US08517458B2
There is provided a hydroformed automotive pillar arrangement operable to provide impact or crash protection in a vehicle. The pillar arrangement includes one or more hydroformed pillars. Each pillar is of unitary elongate construction. Moreover, each pillar is of open or closed substantially tubular cross-section. Furthermore, each pillar has a first end and a second end. Additionally, each pillar is adapted when included in the vehicle to continuously extend at the first end substantially from a socket arrangement coupled to a longitudinal strengthening sill of the vehicle upwardly to the second end.
US08517456B1
An improved cab suspension member to replace an existing factory suspension providing a terminal tractor with an improved rear suspension to improve the ride and performance of a terminal tractor, the improved rear suspension installed after market or provided as an original factory installation, the improved rear suspension members applied under the rear cab portion of the terminal tractor, increasing the suspension support and also redistributing the load upon the terminal tractor cab.
US08517453B2
When a load caused by a collision is transmitted from the front side of a vehicle, tire cutout portions of front side members are deformed by the load transmitted from the front side of the vehicle. Accordingly, the tire cutout portions of the front side members come into contact with a power unit formed of an engine or the like of the vehicle, switch a transmission path of the load to a direction corresponding to the power unit of the vehicle, and transmit the load to the power unit as a load. The tire cutout portion is formed between two engine mounts. Accordingly, a starting point from which the front side member begins to be deformed is set between the engine mounts that are two supported portions of the power unit, so that the stable bending and deformation of the front side member are controlled. Further, a transmission path of a load toward the power unit is newly formed. Accordingly, a load, which is caused by a collision or the like and transmitted from the front side of the vehicle, is dispersed on the power unit that is hard and has large mass. As a result, it is possible to increase efficiency of absorbing impact at the time of a collision.
US08517432B2
A sand dosing and blocking device for sand spreading systems for vehicles, particularly rail vehicles with drive, has a sand supply container with an outlet opening which can be closed by a closing element for the dosed release of sand to a conveyor unit which is preferably pneumatically activated. The closing element is formed by a lifting rod of an electrically activated lifting magnet. The lifting magnet is arranged inside the sand supply container in the area of the outlet opening. Frequency control of the lifting magnet varies the dosed flow of sand, which may be varied in response to vehicle wheel speed.
US08517431B2
A fitting for thick-walled pipes, having a contact region and a pressing region, the pressing region being arranged on the side of the contact region facing towards the pipe insertion opening, and the wall thickness in the pressing region being at least in sections less than the wall thickness in the contact region. The invention also relates to a method for producing a fitting for thick-walled pipes, in which a thick-walled pipe is radially widened in a fitting region arranged at one pipe end so that the internal diameter of the fitting region corresponds substantially to the external diameter of the pipe and the wall thickness in the fitting region corresponds substantially to the wall thickness of the rest of the pipe.
US08517428B2
A hydraulic line attachment device is provided. The hydraulic line attachment device comprises a first assembly comprising a first frame constructed for holding a plurality of first hydraulic line couplers and a first coupling member; and a second assembly comprising a second frame constructed for holding a plurality of second hydraulic line couplers and a second coupling member constructed to engage the first coupling member and align the plurality of first hydraulic line couplers with the plurality of second hydraulic line couplers. At least one of the first coupling member and the second coupling member comprises an arm constructed to engage at least one of the first frame and the second frame and engage the other of the first coupling member and the second coupling member. The other of the first coupling member and the second coupling member comprises a cam that engages the arm to provide tightening of the first assembly relative to the second assembly. A method for using a hydraulic line attachment device is provided.
US08517425B2
An anchor pretensioner structure for cars, may include an inflator mounted on a car-body plate to pull a seat belt upon a collision, a pretensioner wire made of a flexible material and connected to the inflator, a protector mounted to the pretensioner wire coupled to the seat belt, and an angle-adjuster to selectively rotate the pretensioner wire, depending upon whether or not a passenger may be sitting on a seat, so that the pretensioner wire may be allowed to rotate by a predetermined angle.
US08517421B2
Disclosed is a vehicle safety anti-collision device, which includes an outer housing, a buffer material block, a bracket, and a bracket base. Said outer housing is provided with a front end portion, a connecting portion extending from both sides of the front end portion, and a receiving opening formed by said connecting portions and said front end portion. Said bracket is in the shape of an arch bridge and is provided with an arch portion received in said receiving opening and mounting portions on both ends of the arch portion. Said buffer material block is sandwiched between said outer housing and said bracket, and the connecting portions of said outer housing are fixed to the said bracket. With the vehicle safety anti-collision device, the energy generated during a vehicle collision can be absorbed immensely, and the damage caused by collision to the vehicle and people can be reduced.
US08517414B2
A portable commode, shower, and bath wheelchair apparatus comprising a first support frame, a second support frame, a mechanical interface interconnecting the first support frame to the second support frame thereby forming a first contiguous support member and a second contiguous support member. A seat assembly is slidingly attached to both the first contiguous support member and to the second contiguous support member.
US08517403B2
A child vehicle includes a front portion having a front wheel and a first handlebar configured to steer the vehicle, and a rear portion coupled to the front portion and having a rear wheel. The front portion is capable of rotating relative to the rear portion about a first pivot axis. A pivot member is coupled to the vehicle and rotatable about a second pivot axis between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the pivot member operates as a seat for supporting a rider thereon to define a ride-on configuration. In the second position, the pivot member operates as a second handlebar to define a scooter configuration. The second handlebar is also configured to steer the vehicle when in the scooter configuration. The vehicle may include a graphical interface for decorating or otherwise marking the vehicle in a manner preferred by the child.
US08517400B2
In a steerable traveling trunk, a driving part is provided for converting a horizontal axis rotation of the handle into a vertical axis rotation at both ends of the handle and transferring the rotations as a user rotates the handle. A driving force transfer part is connected to the driving part and transfers rotational force of the driving part to a lower side of the traveling trunk body. An output part is connected to a lower side of the driving force transfer part and transfers rotational force depending on the rotation of the handle, to the wheels, thus adjusting steering angles of the wheels, and allowing the traveling directions of the trunk to be easily changed.
US08517399B2
There is provided a walker apparatus having a pair of upright, spaced-apart elongate members. Each elongate member includes an upper end for placing one's hands and a lower end spaced-apart from the upper end. A first pair of ground-engaging wheels are rotatably mounted to the elongate members at the lower ends. The apparatus includes a pair of support members that are spaced-apart and arc-shaped. The support members align respectively with and extend from the elongate members to distal ends of the support members. The support members have apexes extending towards the upper ends of the elongate members. A second pair of ground-engaging wheels operatively connect to the distal ends of the support members. The apparatus includes a seat for resting connecting to the apexes of the support members, the support members thereby supporting the seat.
US08517398B1
A luggage assembly is provided. The assembly includes a luggage component and a support assembly for use with the luggage component. The support assembly includes a support frame configured for extending from the luggage component between a first position and a second position extended from the luggage component and defining a support area therebetween for supporting additional luggage components and a pivotable device carried by the support frame and extending between spaced-apart wheel assemblies of the luggage component and configured for allowing pivotable movement of the luggage component about the support frame.
US08517382B1
A game machine has a controller with one or more consoles for recording a player's bet. The machine also has a motor-driven, concave wheel with a plurality of circumferentially spaced compartments. Each compartment can hold temporarily and release the ball. The wheel can produce an outcome signal indicating ball rest position. The controller can signal whether a player's bet has won based on the outcome signal. The base supporting the wheel has a return track for sending the ball released from the wheel to one or more elevators. The elevator can lift the ball to an associated ball striker that can propel the ball back to the wheel. The machine can have one or more stations for propelling the ball.
US08517375B2
There is provided a feeding guide unit that slides according to a width size of the feeding material in a receiving unit that receives a plurality of feeding materials, and a separation unit having an inclined surface structure that abuts on a tip of the fed feed material so that a separating load is exerted, and separates the following feed material to feed only the feed material at the uppermost position. The separating load of the separation unit is changed to at least two stages in conjunction with a movement in a width direction of the feeding guide unit.
US08517371B2
A sheet feeding device includes a first roller configured to feed a sheet in a first direction along a first feed path, a second roller arranged on a downstream side of the first roller and configured to feed the sheet in the first direction along the first feed path, a sheet detection unit arranged between the first roller and the second roller. A rotation amount of the second roller from detection of the leading end of the sheet by the sheet detection unit to arrival of the sheet at a predetermined position on the downstream side is compensated based on the rotation speed of the first roller within a first period, which is a period from start of feeding of the sheet as the first roller is started to be driven to the detection of the leading end of the sheet by the sheet detection unit.
US08517370B2
An image recording apparatus including a first tray having a first holding portion for holding sheets, a second tray disposed above the first tray and including a second holding portion for holding sheets, a sheet feeder that selectively feeds a sheet from one of the first tray and the second tray in a sheet feed direction, a recording unit that records an image on the sheet fed by the sheet feeder, and a discharge roller that discharges the sheet on which the image is recorded by the recording unit. The second holding portion of the second tray moves above the first holding portion of the first tray. The second tray further includes a discharged sheet receiving portion for receiving the sheet discharged by the discharge roller. The second tray including the discharged sheet receiving portion pivots relative to the first tray.
US08517363B2
An XY stage device having an X-axis movable body which moves in the X-axis direction on a platen, and a Y-axis movable body which moves in the Y-axis direction on the platen and guides the movement of the X-axis movable body in the X-axis direction. The XY stage device includes a pair of actuators which can be provided so as to be separated from each other in the X-axis direction, and drives the Y-axis movable body in the Y-axis direction, a detector which detects the yawing angle that can be the angle of the Y-axis movable body in a rotational direction around the Z-axis, a controller which controls the driving of the pair of actuators on the basis of the yawing angle detected by the detector, and a pair of supporters which supports the Y-axis movable body on the platen. One of the pair of supporters can be a rolling guide which guides the movement of the Y-axis movable body in the Y-axis direction, and the other of the pair of supporters can be an air pad which supports the Y-axis movable body in non-contact with the platen.
US08517361B2
A drawer front jig with a base plate, a drawer front stop bar, a drawer box positioning bracket assembly, a rail and a first and second drawer box stop bar assembly. The drawer box stop bars each include an adjustment slot. The rail is attached to the top of the base plate. The drawer box stop bars are is held at right angles to the rail. The rail has longitudinal T shaped slots along its top and side surfaces. The bar and bracket assemblies are held onto the rail by lock lever mechanisms. The drawer front stop bar is held in place to the inner facing wall of the rail. When a person places a drawer front against the rail and places the drawer box on the drawer front, the jig helps the drawer front and drawer box to be accurately positioned so that they can be joined together in a standard way.
US08517359B2
A hydraulic damping mount has a working chamber and a compensating chamber, which are filled with a hydraulic liquid and separated from each other by an intermediate plate. The working chamber and the compensating chamber are connected to each other via a transfer passage and a bypass channel. The bypass channel can be opened or closed by an actuator. The actuator is configured as a one-piece elastomer part, which has a fastening portion on the edge and an actuating element, which is connected to the fastening portion via a flexible connecting portion.
US08517349B1
Devices and methods for supporting guardrail terminal installations that incorporate safety end treatments such as the GET and the SRT. Preferred embodiments are described wherein guardrail terminal installations are primarily anchored to the ground using weak support posts that are preferably made of metal. The ends of the guardrail installation are secured to the ground using breakaway posts. In operation, the weak posts permit the central portion of the guardrail installation to contain and redirect the vehicle during a lateral collision to the rail member. The anchorage provided by the breakaway end posts helps prevent the guardrail from being excessively displaced, thus preventing the impacting vehicle from breaking through the guardrail. In operation, guardrail terminal assemblies constructed in accordance with the present invention provide an improved support system for the rail member which is more forgiving than conventional strong post anchorages, thereby providing an improvement in safety. At the present time, the invention has particular application in some non-U.S. countries, where it is required or highly preferred that metal support posts be used either completely or primarily within guardrail installations. However, the invention is also applicable to installation within the United States.
US08517346B2
An apparatus for storing a spare tire is disclosed herein. The apparatus includes a hoisting device mountable to the underside of a vehicle. A tether is provided having a first portion and a second portion coupled to the hoisting device so that the first and second portions of the tether depend from the hosting device when it is mounted to the underside of a vehicle. A coupling member attached to the first portion of the tether permits an operator to attach the tether to the tire. A removable guard lays over at least part of the hub-facing wheel portion to cover one or more of the plurality of lug apertures such that the second portion of the tether cannot enter the plurality of lug apertures when the hosting device raises the spare tire.
US08517344B2
A system and method for installing cable according to which the cable is disposed in conduit. In an exemplary embodiment, the cable is fiber optic cable.
US08517342B2
For lifting, aligning and holding a side-hinged door during its installation into a door frame, an improved hand tool, of the type having an elongated base with proximal and distal ends, a fulcrum attached to the base near its distal end, and a pivoting lever, has the improvements of: (a) a vertical guide extending from the base proximate its proximal end, and (b) a movable lifting member having side portions that have a configuration which is adapted to align and cooperate with the vertical guides so as to limit the movement of the lifting member to only vertical motions, and with this lifting member having a front surface that that is configured to allow it to be easily placed beneath the bottom surface of a door and to support the door over a sufficient part of its width so as to minimize the chance of the lateral tilting of the door when it is being installed.
US08517341B2
A pry bar with a sliding fulcrum assembly wherein the sliding fulcrum has a body with a passage therethrough that is configured and contoured for the fulcrum body to normally freely slide along the elongated pry bar, when hanging on the pry bar. The bottom of the passage through the fulcrum body is provided with a bar friction engagement surface on a bottom portion of the passage whereby the fulcrum is non-slidably engaged with the pry bar when the bottom of the fulcrum body is engaged with the floor surface under applied lifting force of the lifting lip of the pry bar applied against an object to be lifted.
US08517334B2
An electromagnetic valve mechanism includes a magnetizable block, an upper permanent magnet superposed on a top of the magnetizable block, a magnetizable upper cover superposed on an upper flat surface of the upper permanent magnet, a lower permanent magnet attached to a bottom of the magnetizable block, a magnetizable lower cover attached to a lower flat surface of the lower permanent magnet, an armature movably received in the magnetizable block, a magnetizable ring located around the armature, an electromagnetic coil unit wound around two opposite protrudent rods of the magnetizable ring, and a spring unit disposed around an armature stem and a valve stem. By adding the permanent magnets and using the electromagnetic coil unit to thereby form a bypassed forward secondary magnetic channel, the electromagnetic valve mechanism can achieve the purposes of lowered energy consumption, reduced overall mechanism volume, providing demagnetization-protection for permanent magnets, and enhanced performance.
US08517330B1
An ergonomic clipboard that can be easily grasped by persons of various body shapes and sizes. Preferably, the ergonomic clipboard comprises a writing board including a surface having a clamp attached to it, a top edge, a first side edge sharing a first corner with said top edge and having two recesses, each of which recesses being configured to engage with the crook of an arm of a user, a second side edge sharing a second corner with said top edge and that is opposite said first side edge, said second side edge having a protrusion and an adjacent notch that are configured to be graspable by the fingers of the same arm of the user, and a bottom edge sharing a third corner with said first side edge and a fourth corner with said second side edge.
US08517321B2
A gravity compensation apparatus is provided, including a force output device, an axis and an arm with the axis as rotational center. The present invention is to output a force via the force output device to the arm when the arm contacts the force output device. When the arm rotates in the first or second quadrants, the contact point between the arm and the force output device will change continuously so that the force rotation speed of the force output device, the effective length of the lever arm and the force-applying angle will also change accordingly. Through appropriate design, the generated torque value can show a non-linearly increasing curve approximately to a sin function between 0-90°.
US08517318B2
A hair dryer stand useful for storing a blow dryer when not in use and especially for holding an operating blow-dryer on a countertop without burning the countertop or material on the countertop. The hair dryer stand is attractive and improves safety. The stand comprises a continuous substrate defining in sequence a top ledge, a nozzle support curve, an exhaust resting area, a handle support curve, a device support curve and a bottom ledge, wherein the substrate further defines a channel extending from a first apex adjacent the exhaust resting area to a second apex; said channel having a narrower width area adjacent said first apex and a wider width area adjacent the second apex. The channel is positioned to allow air to flow into the intake side of the blow-dryer, over the heating coils inside blow-dryer and thus to prevent the blow-dryer from overheating. In use, the exhaust side of the blow-dryer is directed upward, away from the countertop so the countertop or material on countertop will not be overheated or burned by the blow dryer.
US08517315B2
A lateral coupling device for holding and guiding at least one aerodynamic body relative to the main wing in its wingspread direction during the adjustment thereof features: a coupling connection, a first coupling joint for coupling a first end of the coupling connection to the main wing or an aircraft component connected thereto or another aerodynamic body, as well as a second coupling joint for coupling the second end of the coupling connection to the aerodynamic body, where the lateral coupling device has a total of five degrees of freedom and allows an adjusting motion of the aerodynamic body relative to the main wing transverse to the wingspread direction thereof.
US08517313B2
An aircraft deicing system including at least one motor operative to drive at least one eccentric mass in rotational motion and at least one displacer coupled to at least one location on at least one aircraft surface and coupled to the at least one eccentric mass such that forces produced by the rotational motion of the eccentric mass are applied to the at least one displacer, causing the at least one displacer to displace the at least one aircraft surface in a plurality of directions at each of the at least one location, thereby causing disengagement of ice from the at least one aircraft surface.
US08517310B2
A system for fastening an aircraft seat in a corresponding rail of the rest of the aircraft, of the type including a base to which the rest of the seat is connected and including support surfaces on the upper face of the rail and associated with a locking slide that can be moved by a lever under the control of an assembly operator, between an assembly/disassembly position of the system relative to the rail and a locking position thereof and therefore of the seat relative to the rail and therefore the aircraft, in which the support surfaces of the base on the rail include elastically deformable facing device(s) for reacting fastening play.
US08517308B2
A hatrack module with a moveable hatrack comprises a housing with a hatrack accommodation space, a hatrack with laterally arranged guide elements and optionally at least one passenger service unit, wherein each guide rail is arranged on one sidewall of the hatrack accommodation space, and wherein the guide elements of the hatrack can be made to engage the guide rails on the housing.
US08517304B2
A device for locking an engine on a pylon includes two systems attaching the engine to the pylon, located in attachment regions spaced out in a longitudinal direction of the engine. A second region is adjacent to a center of gravity plane of the engine and closer to a fan than a first region. A first system attaching to the first region is rigid towards torsional, transverse and vertical engine forces. The first region is located at a separation between two compressors of the engine or two turbines, whether the fan is at a rear or front of the engine respectively, the separation being adjacent to a node of a first engine flexural mode. A second system attaching to the second region is rigid towards transverse and vertical forces but less rigid than the first system. The device also includes a third system withstanding thrust forces in the longitudinal direction.
US08517302B2
A vertical take off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is designed to be so efficient that it can be commercially competitive with runway dependent aircraft operating in a range of 100 to 1000 miles. Improvements include a high efficiency tilting rotor and wing design that enable both vertical takeoff and efficient high speed cruising, a high aspect ratio wing, and a variable speed propulsion system that is efficient in both hover and cruise flight. Preferred aircraft use thin inboard and outboard wings, thin rotor blades, and use efficient lightweight design to achieve unusually low empty weight fraction. Inventive methods include utilization of advanced design and analysis techniques, which allow for accurate prediction of an aircraft's physical behavior.
US08517299B2
A dual-bearing reel spool-braking device configured to brake a spool rotatably attached to a reel body having first and second side plates has a tubular brake member, a moving member, and a cover member. The tubular brake member is attached to the first or second side plate, and has a base and an opening. The brake member is disposed such that the opening is opposed to the spool. The moving member is axially non-movably attached to a rotation shaft of the spool, and contacts an inner peripheral surface of the brake member when the moving member is moved towards the brake member by centrifugal force generated by rotation of the spool. The cover member is attached to the first or second side plate to cover the opening of the brake member.
US08517286B2
The sprinkler head protector can fit over sprinkler heads of automatic sprinkler systems. A sprinkler head protector includes a shell having a top opening, and the top opening is disposed with a top side wall to which it is joined. A shoulder has a concave facing downward, and the shoulder is formed to be flat. Prongs extend downward from the shoulder, and the prongs each have a pair of laterally extending edges. The prongs have a planar shape. Root openings are disposed on the surface of the prongs. Tips are formed at each of the prongs. The prongs may have elongated root openings or round root openings to receive anchoring connection with roots of plants.
US08517279B2
A system, method and prepaid payment card configured to display a current card balance on the prepaid payment card. The prepaid payment card receives a balance request from a button on the card. After retrieving the current card balance encoded on the prepaid payment card, the card displays the current card balance. Remote terminals may be configured to support the real-time display of a balance on a prepaid payment card by writing the current balance to the card after a payment transaction has occurred.
US08517277B2
A radio frequency identification tag includes a substrate, and an antenna pattern disposed on an outer peripheral side surface of the substrate. An electronic device is electrically connected to the antenna pattern, and is mounted on the outer peripheral side surface of the substrate.
US08517275B2
A semiconductor device that is resistant to bending stress and has a structure in which an antenna circuit, an electric double layer capacitor for storing electricity, and the like are formed over a signal processing circuit that is provided over a substrate and has a charging circuit. The signal processing circuit having the charging circuit is provided over a substrate, and the antenna circuit and the electric double layer capacitor are provided over the signal processing circuit. The antenna circuit is electrically connected to the signal processing circuit, and the electric double layer capacitor is electrically connected to the charging circuit. With such a structure, a wiring for connecting the charging circuit and the electric double layer capacitor can be made short. Accordingly, a semiconductor device that is resistant to bending stress can be provided.
US08517274B2
Multisource fusion of data is used on a handheld device to create a portable analytical verifier, including the ability to verify based on product wrapping or using a re-turned code to check the product or wrapping. Data words are extracted from authentication media by testing to see whether particular taggants are present, using spectroscopic analysis.
US08517269B2
A method of operating an indicia reader adapted to read information bearing indicia (IBI) is accomplished by putting the indicia reader in a set up mode to enable the indicia reader to read N types of user usage IBIs; reading at least one user usage IBI with the indicia reader that is one of the N types of IBI the indicia reader is enabled to read; configuring the indicia reader in accordance with the at least one IBI read while the indicia reader is in the set up mode; putting the indicia reader into a use mode and reading user usage IBIs of the type read while the indicia was in the set up mode.
US08517268B2
A card reading machine includes a card reader for reading data on a magnetic card and a device for preventing reading of the data on the magnetic card by illegal card reading devices operatively associated with the card reading machine. The device for preventing may include an oscillator, a driver circuit and a coil for generating electromagnetic signals similar to data on a card. A method for preventing reading of data on a magnetic card by in illegal card reader in operative association with an apparatus having a card reader intended to read the data on the magnetic card includes producing a signal ruining the data collected by the illegal card reader. The apparatus having a card reader may include an insertion slot in which case the method may further include producing the signal near the insertion slot.
US08517266B2
According to one embodiment, a checkout terminal includes a lighting unit, a detection unit, a weighing unit, a reading unit, a determination unit, a storage control unit, and a lighting control unit. The lighting unit illuminates an article. The detection unit detects an article code from the article. The weighing unit measures a weight of the article. The reading unit reads out weight information and article information of the article. The determination unit determines whether or not the weight measured by the weighing unit is identical with the weight indicated by the weight information. The storage control unit stores the article information in a second storage unit, when it is determined by the determination unit that the weights are identical. The lighting control unit controls the lighting unit so as to be turned off when it is determined by the determination unit that the weights are not identical.
US08517265B2
A method for error free initialization of a display tag includes providing a display tag, scanning the display tag with a near field source to cause the display tag to generate identification indicia, storing the identification indicia if only a single display tag generates that identification indicia, scanning the barcode of a product to be associated with the display tag, and associating, in a database, the identification indicia of the display tag with the barcode of the product to be associated with that display tag.
US08517257B1
Methods and devices provide robbery functionality in a cash handling device. A user attempting to withdraw money from a recycler may be identified. The user may indicate a problem, such as a robbery attempt. An alarm code may be sent from the recycler and may provide notification of the robbery attempt. A normal welcome screen may be displayed to the user so that the robber is not alerted of the robbery notification. The user may request a withdrawal of money and may identify a quantity of money to be withdrawn. Money may be dispensed if the withdrawal request is less than a robbery limit. If the request exceeds the limit, options may include: notice that a limit has been exceeded or that the requested funds are unavailable, dispensing amount(s) up to the robbery limit, and/or displaying error message(s). The machine may be precluded from use until the out of service condition is reset.
US08517255B2
A method for registering an appliance with a service provider, including receiving, by a server computer, a message from a cellular telephone, the message including a unique ID for an appliance, wherein the server computer stores billing information associated with the cellular telephone, wherein the appliance includes a modem, wherein the cellular telephone is separate from the appliance, and wherein the server computer is separate from the appliance and separate from the cellular telephone, further receiving, by the server computer, registration information from the appliance via the modem of the appliance, and associating, by the server computer, the billing information associated with the cellular telephone, with the appliance.
US08517254B1
A method and apparatus is provided for verifying the validity of ID cards. A card reading device reads an ID card and transmits a request to a database server. A database is queried and a reply is sent back to the card reading device indicating whether the ID is valid. If desired, the reply can include additional information, such as a description of the ID holder. The ID verification system can be used to help verify whether an ID belongs to the ID holder. The system can also log and timestamp events for future access.
US08517238B2
A fastener assembly includes an elongate fastener, and a support collar mounted on the elongate fastener. The support collar is shaped such that it has profiles on opposite sides of the elongate fastener that are asymmetric with respect to each other. The asymmetry may be an asymmetry in the number, shape, position, or size of recesses on two opposite sides of the elongate fastener. A plurality of fastener assemblies may be provided as a fastener strip, in which each support collar is joined to one or two adjacent support collars in a strip.
US08517237B1
An improved apparatus and system for vehicle roof rack pads that provide improved support, aerodynamics, and cushioning. The pad includes an aerodynamically shaped elongated tubular member, wherein a cross-section of the pad has an airfoil exterior shape with a leading edge and a trailing edge and has a lengthwise interior hole therein for receiving a crossbar and one or more slots along the trailing edge for receiving tie down straps, where the slots are placed at a radial depth so as to prevent deformation of the trailing edge and the exterior airfoil shape.
US08517235B1
A holster having a body defining a cavity for receiving at least a portion of a weapon, the body comprising a pair of opposed side walls; a hood assembly pivotably connected to the body, wherein the hood assembly is pivotable between an open position and a closed position; a lock mechanism for maintaining the hood assembly in the closed position; a finger/thumb release associated with the lock mechanism for releasing the hood assembly from the closed position; and at least one pivot arm that extends from the hood assembly to a pivot plate, wherein the pivot plate automatically pivots the hood assembly to the closed position such that to the lock mechanism is automatically engaged as a forward face of a trigger guard of an inserted weapon urges the pivot plate.
US08517230B2
A valve for controlling a flow of granular material and fluid comprises a body having a first end, a second end, and defining an interior surface. An inlet is formed proximate the first end for receiving the granular material and fluid. An outlet is formed downstream of the inlet for selectively discharging the granular material and fluid. A first member is slideably captured within the body and a resilient member is operationally coupled to the first member. The first member is moveable between an open position at which the granular material and fluid flow through the outlet, and a closed position upstream of the outlet at which the granular material is substantially prevented from flowing through the outlet. The resilient member is moveable between a retracted position and an expanded position at which it is engaged with the interior surface to substantially prevent the fluid from flowing through the outlet.
US08517226B2
The dispensing assembly with a syringe comprising storage container configured to receive a powdery or granular material and a piston that is connected to a hollow ram. In order to supply a liquid to the powdery or granular material, both the hollow ram and the piston have through-going, sealable longitudinal bores. Due to the fact that the liquid is filled in from the inlet side, a complete de-aeration of the mixture can be ensured.
US08517224B2
An oil flow control structure for grease gun has a hollow main body. An inflow end and an outflow end are respectively disposed at two sides of the main body. A high pressure passage and a low pressure passage, in which its inner diameter is larger than the high pressure passage, are disposed between the inflow end and the outflow end. A first pumping rod and a second pumping rod are respectively disposed in the two passages. The first pumping rod is pivoted to a pressing stem. The second pumping rod is pivoted to the pressing stem through a switching mechanism. The switching mechanism can regulate a pivot position of the second pumping rod relative to the pressing stem so that an initial position of the second pumping rod performing piston motion in the low pressure passage can be changed to seal or open the second inflow port.
US08517220B2
A fluid dispenser device including a pump for dispensing the fluid; a first arm referred to as the “main” arm, mounted to pivot on the device about an axis referred to as the “main” axis, which arm has a press zone on which the user exerts pressure in order to actuate the pump; and a second arm, referred to as the “intermediate” arm, mounted to pivot on the main arm about an axis, referred to as the “intermediate” axis, this axis being disposed on the main arm between the press zone and the main axis, and the intermediate arm being configured to transmit the movement of the press zone to the pump.
US08517209B2
A device to prevent breakage of a breakable container formed with an outer face and an opposed an inner face that meet at a parametric edge encircling an opening to the inner face of the breakable container. The device includes a container wrap formed of a shock resistant material. The container wrap is constructed to be applied over and across the outer face and the parametric edge of the breakable container to absorb and dissipate impacting forces to prevent breakage of the breakable container. At least one suction cup is formed in the container wrap to detachably secure the container wrap to a surface.
US08517203B2
A tray includes a base, a pair of opposed side walls extending along side edges of the base and a pair of opposed end walls extending along end edges of the base. A central lateral divider extends between the side walls. The central lateral divider has a width approximately twice a width of the side walls to permit cross stacking. The central lateral divider includes a pair of spaced-apart divider walls and at least one center rib between the divider walls.
US08517202B1
A kit for displaying beverages, includes a first corrugated fiberboard for supporting a bin within a cavity of the first corrugated fiberboard. A second corrugated fiberboard displays at least one of words, images, and shapes, and is capable of being removably mounted to the first corrugated fiberboard. A third corrugated fiberboard supports the articles placed in the bin, and inserts within the cavity of the first corrugated fiberboard. A fourth corrugated fiberboard receives the articles therein, and comprises a portion of the bin and inserts within the cavity of the first corrugated fiberboard supported by the third corrugated fiberboard and secured by the first corrugated fiberboard. A liner is inserted in the first corrugated fiberboard over the fourth corrugated fiberboard, a portion of the liner extending through the fourth corrugated fiberboard, the third corrugated fiberboard, the second corrugated fiberboard, and the first corrugated fiberboard, allowing a coolant placed within the liner to drain from the bin after cooling the articles.
US08517194B2
A tamper-indicating closure that includes a base wall having a cylindrical skirt for removably engaging a container finish. A tamper band is frangibly connected to the skirt, and a plurality of wings extend inwardly from an inner surface of the tamper band for engagement with a container finish. The wings are resiliently flexibly connected to the inner surface of the band along lines that are disposed at a counterclockwise angle with respect to the axis of the skirt as viewed from inside the skirt.
US08517191B2
An adjustable gondola shelving system is disclosed. The system has a plurality of dividers having openings for receiving pins or rivets. The dividers may be angled on the gondola. A product stop bar may extend over the top of the dividers. The product stop may prevent articles displayed on the shelf from being inadvertently pushed to the back of the shelf. The product stop increases the rigidity of the dividers. The dividers may be altered in position with respect to the shelf depending on the article(s) being displayed.
US08517183B2
An upper endcap of a fuel filter cartridge includes a skirt, an axially extending pin surrounded by the skirt, and a plurality of ribs that define fluid flow channels leading to the pin. The pin is extendable through an axially facing fuel inlet opening at the upper end of a standpipe for actuating a valve to an open position allowing fuel to flow through the axially facing inlet opening and into the standpipe. The valve can include a hole that receives the pin therein to help stabilize the valve when the valve is actuated open.
US08517167B2
One aspect provides a distribution auger. The distribution auger comprises a fill hopper, a flighting, and an outer covering surrounding the flighting. The fill hopper is located at a first end of the distribution auger and the outer covering includes a plurality of openings located on a bottom side such that, when the distribution auger is horizontally configured, solid matter introduced to the fill hopper located at the first end of the distribution auger falls through the plurality of holes when propelled by the flighting.
US08517165B2
A conveyor line (10) for the transport of articles (20, 24) in an article stream (18) from a first processing line (50) to a second processing line (52). The conveyor line (10) includes a first conveyor section (11) and a second conveyor section (12). On the first conveyor section (11) the article stream (18) is formed by at least two articles (20, 24) arranged mostly side by side, whereby the second conveyor section (12) includes at least one lane dividing plate (30) for the separation of the articles (20, 24) into at least two lanes (31). A third conveyor section (13) is arranged between the first conveyor section (11) and the second conveyor section (12), the third conveyor section (13) including multiple deflections of the articles (20, 24) along a path with multiple curves.
US08517156B2
A clutch actuating apparatus for a double clutch transmission, may include an electric unit that generates rotational force, a decelerating unit coupled to the electric unit and reducing the rotational force of the electric unit, a straight-converting unit that converts the rotational force reduced by the decelerating unit into a straight motion force, a push rod that is moved straight by the straight motion force of the straight-converting unit and makes an operational stroke to selectively engage a clutch, a supplement force supplying unit engaging with the push rod to increase the straight movement force to the push rod or to remove the increased straight movement force from the push rod when the push rod engages or disengages the clutch, and a rod locating unit coupled to the push rod and changing a relative position of the push rod to the straight-converting unit.
US08517154B2
A piston connected to a piston rod is fitted in a cylinder having a hydraulic oil sealed therein. Flows of hydraulic oil induced in extension and compression passages and by sliding movement of the piston are controlled by extension and compression damping force generating mechanisms, respectively, to generate damping force. In the extension and compression damping force generating mechanisms, the hydraulic oil is introduced into back pressure chambers through back pressure introducing passages, respectively, and the opening of relief valves is controlled by the pressures in the back pressure chambers, respectively. The inner peripheral portions of the relief valves are supported from their rear sides by support members to provide gaps on the front sides of the relief valves, respectively. When the relief valves open, their inner peripheral edge portions move within the gaps pivotally about the support members as fulcrums, respectively.
US08517153B2
A valve for a suspension damping system having a valve body and a shim valve assembly that permits fluid flow in two directions. The valve body separates a first fluid chamber from a second fluid chamber and has at least one fluid port therethrough between the first and second chambers. The shim valve assembly is coupled to the valve body and configured to control fluid flow across the valve body. The shim valve assembly includes a first shim having at least one fluid port and a second shim configured to seal the first shim fluid port. The first and second shims are flexible in a first direction under fluid pressure to permit fluid flow between the first and second fluid chambers, providing a first resistance to fluid flow. The second shim seals fluid flow through the first shim fluid port during flow in the first direction. The second shim is flexible in a second direction under fluid pressure to permit fluid flow between first and second fluid chambers, providing a second resistance to fluid flow. The second shim permits fluid flow through the first shim fluid port during flow in the second direction.
US08517151B2
A dual-pivot brake includes first and second caliper arms linked together and disposed symmetrically with respect to each other. The dual-pivot brake further includes an exoskeleton bridge including a two-piece bridge member consisting of first and second bridge members. The first and second bridge members are interconnected together by first and second axles, respectively. The first and second caliper arms are pivotally mounted on the first and second axles respectively and selectively move toward or away from each other in the operation of the dual-pivot brake.
US08517150B2
An elevator car with brake equipment, which is arranged in the region of the elevator car, for holding and braking the same, which brake equipment includes: a brake unit which can co-operate with a brake rail, an actuating device which can produce an actuator force FA, and a connecting linkage which connects the actuating device with the brake unit in force-active manner for transmission of the actuator force FA, wherein the brake unit in unloaded setting is in its open setting and the connecting linkage is a pull cable.
US08517148B2
A lubrication system includes an auxiliary lubricant tank 48, a supply conduit 58 extending from a source of lubricant 26 to the auxiliary lubricant tank. A reduced-G bypass line 108 branches from the conduit and enters the auxiliary tank at a first elevation E1. The system also includes an auxiliary tank discharge conduit 116, a portion of which resides within the tank. The resident portion has an opening 122 at least partially at a second elevation E2 higher than the first elevation.
US08517144B2
A lift-up safety grab post mechanism for rooftop hatchway curbs having a mounting bracket on a hatchway curb and having an elongate opening having a pivot bolt for upward and downward grab post movement. A lift-up grab post has a pivot opening receiving the pivot bolt and having a stop member fixed thereto. The lift-up grab post is rotationally moveable between an upstanding position and a horizontal position relative to the roof hatchway curb. The mounting bracket defines a receiver seat and further defines a stop shoulder adjacent the receiver seat that prevents rotational movement of the grab post until the grab post has been raised from said receiver seat to a position above the stop shoulder.
US08517135B2
A vehicle is disclosed having front and rear suspension systems adapted to change the track width of the vehicle.
US08517130B2
A drive unit for a movable member includes the movable member adjusting aerodynamic characteristics of a vehicle while the movable member is changing a position thereof, an electric motor operating the movable member, a preventing device preventing the movable member from operating beyond a specified operating range by making contact with the movable member, and a controlling device supplying an electric power to the electric motor for a reference time and operating the movable member from a first end to a second end of the specified operating range, the controlling device correcting the reference time on the basis of an external factor that affects an operating speed of the movable member.
US08517122B2
A drill and a separator apparatus and a method of prolonging bearing life are described, the separator apparatus being suitable for separating an air/water mixture into discrete air and water streams during drilling of a blast hole. The separator apparatus includes a separator body which is adapted to be installed at a distal or lower region of a drill string and when installed at the distal or lower region forms one or more separation chambers or reservoirs, each separation chamber or reservoir comprising an inlet adapted to receive the air/water mixture, a first outlet in fluid communication with a drill bit for releasing air thereto and a second outlet in fluid communication with a wall of the blast hole and disposed in the distal or lower region of the drill string to release water separated from the air/water mixture in a region adjacent the drill bit. The one or more first outlets for releasing air from the or each separation chamber is disposed at an upper region of the or each separation chamber and the one or more second outlets is disposed at a lower region of the or each separation chamber for releasing water from the or each separation chamber so that when in use water is inhibited from egress from the or each separation chamber through the or each first outlet.
US08517118B2
A stack-fold implement having a central bulk fill hopper assembly is provided. The bulk fill hopper assembly is mounted to the center frame section of the stack-fold implement and does not affect the narrowness of the stack-fold implement when it's in a stacked, transport position. The hopper assembly includes a pair of bulk fill hoppers or tanks supported by cradle that is in turn supported by a pair of wheels. The cradle is removably coupled to the center frame section by a plurality of rigid frame members.
US08517116B2
An inertization method for preventing fire or explosion in a first enclosed protected area by lowering the oxygen content in the protected area to a base inertization level relative-to the ambient air. With the objective of eliminating any danger to people or processes within the protected area, the method according to the invention provides for measuring the oxygen content in the protected area, comparing it to a threshold (maximum inertization level), and in the event it falls below the threshold (maximum inertization level), introducing fresh air into the protected area(s).
US08517111B2
Methods and systems for drilling subsea wells bores with dual-gradient mud systems include drilling the subsea well bore while employing a subsea pumping system, a subsea choke manifold and one or more mud return risers to implement the dual gradient mud system. When a well bore influx is detected, the well bore is shut in, and components determine if pressure control may be used to circulate the influx out of the well bore, the size of the influx, and how much the mud system weight will need to be reduced to match the dual gradient hydrostatic head before the influx reaches the subsea pump take point. The subsea pumping system, subsea choke manifold, and mud risers are isolated while the influx is circulated up one or more fluid passages in the drilling riser package using the surface pump, through the wellhead, and out the surface choke manifold.
US08517106B2
A vortex-controlled variable flow resistance device ideal for use in a backpressure tool for advancing drill string in extended reach downhole operations. The characteristics of the pressure waves generated by the device are controlled by the growth and decay of vortices in the vortex chamber(s) of a flow path. The flow path includes a switch, such as a bi-stable fluidic switch, for reversing the direction of the flow in the vortex chamber. The flow path may include multiple vortex chambers, and the device may include multiple flow paths. A hardened insert in the outlet of the vortex chamber resists erosion. This device generates backpressures of short duration and slower frequencies approaching the resonant frequency of the drill string, which maximizes axial motion in the drill sting and weight on the bit. Additionally, fluid pulses produced by the tool enhance debris removal ahead of the bit.
US08517105B2
A vortex-controlled variable flow resistance device ideal for use in a backpressure tool for advancing drill string in extended reach downhole operations. The characteristics of the pressure waves generated by the device are controlled by the growth and decay of vortices in the vortex chamber(s) of a flow path. The flow path includes a switch, such as a bi-stable fluidic switch, for reversing the direction of the flow in the vortex chamber. The flow path may include multiple vortex chambers, and the device may include multiple flow paths. A hardened insert in the outlet of the vortex chamber resists erosion. This device generates backpressures of short duration and slower frequencies approaching the resonant frequency of the drill string, which maximizes axial motion in the drill sting and weight on the bit. Additionally, fluid pulses produced by the tool enhance debris removal ahead of the bit.
US08517097B2
A method of transporting carbon dioxide and crude oil in a pipeline is disclosed. The method includes providing supercritical carbon dioxide and heavy or extra heavy crude oil produced from a subterranean reservoir. The crude oil is mixed with the supercritical carbon dioxide to form a mixture having a viscosity less than the viscosity of the crude oil prior to mixing. The mixture is transported in a pipeline from a first location to a second location. The pipeline is maintained at sufficient pressures and temperatures such that any unsaturated carbon dioxide remains in a supercritical state while the mixture is transported through the pipeline.
US08517092B2
The method hereof is for releasing trapped oil in reservoirs and includes identifying a reservoir, obtaining a microbial community sample of the reservoir, maintaining the sample under high temperature and high pressure conditions that mimic natural conditions of the reservoir, growing the sample on at least one substrate, determining a targeted treatment regime for the reservoir based on the positive growth of the sample on the substrate, injecting the reservoir with the targeted substrate to release trapped oil in the reservoir, monitoring the reservoir, and extracting the oil from the reservoir.
US08517088B2
The invention provides for a controller such as a thermostat for an HVAC System comprising a housing having a circuit board and a display screen, the display screen having at least one alpha-numeric icon and a group of input control areas. A microprocessor is provided for control on the display screen. Buttons are pressed in order to program set-points of the thermostat so that seven days may be programed simultaneously. The display includes a seven-day icon so that the user can program the thermostat set-points rapidly (e.g. setting time and temperature settings with minimal steps). The user may activate a first programming mode wherein the activating occurs by depressing a programming-mode button for a first pre-selected duration in order to select a first day for setting the conditioning mode. The user may activate a second programming mode wherein such activating occurs by depressing the programming-mode button for a second pre-selected duration that is longer than the first pre-selected duration in order to select programming for all seven days simultaneously.
US08517083B2
A mold for creating metal ingots, a hottop sideboard and a system and method of manufacturing metal ingots utilizing the same. A hottop sideboard utilizes a layer of a rigid refractory material integrally connected to a layer a flexible refractory material that is compressed between the rigid layer and the sidewalls of the mold during use. The mold for creating metal ingots comprises: a main body having a floor and sidewalls that form a cavity for receiving a molten metal; a plurality of sideboards connected to the sidewalls and forming a perimeter about the cavity in a spaced relation from the floor, the sideboards comprising a first layer of a rigid refractory material and a second layer of a flexible refractory material, the first layer and the second layer being connected to one another; and the sideboards are secured to the sidewalls so that the second layer is compressed between the first layer and the sidewall.
US08517064B2
A powder filling apparatus and a powder filling method which enable powder to be densely filled in a short period of time is to be provided. This is a powder filling apparatus having a pressure hopper wherein the pressure hopper has a discharger for discharging powder and a gas inlet positioned above at least the surface of a powder layer formed by the powder in the pressure hopper; the powder layer is so formed as to blockade the discharger in the pressure hopper; in the powder filling apparatus, the inside of the pressure hopper is pressurized by leading in gas through the gas inlet in a state in which the discharger is closed, and the powder layer so formed as to blockade the discharger is discharged by opening the discharger after the pressurization thereby to utilize that pressure to load the powder into the filling container.
US08517063B2
A flat tire sealant storage container is provided for a flat tire repair device in a formed in a simple configuration which enables the container to be stably secured. The flat tire sealant storage container includes an air inflow pipe for injecting compressed air under pressure into the container filled with a flat tire sealant and a sealant outlet discharge pipe for discharging the flat tire sealant under pressure to the outside of the container. The flat tire sealant storage container further includes an attachable and detachable fixing device formed on the outer surface of the container. When the container is secured to an external object by the fixing device, the inlet of the sealant outlet discharge pipe is positioned at the inner lower part of the container.
US08517060B2
A loom having a subassembly including heddles, a beater, and a device for inserting weft into a shed formed by warp yarns and also including a shed-forming device and a lubrication system for lubricating certain components of the subassembly including a first circuit for circulating a first lubricant and a second circuit for circulating a second lubricant for lubricating the shed forming device. The loom includes a heat exchanger system for exchanging heat between the first lubricant and the second lubricant without fluid communication between the lubricants.
US08517058B1
Segmented ductwork fittings shaped to minimize waste and labor while retaining the performance characteristics of traditional radius fittings. Lean Duct fittings utilize both curved sections and straight tubular sections at an angle to one another to provide a predetermined change in the direction or location of fluid flow through the finished duct system.
US08517041B2
The present invention is directed to pressure relief devices and to corresponding pressure relief assemblies that have improved vacuum resistance, improved fragmentation resistance, and/or improved burst control while maintaining low mass. The pressure relief device includes a substantially flat flange section and a domed section. The domed section may include a transitional line that defines a change in the shape of the domed section. The pressure relief device may also include a bracket for securing or aligning a domed section to a flange section. The pressure relief device may further include a stress distribution feature that is disposed transversely to a line of weakness in the domed section. The pressure relief assembly may include a fastener having a wire that is configured to break and release the pressure relief device when subject to a predetermined tensile load.
US08517033B2
A hairstyling tool has a thick, soft cushioned body adapted to be worn on the top of head close to the scalp in skull cap-like fashion. Hair clips affixed to the bottom of the body can be deployed to maintain the tool in position. A substantially vertical channel extending completely through the body allows the wearer to draw sheaves of hair fibers from below the body up, through and above the tool. The upwardly drawn hair fibers can be teased, combed, brushed or otherwise arranged together with other hair of the wearer in a highly elevated style resting on top of the body.
US08517019B2
This application discloses a dose counter device of the type for use on an aerosol dispensing assembly having an aerosol container and an actuator. The dose counter device is used for indicating the release of a dose of aerosol medication caused by the application of a force, in an axial direction, on the aerosol dispensing assembly. The dose counter device has a cap, a slider and a first counter ring. The cap is moved in a first direction along an axis of the container, which causes movement of the slider in a first linear direction laterally, relative to the axis of the container, as a function of the movement of the cap in the first direction. The first counter ring is rotated through a first arc in a first circumferential direction about the axis of the container, as a function of the movement of the slider in the first linear direction. The cap is then moved in a second opposite direction, which causes the slider to move in a second opposite linear direction, which in turn causes rotation of the first counter ring through a second arc in the first circumferential direction about the axis of the container. A sum of the first and second arcs of movement of the first counter ring defines a circumferential extent of movement of the first counter ring relative to the cap that indicates a single dose of aerosol medication dispensed from the container.
US08517009B2
A pulmonary drug delivery device having one or more vortexing elements which impart beneficial flow characteristics to an inspiratory air flow carrying a medicament into the patient's lungs.
US08517005B2
A grenade for toy gun generally includes a bullet compartment having multiple circumferentially arranged accommodation cylinders to receive BB bullets or paintballs therein, a storage chamber forming circumferential raised walls, and an actuation rod assembly that is hollow and has a front end forming an air inlet opening in which a check valve is mounted and a rear end forming an air output opening and circumferential gasket rings. The gasket rings are respectively set in engagement with the raised wall to hermetically seal the storage chamber. Compressed air is fed through the air inlet opening and is discharged through the air output opening to accumulate in the storage chamber. In percussion, the actuation rod assembly is caused to move forward to disengage the gasket ring from the raised wall so as to release the compressed air to instantaneously eject the BB bullets or paintballs received in the bullet compartment.
US08516998B2
A system and method for metering the injection of propane gas into the air intake of a gasoline or gaseous fuel spark ignition internal combustion engine by subjecting a metering valve member to intake manifold vacuum so as to decrease propane injection with increasing engine vacuum which counters a substantially constant biasing spring force acting to thereon tending to increase the propane injected into the engine air intake.
US08516995B2
A method and apparatus for controlling a fuel pump assembly comprising a plurality of pump elements, each pump element comprising a cam-driven plunger to perform at least one pumping event per engine revolution and a control valve. Each pumping event corresponds to an associated cam lobe of the associated cam. The method comprises, for each pumping event of each pump element, controlling the control valve of said pump element in response to an output control signal derived from at least one previous pumping event. Fuel pressure is measured within a rail volume and compared with a demanded rail pressure value to derive a rail pressure error. A proportional term and an integral term for the rail pressure error are derived and combined to derive the output control signal. Monitoring of the integral term for each pumping event provides a means for identifying and diagnosing a fault condition.
US08516987B2
The present invention provides a tunable engine manifold which employs sliders to form one wall of the inlet runners. The sliders can be moved to alter the cross sectional area of the runners as desired. Seals on the sliders provide an efficient means to seal the runners to prevent undesired leaks within runners and, while not required by the present invention, the overmolding of the seals onto the sliders provides a cost effective and mechanically effective manner of providing the desired seals between the inlet runners and the sliders. The tunable engine manifold can be an inlet or an exhaust manifold and can provide a crossover between the banks of inlet runners, or between individual runners, to control resonance in the manifold.
US08516978B2
An animal restraint system including a body harness and a removable control strap assembly. The control strap assembly may include no-pull or no jump/run modules. The body harness includes three adjustable straps that fit over the animal's back, in front of the chest, and underneath and behind the front legs, and two leg straps that encircle the animal's front legs. The no-pull module includes a strap for connecting a leash to the front leg straps. Pulling force is transferred to the animal's front legs, thereby reducing its ability to pull. The no-jump/run module includes hind leg straps that encircle the animal's hind legs and are connected to the corresponding front leg straps by connecting straps. A rear back strap extends across the back of the animal. The design works by limiting the range of motion of the front legs relative to the hind legs to inhibit jumping and running.
US08516974B2
A wet masking system for applying a maskant to a portion of a workpiece includes one or more pressurized mixing vessels with agitators for continuously blending the ingredients of the maskant, a dispensing system connected to the vessels for supplying metered volumes of maskant to injection valves. An electronic controller operable for controlling the system to coat the portion. A fixture for holding the workpiece with just the portion inside a cavity of the fixture includes one or more inlet ports alignable with injection ports of the injection valves injecting the maskant into the cavity. Heaters are positioned for drying or flash drying the maskant on the portion of the workpiece. Recirculation lines from the injection valves to at least one of the mixing vessels operated by the controller to flow the maskant through the recirculation lines after a period of time when no maskant is flowing through masking system.
US08516962B2
A printing cylinder cleaning cylinder in one embodiment includes a base and a module reversibly attaching to the module. The module includes a housing, a module engagement-disengagement assembly, a reciprocating wiper and brush assembly, a spray discharge assembly and a discharge assembly. The reciprocating brush and wiper assemblies produce a advantageous multi-dimensional scrubbing action. The module engagement-disengagement assembly may displace the module in to an operational position. The spray assembly may deliver cleaning fluid toward the cylinder being cleaned. The discharge assembly may convey cleaning fluid away from the module after the cleaning fluid. A control system allows for automatic or semiautomatic operation is some embodiments.
US08516959B2
The invention relates to a silk-screen printing machine (2) comprising a frame (4), a plate (6) for transporting the objects (18, 20), which plate (6) is mobile relative to the frame, a first (10) and a second (12) printing station, means (7) for displacing the plate (6) in order to bring the objects (18, 20) into alignment with the printing stations, and an object support (22) capable of carrying a first (18) and a second (20) object.The first printing station (10) is capable of printing solely the first object (18). The second printing station (12) is capable of printing solely the second object (20). The displacement means (7) are suitable for displacing the object support (22) between the first (10) and the second (12) printing station after the first object (18) has been printed at the first printing station (10) and the second object (20) has been printed at the second printing station (12).
US08516952B2
A rotisserie broiler for skewered food items is provided. In one embodiment, the rotisserie broiler includes a horizontal conveyor defining a horizontal path of travel between a skewer receiving area and a transfer channel, the horizontal conveyor having a parallel pair of feeder chains to endlessly convey at a same rate to the transfer channel and a vertical conveyor disposed perpendicular to the horizontal conveyor at the transfer channel and defining a vertical path of travel between the transfer channel and a dispenser, the vertical conveyor having a parallel pair of rotisserie chains to endlessly convey at the same rate from the transfer channel to the dispenser. The food items are placed into the rotisserie broiler on a conveyor in a generally horizontal plane and automatically picked up by a conveyor in a vertical plane to be broiled and rotated adjacent to heating elements and then dispersed.
US08516949B2
A tea pot includes an upper container assembly comprising a releasable top, an open bottom, a beverage chamber, and a funnel in the beverage chamber; a check valve comprising a cylindrical seat comprising a bossed hole having a conical top surface, an opening spaced from the hole and being sealingly aligned with a stem of the funnel, and guide slots on an annular surface of the seat; a conical valve unit comprising a stepped-diameter tunnel, the valve unit being seated upon the seat; and a sliding assembly comprising a body, periphery tabs slidably received in the guide slots, and a top shaft including grooves, and a cylindrical top projection fasten in the tunnel wherein the shaft is slidably inserted into the hole in an assembled state; and a lower container assembly comprising releasable top and bottom, a lower ingredient chamber, and an intermediate strainer.
US08516944B2
The invention discloses a valve arrangement for supplying pressure medium to a hydraulic load (2) having a directional valve (8), which has an inflow measuring diaphragm (10, 12) and a directional part (14, 16) flowing in the flow direction. The directional valve is associated with an individual pressure scale (18). In a return from the load, a load-lowering valve (44, 46) is provided, to which a pilot pressure is applied in the opening direction. According to the invention, said pilot pressure is tapped in channel between the pressure scale and the directional part.
US08516943B2
This is directed to systems, processes, machines, and other means that allow a pan/tilt gun mount to be radio controlled by a plurality of frequencies. The invention can rapidly rotate and adjust elevation to aim a gun mount as directed by a user.
US08516930B2
A fastener-driving sleeve assembly is driven by a driving tool to rotate a fastener, and includes a connecting sleeve and a reinforcing ring. The connecting sleeve has a tool-connecting portion and a fastener-connecting portion. The tool-connecting portion has a head-receiving hole engaging fittingly a driving head of the driving tool. The fastener-connecting portion has a fastener-receiving hole engaging fittingly the fastener. The reinforcing ring is sleeved fixedly on the fastener-connecting portion of the connecting sleeve. The reinforcing ring and the connecting sleeve have complementary interengaging surfaces. Preferably, the connecting sleeve and the reinforcing ring are made of two different metal materials, respectively.
US08516929B2
An open-end wrench for quickly turning an object includes a driving end including a first jaw and a second jaw which cooperate together. One of the first and second jaws includes a recess defined therein. Further, a movable engaging member includes a body pivotally fixed in the recess by a pivot. The body is in a surface contact with a lateral wall of the recess, and the recess supports the body. The pivot is inserted through the body and is fixedly engaged with a wall of the recess. Further, an elastic member resiliently engages with the movable engaging member. Furthermore, the open-end wrench is turned in a first turning direction to turn the object and in a second turning direction to move relatively to the object.
US08516925B2
An extendable multi-tool comprising an extendable pole and a head unit selectively detachably coupled together. The head unit comprises a grasping mechanism configured to engage a light bulb, a control switch and a rotation mechanism. The control switch configured to cause the grasping mechanism to become secured to a light bulb, and to cause the rotation mechanism to automatically detect when a light bulb is secured to the grasping mechanism and then rotate the grasping unit and the secured light bulb in a first direction based on the position of the control switch. The tool further comprises an arm unit for positioning the grasping mechanism in a desired configuration to engage the light bulb, wherein the arm member is coupled to the grasping mechanism.
US08516922B2
A bicycle pedal assembly having a pedal body rotatably coupled to a pedal shaft. A bore receiving the pedal shaft passes through the pedal body. A semi-cylindrical shoulder extends outwardly from an exterior surface of the shaft. A bushing is positioned within the bore to rotatably support the pedal shaft. An inner surface of the shoulder rotatably engages the external end of the bushing, so that the second end of the shaft is movably connected to the pedal body without assistance of any fasteners.
US08516914B2
A suspension actuator (1) for positioning a movably mounted component of a motor vehicle suspension, including a first actuator component (4), which is to be connected to the movably mounted component, and a second actuator component (3), which is to be connected to a fixed suspension component, wherein both actuator components can be axially adjusted relative to one another via a ball-type linear drive (5), which includes a threaded spindle (6) and a nut (7) running thereon. Either the nut can be driven via a drive motor (10) for the axial adjustment of the threaded spindle or the spindle can be driven via a drive motor for axial adjustment of the nut. A brake unit (14, 28), which can be actuated by an external force on the suspension side and acts on the nut (7) or the spindle and rotates them, and which builds up a friction torque opposing a nut rotation or the spindle rotation, which acts between the nut (7) or the spindle (6) and a fixed actuator element (22, 35) or between a drive shaft of the drive motor (10) and a fixed actuator element (45) associated therewith, is provided.
US08516905B2
A MEMS resonator 100 including a substrate 112; an vibrator 102 including an mechanically vibrating part and a fixed part; at least one electrode 108 that is close to the vibrator and has an area overlapping with the vibrator across a gap 109 in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the substrate; and a pressure transferring mechanism to displace the at least one electrode according to an externally applied pressure so as to change the gap; is connected to a detection circuit that detects transmission characteristics of an AC signal from an input electrode to an output electrode, the input and output electrodes being one and the other of the vibrator 102 and the at least one electrode 108, and the pressure is detected based on the transmission characteristics of the AC signal that is detected by the detection circuit.
US08516896B2
In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor pressure sensor, a multilayer structure including a polysilicon diaphragm, a polysilicon gauge resistor formed on a side of a space which is to serve as a vacuum chamber below the polysilicon diaphragm, and a group of insulating films containing the polysilicon diaphragm and the polysilicon gauge resistor and having an etching solution introduction hole in contact with a sacrificial layer is formed on the sacrificial layer. Then, an etching solution is supplied through the etching solution introduction hole and the sacrificial layer is etched with the etching solution, to thereby obtain a diaphragm body formed of the multilayer structure, which functions on the vacuum chamber, and a surface of a silicon substrate below a first opening of a first insulating film is etched to thereby form the space which is to serve as the vacuum chamber and a diaphragm stopper disposed in the space, protruding toward near the center of the diaphragm body. With this structure, it is possible to provide a technique for suppressing the variation in the performance of a semiconductor pressure sensor when the semiconductor pressure sensor is downsized.
US08516891B2
A MEMS sensing system includes a movable mass having at least one contact surface, a stopper system for stopping the movement of the mass, the stopper system having at least one contact surface that contacts a corresponding contact surface of the mass if a sufficient movement of the mass occurs in a direction, at least one stopper gap formed between the at least one contact surface of the stopper system and the corresponding contact surface of the mass, and a spring system in communication with the at least one stopper gap.
US08516885B1
A rotating object dynamic balancing system and method for balancing a rotating object including a shaft by using centrifugal force on a plurality of weighted masses traveling along at least one race. The rotating object dynamic balancing system has an inner body, an outer body, a fastening body or fastening body, and a plurality of weighted masses. The inner body has a hollow interior area and an aperture in communication with the interior area and adapted to receive the shaft. The outer body has a hollow interior area defined therethrough, and at least one radial race defined in the interior area. The outer body is attachable to the inner body. The fastening body has a hollow interior area, and is configured to be received into the interior area of the inner body. The interior area of the fastening body assembly is adapted to engage with the shaft received through the inner body thereby securing the rotating object dynamic balancing system to the rotating object.
US08516879B2
A gas sensor comprises a gas sensing element, a storage medium to store individual information prepared individually for the sensing element for use in control of the sensing element, and a circuit board supporting the storage medium mounted on the circuit board. A seal portion of a resin covers the circuit board liquid-tightly. An output base includes a mount surface facing to the circuit board. A terminal portion extending through the mount surface is connected with the circuit board and arranged to deliver the individual information through the circuit board. The output base further includes a support projection projecting from the mount surface and including a support surface supporting the circuit board.
US08516872B2
The present invention relates to crimping pliers for crimping a workpiece. The crimping pliers comprise two hand levers. At the crimping pliers a first tool builds a crimping tool and comprises two crimping jaws located at a head of the pliers. The crimping jaws are linked by a transfer mechanism with the two hand levers. The invention suggests providing a second tool. The second tool comprises a working area, wherein the working area is located between the two hand levers. The second tool is solely mounted with a first hand lever of the two hand levers. The second hand lever comprises a contact surface cooperating with a contact surface of the second tool. The contact of the two contact surfaces is used for transferring an activating force from the hand levers to the second tool.
US08516862B2
A locking arrangement comprising: (a) a handle assembly; (b) a primary locking mechanism comprising: (i) a locking bar movable between an extended latching position and a retracted release position, whereby when the locking bar is in the retracted release position the handle assembly is movable between a locked condition and an unlocked condition; and (ii) an actuator means which acts upon the locking bar to move the locking bar between the extended latching position and the retracted release position; (c) a secondary locking mechanism which acts independently upon the locking bar to move the locking bar between the extended latching position and the retracted release position; and (d) at least one biased catch means to releasably retain the locking bar in either the extended latching position or the retracted release position.
US08516858B1
A method of making an abrasive cleaning glove comprises the following steps not necessarily in order. First, a user forms a fabric with plurality of warp threads and a series of waft threads with mosaic type needle bars and sedimentary slice principles of a glove knitting machine to allow elasticity. Next, the user utilizes an air jet propelled devices on the glove knitting machine allowing a greater elasticity. After this the user, completes inlaid neilsbed and sedimentation piece devices on the glove knitting machine allow the abrasive cleaning glove to conform with a user's hand. Then, the user attaches a rib-stitched wrist area to form a cuff and a hand opening with at least one elastic thread to allow the abrasive cleaning glove to conform to different wrist sizes.
US08516856B2
Methods for making fiber waveguides include rolling a multilayer structure into a spiral structure and forming the fiber waveguide from the spiral structure. The forming includes drawing a fiber preform derived from the spiral structure.
US08516854B2
The invention is directed to a method of forming small, thin glass articles having a thickness of less than 5 mm by the use of a plunger and a die, the die having walls, a terminal area and a transition area in contact with both the walls and the transition area is such that the interior distance dimensions of the die gradually decrease as one progresses from the terminal area through the transition area to the walls.
US08516852B2
After a glass layer 3 is disposed between a glass member 4 and a thermal conductor 7 along a region to be fused, a laser beam L1 is emitted while the thermal conductor 7 is used as a heat sink, so as to melt the glass layer 3, thereby burning and fixing the glass layer 3 onto the glass member 4. While the glass layer 3 drastically increases its laser absorptance at the time of burning, the thermal conductor 7 serves as the heatsink and draws heat from the glass layer 3, thereby inhibiting the glass layer 3 from falling into an excessive heat input state. Thereafter, another glass member is overlaid on the glass member 4 having the glass layer 3 burned thereonto, such that the glass layer 3 is interposed therebetween. Then, the region to be fused is irradiated therealong with a laser beam, so as to fuse the glass members together.
US08516848B2
A liner of a cooler has sides extending upward to an inner shoulder. A platform assembly fits onto the inner shoulder of the cooler. The assembly provides a sanitary platform for ready access to ice cubes and/or cooled items below, a scoop for the ice, a lid(s) for closing the aperture(s) so that the larger cooler cover need not be opened and closed while dispensing cubes during drink or meal preparation. An aperture receives a container held by its rim for an ice scoop. The lid is provided with a tongue adapted to fit into a slot in the platform so as to enable the lid to stand upright out of the way when the aperture is open to receive or dispense cubes. A second aperture and lid may be provided for food/drink items with a partition to separate the items from the ice.
US08516847B2
The present invention relates to air conditioners, and more particularly, to a thermal storage air conditioner in which a cold heat is produced and stored in a tank during night time for using the cold heat during day time for cooling a room. For this, the thermal storage air conditioner includes an outdoor unit having an outdoor heat exchanger for making heat exchange, and at least one compressor for compressing refrigerant, an indoor unit having a plurality of indoor heat exchangers for making heat exchange, a thermal storage unit for storing energy, the thermal storage unit having a plurality of thermal storage heat exchangers for making heat exchange, and a functional unit having a plurality of valves for selective control of refrigerant flows among the outdoor unit, the indoor unit and the thermal storage unit according to an operation mode, and a valve controller for making a unitary control of operation of the valves.
US08516834B2
A cryogenic apparatus is provided having a nested thermally insulating structure, thermal links, a vacuum shroud, and a cryo-cooler. The nested thermally insulated structure holds a sample to be cooled while dampening the external vibrations caused by the cryo-cooler, the surrounding environment or cryo-cooler mounting surface. A vacuum plate is removably attached to the vacuum shroud to provide access to the sample chamber.
US08516833B2
A 4-valve pulse tube cryocooler has, on a high-pressure end of a compressor, first and second coolant supply channels respectively connected to high-temperature ends of a regenerator and a pulse tube. The cryocooler further has, on a low-pressure end of the compressor, a first coolant recovery channel connected to the high-temperature end of the regenerator, a second coolant recovery channel connected to the high-temperature end of the pulse tube, and a third coolant recovery channel connected to the high-temperature end of the pulse tube via a common pipe and including a flow resistance member interposed between a flow control valve and the high-temperature end of the pulse tube.
US08516818B2
A combustion system for performing stable combustion and flame stabilization at high altitudes is described. A primary liquid hydrocarbon fuel is atomized and vaporized within the main combustor chamber to produce a primary fuel vapor. When the combustion system operates at a high altitude, a secondary gaseous fuel is fed into the inlet air port such that the secondary fuel mixes with air, thereby enabling the mixture of the air and the secondary fuel to combust in a catalytic reactor to produce high temperature, oxygen-rich gases that flow into the main combustor chamber. Proper proportional amounts of the two fuels are determined as a function of altitude.
US08516814B2
An exhaust gas purifying apparatus for a supercharger-equipped internal combustion engine, which can favorably combine the realization of the prevention of an excessive back pressure rise and the securement of an exhaust gas emission performance, is provided. A turbocharger which includes, in an exhaust passage, a turbine driven by the exhaust energy of an internal combustion engine is provided. In the exhaust passage, a first front stage catalyst and a second front stage catalyst are provided in series in order from the upstream side. A first exhaust bypass passage which bypasses the turbine and a second exhaust bypass passage which bypasses the turbine and the first front stage catalyst are provided. A first waste gate valve and a second waste gate valve are provided which play roles in opening and closing the first exhaust bypass passage and the second exhaust bypass passage, respectively.
US08516812B2
An apparatus for the production of energy includes a vertical pipe filled with a liquid. A second similar pipe is connected to the first pipe near its top end above the top of the liquid. Hollow spheres each fit within the first pipe and float. This second pipe allows downward passage of spheres lifted into the second pipe by a sphere-lifting mechanism. A platform close the bottom of the apparatus sits in a position to be impacted by the sphere. The platform moves in response to the impact and is brought to a stop and then returned by spring action. A rotatable flywheel turns with movement of the platform. A sphere injector then injects a sphere into the first pipe and it floats to the top by its buoyancy.
US08516810B2
A compressed-air energy storage system according to embodiments of the present invention comprises a reversible mechanism to compress and expand air, one or more compressed air storage tanks, a control system, one or more heat exchangers, and, in certain embodiments of the invention, a motor-generator. The reversible air compressor-expander uses mechanical power to compress air (when it is acting as a compressor) and converts the energy stored in compressed air to mechanical power (when it is acting as an expander). In certain embodiments, the compressor-expander comprises one or more stages, each stage consisting of pressure vessel (the “pressure cell”) partially filled with water or other liquid. In some embodiments, the pressure vessel communicates with one or more cylinder devices to exchange air and liquid with the cylinder chamber(s) thereof. Suitable valving allows air to enter and leave the pressure cell and cylinder device, if present, under electronic control.
US08516803B2
A mechanical vacuum pump for an engine includes a flange configured for attachment to a cylinder head of the engine. The flange defines a bore, which is configured for interconnecting an injection air inlet in the cylinder head with an injection air outlet of a secondary air injection valve. The secondary air injection valve is directly mounted to the mechanical vacuum pump, thereby indirectly mounting the secondary air injection valve to the cylinder head of the engine, with the bore communicating fresh air from the secondary air injection valve to the cylinder head.
US08516800B2
A system and method controls injection of a reductant agent in a selective catalytic reduction system. The system and method include an injector injecting the reductant agent to an exhaust system directing exhaust from a power system. A coolant system circulates coolant proximate to the injector. A coolant temperature sensor monitors a coolant temperature of the coolant. A controller adjusts the injection timing of the injector based at least in part on the coolant temperature.
US08516799B2
Methods and systems are provided for controlling an engine in a vehicle, the engine having a turbocharger, and a particulate filter upstream of a turbocharger turbine. In one example, the method comprises, under selected boosted operating conditions, injecting a reductant upstream of the filter during an exhaust stroke to generate an exothermic reaction at the filter.
US08516797B2
Methods and systems for controlling operation of exhaust of an engine including a particulate filter are provided. One example method includes generating vacuum during engine operation, and storing the vacuum. The method further includes, during or after engine shutdown, drawing ambient air through the particulate filter via the vacuum.
US08516794B2
Aspirating a fuel combustion engine with non-atmospheric gases to produce exhaust that can be efficiently used as EOR working fluid and/or recirculated in subsequent fuel combustion processes. The EOR working fluid is made up of a combination of gases created in a combustion process in a power-producing fuel combustion engine. This combustion process occurs using a mix of initial combustion ingredients that includes CO2 and relatively pure oxygen in the proportion required by the specific combustion device and the specific hydrocarbon fuel. The oxygen may be produced in lower value off peak periods and is stored until it is required. Where EOR or EGR working fluid has been injected into geologic formations and has then been re-circulated through the production process and provided to the engine combustion gas, there will typically be hydrocarbon components that the present invention makes use of to provide a portion or all of the fuel requirements for the engine power production system.
US08516791B2
A method of assembling a gas turbine engine is provided. The method includes providing at least one heat exchanger assembly including a heat exchanger and a mixer extending downstream from the heat exchanger. The mixer includes a plurality of windows formed therein. The method also includes coupling the at least one heat exchanger assembly within a bypass duct of the engine such that the at least one heat exchanger assembly is coupled to at least one of an outer engine casing and an inner engine casing of the turbine engine.
US08516780B2
A method and device for strapping one or more packets with a band, which device substantially comprises a frame, a lying conveyor belt supported by the frame for moving forward the packets, a pair of band clamping and guiding jaws movable toward and away from each other transversely of the conveyor belt, a supply reel associated with a jaw and guide members for the strapping band in addition to welding means co-acting with the jaws for welding together the band portions supplied by the pair of jaws, wherein means for arranging one or more label means at a time on the band are placed along the guide path of this band.
US08516769B2
A support for a grain bin having an elongated body with a back surface bent to form support surfaces that extend outwardly from the back surface to form a cavity therein. Connected to the elongated body is a base having a vertical portion and a horizontal portion. The horizontal portion having corners that extend upwardly to form flanges that engage the support surfaces of the elongated body.
US08516768B2
A two-piece masonry anchor including a plate having opposing faces, an attachment feature extending from one of the faces, and a leg extending from the other of the faces having an insulation thickness guide and an elongate slot transverse to the extension direction of the leg, and an anchor adapted to attach to the leg of the plate and having first and second portions arranged to define a right angle therebetween. A seismic wall anchoring system including a plurality of masonry anchors interconnected by a rod.
US08516767B2
A joint (1) having a first edge (2) and a second edge (3), the first edge (2) being provided with a distal edge (21) and a downwards protruding heel (22) The distal edge (21) is further provided with an upper joint edge (25) beneath which a groove (23) is arranged. The second edge (3) is provided with lower cheek (31) having a distal end (32) at which an upwards protruding lower cheek heel (33) is arranged. The second edge (3) is further provided with an upper joining edge (35) beneath which an undercut (34) is arranged. A moveable locking element (40) is arranged in the space created by the undercut (34). The moveable locking element (40) have a locking tongue (41), a locking tongue leg (42) and a maneuvering leg (43).
US08516757B2
A reinforcement element for absorbing forces in concrete elements that are supported by support elements includes a longitudinally stable, flexible longitudinal element. This element is placed in recesses in the concrete element which are disposed in such a way that in the region of the support element the reinforcement element runs in the area of the concrete element remote from the support element. The end regions of the reinforcement element each run at an acute angle toward the surface of the concrete element turned toward the support element, and exit from the concrete element. Both end regions of the longitudinally stable, flexible longitudinal element are diverted around the respective exit edge of the recesses, are led into a tensioning device, are held therein, and can be tensioned with respect to one another. The reinforcement element thereby forms a closed loop; the arising forces can be absorbed in an optimal way.
US08516754B2
A photovoltaic (PV) module including a PV device and a frame, The PV device has a PV laminate defining a perimeter and a major plane. The frame is assembled to and encases the laminate perimeter, and includes leading, trailing, and side frame members, and an arm that forms a support face opposite the laminate. The support face is adapted for placement against a horizontal installation surface, to support and orient the laminate in a non-parallel or tilted arrangement. Upon final assembly, the laminate and the frame combine to define a unitary structure. The frame can orient the laminate at an angle in the range of 3°-7° from horizontal, and can be entirely formed of a polymeric material. Optionally, the arm incorporates integral feature(s) that facilitate interconnection with corresponding features of a second, identically formed PV module.
US08516753B2
A damping system including a first set of plates having one end thereof attached to a first vertically extending structural element, a second set of plates having one end thereof attached to a second vertically extending structural element spaced in a horizontal direction from the first vertically extending structural element, and arranged such that the first set of plates has a second end portion extending towards and overlapping with a second end portion of the second set of plates at an overlapping region, and further including an energy dissipating material provided in the overlapping region for connecting the first set of plates and the second set of plates.
US08516752B2
A support pole having a support member track portion and a support arm track portion is described that is configured to allow lateral and vertical displacement of the carrier device. In one or more implementations, the support pole includes a support member and a support arm extending outwardly from the support member. The support pole includes a support member track portion connected to the support member and a support arm track portion connected to the support arm. The support pole may also include a transition track portion disposed between the support member portion and the support arm portion. The track portions, collectively, are configured to allow a carrier device to transition between a first position and a second position.
US08516740B2
Rodent bait station assemblies and methods for assembly and bundling.
US08516729B2
A gun that has a plurality of frangible barrels. At the proximal end of each barrel is a chamber that receives a cartridge. The cartridge has a reduced charge as compared to a conventional cartridge. Each barrel may have an inner sleeve formed from a malleable material. The out member of each barrel is comprised of a rigid material such as, but not limited to, a filled plastic. The inner sleeve is rigid enough to withstand the pressure of the reduced charge cartridge when fired, but is malleable enough to expand from the pressure generated by a standard charge cartridge. When the inner sleeve expands, the outer member fragments and destroys the weapon. The expansion of the inner sleeve and fragmentation of the outer member upon firing a standard charge reduces the propelling force in the bullet. As a result, the weapon is destroyed and the bullet is fired with a greatly reduced force. The barrels on the gun don not rotate. The hammer is mounted in a revolving mechanism that is rotated in a circular path from one barrel to the next when the trigger is pulled. Pulling the trigger also compresses and then releases a revolving member that forces the hammer into contact with one of the firing pins.
US08516726B2
An audio gift tag assembly including means for removably attaching the assembly to the neck of a container. In certain embodiments, the assembly includes means for receiving and holding a transaction card, such as a gift card.
US08516722B2
The shoe tongue centralizer assembly includes a binding post and a centralizer band which, together prevent the tongue of any type of laced shoe, boot or other footwear from significant movement either laterally or longitudinally in the footwear.
US08516721B2
An article of footwear that includes a sole defining a bending feature (e.g., a groove) between a phalanges portion and a metatarsus portion of the sole. The bending feature allows the phalanges sole portion to articulate upward with respect to the metatarsus sole portion. An upper is attached to the sole and defines a foot void for receiving a human foot. The upper has a phalanges portion that defines at least one toe receiver volume. The at least one toe receiver volume defines a raised shape with respect to an adjacent metatarsus portion of the upper. Articulation of the phalanges sole portion and substantially unrestricted toe lift movement into the at least one toe receiver volume allows substantially unrestricted upward toe flexion of a received foot in the foot void.
US08516710B2
Multidimensional coordinate measuring machine having a programming mode in which the measuring head can be displaced manually by an operator and a measuring mode in which a control unit is designed for automatically optimizing and reproducing the displacements of the measuring head recorded during the programming mode.
US08516703B1
A method of manufacturing a musical instrument using relatively thin metal sheet materials is disclosed. A metallic back plate is provided that has a peripheral edge. At least one metallic side plate with a peripheral edge is provided. Each side plate may be bent to conform to the shape of at least a portion of the peripheral edge of the back plate. A neck block and a tail piece may each be fixed to the inside surface of the back plate proximate the peripheral edge thereof. The neck block is adapted to be secured to a neck to the instrument, and the tail piece is adapted to secure two of the side plates together inside the instrument. Each side plate is fixed, such as with the adhesive, to the back plate, neck block and the tail piece. A metallic top plate is fixed to each side plate, the neck block and the tail piece. To the extent that the top plate and the bottom plate overhang or extend outwardly from the side plates, the overhanging portions are then removed with a router or the like. A saddle, a neck, and strings may then be attached in an appropriate order. An abraded region may be formed proximate the peripheral edge on an inside surface of the bottom plate, side plates, and top plate to increase the bonding of the adhesive.
US08516702B2
A method of mounting a first drum and a second drum of a double-drum sequential gear control device for a motor-vehicle gearbox in a predefined relative angular position, wherein in a mounted condition the first drum and the second drum are rotatably arranged about respective rotation axes parallel to but not coincident with each other, includes forming a first positioning hole in a first position of the first drum, forming a second positioning hole in a second position of the second drum, arranging the first drum and the second drum in the predefined relative angular position, locking the first drum and the second drum in the predefined relative angular position by engaging the first positioning hole and the second positioning hole with a locking device, and unlocking the first drum and the second drum once mounting of the gear control device is completed.
US08516701B2
A method is provided to use a bending support to manufacture a heat exchanger assembly. The method includes the steps of providing a bending support having a bracing member, affixing a refrigerant conduit onto the bracing member, inserting the refrigerant conduit and the bending support into a manifold header, positioning the manifold onto work a surface of a mandrel, such that bracing member of the bending support is substantially perpendicularly to the work surface of the mandrel, and bending the manifold onto the working surface of mandrel forming an inner radius of bent, such that the bracing member supports the inner diameter of the manifold header, thereby preventing the deforming of the inner radius of the bent manifold header.
US08516697B2
A manufacturing method for a skin material of a vehicle interior equipment includes exposing a conductive wire material by removing a main fiber material from a first fabric material formed of the conductive wire material and the main fiber material that is weaker than the conductive wire material and electrically connecting a conductive member, which is used to supply electric power to the conductive wire material, to the exposed portion of the conductive wire material.
US08516696B2
A hydraulic compression tool for securing a compression type cable connector to a prepared end of a coaxial cable. The tool can include a hydraulic assembly having an axially extendable ram, and a connector frame detachably attached to the hydraulic assembly. The connector frame can include a cable cradle configured to accommodate cables of various sizes and a sleeve for engaging a cable connector. The connector frame can further include a sliding guide structure attached to the cable cradle. The sliding guide structure can include a sliding bar and one or more sliding guides. The sleeve can be attached to the sliding bar. The sleeve can be configured to accommodate connectors of various sizes. Activating the hydraulic assembly can cause the ram to extend, which, in turn, can cause the sliding bar to move along the longitudinal axis of the cable connector compressing the compression member and connector body into operative engagement with the cable.
US08516691B2
A method of assembling an in-vivo imaging device with a flexible circuit board. The flexible circuit board may include a plurality of flexible installation units connected to one another through flexible connection units. The flexible installation units may be capable of having electrical components disposed thereon at a size suitable for being included in an in-vivo imaging device which may be inserted into a body lumen, e.g., a capsule endoscope.
US08516678B2
A pipe for connecting to a similar adjacent pipe. The pipe has a female end with a plurality of rigid fingers extending into the space within the female end. The plurality of rigid fingers extends from at least one interior circumferential groove on the interior surface of the female end. On the male end of the pipe there is at least one exterior circumferential groove that is sized and positioned to receive the plurality of rigid fingers from a corresponding interior circumferential groove on the female end of an adjacent pipe. The number of interior circumferential grooves on the female end with the plurality of rigid fingers extending from them typically corresponds to the number of exterior circumferential grooves on the male end. When the male end of a similar adjacent pipe is inserted into the female end of the pipe, the plurality of rigid fingers is received within the corresponding exterior circumferential groove on the male end, thereby preventing the male end of the similar adjacent pipe from being withdrawn from the female end of the pipe.
US08516670B2
A method and a device for drawing off a clothing strip from a card-flat bar are presented. A clothing strip held on the card-flat bar by fastening means in the form of clips or clamps is released form the card-flat bar with the aid of a device resulting in at least partial opening of the fastening means. The device has a bearing face and a retainer for bearing on the card-flat bar or on the clip and has a spike for the at least partial opening of the clip.
US08516664B2
A cufflink including a head portion with a bearing surface for bearing against a garment, a pin portion to be inserted through a hole or a slot of the garment, and a clasp portion with at least one pivotable tab for locking the cufflink onto the garment. The cufflink includes an actuator with a shaft slidably mounted in a housing and including a push button at one end and an actuation arm at the other end which is inserted into an actuation portion of the tab (so as to pivot the tab from an unlocked position into a locked position when the push button is pressed. The cufflink further includes a locking-unlocking mechanism with push buttons arranged on either side of the shaft of the actuator, wherein the push buttons can be accessed from the opposite sides of the side wall.
US08516661B2
A connecting mechanism for joining the ends of the retainer band that does not damage the band ends may help prevent separation of the ends as the band is compressed, and corrosion of the band when it is exposed to a chemically-charged environment. A retainer structure for use in a fluid-holding tank comprises a main band body having a first end portion and a second end portion and a connecting member for receiving the first and second end portions so that the main band body forms a loop shape. The connecting member is configured to directly secure the received first and second end portions without deforming the first and second end portions.
US08516655B2
A vacuum cleaner includes a floor engaging portion and a handle portion pivotally mounted to the floor engaging portion. The handle portion includes an input device. An agitator is rotatably mounted in the floor engaging portion to agitate a floor surface being cleaned. A first motor has an output shaft and an agitator belt selectively drivingly connecting the motor to the agitator. A tensioning arm pivotally mounts to the floor engaging portion for motion between an agitator-on position in which the tensioning arm engages the agitator belt, to place the agitator belt under tension whereby the agitator belt drives the agitator, and an agitator-off position in which the tensioning arm does not engage the agitator belt, to place the agitator belt in a slack condition whereby the agitator belt does not drive the agitator. A lifting assembly is mounted in the floor engaging portion and includes a second motor and an engaging member driven by the second motor, the engaging member being adapted to contact the tensioning arm to selectively place the tensioning arm in the agitator-off position.
US08516654B1
A vacuum cleaner system includes at least one air flow control valve coupled to a vacuum motor, a pressure chamber and a filter. The at least one valve is operable to couple the at least one filter to the vacuum source to provide suction therethrough when the at least one valve is in a first position, and alternately to couple the at least one filter to the pressure chamber when the at least one valve is in a second position to supply pressurized air from the pressure chamber to the at least one filter to clean the at least one filter.
US08516646B1
A dusting cloth structure for use with a duster includes a sleeve body whose outer surface is provided with a pile layer or a cloth strip layer and which has a receiving groove therein for receiving an external duster shank. One end of the sleeve body is formed with a sleeve opening. A portion of the sleeve body that is away from the sleeve opening is formed with a dividing portion extending toward the sleeve opening. The dividing portion defines two end grooves in the sleeve body, wherein the end grooves are divided from each other and communicate with the receiving groove. Moreover, the inner wall of the receiving groove is formed with a joint accommodating groove along the vertical direction of the surface of the sleeve body to prevent the sleeve body from coming off the shank.
US08516642B1
The curved-head electric toothbrush includes an elongate housing having a drive assembly contained therein. The housing provides a handle portion and a tapering section that holds a curved brush mount. The curved brush mount has a plurality of rotatable brush units mounted thereon. The brush mount is shaped to conform to the curved row of teeth of a user's mouth. The drive assembly drives one of the brush units, and the rest of the brush units are driven by the driving brush unit so that adjacent brush units rotate in opposite directions. Each brush unit includes curved, outer bristles and straight, inner bristles, the former for cleaning the outer side surfaces and the latter for the top surface of teeth. In use, the curved-head electric toothbrush simultaneously cleans substantially the whole row of teeth with minimal manual manipulation.
US08516639B2
A surgical support system including a positioning pillow to support a patient in a lateral position on an operating table. The positioning pillow includes a head supporting surface having an opening to accommodate an ear of the laterally positioned patient and a channel intersecting the opening to accommodate an eye of the laterally positioned patient, a shoulder supporting surface disposed adjacent to the head supporting surface and oriented substantially perpendicular to the head supporting surface to accommodate a shoulder of the laterally positioned patient, and a bottom surface disposed opposite to the head supporting surface and adjacent to the shoulder supporting surface, the head supporting surface being angled relative to the bottom surface to align the patient's thoracic and cervical spine at a predetermined angle with respect to the operating table when the patient's head is positioned on the head supporting surface in the lateral position.
US08516638B2
A feeding pillow is constructed of a pillow body that is generally defined by a medial region and two opposing arms. The medial region is configured to be placed near or adjacent a user's stomach, with the arms generally near or adjacent the user's sides. The pillow body has a top surface that is adapted to hold a baby and a bottom surface that is adapted to be placed on the user's lap. The pillow body further includes a fabric cover and a fill material disposed within the fabric cover. Also, a support member is removably positioned at or above one of surfaces such that one surface is more firm than the other surface.
US08516634B2
A bed structure includes a frame 28, a deck framework 50 moveably connected to the frame, a panel 72 moveably connected to the deck framework, and a motion converter 100. The motion converter translates the panel relative to the deck framework in response to either or both of a) relative translation between the deck framework and the frame, and b) relative rotation of the deck framework and the frame. In one detailed embodiment the motion converter includes a rack 102 secured to the frame, a primary gear 124 meshing with the rack, a panel drive sprocket 170 rotatably mounted on the deck framework coaxially with the primary gear, an idler sprocket 192 rotatably mounted on the deck framework remote from the panel drive sprocket, a slider connected to the panel, and a chain 220 engaged with the panel drive sprocket and the idler and connected to the slider.
US08516629B2
A portable, personal lifting device (10, 100) includes a central member (12), a seat (14) attached to the central member (12) in such a way that the seat is capable of translating linearly along the central member (12), an actuator (16) for causing translation between the seat (14) and the central member (12), and a support member (24) to stabilize the central member (12). The central member (12) is positioned between a user's legs in such a way that the user straddles during operation of the device (10, 100), thereby providing an inexpensive, lightweight lifting device that can be used in very close quarters.
US08516628B2
The present invention relates to a touch or proximity sensitive device, specifically one which controls characteristics such as the temperature and flow rate of water or other liquids. An apparatus for controlling a flow characteristic of a flowing liquid by a user, the apparatus comprising a two-dimensional control surface for sensing the proximity of a user in two dimensions, means for determining a position of the user, and means for controlling the characteristic of the liquid responsive to said determining.
US08516624B2
An artificial surfing facility for producing a standing wave, with an inclined ramp, to the upper end of which water is conveyed by at least one pump and at the lower end of which the water discharges into a wave pool. A standing wave is easily attained by there being an adjustable guide device in the wave pool at a distance from the bottom end of the ramp in the flow direction as a wave initiator. The wave pool, during operation of at least one pump, has a liquid level which is located above the liquid level of a main pool which surrounds the wave pool and the amount of water in the wave pool offers a defined resistance to the water flowing down the ramp so that the formation and height of the standing wave are influenced by the change of the flow velocity.
US08516616B2
Articles of apparel include: (a) a garment structure having one or more fabric elements structured and arranged to provide a close fit to at least one predetermined portion of a body (e.g., area(s) of the body for which enhanced position sensing and/or feedback are desired, such as the lower back, the arch of the foot, etc.); and (b) a body position feedback system engaged with or integrally formed as part of the garment structure. The body position feedback system may apply higher tensile or constricting (compressive) forces to selected portions of the wearer's body, which can help stimulate or interact with nerves and deep tissue receptors located in various portions of the body. The increased forces at selected locations of the body give the wearer sensory feedback regarding the position or orientation of these parts of the body and can improve or accelerate development of “muscle memory.”
US08522358B2
A system is configured to receive personal data associated with a user, verify one or more facts from the personal data, and form an avatar based on a first subset of the received personal data, where a second, differing, subset of the received personal data is not associated with the avatar. The system is also configured to receive, from a data requester, a query including a request for the avatar, and send, to the data requester, a message that includes information associated with the avatar and an indication that the one or more facts from the personal data were verified.
US08522349B2
A system, method and program product for defending against man in the middle (MITM) attacks directed at a target server. A system is provided that includes an activity recording system that records an incoming IP address, userid, and time of each session occurring with the target server; an activity analysis system that identifies suspect IP addresses by determining if an unacceptable number of sessions are occurring from a single incoming IP address during a predefined time period; and a countermeasure system for taking action against suspect IP addresses.
US08522344B2
A device prevents theft of service attacks on a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based device using an identity assurance protection mechanism, a multiple end-points protection mechanism, and an intrusion detecting protection mechanism.
US08522339B2
Hardware of a playback apparatus includes a drive and a decoder, and firmware of the playback apparatus accesses a BD-ROM loaded on a drive, according to a BD-J application, to bring the decoder into AV playback operations. The drive unit constitutes a local storage. A benchmark score is built in the firmware in advance. The benchmark score shows a turn-around time from when a processing request is made to the hardware via the firmware to when a response returns. Such a benchmark score is written into an application data area in the local storage when the firmware is initially executed.
US08522337B2
A selection system and method to receive an indication of a security format from a network and to select one of a plurality of security format conversions based on the received indication is described. The indication may be an indication of a wireless security format such as WTLS used by a wireless access device or a wired security format such as SSL used by a wired access device and the security format conversion selected based on the indication may be to another secured format or a plain data format. The indication may include an indication of a port and an indication of a security feature that is supported by the access device.
US08522335B2
A method and system for mediating security tokens to authorization data transactions in a data management system. The methods and systems intercept a data request between two applications or services, and validate and translate a security token sent with the data request from a format compatible with the first application or service to a format compatible with the second application or service.
US08522325B2
A method of authenticating a user using a server and an image forming apparatus using the same, the method including: transmitting, from an image forming apparatus to a first server that functions as an authentication server, user authentication information; determining if the first server authenticates the user based on the user authentication information; and transmitting, to a second server that processes image data, the user authentication information if the first server authenticates the user, wherein the second server authenticates the user based on the transmitted user authentication information authenticated by the first server. Thus, the user of the image forming apparatus can be automatically authenticated by the second server by authenticating the user on the first server.
US08522324B2
A method and system for controlling access of a user to a secondary system. A primary system sends a random string to a user system that is connected to the secondary system. The user is logged on the user system. The primary system receives from the user system first authentication information including an encryption of the random string by a private key of the user. The primary system generates a user-specific key consisting of the encryption of the random string. The primary system generates second authentication information from protected secondary authentication data stored in the primary system via application of the user-specific key to the protected secondary authentication data. The primary system provides the second authentication information to the secondary system to enable access of the user to the secondary system.
US08522318B2
The invention enables a client device that does not support IEEE 802.1X authentication to access at least some resources provided through a switch that supports 802.1X authentication by using dynamic authentication with different protocols. When the client device attempts to join a network, the switch monitors for an 802.1X authentication message from the client device. In one embodiment, if the client fails to send an 802.1X authentication message, respond to an 802.1X request from the switch, or a predefined failure condition is detected the client may be deemed incapable of supporting 802.1X authentication. In one embodiment, the client may be initially placed on a quarantine VLAN after determination that the client fails to perform an 802.1X authentication within a backoff time limit. However, the client may still gain access to resources based on various non-802.1X authentication mechanisms, including name/passwords, digital certificates, or the like.
US08522316B2
The invention relates to a connector and also to a method for providing access to a data-processing network for a data-processing device, wherein an individual, decentralized, and secure access to a data-processing network is provided and wherein data exchange between the device and the network is possible or granted only when the device has at least one predefined identification feature. The invention further relates to a method for configuring the connector according to the invention.
US08522312B2
System(s) and method(s) provide access management to femto cell service through access control list(s) (e.g., white list(s), or black list(s)). White list(s) includes a set of subscriber station(s) identifier numbers, codes, or tokens, and also can include additional fields for femto cell access management based on desired complexity. White list(s) can have associated white list profile(s) therewith to establish logic of femto coverage access based on the white list(s). Values of attribute fields that determine white list(s), black list(s), or white list profile(s) can be generated through various sources. An access list management component facilitates generation and maintenance of white list(s), black list(s), or white list profile(s). Values for identifier attribute field(s) available for inclusion in a white list are validated prior to inclusion therein. Various example aspects such as white list(s) management, maintenance and dissemination; automatic population or pre-configuration; and inclusion of wireless device(s) or subscriber(s) are also provided.
US08522309B2
System and method for securing a personal device that includes a device core and a peripheral device from unauthorized access or operation. The system comprises an isolated switch, included fully or partially within an envelope of the personal device. The isolated switch cannot be affected in its operation by either the device core or the peripheral device. The switch may be operated by an authorized user of the personal device either preemptively or in response to a detected threat. In some embodiments, the isolated switch includes an isolated controller which can send one or more signals to the peripheral device and/or part of peripheral device. In some embodiments, the isolated switch includes an isolated internal component and an isolated external component, both required to work together to trigger the isolated switch operation. In some embodiments, the isolated switch includes an isolated disconnector for connecting and disconnecting the device core from part of the peripheral device.
US08522292B2
A media server reduces media streaming bandwidth by synchronizing start times of media streams sent to clients requesting a particular set of media or other data. The server starts new streams periodically or when it has received a certain number of requests, resulting in multiple streams delivering the media to multiple clients. The streams can be delivered using multicast technologies. Overall media stream bandwidth is further reduced by merging streams. At some point after a stream has become active, a client receiving data from a current stream has enough media stored locally to ensure smooth playback of the media if the client is switched to a trailing stream. A client can switch to a trailing stream after the speed of the current stream is throttled down and the current stream becomes synchronized with the trailing stream. Multiple streams can be merged simultaneously, and streams can be merged multiple times.
US08522289B2
Methods and systems for processing multimedia content captured from a plurality of locations via one or more capturing devices include obtaining multimedia content from one or more capturing devices. The capturing devices identify a type of content being captured and/or location of capture. An interest type for multimedia content is obtained from a consuming user. The multimedia content from the capturing devices are searched based on the interest type of the consuming user. A subset of the multimedia content conforming to the interest type is presented in substantial real-time at the receiving devices of the consuming users. Feedback regarding the presented multimedia content is obtained from consuming users and communicated to the capturing devices in substantial real-time so as to influence future capture of multimedia content. The methods also include receiving a request for recording a live event wherein the request provides one or more recording preferences including one or more requester preferences for recording the live event. The request is dynamically matched to one or more generating users who have expressed intentions for recording the live event. The generating users are associated with one or more capturing devices that are configured to record the live event based on the recording preferences of the request. The request is then forwarded to the matched one or more generating users for recording the live event. User interactions at the recordings are monitored and fed back to the generating users for further refining the recordings.
US08522280B2
A client device includes a display control unit for setting a current time line indicating a current time on the display screen to divide the display screen into a fixed region and a moving region across the current time line as boundary, for moving a program object set in the moving region toward the current time line at a predetermined speed to set, among program information contained in the EPG data obtained by the EPG data obtaining unit, a program object describing therein program identification information contained in the program information on certain program information whose program start time is earlier than a current time, which is contained in the program information, at a position reaching the current time line in the moving region when the program start time comes, and for, when the program object reaches the current time line, shifting the program object to the fixed region.
US08522274B2
A method for displaying interactive advertisements on a television having a controller connected thereto and configured for receiving input from a viewer of the television is disclosed. The controller has a receiver operable to receive advertisements and a processor operable to modify the advertisements. The method generally comprises requesting action by the viewer of the television, modifying an advertisement based on the action of the viewer, and displaying the modified advertisement on the television.
US08522273B2
Disclosed is a process for an advertising bidding system in which advertisers can bid on advertising time slots or enhanced ads that can be inserted in either prerecorded or live television programming. A high degree of flexibility is provided by allowing embedded ads to be purchased and displayed in a very short time period. This allows TV broadcasters to increase revenues and allows advertisers to have more flexibility in advertising. Objects can be inserted in the display video broadcast using enhancements such as by using mark-up language overlay pages or by video combination techniques. The effect of these ads can be evaluated for advertising campaigns.
US08522263B2
In one embodiment, there is provided an audio signal processor. The processor includes: a person position detector configured to detect each position of one or more persons present in a specific space; a grouping module configured to allocate the detected persons to one or more groups, wherein the number of the groups is less than a given number; a plurality of directionality controllers configured to control directionality of a microphone array; and a directionality setting module configured to set directionality of each of the groups in a corresponding one of the directionality controllers.
US08522262B1
The invention relates to an optical-disc player, which comprises a pair of optical-disc sensor levers, a conveying roller used for conveying an optical disc by clamping he optical disc on an optical-disc guide plate, a roller supporting component, a driving member embedded with the roller supporting component, a cam gear used for moving the driving member, a driving gear used for driving the cam gear, switches used for controlling the rotation of a motor, and a traverse mechanism having a pick-up and a turntable, wherein the component, embedded with the roller supporting component and used for driving the conveying roller and the optical-disc guide plate to be engaged and disengaged, on the driving member is an E-shaped cam hole; a convex portion, a first toothed portion and a second toothed portion are formed on the cam gear; and a toothless portion is formed between the two toothed portions.
US08522260B2
The integration of two runtimes. The integration may be accomplished via the sharing of all or a portion of the environments of each of the runtimes with each other. For instance, as one runtime executes a particular application, control may be passed at an appropriate point to the second runtime. The second runtime may pass control back to the first runtime at an appropriate time. This passing of control between runtimes may happen perhaps a number of times during the execution of the application. The applications might be expressed entirely declaratively in a manner that integrates both runtimes as the application executes. Thus, the application may take advantage of the strengths of each runtime at the appropriate time.
US08522232B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus can be used to decouple software loads on customer premise equipment devices. In various examples, simple network management protocol (SNMP) messages, configuration files or other types of notifications can be used to notify customer premise devices of software updates for non-data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) modules. The version of the software load included in a notification can be compared to existing software loads to determine whether the software load identified by the notification should be loaded to the device.
US08522227B2
A runtime activation system uses a set of policies designed to provide a balance between backwards compatibility and ease of migrating existing (non side-by-side aware) applications to new runtime versions. The system chooses the runtime version to activate when an application runs or when a runtime application programming interface is invoked based on the set of policies. The system implements these policies by consulting compatibility data associated with the application indicating the intent of the author and level of side-by-side support provided by the application and/or global configuration data. Based on the compatibility data, the system chooses policies that are right in the most common cases, and easy to modify in less common cases. Thus, the runtime activation system allows applications to be flexibly configured to handle new runtime versions in a manner determined by the application author, a system administrator, or others.
US08522221B1
A method and system for the automatic generation of user guides. Specifically, the method of the present invention includes accessing an abstract processor model of a processor, wherein said abstract processor model is represented using a hierarchical architecture description language (ADL). The abstract processor model includes a plurality of instructions arranged in a hierarchical structure. An internal representation of the abstract processor model is generated by flattening the abstract processor model. The flattening process generates a plurality of rules grouped by common convergent instructions. Each rule describes an instruction path through the hierarchical structure that converges at a corresponding convergent instruction. An instruction-set documentation is automatically generated from the plurality of rules, wherein the instruction-set documentation is arranged convergent instruction by convergent instruction.
US08522219B2
A recorder, comprising: a context analyzer configured to associate HTTP transactions of a web application with a web session, wherein the web application executes code on the client side; an extensible document parser configured to parse a document included in the HTTP transactions; a library of parser additions used by the context analyzer to generate a context-full replay instruction; and a script generator configured to record a script including the context-full replay instruction in order to recreate the HTTP transactions in order to simulate use of the web application by a user.
US08522214B2
An improved software testing system is described. In various embodiments, the improved software testing system receives a set of keywords identifying logic of a software application that is to be tested, associates each keyword of the set of keywords with a test component that exercises a function of the software application to be tested; derives a model of a behavior of the software application to be tested, and tests the software application based on the keyword and the derived model.
US08522208B2
An effective and user-friendly system is disclosed for creating and running a software application for medical imaging, having at least one framework which has a service layer and a superordinate toolkit layer as an application programming interface, wherein functions of the toolkit layer and of the service layer are grouped in each case in a number of components which are arranged strictly hierarchically in such a way that any component can only ever be accessed from a superordinate component.
US08522206B2
An illustrative embodiment of a computer-implemented process for selective delta validation of a shared artifact receives a notification associated with a shared artifact, determines whether a unique key exists for the shared artifact in a symbol data structure, and responsive to a determination that the unique key exists, determines whether an update from an external source occurred. Responsive to a determination that the update occurred from an external source, receives a timestamp associated with the unique key from the symbol data structure to form a received timestamp, determines whether the received timestamp is prior to a last modification time, and responsive to a determination that the received timestamp is prior to the last modification time, performs a delta validation of the shared artifact.
US08522205B2
Multiple groups of read-only files, for use by various components of an application program in a computer, are packaged as follows. Several executable files are prepared, each executable file corresponding to a group of read-only files used by one or more components. Each executable file includes an array that has sufficient space to accommodate the group of read-only files to be packaged therein. Each array in each executable file is overwritten with data from a corresponding group of read-only files. The presence or absence of each executable file for a group of read-only files is indicated by an index that is developed during initialization of components. Retrieval of data is from the executable files, if the index indicates, on first accessing each read-only file, that the corresponding executable file is present. If the executable file is indicated by the index as being absent, then the read-only file is directly accessed.
US08522203B1
A method for managing script added to an interactive document or fillable, electronic form. The method includes receiving user input for generating a script and then generating a script based on the user input. The method further includes as part of script generation providing a header in the script that includes a management flag or data in a header block indicating that the script is managed, a managed script object, and an edit verification value such as a cyclic redundancy check value. After the script is generated, the method includes parsing the document to determine whether the managed script has been edited or to otherwise verify the script's integrity. The method includes when the script has been edited modifying the management flag to indicate the script is released from script management. Unmanaged editing may be detected by comparing a stored edit verification value with the header value from each snippet.
US08522177B2
A method for verifying functionality of a system-on-chip (SoC) comprises modeling a system block in first and second models at a first level and a second level lower than the first level, respectively. A stimulus transaction is generated at a first testbench at the first level. The stimulus transaction is transmitted from the first testbench to a second testbench at the second level. The stimulus transaction is transformed into a first response transaction, using the first model, at the first level. The stimulus transaction received at the second testbench is transformed into a second response transaction, using the second model, at the second level. Functionality of the SoC at the first and second levels is verified based on the first and second response transactions.
US08522160B2
There is provided an information processing device including, a screen control unit that causes a user terminal to display a position selection screen displaying a plurality of user positions where a user can be located in a virtual space and allowing a user to select one user position from the plurality of user positions, a data storage unit that stores a user list listing users having selected each user position with respect to each user position selected by using the position selection screen; and a contents processing unit that processes contents to be delivered to the user terminal according to a positional relationship between users represented by the user list stored in the data storage unit.
US08522158B2
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for providing a dynamic loupe for displayed information of a document. The displayed information can be provided in various sub-regions of the document. Based on the position of an input relative to a particular sub-region, the loupe can be sized and positioned such that a portion of information from the sub-region is displayed in the loupe. The portion of information can be displayed using a loupe scale factor that may differ from a scale factor used for the rest of the displayed information. The loupe position can be selected such that the contents and or position of the loupe may be biased towards a particular sub-region.
US08522153B2
A table system includes a touch screen having a touch detection surface and a display, and a computer. The touch screen serves as an input device for the computer and the computer is configured to supply a continuous video signal to the display. The touch detection surface is configured to receive an object thereon without interference with detection, to send a first input to the computer in response to a first touch the computer configured to perform a first action on the touch screen in response thereto and, when a second touch occurs at a different location on the touch screen while the first action is being performed on the touch screen, to send a second input to the computer in response to the second touch, the computer being configured to perform a second action in response thereto, so that first and second actions are performed simultaneously.
US08522150B2
An information processor such as a personal computer is provided. A terminal is operably linked to the information processor to check out or to check in content to/from the terminal. A device driver detects that a portable device is connected to the information processor and when the device driver detects that the portable device is connected to the information processor, a start-up program reads contents-related data from the portable device and starts up a display/operation instruction program to provide a display corresponding to the data accessed from the terminal.
US08522146B2
A display control apparatus includes a number of items determining unit which determines the number of selection items to be simultaneously displayed in an item selection list on an operating screen based on a selection of a button on the operating screen, a position determining unit which determines an upper end position of the item selection list on the operating screen to be a position so that a part of the selection items in the item selection list is displayed in a direction inverse to a normal extending direction of the selection item list with a position of the selected button as a reference based on a comparison of the number of the selection items to be simultaneously displayed with the displayable number of selection items on the operating screen, and a generating unit which generates the item selection list on the operating screen based on the determined position.
US08522144B2
A computer readable medium storing a media editing application for creating media presentations is described. The application includes a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI has (1) a presentation display area for displaying a composite presentation that the application creates by compositing several media clips, (2) a composite display area for displaying a set of graphical representations that represent a set of committed media clips that are committed to be a part of the composite presentation, (3) several selectable location markers that are associated with several locations in the composite display area, and (4) an audition display area associated with each location marker for receiving and displaying one or more candidate media clips for adding to the composite presentation at the location of the associated location marker.
US08522143B2
Systems, methods, and computing devices are provided for viewing scene-granular video based on geographical location. The computing device may include a memory configured to store video and geographical coordinates at which the video was captured. The computing device may further include, a processor that is configured to execute a video path viewing program, and a display that is configured to display a graphical user interface of the video path viewing program. The graphical user interface may be configured to display a path graphic spatially representing the geographical coordinates along which the video was captured, a location selector that is selectively movable along the path graphic to a selected path location, and a video icon that is configured to display a preview of a portion of the video corresponding to the selected path location.
US08522129B1
A system and method identifies a primary version out of different versions of the same document. The system selects a priority of authority for each document version based on a priority rule and information associated with the document version, and selects a primary version based on the priority of authority and information associated with the document version.
US08522128B1
A system modifies documents to aid users in determining which of the entries in the documents to choose. The system identifies a document that includes one or more entries. The system determines a score for each of the entries and modifies the identified document, or entries in the identified document, based on the determined scores. The system then provides the modified document to a user.
US08522123B1
The present disclosure includes apparatus, systems and techniques relating to iterative decoder memory arrangement. A described apparatus includes a single R memory component including R banks, a Q memory component including Q banks, a channel detector memory component to store channel extrinsic information associated with current and previous codewords, and an iterative decoder communicatively coupled with the single R memory component, the Q memory component, and the channel detector memory component. The apparatus can be configured to alternate among the R banks for storing R data associated with a current codeword. The apparatus can be configured to alternate among the Q banks for storing Q data associated with a current codeword.
US08522118B2
When data containing an unrecoverable error is received, instead of discarding the data, a lower protocol layer delivers the data to a higher protocol layer along with an indication that the data contains an error. The higher protocol layer parses the data to recover portions that are not affected by the error. Additionally, the higher protocol layer can choose to accept the data if certain acceptance criteria are met.
US08522116B2
In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for performing forward error correction. A decoder for performing forward error correction for a frame in a data stream includes a state machine configured to determine if a code block within the frame received by the decoder is a complete code block or a partial code block, the frame including a plurality of code blocks. A decoding unit is configured to receive the code block, and, when the code block is a partial code block, to generate an output based on decoding the partial code block and an additional partial decoding result that is input to the decoding unit.
US08522115B2
A flash memory device provided here comprises a user data area storing user data; and a security data area storing security data. The security data area stores a security data pattern in which first groups of memory cells storing security data are arranged respectively between second groups of memory cells storing dummy data.
US08522109B2
A loss correction encoding device having an improved capability of loss correction using LDPC-CC is disclosed. In the loss correction encoding device (120), a rearranging unit (122) rearranges information data contained in n information packets according to the constraint length Kmax and the encoding rate (q−1)/q of a cheek polynomial of the loss correction code used in a loss correction encoding unit (123). Specifically, the rearranging unit (122) rearranges the information data in such a way that continuous Kmax×(q−1) pieces of information data after rearrangement are contained in different information packets. The rearranging unit (122) distributes the information data to information blocks from n information packets (n satisfies formula (1)). Kmax×(q−1)≦n (1).
US08522104B2
A method and controller for sending data frames over a lossy bidirectional link between integrated circuit chips is disclosed. Upon transmission, frames are stored in a buffer. The detection of errors is indicated and triggers retransmission of the erroneously received frame, but acknowledgement of correctly received frames is not indicated. Instead, the sending controller assumes that frames were correctly received if no error indication is received after a period of time. The period of time is the maximum amount of time that would be taken for the sending controller to receive an error indication if the frame was received with an error. After said period of time, the sent frame is discarded from the buffer.
US08522102B2
An apparatus and method for Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) feedback polling in a wireless communication system are provided. The method for ARQ feedback polling includes transmitting at least one ARQ block to a receive end, polling ARQ feedback to the receive end using an extended header, determining if ARQ feedback information is received from the receive end within a lifetime of ARQ feedback, determining success or failure of transmission of the at least one ARQ block through the ARQ feedback information if it is determined that the ARQ feedback information is received within the lifetime of ARQ feedback, and polling ARQ feedback again to the receive end if it is determined that the ARQ feedback information is not received within the lifetime of ARQ feedback.
US08522096B2
A method and apparatus for testing a scan-based 3D integrated circuit (3DIC) using time-division demultiplexing/multiplexing allowing for high-data-rate scan patterns applied at input/output pads converting into low-data-rate scan patterns applied to each embeddded module in the 3DIC. A set of 3D design guidelines is proposed to reduce the number of test times and the number of through-silicon vias (TSVs) required for both pre-bond testing and post-bond testing. The technique allows reuse of scan patterns developed for pre-bond testing of each die (layer) for post-bond testing of the whole 3DIC. It further reduces test application time without concerns for I/O pad count limit and risks for fault coverage loss.
US08522092B2
A scan test architecture facilitates low power testing of semiconductor circuits by selectively dividing the serial scan paths into shorter sections. Multiplexers between the sections control connecting the sections into longer or shorted paths. Select and enable signals control the operation of the scan path sections. The output of each scan path passes through a multiplexer to compare circuits on the semiconductor substrate. The compare circuits also receive expected data and mask data. The compare circuits provide a fail flag output from the semiconductor substrate.
US08522084B2
A computer system, a control method thereof and a recording medium storing a computer program thereof are provided to recover a program efficiently and be resistant to viruses, worms, and user error. The control method of computer system receives a user's request for a recovery of a program which is installed in a first storage unit. A file system of a second storage unit is determined which stores therein a recovery program corresponding to the program for which the recovery is requested. The recovery program is read from the second storage unit with reference to the determined file system, and the program in the first storage unit is recovered by using the read recovery program.
US08522082B1
Object-code instruction traces are employed to analyze selected instructions of a year-2000 (Y2K) remediated application program for possible remediation failure when confronted by a year-2000 date. The analysis includes directly identifying one or more instructions of the remediated application program that may fail. A remediation-failure-pattern descriptor is assigned to each examined instruction which is indicative of whether the remediated instruction may fail when confronted by a date in the year-2000 range. The analysis employs user-specifiable run-control values, as well as predetermined filter-specification values in comparing traces of each selected object-code instruction to predefined remediation-failure patterns.
US08522080B2
This invention relates to error simulation for system validation. Errors can be simulated by modifying data presented to the processor as well as generating interrupts consistent with the modified data in the ASIC hardware. Modify logic may be added to the ASIC so when the microprocessor attempts to read a specific address, the modify logic may mask one or more of the data bits returned by the requested address. Address, bit mask, and force value data may be stored in registers to determine which address may be modified, the bit location to be modified, and the value that bit location should be changed to. Selection logic may then determine whether data from the modify logic or the unmodified value from an attached device should be sent to the ASIC interface and on to the microprocessor. A timer may also be used to decouple the setup from the test.
US08522076B2
A pipelined processing device includes: a processor configured to receive a request to perform an operation; a plurality of processing controllers configured to receive at least one instruction associated with the operation, each of the plurality of processing controllers including a memory to store at least one instruction therein; a pipeline processor configured to receive and process the at least one instruction, the pipeline processor including shared error detection logic configured to detect a parity error in the at least one instruction as the at least one instruction is processed in a pipeline and generate an error signal; and a pipeline bus connected to each of the plurality of processing controllers and configured to communicate the error signal from the error detection logic.
US08522073B2
A system, method, and computer program product replace a failed node storing data relating to a portion of a data file. An indication of a new storage node to replace the failed node is received at each of a plurality of available storage nodes. The available storage nodes each contain a plurality of shares generated from a data file. These shares may have been generated based on pieces of the data file using erasure coding techniques. A replacement share is generated at each of the plurality of available storage nodes. The replacement shares are generated by creating a linear combination of the shares at each node using random coefficients. The generated replacement shares are then sent from the plurality of storage nodes to the indicated new storage node. These replacement shares may later be used to reconstruct the data file.
US08522056B2
A heat potential value for each of a set of available server locations is calculated via a data center controller based upon at least one active server in a data center. A minimal calculated heat potential value for the set of available server locations is identified. An available server location associated with the identified minimal calculated heat potential value is selected from the set of available server locations. A maximal calculated heat potential value is identified for the set of available server locations. An available server location associated with the identified maximal calculated heat potential value is selected from the set of available server locations. A server located at the selected available server location associated with the identified maximal calculated heat potential value is automatically de-energized.
US08522049B1
If the temperature of a secure device falls below a second temperature, then sensitive information is automatically erased from a secure memory. To allow the secure device to operate in very cold ambient temperatures that are below the second temperature, a novel heater circuit is provided. If the temperature of the secure device drops below a first temperature, then the heater heats the secure processor. If AC power is lost, such as in a power outage, energy for the heater is provided by a secure battery, otherwise the heater is powered from an external source. The heater barely provides enough heat to keep the temperature of the secure processor at the first temperature under normal heat transfer conditions. If an attacker withdraws heat from the circuit unusually rapidly, then the temperature of the secure processor will fall to the second temperature causing a tamper detect and secure memory erasure.
US08522048B2
Code of a software product is delivered by embodying, on a computer-readable storage medium, installation code for installing the software product code on a computer and DRM code for permitting the installation only if a predetermined condition is satisfied. If the condition is violated, the installation code is erased and that part of the storage medium then is available for general use.
US08522046B2
The disclosure provides a method, an apparatus and a system for acquiring a service by a portable device, in order to solve the problem that the security of the user information saved in the portable device is affected as the portable device uses an illegal User Interface (UI) on a Personnel Computer (PC) in the related art. The method includes: the portable device receives the data information of each slice computed by the UI according to the first algorithm in the UI itself and identification information of each slice saved, matches the received data information of each slice with the corresponding data information of each slice saved in the portable device itself, and verifies whether the UI is legal according to the matching result. When using a UI, the portable device sends slice information of a file to the UI to verify the legality of the UI, and does not acquire the service through the UI until the verification is passed, so as to prevent the portable device from using an illegal UI and ensure the security of the user information saved in the portable device.
US08522045B2
A multi-functional system includes a main system, and sub-systems operated by sub-programs and the main system. The sub-systems includes a first memory storing a first public key, and a second memory storing an encrypted sub-program and second public key, a first communication controller transmitting the first public key for encrypted communication, a decryption unit decrypting the encrypted sub-program and second public key using an encryption key, and a second controller transmitting the decrypted second public key for encrypted communication. The main system includes a first public key, a second public key, a security device, and first and second communication controllers. The sub-systems execute a plurality of corresponding subprograms under the control of the main system.
US08522037B1
Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for user authentication required for conducting online financial institution transactions. The disclosed embodiments leverage the capabilities of platforms other than conventional personal computers and laptops, such as gaming consoles and wireless devices. Unique intrinsic user activities, such as controller motions or activities, built-in hardware signatures or other input data are used as the authentication mechanism, so as to provide a higher degree of security in the overall authentication process by lessening the likelihood of password replication or interception during network communication.
US08522031B2
A trusted relationship service includes a certificate authentication server and a secure file host. The certificate authentication server operates to receive requests from a supplier and a customer to register with the service, verifies the identities of the supplier and the customer and sends digital certificates to both the supplier and the customer. The supplier can send information to the trusted relationship service where it is posted in a secure file host. The supplier can solicit the customer to visit the trusted relationship service web site to view the supplier information stored there, whereupon the customer can use their digital certificate to access the trusted relationship service site and is granted permission by the site to view the supplier information.
US08522029B2
A mechanism is provided for establishing a shared secret-key for secure communication between nodes in a wireless network. A first node in the wireless network provides a spreading code to a second node of the wireless network. The second node provides a first input for the key establishment to the first node using communication encoded with the spreading code. Responsive to obtaining the first input from the second node, the first node provides a second input for the key establishment to the second node using communication encoded with the spreading code. Then, the first node and the second node establish the shared secret-key using the first input and the second input.
US08522027B2
A method for authenticating an entity by a verifier, the entity having an identifier, the verifier having a pair of private and public keys, comprising: sending to the entity a first random number selected by the verifier; a step wherein the entity encrypts a value by means of the public key of the verifier, said value including the first random number and an authentication datum on which the identifier of the entity depends; and the entity of said encrypted value sending a reply to authenticate said entity. The invention can be applied to the field of low-cost cryptography, especially the field of radio-identification.
US08522020B2
In a system of mobile agents operating in a region of interest, it may be necessary to validate the position of an untrusted device prior to allowing the untrusted device to perform agent functions within the region of interest. Trusted mobile agents within the region of interest may activate wireless access points with randomly generated identifiers. The untrusted device may be instructed to provide a list of identifiers of visible wireless access points to confirm that the untrusted device is within the ROI.
US08522015B2
Presented is an anti-tampering method that validates and protects specific sections of a binary file. In one embodiment, this method permits a proxy engine to execute (via emulation by a virtual machine) the protected code on behalf of the binary in kernel mode upon successful completion of an integrity check. The integrity check can optionally check only the specific parts of code that the developer wishes to validate. The integrity check can cross binary boundaries. Moreover, the integrity check can be done on a hard drive or in memory. Furthermore, since the encrypted code is executed by the proxy engine in kernel mode, hackers are further deterred from modifying the code. Additionally, a method of creating a protected binary file is described herein.
US08522012B2
A method of certifying a correspondent in a data communication system by a certifying authority. The certifying authority includes a cryptographic unit. The method includes generating a random number and implicit certificate components based on the random number using the cryptographic unit. The implicit certificate components have a first component and a second component. The method also includes providing the implicit certificate components for use in the data communication system and providing a public key of the certifying authority for use in derivation of a public key of the correspondent from the first component. The certifying authority recertifies the correspondent by providing implicit certificate components using a changed value for the random number.
US08522009B2
A server certificate and root certificate for performing secure communication with monitoring target devices are issued in a site monitoring apparatus. Using a secret key that is paired with a public key, a digital signature is issued based on communication destination information in which the site monitoring apparatus is the communication destination and the issued root certificate, and the communication destination information, root certificate, and digital signature are transmitted to the monitoring target devices. The monitoring target devices receive the communication destination information, root certificate, and digital signature from the site monitoring apparatus. Authentication is performed on the received digital signature using the public key, and in accordance with successful authentication, the communication destination for device monitoring information is changed from a management server to the site monitoring apparatus and secure communication is performed with the site monitoring apparatus, using the received communication information and root certificate.
US08522006B2
The enhanced distribution of digital content, in which a digital content distribution process is dynamically modeled, the digital content distribution process is invoked, and a serviced digital copy is provided to a recipient. Invoking the digital content distribution process further includes ingesting digital content, further including storing a digital master of the digital content in a digital vault, and servicing the digital copy of the stored digital master based on a servicing request received from the recipient.
US08522000B2
A trap handler architecture is incorporated into a parallel processing subsystem such as a GPU. The trap handler architecture minimizes design complexity and verification efforts for concurrently executing threads by imposing a property that all thread groups associated with a streaming multi-processor are either all executing within their respective code segments or are all executing within the trap handler code segment.
US08521999B2
A method comprising receiving a branch instruction, decoding a branch address and the branch instruction, executing a branch action associated with the branch address, determining whether a branch associated with the branch action was taken, and saving an identifier of the branch instruction and in indicator that the branch action was taken in a prefetch history table responsive to determining that the branch associated with the branch action was taken.
US08521989B2
A microcontroller includes a program memory, data memory, central processing unit, at least one register module, a memory management unit, and a transport network. Instructions are executed in one clock cycle via an instruction word. The instruction word indicates the source module from which data is to be retrieved and the destination module to which data is to be stored. The address/data capability of an instruction word may be extended via a prefix module. If an operation is performed on the data, the source module or the destination module may perform the operation during the same clock cycle in which the data is transferred.
US08521986B2
A method for allocating storage memory space is provided. The method involves receiving a request for storage memory allocation for a file of a current size; estimating a future size of the file, different than the current size of the file, based at least on a particular attribute associated with the file; and causing allocation of storage memory space for storage of the file based on the future size of the file.
US08521982B2
A system and method for tracking core load requests and providing arbitration and ordering of requests. When a core interface unit (CIU) receives a load operation from the processor core, a new entry in allocated in a queue of the CIU. In response to allocating the new entry in the queue, the CIU detects contention between the load request and another memory access request. In response to detecting contention, the load request may be suspended until the contention is resolved. Received load requests may be stored in the queue and tracked using a least recently used (LRU) mechanism. The load request may then be processed when the load request resides in a least recently used entry in the load request queue. CIU may also suspend issuing an instruction unless a read claim (RC) machine is available. In another embodiment, CIU may issue stored load requests in a specific priority order.
US08521978B2
A storage apparatus 10 implements Thin Provisioning functions by allocating a storage area of a physical drive 171 to a logical page in units of a physical page, the physical drive 171 being managed as a storage pool 93, the logical page being a management unit of a storage area of a virtual volume 52; performs tier arrangement processing to replicate data stored in a migration source physical page to a migration destination physical page; and performs replacement processing for the physical drive 171 upon receipt of a request to replace the physical drive 171 in units of a physical device (PDEV). In performing the replacement processing for the physical drive 171, when a first processing mode is designated as tier arrangement processing mode, the storage apparatus 10 cancels start of the tier arrangement processing, and then starts the replacement processing.
US08521971B2
The system and apparatus for managing flash memory data includes a host transmitting data, wherein when the data transmitted from the host have a first time transmission trait and the address for the data indicates a temporary address, temporary data are retrieved from the temporary address to an external buffer. A writing command is then executed and the temporary data having a destination address are written to a flash memory buffer. When the flash memory buffer is not full, the buffer data are written into a temporary block of the flash memory. The writing of buffer data into the temporary block includes using an address changing command, or executing a writing command to rewrite the external buffer data to the flash memory buffer so that the data are written into the temporary block.
US08521967B1
Network computing systems are disclosed including a shared memory cloud coupled to one or more processor complexes. The shared memory cloud has an interconnect network coupled to disk-read-only-memories (disk-ROMs) each including a memory array that is read/write block accessible to access blocks of consecutive memory locations and random read memory accessible to access random memory locations. The processor complexes read and write blocks of data from/to the disk-ROMs to provide disk-like access to the shared memory cloud. Each processor complex maps the addresses of one or more of the disk-ROMs into processor address spaces, and reads from random memory locations of one or more of the disk-ROMs to provide main memory-like access to the shared memory cloud. The network computing systems may further include a power controller coupled to the processor complexes. The power controller can keep the disk-ROMS powered on while it powers off inactive processor complexes.
US08521962B2
Filters and methods for managing presence counter saturation are disclosed. The filters can be coupled to a collection of items and maintain information for determining a potential presence of an identified item in the collection of items. The filter includes a filter controller and one or more mapping functions. Each mapping function has a plurality of counters associated with the respective mapping function. When a membership status of an item in the collection of items changes, the filter receives a membership change notification including an identifier identifying the item. Each mapping function processes the identifier to identify a particular counter associated with the respective mapping function. If a particular counter has reached a predetermined value, a request including a reference to the particular counter is sent to the collection of items. The filter receives a response to the request and modifies the particular counter as a result of the response.
US08521959B2
A method for recovering description information, or a method for caching data in a database, includes: judging whether a database is closed normally after the last operation; if the database is not closed normally, traversing each data block in a level-2 cache, where corresponding disk location information is saved in a header of each data block; obtaining a data block in a disk according to the disk location information; and when the obtained data block in the disk is the same as a corresponding data block in the level-2 cache, establishing description information according to location information of the data block in the disk and location information of the data block in the level-2 cache, where the description information is used to describe correspondence between the location information of data in the disk and the location information of data in the level-2 cache.
US08521957B2
Disclosed is a computer system that includes a first apparatus, which stores data and metadata in a storage, and multiple units of a second apparatus, which store a copy of data and metadata in the first apparatus in a cache. The first apparatus acquires throughput achieved when the units of the second apparatus access the data in the storage as first access information, acquires throughput achieved when the units of the second apparatus access data thereof as second access information, and selects either a first judgment mode or a second judgment mode in accordance with the first access information and the second access information. This reduces the amount of network traffic for metadata acquisition, thereby increasing the speed of data access.
US08521949B2
A data deleting method and apparatus is provided in embodiments of this application. The method comprises: when a file system detects a delete request for a target file, examining a security property of the target file, wherein the security property of a file comprises secret classified property; if the security property of the target file is secret classified property, executing an overwrite operation on the target file and then executing a delete operation to delete the target file; wherein the overwrite operation comprises sending a write command to a SSD, the write command being a predefined write command which is expanded by adding an immediate scrubbing flag, to cause the SSD to invoke a backstage garbage collection program according to the predefined write command to immediately delete data on garbage blocks corresponding to logical block addresses of the target file.
US08521947B2
Method for writing data into flash memory is disclosed. The method includes storing the frequently updated data and the not-aligned data collectively into some of the physical memory blocks of the flash memory. In other words, the method collectively writes those data into the same physical memory blocks of the flash memory as far as possible. By doing this, the invalid physical memory pages in the physical memory blocks can be generated collectively. As a result, the storage releasing efficiency of garbage collection can be greatly improved.
US08521946B2
A computing system includes a host, a data source device, and a controller. The controller is configured to respond to a random access command from the host by setting information in a register that selects what data is to be accessed in the data source device. The controller then successively accesses the data in the data source device using the information that was set in the register.
US08521945B2
A portable data storage device is disclosed that includes an interface (3) for enabling the portable data storage device to be used for data transfer with a host computer (5), and an interface controller (2) for controlling the interface (3). There is also a master controller (7) for controlling the writing of data to and reading of data from a non-volatile memory (8, 9). The non-volatile memory is at least one single level cell (SLC) flash memory (8) and at least one multiple level cell (MLC) flash memory (9). The at least one single level cell flash memory (8) and at least one multiple level cell flash memory (9) are able to operate simultaneously for improving the speed of operation over only multiple level cell flash memory.
US08521943B2
In a request issuing device, a specific read request unit generates a read requesting write packet including a predetermined address of a memory of a request receiving device as a write address and including, as a read address, the address of the memory in a payload. In the request receiving device, when data is written into the predetermined address of the memory, a specific read request responding unit detects reception of the read request, reads the data from the read address of the memory written into the predetermined address, and generates a read responding write packet including, in the payload, the data that has been read.
US08521942B2
In embodiments of human interface device (HID) over simple peripheral buses, a peripheral sensor receives inputs from a peripheral device, and the peripheral sensor implements an HID SPB interface to interface the peripheral device with a computing system via a simple peripheral bus (SPB) in an HID data format. The peripheral sensor can receive extensibility data for a proprietary function of the peripheral device, and communicate the inputs from the peripheral device and the extensibility data via the simple peripheral bus in the computing system. Alternatively or in addition, a peripheral sensor can generate sensor data and the HID SPB interface interfaces the peripheral sensor with the computing system via the simple peripheral bus. The peripheral sensor can then communicate the sensor data as well as extensibility data for a proprietary function of the peripheral sensor via the simple peripheral bus in the HID data format to the computing system.
US08521924B2
There is provided a method of context aware data-centric storage for dynamically changing a data storage range comprising: collecting data from entire sensor nodes, after establishing a data storage range of an entire sensor network, dividing areas, and transmitting a message of data storage range information to the entire sensor nodes by a base station; storing the collected data in a storage sensor node by determining whether there is a node responsible for storing the collected data to carry out operation depending on the determination result; determining whether the data storage has not been carried out for a period of time longer than a specified time in each sensor node after storing the data; and to determining whether the scale of invalid range is not smaller than Γ.
US08521923B2
Techniques are provided for managing, within a storage system, the sequence in which I/O requests are processed by the storage system based, at least in part, on one or more logical characteristics of the I/O requests. The logical characteristics may include, for example, the identity of the user for whom the I/O request was submitted, the service that submitted the I/O request, the database targeted by the I/O request, an indication of a consumer group to which the I/O request maps, the reason why the I/O request was issued, a priority category of the I/O request, etc. Techniques are also provided for automatically establishing a scheduling policy within a storage system, and for dynamically changing the scheduling policy in response to changes in workload.
US08521922B2
Various embodiments for an Input/Output (I/O) path selection based on workload types are provided. A port workload controller is adapted to control the workload types of ports for accessing a storage device. A storage access command is received by the port workload controller from an application being executed on a virtual server on a physical server. The workload types related to the storage access command are determined. Storage access paths between the application and the storage device having the same workload types as the determined workload types related to the storage access command are determined. Storage access paths mapping data that is controlled by the port workload controller is used. A selected storage access path is selected out of the determined storage access paths having the least utilization. The storage device is accessed via the selected one of the plurality of storage access paths.
US08521919B2
A method of address translation in a computing system providing direct memory access (DMA) by way of one or more remote memory management units (MMUs) is provided. The method comprises intercepting a request for a first DMA operation forwarded by a first device to a second device; and translating a guest address included in the request to a first address according to a mapping referencing a memory frame in a memory of the second device. A local MMU increments a first reference count indicating number of active DMA operations directed to the memory frame and a second reference count indicating number of remote MMUs that have mapped the memory frame.
US08521914B2
A method for communicating via a bus including a first channel, a second channel, and a third channel is disclosed. The method includes addressing a slave device via the first channel, receiving from the slave device via the second channel, and writing to the slave device via the third channel. The method further includes selecting between first and second bus transmission modes. In the first bus transmission mode, payload write data is to be sent to the slave device via the first channel or the third channel. In the second bus transmission mode, during a first clock cycle, second payload write data associated with a second write operation is to be sent to the slave device via the first channel and first payload write data associated with a first write operation is to be concurrently sent to the slave device via the third channel.
US08521912B2
Methods and systems for direct device access are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include a plurality of GOSs directly accessing a first network interface device, where the first network interface device may provide access to a network. One or more of the GOSs may be migrated to directly access a second network interface device, based on state information for each of the GOSs, where the state information may be maintained by the host. The GOSs may communicate data to a device coupled to the network by direct accessing the first and/or second network interface device. Similarly, the first and/or second network interface device may communicate data received from a device coupled to the network to one or more of the plurality of GOSs via direct access of the first and/or second network interface device.
US08521909B2
Server state objects are identified by an intermediate server among packets transmitted between an application server and a client device on a network based upon a stateless communication protocol, by monitoring and analyzing the packets transmitted between the application server and the client device. The packets are parsed into a plurality of name-value pairs. The entropy of the name-value pairs having a same name field is computed, and candidate data objects that are likely to be server state objects are selected based upon the computed entropy. Candidate data objects that were transmitted bi-directionally between the application server and the client device are identified as server state objects.
US08521900B2
A remote audio-video sharing method and an application program for the same are provided. The method comprises a content provider device capturing screen frames and sounds of the content provider device. First encoding and second encoding are executed on the captured screen frames and sound to transmit to and play on a content displayer device and a content controller device. The content displayer device receives, decodes the data and smoothly plays the received data. The content controller device receives, decodes the data and plays the received data in synch with the content provider device. Additionally, a control command is generated by the content controller device to reply to the content provider device to manipulate operations of the content provider device.
US08521899B2
To deliver a digital media stream to remote clients of differing client types that support the original encoding format of the digital media stream, but that do not support the original container format of the digital media stream, a media distribution server may, for each request that it receives for the digital media stream, dynamically repackage the media stream into a container format and delivery protocol supported by the requesting remote client. The repackaged media stream includes the digital media data of the original digital media stream encoded unchanged in its original encoding format, but the encoded media data is re-packetized according to the container format and delivery protocol determined to be supported by the requesting remote client.
US08521889B2
Bandwidth and/or Quality of Service (QoS) for a user session may be modified in a network that includes a Regional/Access Network (RAN) that facilitates differentiated end-to-end data transport between a Network Service Provider (NSP) and/or an Application Service Provider (ASP) and a Customer Premises Network (CPN) that includes a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) by receiving a request at the NSP and/or the ASP to change the bandwidth and/or QoS associated with the user's session. An Application Programming Interface (API) is used at the NSP and/or the ASP to communicate with the RAN to modify the bandwidth and/or QoS associated with the user's session.
US08521887B2
Combining network connection maintenance operations that use a resource to extend battery life. Each of the network connections has a timer and a defined tolerance for early connection maintenance. After receiving notification of an event, the network connections are accessed to identify the connections for which a maintenance operation may be performed early based on the timer and the tolerance. In an embodiment, the maintenance operation includes sending a transmission control protocol (TCP) keep-alive packet on the connection.
US08521885B1
A system, method and computer-readable medium for request routing based on content popularity information are provided. A client computer transmits a request for content from a content provider. The content provider utilizes executable code, such as translation request code, for facilitating request routing utilizing popularity information. The translation request code, may direct a client computing device to request further translation request code and/or translation information. Thereafter, the client issues a DNS query with the translated information including popularity information. The content delivery network service provider can then either resolve the DNS query with an IP address of a cache component or transmit another alternative resource identifier that will resolve to the content delivery network service provider. The process can repeat until a DNS nameserver resolves a DNS query from the client computing device.
US08521882B2
A computer implemented method, system, and computer program product for managing client connections to a server among a plurality of clients. A messaging server detects, by a first server, an attribute of a client connection that exceeds a threshold, wherein the attribute is a select write operation. The messaging server selects a client that connects to a server, responsive to detecting the attribute of the client exceeding the threshold of select write calls. The messaging server selects a connect mechanism of a second server, responsive to selecting the client. The messaging server transmits a migrate message to the client, the migrate message comprising at least a uniform resource identifier (URI).
US08521876B2
A peer-to-peer network has a server that maintains a list of addresses of clients connected to the peer-to-peer network. The server generates seed lists for each of the clients connected to the network from the server maintained list. The clients conduct peer-to-peer searches using the seed list provided by the server. The seed lists may be either randomly generated or generated to facilitate network objectives. The clients may periodically request seed list refreshing. The peer-to-peer network may further include authentication and authorization search security checks.
US08521863B2
Management of resources on a shared network element is provided to enhance security of user information of the operators having access to the network element. An operation management command is received from a user for operating a resource on a shared network element. According to the operation management command, an operator attribute of the resource to be operated and an operator attribute of the user are acquired. In instances where the operator attribute of the user is consistent with the operator attribute of the resource to be operated, an operating action corresponding to the operation management command is performed.
US08521860B2
Described are embodiments directed at providing a witness service that sends notifications with a resource state to clients. Embodiments provide a protocol that includes various messages for registering and receiving notifications regarding the state of a resource. The protocol may include a message for requesting node information from a first node in a cluster. The node information identifies nodes in the cluster that provide a witness service, which monitors a resource. The protocol includes a message that is used to register with the witness service for notifications regarding a state, or state change, of a network or cluster resource. The protocol also includes messages for sending notifications with state information of the resource.
US08521858B2
A system includes a first device, in a first network; a second device, in a second network; and a policy rules and charging function (PCRF) database that associates Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned to user equipment (UE) devices with PCRF devices; where the first device is to identify a plurality of policy rules and charging function (PCRF) devices in the first network, select a PCRF device from the plurality of PCRF devices based on a selection rule, and provide information about the selected PCRF device to the second device; and where the second device is to receive a request to set up a communication session associated with a UE device; determine an IP address associated with the UE device; identify a PCRF device, based on the determined IP address, by accessing the PCRF database, and send session information associated with the communication session to the identified PCRF device.
US08521850B2
A method includes receiving graphic data and steganographically encoding machine-readable data in the graphic data. The machine-readable data identifies a computer implemented process that is to be invoked when the steganographic encoding is decoded and acted upon by a computing device.
US08521846B2
A mechanism for customized aggregation of system-specific information for Post-Installation Suggestions is disclosed. A method of embodiments includes determining identifying information of a computer system of an end user computing device communicably coupled to an update service computing device, aggregating a plurality of updates, suggestions, and information specific to the computer system of the end user computing device into a customized result list, the plurality of updates, suggestions, and information received from a repository of historical system results and a plurality of third-party vendors and associated with various components of the computer system including the hardware of the computer system and the software of the computer system, and providing the customized result list to the end user computing device.
US08521840B2
Disclosed is a network system including a server to store a content and a plurality of replay apparatuses to receive the content transmitted from the server, the replay apparatuses being connected with the server via a network, and the replay apparatus including a list storage unit to store a predetermined content list, an obtaining unit to obtain the content list stored in the list storage unit of another replay apparatus connected via the network, and a storage control unit to store the content list obtained by the obtaining unit in the list storage unit.
US08521826B1
A method according to one embodiment includes causing a message to be sent from a remote site to a user device, the message including information about a pay-per-view show and a hyperlink associated with the pay-per-view show for selection by a user; receiving data corresponding to a selection of the hyperlink in the message; outputting a webpage having a second hyperlink upon receiving the data corresponding to the selection of hyperlink; receiving data corresponding to a selection of the second hyperlink on the webpage; and performing an action in response to receiving the data corresponding to a selection of the second hyperlink on the webpage, the action comprising at least one of: ordering the pay-per-view show associated with the first or second hyperlink, and sending an instruction to a recording device to record the pay-per-view show.
US08521824B2
A venue may be registered with a venue-centric social networking service. The venue may be associated with a physical location where subscribers may congregate. Subscribers may join the venue by visiting the physical location, receiving an invitation, receiving a password (or other credential), or the like. The venue-centric social networking service may track which subscribers are at which venues and provide a “Who's here” listing to other subscribers. Subscribers at the same venue may be introduced to one another through the venue-centric social networking service by, inter alia, browsing the profiles of the subscribers in the “Who's here” list and/or initiating contact with other subscribers at the venue through the venue-centric social networking service. Subscriber visibility and contact preferences may be determined by subscriber privacy settings and/or privacy settings of the venues.
US08521822B2
An electronic communication device may, perhaps with the assistance of a mobile device server, determining that a new electronic message received by the device is part of a message thread that includes the new message and at least one prior electronic message previously received at the device. A comparison may be made of address information of the new message with address information of the at least one prior electronic message in the message thread to determine that there has been a change in addressed recipients between the new message and the at least one prior electronic message. The device may then notify a user of the device of the change.
US08521820B2
System, methods, and computer program products for a virtual presence service are provided. The virtual presence service includes configuring a virtual presence community and registering a user for the virtual presence community. Also, the virtual presence service includes providing a filter to detect triggering events corresponding to the virtual presence community and initiating group communications in response to detecting the triggering event.
US08521819B2
In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for social networking in a dynamic environment. In one embodiment, a method for social networking in a network includes broadcasting a first set of one or more keywords representing one or more interests of a first user in the network, receiving a response from a second user in the network indicating interest in at least one of the interests of the first user, and connecting to a server in the network, where the server hosts a group for supporting communications between at least the first network user and the second network user.
US08521813B2
A method for populating edge servers within a content delivery network (CDN) having a plurality of points of presence (POPs) is disclosed. A first function is performed that gathers popularity information for a content object. Popularity trends for the popularity information are determined through analysis with historical popularity information. A number of copies of the content object for each of the plurality of POPs is determined. The number is passed as a variable to a second function. The second function is performed that adds or deletes copies of the content object for each of the plurality of POPs as a function of the popularity trend and the number.
US08521812B2
A method is provided for selectively routing data packets on a client device having of plurality of network interfaces for communicating over a network. The method comprising the following steps. It is determined if the data packets should be routed to a network server accessible by a corresponding one of the network interfaces to access local resources offered thereon. If the data packets should be routed to the network server, the data packets are routed directly to the network server via the corresponding network interface. Otherwise, the data packets are routed via a default route. A client device configured to implement the method is also provided.
US08521811B2
Where multiple client devices are synchronized to multiple, asynchronous instances of a time-based media presentation such as live and time-shifted views of a television broadcast, interactive content can be delivered to each one of the various devices at a particular time (or “time offset”) within the presentation independent of when each instance of the time-based media presentation is viewed.
US08521810B1
A system and method for displaying graphics in a content distribution system includes a client device and a server device that communicates an allocate buffer command signal to the client device. The client device reserves an off-screen buffer having buffer identifier associated therewith and communicates a buffer response signal comprising the buffer identifier to the server device. The server device communicates a write command signal comprising graphics data and the buffer identifier to the client device. The client device stores the graphics data in an off-screen buffer in response to write command signal, transfers the graphics data from the off-screen buffer to an on-screen buffer and displays graphics corresponding to the graphics data on a display associated with the client device. A bit blit command may be used to transfer the graphics data from the off-screen buffer to the on-screen buffer.
US08521805B2
An information processing apparatus includes an output unit and a determining unit. The output unit outputs a piece of information relating to a piece of storage subject information stored in first storage unit into a source of request. The determining unit determines, at each piece of subject information, which to store the piece of storage subject information or a corresponding piece of alternative information into the source of request based on a predetermined condition. The corresponding piece of alternative information contains location information indicating a location of the piece of storage subject information in the first storage unit and has a size smaller than a size of the piece of storage subject information. And the output unit outputs the piece of storage subject information or the corresponding piece of alternative information into the source of request in accordance with a determination result by the determining unit.
US08521804B2
The interconnection system comprises at least one preferably mobile communication device which can be connected to a remote data system by a communication channel enabling firewalls to be by-passed. The communication device comprises means for emitting presence signals. A service component of the communication device establishes a communication channel to a remote service agent of the remote data system, that is assigned thereto. The service component of the communication device indicates its presence at regular intervals by notification signals to the remote service agent in order to keep the communication channel active. The period of the notification signals is defined by the remote service agent at least once after the channel has been established. The remote service agent can then send messages in real time to the service component.
US08521794B2
Disclosed herein is a signal processing circuit including: a main path configured to transmit an input signal and output an actual signal; and a negative feedback path configured to feed back the actual signal to an input stage of the main path, wherein the main path includes a main path block that receives an input signal and outputs an actual signal, the negative feedback path includes a negative feedback block that generates a control signal and supplies the control signal to an input part of an input signal of the main path; a replica block that is supplied with a control signal of the negative feedback block to output a pseudo actual signal, and imitates the main path block; and a signal delay block that delays a pseudo actual signal of the replica block by a dead time of a loop.
US08521792B2
The present invention discloses a rate multiplication method for counting a sequence of original pulse signals and outputting a target pulse signal. In this method a comparison data and original pulse signal sequence is received. The original pulse signal sequence is counted in order to obtain a pulse count. Comparing the pulse count and the comparison data. If the pulse count is equal to the comparison data, a corresponding original pulse signal is outputted as the target pulse signal. Reset and recount the pulse count, and obtain which repeatedly. In this present invention the pulse count and the pulse interval between the target pulse signals can be determined freely according to a rate.
US08521787B2
To generate dynamic relationship-based content personalized for members of a social networking system, at least one action of one or more members of the social networking system is associated with relationship data for the one or more members to produce consolidated data. One or more elements associated with the consolidated data is identified and used to aggregate the consolidated data. Further exemplary methods comprise weighting by affinity the aggregated consolidated data to generate dynamic relationship-based content personalized for the members of the web-based social network.
US08521786B2
A computer implemented method for target group management is described. The method includes producing a table including one or more group entries corresponding to one or more defined contact group entities with each of the entries having a first set of group attributes, and producing a visual representation of a marketing campaign, the representation including one or more instances of defined contact group entities, with the one or more instances having a second set of group attributes and with the representation linked to the table according to the second set of group attributes.
US08521785B2
Embodiments of the present invention describe using a data structure to represent variable domains in solving a constraint problem. The data structure includes nodes that are configured to represent ranges of values in order to save memory space and processor power. Ranges of values and single values may be both added to and removed from the data structure such that the data structure does not include duplicate values. Operations may include detecting multiple nodes with adjacent or overlapping ranges that may be combined into a single node, and adding or removing all the values in the structure that are beyond a threshold value. In one embodiment the data structure may be a balanced binary tree. Constraint solvers may either add values to the data structure as the values are eliminated from the solution, or they may remove those values.
US08521779B2
A computer implemented method and system provide for automatic selection and extraction of metadata and media content from projects in a craft tool. Automated identification, classification and management of such metadata and content is provided using including techniques such as pattern recognition for audio and visual content. The automatic tracking and centralised storage of metadata and content for compliance purposes can be facilitated, and can enable querying of organized metadata stored in a central database. In an example, metadata and media content are extracted automatically from a project in a craft tool at a client system and are forwarded to a host system for the creation of a cue sheet including timings for media files from timing metadata in a project file to create the timings on the cue sheet.
US08521769B2
A system comprising an associative memory, an input module, a query module, and a display module. The input module is configured to receive a value within a first perspective of the associative memory. The query module is configured to perform an open query of the associative memory using the value, perform the open query within at least one of an insert perspective and a second perspective of the associative memory. The at least one of the insert perspective and the second perspective has as many or more category associations for the value relative to the first perspective. The display module is configured to display a result of the query and to display a list of one or more potential ambiguities that result from the open query.
US08521761B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for identifying candidate synonyms of transliterated terms for query expansion. In one aspect, a method includes identifying multiple transliterated terms in a target language. For each transliterated term of the multiple transliterated terms in the target language, the transliterated term is mapped to one or more terms in a source language. For a first transliterated term of the multiple transliterated terms in the target language, one or more second transliterated terms of the multiple transliterated terms in the target language are identified as candidate synonyms of the first transliterated term, where each of the one or more second transliterated terms is mapped to at least one term in the source language that is also mapped from the first transliterated term.
US08521752B2
Methods for organizing data. The methods may comprise the step of receiving a write request comprising a data unit. The methods may also comprise the steps of organizing the data unit into a sub-file and incorporating the sub-file into a data file according to a log-structured organization system. In addition, the methods may include the step of writing the data file to a data storage according to a second organization system.
US08521749B2
A system may determine a document inception date associated with a document, generate a score for the document based, at least in part, on the document inception date, and rank the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.
US08521746B1
A system may identify a set of related documents, identify one or more documents in the set of related documents that are sources of redirects, and identify organizations that are targets of the redirects. The system may also determine a redirect score based on the number of the identified documents that are sources of the redirects, determine a spam score based on a number of the organizations that are targets of the redirects, determine whether to classify the set of related documents as a bounce pad based on the redirect score and the spam score, and storing information associated with the result of the determination of whether to classify the set of related documents as a bounce pad.
US08521742B2
Embodiments of the disclosure provide a method and system used for searching among a plurality of entities on a computer network by a user. A computer server in communication with the computer network can include a database with a storage mechanism, a rule set, and an interaction calculation engine. The user can search for a first entity using a location calculation engine in communication with the computer network. The location calculation engine can locate the first entity and determine and display at least a second portion of the plurality of entities relevant to the first entity.
US08521728B1
In one embodiment, a geographical information system provides information describing prominent cities that are susceptible (i.e., at risk) to transient natural phenomena as well as attributes of the phenomena. The geographical information system may provide the information to the user in an online map. Providing information about a transient natural phenomenon allows people to be aware of the phenomenon so as to better prepare for it.
US08521727B2
A search apparatus searches graph data representing a graph including nodes and links. The search apparatus includes the following elements. An input receiving unit receives an input of a reference node indicating a search reference position on the graph and an input of a search condition indicating a condition satisfied by a node, a link, or a combination of a node and a link. A searching unit searches the graph data for a node, a link, or a combination of a node and a link that satisfies the search condition. A search result data generating unit generates search result data indicating at least one search result obtained by the searching unit, together with path data showing a path on the graph from the reference node to each of the at least one search result.
US08521723B1
A method, apparatus, and stored instructions are provided for transforming an initial query having a scalar subquery with correlated predicates into a transformed query having transformed predicates that are not in the scalar subquery. The transformed predicates correspond to the correlated predicates, but the transformed predicates are no longer correlated. The transformed predicates reference an outer join operation to preserve null values that may have been generated by the correlated predicates that were in the scalar subquery of the initial query. The transformed query is semantically equivalent to the initial query. When creating an execution plan for the transformed query, the query processor may choose from a much larger set of access paths, join methods, and join permutations than those that were available for the initial query. The transformed query may qualify for other transformations or optimizations, or may otherwise be executed or optimized differently from the initial query.
US08521713B2
Expert domains for a query category represent domains from which a high percentage of search results for queries associated with the query category are retrieved. The expert domains are identified by establishing a base statistical model that indicates frequencies of appearance for domains in search results retrieved for queries corresponding to multiple categories. In addition, frequencies of domain appearance are determined for search results retrieved for queries associated with a category. Domains that appear more frequently in the search results corresponding to the category are identified as expert domains for the category. A user may be allowed to customize expert domains related to one or more categories by adding or removing expert domains for the category.
US08521712B2
There are provided methods and systems to enable navigation of data items based on aspect-value pairs extracted from the data items. First, a system receives a query, Second, the system identifies a plurality of data items found by the query. Third, the system identifies an aspect of at least one of the plurality of data items, Fourth, the system identifies a value of a plurality of values corresponding to the aspect. Fifth, the system receives a request to navigate to a set of data items within the plurality of data items, the request comprising the aspect and a requested value of the plurality of value. Each one of the set of data items has the aspect and the value. Sixth, the system presents, in a user interface, information about each one of the set of data items.
US08521711B2
A persistent filter refining system places a search result comprising objects in a dynamic non-persistent bucket and displays the search result in a dynamic non-persistent bucket display for selection of the objects by a user. The system transfers a selected object from the dynamic non-persistent bucket to a persistent bucket and displays the transferred selected object in a persistent bucket display. The system iteratively provides additional search results to the user for selection and transfer of additional selected objects to the persistent bucket to provide access by a user to take action on the transferred selected object and additional selected objects. In one embodiment, the present system displays one or more additional search results for comparison and selection of objects by the user.
US08521706B2
A database may facilitate zero-downtime upgrades by concurrently maintaining multiple editions of database objects for use by both pre-upgrade and post-upgrade clients of a database application. Operations performed within the database are associated with an edition based on, for example, an initiating client or transaction. When an operation references an object or data, the database automatically performs the operation using the object or data associated with the edition with which the operation is itself associated. The database may determine the associated edition without explicit identification of the associated edition in a query or in code. Thus, no client or stored procedure code changes are necessary to reflect a new edition added during an update. Data changes in one edition may be automatically and immediately propagated to the other edition through the use of cross-edition triggers, thereby allowing both pre-upgrade and post-upgrade clients to remain fully functional throughout an upgrade.
US08521705B2
Mechanisms are provided for accelerated data deduplication. A data stream is received an input interface and maintained in memory. Chunk boundaries are detected and chunk fingerprints are calculated using a deduplication accelerator while a processor maintains a state machine. A deduplication dictionary is accessed using a chunk fingerprint to determine if the associated data chunk has previously been written to persistent memory. If the data chunk has previously been written, reference counts may be updated but the data chunk need not be stored again. Otherwise, datastore suitcases, filemaps, and the deduplication dictionary may be updated to reflect storage of the data chunk. Direct memory access (DMA) addresses are provided to directly transfer a chunk to an output interface as needed.
US08521703B2
A system and computer program product utilizes cluster-awareness to effectively support a live partition mobility (LPM) event and provide recovery from node failure within a Virtual Input/Output (I/O) Server (VIOS) cluster. An LPM utility creates a monitoring thread on a first VIOS on initiation of a corresponding LPM event. The monitoring thread tracks a status of an LPM and records status information in the mobility table of a database. The LPM utility creates other monitoring threads on other VIOSes running on the (same) source server. If the first VIOS sustains one of multiple failures, the LPM utility provides notification to other functioning nodes/VIOSes. The LPM utility enables a functioning monitoring thread to update the LPM status. In particular, a last monitoring thread may perform cleanup/update operations within the database based on an indication that there are nodes on the first server that are in failed state.
US08521702B2
When aggregating syndicated Web content, updated content is retrieved from predetermined Web feeds. The updated content is compared with stored content previously retrieved. If the updated content is determined to be different from the stored content, the updated content is stored. If the updated content is determined to be identical to the stored content, the updated content is delete.
US08521698B2
A method enables an administration of resources (content) in web packages. By automatically adding a prefix to a resource name causing a name conflict, even resources having the same name can be handled when installing a new web package by a virtual file system mapping the resources to which a prefix has been added to the physical content required for the web application.
US08521691B1
Traditional methods for migrating between replication technologies require stopping the old replication technology and starting with the new replication technology from scratch. Replicated data sizes can be very large (e.g., on the order of a petabyte) which can take a considerable amount of time, often several weeks, to read. During this time, replication is unavailable. Example embodiments of the present invention provide a method, apparatus and computer-program product for seamless migration from a preexisting replication service to a new replication service by configuring the new replication service, disabling the preexisting replication service enabling the new replication service. Example embodiments of the present invention also provide for querying storage to determine available replication sets, presenting a graphical user interface to a user to enable the user to select a replication set for migration and automatically performing the migration.
US08521685B1
A method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are described for the background movement of data between nodes in a storage cluster. According to one method, exception tables are generated that include data identifying the areas on each node that need to be migrated to another node and the areas on each node that are to be migrated from another node. The exception tables may be generated in response to the failure of a node in the storage cluster or in other circumstances. A background resynchronization thread utilizes the contents of the exception tables to migrate data between the nodes of the cluster, thereby synchronizing the data stored on the nodes. Input/output operations directed to an area that is to be migrated from another node are redirected to the other node in accordance with a timeout period associated with the input/output operations.
US08521684B2
A method and apparatus for merging data acquired by two or more capture devices from two or more points in a computer system, frames are compared for duplicates, then duplicate frames are analyzed to determine the time difference between the timestamps of a first capture device and a second capture device. If the duplicate frames are the first set of duplicate frames discovered, then all previous timestamps and all subsequent timestamps from the second capture device are adjusted by the time difference. If duplicate frames are again discovered, the time difference is recalculated and all subsequent frames from the second capture device are adjusted by the recalculated time difference. After all the frames have been analyzed and the timestamps adjusted, the frames are merged together and put into chronological order to simulate a single capture of data encompassing all of the points where the data was collected.
US08521681B2
Moving information of an object is input, and first sound information around the object is input. A motion status of the object is recognized based on the moving information. Second sound information is selectively extracted from the first sound information, based on the motion status. A first feature quantity is extracted from the second sound information. A plurality of models is stored in a memory. Each model has a second feature quantity and a corresponding specified context. The second feature quantity is previously extracted by the second extraction unit before the first feature quantity is extracted. A present context of the object is decided based on the specified context corresponding to the second feature quantity most similar to the first feature quantity. The present context of the object is output.
US08521678B2
A learning control system according to the present invention is one which performs learning of action values of actions in an apparatus which identifies its state as one of predetermined states, and selects an action based on the obtained action values and the identified state. The learning control system includes n action value learning devices including the first to the n th learning devices which perform learning of n action values from Q1 to Qn, assuming that n is a positive integer and an action value determining device which determines the total action value of an action Q of each state based on outputs of the n action value learning devices. In the learning control system, the first target value of the first action value learning device is determined based on the reward r obtained after an action has been carried out by the next state and a total action value Q′ that was prepared for the action selection in the next state, and the first learning device updates the first action value Q1 using the first target value. When n is 2 or more, the n-th a target value of the n th action value learning device is set to the difference between the (n−1) th target value of the (n−1) th learning device and the action value Qn-1, and the n th learning device updates the n th action value Q1 using the n th target value.
US08521676B1
A computerized system to computer generate, manage, analyze, or combinations thereof, a real world model in software of a safety instrumented system (SIS) architecture for SIS in a facility, wherein the SIS architecture for SIS in a facility comprises at least one instrumented protective function (IPF) and wherein the system to computer generate a software model is in support of process safety lifecycle management.
US08521675B2
A method of integrated automatic support and assistance includes identifying a user and retrieving models representing the user's device, apparatus, service, or system, receiving a query from the user, as necessary refining the query, determining if the received query is a machine translatable query, restructuring machine translatable terms of the received query into semantic components based upon the retrieved models, determining a set of candidate knowledge bases both related to the semantic components, submitting the machine translatable query to each knowledge base of the set of candidate knowledge bases, receiving a set of responses from each knowledge base of the set of knowledge bases in response to the submitting, formatting the set of responses, submitting the formatted set of responses to the user, determining if a response of the submitted formatted set of responses is accepted by the user, applying updated weights within the formatted set of responses, and storing the updated weights for future queries.
US08521671B2
Disclosed are systems, apparatuses, and methods for clustering data. Such a method includes providing input data to each of a plurality of cluster microcircuits of a neural network, wherein each cluster microcircuit includes a mean neural group and a variance neural group. The method also includes determining a response of each cluster microcircuit with respect to the input data. The method further includes modulating the mean neural group and the variance neural group of each cluster microcircuit responsive to a value system.
US08521669B2
This invention is in the field of machine learning and neural associative memory. In particular the invention discloses a neural associative memory structure for storing and maintaining associations between memory address patterns and memory content patterns using a neural network, as well as methods for storing and retrieving such associations. Bayesian learning is applied to achieve non-linear learning.
US08521667B2
This document describes techniques for using features extracted from a URL to detect a malicious URL and categorize the malicious URL as one of a phishing URL, a spamming URL, a malware URL or a multi-type attack URL. The techniques employ one or more machine learning algorithms to train classification models using a set of training data which includes a known set of benign URLs and a known set of malicious URLs. The classification models are then employed to detect and/or categorize a malicious URL.
US08521657B2
A system and method of identifying a mailpiece (230) in an electronic bill presentment system is provided. The system identifies the mailpiece based on an identification mark. A method of identifying the mailpiece comprises (450) the steps of scanning the mailpiece for the identification mark (940). The system receives registration information (210, 410) from a customer and sorts the mailpiece based on the identification mark (950).
US08521650B2
A method and system for providing premium content and dispersing payment therefore. The method includes entering into an agreement with at least one partner that provides premium content and entering into an agreement with at least one customer that grants the customer access to premium content provided by at least one partner. The method further includes collecting defined parameter data of at least one customer accessing the premium content and dispersing payment to at least one partner where the payment is determined from the defined parameter data. The defined parameter data can be approximate time spent.
US08521645B2
Techniques for switching a financial institution account for a debit account holder are provided. A request to convert a financial institution account is received from a customer. Information is obtained from the customer and used to identify a list of possible financial institution candidates. The list of possible financial institution candidates includes financial institutions that have an on-going relationship with an existing payment association and are interested in offering a new financial institution account to the customer. A new financial institution account is then established with a financial institution selected from a list of possible financial institution candidates. Then, the new financial institution account is linked to one or more additional accounts. The one or more additional accounts may be an account with the customer's existing payment association or accounts associated with any recurring transactions.
US08521642B2
Methods and systems for improving auction-based online commerce are provided, including methods and systems for facilitating advance, rapid, accurate estimation of shipping costs between a seller and the winner of an online auction. Methods and systems include an application for facilitating seller estimation of shipping costs, including various components of shipping costs, and for providing to the buyer a shipping estimate based on the circumstances of the buyer and the auction.
US08521639B2
Systems, methods, apparatus, computer program code and means for conducting a transaction are provided. In some embodiments, a unit is issued to a holder including a forward contract and a note, in which the note specifies an initial capped remarketing, at least a first subsequent capped remarketing, and an uncapped remarketing, the uncapped remarketing performed only if each of the capped remarketings fail.
US08521634B1
A system and method for financial account reconciliation of a portfolio account system includes, for investments that are not reported as trades once an order to purchase has been placed, using a computer to electrically match investments that are not reported as trades to unmatched transactions of the portfolio account system. In this manner investments that are not reported as trades once an order to purchase has been placed do not create breaks of the portfolio account system.
US08521630B2
Systems and methods for pricing financial instruments include constructing, via at least one computing device comprising one or more processors executing computer-executable instructions stored in memory, a virtual financial complex network comprising one or more interrelated financial markets. Market color data related to at least one of the financial markets is then blended with price data to determine blended pricing information. This blended pricing information is then used to define an objective function that when solved, via an optimization model, determines a minimum market price for each financial instrument across the one or more financial markets.
US08521625B2
A tax refund system is disclosed in which in exchange for a taxpayer assigning all or a portion of his or her tax refund, a participating provider provides to the taxpayer a spending vehicle with buying power at participating outlets. Tax return data for an individual's tax return is processed by the IRS. A taxpayer consents to using a portion of the tax return data to acquire a spending vehicle from a financial institution of the taxpayer's choosing. Using a portion of the tax return data, the IRS arranges to electronically transfer an amount related to the taxpayer's refund to an account at the financial institution selected by the taxpayer. A taxpayer then receives a spending vehicle such as a credit, debit, or cash card, spending account, coupon, or rebate from a financial institution or other spending vehicle provider such as a retailer, service provider, wholesaler, distributor, or entertainment entity.
US08521624B2
A method for accounting information handling in an interworking is provided. A method for processing accounting information by a gateway device includes sending an accounting request message to a first electronic device, and receiving a response message from a first electronic device, the response message responsive to the accounting request message. The accounting request message is related to a communications device attached to the first network. The method also includes processing accounting information. The processing is based on the response message, the gateway device and the first electronic device are part of the first network, the communications device is accessing a second network through the first network, and the communications device has a subscription only with the second network.
US08521622B2
A computer program is embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program manages order of parts according to a production plan. The computer program, when run on a computer, controls the computer to execute functions comprising developing a plurality of parts necessary to produce a product which comprises at least one of a first product model and a second product model, and required volume of each of the parts according to the product model. The program also controls the computer to compare parts which were developed and required volume of the parts for the first product model with the parts which were developed and required volume of the parts for the second product model. A difference is calculated between volume of the parts necessary for production of the first product model and volume of the parts necessary to produce the second product model concerning each of the parts for the first and the second product models according to an input of a production change from the first product model for which parts have been ordered to the second product model. The program then controls the computer to display the parts and volume of the parts necessary to produce the second product model in association with the difference on a display screen.
US08521621B1
A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. In some operations, software creates, updates, or otherwise processes information related to an inbound delivery request business object.
US08521620B2
According to various embodiments, a supply chain management system may provide dynamic information regarding items in manufacturing, storage, inventory, or retail processes by detecting RFID tags embedded on the items. A supply chain management system may also be configured to determine current inventory and regulate what items are stocked and restocked on displays. A split-screen showing detected items and instructions or information pertaining to the items may facilitate accurate and efficient execution of process steps by an employee or user. Supply chain management systems may also provide for re-tagging items with lost or damaged RFID tags and finding items lost from inventory due to lost or damaged RFID tags. Furthermore, a supply chain management system may include RFID tags affixed to point of purchase displays and include information regarding the point of purchase display within a database.
US08521618B2
A system accepts event criteria for at least one ticket and at least one event; accepts price criteria for the ticket(s) and the event(s); displays an interactive graphics-based event venue map illustrating a location of all sections at a venue with at least one ticket meeting the event and price criteria; accepts section selection criteria, at least one section being selected from the interactive graphics-based event venue map; displays ticket information to allow a user to drill down to a specific ticket, cause a location of the specific ticket to be displayed in the interactive venue map; and enable a capability to utilize the interactive venue map to choose a section of interest, causing corresponding ticket information to be displayed in the web browsing language.
US08521605B2
A product retail sales management server for managing the retail sales of a product across a communication network comprises: a retail sales management module for managing the retail sales of the product; a price update module 13 for dynamically setting the price of the product in accordance with rules and the retail sales state of the product and in accordance with the actual retail sales state of the product when managed by the retail sales management module; and an acceptance module 11 for, upon the receipt of an information request via the communication network, furnishing a request transmission source with the information concerning the product and the price of the product, set by the price update module at the time the information request is received.
US08521596B2
Methods and apparatuses to connect telephone calls and track information about the telephone calls resulting from advertisements for groups of advertisers. In one embodiment, a method includes: determining a geographic area after receiving a telephone call to a first telephone number publicized in an advertisement; determining a telephone number of a first advertiser; and connecting the telephone call to the telephone number of the first advertiser, the first advertiser billed for the advertisement based on telephonic connections made to connect the first advertiser and telephone calls to the first telephone number.
US08521595B2
A method and system for dynamic interaction mapping for online advertizing is disclosed in one embodiment. Metric information relating to interaction with a creative is received from a number of user computer from across the Internet. The metric information is correlated to playback time of the creative and position of interaction with respect to the creative. A graphic overlay or heatmap is formulated according to display options, event triggers, playback time and position of the interaction relative to the creative. The graphic overlay is presented in a way that the graphic overlay changes according to playback time. Display options include creative transparency, graphic overlay transparency, selection from a number of interactions and/or events, selection of one or more panels, choosing clicks and/or rollovers, choice of different colors or shading for different interaction, etc.
US08521591B1
Methods and systems for correlating connections between users and links between articles to identify search and/or ad spamming are disclosed. Social networks can be used to identify connections between users for correlation with links between articles, which can be identified through searches of article contents and/or back tracing accesses to articles. One disclosed method comprises identifying first associations between a plurality of users in a network of associated users; identifying second associations between one or more users and one or more articles; identifying third associations between at least some of the articles or between some of the users and access to some of the articles; and determining at least one of the third associations is correlated with one or more of the first associations.
US08521579B2
Methods and systems for assigning customers to steps in marketing campaigns. An assignment module assigns and reassigns the customers to the marketing activities. An evaluation module determines a predicted goal value of the marketing campaign for each assignment. The assignment module does not reassign a customer to a marketing activity that the customer has previously been assigned to. An execution module may execute campaign steps by performing marketing activities, and a response detection module may detect responses from the customers. The responses may be used in determining subsequent steps of the campaign. Creating sample target groups representative of the customers that are predicted to respond to a prior campaign step. The sample target group(s) may be used for predicting the outcome of subsequent campaign steps directed at the sample target group.
US08521577B2
A method and system for paratransit run-cutting is provided. A target number of paratransit vehicles is determined for each of a set of time intervals. A target number of trips corresponding to the target number of paratransit vehicles is generated for each time interval, each of said mock trips being defined such that a vehicle performing one of said mock trips in one of said time intervals is able to perform any of said mock trips in an immediately subsequent one of said time intervals. The target number of mock trips for each of the time intervals is entered into a fixed-route transit run-cutting application. Paratransit runs are created using fixed-route transit runs generated by said fixed-route transit run-cutting application.
US08521572B2
Methods and systems for managing customer activity in a call center include monitoring event data. A mediator filters the event data into an event data set associated with a selected customer. A context component creates a context for the customer based on the event data set. A decision engine performs a probabilistic assessment of an occurrence related to the customer, based on the customer context, and determines an action based on the probabilistic assessment. An action processor initiates the action.
US08521566B2
Embodiments of the invention provide an innovative, fully-automated system that facilitates the buying and selling of debt-based derivatives and other assets. The techniques described herein eliminate opaqueness, inefficiencies, and lack of risk monitoring and provide an end-to-end, highly efficient reverse-auction platform that considers many aspects of risk control and other parameters. This is accomplished while computing a true CDS price by incorporating reference entity, primary and secondary insurance company default risks. Furthermore, the reference entity pricing model decouples the borrower from the entity issuing the debt and eliminates rating inflation due to digital discontinuity.
US08521564B1
Technologies relating to collaborative healthcare information collection are disclosed. A User Interface (UI) provided herein may provide selectable controls for accessing a Patient Information Collection Tool (PICT), an Interactive Patient Education Database (IPED), and/or a Clinic-Oriented Patient Information Collection Tool (COPICT). A PICT may assist in identifying patient goals for healthcare interactions. An IPED may provide interactive articles educating patients about healthcare terminology and materials for systematically helping patients to prepare for healthcare visits by addressing common questions and discussion points. A COPICT may collect patient data for use in tracking clinic patient data and identifying clinic goals for healthcare interactions.
US08521562B2
A method for diagnosing diseases in human subjects and a computer system implementing the method. The novel method uses historical patient medical records to create tables, which are used by a medical center to determine what diagnostic test is associated with confirmation of a disease in question. The method provides nonparametric, retrospective, disease cohort, rank ordered, weighted concatenation tables, which are unique to a disease and specific to the medical center where they are created, with prospective application. The method is more efficient and effective than presently used methods.
US08521561B2
In a plurality of pieces of single report structured data that is stored in a structured database in a diagnosis information database, character information constructing a radiological report describing detailed information of image data is added as metadata for search to the image data. For example, only by designating image data to be read as image (retrieval reference image) data as a reference of retrieval by a reading physician as the user during radiological operation, the character information already added to the retrieval reference image data is set as a keyword. By a keyword search using the metadata, data of a similar image and a related report of the retrieval reference image data are detected from the structured DB.
US08521554B2
Computerized methods and systems for receiving clinically-relevant discrete task assays related to a medication and for presenting results of the clinically-relevant discrete task assays during documentation of administration of the medication are provided. Medication identifiers are received and associated with discrete task assays, the results of which may be relevant to administration of the identified medication. Upon receipt of an indication that a clinician desires to administer the identified medication to a patient, the patient's electronic medical record is searched to determine if a result for any associated discrete task assays has been documented within a predefined time frame. If there is such a documented result, the result is presented in association with the location of the electronic medical record where administration of the medication is being documented.
US08521546B2
The invention provides for modeling and scoring risk-assessment and a set of insurance products derived therefrom. Risk indicators are determined at a selected time. A population is assessed at that time and afterward for those risk indicators and for consequences associated therewith. Population members are coupled to client devices for determining risk indicators and consequences. A server receives data from each client, and in response thereto and in conjunction with an expert operator, (1) reassesses weights assigned to the risk indicators, (2) determines new risk indicators, (3) determines new measures for determining risk indicators and consequences, and (4) presents treatment options to each population member. The server determines, in response to the data from each client, and possibly other data, a measure of risk for each indicated consequence or for a set of such consequences. The server provides this measure with regard to each population member, or with regard to population subsets. The expert operator uses this measure to determine either (1) an individual course of treatment, (2) a resource utilization review model, (3) a risk-assessment model, or (4) an insurance pricing model, for each individual population member or for selected population subsets. Information requested by the client, information determined and presented by the server, and responsive measurements, are adapted dynamically to changing population aspects or changing population membership, or of an external environment having relevance to the population.
US08521537B2
A computer-driven device assists a user in self-regulating speech control of the device. The device processes an input signal representing human speech to compute acoustic signal quality indicators indicating conditions likely to be problematic to speech recognition, and advises the user of those conditions.
US08521536B1
A Mobile Voice Self Service (MVSS) mobile device and method thereof. A VoiceXML browser that is implemented directly on the MVSS mobile device may request a VoiceXML application from a VoiceXML application server and process it. A call data manager may also be implemented on the MVSS mobile device and may provide call data that, in conjunction with data from the VoiceXML application server, may authorize access to advanced Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) services, such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) or Text-To-Speech (TTS). A media resource gateway may then provide the advanced MRCP services to the VoiceXML application processed by the VoiceXML application browser. Hotkey navigations and bookmarked application points to VoiceXML applications may be created and applied through application analysis and state tracking. Therein, VoiceXML document transitions and user input are stored to maintain application state changes until the user requests creation of an application bookmark.
US08521534B2
A prompt generation engine operates to dynamically extend prompts of a multimodal application. The prompt generation engine receives a media file having a metadata container. The prompt generation engine operates on a multimodal device that supports a voice mode and a non-voice mode for interacting with the multimodal device. The prompt generation engine retrieves from the metadata container a speech prompt related to content stored in the media file for inclusion in the multimodal application. The prompt generation engine modifies the multimodal application to include the speech prompt.
US08521532B2
An address character-string structure analyzer analyzes an address character-string structure with respect to address data selected from input data for speech conversion, in accordance with data stored in the address speech-conversion application-rule data storage section. A street speech-conversion structure data element divider divides the address data into structure elements. A street-name speech-conversion pronunciation symbol dictionary is provided. When the structure elements contain a street name, an address speech-conversion data-storage-section selector/reader searches the dictionary and reads pronunciation symbols for the street name. For another structure element, a general dictionary, an individually-created general dictionary, individually-created phonetic-symbol dictionary, or the like is searched and pronunciation symbols are read. When the processing for all elements is completed, speech data is created and reproduced in accordance with general speech data.
US08521531B1
A speech search method for a display device is discussed. The method includes the steps of outputting media data, receiving a speech search command from a user, and determining whether the speech search command includes a query term. If the speech search command does not include a query term, the method further comprises the step of extracting a query term which is full and searchable from audio data of the media data which is outputted immediately prior to the speech search command. Finally, the method includes the step of performing a speech search using the extracted query term.
US08521530B1
A method, system, and computer program for enhancing a signal are presented. The signal is received, and energy estimates of the signal may be determined. At least one characteristic of the signal may be inferred based on the energy estimates. A mask may be generated based, in part, on the at least one characteristic. In turn, the mask may be applied to the signal to produce an enhanced signal, which may be outputted.
US08521526B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for processing spoken query terms. In one aspect, a method includes performing speech recognition on an audio signal to select two or more textual, candidate transcriptions that match a spoken query term, and to establish a speech recognition confidence value for each candidate transcription, obtaining a search history for a user who spoke the spoken query term, where the search history references one or more past search queries that have been submitted by the user, generating one or more n-grams from each candidate transcription, where each n-gram is a subsequence of n phonemes, syllables, letters, characters, words or terms from a respective candidate transcription, and determining, for each n-gram, a frequency with which the n-gram occurs in the past search queries, and a weighting value that is based on the respective frequency.
US08521519B2
An adaptive sound source vector quantization device includes a first pitch cycle instructor, a search range calculator, and a second pitch cycle instructor. The first pitch cycle instructor successively instructs pitch cycle search candidates in a predetermined search range having a search resolution which transits over a predetermined pitch cycle candidate for the first sub-frame. The search range calculator calculates a predetermined range before and after the pitch cycle of the first sub-frame as the pitch cycle search range for the second sub-frame, if the predetermined range includes the predetermined pitch cycle search candidate. In the predetermined range, the search resolution transits over a boundary defined by the predetermined pitch cycle. The second pitch cycle instructor successively instructs the pitch cycle search candidates in the search range for the second sub-frame.
US08521517B2
Systems and techniques for providing definitions to a user. The provision embodies the context of a text in which the defined term appears. In one aspect, a system includes an electronic device that includes one or more data processing devices programmed to respond to receipt of the user selection of the first term by performing operations. The operations include accessing, from the one or more persistent data storage devices, the characterizations of the contexts of the texts, comparing the accessed characterizations of the contexts of the texts with one or more characteristics of the context of the textual content of a media file, and ranking the definitions of the first term according to respective likelihoods that the definitions appropriately characterize the usage of the first term within the textual content of the media file.
US08521515B1
A system offers potential completions for fragments of text. The system may obtain a text fragment and identify documents that include the text fragment. The system may locate sentences within the documents that include at least a portion of the text fragment, identify sentence endings associated with the located sentences, and present the sentence endings as potential completions for the text fragment.
US08521511B2
A method of extracting information from text within a natural language understanding system can include processing a text input through at least one statistical model for each of a plurality of features to be extracted from the text input. For each feature, at least one value can be determined, at least in part, using the statistical model associated with the feature. One value for each feature can be combined to create a complex information target. The complex information target can be output.
US08521510B2
A system, method and computer readable medium that provides an automated web transcription service is disclosed. The method may include receiving input speech from a user using a communications network, recognizing the received input speech, understanding the recognized speech, transcribing the understood speech to text, storing the transcribed text in a database, receiving a request via a web page to display the transcribed text, retrieving transcribed text from the database, and displaying the transcribed text to the requester using the web page.
US08521505B2
A reference string set including a group of strings is set. At least two specific tuples of substring triples is found inside the reference string set of strings. Each tuple is considered as a candidate for representing a related concept. Each concatenation of the substrings triples is an explicit member of the reference string set. Each middle substring of the substring triples is unequal to another middle substring within the substring triples found inside the reference string set. Each prefix substring is equal to all other prefix substrings within the substring triples found inside the reference string set. Each suffix substring is equal to all other suffix substrings within the substring triples found inside the reference string set. Either the prefix substring or the suffix substring is not empty.
US08521498B2
A simulation method for a cascade communication system comprising a nodes sequence numbered as 1 to N from a transmitter to a receiver, comprises: acquiring simulation parameters; calculating reverse transfer functions of the nodes; determining a current node in the sequence; adding noise that should be added at the current node to a simulation signal of a previous node; simulating the current node to generate a simulation signal of the current node, by using the simulation signal of the previous node added with the noise that should be added at the current node, based on the reverse transfer function of the current node; judging whether simulations of all the nodes are completed; if yes, repeating the adding and the simulating; if not, determining a cost of the based on the simulation signal of the current node.
US08521490B2
Dependent variables believed to contribute to a likelihood of falling are analyzed using a latent class analysis. The dependent variables are biomedical factors, which may include, for example, arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes, foot disorders, Parkinson's Disease, stroke, eye disorder, limb disorder, or proprioceptive disorder. Data pertaining to the biomedical factors is gathered from a population of individuals at risk of falling. Covariate data, including for example age and the number of prescriptions taken, is further analyzed against latent class data. For a particular group of at risk individuals, a set of five classes produced useful results broadly corresponding to groups representing individuals who have: good health; a range of diseases; Parkinson's Disease; arthritis; and high blood pressure. A probability of falling is determined, relative to the group of individuals with good health.
US08521484B2
Methods and systems for matching a computed curve to a target curve to enable realistic engineering simulations are disclosed. Discrepancies between computed curve and the target curve are measured, and based on the discrepancies, decisions on how to adjust parametric inputs can be made to achieve an optimal result of simulation. Optimization of parameter identification is achieved by adjusting the parametric inputs of a simulation model such that the discrepancy between the two curves is minimized. Because the points on the two curves to be matched are paired, matching of any two open curves, including hysteretic curves, can be handled. Curves that are complete set apart in their original coordinates can be merged to a common coordinate system for parameter identification without the computational instability problems.
US08521480B2
Embodiments of the invention include methods to manage non-destructive evaluation (“NDE”) data. The method includes receiving NDE data for at least a portion of an asset along with inspection information associated with the at least a portion of the asset, and determining at least one alignment algorithm to align the NDE data to a simulated model of the at least a portion of the asset based on at least one of the NDE data or the inspection information. The method further includes automatically aligning The NDE data to the simulated model with the at least one alignment algorithm and analyzing the aligned NDE data on the simulated model to determine coverage of the simulated model by the NDE data. Additional methods include retrieving NDE data that has previously been aligned to the simulated model and determining coverage or determining trends associated with indications thereof.
US08521476B2
A system is described for monitoring the energy efficiency of a technology component. The system may include a memory, an interface, and a processor. The memory may store a baseline power consumption value for a plurality of operating states of a technology component. The interface may communicate with a device of a user. The processor may monitor the technology component to determine a current power consumption value and a current operating state of the technology component. The processor may determine the baseline power consumption value corresponding to the current operating state. The processor may determine whether the current power consumption value is within a threshold of the baseline power consumption value. The processor may provide an alert to a device of the user if the current power consumption value of the technology component is not within the threshold of the baseline power consumption value.
US08521469B2
A relative bearing sensor for determining an orientation of a device. The relative bearing sensor including a ferromagnetic housing, and wherein the ferromagnetic housing includes a ferromagnetic ball configured to roll with respect to an orientation of the ferromagnetic housing, a magnetic flux sensor, a permanent magnet configured to emit a plurality of magnetic flux lines through the magnetic flux sensor, the plurality of magnetic flux lines steered by a location of the ferromagnetic ball, and a processor programmed. The processor is programmed to determine a flux angle of the plurality of magnetic flux lines, compare the determined flux angle with a predefined flux angle, and determine an orientation of the relative bearing sensor based on the comparing.
US08521456B2
A method includes the steps of calculating the temperature of a reference point in an electric storage element by using a detected temperature by a temperature sensor attached to an outer face of the electric storage element and a heat conduction equation, and estimating the internal state of the electric storage element by using the calculated temperature of the reference point. The reference point is a lattice point at which a temperature associated with the internal resistance of the electric storage element is shown, out of a plurality of lattice points provided in the electric storage element.
US08521452B2
A liquid level determination system includes pressure determination components that include an interference dampener to mitigate interference originating from a bubbler air compressor. The system may include a pressure pipe with a pressure sensing pipe end located adjacent to the pressure determination components and a bubbler pipe end locatable at least partially in a wet well. The wet well may include a pump that has a volute. The pressure pipe may further include layered pipe sections, and the position of the bubbler pipe end may be calculated so that it is not lower than a level substantially equivalent to a center line through the volute. The bubbler air compressor may provide air pressure to the pressure pipe.
US08521448B1
A computer implemented method is provided for analyzing the health of a structure by measuring the value of preload on each of a plurality of fasteners installed on the structure and correlating the measured values of preload with a set of specifications. A report is generated for each of the fasteners representing the results of the correlations. Groups of the fastener reports are used to infer the health of the structure.
US08521445B2
Methods and apparatus relate to measuring corrosion rate. Flowing corrosive fluid contacts a metal coupon or object and results in an effluent stream. The effluent stream contains metal from the object due to reaction of constituents in the fluid with the metal. Analysis of the effluent stream measures concentration of the metal therein. Since the concentration of the metal in the effluent stream is indicative of mass loss from the object, calculations provide the corrosion rate utilizing weight of the metal that is eluted, surface area of the object and exposure time of the object with the corrosive fluid.
US08521439B2
Methods are provided for calibrating stimulus-response test systems which include a stimulus output device for delivering a stimulus to a subject; and a response input device for receiving a response from the subject. One such method comprises: sensing the stimulus event output by the stimulus output device; recording a calibrator stimulus time associated with detection of the stimulus event in a calibrator separate from the stimulus-response test system; generating a calibrator response after sensing the stimulus event, the calibrator response causing a response input port of the stimulus-response test system to receive a calibrator response signal and to deliver a corresponding calibrator response signal to the test controller; recording a calibrator response time associated with generation of the calibrator response in the calibrator; and determining a latency value associated with the stimulus-response test system based at least in part on a difference between the calibrator response time and the calibrator stimulus time.
US08521436B2
The present disclosure provides a flowmeter including a vibrating element configured to be inserted in a measured fluid; a driver circuit to vibrate the vibrating element in its natural frequency of oscillation; one or more additional technology flow meters configured to measure an additional property of the fluid; a data acquisition circuit configured to measure signals effected by the flow of a multi-phase fluid; and a computer suitable to solve non-linear simultaneous equations. The fluid may include gas, oil and/or water. The fluid may also include solids.
US08521424B2
The illustrative embodiments include update determination programmed logic circuitry operable to determine that a map data tile stored in a vehicle database is in need of updating. The illustrative embodiments further include update qualification programmed logic circuitry operable to qualify the permissibility of an update. Also included in the illustrative embodiments is update provision programmed logic circuitry operable to, contingent on the qualifying, provide an updated version of the map data tile. The update determination, update qualification and update provision programmed logic circuitry are operable to repeat the determining, qualifying and providing for at least all tiles included in a route within a predetermined proximity of a vehicle's current location along the route.
US08521414B2
In a vehicle safety driving apparatus, a predetermined steering torque is applied as the warning and a change amount of driver's steering torque relative to the applied predetermined steering torque is calculated, and a contact avoidance assistance operation is conducted in place of applying the predetermined steering torque when the calculated driver's steering force change amount is less than a set value. With this, it becomes possible to conduct more perceivable operation or vehicle control when it is estimated that the driver does not recognize it, thereby enabling to assist the contact avoidance appropriately.
US08521409B2
The invention discloses a continuous driving mileage calculation control system and a calculation control method. The calculation control system comprises an MCU microprocessor, a continuous driving mileage digital display, a vehicle speed signal sampling circuit, an instantaneous fuel consumption signal sampling circuit and a fuel signal sampling circuit. According to the received instantaneous fuel consumption signal and the vehicle speed signal, the MCU microprocessor calculates the average fuel consumption, and then calculates the continuous driving mileage according to the average fuel consumption and the current remaining fuel amount. The digital display is used for displaying the continuous driving mileage. The average fuel consumption refers to the amount of fuel consumption per hundred kilometers between two refilling; and the remaining fuel amount is obtained by deducting the amount of fuel consumption calculated according to the instantaneous fuel consumption signal from the amount of remaining fuel amount measured right after the refilling.
US08521403B2
A method and a device for interrupting unintended acceleration or unintended maintenance of vehicle speed comprising providing a driver operated fuel delivery disconnect system, said fuel delivery disconnect system comprising an electronic module programmed to temporarily disconnect electrical feed to a fuel delivery mechanism. The temporary interruption of the electrical feed places the vehicle in an idle mode without disrupting other vehicle control systems.
US08521387B2
A method for assisting a motor vehicle with a hill start, the motor vehicle having previously been held stationary when parked by a brake. The method measures inclination of the vehicle, previously establishes a map between engine torque and engine speed, defines, within the map, an authorized zone and a forbidden zone, provides a vehicle engine speed value, provides a vehicle engine torque value, deduces from these coordinates of the engine operating point within the map, and releases the brake automatically only if the coordinates of the operating point lie within the authorized zone of the map.
US08521376B2
Receiving sensor data related to position of a gear in a transmission, the sensor data including data from a first sensor and data from a second sensor; determining a first indicated position of the gear from the data from the first sensor; determining a second indicated position of the gear from the data from the second sensor; comparing the first indicated position to the second indicated position; and determining based on the comparison a gear engagement status of the gear.
US08521371B2
Systems and methods for selectively remapping implement control commands in a machine comprise receiving a first input command signal for controlling a plurality of actuators associated with the machine. The first input command signal is associated with controlling a first work tool such that each of the plurality of actuators is independently controllable by one or more implement controllers. A current work tool attached to the machine is identified and compared with a first work tool. If the current work tool is different from the first work tool, the first input command signal is transformed into a second input command signal associated with the current work tool and provided to a plurality of actuators of the machine. The second input command signal is associated with controlling the current work tool such that less than each of the plurality of actuators is independently controllable by the one or more implement controllers.
US08521370B2
A method and apparatus for selectively activating a gravity down mode of a hydraulic system during operation of a lift gate. An electronic control circuit is added to hydraulic control circuitry and is configured to selectively interrupt the power down mode or gravity down mode of operation of the hydraulic system based on either a manual input (override) or a sensed condition and switch to the other mode of operation.
US08521358B2
A method for releasing an electric parking brake of a motor vehicle comprises detecting a release command and releasing the parking brake if a detected change in at least one signal precedes by maximally a predefined time interval, the change indicating capacity of a driver to act.
US08521357B2
An impaired operation detection method is basically performed by sensing a yaw rate of a vehicle over a time period. Then time points are identified in which the yaw rate changes direction. A linear rate of change in the yaw rate is determined between two of the time points that are sequential in time. An actual rate of change is examined between the two time points. A difference between the actual rate of change and the linear rate of change to obtain a difference value. Then, the operator's impairment condition is determined based on the difference value.
US08521352B1
A vehicle can be controlled in a first autonomous mode of operation by at least navigating the vehicle based on map data. Sensor data can be obtained using one or more sensors of the vehicle. The sensor data can be indicative of an environment of the vehicle. An inadequacy in the map data can be detected by at least comparing the map data to the sensor data. In response to detecting the inadequacy in the map data, the vehicle can be controlled in a second autonomous mode of operation and a user can be prompted to switch to a manual mode of operation. The vehicle can be controlled in the second autonomous mode of operation by at least obtaining additional sensor data using the one or more sensors of the vehicle and navigating the vehicle based on the additional sensor data.
US08521344B2
A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program including instructions, which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to acquire route data in a first format for a route, the route data comprising a plurality of route parameters for a plurality of route locations. The computer is further programmed to re-format the acquired route data in the first format into a second format different from the first format, filter the reformatted route data into a route dataset having a lesser number of route locations than the number of route locations in the acquired route data, and to store the route dataset in computer memory.
US08521342B2
A system, a method, and a computer program are provided for recording technical issues of an aircraft. A server unit is adapted to store and output data related to technical issues of an aircraft. A client unit sends an access request to a server, which receives and processes this request, permits access to the data and restricts the adding or modifying processing of the data to one client unit at a time. For use during flight tests on board of the aircraft, a snapshot of the data may be transferred to a mobile computer, while the data on the server unit is restricted to read-only. After the flight test, the modified data is transferred back to the server unit and the read-only restriction is removed.
US08521340B2
The invention relates to a flight management system for manned or unmanned aircraft having to face an emergency situation such as hijacking of the aircraft, medical emergencies, situations of failures affecting the propulsion, pressurization or communication functions for example. It provides for a device and process for automatically or semi-automatically generating a flight plan compatible with international regulations and their national or local adaptations with possibilities of optimization according to navigation parameters.
US08521335B2
Instead of disposing gray water with sewage water, a gray water recycling apparatus uses a series of sensors and determines the acceptability of chemical concentrations and temperature of the gray water for use in irrigation purposes so as to ensure the recycled gray water is safe for irrigation. If it is, a three-way valve is positioned to direct the gray water to an irrigation pipe; otherwise, the three-way valve is positioned to direct the water to a public sewage system or septic tank.
US08521326B1
A canister arrangement for refilling a pharmaceutical dispenser. The dispenser can hold a predetermined number of pills, tablets, or capsules at one time. Since the canister arrangement can hold considerably more than the dispenser can, the canister is able to fill the dispenser to capacity multiple times before the canister must be refilled. The canister has a housing and one or more chambers in the housing. When a plurality of chambers is present, at least one of the chambers has a sloping floor at the bottom of the housing. A swinging door is disposed between each pair of adjacent chambers. The swinging door(s) are automatically activated when the dispensing apparatus senses that the dispenser and the previous chamber are both empty. An opening is also provided at the bottom of the housing. A sliding door covers the opening to prevent pills, tablets and capsules from exiting the housing. The sliding door is automatically opened upon the occurrence of an external condition, such as when the dispensing apparatus senses that the dispenser is empty.
US08521325B2
A drug delivery device (1) delivers a stored drug to a conveyance receptacle (T) adapted to be attached with a card (RC) that displays desired information. The drug delivery device (1) includes card processor (10), a label printer (6), and a controller (5). The card processor (10) enters patient identification information on the card (RC) and attaches the card (RC) to the conveyance receptacle (T). The label printer (6) prints a first label that displays the patient identification information and that is inserted into the conveyance receptacle (T). The controller (5) causes the label printer (6) to print the first label according to a state of the card processor (10). With the drug delivery device (1), identification information is applied more reliably and quickly to the conveyance receptacle by which the drug is delivered, and the efficiency of drug delivery is improved.
US08521319B2
The production of a hearing aid housing shell or ear mold that can be worn in the ear should be simplified and improved. For this, a prefabricated component, such as a frame for holding an electronics module or a receiver adapter, is positioned in a rapid prototyping instrument. There, the component is integrated into the housing shell or ear mold by the subsequent production of the housing shell or ear mold. This avoids connecting the component to the housing shell or ear mold in a further method step after producing the housing shell or ear mold.
US08521317B2
A dental CAD/CAM system performs structural analysis of a candidate prosthetic dental item that is to be created using design data representing the prosthetic dental item. The dental CAD/CAM system can recommend positioning of a surface of the prosthetic dental item within a volume of a milling block based on the design data and data representing desired aesthetic properties of the prosthetic dental item. The dental CAD/CAM system can generate and display simulated images of the aesthetic properties of the prosthetic dental item using the design data, data representing the surface of the prosthetic dental item, data representing the volume of the milling block, and data representing aesthetic properties of the milling block. The dental CAD/CAM system can be used to form prosthetic dental items having complex aesthetic properties, such as translucent regions and shades of colors that vary spatially.
US08521313B2
An apparatus for processing a media signal and method thereof are disclosed, by which the media signal can be converted to a surround signal a surround signal by using spatial information of the media signal. The present invention provides a method of processing a signal, the method comprising of generating source mapping information corresponding to each source of multi-sources by using spatial information indicating features between the multi-sources; generating at least one rendering information by using the source mapping information and filter information having a surround effect; and performing interpolation by using neighbor rendering information of the at least one rendering information.
US08521308B2
A supervisory control system includes a supervisory control target device and a supervisory control device. The supervisory control device is configured such that an attribute usage flag that indicates whether the supervisory control device supports any changes in the attributes due to adding of a function, and an attribute effectiveness flag which indicates whether the supervisory control target device supports the changes, are added, as information concerning the attributes that undergo the changes, to a definition of the instance which the supervisory control device retains. Further, the supervisory control device includes a control unit which, on a basis of data of the attribute usage flag and attribute effectiveness flag relating to the attributes undergoing the changes due to adding of a function, determines whether the supervisory control target device supports a new function or whether supervisory control based upon the new function is effective.
US08521305B2
A lead includes an elongated body and an anchor segment disposed between the distal end of the body and electrodes on a distal portion of the body. The anchor segment has lobes which are separated by slits and movable between a collapsed position and an expanded position. A positioning mechanism is disposed inside the hollow interior of the body and at least partially within the anchor segment. The positioning mechanism has a distal positioning portion attached to the distal end of the body and a proximal positioning portion. A control member is connected with the proximal positioning portion to control the positioning mechanism to pull the distal end toward the proximal end so as to move the lobes from the collapsed position to the expanded position and to push the distal end away from the proximal end so as to move the lobes from the expanded to the collapsed position.
US08521302B2
Disclosed is a method and an apparatus for ablating biological tissues, in which a cannula is configured to affect biological tissue and a heat transmitting end-effecter is coupled to the cannula. A source of electromagnetic energy is provided via an electro-magnetic energy emitter and a wall of the heat transmitting end-effecter is made of an electromagnetic-energy-absorbing material that absorbs electromagnetic waves.
US08521299B2
A treatment system includes a regulator implanted within a patient, a computing device storing at least one patient database associated with the patient in whom the regulator is implanted, and a data transfer device. The data transfer device provides bi-directional communication (e.g., voice communication) and a data exchange (e.g., a treatment history, a patient database, and operational instructions) between the regulator and the computing device. A programmer can obtain patient reports and/or default treatment values from the computing device based on the data exchange.
US08521297B2
A system and method are described for determining an estimated neural response in a hybrid acoustic-electrical audio prosthesis. Target nerve tissue such as remaining hair cells and cochlear nerve tissue receive synchronized electric and acoustic stimulation signals which are recorded and processed to determine an artifact canceled estimated neural response.
US08521292B2
Techniques for managing urinary or fecal incontinence include delivering a first type of therapy to generate a first physiological response and, upon detecting a trigger event, delivering a second type of therapy to generate a second physiological response. The first type of therapy can be delivered on a substantially regular basis, while the second type of therapy is delivered as needed to provide an additional boost of therapy. The trigger event for activating the delivery of the second type of therapy may include input from a sensor that indicates a bladder condition, patient activity level or patient posture, or patient input. In some examples, the therapy is stimulation therapy. In some examples, objective incontinence information is generated based upon the trigger events. The system and/or user may then use this objective incontinence information to adjust therapy or select new therapy programs for improved efficacy.
US08521291B1
An exemplary method for treating an eating or metabolism disorder includes calling for delivery of energy to the stomach using a pulse train that includes use of pulses with a pulse width less than approximately 20 ms, a duty cycle greater than approximately 20% and a pulse train duration of less than approximately 10 seconds and calling for delivery of energy to a vagal nerve. Various other methods, devices, systems, etc., are also disclosed.
US08521290B2
Disclosed is an implantable medical device including a connector block that allows varied lead configurations to be used with a single connector block and implantable medical device assembly. The connector block is configured with one or more lead insertion lumens that are open at both ends, such that each end of the lead insertion lumen may receive a separate lead. The circuitry within the implantable medical device is configured to allow the delivery of electrical pulses from a pulse generator within the implantable medical device to two separate leads, or to a single lead (with a plug positioned within the opposite, open end of the insertion lumen), inserted within a single lead insertion lumen.
US08521281B2
The present disclosure is directed to the classification of cardiac episodes using an algorithm. In various examples, an episode classification algorithm evaluates electrogram signal data using a probabilistic ventricular oversensing algorithm. The algorithm may look at a plurality of factors weighing for and against a determination of ventricular oversensing. In some examples, the algorithm may also determine whether the cardiac episode includes atrial sensing issues.
US08521280B2
A method and apparatus for treatment of heart failure by increasing secretion of endogenous naturetic hormones ANP and BNP such as by stimulation of the heart atria. Heart pacing is done at an atrial contraction rate that is increased and can be higher than the ventricular contraction rate. Pacing may include mechanical distension of the right atrial appendage. An implantable device is used to periodically cyclically stretch the walls of the appendage with an implanted balloon.
US08521279B2
An implantable cardiac stimulation device provides measurement of intrinsic heart activity metrics while sustaining pacing of the heart. The device includes a pulse generator that delivers pacing pulses to a first chamber of corresponding chambers of a heart, and a sensing circuit that senses a conducted evoked response of a second chamber of the corresponding chambers of the heart in response to the pacing pulse to provide an electrical signal representing the conducted evoked response. The device further includes a measuring circuit that measures a metric of the electrical signal to approximate a corresponding metric of an intrinsic electrical feature of the second chamber.
US08521271B2
In a system having an interface that utilizes an electroencephalogram, there is realized a calibration which prevents overlooking of calibrational stimulations concerning the electroencephalogram and which is highly accurate.An electroencephalogram interface system (1) includes an interface section (100) which acquires an electroencephalogram signal from a user, distinguishes a P3 component of a visual event-related potential contained in the electroencephalogram signal after a manipulation menu is presented, and operates a device based on the distinguished P3 component. An electroencephalogram distinction method adjustment apparatus (10) is used for adjusting a distinction method in the interface section (100). Based on a database (13) defining a correlation between a P3 component of an event-related potential obtained from a stimulation to a modality other than the visual sense and a P3 component of a visual event-related potential and on a P3 component of an event-related potential after a stimulation is presented, the apparatus (10) derives a characteristic quantity of the user concerning the P3 component of the visual event-related potential, and adjusts the electroencephalogram distinction method in the interface section (100) based on the characteristic quantity.
US08521267B1
A method and system are provided for trending a coronary burden such as an ischemic burden or acute myocardial infarction (AMI) for a patient. Trending provides obtaining cardiac data over a period of time, identifying the onset and the termination of coronary episodes based on a ST segment variation within the cardiac data, recording coronary burden information, and presenting the coronary burden information to a user. The coronary burden information may include the number of coronary episodes occurring over a period of time, the time duration of the coronary episodes, and the maximum ST segment variations for the coronary episodes that occur over a period of time.
US08521254B2
A device and a method for recognizing electromagnetic fields, specifically those fields that occur in image-guided nuclear spin tomography examinations (hereinafter MRT or MRI). In particular, it relates to an implantable medical device (IMD) containing a unit for detecting MRT activity, whereby the unit for the detection of MRT activity consists of at least one vibration transducer that transforms vibrations and/or oscillations caused by an MRT device into an electrical or optical signal and the unit for detecting MRT activity recognizes an MRT activity because of this signal.
US08521249B2
A method and apparatus for determining the volume of a pouch formed in a stomach during bariatric surgery comprises a balloon catheter having an inflatable balloon located at a distal end of a catheter for locating in the stomach. A pair of spaced apart stimulating electrodes are located on the catheter within the balloon and a plurality of spaced apart sensing electrodes are located on the catheter between the stimulating electrodes. The balloon in the stomach is inflated by a saline solution to define the interior of the pouch. By applying a constant current signal to the stimulating electrodes, the volume of the pouch is determined from signals read from the sensing electrodes.
US08521247B2
Provided herein are methods and apparatuses for certifying computers for use in conjunction with medical devices. These methods may be used in conjunction with a computer that includes software for operating the medical device. To certify a particular computer, one or more testing algorithms or routines for processing data, e.g., data representative of a typical output generated by use of the medical device on a patient, may be executed and the results may be compared to an expected result. In particular embodiments, the certification process may use data stored on the device itself to determine certification or may use data stored with or bundled with the software for operating the device.
US08521230B2
In the mobile telephone, an image display surface of a display is arranged on a front surface of a casing, and a camera is arranged on a rear surface thereof. The mobile telephone includes: a proximity sensor, and acceleration sensor, and a control circuit. The control circuit includes: a unit that detects that the casing has been placed on the object; a unit that performs a color conversion process for converting a color of each pixel into a complementary color on an image signal obtained from the camera before detection of that the casing has been placed on the object; and a unit that outputs a color-converted image on the image display surface when an incoming call/mail is received after detection of that the casing has been placed on the object.
US08521224B2
If an internal line call request is received with respect to a mobile phone that is in a call connection and that is used as an internal phone, the internal line call request is forwarded to a mobile management apparatus. If a called party's mobile phone that makes the internal line call request is in a call connection, the mobile management apparatus provides the same supplementary service as that is provided when a call request is received with respect to a mobile terminal in a call using a mobile phone number.
US08521218B2
There is disclosed a method of an electronic device for providing group information associated with a group of contacts. After a group name associated with a group of contacts is obtained, the electronic device allows selection of one or more contacts of the group of contacts. Distinction between contacts of the group of contacts that are recipients and contacts of the group of contacts that are not recipients is provided based on the selection of the contact(s). The electronic device displays contacts that are recipients in place of the group name at a display.
US08521214B1
A first amount of bandwidth is allocated to a first wireless device to send signal quality information to a base station. Based on a first indicator of wireless link conditions associated with the first wireless device, and a second indicator of wireless link conditions associated with a second wireless device, a second amount of bandwidth is allocated to the first wireless device to send signal quality information to the base station.
US08521212B2
A method for setting a power control level (600) in a wireless communication system. The method includes the steps of obtaining (620) transmission information from a wireless subscriber unit, and modifying a power control level and/or a communication channel format (660) in response to said transmission information. Preferably, the transmission information is re-transmission requests from a wireless subscriber unit, which are transmitted frequently. In this manner, rapid adjustment of power control can be attained utilizing an optimal selection of the available communication channel format, followed by a fine-tuning power control operation.
US08521209B2
A method of a power increase/decrease request of a user equipment in a wireless communication system using a plurality of frequencies is disclosed. The method of operating of a user equipment comprises receiving grants for each of the plurality of uplink frequencies from a base station; dividing a maximum power of the user equipment for each of the plurality of uplink frequencies in accordance with the received grants, and selecting a corresponding transport block for each of the plurality of uplink frequencies by considering the received grants; and comparing a remaining power of the user equipment to a power obtained by subtracting a power required to transmit a first transport block selected for a first uplink frequency from a power required to transmit a minimum transport block, which transmits more data than those of the first transport block.
US08521206B2
Techniques for managing interference in a wireless network are described. In an aspect, reduce interference requests and interference indicators may be used for interference management to enable operation in scenarios with dominant interferers. In one design, a terminal may receive a reduce interference request from a first base station requesting lower interference on specified time-frequency resources. The terminal may also receive an interference indicator conveying the interference observed by a second base station. The terminal may determine its transmit power based on the reduce interference request and the interference indicator. For example, the terminal may determine an initial transmit power based on the reduce interference request (or the interference indicator) and may adjust the initial transmit power based on the interference indicator (or the reduce interference request) to obtain its transmit power. The terminal may transmit data to a serving base station at the determined transmit power.
US08521205B2
The specification and drawings present a new method, system, apparatus and software product for defining a preamble length of a preamble (e.g., a power control preamble) for a discontinuous control channel transmission using, e.g., a dedicated physical control channel (DPCCH) for transmitting the preamble. The preamble length can be optimized using a predetermined criterion depending on a transmission gap length (which can be variable) in the discontinuous control signal (e.g., transmitted on the DPCCH) or in a discontinuous data signal, e.g., transmitted on an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH), and/or on a length of a transmission timing interval (TTI) of the discontinuous data. Furthermore, a power in the preamble can be changed in time using a further predetermined criterion.
US08521193B2
A method for navigation based on a cellid-aided positioning system includes: determining, at a cellid-aided positioning system-compatible device, that a user has moved through a sequence of cellids, wherein moving through a sequence of cellids comprises moving from a first region corresponding to a first cellid to a second region corresponding to a second cellid; accessing previously stored route information corresponding to the sequence of cellids, wherein the previously stored route information includes previously recorded sequences of cellids and global positioning system (GPS) information; estimating a current position of the user based on the previously stored route information; and displaying the current position of the user.
US08521191B2
A system for determining a location for a mobile communication device includes a plurality of taps, a multiplexer, and a link aggregator. Each tap includes a pair of connectors that couple to a communication link of a radio access network inline and pass between them a signal received over the communication link. Each tap also includes a multiplexer connector that couples to a multiplexer and a cable connecting the multiplexer connector to the inline connectors. The tap replicates signals passing between the inline connectors and propagates the replicated signals to the multiplexer connector. The multiplexer receives, from each tap, signals replicated by that tap, extracts location data from the received signals, and transmits the location data to a link aggregator. The link aggregator receives the location data from the multiplexer and determines a location for one of the mobile devices based on the received location data.
US08521189B2
A device enabling a change of settings of applications is implemented in a mobile terminal. In order to facilitate a change of such settings, the device comprises a storage portion for storing a plurality of configurations. Each stored configuration is associated to at least one location and each stored configuration defines settings for applications implemented in the mobile terminal. The device further comprises a controlling portion for receiving information on a current position of the mobile terminal, for retrieving automatically a configuration associated to a location identified by the position information from the storage portion, and for changing settings of applications implemented in the mobile terminal according to the retrieved configuration. The device can be either a mobile terminal, or a module for a mobile terminal. The invention relates equally to a corresponding system and to a corresponding method.
US08521188B2
Systems and methods are provided enabling a terminal to send an area shape capability indication to a location server. Depending on the use case scenario, the location server can perform at least one of the following operations, before sending the area event request to the terminal. The location server can select a shape that is both allowed by the requesting entity and supported by the terminal. Alternatively, the location server can convert the requested shape into a supported one by some approximation function if the requested shape(s) is/are not supported by the terminal. Furthermore, the location server can choose to terminate the session if the terminal does not support any of the requested (allowed) shapes. It should be noted that different priorities can be assigned to or associated with various area shapes as well.
US08521185B2
A mechanism for initiating contact with someone, via a telecommunications system, who is in the admirer's proximity, but whose identity or telecommunications address (e.g., telephone number, e-mail address, etc.) is unknown. The illustrative embodiments enable the user to use what information he does know about the admired person—the admiring person's distinguishing characteristics—to get a telecommunications address through which the initial contact can be made.
US08521181B2
A TOA positioning system can be implemented that employs a calculated initial location of a wireless network device. For each of a plurality of reference wireless network devices, a distance between the wireless network device and the reference wireless network device is determined based, at least in part, on a round trip transit time between the wireless network device and the reference wireless network device. An initial location of the wireless network device can be calculated based, at least in part, on a location of each of the plurality of reference wireless network devices. A location of the wireless network device can be estimated based, at least in part, on the calculated initial location, the distance to each of the reference wireless network devices, and an initial distance calibration constant.
US08521178B2
A multi-radio mobile device comprises a plurality of different radios. When a location update occurs, the multi-radio mobile device, at a specific location, acquires location-based radio information from a remote location server. The multi-radio mobile device selects a radio for use in the specific location based on the acquired location-based radio information comprising available radios in the specific location and radio weights. The radio is selected from the available radios based on the radio weights in the specific location. Transmissions of a desired service are received in the specific location utilizing the selected radio. Location-based radio measurements reports to the remote location server are generated utilizing signal strength measurements for the received signals. Radio quality information of the available radios is calculated by the location server utilizing location-based radio measurement reports from associated users. The radio weights of the available radios are determined based on the calculated radio quality information.
US08521177B2
Devices, methods and computer-readable media for providing broad quality of service optimization using policy-based selective quality degradation. Data associated with a quality of service for customers and QoS policy rules are stored. Customers are grouped for potential degradation. Levels of degradation are defined for each type of user device. Degradation for the group of customers is optimized using policy rules. Degradation is adjusted to account for variations in user treatment within the group. The adjusted degradation is then implemented.
US08521175B2
Various embodiments relate to a system and related method for handling requests from a user device in a wireless communications network. Various embodiments relate to a Policy and Charging Rules Node (PCRN) attempting to bind an IP-CAN session established in a Packet Data Network gateway (PGW) with a gateway control session established in a serving gateway (SGW). In instances when the IP-CAN session and gateway control session no longer match, the PCRN may wait to receive a subsequent message from the PGW and/or SGW. When the PCRN does not receive the subsequent message containing a matching session, the PCRN may terminate the sessions in all the relevant gateways. This may cause the system to reestablish a new, matching connection instead of remaining in a hanging state.
US08521164B2
An apparatus and a method for allowing a femto base station to efficiently perform beaconing in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes obtaining a System Information Block (SIB) message of a neighbor macro base station transmitted to a terminal by the neighbor macro base station. Information of the femto base station is added to the obtained SIB message of the macro base station and the SIB message is updated. The updated SIB message is transmitted to the terminal.
US08521163B2
A method for user detachment when a handover or change occurs in a heterogeneous network is provided. The method includes: a user equipment (UE) is handed over or switched from a source network to a target network; a network element on a network side determines whether to detach the UE from the source network, and if yes, the network element on the network side detaches the UE from the source network. A system and a device for user detachment when a handover or change occurs in a heterogeneous network, and another method for user detachment when a handover or change occurs in a heterogeneous network are also provided.
US08521159B2
An apparatus and method determines neighbor Base Station (BS) information in a wireless communication system where a macro cell and a Femto cell coexist. The method includes, when a preamble scanning duration arrives, acquiring preamble information on at least one neighbor BS through preamble scanning. It is determined whether to scan a header for at least one neighbor BS among neighbor BSs for which the preamble information are acquired, in consideration of at least one of the acquisition or non-acquisition of new preamble information through the preamble scanning and a variation of an environment of a preamble acquired through the preamble scanning. And, in case that it is determined to scan the header, a header for a corresponding neighbor BS is scanned and header information of the neighbor BS is acquired.
US08521157B2
Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer program products are provided for re-routing calls from mobile stations. For example, in one embodiment, a call from a mobile station to a non-local number can be re-routed to a local number. The local number can then be used to communicate with a call server to deliver the re-routed call to the non-local number.
US08521149B2
A frequency control apparatus and method for railway wireless communication are provided. The frequency control apparatus includes a variable frequency processor and a fixed frequency processor. The variable frequency processor selects an available variable frequency and wirelessly receives non-safety-related train running information from a base station at the selected variable frequency. The fixed frequency processor wirelessly receives safety-related train running information at a predetermined fixed frequency.
US08521144B2
The application relates to location based telephone conferences. In a location based telephone conference, upon request from a user to join a telephone conference, his location is determined and he is joined to a conference according his location. However, in the prior art it is assumed that the user remains in the telephone conference even if he moves and changes his location. The application addresses a situation where a plurality of telephone conferences, each associated with a specific area (1.4), are provided and a user moves between these areas. The telephone conferences are managed in such a way, that when a subscriber leaves an area assigned to a specific conference, he is switched into another telephone conference which is assigned to the area the user is presently located.
US08521142B2
Embodiments of the invention provide for methods and apparatus for fragmenting a single message and sending the message fragments over multiple independent networks to a single receiving unit. The receiving unit then reassembles the message fragments to generate the original message. One embodiment of an apparatus according to the invention is a wireless radio frequency modem that can both receive and transmit fragmented messages over multiple independent networks.
US08521139B2
To transmit notification indicators for broadcast and multicast services, a base station maps the services to random sequences based on their identifiers. The base station generates the random sequence for each service based on a hash function or a PN generator and the service identifier. Each random sequence is associated with a specific location for sending a notification indicator in each frame. The locations for the notification indicators for each random sequence are randomized with respect to the locations for the notification indicators for each remaining random sequence. This randomness characteristic reduces the likelihood of false alarm. For each service, the base station sets the notification indicators to the same notification value in each modification period. The base station transmits the notification indicators for each service at the random locations determined by the random sequence for the service.
US08521136B2
Methods and apparatus for use in communicating messages from a communication device are described. The device receives, via its user interface, an input request for creating a new message. The device also receives, via its user interface, one or more input requests for selecting one or more message recipient identifiers for the new message. In response to receiving the one or more input requests, the device identifies whether a stored conversation thread is associated with conversation participant identifiers that match the conversation participant identifiers for the new message. If so, the device displays the identified conversation thread together with a message body input field of the new message, prior to entry of message body contents in the message body input field. The device then receives, via the user interface, the message body contents in the message body input field, and causes the new message to be transmitted to one or more communication devices identified by the one or more message recipient identifiers.
US08521133B2
The present invention provides a system, method and terminal for communication between WAPI terminals, and the method includes: a calling terminal that has a WAPI function sending a WAPI link establishment request to a called terminal that has a WAPI function, and establishing a WAPI link with the called terminal, the calling terminal communicating with the called terminal directly through the established WAPI link. Using the technical scheme according to the present invention, the direct communication between the WAPI terminals can be realized, and the technical scheme is easy to implement and can reduce the communication costs, and would not be influenced by the coverage ratio of radio signal of a radio operator, a real-time communication will be realized as long as it is within the application scope of the WAPI.
US08521131B1
Techniques for providing friction-free transactions using geolocation and user identifiers are described herein. These techniques may ascertain a user's location based on a location of a mobile device. A transaction between the user and a merchant may be completed with zero or minimal input from the user based on the geolocation of the mobile device and the user identifiers. In some implementations, a transaction initiated earlier is completed when the mobile device arrives at the merchant. Additionally, a parent-child or similar relationship may be established between multiple devices. Security on the mobile device based may be provided by biometric identification and calculation of variance from regular movement patterns. Advertisements may be sent to the mobile device based on bids from merchants near to the mobile device. Promotions may be sent to the mobile device when more than a threshold number of mobile devices are located at the same merchant.
US08521129B2
A method may include enrolling a subscriber device in an adaptive pricing service plan for providing telecommunication service to the subscriber device; associating, with the telecommunication service, a first pricing scheme including a first number of allotted minutes within a current billing cycle; tracking, for the subscriber device within the current billing cycle, cumulative used minutes of the telecommunication service; determining, using a forecasting model and the cumulative used minutes, prospective minutes usage with respect to the first number of allotted minutes for an entirety of the current billing cycle; generating, based on the prospective minutes usage, a recommendation related to a second pricing scheme including a second number of allotted minutes; and sending, within the current billing cycle, the recommendation to the subscriber device.
US08521125B2
The present disclosure provides electronic communication systems and methods for real-time location and information coordination between multiple people, such as, for example, in the context of medical emergencies. Specifically, the systems and methods may include a mobile device, a method of operating mobile devices, and a system including a plurality of mobile devices communicatively coupled therebetween for real-time location and information synchronization. In an exemplary embodiment, the systems and methods may be utilized in a medical emergency situation, i.e. for triage, enabling coordination of emergency personnel in an efficient manner. By way of the systems and methods described herein, a common reference point geographically defined, data is gathered with location referenced to the common reference point, and personnel may select patients based on the real-time gathered information.
US08521124B2
A computing device receives a location inquiry for a user device, the location inquiry including an identifier for the user device, and retrieves fixed location data associated with the identifier. The computing device also obtains, from the user device, current geographic location data for the user device and calculates a difference between the fixed location data and the current geographic location data. The computing device selects, from a group of threshold values, a particular threshold value for the calculated difference between the fixed location data and the current geographic location data. The computing device responds to the location inquiry using the fixed location data when the difference between the fixed location data and the geographic location data is within the particular threshold and otherwise responds to the location inquiry using the current geographic location data.
US08521120B2
In an RF tag, a mask ROM or a flash memory is used for storing data such as an ID number. Although the mask ROM can be realized at a low price, rewriting is not possible. In addition, in the flash memory, although electric rewriting is possible, production cost increases. Accordingly, it is difficult to provide an RF tag by which data rewriting is possible at a low price. An RF tag is provided with a power supply circuit having a function to generate a power supply voltage from a weak radio signal and a memory which can hold data stored in a data holding portion by the power supply voltage. With the above structure, a high-performance RF tag capable of rewriting data such as an ID number after production can be provided at a low price.
US08521119B2
A method and apparatus for an equalized On-Die Termination (ODT) circuit uses timed switching to reduce receiver power consumption.
US08521117B1
A system and method for receiving a signal, comprising an input adapted to receive a radio frequency signal having a strong interferer; a signal generator, adapted to produce a representation of the interferer as an analog signal generated based on an oversampled digital representation thereof; and a component adapted to cancel the strong interferer from radio frequency signal based on the generated analog signal to produce a modified radio frequency signal substantially absent the interferer. The system typically has a nonlinear component that either saturates or produces distortion from the strong interferer, which is thereby reduced. The system preferably employs high speed circuits which digitize and process radio frequency signals without analog mixers.
US08521106B2
Methods and systems for a sub-harmonic transmitter utilizing a leaky wave antenna are disclosed and may include transmitting wireless signals at a harmonic frequency of a source signal utilizing one or more leaky wave antennas (LWAs) in a wireless device including one or more transceivers on a chip. The LWAs may be configured with a resonant frequency at the harmonic frequency. The source signal may be communicated to the LWAs utilizing a power amplifier, which may be operated in switching mode thereby generating a square wave from the source signal. The LWAs may be integrated on the chip, on a package to which the chip is affixed and/or on a printed circuit board to which the chip is affixed. The harmonic frequency may be three times a frequency of the source signal. The transmitted wireless signal may be amplitude modulated utilizing a bias voltage applied to the LWAs.
US08521093B2
A wireless communications apparatus (100) includes: antennas (111, 112, and 113); a threshold identifying unit (141) which measures a first radio propagation environment parameter by using a specific directional pattern, and identifies a threshold, from among thresholds, which corresponds to the measured first radio propagation environment parameter; a directional pattern selecting unit (142) which performs test communications by sequentially switching directional patterns, and selects a directional pattern having an actual throughput, calculated from a measurement value of a second radio propagation environment parameter, greater than the threshold; and a threshold adjusting unit (143) which changes the threshold identified by the threshold identifying unit (141), according to the number of test communications that is the number of the directional patterns used for the test communications performed by the directional pattern selecting unit (142).
US08521092B2
A system and method for testing wireless transceivers in a virtual wireless environment including emulating an RF environment, creating virtual spectrum users having selectable transmission parameters and physical characteristics and evaluating the operation of the wireless transceiver in the virtual wireless environment.
US08521084B2
Methods, systems and arrangements for wireless communication with near-field communication terminals
A variety of near-field devices, methods and systems are implemented in various fashions. One implementation is directed to a mobile station (102) with an over-the-air (OTA) transceiver (104) for communication with a trusted service manager. The mobile station also has a near-field communications transceiver (112) for communication with a terminal reader using file-identifiers of a first size. A memory (106) is used for storing files arranged according to two different sets of files, the first set of files identified by file-identifiers of a first size and the second set of files identified by file-identifiers of a second size that is a different size from the first size. A processor (108) provides access by the OTA transceiver (104) to the stored files. Access by the near-field communications transceiver (112) is provided to the stored files by running either a Java-based emulator for accessing the first set of files or Java APIs to access the second set of files.
US08521081B2
A repeating apparatus in a wireless communication system includes: a signal detection unit configured to receive a signal from a base station or a mobile station and detect strength of the signal; a control unit configured to compare the signal strength detected by the signal detection unit with signal strength predetermined by the system and provide comparison information; and an output signal control unit configured to receive the comparison information from the control unit and adjust and amplify gain of a signal transmitted to the base station or the mobile station.
US08521071B2
A developer bearing member includes a base body, a surface layer, and a plurality of concave portions provided on the surface layer, wherein a resistance value of the surface layer is 102 Ω·cm to 108 Ω·cm, the number of the concave portions per unit area is 2250/mm2 to 12254/mm2, a major diameter of an opening of the concave portion is 8 μm to 20 μm, a depth of the concave portion is 2 μm to 5 μm, a dimensional tolerance of the major diameter is 0.5 μm or less, and a dimensional tolerance of the depth is 0.5 μm or less.
US08521064B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a main body; an opening and closing unit disposed so as to be openable and closable for the main body; a fixing unit fixing the opening and closing unit to the main body; a structure including a component for realizing an image forming function and/or a transfer medium-conveying function, the structure supported movably for the main body; a bias unit disposed between the opening and closing unit and the structure, the bias unit biasing the structure so as to be pushed to a member; a constraining unit constraining the opening and closing unit and the structure against a bias force of the biasing unit when the fixing unit does not fix the opening and closing unit; and a releasing unit releasing the opening and closing unit and the structure from being constrained when the fixing unit fixes the opening and closing unit.
US08521055B2
A developing device includes a casing having an opening extending in a first direction, a developing roller, a thickness-regulation portion, a sealing member and a contact portion. The thickness-regulation portion includes a thin-plate member and a regulating portion. The thin-plate member has a base end portion fixed to the casing and a free end portion to which the regulating portion is fixed. The thin-plate member has a lateral end extending in a second direction. The regulating portion has an end face extending in a direction. The sealing member is disposed on the thin-plate member and in intimate contact with the end face of the regulating portion. The contact portion is fixed on the thin-plate member at a position closer to the lateral end than the sealing member to the lateral end and made of a material whose hardness is higher than that of the sealing member.
US08521052B2
An image forming apparatus includes a corona charge device to charge a photoconductor. The corona charge device includes first and second shielding members arranged to shield most of a space between a surface of the photoconductor and the corona charge device, and a guide member to guide outside air stream to an outside air inlet. The image forming apparatus prevents damage and contamination of the photoconductor due to byproducts of corona discharge.
US08521051B2
A method and an apparatus to control power supplied to a heating roller and a phase control circuit corresponding to the method or the apparatus. The phase control circuit may include an examination unit to compare levels of a sine wave having a predetermined first period and a switching signal to increase and decrease repeatedly according to a predetermined second period, and a phase control signal generation unit to generate a phase control signal having a non-zero in intervals of time sections including a time when levels of the switching signal and the sine wave which is in a decreasing section are equal to each other during a time period when the level of the sine wave is zero, and a time when levels of the switching signal and the sine wave which is in an increasing section are equal to each other during a time period when the level of the sine wave is zero.
US08521050B2
A first temperature is obtained based on an amount of infrared rays incident upon a lens of an infrared temperature sensor, and a second temperature is obtained based on a temperature of a thermistor. A system controller performs first temperature control when a detected temperature difference between the first temperature and the second temperature is less than a predetermined temperature difference, performs second temperature control when the detected temperature difference is equal to or greater than the predetermined temperature difference, and activates an alarm when an elapsed time during which the second temperature control is continuously executed has become equal to or greater than a time that is the sum of a first predetermined time and a second predetermined time.
US08521046B2
An image forming apparatus includes a recording medium transport belt which is suspended by a plurality of roller members. An image is secondarily transferred from a first image carrier through an intermediate transfer body to a recording medium. An image is directly transferred from a second image carrier to the recording medium. The image forming apparatus further includes a pattern image sensing unit which senses a pattern image transferred from the first image carrier and the second image carrier finally to the recording medium transport belt. Each of a distance from a secondary transfer position to a sensing position and a distance from a direct transfer position to the sensing position in a recording medium transport belt rotation direction is a natural number times a circumferential length of a roller member causing a speed change in the recording medium transport belt among the plurality of roller members.
US08521038B1
A robustly stabilized communication laser can output a multimode optical signal remaining aligned to a coordinate of a dense wavelength division multiplexing (“DWDM”) grid while responding to a fluctuating condition or random event, such as, without limitation, exposure to a temperature fluctuation, stray light, or contamination. Responsive to the fluctuating condition, energy can transfer among individual modes in a plurality of aligned longitudinal modes. Modes shifting towards a state of misalignment with the DWDM coordinate can attenuate, while modes shifting towards a state of alignment can gain energy. Fabrication processes and systems and light management, such as beam steering, epoxy scaffolds, spectral adjustments, mode matching, thermal expansion control, alignment technology, etc. can facilitate nano-scale control of device parameters and can support low-cost fabrication.
US08521037B2
Systems and methods for implementing and using optoelectronic gates are disclosed. One such method includes superimposing an electrical data bit onto a first optical input to produce a pair of first-stage optical outputs. The first one of the pair of first-stage optical outputs carries the electrical data bit and the second carries the complement of the electrical data bit. The method further includes comparing an electrical target bit with the electrical data bit conveyed by the first first-stage optical outputs and with the complement of the electrical data bit conveyed by the second first-stage optical outputs, to determine whether the electrical target bit and the electrical data bit are same or different.
US08521033B2
In a passive optical network, power consumption of the ONU can be reduced by communicating a transmission schedule from the OLT to the ONU that indicates time slots in which the ONU is scheduled to receive payload transmissions from the OLT. Components of the ONU that would normally operate continuously, including processing payloads addressed to other ONUs, are placed in a reduced power state outside of the ONU's allocated time slots.
US08521021B2
An example embodiment of the present invention is a non-blocking wavelength switching architecture that enables graceful scaling of a network wavelength switching node from small to large fiber counts using fixed size bidirectional 1×N Wavelength Selective Switches (WSS). The architecture uses an intermediate broadcast and select layer implemented using optical splitters and WSSs to eliminate wavelength blocking.
US08521014B2
A feed gas conditioner.
US08521009B2
Systems and methods to modify playout/playback include responding to a trick mode request (e.g., fast forward, rewind). First, a transmission is received at a receiving device. The transmission includes primary content and a secondary information identifier and is stored on a storage device. Next, primary content is rendered to an output device at the receiving device at a normal speed for the primary content. Next, a request is received to render the primary content to an output device at the receiving device at an accelerated speed of the primary content. Next, the primary content is associated to secondary derivative content based on the secondary information identifier. Finally, the secondary derivative content is rendered instead of the primary content, to the output device at the receiving device at a normal speed for the secondary derivative content.
US08521007B2
An information processing method includes the steps of analyzing moving-image content including image data and audio data, extracting scene metadata characterizing each scene for each scene constituting the moving-image content, deciding a reproduction mode of the moving-image content according to at least one of a reproduction environment of the moving-image content and setting information set by a user, generating loss recovery information for recovering loss information lost by changing the reproduction mode of the moving-image content using the scene metadata according to the decided reproduction mode, and outputting the generated loss recovery information in accordance with the moving-image content to be reproduced in the decided reproduction mode.
US08520999B2
A camera event logger device coupled to a motion picture camera, including: a data port configured to receive control signals to manage the logger device including a particular receive frequency; a radio-frequency receiver configured to receive time signal of the particular receive frequency to enable fine adjustment of a timecode; a timecode manager including a plurality of timecode readers and at least one timecode generator, a first timecode reader of the plurality of timecode readers configured to receive the time signal from the radio-frequency receiver and make the time signal available to the at least one timecode generator, wherein the at least one timecode generator is configured to generate the timecode by conditioning the time signal, the timecode manager configured to receive camera timecode from the motion picture camera, and to send back adjusted camera timecode adjusted in accordance with the conditioned timecode; a processor configured to receive camera status information from the motion picture camera and the conditioned timecode from the timecode manager, wherein the camera status information is tagged with the conditioned timecode and processed to generate metadata files; and a storage unit configured to store the metadata files. Keywords include logger, timecode, and slate.
US08520997B2
A telecommunications assembly including a housing and a plurality of modules mounted within the housing. The modules includes a rear face in which is mounted at least one fiber optic connector. Within an interior of the housing are positioned at least one fiber optic adapters. Inserting the module through a front opening of the housing at a mounting location positions the connector of the module for insertion into and mating with the adapter of the housing. The adapters within the interior of the housing are integrally formed as part of a removable adapter assembly. A method of mounting a telecommunications module within a chassis.
US08520989B2
Small-form fiber optic interface devices (20) for electronic devices (200) are disclosed. The device has a ferrule (50) with a body (51) that operably supports at least one waveguide (152) and at least one electrical wire (160). The device has a first electrical contact (90) supported by the ferrule body and a second electrical contact (100) that substantially surrounds the outer surface (57) of the ferrule body front section (56). The ferrule body comprises a dielectric material at least partially interposed between the first and second electrical contacts.
US08520988B2
An optical switch includes a microresonator comprising a plurality of silicon nanoparticles within a silicon-rich silicon oxide layer. The microresonator further includes an optical coupler optically coupled to the microresonator and configured to be optically coupled to a pump source and to a signal source. A method of optical switching includes providing an optical switch comprising an optical coupler and a microresonator having a plurality of nanoparticles and receiving an optical pulse by the optical switch, wherein at least a portion of the optical pulse is absorbed by the nanoparticles such that at least a portion of the microresonator undergoes an elevation of temperature and a corresponding refractive index change when the optical pulse has an optical power greater than a predetermined threshold level.
US08520986B2
A method for monitoring the operating conditions of an electric generator for mechanical strain and temperature includes means of distributive fiber optic sensors based on both Rayleigh back scattering techniques and Brillouin frequency shift fiber optic sensor analysis as both Rayleigh and Brillouin scans and allow accurate strain and temperature determinations at all points along standard fiber optic cables of considerable length, which effectively yields thousands of sensors throughout the entire standard fiber optic cable. Raman distributive temperature sensing also has a limited application. Single mode and polarizing maintaining fibers can both be analyzed and read with any Rayleigh or Brillouin distributive fiber optic sensor laser system allowing great flexibility in sensor spatial resolution, total sensed length, resolution and other factors. A sealed fiber collection box located outside the electric generator permits enhanced reliability and reconfiguration into any number of desirable fiber layouts necessary for specific static and dynamic measurements.
US08520981B2
The arrangements of feature points are computed based on feature points acquired from checking target images. The feature amount having invariants as elements regarding a geometrical transformation is generated for each of the checking target images based on a computed result. And when checking whether or not the feature point arrangements of the checking target images are the same feature point arrangements by using the feature point amounts of the checking target images, at least each of the feature point arrangements that are bases for generating the feature amounts is stored, and a parameter regarding the geometrical transformation is computed based on the feature point arrangements of the checking target images. By utilizing the computed parameter regarding the geometrical transformation, whether or not the feature point arrangements of the checking target images are the same feature point arrangements is checked.
US08520976B2
An embodiment of a method for resolving features on a probe array is described that, comprises acquiring a plurality of micro-shifted images of a region of a probe array; reconstructing an image of the probe array using the micro-shifted images; and deriving intensity values for one or more probe features disposed on the probe array from the reconstructed image.
US08520973B2
In an image transmission error restoring method and an apparatus using the same, a received image frame is divided into a plurality of blocks and each block is divided through a multi-resolution process. After the multi-resolution process, an error-occurred region is searched and the searched error-occurred region is recovered based on information selected from among global pixel information and local pixel information according to complexity of each block.
US08520972B2
A computer-implemented method includes segmenting an input image into a plurality of image cues, each image cue representing a unique set of pixels of the input image. For each image cue, the method includes determining a set of image components, wherein each image component is associated with at least one adjustable factor to represent at least one characteristic of the image cue.
US08520970B2
The present disclosure relates to a method of improving an IR image comprising capturing a visual image and an IR image of an object, altering a resolution of at least one of said visual image and IR image, high pass filtering said visual image to generate a processed visual image, low pass filtering said IR image to generate a processed IR image, and combining information from said processed visual image and said processed IR image to generate a combined image.
US08520964B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus sequentially performing image processing on multiple pieces of band data composing image data. The image processing apparatus includes a RAM and a JPEG encoding circuit. The RAM has a buffer area of a fixed length. The JPEG encoding circuit sequentially performs variable-length encoding on multiple pieces of band data, sequentially writes the band data subjected to the encoding from the beginning of the buffer area, and writes subsequent band data subjected to the encoding from the beginning of the buffer area if the end of the band data subjected to the encoding is positioned in a boundary area having a certain length including an ending part of the buffer area.
US08520960B2
A method for decoding a stream of coded data representative of a sequence of images divided into blocks is described. It comprises the following steps for a current block: reconstructing a residual block of residual data from the decoding of a first part of the coded stream of data relating to the current block, determining a prediction block, and reconstructing the current block by merging the residual block and the prediction block, According to the invention, the decoding method comprises in addition a step of reorganization of residual data in the residual block before the reconstruction of the current block according to the content of the prediction block.The invention also relates to a method for coding.
US08520952B2
A system and method for defining a window to search a region of interest for processing a road image, the search window having a longitudinal orientation directed according to the height of the image and being laterally delimited by two edges. The shape of the search window is adapted to the road configuration by defining at least one non-vertical portion on one of the edges. A preferred application is the processing of road images for determining visibility distances in foggy weather.
US08520928B2
A method for reconstructing a digital image from a set of measurements includes providing a previous image frame in a time series of measurements of an image signal and a current image frame in the time series, calculating an estimated motion vector for a spatial point and current time point between the previous and current image frames, calculating a motion compensated current image frame from the previous image frame, estimating a known support set of a sparse signal estimate of the motion compensated current image frame where the support set comprises indices of non-zero elements of the sparse signal estimate, calculating a sparse signal corresponding to the current image frame whose support contains a smallest number of new additions to the known support set while satisfying a data consistency constraint, and correcting the motion compensated current image frame image frame from the sparse signal.
US08520925B2
Device for taking three-dimensional and temporal optical imprints in color, including a three-dimensional dental imaging device that does not employ structured light projection. The device includes a stereo camera having at least two CCD or CMOS color sensors in preset positions, an optical system of fixed and preset focal length, an LED lighting system, and an electronic system located behind or near the sensor, controlling the latter but also the LEDs illuminating the imprint capture region. The system includes a central processing unit and a card for controlling said LEDs. The sensors are distributed over all or part of a dental arch, being placed in a sort of optical impression tray allowing a complete image of the arch to be captured in a single exposure.
US08520919B2
In a method for controlling a multi-color output of an image of a medical object for assisting medical personnel, the medical object is illuminated with light with an illumination spectrum. By means of an image sensor, image data are acquired for a group of one or more color channels. Image information concerning an additional color channel, which is not among the group of one or more color channels, is generated depending on the acquired image data. An image output device for multi-color output of the image is controlled depending on the acquired image data and the acquired image information.
US08520913B2
An apparatus for reducing noise in fingerprint sensing circuits is disclosed in one embodiment of the invention as including a fingerprint sensing area onto which a user can apply a fingerprint. An analog front end is coupled to the fingerprint sensing area and is configured to generate an analog response signal. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) samples the analog response signal and converts the sample to a digital value, which may be received by a digital device such as a processor or CPU. To reduce the amount of the noise that is present in the analog response signal and therefore reflected in the digital value, the digital device may be shut down while the ADC is sampling the analog response signal.
US08520912B2
A fingerprint recognition device, applicable to retrieving a fingerprint image, includes a light guiding plate, a finger plate, an imaging piece, and at least one light source. The light guiding plate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other and a sidewall surface connected between the first surface and the second surface. The finger plate is adjacent to the first surface of the light guiding plate. The imaging piece is adjacent to the second surface of the light guiding plate, and the light source is adjacent to the sidewall surface of the light guiding plate. The light source emits a light towards the sidewall surface and the light enters the light guiding plate. The light guided by the light guiding plate is emitted out of the first surface, and the imaging piece retrieves the fingerprint image on the finger plate.
US08520879B2
Provided is an integrated gooseneck condenser microphone including a microphone unit and an output module which are connected to each other. The gooseneck condenser microphone can improve the connection strength of a microphone housing and prevent the generation of noise due to disturbance electromagnetic waves. The gooseneck condenser microphone includes a connection member 20b which is provided at the rear end of a shielded housing 20a and into which the leading end of a supporting pipe 30 is inserted and an electrical insulating member 6 that is interposed between the connection member and the supporting pipe and electrically insulates the connection member from the supporting pipe. A groove portion 5 is formed in the inner circumferential surface of the connection member along the circumferential direction, and the leading ends of the supporting pipe and the electrical insulating member inserted into the connection member are fitted to the groove portion while the diameters thereof are expanded.
US08520878B2
A microphone unit is provided with an electroacoustic conversion portion that includes a diaphragm vibrated by sound pressure and that converts the sound pressure into electrical signals and a board on which the electroacoustic conversion portion is mounted. In the board, there are provided a board opening portion that is formed to face the diaphragm and locating walls that come in contact with the electroacoustic conversion portion to locate the electroacoustic conversion portion.
US08520877B1
A resonant structure for loudspeaker includes a basket defining a front opening and having an annular magnet mounted therein; a voice coil suspended inside the magnet; a diaphragm connected at a suspended flange to the front opening of the basket; at least one flexible suspension member spaced behind the diaphragm for connecting to a rear opening of the basket; and an inner frame having a front end glued to a rear wall surface of the diaphragm, a central area to the voice coil and a rear wing member to the flexible suspension member. When the voice coil moves forward and backward on the inner frame, best possible harmonic resonance between the diaphragm and the flexible suspension members can be obtained. The loudspeaker is effectively reduced in height, and bass response is enhanced to ensure upgraded sound quality.
US08520875B2
A BTE hearing aid includes a BTE hearing aid housing, at least one BTE sound input transducer, a processor configured to generate a hearing loss compensated output signal, a sound signal transmission member for transmission of a signal from a sound output of the BTE hearing aid housing to an ear canal of a user at a second end of the sound signal transmission member, an earpiece configured to be inserted in the ear canal, an output transducer, and an ITE microphone housing accommodating at least one ITE microphone, wherein the ITE microphone housing is configured to be positioned in an outer ear, wherein the processor is further configured for processing an audio signal from the at least one ITE microphone and an audio signal from the at least one BTE sound input transducer in such a way that the hearing loss compensated output signal substantially preserves spatial cues.
US08520865B2
A display apparatus includes an image display device adapted to form an optical image, a microphone jack adapted to connect with an external microphone, and an OSD controller adapted to prepare OSD screen image data about the external microphone to supply to the image display device.
US08520863B2
An image display apparatus includes: an image information input section; an image display section for displaying an image corresponding to the image information; a first sound input section adapted to input a first sound signal; a first sound amplification section adapted to amplify the first sound signal to generate a first amplified sound signal; a second sound input section adapted to input a second sound signal; a second sound amplification section adapted to amplify the second sound signal to generate a second amplified sound signal; a sound mixing section adapted to mix the first amplified sound signal and the second amplified sound signal with each other; an audio output section adapted to output an audio corresponding to a sound signal input from the sound mixing section; and an operation mode setting section adapted to set an operation mode, wherein the sound mixing section mixes the first amplified sound signal and the second amplified sound signal based on the operation mode set by the operation mode setting section.
US08520852B2
A method includes: receiving a plurality of audio frames, assembling groups of the audio frames into logical recording units, storing a plurality of the logical recording units, retrieving the stored logical recording units, and decoding the retrieved logical recording units. An apparatus that performs the method is also provided.
US08520837B2
A mobile communication device contains a plurality of displays. A control module and one of the displays is contained by a first housing. Another housing, bearing a second display, is slidably engageable with the first housing. An optical data transmission mechanism is coupled between the control module and the second display. Data generated by the control module can be converted to optical signals and transmitted through the optical transmission path for control of the second display.
US08520835B2
A method, apparatus, and system in which one embodiment includes a network interface device (NID) located outside a building and a power supply unit located inside the building. The power supply unit has an electrical isolation component and one or more ports that couple via a first phone line and a second phone line to the NID to provide isolated DC power to the NID.
US08520824B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a proactive scheduler having a controller element to determine a scheduling conflict between a called party and a calling party according to calendar information of the called party and presence information of the called party. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08520813B2
A system and method for transmitting voice messages via a centralized voice message server is provided. A plurality of communication devices are interfaced over a data network, and each communication device is associated with a user. At least one of the users is associated with a plurality of discussion groups. The user is identified as signed-in to two or more of the discussion groups. At least one of the two or more discussion groups to which the user is signed-in is identified as active. A voice message is received on a voice message server from the user. The voice message is transmitted to all members signed-in to the active discussion group from the voice message server. The voice message server further transmits voice messages to the user from members signed-in to the discussion groups to which the user is signed-in.
US08520807B1
Systems, methods performed by data processing apparatus and computer storage media encoded with computer programs for receiving from a user information including a phonetic communication identifier that other users can speak into their respective communication devices to initiate communication with a communication device associated with the user, comparing the received phonetic communication identifier with a repository of phonetically unique communication identifiers each registered to an associated entity, registering the received phonetic communication identifier in the repository if, based on a result of the comparison, the received phonetic communication identifier is determined to be phonetically unique relative to all other phonetically unique communication identifiers in the repository, and making the repository available to initiate communications with registered entities.
US08520804B2
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements in a telecommunication system to generate Interception Related Information IRI related to Virtual Private Network VPN calls, which telecommunication system provides Virtual Private Network services to at least one integrated exchange LE-C; in the system. The exchange LE-C is associated with an Intercept Configuration Unit ICU. The method comprises the following steps:—Sending from the Intercept Configuration Unit ICU to the exchange LE-C, a request REQ to monitor Virtual Private Network calls involving a defined Corporate Network CN-A.—Receiving by the exchange LE-C, a call message SETUP; IAM in Virtual Private Network context comprising an identification field identifying the defined Corporate Network CN-A.—Sending from the exchange LE-C to the Intercept Configuration Unit ICU, Interception Related Information IRI related to the call.
US08520799B2
An analysis method for use in a radiation imaging apparatus employing intensity information of interference fringes of radiation rays that have passed through a detected object includes the steps of generating first phase information of the detected object wrapped into a range of 2π from the intensity information of the interference fringes; generating information on an absorption intensity gradient of the detected object from the intensity information of the interference fringes; generating a weighting function on the basis of an absolute value of a gradient in the information on the absorption intensity gradient; and generating second phase information by unwrapping the first phase information by using the weighting function.
US08520791B2
An encoder in a transmitter uses space-time trellis coding. An input bitstream is multiplexed to produce in parallel a set of output bitstreams. A multiplier applies a code generating weight to each output bitstream, which are combined, mapped and transmitted by a single antenna.
US08520788B2
A receiving device includes: a buffer temporarily accumulating receive data received through a network; a data processing means for processing the receive data; a short-time variation value acquisition means for acquiring a short-time variation value indicating variation of accumulated quantity of the receive data sequentially accumulated in the buffer in a first unit time; a long-time variation value acquisition means for acquiring a long-time variation value indicating variation of accumulated quantity in a second unit time; and a clock control means for controlling a clock frequency for performing processing of the receive data by the data processing means in accordance with evaluation results of the acquired long-time variation value. The clock control means stops adjustment of the clock frequency when an error of the network or the receive data is detected, and starts the adjustment again after a given adjustment stop time passes from the detection of the error.
US08520786B2
A receiver includes a sample and hold module, a discrete time filter module, and a conversion module. The sample and hold module includes a sample switching module, an impedance module, and a hold switching module. The sample switching module outputs samples of an inbound wireless signal in accordance with a sampling clock signal. The impedance module temporarily stores the samples. The hold switching module outputs a filtered representation of the samples in accordance with a hold clock signal to produce a frequency domain sample pulse train, wherein a filter response of the sample and hold module is in accordance with a ratio between the sampling clock signal and the hold clock signal. The discrete time filter module, which may be programmable, filters the frequency domain sample pulse train. The conversion module, which may be programmable, converts the filtered sample pulse into an inbound baseband signal.
US08520781B2
A method for channel estimation includes receiving data at a number of frequency intervals in a frequency band over a number of first time intervals. A first set of channel estimates is determined for each pilot symbol within the data over a second time interval comprising at least one first time interval, and time-direction interpolation is performed to determine a second set of channel estimates for a number of data portions in a frequency interval using the first set of channel estimates. The frequency interval comprises a data portion comprising a pilot symbol. Frequency-direction interpolation is performed to determine a third set of channel estimates for each first time interval. The time-direction interpolation and the frequency-direction interpolation can be performed in reverse order with the channel estimates generated by the frequency-direction interpolation being used as inputs for time-direction interpolation.
US08520779B2
A method and an apparatus for audio noise reduction of frequency modulation (FM) receiver are described. After receiving FM signal having pilot tone, pilot carrier sync detector performs pilot carrier synchronization detection of FM signal, FM demodulator demodulates synchronized FM signal, multiplex decoder decodes audio signal of demodulated FM signal for outputting the decoded audio signal, and noise reduction controls multiplex decoder for controlling noise attenuation associated with the decoded audio signal according to RSSI, the method comprising the steps: (a) performing phase error detection for detecting phase error of phase-locked loop (PLL) of pilot carrier sync detector; (b) determining whether noise exists by comparing the phase error with threshold value to determine whether noise exists in the phase error; and (c) performing noise reduction step by outputting noise reduction control signal to noise reduction based on determination in step (b) for reducing noise in the noise existence interval.
US08520778B2
This invention relates to a Multi-Input Multi-Output Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) is a transmission technology for many current and next generation wireless communication systems. Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) Estimation and Correction is one of the most important requirement of the proper reception of MIMO-OFDM Signals. The invention provides a null subcarrier based scheme to accomplish this task. The CFO is estimated by employing the covariance matrix of the signals on all receiving antennas with a cost function which minimizes the energy falling on the null subcarrier locations due to frequency offset. The proposed approach results in very low computational complexity as it uses a two step procedure, making it very attractive for real time applications. Also a new null subcarrier allocation scheme based on Fibonacci series is proposed which ensures a frequency offset estimation range equal to the maximum possible range equal to the OFDM bandwidth.
US08520777B2
A receiver operates in a mobile communication system that comprises first node and second nodes, the first and second nodes transmitting common control signals and dedicated data signals, respectively. The receiver determines a first timing rotation and/or a first frequency rotation of the common control signals and a second timing rotation and/or a second frequency rotation of the dedicated data signals. The receiver determines a first and/or second difference, wherein the first difference is a difference between the first timing rotation of the common control signals and the second timing rotation of the dedicated data signals and the second difference is a difference between the first frequency rotation of the common control signals and the second frequency rotation of the dedicated data signals. An adapted timing of dedicated data signals is produced based on the first and/or second differences, and the adapted timing is used to receive dedicated data signals.
US08520772B2
A communication device that compensates a distortion of a transmission signal, amplifies the compensated transmission signal by an amplifier, and outputs the signal. The device includes a storage unit that stores a transmission characteristic of a transmission power of the communication device, a correcting unit that calculates a power value at a set transmission frequency by referring to the storage unit and that corrects a feedback signal of the transmission signal amplifier by the amplifier based on the calculated power value and a maximum transmission power defined by the communication device, and a calculating unit that calculates a distortion compensation coefficient based on the transmission signal and the feedback signal corrected.
US08520766B2
Provided is a transmitter which is small in size and operates with high efficiency and compensates a delay error with high accuracy. A signal generation section 11 outputs a PM test signal and an AM test signal. The AM test signal is inputted to a multiplier 16 via a delay adjustment section 12 and a regulator 14. The PM test signal is inputted to the multiplier 16 via the delay adjustment section 12. A power measurement section 17 measures an average power of a multiplication signal which is outputted from the multiplier 16 and outputs a measured value to a control section 18. The control section 18 determines an amplitude delay time and a phase delay time on the basis of the inputted measured value and sets the determined delay times in the delay adjustment section 12.
US08520762B2
Methods and systems for optimizing the utilities of receiver devices in a wireless communication network are disclosed. Precoder design formulations that maximize a minimum worst-case rate or a worst-case sum rate are described for both full base station, cooperation and limited base station cooperation scenarios. In addition, optimal equalizers are also selected to optimize the worst-case sum rate.
US08520760B2
Provided are a radio reception device, a radio transmission device, and a feedback method which can uniformly guarantee the feedback accuracy of an average channel quality indicator (CQI) even when the transmission band width is different. A channel estimation unit uses a pilot signal to obtain SINR for each RB. A feedback information generation unit converts SINR of each RB into a corresponding CQI. Moreover, as the transmission band width increases, the number X of the quantization bits is decreased when quantizing the average CQI, thereby generating feedback information. A radio transmission unit transmits feedback information from an antenna.
US08520754B2
Disclosed herein is a reception apparatus, including: a reception section adapted to receive an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) signal obtained by modulating a first frame configured so as to include packets of a common packet sequence configured from a packet common to a plurality of streams and a second frame configured so as to include packets of a data packet sequence configured from packets individually unique to the plural streams; an acquisition section adapted to acquire specification information for specifying a combination of a first frame and a second frame obtained by demodulating the received OFDM signal; and a detection section adapted to detect a combination of a packet of the common packet sequence which configures the first frame and a packet of the data packet sequence which configures the second frame, whose combination is specified based on the acquired specification information.
US08520747B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate detecting impulsive interference of pilot signals in wireless communications networks and accounting for such interference in estimating data channels to decode the pilot signals. Portions of a received pilot signal can be compared to other portions to create correlated subsets of similar portions. The number of portions in a subset can indicate a high likelihood of non-interference, and portions that are not in the subsets can be disregarded or weighted less in estimating channels for decoding. In cases of ambiguous subsets or portions, one or more subsets/portions can each be used to estimate the channel and data can be decoded multiple times. The decoding that results in a higher decoding metric can be selected. Additionally, systems and methodologies for inserting pilot signals within data are described.
