piping system and the received signal, iteratively track the progress of a plurality of discrete volumes flowing through the piping system, and control the flow of fuel using the flow control devices.
US08126627B2
Cruise control systems and methods suitable for use in vehicles, such as Class 8 trucks, are provided. For example, cruise control systems are disclosed that include verification and/or notification features for verifying the operational condition of the cruise control system, and if non-operational, notifies the vehicle operator of system inoperability and/or instructs the operator to activate a specified control input, e.g., press and release the clutch pedal, the service brake pedal, the parking brake, etc., so that cruise control functionality may be enabled.
US08126626B2
A motor vehicle travel path control which monitors, during an autonomous braking event initiated by a collision preparation system the actual motor vehicle travel path in relation to the driver intended motor vehicle travel path, and in the event a departure from the driver intended motor vehicle path occurs, the motor vehicle travel path control adjusts braking so as to return the motor vehicle travel path to that intended by the driver.
US08126625B2
A vehicle drive assist apparatus for assisting in driving a vehicle by varying drive torque of wheels that includes: a torque-up mechanism increasing the drive torque; a step detecting mechanism detecting a step that may exist on a road surface in a traveling direction of the vehicle; and a switching mechanism switching a status of control between a first status in which the torque-up mechanism is permitted to operate and a second status in which the torque-up mechanism is restricted to operate, wherein the switching mechanism forms the first status if the step is detected by the step detecting mechanism.
US08126620B2
A grain transfer control system, and method of use thereof, for automatedly controlling the transfer of grain from a mobile transferor-type vehicle, such as a combine harvester, to a mobile transferee-type vehicle, such as a crop transport, by varying the position and speed of the transferor-type and transferee-type vehicles relative to one another during the transfer operation, especially by varying the position and rate of walk of the discharge spout along at least a portion of the length of a grain holding receptacle of the transferee-type vehicle, to effect a generally even fill of the grain holding receptacle of the transferee-type vehicle along the length of the grain holding receptacle.
US08126616B2
A vehicle seating system including a seat and at least one powered seat adjustment actuator for altering the seating position formed by the seat. Additionally, the system includes a vehicle braking system including vehicle brakes and a brake pedal. The system further includes a signal sent in response to application of the vehicle brakes which leads to suspension of movement of the actuator during application of the vehicle brakes.
US08126598B2
A method and apparatus are provided for autonomous data download. The method includes the steps of navigating an autonomous data download device to a first data storage device located in a mobile vehicle and parking the autonomous data download device adjacent to the first data storage device. The method further includes the steps of connecting the autonomous data download device to the first data storage device and downloading data from the first data storage device to the autonomous data download device. The method thereafter includes the steps of navigating the autonomous data download device to a location determined to be suitable for transmission of the data and transmitting the data from the autonomous data download device to a second data storage device after determining that the autonomous data download device has reached the location determined to be suitable for transmission of the data.
US08126596B1
An apparatus and method for inspecting a plurality of containers are provided. Each container has an outer surface for housing at least one material therein. The techniques provided involve at least one inspection vehicle and at least one detector. Each inspection vehicle has a plurality of wheels for movably positioning about the plurality of containers. The wheels may have at least one magnet for selectively adhering to the outer surface of at least one of the containers whereby the inspection vehicle traverses the container(s). The detector is positionable proximate at least one of the containers. The detector may be deployable from the inspection vehicle to a position adjacent the container(s). The detector has at least one sensor for measuring at least one characteristic of the plurality of containers. At least one base station may be provided for communicating with the inspection vehicle(s) and/or detector(s).
US08126594B2
The present invention may provide a method of generating a walking pattern for a humanoid robot. The method of generating the walking pattern for the humanoid includes determining a position of a next Zero Moment Point (ZMP) along a moving direction of the humanoid robot, obtaining a first condition for generating a walking pattern based on the determined ZMP by using a periodic step module, generating trajectories of a ZMP and a Center of Mass (CoM) in an initial step based on the first condition and an initial value obtained from an initial state of the humanoid robot by using a transient step module, generating trajectories of a ZMP and a CoM in a steady step based on the ZMP of two steps by using a steady step module, and generating trajectories of a ZMP and a CoM in a final step by using the transient step module.
US08126590B2
Systems, methods, and devices are described related to the assignment and management of patient-specific bins. A dispensing device at a healthcare facility includes a number of bins for storage of medical supplies, with some of the bins designated as patient-specific bins allocated to be assigned to patients for storage of their medications or certain other supplies. A central server computer system, in communication with a computer of the dispensing device, may monitor and assign current and future patient-specific use of the bins for the dispensing device. The assignment and management of patient-specific bins may be performed by devices distributed through the system.
US08126574B2
The invention provides control systems and methodologies for controlling a process having one or more motorized pumps and associated motor drives, which provide for optimized process performance according to one or more performance criteria, such as efficiency, component life expectancy, safety, emissions, noise, vibration, operational cost, or the like. More particularly, the subject invention provides for employing machine diagnostic and/or prognostic information in connection with optimizing an overall business operation over a time horizon.
US08126567B2
Systems and methods for adjusting a therapy delivered to a patient include detecting a value of at least one sensed patient parameter and adjusting a therapy parameter value to accommodate different patient parameter values. A data structure including a plurality of patient parameter values and associated therapy parameter values may be stored within a medical device or a programming device. Upon detecting a patient parameter value, an associated therapy parameter value from the data structure may be selected. If no therapy parameter value is associated with the detected patient parameter value, an intermediate therapy parameter value may be generated by interpolating between the most recently implemented therapy parameter value and a stored therapy parameter value. In some embodiments, the rate of shifting between parameters of two stored or interpolated therapy parameter values may be based on the rate of change of the patient parameter value over time.
US08126562B2
Systems and methods for neural stimulation may include a stimulus unit; a first electrode assembly having a first set of contacts; and a second set of contacts. The stimulus unit can be an implantable pulse generator including a first terminal that can be biased at a first signal polarity and a second terminal that can be biased at a second signal polarity. The first electrode assembly includes a support member configured to be placed at the stimulation site, the first set of contacts carried by the support member, and a first lead configured to be attached to the first terminal of the implantable pulse generator for biasing the surface contacts at the first polarity. The second set of contacts is detached from the surface electrode assembly. The second set of contacts can be one or more conductive elements fixed to or forming portions of the implantable pulse generator, or a separate electrode array.
US08126560B2
An apparatus includes a flexible lead body extending from a proximal end to a distal end, the distal end having a biased portion having an outer diameter dimensioned to abut a wall of a pulmonary artery, an electrode coupled proximate the distal end, and an implantable pulse generator electrically coupled to the electrode. The implantable pulse generator is adapted to deliver a baroreflex stimulation signal to a baroreceptor in the pulmonary artery via the electrode.
US08126555B2
An active implantable medical device including bidirectional communications between a generator and sensors or actuators located at the distal extremity of a lead. A lead (14) is connected at its proximal end to a generator (10) and has at the distal end electrodes (38, 42) able to come in contact with surrounding tissues. A two-wire connection (34, 36) connects these electrodes to the generator. The lead incorporates transducers (24, 26) of sensor or actuator type. The generator includes circuits for sending and receiving digital data (46,48,50,54,56) capable of producing instructions to one of the transducers and to receive and decode information from one of the transducers in response to a specific instruction produced by the generator. The transducer is able to receive, decode and carry out the aforementioned controls, as well as send data in response.
US08126553B2
Electrical noise may be discriminated from sensed heart signals based on cardiovascular pressure. A plurality of detected cardiovascular pressure values are respectively associated with a plurality of detected tachyarrhythmia events. In some examples, a variance in the cardiovascular pressure, e.g., above a threshold range, may indicate that the detected tachyarrhythmia events are at least partially attributable to electrical noise. In some examples, stimulation therapy to a heart of a patient may be controlled based on the detection of a tachyarrhythmia episode and a variability in the cardiovascular pressure values that are associated with the tachyarrhythmia episode. In other examples, a sensing integrity indication may be generated upon determining that a tachyarrhythmia episode was associated with a variable cardiovascular pressure.
US08126552B2
An exemplary method includes delivering a cardiac pacing therapy that includes an atrio-ventricular delay and an interventricular delay, providing a paced propagation delay associated with delivery of a stimulus to a ventricle, delivering a stimulus to the ventricle, sensing an event in the other ventricle caused by the stimulus, determining an interventricular conduction delay value based on the delivering and the sensing, determining a interventricular delay (ΔSur) based on the interventricular conduction delay and the paced propagation delay and determining an atrio-ventricular delay based at least in part on the interventricular delay (ΔSur). Other exemplary methods, devices, systems, etc., are also disclosed.
US08126551B2
An atrial event and a ventricular event can be received, and an atrioventricular (AV) delay can be provided using information about the atrial and ventricular events. The AV delay can be increased after a first condition is satisfied to allow a heart to regain intrinsic control of ventricular activation, and changed after a second condition is satisfied to allow the heart to remain in intrinsic control of ventricular activation.
US08126548B2
This document discusses, among other things, systems, devices, and methods measure an impedance and, in response, adjust an atrioventricular (AV) delay or other cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) parameter that synchronizes left and right ventricular contractions. A first example uses parameterizes a first ventricular volume against a second ventricular volume during a cardiac cycle, using a loop area to create a synchronization fraction (SF). The CRT parameter is adjusted in closed-loop fashion to increase the SF. A second example measures a septal-freewall phase difference (PD), and adjusts a CRT parameter to decrease the PD. A third example measures a peak-to-peak volume or maximum rate of change in ventricular volume, and adjusts a CRT parameter to increase the peak-to-peak volume or maximum rate of change in the ventricular volume.
US08126547B2
A method and system are disclosed for setting the pacing parameters utilized by an implantable cardiac device in delivering cardiac resynchronization therapy. The system may, in different embodiments, be implemented in programming of the implantable device and an external programmer in communication therewith or in the programming of the implantable device by itself. The selection of the pacing parameters is based at least in part upon measurements of intrinsic cardiac conduction parameters. Among the pacing parameters which may be selected in this way are the atrio-ventricular delay interval used in atrial-tracking and AV sequential pacing modes and the biventricular offset interval.
US08126541B2
In a system having an interface which utilizes electroencephalogram, it is determined whether the user was looking at a menu or not based on the frequency of the user electroencephalogram, and the electroencephalogram is excluded from the subject of distinction in the case where the user is not looking at the menu.A distinction necessity determination apparatus 10 for determining whether or not to perform a distinction of an electroencephalogram signal in an electroencephalogram interface system 1 includes a frequency analysis section 11 for calculating a representative frequency at which frequency power of the electroencephalogram signal becomes maximal, and a determination section 12. Based on a relative quantity between the switching frequency of menu items and the representative frequency of the electroencephalogram signal, the determination section 12 determines whether the representative frequency is related to switching of the menu items or not, and based on the result of determination, outputs to an electroencephalogram interface section 100 an instruction to adjust the distinction method for the electroencephalogram signal to be adopted in the electroencephalogram interface section 100.
US08126537B2
An apparatus for examining a patient is provided. The apparatus includes a top plate, at least one top rail slideably coupled to said top plate, said top plate selectively positionable between a first imaging position and a second imaging position along an examination axis, a support member coupled to said at least one top rail, said support member configured to selectively change a position of said top plate along an axis perpendicular to said examination axis, said support member comprises at least one guide pin slideably coupled to said at least one rail during movement of said support member, said guide pin configured to retain said support member to said at least one top rail when said top rail is moved between a first modality position and a second modality position.
US08126536B2
In a method for determining the pelvic inlet plane of the pelvic bone, which is defined by the following three points of the pelvic bone: point A: spina iliaca anterior superior left point B: spina iliaca anterior superior right point C: symphysis pubis, by non-invasive determination of the position of one of the two points A or B and point C, in order to also be able to carry out this determination whenever point A or point B is not accessible, it is proposed that the position of the following points of the pelvic bone be additionally determined non-invasively: point D: spina iliaca posterior superior left point E: spina iliaca posterior superior right, and that the position of the pelvic inlet plane be calculated from the position of the non-invasively determined points A or B, C, D and E.
US08126531B2
A miniaturized spectrometer is adapted for placement within a body near tissue to be characterized. The spectrometer includes a light source and a plurality of light detectors. The light source generates light to illuminate the tissue. The detectors detect optical signals from the illuminated tissue and convert these optical signals to electrical signals. The miniaturized spectrometer can be disposed at the distal end of an interventional device. Optical conduits, such as fiber optic cables or strands, extending the length of the interventional device are not required when the miniature spectrometer is employed.
US08126528B2
The present disclosure describes a method and an apparatus for analyzing measured signals using various processing techniques. In certain embodiments, the measured signals are physiological signals. In certain embodiments, the measurements relate to blood constituent measurements including blood oxygen saturation.
US08126525B2
The invention relates to a probe and a method for use with a probe, which produces signals indicative of the light absorption of arterial blood at least at a first light wave-length and at a second light wavelength. In order to indicate if the probe is not properly attached to a tissue site the method comprises measuring with at a third wave-length. The third wavelength is chosen so that human tissue is less transparent than at the first and second wavelengths.
US08126520B2
An apparatus with a central housing, a top housing slidably movable relative to the central housing and a bottom housing slidably movable relative to the central housing is provided. The central housing is provided with an area for user input. A first portion of the area for user input is concealed by the top housing when it is in its retracted position and a second portion of the area for user input is concealed by the bottom housing when it is in its retracted position. The first portion of the area for user input is unconcealed when the top housing is in its extended position and the second portion of the area for user input is unconcealed when the bottom housing is in its extended position. The top housing and the optimum housing move in unison between their retracted and extended positions.
US08126519B2
A housing for a computing device is provided that includes a base segment and a frontal segment. The base segment and the frontal segment may be coupled to enable the frontal segment to slide between an extended and contracted position. Additionally, the base segment and the frontal segment may be pivotally engaged to enable the frontal segment to pivot 180 degrees (or thereabouts) when in the extended position, and then to slide from the pivoted position into the contracted position.
US08126518B2
A second communication device is detected in proximity to a first communication device engaged in a call. A substantially uninterrupted transfer of the call is provided from the first communication device to the second communication device. At least a part of the first communication device is placed into a sleep mode in response to transfer of the call to the second communication device.
US08126513B2
In a mobile phone applicable to an information processing apparatus, an illumination sensor detects a state of the mobile phone and generates a detection signal, a main controller determines whether or not the generated detection signal is larger than a predetermined reference value and allocates predetermined functions of operation to operation keys based on a result of determination with reference to a table in which the input units and the functions thereof are caused to previously correspond to each other and stored therein. With this arrangement, the number of operation keys or buttons is reduced without reducing the number of functions to be mounted, and the operability output stage line card group the mobile phone is improved even if the size thereof is reduced.
US08126510B1
A system and method for providing a communication between public safety officials is disclosed. In a system of the invention, a communications network architecture includes a base transceiver station hub where the base transceiver station hub includes public safety network communications equipment and non-public safety network communications equipment. The architecture also includes a plurality of distributed antenna system (DAS) nodes and the base transceiver station hub is operatively coupled to the plurality of DAS nodes. In a method of the present invention, the method includes providing the public safety communication from the base transceiver station hub to one of a plurality of distributed antenna system (DAS) nodes by public safety network communications equipment included in the base transceiver station hub.
US08126505B2
An NFC enabled telecommunications communication device is mounted behind the touch point of a smart poster. The content data downloadable from the smart poster is managed remotely, monitored and usage data of the smart poster analyzed at a server via the telecommunications device.
US08126500B2
A mobile communication apparatus usable for voice communication exchanging a received sound and a spoken sound is provided. The mobile communication apparatus includes a first section, a second section movably connected to the first section in an ordinary mechanical mode or an extra mechanical mode, a detector configured to detect the mechanical mode, a speaker included in the first section and configured to produce the received sound, and a microphone included in the second section and configured to pick up the spoken sound. The mobile communication apparatus includes an echo canceller configured to cancel an echo caused by leakage of the received sound, an AGC circuit configured to produce a gain-controlled signal, and a controller configured to provide the AGC circuit with a first input/output characteristic and a second input/output characteristic in the ordinary mechanical mode and in the extra mechanical mode, respectively.
US08126492B2
The improved vehicle crew communication system provides an increase in the number of wireless headsets that can be used with one base station, an increase range from the vehicle for operation of said headsets, full duplex operation communication over digitally encrypted DECT protocol links from one base station to a plurality of headsets, pairing of each headset to a particular base station, use of wireless technology inside and outside of the vehicle, automatic channel and link selection to transparently avoid interfered-with channels and links, removal of the need to manually select a channel on the headset, and the combination of the noise-cancelling microphone with noise threshold, noise attenuation, and line echo cancellation tuned to intercom parameters.
US08126489B2
In an RF communication system, aspects for diversity processing may comprise processing a plurality of received multipath signals as clusters of signals. The received multipath signals may be diversity signals received from diversity transmit antennas at a base station. Timing information may be generated for tracking the clusters of signals. Complex phase and amplitude information may also be estimated for at least some of the multipath signals in the clusters of signals. At least a portion of the received multipath signals may be combined to form a single path processed diversity signal. A plurality of the single path processed diversity signals may be combined together, where each of the single path processed diversity signals may be derived from one of the plurality of diversity transmit antennas at the base station. The diversity signals may be transmitted via at least one of a plurality of diversity modes.
US08126477B2
Embodiments describe methods, systems, and devices that utilize positional information to determine location of other device and/or to provide a location-based message. A method can include receiving a location information of a mobile device and using an access point to transmit location information to one or more other devices that do not include location functionality that are in communication with the mobile device. The method can further include transmitting a message to the mobile device based at least in part on the received access location information. In another embodiment, the method can include receiving a user preference data from the mobile device or one or more other devices and transmitting a communication to the mobile device or one or more other devices that conforms to the user preference data.
US08126474B2
An apparatus and method thereof include a service support node. The service support node is configured to read an override feature defined therein by an operator indicative of whether a maximum bitrate requested by a mobile station is to be used in a quality of service negotiation or whether the maximum bitrate from a register is to be used in a quality of service negotiation.
US08126472B2
Disclosed is a hybrid wireless communication system and a communication method in the system. The system supports time and frequency division duplexing modes and includes a base station having a cellular communication range based on a cellular mode and mobile stations within the cellular communication range. The base station divides each available frequency resource into frames for communication, and each frame switches between a real-time service mode and a non-real-time service mode at a switching time within the frame. Communication is performed with the mobile stations within the cellular communication range via at least one of an uplink and a downlink in the real-time service mode of each frame according to the frequency division duplexing mode. Communication is performed with the mobile stations via the uplink and the downlink in the non-real-time service mode of each frame according to an ad hoc mode based on the time division duplexing mode.
US08126469B2
Techniques for minimizing call setup latency are disclosed. In one aspect, a channel assignment message is sent with a flag to direct the use of previously negotiated service parameters. This aspect eliminates the need for service negotiation messages. In another aspect, a channel assignment message is sent with an active set identifier instead of an active set and its parameters. This aspect reduces the transmission time of the channel assignment message. In yet another aspect, call setup without paging is facilitated by a mobile station (106) sending a pilot strength measurement message between active communication sessions, such that a channel assignment message can be used for mobile station terminated call setup without the need for mobile station paging and related messages.
US08126462B2
In a wireless network, a mobile station is in a serving radio link with a serving base station. A handover is desired so that the mobile station can establish a target radio link with a target base station. When the handover process is initiated, the target base station is alerted about the impending handover by the serving base station. The target base station allocates a radio resource set and provides information on the radio resource set piggy-backed onto an alert response message to the serving base station. The serving base station relays radio resource set piggy-backed onto either a handover request or response message to the mobile station. The mobile station breaks the serving radio link with the serving base station and establishes the target radio link using the radio resource set.
US08126453B2
A radio frequency testing system and its method of performing a radio frequency test on a plurality of mobile communication devices are provided. The system simultaneously connects mobile communication devices for performing a pre-set procedure and an RF test in sequence. The system has an RF testing device for RF-testing the mobile communication devices in turn, a switch device for regulating an electrical connection between the RF testing device and any mobile communication device, and a controlling device for performing the pre-set procedure on some of the rest mobile communication devices before the one is finished performing the RF test.
US08126449B2
Enabling remote customer service and maintenance using a visual identifier is disclosed. In response to a user enrolling in a service capability associated with a mobile device, the process utilizes a visual identifier to associate the service capability with the customer account, the service and the mobile device. The system allocates a visual identifier for each service capability and enables customer service agents to identify the service capability and mobile device, verify the user and retrieve information for the service interaction.
US08126448B2
Embodiments of methods are provided for transferring a user identity from one wireless communication device to another in a wireless communication system having a network system controller. A first device sends a deactivation request to the network controller, which includes information identifying the first device and a second device. The second device sends an activation request to the network system controller, which includes the information identifying the second device. The first device also sends repertoire information to the second device via the network system controller. The repertoire information is associated with the first device, and is selected from a group consisting of personal phone books, stored messages, stored recent call logs, and calendar information.
US08126446B2
A method and apparatus for provisioning a third party mobile device emulator from desktop provisioning software, the method having the steps of: designating a common file space between the third party mobile device emulator and the desktop provisioning software; writing files to the common file space from one of the third party mobile device emulator and the desktop provisioning software; and reading the files from the other of the third party mobile device emulator and the desktop provisioning software.
US08126443B2
Techniques are provided for notification regarding communications. An incoming communication for a user of a primary device is received. An auxiliary device is provided for the primary device. Filter criteria for the auxiliary device is provided. A determination is made as to whether information regarding the incoming communication is sent to the auxiliary device in accordance with the filter criteria.
US08126427B2
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method, in a billing system, of supplying information to a communication device, comprising, in response to receiving a request, over a first network, to authorize a communication with the communication device: obtaining information relevant to the communication; and providing the obtained information to the communication device via a second network.
US08126426B2
A method and system for assessing a value of a first application with respect to a use of a mobile communication device in communication with a second communication device are presented. The method entails assigning a set of proximity values that relate the use of the application to the communication between the mobile communication device and the second communication device, and determining an impact and a value based on the proximity values. The proximity values may include a relationship proximity value, a time proximity value, a geographical proximity value, an action proximity value, and one or more user-defined proximity values. The determined value may be expressed as a monetary value.
US08126418B2
A wireless telemetry module and associated method reject interference in a received signal. The wireless telemetry module includes an antenna receives a communication signal transmitted at a desired channel frequency and having a channel bandwidth. A transceiver is controlled to operate in receiving and transmitting modes by a processor. An interference rejection module receives control signals from the processor corresponding to the desired channel frequency and is coupled between the antenna and the transceiver when the transceiver is operating in the receiving mode.
US08126407B2
A transmitter circuit. One embodiment provides for emitting electromagnetic waves. The circuit has a transmitting device for outputting a transmission signal, an antenna device for emitting the transmission signal in the form of an electromagnetic wave, and a matching device which is electrically connected to the transmitting device and to the antenna device. The matching device includes at least two tuning elements for setting the resonant frequency of a circuit arrangement, formed from the antenna device and the first and second tuning elements, and for matching the impedance of the transmitting device and the antenna device.
US08126403B2
A cellular radio communication system includes a first serving cell and a second non-serving cell. A mobile radio is currently served by a first base station in the first cell. An uplink radio transmission from the mobile radio will cause or causes inter-cell interference in the second non-serving cell. Accordingly, an estimate is made of the inter-cell interference in the second non-serving cell associated with the mobile radio's uplink transmission. If the estimated inter-cell interference in the second non-serving cell exceeds a predetermined threshold, then control is performed so that the inter-cell interference in the second non-serving cell is limited, e.g., by managing radio resources so that the estimated inter-cell interference in the second non-serving cell is or becomes less than the predetermined threshold.
US08126395B2
A method for a user to establish a wireless connection between a wireless portable computing device and a wireless-equipped device in an industrial or electrical power or distribution plant. Actions of the method are carried out by a second computer program that provides information in a graphical user interface display to a user and opens a wireless connection with a selected industrial device. In other aspects a human-machine interface and a system are also described.
US08126394B2
A technique applicable to a telecommunications system is disclosed that provides quality-related information in a receive path, in which the information serves as feedback about the call quality that is present in the corresponding transmit path. It is recognized that when a first party on a call hears degradation, he tends to change the way that he speaks or reacts to a second party. Based upon this recognition, the present invention addresses the problem of one-way degradation by providing a feedback signal to the first party, in the form of intentional degradation of the voice signals that he is receiving from the second party. The degradation that is introduced by the disclosed data-processing system is based on the current quality of the voice path from the first party to the second party (i.e., the transmit path), instead of the other way around (i.e., the receive path).
US08126393B2
A gain adjustment apparatus, a gain adjustment method, and a tangible machine-readable medium thereof for a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless communication system are provided. The MIMO wireless communication system comprises source antennas, destination antennas, relay stations (RSs) and a relay transmission power limit value. The gain adjustment method comprises the following steps: adjusting the gain of one single RS according to a gain calculation; multiplying the gains of other relay stations by a scaling value for adjustment. According to aforesaid method, the present invention can increase the system capacity of the MIMO wireless communication system.
US08126390B2
An information processing terminal system includes an information processing terminal (6); and a transmitting and receiving unit (5) which is attached to the information processing terminal. The transmitting and receiving unit (5) converts a reception wave signal from a network into a reception analog baseband signal. The transmitting and receiving unit (5) converts the reception analog baseband signal into a reception digital baseband signal in synchronization with a clock. The information processing terminal (6) converts the reception digital baseband signal into a reception data in synchronization with a clock, and a transmission data into a transmission digital baseband signal in synchronization with the clock. The transmitting and receiving unit (5) converts the transmission digital baseband signal into a transmission analog baseband signal in synchronization with the clock. The transmitting and receiving unit (5) converts the transmission analog baseband signal into a transmission modulation wave signal to output to the network.
US08126389B2
An apparatus operable to disable operation of wireless communications devices, for use within a vehicle, includes a drive circuit coupled to at least one active antenna element to produce interference within at least one wireless communications band of frequencies in response to the wireless communications device transmitting at a transmission power above a defined power threshold for a defined amount of time. The interference may take the form of a bare carrier wave, or may take the form of noise, and is transmitted at sufficient power to interfere with communication between the wireless communications device and a destination device.
US08126373B2
A toner supply device includes a toner container, a transport-path forming member, an opening, a shutter member, and a first seal member. The opening is provided at a side wall of the transport-path forming member. The shutter member is movable between a closed position to close the transport path by being inserted in the opening and an open position. The first seal member fills a gap between an inner wall of the opening and the shutter member in a toner transport direction in which the toner is transported through the transport path. When the shutter member is inserted in the opening, the shutter member is elastically deformable in a deformation direction perpendicular to both the toner transport direction and a moving direction of the shutter member, and when the shutter member is not inserted in the opening, the shutter member is wider than the opening in the deformation direction.
US08126371B2
A developing device includes: a developing vessel for storing a developer D containing a toner and a magnetic carrier; a first conveying passage for conveying the developer; a first conveying member provided in the first conveying passage for agitating and conveying the developer in a predetermined direction; a developing roller; a toner supply port for supplying toner to the first conveying passage; and an electromagnet arranged at the outer periphery of the toner supply port, and is constructed such that the toner supply port is formed over the first conveying member and the electromagnet intermittently attracts the developer residing under the toner supply port.
US08126367B2
An apparatus (100) useful in charging a photoconductor in printing is disclosed. The apparatus can include a scorotron insulator (200) having a longitudinal axis, where the scorotron insulator can have a first insulator end at one end of the longitudinal axis and a second insulator end at an opposite end of the longitudinal axis. The scorotron insulator can include at least one first spring integrated into the scorotron insulator at an insulator end and at least one second spring integrated into the scorotron insulator at an insulator end. The apparatus can include a scorotron charging grid (300) coupled to the at least one first spring at an insulator end of the scorotron insulator and coupled to another insulator end of the scorotron insulator, where the scorotron charging grid can include an electrical connector. The apparatus can include a scorotron charge member (400) including a first scorotron charge member end coupled to the second spring at an insulator end of the scorotron insulator and the scorotron charge member including a second scorotron charge member end coupled to another insulator end of the scorotron insulator. The scorotron charge member can be configured to generate an electric field.
US08126363B2
A belt feed apparatus, includes: an endless belt member; a belt back surface member including a close portion disposed close to the endless belt member to such a degree that, when the endless belt member stands stationary, the close portion is prevented from touching the endless belt member, and while the endless belt member is circulating, the close portion can be contacted with the endless belt member irregularly; and a non-sticking portion that includes a non-sucking surface contactable with the endless belt member to prevent the endless belt member from being electrostatically sucked to the close portion, the non-sucking surface being provided in an entire portion or part of a surface of the close portion opposed to the endless belt member, and due to the existence of the non-sucking surface, the non-sticking portion being able to prevent the endless belt member from sticking to the close portion.
US08126360B2
There is provided a temperature control unit for an electrophotographic photoconductor substrate, containing a stretchable membrane member which is detachably disposed in a hollow space of the cylindrical substrate, wherein the membrane member is configured to sequentially stretch until reaching the deepest part of the hollow space of the cylindrical substrate as a result of an introduction of a refrigerant therein to closely contact with an entire inner wall of the cylindrical substrate, and to sequentially shrink to the original shape thereof as a result of a release of the refrigerant therefrom, so that the membrane member is detachably disposed in the hollow space, and wherein the membrane member is configured to make a heat transfer between a surface of the cylindrical substrate and the refrigerant via the membrane member closely contacted with the inner surface of the cylindrical substrate, to control a surface temperature of the cylindrical substrate.
US08126341B2
An image forming apparatus includes a counting unit that, when a driving unit for rotating an image carrier is operating, adds a predetermined first count value to a total count value in a predetermined timing and that, when the driving unit is being stopped, subtracts a predetermined second count value from the total count value in every predetermined timing; and a suspending unit that suspends printing when the total count value becomes equal to or larger than a preset suspend value.
US08126337B2
Optical communication apparatus, methods, systems are provided based on balanced-detection phase-shaped binary transmission (BD-PSBT).
US08126336B2
An optical repeater connected to an optical transmission line between an optical network unit having an ONU function on the side of a subscriber and an optical line termination (OLT) on the side of a center includes first electrical/optical conversion means connected to a first optical transmission line on the side of the center, a second electrical/optical conversion means connected to a second optical transmission line on the side of the subscriber, and transmission means connected between the first electrical/optical conversion means and the second electrical/optical conversion means to transmit an optical repeater supervisory signal between the optical transmission lines.
US08126335B2
Methods and apparatuses for controlling transmission of converged data packets and for media access through a single next generation access (NGA) passive optical network (PON) which can coexist with EPON and GPON based systems and can interoperate with a 10 GEPON. A converged data packet is transmitted between a first node and a second node of the NGA network under NGA management control. The converged packet has a format which unifies a GEM header with the 10 GEPON preamble header and certain fields replaced in a EPON packet format to accommodate information corresponding to the preamble elements of a GEM packet. The converged data can be encoded in the line code of the 10 GEPON protocol, allowing use of a control protocol based either on MPCP or GTC for the NGA. Node apparatuses include NGA elements which enable preparation, encoding/decoding and transmission of converged packets.
US08126331B2
The power level of a wavelength division multiplexed optical signal is detected by a detection unit. When the power level of the optical signal detected by the detection unit is equal to or lower than a first threshold, the coupling direction of an attenuation unit for controlling the coupling direction for the ports of the optical signal is controlled in the direction orthogonal to the array direction of the ports. When the power level of the optical signal exceeds a second threshold, the coupling direction of the attenuation unit is controlled in the array direction of the ports.
US08126330B2
A system and method for dynamically adding/dropping wavelengths in a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) transport network to form a wave division multiplexing virtual private network is disclosed. The system includes at least one optical transponder, a plurality of optical fan-out devices, each arranged to receive an input signal from a network degree and coupled to at least one of a plurality of optical fan-in devices, each optical fan-in device arranged to output a signal to a network degree, the optical fan-out devices comprising at least one wavelength selective switch and the optical fan-in devices comprising at least one wavelength selective switch, the optical fan-out devices and optical fan-in devices being connected so as to enable signals input from each of the plurality of network degrees to be switched to another network degree of the plurality of network degrees; a plurality of demultiplexers for locally dropping selected wavelengths; a plurality of multiplexers for locally adding selected wavelengths; and at least one customer-dedicated fiber switch interposed between the at least one optical transponder and the plurality of demultiplexers and multiplexers. The fiber switch is coupled to wavelengths and degrees that are allocated for a bandwidth-on-demand application. Other configurations include additional fan-in and fan-out devices interposed between a mux/demux assembly and the optical transponders to support wavelength redistribution applications.
US08126323B2
An external mask-based radiance camera may be based on an external, non-refractive mask located in front of the main camera lens. The mask modulates, but does not refract, light. The camera multiplexes radiance in the frequency domain by optically mixing different spatial and angular frequency components of light. The mask may, for example, be a mesh of opaque linear elements, which collectively form a grid, an opaque medium with transparent openings, such as circles, or a pinhole mask. Other types of masks may be used. Light may be modulated by the mask and received at the main lens of a camera. The main lens may be focused on a plane between the mask and the main lens. The received light is refracted by the main lens onto a photosensor of the camera. The photosensor may capture the received light to generate a radiance image of the scene.
US08126321B2
Imaging equipment includes: a position acquisition unit that acquires a current position; a memory unit in which a plurality of pieces of setting information representing photographic settings suitable for photography at positions and being associated in advance with the positions is stored; a control unit that reads setting information, which represents a photographic setting suitable for photography at the current position acquired by the position acquisition unit, from the memory unit, and determines a photographic setting according to the setting information; and an imaging unit that images a subject according to the photographic setting determined by the control unit.
US08126309B2
A video playback apparatus includes a data-storage unit storing video data and a first video-time stamp, an information-storage unit storing first-associated information and a first-associated-time stamp, a unit acquiring plural playback-video data and plural second-video-time stamps of the plural playback-video data from the data-storage unit, and acquiring second-associated information of the playback-video data and a second-associated-time stamp of the second-associated information from the information-storage unit, a unit measuring information amounts of the playback-video data of the second-video-time stamps to obtain a smallest information amount of the information amounts, a unit detecting a time-stamp section corresponding to the smallest information amount, a unit changing the second-associated-time stamp to generate a changed time stamp, the second-associated information being presented in the time-stamp section by the changed time stamp, and a unit presenting the second-associated information together with the playback-video data based on the changed time stamp.
US08126308B2
A video signal processing apparatus capable of flexibly handling metadata having various notation formats is provided. The video signal processing apparatus has metadata notation format identification block for identifying a metadata notation format written in a predetermined language; a conversion table selection block for selecting a conversion table corresponding to the identified metadata notation format from among one or more conversion tables prepared in advance; a metadata notation format conversion block for converting the metadata notation format into a notation format compatible with the video signal processing apparatus on the basis of the selected conversion table; and a metadata application processing block for controlling the processing associated with video signals on the basis of the metadata whose notation format has been converted.
US08126306B2
A two-dimensional photonic crystal according to the present invention includes a first layer having a dielectric first layer slab in which first layer holes having a refractive index lower than that of the first layer slab are arranged cyclically, a second layer formed on the first layer, including dielectric columns having a refractive index higher than the air arranged in the air with the same cycle as the first layer hole, and a third layer having a dielectric third layer slab in which third layer holes having a refractive index lower than that of the third layer slab are arranged cyclically. Thus, it is possible to obtain the two-dimensional photonic crystal that can create a wider complete PBG than before regardless of the polarization of light and can be manufactured easily.
US08126303B2
A low cost, high performance, low profile flexible reinforcement member that can be used for both optical and copper communications cable. The reinforcement members made according to the preferred process are more rigid than known reinforcement members, but are less rigid than glass pultruded rods. Communications cables utilizing these members are lightweight and exhibit an improved combination of strength and flexibility compared to traditional communications cables. Further, these communication cables may then be installed into underground ducts using more economical and faster installation techniques.
US08126302B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for shaping an annular focal spot pattern to allow for more efficient optical coupling to a small gauge optical fiber. An embodiment of the present invention can include an illumination source operable to transmit an optical beam along an optical path, an optical fiber, and a correcting element positioned in the optical path between the illumination source and the optical fiber, the correcting element configured to reshape the optical beam to increase an amount of light received by the optical fiber.
US08126298B2
A transmission device is provided. The transmission device is operable to transmit data between a rotor and a stator. The transmission device includes at least two pairs of transmission units with one transmission unit embodied as a transmitter and one as a receiver.
US08126295B2
An image processing apparatus and an image processing method that reduce data transmission time by transmitting data between internal memories of a codec without passing through a system memory. Reducing the number of accesses to the system memory increases processing speed, and reduces the load of a main processor, when image data is to be encoded or decoded. The apparatus includes: an image processor processing sensing data input from various sensors and generating image data; a first codec encoding or decoding the image data using a first encoding method and generating encoded data or decoded data; a second codec encoding or decoding the image data using a second encoding method and generating encoded data or decoded data; a system memory storing the image data, the encoded data, and the decoded data; a main processor controlling the other components; and a router through which the image data is transmitted to the first codec or the second codec to encode the data, or through which the encoded data is transmitted between the first codec and the second codec.
US08126291B2
A method for registering digitized images using Markov Random Fields (MRFs) includes providing a source image f and a target image g, defining a deformation grid of control points, defining a coordinate transformation as T ( x ) = x + ∑ p ∈ G η ( x - p ) d u p , where x is a point on the source image, p is a position vector of control point p, dp is a displacement vector for each control point, up is a label for point p associated with displacement dp, and η( ) is a weighting function for the displacement vector, defining an MRF energy functional to be minimized by T as E t = 1 G ∑ p ∈ G V p t ( u p ) + 1 E ∑ p , q ∈ E V pq ( u p , u q ) , wherein |G| is a number of control points, |E| is a number of pairs of neighboring control points on a neighborhood system, t is an iteration counter, and associating the MRF with a primary linear program and solving the primary linear program using a fast primal-dual algorithm to yield a coordinate transformation that minimizes the energy functional.
US08126288B2
An image processing apparatus includes a storing section which stores data of a digital image, a rotation processing section which generates a plurality of rotated digital images having different rotation angles from the digital image, an image processing section which generates a plurality of image-processed digital images from the rotated digital images, a reverse processing section which generates a plurality of reversed digital images from the image-processed digital images, and a combining section which combines the reversed digital images into one digital image.
US08126277B2
A correlation evaluation unit evaluates a correction between a predetermined region in a targeted picture and a region corresponding to the region in a picture differing from the targeted picture in a temporal direction. A quantization control unit adaptively controls quantization processing for the predetermined region in the targeted picture, according to an evaluation obtained by the correlation evaluation unit. For example, when it is determined by an evaluation value obtained by the correlation evaluation unit that the correlation is weaker than a predetermined threshold value, the quantization control unit enlarges a quantization step used for quantization of the predetermined region.
US08126274B2
Systems and methods for visual language modeling for image classification are described. In one aspect the systems and methods model training images corresponding to multiple image categories as matrices of visual words. Visual language models are generated from the matrices. In view of a given image, for example, provided by a user or from the Web, the systems and methods determine an image category corresponding to the given image. This image categorization is accomplished by maximizing the posterior probability of visual words associated with the given image over the visual language models. The image category, or a result corresponding to the image category, is presented to the user.
US08126269B2
A method for segregating a figure region from a background region in image sequences from dynamic visual scenes, comprising the steps of: (a) acquiring an image; (b) determining local motion estimations and confidences for each position of the image; (c) modifying a level-set function by moving and distorting the level-set function with the local motion estimations and smearing it based on the local motion confidences, to generate a predicted level set function that is geometrically in correspondence with the image and diffused at positions where the confidence of the motion estimation is low; (d) obtaining input features of the image by using a series of cues; (e) calculating a mask segregating the figure region from the background region of the image using the modified level-set function and the obtained input features; (f) extracting the figure region from the image; and repeating steps (a)-(f) until a termination criterion is satisfied.
US08126268B2
A method of image processing, includes receiving at least one video frame of a video sequence, the at least one video frame including at least one foreground subject and a background, and processing the at least one video frame so as to separate the at least one foreground subject from the background. The processing includes: generating a pixel mask indicating whether a pixel of the at least one video frame belongs to the foreground subject or to the background, applying morphological closing to the pixel mask, wherein the applying morphological closing includes, for each pixel of the pixel mask, conditioning a pixel value in the mask to values of neighboring pixels. The conditioning includes: determining at least edges of the at least one foreground subject in the at least one video frame; and, for the generic pixel under processing, determining the neighboring pixels based on the determined edges.
US08126267B2
Computer-implemented image processing methods and apparatuses are presented for automatically selecting regions of interest within an image represented by pixel intensity values. A first pixel box is employed in progressively scanning and evaluating the image. If pixels within the first pixel box have pixel-intensity-related characteristics exceeding respective defined thresholds, then those pixels are identified as an area of interest and a second pixel box is employed in progressively scanning and evaluating the selected area of interest to identify regions of interest. Each area of interest is larger than a region of interest, and the second pixel box is smaller than the first. Regions of interest within the image are identified if one or more pixel-intensity-related characteristics of pixels within the second pixel box exceeds a second defined threshold, wherein the second threshold is greater than the first. Once selected, identifying information for the regions of interest is stored or output.
US08126266B2
Provided is a video signal processing method of measuring a noise level of an input video signal, the method including the steps of: setting a plurality of areas in the input video signal and extracting a characteristic amount which is an index of the noise level of the input video signal for each area; detecting characteristic amounts suitable to a measurement of the noise level from among the characteristic amounts of the plurality of areas; and creating a histogram by using the detected characteristic amounts suitable to the measurement of the noise level and detecting the noise level by analyzing the histogram.
US08126261B2
A 3D face reconstruction technique using 2D images, such as photographs of a face, is described. Prior face knowledge or a generic face is used to extract sparse 3D information from the images and to identify image pairs. Bundle adjustment is carried out to determine more accurate 3D camera positions, image pairs are rectified, and dense 3D face information is extracted without using the prior face knowledge. Outliers are removed, e.g., by using tensor voting. A 3D surface is extracted from the dense 3D information and surface detail is extracted from the images.
US08126257B2
A pattern shape evaluation method includes acquiring an image of an evaluation target pattern including a plurality of element patterns; detecting edge of the evaluation target pattern from the image; classifying the detected edge of the evaluation target pattern into a plurality of evaluation target pattern edge groups; acquiring edge of a reference pattern serving as an evaluation standard for the element patterns; classifying the edge of the reference pattern into a plurality of reference pattern edge groups; selecting a reference pattern edge group to be aligned with the edge of the evaluation target pattern from the classified reference pattern edge groups; aligning the edge of the selected reference pattern edge group with the edge of the evaluation target pattern; and evaluating the shape of the evaluation target pattern by use of the result of the alignment.
US08126256B2
An analysis device for analyzing a signal characteristic with the use of a mask. The analysis device includes a buffer device for the provision of a signal-image address of a signal-image point of a signal image and for the provision of a mask-image address of a mask-image point of a mask image and a comparison device for the comparison of the signal-image address and the mask-image address.
US08126239B2
A fluoroscopy image is registered with data representing a volume, identifying a catheter position relative to a volume represented by preoperative volume data. The catheter position relative to a patient volume represented by data acquired without scanning the catheter is displayed. For example, a 2D fluoroscopy image is registered with respect to coordinates of a 3D preoperative CT or MRI volume by registering the fluoroscopy image and the preoperative volume to 3D ultrasound coordinates.
US08126236B2
Method for three-dimensional representation of arteries and/or veins in an object by a tomography x-ray device is proposed. A mask pass with N projections at N angular positions without contrast agent is implemented. A first filler pass with M projections at M angular positions after injecting a contrast agent, where M
US08126233B2
The present invention is embodied in an image reconstruction method for analyzing unordered microwell plates, including acquiring a digital image of a microwell plate showing unordered visible compound concentration effects, creating a dispensing log listing the dispensing log information for an unordered microwell plate, establishing one or more rules to govern the reorganization of the unordered visible digital image, creating a reordered log with well input locations reordered by test compound identity and quantity levels dispensed order corresponding reordered log well output locations, assigning ordered output locations to reordered input compound and concentration levels order and copying test well digital image pixels from well input locations to reordered output locations in a reconstructed digital image for visualization of visible compound effects in the microwell plates in ordered compound concentrations.
US08126229B2
A system for automatically detecting pulmonary emboli from medical image data includes receiving image data, automatically detecting one or more pulmonary embolism candidates from the image data, segmenting an airway tract from the image data, segmenting an artery structure from the image data, calculating a distance between each of the candidates and a nearest portion of the segmented airway, determining whether each of the candidates is within or outside of the segmented artery structure, rejecting candidates based on the calculated distance between each of the candidates and the nearest portion of the segmented airway and the determination as to whether each of the candidates is within or outside of the segmented artery structure, and indicating the location of the non-rejected candidates within the image data.
US08126218B2
A digital image acquisition device is for acquiring digital images including one or more preview images. A face detector analyzes the one or more preview images to ascertain information relating to candidate face regions therein. A speed-optimized filter produces a first set of candidate red-eye regions based on the candidate face region information provided by the face detector.
US08126210B2
A vehicle periphery monitoring device is provided with an image processing target area setting portion for setting an image processing target area (61) that may include an image portion of an monitoring object in a captured image (Im2) on the basis of a distance between an object and a vehicle; a feature region extracting portion for extracting a feature region with a feature amount of a head of a pedestrian in a search area (64) based on the image processing target area (61); an image processing target area correcting portion for correcting a range of the image processing target area from (61) to (62) on the basis of the position of a feature region (60a), and an object type discriminating portion for discriminating a type of real space monitoring object corresponding to the image portion included in the corrected image processing target area (62).
US08126209B2
In a road image analyzing apparatus capable of obviously and rapidly distinguishing a road marking from a guardrail and capable of obtaining precise position information, a pre-processing unit defines sub-areas to main image data obtained by an image pickup unit, and an edge extracting unit extracts an edge component in each of the sub-areas. A linear line extracting unit analyzes the extracted edge component to extract a linear component, and a linear component analyzing unit extracts a continuous component from the linear component by using the linear component. A matching process unit performs a matching process between a vertex of the continuous component and auxiliary image data to obtain three-dimensional position information of each continuous component. An identifying unit identifies whether the continuous component is a road marking or a guardrail on the basis of height information of each continuous component included in the three-dimensional position information.
US08126207B2
A subject tracking method, includes: calculating a similarity factor indicating a level of similarity between an image contained in a search frame at each search frame position and a template image by shifting the search frame within a search target area set in each of individual frames of input images input in time sequence; determining a position of the search frame for which a highest similarity factor value has been calculated, within each input image to be a position (subject position) at which a subject is present; tracking the subject position thus determined through the individual frames of input images; calculating a difference between a highest similarity factor value and a second highest similarity factor value; and setting the search target area for a next frame based upon the calculated difference.
US08126203B2
Directional albedo of a particular article, such as an identity card, is measured and stored. When the article is later presented, it can be confirmed to be the same particular article by re-measuring the albedo function, and checking for correspondence against the earlier-stored data. The re-measuring can be performed through use of a handheld optical device, such as a camera-equipped cell phone. The albedo function can serve as random key data in a variety of cryptographic applications. The function can be changed during the life of the article. A variety of other features are also detailed.
US08126197B2
A method for assessing the image quality of image data acquires image data, segments the image data into at least one spatial region, obtains a plurality of image quality measures for the at least one spatial region, and forms at least one quality vector that has two or more quality measures for the at least one spatial region. The at least one quality vector is classified into one of a plurality of predefined quality classes.
US08126182B2
This invention discloses a sound effect system and a wireless audio output device. An audio is produced by the sound effect system which is applied in a portable electronic apparatus, and a trough is disposed in the portable electronic apparatus. The system comprises a plurality of audio output devices and at least one wireless audio output device wherein the audio output devices disposed to the portable electronic apparatus are used to receive an audio signal of the portable electrical apparatus to output the audio. The wireless audio output device can be taken out from the trough when the portable electronic apparatus is in use and, a wireless communication protocol is used to receive a wireless audio signal sent from the portable electronic apparatus. When the wireless audio output device is not in use, the device can be contained into the trough to electrically connect the portable electrical apparatus. The power of the device can be recharged by the portable electronic apparatus.
US08126172B2
A spatial processing stereo system (“SPSS”) that receives audio signals and a limited number of user input parameters associated with the spatial attributes of a room, such as “room size”, “stage distance”, and “stage width”. The input parameters are used to define a listening room and generate coefficients, room impulse responses, and scaling factors that are used generate additional surround signals.
US08126170B2
Methods and apparatus for improving the acoustical performance associated with a speaker, such as a piezoelectric speaker, are disclosed. According to one aspect, an apparatus includes a substrate, a can mounted on the substrate, and a piezoelectric speaker arrangement. The piezoelectric speaker arrangement is at least partially mounted on the can. In one embodiment, the substrate is a printed circuit board (PCB) and the can is an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding can.
US08126163B2
A system that includes a direct digital speaker volume control device configured to be coupled to a direct digital speaker. The direct digital speaker includes many pressure producing elements being adapted to generate a sound at a sound pressure level (SPL) and at a given frequency in response to an input signal, without using digital to analog converter. The direct digital speaker inherently exhibits a frequency response throughout its entire frequency range. The direct digital speaker volume control device includes a module for providing few filters each having a distinct cutoff frequency such that each filter exhibits no attenuation below its cutoff frequency and an attenuation response above the filter's cutoff frequency. And a selector for selecting one of the filters according to a selection criterion that depends on a desired volume and frequency of generated sound, and applying the filter to the input signal for generating a filtered signal that fed to the speaker.
US08126162B2
An audio signal interpolation apparatus is configured to perform interpolation processing on the basis of audio signals preceding and/or following a predetermined segment on a time axis so as to obtain an audio signal corresponding to the predetermined segment. The audio signal interpolation apparatus includes a waveform formation unit configured to form a waveform for the predetermined segment on the basis of time-domain samples of the preceding and/or the following audio signals and a power control unit configured to control power of the waveform for the predetermined segment formed by the waveform formation unit using a non-linear model selected on the basis of the preceding audio signal when the power of the preceding audio signal is larger than that of the following audio signal, or the following audio signal when the power of the preceding audio signal is smaller than that of the following audio signal.
US08126153B2
A binaural supply with a hearing system is to be enabled, whereby the computing outlay and energy consumption are to be kept as minimal as possible. A hearing system comprising a first hearing apparatus including a first signal input facility and a first communication facility and a second hearing apparatus including a second signal input facility, a second communication facility for receiving a signal from the first communication facility and a second signal processing facility for processing signals from the second signal input facility and the second communication facility are provided to form a common output signal. The signal transmitted from the first to the second communication facility corresponds to a real spectral part of the overall frequency spectrum of the first input signal. As only one part of the overall spectrum is transmitted and/or binaurally processed, the computing outlay and energy consumption is reduced.
US08126150B2
Spread of a forged storage medium is prevented suppressing an authentic storage medium's damage and trouble of a owner to the minimum. When there is an update request of user key data, the update history of the user key data concerning the shown above-mentioned medium identifier IDm is referred to. When judged that the update of the user key data concerning the shown medium identifier IDm not being performed within a predetermined period, the update of user key data is performed. The request of a update is refused when judged that the update of the user key data concerning the shown medium identifier IDm being performed within a predetermined period.
US08126145B1
The invention relates to a method for associating a client with an access point using a security protocol. The method may include initiating a handshake and exchanging operational information between the access point and the client, establishing an encrypted operational key if the operational information is validated and entering an operational phase using the operational key and an unique service set identifier if valid.
US08126131B2
A communication network and method are disclosed that block calls from a calling party based on the network access type of a called party. The communication network of the invention includes a permission system, an access system, and a call control system. Based on a call from a calling party to a called party, the permission system identifies permissions associated with the calling party. The access system identifies a network access type for the called party, such as wireless, circuit-based, etc. The call control element determines if the network access type for the called party is permitted by the calling party based on the permissions associated with the calling party. If the network access type for the called party is not permitted by the calling party, then the call control system releases the call.
US08126130B1
System and method for coupling an IM session with a PBX call session are described. One embodiment is a multimedia session manager system comprising a first controller for controlling telephony services to a plurality of terminals; and a second controller for controlling IM services to a plurality of user communications devices; and wherein, responsive to application of a private branch exchange (“PBX”) service to a telephony call, the second controller automatically applies a corresponding IM service to an IM session associated with the telephony call.
US08126126B2
A method is provided for providing customized ring-back tones to callers on a wireline network such as a public switched telephone network having an advanced intelligent network or a VoIP network. When a call request is received from a calling party to connect to a called party through a wireline telephone network it is determined if the calling party is identified in a screening list for the called party. If so, then a customized audible ring-back tone is played to the calling party until the called party is connected to the calling party or until the call request is terminated.
US08126123B2
This invention relates to apparatus and a method for assembling and coordinating call data records from a plurality of network elements of an Internet Protocol Multimedia System call to generate charging information. A pre-biller stores an integrated charging record and accesses a rating engine to obtain the charging information to complete a charging data record. Advantageously, the information from a plurality of network elements is integrated into a combined charging data record.
US08126119B2
A pair of holding plates formed with a plurality of grooves each wider than the thickness of each collimator plate are disposed in parallel so that the respective surfaces formed with the grooves confront each other. Urging members are disposed on the holding members. When the urging members slide in the arranged direction of the grooves along the grooves-formed surfaces of the holding members, the urging members urge individual collimator plates inserted in the grooves toward side walls of the grooves. The collimator plates are inserted into the grooves, then the urging members are slid and held in that slide position to urge individual collimator plates into close contact with side walls of the grooves.
US08126110B2
In an X-ray CT scanner having an X-ray tube which applies an X-ray spreading in a body axis direction of a subject, and an X-ray detector having a wide imaging range which detects the X-ray passed through the subject and converts the detected X-ray into an electric signal, a desired image creation time is set by use of a specific CT value curve in a console input unit before scanning with the X-ray. After the scanning, data of the CT value change curve is generated based on the obtained projection data. An image creation range in the generated change curve is determined based on an image creation range set in the console input unit, and the image creation is performed in the image creation unit based on the determined image creation time.
US08126109B2
An index-value detecting unit detects an index value that indicates a contrast medium density in a Region Of Interest (ROI) set on an image reconstructed during a scan. A switch-timing detecting unit detects an inflection point appearing on a curve that indicates temporal variations in the contrast medium density in the ROI, based on an index value detected by the index-value detecting unit. An imaging control unit then performs control so as to skip the rest of a scanning plan in execution and to start the next scanning plan when the switch-timing detecting unit detects an inflection point.
US08126101B2
A communications device comprises a receiver for receiving an input signal operably coupled to analogue to digital converter logic. The analogue to digital converter logic is operably coupled to control logic via a signal analyzer arranged to analyze a converted received input signal, output from the analogue to digital converter logic to determine at least one characteristic of the received signal. The control logic is arranged to vary a dynamic range of the analogue to digital converter logic depending on the at least one determined characteristic of the received input signal.
US08126100B2
Communication protocol methods for performing signal synchronization, data transmission, and data acknowledgement between a transmitting device and a receiving device are provided. The methods are characterized by a plurality of transmission lines which are used for performing signal synchronization, data transmission, and data acknowledgement by the communication protocol methods.
US08126091B2
A method is provided that contemplates including filtered decode values in an RDS/RBDS output signal. The filtered decode values are generated from reliable values. The reliable values are generated from corresponding received values from each of at least two groups of RDS/RBDS data in an RDS/RBDS input signal. The method also comprises preventing an error correction code (ECC) unit from modifying the filtered decode values in the RDS/RBDS output signal.
US08126078B2
A method and apparatus are disclosed for reducing noise, such as external noise, cross-talk and echo, in an unbalanced channel. A cross-talk canceller is disclosed that uses a multi-dimensional finite impulse response filter to process both the differential, d, and common-mode, c, components of a received signal. Recovery of the differential mode component of the received signal is improved by reducing the contribution of the common mode component. The common mode component of a received signal may be expressed, for example, as the average of two voltages or two current signals. The differential and common mode components of the received signal are equalized. The disclosed multi-dimensional cross-talk canceller reduces external noise; near-end crosstalk resulting from differential and common mode components on one twisted pair interfering with another twisted pair; and echo crosstalk resulting from differential and common mode cross-talk components on the same twisted pair.
US08126075B2
A system and method for encoding data for transmission over a telecommunications network. The system and method involve embedding a control data block (Ik0) within a plurality of real data blocks (IN0). Preferably, real data in the real data blocks (INO) is convoluted with at least some of the control data in the control data block (Ik0) For example, each entry in each real data block (INO) may be phase convoluted with phase angle of the corresponding entry in the control block using an encoding module. Once this is done, the real data in the real data blocks and additionally the control data block in the control block is modulated with every sub carrier.
US08126063B2
A system and method for still object detection in digital video data based on normalized cross correlation are disclosed. One embodiment of the method includes providing video data including a sequence of frames. A pair of consecutive frames are selected from the sequence of frames. A pair of groups of pixels are selected from the pair of consecutive frames. The groups are at corresponding positions on the pair of consecutive frames. The video data includes pixel data for each of the pixels. A normalized cross correlation (NCC) operation is conducted on the pixel data of the selected pair of groups of pixels, thereby generating an NCC value. It is determined whether the NCC value is within a predetermined range, thereby providing whether the groups of pixels displays at least a portion of a still object.
US08126055B2
A telop detecting device includes an MPEG input source, a parameter acquiring unit, a switch, a DCT coefficient evaluating unit, and a result output unit. The MPEG input source acquires an MPEG stream. The parameter acquiring unit acquires parameters necessary for detecting a telop from the MPEG input source. The switch switches on and off the connection to the DCT coefficient evaluating unit. The DCT coefficient evaluating unit evaluates the possibility of presence of a telop based on a DCT coefficient of each macro block in a frame acquired through the switch, identifies a telop region by calculating an evaluation value by assigning a weight to the DCT coefficient using a weighting matrix.
US08126053B2
Image residue encoding and decoding methods and apparatuses are provided. In this method, a residue of a color component image is predicted from another color component image using a correlation between residues of the color component images, wherein the residues correspond to differences between input images and prediction images of the respective color component images constituting a single image, so that the encoding efficiency is improved.
US08126046B2
A system, apparatus, method, and article to process a flexible macroblock ordering and arbitrary slice ordering are described. The apparatus may include a video decoder. The video decoder includes a processor to store coding parameters of one or more neighboring macroblocks in a data buffer. The neighboring macroblocks are previously decoded macroblocks and are adjacent to a current macroblock. The processor is to store control parameters for each of the one or more neighboring macroblocks in the data buffer. The processor is to reconstruct coding parameters for the current macroblock using availability information associated with the neighboring macroblocks.
US08126041B2
Disclosed herein are embodiments of an improved built-in self-test (BIST) circuit and an associated method for measuring phase and/or cycle-to-cycle jitter of a clock signal. The embodiments of the BIST circuit implement a Variable Vernier Digital Delay Locked Line method. Specifically, the embodiments of the BIST circuit incorporate both a digital delay locked loop and a Vernier delay line, for respectively coarse tuning and fine tuning portions of the circuit. Additionally, the BIST circuit is variable, as the resolution of the circuit changes from chip to chip, and digital, as it is implemented with standard digital logic elements.
US08126040B2
A device and method for calibrating MIMO systems are disclosed. In one aspect, a calibration circuit comprises at least a first and a second input/output port, each arranged for being connected to a different transmitter/receiver pair of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system. The circuit further comprises at least a third and a fourth input/output port, each arranged for being connected to a different antenna. The circuit further comprises an attenuator having a first attenuator port and a second attenuator port. The circuit further comprises a first and a second non-reciprocal switch, the first switch being arranged for establishing a connection between the first input/output port and either the third input/output port or the first attenuator port, and the second switch arranged for establishing a connection between the second input/output port and either the fourth input/output port or the second attenuator port.
US08126029B2
A method, a process and an audio system for embedding bit stream in a voice signal is disclosed. A voice/data interference signal is composed and supplied to the mixer of the voice signal and the data signal such that the resulting mixed signal effectively cancels the interference and allows the interference-free signal being transmitted to the audio signal receiver/decoder. The decoder may decode the data without interference errors. A method using profile shaping to mask the noise due to modulated carrier signal is also disclosed.
US08126025B2
A laser light source apparatus includes a first laser array light source that emits first-wavelength light, and a second laser array light source that emits second-wavelength light, the second wavelength being different from the first wavelength. The first laser array light source includes a first fundamental wave laser array that produces first fundamental wave light having a first original wavelength, and a first wavelength conversion element that wavelength-converts the first fundamental wave light into the first-wavelength light. The second laser array light source includes a second fundamental wave laser array that produces second fundamental wave light having a second original wavelength different from the first original wavelength, and a second wavelength conversion element that wavelength-converts the second fundamental wave light into the second-wavelength light.
US08126023B2
A pulsed laser for machining, has a mode switch, e.g. Q-switch device (15, 30, 40), in a resonant optical cavity (20) capable of supporting a given lasing mode, e.g. a transverse mode of oscillation when lasing action is started, arranged to induce, e.g. temporarily, a localized change, e.g. loss, in the cavity. The latter alters the given lasing mode, e.g. causes the oscillation to hop to a higher transverse mode temporarily, which on its hand may be extinguished by an aperture limiting diaphragm (5) or equivalent and subsequently reduce the induced loss temporarily, to return the oscillation to the given transverse mode and output the laser pulse. A modulator can be used for inducing the temporary loss for a first transverse lasing mode and extinguishing the higher transverse mode with a diaphragm. The induced loss can be over a localized area much smaller than the dimensions of a beam of the laser, so that a miniaturized modulator can be used. In this way pulsed operation may be achieved. Alternatively, a steady switch between modes may be achieved.
US08126011B2
The present invention provides a communication network in which data can be routed from a terminal to a WAN over a plurality of communication links, the communication links connecting a plurality of terminals to the WAN and all of the terminals being interconnected by a LAN.
US08126006B2
A method of providing a medium access control protocol using a listen before-talk scheme within a wireless network having a plurality of stations communicating over a channel, wherein a valid route from a source station to a destination station via at least one more station is determined, said method comprising: transmitting a data packet over said channel by a first station; receiving said data packet in a second station; analyzing data in said data packet by said second station whether said data packet is to be forwarded further; and if said data packet is to be forwarded further, prioritizing transmission of said data packet on said valid route.
US08126005B2
A communication apparatus, wherein the communication apparatus selects a superframe from W consecutive superframes, and starts each of the W consecutive superframes without transmitting a beacon in a first time period of each of the W consecutive superframes when a superframe to be started is different from the selected superframe.
US08126002B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a shared memory buffer including a lead memory bank and a write multiplexing module configured to send a leading segment from a set of segments to the lead memory bank. The set of segments includes bit values from a set of variable-sized cells. The write multiplexing module further configured to send each segment from the set of segments identified as a trailing segment to a portion of the shared memory mutually exclusive from the lead memory bank.
US08125997B1
A data processing system performs any-to-any transmission of data blocks. The system receives the data blocks on incoming data streams, and load balances the data blocks across a number of processing paths. The processing paths process the data blocks causing one or more of the data blocks to become out of order relative to an order in which the data blocks were received. The system hashes the data blocks to determine a manner in which to transmit the data blocks, reorders the data blocks to restore the order in which the data blocks were received, and transmits the reordered data blocks on outgoing data streams.
US08125986B2
A computer-implemented method for selectively enabling and disabling at least one of a plurality of functions of a host operating system and for selectively enabling and disabling at least one of a plurality of host components includes the following steps: activating a locking mechanism in the host system for disabling system access, wherein the locking mechanism includes switches and component control storage; activating component settings for selectively enabling and disabling components of the system, wherein the component settings are controlled by manipulating the switches; activating system settings for selectively enabling and disabling functions of the system, wherein the system settings are controlled by manipulating the switches; activating system passwords, component passwords and encryption keys; and locking the system according to the selected settings. An information processing system includes a master access control mechanism for enabling and disabling one or more components of the system when the system is in privileged system mode, depending on whether the system boots from internal or external media.
US08125985B1
In some embodiments, a system includes a first switch fabric device, a second switch fabric device, a first access switch operatively coupled to the first switch fabric device by a first cable, and a second access switch operatively coupled to the second switch fabric device by a second cable. The second access switch is operatively coupled to the first access switch by a third cable. The first access switch is configured to send data to the first switch fabric device via the first cable. The first access switch is configured to send data to the second switch fabric device via the third cable, the second access switch, and the second cable.
US08125983B2
An exploitation of the proper classification of conventional call processing states into categories, each category corresponding to one of the call states of the SIP finite-state machine (FSM), yields simplified design, implementation, and operation of heterogeneous call processing. A separate FSM for the SIP-categorized call states running in parallel with a conventional port event processing (PEP) FSM, implements a VoIP Local Call Controller by passing events between the SIP-type FSM and the PEP FSM only at the points where a transition between SIP categories occurs.The SIP FSM does not require notification of PEP FSM transitions not affecting the SIP call state. For this reason, none of the code associated with the transitions between PEP FSM states within the same major state category requires any modification. Consequently the integration of VoIP and PEP call processing can be done more simply, and at dramatically-reduced cost in software development, support, and maintenance.
US08125981B2
Embodiments of the invention include a system and method for providing high quality voice/sound communications over a local loop of a telephone network. The method aspect of the invention comprises receiving a voice signal, digitizing the voice signal into a high quality voice signal, utilizing sampling rates greater than 8000 samples per second and/or sample sizes greater than 8 bits per sample, negotiating voice processing characteristics between a customer premises equipment and a network element such as a softswitch, receiving speech from a user at a customer premises equipment according to the negotiation, converting the received speech into high bandwidth signal and transmitting the high bandwidth signal to a telephone local loop, transmitting the high bandwidth signal from the local loop to wideband node that packetizes the high bandwidth signal for transmission to a packet network and receiving the packetized signal from the packet network at a switch that switches between an on-network or off-network status. A voice over IP platform may also be used to route packetized signals from the packet network to either the telephone network or another packet network.
US08125976B2
The invention provides a method of generating a downlink signal and searching a cell on the basis of the downlink signal in an OFDM-based cellular system. The downlink signal includes a plurality of synchronization blocks each having a plurality of sub-frames, and a synchronization pattern composed of a combination of a cell group identification code for identifying a cell group and a frame synchronization identification code for indicating a frame start point is generated in each of the synchronization blocks. Different frame synchronization identification codes are allocated to the synchronization blocks.
US08125966B2
A call handover method for an Internet Protocol communication network using hierarchical mobility management comprising a mobility anchor point connected to first and second access routers and to a home agent of a mobile node having first local and regional care-of addresses and communicating with another node consists in, if the mobile node detects the second access router: i) communicating the address prefix of the second access router to the mobile node in order for it to construct a second local care-of address, ii) communicating the second local care-of address, the first regional care-of address and an information bit having a value indicating double temporary addressing to the anchor point in order for it to store the second local care-of address in corresponding relationship to the first regional care-of address and then forward packets addressed to the mobile node to the first and second access routers, and iii) disconnecting the mobile node from the first access node and then deleting the first local care-of address of the mobile node stored at the anchor point in order to forward packets that are addressed to it to the mobile node via the home agent equipment, the anchor point and the second access router.
US08125960B2
When a mobile station (UE) is camping on a system of the LTE scheme, a function (EMM) is configured to transmit a service request signal including a “CSFB” to an MME; the NNE is configured to transmit setup information including a “CSFB” to an eNB in response to the service request signal transmitted by the function (EMM); the eNB is configured to transmit, to a function (AS), instruction information instructing to select a cell in a system of the WCDMA/GSM scheme in response to the setup information transmitted by the MME; the function (AS) is configured to select the cell in the system of the WCDMA/GSM scheme in accordance with the instruction information transmitted by the eNB; and the function (MM) is configured to set up circuit switched communications via the cell in the system of the WCDMA/GSM scheme selected by the function (AS).
US08125956B2
Apparatus and a method of cell reselection in a wireless telecommunications device operative with a plurality of radio access networks are disclosed. The method comprises, when the device is camped on a first radio access network: ranking cells in a neighboring list according to cell reselection criteria; considering for cell reselection a cell in the neighboring list; when the cell in the list is a cell of a second radio access network different from the first radio access network, applying an algorithm for cell reselection from the second radio access network to the first radio access network; and when the algorithm as applied would result in reselection to the first radio access network, considering for cell reselection another cell in the list.
US08125947B2
The present invention provides a method of wireless communication involving at least one mobile unit and at least one base station configured to transmit data over first and second data channels and corresponding first and second control channels. The method includes accessing control information associated with data to be transmitted over the first data channel and mapping the control information to a portion of the second control channel.
US08125946B2
A variable bandwidth controller for use in a wireless network comprising base stations capable of operating on N carriers. The variable bandwidth controller determines a receiver capability of a first mobile station and, in response to the determination, assigns the first mobile station to operate on at least a first carrier and a second carrier. The variable bandwidth controller determines the receiver capability of the first mobile station based on a message received from the first mobile station. The variable bandwidth controller assigns the mobile station to operate on the first carrier during normal data traffic conditions and assigns the mobile station to operate on the second carrier during peak data traffic conditions.
US08125940B2
A network for wireless transmission of a media data in a building includes a plurality of access points. A first access point receives the media data from a source and transmits the media data downstream at a first data rate. A plurality of additional access points is distributed about the building, each of which includes an upstream transceiver to receive the media content on a first channel and a downstream transceiver to re-transmit the media content at substantially the first data rate on a second channel. 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. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08125930B2
Algorithms and data structure are described for constructing and maintaining a clock distribution tree (“CDT”) for timing loop avoidance. The CDT algorithms and data structure allows a node to make an automated and unattended path switch to the most desirable clock source in the network. In response to a network topology change, a clock root node distributes new clock paths to all nodes in the network. In particular, the root node calculates a new clock path for each affected node by building a clock source topology tree, and identifying from that tree a path to the network node from a clock source of higher or equal stratum relative to that network node. The root node then sends a network message to each node indicating the new path that the node should use. Each node receives the message and compares the new path with the existing path. If the paths are different then the node acquires the new path just received in the message. If the paths are the same then the node does nothing and discards the message.
US08125929B2
A method and an apparatus for advertising border connection information of autonomous system are disclosed. Moreover, the method includes: establishing and maintaining, by a border node of the autonomous system, the border connection information of the autonomous system; flooding the border connection information within the autonomous system; and receiving, by nodes of the autonomous system, the border connection information. The method and the apparatus for advertising border connection information of autonomous system of embodiments of the present invention may adapt to dynamic change of network topology, and dynamically advertise the border connection information of the autonomous system within the system in time, so as to optimize networks and improve quality of service of the networks.
US08125927B2
Methods and apparatus for topology discovery of a network having heterogeneous network devices are disclosed. A network appliance communicates with the network devices to acquire device descriptors and characterize the network devices accordingly. Topology discovery is based on device characteristics, media-access data, and encoded connectivity patterns, where each connectivity pattern is defined by devices of specific device types and respective media-access data. A topology deduction module of the network appliance synthesizes a network image starting with unconnected devices and progressively incorporating detected connectivity patterns.
US08125922B2
After a sample set of web pages (7) has been retrieved via the Internet (4) and stored in a web page data base (11) the web pages (7) are processed by a network analysis engine (15) to generate network data indicative of the interconnections between the sample web pages (7) as identified by hyperlinks included in the retrieved web pages (7). The network analysis engine (15) then utilizes the generated network data to calculate for each web page (7) a number of network metrics indicative of the extent to which the interconnections associated with a web page (7) correspond to patterns of interconnections associated with web pages (7) published in order to manipulate the ranking of a web page (7) by a search engine (3). These network metrics are then used to generate a numbers of ranked indexes of web pages (7). A user can then submit a search query to the search engine (3) together with an indication of which of the rankings should be used. In response the search engine (3) returns a results list (6) based on the search query using the selected rankings. By having a variety of rankings emphasizing metrics associated with different patterns of connectivity a user is thereby able to tailor their search strategy and obtain a results list (6) identifying web pages of greater interest to the user.
US08125909B2
A subscriber unit: sends a media flow to a correspondent host; receives, from the correspondent host, an indication of a level of congestion in the communication network; compares the level of congestion to a congestion threshold (TH1) during a first time interval, wherein TH1 is determined based on an assigned priority level for the media flow, and terminates the media flow and enters a sleep mode state when, after expiration of the first time interval, the level of congestion exceeds TH1; while in the sleep mode state, the subscriber unit compares a level of congestion in the communication network to a congestion threshold (TH2), and exits the sleep mode state and resumes the media flow when the level of congestion remains below TH2 for the duration of a second time interval.
US08125907B2
Systems and techniques are described which improve performance, reliability, and predictability of networks without having costly hardware upgrades or replacement of existing network equipment. An adaptive communication controller provides WAN performance and utilization measurements to another network node over multiple parallel communication paths across disparate asymmetric networks which vary in behavior frequently over time. An egress processor module receives communication path quality reports and tagged path packet data and generates accurate arrival times, send times, sequence numbers and unutilized byte counts for the tagged packets. A control module generates path quality reports describing performance of the multiple parallel communication paths based on the received information and generates heartbeat packets for transmission on the multiple parallel communication paths if no other tagged data has been received in a predetermined period of time to ensure performance is continually monitored. An ingress processor module transmits the generated path quality reports and heartbeat packets.
US08125906B2
Systems and methods for a network diagnostic device or component that is placed in-line between two nodes in a network to capture the value of a component of a speed negotiation signal. The network diagnostic component receives a speed negotiation signal from a first node for communication with a second node. The speed negotiation signal may be received by a receive module. The speed negotiation signal includes one at least a first portion that comprises one or more data units. The network diagnostic component measures the duration of the data units of the first component of the speed negotiation data. This measurement may be performed by a measurement module. The network diagnostic component compares the measured duration with a desired duration. The comparison may be performed by a measurement module. A record of whether the measured duration compares with the desired duration is then generated by a generation module.
US08125901B2
The bitrate for any practical video streaming system will vary considerably as a function of the difficulty of encoding the sequence in question. This variation is even more apparent when comparing different video clips of different genres for example where sports clips might require a higher average bitrate and fluctuate more due to the high activity of typical scenes, whereas a news report clip might require a much lower bitrate and be relatively static. As such, to deliver video streams at a constant quality to users sharing a contended network, a constant bandwidth method is not efficient to use across all the streams. The bandwidth allocated to each stream must be allowed to dynamically vary in time in accordance with the precise demands of the video being streamed at that time and also be within any network bandwidth constraints. The present invention defines such a method.
US08125898B1
A method of determining correlated flows in a network may include obtaining times of arrival and corresponding flows for data units in the network (1020) and assigning weights to a set of data units based on respective times between the set of data units and one data unit (1030). A probability matrix representing interflow connections in the network may be updated based on the assigned weights (1040).
US08125896B2
A method, device, and computer program product are described for obtaining a connectivity evaluation with an associated location of a first individualized node and for aggregating an indicator of a first location, an indicator of a second location, a first connectivity evaluation, and a second connectivity evaluation into an individualized connectivity-indicative mapping for the first individualized node.
US08125895B2
A network looping detecting apparatus has an increased real-time operation capability for network looping detection and also has scalability. The network looping detecting apparatus has a count information acquiring unit for periodically acquiring count information which is counted up when the lifetime of a packet has elapsed, from a network device of a network to be monitored for network looping. The network looping detecting apparatus also has a looping detecting unit for detecting network looping from the count information. Specifically, the network looping detecting apparatus detects network looping based on the fact that when a packet loops due to network looping, the lifetime of the packet elapses, and the count information is counted up.
US08125885B2
A method of wireless transmission for estimating the carrier frequency offset in a base station of a received transmission from a user equipment (UE) accessing a radio access network. The method time de-multiplexes selected symbols of a received sub-frame, computes the frequency-domain symbols received from each antenna through an FFT, de-maps the UEs selected sub-carriers for each antenna, computes metrics associated to a carrier frequency offset hypothesis spanning a searched frequency offset window, repeats these steps on subsequent received sub-frames from the UE over an estimation interval duration, non-coherently accumulates the computed metrics and selects the carrier frequency offset hypothesis with largest accumulated metric amplitude.
US08125882B2
A composition of matter for the recording medium of nanometer scale thermo-mechanical information storage devices and a nanometer scale thermo-mechanical information storage device. The composition includes: one or more polyaryletherketone polymers, each of the one or more polyaryletherketone polymers having two terminal ends, each terminal end having two or more phenylethynyl moieties. The one or more polyaryletherketone polymers are thermally cured and the resulting cross-linked polyaryletherketone resin used as the recording layers in atomic force data storage devices.
US08125881B2
An optical information recording medium of the present invention, a reproduction method using the optical information recording medium, and an optical information processing device using the optical information recording medium, each of which optically reproduces recorded information by irradiating a light beam, include: a substrate on which a bumpy pit and/or groove corresponding to the recorded information or a recording layer is formed; and a temperature responsive layer whose optical property (transmissivity) in a wavelength of the light beam varies in response to temperature rise caused by irradiation of the light beam. The optical information recording medium can surely reproduce information, which has been recorded in a high density manner, with high accuracy.
US08125875B2
A spherical aberration correction mechanism includes an aberration correction lens, a movable portion for supporting the aberration correction lens, a fixing portion for supporting the aberration correction lens, in which the movable portion is disposed in a slidable manner, a shaft for supporting the movable portion in a rotatable manner about the axis and in a slidable manner in the axial direction, a feed screw having a helical groove, an engaging portion having an engaging groove like a male thread engaging with the helical groove from an direction, and a coil spring engaging with the outer surface of the shaft, for pressing the movable portion in the axial direction. Each end portion of the feed screw is provided with a cylindrical portion having an outer diameter smaller than an inner diameter of the feed screw, and a resetting elastic portion supported by the fixing portion or the movable portion is provided for pressing the movable portion in the direction opposite to the pressing direction of the coil spring.
US08125863B2
An information recording/reproducing apparatus including an optical pickup unit for generating an RF signal performs signal processing to acquire, at a restart of recording after a halt of recording, a data ID to be used as a reference for specifying a recording restart position in the recording medium based on the RF signal. The signal processing includes reproduced signal generation processing to generate a reproduced signal based on the RF signal, and data ID acquisition determination processing to determine, at the restart of recording after the halt of recording, whether or not the data ID has been properly acquired, based on the reproduced signal. If it is determined in the data ID acquisition determination step that the data ID has not been properly acquired, a reproduction parameter to be used for generating the reproduced signal in the reproduced signal generation step is adjusted.
US08125844B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a first cell array including a plurality of unit cells and a bit line sense amplifying unit for sensing and amplifying data signals stored in the unit cells. Each unit cell is provided with a PMOS transistor and a capacitor. Therefore, the semiconductor memory device efficiently operates with low voltage without any degradation of operation speed.
US08125837B2
The semiconductor device makes a comparison between a word-line timing signal for determining a word-line activation time and a reference signal, applies a back-gate bias for enlarging a read margin when the result of the comparison represents a low condition of the read margin, and applies a back-gate bias for enlarging a write margin when the comparison result represents a low condition of the write margin. The reference signal is selected depending on whether to compensate an operating margin fluctuating according to the word-line activation time (or word-line pulse width), or to compensate an operating margin fluctuating according to the process fluctuation (or variation in threshold voltage). By controlling the back-gate biases according to the word-line pulse width, an operating margin fluctuating according to the word-line pulse width, and an operating margin fluctuating owing to the variation in threshold voltage during its fabrication are improved.
US08125836B2
In one or more embodiments, a memory device is disclosed as having an erase verify operation that includes a negative bias on the p-well in which the memory cell or cells being erased are formed. After an erase pulse is applied to the selected cells to be erased, the p-well is biased with the negative voltage and the erase verify operation is performed to determine the erased state of the cell(s).
US08125823B2
A method and structure for a ferroelectric storage medium, includes a metallic underlayer and a ferroelectric data layer over the metallic underlayer. A layer over the ferroelectric data layer has a charge migration rate faster than a charge migration rate of the ferroelectric data layer.
US08125820B2
A memory to which a bit line potential step-down technique is applied is provided. The memory includes an IO block including first transistors which control potentials of first bit lines provided with respect to columns of memory cells, and first logic gates which control the first transistors. The drain or source of each first transistor is connected to an input of the corresponding first logic gate, and the gate of each first transistor is connected to an output of the corresponding first logic gate. The first transistors are driven by pulses.
US08125817B2
To provide a nonvolatile storage device (100) which is capable of achieving stable operation and includes variable resistance elements. The nonvolatile storage device (100) includes: memory cells (M111, M112, . . .) each of which is provided at three-dimensional cross-points between word lines (WL0, WL1, . . .) and bit lines (BL0, BL1, . . .) and having a resistance value that reversibly changes based on an electrical signal; a row selection circuit-and-driver (103) provided with transistors (103a) each of which applies a predetermined voltage to a corresponding one of the word lines (WL0, WL1, . . .); a column selection circuit-and-driver (104) provided with transistors (104a) each of which applies a predetermined voltage to a corresponding one of the bit lines (BL0, BL1, . . .); and a substrate bias circuit (110) which applies a forward bias voltage to a substrate of such transistors (103a and 104a).
US08125809B2
An analog memory having adjustable write bins including a system for writing to the memory. The system includes a write apparatus interpreting one or more write control signals, generating a write signal, and applying the write signal at a selected memory location to store a desired content. The selected memory location is subject to data dependent noise and is capable of storing a range of values grouped into “n” bins configured such that the average cost to write to at least “n-1” of the bins is within a threshold of a target cost for the selected analog memory location. The system also includes a read apparatus. The system further includes write control circuitry that includes a write signal selector selecting the one or more write control signals responsive to the desired content, current content of the selected memory location, and a bin associated with the desired content.
US08125805B1
A switching converter controller and method for controlling a switch-mode converter in a hybrid discontinuous conduction mode (DCM)/continuous conduction mode (CCM) mode are disclosed. The hybrid mode involves using double (two) or more switching pulses in a switching period of a control signal for controlling the switch-mode converter. The switching period is defined by a switch on-time duration, a switch off-time duration, and an N number of switching pulses. N is an integer greater than one. An inductor current through the inductor of the switch-mode converter is zero before an initial switching pulse, is zero after a last switching pulse, and is non-zero for all other times within the switching period. The switch-mode converter controller can be used as a power factor correction controller for a power factor corrector. The switch-mode converter controller can be implemented on a single integrated circuit.
US08125791B2
A portable electronic device includes a case, a circuit board in the case, an electronic component in the case. The electronic component includes a connection terminal and a portion facing a side surface of the circuit board. The portable electronic device also includes a terminal member for connecting the circuit board and the connection terminal of the electronic component.
US08125784B2
A seal includes a housing with an exterior surface. The housing forms a cavity extending from the exterior surface into the housing and defines at least one slanted interior surface. The at least one slanted interior surface extends from the exterior surface of the housing and is in a substantially non-perpendicular and angled relation to the exterior surface of the housing. The seal also includes at least one electrical lead that extends through the housing and has a portion exposed across the cavity therein. The at least one electrical lead extends from the housing and is configured to be in electrical contact with at least one electrical component encased within the electronic control housing. The seal also includes an adhesive material that substantially fills the cavity and surrounds the exposed portion of the at least one electrical lead within the cavity.
US08125783B2
According to one embodiment, a printed circuit board comprises a printed wiring board, circuit component, reinforcing plate and first and second fixing portion. The printed wiring board includes first and second areas. A reinforcing plate secured to the other of the first and second surfaces in said at least one of the first and second areas. The first fixing portion is provided on a border line that defines the first and second areas. The first fixing portion can fix the reinforcing plate to both the first and second areas. The second fixing portion comprises a plurality of apertures arranged symmetrical with respect to the border line.
US08125780B2
A system to aid in cooling an in-line memory module may include a thermal interface material adjacent the in-line memory module. The system may also include a heat spreader adjacent the thermal interface material. The system may further include a cold-plate adjacent the heat spreader, the cold-plate, heat spreader, and thermal interface material to aid in cooling the in-line memory module.
US08125777B1
Methods and apparatus for electrical components according to various aspects of the present invention may be implemented in conjunction with an electrical system comprising a heat generating component and a cooling system. The cooling system may comprise a cooling channel and a coolant. The coolant is disposed within the cooling channel and in thermal contact with the heat generating component.
US08125769B2
A capacitor assembly containing a solid electrolytic capacitor element and an anode lead extending in a direction therefrom, first and second cathode terminations, and an anode termination is provided. The first cathode termination contains a first portion that is substantially parallel to a lower surface of the capacitor element and in electrical contact therewith, and the second cathode termination contains a second portion that is substantially parallel to an upper surface of the capacitor element and in electrical contact therewith. Through such a “sandwich” configuration, the degree of surface contact between the cathode terminations and capacitor element is increased, which can help dissipate heat and allow it to handle higher currents that would normally cause overheating. The terminations may also provide increased mechanical support.
US08125767B2
A coated electrode includes a current collector of an etched aluminum foil having a thickness of 20 to 45 μm, an apparent density of 2.00 to 2.54 g/cm3, an air permeability of 20 to 120 s and a number of through-holes penetrating therethrough from the front surface to the back surface, and an electrode layer formed by applying a coating material including, as an active material, a substance capable of reversibly carrying lithium ions and anions on to the current collector. The coated electrode is industrially producible, high in conductivity and strength, and excellent in evenness. A capacitor, for example, can make use of the electrode.
US08125761B2
A capacitive module is provided. The capacitive module may include a first capacitor including a first electrode and a second electrode, one of the first electrode and the second electrode being coupled to at least one first conductive via and the other one of the first electrode and the second electrode being coupled to at least one second conductive via. The capacitive module may also include a second capacitor spaced apart from the first capacitor, the second capacitor including a third electrode and a fourth electrode, one of the third electrode and the fourth electrode being coupled to the at least one first conductive via and the other one of the third electrode and the fourth electrode being coupled to the at least one second conductive via. Furthermore, the capacitive module may include a first conductive plane being electrically coupled to a first plane with a first polarity through one of the at least one first conductive via and a second conductive plane being electrically coupled to a second plane with a second polarity, opposite to the first polarity, through one of the at least one second conductive via.
US08125758B2
Described herein is electroadhesion technology that permits controllable adherence between two objects. Electroadhesion uses electrostatic forces of attraction produced by an electrostatic adhesion voltage, which is applied using electrodes in an electroadhesive device. The electrostatic adhesion voltage produces an electric field and electrostatic adherence forces. When the electroadhesive device and electrodes are positioned near a surface of an object such as a vertical wall, the electrostatic adherence forces hold the electroadhesive device in position relative to the surface and object. This can be used to increase traction or maintain the position of the electroadhesive device relative to a surface. Electric control of the electrostatic adhesion voltage permits the adhesion to be controllably and readily turned on and off.
US08125755B2
A selectively rigidizable and actively steerable device is described. In one aspect, an articulatable device is described that includes a flexible inner tube having a first lumen, a flexible outer tube that receives the inner tube, and a multiplicity of overlapping, rigidizable scale-like strips. Each scale-like strip is coupled with the inner tube and positioned between the inner and outer tubes. Of particular note, the overlapping strips are actuatable between a non-rigidized state in which overlapping strips are slideable relative to one another and a rigidized state in which overlapping strips are not slideable relative to one another.
US08125750B2
An electrical isolation system specifically adapted for use in street furniture (10) having an electrical supply (24) to working electrical components (20) is described. The system includes an impact sensor (22) located in use within the street furniture and a monitoring unit (30) and an electrical isolator (32) located in use remote from the street furniture. When the impact sensor is activated a signal is sent to the monitoring unit which sends a signal to the electrical isolator to disconnect the electrical supply to the working components of the street furniture. A method of providing electrical isolation in street furniture (10) having an electrical supply (24) to working electrical components (20) is also described. In the event that the street furniture is damaged, the method including the steps of: a) sensing an impact suffered by the street furniture; b) sending a signal to indicate that an impact has occurred to a monitoring unit at a location remote from the street furniture; c) the monitoring unit acting to disconnect the electrical supply to street furniture at the location remote from the street furniture.
US08125740B1
A disk drive has an actuator coil that includes first and second lateral legs joined by first and second longitudinal legs to form a closed coil periphery. The first lateral leg is disposed closer to the actuator pivot bore than the second lateral leg. The first and second longitudinal legs join the second lateral leg at a first interior bend location and at a second interior bend location within the closed coil periphery, respectively. A bobbin is disposed within the closed coil periphery and contacts the conductive coil at two locations (e.g. the first interior bend location and the second interior bend location). Preferably, the bobbin defines a total bobbin length and an average bobbin width, and the total bobbin length is at least 3 times the average bobbin width.
US08125736B2
A method of manufacturing a load beam precisely positions a slider on a dimple of a load beam according to precisely obtained positional data of the dimple, the method includes preparing a work which is a flat plate and serves as the load beam, irradiating at least a part of the work where the dimple is formed with a laser beam, to form a modified part at the irradiated part, carrying out plastic working on the modified part, to form the dimple having a concave curved surface at the modified part, taking an image of the concave curved surface of the dimple, obtaining the positional data of the dimple from the image, and positioning the slider on the dimple according to the positional data.
US08125731B2
An encoder module with a sliding assembly comprises a cover, a disk, a reading head, a bottom plate, and a sliding unit; wherein in assembly, the disk is installed at an upper front side of the bottom plate; the reading head is installed upon a front side of the sliding unit; the sliding unit is pushed into a lower hole of the bottom plate so that a front end of the sliding unit exposes from the lower hole of the bottom plate; in that the reading head serves to read signals from the disk; finally the cover covers upon an outer side of the bottom plate, the sliding unit and the reading head so as to form as an encoder module with a sliding assembly.
US08125728B2
A disk drive. The disk drive includes a disk, a head-slider, a moving mechanism, and a controller. The head-slider includes a read/write element, a first heater element, a contact pad, and a second heater element. The read/write element includes a read element configured to read user data from the disk, and a write element configured to write user data to the disk. The moving mechanism is configured to support and to move the head-slider. The controller is configured to control the second heater element to control contact between the contact pad and the disk, and is configured to control clearance between the read/write element and the disk by using the first heater element with the contact pad in contact with the disk.
US08125727B2
A disk drive. The disk drive includes a disk configured to store data, a motor configured to rotate the disk, a head-slider and a controller. The head-slider includes a slider configured to fly in proximity to a recording surface of the disk, and an element on the slider. The controller is configured to measure a fly height between the head-slider and the disk at different common-mode voltages of the element to determine an operational common-mode voltage from a measurement result.
US08125721B2
The invention relates to an optical lens holder (1) comprising a supporting means (2) and a first and a second arm (10, 20, 30) defining a lens holder general plane, first and second arms being relatively movable with regards to each other and each arm having spaced apart first and second end portions (10a, 20a, 30a, 10c, 20c, 30c) and an intermediate portion (10b, 20b, 30b), the arms being mounted on the supporting means through their first end portions and the second end portions of each arm comprising an optical lens accommodating means (21, 22) facing each other, whereby an optical lens (3) can be maintained within the accommodating means of the first and second arms with its optical axis orthogonal to the general plane of the lens holder through at least one, preferably one or two contact points between the lens periphery and each of the first and second lens accommodating means, wherein at least the second end portion of each arm comprises a material having a dielectric constant at 1 MHz equal to or higher than the dielectric constant of the optical lens material.
US08125719B2
A lens unit includes a first lens having positive power, a second lens having positive power, an aperture stop, a third lens having negative power, and a fourth lens. The first lens, the second lens, the aperture stop, the third lens, and the fourth lens are arranged in order from an object side toward an image side.
US08125711B2
An image blur correction apparatus includes first and second lens units, a supporting unit aligning the first and second lens units in an optical axis direction, so that the first and second lens units can independently move in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis, a driving unit driving the first and second lens units in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, a relative position detection unit detecting a relative position between the first and second lens units, a shake detection unit detecting a shake amount added to the image blur correction apparatus, and a control unit controlling the driving unit based on an output of the shake detection unit. The control unit performs closed-loop control based on an output of the relative position detection unit so that the second lens unit moves in a direction opposite to that of the first lens unit.
US08125709B2
The present invention is directed to a controllable microscope illumination within a microscope system by which all essential contrasting methods in microscopy can be realized. The illumination device according to the invention comprises a plurality of individual light sources which can be regulated with respect to brightness, wherein these individual light sources are formed as unit cells and form a luminous surface by a periodic arrangement. In an advantageous arrangement, imaging optics are associated with each individual light source in order to magnify the image of the source surface of the individual light source so that the images of the source surfaces of adjacent individual light sources touch. Illumination variants for all of the essential contrasting methods in microscopy can be generated by way of the proposed solution. The proposed LED illumination is electronically switchable, can be regulated with respect to brightness, supplies all colors, is long-lasting and economical. LEDs have a long life and are very robust and insensitive to vibrations. The spatial light distribution and the color temperature are adjustable.
US08125707B2
A Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (RSOA) for compensating for light loss in an optical link, an RSOA module for improving polarization dependency using the RSOA, and a Passive Optical Network (PON) for increasing economical efficiency and practical use of a bandwidth using the RSOA are provided. The PON includes a central office comprising a plurality of optic sources transmitting a downstream signal and a plurality of first receivers receiving an upstream signal; at least one optical network terminal (ONT) including a second receiver receiving the downstream signal and an RSOA which receives the downstream signal, remodulates the downstream signal into the upstream signal, and transmits the upstream signal in loopback mode; and a remote node interfacing the central office with the ONT. The upstream signal and the downstream signal are transmitted between the remote node and the ONT via a single optical fiber. The remote node includes an optical power splitter at its port connected to the ONT.
US08125703B2
Upon obtaining green light as wavelength converted light by causing infrared light to be incident on a wavelength conversion element, the absorption of the green light occurs due to the generation of ultraviolet light as sum-frequency light of the infrared light and the green light in the wavelength conversion element and the destruction of a crystal composing the wavelength conversion element occurs due to heat generated at this time. In a laser wavelength converter of the present invention, a condensed position of the infrared light in the wavelength conversion element is deviated from a position assumed to be optimal when the influence of the generated heat is ignored. Consequently, crystal destruction is suppressed, a high-efficiency wavelength conversion is enabled and high-output wavelength converted light exceeding several watts, which was difficult to attain in conventional wavelength conversion elements, is attained.
US08125701B2
A detection means (52) detects optimum driving voltages of a mirror device. A correction means (53) corrects driving voltage values in a table (54b) based on the optimum driving voltages. This makes it possible to drive the mirror to an optimum pivot angle even when the optimum pivot angle of the mirror changes due to, e.g., mirror drift or a change in the environment such as temperature.
US08125697B2
The authentication process comprises: a step of transferring a holographic matrix onto a base, a step of marking the holographic matrix by laser shot, in order to produce a digital code that cannot be interpreted by the human eye preserving the optical diffraction properties of the holographic matrix, and designed to enable the detection of a copy of a document realized using the holographic matrix. Preferentially, during the marking step, the impact of each laser shot presents a greater dimension and a depth allowing the hologram's optical diffraction properties to be preserved.
US08125692B2
An image forming device to scan a predetermined document includes a uniform block search unit to classify the object into a plurality of blocks and to search for uniform blocks having uniform inner pixel values, a status information detection unit to detect representative values of the inner pixel values of each of the uniform blocks searched for by the uniform block search unit and to output maximum and minimum values of the representative values, and a control unit to determine that the object is uniform if a difference between the maximum and the minimum values output from the status information detection unit is less than a predetermined threshold value. Accordingly, if the object is uniform it is possible to compensate for deterioration of screen quality by unifying the pixels of the object.
US08125689B2
An image processing apparatus includes at least one input device for inputting a plurality of pieces of content data; a recognition unit configured to recognize a mark included in the pieces of content data, and an association processing unit configured to perform association processing by mutually establishing a link between at least two pieces of content data based on the mark recognized by the recognition unit.
US08125686B2
When a subsidiary printout is printed from a printer driver, it is an object to enable a subsidiary print job to be formed without destroying a relationship between the master and the servant in a print process. A first print job formed by a first application program is input through an operating system and a printer driver processes the input first print job. A second application program which forms a second print job different from the first print job and sends to the operating system is provided. The printer driver starts the second application program, transfers settings of the printer driver to the second application program, receives the second print job formed by the second application program through the operating system, processes the second print job, and allows a printer to print the second print job.
US08125679B2
An image processing method and image processing apparatus which can execute vector conversion processing by appropriately dividing a clipart image including gradation into regions are provided. To this end, a color document image including a clipart image having an area of gradation is input, the clipart image is selected, and outline information of the clipart image is extracted. The color document image is separated into an achromatic color area and a chromatic color area, which are respectively divided into a plurality of regions. Of the plurality of regions of each of the achromatic color area and the chromatic color area divided in the dividing of region step, regions which meet a set condition are integrated. After that, the clipart image is converted into vector data using a region group after integrating of region and the outline information.
US08125676B2
A sticky note printing system has: a sticky note printer which prints on a topmost sticky note of a bundle of sticky notes formed by laminated sticky notes, of which one ends are glued to be peeled off each other; and an image forming apparatus which forms an image data to be printed on the sticky note. The sticky note printer prints on the sticky note based on the image data formed by the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus has an image forming device which forms the image data. The sticky note printer has an image rotation device which rotates the formed image data by a predetermined angle and a printing device which prints based on the image data rotated by the image rotation device.
US08125668B2
An information processing device, capable of communicating with an image processing device, has: an acceptance unit to accept an instruction as to whether or not to add, to a print job, browsing management information corresponding to an original file of the print job; and a transfer unit to, in a case where the acceptance unit accepts the instruction to add the browsing management information, add the browsing management information to the print job and transfer the acquired print job to the image processing device, and, in a case where the acceptance unit does not accept the instruction to add the browsing management information, transfer the print job to the image processing device without adding the browsing management information.
US08125667B2
A system and method for enabling automatic electronic, telephonic, and Internet transactions through print media, as well as providing value that flows to a supplier for the service of enabling such transactions. The transactions can utilize print media that can include electronic recording media and counterfeit protection, where the electronic recording media can identify suppliers of the media, providers of the service promoted by the electronic media, and can set a value for a supplier, such as a print media supplier or facilitator.
US08125654B2
Systems, methods and apparatus are provided for determining a substrate polishing endpoint. The invention includes a light source adapted to transmit light to an edge of a substrate; one or more detectors adapted to detect an arrangement of light reflected from the substrate edge; and a controller adapted to determine a polishing endpoint for the substrate edge based on the arrangement of reflected light. Numerous other aspects are provided.
US08125644B2
An optically sensitive device includes a material that changes dimension in response to a change in a magnetic field. In an embodiment, the optically sensitive device is configured to measure a change in a magnetic field as a function of the change of dimension of the material.
US08125643B2
The present invention relates to a method for the assessment of quantity and quality parameters of biological particles in a liquid analyte material. The method comprises applying a volume of a liquid sample to an exposing domain from which exposing domain electromagnetic signals from the sample in the domain can pass to the exterior, and exposing, onto an array of active detection elements such as CCD-elements, a spatial representation of electromagnetic signals having passed from the domain, the representation being detectable as an intensity by individual active detection elements, under conditions permitting processing of the intensities detected by the array of detection elements during the exposure in such a manner that representations of electromagnetic signals from the biological particles are identified as distinct from representations of electromagnetic signals from background signals. The size of the volume of the liquid sample is sufficiently large to permit the assessment of the quantity and quality parameters to fulfill a predetermined requirement to the statistical quality of the assessment based on substantially one exposure.
US08125631B2
Provided is a tester for testing an optical detector. The tester includes a plurality of light emitting units which emit light beams to the optical detector, wherein the light beams have light intensities different from each other, and a power supply unit which supplies electric power to the plurality of light emitting units.
US08125624B2
A document processing system includes an input receptacle for receiving documents. A transport mechanism receives the documents from the input receptacle and transports the documents past an image scanner and a discrimination unit. An output receptacle receives the documents from the transport mechanism after being transported past the full image scanner and the discrimination unit. The image scanner operates to obtain images of the documents and further operates to obtain images of selected portions of the documents, and further can obtain information contained in the selected portions. The discrimination unit operates to determine document authenticity. A system controller directs the flow of documents over the transport mechanism.
US08125611B2
Immersion lithography apparatus and method using a shield module are provided. An immersion lithography apparatus including a lens module having an imaging lens, a substrate table positioned beneath the lens module and configured for holding a substrate for processing, a fluid module for providing an immersion fluid to a space between the lens module and the substrate on the substrate table, and a shield module for covering an edge of the substrate during processing.
US08125607B2
An electro optical device includes a first substrate, a plurality of pixel electrodes arranged at a predetermined pixel pitch on the first substrate, signal lines and electron devices disposed on the lower side than the pixel electrodes through an interlayer insulation film in a pixel area in which the plurality of pixel electrodes are arranged and electrically connected to the pixel electrodes, a second substrate oppositely disposed to the first substrate, a sealing material for bonding the first substrate and the second substrate together in a seal area along a periphery of the pixel area, and a plurality of dummy wirings arranged at an arrangement pitch equivalent to the predetermined pixel pitch along the periphery of the pixel area in at least a part of the seal area on the first substrate and formed by the same film as at least one of conducting films constituting the signal lines and the electron devices.
US08125606B2
A display device includes a first substrate having a group of terminal electrodes on one side thereof, at least one of the terminal electrodes forming a branched electrode with an isolation region extending along an elongating direction of each the terminal electrode and a second substrate opposing the first substrate such that the terminal electrodes are exposed from an overlapping area of the first substrate and the second substrate.
US08125600B2
A liquid crystal display device including first and second substrates which are arranged to be opposite to each other; liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy contained between the first and the second substrates; a polymer which determines directions in which liquid crystal molecules tilt when voltage is applied: and a plurality of picture elements located on the first substrate. At least one of the picture elements on the first substrate includes a switching element; a first sub picture element electrode including a plurality of band-shaped microelectrode parts and a first connecting electrode part electrically connecting the microelectrode parts of the first sub picture element electrode with one another; and a second sub picture element electrode including a plurality of band-shaped microelectrode parts and a second connecting electrode part electrically connecting the microelectrode parts of the second sub picture element electrode with one another.
US08125590B2
An optical film, a backlight unit having the same, and a liquid crystal display device having the same are disclosed. The optical film comprises a base film and a plurality of structures disposed on the base film, at least one of the structures comprising a plurality of beads with a diffusion portion having a first diameter and a transmission portion having a second diameter integrally formed with each other.
US08125586B2
A backlight assembly and a display device having the same, the backlight assembly including a light guide panel that guides light, a light source to generate light, being mounted to at least one end of the light guide panel, and a bottom chassis made of a reflective resin capable of reflecting light and mounted to cover a rear side of the light guide panel.
US08125577B2
A power center system for use with video display devices having a housing 2 for power conditioning circuitry for ameliorating electrical anomalies, housing 2 adapted for attachment to a flat surface 9, and mount 21 attached to housing 2 for supporting a video display device. The system includes a retransmitter for receiving video, audio and/or control signals from an external source and retransmitting them to the video device.
US08125572B2
A system and method for configuring a video circuit into a low power consumption mode and a high power consumption mode. The system comprises an input signal detection circuit adapted to generate a first signal indicative of whether an input video signal is present at the input of the video circuit; an output load detection circuit adapted to generate a second signal indicative of whether a load is connected to the output of the video circuit; and a control device adapted to generate a third signal to control the power consumption mode of the video circuit in response to the first and second signals. The method entails detecting whether an input video signal is present; detecting whether the load is present; and configuring the video circuit for high power consumption if both the input video signal and the load are present, otherwise configuring the video circuit for low power consumption.
US08125564B2
A stabilized camera system has a roll frame formed as a parallelogram linkage and pivotably attached to a pan frame. A tilt frame is pivotably attached to the roll frame. Control circuits are provided to compensate for drift, to allow manual aiming of the camera during stabilized camera operation, and for providing rapid leveling. The stabilized camera system is compact with low moments of inertia to allow rapid movements.
US08125554B2
A viewfinder according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a display unit including a display surface on which a picture is displayed based on a picture signal supplied from an imaging apparatus; and an eyepiece unit, which is detachably attached to the display unit, configured to enlarge a picture displayed on the display surface to make the picture visually recognizable; wherein the display unit includes the display surface, a display control unit configured to display the picture on the display surface based on the picture signal, and a detecting unit configured to detect the presence/absence of attachment of the eyepiece unit; and wherein the display control unit is configured so as to laterally invert a picture to be displayed on the display surface based on the detection of the detecting unit, and also so as to change the brightness of a picture to be displayed on the display surface.
US08125553B2
An imaging apparatus is provided. The apparatus generally comprises an array and storage elements. The array includes photosensitive cells that are arranged in a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows such that each column includes a set of photosensitive cell pairs that have a shared region with a share floating diffusion region and a shared selection transistor. Also, the location of each shared region of each column is shifted by one row in each adjacent column.
US08125549B2
Example methods and apparatus to capture compressed images are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes capturing a first output of a first photodetector representative of a first weighted sum of the a plurality of portions of an image, capturing a second output of a second photodetector representative of a second weighted sum of a second plurality of portions of the image, and computing a first wavelet coefficient for the image using the first and second captured outputs.
US08125534B2
It is an object to provide an image pickup apparatus capable of changing over the operation mode between a magnification observation mode and a high-speed photographing mode without increasing the fabrication cost. An image processing apparatus includes a mode selection part which selects one of a magnification observation mode and a high-speed photographing mode, a frame-rate conversion part which performs processing for decreasing the frame rate of images created by image pickup, a volatile memory into which image data having a high frame rate from an image pickup part are written during recording operations in the high-speed photographing mode, a moving-image readout part which reads out image data from the volatile memory in reading out image data in the high-speed photographing mode, an image processing part which performs processing for adjusting luminance levels on image data subjected to the frame-rate conversion to create display data and, also, performs processing for adjusting luminance levels on image data read out from the volatile memory by the moving-image readout part, and a changeover part which connects the frame-rate conversion part or the moving-image readout part to the image processing part.
US08125531B2
A video signal combining apparatus comprises a video signal processing unit which is adapted to combine an output video image stream from two input image streams from first and second sources by dividing an image area of an image of said output video image stream into two regions and applying to said first region image information from said first source and applying to said second region image information from said second source, and a display unit for displaying at least one of said input and output video image streams, characterized in that the display unit is adapted to display a border between said first and second regions superimposed upon an image from one of said sources.
US08125529B2
Vehicles, such as vehicles in an open-pit mine, are visually tracked. The location of a vehicle is determined using radio frequency signals, such as pseudolite transmissions of ranging signals. The camera is steered based on the location. For example, multiple cameras are directed automatically on a vehicle based on the vehicle position. Images from a plurality of perspectives are provided to resolve or prevent a problem. The directing may include zooming for better viewing of vehicles at different distances from the camera. The directing may be incorporated into a vehicle management system, such as a dispatch system. For example, a user selects a vehicle from a list of managed vehicles or a displayed map, and the cameras are steered to view the selected vehicle based on the position of the vehicle.
US08125525B2
An information processing apparatus includes: a reception unit that receives multiple captured images that are captured with a capture device in parallel from an external apparatus to which the capture device that captures an object is connected; a detection unit that detects a priority image that is included in the multiple captured images being received by the reception unit and is assigned priority information that specifies the priority image to be preferentially displayed on a display device; and a controller that controls the reception unit to stop receiving other captured images which are not detected by the detection unit and to receive the priority image detected by the detection unit and controls the display device to display the priority image on the display device when the priority image is detected by the detection unit.
US08125524B2
A system, apparatus, and method are provided for a video detector that computes a measure of how much a given video content resembles one of a de-interlaced video content or a progressive video content. More particularly, the present invention determines the position of original and interpolated lines and the scaling factor of an input content whenever that content was scaled after de-interlacing.
US08125521B2
A technique of efficiently extracting and synthesizing an object image from a plurality of images captured at different image magnifications. An image processing method of the present invention includes the steps of generating a first background image corresponding to a first image captured at a predetermined image magnification, extracting a first object image from the first image, generating a second background image corresponding to a second image captured at an image magnification higher than the predetermined image magnification, based on the first background image and the first object image, and extracting a second object image from the second image and the second background image.
US08125517B2
A fingerprint authentication apparatus and a fingerprint authentication are provided. The fingerprint authentication apparatus is configured to prevent infection from viruses or bacteria and quickly and accurately perform fingerprint authentication. The fingerprint authentication apparatus includes an irradiation section that irradiates a mounting section when a finger is not detected to prevent infection.
US08125512B2
A system and method for automatically selecting an object from a field of view of a handheld image capture device. The system includes sensors configured to sense features of one or more objects in the field of view and a decision unit configured to automatically select one or more objects from the field of view based on the sensed features using a decision algorithm that is based on a decision structure, wherein the decision structure receives and prioritizes inputs from the sensors. The system may also optionally include an object movement detecting module configured to detect movement of objects, and a manual selection unit configured to provide user priorities; if included, the information from these elements may also be used by the decision unit to automatically select the object or objects.
US08125511B2
The invention provides a three-party video conference system and method. The three-party video conference system, according to the invention, uses a second terminal apparatus, which can transmit data in different protocols for receiving and transmitting the compressed digital signals transmitted from a first terminal apparatus and a third terminal apparatus. Therefore, even though the first terminal apparatus and the third terminal apparatus can not transmit compressed digital signals to each other with the same protocol, the user still can achieve three-party video conferencing communication with the three-party video conference system.
US08125506B2
An electro-optical device includes a potential generating circuit that generates a first power supply potential and a second power supply potential that is different from the first power supply potential; a first signal processing circuit that selectively outputs one of a first high potential and a first low potential according to a data signal at one of at least three levels; a second signal processing circuit that selectively outputs one of a second high potential that is different from the first high potential and a second low potential that is different from the first low potential according to the data signal; a first current source that generates a first current in accordance with an output of the first signal processing circuit and the first power supply potential; a second current source that generates a second current in accordance with an output of the second signal processing circuit and the second power supply potential; and an electro-optical element that provides a tone level according to the first current and the second current.
US08125497B2
A method for processing an image of a given file type is disclosed. The method involves converting the image into data formatted for a new pixel type, the new pixel type is closely correlated with and has all the components of pixels for the given file type. In addition, the method includes processing the data formatted in the new pixel type using standard image processing routines, these standard routines being designed for data having different components of pixels than the new pixel type and the given file type.
US08125495B2
Embodiments are configured to provide information for display. Various embodiments include processing functionality that can be used to efficiently process pixel data associated with video, graphical, and other information. The functionality can be used in conjunction with different hardware and/or software architectures and configurations. In an embodiment, a computing device includes functionality to use a distinct window having alpha and occlusion features that can be used when processing pixel data associated with user interface (UI) elements and video, but is not so limited. The computing device can use the distinct window to display user interface elements having different levels or amounts of transparency as part of video capture and playback operations.
US08125486B2
Images and video can be produced by compositing or alpha blending a group of image layers or video layers. Increasing resolution or the number of layers results in increased computational demands. As such, the available computational resources limit the images and videos that can be produced. A computational architecture in which the image layers are packetized and streamed through processors can be easily scaled so to handle many image layers and high resolutions. The image layers are packetized to produce packet streams. The packets in the streams are received, placed in queues, and processed. For alpha blending, ingress queues receive the packetized image layers which are then z sorted and sent to egress queues. The egress queue packets are alpha blended to produce an output image or video.
US08125484B2
A graphical user interface and method allows a user to interactively select an arterial input function. An anatomical image and time-course data corresponding to a selected region of interest are displayed simultaneously. The time-course data is displayed as an array of graphs, annotated with best-fit curves and parameters derived from fitting the time-course data. The region displayed in the graphs may be updated by panning and zooming with a mouse in the image. Time-course data corresponding to a graph is selected for use in deriving an arterial input function. The arterial input function is used to calculate maps of hemodynamic parameters.
US08125481B2
A computer-implemented imaging process method includes generating a progression of images of a three-dimensional model and saving the images at a determined location, generating mark-up code for displaying image manipulation controls and for permitting display of the progression of images in response to user interaction with the image manipulation controls, and providing the images and mark-up code for use by a third-party application.
US08125471B2
An image output apparatus includes: a display device having a light modulation section which is divided into a plurality of channels and drives the divided channels; a plurality of level adjusting units that are provided for each channel, adjust the levels of video input signals for each channel, and output adjusted output signals to the display device; an adjustment amount correcting unit that performs a basic correction process; a continuous correction control unit that controls the adjustment amount correcting unit to perform the basic correction process during a first predetermined period; and an intermittent correction control unit that controls the adjustment amount correcting unit to perform the basic correction process a predetermined number of times during a second predetermined period.
US08125470B2
There is provided an electron source including: an insulating substrate; a first wiring that is arranged on the insulating substrate; a second wiring that is arranged on the insulating substrate and intersects with the first wiring; and an electron-emitting device having a cathode electrode provided with an electron-emitting member and a gate electrode arranged above the cathode electrode, which is arranged on the insulating substrate and is separated from an intersecting portion of the first wiring with the second wiring; wherein the first wiring is arranged on the second wiring via an insulating layer; the gate electrode is provided with a plurality of slit-like openings that is arranged in substantially parallel at intervals; and the opening is arranged so that an extended line in a longitudinal direction thereof intersects with the first wiring.
US08125465B2
An image displaying system is provided, in which a touch panel comprises a transparent substrate with a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, a black matrix, a protection layer, at least one first transparent electrode, a planarization layer, a color filter and a common electrode. The black matrix is disposed on the second surface to define at least one transparent region. The protection layer is disposed on the black matrix and the transparent region, and the first transparent electrode is disposed on the protection layer and within the transparent region, wherein the first transparent electrode, the transparent substrate and an external electrode form a touch sensing capacitor. The planarization layer is disposed on the protection layer and the first transparent electrode, the color filter is disposed on the planarization layer, and the common electrode is disposed on the planarization layer and covering the color filter.
US08125460B2
A method for manufacturing a touch panel includes following steps. A substrate is used and an upper surface thereof is formed with a plurality of lower electrode units. A periphery of each lower electrode unit is formed with a gluing frame, and a periphery of the substrate is formed with a sealing frame. A panel layer is used and a lower surface thereof is formed with a plurality of upper electrode units. By the gluing frame and the sealing frame, the substrate and the panel layer are combined together as a combined plate. The combined plate is etched by solution of hydrofluoric acid. One or more than one function film is attached to a surface above each electrode unit. A cutter is used for cutting the panel layer from an upper side thereof and to form a trench, and the substrate is pressed along the trench of the substrate for separating the substrate into a plurality of independent touch panels along the predetermined cutting line.
US08125457B2
One embodiment receives a single click from a user to switch an electronic device between a mouse mode and a touch mode.
US08125455B2
Normalization of regions of a sensor panel capable of detecting multi-touch events, or a sensor panel capable of detecting multi-hover events, is disclosed to enable each sensor in the sensor panel to trigger a virtual button in a similar manner, given the same amount of touch or hover. Each sensor produces an output value proportional to the level or amount of touch or hover. However, due to processing, manufacturing and physical design differences, the sensor output values can vary from region to region or panel to panel for a given amount of touch or hover. To normalize the sensor output values across regions, gain and offset information can be obtained in advance, stored in nonvolatile memory, and later used to normalize the sensor output values so that all regions in the sensor panel can trigger virtual buttons similarly, providing a uniform “response function” at any location on the sensor panel.
US08125454B2
A resistive type touch panel includes a first substrate aligned to be facing a second substrate. The first substrate includes a first conductive layer and the second substrate includes a second conductive layer. A plurality of spacers each having a polygonal column shape are disposed between the first and second substrates in predetermined positions. The geometry and center-to-center spacing of the spacers minimizes detection of a distributed activation force applied to one of the first and second substrate while still providing sensitivity to detect concentrated application of an activation force to one of the first and second substrates.
US08125453B2
Systems and methods for providing haptic cues to a touch-sensitive input device having a rotary degree of freedom are described. One system described comprises a touch sensitive input device is configured to move in a rotary degree of freedom. The system further comprises an actuator configured to produce a rotational force on the touch-sensitive input device. In one such system, the actuator comprises an electromagnetic core configured to produce force on a magnet affixed to the touch-sensitive input device. In another such system, a motor provides the rotational force.
US08125445B1
Systems and methods for horizontal capacitively sensed pointing devices. Embodiments in accordance with the present invention capacitively sense planar movement with structures that are substantially perpendicular to the plane of movement. In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, a sensing mechanism for a pointing device operable to accept movement in a plane includes structures of the mechanism that are substantially perpendicular to the plane. The structures may include a parallel plate capacitor.
US08125439B2
A liquid crystal display apparatus includes: a liquid crystal panel having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix form; a back light having a plurality of light sources controlled individually in light emission luminance to supply light to the liquid crystal panel; an image processing unit configured to calculate luminance setting values respectively of the light sources of the back light and correct the video signal; a back light control unit configured to control the back light on the basis of luminance setting values; and a liquid crystal drive unit configured to drive the liquid crystal panel on the basis of the corrected video signal. In strength distribution of light incident, a relative strength compared with a direct component in spatial frequency domain is equal to or less than a first threshold in a spatial frequency region having a value of at least 1.
US08125434B2
A pixel (P) of a display (20) includes a memory element in a form of a ferroelectric thin film transistor (“TFT”) (60) and a display element (62) operably coupled to the ferroelectric TFT (60). The ferroelectric TFT (60) is set to a conductive state in response to a conductive row drive voltage and a conductive column drive voltage being applied to the ferroelectric TFT (60) during a beginning phase of the addressing period for the pixel (P). The ferroelectric TFT (60) facilitates a charging of the display element (62) in response a charging row drive voltage and a charging column drive voltage being applied to the ferroelectric TFT (60) during an intermediate phase of the addressing period for the pixel (P). The ferroelectric TFT (60) is reset to a non-conductive state in response to a non-conductive row drive voltage and a non-conductive column drive voltage being applied to the ferroelectric TFT (60) during an ending phase of the addressing period for the pixel (P).
US08125430B2
A display system that includes a liquid crystal element, a backlight, an adjustment unit, a light source control unit, and a liquid crystal control unit. The light source control unit operates the backlight to change a light source luminance level of light. The liquid crystal control unit operates a first plurality of pixels of the liquid crystal element to display normal information with a normal tone level. The liquid crystal control unit operates a second plurality of pixels of the liquid crystal element to display emphasis information with an emphasis tone level. When an adjustment value changes within a predetermined changeable range, the luminance level gradually changes with a change of the adjustment value, the normal tone level gradually changes with the change of the adjustment value, and simultaneously the emphasis tone level is maintained to correspond to brightness equal to or greater than brightness of the normal tone level.
US08125426B2
In an image displaying apparatus, first and second detecting units detect quantities of light propagating through a light path at two different locations. A variation calculating unit calculates the variation in the light quantity in the light path based on the quantities of light detected by each of the first and second detecting units. A controlling unit controls the quantity of light propagated to the screen if the variation in the light quantity exceeds a predetermined value.
US08125419B2
An electro-optical device includes a unit circuit and a signal generating circuit. The unit circuit includes a first element section that controls a first electro-optical element to a gradation level corresponding to a level of a data signal, and a second element section that controls a second electro-optical element to a gradation level corresponding to a level of a data signal. When data signals having an identical level are applied to the first element section and the second element section, the gradation level of the first electro-optical element is lower than the gradation level of the second electro-optical element. The signal generating circuit generates data signals having different levels according to a gradation value specified for the unit circuit. When the gradation value is within a first gradation range, the signal generating circuit applies to the first element section a data signal whose level is determined so that the first electro-optical element is controlled to a gradation level corresponding to the gradation value. When the gradation value is within a second gradation range higher than the first gradation range, the signal generating circuit applies to the second element section a data signal whose level is determined so that the second electro-optical element is controlled to a gradation level corresponding to the gradation value.
US08125418B2
A passive-matrix display device having a plurality of chiplets, each chiplet associated with one or more independent column electrodes located in the display area, each chiplet electrically connected to and driving a separate subset of the independent column electrodes and electrically connected to and driving a subset of the row electrodes to cause the light-emitting material in each pixel to emit light, wherein each chiplet includes a serial luminance shift register for shifting pixel luminance values corresponding to each independent column electrode from one chiplet to another and a column driver for driving each of the independent column electrodes to which it is connected with the corresponding pixel luminance values; and wherein each chiplet further includes a row driver for driving each corresponding row electrode to which it is connected and a row control shift register for controlling the row drivers.
US08125396B2
A handheld electronic device comprising an appearance provided with a containing space for disposing a communication module and a substrate having a ground plane; an antenna disposed on a surface of the appearance; and, a first fastening element and a second fastening element for fixing the appearance and the substrate. The first fastening element and the second fastening element electrically connect the antenna to the ground plane and the communication module.
US08125383B2
A positioning method includes (a) adding cumulatively each of an I component and a Q component of a received signal of a positioning signal per polarity, the positioning signal being spread-modulated with a spread code reversed in polarity by a navigation data, (b) calculating sum of squares of the results of the cumulative addition in step (a), (c) executing correlation calculation of the sum of squares calculated in step (b) with a replica code of the spread code, and (d) executing predetermined positioning calculation based on the result of the correlation calculation in step (c) to perform positioning of the present location.
US08125376B1
A handheld GNSS device for determining position data for a point of interest is provided. The device includes a housing, handgrips integral to the housing for enabling a user to hold the device, and a display screen integral with the housing for displaying image data and orientation data to assist a user in positioning the device. The device further includes a GNSS antenna and at least one communication antenna, both integral with the housing. The GNSS antenna receives position data from a plurality of satellites. One or more communication antennas receive positioning assistance data related to the position data from a base station. The GNSS antenna has a first antenna pattern, and the at least one communication antenna has a second antenna pattern. The GNSS antenna and the communication antenna(s) are configured such that the first and second antenna patterns are substantially separated. Coupled to the GNSS antenna, within the housing, is at least one receiver. Further, the device includes, within the housing, orientation circuitry for generating orientation data of the housing based upon a position of the housing related to the horizon, imaging circuitry for obtaining image data concerning the point of interest for display on the display screen, and positioning circuitry, coupled to the at least one receiver, the imaging circuitry, and the orientation circuitry, for determining a position for the point of interest based on at least the position data, the positioning assistance data, the orientation data, and the image data.
US08125370B1
A method is provided for processing an acquired polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image of a region to identify a candidate pixel that correlates to a target representation. The polarimetric SAR image is composed of a plurality of pixels, and the candidate pixel corresponds to a position in the region that contains a candidate object. The process includes deconstructing J parameter components each sample, obtaining acquired values for the image from select parameter components, acquiring reference values that characterize said parameter components for the target representation, determining distance values each reference value and each acquired value, comparing the distance values against a classification criterion to determine whether the candidate pixel conforms to the target representative. The process may further include extracting N sub-apertures from the polarimetric SAR image, and combining the distance values for the sub-apertures together to obtain distance summations for comparison. The process may additionally include multiplying the distance summations with their corresponding weighting factors to obtain weighted results and combining these to produce a weighted log-likelihood function that identifies whether the pixel conforms to the target. Determining a difference may further include subtracting reference values from their respective acquired values to respectively obtain set of differences, assigning normalized defaults to the differences in response to the difference having a specified relation to parameter thresholds, and otherwise normalizing the difference, and determining natural logs of unity minus said each difference to obtain their distance values.
US08125367B2
A readout circuit which may be in the form of a readout integrated circuit or ROIC is disclosed for use in an AM chirp LADAR system having a photodetector coupled to a passive electronic filter. The filter output is coupled to a capacitive-coupled transimpedance amplifier with an output coupled to an analog storage register. The analog storage register output is coupled to a sample-and-hold circuit which in turn is coupled to an analog to digital converter circuit. In the stacked configuration, each IC operates independently and outputs its signals on a unique output line. The stacked ICs operate under the same set of control vectors as the individual ICs comprising the stack.
US08125365B2
A generation method of an analogue signal generated by a PWM signal whose cyclic ratio and period are parametrizable is discussed. It is thus possible choose the pair formed from the cyclic ratio and the period producing an analogue value that is the closest to the value corresponding to the programmed command value. But the differences between the analogue values can be very great and generate zones of imprecision of variable width. Outside of these zones, the generated analogue signal is very precise. Therefore, when the command value associated with a pair is imprecise, a digital shift is applied to the command value at the same time as the application of an analogue shift means. Both shifts have the same amplitude and of opposite directions such that the cancel each other out, producing a precise analogue value. A device for generating an analogue signal implementing the method is also discussed.
US08125359B2
According to an embodiment, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) including an ADC unit, a clock-phase control unit, a multiplexer, and a digital-output processing unit is provided. The digital-output processing unit inputs digital outputs of the ADC unit to either an averaging circuit or the multiplexer depending on the specified conversion speed and the specified conversion accuracy, or inputs the digital outputs of the ADC unit to the averaging circuit and the multiplexer in this order, and outputs ADC digital signals with the specified conversion speed and the specified conversion accuracy.
US08125356B2
An electronic device providing number input is an input combination of a number input system. The number input system comprises three horizontal elements and four vertical elements arranged in the shape of the number “8.” The electronic device provides a mechanism for a user to input numbers by pressing combinations of the elements.
US08125349B2
The invention relates to a warning system (04) for protection from wrong-way drivers (11), in particular on freeways and expressways, wherein a warning and/or alarming of a vehicle traveling contrary to the prescribed travel direction is performed using a warning signal, and wherein the warning signal is an optical and/or acoustic warning signal (09, 10).
US08125332B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed for a wireless device locator system and determining whether a device has entered or exited a two dimensional geographic zone area and alerting the device user when the device has entered or exited the zone. The method and apparatus may further minimize the probability of false zone entry and exit zone area alerts to wireless tracking device users.
US08125327B2
Vehicle brake lights, hazard lights, bicycle lights, and safety lights for pedestrians, walkers, and runners. The human eye perceives light differently depending on its frequency (or wavelength) relative to the condition or degree of ambient lighting. Moreover, the human visual system perceives changes more readily than a static scene or state. Additionally, light in the green/blue part of the visual spectrum is perceived with much greater apparent intensity compared to red, particularly in low ambient light conditions. Accordingly, a lighting system and method that includes using brake lights that provide continuous changes in color during deceleration and, moreover, that uses blue, green, blue-green, yellow-green, and amber (or yellow) light or combinations thereof.
US08125325B2
An integrated driving assistance apparatus is provided, which is installed in a vehicle with a headlight, a turn signal light, and a side-view mirror. The integrated driving assistance apparatus includes a detector, an infrared emitter, an image sensor, and an image processor. The detector is configured to detect whether the headlight and the turn signal light are turned on or off respectively. The infrared emitter is located on the side-view mirror and irradiates infrared rays when the detector detects that the headlight is turned on. The image sensor is located on the side-view mirror for capturing an image of an area beside the vehicle. The image processor is coupled to the image sensor and the detector and configured to receive and process the image to generate a warning signal. When the detector detects that the turn signal light is turned off, the image processor processes the image for a lane deviation alarm, and when the detector detects that the turn signal light is turned on, the image processor processes the image for a blind spot detection alarm.
US08125324B2
One embodiment of the present subject matter includes a battery mounted to a vehicle, with a charge state circuit located in the electric vehicle and coupled to the battery, the charge state circuit configured to provide a charge state signal indicative of the charge state of the battery. The embodiment includes a charging coupler port located proximate to a user accessible exterior of the electrical vehicle and coupled to the battery, the charging coupler port to conduct charging energy to the battery and to provide a charger connection signal indicative of a connection to an external power source. The embodiment also includes a lighting circuit coupled to the charging coupler port and the charge state circuit to control the brightness and color of an illuminated indicator responsive to the charge state signal and the charger connection signal.
US08125312B2
The invention relates to a system and method for unlocking and unlocking access to a device. In the system, an access management system for an electronic device is provided. The system comprises: a sensor providing a tap signal; a monitoring circuit connected to the sensor to process aspects of the tap signal; and an access management module operating on the device receiving the tap signal from the monitoring circuit to evaluate the tap signal against a preset tap pattern and to change an access state of the device if the tap signal completes a match for the tap pattern.
US08125310B2
A method for providing a user interface for an industrial control system. Information is presented at least in part displayed in layers or filters on one or more display screens of a control system. The control system may include other media for presenting or displaying information. The content for the one or more layers, which also provide an interface to a process state or function, is determined based on information available from the control system, dependent on which of the available items of the information shall be visually displayed or otherwise presented prominently, or displayed less prominently, or hidden. An interface, computer programs and a control system are also provided.
US08125306B2
A transformer set includes a first bobbin piece, a second bobbin piece, a third bobbin piece, a fourth bobbin piece and a magnetic core assembly. The second bobbin piece has a first pin and a second pin. A first terminal of a first secondary winding coil is fixed on the first pin, then the first secondary winding coil is successively wound on the second bobbin piece and returned back, and a second terminal of the first secondary winding coil is fixed on the second pin. The fourth bobbin piece has a third pin and a fourth pin. A first terminal of a second secondary winding coil is fixed on the third pin, then the second secondary winding coil is successively wound on the fourth bobbin piece and returned back, and a second terminal of the second secondary winding coil is fixed on the fourth pin.
US08125300B2
An electric filter has a band-pass filter that includes a track with acoustically coupled electroacoustic transducers. The filter includes a band-stop filter with at least one electroacoustic series element and at least one electroacoustic parallel element. The series element of the band-stop filter is connected in series to at least one of the transducers of the band-pass filter. The parallel element of the band-stop filter is arranged in a shunt arm that is electrically connected to at least one of the transducers of the band-pass filter. In at least one of the electroacoustic elements of the band-stop filter, the resonance frequency and the anti-resonance frequency lie outside the passband of the band-pass filter.
US08125284B2
Techniques of compensating frequency in an output in reference to a reference frequency signal are disclosed. The reference frequency signal may be from a crystal oscillator or other oscillators. Due to the changes of the temperature, the reference frequency signal drifts. According to one aspect of the techniques, a temperature frequency correction word is generated in accordance with a frequency compensation value in view of a current temperature to generate a substantially temperature compensated frequency output from a reference frequency signal. The frequency control word is produced from a successive approximation circuit configured to produce the temperature frequency correction word in accordance with the frequency compensation value in view of the current temperature. Both the temperature frequency correction word and a frequency control word are data represented in a sequence of bits. As a result, the compensated frequency output can be of high precision.
US08125281B2
To provide a resonator that includes a resonant tunneling diode that can generate an electromagnetic wave. In the resonator, the resonant tunneling diode and a resistor layer are sandwiched between first and second conductors in a direction approximately perpendicular to the in-plane direction of the resonant tunneling diode. Further, the in-plane cross-sectional area of the resistor layer is larger than that of the resonant tunneling diode. Further, the width of the in-plane cross-sectional area of the resistor layer is more than twice as large as the skin depth of an electromagnetic wave to be caused to resonate.
US08125272B1
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a first amplification block configured to receive a signal. A second amplification block is configured to output the signal where the outputted signal is amplified. The isolation circuit allows reuse of a current flowing through the second amplification block by coupling the current to pass through the first amplification block. Also, the isolation circuit provides isolation between the first amplification block and the second amplification block to restrict the signal from flowing through the isolation circuit.
US08125262B2
An integrator is described that may include a level-shifting capacitor, a feedback capacitor, a pre-amplifier stage and a multi-path amplifier module. The integrator may have inputs for connected an input signal source to the level-shifting capacitor. The level-shifting capacitor is connected to an input of a pre-amplifier stage of an integration signal path and to the input. The level-shifting capacitor may level shift the voltage at the input of the circuit to a lower voltage at the input of the pre-amplifier stage. Thereby, the supply voltage to the pre-amplifier stage may be reduced as well as have limited power consumption, limited temperature rise, and reduced noise that may be attributed to any thermal effects.
US08125260B2
Phase mixers, clock signal generators, memories and methods for providing an output signal having a phase relative to the phase difference of input clock signals are disclosed. One such phase mixer includes a phase mixer circuit having inputs and an output. The phase mixer is configured to receive a plurality of input clock signals and generate an output clock signal at the output having a phase relative to the plurality of input clock signals. The phase mixer further includes an adjustment circuit coupled to the phase mixer circuit. In some phase mixers, a control circuit coupled to the phase mixer circuit and the adjustment circuit is included. The control circuit is configured to generate a control signal based on the input signals to adjust an electrical load-to-drive ratio of the phase mixer.
US08125243B1
Methods and a system for continuous integrity checking of configuration data of programmable device are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes performing a redundancy check (RC) of configuration data loaded to configuration registers to produce a master RC data. The method further includes iteratively comparing a current RC data obtained by performing the redundancy check (RC) of current configuration data of the configuration registers with the master RC data until there is a mismatch between the current RC data and the master RC data. Additionally, the method includes performing an exception event in response to the mismatch.
US08125240B2
The invention relates to an interfacing device for transmission through interconnections used for sending a plurality of electrical signals.The interfacing device of the invention comprises signal terminals and a common terminal. A transmitting circuit receives the input signals of the transmitting circuit coming from a source and delivers, when the transmitting circuit is in the activated state, currents to the signal terminals, each of the currents being mainly determined by one or more of the input signals of the transmitting circuit, one or more of the currents being not mainly determined by only one of the input signals of the transmitting circuit. The balancing circuit is such that, when the transmitting circuit is in the activated state, the current flowing out of the common terminal approximates the opposite of the sum of the currents flowing out of the signal terminals.
US08125231B2
A capacitance-to-voltage interface circuit is utilized to obtain a voltage corresponding to a detected capacitance differential, which may be associated with the operation of a capacitive sensing cell. The interface circuit includes a capacitive sensing cell, an operational amplifier adapted for selective coupling to the capacitive sensing cell, a feedback capacitor for the operational amplifier, a load capacitor for the operational amplifier, and a switching architecture associated with the capacitive sensing cell, the operational amplifier, the feedback capacitor, and the load capacitor. During use, the switching architecture reconfigures the capacitance-to-voltage interface circuit for operation in a plurality of different phases. The different operational phases enable the single operational amplifier to be used for both capacitance-to-voltage conversion and voltage amplification.
US08125229B2
A battery testing and charging system that includes at least one battery testing device and at least one battery charging device, wherein the battery testing device is removable from the battery charging device and wherein the battery testing device may communicate with a plurality of battery charging devices. Also, a method of testing and charging a battery that may be implemented using, for example, the above-described battery testing and charging system.
US08125228B2
The present invention is directed to an electrical wiring device that includes at least one sensor that provides a sensor output signal corresponding to electrical perturbations propagating on the plurality of line terminals or the plurality of load terminals. A protective circuit assembly configured to detect a fault condition when the sensor output signal substantially corresponds to at least one predetermined fault criterion and generate a trip actuation signal in response thereto. A solenoid coil is configured to generate a trip actuation force in response to the trip actuation signal. A circuit interrupter assembly includes movable contacts configured to be driven into a tripped state in response to the trip actuation force. An automatic fault simulation circuit is configured to generate a self-test signal without execution of software code. The self-test signal is generated such that it is sensed by the at least one sensor if the at least one sensor is operational. An end-of-life detection circuit is coupled to the protective circuit assembly. The end-of-life detection circuit is configured to monitor the protective circuit assembly without execution of software code. The end-of-life detection circuit is configured to substantially inhibit the trip actuation force when the protective circuit assembly detects the fault condition and generates the trip actuation signal in response to the self-test signal. The end-of-life detection circuit is configured to generate an end-of-life response if the protective circuit assembly does not respond to the self-test signal within a predetermined period of time.
US08125220B2
A magnetic induction tomography system and method for studying the electromagnetic properties of an object includes generator coils adapted for generating a primary magnetic field, and sensor coils adapted for sensing a secondary magnetic field. Actuators provide relative movement between the generator coils and/or the sensor coils on the one hand and the object to be studied on the other hand.
US08125217B2
An AMR array magnetic position sensing method and system for improving sensor-to-magnet carrier misposition. A magnetic carrier can be provided, which maintains two or more magnets with angled magnetic vectors position above an array of AMR array sensors. The magnet carrier can then be passed over the AMR array sensors to generate an output signal having less susceptibility to variations in air gap because the angles of flux lines generated by the magnets do not change much with air gap variation. The AMR array sensors are generally sensitive to variation in a direction being sensed, because a constant magnetic field angle sensed by AMR runners located on the AMR array sensors do not change with respect to variation in other directions.
US08125214B1
The invention relates to methods and devices for accurately monitoring the electrical current in electrolytic cells used to produce metals, including but not limited to aluminum, or other chemical substances. A plurality of sensors are placed at some distance from the conductor, with at least two sensors at a known distance from each other. Measurements from the plurality of sensors are used to calculate the electrical current.
US08125211B2
An apparatus and method for testing driver write-ability strength on an integrated circuit includes one or more drive detection units each including a number of drivers. At least some of the drivers may have a different drive strength and each may drive a voltage onto a respective driver output line. Each drive detection unit may include a number of keeper circuits, each coupled to a separate output line and configured to retain a given voltage on the output line to which it is coupled. Each detection unit may also include a number of detection circuits coupled to detect the drive voltage on each of the output lines. In one implementation, the drive voltage appearing at the output line of each driver may be indicative of that the driver was able to overdrive the voltage being retained on the output line to which it is coupled by the respective keeper circuits.
US08125205B2
A power converter includes a power train with a coupled inductor and a plurality of regulators, and method of forming and operating the same. In one embodiment, the power train includes a coupled inductor including a magnetic core with a common leg, a first leg and a second leg. The coupled inductor also includes a common winding formed around the common leg, and first and second windings. The first winding is formed around the first leg, and is electrically and magnetically coupled to the common winding. The second winding is formed around the second leg, and is electrically and magnetically coupled to the common winding. The power train also includes a first regulator including a first main switch coupled to the first winding and a second regulator including a second main switch coupled to the second winding.
US08125201B2
The DC-DC converter (21) is for integration in a low power transceiver (100). The converter is able to supply an output voltage that is higher than the input voltage. The converter includes two distinct variable voltage regulator circuits (3 and 4). The first variable voltage regulator circuit (3) is arranged to operate at a first frequency and a second variable voltage regulator circuit (4) is arranged to operate at a second frequency, which is lower than the first frequency. The converter further includes switching means connected to each variable voltage regulator circuit for selecting one of the two regulator circuits to switch on.
US08125197B2
Disclosed are a switch controller, a switch control method, and a converter based thereon. The switch controller generates an input sensing voltage corresponding to the input voltage of the converter, and compares the input sensing voltage with a predetermined first reference value. The switch controller generates a zero cross detection signal with a first level or a second level depending upon the comparison result, and generates a reference clock signal varying in frequency in accordance with one cycle of the zero cross detection signal. The switch controller generates digital signals by using the reference clock signal and the zero cross detection signal. The digital signals synchronize with the zero cross detection signal, and increase in accordance with the reference clock signal during a half of one cycle of the zero cross detection signal, while decreasing in accordance with the reference clock signal during the other half cycle of the zero cross detection signal. The switch controller generates a reference signal with a voltage level corresponding to the digital signal.
US08125184B2
A power interface enables a low-power device to be powered from an alternating current (AC) wall receptacle or light socket with automatic backup battery charging. The power interface of an embodiment comprises a transformer module that receives an input signal. The device includes a battery module coupled to the transformer module, and the battery module includes battery charging circuitry coupled to a battery. The device comprises an output controller coupled to the transformer module and the battery module. The output controller includes detector circuitry that detects a state of the input signal. The output controller automatically controls coupling of one of a transformer module output and a battery module output to a device output according to the state of the input signal.
US08125172B2
This invention generally relates to automated shade systems. An automated shade system comprises one or more motorized window coverings, sensors, and controllers that use one or more algorithms to control operation of the automated shade control system. These algorithms may include information such as: 3-D models of a building and surrounding structures; shadow information; reflectance information; lighting and radiation information; ASHRAE clear sky algorithms; log information related to manual overrides; occupant preference information; motion information; real-time sky conditions; solar radiation on a building; a total foot-candle load on a structure; brightness overrides; actual and/or calculated BTU load; time-of-year information; and microclimate analysis.
US08125171B2
A method for operating an electric machine with a driver system is provided, in which an operating variable of the electric machine and/or of the driver system is monitored. The validity of the input variables is checked with regard to their checksum and whether the input variables are up-to-date, and the permissibility of an actual moment (Mist2) of the electric machine depending on the operating state of the electric machine is checked. In case of invalid input variables or invalidity of the actual moment (Mist2), a fault reaction is initiated. In addition, the implementability of the planned change of rotary speed is checked and, in case of non-implementability, changed over into a more favorable mode of operation of the electric machine. An electric machine used as a starter/generator in a motor vehicle can be monitored.
US08125164B2
Apparatus, methods, and computer storage media provide for the establishment of a parallel motor controller architecture and the dynamic reconfiguration of the architecture to redirect power to various motors according to the changing power load requirements of the motors. According to embodiments described herein, the present power load requirement for each motor of a group of motors is determined. The number of motor controllers to connect to each motor to provide the present power load requirement is then determined. A power switching network that connects the motor controllers to the motors is configured to connect the determined number of motor controllers to the corresponding motors. As the power load requirements of the motors changes, the power switching network is dynamically reconfigured to redirect power accordingly.
US08125161B2
The present invention relates to a light emitting device (LED) driving apparatus that constantly maintains the average current flowing onto a plurality of channels. The light emitting device (LED) driving apparatus includes: a LED light source unit in which at least one LED channel is connected in parallel; at least one current detector that is disposed on a low end of a LED channel of the LED light source unit to detect the current flowing onto respective LED channels; at least one channel current controller that generates control signal controlling the average current of the channels by comparing current detected from the channels with reference wave; and a switching element that controls the average current of the LED channels in a PWM scheme according to the control signals.
US08125159B2
In a device for driving LEDs with variable light intensity, a supply stage has a first operating mode, in which a controlled supply current is generated, and a second operating mode, in which a controlled supply voltage is generated. A LED is connected to the supply stage, receives the controlled supply current or voltage, and has a turning-on threshold voltage higher than the controlled supply voltage. A current sensor generates a current-feedback signal that is correlated to the current flowing in the LED and is supplied to the supply stage in the first operating mode. An intensity-control stage generates a mode-control signal that is sent to the supply stage and controls sequential switching between the first and the second operating modes of the supply stage.
US08125156B2
A circuit arrangement for operating at least one high-pressure discharge lamp (16), has four switches (Q1 to Q4) in a full-bridge arrangement (14), a first and a second switch (Q1, Q2) forming the first half-bridge arm, and a third and a fourth switch (Q3, Q4) forming the second half-bridge arm, at least two terminals for coupling the high-pressure discharge lamp (16) between the midpoint of the first and the second half-bridge arms, at least two terminals for supplying the circuit arrangement (10) with a dc voltage signal and a drive circuit (20) for driving the four switches (Q1 to Q4). The drive circuit (20) is designed to provide drive signals, (z1(t), z2(t), z1(t), z2(t)) for the four switches (Q1 to Q4), whose clock pulse (ft) is swept between a first and a second frequency, and whose pulse width and/or phase is modulated with a prescribable third frequency (fa).
US08125151B2
In a high-pressure discharge lamp that includes a bulb formed from a light emitting part having a discharge space therein and a pair of sealing parts connected to the light emitting part, and an electrode pair disposed within the discharge space, a section of a proximity conductor is wound substantially spirally around one of the sealing parts within a predetermined range from the light emitting part, while the remaining section of the proximity conductor crosses over the light emitting part and is electrically connected to the electrode nearer the other sealing part. By initiating a discharge after applying a high-frequency voltage of 1 kHz to 1 MHz to a high-pressure mercury lamp having this structure, the breakdown voltage can be suppressed to at least 8 kV.
US08125149B2
A plasma display panel includes a pair of substrates which are opposite to each other and one of which includes display electrodes (6) and a dielectric layer (8) formed thereon, and the display electrodes (6) are made of a glass material containing 0.1 wt % to 5 wt % of at least one oxide of molybdenum, cerium, copper, tin, manganese, ruthenium, antimony, and iron.
US08125141B2
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device includes a first substrate main body divided into a plurality of pixel areas, and a non-pixel area respectively disposed between each of the plurality of pixel areas; a plurality of organic light emitting elements formed in each of the plurality of pixel areas; a second substrate main body disposed to face to the plurality of organic light emitting elements with a vacuumed space therebetween; and a selective light absorbing layer formed on a major surface of the second substrate main body and the selective light absorbing layer facing toward the non-pixel area, and the selective light absorbing layer selectively absorbing light of a color that corresponds to a major color component among color components of external incident light reflected at one of the plurality of organic light emitting elements neighboring the non-pixel area.
US08125140B2
An organic light emitting display includes an anode; an organic layer on the anode; and a cathode on the organic layer. The cathode includes a first region and a second region which are sequentially disposed on the organic layer in parallel. The first and second regions are formed by doping a metal oxide on an indium oxide matrix. The doping density of the metal oxide of the first region is greater than that of the second region, the metal oxide of the first region has a density gradient, and the density of the metal oxide in a boundary surface of the first and second regions is the same. An organic light emitting display according to the present invention can increase light emitting efficiency without using a resonance structure.
US08125137B2
A multi-chip lighting emitting device (LED) lamp for providing white light includes a submount including first and second die mounting regions thereon. A first LED chip is mounted on the first die mounting region, and a second LED chip is mounted on the second die mounting region. The LED lamp is configured to emit light having a spectral distribution including at least four different color peaks to provide the white light. For example, a first conversion material may at least partially cover the first LED chip, and may be configured to absorb at least some of the light of the first color and re-emit light of a third color. In addition, a second conversion material may at least partially cover the first and/or second LED chips, and may be configured to absorb at least some of the light of the first and/or second colors and re-emit light of a fourth color. Related light fixtures and methods are also discussed.
US08125129B2
The invention relates to working electrode for an electrodynamic fragmenting installation. The working electrode comprises an insulator (1) with a central conductor (2), which axially passes through the insulator (1) and carries at its working end an electrode tip (3) which is formed by an exchangeable changing part (4) and adjoins a stop area (6) of the central conductor (2) with a contact area (5) under axial compressive prestress.The invention makes it possible to provide working electrodes for electrodynamic fragmenting installations in which the electrode tips can be exchanged in a simple manner and which can be operated practically without maintenance over a long period of time even in case of great pressure pulsations.
US08125126B2
A multi-facet light emitting lamp including a first light source plate, a second light source plate, and a plurality of airflow channels is provided. The first light source plate has at least one first connecting terminal. The second light source plate has at least one second connecting terminal. The first connecting terminal is connected with the second connecting terminal, and an inner space is formed between the first light source plate and the second light source plate. The inner space and a space outside the multi-facet light emitting lamp are connected by the airflow channels.
US08125117B2
An electric motor includes: a rotor; a stator; and brush gear. The rotor has a shaft, a rotor core and a commutator fitted to the shaft. The rotor core has 5n teeth, n being a positive integer. Two coils are wound on each tooth with each coil being wound about a single tooth and having two ends. The commutator has 10n bars forming a brush contact surface. The stator includes a yoke and a plurality of permanent magnets installed at an inner surface of the yoke and facing the rotor core. The ends of the two coils wound on each tooth are respectively connected to two pairs of adjacent bars and the center line between one pair of the two pairs of adjacent bars and the center line between the other pair of the two pairs of adjacent bars are diametrically opposed.
US08125110B2
An engine driven generator (17) is provided with first and second stage fans (41,42) at one end thereof. The two-stage fan system draws in ambient air and forces it through the generator windings (38) and rotor-stator air gap (37,39) for the purpose of improving generator cooling. Stationary guide vanes (49) are disposed between the two fans (41,42) for the purpose of de-swirling the flow therebetween. The fans are of the centrifugal type and are preferably backward curved.
US08125108B2
A control part for causing transmission of a remote control signal from a transmission part according to a resistance of a pressure-sensitive conductive contact part causes periodic transmission of a repetition signal, when the resistance of the pressure-sensitive conductive contact part is kept constant. Thus, when an operating body is continuously held down with a constant force and the resistance of the pressure-sensitive conductive contact part is kept constant, the control part causes periodic transmission of the repetition signal having a smaller number of pulses, at predetermined intervals. With such an operation, a remote control transmitter capable of reducing power consumption is provided.
US08125105B2
A power supply device comprises a bidirectional voltage converter unit that performs voltage stepping up or voltage stepping down between a first terminal and a second terminal; a first switching unit that applies a DC voltage obtained from the first electric power supply source to the first terminal; a second switching unit that applies a DC voltage obtained from the second electric power supply source to the first terminal; a third switching unit that applies a DC voltage obtained from the first electric power supply source to the second terminal; an output unit that outputs a predetermined DC voltage from the second terminal; and a switching control unit that controls switching of the first switching unit, the second switching unit and the third switching unit.
US08125101B1
A digitally encoded vehicle lamp switch system provided that supplies signals for controlling the lighting functions of a vehicle. The lamp switch system includes a multi-position switch circuit having a plurality of contacts. The multi-position switch contacts selectively connect a plurality of circuit connections of a vehicle lamp control module microprocessor to ground or open circuit conditions to provide digitally encoded signals to the microprocessor to selectively illuminate the vehicle lamps.
US08125089B2
An improved photoconductive switch having a SIC or other wide band gap substrate material, such as GaAs and field-grading liners composed of preferably SiN formed on the substrate adjacent the electrode perimeters or adjacent the substrate perimeters for grading the electric fields.
US08125084B2
A semiconductor device according to the present invention includes: a semiconductor substrate; a first copper interconnection provided on the semiconductor substrate; an insulating layer provided over the first copper interconnection and having a hole extending therethrough to the first copper interconnection; a barrier layer composed of a tantalum-containing material and covering at least a sidewall of the hole and a part of the first copper interconnection exposed in the hole; and a second copper interconnection provided in intimate contact with the barrier layer and electrically connected to the first copper interconnection via the barrier layer; wherein the barrier layer has a nitrogen concentration profile such that the concentration of nitrogen contained in the material varies to be lower in a boundary portion of the barrier layer adjacent to the first copper interconnection and in a boundary portion of the barrier layer adjacent to the second copper interconnection and higher in an intermediate portion of the barrier layer defined between the boundary portions.
US08125080B2
Provided are semiconductor power module packages, which are structurally simplified by bonding electrodes onto substrates, and methods of fabricating the same. An exemplary package includes a substrate and semiconductor chips disposed on a top surface of the substrate. Electrodes are bonded to the top surface of the substrate and electrically coupled to the semiconductor chips. Parts of the semiconductor chips are electrically coupled to parts of the electrodes by interconnection lines. An encapsulation unit covers the semiconductor chips, the electrodes, and the interconnection lines and exposes at least top surfaces of the electrodes.
US08125070B2
A semiconductor component has at least one semiconductor chip in which an electrical circuit is integrated. The semiconductor chip is surrounded by an electrically insulating encapsulating compound and has on its surface at least one termination surface for a test signal, which is covered by the encapsulating compound. The termination surface is connected in an electrically conductive manner to an analysis contact that projects above the surface of the semiconductor chip, that is located in the interior of the encapsulating compound at a distance from its exterior surface, and that can be exposed by removing a layer of the encapsulating compound located near the exterior.
US08125066B1
An integrated circuit (IC) package is disclosed. The IC package has an IC chip disposed on a top surface of a package substrate. Multiple solder balls are placed on the top surface of a package substrate, surrounding the IC chip. A molding compound covers the top surface area of the package substrate and surrounds the IC chip and each of the solder balls on the surface of the package substrate, leaving the top of each of the solder balls exposed. The embedded solder balls on the top surface of the package substrate may be used to connect the IC package to another IC package that may be placed directly on top of it. The solder balls may also be used to connect the IC package to another package substrate or an interposal substrate that may in turn be connected to another IC chip or package.
US08125064B1
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor package and a fabrication method thereof. The semiconductor package is provided with a substrate made of metal, thereby improving efficiency of thermal emission from a semiconductor die mounted to the substrate, and simplifying the fabrication process for the substrate which reduces fabricating costs. Further, unlike a conventional land, a rivet electrically insulated with the substrate is inserted into a corresponding hole of the substrate, the upper and lower surfaces of the rivet being removed to form land, thereby simplifying the fabrication process for the substrate which further reduces fabricating costs.
US08125055B2
Metallized through silicon vias located in the scribe lanes between die are used to create an electrical connection between the front-side and the rear-side of a silicon die. One of the metallization layers on the front-side of the die comprises portions which extend into the scribe lanes to form capture pads for the through silicon vias. The rear-side of the wafer is metallized and this metallization may, in some embodiments, be patterned to form tracks or components. The silicon die may be used to create improved package on package devices. In other examples, other substrate materials may be used.
US08125052B2
An integrated circuit structure includes a semiconductor chip comprising a plurality of dielectric layers, wherein the plurality of dielectric layers includes a top dielectric layer; and a first seal ring adjacent edges of the semiconductor chip. The integrated circuit structure further includes a first passivation layer over a top dielectric layer; and a trench extending from a top surface of the first passivation layer into the first passivation layer, wherein the trench substantially forms a ring. Each side of the ring is adjacent to a respective edge of the semiconductor chip. At least one of the plurality of vias has a width greater than about 70 percent of a width of a respective overlying metal line in the plurality of metal lines.
US08125046B2
Micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices and methods of manufacture thereof are disclosed. In one embodiment, a MEMS device includes a semiconductive layer disposed over a substrate. A trench is disposed in the semiconductive layer, the trench with a first sidewall and an opposite second sidewall. A first insulating material layer is disposed over an upper portion of the first sidewall, and a conductive material disposed within the trench. An air gap is disposed between the conductive material and the semiconductive layer.
US08125036B2
The Examiner objected to the abstract of the disclosure because it contains the phrase “comprising.”The Abstract does not include the phrase “comprising,” however, please amend the abstract as follows:An integrated circuit having a semiconductor component arrangement and production method is disclosed. The integrated circuit as described includes an oxide layer region is provided as a protection against oxidation in the edge region on the surface region of an underlying semiconductor material region.
US08125028B2
Semiconductor devices for high voltage application are presented. A high power semiconductor device includes a first type doped semiconductor substrate and a second type doped epitaxial layer deposited thereon. A first type doped body region is disposed in the second type doped epitaxial layer. A heavily doped drain region is formed in the second type doped epitaxial layer and isolated from the first type doped body region with an isolation region and a channel. A second type deep heavily doped region extends from the heavily doped drain region to the semiconductor substrate. A pair of inversed type heavily doped source regions is disposed in the first type doped body region. A gate electrode is disposed overlying the channel with a dielectric layer interposed therebetween. The high power semiconductor device is isolated from the other semiconductor devices with a first type deep heavily doped region.
US08125011B2
Magnetoelectronic devices are fabricated by joining the edge of one ferromagnetic thin film element with the top, or bottom, portion of a second ferromagnetic, or nonmagnetic, thin film element. The devices also employ a new operational geometry in which the transport of bias current is in the film plane of at least one of the thin film elements, but is substantially perpendicular to the film plane of at least one of the thin film elements. Additionally, any of the variety magnetoelectronic devices (e.g., current-in-plane spin valves, current-perpendicular-to-the-plane spin valves, magnetic tunnel junctions, and lateral spin valves can be fabricated using these features.
US08125009B2
A semiconductor package containing a field effect transistor (FET) used in a high frequency band includes a mounting circuit substrate on which the semiconductor device is mounted. The mounting circuit substrate has a gate wiring conductor, a drain wiring conductor, and a source wiring conductor, which are connected to the gate electrode, the drain electrode, and the source electrode, respectively, of the semiconductor device. The gate wiring conductor and the drain wiring conductor extend toward each other so that their adjacent or facing ends are in close proximity to each other, thereby increasing the capacitance between the gate wiring conductor and the drain wiring conductor.
US08125008B2
A Schottky device and a semiconductor process of making the same are provided. The Schottky device comprises a substrate, a deep well, a Schottky contact, and an Ohmic contact. The substrate is doped with a first type of ions. The deep well is doped with a second type of ions, and formed in the substrate. The Schottky contact contacts a first electrode with the deep well. The Ohmic contact contacts a second electrode with a heavily doped region with the second type of ions in the deep well. Wherein the deep well has a geometry gap with a width formed under the Schottky contact, the first type of ions and the second type of ions are complementary, and the width of the gap adjusts the breakdown voltage.
US08125002B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, an insulated gate transistor formed to the semiconductor substrate, a diode formed to the semiconductor substrate, and a control transistor formed to the semiconductor substrate. A first current terminal of the insulated gate transistor is coupled to a cathode of the diode at a high potential side. A second current terminal of the insulated gate transistor is coupled to an anode of the diode at a low potential side. The control transistor is configured to turn off the insulated gate transistor by reducing a potential of a gate terminal of the insulated gate transistor when the diode conducts an electric current.
US08124997B2
There are provided a method of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor light emitting device and the nitride semiconductor light emitting device manufactured by the method, the method including: forming a light emitting structure by sequentially growing a first conductivity nitride layer, an active layer and a second conductivity type nitride layer on a preliminary substrate for nitride single crystal growth; separating the light emitting structure in accordance with a size of final light emitting device; forming a conductive substrate on the light emitting structure; polishing a bottom surface of the preliminary substrate to reduce a thickness of the preliminary substrate; forming uneven surface structures by machining the preliminary substrate; selectively removing the preliminary substrate to expose portions of the first conductivity type nitride layer; and forming electrodes on the portions of the first conductivity type nitride layer exposed by selectively removing the preliminary substrate.
US08124995B2
A semiconductor light-emitting device includes a semiconductor light-emitting element emitting light in a region ranging from ultraviolet to visible, and a visible-light luminescent element absorbing light emitted from the semiconductor light-emitting element and outputting visible light. The visible-light luminescent element includes a substrate, a light-reflecting layer formed on the substrate and containing light scattering particles, and a luminescent layer containing phosphor particles. The luminescent layer absorbs light emitted from the semiconductor light-emitting element and output visible light. The luminescent layer further absorbs light that is emitted from the semiconductor light-emitting element, arrives at and is reflected from the light scattering particles, and output the visible light.
US08124989B2
The present invention provides an optoelectronic device with an epi-stacked structure, which includes a substrate, a buffer layer that is formed on the substrate, in which the buffer layer includes a first nitrogen-containing compound layer, an II/V group compound layer is provided on the first nitrogen-containing compound layer, a second nitrogen-containing compound layer is provided on the II/V group compound layer, and a third nitrogen-containing compound layer is provided on the second nitrogen-containing compound layer, an epi-stacked structure with a multi-layer structure is formed on the buffer layer, which includes a first semiconductor conductive layer is formed on the buffer layer, an active layer is formed on the first semiconductor conductive layer, a multi-layer structure is formed between the first semiconductor conductive layer and the active layer, and a second semiconductor conductive layer is formed on the active layer.
US08124980B2
A display device includes a display panel which forms a plurality of sub pixels on a substrate thereof, and a drive circuit which is configured to drive the plurality of sub pixels, wherein the drive circuit has a thin film transistor formed on the substrate, and the thin film transistor has a semiconductor layer made of poly-silicon. The thin film transistor includes: a source electrode, a semiconductor layer and a drain electrode which are formed on the substrate; a gate insulation film which is formed on the source electrode, the semiconductor layer and the drain electrode; a gate electrode which is formed on the gate insulation film and above the semiconductor layer; an insulation film which is formed on the gate electrode; and a metal layer which is formed on the insulation film in a state that the metal layer covers at least a portion of the gate electrode.
US08124976B2
The present invention provides a semiconductor device including SRAM cell units each including a data holding section made up of a pair of driving transistors and a pair of load transistors, a data write section made up of a pair of access transistors, and a data read section made up of an access transistor and a driving transistor, wherein each of the transistors includes a semiconductor layer projecting upward from a base plane, a gate electrode extending from a top to opposite side surfaces of the semiconductor layer so as to stride the semiconductor layer, a gate insulating film between the gate electrode and the semiconductor layer, and source/drain areas, a longitudinal direction of each of the semiconductor layers is provided along a first direction, and for all the corresponding transistors between the SRAM cell units adjacent to each other in the first direction, the semiconductor layer in one of the corresponding transistors is located on a center line of the semiconductor layer along the first direction in the other transistor.
US08124955B2
Memory devices having a plurality of memory cells, with each memory cell including a phase change material having a laterally constricted portion thereof. The laterally constricted portions of adjacent memory cells are vertically offset and positioned on opposite sides of the memory device. Also disclosed are memory devices having a plurality of memory cells, with each memory cell including first and second electrodes having different widths. Adjacent memory cells have the first and second electrodes offset on vertically opposing sides of the memory device. Methods of forming the memory devices are also disclosed.
US08124953B2
A sensor device and method. One embodiment provides a first semiconductor chip having a sensing region. A porous structure element is attached to the first semiconductor chip. A first region of the porous structure element faces the sensing region of the first semiconductor chip. An encapsulation material partially encapsulates the first semiconductor chip and the porous structure element.
US08124949B2
The present invention is directed to a modular scanning apparatus that can be advantageously used in both computed radiology devices and fixed scanning direct radiology devices. The scanning assembly advantageously utilizes a light collecting and measuring assembly having highly reflective surfaces in conjunction with a novel optical assembly within a light box type enclosure to enable a modular scanning and reading assembly that is compact, robust and also scaleable. The present invention further discloses novel computed radiography and direct radiography devices that utilize the modular scanning assembly to provide radiology devices that are highly robust and efficient and yet also simple to build, maintain, service and repair.
US08124945B2
A scintillator plate which is excellent in sharpness and luminance is disclosed, comprising sequentially on a substrate a reflection layer and a scintillator layer containing cesium iodide and an activator and having a thickness of L, wherein the following requirement (1) is met: 2≦B/A Requirement (1) wherein A is an average activator concentration of the scintillator layer and B is an activator concentration in a region of the scintillator layer from the reflection layer side to the position of L/5.
US08124933B2
An apparatus capable of detecting defects of a pattern on a sample with high accuracy and reliability and at a high throughput, and a semiconductor manufacturing method using the same are provided. The electron beam apparatus is a mapping-projection-type electron beam apparatus for observing or evaluating a surface of the sample by irradiating the sample with a primary electron beam and forming on a detector an image of reflected electrons emitted from the sample. An electron impact-type detector such as an electron impact-type CCD or an electron impact-type TDI is used as the detector for detecting the reflected electrons. The reflected electrons are selectively detected from an energy difference between the reflected electrons and secondary electrons emitted from the sample. To eliminate charge-up caused on the sample surface by irradiation with the primary electron beam, the surface of the sample is covered with a cover placed above the sample and a gas is supplied to the space above the sample covered with the cover. The gas is brought into contact with the sample surface to reduce charge-up on the sample surface.
US08124932B2
A charged particle beam apparatus includes a charged particle source, an aperture, an object lens, an observing unit, an aperture driving portion, and a control portion. The control portion includes a spot pattern forming portion that forms a plurality of spot patterns on a surface of a sample by irradiating a charged particle beam, an analyzing portion that calculates a position of a spot center of the spot pattern and a geometrical center position of a halo, and an adjusting position determining portion that calculates an adjusting position based on a position of intersecting lines connecting the positions of the spot centers of the respective spot patterns and the center position of the halo. In this manner, the position of the aperture can be easily and accurately adjusted in a short period of time by moving the center axis of the aperture to the adjusting position.
US08124926B2
The key device of the present invention is provided with: first light-emitting portions that emit light propagating in a first direction; second light-emitting portions that emit the light R propagating in a second direction; converters H that can convert a propagating direction of light from the first direction to the second direction, or from the second direction to the first direction; first light-receiving portions that receive light propagating in the first direction through the converters; second light-receiving portions that receive light propagating in the second direction through the converters; and a plurality of keys, which are provided correspondingly to the converters, and which determine whether the propagating direction of light is converted in the converters.
US08124921B2
A guidance system according to various aspects of the present invention operates in conjunction with a suite of different ordnance delivery devices. In one embodiment, the guidance system comprises an interface configured to attach to the ordnance delivery devices in the suite, such as via the fuze well. The guidance system may further include a control system adapted to attempt to establish communications with a subsystem of the ordnance delivery device and operate the guidance system as a standalone guidance system if the attempt fails. The guidance system may further include a control surface interchangeably attachable, for example via an interchangeable control surface module.
US08124919B2
In an embodiment, the invention is a single ply paper product comprising a paper substrate having a first surface and a second surface and comprising a web of fibers sufficiently refined to have a Canadian Standard Freeness value of greater than about 100 cm3 according to TAPPI standard test T 227, and having a weight of between about 20 lbs./3,000 ft.2 and about 45 lbs./3,000 ft.2; and a fluorochemical in an amount of at least 800 parts per million. In another embodiment, the invention is a method for processing a single ply paper product comprising the steps of folding a single ply paper product into a container. Processing of the single ply paper product includes at least one of folding, creasing, applying adhesive, applying a susceptor patch, and heat sealing. In another embodiment, the invention is an article comprising a single ply paper product and a charge of oil and popcorn.
US08124917B2
A vessel for preparing heated water or other liquid includes a container, an electric heater and a temperature sensing probe mounted through a wall of the container. The probe includes an efficient heat transferring structure in direct thermal contact with and wet by the liquid. An electrical sensor within the probe is in intimate thermal contact with the transferring structure and has electrical properties directly correlating with the temperature of the transferring structure. The transferring structure is attached to a supporting structure mounted to the wall by an elastomeric efficient thermal insulating material held in compression providing physical support for the probe and sealing the wall from leaking and insuring that the sensor is primarily thermally responsive to the temperature of the transferring surface and to the liquid but is thermally insulated from variations in the temperature of the supporting wall.
US08124907B2
Embodiments of the invention include a load lock chamber having a decoupled slit valve door seal compartment. In one embodiment, a load lock chamber includes a main assembly, a first slit valve door seal compartment and a seal assembly. The main assembly has a substrate transfer cavity formed therein. Two substrate access ports are formed through the main assembly and fluidly couple to the cavity. The first slit valve door seal compartment has an aperture disposed adjacent to and aligned with one of the access ports. The first slit valve door seal compartment is decoupled from the main assembly. The seal assembly couples the first slit valve door seal compartment to the main assembly.
US08124906B2
A method and apparatus for processing metal bearing gases involves generating a toroidal plasma in a plasma chamber. A metal bearing gas is introduced into the plasma chamber to react with the toroidal plasma. The interaction between the toroidal plasma and the metal bearing gas produces at least one of a metallic material, a metal oxide material or a metal nitride material.
US08124901B2
There is obtained an energy storage mechanism, for a switching device, that has a structure requiring no high-accuracy components and can perform release of driving-power transmission and re-engagement. In the case where the closing spring 22 is energized, the main gear 5 is rotated by the energy storage motor 3 or manually, via the output gear 16 and the intermediate gear 33; in the case where the closing spring 22 has been energized, the engagement between the intermediate gear 33 and the main gear 5 is released at a missing-tooth portion 34 of a gear B; in the case where the switching device is closed, the main gear 5 is rotated by restoration force exerted by the closing spring 22, and the intermediate gear 33 is separated from the main gear 5 due to the elongated hole 35 that supports the rotation axle 25 thereof; and in the case where the closing spring 22 is energized again, the intermediate gear 33 is again engaged with the main gear 5 due to the elongated hole 35 that supports the rotation axle 25 thereof.
US08124894B2
An operating device is provided which includes a stacked structure of a contact terminal sheet including contact terminals, a flexible wiring member including a land folded part and land parts and wire parts, and a plate-like frame supporting the contact terminal sheet and the flexible wiring member. The plate-like frame is folded, forming an operation receiving part for a side surface disposed in a side surface of the device. The contact terminal sheet includes a contact terminal folded part, which is folded along and supported by the operation receiving part, and includes a contact terminal for a side surface, which corresponds to a side surface operation part, and a land folded part, which includes a land part connected to the contact terminal. An extension part, which is folded at a front end part of the operation receiving part, is provided in the contact terminal folded part.
US08124888B2
A system to enclose communication wiring of electronic devices includes a box; a power cover plate; a cover frame; a cover plate; and a low voltage connector plate attached to the power cover plate, wherein the power cover plate, the cover frame, and the cover plate attach to the box, wherein the low voltage connector plate and the power cover plate are substantially aligned in a line, wherein the cover frame and the cover plate are substantially aligned, and wherein the box simultaneously houses telephone electrical connection components, power electrical connection components, and data electrical connection components. The cover plate may be substantially flush with a wall upon installation. The box may comprise an enclosed section connectively hinged to the box. The system is preferably made of metal, plastic, or combination thereof.
US08124886B2
The invention discloses a membrane circuit board including a substrate, a plurality of first signal pins and a second signal pin. The first signal pins and the second signal pin are disposed on the substrate. The substrate has a first edge. Each of the first signal pins has a first terminal, and the first terminal has a first width. The second signal pin has a second terminal, which is disposed between the first edge and the first terminal. The second terminal has a second width. The second width is larger than the first width. Accordingly, the membrane circuit board may have high error tolerance and better quality control efficiency.
US08124881B2
A printed board comprising a packaging surface on which an electronic component is packaged, an adhesion prohibited portion which is provided at a region of the printed board different from a region where the electronic component is provided, and to which adhesion of the adhesive material is prohibited, and a blocking step portion which is formed at a region between the region where the electronic component is provided and the region where the adhesion prohibited portion is provided, which blocks any adhesive material which has spilled out from between the bottom surface of the electronic component and the packaging surface from reaching the adhesion prohibited portion.
US08124880B2
A method of manufacturing a circuit board that includes: forming a conductive relievo pattern, including a first plating layer, a first metal layer, and a second plating layer stacked sequentially in correspondence with a first circuit pattern, on a seed layer stacked on a carrier; stacking and pressing together the carrier and an insulator, such that a surface of the carrier having the conductive relievo pattern faces the insulator; transcribing the conductive relievo pattern into the insulator by removing the carrier; forming a conduction pattern, including a third plating layer and a second metal layer stacked sequentially in correspondence with a second circuit pattern, on the surface of the insulator having the conductive relievo pattern transcribed; removing the first plating layer and seed layer; and removing the first and second metal layers, can provide a circuit board that has high-density circuit patterns without an increased amount of insulator.
US08124879B2
A printed wiring board includes a substrate member, terminals and wiring pattern. The terminals are formed in a specific shape on the substrate member and arranged to be aligned in a specific arrangement direction on the substrate member. The wiring pattern is formed on the opposite side across the substrate member from a terminal portion where the terminals are formed, and a plurality of slits are formed extending in a direction perpendicular to the specific arrangement direction.
US08124877B2
The invention relates to a semiconductive polymer composition for use in power cables. The composition comprises a multimodal ethylene homo- or copolymer produced in a polymerization process comprising a single site catalyst whereby the polymer composition has a density of 870 to 930 kg/m3, a MFR2 of 1 to 30 g/10 min and a Mw/Mn of less than or equal to 10.
US08124876B2
Spiral-wound materials, spirals, and shafts made therefrom that have wraps with edges that may nest within one another are described. Such edges allow the spiral to achieve a smaller bending radius, meaning tighter turns and more flexibility due to the ability of adjacent wraps to nest within each other when the shaft is bent. Spirals having wraps with edges capable of nesting can be used in the medical field for devices that track anatomy, such as endoscopes, colonoscopes, catheters, and the like.
US08124866B2
A photovoltaic array includes a plurality of elongated rails and rectangular photovoltaic modules. Each rail can have an extruded resin construction and can include a lower base and an upper cap that cooperate to define a pair of grooves that open in opposite directions from each other. The elongated rails can be mounted on a support surface and extend in a spaced and parallel relationship with each other. During mounting, edges of the photovoltaic modules can be received by the grooves. In this way, the photovoltaic modules can be mounted above the support surface in a spaced relationship from the support surface.
US08124865B2
A method of fabricating a wafer-size photovoltaic cell module includes defining an integrated cellular structure of a light converting monolateral or bilateral junction diode in an epitaxially grown detachable layer including a first deposited metal current collecting terminal of the diode. The method also includes laminating onto the surface of the processed epitaxially grown detachable layer a film of an optical grade plastic material resistant to hydrofluoric acid solutions. The method further includes immersing the wafer in a hydrofluoric acid solution causing detachment of the epitaxially grown silicon layer laminated with the film, and polishing the surface of separation of the detached epitaxially grown layer and forming a second metal current collecting terminal of the diode by masked deposition of a metal at a temperature tolerable by the film.
US08124853B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH897363. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH897363, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH897363 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH897363.
US08124852B2
The invention provides seed and plants of the tomato variety designated EX01419137. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of tomato variety EX01419137 and to methods for producing a tomato plant produced by crossing a plant of tomato variety EX01419137 with itself or with another tomato plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of a plant of tomato variety EX01419137 including the fruit and gametes of such plants. The invention also relates to tomato variety CHI 14-2079. The present invention is also directed to tomato variety CHD 14-2080.
US08124838B2
The amino acid and nucleic acid sequences of a Δ5-desaturase enzyme and a Δ8-desaturase enzyme are disclosed. The nucleic acid sequences can be used to design recombinant DNA constructs and vectors. These vectors can then be used to transform various organisms, including for example, plants and yeast. The transformed organisms will then produce polyunsaturated fatty acids. The amino acid sequences are useful for generating enzyme-specific antibodies that are useful for identifying the desaturases.
US08124837B2
Xylella fastidiosa (Xj), a Gram-negative, xylem-limited bacterium, is the causal agent of several economically important plant diseases, including Pierce's disease (PD) and Citrus Variegated Chlorosis (CVC). Identified is a HccA-like hemagglutinin gene in Xylella fastidiosa involved in the virulence of the pathogen. In essence this protein is a “molecular glue” that specifically attaches to the surface of Xylella fastidiosa causing Xylella fastidiosa cells to form aggregrates. If this protein is expressed in trans-genic plants, this protein could cause greater aggregation of Xylella fastidiosa cells in planta, thus slowing down the movement of Xylella fastidiosa and decreasing disease symptoms. The protein can also be introduced into the plant by inoculation with a plant endophyte which expresses and secretes a HecA-like hemagglutinin. Thus plants containing increased levels of a Xylella fastidiosa HecA-like hemagglutinin protein could have an increased level of field resistance to disease caused by Xylella fastidiosa.
US08124835B2
A diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT1) gene from Tropaeolum majus encodes a DGAT1 polypeptide that regulates the production of triacylglycerols from diacylglycerols. Transformation of cells with the Tropaeolum majus DGAT1 (TmDGAT1) gene, or variants thereof, leads to changes in DGAT1 activity and alterations in oil and/or fatty acid content and/or seed weight. In particular, oil content, seed weight, erucic acid and/or trierucin content may be increased.
US08124830B2
The present invention provides a substantially purified growth differentiation factor (GDF) receptor, including a GDF-8 (myostatin) receptor, as well as functional peptide portions thereof. In addition, the invention provides a virtual representation of a GDF receptor or a functional peptide portion thereof. The present invention also provides a method of modulating an effect of myostatin on a cell by contacting the cell with an agent that affects myostatin signal transduction in the cell. In addition, the invention provides a method of ameliorating the severity of a pathologic condition, which is characterized, at least in part, by an abnormal amount, development or metabolic activity of muscle or adipose tissue in a subject, by modulating myostatin signal transduction in a muscle cell or an adipose tissue cell in the subject. The invention also provides a method of modulating the growth of muscle tissue or adipose tissue in a eukaryotic organism by administering an agent that affects myostatin signal transduction to the organism.
US08124829B2
The present invention provides for a transgenic non-human animal whose cells contain a DNA sequence comprising: (a) a nerve tissue specific promoter; and (b) a DNA sequence which encodes a receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE), wherein the promoter and the DNA sequence which encodes the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) are operatively linked to each other and integrated in the genome of the non-human animal, and wherein said non-human animal exhibits a reduced amount of cerebral tissue infarcted following a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion compared to an identical non-human animal lacking said DNA sequence.
US08124828B2
A wearable absorbent article comprises an outer cover and an absorbent core assembly. At least a portion of the outer cover is joined to the absorbent core assembly over at least a first attachment area and a second attachment area. The overall lateral width of the second attachment area is less than the overall lateral width of the first attachment area. At least a portion of the second attachment area is disposed in a hip region of the article. The first attachment area is disposed longitudinally outboard from the second attachment area.
US08124826B2
A wound dressing material comprising a polymeric substrate, a silver salt, and a dyestuff to photostabilize the silver salt. The substrate may comprise collagen and/or oxidized regenerated cellulose complexed to Ag+, and the dyestuff may for example be an aniline or acridine dye. Also provided are methods of making such materials, and wound dressings comprising such materials.
US08124825B2
To provide a method of purifying 2,7-dimethylnaphthalene comprising the step of bringing a raw oil containing a mixture of 1,7-dimethylnaphthalene and 2,7-dimethylnaphthalene together with a developing solvent into contact with L-type zeolite to thereby effect adsorption of 1,7-dimethylnaphthalene.
US08124814B2
The invention relates to a crude glycerol-based product comprising glycerol alkyl ethers, to a purification process comprising a treatment of evaporative concentration, of evaporative crystallization, of distillation, of fractional distillation, of stripping, or of liquid-liquid extraction and to the use of the purified product in the manufacture of dichloropropanol.
US08124812B2
An aldehyde composition derived by hydroformylation of a transesterified seed oil and containing a mixture of formyl-substituted fatty acids or fatty acid esters having the following composition by weight: greater than about 10 to less than about 95 percent monoformyl, greater than about 1 to less than about 65 percent diformyl, and greater than about 0.1 to less than about 10 percent triformyl-substituted fatty acids or fatty acid esters, and having a diformyl to triformyl weight ratio of greater than about 5/1; preferably, greater than about 3 to less than about 20 percent saturates; and preferably, greater than about 1 to less than about 20 percent unsaturates.
US08124808B2
A method of transalkoxylation of nucleophilic compounds in which an alkoxylated and a nucleophilic compound are combined in a suitable vessel and reacted in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst under conditions capable of transferring at least one hydroxyalkyl group from the alkoxylated compound to the nucleophilic compound. The method is especially useful in the transalkoxylation of alkanolamines to transfer a hydroxyalkyl group from an alkanolamine having a greater number of hydroxyalkyl groups to an alkanolamine having a lesser number of hydroxyalkyl groups.
US08124805B2
A process for the production of 4-acetoxybutyraldehyde is described. The process comprises reacting allyl acetate with a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of a solvent and a catalyst comprising a rhodium complex and a diphosphine. The diphoshine is a substituted or unsubstituted 2,2′-bis(dihydrocarbylphosphino)diphenyl ether. The process gives a high ratio of 4-acetoxybutyraldehyde:3-acetoxy-2-methylpropionaldehyde.
US08124795B2
A process for modifying the crystal habit of acicular drug substances, crystals obtained by such a process, and particular crystal forms or modifications of mycophenolic acid or mycophenolate sodium are provided, as well as pharmaceutical compositions comprising the crystals, methods of treatment and uses thereof.
US08124786B2
The present invention provides a metal-catalyzed process for preparation of substituted pyrazolecarboxamides of formula (I) as fungicidally active compounds from 2-alkylhaloaromatics and heterocyclylamides.
US08124785B2
The present invention provides a method for producing nanoparticles by attaching atoms or molecules constituting a nanoparticle precursor to an ionic liquid. According to this method, it is possible to produce nanoparticles that do not aggregate easily in a liquid without its surface modification. Furthermore, it is possible to produce nanoparticles without the need for a complicated operation or the formation of a by-product because of the direct production of the nanoparticles from the nanoparticle precursor.
US08124781B2
The present invention relates to a process of providing the 3-(6-(1-(2,2-difluorobenzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)cyclopropanecarboxamido)-3-methylpyridin-2-yl)benzoic acid in substantially free form (Compound 1).
US08124780B2
A novel chemical compound useful as a therapeutic or prophylactic agent for acid-related diseases is provided, which has an excellent inhibitory effect against gastric acid secretion, an excellent effect of maintaining the inhibitory effect against gastric acid secretion, thereby maintaining intragastric pH high for a long time, and having more safety and appropriate physicochemical stability. Provided is a compound represented by where R1 and R3 may be the same or different and each represent a hydrogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group; R2 represents (5,5-dimethyl-1,3-dioxan-2-yl)methoxy group, 5,7-dioxaspiro[2.5]oct-6-ylmethoxy group, 1,5,9-trioxaspiro[5.5]undec-3-ylmethoxy group, or (2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxan-5-yl)methoxy group; R4, R5, R6 and R7 represent a hydrogen atom, halogen atom, C1-C6 alkyl group, C1-C6 haloalkyl group, C1-C6 alkoxy group or C1-C6 haloalkoxy group; and W1 represents a single bond, methylene or ethylene group, a salt thereof or a solvate of these.
US08124778B2
A series of substituted oxazole compounds having an alpha keto side chain at the 2 position and an aromatic, heteroaromatic or heterocycle substituent at the 5 position are disclosed. These compounds exhibit inhibition of fatty acid amid hydrolase and arc useful for treatment of malconditions involving that enzyme.
US08124774B2
Disclosed herein is a compound of the formula (I) therapeutic methods, compositions, and medicaments related thereto are also disclosed.
US08124772B2
The present invention describes intermediates (ZP) for a novel and efficient synthesis of compounds in which the pharmacophores of quinolone and oxazolidinone are linked to one another by way of a chemically stable linker.
US08124770B2
A synthesis procedure for benzazolo[3,2-a]quinolinium chloride salts and the inclusion of amino-substituent and nitro-substituent resulting in four compounds such as NBQ-38 (7-Ethyl-3-nitrobenzimidazolo[3,2-a]quinolinium Chloride), NBQ-95(2-Chloro-10-methyl-3-nitrobenzothiazolo[3,2-a]quinolinium chloride), ABQ-38(3-amino-7-ethylbenzimidazo [3,2-a]quinolinium chloride), and ABQ-95 (3-amino-2-chloro-10-methylbenzothiazolo[3,2-a]quinolinium chloride) wherein said procedures provides an increment in the compounds biological activity. The compounds are further used for intra cellular binding, cytotoxicity on malignant cells through apoptosis activation mediated by mitochondrial damage and caspases 3 and 7 activation, cellular organelles binding and damage, and a marker due to the auto-fluorescent properties.
US08124763B2
The present invention provides a new method of making compounds of formula (I): wherein R1 is mono- or polysubstituted aryl; R2 is hydrogen, lower alkyl or aryl; and R4 is hydrogen, lower alkyl or halogen.
US08124762B2
The present invention relates to diphenyl amine derivatives having luminescent properties, and particularly to diphenyl amines substituted with various electron-donating or electron-withdrawing groups. The compounds of the present invention show blue or blue-green luminescence, and luminescence of the compounds herein can be achieved by UV or visible light, thus being useful as a fluorescent dye or fluorescent material for an organic electroluminescence device or display.
US08124753B2
Composition for the inhibition of the translation of a Mect1-MAML2 chimeric gene consisting essentially of: (a) a fragment of the nucleic acid encoding the chimeric gene, and (b) a nucleic acid complementary to the fragment, and a method of inhibiting the translation of a Mect1-MAML2 chimeric gene comprising contacting a cell expressing the chimeric gene with the composition, whereupon the translation of the chimeric gene is inhibited.
US08124751B2
The present invention relates to the use of fluorescently labeled nucleic acid probes to identify and image analytes in a biological sample. In the preferred embodiments, a probe is provided that comprises a target region able to specifically bind an analyte of interest and an initiator region that is able to initiate polymerization of nucleic acid monomers. After contacting a sample with the probe, labeled monomers are provided that form a tethered polymer. Triggered probes and self-quenching monomers can be used to provide active background suppression.
US08124749B2
The present invention provides compositions and methods for studying neuropathy. The compositions and methods provided herein are particularly useful for screening agents of therapeutic and/or diagnostic potential.
US08124744B2
Compounds represented by formula (I) and the formula (IV) have an inhibitory activity of MMP-9 production, therefore, are useful as a medicine agent with fewer side effects than conventional MMP enzyme activity inhibitors, as a prophylactic and therapeutic drug for oncogenic angiogenesis, chronic rheumatoid arthritis, vascular intimal thickening after a percutaneous coronary transluminal angioplasty, vascular atherosclerosis, hemorrhagic apoplexy, acute myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure, aneurysm, lung cancer metastasis, adult respiratory distress syndrome, asthma, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, chronic rhinosinusitis, bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
US08124743B2
The present invention discloses a method of purifying bivalent antibodies or antibody fragments that are active at both Fab sites from a source of antibodies or antibody fragments using a non-chromatographic method that includes inducing the formation of cyclic immunoglobulin aggregates by addition of multivalent hapten to a salt solution of soluble antibodies or antibody fragments, wherein the multivalent hapten possesses a linker between the two haptens effective to prevent the binding of both haptens of the ligand to the same antibody or antibody fragment.
US08124730B1
The present invention provides novel polynucleotides encoding HBMYP2X7v polypeptides, fragments and homologues thereof. Also provided are vectors, host cells, antibodies, and recombinant and synthetic methods for producing said polypeptides. The invention further relates to diagnostic and therapeutic methods for applying these novel HBMYP2X7v polypeptides to the diagnosis, treatment, and/or prevention of various diseases and/or disorders related to these polypeptides. The invention further relates to screening methods for identifying agonists and antagonists of the polynucleotides and polypeptides of the present invention.
US08124723B2
The genome sequences and the nucleotide sequences coding for the PWD circovirus polypeptides, such as the circovirus structural and non-structural polypeptides, vectors including the sequences, and cells and animals transformed by the vectors are provided. Methods for detecting the nucleic acids or polypeptides, and kits for diagnosing infection by a PWD circovirus, also are provided. Method for selecting compounds capable of modulating the viral infection are further provided. Pharmaceutical, including vaccine, compositions for preventing and/or treating viral infections caused by PWD circovirus and the use of vectors for preventing and/or treating diseases also are provided.
US08124717B2
A poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) prepared using a morpholine-containing polymerization catalyst has a monomodal molecular weight distribution with a reduced content of very high molecular weight species. It also exhibits increased morpholine incorporation in the high molecular weight fraction. Compared to commercially available poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) prepared using a di-n-butylamine-containing polymerization catalyst, the poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) of the invention exhibits reduced odor. Compared to other poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) prepared using a morpholine-containing polymerization catalyst, the poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) of the invention exhibits improved molecular weight build during compounding and improved compatibilization with polyamides.
US08124710B2
MQ-T propyl siloxane resins comprising (R13SiO1/2)a, (R22SiO2/2)b, (R3SiO3/2)c, and (SiO4/2)d units, where at least 40 mole % of the R3 groups are propyl are disclosed. A method of preparing such siloxane resins by reacting a MQ siloxane resin with a T propyl siloxane resin is also disclosed. These siloxane resins are useful in a variety of personal, household, and medical care applications, and in particular, as a resin additive in pigmented cosmetic formulations.
US08124707B2
The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a polymer comprising monomeric units of ethylene, an α-olefin and a vinyl norbornene applying as a catalyst system: a. a bridged or an group 4 metal containing an unbridged catalyst having a single cyclopentadienyl ligand and a mono substituted nitrogen ligand, wherein said catalyst is defined by the formula (I): b. an aluminoxane activating compound, c. 0-0.20 mol per mol of the catalyst of a further activating compound, wherein Y is a substituted carbon or nitrogen atom. The invention further relates to a polymer obtainable with the process of the invention.
US08124701B2
The invention is directed to novel 1,2,3-triazoles containing (meth)acrylate monomers of formulae (I) and (II) Wherein R, R1, R2, X and p defined herein and the process of making said monomers and (co)polymers formed from.
US08124700B2
Inherently radiopaque side-chain crystallizable polymers (IRSCCP's) are useful in various medical applications. An example of a IRSCCP is a polymer that comprises a main chain, a plurality of crystallizable side chains, and a plurality of heavy atoms attached to the polymer, the heavy atoms being present in an amount that is effective to render the polymer radiopaque. A polymeric material that includes a IRSCCP may be fabricated into a medical device useful for at least partially occluding a body cavity. For example, such a medical device may be an embolotherapy product.
US08124698B2
Process for producing homopolymers or copolymers of conjugated dienes by contacting monomeric material having at least one conjugated diene with a catalyst system including two or more different transition metal compounds and optionally one or more activators. Preferred transition metal compounds are based on cobalt and chromium, especially complexes thereof having benzimidazole ligands.
US08124696B2
A method according to one embodiment includes operating a reactor or providing a reactor after operation, wherein the reactor includes a bottom section, a bed section above the bottom section, a distributor plate between the bottom section and the bed section, an expanded section above the bed section, and an upper section above the bed section, wherein the bed section has a height H measured from the distributor plate to the expanded section; measuring a concentration of particulates in the upper section of the reactor to obtain a first determined level of particulates in the upper section; and discharging at least some of the particulates from the reactor at an upper discharge point located above 0.55H as measured vertically from the distributor plate based on the first determined level. Additional systems and methods are also provided.
US08124677B2
A modified asphalt binder composition prepared by combining asphalt binder, phosphorus pentasulfide, and less than 2.5 parts by weight unsaturated polymer, per 100 parts by weight asphalt binder, to thereby produce a modified asphalt binder composition characterized by an elongation recovery at 25° C., as determined according to AASHTO T301, of greater than 75%, where the phosphorus pentasulfide includes a blend of P4S10 and P4S9.
US08124666B2
An object of the present invention is to provide an energy ray-curable ink composition which is excellent in curability and adhesion, and is also excellent in storage stability.The present invention relates to an energy ray-curable ink composition comprising a coloring material; a polyfunctional monomer having three or more ethylenical double bonds in one molecule as a polymerizable compound; an α-aminoalkylphenone-based compound and a thioxanthone-based compound as photopolymerization initiators; and a hindered amine-based compound having a 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl group as an antigelling agent.
US08124662B2
The subject of the present invention is a foamed polymer-inorganic binder hybrid material having controlled density and morphology, in particular a foamed polyurethane-inorganic binder hybrid, a method for the preparation of the same and its uses.Said material has high characteristics of thermal and acoustic insulation, water vapor permeability, fire resistance, lightness, as well as a good adhesiveness to concretes, mortars and plasters and a good compression resistance.
US08124655B2
The present invention provides methods for ameliorating, overcoming, or inhibiting insulin resistance in a subject, comprising administering to the subject an effective amount of a compound selected from the group consisting of LR-90 and LR-102, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or derivative thereof. Methods of treating type 2 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy, or preventing or slowing their development are also encompassed by the invention.
US08124651B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to inhibitors of thioredoxin. Certain embodiments relate to palmarumycin based compounds and methods of using the same. Such compounds may be useful in inhibiting the overexpression of thioredoxin, inhibiting tumor growth and treating cancer.
US08124633B2
The present invention is directed to certain hydroxymethyl ether hydroisoindoline compounds which are useful as neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor antagonists, and inhibitors of tachykinin and in particular substance P. The invention is also concerned with pharmaceutical formulations comprising these compounds as active ingredients and the use of the compounds and their formulations in the treatment of certain disorders, including emesis, urinary incontinence, LUTS, depression, and anxiety.
US08124632B2
A new class of alkylsulfonyl-substituted thiazolide compounds is described. These compounds show strong activity against hepatitis virus.
US08124630B2
This invention relates to the use of a group of aryl ureas in treating raf mediated diseases, and pharmaceutical compositions for use in such therapy.
US08124628B2
The instant invention provides compounds of Formula II which are 5-lipoxygenase activating protein inhibitors. Compounds of Formula II are useful as anti-atherosclerotic, anti-asthmatic, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective agents.
US08124622B2
The present invention is directed to a triglyceride-lowering agent, exhibiting excellent triglyceride-lowering effect and a hyperinsulinemia-ameliorating agent.The triglyceride-lowering agent and hyperinsulinemia-ameliorating agent are characterized by containing a pitavastatin compound, and amlodipine or a salt thereof.
US08124621B2
The present invention relates to compounds useful in the prevention or treatment of various disorders such as acute or chronic renal failure, for impairments of biliary function, for respiratory impairments such as snoring or sleep apneas or for stroke, and pharmaceutical compositions comprising them. More specifically, the compounds of the present invention comprises substituted 1-amino-4-phenyl-dihydroisoquinolines and their derivatives of formula I: Wherein the substituents R1-R11 are more specifically defined hereinbelow. The claimed compounds of the present invention also include their pharmaceutically acceptable salts and trifluoroacetates thereof as well as methods for their preparation and pharmaceutical delivery systems thereof.
US08124607B2
Polyaromatic sodium channel blockers represented by the formula: are provided where the structural variables are defined herein. The invention also includes a variety of compositions, combinations and methods of treatment using these inventive sodium channel blockers.
US08124601B2
The invention encompasses compounds of formula I as well as compositions and methods of using the compounds. The compounds have activity against hepatitis C virus (HCV) and are useful in treating those infected with HCV.
US08124600B2
Novel 5-HT3 receptor modulators are disclosed. These compounds are used in the treatment of various disorders, including chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, post-operative nausea and vomiting, and irritable bowel syndrome. Methods of making these compounds are also described in the present invention.
US08124592B2
The present invention relates generally to viral vaccines and, more specifically, to filovirus vaccines and methods of eliciting an immune response against a filovirus or disease caused by infection with filovirus.
US08124585B2
The invention relates to a method of controlling feelings of pain in infants or diseased or elderly persons using a complete nutrition or a nutritional supplement. The method comprises administering increased levels of folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 or their functional equivalents.
US08124583B2
The present invention is directed to a composition useful for making homogeneously mineralized self assembled peptide-amphiphile nanofibers and nanofiber gels. The composition is generally a solution comprised of a positively or negatively charged peptide-amphiphile and a like signed ion from the mineral. Mixing this solution with a second solution containing a dissolved counter-ion of the mineral and/or a second oppositely charged peptide amphiphile, results in the rapid self assembly of the peptide-amphiphiles into a nanofiber gel and templated mineralization of the ions. Templated mineralization of the initially dissolved mineral cations and anions in the mixture occurs with preferential orientation of the mineral crystals along the fiber surfaces within the nanofiber gel. One advantage of the present invention is that it results in homogenous growth of the mineral throughout the nanofiber gel. Another advantage of the present invention is that the nanofiber gel formation and mineralization reactions occur in a single mixing step and under substantially neutral or physiological pH conditions. These homogeneous nanostructured composite materials are useful for medical applications especially the regeneration of damaged bone in mammals. This invention is directed to the synthesis of peptide-amphiphiles with more than one amphiphilic moment and to supramolecular compositions comprised of such multi-dimensional peptide-amphiphiles. Supramolecular compositions can be formed by self assembly of multi-dimensional peptide-amphiphiles by mixing them with a solution comprising a monovalent cation.
US08124578B2
The present invention relates to a delivery system in the form of a dynamic mixture obtained by reacting together, in the presence of water, at least one hydrazine derivative with at least one perfuming, flavoring, insect repellent or attractant, bactericide or fungicide aldehyde or ketone. The inventive mixture is capable of releasing in a controlled and prolonged manner the aldehyde or ketone in the surrounding environment. Furthermore, the present invention concerns also the use of these dynamic mixtures as perfuming ingredients as well as the perfuming compositions or perfumed articles that include such mixtures.
US08124577B2
Formulations of personal care compositions and personal care concentrate compositions containing sulfo-estolides are described. Personal care compositions of the present technology include liquid hand soaps, bath and shower washes, shampoos, 2-in-1 or 3-in-1 shampoos, antidandruff shampoo, facial cleaners, among others.
US08124574B2
The present invention relates to liquid personal care composition comprising both low levels of specific fatty isethionate product (e.g., less than 4%) and low overall fatty acid content (less than 4%) which, quite surprisingly, maintain excellent foaming profile relative to identical composition having high overall fatty acid content.
US08124573B2
Personal cleansing compositions comprise a cleansing phase comprising a surfactant and water; and a separate, substantially anhydrous benefit phase comprising a hydrophobic skin benefit agent. The cleansing phase and the benefit phase have substantially the same density; wherein the personal cleansing composition is in a form selected from the group consisting of liquid, semi-liquid, cream, lotion, gel, and mixtures thereof. The two phases are packaged in physical contact. These compositions and corresponding methods provide improved cosmetics, skin feel, and/or skin benefit efficacy.
US08124561B2
A gas mixture preheated to high temperatures using an oxy-fuel, an oxygen-enriched air-fuel or an air-fuel burner is used to devolatilize and partially oxidize carbonaceous feedstock, thereby producing an active residual char that can be used in applications utilizing activated carbon. Use of hot gas and ground carbonaceous feedstock allows the equipment to be minimized, thereby allowing the activated carbon to be produced at or near points of use, for example the production of activated char at or near utility boilers for use in the reduction of mercury emissions from flue gas streams.
US08124556B2
Accordingly, in various embodiments, the present invention provides methods for making electrochemically active materials. Methods include making an electrochemically active material by reacting a platinum group metal salt in a organic solvent to yield a mixture, then heating the mixture to create a metal-organic solvent complex and an acid, followed by removing at least a portion of the acid, and yielding an electrochemically active material comprising the metal-organic solvent complex. In an exemplary embodiment, the resulting electrochemically active material may be used for coating an electrode.
US08124552B2
An optical glass includes, by weight: 1% or more and 5% or less of silicon oxide (SiO2); 15% or more and 24% or less of boron oxide (B2O3); 0.1% or more and 3% or less of aluminum oxide (Al2O3); 1% or more and 14% or less of zinc oxide (ZnO); 35% or more and 45% or less of lanthanum oxide (La2O3); 5% or more and 10% or less of yttrium oxide (Y2O3); 5% or more and 13% or less of tantalum oxide (Ta2O5); and 0.5% or more and 3% or less of lithium oxide (Li2O).
US08124550B2
The invention relates to a thermally bound non-woven material containing a low-shrinkage dual-component core-sheath fiber consisting of a crystalline polyester core and a crystalline polyester sheath which has a melting point at least 10° C. lower than the core, the heat-shrinkage characteristic of said fiber being less than 10% at 170° C.
US08124549B2
This invention provides a composition for forming a fabric by spraying onto a supporting surface, the composition comprising fibers, a binder and a diluent. Further aspects of the invention include the fabric formed by spraying the composition and an article comprising the fabric, an apparatus and a method for spraying the composition.
US08124539B2
A plasma processing apparatus having a focus ring, enables the efficiency of cooling of the focus ring to be greatly improved, while preventing an increase in cost thereof. The plasma processing apparatus is comprised of a susceptor which has an electrostatic chuck and the focus ring. A wafer W to be subjected to plasma processing is mounted on the electrostatic chuck. The focus ring has a dielectric material portion and a conductive material portion. The dielectric material portion forms a contact portion disposed in contact with the electrostatic chuck. The conductive material portion faces the electrostatic chuck with the dielectric material portion therebetween.
US08124532B2
By forming a tin and nickel-containing copper alloy on an exposed copper surface, which is treated to have a copper oxide thereon, a reliable and highly efficient capping layer may be provided. The tin and nickel-containing copper alloy may be formed in a gaseous ambient on the basis of tin hydride and nickel, carbon monoxide in a thermally driven reaction.
US08124525B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of forming local interconnect for semiconductor devices. The method includes depositing a blanket layer of conductive material over one or more semiconductor devices; creating a pattern of local interconnect covering a portion of the blanket layer of conductive material; removing rest of the blanket layer of conductive material that is not covered by the pattern of local interconnect; forming the local interconnect by the portion of the blanket layer of conductive material to connect the one or more semiconductor devices.
US08124521B2
A method of fabricating an electrical contact through a through hole in a substrate, wherein the through hole is at least in part filled with a liquid conductive material and the solidified liquid conductive material provides an electrical contact through the through hole.
US08124502B2
A semiconductor device manufacturing method is provided, including: providing a semiconductor substrate, forming on the semiconductor substrate a layer including a semiconductor compound and a dope additive, and thereafter forming an emitter region and gettering impurities by annealing the semiconductor substrate including the layer.
US08124493B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device may include, but is not limited to the following processes. A first insulating film is formed over a substrate. A second insulating film is formed on the first insulating film. An electrode penetrating the first and the second insulating films is formed. A part of the second insulating film and a part of the electrode are removed so that a first hole is formed in the second insulating film. A first portion of the electrode is exposed through the first hole. A part of the first portion of the electrode is removed by an isotropic etching.
US08124491B2
Disclosed is a container capacitor structure and method of constructing it. An etch mask and etch are used to expose portions of an exterior surface of electrode (“bottom electrodes”) of the container capacitor structure. The etch provides a recess between proximal pairs of container capacitor structures, which recess is available for forming additional capacitance. Accordingly, a capacitor dielectric and a top electrode are formed on and adjacent to, respectively, both an interior surface and portions of the exterior surface of the first electrode. Advantageously, surface area common to both the first electrode and second electrodes is increased over using only the interior surface, which provides additional capacitance without a decrease in spacing for clearing portions of the capacitor dielectric and the second electrode away from a contact hole location. Furthermore, such clearing of the capacitor dielectric and the second electrode portions may be done at an upper location of a substrate assembly in contrast to clearing at a bottom location of a contact via.
US08124490B2
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.
US08124489B2
Provided are a monolithic microwave integrated circuit device and a method for forming the same. The method includes: forming an sub-collector layer, a collector layer, a base layer, an emitter layer, and an emitter cap layer on a Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT) region and a PIN diode region of a substrate; forming an emitter pattern and an emitter cap pattern in the HBT region and exposing the base layer by patterning the emitter layer and the emitter cap layer; and forming an intrinsic region by doping a portion of the collector layer of the PIN diode region with a first type impurity, the PIN diode region being spaced apart from the HBT region.
US08124480B2
Edge termination for silicon carbide devices has a plurality of concentric floating guard rings in a silicon carbide layer that are adjacent and spaced apart from a silicon carbide-based semiconductor junction. An insulating layer, such as an oxide, is provided on the floating guard rings and a silicon carbide surface charge compensation region is provided between the floating guard rings and is adjacent the insulating layer. Methods of fabricating such edge termination are also provided.
US08124476B2
Provided is a semiconductor device, including a silicon substrate, a first insulating film formed on the silicon substrate, a first conductive plug formed in an inside of a first contact hole of the first insulating film, an underlying conductive film having a flat surface formed on the first conductive plug and in the circumference thereof, a crystalline conductive film formed on the underlying conductive film, and a capacitor in which a lower electrode, a dielectric film made of a ferroelectric material, and an upper electrode are laminated in this order on the crystalline conductive film.
US08124471B2
A method of grinding a molded semiconductor package to a desired ultra thin thickness without damage to the package is disclosed. Prior to grinding a molded package to a desired package thickness, the package may be protected from excessive mechanical stress generated during grinding by applying a protective tape to enclose interconnects formed on the package. This way, the protective tape provides support to the semiconductor package during package grinding involving the mold material as well as the die. In the post-grind package, the grinded die surface may be exposed and substantially flush with the mold material. The protective tape may then be removed to prepare the post-grind package for connection with an external device or PCB.
US08124467B2
In sophisticated P-channel transistors, a high germanium concentration may be used in a silicon/germanium alloy, wherein an additional semiconductor cap layer may provide enhanced process conditions during the formation of a metal silicide. For example, a silicon layer may be formed on the silicon/germanium alloy, possibly including a further strain-inducing atomic species other than germanium, in order to provide a high strain component while also providing superior conditions during the silicidation process.
US08124463B2
Transistor devices having nanoscale material-based channels and techniques for the fabrication thereof are provided. In one aspect, a transistor device includes a substrate; an insulator on the substrate; a gate embedded in the insulator with a top surface of the gate being substantially coplanar with a surface of the insulator; a dielectric layer over the gate and insulator; a channel comprising a carbon nanostructure material formed on the dielectric layer over the gate, wherein the dielectric layer over the gate and the insulator provides a flat surface on which the channel is formed; and source and drain contacts connected by the channel. A method of fabricating a transistor device is also provided.
US08124459B2
A bump chip carrier semiconductor package system is provided including providing a lead frame, forming circuit sockets in the lead frame, mounting a semiconductor die on the lead frame, wherein the semiconductor die have electrical interconnects that connects to the circuit sockets, and encapsulating a molding compound to cover the semiconductor die and the electrical interconnects.
US08124454B1
Techniques for fabricating metal devices, such as vertical light-emitting diode (VLED) devices, power devices, laser diodes, and vertical cavity surface emitting laser devices, are provided. Devices produced accordingly may benefit from greater yields and enhanced performance over conventional metal devices, such as higher brightness of the light-emitting diode and increased thermal conductivity. Moreover, the invention discloses techniques in the fabrication arts that are applicable to GaN-based electronic devices in cases where there is a high heat dissipation rate of the metal devices that have an original non- (or low) thermally conductive and/or non- (or low) electrically conductive carrier substrate that has been removed.
US08124449B2
A device including a semiconductor chip and metal foils. One embodiment provides a device including a semiconductor chip having a first electrode on a first face and a second electrode on a second face opposite to the first face. A first metal foil is attached to the first electrode of the semiconductor chip in an electrically conductive manner. A second metal foil is attached to the second electrode of the semiconductor chip in an electrically conductive manner.
US08124444B2
A method includes the steps of forming a contiguous semiconducting region and heating the region. The semiconducting region includes polyaromatic molecules. The heating raises the semiconducting region to a temperature above room temperature. The heating is performed in the presence of a dopant gas and the absence of light to form a doped organic semiconducting region.
US08124437B2
Disclosed herein is a method for manufacturing a solar cell. The method includes the following steps. A substrate is provided. An article having a plurality of protrusions touches the surface of the substrate and thereby forming a plurality of indentations thereon. Subsequently, a transparent conductive layer is formed on the indented surface of the substrate, a photovoltaic layer is formed on the transparent conductive layer, and then a back electrode is form above the photovoltaic layer.
US08124428B2
A method for determining the presence of a sacrificial layer under a structure. The method includes providing at least one structure arranged above a substrate having a major surface lying in a plane, the at least one structure being clamped at at least one side. The method further includes exerting a force, such as a mechanical force, on the at least one structure. The force may have a predetermined amplitude and a component perpendicular to the substrate. Still further, the method includes determining the deflection of the at least one structure perpendicular to the plane of the substrate, and correlating the deflection of the at least one structure to the presence of a sacrificial layer between the substrate and the structure.
US08124425B2
A method for manufacturing a magnetic memory chip device comprises the steps of: writing information in each of a plurality of magnetic memory chips formed on a silicon wafer; adhering a high magnetic permeability plate on a back face of the silicon wafer after writing information, the high magnetic permeability plate having a higher magnetic permeability than silicon and having a thickness of 50 μm or more; dicing the silicon wafer into respective magnetic memory chips after adhering the high magnetic permeability plate.
US08124421B2
A method for controlling fluid flow in an assay device that employs a membrane is provided. Specifically, one or more recessed regions are formed in the membrane by applying a solvent treatment thereto. The solvent treatment is selected based on its particular dissolving capacity for the material used to form the membrane. For example, an alcohol-based solvent, such as methanol, may be used as a solvent for nitrocellulose membranes. Upon contact with the solvent treatment, a recessed region is formed that may serve a variety of different functions relating to flow control. In one particular embodiment, the recessed region may function as a metering channel that is capable of delivering a controlled volume of the test sample to a detection zone upon initiation of the assay.
US08124408B2
Methods of processing inactivated artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPCs) and artificial antigen presenting cells with specificity for selected antigenic peptides are described, including their generation and use in cell therapy compositions comprising activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Inactivated aAPCs are advantageously generated through crosslinking, such as via a photoreaction involving a psoralen derivative and UVA irradiation.
US08124400B2
The present invention provides genes, polypeptides and expression constructs therefor, recombinant photosynthetic microorganisms, and method of use thereof, such as for the production of branched-chain alcohols (including 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and isobutanol) and derivatives thereof for a variety of uses.
US08124388B2
Methods of using beta-alanine/pyruvate aminotransferase to produce 3-hydroxypropionic acid and derivatives thereof, from beta-alanine, are disclosed. Cells and recombinant nucleic acids that can be used to practice the methods are also disclosed.
US08124383B2
Disclosed is a non-invasive method for diagnosis, prognosis or monitoring of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated cancer by detecting and/or quantifying EBV associated nucleic acid fragments in a urine sample from an individual. Kits for diagnosis, prognosis or monitoring of cancer are also disclosed.
US08124379B2
The present invention relates to a method for producing a polypeptide comprising using a signal peptide, to nucleic acid constructs comprising a first nucleotide sequence encoding the signal peptide and a second nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide which is foreign to the first nucleotide sequence. Furthermore, it also relates to expression vectors and host cells comprising the nuclei acid construct.
US08124378B2
The present invention relates to zcytor17lig polynucleotide, polypeptide and anti-zcytor17 antibody molecules. The zcytor17lig is a novel cytokine. The polypeptides may be used within methods for stimulating the immune system, and proliferation and/or development of hematopoietic cells in vitro and in vivo. The present invention also includes methods for producing the protein, uses therefor and antibodies thereto.
US08124377B2
The present invention relates to a new and nonobvious method of producing the C-terminal histidine tagged TAT-HOXB4 fusion protein (TAT-HOXB4H), providing unexpected benefits of increased yield and stability to allow for in vivo administration of this protein, and pharmaceutical composition comprising an effective ingredient, TAT-HOXB4H, having stimulatory activity on the production of hematopoietic cells. More specifically, recombinant TAT-HOXB4H protein enhances engraftment of bone marrow transplants, hematopoietic reconstruction, bone marrow re-population and number of circulating stem cells, particularly after chemotherapy or irradiation.
US08124370B2
Described herein are methods of detecting a wound infection and for detecting the presence or absence of microorganisms, for example, wound pathogens in a sample, by contacting a sample with a cationic anti-microbial peptide that is degradable by an enzyme produced and/or secreted by a microorganism, and detecting degradation or the absence of degradation of the peptide, as an indicator of the presence or absence of the enzyme in the sample, and thus indicative of the presence or absence of a microorganism in the sample. The present invention also features a biosensor for detecting the presence or absence of a microorganism in a sample.
US08124364B2
A method for the conditioning of an extracorporeal device is described, as well as method for extracorporeal extraction of toxic material from mammalian body fluids in connection with diagnosis or treatment of a mammalian condition or disease, in which methods reagents having the ability to extract toxic material from mammalian body fluids are involved, and an extracorporeal device comprising said reagent.
US08124350B2
The invention relates to methods and products for the identification of a clinically significant immune response in subjects treated with a therapeutic protein. A first aspect of the invention relates to methods and compositions for identifying a clinically significant immune response in patients treated with therapeutic amounts of a VLA4 binding antibody (e.g., natalizumab). A second aspect of the invention concerns the chronological details of sample collection for determining the titre of antibodies against the therapeutic protein, e.g. the collection of at least two samples at two different time points. A third aspect of the invention relates to the selection of the critical threshold level, which corresponds to the antibody titre of untreated patients increased by the double of the standard deviation of this control antibody titre.
US08124348B2
A method and device to detect Hepatitis C (HCV) antibodies in oral fluid is provided. This method introduces a non-antibody detection molecule that labels all classes of patient antibodies in oral fluid, followed by the specific concentration of labeled anti-HCV antibodies by selective capture in a trapping zone consisting of peptide antigens derived from the HCV genome. Signal generated by the labeled antibodies present in the trapping zone is proportional to the number of anti-HCV antibodies bound to the antigens present in the trapping zone. Presence of signal derived from the capture of antibody/detection molecule complexes in the trapping zone is indicative of past exposure to HCV.
US08124345B2
The present invention provides novel mutations of the CFTR gene related to cystic fibrosis or to conditions associated with cystic fibrosis. Also provided are probes for detecting the mutant sequences. Methods of identifying if an individual has a genotype containing one or more mutations in the CFTR gene are further provided.
US08124344B2
The present invention has an object to provide a method of determining fatty acid composition in intramuscular fat on the basis of bovine genotype, in particular a method of simply determining an amount of an oleic acid content with a high degree of accuracy, and a method of objectively determining the goodness of eating quality of beef on the basis of the results of the determination. The present invention provides a method of determining an amount of fatty acid content in bovine intramuscular fat on the basis of the genotype of fatty acid synthase determined by determining base <1> and/or base <2> described below, and a method of determining whether cattles are those from which beef with an excellent eating quality is obtained on the basis of the results thereof. <1> A 16,024th base corresponding to a polymorphic site which is either adenine (A) or guanine (G) in a base sequence represented by SEQ ID NO. 1 of a sequence list. <2> A 16,039th base corresponding to a polymorphic site which is either thymine (T) or cytosine (C) in the same base sequence.
US08124343B2
IRE-1α substrates useful for identifying agonists and antagonists of IRE-1α RNase activity.
US08124338B2
The invention provides the use of tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether for adsorbing nucleic acids to solid phases such as those with silica surfaces. To this end, the invention also provides compositions comprising TDE. Methods are disclosed and claimed to purify nucleic acids from samples, as well as kits useful for performing these methods. Particularly, the invention encompasses methods for the purification of nucleic acids with low molecular weight. The nucleic acids purified by a method of the invention are suited for assays aiming at the detection of a target nucleic acid.
US08124331B2
The present invention refers to an in vitro method to detect a bladder transitional cell carcinoma, in an individual, to determine the stage or severity of this cancer in an individual or to monitor the effect of therapy administered to an individual with this cancer; to screen for, identify, develop and evaluate the efficacy of therapeutic compounds against this cancer in order to develop new medicinal products, and also agents that inhibit the expression and/or activity of the FGFR3 protein and/or the effects of this expression.
US08124329B2
A method for hypothermic preservation of biological tissue for later recovery to a viable state includes flushing the biological tissue with a gas mixture of sulfur hexafluoride or xenon and oxygen. The sulfur hexafluoride or xenon is in a concentration in the mixture between about 75 mole percent to 95 mole percent. The method includes pressurizing the biological tissue, preferably isothermically, with the mixture to a pressure that will form clathrates inside the biological tissue at a desired storage temperature in a range of about +1° C. to about +5° C. The method includes a step of cooling the biological tissue, preferably isobarically, to the desired storage temperature. Optional steps for further cooling to no colder than about −20° C. and for depressurization are provided as well as steps for recovering the hypothermically preserved biological tissue to a viable state, preferably using a recovery gas mixture.
US08124328B2
An imaged and developed element, such as a lithographic printing plate, is provided by infrared radiation imaging of a positive-working imagable element having inner and outer imagable layers. One or both layers contain a polymeric binder having pendant 1H-tetrazole groups. The imaged element is developed with a single processing solution having a pH of from about 5 to about 11 to remove predominantly only the exposed regions and to provide a protective layer over the imaged surface.
US08124321B2
In a lithography process using an ultraviolet process, the applied ultraviolet resist can be removed by intentionally condensing the ultraviolet resist before removing the ultraviolet resist.
US08124315B2
An optical recording medium contains a recording layer being composed of a phase-change recording material where at least four elements, Ga, Sb, Sn and Ge are contained and the transfer linear velocity is 20 m/s to 30 m/s, and when the wavelength of a recording/reproducing light is within the range of 650 nm to 665 nm and the recording linear velocity is 20 m/s to 28 m/s, the refractive index Nc and the extinction coefficient Kc in a crystalline state and the refractive index Na and the extinction coefficient Ka in an amorphous state in the recording layer respectively satisfy the following numerical expressions: 2.0≦Nc≦3.0, 4.0≦Kc≦5.0, 4.0≦Na≦5.0, and 2.5≦Ka≦3.1, and information is recordable at the range of 20 m/s to 28 m/s of recording linear velocity.
US08124301B2
The invention provides a gradated photomask for reducing photolithography steps and its fabrication process, which make use of a generally available photomask blank, prevents the reflectance of a light shield film from growing high, makes alignment easy during the formation of a semitransparent film, and enables the semi-transparent film on a light shield pattern with good step coverage. A photomask (100) comprises a mixture of a light shield area including a light shield film (114) having a desired pattern on a transparent substrate wherein a film forming the pattern is substantially opaque to photolithographic light, a semitransparent film (113) that transmits the photolithographic light at a desired transmittance, and the light shield film (114) and the semitransparent film (113) are stacked on the transparent substrate (101) in that order; a semi-transparent area wherein there is only the semitransparent film (113); and a transmissive area there is neither the light shield film (114) nor the semitransparent film (113), and is characterized in that the semitransparent film (113) has an antireflection function with respect to the photolithographic light.
US08124300B1
A method of correcting a lithographic mask is disclosed. The method can include detecting a location of the mask that corresponds to a wafer location having a structure that is printed with a larger than desired dimension and reducing a thickness of at least a portion of a mask feature corresponding to the wafer structure to locally increase transmissivity of the mask feature.
US08124295B2
A polymer electrolyte membrane made of a polymer has a low electrical resistance, high heat resistance and is strong against repeats of swelling and shrinkage. Thus, a membrane/electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells having high power generation performance and excellent in durability can be provided.For a polymer electrolyte membrane 15 or for a catalyst layer 11 constituting electrodes 13 and 14, a polymer comprising units (U1) and units (U2) is used: Q1, Q2: a perfluoroalkylene group which may have —O— or the like; Rf1, Rf2: a perfluoroalkyl group which may have —O—; X: an oxygen atom or the like; a: 0 or the like; Y, Z: a fluorine atom, or a monovalent perfluoroorganic group such as —CF3; S: 0 to 1; and t: 0 to 3.
US08124291B2
In a fuel cell system, mixture fuel having a certain fuel concentration is supplied to an anode, electric power is output from between the anode and the cathode due to electrochemical reaction when the cathode makes contact with air, and unreacted fuel containing unreacted fuel is discharged from the anode. A fuel circulating path for circulating the unreacted fuel to the anode is connected to the power generating unit and fuel is supplied from the fuel supplying unit to the fuel circulating path depending on a reduction in pressure of the mixture fuel. The temperature of the power generating unit is controlled according to the concentration of the mixture fuel supplied to the anode. Consequently, a fuel cell system, which can achieve reduction of the size thereof without dropping fuel usage efficiency, can be provided.
US08124288B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a portable fuel cell power source including an expandable enclosure, a first reactant contained within the enclosure, one or more fuel cells and a fluid port positioned in the expandable enclosure and adapted to be in fluidic communication with the one or more fuel cells. The enclosure may also include an opening to insert a second reactant. When the first reactant is contacted with the second reactant a fuel is generated for use with one or more of the fuel cells. The volume of the portable fuel cell power source in a collapsed state may be smaller than the volume of the amount of first reactant and second reactant needed to substantially consume the first reactant in a fuel generation reaction.
US08124284B2
Disclosed are an additive for improving charge/discharge characteristics of a lithium-ion cell, a nonaqueous electrolytic solution containing the additive, and a lithium-ion cell using the additive and/or the nonaqueous electrolytic solution. The additive serves as a solvent for a fluorine resin, such as poly(vinylidene fluoride), which is incorporated as an adhesive in a positive electrode containing a lithium-transition metal oxide capable of absorbing and releasing lithium and a negative electrode containing a carbon material capable of absorbing and releasing lithium. The additive comprises three compounds selected, respectively, from a 2-pyrrolidinone compound group, a cyclic alkyl compound group, and a cyclic pentanone compound group.
US08124279B2
The invention relates to an electrode material for a lithium ion battery which is distinguished by the fact that the electrode material comprises 5-85% by weight of nanoscale silicon particles which have a BET surface area of from 5 to 700 m2/g and a mean primary particle diameter of from 5 to 200 nm, 0-10% by weight of conductive carbon black, 5-80% by weight of graphite having a mean particle diameter of from 1 μm to 100 μm and 5-25% by weight of a binder, the proportions of the components summing to not more than 100% by weight, and to the use of the electrode material according to the invention for the production of lithium ion batteries, and to a lithium ion battery having a negative electrode which comprises the electrode material according to the invention.
